Justice As an Aspect of the Polis Idea in Solon's Political Poems: A Reading of the Fragments in Light of the Researches of the New Classical Archaeology ... Bibliotheca Classica Batava Supplementum)

308 Pages·2003·1.02 MB·English

by  Joseph A. Almeida

JUSTICE AS AN ASPECT
OF THE POLIS IDEA
IN SOLON’S
POLITICAL POEMS
Joseph A. Almeida
BRILL
JUSTICE AS AN ASPECT OF THE POLIS IDEA
IN SOLON’S POLITICAL POEMS
MNEMOSYNE
BIBLIOTHECA CLASSICA BATAVA
COLLEGERUNT
H. PINKSTER (cid:127)H.S. VERSNEL
D.M. SCHENKEVELD (cid:127)P.H. SCHRIJVERS
S.R. SLINGS
BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT
H. PINKSTER, KLASSIEK SEMINARIUM, OUDE TURFMARKT 129, AMSTERDAM
SUPPLEMENTUM DUCENTESIMUM QUADRAGESIMUM TERTIUM
JOSEPH A. ALMEIDA
JUSTICE AS AN ASPECT OF THE POLIS IDEA
IN SOLON’S POLITICAL POEMS
JUSTICE AS AN ASPECT
OF THE POLIS IDEA
IN SOLON’S POLITICAL POEMS
A READING OF THE FRAGMENTS
IN LIGHT OF THE RESEARCHES
OF NEW CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
BY
JOSEPH A. ALMEIDA
BRILL
LEIDEN (cid:127)BOSTON
2003
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Almeida, Joseph A.
Justice as an aspect of the polis idea inSolon’s political poems : a reading of the
fragments in light of the researches of new classical archaeology / by Joseph A. Almeida
p. cm. -- (Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum, ISSN0169-8958 ; 243)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN90-04-13002-0
1. Solon, ca. 630-ca. 560 B.C.--Poetic works. 2. Political poetry, Greek--History and
criticism. 3. Excavations (Archaeology)--Greece--Athens. 4. Politics and
literature--Greece--Athens. 5. Athens (Greece)--Politics and government. 6. Justice in
literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PA4412.S8Z53 2003
881’01--dc21
20020033030
ISSN 0169-8958
ISBN 90 04 130020
© Copyright 2003 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
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printed in the netherlands
uxori et liberis optimis
gnvmosÊnhw dÉ éfan¢w xalep≈tatÒn §sti no∞sai
m°tron,˘ dØ pãntvn pe¤rata moËnon ¶xei.
Sol. 16
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CONTENTS
Introduction ................................................................................ xi
Chapter I Solon: Historical Sources and Scholarship:
What We Do and Do Not Know ........................................ 1
Preliminaries ............................................................................ 1
Section 1: Solon in the Athenaion Politeia and
Plutarch’s Life of Solon ........................................................ 2
Section 2: The Contours of Modern Scholarship on
Solon .................................................................................... 19
Chronology .......................................................................... 20
Hectemorage: Land, Society, and Economy .................... 26
Popular Citizenship ............................................................ 58
Summation .............................................................................. 68
Chapter II Literary Criticism of Solon’s Political Poems
after Jaeger .............................................................................. 70
Preliminaries ............................................................................ 70
Section 1: Werner Jaeger on the “Elegy on the Polis:”
A Natural Law of Justice .................................................. 71
Section 2: Recent Criticism of the “Elegy on the Polis”
Justice Demythologized: Harmony and Legislation ........ 85
Section 3: Dike in the “Elegy on the Polis” and the
“Elegy to the Muses” ........................................................ 100
Summation: New Directions .................................................. 116
Chapter III The Polis Idea in the Work of the New
Classical Archaeologists .......................................................... 119
Preliminaries: The New Classical Archaeology and the
Study of Solon .................................................................... 119
Section 1: Political Tendencies .............................................. 127
Section 2: Athenian Particularities ........................................ 159
Summation: The Polis Idea .................................................. 171
viii 
Chapter IV The Lexicography and Internal Poetics of
Dike .......................................................................................... 175
Preliminaries ............................................................................ 175
Section 1: Lexicography of Dike .......................................... 175
Section 2: The Framework of Dike in Solon’s Political
Poems .................................................................................. 188
Section 3: The Usages of Dike within the Framework ...... 204
Chapter V Solon’s Understanding of Dike in Light of the
Polis Idea ................................................................................ 207
Preliminaries: Solon and the Polis Idea .............................. 207
Section 1: The Foundational Meaning of Dike:
Fragment 4 and The Polis Idea as the ‘August
Foundations of Dike’ .......................................................... 209
Section 2: Theory into Practice: Fragment 36 and the
Specific Uses of Dike ........................................................ 221
Summation .............................................................................. 235
Concluding Reflections .............................................................. 237
Appendices
Appendix I: The Atthidographers and the Preservation
of the Axones ...................................................................... 241
Appendix II: Regionalist Theories of Conflict in Archaic
Greece .................................................................................. 246
Appendix III: Hansen on Solon in The Orators and the
Minimum Aristotelian View of Solon’s Democratic
Reforms .............................................................................. 252
Appendix IV: Particulars in The Discussion of Solon’s
Chronology .......................................................................... 256
Sources ................................................................................ 256
Hammond’s Calculation: Archonship (594) and
Constitutional Commission (592) .................................. 257
Miller on Chronological Evidence Independent of the
Archon List .................................................................... 259
Appendix V: Prçsiw §p‹ lÊsei .............................................. 262
Appendix VI: The Hoplite and the Polis: Brief
Miscellanea .......................................................................... 263
Challenge to the Significance of Hoplite Reform in the
Rise of the Polis ............................................................ 263
 ix
Law Givers and the Deros Inscription: the Polis Idea
before the Hoplite .............................................................. 264
Bibliography ................................................................................ 267
Index ............................................................................................ 277