Week 10

Socrates and Aristophanes

Aristophanes, “The Clouds”

[Strepsiades notices Socrates descending from above in a basket suspended from a rope]
        Hey, who’s the man in the basket—up there?
STUDENT: The man himself.
STREPSIADES:                   Who’s that?
STUDENT:                                             Socrates.
STREPSIADES: Socrates! Hey, call out to him for me—                                          [220]
        make it loud.
STUDENT:                 You’ll have to call to him yourself.
        I’m too busy now.
[The Student exits into the interior of the house]
STREPSIADES:                       Oh, Socrates . . .
        my dear little Socrates . . . hello . . .
SOCRATES: Why call on me, you creature of a day?
STREPSIADES: Well, first of all, tell me what you’re doing.                         270
SOCRATES: I tread the air, as I contemplate the sun.
STREPSIADES: You’re looking down upon the gods up there,
        in that basket? Why not do it from the ground,
        if that’s what you’re doing?
SOCRATES:                                         Impossible!
        I’d never come up with a single thing
        about celestial phenomena,
        if I did not suspend my mind up high,
        to mix my subtle thoughts with what’s like them—                                        [230]
        the air. If I turned my mind to lofty things,
        but stayed there on the ground, I’d never make                                      280
        the least discovery. For the earth, you see,
        draws moist thoughts down by force into itself—
        the same process takes place with water cress.
STREPSIADES: What are you talking about? Does the mind
        draw moisture into water cress? Come down,
        my dear little Socrates, down here to me,
        so you can teach me what I’ve come to learn.
[Socrates’ basket slowly descends]
SOCRATES: Why have you come?
STREPSIADES:                         I want to learn to argue.
        I’m being pillaged—ruined by interest                                                             [240]
        and by creditors I can’t pay off—                                                               290
        they’re slapping liens on all my property.
SOCRATES: How come you got in such a pile of debt
        without your knowledge?
STREPSIADES:                                 I’ve been ravaged
        by disease—I’m horse sick. It’s draining me
        in the most dreadful way. But please teach me
        one of your two styles of arguing, the one
        which never has to discharge any debt.
        Whatever payment you want me to make,
        I promise you I’ll pay—by all the gods.
SOCRATES: What gods do you intend to swear by?                                      300
        To start with, the gods hold no currency with us.
STREPSIADES: Then, what currency do you use to swear?
        Is it iron coin, like in Byzantium?
SOCRATES: Do you want to know the truth of things divine,                              [250]
        the way they really are?
STREPSIADES:                              Yes, by god, I do,
        if that’s possible.
SOCRATES:                          And to commune and talk
        with our own deities the Clouds?
STREPSIADES:                                    Yes, I do.
SOCRATES: Then sit down on the sacred couch.
STREPSIADES:                                                     All right.
        I’m sitting down.
SOCRATES:                 Take this wreath.
STREPSIADES:                                     Why a wreath?
        Oh dear, Socrates, don’t offer me up                                                         310
        in sacrifice, like Athamas.*
SOCRATES:                                                 No, no.
        We go through all this for everyone—
        it’s their initiation.
STREPSIADES:                 What do I get?
SOCRATES: You’ll learn to be a clever talker,                                                         [260]
        to rattle off a speech, to strain your words
        like flour. Just keep still.
[Socrates sprinkles flour all over Strepsiades]
STREPSIADES:                                 By god, that’s no lie!
        I’ll turn into flour if you keep sprinkling me.
SOCRATES: Old man, be quiet. Listen to the prayer.
[Socrates shuts his eyes to recite his prayer]
        O Sovereign Lord, O Boundless Air,
        who keeps the earth suspended here in space,                                       320
        O Bright Sky, O Sacred Goddesses—
        the Thunder-bearing Clouds—arise,
        you holy ladies, issue forth on high,
        before the man who holds you in his mind.
STREPSIADES: [lifting his cloak to cover his head]
        Not yet, not yet. Not ‘til I wrap this cloak
        like this so I don’t get soaked. What bad luck,
        to leave my home without a cap on.
SOCRATES: [ignoring Strepsiades]
        Come now, you highly honored Clouds, come—
        manifest yourselves to this man here—
        whether you now sit atop Olympus,                                                         330     [270]
        on those sacred snow-bound mountain peaks,
        or form the holy choruses with nymphs
        in gardens of their father Ocean,
        or gather up the waters of the Nile
        in golden flagons at the river’s mouths,
        or dwell beside the marsh of Maeotis
        or snowy rocks of Mimas—hear my call,
        accept my sacrifice, and then rejoice
        in this holy offering I make.
CHORUS [heard offstage]
            Everlasting Clouds—                                                                               340
            let us arise, let us reveal
            our moist and natural radiance—
            moving from the roaring deep
            of father Ocean to the tops
            of tree-lined mountain peaks,                                                                         [280]
            where we see from far away
            the lofty heights, the sacred earth,
            whose fruits we feed with water,
            the murmuring of sacred rivers,
            the roaring of the deep-resounding sea.                                               350
            For the unwearied eye of heaven
            blazes forth its glittering beams.
            Shake off this misty shapelessness
            from our immortal form and gaze upon
            the earth with our far-reaching eyes.                                                             [290]
SOCRATES: Oh you magnificent and holy Clouds,
        you’ve clearly heard my call.
[To Strepsiades]
                                                             Did you hear that voice
        intermingled with the awesome growl of thunder?
STREPSIADES: Oh you most honored sacred goddesses,
        in answer to your thunder my stomach seems to growl—                                      360
        it’s made me so afraid—if that’s all right . . .
[Strepsiades holds his stomach in pain]
        Oh, oh, whether right nor not, I need to eat something!
SOCRATES: Stop being so idiotic, acting like
        a stupid comedian. Keep quiet.
        A great host of deities is coming here—
        they’re going to sing.
CHORUS: [still offstage]
            Oh you maidens bringing rain—
            let’s move on to that brilliant place,                                                               [300]
            to gaze upon the land of Pallas,
            where such noble men inhabit                                                               370
            Cecrops’ lovely native home,*
            where they hold those sacred rites
            no one may speak about,
            where the temple of the mysteries
            is opened up in holy festivals,*
            with gifts for deities in heaven,
            what lofty temples, holy statues,
            most sacred supplication to the gods,
            with garlands for each holy sacrifice,
            and festivals of every kind                                                                      380     [310]
            in every season of the year,
            including, when the spring arrives,
            that joyful Dionysian time,
            with rousing choruses of song,
            resounding music of the pipes.
STREPSIADES: By god, Socrates, tell me, I beg you,
        who these women are who sing so solemnly.
        Are they some special kind of heroines?
SOCRATES: No—they’re heavenly Clouds, great goddesses
        for lazy men—from them we get our thoughts,                                       390
        our powers of speech, our comprehension,
        our gift for fantasy and endless talk,
        our power to strike responsive chords in speech
        and then rebut opponents’ arguments.
STREPSIADES: Ah, that must be why, as I heard their voice,
        my soul took wing, and now I’m really keen
        to babble on of trivialities,
        to argue smoke and mirrors, to deflate                                                             [320]
        opinions with a small opinion of my own,
        to answer someone’s reasoned argument                                              
        with my own counter-argument. So now,
        I’d love to see them here in front of me,
        if that’s possible.
SOCRATES:                             Just look over there—
        towards Mount Parnes. I see them coming,
        slowly moving over here.*
STREPSIADES:                                     Where? Point them out.
SOCRATES: They’re coming down here through the valleys—
        a whole crowd of them—there in the thickets,
        right beside you.
STREPSIADES:               This is weird. I don’t see them.
SOCRATES: [pointing into the wings of the theatre]
        There—in the entrance way.
STREPSIADES:                                 Ah, now I see—
        but I can barely make them out.

[The Clouds enter from the wings]
SOCRATES:                                                             There—                                410
        surely you can see them now, unless your eyes
        are swollen up like pumpkins.
STREPSIADES:                                        I see them.
        My, what worthy noble presences!
        They’re taking over the entire space.
SOCRATES: You weren’t aware that they are goddesses?
        You had no faith in them?
STREPSIADES:                                         I’d no idea.
        I thought clouds were mist and dew and vapor.                                           [330]
SOCRATES: You didn’t realize these goddesses
        support a multitude of charlatans—
        prophetic seers from Thurium, quacks                                                     420
        who specialize in books on medicine,
        lazy long-haired types with onyx signet rings,
        poets who produce the twisted choral music
        for dithyrambic songs, those with airy minds—
        all such men so active doing nothing
        the Clouds support, since in their poetry
        these people celebrate the Clouds.
STREPSIADES: Ah ha, so that’s why they poeticize
        ”the whirling radiance of watery clouds
        as they advance so ominously,”                                                                 430
        ”waving hairs of hundred-headed Typho,”*
        with “roaring tempests,” and then “liquid breeze,”
        or ”crook-taloned, sky-floating birds of prey,”
        ”showers of rain from dewy clouds”—and then,
        as a reward for this, they stuff themselves
        on slices carved from some huge tasty fish
        or from a thrush.*
SOCRATES:                     Yes, thanks to these Clouds.                                             [340]
        Is that not truly just?
STREPSIADES:                         All right, tell me this—
        if they’re really clouds, what’s happened to them?
        They look just like mortal human women.                                              440
        The clouds up there are not the least like that.
SOCRATES: What are they like?
STREPSIADES:                                 I don’t know exactly.
        They look like wool once it’s been pulled apart—
        not like women, by god, not in the least.
        These ones here have noses.
SOCRATES:                             Let me ask you something.
        Will you answer me?
STREPSIADES:             Ask me what you want.
        Fire away.
SOCRATES:         Have you ever gazed up there
        and seen a cloud shaped like a centaur,
        or a leopard, wolf, or bull?
STREPSIADES:                                         Yes, I have.
        So what?
SOCRATES:             They become anything they want.                                
        So if they see some hairy savage type,
        one of those really wild and wooly men,
        like Xenophantes’ son, they mock his moods,
        transforming their appearance into centaurs.*                                                 [350]
STREPSIADES: What if they glimpse a thief of public funds,
        like Simon? What do they do then?*
SOCRATES:                                             They expose
        just what he’s truly like—they change at once,
        transform themselves to wolves.
STREPSIADES:                                                 Ah ha, I see.
        So that’s why yesterday they changed to deer.
        They must have caught sight of Cleonymos—                                        460
        the man who threw away his battle shield—
        they knew he was fearful coward.*
SOCRATES: And now it’s clear they’ve seen Cleisthenes—
        that’s why, as you can see, they’ve changed to women.*
STREPSIADES: [to the Chorus of Clouds]
        All hail to you, lady goddesses.
        And now, if you have ever spoken out
        to other men, let me hear your voice,
        you queenly powers.
CHORUS LEADER: Greetings to you, old man born long ago,
        hunter in love with arts of argument—                                                    470
        you, too, high priest of subtlest nonsense,
        tell us what you want. Of all the experts                                                           [360]
        in celestial matters at the present time,
        we take note of no one else but you—
        and Prodicus*—because he’s sharp and wise,
        while you go swaggering along the street,
        in bare feet, shifting both eyes back and forth.
        You keep moving on through many troubles,
        looking proud of your relationship with us.
STREPSIADES: By the Earth, what voices these Clouds have—                  480
        so holy, reverent, and marvelous!
SOCRATES: Well, they’re the only deities we have—
        the rest are just so much hocus pocus.
STREPSIADES: Hang on—by the Earth, isn’t Zeus a god,
        the one up there on Mount Olympus?
SOCRATES: What sort of god is Zeus? Why spout such rubbish?
        There’s no such being as Zeus.
STREPSIADES:                         What do you mean?
        Then who brings on the rain? First answer that.
SOCRATES: Why, these women do. I’ll prove that to you
        with persuasive evidence. Just tell me—                                                  490     [370]
        where have you ever seen the rain come down
        without the Clouds being there? If Zeus brings rain,
        then he should do so when the sky is clear,
        when there are no Clouds in view.
STREPSIADES: By Apollo, you’ve made a good point there—
        it helps your argument. I used to think
        rain was just  Zeus spitting from the sky
        Tell me who causes thunder? That scares me.

SOCRATES: These Clouds do, as they roll around.
STREPSIADES:                                                         But how?
        Explain that, you who dares to know it all.                                              500
SOCRATES: When they are filled with water to the brim
        and then, suspended there with all that rain,
        are forced to move, they bump into each other.
        They’re so big, they burst with a great boom.
STREPSIADES: But what’s forcing them to move at all?
        Doesn’t Zeus do that?
SOCRATES:                             No—that’s the aerial Vortex.*
STREPSIADES: Vortex? Well, that’s something I didn’t know.                             [380]
        So Zeus is now no more, and Vortex rules
        instead of him. But you still have not explained
        a thing about those claps of thunder.                                                              510
SOCRATES: Weren’t you listening to me? I tell you,
        when the Clouds are full of water and collide,
        they’re so thickly packed they make a noise.
STREPSIADES: Come on now—who’d ever believe that stuff?
SOCRATES: I’ll explain, using you as a test case.
        Have you ever gorged yourself on stew
        at the Panathenaea and later
        had an upset stomach—then suddenly
        some violent movement made it rumble?*
STREPSIADES: Yes, by Apollo! It does weird things—                                 520
        I feel unsettled. That small bit of stew
        rumbles around and makes strange noises,
        just like thunder. At first it’s quite quiet—                                                       [390]
        ”pappax pappax”—then it starts getting louder—
        ”papapappax”—and then
        it really thunders “papapappax”—
        just like these Clouds.
SOCRATES:                                             So think about it—
        if your small gut can make a sound like that,
        why can’t the air, which goes on forever,
        produce tremendous thunder. Then there’s this—                                 530
        consider how alike these phrases sound,
        ”thunder” and “hunger”
STREPSIADES: All right, but then explain this to me—
        Where does lightning come from, that fiery blaze,
        which, when it hits, sometimes burns us up,
        sometimes just singes us and lets us live?
        Clearly Zeus is hurling that at perjurers.
SOCRATES: You stupid driveling idiot, you stink
        of olden times, the age of Cronos!* If Zeus
        is really striking at the perjurers,                                                            
        how come he’s not burned Simon down to ash,
        or else Cleonymos or Theorus?
        They perjure themselves more than anyone.                                                   [400]
        No. Instead he strikes at his own temple
        at Sunium, our Athenian headland,
        and at his massive oak trees there. Why?
        What’s his plan? Oak trees can’t be perjured.
STREPSIADES: I don’t know. But that argument of yours
        seems good. All right, then, what’s a lightning bolt?
SOCRATES: When a dry wind blows up into the Clouds                             550
        and gets caught in there, it makes them inflate,
        like the inside of a bladder. And then
        it has to burst them all apart and vent,
        rushing out with violence brought on
        by dense compression—its force and friction
        cause it to consume itself in fire.
STREPSIADES: By god, I went through that very thing myself—
        at the feast for Zeus. I was cooking food,
        a pig’s belly, for my family. I forgot
        to slit it open. It began to swell—                                                                  [410]
        then suddenly blew up, splattering blood
        in both my eyes and burning my whole face.
CHORUS LEADER: Oh you who seeks from us great wisdom,
        how happy you will be among Athenians,
        among the Greeks, if you have memory,
        if you can think, if in that soul of yours
        you’ve got the power to persevere,
        and don't get tired standing still or walking,
        nor suffer too much from the freezing cold,
        with no desire for breakfast, if you abstain                                              570
        from wine, from exercise, and other foolishness,
        if you believe, as all clever people should,
        the highest good is victory in action,
        in deliberation and in verbal wars.
STREPSIADES: Well, as for a stubborn soul and a mind                                       [420]
        thinking in a restless bed, while my stomach,
        lean and mean, feeds on bitter herbs, don’t worry.
        I’m confident about all that—I’m ready
        to be hammered on your anvil into shape.
SOCRATES: So now you won’t acknowledge any gods                                580
        except the ones we do—Chaos, the Clouds,
        the Tongue—just these three?
STREPSIADES:                                         Absolutely—
        I’d refuse to talk to any other gods,
        if I ran into them—and I decline
        to sacrifice or pour libations to them.
        I’ll not provide them any incense.
CHORUS LEADER: Tell us then what we can do for you.
        Be brave—for if you treat us with respect,
        if you admire us, and if you’re keen
        to be a clever man, you won’t go wrong.                                                  590
STREPSIADES: Oh you sovereign queens,
        from you I ask one really tiny favour—
        to be the finest speaker in all Greece,                                                                [430]
        within a hundred miles.
CHORUS LEADER:                 You’ll get that from us.
        From now on, in time to come, no one will win
        more votes among the populace than you.

STREPSIADES: No speaking on important votes for me!
        That’s not what I’m after. No, no. I want
        to twist all legal verdicts in my favour,
        to evade my creditors.
CHORUS LEADER:                 You’ll get that,                                                   600
        just what you desire. For what you want
        is nothing special. So be confident—
        give yourself over to our agents here.
STREPSIADES: I’ll do that—I’ll place my trust in you.
        Necessity is weighing me down—the horses,
        those thoroughbreds, my marriage—all that
        has worn me out. So now, this body of mine                                                    [440]
        I’ll give to them, with no strings attached,
        to do with as they like—to suffer blows,
        go without food and drink, live like a pig,                                               610
        to freeze or have my skin flayed for a pouch—
        if I can just get out of all my debt
        and make men think of me as bold and glib,
        as fearless, impudent, detestable,
        one who cobbles lies together, makes up words,
        a practiced legal rogue, a statute book,
        a chattering fox, sly and needle sharp,
        a slippery fraud, a sticky rascal,
        foul whipping boy or twisted villain,                                                           [450]
        troublemaker, or idly prattling fool.                                                         620
        If they can make those who run into me
        call me these names, they can do what they want—
        no questions asked. If, by Demeter, they’re keen,
        they can convert me into sausages
        and serve me up to men who think deep thoughts.
CHORUS: Here’s a man whose mind’s now smart,
            no holding back—prepared to start
            When you have learned all this from me                                                      [460]
            you know your glory will arise
            among all men to heaven’s skies.                                                           630
STREPSIADES: What must I undergo?
CHORUS: For all time, you’ll live with me
            a life most people truly envy.
STREPSIADES: You mean I’ll really see that one day?
CHORUS: Hordes will sit outside your door
            wanting your advice and more—                                                                   [470]
            to talk, to place their trust in you
            for their affairs and lawsuits, too,
            things which merit your great mind.
            They’ll leave you lots of cash behind.                                                
CHORUS LEADER: [to Socrates]
        So get started with this old man’s lessons,
        what you intend to teach him first of all—
        rouse his mind, test his intellectual powers.
SOCRATES: Come on then, tell me the sort of man you are—
        once I know that, I can bring to bear on you
        my latest batteries with full effect.                                                                     [480]
STREPSIADES: What’s that? By god, are you assaulting me?
SOCRATES: No—I want to learn some things from you.
        What about your memory?
STREPSIADES:                                                    To tell the truth
        it works two ways. If someone owes me something,                              650
        I remember really well. But if it’s poor me
        that owes the money, I forget a lot.
SOCRATES: Do you have any natural gift for speech?
STREPSIADES: Not for speaking—only for evading debt.
SOCRATES: So how will you be capable of learning?
STREPSIADES: Easily—that shouldn’t be your worry.
SOCRATES: All right. When I throw out something wise
        about celestial matters, you make sure
        you snatch it right away.                                                                                     [490]
STREPSIADES:                                 What’s that about?
        Am I to eat up wisdom like a dog?                                                            660
SOCRATES: [aside] This man’s an ignorant barbarian!
        Old man, I fear you may need a beating.
        [to Strepsiades] Now, what do you do if someone hits you?
STREPSIADES: If I get hit, I wait around a while,
        then find witnesses, hang around some more,
        then go to court.
SOCRATES:                         All right, take off your cloak.
STREPSIADES: Have I done something wrong?

SOCRATES:                                                     No. It’s our custom
        to go inside without a cloak.
STREPSIADES:                                                 But I don’t want
        to search your house for stolen stuff.*
SOCRATES: What are you going on about? Take it off.                              
STREPSIADES: [removing his cloak and his shoes]
        So tell me this—if I pay attention                                                                       [500]
        and put some effort into learning,
        which of your students will I look like?
SOCRATES: In appearance there’ll be no difference
        between yourself and Chaerephon.
STREPSIADES:                                     Oh, that’s bad.
        You mean I’ll be only half alive?
SOCRATES: Don’t talk such rubbish! Get a move on
        and follow me inside. Hurry up!
STREPSIADES: First, put a honey cake here in my hands.                            680
        I’m scared of going down in there. It’s like
        going in Trophonios’ cave.*
SOCRATES:                                                 Go inside.
        Why keep hanging round this doorway?
[Socrates picks up Strepsiades’ cloak and shoes. Then Strepsiades and Socrates exit into the interior of the Thinkery]



                                                         Plato’s Symposium
Aristophanes professed to open another vein of discourse; he had a mind to praise Love in another way, unlike that of either Pausanias or Eryximachus. Mankind, he said, judging by their neglect of him, have never, as I think, at all understood the power of Love. For if they had understood him they would surely have built noble temples and altars, and offered solemn sacrifices in his honor; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to be done: since of all the gods he is the best friend of men, the helper and the healer of the ills which are the great impediment to the happiness of the race. I will try to describe his power to you, and you shall teach the rest of the world what I am teaching you.
In the first place, let me treat of the nature of man and what has happened to it. The original human nature was not like the present, but different. The genders were not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the two, of which the name survives but nothing else. Once it was a distinct kind, with a bodily shape and a name of its own, constituted by the union of the male and the female: but now only the word 'androgynous' is preserved, and that as a term of reproach.
In the second place, the primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands and the same number of feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a round neck and precisely alike; also four ears, two privy members, and the remainder to correspond. He could walk upright as men now do, backwards or forwards as he pleased, and he could also roll over and over at a great pace, turning on his four hands and four feet, eight in all, like tumblers going over and over with their legs in the air; this was when he wanted to run fast.
Now the genders were three, and such as I have described them; because the sun, moon, and earth are three; and the man was originally the child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman of the moon, which is made up of sun and earth, and they were all round and moved round and round because they resembled their parents. Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they made an attack upon the gods; of them is told the tale of Otys and Ephialtes who, as Homer says, attempted to scale heaven, and would have laid hands upon the gods.
Doubt reigned in the celestial councils. Should they kill them and annihilate the race with thunderbolts, as they had done the giants, then there would be an end of the sacrifices and worship which men offered to them; but, on the other hand, the gods could not suffer their insolence to be unrestrained. At last, after a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a way.
He said: 'Methinks I have a plan which will enfeeble their strength and so extinguish their turbulence; men shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in two and then they will be diminished in strength and increased in numbers; this will have the advantage of making them more profitable to us. They shall walk upright on two legs, and if they continue insolent and will not be quiet, I will split them again and they shall hop about on a single leg.'
He spoke and cut men in two, like an apple which is halved for pickling, or as you might divide an egg with a hair; and as he cut them one after another, he bade Apollo give the face and the half of the neck a turn in order that man might contemplate the section of himself: he would thus learn a lesson of humility. Apollo was also bidden to heal their wounds and compose their forms. So he gave a turn to the face and pulled the skin from the sides all over that which in our language is called the belly, like the purses which draw tight, and he made one mouth at the center, which he fastened in a knot (the same which is called the navel); he also took out most of the wrinkles, much as a shoemaker might smooth leather upon a last; he left a few, however, in the region of the belly and navel, as a memorial of the primeval state.
After the division the two parts, each desired the other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one another, longing to be one again, they began to die from hunger and self-neglect, because they did not like to do anything apart. Each of us when separated, having one side only, like a flat fish, is but the half of a human, and is always looking for the other half.
And such a nature is prone to love and ready to return love, always embracing that which is akin to him. And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself from the former life, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship, and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together, and yet they could not explain what they desire of one another, for the intense yearning which each of them has towards the other cannot be explained otherwise.
And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love. There was a time, I say, when we were one, but now because of the wickedness of mankind God has dispersed us, as the Arcadians were dispersed into villages by the Lacedaemonians. And if we are not obedient to the gods, there is a danger that we shall be split up again and go about in basso-relievo, like the profile figures showing only one half the nose which are sculptured on monuments, and that we shall be like tallies. Wherefore let us exhort all men to piety in all things, that we may avoid evil and obtain the good, taking Love for our leader and commander.
Let no one oppose him--he is the enemy of the gods who opposes him. For if we are friends of God and at peace with him we shall find our own true loves, which rarely happens in this world at present. I am serious, and therefore I must beg Eryximachus not to make fun or to find any allusion in what I am saying to Pausanias and Agathon. But my words have a wider application--they include men and women everywhere; and I believe that if our loves were perfectly accomplished, and each one returning to his primeval nature had his original true love, then our race would be happy. And if this would be best of all, the best in the next degree must in present circumstances be the nearest approach to such a union; and that will be the attainment of a congenial love.
Wherefore, if we would praise him who has given to us the benefit, we must praise God, who is our greatest benefactor, both leading us in this life back to our own nature, and giving us high hopes for the future, for he promises that if we are pious, he will restore us to our original state, and heal us and make us happy and blessed.
This, said Aristophanes, is my discourse on love, which, although different from yours, I must beg you to not ridicule, in order that each may have his turn; each, or rather either, for Agathon and Socrates are the only ones who have not left during my speech.

Week 9

Sparta vs. Athens

Week 9

Plutarch Viva Sources

Please begin reviewing the linked materials and collecting ideas for your viva answers.

Solon
Lycurgus
Pericles

Week 8

THUCYDIDES (460-400 BC)
THE AUTHOR OF "THE PELOPONESSIAN WAR"

Thucydides the son of Olorus was born probably about 460 BC and died about the year 400 BC. When the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 B.C Thucydides probably took part in some of its early actions. Some time between 430 and 427 he fell ill in the plague, but recovered. In 424 he was appointed general, but his small squadron of ships arrived too late to save the important Athenian colony of Amphipolis from the Spartan commander Brasidas, though he successfully held the nearby port of Eion against Brasidas's attacks. In consequence he was exiled, not returning until twenty years had passed, only to die a few years later.

For much of the period he describes The Peloponnesian War is the only source that survives. The verity of his reports and the justice of his perceptions have been the cause of controversy amongst scholars for centuries. But it is certain that he used his historical imagination to reconstruct only as a last resort. When the various parts of the history were composed, which of these he revised, and whether their chronological inconsistencies are due to later editing — these questions are still unsolved.

Week 8

Link: Pericles' Funeral Oration

The so-called golden age of Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles (495-429 B.C.), a brilliant general, orator, patron of the arts and politician—”the first citizen” of democratic Athens, according to the historian Thucydides. Pericles transformed his city’s alliances into an empire and graced its Acropolis with the famous Parthenon. His policies and strategies also set the stage for the devastating Peloponnesian War, which would embroil all Greece in the decades following his death.

PERICLES: RISE TO POWER
Pericles was born into one of Athens’ leading families. His father Xanthippus was a hero of the Persian War and his mother belonged to the culturally powerful Alcmaeonidae family. He grew up in the company of artists and philosophers—his friends included Protagoras, Zeno and the pioneering Athenian philosopher Anaxagoras. Pericles’ earliest recorded act, the financial sponsorship of a play by Aeschylus in 472 B.C., foreshadowed the future leader’s wealth, artistic taste and political savvy. The play expressed support for Athens’ embattled populist leader Themistocles over Pericles’ future archrival, the aristocrat Cimon.

Between 463 and 461 Pericles worked to prosecute and eventually ostracize Cimon for allegedly betraying Athens and emerged as the leader of Athens’ democratic party. In 454 he led a successful military campaign in Corinth and sponsored the establishment of Athenian colonies in Thrace and on the Black Sea coast. In 443 he was elected strategos (one of Athens’ leading generals), a position he held, with one short interruption, for the rest of his life.

PERICLES AND THE ATHENIAN GOLDEN AGE
The golden age of Athenian culture is usually dated from 449 to 431 B.C., the years of relative peace between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. After the second Persian invasion of Greece in 479, Athens and its allies throughout the Aegean formed the Delian League, a military alliance focused on the Persian threat. Following a failed Athenian attack on the Persians in Egypt in 454, Athens’ leaders pushed to transfer the League’s treasury from Delos to Athens. Three years later, a coinage decree imposed Athenian weights and measures throughout the league. By the time Pericles was elected strategos, the league was well on its way to becoming an Athenian empire.

During the 440s and 430s Pericles tapped the league’s treasury to fund vast cultural projects in Athens, most notably a series of structures on the city’s hilltop Acropolis: the temple of Athena Nike, the Erechtheum and the towering Parthenon. Built to the highest standards of aesthetics, engineering and mathematics, these white marble structures were decorated with intricate statues and friezes carved by the era’s greatest sculptors.

Pericles’ social innovations were equally important to the era. He worked to democratize the fine arts by subsidizing theater admission for poorer citizens and enabled civic participation by offering pay for jury duty and other civil service. Pericles maintained close friendships with the leading intellects of his time. The playwright Sophocles and the sculptor Phidias were among his friends. Pericles’ consort Aspasia, one of the best-known women of ancient Greece, taught rhetoric to the young philosopher Socrates. Pericles himself was a master orator. His speeches and elegies (as recorded and possibly interpreted by Thucydides) celebrate the greatness of a democratic Athens at its peak.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR AND THE DEATH OF PERICLES
As Athens grew in power under Pericles, Sparta felt more and more threatened and began to demand concessions from the Athenians. Pericles refused, and in 431 B.C. conflict between Athens and Sparta’s ally Corinth pushed the Spartan king Archidamus II to invade Attica near Athens. Pericles adopted a strategy that played to the Athenians’ advantage as a naval force by evacuating the Attic countryside to deny the superior Spartan armies anyone to fight. With all his people collected within the walls of Athens, Pericles was free to make opportunistic seaborne attacks on Sparta’s allies. This financially costly strategy worked well during the war’s early years, but a plague hit the concentrated Athenian population, taking many lives and stirring discontent. Pericles was briefly deposed in 430, but after the Athenians’ efforts to negotiate with Sparta failed, he was quickly reinstated.

In 429 Pericles’ two legitimate sons died of the plague. A few months later, Pericles himself succumbed. His death was, according to Thucydides, disastrous for Athens. His strategies were quickly abandoned and the leaders who followed lacked Pericles’ foresight and forbearance, instead “committing even the conduct of state affairs to the whims of the multitude.” The glory of ancient Greece was far from over—Plato was born a year after Pericles’ death—but the golden age slid away.

Did You Know?
All surviving statues and images of Pericles show him wearing a helmet—his rightful symbol as an Athenian general. The armor also covered up his one known physical flaw—his outsize head. Contemporary poets nicknamed him Schinocephalos, "sea onion-head," after a bulbed plant found on the Mediterranean coast.

Week 8

Herodotus (484 BC – c. 425 BC) was a Greek Historian as well as known as the Father of Lies.  These two titles were commonly held hand in hand as the early recorders of history were attempting to record an objective recounting of events while taking their stories from first-hand, second-hand, third-hand, etc accounts instead of recording a direct experience.  Also entwined in the pejorative label of “Father of Lies” is that Herodotus was susceptible to subjective inclusion or exclusion of histories based on his personal involvement with peoples.  Thebans and Corinthians who both denied him funds for his work  subsequently suffered not the prettiest of pictures when recounted in Herodotus' work.  Athenians gave him a fortune, thus perhaps securing a favorable telling of their exploits.  Regardless, Herodotus was one of the first writers to bring together historical accounts (whether tweaked by the tellers or himself or not) and the only one to have survived in the form of The Histories.  Therefore, the moniker of Father of History sticks.

What is known about Herodotus's life is suspect, not unlike any ancient figure subject to the development of accurately written records.  What is most often referred to is an eleventh-century Byzantine lexicon, the Suda.  According to this document, Herodotus was born in Halicarnassus and that at some point was banished from his birthplace by the tyrant Lygdamis to the island of Samos.  He returned to Halicarnassus to participate in the overthrowing of the tyrant but was not in the favor of the citizens and therefore left for Thurii, a colony in Southern Italy that was Athenian-led.  This is where he perhaps died although there is speculation that he may have perished in Macedonia at Pella.  He wrote in the Ionian dialect of Greek which differed from the Dorian community of Halicarnassus although the public documents were written in Ionian.  It is also possible that Herodotus picked up the usage of Ionian while on Samos; due to the repeated aggressions of his birthplace upon himself (first the tyrant, then citizens) this may have inspired Herodotus to discard the Dorian dialect.  The tradition of exiling historians did not stop with Herodotus, and in truth it may that it is merely assumed that he was exiled twice, it was rather common for following historians to be exiled from their homelands as well.  And for Herodotus, this does seem to ring true for it can be seen as the condition to inspire his wide travels. 

Another aspect that may play a role in allowing Herodotus to find the wherewithal to travel and experience widely with an open mind towards peoples and places outside of Greece was the friendliness of the city Halicarnassus to the Carians, subject to Persia.  The city also helped to develop Greek trade with Egypt and maintained an international feel.  Herodotus himself is said to have traveled to the islands of the Archipelago, the Persian capital Susa, Babylon, Colchis, Scythia, Thrace; he saw the shores of not only the Black Sea as far as Dnieper, but those of Palestine as well, seeing Gaza.  This is a mere slice of the destinations that Herodotus undertook in his search for 'human achievements' and 'to say what it said'.  History did not necessarily begin as an attempt to frame events objectively as it came to be known.  The original Greek, historia was used to describe investigation and inquiry and by traveling, seeing what he could see and hearing what he could hear, Herodotus set out to inquire upon human achievements.  The point that Herodotus was out to recount specifically 'human' achievement' set him apart from epic poets who tell tales of gods and humans.  Upon visiting a place that he was out to understand, Herodotus would take in everything he could see from monuments to customs to architecture to climate.  Herodotus would also talk to many people and would recount the different accounts before choosing to promote the one that he found most probable.  This is probably what garnered him the moniker of Father of Lies for within his history exist some pretty tall tales.

What Herodotus did with what he had learned is very well-known as The Histories, but this chunk of prose published all at once was not what he would have been known for until later in his life.  It is speculated that The Histories must have been around 415 BC.  Before that, Herodotus's craft would have looked very much like Homer's.  The culture around the Mediterranean was oral and not written and just as Herodotus gained his knowledge from oral storytelling, he passed on much of it in this way as well.  Herodotus would travel not only to gather information and histories, but to expel some of his gained wisdom and tales at larger festivals that would gather large diverse crowds, or within smaller gatherings not unlike the description of such a get together in Plato's Symposium.  When reading The Histories it is possible to see how the different books may be broken down into smaller chunks that were individual performance pieces. 

When The Histories were collected, they were broken into nine parts, each named after the nine Muses with Clio, the Muse of History taking claim over the first book.  The rest of the book follows what can be seen as a loose history of four Persian kings.  The history of Cyrus takes up the first book, Cambyses takes up Book 2 and some of three which leads into the dynastic history of Darius whose reign fills up the books up to 6, and finally Xerxes caps of The Histories in Books 7 and 8.  This is perhaps the most broad way to get an overview of the crafting of The Histories although Herodotus learned, perhaps from Homer, that this method is excellent for storing great variety and movement of many narratives.  The Persian-Greek Wars provided some time-line thematic structure (even though Herodotus would weave backwards and forwards in time at point), but other thematic structure is to be found as well throughout The Histories.  One such theme was Herodotus's view of the interaction of human action and its influence on historical causation, that of retribution and vengeance and that those who wrong others will see their payment coming to them.  Another such theme is Herodotus's commonly held Greek belief that pride goes before the inevitable fall.  This hubris is often seen in Herodotus's histories as the expansion of empires.

Herodotus was incredibly popular in his time and following, but along with this popularity came great derision on the part of some critics, mostly due to the inconsistency of his stories with the truth.  But even those fantastical tales, like the one about Pakistan with its fox-sized furry ants that dig gold up from the ground have been found to be true as more and more we still come to understand the world.  (The ants are actually marmots who burrow in gold dust rich sand, as found by French ethnologist, Michel Peissel.)  More important than the truth of Herodotus's stories, however, is what they accomplished.  By telling stories of many different peoples in light of Greek culture, he was able to build a sense of place in and amongst the world for not only a Greek audience but others who could see the human achievements available anywhere with human failings being as easily found as well.  As John Marincola remarks in his introduction to The Histories in connection to the terrible criticism of this Father of History:

If, however, we eliminate these preconceptions and expectations, we may be better able to see Herodotus as a complex writer, who viewed the past not exclusively through the narrow prism of wars and politics, but in the variety and richness of what human beings had sought to achieve […]  For he did nothing less than attempt to fashion for his contemporaries (and in a different way, for those who still read him) a portrait of themselves and of others, and of the vast world, both physical and metaphysical, within which their actions take place.”

Week 8

The Battle of Thermopylae

[HERODOTUS, THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS, GEORGE RAWLINSON, TR. VOL. 4 (NEW YORK: D. APPLEMAN AND COMPANY), BK. 7]

201. King Xerxes pitched his camp in the region of Malis called Trachinia, while on their side the Greeks occupied the straits. These straits the Greeks in general call Thermopylae (the Hot Gates); but the natives, and those who dwell in the neighbourhood, call them Pylae (the Gate). Here then the two armies took their stand; the one master of all the region lying north of Trachis, the other of the country extending southward of that place to the verge of the continent.
202. The Greeks who at this spot awaited the coming of Xerxes were the following: - From Sparta, three hundred men-at-arms: from Arcadia, a thousand Tegeans and Mantineans, five hundred of each people; a hundred and twenty Orchomenians, from the Arcadian Orchomenus; and a thousand from other cities: from Corinth, four hundred men: from Phlius, two hundred: and from Mycenae eighty. Such was the number from the Peloponnese. There were also present, from Boeotia, seven hundred Thespians and four hundred Thebans.
203. Besides these troops, the Locrians of Opus and the Phocians had obeyed the call of their countrymen, and sent, the former all the force they had, the latter a thousand men. For envoys had gone from the Greeks at Thermopylae among the Locrians and Phocians, to call on them for assistance, and to say - "They were themselves but the vanguard of the host, sent to precede the main body, which might every day be expected to follow them. The sea was in good keeping, watched by the Athenians, the Eginetans, and the rest of the fleet. There was no cause why they should fear; for after all the invader was not a god but a man; and there never had been, and never would be, a man who was not liable to misfortunes from the very day of his birth, and those misfortunes greater in proportion to his own greatness. The assailant therefore, being only a mortal, must needs fall from his glory." Thus urged, the Locrians and the Phocians had come with their troops to Trachis.
204. The various nations had each captains of their own under whom they served; but the one to whom all especially looked up, and who had the command of the entire force, was the Lacedaemonian, Leonidas. Now Leonidas was the son of Anaxandridas, who was the son of Leo, who was the son of Eurycratidas, who was the son of Anaxander, who was the son of Eurycrates, who was the son of Polydorus, who was the son of Alcamenes, who was the son of Telecles, who was the son of Archelaus, who was the son of Agesilaus, who was the son of Doryssus, who was the son of Labotas, who was the son of Echestratus, who was the son of Agis, who was the son of Eurythenes, who was the son of Aristodemus, who was the son of Aristomachus, who was the son of Cleodaeus, who was the son of Hyllus, who was the son of Hercules. Leonidas had come to be king of Sparta quite unexpectedly.
205. Having two elder brothers, Cleomenes and Dorieus, he had no thought of ever mounting the throne. However, when Cleomenes died without male offspring, as Dorieus was likewise deceased, having perished in Sicily, the crown fell to Leonidas, who was older than Cleombrotus, the youngest of the sons of Anaxandridas, and, moreover, was married to the daughter of Cleomenes. He had now come to Thermopylae, accompanied by the three hundred men which the law assigned him, whom he had himself chosen from among the citizens, and who were all of them fathers with sons living. On his way he had taken the troops from Thebes, whose number I have already mentioned, and who were under the command of Leontiades the son of Eurymachus. The reason why he a made a point of taking troops from Thebes, and Thebes only, was, that the Thebans were strongly suspected of being well inclined to the Medes. Leonidas therefore called on them to come with him to the war, wishing to see whether they would comply with his demand, or openly refuse, and disclaim the Greek alliance. They, however, though their wishes leant the other way, nevertheless sent the men.
206. The force with Leonidas was sent forward by the Spartans in advance of their main body, that the sight of them might encourage the allies to fight, and hinder them from going over to the Medes, as it was likely they might have done had they seen that Sparta was backward. They intended presently, when they had celebrated the Carneian festival, which was what now kept them at home, to leave a garrison in Sparta, and hasten in full force to join the army. The rest of the allies also intended to act similarly; for it happened that the Olympic festival fell exactly at this same period. None of them looked to see the contest at Thermopylae decided so speedily; wherefore they were content to send forward a mere advanced guard. Such accordingly were the intentions of the allies.
207. The Greek forces at Thermopylae, when the Persian army drew near to the entrance of the pass, were seized with fear; and a council was held to consider about a retreat. It was the wish of the Peloponnesians generally that the army should fall back upon the Peloponnese, and there guard the Isthmus. But Leonidas, who saw with what indignation the Phocians and Locrians heard of this plan, gave his voice for remaining where they were, while they sent envoys to the several cities to ask for help, since they were too few to make a stand against an army like that of the Medes.
208. While this debate was going on, Xerxes sent a mounted spy to observe the Greeks, and note how many they were, and see what they were doing. He had heard, before he came out of Thessaly, that a few men were assembled at this place, and that at their head were certain Lacedaemonians, under Leonidas, a descendant of Hercules. The horseman rode up to the camp, and looked about him, but did not see the whole army; for such as were on the further side of the wall (which had been rebuilt and was now carefully guarded) it was not possible for him to behold; but he observed those on the outside, who were encamped in front of the rampart. It chanced that at this time the Lacedaemonians held the outer guard, and were seen by the spy, some of them engaged in gymnastic exercises, others combing their long hair. At this the spy greatly marvelled, but he counted their number, and when he had taken accurate note of everything, he rode back quietly; for no one pursued after him, nor paid any heed to his visit. So he returned, and told Xerxes all that he had seen.
209. Upon this, Xerxes, who had no means of surmising the truth - namely, that the Spartans were preparing to do or die manfully - but thought it laughable that they should be engaged in such employments, sent and called to his presence Demaratus the son of Ariston, who still remained with the army. When he appeared, Xerxes told him all that he had heard, and questioned him concerning the news, since he was anxious to understand the meaning of such behaviour on the part of the Spartans. Then Demaratus said -
"I spake to thee, O king! concerning these men long since, when we had but just begun our march upon Greece; thou, however, didst only laugh at my words, when I told thee of all this, which I saw would come to pass. Earnestly do I struggle at all times to speak truth to thee, sire; and now listen to it once more. These men have come to dispute the pass with us; and it is for this that they are now making ready. 'Tis their custom, when they are about to hazard their lives, to adorn their heads with care. Be assured, however, that if thou canst subdue the men who are here and the Lacedaemonians who remain in Sparta, there is no other nation in all the world which will venture to lift a hand in their defence. Thou hast now to deal with the first kingdom and town in Greece, and with the bravest men."
Then Xerxes, to whom what Demaratus said seemed altogether to surpass belief, asked further, "how it was possible for so small an army to contend with his?"
"O king!" Demaratus answered, "let me be treated as a liar, if matters fall not out as I say."
210. But Xerxes was not persuaded any the more. Four whole days he suffered to go by, expecting that the Greeks would run away. When, however, he found on the fifth that they were not gone, thinking that their firm stand was mere impudence and recklessness, he grew wroth, and sent against them the Medes and Cissians, with orders to take them alive and bring them into his presence. Then the Medes rushed forward and charged the Greeks, but fell in vast numbers: others however took the places of the slain, and would not be beaten off, though they suffered terrible losses. In this way it became clear to all, and especially to the king, that though he had plenty of combatants, he had but very few warriors. The struggle, however, continued during the whole day.

Part IX
211. Then the Medes, having met so rough a reception, withdrew from the fight; and their place was taken by the band of Persians under Hydarnes, whom the king called his "Immortals: " they, it was thought, would soon finish the business. But when they joined battle with the Greeks, 'twas with no better success than the Median detachment - things went much as before - the two armies fighting in a narrow space, and the barbarians using shorter spears than the Greeks, and having no advantage from their numbers. The Lacedaemonians fought in a way worthy of note, and showed themselves far more skilful in fight than their adversaries, often turning their backs, and making as though they were all flying away, on which the barbarians would rush after them with much noise and shouting, when the Spartans at their approach would wheel round and face their pursuers, in this way destroying vast numbers of the enemy. Some Spartans likewise fell in these encounters, but only a very few. At last the Persians, finding that all their efforts to gain the pass availed nothing, and that, whether they attacked by divisions or in any other way, it was to no purpose, withdrew to their own quarters.
212. During these assaults, it is said that Xerxes, who was watching the battle, thrice leaped from the throne on which he sat, in terror for his army. Next day the combat was renewed, but with no better success on the part of the barbarians. The Greeks were so few that the barbarians hoped to find them disabled, by reason of their wounds, from offering any further resistance; and so they once more attacked them. But the Greeks were drawn up in detachments according to their cities, and bore the brunt of the battle in turns, - all except the Phocians, who had been stationed on the mountain to guard the pathway. So, when the Persians found no difference between that day and the preceding, they again retired to their quarters.
213. Now, as the king was in a great strait, and knew not how he should deal with the emergency, Ephialtes, the son of Eurydemus, a man of Malis, came to him and was admitted to a conference. Stirred by the hope of receiving a rich reward at the king's hands, he had come to tell him of the pathway which led across the mountain to Thermopylae; by which disclosure he brought destruction on the band of Greeks who had there withstood the barbarians. This Ephialtes afterwards, from fear of the Lacedaemonians, fled into Thessaly; and during his exile, in an assembly of the Amphictyons held at Pylae, a price was set upon his head by the Pylagorae. When some time had gone by, he returned from exile, and went to Anticyra, where he was slain by Athenades, a native of Trachis. Athenades did not slay him for his treachery, but for another reason, which I shall mention in a later part of my history: yet still the Lacedaemonians honoured him none the less. Thus then did Ephialtes perish a long time afterwards.
214. Besides this there is another story told, which I do not at all believe - to wit, that Onetas the son of Phanagoras, a native of Carystus, and Corydallus, a man of Anticyra, were the persons who spoke on this matter to the king, and took the Persians across the mountain. One may guess which story is true, from the fact that the deputies of the Greeks, the Pylagorae, who must have had the best means of ascertaining the truth, did not offer the reward for the heads of Onetas and Corydallus, but for that of Ephialtes of Trachis; and again from the flight of Ephialtes, which we know to have been on this account. Onetas, I allow, although he was not a Malian, might have been acquainted with the path, if he had lived much in that part of the country; but as Ephialtes was the person who actually led the Persians round the mountain by the pathway, I leave his name on record as that of the man who did the deed.
215. Great was the joy of Xerxes on this occasion; and as he approved highly of the enterprise which Ephialtes undertook to accomplish, he forthwith sent upon the errand Hydarnes, and the Persians under him. The troops left the camp about the time of the lighting of the lamps. The pathway along which they went was first discovered by the Malians of these parts, who soon afterwards led the Thessalians by it to attack the Phocians, at the time when the Phocians fortified the pass with a wall, and so put themselves under covert from danger. And ever since, the path has always been put to an ill use by the Malians.
216. The course which it takes is the following: - Beginning at the Asopus, where that stream flows through the cleft in the hills, it runs along the ridge of the mountain (which is called, like the pathway over it, Anopaea), and ends at the city of Alpenus - the first Locrian town as you come from Malis - by the stone called Melampygus and the seats of the Cercopians. Here it is as narrow as at any other point.
217. The Persians took this path, and, crossing the Asopus, continued their march through the whole of the night, having the mountains of Oeta on their right hand, and on their left those of Trachis. At dawn of day they found themselves close to the summit. Now the hill was guarded, as I have already said, by a thousand Phocian men-at-arms, who were placed there to defend the pathway, and at the same time to secure their own country. They had been given the guard of the mountain path, while the other Greeks defended the pass below, because they had volunteered for the service, and had pledged themselves to Leonidas to maintain the post.
218. The ascent of the Persians became known to the Phocians in the following manner: - During all the time that they were making their way up, the Greeks remained unconscious of it, inasmuch as the whole mountain was covered with groves of oak; but it happened that the air was very still, and the leaves which the Persians stirred with their feet made, as it was likely they would, a loud rustling, whereupon the Phocians jumped up and flew to seize their arms. In a moment the barbarians came in sight, and, perceiving men arming themselves, were greatly amazed; for they had fallen in with an enemy when they expected no opposition. Hydarnes, alarmed at the sight, and fearing lest the Phocians might be Lacedaemonians, inquired of Ephialtes to what nation these troops belonged. Ephialtes told him the exact truth, whereupon he arrayed his Persians for battle. The Phocians, galled by the showers of arrows to which they were exposed, and imagining themselves the special object of the Persian attack, fled hastily to the crest of the mountain, and there made ready to meet death; but while their mistake continued, the Persians, with Ephialtes and Hydarnes, not thinking it worth their while to delay on account of Phocians, passed on and descended the mountain with all possible speed.
219. The Greeks at Thermopylae received the first warning of the destruction which the dawn would bring on them from the seer Megistias, who read their fate in the victims as he was sacrificing. After this deserters came in, and brought the news that the Persians were marching round by the hills: it was still night when these men arrived. Last of all, the scouts came running down from the heights, and brought in the same accounts, when the day was just beginning to break. Then the Greeks held a council to consider what they should do, and here opinions were divided: some were strong against quitting their post, while others contended to the contrary. So when the council had broken up, part of the troops departed and went their ways homeward to their several states; part however resolved to remain, and to stand by Leonidas to the last.
220. It is said that Leonidas himself sent away the troops who departed, because he tendered their safety, but thought it unseemly that either he or his Spartans should quit the post which they had been especially sent to guard. For my own part, I incline to think that Leonidas gave the order, because he perceived the allies to be out of heart and unwilling to encounter the danger to which his own mind was made up. He therefore commanded them to retreat, but said that he himself could not draw back with honour; knowing that, if he stayed, glory awaited him, and that Sparta in that case would not lose her prosperity. For when the Spartans, at the very beginning of the war, sent to consult the oracle concerning it, the answer which they received from the Pythoness was, "that either Sparta must be overthrown by the barbarians, or one of her kings must perish." The prophecy was delivered in hexameter verse, and ran thus: -

"O ye men who dwell in the streets of broad Lacedaemon!

Either your glorious town shall be sacked by the children of Perseus,

Or, in exchange, must all through the whole Laconian country

Mourn for the loss of a king, descendant of great Heracles.

He cannot be withstood by the courage of bulls nor of lions,

Strive as they may; he is mighty as Jove;

there is nought that shall stay him,

Till he have got for his prey your king, or your glorious city."

The remembrance of this answer, I think, and the wish to secure the whole glory for the Spartans, caused Leonidas to send the allies away. This is more likely than that they quarrelled with him, and took their departure in such unruly fashion.
221. To me it seems no small argument in favour of this view, that the seer also who accompanied the army, Megistias, the Acarnanian, - said to have been of the blood of Melampus, and the same who was led by the appearance of the victims to warn the Greeks of the danger which threatened them, - received orders to retire (as it is certain he did) from Leonidas, that he might escape the coming destruction. Megistias, however, though bidden to depart, refused, and stayed with the army; but he had an only son present with the expedition, whom he now sent away.
222. So the allies, when Leonidas ordered them to retire, obeyed him and forthwith departed. Only the Thespians and the Thebans remained with the Spartans; and of these the Thebans were kept back by Leonidas as hostages, very much against their will. The Thespians, on the contrary, stayed entirely of their own accord, refusing to retreat, and declaring that they would not forsake Leonidas and his followers. So they abode with the Spartans, and died with them. Their leader was Demophilus, the son of Diadromes.
223. At sunrise Xerxes made libations, after which he waited until the time when the forum is wont to fill, and then began his advance. Ephialtes had instructed him thus, as the descent of the mountain is much quicker, and the distance much shorter, than the way round the hills, and the ascent. So the barbarians under Xerxes began to draw nigh; and the Greeks under Leonidas, as they now went forth determined to die, advanced much further than on previous days, until they reached the more open portion of the pass. Hitherto they had held their station within the wall, and from this had gone forth to fight at the point where the pass was the narrowest. Now they joined battle beyond the defile, and carried slaughter among the barbarians, who fell in heaps. Behind them the captains of the squadrons, armed with whips, urged their men forward with continual blows. Many were thrust into the sea, and there perished; a still greater number were trampled to death by their own soldiers; no one heeded the dying. For the Greeks, reckless of their own safety and desperate, since they knew that, as the mountain had been crossed, their destruction was nigh at hand, exerted themselves with the most furious valour against the barbarians.
224. By this time the spears of the greater number were all shivered, and with their swords they hewed down the ranks of the Persians; and here, as they strove, Leonidas fell fighting bravely, together with many other famous Spartans, whose names I have taken care to learn on account of their great worthiness, as indeed I have those of all the three hundred. There fell too at the same time very many famous Persians: among them, two sons of Darius, Abrocomes and Hyperanthes, his children by Phratagune, the daughter of Artanes. Artanes was brother of King Darius, being a son of Hystaspes, the son of Arsames; and when he gave his daughter to the king, he made him heir likewise of all his substance; for she was his only child.
225. Thus two brothers of Xerxes here fought and fell. And now there arose a fierce struggle between the Persians and the Lacedaemonians over the body of Leonidas, in which the Greeks four times drove back the enemy, and at last by their great bravery succeeded in bearing off the body. This combat was scarcely ended when the Persians with Ephialtes approached; and the Greeks, informed that they drew nigh, made a change in the manner of their fighting. Drawing back into the narrowest part of the pass, and retreating even behind the cross wall, they posted themselves upon a hillock, where they stood all drawn up together in one close body, except only the Thebans. The hillock whereof I speak is at the entrance of the straits, where the stone lion stands which was set up in honour of Leonidas. Here they defended themselves to the last, such as still had swords using them, and the others resisting with their hands and teeth; till the barbarians, who in part had pulled down the wall and attacked them in front, in part had gone round and now encircled them upon every side, overwhelmed and buried the remnant which was left beneath showers of missile weapons.
226. Thus nobly did the whole body of Lacedaemonians and Thespians behave; but nevertheless one man is said to have distinguished himself above all the rest, to wit, Dieneces the Spartan. A speech which he made before the Greeks engaged the Medes, remains on record. One of the Trachinians told him, "Such was the number of the barbarians, that when they shot forth their arrows the sun would be darkened by their multitude." Dieneces, not at all frightened at these words, but making light of the Median numbers, answered, "Our Trachinian friend brings us excellent tidings. If the Medes darken the sun, we shall have our fight in the shade." Other sayings too of a like nature are reported to have been left on record by this same person.
227. Next to him two brothers, Lacedaemonians, are reputed to have made themselves conspicuous: they were named Alpheus and Maro, and were the sons of Orsiphantus. There was also a Thespian who gained greater glory than any of his countrymen: he was a man called Dithyrambus, the son of Harmatidas.
228. The slain were buried where they fell; and in their honour, nor less in honour of those who died before Leonidas sent the allies away, an inscription was set up, which said: -

"Here did four thousand men from Pelops'land

Against three hundred myriads bravely stand."

This was in honour of all. Another was for the Spartans alone: -

"Go, stranger, and to Lacedaemon tell

That here, obeying her behests, we fell."

This was for the Lacedaemonians. The seer had the following: -

"The great Megistias' tomb you here may view,

Whom slew the Medes, fresh from Spercheius' fords.

Well the wise seer the coming death foreknew,

Yet scorned he to forsake his Spartan lords."

These inscriptions, and the pillars likewise, were all set up by the Amphictyons, except that in honour of Megistias, which was inscribed to him (on account of their sworn friendship) by Simonides, the son of Leoprepes.
229. Two of the three hundred, it is said, Aristodemus and Eurytus, having been attacked by a disease of the eyes, had received orders from Leonidas to quit the camp; and both lay at Alpeni in the worst stage of the malady. These two men might, had they been so minded, have agreed together to return alive to Sparta; or if they did not like to return, they might have gone both to the field and fallen with their countrymen. But at this time, when either way was open to them, unhappily they could not agree, but took contrary courses. Eurytus no sooner heard that the Persians had come round the mountain than straightway he called for his armour, and having buckled it on, bade his Helot lead him to the place where his friends were fighting. The Helot did so, and then turned and fled; but Eurytus plunged into the thick of the battle, and so perished. Aristodemus, on the other hand, was faint of heart, and remained at Alpeni. It is my belief that if Aristodemus only had been sick and returned, or if both had come back together, the Spartans would have been content and felt no anger; but when there were two men with the very same excuse, and one of them was chary of his life, while the other freely gave it, they could not but be very wroth with the former.
230. This is the account which some give of the escape of Aristodemus. Others say that he, with another, had been sent on a message from the army, and, having it in his power to return in time for the battle, purposely loitered on the road, and so survived his comrades; while his fellow-messenger came back in time, and fell in the battle.
231. When Aristodemus returned to Lacedaemon, reproach and disgrace awaited him; disgrace, inasmuch as no Spartan would give him a light to kindle his fire, or so much as address a word to him; and reproach, since all spoke of him as "the craven." However he wiped away all his shame afterwards at the battle of Plataea.
232. Another of the three hundred is likewise said to have survived the battle, a man named Pantites, whom Leonidas had sent on an embassy into Thessaly. He, they say, on his return to Sparta, found himself in such disesteem that he hanged himself.
233. The Thebans under the command of Leontiades remained with the Greeks, and fought against the barbarians, only so long as necessity compelled them. No sooner did they see victory inclining to the Persians, and the Greeks under Leonidas hurrying with all speed towards the hillock, than they moved away from their companions, and with hands upraised advanced towards the barbarians, exclaiming, as was indeed most true, - "that they for their part wished well to the Medes, and had been among the first to give earth and water to the king; force alone had brought them to Thermopylae; and so they must not be blamed for the slaughter which had befallen the king's army." These words, the truth of which was attested by the Thessalians, sufficed to obtain the Thebans the grant of their lives. However, their good fortune was not without some drawback; for several of them were slain by the barbarians on their first approach; and the rest, who were the greater number, had the royal mark branded upon their bodies by the command of Xerxes, - Leontiades, their captain, being the first to suffer. (This man's son, Eurymachus, was afterwards slain by the Plataeans, when he came with a band of 400 Thebans, and seized their city.)
234. Thus fought the Greeks at Thermopylae.

Week 7

A Greek philosopher of the late 6th century BC, Heraclitus criticizes his predecessors and contemporaries for their failure to see the unity in experience. He claims to announce an everlasting Word (Logos) according to which all things are one, in some sense. Opposites are necessary for life, but they are unified in a system of balanced exchanges. The world itself consists of a law-like interchange of elements, symbolized by fire. Thus the world is not to be identified with any particular substance, but rather with an ongoing process governed by a law of change. The underlying law of nature also manifests itself as a moral law for human beings. 

1. LIFE AND TIMES

Heraclitus lived in Ephesus, an important city on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, not far from Miletus, the birthplace of philosophy. We know nothing about his life other than what can be gleaned from his own statements, for all ancient biographies of him consist of nothing more than inferences or imaginary constructions based on his sayings. Although Plato thought he wrote after Parmenides, it is more likely he wrote before Parmenides. For he criticizes by name important thinkers and writers with whom he disagrees, and he does not mention Parmenides. On the other hand, Parmenides in his poem arguably echoes the words of Heraclitus.  Heraclitus criticizes the mythographers Homer and Hesiod, as well as the philosophers Pythagoras and Xenophanes and the historian Hecataeus. All of these figures flourished in the 6th century BC or earlier, suggesting a date for Heraclitus in the late 6th century. Although he does not speak in detail of his political views in the extant fragments, Heraclitus seems to reflect an aristocratic disdain for the masses and favor the rule of a few wise men, for instance when he recommends that his fellow-citizens hang themselves because they have banished their most prominent leader 

2. THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

Heraclitus sees the great majority of human beings as lacking understanding:

Of this Word's being forever do men prove to be uncomprehending, both before they hear and once they have heard it. For although all things happen according to this Word they are like the unexperienced experiencing words and deeds such as I explain when I distinguish each thing according to its nature and declare how it is. Other men are unaware of what they do when they are awake just as they are forgetful of what they do when they are asleep. 

Most people sleep-walk through life, not understanding what is going on about them. Yet experience of words and deeds can enlighten those who are receptive to their meaning. (The opening sentence is ambiguous: does the 'forever' go with the preceding or the following words? Heraclitus prefigures the semantic complexity of his message.)

On the one hand, Heraclitus commends sense experience: "The things of which there is sight, hearing, experience, I prefer". On the other hand, "Poor witnesses for men are their eyes and ears if they have barbarian souls". A barbarian is one who does not speak the Greek language. Thus while sense experience seems necessary for understanding, if we do not know the right language, we cannot interpret the information the senses provide. Heraclitus does not give a detailed and systematic account of the respective roles of experience and reason in knowledge. But we can learn something from his manner of expression.

Describing the practice of religious prophets, Heraclitus says, "The Lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither reveals nor conceals, but gives a sign". Similarly, Heraclitus does not reveal or conceal, but produces complex expressions that have encoded in them multiple messages for those who can interpret them. He uses puns, paradoxes, antitheses, parallels, and various rhetorical and literary devices to construct expressions that have meanings beyond the obvious. This practice, together with his emphasis on the Word (Logos) as an ordering principle of the world, suggests that he sees his own expressions as imitations of the world with its structural and semantic complexity. To read Heraclitus the reader must solve verbal puzzles, and to learn to solve these puzzles is to learn to read the signs of the world. Heraclitus stresses the inductive rather than the deductive method of grasping the world, a world that is rationally structured, if we can but discern its shape.

For those who can discern it, the Word has an overriding message to impart: "Listening not to me but to the Word it is wise to agree that all things are one". It is perhaps Heraclitus's chief project to explain in what sense all things are one.

3. THE DOCTRINE OF FLUX AND THE UNITY OF OPPOSITES

According to both Plato and Aristotle, Heraclitus held that: 

(1) everything is constantly changing and 

(2) opposite things are identical

Plato indicates the source of the flux doctrine: 

"Heraclitus, I believe, says that all things go and nothing stays, and comparing existence to the flow of a river, he says you cannot step twice into the same river" .

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·      Blog, please write a 75-250 word post discussing Heraclitus’s famous quote: "No man ever steps in the same river twice." Your post should speculate on what you believe Heraclitus meant, the implications of this idea, and your opinion of the concept. Be prepared to share your thoughts in class. 

Genesis Patterns

Please post your Genesis pattern thoughts here.

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