Download Areopagus and Pnyx

Areopagus and Pnyx
Deschenes, 6/18/02
1.) epei gar tout' iscusen, wsper turannw tw dhmw carizomenoi thn politeian eis thn nun dhmokratian
katesthsan: kai thn men en Areiw pagw boulhn Efialt hs ekolouse kai Periklhs, ta de dikasthria
misqofora katesthse Periklhs, kai touton dh ton tropon ekastos twn dhmagwgwn prohgagen auxwn eis
thn nun dhmokratian.
For as the law-court grew strong, men courted favor with the people as with a tyrant, and so brought the constitution to the present
democracy; and Ephialtes and Pericles docked the power of the Council of the Areopagus, while Pericles instituted payment for
serving in the law-courts, and in this manner finally the successive leaders of the people led them on by growing stages to the
present democracy.
Ar istotle, Politics 1274a [Perseus translation]
2.) esti de Areios pagos kaloumenos, oti prwtos Arhs entauqa ekriqh, kai moi kai tauta dedhlôken o
logos ws Halirroqion aneloi kai eph' otô kteineie. kriqhnai de kai usteron Oresthn legousin epi tô
phonô ths mhtros: kai bômos estin Aqhnas Areias, on aneqhken apopugôn thn dikhn. tous de argous
liqous, eph' ôn estasin osoi dikas upecousi kai oi diôkontes, ton men Hubreôs ton de Anaideias autôn
onomazousi.
There is also the Hill of Ares, so named because Ares was the first to be tried here; my narrative has already told that he killed
Halirrhothius, and what were his grounds for this act. Afterwards, they say, Orestes was tried for killing his mother, and there is an
altar to Athena Areia (Warlike ), which h e dedicated on being acquitted. The unhewn stones on which stand the defendants and the
prosecutors, they call the stone of Outrage and the stone of Ruthlessness.
Pausanias 1.28.5 [Perseus translation]
3.) kluoit' an hdh qesmon, Attikos lews,
prwtas dikas krinontes aimatos cutou.
estai de kai to loipon Aigews stratw
aiei dikastwn touto bouleuthrion.
pagon d' Areion tond', Amazonwn edran
skhnas q', ot' hlqon Qhsews kata fqonon
strathlatousai, kai polin neoptolin
thnd' uyipurgon antepurgwsan tote,
Arei d' equon, enqen est' epwnumos
petra, pagos t' Areios: en de tw sebas
astwn fobos te xungenhs to mh adikein
schsei to t' hmar kai kat' eufronhn omws,
autwn politwn mh picrainontwn nomous
kakais epirroaisi: borborw d' udwr
lampron miainwn oupoq' eurhseis poton.
[680] Hear now my ordinance, people of Attica, as you judge the first trial for bloodshed. In the future, even as now, this court of
judges will always exist for the people of Aegeus. And this Hill of Ares, the seat and camp of the Amazons,
[685] when they came with an army in resentment against Theseus, and in those days built up this new citadel with lofty towers to
rival his, and sacrificed to Ares, from which this rock takes its name, the Hill of Ares:
[690] on this hill, the reverence of the citizens, and fear, its kinsman, will hold them back from doing wrong by day and night alike,
so long as they themselves do not pollute the laws with evil streams; if you stain clear water with filth, you will never find a drink.
Aeschylus, Eumenides 680-695 [Perseus translation]
4.) meta de tauta pros to dhmagôgein elqontos Perikleous, kai prôton eudokimêsantos, ote kathgorhse
tas euqunas Kimônos strathgountos neos ôn, dhmotikôteran eti sunebh genesqai tên politeian. kai gar
tôn Areopagitôn enia pareileto, kai malista proutrepsen tên polin epi tên nautikhn dunamin, ex ês
sunebh qarrhsantas tous pollous apasan tên politeian mallon agein eis autous.
After this when Pericles advanced to the leadership of the people, having first distinguished himself when while still a young man
he challenged the audits of Cimon who was a general, it came about that the constitution became still more democratic. For he took
away some of the functions of the Areopagus, and he urged the state very strongly in the direction of naval power, which resulted in
emboldening the multitude, who brought all the government more into their own hands.
Aristotle, Constitution of Athens 27 [Perseus translation]
Images courtesy http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~perlman/history/ and http://www.perseus.tufts.edu
Translations courtesy http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
Areopagus and Pnyx: Transition of Power from Archoi to Assembly
Let me start by telling you my approach to the subject matter. When I saw the topic I had been
assigned, I thought, “great, something about the reforms of Pericles and Ephialtes… I use the
Periclean Funeral Oration in my ancient history course.” I soon realized that there are gaps in my
education, as I really had no idea initially as to what these two hills meant to the Athenians. After
examining Perseus and pursuing primary sources like Aristotle and Aeschylus, and then consulting
Charles Freeman’s The Greek Achievement, I noted that I kept being pushed towards one book:
Mogen Herman Hansen’s Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes. This particular book was
tough to obtain; we need to get these large chains of booksellers to put these types of writers on the
shelves instead of the Britney Spears and N’Sync tell-alls. But I digress…
I finally got my hands on this book earlier this week, after special ordering it through Border’s. Okay,
so it was Saturday before it finally came in. But, I am thrilled by how much info is contained in this
text. Hansen looks at the speeches of Demosthenes, an orator whose focus between 354 and 341 BC
was the looming threat of Philip and the Macedonians. Speaking in the Assembly, Demosthenes
gradually obtained public assent to his claims of Macedonian outrages which must be halted. The
question Hansen poses, and which certainly pertains to our survey of these two hills, is what
circumstances allowed Demosthenes to speak as he did and secure the Athenian spirit? How did
power shift from the Archoi in the form of the Council of Areopagus to the Assembly meeting on the
Pnyx?
The Areopagus
Now, remember, I did not have access to this text until a few days ago. So, I had to rely on the
Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites and Harpers Guide to Antiquities, both on the Perseus site,
and links to primary authors. On the handout, I cite the Greek and English for the authors I deemed
most valuable to our research. While Aeschines, Demosthenes, Dinarchus, Diodorus Siculus,
Hyperides, Isocrates, Lycurgus, and Lysias, all make reference to the Areopagus’ role as a court
dealing with crimes of murder, the citations I provided gaze more closely at the notion of stripping the
Council of its previous authority while still trying to appease the members. Aristotle in the Politics
notes Ephialtes and Pericles’ docking of power of the Council and thus pushing the citizenry into
more of a democracy. Whereas Hansen tells us that Kleisthenes in 508 enabled the Council of 500 to
hear political trials and have a hand in the control of magistrates, he did not dissolve the powers of the
Council of the Areopagus. This older Council, consisting of former archoi who were members for life,
had, according to Hansen, “oversight of the laws, the magistrates, the politically active citizens, and
the general conduct of all Athenians, and it could pronounce judgment, not excluding the death
sentence, in political trials.” Thus the Council of the Areopagus had control over Athens and its
citizens, as if an oligarchy, until the reforms of Kleisthenes shared some of the powers with the
citizens.
Ephialtes in 462, along with Pericles and a fellow named Archestratos (of whom I can find no other
reference, and Hansen asserts the same), “succeeded in reducing the Areopagus to the single function
of being the court for homicide in cases where the deceased was an Athenian citizen.” Freeman
attests: “The Assembly was used to strip the Areopagus of most of its powers (on the grounds that
these had been wrested illegally from the people) and they were distributed among the Council of 500,
the Assembly, and the People’s Law Courts. The Areopagus was left with a largely ceremonial role.”
Aristotle referenced the docking of power, as you see on your handout, and both Pausanias and
Aeschylus referred to the mythological origins of the Areopagus, likely used by the Council to
validate its authority. Aeschylus in his Eumenides transferred justice from divine (in the form of the
Furies) to the human (in the form of the Areopagus). Through Athena the playwright states the
Council’s authority over homicide cases, and that it is for the “people of Aegeus.” Thus the Council
transitions to a protector of the people instead of an oligarchic faction. I wonder what Aeschylus
intended here, if he wanted the Council to retain some type of stature in the eyes of the people. There
is a definite shift in this play from a desire for divine retribution to a need for the people to take care
of their own problems and to do so responsibly and with seriousness.
The last reference to the stripping of the Areopagus’ powers is Aristotle’s Constitution of Athens. In
this account, Pericles leads the charge instead of Ephialtes, stating that he did so in order to bring “the
government into their own hands,” meaning the citizens’. I again wonder aloud, whether it was in the
hands of the citizens truly, or in the hands of Ephialtes and Pericles.
The Pnyx
Aristophanes mocks the Assembly and their meetings on the Pnyx in his Ecclesiazusae. The Chorus
states in line 300, “Let us drive away these men of the city who used to stay at home and chatter round
the table in the days when only an obulus was paid, whereas now one is stifled by the crowds at the
Pnyx.” To the comic playwright, the citizens assembling on the Pnyx are mercenaries, not concerned
with justice and the welfare of the state, but their own pockets. The same author creates in the Knights
a character named “Demos of the Pnyx,” who fawns over the words of the orators who shouted
rhetoric from the bema (the speakers’ platform shown in the handout). The Chorus proclaims in line
1115, “you listen to the orators with gaping mouth and your mind is led astray.” Later, in line 1135ff,
they contend, “Your ministers, then, are your victims, whom you nourish and feed up expressly in the
Pnyx, so that, the day your dinner is ready, you may immolate the fattest and eat him.”
Thucydides, in opposition to Aristophanes, decrees in book 8, chapter 97, “It was during the first
period of this constitution that the Athenians appear to have enjoyed the best government that they
ever did, at least in my time.” This statement was issued following a discourse on the assembly’s
shifting of responsibility from the 400 to the 5000, enabling greater representation from the citizenry,
and that no one should receive pay for the discharge of any office. Thucydides adds, “For the fusion of
the high anmd the low was effected with judgment, and this was what first enabled the state to raise
up her head after her manifold disasters.”
While some of my sources argued that there was minimal involvement in affairs via the Assembly,
both Hansen and R.E. Waverly, in his book The Stones of Athens, note geographic shifts on the Pnyx.
Waverly notes, following the shifting of the bema in 404 so it faced the land instead of the sea, and
thus the audience faced the sea, the source of its power as a naval force, that the auditorium in the
fourth century was enlarged (!) to accommodate 10,000. This increase in capacity indicates an interest
by the citizenry to attend assemblies. We can argue whether the assembly was effective, but
participation increased during the period of Demosthenes. Thus, power shifted from the archoi to the
citizens and an orator like Demosthenes, whether such an opportunity was approved by Aristophanes
or not, could influence his fellow Athenians and affect policies.