Herodotus and the Presocratics: Inquiry and Intellectual Culture in the Fifth Century BCE

K. Scarlett Kingsley

doi:10.1017/9781009338530

Herodotus and the Presocratics

Inquiry and Intellectual Culture in the Fifth Century BCE

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Degen, Julian 2025. Das achaimenidisch-persische Imperium. p. 393.

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K. Scarlett Kingsley, Agnes Scott College, Decatur

Publisher:: Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:: March 2024
Print publication year:: 2024
Online ISBN:: 9781009338530
DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009338530
Creative Commons:: This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/creativelicenses

Subjects:: Classical Studies, Classical Literature, Ancient Philosophy

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Herodotus' Histories was composed well before the genre of Greek historiography emerged as a distinct narrative enterprise. This book explores it within its fifth-century context alongside the extant fragments of Presocratic treatises as well as philosophizing tragedy and comedy. It argues for the Histories' competitive engagement with contemporary intellectual culture and demonstrates its ambition as an experimental prose work, tracing its responses to key debates on relativism, human nature, and epistemology. In addition to expanding the intellectual milieu of which the Histories is a part and restoring its place in Presocratic thought, K. Scarlett Kingsley elucidates fourth-century philosophy's subsequent engagement with the work. In doing so, she contributes to a revision of the sharp separation between the ancient genres of philosophy and history. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

‘Kingsley’s insightful analysis of the Histories’ laboratory makes Herodotus and the Presocratics a must-read for Herodotean scholars, as well as for anyone interested in classical Greek intellectual history.’

Davide Napoli Source: Bryn Mawr Classical Review

‘Kingsley's work is recommended to anyone who seeks a deeper, literary understanding of Herodotus and is interested in intertextuality in the 5th century ante.’

Gregor Kirilov Source: H-Soz-Kult

‘Kingsley’s work is an important and necessary contribution to understanding Herodotus. … this erudite, thorough and thoughtful account is a welcome addition to Herodotus scholarship, and it persuasively and substantively makes its major claim: that Herodotus, the father of history, is a philosophic thinker in his own right.’

Lindsay Mahon Rathnam Source: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought

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