1. THE ANCIENT GREEK LEGACY

THE ATHENIAN CONTRIBUTION
The 500s to the 300s B.C.

BC
1900s-1500s?  Mycenaeans (or Achaeans) migrate from from S.W. Asia into Greece setting up city-states headed by kings (Athens, for example)

1200?  Possible time of the Trojan War (mainland Greeks v. Trojans)

1150?   Doric Greeks begin their invasion of Mycenaean Greece ...causing – or taking advantage of – a "Dark Age" that descends upon Greece (1150-750 BC)

1000s   Doric pressures inspire Greek migration to Asia Minor:   Ionians from Attica to Western shores of today's Turkey (Ionia with its city of Miletus); Aeolians to the Northwestern shores / Dorians to the Southern shores and then Crete
      Eventually Sparta (in the Peloponnesian Peninsula) develops as the leading Dorian power; Athens continues as a strong, independent Achaean power

700s     Homer (early) composes the Iliad and the Odyssey ... central to Greek self-understanding ... with life controlled by competitive human-like gods
     Hesiod (later) composes the Theogony ... presenting a more orderly account of the behavior of the Olympian gods

700s-600s   Greeks settle at both the Eastern (Syria) and the Western Mediterranean coasts (Sicily and Southern Italy or "Magna Graecia," Southern France, even Spain)

c. 620  Draco institutes a tough ("Draconian") constitution for Athens

Early 500s  Thales of Miletus introduces Materialism into Greek thinking:  water as the foundation of all matter
         Solon offers Athens a more "democratic" constitution

Mid-500s  Anaximander follows up on Thales' Materialism:  all matter seeks unity or harmony with some invisible, formless substance
      Anaximenes sees all life derived from air (pneuma) in varying thhicknesses

509  Cleisthenes completes the "democratization" of the Athenian constitution

c. 500  Pythagoras, teaching in Magna Graecia, develops math and Orphic mysticism; sees all life as an imperfect reflection of the divine Logos or higher Order
     Heraclitus sees life as "process" not substance ... like fire ... process seeking unity with the Logos

Early 400s  Empedocles afirms that the universe is made up of earth, air, fire, and water

490  The Batle of Marathon begins the Greek war with the Persians

480  Battles do not go well for the Greeks at Thermopyla and Artemisium (Athens and other Greek cities are burned badly)
      ... but things go strongly in Greek favor at the sea battle at Salamis

479  At Plataea and at Mycale the Greeks destroy the Persians.  End of the war!

472  Themistocles, a commander at Marathon, is ostracized by the Athenian Assembly

Mid-400s  Anaxagoras sees the Eternal Mind (Nous) behind the surrounding material order
      Protagoras (Sophist) sees "Truth" simply as that which is useful
     Athens is at the height of its glory under Pericles (r. 461-429 BC)

431  Sparta organizes an anti-Athenian revolt ... beginning the Peloponnesian Wars
      First round:  431-421 BC ... Pericles killed in battle (429 BC)
      Second round:  421-404 BC ... Athens crushed as a power

c. 400  Democritus takes Greek Materialism even further, with his theory that all things are derived from miniscule atoms ... which come together (but also break down) to form all life ... even human life

399  Socrates – who teaches that Truth is real and absolute, not subject to speculation (such as the Sophists are noted for) – is condemned to death by the Sophist-led Athenian Assembly

c. 375  Plato publishes his Republic ... describing a "just" or properly-moral city-state

c. 350  Aristotle published his Politics and Nicomachean Ethics in defining his own idea of a moral society ... how it is structured and how it operates

It is of vital importance to note that America's "Founding Fathers" who gathered in Philadelphia during a very hot summer in 1787 to draft a new Constitution uniting their thirteen1 newly-independent states were college educated – or at least self-taught in the intellectual areas that a college education would have included – and were therefore well-informed about the ancient Greeks … and the political and intellectual lessons to be drawn from Greek history.  And it was a huge legacy … highly instructive of both the good – and the bad – in any society's political and intellectual development.  Thus this Greek legacy would factor hugely in how those that were called to put together a new American Constitution would finally design or "frame" this most fundamental American political foundation.  They knew to build on the positive part of the Greek – especially the Athenian – legacy … and avoid the horribly negative parts of that same legacy. At the heart of that legacy was the immense intellectual energy that a large number of Greek individuals were able to generate.  Greek scholarship brought Greece forward out of its original neolithic (farming and animal herding) world … and into a highly civilized world – urbanized on the basis of the very independent Greek city-states.  Such development sparked deep inquiry into a newly awakening world … and what that meant to the Greeks in terms of the social "progress" they were seeking to achieve. But unfortunately, that same highly intellectual spirit would also come to lead the Greeks, notably the leading Greek city-state Athens, into very self-destructive political rationalizing.  Tragically, the Athenian "Sophists" (wise ones!) of the 400s and 300s BC used their intellectual gifts to lead a very gullible Athenian citizenry to take up very self-destructive political causes … ones that led to a series of totally ruinous wars.  Thus the cleverly rational Greek Sophists demonstrated to the American Framers the dangers of human "reason," always clever – but hardly the kind of Truth that elevates life.  After all, half of these Framers were lawyers, and already knew that a very convincing rational argument laid before a jury on behalf of a client of theirs was simply the business they offered their clients.  For the jury, deciding the actual "Truth" of a dispute involving a "rational" defense put before them by opposing – but equally clever – lawyers was a very delicate, often very uncertain, matter. Thus the Framers knew very well that Reason itself never equaled Truth.  Reason merely advantaged one side of a dispute over its opponents.  The actual truth of things thus always stood above – and often well beyond – human reason.  The Greeks proved that quite clearly. "Democracy" as Greece's great legacy.  Undoubtedly when Greece is remembered today as a major contributor to Western civilization it is in the area of "democracy" that Greece – but especially Athens – is mostly noted.  But actually, for almost two thousand years, the Greek concept of "democracy" dropped from view or discussion ... and for good reasons.  Democracy or rule by the people (the Greek demos) is an almost sacred concept today ... but one not well understood by those very ones today loudest in their promotion of the glories of democracy.  The way they go at this matter comes from their instincts favoring a purely rational Humanism or Idealism … not from actual experience across the ages. Greek government by the demos at one point served the Greeks well ... and then proceeded to dishonor that record – especially in the leading Greek city-state of Athens – by engaging in very stupid politics, "democratic" politics that ultimately brought Athens down from its power and greatness.  The Athenian demos, as it turned out, was easily led by unscrupulous politicians, who manipulated the masses into making horrible political decisions ... such as ordering the death of Athens' premier philosopher Socrates, because he annoyed these unscrupulous politicians with his constant criticism of their behavior.  That same stupidity was found also in the decision of the Athenian demos to turn a deaf ear to their fellow Greeks who complained that the money being sent to Athens, as Greece's leading city-state, to equip a Greek army designed to protect Greece from the Persians, was being used instead to dress up Athens with fancy new buildings and other public works.  The other Greek city-states would have been happy to have kept this money, if it was not going to the intended purpose of Greek defense, to undertake the same architectural upgrade to their own communities.  Ultimately, Athens' selfishness led to a horrible series of Peloponnesian Wars among Greece's various city-states, (431-378 BC), wars that finally destroyed not only Athens politically, but much of the rest of Greece as well. Consequently "democracy" was not well remembered in the West.  As we have already noted, the philosopher Aristotle himself (who was widely read by educated Westerners ... up until recently), made it clear that it is not the form of government – whether government by one, a few, or the many – that produces better government ... but instead the moral intentions of those who do govern.  Dictators are not the only problem affecting mankind.  Democracies (Hitler’s Germany was actually a "democracy") can be horrible, if horribly led. Thus it is that the men (who had read their Aristotle!) who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to put together a new American Constitution in order to perfect the Union of their thirteen states were definitely not intending to create a democracy.  They instituted instead a "republic" built on a regime of foundational law … which itself called for a "mixed" system, one of political checks and balances.  The Republic's Constitution was carefully designed to permit, yet restrict, popular participation in the nation’s politics – out of a fear of democratic instincts getting out of control.  Their new Federal Union would include government by one (the President), the aristocratic few (the Senate) and the democratic many (the House of Representatives) ... understanding that this system would work only when all three forms of rule worked together.  This was to prevent any one of the three forms of government to take over the other two and establish a monopoly on power ... which unchecked always leads to great social evil.  It would be until only the beginning of the 20th century – notably with the arrival on the scene of the highly Idealistic American President Woodrow Wilson, who saw "democracy" as the cure-all for the world’s ills – that "democracy" would come to have the glamor and intense devotion that it does today.  Thus it is only recently that Western political philosophers have rejected the wisdom of the ancients and moved to the call for pure "democracy" both at home and abroad. This is so much so the case that it is now almost religious heresy to voice any hesitations about bringing (especially imposing) democracy as some kind of wonderful benefit to the world's societies … without having also laid the accompanying moral groundwork that democracy would need in order not to lead to horrible social chaos and even cruel tyranny.  Democracy is not a basic human right.  It is a major social responsibility. 1Actually, only twelve of these new states sent representatives to Philadelphia that summer … because tiny Rhode Island was afraid to join the new Union, fearing it would lose all sovereignty to a new governing authority.  Rhode Island would, however, soon join … when it was clear that the new Constitution protected the states' authority – rather than removed it. GREEK ORIGINS The Mycenaeans or Achaeans At some very distant point in time, dating anywhere between 1900 BC and 1500 BC, a number of different Aryan speaking peoples moved westward from southwestern Russia and invaded/settled in wave after wave into the land we know as Greece.  These invaders, sometimes identified as "Mycenaeans" or sometimes as "Achaeans," spoke an early form of Greek and would become known to later Greeks as the military heroes in Homer's epic war story or poem, the Iliad.  There on that southernmost Peloponnese Peninsula they established fortified towns in the valleys between the many mountainous ridges that reach down to the sea and divide Greece into a number of distinct geographic units.    Each town was headed by a chieftain or warlord (or "king" as we later termed them). Eventually a number of important Greek cities, such as Athens and Thebes that developed later, could easily trace their origins back to Mycenaean times. Mycenae at a distance Miles Hodges Mycenae Miles Hodges The approach to Mycenae and the Lions Gate Miles Hodges Details of the Lions Gate Miles Hodges A view of entrance from inside the walls Miles Hodges House foundations inside Mycenae's walls Miles Hodges The Royal Tombs Miles Hodges The Citadel at Mycenae Miles Hodges The Citadel at Mycenae The Citadel at Mycenae Miles Hodges View of the surrounding countryside from the Citadel at Mycenae Miles Hodges A princely death mask of gold ("Mask of Agamemnon") from the Upper Grave Circle at Mycenae - 1500s Mycenae – Lion head of thick plate gold From the upper grave circle Athens - National Archeological Museum Gold cup from the Upper Grave Circle at Mycenae, 1500s BC Gold pendant of a goddess – from the women's grave in the Upper Grave Circle, Mycenae, 1500s BC Other Mycenaean era sites and archeological findings Tiryns Tiryns – a general view Entryway through Tiryns' thick walls Mycenaean tablet inscripted in linear B coming from the House of the Oil Merchant The tablet registers an amount of wool which is to be dyed National Archeological Museum, Athens Achaean armor made from boars' tusks and bronze – 1400s BC Achaean warrior in boar's-tusk helmet. Ivory – from a chamber tomb at Mycenae, 1300s BC Soldiers marching against the (Dorian?) barbarians  – from the "Warrior Vase" at Mycenae, 1100s BC Athens - National Archeological Museum A woman laments the departure of the soldiers – from the "Warrior Vase" at Mycenae, 1100s BC Athens - National Archeological Museum The Dorians ... and a Greek "Dark Age" But this Mycenaean/Achaean strength eventually began to decline, and after approximately 1150 BC Greek culture fell into a 400 year-long Dark Age.  This was either caused by, or led to, yet another wave of Greek invaders from the Northeast, the "Dorians."  All archeological evidence seems to indicate that probably (though not certainly:  debate lingers on) the Dorians disrupted life in Greece in a very major way. Certainly the Doric invasion set off a reactive wave of Greek migrations in around 1000 BC – principally to the shores of western Asia Minor.  Ionians from Attica (around Athens) retreated across the Aegean to the central western shores of Asia Minor (to Miletus) and gave their name "Ionia" to this particular region along the Asia Minor coastline.  Aeolians (perhaps a later group of Greeks to appear on the scene) settled the north western shores of Asia Minor.  Dorians themselves eventually continued their own migration across the Aegean to the shores of southwestern Asia Minor and then onward to Crete. In any case, the warlike Dorians eventually settled themselves into the Peloponnesian peninsula – where they ruled over the helots, the enslaved or enserfed Greeks who had originally lived in the area.  Eventually Sparta grew up as the leading city-state at the heart of Doric culture – famous for the intense military discipline all its citizens (women as well as men) were put under.  But interestingly, Athens (and its hinterland of Attica) managed to fend off the Dorians – and retain its older Achaean culture.  Greece's "Archaic Period" (700s – to the late 500s BC) In the 700s BC Greece began to experience a commercial revival, growth of its population – and emergence of political powers in reviving Greek towns in the form of local aristocracies (rule by the heads of prominent families).  But prosperity also strengthened the power of the more numerous commoner class, who found champions in the form of tyrants – who would use their political power to support the political cause of the Greek lower classes.  Political revolutions of sorts thus shook the Greek world as new prosperity put power in the hands of all sorts of people.  As a result democracy (rule by the common people or demos) – or something like it – resulted in a number of cities. This rise of the common classes however inspired a strong political reaction in Sparta, where a small elite of Spartan military citizens, who ruled over the vast numbers of subject peoples in surrounding towns and villages, took an ever-tougher stance of rulers over ruled – creating Sparta's famed military aristocracy. More Greek colonization around the Mediterranean With this economic revival of Greece there was also a large increase in the population – causing a serious strain on Greece's available farmland to feed that population.  However, the surrounding seas, which the Greeks viewed not as a barrier but as a source of life (in fact a superhighway for them to move across), offered them an escape from their problems.  Thus, excess population was sent out to create new settlements or colonies – extensions of sorts of the sending cities.  A new wave of Greek migration thus developed. During the 700s and 600s BC Greeks sailed east and west and discovered lands that they could colonize with their excess population (much as other cultures were doing at the time, notably the Phoenicians – located along the Syrian coast – with whom the Greeks had active commercial relations). From the city of Corinth colonies were established to the West on the island of Sicily and on the southern Italian peninsula (this would eventually come to be called Magna Graecia or "Greater Greece").  One of those colonies, Syracuse (founded in 733 BC), soon became a major city by its own right.  Some of the Euboean towns (just north of Attica) sent settlers to the Syrian coast.  From Miletus and other coastal towns in Asia Minor (a region known as Ionia) settlers were sent through the Dardanelles straits into the Black Sea where they then established numerous Greek towns around the coast.  Settlers also headed south to the Egyptian and Libyan coasts of Africa.  Others sailed west beyond Sicily and established towns along the coast of what is modern day France (notably at Marseille).  By the 500s BC they were reaching to Spain and northern Italy. Thus in the course of the 600s BC "Greece" came to describe an area much larger than the land we today call Greece.  In those ancient days "Greece" encompassed a whole huge area along the northern half of the Eastern and central Mediterranean Sea.  And if we include the various Greek cities planted along the coast of the Western Mediterranean (such as Marseilles in southern France) we are describing a culture that was very extensive. Soon Greek towns along the Western coast of Ionia (Western Turkey) and Magna Graecia (Sicily and Southern Italy) would achieve tremendous cultural growth of their own – often surpassing in quality the level of culture of the sending cities back home. Greek colonization around the Mediterranean Wikipedia - "Ancient Greece" EARLY PHILOSPHICAL DEVELOPMENT The Greek cosmic vision:  Materialism versus Mysticism It is easy to look to the ancient Greeks for the startup of what we have come to know as "Western culture."  The Greeks were great thinkers.  Although they had started out as much of the rest of the world with rather neolithic ideas about how events on earth were regulated by gods and goddesses in the heavenlies above (and in the depths of the earth below), some of them began to notice a high degree of order around them, one not so easily explained by the doings of rather human-like and human-acting gods and goddesses.  Greek thinkers began to explore the possibilities of other things being the source of this order.  Thus Greek philosophy was born.  And thus the Greeks put Western culture on the road to intellectual and spiritual enquiry – one still very much a part of Western culture to this day.  And it all began so very long ago.   This Greek legacy was so strong that it even influenced deeply the Roman world that eventually took over the Mediterranean heartland from the Greeks, and indeed also the Christian society that emerged from the decline of Rome, and even the modern secular world that would one day in turn challenge the thousand-year tenure of Christendom.  This legacy would be strongly philosophical and ideological in its early shaping of the West’s fundamental cosmology or world view – but in the process would take on not one but two distinct forms: on the one hand an earthy philosophical materialism … and on the other a lofty mysticism. From Chaos to Order.  Greek culture had grown up in a cosmos of rather fickle and often cruel gods who, from Mount Olympus, called the shots on earth.  It was often a wild and crazy affair – as witnessed in the sagas of Homer in his works, the Iliad and the Odyssey.  But by the 700s BC, the poet Hesiod was describing in his well-received work, Theogony, an Olympic realm in which the gods themselves lived under some kind of a divine order – with Zeus as the presiding figure over this order.   For more on The Trojan War, Homer, and Hesiod ... but also Dionysianism and Orphism Philosophical Materialism. By the 500s BC a number of Greek thinkers were already dismissing the idea of human-like gods living atop Mount Olympus directing life on earth, especially concerning the affairs of the Greeks themselves.  From the Easternmost reaches of the Greek world in Western Asia (Ionia in modern-day Turkey) to the Westernmost reaches of the same world in Southern Italy and Sicily, a number of Greek thinkers or philosophers were reflecting deeply on this matter of a basic order underlying all creation … an order that seemed to work quite "naturally" (as in its very nature to do so) rather than as a result of some kind of Olympian or divine manipulation. The "Miletus Triad" It is perhaps surprising to note that it was not in Athens or the Greek mainland, but in the eastern Greek realm of Ionia across the Aegean Sea, that this program of "natural science" really got underway.  In the Ionian town of Miletus, the well-traveled teacher Thales (c. 624-546 BC) showed his students the power of mathematics and engineering in the construction of everything from pyramids to ships.  But he was also the first Western philosopher on record (and thus acknowledged as the "Father" of Western philosophy) to seek to find the substance that was the source – material in nature … not spiritual or divine – that was the foundation of all reality.  And he was certain that it was simply the primary physical reality:  water. His legacy was then picked up by Anaximánder (most probably a student of Thales) and then carried forward by Anaximander's student Anaximénes.  Anaximander (c. 610-547 BC) claimed that it was the balance of forces inherent in all matter (cold v. hot; wet v. dry) that formed the underlying dynamic moving all of life forward.  Then Anaximenes (mid-500s BC) went back to Thales' single-substance theory … except that he claimed that it was pneuma (breath or spirit) that was the primal material and the source of all life.  But according to Anaximander, pneuma could take on mass, even take the form as fire, as well as form the foundation for all material substance.   And thus the "Miletus Triad" opened up the materialist pathway for Greek philosophy to take.  Thus these materialistic philosophers were early forerunners of our modern scientists – with this same tendency to look to the material order for answers to the "natural" structure and dynamics of the universe. According to these early philosophers, Greek gods had no role to play in the dynamics of life. For more on The Miletus Triad Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 to c. 480 BC) But the materialism of the Miletus school was answered by another individual located on the opposite side of the Greek world – in Southern Italy at Croton.  Today he is remembered for his skill in the field of mathematics … for instance, the discovery of the "Pythagorean Theory" of the dimensions of a right triangle, his discovery of the mathematical rules for the musical harmonies or scales; his assurance that the sun, moon and earth - as well as the universe itself – are all perfect spheres. But unlike the Miletus School of Materialist philosophy,2 Pythagoras was noted for being a mystic … even of the Orphic school – rather than a materialist.  Unfortunately, it is hard to say what his cosmological beliefs actually happened to be … because he worked with his students in mystic secrecy … although elements of his thinking slipped out publicly so that we can see that he was an exceptional philosopher in the mystic category as well.   We know that his philosophy was closely related to Orphism3  … although we can't tell whether Orphism impacted him greatly – or he impacted the Orphic school greatly.  But certainly, the Orphic mysteries became much more sophisticated in his days … a Greek philosophical development for which Pythagoras is probably greatly responsible. As a mystic he looked beyond the mathematical precision of the world that so fascinated the Materialists … in the search for the higher causes of such precision.  Certainly this mathematical precision underlying all physical reality was not achieved by accident … but had a much higher cause – some divine force behind it all.  It was to this higher realm that Pythagoras was certain that we needed to direct our search … in order to better understand reality.4 For more on Pythagoras 2With Pythagoras actually growing up on the island of Samos just opposite Miletus, it is even probable that he was once a student of Anaximander's. 3Orphism shared many features in common with another worship form found further to the East:  Hinduism.  Orphism developed a theology of reincarnation and transmigration of the souls through endless cycles of birth, growth, decay and death – in which escape from the grip of this eternal dance was the desired goal of the Orphic devotee (as with Hinduism's offshoot, Buddhism). 4Einstein’s discovery of the shockingly simple mathematical relationship between all matter and all energy, E=mc2, would have greatly excited Pythagoras. In fact to call Einstein a mystic would not be inaccurate at all!  He and his scientific friends often engaged in discussions about the precise nature of the Lord God! The challenge to unite the Materialist and Mystical cosmologies Heráclitus (c. 500 BC) was another Ionian … who certainly had his foundations in the Ionian Materialist camp but who was also interested in exploring the higher dynamic behind all reality.  As a Materialist, he concluded that fire was the primordial element of life … even though it is not a "thing" but merely a life process we are presently observing.  But as something of a Mystic, he also believed that life is actually a dynamic in which divided forces governing physical reality are always seeking to recover full unity with the higher order or Logos from which they were once separated. Unity with the Logos is thus that higher order or full reality to which we should ourselves seek to be rejoined.  Interestingly, Christians would later identify that same Logos  as the dynamic "Word" of God from which all things in creation were originally derived … but also a Logos which came to earth in the form of man (Jesus) to live among us in order to show us the way back to that unity with the Creator himself, our heavenly Father. Ultimately however, the Materialists came to some kind of agreement, thanks to Empédocles (mid-400s BC), that reality was made up of four elements – earth, air, fire and water – which combine in different ways to shape the physical world. Of course the Materialists would still find the one most important question in life to be also the most difficult question to answer:  where did all of this material order come from?  Parménides (early 400s BC) answered the question by affirming that the question itself was an absurd one … because something could not just come out of nothing.  Reality always is … and has always been.  That thus supposedly answered the question. But another Ionian philosopher, Anaxagóras (mid-400s BC) would not stop with that conclusion.  Being from Ionia, he was quite naturally a Materialist.  For instance, he saw the sun as an enormous red-hot stone … and the moon as merely reflecting the sun's light.  But he had some Mystical instincts as well …holding the view that the Eternal Mind (the Nous) gave life its beginning … and continued to shape and activate all life.   And very importantly for Athens, he left Ionia and moved to that city to do his study and teaching … helping to start up Athens as a major intellectual as well as political center.  Democritus of Abdera (ca. 460-370 B.C.) the creator of Atomic Theory Another Greek Materialist, Demócritus (c. 450-370 BC), would take Greek philosophy its furthest down the Materialist path.  He was widely recognized even in his own days as a brilliant thinker … who brought to the ancient Greek world the atomic theory of the cosmos.  Basically, his view was that all life is merely the composite structure of invisibly minute particles of hard matter: atoms (from the Greek atomos meaning "not divisible").  These atoms – eternal in their being – are structured into the more visible material entities we observe in our world – through the laws of motion – also eternal in their existence. Democritus was also a profound materialist in his view of human life.  To him life is simply patterns of motion of these soul-less atoms – operating in accordance with equally soul-less laws.   The human soul itself is simply a brief pattern in the working of the atoms – a pattern which forms in the human womb, developing, and then breaking down over a human lifetime … until it simply ceases to exist when we draw our last breath.   To Democritus there was no such thing as eternal life.  Likewise, God or Divinity was to him simply a construct of human thought – and had no real existence in the cosmos. Thus in so many ways Democritus anticipated – by thousands of years – the direction modern secular science would take in its development with the modern rise of post-Christian Western culture and society! For more on Democritus Greek Materialists vs. Greek Mystics ATHENS' RISE TO GLORY Greek democracy The Greeks were also a people given to much thought about the best way to shape, run, and occasionally reform Greek society. All Greeks originated as proud tribal peoples, complete with their tribal assemblies that all men were expected to attend ... for their services would be frequently called on and it was best that they personally had "bought into' the social decision, especially on the matter of war, in order to assure their commitment to the cause.  And out of this experience grew the idea of the people governing themselves.  Each tribe, even when it grew in number and became "civilized" (meaning the people now lived in cities with temples, commercial buildings, apartments, town walls, etc.), saw itself as practicing "democracy" – government (kratos) by the citizens (demos) of the towns or cities themselves. However the definition of demos or citizen was not as broad as it is today.  The category "citizen" by no means included all inhabitants of the city-states but only those males of a recognized tribal pedigree ... meaning full members by birth of one or another of the old tribes originally making up the community.  Foreigners or xenoi living in the cities – which often included a huge number of the industrial or commercial workers (and certainly also the many slaves) – were actually quite numerous in Greek culture.  These individuals did not qualify for democratic privileges ... even if they were descendants of several generations of xenoi living and working in these "democratic" city-states. Athenians and Spartans.  Leading the way in this democratic development was the city-state of Athens.  But the path by which Athenian democracy would develop was very, very stormy ... just as was the rise to political prominence of Athens itself. During most of Greece's Archaic Period the Spartans had been considered the dominant political power or hegemon in Greece.  But during the 500s BC Athens, which was well positioned at the center of this huge Greek world, and possessing a number of natural advantages (a very strong citadel, a wide fertile region surrounding it, and closeness to the sea), soon rose to its own prominence.  Also, having the strongest navy of all the Greek city states (thanks to its political leader Thucydides), Athens was early looked to in order to provide leadership in organizing the city states into a great Greek navy, one designed to keep the Persians away from Greek shores.  But the Athenians proved themselves as well on land as foot soldiers. Thus Greek leadership was divided between — and often competed for — by both Sparta and Athens (Corinth and Thebes were also powerful, though only at a secondary level). Athens' struggle to secure democracy But Athens was wracked by internal problems.  Athens' rich and powerful aristocracy, long used to dominating Athens' political and economic life from its political council, the Areopagus, found itself increasingly challenged by the Athenian commoners (not really all that common, since they still occupied a much higher status than the more numerous xenoi ("foreigners") in Athens and the even more numerous slave portion of the Athenian population). The aristocrats first attempted to control Athens' affairs with a very tough legal code or constitution (in which the penalty for a wide range of offenses was death) laid down by Draco (ca. 620 BC) – and thus very "Draconian" – which, though an improvement over the older oral laws and traditions, still did not satisfy the political desires of the commoners.  However his constitution did provide for the creation of a Council of Four Hundred, its members drawn from the commoners by lot. A generation later, in the early 500s BC, another aristocrat, Solon, serving as archon (one of several leaders governing Athens), was commissioned to reform this constitution.  He attempted to find a compromise between the contending social classes by ranking the citizens into four classes and giving each of them a certain number of economic and political duties and rights.  But soon after his departure from power, class rivalries gradually returned.  Peisistratus, a nephew of Solon, seized power on behalf of the poorer citizens, thus becoming "tyrant," actually meaning at the time "champion of the poor."  His political base was never secure and he was in power – and exiled – frequently from 546 to 527 BC as political confusion continued to grip Athens. Eventually a compromise was achieved (509 BC) – in no small part due to the need to secure unity in the face of the political threat posed by both Sparta and Persia.  A popular politician named Cleisthenes was elevated to power to reform the constitution.  He reorganized the tribal basis of Athenian citizenship from four to ten tribes – membership based no longer on class but on residence in the city.  From these tribes were drawn (by lot) members of the all-important legislative and judicial councils. He saw this not so much as "democracy" as isonomia: full legal equality of all (male) citizens. The challenge of the Persian Wars In the latter part of the 500s BC, just as a number of Greek towns were beginning to grow in power as "city-states," the Persians surprised the world by conquering Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt … and Greek Ionia.  Thus was the mighty Persian Empire born.  This was the first time ever that nearly the whole of the Near East had been brought under a single rule. Some of the Greeks living in Ionia did not particularly take well to this Persian domination (though others did, even serving in the Persian military) and rose up in revolt against Persian rule in the 490s BC.  The citizens of Athens were quick to back the Ionian rebels – who, however, were eventually forced back under Persian rule. This action of Athens and other Greek city-states in supporting the Greek Ionian rebellion drew the wrath of Persia … and led to a Persian desire to crush any further Athenian or other Greek "meddling" in Persian affairs.  Thus the Persian Greek wars began. This Persian response to Greek "meddling" in turn forced the two leading Greek city-states, Sparta and Athens, into cooperation (in fact forcing a general Greek unity among all the Greek cities that had previously been lacking). The Battle of Marathon (490 BC).  Quite surprisingly (to the Persians, anyway!), in a number of major encounters, the Greeks succeeded in defeating the Persian armies and navy sent to Greece, thus not only helping to secure Greek freedom, but elevating Greece – and in particular Athens – to a new status politically. In the first encounter, Athenian hoplites (troops) were able to surround, attack directly, and completely rout the Persian troops that had just arrived by sea at the Greek coast at Marathon (the Spartans were no help in this engagement, claiming to be deeply involved in a religious ceremony at the time). The Persian survivors (they lost over 6,000 troops, in contrast to Athens' loss of 190 troops) retreated to Asia, where they prepared themselves for a second attempt.  However, a revolt in Egypt against Persian domination delayed that second attempt. The Persian king Xerxes, who took over when his father died in 486 BC, was as dedicated to the reduction of Greece, and the total destruction of Athens.  After having crushed the Egyptian revolt, and after three-years of military preparation, Xerxes was finally ready to undertake just such a mission.  However, Sparta now joined Athens in the effort to fend off the Persians.  But most of the other Greek city-states still chose to stay out of the action. Setbacks at Thermopylae and Artemisium (480 BC).  The Persians now approached Greece both by land and by sea, with the first encounter taking place at a narrow pass at Thermopylae, along the eastern coastal road in Thessaly (northern Greece).  A small group of Spartan-led troops were able for three days to hold off the invading Persians, before a Greek traitor showed the Persians a path around the pass, and the Greek troops were ultimately surrounded and slaughtered there. At the same time the Athenian-led Greek fleet managed to fight off the Persian fleet at Artemisium, until news of the Greek defeat broke the Greek spirit and the Greek fleet withdrew to Salamis.  The Persians then continued their advance through Greece, destroying city-state after city-state as they went, including the city of Athens as well.   The battles at Salamis (480 BC) ... and Plataea and Mycale (479 BC).  But the Persians were blocked at the narrow isthmus that opens the huge Peloponnesian peninsula to the rest of Greece, and thus Xerxes decided that a victory at sea would be required to finish off the Greek resistance.  But under the brilliant leadership of the Athenian general Themistocles, the Greek navy was able to gain a very decisive victory at Salamis over the Persian navy. The next year, Xerxes was ready to try again to conquer Greece, and sent his troops to Greece, where they assembled at Plataea.  A battle which then took place there did not go well for the Persians, who lost their commanding general and then found their camp surrounded, and ultimately destroyed by the Greek hoplites.  At the same time, another sea battle – at Mycale – did not go well for the Persian fleet, making the Persian defeat even more obvious. These were horrible setbacks for the Persians, ones they would never recover from – at least in their dealings with the Greeks. Yet for the Greeks it proved to be a major turning point in the history not only of Greece but even of Western civilization itself.  From this point on, Greece, led most importantly by Athens, would leave a deep political, social, intellectual and moral impact on Western civilization … one that would shape that civilization not only in the many centuries of Greek political and cultural greatness, but even down to today, where that same legacy is built deeply into the ways of the West. The Golden Age of "Periclean Athens" (and Greece) The Delian League.  By the mid-400s BC Athens was the dominant sea power in Greece, Sparta the dominant land power.  But the sea was the more important element in Greek life at that time – and thus Athens naturally tended to dominate Greek affairs.  In fact, although the Persians had been twice defeated by the Greeks, their shadow continued to loom over Greek thinking – and thus Greek defenses stood always at the ready, headed up primarily by Athens which had organized a number of Greek cities into a defense organization known as the Delian League. "Periclean Athens."  The fact that the Greeks had escaped Persian rule was to become important in the future development of Greece.  Spurred on by the continuing threat of Persia, Greece developed its own strength, especially under the leadership (even dominance) of Athens.  Athens, after the two grand defeats of the Persians at Salamis and Plataea, soon became the center of a newly rising Greek civilization, with Athens itself reaching the height of its power and glory about 450 BC, roughly the time of the political leader Pericles (490-429 BC). Pericles was born to a highly-placed noble Athenian family … and followed in his father's footsteps to command the Athenian military in some of its most important engagements – most notably those conducted during the First Peloponnesian Wars of Athens versus Sparta in the period 460-445 BC.  Pericles was also a very close friend of the philosopher Anaxagoras.  And Pericles became very active in the world of politics, becoming the primary prosecutor against the politician Cimon, who had succeeded in having the great general Themistocles (a warrior that Pericles greatly admired) expelled or "ostracized" from Athens.  Pericles eventually was indeed able to have Cimon himself ostracized. Pericles was a practitioner of "democratic" politics … doing what he could to use state resources to support the poor – winning obvious favor from that huge sector of the population.  Indeed, he identified himself as a champion of the little people (tyrant). And he also limited voting rights to only those Athenians with both parents being Athenian citizens … so as to keep the voting privileges enjoyed by even the poorest Athenians from being diluted by the massive entrance of the foreigners or xenoi into the ranks of Athenian citizenship.   This all seemed to support the idea that indeed, Athens was a very grand city … everyone (at least its citizens) able to afford the pleasures of a highly successful society. Athens' great cultural achievements.  And yes, indeed, the mid-400s marks the grand age of Athens.  Athens' democracy and the leadership of the very capable general/statesman Pericles combined to offer Athens' citizens a very rich life.  A lavish building program turned the city into an architectural marvel.  And the tendency of Greece's finest minds to gravitate to Athens made it "the school of Greece." Phidias showing the freize of the Parthenon to his friends - by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1868) Birmingham (England) Museun and Art Gallery Pericles and Aspasia in Phidias' studio admiring his statue of Athena - by Hector Leroux Athens - with the Acropolis in the distance Miles Hodges The front of the Acropolis Miles Hodges The front of the Acropolis Miles Hodges The entrance to the Acropolis Miles Hodges The Athena-Nike Temple on the Acropolis Miles Hodges The Propylaea Temple on the Acropolis Miles Hodges The Erectheum Temple on the Acropolis Miles Hodges The Erectheum Temple on the Acropolis Miles Hodges A view of the Parthenon on the Acropolis Miles Hodges The Parthenon Temple atop the Acropolis Miles Hodges The Dionysian Theater – viewed from the Acropolis Miles Hodges The Theater of Herod Atticus – viewed from the Acropolis Miles Hodges Other Greek communities Sparta Foundation walls of Sparta Miles Hodges Foundation walls of Sparta Miles Hodges Olympia Ruins of ancient Olympia Miles Hodges Ruins of ancient Olympia Miles Hodges Ruins of ancient Olympia Miles Hodges Reconstructed stadium at Olympia Miles Hodges ATHENS' POLITICAL-SOCIAL-MORAL DECLINE Athenian democracy under challenge Actually, Athenian democracy was more an attitude than a political institution or policy.  The commoners were jealous of their political rights and quick to defend them against any appearance of usurpation from any source.  Tragically, this "democratic" attitude was easily molded by the shapers of "popular opinion" – by the political satire of the popular theaters of Athens ... and by the political maneuvering of clever speakers in the Athenian Assembly, in particular by the Sophists and their wealthy disciples – sort of the ancient version of modern day trial lawyers, who specialized in playing on the prejudices and fears of the people in order to whip up this or that popular mood ... which they skillfully directed according to their own personal ambitions.    The Sophists.  As the Athenians' public life in the middle and second half of the 400s BC developed in its richness and importance, wealthy families hired tutors for their sons in order to prepare them for leadership roles in the public assemblies.  This was where the laws guiding Athens would be shaped.  This was where economic, diplomatic and military decisions that were key to the well-being of the community would be made.  They wanted their sons to become persuasive in their rhetoric, quick in public debate and noble in their public bearing – so that they would find themselves at the heart of the doings of these public assemblies. A particular class of wise ones or "Sophists" (Greek sophia = "wisdom") gladly offered their teaching services for a fee to these families.  They built their learning or wisdom around the need to produce practical results in the form of skilled or adept students. These Sophists were sort of the ancient version of modern-day trial lawyers, who specialized in using very clever and highly persuasive "rational" arguments in order to win their cases.  As demagogues, they proved highly skillful in cultivating the prejudices and fears of the people … to whip up this or that popular mood. As for the higher issues of life such as truth, goodness, justice, etc., in general the Sophists tended to be agnostic – that is, they professed to have no knowledge about (or even concern for) such ultimate or transcendent things.  Indeed, they functioned as if such things did not really matter in the course of actual existence.  Success was measured not in possessing the knowledge of ultimate truth, but in knowing how to use truths (or "truthiness" as it is sometimes termed today) for personal political and economic gain. Democratic cruelty Ostracism.   At the same time that wealthy Athenian families were very busy in creating something of a newly-rising ruling class of "more enlightened" individuals, at the level of the lower social orders tendencies were also developing that would serve to weaken further the moral foundations of Greek democracy. One of these tendencies was the long-standing practice of "ostracism" or the exiling of Athenians by their fellow citizens, because for one reason or another they had fallen out of popular favor.  At a special general assembly, citizens were invited (usually by these Sophist-trained demagogues) to record the name of a person they might want exiled on a broken piece of pottery and deposit it in urns.  These pottery shards or ostraka were then tallied by a public official.  The person receiving the most votes (although at least a minimum of 6,000 votes) was "ostracized" and thus automatically exiled for ten years. Themistocles is ostracized.  In 472 or 471 BC the Athenian general Themistocles … who had been one of the Athenian commanders at the Battle of Marathon, who then led the Athenians to develop massive sea power and subsequently devised the scheme to trap and destroy the Persian navy at Salamis, and who was the leading political figure over the next ten years … was brought before the ever-suspicious Athenian Assembly – fed by rumors coming from the Spartans of a role in a political conspiracy (entirely false in fact, designed cleverly by the Spartans to destroy their rival Themistocles) – and adjudged by the Athenian commoners to be guilty of the crime of arrogance.  He was thus was ostracized.  He fled to Macedonia – then moved on to Ionia … where the Persian Emperor Artaxerxes offered to bring him into Persian service as a regional governor! Tragically for Athens itself, it would take some time and distance from this sad episode before the Athenians would recognize the cruelty that they had delivered to the one man … who not only saved Athens from Persian destruction, but put the Greeks on the path to greatness. Athenian arrogance / Athenian imperialism Another (and similar) major problem facing the Athenian democracy would be the arrogant attitude it came to assume with respect to its fellow Greek city states – and the resentment this would breed among these other Greeks.  At this point Athens no longer was led by wise men with a deep sense of high-minded virtue, but by cynical, manipulative, self-serving politicians, setting a similar moral tone for the entire Athenian community. With the passing of time, as the Persian threat seemed to dwindle – but Athenian collection of dues from its allies for "defense" purposes continued nonetheless – resentment by members of the Delian League against Athens grew, especially when it became obvious that this money the other cities were sending to Athens had little to do with Greek defenses and more to do with a lavish Athenian building program going on during Athens' "glory days."  Consequently, Athens' Greek allies in the Delian League felt as if they had been seduced into surrendering their independence to a growing Athenian Empire.  Certainly also, the money they were sending Athens could have been used to improve their own cities.  Anger against Athens began to grow among the other Greek city-states. Sparta, the major rival to Athenian power, with its well-disciplined land army, was quick to take advantage of this discontent and organized a rebellion against Athens in 431 BC.  Also Thebes, seeing the growing mood of Greek rebellion against Athens, decided to make a bid for dominance in Greek affairs. The Peloponnesian Wars, and the decline of Athens. Thus wars (the "Peloponnesian Wars") broke out in Greece (431-421 BC; 421-404 BC; 395-378 BC), wars that tended to ravage Greece – yet seemed to resolve nothing.  The worst of these were the engagements between 431 and 404 BC.  Truces would be declared only to have one party or another decide that it was advantageous to break those treaties and start up a new round of wars.  Also political leaders played treacherous games of shifting their loyalties according to their personal advantage. Pericles' efforts to keep Athenian spirits high.  For a while the great general and Athenian political leader Pericles was able to keep Athenian spirits high as it struggled with the hostility of the surrounding Greek world.  But Athens had taken on a war that would drain it economically and spiritually … and offer no gain whatsoever in return.  Consequently, Athens found itself bleeding to death economically and spiritually. Decline.  Thus things went quickly downhill for Athens.  A long-lasting siege of Athens by Sparta created devastating conditions within Athens, taking the lives of many Athenians, including Pericles (429 BC).  Athens' new leader Alcibiades (Pericles' nephew) proved to be largely a disaster for Athens, as he led Athens on ruinous expeditions and switched loyalties constantly ... including even siding with Athens' enemies, first Sparta (415-412 BC) and then Persia (412-411 BC) during his cynical political career! Ruin.  The war gradually led not only Athens but also much of the rest of Greece to ruin.  Finally, in 405 BC, the Spartans (now allied with the Persians) defeated Athens even at sea – and Athens was forced into a humiliating surrender, forced to tear down her town walls, surrender her fleet and give up all her overseas possessions.  Only Sparta's compassion prevented Corinth and Thebes from getting their wish to level all of Athens and also enslave the entire Athenian population. Socrates is condemned to death.  Even more tragically, the West's most famous philosopher, Socrates – who was loudly critical of the amoral antics of the Sophists – would eventually (late 400s BC) become the object of the satire of the playwrights (notably Aristophanes) and the demagoguery of the Assembly speakers.  Both groups turned the public against him. In 399 BC the Assembly voted for Socrates' death ... given somewhat honorably in that he was to inflict this punishment on himself (poison, usually).  Actually, they expected Socrates to do what most Athenians did when the Assembly turned against them: flee Athens.  This was certainly the counsel of Socrates's devoted disciples.  But Socrates reasoned that to flee would be to discredit the very truths and moral principles to which he had dedicated his life in his teachings.  Thus he took the poisonous hemlock and died, surrounded by his disciples. Socrates's death by the decision of Athens' democratic Assembly consequently caused democracy to be intensely distrusted by some (Socrates' famous student Plato, for instance) or at least not highly regarded (Plato's equally famous student Aristotle, for instance). THE "BIG THREE":  SOCRATES, PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE Socrates (469-399 BC) Socrates is known largely through Plato's heroized representation of him.  We know that subjects such as social ethics or public morality were of great interest to him – though he was also interested in such subjects as justice, beauty, goodness, and even physics and metaphysics.  Above all, he was interested in conveying to his students the understanding of how to live a life of honor and truth … particularly in service to the larger social order. He was keenly aware that objective reality and what our minds understand of reality are separated by a great mental divide (the general consensus of Greek philosophy by that time). But to the optimistic Socrates, rational inquiry, meticulously but humbly pursued (his dialectical method), could close this divide. In using rational methods of inquiry, human mind and soul could be brought to discover transcendent (thus absolute) truth and goodness – and personal happiness.   Socrates felt optimistically that knowing the truly good would necessarily direct a person to act in line with this knowledge.  Also, the quest for such knowledge was the very heart of life itself – its highest form (almost a divine enterprise). Unfortunately, the Athenians proved not to be so enlightened by the truth as he had hoped, and ordered him to poison himself … for "teaching the youth not to reverence the gods" (something actually not the case at all). For more on Socrates The death of Socrates - by Jacques-Louis David (1787) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York  Socrates's student Plato (427-347 BC) His pupil Plato took up Socrates' cause and carried the matter further –much further. Reflecting on life in a way not dissimilar to Pythagoras, Plato felt that though the visible world itself might at times appear chaotic and threatening, behind this visible world was a world of perfection.  Our visible world was only a dim reflection of this perfect world. This perfect world on the other hand was composed of perfect formulations: mathematical and geometric – like Pythagoras' world.  But to Plato such abstract perfections also included things such as goodness, virtue, beauty. The realm of the Ideon.  These perfections were idealized Forms or Ideas (Ideon or Eidei – terms he used interchangeably) like geometric forms that describe life ideally.  But though these Forms existed only as ideas, they were more real than the visible world around us.  But how could Plato be so sure that these Forms we had never ever seen were so real? His thinking went something like this. We know, for instance, that there are no perfect circles to be found anywhere in nature.  Some things in nature only tend toward a perfect circular form and thus may be called circular. But how is it that we know that they are not perfectly circular? Only because for some strange reason our minds can indeed hold clearly a distinct understanding of a perfect circle – though we have never seen such anywhere in the world around us.   We can thus make such assertions about circularity – not because we have seen perfect circles, but because we certainly hold the idea of a circle clearly in our mind. If we could not conceive of such perfect ideas in our minds, then we would not be able to think clearly or rationally. The fact that we can think about circles, to Plato proved their existence. This existence, of course, was not in the immediate world around us, but in some mysterious realm of higher being or thinking. Plato was interested in uncovering this perfect world of the Ideon or Forms – in bringing it to light to human understanding.  Indeed, this was to Plato (and by many "Platonists" who came after him) a religious enterprise – not just a matter of detached scholarship. Plato and the realm of politics.  With regard to the world of politics, most understandably, after what the Athenian Assembly did to his teacher Socrates, Plato was no lover of democracy.  But Plato did believe that there existed part of the realm of the Ideon ... able to guide our shaping of an ideal state.  In his Republic, Plato described that ideal state as one that was divided by classes or castes into three levels of society:  workers, guardians (soldiers) and governors ("philosopher kings"). Tragically, when later in life Plato was called to Syracuse (Greek Sicily) by Dion (a former student of Plato's) to help Dion's young but dissolute nephew Dionysius II become just that "philosopher king" and put such an Ideal State into effect, the whole thing ended up most disastrously.  Dionysius's older brother-in-law Dionysius the Elder, who was actually ruling Syracuse at the time, was deeply irritated by Plato's disdain of his attempts at being a popular tyrant … and had Plato arrested.  Plato was spared death only by being sold into slavery … from which a friend of Plato's went on to purchase his freedom.  Oddly enough, when Dionysius the Elder died, Plato was invited back by Dion to Syracuse to try again with the young Dionysius.  But Dionysius fought with his uncle Dion, and had him expelled … but forced Plato to stay on.  Plato was finally able to get out of Syracuse.  Ultimately the "philosopher king" Dionysius found himself facing a popular uprising … in which he was ultimately driven from power. What Plato actually learned from all this very non-Idealist experience in the realm of politics is not known to us today.  Nothing in Plato's writings points to any kind of development of his political thinking because of this sad experience. Apology Republic Laws Statesman Crito Critias Gorgias Meno Parmenides Phaedo Phaedrus Sophist Symposium Theaetetus Timaeus For more on Plato Raphael's School of Athens At the center, Plato pointing upward to the heavens; Aristotle pointing downwards to the earth ... a keen depiction of the essential philosophical difference distinguishing the two! Aristotle (384-322 BC) Aristotle went in a direction opposite that of his teacher, Plato.  While Plato focused his attention on the mysterious world of the perfect Forms, Aristotle focused his attention on the messier visible world immediately around him. Aristotle was greatly fascinated by this empirical or physical world.  He was looking for Plato's Forms actually contained within this visible world. But Aristotle eventually surmised that these Forms were merely abstractions in our mind which we use to categorize the immense information that comes to us about the surrounding world. These Forms, though useful to human logic, were themselves only mental constructs or kategoriai (categories) … useful to the human mind in developing an organized understanding of how to understand and work with the surrounding world. "Dog," or "barn", or "hot", or the color "red" were just such categories.  They had no separate existence like gods or defining spirits (as Plato had asserted). But Aristotle was deeply interested in exploring this world of categories, trying to discover as many different categories as possible … in all fields of life, from biology to geology, but also in the realm of logic, ethics, and politics. As already mentioned, in the field of politics, he was not particularly interested in one or another particular category of social organization, whether a society governed by a single person, or a few, or even the many.  What he understood as the "good society" was one which – whatever the specific form – was carefully ordered by a set of very strong moral foundations … ones that human cleverness would not be able to manipulate – but which would offer clear guidance to that society as it took on life's various challenges.  He made this very clear in his famous publication, Politics.   Most interestingly however, when it came to discussion of things beyond this earthly realm – the heavenly realm of the sun, moon and stars – Aristotle evidenced a religious awe. Though the earth might be marked with physical imperfections, these heavenly bodies were the essence of the divine, for they were perfect – perfect in their circular shape and circular movement.  Thus for Aristotle the perfect-imperfect dualism in life occurred not between things seen and unseen (as it had for Plato), but between the imperfect things seen on earth and the perfect things seen in the heavens.   Thus even in his religion, Aristotle remained focused on the visible universe around him.  "Heaven" was not a place found beyond the visible world … but instead was located quite visibly in the skies above.  Beyond that, Aristotle had no particular opinion about the "heavenly realm" of the gods or whatever. Nicomachean Ethics Politics The Athenian Constitution Categories On Generation and Corruption On Interpretation Metaphysics On the Heavens On the Soul (De Anima) Physics Poetics Prior Analytics Rhetoric For more on Aristotle Go on to the next section:  Alexander and Hellenism   Miles H. Hodges