4/9/2015

TheEdithorial:DEMOCRATICCRISESINCORFU
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TheEdithorial
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Saturday,22August2015

DEMOCRATICCRISESINCORFU

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Jointhissite
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Feeling glum about the

Members(114) More

prospects for democracy

in either Greece/the EU
or the UK Labour Party, I
sought solace in visiting the location of an exciting scene from the
defence of democracy in ancient Kerkyra (Corfu).
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The plan was to find some tiles on the island in order to help me
reimagine, if not reconstruct by nifty photomontaging, my

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favourite sentence in the ancient historian Thucydides History of

2015(35)

the Peloponnesian War.

August(4)
Drowningin
Droves

During the civil war in

427 BCE, there was a

EdithHall
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street battle in Corfus

main town between the
groups

supporting

oligarchs

and

democrats

the
the

is

respectively.

women,
not

to

describes

only

slaves

July(5)

ignore
how
but

An18th
century
Detective
Trail:Sarah
Fielding's...
OdetoJeremy
Corbynby
MeandMy
Muse

Thucydides, whose usual

policy

69

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profile

DEMOCRATI
CCRISES
INCORFU

June(4)
May(5)
"ANYONEFANCYATILEFIGHTwiththeOLIGARCHS?"

April(4)

women on the democratic side joined in the actual fighting: the

woman also entered the fray with great daring, hurling down tiles
from the rooftops and standing up to the din with a courage that
went beyond what was natural to their sex (3.74).

March(4)
February(4)
January(5)
2014(52)
2013(52)

Having identified as venue

2012(56)
2011(15)

an antique central street

with plenty of promising
tiled roofs, we went to the
islands

famous

Archaeological

Museum

hoping to photo a tile or

two from the fifthcentury
BCE.
CORFUARCHAELOGICALMUSEUM:VICTIMOFAUSTERITY

Guess

Museum

what?

The

is

now

closed

indefinitely.

huge

padlock and chain locks its gates. The sign lies in the dust, already
rusting.
The staff, as public servants, cannot be paid thanks to the
http://edithorial.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/democraticcrisesincorfu.html

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4/9/2015

TheEdithorial:DEMOCRATICCRISESINCORFU

Eurocrats who worship Kapital and despise Greek democratic

processes. So the very cultural resources underpinning the tourist
industry, crucial to any prospect of Greek economic recovery, are
being made unavailable through Austerity.

tried

to

console

myself

with

online

images of the

ARTEMISOFCORFU

indomitable

animaltaming Artemis, from the magnificent western pediment of

the archaic local temple, which tourists like me can no longer see
at the museum. I like to think it was shegod images like this which
inspired the democratic women of 5thcentury Corfu to put two
fingers upand throw tiles downat the rich elite forces opposing
them. Eurocrats beware: offending Artemis is always risky. Just
ask the Atridae.
PostedbyEdithHallat07:41

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1comment:
JohnW. 22August2015at11:56
InoteyourcommentthatThucydides''usualpolicyistoignorewomen',asuggestionIhaveseen
elsewhere. Yet surely Thucydides was writing neither an Arabian Nightsstyle fantasy full of
schemingviziersandcraftycourtesans(likepartofHerodotus'work),noramodernstylegeneral
historyof5thcenturyGreece(inwhichsocialandculturalaspects,aswellaspoliticsandwar,
wouldveryproperlybecovered),butatightlyfocusedaccountofaspecificconflict.Giventhat
womenneitherfought(exceptonveryrareoccasionssuchastheoneyoumention),norspoke
intheassembly,IamunclearastowhichaspectsoftheirroleinthePeloponnesianWaryou
thinkThucydidescouldreasonablyhavebeenexpectedtoinclude.
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