CLST 11.15 Herodotus and Thucydides
The course studies the two Greek writers who invented historical writing. Herodotus and Thucydides both engaged in an intricate intellectual dialogue with earlier Greek poetry and thought and with new, often radical political, religious, and scientific ideas; yet in doing so, they developed diametrically opposite modes of historical thinking. We will examine and compare their groundbreaking works in the context of Greek literary and intellectual history. Attention will also be paid to the later reception, from Plutarch through Marx.