{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/45660"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/45660","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Emissaries in the narrative of Herodotus","abstract":"Scores of messengers, heralds, and other emissaries fill the pages of Herodotus’ Histories. Nevertheless, scholarship on narrative patterns has yet to consider their importance. This thesis uses methods from linguistics and narratology to demonstrate how Herodotus uses emissaries to support themes and reveal narrative structure throughout his text. An initial typology of vocabulary provides a basic framework for the investigation which follows in four main sections. First, emissaries are shown to embody geographic and temporal connections, thereby providing cues for the audience through Herodotus’ digressive narrative. Second, Herodotus’ conception of a “typical” emissary is determined (swift and reliable), which allows subsequent deviation from “type” to be understood as indicating negative assessments of characters. Third, scenes where messages are rejected provide a novel way to examine issues of relative status and the perception of power within the frame of reciprocity. Finally, three case studies (the Scythian logos, Cyrus’ life, and preparations for the battle of Salamis) combine these modes of analysis to show how Herodotus manipulates the presentation of emissaries to direct the attention and judgment of his audience towards characters, cultural differences, and wider narrative themes.","abstract_html":"Scores of messengers, heralds, and other emissaries fill the pages of Herodotus’ Histories. Nevertheless, scholarship on narrative patterns has yet to consider their importance. This thesis uses methods from linguistics and narratology to demonstrate how Herodotus uses emissaries to support themes and reveal narrative structure throughout his text. An initial typology of vocabulary provides a basic framework for the investigation which follows in four main sections. First, emissaries are shown to embody geographic and temporal connections, thereby providing cues for the audience through Herodotus’ digressive narrative. Second, Herodotus’ conception of a “typical” emissary is determined (swift and reliable), which allows subsequent deviation from “type” to be understood as indicating negative assessments of characters. Third, scenes where messages are rejected provide a novel way to examine issues of relative status and the perception of power within the frame of reciprocity. Finally, three case studies (the Scythian logos, Cyrus’ life, and preparations for the battle of Salamis) combine these modes of analysis to show how Herodotus manipulates the presentation of emissaries to direct the attention and judgment of his audience towards characters, cultural differences, and wider narrative themes.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lanski, Alison"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Classical Philology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Sansone, David","Boedeker, Deborah","Parca, Maryline G.","Sanders, Kirk R.","Tzanetou, Angeliki"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-08-22T16:57:00Z","date_published":"2013-08-22T16:57:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:36Z","subjects":["Herodotus","Messengers","Narrative"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2013 Alison Lanski"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45660","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Sansone, David","Boedeker, Deborah","Parca, Maryline G.","Sanders, Kirk R.","Tzanetou, Angeliki"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lanski, Alison"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2013-08-22T16:57:00Z","2015-08-22T10:00:42Z","2013-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Classical Philology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Herodotus","Messengers","Narrative"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2013 Alison Lanski"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45660"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Scores of messengers, heralds, and other emissaries fill the pages of Herodotus’ Histories. Nevertheless, scholarship on narrative patterns has yet to consider their importance. This thesis uses methods from linguistics and narratology to demonstrate how Herodotus uses emissaries to support themes and reveal narrative structure throughout his text. An initial typology of vocabulary provides a basic framework for the investigation which follows in four main sections. First, emissaries are shown to embody geographic and temporal connections, thereby providing cues for the audience through Herodotus’ digressive narrative. Second, Herodotus’ conception of a “typical” emissary is determined (swift and reliable), which allows subsequent deviation from “type” to be understood as indicating negative assessments of characters. Third, scenes where messages are rejected provide a novel way to examine issues of relative status and the perception of power within the frame of reciprocity. Finally, three case studies (the Scythian logos, Cyrus’ life, and preparations for the battle of Salamis) combine these modes of analysis to show how Herodotus manipulates the presentation of emissaries to direct the attention and judgment of his audience towards characters, cultural differences, and wider narrative themes.","Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf (zulauf@illinois.edu) on 2013-07-08T14:42:09Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 2 Lanski_Alison.doc: 1000960 bytes, checksum: e4de6b83d8b4f1fd84d35eb79c29c0bb (MD5) Lanski_Alison.pdf: 877194 bytes, checksum: be4565e324ecaa6d0f9a8c96b26a912e (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-22T16:57:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Alison_Lanski.pdf: 877194 bytes, checksum: be4565e324ecaa6d0f9a8c96b26a912e (MD5) Lanski_Alison.doc: 1000960 bytes, checksum: e4de6b83d8b4f1fd84d35eb79c29c0bb (MD5) license.txt: 4063 bytes, checksum: 6056c1c812e624f8ea51f4fc4d5f9fb5 (MD5)","Item marked as restricted to the 'Administrator' Group (id=1) by Seth Robbins (srobbins@illinois.edu) on 2013-08-22T16:57:39Z Item is restricted until 2015-08-22T16:57:26Z","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:36:31-05:00 Original Data Group with Access Administrator Release Date: 2015-08-22 11:57:26 UTC Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","Limited Restriction Lifted for Item 45642 on 2015-08-22T10:00:42Z."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Emissaries in the narrative of Herodotus"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Sansone, David","Boedeker, Deborah","Parca, Maryline G.","Sanders, Kirk R.","Tzanetou, Angeliki"],"dc:creator":["Lanski, Alison"],"dc:date":["2013-08-22T16:57:00Z","2015-08-22T10:00:42Z","2013-08"],"dc:description":["Scores of messengers, heralds, and other emissaries fill the pages of Herodotus’ Histories. Nevertheless, scholarship on narrative patterns has yet to consider their importance. This thesis uses methods from linguistics and narratology to demonstrate how Herodotus uses emissaries to support themes and reveal narrative structure throughout his text. An initial typology of vocabulary provides a basic framework for the investigation which follows in four main sections. First, emissaries are shown to embody geographic and temporal connections, thereby providing cues for the audience through Herodotus’ digressive narrative. Second, Herodotus’ conception of a “typical” emissary is determined (swift and reliable), which allows subsequent deviation from “type” to be understood as indicating negative assessments of characters. Third, scenes where messages are rejected provide a novel way to examine issues of relative status and the perception of power within the frame of reciprocity. Finally, three case studies (the Scythian logos, Cyrus’ life, and preparations for the battle of Salamis) combine these modes of analysis to show how Herodotus manipulates the presentation of emissaries to direct the attention and judgment of his audience towards characters, cultural differences, and wider narrative themes.","Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf (zulauf@illinois.edu) on 2013-07-08T14:42:09Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 2 Lanski_Alison.doc: 1000960 bytes, checksum: e4de6b83d8b4f1fd84d35eb79c29c0bb (MD5) Lanski_Alison.pdf: 877194 bytes, checksum: be4565e324ecaa6d0f9a8c96b26a912e (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-22T16:57:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Alison_Lanski.pdf: 877194 bytes, checksum: be4565e324ecaa6d0f9a8c96b26a912e (MD5) Lanski_Alison.doc: 1000960 bytes, checksum: e4de6b83d8b4f1fd84d35eb79c29c0bb (MD5) license.txt: 4063 bytes, checksum: 6056c1c812e624f8ea51f4fc4d5f9fb5 (MD5)","Item marked as restricted to the 'Administrator' Group (id=1) by Seth Robbins (srobbins@illinois.edu) on 2013-08-22T16:57:39Z Item is restricted until 2015-08-22T16:57:26Z","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:36:31-05:00 Original Data Group with Access Administrator Release Date: 2015-08-22 11:57:26 UTC Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","Limited Restriction Lifted for Item 45642 on 2015-08-22T10:00:42Z."],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45660"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2013 Alison Lanski"],"dc:subject":["Herodotus","Messengers","Narrative"],"dc:title":["Emissaries in the narrative of Herodotus"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Classical Philology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:36Z"}