Solon

From Philosopedia

Solon (c. 638–558 B.C.E.)

Although Solon, the eminent Athenian statesman, lawgiver, poet, and reformer, is not included by many freethought scholars, he is included in a listing by Stanley Charles W. Stokes of Australia. At a time of social stress in Athens, Solon was elected the chief Archon in 594 and he achieved humanistic goals in granting liberty to the Athenian citizens. The assembly was now opened to all freemen, the propertied classes became represented by a Council of Four Hundred, and Solon prepared the agenda for a popular assembly. Although Solon endured much opposition, his reforms became the basis of the Athenian state and his introduction of a more humane law code replaced the prior code of Draco.

Solon also is credited with being the founder of the pederastic educational tradition in Athens. He composed poetry praising the love of boys and instituted legislation to control abuses against freeborn boys. Specifically, he excluded slaves from the wrestling halls and from pederasty. According to the later histories of Plutarch and Aelian, Solon had the future Tyrant Peisistratus as an eromenos, an adolescent in a love relationship with an adult man, and later appointed him as a commander in the conquest of Salamis in the 590s B.C.E.. However, Aristotle claims that Peisistratus would have been too young at the time.

{CE; “The Rational Calendar and Compendium,” PO Box 189, Geebung, Queensland, 4034, Australia}