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Modern criticism has confirmed the old opinion that Herodotus initiated Western historiography. To write history is to gather all available information about a period in the past and present it as a unity which makes sense. Among the factors which help it to make sense is undoubtedly the investigation of the causes behind the events. In the case of Herodotus there are difficulties concerning the idea of cause and its appearance in an unusual context: a collection of mythical tales, artificially linked together and purged of all elements of the fantastic. The thesis of this study is that Herodotus, far from wanting to begin his History with mythical tradition, rejects myth as a source of knowledge of the past. He rejects it, however, having in mind his predecessor, Hecataeus of Miletus. It was Hecataeus who conceived the idea of extracting truth from myths, but to do this he first had to rationalise them, to make them seem credible. With the idea of proving my thesis, this article will analyse the first five chapters of Herodotus’ work and compare them with some fragments from Hecataeus.