Herodotus: The Father of History | History, Literature - or Both? (Lecture 22)

Lecture 22: In this lecture, we synthesize several points made in earlier lectures about the nature of history and the historian’s role. The lecture discusses Herodotus’ use of elements normally associated with literature, not history, in his account of the Persian Wars, such as careful balancing of motifs and characters, recurrent themes, and the sense of an overall pattern in the work. We examine several of these elements through a detailed discussion of “crossing logoi,” the segments of the work in which Darius and Xerxes violate both physical and symbolic boundaries, and the results of these violations.

Finally, the lecture provides a close reading of the final chapters of the Histories. We discuss the importance of evaluating literary patterning in the Histories to appreciate the Artaÿctes/Protesilaos logos and the implications of those patterns for the question of whether or not Herodotus intended the work to end as it does.

Supplementary Reading:
Ayo, “Prolog and Epilog.”
Boedeker, “Protesilaos and the End of Herodotus’ Histories.”
Dewald, “Wanton Kings, Pickled Heroes, and Gnomic Founding Fathers.”
Lateiner, Historical Method, Ch. 9.
Munson, “Artemisia in Herodotus.”
Vandiver, Heroes in Herodotus, pp. 223–229.

Lecture 23: https://www.bitchute.com/video/5GkXX2Xwfsxq/