Λογογράφοι in Thucydides’ Work (I. 21. 1) And Herodotus (On a Poorly Explored Source of Early Greek Historiography)
Surikov Igor E.
Traditionally, Greek historians of the first generation are called «logographers» in scholarly literature. These «logographers» (Hecataeus, Hellanicus and others) are usually opposed to Herodotus in a number of respects. It is often believed that the term «logographer» meaning «early, pre-Herodotean historian» is of ancient origin, and that already Thucydides (I. 21. 1) used logographoi exactly in such a sense. But an attentive reading of Thucydides’ passage in its context shows that when he says logographoi, he does not mean Hecataeus & C°, but none other than his own immediate predecessor – Herodotus! Why is Herodotus a «logographer» for Thucydides? Because he wrote logoi – «narrations» or simply «orations». Here we must note that a specific genre of Greek oratory had a strong though rarely observed influence on Herodotus’ work. It was the genre of logos epitaphios, funerary oration, reasonably defined by N. Loraux as «the Athenian history of Athens». Funerary orations were saturated with historical material, very much biased. Herodotus, when in Athens, had every possibility to listen to such speeches, and he apprehended many of their features. With a bit of exaggeration we can even say that the whole of Herodotus’ «Histories» is a large cycle of laudatory orations on Greco-Persian Wars, with information given from typically Athenian point of view. As is well known, Herodotus often recited, publicly and orally, his logoi, parts of his work. So Thucydides criticizes Herodotus as a «logographer», a «writer of speeches». Thucydides himself, as the founder of a different historical method, tries to delimit his writing from that Herodotean «logographic» tradition.