Herodotus (-484? to -425?), a Greek historian, wrote a history of the world as he knew it. It covers the years -716 to -479. Cicero called him the Father of History. Plutarch called him the Father of Lies.
At the heart of his book is the Persian War, where the Greeks amazingly defeated the Persian Empire: Marathon, Salamis, Thermopylae (“This is Sparta!”), all of that. He is big on the value of courage and freedom, of empire as a form of slavery.
In his 20s and 30s, Herodotus travelled the world, from Italy to Persia (Iran), from Egypt to Scythia (Ukraine). He knew about what we call France, West Africa and India, but not about China, Java or even Britain. Everywhere he went he asked questions and gathered stories.
He wrote down what he had seen and heard in the form of a story about the world as he knew it that went back hundreds of years. We now call that sort of thing “history”, from the name of his book: “Historia”, which in Greek means “Researches”.
By age 39 he was giving public readings, which at Athens won him a prize of ten talents of silver (8,700 crowns), equal to about $3 million (in 2014 US cost-of-living terms). A boy who was moved to tears by his readings would later become the other great Greek historian: Thucydides.
How to write history:
I must tell what is said, but I am not at all bound to believe it, and this comment of mine holds about my whole History. (Herodotus, 7.152)
His duty was to pass on what he had seen and heard. He expresses his doubts, but lets readers come to their own conclusions. And a good thing too, because his idea of what is improbable is not the same as ours: he thought a horse could give birth to a rabbit, for example, but did not think Phoenicians had sailed round Africa – even though we can tell from his own account that most likely they did!
Thucydides, on the other hand, threw out anything he thought uncertain or improbable. He saw Herodotus as adding fables to win prize money.
Ethnocentrism: Herodotus did think the Greeks were better than anyone else, but he had seen enough of the world to know that everyone thinks that way about their own people. That makes him far less ethnocentric than most Western historians, who are quick to look down on people who are different.
Racism: Herodotus did not divide the world by race, into “white” people and “black” people and so on. Nor did he assume that lighter-skinned people were better than darker-skinned ones. He saw the Egyptians as having black skin and woolly hair.
What he read: It seems he read Hesiod, Hecataeus, Sappho, Solon, Aesop, Simonides of Cos, Aeschylus, Pindar and, above all, Homer. He modelled his Greek on Homer, but wrote in prose instead of verse, and wrote of the Persian War instead of the Trojan War. Like Hecataeus, he wrote a description of the world and its peoples.
See also:
- Welcome to White History Month 2015
- Black people according to Herodotus
- Why read the Greeks
- Anaximander – the Father of Greek geography. Hecataeus built on Anaximander and Herodotus built on Hecataeus.
- Cheikh Anta Diop
- Aryanism
- The Aryan Model
- crowns
@ Allen Shaw
There! A “nice” post about a white-skinned person.
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gee,thanks
I am passing on this so I will be back next month!
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^Yeah but white supremacy is a tangled mythology/construct. And part of that construct are the genius Greeks: You know, making a claim on them; old story in general and an old story on this blog, for sure.
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..yes, well said!
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^Agreed
@”His duty was to pass on what he had seen and heard.”
He also (supposedly) checked multiple sources for consistent answers to the same questions. However, he didn’t say that anyone told him Egyptians had black skin and woolly hair. He said it as fact, because he had seen Egyptians for himself.
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I love this blog because whatever is here is unexpected. Thanks!
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Thank you for these great, uplifting informative and insightful posts. Please keep them coming!
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I feel VERY uncomfortable with the use of the word “known world”, esp. when followed by
Known world to WHOM?
Should it be a history of the “world as known to the Ancient Greeks”?
There were plenty of other people in the world who knew about other parts of the world. To just use the word “known world”, it sounds very Euro-centric, or at least Hellenic-centric.
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@ Jefe
“Euro-centric”?
Hmm, it might be, but maybe not. “Known x” should be based on the reference point, in other words the context. If the context are Greek people, then it’s what they know of the world. If the context is Aztec Indians then it’s their (at the time) view of the known world.
It might be too much of an analytical nickle and dime to take issue with an expression like “known world”.
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[…] Herodotus (-484? to -425?), a Greek historian, wrote a history of the known world that covered the years from roughly -716 to -479. Cicero called him the Father of History. Plutarch called him the … […]
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@Legion,
I guess it is just the difference between using “their” and “the”. Using “the” just sends a few shivers down my spine. With “their” I don’t feel this.
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@ Jefe
Now I see what you mean.
I thought it was clear it meant the world known to Herodotus – what other known world could he possibly write about? Adding “Greek” would be redundant. But now I see what you mean – it is the “the”, as if there were no others.
If I did a post on the Kangnido, I would simply call it “a world map made in Korea circa 1470.” even though it does not have the Americas. I would not call it “a map of the known world made in Korea circa 1470.” It goes without saying that it can only have what is known.
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@ Jefe
I updated the post.
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hi
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@ Kiwi
I’m not sure if Greeks are the best example of white people, in light of white supremacist ideas like Nordicism or Aryanism.
As long as Brad Pitt plays Achilles in Troy, and a blond-haired Colin Farrell plays Alexander the Great in Alexander, white supremacists will accept Ancient Greeks as their fellow Nordics. Any scientific evidence saying otherwise will be discarded as “Jewish misinformation.”
Please remember that being serious on supremacist views based on race is a sign of stupidity.
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To Jeff:
As long as Brad Pitt plays Achilles in Troy, and a blond-haired Colin Farrell plays Alexander the Great in Alexander, white supremacists will accept Ancient Greeks as their fellow Nordics. Any scientific evidence saying otherwise will be discarded as “Jewish misinformation.”
I am sad to say that both of those comically bad films had multiple Jewish producers and the director of Alexander the Great had a Jewish father.
Maybe if they had added just a bit more body oil……
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@Uncle Milton
Yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that Achilles and Alexander the Great are blonde.
(See also (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOO5S4vxi0o) for similar logic)
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I always thought they were red heads!
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Jeff Elberfeld
Yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that Achilles and Alexander the Great are blonde
————————————————————————————————–
Yeah, and the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park looked so real!
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@thwack
Yeah, and the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park looked so real!
Stupid answer: That is off-topic. We are not discussing sci-fi dinosaur-movies here.
Smarter answer: I thought it would have been clear I was joking. Didn’t you watch the Youtube-clip I included?
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@Jeff Elberfeld
Supposedly, according to Plutarch, Alexander was of “fair color”. Of course, that doesn’t mean he had blonde hair. However, while I don’t consider Alexander “Nordic” (Northern European?) the idea that he was blonde isn’t that far fetched. Unlikely, but possible. What personally bothers me about his portrayal is that they made him tall. From what I understand, Alexander was a short man. It seems hollywood has a trend of casting tall men to portray short male historical figures.
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Maybe, Benjamin.
All I know is this line of Xenophanes:
Ethiopians hold their gods snub-nosed and black
Thracians say theirs are blue-eyed and red-haired.
(see “Fragments of Xenophanes” (1920))
But then again, since I don’t believe in “being serious on supremacist views based on race,” why I should care about the hair color of long-dead people?
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@Jeff Elberfeld
Well, I’m not really concerned with his hair color either. I was simply raising a point that Alexander having blonde hair was certainly possible. I’ve read that quote by Xenophanes, I’ve always like it because it shows just how anthropomorphic and ethnocentric humans are. Not only do they imagine the universal creator as a human – but a human who looks like their specific ethnic group. Must make people feel pretty special to think that way.
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@Benjamin
“Supposedly, according to Plutarch, Alexander was of ‘fair color'”
Too bad Plutarch never actually saw Alexander.
He simply reported representations of Alexander, that he may or may not have seen: a sculpture by Lysippus who was supposedly commissioned by Alexander, and who made him “fair,” whatever that means, and one by Appelles who made Alexander brown.
Since both lived in the same era as Alexander, so which one does one trust?
“Alexander having blonde hair was certainly possible”
Right, a possibility if he were albino…
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In the “Alexander Mosaic”, which may be a copy of a painting done by Philoxenos of Eretria a few years after Alexander’s death, he has black wavy hair, dark eyes and light brown skin:
More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mosaic
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@resw77
Blonde hair isn’t limited to “albinos” you know. Dark skinned Melanesian peoples can have blonde hair (though it is from a different genetic mutation than the one that gives Europeans their blonde hair.) I am aware that Plutarch didn’t ever see Alexander, he lived a long time after. But from what he knew of Alexander’s physical appearance (which, I admit, could be just as little as our own), the Lysippus sculptor was the most accurate portrayal of Alexander.
@abagond
Yes, in fact, that is often how I myself pictured Alexander to look. I wasn’t suggesting that Alexander was blonde, just that it was possible. I believe that the Ancient Egyptians were a black people, darker than they are today. On the contrary, however, I believe that some parts of Southern Europe, West Asia and Central Asia were probably whiter than they are today. I myself am black haired, and I’ve been mistakenly called “Greek” many times. However, the few Greeks I’ve personally known have been light haired and light eyed.
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@Benjamin
“Blonde hair isn’t limited to “albinos” you know.”
Who said it was “limited to ‘albinos'”?
“Dark skinned Melanesian peoples can have blonde hair”
Right, and that is called oculocutaneous ALBINism.
“though it is from a different genetic mutation than the one that gives Europeans their blonde hair”
Here we go again. Prove it.
“But from what he knew of Alexander’s physical appearance…the Lysippus sculptor was the most accurate portrayal of Alexander.”
And again, prove it. How do you know that Plutarch ever saw Lysippus’ sculpture of Alexander? And how do you know that Lysippus portrayed Alexander accurately but Appelles portrayed him inaccurately?
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@resw77
“Who said it was ‘limited to albinos'”?
You seemed to imply such, saying that it was only possible for Alexander the Great to have blonde hair if he was an albino. Of course, he wouldn’t have to be an albino to have blonde hair.
“Here we go again. Prove it.”
According to wikipedia, Melanesian peoples are believed to have developed blonde hair as a result of an amino acid change in the TYRP1 gene. This mutation is at a rate of 26% in the Solomon Islands, and is absent outside of Oceania. So, if this theory is correct in explaining the blonde hair of Melanesian peoples, then they got their light colored hair from a different mutation than did Europeans.
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@resw77
Sorry, forgot to respond the last part of your post. I have no way of knowing if Lysippus portrayed Alexander correctly and Apelles incorrectly. In all honesty, it doesn’t really matter to me if Alexander was what we today would call “white” or not. I simply assumed that Plutarch perhaps had sources we don’t about Alexander’s appearance, and that is why he came to the conclusion that the Lysippus sculpture of Alexander was the more accurate portrayal.
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@Benjamin
“saying that it was only possible for Alexander the Great to have blonde hair if he was an albino”
I said no such thing. Try re-reading what I actually said.
“According to wikipedia, Melanesian peoples are believed to have developed blonde hair as a result of an amino acid change in the TYRP1 gene.”
Wow, that’s bold. And how do you and wikipedia know that a “change in the TYRP1 gene” is unique to Melanesian blonds and not prevalent in any Europeans?
“I simply assumed that Plutarch perhaps had sources we don’t…”
That’s obvious. But the fact remains that Plutarch made us aware of two people who supposedly made representations of Alexander during his era, neither of which exists today. Even the “Alexander Mosaic” that Abagond posted above was not created during Alexander’s era, and was created by someone (probably Roman) who had never seen Alexander for himself. Therefore it’s anyone’s guess what he may have looked like, including Plutarch. For all we know, Alexander could have had stereotypical Chinese features.
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@resw77
Wikipedia got its information on blonde hair with regards to Melanesians from this article: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6081/554.abstract
It says that the gene is absent outside of Oceania, and therefore implies that the blondness of Europeans is the result of a different mutation than the blondness in Oceania.
With regards to the whole Alexander issue, I agree, I have no idea what Alexander looked like. That was the whole point I was trying to originally make. That Alexander may have been blonde, that it was possible. Likely? Probably not, but possible. Nobody knows for sure what he looked like, so suggesting he had blonde hair is no more ridiculous than suggesting he was dark skinned.
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@Benjamin
Then maybe you should consult sources other than Wikipedia. See this study entitled, “Oculocutaneous albinism with TYRP1 gene mutations in a Caucasian patient”: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16704458
“Nobody knows for sure what he looked like, so suggesting he had blonde hair is no more ridiculous than suggesting he was dark skinned.”
And that’s why I never suggested he was dark skinned or “assume” he was anything else.
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@resw77
Okay, but clearly that Caucasian patient isn’t the “norm”. I mean, light-yellow skin? Blue-green eyes with substance defects? This person clearly wasn’t your run of the mill blonde haired German. In fact ,didn’t that article say that they previously thought that this genetic mutation was limited to black populations? If it was common among blonde haired Caucasians, that it wouldn’t be notable for this patient to have this mutation. All I got from this article was that some “Caucasians” have blonde hair due to this mutation, not all of them. Since not all blonde Caucasians have this mutation, the rest must get their blonde hair from a different source.
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@Benjamin
“but clearly that Caucasian patient isn’t the “norm”.
SMDH, you still haven’t learned. PERHAPS that “patient isn’t the ‘norm'”, but it does refute your definitive statement that “blondness of Europeans is the result of a different mutation than the blondness in Oceania.” All we know is that albinism occurs and although it might appear in Melanesia in one form at a higher rate than in Europe, it does not mean that albinism cannot occur in either form in either location.
“This person clearly wasn’t your run of the mill blonde haired German.”
I don’t know what that means.
“In fact ,didn’t that article say that they previously thought that this genetic mutation was limited to black populations?”
The moral of the story is that we continue learning about albinism/melanin every day, and it’s very naive of one to make definitive statements like you’ve done above.
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@resw77
Right, and perhaps “albinism” manifests in varying degrees, as the result of different factors. I’d like to discuss this more, but I suppose this is going off topic and anything further should be put in the “melanin” thread.
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On Alexander the Great’s hair:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/alexanderarticles/ss/031211-What-Color-Was-Alexander-The-Greats-Hair.htm
See what you can do with it, ladies and gentlemen.
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https://www.academia.edu/7065880/Herodotus_and_The_Black_Body
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