The Greeks and their Past
Poetry, Oratory and History in the Fifth Century BCE

Investigates literary memory in the fifth century BCE, covering poetry and oratory as well as the first Greek historians.

Jonas Grethlein (Author)

9780521110778, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 February 2010

364 pages
22.9 x 15.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.61 kg

'… a valuable read on Hellenic memory as ideological tool.' Donald Lateiner, The Historian

Ancient Greeks remembered their past before the rise of historiography and after it poetry and oratory continued to serve commemorative functions. This book explores the field of literary memory in the fifth century BCE, juxtaposing the works of Herodotus and Thucydides with samples from epinician poetry, elegy, tragedy and oratory. Various socio-political contexts and narrative forms lent themselves to the expression of diverse attitudes towards the past. At the same time, a common gravitational centre can be observed which is distinct from modern ideas of history. As well as presenting a broad overview on memory in various genres, Professor Grethlein sheds new light on the rise of Greek historiography. He views Herodotus and Thucydides against the background of memory in poetry and oratory and thereby elucidates the tension between tradition and continuity in which the shaping of historiography as a genre took place.

1. Introduction
Part I. Clio polytropos: Non-historiographical Media of Memory: 2. Epinician poetry: Pindar, Olympian 2
3. Elegy: the 'New Simonides' and the past in earlier elegies
4. Tragedy: Aeschylus, Persae
5. Epideictic oratory: Lysias, Epitaphios Logos
6. Deliberative oratory: Andocides, De pace
Part II. The Rise of Greek Historiography: 7. Herodotus
8. Thucydides
9. Epilogue: historical fevers, ancient and modern
Appendix: lengthy historical narratives in Tyrtaeus and Mimnermus?

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Historiography [HBAH], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]