The Greeks and Their Histories : Myth, History, and Society

by: Gehrke, H.-J.

The Greeks and Their Histories
Myth, History, and Society

Part of Classical Scholarship in Translation

Author: Hans-Joachim Gehrke, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, GermanyTranslator: Raymond Geuss, University of Cambridge

In this concise but stimulating book on history and Greek culture, Hans-Joachim Gehrke continues to refine his work on 'intentional history', which he defines as a history in the self-understanding of social groups and communities – connected to a corresponding understanding of the other – which is important, even essential, for the collective identity, social cohesion, political behaviour and the cultural orientation of such units. In a series of four chapters Gehrke illustrates how Greeks' histories were consciously employed to help shape political and social realities. In particular, he argues that poets were initially the masters of the past and that this dominance of the aesthetic in the view of the past led to an indissoluble amalgamation of myth and history and lasting tension between poetry and truth in the genre of historiography. The book reveals a more sophisticated picture of Greek historiography, its intellectual foundations, and its wider social-political contexts.

Investigates contexts and media of social remembrance and the special importance of literary and artistic presentations of myth and history, which are understood by the agents as a unit
Shows the impact of common ideas about the past on the formation of collective identities
Provides an overview of Greek historiography and its specific ways of searching for truth

Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The locus of intentional history: reference-group – producers – media
2. Greek myths as a history of the Greeks: motifs – forms – structures
3. Greek historiography between past and present
4. Greek historiography between fiction and fact
Concluding perspectives.

The Greeks and Their Histories : Myth, History, and Society

by: Gehrke, H.-J.

• ISBN-13: 9781009011150 / 978-1-009-01115-0
• ISBN-03: 1009011154 / 1-00-901115-4
• Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2025

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by: Hoffmann, G. Lezzi-Hafter, A.

• ISBN-13: 9783905083156 / 978-3-905083-15-6
• ISBN-03: 3905083159 / 3-905083-15-9
• Akanthus, Zurich, 2001

Price: 29,00 EURO

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• ISBN-13: 9783774933217 / 978-3-7749-3321-7
• ISBN-03: 3774933219 / 3-7749-3321-9
• Rudolf Habelt, Bonn, 2006

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• ISBN-13: 9789607037725 / 978-960-7037-72-5
• ISBN-03: 9607037723 / 960-7037-72-3
• Kapon Editions, Athens, 2005