Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus Contributor(s): Hau, Lisa Irene (Author) |
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ISBN: 1474427138 ISBN-13: 9781474427135 Publisher: Edinburgh University Press OUR PRICE: $36.05 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2017 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | Ancient - Greece - History | Historiography - Literary Criticism | Ancient And Classical |
Dewey: 930 |
Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (1.15 lbs) 320 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - Ancient (To 499 A.D.) - Cultural Region - Greece |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Why did human beings first begin to write history? Lisa Irene Hau argues that a driving force among Greek historians was the desire to use the past to teach lessons about the present and for the future. She uncovers the moral messages of the ancient Greek writers of history and the techniques they used to bring them across. Hau also shows how moral didacticism was an integral part of the writing of history from its inception in the 5th century BC, how it developed over the next 500 years in parallel with the development of historiography as a genre and how the moral messages on display remained surprisingly stable across this period. For the ancient Greek historiographers, moral didacticism was a way of making sense of the past and making it relevant to the present; but this does not mean that they falsified events: truth and morality were compatible and synergistic ends. |