Monday, September 26, 2011
I. Sparta
A. power in Laconia: unification of 4 villages, but not full sunoikismos; perioikoi; helot-class
B. 8th-century strife: tradition about Lycurgus; conquest of Messenia; homoioi; Partheniai and foundation of Taras (Taranto, Italy) at end of century
C. Lycurgan rhetra (Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus 6)
When a sanctuary of Zeus Sullanios and Athena Sullania has been established, and the people divided into tribes and obai, and thirty men, including the kings, appointed as a gerousia (senate),
celebrate the festival Apellai from time to time between Babyka and Knakion;
thus bring in <matters to the assembly> and make withdrawals, and the people have the power <to ratify>;
[amendment] if the people make a crooked decision, the elders and kings shall act as setters-aside.
D. 2nd Messenian War in seventh century: Tyrtaeus
E. struggles with Argos (Hysiai in 7th c., Thyrea in 6th, Herodotus 1.82)
F. struggles with Tegea: Herodotus 1.65-68
G. hegemony of the Peloponnesian League by late 6th c.: suppression of tyrants; interference in Athenian affairs at end of century
H. the Spartan system
1. dual kingship
2. five ephors: an annual office open to all (one-year term limit), a check on kings
3. gerousia = council of 28 elders and two kings, election for life (min. age 60)
4. assembly with restricted powers (no introduction of proposals, acclamation or veto)
5. educational system: tight control of training of children and of marriage; controls on private wealth
I. Tyrtaeus: poet of 7th century; elegiac couplet; "history of Sparta" in Eunomia; martial exhortation, positive and negative examples
J. Alcman: poet of 7th century; choral poetry; young women and ritual
K. Spartan art shows early flowering, but hardening of system brought rejection of intellectual and artistic currents of rest of Greece; xenêlasia = driving out of foreigners
II. Athens
A. limited role in Mycenaean times, way-station for Ionian migration, center of fine geometric pottery
B. sunoikismos: in myth associated with hero Theseus; in reality the product of war and political compromises: Athens, Eleusis, Marathon; struggle over borders with Boeotia, Euboea, Megara, Aigina (Salamis)
C. archons: list begins 683 B.C.E.
D. strife in 7th-6th cent.
1. Cylon's attempt at tyranny (Herodotus 5.71; Thucydides 1.126)
2. Dracon's law-code "written in blood"
3. Solon (593-592): hektêmoroi, horoi, seisachtheia; laws, but confusion about what laws are truly Solon's; Council of 400; encouragement of immigration, crafts, export of olive oil?
4. more strife over archonship in 580's and later: regional differences (coast, plain, beyond the hills)
5. tyranny of Peisistratos and his sons (Herodotus 1.59-64): alliances, public works projects, state-sponsored festivals (Panathenaia, Great Dionysia); maintenance of governmental system, coopting of major families in archonship
6. ARCHON-LIST fragment demonstrating relation of tyrants with the major families of Attika:
(Peisistratos died in archonship of 528-527)
(527-526) Onetorides
(526-525) Hippias
(525-524) Cleisthenes [two decades later, founder of democratic system]
(524-523) Miltiades [three decades later, hero of battle of Marathon]
(523-522) Kalliades
(522-521) Peisi]stratos [son of Hippias, grandson of Peisistratos]
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
E. the foundation of Athenian democracy (Herodotus 5.55-78, Thuc. 6.53-59)
1. assassination of Hipparchos
2. expulsion of tyrants
3. struggles of Isagoras and Cleisthenes
4. Cleisthenic system
a. tribal reorganization: 10 tribes = phylai, each with three trittyes, one from each of three regions (city, coast, plain [not precisely same as coast and plain of earlier regional strife]), and containing a variable number of dêmoi = "demes, villages" to create balanced size of tribes
b. 10 generals (stratêgoi)
c. Council of 500
d. sortition (klêrôsis): selection by lot
e. ostracism?
A. crystallization of ethnic identity, chauvinism about Greek ways, clearer definition of the "barbarians" as polar opposite of Greeks: freedom and "slavery"
B. analogous to myths of conquest of disorder
1. Titanomachy (battle of Olympian Gods against Titans)
2. Gigantomachy (battle of Olympian Gods against earth-born Giants)
3. Amazonomachy (battle of Greeks, under leadership of Herakles or Theseus, against nomadic women warriors, Amazons)
C. divine retribution for transgressive behavior: already in Aeschylus' Persians there is emphasis on violation of natural boundaries, esp. bridging the Hellespont
D. for Athens in particular, validation of their democratic system and of their right to lead other Greeks
Friday, September 30, 2011
A. balance in nature: moderation of center (Greece: 3.106) vs. extremes of the outer limits
B. tisis, nemesis: repayment, retribution; moral scheme of koros and hybris and atê
Cf. Hesiod on divine struggles, etymology of Titans (Theog. 209-210; "he said that straining hard [titain-] with recklessness they had done a huge deed, and retribution [tisis] would come about for it later");
Solon 1 on justice;
Heracleitos 94 on order of nature: "Helios [Sun] will not transgress his measures; otherwise the Erinyes, allies of justice, will find him out")
C. phthonos of the gods: an amoral force maintaining the distinction between humans and gods: lack of permanence, limits on greatness
D. ruling or being enslaved, expanding or being defeated, succession of empires
A. punishment in a later generation (cf. Solon 1, lines 25-32)
B. overconfidence, bad judgment
1. warner Solon (1.30-33)
2. warner Sandanis (1.71)
3. note, however, heeding advice of Bias (or Pittakos), 1.27
C. crossing of geographic boundary
D. contrast of wealthy and impoverished (Sandanis), corruption or ambition from wealth and luxury (Croesus to Cyrus, 1.89, 1.207)
A. killing Egyptian sacred bull
B. killing of brother and sister
C. mistreatment of Prexaspes
D. violent reaction to Croesus' advice
E. disrespect for nomos (3.38)
A. revenge for Athenian aid to Ionian revolt, burning of Sardis
B. Miltiades and Marathon:
1.leadership and persuasion needed to bring about decisive battle; fighting for freedom 6.109
2. note Miltiades' downfall: pattern of success and setback, 6.134-136
A. representation mixed: partly fate (Xerxes cannot take good advice, dream 7.12-18)
B. partly result of youth, folly, unrestrained power and desire
1. Artabanus, 7.10e
2. scourging waters, 7.35
3. cruel treatment of Pythias, reversing previous favor, 7.38-39
4. Artabanus on land and sea as enemies, 7.47-49
5. Demaratus, 7.102-105 (freedom and law), 7.209 ; freedom also 7.135
C. Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea
1. Themistocles and Eurybiades (8.58-63, 8.75)
2. Artemisia as warner (8. 68)