The Phenomenon of the "Golden Age". Does the term apply to 5th Cent. Athens? What tests can we apply to such a notion? Why is the meaning of speaking of something as 'classical'? What conditions make for a "golden age"? Is there a fundamental connection between politics, culture, science? Does success in one area / field promote success in another? or is there some mutually reinforcing combination that creates a transcendent moment? Lots of questions here. Note especially ACH 149; 154 (from the Funeral Oration of Pericles)

This lecture and the next one, on the intellectual revolution, are complementary and need to be reviewed together.

  1. Let's assume for the moment that there was such a transcendent moment. What factors might have contributed to the Golden Age at Athens: Rooted in
    1. Recent victories: Salamis, and the successes against the Persian fleet in the years after 480 ==> self-confidence. Humans can reason their way to a successful outcome.
    2. Political system: the perception that that success was somehow a consequence of the democratic values [inclusion and compromise]
    3. 'Peace dividend' and imperial revenues...but note that imperial overstretch will be an issue.
    4. Attractive place for others to live: vitality enhanced by contributions of outsiders = metics = resident aliens.

      Trades by civic status Work on the Erechtheum on the Acropolis (ESHAG p277)

      profession
      citizens
      metics
      slaves
      unknown
      total
      (total)
      24
      42
      20
      21
      107
      mason
      9
      12
      16
      7
      44
      carpenter
      5
      7
      4
      3
      19
    5. Sense of civic education (also below). That public culture should improve citizens.
  2. How to measure / weigh the 'golden' in this age. Attic "theater": Comedy always and tragedy often addressed political issues openly. Both were part of an annual religious festival dedicated to Dionysios.
    1. Aristotle says: "tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself…in a dramatic, not a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions…some portions are worked on in verse only, and others in turn with song." Pathos. Use of empathy. Tragedy addresses contemporary issues indirectly by setting events in a distant (Bronze Age) past and even then more often in cities other than Athens. Qualities:
      1. The heroic figures in the plays are typically not Athenians, or even contemporaries; they regularly are the standard enemies of the Greeks (Trojans) or of the Athenians (the Thebans).
      2. The figures themselves are at their most vulnerable (e.g., Suppliant Women); their humanity is evoked in their weakness (Antigone) and nobility, just as the shallowness of the powerful is exposed (Creon)
      3. The plays evoke self-conscious reflection by using empathy. That is, the Athenian audience empathizes with the position of the "suppliant women" just as she [Athens]is ready to order the Melian men killed and the women and children sold into slavery. And all this in a time of war.
      4. Samples
    2. Comedy. Generally much more direct and to some decree more biting in criticism (to judge from the surviving plays of Aristophanes). It was "political" in the Greek sense, namely about life in the city and frequently vulgar in the extreme. Extensive use of parody and allusion. Example, Aristophanes, Clouds (link below) and (ACH 147)
    3. Conclusion?
  3. Building Program: (ACH 151) building, constructing/celebrating civic identity
    1. Esp. after 450 and Peace of Callias (if there was one??). Building program (reconstruction) to advertise imperial power and cultural. Designed to encourage patriotism and civic identity. Evening; view1; distance. The Parthenon
    2. Panathenaic Festival.
    3. Public benefaction (ACH 142) and liturgies (ACH 144; 153). What is assumed by such gifts?
    4. Criticism (ACG 138): The re-orientation toward naval imperialism, overseas possessions (instead of Attica land) and the power of the demos had little appeal to traditional wealth and aristocracy. But the building program was popular.
  4. Education and the role of the Sophists (not to be confused with the pre-Socratic "philosophers" = physicists to be discussed in the next lecture)
    1. On education; physical training.
    2. The Sophists: A characteristic feature of the age, and not just at Athens. The rhetorical devices developed by the Sophists were used not only by teachers, but also by writers of comedy and tragedy, by politicians and the active citizen.
      1. nomos and physis: custom or universal; if we do not obey human law (nomos) however deficient it may be, there will be chaos; if we do not obey universal notions of right or wrong we will disregard true justice and equity. Antigone's choice.
      2. agnosticism; relativity: nothing exits; and if anything does exit, it is incomprehensible by man; and even if it were comprehensible it could not be communicated to another. Humanistic.
    3. Offered an education, based on public speaking, but also on a broad, progressive and civilized sense of culture. The role of the citizen. Memory.
    4. Concern for language and rational debate; persuasion in a public context:
      1. The antilogy: Protagoras: a set of paired speeches each one arguing persuasively for the opposite; how to argue both sides of a question.
      2. Core of modern liberalism with emphasis on contract and utility and probability. more humane
    5. The most important document for our purposes is the comedy by Aristophanes, The Clouds. For the feint of heart
  5. Was the golden age uniquely Athenian? or distinctly Greek?
  6. Summary: What qualities characterize this golden age? What are causes? what are consequences? Self-confidence? public debate (readiness to entertain alternate views when making difficulty decisions)? the open society? economic stability (comfort if not prosperity)? the role of an educated middle?

 

Classroom Exercise: = ESHAG 74.This passage was writen by an anonymous source and has a distinctly oligarchic / anti democratic bias. It is an example of the 'free speech' that one would find in Athens, but also an example of social criticism. In light of the data given in the chart above (and below) what may we conclude about the role and contribution of metics and slaves to Athenian life.

As far as slaves and metics are concerned, it is in Athens that you see them [10] Now among the slaves and metics at Athens there is the greatest uncontrolled wantonness; you can't hit them there, and a slave will not stand aside for you. I shall point out why this is their native practice: if it were customary for a slave (or metic or freedman) to be struck by one who is free, you would often hit an Athenian citizen by mistake on the assumption that he was a slave. For the people there are no better dressed than the slaves and metics, nor are they any more handsome. [11] If anyone is also startled by the fact that they let the slaves live luxuriously there and some of them sumptuously, it would be clear that even this they do for a reason. For where there is a naval power, it is necessary from financial considerations to be slaves to the slaves in order to take a portion of their earnings, and it is then necessary to let them go free. And where there are rich slaves, it is no longer profitable in such a place for my slave to fear you. 12] For this reason we have set up equality between slaves and free men, and between metics and citizens. The city needs metics in view of the many different trades and the fleet. Accordingly, then, we have reasonably set up a similar equality also for the metics.