12-03-2007, 11:34 AM
@Paralus
It’s true and interesting what you say about Xenophon, I myself as a descendant of the Persians have surely no pan-Hellenic agenda but I greatly respect them.
The point is that also Herodotus (and more or less all other Greek authors) had ridiculous numbers and sometimes purely fictional tales, but beside that also invaluable information.
Xenophon also has jolly good pieces of information. As I said his on horsemandship , had most likely a Persian original, so why should his moral tales in the Cyropaedia not be mainly of Persian origin. As I said the style of these tales greatly reminds me of the Shahname. These would be no historical reports but tales for the ordinary Persian. Story of Herodotus like Darius’ opinion on monarchy and democracy might have been Hellenic tales, but could also have been of Persian origin, for the Persian people but this is very hard to accept for some groups for which the Persian kings were just “Asiaticâ€
It’s true and interesting what you say about Xenophon, I myself as a descendant of the Persians have surely no pan-Hellenic agenda but I greatly respect them.
The point is that also Herodotus (and more or less all other Greek authors) had ridiculous numbers and sometimes purely fictional tales, but beside that also invaluable information.
Xenophon also has jolly good pieces of information. As I said his on horsemandship , had most likely a Persian original, so why should his moral tales in the Cyropaedia not be mainly of Persian origin. As I said the style of these tales greatly reminds me of the Shahname. These would be no historical reports but tales for the ordinary Persian. Story of Herodotus like Darius’ opinion on monarchy and democracy might have been Hellenic tales, but could also have been of Persian origin, for the Persian people but this is very hard to accept for some groups for which the Persian kings were just “Asiaticâ€
Bahram Ardavan-Dorood
