The Melian Dialogue
The title of this piece comes from Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. In it representatives of the small island Melos had come to Athens begging them to stop laying siege to their city and agree on a truce. Melos was a far weaker but neutral polis in the war between Athenian and Doric parties – and they sued for peace with Athens. The Melians stated that if they didn’t oblige the gods would favor them even as underdogs because they were morally right. The Athenians eschewed their moral posturing, stating that the gods would not intervene, as it is the natural order that the weak are dominated by the strong. Thus the above quote.
The ancient Greeks were known for their brutality – they even prized it as a virtue, their ideal man was brave, crafty, and cruel. And the above quote has been used flatly as the epitome of stark political realism and unbridled Machiavellianism. But to view the Greek worldview in such a narrow and cold lens gives short shrift to them and to the ancestors from which they inherited it.
The strong do as they may the weak suffer what they must is much more than a flat platitude of might makes right. Embedded within it are thousands of years of cultural history, the movements of societies, the crafting of rituals and traditions, and the birth of Western arts.
The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) worldview, of which the Hellenes (as inheritors) were a prominent example, embodied a natural order that included hierarchy and subjugation. But it was much more multifaceted and historical than it appears prima facie – to understand it we must literally go back to the beginning.
Genesis
In the PIE creation myth, the primordial first human was named Man (*Manu in PIE and Vedic: Manu; Old German: Mannus). Man sacrifices his brother Twin (PIE: *Yemo -> Vedic: Yama; Avestan: Yima; Norse: Ymir; Latin: Remus). And with the help of the sky father (PIE: *Dyḗus ph₂tḗr -> Greek: Zeus Pater, Latin: Jupiter, Vedic: Dyáuṣ-pitā́), Twin’s body is dismembered and used to create both the universe (cosmogony) and the various strata of society (sociogony).
From Twin’s head the sky and heavens are formed in the macrocosm and the priests or kings in the human microcosm. Likewise Twin’s feet or genitalia were transfigured into the soil or underworld and were similarly utilized to create the peasant class. The peasant’s lowly status was tied to the double meaning of their fecundity - both for growing crops and for siring offspring. The Latin etymology for proletariat originally meant the class of breeders.
Echoes of the PIE embodiment myth of society are seen in the burning effigy of the Celtic Wickerman, myths of the dismemberment of Romulus the founder of Rome, and the creation of the Hindu castes from Parusa in the Laws of Manu.
The position of subjugation for the lower classes was explicit. The strong were throughout PIE mythology literally thought of as physically above the weak. Shudras, proles, and peasants were formed from the lower portions of the body and akin to them were expected to support the higher portions and suffer what they must. As the old British saying goes: A place for everything and everything in its proper place.
We may think of these beliefs as cruel and the plebes who went along with them as simpletons, but in their view the creation and maintained existence of the world depended upon social hierarchy maintaining its proper order. Social stratification and the domination of the strong was the will of the gods. This big/noble lie was needed by the masses to make sense of the world and their place in it. Before we are quick to dismiss them as rubes perhaps we should examine our own current mythos and the structures we idealize to maintain the status quo no matter how punitive: credit markets, democracy, technology, social progress, liberalization, etc.
Steppe Mindset
Where did these myths come from? In short the PIE homeland, the Pontic Steppe. Located in modern day Ukraine/Russia and then gradually moving south and west first the Yamnaya, then the Corded Ware, Bell Beaker, and Sintasha peoples crafted the afore described mythos and culture from the realities of their daily lives.
These PIE cultures were pastoralists, but started out as hunter-gatherers on the Eurasian steppe. Eventually they learned to domesticate animals for meat and milk (first horses then cattle) and later invented the wheel and wagon which allowed them to move quickly and easily with their herds across thousands of miles.
Nomadic steppe pastoralism gave form to the intricacies of these ornate social practices. Mobile herding meant more potential feeding grounds and allotted for larger herds, creating early social division based on wealth i.e. how many animals one had. Our word capital comes from the Latin caput and literally refers to heads of cows; pecuniary relates to the PIE word *péku the word for cattle.
Mobile herding also necessitated regular rights of access to pasture lands and seasonal movements. As steppe households (PIE: *dómh -> Latin: domus; English: domestic), families (PIE: *ǵenh₁es -> Latin: gens; Proto-Germanic: kunją; English: kin, gentile, gentleman), clans (PIE: *weyḱ -> Greek: oikos; English: economy) interacted they created elaborate rights, rituals, and agreements to respect boundaries and show deference. This coalesced these people into a shared culture and understanding of their proper place both geographically and socially.
This great chain of being and the delicate intricacies of relationships between status groups was a (perhaps the) central tenet of the PIE worldview – gods and men related to each other through patronage, and similarly so did political and social clientage. The exchange of gifts, favors and praise formed an institutionalized hierarchy between deities and humans, higher and lower clans, and between the elite and deplorables of society. The patron-client relationship cemented inequality as the right of existence. And it was borne out of differences in herd size and regulating migrations.
Sacrifices and tributes, sealed with oaths (PIE: *h₁óitos) spoken in poetry were how different groups related to each other. These rituals acted as worshipful prayers, gift exchanges, communions, commensality, and boundaries between the sacred and the profane. They were simulacra of the cosmogonic myths – a mini reenactment of the birth of the universe that they viewed as necessary to sustain creation.
The world was not all cruel though – central to strong urge for patronage was the idea of hospitality – the root of our words guest and host both come from the PIE *gʰóstis (also the root of Latin hospes and our hospitality, bonus: ghost originally meant visitor in English). The guest-host bond was taken seriously and meant to be mutually irrevocable – recall that hospitality is the central theme in Homer’s Odyssey and Zeus was the patron God of visitors.
Poetic license
The spoken word was central to these traditions. Poems or oaths (that were often in verse) especially held tremendous power. Oaths called upon patrons (or gods) to protect clients (or humans) in return for loyalty and service. The relationship is exemplified in the metered hymns of the Rig Veda describing a sacrifice of a prized steed to the gods, "Let this racehorse bring us good cattle and good horses, male children and all-nourishing wealth.” The Athenians were so cruel to the Melians for they had nothing of favor to offer them.
Central to the patronage was the giving of praise. It is littered through prayers, oaths, and literature that still filters down to us today. In Greek, Proto-Celtic, and Proto-Germanic existed what in Sanskrit was named dānastuti or 'praise of the gift'. Homer is littered with flowery epithets and it is common to nearly all poetry coming to us from PIE cultures. As traditional versed language became ascendant the speakers of it gained centrality to society.
Honor, fidelity, and courage were the most prized attributes; the poet’s praise emphasized these points. It was bestowed in exchange for public feasts and protection and could impart undying fame on the recipient. Undying fame (Greek: kléos áphthiton; Vedic: śrávo ákṣitam) was the zenith of PIE society – in their worldview this was immortality. And its power rested with the poet. The importance of the bard echos in the proverbial “king without poets” which was an idiom in Old Irish for “nothing”.
The poet was the custodian and transmitter of tradition – the totality of communication with the gods was entrusted to them. The PIE root *weh₂t- came down into the word for song or poetry into Old English (wōþ) and Old Norse (óðr) but also evolved into Latin as vates or Proto-Celtic watis - a seer or prophesizer.
In Homer, the Rig Vedas, and the Old Norse Eddas there is a distinction between the language of men and the language of the gods - it is poetry. In Petronius' Satyricon a character is chastised by the protagonist because “he talks more like a poet than a human being.” The legitimacy of the priestess at Delphi, channeling the voice of the gods, was grounded in the fact that she spoke in hexameter. Vico wrote that all original laws were poesia seriosa. As the poetic tradition cemented itself, poets came to shape the actual laws and forms of society.
As Watkins puts it “The inspiration of the divine Muse is only the personification of the trained mind of the poet.” Homer calls upon the Muses to speak through him. The Muses being the source of all arts (our words museum and music both derive from them) demonstrates poetry’s central importance to all the arts.
Conclusion
Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
This passage from Thucydides has been misused and misjudged as an exaltation of power and a blunt justification for realpolitik. But by tracing the contours of its origin one is able to see it as much more. It part of a much richer and multifaceted provenance thousands of years old, interwoven with mythology, technological and cultural advancement, and the very birth of the arts. The strong do, the weak suffer, and we still feel the echoes of both to this very day.