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If you haven't read it I highly recommend The History. Herodotus can be very entertaining. He pretty clearly lays out things he personally saw, things he heard

If you haven't read it I highly recommend The History. Herodotus can be very entertaining. He pretty clearly lays out things he personally saw, things he heard from firsthand accounts, and things he heard secondhand. It's fun to see how things get more fanciful the farther you get away from the Mediterranean he knew. One thing that randomly sticks in my head is he said the Ethiopians were there most beautiful people in the world because they drank so much coffee, but beyond Ethiopia the land is uninhabitable because of all the flying snakes.

rendall 5y ago
Various readings of Herodotus on LibriVox: https://librivox.app/book/12931 https://librivox.app/book/12931
hallarempt 5y ago
Check https://mainzerbeobachter.com/2021/05/25/loog-herodotos-over-de-slag-bij-himera/ https://mainzerbeobachter.com/2021/05/25/loog-herodotos-over... (by the same person who manages livius.net) on how Herodotus sometimes isn't all that precise distinguishing between things he knew first-had, and things he had by hear-say.
HDMI_Cable 5y ago
Wait the Ethiopians had coffee in 400BCE?
- ithkuil 5y ago
  I remember having read the story that it originated a millennium later.
- kilroy123 5y ago
  Maybe... That's where coffee is originally from. I find it ironic humans and coffee come from the same place.
pushswap 5y ago
Herodotus isn't considered reliable at all by historians in any of his writings whether his topic is close geographically or not. Thucydides is a far better option , being at the beginning of the record for the continuous record of reliable historical writing.
- benbreen 5y ago
  I'm a historian and I recently cited Herodotus in one of my forthcoming papers. Is he reliable? We certainly can't assume so. But the same goes for Thucydides and every other source from the ancient world. It's all about triangulating between different sources rather than relying on any one account. In my case, Herodotus was describing a Scythian practice (the use of cannabis) that we've been able to corroborate, in its broad outlines, using archaeological finds, which to my mind makes it reliable enough to use. If anyone's interested, this is a quote from the paper, which is a work in progress and not published yet: When Herodotus described the purification practices of Scythians following elite burials, he wrote of a ritual involving the construction of a tent-like enclosure of “wool mats.” At the center of this enclosure, the Scythians threw cannabis onto “red-hot stones, where it smoulders and sends forth such fumes that no Greek vapor-bath could surpass it.” According to Herodotus, “the Scythians howl in their joy at the vapor-bath.” The term Herodotus used here – κάνναβις, or kánnabis – was a loan-word from Old Persian (kanab). From Greek, it made its way largely unchanged into Latin (cannabis) and from thence into the Romance languages and English." [Citing A. D. Godley, trans. The Histories of Herodotus (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920), 4.74-6.]
  - tombh 5y ago
    Obligatory: I love Hacker News Not only am I interested to hear that "hot boxing" is an ancient practice, but also the sense of immediacy that I now have with ancient Persia over our shared etymology of kanab.
    - logicx24 5y ago
      I love history for that. Just knowing about the past gives me a feeling of connection to places I've never been to or times I'll never get to witness. As an aside, the Scythians were not in what we'd today consider Persia (Iran). They originated around the north coast of the Black Sea, and extended east and southeast from there along the Eurasian steppe.
marci 5y ago
> One thing that randomly sticks in my head is he said the Ethiopians were there most beautiful people in the world because they drank so much coffee, but beyond Ethiopia the land is uninhabitable because of all the flying snakes. Maybe a thirdhand accounts of the flying snake (?) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/facts/flying-snakes https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/facts/fl... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16aGSx9gFO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16aGSx9gFO4
HarryHirsch 5y ago
If the Ethiopians had had coffee in the time of Herodot then the Romans would have taken to it enthusiastically, and Pliny would have mentioned it. Unfortunately, he doesn't!

rendall 5y ago

Various readings of Herodotus on LibriVox: https://librivox.app/book/12931 https://librivox.app/book/12931

hallarempt 5y ago

Check https://mainzerbeobachter.com/2021/05/25/loog-herodotos-over-de-slag-bij-himera/ https://mainzerbeobachter.com/2021/05/25/loog-herodotos-over... (by the same person who manages livius.net) on how Herodotus sometimes isn't all that precise distinguishing between things he knew first-had, and things he had by hear-say.

HDMI_Cable 5y ago

Wait the Ethiopians had coffee in 400BCE?

ithkuil 5y ago
I remember having read the story that it originated a millennium later.
kilroy123 5y ago
Maybe... That's where coffee is originally from. I find it ironic humans and coffee come from the same place.

pushswap 5y ago

Herodotus isn't considered reliable at all by historians in any of his writings whether his topic is close geographically or not. Thucydides is a far better option , being at the beginning of the record for the continuous record of reliable historical writing.

benbreen 5y ago
I'm a historian and I recently cited Herodotus in one of my forthcoming papers. Is he reliable? We certainly can't assume so. But the same goes for Thucydides and every other source from the ancient world. It's all about triangulating between different sources rather than relying on any one account. In my case, Herodotus was describing a Scythian practice (the use of cannabis) that we've been able to corroborate, in its broad outlines, using archaeological finds, which to my mind makes it reliable enough to use. If anyone's interested, this is a quote from the paper, which is a work in progress and not published yet: When Herodotus described the purification practices of Scythians following elite burials, he wrote of a ritual involving the construction of a tent-like enclosure of “wool mats.” At the center of this enclosure, the Scythians threw cannabis onto “red-hot stones, where it smoulders and sends forth such fumes that no Greek vapor-bath could surpass it.” According to Herodotus, “the Scythians howl in their joy at the vapor-bath.” The term Herodotus used here – κάνναβις, or kánnabis – was a loan-word from Old Persian (kanab). From Greek, it made its way largely unchanged into Latin (cannabis) and from thence into the Romance languages and English." [Citing A. D. Godley, trans. The Histories of Herodotus (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920), 4.74-6.]
- tombh 5y ago
  Obligatory: I love Hacker News Not only am I interested to hear that "hot boxing" is an ancient practice, but also the sense of immediacy that I now have with ancient Persia over our shared etymology of kanab.
  - logicx24 5y ago
    I love history for that. Just knowing about the past gives me a feeling of connection to places I've never been to or times I'll never get to witness. As an aside, the Scythians were not in what we'd today consider Persia (Iran). They originated around the north coast of the Black Sea, and extended east and southeast from there along the Eurasian steppe.

marci 5y ago

> One thing that randomly sticks in my head is he said the Ethiopians were there most beautiful people in the world because they drank so much coffee, but beyond Ethiopia the land is uninhabitable because of all the flying snakes. Maybe a thirdhand accounts of the flying snake (?) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/facts/flying-snakes https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/facts/fl... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16aGSx9gFO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16aGSx9gFO4

HarryHirsch 5y ago

If the Ethiopians had had coffee in the time of Herodot then the Romans would have taken to it enthusiastically, and Pliny would have mentioned it. Unfortunately, he doesn't!