Achilles and LycaonAchilles and Priam

1
Achilles and Lycaon/Achilles and Priam

• Theme 1 spare the suppliant
• Theme 2 fathers and sons
• Theme 3 the need for proper burial

2
Homer 6 (Odyssey) Underworld Scene

• Underworld gloomy, dead can receive offerings
  from living, dead lose their bodies and are like
  ghosts
• Patronymic when you refer to someone as son of
  X rather than by his real name
• Theme of supplication begging by clasping chin
  and knees of other person
• All ancient Underworld scenes showed famous women
  and heroes of the Trojan War.
• Odysseus wife and Agamemnons wife total
  opposites

3
Warfare and the Polis

• From the earliest times until the Roman conquest
  in 2nd cen B.C. the main theme of Greek history
  was war.
• In Trojan War (Mycenaean times circa 1200 B.C.)
  fighting was done by nobles and their hired
  armies.
• In 7th cen. B.C. hopliteheavily armed foot
  soldier warfare began. 2 more or less equally
  matched sides fought in formations called
  phalanxes.

4
Warfare and the Polis 2

• Citizens had to serve for their entire adult
  lives and provide own armour.
• Ideal man was warrior, citizen, athlete
• You had a chance to gain a leadership role in
  your city if you won an event at 1 of the 5
  athletic festivals.
• In Trojan war times best warriors had a say in
  government i.e. story of Sarpedon. This changed
  once hoplite warfare began.
• Tyrtaeus the 7th cen Spartan poet urged young men
  to be brave and fight.
• Solon Call no man happy until you know whether
  his entire life was happy i.e. hes dead
• Xenophon farming prepares men for military
  service

5
Sparta

• In order to keep the enslaved Greeks (Helots) in
  Sparta from rebelling, Spartans performed
  compulsory military service
• The goal was to produce athletic children
• Emphasis on plain diet, athletics, hunting, need
  for everyone in the community to discipline
  children
• Paidagogoi were attendants who took children to
  school. Paidonomos was the public guardian of
  children

6
Sparta 2

• Ephor a special elected magistrate with power
  to punish anyone, even other magistrates
• Lycurgus 800 B.C. gave laws to Spartans
• Xenophon said that Spartans of his day 5th cen
  B.C. had forgotten the teachings of their
  ancestors

7
Athletics in Homer Funeral games for Patroclus

• When a nobleman in Trojan War times died, funeral
  games were held in his honour.
• Prizes women, cauldrons, tripods, animals,
  money
• Winning was important but not being humiliated in
  front of peers was more important

8
The family of Diagoras of Rhodes

• He lived 5th cen. B.C., known for boxing. Other
  relatives were also athletes
• Pausanias in 2nd cen A.D. saw his statue and
  wrote about it in The Description of Greece
  travel guide.
• Married women not permitted at Olympics.
  Unmarried ok
• Pancration/pankration boxing and wrestling
• Some Diagorids temporarily in exile. Same fate as
  many aristocrats.

9
Opinion of Xenophanes 6th cen B.C.

• It is unfair that athletes receive special
  treatment.
• Brawn is not better than brains
• Victory by these people does not improve matters
  for the polis