Rowing and Democracy

There's a pretty interesting bit of research underway to assess the influence of rowing - the trireme, three banks of oars, ancient Greek type of rowing - on the growth of democracy in Ancient Athens.

According to a piece from Bowdoin College's website,

"Many of the rowers were at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, recruited into service to fit out Athens’s sizeable naval fleet. Their participation in the ship’s teamwork was an embodiment of the new democratic ideal, says Munn.

“These people had no influence and all of the sudden the city adopts a new naval strategy and they’re at the heart of it,” he observes. “Think about what you need to function effectively in a democracy; you need to be able to work as a team. I believe it gave them the confidence to take the rights of the democracy and use them as a political force.”

We'll keep you posted.

Now, we who rowed under Drew, Bill, and Dave know that "democracy" does NOT accurately describe Syracuse rowing - but perhaps that's because ancient Syracuse was one of Athens' rivals...