The Making of Identities in Athenian Oratory (Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies)

Focusing on extant speeches from the Athenian Assembly, law, and Council in the fifth–fourth centuries BCE, these essays explore how speakers constructed or deconstructed identities for themselves and their opponents as part of a rhetorical strategy designed to persuade or manipulate the audience. According to the needs of the occasion, speakers could identify the Athenian people either as a unified demos or as a collection of sub-groups, and they could exploit either differences or similarities between Athenians and other Greeks, and between Greeks and ‘barbarians’. Names and naming strategies were an essential tool in the (de)construction of individuals’ identities, while the Athenians’ civic identity could be constructed in terms of honour(s), ethnicity, socio-economic status, or religion. Within the forensic setting, the physical location and procedural conventions of an Athenian trial could shape the identities of its participants in a unique if transient way. The Making of Identities in Athenian Oratory is an insightful look at this understudied aspect of Athenian oratory and will be of interest to anyone working on the speeches themselves, identity in ancient Greece, or ancient oratory and rhetoric more broadly. Focusing on extant speeches from the Athenian Assembly, law, and Council in the fifth to fourth centuries BCE, these essays explore how speakers constructed or deconstructed identities for themselves and their opponents as part of a rhetorical strategy designed to persuade or manipulate the audience. According to the needs of the occasion, speakers could identify the Athenian people either as a unified dēmos or as a collection of sub-groups, and they could exploit either differences or similarities between Athenians and other Greeks and between Greeks and ‘barbarians’. Names and naming strategies were an essential tool in the (de)construction of individuals’ identities, while the Athenians’ civic identity could be constructed in terms of honour(s), ethnicity, socio-economic status, or religion. Within the forensic setting, the physical location and procedural conventions of an Athenian trial could shape the identities of its participants in a unique if transient way. The Making of Id Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Notes on contributors 8 Abbreviations 10 Introduction 14 Part I The politics of naming and individuals’ rhetorical identities 26 1 Civic and local identities in Athenian rhetoric 28 2 The two Mantitheuses in Demosthenes 39 and [Demosthenes] 40: a case of Athenian identity theft? 45 3 Constructing the identity of Timarchus in Aeschines 1 60 4 Constructing gender identity: women in Athenian trials 76 Part II The rhetorical construction of civic identities 94 5 Athenian identity and the ideology of autochthony: an institutionalist approach 96 6 Lysias and the rhetoric of citizen honour 115 7 Archaism, performance, and civic status in Lysias 10 Against Theomnestus 135 8 Seeing others as Athenians in Demosthenes’ third Philippic 150 Part III Social and material dimensions of Athenian identities 164 9 The rich and the poor, conflicts and alliances: socio-economic identities and their uses in the Demosthenic corpus 166 10 Prosecutorial identities and the problem of relevance 184 11 Space, place, and identity in Antiphon On the murder of Herodes 204 Index 219 Index locorum 223 "Focusing on extant speeches from the Athenian Assembly, lawcourts, and Council in the 5th-4th centuries BC, these essays explore how speakers constructed or deconstructed identities for themselves and their opponents as part of a rhetorical strategy designed to persuade or manipulate the audience. According to the needs of the occasion, speakers could identify the Athenian people either as a unified demos or as a collection of sub-groups, and they could exploit either differences or similarities between Athenians and other Greeks, and between Greeks and 'barbarians'. Names and naming strategies were an essential tool in the (de)construction of individuals' identities, while the Athenians' civic identity could be constructed in terms of honour(s), ethnicity, socio-economic status, or religion. Within the forensic setting, the physical location and procedural conventions of an Athenian trial could shape the identities of its participants in a unique if transient way. The Making of Identities in Athenian Oratory is a fascinating look at this understudied aspect of Athenian oratory, and will be of interest to anyone working on the speeches themselves, identity in ancient Greece, or ancient oratory and rhetoric more broadly".- [Extrait de la préface] "Focusing on extant speeches from the Athenian Assembly, lawcourts, and Council in the 5th-4th centuries BC, these essays explore how speakers constructed or deconstructed identities for themselves and their opponents as part of a rhetorical strategy designed to persuade or manipulate the audience. According to the needs of the occasion, speakers could identify the Athenian people either as a unified demos or as a collection of sub-groups, and they could exploit either differences or similarities between Athenians and other Greeks, and between Greeks and 'barbarians'. Names and naming strategies were an essential tool in the (de)construction of individuals' identities, while the Athenians' civic identity could be constructed in terms of honour(s), ethnicity, socio-economic status, or religion. Within the forensic setting, the physical location and procedural conventions of an Athenian trial could shape the identities of its participants in a unique if transient way. The Making of Identities in Athenian Oratory is a fascinating look at this understudied aspect of Athenian oratory, and will be of interest to anyone working on the speeches themselves, identity in ancient Greece, or ancient oratory and rhetoric more broadly"-- Provided by publisher A fascinating look at extant speeches from the Athenian Assembly, lawcourts, and Council in the 5th-4th centuries BC. Of interest to anyone working on the speeches themselves, identity in ancient Greece, or ancient oratory and rhetoric more broadly.