Solon of Athens

Description

"Solon is central to all accounts of the very birth of western democracy. He was an accomplished thinker and poet, important to any account of the birth of Greek intellectual life and culture. His life was complex, and his name was legendary within a very short time. Politically, Solon was a figure to whose authority every Athenian democrat wanted to appeal. The technique of making spurious reference to Solon's democratic thought became a part of the new political armory in late fifth century Athens. He is selected, alongside Lycurgus, at the high-point of Plato's Symposium as somebody who engendered laws far finer than any human progeny could. As a poet his early impact is attested again by Plato, when his character 'Critas' introduces the Atlantis story. And while (Solon's) chronology remains hazy, one message is still clear: the admiration for, and classic status of, Solon's poetry came early. As a result of this classic status at least at Athens, he became a central part of Athenian consciousness and cultural identity. Dr. Ron Owens has persisted with the study of this remarkable man, and his dedication has been rewarded by numerous insights that help to read the poems through the history and the man through the poems."--Prof. Harold Tarrant, School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle, Australia, author of many books on Classical Studies, including Thrasyllan Platonism (Cornell University Press), Skepticism or Platonism? (Cambridge University Press), and Recollecting Plato's Meno (Duckworth). This book addresses the major contexts within which Solon instituted wide-ranging reforms to the Athenian constitution (594-593 BCE). It provides, for the first time in 90 years, a detailed and comprehensive commentary on each of the extant fragments of Solon's poetry. In the light of modern scholarship, Ron Owens sets out the story of Solon's life, and examines the serious political and economic crisis which led to his appointment to high political office; he discusses the manner and consequences of his appointment; seeks to identify the underlying causes of the crisis and the general outlines of the reform measures adopted by Solon; and explores the philosophy and the concept of 'justice' that appears to have underpinned his reform agenda. The work fills a significant gap in archaic Greek scholarship in terms of historical analysis, political development and the beginnings of philosophy, in the archaic period and at Athens. Solon was an historical figure of great significance, yet no one since Woodhouse (1938) has written exclusively on him and not since Linforth (1919) has there been a commentary on each individual fragment of Solon's poetry. While recent scholarship has emphasized particular aspects of Solon's works, or particular developments at Athens in which Solon played a part, this book sets out in full his political and social achievements in the context of the philosophical underpinnings that appear to have privileged the socio-political changes initiated by Solon. --Book Jacket.

Subjects

Genres

• Biography