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Xenophon on the Psychology of Supreme Political Ambition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2017

LORRAINE SMITH PANGLE
LORRAINE SMITH PANGLE*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
*
Lorraine Smith Pangle is Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin, 158 W. 21st St., Stop A1800, Austin, TX 71712 ([email protected]).
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Abstract

This study illuminates Xenophon's teaching about the underlying psychological motives of the most fully developed political ambition. An analysis of what the Cyropaedia portrays as the interplay among Cyrus's spiritedness, justice, benevolence, piety, and cultivation of an aura of divinity leads to an unveiling of supreme ambition's deepest root: not the desire for power as such, nor the love of justice, but the desire to be a quasi-divine benefactor. The article traces the development of this ambition from its earliest manifestations in the young Cyrus's puppylike spiritedness, through his hope-filled rise to power, to his grim mature rein and his death, showing how a shadowy concern for immortality drives him in ways he is reluctant to see or acknowledge.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 111 , Issue 2 , May 2017 , pp. 308 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2017 

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Footnotes

The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful comments of Timothy Burns, Steven Forde, Russell Muirhead, Thomas Pangle, Linda Rabieh, Jean Yarbrough, and the anonymous referees of the APSR on earlier drafts of this article.

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