Awards

• Winner of Winner, Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit, Society for Classical Studies.

Overview

Herodotus and Imperial Greek Literature is the first monograph devoted to the reception of Herodotus among Imperial Greek writers. Using a broad reception model and focused largely on texts outside of historiography proper, the book analyzes the entanglements of criticism and imitation in select works by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, Dio of Prusa, Lucian, and Pausanias. It offers a new angle on Herodotus's intellectual afterlife, focused on evocations both explicit and implicit in literary criticism, the moral essay, public oration, satire, and periegetic literature. This monograph moves beyond the study of reputation only--what ancient authors explicitly had to say about Herodotus--to examine the interrelation between Herodotus's reputation and his often implicit reworking across genre and mode. It demonstrates how Herodotus was strategically construed as fabulist, classicist, moralizer, and evasive intellectual, and how Herodotean presences played to the wider purposes of Imperial writers. Ultimately, the book examines how attention to the presence of Herodotus in various texts unveils new layers of meaning in those works, while also showing how ancient receptions offer insight into the Histories.

Full Product Details

9780197583517

Table of Contents

Reviews

N. Bryant Kirkland's book offers a newly comprehensive view of the importance of Herodotus for a wide range of Imperial Greek authors. This is a wonderful discussion, full of thought-provoking close readings and framed within an innovative account of the workings of reception in the Greek literature of the Roman empire. * Jason Koenig, University of St Andrews * N. Bryant Kirkland takes on a large and underexplored topic, the reception of Herodotus in imperial Greek literature, and handles it with aplomb. Theoretically astute but always lucid, he ranges across key authors such as Plutarch, Lucian, and Pausanias, and tackles major themes, including travel, ethnic identity, and literary imitation. This timely work should appeal to all scholars and students with an interest in the reception and transformation of Greek historiography and literature under the Roman empire. * Timothy Rood, University of Oxford * Herodotus and Imperial Greek Literature is a wonderful book, overflowing with life and ideas. It deserves to be read by everyone interested in Herodotus, above all as a triumphant vindication of the value of reception studies - not just as a branch of literary history, but as a way of enriching and transforming our understanding of the 'source' author. And for me, at least, it is oddly reassuring to find that at least some of Herodotus' ancient readers loved and valued the Histories for the same reasons as we do today: for their humanity, their tolerance, their deep seriousness, their equally deep unseriousness and their unfailing sense of joy and wonder. Someone give that man a lectureship. * Peter Thonemann, Times Literary Supplement *

Kirkland expands concepts of classical reception. * D. Lateiner, CHOICE * A dazzling examination of responses of imperial, first- and second-century CE authors who criticized and/or imitated Herodotus's rhetoric, style, ethnography, and Hellenism.... With this book, Kirkland expands concepts of classical reception.... Essential. * CHOICE * N. Bryant Kirkland's book offers a newly comprehensive view of the importance of Herodotus for a wide range of Imperial Greek authors. This is a wonderful discussion, full of thought-provoking close readings and framed within an innovative account of the workings of reception in the Greek literature of the Roman empire. * Jason K¨onig, University of St Andrews * N. Bryant Kirkland takes on a large and underexplored topic, the reception of Herodotus in imperial Greek literature, and handles it with aplomb. Theoretically astute but always lucid, he ranges across key authors such as Plutarch, Lucian, and Pausanias, and tackles major themes, including travel, ethnic identity, and literary imitation. This timely work should appeal to all scholars and students with an interest in the reception and transformation of Greek historiography and literature under the Roman empire. * Timothy Rood, University of Oxford * Herodotus and Imperial Greek Literature is a wonderful book, overflowing with life and ideas. It deserves to be read by everyone interested in Herodotus, above all as a triumphant vindication of the value of reception studies — not just as a branch of literary history, but as a way of enriching and transforming our understanding of the 'source' author. And for me, at least, it is oddly reassuring to find that at least some of Herodotus' ancient readers loved and valued the Histories for the same reasons as we do today: for their humanity, their tolerance, their deep seriousness, their equally deep unseriousness and their unfailing sense of joy and wonder. Someone give that man a lectureship. * Peter Thonemann, Times Literary Supplement * As substantial as it is stimulating...The author effectively demonstrates how and why Herodotus was received and imitated in imperial literature outside of historiography. The book is therefore recommended reading for anyone interested in imperial Greek literature and the reception of classical works. * Dominik Berrens, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * The brief epilogue, an extensive bibliography, and two indexes (locorum and rerum) conclude this monograph that is as substantial as it is stimulating. The book is carefully edited. Kirkland's translations are reliable and easily readable...The book is therefore recommended reading for anyone interested in imperial Greek literature and the reception of classical works. * Dominik Berrens, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * [Kirkland's] excellent study is a welcome addition to the scholarly discussion. Rather than chronicle moments of allusion or quotation, it instead wrestles with the complicated question of the historian's reputation and in the process offers a sophisticated methodology that readers will likely find of use well beyond the specific example of Herodotus' afterlife... As a well-edited and beautifully produced book, it is recommended reading for anyone interested in imperial Greek literature, Herodotus or reception studies. * Classical Review *

Herodotus and Imperial Greek Literature is a wonderful book, overflowing with life and ideas. It deserves to be read by everyone interested in Herodotus, above all as a triumphant vindication of the value of reception studies -- not just as a branch of literary history, but as a way of enriching and transforming our understanding of the 'source' author. And for me, at least, it is oddly reassuring to find that at least some of Herodotus' ancient readers loved and valued the Histories for the same reasons as we do today: for their humanity, their tolerance, their deep seriousness, their equally deep unseriousness and their unfailing sense of joy and wonder. Someone give that man a lectureship. -- Peter Thonemann, Times Literary Supplement

Author Information

N. Bryant Kirkland is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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