Herodotus: Volume 1

by Munson, Rosaria Vignolo

• ISBN13: 9780199587575
• ISBN10: 0199587574
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-10-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Herodotus' Histories is a fascinating account of the interactions between the Greeks and their powerful Near-Eastern neighbours. It explores the long-term causes for the Persian invasions of Greece in the early fifth century BCE and traces the rise of the Persians as rulers of a large multi-ethnic empire whose lands and cultures are vividly described. A tapestry of brilliant and entertaining narratives, it also addresses profoundly serious concerns, suchas the advantages and failings of different forms of government, the role of religion and morality in public life, and encounters with different cultures. This collection - the first of two volumes - is dedicated to the historical component of the Histories and includes importantpreviously published essays, some translated into English for the first time, which discuss Herodotus' historical method, sources, narrative art, literary antecedents, intellectual background, and political ideology. The introduction contains an account of Herodotus' life and times, as well as a survey of recent scholarship designed as a guide for contextualizing the selected articles according to the range of approaches they represent.

Author Biography

Rosaria Munson is Professor of Classics at Swarthmore College where she has been teaching since 1990.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Antecedents, Sources, Credibility, and Historie
1. The Place of Herodotus in the History of Historiography, Arnaldo Momigliano
2. Herodotus and His Contemporaries, Robert L. Fowler
Herodotus and Oral Tradition
3. The stories before the Histories: Folktale and Traditional Narrative in Herodotus, Nino Luraghi
4. Oral Tradition in Herodotus, J. A. S. Evans
5. Herodotus and Delphic Traditions about Croesus, Harriet Flower
Causation, Patterning, and the Meaning of History
6. Aspects of Historical Causation in Herodotus, Henry Immerwahr
7. Herodotean Historiographical Patterning: the Constitutional Debate, Donald Lateiner
8. Herodotean Kings and Historical Inquiry, Matthew R. Christ
Narratology
9. Narratological Aspects of the Histories of Herodotus, Irene F. D. De Jong
The Uses of History
10. Herodotus and Periclean Athens, Hermann Strasburger
11. Herodotus Perspective, Charles W. Fornara
12. Herodotus and the Athenian Arche, Philip A. Stadter
Look at his End
13. Protesilaos and the End of Herodotus Histories, Deborah Boedeker
14. Wanton Kings, Pickled Heroes, and Gnomic Founding Fathers: Strategies of Meaning at the End of Herodotus' Histories, Carolyn Dewald
Bibliography of Works Cited
Acknowledgements
Index