... however, Herodotus is also sometimes known as the "Father of Lies", because while his is the first major attempt at sorting all those issues out and forging them into a coherent narrative, he is... lacking established tools of the discipline, shall we say? His judgements as to what is and is not credible do not always pass the modern sniff-test - especially since his access to foreign sources and foreign lands would have been very limited at that time! So invariably, he passes along a few tall tales, especially about distant lands like India.

In Herodotus's defense, he admits that he is only relaying what travelers have told him about the far and exotic land of India, and, while unstated, the story probably went through translation several times before finding its way to him, lmao.