Plutarch, Pericles 8. Pericles’ chief political opponent was named Thucydides (possibly related to the historian of the same name).
“Fine,” spat the old man, “get on with it, and spend what you like, as long as not one piece of silver comes out of your blasted pockets.”
The Acropolis: the dawn of time
“I saw it first, Athena,” said Poseidon testily, “and it’s mine.”
It was true. As the lord of the ocean cavorted in the sea one day, a gleaming white rock about a mile ashore caught his attention. Upon further investigation, he found the site to be not only beautiful but also strategic, commanding broad views of the surrounding plain. Poseidon resolved that it should be sacred to him, and the few rude humans who had been living there would worship him.
Then Athena arrived to see what had captured her uncle’s notice. As goddess of both wisdom and war, she quickly recognized the value of the Acropolis and laid claim to it as well.
Poseidon’s anger at Athena’s challenge set off earthquakes, and the fur-clad humans who witnessed this standoff muttered uneasily as the rock moved beneath them.
Athena was unimpressed. Instead, she gestured toward the men. “Why not let them choose? They are the ones who will be worshipping one or the other of us, so they may as well have a voice in the matter.”
Poseidon thought for a moment, then grasped his trident and jabbed it deep into the rock. A spring gushed forth – salt water, the men discovered when they stuck their hands in it to be sure it was real. Poseidon folded his arms smugly as they marveled at his power.
Amasis Painter, olpe with the contest between Athena and Poseidon, c. 540 BC.
Athena stretched out her hand. At first nothing happened, and Poseidon looked even more smug. Then a small rock tumbled over. A green shoot appeared where it had been and promptly grew into a small but sturdy tree with silvery leaves and green fruit.
Athena beckoned to the men. “This,” she said, “is an olive tree.”
A man picked one of the fruits and took a bite, which he quickly spit out. Rinsing his mouth with the salt water, he sputtered, “It’s terrible! Must be poison.”
“It is nothing of the sort. It just needs to be prepared correctly,” Athena replied. Poseidon yawned. She glared at him and went on: “The fruits are hard and bitter now, but if you cure them in salt they become delicious and will last a long time. Or you can press them and they’ll give you a wonderful oil that can be used for everything from cooking to dressing your hair. The tree itself can grow out of a rock and it takes care of itself.”
Athena let the men come to the obvious conclusion. While a salt spring might be impressive, it was of little practical use since the water couldn’t be drunk. This tree, on the other hand, offered shade from the sun as well as food and oil. In the end, the men voted unanimously to accept Athena’s gift. Athens had her patroness.
So goes the myth of the founding of Athens, setting the stage for the great developments that took place in the city from the sixth to the fourth century BC – developments that reverberate through Western culture to the present day. The Athenians viewed themselves as being specially favored by the goddess of wisdom and war, and they believed that as long as they and their exceptional city were under her protection they would excel in both. But as legend told them, they had not passively received favors from the Olympians; they had made the crucial decision about the destiny of their city themselves.
The Theater of Dionysus: April 472 BC
“A curse is a heavy thing, Pericles,” sighed Aeschylus.
“Don’t I know it,” Pericles replied wryly.
“It’s certainly not something to joke about,” the older man scolded. “I know more about curses than any other man in Athens.” He was, after all, the city’s foremost writer of tragedy.
The revered playwright and the young politician were sitting on wooden seats above the circular stage of the Theater of Dionysus, watching the final dress rehearsal for The Persians. The annual drama festival would begin the next day, and a trio of tragedies by Aeschylus were considered frontrunners for the top prize. The Persians in particular was attracting attention because it featured a contemporary event – the invasion of Greece by the Persian Empire – rather than a traditional subject such as the affairs of the gods or the legendary deeds of ancient heroes. Comedies, another innovation, had recently brought a lighter note to the popular theater festivals, but Athenians always preferred the tragedies, the darker and more heartrending the better. They appear to have reveled in painful topics, relishing the sight of the powerful and wellborn grappling with the same merciless fate that beset the common people.
Pericles was serving as the choregos, or producer, for Aeschylus at the Festival of Dionysus.44 The Athenian governing council, the Boule, honored selected wealthy citizens by allowing them to pay for the plays. The choregos was also responsible for hiring the actors, training the musicians, and overseeing the sets. Pericles had recently received a substantial inheritance when his father died, and he was delighted to have been chosen as the producer for Aeschylus.
Stephen V. Tracy, Pericles: A Sourcebook and Reader (University of California, 2009), 15, 22. Of the three tragedies that Aeschylus presented at this festival, only The Persians survives. The first play, Phineas, and the third, Glaucus, apparently both dealt with more traditional, mythological subjects.
Modern remains of the Theater of Dionysus, originally constructed in the 4th century BC.
Then in his early twenties, Pericles had been considered a shy boy, hardly noticed in the shadow of his politician father and patrician mother. But in fact he had spent his time preparing, studying everything from philosophy to military tactics to human nature. He knew that some people joked about his mother’s account of dreaming she had given birth to a lion the night he was born, but Pericles took the story seriously. Now he was ready to start making a name for himself.
Everything he had observed over his first two decades convinced Pericles that his city’s achievements – culminating in the defeat of the Persians – were attributable to the unique form of government that had taken shape in the previous century. After the Greeks had emerged from the murky period that followed the breakup of the Mycenæan civilization around 1100 BC, Athens was ruled by a series of aristocratic clans who raised armies and dispensed justice. These families also enriched themselves by assuming the debts of the less fortunate, and eventually taking their freedom when they were unable to repay. More and more of the population lived in a condition of virtual slavery, as wealth and power were concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer families.
At the end of the sixth century, the situation came to a head. Cleisthenes, of the powerful Alcmæonid family (from which Pericles was descended through his mother), attempted a thorough overhaul of the government to outlaw the practice of enslavement for debt and to extend voting rights to a broader base of citizens. This would effectively disenfranchise the council of nobles, who were used to a more exclusive authority. Not surprisingly, the oligarchs objected, and a few established themselves as tyrants. Cleisthenes was exiled.
Then a remarkable thing happened. The rest of the upper classes allied with the common people and rose up against the tyrants. Besieged in the old temple on the Acropolis, the former oppressors had to sue for mercy before being exiled themselves. In 505 BC, Cleisthenes made a triumphant return, after which he codified his reforms in the Athenian constitution.55 According to this document, Athens was ruled by the Ecclesia, or people’s assembly, which voted directly on legislation and was open to all