Introduction

Abstract

This introduction offers a brief overview of the Socratic and Platonic background to later perceptions of Herodotus’ views about the nature of god, and specifically the notion that god is phthoneros (‘jealous’, ‘envious’, ‘grudging’). Following this theme through later centuries, it then argues that the writings of Plato subtly influenced the theological discourse of subsequent classical, Hellenistic, and Christian historiography, and coloured reactions to Herodotus at all periods, from the fourth century BC to 15th-century Byzantium. This diachronic approach reveals a long-standing tension between the presentation of the gods in Herodotean historiography, on the one hand, and Platonic and Christian theology, on the other. Published in Anthony Ellis, ed., God in History (HISTOS Supplement 4), p. 17-40.