Herodotus, the tyranny and the political thougt of the Histories

Author(s)

Camila da Silva Condilo

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2008-04-17

Examining board members

Norberto Luiz Guarinello; Maria Beatriz Borba Florenzano; Breno Battistin Sebastiani

• Advisor: Norberto Luiz Guarinello

Abstract

Tyranny is one of the most remarkable elements of the Histories and of Histories\' historiography. Among many academic approaches which discuss this aspect concerning the narrative of this Halicarnassos author, there is a specific discussion about the possibility of a pejorative or a neutral vision of tyranny. From the middle of the twentieth century on, the new historiographical tendencies have valued marginal aspects of history, so, the herodotean studies started to be reviewed according to these changes. In the light of this current tendency, that understands the herodotean text as a textual unity, I propose a reading of this controversy through the perspective of ambiguity and tragedy. In this perspective, kings and tyrants have an important role in the narrative by composing the form through which Herodotus expresses his political thought in his work, a thought related to his concerns with the exercise of power. (AU)