Julia L. Shear

‘THEIR MEMORIES WILL NEVER GROW OLD’: THE POLITICS OF REMEMBRANCE IN THE ATHENIAN FUNERAL ORATIONS

Every winter in the classical period, on a specifically chosen day, Athenians gathered together to mourn the men who had died in war. According to Thucydides, the bones of the dead killed in that year lay in state for two days before being carried in ten coffins organized by tribe to the demosion sema where they were buried and then a speech was made in honour of the dead men by a man chosen by the city. As his description makes clear, this ceremony was a public event attended not only by citizens and foreigners, but also by the female relatives of the dead men. Other sources report that the polemarchos put on the agon for those who died in the war and these contests included musical, athletic and hippic competitions. The war-dead also received sacrifices. The occasion combined burial with cult and games usually afforded to the divine, although how exactly this combination worked in practice is not clear because Thucydides, our single best source for the Epitaphia, focusses on the burial and the oration given by Pericles in the winter at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War.

Atarbos' base and the Panathenaia

Re-examination of the well-known Atarbos base in the Akropolis Museum shows that the monument had two distinct phases which have generally been ignored in previous discussions: it originally consisted of a pillar supported by the extant right block decorated with the relief of purrhikhistai; subsequently, the pillar was removed, the base was doubled in size, and three bronze statues were erected. Close examination of the remains and the style of the reliefs indicates that the original period dates to 323/2 BC with the second phase following within a year. In light of this chronology, the prosopography of the family is reviewed and new restorations are suggested for the bases inscriptions. In its first phase, the monument belonged to a newly identified series of memorials consisting of rectangular bases with pillars supporting either a relief or a Panathenaic amphora. Such structures commemorated victories in various tribal events of the Panathenaia and were set up both by individuals and by tribes. The earliest known example appears in a vase painting of c. 430-420 and the type continued to be used until at least 323/2. The identification of this series also provides further evidence for history of the purrhikhe, the cyc1ic chorus, the anthippasia, and the apobatic race at the Panathenaia, as well as the identities of specific victors in these contests.

Thrasyboulos, Athenian democrat

Thrasyboulos, the son of Lykos, of the Athenian deme Steiria (not to be confused with his contemporary Thrasyboulos of Kollytos), was probably born between 450 and 445 bce and was killed at Aspendos in 389. Keywords: democracy; Greek history; military history; political history; revolution; war

Four Hundred, oligarchs at Athens

In 411 bce, a group of four hundred oligarchs briefly seized power in Athens and contrived through manipulation of the citys constitution to overthrow the democracy. Keywords: democracy; Greek history; political history; revolution

Aristides (“the Just”)

Aristides, the son of Lysimachos of the Athenian deme Alopeke, was probably born in the 520s bce and died about 467. Prominent both as a general and as a politician in the 480s and 470s, he assessed the first Tribute to be paid by the members of the Delian League.His reputation for probity was known already to Herodotus, who described him as “the best and most just man among the Athenians” (Hdt. 8.79.1). His reputation was emphasized by later sources and Plutarchs Life of Aristides contains a series of anecdotes attesting to his upright character. Keywords: biography; Greek history; military history; political history