DISCOURSE, REPRESENTATION AND SOCIAL IMAGINARY IN XENOPHON 'S 'LACEDAEMONIAN CONSTITUTION' (FIFTH AND FOURTH-CENTURIES B.C.)

When we relate the discourse of an author of Antiquity with his own historical and social context, we will be able to analyze some of the possible motivations and interests that he held to develop his writtings. Thus, when we perform a case study on Xenophon's work entitled 'Constitution of the Lacedaemonians' we can notice that the discursive representations elaborated on Sparta society were linked with the place the author occupied in the polis of Athens. Through the theoretical framework adopted, we aim to demonstrate how the social imaginary shared by Xenophon was crucial to the way that the author represented the Spartan society in his discourse.