The Histories of Herodotus lend themselves to many different readings. The undeniable literary quality of the work can be assessed even better through the lens of recent developments in historiography, narratology, and the study of oral tradition.

Its position in the intellectual discourse has been radically re-evaluated: the Histories are no longer considered a simplistic and 'archaic' work, but the product of the intellectual climate of their time, a work that not only bears the literary, religious, moral, and social influences of the 5th century but also actively participates in and contributes to the great controversies of the era.

The reliability of the work as a historical and ethnographic description has provoked disputes since antiquity, and it is discussed here with renewed vigor and increasingly sophisticated methods. This volume offers an updated and in-depth overview of all these contemporary trends concerning the remarkable work of Herodotus.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]