At a time when the social authority of the poets was being contested in the revolutionary medium of prose, it is remarkable that in the opening chapters of the Histories Herodotus asserts his commitment to the commemorative function of the poetic tradition, and his affiliation with the Homeric epics; that in the Lydian logos to follow, he chooses the poet Solon to articulate human and divine causes of the fundamental principle of Herodotean historiography, the transience of human prosperity; and that he elaborates the programmatic story of Croesus’ rise and fall with elements drawn from Homeric, lyric, and tragic poetry. In this way Herodotus establishes from the outset the hybrid nature of his work, in which he uses the artistic resources of the poets to channel and challenge their authority, and to engage the emotions and intellect of a broad Hellenic audience steeped in the traditions of poetic performance.