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Stories told in lists: formulaic genealogies as intentional histories

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Published/Copyright: November 27, 2015
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Abstract

Scholarship has often assigned genealogy a particular, formative role in the development of Greek historiography as chronological impetus, example, or tool which organized information by generation and therefore time. This paper argues against the genealogical origins of chronology and posits that genealogical thinking was a way of connecting things, people, and places causally and aetiologically, not chronologically. Although genealogies do imply the passage of time through recounting passing generations, early Greek genealogies do not do so in ways that easily inspire chronological systems or synchronization. The incomplete, mythical, and story-telling character of early Greek genealogy point to its importance to thinking and writing about the past as a biological or kinship model. The few extant formulaic genealogical lists tell stories, in which chronological and genealogical thinking blend. Even at their most formulaic, genealogies were intentional histories providing not chronological order, but aetiological and causal connections expressed through descent.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Jack Mitchell, Shari Clarke, and the JAH’s anonymous readers for their helpful comments and insights on this paper.

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Published Online: 2015-11-27
Published in Print: 2015-12-1

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