Aftermath of the Persian Wars
Psycho-Cultural History
and the Classical Moment?
Western Thinkers on Persian Wars
“[The Persian Wars] live immortal not in the historical records of
Nations only, but also of Science and of Art--of the Noble and the
Moral generally. For these are World-Historical Victories; they were
the salvation of culture and spiritual vigor and they rendered the
Asiatic principle powerless.”
~ G.W.F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History
trans. Sibree (New York 1956) pg. 257
“The battle of Marathon, even as an event in English history, is more
important than the battle of Hastings. If the issue of that day had been
different, the Britons and the Saxons might still have been wandering
in the woods.”
~J.S. Mill, Discussions and Dissertations
Vol. 2 (London 1859) pg. 283
Persian Invasions and Evolution
of Historical Consciousness
Aeschylus‟ Persians (472 BCE)
Commemoration of the Dead at Marathon
Herodotus‟ Histories
Later Historical Memories and Associations
The Galatian Invasions of 280-279 BCE
See Polybius, Histories, 2.35
Athens‟ Role in Persian Wars
Marathonomachoi
Herodotus, Histories, 7.139
Marathon Tumulus
“At this point I am forced to declare an opinion that most people
will find offensive; yet, because I think it is true, I will not hold
back. If the Athenians had taken fright at the approaching danger
and had left their own country, or even if they had not left it but
had remained and surrendered to Xerxes, no one would have tried
to oppose the King at sea. If there had been no opposition to the
King at sea, what happened on land would have been this: even if
the Peloponnesians had drawn many walls around the Isthmus for
their defense, the Spartans would have been betrayed by their
allies, not because the allies chose to do so but out of necessity as
they were taken, polis by polis, by the fleet of the barbarian; thus
the Spartans would have been isolated and, though isolated, would
have done deeds of the greatest valor and died nobly. That would
have been what happened; or else they would, before this end, have
seen that all the other Greeks had Medized and so themselves would
have come to an agreement with Xerxes. In both these cases, all of
Greece would have been subdued by the Persians….So, as it stands
now, a man who declares that the Athenians were the saviors of
Greece would hit the very truth.”
Legends of Divine Intervention
Herodotus 6.105 (Pan)
Plutarch, Theseus, 35
Theseus emerges from the Underworld
Pausanias 1.15.3
Theseus emerges from Underworld
Addition of Marathon, Athena, Echetlus, and
Heracles
“First of all, when the generals were still within the city, they
sent a herald to Sparta, one Philippides, an Athenian, who
was a day-long runner and a professional. According to the
story of Philippides himself, and what he told the Athenians,
Pan met him on Mount Parthenium, above Tegea. Pan
shouted his name, „Philippides,‟ and commanded him to say
this to the Athenians: „Why do you pay no heed to Pan, who
is a good friend to the Athenian people, has been many times
of use to you, and will be so again?‟ This story the Athenians
were convinced was true, and when the Athenian fortunes
had again settled for the good, they set up a shrine for Pan
under the Acropolis and propitiated the god himself with
sacrifices and torch races, in accord with the message he had
sent them.”
Herodotus, Histories, 6.105
“In after times…the Athenians moved to honor
Theseus as a demi-god, especially by the fact
that many of those who fought at Marathon
against the Persians thought they saw an
apparition of Theseus in arms rushing on in
front of them against the barbarians.”
Plutarch, Life of Theseus, 35
“At the end of the painting are those who fought at
Marathon; the Boeotians of Plataea and the attic
contingent are coming to blows with the barbarians.
In this place neither side has the advantage, but the
center of the fighting shows the barbarians in flight
and pushing one another into the morass, while at
the end of the painting are the Phoenician ships,
and the Greeks killing the barbarians who are
scrambling into them. Here is also a portrait of the
hero Marathon, after whom the plain is named, of
Theseus represented as coming up from the
Underworld, of Athena and of Heracles.”
Pausanias, 1.15.3
Second Persian Invasion
Battle at Salamis
Divine Intervention at Salamis
Herodotus, 7.189-193
Boreas works against Xerxes‟ fleet
Poseidon destroys Persian ships off Cape Artemisium
Pausanias, 1.36.1-2
Hero Cychrius appears as sea-serpent at Salamis
Plutarch, Moralia, 349f-350a
Artemis Mounychia (full moon) at Salamis
Herodotus, Histories, 7.189
(Boreas)
“It is said that the Athenians had summoned Boreas, the
North Wind, to help them, being so bidden to do so by a
prophecy, there having been another oracle given them to
„call in their son-in-law to help them.‟ Now, according to the
Greek story, Boreas married an Attic wife, Orithyia,
daughter of Erectheus. The Athenians construed this in
terms of a marriage connection with themselves, so the tale
goes, and saw Boreas as their son-in-law. They were at their
station in Chalchis in Euboea when they saw that the storm
was rising, and then, or even before then, they sacrificed to
Boreas and Orithyia and called on them to come to their
help and to destroy the ships of the barbarians, even as
before, at Athos [see 6.44]. Now, whether this was why
Boreas fell upon the barbarians as they anchored there, I
cannot say. But the Athenians say that Boreas came to their
help before and now again, and that this action was his; and
so, when they came home, they built a shrine to Boreas by
the river Ilissus.”
Pausanias, 1.36.1
(Cychreus)
“In Salamis is a sanctuary of Artemis, and also a
trophy erected in honor of the victory which
Themistocles the son of Neocles won for the
Greeks. There is also a sanctuary of Cychreus.
When the Athenians were fighting the Persians
at sea, a serpent is said to have appeared in the
fleet, and the god in an oracle told the Athenians
that it was Cychreus the hero.”
Herodotus 7.192
(Poseidon)
“Anyway, on the fourth day the storm ceased [with
Persian fleet severely damaged off the Sepiad
headland]. The day-watchers on the Euboean
heights ran down from their positions on the second
day after the storm‟s commencement and told the
Greeks of all that had happened in the
shipwrecking. Then the Greeks, when they learned
this, made prayers to Poseidon the Savior and,
having poured libations, hastened back with all
possible speed to Artemisium, having formed the
expectation that there would be very few ships left
to oppose them.”
Artemision Zeus (or Poseidon?)
Life-Size Bronze Statue, ca. 460-450 BCE
Historical Events and Artistic Innovations
A Problem of Causality
Pollitt, Classical Art and the
Persian War Experience
“What factors were there which might be said to have
brought into being this new analysis of consciousness in
Early Classical art? It seems something more than a natural
evolution from what had gone on in the Archaic period and
should perhaps be ascribed to both a new self-confidence
and a new uneasiness which arose among many thoughtful
Greeks in the wake of the Persian Wars.”
Art and Experience in Classical Greece
New York Kouros
ca. 600 BCE
Anavysos Kouros
ca. 530 BCE
Peplos Kore
ca. 530 BCE
Strangford Apollo
ca. 490 BCE (Lemnos?)
Critias Boy (Athens)
ca. 480-475 BCE
Mourning Athena,
Athens, ca. 470 BCE
Charioteer of Delphi
ca. 478 or 474 BCE
Temple of Olympia, East Pediment, “Seer,”
ca. 460 BCE
Riace Bronze
ca. 450 BCE
Greek Victory and Greek Collective Identities
Centripetal Forces (Panhellenism)
Validation of Greek Way of Life
Articulation of to Hellenikon (see especially
Herodotus, 8.144)
Centrifugal Forces
Athens and Sparta as Leaders
Medizing States
Athenian Growth and Spartan Suspicion