Characters and Main Belief

Otanes

Herodotus, Histories, pro-democracy

Megabyzus

Herodotus, Histories, pro-oligarchy

Darius

Herodotus, Histories, pro-monarchy

Clisthenes

Herodotus, Histories OR Aristotle, Constitution of Athenians; mixed up democracy (to know difference: Aristotle spells it Cleisthenes)

Peisistratus

Aristotle, Constitution of Athenians, “tyrant” but good king

Solon

Aristotle, Constitution of Athenians, first guy appointed to help Athens: did by lot, cancelled debts, started mixing

Pericles

Thucydides, Funeral Oration, general + pride of Athens and honor in death; Athenian superiority

Cleon

Thucydides, Mytilenian Dialogue, death, justice, realism OR Aristophanes, Knights, corrupt slave to Demos

Diodotus

Thucydides, Peloponnesian War (Mytilenian Dialogue), long term goals + finding friends

Melian envoy

Thucydides, Peloponnesian War (Melian Dialogue), this is not a debate, Athens should find friends, die rather than slavery

Athenian envoy

Thucydides, Peloponnesian War (Melian Dialogue), this is not a debate about morals, power takes over (realism)

Antigone

Sophocles, Antigone, duty to gods and brother

Creon

Sophocles, Antigone, duty to city

Ismene

Sophocles, Antigone, men rule

Haemon

Sophocles, Antigone, a good king listens

Chorus (elders)

Sophocles, Antigone, a good king listens and Antigone is glorious

Tiresias

Sophocles, Antigone, the gods don’t like what you’re doing, just correct mistake it’s okay

Demos

Aristophanes, Knights, old, deaf king - metaphor for “the people”, responds to bribes and words

Sausage Seller

Aristophanes, Knights, represents the mixing, serves people

Demosthenes

Aristophanes, Knights, slave to Demos, common people for politicians

Nicias

Aristophanes, Knights, slave to Demos, Demosthenes’ aide in plan

Chorus (equestrian class)

Aristophanes, Knights, stop Cleon

“Thus had Clisthenes the Sicyonian done. The Athenian Clisthenes, who was grandson by the mother's side of the other, and had been named after him, resolved, from contempt (as I believe) of the Ionians, that his tribes should not be the same as theirs; and so followed the pattern set him by his namesake of Sicyon. Having brought entirely over to his own side the common people of Athens, whom he had before disdained, he gave all the tribes new names, and made the number greater than formerly; instead of the four phylarchs he established ten; he likewise placed ten demes in each of the tribes; and he was, now that the common people took his part, very much more powerful than his adversaries.”

Clisthenes, Herodotus, mixing up of tribes to create new version of government; changes in Athenian democracy to make it more democratic - raised common people up.

Isagoras

Herodotus, Histories, enemy of Clisthenes OR Aristotle, Constitution of Athenians, enemy of Cleisthenes (to tell difference: Herodotus uses a lot more words in sentences and says friendship instead of friend).

“They are jealous of the most virtuous among their subjects, and wish their death; while they take delight in the meanest and basest, being ever ready to listen to the tales of slanderers. A king, besides, is beyond all other men inconsistent with himself. Pay him court in moderation, and he is angry because you do not show him more profound respect - show him profound respect, and he is offended again, because (as he says) you fawn on him.” 

Otanes, Aristotle, why kings are bad, overall argument for democracy

“This played havoc with the whole plot. Of the two of them Harmodius was at once dispatched by the spearmen, and Aristogeiton died later, having been taken into custody and tortured for a long time. Under the strain of the tortures he gave the names of a number of men that belonged by birth to families of distinction, and were friends of the tyrants, as confederates. For they were not able immediately to find any trace of the plot, but the current story that Hippias made the people in the procession fall out away from their arms and searched for those that retained their daggers is not true, for in those days they did not walk in the procession armed, but this custom was instituted later by the democracy.”

Aristotle, Constitution of Athenians, describing how tyrants came into power. These were the tyrants that gave “tyrants” a negative connotation, after their rule, Athens went back to democracy and Clisthenes aided this.

“I will begin at our ancestors; being a thing both just and honest that to them first be given the honour of remembrance in this kind. For they, having been always the inhabitants of this region, by their valour have delivered the same to succession of posterity hitherto in the state of liberty. [2] For which they deserve commendation, but our fathers deserve yet more; for that besides what descended on them, not without great labour of their own they have purchased this our present dominion and delivered the same over to us that now are.”

Pericles, Thucydides, Funeral Oration, Peloponnesian War, honoring dead on Veteran’s Day and celebrating Athenian greatness. Honoring ancestors and dead.

“For my own part, I am of the opinion I was before; and I wonder at these men that have brought this matter of the Mytilenaeans in question again and thereby caused delay, which is the advantage only of them that do the injury. For the sufferer by this means comes upon the doer with his anger dulled; whereas revenge, the opposite of injury, is then greatest when it follows presently. I do wonder also what he is that shall stand up now to contradict me and shall think to prove that the injuries done us by the Mytilenaeans are good for us or that our calamities are any damage to our confederates.”

Cleon, Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, Mytilenian Dialogue, delaying will cause harm, must rettribute, there is tyranny in your empire

“For a good statesman should not go about to terrify those that contradict him but rather to make good his counsel upon liberty of speech. And a wise state ought not either to add unto, or, on the other side, to derogate from, the honour of him that giveth good advice, nor yet punish, nay, nor disgrace, the man whose counsel they receive not. [6] And then, neither would he that lighteth on good advice deliver anything against his own conscience, out of ambition of further honour and to please the auditory, nor he that doth not, covet thereupon by gratifying the people some way or other that he also may endear them.”

Diodotus, Thucydides, peloponnesian War, Mytilenian Dialogue, politicians love to talk but let’s not go back and forth, let’s focus on advice. Compare to Cleon’s depiction in Knights.

“As we therefore will not, for our parts, with fair pretences, as, that having defeated the Medes, our reign is therefore lawful, or that we come against you for injury done, make a long discourse without being believed; so would we have you also not expect to prevail by saying either that you therefore took not our parts because you were a colony of the Lacedaemonians or that you have done us no injury. But out of those things which we both of us do really think, let us go through with that which is feasible, both you and we knowing that in human disputation justice is then only agreed on when the necessity is equal; whereas they that have odds of power exact as much as they can, and the weak yield to such conditions as they can get”

Athenian convoy, Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, Melian Dialogue, we’re not gonna make excuses, we’re gonna take you because you’re weak. Not democratic, just empire.

1: I would not encourage you—no, nor, even if you were willing later, [70] would I welcome you as my partner in this action. No, be the sort that pleases you. I will bury him—it would honor me to die while doing that. I shall rest with him, loved one with loved one, a pious criminal. For the time is greater [75] that I must serve the dead than the living, since in that world I will rest forever. But if you so choose, continue to dishonor what the gods in honor have established.
2: I do them no dishonor. But to act in violation of the citizens' will—of that I am by nature incapable.

1: You can make that your pretext! Regardless, I will go now to heap a tomb over the brother I love.

2: Oh no, unhappy sister! I fear for you!

1: Do not tremble for me. Straighten out your own destiny.

2: Then at least disclose the deed to no one before you do it. [85] Conceal it, instead, in secrecy—and so, too, will I.

1: Go on! Denounce it! You will be far more hated for your silence, if you fail to proclaim these things to everyone.

Antigone and Ismene, Sophocles, Antigone, Ismene is arguing for rule of man, Antigone for rule of gods and family duties.

“Think, therefore, on these things, my son. All men are liable to err. [1025] But when an error is made, that man is no longer unwise or unblessed who heals the evil into which he has fallen and does not remain stubborn. Self-will, we know, invites the charge of foolishness. Concede the claim of the dead. Do not kick at the fallen.”

Tiresias, Sophocles, Antigone, telling Creon he just should reverse his decision and everything will be a-okay. Makes an Iliad reference.

“Do not, then, bear one mood only in yourself: do not think that your word and no other, must be right. For if any man thinks that he alone is wise—that in speech or in mind he has no peer—such a soul, when laid open, is always found empty. [710] No, even when a man is wise, it brings him no shame to learn many things, and not to be too rigid. You see how the trees that stand beside the torrential streams created by a winter storm yield to it and save their branches, while the stiff and rigid perish root and all? [715] And in the same way the pilot who keeps the sheet of his sail taut and never slackens it, upsets his boat, and voyages thereafter with his decking underwater.”

Haemon, Sophocles, Antigone, telling Creon to listen to the people and be a good king.

“Strike, strike the villain, who has spread confusion amongst the ranks of the Knights, this public robber, this yawning gulf of plunder, this devouring Charybdis, this villain, this villain, this villain! I cannot say the word too often, [250] for he is a villain a thousand times a day. Come, strike, drive, hurl him over and crush him to pieces; hate him as we hate him; stun him with your blows and your shouts. And beware lest he escape you; he knows the way Eucrates took straight to a bran sack for concealment.”

Chorus of Knights, Aristophanes, Knights, talking about Cleon. He is a public robber as he serves only himself. Even better, Cleon was alive during this - Aristophanes is making public commentary.

“Many among you, he tells us, have expressed wonder, that he has not long since had a piece presented in his own name, and have asked the reason why. This is what he bids us say in reply to your questions; [515] it is not without grounds that he has courted the shade, for, in his opinion, nothing is more difficult than to cultivate the comic Muse; many court her, but very few secure her favours. Moreover, he knows that you are fickle by nature and betray your poets when they grow old.”

Chorus of Knights, Aristophanes, Knights, talking about Aristophanes. Greek comedy was a place where public could laugh at themselves. Aristophanes is using his play to make a mockery of people and express opinion on politics.

“No, little you care for his reigning in Arcadia, it's to pillage and impose on the allies at will that you reckon; you wish the war to conceal your rogueries as in a mist, that Demos may see nothing of them, and harassed by cares, may only depend on yourself for his bread. [805] But if ever peace is restored to him, if ever he returns to his lands to comfort himself once more with good cakes, to greet his cherished olives, he will know the blessings you have kept him out of, even though paying him a salary; and, filled with hatred and rage, he will rise, burning with desire to vote against you. You know this only too well; it is for this you rock him to sleep with your lies.”

Sausage Seller, Aristophanes, Knights, talking about Creon’s greed and his disloyalty to Demos.

““Son of Erechtheus, understand the meaning of the words, which the sacred tripods set resounding in the sanctuary of Apollo. Preserve the sacred dog with the jagged teeth, that barks and howls in your defence; he will ensure you a salary and, if he fails, will perish as the victim of [1020] the swarms of jays that hunt him down with their screams.””

Cleon, Aristophanes, Knights, telling Demos the fortunes. He is going to say it favors him as adviser, Sausage Seller reveals his is not: that the for is not defending but licking plates clean.