Igor Surikov

Several years ago M.L. Gasparov demonstrated convincingly that Herodotus’ «History» as a whole was composed according to the principle of pedimental symmetry. The work was not completed by the author: in its final version it would have included the Greco-Persian wars up to their end in 449 B.C. The presence of the general compositional principle proves that Herodotus had a clear project of his work from the very beginning. He started his «History» exactly as a history of wars between Greeks and Persians and did not compile its various logoi mechanically. In any case, the great book by Herodotus is an open text structure. It has some features, which make it comparable with the epics, notwithstanding the fact that Herodotus wrote in prose. His place in the Greek intellectual revolution is in some respects «inopportune». While standing chronologically between logographers (Hecataeus and others) and Thucydides, he differs from both in his attitude towards the previous traditions, in his treating religion and myths and in his thematic breadth. For Herodotus, the «structures of daily occurrence» are a full-right subject of historical research. Since Thucydides, history turns entirely to political, military and diplomatic topics. Ironically, the «epical» Herodotus proves to be closer to the positions of twentieth-century historians.