#john marincola

[aboutanancientenquiry]

This survey of recent work on Herodotus, Thucydides, and Polybius focuses on new developments in the study of Greek historiography and synthesises some of the most important research from the last thirty years. There is a detailed treatment of each writer, with an emphasis on analysis of the historians' sources, their narrative methods, and their use of speeches. Also examined are the structure and themes of each man's work, together with consideration of the way each historian employs characterisation. The book provides a full bibliography of recent work done mainly (but not exclusively) in English, and suggests future directions that the study of these historians may take. It will be of interest to upper-level students and scholars who would like an overview of recent trends in the study both of the historians themselves and of ancient Greek historiography in general.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (21 Aug. 2008)

Leon Golden Professor of Classics, Florida State University

Education: BA in Classical Studies, 1979

John Marincola specializes in Greek and Roman historiography and rhetoric. He is the author of Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography (1997), Greek Historians (2001), and (with Michael A. Flower) Herodotus: Histories Book IX (2002). He has edited A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (2007) and Oxford Readings in Greek and Roman Historiography (2010). He has co-edited (with Carolyn Dewald) The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus (2006) and (with C. S. Kraus and C. B. R. Pelling) Ancient Historiography and its Contexts:Studies in Honour of A. J. Woodman (2009). He has revised the Penguin editions of Herodotus’ Histories (1996; further revised edition, 2003) and The Rise and Fall of Athens (forthcoming);and he has translated Xenophon’s Hellenica and fragments of the Oxyrhynchus historian for The Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenica (2009). He has written articles on many Greek and Roman historians and is currently at work on a book on Hellenistic historiography. He is the current Book Review Editor of Classical Journal and co-editor (with John Moles) of Histos.

Source: https://www.classics.upenn.edu/people/john-marincola

[ansatsu-sha]

A recurring figure in Herodotus’ stories of limits and the reversals of fortune is the ‘tragic warner’ or ‘wise adviser’. These figures serve in the narrative to dramatise the important choices before individuals, to give advice to those who lack a larger perspective, and to suggest a proper way to behave.

They appear at crucial points, and despite the usefulness of their advice they are usually ignored, and the disaster they warn of comes true.

John Marincola / Introduction to Herodotus’ The Histories

[theancientgeekoroman]

I hope you don’t mind me recommending and I sincerely apologize if you already have this, I just didn’t see it, but Herodotos’s Histories might fit nicely with your collection. I have a copy myself that includes some extra info about the Ancient Greeks and I love it because it’s interesting but also looks nice. Anyway, I do apologize if I’m just missing it and I hope you’re having a great day!

I love recommendations! No need to apologize :3 I actually didn’t realize I cut off the books on the top shelf in the second picture, but that’s one of the books on there! I have my first Historiography course this semester, so I got it for that (it actually came from a friend who wanted to get rid of some books and knew I could use them). 

Other books I have for my Historiography class that I just obtained are the following:

On Writing History from Herodotus to Herodian (Penguin Classics) (trans. John M. Marincola)

History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (Penguin Classics) (trans. Rex Warner)

The Histories by Polybius (Oxford World’s Classics)

The Historians of Ancient Rome: An Anthology of the Major Writings (Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World) by Ronald Mellor

A lot of them you can’t see because I just got them recently, so they’re not in the picture. 

You can check my LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/catalog/AncientGeekoRoman) if you want to make a recommendation because all of the Classics books I have are listed there. You’ll know if I have it that way if you want to check. 

Either way, I’m always excited to get recommendations from people! Please keep sending them in ^_^

[worldfoodbooks]

NEW IN THE BOOKSHOP: THE BIG NOTHING (2004) Conceptions of “nothing” are one of the driving themes of twentieth-century art. One thinks of Piet Mondrian's reductivist approach to abstraction, Marcel Duchamp's contention that art resides in ideas, not objects, Mark Rothko's painterly reach for the sublime, Andy Warhol's affirmations of the vacuity of Pop culture. The Big Nothing will focus on themes of nothing, nothingness and negation in contemporary art and culture, surveying the legacy of these and other manifestations of absence made manifest in contemporary art. Artist include Gareth James, Jutta Koether, Louise Lawler, Richard Prince, Yves Klein, Bernadette Corporation, John Miller and James Welling, among others. Given its broad connotations, “nothing” provides general audiences with immediate access to looking at and thinking about the art of today. Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with show held May 1 - August 1, 2004. Curated and with essays by Ingrid Schaffner, Bennett Simpson, and Tanya Leighton. Additional essay by Paula Marincola. Artists include: Bas Jan Ader, Richard Artschwager, Michael Asher, Michel Auder, Jo Baer, Robert Barry, Larry Bell, Bernadette Corporation, James Lee Byars, Maurizio Cattelan, Thomas Chimes, Bruce Conner, Day Without Art, Jessica Diamond, Roe Ethridge, Lili Fleury, Rene Gabri, Jack Goldstein, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Nicolas Guagnini, David Hammons, Heavy Industries, Nancy Holt, Richard Hoeck, Roni Horn, Pierre Huyghe, Gareth James, Ray Johnson, Yves Klein, Joachim Koester, Jutta Koether, Yayoi Kusama, Louise Lawler, Gordon Matta-Clark, Allan McCollum, Patrick McMullen, John Miller, Matt Mullican, Eileen Neff, Gabriel Orozco, Raphael Ortiz, Charlemagne Palestine, Philippe Parreno, William Pope.L, Doris Salcedo, Karin Schneider, Allan Sekula, Arlene Shechet, Santiago Sierra, John Smith, Robert Smithson, Paul Swenbeck, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Andy Warhol, James Welling, John Wesley, and Steve Wolfe. Includes checklist of the exhibition. One copy via our new website and via the bookshop. 10% off web orders this week! #worldfoodbooks #thebignothing #gordonmattaclark #johnmiller #williampopel #jobaer (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)

[mykhiotime-blog]

12 January

Currently reading, from the Participatory Relation seminar reading list:

READING-LIST SEMINAR PARTICIPATORY RELATIONS 9.-11.1.2019

APOLONIJA

Kester, Grant H. “Aesthetic Evangelist: Conversion and Empowerment in Contemporary Community Art.” Afterimage, no. 22 (January 1995): 5–11. Also available at: http://grantkester.net/resources/Aesthetic+Evangelists.pdf.

—. Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

Fleming, Marta. http://www.marthafleming.net/artforum-vanguard-fuse-afterimage/

CAMILLA

Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition, The University of Chicago Press 1958, Chapters to read: “The Web of Relationships and the Enacted Stories” (p.181-188) and “Power and the Space of Appearance” (p. 199- 207) http://sduk.us/afterwork/arendt_the_human_condition.pdf

Jackson, Shannon and Paula Marincola (eds.) Keywords“Participation”, “Relational”,and “Spectator" In In terms of Performance, 2016 – http://intermsofperformance.site/

OLGA

Debord, Guy. “Towards a situationist International” (1957) in Participation Documents of Contemporary Art (2004) pp.96-101

Eik, Henriette. (2MAPS) Visualization of Miwon Kwon One place after another. Rancière, Jacques. “Problems and Transformations in Critical Art” (2004) In Participation

Documents of Contemporary Craft, pp. 83-93 Those reading Norwegian, can read Olga ́s article about Rancière when he lectured in 2016

www.periskop.no/moteoffentlighet/

1

WEEK 2 2019

MASTER KUNST OG OFFENTLIGHET//ART AND PUBLIC SPACE Seminar programme 9.-11.2019 MASTER IN PERFORMANCE //

PARTICIPATORY RELATIONS – Art-Audience-Public

PARTICIPATORY RELATIONS general bibliography

Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition, The University of Chicago Press 1958, “The Web of Relationships and the Enacted Stories” (p.181-188) and “Power and the Space of

Appearance” (p. 199- 207) Arenstein, Sherry R. “A Ladder of Participation.”JAIP35, no. 4 (July 1969): 216–

224. http://lithgowschmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html

Becker, Carol. “Microutopias: Public Practice in the Public Sphere” In Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011, ed. Nato Thompson. Cambridge, MA:MIT Press, 2012.

Bishop, Claire. “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics” October 110 (Autumn, 2004): 51-79.Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, London and

Brooklyn: Verso, 2012. Bishop, Claire. Installation Art, New York: Routledge, 2005. Bishop, Claire. Participation, Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2006. Bishop, Claire. “Participation and the Spectacle: Where are we now?” In Living as Form

Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011, Edited by Nato Thompson. Cambridge, MA:

MIT Press, 2012. Bishop, Claire. “The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents” Artforum 44.6 (2006):

178-183. Blundell Jones, Peter, Doina Petrescu, and Jeremy Till, eds. Architecture and

Participation. London: Spoon Press, 2005

Butler, Judith. Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, 2005 Danvers, John. “The Knowing Body: Art as an Integrative System of Knowledge” Chapter 7,

in Art Education in a Postmodern World Collected Essay, Ed. Tom Hardy, (2006)

Intellect, Bristol, UK, Portland, OR, USA Debord, Guy. “Towards a situationist International” (1957) in Participation Documents of

Contemporary Art (2004) pp.96-101https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoUIHBSiVAY

https://www.youtube.com Partially Examined Life #170: Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle" (Part One) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F11bFaLu7kM Que-reste-t-il de la pensée de Guy

Eik, Henriette. (2MAPS) Visualization of Miwon Kwon One place after another.

Finkelpearl, Tom. “Participatory Art” In Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Michael Kelly (eds.)Oxford University Press, 2014.

Fraser, Andrea. “From the Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique” In ArtforumInternational 44.1 (Sept. 2005): 278-283.

Grehan, Helen. Performance, Ethics and Spectatorship in a Global Age, Palgrave McMillan2009, chapter 1: “Situating the Spectator” (p.9-36)

Groys, Boris. “A Genealogy of Participation Art.” In The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now, Edited by Rudolf Frieling, et al. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2008.

2

Jackson, Shannon. Social Works, performing arts, supporting publics, 2011, Chapter 2: Quality Time

Jackson, Shannon and Paula Marincola (eds.) “Keyword: Participation” In In terms of Performance, 2016 – http://intermsofperformance.site/

Kaprow, Allan. Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life, 2003 Kwon, Miwon. One Place After Another, 2002, Chapter 5: The (un)sitings of Community

Mouffe, Chantal. Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically. London: Verso, 2013.

—. “Artistic Activism and Agonistic Spaces.” Art & Research 1, no. 2 (Summer 2007): 1–5,http://www.artandresearch.org.uk/v1n2/pdfs/mouffe.pdf.

—. The Democratic Paradox. London: Verso, 2000.—. The Return of the Political. London: Verso, 2005.

Petcou, Constantin and Doina Petrescu. “Acting Space, Transversal notes, on-the-groundobservations and concrete questions for us all,” in “Participation,” ed. Urška Jurmanand Apolonija Šušteršič, AB –Arhitekturni bilten [AB- Architectural magazine] XLI, no. 188–189 (July 2011): 56–59.

Rancière, Jacques. “Problems and Transformations in Critical Art” (2004) In Participation Documents of Contemporary Craft, pp. 83-93

3

- - -

The Emancipated Spectator, Translated by Gregory Elliott. London: Verso, 2009http://www.critical-theory.com/who-the-fuck-is-jacques-ranciere/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4RP87XN-dI

www.periskop.no/moteoffentlighet/

Schmedling, Olga «Moteoffentlighet» About the project MOToffentlighet and Jacques Rancière ́s thought. Rancière lectured in Oslo 10.6.2016

Widrich, Mechtild. Performative monuments, Manchester University Press, 2014. Wright, Stephen. “The Delicate Essence of Artistic Collaboration.” In Third Text 18.6 (2004):

534-535. Wright, Stephen. Lexicon of Usership, 2014.

[lauraperrone]

SENSIBILE COMUNE

Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea - 14/22 gennaio 2017

a cura di Ilaria Bussoni, Nicolas Martino, Cesare Pietroiusti

con l’assistenza curatoriale di Laura Perrone

Ingresso gratuito alla mostra: Via Gramsci n.69-71

www.sensibilecomune.org

Mostra, convegno, festival, evento, laboratorio, "Sensibile comune. Le opere vive" volutamente sfugge al senso consolidato di ciascuno di questi termini e cerca di collocarsi in un terreno intermedio, fatto di sovrapposizioni e di interstizi poco frequentati, dove probabilmente ci stanno portando le forme del sapere e dell’esperienza contemporanea. Numerose opere appartenenti alla collezione della Galleria Nazionale saranno usate non per essere esposte in maniera abituale al pubblico, ma per diventare agenti attivi dello sguardo, pre-testo per un confronto con altri artisti, nonché con teorici, coreografi, filosofi, poeti, amatori.

Sensibile comune è articolata in sei sezioni: Opere all’ennesima è concepita come campo in cui all’opera della collezione si risponde con un’altra opera, o con pratiche della parola, della performance e del gesto, fino a comporre un paesaggio di oggetti e di segni dentro il quale possa darsi l’avventura singolare e comune dell’intelligenza. Le Opere incurabili, in virtù del loro status di opere danneggiate, diventano strumenti di un’interrogazione che va letteralmente dentro l’opera e che riguarda la sua materialità e precarietà, il nostro rapporto con la trasformazione e il concetto stesso di valore. Opere in lotta è lo spazio dedicato alla presentazione di diversi archivi cartacei e non che raccolgono materiali legati all’impegno e alla lotta politica nelle sue diverse accezioni; è anche il luogo in cui dare forma a un archivio digitale basato sulla messa in comune di materiali attraverso un software open source. Opere in contemplazione, alla ricerca di forme diverse del sensibile. Opere in fuga, in cui si alternano interventi di parola a film d'artista. Opere in costruzione dove l’opera si fa nel momento stesso dell’incontro con il pubblico, e anche grazie a esso, secondo le non-regole dell’improvvisazione e di una ricerca, flagrante quanto incerta, dell’accordo.

SCARICA PROGRAMMA

OPERE ALL’ENNESIMA Artisti invitati: Anemoi, Elisabetta Benassi, Simone Bertugno e Watson (Loal – League of Art Legends), Rossella Biscotti, Lu Cafausu, John Cascone, Corrado Chiatti, Luca Coclite, Danilo Correale, Davide D’Elia, Antonio Della Guardia, Claire Fontaine, Giulia Gabrielli, Dora Garcia, Francesca Grilli, Emily Jacir, Kinkaleri, Alessandro Laita e Chiaralice Rizzi, Olivier Kosta Théphaine, Sandra Lang, Andrea Lanini, Giuliano Lombardo, Eva Macali, Domenico Antonio Mancini, Fiamma Montezemolo, Luca Musacchio, Matteo Nasini, Mattia Pellegrini e Jesal Kapadia, Cesare Pietroiusti, Luigi Presicce, Cristina Kristal Rizzo, Carola Spadoni, Gian Maria Tosatti. Artisti della collezione: André Breton, Alberto Burri, Marcel Duchamp, Lucio Fontana, Juan Genoves, Emilio Isgrò, Ketty la Rocca, Piero Manzoni, Roberto Melli, Napoleone Nani, Filippo Palizzi, Pino Pascali, Giulio Paolini, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Medardo Rosso, Toti Scialoja, Mario Tozzi, Giulio Turcato. 

Partecipano: Carlo Bordini, Pietro Gaglianò, Jacopo Galimberti, Dario Gentili, Lancelot Hamelin, Giacomo Marramao, Muriel Mayette-Holtz, Arianna Ninchi, Elisa Ottaviani, Laura Piccioni, Lidia Riviello, Alexei Penzin, Elettra Stimilli, Carla Subrizi, Giacomo Trinci, Paolo Virno.

OPERE INCURABILI Artisti della collezione: Carlo Alfano, Lucio Fontana, Eliseo Mattiacci, Pino Pascali, Paul Van Hoeydonck. 

Partecipano: Marco Baravalle, Annarosa Buttarelli, Paola Carnazza, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Karmen Corak, Rodolfo Corrias, Tarek Elhaik, Maria Profiri, Luciana Tozzi.

OPERE IN COSTRUZIONE Artisti invitati: Ayreen Anastas e René Gabri, Casamatta e Il Genio Collettivo (Nadia Arancio, Maria Hélène Bertino, Buio Blu, Luca Cechet Sansoé, Alessandra Cianelli, Andrea Coppola, Chiara De Dominicis, Maddalena Fragnito, Donatello Fumarola, Luciano Gagliardo, Manlio Garavaglia, Angelo Mancuso, Francesca Maciocia, Claudia Marelli, Fiorenza Orto, Stefania Palermo, Giorgio Palumbo, Mala Queen, Stefano Roveda, Marco Salvatico, Martin Volejnik), Daniele di Buenaventura, Fabrizio Ferraro, Non tanto precisi, Ludovico Takeshi Minasi, Michele Rabbia.

 Partecipano: Elisa Davoglio, Marco Giovenale, Giulio Marzaioli, Simona Menicocci, Vincenzo Ostuni, Fabio Teti, Silvia Tripodi, Luca Venitucci, Michele Zaffarano.

OPERE IN LOTTA Artisti e archivi: Archivi Fondazione Baruchello, Archivio Giuseppe Garrera, Archivio Macao, Archivio Marincola, Archivio Sale Docks, Archivio Teatro Valle, Artpool Art Research Center in Budapest, Pablo Echaurren, Museo conviviale dell'arte ir-ritata, Centro di documentazione palestinese in Italia, Fondazione Echaurren Salaris, Radio Onda d’Urto, Fondazione Echaurren Salaris, Forniture Critiche, Carmelo Romeo, Luciano Trina. 

Partecipano: Salvatore Gagliardo, Marco Baravalle, Gianfranco Baruchello, Franco Berardi Bifo, Manuel Borja-Villel, Emanuele Braga, Ilenia Caleo, Emiliano Campagnola, Giovanni Campolo, Nhandan Chirico, Roberto Comini, Carlo Costa, Wasim Dahmash, Maddalena Fragnito, Jacopo Galimberti, Gianni e Giuseppe Garrera, Emily Jacir, Pedro Lagoa, Nicolas Martino, Antar Mohamed Marincola, Despina Panagiotopoulou, Camilla Pin, Claudia Salaris, Marco Scotini, Carla Subrizi, Anna Szirmai, Lorenzo Teodonio, Mario Tronti, Nicola Valentino, Wu Ming 2, Elia Zaru.

OPERE IN FUGA Film di: Gianfranco Baruchello, Chiara Bettazzi e Gaetano Cunsolo, Maria Bertino, Simon Brodbeck e Lucie de Barbuat, Guy Debord, Malastrada Film, Jurij Meden, Marilena Moretti, Antonella Sgambati, Tariq Teguia. 

Partecipano: Maria Hélène Bertino, Ilaria Bussoni, Donatello Fumarola, Alessandro Gagliardo, Enrico Ghezzi.

OPERE IN CONTEMPLAZIONE 

Partecipano: Alessandro Biagioli, Danilo Bitetti, Silvia Bordini, Ilaria Bussoni, Armando Castagno, Vanda de Valli, Salvatore Dell’Aquila, Marcello di Paola, Andrea di Salvo, Emanuele Dotti, Alberto Fanfani, Emilio Fantin, Giampaolo Gravina, Ana Horhat, Cristiana Mancinelli Scotti, Paola Massardi, Marco Mazzeo, Eugenia Natalino, Cesare Pietroiusti, Franco Piperno, Valerio Vigliar, Monica Sgandurra, Clelia Viecelli Giannotti, Lucilla Zanazzi, Rolando Zandri, Lucia Zanello.

LA NUIT DES IDEES / PAROLE COMUNI 

Partecipano: Kader Attia, Etienne Balibar, Franco Berardi Bifo, Benoist Bouvot, Andrea Carlino, Alex Cecchetti, Nhandan Chirco, Pierre Dardot, Malika Djardi, Claire Fontaine, Muta Imago, Simon Krhal, Christian Laval, Igor Lečić, Malastrada Film, Morgane Merteuil, Adrian Paci, Giorgio Passerone, Branko Popović, Jacques Rancière, Alexandre Roccoli, Marco Sanchirico, Jean-Marie Straub.

SENSIBILE COMUNE – LE OPERE VIVE Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – 14/22 gennaio 2017 a cura di Ilaria Bussoni, Nicolas Martino, Cesare Pietroiusti con l'assistenza curatoriale di Laura Perrone, la consulenza per teatro e danza di Serena Soccio, il coordinamento di Sara Milano Ingresso gratuito alla mostra: via Gramsci n. 69-71 www.sensibilecomune.org

SENSIBILE COMUNE – LE OPERE VIVE Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – 14/22 gennaio 2017 a cura di Ilaria Bussoni, Nicolas Martino, Cesare Pietroiusti con l'assistenza curatoriale di Laura Perrone, la consulenza per teatro e danza di Serena Soccio, il coordinamento di Sara Milano Ingresso gratuito alla mostra: via Gramsci n. 69-71 www.sensibilecomune.org

PRESS

Assistant Curator

November 2016 - January 2017

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[aboutanancientenquiry]

A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography

Editor(s):John Marincola

First published:1 September 2007

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

[sforzesco]

Not long after, some cattle were stolen from Euboea by Autolycus, and Eurytus supposed that it was done by Hercules; but Iphitus did not believe it and went to Hercules. And meeting him, as he came from Pherae after saving the dead Alcestis or Admetus, he invited him to seek the kine with him. Hercules promised to do so and entertained him; but going mad again he threw him from the walls of Tiryns.

Pseudo Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.6.2

Iphitos, Herakles, and behind the scene of the murder: Iphitos gifting Odysseus with a bow, and then Odysseus, alone.

okay, so I quoted Apollodorus first, but what actually intrigues me about it is how it goes against a general narrative by making it seem like the act was against his will

Sophokles, Trachiniae

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica

Herakles and Omphale, Elmer G. Suhr

I'm also fascinated Odysseus' in this moment of the arc, with rituals of friendships cut short and paths diverging where they might have otherwise continued along side each other. there is a tragedy and intimacy of it and the role it plays in the Odyssey that gets to me. Odysseus strings his bow and its a kind of crescendo of several different threads coming together!! and underneath it all, inescapable, Iphitos. everything's interconnected! we're all made up of the people we met along whichever roads we take!!

Greek Notions of the Past in the Archaic and Classical Eras, edited by John Marincola, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Calum Maciver

The Odyssey, trans. Fagles

society6 | ko-fi | twitter (pillowfort, cohost) | deviantart

[worldfoodbooks]

NEW IN THE BOOKSHOP: THE BIG NOTHING (2004) Conceptions of “nothing” are one of the driving themes of twentieth-century art. One thinks of Piet Mondrian's reductivist approach to abstraction, Marcel Duchamp's contention that art resides in ideas, not objects, Mark Rothko's painterly reach for the sublime, Andy Warhol's affirmations of the vacuity of Pop culture. The Big Nothing will focus on themes of nothing, nothingness and negation in contemporary art and culture, surveying the legacy of these and other manifestations of absence made manifest in contemporary art. Artist include Gareth James, Jutta Koether, Louise Lawler, Richard Prince, Yves Klein, Bernadette Corporation, John Miller and James Welling, among others. Given its broad connotations, “nothing” provides general audiences with immediate access to looking at and thinking about the art of today. Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with show held May 1 - August 1, 2004. Curated and with essays by Ingrid Schaffner, Bennett Simpson, and Tanya Leighton. Additional essay by Paula Marincola. Artists include: Bas Jan Ader, Richard Artschwager, Michael Asher, Michel Auder, Jo Baer, Robert Barry, Larry Bell, Bernadette Corporation, James Lee Byars, Maurizio Cattelan, Thomas Chimes, Bruce Conner, Day Without Art, Jessica Diamond, Roe Ethridge, Lili Fleury, Rene Gabri, Jack Goldstein, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Nicolas Guagnini, David Hammons, Heavy Industries, Nancy Holt, Richard Hoeck, Roni Horn, Pierre Huyghe, Gareth James, Ray Johnson, Yves Klein, Joachim Koester, Jutta Koether, Yayoi Kusama, Louise Lawler, Gordon Matta-Clark, Allan McCollum, Patrick McMullen, John Miller, Matt Mullican, Eileen Neff, Gabriel Orozco, Raphael Ortiz, Charlemagne Palestine, Philippe Parreno, William Pope.L, Doris Salcedo, Karin Schneider, Allan Sekula, Arlene Shechet, Santiago Sierra, John Smith, Robert Smithson, Paul Swenbeck, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Andy Warhol, James Welling, John Wesley, and Steve Wolfe. Includes checklist of the exhibition. One copy via our new website and via the bookshop. 10% off web orders this week! #worldfoodbooks #thebignothing #basjanader #yvesklein #johnwesley #pierrehuyghe (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)

[aboutanancientenquiry]

What is history and how should it be written? This important new anthology, translated and edited by Professor John Marincola, contains all the seminal texts that relate to the writing of history in the ancient world. The study of history was invented in the classical world. Treading uncharted waters, writers such as Plutarch and Lucian grappled with big questions such as how history should be written, how it differs from poetry and oratory, and what its purpose really is. This book includes complete essays by Dionysius, Plutarch and Lucian, as well as shorter pieces by Pliny the Younger, Cicero and others, and will be an essential resource for anyone studying history and the ancient world. Runner-up in the 13th Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature.

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Michael A. Flower-John Marincola Herodotus, Histories Book IX (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics) (Greek and English Edition), Cambridge University Press, 2003

Book IX of Herodotus' Histories is the conclusive climax to his work, as the victories at Plataea and Mycale complete the improbable Greek victory over Persia. This English commentary treats Herodotus' work as historical narrative and as literature, incorporating the results of recent scholarly research in Greek history and historiography. It contains a Greek text and detailed philological, literary, and historical notes designed to assist the intermediate Greek student.

And here is a review of this volume by Frances Pownall, University of Alberta:

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Herodotus and the Odyssey

"Just as Herodotus acknowledges the Homeric Iliad at the beginning of his prologue, so too he acknowledges the Homeric Odyssey at its end in describing himself as ὁµοίως σµικρὰ καὶ µεγάλα ἄστεα ἀνθρώπων ἐπεξιών, ‘traversing alike the small and large cities of men’ (1.5.3). This is a clear allusion to what is said of Odysseus in the proem of the Odyssey, πολλῶν δ’ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω, ‘He saw the cities of many men and came to know their thought’ (1.3).40 One obvious function of this allusion is to suggest the geographical sprawl of Herodotus’ work, which actually transcends the travels of Odysseus in mapping or seeking to map the entire known world and its culturally diverse inhabitants. More broadly, John Marincola has discussed at length various aspects of the Homeric Odysseus’ character and experience that are relevant to the persona Herodotus constructs for himself throughout the Histories. These include Odysseus as the prototypical explorer, whose travels and inquiry produce extraordinary knowledge; and Odysseus as a storyteller who recounts his own adventures, with a special sensitivity to the possibility of reversals of fortune, and a sophisticated sense of the complicated relationship between truth and falsehood.41

Within our immediate context, it is important not merely to acknowledge the Homeric reference, but also to observe how Herodotus modifies it to reflect a defining principle of his own historical perspective. Expanding upon the Odyssean theme of reversal of fortune, Herodotus explains his decision to discuss small and large cities alike as follows (1.5.4):

τὰ γὰρ τὸ πάλαι µεγάλα ἦν, τὰ πολλὰ αὐτῶν σµικρά γέγονε, τὰ δὲ ἐπ’ ἐµεῦ ἦν µεγάλα, πρότερον ἦν σµικρά. τὴν ἀνθρωπηίην ὦν ἐπιστάµενος εὐδαιµονίην οὐδαµὰ ἐν τὠυτῷ µένουσαν ἐπιµνήσοµαι ἀµφοτέρων ὁµοίως. (I will traverse small and large human cities equally,) because most of those that were large long ago have become small, and those that were large in my own time were small in times past. And so I will mention both equally, because I know that human happiness never remains in the same place.

While Odysseus’ remarks on peripeteia in the Odyssey concern individual reversals of fortune that take place within the span of a single lifetime,42 Herodotus broadens this perspective in two ways. First, he highlights the fates of cities or civic communities rather than individuals; second, he expands the chronological horizon, in a significant if unspecific way, to include the time span from ‘long ago’ (τὸ πάλαι) to his own day (ἐπ’ ἐµεῦ) and indeed beyond: by describing the cities of his own day with a past tense (the imperfect verb ἦν), Herodotus anticipates the temporal perspective of his future readership.43 Of particular interest is Herodotus’ final explanatory statement that he will mention both great and small cities alike because of his knowledge (ἐπιστάµενος) that human prosperity never stays in the same place. Although ἐπίσταµαι is by no means a rare verb in the Histories, its participial form, when used to introduce words of gnomic wisdom, evokes the special status enjoyed by performers of song during the archaic period, poetic σοφοί or ἐπιστάµενοι, ‘sages’ who were revered as sources of authority and expertise.44"

From the article of Charles C. Chiasson "Herodotus' Prologue and the Greek Poetic Tradition", Histos 6 (2012), 114-143

[aboutanancientenquiry]

"Rediscovering Herodotus

A review of The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories, edited by Robert B. Strassler; Herodotus: Histories Book VIII , by Herodotus, edited by A.M. Bowie; Herodotus: Histories Book IX , by Herodotus, edited by Michael A. Flower and John Marincola; and A Commentary on Herodotus Books I-IV , by David Asheri, Alan Lloyd, and Aldo Corcella, edited by Oswyn Murray and Alfonso Moreno

by Paul A. Rahe

Paul A. Rahe is a professor of history at Hillsdale College. He is the author of Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty: War, Religion, Commerce, Climate, Terrain, Technology, Uneasiness of Mind, the Spirit of Political Vigilance, and the Foundations of the Modern Republic (Yale University Press)."

I give the link to this very informative and thought provoking review of a series of imporant publications about Herodotus by the American historian Paul A. Rahe (although I find that he is somehow too severe toward the translation of the now late Andrea Purvis for the Landmark Herodotus edition of Herodotus' Histories ).

Rahe is Conservative and obviously I don't agree with his more general views, but he has a good understanding of Herodotus and especially of the importance of Histories for anthropology and political thought, as he is also a historian of ideas and of political philosophy.

I will reproduce here just an excerpt of his review that I find particularly enlightening concerning these aspects of Herodotus' work and especially the central theme of human diversity and common human nature in Histories:

 "Like Thucydides, Herodotus is a figure of quasi-philosophic importance. His historiai—the word means inquiries—is much more than a narrative. It is also an anthropology, which is to say that in it Herodotus investigates the nomoi—the laws, customs, and ways—of the Persians and of the various peoples they encountered in the course of carrying out their conquests, and that he does so with an eye to evaluating the multifarious socio-political regimes that exist in the world. His is a species of natural history. It is an inquiry into human diversity and into that which makes of the many nations a single human race."

[aboutanancientenquiry]

God in History: Herodotean Theology from Plutarch to the Renaissance

TABLE OF CONTENTS  

Acknowledgements ……………………………………... vi 

About the Contributors ………………………………… vii

Figures ……………………………………………….... viii 

Preface .………………….………………………………1 

Introduction: Mortal Misfortunes, θεός ἀναίτιος and τό θεῖον φθονερόν: The Socratic Seeds of Later Debate on Herodotus’ Theology 

Anthony Ellis  …………..………...……...…………..…17. 

Defending the Divine: Plutarch on the Gods of Herodotus

 John Marincola  ……………...……..…….……………41. 

Fate, Divine Phthonos, and the Wheel of Fortune: The Reception of Herodotean Theology in Early and Middle Byzantine Historiography

Vasiliki Zali  ………………………………………...        85. 

Explaining the End of an Empire: The Use of Ancient Greek Religious Views in Late Byzantine Historiography 

Mathieu de Bakker  …………………………………..    127.

Herodotus Magister Vitae , or:  Herodotus and God in the Protestant Reformation 

Anthony Ellis  ……………………………………….        173

On line source: https://www.academia.edu/20229367/B_A_Ellis_ed_2015_God_in_History_Reading_and_Rewriting_Herodotean_Theology_from_Plutarch_to_the_Renaissance_Histos_Supplementary_Volume_4_Newcastle_on_Tyne_

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“10 - Humour and danger in Herodotus

By Carolyn Dewald

Summary

As Alan Griffiths has commented, 'humour is altogether a funny business'. What one culture finds funny, another might well find appalling; humour in every culture, however, blends a tacit recognition of conventional, expected standards of behaviour and narrative logic, coupled with a transient, unexpected (and sometimes illicit) pleasure at their momentary transgression. It is safe to say that Herodotus, the father of history, knows how to tell a good story, and his stories frequently strike the suggestible reader as funny. I will make several claims here: first, that humour is one aspect of Herodotus' text that makes credible his assertion that the logoi he tells are not his own invention; moreover, that the humour of the Histories is tied closely to the theme of transgressive violence and danger. Finally, the recurring and various connections between humour and danger in Herodotus point to one of the most fundamental assumptions of historiography: the importance but also the difficulty of ascertaining what is real in to anthrōpinon, the realm of the human.”

Carolyn Dewald “Humour and Danger in Herodotus” (abstract) in The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus, edited by Carolyn Dewald and John Marincola, pp. 145-164 (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Source: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-companion-to-herodotus/humour-and-danger-in-herodotus/E9A7FAC858A094B649078EDCC08C1099

Carolyn Dewald is an American classical scholar who is Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at Bard College.[1] She is an expert on ancient Greek historiography, and the author of several books and articles focusing on the writings of Herodotus and Thucydides.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Dewald

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Jessica Evan's review of the Cambridge Companion to Herodotus (Herodotus as historian and artist)

"The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus

Carolyn Dewald, John Marincola, The Cambridge companion to Herodotus. Cambridge companions to literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. xv, 378 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.. ISBN 052183001X. $29.99 (pb).

Review by

Jessica Evans, Trinity College, Dublin. evansje@tcd.ie

Table of Contents

For students beginning their journey in Herodotean studies this collection of essays, focusing on Herodotus as an artist as well as an historian, offers a comprehensive survey of past and current research in the field. Comprehension of the essays is facilitated by maps and a timeline of events in both the Greek and non-Greek world. When reading an author such as Herodotus whose narrative is woven through disparate times and places, maps and timelines are invaluable. Many of the articles are followed by short sections on further reading on their respective topics which will serve well those seeking to investigate further the topic at hand.

The introduction provides a brief synopsis of Herodotean scholarship from Felix Jacoby’s landmark ‘Herodotus’ entry in Pauly Wissowa to the application of postmodernism in the 80s. The histories of specific debates are traced, including the separatist/analyst versus the unitarian approach to the Histories; Herodotus’ relationship with Athens; as well as his trustworthiness and reliability as an historian. During the 80s several developments in the field of history contributed to the Herodotean debate: postmodernism, the application of anthropological and sociological methods to classics, recognition of the eurocentricity of previous approaches, and the intellectual relationship between Herodotus and his own cultural milieu. As Carolyn Dewald and John Marincola note in their introduction, modern perceptions of Herodotus are based in large part on previous scholarship. For students new to the field, the introduction provides a framework and historical context within which recent work may be analysed, and new ideas formed.

The first four articles of the companion focus on the predecessors and contemporaries whose influence, though often unstated, it is possible to trace. The first two articles of the companion concern Herodotus’ predecessors. Marincola considers the influence of poetry on Herodotus, whose work is the first great piece of prose from antiquity. Although the ancients recognized that Herodotus was most influenced by Homer, Marincola seeks to draw from Herodotus’ work the ways in which the historian distinguishes himself from his predecessors both in theme and in presentation of material. He begins his analysis by highlighting the differences between the Homeric and the Herodotean narrator. While Homer’s subjects are men of long ago, Herodotus dealt with the recent past to show that great deeds were and still could be achieved. Marincola continues his investigation by noting the ways in which the role of the wise advisor differs in Herodotus’ work from what is seen in his poetic predecessors. He concludes his analysis with thoughts on the notion of poetic versus historical truth.

Robert Fowler traces the emergence of historia as a word meaning ‘inquiry’, ‘investigate’, or ‘question’ to the fourth century definition of ‘history’, first used by Aristotle in the Poetics. Although Herodotus was certainly not the first to write or narrate genealogy, ethnography, and geography, the greatness of the author which afforded him the title of ‘father of history’ lies in his application of the concept of inquiry to human events, a process which allowed him to infer the causes of human affairs. From the often polemical tone of the Histories, Fowler surmises that Herodotus would have been exposed to, and interacted with, philosophers, for whom inquiry was an essential component of their art, as well as ethnographers and geographers. In conclusion Fowler notes that ‘no other work had Herodotus’ breath-taking sweep, not only of space and time, but of human life from the bathetic to the sublime’ (38). Attached to the article is a timeline tracing the dates and works of Herodotus’ prose predecessors, including where fragmentary historians may be found. The timeline serves as a useful tool for anyone wishing to further investigate pre-Herodotean Greek prose.

The next article brings the reader from Herodotus’ past inspirations to his contemporary peers. Jasper Griffin explores the relationship and possible influence of tragic authors on Herodotus, beginning with the ways in which the tragic authors imitated Homer. Similarities between tragedy and the Histories can be found in the material presented, the treatment of the gods, and the moral lens through which many of the stories are told. Although thematically the Histories has much in common with tragedy, the construction of Herodotus’ work, with its many digressions, bears little resemblance to tragic plays; Herodotus’ technique is more in line with Homer than the tragedians, whose plays are marked by contrasting speeches, followed by stichomythia. Griffin concludes his article with a comparison between Aeschylus’ Persae and the battle of Salamis in Herodotus, marking the differences between the narration of the scene which were required by their respective genres.

Rosalind Thomas’ article examines the influence and interaction between Herodotus and his predecessors as well contemporaries, focusing on philosophers, intellectuals, and sophists. Though much attention has been paid to the intellectual debt owed to Athens by the historian, Thomas notes that there were plenty of intellectuals throughout the Aegean who may have come into contact with Herodotus; Athens need not be the place where the historian encountered intellectual stimulation. Although it may be impossible to know by whom Herodotus was most influenced, Thomas shows that Herodotus was as much a product of his pre-Socratic predecessors with respect to inquiry as he was of his contemporaries when it came to the importance of evidence and method for inquiry.

The next three articles examine Herodotus’ method as an historian. Nino Luraghi’s article examines the relationship between meta- historie —the statements made by Herodotus concerning the nature and origin of his information—and genre. These statements usually come either in the form of first-person comments by Herodotus who has seen, opsis, the marvel he is describing, or in that of judgement statements, gnome, made by the historian in order to assess a situation. Luraghi concludes that meta- historie was a method for dealing with the problem of relaying information, the truthfulness of which Herodotus could not validate. By attributing a story to a particular group, Herodotus is able to distance himself from his material. These akoe statements should rather be viewed as ‘disclaimers’ (83), rather than proof of provenance or credibility. The akoe statements cannot be evidence of forgery, nor can they be used as evidence for Herodotus’ own life, nor his historical method. Meta- historie was a method by which Herodotus was able to guide his reader in what to expect from this new genre, a method which not only shaped Herodotus’ history, but defined the genre of history writing itself.

Egbert Bakker’s article is an intricate and careful analysis of Herodotus’ style. Although Herodotus was categorized as stylistically belonging to the previous generation by Aristotle, Bakker argues that his style is paratactic neither in syntax nor in style. Herodotus’ stories should be read as one logos rather than a serious of digressions; each story is ultimately linked thematically with regard to either place or time, and syntactically by signposts within the text, thereby creating a syntaxis. Through a careful analysis of the opening of the Histories, Bakker explores how Herodotus uses indirect speech, demonstrative pronouns, and particles as cues to the reader. The examination reveals that Herodotus’ style was a ‘unique phenomenon in the history of Greek narrative’ (101).

Christopher Pelling addresses the complexity created by speech, logos, which is often far from logical, and complicated by the narrative. Wise advisors deliver veiled speeches which ‘dwell on the man’s bigness rather than his real or potential badness’ (106). In the case of Persian debate, the Persian process of deliberation is displayed just before the battle of Salamis. Although the recommendations made in the debate may be contrary to what the king desires to hear, they nonetheless embody certain truths about the outcome of events which cannot be ignored. The debate on the Greek side before the battle of Salamis stands in sharp contrast to the Persian meeting of advisors. The Greek debate is chaotic, and an inferior argument is presented to persuade the audience. Such an argument is offered because the speaker, in this case Themistocles, believes that it will be the one that will win, even though the narrative reveals that the one not chosen would have been best. Rarely is there ever any straight talking in Herodotus. The logos is not rational, nor can it be since the speakers are compelled by circumstance to say what is required by the situation.

The following four articles concern the function of story-telling in the Histories. In each of the articles the stories are examined for their intrinsic value rather than impediments to the narrative flow.

Carolyn Dewald and Rachel Kitzinger explore the parallels between the story of Itaphernes’ wife and Antigone. Both characters choose to save a brother instead of a child or husband. Although Itaphernes’ wife is ultimately successful, she uses language to manipulate the king to give her not only her brother but also her son in an argument that bears remarkable resemblance to that of Antigone: both a son and a husband can be replaced, but when ones parents have passed, a brother is irreplaceable. Such rhetoric is even more alarming from the mouth of Antigone, whose words, up till this point in the play, have always been in accordance with her own reality. But Antigone does not have a husband, nor does she have a child; her argument does not reflect her own experience. By placing such words in the mouth of Antigone Sophocles shows us the power of words to set forth arguments of which we know nothing in order to persuade others.

Alan Griffiths examines the function of stories in Herodotus. Herodotus’ work is a stream with pools, stories which are detailed accounts that contribute to the main current, and creeks, stories that are either analeptic, i.e. look backwards, or proleptic, i.e. look forwards; a work which examines the histories of different peoples living at the same time must necessarily be ‘multi-threaded’ (134). Herodotus has selected stories, in some cases adapted them to make them suitable for history writing, and placed them in his narrative where appropriate in order to achieve a particular effect. The resonances among stories allow the reader to draw conclusions from intratextual comparisons.

Carolyn Dewald considers the varieties of humour in Herodotus’ stories by incorporating the notion of focalization. The humour of a particular ethnos or city can be detected in many of the stories. While Spartan humour tends to be dry, the Egyptian humour is simply ribald and contains exaggerated elements. Athenian humour, on the other hand, is political and partisan, showing eminent men misbehaving. As funny as these stories may be in the beginning, humorous circumstances are the means for creating a dangerous situation which is, in the end, not so funny. Herodotus employs the audience’s expectations and then disrupts them as part of his working method: ‘trapped by the rigidity of their own beliefs and expectations, they [the audience] cannot adjust to the actual circumstances that confront them’ (159).

Rachel Friedman examines the concept of nostalgia and its implications for a metanarrative by examining the stories of Solon and Croesus, Arion, and Democedes. Although the circumstances which forced each one of the these characters to leave home are different, for each the relationship between their role as demiourgos, and in Solon’s case, law-giver, is intertwined with the pathos created by longing for a nostos. After the battle of Salamis the Athenians, having been tempted by a peace deal with the Persians, make their ironic declaration of what it means to be Greek, though no mention is made of Greekness being associated with a particular land. This glaring omission in the Athenians’ proclamation, combined with the story of the landless Arion, or land longing Solon and Democedes, hints at Herodotus’ own nostalgia for a Greek homeland, which, in his own time was becoming increasingly fragmented.

The following two chapters concern Herodotus’ treatment of nature and religion. James Romm’s chapter examines Herodotus’ views concerning nature and the divine, which are complicated and seem inconsistent. Often when tradition attributes divine control over nature, Herodotus offers two stories, one which attributes to the gods the forces of nature, and another that attributes to nature the flux of the weather. Although Herodotus calls Xerxes’ lashing of the Hellespont ‘reckless and barbaric’ (186), he cannot help but marvel at Xerxes’ achievement in bridging the unbridgeable. And, whereas Aeschylus, in typical tragedian manner, has Darius imply that Xerxes’ loss in Greece was due to divine retribution for acts of hubris, Herodotus cannot conclusively condemn Xerxes’ behavior, which produces a marvelous manifestation of sophie.

Scott Scullion begins his paper by noting that reference to divinity is lacking in Herodotus’ programmatic statement, a conundrum if one takes the view that the historian was the ‘heir of Homer’ (192). An intratextual examination reveals that Herodotus himself only rarely speaks of the individual gods of the Greek pantheon, except when acts of sacrilege are committed by a particular deity. Scullion argues that Herodotus’ concept of the divine should be regarded as ‘as a set of principles governing the universe’ (203). Thus Solon and Artabanus can both advise that god makes the strong weak and weak strong despite being of different religions. The Histories begins with a story of aggression and ends with a story pointing to Protesilaus, the man who made the first attack in the Trojan War, forcing the reader to question the purposes of the divine.

Following on the subjects of religion and nature are those of war and politics. Lawrence Trittle examines the experience of war as it is narrated by Herodotus. Focusing primarily on battlefield passages Trittle considers how the ‘fog of war’ may have affected Herodotus’ informants. Many of the battle narrations consist of stories of individuals, average soldiers who knew little more about what happened in the battle than that which was in their immediate vicinity. The marvelous tales of these soldiers which appear in Herodotus’ work may not be fabrications or lies on the part of the historian, but rather observations in battle which have been distorted by the ‘hysterical blindness’ (215) of the soldiers who witnessed the event and lived to tell the tale. Trittle warns the reader to be cautious in attributing similarities between battle scenes in Herodotus to Homer; it is just as likely that the soldiers in the battle had been instructed in what to expect from reading Homer themselves.

Sara Forsdyke examines Herodotus in light of new approaches for understanding history. Although Herodotus has often been criticized for his lack of attention and detail concerning the constitutions of governments, Forsdyke argues that ancient historians must be understood according to their own terms. History for the ancients was not primarily comprised of ‘military history and constitutional development’ (225), but included social practices and norms. Studies in social memory have contributed to our understanding of how versions of the past in the Histories reflect what a particular group chose to remember. Forsdyke encourages readers of Herodotus to consider the ethnographic significance of seemingly historical passages which had previously been interpreted as marvelous embellishments, as well as consider how past events would have been remembered by a particular group in light of the contemporary political environment and needs of the group.

From the political world of Herodotus, the companion moves on to the geographical and ethnographic realm of the Histories. Philip Stadter focuses on Herodotus’ treatment of the cities of Greece, noting that they do not become dominant characters until the second half of the Histories, before which their appearance is confined to instances in which foreign leaders such as Croesus or Aristagoras need the help of the Greek nations. Stadter uses the ‘market of evils’ paradigm to stress that each city had its own faults, but that Greece would only be strong if the city-states were united. Stadter notes that Herodotus’ focus on Sparta and Athens allowed his fifth-century audience to engage in the ironies of Spartan and Athenian behavior; having once been imperialists in the Peloponnese, the Spartans had become the propagators of freedom, despite sharing several nomoi with the Persians. The Athenians, on the other hand, had become imperialists, a sharp contrast to their actions at Marathon and Salamis.

Rosaria Vignolo Munson’s article traces passages concerning Italy in relation to colonization and imperialism. Rarely is there ever a colony founded that is not linked to tyranny, and even when the Ionian Greeks flee Asia Minor in search of freedom their colonies become experiments in empire, and are founded in the hope of ruling over others. Although Italy represents freedom for the Greeks, Sicily is implicitly bound to the tyrannical model.

Michael Flower investigates manifold aspects of Herodotus’ representation of Persia. Persian history and culture comprise a great part of the Histories and in fact dominate both the beginning and the end of the work. Despite being the ‘other’ to Greek civilization and despite their goal of enslaving Greece, Persians are often depicted as brave fighters rather than as an effeminate and servile people, a frequent characterization of Greek authors such as Aeschylus. Through the course of Histories the ‘moral distance’ between the Persians and the Greeks becomes increasingly slimmer. Flower concludes by noting that the ending of the Histories, with its focus on Persia during the empire’s pinnacle, was apt for an audience who still felt that the threat of a foreign invasion was very real.

Tim Rood examines the function of ethnography and geography in the Histories. Beginning with Lydian ethnography Rood makes two points: first that the way in which ethnography is worked into the Histories emphasizes the ‘political aspects of scientific inquiry’ (294); second that Herodotus’ perspective is often Greek-centered. This is apparent when Herodotus comments on the boundaries of the world, of which Greece is the centre. Herodotus’ treatment of geography takes into account cultural relativism as well. Not only does he relay the story of how the Indians and the Greeks treat the dead, but he also understands that for the Persians, Persia is the centre of the world. Often customs of people are given not to assert Greek cultural superiority, or to set boundaries on what is Greek, but to characterize a particular aspect of that culture. And even within Greek culture often Greeks have nomoi which resemble Near Eastern practices more than Greek ones.

Simon Hornblower’s article on the influence of Herodotus on later authors provides fitting closure to this collection. Beginning with Herodotus’ own contemporaries, such as Sophocles and Euripides, Hornblower traces the historian’s influence up to the time of the Roman empire, ending with Plutarch’s de malignitate Herodoti. Although Thucydides distances himself from Herodotus, the historian demonstrates at various points in his text that he is well able to imitate Herodotus when needed. One of the more lasting contributions of Herodotus was his role in the emergence of local histories, though, as Hornblower points out, some have argued that many of these local historians were not successors of Herodotus, but contemporaries. After Herodotus’ death Hornblower notes that it becomes easier to trace his influence, since reactions to and rejections of the historian are marked by explicit references. After the conquests of Alexander, the Herodotean style of writing was used to describe new lands. Although many have argued that the use of the Ionic dialect to write history points to influence from Herodotus, Hornblower warns that this is not always the case. By the time of Augustus Herodotus had become a classic; it was no longer necessary for historians to distance themselves from the ‘father of lies’.

The diversity of the articles provide a well-rounded survey on current debate. Many of these articles incorporate research from fields outside of Classics, such as Jan Vansina’s work on oral history, current theories on social memory, Freudian theories of humour, and the ‘Clausewitzian fog of battle’ (210). Having read these articles in succession, what is most striking and refreshing is the very human approach taken by the contributors. As Luraghi notes, it is important to keep in mind that Herodotus, being the ‘father of history,’ did not have an abundance of written sources to consult as did later historians. Oral stories were the backbone of his narration. While Griffiths argues that Herodotus did not need to invent stories because of the mass of traditions about the past, Luraghi warns us not to assume that statements regarding the oral provenance of the stories he relates are proof of the historian’s working method. Meta- historie served to activate the audience’s expectations of how stories were told while creating the boundaries of a new genre, history writing. Lawrence Trittle reminds us that Herodotus’ informants were human and as such were subject to the distorting lens caused by the stresses of war. Among all the contributors is a recognition that for his own time Herodotus was both a master of inquiry as well as a keen observer of his own environment, whether that environment be oral, geographical, or political. By focusing attention on Herodotus as artist rather than historian, the work is freed from the expectations of what history should be by our standards. For this, the present collection is invaluable.

Although Greek appears throughout the companion, there is a glossary in the back which allows those who do not know Greek to read with ease. My only concern is with the language of narratology that appears in various articles but is not defined. If the companion is meant to be suitable for those who do not know Greek, it seems just as likely that students may not be aware of terms such as focalization (analepsis and prolepsis are explained by Marincola, 14; Griffiths, 133-4). But this is a minor reservation and should in no way detract from the success and accomplishments of the companion.

In the preface to the Companion Dewald and Marincola state that the ‘volume’s more detailed treatment of his [Herodotus] work as an artist is amply justified as part of our understanding of him as a historian’ (xiii). Above all else this companion demonstrates that the historian cannot be separated from the history that he writes. In the case of Herodotus the historian’s past is illuminated by contemporary events. Only when we recognize the importance of the historian’s present circumstances can we appreciate the structure and content of what is preserved for us. In our own quest for the truth, we often forget that sometimes the truth is and was less important than what was believed to be true. By understanding Herodotus as an artist we are better able to appreciate the cultural practices, rituals, and stories which shaped and continued to shape—whether through rejection, reaction or imitation—the city-states of Greece and their biases towards the nations with whom they interacted."