Jacqueline Mahaffey
Chapter 8 The Fifth Century: Democracy and Empire
Introduction
"The history of religion overlaps to a rare degree...with the history of events."(Parker 122).
1. Persians invaded Attica 480 B.C. and 'burnt the temples of the gods.' After the war, the Athenians "built a number of the desecrated members into a conspicuous position high in the restored north bastion of the acropolis," which are still seen today(122).
2. The Persians invaded at Marathon in 490 B.C., and the Athenians might have begun a great temple (the 'pre-Parthenon') as a thank offering for their defeat of the barbarians. This temple the Persians destroyed in 480, and the Athenians probably left its ruins, along with those of other temples as a remembrance of the barbarian impiety.
The new democracy developed very quickly and Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the 'tyrannicides', were supposed to receive honors equal to gods.
Related issues to consider:
The New Constitution and its Implications for Religious Life
Transformation by Clisthenes' reform political revolution revealed by two archaeological phenomena:
1.shaping of Pnyx
2. sudden outburst of decrees passed by the demos which assembled there. No decrees from the 6th century survive in original form, but "those of the fifth fill a stately volume", many dealing with religious topics.
Meetings of the Athenian Assembly involved divided agenda :
1. sacred matters(hiera) preceded profane(hosia)
-"A fourth-century rhetorical handbook: identifies seven themes a politician must be able to 'speak before the people'" The first is 'rites.'
1. Rites-religious authority now lay in the hands of assembly(day-to-day level) Example: public priests made reports to the council of the good omen that they had secured in sacrifices, and the council then resolved to 'accept the benefits arising from the sacrifice.' (p. 124)
The center of city's religion was now the democratic council
What kind of change is this?
The transition to democracy did not entail secularization of any kind, rather it had a effect of popular control on the traditional structures of religious life.
Example of 'a crucial ambiguity': the cult of Eleusis, has always been regulated by some public supervision, but when the democracy took over, the demos (assembly) took over control from the archons. This is not a 'nationalization of an independent, long-established cult.' (p. 125)
"We can, of course, concede that the demos may have proved in practice a more rigorous and intrustive master than an aristocratic archon had been"(125).
There was evidence by the 4th century that priests and priestess recruited by the gene were eligible for public audit.
There is evidence of cults being financed: landing-taxes paid by ship-owners (most foreign). Non-citizens were burdened by taxation. The military supported Apollo Lykeios, in whose gymnasium they exercised.
Radical Change in Democracy:
New priestesses of the Athena Nike were recruited by lot from 'all the Athenian women,' not from a genos. Religion beginning to be a democracy because religion is open to any one.
The later priesthood of Asclepius rotated annually. This is more democratic.
"In another respect too the gene were superseded." (p. 127) In earlier times the gene had treasures and performers of rites 'Treasurers of Athena' were drawn from highest social class. In democracy, it is the rich that suffer need money to build temples and have 'fat sacrificial victims'
LITURGIES made money from the rich that used to be 'generosity' into an obligation. They were forced by the system to pay, and felt that the public should be grateful to them.
1. city sacrifices large number at public expense and it will be the people that eat from the victims. The 'Old Oligarch' writes that through the taxes on the rich, all the people in Athens benefit at the sacrifices and festivals.
2. substitution of lot for vote in selection of magistratesthree positions, all positions were open to public. This is more democratic.
some priesthoods were reduced to minor magistracies (p. 129), and the Archon Basileus (main religious office) was now open to all classes of society, but, 'the majority continued to be filled in the old way. Dominant families within the gene in practice were sometimes able, by whatever means, to arrogate the succession to prestigious priesthoods to themselves." (p. 130)
Council of Areopagus had religious duties, and had the people's reverence. It:
Funeral Oration
"focus for the development of patriotic mythology, and as a religious ceremony in its own right"(131)
the dead are buried by tribe, without differentiation of status (isonomic' = 'equally-sharing').
funeral speeches, competitions, music, and athletics
origin of public funeral is controversial
grave monuments had majestic verse on them, although in 5th century monumental graves became scarce (only those that died in war were allowed to lie with a marked grave)
also not only the warriors with great valor were buried publicly on the field of battle, but any one who fought.
establishment of cemeteries, foundations of games, and speech for the funeral
"It remains striking, however, that the sculpted monument, that potent device of elite display, should disappear as it did just in the early years of the democracy. If this was Clisthenes' work, it was his most direct attack upon the symbols of the old order."(135)
Making of heroes? There was no form of cultic honour granted to heroes that real-life war dead do not receive. Games were marker of heroic status.
Could the assembly make heroes out of decree? No but oracular gods could.
Who were the Athenians?
autochthonous "of the earth itself". Imagined themselves all to be well born
the claim to autochthony was associated with the myths of Cecrops and Ericthonius.
en masse who are born from a mother not a mother and father, from mother earth who is also fatherland
Demeter myth.
heroism was only expected from the autochthonous people
Autochthonous are the genuine article, predisposed by birth to liberty, equality, fraternity
epitaphioi 'funeral orations' provoke sombre reflections about patriotic enthusiasm and its underpinning.
extreme excellence lay in patriotic valor
'hero reliefs' show a male reclining with a wine-jug with table of food stuff sometimes attended by boy or women. feast of after lifehorse head signified wealth (needed to have the money to feed animal). (140-41)
Messages Carried By The Temples:
Few Greeks would have been seen gazing at awe at the reliefs on the Parthenon. The main message which this temple projected was: message on the Parthenon 'I exist and it is power that built me'. (p. 141)
sculptures give messages, battle of barbarians and centaurs
gods against giants
Panhellenic expedition against Troy
Allies and Athens
Aspects of the Athenians' religious relations with their 'allies' are recognized
1. introduced cults to territories and participate in festivals of cults
2. allies were required to send a cow and a panoply to the 'greater Panathenaea"
Panathenaea transformed into an imperial festival displayed all the splendors of empire and allies
crops to be sent to Eleusis by the Attic demes to remind that Athens came from grain
olive oil a gift to mankind
tribute was given to the gods of the city
Athena who rules Athens, the term temenos-sacred precinct (for temple and revenue state)
Ion cult of Ionian people
Oropos and the cult of Amphiaraus. Why did Athens express interest in this border sanctuary in the late 5th century?
1) Maybe because of the plague of 429. (Amphiaraus was a healing god).
2) Maybe to assert Athenian presence 'in a territory which they had recently acquired or their grip on which was threatened by the Peloponnesian War. (p. 149)
Athenian religious activities on Delos, the sacred Island of Apollo.
1) New Temple begun for Apollo in mid 5th century, but Athens did not continue this.
2) Athens moved the Delian treasury to Athens from Delos.
3) in the 420s more interest, all graves were removed, and 'no birth or death was henceforth to be permitted anywhere on the island (with the consequence, it was noticed, that no Delian henceforth had a native land).
4) Athenians revived the Ionian panegyris (gathering) with new splendor every five years. The Delia games: 'an Ionian substitute for the great Panhellenic games." (150)
5) in 422, Athenians drove out the Delians from their homes, and then restored them. Because they were impure because of an ancient offense, but let them come back because 'the god of Delphi so instructed them.'
Real motives: 'the desire to have unfettered control of the sacred place. "Shrines and festivals and gods were among the most precious spoils of empire." (151)
Return to Main Page: CLST 4003H. Spring, 2002. University of Arkansas Honors Colloquium