Appendix 3—
Damon Son of Damonides

Of the two figures who loom large in Pericles' intellectual background, Anaxagoras^[1] and Damon of Oa (an Athenian deme), the direct influence of Damon seems to have been considerable. Damon was a true representative of "the age of the sophists," whose exploration of knowledge and critical examination of institutions were unquestionably shared by Pericles himself. Damon's speciality was music and he theorized about the relationship of music to ethics and politics (DK 37 B4, 6, 10). But he was also capable of expanding on any subject (Plato Laches 180d) and was associated with Prodicus of Ceos (Laches 197d), a contemporary of Socrates known for his study of the meaning of words.

Damon's chief interest for us, however, arises from the fact that he was also an active politician (cf. Antiphon) whose association with Pericles is solidly attested. Arist. Ath. Pol. 27.4, as we have seen, credits him with "most" of Pericles' legislation, specifically, the introduction of jury payment. The association of the two men is confirmed by Isocrates 15.235 and [Plato] Alcibiades 1.118c. Even Aristotle's statement that Damon was ostracized receives partial confirmation from the discovery of an ostrakon bearing his name.^[2] That the two men stood in a close relationship, moreover, is proven by two verses of Plato Comicus, who wrote c. 428–c.386.^[3] The verses are quoted below.

[1] See, in general, H. Fränkel, Wege und Formen frühgriechischen Denkens (Munich, 1960), pp. 284–90; fragments and testimonia are collected in DK, 2.1–44. An engaging picture is painted by Plutarch, Per. 4.6, 6.1, 8.1–2, 16.8.

[2] ML 21, p. 46; Arist. Ath. Pol. 27.4; et al.

[3] W. Schmid and O. Stählin, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur (Munich, 1946), 1.4.145f.

Though we can never know, obviously, the precise debt, if any, of Pericles to Damon, the verses of Plato Comicus provide us with another piece of valuable information. They permit us to infer the approximate date of Damon's ostracism. The iambic verses, as preserved in Plut. Per. 4.4, are as follows:

Now first of all, if you please, tell me this. For
People say that you reared Pericles, like another Cheiron.

It does not seem adventurous to infer that these verses presuppose the chance meeting in Athens by one of the characters in this unknown play with the redoubtable Damon. The point of the allusion is that Damon, because of his relationship with Pericles, is in the position to answer a (hitherto unasked and unanswered) question about Pericles. The implication (borne out by the date of the comic poet) is that Pericles is dead. From the excitement and impetuosity of the question we may infer that Damon is a new arrival whose special knowledge can now conveniently be tapped. Damon, therefore, has been introduced onto the stage because of fresh interest in him: he has just returned from the ostracism.

Since Plato Comicus produced his first play in 428, the terminus post quem for the ostracism is 438/7, though, of course, the play could have been written a few years later. In view of the prosecution of Pheidias in 438/7, it is tempting to place the ostracism in that year or the one after that, so that the comedy of Plato would have been produced in 428/7 or 427/6. In any case, the implication of these verses is that Damon cannot have been ostracized before 438, and that is solid gain. It confirms the remark of Pseudo-Plato, Alcibiades 1.118c, that Pericles consorted with Damon when Pericles was well in the prime of life ("and even now, at his age, Pericles associates with him"). The early fifties, much less the late sixties, is far too early for the imputed association; Plato Rep. 400bc (dramatic date c. 410) speaks of Damon as still alive and intellectually vigorous. If Damon could credibly be supposed to have advised Pericles about jury pay, the context must be the late fifties or, better, the early forties.