As Sparta was a Dorian polis, many of its heroic cults have been interpreted as part of Sparta’s so-called ‘Achaian’ policy, which introduced Achaian heroes in order to legitimise its territorial claims in the Peloponnese. This article reviews the topic of ethnicity as a motivating factor behind the instigation of hero-cults in the Greek world. It focuses on three case studies in Sparta: the cult of Agamemnon, the transfer of the bones of Orestes, and of those belonging to his son (...) Teisamenos. By examining the evidence within Greek religious tradition and by placing it in its historical context, I challenge the persisting views associated with the cults of these heroes. In turn, I argue that Sparta worshiped these heroes because they were traditionally local and their foundation was not driven by any ethnic consideration. I emphasise how there has been a scholarly tendency to overuse political interpretation in the understanding of these cults, while their religious significance has been frequently neglected. (shrink)

Jasper Griffin's polemic, in this journal, against what he calls the ‘collectivist school’ of interpretation of Athenian tragedy is welcome, as it encourages clarification of fundamental differences. I do not have the space here to tackle him wherever I think he is wrong, still less construct an argument to the effect that Athenian tragedy was a ‘collective’ phenomenon. Rather I want to do two things. Firstly, the casual reader may have formed the impression that whereas the ‘collectivists’ operate with vague (...) and unsubstantiated notions, Griffin's view has the advantage of being firmly grounded in the ancient texts. This impression I intend to dispel. In doing so I will confine myself to some of G.'s general remarks and to his attack on my own views, as a sample of the quality of his argument. Secondly, I also adduce new material in the hope of advancing the debate on this important issue. (shrink)

This paper explores how gender can operate as a disguise for class in an examination of the self-sacrifice of the Maiden in Euripides' Children of Herakles. In Part I, I discuss the role of human sacrifice in terms of its radical potential to transform society and the role of class struggle in Athens. In Part II, I argue that the representation of women was intimately connected with the social and political life of the polis. In a discussion of iconography, the (...) theater industry and audience I argue that female characters became one of the means by which different groups promoted partisan interests based on class and social status. In Part III, I show how the Maiden solicits the competing interests of the theater audience. After discussing the centrality and marginality of the Maiden's character, I draw upon the funeral oration as a comparative model with which to understand the quite different role of self-sacrifice in tragedy. In addition to representing and mystifying the interests of elite, lower class and marginal groups, the play glorifies a subordinate character whose contradictory social status embodies the social position of other “marginal” members of Athenian society. The play stages a model for taking political action to transform the social system and for commemorating the tragic costs of such undertakings. (shrink)

This article examines how Plato uses mythological symbolisms in the Lysis, specifically those of Hermes, to show how our experience of the good makes possible our capacity to love our friend as an individual, and in so doing overturns the static dualities usually associated with Plato’s ‘metaphysics’. Instead of appealing to allegedly impersonal ideas, Plato refigures Greek mythological understandings of Hermes to signal, first, that friendship is a movement of divine love in which human beings participate and to which they (...) are reoriented so that they may behold their friend as an individual, as a person, and second, that this reorientation is needed to place the dialectical inquiry into friendship upon proper starting points. Instead of eclipsing the individual in the shadow of impersonal ideas, Plato appeals to Hermes, the most human, most creative and thus most political, of Olympians, whose name means windfall [ hermaion], to show how we must open ourselves up to the divine in order fully to love our friend as an individual person. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest przeanalizowanie Ajschylosowej _Orestei _pod kątem wybranych motywów, dynamiki oraz konsekwencji popełnionych zbrodni przez głównych bohaterów tragedii. Wśród motywów występków uwzględniono klątwę rodową Atrydów, indywidualny charakter bohaterów oraz międzypokoleniowy charakter zemsty. Te trzy elementy razem oddziaływały na siebie, potęgując cierpienie ofiar i wzmacniając w bohaterach trylogii przeświadczenie o nieuchronności ludzkiego fatum, które popycha człowieka ku złu. Omawiając dynamikę _Orestei_, zwrócono szczególną uwagę na trzy występujące obok siebie rodzaje mordów: dzieciobójstwo, którego dopuścił się Agamemnon; mężobójstwo (_maritricidium_), które popełniła Klitajmestra, (...) oraz matkobójstwo, którego sprawcą był Orestes. Podobnie jak w przypadku motywów zbrodni, również między nimi zachodzi nierozerwalna zależność przyczynowo-skutkowa. Ostatnia część artykułu zwraca uwagę na konsekwencje popełnionych złych czynów, które zostały ujęte w trzy zasadnicze kategorie. Pierwsza kategoria ma charakter społeczny i dotyczy roli instytucji publicznych w podejmowaniu decyzji o życiu i śmierci obywateli. Druga kategoria ma charakter religijny i stawia pytanie o rolę religii w życiu społecznym, w szczególności o wpływ zmarłych na żywych oraz znaczenie rytuału religijnego w oczyszczeniu zbrodniarza. Trzecia kategoria ma naturę prawną i stawia pytanie o genezę prawa, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem attyckiej procedury sądowej. (shrink)

It is orthodox to state that tragedy encourages its audience to meditate on questions related to living in the polis with the resulting claim that it should promote self-examination among its citizen-spectators. The evidence that tragedy is political in some sense is incontrovertible. And yet, given what is sometimes seen on stage, it is worth exploring this orthodoxy a little and asking if there are limitations to it. In particular, what happens when the city of Athens itself is brought into (...) close contact with tragic suffering? It seems that there were limits to what the Athenians were willing to see of suffering that directly involved their city. This paper suggests that by its nature, tragedy must always contain the possibility of not challenging, but rather reaffirming, the audience’s beliefs about their own city and thus themselves. Modern scholars may possibly over-estimate the Athenians’ ability for self-critique. (shrink)

This article examines how Plato uses mythological symbolisms in the Lysis, specifically those of Hermes, to show how our experience of the good makes possible our capacity to love our friend as an individual, and in so doing overturns the static dualities usually associated with Plato’s ‘metaphysics’. Instead of appealing to allegedly impersonal ideas, Plato refigures Greek mythological understandings of Hermes to signal, first, that friendship is a movement of divine love in which human beings participate and to which they (...) are reoriented so that they may behold their friend as an individual, as a person, and second, that this reorientation is needed to place the dialectical inquiry into friendship upon proper starting points. Instead of eclipsing the individual in the shadow of impersonal ideas, Plato appeals to Hermes, the most human, most creative and thus most political, of Olympians, whose name means windfall [hermaion], to show how we must open ourselves up to the divine in order fully to love our friend as an individual person. (shrink)