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The Image of Achaemenid Emperors in the Writings of Aeschylus and Herodotus: Comparing the Narratives

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate of History Department, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor of History Department, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

10.22059/jhss.2024.370407.473680

Abstract

This Study depicts the narratives of Aeschylus and Herodotus about the Achaemenid emperors and tries to show how they gave a narrative about the Achaemenid emperors and what sources they relied on in this regard. Its importance lies in a better understanding of Herodotus’s historiography and its use of Aeschylus’s narration among other sources. The main question and the problem that has been raised is to what sources did Aeschylus and Herodotus use in their narration and what narration they give. The approach and the research Methodology of this study is a thought. This means that it puts the narratives of Aeschylus and Herodotus next to each other to find out how they gave a narrative about the Achaemenid emperors. The thesis is that Aeschylus, who himself witnessed the Persian campaign, while giving a first-hand account, rewrote it based on the model of Greek tragedies, and Herodotus, while largely is influenced by Aeschylus’ account of the Achaemenid emperors and Xerxes’ campaign to Greece, he used other sources in his narration. As a result and data, the narratives of Aeschylus and Herodotus about the Achaemenid emperors and Xerxes’s campaign to Greece show similarities and differences. Based on the model of Greek tragedies, Aeschylus’s narrative tells the story of Xerxes’ campaign as a king whose delusions lead him to do brazen actions that involve an inevitable fate from the gods. Herodotus’ narrative is largely derived from Aeschylus’s narrative. The ups and downs that Herodotus depicts in the lives of the Achaemenid emperors and especially Xerxes and the influence of the intervention of gods and fate in their lives are all reminiscent of the ancient Greek tragedies, here specifically the Persians of Aeschylus. At the same time, Herodotus also uses other sources and gives more details than Aeschylus to show the reasons and agents of this campaign as a historian. Despite this, Aeschylus’s narrative is decades ahead of Herodotus’s narrative and is closer to the time of the event. Also, his narration of the Achaemenid emperors, as narrated by Atossa, Darius and Xerxes, has significant differences from Herodotus’s narration

Keywords

Main Subjects

References
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Historical Sciences Studies
Volume 15, Issue 4 - Serial Number 36
February 2024
Pages 27-50
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