MORALITY AND
BEHAVIOUR IN
DEMOCRATIC ATHENS

Communal graves from the Kerameikos underground station

Last third of the fifth century BC. Athens, Museum of Cycladic Art. Courtesy of the Greek Ministry of Culture

Types of exchange

Adapted from Molm 1997: 21.

The Athenian warship

Above: Attic black-figure cup, 540–500 BC. London, British Museum. © Copyright The Trustees of the British Museum

Below: A modern reconstruction of a trieres. Courtesy of the Trireme Trust

Attica and Athens: city and country

Map by the author

Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Model of a typical Attic farmstead

Courtesy of Hans Lohmann (Lohmann 1992: 48)

The city walls and the long walls

Above: From The Cambridge Ancient History 2nd edn, Vol. V: 208 (after Boersma)

Below: Photo by the author

Reconstructions of typical Attic houses

Courtesy of Hans Lohmann (Lohmann 1993: 168)

From The Cambridge Ancient History 2nd edn, Vol. V: 201

R. E. Wycherley, The Stones of Athens (1978), p. 242, no. 5. © Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press

From The Cambridge Ancient History 2nd edn, Vol. V: 201

The Pnyx, supreme symbol of Athenian democracy

Above: Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Below: Photo by the author

The agora during the fourth century: plan

Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Ethnic and social types at Athens

Attic red-figure kylix, c. 475 BC. Agora Museum, Athens, P 42. Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Attic red-figure plate from Chiusi. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, inv. 1879.175 (V. 310). Courtesy of M. Vickers

Attic red-figure kylix, c. 480 BC. All rights reserved, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Fragment of an Attic red-figure vase, c. 460 BC. Agora Museum, Athens, P 29766. Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Attic red-figure fragment of a kylix, late sixth century BC. Agora Museum, Athens, P 23133. Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Attic white-ground lekythos, 470–460 BC. Brussels, Musées Royaux d’ Art et d’Histoire, A1019

A slave crying out for help

Above: Lead tablet found in the Athenian Agora, fourth century BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum (IL 1702). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Left: Skyphos from Abai in Locris, late fifth century BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. 442

Right: Athenian red-figure cup-painting, from Vulci, c. 480 BC. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, inv. 2294 (ARV 400.1). Photo: bpk

Machines for casting lots to select dikasts (kleroteria) and identification tickets (pinakia)

Left: Athens, Agora Museum (Archives). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Right: Inscribed plaques of bronze, fourth century BC. Athens, Agora Museum (= Boegehold 1995: Plate 7, nos. P2 and P3). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Law-court equipment: water clocks (above) and voting ballots (below)

Above: clepsydra, model (left) and drawing, restored (right). c. 400 BC. Athens, Agora Museum (= Boegehold 1995: Plate 13). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Below: Bronze discs, one with solid axle, bearing the inscription ψῆφος δημοσία; another (damaged) with pierced axle. Late fourth century BC. Athens, Agora Museum (= Boegehold 1995: Plates 17 & 18, B11 and B19). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Euphiletus’ oikos (house and family)

Drawing from Morgan 1982

Attic red-figure hydria, c. 430 BC. Courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Bequest of David M. Robinson, 1960.344

The typology of Euphiletus’ reaction to Eratosthenes’ provocation

Provocation, vengeance and punishment

Homicide in Attica

The Athenian state prison

Above: Restoration by J. E. Jones, after John Travlos. Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Below: Photo of the remains of the prison by the author

Clay cups found in the annexe to the state prison

Fourth century BC. Athens, Agora Museum, P 20858. Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Inscribed pieces of pottery (ostraka)

Above, left: Athens, Agora Museum, P 9973

Above, right: Athens, Agora Museum, P 18555. Photo: DAI Athen (inst. neg. Goette 2001/731)

Below, right: Athens, Agora Museum, P 9950. Photo: DAI Athen (inst. neg. Goette 2001/725)

Below, left: Athens, Agora Museum, P 16755. Photo: DAI Athen (inst. neg. Goette 2001/726)

The coercive apparatus of the Athenian democracy

Scythian archer

Attic black-figure vase by Exekias, late sixth century BC. University of Pennsylvania Museum (neg. #164395)

Anti-tyranny decree

Marble stele, 337/36 BC. Athens, Agora Museum, Ⅰ 6524. Photo: DAI Athen (inst. neg. Goette 2001/708)

A Greek hoplite overpowering a non-hoplite Persian soldier

Attic red-figure amphora, dating from after the Persian Wars. All rights reserved, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Armed Athenian hoplites

Above: Attic red-figure Bell-krater, attributed to the Altamura Painter, c. 470–460 BC. London, British Museum, GR 1961.7-10.1. © Copyright The Trustees of the British Museum

Below, left: Attic tombstone, Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Photo: bpk

Below, right: Athenian red-figure vase, fifth century BC. Athens, Agora Museum, P 24061. Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

The cult of beauty

Tombstone of Hegeso, c. 420 BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. 3624. Photo: DAI Athen (Hege 1688)

The interrelationship of perceptions of honour and social structure

The structure of amiable relationships

Reflections of philia in visual art

Above, left: Marble grave stele, 350–325 BC; Athens, Museum of Cycladic Art, inv. L 5775. Courtesy of the Greek Ministry of Culture

Above, right: Grave relief of a young girl with her parents, second quarter of the fourth century BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. 717

Below, left: Grave monument of Procles and Procleides, fourth century BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. 737

Below, right: Grave stele of Thraseas and Euandria, third quarter of fourth century BC. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photo: bpk

Animal fights

Above: Base of a kouros from the cemetery of Kerameikos, late sixth century BC. Courtesy of the Museum of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge (original at Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. 3476)

Below: Attic chous, Vatican Museum, inv. 16 522 (Photo: Alinari). Courtesy of the Direzione dei Musei Vaticani

The S[timulus]–R[eaction] chain

Athenian combat sports

Above, left: Attic hydria, c. 520 BC, from Cerveteri, of the Leagros Group. Vatican Museum, inv. 416 (ABV 365). Courtesy of the Direzione dei Musei Vaticani

Above, right: Bronze statuette, c. first century AD. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (no. 54.1006)

Below: Base of a kouros from the cemetery of Kerameikos, late sixth century BC. Courtesy of the Museum of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge (original at Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. 3476)

Pyrrhic dance, and its unexpurgated version: warriors dancing with severed heads

Above: Remains of the monument of Atarbos, fourth century BC. Athens, Acropolis Museum, inv. 1338. Courtesy of the Greek Ministry of Culture, Ephorate of Prehistorical and Classical Antiquities. Photo: DAI Athen (inst. neg. 2001/866)

Below: Attic black-figure lekythos, fifth century BC. London, British Museum, B 658. © Copyright The Trustees of the British Museum

Athenian non-combat sports

Above left: Athenian red-figure vase, 440–430 BC. Courtesy of the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University Art Museums, 30.444

Above right: Attic black-figure lekythos from Gela. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, inv. 1890.27 (V. 250). Courtesy of M. Vickers

Below: Base of a kouros from the cemetery of Kerameikos, late sixth century BC. Courtesy of the Museum of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge (original at Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. 3476)

Child victim of the plague

Red-figure Attic chous, last third of the fifth century. Athens, Museum of Cycladic Art, inv. no. A 15272 (= Parlama and Stampolidis 2000: 356). Courtesy of the Greek Ministry of Culture

Interactions between the mundane and the transcendental

The rulers of the cosmos: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades

Attic black-figure lip-cup, sixth century BC, Xenocles Painter. London, British Museum, B 245. © Copyright The Trustees of the British Museum

Visions of the underworld

Top: Attic white-ground lekythos, fifth century BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. 1926 (CC 1668). Drawing by Ruth Herman

Bottom: Attic black-figure amphora, late sixth century. Munich, Antikensammlung, inv. 1493 (Bucci P., ABV 316). Drawing by Ruth Herman

Divine metamorphoses

Athenian cup, c. 540 BC, attributed to the Phrynos Painter. London, British Museum, B 424. © Copyright The Trustees of the British Museum

Relief depicting Leda being raped by a swan (Zeus). Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. 1499. Photo: DAI Athen (inst. neg. Wagner 1975/651)

Zeus sending forth Hermes and Iris. Attic red-figure vase painting. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. G 192

Attic black-figure hydria, end of sixth century BC. Uppsala, Museum Gustavianum

Funerary stele of the Athenian diviner (mantis) Cleoboulus of Acharnae

Found in the 1950s near Acharnae, second half of the fourth century BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum

The oath-stone (lithos)

Athens, Agora Museum, late sixth century BC (= Ober and Hedrick 1994: 122). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Athenian curse-tablets (katadesmoi), designed to harm enemies and to influence the outcome of trials

Above, left: Attic lead tablet of unknown provenance, fourth century BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum (= Gager 1992: no. 104). Photo: DAI Athen

Above, right: Lead container with lead doll and graffito curse from a fourth-century BC grave. Athens, Kerameikos Museum (= Gager 1992: no. 41). Photo: DAI Athen

Below, left: A piece of blackware of unknown provenance. Copenhagen, National Museum, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities, Kinch Collection, inv. 7727 Below, right: Lead curse tablet, fourth century BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum (= Boegehold 1995: 56). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Homeric duel, as represented on a sixth-century Athenian black-figure amphora

Attic black-figure amphora, about 540–530 BC. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Henry Lillie Pierce Fund, 98.923, The Botkin Class (ABV 169). Photograph © 2005 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Conflict and the gods

Attic black-figure vase, Berlin Painter, 1686. London, The British Museum, GR 1861.4-25.50 (B 197)

The mourning Athena

Marble stele, fifth century BC. Athens, Acropolis Museum, inv. 695. Courtesy of the Greek Ministry of Culture, A’ Ephorate of Prehistorical and Classical Antiquities

The myth of Agraulus and its civic adaptations

Above: Attic vase from Camirus. London, British Museum. © Copyright The Trustees of the British Museum

Middle: Athenian vase painting. Original at St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum. Drawing from C. Daremberg and E. Saglio eds., (1877–1919) Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, Paris: Hachette

Below: Attic ram’s head rhyton, decorated by the Sotades Painter. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Cat. L2. Drawing (by François Lissarague) from Hoffmann 1997: 73. Courtesy of Herbert Hoffmann

The tyrannicides

Roman marble copy of a Greek bronze original of 490 or 475 BC. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. 44825. Reproduced courtesy of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici delle province di Napoli e Caserta

The altar of the eponymous heroes (reconstructed model)

Model by Petros Demetriades and Kostas Papoulias. Athens, Agora Museum. Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

The central scene of the Parthenon frieze

Fifth century BC. London, British Museum, Slab Ⅴ, 31–34. © Copyright The Trustees of the British Museum

Three Herms, a guardian figure from Bali, and a Papuan

Head of a Herm found in the Leokoreion, late fifth century BC (S 2452). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Head of a Herm found near the Royal Stoa, early fourth century BC (S 2499). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Athenian red-figure vase-painting, c. 470 BC. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. 127929. Reproduced courtesy of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici delle province di Napoli e Caserta

Drawing of guardian figure from Bali. Courtesy of Ⅰ. Eibl-Eibesfeldt

Drawing of Papuan with penis sheath. Courtesy of Ⅰ. Eibl-Eibesfeldt

The monument of Dexileos

Left: Fragment of an Attic red-figure oinochoe, c. 400 BC. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Henry Lillie Pierce Fund, 98.936. Photograph © 2005 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Right: Grave relief, 394 BC. Athens, Kerameikos Museum, P 113. Photo: DAI Athen (inst. neg. Kerameikos 5977)

Athenian silver tetradrachm, didrachm, and drachm and silver drinking vessel

Above: Silver tetradrachm, didrachm and drachm. Obverse: head of Athena. Reverse: owl. Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam Museum

Below: Silver kantharos with gold-figure decoration from Duvanli, Bulgaria. Plovdiv, Archaeological Museum. Courtesy of Dr. Cornelia Ewigleben

Lead tokens

Above: Fourth century BC, Athens (IL 656, 819, 893, 944, 1146, 1173, 1233). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Below: Fourth century BC, Athens (IL 587, 716, 941). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

Official Athenian weights and measures

Above: Clay public measure, second half of the fourth century BC, Athens (P 3559). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations Below (left): Set of official bronze weights, about 500 BC, Athens (B 495, 492, 497). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations Below (right): Bronze public measure, about 400 BC, Athens (B 1082). Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations

The prisoner’s dilemma

Adapted from Axelrod 1984: 8. Courtesy of R. Axelrod