“Is freedom essential to the good life?”

I can choose to see things from another point of view and use my imagination and what I have learned about Greek culture to discuss the topic, "Is Freedom Essential to the Good life?" I will imagine myself to be someone from the time. I’d like to be an Athenian man.

OK, just because I am a woman doesn’t mean I can’t dream!! I think I would make a better man than I do a woman. I am too independent, strong willed, opinionated, and bold to really be acceptable in a male dominated society; especially one that has virtually stripped women of status equal with men, from the ancient times until now, and has made it an uphill fight to gain our rights back in just the past 50 to 100 years. Remember when women had papers in the 1800’s? Remember when we had no rights and couldn’t vote, participate in the government or own land? Well, the white man dominates no more! Let the races come forth and unite on the plateau of equality! OK, glad I got that out!

Freedom is absolutely essential for a good life!

First of all, being a woman in a position of co-leadership in a matriarchal society would be my ideal choice. But, since that is not really a possibility in the Greek, Roman or Chinese culture, I would like to be a man in the Greek culture living in Athens at the time of the "Golden Age" of Athens. I’d like to be the kind of man who is in a position of authority and who has influence on government and legal persona. The reason this is desirable is because I could be a positive influence in guiding the direction of my city and country. I would like to have a good wife who is strong, wise and loving. She would be my partner, not my servant. I like the idea of her being strong. I would listen to her. So, from here I will tell how I would be a man in Athens, Greece.

I live in Athens, a small city-state among some 200 in our land. We can walk around Athens in a few hours. Athens is an incredible place, clean and bright, with many amazing buildings, temples and shrines. I live in a magnificent home with my wife. We have gardens and many trees around the city. My home is comfortable and lavished with much art and sculpture. I collect beautiful things to enjoy in my home.

My people are deeply concerned for the quality of human life. We value the prowess of the intellect and promote the roll of each person to keenly hone his skill for his part in the destiny of our community. (Women do not participate in such.)The creative arts, our stories and literature and our religious beliefs celebrate the wonder that is man. The interests of the people, each (male) person, are considered important. We nurture humanism to its pinnacle of achievement; the development of which has been the thread throughout the ages that has strongly influenced all which has come after us. We are a mighty and happy people. From our beginnings our worldliness and our robust optimism marks our Hellenic culture. We are proud of the frescoes that adorn our palaces. Fine sculptures, elaborate vases and bowls and many other wonders of our rich talents flourish in my world. Writings such as the Iliad and the Odyssey are familiar and have become our national poems. The Epic of Gilgamesh and other historical tales keep alive our history.

I have a great love for and study the history and knowledge of the Gods. Our religion has its roots in the cultures of Crete and Mycenae and our pantheon has developed into a complicated, intricate and elaborate mythology. The Gods are immortals who intervene in our lives. Zeus the sky god, Hara, his wife, Apollo god of light, medicine and music, Athena goddess of wisdom and war, Aphrodite goddess of love, beauty and procreation, Dionysus god of wine, and Poseidon god of the sea are all familiar and part of my daily life. I love them and enjoy them so much. My wife and I both attend many festivals celebrating and honoring the gods. I spend time studying and learning about the gods in the Theogony (the birth of the gods), which tells how the gods came to be and their genealogy. The gods we worship are like us in many ways and they have their problems. I sometimes go to the foot of Mount Olympus to ponder, pray and rest. I am not so comfortable with the sacrifices of animals and humans in our rituals, but our gods do not tell us how we should be. We decide what is right. We find favor with the gods when we do what they wish. I have great favor with the gods and my life goes well.

We do not see the point of sacred scripture or doctrines, but we love our freedom of intellectual inquiry which expands our understandings. My wife and I travel to the Oracle of Delphi, the shrine of Apollo, the center of the universe and the “navel” of the earth, to worship, to learn and to meet others who come to hear the priestess of Apollo who sits on the tripod over the fissure in the rocks and utters all manner of prophecy and mystical wisdom in a state of ecstasy. It is a wonder to us.

I live during the “Greek Golden Age”, which is the time between 480 and 430 B.C.E. Our people experience one of the most creative times in the history of the world. Our mood is confident since we overcame the Persians and we feel the spirit of vigorous chauvinism, which has ushered in this age of drama, philosophy, music, art and architecture that now flourishes in abundance in Athens. We are the most cosmopolitan in all of Greece. We enjoy one of the most unique governments, a Democratic government, forged by Solon, an enlightened one, who put civic responsibilities in the hands of the people. All is done for the common good. Pericles is one of our most prominent citizens and holds a primary place in our government (but he causes a lot of hostility that eventually causes the end of our wonderful life here). He “Glorified” Athens with his many improvement programs. I enjoy the liveliness of our people. We all feel part of our government. Life is good and we are free. “The heroic idealism of the Iliad has bloomed into civic patriotism!” Unfortunately, my society is quite male oriented and women, children, resident aliens, and slaves do not qualify as citizens. But, I do listen to my wife when she has something to say to me about it all. She is very wise.

We are surrounded with amazing gifted people. Homer writes many literary, historical and other such essays. Aesvhylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes are playwrights who write many kinds of dramas. Aristotle is a very famous philosopher. Socrates is a humanist intellectual. There are so many others who live among us and teach us with their words of wisdom that I cannot name them all. They entertain us, make us think in debates and give us insight into the ways of the gods and life. They recall our history, make us laugh with great humor, compel us to cry with deep sadness and are part of the vast amount of talent in our small population of about 250,000. All in all, I am a happy man with a happy woman living amongst some of the happiest people in all the land. The air of creativity seems electric all around me. Every day a new wonder is to be known.

In perhaps the “freest” city in the known world at that time, Athens offered great freedom to many of its people (mostly male). I believe that freedom is essential for a good life. As you can see from all the development of a multitude of talents, abilities, crafts, vocations etc, freedom allows a maximum benefit of both a positive attitude, the availability of materials through trade, and the motivation to explore the self in relation to the world, the self and others. It is important that people feel good about where they live, feel free to explore their world, create with places to do so, and to be free to actually accomplish their dreams. Athens was a place where the extreme in creativity, in the arts and the self, developed beyond normal because of the freedom and happiness the people felt in the way they were governed and the way they lived. Victory over the Persians didn’t hurt their morale, either! Freedom opens doors that other more oppressive governments cannot open for their people.

Freedom was great in Athens for the men, but not to women, children and slaves. I wonder how they felt. I can’t imagine I’d be happy in that position, but maybe because I was raised with the oppression upon me, I might not notice it as much as I do now. Knowing me, if I was as I am now, I would probably be killed or I would start a revolution for the other 2/3 of the population of Athens! The more controlled people are, the less they feel like creating. We do not see many women creators among the greats of Athens. Oppression in any form will stunt creativity and happiness. Truly, freedom is the way mankind and all living things are meant to live.

Final statement:

Yes, I think this would have been a good time to live. I have all I need to be happy. I think that if I possessed the spirit I now have, during a life in this time, I might have been quite an influence on the course of human history because I would have sought equality, partnership and mutuality among the sexes, the races and the classes. I would have talked about caring for the earth and keeping her healthy for the future. I would have been part of a movement to learn how to integrate this belief into the pantheon of the gods I believed in. I think today, the gods have great meaning for me and because I am open to knowing the true spirit that is in all, I can understand the gods and learn much from the lessons they teach. Perhaps I might even have been able to save us all from the male dominated society with men and women sharing equally in the process of life on the planet. (What a great fantasy!)

Wouldn’t it have been great to thwart that infectious self-centeredness that has spoiled so much for everyone and to be able to influence the thinking of the time toward respect for all life and each other? What an interesting idea to ponder. How could any of us not have helped change the future of mankind if we realized how important it was to make that change from male domination to mutuality, from power over others to respect for one another and from aggression to assertion. Clearly, the world was hard then and has remained hard to this day.

Because of a dominating male, the Golden Age of Athens came to an end and what could have been the birthplace of people sharing their government and their lives in a mutual way, did not get a chance to blossom. I think the women and children would be the next thing to move into the lime light if I were living in that time as a man with the same spirit I possess now and with the knowledge of how wonderful mutuality is. At least I would have opened the door to it and perhaps women would have been heard. Whether a man or a woman, I can dream of such changes and hope for them now. Being a woman, could also be an advantage as I become credentialed, educated and able to be heard in meaningful ways. This course is opening my eyes.