Saturday, 29 March 2014
Wednesday, 26 March 2014
The Area of Acharnes in Antiquity:
From a Rural Landscape to a Landscape of Politic(s).
Panagiotis Kontolaimos
Archaeologist, MSc, MPhill.
Situated at the foothills of the
mountain of Parnitha the area of Acharnes occupies a privileged position that provides
two deferent and very important sources of income. The fertile land of the
north-eastern plain of Athens, well irrigated by the streams and smaller rivers
of river Kifissos and the mountain of Parnitha, a center for the local forest
economy, that provided consumable dairy goodsas well as carbon for the needs of
the nearby settlements and the city of Athens. The location of Acharnes is also
ideal for its comfortable access to the pain of Elefsis to the west, via a
narrow passage that divides the two neighboring mountains, namely Parnitha and
Egaleon. In this way, the sea shore of Elefsis is not too far away, thus increasing
the potential of the location. To the east of Acharnes one finds the way that
leads to Marathon Bay and North- East Attica.
These geographical features of the
location were the reason for its importance already from prehistoric times. The
Mycenaean underground tholos tomb which was discovered in the area verified its
early development within the frame of Mycenaean culture in the late 2nd
millennia B.C. However the area met its greatest development in the classical period
and got its long lasting fame thought the work of Aristophanes, who wrote in
the last quarter of the 5th century B.C. his famous comedy named
after the inhabitants of the place, namely the “Acharnis”.
At the time of Aristophanes the
locality of Acharnes was one of the major settlements of the plain of Athens,
rich in terms of production, number of inhabitants and economic activity. The
majority of the population were farmers. Viticulture was extremely developed in
the area, which was also producing all kinds of granary necessary for its
inhabitants and the nearby city of Athens. A great part of its population was
also busy in trading carbon and other products from the nearby mountain in the
city of Athens, which was the major market in Attica. The prosperity of Acharnes
is better understood over the last years, since rescue excavations have
unearthed public structures, like the local theater, which demonstrates the
local development in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. Inscriptions
also provide us with information for several local cults like the one of the
warrior god Αres, a very rare worship among ancient Greeks and many others like
Apollo and Athena.
However the area of Acharnes was also a very strategic one, since
the possibility to access it from the west via mountain paths made it vulnerable
in the occasion of military attack from the west. The inhabitants of Acharnes
were perfectly aware of this, however no such action took place before the Peloponnesian
War. It was in the year 431 B.C. at the beginning of this war, that the Spartan
strategy exposed the area to military harassments. During the first years of
the war the Peloponnesians were invading the land of Athens yearly exactly at
this area and were deliberately destroying all the production of the place, in
order to force the Athenians to fight in the open field, something that the Spartans
were able to manage with a remarkable ease. The strategy of the Athenians on
the other hand, was to gather the population of the plain within the walls of
the city and the ones leading to Piraeus. In this way they were proving their
ability to relay on their navy forces and the import ability of Piraeus, canceling
any consequences from the attacks of the Spartans.
The result of this strategy was
that the population the areas of Acharnes, Dekelia, and many neighboring places
would seek refuge behind the walls of Athens for a considerable period of time
every year during the first years of the war, which was meant to last almost
three decades. In other words every year, the people from Acharnes would see
their properties being burned to the ground by the Spartans, while they would
not be allowed to react in any way in order to protect them. Naturally, this situation
has led to their political radicalization. They were demanding for a battle
with the Spartan in the open field, something that the moderate policies of
Pericles would not have favored. Their tragic situation would have being
further exploited by the political enemies of Pericles, who would also press
for a more active strategy from the behalf of Athens, for their own personal or
populist reasons.
It was exactly this political climate
that gave Aristophanes the opportunity to write a magnificent work criticizing the
insistence of the people of Acharnes to pursuit an open combat with the Spartan
army. In his play “Acharnis”, namely the people from Acharnes, which was performed
in 425 B.C., the chorus consists of the group of men from Acharnes similar in
their political attitude as well as their argumentation with the ones sheltered
in the walls of Athens. They demand war with the Spartans, since they are
people very close to the values of a farming community and do maintain very
strong in the collective memory their war achievements at the time of the Persian
invasion, some 50 years earlier.
The main character of the play
however is Dikaiopolis, also a citizen of Acharnes, sees things differently
than the rest of the local folk. He is for peace, and when he realized that this
was not the priority neither for the state nor for its neighbors, he decides to
act as an individual and negotiate peace terms between him and the Spartans. Finally
this peace agreement is granted and he benefits from all its favors. As one can
predict, originally he is seen as a traitor by the rest of the local folk, but
when he explains to them his motives and advantages of peace, he convinces them
that their attitude was not to their favor.
Dikaiopolis is a very clever
invention of Aristophanes, who is using all the artistic and dramatic means of
comedy to exaggerate both in terms of the character and the initiatives of the
hero. Dikaiopolis acts as an individual and this would not have been a
legitimate behavior for an Athenian citizen of the 5th century. Even
more, he is acting against the will of the state and the local community, whose
violent reactions thus provokes. From this aspect Dikaiolpolis must have been
an extreme character to the eyes of the audience of this play. However, as exaggeration
only reveals the truth better, he is a very powerful comic character, who literally
undertakes almost exclusively the development of the play’s plot.
What makes Dikaiopolis however a powerful personage in this play is
not only his attitude towards war and the Spartans. What seems to be even more
inviting and politically interesting is the fact that Dikaiopolis is one of the
people from Acharnes. On our opinion, Aristophanes success regarding the invention
of the character of Dikaiopolis lies exactly on this. Dikaiopolis is an
individual, who is nevertheless the reversed idol of the collective characteristics
of the people from Acharnes. He is one of them but yet at the same time the opposite.
Acharnis function as a group, but he instead functions as an individual. They seek
for war, while he is for peace. They are violent but he is using argument to
convince. They look at the past, seeking for revenge, but he sees the future having
in mind commercial activities and a prosperous life.
The political message of Aristophanes,
personified by Dikaiopolis, becomes even more evident if we consider all the
above. The main hero of the play is also among those who suffer from the war and
does not wish to respond to it with more hostilities, knowing that there will
be no end to his source of misery in this way. Instead he is coming up with a better
alternative, the one of peace, perhaps the only alternative for its situation.
The success of his initiatives does meet their goal: Gradually everyone understands
the benefits of his policy, which is not relaying on the instinct of revenge,
but adopts a more constructive view on the common issues. Dikaiopolis might seem
as a personage who, while functioning as an individual, he does so having the common
good as his aim. His peace is the most powerful alternative reality that might
shake the hearts of his fellow countrymen and thus he is investing in it. Dikaiopolis
is essentially counter populist, with a sincere interest in common good. He is
thus in opposition to the rest of the local folk who might be acting collectively,
however their motives are strongly personal. Unlike them, Dikaiolpolis is
acting alone, originally against the sentiments of the majority, however he is
the one who provides a solution that benefits both his personal interest as
well as the ones of the community he lives in.
The play “Acharnis” was performed
in 425 B.C, during the Peloponnesian War. It is a great play, whose messages do
not have spatial or temporal limitation, reaching even our days. It is a play
that not only speaks to us for the benefits of peace in relation to war, but
also it is about perceiving and reflecting on wider political dilemmas, on the
bases of common interest, not motivated exclusively by strict personal views.
Wider political consciousness seem to be for Aristophanes the best way to
counterbalance populism and Dikaiopolis is embodying exactly this attitude. It
is thus a play against populism in all of its forms and therefore a great
political text in its essence.
The use of people of Acharnes from
Aristophanes as main actors of his successful play has turned Acharnes to a
global symbol of politics, relevant to our contemporary reality as it used to
be in the antiquity. Considering that fact that the terms for acting within a democratic
state and deciding on contemporary issues, inspire our temporal distance from
the times of Aristophanes, have not dramatically changed, one can very easily
see how the municipality of Acharnes can be seen as a reference for counter
populist political thought and activity. Exactly in the same way that Aristophanes
challenged all fellow citizens from Acharnes to discover Dikaiopolis inside
them, it is in the same way that we are challenged to think in public terms and
act individually, just as Dikaiopolis has done.
The particular connection of this
political message with the municipality of Acharnes is in our opinion an
integral part of their cultural heritage that merits its rightful promotion and
adoption. Perhaps above all other aspects of material culture, that the municipality
has to show, it is this “landscape of political debate” most of all that
demands to be managed and promoted since it is the most relevant to our times
and the one that benefits the local community due time in all possible ways. If
one considers that one of the objectives of politics is to manage symbols, then
the significance of Acharnes becomes even more evident as a noble change for
local and regional authorities.
For those who might find the term “political landscape” an
exaggeration, one has to note that the existence of a landscape depends primarily
on the eye that views it. Aristophanes with his play did exactly this. He was
mature enough to see the wider political issues over the debate for the appropriate
reaction on the occasion of Spartan hostilities. What we need today is to turn
our eyes once again to Acharnes and, taking its heritage as a starting point,
ask ourselves what are the contemporary challenges of our time, that we need to
face, which are hiding behind smaller issues of everyday life. In other words
what is it that exists behind certain facts, that populism will never tell us.
Having this approach Acharnes might be ones more viewed as a “political
landscape” in the wider sense, giving to the area an identity that would only
promote it on a global scale.
Links refering to the Municipality of Acharnes
www.ileamousio.gr
www.sitemaker.g
www.acharnes.gr (sito del Comune)
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
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