This week we visited the Pnyx accompanied by Professor Edward Harris to talk about Athenian democracy. To contextualize our discussion, Professor Harris made comparisons with our modern democracy, explaining how, like us, the ancients divided the government into 3 parts, but different from our legislative, judicial and executive branches. Instead, the government consisted of the deliberative (an assembly where “everybody” – male citizens – had the right to vote), the magistrates (elected and selected by lot to serve 1 year) and the judiciary. Unlike our democracy, theirs was a direct democracy, meaning there were no representatives. Harris importantly called to mind our Declaration of Independence, which defended certain people’s inalienable rights, noting that the Greeks did not have this concept; theirs was a slave society.
Harris also occasionally referenced our current government through what one could characterize as snide remarks, at one time noting that ancient Greek officials were subject to the same laws and rules as everyone else, a form of accountability that Harris subtly hinted may be lacking in our current system. Another important difference between our modern democracy and the Athenians’ is the practice of selection by lot. As a result, there were no big political campaigns, no big businesses or lobbying involved. During voting, a bare majority sufficed, though Harris mentioned that the assembly did try to build a consensus leading up to a vote so that when the time came, there was near unanimity, or at least a sizable majority.
Physically, the site was quite impressive, with a big hill sloping away from the speakers’ podium down toward the Agora. Because the ancient Athenians would not have had any way to amplify their voices, Harris had us perform an experiment where Zaria ran down to the bottom of the hill, standing near the retaining wall that was built around the 2nd c. BCE and had her read to us. While I personally found it hard to hear her, Harris assured us that orators would have had nice, clear projection and that the 10,000 attending citizens (what the Pnyx could accommodate in its 3rd phase starting around 350 BCE) would have been able to hear a speaker clearly. At the end of the lecture, Harris noted that, because so many citizens ended up serving, the vast majority of them must have been literate in order to read the agenda that governed the running of all the meetings.
After the week, a group of us returned to Agistri to revisit the stunning beach we swam at on our first visit. While the weather did not cooperate, the beach did not disappoint, and neither did the view.