Herodot and Foreign Cultures: The Case of Egypt

Abstract

From his own statements we learn that Herodot had traveled through some countries including Egypt. The view that he undertook these journeys simply as a means of collecting evidence for the culture and history of foreign countries should seriously be taken into account. This is because Herodot himself points out that he wrote his work, The History, owing to the fact that the great and wondrous works of non-Greeks may also not lose their name. Although he lived during the period when the Grek-Barbarian antithesis crystallized, he was not only ready to accept foreign cultures on their own terms but also took an interest in the intrinsic values of non-Greeks. He even did not hesitate to praise the ones that he thought as beneficial. Because of this behaviour, we assume that he had been falsely acccused of being a barbarian-lover. Especially in his second book about the Egyptian geography, etnography, culture as well as the history, Herodot, had held the opportunity to use his own observations as well as the Egyptian and the Greek informants living in this country. He also compared them with the works of early Greek poets and logographers which he did not take for granted. When appropriate, these approaches enabled him to present more credulous, impartial, critical views and informations about Egypt, which seems to have balanced the errors and deficiencies of his race and time.