The Greek Historians - Book Report/Review Example

The coming of Homer stimulated people’s mind into evaluating myths and stories that they found circulating for generations before them like the Iliad and Odysseyamong other sagas and myths. A characteristic of Homer’s stories in his poems was the lack of rationalization which failed to explain obvious or discernible contradictions in factual and mythical references. According to Luce, from one of point of view, such rationalization may have delayed the emergence of historical writing because when it happened it was meant to preserve the integrity of Homer and his contemporaries in poetry.

This paper seeks to provide a brief book review on a publication titled The Greek Historian. The author of The Greek Historian intends to illuminate the path and discovery of historical writing from its initial conceptions to its true manifestation from Homer’s version to that of Herodotus. Men began seeking corroboration from testimonies of contemporaries and evidence encompassed in statues, shrines and documentation, which saw the emergence of a new breed of narrators and orators of events both past and present.

It does not matter whether they are Greek or Roman, but the vital element is that they all held the value of relevance and premise with high regard (Luce 18). There were those who were content with rationality of their accounts of history while others depended on eye witness accounts for their genre of history. Subject matter is also another important matter to consider when considering Greek history because it describes the context in which they related to events and their significance to the time.

Homer’s description of history is enshrined with glorified accounts of war that is the hallmark of his works. This is also depicted in Herodotus’ account of history as being permeated by wars that formed the essence of his time or period in history. Geographical and sociocultural history in what can be termed today as anthropology also featured as a prime component in Homer’s and Herodotus’ historical analogies. The form in which history was cast is also an important element when evaluating the journey which historical writings took.

Homer delved into implicit detail in all manner of descriptions mainly in conversation in which he used to put across the themes of his poems, which are vivid and actual to the reader. Herodotus is also depicted as to have embarked on the same path in his descriptions upon which other elements of society were brought out as secondary components in the overall construct of a historical context. An in depth analysis of historical writings by these historians brings out the fact Greek historians were practicing what can be described as an art form that they could not have allowed to be marred by direct reference to their sources as it is today.

The Greek did not see or perceive history in terms that people construe history be made up of past events and individuals. The Greek saw the events that they wrote about as experiences and facts that were part of their everyday and future parts of their lives. History was based on individual constructs of what ought to have been and why it happened the way it did at that time. Historians sought to deliver versions of truth that not only intrigued their target audience but also strengthened their position on different aspects that they