Ch. 4. History, Ethnography, and Aetiology in Herodotus’ Libyan Logos (4.145–205)

Abstract

This chapter examines how Herodotus’ narratives of Cyrene’s foundation and of Persia’s more recent imperial interest in Libya hark back to the proem and combine with the Libyan ethnography to produce an account that is essential to the Histories’ overall design and to shaping one area of Greek cultural memory. These narratives probe cause and responsibility in relation to the war between Greeks and barbaroi, carrying further the Histories’ dialogic program by exposing the distinctly Greek identities and assumptions readers bring to bear in explaining the past. Beyond preserving wondrous material, the Libyan logos illustrates how ethnographical awareness complicates and enriches historical interpretation. Published in C. Constantakopoulou and M. Fragoulaki, ed., Shaping Memory in Ancient Greece (HISTOS Supplement 11), p. 155-88.