Herodotus' Histories (Volume 1 & 2) Ping (Translation of Famous Works)

Author: Wang Yizhu
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1959-06-01
Features: The entire "History" can be clearly divided into two parts. The first half is merely a skeleton of the history of the Greco-Persian Wars, used to connect many legends, stories, geographical, and ethnographic descriptions that are not directly related to the main text (the part about Egypt could almost be a standalone book), while the second half begins to narrate the war itself, with the side stories taking a secondary position. Overall, much of the material seems to have been hastily compiled. The "History" has been passed down through several dozen manuscripts, mostly from the 10th to 15th centuries. The book is traditionally divided into nine volumes, each named after one of the Muses, hence it is also called the "Muses' Book" in later times. This division was likely done by later Alexandrian scholars who compiled some of these books, and may not reflect the original form of the manuscript. The translator's purpose is to provide a worthwhile read for a broad audience interested in history and literature, not for expert research. Therefore, the annotations are kept brief and avoid being overly detailed, with all annotations related to research and excluded. The historical events described in this book all occurred before the Common Era, and for simplicity, the year annotations no longer specify "BC."