Narrative techniques, literary echoes and interpretation: Lysander, and Agesilaus

Abstract

In this chapter I examine Plutarch’s approach to the Lives of two prominent and famous Spartans, Lysander and Agesilaus. The two Lives, which have been widely studied individually, or in relation to their Roman pairs, can be fully understood through a close comparison. In fact, anecdotes and stories presented in them are often interrelated, and the Lives must therefore be read together.3 Besides, narrative techniques and literary devices can be better appreciated if one places them in the context of their appearance in other extant sources, as well as in other Lives by Plutarch, both Greek and Roman. In the first section I show some of the literary devices which Plutarch used in arranging his material, including ‘omission’, ‘reduction’, ‘chronological compression and dislocation’, and ‘expansion of circumstantial details’. These narrative techniques allow us to explore in depth Plutarch’s way of working on the same historical information in order to yield different results in accordance with the requirements of each Life. In the second half of the chapter, I present many literary echoes in the Lives, especially in tragedy and epic poetry.