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T H E W O R L D O F G R E E K M Y T H & L I T E R AT U R E | C L A S S 4 : J U N E 2 5 HISTORY & RHETORIC DR. MICHAEL GRIFFIN UBC CLASSICS & PHILOSOPHY S O C R AT E S . A R T S . U B C . C A / H E L L A S [email protected] GREEK HISTORY 1. HERODOTUS NB: ALL SLIDES POSTED ONLINE SOCRATES.ARTS.UBC.CA/HELLAS HERODOTUS • Born in Halicarnassus (Turkey) • Lived c. 484-425 BCE • “Father of history” (Cicero) • Collected evidence and compared sources systematically for a narrative of the wars between Greece and Persia HERODOTUS • What Herodotus the Halicarnassian has learnt by inquiry (historiē) is here set forth: in order that so the memory of the past may not be blotted out from among men by time, and that great and marvellous deeds done by Greeks and foreigners and especially the reason why they warred against each other may not lack renown. (1.1) HERODOTUS • Greco-Persian Wars • Persia conquered Greek Asia Minor (Ionia) late in the 6th C. • “Ionian revolt” (499-493) prompted Darius to embark on an enormous undertaking —the invasion and subjugation of mainland Greece. A major force, having conquered many of the Cyclades islands, was unexpectedly defeated by an Athenian hoplite force at the Battle of Marathon (490 BCE) Athens HERODOTUS • Greco-Persian Wars • Darius’ son Xerxes prepared a larger, overwhelming invasion force, which bridged and crossed the Hellespont in 480, “drinking rivers dry” • The force was unexpectedly blocked at the small pass of Thermopylae by a Spartan force under King Leonidas, with 300 men briefly delaying the entire Persian army in the narrow pass David, Leonidas at Thermopylae (1814) HERODOTUS • Greco-Persian Wars • The Spartan sacrifice gave the Athenian general Themistocles time to prepare a fleet to meet the Persian force at Salamis. • Years earlier, Themistocles had persuaded the Athenians to correctly interpret the Oracle from Delphi that “the wooden wall alone shall not fail” • The Athenian naval victory at Salamis in 480 is decisive, and Xerxes retreats. HERODOTUS • The Persian Wars—especially Xerxes’ attempt to raise an overwhelming invasion force and dominate both men and nature—were treated in Greek literature as exemplary of hubris followed by nemesis (e.g., Aeschylus’ tragedy Persians) • The wars set up Athens and Sparta as major powers for the duration of the 5th century, with Athens developing its naval alliance into a Commonwealth, the Delian League, which would become in practice an empire; and Sparta developing its land power into an alliance that would go to war with Athens in the Peloponnesian War (431-404) HERODOTUS • Herodotus apparently travelled very widely. He consults, uses and compares sources in a systematic way to narrate the wars; he also conducts extensive “ethnographic” projects (e.g., Book 2 on Egypt) • He blends mythic and ‘historical’ events (Book 1, opening) • "Many things prove to me that the gods take part in the affairs of man" (9.100). • “The importance of the divine in Herodotus is precisely that it guarantees the world order. Therefore the majority of the historical actions in Herodotus are accompanied by some kind of divine causation, which parallels human motivation, but on a higher plane” (Immerwahr, Form & Thought in Herodotus, 1966: 312). HERODOTUS • “The barbarians had just reached in their advance the chapel of Athena Pronaia, when a storm of thunder burst suddenly over their heads - at the same time two crags split off from Mount Parnassus, and rolled down upon them with a loud noise, crushing vast numbers beneath their weight - while from the temple of Athena there went up the warcry and the shout of victory.” (8.37) GREEK HISTORY 2. THUCYDIDES NB: ALL SLIDES POSTED ONLINE SOCRATES.ARTS.UBC.CA/HELLAS THUCYDIDES • Born in Athens • Lived c. 460-400 BCE • History of the Peloponnesian War narrates the conflict between Athens (with her allies) and Sparta (with her allies), gathering detailed evidence and studying social and economic causation of events, but not featuring the gods as causes • Deep study of human nature THUCYDIDES • Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war waged by the Peloponnesians and the Athenians against one another. He began the task at the very outset of the war, in the belief that it would be great and noteworthy above all the wars that had gone before, inferring this from the fact that both powers were then at their best in preparedness for war in every way, and seeing the rest of the Hellenic race taking sides with one state or the other, some at once, others planning to do so. For this was the greatest movement that had ever stirred the Hellenes, extending also to some of the Barbarians, one might say even to a very large part of mankind. Indeed, as to the events of the period just preceding this, and those of a still earlier date, it was impossible to get clear information on account of lapse of time; but from evidence which, on pushing my inquiries to the furthest point, I find that I can trust, I think that they were not really great either as regards the wars then waged or in other particulars. (1.1) THUCYDIDES • The story of the war adopts a classic hubris-nemesis structure: Athens’ imperialistic ambitions culminate in an overreaching invasion of Syracuse (the ‘Sicilian Expedition’, 415-13 BCE), which decisively weakens Athens • The later Athenian leadership— especially following the death of Pericles— adopts a policy of Realpolitik that mirrors negative depictions of the sophists: might makes right. (Thucydides himself depicts the ruin brought by this philosophy). THUCYDIDES • “To hear this history rehearsed, for that there be inserted in it no fables, shall be perhaps not delightful. But he that desires to look into the truth of things done, and which (according to the condition of humanity) may be done again, or at least their like, shall find enough herein to make him think it profitable. And it is compiled rather for an everlasting possession than to be rehearsed for a prize.” (1.22) THUCYDIDES • “We should also spend more funds to get our young people out of the library where they're reading Thucydides and get them to start living like Herodotus — going out and seeing the world.” (Thomas Geoghegan, “History Lessons,” American Prospect, March 12, 2007) THUCYDIDES • “To be an admirer of Thucydides' History, with its deep cynicism about political, rhetorical and ideological hypocrisy, with its all too recognizable protagonists — a liberal yet imperialistic democracy and an authoritarian oligarchy, engaged in a war of attrition fought by proxy at the remote fringes of empire — was [during the Cold War] to advertise yourself as a hardheaded connoisseur of global Realpolitik.” (Daniel Mendelsohn, ‘Arms and the Man’, The New Yorker, Apr 28, 2008) GREEK RHETORIC 3. THE SOPHISTS: REALPOLITIK NB: ALL SLIDES POSTED ONLINE SOCRATES.ARTS.UBC.CA/HELLAS The New Teachers of Athens • Athens of the fifth century BCE ‣ “Direct democracy” governing a powerful naval empire ‣ Persuasive speeches could steer the ship of state (or court) Theatre at Epidauros, photograph © Shunya.net (2011) The New Teachers of Athens • Athens of the fifth century BCE ‣ “Direct democracy” governing a powerful naval empire ‣ Persuasive speeches could steer the ship of state (or court) ‣ Attracted (and created) public intellectuals: sophistai - Promised to teach excellence (aretê) – for a fee. - Included personal and rhetorical excellence. - New world-view, seen as subverting traditional customs The New Teachers of Athens • The ethos of the epic poets: heroic justice versus hubris (AT 1) ‣ Hesiod, Works and Days 205-217: The Hawk & Nightingale • The ethos of Athens’ new teachers (sophistai) (AT 2) ‣ Thucydides, Melian Dialogue: strength before justice ‣ Plato’s Thrasymachus: justice just is the stronger’s advantage ‣ Plato’s Callicles: nature versus convention The New Teachers of Athens Hesiod, Works & Days 205-217: The Hawk & Nightingale Piteously she, transfixed by his crooked claws, was lamenting When the imperious hawk addressed her in arrogant parlance, "Why, little lady, such shrieks? One stronger than you now has got you; Where you are going I'll take you myself, though you are a songstress, For as I please I'll make you my dinner or give you your freedom. Witless is one who attempts to strive against those who are stronger: When he is stripped of the prize it's injury added to insult." Thus said the fast-flying hawk, that bird with the generous wing-span. Pay more attention to justice and curb high-handedness, [brother]; Violence ill suits men who are lowly; not even the noble Man can lightly endure it; it weighs on a person who's fallen Into affliction. It's better to take your way on the other Road which conduces to right. For outrage (hubris) surrenders to justice (dikē)… The New Teachers of Athens • The ethos of the epic poets: heroic justice versus hubris (AT 1) ‣ Hesiod, Works and Days 205-217: The Hawk & Nightingale • The ethos of Athens’ new teachers (sophistai) (AT 2) ‣ Thucydides, Melian Dialogue: strength before justice ‣ Plato’s Thrasymachus: justice just is the stronger’s advantage ‣ Plato’s Callicles: nature versus convention The New Teachers of Athens Thucydides, History 5.84-116: The Melian Dialogue ATHENIANS. [Y]ou know as well as we do that, when these matters are discussed by practical people, the standard of justice depends on the equality of power to compel and that in fact the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must… Our opinion of the gods and our knowledge of men lead us to conclude that it is a general and necessary law of nature to rule whatever one can. This is not a law that we made ourselves, nor were we the first to act upon it when it was made. We found it already in existence, and we shall leave it to exist for ever among those who come after us. The New Teachers of Athens • The ethos of the epic poets: heroic justice versus hubris (AT 1) ‣ Hesiod, Works and Days 205-217: The Hawk & Nightingale • The ethos of Athens’ new teachers (sophistai) (AT 2) ‣ Thucydides, Melian Dialogue: strength before justice ‣ Plato’s Thrasymachus: justice just is the stronger’s advantage ‣ Plato’s Callicles: nature versus convention The New Teachers of Athens Plato, Republic I, 343A-D: Thrasymachus’ complaint Tell me, Socrates, do you still have a wet nurse?… Because she’s letting you run around with a snotty nose, and doesn’t wipe it when she needs to!… You think that shepherds and cowherds seek the good of their sheep and cattle, and fatten them and take care of them, looking to something other than their master’s good and their own. Moreover, you believe that rulers… think of something besides their own advantage. You are so far from understanding… that you don’t realize that justice is really the good of another, the advantage of the stronger and the ruler, and harmful to the one who obeys and serves. Injustice is the opposite, it rules the truly simple and just, and those it rules do what is to the advantage of the other and stronger, and they make the one they serve happy, but themselves not at all. You must look at it as follows, my most simple Socrates: A just man always gets less than an unjust one…. The New Teachers of Athens • The ethos of the epic poets: heroic justice versus hubris (AT 1) ‣ Hesiod, Works and Days 205-217: The Hawk & Nightingale • The ethos of Athens’ new teachers (sophistai) (AT 2) ‣ Thucydides, Melian Dialogue: strength before justice ‣ Plato’s Thrasymachus: justice just is the stronger’s advantage ‣ Plato’s Callicles: nature versus convention The New Teachers of Athens Plato, Gorgias 482C-484C: Callicles on nature and convention [Y]ou’re in fact bringing the discussion around to the sort of crowdpleasing vulgarities that are admirable only by law [nomos, also translatable “convention” or “custom”] and not by nature. And these, nature and law, are for the most part opposed to each other… I believe that the people who institute our laws are the weak and the many. So they institute laws and assign praise and blame with themselves and their own advantage in mind. As a way of frightening the more powerful… out of getting a greater share than they, they say that getting more than one’s share is “shameful” and “unjust…” But surely, if a man whose nature is equal to it arises, he will shake off, tear apart, and escape all this, he will trample underfoot our documents, our tricks and charms, and all our laws that violate nature. He, the slave, will rise up and be revealed as our master, and here the justice of nature will shine forth. Review of texts F U R T H E R R E A D I N G S I N LY R I C , T R A G E D Y & M Y T H Stephen M. Trzaskoma, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Brunet, Anthology of Classical Myth. Primary Sources in Translation. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2004. Mark Griffith, Glenn Most, David Grene & Richmond Lattimore, Greek Tragedies: Volume 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. R E A D I N G S F O R T H U R S D AY Custom course supplement | Historians & Sophists