DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0044
30 ANCIENT ATHENS.
From this moment the Erechtheium, where the monuments of the
contest were preserved, appears to have become, as it afterwards con-
tinued to be, a temple of Athena. Thus Homer:—
Oi 8 up' 'Adijvas €i\ovy evKTtpevov irroKUSpov,
hrjpov 'Epe)(6qos p.eyii\i'iTopos, ov nor 'ABrjvr)
dpty^t, Aios Svydrrjp, reK€ 5> frldccpos (ipovpa,
KU$ 8' cV JA&T]VT]<? flfffV, €Oi,iPl TTIOVI VT\tti.
eV&ioV pxv ravpoLxrl Ka\ apvctois l\aoVTat
KOVpOl ' A.8j}Vai(i>V, 1T(piTfXkop.€V(A)V ivLavT&v} K. t. A.
" Then those who held the well-built town of Athens,
Town of Erechtheus with the noble heart,
Earth-born, but fostered by Athena's care,
• Jove's child, and in her own rich temple set.
Him, as the years revolve, the youth of Athens
With blood of bulls and rams propitiate."
These lines have by some critics been regarded as an interpolation
of the age of Solon and Pisistratus; because, it is said, the word 8%io«
could not have been. applied to the Athenians in Homer's time, and
because that poet never uses the word i^;d?.2 But the charge cannot
be supported, at all events by these proofs. Homer does not mention
the Athenians, as forming a republican state, but Athens, as a town or
district. Such a use of 8^09 is not uncommon in Homer. Thus,
RoiwtoI /j,u\a -jrlova Sfjfj.ov e^ovre?, II. V. 710; and Av/cini ivl tt'lovl
hr)fia>, lb. xvi. 437 ; where it is evident that he is speaking, not of the
people, but the soil. It is true, indeed, that the word has been inter-
preted by " Plutarch of the people " ;3 but even if we should allow that
Homar uses it in the sense of a republican state, still there is very
good classical authority for it. That Athens was a democracy before
the time of Pisistratus, and that it was established by Theseus, is
affirmed by several classical authorities; as Aristotle, cited by Plutarch
in this passage; by Isocrates, who says that Lycurgus modelled the
Spartan democracy on that of Athens; by Demosthenes, who attributes
to Theseus the foundation of a democratic state; and by Strabo, who
1 Iliad, ii. 546 sqq. 2 See Miiller, Dorinns, ii. 73, sq. s Vit. Thes. 25.
From this moment the Erechtheium, where the monuments of the
contest were preserved, appears to have become, as it afterwards con-
tinued to be, a temple of Athena. Thus Homer:—
Oi 8 up' 'Adijvas €i\ovy evKTtpevov irroKUSpov,
hrjpov 'Epe)(6qos p.eyii\i'iTopos, ov nor 'ABrjvr)
dpty^t, Aios Svydrrjp, reK€ 5> frldccpos (ipovpa,
KU$ 8' cV JA&T]VT]<? flfffV, €Oi,iPl TTIOVI VT\tti.
eV&ioV pxv ravpoLxrl Ka\ apvctois l\aoVTat
KOVpOl ' A.8j}Vai(i>V, 1T(piTfXkop.€V(A)V ivLavT&v} K. t. A.
" Then those who held the well-built town of Athens,
Town of Erechtheus with the noble heart,
Earth-born, but fostered by Athena's care,
• Jove's child, and in her own rich temple set.
Him, as the years revolve, the youth of Athens
With blood of bulls and rams propitiate."
These lines have by some critics been regarded as an interpolation
of the age of Solon and Pisistratus; because, it is said, the word 8%io«
could not have been. applied to the Athenians in Homer's time, and
because that poet never uses the word i^;d?.2 But the charge cannot
be supported, at all events by these proofs. Homer does not mention
the Athenians, as forming a republican state, but Athens, as a town or
district. Such a use of 8^09 is not uncommon in Homer. Thus,
RoiwtoI /j,u\a -jrlova Sfjfj.ov e^ovre?, II. V. 710; and Av/cini ivl tt'lovl
hr)fia>, lb. xvi. 437 ; where it is evident that he is speaking, not of the
people, but the soil. It is true, indeed, that the word has been inter-
preted by " Plutarch of the people " ;3 but even if we should allow that
Homar uses it in the sense of a republican state, still there is very
good classical authority for it. That Athens was a democracy before
the time of Pisistratus, and that it was established by Theseus, is
affirmed by several classical authorities; as Aristotle, cited by Plutarch
in this passage; by Isocrates, who says that Lycurgus modelled the
Spartan democracy on that of Athens; by Demosthenes, who attributes
to Theseus the foundation of a democratic state; and by Strabo, who
1 Iliad, ii. 546 sqq. 2 See Miiller, Dorinns, ii. 73, sq. s Vit. Thes. 25.