Comment s'élabore un mythe politique : Solon, « père fondateur » de la démocratie athénienne

Creation of a political myth : Solon, "founding father" of the Athenian democracy Solon is depicted in 4th century (B.C.) orators' discourses and in political writers' works as the "founding father" of Athenian democracy. Doubtless the legislator who suppressed by means of the seisachteia the servitude of a certain number of Attica's peasants helped to make possible the subsequent establishment and prosperity of Athenian democracy. However, the idea of a moderate democratic system is a preoccupation of the 4th century rather than of Solon's times. It is because of the need to restrict the excesses of the radical democracy, that 4th century men felt the need to imagine an ancestral democracy whose foundations could be attributed to a uniquely genial legislator, Solon.Mossé Claude. Comment s'élabore un mythe politique : Solon, « père fondateur » de la démocratie athénienne. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 34ᵉ année, N. 3, 1979. pp. 425-437