Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus
In his extraordinary story of the defence of Greece against the Persian invasions of 490-480 BC, Herodotus sought to communicate not only what happened, but also the background of thoughts and perceptions that shaped those events and became critical to their interpretation afterwards. Much as the contemporary sophists strove to discover truth about the invisible, Herodotus was acutely concerned to uncover hidden human motivations, whose depiction was vital to his project of recounting and explaining the past. Emily Baragwanath explores the sophisticated narrative techniques with which Herodotus represented this most elusive variety of historical knowledge. Thus he was able to tell a lucid story of the past while nonetheless exposing the methodological and epistemological challenges it presented. Baragwanath illustrates and analyses a range of these techniques over the course of a wide selection of Herodotus' most intriguing narratives - from those on Athenian democracy and tyranny to Leonidas and Thermopylae - and thus supplies a method for reading the Histories more generally.
1101400542
Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus
In his extraordinary story of the defence of Greece against the Persian invasions of 490-480 BC, Herodotus sought to communicate not only what happened, but also the background of thoughts and perceptions that shaped those events and became critical to their interpretation afterwards. Much as the contemporary sophists strove to discover truth about the invisible, Herodotus was acutely concerned to uncover hidden human motivations, whose depiction was vital to his project of recounting and explaining the past. Emily Baragwanath explores the sophisticated narrative techniques with which Herodotus represented this most elusive variety of historical knowledge. Thus he was able to tell a lucid story of the past while nonetheless exposing the methodological and epistemological challenges it presented. Baragwanath illustrates and analyses a range of these techniques over the course of a wide selection of Herodotus' most intriguing narratives - from those on Athenian democracy and tyranny to Leonidas and Thermopylae - and thus supplies a method for reading the Histories more generally.
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Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus

Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus

by Emily Baragwanath
Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus

Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus

by Emily Baragwanath

eBook

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Overview

In his extraordinary story of the defence of Greece against the Persian invasions of 490-480 BC, Herodotus sought to communicate not only what happened, but also the background of thoughts and perceptions that shaped those events and became critical to their interpretation afterwards. Much as the contemporary sophists strove to discover truth about the invisible, Herodotus was acutely concerned to uncover hidden human motivations, whose depiction was vital to his project of recounting and explaining the past. Emily Baragwanath explores the sophisticated narrative techniques with which Herodotus represented this most elusive variety of historical knowledge. Thus he was able to tell a lucid story of the past while nonetheless exposing the methodological and epistemological challenges it presented. Baragwanath illustrates and analyses a range of these techniques over the course of a wide selection of Herodotus' most intriguing narratives - from those on Athenian democracy and tyranny to Leonidas and Thermopylae - and thus supplies a method for reading the Histories more generally.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780191607868
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication date: 05/15/2008
Series: Oxford Classical Monographs
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 6 MB

About the Author

Emily Baragwanath is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations x

Note on texts and translations xii

1 The Histories, Plutarch, and reader response 1

2 The Homeric background 35

3 Constructions of motives and the historian's persona 55

4 Problematized motivation in the Samian and Persian logoi (Book III) 82

5 For better, for worse...: motivation in the Athenian logoi (Books I, V, and VI) 122

6 'For freedom's sake...:motivation in the Ionian Revolt (Book V-VI) 160

7 To medize or not to medize...: compulsion and negative motives (Books VII-IX) 203

8 Xerxes: motivation and explanation (Books VII-IX) 240

9 Themistocles: constructions of motivation (Books VII-IX) 289

Epilogue 323

References 325

General Index 343

Index of Passages Cited 363

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