Time And Foresight In Thucydides
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2023
Published In
The Cambridge Companion To Thucydides
Abstract
This chapter examines statements in Thucydides’ work that predict or foreshadow the future (prolepses), placing them in the context of a wider study of the narratological structure of the History as a whole. It analyses predictions made by the narrator himself (including 1.22.4’s famous claim about the future utility of the work), as well as the (often unreliable) claims that characters in the History make about the future course of events. The combined effect of these prolepses is a notable instability in the ‘unreal future’ that the text predicts. Thucydides’ work offers us no clear conclusion about the ultimate significance of the war that he has described: the work as a whole is not a teleological narrative.
Keywords
narratology, structure, style, tragedy
Published By
Cambridge University Press
Editor(s)
P. Low
Recommended Citation
Rosaria Vignolo Munson.
(2023).
"Time And Foresight In Thucydides".
The Cambridge Companion To Thucydides.
89-109.
DOI: 10.1017/9781316227442.009
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-classics/89