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Function of Wealth in Aeschylus’ Persae and Herodotus’ Historiē

Fonction de la richesse dans les Perses d’Eschyle et l’Historiē d’Hérodote

Ioannis N. Perysinakis

Abstract

My present contribution investigates and compares the function of wealth both in the Persae and Historiē. It also examines the relation of Historiē with tragedy as a literary genre. Herodotus interprets historical events in terms of philosophy of tragedy. Historiē is a development of mythology, i.e. an invention of new tragic myths. Wealth is a tragic motif. People in power with wealth pursue more power and wealth: the pursuit eventually results in war or disaster; this constitutes a reversal (περιπέτεια), a change of the action to its opposite. A person of good reputation and good fortune, or distinguished men from great families (rulers, kings and tyrants), undergoes a change to misfortune because of some error: this constitutes the best kind of tragedy in Aristotle’s Poetics. The process of this change is described in the mesode of the Persae and in the ‘council of the best’ in the Historiē, which is an application ‘on stage’ of the mesode.

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Excerpt

Literary Introduction

My present contribution investigates and compares the function of wealth both in the Persae and Historiē. It also examines the relation of Historiē with tragedy as a literary genre.1 Herodotus interprets historical events in terms of philosophy of tragedy. Historiē is a development of mythology, i.e. an invention of new tragic myths. Wealth is a tragic motif. People with power and wealth pursue further power and wealth: this pursuit results eventually in war or disaster constituting a reversal (περιπέτεια), that is, a change of the action to its opposite. A person of good reputation and good fortune or distinguished men from great families (rulers, kings and tyrants), involves a change to misfortune because of some error (hamartia): this constitutes the best kind of tragedy (Arist. Poet. 1453a 7-17; 1452a22-3). The process of this change is described in the mesode of the Persae and in the ‘council of the best’ in the Historiē, an application ‘on stage’ of the me...

Author

University of Ioannina

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