Ancient Greek poets: measures to live by

While villages were slowly transforming themselves into cities, a new dimension added to anxiety. For not everyone gave equal recognition to all things once man moved about within the borders of the city. Hence no stranger was equally welcomed when entering the city for the first time. Already Homer emphasizes that Odysseus had to learn on his long journey to come to terms of being a stranger. Usually the stranger is only begged in, if he brings good tidings. It reflects that those at home are in distress and eager to hear some news for their beloved have been gone too long.

There are many testimonies about someone suddenly entering the city, and since then nothing was again the same as before. It is not unusual to have poets describe a physically strong, equally wise looking man entering the village. Everyone becomes a witness at the sight of this stranger. His looks tell stories. Curious about him, eyes meet but only for a fleeting moment, and then they fly off again, like scared off birds. It is common that eyes are diverted to avoid the eyes of the stranger.

There are people, in particular women who look from behind some protective shield. It may be a curtain, a door left half open or a side view from the balcony. Everything is felt as being an object of curiosity due to the newcomer, but deep down, suspicion remains.

There is also a feeling of a kind of threat because the stranger could easily upset usual delineations between inner spaces and public places.

With him around, nothing seems to be safeguarded anymore, not even the borders of the city. Ambivalences and ambiguities, threats and aggression mingle with the lust or desire to test the new. Since no one knows how the stranger will react, everyone is cautious. Still, the people would remark that his eyes have such a depth of blue as if looking into the sea. They would also observe that his glance retains a certain distance, a kind of detachment in them.

An example of people's reaction to a stranger can be taken from the period of Early Songs: Bacchylides, in the fragmentary Theseus, a lyrical dialogue, transforms the response of people into a wonder leaving no other possibility, but that "surely a god must speed him":

Who is this man who cometh?

Who are his companions?

Like a great host under arms,

Or wandering alone with slaves,

A wayfarer from far-off lands,

Mighty and valiant is he,

With strength which has slain so many!

Surely a god must speed him,

Who topples the unjust down.

No light task ever it was

To be free of all mortal ills.

All things end in the drift of time.

Such descriptions of ongoing life in the community of man seem to find no end. It reflects what people feel and see, or else think what they can do in reference to the community they live in.

Confronting the strangeness not only in others, but in themselves, is, however, not the rule. Many uncertainties have to be overcome first. There is first of all a lack of self-knowledge as to what is freedom. Then, differences in language and perception have to be sorted out. It is even more difficult to make out as to what is good despite living under foreign rule. Vice versa injustice exists even when own rulership prevails, for there is always at risk to over dominate the self if there is a lack of desire to live in freedom.

There is also a need to bridge the gap between experiencing life as something familiar and 'rules' people feel are needed to live by once life becomes more complicated. People get into difficulties, if these rules are not of their own making, hence not rooted in their self-understanding, but rather dictated from above or by some outside forces.

Altogether it makes the definition of freedom more difficult. It cannot be equated simply with a freedom of self-governance, that is to live according to rules which are understandable as opposed to causing 'estrangement'.

The dilemma explodes especially when confronted by the otherness of the stranger. For he might be a carrier of other rules making the outcome uncertain if abided by. Usually the confrontation is justified only if it leads towards a 'toppling of unjust laws/rulership', while it is acknowledged that this is no easy task, hence a measure of things to come.

Hatto Fischer

Note: for a fuller version of the stranger coming into the Polis, and what has prevailed since then as mind set, see the Train exhibition: a journey from Ancient Greece to Modern Athens by Hatto Fischer

^ Top

« Greek section | A few thoughts about Greek Poetry by Hatto Fischer »

Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Navigation

Ancient Greek poets: measures to live by