3 Review(s)

Stunning in range and diversity, this collection of lively essays by an international team of experts illuminates Herodotus and the world in which he wrote. The novel and enlightening contributions are as varied in focus and approach as the interests and backgrounds of the authors. There are detailed studies of a number of individual passages and episodes (which always turn out to have wider ramifications for the understanding of Herodotus or for the history of the archaic and classical Greek world, or both) as well as considerations of wider themes (perceptions of ethnicity and ideas of 'tradition', of historical space and about the origins of history). There is prophecy, oracle-selling, and resurrection. There is narrative management and the prosaics of death. Herodotean chronology is revisited. There is epigraphy. There are accounts of why Herodotus did not mention the Hanging Gardens and why he has not been taken as seriously as he should have been by military historians. There are Cleisthenes and Cleomenes, there are Argos and Corinth. And, of course, there is Athens and its democracy.In addition to presenting a picture of Herodotean studies today the volume offers plenty to stimulate further enquiry. It is also an important reminder of the enduring insights and legacies of the work of George Forrest.