The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories

Like the Landmark Thucydides, the Landmark Herodotus is an excellent edition, with a good introduction, copious notes, 127 maps, 21 appendices, a glossary, bibliography, dated timeline, and index. Being a huge fan of the Thucydides edition, I was hoping for a Landmark Herodotus, and am overall very impressed with the book. The only criticism I have is in the translation. The Thucydides edition used Richard Crawley's fine and well established translation, but a new translation by Andrea Purvis was used for Herodotus. Hers is not a bad translation, in fact I think it is probably very true to the original Greek, but it is simply not as elegantly done as George Rawlinson's The Histories (Everyman's Library). For example, here is how Purvis translated the Proem:

Herodotus of Halicarassus here presents his research so that human events do not fade with time. May the great and wonderful deeds - some brought forth by the Hellenes, others by the barbarians - not go unsung; as well as the causes that led them to make war on each other.

And Rawlinson's rendition of the same:

These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the Barbarians from losing their due meed of glory; and withal to put on record what were their grounds of feud.

Readers unfamiliar with other translations will probably not miss anything, but I must admit I found the translation a bit hard going at times. I would personally prefer a slightly less literal and more literary translation than a precise modern version that reads a bit tediously in places. But overall, this is a wonderful edition. Hope we get more Landmark editions, as Strassler seems to hint in his preface.

this is the most helpful Herodotus I've ever read (and I've read a few).
The maps, every chapter synopsis, and the notes make for the most informative reading of the work.
Its bulky and expensive, but if you care about Herodotus' work, its a must have.

The landmark Herodotus is a very serious and wondrous volume, edited by (apparently) a Renaissance-type person: Robert B. Strassler. It is such a pleasure to read this,knowing that Mr. Strassler is a person of many talents. For example, he appears to be a musician(of a medieval instrument), president of a capital management corporation and chair of a music and humanities foundation. ( I say "appears" as this is what Googling him tells me..)

This MAY well be the finest edition of Herototus ever produced. I am not qualified to say as I have not seen all the rest. It is a joy at any rate.

Having started with "Travels with Herodotus" (presented to me by a Harvard undergrad who read it in the original Polish), I became so enamoured of the Polish journalist's quotes from the original work by Herodotus that I acquired Strassler's new edition of the Histories.

It is a weighty tome, not suitable for most carry-on airline cases. But, it is superb--with explanatory notations in the margins, easy-to-read maps, and scholarly. Bravo that books and editors like this remain!!

This is the third time that I am reading Herodotus. This is by far the best read because this book provides good maps all the way through. Also it provides very good footnotes and appendices that provide readers with reasons to believe or disbelieve things that Herodotus relates.

The stories in Herodotus are just plain fun to read, in my opinion. Herodotus is full of insights, and, yes, gossip and speculation, of an important time period in the history of western civilization. You really get a taste for the attitudes and zeitgeist of the times...and you are reminded that the ancients were real people who actually lived and breathed. It is too bad more people don't read the original source rather than someone's regurgitation (assuming they even get that...it is surprising how many people don't even know what the Battle of Salamis is, given its importance to western civilization).

Some of the topics/stories I liked the best, told by Herodotus, include:

The story of Croesus and the fall of Sardis
The origin of Cyrus
Zopyrus's sacrifice and glory in the capture of Babylon
The Ionian Revolt...with the Athenians pissing off of the Persians at Sardis and causing all the trouble that followed
And the obvious choices of the battles of Salamis and Thermopylae

Needless to say, there is a lot to choose from.

My forays into Herodotus eventually led me to visit the west coast of Turkey and mainland Greece to visit some of the places and sites discussed in the book. ...maybe an unusual reaction, but at least for me, reading Herodotus led to the making of my own rich memories that will be cherished throughout my life.

I find it very unfortunate that few people know who Herodotus is...or they expect that reading such a book would be boring or inaccessible. Very wrong attitudes. One of the biggest movies of last year was "300"...hopefully some who saw that movie were lead to the richness of the original source.

I own a number of different translations of this book. What is an absolute joy about the Landmark version are the maps and footnotes to aid the reading. It is also fun to see pictures of the ruins and artifacts that are included (though I did wish there were more.) (The picture of the temple of Athena at Priene brought a smile to my face since I was actually there on my trip...Priene was one of the highlights of my visit to Turkey.)

I think this version of Herodotus is absolutely the best choice for someone wanting a very accessible translation and guide to the work. I know of none better.

Enjoy.