Thucydides declares that Nicias was “a man who, of all the Hellenes in my time, least deserved to come to so miserable an end, since the whole of his life had been devoted to the study and practice of virtue” (7.86). How does Thucydides develop Nicias as a tragic figure, and how does Thucydides utilize this figure within his narrative of the Athenians’ disastrous Sicilian expedition? In your response, focus upon the text of Thucydides, but engage too with the Trojan Women in order to identify contemporary Athenian understandings of the tragic (begin with Hecuba’s speech, 1156-1206).
At the end of book seven, Thucydides declares that Nicias was “a man who, of all the Hellenes in my time, least deserved to come to so miserable an end, since the whole of his life had been devoted to the study and practice of virtue” (7.86). How does Thucydides develop Nicias as a tragic … Continue reading “Thucydides declares that Nicias was “a man who, of all the Hellenes in my time, least deserved to come to so miserable an end, since the whole of his life had been devoted to the study and practice of virtue” (7.86). How does Thucydides develop Nicias as a tragic figure, and how does Thucydides utilize this figure within his narrative of the Athenians’ disastrous Sicilian expedition? In your response, focus upon the text of Thucydides, but engage too with the Trojan Women in order to identify contemporary Athenian understandings of the tragic (begin with Hecuba’s speech, 1156-1206).”