Homer and Thucydides

This article is concerned with reminiscences of Homer in Thucydides' History . The principal aim is to raise questions as to what extent Thucydides' account of the Sicilian venture is a conscious response to some Homeric journey narratives. Such questions are worth asking because Thucydides refers to the (mythical/Odyssean) Cyclopes and Laestrygonians at the beginning of his story (6.2). It will be argued that this reference is intended not solely for the sake of mythical history, but to broaden the context in which Athenian actions can be seen. As well as this direct mythical allusion there are other Homeric reminiscences, including topographical features, that help to convey the notion that the expedition to Sicily is a kind of heroic quest into the unknown that goes disastrously wrong. It is a venture of epic proportions with heroic aspirations, but one whose consequences have a grim and immediate reality. In the light of these Homeric associations, it is argued that the expedition to Sicily is to be seen both in its recent historical context (the Persians) and in its mythological (Homeric) context. The Athenians not only fail to learn the lessons of their most glorious military moments, but they also make the mistake of treading on the same disastrous path as Homer's Odysseus

Allusion · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Chariot · Context (archaeology · EPIC · Literature · Mistake · Mythology · Narrative · Novella · Political science · Sicilian · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · History · Law · Philosophy

• Introduction

  Elton Barker, Elton T E Barker•Entering the agon•2009

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• Storytelling

  Open Access•Hilary Mackie, Hilary S Mackie•2011

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• Introduction

  Elton Barker, Elton T E Barker•Entering the agon•2009

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• Introduction

  Elton Barker, Elton T E Barker•Entering the agon•2009

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• Challenging authority in the assemblies of the Iliad

  Elton Barker, Elton T E Barker•Entering the agon•2009

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• Epilogue

  Elton Barker, Elton T E Barker•Entering the agon•2009

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• Prologue

  Elton Barker, Elton T E Barker•Entering the agon•2009

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• Sidelining debate in the Odyssey

  Elton Barker, Elton T E Barker•Entering the agon•2009

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• Herodotus' Odyssean enquiry

  Elton Barker, Elton T E Barker•Entering the agon•2009

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• Muthos

  Open Access•Richard Martin•2011

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• Beyond the agon in Euripides' Hecuba

  Elton Barker, Elton T E Barker•Entering the agon•2009

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• Thucydides writes debate

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• Speaking back in Sophocles' Ajax

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• The Silk Road

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• Stasis in Ithaca? A Thucydidean Reading of the Odyssey

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• Thucydides, Pericles, and Periclean Imperialism

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• Brasidas and Thucydides

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• Odysseus and the Historians

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• Entering the Agon

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• Blood and Hunger in the Iliad

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• Thucydides’ Ignorant Athenians and the Drama of the Sicilian Expedition

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• The Unfriendly Corcyraeans

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• Thucydides’ Nicias and Homer's Agamemnon

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• Spontaneity and Tradition

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• A Commentary on Thucydides

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• Catabasis

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• Thucydides

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• A Commentary on Thucydides, Vol. 1

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• The Myth of Return in Early Greek Epic

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• Barrier and transcendence

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• A Companion to The Iliad

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• Homer and the Heroic Tradition

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• Thucydides on Pausanias and Themistocles—A Written Source

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• The erection and mutilation of the Hermai

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• The Myth of Return in Early Greek Epic

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• Catabasis

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• The Rites of Passage

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