classics 10 text id

“The foreign countries conspired in their islands. Lands were

disturbed and taken away in the fray at one time. Not one stood

before their hands, from Kheta (=Hittites), Kode (=Cilicia),

Carchemish, Arzawa(=southwest Anatolia), Alashiya (=Cyprus), they

were wasted. They came with fire prepared before them, forward to

Egypt. Their main support was Peleset (=Philistines), Tjekker,

Shekele sh, Denyen (=Greeks??) and Weshesh. These lands were

united, and they laid their hands upon the land as far as the Circle of

the Earth. Their hearts were confident, full of their plans....Now it

happened through this god, the lord of gods (=Amon), that I was

prepared to trap them like wild fowl. He furnished my strength and

caused my plans to prosper.”

Inscription at mortuary temple of Egyptian king Ramses III (ca.1184-
1153BC) in Medinet Habu

“At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses,
the house of the Lord and the king’s house, and Hiram king of Tyre had
supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he
desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Gallilee.
But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had
given him, they did not please him. Therefore he said, ‘What kind of cities
are these which you have given me, my brother? So they are called the land
of Cabul to this day. Hiram had sent the king one hundred and twenty
talents of gold.”

Hebrew Book of Kings 1. 9:10-14

“Clan after clan poured out from
the ship and huts onto the
plain...innumerable as the leaves
and blossoms in their
season...the Athenians...the men
of Argos and Tiryns of the Great
Walls...troops from the great
stronghold of Mycenae, from
wealthy Corinth...from
Knossos...Phaistos..and the other
troops that had their homes in
Crete of the Hundred Towns.”

Homer Iliad 2.466-649

“now my brother, write him (Piyama-Radus) at least this: “Rise up, go

forth into the land of Hatti, your lord has settled his account with you!

Otherwise come into the land of the Ahhiyawa, and in whatever place

I settle you <remain there>. Rise up with your wives, and children and

settle in another place! So long as you are at enmity with the king of

Hatti, exercise your hostility from some other country! From my

country you shall not conduct hostilities...The king of Hatti and I –

that matter of Wilusa over which we were at enmity, he had converted

me and we have made friends;...a war would not be right for us.”

Hittite King Hattusili III (ca. 1267-1237BCE) to the King of Ahhiwaya

“The estate of the wanax, seed at so much: 3600 litres of wheat. The estate

of the lawagetas (‘Leader of the people/war commander): 1200 litres of

wheat. The lands of the telestai (functionaries), so much seed: 3600 litres

of wheat.”

• “At Pylos: due from Dunios: 2200 litres of barley, 526 litres of eating

olives, 468 litres of wine, fifteen rams, eight yearlings, one ewe, thirteen

he-goats, twelve pigs, one fat hog, one cow, two bulls.”

• “Thus the mayors and their wives and the vice mayors and key-bearers and

supervisors of figs and hoeing, will contribute bronze for ships and the

points for arrows and spears:

• Pi-*82 the mayor: 2 kilograms bronze; the vice mayor:750 grams

bronze, etc., (Total: mayors 39kg; vice mayors:12 kg.)”

Mycenaean Writing

Linear B and Administration

Thus Alksoitās gave to Thyestēs,

the unguent-boiler, materials to

boil for unguent".i-pe-me-de-ja

(likely a type of plant or herb) 480

liters of grain (GRA).2 units of

wine (VIN) and 1 unit of honey

(ME).2 units of Cyperus (a plant

used for spices and perfume).150

liters of ka-na-ko e-ru-ta-ra ("red

kanako," probably red-dyed

saffron).170 liters of ku-pa-ro

(Cyperus

Translation of PY Un 267

(selection) Eritha the priestess holds an onaton plot of communal land from the

damos, so much seed: WHEAT: 38.4 litres ... Eritha the priestess holds and

claims to hold an etōnion plot for the god, but the damos says she holds an

onaton plot of communal lands, so much seed: WHEAT 374.4 litres.

Linear B Revelations

Pylos and Land Ownership

Disputes

PY Ep 704

Front
.1 In the month of Plowistos
.2 Χ both offers sacrifice at Pa-ki-ja-ne, and carries gifts and
PYLOS
.3 takes Y for the carrying: to Potnia 1 GOLD 215-CUP [and] 1 WOMAN
.4 to Ma-na-sa 1 GOLD 213-BOWL [and] 1 WOMAN; to Posidāheia 1 GOLD
*213-BOWL [and] 1 WOMAN
.5 to the Tris-hērōs : 1 GOLD 216-CUP; to Dospotās 1 GOLD 215-CUP
PYLOS
Reverse
.1 X both offers sacrifice at the shrine of Poseidon, and the city takes
PYLOS
.2 and carries gifts and takes Y for the carrying:
.3 1 GOLD 215-CUP [and] 2 women to Boia // to Komāwenteiā
.4 and X offers sacrifice at the shrine of Pe-re-82, of Iphimedeia, and of Diwia
.5 and carries gifts and takes Y for the carrying: to Pe-re-*82 1 GOLD 213-
BOWL [and] 1 WOMAN
PYLOS
.6 to Iphimedeia 1 GOLD 213-BOWL; to Diwia 1 GOLD 213-BOWL [and] 1
WOMAN
.7 to Hermāhās a-re-ja 1 GOLD 216-CUP [and] 1 MAN
.8 X both offers sacrifice at the shrine of Zeus, and carries gifts and takes Y for
the carrying:
.9 to Zeus 1 GOLD 213-BOWL [and] 1 MAN; to Hera 213-BOWL [and] 1
WOMAN;
.10 to Drimios | the son of Zeus 1 GOLD *213-BOWL [ ]
PYLOS

Linear B Revelations
Pylos and Religions Offerings (Tn 316)

“The foreign countries conspired in their islands. Lands were
disturbed and taken away in the fray at one time. Not one stood
before their hands, from Kheta (=Hittites), Kode (=Cilicia),
Carchemish, Arzawa(=southwest Anatolia), Alashiya (=Cyprus), they
were wasted. They came with fire prepared before them, forward to
Egypt. Their main support was Peleset (=Philistines), Tjekker,
Shekelesh, Denyen (=Greeks??) and Weshesh. These lands were
united, and they laid their hands upon the land as far as the Circle of
the Earth. Their hearts were confident, full of their plans....Now it
happened through this god, the lord of gods (=Amon), that I was
prepared to trap them like wild fowl. He furnished my strength and
caused my plans to prosper.”

Inscription at mortuary temple of Egyptian king Ramses III (ca.1184-

1153BC) in Medinet Habu

The colonists shall provide for the colony as much as they

wish. They shall elect ten geonomoi, one from each tribe,

who shall distribute the land. Damokleides shall be the

governor of the colony and he shall do his best. The land

consecrated to the gods will continue to be sacred but no

additional land shall be consecrated. The colony will send an

ox for the festival of the Panathenaia and a phallos for the

festival of Dionysia. If the colony is attacked, the poleis in

Thrace shall help with the utmost strength according to the

treaties...These shall be inscribed on a stele and be

deposited on the Acropolis; the colonists shall pay for the

cost of the stele. And if anyone votes against the provisions on

the stele or a speaker speaks in public or attempts to modify or

abolish the decree, he shall be disenfranchised, himself and his

children, and his property shall be confiscated and one tenth

will belong to the Goddess.

Plotting the Polis

A Law Concerning the Establishment of an

Athenian Colony in Brea (IG i3 46)

If anyone rapes a free man or woman, he shall pay a hundred staters; and if the

victim is an apetairos (= free people without political rights), ten staters; and if a

slave rapes a free man or woman, he shall pay double the amount; if a free man

rapes an oikeus (=household slave), man or woman, he shall pay five drachmas; if

an oikeus rapes another oikeus, man or woman, he shall pay five staters. Whoever

rapes a house slave-girl, he shall pay two staters; if he rapes an already seduced

girl, he shall pay, if it took place during the day, one obol, and if it took place

during the night, two obols; and the slave woman shall testify under oath.

Laws on Slavery

The Gortyn Code

Crete

ca. 480BCE

Then Scylla comes and wades waist-deep into the

water; when all at once she sees her loins disfigured

with barking monster-shapes. And at the first, not

believing that these are parts of her own body, she

flees in fear and tries to drive away the boisterous,

barking things. But what she flees she takes along with

her; and, feeling for her thighs, her legs, her feet, she

finds in place of these only gaping dogs’-heads, such

as a Cerberus might have. She stands on ravening

dogs, and her docked loins and her belly are enclosed

in a circle of beastly forms.

• Glaucus, her lover, wept at the sight and fled the

embrace of Circe, who had used too cruelly her

potent herbs.

• Ovid Metamorphoses 14

‘Re began to appear as a king, as one who was before the liftings of Shu had taken place,

when he was on the hill which is in Hermopolis.’

Egyptian Book of the Dead

‘When heaven and earth were built upon me I know nothing of it, and when they came and

cut heaven and earth asunder with a cleaver I knew nothing of it.

Hurrian-Hittite ‘Song of Ulikummi

The Lord (Marduk) rested, and inspected her (Tiamat’s) corpse. He divided the monstrous

shape and created marvels from it. He sliced her in half like a fish for drying: half of her he

put up to roof the sky, drew a bolt across and made a guard hold it. Her waters he arranged

so that they could not escape.

Babylonian Enuma Elish

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the

waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were

under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And

God called the firmament Heaven.

Genesis i.6-8

“It happened that for a long time, the nobility and the common people were

divided into factions. For their constitution was oligarchical in all respects, and the

poor together with their wives and children were enslaved to the rich. And they

were called wage-workers (peletai) and ‘sixth-parters’ (hektêmeroi) for on the basis

of this payment they worked the fields of the rich. All the land was in the hands of

the few; and if they did not turn over the payments, both themselves and their

children were subject to seizure. Loans were contracted on bodies until Solon, who

became the first protector of the dêmos.”

[Aristotle] Constitution of the Athenians 2.2

The stadion was invented as follows: when the Eleans had sacrificed in

the accustomed way, the offerings were placed on the altar, but with no fire

yet applied to them. The runners stood one stade (approx. 200m) away

from the altar and a priest stood in front of it as umpire, holding a torch;

and the winner of the race, having set fire to the offerings, went away as

Olympic victor.

• When the Eleans had sacrificed, any envoys from the Greeks who were

present were also required to make a sacrifice. In order that their approach

to the altar should not be without ceremony, runners ran away from the

altar as if inviting the Greeks to sacrifice, and then ran back again as if

announcing that Greece would be glad to come. So much on the origin of

the diaulos (=out and back race, approx. 400m).’

• Philostratos On Gymnastics 5-6.

‘Iphitos, a contemporary of the Lykourghos who wrote the laws for the

Lakedaimonians (=Spartans), organized the Olympic festival from the start

and established the ekecheiria (=sacred truce)...At that time Greece was

especially worn by civil strife and by plague, and it came to Iphitos to ask

the god at Delphi for a solution to those evils. And they say that it was

proscribed by the Pythia that Iphitos himself and the Eleans had to renew

the Olympic Games.’

• Pausanias Description of Greece 5.8. 5-6

• Phlegon of Tralles (writing around the same time as Pausanias) dates this ‘renewal’ of

the games to 884, after a gap to earlier games that had been instituted by Pelops and

Herakles

• After the Persian war, a court based at Olympia arbitrated between quarreling city

states during the 470s

Water is best, and gold, like a blazing fire in the night, stands out supreme of all lordly

wealth. But if, my heart, you wish to sing of contests, look no further for any star

warmer than the sun, shining by day through the lonely sky, and let us not proclaim

any contest greater than Olympia. From there glorious song enfolds the wisdom of

poets, so that they loudly sing the son of Cronus, when they arrive at the rich and

blessed hearth of Hieron, who wields the scepter of law in Sicily of many flocks,

reaping every excellence at its peak, and is glorified by the choicest music, which we

men often play around his hospitable table...when that horse ran swiftly beside the

Alpheus, not needing to be spurred on in the race, and brought victory to his master,

the king of Syracuse who delights in horses. His glory shines in the settlement of fine

men founded by Lydian Pelops...

...Now he has a share in splendid blood-sacrifices, resting beside the ford of the

Alpheus, where he has his attendant tomb beside the altar that is thronged with many

visitors. The fame of Pelops shines from afar in the races of the Olympic festivals,

[95] where there are contests for swiftness of foot, and the bold heights of toiling

strength

Pindar Olympian 1

After Theagenes died, one of those who were his enemies while he lived came every night

to the statue of Theagenes and flogged the bronze as though he were ill-treating Theagenes

himself. The statue put an end to the outrage by falling on him, but the sons of the

dead man prosecuted the statue for murder. So the Thasians dropped the statue to the

bottom of the sea, adopting the principle of Drako, who, when he framed for the Athenians

laws to deal with homicide, inflicted banishment even on lifeless things, should one of them

fall and kill a man.

But in course of time, when the earth yielded no crop to the Thasians, they sent envoys

to Delphi, and the god instructed them to receive back the exiles. At this command they

received them back, but their restoration brought no remedy of the famine. So for the

second time they went to the Pythian priestess, saying that although they had obeyed her

instructions the wrath of the gods still abode with them. Whereupon the Pythian priestess

replied to them:

“But you have forgotten your great Theagenes.” And when they could not think of a

contrivance to recover the statue of Theagenes, fishermen, they say, after putting out to sea

for a catch of fish caught the staute in their net and brought it back to land. The Thasians

set it up in its original position, and are wont to sacrifice to him as to a god.

Pausanians Description of Greece 6.1.16

Even if a man should win a victory in the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia in

the footraces or the pentathlon or the pale or the painful pyx or in the

dreadful struggle which men call the pankration, even if he should become

a most glorious symbol for his fellow citizens to observe, and win

prohedria at the games and his meals at public expense and some

especially valuable gift from the state, even if he should win in the horse

races, and even if he should accomplish all of these things and not just

one of them, he still would not be so valuable as I am. For my wisdom is

a better thing than the strength of men or horses. The current custom of

honoring strength more than wisdom is neither proper nor just. For the city-

state is not a bit more law-abiding for having a good boxer or a pentathlete

or a wrestler or a fast runner even though the running may be the most

honored event in the games of man. There is little joy for a state when an

athlete wins at Olympia, for he does not fill the state's coffers.

• Xenophanes of Colophon frag. 2 (ca. 525BCE)

A certain Athenian named Phrynon was going to the Olympic Games

either as a competitor or as a spectator when he was seized by some

troops of Philip [of Macedon] during the Sacred Month and robbed of

everything. Phrynon went to Athens and asked the Athenians to

appoint him ambassador so that he could approach Philip to get back

his stolen items. The Athenians were persuaded and appointed him and

Ktesiphon. When they went to Macedonia, Philip received them in a

kindly and friendly way and returned to Phrynon everything that his

soldiers had robbed and more in addition from his own pocket, and

apologized that his soldiers had not known that it was the Sacred

Month’

• Demosthenes ‘On false embassy, Hypothesis 355.’

These descendants of Perdikkas (the Macedonians) are Greek, as they

say themselves, and I happen to know this and will prove it later on. In

addition, the Hellanodikaion who organized the Games at Olympia

have also shown this. When Alexander (I, king of Macedon, ca., 492-

450BCE) decided to compete and appeared for that purpose, his Greek

competitors wanted to exclude him, maintaining that the Games were

for Greeks, and not for barbarians. But when Alexander proved that he

was an Argive, he was certified as Greek and competed in the stadion

and tied for first.’

• Herodotus Histories 5.22

‘If you have worked to be worthy of going to Olympia, if you have

done nothing indolent or ignoble, then take heart and march on; but

those who have not so trained may leave and go wherever they like.’

• Philostratos’ Life of Apollonius 5.43

Of all the images of Zeus, the Zeus in the bouleuterion is the most

likely to strike terror into the hearts of sinners. This Zeus is named

Horkios [of the oath], and he holds a thunderbolt in each hand. Beside

this statue it is established for athletes, their fathers and brothers, and

their trainers to swear an oath on slices of the flesh of wild boars that

they will do nothing evil against the Olympic games. The athletes in

the men’s category also swear in addition that they have adhered

strictly to their training for ten successive months. Those who judge

the ages of the paides and the poloi entered in the competition also

swear that they will judge fairly and without taking bribes, and they

will guard in secret everything about the examinee.’

• Pausanias 5.24.9-10

Every fourth year at Olympia the Sixteen Women weave a

peplos for Hera, and they also sponsor the Heraia

competition. This contest is a footrace for virgins who are

of different ages. They run in three categories: the youngest

first, the slightly older ones next, and then the oldest

virgins are the last to run. They run as follows: their hair

hangs down on them, a chiton reaches to a little above the

knee, and the right shoulder is bared as far as the breast.

They also use the Olympic stadium, but the track is

shortened by one-sixth. The winners receive a crown of

olive and a portion of the cow sacrificed to Hera, and

they have the right to dedicate statues with their names

inscribed upon them. Those who serve the Sixteen

Women are, like the sponsors of these games, women.

They trace the competition of the virgins also back to

antiquity. They say that Hippodameia, out of gratitude to

Hera for her marriage to Pelops, collected Sixteen Women

and, with them, sponsored the first Heraia...

• Pausanias Description of Greece 5.16

It is said that in ancient times goats discovered the oracular shrine, on which account even to this

day the Delphians use goats preferably when they consult the oracle. They say that the manner of its

discovery was the following. There is a chasm at this place where now is situated what is known as

the "forbidden" sanctuary, and as goats had been wont to feed about this because Delphi had not as

yet been settled, invariably any goat that approached the chasm and peered into it would leap about

in an extraordinary fashion and utter a sound quite different from what it was formerly wont to emit.

The herdsman in charge of the goats marveled at the strange phenomenon and having approached

the chasm and peeped down it to discover what it was, had the same experience as the goats, for the

goats began to act like beings possessed and the goatherd also began to foretell future events. After

this as the report was bruited among the people of the vicinity concerning the experience of those

who approached the chasm, an increasing number of persons visited the place and, as they all tested

it because of its miraculous character, whosoever approached the spot became inspired. For these

reasons the oracle came to be regarded as a marvel and to be considered the prophecy-giving shrine

of Earth.

• For some time all who wished to obtain a prophecy approached the chasm and made their prophetic

replies to one another; but later, since many were leaping down into the chasm under the influence

of their frenzy and all disappeared, it seemed best to the dwellers in that region, in order to eliminate

the risk, to station one woman there as a single prophetess for all and to have the oracles told

through her.

Didodorus Siculus History 16.26.1-6

First, in this prayer of mine, I give the place of highest honor among the gods to the first

prophet, Earth; and after her to Themis, for she was the second to take this oracular seat

of her mother, as legend tells. And in the third allotment, with Themis' consent and not by

force, another Titan, child of Earth, Phoebe, took her seat here. She gave it as a birthday

gift to Phoebus, who has his name from Phoebe. Leaving the lake and ridge of Delos, he

landed on Pallas' ship-frequented shores, and came to this region and the dwelling places

on Parnassus. The children of Hephaistos, road-builders taming the wildness of the

untamed land, escorted him with mighty reverence. And at his arrival, the people and

Delphus, helmsman and lord of this land, made a great celebration for him. Zeus inspired

his heart with prophetic skill and established him as the fourth prophet on this throne; but

Loxias is the spokesman of Zeus, his father.

• These are the gods I place in the beginning of my prayer. And Pallas (=Athena) who

stands before the temple is honored in my words; and I worship the Nymphs where the

Corycian rock is hollow, the delight of birds and haunt of gods. Bromius (=Dionysus) has

held the region —I do not forget him— ever since he, as a god, led the Bacchantes in war,

and contrived for Pentheus death as of a hunted hare.

• Aeschylus Eumenides 1-26

‘And he went to the god, bringing possessions consisting of the first

fruits of Troy. And there, as he happened into a fight over cuts of meat,

a man killed him with a sacrificial knife. And the Delphians who guide

strangers were exceedingly grieved. But he paid the fated allotment;

for it had to happen that one of the ruling Aeacids be for all time

within the most ancient grove beside the well-walled house of the god,

and dwell there as overseer of rights for heroic processions rich in

sacrifice.’

• Pindar Nemean Ode 7.40.47 to Aeginetan victor Sogenes (Aegina traced its

lineage back to the line of Aeacus, whose descendants included Achilles, Ajax

and Achilles’ son Neoptolemos amongst others.).

The sworn agreement of the settlers. It has been resolved by the

assembly, since Apollo spontaneously told Battos and the

Therans to colonize Libya, it has been decided by the Therans to

send Battos to Libya as founder (archegetas) and as king, and for

the Therans to sail as his companions; they are to sail on equal

and similar terms according to family, and one son is to be

enlisted...the adults and of the other Therans the free-born...are

to sail.

And if the colonists establish the settlement, any of their

relatives who sail afterwards to Libya are to share in citizenship

and magistracies and be allotted portions of the unowned land.

But if they do not establish the settlement and the Therans are

unable to assist it, and they are oppressed by hardship for five

years, they shall depart without fear to Thera from that land to

their own property and be citizens. Whoever refuses to go when

the city sends him shall be liable to the death penalty and his

property shall be confiscated.

A Delphi Sanctioned Colonization

An Inscription from Thera

These wise sayings of men of old,

The words of famous men, are consecrated

At holy Delphi, where Klearchos copied them

from carefully

To set them up, shining from afar, in the

sanctuary of Kineas.

As a child, be well behaved;

As a young man, self-controlled;

In middle age, be just;

As an elder, be of good counsel;

And when you come to the end, be without

grief.”

The Reach of Delphic Wisdom

Ai Khanoum Inscription