Iliad
Odyssey
Hesiod and Homeric Hymns
Aristocrats, Tyrants, and Poets
Spartan Military Laws
Athenian Political Laws
Aesop's Fables
Pythagoras and Early Philosophy
Pottery of Neolithic settlements in Greece has been found from as
early as the 7th millennium
BC. Gradually they went from herding sheep and goats to cattle and
pigs and then to agriculture.
Cutting tools made out of obsidian from the island of Melos were
traded widely. The first metals
used were copper and silver. In the early third millennium BC tin or
arsenic was added to copper
to make bronze, which revolutionized farming and fighting in Greece,
the Cycladic islands, and
on Crete.
Crete, Mycenae and Dorians
The civilization that developed and reached its climax about 1400 BC
on the island of Crete in
the Aegean Sea was named Minoan by Arthur Evans after their legendary
god-king Minos. The
islands of the Cyclades and the southern Greek mainland were
influenced by this culture, but the
largest cities were Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia, and Gournia on the
central and eastern portions of
Crete. Their graves were in caves, rock shelters, and large buildings.
Pottery was hand-made, and
seals were used from the middle of the third millennium. The fast
potter's wheel quickly
improved that industry, and vessels of gold and silver were used in
their palaces, which were
built from the beginning of the second millennium BC. The palaces
indicate increased wealth
and more concentrated political and religious authority. Trade went on
not only with the
mainland and the islands but with Syria and Egypt as well. Letters
found in Mari on the
Euphrates refer to the products of Cretan metalworkers. Inscriptions
of Linear A have not yet
been deciphered, but Linear B inscriptions dated after 1400 BC may be
an early form of Greek
also used on the mainland.
About 1700 BC the palaces at Knossos and Mallia were damaged, and the
one at Phaistos was
destroyed by fire. This could have been an invasion by Greeks or
earthquakes or local turmoil.
Evidence from this time indicates that there was at least one victim
of human sacrifice. The
rebuilding began the greatest period of Minoan architecture and art.
The tremendous explosion of
the volcano on the island of Thera, once thought to have occurred
around 1500 BC, has recently
been dated by tree rings as 1628 BC; so much ash fell from the sky
that the annual tree ring was
marked. Some have speculated that this caused the downfall of the
Minoans and that this
explains the legend of the destruction of Atlantis. Yet according to
Plato's story from the
Egyptians, that was 9,000 years before Solon, not 900, and it was in
the Atlantic Ocean not in the
Aegean. However, it certainly must have reminded people of the story
of Atlantis, and psychics
have indicated that Egyptian and Minoan cultures were influenced by
the legacies of Atlantis.
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3
Minos was renowned for controlling the Aegean Sea with his navy, and
he was credited with
reducing piracy. According to the research of Herodotus the Carians
served in the navy of Minos
and invented crested helmets and shields with devices and handles,
while Thucydides wrote that
Minos expelled the Carians from the islands when he was putting down
piracy to secure
revenues. The Minoans, whose palaces were not fortified, did not seem
to be as violent as most
cultures of the time, though they did have to defend themselves in
this warlike age to maintain
their extensive trade. However, they were probably overcome by the
more aggressive Myceneans
about 1400 BC.
Based on their art and architecture the Minoans seemed to love nature,
art, music, dancing,
sports, and games. One marble depicts a musician sitting with a
stringed instrument. The women
wore flounce dresses, aprons, and shoulder ribbons, but left the
breasts exposed. Femininity was
respected, and priestesses may have been quite powerful. Household
statuettes of snake
goddesses indicate a more feminine religion. The bull was also a main
feature of their religion
and culture, as they played sports or did acrobatics with bulls as
well as sacrificing them on
altars. Large central courts must have been used for dancing, and they
played some kind of a
board game. They wore their hair long, but the men usually shaved. The
sea creatures on their
pottery in the sixteenth century may have been stimulated by the
species washed ashore with the
tidal waves from the Thera disaster. The fresco paintings on the walls
of the palaces and homes
reveal a society that loved art. Their jewelry was elegant, and women
wore makeup.
Unfortunately without much writing we know little of their real
history, but Greek myths
indicate that Minos met with the gods every ninth year, and his
brother Rhadamanthus was so
famous for justice that these two were considered the main judges of
the dead in the next world.
The ninth year or 99-month cycle may have been a ritual way of
renewing the kingship so that
the old king would not have to be replaced, as the Zeus they
worshipped died and was reborn.
The complex palace at Knossos was called the labyrinth, but the word
originally meant the hall
of the double ax, a sacred object used in ritual sacrifices. Like
Mohenjo-daro the palaces were
equipped with plumbing and closed drain pipes. The city of Gournia
indicates that the standard
of living had increased for many people.
Minoan civilization declined in the two or three centuries after the
destruction about 1400 BC.
Iron was manufactured in Asia Minor. New weapons and military gear
found during this period
indicate increased militarization probably under Mycenaean domination.
The story of Theseus
volunteering to join the tribute paid by Athens every nine years and
his slaying the Minotaur
with the help of Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, seems to be the Greek
version of this conflict.
According to Herodotus Minos was killed in Sicily, where he was trying
to retrieve the legendary
architect Daedalus, and the expedition to avenge his murder was
devastated by a storm. The
main palace at Knossos seems to have been taken over by the
Mycenaeans, and it lasted about
seventy years longer than those at Phaistos, Mallia, and Zakro.
Settlements on Crete moved more
inland, as trade became dangerous, and human figurines during this
period have their hands up in
a gesture of surrender or prayer. According to Homer, in the Trojan
War Idomeneus led the
Cretans from the island of ninety or a hundred cities. Influenced by
the Minoan culture centered
at Knossos, the Mycenaeans built similar palaces in southern Greece.
Numerous weapons and
fortifications indicate the warrior culture of the Mycenaeans.
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4
According to Greek epics and legends, the wealthy city Thebes was
cursed and devastated by a
struggle for power between the two sons of Oedipus. Eteocles refused
to share the throne, so
Polyneices with his Theban emblem of a lion and Tydeus, whose emblem
of Calydon was a boar,
married the daughters of Adrastus, king of Argos and got his help for
an attack on Thebes.
Amphiaraus, who tried to talk them out of it, was persuaded to go
along when his wife was
bribed. Polyneices and Tydeus asked the Mycenaeans to join their
alliance, but divine warnings
led the Mycenaeans to refuse. Seven Argive heroes led attacks on the
seven gates of Thebes, and
after a bloody battle the two brothers fought a single combat, but
each killed the other. About to
be killed, legend had Amphiaraus taken alive into the underworld by
Zeus at a place that became
an oracle named after him. After Menoeceus sacrificed himself to the
war god Aries, the Argives
were defeated, and Adrastus retreated. However, the next generation of
Argives came back with
the aid of Theseus and the Athenians to drive the Thebans out and
destroy the city so thoroughly
that Thebes did not participate a generation later in the other famous
war of this legendary age -
the expedition against Troy.
Theseus, famous for liberating Athens from paying tribute to the
Minoan empire, succeeded his
father Aegeus as king of Athens and is credited by Thucydides with
uniting several self-
governing tribes of Attica into one political unit in an early
federalist system. Theseus was
known for many legendary exploits like those of Heracles. At age fifty
he and his friend
Pirithous carried off the child Helen, causing a Spartan alliance led
by Castor and Pollux to
attack Athens whose local leaders aroused by Menestheus against
Theseus told the Spartans
where they could find Helen and then banished Theseus.
Since there was little copper and no tin in Greece, trade was
essential; Cypress was a main
source of copper production. Greek swords were improved to cut as well
as thrust; spears and
shields were made smaller in the 13th century BC, while the Hittite
and Egytpian empires were
contending for power in Syria. By the end of the century the
mysterious "sea peoples" were
devastating the Egyptian delta, and the Hittite capital was destroyed
too. At this time Phrygians
were gaining power around Troy, and the Mycenaean cities were
preparing for sieges by
building connections to water supplies. This is also the estimated
time of the Achaean war with
Troy, which according to the ancient astronomer Eratosthenes ended in
1183 BC, though many
scholars date it a little earlier. The abduction of the Spartan queen
Helen could have been a
factor, but more likely it was a raid for riches since Cyprus copper
may have been cut off. Troy
was devastated and never regained the power it once had held.
The decline of Mycenaean power followed soon after the fall of Troy.
Thucydides explained that
"the late return of the Hellenes from Ilium caused many revolutions,"
leading to exiled citizens
founding cities. A defensive wall built across the isthmus implies
they feared an attack from the
north. According to tradition the Dorians, who came from the northwest
led by those who
claimed descent from Heracles, returned a century after their first
attempt by crossing the Gulf of
Corinth. Thucydides wrote that the Dorians mastered the Peloponnese
eighty years after the fall
of the Troy. Athens and eastern Greece were not as affected by the
Dorian invasions that
destroyed the great Mycenaean palaces in the 12th century bringing on
a dark iron age. The
wealth of the Minoans and Mycenaeans would not be matched again for
half a millennium.
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5
Ionian refugees from the Dorian invaders fled to Attica, to islands,
and to the west coast of Asia.
The Argolids were dominated but gradually through intermarriage with
their conquerors became
citizens, but the Laconian people were enslaved by Dorian masters.
Eventually trade and the use
of an alphabetic language was developed by the Phoenicians. Only in
the eighth century BC did
population begin to increase again with the development of better iron
tools. Kingship had
declined and was replaced by aristocratic nobles and large assemblies
in city states.
Iliad
Stories, songs, and poems of the Bronze-age heroes and the Trojan War
must have been passed
on orally, for the first and greatest poet of ancient Greece, Homer,
who probably lived during the
9th or 8th century BC in Ionian Asia Minor, composed two epic poems
about Achilles during the
last year of the war in the Iliad and the adventurous homeward journey
of Odysseus in the
Odyssey. Other poems were written about this great conflict; but not
being as brilliant as the
work of Homer, most of them were lost.
The Iliad begins in the tenth year of the Achaeans' attempt to conquer
Troy to get back Helen,
the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta who had run off with Paris, a
prince of Troy. Captured
Trojan women had been given to the Achaean leaders by their leader
Agamemnon. The plot
begins with the anger of the divine Apollo that his Trojan priest
Chryses had been dishonored,
because Agamemnon had taken his daughter. The priest asks that she be
returned for the ransom,
and the Achaeans shout their approval. Agamemnon though becomes angry
and refuses to give
her back. The old Chryses prays to Apollo over and over until the god
brings a plague upon the
Achaeans.
At a council Achilles suggests that they return home, since Apollo is
angry at them; but Calchas
tells them that Apollo is angry because Agamemnon is refusing to give
back the girl for the
ransom. Agamemnon is willing to give her back if she can be replaced.
Achilles calls their leader
"greediest for gain of all men,"1 indicating the likely motive for the
war and suggests he get a
future prize; but Agamemnon wants a new prize right away and threatens
to take one from
Achilles or Ajax or Odysseus. Achilles once again accuses Agamemnon of
having a mind
forever on profit and declares that he personally has not been
offended by the Trojans and will
therefore go home. Yet to prove that he is greater, Agamemnon
announces his intention to take
Briseis from Achilles, who is now angry enough to draw his sword; but
Athena comes down to
transmute his anger from violence to verbal abuse.
So Achilles withdraws from the war, hoping that the Achaeans will lose
without him. Nestor
tries to dissuade Agamemnon but fails as the powerful leader projects
on Achilles the accusation
that he wishes to be above all others and lord it over all. Achilles
gives up the girl assigned to
him by Agamemnon but refuses to obey his orders and will give up
nothing else. Briseis is taken
to Agamemnon, and Achilles asks his divine mother to intercede with
Zeus to help the Trojans
triumph during his absence from the fighting. Zeus sends an evil dream
to Agamemnon
deceiving him into thinking they can now defeat the Trojans, because
Hera has gotten Olympian
support for their cause.
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6
Agamemnon calls a council of the princes and explains how Nestor came
to him in a dream. The
companies are aroused, and Zeus's messenger "Rumor walked blazingly
among them."2 Then
Agamemnon speaks of the nine long years of war that had accomplished
nothing even though
they outnumber the Trojans ten to one, and he suggests they run away
with their ships. But Hera
speaks to Athena and inspires Odysseus to encourage the men to fight
on under one ruler. Then
the ugly Thersites scolds them for their folly, accusing Agamemnon of
greed and of dishonoring
Achilles; they should go home. Odysseus abusing the old man strikes
him on the back with a
scepter. Odysseus then reminds them of Calchas' prophecy that they
would defeat Troy in the
tenth year; they should stay until each man has lain in bed with a
Trojan wife. Agamemnon
should order the men by tribes to see which leaders are bad.
Then the Trojans attacked the organized Achaeans, and Paris challenges
the best of the Argives
to a single combat which is accepted by Menelaus. So the men, whose
conflict over Helen
caused the war, fight to decide who should have Helen and her
possessions. After lambs are
sacrificed between the armies, Menelaus wounds Paris and is dragging
him away when
Aphrodite intervenes and spirits him away to the bedroom he shares
with Helen. With the
disappearance of Paris Agamemnon declares that Menelaus won and Helen
should be given
back. Hera and Athena arrange it so that the Trojans are the first
offenders against the oaths, as
Pandarus treacherously wounds Menelaus with an arrow.
The brutal fighting goes on with many deaths on both sides. Aries goes
down to stir the ranks of
the Trojans when they need help, but Hera sends Athena to help the
Achaeans and stop "the
murderous work of manslaughtering Aries."3 The paradox of this heroic
fighting is described by
Homer when Hector and Ajax fight in heart-consuming hate and then join
in friendship before
parting. In a Trojan assembly Antenor tries to persuade his companions
in arms to give back
Helen and her possessions, but Paris would only agree to give back her
possessions, not the
woman. However, on the other side Diomedes, the son of Tydeus who
fought at Thebes, proudly
suggests they refuse to accept the possessions of Paris.
Then Zeus commands that the gods no longer interfere with the
fighting, though Athena plans to
continue giving advice to the Argives. The earthly conflict is also
mirrored in the Olympian
quarreling between Zeus and his consort Hera whom he calls shameless.
As the advancing
Trojans camp by fires outside their city walls, Agamemnon suggests to
the Achaeans once again
that they take their ships home; but Diomedes declares that he will
fight on and is acclaimed by
shouts. Agamemnon now worried offers to give Briseis back to Achilles
along with seven
women from Lesbos. The old tutor of Achilles, Phoenix, is sent along
with Odysseus, Ajax, and
others to persuade Achilles to rejoin the battle, but Achilles
declares that he will not until Hector
has fought his way to their ships.
At night Odysseus and Diomedes venture forth and capture a Trojan spy,
whom they question
before cutting off his head. Then they capture Thracian horses as
Diomedes kills twelve sleeping
Thracians. As Dawn rose, "Zeus sent down in speed to the fast ships of
the Achaeans the
wearisome goddess of Hate."4 In the battle when Agamemnon overcomes
the two sons of
Antimachus, they plead to live and offer him wealth; but the Achaean
leader hates their father,
who took the gold of Paris to oppose the return of Helen and had even
suggested that Menelaus
be murdered when he came as an envoy; so Agamemnon slays the two sons.
With the Trojans
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7
winning, the god Poseidon goes to help the Achaeans until his brother
Zeus forbids him; but
Hera distracts her divine husband Zeus with lovemaking and sleep so
that Poseidon can aid the
Danaans. Hector with his fighting skill has led the Trojans to the
Achaean ships, but then he is
wounded by Ajax with a boulder. Yet the divine Apollo revives and
encourages him to return to
battle.
Finally Patroclus comes to plead with Achilles, who describes his
friend in an example of
Homer's fine metaphors:
Why then are you crying like some poor little girl, Patroclus,
who runs after her mother and begs to be picked up and carried,
and clings to her dress, and holds her back when she tries to hurry,
and gazes tearfully into her face, until she is picked up?5
Achilles offers his armor to Patroclus and urges him to lead the
Myrmidons and defend the ships
from the Trojan attack. Achilles' prayer to Zeus that this be
successful and Patroclus may return
safely results in the first being granted and the second denied, as
Patroclus is killed by Hector.
Hector manages to strip the armor from the body of Patroclus, and then
a long fight ensues
between the Trojans and Achaeans over the corpse. Finally the two
Ajaxes fight off Hector and
Aeneas as the Achaeans carry it off.
In assembly Poulydamas argues that the Trojans should retreat to fight
from behind their walls,
but the bolder advice of Hector to maintain the offensive in spite of
Achilles' return is followed.
Since Achilles gave his armor to Patroclus, his mother Thetis goes to
the gods and returns with
Olympian armor made by Hephaestus. After a sacrifice and feast at
which Agamemnon gives
back Briseis to Achilles along with other gifts, Achilles, who fasts
till sunset in mourning for his
friend, is ready to fight.
Zeus now allows the gods and goddesses to go down and help either
side. Aeneas fights Achilles
but is rescued from death by Poseidon. Achilles drives so many Trojans
into a river that the spirit
of the river almost drowns Achilles in revenge; but Poseidon and
Athena rescue him. Hephaestus
burns the corpses but is restrained from injuring the divine river by
Hera. Yet in Homer even the
gods are not exempt from the violent fighting as Athena hits Aries in
the neck with a stone and
Aphrodite on her breasts with her hand. Finally Achilles confronts
Hector and chases him around
the walls of Troy three times before the Trojan hero stands to fight
and is killed by Achilles.
Removing his armor Achilles drags the corpse from the back of his chariot.
A pause in the fighting is filled by the funeral ceremonies for
Patroclus and numerous
competitions sponsored by Achilles, who awards prizes to the winners.
The gods send Thetis to
ask her son to allow Priam to ransom the body of his dead son, and
Achilles allows the Trojan
king to come to his tent and retrieve the body of Hector during the
night, concluding the great
war epic that became the most respected literary work of this
competitive and violent culture.
Odyssey
The Odyssey begins nearly ten years after the defeat of Troy at
Ithaca, where Penelope, the wife
of Odysseus, is besieged by numerous suitors for her hand who are
taking advantage of her
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8
hospitality. Athena in disguise visits Penelope's son by Odysseus,
Telemachus, whom she
advises to visit Nestor and Menelaus in search of news about his
father and suggests also,
"Consider in your heart and in your mind how you may slaughter the
suitors in your halls, either
by cunning or openly."6 This violent ambition Homer called putting
strength and courage in him.
So young Telemachus calls an assembly of the Achaeans to complain that
the suitors are
assailing his mother against her will, but Antinous replies that
Penelope has been putting the
suitors off for nearly four years until she finishes weaving a robe,
but every night she unravels
what she did that day. Telemachus tells the suitors to leave and find
their dinners in each others'
homes. Then he visits Sparta and Pylos to learn about his father.
After visiting Nestor, Telemachus is welcomed by Menelaus, who is
living comfortably once
again with his wife Helen. Menelaus recounts his own adventures
returning from Troy and tells
of an old man from the sea who informed him that Odysseus is stranded
on an island with the
divine nymph Calypso without a ship or any other companion. Meanwhile
Antinous asks for a
ship and twenty men to ambush Telemachus between Samos and Ithaca.
Odysseus is crying for a
way to get home, and Calypso finally suggests that he build a raft and
gives him supplies.
Poseidon, the great antagonist of Odysseus, causes a storm that
destroys the raft. Odysseus drifts
for three days until he is able to swim into a friendly river on an
island. The next day Odysseus
meets the fair maiden Nausicaa when she is doing her washing and
playing ball with her
companions. Naked and covering himself with a branch he shyly speaks
to her from a distance.
She invites him to her father's home but recommends that he pass him
by and kneel at the knees
of her mother in his petition for help in getting home, indicating the
power of the woman in this
case.
Odysseus is welcomed into the great house of Alcinous and Arete, whom
he tells how he spent
seven years on the island with Calypso because his ship was crushed by
a thunderbolt from Zeus.
As the blind bard Demodocus recites stories of a quarrel between
Odysseus and Achilles and the
stratagem of the wooden horse at Troy, Odysseus tries to hide his
tears. They are also entertained
by the story of the love affair between Aries and Aphrodite, the wife
of Hephaestus. Then after
demonstrating his athletic prowess with the discus Odysseus tells them
who he is and gives an
account of his adventures since the Trojan war. First he and his men
sacked the city of Ismaros,
killed its men, and took their wives and goods, which they divided
equally. The Cicones fought
back and killed six men from each of his ships. Then they visited the
land of the lotus-eaters
where his men who ate the flowery food no longer wanted to return.
On the island of the Cyclops, Odysseus and his men first stole his
lambs and cheese, but their
leader wanted to go back to meet the one-eyed giant and receive the
gifts of a guest. However,
the Cyclops ate two of his men for each meal after he had blocked the
door with a huge boulder
until Odysseus and four others made a log into a pointed weapon and
put out the eye of the drunk
Polyphemus. When asked his name, Odysseus said that he is called
Nobody so that when
Polyphemus asked for help because Nobody was murdering him by craft,
his friends ignored
him. Removing the boulder to let out his lambs, Odysseus and his men
sneaked out tied to the
fleeces of the furry creatures. Odysseus proclaimed that the gods had
paid back Polyphemus for
eating his guests; but as they were escaping, the Cyclops prayed that
his father Poseidon would
prevent Odysseus from getting home.
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9
After losing a wind that had been given him when his men become
suspicious of their leader,
only Odysseus and the men on his ship escaped from the Aeolian island.
Next half of the men
were turned into pigs by the magic of Circe; but Hermes gave Odysseus
another drug which
blocked her magic and told him to pull his sword on her and make her
vow not to injure them
further before going to bed with her, and Odysseus made sure that his
men had been transformed
back into humans. Odysseus asked to go home; but the goddess told him
that he would have to
visit the soul of the prophet Teirisias in the realm of the dead in
the halls of Hades and
Persephone. As they were leaving, one of his men fell off a ladder and
broke his neck; dying, his
soul went down to Hades.
In the underworld of the afterlife Odysseus first met the soul of his
companion, who had died in
the fall. Then he met his mother and Teirisias, who warned him to
leave the sheep of the Sun
unmolested. Odysseus also saw many other souls of the dead including
the judge Minos. After
returning, Odysseus was warned by Circe how to meet challenges he
would face. When passing
the sirens he commanded his men to tie him to the mast of the ship and
not release him no matter
how much he pleaded. Then he put wax in their ears so they would not
be influenced by the
sounds of the sirens. Carefully he had to steer between Scylla and
Charybdis. However,
Eurylochus led the men to take sheep from the Sun, and they were
killed when Zeus threw a
thunderbolt at their ship. Only Odysseus survived, and nine days later
he came upon the island of
Calypso.
Having heard his story the Phaeacians generously take Odysseus to
Ithaca, and he finds his way
to the home of his old swineherd. There Athena disguises him as an old
man in rags. The
swineherd Eumaeus is still loyal to Odysseus but is skeptical of the
old man's story that
Odysseus is on his way home. Next Telemachus returns to Ithaca too by
way of Pylos and is
guided to the swineherd's dwelling. The swineherd goes to tell
Penelope to send the housekeeper.
Using a golden wand Athena restores the youth of Odysseus, and he
reveals himself to his son
Telemachus. They plot against the suitors together, and he tells
Telemachus to put away the
weapons when he nods to him. At the same time the suitors are
considering the murder of
Telemachus, but Anphinomus advises them to consult the gods first.
Penelope hears of the plot
and tells the suitors it is not holy to plot ills. Once Odysseus had
restrained them, but she accuses
them, "Now you devour his home without payment and woo his wife and
kill off his son, and
you anger me very much."7 Before the swineherd returns, Athena uses
the wand again to turn
Odysseus back into the old man.
Odysseus enters the halls of his house as an old beggar. Telemachus
and Eumaeus encourage
him to beg for food, because shame is not good for a needy man.
Antinous refuses to share with
the beggar and after a quarrel hits him with a stool; but he is
reprimanded by one of the other
suitors.
Antinous, you did not do well to hit a hapless wanderer.
You are cursed, if perchance he is some heavenly god.
Yes, the gods in the semblance of alien strangers
do appear in all forms and go about among cities
looking upon the excess and the good order of men.8
Get any book for free on:
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GREEK CULTURE TO 500 BC
10
Penelope tells Eumaeus she wants to ask the beggar about news of her
husband Odysseus. After
dinner another beggar would not allow the disguised Odysseus to sit in
the doorway, but he is
beaten by Odysseus after the suitors encourage them to fight. Penelope
suggests to the suitors
that she might marry if she is offered enough presents. One of the
maids, who has been sleeping
with the suitor Eurymachus, scolds Odysseus after he tells the maids
to stay with Penelope;
Eurymachus throws a stool at Odysseus, but he dodges it.
Odysseus tells Telemachus that they must put aside the weapons of war
and beguile the suitors
with deception, and Telemachus orders them put away. Still in disguise
Odysseus tells Penelope
a story in which he claims he is a friend of Odysseus. His nurse
Eurycleia, who is helping
Odysseus to bathe, notices a scar near his knee and realizes that he
is Odysseus; but Athena
distracts Penelope, and Odysseus keeps the nurse quiet. She volunteers
to tell her master which
serving women have been faithful and which have not, but Odysseus
declares that he will be able
to observe them himself. That night Odysseus plots in his heart how to
revenge himself on the
suitors.
The next day another suitor throws an ox's foot at the begging
Odysseus, but then Penelope
inspired by Athena promises marriage to the one who can string the bow
of Odysseus and shoot
an arrow through twelve axes. Odysseus asks his swineherd and oxherd
who they would fight for
if Odysseus returns, and finding them loyal he reveals himself to
them. After Telemachus and all
the suitors fail to string the bow, Odysseus does so and shoots an
arrow through all the axes.
When there is no thought of slaughter in the heart of Antinous,
Odysseus shoots an arrow
through his neck. Thinking it was an accident, the other suitors say
he will not be allowed to
attend other contests and that he will be destroyed for killing the
greatest young man in Ithaca.
Hearing that he is Odysseus returned, Eurymachus offers to give him
satisfaction in land and
goods for all that the suitors have taken, but Odysseus replies that
no amount of goods would
stop him from slaughtering them. So Eurymachus attacks him with a
sword and is killed by an
arrow. Telemachus goes to get weapons for himself and the two loyal
servants while Odysseus
slays more suitors; but the goatherd Melanthius gets some weapons for
the suitors. The suitors
continue to be slaughtered by Odysseus and his son, and only the
singer Phemius and the herald
Medon, who beg for mercy, are spared. Then Odysseus asks his nurse
Eurycleia which of the
fifty maids dishonored him and which are innocent, and she tells him
that twelve were
shameless. After making these women clear away the dead bodies and
clean up the mess,
Odysseus hangs them in a painful death.
Admitting to Telemachus that they had killed the best youth of Ithaca,
Odysseus suggests they
cover up the murders by making it seem like it was a wedding
celebration. Then he reveals
himself to Penelope and tells her his story. Finally he goes to visit
his father Laertes; first he tests
him, but then he is recognized by his father. Odysseus is also
reunited with his servant Dolius
and his family. Meanwhile relatives of the dead suitors are plotting
revenge. Zeus suggests that
Odysseus be allowed to reign and that oblivion for the murders occur
so that they may love one
another as before and live in wealth and peace. But the families of
Odysseus and Dolius put on
their armor to fight the approaching adversaries. Athena gives Laertes
the strength to kill their
leader Eupeithes. Odysseus and Telemachus would have destroyed them
all according to Homer
had not Athena in the guise of Mentor intervened and called off the
war by getting both sides to
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11
take an oath. This abrupt ending by divine intervention of a situation
of dismal human conflict
will also be seen in Greek theater.
The Iliad and Odyssey by Homer are astonishing works of poetry and are
not only the first great
works of narrative literature (with the exception of the Epic of
Gilgamesh) but are still among the
greatest works ever written. Yet the violence of this early period and
the glorification of war and
killing leaves much to be desired ethically. This primitive tendency
to make acts of killing other
human beings heroic and to build a story with such killing as the
climax is still too present in
contemporary dramas. The interaction between the gods and goddesses
and humans in Homer
and the depiction of souls after death both indicate a spiritual
awareness of souls, but he also
projected human weaknesses on to divine characters. Unfortunately in
Homer the ethics of the
gods and goddesses is not much better than that of the humans.
Hesiod and Homeric Hymns
Not long after Homer in the 8th century BC Hesiod lived as a farmer,
but inspired by the Muses
as he was tending sheep he became a poet and won a tripod at funeral
games in Euboea.
Legendary accounts of his death tell how Delphi warned him that death
would overtake him in
the fair grove of Nemean Zeus. Hesiod avoided Nemea near Corinth but
retired in Locris, which
turns out to have been sacred to Nemean Zeus. There he was murdered by
two men who accused
him of seducing their sister. His body was thrown into the sea but was
said to have been returned
to shore by dolphins.
In the Theogony Hesiod described the birth of the gods and goddesses.
Similar to cosmogonies of
the near east and Egypt, the universe was formed from Chaos as the
foundation of the Earth and
the cosmic principle of Love (Eros). From Night came the Ether and
Day, while the Earth bore
Heaven (Uranus) and from Heaven the Ocean and divine beings of
assorted shapes and sizes,
some of whom were hated and hidden by their father Heaven. Not liking
this, Earth made a
sickle her son Cronos used to cut off the genitals of Uranus which
were thrown into the sea and
gave birth to Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love. She was
accompanied by Eros and desire.
From Night came doom, fate, and death, from whom came sleep and
dreams. Night also
produced blame, woe, the three destinies, nemesis, deceit, friendship,
age, and strife. From strife
came toil, forgetfulness, famine, sorrows, fighting, battles, murders,
manslaughters, quarrels,
lying, disputes, lawlessness and ruin (which are the same for Hesiod),
and oath.
Having learned from Heaven and Earth that his son would overthrow him,
Cronos ate his
children as they were born - Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and
Poseidon; but Zeus was saved by
his mother Rhea at Crete. Given a stone in swaddling clothes, Cronos
swallowed it and then
regurgitated all the others. Zeus freed his bound brothers and
sisters, and these Olympians then
defeated the Titans in a battle of the gods that established Zeus as
king. These violent stories
seem to reflect more of a projection of human conflict than a divine
model for better human
behavior.
In the Works and Days Hesiod criticized his brother for taking more
than his share of their
inheritance and exhorted him to a life of hard work, virtue, and
justice. Hesiod recognized the
will of Zeus as making some strong and bringing the strong low,
humbling the proud, raising the
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obscure, and straightening the crooked. He distinguished the
beneficial striving of competition
from the violent strife of evil war and battle. The former urges
people to work, plow, plant, and
put their houses in order to obtain wealth. Potters, craftsmen,
minstrels, and even beggars
compete with each other. Thus he encouraged his brother Perses to
strive in this useful way. Zeus
hid fire from humans, but Prometheus stole it and gave it to them. In
revenge Zeus had
Hephaestus fashion a woman endowed with everything (Pandora) and sent
an urn full of plagues
as a gift to Epimetheus, who thought about things after they occurred
in contrast to his brother
Prometheus, who thought before. Pandora opened the jar and out came
all the plagues and finally
hope. These diseases demonstrate, according to Hesiod, that there is
no way to escape the will of
Zeus.
Hesiod then told how humanity degenerated from a golden age, when
people lived on a fruitful
earth under the rule of Cronos to the silver age, when they began to
accumulate wealth and
wrong each other to the bronze age, when hard-hearted men loved
violence and using bronze
implements and weapons destroyed each other. Then Zeus created a
fourth race of heroes and
demi-gods, and some of them were destroyed in the battles at Thebes
and Troy. Yet others lived
apart and working the grain-giving earth flourished. The fifth
generation is an age of iron when
people never rest from labor and sorrow by day and from perishing at
night. Hesiod foresaw a
dismal time when parents would not agree with their children, guests
with their hosts nor
comrades with each other. People will dishonor their parents and not
repay them for their
upbringing, for might shall be their right. The honest, just and good
will not be favored, but the
evil-doers and violent will be praised. Strength will replace
reverence, and the wicked will hurt
and lie about the worthy.
Nevertheless Hesiod urged his brother not to foster violence but
rather justice, because justice
defeats outrage by the end of the race. The fool only learns this by
suffering. When people give
straight judgments to strangers, their city flourishes, and the people
prosper, resulting in peace.
But those who practice violence are punished by Zeus, who sees and
understands all. Zeus has
ordained that fish and beasts and birds devour one another, not
knowing right; but humans are
given right which proves by far the best. Whoever knows right is given
prosperity by Zeus; but
whoever deliberately lies hurts justice and faces a dark future. The
road to vice is easy and
shallow, but it takes hard work to climb the long and steep path to
virtue which is rough at first;
but when one reaches the top, it becomes easy.
Wealth should not be seized by force nor stolen by deception, for it
will not last since the gods
will bring that house down. Similarly wronging suppliants or guests,
committing adultery,
offending fatherless children, abusing a father with harsh words all
make Zeus angry and will
bring heavy requitals. Hesiod suggested calling one's friend to a
feast while leaving one's enemy
alone, giving to those who give but not to those who don't. Giving is
good, but taking freezes the
heart. Add to what you have so that you will always have enough, but
base gain is as bad as ruin.
He advised getting a witness to a wage agreement, for trust and
mistrust can bring ruin. Then
Hesiod presented a long discourse on the best times of the year to do
agricultural tasks. Hesiod
also advised people to speak sparingly, for people will speak badly of
those who speak evil.
Hesiod recommended integrity and warned against letting one's face put
one's heart to shame. He
concluded that happiness and fortune will come to those who know these
things and do their
work without offending the immortal gods by avoiding transgression.
The ethics of Hesiod is
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summarized in a saying of Rhadamanthus from his works, "If one sows
evil, one will reap evil
increase; if they do to him as he has done, it will be true justice."9
Hymns to Demeter, Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite, and other gods and
goddesses were called
Homeric, but scholars believe they were written well after the time of
Homer and Hesiod. The
hymn to Demeter gives the myth behind the mysteries of Eleusis that
were so important in Greek
religion. When Persephone is carried off into the underworld by its
god Hades, her mother
Demeter (which means "barley mother") searches for her while fasting,
causing a famine on the
earth. At Eleusis she takes a job as a nurse to a child she nearly
makes immortal by putting him
in the fire each night until his mother stops her. Then the
Eleusinians build a temple to Demeter
and pray that she end the famine. Finally Zeus sends for her, and
Demeter insists that her
daughter be released. Persephone is filled with joy; but before she
leaves Hades she eats some
pomegranate seeds, and thus she has to return there a third part of
every year just as seeds are
buried but return to life. The land becomes fertile and wealthy once
more. For centuries people
came from all over Greece to fast and be initiated at Eleusis into the
mother-daughter mysteries
that explained to them the secrets of agriculture and spiritual rebirth.
Apollo is the son of Zeus by Leto, and a temple is built for the
oracular god at Delos. Resenting
that Zeus gave birth to Athena from his head, his sister and wife Hera
leaves his bed for a year
and gives birth to cruel Tryphaon to be a plague to humans. However,
Apollo with his bow
shoots and kills the snake-like monster at a place called Pythian
which became the famous oracle
used by generations of Greeks to seek the divine will. In the form of
a dolphin Apollo also
guided Cretans from Knossos to his temple, where he urged them to
follow justice in their hearts.
Hermes is born to Zeus by the reclusive Maia in a cave, becomes a
thief by night, and plays the
lyre in the day time, for he made a musical instrument out of a
tortoise shell. Hermes steals the
cattle of Apollo and is scolded by his mother. Apollo discovers from
an old man who witnessed
the theft that Hermes has taken his cattle. Hermes retreats into his
cradle and responds to
Apollo's accusations with crafty words. Apollo carries Hermes off, and
they go to Mount
Olympus, where the gods are assembled. Hermes swears to their father
that he did not drive the
cows to his house. Zeus asks Hermes to lead them to the cattle, which
he does. Apollo is about to
bind up Hermes; but the youngster begins to play the lyre, and Apollo
is so enchanted that they
become friends. Hermes gives him the lyre and offers to teach him
music, and in return Apollo
makes him keeper of the herd. Hermes promises not to steal from Apollo
and is commissioned
by Zeus to establish barter among people.
Only the goddesses Athena, Artemis, and Hestia are not moved by the
powers of Aphrodite.
Even Zeus is swayed by love and desire; he causes Aphrodite to join in
love with the mortal man
Anchises, and she gives birth to the Trojan hero Aeneas. The father
Anchises must never say that
the boy's mother is a goddess, or he will be struck down by Zeus.
Formerly Aphrodite could
mate the immortals with mortal women; but now that she has conceived a
child with a mortal
man, she can no longer have this power among the gods.
Aristocrats, Tyrants, and Poets
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Phoenicians founded a colony at Carthage in the late 9th century BC,
and the Greeks began
colonizing Italy and Sicily in the middle of the eighth century. Cumae
was founded by its
namesake Aeolians and reconciled pioneers from Chalcis and Eretria,
who had fought each other
with a convention that did not allow long-range weapons. According to
Livy, Eretrian
colonization of the island of Corfu preceded movement to Cumae. Named
after bronze, Chalcis
was active in the metal trade which stimulated these efforts. With the
increase of wealth
economic inequalities led many land-hungry Greeks (now first named
that by the Latins) to settle
in the west. According to Thucydides, Chalcidians led by Theocles
founded Naxos. The next
year Corinthians established Syracuse, and five years after that
Theocles and the Chalcidians
drove out the Sicels by force of arms to found Leontini and later
Catana. When Corinthians
drove the Eretrians from Corfu, they went back to Eretria but were not
allowed to land,
indicating the dire need for colonization.
For a long time after the Trojan war and the Dorian invasions
Thucydides heard of no wars
except the usual border contests between rival neighbors until
conflicts over colonization and
trade in the late 8th century BC seem to have led to the Lelantine war
between Chalcis and
Eretria in which Chalcis was aided by Samos, Thessaly, and Corinth,
while Eretria was helped
by Miletus and Megara. The extensive use of cavalry and chariots by
both sides indicate that this
may have been the last of the aristocratic wars, for already the
Chalcidians were probably using
their bronze technology for armor that was to revolutionize wars and society.
The first known use of the word tyrannis was applied by the poet
Archilochus to the Lydian king
Gyges. According to Herodotus, Gyges was induced by King Candaules to
see the queen naked,
who resenting it made Gyges choose between death and regicide. Another
account has the Carian
king Arselis killing the Lydian king and taking home the spoils, while
his soldier Gyges seized
the throne. Gyges became king of Lydia in 687 BC and ruled for 35
years, contributing much
treasure to the Delphic oracle for confirming his kingship, using the
Greek alphabet, and
attacking Troy, Smyrna, Colophon, Miletus and Magnesia. When
Cimmerians from the north
were invading, Gyges got imperial assistance from the Assyrians and
sent the captured
Cimmerian chiefs to Nineveh. Then Gyges revolted from Assyria by
sending Ionian and Carian
mercenaries to help liberate Egypt from Assyrian domination. But the
Cimmerians returned and
without Assyrian help, Sardis was taken; Gyges was slain in battle,
Ashurbanipal claiming it
answered his prayer he made because Gyges had helped his enemy Psamtik
in Egypt.
The Cimmerians then attacked the Greek cities, as the Ephesian poet
Callinus tried to inspire the
citizens to fight. The descendants and successors of Gyges drove the
Cimmerians out of Anatolia
by the end of the 7th century and expanded their sovereignty to the
Halys River. Lydia as a
center of commerce and wealth in the middle of the seventh century BC
minted a mixture of gold
and silver as the first coined money. The practice soon spread to
Miletus and Samos and then to
Chalcis and Eretria.
Greek poetry became personal with Archilochus, who faced
discrimination from aristocratic
privilege because his mother was a slave. Most of his poetry is lost,
but the fragments tell of his
experiences. He enjoyed drinking even while on watch aboard ship. He
commemorated a
shipwreck in which one man was saved by a dolphin, because he
previously bought and released
a dolphin caught by fishermen. He went with his father to colonize
Thasos but found the
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15
uncivilized country "like a donkey's back crowned with wild woods."10
The land was not good,
and he found nothing but trouble. He fell in love with Neoboule; but
when marriage was denied
him, he broke into obscenity, said he knew how to repay wrongs with
wrongs, and abused them
verbally so much that she and her family reportedly hanged themselves.
So Archilochus became
a mercenary, like a Carian, calling his spear his barley bread and
wine; he served Aries, god of
battles, even though he knew well the lovely gift of the Muses. In
fighting the Thracians he
abandoned his shield to save his life, singing he could get another
shield; but this was so much
against the code of honor that he was banned from Sparta. His answer was:
That man, my friend, who cares what people say
Will not find many pleasures comes his way.11
Neither did Archilochus care for the gold of Gyges, godlike works, nor
a great tyranny. He wrote
of the grim work of swords and the spear-famed lords of Euboea. He
made fun of dandy soldiers
with their Asian horse-hair plumes. He warned against rejoicing or
sorrowing too much and
sought to understand the tide that rules human fortunes. Finally he
wrote of young men keeping
their courage and of victory being heaven's to give before he was
killed while fighting.
Aristocratic Colophon had been the most powerful Ionian city until
Lydia's power increased.
Xenophanes later explained that they learned luxuries from Lydians
while they were still free of
tyranny. A thousand of them met dressed in purple with perfumes and
proud hair. Memnermus
praised those who had driven Lydian horsemen from the plain of the
Hermos. He lamented the
shortness of youth and the troubles and pain of age that make death a
gain. Memnermus wrote
the first Greek love poetry, asking what life and joy could there be
without golden Aphrodite. He
wrote the wonderful line I translate, "Let truth be between you and
me; of all things it is most
just." He encouraged you to rejoice in your heart, because pitiless
citizens may speak better or
worse of you.
Thucydides explained that as Greek power grew, revenues increased,
people sought to acquire
more wealth, and tyrannies replaced the hereditary monarchies and
aristocratic prerogatives.
Pheidon of Argos was described by Aristotle as a king who ended up
becoming a tyrant. Pheidon
unified the Argolid area and defeated the Spartans at Hysiae in 669
BC. The next year he took
control of the games at Olympia whose traditional founding date of 776
BC is the main reference
point for Greek chronology. Pheidon is also credited with
standardizing weights and measures
for the Peloponnesians, indicating a significant increase in the power
of governmental authority.
His military successes were likely the result of hoplite or heavy
infantry troops, who wore the
new bronze armor and carried the Argive double-gripped shield.
Situated at the isthmus that connects the Peloponnesian peninsula to
mainland Greece, Corinth
became a successful commercial center in the 8th century BC, and its
pottery was traded widely.
Their hereditary Dorian rulers called Bacchiadae were so exclusive
that they only married within
their clan. A Bacchiad epic poet named Eumelus wrote an account of the
kingship to justify their
house. Tolls at the isthmus amassed tremendous wealth, and Corinthians
excelled in crafts.
Corinth was also famous for worshipping Aphrodite and enjoying sexual
love. Its colonies
became so powerful that the people of Corcyra were able to defeat
Corinth in what Thucydides
called the first Greek naval battle in about 664 BC.
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Legend surrounds the birth and rise of Cypselus, whose mother as a
lame Bacchiadae was
allowed to marry an outside aristocrat. A few years after the
humiliating battle with Corcyra,
Cypselus overthrew and banished the Bacchiad clan and took control of
the government by force
as a tyrant. His leadership was successful enough that it was said he
needed no bodyguard.
Cypselus established more colonies along the northwest coast, and the
Acarnanian peninsula of
Leucas was made an island separated by a canal. Grateful for the
approval of the Delphic oracle,
Cypselus had a treasury built there that would soon hold Lydian gifts as well.
After ruling Corinth for about 30 years, Cypselus was succeeded by his
son Periander, who ruled
for more than 40 years and had stone pavement with grooves built
across the isthmus to improve
transport. Periander's laws restricted the number of slaves, luxury,
sitting idly in the marketplace,
and living beyond one's means. He was always devising work for the
citizens to keep them busy.
Periander is listed as one of the seven sages perhaps because his
court supported the arts and
poetry. Yet he was also described as a fighting man always involved in
war and building
warships that were active on both seas. Although he said that good
will is a better bodyguard
than arms, his bodyguard had 300 men. The man who gave tyranny a bad
name was even
supposed to have said that popular rule is better than tyranny. Yet
his policy was to punish not
only those who do wrong but those who are likely to.
Periander married the daughter of Procles, the tyrant of Epidaurus,
but later put her to death in a
rage when she was slandered by some concubines, whom he then burnt.
This alienated his most
intelligent son Lycophron to Corcyra, where he (and possibly another
son) was killed by the
citizens. Periander reacted by killing 50 Corcyreans and seizing 300
children to send to Lydia to
be eunuchs, but at Samos people gave them sanctuary in the temple of
Artemis and fed them.
After communicating with Thrasybulus, the tyrant of Miletus, with whom
he made war on
Sicyon, Periander killed and exiled outstanding citizens. During his
rule the Greek colony of
Naucratis was established in Egypt, and he named his son after the
Egyptian Saite kings; but
Psammetichus was killed about 581 BC after ruling only three years. An
oligarchy was set up
and was to last for two centuries, though some of the colonies became
independent. Corinthians
had improved naval ships by adding a second and then a third row of
oars as a trireme. After the
tyranny ended, Corinth elected a council from eight tribes.
Tyranny in Sicyon began with Orthagoras, who rose up from the army in
a war against Achaean
Pellene and overthrew a Dorian aristocracy in the seventh century BC.
His descendant
Cleisthenes became popular in Sicyon in the early sixth century BC by
defending their
independence against attack from Miletus and Corinth; he renamed his
own tribe "rulers of the
people" and the three Dorian tribes after pigs, asses, and swine.
Cleisthenes supported the first
Sacred War that ended the Cirrhan exploitation of pilgrims to Delphi
by destroying the city of
Cirrha. A league or Delphic Amphictiony was organized to protect the
temple. Gymnastics were
added to the musical and athletic contests of the Pythian games.
Cleisthenes won victories in
chariot races there and at Olympia and offered his daughter to the
most outstanding suitor.
Tyranny in Sicyon ended in 555 BC when Aeschines was deposed by
Spartan power, and the
Delphic oracle's denunciation of tyranny was respected, as an
oligarchy was established.
Megara, hemmed in between Corinth and Athens, also sent out colonies
and eventually was
taken over in the late 7th century BC by the tyrant Theagenes, who got
the poor on his side by
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slaughtering the cattle of the rich and having a water-supply system
built. He was expelled by
oligarchs of the woolen industry, who in turn were thrown out by the
lower classes; but their
attempt to make creditors give back their interest to the debtors
brought back an oligarchy to
power. The poet Theognis regretted the loss of nobility. Theognis
wrote poetry to his friend
Cyrnus, warning him against anything dishonorable or unjust and
advising him to consort only
with the good; for the bad cannot save one from trouble and ruin nor
do they share good things.
Those who do good to the bad get little thanks. Human action is
usually vanity with results often
differing from the intention, but the gods accomplish and know
everything. It is better to have
little wealth and be pious than be rich with ill-gotten gain.
The following statement of Theognis was inscribed on the temple at
Delos: "Most beautiful is the
most just, and best is health, but most pleasant is to get what one
loves." (255-256) Theognis
noted that many of the bad are rich and many of the good poor, but
virtue endures more than
possessions. A good man has understanding that remains; but when God
bestows wealth on the
bad, they are unable to restrain their evil. In poverty the baser kind
and the better are shown for
what they are. He cautioned against being too eager in any matter lest
one be drawn into
something evil that seems good. Force no one by evil; to the just
nothing is better than doing
good. Theognis asked that peace and wealth have the city so that he
may celebrate with others;
he did not love evil war. He warned against responding to the herald's
cry, because we may not
be fighting for our own country; he considered war dishonorable.
Nothing is better than
understanding, and nothing more bitter than lacking it.
Theognis expressed the pessimism of his time, lamenting that Hope was
the only god left, for
honesty, temperance, and the graces were gone along with human trust
and awe of the immortal
gods. The pious generation had passed; laws were no longer recognized,
nor was there order
(eunomia). Theognis clung to friendship especially with boys and did
not desire riches. He told
his friend never to do or suffer anything dishonorable and have the
greatest virtue. Honor and
fear the gods, for they give humans the best thing - understanding.
Theognis believed that there
would be no punishment (nemesis) from the gods for bringing down by
any means a tyrant who
oppressed the people.
The aristocrats' treatment of people became so bad that at Mytilene on
Lesbos the Penthelids
walked the streets with clubs knocking down citizens they did not
like, causing Megacles and
later Smerdes to kill the Penthelids. The tyrant Melanchrus arose but
was soon overthrown and
killed by nobles that included Pittacus and the older brothers of the
poet Alcaeus. In fighting
over the control of the Hellespont, Pittacus defeated the Olympic
champion and Athenian general
Phrynon in single combat by concealing a net in his shield to entangle
him. The people of
Mytilene offered Pittacus half the land for which he had fought, but
he declined and arranged for
everyone to have an equal lot, saying, "The equal is greater than the
greater," by which he meant
that the fairness of equality would lead to renown and security, but
greed to disgrace and fear.
However, the Corinthian tyrant Periander arbitrated the conflict in
favor of Athens. When the
popular leader Myrsilus arose in Mytilene, Pittacus renounced the
aristocratic party of Alcaeus
and supported Myrsilus, whom the party of Alcaeus plotted to murder;
but being discovered they
fled. Myrsilus attacked these exiles but was killed. Nonetheless
Pittacus was honored and
entrusted with the government of Mytilene, ruled for ten years with
moderation and restraint, and
then retired, refusing money offered him by Croesus.
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Considered one of the seven sages of this era Pittacus believed that
mercy is better than revenge
and was said to have pardoned the murderer of his son and to have
released Alcaeus. To
discourage drunkenness he doubled the penalty for any offense
committed while intoxicated. He
said that it was hard to be good, and he noted that even the gods
don't fight against necessity and
that the office can reveal the person. He said the best thing is to do
well the work in hand, and
the best rule is by laws. He urged people to win victories without
violence and said that the
prudent provide against difficulties before they arise, while the
courageous deal with them when
they have arisen. He advised against announcing plans ahead so that if
they fail, one will not be
laughed at. He counseled against speaking ill of a friend or an enemy,
and he exhorted people to
practice piety, love moderation, and cherish truth, fidelity, skill,
cleverness, sociability, and
carefulness.
In fighting for Mytilene over Sigeum the poet Alcaeus, like
Archilochus, left his shield on the
field. Alcaeus criticized Pittacus as low-born, vulgar, boastful,
arrogant, and envious with many
boorish qualities. Exiled Alcaeus traveled to Egypt and after many
years ended up in Lydia with
his brother, who had been a mercenary for Babylon. Their rebellion
against Mytilene was
supported by Croesus but failed, and this is when Pittacus may have
pardoned Alcaeus. The
poetry of Alcaeus celebrated drinking. He believed that money made the
man, that wealth is the
best and most desired of all the gods, and that poverty was the worst evil.
A friend and contemporary of Alcaeus at Lesbos, Sappho commented that
the exiles found peace
difficult to endure. Sappho became famous for her verses, devotion to
Aphrodite, and her love
for the women of her circle, from which we get the modern meaning of
Lesbian. Little is known
of her life, but apparently Sappho was married and had a daughter more
beautiful than she.
Women came from other places to celebrate and sing with her. She wrote
that whoever is
beautiful is seen, but that whoever is good will also be beautiful.
Different than Alcaeus, she
found from experience that neighbors find wealth without goodness
harmful but that both
together are the height of happiness. Like the sages, she warned
against anger and a babbling
tongue. Believing that love is more powerful than armies, she wrote to
her friend Anactoria that
she moves her more than the cavalry and armored soldiers of Lydia.
In Lydia King Alyattes ruled for more than half a century and was
fooled into making an
armistice with Miletus, whose tyrant Thrasybulus was advised by Delphi
and warned by
Periander to pretend they had ample food after suffering the
destruction of twelve annual
harvests, though Alyattes did order a massacre at Colophon. Lydia's
kingdom came into conflict
with the expanding Assyrian empire but made peace with them after an
eclipse of the sun in 585
BC predicted by the Milesian philosopher Thales. Alyattes also
attacked and destroyed Magnesia
and Smyrna, as we learn from the poet Theognis, but the Lydian horses
were defeated by the
men of Clazomenae using war-dogs.
Alyattes was succeeded by Croesus about 560 BC with the help of a loan
from prosperous
Ephesus; but then Croesus laid siege to Ephesus, and its young tyrant
Pindarus gave up his
power so that peace could be arranged. Thus Croesus forced the Greek
cities in Asia to pay him
tribute and began to plan an attack on the islands but was dissuaded
by Bias (some say Pittacus),
who appeared in Sardis saying (falsely) that the islanders were
preparing an attack against the
Lydian capital of Sardis. Bias explained to Croesus that just as he
might want to defeat them on
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19
land, they might want to defeat Lydian ships at sea to revenge their
brothers on the mainland
who had been enslaved by Lydia. So Croesus stopped the ship-building
and made peace with the
islands. Encouraged by a Delphic prophecy that he would destroy a
great empire, Croesus
attacked the Persians about 544 BC but was defeated and captured,
destroying his own empire.
Miletus retained some independence, but after the fall of the tyrants,
a bitter conflict developed
between the wealthy and the workers in which each side murdered the
children of their enemies.
Even the poets Phocylides and Demodicus exchanged bitter words, as the
land was devastated.
Finally some Parians were delegated to search throughout the territory
for lands not devastated
and summoned their owners to an assembly, which led to peace and
Miletus becoming the most
prosperous Greek city in Asia. Phocylides supported this effort and
encouraged people to
become wealthy by cultivating their fields, though he himself believed
that moderation and being
in the middle class was best. He was among the first to make the word
for excellence mean
virtue when he wrote. "In justice all of virtue (areté) is
summarized," though he recommended
getting a living first and then virtue after that.
On the Ionian island of Samos the aristocratic landlords replaced the
king. In the middle of the
seventh century BC they got ships from Corinth, traded with Sparta,
and one of their merchant
ships went beyond the Mediterranean Sea to the silver mines of
Tartessus in Iberia. They sent the
poet Semonides to found a colony on the island of Amorgas. Semonides
satirized women by
comparing them to various animals, the only positive one being the
busy bee. As with Hesiod's
portrayal of Pandora bringing plagues to humanity, this reflects the
patriarchy and negative
views of women in Greek culture. However, the Samian oligarchs were
overthrown when the
generals they appointed returned with 600 captured Megarians, whom
they slyly unchained,
armed with daggers, and allowed to murder the aristocratic council.
When Samos suffered under Persian domination, Polycrates rose to power
as tyrant in 532 BC
with the help of his two brothers, but he soon killed one and exiled
the other (Syloson).
Polycrates borrowed mercenaries from Lygdamis of Naxos, recruited a
thousand local archers,
and mobilized a fleet to engage in piracy and wars and to trade with
Egypt at Naucratis.
However, Polycrates sent his oligarchic political rivals on forty
ships to help the Persian emperor
Cambyses attack Egypt, but was able to fight them off when they
returned even when they got
Sparta's help. These Samian exiles then returned to piracy and settled
in Cydonia on Crete until
they were attacked and defeated by an Aeginetan fleet in 519 BC.
Meanwhile Polycrates
collected the songs of Homer and welcomed the erotic poets Ibycus and
Anacreon, though the
philosopher Pythagoras left Samos for Italy. However, in 522 BC
Oroites in Sardis offered him
half his treasure if Polycrates would come to protect him from
Cambyses, whom he said wanted
to assassinate him. When Polycrates went to Sardis, he was murdered
there, and the next year
Darius succeeding Cambyses had Oroites executed by his own Persian guards.
Polycrates had appointed his ambassador Maeandrius to succeed him;
Maeandrius resigned his
power and declared isonomia or equal rights but started having the
aristocrats murdered secretly
one by one before he was driven out by Syloson, the brother of
Polycrates who was supported by
the Persians. Maeandrius left his brother to attack the Persian
noblemen and fled to Cleomenes of
Sparta who refused to help him. In revenge the Persians were said to
have massacred all the
males on Samos.
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Anacreon was from Ionian Teos, but he left there about 540 BC after
Sardis was taken by the
Persians and his home was threatened. The Teans sailed to Abdera in
Thrace and took over the
colony from the Clazomenians. There he wrote an epitaph for a warrior
who died fighting for
Abdera; for those who wished to fight he said let them fight. Most of
his poetry, however, was
about love and drinking. He fell in love with a Thracian girl and
wanted to ride her like a horse.
He was invited to Samos by Polycrates to instruct his son in music and
poetry. He wrote of the
political party called the "Mutterers" who held sway. Anacreon sang of
the love for boys to make
Polycrates more gentle to the Samians, according to Maximus of Tyre.
Anacreon was made
welcome in Athens by Hipparchus and spent many years there. His poetry
was so popular that it
was widely imitated for three centuries.
Spartan Military Laws
The southern part of the Peloponnesian peninsula was called Laconia,
and its capital city was the
legendary Sparta of Menelaus; the area Sparta ruled was called
Lacedaemon. After the fall of the
Mycenaeans, the Dorians took over this area of rare iron mines and
established in Sparta a dual
kingship, commanding the army and making war as they chose. The laws
of Sparta were said to
have been given by the legendary Lycurgus shortly after the time of
Homer. The two kings were
joined by 28 men over the age of 60 elected for life by the assembly
to the council of elders,
which was the supreme court for criminal cases. Five ephors elected
annually by the assembly
administered and judged civil cases. The assembly consisted of 9,000
men over the age of 30;
they were treated all alike and each had their own allotment of land,
though Aristotle noted that
the number of citizens dropped to 1,000. The farm work was done by the
Helots, serfs attached
to the land who could not be freed nor sold. Eventually a secret
police was instituted to counter
the threat of a Helot revolution. Every year the ephors declared war
on the Helots so that young
citizens could slay any Helot without fear of being tried for murder.
Those who lived in
surrounding areas involved in industry, commerce, and navigation were
not considered free
either.
The citizens lived their entire lives under strict discipline. Weak
and deformed infants were
exposed or thrown off a cliff. At the age of seven they joined a
"herd" under the direction of an
older officer, and from 13 to 20 their class went through a sequence
of harsh discipline and
training while not even knowing their own homes and relatives. Their
twenties were devoted to
military service, and they did not become full citizens until they
were 30. They continued to fight
as reserves in war until they were 60, after which they only had to
defend the homeland.
Plutarch in his Life of Lycurgus credited the lawgiver with
redistribution of the land into equal
lots, but Aristotle citing the poet Tyrtaeus explained that citizens
ruined by the Messenian War
wanted the land redistributed. Other reforms Plutarch attributed to
Lycurgus were the calling in
of all gold and silver so that iron could be used as money, outlawing
superfluous arts, and
instituting common meals. For Lycurgus children were not the property
of their parents but of
the whole community. Plutarch described the strict Spartan discipline
designed to perfect the
ready exercise of obedience. Youngsters were not given enough food so
that they would learn
how to steal; if they were caught, they were whipped without mercy for
being incompetent.
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21
They did sing but of virtue and discipline. Terpander sang that in
them spear and song met, and
justice walked with them. The lyric poet Alcman sang that he knew all
the songs of the birds and
that experiment is the beginning of learning. Lycurgus was said to
have proved that education
was more important than heredity by training one dog from a litter to
hunt while feeding another;
then tossing out food and bones and releasing a hare, one dog chased
the hare while the other ate
the food. Others say that he trained a puppy from a hunting breed to
be lazy and an inferior
puppy to hunt, concluding that we must train ourselves and learn what
is good throughout our
lives. Their regular training and exercise were so strict that war
seemed like a vacation. To see
them marching to flutes in strict discipline to the fatal fight was
described as a magnificent and
terrible sight. Those who resisted them they cut to pieces, but those
who fled and surrendered
they treated magnanimously so that others would do the same.
The entire city was like a camp with the men living in barracks. Even
on his wedding night, a
Spartan visited his wife only briefly to perform his conjugal duty
before returning to the barracks
to sleep. Women were made to exercise so that they would bear
healthier children; but according
to Aristotle Lacedaemonian women were lawless, and even Lycurgus could
not bring them under
his laws. With equal poverty and little talk, lawsuits were rare.
Everyone was trained to support
the public good and to act with public spirit. Persians asking Spartan
ambassadors if they came
in a public or private capacity were told by Polycratidas that if they
succeeded, public; but if they
failed, private. However, foreign travel was discouraged to prevent
corruption by other customs,
and few foreigners were allowed to stay in Sparta. Plutarch believed
that the customs established
by Lycurgus became more cruel after the Helots had revolted with the
Messenians and destroyed
the country.
According to the legend after giving them laws Lycurgus made them
agree to follow them until
he came back. Then he consulted the Delphic oracle and having gained
its approval starved
himself to death. The Cretans claimed that they burned his body and
scattered his ashes so that
the Spartans could never claim his body was returned. Spartan laws may
have been brought by
the poet Thaletas to Gortyna in Crete. Plutarch concluded that
Lacedaemon in strictly observing
the laws of Lycurgus was the chief city of all Greece for five hundred years.
The Spartan citizens were educated to think and discuss, since they
did no work in agriculture or
industry or commerce, but only fought wars and discussed political
issues; they nevertheless
were taught to speak succinctly. Laconic sayings were short and often
as sharp as their swords.
Their way of opposing invasion was by continuing poor and not coveting
more than others.
When an Athenian accused them of having no learning, a Spartan replied
they had learned none
of their bad qualities. Spartan women were as patriotic as the men,
often slaying or disowning
sons who returned from war as cowards. One Spartan woman handing her
son his shield said
laconically, "With it or on it," meaning he had better not return
alive without his shield.
Aristotle found that though sale of land was forbidden, gifts were
allowed; therefore much land
was in few hands, and women by inheritance and large dowries held
nearly two-fifths of it. Yet
Lycurgus was supposed to have banned dowries and use of make-up so
that girls would be
chosen for their good character. Aristotle criticized the Spartan
constitution for having the ephors
elected by the assembly, because they were likely to elect the poor,
who are subject to bribery.
He also criticized the elders for taking bribes and in serving for
life getting too old. Aristotle
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22
found the common meals faulty, because they were not provided at
public expense; but each
person had to contribute, causing the poor to be excluded. Plato found
that the maturity of the
elders moderated the pride of the kings, and the election of the
ephors provided a democratic
check; but he noted that the Spartans were able to excel in war but
knew nothing of the arts of
peace.
In the late eighth century BC Spartans invaded Messenia and took half
their territory, reducing
the Messenians to the condition of Helots. Tyrtaeus described the
conquered as asses worn by
intolerable loads and compelled by the stress of cruel force. Reforms
were brought about by the
two kings Polydorus and Theopompus, who went along with his radical
colleague. Polydorus
was respected and popular because he never offended with language or
violence and was just and
compassionate in his judgments. The poet Terpander praised Sparta for
doing justice in the open-
air assembly. Polydorus led the Spartans at Hysiae about 669 BC, when
they were defeated by
Argives led by Pheidon. Polydorus was assassinated by a Laconian
aristocrat named
Polemarchus. A few years later an aristocratic Messenian named
Aristomenes led a revolt, which
was successful for a while until the songs of Tyrtaeus inspired the
Spartans, and after many years
the retreating Messenians were finally defeated. Then Tyrtaeus wrote a
poem on law called
Eunomia, as the Messenian land was divided into equal portions and
distributed to Spartans and
their allies.
Eventually the iron discipline and the limited iron money system
reduced the quality of Spartan
life. Helots were offered their freedom by the state if they fought
bravely. Early in the sixth
century BC Spartans asked at Delphi if they could take Arcadia, but
the oracle said the Arcadians
would not allow it, though Spartans would dance with noisy feet at
Tegea. So the
Lacedaemonians decided to limit their ambitions to Tegea and took with
them fetters to enslave
the inhabitants; but after they lost the battle, fettered Spartan feet
fulfilled the prophecy. Next the
oracle told them to get the bones of Orestes. So the Spartans dug up
the bones of a large man
they claimed had been Orestes to gain anti-Dorian support. A new
policy of liberating states
from tyrants was supported by the Delphic oracle.
Chilon, who was elected ephor in the middle of the 6th century BC, was
considered one of the
seven sages of this era. When he asked Aesop what Zeus was doing, the
fable-maker replied that
he is humbling the proud and exalting the humble. Chilon believed that
education provided hope,
but that it is hard to keep a secret, to employ leisure well, and to
be able to bear an injury. He
recommended controlling one's tongue, not abusing neighbors, not using
threats which he
considered womanish, visiting friends in adversity more than in
prosperity, honoring old age,
considering safety, preferring loss to dishonest gain, not laughing at
another's misfortune, being
merciful when strong, controlling anger, not aiming at the impossible,
obeying the laws, and
being restful. He died shortly after his son won the Olympic boxing
championship due to excess
of joy and old age.
About 547 BC Sparta befriended Lydian king Croesus and gained many
allies in order to invade
the Argolid, where 300 champions from each side killed each other at
Thyrea except for two
Argives who went back to Argos and one Spartan who stripped the dead
and claimed victory,
which after a quarrel and a battle was confirmed by the Spartan
hoplites' defeat of the Argive
army. Lacedaemon was now the largest centrally governed territory and
population in Greece,
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23
and their gymnastic training and military discipline were far more
advanced than the other Greek
cities. Sparta attacked Samos about 525 BC.
Spartan king Cleomenes was praised for saying do good to friends and
harm to enemies, but the
other king Ariston asked if it wouldn't be better to do good to
friends and make enemies into
friends. Cleomenes said that Homer was the poet of the Spartans
because he encouraged men to
make war, and that Hesiod was the poet of the Helots, because he
encouraged farming.
Cleomenes went beyond the Peloponnese to expel the Athenian tyrant
Hippias in 510 BC. Two
years later Cleomenes intervened again in Athens on behalf of Isagoras
to expel the Alcmaeonids
the Spartans hated, dissolved the Athenian council of 500, and set up
an oligarchy. When the
Athenian council refused to dissolve itself and besieged the Spartan
king in the Acropolis,
Cleomenes and Isagoras gave up and were allowed to return to Sparta;
but the oligarchs were
imprisoned, condemned, and executed.
Next Cleomenes tried to impose his own regime there with the help of
Boeotians and
Chalcidians of Euboea, but the Corinthian allies refused to fight at
Eleusis, and the other Spartan
king Demaratus and allies followed that example. Having discovered in
the Acropolis Delphic
prophecies that showed Alcmaeonid scheming against them and the
previous Athenian tyrants,
Cleomenes called a conference of their allies in Sparta, asking them
to support the return of
Hippias to power in Athens. However, Sosicles the Corinthian told how
Corinth had suffered
under tyrants, objected to Sparta's attempt to overthrow a free
government in order to install a
tyrant, and won over the other allies to this view. When Maeandrius,
the tyrant of Samos, fled
from the Persians to Sparta and offered Cleomenes gold and silver
goblets, Cleomenes not only
refused these and would not aid him, but he got the ephors to banish
Maeandrius so that he
would not corrupt Spartans.
Athenian Political Laws
Athens, having been united by the legendary Theseus before the Trojan
war, managed to fend off
the Dorian invasions. A military chief was added to the kingship, and
in the eleventh century BC
Acastus of the aristocratic Medontids allowed the first ruler (archon)
to be elected for life. In the
middle of the eighth century BC this office was reduced to ten years,
and in 682 BC to annual
election. Birth and wealth were the main considerations for the
election of the king-archon, the
first archon, and military leader, who were soon joined by six
lawgivers to help judge cases.
These nine were advised by and, after their year in office, joined the
council of nobles called the
Areopagus to serve for life, protecting the laws and inflicting
punishments and fines. The
assembly of citizens elected the nine archons. Athens gained control
of all Attica by taking over
Eleusis about 675 BC. The Olympic victor Phrynon led an expedition to
the region of Troy to
seize the strategic town of Sigeum, though they had to fight a
prolonged war with Mytilene,
whose ruler Pittacus killed Phrynon in a duel. The conflict was
settled by the tyrant Periander of
Corinth in favor of Athens.
In 632 BC Cylon, who had previously won the Olympic games and had
married the daughter of
Megara's tyrant Theagenes, used that relationship and a Delphic
pronouncement to seize the
Acropolis of Athens during the grand festival of Zeus. However, the
Athenians flocked around
and laid siege to the citadel until Cylon and his brother escaped and
the rest surrendered from
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GREEK CULTURE TO 500 BC
24
hunger; but Megacles of the Alcmaeonid family who was archon went back
on his word and had
them killed as they came out. The Alcmaeonids were tried, condemned to
exile, and their
property was confiscated, putting the family under a curse or pollution.
Laws had been given by Zaleucus to the Lokroi in Italy, by Charondas
to Catana in Sicily, and
by Androdamas of Rhegion. So Dracon was appointed in 621 BC to codify
the laws of Athens,
and he differentiated intentional murder from unintentional killing
which continued to be the law
even after Solon's reforms. Dracon instituted the jury (ephetai) of 51
nobles and allowed the state
to take over what before had been settled by blood feuds. However,
Draconian laws were
infamous for their severity of using capital punishment for even minor
offenses such as stealing a
cabbage or an apple. Laws concerning debt were stringent and based on
class since the poor
debtor could become a slave, though the poor may have gained some
protection in having laws
committed to writing. Small farmers were called "sixth-parters"
probably because they had to
give that portion of their crop to their landlords. Aristotle noted
that the harshest part of most
people's lives was their subjection to the rich.
Since his father had ruined his estate by benefiting others, Solon
became a merchant and gained
wealth, though he said he would not procure it by wrong, because
justice though slow is sure.
Tired of battling the Megarians over the island of Salamis, the
Athenians made it a capital crime
to suggest recovering it, but Solon was said to have feigned madness
while reciting his verses on
Salamis in the marketplace until his kinsman Peisistratus led the
citizens to repeal the law and
retake Salamis. Anacharsis became Solon's friend and laughed at him
for believing that the
dishonest and covetous would be restrained by written laws, which are
like spider webs in that
they would catch the poor but be easily broken by the rich and
powerful. Solon replied that he
would design his laws so that it would be more beneficial to be just
than to break them. Solon
exhorted the rich not to be so grasping, warning them that they would
not always have their way,
because they would not always be obeyed.
In Athens the disparity between the rich and poor had become very
great, and most people had to
pay one-sixth of their crop to the landlord or had fallen into slavery
from debt. Solon, who had
not joined the oppressive methods of the rich but did not suffer the
needs of the poor, was elected
archon in 594 BC and chosen to give laws, the rich agreeing because he
was wealthy, the poor
because he was honest. When he said he would make things even, the
rich thought he meant a
fair proportion, but others that everyone would be equal. Not
submitting to the powerful nor
pleasing the others, Solon refrained from the violence and usurpation
of a tyrant to make new
laws for Athens that would combine force and justice. When asked if
they were the best laws that
could be given, he replied that they were the best the Athenians could
receive. The archons or
magistrates had to swear to observe the laws or dedicate a golden
statue to the gods if they failed
to do so, and the assembly of the citizens could hear such cases to check them.
First Solon canceled debts to relieve the poor and did not allow a
person to be security for a debt.
The mortgage stones that had been placed on most people's land were
removed, and slaves were
freed. However, some of his friends knowing he was going to cancel
debts borrowed money to
buy land, which brought suspicion and enmity upon Solon, but he at
least released his debtors of
five talents. The moderate Solon was criticized by the rich for their
loss of money and by the
poor because he did not redistribute the land, as Sparta had. He
repealed Dracon's laws for being
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25
too severe except for those on homicide. He allowed the lowest class
of workers to come into the
assembly as jurors; farmers having more than 200 measures could serve
in the new council; the
knights having more than 300 and the fourth class of rich with more
than 500 measures could be
elected to high offices. Birth was no longer a prerequisite. He
allowed and encouraged any
citizen to prosecute a wrong-doer not just the victims, saying that
the best city is where those
who are not injured punish the unjust as much as those who are. He
founded a council of 400
from the four tribes to inspect matters before they went to the assembly.
Solon limited dowries to three suits of clothes and a few household
items so that wives would be
selected for love and children. Realizing that Athenian agriculture
was becoming inadequate to
their needs, he encouraged trades and ordered the Areopagus to punish
the idle. Food, except for
olive oil, was not to be exported. Any man who neglected to provide
for his parents was
disenfranchised unless he had not been taught a trade. He reduced the
money paid to athletic
champions while providing for the sons of those killed in battle. His
laws protected boys from
sexual assaults and required every citizen to teach his sons to read and write.
Having given them laws, Solon traveled for ten years to let them work.
Solon suggested learning
something new every day. He learned of Atlantis from Egyptian priests
and declined to consider
the rich Lydian king Croesus happy, because his life was not over yet.
Aesop told Solon to make
his conversations with kings short or seasonable, to which Solon
replied that short or reasonable
was better. The moderate Solon is credited with the famous Greek motto
of nothing excessive.
According to Aristotle there were four years of peace after Solon's
departure, but then in two of
the next five years the citizens were not able to elect an archon
because of dissension resulting in
anarchia. Then an archon named Damasias stayed in office for 26 months
until he was removed
by force.
Solon returned to Athens to find that Peisistratus had become a
popular leader, finding the poor
gratifying Peisistratus and the rich afraid of him. In 561 BC
Peisistratus wounded himself and his
mules; then he drove into the marketplace, saying that he had just
escaped from his enemies that
had attacked him on the road. Reminding them of his victory over the
Megarians and the taking
of Nisaea, he requested a bodyguard for protection, and the assembly
voted him a guard of men
carrying clubs. Peisistratus and his followers then seized the
Acropolis and began ruling Athens.
So Solon went to the marketplace and exhorted the Athenians not to
lose their liberty, that
although it was easier to stop tyranny before, now it would be more
glorious to destroy it.
Though he failed, Solon considered himself wiser than those who did
not see that Peisistratus
wanted to be a tyrant and braver than those who saw it but kept
silent. He wrote in a poem that if
they suffer, they should not blame higher powers which are good,
because it was their fault that
they had put the strongholds into his hands. However, Peisistratus
remained his friend, honored
him, listened to his advice, and retained most of his laws.
The other parties, the moderate shore party led by Megacles and the
oligarchic party of the plain
led by Lycurgus, united and drove Peisistratus out of Athens; but
later Megacles offered
Peisistratus his daughter in marriage. So Peisistratus used another
dramatic means to establish
himself as ruler in Athens. This time he clothed a tall and beautiful
woman in armor, put her on a
chariot, and drove her into the city as though she were Athena herself
bringing back her favorite.
Peisistratus was also the one who supported the first actor Thespis
and promoted the festival of
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26
Dionysus which developed tragedies and comedies; but Solon commented
when Peisistratus took
power that this is what comes of having tragedies performed. Since
Peisistratus was reluctant to
have children by the daughter of Megacles because of the curse on the
Alcmaeonids, Megacles
turned against Peisistratus, who once again fled to Eretria and Mount
Pangaeus, which had rich
mines where he raised money and gained allies including Thebans and
the Naxian Lygdamis. In
546 BC Peisistratus, supported by the hill people, landed at Marathon
and defeated the Athenians
defending their laws in the battle at Pallene.
Peisistratus managed to get at least one person from his family
elected into high office each year
and controlled the government. He kept a small standing army for
protection and sent young
hostages from opposing families to Lygdamis in Naxos. Nevertheless
many of his policies were
beneficial. Peisistratus divided vacant land into lots and gave them
and loans to the poor, who
only had to pay one-tenth of their produce as tax; later this tax was
cut in half. He instituted local
judges, and he was known for respecting the laws without giving
himself privileges and for being
kind to the people. Industry and trade continued to improve, and he
assured trade with the Black
Sea area by retaking Sigeum and sent Miltiades, a political opponent,
to develop a colony in the
Thracian Chersonese.
When Peisistratus died in 527 BC, his sons Hippias and Hipparchus
succeeded him in power.
The oldest, Hippias, controlled the government, while Hipparchus
promoted festivals and
literature, inviting Anacreon, Simonides, and other poets to Athens.
In 519 BC Athens won a war
over Thebes to take Plataea. However, the jealousy of another son led
two assassins in 514 BC to
kill Hipparchus, but Hippias escaped. One of the assassins was killed,
and the other tortured gave
the names of many nobles. After this incident the tyranny became much
harsher as many people
were executed or banished. The exiles led by the Alcmaeonids rebuilt
the Delphic temple after
the fire, and resulting prophecies often encouraged the Lacedaemonians
to free Athens, leading
Spartan king Cleomenes to expel Hippias in 510 BC. Two years later
Isagoras, a partisan of the
tyrants, was elected archon, while the Alcmaeonid Cleisthenes opposed
them. Aristotle described
what happened next.
Cleisthenes, being beaten in the political clubs, called in
the people by giving the franchise to the
masses. Thereupon Isagoras, finding himself left inferior in
power, invited Cleomenes, who was
united to him by ties of hospitality, to return to Athens,
and persuaded him to "drive out the
pollution," a plea derived from the fact that the
Alcmaeonids were supposed to be under the curse
of pollution. On this Cleisthenes retired from the country,
and Cleomenes, entering Attica with a
small force, expelled, as polluted, seven hundred Athenian
families. Having affected this, he next
attempted to dissolve the Council, and to set up Isagoras
and three hundred of his partisans as the
supreme power in the state. The Council, however, resisted,
the populace flocked together, and
Cleomenes and Isagoras, with their adherents, took refuge in
the Acropolis. Here the people sat
down and besieged them for two days; and on the third they
agreed to let Cleomenes and all his
followers depart, while they summoned Cleisthenes and the
other exiles back to Athens.12
Cleisthenes then reorganized the entire population into ten tribes
with thirty groups of demes,
each tribe having one group in the city, the coast area, and the
interior. The council was enlarged
to 500 with fifty chosen by lot from each tribe. In 501 BC they took
their first oath, and ten
generals were elected, one from each tribe. Citizens could only serve
on the council for a year
and after an interval only one more year, but members of the assembly
could be re-elected. The
council was responsible for placing business before the assembly and
essentially replaced the
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27
aristocratic Areopagus council. To prevent a tyrant from taking over,
a way of voting to ostracize
one man for ten years was designed, but it was not used for twenty
years. Athens was
strengthened by greater participation that now included foreigners and
ex-slaves.
The Corinthians and Spartans changed their minds at Eleusis about
attacking Athens, and then
the Athenians defeated the Chalcidean and Boeotian armies on the same
day in 506 BC.
Herodotus described how the Athenians ransomed the captured Chalcidian
aristocrats, and he
credited their victory to their newly found freedom. When the Spartan
league met, Sparta,
Thebes, and Aegina wanted to reinstate Hippias in Athens; but the
Corinthians who hated
tyranny talked them out of it.
Aesop's Fables
The animal fables associated with the name Aesop are based on folklore
that is very ancient,
going back to early Sumerian stories, Old Babylonian tales written in
Akkadian, followed by
texts in Assyrian and Aramaic, including the Book of Achiqar. Some of
them have been found on
Egyptian papyri a millennium before Aesop, and many are similar to the
animal folktales later
written down in the Panchatantra of India. Aesop came from Thrace and
was a slave of Iadmon
on the island of Samos about 620 BC. According to Herodotus Iadmon's
grandson turned him in
for the Delphian reward because he was thought to have embezzled money
from Croesus
intended for the Delphic temple, though some scholars doubt these
charges are true. Some of
Aesop's fables were taken from the poetry of Archilochus. Plato's
Phaedo has Socrates putting
Aesop's fables into verse during his last days in prison. The fabulous
stories of animals
interacting like people and yet concerned with basic instincts like
eating and fear of being eaten
are each summed up by Aesop with a concise moral point; these became
so proverbial that many
of them are still quite familiar today.
The stories are delightful and enlightening for adults as well as
children. The short and simple
tales make complex moral points quite clear. Here are some of those
moral conclusions. Some
begrudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves. Appearances often
are deceiving. Honesty is
the best policy. Flatterers are not to be trusted. Don't bite the hand
that feeds you. Beware of
promises from the desperate. Do not count your chickens before they
hatch. Prepare today for the
needs of tomorrow. Proposing is one thing; implementation another,
which was learned by the
council of mice who wanted to put a bell on the cat. Calling the
grapes one cannot reach sour is
despising what one cannot get. Don't trust those in difficulties. An
old trick may be played once
too often. The smaller the mind the greater the conceit. Having many
friends can mean having no
friends. Lean freedom is better than fat slavery. The greedy who want
more may lose all.
Revenge is not worth giving up liberty. United we stand; divided we
fall. By neglecting old
friends for new ones, one may lose both. One good turn deserves
another. Trouble may come
from where it is least expected. Those discontented on one place are
not likely to find happiness
in another. One person's meat may be another's poison.
Those who choose to be under a tyrant deserve what they get. As in the
body, so in the state,
each member must work for the common good. Let well enough alone (or
if it isn't broken, don't
fix it). Once deceived is twice as cautious. Try to please all, and
you may end by pleasing none.
False confidence precedes misfortune. Beware of an insincere friend.
Familiarity breeds
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28
contempt. Necessity is the mother of invention. Whoever does something
well does not need to
boast. Whoever laughs last laughs best. Being satisfied with what one
has is better than desiring
what one cannot have. Praying against one's neighbor can bring a curse
upon oneself. People
often mistake notoriety for fame. There is always someone worse off.
Do to others what you
would have them do to you. Liars often get caught in their own lies. A
bad temper carries with it
its own punishment. The ignorant despise what is precious because they
cannot understand it.
Money is valuable not for its possession but for its use. It's safer
to know your guest before
offering hospitality. Do something good yourself before criticizing others.
Even the wildest can be tamed by love. Misery loves company. A change
of scenery does not
change one's character. The gods help those who help themselves. If
you want something done
well, do it yourself. Half a loaf is better than none. We learn by the
misfortunes of others. Self-
conceit leads to self-destruction. One good plan that works is better
than a hundred doubtful
ones. Clothes may disguise a fool, but words will give one away.
Choose allies for their power as
well as for their will to help you. Hypocrisy cloaks villainy. Quality
is more important than
quantity. One seeking a compliment may discover the truth. In union is
strength. Often what is
most useful is despised. Any excuse will serve a tyrant. Those who
exploit their neighbors'
difficulties may live to regret it. Persuasion is better than force.
The shepherd boy who cried
"Wolf!" too often proved that liars are not believed even when they
tell the truth. Beware of a
friend with an ulterior motive.
No act of kindness is ever wasted. Those who live on expectation will
be disappointed. A crust
eaten in peace is better than a banquet in anxiety. You are judged by
the company you keep.
Don't believe everything you hear. Those who plot the destruction of
their neighbors are often
caught in their own snares. It is better to bend than to break.
Example is the best precept. Too
much cunning overreaches. Fools give their enemy the means of
destroying them. To the selfish
all are selfish. Pride goes before a fall. A bribe in hand betrays
mischief at heart. Whoever incites
to strife is worse than those who take part in it.
Pythagoras and Early Philosophy
The origin of western philosophy is often identified with the first
natural philosophers of Ionia
and in particular Thales of Miletus. Thales visited Egypt, but it was
probably the Babylonian
astronomical records that enabled him to predict an eclipse of the sun
for the year 585 BC. As
the most powerful Greek city in Asia, he advised Miletus not to form
an alliance with Croesus of
Lydia, though it was said that he enabled the Lydian army to cross the
Halys River by diverting
part of it into another channel. According to Herodotus, after Croesus
was defeated by the Medes
and before the Persian empire took over Greek Ionia, Thales suggested
that the Ionians establish
a central seat of government in Teos which would still allow the other
cities to enjoy their own
laws.
Aristotle reported that to prove he could make his knowledge practical
Thales used his
astrological wisdom to predict an abundant olive crop and hired all
the oil presses in Miletus and
Chios when they were cheap and then leased them later at a great
profit, showing that
philosophers could become rich; but that is not what they pursue. He
learned how to calculate the
height of something by measuring its shadow. Thales speculated that
everything was like water,
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29
though he maintained that all things are full of the gods or soul and
spirits and that the
intelligence of the universe is divine. One account of how there came
to be seven recognized
sages in Greece has it that some fishermen presented a tripod to
Delphi, and the oracle told them
to give it to the wisest. So they gave it to Thales, who passed it on
to another, who did the same
until it came to Solon, who declared that God is the wisest and sent
it to Delphi.
Thales said that most ancient is God, being uncreated; most beautiful:
the universe, being God's
craft; the greatest: space, which holds everything; the swiftest: the
mind which speeds
everywhere; the strongest: necessity which masters all; and the
wisest: time, which brings
everything to light. Probably believing in the immortality of the
soul, Thales held that there is no
difference between life and death. When someone asked then why he did
not die, he replied,
"Because there is no difference." When asked what is difficult, he
replied, "To know yourself;"
what is easy: "To give advice to another;" what is most pleasant:
"Success;" what is divine: "That
which has neither beginning nor end;" and what is the strangest thing
he ever saw: "An aged
tyrant." 13 When asked how to lead the best and most just life, he
said, "By refraining from
doing what we blame in others." When asked who is happy, he said, "The
one with a healthy
body, a resourceful mind, and a docile nature."14 He advised people to
remember their friends
present or absent, to shun ill-gotten gains, not to pride themselves
on outward appearance, but to
study to be beautiful in character.
Thales was followed in Miletus by Anaximander, who instead of
speculating there is a single
element held that everything is indefinite and infinite. He wrote a
book on physics, which is the
Greek word for nature and astonished people by publishing a
geographical map of the known
world. In speculating on the laws of the universe Anaximander touched
on ethics when he
posited the cosmic principle that everyone pays a penalty of
retribution to others for any injustice
according to the assessment of Time. In speculating about the infinite
he conceived of
innumerable worlds being born, dissolved, and born again according to
the age to which they can
survive. He thought motion was eternal and wondered if humans had been
at some time like fish.
Anaximenes in turn studied with Anaximander and later Parmenides. He
speculated that air or
moisture is the infinite element though it can be as hot and fine as
fire or condense into water,
earth, and stone.
By the early 6th century BC the Greek colonies in Italy had become
large and prosperous;
Sybaris with about 100,000 people was perhaps the largest Greek city
state then. Often in
conflict with Crotona, the two cities together destroyed the town of
Siris in about 530 BC. The
philosopher Pythagoras left Samos shortly after Polycrates became
tyrant there and came to
Crotona about 531 BC when he was about forty years old. His father
Mnesarchus may have been
a Phoenician or at least went to Tyre to trade, although later
Pythagoreans believed that their
teacher was the son of the god Apollo and Pythais. Pythagoras traveled
much and was initiated in
various mysteries, perhaps studying with Egyptian priests for as long
as twenty years. Iamblichus
in his Life of Pythagoras wrote that he studied with the Syrian
Pherecydes as well as
Anaximander and Thales. Later he attended Pherecydes when he was dying.
At Crotona in Italy Pythagoras found people most receptive to his
mystical teachings. There he
founded a school and religious community, which shared all things in
common; many others
came to listen to him but lived independently. When someone left the
community after having
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30
given them one's worldly goods, twice as much was returned. Managers
took care of the material
things. Though he never wrote anything himself and many of his
teachings were secret, they
were passed on by his disciples for generations. Based on these
accounts later biographers wrote
that he could remember his past lives and even proved that he had
fought in the Trojan War.
Xenophanes told how Pythagoras stopped the whipping of a puppy,
because he recognized the
soul of a friend. He taught the immortality of the soul, which goes
through many lives by
reincarnating (metempsychosis). Many miracles and clairvoyant
abilities were attributed to him,
including having been at two distant places on the same day. It was
said he never over-indulged
his appetites nor did he punish anyone in anger.
Later accounts claimed that his teachings helped to liberate many
cities in southern Italy and
Sicily. He taught the young to respect their elders and the adults to
honor the gods. As he
encouraged the control of desires, his main method was educational in
developing the mind
through learning. Instead of calling himself wise he pursued wisdom
through friendship and
therefore called himself a philosopher, possibly the first to do so.
Philia means friendship and
sophia wisdom. Life, he said, is like the great games in which the
best role is spectator; most
people hunt for gain or fame, but philosophers search for the truth.
Pythagoras urged the Crotonians to build a temple to the Muses, and he
emphasized justice based
on equality. He married Theano, and they both taught that intercourse
within marriage did not
make anyone impure so that they could enter a temple even on the same
day. He advised women
to love their husbands as much as they wanted and asked them not to
consider that they had
subjected their husbands whenever they yielded anything to them.
Pythagoras especially urged
the young to learn. He had about three hundred followers, and more
than that came to his
lectures. Music was very important in his school and was used for
healing; the advanced students
also studied mathematics. Diet was also important for health, and
those initiated abstained from
animal foods, alcohol, and beans. To be initiated candidates had to be
tested by the master's
assessment of their characters; a long period of silence was required.
Dressed in white for purity,
each day they took solitary walks in the morning and in small groups
in the afternoon. Calmness
and gentleness were encouraged. They did not hunt nor associate with
hunters or butchers.
Pythagoras suggested reviewing the previous day upon awaking and
before going to sleep at
night.
Pythagoras taught that all life is akin, and so he believed in
universal friendship; he did not
worship at altars where animals were sacrificed. Pythagoreans became
known for their close
friendships and devotion to each other. He often taught through
symbolism so that the deeper
teachings were not given to the profane; scholars are still often
baffled by many of his sayings.
For example, "pass not over a balance" could mean not being avaricious
or unfair. "Poke not the
fire with a sword" was a warning not to provoke someone full of anger
with sharp language.
"Pluck not a crown" meant do not take away the laws of a city which
are its crown. "Eat not the
heart" warned against afflicting oneself with sorrows. "Do not walk on
the public road" meant to
avoid the opinions of the crowd. The meaning of "Do not speak about
Pythagorean things
without light" is clear enough though.
Often someone might play the lyre while others sang, and poetry might
be recited. Pythagoras
discovered the mathematical relationships of the notes on the scale as
well as the theorem for
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31
right triangles named after him (although the Babylonians knew it long
before). Pythagoras
taught harmony in all things which meant concord in friendship and
justice in politics. He and
his disciples often helped to settle disputes by arbitration or
mediation. Pythagoras did not
believe in chance or luck but that divine providence guided all
things. Thus he warned against
being attached to personal wishes but instead recommended asking for
the will of the gods. He
taught the immortality of the soul and found nothing strange about one
of his students having had
a dream in which he conversed with his deceased father. Pythagoras
carried on the teachings of
the Orphic mysteries as well as those of the Egyptian priests. Yet
more than anyone before him
Pythagoras combined the spiritual teachings with the pursuit of
knowledge and science.
The soul is immortal, because its source is immortal. He taught that
living creatures are
reproduced from one another by germination and that there is no
spontaneous generation from
earth. Upon returning home Pythagoras suggested asking, "Where did I
trespass? What did I
achieve? And what duties did I leave unfulfilled?"15 He suggested
behaving so as not to make
friends into enemies but to turn enemies into friends. Pythagoras may
have been the first to use
the term cosmos to imply that the entire universe has order, which he
taught could be understood
by mathematics. Plato credited Pythagoras with teaching a way of life,
and many of Plato's ideas
can be traced back to Pythagoras. The analysis of the psyche by its
three components of the
appetites, emotions, and the mind whose respective virtues are
temperance, courage, and wisdom
as well as thejustice and friendship that harmonize all of them was
probably first formally taught
by Pythagoras.
Crotona destroyed Sybaris in 510 BC after Telys took power as king and
got the Sybarites to
confiscate the estates and exile five hundred of the wealthiest
citizens who took refuge in
Crotona. Telys sent ambassadors demanding Crotona give the exiles up
or face war. According
to Diodorus of Sicily, Pythagoras persuaded the Crotonians to grant
safety to the suppliants, and
a war ensued in which Crotona, with the help of the greatest athlete
in Greece Milon and perhaps
the Spartan prince Dorieus, defeated the far larger Sybarite forces,
killed many, and destroyed
Sybaris by flooding it with the Krathis River.
Eventually the aristocratic and esoteric ways of the Pythagoreans
aroused animosity. According
to Iamblichus, after Sybaris was captured, the multitudes grew
resentful that the land was not
divided by lot. Ninon accused the Pythagoreans of opposing democracy
and led an attack against
them, expelling them from Crotona. Another version is that a prominent
Crotonian named Cylon
was refused admission into the community, because he was violent and
tyrannical. Frustrated
Cylon and his followers set fire to their residence, and many
Pythagoreans may have died in the
fire or were killed afterward. According to Porphyry, Pythagoras
escaped and fled to
Metapontum, where he starved himself to death.
Xenophanes was another philosopher who left Ionia (Colophon) and lived
in the west. His poetry
criticized Homer and Hesiod for attributing to the gods shameful
things like stealing, adultery,
and deceiving each other. He satirized humans for making gods in their
own images with clothes,
speech, and bodies like their own. He noted that the gods of the
Ethiopians were snub-nosed and
black, while those of the Thracians had blue eyes and red hair. He
wrote that if cattle and horses
could draw their gods, they would have bodies like themselves too.
Xenophanes believed there is
one God, who is in no way like mortals in body or thought. This one
being is always in one place
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32
and has no need to move or go anywhere, but can do all things by the
thought of its mind, seeing,
thinking, and hearing all. Mortals are brought down from their high
expectations, but this God
uses no force nor toil; everything is accomplished through thought
from its resting place.
Xenophanes was skeptical that humans could ever know the truth about
the gods; even if one
said it, one would not know it for sure, although some beliefs do
resemble the truth. Even though
the gods have not revealed all from the beginning, humans by seeking
can find out more in time.
Xenophanes' idea of one being was taken up by the Eleatic philosopher
Parmenides.
Heraclitus lived in Ephesus and was said to have given up the kingship
to his brother. He found
that learning many things does not necessarily teach intelligence. He
refused to make laws for
the Ephesians but chose instead to play games with the children at the
temple of Artemis, where
it was said he deposited his book. He believed that wisdom is to
understand the thought that
guides everything everywhere. He called conceit the falling sickness.
He found that people had
difficulty understanding his meaning and believed that people were as
unaware awake as they
were asleep.
Heraclitus also taught that all things are one. Though humans do not
have true judgment, the
divine does. To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; but
humans suppose that some things
are unjust. He claimed that he searched out himself, and he said that
reality tends to hide itself.
He saw war and strife and the interplay of opposites in all things. He
said everything flows like a
river, which is always changing, though these continual changes escape
our perception. The wise
is one thing having true judgment of how all things are steered
through all. Heraclitus saw fire
and heat as the essence of energy and life. He said the dry soul is
wisest and best and warned
against the moisture caused by drinking. Insolence must be
extinguished more than a
conflagration. He said it is hard to fight with anger, for it buys
what it wants at the price of the
soul. Yet the boundaries of the soul cannot be found, so deep is its
measure. Heraclitus believed
that trying to purify oneself through bloody sacrifices is like trying
to wash in mud, and praying
to a statue is like conversing with a house. The character of a person
is one's spirit. Significantly
at the end of the 6th century BC he believed that people must fight
for the law as though for the
city wall. People must rely on what is common to all, as a city
depends on its laws; for all human
laws are nourished by the one divine law, which always has enough power.
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