This paper argues that Herodotus wrote his account of the Battle of Thermopylae in The Histories to appeal to the Homeric epic style of the time, with its performative depiction of the events of the recent past via tangents and exaggerations, as well as its divergence from the analytical scholarly writings of modern historians. These epics were presentations of oral storytelling, stories that were delivered verbally and poetically to audiences across the Greek world. These stories told small snippets of the Trojan War and the Greek army’s ill-fated journey home. The time period Herodotus wrote in was still heavily influenced by the great Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. This information was gathered through years of travel across the Greek and Persian worlds. He based his account on the tales of others involved in the conflict. Herodotus, a Greek historian, composed The Histories, an account of both the expansion of the Persian empire and the attempted invasion of Greece. Xerxes then turned his eyes to Europe, specifically Greece, to expand his empire. Each conquest served to replenish Xerxes’ armies. Decades of conquering had given the Persians one of the largest empires in history, stretching from modern Iran to modern Turkey and northern Egypt. This battle was the culmination of nearly one hundred years of Persian expansion across Asia. In the year 480 BCE Xerxes I commanded the Persian army to attack Greek forces in the Battle of Thermopylae. Greek pottery depicting a hoplite slaying a Persian soldier.
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