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Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing students with notions concerning the methodology of historical research, on the one hand, and specific contents on both Greek history in the 5th century BC and the historical memory of the Persian Wars, on the other.

Program

Subject: War, memory and historiography in ancient Greece. Herodotus and the Persian Wars

Contents:
The course will be divided in two parts. First, it will provide students with the most recent theoretical and methodological tools concerning the relationship between memory and history, and in particular the social, cultural, identity-related dynamics connected with the memory of war. Second, it will examine a specific case study, that of the Persian Wars, which are recounted in Herodotus’ Histories but also remembered through different means of memory in Athens and the other Greek poleis. The course will also offer the occasion to discuss on the relationship between war, memory, and identity from a comparative perspective between ancient and modern.

Prerequisites: Knowledge of ancient Greek is not required

Teaching Methods: Frontal teaching, with the chance of attending seminars.

Texts:
Herodotus, Histories, books VI-IX, in Italian translation (students must have it at the beginning of the course)
M. Bettalli, A. L. D’Agata, A. Magnetto, Storia greca, limitatamente ai capp. 12 (Grecia e Persia: la rivolta ionica e le guerre persiane [499-479]), 14 (Il secolo breve di Atene: il mondo greco tra il 478 e il 431), 15 (Atene democratica: alla ricerca di un nuovo modello di convivenza), 16 (Economia, società, cultura ad Atene e nel mondo greco nel V secolo)
M. Bettalli, Introduzione alla storiografia greca, Roma 2009, limitatamente ai capp. 1 (Storici antichi e moderni: una breve introduzione) e 4 (Erodoto)
M. Giangiulio, “Introduzione”, in M. Giangiulio (a cura di), Erodoto e il modello erodoteo. Formazione e trasmissione delle tradizioni storiche in Grecia, Trento 2005, vii-xxii
G. Proietti, “Memoria collettiva e identità etnica. Nuovi paradigmi teorico-metodologici nella ricerca storica”, in E. Franchi – G. Proietti (a cura di), Forme della memoria e dinamiche identitarie nell’antichità greco-romana, Trento 2012, 13-41
G. Proietti, “Prospettive socio-antropologiche sull’arcaismo greco: la storiografia erodotea tra tradizione orale e ‘storia intenzionale’”, in E. Franchi – G. Proietti (a cura di), Forme della memoria e dinamiche identitarie nell’antichità greco-romana, Trento 2012, 181-206
In addition, students must choose and study one of the following essays:
J. Grethlein, “The many faces of the past in archaic and classical Greece”, in K. Raaflaub (ed.), Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World, Oxford 2014, 234-255
N. Luraghi, “Local Knowledge in Herodotus’ Histories”, in N. Luraghi (ed.), The Historian’s Craft in the Age of Herodotus, 148-160

More Information
Attendance. For the students attending, the notes taken during the lessons are an integral part of the examination programme. The non-attending students are invited to get in touch with the university teacher during consulting hours in order to agree on a personalized learning programme.

Examination Methods