Logogrăphi
（
λογογράφοι, i. e. writers in prose). The name given to the
oldest Greek historians, who by their first attempts at disquisitions in prose marked the
transition from narrative poetry to prose history (
Thuc.i. 21). As
in the case of epic poetry, so these earliest historical writings emanated from Ionia, where
the first attempts at an exposition of philosophic reflections in prose were made at about the
same time by Pherecydes, Anaximander, and Anaximenes; and, in both cases alike, it was the
Ionic dialect that was used. This class of writing long preserved in its language the poetic
character which it inherited from its origin in the epic narrative. It was only by degrees
that it approached the tone of true prose. It confined itself absolutely to the simple telling
of its story, which was largely made up of family and local traditions. It never classified
its materials from a more elevated point of view, or scrutinized them with critical
acumen. The logographers flourished from about B.C. 550 down to the Persian Wars. Their latest
representatives extend, however, down to the time of the Peloponnesian War. When true history
arose with Herodotus, they soon lapsed into oblivion, whence they were rescued in Alexandrian
days. Many of the works ascribed to them were, however, believed to be spurious, or at least
interpolated. There remain fragments only of a few. The larger number of the historic writers
who are described as logographers were Asiatic Greeks, e. g. Cadmus of Miletus, author of a
history of the founding of Miletus and the colonization of Ionia (he lived about B.C. 540, and
was considered the first writer of historic prose); further, Dionysus of Miletus, a writer of
Persian history;
Hecataeus (q.v.) of Miletus
(550-476); Xanthus of Sardis (about 496), a writer of Lydian history;
Hellanicus (q.v.) of Lesbos (about 480-400); Charon of Lampsacus (about
456), a compiler of Persian history and annals of his native town; Pherecydes of the Carian
island Leros (died about B.C. 400), who lived at Athens, and in his great collection of myths
in ten books treated chiefly of the early days of Attica. Some belonged to the colonies in the
West—e. g. Hippys of Rhegium, at the time of the Persian War the oldest writer on
Sicily and Italy. The only representative from Greece itself is Acusilaüs of Argos in
Boeotia, the author of a genealogical work. The scanty remains of the logographers are
collected by Müller in his
Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum
(Paris, 1856). See
Historia.
