Histories of Herodotus
A Seminar for Faculty Members
Directed by
Gregory Nagy
Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
Kenneth Scott Morrell
Associate Professor of Greek and Roman Studies, Rhodes College
July 25–31, 2016 • The Center for Hellenic Studies • Washington, DC
Histories of Herodotus
Center for Hellenic Studies • July 25–31, 2016 • www.cic.edu/AncientGreece
The seminar, designed primarily for non-specialists, addresses the challenge
of keeping alive in undergraduate education classical texts such as the Iliad,
Odyssey, Homeric Hymns, poetry of Hesiod, and Histories of Herodotus that a
generation ago were read and understood by every college graduate. Full-time
faculty members in all disciplines who might have occasion to use classical
texts in their courses may be considered for nomination.
The Histories of Herodotus, the so-called father of history, will be the focus of this seminar, which will
explore his description of the interactions between Greek-speaking peoples and other societies as a
way to articulate a more precise understanding of what it meant to be a Hellene at a time of intensified
cross-cultural interaction in the Mediterranean.
Accordingly, the seminar will be of interest to a wide variety of participants. For example,
historians can gain insights into the formation of their field and the origins of historiography;
anthropologists can trace their discipline back to the “field studies” about the Egyptians and
Scythians; those specializing in literary history and theory can view the Histories as a set of
thematically connected “tragedies” influenced in no small part by the Athenian playwrights and
other artistic contemporaries of Herodotus; political scientists can see how biography evolved as a
way of understanding and describing political organizations; and those in religious studies can trace
the rise and significance of hero cult alongside the worship of gods, as both a local and a Panhellenic
phenomenon. Although readers today tend to view the Histories as part of a textual or written
tradition, this seminar will situate the work within a tradition of public performance. The overall goal
of the seminar is to equip participants to use the Histories in a broad range of courses and to enrich the
general education programs of their institutions.
Faculty members in all disciplines who might have occasion to use the Histories in their courses
are encouraged to apply for the program. Materials for the workshop will be available in electronic
Cover images provided courtesy of Lanah Koelle and Allie Marbry of the Center for Hellenic Studies.
formats in advance of the seminar. Participants will be expected to read the Histories and share some
of their preliminary impressions with the other participants through the seminar’s website before
arriving in Washington. Participants also will be invited to participate in an inter-institutional course
on the Histories during the spring semester of 2017 and contribute to the planning for the course as
part of the seminar in Washington. In addition, successful applicants will have the opportunity to
nominate their students to participate in the center’s undergraduate summer internship program.
More information is available at http://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6197.
Gregory Nagy is Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and
professor of comparative literature at Harvard University. He has served as chair
of Harvard’s Literature Concentration, chair of the Department of the Classics,
president of the American Philological Association, and, since 2000, director of
the Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS). His publications include The Best of the
Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry, which won the APA’s
Goodwin Award of Merit; Greek Mythology and Poetics; Pindar’s Homer: The Lyric
Possession of an Epic Past; Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond; Homeric
Questions; Plato’s Rhapsody and Homer’s Music: The Poetics of the Panathenaic Festival in Classical
Athens; and Homeric Responses. Beginning in 2013, Harvard has offered his popular class, The Ancient
Greek Hero, as a massive open online course through edX.
Kenneth Scott Morrell is associate professor of Greek and Roman studies at
Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, and is currently the director of
fellowships and curricular development at the Center for Hellenic Studies. In
addition to publishing articles and teaching courses on ancient Greek and Latin
literature, he has participated in an archaeological survey in southwestern Turkey
and been active in a variety of initiatives related to the use of information
technology. Morrell was an original member of the Perseus Project and more
recently has been involved with Sunoikisis (http://wp.chs.harvard.edu/sunoikisis)
and the Collaboratory for GIS and Mediterranean Archaeology (CGMA) Project (cgma.depauw.edu).
LOCATION AND EXPENSES
The seminar will take place at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC. Housing will be
provided at the center. Lodging, some meals, books, and other expenses will be covered by CIC, CHS,
and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The only expense to participants or their institutions will be
transportation to and from Washington, DC, although CIC will provide participants a stipend of up
to $400 to help offset the cost of travel and meals.
PARTICIPANTS AND NOMINATION PROCESS
Up to 20 individuals will be selected by competitive nomination. Participants must be full-time faculty
members at CIC member institutions and can be in any discipline or department.
The chief academic officer of the nominee’s institution must nominate the faculty member
who wishes to participate. Each institution may nominate more than one individual, and faculty
members of all academic ranks are eligible to participate. The seminar is open to individuals who have
participated in previous CIC/CHS seminars, but preference will be given to first-time participants.
The nomination instructions and form are available at www.cic.edu/AncientGreece. Nominations
should be submitted online and consist of the following:
1. Nomination letter from the chief academic officer;
2. Completed nomination form;
3. Nominee’s curriculum vitae; and
4. Nominee’s statement of reasons for wishing to participate in the seminar and of anticipated
outcomes (no more than one page).
NOMINATION DEADLINE
Please submit the completed nomination online by Friday, February 5, 2016. The selection of
participants will be announced Friday, February 26, 2016.
The seminar will be held on the Center for Hellenic Studies’
campus in Washington, DC. For questions about the
seminar, contact Stephen Gibson, CIC director of programs,
at (202) 466-7230 or sgibson@cic.nche.edu.
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Council of Independent Colleges
One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 320 • Washington, DC 20036-1142
Phone: (202) 466-7230 • Fax: (202) 466-7238 • www.cic.edu
Cert no. XXX-XXX-000