Kinship in Thucydides: Intercommunal Ties and Historical Narrative

ISBN-13: 9780199697779 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 464 str.

Maria Fragoulaki

Opis

This volume explores the relationship between Thucydides and ancient Greek historiography, sociology, and culture. Presenting a new interpretation of the Peloponnesian War and its historian, it focuses on the role of emotions and ethics in the context of political history and ethnic conflicts. Drawing on modern anthropological inquiries on kinship and the sociology of ethnicity and emotions, and on scholarly work on kinship diplomacy and Greek ethnicity, it argues that inter-communal kinship has a far more pervasive importance in Thucydides than has so far been acknowledged.
Through close readings and contextualization of a variety of sources, Fragoulaki discusses the various ways in which ancient Greek communities could be related to each other (colonization, genealogies, belonging to the same ethnic group, socio-cultural symbols, political mechanisms, and institutions) and the largely cultural, emotional, and ethical expression of these ties. Through new readings of the History, such topics as Thucydides' narrative technique, his challenging silences, his interaction with other genres, and his intense engagement with Herodotus are dissected and discussed--offering a new appreciation of his unique contribution to historiography.

Recenzje

This stimulating volume by Maria Fragoulaki brings into focus the complicated and widespread web of kinship ties in Thucydides and emphasizes the emotional charge these ties inject into interactions among related communities.

O autorze

Maria Fragoulaki is a Lecturer in Ancient Greek History at Cardiff University.