Some Thoughts on Herodotus

PROFESSOR MARG, in the introduction to his collection of articles on Herodotus, expresses a thought which must have occurred to many students of this author: Wir sagten, Herodot geh6rt zu den schwersten Autoren, trotz oder gerade wegen seiner scheinbaren Leichtigkeit. Herodot ist voll von Gegensitzen: . One such Gegensatz which has long puzzled me is the contrast between Herodotus the keen, shrewd, painstaking researcher and critic, and Herodotus careless and casual to the point of blamable negligence.2 Herodotean carelessness, on occasion, and casual exercise, or non-exercise, of his critical powers hardly need illustration; what I want to suggest is that the latter is not just a question of Herodotus' immature critical powers,3 but also, and not least, of the nature of his interests. Thucydides, in his Foreword to the Reader ( 1.22) expresses concern over the unavoidably deficient '&KpiPELt of his speeches, but promises the highest possible

Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical and Literary Studies · History