THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF

THUCYDIDES
Editedby
RYAN K. BALOT SARA FOR.SDYKE,
and
EDITH FOSTER

OXÌ'ORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
and Narratives
Bowie, 115-28. Leiden
CHAPTER 15
35' Historical Method."
4.. Tsakmakis, 225*49.

Kinesis: Essaysfor
edited byC. Clar([.
HUCYDIDES AND MYTH
n Prozess.Munich:
A Complex Relation to Past and Present
oks Six and Seven
d by /. S. Rusren,
'eeches ín Thucydides.
:er, 6 o -7 7. Chapel ROSARIA VIGNOLO MUNSON
Hillr

J5 n.s.:53-67.
)ambridge University

no-fiction contract with his readers is the strictest among prose writers
times (cf. Morgan zon,559). He intends his history to be a "possession for
who want to know the past and deliberate about the future. But in order
ofworld events to be useful, it needs to be vetted for accuracy (fo s aphes) and
the muthodes-that is to sa¡ the mythical and fabulistic in a broad sense
l Thucydides will narrate a war that occurred during his own lifetime, for the

research of which he can count on himself as a participant and on the inter-

ofothers who witnessed both events and speeches (t.zzrz).
however, paves the way for his statement of this methodological pro-
a survey starting from a remote past, accessible through poetic traditions
the most disheartening repository of whatever is distorted, unverified,
magnified, embroidered, or merely entertaining-in a word, muthodes
reasons for undertaking this survey is no doubt to demonstrate that it can-
in a satisfactory way (r.r3; zo.r; zr.r) and to discredit previous attempts. But
manner in which Thucydides attaches the excursus to his initial statement of
gives a better clue: he needs to de-provin cialize his war. The conflict between
and the Peloponnesians was the greatest in histor¡ he announces (r.r).
should be taken seriously, in spite of the fact that people always claim that the
personally experienced was greatest, at least until they forget, at which point
to the celebration of past deeds þ.zr.z). Thucydides' 'Archaeology"-as
call it2-intends to demonstrate that in fact things were smaller in
rude and brutish beginnings, societies grow to be more prosperous and

(tgs6,
6sg\t-s6);
 258 ROSARTA VTGNOLO MUNSON

complicated. Their greater resources and power also produce greater wars,
and
cally the latest and greatest is the one Thucydides is about to describe.
But the argument is not as superûcial as all that. Thucydides, main rivals
Homer and Herodotus, the poet who immortalized the most paradigmatic
in the imaginary of the Greeks, and the researcher whose narrative of the
ranged over an unparalleled extension of time and space. Thucydides
both by inserting his own subject matter into a comparably broad heroic
historical context. His attempt does not completely succeed-references to
descriptions of ethnographic particulars tend to remain rather local, just
as
at r.z that the Peloponnesian War affected "most men both Greek
somewhat unconvincing. But as he tries, he is also teaching the admirers
of
predecessors a lesson on how to deal with legendary material, if one must.
In
tion of the Archaeology, therefore, the remote past is the object not of
argumentation, marked by the vocabulary of hearsa¡ opinion, and proof
z4z).Here are just the first two examples in this passage of the type
Thucydides usually avoids in his subsequent account of the war:

It is evident (goiverar) that in ancient times the lancl that is now called Hellas
inhabited by settled populations. (r.z.r)
Not least also the following demonstrates to me (6r¡l,oi ðé
¡-tor) the weakness of
ancients. . . .(r.¡.r)

In tracing the evolution of the Greek world during the heroic age,
the poetic tradition and combines it with material (or'ãrchaeological")
reasoning. He seems deliberately to avoid descríbing his own activity by means
cal Herodotean terms such as ôrcor1 ("hearsay") öyrç ("eyewitness"), and yvo¡ni
ioni' "interpretation"), not to mention loropir¡ ("research'), yet his form of
here exceptionally close to the one Herodotus favors throughout his work At
time, and in spite of avowals of uncertainty about the possibility of accuracy
sphere, Thucydides posits a much greater continuity between the heroic age
torical times than Herodotus does (Luraghi zooo, 234; Munson zon,97).This
is partly a consequence of Thucydides' general disregard of transcendence
the divine apparatus of epic sagas, which he of course eliminates); but it also
an extension of the basic principle that at any time or any place human nature
the same þ.22.$. The idea that human beings have always responded to their
ment with economic and political motives similar to those of his
of gain, prestige, and fear being permanent causes of action (see t.l6.z;t.4.6)
Thucydides to derive by analogy a plausible (eircóç) reconstruction of the past by
preting whatever evidence is available through his knowledge of the forces that
the present.
The method is circular because the reconstruction of the remote past
designed to anticipate the historical patterns operative in the narrative
on the basis of some unspecified arori (r.4.r), the reign of the mythical Minos
 THUCYDIDES AND MYTH 259

;î;:ffiålî:wars,and is likely" (tbç eircóç) fought piracy to protect his revenues, is reshaped on the
the Athenian thalassocracY;3 but at the same time Minos is also presented as
historical Precedent of how power is inherently connected with ships and
the stronger will submit to the weaker, and how the resulting arrangement,
ie narrative of the
ce. Thucydides
will serve the economic interests of both ruler and ruled (r.8.2-4).
rably broad heroic is a somewhat less successful paradigm of naval empire (Zali zo:r, zz-
have enjoyed the command of the sea to be able to lead the first common
ed- references to (reconstruction of the p as t; t 3.r and 4; t. g.r-
rather local, just 4),but the Trojan War also l

,oth Greek
as demonstrates (r.rr-rz.r) how hegemonic powers can overextend themselves l
and non_
:hing the admirers revert to chaos and ruin (foreshadowing ofthe future) I
I

one of Thucydides'aims in the Archaeology is evidently to introduce themes

:erial, if one must. I

object not of recurin the rest ofthe work, one has to wonder why Thucydi des' speakers hardly
i
theheroic age to bear either in order to prove generalizations about the work_
Lion, andproof
or for the purpose of supporting specific claims. Thucydides reports
the type of that
of Scione say that their city was originally settled by Achaeans stranded ì

)war:
way back from Troy (4.rzo.r), and that the Corcyreans boast oftheir connec-
the Homeric Phaeacians-no doubt for the purpose of devaluing the
¡ nowcalled Hellas role of
was motherland, Corinth (r .25.4; Hornblower 1996, 63). He shows the politi-
i ¡rot) the weakness ofthis type ofpopular mythmaking when he cites a case that originatedin
of the i!
and easily documentable past after the death of Brasidas, Amphipolis l
declared I
;
general as its oikist, obliterating all monuments of ,i

the Athenian Hagnon

reroic founded the city (5.rr.u cf. 4.roz3). But these are exceptions:
age, Thucydides' ì

eological',) do not contain explicit references to the heroic age.a In Herodotus,

where l
a.

n activitybymeans is the case (see Hdt. L.r-5, 5.94,7.L5o;7.r5g;7. t6r3; g.tt6; '1
Grethlein zoro,
itness"), and Zali zo:r,5-8), an especially allusive episode concerns a quarrel :

that broke out .

yet his form Tegeans and Athenians over the honor of occupying )
a privileged position in the J

i
hout his work. At armythat is about to confront the Persians at plataea (H dt.
9.25-26) .In their l
ofwords, which in the economy of Herodotus'text
sibility of accuracy foreshadows the hegemonic 1

among the Greeks that will flare up more destructively after the persian Wars,
:n the heroic age l
sides enumerate their respective benefactions
on zotz, r97). This to Greece through the ages (cf.
2ool, 2rg-2o). The Tegeans recall that it
transcendence ( was one of their gwn who challenged
in a duel Hyllus the son of Heracles, there by delaying the ,i
Ltes);
but it also return ofthe t
to the Peloponnese for one hundred years (Hdt. I
ce human nature 9.2). TheAthenians, before
ponded to their their historical victory at Marathon, boast ofhow 1
.J
they provided refuge to .1
.1

Heraclids, buried the dead in the war of the

Seven against Thebes, defeated the :1

who invaded Attica, and distinguished themselves ¡

ee t76.2; t.4.6) in the expedition to Troy :l
J
,ì

:tion of the pastby t

: ofthe forces that '1

I
I
remote past is in I
.l
narrative present. ;
1

rythical Minos of
I
l

l
i

:l::

,.
 260 RoSARIA vIGNoLo MUNSoN

(Hdt. g.z6).It is hard to know whether ancient Greek negotiators ever really
these terms when they needed to get things done, but in the sphere of epideictic
ric, at least, the Athenian catalogue ofdeeds starting from the heroic age
model reflected by highly conventional fourth-century funeral orations such as
of Lysias and Demosthenes, or the imitation of the genre in Plato's Menexenus
t986, 6o-76;Grethlein zoto, ro5*25).
In Thucydides, by contrast, Pericles' Funeral Oration omits the catalogue of
deeds altogether, but begins with a preamble that makes clear that his
not entirely follow the usual format (z.ZS-26.2). Pericles' brief allusion to the
myth of autochthony, another usual theme of funeral orations, resembles the
the narrator's own voice in the Archaeologyto the extent that it takes all the
it.5 Pericles privileges contemporary accomplishments: today's Athenians "do not
the praise of Homer or of anyone else who will give momentary pleasure wittr
but whose interpretation of facts will be destroyed by truth' (oúôèv npooôeó¡revor
O¡ir¡pou ènatvérou otíte öolç ëneor ¡.rèv tò qúrlrq répryer, ¡róv ô' ðpyov rÌ¡v
f¡ åÀl¡0eLc pÀoyer, 2.41.4). Similarly, the Athenian envoys at Sparta justify their
empire on the basis of their accomplishments in the Persian War and the
that followed, but they decline to rehearse ancient events, evidence for which
from hearsay of words rather than from the listeners' eyewitness (naÀorù . .
¡rdÀÀov Àóyov ¡roprupeç ti ö,{r,C rriv ô.rcouoo¡rë:van, t73l). The Athenians at
Euphemus at Camarina both suggest in different ways that the mention of past
is a common practice but that, under the circumstances, it would be out of place
6.83.2;ZaIi zott, r9). Thucydides, in other words, consistently draws attention to
that he will neither let his speakers borrow his own pragmatic reconstruction nor
them to include the heroic past in their arguments in the traditional way.
The frequent use of the device of praeteritio by Thucydides' speakers throws
higher relief the polemical nature of Thucydides' own confrontation with stories
"have won their way into the mythical" (ènì rò
¡ruOÕôeç ércvevLrcqrcóta, r,zr.r).In
first ten chapters of the Archaeology $.2-n) we find about twenty negations
to recti$r erroneous ideas about the heroic age.6 Hypothetical sentences (e.g., r.ro.z;
have a similar function. Homer-for the likes of whom fifth-century Athens has no

5 See Pelling (zoo9, especially 476-78).Pericles simply says that "the same peopie have alwap
occupied this land, and each generation has kept it free until this day through their excellence"
Thucydides in the Archaeology refers to autochthony only as the resùlt ofa disadvantage: Attica was
always inhabited by Athenians because the infertility ofthe land did not encourage settlers frorn
abroad (r.2.4). But there was a
Athenians being "sons oftheir
Greeks. See especiallyLoraux (r986, r48 -5o, t 93, 277-78).
6 See also 2.29.3, designed to deny the notion that Teres (father of Sitalces, who was king of
Odrysian Thracians in 43r acn) was a descendant ofthe brutal m¡hical Thracian king Tereus
ma¡ried the Athenian princess Procne and defiled her sister Philomela: Aeschyl:u's, Suppliants
Ovtd., Metamorphoses.6.4z4-84). Hornblower (r99r, 287) suggests that Thucydides is here
Hellanicus, but a connection between Teres and Tereus may have been made more generally
Athenian public at the time of Athenian involvement with the Odrysian ruling family.

otiators ever
re sphere of epideictic
the heroic
neral orations such
as
I Plato's fuIenexenus
rmits the catalogue
sf
:lear that
ief allusion to the
rs, resembles the
rt it takes all the
ry's Athenians 'do
not
ntary pleasure with
(oúôèv 7rpoo6€ó¡r€vor
:<öv ô'ëpy<ov rÌ¡v
Sparta justi$r their
War and the
evidence for which
ness (nqÀqLà. .. óv
he Athenians at Melos
the mention of past
'ould be out of place
draws attention to the
: reconstruction nor
tionalway.
Jes'speakers throws
ontation with stories
revrrcqxótc, t.zt.l.In
venty negations
;entences (e.g., t,to.z;
entury Athens has no
re people have always
3h their excellence"
disadvantage: Attica wæ
:ourage settlers from
rtheus/Erychthonius
Y over other groups of
i, who was king of the
acian king Tereus (who
hylus, Supp I i an t s 6 o - 68;
:ydides is here corrccting
:more generallyby the
ngfamil¡r
THUCYDIDESANDMYTH z6T
nevertheless indispensable for the Trojan War (r.ro.3), on whose occurrence
no Greek author ever cast any doubt. Homer has value especially as an "involun-
aswhen he unwittingly shows that the Greeks used to have no common
or that there was a time when piracy used to be an acceptable activity (r.5.2;
Lg56, 246). Yet, being a performer and a poet, he may be ranked among those
7
integrify or Practical sense.
opinion (¡rot ôoreî), for example, Agamemnon gathered the arma-
the Trojan Wat "not so much (oú rooourov) because Helen's suitors were
by oaths to her father Tlmdareus, but because he (Agamemnon) was superior
(r.9.r). It is interesting to note that Thucydides, unlike Herodotus and many
among his own contemporaries, neither disputes nor discusses the role of Helen
of the war. (could he have believed that a woman's abduction was the "truest
for the first Panhellenic expedition in history?8) He does not, either, entirely
,the importance of the suitors' oath.e But his "not so much x but y'' form of dis-
minimizes the idealistic motive in favor of a more pragmatic, and less heroic,
corroborate his point, Thucydides valorizes a non-Homeric tradition, defined as
those Peloponnesians say who have received in memory from their ancestors the
reliable information' (Àéyouor ôè raì ol rù oogéotorc lleÀonovvrloitov ¡rvr,¡¡r¡
tdrv npótepov ôeôey¡révo t, t.9.2). Here the cautionary force of ì,éyouor is blunted
relative credibility (oagéç, which is the opposite of the muthodes, t.zz.4) of the
genealogical (and therefore romance-free) account of how the pelopids wrested
the Perseids the dominion over the Peloponnese and adjacent islands. But the
of what Thucydides is ready to trust is limited,r0 and any further inference
is just that, an inference: it is because Agamemnon inherited his power that,
my opinion' (¡ror ôorceî, at r.9.3), he was able to make the expedition, "rely-
rof on good will as much as on fear" (oú
Xcpttr zò ¡À¿ov i qóÊq,, r.9.3). This par-
dem¡hologized version based on negation better fits the causal model by which
interprets history throughout his work power, and especially naval power,
basis of all great enterprises, from Minos of Crete (r.8) to fifth -centuryAthens,
and
that power inspires is a fundamental motive for action.
t.zr.r. Herodotus more forgivinglyattributes
Homer's inaccuracies to the special requirements of
epic genre (z.ir6)
women in Thucydides, see Hornblower's amusing note at r.6.3,
the passage where Thucydides
Greek change ofdress: "This is a rare excursus into'social history'. Hdt. (V SS)
had described
in the dress ofAtheniân women (from'Doric' to 'Ionic') . . . Th.
on the other hand seems
concerned only with
men, that is from'Ionic'to'Doric' (. . .). Thucydides is not necessarily
since they are concerned with diferent sexes; but it is characteristic of Hdt. that
this issue
shows interest in women and characteristic ofThucydides that he does not, even in a
in other respects ranges widely for him ' (Hornblower 19 9t, z5-26). Thucydides' general
the historical role of ryomen, of course, greatly narrows the available mythical repertoire.
grateful to
Edith Foster for this insight.
Onthe significance
ofoaths in Thucydides, see Lateiner (zoo)
note r4.
 262 ROSARIA VIGNOLO MUNSON

Thucydides' negations ancl his speakers' exclusions of heroic âf€

¡1âterier +r^
their listeners would have shared gá hand in hand wirh his op"r, .,iir.ru.;;i."_i ,ll (a
beließ. one of the most conspicuous features of the History isits insistence
liability of ordinary people, Both narrator and speakers maintain ,"u.rut
* ,*1lT* rh

,i-.ì"ri""i*' gt
Athenians"-that is to say, the sovereig' assembry-are prone ," al
decisions,
-"Linn i¡¡r,l,^ll' tl
change their minds overnight, or commit serious errors of poli.",i"iijjin
disastrous results or, if not, it is onry because of sheer ruck (see
.rp".iuiry r.årtäi::: î
of popular instability is the result of the ebb and flow of collective (i
lic anger, private grief' fear exaltation, pity or, in general, passion
emo,tå", iln;i:ìi'
(ôpyi),ttb-ii;Íi:. s(

an i'tellectual aspect: people tend to hold mistaken ideas both o

about (nr"* l;;i::
away places and about the (rnore or less remote) past. in the ".
chapters of the Arch"."'"]-
rl
that detail his painstalcing method of research, Thucyclides obi".r,.,
,r-¡" "-",,ì1."7
1¡

from one another traditions (cu<ocç) ofpast events, even traditions tr

that
their ow'country, without putting them to the test of fire (åp<rvíotcoç),, (r.ro.rl. g"ro
; i* ij n

relatively recent episodes of Greek history become clistorted, including, e

things, the role of Athens' so-called tyrannicides, who dicl not actually "-"ná *1,*i
hiir th. tyiuni a,
I
most people think, but his you.ger brother t
e'o.z).I' Book 6, Thucydide.
aily chooses to expand on the misconceptions concerning this particuiar "ri.ptián-
event, ,orlor-
ing that Harmodius and Aristogiton clicl not iiberate Athens
fråm an already oppresslie
regime, but macle the tyranny harsher and did not clo what
they did for ideoùgical or
political reasons, but on account of an amorous incicient (eptotucrlv
o.uvtuxlcv, 6.54.r),
He does so for a special reason: the resilience ofthe tyranny
after the action ofthe tyran-
nicides was discussed as an alarming prececlent in the streets of
Athens at the time of
the mutilation of the Herms on the eve of the expedition to
Sicil¡ that is to sa¡ in the
"present" of Thucydides' narrative. This
was one case when the incorrect memory of the
demos (nro'ta¡.revoq . . . cu<o¡, 6.13.¡; prLrvno'xó¡revoç óoo
arco¡ Í¡nlo.rcro, 6,6o.r) actu-
ally aflêcted political action. The Athenians' misunderstancling
of history (an intellec-
tual shortcoming) came together with their emotional fragiliiy ("passion':
see aûrrirv
òpyt(o¡révtov, 6.6o.2),leacling them to exaggerate the import
of a distracting affair in
the present and, as a result, to hanclicap an enterprise (already
ill planned) in the immi-
nent future'12 Here and throughout his work the aim of Thucfdides'
corrections is not to
improve the knowiedge of a broad ancl diverse auclience of feilow
Greeks (which is argu-
ably what Herodotus is tryi'g to do). He rather speaks about
the*oru.ì (tò nÀrlOod,
not to them. He represents their ignorance to a restricted readership
that he hopes will
benefit from lvhat the past can teach.
But there are chinks in the armor of Thucydides'criticism
of popular or poetic my1h,
both at the intellectual and at the emotional levels. afte. r"proaching
the Atheniairs

' öpyt denoies the public's momentary anger, e.g., at 1.14o.1, 2.11.4,2.6c,.r.
" On the muitiple thematic connections tretween Thucydicles' Harmodius
antl Aristogito nrefercnces
and tlreir zurrounding narrative, see Hornblorv er (zoo8,
43-53) and Meyer (zåågi, øth e*tensive
bibliographies. see aÌso Rawlings (r98r, iro-1, zsz-s8).The documentar/."ìa.r..
r", the popular
perception ofthe tyrannicicles has been discussed rnost recentry by Ferrario (zor4,
rg*25).

i
rit

t actually kiil the tyrant,
as
6, Thucydides exception_
; particular event, specify_
rom an already oppressive
hey did for ideologicalor
v ouvru¡íav, 6.5
u'rrrc̡
+.t),
er the action ofthe tyran_
; of Arhens at
the tiåe of
icil¡ that is to sa¡ in the
lncorrect memoryofthe
i r'¡nío'raro, 6.6o.r) actu_
g of history (an intellec_
ty ('þassion,,: see qúrrõv
of a distracting affair in
ll planned) in the immi-
des'corrections is not to
vGreeks (which is argu-
he masses (iO nÀ40o"c),
rshþ that he hopes will
ropular or poetic myth,
raching the Athenians
tnd Aristogiton references
)oB), w.ith extensive
ence for the popular
>r4, 18-25).
THUCYDIDESAND MYTH 263
¡s¡makingthe expedition to Sicily "most of them being inexperienced about its size or
of its populations, both Greek and non-Greek' (o.r.r), he inserts an ethno-
the number
graphical survey
in which he reports without irony the poeúic traditions that Cyclopes
ÁndLaestrygones.are the mlthical ancestors of the earliest native inhabitants (ø.2.r); in
thesamesection, he is also not reluctant to derive the Elymians of Eryx and Egesta from
tojanrefugees (o.z'3).13 Mostl¡ however, Thucydides'occasional deference tã tradition
Qf we
can call it that) has to do with empathy. Thucydides'war is ,þreat,, for many
rea-
sons, inciuding the unprecedented resources it mobilized, but also,iotabl¡ on account
of the great pathëmøta that accompanied it þ.4.t1).I have argued elsewhere that in
the face of the tremendous sufferings so suddenly and inexplicably brought about by the
war and the piague, Thucydides' resistance to widespread mythical thinking in respãnse
to oracles and signs gives way to a humbler approach (cf. Munson zor5). In the aìea of
mythical nørrøtives,let us consider especially the following passage, where Thucydides
explains the acute feeling of separation and loss experienced by the Athenians when
they had to move from their farms and seek protection in the city in the imminence
of
the first Peloponnesian invasion of Attica (24.2-15):
it was painful for them to move, because they had always been used to live in the
country. From the most ancient times (anò toü núvu ap¡aíou) this
was true of the
Athenians more than any other people. For under cecrops ancl the
early kings until
Theseus, Attica had always been inhabited in separate towns,
each with iis own
t-ow1 hall and magistrates; when there was no dangea they
did not go to the king
for deliberations but governed themselves and took courrr.l o., their
own, some of
them even made war against the king, as the Ereusinians with
Eumorpus against
Erechtheus. But when the kingship passed on to Theseus,
who was both inter-
ligent and powerful, he reordered thá region by eriminating,
among other things,
the counsel chambers and ofices of the vJ¡ious towns.
Consóhdating them into the
city we have now, with a single councir house and town hall, ..ìynoecized,,
he alr
the citizens. And although they each administered
their property as before, Theseus
compelled them to have only one polis, which becam.
gì.ui, once all were counted
as its citizens; as such. it was bequeathed by
Theseus to"posterity (¡rr( nóÀer toúr¡
xpt1o0aL, fi onavtcov rjôq {uvreÀoúvrov Èç au'1v
¡reycÀr1 yuuo¡riu.¡ ncpeòóOq ûnð
@r1oécoq toiç ðnerta).
goes on to recall that a city festival celebrated "even to this
,Thucyclides day" (ðrt
rcaÌ
viv) testifies to the synoecism as a landmark event in
Athenian history; he provides
evidence (rerc¡ulprov)
that previously Athens had been a more compact urban center,
somewhat.secondary to
the inhabitants of greater Attica, by noting the current location
oI the ciry's most
ancient sanctuaries (iepà cpxaÌa) and tle ,prlig from which, since
ancient ûmes,
it is believed (ërr anò toÕ åpxcÍou . .. vo¡rí(erar¡, ihe Athenians
draw
water before
weddings and other rituals fr.ts.z-Ð.His method here is similar to his use
of Hom^eric references in Thucydides' sicirian (and corcyrean)
*,lr?:]nr:Jrster
"^crrue (1996). on other
narratives, see
references to myths of ancient descent, see Fragoulåki
þo4,5).
-1
 264 RosARrA vrcNoLo MUNSoN

of visible signs of material culture in support of limited points

in the
the Theseus tradition in the passage quoted from zt4.z-r5)-this
he reports
tinctly different way than he does the akoøi about his two other paradigmatic
figures, Minos and Agamemnon. ls Here we find no
cautionary markers,
claimers, discussion ofproofs, or indication that "ancient
events are impossible to
tain on account of the lapse of time" (rù ötr ncÀaí repc oagróç
pèv eùpeïv ôrà
rÀr10oç dôúvarc, r.r.3). The reason is that the importance
of this story has not
to do with historical truth as with the way in which it reflects
the Athenians'
emotions and the meaning Thucydides attributes to their
displacement in 43r.
The somewhat fabulistic introduction of Theseus as a
wise and powerful
(yevó¡revoç ¡retù toû {uveroú roì ôuvoróç) who
put Athens on its way to greatness
connects the heroic age to the more recent past and to
the present ofthe
recalling Thucydides' praise of Themistocles and his political
successor pericles.
evacuation of Attica at the time of the second persian
War, which Thucydides
precisely in this narrative (2.t6.1, had been promoted
by Themistocles. Now, ¿t
beginning ofthe Peloponnesian War, the Athenians were physically
moving again,
bled and depressed for having to abandon their property and
their old way of life in
country demes (z.16.r-z). Somewhat like Themistocles and
Pericles, Theseus had
(f¡vcyrccoe, z.t5.z) the Athenians to leave behind
a part of themselves. He acted
public inclination but for the public good, so as to bequeath
to posterity a united city
proceeded to become great (prq nóÀer . . . Íi ôndvrov
. .. ¡reycÀq yevo¡rév4
The memory of Theseus would not indeed have been
out ofplace in pericles'
Oration, but Thucydides reserves it for himself as a metaphor
for the tension
consequential leadership and popular sentiment in
a narratiye of suffering, in
"greatness" is a profoundly ambivalent goal. This represents, perhaps, his
most
surrender to to muthodes.

RnpnnsNcEs

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1+
For example, at r.8.r where the ancient Carian tombs found
at Delos can only serve as
Carians originally lived there, and not for the more imPortant
point that Minos expelled Carian pirates
from the islands.
'5 Thucydides (like Herodotus) establishes no connection between Theseus and
Minos. See note 3,
end.

. '6 Thucydides praises Themistocles for his innate lrlveorç and ôúvc¡lç (r.r3s.3) and he calls pericles
Àéyew rcÌ npúooe' ðuvqrórqtoç (r.r3e.a), adding that
the city.b"d;;;;;r.rr *ã*liJ.ï¿.rr¡,p"
(ðyéver.o Èn'èxetvou
¡reylotr¡, r.ó5.5). {úveoq is imilicitlyattributed ro pe;c]es i,, ¡"ifo"r."ã.,
*¿'
especially at r.r4o.r (in pericres' own speech) and 2.3a.6.'see Gomme (1956,
49); Ho.nuto*., Gqqr,
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