By Emily Baragwanath
In his notable tale of the defence of Greece opposed to the Persian invasions of 490-480 BC Herodotus sought to speak not just what occurred, but additionally the historical past of innovations and perceptions that formed these occasions and have become severe to their interpretation afterwards. a lot because the modern sophists strove to find fact in regards to the invisible, Herodotus used to be acutely involved to discover hidden human motivations, whose depiction used to be very important to his venture of recounting and explaining the previous. Emily Baragwanath explores the delicate narrative thoughts with which Herodotus represented this so much elusive number of ancient wisdom. therefore he was once in a position to inform a lucid tale of the earlier whereas still exposing the methodological and epistemological demanding situations it offered. Baragwanath illustrates and analyses a number those concepts over the process a big variety of Herodotus' so much exciting narratives - from these on Athenian democracy and tyranny to Leonidas and Thermopylae - and hence offers a mode for studying the Histories extra usually.
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Extra info for Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus (Oxford Classical Monographs)
Sample text
Lada (1993). 45 Munson (2001), 234 (my italics). g. in connection with the accounts arising from diVerent informants, or by means of the common eite . . eite . . formulation. g. divine and human). At times, however, they clearly are. 1. 47 In his account of the shield signal following Marathon,48 Plutarch describes Herodotus ‘pretending to speak in defence (IðïºïªåEóŁÆØ) on behalf of the Alcmaeonids against the very charges (KªŒºÞìÆôÆ) he had been Wrst to lay against them’ (862f). He complains: ‘Wrst you prosecute (ŒÆôçªïæåEò), then you defend (Iðïºïªfi B); and against famous men you bring false accusations (ªæÜöåØò .
Esp. Thomas (1993); (2000), chs. 7–8. Pelling (2006c) shows Herodotus unmasking travesties of logos. Speakers in the Histories typically employ ‘deXection, circumlocution, or simple deceit’ (116)—to which Herodotus’ audience is invited to respond critically. 72 Iser (1989), 36. The Histories and reader response theory 25 may diVer in order of importance, [but] none of them on its own is identical with the meaning of the text, which is to be brought about by their constant intertwining through the reader in the reading process (Iser (1989), 35).
7 De Jong Comm. xi. 10 And yet, despite his omniscience, the Homeric narrator does not seek to lay bare everything of his protagonists’ minds. Aspects of the character and motivation of some Homeric individuals are not elucidated by the poet, but instead remain partly—in some cases wholly—inscrutable. This is particularly so in the case of several of the females of the Odyssey,11 though also, in some respects, in that of Odysseus himself. In such cases where we are not told explicitly of a character’s motivation or psychology, the narrative quite commonly invites the audience to engage in conjecture12—pace Richardson’s statement otherwise, that ‘[a]mbiguity and conjecture have no place in the Homeric poems.