The Writings of Herodotus Were Full of Fake Accounts
Some of more far-fetched fake tales recounted by Herodotus explain why many saw and see him as “The Father of Lies”. A typical whopper was his narrative about a protracted struggle between giant one-eyed Cyclopes and half-eagle, half-lion, griffins, who inhabited northern Europe. Per Herodotus, the griffins roosted over and guarded stockpiles of gold, which were frequently raided by the one-eyed giants. Herodotus did not narrate this story as a myth, but as something he believed to be gospel truth.
Another tall tale was about giant, gold-digging ants. As he told it, fox-sized ants lived in the Persian Empire’s eastern provinces, in deserts whose sands abounded with gold dust. As they dug their anthills, mounds, and tunnels, they unearthed the gold dust, and the locals grew wealthy sifting through their excavations. Few if any Greeks had ever been to the faraway lands described by Herodotus. So for centuries, they treated Herodotus’ fake tales of weirdness in distant lands as literal truths.
