Plutarch
Solon was famous for advocating democracy and creating laws. When he was asked if he had given Athens the best laws that could be given, he said, “The best they could receive.” This meant there could have been better laws, but the Athenians would not have accepted them. There are several laws mentioned by Plutarch that Solon was responsible for creating. Solon would pass something called the Mortgage Law which made it illegal to bind a debtor’s body to the creditor if the loan went into default. This was good for the poor because the rich took advantage of the poor. The debtor essentially would become a slave if he could not pay his loan. Solon also put an end to Draco’s laws, except for offenses related to homicide, which were too harsh in Solons opinion. With Draco laws every offense ranging from idleness to theft to murder was punishable by death. Plutarch viewed Solon as a fair and just man. This almost became a burden to Solon because he was so fair and just that he never pleased either side.
Themistocles was an Athenian politician and general. He represented the poor class because he came from a very poor background. Themistocles was well known for his support of building up a navy. His main rival, Aristides, stressed land power. This rivalry will eventually lead to the ostracism of Aristides. The Athenians, while being led by Themistocles, had a great naval victory at Salamis against the Persians. Themistocles had tricked the Persians by convincing them that the Greeks were fleeing. However, his good fortune in Athens does not last forever. He will be ostracized for suspicions that he is too close to the Persians. Ironically, when he leaves Athens he is accepted into the council of the Persian king, becoming an ...
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... sailed away and watched the city burn. There were several other important events that took place during her life, but those two are by far the most important.
Georgiana was an amazing figure in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Her family tree continues to have great influence in Britain today. Princess Diana was a distant relative of Georgiana’s. That relationship seems to fit because both were very influential and well liked. They were both extremely beautiful as well. Prince William and Prince Harry now continue Georgiana’s blood line in British royalty. Princess Kate will need to become incredibly influential if she plans on having as much influence as Georgiana. The new Duchess of Cambridge will have a difficult time becoming as prominent as the old Duchess of Devonshire, however, she should be able to drink and gamble less than Georgiana.
The Role of Themistocles in the Greek Defeat of the Persians in 480 - 479 BC.
Then came Solon, mostly known for trying to remain “neutral” during his years as a law giver. Knowing that men are hard to please, Solon, throughout his reform, attempts to remain just. The first and foremost thing Solon did was cancel all debts. During his period of time, he al...
Throughout history, many great figures possessing extraordinary qualities have reshaped the past and have manipulated historical events. Such an example is Themistocles. Themistocles, thriving from 524-459 BCE, was an Athenian politician who was renowned by many as a great leader who obtained intellect, courage and integrity. Also known as being the saviour of Greece, the profound individual believed that the entirety of the human political experience could be reduced to symmetry and order. In order to unleash his true potential, though, he was forced to relocate from the remoteness of eastern Africa into the city, marrying the daughter of Lysander of Alopeke. Thus, it can be stated that Themistocles was a profound politician who possessed
Themistocles, an Athenian statesman, general, politician and naval tactician. He was crucial to the Greek’s victory in the Persian Wars, and was one of the central persons that lead to Greece’s survival. (Burn, 2016) (Cartwright, 2016) His contribution towards Greece was more than that of any other individual, however, there are others that had a significance throughout the Persian wars.
Undoubtedly there has been a tremendous amount of speculation and dissection of this play by countless people throughout the ages. I can only draw my own conclusions as to what Sophocles intended the meaning of his play to be. The drama included a number of horrific and unthinkable moral and ethical dilemas, but I believe that was what made the play so interesting and that is exactly the way Sophocles intended it to be. The play was obviously meant to entertain and portray the author’s own insight. The underlying theme to the play is that no man should know his own destiny, it will become his undoing. This knowledge of things to come was presented to both Laius and Oedipus in the form of prophecies well in advance of it coming to be. The prophecies told of things that were so morally disturbing that they both aggressively did everything in their power to try and stop them from coming true. The story begins with Oedipus at the height of power as King of Thebes. His kingdom has encountered rough times and he has sent his nobleman Creon to seek help from the god Apollo to restore his land. Creon tells Oedipus that he must find the murderer of the previous King Laius and by finding this man and banishing him, his land will be restored. The murder occurred some time ago and King Oedipus sends for the seer Theiresias with his powers of prophecy to aid in the search for the murderer. Sophocles cleverly projects his feelings on wisdom and knowledge through Teirsias when he says “Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the man that’s wise!”(23) Teirsias knows that this terrible prophecy has already been set into motion and the damage has already been done. There is really no point in telling it to Oedipus because it will only cause more harm than good. Oedipus provokes Teirsias into telling him the prophecy, “ Í tell you, king, this man, this murderer-he is here. In name he is a stranger among citizens but soon he will be shown to be a citizen true native Theban, and he’ll have no joy of the discovery: blindness for sight and beggary for riches his exchange, he shall go journeying to a foreign country tapping his way befor him with a stick.
Sometime during the period of 594/3 to 570 B.C., the citizens of Athens gave one of their foremost statesmen, Solon, the task of creating new laws for them because of troubles that had been plaguing them. There are several theories as to when Solon's work was completed. The date of Solon's legislation has always been in question and a date that everyone agrees with has never been proposed. There is evidence for several different dates. The first is 594/3, the year in which Solon was the Eponymous archon in Athens. This argument has several claims to its defense but also many arguments against it. Another major date proposed is not so much a specific date as it is a span of time in which he may have started and/or completed his nomothesia. The span of time proposed is between ca. 580 - 570 B.C. The date of 580 - 570 B.C. is by far the more likely date for him to have completed his legislation. The arguments for this case are far more convincing than those arguing that he completed his legislation in his archonship during 594/3. The first is that it would be very difficult to complete a project so large as to write an entire law code in one year. The next is that it was recorded by Aristotle that Solon travelled for a ten year peiod and on his journeys, viewed the laws of other lands. It makes sense that he would then have written his laws after that. Another major argument in favour of the later date is that there was much trouble in Athens in the 590's and 80's. This was probably the trouble which spurred the people of Athens to have Solon create new laws, on the other hand if the situation in Athens was as bad as Aristotle would have us believe then why would Solon wait to lay down the law, it would have m...
Aristotle defined a tragic story as the adventure of a good man who reaches his ultimate downfall because he pushed his greatest quality too far. Sophocles advocates the definition in the tragic play Oedipus Rex. He develops the play with the great polarities of fame and shame, sight and blindness, and ignorance and insight to show Oedipus’ experiences in search for knowledge about his identity. Through his search, Oedipus pushes his quest for truth too far and ultimately reaches his doom. Oedipus’ reliance on his intellect is his greatest strength and ultimate downfall.
Theseus was a very important Greek hero who combined strength, power and wisdom. He was also the mythical founder of Athens, Greece. In comparison to Oedipus, they were very much similar. Theseus and Oedipus were both faced with hardships as adolescents and adulthood as well and they were both unknowingly born into royalty. Not only is Theseus a hero in his own realm of mythology, but he is also a hero in this story. From the moment he learned of Oedipus and Antigone’s presence, he had been nothing less than kind and
The aristocrat Pericles was responsible in every way for the development of the Athenian democracy. Pericles was one of the rare men who didn’t just accept the world’s conditions, but he tried to shape it to an image in his mind, the image of a perfect, or almost perfect democracy.# He was a high government official in the Athenian democracy during the years 446-429 B.C., which is now called the Periclean Age. He wasn’t the founder or inventor of democracy but he came to its leadership 50 years after it started while it was still growing or developing. Under his rule, Athens developed a direct democracy which allowed many citizens to take part in the day-to-day government affairs. Athenian power and influences increases with this. Pericles founded Athenian colonies, helping to convert a coalition into an Athenian empire.#
Oedipus Rex”, by Socrates, is a play that shows the fault of men and the ultimate power of the gods. Throughout the play, the main character, Oedipus, continually failed to recognize the fault in human condition, and these failures let to his ultimate demise. Oedipus failed to realize that he, himself was the true answer to the riddle of the Sphinx. Oedipus ignored the truth told to him by the oracles and the drunk at the party, also. These attempts to get around his fate which was determined by the gods was his biggest mistake. Oedipus was filled with hubris and this angered the gods. He believed he was more that a man. These beliefs cause him to ignore the limits he had in being a man. Oedipus needed to look at Teiresias as his window to his future.
In the play, Oedipus the King, blindness is used metaphorically and physically to characterize several personas , and the images of clarity and vision are used as symbols for knowledge and insight. Enlightenment and darkness are used in much the same manner, to demonstrate the darkness of ignorance, and the irony of vision without sight.
The Greeks were able to continue living the way they had done so. Themistocles, though, let his ambitions overpower him. This then resulted in a rage of the assembly. He was banned from Greece and forced to flee to the country he once had fought, Persia. There he became a Persian, being able to speak Greece and also serving as one of the administrators for the Persian king. The Persian war has a significant importance because if they would have lost this war then the values that we know even till today would have been lost. They extraordinary values gave us what is known to be the Classical
Many times humans do things that contradict another thing they do. An example of this is one thing may be good but also bad at the same time. A person who has done this more then once is Oedipus in the writer Sophocles plays. Sophocles uses imagery like light verses darkness, knowledge verses ignorance and sight verses blindness.
The main architect of Athenian law was Solon. It is unknown when Solon was born. He died in 559 BC. (Plutarch). Solon allowed everyone to participate in court (Stockton 19). He created a code of laws based on justice, balance, and good order (Muller). Solon abolished the practice of debt bondage (Muller). Solon created the Council of 400 (Boule), and a court called the Heliaia. (Muller) Solon divided Athenians into classes in accordance with their income (Plutarch). The lowest class, the thetes, was ineligible for election to office (Plutarch). However, they could still come into the assembly and act as jurors (Plutarch). The other classes, from lowest to highest, were zeugits, hippies, and pentakosiomedimnoi (Muller).
The strengths and weaknesses of the Athenian character traits laid out in the “Funeral Oration” are exemplified by the character of Creon in Sophocles’ Antigone, and suggest that Athenians held certain concerns in the Golden Age of their empire.