The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

by Carolyn Dewald (Editor), JohnMarincola (Editor)

• New

  Hardcover
  2006

  $111.91

  Introduction to the life and work of Herodotus, the first historian in the western tradition.

• New

  Paperback
  2006

  $34.48

  Herodotus' Histories is the first major surviving prose work from antiquity. Its range of interests is immense, covering the whole of the known world and much beyond, and it culminates in a detailed account of the Persian Wars of the early fifth century BC. Moreover, research has shown that Herodotus is a sophisticated and at times even ironic narrator, and a pioneer and serious practitioner of historical research at a time when the Greeks' traditions about their past were still the fluid transmissions and memories of a largely oral society. This Companion provides a series of accessible chapters, written by distinguished scholars, illuminating many aspects of Herodotus' work: his skill in language and his narrative art; his intellectual preconceptions; his working methods and techniques; his attitude towards nature and the gods; his attitude towards foreign cultures and peoples; and his view of human life and human history.