Study Questions: Thucydides 3.
Due November 2 (no late papers).
If you are pressed for time, you may
skip reading Book 3, sections 85-103, and 105-116, but be sure to read 3.104.
Illustration: The Giant Encelados, being defeated
by Athena (whose shield and spear appear on left). Note the Giant’s broken
spear, and the blood flowing from his chest and leg. He is not happy.
Red-figure Lekythos by Douris, ca. 480 BCE. h. 38 cm. Cleveland
Museum of Art. The giant “is at the last excruciating moment before
death as he reels backward, releasing his grip on his short sword, his eyes
glazing over and turning skyward.”
[Plate vi in Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections,
by Warren G. Moon. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1979]
The Debate in Athens over the Revolt of Mytilene
Click here for a short graphic comic of the incident: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ancientgreece/classics/mytilene/intro.shtml
1. Why did the Athenians send forty ships to Lesbos, what kind of surprise
did they hope to give the Lesbians, and why were they unable to surprise
the population of Mytilene by their arrival? 3.1-4
2. What reasons do the Mytilenaeans give the Lacedaemonians for their
revolt against Athens? What help do the Mytilenaeans offer to the Lacedaemonians
in exchange for their support against Athens? 3.10-14
3. How did the 300 beseiged Plataians escape the Peloponnesian siege?
What tricks did they use to confound their enemies? 3.20-24
4. Why did the city of Mytilene finally surrender to the Athenians? What
were the terms of the surrender? 3.27-28
5. When the Athenian general Paches sent the captured Spartan Saliathos
and some Mytilenaeans to Athens, how did the Athenians react on the first
day? What did they do on the second day? 3.35-36
6. What had Kleon’s position been during the original discussion about
the revolt of Mytilene? What did Thucydides think of him? 3.36
7. Give two main points of the Athenian Kleon against sparing the men
of Mytilene from death. Give at least one short quotation.3.37-40
8. What does the Athenian Cleon think of pity, enjoyment of speeches,
and evenhandedness — in relation to the debate about Mytilene? 3.40
9. What does the Athenian Diodotus say about haste and anger — in relation
to the debate about Mytilene? 3.42
10. The Athenian Diodotus says that the Athenians do not need to concentrate
on ‘justice’ and ‘guilt’ in the case of Mytilene, but rather should consider
something else as more important than those in their reaction to the rebellion.
What is that consideration? 3.44
11. What does Diodotus say about the Death Penalty, regarding the case
of Mytilene and the Athenian empire? 3.45-46
12. What does the Athenian Diodotus say about pity and evenhandedness
— in relation to the debate about Mytilene? 3.48
13. Whose advice do the Athenians follow in the Mytilenaean debate, how
do they reach Lesbos so quickly, and how do they punish the Mytilenaeans
for their rebellion? Find Lesbos on a handy map of Greece,
and say what two places are nearest it. 3.49-50
Siege of Plataia
14. What short (laconic) question did the Spartans ask of the Plataians
whom they had besieged for so long, and how do the Plataians respond? 3.52-60
15. What arguments do the Plataians use to convince the Peloponnesians
to spare their lives? 3.52-60
16. What arguments against the Plataians do the Thebans use to convince
the Peloponnesians to treat them harshly? And how do the Thebans defend
themselves against charges of medism? 3.60-67
17. What do the Spartans do to the Plataians who surrendered to them,
after the Thebans made their speech? Why did they do it? 3.68
Stasis on Corcyra
18. Thucydides speaks about the ‘civil war’ on the island of Corcyra.
What Greek word does he use for ‘civil war’? What happened to Peithias?
3.70
19. Find Corcyra on a handy map of Greece (it
is also called Corfu). Name a body of water and two land sites near it.
How were Corcyrean women involved in the civil war? On which side did they
fight? 3.74
20. What two sanctuaries on Corcyra gave protection to the oligarchs?
What was the democrats’ reaction each time their enemies sought this safety?
3.75
21. How, where, and why did the oligarchic sympathizers at Corcyra commit
suicide? 3.81
22. What were three of the reasons that there was so much killing on
Corcyra? 3.81
23. How did the centrality of stasis change the way people
used language during the Peloponnesian War? In other words, what examples
does Thucydides give of how “men inverted the usual verbal evaluations
of actions”? Use several specific examples. 3.82
24. What does Thucydides consider to be the cause of all the evil stasis
that beset the Greeks during this war? How does Thucydides distribute the
blame between the democrats and the oligarchs? 3.82 (end)
25. What happened to those citizens who refused to side with one stasis
or another? 3.82
26. What does Thucydides say about human nature and envy in the midst
of stasis? 3.84
27. How did the Corcyrean democrats treat their oligarchic prisoners,
who had been turned over to the Athenians’ protection? (This is in the next
book: 4.46-48)
If you are pressed for time, you may skip reading
Book 3, sections 85-103, and 105-116, but be sure to read 3.104.
28. Where is Delos? Find it on a handy map of Greece
and name two islands that lie close to it. How did the Athenians purify
Delos? How had Polycrates earlier dedicated the nearby island of Rheneia
to Delian Apollo? What did they institute there after the purification?
3.104
29. What evidence does Thucydides use to prove that an earlier festival
had existed before the Athenians instituted the Delian festival? 3.104
30. What does Thucydides say about Homer? What kind of image of Homer
do we get from the quotations in this section? 3.104 Compare this to what
Thucydides says in 1.3 and 1.9.
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