Lysimeleia (Thucydides 7.53, Theocritus 16.84): What Thucydides does not tell us about the Sicilian Expedition

Abstract:

In this paper, it is proposed that the lake Lysimeleia, mentioned by Thucydides in his account of the latter part of the Sicilian Expedition and by Theocritus in his encomium of Hieron II of Sicily, is likely to have been a sacred lake to the two goddesses Demeter and Kore. This suggestion is integrated into a way of reading the relevant passages in Thucydides and Theocritus, and its possible implications in the context of early discourses concerning the Athenian campaign at Syracuse are explored. In particular, this episode is read as one which can help us to consider the significance of Thucydides’ tendency to downplay religious aspects of the events he describes and to speculate about what sorts of discourses about the Sicilian Expedition might have circulated among others, who would have been likely to consider such questions very differently.