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

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

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