Latro and the Persian army

Chris · 13 Jun 2003, 17:50 · from urth-v0306.mbox · original

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From: "Chris" <rasputin_ at hotmail.com>
Subject: (urth) Latro and the Persian army
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 17:50:07 +0000
Message-ID: <urth-v0306-3463 at digest.urth.net>
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I've finally finished reading Herodotus this week, which was rewarding in=20
and of itself, but somehow I couldn't help but keep my eye out for things=20
concerning those historical characters which also appeared in Latro's story=
.=20
And while this hasn't exactly inspired me to construct any bizarre theories=20
about the story, there was one thing that struck me as curious that I=20
wondered if anyone had an "obvious" explanation for.

Essentially, the assumption I made from the story is that Latro's injury an=
d=20
his offense to Demeter occurred during the battle of Plataea. Having read=20
Herodotus' vague description of the action there, however, he provides some=20
specifics that make this difficult to reconcile. The Greek army had split=20
into two divisions, according to his account - the Spartans, who were=20
engaged near the shrine of Demeter, and the Athenians who were some distanc=
e=20
away. The Persian army also split, and it's stated that native Persians led=20
by Mardonius pursued the Spartans, while the foreign contingent coming alon=
g=20
after fought the Athenians & co. This implies that for Latro to have been=20
fighting near the shrine of Demeter during the battle of Plataea, he must=20
have been in the Persian contingent; not only that, he would have to have=20
been in the leading elements among the Immortals and Mardonius' hand-picked=20
bodyguard, since the rout began before the full Persian contingent was able=20
to engage.

It's not impossible to resolve this, but it does seem to make a difference=20
how you choose to explain it.

One of the first things that occurred to me was that Latro may have acquire=
d=20
his curse at a different shrine of Demeter - the Persians had sacked the on=
e=20
at Eleusis earlier, whereas at Plataea the shrine remained supposedly=20
untouched. If this were the case then Latro may have lost his memory quite=20
some time before the battle of Plataea where he received his head injury=20
(which would then be incidental and misleading).

Another possibility is that Latro may really have been close to Mardonius.=20
It doesn't seem unreasonable that he would be accorded some honor if he=20
really was the one to kill Leonidas. And Latro's vague memory places him=20
somewhere not too far away from Xerxes during the battle of Thermopylae, so=20
perhaps he had a position of honor even back then. That, however, makes him=20
a prominent enough figure that it seems unusual that no one thought to=20
mention him in the various histories.

Any thoughts?

Chris

--
"Indeed it is hard to grasp why it hasn't already given birth... to its=20
hero, that demon who will stage without scruple that horrifying play that=20
reduces the whole age to laughter and to unconsciousness of the fact that i=
t=20
is laughing at itself." -- Soren Kierkegaard

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