Synopses & Reviews
This book examines how the various groups of people of which the polis of Classical Athens was composed got on together--or failed to do so. The authors collectively bring out what was distinctive about life in an ancient Greek city that was unusual both in its size and social complexity and in the extent of the democracy it practiced. The emphasis is broadly on the great success of the Athenians' communal experiment but tensions and fissures arising from religious, sexual, economic and political differences are not elided or glossed over.
Synopsis
The purpose of this collective volume is to re-evaluate the foundations of classical Athensâhighly successful experiment in communal social existence. Topics addressed include religion and ritualization, political friendship and enmity, gender and sexuality, sports and litigation, and economic and symbolic exchange.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: defining a kosmos Paul Cartledge; 2. Interpersonal relations on Athenian pots: putting others in their place Robin Osborne; 3. Political friendship and the ideology of reciprocity Malcolm Schofield; 4. The politics of affection: emotional attachments in Athenian society Lin Foxhall; 5. Between koinon and idion: legal and social dimensions of religious associations in ancient Athens Ilias Arnaoutoglou; 6. Gymnasia and the democratic values of leisure Nick Fisher; 7. The seductions of the gaze: Socrates and his girlfriends Simon Goldhill; 8. The Athenian political perception of the idiotes Lene Rubinstein; 9a. Enmity in fourth-century Athens P. J. Rhodes; 9b. The rhetoric of enmity in the Attic orators S. C. Todd; 10. The well-ordered polis: topographies of civic space Sitta von Reden; 11. The threat from the Piraeus Jim Roy; 12. Encounters in the Agora Paul Millett.