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<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">Dear fellow readers,</font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">As a mosaic is a work of art, so is the <u>History</u> of Herodotus. Both are comprised of many small pieces, each of which is a gleaming splash of color among many. Like small mosaic tiles, Herodotus’ anecdotes are indeed colorful. Up close each anecdote seemingly stands alone, a tale perhaps of people and places unfamiliar and exotic, sometimes tragic. Like a mosaic, allow the individual pieces to work together for the full effect. From the beginning, let us assume that Herodotus is leading us to this larger view with each digression. The result is as indeed spectacular as the journey along the way.</font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;"> This is no ordinary “history.” It is an <u>original</u> in every sense of the word. As with most Greek literature, it is a combination of genres: historical yes, but also literary, geographical, sociological, political, dramatic. We are introduced to the Greek world of the 6<sup>th</sup> and 5<sup>th</sup> centuries B.C.E., a time when some of the greatest advances in art, science and math were beginning to take place. Herodotus’ aim from the beginning is to prepare his readers to understand <u>historically</u> (as opposed to mythologically) the events, people and places leading to the famed Greek resistance at Marathon and Thermopylae, and their victories against the Persians at Salamis and Plataea. Thankfully, he uses nine books
to set the stage for these dramatic events.</font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;"> Book I begins with the mention of the “feud” between Greeks (both Ionian and Mainland) and Persians back to 'mythical' times, yet Herodotus' aim is to try to de-mythologize some very commonly held ideas of the story of Io and even of Troy. Herodotus’ two main subjects of Book I are Croesus, king of Lydia and Cyrus, king of Persia. The setting is Asia (Minor) or what is today known as Turkey, Herodotus’ home turf, having been born in the coastal town of Halicarnassus in a Greek speaking region called Ionia. Many great Greek thinkers came from this region including Thales, the earliest known Greek philosopher/scientist and Homer, the earliest known Greek epic poet. Ionia was a very prosperous area and would later contribute to Athens’
ascendance as an empire. Get acquainted with Herodotus’ world with the great maps of the Aegean Sea and adjacent lands provided in this edition. The names and places will be very unfamiliar to you at first, but you will use all of this knowledge over and over again in reading other Greek authors, especially Homer, Thucydides, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides etc. It is worth the effort also when visiting a museum to be able to recognize those strange place names mentioned by these writers and to understand the artifacts at a new level.</font></div>
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<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">Questions to ponder as we begin Book I, Chapters 1-94:</font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">The <b>role of prophecy</b> is very prominent in these chapters.</font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">1. What part does an <b>oracle</b> play in the story of Candaules and Gyges? How is a curse associated with it?</font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">2. How does Croesus’ <b>dream</b> about his son Atys become prophetic? Why does Croesus accept Adrastus so warmly?</font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">3. How does Croesus read the Delphic <b>oracles</b>? What is he not understanding and why? When does he understand Solon’s earlier words of advice to him?</font></div>
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<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">More questions to follow!</font></div>
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<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">your moderator,</font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">Andre Stipanovic</font></div>
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