Cylon and Megacles

As stated before, the land was divided into three types: the Plain, the Hill, and the Shore, each section of land contained it's own political party. The Hill supported an extreme democracy, whereas the Plain supported an extreme oligarchy, and the Shore wanted a government that wasn't quite an oligarchy, and wasn't quite a democracy. The Shore wanted a government that was modeled after, and was a mix of both democracy and oligarchy (Plutarch: Solon 54). A significant story that will help us understand the conflict between aristocratic families is the story of Cylon and Megacles. Cylon was a conspirator that was apparently working with a few other men, when the government had found out about him and his co-conspirators. Cylon and his co-conspirators took refuge in Acropolis, the Goddess Athena's temple, when Megacles, a chief government official had called him out to a trial outside of the temple. Cylon and his co-conspirators had tied strings to the statue of Athena so as to signify that they were under the protection of the Goddess herself, and walked outside of the temple once Megacles had said that he wouldn't kill them. Coincidently, the strings that connected them to the Goddess's statue had broken. They took this as an omen, that the Goddess had withdrawn protection from them. Megacles then killed Cylon, which created a blood feud between the descendents of Megacles and Cylon (Plutarch: Solon, 52-54). Though, Solon intervened in this blood feud, and tried to put and end to it. Solon then put Megacles' family on trial with 300 Aristocrats, and ended up condemning one of his sons (Plutarch: Solon, 52 - 54). By doing this, Solon created a new mold for the society. Prior to this, if one man was injured by another man, it created a family feud between the two of them. But Solon created a court system, in which any fellow citizen could help testify for either party in question (Plutarch: Solon, 60). Before Solon, members of society were loyal only to their families. As stated before, injuries caused by others created feuds between families. In the case that a member of society dies, their land and possessions would automatically go straight to their male relatives. Pertaining to the issue of Marriage, the farther of the bride would pay a dowry to the husband in order to create an alliance between the families. Aristocratic families would have extravagant funerals when they buried their dead family members. They would dress the dead in lots of nice clothing to show their wealth and their importance in society. In reference to the Aristocratic education system, everything would be taught to young Athenian boys in the gymnasium. An Athenian adult male would teach a young boy how to be a good standing citizen. Often times, the adult male would

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