Thucydides
Athenian historian who stripped myth from history in his account of the Peloponnesian War
The Meaning of Thucydides
Thucydides of Athens (c. 460-400 BCE) composed the History of the Peloponnesian War, a rigorous account of the conflict between Athens and Sparta that redefined historiography by rejecting mythological explanation in favour of political and human causation. Where Herodotus wove myth into history, Thucydides deliberately excluded it — his "Archaeology" section systematically demythologises early Greek history, treating Agamemnon as a political leader rather than a divinely favoured hero. He declared his work a "possession for all time" rather than entertainment, establishing the principle that history should identify recurrent patterns in human behaviour. His exclusion of myth was itself a revolutionary statement about how the past should be understood and narrated.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Thucydides was exiled from Athens for twenty years for losing a battle, and wrote his history during the exile
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Palaephatus
💭 conceptRationalism, myth interpretation
Ancient rationaliser who explained myths as misunderstood historical events in On Unbelievable Tales
Xenophon
💭 conceptHistory, philosophy, horsemanship
Athenian soldier-writer whose works preserve mythological allusions within practical and philosophical contexts
History
💭 conceptLanguage and scholarship
An English word for the study and record of past events, derived from the Greek historia meaning inquiry or investigation, first used by Herodotus in the fifth century BCE
Plato
💭 conceptPhilosophy, myth, forms
Athenian philosopher who both critiqued traditional myths and created powerful new ones in his dialogues
Diodorus Siculus
💭 conceptHistory, universal chronicle
Sicilian historian who compiled a universal history preserving many otherwise lost mythological traditions
Herodotus
💭 conceptHistory, ethnography, Persia
Father of History whose Histories records mythological traditions alongside the Persian Wars narrative
Trojan War
💭 conceptThe ten-year war that defined Greek mythology
The Trojan War was the central event of Greek mythology — a ten-year siege of Troy by a Greek coalition, sparked by the abduction of Helen and ended by the stratagem of the Wooden Horse.
Hēgemonia
💭 conceptpolitics, history
Leadership, supremacy, or the dominant position of one state over others — the claim to lead a voluntary alliance that could easily become imperial control.
Apollodorus
💭 conceptMythography, compilation
Author of the Bibliotheca, the most comprehensive surviving handbook of Greek mythology
Golden Age
💭 conceptLanguage and history
A proverbial expression for a past period of peace, prosperity, and happiness, derived from Hesiod's account of the first and best age of humanity under the rule of Kronos
Ptolemy Hephaestion
💭 conceptParadoxography, obscure myth
Alexandrian writer whose New History preserved bizarre and otherwise unknown mythological variants
Mycenaean Culture
💭 conceptHistory
The Late Bronze Age Greek civilisation whose warrior aristocracy forms the historical basis of Homeric epic