ABSTRACT
The pervasive civic importance of poetry in Athenian democracy during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE has been obvious since ancient times. The figure Demades in Plutarch calls the theorie fund, which paid for the entrance fee into dramatic festivals for all citizens, the “glue of the democracy” [hôs elege Dêmadês, kollan onomazôn ta theôrika tês dêmokratias, Platonic Questions 1011b]. In Aeschines' oration Against Timarchus, Aeschines asks his jury to apply wisdom from the poetry of Euripides in their judgment of the case before them:
Skepsasthe de, ô Athênaioi, tas gnômas has apophainetai ho poiêtês. Êdê de pollôn pragmatôn phêsi gegenêsthai kritês, hôsper nun humeis dikastai, kai tas kriseis ouk ek tôn marturiôn, all' ek tôn epitêdeumatôn kai tôn homiliôn phêsi poieisthai… ouk knêsen apophênasthai toiouton einai hoisper hêdetai xunôn. Oukoun dikaion kai peri Timarchou tois autois humas Euripidêi chrêsasthai logismois.
Consider, O Athenians, the sentiments that the poet expresses. He says that in the past he has been the arbiter of many disputes, just as you jurors are now, and he says that he makes his decisions not based on the testimony of witnesses, but on the habits and company of the defendant… he did not shrink from claiming that a man's character is none other than that of those with whom he likes to associate. Therefore it is right for you also to use the same logic as Euripides in the case of Timarchus. (Aeschines, Against Timarchus 153)
