Heroes in Herodotus: The interaction of myth and history

This study, which examines Herodotus' use of mythological heroes as historiographical data and as literary devices, establishes two important points. First, Herodotus accepted the historicity of heroes, whom he used as fixed chronological reference points in his reconstruction of the past. Second, the heroes function as symbolic elements that underscore important themes in the Histories. They thus play an essential role in Herodotus' literary technique. The dissertation collates all Herodotus' references to heroes and groups them in five categories, each discussed in a separate chapter.;The introduction reviews the scholarship on Herodotus' place in historiography, especially concerning the concept of a dividing line between the spatium mythicum and the spatium historicum. It also discusses the meaning of the word "hero." This term is used throughout the study to denote a "denizen of the Heroic Age," a period that corresponds with the end of Mycenaean civilization.;Chapter One examines citations of heroes in genealogies and foundation stories and as eponyms of cities, families, and landmarks. Chapter Two examines references to heroes in religious contexts, subdivided into those set in Egypt and outside Egypt. These two chapters identify both historiographical and symbolic functions of heroes. Chapter Three analyzes Herodotus' use of heroes as historiographical data for establishing events of the Heroic Age itself and as chronological markers by which later events of human history are fixed in a self-consistent system.;Chapter Four examines the narrative functions of three individual heroes, Cadmus, Heracles, and Perseus, who are important both as chronological markers and as symbolic referents. Cadmus is significant as the bringer of the alphabet; Heracles and Perseus serve as representatives of Greece and Persia respectively and thus contribute to the opposition between Europe and Asia that underlies the Histories.;Chapter Five discusses eight passages in which heroes are mentioned in juxtaposition with Xerxes; it argues that these heroes play an integral role in the Persian king's characterization as the quintessential Asian threat to Greece. The conclusion reviews the implications of this study for our understanding of the interaction of historical exegesis and symbolic subtext in Herodotus' Histories.