Archaeology and Text: The Birth of Democracy: An Exhibition Celebrating the 2500th
Anniversary of Democracy
The exhibition The Birth of Democracy: An Exhibition Celebrating the 2500th
Anniversary of Democracy was held at the National Archives in Washington DC from 15
June 1993 to 2 January 1994. The show had previously been on display from 9 March to
9 May 1993 at the Gennadius Library in Athens. Like The Greek Miracle exhibition, it
marked the 2,500th anniversary of Kleisthenes’ reforms of the Athenian constitution in
507/8 BCE, which, it is argued, marked a change in political practice and led to
democracy in Athens. The Birth of Democracy displayed archaeological artefacts from
the time of Solon’s reforms through to Kleisthenes’ reforms and then through to the late
fourth century BCE to illustrate the practice and development of Athenian democracy.
The exhibition was organised by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens’
‘Democracy 2,500’ project in co-operation with the National Archives and Records
Administration of the United States, as well as with the support of the Ministry of Culture
in Greece. Many of the objects came from American led excavations in the Agora in
Athens and had not been on display in the US before, but were usually exhibited in the
Agora Museum in Athens. The exhibition, though prominent and exhibiting many objects
previously unseen in the US, did not attract the same kind of media attention as The
Greek Miracle. However, in many ways it was more relevant to the actual practice of
participatory democracy in Athens and utilised a similar theme of America and Greece
sharing a democratic heritage.
The Lenders and the Objects
The objects on display in The Birth of Democracy: An Exhibition Celebrating the 2500th
Anniversary of Democracy comprised small items such as ostraca shards to Greek vases
and busts, as well as models of buildings in ancient Athens and photographs of past and
present excavations. The items were lent by a number of museums in Greece, America
and elsewhere in Europe. The complete list is: the National Archaeological Museum,
Athens; Acropolis Museum, Athens; Agora Museum, Athens; Antiken Sammlung Kunst
Historisches Museum, Vienna; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Staatliche Museen zu
Berlin; John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;
Department of the History of Art, Cornell University; Museum of Art and Archaeology at
University of Missouri, Columbia; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; University
Museum, University of Pennsylvania; and the Art Museum, Princeton University. The
range of museums – small university museums as well as large institutions – gives a
sense of the wide-ranging nature of the exhibition and the wealth of objects on display.
The majority of the objects were small in size and grouped together in display cabinets by
theme. The catalogue to the exhibition has been put on-line. 1 The themes of the
exhibition chronologically illustrated the development of Athenian democracy and its
aftermath. The themes were Athens Before Democracy, The Kleisthenic Reforms:
1
The Birth of Democracy: An Exhibition Celebrating the 2500th Anniversary of Democracy, on the
Excavations in the Agora website, http://www.attalos.com/cgi-bin/text?lookup=democracy;id=Contents
(accessed 11/06/2008)
1
Creation of the Democracy, Athenian Democracy: Legislature, Athenian Democracy:
Judiciary, The Protection of Democracy and Criticism of Democracy. Objects were
displayed in sub-headings or groupings under these themes. In order to give a sense of the
type of objects exhibited and the range of the material, twelve objects will be highlighted
here.
The first catalogue number 00.01 is a plaster cast after a bust of Pericles (ca. 500 - 429
B.C.) that is in the British Museum (the cast comes from Museum of Art and
Archaeology, University of Missouri, Columbia). Pericles is highlighted as one of the
‘great statesman of classical Athens’ who was responsible for building the Parthenon and
other monuments on the Acropolis (illustration 1). Pericles is presented as one of the
heroes of democracy. The cast of Pericles illustrates that this exhibition had no qualms
about using replicas and also used reconstructions of public buildings in Athens. An
example of a reconstructed model on display is catalogue number 00.03B The Athenian
Agora c. 400 by Fetros Demetriades and Kostas Papoulias (Agora Museum, Athens).
This model shows one of the most important public buildings in the function of
democracy in Athens (illustration 2).
Unlike The Greek Miracle exhibition, there was no actual sculpture on display but a
photograph of a Greek Kouros was used instead, such as Catalogue number 1.5
(illustration 3). This photograph of a statue of a youth (kouros) ‘Kroisos’ is from the
collection of the National Archaeological Museum (no. 3851). Rather than illustrating the
development of a naturalistic style of art from the sixth to the fifth centuries, this
photograph of a sculpture is used to illustrate the aristocratic commemoration of the dead.
This statue had an inscription at the base reading: ‘Stay and mourn at the monument of
dead Kroisos whom furious Ares destroyed one day as he fought in the front ranks.’
The fragment of an inscription from a statue base possibly from the statues of Harmodios
and Aristogeiton in c.475 BCE is catalogue number 4.1 (Agora Museum, Athens 13872).
This fragment is important, as these figures were known as the ‘tyrannicides’ who were
revered in ancient Athens (and in modern times) for assassinating the tyrant Hipparchos
(illustration 4). A bronze sculpture of the pair was commissioned by the Athenians and
then taken by the Persians in 480 BCE. Although a replacement was made and the
original returned to Athens after Alexander the Great sacked Persepolis in the fourth
century (both stood together in the Agora), the originals have been lost and so a
photograph of a Roman copy in Naples is displayed with the inscription. A profile of the
‘tyrannicides’ from a fragment of a red figure oinochoe (jug) c. 400 BCE is also
displayed to illustrate the pair’s mythic importance as well as that of the sculpture.
Each of the major democratic institutions of ancient Athens were represented by a group
of objects. Lead tokens used as payment for attending the Assembly of ancient Athens –
one of the main forums in which Athenian male citizens participated in democracy –
were on display from 4th century BCE (Agora Museum, Athens IL 656, 819, 893, 944,
1146, 1173, 1233). ‘These small tokens were turned in for pay, allowing poor citizens to
participate without losing a day’s wages’, and so were crucial to participatory democracy
(illustration 5). The Boule, or Council of 500, and a product of the reforms of Kleisthenes
2
was represented by among other objects, catalogue number 8.1 a fragment of a marble
basin c. 500 BCE (Agora Museum, Athens 14869) that preserves part of an inscription
around the rim which reads ‘of the Bouleuterion’ (illustration 6). The Judiciary of Athens
was represented by (among other items) catalogue number 12.1 a fragmentary waterclock
(or klepsydra) with various inscriptions from late 5th century BCE that was used to time
the speakers at trials (Agora Museum, Athens P 2084) (illustration 7). Pericles may have
been a hero of Athenian democracy but he was also a frequent candidate for ostracism as
catalogue number 14.6 Ostrakon of Perikles from the mid-5th century BCE illustrates
(Agora Museum, Athens P 16755). Although Perikles was never ostracised, this example
illustrates how the Athenian citizens protected their rights against men considered to
grow too powerful and become potential threats to democracy (illustration 8).
Photographs of excavations and reconstructions made up the material of the exhibition as
catalogue number 17.4 a photograph of a trireme under sail illustrates (Paul Lipke, The
Trireme Trust). The reconstructed trireme was built under the supervision of John
Morrison, a classical scholar, and John Coates, a naval architect and was used to illustrate
evidence for the Athenian navy in the exhibition (illustration 9).
Female Athenian citizens, could not vote and did not directly participate in Athenian
democracy had representation in this exhibition. Catalogue no. 22.3 a terracotta statuette
of a woman kneading bread, early 5th century BCE (National Archaeological Museum,
Athens 6006) shows a woman in a daily domestic occupation, but one which was crucial
to the households of Athenian citizens (illustration 10). Slaves and slavery were also
represented in the exhibition through the depiction of them on vases. This Athenian (Attic)
vase in the form of the head of an African from late 6th century BCE (National
Archaeological Museum, Athens 11725) shows a non-Athenian and is here used to
represent a slave, though it could simply have represented the features of a different race
(illustration 11).
Continuity between Athens and America was provided by documents from eighteenth
century and contemporary America at the end of the exhibition, though the difference
between the participatory democracy of Athens and representative democratic system of
America is stressed. Catalogue number 26.1 (illustration 12) is a copy of Rights of Man
by Thomas Paine from the collection of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC:
‘Written in 1792 in defence of the French Revolution, Thomas Paine's Rights of Man is a
statement of republican ideals. Paine believed that America had adapted the virtues of
ancient Greek democracy to the modern world.’
The range of material on display in the exhibition is apparent from just this short list of
some of the objects. Vases, inscriptions, practical items as well as photographs and
reconstructions were all used to present the evidence for the story of Athenian democracy.
Photographs of items traditionally considered as ‘art objects’ were used in the exhibition
but in the context of their connection with the social history of democracy rather than to
tell an overarching theory of the development of art in this period. All the items, with a
few exceptions, were from Athens or Attica and often from the site of the Agora (or
marketplace) in Athens itself. The objects were often put in context with textual evidence
3
from ancient Athens and texts such as The Constitution of Athens or Pericles’ ‘Funeral
Oration’ from Thucydides’ Histories were used to highlight the use of these objects. The
practical and literary significance of the objects on display in The Birth of Democracy
was possibly due to the fact that it was essentially an exhibition of archaeological
artefacts within a national library.
History Heroes and Texts
The Birth of Democracy opened with the casts of busts of two prominent exponents of
democracy from the fifth and fourth centuries: Pericles and Demosthenes. References to
the speeches they made in praise of democracy were included in the catalogue. The
speeches of Demosthenes and the ‘Funeral Oration’ of Pericles as recorded by
Thucydides in his Histories were clearly key texts. Pericles and Demosthenes were
highlighted as the main players in the development of Athenian democracy. However,
they were not alone. A section on the reforms of Solon in the early sixth century BCE
illustrated the political tensions in Athens one hundred years before the changes made by
Kleithenes. Inevitably Kleisthenes’ creation of ten new tribes and his political
reorganisation of the Athenian constitution merited its own section. Other notable people
considered in the exhibition included the successful general Themistocles, who was
ostracised from Athens, and the philosopher Socrates, who was ultimately condemned to
death by an Athenian jury.
The catalogue for The Birth of Democracy drew on a great range of texts but mainly
quoted from Plutarch’s Lives (Solon, Kleisthenes, Pericles and Demosthenes in
particular), Thucydides’ Histories, The Old Oligarch’s/Aristotle’s The Athenian
Constitution and Politics, Xenophon’s The Constitution of the Athenians, as well as
conversations of Socrates recorded by Plato and Xenophon (especially the texts in
relation to Socrates’ trial). A section on theatre referred to Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides and Menander and quoted from the comedies of Aristophanes. A short section
on ‘Sources and Documents’ stressed the importance of the treatises on the Athenian
constitution by Aristotle and ‘pseudo-Xenophon’ but also points out the usefulness of
evidence from inscriptions and other fragmentary documents or writings that have often
been found in the Agora. The Birth of Democracy drew on texts and inscriptions as
evidence in the development and history of democracy and emphasised key individuals in
the story of democratic practice.
Curation of The Birth of Democracy
The exhibition was curated by Diana Buitron-Oliver and John Mck Camp II as part of the
project ‘Democracy 2,500’ which was directed by Josiah Ober and Charles W. Hedrick.
The exhibition was designed by Michael Graces and objects were moved by Art Services
International. The Public Programs and Education team at the National Archives arranged
the public programme of events and learning activities.
Diana Buitron-Oliver co-curated The Birth of Democracy. Buitron-Oliver was a classical
archaeologist and lecturer at Georgetown University in Washington DC and had
4
previously curated The Human Figure in Early Greek Art at the National Gallery of Art
in 1988 (January 31 – June 12 1988). Buitron-Oliver was also guest curator of The Greek
Miracle. Classical Sculpture from the Dawn of Democracy at the National Gallery of Art
Washington DC and Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, which closed at New York
in May 1993 shortly before The Birth of Democracy opened. Buitron-Oliver’s co-curator
was Professor John Mck Camp II, Director of Excavations at the Athenian Agora,
American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The exhibition was part of the
‘Democracy 2,500’ project, which was directed by Josiah Ober and Charles W. Hedrick.
Josiah Ober was at that point Professor of Classics at Princeton University as well as
author of a number of publications on Athenian democracy, the most notable at the time
being the book Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power
of the People (Princeton, 1989). Charles W. Hedrick was professor of history at UC Santa
Cruz.
Interpretation and Location
The Birth of Democracy had very few reviews – in fact only one short review of the
actual exhibition has so far been found in Minerva – and so it is hard to reconstruct the
layout and interpretation of the exhibition. It was exhibited in the Rotunda for the
Charters of Freedom in the National Archives, an impressive neoclassical building behind
the Mall (the main public space on which many museums and national collections are
positioned), which opened in 1952 in Washington DC (illustration 13). In the
‘Introduction to the Exhibition’, the curators of the exhibition Diana Buitron-Oliver and
John Mck. Camp II compare the buildings in which democracy took place in the Agora in
Athens with public space in Washington DC:
Administrative, political, judicial, commercial, social, cultural, and religious
activities all found a place here together in the heart of ancient Athens. In modern
terms it would be the village green of a traditional American town, or, on a large
scale, the Mall in Washington, D.C.2
The National Archives contains an impressive collection of documents as well as archival
material relating to American governance over the last 200 years and more. It displays
the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the main
Rotunda. The Birth of Democracy began in the Rotunda with free standing statues of
Pericles and Demosthenes and an introduction to the exhibition. The Rotunda itself has
murals on the side walls illustrating significant scenes in the story of America’s
democracy, such as Thomas Jefferson handing the declaration to John Hancock
(illustration 14). In this way the birth of Athenian democracy was displayed against the
backdrop of the birth of American democracy, as Jerry Theodorou in his review for
Minerva noted:
Diana Buitron-Oliver and John Mck. Camp II, ‘Introduction to the Exhibition’ in Josiah Ober and Charles
W. Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy. An Exhibition Celebrating the 2,500 th Anniversary of
Democracy (American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Washington DC, 1993), pp. 29-35, p. 30.
2
5
The cases [of the exhibition] are situated near the chief attractions that draw
visitors to the National Archives in the Washington Mall – the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The proximity of the
ancient Athenian artefacts relating to democracy to the seminal early American
documents is appropriate because the system was among the sources of
inspiration for the American system of government.3
Though Theodorou also notes that Athenian democracy acted as a ‘warning’ to the
founders of the American constitution and was viewed with suspicion and ultimately the
system of Republican Rome found more favour with the founding fathers.
The exhibition had 26 display cases and each focused on an institution of Athenian
democracy or around an area of life in Athens, displaying objects and photographs
connected with that area or institution. The exhibition started before the emergence of
democracy with a consideration of oligarchic Athens and the early reforms set in motion
by Solon. It finished with key documents from the writers and founders of the American
constitution. The catalogue followed the same order as the exhibition so the themes of
the display cases can easily be seen:
Introduction to the Exhibition; Free Standing Objects in Rotunda; Models of the
Athenian Agora; Marble Stele Recording a Law Against Tyranny
Athens Before Democracy
1. The Athenian Aristocracy
2. Solon the Lawgiver
3. Tyranny
4. Overthrow and Revolution
The Kleisthenic Reforms: Creation of the Democracy
5. The Ten New Tribes
6. Political Organization of Attica: Demes and Tribal Representation
Athenian Democracy: Legislature
7. The Ekklesia (Citizens' Assembly)
8. The Boule (Senate)
9. The Prytaneis (Executive Committee of the Senate)
Athenian Democracy: Judiciary
10. Popular Courts
11. The Jury
12. The Speakers
13. The Verdict
The Protection of Democracy
Jerry Theodorou, ‘The Birth of Democracy. 2,500 th Anniversary celebrated in an exhibition in
Washington DC’, Minerva, July/August 1993 (Vol. 4, No. 4), 16-17, 16.
3
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14. Ostracism
15. Factional Politics: The Ostracism of Themistokles
16. The Athenian Army
17. The Athenian Navy
18. Administration and Bureaucracy
19. State Religion: The Archon Basileus
Criticism of Democracy
20. Sokrates
21. Theater
22. The Unenfranchised, I - Women
23. The Unenfranchised, II - Slaves and Resident Aliens
24. Sources and Documents
25. The Founding Fathers and Athenian Democracy
26. Democracy from the Past to the Future4
Much of the material on display came from excavations of the Agora carried out by the
American School of Classical Studies at Athens and is ‘intended to illustrate and tell the
story of the development of democracy in Athens.’5 The exhibition’s emphasis on the
buildings and spaces of ancient Athens in which democracy functioned also stressed the:
[. . .] the extraordinary similarities between our own times and then. The
Athenian government, too, was divided into three branches, executive, judiciary,
and legislative, with authority divided among them.6
The curators stressed that ‘an effort has also been made to allow the ancient Athenians to
speak for themselves’ through the use of texts, inscriptions and scenes on vases of daily
life in and the workings of democracy in Athens. The combination of this sort of material
and the focus on the function and practice of democracy in Athens made The Birth of
Democracy a very different exhibition to The Greek Miracle. The archaeological artefacts
are displayed in what Shanks and Tilley have termed a ‘humanizing narrative’ – setting
the objects on display within a ‘concrete’ human context through the use of text,
reconstructions, maps etc. 7 This and the exploration of the function of democracy in
Athens as well as a brief consideration of those not included in the democratic process
made The Birth of Democracy a more nuanced social exploration of Athens in the fifth
and fourth centuries than The Greek Miracle.
The Catalogue
4
Josiah Ober and Charles W. Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy. An Exhibition Celebrating the
2,500th Anniversary of Democracy (American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Washington DC,
1993), p. 28.
5
Buitron-Oliver and Mck. Camp II, ‘Introduction to the Exhibition’ (1993), p. 30.
6
Buitron-Oliver and Mck. Camp II, ‘Introduction to the Exhibition’ (1993), p. 30.
7
Michael Shanks and Christopher Tilley, Re-constructing Archaeology: Theory and Practice (London:
Routledge, 1992), p. 73.
7
The main catalogue text for The Birth of Democracy was written by the curators Diana
Buitron-Oliver and John Mck. Camp II but a number of essays on specific areas of
Athenian democracy and life were contributed by other scholars. These scholars were
mainly from American universities and/or the American School of Classical Studies at
Athens, though two directors of museums in Greece also contributed essays. The essays
explored different areas of Athenian democracy and life in more detail than the exhibition
and, though the catalogue acknowledged that Athenian democracy contained much that
the ‘modern democrat would find repugnant’, as a whole it was celebratory about the
democratic achievements of Athens.8
In his ‘Introductory Remarks’, Josiah Ober commented on the importance of the timing
of the 2,500th anniversary of ancient democracy with contemporary events. Noting that
democracy had not always been regarded as a positive political system, Ober considers
that the timing of the anniversary is opportune:
Today, democracy has come to be virtually synonymous with fair, free
government; the last quarter of the twentieth century could quite easily be
designated ‘The Age of Democracy’ by future historians. Thus it is a very happy
coincidence that the decade of the 1990s (specifically 1993) will mark
democracy’s 2,500th anniversary.9
Ober outlines the reforms of Kleisthenes, which is what the anniversary is celebrating. He
considers that the achievements of Athenian democracy have been obscured by most
historians and texts from the period (and since) as they have been critical of the political
system in Athens for their own ideological purposes. On the other hand, archaeology,
Ober argues, has recaptured not just the systems and practical elements of democracy but
also some of the excitement about the political process. Ober considers an understanding
of Athenian democracy important, if not crucial, to understanding debates within modern
democracy. He presents the other essayists as looking at many diverse modern views to
‘help readers to refine their own understanding of the historical status and the future of
democracy as a way of government and as a way of life.’10
William D. E. Coulson (Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens)
carries on the consideration of the relationship between ancient Athenian and modern
American democracy in the second part of the ‘Introductory Remarks’. Arguing that the
reforms of Kleisthenes are the ‘basis of democratic ideals today’, Coulson argues that it is
particularly appropriate that the exhibition takes place in the National Archives in
Washington DC ‘where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the
United States of America are displayed.’11 Stressing that The Birth of Democracy is a
Josiah Ober, ‘Introductory Remarks I. The Athenian Revolution’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of
Democracy (1993), p. 1-3, p. 2.
9
Josiah Ober, ‘Introductory Remarks I. The Athenian Revolution’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of
Democracy (1993), p. 1-3, p. 3.
10
Josiah Ober, ‘Introductory Remarks I. The Athenian Revolution’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of
Democracy (1993), p. 1-3, p. 3.
11
William D. E. Coulson, ‘Introductory Remarks II. Athens and America’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The
Birth of Democracy (1993), p. 4-5, p. 4
8
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public exhibition for a non-specialist audience, Coulson contends that the excavations of
the American School of Classical Studies in Athens in the Athenian Agora are crucial for
the greater consideration and knowledge about Athenian democracy since 1931. He sees
these excavations and their finds as a further connection in the shared democratic heritage
of Athens and contemporary America. There were of course political considerations
behind these American funded excavations in the Athenian Agora, as Stephen Dyson
points out, since after WW2 they took place against the backdrop of the Greek Civil War
in which the US backed the installed government and then under the dictatorship of the
Generals, whose regime had also been backed by the US in the 1960s.12 Democracy was
not been achieved by modern Greece easily in the twentieth century and, arguably,
accountable governments have not always been assisted by the American government.
Katerina Romiopoulou’s essay on ‘Democracy and Freedom’, which closes the
‘Introductory Remarks’ considers in hyperbolic language, that democracy cannot exist
without human freedom.13
Other essays in the catalogue consider the practicalities behind the function of Athenian
democracy. Charles W. Hedrick, for example, considers the function of writing in
democratic Athens in terms of recording statutes and verdicts, but argues that essentially
democracy was based on the ‘spoken word’.14 The abstract personification of ‘demos’ or
‘the people’ and democracy is considered on document reliefs and monuments by Carol
Lawton and Olga Tzachou-Alexandri respectively. 15 Peter G. Calligas considered the
background to Kleisthenes’ reforms and the struggles involved in the foundation of
Athenian democracy. 16 The private lives of Athenians then considered through the
paintings on pottery by Alan Shapiro, while more detailed examination of the judiciary is
made by Alan L. Boegehold and of oaths of allegiance by Dina Peppa-Delmouzou.17 Two
essays on the reception of democracy are also included. Jennifer Roberts, later author of
the polemic Athens on Trial in 1994, considers the reluctance of the American founders
to base their constitution on ancient Athens since they considered it led to military
weakness and involved the redistribution of wealth. This latter point is important as
Roberts stresses that the ‘founding fathers’ of America sprang from the propertied classes
and many of them, such as John Adams, thought classical Athens violated the sanctity of
12
Stephen L. Dyson, In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts. A History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries (Yale: Yale University Press, 2006), p. 219.
13
Katerina Romiopoulou, ‘Introductory Remarks II. Democracy and Freedom’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.),
The Birth of Democracy (1993), p. 6.
14
Charles W. Hedrick, ‘Writing and Athenian Democracy’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of
Democracy (1993), pp. 7 - 11.
15
Carol Lawton, ‘Representations of Athenian Democracy in Attic Document Reliefs’, Ober and Hedrick
(eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 12-16 and Olga Tzachou-Alexandri ‘Personifications of
Democracy’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 149-155.
16
Peter G. Calligas, ‘The Birth of Democracy’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993),
pp. 17-20.
17
Alan Shapiro, ‘Pottery, Private Life and Politics in Democratic Athens’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The
Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 21-27; Alan L. Boegehold, ‘A Court Trial in Athens early in the Fourth
Century’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 156-159; Dina Peppa-Delmouzou,
‘Oaths and Oath Taking in Ancient Athens’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp.
160-164.
9
and right to property. 18 Andrew Szegedy-Maszak considered the changing image of
Athens itself in photography and political idealism in the nineteenth century. SzegedyMaszuk argues that the growing attraction of ancient Athens and the concept of
‘freedom’ for political philosophers and idealists, such as John Stuart Mill, was reflected
in the image of Athens taken by photographers. The merging of image and ideology
meant that classical sites in Athens, such as the Parthenon, became imbued with special
meaning:
A photograph, of course, can never literally depict an abstraction such as
democracy. When, however, we consider photographs together with
contemporary travelers’ accounts, we can see how they interacted in the
construction of an ideal of Greek antiquity in which democracy played a crucial
role.19
There is, however, no consideration of the meaning of these images in the 1990s and how
they have become icons of Greek nationalism and capitalist democracy simultaneously.
The catalogue texts on the objects displayed give a great deal of information and place
them in social context with quotations and references to contemporary texts. Along with
the extensive information provided by The Birth of Democracy exhibition catalogue text,
the catalogue contains short scholarly articles that explore Athenian democracy and its
background. While recognising that by late twentieth century standards Athenian
democracy would not be considered representative or equal due to the role of slavery and
the subordination of women, the catalogue celebrates the achievements of ancient Athens.
Marketing and Sponsorship
There is no information on exactly how the exhibition was funded from the sources at
hand, but it seems that it was mainly financed through public money from the National
Archives and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, possibly though the
National Endowment for the Humanities.
Figures and Miscellaneous Information
There is no information on the number of visitors to the exhibition from the sources at
hand. The exhibition was, like the archives, free and had an extensive public education
programme.
Reviews
Only the magazine on archaeology and antiquity Minerva reviewed The Birth of
Democracy. This exhibition, though aimed at the general public, did not appear to be
Jennifer Roberts, ‘Athenian Democracy Denounced. The Political Rhetoric of America’s Founders’,
Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 164-167, p. 166.
19
Andrew Szegedy-Maszuk, ‘Athenian Democracy idealised: Nineteenth Century Photography in Athens’,
Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 168-177, p. 169.
18
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picked up in the mainstream media. Jerry Theodorou in Minerva did little more than
comment on the appropriateness of the National Archives as a venue and listed some of
the main objects on display. Gary Wills commented on the exhibition while reviewing
The Greek Miracle at the National Gallery:
A more plausible exhibit will be mounted by the show’s curator, Diane BuitronOliver, at the National Archives’ Building next summer, with objects directly
reflecting democratic practices in ancient Athens. Meanwhile we have this, the
more spectacular (though less appropriate) spectacle to be grateful for.20
In the Summer 1993 edition of Prologue, the magazine of the National Archives, two
essays by Josiah Ober and Catherine Vanderpool on ‘The Birth of Athenian Democracy’
and the ‘Roots of Athenian Democracy’ appeared, as well as an article on ‘The Parthenon
Stone in the Washington Monument’ by John E. Ziollowski.21 In the British publication
History Today, Paul Cartledge reviewed The Birth of Democracy’s catalogue,
commenting that another ‘visual celebration’ of Athenian democracy followed ‘hot on
the heels of The Greek Miracle’. Cartledge considered the catalogue and exhibition to
raise ‘without finally answering, hard questions about the relationship between the
Athenian democracy’s political freedom for citizens’ and the high artistic achievement of
Athens. Cartledge questions whether such ‘celebrations’ of Athenian democracy
shouldn’t be ‘tempered’ by sober reflection on ‘cultural and political difference’ and
raises the spectre of the representation of slaves, women and aliens in Athenian
democracy.22
The Birth of Democracy had a greater impact in scholarship, not least because the
National Archives hosted the opening of a major conference on ‘demokratia’ in Spring
1993, shortly before the exhibition itself opened. Like the exhibition, the conference was
part of the ‘Democracy 2,500’ project co-ordinated by Josiah Ober and Charles Hedrick
and took place at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Academics from within
different areas of ancient history and classical archaeology and with a range of
perspectives participated. Their papers were published in Dēmokratia: A conversation on
democracy, ancient and modern in 1996:
The goal of the conference was to further the project – most clearly and
memorably articulated by Moses I. Finley in his seminal Democracy Ancient and
Modern – of applying insights gained from political and social theory to problems
in Greek history, and in turn using the historical Greek experience of democracy
as a resource for building normative political theory. 23
Gary Wills, ‘Athena’s Magic’, New York Review of Books (Vol. 39, 1992), December 15 1992, 47-52, 47.
National Archives’ Prologue Summer 1993 (Vol. 25).
22
Paul Cartledge, ‘The Shape of Athenian Law: Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology’, History Today
(1995: Vol. 45), 45.
23
Josiah Ober and Charles Hedrick, ‘Democracies Ancient and Modern’, Josiah Ober and Charles Hedrick
(eds.), Dēmokratia: A Conversation on democracy, ancient and modern (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1996), pp. 3-16, p. 3.
20
21
11
The resulting book was a ‘conversation’ as the papers were revised in the light of lively
debates at the conference and then on the circulation of drafts among participants. Many
of the scholars included in the final collection of papers from the conference also wrote
essays for the exhibition catalogue – for example Jennifer Roberts and Alan Boegehold –
and so there was some intellectual interaction between the participants in the conference
and the exhibition.
In the section on ‘Sources and Documents’ in The Birth of Democracy, next to ‘The
Founding Fathers and Athenian Democracy’ section, there was a drawing of the Metroon,
which housed all the records and decrees of Athens. It is described as being akin to the
National Archives in Washington:
The central archives building of Athens, known as the Metroon because it also
housed a sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods (meter), contained thousands of
documents, now lost. It stood in a central location among the public buildings of
the city, next to the Bouleuterion. It overlooked the great open Agora square, just
as the National Archives overlooks the Mall in Washington, D.C.24
The National Archives holds the documents and archives of American governance
including key documents from the formation of the constitution and the War of
Independence. It also holds documents relating to slavery, immigration and war records
and evidently is key place for people researching their family history. The National
Archive’s motto for its National Archives Experience is ‘Democracy Starts Here’, which
was launched in 2003 and ‘greatly expands the opportunity or vision to be inspired and
enlightened by the original documents of our democracy’. 25 An eleven minute video
downloadable on the internet (sponsored by Discovery Channel) introduces the Archives
as being created by the people for the people. 26 The video presents the Archives as
preserving democracy through preserving the archives of government as well as keeping
the story of America alive through its display of the ‘documents of freedom’, such as the
Bill of Rights. Combined with these monumental historical moments and documents are
the stories of people who have researched their family in the archives and discovered
abuses of their freedoms, such as the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War
Two. The video says the role of the archives is to keep a clear paper trail so if the nation
makes a mistake that wrong can be amended. There is no mention of Athenian
democracy, nor should it be expected, but the line ‘Democracy Starts Here’ echoes the
sentiments expressed in The Birth of Democracy exhibition held at the National Archive
ten years before the development of the ‘Democracy Starts Here’ National Archives
Experience.
24
Diana Buitron-Oliver and John Mck. Camp II, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993),
p. 143.
25
The National Archives Experience Exhibit Guide leaflet, National Archives Washington DC.
26
‘Democracy Starts Here’, http://videocast.nih.gov/sla/NARA/dsh/index.html [accessed 01/07/2008]
12
Bibliography
Boegehold, Alan L., ‘A Court Trial in Athens early in the Fourth Century’, Ober and
Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 156-159.
Buitron-Oliver, Diana and Mck. Camp II, John, ‘Introduction to the Exhibition’, Josiah
Ober and Charles W. Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy. An Exhibition Celebrating
the 2,500th Anniversary of Democracy (Washington DC: American School of Classical
Studies at Athens, 1993), pp. 29-35.
Calligas, Peter G., ‘The Birth of Democracy’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of
Democracy (1993), pp. 17-20.
Cartledge, Paul, ‘The Shape of Athenian Law: Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology’,
History Today (1995: Vol. 45), 45.
Coulson, William D. E., ‘Introductory Remarks II. Athens and America’, Ober and
Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), p. 4-5.
Dyson, Stephen L., In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts. A History of Classical Archaeology in the
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Yale: Yale University Press, 2006), p. 219.
Hedrick, Charles W., ‘Writing and Athenian Democracy’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The
Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 7 - 11.
Lawton, Carol, ‘Representations of Athenian Democracy in Attic Document Reliefs’,
Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 12-16.
National Archives’ Prologue Summer 1993 (Vol. 25).
Ober, Josiah and Hedrick, Charles, ‘Democracies Ancient and Modern’, Josiah Ober and
Charles Hedrick (eds.), Dēmokratia: A Conversation on democracy, ancient and modern
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 3-16.
Ober, Josiah, and Hedrick, Charles W. (eds.), The Birth of Democracy. An Exhibition
Celebrating the 2,500th Anniversary of Democracy (Washington DC: American School of
Classical Studies at Athens, 1993).
Ober, Josiah,‘Introductory Remarks I. The Athenian Revolution’, Ober and Hedrick
(eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), p. 1-3.
Peppa-Delmouzou, Dina, ‘Oaths and Oath Taking in Ancient Athens’, Ober and Hedrick
(eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 160-164.
Roberts, Jennifer,‘Athenian Democracy Denounced. The Political Rhetoric of America’s
Founders’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 164-167.
Romiopoulou, Katerina, ‘Introductory Remarks II. Democracy and Freedom’, Ober and
Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), p. 6.
Shanks, Michael and Tilley, Christopher, Re-constructing Archaeology: Theory and
Practice (London: Routledge, 1992).
Shapiro, Alan, ‘Pottery, Private Life and Politics in Democratic Athens’, Ober and
Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 21-27.
Szegedy-Maszuk, Andrew, ‘Athenian Democracy idealised: Nineteenth Century
Photography in Athens’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The Birth of Democracy (1993), pp.
168-177.
Theodorou, Jerry, ‘The Birth of Democracy. 2,500th Anniversary celebrated in an
exhibition in Washington DC’, Minerva, July/August 1993 (Vol. 4, No. 4), 16-17.
Tzachou-Alexandri, Olga, ‘Personifications of Democracy’, Ober and Hedrick (eds.), The
Birth of Democracy (1993), pp. 149-155.
13
Wills, Gary, ‘Athena’s Magic’, New York Review of Books (Vol. 39, 1992), December 15
1992, 47-52.
Websites
The Birth of Democracy: An Exhibition Celebrating the 2500th Anniversary of
Democracy, on the Excavations in the Agora website, http://www.attalos.com/cgibin/text?lookup=democracy;id=Contents (accessed 11/06/2008)
‘Democracy Starts Here’, http://videocast.nih.gov/sla/NARA/dsh/index.html [accessed
01/07/2008]
14