Hiero
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~15,800 words · 75 passages
Cite this work
- APAXenophon. (n.d.). Hiero. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/hiero
- MLAXenophon. Hiero. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/hiero.
- ChicagoXenophon. Hiero. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/hiero.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
A conversation between a tyrant and a poet on whether power makes one happy. The tyrant says no, and explains at length why.
Context and history
One of antiquity's sharpest texts on the loneliness of power: the ruler can trust nobody, not even the affection he receives. Leo Strauss devoted a whole book to it in 1948 — On Tyranny — which opened a famous quarrel with Kojève about philosophy and politics.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
violence he may kill the violator and be guiltless in the eye of the law." Dem. "in Aristocr." 53, {ean tis apokteine en athlois akon... e epi damarti, k.t.l.... touton eneka me pheugein kteinanta}. (6) See Lys. "de caed Eratosth." S. 32 f., {outos, o andres, tous biazomenous elattonos zemias axious egesato einai e tous peithontas. ton men gar thanaton kategno, tois de diplen epoiese ten blaben, egoumenos tous men diaprattomenous bia upo ton biasthenton miseisthai, tous de peisantas outos aution tas psukhas diaphtheirein ost' oikeioteras autois poiein tas allotrias gunaikas e tois andrasi kai pasan ep' ekeinois ten oikian gegonenai kai tous paidas adelous einai opoteron tugkhanousin ontes, ton andron e ton moikhon. anth' on o ton nomon titheis thanaton autois epoiese ten zemian}. Cf. "Cyrop." III. i. 39; "Symp." viii. 20; Plut. "Sol." xxiii., {olos de pleisten ekhein atopian oi peri ton gunaikon nomoi to Soloni dokousi. moikhon men gar anelein tio labonti dedoken, ean d' arpase tis eleutheran gunaika kai biasetai zemian ekaton drakhmas etaxe' kan proagogeue drakhmas aikosi, plen osai pephasmenos polountai, legon de tas etairas. autai gar emphanos phoitosi pros tous didontas}, "Solon's laws in general about women are his strangest, for he permitted any one to kill an adulterer that found him in the act; but if any one forced a free woman, a hundred drachmas was the fine; if he enticed her, twenty;--except those that sell themselves openly, that is, harlots, who go openly to those that hire them" (Clough, i. p. 190). (7) Or, "fall a victim to passion through some calamity," "commit a breach of chastity." Cf. Aristot. "H. A." VII. i. 9. (8) Or, "if true affection still retain its virgin purity." As to this extraordinary passage, see Hartman, op. cit. p. 242 foll.…