Xenophon's big adventure!

Hasan Ali Yücel klasiklerinin göz bebeği!

Persler arası mücadelede Kyros'un tarafını seçen Yunan birliklerinin ve Sokrates'in öğrencisi Xenophon'un mücadele sonrası yurtlarına dönme mücadelesinin enfes anlatısı...

Döneme dair öğretici detaylar içeriyor. Özellikle dönüş yolunda ilerlerken geçtikleri yerlerin halklariyla olan ilişkileri, anlaşma ritüelleri nefisti.

The most fascinating part is the religiosity of Xenophon and his men. A dead religion ruled every moment, every action of every day for these men. No decision performed and no mission embarked was upon without consulting the entrails or awaiting divine signage. Better than Dawkins or Hitchens as an indictment of religion.

Aside from that, the first person (though years later) account is a fascinating look at the day-to-days and politics of the period.

Okay, so Xenophon's Persian expedition is an entertaining read. You're basically riding shotgun alongside one of the founding endeavours, the wellspring if you will of western supremacist thinking. "Look at us, quarrelsome but for that reason resourceful, plucky, democratic bunch (never mind the wiping out of entire cities, inhabitants and all, the mass rape, slavery, the eugenic disposing of wonky babies; in short the inspiration for 2500 years of racist fascism)."

The story follows a merry band of mercenaries implicating themselves in a coup d'état and myriad war crimes in the neighbouring Achaemenid empire. They fail, and find themselves scampering home toward the Greek settlements on the Black Sea, across hostile terrain, killing and enslaving every village encountered along the way. Spoiler: They reach the sea. "Thalassa! Thalassa!" But then you're only halfway into the book.
From thereon it's mainly pedophiles bickering about money.
Truly, a shiny beacon on a hill.
(One is told not to judge our forebears by today's standards. I say absolutely yes. Yes we should. What's idolised still must be criticised relentlessly.)

(I gave up a few chapters before the end. Even iBooks had had enough. (Like a Spartan might a Theban, the software blamed other software, saying: "There is a problem with iTunes (--42408). Reinstall iTunes, then try again.) Good advice perhaps for western civilisation as a whole, which has always been at its best when it looked to its neighbours for inspiration and not for loot.

This is as close as you get, as far as I know, to a rip-roaring tale of adventure in ancient literature. Xenophon was one of the commanders of the 10,000 a force of Greeks stranded in Persia after wining a battle but loosing their claimant to the empire. It's not all easy to read, but overall it is quite interesting and exciting.

Read in full in 2016. Reread about half in English in summer 2023, and then 1.5 books of it in Greek fall 2023.

Actually read this in another Dutch translation (that of De Pauw and Clerckx, 1943!).
Very clear, lively style, very pleasant to read; careful use of speeches, special attention to military aspects, individuals acting strongly, no gods involved; subdued drama, cult of personality especially around his own person (he portrays himself as an excellent strategist, fine diplomat, artful speaker, gently modest, religious); the army is represented as an autonomous body with whims and wishes that constantly needs to be appeased and convinced. Clearly an apology.

Honestly, I'm not really sure what to say about this one.

Xenophon occupies this strange place in the historians of Ancient Greece wherein he is not a storyteller like Herodotus nor is he a historian like that of Thucydides. What he does is entirely unique, I think, but it's just not interesting enough. In a sense, it's like the child of the Histories and the History of the Peloponnesian War, and thereby a weaker form of both.

And it just kinda feels same-y throughout, honestly. But the translation by Warner is on point, and I think captures Xenophon's style in Greek quite nicely.