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oapen-20.500.12657-450032021-01-25T13:50:54Z Performing Interpersonal Violence Riess, Werner History Ancient General bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBL History: earliest times to present day::HBLA Ancient history: to c 500 CE 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. 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. 2020-12-15T15:40:02Z 2020-12-15T15:40:02Z 2012 book 9783110245608 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/45003 eng application/pdf n/a external_content.pdf De Gruyter De Gruyter 101080 2b386f62-fc18-4108-bcf1-ade3ed4cf2f3 b818ba9d-2dd9-4fd7-a364-7f305aef7ee9 9783110245608 Knowledge Unlatched (KU) De Gruyter Knowledge Unlatched open access
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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. 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.
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