GRK 142 Lecture Notes - Lecture 28: Northern Greece, Origin Myth, Human Nature
Thucydides
• Counter part of Herodotus
• Estimated that he was born around 460 because of when he became of age (30 years old)
to be in the war
• Estimated that he died in 395 because the last event he wrote about happened in 395
• Half-Athenian – mother is from Athens and father is a rich man from Northern Greece
but he was still an Athenian citizen
• Upper class
• Had the plague but recovered from it so he is able to give a very good account of the
symptoms
• Politically conservative
o Oligarchic
o Against democracy
o Elected general of Northern Greece but was eventually exiled for doing it poorly
• Exile allowed him to travel the Greek world and become a good historian
• Methodology and prefaces
o Written in third person
o Started writing from the beginning of the war because he thought that it was going
to be the most important war ever
o Written history instead of spoken
o Discredits the validity of historians that wrote about past wars
o Prophasis and aitia
▪ Prophasis – back story to explain why the war occurs (real reasons)
▪ Aitia – obvious causes for the war (physical events)
o Suggests that the Spartans were forced into the war
o Human nature wouldn’t have allowed this war not to happen
o Analytical approach so he is considered to be more reliable than other historians
from the past
o Admits that his recounts are probably biased
• Themes in Herodotus’ work
o Supernatural forces influence human nature
o Nemesis – basically karma but may wait several generations to actually do
anything bad
o Hubris – arrogance
o History is meant to teach
o Gnomia – everything is controlled by customs
• Thucydides’ history
o Need to learn history so it doesn’t happen again
o Human nature remains constant
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