Get Outta Here

During my New Years Eve flight I watched a show on the History Channel about envy. It's part of a series that the History Channel is doing on the 7 Deadly Sins.

This particular show was about they way various cultures perceive and deal with envy. One small section of an otherwise over-the-top show was about Greece.

Apparently, the Greeks in Athens had this system whereby every years folks would write the name of person on a broken piece of clay pottery and deposit it in a large container. The person who won (or lost depending on your perspective) the vote would be "ostracized" or expelled from Athens within 10 days for a period of 10 years. If he didn't leave in 10 days or tried to return before 10 years was up he was executed.

Kind of crazy huh?

Well, it seems that the point of the whole thing was to defuse major confrontations between rival politicians (by removing one of them from the scene), neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state, or exiling a potential tyrant or someone who incited envy in others.

Not such a bad idea after all.

The last person against whom it was used in Athens was Hyperbolus, a demagogue of low birth and character. The Athenians thought their own dignity was compromised and ostracism degraded by applying it to a person of such low stature that they discontinued the practice.

The Greeks were democratic but no one said they weren't snobs.