Introduction: Myth and History. -From Homer to Herodotus. -The sixth century: the new world order. -The man and the work. -The downfall of greatness. -The structure of the earth. -The kingdom of culture. -The art of the storyteller. - reason, credulity, and faith. -The fifth century: wars between worlds. -Characters and characterization. -Persians and Greeks. -The great war and the great age.