Astral Codex Ten

Solon

3 min read

Solon

Article

Solon is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between June 16, 2023 and August 11, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “Still, that matches Solon”; “Still, that matches Solon’s record, and beats Jefferson’s”; “Hammurabi and Gilgamesh get more play relative to Solon and Achilles”. It most often appears alongside Hammurabi, Rome, Achilles.

Metadata

  • Category: People
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: June 16, 2023
  • Last seen: August 11, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Your Book Review: Njal’s Saga
June 16, 2023 · Original source
Njal, like his doppelganger Jesus Christ, died horribly. And two centuries later, the Icelanders called on the King of Norway to save them from themselves. Still, that matches Solon’s record, and beats Jefferson’s.
Your Book Review: The Weirdest People in the World
August 11, 2023 · Original source
A big silent intellectual change of the past quarter century is the broadening of our self-concept. Educated Westerners are starting to expect each other to know Chinese and Islamic history, which are still ongoing, and perhaps something about pre-Columbian America whose stories were traumatically ended by the conquest of the New World. The earlier past is moving into the light, too. Ancient states like Babylon and Egypt are gradually coming alive: Hammurabi and Gilgamesh get more play relative to Solon and Achilles. And before that, the real prehistory of the first cities, the Neolithic, the growth of agriculture, the end of the Ice Age at 10,000 BC, modern humans around 100,000 BC, the first humans at 1mya (million years ago)… these dates are gradually getting fixed in the mind as turning points in the story of us.
Inline links: story of us