How important would the past be for a particular culture? Even simple, this is a question that reaches an understanding of the interests and habits that permeate a given society. Currently, understood as a science, History has become a field of knowledge that, through questions arising from the present, seeks an answer that is noticeable in the testimonies, sources and other signs that tell us about "what It happened".
As an instigating concern, we must know that interest in time has troubled human civilizations from the earliest times. According to many anthropologists, the need to talk about our experiences was already clearly seen in the cave paintings that covered the walls of caves. With this, we can see that the development of history is confused with the very existence of man.
Among the Greeks, History was developed through reports that told about events considered important or that would explain the origin of things. Not being readily systematized as a field of knowledge, we see that the interest of the Greeks in recovering the past was confused with poetry and mythology. The works Iliad and Odyssey, for example, refer to episodes from the Greek past, but they do not provide any kind of support that gives them the idea of truth.
The first attempt to promote this separation of History from other existing narratives in Greek culture happened thanks to the action of Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484 – 425 BC. Ç.). Popularly known as the “father of history”, Herodotus had as his main work The Medical Wars, where he spoke about the confrontation developed between the Greeks and the Persians. In this work, the historian sought to undertake a very particular research method.
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To give a concise account of this military event, Herodotus believed that he would first have to deeply know each of the peoples and places where the conflict took place. Thus, his investigation into the past included several trips to the Italian Peninsula, Asia Minor and Egypt. However, still influenced by his culture, this scholar interpreted the facts that took place as a manifestation of the will of the gods.
Thucydides (460 - 396 a. C.) was the first Greek historian to try to promote this dissociation between the will of the gods and the meaning of what happened in the past. According to this historian, historical events would be the result of men's political interests. Author of the work History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides sought to objectively narrate the events linked to this conflict, despite showing some favor to his city-state, Athens.
Demonstrating the place that this field of knowledge occupied in Greek culture, the philosopher Aristotle made some comments that dealt with the difference between history and poetry. For him, the form of writing used by an author had little importance in understanding what history was. In fact, what will define History is the interest in talking about things of a particular nature. On the other hand, poetry would use its characters to debate things that would be common to all men.
By Rainer Sousa
Graduated in History
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SOUSA, Rainer Gonçalves. "The Greeks and History"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/os-gregos-historia.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
