Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus

Baragwanath, Emily

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231294.001.0001

Cited by 150 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…And the same appears to be true also on a synchronous level, for Herodotus foregrounds the fact that history is contested territory: that different interpretations and explanations of historical events and personalities arise from the perspectives of different individuals or groups. 57 In their polyphonic symphony of temporal perspectives, historians authoring durable works construct texts that open a multiplicity of perspectives for readers. They explain their protagonists' thoughts and motivations as they initiate a polyphonic dialogue among the author, the characters of the story he or she is telling, and the readers: "history arises from a conversation between the historian and historical agents, other scholars and the consumers of history."…”

Section: Dealing With the Past Living In The Present Open To The Fumentioning

confidence: 99%

Writing Beyond Time: The Durability of Historical Texts

Cardona

2018

History and Theory

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When we think in terms of the durability of historical texts, some works instantly come to mind: Herodotus's, Thucydides's, and Polybius's war narratives, Plutarch's comparative biographies, Eusebius's ecclesiastical history, Augustine's City of God, Jean Froissart's chronicles, Francesco Guicciardini's history of Florence, Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Jules Michelet's History of France, Leopold von Ranke's History of the Reformation, Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Johan Huizinga's The Waning of the Middle Ages, Fernand Braudel's Mediterranean, and Edward Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class, among others. Historians instantly perceive them as durable texts, part of a canon of history and historiography. Surrounded as we are by the exaltation of innovation over tradition, and assuming the challenging concept of “writing as historical practice” proposed by the editor of this issue, In this article I examine the conditions that might be considered necessary for historical writing to achieve durability, propose what conditions of creation and reception enabled this longevity, justify why these and other historical texts have the potential for durability, and discuss what practical lessons we might obtain from this inquiry. I begin by making some distinctions among the three related concepts of durability, the classic, and the canon, and try to establish the specific conditions of the durability of historical texts, focusing on the effect of contemporaneity and the connections between the concepts of durability and the practical past.

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Section: Dealing With the Past Living In The Present Open To The Fumentioning

confidence: 99%

Writing Beyond Time: The Durability of Historical Texts

Cardona

2018

History and Theory

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“…Hdt. 1.86.2,1.19.2,61.1,191.1,2.181.1,6.134.2,7.205.3,9.91.1; with Baragwanath (2008) 126). While not unknown in Xenophon's wider oeuvre (cf.…”

Section: The Croesus Logoimentioning

confidence: 99%

A Socratic History: Theology in Xenophon's Rewriting of Herodotus’ Croesus Logos

Ellis

2016

J. Hell. Stud.

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Abstract:This article examines Xenophon's rewriting of Herodotus’ Croesus logos (Hdt. 1.6–91) in the Cyropaedia (Cyr. 7.2), focusing on the very different role of the divine in the two narratives. Through a comparison with Xenophon's Memorabilia and several Platonic dialogues, I argue that Xenophon's retelling attempts to bring Herodotus’ Croesus logos in line with his own ‘Socratic’ theology and his pedagogical goals, and in doing so performatively rejects Herodotus’ vision of the role of the gods in historical causation. The Cyropaedia is, I argue, the first extant text in the Greek historiographical tradition which attempts to present divine justice and philanthropy as the central forces in the historical process, and the first in a long series of critical engagements with Herodotus’ theology.

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“… Finch 2013, 166.5 Morin 2009, 287.6 Park 2014, 452.7 Cole 2004, 30.8 Baragwanath 2008, 7. 9 Werblowsky 1998 …”

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confidence: 99%