Transcript Culture, Society, and Economy in 5th Century Athens

Culture, Society, and
th
Economy in 5 Century
Athens
February 15th, 2012
General Remarks

Social and economic structures remain largely consistent
with the Archaic Period.

Social values remain largely consistent with the Archaic
Period.

Political structures and intellectual environment changed
considerably over the course of the fifth century.

Changing political and intellectual climate interrelated.
Demographic Structures

The oikos = the central form of social
organization.

The oikos = 1. Nuclear family. 2. Property. 3.
Servants and slaves; center of production and
consumption; aimed at autarchia.

Avg. life expectancy: 1. Men = ca. 45 years. 2.
Women = ca. 36 years.

Avg. number of children, ca. 4.3 (ca. 2.7 survive
to adulthood).
Marriage

Purpose of marriage = Progeny and property.

Arranged marriages; dowry (cash and moveable
property) negotiated between husband and bride’s
father.

Avg age = 30 for men, 15 for women.

High rates of widowhood.

The Epikleros.
Hesiod on Choosing a Wife
Works and Days

“(ll. 695-705) Bring home a wife to your house when you
are of the right age, while you are not far short of thirty
years nor much above; this is the right age for marriage.
Let your wife have been grown up four years, and marry
her in the fifth. Marry a maiden, so that you can teach
her careful ways, and especially marry one who lives
near you, but look well about you and see that your
marriage will not be a joke to your neighbours. For a
man wins nothing better than a good wife, and, again,
nothing worse than a bad one, a greedy soul who roasts
her man without fire, strong though he may be, and
brings him to a raw (35) old age.” (Hesiod, Works & Days, H.G.
Evelyn-White, 1914 - http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm)
The Purpose of Marriage
Xenophon, Oeconomicus 7.3-6

“Since no doubt the underlying principle of
the bond is first and foremost through
procreation the races of living creatures;
and next, as the outcome of this bond, for
human beings at any rate, a provision is
made by which they may have sons and
daughters to support them in old age.”
(D.B. Nagle & S.M. Burstein, 2005)
The Idealized Marriage

“When I, Athenians, decided to marry, and brought a
wife into my house, for some time was disposed neither
to vex her nor to leave her too free to do just as she
pleased; I kept watch on her as far as possible, with
such observation of her as was reasonable. But when a
child was born to me, thenceforward I began to trust
her, and placed all my affairs in her hands, presuming
that we were now in perfect intimacy. It is true that in
the early days, Athenians, she was the most excellent of
wives; she was a clever, frugal housekeeper, and kept
everything in the nicest order.” (Lysias 1. Lim & Bailkey,
2005).
Division of Labour in the Oikos

Men – Worked the fields; managed
agricultural slaves; plied a trade.

Women – Managed domestic slaves;
transformed raw materials into
consumables.

A slave economy.
Economy of the Polis

Autarky = the ideal; unrealistic.

Agriculture = the most common form of
employment.

In elite oikoi manual labour performed by slaves.

Most farmed their own land (assisted by slaves).
Hesiod on the Value of Self-Sufficiency

“(ll. 405-413) First of all, get a house, and a woman and
an ox for the plough -- a slave woman and not a wife, to
follow the oxen as well -- and make everything ready at
home, so that you may not have to ask of another, and
he refuses you, and so, because you are in lack, the
season pass by and your work come to nothing. Do not
put your work off till to-morrow and the day after; for a
sluggish worker does not fill his barn, nor one who puts
off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man
who putts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin.”
(Hesiod, Works & Days, H.G. Evelyn-White, 1914 http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm)
Trade Activity in Ancient Greece

Trading activity expanding but still only a small part of
economic activity

Facilitated by the development of coinage and
colonization

Two kinds of traders: 1.Professional Merchants,
2.Wealthy landowners trading surpluses on their own
ships

Trading agricultural surplus was honorable

Trade considered a hard and disreputable way to earn a
living
Attitudes Toward Mercantile Activity
Homer, Odyssey 8.159 ff

Then again Euryalus made answer and taunted
him to his face: “Nay verily, stranger, for I do
not liken thee to a man that is skilled [160] in
contests, such as abound among men, but to
one who, faring to and fro with his benched
ship, is a captain of sailors who are
merchantmen, one who is mindful of his
freight, and has charge of a home-borne
cargo, and the gains of his greed. Thou dost
not look like an athlete.” (A.T. Murray, 1919)
Trading Surplus
Hesiod, Works and Days

“(ll. 618-640) But if desire for uncomfortable sea-faring seize you; when the
Pleiades plunge into the misty sea (33) to escape Orion's rude strength,
then truly gales of all kinds rage. Then keep ships no longer on the
sparkling sea, but bethink you to till the land as I bid you. Haul up your ship
upon the land and pack it closely with stones all round to keep off the
power of the winds which blow damply, and draw out the bilge-plug so that
the rain of heaven may not rot it. Put away all the tackle and fittings in your
house, and stow the wings of the sea-going ship neatly, and hang up the
well-shaped rudder over the smoke. You yourself wait until the season for
sailing is come, and then haul your swift ship down to the sea and stow a
convenient cargo in it, so that you may bring home profit, even as your
father and mine, foolish Perses, used to sail on shipboard because he
lacked sufficient livelihood. And one day he came to this very place crossing
over a great stretch of sea; he left Aeolian Cyme and fled, not from riches
and substance, but from wretched poverty which Zeus lays upon men, and
he settled near Helicon in a miserable hamlet, Ascra, which is bad in winter,
sultry in summer, and good at no time. (ll. 641-645) But you, Perses,
remember all works in their season but sailing especially. Admire a small
ship, but put your freight in a large one; for the greater the lading, the
greater will be your piled gain, if only the winds will keep back their harmful
gales.” (Hesiod, Works & Days, H.G. Evelyn-White, 1914 http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm)
Class Distinctions

Vary from Polis to Polis

Athens before Cleisthenes (508 BCE) = based on wealth

Sparta = Based on birth

Aristocratic (Homeric) ethos undermined by social/political
revolutions of the Archaic period
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Aristocratic Warrior ethos integrated into the ideal of citizenship

Wealthy and well born express their social status by: 1.Athletic
competition, 2.Acts of Euergetism (i.e. Public munificence)
Legal Categories of Polis Resident
in Classical Athens

Full citizen = All those born to citizen
father

Metic = Resident Foreigner

Xenos = Foreigner or stranger

Slaves
Rights and Obligations of the Citizen Male

Sit in assemblies

Elect magistrates

Participate in all public cults and festivals
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Own property

Serve in the army
Rights and Obligations of the Metic

Reside in the polis for which they have Metic status
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Pursue a trade
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Legal protection
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Conduct business (N.B. Cannot own land)

Participate in some (but not all) civic cult and festivals

Serve in the army
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Pay the “metoikon” (special tax on metics)
Diodorus on the Importance of
Metics

“(Themistokles) also persuaded the demos to
build and add, every year, twenty triremes to
the fleet that they already had, and to make the
metoikoi and the craftsmen exempt from tax, so
that a great multitude would come to the polis
from everywhere and would readily establish
many crafts; for both these things he judged to
be most useful in the establishment of naval
power.” (Diodorus XI.43.3. Crawford &
Whitehead, Doc. 160).
Slaves and Slavery

No rights.

Considered objects.

Property of their owner.

Wide variety of occupations (agriculture, domestic
service, artisans, business & trade, sex etc.).

Usually non-Greeks; at least from a different polis.

Purchased, captured in war, bred at home.

Sometimes paid; could purchase their freedom.
Uses of and Attitudes toward
Slaves

“Those who are able to do so buy slaves, in
order that they might have fellow-workers.”
(Xenophon, Memorabilia II.3.3. Crawford &
Whitehead, Doc. 162A).

“This is why our poets have said, ‘meet it is that
barbarous peoples should be ruled by Greeks.’ –
the assumption being that the barbarian and the
slave are by nature one and the same thing.”
(Aristotle, Politics, 1.2.4. E. Barker, 1958); cf.
Doc. 162B
Intellectual Developments in
Archaic and Classical Greece
 6th
century BCE (the First Sophistic).

Pre-Socratic philosophers (Miletus;
Ephesus); materialists.

Classical philosophy more concerned with
ethics and politics.
The Sophists – The Background

No public education system in Greece

Sophists (wise men) were itinerant teachers who taught for a fee

Main field of expertise was rhetoric (persuasive argument)

A highly valued skill in democratic Athens

Quickly earned a negative reputation by the more conservative
elements at Athens
The Sophists – Protagoras of
Abdera (481-420 BCE)

Taught rhetoric and political thought

Thought to be both agnostic and relativist

“Man is the measure of all things: of things which are, they are, and
of things which are not, they are not.” (Plato, Theaetetus, 152a)

“Concerning the gods, I have no way of knowing whether they exist
or not or of what sort they might be….”

Practiced making the weaker argument stronger
The Sophists – Gorgias of
Leontini (483-375 BCE)

Focused primarily on rhetoric and oratory

Extreme Skepticism: i.e. Nothing exists/if
things exist, they cannot be known/if
things can be known, they cannot be
articulated

Engaged in proving either side of a
contradictory argument
The Life and Death of Socrates

All we know of Socrates’ life comes from Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle

Son of Sophroniscus and Phaenarete

Married to Xanthippe – had three sons
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Probably worked as a stonemason
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Served in the army – decorated for bravery
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Was classified as a Sophist by his enemies
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Left no writing of his own

Was accused, tried, convicted and executes on charges of corrupting the
Athenian youth and not believing in the gods
Socrates the Thinker

Was not concerned with natural philosophy (i.e the pre-socratics)
nor with rhetoric (i.e. the sophists)
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Claimed to be concerned with the care of the human soul

Contested the relativism of the sophists and argued that universal
truths existed and were knowable

Reason could be used to discover what is true and good

Developed a method of dialectic cross-examination to demonstrate
errors and inconsistencies in beliefs (cf. Plato, Euthyphro).
Socratic Subject-Matter

“So we must investigate again from the beginning what
piety is, as I shall not give up before I learn this….If you
had no clear knowledge of piety and impiety you would
never have ventured to prosecute your old father for
murder on behalf of a servant. For fear of the gods you
would have been afraid to take the risk lest you should
not be acting rightly, and would have been ashamed
before men, but I know well that you believe you have a
clear knowledge of piety and impiety. So tell me, my
good Euthyphro, and do not hide what you think it is.”
(Plato, Euthyphro, 15 c-e.Trans. G.M.A. Grube, 2000)
Seeking Universals

Socrates: “….Now, however, try to say more plainly what I was asking you
just now. For you did not teach me sufficiently earlier, comrade, what ever
the pious is. Instead, you told me that what you are now doing, proceeding
against your father for murder, happens to be pious.”

Euthyphro: “Yes, and what I was saying is true, Socrates.”

Socrates: “Perhaps. But in fact, Euthyphro, you also say that many other
things are pious.”

Euthyphro: “Yes, and so they are.”

Socrates: “Do you remember that I didn’t bid you to teach some one or two
of the many pious things, but that eidos itself by which all the pious things
are pious? For surely you were saying that it is by one idea that the impious
things are impious and the pious things pious. Or don’t you remember.”
(Plato, Euthyphro, 6d-e. T.G. West, 1984)
The Trial of Socrates – 399 BCE

Socrates’ philosophical speculation angered
many Athenians (Reflect on why).

His accusers tried to depict him as a Sophist
(Reflect on why).

Charged with introducing new gods to Athens
and with corrupting the Athenian youth.

Brought to trial and executed in 399 BCE (cf.
Plato, Apology and Crito).
Plato’s Apology

The defense speech of Socrates against charges of
corrupting the Athenian youth and inventing new gods.

Probably a true account of the speech though not a
verbatim transcript.

Socrates’ defense rests upon: 1.The charges against him
are slanderous, 2.The god Apollo has given him a
mandate the improve the soul of all Athenians, 3.He
ought to be rewarded for his benefits to the polis and
not punished.
The Nature of the Charges I
Plato, Apology 19b-e, G.M.A. Grube, 2000

“Let us take up the case from the beginning. What is the accusation
from which arose the slander in which Meletus trusted when he
wrote out the charge against me? What did they say when they
slandered me? I must, as if they were actual prosecutors, read the
affidavit that they have sworn. It goes something like this: Socrates
is guilty of wrongdoing in that he busies himself studying things in
the sky and below the earth; he makes the worse into the stronger
argument, and he teaches these same things to others. You have
seen this yourself in the comedy of Aristophanes, a Socrates
swinging about there, saying he was walking on air and talking a lot
of nonsense about things of which I know nothing at all….And if you
have heard from anyone that I undertake to teach people and
charge a fee for it, that is not true either.”
The Nature of the Charges II
Plato, Apology 24b, G.M.A. Grube, 2000

“As these are a different lot of accusers,
let us again take up their sworn
deposition. It goes something like this:
Socrates is guilty of corrupting the young
and of not believing in the gods in whom
the city believes, but in other new spiritual
beings. Such is the charge.”
Socrates’ Stated Aim
Plato, Apology 30a-b, G.M.A. Grube, 2000

“For I go around doing nothing but
persuading both young and old among
you not to care for your body or your
wealth in preference to or as strongly as
for the best possible state of your soul, as
I say to you: “Wealth does not bring about
excellence, but excellence makes wealth
and everything else good for men, both
individually and collectively.”
Contemplate the charges
against Socrates, his response
to those charges, and the
outcome of the trial against the
social and political background
of fifth century Athens