Logographer (history)
The term Logograph (Greek λογογράφος, logographos ) was developed by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides used ( Thucydides 1, 21) so that in a derogatory intention of his predecessor designated. From the classical philologist Friedrich Creuzer this designation was introduced in the mid -19th century in science and described in the science of history a long time the earliest Greek historian Herodotus ago, considered the " father of history ".
In modern research on the problems of the term Logograph (s) should be noted that it is best not used for several reasons, the early Greek historians. For Thucydides used the term at the named position generally prose writer and closes Herodotus by no means out of this group, but there exerts strong criticism. Furthermore, it is pointed out that a more often relied on characterization, which is found in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, is inappropriate. Dionysius leads a catalog of historical writers before Thucydides (see below), but these calls just not logographers. Above all, these authors do not provide a closed group, but wrote very different works, for example through mythical, historical or cultural themes.
Hecataeus of Miletus
Hecataeus of Miletus (c. 560/550 to about 480 BC), who ( to 611 BC to about 547) was the sole successor to Anaximander of Miletus, even if he has never personally met him, is the main representative of the so-called logographers. He wrote a map of the world with in-depth description of the earth in two books (Greek Περιήγησις γῆς, Periēgesis GES).
For his Periegese Hecataeus collected travelogues and tried to evaluate them objectively. In his Periegese are provided for by regional studies descriptions: " Hecataeus asserts in his description of Europe, the Paioner soak beer from barley and [ a drink called ] Parabie from millet and Dürr root " (F 154 ), which he probably also learn from any travelogue. The Periegese was an extraordinarily rich material and literary apparently unpretentious work that shows the de-divinization of the celestial phenomena and the sober orientation of his thinking on human experiences.
His second work goes one giant step further in the direction of history. It is mostly used as genealogiai (Greek Γενεαλογίαι ), sometimes referred to as Historiai (Greek Ἱστορίαι ). His Proöm reads: " Hecataeus of Miletus announced the following: I am writing this, it seems to me to be true. Because the stories of the Greeks are many and ridiculous as they seem to me. " This is by Otto Lendle as the actual nucleus of Greek historiography. Hecataeus took the old legends and examined it. He humanized: In a myth in which occurred a three-headed Geryon, was this in Hecataeus to a normal human king. He moderated " Hecataeus writes the following: Aegyptus himself did not come to Argos, but his sons, has as Hesiod sealed, fifty, as I [ my ], not even twenty. " Here Hecataeus applied the criterion of common sense to: So many children has no man.
In the Theogony of Hesiod, he tried to bring order. Hecataeus intended to demystify all the old stories. To get this far, had to once develop the rational worldview.
Other so-called logographers
Other so-called " Logo graph " as Acusilaus from Argos, Pherecydes of Athens, Xanthos the Lydian, Antiochus of Syracuse rallied local stories and legends and were trying to achieve greater systematization of the substance. From the works of these authors, only a fraction is obtained; these are so-called fragments, which are present primarily in the form of quotations by later authors. The reason for the disappearance of so many works can be explained with the fact that they appeared to be of no interest at that time to be written off.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( de Thucydide, Chapter 5 ) is one of the most famous historian Thucydides in front. You are in the following incomplete list of those historians who usually in history, although not precise, the so-called " Logo graph " (or rather: to the earlier Greek historians ) are calculated with an asterisk (* ) marks:
- Acusilaus of Argos
- Antiochus of Syracuse
- Cadmus of Miletus *, son of Pandion, according to some ancient texts of the earliest of the logographers perhaps ahistorical
- Charon of Lampsacus *
- Damask of Sigeion
- Hecataeus of Miletus *
- Hellanicus of Lesbos *
- Hippys * and * Glaucus, both from Rhegium
- Ion of Chios
- Melesagoras * of Chalcedon
- Pherecydes of Athens *
- Stesimbrotos of Thasos
- Xanthos the Lydian