The Athenian nation / Edward E. Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Edward E.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social classes--Greece--Athens--History.

Social classes.

Social stratification--Greece--Athens--History.

Social stratification.

Athens (Greece)--Social conditions.

Athens (Greece).

Greece--Social conditions--To 146 B.C.

Greece.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (268 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Challenging the modern assumption that ancient Athens is best understood as a polis, Edward Cohen boldly recasts our understanding of Athenian political and social life. Cohen demonstrates that ancient sources referred to Athens not only as a polis, but also as a "nation" (ethnos), and that Athens did encompass the characteristics now used to identify a "nation." He argues that in Athens economic, religious, sexual, and social dimensions were no less significant than political and juridical considerations, and accordingly rejects prevailing scholarship's equation of Athens with its male citizen body. In fact, Cohen shows that the categories of "citizen" and "noncitizen" were much more fluid than is often assumed, and that some noncitizens exercised considerable power. He explores such subjects as the economic importance of businesswomen and wealthy slaves; the authority exercised by enslaved public functionaries; the practical egalitarianism of erotic relations and the broad and meaningful protections against sexual abuse of both free persons and slaves, and especially of children; the wide involvement of all sectors of the population in significant religious and local activities. All this emerges from the use of fresh legal, economic, and archaeological evidence and analysis that reveal the social complexity of Athens, and the demographic and geographic factors giving rise to personal anonymity and limiting personal contacts--leading to the creation of an "imagined community" with a mutually conceptualized identity, a unified economy, and national "myths" set in historical fabrication.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

Introduction. Athens as Paradox-Athens as Nation

Chapter 1. Anomalous Athens

Chapter 2. The Local Residents of Attika

Chapter 3. An Ancient Construct: The Athenian Nation

Chapter 4. A Modern Myth: The Athenian Village

Chapter 5. Wealthy Slaves in a "Slave Society"

Chapter 6. The Social Contract: Sexual Abuse and Sexual Profit

WORKS CITED

GENERAL INDEX

INDEX OF PASSAGES CITED

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-228) and indexes.

ISBN:

9786612158995

9781400824663

1400824664

9781282158993

1282158996

9781400814206

1400814200

OCLC:

52137617