By moving on from the findings of literature concerning the connections between the Leviathan and the Hobbesian translations of the Homeric poems, this article aims to problematize these relationships further with regard to the Behemoth. Three principal issues will be taken into account – the prophecy, the ruling over the Militia, and the mixed monarchy – given that, although themes typical of the philosopher’s political thought, their peculiarities in the Behemoth enable us to draw attention to possible significant political connections (...) between Hobbes’s translations of the Iliad and Odyssey and his narrative of the English Civil War. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Scholars have analysed in-depth the famous three greatest things linking Thomas Hobbes and Thucydides. As is well known, the ideas of fear, honour and profit – that is, timé, déos and opheléia – play a fundamental role in showing the latter’s influences on the former. With particular regard to ophelía it has been suggested that it has to be conceived ‘as economic advantage or interest’ [Slomp Gabriella, ‘Hobbes, Thucydides and the Three Greatest Things’, History of Political Thought 11 : (...) 565–86]. Since Thucydides’ lexicon uses several words in addition to opheléia to express the idea of profit, the essay, through a comparative lexical analysis of the original Greek text and its Hobbesian translation, will take these into consideration, in order to find out if they can provide us with elements capable of widening the above definition. All this to better clarify the notion of profit, a notion that is truly crucial in Hobbes’ political thought. (shrink)