The Role Of A Hero/Heroine In The Greek Religion - Department of Ancient History - MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

Internal Code: MAS4956

Case Study - Essay Writing :

David Whitehead's article “Who Equipped Mercenary Troops in Classical Greece?”, in a recent volume of this journal (Whitehead, 1991 105?113), expresses disagreement with an argument I have put forward to the effect that employers of mercenaries in fourth-century Greece would “often ? perhaps even usually ? equip them.” (McKechnie, 1985, 85.) Some further comment is required, both to clarify my own case and to question Whitehead's line of argument against it; and since “general considerations which tell, explicitly or implicitly, a different story” (Whitehead, 1991, 105) form an important element in Whitehead's analysis, I shall take the opportunity of sketching the situation a bit more broadly than I did before. It is common ground that earlier scholars, particularly H.W. Parke, (Parke, 1935, e.g. at 106) have assumed without argument that mercenaries must usually have provided their own arms and armor. Whitehead describes this assumption as an orthodoxy (Whitehead, 1991, 110), but I think that may run the risk of dignifying it with a status that it does not really have. It is simply a question that nobody has thought about much. Instances, where an employer did provide the equipment are recognised by both of us: the chief ones are Cyrus and the army he recruited to attack his brother King Artaxerxes II, and Dionysius I and his mercenary army in Sicily (Whitehead, 1991, 107?108). The issue is whether any generalization from them is possible. Question :  Explain the role of a hero/heroine in the Greek religion