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Archive for June, 2012

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia in the 21st Century

Question: Outside of professional academia what is the place for Xenophon’s Cyropaedia in the 21st century culture? This fall (2012) the Center for Hellenic Studies through its Sunoikisis outreach program will be working with colleges and universities to teach an introductory Greek course with the specific goal of using Cyrus’ Paradise as a third semester […]

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The Cyropaedia and later prose fictions

Question: If Cyropaedia is a long prose fiction (a novel), what types of novel does it resemble? The literary specialists here seem to agree that Cyropaedia has no exact parallels in surviving ancient literature. There has been some discussion of what genre Xenophon, or an ancient reader, might have assigned the text too. I have […]

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Why the Cyropaedia is so dull

This will be more of a provocation than a post. But it is a provocation that will I think be of relevance for those teaching the Cyropaedia anytime soon (a luxury I, alas, will not have). In 1993, Deborah Gera opened her fine book on the Cyropaedia with a decidedly unpromising sentence:  “Considered by all […]

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Some thoughts on finance and supply in the Cyropaedia

Question: Why is Xenophon so vague about how his Persian army is supported, particularly in the early books?   Xenophon was a practical soldier whose works give us our richest view of Classical Greek land warfare. Although often euphemistic, he describes such small uglinesses as rawhide shoes freezing to their wearers’ flesh (Anabasis 4.5.14), and […]

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Some thoughts about Xenophon’s observations of Military Leadership in the Cyropaedia

The starting questions: What does Xenophon consider important leadership qualities within a military context to be? Also, why is this such an important topic to him to justify returning to and exploring in such detail even in the Cyropaedia which is not obviously framed primarily as a military treatise? I must preface this post by […]

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Wives, Subjects, Sons, and Lovers: Phthonos and Entitlement in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia

Guiding Question: What is the political and ethical significance of the emotion of phthonos (often translated as “envy”) in Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus? Abstract: In this post I explore a number of questions related to the ethical and political dimensions of phthonos, an emotion often but I believe incorrectly translated as “envy.” I argue rather […]

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Xenophon’s Unusual Character Introductions in the Cyropaedia

Question: Why does Xenophon introduce several characters without giving their names but then reveal their names, often without apparent emphasis, several chapters or even books later? The following is a list of characters who are not introduced by name but are named later.  After the list I provide a few hypotheses for why Xenophon may […]

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Source: http://cyropaedia.online/2012/06/