Episode 03: Myth Understandings (1.1-5)

Herodotus plays tour guide/ethnographer and gives us a glimpse of the land of Lydia and its people. But should we believe him?

We start digging into the text of the Histories: in a shocking twist, Herodotus opens his text in the realm of myth, not history, and begins by turning to Persian, not Greek, sources. With this surprising beginning, the historian gives us a taste of his methods and his historical philosophy—and a reminder to expect the unexpected!