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" The age of Leonidas : "
MacGregor Morris, Ian William James
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1099733
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TLets582623
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| Main Entry
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MacGregor Morris, Ian William James
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| Title & Author
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The age of Leonidas :\ MacGregor Morris, Ian William James
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| College
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University of Manchester
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| Date
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2000
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| student score
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2000
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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This thesis traces the reception of the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 B.c. during the period1737-1821. The first chapter analyses Richard Glover's nine-book epic poem, Leonidas(1737). It argues that Glover's poem, ignored by modem critics, was of central importanceto not only the Legend of Thermopylae, but the classical tradition as a whole in theeighteenth century. Glover took the idealisation of the battle that had existed sinceantiquity, and represented it in contemporary terms. By identifying Spartan patriotism andvirtue with the manifestation of those ideals in the eighteenth century, Glover madeThermopylae the paradigm par excellence of those virtues.The second chapter analyses the fortunes of Thermopylae in the eighteenth centuryas a whole. Central to this was the Athens-Sparta debate, in which various thinkerscompared and contrasted the relative merits of the constitutional forms of those two poleis.In light of this debate, the reception of Thermopylae can be seen to alter throughout thecentury. In the wake of the French Revolution, when Sparta's reputation went into decline,that of Leonidas came to the fore, as the one Spartan whose reputation was salvaged fromthe mirage spartiate.In the third chapter the uses of Thermopylae during the period of the FrenchRevolution and Empire are considered. By now a standard paradigm of patriotism, bothrevolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries sought to use the battle to their own advantage.Within this, the influence of Glover's poem was considerable.The fourth chapter takes the legend to Greece itself. A dramatic increase in travelto Greece in the eighteenth century led to what can be described as a "rediscovery" ofThermopylae. Early travellers attempted to map the considerable changes in the landscapesince antiquity, and antiquarians attempted to reconstruct the course of the battle. In theearly nineteenth century, travellers inspired by the ideology of Romanticism, imaginedThermopylae as a shrine to the ideals the battle had come to represent.The final chapter analyses the role of Thermopylae in philhellenism andmisohellenism. The question of Greek liberation became a point of major debate in theearly nineteenth century. Both those in favour of and against Greek Independenceinterpreted modem Greece in classical terms, and central to this was Thermopylae. Thebattle was seen to represent the virtue of the ancient Greeks, which the misohellenesbelieved was lost forever, and the philhellenes urged the modem Greeks to emulate. In theyears leading to the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821, the Legend ofThermopylae found its perfect niche.
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University of Manchester
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