Herodotus is not only the father of the art and the science of
historical writing but also one of the Western tradition's most
compelling storytellers. In tales such as that of Gyges--who murders
Candaules, the king of Lydia, and unsurps his throne and his marriage
bed, thereby bringing on, generations later, war with the Persians--he
laid bare the intricate human entanglements at the core of great
historical events. In his love for the stranger, more marvelous facts of
the world, he infused his magnificent history with a continuous
awareness of the mythic and the wonderful.