DOI
https://doi.org/10.52284/NECJ.45.2.article.yatsuhashi
Publication Date
2018
Abstract
This paper argues that Lycrophon’s Alexandra overwrites the model of Herodotus to condense the conflict between East and West and advocate for uniformly “Greek” cultural identity. As the idea of what it meant to be Greek or barbarian began to transform with the events of the early Hellenistic period, concurrent literary works like those of Lycrophon responded to cultural anxieties by redefining Hellenicity to unite displaced Greek-speaking peoples. Herodotus and Lycrophon both claim epistemological authority of their narratives, but unlike Herodotus, Lycrophon explores the individual motivations of historical actors and incorporates both poetic and prose traditions into his narrative. In his literary reconciliation of multiple competing narratives, Lycrophon follows the pattern of Alexander the Great and his successors who attempted to reconcile multiple competing cultural groups into a cohesive whole. Lycrophon alludes to both Alexander and the works of Herodotus in the Alexandra, yet ultimately offers his own complex literary account united from many cultural-historical narratives.
First Page
92
Last Page
108
Recommended Citation
Yatsuhashi, Akira V.
(2018)
"Lycophron’s Alexandra: “Restaging” the East-West Conflict,"
New England Classical Journal: Vol. 45
:
Iss.
2
, 92-108.
https://doi.org/10.52284/NECJ.45.2.article.yatsuhashi
Keywords
Lycophron, Alexandra, Herodotus, Imperialism, National Identity, Hellenism, Greek historiography