leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (12/08/85)
I while back I reviewed the film THE WARRIORS about a gang trying to
fight its way back to its home turf in New York City. I half recalled
that this was supposed to be based on a novel that was itself an
updating of what I remembered to be a Greek play. I did not remember
the play's name however. Betsy Hanes Perry and David Gelhar
respectively suggested the Aeschylus play SEVEN AGAINST THEBES and the
Xenophon history ANABASIS. The former seems not to be correct and is
in the series about Oedipus. What description I can find of ANABASIS
does seem to indicate that it is, in fact, the basis of the story,
though it does not seem to be a play itself. Gelhar's description
(borne out by a similar description in Durant's LIFE OF GREECE) is:
Xenophon was one of a bunch of Greek mercenaries that got
mixed up in a rebellion in Persia led by a guy named Cyrus
(who I assume is the model for the gang leader Cyrus).
Anyway, Cyrus is killed, the rebellion fails, and the Greeks
are left to march across N miles of hostile Persian
territory before they can get home...
Even if the novel was based on a Greek play, it would have had to have
been a play about this incident since the similarities are too striking
to be coincidence.
Mark Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leepermac@uvacs.UUCP (Alex Colvin) (12/13/85)
>Gelhar's description (borne out by a similar description in Durant's LIFE >OF GREECE) is: > > Xenophon was one of a bunch of Greek mercenaries that got > mixed up in a rebellion in Persia led by a guy named Cyrus > (who I assume is the model for the gang leader Cyrus). > Anyway, Cyrus is killed, the rebellion fails, and the Greeks > are left to march across N miles of hostile Persian > territory before they can get home... Dave, you're correct here. The movie "The Warriors" is based on the book "The Warriors" by Sol Yurick, itself loosely based on the Anabasis. As noted above, the Anabasis is not a play, it is Xenophon's history of his expedition with a Greek mercenary force through hostile Asia, and their march back to the sea. It's a great story. Read it! In the "Warriors" book one of the Warriors carries a Classic Comic of the Anabasis with him. After Cyrus is killed they must get back to the sea, Coney Island, through a host of hostile tribes. "The Warriors" is a great movie, not to be confused with any real New York gang scene. For one thing, everybody has all their teeth. A good book with another Anabasis in it is "The Good Soldier Schweik", by J. Hacek.