The Ideology of Democratic Athens : Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past (New Approaches to Ancient Greek Institutional History)

Barbato, Matteo

Edinburgh University Press（2022/05発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 264 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781474466431
• DDC分類 321.809385

Full Description

The debate on Athenian democratic ideology has long been polarised around two extremes. A Marxist tradition views ideology as a cover-up for Athens' internal divisions. Another tradition, sometimes referred to as culturalist, interprets it neutrally as the fixed set of ideas shared by the members of the Athenian community. Matteo Barbato addresses this dichotomy by providing a unitary approach to Athenian democratic ideology. Analysing four different myths from the perspective of the New Institutionalism, he demonstrates that Athenian democratic ideology was a fluid set of ideas, values and beliefs shared by the Athenians as a result of a constant ideological practice influenced by the institutions of the democracy. He shows that this process entailed the active participation of both the mass and the elite and enabled the Athenians to produce multiple and compatible ideas about their community and its mythical past.

Contents

PrefaceList of tablesList of illustrationsAbbreviations

1. Introduction

2. Myth and Athenian democracy

3. The discursive parameters of Athenian democratic institutions

4. Exclusiveness and eugeneia in the myth of autochthony

5. Between charis and philanthrōpia: the Heraclidae

6. Fading shades of hybris: the Attic Amazonomachy

7. Combining hybris and philanthrōpia: the myth of Adrastus

8. Conclusions

BibliographyIndex locorumGeneral index