Exploring Usefulness of Tragedy in Statecraft

In January 405 BCE, Athens was in a desperate situation. The city had somehow weathered the disaster of the Sicilian Expedition in 413, the subsequent revolt of many of its subjects, and the temporary overthrow of the democracy in 411. It had even seized back the initiative in the long-running war with Sparta, with a victory over the Spartan fleet at Arginusae. However, when a storm blew up in the aftermath of the battle, the Athenians were unable to rescue the survivors from their damaged ships. Outraged, the people demanded the generals be put on trial. They were, and six of them were executed. Athens' most successful commander, Alcibiades, had already taken himself off into exile after not being re-elected to military command. The Spartans were blockading Athens' grain supply and threatening the city with starvation. In the assembly, politicians bickered and denounced one another, with no sign of anyone having a plan. The Athenians turned, therefore, to their traditional source of guidance: the great tragic poets. Unfortunately, the last of these, Euripides, had died the previous year, and so the god Dionysus descended into the underworld to bring back a poet to advise the city.