David Wong
GSI: Kuan Hwa
Precis
  The Melian Dialogue is a dramatized dialogue by Thucydides that takes place during the Peloponnesian War between the Spartans and the Athenians and its effect on the lone island of Melos. Specifically how Athens is threatening Melos to become their allies while Melos wishes to remain neutral. The passages chosen are specifically the second half of the dialogue while referencing some parts of the dialogue. The arguments that are provided from both sides supports either Athens’s political realism or Melos’s political idealism.
       The main argument between the two states are on the issue of power. Earlier in the dialogue, the Athenians argued that the Melians should surrender because at this point they are “counseling whether or not (they) shall resist an overwhelming force”. The Melians, to refute the Athenians, to say that they are not blind to choose to oppose is due to their belief that they are in the favor of the Gods, because they are on the righteous and the just side of the argument. The Melians argue that the Athenians are the unrighteous using their power to essentially bully the weak and abusing their power to have them submit under them, even when both the Athenians and the Melians know that the Melians are weaker than the Athenians and do not pose a threat at all. Regardless, the Melians argue that they will not be left alone by the Gods, as well they will also not be left alone by the Lacedaemonians, due to Lacedaemonians upholding their kinship and their honor. This is political idealism, which is the belief that humans are inherently good or altruistic and that morality should be the main focus of states, which support how the Melians think in the beginning “Will you not receive us as friends if we are neutral and remain at peace with you?” As well as their belief that the Lacedaemonians will come to their aid when they hear that the Melians are in trouble.
  To refute against the Melians, the Athenians argue that they also have the favor of the Gods. Their main argument, which also involves power is that power is respected. Which follows to what the Athenians say in the beginning of the dialogue “the powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must”. The Athenians state that this has been a law since the beginning and has been exacted by the Gods, the powerful men before them, and the laws of nature. So the Gods will respect them since they are not so different from them, they have power and doing what they can with that power to acquire more power. While for the Melians, the Gods will intervene for them, the Gods here will remain silent as this is some law that is above all, respected even be the Gods. The Athenians also state at the end that if the Melians were to also have the same power as them, the Melians would do exactly as the Athenians are doing, which is further stating in their belief of the law that governs man and Gods. This is political realism, which is based on power and acquiring more power making this the primary focus of states, following that the strong survive while the weak are submitted to the strong.
  Though in the end, even between two different political views, military might and power is what governs whose view is correct. Melians believed that the Gods and the Lacedaemonians would aid them in their war, but in the end they did not while the Athenians already having an overwhelming power easily crushed the island of Melos.