Teleology and oracular prophecies
narratological analysis of cultic etiologies in book VII of Herodotus’ ‘Histories’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29327/2345891.21.21-2Keywords:
Historiography, Teleology, Etiology, Prophecy, CultAbstract
This article aims to investigate how the oracular prophecies
that led to the inauguration of Greek cultic practices integrates the teleological structure of Herodotus’ work. With an emphasis on book VII of the Histories, the investigation will approach the impact of predictions on the narrative dimensions of the work. Bounding the main plot to cultic etiological digressions, the predictions compose the historian’s argumentative web enunciating justifications related to Greek religious precepts. By searching different dimensions of the past, the oracular lens employed in the historian’s retrospective performance rescues mythological, literary traditions and ritual practices. These partake in his effort to give meaning to the past and, simultaneously, highlight its pertinence considering the context in which the work was published.
Downloads
References
Documentação textual
HERODOTUS, Historiae libri I-IV. Translated by N. G. Wilson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
HERODOTUS. Historiae libri V-IX. Translated by N. G. Wilson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
HESÍODO. Hesiod: Homeric Hymns and Homerica. Translated by T. E. Page and W. H. Rouse. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1932.
HOMERO. Ilíada. Tradução de Christian Werner. São Paulo: Ubu, 2018.
HOMERO. Odisseia. Tradução de Christian Werner. São Paulo: Ubu, 2018.
SÓFOCLES. Os Persas. Tradução de Mario da Gama Cury. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1998.
PAUSANIAS. Travel and memory in Roman Greece. Translated by Susan Alocock, John Cherry and Jas Elsner. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
PLATO. Fedro. Translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Obras de apoio
ASHERI, D.; LLOYD, A.; CORCELLA, A. A commentary on Herodotus books I-V. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
BARAGWANATH, E. Motivation and narrative in Herodotus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
BEERDEN, K. Worlds full of signs: Ancient Greek divination in context. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
CARTLEDGE, P. Ancient Greek political thought in practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
CALAME, C. Greek myth and Greek religion. In: WOODARD, R. (ed.). The Cambridge companion to Greek mythology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 259-285.
CLARKE, K. Shaping the geography of empire: man and nature in Herodotus’ Histories. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
CROSBY, D. Croesus at Dodona: the test of the oracles in oracular context. Histos, n. 16, 2022.
DEACY, S. “Famous Athens, divine polis”. The religious system of Athens. In: OGDEN, D. (ed.). A companion to Greek religion. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, p. 221-236.
DILLON, M. Omens and oracles: divination in ancient Greece. New York: Routledge, 2017.
GEROMELOU, M. Recognizing miracles in Antiquity and beyond. Boston: de Gruyter, 2018.
GRETHLEIN, J. Experience and teleology in ancient historiography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
GUARINELLO, N. História antiga. São Paulo: Contexto, 2013.
HARRISON, T. Divinity and history: the religion of Herodotus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
HAU, L. Moral history from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016.
IMMERWAHR, H. R. Aspects of historical causation in Herodotus. Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, v. 87, p. 241-248, 1956.
JIM, T. Saviour gods and soteria in ancient Greece. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
JONG, I. Narrative and narrative unities. In: BAKKER, E.; JONG, I.; VANS WEES, H. (ed.). Brill companion to Herodotus. Leiden: Brill, 2002, p. 245-266.
KINDT, J. Delphic oracle stories and the beginning of historiography: Herodotus’ Croesus logos. Classical Philology, v. 101, n. 1, p. 34-51, 2006.
KINDT, J. Revisiting Delphi: religion and storytelling in ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
LARSON, J. Understanding Greek religion. London: Routledge, 2016.
MIKALSON, J. D. Herodotus and religion in the Persian Wars. Raleigh: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
MITCHELL, F. Monstrous omens in Herodotus’ Histories. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient Literature, p. 1-10, 2013.
MCINERNEY, J. Parnassus, Delphi, and the Thyiades. Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, v. 38, n. 3, p. 263-283, 1997.
MOREIRA, M. F. Ironia e moralidade: os presságios nos logoi dos reis persas nas Histórias de Heródoto. 2021. Dissertação (Mestrado em Letras Clássicas) – Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras Clássicas da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2021.
NICOL, D. M. The oracle of Dodona. Greece & Rome, v. 5, n. 2, p. 128-143, 1958.
PELLING, C. Herodotus and the question why. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2019.
ROBERTS, J. Herodotus: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
ROOKHUIJIZEN, J. Herodotus and the topography of Xerxes’ invasion: place and memory in Greece and Anatolia. Boston: De Gruyter, 2018.
RUTHERFORD, R. Herodotean ironies. Histos, n. 12, p. 1-48, 2018.
SEBASTIANI, B. B. Ficção e verdade em Heródoto e Tucídides. Ágora, Estudos Clássicos em Debate, n. 20, p. 53‐74, 2018.
TRIDIMAS, G. Religion without doctrine or clergy: the case of ancient Greece. Journal of Institutional Economics, n. 18, p. 677-691, 2022.
WYCHERLEY, R. Minor shrines in ancient Athens. Phoenix, v. 24, n. 4, p. 283-295, 1970.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Matheus Fernandes Moreira
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
a. The authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right to first publication.
b. The authors are authorized to assume additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g., publishing in institutional repository or as a book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are allowed and encouraged to publish and distribute their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their personal page) after the first publication by the journal, with due credit.
d. The journal's texts are licensed under a CC BY 4.0 Deed Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY).
