Performing Interpersonal Violence :
Riess, Werner,
Performing Interpersonal Violence : Court, Curse, and Comedy in Fourth-Century BCE Athens / Werner Riess. - Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2012] ©2012 - 1 online resource (479 p.) - MythosEikonPoiesis ; 4 .
Habil
Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- I. Introduction -- II. Forensic Speeches -- III. Curse Tablets -- IV. Old and New Comedy -- V. Conclusions -- VI. References -- Index Locorum -- General Index
Open Access https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
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.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:
In English.
9783110245608
10.1515/9783110245608 doi
Theater--History--Greece--To 500.
Violence in the theater.
Violence--History.--Greece--Athens
Conflict.
Gewalt.
Konflikt.
Performance.
Rache.
Revenge.
Ritual.
Violence.
LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical.
PA3203 / .R54 2011
880.9/3552
Performing Interpersonal Violence : Court, Curse, and Comedy in Fourth-Century BCE Athens / Werner Riess. - Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2012] ©2012 - 1 online resource (479 p.) - MythosEikonPoiesis ; 4 .
Habil
Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- I. Introduction -- II. Forensic Speeches -- III. Curse Tablets -- IV. Old and New Comedy -- V. Conclusions -- VI. References -- Index Locorum -- General Index
Open Access https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
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.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:
In English.
9783110245608
10.1515/9783110245608 doi
Theater--History--Greece--To 500.
Violence in the theater.
Violence--History.--Greece--Athens
Conflict.
Gewalt.
Konflikt.
Performance.
Rache.
Revenge.
Ritual.
Violence.
LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical.
PA3203 / .R54 2011
880.9/3552