Envy, Poison, & Death
Women on Trial in Classical Athens
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 19 April 2018
- ISBN 9780198822585
- Binding Paperback
- No. of pages440 pages
- Size 220x140x25 mm
- Weight 542 g
- Language English 0
Categories
Short description:
This volume explores three trials conducted in Athens in the fourth century BCE; the defendants were all women charged with undertaking ritual activities, but much of the evidence remains a mystery. The author reveals how these trials provide a vivid glimpse of the socio-political environment of Athens during the early-mid fourth century BCE.
MoreLong description:
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.
At the heart of this volume are three trials held in Athens in the fourth century BCE. The defendants were all women and in each case the charges involved a combination of ritual activities. Two were condemned to death. Because of the brevity of the ancient sources, and their lack of agreement, the precise charges are unclear, and the reasons for taking these women to court remain mysterious.
Envy, Poison, and Death takes the complexity and confusion of the evidence not as a a riddle to be solved, but as revealing multiple social dynamics. It explores the changing factors—material, ideological, and psychological—that may have provoked these events. It focuses in particular on the dual role of envy (phthonos) and gossip as processes by which communities identified people and activities that were dangerous, and examines how and why those local, even individual, dynamics may have come to shape official civic decisions during a time of perceived hardship.
At first sight so puzzling, these trials reveal a vivid picture of the socio-political environment of Athens during the early-mid fourth century BCE, including responses to changes in women's status and behaviour, and attitudes to ritual activities within the city. The volume reveals some of the characters, events, and even emotions that would help to shape an emergent concept of magic: it suggests that the boundary of acceptable behaviour was shifting, not only within the legal arena but also through the active involvement of society beyond the courts.
Eidinow's exploration of the trials of women enriches our understanding of social and legal processes that affected all Athenians, citizen status males or otherwise . . . Eidinow's meticulous detail . . . binds together our fragmentary glimpses of women's lives into a compelling account of the complex intersections of private and public speech, imagined and realized actions and threats, and unofficial religion and civic legal institutions, in a vivid picture of Athens.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Part 1: The Women
Introduction: Overview and Approach
The Evidence
What Charges?
Conclusion
Part 2: Envy
Introduction: 'As Rust Eats Iron'
Defining Emotions
Narratives as Phthonos
Phthonos and Misfortune
Conclusion
Part 3: Poison
Introduction: 'A Relish for the Envious'
Identifying Gossip
Genres of Gossip
From Gossip to Action
Conclusion
Part 4: Death
Introduction: 'Killed by Idle Gossip'
After the War...
Dependence and Vulnerability
'Dangerous Women'
Conclusion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
