CLA160H1 Lecture Notes - Eyewitness Testimony, The Persians, Golden Fleece
Document Summary
Thursday, feb. 7/2013: the ionian revolution began systematic study of myth, cataloguing, and rational analysis. Etymology: historia means to inquire, to learny by inquiry. Thursday, feb. 7/2013: strong relation to seeing and knowing. Tyranny: not a healthy climate for historia, during a council of the persians in b7 when xerxes proposed the invasion of greece, his uncle. Artabanus warns against the venture: artabanus gives a historical account, which xerxes doesn"t like, historia is only possible in ideal conditions, greeks serving xerxes keep quiet about the portent because telling the king would ensure their death. Zoroastrianism: ancient persian religion was essentially dualistic, ahura mazda (light and wisdom, lg. Vs dark: but greek religion and mythology the characters have distinct personalities, agendas, etc. No single cosmic struggle: herodotus presents the persians as prone to brutally oversimplifying and lopsided dichotomies, persians have gradually decreasing respect for those farther and farther away.
