Herodotus in Context: Ethnography, Science and the Art of Persuasion

Description

This book examines the Histories of Herodotus within the context of the intellectual climate of the mid to late fifth century BC. Herodotus is read widely for his accounts of archaic Greek history but his descriptions of Egypt, Scythia and Libya are equally fascinating. Rosalind Thomas concentrates on the latter, along with Herodotus' accounts of the wonders of nature and his methods of convincing his audiences, seeing these as part of the world of scientific inquiry and controversy more familiar from the natural philosophers and medical works of the time.

Rosalind Thomas is Reader in Ancient History at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is the author of Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens (1989 HB 0521350255; 1991 PB 0521425182) and Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece (1992/HB 0521373468; PB 0521377420).

"The "Father of History," Herodotus, has developed into a particularly active field of research in the past 25 years and hardly goes by without an important new study. This book by Thomas is one of the best." Choice "...this leads to a provacative, yet highly compelling, new perspective on the intellectual and cultural dynamics of this seminal era... Thomas has made a valuable contribution to our appreciation of Herodotus and his work, and to our understanding of the fertile, fluid, and contentious intellectual atmosphere in which he lived and to which he contributed." New England Classical Journal "The 'Father of History,' Herodotus, has developed into a particularly active field of research in the past 25 years and hardly a year goes by without an important new study. This book by Thomas is one of the best." --Choice