Herodotus

Herodotus

Greek 102S
The Greek Historians: Herodotus

MWF 11:55-12:45 Soc Psych 128

William A. Johnson Allen Bldg 229B
Office hours M1-2, W4-5, by chance, by appt.
william.johnson@duke.edu, 684-2802

Dubbed by Cicero the "Father of History," Herodotus is the first to have written a monumental investigation within the context of the early Greek historiographical tradition. Herodotus's History (from Greek historiê, investigation) distinguishes itself sharply in certain respects from the "history" familiar to us today. The emphasis on thômata (thaumata, "marvels") and on story-telling, often lead to an image of Herodotus as a rather naïve raconteur. For reasons that we will come to understand in this course, I believe that construction of Herodotus a misleading one.

Conspectus. Making Herodotus our own means that we must read deeply in the original; and also begin to get a firm sense of the scholarly debates. The course will therefore focus on two primary activities:

(1) Reading as much Herodotus as we can. The excellent volume of selections by Amy Barbour, with full notes and vocabulary, will help speed us along the way.
(2) Sampling the secondary literature. We will read systematically some gems among the English-language secondary literature. Our team-work on these will include class discussion and presentation. In addition, you will have chances to work further on your own: one short paper (3-5 pages) on an important reading or limited topic, one longer paper (c. 10 pages) on a larger but still specific topic, to give you the chance for individual exploration. The final paper will be due by noon on Wednesday, Dec. 14.

Graded material will be weighted as follows:
Homework, class work, presentations 25%
Three hour examinations 50%
Final paper & written exercises 25%
The hour examinations are provisionally scheduled for Oct. 3 (Mon.), Oct. 31 (Mon.) and Dec. 9 (Fri.).

Textbook.

Selections from Herodotus. Amy L. Barbour. Univ. of Oklahoma Press. 1964. Excellent. Contains a brief grammar, notes, vocabulary. The 2011 "second edition" does not add anything important; either edition is fine.

Recommended Text.

H. W. Smyth. A Greek Grammar. Harvard. Get the hardcover edition (currently on sale at Amazon for $39!).

Reserve & recommended Texts. I will gradually add to this list as the term continues. All reserve books are in the Classics Library (Allen 233).

* David Asheri et al., A Commentary on Herodotus, Books 1-4. Oxford, 2007. A large-scale commentary, for detailed remarks on areas of interest. On reserve in Classics Library.
* J. A. S. Evans, Herodotus. Boston 1982. The best general introduction; in the Twayne World Authors Series. D56.52.H45 E9 1982. 2 copies in Perkins/LSC.
* John Gould, Herodotus. New York, 1989. A close runner-up to Evans 1982 for the best short introductions to Herodotus. D56.52.H45 G68 1989. 2 copies in Perkins/LSC.
* J. Enoch Powell, A Lexicon to Herodotus (2nd ed. Hildesheim, 1977). An extraordinary piece of work; very helpful, but sadly now out of print. On reserve in Classics Library.