Athens

Were they like us?

Sacred

Mythical

Virtuous

Glory

Ritual

Law

Logography

Charara's

 Theses on 

the Function 

of Speech

1. Character
2. Action
3. Democracy
4. Accountable
5. NonViolent

On the Death of Eratosthenes

1} Character

Ethopoeia

Oikos

2} Action

Contingency

Antithesis

Rhetoric

Contingent

"every city enacts its laws in order that when we are uncertain in a situation, we can go to them [the laws] to see what to do."

[35]

Antithesis

[29]

Fine v. Execution

It is not I who kill you, but the law of the city.

[26]

3} Democracy

Oligarchy

"this is the only crime for which both democracy and oligarchy give the same right of revenge..."

[2]

Fragments

Concerning the Sekos

Theses: 3-5

And olives

Odyssey 

Sitting at the base of the sacred olive,
The two plotted death for the insolent suitors.

[386]

Xenophon

The country produced everything one could want, except olives.

[6.6]

Oedipus @ Colonus

Aristotle

Athenian Constitution - 350 BCE

anybody who dug up or cut down a sacred olive-tree was tried by the Council of Areopagus, and if found guilty punished with death...

3} Democracy

The Thirty

4} Accountability

Eikos

"... is it more likely that my opponent is lying without any risk or that I did a thing like this in the face of great danger?"

[38]

5} NonViolence

Bia

"None of them has ever tried to harm me openly, but they send against me people like him - people you cannot rightly trust."

[40]

Corollaries

1} Character

Speech also actively creates character

2} Action

A} The contingent demands speech

B} How does speech act? 

3} Democracy

The People + Speech = Dangerous

 #DemocracyProbs

4} Accountability

Probability determines the extent of accountability.

5} NonViolence

But also becomes a form of violence