Primitive Athens as described by ThucydidesHarrison, Jane Ellen
History
Primitive Athens as described by Thucydides
Harrison, Jane Ellen
Athens (Greece) -- Antiquities; Athens (Greece) -- Description and travel
Needless difficulties have been raised about this sentence, and, quite
unnecessarily, a lacuna in the text has been supposed[65]. Though the
form of the sentence is compressed, the plain literal meaning is clear.
The first piece of evidence that Thucydides states is that in the
‘citadel itself other divinities “as well” have sanctuaries.’ To what
does this ‘as well’ refer? Obviously to ‘The Goddess’ mentioned in the
clause next but one before as presiding over the Synoikia, ‘The Goddess’
who was so well known that to name her was needless.
It has been proposed to read the sentence thus: ‘There are (ancient)
sanctuaries in the citadel itself both “of the goddess Athena” and of
other deities as well.’ This is true, but it is not what Thucydides says
and not what he means. He does not desire to make any statement whatever
about the sanctuaries of Athene or their antiquity; both propositions are
for the moment irrelevant; he _wishes_ to say what he _does_ say, that
‘there are sanctuaries in the Acropolis itself, those of other deities as
well (as The Goddess).’ It is the ‘other deities’ not ‘The Goddess’ who
are the point.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.]
But Thucydides always leaves perhaps rather much to the intelligence
of his readers. It may fairly be asked, why is the existence of these
sanctuaries of ‘other deities’ an argument in support of the statement
that the Acropolis was the ancient city? Once fairly asked, the question
answers itself. The Acropolis in the time of Thucydides was a hill sacred
to Athena, it was almost her _temenos_; the other gods, Apollo, Zeus,
Aphrodite, had their most important sanctuaries down below, all over
the great ‘wheel-shaped’ city. Athena had from time immemorial, it was
believed, dwelt on the hill; any statement about her shrines would prove
nothing one way or the other. But in the old days, before there was any
‘down below,’ any ‘wheel-shaped’ city, if the ‘other gods’ were to be
city gods at all they must have their shrines up above. Such shrines
there were on the Acropolis itself; this made it additionally probable
that the Acropolis _was_ the ancient city. The reasoning is quite clear
and relevant, and the argument is just the sort that an Athenian of the
time of Thucydides, with his head full of the dominant Athena, and apt to
forget the ‘other gods,’ would need to have recalled to his mind.
The citadel of classical days, with its ‘old Athena temple,’ Parthenon
and its Erechtheion lies before us in Fig. 16. The ‘old Athena
temple’ and the Parthenon belong to ‘The Goddess,’ where then are the
‘sanctuaries in the citadel itself which belong to other deities’ of
which Thucydides is thinking?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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