The Gods of Politics in Early Greek Cities Author(s): Marcel Detienne and Janet Lloyd Source: Arion, Third

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The Gods of Politics in Early Greek Cities

MARCEL DETIENNE (Translatedby Janet Lloyd)

to speak of "the gods" rather A have decided to than "religion," and the "political domain" (le politique) identify the specific domain that has been recognized as such (to politikon) ever since Aristotle. As for the earliest Greek cities, No . . . and there is, for heaven's sake, surely nothing shameful All the sanie, I should like to make about being a Hellenist. it clear that, very early on, I was lucky enough to embark studies. What kind of comparative stud upon comparative ies? The kind that involves historians working with anthro pologists, particularly ethnologists
pear.1

the area of my present fieldwork. they constitute doubt you thought, he's a Hellenist" "Presumably,

and vice versa. concerned with and historians hear

But to work

as an anthropologist of approaches than itmay ap anthropology and as for

the comparativist ismore complex someone "doing

When with

Hellenists

of

the ancient Greeks," am thinking historians?I

those of historians, our "major" nations of both today and yesterday?they too are usually less than enthusiastic, if it is a matter particularly of a widely of embarking upon comparativism ranging na
ture.

they manifest of mainstream

irritation,

that I have been prac explain. The comparativism or so for the and past twenty years is experimental ticing constructive involves both and and?yes?it anthropologists historians. in what sense? First, experimental: experimental The zoo! Henry Myers Lecture, The Royal Anthropological
tute of Great Britain and Ireland, London. ARION 12.2 FALL 2OO4

Let me

Insti

50 THE

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POLITICS

IN EARLY

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CITIES

Between

us historians we have amassed a and ethnologists, about several thousand different cul rich fund of knowledge tures and societies, spanning both space and time. It is my conviction that what we need to do is to analyze hu deep societies and understand as many of their cultural as possible.

man

prod So why not "experiment" (that is, test to do so but given that it is not only possible hypotheses), It involves form of intellectual also an excellent activity? ucts society of ex

from one freely together, for years, moving working to another, always?indispensably?in the company in in the and field perts question. specialists

For roughly ten years I have been engaged in comparative as consisting of inquiry in a field that may be described the This will be the of first for subject politics."2 "places part of this paper. People often like to believe fell from the or that "the political domain," one fine day, in Pericles' to in of

"politics," in the miraculous Needless form of Democracy. Athens, is superbly linear. It leads us say, its subsequent history revolution, by way eluctably from a predestined American the so-called Western vine mission French to our own societies

skies

Revolution, straight that are so happily convinced that their di is to convert other peoples to the true religion shown

dear

the greatest filial respect for the gent and in that spirit I that is, the tribe of Hellenists, hell?niste, to learn more about certain early be have been determined ginnings pearance in the hundreds between of small cities and that made the eighth seventh their ap bc. I centuries that across historians the Acad?mie

of democracy. I have always

should, however, acknowledge, confidentially, the globe?for is universal?eminent Hellenism such as the French so-called Immortals of

scholars of weighty author Fran?aise, and many Germanic some sometimes been have courteously, ity arguing, long in Greece, times pugnaciously, about the invention, of the domain of politics. What was its date, day, hour, and place of birth, the color of its eyes, and the nature of its sex (a

Marcel

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51

matter

interest in the American of to of major universities in le the domain of differs French, politique, day: politics, is from la politique, political practice; the Greek to politikon a neuter which seems to have been introduced by a certain lecturer who came from Halicarnassus to Athens, by name

Herodotus). in As soon as I had taken stock of the state of the question I made Greek from "the Greek studies, good my escape neither city," wasting ventory of the modish time nor paper guises in which in drawing up an in it has been presented to men and in Cambridge,

inMunich, in the Quartier Latin, houses of intellectual fashion. tion only the most prestigious Iwould not venture to pass judgement on the sentiments of those Hellenists, but the Greek city gods are grateful to me have (as they recently assured me) for having tried to find out how such a thing as the domain of politics can be fabri insist that every soci cated. I have come across people who that politics means power, or that it all began ety is political, between with the drawing of a distinction friend and foe. to deter me from starting out anew, But I found nothing more The or less from scratch. comparative study that I have mentioned?which is a number of concrete by observing to me to be constitutive of the political Imean is the practices of assembly, or rather

now published3?begins practices that seemed domain. What the ways inwhich

It seems to me that it is people assembled. possible to study these even in situations involving very early that is to say, in very simple forms. beginnings, I shall focus on the practices of people People assembling: in order to debate affairs of common deliberately assembling interest. I am not concerned with a whole series of other kinds for instance, people getting together in or in order to barter one commodity order to go fishing for return to in I another shall another, although perhaps, study, those different kinds of assembly. of assemblies: Anyone who decides to observe and compare needs limit his/her field, choose a particular "framework," to de a no

52 THE

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IN EARLY

GREEK

CITIES

tional domain. the field words

In my constituted

case this, for better or worse, has been in for expressing by "the procedures

a particular idea of what is in the common interest of to discuss this." It all those who have deliberately assembled will no doubt be pointed out that the assumptions which un Maybe. to meet to But at any rate, my starting point is "the wish to discuss matters inter of common gether in an assembly, est." I have called this a "framework" or "notional field." It might, at a pinch, be called a paradigm. But this point of de parture of mine is different from the, to my mind, somewhat of civic humanism introduced heavy-handed paradigm by my colleague at The Johns Hopkins University, John Pocock: in which the Prince acts as a political this is a construction tailor-made for a Florentine agent, surrounded by associates society, in the shape of citizens, and rhetoricians, an to be It excellent sure, is, legislators. paradigm inspired for the derlie that formula are more Greek than African.

it is as world. However, Anglo-Saxon post-sixteenth-century the Amerindian Cossack societies for world, inappropriate or those tiny Greek cities as, for example, the category of of that kind found in ency and others "empire" commonly to I that "the wish assemble around the would say clopedias. Common local nor Good" a paradigm that is neither too too general. It seemed to me to open up a set of be help that would many of them very concrete, constitutes of practices of assembling with seen in perspective. Who ini a group? Can it be anyone in it be an elder, a man with authority, an

questions, ful to an observer

tiates the process the group, or should individual endowed leader? Where place?

supernatural powers, or an elected is the assembly held? Each time in a different is marked venue? out? In a place In a fixed, specially that has been ritu

In a space that arranged, even built-up

Ritually designated secretly? Or solemnly? ally designated? is it brought to a close? Who opens such an assembly? How Who presides over it, and how? Is it preceded by a more se Is there a formal If so, of what kind? lect committee? one to gain permission speak? Using what agenda? How does

Marcel

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53

If there is an argument or a debate, what form gestures? does it take? Do speakers contradict one another? Do they is its adhere to a model created by the assembly meet? What tempo? Does by consensus? constitutes it reach a formal decision? kind By a vote? What vote? A secret vote? A majority a quorum? And how does a quorum If so, does it do so of vote? A show of vote? What relate to the

hands? A written

total membership of the assembly? As you can see, we need to devote to the early processes that created turn into a "domain such as the above

considerable something

histori questions a ans and ethnologists for particular purpose, namely to set to ac up an experiment: by means of precise mechanisms, a a as view of whole series societies of quire perspective widely Ages, stituants, Machiavelli, yesterday the ninth
Ivory Coast.

of politics." Questions are exchanged among

thought that might and sub

different the Buddhist

as the

Italian who

communes

of

the Middle

communities

the Cossacks

of Japan, the French Con were the contemporaries of

of Southern Ethiopia the Ochollos of both to mention the secular canons of and today?not to the fourteenth century, or the Senoufos of the with twenty or so societies observed as for common use which are elaborated

We

are concerned

micro configurations, and ethnologists who study them. I use the by the historians term "microconfigurations," for it is not a matter of global It is not my intention to set up a "typology" comparativism. or a "morphology" to assemble of "the wish together to common matters is of of interest" that valid urbi et speak aims to be experi repeat: this comparativism It needs these microconfigurations, mental and constructive. For for they allow for wide-ranging, free experimentation. orbi. in Japan, in the example, we can go to see what is happening company of Japanese specialists who are already analyzing there; or we can launch an expedition assembly practices into deepest Africa, to discover egalitarian settings for initi or we can discover what set ation assemblies; "political I must

54 THE GODS OF POLITICS IN EARLY GREEK CITIES

tings" await us in Kabylia The aim is to be both should warn

or the forests of Amazonia.

I and constructive. experimental as continue to cultivate ho such historians

that we need to shun these like the plague. And I mologies would earnestly advise against "term by term" comparisons societies that keep a jealous eye on one another. between must Our kind of wide-ranging be deter comparativism minedly ments constructive. that are It needs to fabricate and this or fashion is done in ele the comparable, a and anthro where historians laboratory of "workshop" a long work and experiment together, adopting pologists term view. to discover In order elements for suitable comparison have tried to assembly practices, in an inquiry devoted I to make the most of a series of notions that

as we seemed potentially fruitful in our field of investigation me narrow a cite it Let few. down. First, just progressively or affairs of common inter the notion of "public matters" est. This plied to becomes different as soon as it is ap complex increasingly societies. of the Next, category its sub-categories; and then along with

"citizen-citizenship" the fascinating "sameness-equality" pair. Are these the best I believe we could do of but not, objects comparison? Maybe worse and that they may prove to be of some use as we be

gin to try to see what the domain of politics might be in this context. The political in general? Well, why not? domain in the the wake such as of first great anthropologists For, Lewis Morgan generalists? who hails and Edward Burnett I, for my part, am happy from what used to be called Tylor, are we not all to salute them, as one

or the continent, a cre it is the of that where the rather country part France, at of anthropology ation, in 1986, of the first department the University ical clearing of Nanterre in the dense the first anthropolog constituted forest of history peopled with its historians. and nationalist

hordes Those

of national

are some of my reasons for mentioning "politics" in the title of this lecture. Meanwhile, the gods have been wait ing patiently for our attention. They know why I have rejected

Marcel

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55

reference to "religion." I confess that I have never in high esteem. And that the terms "religious-religion" is not solely because those terms, with their associations and the idea of ritualistic scruples con with religio-religere a modem held jure up certain scruples with regard to cults. No sooner had Iwon the freedom to embark upon research at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes than I began to plot how to escape from the territory known as Sciences religieuses (Religious protected Studies). My how was first collaborative before seminar set out to explore

the limits of the field of religion.Where did it begin? And

our very eyes? The specialists of a that protected territory, good fifty or so of them, shared a to ask fundamental reluctance about stubborn questions called the "Religion" of the ancient what was conventionally it changing or the Aztecs. Among the the Old Testament, Babylonians, chairs in Paris, there was even first ten or twelve professorial one for Greek Religion, the one that I persistently endeav ored to shake up in order to develop its full potential, during it served as the basis for my comparativist the period when the Roman operations. Although legacy cannot be held en was tirely to blame, it through it, its language, and its cul ture that there was in the Christian pressure, already as to vast terrae incognitae consider Augustine, polytheisms that were whether have to receive True Religion, destined eventually or from Islam. As our experts from Christianity over three quarters of the world are natu established,

for a moment Consider the eight hundred rally polytheistic. in of deities the of countless myriads Japan, metamorphoses the thousands of g?nies and powers the deities of Hinduism, the forests and mountain ranges Likewise, the Indian subcontinent, of Oceania, and South America are teeming with pantheons with great clusters of deities. It is probably fair to say, without fear of contradiction, of Black Africa. of polytheisms, monotheism ap as a kind of these do occur, just pears religious mistake?for as sentimental mistakes the latter fortunately do, although societies revel in tend to be more short-lived. Polytheistic that on the limitless horizon

56 THE

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CITIES

authorities, episcopal mock these upstart pastoral papal. They monotheists for their insistence on "having to believe" and whether or their proselytizing As we all know, continent, the world Iwill Greek, efforts. the field of polytheisms all those wishing constitutes a vast to experiment in that link divine powers.4 the gods who speak to be translated and in

their

ignorance

of

Churches

and

one that awaits

venture

of the possible relations into it solely to seek out are delighted

who, however, into other languages. Just as in Japan there are terpreted kami for ovens, for food, for costumes, and for domestic al so are in Greece So why the gods tars, too, everywhere. should they not be there in the political domain? To uncover the network of these Greek-speaking to concentrate less on their individual gods, it features

was

necessary and to resist the attraction stead

of their fine appearances, and in to identify all the different ways in which deities are on altars and in sanctuaries. In a polytheistic associated sys tem, a god is always plural, constituted by the intersection of a variety of attributes. a In this sense, a god is conjectural, with and facets. many angles many figure Greek culture presents observers with well-established and organized relations between two or more arrangements and complementar powers, relations of explicit partnership As between deities. Dum?zil stressed, any atten ity Georges tive observer Greek works cannot fail to note the "structural" it is possible culture. Moreover, the same of relations between aspect of to analyze these net sets of deities over a

from Homer centuries, right down to Porphyry. This is a wonderful and I have re field for experimentation, on a to it in It is a very work cently begun explore Apollo. rich seam, crying out to be exploited. There may be gods everywhere, but which are the gods of full twelve is so particular about them? Is it the political domain? What not rather surprising that there should be any need for gods in a space defined by assembly practices whose major object are the seems to be the affairs of the human group? What

Marcel

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gods doing in a space that seems principally human matters and is devoted to a Common that is the business

concerned Good

with

(xunon) in many of com

of all the group members? of such phenomena We can study the beginnings different societies. Those that came about in dozens munities centuries

in Italy between the eleventh and the thirteenth owe nothing to those that arose among the Cos in quite a different that are detectable history, or to all those in the soil of Graecia

sacks of Zaporojie, "places for politics"

or on the shores of the Black Sea. But I believe that Magna the beginnings of the tiny, first Greek cities deserve the full fascinated by the attention of a comparitivist-cum-Hellenist, that shim colors of their "places for politics," which the Greeks called poikilos. mering quality in the Let me concentrate on three examples of beginnings ever-changing Greek terrain: the precarious city of the Achaeans who came to besiege the town of Priam, the imaginary city of the Phaea and material evidence cians; and the early archaeological in Sicily, dating from about 730 bc. found atMegara Hyblaea, who sailed to Troy hailed from the Iliad. The Greeks First, different
beach,

many
to the

places.
they

In the midst
a space

of the ships hauled

where the Achaeans

up on
as

created

sembled agora:

to deliberate the word

assembly, there. We also know that this words that they exchanged to speak out by the warriors who gathered space marked an "agora, there contained themis, and the altars of the leave aside themis and all gods." Let us, for the moment, debated and that the word evokes in the way of decisions taken. The most significant point is that altars for the gods were the gods of all the Greeks? Maybe, maybe not. At any rate there are gods in this place, which, by virtue of sharing between the warriors of the series of practices here?for there, may be called a place of "equality." the Phaeacians. The name of Nausicaa's Next, was Nausithoos. In the past, he had grandfather lived in the neighbor

together. The spot was known as an referred at once to the physical place of the came there to deliberate, and the the men who

58 THE

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CITIES

hood

of the rowdy and violent Cyclopes, who despised the no an as altars and what of and their had conception gods an was. who agora, They exasperated Nausithoos, sembly, of the Phaeacians. away and eventually came to found the city He did so as a proto-founder of what we, a Latin word, came to call the "colonies" of Sicily and to move To be on the safe of stone around

decided

using elsewhere.

built great side, Nausithoos out his he shared ramparts city; parcels of were lots for and he which drawn; land, designed a magnif icent agora, made of well-hewn stone, flanked by a temple for Poseidon.

It was as if this god had an unquestionable to of poliad the rank (or city) deity. Athena, who ar right as he made his way to the city of rived to guide Odysseus was to careful go no further than a small, sacred Nausicaa, strangely in Sicily, the foundations of like the city of Megara Hyblaea, have reconstructed. fu The which archaeologists patiently ture city was plotted out on virgin soil by its founder around 730 BC. In its center, a space was immediately marked out for the agora, the public area that would be completed one cen site, close to the agora, seems to have been tury later. Another several sanctuaries, which were then gradually built. The land of the city founded by Megara was ac initially divided up into more or less regular allotments, to Nausicaa's method followed the cording by grandfather. chosen to accommodate ac in assembly, for the purpose of deliberation such as cording to the rule of "debating pro and contra," in the Iliad, followed practices with an eas those described Meetings it possible for us to de ceremonial that makes ily observable the space of the termine the role and place of the gods within et Ruz? work As the (D?lib?ration agora. great by Fran?oise from pouvoir dans les cit?s grecques, Paris, 1997) describes, the space of deliberative down to Socrates, Nestor speech took the form of a circle or a semi-circle. Whoever wished to speak for "the common good" would advance to the middle, es meson, where he would be handed the sceptre that con grove situated well outside the precinct The town laid out on the Phaeacian of Poseidon's shore was realm.

Marcel

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ferred authority sense of speech) matter" warriors, by the martial

so long as his agora (in the the Odyssey calls "a public a It all thus began amid (ti demion). gathering of men who set as much store by the art of speech as upon his words concerned what

arts (which is not the case in all warrior soci set at its with the The altar the Achaeans eties). up by gods, center of their semi-circle of ships, was to be longer-lasting than the siege of Troy, for the Greek-speaking gods were to continue to be involved

in the founding practices of cities to "the political and of these special places devoted do main." Two divine powers were always directly involved in the planning of a new city. First Apollo, known as a founder, an Archegetes. And hard on his heels came Hestia, the Greek Vesta, with her sacrificial fire. Apollo was the god of Delphi. founder had to go to consult him. Apollo was Any would-be revered as a god of paths and reliable plans, and he liked to human founders, keeping an eye on them. As an accompany architect and a geometrician, the Founder was the Apollo patron of the art of city-planning, dividing the territory into of land, building roads and sanctuaries (temene), out the space for the agora. and marking an agora, no city without There could be no city without altars and sacrificial fire. In many cases, immediately upon allotments disembarking own Apollo. There was brought So Hestia, the founder would But an altar was also a need for consecrate not an altar to make to his a city. enough sacrificial fire that had been

native city. the deity of fire in general and sacrificial fire in particular, always came along too on the voyage, bringing a seed of fire kept in a cooking pot. Very early on, Hestia, the virgin deity of fire that was never extinguished, was set up to preside over a very public edifice known as the Prytaneion, what some might call a town-hall, the center of the executive for Communal Affairs. Hestia represented what "a call of the idea you might particular city." Symbolically, she embodied the unity of the multiplicity of individual do department mestic hearths and altars. She was a figure at once concrete

from the central

altar of the founder's

6o

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CITIES

and abstract. With over

her central

presided the prytaneis who received practiced by the magistrates, from her altar, the altar of Hes their powers as magistrates not from tia. "Political" thus came from Hestia; authority

the sacrificial

in the Prytaneum, she was that commensality officially altar

the Founder, nor from any god known as a god "of Apollo In this eminently the city," a poliad god, polias-polieus. over Hestia the "public" place, reigned complex interplay of I earlier called "sameness what and equality." For this was the place where were came the multiple constructed, forward to speak. the assembly practices of these early cities, it By observing is not hard to see that they take place in a space in the shape and that they are peculiar to a of a circle, or a semi-circle, to the space called an agora, a fixed space that is common of "citizenship" configurations all the rights and obligations of those who

greatest possible number of citizens. It is a space that is both as the Greek puts it. The common and public, demosion, in Crete is sometimes called the agora of the agora, which Here citizens, functions as a deity of effective publicity. in cases of homicide, and cer charges were proclaimed were publicly accepted. These were public tain benefactions of speech of a legal nature, and they helped to applications assembled create stitution

in the con that seems to become essential something in Greece, namely public of a "place for politics" to publicize?make to all?the known ity. It was necessary of those who set out to delib decisions taken by a majority "public affairs" and who aimed observed and applied by oth ers in their city. To this end, these little cities of between 200 five and 500 men, with territories of no more than between call to have at about and ten square kilometers, on bronze tablets the art of writing were what sometimes were affixed the same time and stone invented stelae. These erate on what we may now these decisions

sometimes

to walls, in sometimes displayed to be public places. The intention, considered explicitly spelled out in these inscriptions, was to for all to see, the decrees that had been passed

place on view,

Marcel

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and the decisions tablished"

that had been as Solon

taken?"words it. For

solidly

es

in (thesmoi), puts example, a narrow an island roughly level with Smyrna, Chios, early stele urges the elected magistrates, in the name sixth-century of Hestia of Chios. were to observe the decisions words Inscribing the constitutive on stelae of the people, the demos on walls and writing

the village-cities But what with

in practices of "the political domain" that engaged in various forms of assembly. all this talk of public space, publicity, and too fast, as the gods the printing press and in our eighteenth-century Eu

I am perhaps moving public opinion, are now reminding me. Long before the wide diffusion of debates

in every village-city there were tem rope of only yesterday, with sanctuaries and with itwas there, and space: walls, ples in the temples of Apollo, Artemis, Hera, Poseidon, and oth such as the rules of sacrifice ers, that the public documents and the decisions of the assembly were published, that is to were and sanctuaries say exhibited, posted up. Temples pub lic places, open to all. There was no Holy of Holies; and the so-called were
money.

"priests" were annually to give an account expected

The sanctuaries of the

elected magistrates who of the spending of public

agora, the temples on the

and the altars scattered through the countryside Acropolis, were all public places, places of publicity by decision of the council and the assembly, which could thus make known to all and sundry what Just as there were on the acropolis, in the Prytaneum, and in the Council chamber, there were gods a citizen, for all males born from parents who for becoming to lived in the city territory. Such youths had to be presented the altars they ought to do. gods on the agora,

and members of their phratry, and then be ac a was a city in miniature, into which with its deme, cepted own assemblies, own own its its sacrifices, particular gods, and its own sanctuaries that were used to publicize the de crees passed by the deme members, the demotes.5 In a polytheistic for sure. society, the gods are everywhere, But not in a random manner. There are certain domains in

62

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which ence ways. think

certain types of experi they seem to be concentrated, are or improbable in which in unusual they organized to it possible The multiplicity of gods seems to make

through and form an image of a large number of the in their social activities and problems that men encountered or not gods, lives. I think we should try to discover whether were I shall?if I particular gods, directly involved in what "the autonomy of the political out. I this have described spell domain in itself." the practices of the and regulated exer

may?call Let me deliberative

assembly and the repeated cises performed by a decision-taking group that progressively comes to think of itself as a unity made from a plurality and that creates for itself this new public space. All these practices sooner

or later, depending on the circumstances played their no means in the idea of the group's part forging by ordinary over am and I of course sovereignty itself. Yes, sovereignty, thinking of those first Greek cities, which never needed to be head a sovereign or to abolish an Ancien R?gime. But now, as a careful comparativist, my thoughts also turn to the whole of "traditional" West Africa, which does not appear to have any "public places." Indeed, you could even say that there is no space at all there between the power of the king or royal is organized into clans. The king chieftain and society, which in his person all the powers accumulates that are dissemi nated Adler, vested which among the clans and lineages. As the Africanist, Alfred that is cases, the sacralized power puts it, in many in him leaves no separating gap between his person, is set about with prohibitions, and the society made up

of clans and lineages. This society seems to base its idea of it that the king assumes self on its recognition the (often the society's union with the weighty) privilege of ensuring of the forces of nature, both visible and in the one hand, we thus find a society that forms an image of itself through a sacred king, on the other, one in is formed by a group which a certain idea of the city, Hestia, whole collection visible. On for its part, comes to believe that the sovereignty which, new this unit, the city, resides in itself. of

Marcel

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It is possible to observe how this "sovereignty of the group itself" operates in practice. And the gods are directly in volved. Let us consider a concrete case. At the end of the over in the mountains somewhere of Crete, a little a a name was Spen His for fee. scribe, city engaged large was an in and he that is to say sithios, expert purple letters, Phoenician writing. His contract specified that he should set sixth century, down in writing both precise, The two were all public matters (demosia), or, to be more the affairs of the gods and the affairs of men.

kept clearly separate, as it attested by scores The contract of epigraphical documents. also stated that be Crete of should for the manage Spensithios responsible or as "common" ment of public those known sacrifices, "ancestral," which were an essential part of the communal affairs of any city. As all Hellenists know, the ritual calendar, with all its information, relayed about fifty percent of the so called "laws" of Solon. But the essential of the gods," "the affairs point for me is that the first section of "public mat and decided in the assembly discussed,

ters," were debated, and?moreover?in decided

the first part of the assembly. The as a vote how the new calendar majority sembly by should be organized and the order inwhich the various gods be honored. also covered So the sovereignty of the group over it its gods and their affairs. I should in hierarchy of the gods citizens from

would

self clearly

that there was a interject, in passing, perhaps were the way that things ordered: the affairs were dealt with first, and by this select circle of families. But why and how did long-established man beings, gain It turns out that among the gods of Olympus gods, such a hold over

hu mortals, "the affairs of the gods"? these people, "our" Greeks, the

never and the whole world, a as a were an Cities of such inventing "city." thing thought one invention of men, of mortals, and fine day the gods woke up to this fact. In no time, they were jostling at the gate, a the of for so-called clamoring privileges poliad deity?as it were,
pantheon.

a better paid

"chair"

than an ordinary

seat in the

64 THE GODS OF POLITICS IN EARLY GREEK CITIES

was

activities, politics was thus the one that constructed the specifically by human beings: politics, men a sover of government government with full by men, Of all the human eignty is more, which and, what sought was "a law unto in other words tonomy, to affirm itself." that au

of the political domain did not simply fall The autonomy from the sky. It was problematic, fragile, had to be invented means. come To whatever available back to this field in by which still remains to be done, Iwould like, finally, to suggest that a number of important aspects of action, deci sion, and the strategies of politics took shape and were ana to the divine powers. Hestia, reference who lyzed with a one such is of them. category, represented complex certainly I also believe that the Aphrodite-Ares is of major pair, which and represents the relationship between the rituals and concord that must field. is no on the be taken so much

importance of warfare on the one hand and harmony other, introduces a set of major tensions into account The in any analysis so-called Aphrodite but

curiosity, the nature power Greek

zoological is, on the contrary, central to thought about and the concept of decision of the Council and

of the political of Magistrates

The all-too upon communal matters. aspects of those concepts, which may well try your lead us to a whole micropantheon which patience, spoke of the domain. political solely at the end of this over-long conversation (or conver and san), allow me to return to the subject of comparativism to compare. it is possible It would the question of what be Now,

to deliberate

mistaken

of politics and reli the combination or or even of that and that of politics gion theology politics and ritual as some kind of universal standard. "Politics" and "Religion" are no more of the Shinto and than dry encyclopedia entries. The of the Meiji was invented using the

to take either

modernity deification electric ment

cult of a top-hatted emperor who opened new and networks. The power-stations railway "minister of divine affairs" collaborated with the depart of "National Studies" to redefine the relations between

Marcel

D?tienne

65

and Shintoists Buddhists, Confucians sions. This was in the early twentieth traordinary

of a variety of persua century. It was an ex

it was which politico-religious configuration to view in perspective until such time as an at impossible to analyze its components and the forma tempt was made tion of its successive time. No of what doubt, strata. Shinto was but what reason enough, at the kind of reason? And on the basis

it constructed? And what about the practices was Christian West? Does it justify liberated minds declaring that in the religious invented and?be politics were domain, Similarly, even if, as a hasty in ancient Rome preliminary hypothesis, religious power legitimated political power, is it not advisable to work with historians who can analyze the extremely complex sys sides?which religious domain? and tem of assemblies called duced men auctoritas citizen and the interaction and of what the Romans inauguration Rome may have intro and various kinds of contracts between and in the course of what did the domain of politics paral take

gods and the gods, but how lel or successive experiences to suggest

shape there? I wish What and constructive

is that this kind of experimental in comparativism practiced by Historians

a useful with Anthropologists, collaboration may provide of societies such as present-day way to probe the complexity Israel (which is but one of many) which draw attention to the extreme was much NOTES
i. Cf. Marcel derous D?tienne, "Mur (Paris 2000); l'incomparable and the Art of Constructing Corn History 8:1 (2002), "Back to the Village: 178-87; "L'art de (2001), 99-113; of Religions History Comparer et Anthropologues," Critique le in

It fragility of what we call the "political domain." the same in the past. Nothing much has changed.6

Identity. Anthropology, Common parables," Knowledge, of Hellenists?"

A Tropism construire

des comparables. Entre Historiens internationale (2002), 68-78. 2. Robert Hertz Lecture Entre (Paris, nous, June

champ du politique. Gradhiva.

ethnologues

"Des comparables dans 2002): et historiens," forthcoming

66

THE

GODS

OF

POLITICS

IN EARLY

GREEK

CITIES

3- Qui 2003). 4. Marcel 7.1 1999)

veut prendre

la parole}

sous direction

de Marcel

D?tienne

(Paris

D?tienne,

"Experimenting 1999), 127-49;

in the Field Apollon,

(Spring/Summer

of Polytheisms," ? la main le couteau

Arion (Paris

to these issues: Marcel 5. For a short introduction at the Service of the City," in Giulia Sissa and Marcel tidienne des dieux grecs. (Paris 1989), 2000), 166-207 (Stanford to confess Sorry

Janet Lloyd of Politics"). 6.1 have Greek Cities.

"The Gods D?tienne, La Vie quo D?tienne, tr. The Daily Life of the Greek Gods, "Gods at the Heart (more precisely: of Politics in Early

a book on The Gods I am writing for a few allusive mentions.