Latest / Ancient Greece: Philosophy, Democracy, and Endless War — Fexingo History / The Cylon Conspiracy: Athens' Bloody Curse and the Alcmaeonids
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Athenian democracy — the Pnyx, the ostracism, Cleisthenes' reforms. But I realized there's a shadow that hangs over all those later developments, a really old curse that shaped Athenian politics for centuries. Luna: A curse? Like a literal supernatural curse? Lucas: Exactly. The Athenians believed in it. It's called the Cylonian miasma — a religious stain from a bloody event back in 632 BCE, long before democracy. And it became a political weapon. If you were from the Alcmaeonid family — that's the family of Cleisthenes and Pericles — your enemies could say your whole clan was under a divine curse for murdering suppliants at an altar. Luna: So Pericles was politically cursed because of something his ancestors did two hundred years earlier? Lucas: Yes. And not just Pericles — Cleisthenes too, and his grandfather Megacles. The story starts with a man named Cylon. He was an Olympic victor — won the stadion race, probably around 640 BCE. That made him a celebrity. And like many aristocrats, he had ambition. He married the daughter of Theagenes, the tyrant of Megara, and with his father-in-law's support, he decided to seize control of Athens. Lucas: He gathered a group of followers and occupied the Acropolis. But the Athenians weren't having it. They rallied under the nine archons, the chief magistrates, and besieged Cylon and his men in the temple of Athena Polias. After a while, Cylon and his brother managed to escape. But his followers were left inside, starving. Luna: So what happened to them? Lucas: They came out and took refuge at the statue of Athena, as suppliants. That should have made them inviolable — under religious law, you couldn't harm someone clinging to a god's altar. But the archons, led by a man named Megacles from the Alcmaeonid family, convinced them to leave by promising them safety. They tied a rope to the statue and led them away. But then — according to Thucydides and later sources — once they were off sacred ground, Megacles' men slaughtered them. Some were even killed in front of the Temple of the Furies. Luna: That is horrifying. And it definitely sounds like the kind of thing that would get the gods angry. Lucas: The Athenians agreed. The city was struck by a plague and a series of bad omens, and they interpreted it as divine punishment for the sacrilege. They dug up the bones of the dead Alcmaeonids and cast them beyond the borders. The whole family was exiled and declared accursed — under a miasma that would cling to their descendants. Lucas: But here's where it gets political. The curse wasn't just a religious matter — it was a tool. Whenever the Alcmaeonids were powerful, their enemies would bring up the Cylonian curse to discredit them. When Cleisthenes tried to implement his democratic reforms around 508 BCE, his rival Isagoras actually called in the Spartan king Cleomenes to expel Cleisthenes — and the pretext was the curse. Luna: Sparta invaded Athens because of a curse from the 7th century? Lucas: Partially. Cleomenes came with a small force, and Isagoras had the Areopagus — the council of ex-archons — declare Cleisthenes and his supporters polluted because of the Cylonian affair. Cleisthenes was exiled, and Isagoras tried to set up an oligarchy. But the Athenian demos — the common people — revolted, besieged Isagoras and the Spartans on the Acropolis, and eventually forced Cleomenes to withdraw. Cleisthenes was recalled, and his reforms went ahead. Lucas: The curse came up again later, around 447 BCE, when the Spartans wanted to undermine Pericles. They sent an ultimatum: 'Drive out the curse of the goddess' — meaning exile the Alcmaeonids. Pericles was the great-grandson of the same Megacles who had killed the Cylonians. But Pericles didn't back down. He countered that the Spartans themselves had their own religious pollution — like the helot massacre at Taenarum — so they had no standing to lecture Athens. Luna: So it was like a game of religious one-upmanship. Lucas: Exactly. Religion and politics were inseparable. The Cylonian curse was a real liability, but clever leaders could deflect it. Pericles even used the curse to his advantage in some ways — it made him seem humble to acknowledge it, but also resolute in carrying on despite it. Lucas: You know, speaking of carrying on despite inheritances — this show only exists because of listeners like you. We don't run ads, and we want to keep it that way. If you've been getting something out of these deep dives into Mediterranean history, and you'd like to help us keep going ad-free, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Every bit helps us put more time into research and conversation. Luna: And we really appreciate it. It lets us explore these obscure corners without worrying about sponsors. So thank you to anyone who chips in. Lucas: Anyway, back to the curse. One more twist: some scholars think the whole Cylon story was embellished or even invented by the Alcmaeonids' enemies. The earliest account is from Herodotus, writing about a century and a half later, and it's full of dramatic details. Thucydides' version is more restrained. But whatever the truth, the Cylonian miasma was a very real force in Athenian politics. Luna: So it shows how much ancient Athens was still a religious society, even as it developed rational philosophy and democracy. Lucas: Exactly. They believed the gods punished entire families for generations. And that belief shaped alliances, exiles, even wars. The Cylonian curse is a reminder that Athenian democracy wasn't born in a clean, rational vacuum — it emerged from a world of blood guilt, ritual pollution, and political cunning that never fully went away.