Vivienne J. Gray – författare

Xenophon's many and varied works represent a major source of information about the ancient Greek world: for example, about culture, politics, social life and history in the fourth century BC, Socrates, horses and hunting with dogs, the Athenian economy, and Sparta. However, there has been controversy about how his works should be read. This selection of significant modern critical essays will introduce readers to the wide range of his writing, the debates it has inspired, and the interpretative methodologies that have been used. A specially written Introduction by Vivienne J. Gray offers a survey of Xenophon's works, an account of his life with respect to them, a brief discussion of modern readings, reference to modern scholarship since the original publication of the articles, and a critical summary of their content. Several articles have been translated for the first time from French and German, and all quotations have been translated into English.

Xenophon's many and varied works represent a major source of information about the ancient Greek world: for example, about culture, politics, social life and history in the fourth century BC, Socrates, horses and hunting with dogs, the Athenian economy, and Sparta. However, there has been controversy about how his works should be read. This selection of significant modern critical essays will introduce readers to the wide range of his writing, the debates it has inspired, and the interpretative methodologies that have been used. A specially written Introduction by Vivienne J. Gray offers a survey of Xenophon's works, an account of his life with respect to them, a brief discussion of modern readings, reference to modern scholarship since the original publication of the articles, and a critical summary of their content. Several articles have been translated for the first time from French and German, and all quotations have been translated into English.

Xenophon is perhaps best known as the leader of the Ten Thousand on the Anabasis, the famous march of the Greek army through hostile territory to the Black Sea. However, he was also a prolific author, and in this study Vivienne J. Gray focuses upon the ways in which his literary practices shape images of leadership in his narrative works. Gray surveys the views on leadership that Xenophon credits to Socrates, and illustrates in detail his construction of leadership models through the close examination of selected narratives in works such as Anabasis and Cyropaedia. The techniques include the creation of patterned narratives, as well as allusions to the writings of Homer and Herodotus. Gray takes issue with the school of thought that finds hidden subversion beneath Xenophon's surface praise of leaders.

Xenophon of Athens was a pupil of Socrates and a philosopher in his own right. He wrote two of the texts included in this volume, the Hiero (On Tyranny) and the Constitution of the Spartans. The third, the Constitution of the Athenians, is found under Xenophon's name alongside the other two in the manuscripts. The works represent three distinct types of government (the rule of one man in tyranny and kingship, the rule of law in the mixed constitution of the Spartans, and the rule of the masses in the Athenian democracy), but there are common features throughout. This volume presents an introduction discussing Xenophon's views on government in the context of his general political thought, drawing particularly on his Socratic work Memorabilia, and a commentary on the Greek text of each work aimed primarily at advanced undergraduates and graduate students.