Divinity and History: The Religion of HerodotusCritics of Herodotus have generally shown an unease in the face of the religious passages of the Histories, a sense that he 'lets himself down' by delving into matters irrelevant to the proper purpose of history. They have tended consequently to latch on to isolated instances of scepticism in an attempt to vindicate Herodotus from imagined charges of obscurantism. Historians of Greek religion, on the other hand, by their concentration on ritual as the central feature of Greek religious experience, have often neglected the value of literary sources as evidence of religious belief; indeed the term belief has become something of a dirty word. In this book, the first full-length study of the subject in English, Dr Harrison not only places Herodotus' religious beliefs at the centre of his conception of history, but by seeing instances of scepticism and of belief in relation to one another redresses the recent emphasis on the centrality of ritual, and paints a picture of Greek religion as a means for the explanation of events. |
Contents
Introduction Divinity and History | 1 |
Solon and Human Fortune | 31 |
Miracles and the Miraculous | 64 |
Divine Retribution | 102 |
Oracles and Divination | 122 |
The Unity and Multiplicity of the Divine | 158 |
The Limits of Knowledge and Inquiry | 182 |
Foreign Gods and Foreign Religion | 208 |
Fate and Human Responsibility | 223 |
Epilogue | 243 |
Cooper on the intrusive oblique infinitive | 248 |
The names of the gods | 251 |
Bibliography | 265 |
295 | |
309 | |
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Common terms and phrases
act of sacrilege Adrastus Aesch Amasis Apollo appears Artabanus Artayctes Asheri Astyages Athenians Athens Burkert Cambyses clearly Cleomenes context Contrast Croesus cult Cyrus daimon Darbo-Peschanski Darius death Delphi Demaratus Dionysus divine intervention divine retribution dream earthquake Egypt Egyptians epiphanies evidence example explanation fate forms of divination Fornara François fulfilment G. E. R. Lloyd gods Greece Greek religion Heracles Herodotean Herodotus heroes Histories human fortune idea Immerwahr 1966 interpretation judgement king Lateiner Linforth Lloyd Mardonius miracles misfortune moral myth names narrative nature odotus omen oracle Oxford Parker passage Peisistratus Pelasgians Persian Plataea Polycrates Poseidon possibility Pritchett prophecy prophetic Protesilaus punishment Pythia question religious remark response ritual Rudhardt Sabacus scepticism Scythian seen Shimron shrine simply Solon Solonian Soph Spartans story suggests temple Themistocles Thucydides tion Vandiver vengeance Versnel words Xerxes Zeus δὲ ἐν ἐς καὶ οὐκ τὰ τε τὸ τὸν τοῦ τῶν ὡς