Nino Luraghi, "The Historian's Craft in the Age of Herodotus"
Oxford University Press | ISBN 0199215111 | 2007 | PDF | 2 MB | 273 pages
| “ | This is not only a book on Herodotus, but also a study of the origins of Greek historiography. Rather than investigate what made Herodotus a unique figure in the history of historiography, most of the essays collected here focus on attitudes which Herodotus shared with his contemporaries, historians and others, and on aspects which make him a typical product of his time. This emphasis confronted us with a further choice. Herodotus’Histories are an account of past events and foreign lands and habits, and at the same time a critical enquiry, which may as such profitably be compared with the enquiries which were being carried out in Greece in the same period and in the most diferent fields by philosophers, scientists, and other ‘intellectuals’. Although the latter problem, i.e. the cultural backgroundof Herodotus’ critical method, is surely both crucial and fascinating, and in fact turns up here and there in the pages which follow, the stress in this book lies rather on the former. In what forms was knowledge of the past transmitted and produced in late archaic and classical Greece,what role did the various forms of tradition—including poetry,both epic and other—play in this process, how did the early historians approach and process this traditional lore, which assumptions did they share with their audience regarding the nature and distribution of knowledge about the past? These are some of the questions tackled in the present book. | ” |
