Hellenic Society & Roman Society Online Course
6.00pm - 7.30pm (UK time) + recordings will be available
Chris Carey: Herodotus and History
Herodotus is one of the most fascinating writers to survive from the ancient world, and he has both delighted and influenced readers from antiquity to the present day. He is our earliest, and our main, textual source for the Persian Wars, as well as having much to say about the history of archaic Greece. Cicero famously called him the Father of History. But his work is about far more than history in our sense of the word. The aim of the lecture series is to offer a broad overview of some of the important aspects of Herodotus Histories.
Wednesday 25 February
Session 1 Herodotus and the Histories
Herodotus’ Histories are a literary and intellectual tour de force. Probably nothing quite like his book had ever been attempted in Greece. This opening lecture looks briefly at the work as a whole, and asks what historie (his word for his research, ‘enquiry’, not quite ‘history’) meant to Herodotus. It tries to trace the the genesis of the work by looking at the various influences which converge in his text: his home city and political life, the cultural, ethnic and geopolitical context of Asia Minor, the early Greek prose writers, his travels.
Wednesday 11 March
Session 2 Herodotean themes
‘Poetry is more philosophical and more serious than history; for poetry speaks about the general, history about the particular’ (Aristotle, Poetics). Herodotus would disagree. The Histories are held together not just by the narrative of people, places and events but by a number of themes and patterns which recur across time and across cultural divides, and which impose a shape on the understanding of the world. This lecture explores those themes and patterns.
Wednesday 18 March
Session 3 Gods, heroes and history
The gods are everywhere in Herodotus, even though they almost never put in a personal appearance. Unlike Thucydides, who is interested in religion only where people’s religious beliefs and practices impact on actions and events, individual and collective, Herodotus readily invokes the gods to understand human life and human behaviour. In this lecture we explore the role played by the gods and fate in Herodotus’ world and the way in which they communicate through signs, dreams and oracles.
Wednesday 25 March
Session 4 People and places
Herodotus travelled, met people, asked questions, read inscriptions and admired monuments. He also made extensive use of other people’s travels, especially those of his illustrious predecessor, the geographer Hecataeus of Miletus. This lecture looks at Herodotus’ views on the size and shape of the world and the peoples and creatures in it.
Wednesday 1 April
Session 5 Herodotus and the poets
In the introduction to the Histories Herodotus famously claims that part of his aim is to preserve the fame (kleos) of marvellous deeds. The language he uses hints at the role of the epic poet. By implication it raises the Persian Wars to the level of the conflicts of Greek epic poetry, and epic poetry, especially the towering figure of Homer, is a constant presence, implied and explicit, throughout his text. This lecture looks at the way in which Herodotus engages with his great verse predecessor. But like other educated Greeks, Herodotus was deeply steeped in poetry more generally. So we will also look at the use he makes of other poetic texts.
Chris Carey, a member of the Liverpool diaspora, is Emeritus Professor of Greek at UCL. He has published on Greek epic, lyric, oratory and law, history and historiography. His commentary on Herodotus book 7 has just appeared in the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series and he is currently working on a life of Herodotus.
Fees and Practical Information
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Members of the Hellenic Society and Roman Society may book at a heavily discounted rate.
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Hellenic Society and Roman Society Members: £60
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Hellenic Society and Roman Society Student Members: £30
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After booking, and before the course starts, you will receive an email with the Zoom link and any preparatory reading.
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The course will be held on our Zoom platform. You will be able to ask questions using the chat or Q&A functions. It is not necessary to have a microphone or camera.
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Some courses will include optional additional reading / documents. If so, these will be held on Google Drive and you will be sent the link.
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