The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories | Herodotus | Is Your Figure Less Than Greek?

The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories | Herodotus | Can you say WOW!

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The Landmark Herod...

	The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories Herodotus Pantheon, 2007 - 1024 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Is Your Figure Less Than Greek?

Excuse the old song, but I could not help but to use it for this splendid book. Let me start by the quality of the production and material. The paper is of high quality, especially important in a book of this size. There is but little bleed from the reverse of each page. The paper is smooth and displays the fonts crisply. The binding is superb. You may lay it open nearly at any page and it splays for your waiting eyes.

All the old cob webs are swept away by this clean prose. Yet there is no edgy try at the avant-guard or hyper-modern. Something of a voice manages to come through, but never in a self-conscious manner. We hear the stories with their deep meanings, but not troubling over the facticity of any moment.

The Histories are laid bare without attempt to count the number of ships or match events to dates. Strassler eases you into the panorama of this great work to read and to see it on its own terms. The great assistance of the format: the maps, the notes and the gloss -- all make this work accessible as it has never been.

Only because I had a highly skilled Classics professor, and he an expert in comparative Ancient Greek, was I able to have a tour through this work at a tender age. Now you can have quite a bit in your reading chair.

You will be captive as the text reveals Solon at the palace of Croesus. How the great law giver and traveler lays out his argument that no one can be judged as while alive. And you will pause. You are reading this tome, not so much as one wanting the history, but as one who seeks the paideia, the Greek way.

The page layout has everything you can ask for; and then are all the appendices. Just enough photographs.

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Can you say WOW!

I have been working through The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise-Bauer, and I have been dreading this big volume of Herodotus. I stumbled upon this edition in the library, and what a great find! It has maps,explanatory footnotes, summaries of each paragraph along the margins, pictures of archaelogical sights, and more! The translation is wonderfully readable too.

I heartily recommend this version!

Wonderful classic historical read

There are certain classic texts that every serious student of history should own. However, the last thing you would ever probably want to do with some is take them off your shelf and read them. The archaic language, the stultifying syntax, and the obscure references make these works all but impenetrable to even the most educated mind.

This is decidedly not the case with this beautiful new edition of the works of Herodotus with a new, readable and understandable translation. Herodotus, commonly known as the father of history, traces in his Histories the growth of the Persian Empire, its invasion of the city-states of Greece, and their ultimate repulsion by the barely united Greek forces. Instead of a dry recitation of facts, we get an exciting story of abductions, betrayals, exhilarating battles and incredible feats of bravery that would make a soap opera enthusiast proud. But this is not a comic book version of a classic work. It is in fact a highly accessible translation that is a must for all scholars of ancient cultures, but also a valuable resource for all us dilettantes.

Robert B. Strassler, the editor, has done a yeoman's job in publishing this work for a large audience. It begins with a lengthy introduction that gives us background on the widely traveled Herodotus, describes his work and puts in into context. In addition, the volume is full of drawings, photos, innumerable maps and side notes that add considerably to our understanding. If that wasn't enough, it concludes with twenty-one appendices on critical topics by leading classical scholars, as well as a comprehensive index.

Herodotus was more than just a historian for he frequently writes about the culture, geography, religions and legends of the people and areas he describes. These in-depth descriptions add fullness and dimension to our understanding of these events.

With the publication of The Landmark Herodotus, we have a valuable and usable addition to the library of classic histories. Therefore, it will do a lot more than merely look good on your bookshelf.

Armchair Interviews says: Excellent readable book of ancient history.

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The Landmark Herodotus

An inspiring work for all us amateur historians.

The translation is intelligent yet conversational, like sitting in front of a great storyteller (which is what Herodotus truly was). The side notes are helpful for search purposes, and the footnotes, photos, numerous maps and illustrations provide the modern-world connection to this ancient text.

I had heard this was a comprehensive edition, and I was not disappointed. But what is a pleasant surprise is how useful and usable this edition is.

One wishes all histories were organized this way--it shows that true interactivity doesn't need a computer.

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Save your money. Better and Cheaper Herodotus editions available

Let me start out by saying that, in theory, a "Landmark Herodotus" has much promise as an idea, but not in the execution of this volume, I'm afraid.

The model that worked so well for the Landmark Thucydides -- text with maps and appendices to explain larger themes and issues -- does not work so well for Herodotus.

While the maps are a welcome adornment, what this volume lacks are specific and copius textual notes to explain the material. Instead we are shunted to various appendices at the end that are all done by fine scholars, but are not directly tied back to the actual textual material.

Instead of purchasing this hardcover volume, I highly recommend the much cheaper Oxford Classics paperback edition of Herodutus. It is an excellent English language translation with dozens of pages of highly specific endnotes elucidating the material.

Herodotus is a wide ranging, expansive read in contrast to Thucydides, who is only covering a condensed period of history spanning some 20-30 years at its core, and is limited in its geographic scale to mostly Greece, Asia Minor and the Agean. [The notable exception being the great chapter on the Athenian expedition to attack Syracuse in Sicily].

If you must purchase this volume, I suggest waiting for the paperback edition to come out. The translation is a decent one, so it has merit from that standpoint. But the format that worked seemlessly for Thucydides, is lacking for Herodotus. With the wealth of material covered by the father of History -- a few appendices cannot do the work justice. You want to be able to follow along as you read the tales, and have the option of checking a source or an explanatory note if a subject strikes your imagination.

In many ways the experience of this volume is like reading a modern tourist guidebook for a country with all of the accomodations reviews for each city in one appendix, and all the restaurant reviews in another appendix.

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reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5

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