Hardy Fredricksmeyer
Never Trust a Greek:
Athenian Realpolitik and its Origins
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. (Aeneid 2.49)
Introduction
Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War (431-404): reasons for the
Athenian loss, included:
2-front war
failure to control Megarid
overextension
aggressive support of radical democratic elements
Athenian Realpolitik
I. Athenian Realpolitik
A. examples from Thucydides (460-400 BCE)/Hanson
Mytilenean Debate (428): self-interest, not morality; might makes right
Cleon and Diodotus
Melian Dialog (416): might makes right
Athenians and Melians
B. how contributed to ultimate Spartan victory
II. Origins of Athenian Realpolitik/Greek Moral Relativism (see table)
A. Homeric epics: Achilles vs. Odysseus (and Ajax)
biê (open and direct force) vs. mêtis (deception)
Iliad vs. Odyssey
mêtis and moral relativism
B. “New Learning”
anthropocentric rationalism
astronomy: Thales (635-543)
physics: Democritos (460-370)
medicine: the Hippocrates (460-380) and the Hippocratic corpus
moral relativism and amorality
rhetoric and philosophy: the sophists
Protagoras (481-420): “man is the measure of all things”
Thrasymachus (459-500): “justice is the advantage of the
stronger”
compare with the Mytilenian Debate and Melian Dialog
III. Latin epigraph (at top)
Laocoön on the Greeks at Aeneid 2.49
Table: Origins of Athenian Realpolitik/Greek Moral Relativism
biê:
open and direct force
Achilles
Iliad
Greek heroic code
mêtis:
deception
Odysseus
Odyssey
“New Learning”:
anthropocentric rationalism
sophists: moral relativism
Athenian Realpolitik