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Encyclopedia entry: Herodotus
- Article from:
- The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature
- Author:
Copyright© The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information)
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Herodotus
(
c.
490–
c.
425 BC), Greek historian, author of the ‘Histories’ (
historiai
, ‘inquiries’) of the Persian Wars, son of Lyxēs, of a distinguished family in
Halicarnassus
in Caria, at that time a city of Ionian Greek culture. He was a kinsman (nephew or cousin) of the epic poet
Panyassis
, who was put to death by Lygdamis, tyrant of Halicarnassus, in the political troubles of the 460s. Herodotus withdrew or was exiled to Samos and then travelled widely in Egypt and the Greek world. He visited Athens in the mid-440s, where he is said to have become acquainted with Pericles, before (reputedly) joining the Athenian colony at Thurii (founded 443) near ...