Areopagus-The Origin Of Occident Politeia

The Greek civilization is the source of western civilization, while the its’ mostbrilliant legacy belongs to myth. As the core of the Greek culture, it presents us aformer history vividly. By reading Greek myths, we can realize the difference of thewestern thinking mode. The story of the gods and heroes is not just telling us theirgreat, more is to show us the power change and the establishment of a new order inthe real world.The Hellenes prefer to connect the real life to myth to make it appear holy, froma stone to a system. So, back to myth to trace and discuss the origin of a systembecome necessary. The purpose of the paper is to comb the birth of occidental politeia,I choose the Areopagus as the entry point analyzing the trial about Orestes. This trialindicates the ends of the Zeus’ kingship rule, the rational pattern of law and legalorder emerges. While the Greek society is in a period of clan society collapses andtransit to city-state. The new constitution’s appearance needs a new order, thus legalorder is established.Along with the two clues, myth and history, I hope to make a clear descriptionabout the establishment of legal order in five chapters.The first chapter focuses on the origin and development of the Areopagus. Thename of mountain Ares comes after the Ares’ trial, later the Athens courts were builthere, this is the myth origin of the Areopagus. With the development of the Athen, asthe representative of the aristocratic stratum, the Areopagus’ function also changedseveral times. The reason why I choose the events of Orestes had murdered his mother,is not only because it is the first trial in the history and it clearly shows theestablishment of the new order, it also shows the way the ancient Greek understandtheir history.The second chapter mainly introduces the myth on the view of Ancient Greeks.Myth origined from Greek, and the ancient Greek myth has rich forms and abundantcontent, from the origin of the universe to building a city, from physis to politics,while the most important part is its’ symbolishment. With the discovery ofarchaeology, Greece’s true history was constantly pushed forward. Western scholars also made a detailed stage about the whole history, each historical period could founda corresponding in the myth. For Greeks, myth is their history, therefore, beforereading Greek history, we should make it clear about the relationship between mythand history. The thesis mainly focuses on Homeric Age and Archaic Period. At thisturning point, a new politeia was born, city-state was build, the law order wasestablished.In the third chapter, firstly, I tell the establishment and change of the monarchy inthe world of mythology, the gods were also changed, from first represent naturalpower to now mean politics. Until to Zeus, he set up a new order, but it’s also a kingruling mode, as “the father of gods and humans” he enjoys the highest honor. A trialchanged that. It’s not only Orestes’ personal win, but a victory for new generation ofgods to the old ones. Athena and Apollo, as the representative of new generation ofgod, they represent rational, after this trial, the authority of law was established. In thefairy world, the king rule that dominated by Zeus was eventually replace by the ruleof law, corresponding to reality is the transition of the social order before and aftercity-state was built.In the fourth chapter, we come back to the reality to discuss the city-state. As theearliest political unit, it is totally different from the previous organization such as clanand tribe. After a simple introduction about the origin、structure, we take Athen as anexample to introduce the main characteristics. The democracy of Athens was mostattractive, as well as the law. It was theAthenian invented justice and law first.The last chapter aims to point out the theme of the paper. As a carrier of thelegalization of political order, City-states’ core is nomos. Nomos often contains twomeanings, law and constitution. An order relying on good law is eunomia. Solonrealized that early, he considered a good order is in need in city-state, which is closelyrelated to the “Rule by law” proposed by Aristotle.