How The Histories drew on The Iliad
A documented line of influence: Herodotus demonstrably engaged Homer’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Iliad
Homer · c. 750 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
The Histories
Herodotus · c. 430 BCE
Ancient GreeceRelevance
8/10
On The Histories’s page
- Herodotus treats the Iliad as both blueprint and witness — his great catalogues of nations echo Homer's Catalogue of Ships, his battle for Leonidas's body the battle for Patroclus's
- He even puts Homer on the stand, quoting the Iliad to deny that Helen ever reached Troy
- Read the epic first and you see the historian inventing his craft by arguing with the poet who came before him
On The Iliad’s page
- The Iliad is the model Herodotus builds his history on — its Catalogue of Ships becomes his catalogue of Persian provinces and the muster of Xerxes' army
- The fight over the body of Leonidas at Thermopylae is patterned on the fight over Patroclus
- And Herodotus quotes Homer by name to argue against him — cross-examining the Iliad as evidence in his own case that Helen never reached Troy