History Archaeology

The debts of the Greeks

There are many European citizens who are appalled by the claim of the government and the Greek people that it applied them a release or reduction of the huge debt incurred in previous years themselves. There are also other citizens who analyzed the origin of that debt, which is largely considered abusive and they are more comprehensive.

The current situation is not at all comparable with the old, but I will offer two series of texts, some referring to Solon, who faced the untenable situation legal situation of many Athenian citizens back in the sixth century BC with legal modifications, they are indebted to the slavery; and other texts that reveal the particular attitude of an individual, also knocked down by particular debt, which is reflected for example by Aristophanes in his comedy the Clouds.

“Ubi bene, ibi patria”. Where it is well with me, there is my country.

They are numerous classic texts in which the patriotism of citizens is exalted, both in Greece, where they felt very superior to the rest of the world, which they call “barbaric” because they do not speak Greek but babble, as in Rome, where they also knew themselves as the dominators of the world.

Men, women, androgynous

At this time around the summer solstice, when the days are longer and the nights shorter, they proliferate celebrations and demonstrations of the “gay pride” in which homosexuals, gays, lesbians and transsexuals exhibit the rainbow flag and say the right to have a different sexuality to heterosexual, which until recently was the only canonized and defended by the laws and customs, while others were condemned and persecuted.

Very cruel pupils

The Christian poet Prudentius wrote a series of singing hymns in the death of many Christian martyrs. He called his work “Peristephanon” or “Crowns of Martyrdom”. Prudentius, connoisseur of classical Latin literature and rhetoric, attempts to integrate the pagan tradition with Christian ideas.

Astronomers were the most highly valued scientists in antiquity

Astronomers, along with medical doctors, were certainly the best scientists valued in antiquity. Largely they are confused with “astrologers” and “healers”, two activities connected with religion and the life of the temples.

The eclipses announce extraordinary events (II)

In the previous texts we have seen how some people believe that the stars fall as a result of a witch. But there are also who tries a more scientific explanation.

The eclipses announce extraordinary events (I)

Man has taken thousands of years, from his appearing on earth, watching the sky, sometimes impressed by the thousands of bright spots, around 1,500 naked eye, moving or standing still, and other times frightened by the influence which the sky can have on their lives.

“The experience, the universal mother of sicences” (Don Quxote, I,21) / “Magister dixit”/ “Roma locuta, causa finita”

Naturally, the experience is acquired with practice and it needs time; so the experience is typical of people of a certain age old. It is precisely the repetition of the action and the memory of what was done and how it was done that gives “knowledge” to the man. To this it must be added the need for cohesion of the social group facing a difficult life and livelihood. This largely explains the respect and consideration to the “authority” of the elderly.

Platonic Academy (2): The district or neighborhood of Academos.

It should be some precision about the “Gardens of Academos” which gave name to the famous school founded by Plato. First, Academy is not a building, as one may think, but an area or neighborhood of Athens, outside the walls, approximately 1.5 kilometers, which is called the Academy, Ἀκαδημία, or Hekademeia (Ἑκαδήμεια), from the name of the local hero Academos or Hekademos, as Diogenes Laertius said in “Life of eminent Philosophers”, 3.7 ff.:

Platonic Academy (1): “Let none but geometers enter here.”

The tradition says that this phrase was recorded at the entrance of the Academy of Plato.