PAIDEIA AS A BASIC IDEA OF XENOPHON’S "CYROPAEDIA" AND HERODIAN’S "HISTORY…"

Abstract

The results of the study of the main positions of the philosophical-ethical and political dimension of the concept of education (paideia) in Xenophon's "Cyropedia" and Herodian's "History of the Roman State after Marcus Aurelius" are presented. The research methodology of the ancient biographical and historiographical text is briefly substantiated. The narrative strategies of the representation of the principles of education in both works are described in a comparative aspect. The structure of communication and ways of implementing the author's narrative strategy are analyzed through the prism of the cross-cutting idea of both works: the absolute influence of the role of the education of the ruler on the education of society. The concept of paideia is considered as a key meaning-forming element of both works; it is illustrated how the texts of Xenophon and Herodian present paideia as the main condition for the success of the ruler and his state. Common and distinctive features of the implementation of the author's narrative strategy in both works were revealed. Techniques for implementing the author's narrative strategy in the texts of Xenophon and Herodian are illustrated with examples from the original texts with translation. The example of both texts shows the durability of the traditions of writing ancient historiographic biography from the classical to the Hellenistic-Roman era: the similarity of the narrative structure, the presence of two-level communication (author's and narrator's), plot vicissitudes, the location of which in both texts coincides with the place of the golden intersection. It is proved that the texts of Xenophon and Herodian, separated from each other by a rather significant period of time of half a millennium, pursue the same goal: showing the disfunctionality of both an individual and society in general, which deviated from the principles of paideia. The elements of the narrative structure of ancient historiographical texts described in the article testify to its similarity to the structure of ancient tragedy (according to Aristotle).