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Epilogue: The West, Islam, Russia

Antony Black

in The West and Islam: Religion and Political Thought in World History

After the Reformation, European political philosophy blossomed and produced a diversity of ideas. Meanwhile Islamic political thought stagnated. These two political thought-worlds were now completely ... More

After the Reformation, European political philosophy blossomed and produced a diversity of ideas. Meanwhile Islamic political thought stagnated. These two political thought-worlds were now completely different and no longer comparable. The Byzantine ideology of sacred monarchy was adopted by Russia. Western ideas influenced first Russia, then the Muslim-majority countries. The influence on Russia has so far been more extensive. Russia contributed to the Western dialogue. Western influence among Muslims is contested by fundamentalists such as Qutb. To a certain extent the West was transmitting the heritage of classical Greece.Less

Arming Slaves and Helots in Classical Greece

Peter Hunt

in Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age

In classical Greece, the independent city-states fought many wars against each other. When the wars became intense, often involving large navies, states used every available source of manpower ... More

In classical Greece, the independent city-states fought many wars against each other. When the wars became intense, often involving large navies, states used every available source of manpower including their slaves. Because many of these slaves were crucial to the states' agriculture and urban economies, cities sometimes encouraged their opponents' slaves to rebel or desert while mobilizing their own slaves. This chapter looks at the practice of arming slaves and Helots in classical Greece, focusing on three cases: slaves from Scythia who performed police functions within Athens, slaves who accompanied hoplites on campaigns but were unarmed, and slaves who were sometimes armed as infantry soldiers. It then examines the practical problems, politics, and effects of arming slaves by considering two cases: the military roles of Sparta's serf-like Helot population and the use of slaves in the Athenian navy during the Peloponnesian War.Less

Classical Greek Attitudes to Sexual Behaviour

K. J. Doveri

in Sex and Difference in Ancient Greece and Rome

The Greeks regarded sexual enjoyment as the area of life in which the goddess Aphrodite was interested, as Ares was interested in war and other deities in other activities. Sexual intercourse was ... More

The Greeks regarded sexual enjoyment as the area of life in which the goddess Aphrodite was interested, as Ares was interested in war and other deities in other activities. Sexual intercourse was aphrodisia, ‘the things of Aphrodite’. Sexual desire could be denoted by general words for ‘desire’, but the obsessive desire for a particular person was eros or love. Our own culture has its myths about the remote past, and one myth which dies hard is that the ‘invention’ of sexual guilt, shame and fear by the Christians destroyed a golden age of free, fearless, pagan sexuality. That most pagans were in many ways less inhibited than most Christians is undeniable. This chapter explores attitudes to sexual behaviour in classical Greece, focusing on inhibition, women's segregation and adultery, commercial sex, resistance to sexual desire, homosexuality, class and status, and Greek philosophy and sexual intercourse.Less

Pornography, Life, and the Gods in the Greek and Roman Eras

Kevin W. Saunders

in Degradation: What the History of Obscenity Tells Us about Hate Speech

This chapter examines the history of how societies have treated sexual images by focusing on the classical period. It begins with an overview of art, sex, and religion in classical Greece and Rome ... More

This chapter examines the history of how societies have treated sexual images by focusing on the classical period. It begins with an overview of art, sex, and religion in classical Greece and Rome before turning to an extended period, after the end of the classical era, in which public art became less sexual and sex and pornography came to be accompanied by a shame that was not present for the Greeks and Romans. It then explores what it was about the classical cultures that led to the wide acceptance of sex and sexual depictions. It shows how the Greeks and Romans became very accepting of sexual images, especially in drama and in the arts. It also discusses the sex life of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses and suggests that Greek and Roman culture was characterized by an accepted and open sexuality.Less

The Enlightenment Science of Politics

Robert Wokler

in Inventing Human Science: Eighteenth-Century Domains

Political science was manifestly not invented in the Enlightenment and may in fact be the oldest of all the human sciences. Indeed, so striking for much of its career since classical Greece, the ... More

Political science was manifestly not invented in the Enlightenment and may in fact be the oldest of all the human sciences. Indeed, so striking for much of its career since classical Greece, the science of politics has apparently sifted the base metal of human nature rather than refined the ore that at its birth gave it a special luster. Two main lines of enquiry, largely distinct but occasionally connected even within the same works, were pursued by eighteenth-century political scientists: on the one hand, the theoretical study of the principles of legislation, authority, and the structure of government; on the other, the analysis of political behavior and development, including the forces that drive individuals to personal domination or collective action, and societies to historical change.Less

2 Pornography, Life, and the Gods in the Greek and Roman Eras

Kevin W. Saunders

in Degradation: What the History of Obscenity Tells Us about Hate Speech

This chapter examines the history of how societies have treated sexual images by focusing on the classical period. It begins with an overview of art, sex, and religion in classical Greece and Rome ... More

This chapter examines the history of how societies have treated sexual images by focusing on the classical period. It begins with an overview of art, sex, and religion in classical Greece and Rome before turning to an extended period, after the end of the classical era, in which public art became less sexual and sex and pornography came to be accompanied by a shame that was not present for the Greeks and Romans. It then explores what it was about the classical cultures that led to the wide acceptance of sex and sexual depictions. It shows how the Greeks and Romans became very accepting of sexual images, especially in drama and in the arts. It also discusses the sex life of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses and suggests that Greek and Roman culture was characterized by an accepted and open sexuality. Less

Preservation of City Walls

Rune Frederiksen

in Greek City Walls of the Archaic Period, 900–480 BC

This chapter investigates the evidence of destruction of various walls throughout history in an attempt to look at this study of pre-Classical walls through the right perspective. It covers research ... More

This chapter investigates the evidence of destruction of various walls throughout history in an attempt to look at this study of pre-Classical walls through the right perspective. It covers research about the destruction of walls in modern times caused by new constructions and modern farming activities; destruction in antiquity and Middle Ages by wars and city renovations; destruction prompted by disrepair; and destruction triggered by natural causes. It is important to identify the degree of destruction in order to fully recognize its impact on the remaining city walls.Less

Early Greek Aristocracy and the Symposion

Marek Wecowski

in The Rise of the Greek Aristocratic Banquet

This chapter is a detailed reconstruction of the ceremonial of the archaic and classical symposion and of its varied types of entertainment, including drinking games, contests of agility and the ... More

This chapter is a detailed reconstruction of the ceremonial of the archaic and classical symposion and of its varied types of entertainment, including drinking games, contests of agility and the predominant intellectual pastimes which mark off the symposion as a very peculiar convivial occasion. Still, a necessary prerequisite for any historical study of the symposion, and thus a real challenge in treating the matters treated in this chapter, is to define the social group whose members enjoyed the symposia in the archaic period. Despite some recent attempts to prove otherwise, and in keeping with the traditional view advocated in a number of ground-breaking studies by Oswyn Murray, it is argued that before the 5th century b.c. the symposion was fundamentally an aristocratic phenomenon. However, a clear definition of this social group is still lacking. This chapter is an attempt at bridging this gap in recent scholarship.Less

The Ancient Background

in Contemporary Athletics & Ancient Greek Ideals

This chapter, which provides a sketch of ancient Greek athletics, compares Stephen Miller's nuanced and generally positive assessment of ancient athletics and Nigel Spivey's contrasting stance. It ... More

This chapter, which provides a sketch of ancient Greek athletics, compares Stephen Miller's nuanced and generally positive assessment of ancient athletics and Nigel Spivey's contrasting stance. It also comments on Spivey's assertion that the values of physical culture articulated in Classical Greece have conquered the modern world. The chapter suggests that one of the most prominent features of ancient Greek athletics was the attention paid to the fairness of the games.Less

Ancient Ideals and the Healthy Self: Mary Ann Shadd’s Plea for Emigration and Martin Robison Delany’s Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny

Andrea Stone

in Black Well-Being: Health and Selfhood in Antebellum Black Literature

Emulating more the conventions of the almanac than those of wildly popular early- to mid-nineteenth-century emigration narratives authored by British émigrés to Canada, Mary Ann Shadd and Martin ... More

Emulating more the conventions of the almanac than those of wildly popular early- to mid-nineteenth-century emigration narratives authored by British émigrés to Canada, Mary Ann Shadd and Martin Delany urge black evacuation through a claim for black health and well-being, vivifying the crucial relation they see between corporeal and political ideals. Each advocates the connection between a healthy black body and black political independence, irreconcilable with U.S. residency. Their quest for and designation of healthful places of settlement draw from classical Greek characterizations, which idealize hygia. Such an ideal forms the primary vehicle for their propaganda.Less

The Arming of Slaves in Comparative Perspective

Christopher Leslie Brown

in Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age

A comparative analysis of the arming of slaves may shed light on the problems regarding the dynamics of power within slave societies, the nature of domination and resistance, and the paradoxes of ... More

A comparative analysis of the arming of slaves may shed light on the problems regarding the dynamics of power within slave societies, the nature of domination and resistance, and the paradoxes of mastery and enslavement. This book has provided case studies on the arming of slaves throughout thousands of years of history, focusing on the use of slave soldiers in regions from classical Greece to western Africa and the Middle East. It has examined how the arming of slaves expressed itself in either military slavery or the less sophisticated schemes commonly used in the Americas. It has also discussed slave recruitment and deployment and the reasons behind the arming of slaves, including blacks. In addition, the book has explored the consequences of the arming of slaves both for the enslaved and the institution of slavery itself.Less