Letter To Lysias Poem by Dennis Ryan

Sunday afternoon, December 9,2018 at 4: 28 p.m.; Monday morning,
December 10 at 9: 40 a.m.; Wednesday morning, December 12 at 7: 40 a.m.;
Sunday morning, December 23 at 7: 16 a.m.

"My father Cephalus was induced by Pericles to come to Athens, and lived here for thirty years, during which time neither he himself nor my brother nor I took any part in legal proceedings... Under the democracy we lived without giving or receiving offense from anyone... [But] at a meeting of The Thirty, Theognis and Peison made a statement that some of the metics [foreigners allowed to live and work in Athens] were disaffected, and they saw this as an excellent pretext for action... They divided up the metics' houses between them... I personally was giving a dinner party when they called.They turned out my guests and handed me over to Peison..."
— Lysias (459-380 B.C.) , Athenian orator, speech writer in legal cases, and resident alien, from "Against Eratosthenes", a speech given at trial or at Eratosthenes' public accounting in 403 B.C.

"But for my children, I would have them keep their distance
from the thickening center; corruption
Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie
at the monster's feet there are still the mountains."
- Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) , American poet, from "Shine, Perishing Republic"


I

Where to begin?To say I think I understand
partially how you feel, over this time and distance—
disillusioned and despairing—that only, since those
in power, and those close to it, corrupt, don't change.
Power and politics sacrifice even one's close friends
and family—it's the same old story, the familiar theme,
from Antiquity onward.This agony— your elder brother
Polemarchus, and thousands like him, even Antiphon,
Archeptolemus, and Socrates in Athens finally swept up
in the political tides, and forced to take lethal doses.


II

The commission of evil acts, their invention
know no limits as man's imagination verges on,
then surpasses the unimaginable—they neverend.
So you began the prooimium ofyour case lodged
against Eratosthenes, aristos, ephor, who arrested
your brother on the streets of Athens at the command
of The Thirty, who then made him drink the hemlock
without cause, trial or defense. Friends and family
conducted his funeral in a shed, his body stripped
of clothing, a lent garmentcovering his corpse.

III

How is it that a high government official
should become the defendant in a public trial?
Did he commithigh crimes against the state,
the polis, its citizens while in office after swearing
an oath to uphold the laws and protect the people?
That was the case you brought, providing evidence,
proofs,the testimony of witnesses to bear, that bore
out your diegesis, your narrative of facts concerning
the killing, the theft of personal property belonging
to him and you, down to his wife's gold earrings.

IV

How does a coward who deserts his ship,
comrades at Aegospotami, who then conspires
continuously to overthrow the democracy become
fit to lead, then, once leader, engage in a Reign of Terror
during which thousands of citizens, metics are executed—
hung or compelled to drink hemlock?And then, to flee
the city for Salamis, Eleusis, where he and The Thirty
send 300 Athenian citizens to their untimely deaths?
Then to escape to the Peiraeus, then back to Athens,
again, his mind always set against the democracy?
What are you, the jury, to find?Show all of Athens,
the dead, that heinous crimes will not go unpunished.

V

So your prosecuted your case against Eratosthenes—
the speech you gave in 403 B.C. at his trial or euthynai—
I have read the transcript. Called to accounts, Eratosthenes
could only equivocate, lie to cover up—we have his testimony,
then your calling him out, his contradictory actions: When you
had a majority in favor of release, you claim to have opposed
the execution, but when Polemarchus' safety lay in your hands
alone, you rushed him into prison.As snow falls this morning,
this 10th day of December 2018, in this far-away country that
purports to be a democracy, but is so in name, appearance only,
I can report that your tribulations, public and private, are ours—
our federal, state, county and local officials cannot be trusted
to act with conscience for the public good.Eat cynical earnings...

VI

The square-limbed Roman letters scale in the thaws,
wear in...As in Greek and Roman times, our public
officials need be called out, give public accountings
of themselves in office.Men and women likeourselves—
they are weak, caught up, entangledin actions together,
have one another's backs should questions arise regarding
their decision-making, dubious and doubt-filled as it may be
at times.(What happens when the judge is dragged before
the bar?For collusion with the D.A., the police, et al?
This family you know not?) Eratosthenes was one.

VII

Amongst The Thirty, Eratosthenes aligned himself
with the "moderates", Theramenes being prominent—
his name too appears in the transcript,a subject who
doesn't fare well in your account.(What aristocrats,
oligarchs, tyrants do?) He twice subverted the democracy,
putting Athens in Spartan hands following negotiations
to which his fellow Athenians weren't privy.He betrayed
his country to put the moderates in power—backed by
a Spartan garrison—he had the walls of the Pieraeus
torn down, acted strategically, the strategus he was.

VIII

He had won election when The 400 came into power
in 411 B.C.—he took his opportunity, making short work
offriends Antiphon and Archeptolemus who had opposed
his "moderate" political stance:His dastardly conduct
allowed him to sacrifice both the freedom of Athens for
his adherence to oligarchs and the life of his friends for
his adherence to the populace of Athens...Friends?
Great friends?Friendship?What are these to a politician?
And so he wore the same boot on both feet, alternating
feet, only to die by it—so branded cothurnus by Critias.

IX

Your indictment of Theramenes was so complete
Eratosthenes could not effectively use him in his defense,
could not reference his association without the jury first
being made to think of Theramenes' treasons against Athens.
So onto your epilogos—first recapitulating for the jury disaster
after disaster foisted on the nation by these two, followed by
this capping reminder: the Spartan garrison stationed upon
the Acropolis to preserve their domination and your slavery.
Then question followed question: Did it please the jury to hear
of men dragged away from children and family and forced
to commit suicide?Did jury members risk their lives to
allow these...And finally the time came to cast votes.

X

We are back to the beginning, to that which I partly
understand: your disbelief and disillusionment, shock
at the abomination.The jury received final instructions
(if a jury in fact was present—I believe there was; I am
with you—)your words still ringing true: it is beyond me
to describe the truth of what was perpetrated, which would
be beyond the scope of any number of accusers...You said
the dead were listening then, and I firmly believe they are
listening again now, yours and mine, at this very moment
to this recounting: every vote of not guilty with be a vote
for their own condemnation, every vote of guilty being one
of retribution on your... Yours is the power.Cast your vote.
The final tally has yet to be counted—the result left in doubt.
The occasion, location, the time of the speech, its preparation...

XI(Epilogue)

Evil deeds had been done.Innocent mendone to death,
Polemarchus included, and you Lysias, his brother served
as witness.You have escaped, alone, to tell us, and then,
what of these deceased men's orphans?We must trust
they too had stories to tell.The actors in this drama have
become my familiars—Lysias, Eratosthenes, Theramenes—
and I would escape this familiarity if I only knew how.
The Fates, however, seem to have decreed I must know,
and that knowledge... either that, or I myself decree it,
it being a matter of temperament,proneness, an inclination
to make certain choices.Why and how men, now women,
will invent and commit such atrocities, I cannot understand.
Beyond my ken, I want to read Aristotle's "On Friendship"
again, that section that discusses friends honest with us.