Looking, Seeing, and Showing in Xenophon (on R. Harman, The Politics of Viewing in Xenophon’s Historical Narratives)

t is difficult to imagine a Greek author for whom 'seeing', indeed the entire world of visual experience, is not important, and in particular the historians: one has only to think of the centrality of 'viewing', say, in Herodotus' story of Candaules, his wife, and Gyges, if not already in the proem and its reference to the 'showing forth' () of his histori, to say nothing of vital Herodotean concepts such as autopsy.Or, if one prefers, consider Thucydides in his proem and his words about the difficulty he has 'viewing' evidence from afar in time ( ).With that said, though, there does seem to be something special about Xenophon and 'viewing'.There is a noteworthy and unusual insistence on the visual throughout his work.And is it not the case that the most famous passage from his corpus is probably the sighting of the sea by the Ten Thousand (, ), remembered even by the likes of James Joyce?But of course, saying that the visual holds a special place in the writing of Xenophon is one thing and substantiating the intuition quite another.This is what Rosie Harman has attempted to do in connection with what she identifies as his three major historical works: the Hellenica, Anabasis, and Cyropaedia.I believe that she has for the most part succeeded.The Politics of Viewing in Xenophon's Historical Narratives is a thoughtful book, well written and insightful.Harman notes both in the introductory sections and throughout the book that reading Xenophon can be an unsettling experience: contradictions or inconsistencies abound.Leaders, often Persians (the two Cyruses), seem to be set up for us as readers as model leaders, and yet we see them also be deceptive and manipulative.Spartans are characterised as panhellenic champions and yet are also seen as egregiously self-interested and oppressive against other Greeks.Harman does not seek to smooth away these inconsistencies, rather, she lets them persist (more on this below).It is in connection with these discontinuities of presentation that Harman deploys her analysis of the visual in Xenophon

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