According to Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, King Cyrus the Great’s soldiers captured Panthea, the queen of Susa. They also captured three of Panthea’s marginalized eunuch servants. She was “said to be the most beautiful woman in Asia {καλλίστη δὴ λέγεται ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ γυνὴ γενέσθαι}.”[1] Many men surely were killed in the fighting through which the eunuchs and Panthea were captured. However, Panthea’s husband King Abradatas, an ally of the Assyrians against Cyrus and the Persians, wasn’t killed. He fortunately was away seeking an alliance with the Bactrians. Nonetheless, neither the three eunuchs, nor Abradatas, nor Panthea escaped violent death.
After the three eunuchs and Panthea were captured, Cyrus told his close friend Araspas, a Mede whom he had known from his youth, to bring Panthea to him to be his wife. Being made the wife of King Cyrus the Great is a much more favorable fate than that of men killed in battle. The gender privilege of being made a royal wife didn’t please Panthea:
Now when the woman Panthea heard that, she tore her outer garment from top to bottom and wailed. Her servant women also cried aloud with her.
{ ὡς οὖν τοῦτο ἤκουσεν ἡ γυνή, περικατερρήξατό τε τὸν ἄνωθεν πέπλον καὶ ἀνωδύρατο· συνανεβόησαν δὲ καὶ αἱ δμωαί. }
Women often fail to appreciate their privilege relative to men. Panthea’s gesture of tearing her garment is associated with mourning death. Death is what happens almost exclusively to men on the battlefield.
Cyrus recognized that the male gaze often disadvantages men. When Panthea tore her clothes and wailed about becoming Cyrus’s wife, she dropped her face veil. Araspas excitedly reported to Cyrus:
“At this moment was revealed most of her face, and her neck and arms were revealed. And Cyrus, let me tell you,” he said, “it seemed to me, as it did to all the rest who saw her, that never had been born from mortals so beautiful a woman in Asia. But,” he added, “you must by all means see her for yourself.”
{ Ἐν τούτῳ δὲ ἐφάνη μὲν αὐτῆς τὸ πλεῖστον μέρος τοῦ προσώπου, ἐφάνη δὲ ἡ δέρη καὶ αἱ χεῖρες· καὶ εὖ ἴσθι, ἔφη, ὦ Κῦρε, ὡς ἐμοί τε ἔδοξε καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασι τοῖς ἰδοῦσι μήπω φῦναι μηδὲ γενέσθαι γυνὴ ἀπὸ θνητῶν τοιαύτη ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ· ἀλλὰ πάντως, ἔφη, καὶ σὺ θέασαι αὐτήν. }
Cyrus, who was a rather frigid man and very focused on his job, chose not only not to have Panthea as his wife, but also not even to see this beautiful woman. He explained:
If now I have heard from you that she is beautiful, and if I am inclined just by your account of her to go and gaze on her, then when I have no time to spare, I am afraid that she herself will much more readily persuade me to come again to gaze on her. And in consequence of that, I might sit there, in neglect of my duties, idly gazing upon her.
{ εἰ νυνὶ σοῦ ἀκούσας ὅτι καλή ἐστι πεισθήσομαι ἐλθεῖν θεασόμενος, οὐδὲ πάνυ μοι σχολῆς οὔσης, δέδοικα μὴ πολὺ θᾶττον ἐκείνη αὖθις ἀναπείσῃ καὶ πάλιν ἐλθεῖν θεασόμενον· ἐκ δὲ τούτου ἴσως ἂν ἀμελήσας ὧν με δεῖ πράττειν καθῄμην ἐκείνην θεώμενος. }[2]
Despite their burdensome job responsibilities, men should allow themselves simple joys of life such as gazing upon a beautiful woman.
Laughing at Cyrus’s concern, Araspas told him that a woman’s beauty cannot compel a man to act against his interests, and that love is a matter of free will. Cyrus from experience knew better:
“If falling in love is a matter of free will, is it not possible to stop whenever one pleases? But,” he said, “I have seen men both weeping from grief because of love and enslaving themselves to their beloved young men, even though before they fell in love they considered enslavement to be very bad. I have seen them giving their beloveds many things for which they could ill afford to be deprived. I have also seen men praying to be delivered from love just as from any other disease, and, for all that, unable to be delivered from it, but fettered by a stronger necessity than if they had been fettered with shackles of iron. Nonetheless, they surrender themselves to their beloved young men and irrationally serve them in many ways. And yet, in spite of all this lovers’ misery, they do not attempt to run away, but they even guard their beloved young men to prevent them from running away.”
{ εἰ ἐθελούσιόν ἐστι τὸ ἐρασθῆναι, οὐ καὶ παύσασθαι ἔστιν ὅταν τις βούληται; ἀλλ᾿ ἐγώ, ἔφη, ἑώρακα καὶ κλαίοντας ὑπὸ λύπης δι᾿ ἔρωτα, καὶ δουλεύοντάς γε τοῖς ἐρωμένοις καὶ μάλα κακὸν νομίζοντας πρὶν ἐρᾶν τὸ δουλεύειν, καὶ διδόντας γε πολλὰ ὧν οὐ βέλτιον αὐτοῖς στέρεσθαι, καὶ εὐχομένους ὥσπερ καὶ ἄλλης τινὸς νόσου ἀπαλλαγῆναι, καὶ οὐ δυναμένους μέντοι ἀπαλλάττεσθαι, ἀλλὰ δεδεμένους ἰσχυροτέρᾳ ἀνάγκῃ ἢ εἰ ἐν σιδήρῳ ἐδέδεντο. παρέχουσι γοῦν ἑαυτοὺς τοῖς ἐρωμένοις πολλὰ καὶ εἰκῇ ὑπηρετοῦντας· καὶ μέντοι οὐδ᾿ ἀποδιδράσκειν ἐπιχειροῦσι, τοιαῦτα κακὰ ἔχοντες, ἀλλὰ καὶ φυλάττουσι τοὺς ἐρωμένους μή ποι ἀποδρῶσι. }
In analyzing men’s subordination in love, Cyrus didn’t regard the beloved’s gender to be significant.[3] Araspas in response distinguished between “wretched men {ἄθλῐοι}” and “beautiful and good men {καλοὶ κἀγαθοὶ}.” According to Araspas, the latter type of men have enough self-control not to enslave themselves in love. Cyrus, however, declared:
“As for me, I neither willingly touch fire nor look upon beautiful persons. And I advise you, too, Araspas,” he said, “not to let your eyes linger upon beautiful persons, for fire, to be sure, burns only those who touch it, but beautiful persons set on fire even those who gaze at them from afar, so that they are inflamed with passion.”
{ ἔγωγε οὔτε πυρὸς ἑκὼν εἶναι ἅπτομαι οὔτε τοὺς καλοὺς εἰσορῶ. οὐδέ γε σοὶ συμβουλεύω, ἔφη, ὦ Ἀράσπα, ἐν τοῖς καλοῖς ἐᾶν τὴν ὄψιν ἐνδιατρίβειν· ὡς τὸ μὲν πῦρ τοὺς ἁπτομένους κάει, οἱ δὲ καλοὶ καὶ τοὺς ἄπωθεν θεωμένους ὑφάπτουσιν, ὥστε αἴθεσθαι τῷ ἔρωτι. }
Araspas arrogantly dismissed Cyrus’s concern:
“Do not fear, Cyrus,” he said. “Even if I never cease to look upon Panthea, I shall never be so overcome as to do anything that I ought not.”
{ Θάρρει, ἔφη, ὦ Κῦρε· οὐδ᾿ ἐὰν μηδέποτε παύσωμαι θεώμενος, οὐ μὴ κρατηθῶ ὥστε ποιεῖν τι ὧν μὴ χρὴ ποιεῖν. }
Men must have the humility to recognize their own weakness relative to women. Those who don’t are on the road to serfdom and incarceration.
What happened to Araspas shows a pattern typical of men’s love for women in the ancient world. Araspas was attracted not merely to Panthea’s beautiful body, but to her whole person and the sense of a reciprocally loving relationship:
The young man found the woman very beautiful and at the same time came to know her goodness and nobility of character. He attended her and thought he pleased her. Then he also saw that she was not ungrateful, but always took care by the hands of her own servants not only that he should find whatever he needed when he came in, but that, if he ever fell sick, he should suffer no lack of attention. As a result of all this, he fell desperately in love with her. What happened to him was perhaps not at all surprising.
{ Ὁ δὲ νεανίσκος ἅμα μὲν ὁρῶν καλὴν τὴν γυναῖκα, ἅμα δὲ αἰσθανόμενος τὴν καλοκἀγαθίαν αὐτῆς, ἅμα δὲ θεραπεύων αὐτὴν καὶ οἰόμενος χαρίζεσθαι αὐτῇ, ἅμα δὲ αἰσθανόμενος οὐκ ἀχάριστον οὖσαν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπιμελομένην διὰ τῶν αὑτῆς οἰκετῶν ὡς καὶ εἰσιόντι εἴη αὐτῷ τὰ δέοντα καὶ εἴ ποτε ἀσθενήσειεν, ὡς μηδενὸς ἐνδέοιτο, ἐκ πάντων τούτων ἡλίσκετο ἔρωτι, καὶ ἴσως οὐδὲν θαυμαστὸν ἔπασχε. }
Taking up the gender burden that men have endured throughout history, Araspas proposed to Panthea:
Seized by passionate love for the woman, he felt compelled to approach her with words proposing sexual intercourse.
{ ληφθεὶς ἔρωτι τῆς γυναικὸς ἠναγκάσθη προσενεγκεῖν λόγους αὐτῇ περὶ συνουσίας. }
Men throughout history have ardently loved women. Men should not be demonized for proposing to women.
Almost all men learn to accept women rejecting them in love. Panthea would not sexually betray her husband even in her desperate circumstances. She thus rejected Araspas’s courageous proposal for sexual intercourse:
But she refused and was loyal to her husband, although he was absent, for she loved him devotedly. Still, she did not accuse Araspas to Cyrus, because she was reluctant to cause conflict between men friends.
{ ἡ δὲ ἀπέφησε μὲν καὶ ἦν πιστὴ τῷ ἀνδρὶ καίπερ ἀπόντι· ἐφίλει γὰρ αὐτὸν ἰσχυρῶς· οὐ μέντοι κατηγόρησε τοῦ Ἀράσπου πρὸς τὸν Κῦρον, ὀκνοῦσα συμβαλεῖν φίλους ἄνδρας. }
Panthea here shows greatness of character. Not only was she loyal, but she also sought to avoid causing conflict between men. Such conflict often contributes to the terrible history of violence against men. Nonetheless, she had an entirely appropriate limit:
But Araspas, thinking he could succeed in obtaining what he wanted, threatened the woman. He said that if she would not willingly comply, he would do it against her will. Then the woman, because she feared his violence, no longer kept his amorous advance secret, but she sent her eunuch to Cyrus with the order to tell him everything.
{ ἐπεὶ δὲ ὁ Ἀράσπας δοκῶν ὑπηρετήσειν τῷ τυχεῖν ἃ ἐβούλετο ἠπείλησε τῇ γυναικὶ ὅτι εἰ μὴ βούλοιτο ἑκοῦσα, ἄκουσα ποιήσοι ταῦτα, ἐκ τούτου ἡ γυνή, ὡς ἔδεισε τὴν βίαν, οὐκέτι κρύπτει, ἀλλὰ πέμπει τὸν πέμπει τὸν εὐνοῦχον πρὸς τὸν Κῦρον καὶ κελεύει λέξαι πάντα. }
Most sexual activity in primates, human and non-human, doesn’t involve physical coercion. A man is no more likely to have sex with a woman against her will than a woman would have sex with a man against his will. Araspas’s action was aberrant and despicable.
While condemning men raping women, particularly captive women, Cyrus normalized Araspas’s intention toward Panthea. He laughed when he heard about it. He sent his deputy Artabazus with a message to Araspas:
Cyrus ordered him to say that Araspas should not force such a woman, but if he could persuade her, Cyrus said, he would not oppose it.
{ κελεύει αὐτῷ εἰπεῖν βιάζεσθαι μὲν μὴ τοιαύτην γυναῖκα, πείθειν δὲ εἰ δύναιτο, οὐκ ἔφη κωλύειν. }
Artabazus, an older man in love with the younger Cyrus, conveyed Cyrus’s message to Araspas. In addition, he harshly condemned Araspas:
When Artabazus came to Araspas, he rebuked him. Artabazus said that the woman had been given to him in trust and spoke of Araspas’s impiety, injustice, and lack of self-control. On hearing these words, Araspas wept much from grief. He was overwhelmed by shame and frightened to death that he might suffer harm from Cyrus.
{ Ἐλθὼν δ᾿ ὁ Ἀρτάβαζος πρὸς τὸν Ἀράσπαν ἐλοιδόρησεν αὐτόν, παρακαταθήκην ὀνομάζων τὴν γυναῖκα, ἀσέβειάν τε αὐτοῦ λέγων ἀδικίαν τε καὶ ἀκράτειαν, ὥστε τὸν Ἀράσπαν πολλὰ μὲν δακρύειν ὑπὸ λύπης, καταδύεσθαι δ᾿ ὑπὸ τῆς αἰσχύνης, ἀπολωλέναι δὲ τῷ φόβῳ μή τι καὶ πάθοι ὑπὸ Κύρου. }
Men threatening to rape women has long been generally regarded as a serious crime. Araspas later explained to Cyrus:
Ever since the report of my misfortune spread, my enemies have been rejoicing over me, and my friends come and advise me to hide myself from you, for fear that I might suffer harm from you, as if I had committed a large wrong.
{ ὡς γὰρ ὁ θροῦς διῆλθε τῆς ἐμῆς συμφορᾶς, οἱ μὲν ἐχθροὶ ἐφήδονταί μοι, οἱ δὲ φίλοι προσιόντες συμβουλεύουσιν ἐκποδὼν ἔχειν ἐμαυτόν, μή τι καὶ πάθω ὑπὸ σοῦ, ὡς ἠδικηκότος ἐμοῦ μεγάλα. }
Men’s ardent love for women is normal and shouldn’t be condemned. Men threatening to rape women is a grave wrong and should be harshly condemned. Men’s ardent love for women neither implies nor excuses rape. The account of Panthea and Araspas regrettably conflates love and rape.
Cyrus exploited Araspas’s acute loss of social esteem to use him to spy on the enemy Assyrians. Araspas’s social downfall provided cover for him to flee to the Assyrians and seek their friendship. He could learn of their circumstances and plans and relay that information back to Cyrus. Cyrus instructed Araspas on how to best deceive the Assyrians and weaken them relative to the Persians. Telling only a few trusted friends of this scheme, Araspas then fled to the Assyrians as if he were betraying Cyrus and the Persians.
Panthea thought that Araspas, after wronging her, had then wronged Cyrus in fleeing to the enemy. Taking the initiative to help a wronged man, she sent a message to Cyrus:
Do not be distressed, Cyrus, that Araspas has gone over to the enemy. If you will allow me to send a message to my husband, I can guarantee you that a much more loyal friend will come to you than Araspas was. Moreover, I know that he will come to you with as many troops as he can bring. While the king’s father was my husband’s friend, this present king once even attempted to separate me from my husband. Since my husband considers the present king to be an insolent scoundrel, I am sure that he would be glad to transfer his allegiance to such a man as you.
{ Μὴ λυποῦ, ὦ Κῦρε, ὅτι Ἀράσπας οἴχεται εἰς τοὺς πολεμίους· ἢν γὰρ ἐμὲ ἐάσῃς πέμψαι πρὸς τὸν ἐμὸν ἄνδρα, ἐγώ σοι ἀναδέχομαι ἥξειν πολὺ Ἀράσπου πιστότερον φίλον· καὶ δύναμιν δὲ οἶδ᾿ ὅτι ὁπόσην ἂν δύνηται ἔχων παρέσται σοι. καὶ γὰρ ὁ μὲν πατὴρ τοῦ νῦν βασιλεύοντος φίλος ἦν αὐτῷ· ὁ δὲ νῦν βασιλεύων καὶ ἐπεχείρησέ ποτε ἐμὲ καὶ τὸν ἄνδρα διασπάσαι ἀπ᾿ ἀλλήλων· ὑβριστὴν οὖν νομίζων αὐτὸν εὖ οἶδ᾿ ὅτι ἄσμενος ἂν πρὸς ἄνδρα οἷος σὺ εἶ ἀπαλλαγείη. }
Cyrus readily accepted Panthea’s proposal. She then sent a secret message to her husband Abradatas. Her message evidently instructed Abradatas exactly as she had said to Cyrus. As most husbands would, Abradatas followed his wife Panthea’s enormously consequential instructions. He left his Assyrian home and presented himself and a thousand men cavalry soldiers to Cyrus as allies.
While Panthea and Abradatas loved each other warmly and mutually, Panthea functioned as the head of the couple. She thought that Cyrus had protected her as a man would a “brother’s wife {ἀδελφός γυνή}.” She told Abradatas “of Cyrus’s piety and self-control and compassion towards her {τοῦ Κύρου τὴν ὁσιότητα καὶ τὴν σωφροσύνην καὶ τὴν πρὸς αὐτὴν κατοίκτισιν}.” Abradatas, a leading warrior, then sought his wife’s advice:
When he heard this, Abradatas said, “Tell me, Panthea, what can I do to repay the favor to Cyrus on behalf of both you and me?”
Panthea said, “What else, but by trying to be to him as he has been to you?”
{ Ὁ δὲ Ἀβραδάτας ἀκούσας εἶπε, Τί ἂν οὖν ἐγὼ ποιῶν, ὦ Πάνθεια, χάριν Κύρῳ ὑπέρ τε σοῦ καὶ ἐμαυτοῦ ἀποδοίην
Τί δὲ ἄλλο, ἔφη ἡ Πάνθεια, ἢ πειρώμενος ὅμοιος εἶναι περὶ ἐκεῖνον οἷόσπερ ἐκεῖνος περὶ σέ }
Panthea badly misunderstood Cyrus’s attitude toward her. Cyrus treated persons not as friends but as tools for his purposes.[4] In fact, Cyrus had instructed Araspas in relation to the captive Panthea:
Take care of her, for perhaps this woman might be very valuable for us at the right time.
{ ἐπιμέλου αὐτῆς· ἴσως γὰρ ἂν πάνυ ἡμῖν ἐν καιρῷ γένοιτο αὕτη ἡ γυνή. }
Cyrus shrewdly anticipated developments. Interpreting Panthea’s advice straightforwardly within its context, Abradatas went to Cyrus and declared that in return for him treating them very well, “I give myself to you as a friend, a servant, and an ally {φίλον σοι ἐμαυτὸν δίδωμι καὶ θεράποντα καὶ σύμμαχον}.” This pledge was very valuable to Cyrus in war.
Panthea’s insistent concern for Abradatas’s status in others’ eyes led to disaster not only for them, but also for her three selfless eunuchs. Abradatas foolishly volunteered to lead warriors directing into the enemy Egyptian phalanx. Panthea dressed him finely for this horrific violence against men:
When he was about to put on his linen breastplate, such as they use in his country, Panthea brought him one of gold. She also brought him a helmet, arm-pieces, and broad bracelets for his wrists — all of gold. She further gave him a purple tunic that hung down in folds to his feet and a helmet-plume dyed with hyacinth. All these she had made without her husband’s knowledge, taking the measure for them from his armor.
{ ἐπεὶ δ᾿ ἔμελλε τὸν λινοῦν θώρακα, ὃς ἐπιχώριος ἦν αὐτοῖς, ἐνδύεσθαι, προσφέρει αὐτῷ ἡ Πάνθεια χρυσοῦν1 καὶ χρυσοῦν κράνος καὶ περιβραχιόνια καὶ ψέλια πλατέα περὶ τοὺς καρποὺς τῶν χειρῶν καὶ χιτῶνα πορφυροῦν ποδήρη στολιδωτὸν τὰ κάτω καὶ λόφον ὑακινθινοβαφῆ. ταῦτα δ᾿ ἐποιήσατο λάθρᾳ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἐκμετρησαμένη τὰ ἐκείνου ὅπλα. }
Husbands typically buy luxury goods for their wives. Was Panthea seeking to promote gender equality? Abradatas didn’t know:
And he, seeing the fine armor, was astonished. Turning to Panthea, he asked, “Tell me, my wife, you didn’t break your own jewels to pieces, did you, to have this armor made for me?”
“No, by Zeus,” answered Panthea, “surely not, not my most precious one. If you appear to others as you seem to me, you shall be my greatest jewel, at least to me.”
{ ὁ δὲ ἰδὼν ἐθαύμασέ τε καὶ ἐπήρετο τὴν Πάνθειαν, Οὐ δήπου, ὦ γύναι, συγκόψασα τὸν σαυτῆς κόσμον τὰ ὅπλα μοι ἐποιήσω;
Μὰ Δί, ἔφη ἡ Πάνθεια, οὔκουν τόν γε πλείστου ἄξιον· σὺ γὰρ ἔμοιγε, ἢν καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις φανῇς οἷόσπερ ἐμοὶ δοκεῖς εἶναι, μέγιστος κόσμος ἔσει. }
A woman valuing her husband as her most precious jewel values him rightly. Nonetheless, women shouldn’t regard men as things like other possessions. Moreover, Panthea’s response suggests that her appreciation for her husband depends on his status in others’ eyes. Even worse, she wanted her husband to be recognized as a “noble man {ᾰ̓γᾰθός ἀνήρ}” through violence against men:
Oh Abradatas, if ever any woman loved her husband more than her own life, I think you know that I, too, am such a one. Why, then, should I tell of these things one by one? For I think that my conduct has given you better proof of it than any words I now might say. Still, with the affection that you know I have for you, to you I swear by my companionate love for you and by yours for me that, in truth, I would far rather share an earthly burial with you, you having been recognized as a noble man, than live disgraced with one disgraced. I thus have deemed you and myself to be worthy of the best.
{ ὦ Ἀβραδάτα, εἴ τις καὶ ἄλλη πώποτε γυνὴ τὸν ἑαυτῆς ἄνδρα μεῖζον τῆς ἑαυτῆς ψυχῆς ἐτίμησεν, οἶμαί σε γιγνώσκειν ὅτι καὶ ἐγὼ μία τούτων εἰμί. τί οὖν ἐμὲ δεῖ καθ᾿ ἓν ἕκαστον λέγειν; τὰ γὰρ ἔργα οἶμαί σοι πιθανώτερα παρεσχῆσθαι τῶν νῦν ἂν λεχθέντων λόγων. ὅμως δὲ οὕτως ἔχουσα πρὸς σὲ ὥσπερ σὺ οἶσθα, ἐπομνύω σοι τὴν ἐμὴν καὶ σὴν φιλίαν ἦ μὴν ἐγὼ βούλεσθαι ἂν μετὰ σοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀγαθοῦ γενομένου κοινῇ γῆν ἐπιέσασθαι μᾶλλον ἢ ζῆν μετ᾿ αἰσχυνομένου αἰσχυνομένη· οὕτως ἐγὼ καὶ σὲ τῶν καλλίστων καὶ ἐμαυτὴν ἠξίωκα. }
Women are complicit in violence against men. Panthea preferred Abradatas and herself to die gloriously in the eyes of others than to live with others’ disparagement of them. Regrettably lacking meninist consciousness, Abradatas uncritically honored his wife’s words:
Abradatas was moved by her words. Touching her head and lifting his eyes toward the vaulted sky, he prayed: “Almighty Zeus, grant that I might prove myself a husband worthy of Panthea and a friend worthy of Cyrus, who has honored us.”
{ ὁ δὲ Ἀβραδάτας ἀγασθεὶς τοῖς λόγοις καὶ θιγὼν αὐτῆς τῆς κεφαλῆς ἀναβλέψας εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐπηύξατο, Ἀλλ᾿, ὦ Ζεῦ μέγιστε, δός μοι φανῆναι ἀξίῳ μὲν Πανθείας ἀνδρί, ἀξίῳ δὲ Κύρου φίλῳ τοῦ ἡμᾶς τιμήσαντος. }[5]
Lack of meninist consciousness is tragic for men and women. Such lack prompted Abradatas to seek to prove his worth as a man to Panthea and Cyrus in violence against men.
Abradatas and other men suffered terribly in battle. He on his war chariot led men directly into Egyptian war chariots. Many men died in the resulting fight. Then, after breaking through the line of Egyptian chariots, Abradatas drove straight at the Egyptian phalanx. That was the strongest enemy position on the battlefield. The result was horrific carnage:
In the place where Abradatas and his companions charged, the Egyptians could not make an opening for them because the Egyptian men on either side of them stood firm. Those enemy men who stood upright were consequently struck in the furious charge of the horses and overthrown. Those who fell, they and their arms, were crushed to pieces by the horses and the wheels. Whatever was caught in the scythes — everything, arms and men, was horribly mangled. In this indescribable melee, the chariot wheels bounded over piled-up heaps and were tossed about. Abradatas, along with the others who had joined in the charge, were thrown to the ground. These men, who provided themselves here to be noble men, were cut to pieces and slain.
{ οἱ δὲ ἀμφὶ Ἀβραδάταν ᾗ μὲν ἐνέβαλλον, ἅτε οὐ δυναμένων διαχάσασθαι τῶν Αἰγυπτίων διὰ τὸ μένειν τοὺς ἔνθεν καὶ ἔνθεν αὐτῶν, τοὺς μὲν ὀρθοὺς τῇ ῥύμῃ τῇ τῶν ἵππων παίοντες ἀνέτρεπον, τοὺς δὲ πίπτοντας κατηλόων καὶ αὐτοὺς καὶ ὅπλα καὶ ἵπποις καὶ τροχοῖς. ὅτου δ᾿ ἐπιλάβοιτο τὰ δρέπανα, πάντα βίᾳ διεκόπτετο καὶ ὅπλα καὶ σώματα. Ἐν δὲ τῷ ἀδιηγήτῳ τούτῳ ταράχῳ ὑπὸ τῶν παντοδαπῶν σωρευμάτων ἐξαλλομένων τῶν τροχῶν ἐκπίπτει ὁ Ἀβραδάτας καὶ ἄλλοι δὲ τῶν συνεισβαλόντων, καὶ οὗτοι μὲν ἐνταῦθα ἄνδρες ἀγαθοὶ γενόμενοι κατεκόπησαν καὶ ἀπέθανον. }
In proving himself to be a noble man, Abradatas became a dead man. That’s foolish. Men’s lives should matter more.
The romance of Panthea and Abradatas should be recognized as a pioneering comic horror. Panthea recovered Abradatas’s dead body. She cradled his dead head in her lap as her eunuchs and servants dug a grave. Cyrus arrived to offer honor:
When he saw the woman sitting upon the ground and the corpse lying there, he wept at the suffering and addressed the dead man: “Alas, O noble and loyal soul, you have indeed departed, leaving us behind.” And with those words he clasped Abradatas’s hand. The dead man’s hand came away in his grasp, for it had been cut off by Egyptian swords. Having seen this, Cyrus felt much more pain. The woman Panthea wept aloud. Taking the hand from Cyrus, she kissed it and fitted it on again as best as she could.
{ Ἐπεὶ δὲ εἶδε τὴν γυναῖκα χαμαὶ καθημένην καὶ τὸν νεκρὸν κείμενον, ἐδάκρυσέ τε ἐπὶ τῷ πάθει καὶ εἶπε, Φεῦ, ὦ ἀγαθὴ καὶ πιστὴ ψυχή, οἴχει δὴ ἀπολιπὼν ἡμᾶς; καὶ ἅμα ἐδεξιοῦτο αὐτὸν καὶ ἡ χεὶρ τοῦ νεκροῦ ἐπηκολούθησεν· ἀπεκέκοπτο γὰρ κοπίδι ὑπὸ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων. ὁ δὲ ἰδὼν πολὺ ἔτι μᾶλλον ἤλγησε· καὶ ἡ γυνὴ δὲ ἀνωδύρατο καὶ δεξαμένη δὴ παρὰ τοῦ Κύρου ἐφίλησέ τε τὴν χεῖρα καὶ πάλιν ὡς οἷόν τ᾿ ἦν προσήρμοσε }
That’s a fitting antecedent to the ending of the early medieval comic Christian epic Waltharius. Panthea added a moralization addressed to Cyrus:
“The rest of his limbs, O Cyrus, you will also find in the same condition. But why should you see it?” she said, “I know that he suffered these wounds not least because of me, and perhaps no less, O Cyrus, because of you. I, a foolish woman, strongly urged him to act such that he might be recognized as a worthy friend to you. As for him, I know that he himself never considered what he might gain, but only what he might do to please you. And so,” she said, “he himself has truly died a blameless death, while I, who urged him on, sit here alive.”
{ Καὶ τἄλλα τοι, ὦ Κῦρε, οὕτως ἔχει· ἀλλὰ τί δεῖ σε ὁρᾶν; καὶ ταῦτα, ἔφη, οἶδ᾿ ὅτι δι᾿ ἐμὲ οὐχ ἥκιστα ἔπαθεν, ἴσως δὲ καὶ διὰ σέ, ὦ Κῦρε, οὐδὲν ἧττον. ἐγώ τε γὰρ ἡ μώρα πολλὰ διεκελευόμην αὐτῷ οὕτω ποιεῖν, ὅπως σοι φίλος ἄξιος γενήσοιτο· αὐτός τε οἶδ᾿ ὅτι οὗτος οὐ τοῦτο ἐνενόει ὅ τι πείσοιτο, ἀλλὰ τί ἄν σοι ποιήσας χαρίσαιτο. καὶ γὰρ οὖν, ἔφη, αὐτὸς μὲν ἀμέμπτως τετελεύτηκεν, ἐγὼ δ᾿ ἡ παρακελευομένη ζῶσα παρακάθημαι. }
Cyrus declared that Abradatas had died in victory, and thus achieved the best end. He offered Panthea the finest ornaments with which to adorn Abradatas’s body. Cyrus also pledged that he would free her and have her conveyed to wherever she sought to go. She declared that she knew where she wanted to go.
Panthea had morbid plans. She sent her three eunuchs away. She then instructed her woman servant to cover her and Abradatas with the same cloak when she was dead. Her woman servant pleaded with Panthea not to commit suicide. Nonetheless, Panthea drew out a dagger, plunged it into her heart, and placed her head upon her husband bosom. The woman servant wept and covered them both with the same cloak, as Panthea had instructed her. The woman servant didn’t herself commit suicide. She valued women’s lives, including her own.
Panthea’s three eunuchs differed starkly from her woman servant. When they heard of Panthea’s death, the three eunuchs were standing where she had ordered them to stand. They then drew daggers and plunged them into their own hearts. These eunuchs didn’t value themselves apart from the woman that they served. Like too many men through the ages, they were selfless eunuchs.
An alleged memorial provides a wry commentary on the influential romance of Panthea and Abradatas. A stone monument honored the three eunuchs, Abradatas, and Panthea. It was tellingly known as “the monument of the eunuchs {τὸ μνῆμα τῶν εὐνούχων}”:
Now, even to this day, it’s said that the monument of the eunuchs is still standing. Upon the upper section, people say that the names of the husband and wife are inscribed in Assyrian letters above. Below, it’s said, are three slabs with the inscription “Scepter-Bearers.”
{ νῦν τὸ μνῆμα μέχρι τοῦ νῦν τῶν εὐνούχων κεχῶσθαι λέγεται· καὶ ἐπὶ μὲν τῇ ἄνω στήλῃ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς ἐπιγεγράφθαι φασὶ τὰ ὀνόματα, Σύρια γράμματα, κάτω δὲ εἶναι τρεῖς λέγουσι στήλας καὶ ἐπιγεγράφθαι σκηπτουχων. }[6]
Like Abradatas, Panthea’s three eunuchs suffered from having body parts cut off. Those eunuchs, who probably lacked penises, were memorialized as carrying scepters — ceremonial staffs indicating authority. Like Abradatas, those selfless eunuchs ironically lacked the authority to value their lives independently of women whom they served. That’s the rotten gender core of many romances throughout literary history.[7]
* * * * *
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Notes:
[1] Xenophon of Athens, The Education of Cyrus / Cyropaedia {Κύρου παιδεία} 4.6.11, ancient Greek text and English translation from Miller (1914). For another English translation freely available online, Dakyns (1909). Here’s a collaborative online commentary on the Cyropaedia.
Some authors transliterate Panthea {Πάνθεια} more literally as Pantheia. Both Panthea and her husband Abradatas are thought to be fictional characters.
Xenophon, both a military leader and wide-ranging thinker and author, wrote his Cyropaedia about 370 BGC. Its subject, Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II of Persia), reigned from 550–530 BGC as founder and King of Kings of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.
The Cyropaedia is a fictionalized historical didactic biography that has been regarded as “the founding document” for the “mirror for princes” genre. Nadon (2001) p. 152. On fictional characteristics of the Cyropaedia, Stadter (1991). On the problem of genre in relation to the Cyropaedia, Madreiter (2020).
The Roman Emperor Lucius Aurelius Verus (reigned 161 to 169 GC) reportedly had a lover named Panthea / Pantheia of Smyrna. The Augustan History {Historia Augusta} from about 400 GC states of Emperor Verus:
It is reported, furthermore, that he shaved off his beard while in Syria to humor the whim of a lowborn lover, and because of this much was said about him by the Syrians.
{ fertur praeterea ad amicae vulgaris arbitrium in Syria posuisse barbam; unde in eum a Syris multa sunt dicta. }
Historia Augusta, 5. Versus, 7.10, Latin text and English translation (modified slightly) from Magie (2022).
Panthea of Susa in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia and Emperor Verus’s lover Panthea of Smyrna are associated in Lucian of Samosata’s Essays in Portraiture / Imagines {Εἰκόνες} and his closely linked Essays in Portraiture Defended / Pro Imaginibus {Ὑπὲρ τῶν Εἰκόνων}. In Lucian’s Imagines, the dialog participant Polystratus says of the Emperor’s “female companion {σύνειμι}”:
She has the same name as the beautiful wife of Abradatas. You know whom I mean, for you have often heard Xenophon praise her as a prudent and beautiful woman.
{ ὁμώνυμος γάρ ἐστιν τῇ τοῦ Ἀβραδάτα ἐκείνῃ τῇ καλῇ· οἶσθα πολλάκις ἀκούσας Ξενοφῶντος ἐπαινοῦντός τινα σώφρονα καὶ καλὴν γυναῖκα. }
Lucian, Imagines 10, ancient Greek text and English translation (modified slightly) from Harmon (1925). Imagines compares Panthea to Praxiteles’s Aphrodite of Cnidus. For reading notes, Amar (2018).
Subsequent quotes from Xenophon’s Cyropaedia are similarly sourced, but I have modified Miller’s translations to more closely follow the ancient Greek text. The quotes above are Cyropaedia 5.1.6 (Now when the woman Panthea heard…), 5.1.7 (At this moment was revealed most of her face…), 5.1.8 (If now I have heard from you…), 5.1.12 (If falling in love is a matter of free will…), 5.1.13 (wretched men), 5.1.14 (beautiful and good men), 5.1.16 (As for me, I neither willingly touch fire…), 5.1.17 (Do not fear, Cyrus…), 5.1.18 (The young man found the woman so beautiful…), 6.1.31 (Seized by passionate love for the woman…), 6.1.32 (But she refused and was loyal to her husband…), 6.1.33 (But when Araspas…), 6.1.34 (Cyrus ordered him to say…), 6.1.35 (When Artabazus came to Araspas…), 6.1.37 (Ever since the report of my misfortune spread…), 6.1.45 (Do not be distressed, Cyrus…), 6.4.7 (brother’s wife), 6.1.47 (of Cyrus’s piety and self-control…), 6.1.47 (When he heard this, Abradatas said…), 5.1.17 (Take care of her, for perhaps…), 6.1.48 (I give myself to you as a friend…), 6.4.2 (When he was about to put on his linen breastplate…), 6.4.3 (And he, seeing the fine armor, was astonished…), 6.4.5 (Oh Abradatas, if ever any woman loved her husband…), 6.4.9 (Abradatas was moved by her words…), 7.1.31 (In the place where Abradatas and his companions charged…), 7.3.8 (When he saw the woman sitting upon the ground…), 7.3.10 (The rest of his limbs, O Cyrus…), 7.3.15 (Now, even to this day, it’s said that the monument of the eunuchs…).
[2] In establishing an alliance with Cyrus, the Assyrian military leader Gobryas offered his daughter to Cyrus. She was “a marvel of beauty and grandeur {δεινόν τι κάλλος καὶ μέγεθος}.” Cyrus wasn’t interested in having her. Cyropaedia 5.2.7-9. Cyrus’s officer Chrysantas insinuated that Cyrus was a “frigid king {ψυχρὸς βασιλεύς}. Cyropaedia 8.4.22.
The Cyropaedia has been read as more generally validating Cyrus’s understanding of falling in love:
Time apart – whether briefly for Critobulus and Clinias, or a long time for Abradatas and Pantheia – does not diminish true love’s intensity. The best way to avoid love is, in fact, to avoid the young and beautiful in the first place.
Sanders (2021) p. 117. Even in oppressive circumstances in which love involves grave risks, avoiding the young and beautiful might not on net be the best choice.
Lucian’s portrait of Panthea of Smyrna in Imagines perhaps drew upon Cyrus’s warning about beautiful women in the Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. In Lucian’s Imagines, Lycinus warns about looking upon Panthea:
You may be very certain that if you get but a distant view of her she will strike you dumb and more motionless than any statue. Yet the effect, perhaps, is not so violent and the wound less serious if it should be you who catch sight of her. But if she should look at you as well, how shall you manage to tear yourself away from her? She will fetter you to herself and haul you off wherever she wishes, doing just what the magnet does to iron.
{ Καὶ μὴν εὖ εἰδέναι χρή σε, ὡς κἂν ἐκ περιωπῆς μόνον ἀπίδῃς εἰς αὐτήν, ἀχανῆ σε καὶ τῶν ἀνδριάντων ἀκινητότερον ἀποφανεῖ. καίτοι τοῦτο μὲν ἴσως εἰρηνικώτερόν ἐστιν καὶ τὸ τραῦμα ἧττον καίριον, εἰ αὐτὸς ἴδοις· εἰ δὲ κἀκείνη προσβλέψειέ σε, τίς ἔσται μηχανὴ ἀποστῆναι αὐτῆς; ἀπάξει γάρ σε ἀναδησαμένη ἔνθα ἂν ἐθέλῃ, ὅπερ καὶ ἡ λίθος ἡ Ἡρακλεία δρᾷ τὸν σίδηρον. }
Lucian, Imagines 1, ancient Greek text and English translation (modified slightly) from Harmon (1925).
[3] Xenophon’s Symposium concludes with a female dancer and a male dancer enacting erotic love for each other. Xenophon’s Symposium thus suggests that “Xenophon did not see a pathological distinction between erotic feelings for boys and those for women.” Sanders (2021) p. 109, italics in original.
[4] Cyrus responded to Araspas’s outrage against Panthea by taking that opportunity to use him as a spy. Cyrus similarly found advantage from Panthea and Araspas:
Panthea and Abradatas die in complete ignorance that Cyrus has dealt with them from start to finish solely on the basis of political expediency
Nadon (2001) p. 257.
[5] The parting of Panthea and Abradatas before he engages in violence against men is sacrificially framed:
the long parting scene between Abradatas and his wife Panthea, framed between references to Cyrus performing sacrifices and finding the omens from his sacrifice favorable prior to his final battle, has the effect of adding an almost holy quality to what the narratees are led to suspect will be the couple’s final parting
Beck (2007) p. 293. Another effect is to underscore Abradatas’s lack of self-esteem.
[6] This passage is “perceived by the majority of the publishers of Kyroupaideia as interpolated or corrupted.” Podrazik (2017) p. 21. Scholars have been skeptical of this passage’s authenticity because it associates eunuchs and scepters. That suspect association indicates the passage’s ironic merit. On irony in Xenophon generally, Nadon (2001).
According to the Cyropaedia, Cyrus judged eunuchs to be loyal servants. Cyropaedia 7.5.58-65. He used eunuchs in key royal positions:
Beginning with his doorkeepers, King Cyrus used eunuchs for all those servants who attended to him personally.
{ ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῶν θυρωρῶν πάντας τοὺς περὶ τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σῶμα θεραπευτῆρας ἐποιήσατο εὐνούχους }
Cyropaedia 7.5.65. Cyrus in procession had with him three hundred scepter-bearers. Cyropaedia 8.3.15-7. These were important men:
They ride on horseback right next to him, so that they can carry out his order at any time. Their total number is about three hundred, with six of them, as it seems, riding in threes to the left and to the right side of the monarch’s chariot. They were the dignitaries who Cyrus gave his orders to directly.
Podrazik (2017) p. 18. Panthea having at least three eunuch scepter-bearers is plausible.
[7] Writing about 100 GC, Plutarch shows that extent to which Xenophon’s story of Panthea and Abradatas has been misinterpreted as delightful:
Who would find greater pleasure in going to bed with the most beautiful of women than in sitting up with Xenophon’s story of Panthea, Aristobulus’ of Timocleia, or Theopompus’ of Thebê?
{ τίς δ᾿ ἂν ἡσθείη συναναπαυσάμενος τῇ καλλίστῃ γυναικὶ μᾶλλον ἢ προσαγρυπνήσας οἷς γέγραφε περὶ Πανθείας Ξενοφῶν ἢ περὶ Τιμοκλείας Ἀριστόβουλος ἢ Θήβης Θεόπομπος }
Plutarch, Moralia. That Epicurus Actually Makes a Pleasant Life Impossible 10 / 1093C, ancient Greek text and English translation from De Lacy & Einarson (1967). Any man with a sense of real life would surely find greater pleasure in going to bed with the most beautiful of women — a woman who necessarily loved him — than merely reading a story. Plutarch drew upon Xenophon’s Panthea in portraying the suicidal spousal devotion of Camma and Porcia. Beneker (2020).
Writing about 200 GC, Philostratus of Lemnos / Philostratus the Elder similarly sentimentalized the story of Panthea and Abradatas. He described a painting of Panthea committing suicide at Abradatas’s dead body. Consider some of Philostratus’s description:
Desire, the companion of love, so suffuses the eyes that it seems clearly to drip from them. Love also is represented in the picture, as a part of the narrative of the deed. So also is the Lydian woman, catching the blood, as you see, in a fold of her golden robe.
{ ὀπαδὸς δὲ ἔρωτος ἵμερος οὕτω τι ἐπικέχυται τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς, ὡς ἐπιδηλότατα δὴ ἀπ᾿ αὐτῶν ἀποστάζειν. γέγραπται καὶ ὁ Ἔρως ἐν ἱστορία τοῦ ἔργου, γέγραπται καὶ ἡ Λυδία τὸ αἷμα ὑποδεχομένη καὶ χρυσῷ γε, ὡς ὁρᾷς, τῷ κόλπῳ. }
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines {Εἰκόνες} 2.9.14-8, ancient Greek text and English translation (modified slightly) from Fairbanks (1931). That’s death-seeking desire misinterpreted as love. As a scholar aptly noted, “Panthea is the real focus of Philostratus’ ecphrasis.” Tatum (1989) p. 21. Men unconcerned about other men’s lives characterizes the male audience for romance in the tradition of Panthea and Abradatas.
Madeleine de Scudéry’s seventeenth-century long tale Artamène, ou le Grand Cyrus, an adaptation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, presented the story of Panthea and Abradatas in a way that particularly appealed to women. Consider the seventeenth-century case of the wealthy, noble Englishwoman Lady Dorothy Osborne, who took as her husband Sir William Temple:
She approved especially of the episodes based on Panthea and Abradatas (Le Grand Cyrus, 5.1); here was a lady exacting in her search for the ideal lover (l’honnête homme) who would devote himself to her and give undivided service. The point of her enthusiasm would not have been lost on her future husband, Sir William. Her sense of self and her expectations of her future husband were frankly strategic matters, inspired by the example of Mlle de Scudéry’s fiction.
Tatum (1989) p. 27. Panthea’s three eunuchs, unjustly marginalized in the literary tradition, also provided Panthea with “undivided service.”
Romance writers / novelist who drew upon the Cyropedia typically drew upon the story of Panthea and Abradatas. Tatum (1989) p. 20. Christoph Martin Wieland’s drama Araspas und Panthea (1759) pairs the bad man Araspas with the good woman Panthea, while Panthea’s husband Abradatas is given less importance.
Scholars have recognized the importance of Xenophon’s story of Panthea and Abradatas to the development of romance. One scholar declared:
The Cyropaedia is also, then, among the founding documents of the genre “romance novel,” a species of writing whose emergence is usually associated with a radical deprecation of the political sphere of life.
Nadon (2001) p. 152. Writing on the eve of the massive slaughter of men in World War I, another scholar declared of the Cyropaedia:
it contains also, in the episode of Panthea and Abradatas, one of the most charming love stories in literature. We may best call it an historical romance — the western pioneer in that field of literature.
Miller (1914) p. viii. Romance needs to be rewritten such that men’s lives, and women’s too, matter more.
[images] (1) Cyrus the Great ignores beautiful, topless Panthea while Araspas looks on. Painted by Laurent de La Hyre between 1631 and 1634. Preserved as accession # 1976.292 in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, USA). Image CCO thanks to the Art Institute of Chicago via Wikimedia Commons.
(2) Cyrus sees Panthea mourning over the dead body of Abradatas. Painted by Willem de Poorter in the first half of the seventeenth century. Image via Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis.
(3) Panthea stabs herself in the heart with a dagger over the dead body of her husband Abradatas. Painted by Peter Paul Rubens between 1635 and 1638. Image via Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis and via Wikimedia Commons. For a nineteenth-century drawing of this scene, see object # 87.12.167 recto in the Metropolitan Museum (New York City, USA).
(4) Ancient bronze scepter. Made between 500 and 200 BGC and found in the Sanctuary of Son Corró (Costitx, Mallorca). Preserved as Inv. 18464, Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España. Source image thanks to Jerónimo Roure Pérez and Wikimedia Commons. Here’s an ancient relief of the Persian King Darius I (Darius the Great) holding a scepter. For ancient Persian reliefs of scepter-bearers, Podrazik (2017) Figures 1-4.
[5] Lady Dorothy Osborne, who had as husband Sir William Temple. Painted by Gaspar Netscher in 1671. Preserved as accession # NPG 3813 in the National Portrait Gallery (London, UK). Via Wikimedia Commons.
References:
Amar, Jesse. 2018. Lucian’s Imagines: A Student Reader, and Pro Imaginibus: a Translation. Honors Scholar Theses. 601. University of Connecticut.
Beck, Mark. 2007. “Xenophon.” Chapter 24 (pp. 385-396) in Irene J. F. de Jong and René Nünlist, eds. Time in Ancient Greek Literature. Leiden: Brill.
Beneker, Jeffrey. 2020. “Death Is Not the End: Spousal Devotion in Plutarch’s Portraits of Camma, Porcia, and Cornelia.” Pp. 199-218 in Jeffrey Beneker and Georgia Tsouvala, eds. The Discourse of Marriage in the Greco-Roman World. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Dakyns, Henry G., trans. 1909. The History of Xenophon / Cyropaedia: The Education of Cyrus. Revised by Florence Melian Stawell. London: Dent.
De Lacy, Phillip H. and Benedict Einarson, trans. 1967. Plutarch. Moralia, Volume XIV: That Epicurus Actually Makes a Pleasant Life Impossible. Reply to Colotes in Defence of the Other Philosophers. Is “Live Unknown” a Wise Precept? On Music. Loeb Classical Library 428. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Fairbanks, Arthur, trans. 1931. Philostratus the Elder, Philostratus the Younger, Callistratus. Philostratus the Elder, Imagines. Philostratus the Younger, Imagines. Callistratus, Descriptions. Loeb Classical Library 256. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Harmon, A. M., trans. 1925. Lucian. Anacharsis or Athletics. Menippus or The Descent into Hades. On Funerals. A Professor of Public Speaking. Alexander the False Prophet. Essays in Portraiture. Essays in Portraiture Defended. The Goddesse of Surrye. Loeb Classical Library 162. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Madreiter, Irene. 2020. “Cyropaedia and the Greek ‘Novel’ Again.” Pp. 19-44 in Bruno Jacobs and Robert Rollinger, eds. Ancient Information on Persia Re-Assessed: Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. Proceedings of a Conference Held at Marburg in Honour of Christopher Tuplin, December 1-2, 2017. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Magie, David, trans. 2022. Historia Augusta. Volume I. Revised by David Rohrbacher. Loeb Classical Library 139. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Miller, Walter, ed. and trans. 1914. Xenophon. Cyropaedia. Volume I: Books 1-4, Volume II: Books 5-8. Loeb Classical Library 51 & 52. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Nadon, Christopher. 2001. Xenophon’s Prince: Republic and Empire in the Cyropaedia. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Review by John Dillery.
Podrazik, Michał. 2017. “The skēptouchoi of Cyrus the Younger.” Anabasis: Studia Classica et Orientalia. 8: 16-37.
Sanders, Ed. 2021. “Xenophon and the Pathology of Erôs.” Pp. 101-118 in Dimitrios Kanellakis, ed. Pathologies of Love in Classical Literature. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Stadter, Philip A. 1991. “Fictional Narrative in the Cyropaideia.” The American Journal of Philology. 112 (4): 461–91.
Tatum, James. 1989. Xenophon’s Imperial Fiction: On the Education of Cyrus. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.