Civic Rites by Evans Nancy

Author:Evans, Nancy [Evans, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-520-26202-7
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2010-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

FIVE

Alcibiades

Politics, Religion, and the Cult of Personality

THUCYDIDES’ LAST REPORTED SPEECH OF Pericles in book 2 depicts the dynamic Athenian leader encouraging the people of Athens to be patient and maintain their naval empire. Above all Pericles warned against expanding the empire while at war. This plan might well have worked, had the Athenians stuck to it. But Thucydides’ narrative clearly states that after Pericles’ death the Athenians did just the opposite: eventually private ambition and the desire for honor and wealth won out over the interests of the city. When Alcibiades, a member of Pericles’ extended family, took a leading role in Athenian affairs, his regard for ancestral religious customs brought him both blame and praise. Civic rites—both the rituals of democracy celebrated in the open and the more secretive traditions surrounding Demeter, goddess of grain—continued to be celebrated in the polis, and under Alcibiades their observance had a decisive impact on the lives of all Athenians.

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