[lit-ideas] Leonidas kai hoi duo hekato nonto nino
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:15:43 EST
L. J. Helm:
"In 300 Xerxes is presented as an effeminate giant. Curtius in Vol 2, page
273 writes "Xerxes, a man born in the purple, of great personal beauty and
innate dignity of demeanor.
[to be continued - probably]"
-- Do!
I find the story fascinating. You may (or I may) also recall AISKHYLUS in
the Loeb. I have the old edition, 1 volume, comprising "THE PERSIANS". Now the
drammatis personae for this tragedy are:
XERXES, 'youthful king of Persia'
GHOST OF DARIUS, his father, killed by the Greeks.
ATOSSA, the Queen Mother
---
So I think they follow the tradition of having XERXES as an effeminate AND
AMBITIOUS (in the Greek sense of 'too-ambitious', HYBRIS) man.
I'm retitling this Leonidas and the 299, because, if we follow Geary and
Herodotus, he (Leonidas) was _one_ of them (i.e. the 300), so that, to
counterattack the charge of arithmetic contradiction by R. Paul ("If you have
Leonidas
and the 300 you have 301), I'm diminishing one of the brain-washed (soldier,
milites, etc.) into the army and ascribing that number to Leonidas.
************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] Leonidas kai hoi duo hekato nonto nino
