‘Prophecy in reverse’? Herodotus and the Origins of History

Bibliographic Data

ID23683062
AuthorsThomas Harrison (0000-0003-1968-9859, corresponding author)
Year2003
Pages237-255
Publication date2003-03-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueHerodotus and his world (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253746.003.0014
OpenAlexW2480694230
ISBN9780199253746
LanguageEN
References cited136

This chapter does not aim to not to review (still less to seek to replace) earlier treatments of the ‘origins of history’. Rather, it suggests a different — broader — approach to such a question, and to offer another, complementary answer. In particular, the hypothesis will be advanced that the origins of history writing were (to a significant degree) theological. It argues that Herodotus' beliefs, convictions, and attitudes concerning the divine — far from consisting in a series of isolated and discrete passages — inform his Histories much more broadly. Herodotus' principles of selection, his organisation of his narrative, his presentation of causation, and finally (what we might term) his ‘aims and objectives’: all these can be seen to be underpinned by theological assumptions.

Art · Causation · Epistemology · Genealogy · Literature · Narrative · Presentation (obstetrics) · Selection (genetic algorithm) · Classical Antiquity Studies · Computer Science · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Medicine · Philosophy

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