In this blog post, we will compare Herodotus and Thucydides and examine why Thucydides is highly regarded as a historian.

The Beginnings of Historical Narrative: Differences Between Herodotus and Thucydides

We often think of “history” as a simple chronology or list of events that recorded the facts of the past. But what is history? It is not merely an organization of events that happened in the past. History is a process of intellectual inquiry that is shaped by how humans remember and narrate their past. From this perspective, it can be said that history existed even before the invention of writing and recording. This is because memories and stories of the past, or narratives, have long played an important role in human culture. A prime example of this is the epic poems left behind by the ancient Greek poet Homer.

Homer, the poet who sang of the past

Homer’s epic poems deal with the past events of the Trojan War. The memories of this war live on in works such as “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” However, today we do not consider these epic poems to be “history in the strict sense.” Why is that?
Homer was a poet and storyteller. His work was not so much a record of past events as it was a celebration of collective memory through mythical representations. It is said that he was “captivated” by the inspiration he received from the Muses and Apollo, and sang of the past. Therefore, he did not ‘record’ memories, but rather existed as a “mediator” of memories.
In this sense, Homer is a transmitter of collective memory passed down through oral culture and a figure who shaped the past through mythical imagination. In other words, his narratives are clearly different from modern historical narratives in that they are not based on human autonomous perception but on divine inspiration.

Prerequisite for becoming “history”: liberation from collective memory

In order for history in the strict sense to be established, it must first be liberated from the authority of collective memory, or the “possessed state.” In other words, rather than beings who transmit memory, subjects who criticize, explore, and reconstruct memory must emerge.
This transition was triggered by contact with foreign cultures. Encounters between different cultures provide opportunities to relativize the memories and worldviews of one’s own group. This led to the emergence of individuals who questioned existing memories and sought to interpret events from different perspectives.
Amidst this cultural transition, Herodotus, known as the “father of history,” appeared. He created a new form of historical narrative amid the contact and conflict between the Greek world and the Persian Empire, two different civilizations.

The Emergence of Herodotus and “The Histories”

In his book “The Histories,” Herodotus sought to explore the Persian Wars, one of the most important events in the world at the time, and the causes of those wars.
The word “historia,” which became the title of this book, originally meant “eyewitness testimony,” but Herodotus expanded its meaning to “investigation.” This can be seen as an event that symbolizes the paradigm shift in historical writing from the simple transmission of mythical memories to rational exploration and critical reconstruction. “Historia” consists of nine volumes, with volumes 1 to 4 describing the background and causes of the war, and volumes 5 to 9 detailing the course and outcome of the war. Unlike Homer, who treated the Trojan War as mere legend and myth, Herodotus sought to leave behind a record that reflected the reality of his time, marking a major shift. He collected all available materials, including records and testimonies, and even visited some areas to investigate for himself. However, he tended to list the information he gathered without questioning or critically analyzing it.
For this reason, some later historians criticized The Histories, saying that it “reads like a collection of casual conversations.”
In particular, volumes 1 through 4 are filled with various stories about exotic civilizations outside the Greek world, such as Egypt, Persia, and India. This may seem like a simple list of information, but at the time, it was common to recite stories in front of an audience, so it can be said that it was a requirement of the times to include a variety of stories.
Herodotus used a variety of materials, such as geography, customs, legends, and myths, to keep his audience from getting bored, which made his work seem more like a collection of interesting stories than historical facts.

Thucydides and the birth of “exemplary historical writing”

Thucydides, the historian who followed Herodotus, is regarded by later historians as “the most exemplary historian.” He also took the Peloponnesian War, which his generation experienced firsthand, as his theme, but his approach was completely different.
In his eight-volume History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides focuses entirely on political and military history. He briefly explains the background and causes of the war in the first volume, and in the remaining volumes, he provides a detailed analysis of the course of the war and its significance. His writing was not intended to be recited in front of an audience, but rather to be read, so he was able to focus on the main points without exaggeration or digression.
Above all, Thucydides considered only records and eyewitness accounts as reliable sources of information, thoroughly excluding hearsay and rumors. When information was contradictory, he selected only the facts necessary for his narrative based on his own historical understanding and judgment. This shows that he was not merely a collector of information, but also an interpreter of history.
He also minimizes his own voice in his historical narrative. He appears in the first person only in the preface and at the beginning of The History of the Peloponnesian War, and thereafter continues the narrative as an objective narrator, erasing himself as the author. This is a way of emphasizing the authority of the narrator and has the effect of naturally leading the reader to agree with the objectivity of the information and the validity of the narrative.
Through his in-depth analysis and description of the political context of war, the psychology of groups and individuals, and human nature, he elevated history from a mere record of facts to an exploration of the complex structure of human society.

The path chosen by historiography: Herodotus vs. Thucydides

Later historiography ultimately took Thucydides’ narrative methodology as its model rather than that of Herodotus. The exploration of events, the selection of information, the maintenance of objectivity, and the analytical narrative style became the basic principles of modern historiography, which was made possible by the foundation laid by Thucydides.
A representative assessment of this trend is the statement by French ancient Greek thinker Jean-Pierre Vernant. He said

“Despite the existence of Herodotus, I am tempted to call Thucydides the first Greek historian.”

This statement is not simply praise for Thucydides, but also emphasizes that the role of the historian is not simply to convey memories, but to engage in research and interpretation.

Conclusion

The writing of history is not merely a list of past events. It is a complex act in which memories, records, myths, research, stories, and analysis collide and merge. The flow from Homer’s songs to Herodotus’s “The Histories” and then to Thucydides’s “The History of the Peloponnesian War” is an intellectual journey of how humans have perceived and described the past.
Through this journey, we can gain a deeper understanding of the essence of history. This will provide us with important clues for interpreting the reality we live in today and preparing for the future.