Religion and superstition played a large part in the everyday life of a classical Athenian, and there was a heavy emphasis on ritual and reverence to the gods. Athenians believed that certain crimes – e.g. homicide – disrupted the sanctity of their city, causing an imbalance they referred to as “pollution.” Restoring balance was of the utmost importance. Otherwise, they believed that the gods would punish them with losses in battle, bad crops, and an overall miserable existence.
Rituals played a very important role in ancient Greek society. Certain cities, sites, and temples were sacred. The tradition of naming certain spiritual places areas of asylum was Asylia. These asylums were “immune to violence and civil authority” and thus under the jurisdiction of the divine (Rigsby 1997). It was imperative that anyone who entered these areas of asylum be free of pollution. It was equally important that the experts – known as kathartai – performed the rituals in a proper and orderly manner, sometimes following a strict series of guidelines. How many details and provisions required depended on how urgent the necessity was to perform a specific ritual. The Greeks believed that failure to abide to these specific criteria would fail to purify the ritual, and that as a result, the gods would not bring about the desired result (Von Rösch 2012).
Failure to adopt proper cleansing protocol had dire consequences according to classical Greek literature and mythology. One such consequence was the miasma. The miasma was “a contagious power ... that has an independent life of its own. Until purged by the sacrificial death of the wrongdoer, society would be chronically infected by catastrophe” (Armstrong 2007). An example of the miasma in anc...
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...www.stoa.org/projects/demos/article_homicide?page=all&greekEncoding= (accessed April 19, 2014).
Harris, Edward M. Law and Drama in Ancient Greece. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Lennon, Jack J. Pollution and Religion in Ancient Rome. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
MacDowell, Douglas Maurice. Athenian Homicide Law in the Age of the Orators . Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 1999.
Rhodes, Henry A. "The Athenian Court and the American Court System." Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. 2014. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1984/2/84.02.08.x.html (accessed April 20, 2014).
Rigsby, Kent. Asylia: Territorial Inviolability in the Hellenistic World. Oakland: University of California Press, 1997.
Sophocles. Antigone. New York: HarperCollins, 2012.
Von Rösch, Petra. How Purity is Made. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz-Verlag, 2012.
A recent issue that has been argued in the Assembly, and indeed a major purpose of today’s meeting, revolves around this question of whether or not Assemblymen and jurors should receive compensation for their roles in Athenian
185-196. Dillon, Mathew, and Garland, Lynda. Ancient Greece: Social and Historical Documents from Archaic Times to the Death of Socrates. Routledge International Thompson Publishing Company, 1994, pp. 179-215 Lefkowitz, Mary.
Religious and Funerary Practices were thought of as extremely important by the citizens of the city-state of Sparta, in fact, their beliefs reached such an extreme that the other city-states mocked the Spartans. The three principal sub-elements that affected religious and funerary practices in Sparta are, the Gods/Goddesses worshipped, the festivals celebrated and solemnized, and the myths and legends passed through the generations.
Justice is generally thought to be part of one system; equally affecting all involved. We define justice as being fair or reasonable. The complications fall into the mix when an act of heroism occurs or morals are written or when fear becomes to great a force. These complications lead to the division of justice onto levels. In Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Plato’s Republic and Apology, both Plato and Aeschylus examine the views of justice and the morality of the justice system on two levels: in the city-state and the individual.
Athenian democracy includes participation of all adult, free, male, citizen, made possible for all. If at the beginning and during the thriving period of the Athens democracy the occupations of a state position was considered to be an worthy duty for the citizens, the taking in of ...
Hello, Odysseus, Judge Dulaney, attorneys, and ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I hope that you’re doing well today. Today we have to discuss some grisly business that might be offputting to some of you, but it must be settled in order for justice to be served. You might hear about blood spilling from necks, heads separated from bodies, torn apart chests, and the ordered slaughter of many. All psychotic acts done by one man and one man only. The master of many crafts, the great tactician, the lord of tricks and war, and the murderer of dozens of humans. Odysseus. Let’s go to through the day when a her turned killer.
...ion back to the seasons and agriculture. Greeks were also very concerned about property rights and inheritance, as Hesiod shows us with his worries about the uncertainty of children’s paternity when women are not kept submissively in the home. Through his advice to his brother, Hesiod’s Works and Days becomes a wealth of information about the particulars of life in ancient Greece during the 7th and 8th centuries B.C.E.
The old form of justice is based upon strict enforcements and leaves no room for flexibility. It does not allow for proper consideration of the causes of crime and so leads to moral chaos. The institution of the law-courts resolves this moral chaos as the dispensation of justice will now be tempered with mercy and understanding, as in the trial of Orestes. Athena is the goddess of wisdom and she uses 'clear, persuasive reason' to bring about the new and better order of the law-courts.8 The introduction of reasoning and judgement by a jury of upright citizens resolves the moral chaos of unending violence which went along with the ancient form of justice, and allows for a more intelligent and civilised justice which can have a place in the new social order which is being heralded by the Olympians.
Though Socrates has been unjustly incarcerated, he refuses to escape due to his implied agreement with the Athenian legal system. This paper serves to argue that Socrates’ line of reasoning to Crito does not properly address actions committed under an unjust legal system.
The worship of gods was not just a practice for the Ancient Greeks it was a passion and they took it very seriously. Huge temples were built across the Peloponnesus and beyond that honored their respective gods in the Greek religion. Parades, sacrifices, banquets, and week long celebrations were held in honor of these gods that the Greeks based nearly their entire society off of. The Greeks would offer their lives, their family’s lives, all of their possessions to please the gods.
Greek religion influenced greatly on the people’s daily lives.
One of the best summarizes of Greeks’ gods attitude toward human is the claim of Aphrodite in Euripides’ Hippolytus that she will treat well the people who revere her power, but will “trip up” those who are proud towards her, and this pri...
5. POWELL, Anton, Athens & Sparta: Constructing Greek Political & Social History From 478 B.C, Routledge, London, 1993
Because of the tranquil times, the civilization’s society had more time to focus on writing, math, astronomy, and artistic fields, as well as trade and metallurgy. Out of all the city-states of Greece, two excelled over all the rest, Sparta and Athens. Even though they were the most advanced and strong civilizations, they were bitter enemies. While Athens focused mainly on the people’s democracy and citizen rights, Sparta were ferocious and enslaved its original inhabitants, making them unable to leave and kept under a close eye to prevent insurgence (History of Greece:The Golden Age of Greece). Additionally, Sparta had strict and trained soldiers that underwent intense physical exercising and instruction.
Starr, Chester G. The Aristocratic Temper of Greek Civilization. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. Print.