Just when there seemed hope for peace between Sparta and Athens, that's when Thebes leaps into the fray. The reasons are complex and stupid, just like so many pre-conditions of war. I don't want to get into that here. Your book, though only a fraction of the size of Thucydides, is long enough, and after a while, reading about the seemingly endless conflicts becomes exhausting. When Thebes entered the war I outwardly groaned, worn out by the killing, corruption, greed, valour, heroism, lies, rivalries and propaganda. Now that I have finished the book, I am still tired of it. I have turned to reading comic books and I have begun reading a study guide to Plato's Republic, just to clear my head of this war that seems to have no end.
Yet, inside this horror story, I found a monument to tragedy that perhaps sums up the whole conflict.
The Thebans were about to go into battle against the Spartans (Bk 6, Ch 4, Sec 7).
They (The Thebans) also found a certain encouragement in the oracle which says that the Spartans must suffer a defeat at the place where stands the monument to the virgins who are supposed to have killed themselves because they had been raped by some Spartans. So the Thebans put garlands on this monument before the battle.
I have never heard of such a thing in the ancient world, so I asked Ryan Stitt, author of the History of Ancient Greece podcast, about this monument. He likewise had not heard of anything similar, but recommended I read about Lucretia in Rome. So I went digging. I found that two writers whom I have not yet read, record the story of Lucretia, and, having a budding interest in the founding myths of Rome, was delighted to have found my way via this story.
Livy, Dio, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus both tell of the rape of Lucretia. A rape which sparked a revolution, and saw the birth of the Roman Republic. When Lucretia told people that she had been raped, she then killed herself, saying, I shall act in a manner which is fitting for me; you, if you are men, and if you care for your wives and children, exact vengeance on my behalf and free your selves and show the tyrants what sort of woman they outraged, and what sort of men were her menfolk!
Today I remember Eurydice Dixon. 19 year old Eurydice, comedian and actress, who was raped and murdered at Melbourne's Princes Park, on the 12th of June, 2018. The man who destroyed her, Jaymes Todd, handed himself in to police after CCTV footage of him was released and was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison. On the 18th of June, 10,000 people gathered in vigil in her honour at Princes Park, attended by the State Premier, Daniel Andrews. On the morning of the vigil, the floral tributes laid at the site of her rape and murder were vandalised by Andrew Nolch, who was later sentenced for vandalism.
My first letter to Eurydice (2018)
No monument was built in her honour, and no revolution followed.
But today I remember her. Today we remember her.
Thank you Xenophon. I am glad to be reminded of difficult truths, and though I close your book, you story lives on in my mind, and in the world all around me. All around us.
With gratitude and respect
Morgan.
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