oa The devil is in the detail

The passage about Cambyses’ murder of his sister who is also his wife (Histories 3.32.2) is used by way of example to discuss the possibilities and problems of a narratological commentary on the Histories. Particular attention is paid to the – often neglected – question of how to deal with the tension between the linearity of the text (which means that narratees may only hear about things at a later moment) and the duty of the commentator to inform her narratees at an early point.

Although his canvas is gigantic, Herodotus is essentially a miniaturist. It is at the level of the paragraph, the sentence or even in the choice of a single word that his subtlety is most apparent.

(Flory 1987: 153)