The Limits of Reconciliation: Achilles, Cyrus, and the Secret of Tact

Abstract This paper examines the tension between Cyrus and Cyaxares in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia , and the ways in which Cyrus succeeds in mollifying the Median king (and his maternal uncle), who is angry because Cyrus has usurped his authority. It argues that, although Cyrus has been charged with deceit in his effort to conciliate Cyaxares, in fact such dissembling is ineliminable where there is a genuine offense to another’s honor. It suggests further that the episode is a deliberate rejoinder to the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon, as described in the Iliad , and is intended to show how properly to resolve a clash between a king and his more warlike subordinate.