Platos On Republic:
-427 to 347 -386 returned to Athens to form Academy - Socratic dialogue in 370s included: - rejecting conventional wisdom (use soul to judge worthiness of others) - Rulers need to use the 3 functions of their souls (minds): (a) to reason; (b) to will or desire; (c) to govern or make decisions - analyze how a city-state should function rationally, justly and see how can apply to individual souls - division of labor according to peoples own nature. Non democratic, prevents versatility. 3 classes of citizens: (a) "craftsmen" (farmers, manufacturers, traders) "auxiliaries" (soldiers), and "guardians" (rulers). - guardians: nature includes: good breeding, physical strength, bravery, energetic personality, and love of wisdom. - first principle of just society: each citizen and class should do the work his/her nature best suits them for and not interfere in the work of others - Autonomia: justice can be defined as the ability to govern ones own soul by not permitting one part or function to interfere with another: this is how a person becomes his/her own master and law - Democracy is anti-philosophical: The assembly, lawcourt, theater and military camp encourage emotional turmoil in citizens souls and prevent thinking rationally - The Cave. For Socrates, Athenians are like prisoners chained deep in a cave, staring ahead at a wall watching project shadows onto the wall of cut-out shapes of everyday objects and actions made by puppeteers (government, teachers..). This shadow-show, the prisoners believe, is reality. Only the unique prisoner who is a philosopher can tear off the blinders, see the puppeteers, and climb out of the cave to see the real world outside. If he returns to the cave to inform the prisoners, theyll think hes insane - Mimesis: (mimicry) Storytelling, poetry and theatre deceive us with their emotional turmoil and debased cut-out shapes: they must be banned from the ideal society--only dialectical argument enlightens us to the otherworldly, spiritual reality of the Forms or Ideas.
Antigone:
Sophocles (441 BC) 1.) Antigone tests the power of nomos because she undermines Creons law by burying her dead brother whom he forbade to be buried. This act represents an act against nomos and shows that normal citizens have more power than they think. Creons ethos, commenting that he will never lose to a girl, shows that nomos can sometimes demand too much: Antigone was just showing respect for he dead family member; this is an act almost anyone would want to do for their family, but Creon is going to punish her with death.. Although Antigones intentions were good, she was punished by the law and seen as bad because she didnt follow the rules. Ode to the Human Being (22-23 lines 332-375) in Antigone, states that Good comes and Bad comes showing that there is potential for both good and
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evil in the world, and that cities can fall if arrogance and excess reigns. Protagoras view of humans is that man could be whatever he wanted to be and believe whatever he wanted to, so if he wanted evil there would be evil in the world, and if he wanted good there would be good. Antigone asserts the priority of family identity based on philia because philia means family love and Antigone, despite the law, buried her brother. Creon made it a law not to bury him, but she ignored this and did it anyway out of philia and responsibility for her family. She wont be swayed any way to not bury her brother and to not die for the crime, just as Creon will not yield to anyones wishes, even his own sons. Haemon argues that Antigone was doing what the Gods would have wanted and that the citizens believe she should not be killed. He says if she dies she will kill another also, referring to himself. His father just gets angry with these comments and will not listen. He calls him a womans slave, and a woman, saying that he (creon) will never listen to someone like that. His constant refusal to budge shows his arrogant and stubborn ethos. The chorus sings about eros because Haemon is sick with love for Antigone. The chorus says that eros possesses people and makes them mad. It will make anyone do anything for that other person, and not be able to live without them. This is much stronger than love for a state because love for a state will not drive every person to kill themselves in sacrifice for that love. Antigone faces her death courageously and will not let anyone convince her not to die. She thinks it is honorable and wont even let her sister die with her because she doesnt think she deserves to die such an honorable death. Her appearance as a bride is significant because it shows that even love wont stop her from her death. She chooses death over marriage with Haemon; Marriage is supposed to be about joy, while death should be about grief. By joining marriage and death, Antigone says that death is joyful in her opinion. Her death seems heroic, but at the same time pathetic because she has the chance to live but she wants to die for her cause. She has the chance to survive and live happily after proving her point and even be able to live with Haemon and make him happy but she chooses death anyway. Creon becomes the tragedys protagonist because he loses everything. First off by killing Antigone he loses some trust in his people; he loses his son who killed himself with grief over Antigone, and finally he lost his wife who was too distraught over losing Haemon to live. This is terribly sad for Creon and he realizes his loss and mistakes, this is ironic he because killed the woman who represented philia, and he ends up losing it all too. \
Orestia:
1.) Homicide in every community tests the limits of freedom: are people free enough to get away with murder? Depending on who gets away with murder, what their punishments are, it shows us how different groups of people, citizens or non-citizens are viewed in different cultures. 2.) The murder of Iphigeneia by Agamemnon shows that he valued the welfare of his state over his own family. To ensure the safety of his troops and people he
sacrificed his daughter. Nobody punishes Agamemnon for his murder, but later, when his wife Clytemnestra murders him for the murder of their daughter people think its wrong and seek punishment for her. This shows that men could get away with murder more easily than women could. The murder of his daughter shows that fathers practically owned their children, especially their daughters and could do what they wanted with them, if it was marrying them off to a suitor, or sacrificing them. When Clytemnestra kills her husband it shows that past events are not forgotten and that if needed, revenge will be sought after.
Athens under Pericles:
1.) Themistocles helped liberalize the democracy by employing poor people as rowers of navy ships, giving them a more prominent place in society; therefore creating a more equal society. This increased their political influence because the elite had a harder time maintaining the same wealth and power that theyd had before because it now had to be shared among the former poorer citizens. Ephialtes striped the council of Areopagus of its rights to look over any trials except for homicide trials. With this, much less emphasis was placed on the importance of this council, making it less worthy of so much power. This was a liberal move because the majority of people who were in and supported the council were wealthy, elite, aristocrats, so by giving this council less power, he in turn made it harder for the conservative citizens to have so much power as well. 2.) Pericles continued to liberalize Athens by giving a wage for being on a jury, so because poorer men formerly didnt have time to be on jury because they were working and couldnt get paid for doing jury duty; with Pericles they could. This also helped the unemployed make a little money as well. Also men on the council of 500 were paid a wage so poorer people could participate as well. The money from the Delian league was put to use by building an Acropolis which served as a public welfare project by putting those who were unemployed to work. By using nomos, or policy making, Greek citizens were able to create a more free and democratic Athens, spreading out the power and wealth among many classes instead of just the few elite. 3.) Protagoras encourages citizens to participate in the making of nomos because he tells people that anthropos is a person, it doesnt just mean man, it includes women too. This is revolutionary idea. He says that everyone has the ability to believe what they want, and that you should use your senses to find what is real and what is now. By encouraging people to believe what they wanted to believe and think what they wanted to think, he helped people participate in not only making nomos but changing it to what they wanted as well. 4.) Pericles funeral oration encourages Athenians to be extremely proud of their state and of democratia. He said that Athenians had values of isonomos, selfsufficiency, creativity, hardworking, worth of citizenship over individual person, eros of Athens (patriotism), and women were to be quiet and in the background. Pericles valorizes citizen identity over family identity because in his funeral speech he addresses the people of Athens as a whole, not addressing the individual who died and his family. By doing this he makes
sure that he doesnt encourage people to value individuals and family over Athens as a whole. He was mostly a Transformational leader because of his work with rebuilding the acropolis, giving men jobs in the navy, jury and council payment, and offering visions of Athens and citizens in his speeches.
Peloponnesian War:
1.) The Athenians obviously learned that control of the Aegean was imperative to success. During the Persian invasion, Athens learned that domination of the Aegean would lead to a victory over Persia. The Delian league consisted of many Greek states contributing to funding more ships to use in the navy to ward off and fight enemies to the league. Conditions of its membership were to contribute money and ships to it. This turned the league into the Athenian empire because Athens used many of the funds to bulk up Athens. 2.) Greek city-state civilization was traditionally a multi-actor power civilization because it consisted of a set of different city-states, together, acting as one. Athens wanted to combine all the multi-actor states into one under their empire. By creating a huge empire controlling land and sea, Athens would create an almost unbeatable threat which is why Sparta wanted to resist the autonomy of Athens and keep multi-actor state civilization, at least until THEY themselves could be the big power that Athens was trying to achieve. 3.) Answer 4.) Protagoras defines nomos as people together talking to reach a consensus, both pro-democracy, pro-consensus. In Thucydides when things decide things for themselves they make rash decisions like invading Sicily and the genocide of Melos. He presents negative idea of nomos and consensus as citizens controlling things= radical democracy=bad.
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