The Temple Of Hephaestus: Isonomy And Democracy In Athens

Ancient Athens was not truly democratic because the middle class was in charge of politics. The upper and lower classes were not in politics at all. It was not democratic because the only people that could vote were men who are of citizen birth by both parents. People whose parent is a slave could not become a citizen so they could not vote. Democracy was excluding women, free foreigners and slaves.

When evaluating the government of ancient Athens, some might say that it was a democracy, however, it can be better described as an oligarchy: a form of government in which a small group of people has the power and control (Doc. D by Mogens Herman Hansen). A democracy takes all the citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account, unlike an oligarchy that only takes the male citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account. Thus, Athens is more similar to an oligarchy than a democracy. The people of Athens also decide as a whole what the best government for their city-state was, as opposed to a democracy where the people elect representatives to make decisions for them and their city-state. Athens could be seen as not a true democracy because of the lack of basic democratic rules and methods such as what they define democracy as, who is able to vote, and how they vote.

Even though Athens was the birthplace of democracy Athens, itself, was not a democracy. The reason why they are not considered a democracy is because of the 240,235 people only 12% or 29,900 of the population were allowed to vote. Men were the only citizens who could vote (Document C). The Franchise was open to all the men who were citizens by birth only. Both parents had to be citizens as well. Women weren’t allowed to be part of the Franchise (Document B).

The purpose is to educated readers on the mythology of it all.It talks about the different temples and worship points in places like Olympia, Delphi, and Acropolis.He explains various rituals of sacrifice, liberation, and purification. He also explains in-depth about the gods, the position of heroes, and the belief of the

Both Greek Democracy and the Roman Republic contributed greatly to the development of the modern world, bringing into it the notions of democracy and republic. The evolution of these concepts took them to a level much higher than one present in Ancient Greece and Rome respectively. However, modern society continues to draw on somewhat idealized accounts of the ancient world for inspiration in improving today’s governing procedures.

Was ancient athens truly democratic?I believe that Athens was never a democracy, because democracy means rule by the people. But that seems like that never happened, for example everybody should be able to vote, but only 12% of greeks can vote.

The political organization that prejudiced western civilization the most was Athens, where direct democracy was formed. Democracy developed in Athens in the 500s with a lot of conflict and uneasiness at the time. Time after time of trying to achieve peace, improving rulers slowly allowed citizens to take part in the city-state’s government. A series of improvements took power from multiple noble families and gave it to the citizenry. The government of Athens incorporated three major bodies: the Assembly, the Council of 500, and the People’s Court. While Athenians experienced direct democracy, the Romans established the form of government known as a republic—a form of government where the elected officials govern the state and are responsible

During the dawn of the Greek civilization, rulership consisted of one king that rule the entire occupied land. Such system included only family members, tribe members, and wealthy individuals to receive whatever good the empire had to offer. It took many years until new reforms came about in regards of rulership. The Athenian democracy was developed by the efforts of the leaders and philosophers who were encouraged to think and answer the why freely. Although it was called a democratic system, only male citizens had the opportunity to participate. In this essay, I will discuss how the Athenian democratic system was developed, why, and the efforts of the Greek thinkers in developing the Athenian democracy. Additionally, we will have the chance to examine if it was truly democratic.

The Temple of Athena is a sacred place where in time or war and hardship people could go and worship the goddess of victory. (Sacred Destinations) The temple was built as an expression of Athens ambitions to defeat the Sparta and become a world power. (Sacred Destinations) It provided strength and courage for the people and allowed them to help overcome fear and be courageous. The temple was created for strength in time of need or despaired like wars. It gave the citizens of the cities hope. That as long as they had a place to worship and call upon the goddess of war and Victory. Then they had a fighting chance; anytime there is hope in mankind it is worth more than anything. For all as long as mankind has hope they have a reason to keep going and

In ancient Greece small city-states acted as their own countries with their government and traditions. Interestingly enough, in that time we can see so many different types of government from tyranny to democracy. Ancient Greek’s political structure wasn’t very stable and governments could be overthrown and changed a lot causing violence, chaos and economic hardship for their citizens. Oligarchy was very popular across Ancient Greece city-state. Oligarchy from Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarkhía) exactly means “few” and “to rule or to command” (Wikipedia, n.d.).

The citizens of ancient Greek were oppressed and suffered under the strict monarchy; they had no input until a new form of government was born---the birth of democracy changed their life entirely. Democracy is defined as a system of government by all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. The concept of democracy is still frequently disputed today, and is tangled with many world affairs. Back in 510 BCE, soon after the notion of democracy was first born, the world witnessed the development and thriving of democracy in ancient Greece. Although it was not direct democracy in the beginning and had a limited number of people voting, it brought prosperity as well as harmony to the society for both citizens and the government.

Greek city-states evolved form small farming villages. They built walls around themselves and also built communal meeting places and marketplaces. The Greek polis had certain characteristics like the Acropolis, which was a protected area located at the top of a hill and was the primary location for people to gather in the city-states. Agora an open area located below the acropolis where people could gather and it acted as a market. People could as well hide out here during attacks as well as religious temples were built here.

The Ekklesia was the assembly in Athens. It consisted only of men, they were able to make laws. The ordinary citizen in Athens was allowed to voice their views on certain matters. This allowed them to engage in debates around the laws of Athens and was a very different set up to how things were done in Sparta. The minimum number needed for a meeting to be viewed as valid was 6000 members. If the members were absent from the meeting with no legitimate reason for their absence, then they would be fined severely for not attending. The Thetes (serfs), the Zeugitai (ordinary soldiers), the Hippeis (horsemen) and Pentakosiomedimnoi (500-bushel men) were all members of the Ekklesia and most were part of the Boule. The Thetes were the only ones that were not part of the Boule but were part of the Ekklesia.

Hello mother, I am having an interesting time here in Athens. I was so lucky to get permission to leave the city. Not many girls my age can say they have left Sparta. I’ve noticed that they are very studious people, and all the men know how to read and write. They put a lot more focus on the intellectual side of life, and the men aren’t forced to become soldiers. Most of the male citizens only participate in government and don’t have other jobs. They are very proud of their government, though I think it seems rather complicated. They have many different groups like the Council of 500 and the Assembly which is made up of all the land owning men in Athens.

It's ironic that the country that would be recognized as the birthplace of democratic values contained within it a dynamic mix of government types including the entire spectrum from tyranny to democracy and everything in between. A common quote that comes to mind is that "history is written by the victors", to which Ancient Greek might be the exception. To explain this: the loosely grouped collection of city-states were actually dominated by towards the end of it's free existence by the oligarchic government of the militarly superior Spartans., however, it is the ideas of the Athenians that would primarly be carried far and wide by the concerning Macedonians and live on through the millennia. Nevertheless, we'll examine the different forms of government that existed throughout the empire of Ancient Greece.