Pericles' Authority in Athens

Navigate the Paper Introduction to part 2 Parts 3-6 Parts 7-10 Parts 11-13 Parts 14-16 Parts 17-21 Parts 22-25 Parts 26-27

Since at least a few people have expressed interest in reading the text of a talk I once gave on Pericles' exercise of authority in late fifth-century B.C. Athens, I've begun the process of typing it up and formatting it properly. It took me a while to figure out how best to post the installments. I'm making them short so that no single page is overwhelmingly large. My first idea was to post them as regular blog posts, but while that would have been the simplest route by far it would, I thought, wind up not being very easily navigable. So I'm loading the installments as separate pages here at the deblog. You'll see what I mean in a moment.

As of this posting, I have posted four segments, the introduction and first three parts of the talk. You can begin reading with the introduction, here. I will inevitably have introduced errors into the text, so if you spot anything problematic do let me know. I'll be updating this post as I add new pages. Also, this will be the go-to place for leaving comments on anything pertaining to the talk. Thanks for your interest.

Note: I'm not certain yet how many segments there will be, but my guess is about 28.
Update 12-3-06: Parts 4-7 of the talk are now posted also. Some hours later: 8 and 9 are posted.
Update 12-4-06: Parts 10-11 are posted.
Update 12-5-06: Parts 12-14 are posted.
Update 12-21-06: The entire talk is now posted, in 27 segments (plus an introduction). There is now also a complete version available online for printing.

Tags: ancient history, Athens, boule, democracy, ekklesia, Greece, Mogens Hansen, Pericles, strategia

Comments

[Susan]

It's very interesting, Debra! You haven't said (up to the end of part III anyway) anything about the naming of the hill Pnyx. I'm guessing there must be an unpleasant etymology. Did you have any part in producing that (very good) Wikipedia entry?

[Debra Hamel]

I do say somewhere that it's thought to be associated with the word for suffocating, pnigos. Which makes sense. One might say that during the Christmas shopping season stores are pnigic. No?

[Debra Hamel]

Oh, by the way: no, I've not done anything Wikipedic myself ever.

[Susan]

Yes, you did mention the etymology of the word, I just wondered if the hill had been used for actual punishment...suffocation...at one time? I'm visualizing some early tribal horror. What other reason for that name, I wonder?

[Debra Hamel]

A good question. I don't know what the origin of it is, actually. I suspect we don't know the origin. I didn't find anything on a quick Google search, but I'm too weary to pursue it further now. Anyone know anything about this?

[Tom]

The first site I checked said this:

This new meeting place came to be called "Pnyx" (from the Greek word meaning "tightly packed together".

[Debra Hamel]

Now that I'm no longer exhausted I had the energy to open my Greek dictionary.* Says it's perhaps cognate with puknos, which means close, compact. pnigos, on the other hand, means choking, stifling. I had assumed it was because of close quarters on the Pnyx, but Susan's wondering if there's a more interesting etymological history to it. I'll ask a friend of mine.

* The Liddell-Scott-Jones, or LSJ, the Liddell of whom was the father of Alice Liddell, inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.

[Debra Hamel]

Said friend writes, "...I don't know any colorful stories about it. Of course you could invent one, attributing it to Pseudo-Zosimus vel sim. LSJ reports speculation that it's related to puknos, I guess in the meaning 'compact' or 'constricted.' That's all I can tell you...."