Wandering Greeks (36 page)

Supplication.
Hiketês
(suppliant) means literally “one who comes.” The noun is cognate with
hêkô, hikneomai
. See Gould (1973, 74–103); Pedrick (1982, 125–40); Freyburger (1988, 501–15), and Canciani et al. (“Hikesia” in
ThesCRA
III, pp. 193–216). As to why suppliants grasped the chin, knees, and beard, see Freyburger (1988, 508–10). For
asulia
and
hikesia
in Aes.
Supp.
, see Dreher (2003, 59–84). Five of the 32 surviving Greek tragedies fall into the category of suppliant plays, viz those in
which the homeless take refuge in a sanctuary where they make formal application for inclusion within the community. The plays in question are Aes.
Supp
. and
Eum
.; Soph.
OC
; and Eur.
Heracl
. and
Supp
. As Dreher (2003, 61) points out, they take the form of a “triangular relationship model,” consisting of suppliants, enemy, and savior. For Admetus's reception of Themistocles and embellishments of the tale in other authors, see Hammond (1967, 492–93). The motif of clutching an infant as a form of extreme supplication also occurred in Euripides's lost tragedy
Telephus
(
ThesCRA
III, p. 197 with no. 29). In Athens it was customary at some meetings of the Assembly for “anyone who wishes” to place a suppliant branch on the altar in order to claim the right to speak on any matter, whether private or public ([Arist.]
Ath. Pol
. 43.6). Supplication could also be made to the Council (Aeschin. 1.104). It seems unlikely, however, that this right would have extended to foreigners.

The Politics of Offering Asylum.
For the involvement of the Athenian Assembly in awarding asylum, see Naiden (2006, 173–83). Another interesting instance involves the 500 wealthy exiles from Sybaris who sought refuge in Croton. When the Sybarites responsible for their exile turned up and demanded that the Crotonians hand them over or face war, the latter, though wavering, eventually declined to do so, interestingly on the advice of the philosopher Pythagoras. In the ensuing war they were victorious and went on to destroy Sybaris utterly (D.S. 12.9.2–10.1).

Granting Asylum within a Sanctuary.
Excavations conducted in the sanctuary of Hera at Perachora have brought to light cisterns and wells that could accommodate large numbers of people and cattle. For the possibility that a specific area within a sanctuary was designated for the use of asylum-seekers, see Maffi (2003, 15–22). For sanctuaries of Poseidon as places of refuge, see Schumacher (1993, 62–87). For the sanctuary of Poseidon at Calauria, see Sinn (2003, 107–25). For that at Taenarum, see Naiden (2006, 207–10).

Mistreating Asylum-Seekers.
For Cylon, see Rhodes (1993, 79–84). Though many scholars are skeptical of the effectiveness of asylum, Sinn
(1993, 93) floats the possibility that “every violation against this indispensable institution was recorded with misgivings and at the same time branded with sharp disapproval, whereas all mention of the cases with positive outcomes were [
sic
] omitted because they were normal.” See Naiden (2006, table 3.1 [pp. 163–65]) for instances of rejected supplication in Greek sources.

Athens's Exceptionalism.
In four of the five surviving suppliant plays (Aes.
Eum
.; Soph.
OC
; Eur.
Heracl
. and
Supp
.), the suppliants petition for residence in Athens, a further indication of the city's professed compassion for asylum-seekers. Though the plot of Aes.
Supp
. seems
prima facie
to advocate giving refuge to asylum-seekers, the next (missing) play in the trilogy dealt with the outbreak of a war between Argos and Egypt due to Argos's reception of the suppliants. In it Pelasgus was almost certainly killed in battle. What the trilogy may have explored, therefore, were the unforeseen and disastrous consequences of a good faith decision. Rather than advocating kindness to strangers, it might reasonably be interpreted as a warning
against
giving asylum to suppliants, even when their case is justified on humanitarian grounds. For the topos of Athens's hospitality to foreigners, see the bibliography cited in Montiglio (2005, 31 n. 26). Isocrates (12.94) cites Athens's generous treatment of both the Messenians and the Plataeans as examples of her support for those in need.

Xenia
and
Proxenia
.
For both
xenia
and
proxenia
, see Herman (1987). For xenia-based relationships in the
Odyssey
, see Finley (2002, 100–104). Other examples of
xenia
between a Greek and a non-Greek include Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, and the pharaoh Amasis (Hdt. 3.39–43); and Pharnabazus, the Persian satrap, and Agesilaus, the king of Sparta (Xen.
Hell
. 4.1.34–35). The institution of
xenia
remained in force into the hellenistic period and beyond. For
proxenia
, see Walbank (1978, 1–9); Baslez (1984, 111–25); and Davies (1993, 69–71). As Davies notes, the honors that were paid to
proxenoi
by the state whose citizens they represented indicate they sometimes put their lives at risk, for which reason they were given legal protection (cf.
IG
I
³
19, ca. 450).
Proxenia
is first attested in the late seventh century BCE in a decree of the people
of Corcyra (
ML
4) and continued into the first century CE. In the fifth century it became an instrument of Athenian imperialism that enabled Athens to be kept apprised of seditious activity among her allies (
IG
I
³
18, 19, 27, 28, 91, 92). For its evolution into a communal institution based on the model of
xenia
, see Herman (1987, 132–42).

Chapter 8. The Fugitive

Fugitives in Archaic Literature.
Herodotus (6.95) indicates that the Aleian Plain was located in Cilicia. Tlepolemus's division of his men into three tribes is thought to be a reference to the three major city-states that existed on the island in Homer's day—namely, Lindus, Ialysus, and Camirus. Schlunk (1976, 201) sees the murderer who flees from his homeland to escape the exaction of blood vengeance by the relatives of his murdered victim and who is received in a rich man's house as an important “minor motif” in the
Iliad
. Priam's supplication is, moreover, a memorable instance of ring composition. As Schlunk further notes, the poem begins with a suppliant Trojan father appealing on behalf of his daughter to Agamemnon, who rejects his appeal, and ends with a suppliant Trojan father appealing on behalf of his son to Achilles, who answers his entreaty. Fugitives in myth include Alcmaeon, Cadmus, and Orestes. In each case their wandering ends because of intervention from Apollo (Montiglio 2005, 31). The classic instance of upward mobility on the part of a fugitive and his family in early Roman history involves Demaratus of Corinth, who fled to Tarquinii because of political upheavals and whose son Lucumo became the fifth king of Rome (Li. 1.34.2). No less upwardly mobile was Jephthah, who was driven from his father's house by his half-brothers because he was the son of a prostitute, and who later became commander and judge of all Israel (Judges 11–12).

Exile as Punishment for Crime.
For Athenian homicide law, see MacDowell (1978, 73–75, 114) and Phillips (2008). For the court in Phreatto, see MacDowell (1963, 82–84). For Socrates, see Forsdyke (2005, 273).
For exile as a punishment imposed on members of the Delian League, see
IG
I
³
14.29–32 = Fornara 71 (Erythrae, mid-460s or late 450s) and
IG
I
³
40.6–7 = Fornara 103 (Chalcis, mid-440s or mid-420s). Pl.
Laws
9.865de claims that the reason why a homicide is exiled is to avoid giving offense to the dead man “by seeing his killer frequenting the same places he had frequented.” In fifth-century Syracuse several sentences of exile were passed by
petalismos
(see later). After Syracuse's defeat at the hands of the Athenians at the Battle of Cyzicus in 411 all the generals were exiled (Xen.
Hell
. 1.1.27). In Greek tragedy voluntary exile is occasionally the preferred fate of those who regard themselves guilty of crimes that put them outside the human fold. Examples are Oedipus, who requests that Creon send him into exile (Soph.
OT
1381–82, and so on), and Medea, who announces that she will depart from Corinth for Athens and reside with King Aegeus (Eur.
Med
. 1384–85). Exile was imposed on Spartan kings who were found guilty of accepting bribes or performing inadequately on military campaign. See Forsdyke (2005, 295–97). Several Euripidean tragedies end with exile being pronounced upon an offender. Apollo orders Orestes to depart from Argos and go into exile in Parrhasia for one year because he has murdered his mother Clytemnestra (Or. 1643–45); the Dioscuri pass a similar sentence upon Orestes (El. 1250–51); and Hecuba becomes an enslaved exile (
Tro
. 1271).

Ostracism.
ML
21 includes a list of 61 candidates, together with the total number of
ostraka
that are assigned to each, up to date of publication. See most recently Brenne (2002, 36–166). The total now stands at over 10,000
ostraka
. The largest single cache, 191 in all in only fourteen hands, was intended for use against Themistocles. Literary sources include [Arist.]
Ath. Pol
. 22.3–8; D.S. 11.55.2; Plu.
Arist
. 7.4–6; and Poll. 8.20. For discussion, see Rhodes (1993, 267–71) and Forsdyke (2005, 144–204). Forsdyke (p. 283) argues that the annual posing of the question before the Assembly as to whether the
dêmos
wanted to hold an ostracism had the consequence in and of itself of quelling inter-élite conflict. There was a learned debate in antiquity as to whether ostracism was the equivalent to exile. The Scholiast on Aristophanes
Wasps
(l. 947) defined ostracism as the equivalent of a species within the genus exile.
The chief difference between the two, the Scholiast explained, lay in the fact that those who were ostracized kept their property, whereas those who were exiled forfeited theirs. A form of ostracism was practiced in Syracuse, where the process was called
petalismos
, literal meaning “leafing” so called because the names of those to be exiled were inscribed on leaves (D.S. 11.87.1–2). There is also evidence for the practice at Argos, Chersonesus, Cyrene, Miletus, and Megara (Forsdyke 2005, 285–88). For Megara, see also Hansen and Nielsen (2004, 464). It is unclear whether any of these cities was inspired by the Athenian model.

High-Profile Exiles.
For other versions of Themistocles' flight and exile, see the sources cited in Frost (1980, 200–218). Diodorus Siculus (11.56–58) is particularly detailed. For a full account of Plutarch's narrative of Alcibiades' exile, see the relevant sections in Verdegem (2010). For Alcibiades as a traitor, see Bottineau (2010, 118–49). A decree that was passed by the
dêmos
of Amphipolis (dated 357/6) exiled in perpetuity, along with their children, two high-profile Amphipolitans who had favored an alliance with Athens in preference to one with Philip II of Macedon, and further declared that if they were apprehended they were to be killed (
SIG
³
194 = Tod 150 = Rhodes and Osborne 49; cf. D.S. 16.8.2).

Runaway Slaves.
See Christensen (1984, 23–32); Kudlien (1988, 232–52); Chaniotis (1996, 79–83); Andreau and Descat (2011, 138–41); and McKeown (2011, 155–57). For the protection of the Acropolis against runaway slaves, see Wernicke (1891, 51–57). On the branding of slaves, see Ar.
Babylonians
fr. 88 in
CAF
I, p. 414 and—more dubiously—upolis fr. 318 in
CAF
I, p. 342, though neither of these explicitly refers to runaways. It is unclear whether the individual who bore the imprint of a stag was a runaway slave, though such a marking would, of course, have been appropriate and ironic (Lys. 13.19). As McKeown (2011, 160) notes, runaways do not feature in Greek comedy, though some slaves consider the possibility of flight. In addition, there was a comedy by Antiphanes called the
Drapetagôgos
(Ath.
Deipn
.4.161d). For asylum for slaves, see
ThesCRA
III, 219 with nos. 70–78. Similar regulations to those
of Messene are known from Samos and Ephesus (Chaniotis 1996, 80–81). Though it lies outside the time frame of this investigation, the story told by the third-century BCE ethnographer Nymphodorus of Syracuse of a bandit-slave named Drimacus, who led his fellow-runaways “as a king leads his army”' terrorized the population of Chios, and exercised awesome power, is highly instructive (
ap
. Ath.
Deipn
. 6. 265d–266e). The slave-owners came to an agreement that Drimacus would receive into his ranks only runaway slaves who had been grossly mistreated and would return all others to their owners. See further Forsdyke (2012, 37–46, 74–85, and so on). For the Hebrew treatment of runaway slaves, see Deuteronomy 23:15–16: “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you; he shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place which he shall choose within one of your towns, where it pleases him best; you shall not oppress him.”

Chapter 9. The Economic Migrant

Reasons for Becoming an Economic Migrant.
See Dummett (2001, 44f.) for the modern use of the term “economic migrant” as a propaganda device intended to blur the distinction between refugees and immigrants and to suggest that the motives of those claiming asylum are deceptive and trivial. Hornblower (1991, 13f.) believes that Thuc. 1.2.6 indicates an awareness that prehistoric Athens benefited from an influx of foreigners. For Hesiod's father's move to Ascra, see West (1978, 30). Scheffer (2011, 319) rightly states, “The dynamism of [the United States] is closely connected to its ability to integrate people of extremely diverse backgrounds.” It would, however, be presumptuous to suppose that the ancient world duplicated the modern in this regard. Overall, we lack the means even to begin to assess the effects of immigration on Athenian culture and can only surmise from a distance, so to speak, its impact on the Athenian economy. For a useful survey, see Cohen (2000, 17–22). De Ste. Croix (1983, 95) assumed a priori that metics were “living by choice in their city of residence.” The Spartans were unusual in the fact that they were “not permitted to reside abroad, for fear
they would acquire foreign customs and undisciplined lifestyles” (Plu.
Mor.
238e; cf. Xen.
Lac
. 14.4). For Athenians living as metics in Megara, see Hansen and Nielsen (2004, 464 [entry by Legon]).