Xenophon’s Reading of Herodotus: Mythical Patterns and ‘National’ Stereotypes

Abstract

This study offers a discussion on the debt to Herodotus of Xenophon’s Hellenica with reference to the characterisation of Athenians and Spartans. It shows that some mythical accounts, such as the stories of the Amazons, Adrastus, the Heraclides, which developed after the Persian wars, were well-known from Herodotus onwards, both to historians and orators, and influenced the shaping of a crystallised image of the two cities: Athens appears as a magnanimous city, which helps all victims of injustice, Sparta is instead a selfish city. There is a good deal of common places about these two cities in Xenophon’s time, and some topoi were probably also shared by others.