An Analysis On The Historical Sources And Its Dealing Methods Of Herodotus

The Histories by Herodotus is a comprhensive and massive historical work,and this great work bases on multiple materials.The Histories are from various materials.Generally speaking,literary sources,historical relics and oral materials are the main historical sources of the Histories.Several methods were taken by Herodotus to deal with the complexity and comprehensiveness of the materials,including recording as possible as he can when learning about valuble information,field resaerch as well as comparing and distinguishing the differences in the materials.However,from the time of Thucydides on,many scholars doubted about the sources of the Histories and the method to deal with the sources by Herodotus,and Cicero and Plutarch criticised Herodotus for his “fabricating”of historical materials,which result in the bad name of “Father of Lies” of him.With the popularity of post-modernist historical theories from mid-20 century,the argument against the question arose again.There are about two aspects in the viewpoint.Firstly,oral materials are widely used without necessary criticism when composing the work,which leads one to suspecting its authenticity.Secondly,the method of ‘recording as possible as he can' taken by Herodotus caused the work to contain a mass of untrustful information,causing the work is confusing in many ways,and this contribute to the literariness of the work and lower the historical value of it greatly.Although the criticism on Herodotus by later scholars is well-founded in some degree,it is necessary to point out that scholars usually read and think about the Histories in modern view rather than historical view.In the author's opinion,the investigation should base on the knowledge of the times and historical conditions of Herodotus.Restricted by the conditions of scanty literary works,strong mythological traditions and narrowness in the spread ofknowledge,oral materials became the most possible source for Herodotus to compose the work,and this also has connection with oral literature traditions in ancient Greece.Though Herodotus recorded as possible as he could,he did not necessarily rely on the materials without criticism,and field resaerch as well as comparing and distinguishing the differences in the materials are important methods used by Herodotus to deal with the historical marerials.Record as possible as one can shows the respect of Herodotus for the sources,which not only pays attention to the preservation for the originality and accuracy of the sources,but screens the materials carefully and identifies the authenticity of them.In terms of this view,criticising with the lack of understanding on Herodotus is not reasonable,for it is not possible for Herodotus to rid himself of the influence of the conditions,and it is inevitable for his work to have the features of the historiography traditions of that time.The methods to deal with historical materials in the Histories shows historical attitudes of objectivity,pursuance of truth and rational criticalness.The attitudes highly developed in later Greek historiography,and has broad influence on historical traditions of Hellenistic states,Rome and even modern Western world,and Herodotus won the fame of “Father of History” for the contribution.Based on the text of the Histories,this dissertation gives a disscussion on the methods to deal with historical materials of Herodotus.Focusing on the historical background of Herodotus,the dissertation also explains what caused Herodotus to use the methods to deal with the materials,and explores the truth-pursuing attitude and rational criticalness showed in the methods.The aim of disscussions is to provide enlightening thoughts for people to view Herodotus and the Histories more objectively.