Ten times Herodotus was proved right.
Despite being called a liar, the Father of History was right more often than not, even if archaeology and science has taken a while to catch up.
Let's look at ten times he was actually right.
Despite being called a liar, the Father of History was right more often than not, even if archaeology and science has taken a while to catch up.
Let's look at ten times he was actually right.
Gold-Digging Ants: Herodotus describes ants bigger than foxes in India, who throw up gold when digging, which is collected by locals.
Fact: Marmots in the Himalayas throw up gold when burrowing, which is collected by the local Minaro people.
Fact: Marmots in the Himalayas throw up gold when burrowing, which is collected by the local Minaro people.
Famously Herodotus described the Scythian ritual of heating hemp seeds in a small tent and becoming excited by the vapours. Long dismissed as fanciful, we now have the archaeology to confirm the story.
That time Herodotus visited Egypt and described an unusual style of boat on the Nile - considered another lie or distortion, but proved dramatically correct. Wow, egg on the face much?!
Herodotus wrote some weird things, like how Egyptians captured, worshipped, decorated and mummified crocodiles?? Don't be a doubter, the Egyptians did exactly that!
Herodotus was also insistent that the Scythians had a fondness for tattooing themselves, that it was a high status thing to do. Indeed, frozen bodies from the steppe confirm his stories.
Mummification: ok, so he was right about lots of things, but surely Herodotus wasn't right about the weirdness of Egyptian mummification?
Stay with me...
He was actually generally accurate in his descriptions, particularly about the embalming process. I can't even.
Stay with me...
He was actually generally accurate in his descriptions, particularly about the embalming process. I can't even.
Who were the bald, long chinned pacifists of the steppe? They lived on sour milk and cherry juice and never went to war - the Argippaei. Logically they were proto Mongolian-Daoists, I see no reason to argue with that assessment - Herodotus was right.
At this point we should concede Herodotus was right about everything - testing this on Persia we see how accurate his descriptions of Persian religion and custom were. Why did anybody ever doubt this guy?
Even the pygmies. Even the tall tales of small people battling against giant birds in the swamps are almost certainly true. From the Indonesian hobbits to Nemets' research on Egyptian dwarves, we are definitely looking at a real thing here.
To round it out, the most outlandish of all Herodotus' arguments - that a race of black skinned people lived in the Caucasus - turns out to be right. We must bow to Herodotus, the best of historical ethnography.
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