ON THE MIRROR OF TYRANTS: XENOPHON’S HIERO AND ITS CONTEXT(S)

• Main Author: IVAN JORDOVIĆ
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Faculty of Philosophy Novi Sad, Department of History 2020-11-01
• Series: Истраживања
• Subjects: The Hiero, Seven Sages, Praise and Didactic Poetry, Mirror of Tyrants, Xenophon, Simonides, Plato, Isocrates, Pindar
• Online Access: http://istrazivanja.ff.uns.ac.rs/index.php/istr/article/view/2151

This article argues that in the Hiero, Xenophon skilfully combines elements of wisdom literature, epinician poetry, the Mirror of Tyrants and logoi Sōkratikoi. In doing so, he pursues two objectives. One is to link his reflections on leadership to respected and influential traditions in order to give his views additional weight and render them interesting for a wider audience. The second objective is to respond to Plato’s challenge to the traditional way of doing politics and, more specifically, the view that it is irremediable. For these reasons, this paper attempts to reconstruct the influence of wisdom literature (hypothēkai, Seven Sages), the Mirror of Tyrants (Isocrates), epinician poetry (Simonides, Pindar) and Plato’s dialogues on the Hiero.