Herodot Zitate

Herodot von Halikarnass war ein antiker griechischer Geschichtsschreiber, Geograph und Völkerkundler. Cicero verlieh ihm in seinem philosophischen Werk De legibus den bis heute oft zitierten Beinamen „Vater der Geschichtsschreibung“ . Sein überliefertes Werk sind die wohl im 2. Jahrhundert v. Chr. in neun Bücher unterteilten Historien, die in Form einer Universalgeschichte den Aufstieg des Perserreichs im späten 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr. und die Perserkriege im frühen 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. schildern.

Der von Herodot in den Historien aufgemachte geographische Horizont umfasste sogar die Randzonen der den Griechen seiner Zeit vorstellbaren Welt, in denen Raum für Fabelwesen und Phantasiebilder war. Die Zusammensetzung des persischen Heeres unter Xerxes I. beim Feldzug gegen die Griechen war Herodot aber auch Anlass, auf die vielfältigen Besonderheiten in äußerem Erscheinungsbild und Kultur der beteiligten Völkerschaften einzugehen. Zudem berief er sich auf die eigenen Eindrücke seiner ausgedehnten Reisen. So enthält das Werk in großer Zahl Hinweise auf unterschiedlichste Alltagsbräuche und religiöse Riten, aber auch Reflexionen zu machtpolitischen Konstellationen und Verfassungsfragen dieser Zeit. Wikipedia  

✵ 484 v.Chr – 425 v.Chr
Herodot Foto

Werk

Herodot: 49   Zitate 11   Gefällt mir

Herodot Berühmte Zitate

„Niemand, der bei Verstand ist, zieht den Krieg dem Frieden vor; denn in diesem begraben die Söhne die Väter, in jenem die Väter die Söhne.“

Historien 1, 87, 4 / Krösus
Original altgriech.: "οὐδεὶς γὰρ οὕτω ἀνόητος ἐστὶ ὅστις πόλεμον πρὸ εἰρήνης αἱρέεται· ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῇ οἱ παῖδες τοὺς πατέρας θάπτουσι, ἐν δὲ τῷ οἱ πατέρες τοὺς παῖδας."

„Mit dem Kleid zieht das Weib auch die Scham aus.“

Historien 1, 8, 3 / Gyges
Original altgriech.: "ἅμα δὲ κιθῶνι ἐκδυομένῳ συνεκδύεται καὶ τὴν αἰδῶ γυνή."

„Ägypten, soweit es die Griechen zu Schiff befahren, ist für die Ägypter neugewonnenes Land und ein Geschenk des Flusses.“

Bücher der Geschichte 2. Buch, 5, 1
Original altgriech.: "Αἴγυπτος, ἐς τὴν Ἕλληνες ναυτίλλονται, ἐστὶ Αἰγυπτίοισι ἐπίκτητός τε γῆ καὶ δῶρον τοῦ ποταμοῦ."
Gemeint ist das Nil-Delta. Durch Verkürzung meist verfälscht zu: "Ägypten ist ein Geschenk des Nils".

„Ich soll Überlieferungen überliefern, aber nicht alles und jedes glauben.“

Historien 7, 152, 3
Original altgriech.: "ἐγὼ δὲ ὀφείλω λέγειν τὰ λεγόμενα, πείθεσθαί γε μὲν οὐ παντάπασι ὀφείλω."
lat. (der erste Satz): "relata refero" oder "prodenda, quia prodita".

„Wer Schulden hat, muss auch notwendig lügen.“

Historien 1,138.1; vgl. Schöll S.134 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=BFwMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA134
Original altgriech.: "ἀναγκαίην φασὶ εἶναι τὸν ὀφείλοντα καί τι ψεῦδος λέγειν." - :el:s:Ιστορίαι (Ηροδότου)/Κλειώ#v138.1

„Ferner erziehen sie [die Perser] die Knaben, vom fünften Jahr an bis zum zwanzigsten, nur in Dreierlei: Reiten, Bogenschießen, Wahrheit reden.“

Herodot's Geschichte, übersetzt von Adolf Schöll, Erstes Bändchen, Stuttgart 1828, S.128 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=BFwMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA128&dq=reiten, 1,136
Original altgriech.: "παιδεύουσι δὲ τοὺς παῖδας ἀπὸ πενταέτεος ἀρξάμενοι μέχρι εἰκοσαέτεος τρία μοῦνα, ἰχνεύειν καὶ τοξεύειν καὶ ἀληθίζεσθαι." - :el:s:Ιστορίαι (Ηροδότου)/Κλειώ#v136.2
Motto von Tania Blixens autobiographischem Roman Out of Africa

Herodot: Zitate auf Englisch

“Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.”

This statement is not to be found in the works of Herodotus. It appears in the acknowledgements to Mark Twain's A Horse's Tale (1907) preceded by the words "Herodotus says", but Twain was simply summarizing what he took to be Herodotus' attitude to historiography.
Misattributed

“The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.”

The words of Socrates, as quoted by Diogenes Laertius.
Misattributed

“Haste in every business brings failures.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 7, Ch. 10.
The Histories

“It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 8, Ch. 98
variant: Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed. (Book 8, Ch. 98)
Paraphrase: "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" ”
Appears carved over entrance to Central Post Office building in New York City.
The Histories

“This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 9, Ch. 16
Variant translations:
Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.
The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
The Histories

“Call no man happy till he dies.”

Herodotus actually attributes this to Solon in a conversation with King Crœsus.
Variants:
Deem no man happy, until he passes the end of his life without suffering grief
Many very wealthy men are not happy, while many who have but a moderate living are fortunate; and in truth the very rich man who is not happy has two advantages only as compared with the poor man who is fortunate, whereas this latter has many as compared with the rich man who is not happy. The rich man is able better to fulfil his desire, and also to endure a great calamity if it fall upon him; whereas the other has advantage over him in these things which follow: — he is not indeed able equally with the rich man to endure a calamity or to fulfil his desire, but these his good fortune keeps away from him, while he is sound of limb, free from disease, untouched by suffering, the father of fair children and himself of comely form; and if in addition to this he shall end his life well, he is worthy to be called that which thou seekest, namely a happy man; but before he comes to his end it is well to hold back and not to call him yet happy but only fortunate. Now to possess all these things together is impossible for one who is mere man, just as no single land suffices to supply all things for itself, but one thing it has and another it lacks, and the land that has the greatest number of things is the best: so also in the case of a man, no single person is complete in himself, for one thing he has and another he lacks; but whosoever of men continues to the end in possession of the greatest number of these things and then has a gracious ending of his life, he is by me accounted worthy, O king, to receive this name.
The History of Herodotus Book I, Chapter 32 http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1030.htm.
Misattributed

“In peace sons bury fathers, but in war fathers bury sons.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Variant translation: In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.
Book 1, Ch. 87.
The Histories

“I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 7, Ch. 152.
The Histories

“Now, that these descendants of Perdiccas are Greeks, as they themselves say, I myself chance to know.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 5, Ch. 22, 1 (Loeb).
The Histories

“Men trust their ears less than their eyes.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 1, Ch. 8.
The Histories

“Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 7, Ch. 50.
The Histories

“Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh.”

Actually a quotation from a letter of Lord Chesterfield dated May 8, 1750.
Misattributed

“Stranger, tell the people of Lacedaemon
That we who lie here obeyed their commands.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 7, Ch. 228.
The Histories

“The king's might is greater than human, and his arm is very long.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 8, Ch. 140.
The Histories

“In soft regions are born soft men.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 9, Ch. 122
The Histories

“Far better is it to have a stout heart always, and suffer one's share of evils, than to be ever fearing what may happen.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 7, Ch. 50 (trans. George Rawlinson)
Variant translation: It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.
The Histories

“It is better to be envied than pitied.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 3, Ch. 52
The Histories
Variante: How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.

“Force has no place where there is need of skill.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 3, Ch. 127.
The Histories

“From great wrongdoing there are great punishments from the gods.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 2, Ch. 120.
The Histories

“I know that human happiness never remains long in the same place.”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 1, Ch.5.
The Histories

“My men have turned into women and my women into men!”

Herodotus buch Historien des Herodot

Book 8, Ch. 98.
The Histories

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