A freely adapted and translated quotation from Herodotus has
become famous as the unofficial motto of the United States Post
Office (now United States Postal Service). The monumental
General Post Office building in New York, built in 1914, has a
280-foot frieze bearing an inscription selected by the
architect: - Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night
stays these couriers from the swift completion of their
appointed rounds. Herodotus' style was largely typical of
Grecian-Roman historiography: that is, an emphasis on the
sensational, the mythical, and a downplay on verifiable facts.
Histories were written largely for popular consumption, and they
were not often intended as scholarly works, but as a
preservation of popular myths at the time of the writing.
Examples of Herodotus' myth-centered history is his description
of mythical beasts as inhabiting foreign lands (an example is
the phoenix, which he treats as a real Egyptian animal).
However, recently, one of Herodotus' more far-fetched claims has
b