Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece

Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece
Author: Joseph M. Bryant
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 600
Release: 1996-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780791430415

An exercise in cultural sociology, Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece seeks to explicate the dynamic currents of classical Hellenic ethics and social philosophy by situating those idea-complexes in their socio-historical and intellectual contexts. Central to this enterprise is a comprehensive historical-sociological analysis of the Polis form of social organization, which charts the evolution of its basic institutions, roles, statuses, and class relations. From the Dark Age period of "genesis" on to the Hellenistic era of "eclipse" by the emergent forces of imperial patrimonialism, Polis society promoted and sustained corresponding normative codes which mobilized and channeled the requisite emotive commitments and cognitive judgments for functional proficiency under existing conditions of life. The aristocratic warrior-ethos canonized in the Homeric epics; the civic ideology of equality and justice espoused by reformist lawgivers and poets; the democratization of status honor and martial virtue that attended the shift to hoplite warfare; the philosophical exaltation of the Polis-citizen bond as found in the architectonic visions of Plato and Aristotle; and the subsequent retreat from civic virtues and the interiorization of value articulated by the Skeptics, Epicureans, and Stoics, new age philosophies in a world remade by Alexander's conquests--these are the key phases in the evolving currents of Hellenic moral discourse, as structurally framed by transformations within the institutional matrix of Polis society.

War and Violence in Ancient Greece

War and Violence in Ancient Greece
Author: Hans van Wees
Publisher: Classical Press of Wales
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN:

The study of Greek warfare should involve much more than reconstructing the experience of combat or revisiting the great wars of the classical period. In this book an international cast of scholars explore beyond the usual thematic and chronological boundaries. Ranging from the heroes of Homer to the kings and cities of the Hellenistic age, the contributors set war in the context of other forms of Greek violence, private and public. At every turn, they challenge received ideas about the causes and conduct of war, its development and its place in Greek society and culture.

A Brief History of Ancient Greece

A Brief History of Ancient Greece
Author: Sarah B. Pomeroy
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN:

The story of the ancient Greeks is one of the most improbable success stories in world history. A small group of people inhabiting a country poor in resources and divided into hundreds of quarreling states created one of the most remarkable civilizations ever. Comprehensive and balanced, A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture, Second Edition is a shorter version of the authors' highly successful Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History, Second Edition (OUP, 2008). Four leading authorities on the classical world offer a lively and up-to-date account of Greek civilization and history in all its complexity and variety, covering the entire period from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Era, and integrating the most recent research in archaeology, comparative anthropology, and social history. They show how the early Greeks borrowed from their neighbors but eventually developed a distinctive culture all their own, one that was marked by astonishing creativity, versatility, and resilience. Using physical evidence from archaeology, the written testimony of literary texts and inscriptions, and anthropological models based on comparative studies, this compact volume provides an account of the Greek world that is thoughtful and sophisticated yet accessible to students and general readers with little or no knowledge of Greece.

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece
Author: Sarah B. Pomeroy
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 604
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN:

Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History is a tribute to the legacy of the Ancient Greeks and their achievements. Bringing together the political, military, social, cultural, and economic history of ancient Greece, the four authors tell the story of the ancient civilizationfrom the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic era.The book is comprehensive, covering the standard political and military history, but also topics such as life in the countryside, material culture, religion, treatment of women, homosexuality, and slavery; the new edition incorporates the most recent theories and discoveries in archeology,comparative anthropology, and social history.