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Herodotus on every nation's own customs

c. 430–425 BCE, Greece. His own words.

Where and when

c. 430–425 BCEGreece, not on the map

about 2,452 years ago

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Herodotus

, GreeceHis own words

In plain words, ours

Ask every people on earth to pick the best customs, and each would pick its own. Everyone is sure their ways are best.

For if it were proposed to all nations to choose which seemed best of all customs, each, after examination, would place its own first; so well is each convinced that its own are by far the best.

Herodotus, Histories 3.38.1Translated by A. D. Godley (1920)Read the full passage (Herodotus, Histories 3.38.1, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

Herodotus has just described Cambyses at Memphis opening ancient coffins and mocking temple images, which he takes as proof Cambyses was insane. Next he tells how Darius asked some Greeks what price would make them eat their dead fathers.

Checked claim by claim against: the passage around the quote.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. 430 BCEabout 3 years earlier Plague breaks out in Athens Same years
  2. 431/430 BCEabout 3 years earlier Athens holds a public funeral for its first war dead Same years
  3. 429 BCEabout 2 years earlier Pericles dies Same years
  4. 427 BCEAbout the same year Athens votes to kill Mytilene's men, then relents Same years
  5. c. 430–425 BCEThis momentHerodotus on every nation's own customs
  6. c. 430–425 BCEDuring it Herodotus says custom is lord of all Same passageMore from Herodotus
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  9. 425 BCEabout 2 years later Spartans surrender on Sphacteria Same years
  10. 54 BCEabout 373 years later Caesar on Britons dyed with woad Also about customs and foreign ways

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

Cambyses committed many such mad acts against the Persians and his allies; he stayed at Memphis , and there opened ancient coffins and examined the dead bodies. Thus too he entered the temple of Hephaestus and jeered at the image there. This image of Hephaestus is most like the Phoenician Pataici, which the Phoenicians carry on the prows of their triremes. I will describe it for anyone who has not seen these figures: it is the likeness of a dwarf. Also he entered the temple of the Cabeiri, into which no one may enter save the priest; the images here he even burnt, with bitter mockery. These also are like the images of Hephaestus, and are said to be his sons. I hold it then in every way proved that Cambyses was quite insane; or he would never have set himself to deride religion and custom.

The quote: For if it were proposed to all nations to choose which seemed best of all customs, each, after examination, would place its own first; so well is each convinced that its own are by far the best.

It is not therefore to be supposed that anyone, except a madman, would turn such things to ridicule. I will give this one proof among many from which it may be inferred that all men hold this belief about their customs. When Darius was king, he summoned the Greeks who were with him and asked them for what price they would eat their fathers' dead bodies. They answered that there was no price for which they would do it.

Herodotus, Histories 3.37.1–3.38.3Translated by A. D. Godley (1920)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
c. 430–425 BCE. When the Histories were being completed (c. 430–425 BCE); his own comment, made while telling of Cambyses.
Whose words
His own words. Who was Herodotus?
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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