ABSTRACT
When the sophist, Hippias of Elis, is asked by Socrates on what subject the Spartans like to hear him lecture, Hippias answers: “They delight in the genealogies of heroes and of men and in stories of the foundations of cities in olden times, and, to put it briefl y, in all forms of antiquarian lore.”1 In other words, national historical traditions were a primary preoccupation of sophists and teachers in ancient Greece and the content of many literary works for which there was clearly a great demand.
