The Histories by Herodotus can also be read as a work on xenology, which helps to show how what came to be Hellenic emerged from what was foreign in the early stages of Hellenic culture development. Greek civilization, which was the first to formulate cosmopolitan ideas, owed much of its genius to the extraterritorial nature of the sea. It is thanks to the sea that the civilization, and its Athenian variant in particular, evolved into a lifestyle that could be adapted anywhere. One of its essential features was the permanent experience of the foreign, both in terms of contact with what was foreign and of being foreign oneself.
