Performing interpersonal violence : court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens / Werner Riess.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Riess, Werner.

Series:

MythosEikonPoiesis ; Bd. 4.

MythosEikonPoiesis, 1868-5080 ; Bd. 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater--Greece--History--To 500.

Theater.

Violence in the theater.

Violence--Greece--Athens--History.

Violence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (492 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2012]

Language Note:

English

Biography/History:

Werner Riess, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, U.S.A.

Summary:

This book offers the first attempt at understanding interpersonal violence in ancient Athens. While the archaic desire for revenge persisted into the classical period, it was channeled by the civil discourse of the democracy. Forensic speeches, curse tablets, and comedy display a remarkable openness regarding the definition of violence. But in daily life, Athenians had to draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. They did so by enacting a discourse on violence in the performance of these genres, during which complex negotiations about the legitimacy of violence took place. Performances such as the staging of trials and comedies ritually defined the meaning of violence and its appropriate application. Speeches and curse tablets not only spoke about violence, but also exacted it in a mediated form, deriving its legitimate use from a democratic principle, the communal decision of the human jurors in the first case and the underworld gods in the second. Since discourse and reality were intertwined and the discourse was ritualized, actual violence might also have been partly ritualized. By still respecting the on-going desire to harm one’s enemy, this partial ritualization of violence helped restrain violence and thus contributed to Athens’ relative stability.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

I. Introduction

II. Forensic Speeches

III. Curse Tablets

IV. Old and New Comedy

V. Conclusions

VI. References

Index Locorum

General Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Habil Augsburg 2008.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://www.degruyter.com/dg/page/open-access-policy

Description based on print version record; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

1-280-59724-0

9786613627070

3-11-024560-4

OCLC:

775302020

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access