HST 300 Chapter 1-9.124: hst300readingguide

• School: Syracuse University
• Department: History
• Course: HST 300
• Professor: Craig Champion

Document Summary

Herodotus 1. 1-140 (1) compare the proem (or introduction) just before book one, chapter one with the beginnings of homer"s. How might the answer to that question relate to a cultural stereotype of greek and barbarian? (but are the lydians barbarians, anyway?). At 1. 88-1. 89 croesus seems to have gained wisdom as the advisor of cyrus. Peisistratos dressed up a tall, beautiful, local girl named phya as the goddess athena, put her in a chariot, and drove her into the city, with heralds proclaiming that the goddess herself was bringing him back home. Herodotus cannot understand how any greeks, let alone the athenians, who were reputed for their intelligence, could have fallen for such a silly trick. The spartan lichas figures out the oracle"s riddle, brings home orestes" bones, and the. This passage, like the story about croesus, suggests the infallibility of the oracle, and demonstrates its centrality in the greek world of herodotus" time.