Ancient Greek Civilization

were used to maintain public order and place citizens under arrest. But most Athenian slaves were ...

poor citizens, but nothing could be done to reduce the rivalry among the aristoi. As we saw in chapter 5, t ...

Map 11 Cleisthenes’ organization of Attica according to demes, trittyes, and tribes. Source: Map reproduced from ...

DEME A local territorial district, either a village or a neighborhood of a larger urban area; also, ...

the largest number of votes – but only if the total number of votes cast exceeded 6,000 – was given ...

“He was successful in subsidizing an entry in the competition for tragedies, a contest that already at that time ...

Persians, namely the Greek cities along the coast of Asia Minor and on the Aegean islands. This was, acc ...

Figure 42 Fragment of an inscription on marble listing the allies of Athens and the sixtieth part of each cit ...

of the roles that society imposes on individuals. Thus, in the drama, a male Athenian citizen can play ...

historical significance and because of its literary accomplishment. The play is concerned with the Persian defe ...

10 judges, one from each tribe, voted to decide the victor in the competition. The prize, apparently, was a go ...

Orestes has fled from the Furies and has taken refuge at the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. He is now at the c ...

Lattimore’s powerful version of The Oresteia and Seth Benardete’s translation of The Persians. Kennell, N. M. Sp ...

8 HISTORY AND TRAGEDY IN THE FIFTH CENTURY Herodotus and the Invention of History Books and Readers Sophocles Other ...

Herodotus and the Invention of History As we have seen, the outcome of the Persian Wars was unexpected. Even th ...

himself. The Iliad begins, after a request of the Muse that she sing of the anger of Achilles and the ...

these mythical accounts and later “historical” events, he calls attention to these myths by placing them ...

expansion brought them into contact with their Persian neighbors, by whom they were eventually conquered ...

then, through overconfidence, inevitably overextend themselves and suffer retribution, is clearly related to the conve ...

topography of Scythia and the nomadic ways of its inhabitants, both of which are described at some length. Sin ...