BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Two
(Soph. An. 300-1). From that point on, Creon’s authority risks not being duly respected,
and he accordingly asserts it at every turn. 66
Throughout the tragedy sebas and its cognates are contested terms—should
citizens reverence the authority of the king, or that of the gods?—but it is important for
our purposes that Creon views this sebas through the lens of power and, explicitly,
control. 67 When Creon claims that the money at the heart of a bribe ‘reteaches’ men, the
verb ekdidaskein thus locates bribery at the heart of the tragedy’s fundamental concern
with ‘teaching’ citizen and king alike how to obey. 68 Bribe monies signal not just
disrespect for the king’s archē but especially disobedience. For the corruptive power of
bribe monies to ‘reteach’ citizens is identical to that of anarchia, or lawlessness. Bribe
monies are thought to sack cities and to drive men from their homes (tou=to tou=to tou=to kai\ po/leij
porqei=, to/d to/d’ to/d a1ndraj e)cani/sthsin do/mwn, Soph. An. 296-7), just as anarchia destroys
cities and overturns homes (au3th au3th au3th po/leij o1llusin, h3d h3d’ h3d
a)nasta/touj oi1kouj ti/qhsin,
Soph. An. 673-4). The dōrodokos was a citizen whose disobedience threatened the social
order.
For Creon, the monies taken by the dōrodokos replace euergesia with
disobedience. And so in Sophocles’ play our picture of the dōrodokos takes on new
meaning: concern over controlling the rewards of empire gives way to anxieties over
absolute political power, i.e. the ability to compel action. This shift in the dōrodokos
66 Cf. Soph. An. 165-9, 199-201, 280-314, 508-25, 661-78, 730, 744, 780. Segal (1994: 49-51) is
particularly helpful in illuminating the relationship between sebas and political control in these passages.
67 Note how frequently he frames his struggle with Antigone in gendered terms as his being mastered by a
woman: Soph. An. 484, 525, 678, 746, 756. Segal (1964: 52-4) especially illuminates how Creon’s entire
worldview is shot through with intonations of weaker vs. stronger, domination vs. obedience.
68 So the chorus sums up at the end of the play, “The great words of boasters make atonement with great
blows, and in their old age teach them wisdom,” (Soph. An. 1350-3). The final word of the tragedy is
“teach” (e)di/dacan, Soph. An. 1353), a word that recalls the Ode on Man’s heralding of mankind’s ability to
teach himself (e)dida/cato, Soph. An. 356) how to be master over nature.
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