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Thucydides’ Nicias and Homer's Agamemnon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

A. V. Zadorojnyi
A. V. Zadorojnyi
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Extract

The scholiast is clearly busy glossing a rare word. Here, as elsewhere in the scholia, Homer is cited for just that purpose. There is also an effective tendency to build judgements on a writer's style around the label ‘Oμηρικ⋯ς. Curiously, in our case the scholiast seems to have hit upon the right reading of the passage. The detail about decaying timbers in the context of Nicias' letter could not help striking educated Greek readers, who, like Thucydides himself, had Homer at their fingertips, as an echo of Agamemnon's words in Il. 2.135.1 argue that Thucydides intends the reminiscence to be perceived, and moreover, uses it to trigger off our understanding that the figure of Nicias should be read against that of the Homeric Agamemnon.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , May 1998 , pp. 298 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1998

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References

1 I translate ‘soaked’ (alternatively, ‘waterlogged’, ‘saturated’) with Thomas Hobbes, Thucydides: The Pelopomessian War, ed. D. Greene (Chicago and London, 1989), p. 449, and Jowett, B., Thucydides (oxofor, 1881), vol. 1, p. 492.Google Scholar See also K. J. Dover in HCT 4, 388;Google ScholarClassen, J. and Steup, J. (edd.), Thukydides, 4th edn (Berlin, 1908), vol. 7, p. 27: ‘nicht leek, sondern Wasser ziehend’. Cf. [Hipp.] Aer. 10; Hesych. A 960; Pollux 1.121; and Renaissance commentator Demetrios Ducas, quoted by Classen and Steup, loc. cit. ‘Rotten’ or ‘putrid’ of the scholiast is fair enough, anticipating the next stage of decay.Google Scholar

2 Scholia in Thucydidem, ed. C. Hude (Leipzig, 1927; repr. New York, 1973).Google Scholar

3 See POxy 853 VI.145, 345, VII.278, XIII.17, XIX.6 in B. P. Grenfell and Hunt, A. S. (edd.), The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. 6 (London, 1908), with the editors' comment on p. 139; cf. Quint. 5.2.14.Google Scholar

4 See Kennedy, G. A., ‘The earliest rhetorical handbooks’, AJPh 80 (1959), 169–78, esp. 169–71; id., The Art of Persuasion in Greece (London, 1963), pp. 52–4;Google ScholarCole, T., The Origins of Rhetoric in Ancient Greece (Baltimore and London, 1991), pp. 81–9.Google Scholar

5 Gorgias' Palamedes: B 11A DK = B.VII.4 Radermacher; Alcidamas' Odysseus: B.XII.16 Radermacher; Antisthenes' Ajax, Odysseus: B.XIX. 11–12 Radermacher; Hippias' Trojan Speech (Nestor's adivce to Neoptolemus): A9; A2 = B 5 DK.

6 Marrou, H. I., Histoire d'education dans I'antiquite, 6th edn (Paris 1965), pp. 302–5;Google ScholarRussell, D. A., Greek Declamation (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 11–12, 106–28. Definitions of ethopoeia:CrossRefGoogle ScholarH. Lausberg, Handbuch der literarischen Rhetorik (Munchen, 1960), I, pp. 407–10;Google ScholarJ. Martin, Antike Rhetorik: Technik und Methode (Munchen, 1974), pp. 291–2. For the related device of prosopopoeia seeGoogle ScholarR. Volkmann, Die Rhetorik der Griechen und Romer in systematischer Ubersicht, 2nd edn (Leipzig, 1885; repr. Hildesheim, 1963), pp. 312,489–90; Lausberg, pp. 411–13. Note that scholars contradict each other somewhat about what exactly these types of declamation differ in, and which of the two is subordinate to the otherethopoeia (Volkmann) or prosdpopoeia (Russell). The distinction was already not too clear to the ancient theorists (cf. Quint.9.1.45): Martin, pp. 274. In any case, the evidence of Hermogenes, Progym. 9, pp. 20–2 Rabe, is a decisive argument for classifying ‘Homeric’ declamations as ethopoeiai.Google Scholar

7 Cole (n. 4), pp. 104–11; cf. Kennedy (n. 4,1963), pp. 47–51, pace Russell (n. 6), p. 112.

8 See H. Strasburger, ‘Homer und die Geschichtschreibung’, inGoogle ScholarStrasburger, H., Studien zur alien Geschichte (New York, 1982), II, pp. 1058–97;Google ScholarWoodman, A. J., Rhetoric in Classical Historiography (London, 1988), ch. 1;Google ScholarG. Howie, ‘Thukydides’ Einstellung zur Vergangenheif, Klio 66 (1984), 502–32; S. Hornblower, Thucydides (London, 1987), passim; most recently,Google ScholarMackie, C. J., ‘Homer and Thucydides: Corcyra and Sicily’, CQ 46 (1996), 103–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 I am far from implying that these thematic overlaps undermine the historical validity of Thucydides' report; Dover, K. J., ‘Thucydides “as history” and “as literature”’, History and Theory 22 (1983), 54–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 A. W. Gomrne, HCT1, 140–1, 147–8; F. Egermann, ‘Thukydides liber die Art seiner Reden und uber seine Darstellung der Kriegsgeschehnisse’, Historia 21 (1972), 575–602;Google ScholarRokeah, D., ‘Speeches in Thucydides: factual reporting or creative writing?’, Athenaeum 60 (1982), 386–401;Google ScholarWilson, J.‘What does Thucydides claim for his speeches?’, Phoenix 36 (1982), 95–103; Hornblower (n. 8), pp. 45–72;CrossRefGoogle ScholarBadian, E., ‘Thucydides on rendering speeches’, Athenaeum 70 (1992), 187–90.Google Scholar

11 See Classen and Steup (n. 1), p. 23.

12 C. O. Zuretti, ‘La lettera di Nicia (Thuc. VII11–15)’, RFIC 50 (1922), 1–11; H. D. Westlake, ‘Nicias in Thucydides’, CQ 35 (1941), 58–65, esp. 62; id., Individuals in Thucydides (Cambridge 1968), p. 190; Dover (n. 1), p. 386.Google Scholar

13 SeeKirk, G. S., The Iliad: A Commentary, vol. 1 (Cambridge 1985), p. 131 ad be: ‘Nothing is said elsewhere about the poor condition of the ships; it is a well-observed detail which might be distracting in other contexts but is a forceful illustration here of the lapse of time with nothing accomplished.’Google Scholar

14 The events of the expedition had not yet given reasons for despair: Westlake (n. 12, 1968), p. 192; Dover (n. 1), p. 386.

15 Kirk (n. 13), pp. 153–5.

16 Cf. Nicias in 7.76 and Agamemnon in II. 4.23Iff.

17 See Lateiner, D., ‘Nicias’ inadequate encouragement (Thucydides 7.69.2), CPh 80 (1985), 205, n. 5: ‘The Homeric reminiscence underlies the obsolete quality of Nicias' effort.’Google Scholar

18 See K. W. Kriiger (ed.), 2nd edn (Berlin, 1861), II.2, p. 66: ‘Veraltetes sagen, wie es etwa in der heroischen Zeit angebracht gewesen war’; Dover (n. 1), p. 446; now also LSJ, Supplement, s.v.; Lateiner (n. 17), 204–5.Google Scholar

19 Lateiner (n. 17), 208–12, esp. 212: ‘Nicias exemplifies an archaic concept of arete that no longer applied in a world at war’; cf. Hornblower (n. 8), p. 114.

20 Note that both Greek commanders become physically disabled during the siege: Nicias through his illness (6.105.2, 7.15.1, 7.77.2) and Agamemnon through a wound (II. 11.268, 272; 16.26).

21 Westlake (n. 12,1968), pp. 192–3,210–11; Dover (n. 1), p. 462.

22 Thucydides does not criticize Nicias for yielding to Cleon in 4.28.1–3; see Westlake (n. 12, 1968), p. 88. There seems to be a touch of sympathy for Nicias' earnestness in 7.69.2, too:

23 One may wonder how accidental it is that Plutarch, a sensible reader of Thucydides (Nic. 1.1), imagines his Nicias speaking of himself with the words of Agamemnon from Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis, 449–50 (Me. 5.7). The description of Nicias' shield (Nic. 28.6) has a ‘heroic’ ring; for Agamemnon's shield see II. 11.32–7.

24 See Martin (n. 6), p.170; Volkmann (n. 6), pp. 312–13. Isocr. 6.110 is given as an example.