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ANCIENT GREECE vi-The Golden Age

Greece 6 Golden Age

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Page 1: Greece 6 Golden Age

ANCIENT GREECEvi-The Golden Age

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ANCIENT GREECEvi-The Golden Age

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Athenian silver “owls” were the common currency of the Aegean world.*

PERHAPS SILVER AGE WOULD BE MORE APPROPRIATE

* These Athenian silver coins, worth four drachmas (in terms of modern American currency, over $300), were stamped with the

helmeted head of Athena and on the reverse side her iconic owl.

At the beginning of the [Peloponnesian] war, Athens garnered 600

talents [1 talent=6,000 drachmas] of annual tribute, in addition to

perhaps some 400 talents of internal income generated through mining,

trade, overseas rent, and commerce. By 431 there were some 6,000

talents in reserve in the temple treasuries on the Acropolis. That pile was

the equivalent of 36 million man-days of labor….In this regard, tragedy,

comedy, and the Parthenon were not so much expressions of native

genius as reflections of lots of money.

Hanson, A War Like No Other, p. 27

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εξ ϡ´

Τὀ ῏Εκτον Μάθηµα

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PRINCIPAL TOPICS

I. Pericles

II. Art

III. Drama

IV. Philosophy

V. History

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After Salamis [480 B.C.] the free Greeks would never fear any other foreign power

until they met the free Romans of the republic. No Persian king would ever again

set foot in Greece….Before Salamis Athens was a rather eccentric city-state whose

experiment with a radical democracy was in its twenty-seven-year-old infancy, and

the verdict on its success was still out. After Salamis an imperial democratic culture

arose at Athens that ruled the Aegean and gave us Aeschylus, Sophocles, the

Parthenon, Pericles, Socrates, and Thucydides. Salamis proved that free peoples

fought better than unfree, and that the most free of the free---the Athenians---

fought the best of all.

Hanson, Carnage and Culture, pp. 56-57

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I. PERICLES

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I. PERICLESΠΕΡΙΚΛΗΣ

PERICLES

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His family's nobility and wealth allowed him to fully pursue his inclination toward education. He learned music from the masters of the time ... and he is considered to have been the first politician to attribute great importance to philosophy. He enjoyed the company of the philosophers Protagoras, Zeno of Elea and Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras in particular became a close friend and influenced him greatly. Pericles' manner of thought and rhetorical charisma may have been in part products of Anaxagoras' emphasis on emotional calm in the face of trouble and skepticism about divine phenomena. His proverbial calmness and self-control are also regarded as products of Anaxagoras' influence.

Wikipedia

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ENTERING POLITICS

born an aristocrat. His mother, Agariste, made him heir to “the curse of the Alkmaeonidai”

spring 472-age 17 (?), first came to public notice as the patron (financier) of Aeschylus’ Persians at the Greater Dionysia, a splendid public Λειτουργία (liturgy)

Pericles' selection of this play, which presents a nostalgic picture of Themistocles' famous victory at Salamis, shows that the young politician was supporting Themistocles against his political opponent Kimon

Kimon’s aristocratic faction would succeed in ostracizing Themistocles shortly thereafter

influenced by his upbringing to avoid lavish displays of wealth, Pericles avoided banquets and maintained a frugal private life

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THE MAN WHO GAVE HIS NAME TO AN ERA

463-age 32 (?), again came to public notice in the failed prosecution of the aristocratic leader Kimon

he was Ephialtes’ assistant in the democratic reforms of the Areopagus, last stronghold of the aristocrats

461- two major events in the political struggles:

Kimon’s ostracism

the assassination of Ephialtes

460-429--elected one of the ten strategoi almost without exception until his death at age 66 (?)

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After Kimon's ostracism, Pericles continued to espouse and promote a populist social policy. He first proposed a decree that permitted the poor to watch theatrical plays without paying, with the state covering the cost of their admission. With other decrees he lowered the property requirement for the archonship in 458–457 BC and bestowed generous wages on all citizens who served as jurymen in the Heliaia (the supreme court of Athens) some time just after 454 BC. His most controversial measure, however, was a law of 451 BC limiting Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides.

Such measures impelled Pericles' critics to regard him as responsible for the gradual degeneration of the Athenian democracy. Constantine Paparrigopoulos, a major modern Greek historian, argues that Pericles sought for the expansion and stabilization of all democratic institutions. Hence, he enacted legislation granting the lower classes access to the political system and the public offices, from which they had previously been barred on account of limited means or humble birth. According to Samons, Pericles believed that it was necessary to raise the demos, in which he saw an untapped source of Athenian power and the crucial element of Athenian military dominance. (The fleet, backbone of Athenian power since the days of Themistocles, was manned almost entirely by members of the lower classes.)

Wikipedia

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Marathon was a victory for hoplites. It was the farmers, the middling group, and those above them that had won that battle, but Salamis was a victory for the poor in Athens. Of course that vast fleet was rowed by poor Athenians, and now they had the glory for the victory and, of course, after the war, when the fleet became the basis of Athenian strength and glory, it was the common man and the poorest of the Athenians, who was involved in achieving that desirable status.

Kagan

WAR AND POLITICS

...military strategy seldom operates in a vacuum. Themistocles was well aware that the promotion of the naval service--well over 20,000 landless Athenian citizens may have rowed at Salamis--the sacrifice of the Athenian countryside [in 480], public financing of ship construction, and the accompanying of Athenian infantry, had considerable domestic ramifications: a landed and conservative minority could no longer claim monopoly on the city’s defense. From now on, in all Athenian-led democracies, maritime power, urban fortifications, walls connecting port and citadel, and the employment of the poor on triremes were felt to be essential to the survival of popular governments…

Hanson, Wars of the Ancient Greeks, pp. 102-103

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WAR AND POLITICS (CONT.)

From now on, in all Athenian-led democracies, maritime power, urban fortifications, walls connecting port and citadel, and the employment of the poor on triremes were felt to be essential to the survival of

popular governments... who would elect non-aristocrats like Themistocles--his mother was probably not even Greek--to guide the city. Taxes and forced contributions would pay for the investments. In times of national crisis the record of naval power at Artemisium and Salamis apparently confirmed that ships were strategically invaluable and their impoverished crews every bit as brave as hoplite landowners.

But to the agrarian conservative mind all this was anathema. All philosophers deplored the naval triumphs of the Persian wars and were frightened by the bellicosity of the rabble in the Athenian Assembly. Plato went so far as to say that the stunning naval victory at Salamis that saved western civilization made the Greeks ‘worse’ as a people, while Aristotle linked the sea-battles of the Persian wars with the rise of demagoguery itself.

Hanson, Wars of the Ancient Greeks, pp. 102-103

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“He knew the importance of keeping the mass of the people gainfully employed,

“and, to quote Plutarch:

“It was his desire and design that the undisciplined mechanic multitude should not go without their share of the public funds, and yet should not have these given him for sitting still and doing nothing.”

“Funds for constructing the massive buildings that still adorn the Acropolis were obtained by the transfer of the treasury of the Delian League to Athens

“Pheidias worked on the building for nine years, from 447-438.”

Everyday Life in Ancient Times, pp.234-235

Chryselephantine

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"Rather, the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us."

Pericles' Funeral Oration as recorded by Thucydides (II, 41) γ[›]

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A modern conception of the acropolis as it was in the Age of Pericles

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II. ART

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II. ART

Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends- Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.1868

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II. ART

Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends- Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.1868

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Little is left of all this wealth of great art; the sculptures, defaced and broken into

bits, have crumbled away; the buildings are fallen; the paintings gone forever; of the

writings, all lost but a very few. We have only the ruin of what was...yet these few

remains of the mighty structure have been a challenge and an incitement to men

ever since and they are among our possessions to-day which we value as most

precious.

Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way, p.13

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Aphrodite of Milos (Greek: Ἀφροδίτη τῆς Μήλου, Aphroditē tēs Mēlou), better known as the Venus de Milo, is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. It is believed to depict Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans) the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is a marble sculpture, slightly larger than life size. Its arms and original plinth have been lost. From an inscription that was on its plinth, it is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch; it was earlier mistakenly attributed to the master sculptor Praxiteles. It is currently on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.It was discovered by a peasant on April 8, 1820, inside a buried niche within the ancient city ruins of Milos on the Aegean island of Milos (also Melos, or Milo).

Wikipedia

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Roman bronze reduction of Myron's Discobolus, 2nd century AD

(Glyptothek, Munich).

The Discobolus of Myron ("discus thrower" Greek Δισκοβόλος, "Diskobolos") is a famous Greek sculpture that was completed towards the end of the Severe period, circa 460-450 BC. The original Greek bronze is lost. It is known through numerous Roman copies, both full-scale ones in marble or smaller scaled versions in bronze. A discus thrower is depicted about to release his throw: "by sheer intelligence", Sir Kenneth Clark observed "Myron has created the enduring pattern of athletic energy. He has taken a moment of action so transitory that students of athletics still debate if it is feasible, and he has given it the completeness of a cameo." The moment thus captured in the statue is an example of rhythmos, harmony and balance. The pose is said to be unnatural to a human, and today considered a rather inefficient way to throw the discus. Also there is very little emotion shown in the discus thrower's face, and "to a modern eye, it may seem that Myron's desire for perfection has made him suppress too rigorously the sense of strain in the individual muscles," --Clark. The other trademark of Myron embodied in this sculpture is how well the body is proportioned, the symmetria.

Wikipedia

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T h e p o t e n t i a l e n e r g y expressed in this sculpture's t i g h t l y - w o u n d p o s e , expressing the moment of stasis just before the release, is a n e x a m p l e o f t h e advancement of Classical sculpture from Archaic. The torso shows no muscular strain, however, even though the limbs are outflung.

Wikipedia

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T h e p o t e n t i a l e n e r g y expressed in this sculpture's t i g h t l y - w o u n d p o s e , expressing the moment of stasis just before the release, is a n e x a m p l e o f t h e advancement of Classical sculpture from Archaic. The torso shows no muscular strain, however, even though the limbs are outflung.

Wikipedia

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T h e p o t e n t i a l e n e r g y expressed in this sculpture's t i g h t l y - w o u n d p o s e , expressing the moment of stasis just before the release, is a n e x a m p l e o f t h e advancement of Classical sculpture from Archaic. The torso shows no muscular strain, however, even though the limbs are outflung.

Wikipedia

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T h e p o t e n t i a l e n e r g y expressed in this sculpture's t i g h t l y - w o u n d p o s e , expressing the moment of stasis just before the release, is a n e x a m p l e o f t h e advancement of Classical sculpture from Archaic. The torso shows no muscular strain, however, even though the limbs are outflung.

Wikipedia

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Exekias (Εξηκίας, a Greek name) was an ancient Greek vase-painter and potter, who worked between approximately 550 BC - 525 BC at Athens. Most of his vases, however, were exported to other regions of the Mediterranean, such as Etruria, while some of his other works remained in Athens. Exekias worked mainly with a technique called black-figure. This technique involves figures and ornaments painted in black silhouette (using clay slip) with details added by linear incisions and the occasional use of red and white paint before firing. Exekias is considered the most original and most detail-orientated painter and potter using the black-figure technique.

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It shows Achilleus and Ajax, both identified by their names added in genitive. They are sitting across from each other, looking at a block situated between them. The game, which might be compared to modern backgammon, was played with dice. According to the words written next to the two players Achilleus has thrown a four while Ajax threw a three. Although the two of them are pictured playing a game, they are clearly depicted as being on duty, wearing their body-armor and both holding a spear. The rest of their weapons are situated in close proximity, suggesting that they might head back into battle any moment. Apart from the selection of this very intimate scene as a symbol for Trojan war, this vase-painting also shows the talent of Exekias as an artist. The figures of both Achilleus and Ajax are decorated with fine incised details, showing almost every hair.

Wikipedia

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Exekias' signature as potter: ΕΧΣΕΚΙΑΣ ΕΠΟΙΕΣΕ (“Exekias made [me]”), ca. 550–540 BCE, Louvre F 53

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THE CURSE OF THE HOUSE OF ATREUS

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THE CURSE OF THE HOUSE OF ATREUS

Aegisthusmurders

Agamemnon

krater by theDokmasia painter

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THE CURSE OF THE HOUSE OF ATREUS

Orestesmurders

Aegisthus

krater by theDokmasia painter

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III. DRAMA

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III. DRAMA

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In nearly every respect we know more about life in the bustling city of Athens than we do

about how people lived in the other Greek poleis; but energy and talent were dispersed widely

throughout the Greek world, and much of it went into literature and the arts….During this

vigorous era of transition [from Archaic to Classical] talented poets, painters, architects, and

sculptors carried the traditions of the sixth century throughout the Greek world, while in

Athens the defeat of Persia was marked by innovations in tragic drama so striking as to

constitute a new art form.

Lyric poetry was a necessary precursor of tragedy….Simonides (c. 556-468 BC) is

remembered as the unofficial poet laureate of the Persian wars….his epitaphs for the war

dead became to Greek literature what the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg

Address are to Americans (only easier to remember, since they were in verse).

Pomeroy & al., Ancient Greece, p. 242

LITERATURE AND ART

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THE GREAT tragic artists of the world are four, and three of them are Greek. It is in

tragedy that the pre-eminence of the Greeks can be seen most clearly. Except for

Shakespeare, the great three, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, stand alone.

Tragedy is an achievement peculiarly Greek. They were the first to perceive it and

they lifted it to its supreme height. Nor is it a matter that directly touches only the

great artists who wrote tragedies; it concerns the entire people as well, who felt the

appeal of the tragic to such a degree that they would gather thirty thousand strong

to see a performance. In tragedy the Greek genius penetrated farthest and it is the

revelation of what was most profound in them.

Hamilton, The Greek Way, p. 165

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ΣΟΦΟΚΛΗΣSOPHOCLES

c. 497/6 BC – winter 406/5 BC

AIΣΧΥΛΟΣΑESCHYLUS

c. 525/524 BC – c. 456/455 BC

ΕΥΡΙΠΙΔΗΣEURIPIDES

ca. 480 – 406 BC

TheTragic

Trinity

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Tragedy had a central role in the spiritual and intellectual life of Athens. Wealthy

citizens vied for honor and acclaim by undertaking the expense of training choruses,

and during the festival of Dionysus in March actors and audience alike needed

enormous stamina. Groups of actors performed four dramas in a day, and spectators

had not only to follow the intricate poetry of the choruses but to turn up the next day

and the day after that to compare the work of the different playwrights, to help

determine who should receive the prize. A significant proportion of the men--and

perhaps the women as well though this is uncertain--attended the plays and no doubt

continued among themselves a lively dialogue about the painful issues the dramas had

raised. Even in eras of comparatively high literacy, ancient cultures remained oral to a

considerable degree, and absorbing the complex imagery of tragic choruses was not as

difficult for people trained to listen and remember as it would be for most people today.

Nevertheless, the popularity of performances that demanded serious intellectual work

on the part of the audience tells us something about the richness of Athenian culture.

Pomeroy & al., Ancient Greece, pp. 244-245

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Tragedy had a central role in the spiritual and intellectual life of Athens. Wealthy

citizens vied for honor and acclaim by undertaking the expense of training choruses,

and during the festival of Dionysus in March actors and audience alike needed

enormous stamina. Groups of actors performed four dramas in a day, and spectators

had not only to follow the intricate poetry of the choruses but to turn up the next day

and the day after that to compare the work of the different playwrights, to help

determine who should receive the prize. A significant proportion of the men--and

perhaps the women as well though this is uncertain--attended the plays and no doubt

continued among themselves a lively dialogue about the painful issues the dramas had

raised. Even in eras of comparatively high literacy, ancient cultures remained oral to a

considerable degree, and absorbing the complex imagery of tragic choruses was not as

difficult for people trained to listen and remember as it would be for most people today.

Nevertheless, the popularity of performances that demanded serious intellectual work

on the part of the audience tells us something about the richness of Athenian culture.

Pomeroy & al., Ancient Greece, pp. 244-245

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Tragedy had a central role in the spiritual and intellectual life of Athens. Wealthy

citizens vied for honor and acclaim by undertaking the expense of training choruses,

and during the festival of Dionysus in March actors and audience alike needed

enormous stamina. Groups of actors performed four dramas in a day, and spectators

had not only to follow the intricate poetry of the choruses but to turn up the next day

and the day after that to compare the work of the different playwrights, to help

determine who should receive the prize. A significant proportion of the men--and

perhaps the women as well though this is uncertain--attended the plays and no doubt

continued among themselves a lively dialogue about the painful issues the dramas had

raised. Even in eras of comparatively high literacy, ancient cultures remained oral to a

considerable degree, and absorbing the complex imagery of tragic choruses was not as

difficult for people trained to listen and remember as it would be for most people today.

Nevertheless, the popularity of performances that demanded serious intellectual work

on the part of the audience tells us something about the richness of Athenian culture.

Pomeroy & al., Ancient Greece, pp. 244-245

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490- Marathonomachos-he fought at Marathon

he died in Sicily after a long life, during which he wrote perhaps seventy plays--seven have survived!

he famously added the second actor

“This innovation made possible real conflict and moved tragedy beyond tableau into the realm of drama.” Pomeroy, p. 254

his three famous plays, the Oresteia, “ is the only Attic trilogy that escaped destruction.” Ibid.

AIΣΧΥΛΟΣΑESCHYLUS

c. 525/524 BC – c. 456/455 BC

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...he was first and foremost the born dramatist, a man who saw life so dramatically

that to express himself he had to invent the drama. For that is what he did. Until he

came there was only a chorus with a leader. [The leader had been added by Thespis

at the time of Peisistratus.] He added a second character, thus contriving the action

of character upon character which is the essence of the drama….not only the

founder of [drama], but an actor and a practical producer as well. He designed the

dress all Greek actors wore; he developed stage scenery and stage machinery [the

θεος εκ µηχανης/deus ex machina, a god introduced by means of a crane in ancient

Greek and Roman drama to decide the final outcome]; he laid down the lines for

the Attic theater.

Hamilton, pp. 181-182

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FORMALITIES OF SEVERAL KINDS

the classical unities:

action-no subplots

time-”one revolution of the sun” Aristotle, Poetics

place-a single physical space

no violence on stage

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FORMALITIES OF SEVERAL KINDS

the classical unities:

action-no subplots

time-”one revolution of the sun” Aristotle, Poetics

place-a single physical space

no violence on stage

the masks

“Finally, the author had to contend with the challenges posed by the intricate meters of tragic verse” Pomeroy, op. cit.

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“He is direct, lucid, simple, reasonable.

“...the quintessential Greek….”-Hamilton

the Theban plays, each from a different tetralogy

Oedipus

Antigone

his addition of of a third actor further reduced the importance of the chorus

he also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus

ΣΟΦΟΚΛΗΣSOPHOCLES

c. 497/6 BC – winter 406/5 BC

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Such times [the Peloponnesian War] as those he lived in test the temper of men. To

the weaker spirits they bring the despair of all things. The starry heavens are

darkened and truth and justice are no more. But to men like Sophocles outside

change does not bring the loss of inner steadfastness. The strong can keep the

transient and the eternal separate. Sophocles despaired for the city he loved…; but,

as he saw life, outside circumstance was in the ultimate sense powerless; within

himself, he held, no man is helpless. There is an inner citadel where we may rule

our own spirits; live as free men; die without dishonoring humanity. A man can

always live nobly or die nobly, Ajax says. Antigone goes to her death not

uncomforted: death was her choice, and she dies, the chorus tells her, “mistress of

her own fate.” Sophocles saw life hard but he could bear it hard.

Hamilton, p. 189

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of more than ninety plays eighteen survive

there are also substantial fragments of most of the rest

more of his work survived than that of the other two together

partly by accident, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declined

in the Hellenistic age, he became a cornerstone of ancient literary education along with Homer, Demosthenes, and Menander

ΕΥΡΙΠΙΔΗΣEURIPIDESca. 480 – 406 BC

Wikipedia

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The years of his manhood were the years of the great war between Athens and

Sparta….He looked at war and he saw through all the sham glory to the awful evil

beneath and he wrote the Trojan Women [415]--war as it appears to a handful of

captive women waiting for the victors to carry them away to all that slavery means

for women. The fall of Troy, the theme of the most glorious martial poetry ever

written, ends in his play with one old broken-hearted woman, sitting on the

ground, holding a dead child in her arms.

Hamilton, p. 200

Euripides soon found a new direction in his wartime tragedies---perhaps starting

with the horrific bloodletting in his Medea (431)---that for nearly three decades

would serve as moral commentary on the ongoing and increasingly barbaric war.

Hanson, A War Like No Other, p. 132

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Aeschylus disregarded the current religion; Euripides directly attacked it. Again

and again he shows up the gods...as lustful, jealous, moved by the meanest

motives, utterly inferior to the human beings they bring disaster upon, and he will

have none of them:

His final rejection, “If gods do evil then they are not gods,”….Aristophanes’

indictment of him in the Frogs [405] is summed up in the charge that he taught

the Athenians “to think, see, understand, suspect, question, everything.”

Hamilton, pp. 204-205

Say not there are adulterers in Heaven,

Long since my heart has known it false.

God if he be God lacks in nothing.

All these are dead unhappy tales.

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IV. PHILOSOPHY

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IV. PHILOSOPHY ΣΩΚΡΑΤΗΣ

SOCRATES

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1: Zeno of Citium 2: Epicurus 3: (Federico II of Mantua?) 4: Boethius or Anaximander or Empedocles? 5: Averroes 6: Pythagoras 7: Alcibiades or Alexander the Great? 8: Antisthenes or Xenophon? 9: unknown [12] (Francesco Maria della Rovere?) 10: Aeschines or Xenophon? 11: Parmenides? 12: Socrates 13: Heraclitus (Michelangelo) 14: Plato (Leonardo da Vinci) 15: Aristotle 16: Diogenes 17: Plotinus (Donatello?) 18: Euclid or Archimedes

Socratics non-philosophersPost-SocraticsPre-Socratics “moderns”

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ΘΑΛΗΣ

THALES

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Some scholars refer to the Archaic Period as the Greek Renaissance, analogous to the Renaissance in Italy.

There's something to [this], because things happened then that are revolutionary--in the arts, in the thinking of people. Philosophy is going to be invented in Miletus probably in this sixth century.

Miletus was on the main routes to all of the places where advanced knowledge could be found, Mesopotamia, Egypt. Anybody who looks at Greek mythology and Greek poetry, and Greek stories sees there is a powerful influence from the Mesopotamian direction. Anybody who looks at the earliest Greek art---sculpture and temple building---will see the influence of Egypt, enormous powerful.

The Greeks are sopping up tremendously useful information, talented immigrants, skills, all sorts of things that help explain what's going to be coming.

Kagan, drastically revised

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Relationships Among the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Thalesof Miletus

late 7th-mid 6th c

Wikipedia

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Relationships Among the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Thalesof Miletus

late 7th-mid 6th c

Wikipedia

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Relationships Among the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Thalesof Miletus

late 7th-mid 6th c

Wikipedia

Pythagorasof Croton

early 6th c

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Relationships Among the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Thalesof Miletus

late 7th-mid 6th c

Wikipedia

Pythagorasof Croton

early 6th c

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Relationships Among the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Thalesof Miletus

late 7th-mid 6th c

Wikipedia

Pythagorasof Croton

early 6th c

Heraclitusof Ephesus

late 6th-early 5th c

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Relationships Among the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Thalesof Miletus

late 7th-mid 6th c

Wikipedia

Pythagorasof Croton

early 6th c

Heraclitusof Ephesus

late 6th-early 5th c

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Relationships Among the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Thalesof Miletus

late 7th-mid 6th c

Wikipedia

Pythagorasof Croton

early 6th c

Heraclitusof Ephesus

late 6th-early 5th c

Parmenidesof Eleaearly 5th c

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Relationships Among the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Thalesof Miletus

late 7th-mid 6th c

Wikipedia

Pythagorasof Croton

early 6th c

Heraclitusof Ephesus

late 6th-early 5th c

Parmenidesof Eleaearly 5th c

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Relationships Among the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Thalesof Miletus

late 7th-mid 6th c

Socratesof Athens

late 5th c-399 BC

Wikipedia

Pythagorasof Croton

early 6th c

Heraclitusof Ephesus

late 6th-early 5th c

Parmenidesof Eleaearly 5th c

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Relationships Among the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Thalesof Miletus

late 7th-mid 6th c

Socratesof Athens

late 5th c-399 BC

Wikipedia

Pythagorasof Croton

early 6th c

Heraclitusof Ephesus

late 6th-early 5th c

Parmenidesof Eleaearly 5th c

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Thales--science and philosophy vs. religion-σκεπσις vs belief

“the Cosmos is water”

Anaximander--he doubts the doubter!

“the Cosmos is air”

and so the dialogue begins

“There are indeed two attitudes that might be adopted towards the unknown. One is to accept the pronouncements of people who say they know, on the basis of books, mysteries or other sources of inspiration. The other way is to go out and look for oneself, and this is the way of science and philosophy.” Bertrand Russell, Wisdom of the West, p. 6

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Pythagoras and his followers salute the sunrise-Fyodor Bronnikov, 1869

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little reliable is known about his life

c. 530-having travelled (to Egypt?) he settled at Croton and founded an ascetic religious sect

did he teach “ the Cosmos is number”?

most famous for his Pythagorean theorem

said to be the first to call himself a philosopher, φιλοσοφς (φιλειν to love & σοφια wisdom)

Pythagorean ideas had a marked influence on Plato and through him on Western Philosophy

Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάµιος Pythagóras ho Sámios

"Pythagoras the Samian" about 570 – about 495 BC

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It is the Pythagorean preoccupation with mathematics that gave rise to what we

shall later meet as the [Platonic] theory of ideas, or as the theory of universals.

When a mathematician proves a proposition about triangles, it is not about any

figure drawn somewhere that he is talking; rather, it is something he sees in the

mind’s eye. Thus arises the distinction between the intelligible and the sensible.

Moreover, the proposition established is true without reservation and for all time.

It is only a step from this to the view that the intelligible alone is the real, perfect

and eternal, whereas the sensible is apparent, defective and transient. These are

direct consequences of Pythagoreanism that have dominated philosophical

thought as well as theology ever since.

We must remember too that the chief god of the Pythagoreans was Apollo….It is

the Apollonian strain which distinguishes the rationalistic theology of Europe from

the mysticism of the East.

Russell, p. 23

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Socratesc.469-399 BC

“THE BIG THREE”

Plato427-387 BC

Aristotle384-322 BC

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[Socrates] can never be separated from Plato. Almost all Plato wrote

professes to be a report of what Socrates said, a faithful pupil’s record of

his master’s words; and it is impossible to decide just what part belongs

to each. Together they shaped the idea of the excellent which the classical

world lived by for hundreds of years and which the modern world has

never forgotten.

Hamilton, The Greek Way, pp. 217-218

THE “SOCRATIC QUESTION”

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tradition has assigned thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters as written by Plato

the first of nine tetralogies are the biographical dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo. Their themes are:

what is piety? Socrates’ defense against the charges (1) impiety & (2) corrupting the youth;

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...in the strongest description he gives of his mission, he is a stinging gadfly and the state a lazy horse, "and all day long I will never cease to settle here, there and everywhere, rousing, persuading and reproving every one of you."

Wikipedia

How can the oracle of Delphi say that Socrates is the wisest man of

Athens? He tries to solve the riddle...

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[to his jury] “Be of good cheer and know of a certainty that no evil can

happen to a good man either in life or after death. I see clearly that the

time has come when it is better for me to die and my accusers have done

me no harm. Still, they did not mean to do me good---and for this I may

gently blame them. And now we go our ways, you to live and I to die.

Which is better God only knows.

Plato, Apology, quoted in Hamilton, The Greek Way, p. 218

...in the strongest description he gives of his mission, he is a stinging gadfly and the state a lazy horse, "and all day long I will never cease to settle here, there and everywhere, rousing, persuading and reproving every one of you."

Wikipedia

How can the oracle of Delphi say that Socrates is the wisest man of

Athens? He tries to solve the riddle...

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tradition has assigned thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters as written by Plato

the first of nine tetralogies are the biographical dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo. Their themes are:

what is piety? Socrates’ defense against the charge; why he would not escape; what happens after death

Page 85: Greece 6 Golden Age

tradition has assigned thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters as written by Plato

the first of nine tetralogies are the biographical dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo. Their themes are:

what is piety? Socrates’ defense against the charge; why he would not escape; what happens after death

Page 86: Greece 6 Golden Age

tradition has assigned thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters as written by Plato

the first of nine tetralogies are the biographical dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo. Their themes are:

what is piety? Socrates’ defense against the charge; why he would not escape; what happens after death

among the other thirty-two, two examine political questions:

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tradition has assigned thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters as written by Plato

the first of nine tetralogies are the biographical dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo. Their themes are:

what is piety? Socrates’ defense against the charge; why he would not escape; what happens after death

among the other thirty-two, two examine political questions:

ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ (The) Republic--what is justice? how can it be developed in the individual? the state?

ΝΟΜΟI (The) Laws--musings on the ethics of government and law, the longest, written in his old age

Page 88: Greece 6 Golden Age

tradition has assigned thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters as written by Plato

the first of nine tetralogies are the biographical dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo. Their themes are:

what is piety? Socrates’ defense against the charge; why he would not escape; what happens after death

among the other thirty-two, two examine political questions:

ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ (The) Republic--what is justice? how can it be developed in the individual? the state?

ΝΟΜΟI (The) Laws--musings on the ethics of government and law, the longest, written in his old age

others ask, what is beauty? truth? friendship? are words arbitrary symbols or do they have intrinsic relationship to what they signify? what is knowledge? what is real? &c

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Athenian aristocrat, founder of the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world

Πλάτων, Plátōn428/27 BC – 348/347 BC

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The Academy was located to the northwest of the city

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The Academy was located to the northwest of the city

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The Academy was located to the northwest of the city

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Athenian aristocrat, founder of the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world

“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them.”--A.N. Whitehead

Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, and mathematics

knowledge passes between teacher and pupil like a spark of electricity--Socratic method of teaching, dialogue

Πλάτων, Plátōn428/27 BC – 348/347 BC

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Platonic Idealism--theory of Forms

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Platonic Idealism--theory of Forms

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Platonic Idealism--theory of Forms

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The relationship of appearance to reality in Plato’s worldview can perhaps

be best grasped in the context of mathematics. A ring...or the perimeter of

a hoplite shield might seem to the casual observer to be a circle, but these

round objects are not circles in the same sense that the locus of all points

in a given plane equidistant from a given point is a circle. They only look

like circles; if you were to put them under a magnifying glass you would

see that they were not circles at all, merely objects vaguely circular in

appearance that bring to mind the Form of the circle. Only the circle

depicted in the mathematical definition is a circle. Some people might say

that these concrete objects are real circles whereas the geometrical concept

is imaginary, but Plato is not one of these people. For Plato, only the

concept is real. The tangible objects are debased copies, feeble imitations

of the ideal Form.

Pomeroy et al. Ancient Greece, pp. 389-390

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Some people might say that these concrete objects are real circles whereas

the geometrical concept is imaginary, but Plato is not one of these people.

For Plato, only the concept is real. The tangible objects are debased copies,

feeble imitations of the ideal Form. Plato, in other words, was an idealist

and a dualist. He believed in an opposition between the physical world of

appearances, which are deceptive, and the intellectual universe of ideas,

which represent reality and provide the only reliable basis for moral and

political action The first is tawdry and serves only to distract people from

ultimate truth; the second is noble, and to contemplate it ennobling.

Plato was a revolutionary….For most Greek men, reputation [τιµη], power

[κρασις], and material success [πλουτος] were central to happiness. Like

Socrates before him, who preferred being right to being alive, Plato

identified values that were more important than being well liked or envied.

Ibid, p. 390

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In The Republic, his dialogue on government and education, he raised a

key question about justice….if you had a magic ring [the ring of Gyges] that

would make you invisible, would you practice justice, or would you take

the opportunity to grab as much as you could?

...Socrates decides to...explore justice in the state in order to discover

justice in the individual writ large….an ideal state of Plato’s imagining. It is

a state divided into three classes, corresponding to Plato’s conception of

the tripartite nature of the soul.

Ibid.

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In The Republic, his dialogue on government and education, he raised a

key question about justice….if you had a magic ring [the ring of Gyges] that

would make you invisible, would you practice justice, or would you take

the opportunity to grab as much as you could?

...Socrates decides to...explore justice in the state in order to discover

justice in the individual writ large….an ideal state of Plato’s imagining. It is

a state divided into three classes, corresponding to Plato’s conception of

the tripartite nature of the soul.

Ibid.

ReasonGold

Appetitebaser metal

PassionSilver

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At the top are the guardians, who represent reason. Their supreme rationality,

inculcated by years of education, qualifies them to govern. After them come the

auxiliaries, who are characterized by a spirited temperament that suits them for the

duties of soldiers. Lats come the majority [hoi polloi, the many], who correspond to

desire in the soul: they are not especially bright or brave and live only to satisfy their

own material yearnings. They will do all the jobs in the state other than governing and

fighting….

The only classes that require much education are the top two, and the education and

lives of the guardians soon become the focus of Plato’s attention. They will study for

many years, approaching the understanding of the Forms by applying themselves to

mathematics. Plato...and other Socratics believed the soul has no sex: women and men

have the same potential. In the society envisioned in The Republic, the guardians will be

of both genders, and Plato advocates a unisex education for them.

Ibid, p. 390

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At the top are the guardians, who represent reason. Their supreme rationality,

inculcated by years of education, qualifies them to govern. After them come the

auxiliaries, who are characterized by a spirited temperament that suits them for the

duties of soldiers. Lats come the majority [hoi polloi, the many], who correspond to

desire in the soul: they are not especially bright or brave and live only to satisfy their

own material yearnings. They will do all the jobs in the state other than governing and

fighting….

The only classes that require much education are the top two, and the education and

lives of the guardians soon become the focus of Plato’s attention. They will study for

many years, approaching the understanding of the Forms by applying themselves to

mathematics. Plato...and other Socratics believed the soul has no sex: women and men

have the same potential. In the society envisioned in The Republic, the guardians will be

of both genders, and Plato advocates a unisex education for them.

Ibid, p. 390

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SOME CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

Plato’s social origin is apparent in his distain for hoi polloi

only the Many in the Republic have conventional families. The Guardians and Auxiliaries mate in periodic festivals to produce “superior” offspring which are then raised by the state

his admiration for aristocracy and a state which resembles Sparta is at least partly in reaction to the democracy which lost the war and executed his beloved teacher

he practiced what he preached about women. Axiothea of Phlius read the Republic and presented herself at the Academy. She was admitted to study, but she did have to wear men’s clothing!

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“philosopher and polymath, student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great

“many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology

“together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy

“Aristotle's writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics”

Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs384 BC – 322 BC

Wikipedia

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Unlike Plato, Aristotle never leaves the tradition in which study of the

natural world, and its systematic explanation, are normal philosophical

tasks. The Physics, the De generatione et corruptione [About coming to be

and passing away] and the De Caelo [About the heavens] explain natural

events in terms of highly theoretical principles, and give an account of the

structure and physical constitution of the universe….

Aristotle is a collector of facts; but he is far from being just that. In all his

major works his treatment of the facts is informed by consciousness of

philosophical issues, and it is here that he is most aware of belonging to a

long tradition of philosophy and developing it further.

Julia Annas, ‘Classical Greek Philosophy,’ in Boardman et al. Greece and the Hellenistic World, pp.240-241,

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...it is standard for him to begin a discussion by running through previous

positions, and pointing out what in them is systematically promising or

mistaken. He has been attacked as though this were arrogant cannibalizing

of previous philosophy in the interest of his own ideas, but this is

mistaken. His attitude in fact shows profound intellectual humility:

Ibid. p. 241

No-one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand,

we do not collectively fail, but everyone says something true about the

nature of things, and while individually we contribute little or nothing

to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed.

(Metaphysics 993 31-34)

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Whereas Plato had developed a framework for discussing politics so

theoretical that scholars are often puzzled about what real states he might

have had in mind, Aristotle approached the question of human community

by amassing and analyzing a tremendous amount of data. In this project

he was assisted by his students at the Lyceum, where 158 essays on

constitutions of various poleis were drawn up. That all these have

disappeared except for The Athenian Constitution is an incalculable loss to

the study of Greek history.

Pomeroy et al. Ancient Greece, p.p. 394-395

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Aristotle’s political philosophy differed from Plato’s in two key respects.

First, Aristotle believed in collective wisdom: a mass of people who are

individually unwise, he argues, may surpass the wisdom of the few best

men, just as potluck dinners may prove to be tastier than those hosted by a

single individual….For this reason, he is open to a compromise similar to

that of Solon: poor people in his ideal state would be allowed to choose

officials and hold them to account, but not to hold office. Second, Aristotle

had such a belief in natural hierarchies---free over slave, Greek over non-

Greek, adult over child, male over female---that he reprised with some

frequency the theme of the inferiority of women to men.

Ibid. p. 395

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V. HISTORY

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V. HISTORY ΗΡΟΔΟΤΟΣ

HERODOTUS

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HERODOTUSFATHER OF HISTORY

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HERODOTUSFATHER OF HISTORY

the first Greek geographer and historian whose works have survived

the greatest traveler of his day; Egypt, Cyrene, Babylon, Susa (the Persian capital), the Black Sea

447-he came to Athens, lectured for money, began his history from earliest times to the close of the Persian Wars

he included much dubious material:

“I am under obligation to tell what is reported, but I am not obliged to believe it; and let this hold for every narrative in this history.” Ἡρόδοτος (Hēródotos) born in Halicarnassus,

Caria (modern day Bodrum, Turkey) 5th century BC (c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC)

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“when Herodotus depends on his own observation, he is fairly reliable, although his patriotism leads him to exaggerate the numbers of the Persian army

“ and probably to minimize the numbers and losses of the Greeks who withstood them.

“in Athens during the great period of Pericles’ leadership, he visited the Acropolis many times while the work on the Parthenon was going on.

“he tells of a four-horse chariot group of bronze that was set up on the Acropolis to commemorate a victory of the Athenians over the Boeotians and the people of Chalcis about sixty years before (506 BC)

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“For the text [of the statue’s inscription] we are

dependent on Herodotus, who is seen here, on

a rainy day in autumn, studying it which he is

to record later in his history.

“Nearby is the base of the bronze statue of

Athena Promachos.”

Everyday Life in Ancient Times, p.233

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Herodotus is a shining instance of the strong Greek bent to examine and prove or

disprove. He had a passion for finding out. The task he set himself was nothing

less than to find out all about everything in the world. He is always called the

“father of history,” but he was quite as much the father of geography, of

archaeology, of anthropology, of sociology, of whatever has to do with human

beings and the places in which they live. He was as free from prejudice as it is

possible to be. The Greek contempt for foreigners--in Greek, “barbarians”--never

touched him. He was passionately on Athens’ side in her struggle against Persia,

yet he admired and praised the Persians. He found them brave and chivalrous

and truthful. Much that he saw in Phoenicia and Egypt seemed admirable to him,

and even in uncivilized Scythia and Libya he saw something to commend. He did

not go abroad to find Greek superiority. An occasional inferiority quite pleased

him. He quotes with amusement Cyrus’ description of a Greek market as “a place

apart for people to go and cheat each other on oath.”

Hamilton, pp. 121-122

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His book is really a bridge from one era to another. He was born in an age of deep

religious feeling, just after the Persian Wars; he lived on into the scepticism of the

age of Pericles; and by virtue of his kindly tolerance and keen intellectual interest

he was equally at home in both….

Only the last part of the History has to do with the Persian Wars. Two-thirds of

the book are taken up with Herodotus’ journeys and what he learned on them.

Hamilton, pp. 125-126

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“ Of the marvels to be recorded the land of Lydia has no great store as compared

to other lands…but one work it has to show which is larger than any other except

only those in Egypt and Babylon: for there is there the sepulchral mound of

Alyattes the father of Croesus, of which the base is made of larger stones and the

rest of the monument is of earth piled up. And this was built by contributions of

those who practiced trade and of the artisans and the girls who plied their traffic

there; and still there existed to my own time boundary-stones five in number

erected upon the monument above, on which were carved inscriptions telling how

much of the work was done by each class; and upon measurement it was found

that the work of the girls was the greatest in amount. For the daughters of the

common people in Lydia practice prostitution one and all, to gather for

themselves dowries, continuing this until the time when they marry; and the girls

give themselves away in marriage [as opposed to the parents arranging

marriage--the common custom]….Such is the nature of the monument.”

Herodotus, History, bk i, section 93, 103-107

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“...THE PROFUNDITY OF THOUGHT AND THE SOMBER MAGNIFICENCE OF THUCYDIDES.”-EDITH HAMILTON

κτηµα ἐς ἀεί--a possession for all ages

“The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest, but if it is judged worthy by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the understanding of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content.

“In fine I have written my work not as an essay with which to win the applause of the moment but as a possession for all time.” -- The Peloponnesian War, Jowett translation

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Mycalessus proved horrific precisely because the Thracian mercenaries

sought no real military objective other than the psychological terror of

slaughtering children at school--the ancient version of the Chechnyan

terrorist assault on the Russian school at Beslan during early September

2004, which shocked the modern world and confirmed Thucydides’

prognosis that his history really was a possession for all time, inasmuch

as human nature, as he saw, has remained constant across time and

space.

Hanson, A War Like No Other, p. 179

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His history is more than a narrative of now obscure battles and

massacres. Instead, as he predicted, it serves as a timeless guide to the

tragic nature of war itself, inasmuch as human character is unchanging

and thus its conduct in calamitous times is always predictable….

Thucydides---and this is why he is a truly great historian---is too

discerning a critic to reduce strife down simply to perceptions about

power and its manifestations. War itself is not a mere science but a more

fickle sort of thing, often subject to fate or chance, being an entirely

human enterprise. The Peloponnesian War, then, is not a mere primer

for international relations studies, and the historian does not believe that

“might makes right.” Tragedy, not melodrama, is his message.

Hanson, A War Like No Other, p. 312

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The flowering of genius in Greece was due to the immense impetus given when

clarity and power of thought was added to great spiritual force. That union made

the Greek temples, statues, writings, all the plain expression of the significant; the

temple in its simplicity; the statue in its combination of reality and ideality; the

poetry in its dependence upon ideas; the tragedy in its union of the spirit of

inquiry with the spirit of poetry. It made the Athenians lovers of fact and of

beauty; it enabled them to hold fast both to the things that are seen and to the

things that are not seen in all that they have left behind for us, science,

philosophy, religion, art.

Hamilton, p. 243

ΕΠΙΛΟΓΟΣEPILOGOS

Epilogue