Myth, Truth, and Narrative in Herodotus

Herodotus is infamously known for making use of narrative elements more akin to mythological tales than to 'scientific' history. While his Histories provide valuable source material, he has often been considered as an untrustworthy historian. This volume brings together 13 ground-breaking articles which review, re-establish, and rehabilitate the origins, forms, and functions of the mythological elements that are found in the narratives of theHistories, and how to reconcile these often-criticised elements with his aim to write about the past as it actually happened.

Emily Baragwanath is Assistant Professor in the Classics Department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the literary techniques employed by the Greek historians in their construction of historical narratives. Her first book, Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus (Oxford University Press, 2008), won Oxford's Conington Prize and the CAMWS Outstanding Publication Award. At present she is working on the Athenian author Xenophon.

Mathieu de Bakker is University Lecturer in ancient Greek at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on Greek historiography and oratory, and he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Greek language, literature, linguistics, and epigraphy. In 2009 he received the lecturer of the year award from his university.

List of Contributors
Introduction: Myth, Truth, and Narrative in Herodotus' Histories, Emily Baragwanath and Mathieu de Bakker
Part I: From Myth to Historical Method
1. Myth and Legend in Herodotus' First Book, Carolyn Dewald
2. Herodotus and the 'Myth' of the Trojan War, Suzanne Said
3. Herodotus' Proteus: Myth, History, Enquiry and Storytelling, Mathieu de Bakker
4. The Helen Logos and Herodotus' Fingerprint, Irene de Jong
5. 'Strangers are from Zeus': Homeric Xenia at the Courts of Proteus and Croesus, Elizabeth Vandiver
6. Herodotus on Melampus, Vivienne J. Gray
Part II: Myth and History
7. Herodotus and the Heroic Age: The Case of Minos, Rosaria Vignolo Munson
8. Myth and Thruth in Herodotus' Cyrus Logos, Charles C. Chiasson
9. Herodotus and Eastern Myths and Logoi: Deioces the Mede and Pythius the Lydian, Rosalind Thomas
10. The Mythical Origins of the Medes and the Persians, Pietro Vannicelli
11. Mythology and the Expedition of Xerxes, Angus M. Bowie
12. Returning to Troy: Herodotus and the Mythic Discourse of his own Time, Emily Baragwanath
References
Index Locorum
General