Author Description

These twenty-five papers form the proceedings of a conference held at the Foundation Anastasios G Leventis in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 2002, which reflected the current revival of interest in Herodotus. As Vassos Karageorghis explains in his eloquent if brief introduction, we need Herodotus as `a social anthropologist, a philosopher/companion' to help us to reassess the Greek world `with impartial serenity, with wisdom and good humour'. These well-presented essays focus on Herodotus presentation of Greeks and barbarians across the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean and discuss how this throws light on ancient Greek attitudes to themselves, to other cultures, to religion, to politics and to war. The papers are wide-ranging and cover Herodotus' treatment of Cyprus, Amathus, Athens, the Phoenicians and Scythia, his principles and attitudes towards violence, his realisation of the sacred landscape, his rhetoric of slavery, his strategies and use of lies, and his accounts of war.