Demagogues, Power, and Friendship in Classical Athens: Leaders as Friends in Aristophanes, Euripides, and Xenophon

Description

What makes a demagogue? A much more friendly touch, or more importantly, a perception of a friendly touch, than has previously been explored. Demagogues, Power and Friendship in Classical Athens examines the ways in which a demagogic leadership style based on personal connection became ingrained in this period, drawing on close study of several genres of literature of the late 5th and early-to-mid 4th centuries BCE. Such connection was particularly effective with lower classes of Athenians, who had been accustomed to being excluded from politicians' friendship-based approaches to coalition-building. Comedies of Aristophanes (particularly Knights), tragedies of Euripides (particularly Iphigenia in Aulis), and historical biographies of Xenophon (particularly Anabasis and Cyropaedia) depict demagogues, or characters exhibiting demagogic characteristics, using a style of outreach to members of neglected classes that involved provoking feelings of friendship with individuals in these classes, whether the demagogues and individual supporters actually interacted closely or not. These leaders employed techniques, such as propinquity, homophily, and transitivity, that both contemporary sociologists (and, in some cases, Aristotle) recognize as effective for such purposes. Particular attention is paid to discrepancies in Aristophanes' Knights between how the demagogue Cleon is hyperbolically portrayed (as a pederastic lover of the Athenian people) and how his language and actions make him out – as a friend of theirs, as he likely portrayed himself. Cover Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1 Friendship in Athenian Politics Prior to the Demagogues I. Introduction: Demagogues as Friends II. Balancing Philoi and the Polis III. Pericles and the Bridge to the Demagogues IV. Conclusion 2 Cleon and the Rise of Friendship-Based Athenian Demagogy I. Introduction: Enter the Demagogue II. Philia and the Polis in the Demagogues’ Rise III. Philia through Common Membership in a Maligned Ingroup: Aristocratic Ridicule Binding Demagogues and the Demos IV. Conclusion: Leadership by Winning over the Demos as Philoi 3 The Sociology of Making Individual Philoi among the Masses I. Introduction II. The Propinquity Effect in Friendship Development and Athenian Politics III. Demagogues’ Manipulation of the Propinquity Effect IV. The Homophily Effect in Friendship Development and Athenian Politics V. Transitivity, and the Influence of Demagogues on Xenophon VI. The Exchange of Favors in Friendship Development in Knights and Hecuba VII. Conclusion: Cleon as a “Personal” Friend to Lower-Class Athenians 4 Distinguishing Desire from Friendship in Leadership Models in Aristophanes’ Knights I. Introduction: “Demos, I am Not Your Lover” II. The Language of Pederasty and Philia in Knights III. The Performance of Pederasty and Friendship in Knights IV. Gifts and Favors in Pederasty and Philia in Knights V. Why Pederasty Imagery Might Have Been Tied to Cleon VI. Conclusion 5 Later Developments of the “Leader as Philos ” Model I. Introduction II. Odysseus in Iphigenia in Aulis III. Dionysus in the Bacchae IV. Xenophon, Clearchus, and Other Military and Political Leaders in Xenophon’s Biographical Works V. Conclusion Conclusion: Cleon and the Legacy of Leadership by Friendship Notes Works Cited Index