The Occidental Oecumene A Brief History of Civilization West of the Indus

Babylon

Hammurabi (1792 – 1750) In December of 1901 through January of 1902, archaeologists at excavated the three pieces of an eight-foot high black marble monolith on which was inscribed the laws of as decreed by Hammurabi, king of Babylon from 1792 – 1750 BC. It is telling and important that the monolith was located at Susa, the capital of Elam. We can surmise that the code was produced in several copies and distributed throughout Hammurabi’s domains and we can be certain that is was a public document, intended to be read by anyone. The first element of the Rule of Law, so fundamental to Occidental jurisprudence, is that the law must be public, must be accessible to all, so that any person who had dealings with the law can know the letter of the law prior to appearing before a judge. R. H. Pfeiffer 19201 has suggested a tripartite division of the code along the same thematic lines as the Roman jus civile, admitting himself that the similarities are coincidental. The three parts are sections 1 – 5 procedural law, sections 6 – 126 property law and sections 127 – 282 the law of persons. I have divided the laws into more specific categories, but all of these divisions are arbitrary and no such divisions are indicated on the original.

1 An Analysis of the Hammurabi Code. The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 36.4: 310 – 315 2

What follows is the L. W. king translation (1915).

The Law Code of Hammurabi Proem: When Anu1 the Sublime, King of the Anunaki,2 and ,3 the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed the fate of the land, assigned to , the over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind. Hammurabi, the prince, called of Bel am I, making riches and increase, enriching Nippur and Dur-ilu beyond compare, sublime patron of E-kur; who re-established Eridu and purified the worship of E-apsu; who conquered the four quarters of the world, made great the name of Babylon, rejoiced the heart of Marduk, his lord who daily pays his devotions in Saggil; the royal scion whom made; who enriched Ur; the humble, the reverent, who brings wealth to Gish-shir-gal; the white king, heard of Shamash, the mighty, who again laid the foundations of Sippara; who clothed the gravestones of Malkat with green; who made E- babbar great, which is like the heavens, the warrior who guarded Larsa and renewed E- babbar, with Shamash as his helper; the lord who granted new life to Uruk, who brought plenteous water to its inhabitants, raised the head of E-anna, and perfected the beauty of Anu and Nana; shield of the land, who reunited the scattered inhabitants of Isin; who richly endowed E-gal-mach; the protecting king of the , brother of the god Zamama; who firmly founded the farms of Kish, crowned E-me-te-ursag with glory, redoubled the great holy treasures of Nana, managed the temple of Harsag-kalama; the grave of the enemy, whose help brought about the victory; who increased the power of Cuthah; made all glorious in E- shidlam, the black steer, who gored the enemy; beloved of the god Nebo, who rejoiced the inhabitants of , the Sublime; who is indefatigable for E-zida; the divine king of the city; the White, Wise; who broadened the fields of Dilbat, who heaped up the harvests for Urash; the Mighty, the lord to whom come scepter and crown, with which he clothes himself; the Elect of Ma-ma; who fixed the temple bounds of Kesh, who made rich the holy feasts of Nin-tu; the provident, solicitous, who provided food and drink for Lagash and Girsu, who provided large sacrificial offerings for the temple of Ningirsu; who captured the enemy, the Elect of the oracle who fulfilled the prediction of Hallab, who rejoiced the heart of Anunit; the pure prince, whose prayer is accepted by Adad; who satisfied the heart of Adad, the warrior, in Karkar, who restored the vessels for worship in E-ud-gal-gal; the king who granted life to the city of Adab; the guide of E-mach; the princely king of the city, the

1 The sky god, king of heaven. 2 The Anunaki are the children of Anu. 3 Here the title Bel refers to Anu: He is father and king of the Anunaki and he is Bel, king of heaven.In Akkadian the word bel means simply master or lord. At #16 below, for example, bel bitim is the phrase for “master of the house.” 3

irresistible warrior, who granted life to the inhabitants of Mashkanshabri, and brought abundance to the temple of Shidlam; the White, Potent, who penetrated the secret cave of the bandits, saved the inhabitants of Malka from misfortune, and fixed their home fast in wealth; who established pure sacrificial gifts for Ea and Dam-gal-nun-na, who made his kingdom everlastingly great; the princely king of the city, who subjected the on the Ud-kib-nun-na Canal to the sway of Dagon, his Creator; who spared the inhabitants of Mera and Tutul; the sublime prince, who makes the face of Ninni shine; who presents holy meals to the divinity of Nin-a-zu, who cared for its inhabitants in their need, provided a portion for them in Babylon in peace; the shepherd of the oppressed and of the slaves; whose deeds find favor before Anunit, who provided for Anunit in the temple of Dumash in the suburb of Agade; who recognizes the right, who rules by law; who gave back to the city of Ashur its protecting god; who let the name of Ishtar of remain in E-mish-mish; the Sublime, who humbles himself before the great gods; successor of Sumula-il; the mighty son of Sin- muballit; the royal scion of Eternity; the mighty monarch, the sun of Babylon, whose rays shed light over the land of and ; the king, obeyed by the four quarters of the world; Beloved of Ninni, am I. When Marduk sent me to rule over men, to give the protection of right to the land, I did right and righteousness in . . . , and brought about the well-being of the oppressed. Procedural Law, 1 – 5: 1. If anyone ensnares another, putting a ban upon him, but he cannot prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death.1 2. If anyone brings an accusation against a man, and the accused goes to the river and leaps into the river, if he sinks in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river proves that the accused is not guilty, and he escapes unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.2 3. If anyone brings an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if it be a capital offense charged, be put to death. 4. If he satisfies the elders to impose a fine of grain or money, he shall receive the fine that the action produces. 5. If a judge tries a case, reaches a decision, and presents his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge’s bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgement.3

1 In this case, the word ban means to place someone outside the law – to declare that person a criminal. This is similar to modern laws against unlawful confinement or unlawful arrest. 2 The pratcie pre-dates Hammurabi by at least two centuries. The Sumerian law code of Ur-Nammu also indicated a trial by water: “If a man [accused (?)] another man of witchcraft (?), (and) he (the accused) was brought to the river of judgement by ordeal (and) the river of judgement by ordeal declared him innocent (?), the man who had been brought………. (lines 270-310(?)” (Kramer 1954, 48). The Trial by Ordeal, specifically the Trial by Water, was still in use in Europe into the 19th century. The variation was that a woman accused of witchcraft was thrown into the river; if she floated she was condemned as a witch, if she drowned she was deemed innocent. 3 The accountability of public officials was a standard in ancient law. Athenian law had similar provisions. 4

Concerning Theft, 6 – 25: 6. If anyone steals the property of a temple or of the court, he shall be put to death, and also the one who receives the stolen thing from him shall be put to death. 7. If anyone buys from the son or the slave of another man, without witnesses or a contract, silver or gold, a male or female slave, an ox or a sheep, an ass or anything, or if he takes it in charge, he is considered a thief and shall be put to death. 8. If anyone steals cattle or sheep, or an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it belongs to a god or to the court, the thief shall pay thirty times the value; if they belonged to a freed man of the king he shall pay ten times the value; if the thief has nothing with which to pay he shall be put to death. 9. If anyone loses an article, and finds it in the possession of another: if the person in whose possession the thing is found says “A merchant sold it to me, I paid for it before witnesses,” and if the owner of the thing says, “I will bring witnesses who know it to be my property,” then shall the purchaser bring the merchant who sold it to him, and the witnesses before whom he bought it, and the owner shall bring witnesses who can identify his property. The judge shall examine their testimony - both of the witnesses before whom the price was paid, and of the witnesses who identify the lost article on oath. If the merchant is then proved to be a thief he shall be put to death. The owner of the lost article receives his property, and he who bought it receives the money he paid from the estate of the merchant. 10. If the purchaser does not bring the merchant and the witnesses before whom he bought the article, but its owner brings witnesses who identify it, then the buyer is the thief and shall be put to death, and the owner receives the lost article. 11. If the owner does not bring witnesses to identify the lost article, he is an evil-doer, he is guilty of defamation, and shall be put to death. 12. If the witnesses are not available, then the judge shall set a limit, at the expiration of six months. If his witnesses have not appeared within the six months, he is an evil-doer, and shall bear the fine of the pending case. 14.1 If anyone steal the minor son of another, he shall be put to death. 15. If anyone takes a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates, he shall be put to death. 16. If anyone receives into his house a runaway male or female slave of the court, or of a freedman, and does not bring it out at the public proclamation of the court official2, the master of the house shall be put to death. 17. If anyone finds a runaway male or female slaves in the open and brings them to their master, the master of the slaves shall pay him two shekels of silver. 18. If the slave will not give the name of the master, the finder shall bring him to the palace; a further investigation must follow, and the slave shall be returned to his master. 19. If he holds the slaves in his house, and they are caught there, he shall be put to death. 20. If the slave that he caught runs away from him, then shall he swear to the owners of the slave, and he is free of all blame.

1 There is no 13th law, that number beint unluky and a harbinger of evil. 2 King has “major domus” here and other translations offer various terms, but the original is indefinite. 5

21. If anyone breaks a hole into a house (breaks in to steal), he shall be put to death before that hole and be buried. 22. If anyone is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death. 23. If the robber is not caught, then shall he who was robbed claim under oath the amount of his loss; then shall the community, and . . . on whose ground and and in whose domain it was compensate him for the goods stolen.1 24. If persons are stolen,2 then shall the community and . . . pay one mina of silver to their relatives. 25. If fire breaks out in a house, and someone who comes to put it out casts his eye upon the property of the owner of the house, and takes the property of the master of the house, he shall be thrown into that self-same fire. In Service to the King, 26 – 33: 26. If a chieftain or a man (common soldier), who has been ordered to go upon the king’s highway for war does not go, but hires a mercenary, if he withholds the compensation, then shall this officer or man be put to death, and he who represented him shall take possession of his house.3 27. If a chieftain or man be caught in the misfortune of the king (captured in battle), and if his fields and garden are given to another and that person takes possession, if the original owner returns and reaches his place, his field and garden shall be returned to him, he shall take it over again. 28. If a chieftain or a man is caught in the misfortune of a king, if his son is able to enter into possession, then the field and garden shall be given to him, he shall take over the fee of his father. 29. If his son is still young, and cannot take possession, a third of the field and garden shall be given to his mother, and she shall bring him up. 30. If a chieftain or a man leaves his house, garden and field and hires it out, and someone else takes possession of his house, garden and field and uses it for three years: if the first owner returns and claims his house, garden and field, it shall not be given to him, but he who has taken possession of it and used it shall continue to use it.4 31. If he hires it out for one year and then returns, the house, garden and field shall be given back to him, and he shall take it over again. 32. If a chieftain or a man is captured on the “Way of the King” (in war), and a merchant buys him free, and brings him back to his place; if he has the means in his house to buy his freedom, he shall buy himself free: if he has nothing in his house with which to buy himself free, he shall be bought free by the temple of his community; if there be nothing in the

1 In the absence of anything like insurance companies, the community indemnifies its own members. 2 That is to say, “if a person’s life has been taken…” 3 Every male citizen had the obligation to serve the king in times of war, but it was not uncommon for a man to hire a mercenary to take his place. 4 This is the concept of Squatter’s Rights, or Adverse Possession, and is the origin of the phrase, ‘possession is nine tenths of the law.’ See #44 below. 6

temple with which to buy him free, the court shall buy his freedom. His field, garden and house shall not be given for the purchase of his freedom.1 33. If a . . . or a . . . enters himself as withdrawn from the “Way of the King,” and sends a mercenary as substitute, but withdraws him, then the . . . or . . . shall be put to death.

[There is a large lacuna here]

Concerning Land, 34 – 65: 34. If a . . . or a . . . harms the property of a captain, injures the captain, or takes away from the captain a gift presented to him by the king, then the . . . or . . . shall be put to death. 35. If anyone buys the cattle or sheep which the king has given to chieftains from him, he loses his money. 36. The field, garden and house of a chieftain, of a man, or of one subject to quit-rent, cannot be sold.2 37. If anyone buys the field, garden, and house of a chieftain, man, or one subject to quit- rent, his contract tablet of sale shall be broken (declared invalid) and he loses his money. The field, garden and house return to their owners. 38. A chieftain, man, or one subject to quit-rent cannot assign his tenure of field, house and garden to his wife or daughter, nor can he assign it for a debt. 39. He may, however, assign a field, garden, or house which he has bought, and holds as property, to his wife or daughter or give it for debt. 40. He may sell field, garden, and house to a merchant (royal agents) or to any other public official, the buyer holding field, house and garden for its usufruct.3 41. If anyone fences in the field, garden and house of a chieftain, man, or one subject to quit-rent, and supplies the materials for the fence; if the chieftain, man, or one subject to quit-rent returns to field, garden, and house, the materials which were used to build the fence become his property.4 42. If anyone takes over a field to till it, and obtains no harvest therefrom, it must be proved that he did no work on the field, and he must deliver grain, just as his neighbor raised, to the owner of the field.5

1 A clever innovation: Soldiers who were taken captive in war were usually and quickly sold to the slave traders who followed the army. Wealthy families could then buy their relatives back. Men from poor families would normally be taken to the slave marekets as sold. By this law, these slave traders could return the soldiers to their homes and be compensated – perhaps even with some profit. 2 Quit-rent is a payment in lieu of required services. So, for example, if a farmer has paid the king cash in lieu of military service, that farmer is not permitted to sell his land. 3 Usufruct is the right to use and enjoy the produce of property without actually owning the property. It includes the stipulation that the property cannot be altered or damaged in any way. 4 That is to say that if a tenant pays for the construction of a fence on land he is renting, the fence becomes the property of the owner, not the renter. 5 Farmers often rent out their fields to others in exchange for a share of the harvest (see 46 below). Entering such an arrangement and then refusing to work the land would cost the tenant nothing but would harm the owner. 7

43. If he does not till the field, but lets it lie fallow, he shall give grain like his neighbor’s to the owner of the field, and the field which he let lie fallow he must plow and sow and return to its owner. 44. If anyone takes over a waste-lying field to make it arable, but is lazy, and does not make it arable, he shall plow the fallow field in the fourth year, harrow it and till it, and give it back to its owner, and for each ten gan1 ten gur2 of grain shall be paid.3 45. If a man rents his field for tillage for a fixed rental, and receives the rent of his field, but bad weather comes and destroys the harvest, the injury falls upon the tiller of the soil. 46. If he does not receive a fixed rental for his field, but lets it on half or third shares of the harvest, the grain on the field shall be divided proportionately between the tiller and the owner. 47. If the tiller, because he did not succeed in the first year, has had the soil tilled by others, the owner may raise no objection; the field has been cultivated and he receives the harvest according to agreement. 48. If anyone owes a debt for a loan, and a storm prostrates the grain, or the harvest fails, or the grain does not grow for lack of water; in that year he need not give his creditor any grain, he washes his debt-tablet in water and pays no rent for this year. 49. If anyone takes money from a merchant, and gives the merchant a field tillable for corn4 or sesame and orders him to plant corn or sesame in the field, and to harvest the crop; if the cultivator plants corn or sesame in the field, at the harvest the corn or sesame that is in the field shall belong to the owner of the field and he shall pay corn as rent, for the money he received from the merchant, and the livelihood of the cultivator shall he give to the merchant. 50. If he gives a cultivated corn-field or a cultivated sesame-field, the corn or sesame in the field shall belong to the owner of the field, and he shall return the money to the merchant as rent. 51. If he has no money to repay, then he shall pay in corn or sesame in place of the money as rent for what he received from the merchant, according to the royal tariff. 52. If the cultivator does not plant corn or sesame in the field, the debtor’s contract is not weakened. 53. If anyone is too lazy to keep his dam in proper condition, and does not so keep it; if then the dam breaks and all the fields are flooded, then shall he in whose dam the break occurred be sold for money, and the money shall replace the corn which he has caused to be ruined.5 54. If he is not able to replace the corn, then he and his possessions shall be divided among the farmers whose corn he has flooded.

1 A measure of area. 2 A gur is a measurement of volume equivalent to the amount an ass can carry. 3 See #30 above: possession of the land for three years does not constitute ownership if the land has not been worked. 4 In North America the term corn is used for the cereal crop maize. But properly speaking, corn simply refers to the dominant cereal crop of any . Here, wheat or flax could be meant. 5 To be sold into slavery for letting a dam break seems a harsh punishment, but the crime is of grave seriousness. the and Euphrates rivers flood in the spring, after the crops have been planted, and the fields had to be protected from the flood-waters. Alowing the flood-waters in could not only destroy that year’s crop, but cause salination of the soil and spoil it for years to come. 8

55. If anyone opens his ditches to water his crop, but is careless, and the water floods the field of his neighbor, then he shall pay his neighbor corn for his loss. 56. If a man lets in the water, and the water overflows the plantation of his neighbor, he shall pay ten gur of corn for every ten gan of land. 57. If a shepherd, without the permission of the owner of the field, and without the knowledge of the owner of the sheep, lets the sheep into a field to graze, then the owner of the field shall harvest his crop, and the shepherd, who had pastured his flock there without permission of the owner of the field, shall pay to the owner twenty gur of corn for every ten gan. 58. If after the flocks have left the pasture and been shut up in the common fold at the city gate, any shepherd lets them into a field and they graze there, this shepherd shall take possession of the field which he has allowed to be grazed on, and at the harvest he must pay sixty gur of corn for every ten gan. 59. If any man, without the knowledge of the owner of a garden, fells a tree in a garden he shall pay half a mina in money. 60. If anyone gives over a field to a gardener for him to plant it as a garden, if he works at it, and cares for it for four years, in the fifth year the owner and the gardener shall divide it, the owner taking his part in charge. 61. If the gardener has not completed the planting of the field, leaving one part unused, this shall be assigned to him as his. 62. If he does not plant the field that was given over to him as a garden, if it be arable land (for corn or sesame) the gardener shall pay the owner the produce of the field for the years that he let it lie fallow, according to the product of neighboring fields, put the field in arable condition and return it to its owner. 63. If he transforms waste land into arable fields and returns it to its owner, the latter shall pay him for one year ten gur for ten gan. 64. If anyone hands over his garden to a gardener to work, the gardener shall pay to its owner two-thirds of the produce of the garden, for so long as he has it in possession, and the other third shall he keep. 65. If the gardener does not work in the garden and the product falls off, the gardener shall pay in proportion to other neighboring gardens.

There is a large lacuna here, sections 66 – 99 are missing. Concerning Merchants and Agents, 100 – 126: 100. . . . interest for the money, as much as he has received, he shall give a note therefor, and on the day, when they settle, pay to the merchant. 101. If there are no mercantile arrangements in the place where he went, he shall leave the entire amount of money which he received with the broker to give to the merchant. 102. If a merchant entrusts money to an agent (broker) for some investment, and the broker suffers a loss in the place to which he goes, he shall make good the capital to the merchant. 103. If, while on the journey, an enemy takes away from him anything that he had, the broker shall swear by God and be free of obligation. 9

104. If a merchant gives an agent corn, wool, oil, or any other goods to transport, the agent shall give a receipt for the amount, and compensate the merchant. Then he shall obtain a receipt form the merchant for the money that he gives the merchant. 105. If the agent is careless, and does not take a receipt for the money which he gave the merchant, he cannot consider the undocumented money as his own. 106. If the agent accepts money from the merchant, but has a quarrel with the merchant (denying the receipt), then shall the merchant swear before God and witnesses that he has given this money to the agent, and the agent shall pay him three times the sum. 107. If the merchant cheats the agent, in that as the latter has returned to him all that had been given him, but the merchant denies the receipt of what had been returned to him, then shall this agent convict the merchant before God and the judges, and if he still denies receiving what the agent had given him shall pay six times the sum to the agent. 108. If a tavern-keeper (feminine) does not accept corn according to gross weight in payment for drink, but takes money, and the price of the drink is less than that of the corn, she shall be convicted and thrown into the water.1 109. If conspirators meet in the house of a tavern-keeper, and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the tavern-keeper shall be put to death. 110. If a “sister of a god” opens a tavern, or enters a tavern to drink, then shall this woman be burned to death. 111. If an inn-keeper furnishes sixty ka of usakani-drink2 to . . . she shall receive fifty ka of corn at the harvest. 112. If anyone goes on a journey and entrusts silver, gold, precious stones, or any movable property to another, and wishes to recover it from him; if the latter does not bring all of the property to the appointed place, but appropriates it to his own use, then shall this man, who did not bring the property to hand it over, be convicted, and he shall pay fivefold for all that had been entrusted to him. 113. If anyone has consignment of corn or money, and he takes from the granary or box without the knowledge of the owner, then shall he who took corn without the knowledge of the owner out of the granary or money out of the box be legally convicted, and repay the corn he has taken. And he shall lose whatever commission was paid to him, or due him. 114. If a man has no claim on another for corn and money, and tries to demand it by force, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver in every case. 115. If anyone has a claim for corn or money upon another and imprisons him; if the prisoner dies in prison a natural death, the case shall go no further. 116. If the prisoner dies in prison from blows or maltreatment, the master of the prisoner shall convict the merchant before the judge. If he was a free-born man, the son of the merchant shall be put to death; if it was a slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina of gold, and all that the master of the prisoner gave he shall forfeit. 117. If anyone fails to meet a claim for debt, and sells himself, his wife, his son and daughter for money or gives them away to forced labor: they shall work for three years in

1 That is to say that a tavern-keeper is obligated to accept corn in payment. This law seems to indicate that a barter economy was still prevalent. 2 The beverage named here is unkown and even the rendering of the text has been disputed. One is wont to assume wine, but in a region where barley widely grown, beer is more likely. See Puhvel 2011. 10

the house of the man who bought them, or the proprietor, and in the fourth year they shall be set free.1 118. If he gives a male or female slave away for forced labor, and the merchant subleases them, or sells them for money, no objection can be raised. 119. If anyone fails to meet a claim for debt, and he sells a female slave who has borne him children, for money, the money which the merchant has paid shall be repaid to him by the owner of the slave and she shall be freed. 120. If anyone stores corn for safe keeping in another person’s house, and any harm happens to the corn in storage, or if the owner of the house opens the granary and takes some of the corn, or if especially he denies that the corn was stored in his house: then the owner of the corn shall claim his corn before God (on oath), and the owner of the house shall pay its owner for all of the corn that he took. 121. If anyone stores corn in another man’s house he shall pay him storage at the rate of one gur for every five ka of corn per year. 122. If anyone gives another silver, gold, or anything else to keep, he shall show everything to some witness, draw up a contract, and then hand it over for safe keeping. 123. If he turns it over for safe keeping without witness or contract, and if he to whom it was given denies it, then he has no legitimate claim. 124. If anyone delivers silver, gold, or anything else to another for safe keeping, before a witness, but he denies it, he shall be brought before a judge, and all that he has denied he shall pay in full. 125. If anyone places his property with another for safe keeping, and there, either through thieves or robbers, his property and the property of the other man be lost, the owner of the house, through whose neglect the loss took place, shall compensate the owner for all that was given to him in charge. But the owner of the house shall try to follow up and recover his property, and take it away from the thief. 126. If anyone who has not lost his goods states that he has lost, and makes false claims: if he claims his goods and amount of injury before God, even though he has not lost them, he shall be fully compensated for all his loss claimed.2

Concerning Marriage, 127 - 167: 127. If anyone accuse or slanders a priestess or the wife of any one, and cannot prove it, this man shall be taken before the judges and his brow shall be marked. 128. If a man takes a woman to wife, but has no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him. 129. If a man’s wife is caught in flagrante delicto with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into the water, but the husband may pardon his wife and the king his slaves.

1 Debt-bondage was common, and problematic, throughout the ancient world. Solon of Athens is the first lawmaker we know of to prohibit the practice. 2 This might seem odd. Does it not license fraud? Not in a culture were devine retribution is real. The person who swears an oath before God must be believed, and God will decide if the oath was false or not. 11

130. If a man violates the wife (betrothed or child-wife) of another man, who has never known a man, and still lives in her father’s house, and sleeps with her and be caught, this man shall be put to death, but the wife is blameless. 131. If a man brings a charge of adultery against one’s wife, but she has not been caught in the act, she must take an oath and then may return to her house. 132. If the “finger is pointed” at a man’s wife about another man, but she is not caught sleeping with the other man, she shall jump into the river for her husband.1 133. If a man is taken prisoner in war, and there is a sustenance in his house, but his wife leaves house and court, and goes to another house: because this wife did not keep her court, and went to another house, she shall be judicially condemned and thrown into the water. 134. If anyone be captured in war and there is not sustenance in his house, if then his wife goes to another house this woman shall be held blameless. 135. If a man be taken prisoner in war and there be no sustenance in his house and his wife goes to another house and bears children; and if later her husband returns and comes to his home: then this wife shall return to her husband, but the children follow their father.2 136. If anyone leaves his house, runs away, and then his wife goes to another house, if then he returns and wishes to take his wife back: because he fled from his home and ran away, the wife of this runaway shall not return to her husband. 137. If a man wishes to separate from a woman who has borne him children, or from his wife who has borne him children: then he shall give that wife her dowry, and a part of the usufruct of field, garden, and property, so that she can rear her children. When she has brought up her children, a portion of all that is given to the children, equal as that of one son, shall be given to her. She may then marry the man of her heart. 138. If a man wishes to separate from his wife who has borne him no children, he shall give her the amount of her purchase money and the dowry which she brought from her father’s house, and let her go. 139. If there was no purchase price he shall give her one mina of gold as a gift of release. 140. If he be a freed man he shall give her one-third of a mina of gold. 141. If a man’s wife, who lives in his house, wishes to leave it, plunges into debt, tries to ruin her house, neglects her husband, and is judicially convicted: if her husband offers her release, she may go on her way, and he gives her nothing as a gift of release. If her husband does not wish to release her, and if he takes another wife, she shall remain as servant in her husband’s house. 142. If a woman quarrels with her husband, and says: “You are not congenial to me,” the reasons for her prejudice must be presented. If she is guiltless, and there is no fault on her part, but he leaves and neglects her, then no guilt attaches to this woman, she shall take her dowry and go back to her father's house. 143. If she is not innocent, but leaves her husband, and ruins her house, neglecting her husband, this woman shall be cast into the water.

1 See above, Section 2 and the footnote. 2 133 – 135 should be read in consideration of 32, above. 12

144. If a man takes a wife and this woman gives her husband a slave girl,1 and she bears him children, but this man wishes to take another wife, this shall not be permitted to him; he shall not take a second wife. 145. If a man takes a wife, and she bears him no children, and he intends to take another wife: if he takes this second wife, and brings her into the house, this second wife shall not be allowed equality with his wife. 146. If a man takes a wife and she gives this man a slave girl as wife and she bears him children, and then this slave assumes equality with the wife: because she has borne him children her master shall not sell her for money, but he may keep her as a slave, reckoning her among the lave girls. 147. If she has not borne him children, then her mistress may sell her for money. 148. If a man takes a wife, and she be seized by disease, if he then desires to take a second wife he shall not put away his wife, who has been attacked by disease, but he shall keep her in the house which he has built and support her so long as she lives. 149. If this woman does not wish to remain in her husband’s house, then he shall compensate her for the dowry that she brought with her from her father’s house, and she may go. 150. If a man gives his wife a field, garden, and house and a deed therefor, if then after the death of her husband the sons raise no claim, then the mother may bequeath all to one of her sons whom she prefers, and need leave nothing to his brothers. 151. If a woman who lived in a man’s house made an agreement with her husband, that no creditor can arrest her, and has given a document therefor: if that man, before he married that woman, had a debt, the creditor cannot hold the woman for it. But if the woman, before she entered the man’s house, had contracted a debt, her creditor cannot arrest her husband therefor. 152. If after the woman had entered the man’s house, both contracted a debt, both must pay the merchant. 153. If the wife of one man on account of another man has their mates (her husband and the other man’s wife) murdered, both of them shall be impaled. 154. If a man be guilty of incest with his daughter, he shall be driven from the place (exiled). 155. If a man betroths a girl to his son, and his son has intercourse with her, but he (the father) afterward defiles her and is caught in the act, then he shall be bound and cast into the water (drowned). 156. If a man betroths a girl to his son, but his son has not known her, and if then he defiles her, he shall pay her half a gold mina, and compensate her for all that she brought out of her father’s house. She may marry the man of her heart. 157. If anyone is guilty of incest with his mother after his father, both shall be burned. 158. If anyone is caught in flagrante delicto with his father’s chief wife, who has borne children, he shall be driven out of his father’s house.

1 King has “maid servant” but that is mild enough to be misleading. The test refers specifically to a female slave, the noun amtu here as in L15 and L16. 13

159. If anyone who has brought chattels into his father-in-law’s house, and has paid the purchase-money, looks for another wife, and says to his father-in-law: “I do not want your daughter,” the girl’s father may keep all that he had brought. 160. If a man brings chattels into the house of his father-in-law, and pays the purchase price (for his wife): if then the father of the girl say: “I will not give you my daughter,” he shall give him back all that he brought with him. 161. If a man brings chattels into his father-in-law's house and pays the purchase price, if then his friend slanders him, and his father-in-law says to the young husband: “You shall not marry my daughter,” the he shall give back to him undiminished all that he had brought with him; but his wife shall not be married to the friend. 162. If a man marries a woman, and she bears sons to him; if then this woman dies, then shall her father have no claim on her dowry; this belongs to her sons. 163. If a man marries a woman and she bears him no sons; if then this woman dies, if the purchase price which he had paid into the house of his father-in-law is repaid to him, her husband shall have no claim upon the dowry of this woman; it belongs to her father’s house. 164. If his father-in-law does not pay back to him the amount of the purchase price he may subtract the amount of the purchase price from the dowry, and then pay the remainder to her father's house. 165. If a man gives to one of his sons whom he prefers a field, garden and house, and a deed therefor: if later the father dies, and the brothers divide the estate, then they shall first give him the present of his father, and he shall accept it; and the rest of the paternal property shall they divide. 166. If a man takes wives for his son, but takes no wife for his minor son, and if then he dies: if the sons divide the estate, they shall set aside besides his portion the money for the purchase price for the minor brother who had taken no wife as yet, and secure a wife for him. 167. If a man marries a wife and she bears him children: if this wife dies and he then takes another wife and she bears him children: if then the father dies, the sons must not partition the estate according to the mothers, they shall divide the dowries of their mothers only in this way; the paternal estate they shall divide equally with one another.

On Inheritance, 168 – 194: 168. If a man wishes to put his son out of his house, and declares before the judge: “I want to put my son out,” then the judge shall examine into his reasons. If the son is guilty of no great fault, for which he can be rightfully put out, the father shall not put him out. 169. If he is guilty of a grave fault, which should rightfully deprive him of the filial relationship, the father shall forgive him the first time; but if he is guilty of a grave fault a second time the father may deprive his son of all filial relation. 170. If his wife bears sons to a man, or his slave girl has borne sons, and the father while still living says to the children whom his slave girl has borne: “My sons,” and he counts them with the sons of his wife; if then the father dies, then the sons of the wife and of the slave 14

girl shall divide the paternal property in common. The son of the wife is to partition and choose. 171. If, however, the father while still living did not say to the sons of the slave girl: “My sons,” and then the father dies, then the sons of the slave girl shall not share with the sons of the wife, but the freedom of the slave girl and her sons shall be granted. The sons of the wife shall have no right to enslave the sons of the slave girl; the wife shall take her dowry (from her father), and the gift that her husband gave her and deeded to her (separate from dowry, or the purchase-money paid her father), and live in the home of her husband: so long as she lives she shall use it, it shall not be sold for money. Whatever she leaves shall belong to her children. 172. If her husband made her no gift, she shall be compensated for her gift, and she shall receive a portion from the estate of her husband, equal to that of one child. If her sons oppress her, to force her out of the house, the judge shall examine into the matter, and if the sons are at fault the woman shall not leave her husband’s house. If the woman desires to leave the house, she must leave to her sons the gift which her husband gave her, but she may take the dowry of her father’s house. Then she may marry the man of her heart. 173. If this woman bears sons to her second husband, in the place to which she went, and then dies, her earlier and later sons shall divide the dowry between them. 174. If she bears no sons to her second husband, the sons of her first husband shall have the dowry. 175. If a State slave or the slave of a freed man marries the daughter of a free man, and children are born, the master of the slave shall have no right to enslave the children of the free.1 176. If, however, a State slave or the slave of a freed man marries a man's daughter, and after he marries her she brings a dowry from a father’s house, if then they both enjoy it and found a household, and accumulate means, if then the slave dies, then she who was free- born may take her dowry, and all that her husband and she had earned; she shall divide them into two parts, one-half the master for the slave shall take, and the other half shall the free-born woman take for her children. If the free-born woman had no gift she shall take all that her husband and she had earned and divide it into two parts; and the master of the slave shall take one-half and she shall take the other for her children. 177. If a widow, whose children are not grown, wishes to enter another house (remarry), she shall not enter it without the knowledge of the judge. If she enter another house the judge shall examine the state of the house of her first husband. Then the house of her first husband shall be entrusted to the second husband and the woman herself as managers. And a record must be made thereof. She shall keep the house in order, bring up the children, and not sell the house-hold utensils. He who buys the utensils of the children of a widow shall lose his money, and the goods shall return to their owners. 178. If a “devoted woman” or a prostitute to whom her father has given a dowry and a deed therefor, but if in this deed it is not stated that she may bequeath it as she pleases, and has not explicitly stated that she has the right of disposal; if then her father dies, then her

1 Certainly an interesting law! It means that free-born women were permitted to marry slaves, and vice versa. In order for this to happen we must assume that some men who were technically slaves actually enjoyed some status and wealth. 15 brothers shall hold her field and garden, and give her corn, oil, and milk according to her portion, and satisfy her. If her brothers do not give her corn, oil, and milk according to her share, then her field and garden shall support her. She shall have the usufruct of field and garden and all that her father gave her so long as she lives, but she cannot sell or assign it to others. Her position of inheritance belongs to her brothers. 179. If a “sister of a god,” or a prostitute, receives a gift from her father, and a deed in which it has been explicitly stated that she may dispose of it as she pleases, and give her complete disposition thereof: if then her father dies, then she may leave her property to whomsoever she pleases. Her brothers can raise no claim thereto. 180. If a father gives a present to his daughter – either marriageable or a prostitute (unmarriageable) – and then dies, then she is to receive a portion as a child from the paternal estate, and enjoy its usufruct so long as she lives. Her estate belongs to her brothers. 181. If a father devotes a temple-maid or temple-virgin to God and gives her no present: if then the father dies, she shall receive the third of a child’s portion from the inheritance of her father’s house, and enjoy its usufruct so long as she lives. Her estate belongs to her brothers. 182. If a father devotes his daughter as a wife of Mardi of Babylon (as in 181), and gives her no present, nor a deed; if then her father dies, then shall she receive one-third of her portion as a child of her father’s house from her brothers, but Marduk may leave her estate to whomsoever she wishes. 183. If a man gives his daughter by a concubine a dowry, and a husband, and a deed; if then her father dies, she shall receive no portion from the paternal estate. 184. If a man does not give a dowry to his daughter by a concubine, and no husband; if then her father dies, her brother shall give her a dowry according to her father’s wealth and secure a husband for her. 185. If a man adopts a child and to his name as son, and rears him, this grown son cannot be demanded back again. 186. If a man adopts a son, and if after he has taken him he injures his foster father and mother, then this adopted son shall return to his father’s house. 187. The son of a paramour in the palace service, or of a prostitute, cannot be demanded back. 188. If an artisan has undertaken to rear a child and teaches him his craft, he cannot be demanded back. 189. If he has not taught him his craft, this adopted son may return to his father’s house. 190. If a man does not maintain a child that he has adopted as a son and reared with his other children, then his adopted son may return to his father’s house. 191. If a man, who has adopted a son and reared him, founded a household, and had children, wishes to put this adopted son out, then this son shall not simply go his way. His adoptive father shall give him of his wealth one-third of a child’s portion, and then he may go. He shall not give him of the field, garden, and house. 192. If a son of a paramour or a prostitute says to his adoptive father or mother: “You are not my father, or my mother,” his tongue shall be cut off. 16

193. If the son of a paramour or a prostitute desires his father’s house, and deserts his adoptive father and adoptive mother, and goes to his father’s house, then shall his eye be put out. 194. If a man gives his child to a nurse and the child dies in her hands, but the nurse unbeknown to the father and mother nurses another child, then they shall convict her of having nursed another child without the knowledge of the father and mother and her breasts shall be cut off.

Concerning Injury, 195 – 214: 195. If a son strikes his father, his hands shall be hewn off. 196. If a man puts out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. 197. If he breaks another man’s bone, his bone shall be broken. 198. If he puts out the eye of a freed man, or breaks the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina. 199. If he put out the eye of a man’s slave, or break the bone of a man’s slave, he shall pay one-half of its value. 200. If a man knocks out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out. 201. If he knocks out the teeth of a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a gold mina. 202. If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public. 203. If a free-born man strike the body of another free-born man or equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina. 204. If a freed man strike the body of another freed man, he shall pay ten shekels in money. 205. If the slave of a freed man strikes the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off. 206. If during a quarrel one man strikes another and wounds him, then he shall swear, “I did not injure him wittingly” and pay the physicians. 207. If the man dies of his wound, he shall swear similarly, and if he (the deceased) was a free-born man, he shall pay half a mina in money. 208. If he was a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a mina. 209. If a man strikes a free-born woman so that she loses her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss. 210. If the woman dies, his daughter shall be put to death. 211. If a woman of the free class loses her child by a blow, he shall pay five shekels in money. 212. If this woman dies, he shall pay half a mina. 213. If he strikes the slave girl of a man, and she loses her child, he shall pay two shekels in money. 214. If this slave girl dies, he shall pay one-third of a mina.

17

Concerning medical procedures, 215 – 227: 215. If a physician makes a large incision with an operating knife and cures it, or if he opens a tumor (over the eye) with an operating knife, and saves the eye, he shall receive ten shekels in money. 216. If the patient is a freed man, he receives five shekels. 217. If he is the slave of someone, his owner shall give the physician two shekels. 218. If a physician makes a large incision with the operating knife, and kills him, or opens a tumor with the operating knife, and cuts out the eye, his hands shall be cut off. 219. If a physician makes a large incision in the slave of a freed man, and kills him, he shall replace the slave with another slave. 220. If he had opened a tumor with the operating knife, and put out his eye, he shall pay half his value. 221. If a physician heals the broken bone or diseased soft part of a man, the patient shall pay the physician five shekels in money. 222. If he were a freed man he shall pay three shekels. 223. If he were a slave his owner shall pay the physician two shekels. 224. If a veterinary surgeon performs a serious operation on an ass or an ox, and cures it, the owner shall pay the surgeon one-sixth of a shekel as a fee. 225. If he performs a serious operation on an ass or ox, and kills it, he shall pay the owner one-fourth of its value. 226. If a barber, without the knowledge of his master, cuts the sign of a slave on a slave not to be sold, the hands of this barber shall be cut off. 227. If an one deceives a barber, and has him mark a slave not for sale with the sign of a slave, he shall be put to death, and buried in his house. The barber shall swear: “I did not mark him wittingly,” and shall be guiltless.

Concerning houses, 228 – 233: 228. If a builder builds a house for someone and completes it, he shall give him a fee of two shekels in money for each sar of surface. 229 If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death. 230. If it kills the son of the owner, the son of that builder shall be put to death. 231. If it kills a slave of the owner, then he shall pay slave for slave to the owner of the house. 232. If it ruins goods, he shall make compensation for all that has been ruined, and inasmuch as he did not construct properly this house which he built and it fell, he shall re- erect the house from his own means. 233. If a builder builds a house for someone, even though he has not yet completed it; if then the walls seem toppling, the builder must make the walls solid from his own means.

18

Concerning ships, 234 – 240: 234. If a shipbuilder builds a boat of sixty gur for a man, he shall pay him a fee of two shekels in money. 235. If a shipbuilder builds a boat for someone, and does not make it tight, if during that same year that boat is sent away and suffers injury, the shipbuilder shall take the boat apart and put it together tight at his own expense. The tight boat he shall give to the boat owner. 236. If a man rents his boat to a sailor, and the sailor is careless, and the boat is wrecked or goes aground, the sailor shall give the owner of the boat another boat as compensation. 237. If a man hires a sailor and his boat, and provides it with corn, clothing, oil and dates, and other things of the kind needed for fitting it: if the sailor is careless, the boat is wrecked, and its contents ruined, then the sailor shall compensate for the boat which was wrecked and all in it that he ruined. 238. If a sailor wrecks any one’s ship, but saves it, he shall pay the half of its value in money. 239. If a man hires a sailor, he shall pay him six gur of corn per year. 240. If a merchantman runs against a ferryboat, and wrecks it, the master of the ship that was wrecked shall seek justice before God; the master of the merchantman, which wrecked the ferryboat, must compensate the owner for the boat and all that he ruined.

Fixed Penalties, 241 – 282: 241. If anyone impresses an ox for forced labor, he shall pay one-third of a mina in money. 242. If anyone hires oxen for a year, he shall pay four gur of corn for plow-oxen. 243. As rent of herd cattle he shall pay three gur of corn to the owner. 244. If anyone hires an ox or an ass, and a lion kills it in the field, the loss is upon its owner. 245. If anyone hires oxen, and kills them by bad treatment or blows, he shall compensate the owner, oxen for oxen. 246. If a man hires an ox, and he breaks its leg or cuts the ligament of its neck, he shall compensate the owner with ox for ox. 247. If anyone hires an ox, and puts out its eye, he shall pay the owner one-half of its value. 248. If anyone hires an ox, and breaks off a horn, or cuts off its tail, or hurts its muzzle, he shall pay one-fourth of its value in money. 249. If anyone hires an ox, and God strikes it that it dies, the man who hired it shall swear by God and be considered guiltless. 250. If while an ox is passing on the street (market) someone pushes it, and kills it, the owner can set up no claim in the suit (against the hirer). 251. If an ox is a goring ox, and it is shown that he is a gorer, and he does not bind his horns, or fasten the ox up, and the ox gores a free-born man and kills him, the owner shall pay one-half a mina in money. 252. If he kills a man’s slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina. 19

253. If anyone agrees with another to tend his field, gives him seed, entrusts a yoke of oxen to him, and binds him to cultivate the field, if he steals the corn or plants, and takes them for himself, his hands shall be hewn off. 254. If he takes the seed-corn for himself, and does not use the yoke of oxen, he shall compensate him for the amount of the seed-corn. 255. If he sublets the man’s yoke of oxen or steals the seed-corn, planting nothing in the field, he shall be convicted, and for each one hundred gan he shall pay sixty gur of corn. 256. If his community will not pay for him, then he shall be placed in that field with the cattle (at work). 257. If anyone hires a field laborer, he shall pay him eight gur of corn per year. 258. If anyone hires an ox-driver, he shall pay him six gur of corn per year. 259. If anyone steals a water-wheel from the field, he shall pay five shekels in money to its owner. 260. If anyone steals a shadduf (used to draw water from the river or canal) or a plow, he shall pay three shekels in money. 261. If anyone hires a herdsman for cattle or sheep, he shall pay him eight gur of corn per annum. 262. If anyone, a cow or a sheep . . . 263. If he kills the cattle or sheep that were given to him, he shall compensate the owner with cattle for cattle and sheep for sheep. 264. If a herdsman, to whom cattle or sheep have been entrusted for watching over, and who has received his wages as agreed upon, and is satisfied, diminishes the number of the cattle or sheep, or make the increase by birth less, he shall make good the increase or profit which was lost in the terms of settlement. 265. If a herdsman, to whose care cattle or sheep have been entrusted, is guilty of fraud and makes false returns of the natural increase, or sells them for money, then shall he be convicted and pay the owner ten times the loss. 266. If the animal is killed in the stable by God (an accident), or if a lion kills it, the herdsman shall declare his innocence before God, and the owner bears the accident in the stable. 267. If the herdsman overlooks something, and an accident happens in the stable, then the herdsman is at fault for the accident which he has caused in the stable, and he must compensate the owner for the cattle or sheep. 268. If anyone hires an ox for threshing, the amount of the hire is twenty ka of corn. 269. If he hires an ass for threshing, the hire is twenty ka of corn. 270. If he hires a young animal for threshing, the hire is ten ka of corn. 271. If anyone hires oxen, cart and driver, he shall pay one hundred and eighty ka of corn per day. 272. If anyone hires a cart alone, he shall pay forty ka of corn per day. 273. If anyone hires a day laborer, he shall pay him from the New Year until the fifth month (April to August, when days are long and the work hard) six gerahs in money per day; from the sixth month to the end of the year he shall give him five gerahs per day. 20

274. If anyone hires a skilled artisan, he shall pay as wages of the . . . five gerahs, as wages of the potter five gerahs, of a tailor five gerahs, of . . . gerahs, . . . of a rope-maker four gerahs, of . . .. gerahs, of a mason . . . gerahs per day. 275. If anyone hires a ferryboat, he shall pay three gerahs in money per day. 276. If he hires a freight-boat, he shall pay two and one-half gerahs per day. 277. If anyone hire a ship of sixty gur, he shall pay one-sixth of a shekel in money as its hire per day. 278. If anyone buys a male or female slave, and before a month has elapsed the benu- disease is developed, he shall return the slave to the seller, and receive the money which he had paid. 279. If anyone buys a male or female slave, and a third party claims it, the seller is liable for the claim. 280. If while in a foreign country a man buys a male or female slave belonging to another of his own country; if when he returns home the owner of the male or female slave recognizes it: if the male or female slave is a native of the country, he shall give them back without any money. 281. If it is from another country, the buyer shall declare the amount of money paid therefor to the merchant, and keep the male or female slave. 282. If a slave says to his master: “You are not my master,” if they convict him his master shall cut off his ear.

Epilogue: Laws of justice which Hammurabi, the wise king, established. A righteous law, and pious statute did he teach the land. Hammurabi, the protecting king am I. I have not withdrawn myself from the men, whom Bel gave to me, the rule over whom Marduk gave to me, I was not negligent, but I made them a peaceful abiding-place. I expounded all great difficulties, I made the light shine upon them. With the mighty weapons which Zamama and Ishtar entrusted to me, with the keen vision with which Ea endowed me, with the wisdom that Marduk gave me, I have uprooted the enemy above and below (in north and south), subdued the earth, brought prosperity to the land, guaranteed security to the inhabitants in their homes; a disturber was not permitted. The great gods have called me, I am the salvation- bearing shepherd, whose staff is straight, the good shadow that is spread over my city; on my breast I cherish the inhabitants of the land of Sumer and Akkad; in my shelter I have let them repose in peace; in my deep wisdom have I enclosed them. That the strong might not injure the weak, in order to protect the widows and orphans, I have in Babylon the city where Anu and Bel raise high their head, in E-Sagil, the Temple, whose foundations stand firm as heaven and earth, in order to bespeak justice in the land, to settle all disputes, and heal all injuries, set up these my precious words, written upon my memorial stone, before the image of me, as king of righteousness. The king who rules among the kings of the am I. My words are well considered; there is no wisdom like unto mine. By the command of Shamash, the great judge of heaven and earth, let righteousness go forth in the land: by the order of Marduk, my lord, let no destruction befall my monument. In E-Sagil, which I love, let my name be ever repeated; let 21 the oppressed, who has a case at law, come and stand before this my image as king of righteousness; let him read the inscription, and understand my precious words: the inscription will explain his case to him; he will find out what is just, and his heart will be glad, so that he will say: “Hammurabi is a ruler, who is as a father to his subjects, who holds the words of Marduk in reverence, who has achieved conquest for Marduk over the north and south, who rejoices the heart of Marduk, his lord, who has bestowed benefits for ever and ever on his subjects, and has established order in the land.” When he reads the record, let him pray with full heart to Marduk, my lord, and Zarpanit, my lady; and then shall the protecting deities and the gods, who frequent E-Sagil, graciously grant the desires daily presented before Marduk, my lord, and Zarpanit, my lady. In future time, through all coming generations, let the king, who may be in the land, observe the words of righteousness which I have written on my monument; let him not alter the law of the land which I have given, the edicts which I have enacted; my monument let him not mar. If such a ruler have wisdom, and be able to keep his land in order, he shall observe the words which I have written in this inscription; the rule, statute, and law of the land which I have given; the decisions which I have made will this inscription show him; let him rule his subjects accordingly, speak justice to them, give right decisions, root out the miscreants and criminals from this land, and grant prosperity to his subjects. Hammurabi, the king of righteousness, on whom Shamash has conferred right (or law) am I. My words are well considered; my deeds are not equaled; to bring low those that were high; to humble the proud, to expel insolence. If a succeeding ruler considers my words, which I have written in this my inscription, if he do not annul my law, nor corrupt my words, nor change my monument, then may Shamash lengthen that king’s reign, as he has that of me, the king of righteousness, that he may reign in righteousness over his subjects. If this ruler do not esteem my words, which I have written in my inscription, if he despise my curses, and fear not the curse of God, if he destroy the law which I have given, corrupt my words, change my monument, efface my name, write his name there, or on account of the curses commission another so to do, that man, whether king or ruler, patesi, or commoner, no matter what he be, may the great God (Anu), the Father of the gods, who has ordered my rule, withdraw from him the glory of royalty, break his scepter, curse his destiny. May Bel, the lord, who fixes destiny, whose command cannot be altered, who has made my kingdom great, order a rebellion which his hand cannot control; may he let the wind of the overthrow of his habitation blow, may he ordain the years of his rule in groaning, years of scarcity, years of famine, darkness without light, death with seeing eyes be fated to him; may he (Bel) order with his potent mouth the destruction of his city, the dispersion of his subjects, the cutting off of his rule, the removal of his name and memory from the land. May Belit, the great Mother, whose command is potent in E-Kur (the Babylonian ), the Mistress, who harkens graciously to my petitions, in the seat of judgment and decision (where Bel fixes destiny), turn his affairs evil before Bel, and put the devastation of his land, the destruction of his subjects, the pouring out of his life like water into the mouth of King Bel. May Ea, the great ruler, whose fated decrees come to pass, the thinker of the gods, the omniscient, who makes long the days of my life, withdraw understanding and wisdom from him, lead him to forgetfulness, shut up his rivers at their sources, and not allow corn or 22 sustenance for man to grow in his land. May Shamash, the great Judge of heaven and earth, who supports all means of livelihood, Lord of life-courage, shatter his dominion, annul his law, destroy his way, make vain the of his troops, send him in his visions forecasts of the uprooting of the foundations of his throne and of the destruction of his land. May the condemnation of Shamash overtake him forthwith; may he be deprived of water above among the living, and his spirit below in the earth. May Sin (the Moon-god), the Lord of Heaven, the divine father, whose crescent gives light among the gods, take away the crown and regal throne from him; may he put upon him heavy guilt, great decay, that nothing may be lower than he. May he destine him as fated, days, months and years of dominion filled with sighing and tears, increase of the burden of dominion, a life that is like unto death. May Adad, the lord of fruitfulness, ruler of heaven and earth, my helper, withhold from him rain from heaven, and the flood of water from the springs, destroying his land by famine and want; may he rage mightily over his city, and make his land into flood-hills (heaps of ruined cities). May Zamama, the great warrior, the first-born son of E-Kur, who goes at my right hand, shatter his weapons on the field of battle, turn day into night for him, and let his foe triumph over him. May Ishtar, the goddess of fighting and war, who unfetters my weapons, my gracious protecting spirit, who loves my dominion, curse his kingdom in her angry heart; in her great wrath, change his grace into evil, and shatter his weapons on the place of fighting and war. May she create disorder and sedition for him, strike down his warriors, that the earth may drink their blood, and throw down the piles of corpses of his warriors on the field; may she not grant him a life of mercy, deliver him into the hands of his enemies, and imprison him in the land of his enemies. May Nergal, the might among the gods, whose contest is irresistible, who grants me victory, in his great might burn up his subjects like a slender reedstalk, cut off his limbs with his mighty weapons, and shatter him like an earthen image. May Nin-tu, the sublime mistress of the lands, the fruitful mother, deny him a son, vouchsafe him no name, give him no successor among men. May Nin-karak, the daughter of Anu, who adjudges grace to me, cause to come upon his members in E-kur high fever, severe wounds, that cannot be healed, whose nature the physician does not understand, which he cannot treat with dressing, which, like the bite of death, cannot be removed, until they have sapped away his life. May he lament the loss of his life-power, and may the great gods of heaven and earth, the Anunaki, altogether inflict a curse and evil upon the confines of the temple, the walls of this E-barra (the Sun temple of Sippara), upon his dominion, his land, his warriors, his subjects, and his troops. May Bel curse him with the potent curses of his mouth that cannot be altered, and may they come upon him forthwith.

23

Persia

The Cylinder [. . .] his troops [. . .four] quarters of the world [. . .]1 a weakling was established as ruler over his land and [. . .] a similar one he appointed over them, like he made [. . .] to Ur and the rest of the cities, a command dishonoring them [. . .] he planned daily and in enmity, he caused the daily offering to cease; he appointed [. . .] he established within the city. The worship of Marduk, king of the gods [. . .] he showed hostility toward his city daily [. . .] his people; he brought all of them to ruin through servitude without rest.2 On account of their complaints, the lords of the gods became furiously angry and left their land; the gods, who dwelt among them, left their homes, in anger over his bringing into Babylon. Marduk [. . .] to all the dwelling places, which had become ruins, and the people of Sumer and Akkad, who were like corpses [. . . .] he turned and granted mercy. In all lands everywhere he searched; he looked through them and sought a righteous prince after his own heart, whom he took by the hand. He called Cyrus, king of , by name; he appointed him to lordship over the whole world.3 The land of Qutu, all the Umman-manda, he cast down at his feet. The black-headed people, whom he gave his hands to conquer, he took them in justice and righteousness. Marduk, the great lord, looked joyously on the caring for his people, on his pious works and his righteous heart. To his city, Babylon, he caused him to go; he made him take the road to Babylon, going as a friend and companion at his . His numerous troops, in unknown numbers, like the waters of a river, marched armed at his side. Without battle and conflict, he permitted him to enter Babylon. He spared his city, Babylon, a calamity.4 , the king, who did not fear him, he delivered into his hand. All the people of Babylon, Sumer, and Akkad, princes and governors, fell down before him and kissed his feet. They rejoiced in his sovereignty; their faces shone. The lord, who by his power brings the dead to life, who amid destruction and injury had protected them, they joyously blessed him, honoring his name. I am Cyrus, king of the world, the great king, the powerful king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters of the world, son of Cambyses, the great king, king of the city of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, the great king, king of the city of Anshan; great-grandson of , the great king, king of the city of Anshan; eternal seed of royalty whose rule Bel and love, in whose administration they rejoice in their heart. When I made my triumphal entrance into Babylon, I took up my lordly residence in the royal palace with joy and rejoicing; Marduk, the great lord, moved the noble heart of the residents of Babylon to me, while I gave daily attention to his worship. My numerous troops marched peacefully into Babylon. In all Sumer and Akkad I permitted no enemy to enter. The needs of Babylon and of all its cities I gladly attended to.

1 The first line is missing and these lines heavily damaged. 2 The text is referring to Nabunidus (Nabu-naid), King of Babylon 556 – 539 BC. 3 Compare this to the proem of the Law Code of Hammurabi. The similarities are no coincidence. Cyrus is following a narrative formula already well known to his audience. 4 Cyrus marched triumphantly into Babylon on 29 October, 539 BC. He was welcomed as a hero and saviour. 24

The people of Babylon [and . . .], and the shameful yoke was removed from them. Their dwellings, which had fallen, I restored. I cleared out their ruins. Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced in my pious deeds, and graciously blessed me, Cyrus, the king who worships him, and Cambyses, my own son, and all my troops, while we, before him, joyously praised his exalted godhead. All the kings dwelling in palaces, of all the quarters of the earth, from the Upper to the Lower sea1 dwelling [. . .] all the kings of the Westland dwelling in tents brought me their heavy tribute, and in Babylon kissed my feet. From [. . .] to Asshur and Susa, Agade, Eshnunak, Zamban, Meturnu, Deri, with the territory of the land of Qutu, the cities on the other side of the Tigris, whose sites were of ancient foundation - the gods, who resided in them, I brought back to their places, and caused them to dwell in a residence for all time, And the gods of Sumer and Akkad—whom Nabonidus, to the anger of the lord of the gods, had brought into Babylon—by the command of Marduk, the great lord, I caused them to take up their dwelling in residences that gladdened the heart. May all the gods, whom I brought into their cities, pray daily before Bêl and Nabû for long life for me, and may they speak a gracious word for me and say to Marduk, my lord, "May Cyrus, the king who worships you, and Cambyses, his son, their [. . .] I permitted all to dwell in peace [. . .]

Ancient Greece The Indo-European proto-Greeks arrived in the sometime in the middle of the

Bronze Age, probably around 2000 BC. The Bronze Age is so named because it is the period in which bronze tools and weapons were prevalent. Bronze was the first metal to be used by humans and its discovery in the fourth millennium BC allowed people to make tools and weapons of greater variety and quality than ever before. Bronze is made by melting copper and mixing it with molten tin to a ratio of 9 to 1. When this alloy cools it produces a metal, bronze, which is much more durable than either copper or tin. The dates of the Bronze Age vary by region. Copper and then bronze were in use in the Near

East much earlier but bronze did not arrive in Europe, especially Greece, until about 3000 BC.

The Bronze Age ends with the arrival of Iron technology, ca 1100 BC. The challenge for metallurgists of the ancient world was to produce enough heat to melt iron ore so that it could be fashioned into new shapes. Copper melts at 1084 degrees Celsius; Iron melts at 1535 degrees Celsius.

1 In the texts of the Ancient Near East, Upper is East and Lower is West. 25

The area currently known as Greece was inhabited since the Neolithic period and perhaps even earlier, but the culture that would evolve to become Greek begins with the arrival of the Indo-

Europeans sometime between 2000 and 1600 BC. From that point, history is divided into several periods: Mycenaean 1600 – 1100 Dark Age 1100 – 776 Archaic 776 – 479 Classical 479 – 323 Hellenistic 323 – 31 Each of these periods is, of course, arbitrary, and the designations modern. While Periodization is problematic, it is also convenient and a useful mnemonic. The Mycenaean Period is roughly the time in which Greece and the Aegean were dominated by a proto-Greek, Indo-European, named for the first of their settlements to be discovered by archaeologists; Mycenae. This Bronze Age culture seems to have disappeared around 1100 amidst some unknown calamity and the upheaval was dramatic enough that the material record, the archaeological evidence, shows a rapid decline in population and settlements. So little information comes to us from the period 1100 to 776 that it is referred to as the Dark Age. The eighth-century, however, indicates a rapid expansion of settlements and population, as well as the emergence of the Greek City State and ancient Greek culture as we know it. In July of 776 the Olympic Games were celebrated for the first time. Although Greek culture was expanding, it was hardly a geo-political force. This period is still dominated by Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and eventually Persia. But in 599 the Greeks came into conflict with the Persian Empire and series of wars culminated in a massive invasion of Greece by Xerxes, King of Persia, in 480. A coalition of Greek city states was able to defeat the Persians in several battles between 480 and 479. Greek independence having been asserted, and Greek military prowess universally recognized, the Greeks then became a major geo-political factor. In this, the Classical Period (479 – 323), we see the great flowering of Greek culture. While all of these facets saw their origins in the Archaic Period, it is in the fifth century that the arts and sciences reach their full maturity. This is the high-point of Greek literature, theatre, poetry, architecture and philosophy – both natural and moral. And while democracy was invented by the Athenians in 507, it was in this period that democracy spread to many other city sates throughout the Greek world. 26

These city sates were, however, plagued by conflict – not the least over the spread of democracy – and it was not until the rise of Macedon that anything close to unity and stability were gained. In 334 Alexander III, King of Macedon, led a coalition Greek force into the Persian Empire and in a ten-year campaign was able to conquer all of the lands from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus River. Alexander died in 323 and his empire was quickly divided amongst his generals. The death of Alexander is generally regarded as the end of the Greek Classical Period and the beginning of the Hellenistic Period. The Hellenistic Period is no named because Greek, or Hellenic, culture was spread, by Alexander’s generals and their descendants, throughout the region. Greek was the language of government and commerce and Greek cities and were founded across Egypt and the Near East. The most enduring of the Hellenistic kingdoms was Ptolemaic Egypt. It did not fall to the Romans until Cleopatra was defeated at the Battle of Actium in 31, after which all of the Greek world was under Roman dominion.

Sources Our Greek primary sources rarely come to us directly; that is to say that few copies of any work date to the time of publication or even to the ancient world. Most of these texts were originally written on, and hand-copied to, scrolls of papyrus. These scrolls were held in personal collections or in libraries such as the Library of Alexandria, where scholars and scribes studied them and made further copies. Over the centuries, the task of preserving and copying the manuscripts was taken over by Catholic monasteries and Islamic libraries. Also during this period, scholars developed a system by which the ancient works were divided and numbered; sometimes by 'books', usually by sections and always by lines. The beauty of this system, once it was standardized, is that every text, regardless of format, publication or language, uses a consistent numbering system. For example, one of the excerpts I offer below is cited as i. 56-58.1 In every publication of Herodotus’ those same lines can be found in Book I, Chapters 56 to 58; whether it is a Greek manuscript, an English, German or French translation, just published or five-hundred years old. Below is an example from Homer’s Iliad, Book One, showing the English translation on the left and the Greek original on the right.

1 Books are usually indicated by numbers (ie: Book 1, Book 2 etc.) but Roman numerals (i,ii,iii,iv etc.), which is my preference, are also acceptable. 27

[1] Sing to me, goddess, about the wrath [1] μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος of the son of Peleus, Achilles, [2] οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, [2] which brought pain upon so many Achaeans. [3] πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προί̈αψεν [3] Many stout souls did it send, too soon, [4] ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν to meet Hades, [4] while the corpses of the heroes were [5] οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι, Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή, left prey to dogs [6] ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε [5] and vultures, by the will of Zeus, [6] from the moment they were divided in [7] Ἀτρεί̈δης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος conflict; Ἀχιλλεύς. [7] the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles.1

As you can see, a very literal translation which maintains the line numbers results in awkward English. This is most pronounced in poetry and less so in prose, but in all cases translation from one language to another involves some interpretation and even creativity on the part of the translator. For example, the following translation is not in verse, but might convey the meaning of the Greek more effectively into English:

Sing to me, Muse, of the anger of Achilles, son of Peleus. That anger which brought so much suffering to the Achaeans from the very moment when Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles first began to quarrel; that anger which sent so many young and brave souls to Hades while their corpses, by the will of Zeus, lay on the field of battle, prey to vultures and wild dogs.

The Alexander Pope translation (in parts more of an interpretation than a translation) is certainly more poetic:

Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess sing! That wrath which hurl’d to Pluto’s2 glommy reign The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain; Whose limbs unburied on the naked shore, Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore.

1 Editor's translation. 2 Pluto was the Latin name for Hades 28

Since great Achilles and Atrides strove, Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove!1

Myth, Religion and the Origins of the Gods and Humans Perhaps the most enduring legacy of Ancient Greece is the collection of stories about the gods and heroes that were passed down through the Bronze Age, became the mainstay of the Greek and Latin literary traditions, and continue to influence the way we tell stories to this day. Modern literature and drama are wholly indebted to, are actually derived from, the tradition we now call Greek Myth. While these myths are ‘set’ in the Age of Heroes, what we now call the Bronze Age, the earliest records we have date from the later centuries of the Greek Dark Age (1100 – 776) and the Archaic Period (776 – 479). The word ‘myth’ comes to English from ancient Greek but the meaning has changed somewhat over the centuries. The Archaic Greek meaning of muthos, was ‘statement,’ ‘utterance’ or any sort of spoken declaration or story: Simply ‘that which is said.’ The Archaic meaning of logos was ‘story,’ ‘account’ or ‘argument’ implying a computation of things; of ideas or facts. In that sense, a logos could be constructed out of a series of muthoi. By the Classical period of Ancient Greece the two words had taken on very distinct and even oppositional meanings: Muthos was associated with unsubstantiated or fantastic utterances while logos referred to a statement, argument or proposition derived from a computation of verifiable evidence. This is not to say that logos is ‘true’ and muthos ‘false:’ but rather that the former operates in the realm of the empirical while the latter operates in the realm of the metaphysical. Aristotle, the father of scientific method, thought that myth, or poetry as it was more commonly called, was actually a superior method for the communication of ideas because it deals with the general while more pragmatic forms such as history can only deal with the particular.

Aristotle, Poetics 1451a. 35 – b. 5 The work of Herodotus might be put into verse, and it would still be a species of history, with metre no less than without it. The true difference is that one relates what has happened, the other what may happen. Poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and a higher thing than history: for poetry tends to express the universal, history the particular.

1 Jove, or Jupiter, is the Latin name for Zeus. 29

We saw above that Homer begins the Iliad with the line; “Sing to me, goddess…” The Odyssey also begins with “Tell me, Muse, of the man…” This should not be dismissed as mere formula; Homer, and anyone who recites the Iliad, is invoking divine revelation and what follows, the stories he tells, were thought to be sanctioned by the gods. How else could Homer, or anyone, know anything? The idea that only God, or the gods, can have true knowledge, and that man only acquires a sampling of this knowledge from the divine, is both ancient and current: Christians believe that the various authors of the Bible, especially of the books of the New Testament, were merely conduits for the word of God. Muslims also believe that the Prophet Mohamed was given the Quran (Koran) by God through a vision.1 The ancients too believed that true knowledge was the sole possession of the gods but that the gods would occasionally impart glimpses of that universal knowledge to man, through the poets, seers and oracles. All of our extant works of epic poetry that treat of things divine or things very ancient, begin with the invocation of the gods as the source of knowledge. The earliest of these texts are attributed to two authors, Homer and Hesiod.

Herodotus ii.53 …whence the several gods had their birth, or whether they all were from the beginning, and of what form they are, the Greeks did not learn till yesterday, as it were, or the day before: 2 for Hesiod and Homer, I suppose, were four hundred years before my time3 and not more, and these are they who made a Theogony for the Hellenes and gave the titles to the gods and distributed to them honours and arts, and set forth their forms: but the poets who are said to have been before these men were really in my opinion after them. Of these things the first are said by the priestesses of Dodona,4 and the latter things, those namely which have regard to Hesiod and Homer, by myself.

Hesiod In the eighth-century BC Hesiod, a Greek from Boeotia, composed several texts on the nature of the gods and the origins of man and the world around us. These texts, combined with the works

1 Quran 2.4.32: “Glory to thee: of knowledge we have none, save what Thou hast taught us: in truth it is Thou who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom” 2 Not to be taken literally, this was a common phrase in Greek simply meaning ‘recently.’ 3 Herodotus was writing in the 430s BC, which would put Hesiod and Homer ca. 830 BC. Most scholars today agree with a mid-ninth century date for Homer but suggest that Hesiod was likely later. 4 Dodona is a temple and sanctuary of Zeus in N. Western Greece. 30

of Homer, comprise the main canon of the Greek mythical past and the foundations of the Greek identity. Hesiod begins, of course, with an invocation of the Muses:

Hesiod, Theogony 1 - 4; 22 - 29 [1] From the Heliconian1 Muses let us begin to sing, who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon, and dance on soft feet about the deep-blue spring and the altar of the almighty son of Cronus…

[22] And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and this word first the goddesses said to me -- the Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis: [26] “Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things.” So said the ready-voiced daughters of great Zeus.

The phrase “we know how to speak many false things…” may be a reference to the nature of the information that the gods impart. Divine wisdom is always given in riddles and parables; stories which are not literally ‘true’ but are representations of a divine truth. Truth, is a much more complex issue than one might initially suppose. Is it true, for example, that the sun rose this morning? The sun doesn’t ‘rise’ but we still express the untruth of the rising sun every day because it is a convenient expression of the world as we observe it. In the ancient world it was not merely a matter of convenience, it was more the fact that the world around them was strange and often inexplicable. Ancient mythographers were looking for explanations and the simplest was the Intelligent Design theory. If some god or gods created the world we live in, who better than they to tell us how and why they did it? Hesiod goes on to explain the origins of the universe, the gods, and man: Hesiod, Theogony: [36 - 52] Come, let us begin with the Muses who gladden the great spirit of their father Zeus in Olympus with their songs, telling of things that are and that will be and that were in times past with consenting voice. Unwearyingly flows the sweet sound from their lips, and the house of their father Zeus the loud-thunderer is glad at the lily-like voice of the goddesses as it spread abroad, and the peaks of snowy Olympus resound, and the homes of the immortals. And they uttering their immortal voices, celebrate in song first of all the

1 The nine Muses, daughters of Zeus, live on Mt. Helicon, on the north side of the Gulf of Corinth. 31

reverend race1 of the gods from the beginning, those whom Earth (Gaia) and wide Heaven (Ouranos) begot, and the gods sprung of these, givers of good things. Then, next, the goddesses sing of Zeus, the father of gods and men, as they begin and end their strain, how much he is the most excellent among the gods and supreme in power. And again, they chant the race of men and strong giants, and gladden the heart of Zeus within Olympus, -- the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder.2 [116 - 138] Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever- sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros3, fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether and Day, whom she conceived and bore from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bore starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills. She bore also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bore deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronus the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty father.

This first group of siblings, the children of Heaven (Uranus) and Earth (Gaia), are called the Titans. Cronus (time) led his siblings in a rebellion against their father and became the ruler of the gods, but he too was overthrown by his children: Hesiod, Theogony 453 – 506 [453 – 506] But Rhea was subject in love to Cronus and bore splendid children, Hestia, Demeter, and gold-shod Hera and strong Hades, pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth, and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker,4 and wise Zeus, father of gods and men, by whose thunder the wide earth is shaken. These great Cronus swallowed as each came forth from the womb to his mother’s knees with this intent, that no other of the proud sons of Heaven should hold the kingly office amongst the deathless gods. For he learned from Earth and starry Heaven that he was destined to be overcome by his own son, strong though he was, through the contriving of great Zeus. Therefore he kept no blind outlook, but watched and swallowed down his children: and unceasing grief seized Rhea. But when she was about to bear Zeus, the father of gods and men, then she besought her own dear parents, Earth and starry Heaven, to devise some plan with her that the birth of her dear child might be

1 The Greek word genos is here, as often, translated as ‘race.’ It is, of course, the same word we see in other Indo- European languages such as the Latin genus and the French ‘genre’ and English ‘gender.’ It refers to origin and means a ‘type’, ‘kind’, or ‘sort.’ 2 An aegis is a small round shield held by a single handle in the centre. 3 Eros is often translated as ‘love’ but this is unsatisfactory. Eros is the god of passion and desire, especially sexual passion, whence English derives the word ‘erotic.’ It should not be confused with ‘love’ in the sense of ‘devotion’. 4 Poseidon 32 concealed, and that retribution might overtake great, crafty Cronus for his own father and also for the children whom he had swallowed down. And they readily heard and obeyed their dear daughter, and told her all that was destined to happen touching Cronus the king and his stout-hearted son. So they sent her to Lyetus, to the rich land of Crete, when she was ready to bear great Zeus, the youngest of her children. Him did vast Earth receive from Rhea in wide Crete to nourish and to bring up. Thither came Earth carrying him swiftly through the black night to Lyctus first, and took him in her arms and hid him in a remote cave beneath the secret places of the holy earth on thick-wooded Mount Aegeum;1 but to the mightily ruling son of Heaven, the earlier king of the gods, she gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then he took it in his hands and thrust it down into his belly: wretch! He knew not in his heart that in place of the stone his son was left behind, unconquered and untroubled, and that he was soon to overcome him by force and might and drive him from his honours, himself to reign over the deathless gods.

Zeus Defeats Cronus, Theogony 492 – 506 [492–506] After that, the strength and glorious limbs of the prince increased quickly, and as the years rolled on, great Cronus the wily was beguiled by the deep suggestions of Earth, and brought up again his offspring, vanquished by the arts and might of his own son, and he vomited up first the stone which he had swallowed last. And Zeus set it fast in the wide- pathed earth at goodly Pytho under the glens of , to be a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men.2 And he set free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father, sons of Heaven whom his father in his foolishness had bound. And they remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder and the glowing thunderbolt and lightening: for before that, huge Earth had hidden these. In them he trusts and rules over mortals and immortals.

Hesiod goes on to describe the births of the many gods, and the distribution of the jurisdictions by Zeus, who resides on Olympus as father and king of the gods. In Works and Days, Hesiod describes how Zeus created humans, but another tradition claims that Prometheus created mankind and that the Hellenic people, the Greeks, are the descendants of Prometheus: Apollodorus, Library, i. 7.1 i.7 [1] Prometheus moulded men out of water and earth and gave them also fire, which, unknown to Zeus, he had hidden in a stalk of fennel. But when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaestus to nail his body to Mount Caucasus, which is a Scythian mountain. On it Prometheus was nailed and kept bound for many years. Every day an eagle swooped on him and devoured the lobes of his liver, which grew by night. That was the penalty that

1 Two caves on Crete claim to be the Cave of Zeus; on on Mt Dikteon and the other on Mt. Ida. 2 The stone was called the Omphalos Stone, a blend of two myths. The stone itself is that which Cronus swallowed, the omphalos is the centre of the earth, Delphi, determened when Zeus sent two eagles, one from the east and one from the west, and Delphi was the point where they met (Strabo ix.3.6). 33

Prometheus paid for the theft of fire until Heracles afterwards released him, as we shall show in dealing with Hercules. [2] And Prometheus had a son Deucalion. He reigning in the about Phthia, married , the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, the first woman fashioned by the gods. And when Zeus would destroy the men of the Bronze Age, Deucalion by the advice of Prometheus constructed a chest, and having stored it with provisions he embarked in it with Pyrrha. But Zeus by pouring heavy rain from heaven flooded the greater part of Greece, so that all men were destroyed, except a few who fled to the high mountains in the neighborhood. It was then that the mountains in Thessaly parted, and that all the world outside the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overwhelmed. But Deucalion, floating in the chest over the sea for nine days and as many nights, drifted to Parnassus, and there, when the rain ceased, he landed and sacrificed to Zeus, the god of Escape. And Zeus sent Hermes to him and allowed him to choose what he would, and he chose to get men. And at the bidding of Zeus he took up stones and threw them over his head, and the stones which Deucalion threw became men, and the stones which Pyrrha threw became women. Hence people were called metaphorically people (laos) from laas, “a stone.” And Deucalion had children by Pyrrha, first Hellen, whose father some say was Zeus, and second Amphictyon, who reigned over Attica after Cranaus; and third a daughter Protogenia, who became the mother of Aethlius by Zeus. [3] Hellen had Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus by a nymph Orseis. Those who were called Greeks he named Hellenes after himself, and divided the country among his sons.

The Myth Cycles Greek mythology, following the creation of the gods and humans, traces the genealogy of the royal families of the Greek Bronze Age from their divine origins to their eventual demise. Some of these families were extinguished in the wars over the succession of , even more died in the Trojan War, and the rest were eliminated by a wave of invasions sometimes referred to as the Return of the Heraclidae and sometimes as the Dorian Invasion. It is impossible to establish any coherent genealogy or chronology because the myth cycles are a jumble of sometimes contradictory and often irreconcilable stories, but there are select data that seem to indicate a time frame. Apollodorus of Athens, for example, is quoted as saying that it was

408 years from the fall of to the first Olympiad. The first Olympiad is dated to 776 BC, giving

1184 BC as a date for the Trojan War (Diod. 7.8.1= Eusebius Chronicle). The genealogies seem to represent descent groups dating back roughly 400 years – a time frame of 1600 to 1200 BC. This coincides with the archaeological record of the culture known as Mycenaean, a proto-Greek culture which has been identified with settlements such as Mycenae, Sparta, Pylos and other place names mentioned in the texts of Homer and the other myth writers. 34

Homer Homer gives us two of the most celebrated texts in the history of western literature: the Iliad and the Odyssey. The latter is the story of Odysseus and his ten-year voyage home from the Trojan War. The former is often described as an account of the Trojan War, but the war is merely the setting, the story is about Achilles and his anger: Iliad i.1 – 52 Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.1 Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Zeus fulfilled from the day on which Atreides2, leader of men, and godlike Achilles,3 first fell out with one another.4 [8] And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was the son of Zeus and Leto;5 for he was angry with the king and sent a pestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of Atreus had dishonoured Chryses his priest.6 Now Chryses had come to the ships of the Achaeans to free his daughter, and had brought with him a great ransom:7 moreover he bore in his hand the sceptre of Apollo wreathed with a suppliant’s wreath and he besought the Achaeans, but most of all the two sons of Atreus, who were their chiefs.8 [17] “Atreidai,” he cried, “and all other Achaeans, may the gods who dwell in Olympus grant you to sack the city of Priam,9 and to reach your homes in safety; but free my daughter, and accept a ransom for her, in reverence to Apollo, son of Zeus.” [22] On this the rest of the Achaeans with one voice were for respecting the priest and taking the ransom that he offered; but not so Agamemnon, who spoke fiercely to him and sent him roughly away. “Old man,” said he, “let me not find you tarrying about our ships, nor yet coming hereafter. Your sceptre of the god and your wreath shall profit you nothing. I will not free her. She shall grow old in my house at Argos far from her own home, busying herself with her loom and visiting my couch; so go, and do not provoke me or it shall be the worse for you.” [33] The old man feared him and obeyed. Not a word he spoke, but went by the shore of the sounding sea and prayed apart to Apollo whom lovely Leto had borne. “Hear me,” he

1 An invocation of divine inspiration is a standard opening in epic poetry. 2 The -ides suffix in Greek means 'son of' or 'descendant of.' So Atreides is Agamemnon, the son of Atreus. 3 Heroes and gods are often given these epithets. 'Godlike' precedes Achilles and Odysseus but too much should not be made of it as a descriptor. The choice was mostly poetic since dios Achilleus and dios Odysseus have similar meters (Seymour 1891). 4 The events of the Iliad begin in the ninth year of the war (ii.295; Apollodorus Epit. 3.34). The Greek forces have conquered the outlying islands and most of the mainland allies of Troy and are now camped on the beach before the walls of the city. 5 Apollo. 6 In the action prior to the Iliad, the Greek forces had taken Thebe, in Cilicia. Chryses was a priest in the temple of Apollo there and his daughter, Chryseis, was taken as a prize of war. 7 It was typical for captives to be kept or sold as slaves. But aristocratic and wealthy captives were worth more in ransom so it was a standard practice for a ransom to be offered and good manners to accept it. 8 Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and Menelaus, king of Sparta, were both the sons of Atreus. 9 Priam was the king of Troy. 35

cried, “O god of the silver bow, who protects and holy Cilla1 and rules with your might, hear me, you of Smintheus.2 If I have ever decked your temple with garlands, or burned your thigh-bones in fat of bulls or goats, grant my prayer, and let your arrows avenge these my tears upon the Danaans.”3 [43] Thus did he pray, and Apollo heard his prayer. He came down furious from the summits of Olympus, with his bow and his quiver upon his shoulder, and the arrows rattled on his back with the rage that trembled within him. He sat himself down away from the ships with a face as dark as night, and his silver bow rang death as he shot his arrow in the midst of them. First he smote their mules and their hounds, but presently he aimed his shafts at the people themselves, and all day long the pyres of the dead were burning.

Calchas, the priest, is then consulted as to the cause of and solution to the plague:

Iliad i.93 - 100 [92] “The god,” he said, “is angry neither about vow nor hecatomb, but for his priest’s sake, whom Agamemnon has dishonoured, in that he would not free his daughter nor take a ransom for her; therefore has he sent these evils upon us, and will yet send others. He will not deliver the Danaans from this pestilence till Agamemnon has restored the girl without fee or ransom to her father, and has sent a holy hecatomb to Chryse. Thus we may perhaps appease him.”

Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis, but in compensation he takes Briseis, a woman Achilles had taken as his prize. Achilles is furious and recuses himself and his men from the war. Without Achilles, the Greeks fare poorly against the Trojans. Eventually, Patroclus, the cousin of Achilles, joins the battle and is killed by Hector, the crown prince of Troy, and Achilles, his rage now amplified, re-joins the battle for the single purpose of gaining vengeance on Hector. Achilles finally kills Hector, but his anger is not sated. He defiles the body and drags it behind his chariot to his tent and leaves the body there on the ground. Priam, the aged king of Troy and father of Hector, aided by the gods, sneaks into the Greek camp to beg the return of his son’s body: Iliad xxiv. 470 – 595

1 Both cities of , the area on the mainland next to Lesbos. It is often mistakenly claimed that Chryses was from Chryse. 2 Smintheus is an epithet for Apollo with Eastern origins. There was a city near Troy called Sminthe where Apollo was worshiped. 3 Homer never uses the term ‘Hellenes’ as a general term, but refers to the Greeks as Danaans, Achaeans or Argives. The term Danaans refers to the descendants of Danaus, an Egyptian who migrated to Argos and became king there. 36

The old man went straight into the house where Achilles, loved of the gods, was sitting. There he found him with his men seated at a distance from him: only two, the hero Automedon, and Alcimus, descendant of Ares, were busy in attendance about his person, for he had but just done eating and drinking, and the table was still there. King Priam entered without their seeing him, and going right up to Achilles he clasped his knees and kissed the dread murderous hands that had slain so many of his sons. [480] As when some cruel spite has befallen a man that he should have killed someone in his own country, and must fly to a great man’s protection in a land of strangers, and all marvel who see him, even so did Achilles marvel as he beheld Priam.1 The others looked one to another and marvelled also, but Priam besought Achilles saying, “Think of your father, Achilles like unto the gods, who is such even as I am, on the sad threshold of old age. It may be that those who dwell near him harass him, and there is none to keep war and ruin from him. Yet when he hears of you being still alive, he is glad, and his days are full of hope that he shall see his dear son come home to him from Troy; but I, wretched man that I am, had the bravest in all Troy for my sons, and there is not one of them left. I had fifty sons when the Achaeans came here; nineteen of them were from a single womb, and the others were borne to me by the women of my household. The greater part of them has fierce Ares laid low, and Hector, him who was alone left, him who was of the city and ourselves, him have you lately slain; therefore I am now come to the ships of the Achaeans to ransom his body from you with a great ransom. Fear, Achilles, the wrath of heaven; think on your own father and have compassion upon me, who am the more pitiable, for I have steeled myself as no man yet has ever steeled himself before me, and have raised to my lips the hand of him who slew my son.” [507] Thus spoke Priam, and the heart of Achilles yearned as he bethought him of his father. He took the old man’s hand and moved him gently away. The two wept bitterly - Priam, as he lay at Achilles’ feet, weeping for Hector, and Achilles now for his father and now for Patroclus, till the house was filled with their lamentation. But when Achilles was now sated with grief and had unburdened the bitterness of his sorrow, he left his seat and raised the old man by the hand, in pity for his white hair and beard; then he said, “Unhappy man, you have indeed been greatly daring; how could you venture to come alone to the ships of the Achaeans, and enter the presence of him who has slain so many of your brave sons? You must have iron courage: sit now upon this seat, and for all our grief we will hide our sorrows in our hearts, for weeping will not avail us. [525] “The immortals know no care, yet the lot they spin for man is full of sorrow; on the floor of Zeus’s palace there stand two urns, the one filled with evil gifts, and the other with good ones. He for whom Zeus the lord of thunder mixes the gifts he sends, will meet now with good and now with evil fortune; but he to whom Zeus sends none but evil gifts will be pointed at by the finger of scorn, the hand of famine will pursue him to the ends of the world, and he will go up and down the face of the earth, respected neither by gods nor men. [534] “Even so did it befall Peleus; the gods endowed him with all good things from his birth upwards, for he reigned over the Myrmidons excelling all men in prosperity and wealth, and mortal though he was they gave him a goddess for his bride. But even on him too did

1 Self-imposed exile was a common penance for murder. The guilty party would leave his homeland and find a foreign land in which he could be granted asylum and be given the rites of purification. 37 heaven send misfortune, for there is no brood of royal children born to him in his house, save one son who is doomed to die all untimely; nor may I take care of him now that he is growing old, for I must stay here at Troy to be the bane of you and your children. And you too, O Priam, I have heard that you were aforetime happy. They say that in wealth and plenitude of offspring you surpassed all that is in Lesbos, the realm of Makar to the northward, Phrygia that is more inland, and those that dwell upon the great Hellespont; but from the day when the dwellers in heaven sent this evil upon you, war and slaughter have been about your city continually. Bear up against it, and let there be some intervals in your sorrow. Mourn as you may for your brave son, you will take nothing by it. You cannot raise him from the dead, ere you do so yet another sorrow shall befall you.” [552] And Priam answered, “O king, bid me not be seated, while Hector is still lying uncared for in your tents, but accept the great ransom which I have brought you, and give him to me at once that I may look upon him. May you prosper with the ransom and reach your own land in safety, seeing that you have suffered me to live and to look upon the light of the sun.” [559] Achilles looked at him sternly and said, “Anger me, sir, no longer; I am of myself minded to give up the body of Hector. My mother, daughter of the old man of the sea, came to me from Zeus to bid me deliver it to you. Moreover I know well, O Priam, and you cannot hide it, that some god has brought you to the ships of the Achaeans, for else, no man however strong and in his prime would dare to come to our host; he could neither pass our guard unseen, nor draw the bolt of my gates thus easily; therefore, anger me no further, lest I sin against the word of Zeus, and suffer you not, suppliant though you are, within my tents.” [571] The old man feared him and obeyed. Then the son of Peleus sprang like a lion through the door of his house, not alone, but with him went his two squires Automedon and Alcimus who were closer to him than any others of his comrades now that Patroclus was no more. These unyoked the horses and mules, and bade Priam’s herald and attendant be seated within the house. They lifted the ransom for Hector's body from the waggon. but they left two mantles and a goodly shirt, that Achilles might wrap the body in them when he gave it to be taken home. Then he called to his servants and ordered them to wash the body and anoint it, but he first took it to a place where Priam should not see it, lest if he did so, he should break out in the bitterness of his grief, and enrage Achilles, who might then kill him and sin against the word of Zeus. [587] When the servants had washed the body and anointed it, and had wrapped it in a fair shirt and mantle, Achilles himself lifted it on to a bier, and he and his men then laid it on the waggon. He cried aloud as he did so and called on the name of his dear comrade, “Be not angry with me, Patroclus,” he said, “if you hear even in the house of Hades that I have given Hector to his father for a ransom. It has been no unworthy one, and I will share it equitably with you.”

Priam then takes the body back to Troy. The Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector.

38

Greek Origins Thucydides was an Athenian aristocrat and general who wrote The History of the

Peloponnesian War around 400 BC. His introductory chapters give us his view of Greek ancient history:

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I. 2 - 3. 2. [1] …It is evident that what is now called Hellas1 had in ancient times no settled population; on the contrary, migrations were of frequent occurrence, the several tribes readily abandoning their homes under the pressure of superior numbers. [2] Without commerce, without freedom of communication either by land or sea, cultivating no more of their territory than the exigencies of life required, destitute of capital, never planting their land (for they could not tell when an invader might not come and take it all away, and when he did come they had no walls to stop him), thinking that the necessities of daily sustenance could be supplied at one place as well as another, they cared little for shifting their habitation, and consequently neither built large cities nor attained to any other form of greatness. [3] The richest soils were always most subject to this change of masters; such as the now called Thessaly, Boeotia, most of the Peloponnese, Arcadia excepted, and the most fertile parts of the rest of Hellas. [4] The goodness of the land favoured the aggrandizement of particular individuals, and thus created faction ( ) which proved a fertile source of ruin.2 It also invited invasion. [5] Accordingly Attica, from the poverty of its soil enjoying from a very remote period freedom from faction,στάσις3 never changed its inhabitants.4 [6] And here is no inconsiderable exemplification of my assertion that the migrations were the cause of there being no correspondent growth in other parts. The most powerful victims of war or faction5 from the rest of Hellas took refuge with the Athenians as a safe retreat; and at an early period,6 becoming naturalized, swelled the already large population of the city to such a height that Attica became at last too small to hold them, and they had to send out to Ionia.7

1 Crawley, as with other translators, has "the country now called Hellas" but the word choice may lead to misunderstanding: Greece, or Hellas as is the proper name, was never a 'country' in the modern sense of a Nation State. The Hellas referred to in the text is, specifically, the Greek peninsula, but by the time T. wrote, the Greek world extended from the western Mediterranean to the eastern . 2 Thucydides is immediately establishing one of his major themes: factional strife, stasis, which will become his explanation for the failure of Athens. 3 Literally, Attica was "not torn by factional strife." 4 The Athenians claimed to be autochthonous, 'born of the soil.' 5 Thucydides is here very careful to separate the concepts of war and strife: war (polemos) is violence brought from without while strife (stasis) is conflict within. Both events caused the most powerful (hoi dunatotatoi) to migrate to Athens. 6 The return of the Heraclidae and their conquest of the Peloponnese, or the Dorian invasions, brought aristocratic refugees from that region to Athens. There is a rich tradition of legend having to do with these movements, but most pertinent to the story at hand is that the most prominent political families of the time, the Philaedae and the Alcmaonidae, were both descendants of these migrants. 7 Again, establishing a theme: Athens now rules the Ionian Greeks because she has an ancestral right as . 39

3. [1] There is also another circumstance that contributes not a little to my conviction of the weakness of ancient times: Before the Trojan war there is no indication of any common action in Hellas, [2] nor indeed of the universal prevalence of the name; on the contrary, before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, no such appellation existed, but the region went by the names of the different tribes, in particular of the Pelasgian. It was not till Hellen and his sons grew strong in Phthiotis, and were invited as allies into the other cities, that one by one they gradually acquired from the connection the name of Hellenes;1 though a long time elapsed before that name could fasten itself upon all. [3] The best proof of this is furnished by Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he nowhere calls all of them by that name, nor indeed any of them except the followers of Achilles from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes: in his poems they are called Danaans, Argives, and Achaeans. He does not even use the term Barbarian, probably because the Hellenes had not yet been marked off from the rest of the world by one distinctive appellation. [4] It appears therefore that the several Hellenic communities, comprising not only those who first acquired the name, city by city, as they came to understand each other2, but also those who assumed it afterwards as the name of the whole people, were before the Trojan war prevented by their want of strength and the absence of mutual intercourse from displaying any collective action. Indeed, they could not unite for this expedition till they had gained increased familiarity with the sea.

The Histories, by Herodotus of , probably published in 429/8 BC, is the oldest extant historical narrative. The subject of the Histories is the Persian Wars, but Herodotus offers a vast amount of background information. This is his version of early Greek history:

Herodotus i .56 - 58. 56. [2] … the Spartans and the Athenians had the pre-eminence, the first of the Dorian and the others of the Ionian ethnicity. For these were the most eminent ethnic groups in ancient times, the second being a Pelasgian and the first a Hellenic ethnicity: and the one never migrated from its place in any direction, while the other was very exceedingly given to wanderings; [3] for in the reign of Deucalion this group dwelt in Pthiotis, and in the time of Dorus the son of Hellen in the land lying below Ossa and Olympus, which is called Histiaiotis; and when it was driven from Histiaiotis by the sons of Cadmus, it dwelt in Pindos and was called Macednian; and thence it moved afterwards to Dryopis, and from Dryopis it came finally to Peloponnesus, and began to be called Dorian.

57. [1] What language however the used to speak I am not able with certainty to say. But if one must pronounce judging by those that still remain of the Pelasgians who dwelt in the city of Creston above the Tyrsenians, and who were once neighbours of the

1 Deucalion and Pyrrha were chosen by Zeus to survive the flood that Zeus sent to destroy mankind. Their son was Hellen and his sons were Dorus (patronym of the Doric tribe), Aeolus (patronym of the Aeolic tribe) and Xuthus, whose son was Ion (patronym of the Ionic tribe). 2 That is, as they acquired the Greek language. 40

group now called Dorian, dwelling then in the land which is now called Thessaliotis, [2] and also by those that remain of the Pelasgians who settled at Placia and Scylake in the region of the Hellespont, who before that had been settlers with the Athenians, and of the natives of the various other towns which are really Pelasgian, though they have lost the name, if one must pronounce judging by these, the Pelasgians used to speak a Barbarian language. [3] If therefore all the Pelasgian people was such as these, then the Attic people, being Pelasgian, at the same time when it changed and became Hellenic, unlearnt also its language. For the people of Creston do not speak the same language with any of those who dwell about them, nor yet do the people of Phacia, but they speak the same language one as the other: and by this it is proved that they still keep unchanged the form of language which they brought with them when they migrated to these places.1

58. [1] As for the Hellenic people, it has used ever the same language, as I clearly perceive, since it first took its rise; but since the time when it parted off, feeble at first, from the Pelasgian ethnicity, setting forth from a small beginning it has increased to that great number of ethnic groups which we see, and chiefly because many Barbarian ethnic groups have been added to it besides. Moreover it is true, as I think, of the Pelasgian people also, that so far as it remained Barbarian it never made any great increase.

The City State In contrast to the Mycenaean , the Greek polis that emerges at the end of the Dark Ages (ca.1100 - ca. 750 BC) has no central palace and, apparently, no warrior elite. At this same time however, we see the emergence of citizen armies, of farmer/soldiers who fight en-mass to defend their own homes rather than relying on warlords to fight for them. The development of the Greek city state and the Greek hoplite warrior are coterminous but which came first, or which is dependent upon the other, seems to be a chicken-or-egg question. The city state is the corporate expression of communal effort and mutual support. Citizenship was dependent upon participation:

Aristotle Politics 1259b: In most constitutional states the citizens rule and are ruled by turns, for they are by definition equal and do not differ at all.

Politics 1275a 22:

1 Chapter 57 is a continuation of Herodotus' demonstration of method: In the absence of reliable information he will use deductive reasoning to reconstruct a pragmatic - as opposed to mythical - history of Greece. In the current example, he concludes that the Athenians, the Attic people, are Pelasgian in origin. In other words, they are aboriginals who became Hellenic. 41

What effectively distinguishes the citizen proper [in a democracy] from all others is his participation in giving judgement and in holding office.

Politics 1275b 21: “As soon as a man becomes entitled to participate in office, deliberative or judicial, we deem him to be a citizen of that state; and a number of such persons large enough to secure a self-sufficient way of life we may, by and large, call a state.”

Politics 1276a 24 Observation tells us that every state is an association and that every association is formed with a view to a good purpose.

It is also a system based on social credit. An individual’s ability to function and thrive as a member of an ancient collective was nothing if not an expression of his reputation.

Gorgias Palamedes 21. Life is not liveable for a man who has lost the confidence of others. The man who loses his money or who falls from power or who is exiled from his country might get on his feet again, but he who throws away good faith would not any more acquire it.

Colonization The Greek peninsula in the seventh and sixth centuries benefitted greatly from two factors: One, Lydia, Media, Babylon and Egypt all enjoyed strong economies and, two; not one of the Near Eastern powers was paying any attention to Greece. The Greeks were able to take advantage of the vibrant economies and secure trade routes and prospered themselves. The result was a sharp increase in population and the need to expand into new . Many of the Greek city states established colonies and the Greek oecumene eventually reached to all the shores of the Black Sea, North Africa, southern Italy, eastern Sicily and southern France.

Thucydides i.12 ... after the Trojan war Hellas was still subject to migrations and in process of settlement, and hence did not get rest and become stronger. For not only did the return of the Hellenes from Ilium, occurring as it did after a long time, cause many changes; but factions also began to spring up very generally in the cities, and, in consequence of these, men were driven into exile and founded new cities. The present Boeotians, for example, were driven from Arne by the Thessalians in the sixtieth year after the capture of Ilium and settled in the district 42

now called Boeotia, but formerly Cadmeis; only a portion of these had been in that land before, and it was some of these who took part in the expedition against Ilium. The Dorians, too, in the eightieth year after the war, together with the Heracleidae occupied the Peloponnesus. And so when painfully and after a long course of time Hellas became permanently tranquil and its population was no longer subject to expulsion from their homes, it began to send out colonies. The Athenians colonized Ionia and most of the islands; the Peloponnesians, the greater part of Italy and Sicily and some portions of the rest of Hellas. And all these colonies were planted after the Trojan War.

The Alphabet Herodotus v.58 Now these Phoenicians who came with Cadmus brought in among the Hellenes many arts when they settled in this land of Boeotia, and especially letters, which did not exist, as it appears to me, among the Hellenes before this time; and at first they brought in those which are used by the Phoenician people generally, but afterwards, as time went on, they changed, with their speech, the form of the letters also. During this time the Ionians were the Hellenic people who dwelt near the Phoenicians in most of the places where they were; and these, having received letters by instruction of the Phoenicians, changed their form slightly and so made use of them, and in doing so they declared them to be called “Phoenician,” as was just, seeing that the Phoenicians had introduced them into Hellas. Also the Ionians from ancient time call paper “skins,” because formerly, paper being scarce, they used skins of goat and sheep; nay, even in my own time many of the Barbarians write on such skins.

The word ‘paper’ comes to English from the Greek ‘papyrus.’ Papyrus is a reed that grows only in Egypt and the outer husk, the biblos, is used to manufacture a durable sheet product that is suitable for writing. The Greeks used biblos to describe a book, and biblion a letter or smaller document. From that, English and the Romance Languages derive many words like Bible and bibliography in English and biblioteque (library) in French. There was a Phoenician trading port called Byblos and the mistaken assumption is often made that these words derive from that port because papyrus was traded through Phoenicia to Greece. But, of course, the Greeks were already calling paper biblos and the port was named for the trade that already existed, not the other way around. We take much for granted with our technologically sophisticated papers and inks, but the ancient problem was to find a product that would take ink without absorbing too little and smudging, or absorbing much and diffusing, the ink. Papyrus was, for centuries, the most cost effective product. 43

The development of the alphabet has now been traced from Phoenician characters with some certainty. The first nineteen letters have Phoenician names, the last five are Greek inventions. The Greek alphabet reproduced below represents both Classical and Middle Age evolution. It is, essentially, the Ionic alphabet and was adopted by the Athenians (replacing the Attic alphabet) in

404 BC. Some of the names of the letters, such as epsilon, omicron, upsilon and omega are late additions. In classical Greek, only what we now call upper case letters were used, the lower case letters are a medieval invention.

Phoenician Greek Modern

Ox Aleph Α, α ἄλφα Alpha A, a House Beth B, b βῆτα Beta B, b Throw/ Gimel Γ, γ γἀμμα Gamma G, g Camel

Door Daleth Δ, δ δἐλτα Delta D, d Window/ He Ε, ε ἔψιλόν Epsilon Ĕ, ĕ Wall Weapon Zayin Ζ, ζ ζῆτα Zeta Z, z Fence Heth H, h ἤτα Eta Ē, ē Wheel Teth Θ, θ θῆτα Theta th Arm Yodh Ι, ι ἰῶτα Iota I, i Hand Kaph Κ, κ κάππα Kappa K, k Goad Lamedh Λ, λ λάμβδα Lambda L, l Water Mem Μ, μ μῦ Mu M, m Fish Nun Ν, ν νῦ Nu N, n Samekh Pillar/ Ξ, ξ ξεῖ Xi X, x fish Eye Ayin Ο, ο ὂ μικρόν Omicron Ŏ, ŏ Mouth Pe Π, π πεῖ Pi P, p Head Resh Ρ, ρ ῥῶ Rho R, r Tooth Shin Σ,σ, ς σίγμα Sigma S, s Mark Taw Τ, τ ταῦ Tau T, t 44

Υ, υ υ ψιλόν Upsilon U, u Φ, φ φεῖ Phi ph Χ, χ χεῖ Chi Kh Ψ, ψ ψεῖ Psi ps Ω, ω ὦ μέγα Omega Ō, ō

Natural Philosophy The polytheistic, myth based, religious system dominated Greek life, but in the sixth century a rational, sceptical and inquisitive movement began to take hold.

Critias of Athens (ca. 480 – 403 BC) was a student of Socrates but little else is known about his early life. In 404 he was appointed leader of The Thirty, a council established to govern Athens after the Peloponnesian War. His summary of rationalism is most concise:

Critias of Athens, Fragment 25, from Sisiphus, a satyric drama. There was a time when the life of men was unordered, bestial and the slave of force, when there was no reward for the virtuous and no punishment for the wicked. Then, I think, men devised retributory laws, in order that Justice might be dictator and have arrogance as its slave, and if anyone sinned, he was punished. Then, when the laws forbade them to commit open crimes of violence, and they began to do them in secret, a wise and clever man invented fear (of the gods) for mortals, that there might be some means of frightening the wicked, even if they do anything or say or think it in secret. Hence he introduced the Divine (religion), saying that there is a God flourishing with immortal life, hearing and seeing with his mind, and thinking of everything and caring about these things, and having divine nature, who will hear everything said among mortals, and will be able to see all that is done. And even if you plan anything evil in secret, you will not escape the gods in this; for they have surpassing intelligence. In saying these words, he introduced the pleasantest of teachings, covering up the truth with a false theory; and he said that the gods dwelt there where he could most frighten men by saying it, whence he knew that fears exist for mortals and rewards for the hard life: in the upper periphery, where they saw lightning and heard the dread rumblings of thunder, and the starry-faced body of heaven, the beautiful embroidery of Time the skilled craftsman, whence come forth the bright mass of the sun, and the wet shower upon the earth. With such fears did he surround mankind, through which he well established the deity with his argument, and in a fitting place, and quenched lawlessness among men . . . Thus, I think, for the first time did someone persuade mortals to believe in a race of deities.

45

Critias is expressing what we might call secular rationalism. Although this is one of the most articulate expressions we have in our extant sources, the process seems to have begun over a century before Critias lived, and it seems to have originated with astronomy. Arithmetic and geometry were first developed in Egypt and Babylon probably because both of these cultures were based on large-scale agriculture, entirely dependent on irrigation from the inundation of the Nile in the case of the former, and the Tigris and Euphrates in the case of the latter. The exact date of that event had to be predicted with some certainty and in both places astronomy was used to accomplish that goal. Plato, Phaedrus 274c - e Socrates: I heard, then, that at Naucratis, in Egypt, was one of the ancient gods of that country, the one whose sacred bird is called the ibis, and the name of the god himself was Theuth. He it was who [274d] invented numbers and arithmetic and geometry and astronomy, also draughts and dice, and, most important of all, letters. Now the king of all Egypt at that time was the god Thamus, who lived in the great city of the upper region, which the Greeks call the Egyptian Thebes, and they call the god himself Ammon. To him came Theuth to show his inventions, saying that they ought to be imparted to the other Egyptians. But Thamus asked what use there was in each, and as Theuth enumerated their uses, expressed praise or blame, according as he approved [274e] or disapproved. The story goes that Thamus said many things to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts, which it would take too long to repeat; but when they came to the letters, “This invention, O king,” said Theuth, “will make the Egyptians wiser and will improve their memories; for it is an elixir of memory and wisdom that I have discovered.” But Thamus replied, “Most ingenious Theuth, one man has the ability to beget arts, but the ability to judge of their usefulness or harmfulness to their users belongs to another…

Herodotus argues that the Egyptians invented geometry for taxation purposes, but that astronomy was invented by the Babylonians:

Herodotus ii.109 109. …Egypt was cut up; and they said that this king distributed the land to all the Egyptians, giving an equal square portion to each man, and from this he made his revenue, having appointed them to pay a certain rent every year: and if the river should take away anything from any man's portion, he would come to the king and declare that which had happened, and the king used to send men to examine and to find out by measurement how much less the piece of land had become, in order that for the future the man might pay less, in proportion to the rent appointed: and I think that thus the art of geometry was found 46

out and afterwards came into Hellas also. For as touching the sun-dial and the gnomon and the twelve divisions of the day, they were learnt by the Hellenes from the Babylonians.

Thales of is credited with being the first of the Greek Natural Philosophers but his legacy was quickly mythologized and little is known about his life or work. One of the few references to Thales comes to us from Herodotus and offers a verifiable date for his life and career: Herodotus, Histories i.74 … there had arisen war between the Lydians and the Medes lasting five years; in which years the Medes often discomfited the Lydians and the Lydians often discomfited the Medes (and among others they fought also a battle by night): and as they still carried on the war with equally balanced fortune, in the sixth year a battle took place in which it happened, when the fight had begun, that suddenly the day became night. And this change of the day Thales the Milesian had foretold to the Ionians laying down as a limit this very year in which the change took place.1 The Lydians however and the Medes, when they saw that it had become night instead of day, ceased from their fighting and were much more eager both of them that peace should be made between them.

Thales' apparent prediction of the eclipse is a famous event, but he is best known for his theories on Arché, the 'first principle.' The search for the fundamental building block, the origin, of all things, is discussed by Aristotle:

Aristotle, Metaphysics 983b. We have studied these causes sufficiently in our work on nature, but yet let us call to our aid those who have attacked the investigation of being and philosophized about reality before us. For obviously they too speak of certain principles and causes; to go over their views, then, will be of profit to the present inquiry, for we shall either find another kind of cause, or be more convinced of the correctness of those which we now maintain. Of the first philosophers, then, most thought the principles which were of the nature of matter were the only principles of all things. That of which all things that are consist, the first from which they come to be, the last into which they are resolved (the substance remaining, but changing in its modifications), this they say is the element and this the principle of things, and therefore they think nothing is either generated or destroyed, since this sort of entity is always conserved, as we say Socrates neither comes to be absolutely when he comes to be beautiful or musical, nor ceases to be when loses these characteristics, because the substratum, Socrates himself remains. Just so they say nothing else comes to be or ceases to be; for there must be some entity - either one or more than one - from which all other things come to be, it being conserved. Yet they do not all agree as to the number and the nature of

1 The eclipse occurred on May 28th, 585 BC. This gives us an absolute date with which to check Herodotus’ chronology. 47

these principles. Thales, the founder of this type of philosophy, says the principle is water (for which reason he declared that the earth rests on water), getting the perhaps from seeing that the nutriment of all things is moist, and that heat itself is generated from the moist and kept alive by it (and that from which they come to be is a principle of all things). He got his notion from this fact, and from the fact that the seeds of all things have a moist nature, and that water is the origin of the nature of moist things.

The Birth of Democracy Democracy is not a concept that sprung fully mature from the seeds of inspiration. The development of democracy in Athens was the result of a long process of social and economic realignment brought about partly by the development of the citizen soldier, partly by increased prosperity and a rising middle-class and partly because of the Greek concept of justice. The Athenian Constitution (Ath. Pol.), a document attributed to Aristotle, describes the process:

Ath. Pol. 4. [4.1] And after this… in the archonship of Aristaechmus, Dracon enacted his ordinances;1 and this system was on the following lines. [2] Citizenship had already been bestowed on those who provided themselves with hoplite arms; and these elected as the Nine Archons and the Treasurers, those who were owners of an unencumbered estate worth not less than ten minae, and the other minor offices from those of the hoplites, and as Generals and Hipparchs,2 persons proving their possession of unencumbered estate worth not less than one hundred minae, and sons legitimately born in wedlock over ten years of age.3 The new officials had to post bond for the outgoing Prytaneis4, Strategoi and Hipparchs till the audit,5 accepting four guarantors from the same class as that to which the Strategoi and Hipparchs

1 Probalby in 622/1 BC. It is assumed by most that Dracon was one of the Thesmothetai, Aristaechmus being Eponymous Archon. See also Arist. Politics ii.9.9 where he says that the only thing peculiar about Dracon's laws was the severity. 2 Cavalry commanders. 3 Rackham's translation of this passage makes little sense. We should understand that full citizenship was bestowed on those men who could present themselves armed as hoplites for the service of the State. This group, hereafter called the hoplite class, was eligible to elect the magistrates. A candidate for the lower magistracies, in order to qualify, had to prove a chattel free estate of ten minae or more; a candidate for the higher offices had to prove a chattel free estate of one hundred minae or more and legitimate sons over the age of ten. Qualifying for citizenship and for office were not necessarily the same thing. Over a century later, Socrates, who was a member of the hoplite class, claimed that his estate was worth less than five minae (Xen. Oec. ii.3) A Mina, or Mna, was worth 100 drachmas. Through most of the fifth century soldiers and sailors were paid one drachma per day. The minimum qualification, then, was a net worth roughly equivalent to three years’ pay for a soldier. At the higher end, 100 minae, the qualification was equivalent to a lifetime’s earnings. The disparity is clear. Even lower offices could be held only by members of the upper middle-class, while higher offices were reserved for the wealthy. 4 Members of the Boulé. See below, note 4. 5 The Euthuna was a trial held for every out-going official in which his conduct during his term of office was scrutinized. Essentially, every officer of the state was charged with corruption and incompetence and had to prove their innocence in court. 48

belonged. [3] And the Boulé1 was to be formed of four hundred and one members chosen by lot from the citizen body, and lots were to be cast both for this and for the other offices by the citizens over thirty years of age; and the same person was not to hold office twice until the whole number had been gone through, and then lots were to be cast among them again from the beginning. And if any Bouleutes, whenever there was a sitting of the Boulé, or Ecclesia, failed to attend the meeting, he paid a fine of three drachmae if he was of the Five- hundred-measure rank, two drachmae if a member of the Cavalry rank, and one if a member of the Hoplite rank.2 [4] The Council of Areopagus was guardian of the laws, and kept a watch on the magistrates to make them govern in accordance with the laws. A person unjustly treated might lay a complaint before the Areopagus Council, stating the law in contravention of which he was treated unjustly. Loans were secured on the person, as has been said, and the land was divided among few owners.

Real change began with Solon, who was asked to reform the Athenian constitution in 592 BC in an effort to stem the social unrest that had developed as a result of the absolute control that the aristocracy enjoyed over the economy and the government, to such an extent that most of our ancient sources say, without exaggeration, that the poor had become the slaves of the rich.

Ath. Pol. 5.1-3; 6.1 – 7.2 [5.1] Such being the system in the constitution, and the many being enslaved to the few, the people rose against the nobles. [2] The factional strife became violent and the parties remaining arrayed in opposition to one another for a long time, they jointly chose Solon as arbitrator and Archon,3 and entrusted the government to him, after he had composed the elegy that begins:4 I mark, and sorrow fills my breast to see, Ionia’s oldest land being done to death.

in which he does battle on behalf of each party against the other and acts as mediator, and after this exhorts them jointly to stop the quarrel that prevailed between them. [3] Solon was by birth and reputation of the first rank, but by wealth and position belonged to the middle class…

1 The Boulé was a sort of Senate, a council that deliberated on the business of the state. 2 These ranking names are merely descriptions of wealth. The Pentacosiomedimnoi, or five-hundred-measure men, were the wealthiest; the Hippeis, those able to afford a horse and serve in the cavalry, the upper-middle class; the Zeugetai (lit. 'teamster'), those able to afford a team of oxen, the middle class. The majority of the hoplites came from the Zeugetai and this group is most often referred to as the hoplite class. 3 Solon was Archon in 594 BC. 4 Solon wrote extensively, all in verse as was the fashion at the time, and many of his works survive although mostly in fragments. See West, Martin L. 1971. Iambi et elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum. Oxford. 49

[6.1] Solon having become master of affairs made the people free both at the time and for the

future by prohibiting loans secured on the person, and he laid down laws, and enacted cancellations of debts both private and public, the measures that are known as the ‘Shaking-off of Burdens,’ meaning that the people were freed from their debt-load.1 In these matters some people try to misrepresent him; [2] for it happened that when Solon was intending to enact the Shaking off of Burdens, he informed some of the notables beforehand, and afterwards, as those of popular sympathies say, he was out-maneuvered by his friends, but according to those who want to malign him he himself also took a share: For these persons borrowed money and bought up a quantity of land, and when not long afterwards the cancellation of debts took place they were rich men; and this is said to be the origin of the families subsequently reputed to be ancestrally wealthy. [3] Nevertheless, the account of those of popular sympathies is more credible; for considering that he was so moderate and public-spirited in the rest of his conduct that, when he had the opportunity to reduce one of the two parties to subjection and to be tyrant of the city, he incurred the enmity of both, and valued the good and the safety of the state more than his own aggrandizement, it is not probable that he besmirched himself in such worthless trifles. [4] And that he got this opportunity is testified by the disordered state of affairs, and also he himself alludes to it in many places in his poems, and everybody else agrees with him. We are bound therefore to consider this charge to be false.

[7.1] And he established a constitution and made other laws, and they ceased to observe the ordinances of Dracon, except those relating to homicide. They wrote up the laws on the Boards2 and set them in the Stoa3 Basileus, and all swore to observe them; and the Nine Archons used

to make affirmation on oath at the Stone that if they transgressed any one of the laws they would dedicate a gold statue of a man; owing to which they are even now still sworn in with this oath. [2] And he set the laws to stay unaltered for two hundred years.

1 The Seisachtheia. 2 The laws were engraved on wood, or stone, three-sided billboards which were set on pivots, or axles. The importance here is that law was now public - anyone who could read had access to the letter of the law. 3 The Greek word stoa refers rather generally to any rectangular building. The Stoa Basileus was the building in Athens where the Archon Basileus held court. 50

Solon’s system was a failure, but a necessary one; it set the stage, so to speak, and allowed for the development of a democratic system. Before that could happen, however, the competition amongst the aristocratic leaders of various political factions caused enough strife that Athens fell under the rule of tyrants from 560 to 511 BC. But with the expulsion of the tyrants, the people of Athens were ready to try new things again:

Herodotus v.66 & 69-73 [66] Athens, which even before that time was great, then, after having been freed from despots, became gradually yet greater; and in it two men exercised power, namely Cleisthenes a descendant of Alcmaeon, the same who is reported to have bribed the Pythian prophetess, and Isagoras, the son of Tisander, of a family which was highly reputed, but of his original descent I am not able to declare; his kinsmen however offer sacrifices to the Carian Zeus. These men came to party strife for power; and then Cleisthenes was being worsted in the struggle, he made common cause with the people. After this he caused the Athenians to be in ten tribes, who were formerly in four; and he changed the names by which they were called after the sons of Ion, namely Geleon, Aigicoreus, Argades, and Hoples, and invented for them names taken from other heroes, all native Athenians except Ajax, whom he added as a neighbour and ally, although he was no Athenian. [69] …for when at the time of which we speak he added to his own party the whole body of the common people of the Athenians, which in former time he had despised, he changed the names of the tribes and made them more in number than they had been; he made in fact ten rulers of tribes instead of four, and by tens also he distributed the in the tribes; and having added the common people to his faction he was much superior to his opponents. [70] Then Isagoras, as he was being worsted in his turn, contrived a plan in opposition to him, that is to say, he called in Cleomenes the Lacedemonian to help him, who had been a guest-friend to himself since the siege of the sons of Peisistratos; moreover Cleomenes was accused of being intimate with the wife of Isagoras. First then Cleomenes sent a herald to Athens demanding the expulsion of Cleisthenes and with him many others of the Athenians, calling them the men who were under the curse: this message he sent by instruction of Isagoras, for the Alcmaeonidai and their party were accused of the murder to which reference was thus made, while he and his friends had no part in it. [72] Now when Cleomenes sent demanding the expulsion of Cleisthenes and of those under the curse, Cleisthenes himself retired secretly; but after that nevertheless Cleomenes appeared in Athens with no very large force, and having arrived he proceeded to expel as accursed seven hundred Athenian families, of which Isagoras had suggested to him the names. Having done this he next endeavoured to dissolve the Senate, and he put the offices of the State into the hands of three hundred, who were the partisans of Isagoras. The Senate however making opposition, and not being willing to submit, Cleomenes with Isagoras and his partisans seized the Acropolis. Then the rest of the Athenians joined together by common consent and besieged them for two days; and on the third day so many of them as 51

were Lacedemonians departed out of the country under a truce. Thus was accomplished for Cleomenes the ominous saying which was uttered to him: for when he had ascended the Acropolis with the design of taking possession of it, he was going to the sanctuary of the goddess, as to address her in prayer; but the priestess stood up from her seat before he had passed through the door, and said, "Lacedemonian stranger, go back and enter not into the temple, for it is not lawful for Dorians to pass in hither." He said: "Woman, I am not a Dorian, but an Achaean." So then, paying no attention to the ominous speech, he made his attempt and then was expelled again with the Lacedemonians; but the rest of the men the Athenians laid in bonds to be put to death, and among them Timesitheos the Delphian, with regard to whom I might mention very great deeds of strength and courage which he performed. [73] These then having been thus laid in bonds were put to death; and the Athenians after this sent for Cleisthenes to return, and also for the seven hundred families which had been driven out by Cleomenes.

Ath. Pol. 20 – [20.1] When the tyranny had been put down, there was a period of factional strife between Isagoras son of Teisander, who was a friend of the tyrants, and Cleisthenes, who belonged to the family of the Alcmaeonidae. Cleisthenes, having got the worst of it in the 1 Clubs, enlisted the people on his side, offering to hand over the government to the multitude. [2] Isagoras began to lose power, so he again called in the aid of Cleomenes, who was a great friend of his, and jointly persuaded him to drive out the curse, because the 2 Alcmaeonidae were reputed, to be a family that was under a curse. [3] Cleisthenes secretly withdrew, and Cleomenes, with a few troops proceeded to expel as accursed seven hundred Athenian households;3 and having accomplished this he tried to put down the Boulé and set up Isagoras and three hundred of his friends with him in sovereign power over the state. But the Boulé resisted, and the multitude banded together, so the forces of Cleomenes and lsagoras took refuge in the Acropolis, and the people invested it and laid siege to it for two days. On the third day they let Cleomenes and his comrades go away under a truce, and sent for Cleisthenes and the other exiles to come back. [4] The people having taken control of affairs, Cleisthenes was their leader and was head of the People. The Alcmaeonidae were, arguably4, most responsible for the expulsion of the tyrants, and they accomplished most of it through factional strife. [5] And even before the Alcmaeonids, Cedon5 had attacked the tyrants, owing to which people also sang in his honour in their catches:

1 The Hetaireiai were secretive clubs for aristocratic men. Little is known about them, but they are often referred to in the context of the Oligarchic or Aristocratic political factions. 2 See Fragment 8 above: this is the Cylonian Pollution, for with the family is never forgiven. 3 We cannot assume that all of these families were Alcmaonid kin, but the expulsion may have included their associates as well. See Herodotus v.70. 4 It is difficult to know the purpose of this phrase - αἰτιώτατοι γὰρ σχεδὸν. The author may be deferring to political correctness which, at the time, held that Harmodius and Aristogeiton were the 'Tyranicides' and deserved all of the credit for the expulsion of the tyrants. See Thucydides i.19 & vi. 55f. 5 Otherwise unattested. 52

Now fill to Cedon, boy! let's drink him too, If duty bids us toast good men and true. [21.1] These were the causes, therefore, that led the people to trust in Cleisthenes. And when this time he had become chief of the multitude, in the fourth year after the deposition of the tyrants, in the archonship of Isagoras,1 [2] he first divided the whole body into ten tribes instead of the existing four, wishing to mix them up, in order that more might take part in the government from which arose the saying: 'Don't draw distinctions between tribes,' addressed to those who want to inquire into people's clans.2 [3] Next he made the Boulé to consist of five hundred members instead of four hundred, fifty from each Tribe, whereas under the old system there had been a hundred. This was the reason why he did not arrange them in twelve tribes, in order that he might not have to use the existing division of the Thirds (for the four Tribes contained twelve Thirds), with the result that the multitude would not have been mixed up. [4] He also portioned out the land among the demes into thirty parts, ten belonging to the suburbs, ten to the coast, and ten to the inland district; and he gave these parts the name of Thirds, and assigned them among the Tribes by lot, three to each, in order that each Tribe might have a share in all the districts. And he made all the inhabitants in each of the demes fellow-demesmen of one another, in order that they might not call attention to the newly enfranchised citizens by addressing people by their fathers' names, but designate people officially by their demes; owing to which Athenians in private life also use the names of their demes as surnames. [5] And he also appointed Demarchs, having the same duties as the former Naucrarioi, for he put the demes in the place of the Naucraries. He named some of the demes from their localities, but others from their founders, for the demes were no longer all corresponding to the places. [6] The clans and brotherhoods and priesthoods belonging to the various demes he allowed to remain on the ancestral plan. As eponymous deities of the Tribes he instituted ten tutelary heroes selected by an oracle of the Pythian priestess from a previously chosen list of a hundred.

Pericles’ Funeral Oration Thucydides ii.24 – 46 [34.1] In the same winter the Athenians gave a funeral at the public cost to those who had first fallen in this war. It was a custom of their ancestors, and the manner of it is as follows: [2] Three days before the ceremony, the bones of the dead are laid out in a tent which has been erected; and their friends bring to their relatives such offerings as they please. [3] In the funeral procession cypress coffins are borne in cars, one for each tribe; the bones of the deceased being placed in the coffin of their tribe. Among these is carried one empty bier decked for the missing, that is, for those whose bodies could not be recovered. [4] Any citizen or stranger who pleases, joins in the procession: and the female relatives are there to wail at the burial. [5] The dead are laid in the public sepulchre in the most beautiful suburb of the city, in which those who fall in war are always buried; with the exception of those slain at Marathon, who for their singular and extraordinary valour were interred on

1 506/5 BC. 2 That is to say that the four original Tribes were clan-based, while the new system broke up the clan associations. 53 the spot where they fell. [6] After the bodies have been laid in the earth, a man chosen by the state, of approved wisdom and eminent reputation, pronounces over them an appropriate panegyric; after which all retire. [7] Such is the manner of the burying; and throughout the whole of the war, whenever the occasion arose, the established custom was observed. [8] Meanwhile these were the first that had fallen, and Pericles, son of Xanthippus, was chosen to pronounce their eulogy. When the proper time arrived, he advanced from the sepulchre to an elevated platform in order to be heard by as many of the crowd as possible, and spoke as follows: [35.1] "Most of my predecessors in this place have commended him who made this speech part of the law, telling us that it is well that it should be delivered at the burial of those who fall in battle. For myself, I should have thought that the worth which had displayed itself in deeds would be sufficiently rewarded by honours also shown by deeds; such as you now see in this funeral prepared at the people's cost. And I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. [2] For it is difficult to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth. On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story may think that some point has not been set forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it to deserve; on the other, he who is a stranger to the matter may be led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.1 [3] However, since our ancestors have stamped this custom with their approval, it becomes my duty to obey the law and to try to satisfy your several wishes and opinions as best I may. [36.1] "I shall begin with our ancestors: it is both just and proper that they should have the honour of the first mention on an occasion like the present. They dwelt in the country without break in the succession from generation to generation, and handed it down free to the present time by their valour. [2] And if our more remote ancestors deserve praise, much more do our own fathers, who added to their inheritance the empire which we now possess, and spared no pains to be able to leave their acquisitions to us of the present generation. [3] Lastly, there are few parts of our dominions that have not been augmented by those of us here, who are still more or less in the vigour of life; while the mother country has been furnished by us with everything that can enable her to depend on her own resources whether for war or for peace. [4] That part of our history which tells of the military achievements which gave us our several possessions, or of the ready valour with which either we or our fathers stemmed the tide of Greek or foreign aggression, is a theme too familiar to my hearers for me to dilate on, and I shall therefore pass it by. But what was the road by which we reached our position, what the form of government under which our greatness grew, what the national habits out of which it sprang; these are questions which I may try to solve before I proceed to my panegyric upon these men; since I think this to be a subject upon which on the present occasion a speaker may properly dwell, and to which the whole assemblage, whether citizens or foreigners, may listen with advantage.

1 A statement that could only be made in a political climate where the legends of the heroes of old, the Iliad etc., had already be subject to sceptical scrutiny. 54

[37.1] "Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. [2] The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. [3] But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace. [38.1] "Further, we provide plenty of means for the mind to refresh itself from business. We celebrate games and sacrifices all the year round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily source of pleasure and helps to banish melancholy; [2] while the magnitude of our city draws the produce of the world into our harbour, so that to the Athenian the fruits of other are as familiar a luxury as those of his own. [39.1] "If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our antagonists. We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger. [2] In proof of this it may be noticed that the Lacedaemonians do not invade our country alone, but bring with them all their confederates; while we Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbour, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes. [3] Our united force was never yet encountered by any enemy, because we have at once to attend to our navy and to dispatch our citizens by land upon a hundred different services; so that, wherever they engage with some such fraction of our strength, a success against a detachment is magnified into a victory over the nation, and a defeat into a reverse suffered at the hands of our entire people. [4] And yet if with habits not of labour but of ease, and courage not of art but of nature, we are still willing to encounter danger, we have the double advantage of escaping the experience of hardships in anticipation and of facing them in the hour of need as fearlessly as those who are never free from them. [40.1] "Nor are these the only points in which our city is worthy of admiration. We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it. [2] Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, 55

regarding him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and, instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.1 [3] Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. [4] In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours. Yet, of course, the doer of the favour is the firmer friend of the two, in order by continued kindness to keep the recipient in his debt; while the debtor feels less keenly from the very consciousness that the return he makes will be a payment, not a free gift. [5] And it is only the Athenians, who, fearless of consequences, confer their benefits not from calculations of expediency, but in the confidence of liberality. [41.1] "In short, I say that as a city we are the school of all Greece, while I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian. [2] And that this is no mere boast thrown out for the occasion, but plain matter of fact, the power of the state acquired by these habits proves. [3] For Athens alone of her contemporaries is found when tested to be greater than her reputation, and alone gives no occasion to her assailants to blush at the antagonist by whom they have been worsted, or to her subjects to question her title by merit to rule. [4] Rather, the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; we will need no Homer to sing our praises, nor any other poet whose verses might charm for the moment but whose version of events will be discredited by the truth.2 We have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us. [5] Such is the Athens for which these men, in the assertion of their resolve not to lose her, nobly fought and died; and well may every one of their survivors be ready to suffer in her cause. [42.1] "Indeed if I have dwelt at some length upon the character of our country, it has been to show that our stake in the struggle is not the same as theirs who have no such blessings to lose, and also that the panegyric of the men over whom I am now speaking might be by definite proofs established. [2] That panegyric is now in a great measure complete; for the Athens that I have celebrated is only what the heroism of these and their like have made her, men whose fame, unlike that of most Greeks, will be found to be only commensurate with their deserts. And if a test of worth be wanted, it is to be found in their closing scene, and this not only in cases in which it set the final seal upon their merit, but also in those in which it gave the first intimation of their having any. [3] For there is justice in the claim that steadfastness in his country's battles should be as a cloak to cover a man's other imperfections; since the good action has blotted out the bad, and his merit as a citizen more

1 A meeting of the Ecclesia (the main legislative body) required a quorum of 6000. The court system also required 6000 citizens serving jury duty. Athens was a participatory political system. 2 A declaration of profound impiety and secularism! Thucydides is here denouncing the poets, all of whom claim divine inspiration. 56

than outweighed his demerits as an individual.1 [4] But none of these allowed either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment to unnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of a day of freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger. No, holding that vengeance upon their enemies was more to be desired than any personal blessings, and reckoning this to be the most glorious of hazards, they joyfully determined to accept the risk, to make sure of their vengeance, and to let their wishes wait; and while committing to hope the uncertainty of final success, in the business before them they thought fit to act boldly and trust in themselves. Thus choosing to die resisting, rather than to live submitting, they fled only from dishonour, but met danger face to face, and after one brief moment, while at the summit of their fortune, escaped, not from their fear, but from their glory. [43.1] "So these men died like Athenians. You, their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may have a happier issue. And not contented with ideas derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up with the defence of your country, though these would furnish a valuable text to a speaker even before an audience so alive to them as the present, you must yourselves realize the power of Athens, and feed your eyes upon her from day to day, till love of her fills your hearts; and then, when all her greatness shall break upon you, you must reflect that it was by courage, sense of duty, and a keen feeling of honour in action that men were enabled to win all this, and that no personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to deprive their country of their valour, but they laid it at her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could offer. [2] For this offering of their lives made in common by them all they each of them individually received that renown which never grows old, and for a sepulchre, not so much that in which their bones have been deposited, but that noblest of shrines wherein their glory is laid up to be eternally remembered upon every occasion on which deed or story shall call for its commemoration. [3] For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart. [4] These take as your model and, judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour, never decline the dangers of war. [5] For it is not the miserable that would most justly be unsparing of their lives; these have nothing to hope for: it is rather they to whom continued life may bring reverses as yet unknown, and to whom a fall, if it came, would be most tremendous in its consequences. [6] And surely, to a man of spirit, the degradation of cowardice must be immeasurably more grievous than the unfelt death which strikes him in the midst of his strength and patriotism! [44.1] "Comfort, therefore, not condolence, is what I have to offer to the parents of the dead who may be here. Numberless are the chances to which, as they know, the life of man is subject; but fortunate indeed are they who draw for their lot a death so glorious as that which has caused your mourning, and to whom life has been so exactly measured as to terminate in the happiness in which it has been passed. [2] Still I know that this is a hard saying, especially when those are in question of whom you will constantly be reminded by seeing in the homes of others blessings of which once you also boasted: for grief is felt not so much for the want of what we have never known, as for the loss of that to which we have

1 Second secular declaration: you will be judged by your service to the state rather than by the prescriptions of the gods. 57 been long accustomed. [3] Yet you who are still of an age to beget children must bear up in the hope of having others in their stead; not only will they help you to forget those whom you have lost, but will be to the state at once a reinforcement and a security; for never can a fair or just policy be expected of the citizen who does not, like his fellows, bring to the decision the interests and apprehensions of a father. [4] While those of you who have passed your prime must congratulate yourselves with the thought that the best part of your life was fortunate, and that the brief span that remains will be cheered by the fame of the departed. For it is only the love of honour that never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness. [45.1] "Turning to the sons or brothers of the dead, I see an arduous struggle before you. When a man is gone, all are wont to praise him, and should your merit be ever so transcendent, you will still find it difficult not merely to overtake, but even to approach their renown. The living have envy to contend with, while those who are no longer in our path are honoured with a goodwill into which rivalry does not enter. [2] On the other hand, if I must say anything on the subject of female excellence to those of you who will now be in widowhood, it will be all comprised in this brief exhortation. Great will be your glory in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be hers who is least talked of among the men, whether for good or for bad. [46.1] "My task is now finished. I have performed it to the best of my ability, and in word, at least, the requirements of the law are now satisfied. If deeds be in question, those who are here interred have received part of their honours already, and for the rest, their children will be brought up till manhood at the public expense: the state thus offers a valuable prize, as the garland of victory in this race of valour, for the reward both of those who have fallen and their survivors. And where the rewards for merit are greatest, there are found the best citizens. [2] "And now that you have brought to a close your lamentations for your relatives, you may depart."