Antiquity Studies

Forgotten Scholarship: Gustav Adolf Schöll, Herodotus, and Greek Oracular Poetry

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Abstract

Schöll’s thesis that there was a network of epic narratives with legendary and oracular contents written by chresmologues and prophets can no longer be supported. We should admit, instead, that the oracular stories about the local past that Schöll most acutely detected were in most cases handed down by work of mouth. Oral tradition – or, rather, ‘semi-oral’ – must be given pre-eminence over chresmological epic. Still, Schöll had insights of the greatest importance concerning the oracular tradition in Herodotus. Today, we can realise it far better than the philologists of his times and the great scholars of Herodotus who came after him have been able to do.


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Submitted: May 17, 2021 | Accepted: June 23, 2021 | Published Dec. 16, 2021 | Language: it

Keywords Local traditions • Herodotus • Delphic verse oracles • Oracular poetry

Copyright © 2021 Maurizio Giangiulio. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-548-3/033


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