El Panatenaico de lsócrates: 1. El Excursus de Agamenón

Abstract

This article examines the excursus that Isocrates dedicates to the figure of Agamemnon in the Panathenaicus. Previous opinions based on that of P. Wendland, which saw in the figure of Agamemnon a replica of King Philip, are disqualified by a detailed study of the assertions contained both in the excursus and in the rest of the discourse. It is no only that no indications can be fond that refer us to the figure of King Philip, but also it is very unlikely that Isocrates risked his prestige supporting Philip in the middle of the war Athens sustained against him. Isocrates' explicit indications, as well as the c1car parallels drawn between the indications of the excursus and those of the poem to the Panathenaicus indicate that the figure of Agamemnon is used by Isocrates as a vehicle to defend his work as a propagandist of the panhellenic ideal. Considering the importance of the excursus inside the discourse, this new reinterpretation affects the global understanding of the Panathenaicus to which the author of this article will dedicate a subsequent paper.