Herodotus of Halicarnassus (5th century BCE) is remembered as both the father of history and the father of lies. His Histories, the earliest full-scale surviving work of history writing, are filled with tall tales, dramatic scenes, speeches and battle narratives.

The work’s nine chapters (“books”) chronicle the Greco-Persian Wars of the early fifth century, but they also document the history and customs of peoples throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond. Herodotus’ approach to history is rooted in storytelling and what today we would call anthropology, and in this group we will read his work with an eye to understanding both his historical methods and literary techniques. Each month we will discuss one book of the Histories.

The seminar will combine mini-lectures with group discussion.

This group meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month from September 2020 to May 2021, 5-7pm. Meetings will take place on Zoom until further notice.

Our essential text will be The Landmark Herodotus.

Meeting dates and reading schedule (please read materials beforehand):

Tues, September 22 | Book One

Tues, October 27 | Book Two

Tues, November 24 | Book Three

Tues, December 22 | Book Four

Tues, January 26 | Book Five

Tues, February 23 | Book Six

Tues, March 23 | Book Seven

Tues, April 27 | Book Eight

Tues, May 25 | Book Nine

Johanna Hanink is associate professor of Classics at Brown University and a scholar of classical Athenian history, literature, and culture. She is also the author of The Classical Debt: Greek Antiquity in an Era of Austerity (Harvard 2017) and Lycurgan Athens and the Making of Classical Tragedy (Cambridge 2014). Her writing on antiquity and its intersections with modern life has appeared in the Atlantic, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New York Times, and the Times Literary Supplement.