ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 outlines the history and functions of the Greek agora. With José Ortega y Gasset the fencing in of an area – the agora – dedicated to cultural (and commercial) exchanges is described as an epoch-making event in history. With reference to the writings of Hannah Arendt, the chapter discusses the relationship between public and private life. Following on from this discussion, the chapter presents the writings of Plato and Xenophon on Socrates, who is described as a witness to the use and understanding of the agora in the decades around 400 bce. The chapter ends on an analysis of Aristophanes’ Acharnians that turns out to be a reflection on as well as an intervention into the politics of the agora: Dicaeopolis, the protagonist of the play, protests against the warmongers in Athens by creating his own private agora where people from other cities are allowed to trade.
