The Herodotus Podcast

Staring death in the face, Croesus channels his inner sage, and saves his own life.

Cyrus uses the power of camels to defeat Croesus, and a botched prophecy allows him to capture Sardis. Plus, Spartan hair styles!

Croesus makes his opening move against the Persians—guess how well that goes? Plus cannibalism, a solar eclipse, and ancient hydraulics.

We get a look at how Sparta became the militarized city-state that we know and love(??), and Croesus picks his Greek ally.

As Croesus chooses between picking the Athenians and the Spartans as allies against the Persians, Herodotus introduces us to Pisistratus, the tyrant of Athens, who used trickery and guile to conquer Athens on three separate occasions. We also explore what it actually meant to be a tyrant and what Herodotus actually thought of the whole tyranny thing.

Croesus decides to play Bachelor with some Greek oracles to figure out which is the True One, and so we take a long look at the Delphic Oracle. Plus, the voice of Apollo!

Croesus meets with tragedy.

In this episode, we finally meet Croesus, hear about his domination of Anatolia, and witness his schooling by the sage Solon of Athens. We'll also learn more about Lydia, and take some time to talk about the origin of money.

We look at King Alyattes of Lydia's novel war tactics and Arion's magic dolphin ride. Also: what really happened to Gyges?

In this episode, we delve into the family history of Croesus, King of Lydia, whom Herodotus identifies as the first Easterner to wage war on Greeks. Croesus' great-great-grandfather, Gyges, takes the Lydian throne in an unexpected way, setting the stage for tragedy five generations in the future.

In this episode, 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!  You can find the map illustrating the myths in this episode here. This episode's artwork is a detail from a Roman mosaic of the abduction of Europa from Byblos, today found in the National Museum of Beirut, Lebanon.

Beginnings are important, and in this episode, we delve deep into the first sentence of the Histories. In it, Herodotus identifies himself, gives his reasons for writing, and lays out his topic. A close reading, however, brings out a ton of nuance.  Here's the first sentence in its entirety: "This is the presentation of the inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, so that the things accomplished by human beings not be erased by time, and so that great and marvelous works, some produced by Greeks and some by non-Greeks, not be without fame, and, among other things, especially for what reason the two groups fought with each other."

Welcome to the Herodotus Podcast! This episode is a brief introduction about who Herodotus was, what The Histories is all about, and what makes it so special (and so fun).