Because the means by which a world is disclosed are hidden and, indeed, withdraw from view, there are several issues in the key programmatic sections of 1.21–3 that I believe have been consistently misunderstood. There is no better way further to illustrate the subtle workings of Thucydides's Archaeology than to dissolve some of the errors that surround it. The issues I will discuss relate to “unconcealedness” (aletheia), “what is appropriate” (ta deonta), “pre-text” (prophasis), “compulsion” (ananke), and “kind” (toioutos).

Unconcealedness (Aletheia)

Thucydides does seem interested in aletheia, which is usually translated as “truth.” Truth is understood conventionally as positing a correspondence between word and world, and so, this interpretation maintains, when Thucydides discusses the importance of aletheia, he is emphasizing the importance of matching up his language to events (logos to ergon). Yet Thucydides uses neither aletheia nor to alethes particularly often in these opening sections (or generally, especially not in his own voice). He does, as we have seen, employ numerous visual words, such as to saphes, at crucial places. These words are in turn often translated in terms of “truth,” even “historical truth,” but such translations put the cart before the horse. The converse seems far more apt; that is, aletheia should be understood in terms of to saphes and other visual terms rather than the other way around.

In Thucydides's Archaeology visual metaphors dominate vis-à-vis truth claims.