A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World) by John Marincola

Author:John Marincola
Language: eng
Format: azw
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2011-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

As Herodotus tells it, the story falling, as it does, into three distinct episodes conforms to the preference for threefold organization characteristic of oral narrative (Olrik 1992: 52). But its widespread popularity is partly to be explained by the ease with which it can be expanded or shortened; a tale’s capacity to change in length without losing its structure greatly improves its chances of retaining its appeal over many generations. Kings and tricksters are stock characters in the storyteller’s repertoire. A named monarch is much more interesting than a nameless figure, but this feature gives the tale a veneer of historicity, encouraging us to classify it as a legend. Stories of tricksters generally run counter to the trend of popular narrative to reinforce conventional ethical standards; they hold an appeal closely akin to that of the picaresque novel. Herodotus undoubtedly had a taste for such stories (see further Dorati 1993); we may wonder how far this influenced his presentation of Themistocles.

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