Description |
1 online resource (xii, 316 pages) |
Contents |
Machine generated contents note: Approaches to Herodotus -- literary historian -- form of the Histories -- Herodotus the historian -- Herodotus' sources and methodology -- Mythical time, historical time, folk tales -- Causation -- Herodotus the ethnographer -- Histories as literature -- Telling stories -- Literary influences -- Themes and patterns -- Fate -- Life, luck and everything -- Nomos -- Notes to Approaches -- Commentary -- Book One Croesus and Cyrus -- Proem -- Herodotus' preface -- Abductions (1.1 -- 5) -- Story of Croesus -- Lydian kings before Croesus (1.6 -- 25) -- Croesus as king (1.26 -- 94) -- Story of Cyrus -- Kings of the Medes before Astyages (1.95 -- 106) -- Cyrus (1.107 -- 30) -- Persian ethnography (1.13 -- 40) -- Ionia logos (1.141 -- 76) -- Cyrus, Babylon and the Massagetae (1.177 -- 216) -- Book Two Egypt -- Introduction -- Introducing Egypt (2.1 -- 4) -- Geography of Egypt (2.5 -- 34) -- Ethnography of Egypt -- Inverse symmetries and sacrifices (2.35 -- 41) -- Egyptian gods: Heracles, Pan and Dionysus (2.42 -- 9) -- naming of gods, Dodona and festivals (2.50 -- 64) -- Animal lore (2.65 -- 76) -- Customs (2.77 -- 97) -- History of Egypt -- Early kings and the Helen logos (2.99 -- 120) -- Rhampsinitus, pyramid builders and chronology (2.121 -- 46) -- Labyrinth and the Saite kings (2.147 -- 78) -- Book Three Cambyses, Samos and Darius -- Introduction -- Cambyses' campaign in Egypt (3.1 -- 16) -- Cambyses and Ethiopia (3.17 -- 25) -- Cambyses: truth and falsehood (3.26 -- 38) -- Samos story (part 1): Polycrates and Periander (3.39 -- 60) -- false Smerdis and death of Cambyses (3.61 -- 6) -- coup and Constitutional Debate (3.67 -- 83) -- empire and the fringes of the world (3.84 -- 119) -- Samos story (part 2): the death of Polycrates (3.120 -- 8) -- Darius' campaigns and the Samos story (part 3) (3.129 -- 60) -- Book Four Darius, Scythia and Libya -- Scythia and Darius -- Background (4.1 -- 4) -- Scythia: origins, people, geography (4.5 -- 58) -- Scythian customs (4.59 -- 80) -- Darius' expedition to Scythia -- march to the Ister (4.83 -- 98) -- Scythian strategy and potential allies (4.102 -- 20) -- Scythian campaign (4.121 -- 44) -- Cyrene and the Persian expedition -- foundation of Thera (4.145 -- 9) -- foundation of Cyrene and its kings (4.150 -- 67) -- Ethnography of Libya (4.168 -- 99) -- Book Five Ionian revolt -- causes and outbreak -- Before the Ionian revolt -- Persian campaigns in Europe (5.1 -- 27) -- Naxos affair and Ionian revolt (5.28 -- 38) -- Sparta and Aristagoras (5.39 -- 54) -- Athenian history (5.55 -- 96) -- Athens: end of tyranny and Cleisthenes (5.62 -- 9) -- Athens: Cleomenes, Isagoras and Hippias (5.70 -- 96) -- Ionian revolt (5.97 -- 126) -- Book Six Ionian revolt -- defeat and aftermath -- Introduction -- Failure of the Ionian revolt (6.1 -- 33) -- After the Ionian revolt (6.34 -- 48) -- Sparta, Aegina and Athens (6.49 -- 94) -- Marathon campaign (6.94 -- 140) -- Book Seven road to Thermopylae -- Introduction -- Debates and dreams (7.1 -- 19) -- Reaching and crossing the Hellespont (7.20 -- 56) -- Hellespont to Thermopylae (7.57 -- 131) -- Greeks respond (7.132 -- 77) -- Thermopylae (7.178 -- 239) -- Book Eight Showdown at Salamis -- Artemisium and retreat (8.1 -- 39) -- Before Salamis (8.40 -- 83) -- Battle of Salamis (8.84 -- 96) -- After Salamis (8.97 -- 144) -- Book Nine Persia defeated -- Hostilities resumed (9.1 -- 27) -- Battle of Plataea (9.28 -- 75) -- Plataea's aftermath (9.76 -- 89) -- Battle of Mycale (9.90 -- 107) -- ending of the Histories -- Xerxes' infatuations (9.108 -- 13) -- Artayctes (9.116 -- 20) -- Cyrus' advice (9.122) |
Summary |
Modern scholarship judges Herodotus to be a more complex writer than his past readers supposed. His Histories is now being read in ways that are seemingly incompatible if not contradictory. This volume interrogates the various ways the text of the Histories has been and can be read by scholars: as the seminal text of our Ur-historian, as ethnology, literary art and fable. Our readings can bring out various guises of Herodotus himself: an author with the eye of a travel writer and the mind of an investigative journalist; a globalist, enlightened but superstitious; a rambling storyteller but a prose stylist; the so-called 'father of history' but in antiquity also labelled the 'father of lies'; both geographer and gossipmonger; both entertainer and an author whom social and cultural historians read and admire. Guiding students chapter-by-chapter through approaches as fascinating and often surprising as the original itself, Sean Sheehan goes beyond conventional Herodotus introductions and instead looks at the various interpretations of the work, which themselves shed light on the original. With text boxes highlighting key topics and indices of passages, this volume is an essential guide for students whether reading Herodotus for the first time, or returning to revisit this crucial text for later research |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
Notes |
Print version record |
Subject |
Herodotus. History -- Appreciation
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SUBJECT |
History (Herodotus) fast (OCoLC)fst01356346 |
Subject |
Literary studies: classical, early & medieval.
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Historiography.
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HISTORY -- Ancient -- General.
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Art appreciation.
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Form |
Electronic book
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LC no. |
2017040899 |
ISBN |
9781474292689 |
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1474292682 |
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9781474292696 |
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1474292690 |
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9781474292702 |
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1474292704 |
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