The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past

by: Barbato, M.

Investigates the construction of democratic ideology in Classical Athens through a study of the social memory of Athens? mythical past
Proposes a novel approach to Athenian democratic ideology that opens new frontiers of investigation in ancient history and the social sciences
The introduction clearly sets out the aims and methodology of the book and its place within the scholarship in ancient history and the social sciences
Four case studies illuminate the impact of Athenian democratic institutions on ideology, myth, and the use of social memory
Offers a long-awaited new interpretation of the Athenian funeral oration for the war dead
Offers clear overviews of Athenian democratic institutions (e.g., Assembly, Council, lawcourts) based on the most recent scholarship
Provides up-to-date overviews of several values in Greek thought (e.g., charis, hybris, eugeneia)
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.

Preface
List of tables
List of illustrations
Abbreviations

1. Introduction

1.1. A brief history of ideology

1.2. Ideology and democratic Athens

1.3. Ideology, New Institutionalism and social memory

1.4. Myth, memory and institutions in democratic Athens

1.5. Outline of the book

2. Myth and Athenian democracy

2.1. The dramatic festivals and the Panathenaea

2.2. The institutional settings of Attic oratory

2.3. Myth in private contexts

2.4. Myths and variants in democratic Athens

2.5. Conclusions

3. The discursive parameters of Athenian democratic institutions

3.1. The state funeral for the war dead

3.2. The lawcourts

3.3. The Assembly and the Council

3.4. The dramatic festivals

3.5. Conclusions

4. Exclusiveness and eugeneia in the myth of autochthony

4.1. Autochthony, exclusiveness and eugeneia

4.2. Eugeneia: from Homeric society to democratic Athens

4.3. Autochthony and collective eugeneia at the state funeral

4.4. Deconstructing autochthony on the tragic stage

4.5. Autochthony and exclusiveness in Apollodorus? Against Neaera

4.6. Conclusions

5. Between charis and philanthrōpia: the Heraclidae

5.1. Athens and the Heraclidae: charis or philanthrōpia?

5.2. Between charis and philanthrōpia

5.3. Euripidean tragedy and reciprocity

5.4. Lysias and Athenian philanthrōpia

5.5. Charis and philanthrōpia in Isocrates? Panegyricus

5.6. Conclusions

6. Fading shades of hybris: the Attic Amazonomachy

6.1. Hybris and the causes of the Attic Amazonomachy

6.2. Hybris: an introduction

6.3. Lysias: the state funeral and the discourse of hybris

6.4. Theseus and the Amazons in Aeschylus? Eumenides

6.5. An allusion to the abduction in a private setting?

6.6. Theseus? abduction of Antiope in the figurative arts

6.7. The abduction of Antiope in mythographers and Atthidographers

6.8. The abduction of Antiope in Isocrates? private rhetoric

6.9. Conclusions

7. Combining hybris and philanthrōpia: the myth of Adrastus

7.1. Philanthrōpia and hybris: values in interaction

7.2. Athenian philanthrōpia, Theban hybris: Lysias? Funeral Oration

7.3. Philanthrōpia, hybris and advantage in Euripides? Suppliant Women

7.4. The myth of Adrastus in Procles? speech to the Assembly

7.5. The myth of Adrastus in a fictional Assembly

7.6. Questioning Theban hybris in a private context

7.7. Conclusions

8. Conclusions

Bibliography
Index locorum
General index

The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past

by: Barbato, M.

• ISBN-13: 9781474466431 / 978-1-4744-6643-1
• ISBN-03: 1474466435 / 1-4744-6643-5
• Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2022