Webmistress note: This paper is intended only as food for thought. It was written for a class in 1997, and was certainly researched thoroughly, but not exhaustively. I welcome comments or debate on the subject.

I don’t know that I’ve found much to support the legend that Solon is the “father of democracy.” Rather, he seems to have been concerned primarily with law, and the keeping of it. He must have been a damn good politician, though. He contradicts himself frequently, especially where it concerns the division between agaqoi, “noble,” and kakoi, “base.” Or maybe that contradiction comes primarily from the most common translation.

There are a few pieces which, looked at narrowly and specifically, could be construed to espouse a proto-democratic political view. The one of these that I would like to bring forward, fragment 4, sounds like nothing so much as a good campaign speech. Since this was pre-democracy, I would assume that this was probably a relatively seditious speech. After all, ultimately, the “nobles” were still in control, and here is Solon, rabble-raising. Continue reading →