9 The Struggle for Greek Democracy

1. 9 The Struggle for Greek Democracy

2. Monotheism as religion of empire • 1) Animism (of Persian nomads) • 2) Anthropomorphic polytheism (of Mesopotamia) • 3) (Animistic) monotheism (of new Persian State) • Ethical religion of moral good versus evil • Repeats Egyptian pattern of Akhenaton, but more successfully. Why? • Advantages for empire for most Egyptians are abstract, in the future, remote from ordinary life • Disadvantages for local priests and powers are very evident

3. Advantages of New Religion in Mesopotamia • Advantages for Persians • Old animism is place-related • Conquering Persian rulers leave old places • So open to new belief in a God of Light • Preserves animistic (naturalistic) character • Advantages for Mesopotamians: • Old Mesopotamian gods are arbitrary, oppressive, • not ethical (recall explanation of the Flood) • Responds to new situation: agriculture on rain-watered lands away from the old irrigation state

4. Failure or Victory for Iron Age Mesopotamian Peasants? • 1) Seek complete freedom on rain-watered lands (V) • 2) Provoke intensified violence of Assyrians (U) • 3) Final result: moderate rule of Persia (V+U) • Great power of Persia dominates vast territory (see map, p. 135) • 4) Confronts new iron age city-states of Greece

5. Three states • Harappa: trade-based civilization • Persia: old style of civilization channels spread of new iron-age agriculture • Greece: • iron-age agriculture developing independently, • and trading state

6. Outline re Greece • 1) Geographical position and history • Riddle of the Sphinx => the solution of Greece • 2) The implications of the new elements of history for democracy • Iron • Alphabet • Trade • 3) The Struggle for Greek democracy: obstacles to freedom • From the outside • From within • 4) Evolution of Greek Religion: from religion to philosophy

7. 1) Greek Peasants Gain Freedom • Iron plow of free “man” • Position in relation to Persia • Not too far • Not too close • Protected from Persia by mountains, Aegean sea (map, p. 150)

8. Geographical basis and history • Inner geography: Plains separated by mountains • > Independent, divided city states • What does this lead to? • (compare with Mesopotamia) • When do the Greeks fight each other? • 1) Persian war • 2) Peloponnesian war

9. Early Greek Unity • Greeks first unite against Persian invader • Then, after the Persians are defeated, they fight each other • Greeks win Persian War (490-465 BCE) • How? • Clue: Riddle of the Sphinx

10. Riddle of the Sphinx • Sphinx (p. 74) symbol of Egypt, old order • Sphinx guards narrow mountain pass • Narrow passes into Greece • Persians held off at Battle of Thermopylae (narrow coastal pass) (480) by Spartan “300” led by Leonidas • Poses riddle: solve it or die • Oedipus solves riddle • “Man” is the higher principle of Greece (Hegel)—the beautiful, free (male) human being

11. “Man” as Solution of the Riddle • Hunter-gatherers – dependent on nature • Nature religion (animism) • Early state civilizations – ruled by outside powers, gods/God • Arbitrary tyranny of gods > kings as gods on earth • But trend of ethical monotheism (Akhenaton, Zoroaster, Hebrew Bible) • Greek discovery: the human being as an independent power • “Man is the measure of all things.” – Protagoras (481-420 BCE)

12. Greek civilization breaks with nature • Many things cause terror and wonder, yet nothing • is more terrifying and wonderful than man. • This thing goes across the gray • sea on the blasts of winter • storms, passing beneath • waters towering 'round him. The Earth, • eldest of the gods, • unwithering and untiring, this thing wears down • as his plows go back and forth year after year • furrowing her with the issue of horses. (Antigone, 332-41)

13. 2) New Elements in History (repeat) • 1) From bronze age to iron age: • New material technology • 2) Growing trade between societies • New social elements: merchants • 3) From hieroglyphics to the alphabet: • New mental technology

14. Sources of democracy • Iron technology • Bronze: aristocratic • Iron: democratic • Alphabet • Hieroglyphic writing: aristocratic • Phonetic alphabet as democratic mental technology

15. Promise of the new technology • Iron as a democratic metal v bronze • Greater productivity of labor, surpluses • More leisure time for arts, science, philosophy • > A state (government?) of free people ruling themselves • But in Mesopotamia, the old Bronze Age state channels the new forces within the old framework

16. Implications of Trade • 1) Democracy: What counts is the money, not the person • 2) Reasoning, calculating, math is required by merchants • => Philosophy: rise of independent reasoning, versus dictates of religious authority, priesthood

17. Trade and the rise of Philosophy • Relation between Wheat and Wine? • Qualitative differences in appearance • Trade: X bushels of Wheat = Y bottles of Wine ?? • What makes two different things equal? • X Wheat = $20 • Y Wine = $20 • Quantitative calculations of reason replace qualitative experiences • Why are they equal? • Not because of taste, appearance, amounts but …??? • => Philosophical reason seeks deeper truth under sensuous appearances

18. How democratic was it? • 1) Early non-state societies • 2) Hierarchical state, monarchy • 3) Greek “democratic” state • State or government? • Free men: 1/6 of population of Athens • = a minority rules over a majority • Hegel on movement of history: • One is free > Some are free > All are free

19. 3) Two obstacles to freedom • External: the old bronze-age state • “Dynamism” of Mesopotamia • > Moderate, but powerful state of Persia • But Greece defeats the old state; • And so Greece has an opportunity to develop the full potentialities of iron age agriculture • Internal • Growth of inequality from within

20. Rise of Inequality from Within • Natural development of unequal wealth • Land is tilled by separate families • Population growth • From rich to poor lands • > Impoverishment and enslavement • Debt servitude

21. Two solutions: Flight and Fight • Importance of emigration in early Greek history • Sea travel improves, opens up new paths to freedom • Colonies grow up on coast of Asia Minor (p. 150) • Cause of Persian War • Threat of internal war between classes • Wars between rich and poor

22. Military advantages of the poor • No powerful state (yet) • Cheap iron weapons • > Hoplite (phalanx) formation (119) • Versus aristocratic charioteers • Requires discipline, leisure > wealth • Egalitarian military formation • > Freedom of citizens is essential to military strength of polis

25. 4) “Religion” of the free, beautiful man • See statue of dying Gaul http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Gaul • Compare Darius (138) • Hegel: free, beautiful man (male) as central “religion” for Greeks

27. Paradox of Greece in the History of religion • Stone Age: Animism • Bronze Age: Anthropomorphic polytheism: • The decrees of the gods in Gilgamesh • Iron Age: Monotheism • The Ethical commandments of Yahweh in the Bible—also Zoroaster in Persia • Greece: Iron Age civilization, but with a Bronze Age religion of anthropomorphic polytheism

28. Blocked Evolution of Greek Religion • Anthropomorphic polytheism seems to contradict ideas of • “free beautiful individuality” and “man” as center (answer to Riddle of Sphinx) • Human reason seeking truth behind appearances • Further evolution -- to monotheism? • But the beautiful Homeric poetry blocks further development re gods, divine

29. No Religion of Empire • (Animistic) monotheism of Akhenaton, Zoroaster • Unites people of radically different religions • Difficulties of Pantheon method of unification of religions • But Greek city states do not unite • Homer’s Bronze Age Pantheon of gods remains in place • > Failure of Alexander’s Empire • No unifying new belief system to unite Greece, Persia, Egypt, India …

30. Transformation of Greek Religion • See Athena (149) • = symbol of Athens, the city-state—the polis • New function of religion: Focus on the (free) city-state • => Worship ourselves! • Oracle at Delphi: Know Yourself • Philosophy: Think for yourself!

31. History of Greek Thought • 1) Animism (religion of mother Earth) • Trampled on by Man, with iron plow • 2) Anthropomorphic polytheism of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey • Beauty of expression, psychological accuracy of the anthropomorphic qualities of the gods • Blocks further evolution of religious thought • > Failure of Greek empire of Alexander: no religion of empire? • 3) Philosophy: Know yourself! Think for yourself • Democracy

32. From Religion to Philosophy • Socrates: Is something good because the gods command it, or do the gods command it because it is good? (Plato’s Euthyphro) • It is good (only) because the Gods say so: focus on religious authority • The gods say so because it is good (independent of what the gods or anyone might think): focus on the truth of the matter, using our own minds

33. Socrates’ “crime” • Socrates/Plato replace focus on religious authority with philosophy: people can think for themselves about what is good. • Is this “impiety” to the gods? Atheism? • Alleged crimes of Socrates: “he denies the gods and corrupts the youth”