Kairos: a cultural history of time in the Greek polis by Richard K. Persky A dissertation submitted in partial fulfullment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Classical Studies) in the University of Michigan 2009 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Sara Forsdyke, Chair Professor Raymond H. Van Dam Associate Professor Arthur M.F.W. Verhoogt Assistant Professor Ian S. Moyer © 2009 Richard K. Persky Acknowledgements A project of this scope cannot be done without many and varied kinds of support. Sara Forsdyke has been a better advisor than I could have known to ask for, and her help and guidance (even from a different continent) were invaluable. My committee members, Ray Van Dam, Arthur Verhoogt, and Ian Moyer also have my gratitude for their patience and invaluable suggestions, and David Potter’s sharp eye and generous advice also did much to improve the following pages. The unsung hero of Michigan Classics, Michelle Biggs, earned my heartfelt thanks by making sure the paperwork always went smoothly and always being ready and able to explain the latest demand of the bureaucracy. My in-town, out-of-department friends Murph and Cara Murphy, Jonathan Bober, Rob Grant, and Michael Cohn made great efforts to keep my social life alive. Though the consequences of missing a game night could be high, I appreciated every minute when we were all there together. The people who saw the most of me while I was working on my dissertation, however, were my officemates in 2139 Angell and other colleagues. For everything from help clarifying ideas, to the chance to hear each other’s brilliant ideas, to baked goods and the occasional invocation of chaos, I especially want to thank Kathryn Seidel Steed, Amanda Regan, Nate Andrade, Julia Shapiro, Britta Ager, Karen Acton, Dina Guth, Rebecca Sears, Evelyn Adkins, Joe Groves, and Cassandra Borges. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements..............................................................................................ii Introduction .........................................................................................................1 Chapter I: The goals of timekeeping.....................................................................5 Introduction .........................................................................................................5 Astronomy and timekeeping ................................................................................7 Timekeeping without astronomy: comparative examples ...................................11 Agricultural time................................................................................................14 Hesiod: Signs to the kairos ................................................................................17 Meton and the intersection of astronomy and meteorology.................................22 Astronomers’ time, layman’s time: Egyptian and Greek calendars .....................29 Athenian timekeeping ........................................................................................34 Athenian calendars.............................................................................................36 Adjusting the calendars......................................................................................39 “Routine” and “irregular” intercalations.............................................................42 Irregular intercalation at Athens.........................................................................44 Internal views I: How Athenians talked about time ............................................50 Internal views II: Time according to Aristophanes .............................................54 Conclusions .......................................................................................................60 Chapter II: Helikai: Ancient Greek age-classes ..................................................62 Introduction .......................................................................................................62 Defining age classes...........................................................................................65 The problem of statelessness..............................................................................69 Expanding the role of age-classes: Conscription by age .....................................74 Age classes and military discipline: a comparative study....................................79 Citizen adulthood at a glance .............................................................................87 Athens: Age and entry into citizenship...............................................................88 Ephebes and the performance of status...............................................................95 Athenian and Spartan age grades......................................................................101 Spartan complications......................................................................................106 Conclusions .....................................................................................................110 Chapter III: History in the courtroom...............................................................112 Introduction .....................................................................................................112 Lysias 7, On the Olive Stump ..........................................................................115 Public dates in private transactions?.................................................................128 iii Isaeus 6, On the Estate of Philotekmon ............................................................133 The Sicilian Expedition viewed from 50 years later .........................................137 Social expectations and women’s ages.............................................................142 When Athenian women married.......................................................................143 Demosthenes, On the Crown............................................................................150 Demosthenes and kairos ..................................................................................156 The fall of Elateia and manipulation of memory...............................................158 Conclusions .....................................................................................................167 Chapter IV: Time and community from deme to oikumene...............................169 Introduction .....................................................................................................169 From Hesiod to the practicalities of cult...........................................................174 Patchwork Attica .............................................................................................177 A case study: the deme of Marathon and the Marathonian Tetrapolis...............181 Deme and Tetrapolis........................................................................................183 Simultaneous festivals and Attic networks .......................................................188 In Marathon and everywhere: Panhellenism and simultaneity ..........................192 In Athens and Ionia: the Apatouria...................................................................197 Colonies and mother cities’ festivals................................................................204 A case study in colonial foundations: Thourioi.................................................205 A comic aside: Cloudcuckooland.....................................................................208 Colonization and empire: Athens’ Brea decree.................................................208 Colonization and empire: Amphipolis..............................................................215 Conclusions .....................................................................................................220 Conclusion.......................................................................................................223 Works Cited.....................................................................................................226 iv Introduction Human experience of time is shaped by cultural constructs. Not even seemingly- basic categories such as “day” and “year” are universally agreed upon; a day can begin at sunrise, sunset, or at some certain fixed hour, while different calendrical systems use different lengths of year, and such variations as academic years and fiscal years have their own rules within a larger system. This dissertation is intended to call attention to distinctive aspects of constructions of time in Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. The concept of kairos, I believe, is at the heart of Greek approaches to time. “Kairos” denotes a moment of opportunity, the right time to do the right thing, and states and individuals alike valued the flexibility to watch for and respond to a kairos. Each chapter addresses a different aspect of the experience of time in Classical Greece. Chapter 1 introduces the idea of different kinds of time, their relations with each other, and the central concept of the kairos. Agriculture, religion, and civic business each had their own schedules. Social institutions and knowledge traditions guided individuals and communities through navigating these schedules. Ultimately, the practice of observing and interpreting signs that indicate a kairos was the foundation of Greek approaches to time. In chapter 2, I turn from the year and the calendar to the human lifespan and social age. Athens and Sparta both used