Overview

The ancient historian Herodotus, the Father of History, is also considered a great anthropologist. In his account of the Persian invasions of Greece in the fifth century BCE, he searches for the forces that transformed Persians from an underprivileged nation into the rulers of the largest empire of antiquity. In his Histories , he explores the non-Hellenic peoples that were either conquered by the Persians or managed to resist or elude their aggression, such as the Lydians, Egyptians, Libyans, Scythians, and Thracians, and describes the lands they inhabit, their resources, customs, religious rituals, and cultural predisposition. This second volume of the Oxford Readings in Classical Studies on Herodotus focuses on his description of foreign lands and peoples, and on the theoretical issues it raises. The selected essays look at the principles of Herodotus' research concerning the physical world in the light of traditional myth and the science of his times, and deal with the connections between travelling and storytelling, culture and gender, Hellenic and barbarian religions, and memory and ethnicity - all within the context of his insistence on the basic unity of human experience. Central to this collection is the extent to which the Histories's ethnographic portrayals conform to conventional Greek constructs of barbarian 'otherness', or derive from field-work and direct contact with native sources.

Full Product Details

Author:   Rosaria Vignolo Munson (Professor of Classics, Swarthmore College)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.80cm , Height: 3.40cm , Length: 22.00cm
Weight:   0.724kg
ISBN:  

9780199587582

ISBN 10:   0199587582
Pages:   482
Publication Date:   29 August 2013
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Introduction Rosaria V. Munson Physis and Historiê 1: James S. Romm: The Boundaries of Earth 2: Aldo Corcella: Herodotus and Analogy 3: Catherine Darbo-Peschanski: Herodotus and Historia The Homeric wanderer 4: John Marincola: Odysseus and the Historians Women in Herodotus 5: Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg and Addendun by Amélie Kuhrt: Exit Atossa: Images of Women in Greek Historiography about Persia 6: Carolyn Dewald: Women and Culture in Herodotus Histories World religions and the divine 7: John Gould: Herodotus and Religion 8: Walter Burkert: Herodotus on the Names of Gods: Polytheism as a Historical Problem Herodotus barbaroi 9: Michèle Rosellini and Suzanne Saïd: Women's Customs among the Savages in Herodotus 10: Françcois Hartog: Imaginary Scythians: Space and Nomadism 11: James Redfield: Herodotus the Tourist 12: Ian S. Moyer: Herodotus and an Egyptian Mirage 13: Rosaria V. Munson: Who Are Herodotus' Persians? Us and them 14: Rosalind Thomas: Ethnicity, Genealogy, and Hellenism in Herodotus 15: Christopher Pelling: East is East and West is West - Or Are They? National Stereotypes in Herodotus Bibliography of Works Cited Acknowledgements Index

Reviews

These contributions, well selected and well introduced by the editor, represent a good guide to the complex universe of Herodotus. Giovanni Ingarao, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Author Information

Rosaria Munson is Professor of Classics at Swarthmore College where she has been teaching since 1990.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions