Core notes

History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides 

HISTORICAL CONTEXT 

• 490-480 ⇒ Persian wars 

  • Sparta VS Athens 

• 431 BCE ⇒ Perikle’s Funeral Oration → rhetoric + eulogic speech to praise fallen heroes

• 431-404 ⇒ Peloponnesian War 

  • Sparta Vs Athens → because of growth of Athenian empire + fear of the latter for Spartans 

  • Athens lost → Pericles died in 429 + was succeeded by men who were not as great as he was 

⇒ human nature is fueled by 3 principles : fear + ambition + self-interest 

1. Pericle’s funeral oration  

• Public funeral to fallen soldiers + praise of Athen’s democracy 

  • Stable government relying on democracy → power to demos (people) 

  • Equality for law 

  • Open access to the city → NO reliance on deceit/secrets (Sparta) 

• Athens is also a polis (city) ⇒ makes its own laws + sovereign 

  • Regular contests + sacrifices are held 

  • Great military force → navy + water vessels, tireme, ⇒ used to construct + rule empire post Persian-war 

  • Model for all cities ⇒  ideal city 

• Statement about feminine virtue 

  • Excellence of women → fact that they are not talked about + that is their greatest glory 

  • Reputation is based on → invisibility + unexamined ⇒ they are confined to the domestic sphere 

2. Melian dialogue  

• 416 BCE ⇒ Melos is only island not controlled by Athens 

  • Athens demands heavy tax (annual) + become ally ⇒ REFUSED 

  • Famous dialogue between athenians + rulers of Melos 

• Melo's arguments :  

  • Justice + fair treatment to them 

  • Hoping that Sparta will aid them 

  • They rely on hope → Athens says its for those who lack resources + comfort of the desperate 

  • They rely on divine power 

• Athens arguments : 

  • Dismiss justice + rights 

  • Must demonstrate imperial strength → showing mercy is interpreted as weak by other states 

• ⇒ fate = Athens besieges Melos + execute all adult males + enslaves all women/children 

3. Mytelian debate  

• Capital city → revolted from Athens in 428 BCE 

• Athens = voted to kill all men + enslave women + children (// Melian dialogue) 

• Changed their mind + lessened the punishment (1000 men) ⇒ debate between Diodotus + Cleon 

  • CLEON ⇒ Pericle’s successor + demagogue (⇒ person who is able to persuade the people) → pro massacre 

  • DIODOTUS ⇒ WON DEBATE + against massacre 

• CLEON ⇒

  • Considers contest a distraction → prevent it by asserting guilt of Mytileneans 

  • Punish Mytilenenas for revolt 

• DIODOTUS ⇒ 

  • No law/punishment that can prevent states from rebelling 

  • Sparing the people would benefit future Athens ⇒ important source of revenue +

The polis 

• Makes its own laws + sovereign 

• Is not part of an empire/kingdom 

• Structured around ⇒ assembly of citizens who vote

  • They owe somebody to other citizens should be invested in the society 

• Politeia ⇒ aristocrats hold power over demos 

• Tyranny ⇒ 1 aristocrat/family dominate other aristocratic families 

The Parthenon 

Historical context 

• 490 BCE ⇒ Battle of Marathon → Athens defeat great Persian Empire + start building temple 

• Persians retaliate + sack Athens ⇒ destroying partially-constructed temple on Akropolis 

• 479 BCE ⇒ Athens defeat Persia at Plataea → vow to never rebuild Athenian “old” temple 

  • Periklean reconstruction program  ⇒ via money from the delian league (used purposely for defense) 

  • Phidias (best sculptor in Ancient Greece) → appointed to work on the Parthenon 

• 600 CE ⇒ transformed into Orthodox Christian church 

• 1460 CE ⇒ turned into a Mosque post Ottoman Empire sacking of Constantinople

The Akropolis 

• “High city” ⇒ natural bedrock outrocking + most important sanctuary in all of Athens 

• East ⇒ Street of the Tripods 

  • Lined with victory monuments for contests 

• South ⇒ Theater of Dionysos (god of wine and theater) 

• Panathenaic way ⇒ professional route in honor of Athens (goddess of wisdom and courage) 

  • From Dipylon gate to akropolis 

  • Athenians wouldc give gifts to Athena (garments) ⇒ Panathenaic procession 

The Parthenon 

• Dedicated to Athena the “maiden” 

• Exterior = loaded w sculptures 

  • Pediment 

  • Doric frieze ⇒ horizontal band + alternating metopes

  • Columns 

  • Three steps all around 

• Interior 

  • Columns all around 

  • Continuous frieze wraps around inner walls → shows 1st Panathenaic procession ⇒ culminates with the giving of the peplos, garment, to Athena 

    • EAST ⇒ birth of Athena 

    • WESt ⇒ Athena VS Poseidon 

    • SOUTH ⇒ battle of Greeks VS Centaurs 

    • NORTH ⇒ metopes w sack of Troy 

  • Huge gold ivory statue → Athena holding statue of Nike “victory” 2

Stories of the Parthenon 

• Gods ⇒ beautiful, clever + powerful 

• Shared gods + history  

Ajax (Sophocles)

HISTORICAL CONTEXT 

• The 2 best fighters of the greek army were = Achilles and Ajax 

• A contest was held for Achille’s armour → Odysseus got it 

  • Ajax enraged, attempts to kill all greek generals as a result 

  • Athena inflicts a spell on him, changing his vision ⇒ he kills cattle instead ⇒ playing with him like a cat and a mouse 

STRUCTURE 

• 1 ⇒ preparation for suicide → hero’s descent 

• 2 ⇒ preparation for burial → hero’s ascent 

1. Exposition 

• Ajax loses contest for Achilles’ armour 

• Leads to failed revenge (foiled by Athena’s wrath) 

• Ajax recognized what happened and feels shame ⇒ leads to despair which leads to suicide 

  • Only thing that matters for him is ⇒ honor → he is stripped of it 

  • Feels shame because of ⇒ mockery/laughter → most lethal weapon 

2. Confrontation 

• Contest over suicide w. Tecmessa → tries to get in Ajax’s world 

  • Begs him not to doom her + their son 

3. Burial 

• Contested for burial 

  • Agamemnon + Menelaus ⇒ leave him unburied + punishment for his madness 

  • Teucer (½ brother) + Odysseus ⇒ proper hero burial 

    • Deserves respect + saved Agamemnon once too !

    • Remember everything else he did before his failed revenge 

The greek theater  

• MAIN COMPONENTS 

  • Stage ⇒ primary performance space 

  • Orchestra ⇒ huge singing space of the chorus 

  • Theatron ⇒ “viewing” place of the spectators ∑

• The greek theater incites pity + fear ⇒ to induce CATHARSIS ⇒ emotional purification /relief/release 

  • Look experiences from a distance and become self aware of own problems 

• Greeks → invented dramatic irony ⇒ audience knows everything + sits back and watches all unfold 

• Conflict VS blindness

• Theatre ⇒ place of pity → creates community + group empathy 

What is heroism ?  

• Greatness in battle + empathy towards others 

• Ajax ⇒ non-heroic behaviors, he lost sense of himself 

• Ajax ⇒ fits on the battlefield + has respect for his men/community 

⇒ Greek tragedies rely on conflict : 

• Themis ⇒ divine law (Tecmessa, Odysseus + Teucer) 

• Nomos ⇒ individual law (Agamemnon + Menelaus) 

Euripides’ Hecuba 

HISTORICAL CONTEXT  

• Hecuba ⇒ queen of Troy + now greek slave (Agamemnon) 

  • Grief over daughter’s death ⇒ Polyxena as a blood sacrificie to Odysseus’ honor (timē)

• Polydorus = ghost appears 

  • Foreshadows polyxena’s killing 

  • Killed by Polymestor 

  • Creates dramatic irony + is a reliable narrator 

• Polydorus’ body washes up on stage 

  • Hecuba feels massive grief (grief is a WOMAN)  

  • Lamentation ⇒ gave woman a voice that reached a public, before it was only in houses or funeral processions 

  • Xenia violation by Polymestor 

  • Man is WAR ⇒ always depcited in war context + represented figurely as their weapons + defined as their weapons 

• Revenge 

  • Hecuba tells polymestor → where remaining trojan treasures lay 

    • Kills his sons + blinds him ⇒ makes death suffering 

  • Polymestor killed P bc ⇒ preserve greek victory + was a potential future enemy 

  • Agamemnon decides justice is done 

Ti draso ? What shall I do ? 

• ⇒ moment of consciousness/necessity demanding chocies be made followed by dramatic action  

• Eg ; help from Agamemnon ? avenge polyxena ? 

Homeric VS Classical Athens values 

• Homeric ⇒ Gods as protectors 

  • ⇒ “customs of equality” + kingship 

  • Xenia 

• Classical Athens ⇒ NO gods 

  • Public opinion  

  • Murder of polydours for money 

  • Democratic voting + public opinion 

Heroism in Hecuba  

• GREEK CODE OF HONOR → KILL YOUR ENEMIES AND PROTECT YOUR FRIENDS  

• Honor ? 

• compassion/ emotional capacity 

• Taking action, conviction 

• Strenght 

• Resilience 

• Follow through 

Plato’s Republic 

Background information  

• Plato descend into the Piraeus ⇒ Athen’s harbor town 

  • Invited to Cephalus’ house by his son Polemarchus 

  • Asked to talk about what is JUSTICE 

BOOK I 

• What is justice ?? 

• Dinner invitation from Polymarchus 

  • It starts with a rude question → “how is it like being old ?” 

  • Socrates = BEST guest → philosophy begins with thinking about own experiences 

  • “What have you enjoyed about being old ?” ⇒ not owning anyone anyhtings… ⇒ Socrates extracts definition of JUSTICE via refutation by counter-example 

  • ⇒ Cephalus is GONE 

• Polymarchus takes over + cites Simonides 

  • ⇒ justice is to give each what is owed to him 

  • Socrates refutes via refutation by analogy 

  • ⇒ Polymarchus REFUTED 

• Trasymachus barges in (Relativist)

  • ⇒ justice is what is advantageous for the stronger 

  • Socrates refutes via indirect proof 

• Clitophon 

  • ⇒ justice is what the strong believes is advantageous for him 

BOOK II and III

• Story of Gyge’s ring  

  • found ring inside bronze horse under earth → on a giant’s corpse body 

  • When turned on itself → turns invisible 

  • ⇒ plotted to kill king + seduced queen 

  • POINT ⇒ w.o moral rules, people scable moral values of society and pursue their own egoistical interests 

• Socrates examines justice by ANALOGY ⇒ Kallipolis 

  • Based on fundamental human needs 

  • Self sufficient via natural resources and basic trades 

  • One person ⇒ one job ⇒ extreme specialization of labor 

  • INJUSTICE ⇒ interference, class mixing → not doing what “diagnosed” to do !! (technē)

• From healthy to luxurious city ⇒ causes geographical expansion + need for protection 

  • GUARDIANS ⇒ needed to enforce justice 

  • Educated via music + gymnastics ⇒ only receive censored info 

  • NOBLE LIE 

    • All citizens were formed from Earth + therefore literally brothers and sisters 

    • Gods mixed metals to determine ability to fulfill certain social roles 

    • ⇒ to keep balance + make citizens accept their role without questioning 

BOOK IV 

• 3 VIRTUES 

  • WISDOM → in guardians 

  • COURAGE → in auxiliary class 

  • TEMPERANCE → in all classes 

• JUSTICE ⇒ DOING ONE’S WORK 

• Mind own business + not be busy-body 

• HUMAN SOUL  (// city’s three classes, must act independently one another)

  • Rational 

  • Spirited 

  • Desire 

  • ⇒ INJUSTICE = civil war between the three parts 

  • JUSTICE = harmonizing the soul → to attain unity + stability 

BOOK V  

• 3 BIG WAVES to ruler’s education : 

  • Male + female guardians will share all pursuits 

  • Women + children will be shared in common ⇒ abolition of nuclear family 

  • Rulers = philosophers 

BOOK VI + VII

• The divided line ⇒ c.f image 

  • Geometric analogy to structure of reality in form of a line  

• The Sun  ⇒ the Good 

  • Illuminates the world 

  • Sort of guide to determine what is “good” 

• The Cave ⇒ c.f image  

  • Image of mass deception → what is “real” ? 

  • Image of nature without education 

  • ⇒ philosophers need to question reality + relay to others what he discovered !! 

  • EDUCATION IS BREAKING FREE FROM CAVE + GOING OUT IN THE WORLD

BOOK VIII - The types of regimes 

• 1. ARISTOCRACY  

  • Rule of the “best” → guardians of knowledge 

  • “Nutpial number” ⇒ how to break down harmony in the universe 

  • One job/one specialization 

  • Militarized regime with strict education 

  • Abolition of nuclear family (the 3 “waves” of Kallipolis) 

  • ⇒ dissolves because guardians are unable to control their sexual eros → making of “deficitated” children, not conform to the eugenics program strictly enforced in Kallipolis 

• 2. TIMOCRACY  

  • Rule of the spirit of the soul → philosopher kings 

  • Heavily militaristic 

  • Love for money/power/honor → need of a status symbol 

  • Produces a person → hungry for signs of power + social reputation 

  • ⇒ dissolves with the greediness of the citizens and the uprising of the poor → the rich gain power !  

• 3. OLIGARCHY 

  • Rule by a small group of wealthy people → political participation requires property above a certain threshold 

  • Sharp class division → “two cities”, poor and rich 

  • Evil, incompetent + egocentric rulers 

  • ⇒ dissolves with the revolt of the poor people + individual freedom arises  

• 4. DEMOCRACY (demos, the people) 

  • Rule by the people, le peuple 

  • Equality regardless of merit 

  • Power is shared among people 

  • ⇒ all of this is based on desire (banned in Kallipolis) → people want relief from cacophony 

  • ⇒ dissolves with uprising of the people who crave clarity for a strong voice  

• 5. TYRANNY 

  • Criminal appetitive, unlawful desires 

Cinzia Arruzza - Lecture on Tyrannical Man 

• Dreams ⇒ when reason is asleep and unconscious is freed from its shackles 

  • Tyrannical man has dream when is awake ⇒ driven by passionate eros 

• Eros = make soul mad + loss of positive beliefs 

  • Connected to appetitive part of the soul which drives desires and makes them stronger 

• Most unhappy man 

  • Surrounded by dishonest individuals (flatterers) 

  • Makes everyone miserable and unhappy 

  • Lives in constant fear of being killed (of hatred) 

  • Lives in paranoia 

  • ⇒ internal constant struggle → NO calmer order, desires and appetitive parts DOMINATE