The Analysis Of Religious Factors In Athenian Political Changes In The Sixth Century BC

This thesis mainly discusses the specific performances of religious factors in Athenian political changes in the sixth century BC, and its influence on politics.In ancient Greece, politics and religion were not separated, and they integrated with each other in a unique way. Therefore, in order to understand the Athenian politics in the 6^th century BC, we must grasp this special social cultural system, digging deeply the forms and functions of the religious factors in the politics of polis. Through the rehabilitation of these religious factors, we can understand these political changes in this period and the behaviors of these politicians who are in the centre of these changes better. This thesis concentrates on resolving the two problems: First, which religious factors did the politicians use, what features made them can be used, and how to use? Second, what was the goal that made the politicians use religion as a political tool?This paper is structured as follows:The preface introduces the situation of closely related academic researches at home and abroad, as well as this study's methodology. Meanwhile the main issues of this thesis are illuminated briefly in this part.Chapter I analyses the religious factors in Solon's reform. In this chapter it is demonstrated that Solon's coming to power, the mentality of the people before reform and the laws- all these are subject to the impact of religious factors. According to this, we can make the conclusion that Solon followed and manipulated some religious factors such as the concept of "King", the purification and the traditional festive ceremony, and these manipulations impelled the reform powerfully and suspended the internal chaos of polis.ChapterII interprets the "return of Peisistratos " as a ritualized incident for the purpose of politics. This chapter indicates that Peisistratos used the Panathenaea to legitimize his restoration of tyranny. In addition, the chapter also demonstrates the effect of myth in the Greek real life.ChapterIII focuses on the contradictions appearing in the real use of religion as a political tool. In "Hippias' downfall", the attitudes of piety and profanity towards Pan-Athenian festival and Delphi existed contradictedly; In the reform of Cleisthenes, there were also conflicts between the original purpose of the manipulation of religion and the consequences in reality, and the purpose of the political strategy. This thesis demonstrates that on the one hand the politicians changed their attitudes to the religion, the other they considered the religion as an instrument of obtaining the power.In the summary part, the author advances further: First, the Athenian politicians in the sixth century BC used religion and other measures in order to adjust themselves with civilians and the nobles; As a result the advantageous phenomenon of the polis was formed for the politicians to achieve their political goals. Second, the religious factors played an indispensable role in the process of raising the Athens as the center of the polis.