Chapter 10 Lottery and Mixture in the Greek Polis
In: Politeia and KoinōniaSearch for other papers by Irad Malkin in
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Abstract
The use of the lot seems to be ubiquitous in the ancient Greek world in terms of both practice and mindset. In Homer, Hesiod, and the Homeric Hymns portions and honors are distributed among the Gods by lot. The major categories of the lot seem consistent from the eighth to the fourth centuries BCE, i.e., since Aias was selected by lot to fight Hector to the time when the members of the Athenian boulē where selected by lot. We observe fourmajor categories: selective, distributive (e.g., booty), procedural (e.g., position in a chariot race), and a discrete category of divination by lot. In addition, a sub-section of the distributive category, we find lotteries especially designed for mixture. The latter implies a homogenization of society that works against entrenched local positions of power or against traditional patronal relations. Families are ‘mixed’ in partible inheritance when a son is chosen to fight (the family is mixed) or become a colonist (the entire society is mixed). We may also be certain that Cleisthenes mixed Athenian society by means of the lot. A society with only ‘strong ties’ (family, clan, locality) is basically weak and fragmented. In contrast (Granovetter’s theory) weak ties exist in a “low-density network” and become, therefore, a crucial link between the densely knit clumps of close kin or friends. That is why mixture is so significant, as we shall see especially in the case of Nakone where the fire of civil strife was quenched by the use of the lot.