Archaic Greece sources

Small ones, not Herodotus. c. 650- 479 bce.

Aristotle Constitution of the Athenians

• C4 explanation of contemporary Athenian politics through its history by the metic Aristotle/his school

• Solon appointed “as reconciler and archon” between elite and popular revolt

• His poetry blames the rich’s greed for unrest

• ‘Shaking off of burdens”, some (possibly corrupt) debt cancellation

• chooses not to become a tyrant

• Laws publically inscribed on kyrbeis (cf. axones)

• Divides classes by economic production, the majority given only assembly and jury membership

• Officials chosen by lot from the tribes

• ‘three most democratic reforms’: ban on loans against the person; universal right to retribution; appeal to jury of peers

• Reshuffled currency and standard weights

• Goes on a ten year break to prevent changing the laws

• Quotes a lot of his poetry

• connects shaking off of burdens to the return of enslaved Athenians

Aristotle Constitution of the Athenians

• C4 explanation of contemporary Athenian politics through its history by the metic Aristotle/his school

• Connects the three factions to political stances (coast-Megacles the Alcmaonid-moderate; plain-Lycurgus-oligarchy; hill-Pisistratus-democracy)

• Pisistratus given a bodyguard, whom he uses to take the acropolis, but this attempt lasts six years as Megacles and Lycurgus ally against him

• Five years after that, Megacles switches to Pisistratus, giving him his daughter

• cites Herodotus on Phye as Athena trick

• Second tyranny lasts seven years, loses Megacles as an ally due to failure to fulfil husbandly duties

• Returns in eleven years, by military force

• Pisistratus tells the people “that they should go and attend to their private affairs, and that he would take care of all public affairs”

• Good rule “more like a citizen than like a tyrant”, ensuring agrarian harmony in accordance with the laws

• “he had many supporters both among the notables and the ordinary people”

• Succeeded by Hippias and Hipparchus, the former more politically powerful

• Hipparchus fails to gain the affection of Harmodius, bitterness grows until Harmodius and Aristogiton kill him

• Hippias’ rule increasingly paranoid

• Alcmaeonid exiles encourage Cleomenes/the Pythia to overturn the tyranny

• Athens besieged, Pisistratids attempt to send out their sons, but they are captured and used to force negotiations

Aristotle Politics

• C4 study of political systems by Athenian metic Aristotle

• Intertwines democracy and tyranny, the least legitimate forms of government

• Democracy requires a huge degree of social engineering to create loyalty to the state, such as Cleisthenes’ tribes

• Tyrants, like oligarchs, distrustful of the masses

Alcman fr. 1

• mid/late C7 Spartan poet, for public ritual performance

• homoerotic praise of the athleticism of rival chorus leaders Agido and Hagesichora

• Physical beauty and riches pale in comparison to the “heartache” of the dancer

Alcman fr. 3

• mid/late C7 Spartan poet, for public ritual performance

• Girls sing of “crippling longing” for the dancing Astymeloisa

• Praises her athleticism, “wins the public’s heart”

• “if she would just come up, take my young hand, I’d soon be begging for her favour”

Sappho

• Late C7/early C6 Lesbian lyric poet, largely conventional love poetry on the family

• fr. 1 calls for Aphrodite’s relief for love-sickness due to another woman

• fr. 5 asks Aphrodite and her nymphs to “let my brother reach her safe” from a sea journey

• fr. 16 speaker would rather see the “bright sparkling of her [Anactoria’s] face” than “all the horse and arms of Lydia”, where military might was earlier considered by some the most splendid sight

• fr. 30, fr. 108, fr. 109 some of her wedding songs

• fr. 31 in jealous awe of a man speaking to the beloved without feeling sick, “not far off dying”

• fr. 98 to daughter Cleis, regretting getting her only a Mytilenian headband rather than a Sardinian embroidered one

• fr. 102 “mother, I can no longer ply my loom”

Tyrtaeus

• Mid C7 Spartan war poet, associated with the second Messenian War

• fr.4 describes Sparta’s system of kings, gerousia, citizens as the Pythia-communicated “god’s decree”

• fr. 5 praises king Theopompus’ conquest of “Messene good to plough”

• fr. 6 describes the servitude of the Messenians, “by painful force compelled to bring their masters half of all the produce that the soil brought forth”

• fr. 10 “it is fine to die in the front line, a brave man fighting for his fatherland”, contrasted with the social disgrace of a coward

Hesiod Theogony

• Late C8/early C7 poet Hesiod’s mythological explanation of the world

• Opens claiming his knowledge is from the muses, who came to him whilst shepherding. Compare this to where Herodotus claims his knowledge

• Describes the beauty and “guile” of Pandora, the first woman and the gods’ punishment to man

  • women only take men’s money

  • but bachelors condemned to a “deadly old age”

Hesiod Works and days

• late C8/early C7 poet Hesiod’s description of rural life, giving helpful advice

• Divides time into ages of metallic men

• Gives advice on choosing a wife, a thirty year old man should “marry a maiden, so that you can teach her” and ensure her fidelity

Darius’ tomb

• Inscriptions DNa + DNb at Naqsh-e Rustam (near Persepolis, palace complex)

• a. is a political autobiography claiming legitimacy from “the great god Ahuramazda […] who made Darius king”; lists his territories including “the sun-hat wearing Greeks”

• b. sets out moral ideals, justice, self control, military skill

• “it is not my desire that a man should do harm, nor is it my desire that he goes unpunished when he does”

Archilochus fr. 19

• C7 iambic and elegiac poet from Paros, migrates to Thasos

• Gyges “and all his gold don’t interest me” declares the Greek workman Charon

Semonides fr. 7

• Mid C7 poet, writing for Symposia

• Categorises women by their animalistic traits, which make men’s lives harder

• “Zeus made wives as his worst pestilence”

• Homosocial female sociability a source of anxiety for men, the good woman “does not enjoy sitting with other women when they talk of sex”

• Women’s merit comes from serving her household/husband, not from looking beautifully feminine

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

• the C5 disgraced Athenian general Thucydides has a clear argument to make on Greek politics, rather distorted importance of Athens and Sparta

• Cynical of Herodotus’ methods and truthfulness

• 1.17 depicts tyrants as a developmental stage, individuals who reached great power in pursuit of personal wealth, limiting the ability of the state to act for its wider interest

• 1. 10 “distant ages would be very unwilling to believe the power of the Lakadaimonians was at all equal to their fame”

Solon

• Fragmentary poetry of Athenian lawmaker, written after his 594/3 reforms

• Defends his actions against both sides

• Decision not to become a tyrant, despite its possibility

  • fr. 32, fr. 33 claim tyranny the desire of inferior men

  • fr. 37 “if another man had got the goad, he’d not have checked the mob”

• fr. 4: Athens may fall from the “foolishness [of] the citizens themselves”; “many of the poor folk find themselves in foreign lands, sold into slavery”

Pausanias Description of Greece

• C2 ce. travel writer’s records of many historical sites, aligning well with archaeological record

• Notes a statue of Cleisthenes in Attica, who is attributed the division of the tribes

• Describes Spartan girls competing in the Herea wearing the same one-shoulder dress depicted in an Artemis Orthia votive

• Incredible wealth of Delphi

Xenophon Constitution of the Spartans

• Late C5/early C4 disgraces Athenian general, writing a Lakonophile account explaining contemporary Sparta by attributing it to Lycurgus

• Claims Pythian legitimacy for Lycurgus reforms

• State hugely pressures the creation of “strapping babies” for future soldiers, with atypical family institutions

Lakonian vases

• Sixth century Lakonian vases painted to show all kinds of indulgences

  • symposia, music, sex

Artemis Orthia

• Spartan sanctuary

• Flooded with fairly cheap lead votives late C7/C6, indicating wide participation

• Largely wreaths, but figures are a mix of genders, showing athletes and musicians

Strabo Geography

• Augustan-period Asian-Greek geographer

• Mentions the founding of the Spartan colony of Taras/Tarentum in Italy by the ‘partheniae’

• Potentially rebellious sons of a drastic wartime demographic measure are sent to found a colony

Homer the Odyssey

• Bronze and Dark Age roots, written down C8

• Could very cautiously use as a precedent for place of women, xenia customs etc.

• 8.80 refers to “the oracle at Pytho”

Theognis fr. 39-52

• Incredibly confused biography, from Megara

• Fear that the town will “bring one to birth who’ll right our wicked ways” in the form of a tyrant

• Prioritising the private over the city will lead to “civil strife, bloodshed within the clan, dictators”

Bacchylides Ode 3

• Early C5 lyric poet

• Croesus taken away from his Persian execution by Apollo

• “nothing is unbelievable which is brought about by the gods’ ambition”

Polyxena sarcophogus

• c. 500 monumental sarcophogus

• Depicts mythic scenes of women mourning, mostly other women

• ‘real life’ scenes of women being presented with gifts, and female symposium