Political Trials in Ancient Greece (Routledge Revivals) by Richard A. Bauman;

Author:Richard A. Bauman;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781000082937
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2014-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

3 SOME NON-INTELLECTUALS

Three-quarters of a century elapsed between the trial of Socrates and the next attack on a philospher, Aristotle. But there was no shortage of charges of asebeia against other categories of defendants. Some of the cases have obvious political ramifications. Archias, a Hierophant of Eleusis, sacrificed during the festival of Haloa in order to oblige a courtesan, Sinope; he was condemned to death because animal sacrifices were forbidden during the festival, and also because sacrificing was the work of a priestess, not of a Hierophant (Dem. 59.116). In 379 Archias had disclosed the plot to smuggle Theban exiles into Thebes (Plut. Pelop. 10.3). This frustrated Athens’ collaboration with Epaminondas, but Archias could not be charged with treason; his city dared not disclose its role. A solution was found in asebeia. Similarly, in 340 Phano, the illegitimate daughter of the courtesan Neaera, was allowed by her husband, the kingarchon Theogenes, to perform sacrifices to Dionysus and to administer the oath to priestesses. The Areopagus punished Theogenes, whose explanation that he thought Phano was the daughter of Neaera’s husband, Stephanus, was not accepted. The case was part of the attack on Stephanus, a prominent orator and politician.57

The pollution of rites and temples by women of ill-repute had been treated as asebeia ever since Aspasia, and the charge surfaced yet again at some time prior to 322 when Phryne, the courtesan who was so beautiful that she did not need cosmetics, was charged with asebeia. Hyperides, who defended her, secured an acquittal by suddenly stripping his client and calling on the jurors to spare ‘Aphrodite’s prophetess’.58 As for the background, neither her attempt to seduce Xenocrates nor her high tariff for her favours59 looks political. But her offer to rebuild Thebes, which Alexander had destroyed, and the placing of Praxiteles’ statue of her between those of Archidamus III and Philip II at Delphi (Athen. 591B–D) locate her squarely in the anti-Macedonian lobby alongside her defender, Hyperides; that orientation is confirmed by the appearance of Anaximenes, a strong supporter of Macedon, as her accuser.60

Religious pollution was not the only basis for charges of asebeia against women. An Athenian priestess named Ninos was put to death for conducting initiations in a cult of foreign gods, leading bands of revellers through the streets in celebration of a foreign god, and preparing potions for the young.61 The case is almost a pastiche of Socrates’ trial, charging both the introduction of new gods and corruption of the young. A political component is conjectural. Another Ninos was the founder of the Assyrian empire,62 but that is not enough to link the case with Alexander’s campaigns. However, Demosthenes does compare Ninos’ cult activity with that of the mother of that dedicated friend of Macedon, Aeschines (Dem. 19.281). The theme fascinated Demosthenes, for he appeared as the accuser when the Lemnian woman, Theoris, was charged with dabbling in magic drugs and incantations (Dem. 25.79–80) and also with teaching slaves (by means of magic?) to deceive their masters (Plut. Dem. 14.

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