The Breakdown of Ithaka

Athens and Sparta were both dominant powers in ancient Greece. However, a legendary rivalry existed between the two. When Athens ended its alliance with Corcyra in 433 B.C. and began to surround Potidaea, it threatened Corinth’s position. Sparta feared that Athens was becoming too powerful and tried to avert war. The Spartans believed that peace was possible if the Athenians would revoke measures against Sparta's ally, Megara. The Athenian leader, Pericles, refused to concur with this because Sparta and Athens had earlier agreed that conflicts would be solved by negotiation. If the Athenians would yield to Sparta's request, they would in fact be accepting Sparta’s orders. This was unacceptable, and as a result, war broke out. Athens and its Delian League were attacked by Sparta and its Peloponnesian League. Diodorus mentions that the Spartans did not just declare war, but sought additional support from Persia.

If we compare the three different places, Phaeacia, Cyclops' island and Ithaca in Homer's The Odyssey, we can claim that these islands are quite different from one another both in terms of their nature and the inhabitants' way of living. Phaeacians, for many apparent reasons, is the most civilized society and they have best kind of nature and wealth. People of Ithaca follow Phaeacians with slight differences and Cyclops comes last in the sorting because of being completely uncivilized.

Action from necessity is a constantly recurring theme in Thucydides’ The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. A sentiment used to explain the growth of the Athenian Empire which some Athenians espoused to an assembly at Sparta best quantifies necessity, “. . . we were necessarily compelled at first to advance the hegemony to where it is—especially by fear, and then by honor, and later by benefit.” (Selected Passages 1.75.3). This claim, referred to as the Athenian Thesis, is used to advance the two following implications: all states act with the motivations of fear, honor and interest and no one can condemn a state for doing so. The Athenian Thesis influences the way many of the Athenian elite structure their patterns of reasoning in both noticeable and subtle ways.

Sparta’s poor education is a big weakness and reason why the civilization collapsed after 300 years. The Spartan education was very bland and their children were only taught how to read, write, and count. This affected the Spartans short and long term with many things and they really didn't discuss subjects that were government related. I say this because their only focus was on war and not education related things like science, math, and english/literature. Those aspects could have helped them in agriculture, health, and diplomacy. If Sparta had not only been able to enhance its education but have it’s citizens learn and pursue arts then they could have allied with other city-states like Corinth and Thebes. The reason why is because most of the other city-states had a relation in education and arts. That is why they were normally peaceful between each other. Who knows how the development of Sparta could have skyrocketed if they resolved conflict with Athens!

Athens and Sparta are two powerful city-states, different from each other in such way that

Persia and Greece were beautiful and prosperous empires and where the most influential of their time. In this essay I will talk about the two main empires’ political structures and their economy and I will also state similarities and differences between the two empires. The two empires’ political structures might have varied greatly but their economies were very similar. Even though they had differences and had major battles they were still the ideal empires of their time.

The Peloponnesian War brought disease, destruction, famine, widespread civil wars, and a huge loss of life. The war was a complete catastrophe for Athens, who never fully regained their empire back. Sparta won the war, but they didn’t become a great city and a new empire was never built. Sparta attempted to lead the Greeks, but soon fell short and new leaders were called forth.

The Greeks and the Romans were two empires with similar goals, but contrasting government control. Within Greece were the Spartans and Athenians, which had two diverse governmental bodies. The Spartans were ruthless and focused on military success, while the Athenians lived off of a democracy and let their people decide what was best for the state. Close by were the Romans, who cared for their people liked the Athenians, but made acquiring land a necessity as to the Spartans. Although the Spartans, Athenians, and Romans were made up of different laws and government, they still kept control over their people for centuries to come.

The progressing city-state of Sparta was infamous for many things. Sparta was known for its powerful army, strict guidelines, and eccentric values. Due to these unique characteristics, residents of Sparta had to keep up to continue its legacy. Being a resident of Sparta meant taking numerous risks yet for reasonable causes. These risks were taken for the progression of the city state. Risks included krypteia mindlessly killing Helots to prevent them from rebelling. Despite this lack of respect for human life, Sparta had atoned for this by providing relevant teachings for women and lessons on survival. Sparta, being a city state with a small population , was primarily focused on winning battles. Thus they perpetrated many feats that were meant to benefit this major cause. Although there was a lack of respect for human life in Sparta, the strengths of a Spartan education are clearly greater than its weaknesses because of the education provided for women and teachings on survival.

They were forced to sneak into helot territory with a dagger and a lot of food and secretly capture and kill some helots (Doc C). This was bad because their soldiers became murders. Then because they were forced to do that after the horrible earthquake the helots rebelled and threatened Sparta with considerable danger ( Doc C). That is a bad education system that could possibly end

In “The Odyssey”, composed by Homer, Odysseus’s son Telemakhos sails from Ithaka to Pylos and Sparta searching for information about his lost father. Telemakhos’ experiences on these foreign lands reveal their stark contrasts with his homeland. Pylos and Sparta differ from Ithaka in their respect of elders, hospitality, and piety.

Ithaka, a once prosperous and powerful kingdom, is now in disorder, and Homer wants readers to observe how the absence of a king and the uninvited stay of a hundred suitors causes a once well-built society to crumble. Odysseus has been gone for almost twenty years, fighting in the Trojan War and struggling to return home. His absence has allowed “a pack” (20) of suitors to exploit the kingdom, “killing [the] beeves and sheep and fatted goats… and not caring [for] what they do” (20-21). Readers should think of the suitors as nothing better than parasites, sucking the wealth of Ithaka clean and ravaging the kingdom of its food and drink. They are exploiting the rules of being guests in another’s house and Homer wants readers to realize that the breaking of these rules has caused Ithaka’s society to crumble. Ithaka is no longer united and disorder reigns as the suitors continue to suck the wealth out of the kingdom

A second aspect that led to failure was the illogical and hastiness of the Athenians decisions. The Athenians were quite attracted to the idea because they had "long wanted to establish a base on Sicily" in the hope that they would "increase there power...Peleponnesians would not be able to resist" . In truth, from this example one can see that the Athenians were basing there decisions on their epithumeticon, and their main focus was on the rewards.

The Peloponnesian War was the turning point in Athenian hegemony in Ancient Greece. It was fought in 431 B.C. between the Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. According to Thucydides, Athens’ imposing hegemonic status and its overwhelming quest for more power made the Peloponnesian War and Athens’s eventual fall from power inevitable. Despite the Athenians having a far more superior navy and being considerably wealthier, they were defeated and made subjects of Sparta. In this paper, I will discuss Thucydides’ and Socrates’ reasons for why

Early Sparta and Athens was a building process with many ups and down of which they learnt how to run their cities. Early Sparta did not have enough land to support it's growing population, so they conquered the neighbouring state of Messinia and doubled the amount of land that they had control of. Sparta then experienced a period of great wealth and power in the Greek region until, the Messinian people who had been enslaved by the Spartans revolted wanting their freedom and land back. It took