Peisistratos incident: tyrant third time lucky

One of the main influences that religion has had is to affect politics throughout history. This week we focused on how this is true of religion as well and used the model of Pesistratos to examine how he used deities to help him win power not only once but three times. The main story of Pesistratos can be looked at on www.thelatinlibrary.com/historians/notes/Pisistratus.html.
The reason we examined Pesistratos this week was to understand the relationship between politics and religion, Pesistratos demonstrates how these two key areas of Greek thinking are intertwined. It was during the battle to decide whether he would claim the throne for a third time that Peisistratos rode into battle with a large woman dressed as Athena, the appearnce of a Athena is a very strong symbol of dominance over his enemy. The line drawing that is contained in this blog is a rough sketch of the battle where Athena appears. The fact that he is on a chariot with Athena shows him as a strong regal figure and suggests his belief in his own ability. The influence that this had on Pesistratos politics was of great importance, as a tyrant it showed the people of Athens that there central deity was supporting their enemy and was possibly very demoralising for their armies.
 In an essay by Claudia Zatta on the golden age of Peisistratos her view is "Peisistratos was brought back by an eidolon of Athena. According to a plan to deceive the Athenians." (Zatta: p.16) this was a strong symbol for Greeks due to the influence that religious ideology had on Greek thinking of the way the universe worked. Nevertheless, from a Christian persepective,a figure of religious importance appearing would change the way the battle was played;however, I believe it would still not lead to them allowing a tyrant to rule. The modern day Christian would not belive that God could appear in the form of a man as he is not within this cosmos and the only option for God's will to be present would be through a prophet. The Greek's lack of reasoning here is looked at by Zatta when she examines the way Peisistratos not only uses the Greeks religious fears to his advantage but also the way he deceives them to create a political tyranny based around their fear of upsetting their chief deity.
However, on the contrary to this image of Peisistratos as a tyrant who uses despicable means to acheive his goals, he has also been acclaimed as creating 'Golden Age.' It is thought by scholars such as Shapiro who shows how Peisistratos was only interested in creating a better Athens and expanded the religous cults of many deities, "like most other tyrants Peistratus (and his son) carried out large building projects: a temple of Olympian Zeus." (Shapiro; pg.30) What Shapiro is alluding to here is the nature of Peisistratus was of a tyrant; however, this was not necessarily a terrible thing for a Greek state who needed someone to govern them and structure the system.

Zatta, C (2010) 'Making history mythical: The golden age of Peisistratus' Arethusa, Vol.43 p.16
Shapiro, H.A (2009) 'A Cambridge companion to archaic Greece' Cambridge university press, pg.29-30