Vote wise, America, vote wise.

So, today you Americans are going to decide how badly your country is going to get messed up in the coming four years. I won't lie, I am not a fan of either candidate, but I will state for the record that I would vote for Clinton if I could. If Trump becomes president, I truly fear for you all--and especially if you are a woman, POC, under thirty and anything below super wealthy. There will be war, there will be economic crisis, there will be social crisis and there will be a healthcare crisis. That is my soapbox speech. Vote wise, America, vote and vote wise!

In ancient Athens, sovereign power was held by the ekklesia, and only by the ekklesia. Every citizen in ancient Hellas who was eligible to vote had the right to vote on new or changing laws and was thus required to be aware of them and have an opinion on them; a direct democracy. Very roughly measured, about a quarter of the inhabitants of ancient Athens were eligible to vote (we're not sure about the rest of ancient Hellas). At the height of ancient Athens, this would have constituted about 25,000 men. 6,000 were needed before any vote even went up. On slow days, serfs who were part of the Scythian Guard literally wrangled citizens (!) into the halls, with a rope smeared with red ochre--called a 'miltos'--to get enough bodies in the seats.

Getting 25,000 people--or even 6,000--to do anything in union is a very daunting task, so the ancient Athenians formed a 'boule' (βουλή), who met at the 'bouleterion'. The term comes from the ancient Greek word for 'citizens': bouleutai (βουλευταί). Every citizen in Athens had to belong to one of the ten tribes, eight of which were named after its mythical kings. The boule was assembled from 50 men, chosen from each tribe, for a total of 500 men. They oversaw the daily workings of the city, administered justices, looked after the placement of orphans, etc.

The boule still consisted of far too many people to get anything done in an orderly fashion. The next step was to dilute an even smaller group from the 500 members of the boule. Five men from each of the ten tribes represented in the boule were chosen to form a subgroup called the 'prytaneis' (πρυτάνεις), for a total of fifty. Membership of the prytaneis was rotated each tenth of a year. This meant that if you were a member of the boule, you would serve roughly 36 days as a prytanis (πρύτανις).

During their days as prytanis, members of the prytaneis ate at public expense in the 'Tholos' (θόλος), a circular edifice constructed for them next to the bouleterion. In effect, they lived there for the duration of their time as prytanis. My guess as to why, is because they would be easy to find that way. Prythaneis were the only people who could summon the ekklesia in case of emergencies so, in case of emergencies, they needed to be locatable.

In short: ancient Athens was ruled by the ekklesia of about 25,000 voting citizens. The ekklesia, in turn, was managed by the boule of 500 citizens, taken from the ranks of the ekklesia. The boule, finally, was managed by 50 members of the boule, called the prytaneis. Everyone in the ekklesia voted, but their votes were tallied by the boule-members of their tribe, who related the votes to the prytanis of their tribe, who then tallied and proclaimed the votes.

The right to vote, in ancient Hellas, was reserved for only a part of the population. In order to be eligible to vote on anything, you had to fulfill a good couple of criteria:

- You had to be male
- Both of your parents had to be Hellenic citizens
- You had to be a landowner
- You had to be an adult
- In Athens, you needed to have completed your military training as ephebes
- Also in Athens, your right to citizenship could not be under suspicion

This means that children, women, slaves, foreigners and landless men were not allowed to vote on any decision put in front of the assembly. But despite the limited voters, ancient Hellas--and especially Athens--was definitely a democracy. The word 'democracy' (δημοκρατία) is made up of two, Greek, words: dêmos (δῆμος), meaning 'people' and krátos (κράτος) meaning 'power' or 'force'. In fact, in ancient Hellas, no one voted on a person to represent them; they represented themselves.

I greatly encourage everyone to exercise their right to vote. The right to vote, either looking at it from a modern or ancient perspective, is exactly that; a right, a privilege. Besides children, most of us now have the right to vote. We have a right to voice our opinion and make a stand. It may be difficult, confusing and it may even seem like your vote won't matter, but if you don't voice your preference and those who would vote opposite of you, do... well... you can only blame yourself if your candidate doesn't win, right?

 

So go out today, America. Vote. Vote wise. And I will say this: I truly believe that if you are a Hellenist, if you live and breath the Delphic Maxims, if you read the mythology and study the society that wrote them down, you cannot vote for Trump. Ponder that and go out to vote.