How not to Appease Athena
A Reconsideration of Xerxes' Purported Visit to the Troad (Hdt. 7.42–43)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9314556 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jan Zacharias van Rookhuijzen (Nijmegen Netherlands) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 464-484 |
| Publication date | 2018-02-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Klio (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0075-6334 • E-ISSN: 2192-7669 |
| Publisher | De Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/klio-2017-0033 |
| OpenAlex | W2970491074 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 26 |
This article investigates the topography in Herodotus' account of Xerxes' visit to the Troad in 480 BC, which consists of Mount Ida, the Scamander river, the temple of Athena Ilias at Troy and the tumuli in the surrounding landscape. It suggests that this episode, rather than taking us back to historical events of 480 BC, may (partly) be a product of Greek imagination in the ca. fifty years between Xerxes' invasion of Greece and the publication of the „Histories“, with the landscape of the Troad functioning as a catalyst. To this end, the article traces the Iliadic associations of these places, exposes several topographical problems, and explains how the stories frame Xerxes' visit as hubristic. While the article is not concerned with the historicity of the episode per se , it suggests that this historicity cannot automatically be accepted, as has hitherto generally been done
Ancient history · Archaeology · Historicity (philosophy · Political science · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law
Xerxes’ Homer
The expedition of Xerxes
Mythology and the Expedition of Xerxes
Herodotus and the ‘Myth’ of the Trojan War
Finding the Walls of Troy
Celebrating Homer's Landscapes
A Comment on Positive Theory
The Dating of Shenstone’s Letters
Inscribed Bullae From Daskyleion-Ergii
Troy and the Historical Imagination
How Not to Do History
The Greco-Persian Wars
A History of Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrianism under the Achaemenians
Traditions of the Magi
Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus
Notes on the Troad
The Military Geography of the Troad
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |