Those Infinite, Multiform Stories without Fixity: Myth and History, a Very Long Engagement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/SMS20242706Keywords:
historiography, history, mythology, myth, logographers, mythographers, Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, annalistsAbstract
This paper deals with the problematic relationship between ancient historiography and mythology, or mythological stories as historical sources for historical research. Although Greek historiography had, in a sense, already been confronted with the problem of mythological intrusions into the substance of methodologically well-developed historical procedures (as early as the 5th century BC), Roman historiography continued for a long time to critically investigate and purify the stories of the foundation myths. This paper presents a detailed analysis of some methodologically relevant passages that reveal the attitudes of individual Greek and Roman historiographers towards myth as a (non-)source. At the same time, it questions the attitude of (early) Roman historiography towards myth by examining the philosophical treatise of the 2nd/3rd century philosopher Sextus Empiricus.
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