Le narrazioni del conflitto greco-persiano tra panellenismo e manipolazione politica

Abstract

The Second Persian War, despite the stereotypical image that celebrated it as a Pan-Hellenic feat, deeply divided the Greek world, as evidenced by the various lists of victors and by Herodotus: few poleis, in fact, took part in the defensive alliance, and only three or four of these played a decisive role. Thus, the victory generated, more than real unity, an ideological vision of unity: the narratives of Pan-Hellenic concord against the enemy, inserted within an ideal line of confrontation between Greeks and barbarians, which at least dated back to the Trojan War, spread the idea that the affirmation of community ties could also pass through the celebration of a common enterprise, pushing all Greeks, including those who had not taken part in the war, to associate their names with those of the victors. This work then proposes to reconsider a series of texts, from Simonides’ elegy on Plataea to the self-celebrating epigrams mentioned in Plutarch’s De Herodoti malignitate, which shed light on the ways in which some Greek communities presented their efforts during the conflict, in order to claim their membership in the Greeks’ ideal community or the honour of having done more and better than others for the common cause.