On Xenophontic Friendship

This article argues that within Xenophon's corpus, the Memorabilia and Cyropaedia construct incompatible forms of friendship. Socrates' friendship in the Memorabilia is based upon the sharing of possessions and wisdom, transcending boundaries of class, gender, and citizenship. In the Cyropaedia, Cyrus the Elder employs his friendship, which is limited to the elites, to brutally suppress internal threats by subordinating elites to his regime. The article concludes by aligning Xenophontic polyphony and Socratic communal friendship, arguing that Cyrus and his exploitative friendship are employed as negative examples within the corpus, serving as foils for Socrates and Xenophon's philosophy.