A revised edition of a groundbreaking work tracing the rhetoric,
politics, and ideology of funeral orations in ancient Greece,
arguing that they served to celebrate the city of Athens and the
Athenian citizen. How does the funeral oration relate to democracy
in ancient Greece? How did the death of an individual
citizen-soldier become the occasion to praise the city of Athens?
In The Invention of Athens, Nicole Loraux traces the different
rhetoric, politics, and ideology of funeral
orations-epitaphioi-from Thucidydes, Gorgias, Lysias, and
Demosthenes to Plato. Arguing that the ceremony of public burial
began circa 508-460 BCE, Loraux demonstrates that the institution
of the funeral oration developed under Athenian democracy. A
secular, not a religious phenomenon, a literary genre with fixed
rhetoric effects, the funeral oration was inextricably linked to
the epainos-praise of the city-rather than to a ritualized lament
for the dead as is commonly assumed. Above all, the funeral oration
celebrated the city of Athens and the Athenian citizen. Loraux
interprets the speeches from literary, anthropological, and
political perspectives. She explains how these acts of secular
speech invented an image of Athens often at odds with the presumed
ideals of democracy. To die in battle for the city was presented as
an act of civic choice-the "fine" death that defined the
citizen-soldier's noble, aristocratic ethos. At the same time, the
funeral oration cultivated an image of democracy at a time when
there was, for example, no formal theory of a respect for law and
liberty, the supremacy of the collective and public over the
individual and the private, or freedom of speech.This new edition
of The Invention of Athens includes significant revisions made by
Nicole Loraux in 1993. Her aim in editing the original text was to
render this groundbreaking work accessible to nonspecialists.
Loraux's introduction to this revised volume, as well as important
revisions to the 1986 English translation, make this publication an
important addition to scholarship in the humanities and the social
sciences.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
