You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Women and Slaves in Classical Culture examines how ancient societies were organized around slave-holding and the subordination of women to reveal how women and slaves interacted with one another in both the cultural representations and the social realities of the Greco-Roman world. The contributors explore a broad range of evidence including: * the mythical constructions of epic and drama * the love poems of Ovid * the Greek medical writers * Augustine's autobiography * a haunting account of an unnamed Roman slave * the archaeological remains of a slave mining camp near Athens. They argue that the distinctions between male and female and servile and free were inextricably connected. This erudite and well-documented book provokes questions about how we can hope to recapture the experience and subjectivity of ancient women and slaves and addresses the ways in which femaleness and servility interacted with other forms of difference, such as class, gender and status. Women and Slaves in Classical Culture offers a stimulating and frequently controversial insight into the complexities of gender and status in the Greco-Roman world.
Humane ideals were central to the image Athenians had of themselves and their city during the classical period. Tragic plays, which formed a part of civic education, often promoted pity and compassion. But it is less clear to what extent Athenians embraced such ideals in daily life. How were they expected to respond, emotionally and pragmatically, to the suffering of other people? Under what circumstances? At what risk to themselves? In this book, Rachel Hall Sternberg draws on evidence from Greek oratory and historiography of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE to study the moral universe of the ancient Athenians: how citizens may have treated one another in times of adversity, when and how ...
This book studies past economics from anthropological, archaeological, historical and sociological perspectives. By analyzing archeological and other evidence, it examines economic behavior and institutions in ancient societies. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, it critically discusses dominant economic models that have influenced the study of past economic relations in various disciplines, while at the same time highlighting alternative theoretical trajectories. In this regard, the book’s goal is not only to test theoretical models under scrutiny, but also to present evidence against the rationalization of past economic behavior according to the rules of modern markets. The contributing authors cover various topics, such as trade in the classical Greek world, concepts of commodity and value, and management of economic affluence.
This volume explores the organization and contents of five houses at Halieis. It is based on the structure of each house and its contents and includes detailed room-by-room analyses of the excavated finds. From this it expands into a general consideration of the Greek household and domestic economy, topics of growing interest among archaeologists. In particular, it considers division of labor within the household and the allocation of domestic space for men and women.
The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean provides a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000-1000 BC) and describes the most important debates and discussions within the discipline. Presented in four separate sections within the Handbook, the sixty-six commissioned articles cover topics ranging from chronological and geographical to thematic to site-specific. The volume will be indispensable for scholars and advanced students alike.
Classical Greeks considered the Mycenaean civilization to be the basis of their glorious and heroic heritage, but its material existence was not confirmed until the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann in the late nineteenth century. In the ensuing years, as with the field of archaeology in general, emphasis has shifted from revealing monuments and finding treasure to dealing with less glamorous, more scientifically-oriented investigations concerning aspects such as social and political organization, economic functions and settlement patterns. With its more than 2000 entries, this reference work serves as both an introduction to and a summary of the study of ancient Mycenaean civilization. Considerably expanded from the first edition, there are 500 new entries representing materials published since 1991. The largest part of the book is made up of annotated bibliography entries arranged topically with introductory material for each section. The book also includes a general introduction to Mycenaean civilization, a glossary, and author, place and subject indexes.
V.5: CD-ROM contains additional information related to the book The Neolithic pottery from Lerna, as well as software, for which rights have been cleared.
When does democracy work well, and why? Is democracy the best form of government? These questions are of supreme importance today as the United States seeks to promote its democratic values abroad. Democracy and Knowledge is the first book to look to ancient Athens to explain how and why directly democratic government by the people produces wealth, power, and security. Combining a history of Athens with contemporary theories of collective action and rational choice developed by economists and political scientists, Josiah Ober examines Athenian democracy's unique contribution to the ancient Greek city-state's remarkable success, and demonstrates the valuable lessons Athenian political practic...
The Gorgon's Severed Head looks at three plays of Euripides, one early, one middle and one late in his career. Innovations in genre, in the use of the traditional stories, in the representation of women and of gender issues are present at every period. In all three plays characters are depicted creating themselves and each other. Chapter One on Alcestis looks at the artistry of the two main characters and is especially concerned with finding a role for Admetus, the play's most serious problem. The second chapter treats the physical displacement of the myth in Euripides' version of the Electra-Orestes story. A last section approaches the layers of time and space in Phoenissae.