Classical Studies 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Parrhesia, Direct Democracy, Anax

• School: Western University
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: Classical Studies 1000
• Professor: Christopher Brown

Document Summary

Continuous habitation has largely effaced any archaeological record of prehistoric settlements. The athenian myth: in primordial time when two gods, poseidon and athena, were laying claim to the city. Each wanted to give the city a gift. Poseidon gave the city a salt-water spring and athena gave them the olive. Poseidon(cid:495)s gift was essentially useless while the olive became the basis of the athenian economy. There was then a dispute between hephaestus and athena. Hephaestus (the lame smith god) went after her but he ejaculated on her leg. Athena took some wool and scraped the seed from her leg and threw it onto the ground. In some myths he has the top of a man and the bottom of a snake (reinforcing the fact that he came from the earth). These myths connect the people of athens with the physical locality. This gives them claim to authority to this land and it gives them the right to inhabit it.