Reading Herodotus: A Guided Tour through the Wild Boars, Dancing Suitors, and Crazy Tyrants of The History

Hamel takes us on a delightful, audacious romp through The History of the Persian Wars. Debra Hamel’s book is a lively introduction to The History of the Persian Wars, Herodotus's account of Persia's expansion under four kings—Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, and Xerxes—and its eventual collision with the city-states of Greece. The History can be a long slog for modern readers, but it is full of salacious tales about sex, violent death, divine prophecies, and cannibals. Following the structure of the original work, Hamel leads the reader through a colorful tour of the central stories that compose The History. She highlights the more interesting and important parts of the story while providing readers who are new to Herodotus with the background information necessary to appreciate the author’s wide-ranging subject matter. At once academic and cheeky, the experience of this book is like reading Herodotus while simultaneously consulting a history of Greece and a scholarly commentary on the text.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Timeline Maps Attica and Boeotia Greece Asia Minor and the Aegean Asia and the Mediterranean Introduction 1. How to Destroy a Mighty Empire: The Story of Croesus of Lydia Gyges and Candaules The Historicity of The History The Wisdom of Solon The Misfortunes of Adrastus Consulting the Oracles Athens and Sparta The Capture of Sardis The Wisdom of Croesus Torture and Prostitution 2. Cannibals and Conquests: The Story of Cyrus the Great The Birth and Exposure of Cyrus The Recognition of Cyrus Harpagus' Revenge Vomit and Pederasty The Persian Conquest of the Asiatic Greeks and the Revolt of Lydia Crossing the Gyndes River Sex and the City of Babylon Cyrus' Campaign against the Massagetae Is He Soup Yet? 3. Horny Goats and Medicinal Urine: The Egyptian Logos Herodotus' Methodology Egyptians Do It Backward Pigs, Goats, and Satanism Bring in Your Dead Psammetichus and the Antiquity of Egypt The Vengeance of Nitocris Urinating for the Blind Helen in Egypt Rhampsinitus and the Wily Thief Amasis, the Flatulent Revolutionary 4. Madness and Mummies: The Reign of Cambyses Eye Doctors and Other Casus Belli Thick-Skulled Egyptians The End of Psammenitus Mummy Whacking The Ethiopian Logos Cambyses and the Apis Bull The Smerdis Affair, Part I: Prexaspes' Secret Mission Lettuce, Puppies, and Sororicide Trial by Fire: Cambyses and Prexaspes' Son Croesus: The Final Act Cambyses' Madness and Cultural Relativism The Smerdis Affair, Part II: I'm Not Dead Yet Cambyses: The Final Act 5. Meanwhile, Elsewhere in the Mediterranean: The Stories of Polycrates and Periander Polycrates and the Ring The Siege of Samos The Crucifixion of Polycrates Periander's Dynastic Troubles Arion and the Dolphin 6. Earless Imposters and Randy Mounts: The Early Reign of Darius the Great The Smerdis Affair, Part III: The False Smerdis Revealed The Conspiracy of the Seven and the Fate of Prexaspes Was the False Smerdis Really False? The Constitutional Debate The Neights Have It Cannibals, Flying Snakes, and Gold-Digging Ants: The State of the Empire Intaphernes and His Wife Democedes of Croton Fashion and the Fall of Samos The Babylonian Revolt 7. The Trouble with Nomads: Darius' Scythian Campaign Golden Flasks and Serpentine Seductresses: The Origins of Scythia Gilded Skulls and Merry-Go-Rounds: Scary Scythian Customs Crossing the Bosporus Chasing the Scythians The Persian Withdrawal from Scythia 8. Stuttering Kings and Lousy Deaths: The Libyan Logos The Colonization of Libya Arcesilaus III and Pheretime Severed Breasts and Wormy Deaths The Persian Expedition to Libya 9. Tattooed Slaves and Ousted Tyrants: The Ionian Revolt and Post-Pisistratid Athens Megabazus and Macedon and Murder Aristagoras and the Failed Expedition to Naxos The Ionian Revolt, Part I: Histiaeus and Aristagoras Aristagoras Visits Sparta The Expulsion of the Pisistratids from Athens Cleisthenes and Isagoras The Further Intrigues of Hippias The Ionian Revolt, Part II: Athens and the Burning of Sardis The Ionian Revolt, Part III: The Battle of Lade and the Fall of Miletus The Further Adventures and Complicity of Histiaeus 10. Miltiades, Madness, and Marathon: The First Persian War Miltiades in the Chersonese The Expedition of Mardonius The Persian Heralds of 491 The Deposition of Demaratus The Madness of Cleomenes The Persian Advance: Naxos and Eretria Marathon, Part I: Premonitions and Other Preliminaries Marathon, Part II: The Long Wait Marathon, Part III: The Battle The Shield Signal and the Alcmaeonidae Miltiades' Expedition to Paros 11. Feats of Engineering and Doomed Valor: The Second Persian War to the Battle of Thermopylae The Succession of Xerxes The Suppression of Egypt and the Persian Council of War The Dreams of Xerxes The Canal at Athos and the Bridging of the Hellespont Eclipses and Corpses: Leaving Sardis The Wisdom of Artabanus From the Hellespont to the Borders of Greece The Formation and First Congress of the Hellenic League The Expedition to Tempe The Oracle of the Wooden Wall Thermopylae and Artemisium: The Greeks' Strategy and First Blood The First Storm Thermopylae, Part I: Preliminaries Thermopylae, Part II: The Battle Thermopylae, Part III: Epilogue 12. Trial by Trireme: The Battles at Artemisium and Salamis Panic at Artemisium The Second Storm and the Fighting at Artemisium The Greeks Gather at Salamis The Persian Conference at Phalerum Themistocles' Ruse "Woe, in Triple Banks of Oars": The Battle of Salamis The Withdrawal of the Persian Fleet The Kids, the Queen, and the Castrated Secrets, Sieges, and Scandal: Themistocles and the Athenian Fleet after Salamis Xerxes' Retreat 13. Conclusing Scenes: The Battles of Plataea and Mycale and the Siege of Sestus The Stones of Salamis The Road to Plataea Plataea, Part I: Baggage Trains and Mysterious Strangers Plataea, Part II: The Battle The Battle of Mycale Royal Love Affairs The Siege of Sestus and the Conclusion of Herodotus' History Appendix: Xerxes' Heralds and the Medizing of the Greek States Notes Translations Bibliography

About the Author :
Debra Hamel is an independent scholar and the author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan’s Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece.