Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- 1. What is an oath? -- 2. Oath and curse -- 3. Oaths in traditional myth -- 4. Friendship and enmity, trust and suspicion -- 5. The language of oaths -- 6. Ways to give oaths extra sanctity -- 7. Oaths, gender and status -- 8. Oaths and characterization: two Homeric case studies -- 9. Oratory and rhetoric -- 10. "Artful dodging", or the sidestepping of oaths -- 11. The binding power of oaths -- 12. Responses to perjury -- 13. The informal oath -- 13a. Swearing oaths in the authorial person -- 14. The Hippocratic Oath -- 15. The decline of the oath? -- Bibliography -- Index locorum -- Subject index
The oath was an institution of fundamental importance across a wide range of social interactions throughout the ancient Greek world, making a crucial contribution to social stability and harmony; yet there has been no comprehensive, dedicated scholarly study of the subject for over a century. This volume of a two-volume study explores the nature of oaths as Greeks perceived it, the ways in which they were used (and sometimes abused) in Greek life and literature, and their inherent binding power.
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In English.
9783110227369
2014501211
History, Ancient. Oaths (Greek law) Oaths (Greek law). Oaths--History--Greece--To 1500. Public law (Greek law) Eid. Griechenland. Polis. HISTORY / Ancient / General.