24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture
Taught by Elizabeth Vandiver - Whitman College
Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin
Lecture 2: https://www.bitchute.com/video/DQAcvNf6kPfR/
Professor Vandiver is the 1998 recipient of the American Philological Association's Excellence in Teaching Award, the most prestigious teaching award given to American classicists. She also teaches the related Teaching Company courses; Classical Mythology, The Iliad of Homer, The Odyssey of Homer, and Virgil's Aeneid.
Witness the "works and wonders" of the ancient world through the eyes of its first great historian. Herodotus became the first person we know of to see the past in new and fresh ways—not as a distant recess shrouded in legend and rumor, but as something that lies close at hand; as something that immediately affects the here and now; and as a subject whose great personalities and patterns of events can be studied in order to make the reasons behind them as clear as possible.
Herodotus (c. 484–420 B.C.E.) was a Greek who was born in what is now the modern Turkish resort town of Bodrum (called Halicarnassus, in his day) and who died, so tradition says, in the south of Italy. In between, his tirelessly inquiring mind took him from one corner of the known world to another. And he reported on or visited all of its continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa) to write about the vast array of subjects that captured his interest. These lectures introduce you to the book—Herodotus's only known work—that came out of these "inquiries." (The title Histories, by the way, is a now-common mistranslation of the original title, as Professor Vandiver explains.) You learn what makes Herodotus one of those rare, landmark figures in the story of thought as Professor Vandiver traces the influences Herodotus assimilated and the new methods he used in crafting this monumental work.
In Professor Vandiver's characteristically comprehensive and systematic treatment, you learn: Essential background and context ... including what we know about the life of Herodotus, the key influences on him, his intended audience and possible reasons for writing the book, and the general task that he set himself (as explained in his all-important first sentence). The scope, design, and organization of The Histories itself ... including both the tantalizing digressions on Egypt and Scythia, and the dramatic Persian War narrative (490–479 B.C.E.) that lies at the heart of the story Herodotus tells.
Lecture 1: This introductory lecture sets the stage for the course in four main ways. The lecture begins by identifying key issues of definition and terminology; the discussion of the definition of history that we begin here will continue in the second lecture. Second, the lecture introduces students to Herodotus: who he was, when he lived (the fifth century B.C.E.), and why he is often called the “Father of History.” Next, the lecture discusses the political organization of ancient Greece and the fact that there was no unified Greek “state” in Herodotus’ day; we also briefly define the various standard periods of Greek history. The lecture then provides context for the course by discussing important events that occurred during the late fifth and early sixth centuries B.C.E. in Ionia (western Turkey) and Athens, including the Persian Wars, the main topic of Herodotus’ Histories. Finally, the lecture introduces students to the overall plan of the course.
Supplementary Reading:
Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 5, Ch. 2.
Marincola, “Introduction,” pp. ix–xiii.
Osborne, Classical Greece, Ch. 1.
