The Great and the Small: Thermopylae and Sphacteria

Abstract

Thucydides’ narrative of the battle on Sphacteria (Thuc. 4.26–4.41) consistently frames the important Athenian victory over the Spartan hoplites as an unexpected success that was greatly aided by the fact that the Athenian general Demosthenes took full advantage of the exceptional circumstances on the island.* Indeed, the narrator claims that the Athenian victory took the whole of the Greek world by surprise (Thuc. 4.40.1), and he further comments that the Spartan defeat was ‘something small’ compared to the legendary heroic defeat at Thermopylae (4.36.3). All this further detracts from the strategic and military achievement of—in particular—the Athenian politician and general Cleon.This paper explores the narrative techniques by means of which the nar-rator persuades his narratees to accept his interpretative frame; in particular, he consistently presents events from the point of view of their actual participants, in order to make his narratees see and feel what these actual participants saw and felt.