Mythical Structures in Herodotus’ Histories
Abridged translation of Mythische Erzählstrukturen in Herodots “Historien”, published in 2011 by De Gruyter. Herodotus is often criticised for his mythical representation of historical events. However, this offers an important key to the understanding of the text. Starting with the reconstruction of a contemporary mythical-ritual framework, in her reading of the Histories Katharina Wesselmann uses the associative content of the traditional themes of…
Abridged translation of Mythische Erzählstrukturen in Herodots “Historien”, published in 2011 by De Gruyter.
Herodotus is often criticised for his mythical representation of historical events. However, this offers an important key to the understanding of the text. Starting with the reconstruction of a contemporary mythical-ritual framework, in her reading of the Histories Katharina Wesselmann uses the associative content of the traditional themes of iniquity, madness, trickery and transition which underpin the Histories. In this way Herodotus no longer appears as the father of history writing, as Cicero called him, but rather as the heir to a tradition of storytelling.
The German text is available for purchase in print here.
Use the following persistent identifier: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Wesselmann.Mythical_Structures_in_Herodotus_Histories.2011.
Copyright, Katharina Wesselmann. The translation is published here with permission of the author.