- Period of 200 years (the 5th and 4th century BC)
- Starts with the Athenian revolution in 508 BC
- The golden age of Athens
- Ends with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC
Important cities
Tragedy and Comedy
- Not just entertainment, very important for political, culture and civic life (especially in Athens)
- Always somehow connected to the god Dionysus
- Seems to have evolved from choral competitions
- During the golden age of Athens
- Two great festivals
- Lenaia
- In late winter
- Primarily for comedy
- Dionysia
- In spring
- Primarily for tragedy
- Lenaia
- Each year, the eponymous Archon would choose 3 poets who were assigned to compete in the tragic festivals
- He would then select 3 wealthy citizens (choregoi) that would act as a sort of producers to defray the expenses
- Two great festivals
- Ampitheaters
- Plan
- Its capacity was about 15,000
- Great acoustics
- All actors were male
- Actors had masks
- So that they could be identifiable at long distance
- All chorus members were male
- Plan
- Comedy
- The surviving body of 5th century BC Greek comedy is very small
- The only comedies that have survived are written by Aristophanes
- In comparison to tragedy, they used contemporary life rather than myth as their theme
- Moreover, the comic hero is an ordinary person
- Standard comedy structure
- The hero gets an idea
- Thriumps over opposition to it
- Enjoys the fruits of his wonderful idea
Symposium
- It means “drinking together”
- Ritualized event for citizens - Invited guests reclined on couches around the edge of the room
- In the center there was a great mixing bowl called krater in which water and wine were mixed together and served to participants
- There was symposiarch
- He was in charge of keeping things, progressing, orderly, etc.
- Usually the host of the event
- Music was played during the event
- Because there was food and drink, god Dionysus was the presiding divinity there
Women in ancient Greece
- Most of our sources come from Athens
- The law was that a woman of any age had to have an adult male guardian (Kyrios)
- For a girl, that would be her father, for young woman, that would be her husband and if either father or husban died, she would pass to any number of her male relatives
- They could testify at trials, but, they could not, for example, own property (as women could not be citizens)
- Marriage
- They got married in their early teens to a man very much older (in his late 20s, early 30s)
- Marriages were arrange by the Kyrios who came to an agreement with the groom
- Wedding processions generally took place at night
- Divorce was possible
- Women were responsible for managing the household
- Taking care of children and slaves
- Taking care of goods, particularly cloth
- There was a courtesan class of women (hetaire)
- Women were very important in religion
- Many goddesses in myths
- The priestess at athens, the prophet of Apollo at Delphi
- Women’s only religious festivals
- The most famous one was called the Thesmophoria
Foreigners and Slaves in Athens
- Population estimates for Athens
480 BC 432 BC Citizens 25β30K 35β45K Metics 4β5K 10β15K Slaves 30β40K 80β100K Total 125β150K 215K β 300K
- Ancient Greeks had a rather ambivalent attitude toward work
Foreigners
- Some terms
- Metic
- From met-oikos - “one who has changed his home”
- Resident foreigner
- Metoikon
- A special tax paid by a metic
- Prostates
- Citizen sponsor for a metic
- Metic
- If they were there only for a short time, they were just visitors, but longer they gained the metic status and had to pay metoikon
- Rights
- They had some legal protection
- They had to perform military service when called on
- They had no political rights
- They could not own land in Attica
- They could not intermarry
- They were mostly drawn to Athens because of money and opportunities
- Metics could be and were very important and wealthy
- E.g. Lysias
- Some terms
Slaves
- There’s a variety of unfree labor
- Helots
- Serfs
- Peasant farmers
- Chattel slavery
- One person owns another
- Present in all greek communities
- The primary source of slaves
- Debt bondage
- After Solon’s reforms, slaves were necessarily foreigners
- So they were atomized and had no “slave consciousness”
- So they never revolted
- So they were atomized and had no “slave consciousness”
- They worked in agriculture and in workshops too
- They were a part of the household, they could even serve as tutors for the young
- But they were still property
- They could be sold, loaned out, etc.
- They could be subject to abuse of any kind except for murder
- A slave, if freed, would become a metic
- With his former owner as his sponsor
- See the extraordinary story of Pasion
- There’s a variety of unfree labor
