The Effectiveness of Regulation Methods of Civic Virtues Collective Consciousness of Athenian Polis in 6th – 4th century BC
Main Article Content
Abstract
The functioning of the Athenian politeia during VI-IV centuries B.C. was based on the concept of justice in part of the mutual obligations of the state and the citizen regarding the expected norms of social behavior. Athenian polis used honors and punishment as regulation methods to the social activities of citizens. Public praise or censure were used as ways of informal recognition of the results of citizens’ activity. The state stimulated the civil activity of the Athenians using the honors. Punishment was supposed to prevent cases of abnormal behavior. Citizens had to take an activity in the government, in military campaigns, perform liturgies. Such activity proved civic virtues and gave the right to honors from the state.
The type of honors and punishments that polis applied was depended on the significance of a person’s action and the degree of their effectiveness in the collective consciousness of Athenians. The main ways of honoring the activities of citizens by the state were awarding a wreath, installation of statues, sitesis, proedria, atelia, donation of land, public burials with state funds. Honors that spread the good name of a person (crowning, a statue) or financially beneficial (atelia) were considered the most effective. The state used such types of punishments as fine, atimia, imprisonment, death penalty, banishment from the polis. The fine was a typical punishment. The degree of restriction of civil rights determined the significance of punishment in collective consciousness. The most dangerous were deprivation of civil rights, expulsion from the state and the prohibition to be buried within its borders in the future.
The honors and punishments could be hereditary in some cases, that strengthened their significance and effectiveness in public perception. Athenian citizens were aware of the influence of honors and punishments on their activities, what was the speeches confirmed.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Aeschines, The speeches of Aeschines, Cambridge, 1968.
Allen D., Imprisonment in Classical Athens, in «Classical Quarterly», 1997, Vol. 47, No. 1, P. 121-135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cq/47.1.121
Aristotelis, Politeia Athenaion, Lipsiae, 1914, 128 p.
Blok J., E. van’t Wout, Table arrengements: sitesis as a polis institution (IG I3 131), in «Feasting and polis institutions», Leiden, Boston, 2018, P. 181-204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004356733_008
Cairns D., Honour and shame: modern controversies and ancient values, in «Critical quarterly», 2011, Vol. 53, No. 1, P. 23 41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8705.2011.01974.x
Cebrián R., The funeral oration as alternative to Homeric poetry in Classical Athens, in «Studia Philologica Valentina», 2005, Vol. 8, No. 5, P. 11 35.
Chaniotis A., Greek festivals and contests: definition and general characteristics, in «Thesaurus cultus et rituum antiquorum (ThesCRA)», Los Angeles, 2011, Vol. VII : Festivals and contests, Р. 4-43.
Cross N., Guess who’s Coming to Dinner: Hestia, Hospitality, and Interstate Relations in Classical Athens, in «First and Last: A devotional in honor of Hestia», Alexandria, 2017, P. 102-117.
Deene M., Seeking for honour(s)? The exploitation of philotimia and citizen benefactors in classical Athens, in «Revue belge de Philologie et d’Histoire», 2013, T. 91, Fasc. 1, P. 69 87. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/rbph.2013.8409
Demosthenes. Orationes : in 7 vol., London, Cambridge, 1926-1939.
Dinarchus. Orationes. Minor attic orators : in 2 vol., London, Cambridge, 1962, Vol. 2, P. 165-325.
Dmitriev S., Athenian atimia and legislation against tyranny and subversion, in «The Classical Quarterly», 2015, Vol. 65 (01), P. 35 50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838814000792
Goette H., «Choregic» or victory monuments of the tribal Panathenaic contests, in «The Panathenaic games», Proceedings of an international conference held at the university of Athens, May 11 12, 2004, Oxford, 2007, P. 117 126. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dkzw.15
Hyperides, Orationes. Minor attic orators : in 2 vol., London, Cambridge, 1962, Vol. 2, P. 370-605.
Inscriptiones Atticae Euclidis anno posteriors, Editio tertia, Pars I. Leges et decretal, Fasc. 2. Leges et decreta annorum 352/1 – 332/1, Berlin, 2012.
Isocrates, Orations. Letters : in 3 vol., London, Cambridge, 1928-1929, 1945.
Lambert S., What was the point of inscribed honorific decrees in classical Athens?, in «Sociable man : essays on ancient Greek social behavior in honour of Nick Fisher», Swansea, 2011, P. 193 214. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvvn9fm.14
Lanni A., Social sanctions in Classical Athens, Symposion 2011: Vorträge zur griechischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (Paris, September 7 10, 2011), Australian Academy os Sciences Press, 2013, P. 99-110. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1vw0q8s.11
Latyshev V., Ocherk grecheskih drevnostej : v 2 ch. [The essay of Greek antiquities], Sankt-Peterburg, 1997, ch. 1. 347 s.
Lewis D., R. Stroud, Athens honors king Euagoras of Salamis, in «Hesperia : The journal of the American school of classical studies at Athens», 1979, Vol. 48, No. 2, P. 180 193. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/147772
Loraux N., The «beautiful death» from Homer to democratic Athens, in «Arethusa», 2018, Vol. 51, Num. 1, P. 73 89. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/are.2018.0003
Low P., Remembering, forgetting, and rewriting the past: Athenian inscriptions and collective memory, in «Histos. Supplement», 2020, Vol. 11, P. 236 238. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29173/histos34
Lycurgus, Orationes. Minor attic orators : in 2 vol., London, Cambridge, 1962, Vol. 2, P. 9 -157.
Lysias, Orationes, Cambridge, 1930, 244 p.
J. Ma, Statues and cities: Honorific portraits and civic identity in the Hellenistic world, Oxford, 2013. 378 p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199668915.001.0001
MacDowell D., Hereditary «sitesis» in fourth-century Athens, in «Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik», 2007, Bd. 162, P. 111 113.
Osborne M., Entertainment in the Prytaneion at Athens, in «Zeitschrift für papirologie und epigraphic», 1981, Bd. 41, P. 153-170.
Papakonstantinou Z., Sport, victory commemoration and elite identities in archaic and early classical Athens, in «Classica et Mediaevalia : Danish journal of philology and history», 2014, Vol. 65, P. 87 126.
Pritchard D., Honouring the war dead in democratic Athens, in «Democracy and Salamis : 2500 years after the battle that saved Greece and Western world», Springer, 2022, P. 285 305. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98431-1_15
Pritchard D., Public honours for Panhellenic sporting victors in democratic Athens, in «Nikephoros : zeitschrift für sport und kultur im altertum», 2012, Is. 25, P. 209 220.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian war : in 4 vol., Cambridge, 1919-1923. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/DLCL.thucydides-history_peloponnesian_war.1919
Welsh M., Honorary statues in Ancient Greece, in «The annual of the British school at Athens», 1904/1905, Vol. 11, Р. 32 49. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245400002409
Youni M., Outlawry in Classical Athens: nothing to do with atimia, in «SYMPOSION 2017. Akten der gesellschaft für griechische und hellenistische Rechtsgeschichte», Wien, 2017, B. 27, P. 137-155. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvd7w7mm.13