Mark Gagnon

right before he passed away.

So Xerxes basically inherited this problem, that he couldn't accept this disrespect and this basically proxy war with the Athenians.

And according to Herodotus, the primary Greek source for basically everything that follows in this story, Xerxes initially had no interest in invading Greece.

It was his cousin, Mardonius, and other advisors who pushed him towards it, arguing that Greece's insult to Persian honor couldn't go unanswered if we let

Them disrespect us.

Everyone's going to disrespect us.

It was a whole thing.

So Herodotus even describes Xerxes having troubling dreams that pushed him towards the invasion as if like the gods themselves were demanding that he go do this.

Now, we need to pause here real quick because we got to talk about Herodotus.

Basically, he is the reason that we know most of what we know about Xerxes, but he is also the reason why much of what we know might actually be wrong.

You see, Herodotus wrote his histories in the mid-5th century BC, and it remains one of the most important works of ancient literature.

He's literally called the father of history by some people.

But he was Greek, and he was writing for a Greek audience, and his account of the Persian Wars was...

inevitably shaped by Greek bias.

In Herodotus' records, the Persians are often described as arrogant and excessive and foolish and basically what you would describe an enemy as.

While the Greeks are very brave and clever and they love freedom and

All that stuff, right?

So Xerxes in particular comes across as very emotional and impulsive and prone to these fits of rage.

And according to Herodotus, he whips the sea when a storm destroys his bridge, like as a way to punish the ocean.

And then he beheads his own engineers.