Sc.D. Gennady Drach

Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation

Agonistics and Democracy in the Culture of Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is not a historical stage but a way of living, the world in which we live. Science and cognition, the truth and virtue, and the ability to distinguish between the beautiful and the ugly – all these things were conceived by democracy. The values of democracy, the supremacy of law and individual freedom, required the destruction of totality of myth and every sort of class restrictions. Meanwhile, disappointments in reason and science that are observed in today’s society indicate threats to the grand project of a social world order based on reason, democracy and justice. The world losing its transcendent attraction demands personal courage and self-determination. Democracy as culture is a world of possibilities whose wholeness and sense are created by efforts of an individual mind and will which assumes man’s ability to dominate the circumstances, to realize them and thus to become the creator of culture. The history of self-consciousness of reason stays the content of the history of European culture as a whole including the idea of democracy.

First of all, democratic values and ideals are not so much a social and normative as reflexive, regulative and ethic factor. In this case, the development of democracy can be viewed as an autonomous process, and the creation of a social sphere – as a result of radical changes in the sphere of practical reason and its loss of previous cultural meanings. In the ancient culture, the word (“logos”), reason (“nus”) and freedom (“eleftheria”) cling together and create the world of democracy as a non-institutionalized world of Greek citizens each of whom strives for glory and victory. Glory is the highest value for a hero that confirms his courage (“areté”). A hero must rely on his own powers to correspond to his courage and to save his “timé”. Thus he comes up with a sensible design and can even surpass the gods. But this design is most often perceived as a trick. An example is the tricky-minded hero Odyssey. A stable social mechanism of regulating the society that provides an order which is rational to a certain extent and which is embodied by “dike” is “aidos”. “Aidos” is shame and blame on the others’ part that bring the hero’s behavior back to the norm ensuring the rational organization of the world.

It is entirely not by chance that “nus” characterizes here not only a degree of rationality of the world order, but also apparency of the concealed plan of an individual situation. To become the norm of the world order, reason had first of all to become a measure of self-consciousness, and this is connected with the transition from military virtues to peaceful ones that took place in the ancient polis where “dike” became a rational legal idea subject to discussion. It is not by chance that “nus” as a philosophical notion was first used by Anaxagoras in Athens. Athens headed the anti-Persian coalition and having united allies, won a convincing victory over the Persians that contributed to the further bloom of the democratic order established in Athens.

A special attention was directed to the public assembly, public court and discussion of all the state questions and their democratic solution. In these circumstances, a great role was served by the political education of citizens: by teaching them the political art, “techné”. It is the spiritual space of the ancient polis where the immortal exemplars of the European culture came into the world: rational self-consciousness and found on its way freedom and democracy. Agonistics (Greek “agon”) is a term that means contest, struggle, sport, danger, competition, and rivalry. “Agon” as competition and victory is a phenomenon that permeates all spheres of life of the ancient Greek (military, sport, cultural, political and legal spheres). But rivalry and strain are clearly manifested on the level of everyday life, for example, in relationships between residents. Rivalry of course belonged to the military sphere. Military battles and their cruelty to a large extent explain the spirit of rivalry. But Greek sport competitions and political struggle were no less fierce, and the latter finally resulted in democracy. Democracy did not make the political struggle less desperate and often led to opponents’ expulsion from the city or even to bringing them to trial. Even during the “constitutional” period, after a number of reforms had been carried out, a custom of “ostracism” still prevailed in Athens: a custom of unwanted people’ expulsion by way of a general vote with pottery shards; a good opportunity to express your discontent and to give your enemy a blow.

Still, the agonistic spirit for the sake of winning glory and high estimation of inner freedom indicate an external and internal movement that leads to Greek democracy and the Greek’ victory over the Persian colossus. These traits of the Greek national character required great mental and physical strain and contributed to obtaining many impressive results in different spheres of life and culture. But the spirit of contest had not only a creative but also destructive character. The ill-fated Peloponnesian war vividly illustrates the point. All the agonistic sense of the ancient culture is expressed in the ancient Greek democracy: continuous rivalry and dissatisfaction, but also, as their consequences, continuous social renewal and innovation. In a historically short period, the Greek created masterpieces in the fields of science, arts and literature. Philosophical works, tragedy and comedy, lyrics and science – all this together with the extraordinary bloom of social life got the name of the “Greek miracle”. However, addressing the historical aspect of the problem instead of discussing different variants of explanation of the Greek miracle makes it possible to describe the Greek culture in the context of its development.

“Agon” releases inner motivations for artistic, intellectual and political creative work, which allows the Greek to achieve a cultural breakthrough. Thus, social development (like “agon”) and polis structure of democracy as its result make us turn back to the characteristics of the “agonistic spirit”, using the expression of the cultural studies scholar Jacob Burckhardt, who views the agonistic origin as the motivation for an individual’s actions. It manifests itself first of all in the desire for winning at any cost (at a cost of a loss of property, money, health and even life), but without breaking established rules (fair play). In the latter case, a victory turns into a defeat. Danger connected with this desire is evident. However, otherwise the victory was impossible, and it was the life goal of every Greek man. Democracy was impossible without this aspiration. This is where unusual ambition of the Greek comes from, as well as an aspiration for winning glory and fame at any cost, even if it means the notoriety of Herostratus who burned down the beautiful Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. But it is this aspiration that causes people to participate in social life that results in making the Law the dominant social value.

The Greek did everything to defend their viewpoint and to achieve fame in their everyday life, furiously arguing and providing each thesis with an antithesis. It is not by chance that each citizen had a right to advise where the questions of governing the city were concerned. This effect of everybody’s political talent and an ability to live together explains the result of Greek agonistics and its aspiration for “kalokagathia” (truly perfection, the combination of the good and the beautiful in an individual). The secret of the way the ancient culture tended to agonistics lies in the problem that is sometimes represented in scholar texts as the problem of “a child – a servant”. The ancient “pedagogue” is not an educator in the modern sense of the word, but a servant who accompanies an adolescent to a palaestra or a gymnasium. His main task is to protect an adolescent from committing a wrongful act, but he himself cannot represent a pattern of behavior. But cutting off the unworthy, a pedagogue teaches a youth to live according to the rules, to the laws of a polis, and the system of education as an agonistic contest prepares the youth to the participation in this “fair play”. An agonistic individual is a two-faced Janus, on one side of whom one can see “Be attentive to other people’ opinion, beware others’ envy, nothing above measure”, while the other side will tell you “Do not pay attention to anybody, act according to your own ambitions, only victory matters, victory at any cost”.

Agonistics indicates individual and social development that accompanies the Greek social history, first of all in the process of a transition from Mycenae (the centralized bureaucratic system of management) to a polis (the supremacy of law, rights and duties of citizens). But agonistics and competitiveness had already formed an individual with his sense of self-esteem, who defended his own interests and admitted supremacy of accepted rules. All this accounts for a rational type of an individual that is in search for an ingenious decision and supremacy of reason. Elements of agonistic culture have laid a firm foundation of the European culture. These are individual rights and dignity, the law being obligatory for everybody, prestige as an ability to “preserve face”, etc. High estimation of a creative origin of a person’s activity, rights of authorship and the prohibition of plagiarism are also connected with this, as well as sticking to a “theoretical” (contemplative) way of living, high appreciation of knowledge and science, arts, philosophy, that embodied pathos and particular elements of agonistics.

Agonistics as a foundation and principle of the Greek culture can be understood only in its correlation with the educational system typical of it. Education and culture connect rational pathos of ancient man and his admiration for nature and its perfection and “divinity”. Ancient man is obliged to education and mentoring for everything, which makes him a citizen of a polis. One must bear in mind that at the same time “culture” is worship, veneration and cult. First of all, religious cult. In ancient times, man was always surrounded by gods: he met them in the field and in the grove, between green trees, in shadowy grots and backwaters; but gods also inhabited the city. They dwelled in a man’s house, protecting his household, and they guarded city laws and citizens’ safety. It is not by chance that the famous classical scholar Max Pohlenz identifies religious piety with polis patriotism. Fatherly gods protected the native city and dwelled in the city and lands surrounding it and entering its territory.

On the whole, a polis is a city with a relatively small number of residents. Among them, only those who were born to free and legally competent citizens made up the core of the polis and were its citizens. They obeyed the laws of their city, defended it from enemies and performed all necessary civil duties (took part in the work of a court and other urban services), i.e., the city was at the same time a state. All at once, culture was “education”, “cultivation” and “cult” in such a city-state. This characterizes the process of turning residents into citizens in an ancient polis, bringing up a mature man out of a small child, which was designated by the Greek as “paideia”. Sure, the ancient polis stimulated and still stimulates discussions in social and cultural, political and legal spheres, because not all the poleis were democratic.

However, democracy managed to show the entire world that politics, law, and a social order are the questions that were considered by the Greek genius, because the main aim of the ancient culture and philosophy were human self-sufficiency and human happiness, and a polis was their necessary condition. Thus, a polis is both an environment and a condition for full-fledged democratic life. It is no coincidence that law in a democratic society is not only a social norm but also a form of an individual reflection, and a feeling of being a legally competent citizen. Ancient democracy created basic cultural values of the European national identity: the written law as the highest standard of social justice and a social legal order, the equality of citizens before the law and the principle of separation of powers, freedom and prosperity of citizens as an ultimate goal of the state, etc. Ancient Greece has formed the democratic paradigm of culture.

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