Farms, Markets and the Idea of Citizenship

Nigel Nicholson, 9/13/2000

Introduction

1. The structure of Dark Age society
2. The Polis and the Agora
3. Reasons for the development of the Polis
   1. religious citizenship
   2. phalanx consciousness
   3. land ownership, Justice and wages

Conclusion: The Irony of Hesiod

 

Terms: Polis (plural poleis), agathoi (esthloi), kakoi, boulé, agora, phalanx, hoplite

Dates

1125-750 Dark Age

850-750 Late Dark Age

750-480 The Archaic Age

750-650 Early Archaic

[Agathoi and kakoi begin to be integrated in cemeteries c.760]

 

1. Crossed over to Khalkis, I did, to the funeral games

For old Amphidamas. The great man’s sons had put up

Prizes aplenty for the contest, and I’m proud to say

I won in the songfest and took home an eared tripod.

Dedicated it to the Helikonian Muses, on the very spot

Where they first set me on the road to clear song.

W&D, 725-30 (Lombardo); cf. 654-59 in Athanassakis

2. Slave woman, 459 (Ath, 406); hired laborers, 416-8, 667 (Ath, 370-72, 602); other workers, probably serfs, 494-6, 563, 662, 667, 673, 846, 865 (Ath, 441-45, 559-60, 598, 602, 607, 766, 767)

3. The most important distinction within the ideal structures of [Dark Age and Archaic] Attic society was that between the agathoi, a group which included both aristocrats and wealthy but non-governing peasants, and the kakoi, the poor. Certainly there was probably friction between the nobles and wealthy peasants who felt they were unfairly excluded from political power, and who doubtless tried individually and collectively to enter the governing group…, but… the main dynamic in the rise of the polis was the struggle between the whole group of agathoi and the kakoi. (Morris, 95)

4. So tell your workers while it’s midsummer:

"It won’t always be summer, start building your sheds." (W&D, 563-4; cf. Ath, 502-3)

5. The citizen, understood most simply, is defined by nothing else so much as by his participation in judgment and office. (Aristotle, Politics 1275a)

6. The essence of the polis was the identity of the citizens with the state. …The ethic of a polis was almost a stateless state, autonomous from all dominant-class interests by being isomorphic with the citizen body. The citizens were the state. (Morris, 2-3)

7. The remarkable development of the religious element in the Greek society of [760 to 600] shows that the polis constituted the formal expression of a religious cohesion. It centered on cults that not only protected its integrity and growth, but were also capable of welding into a single community all the groups that had previously lived in geographical or social proximity without, however, being linked by any constricting cohesion. It was around these cults that, under the pressure of circumstances, a territorial solidarity eventually came to be established, and this brought in its train the dissolution of ancient cleavages and a redefinition of the relations between local elites, between conquerors and conquered, and in general, between dominators and dominated. (de Polignac, 78)

8. From its very beginnings what the hoplite seems to offer is a complete reciprocity between the phalanx and the first Greek city. Not a simple temporal coincidence, but an actual structural homology and identity of model. The essential characteristics of the phalanx man can be reduced to one, similarity: the equipment is the same, the battle position is the same, the military style is the same. Composed of interchangeable units, the phalanx seems to represent a Republic of Equals; it is the perfect candidate for the first model of the city where each citizen defines himself as like all the others, as an interchangeable unit. The political model and the military model are perfectly homologous. (Detienne, 140)

9. Nor do famine or blight

Ever afflict folk who deal squarely with each other.

They feast on the fruits of their tended fields,

And the earth bears them a good living too.

Mountain oaks yield them acorns at the crown,

Bees and honey from the trunk. Their sheep

Are hefty with fleece, and women bear children

Who look like their parents. In short, they thrive

On all the good things life has to offer, and they

Never travel on ships. The soil is their whole life. (W&D, 266-275; cf. Ath, 230-37)

 

10. When it comes down to it

Justice beats out Violence. A fool learns this the hard way.

Also Oath, who’s a god, keeps up with crooked verdicts,

And there’s a ruckus when the Lady Justice

Gets dragged through the streets by corrupt judges

Who swallow bribes and pervert their verdicts.

Later she finds her way back into town (polis), weeping,

Wrapped in mist, and she gives grief to the men

Who drove her out and didn’t do right by her. (W&D, 252-60; cf. Ath, 217-224)

 

11. Let the wages for a friend be settled on and fixed,

Even if he’s your brother. You can shake hands and smile,

But get a witness. Trust and mistrust both ruin men. (W&D, 416-8; cf. Ath, 370-72)

 

12. Now, Perses,… don’t let the mischief-loving Eris keep you from your work,

Spending all your time in the market eyeballing quarrels

And listening to lawsuits. A person hasn’t any business

Wasting time at the market unless he’s got a year’s supply

Of food put by, grain from Demeter out of the ground.

When you’ve got plenty of that, you can start squabbling

Over other people’s money. (W&D, 42-49; cf. Ath, 27-34) 

Bibliography

Marcel Detienne, "La Phalange," Problèmes de la Guerre en Grèce Ancienne, ed. J-P. Vernant (Paris, 1985), 119-42

Chris Gregory, Gifts and commodities ( London, 1982)

Robert Lamberton, introduction to Hesiod Works and Days and Theogony (Hackett, 1993)

Ian Morris, Burial and Ancient Society (Cambridge, 1987)

Oswyn Murray, Early Greece (Harvard, 1993)

François de Polignac, Cults, Territory and the Origins of the Greek City-State (Chicago, 1995)

David Stockton, The Classical Athenian Democracy (Oxford, 1990)