The devil is in the detail Over Herodotus 3.31-32

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.