Xenophon, Anabasis [The March Up-country ]

Shane Brennan (American University in Dubai)

Ed. by Laura Swift, The Open University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University)

Dates

First circulation or publication -370

Places

Ancient Greece (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Account/ study
Non-Fiction
- Guidebooks / Travel writing
Historical representation

Resources

The Anabasis is one of the most interesting and best known of the texts that have come down to us from antiquity. Telling the story of a Persian prince, Cyrus the Younger, who hired an army of Greek mercenaries to march against his brother, it describes the expedition’s progress from Sardis in western Asia Minor (modern Turkey) to Babylonia (modern Iraq) and, following Cyrus’s death, the long journey homeward of the Greeks. Their sighting of the Black Sea in the course of the retreat, marked by the soldiers’ shout, “The Sea! The Sea!”, remains one of the most moving and celebrated moments in Western literature.

The book’s author, Xenophon the Athenian, was a participant on the march …

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4187 words

Citation: Brennan, Shane. "Anabasis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 May 2018 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6644, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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