Imagining Xerxes: Ancient Perspectives on a Persian King

Description

Few events left such a vivid impression on history as the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, King of Persia. In this lively, erudite and nuanced cultural history of the ancient portraits of Xerxes, Emma Bridges throws fresh new light on the ancient - and modern - western images of Asia and its archetypal ruler. -- Edith Hall, Professor of Classics, King's College London, UK The central concern of Dr Bridges’ original and challenging exercise in ancient reception-studies is to explore the richness and variety of Persian Great King Xerxes’ afterlives within a diverse and complex literary tradition. This is a powerfully written and conceptually sophisticated treatment of an important topic within classical studies, which has the added appeal of including an excellent discussion of the cinematic reception of Xerxes in the 21st century. -- Paul Cartledge is the A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, University of Cambridge, UK What to make of Xerxes? Ruthless tyrant? Hubris personified? Prisoner of history? Glorious war-lord? Victim of fortune? Decadent playboy? Lubricious harem-master? Or just the foil for Greece's glory, the great invader who brought out the best in those freedom-fighters of 480 BCE? He was all of those things, and Emma Bridges’ beautifully written book traces all the shifts in the ideas and stories and fantasies that later generations wove as they dwelt on Greece's finest hour. -- Christopher Pelling, Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford University, UK FC Halftitle Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Illustrations and Photographs Note on Translations, Illustrations and Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction: Encountering Xerxes 1
Staging Xerxes: Aeschylus and Beyond 2
Historiographical Enquiry: The Herodotean Xerxes-Narrative 3
Xerxes in his Own Write? The Persian Perspective 4
Pride, Panhellenism and Propaganda: Xerxes in the Fourth Century bc 5
The King at Court: Alternative (Hi)Stories of Xerxes 6
The Past as a Paradigm: Xerxes in a World Ruled by Rome Epilogue: Re-imagining Xerxes Bibliography Index