Hellenica

It’s a long time since I read this – a translation of Xenophon’s continuation of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. I remember not being particularly enthralled, but generally interested. The introduction seemed to spend most of its energies pointing out how poor Xenophon is as a historian. As Matthew Gaudet puts it:

Unlike Herodotus, I leave Xenophon with no energy to seek out more ancient history at the moment. I need a break. I don’t think reading Xenophon was a waste of time, but it wasn’t as enlightening or interesting as the previous two histories I’ve read. At the end of Hellenica, we are left just about where Philip II of Macedon begins to take over Greece; his son would be Alexander the Great. Interestingly, despite this incipient change, Xenophon barely mentions the Macedonians in his history. If I wanted to continue a chronological exploration of the Ancient Greek world I’d seek a history of the rise of Macedon next.

The view sees to be that Xenophon lacks the intellectually-satisfying focus and (sort-of) objectivity which we see in Thucydides, and, in different ways, in Herodotus. I too was put off reading more ancient history: I tried, but couldn’t stick with, Cassius Dio.

Homecoming: a Film by Beyoncé

Thought I’d better learn something about her, and this came up as one of the Netflix things I could download for some long train journeys.

I couldn’t have been more impressed – wow. Beyoncé Knowles took 8 months (4 on the music, 4 on the choreography) preparing for this one concert, at Coachella, a traditional annual big gig for some college students. She’d been warned it had always been a white sort of event, but took it on anyway. She designed the whole shebang, from the sequins on the (multitudinous) costumes to the huge pyramid on the stage, packed with musicians, singers and dancers whom she recruited & trained from US colleges all over.

How they are related

1. They both begin with ‘h’.

2. It’s something about expectation: you’d expect an ancient Greek classic text to be somewhat better, more focused, more intelligent, than I actually found it. And with Homecoming – to my shame – the situation was the reverse. Xenophon is not a historian in the sense I had expected, and Beyoncé is not the superficial corporate product I had half imagined she would be. But that’s more about me than the works themselves.