Why was history so important to the greeks?

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The history of Ancient Greece has been influential to western society up to our day.
The much-celebrated Renaissance was guided in large part by the re-discovery of the ancient Greek ideas through text and art. Greek art, architecture, literature, philosophy, science, and language have been firmly embedded in the western culture for the past two millenia.

History as a discipline was created in Ancient Greece with the work of Herodotus (484 – 425 BCE) who is considered the Father of History, and that of Thucydides (460 – 395 BCE). Writing in completely opposite style, these two historians attempted to record the events of their time for posterity, and in the process they created the foundation that future historians relied upon all the way up to the 20th c. CE.