Performing Oaths in Classical Greek Drama

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Performing Oaths in Classical Greek Drama
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Judith Fletcher
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:290
Dimensions(mm): Height 228,Width 152
Category/GenreDrama
Literary studies - classical, early and medieval
Literary studies - plays and playwrights
ISBN/Barcode 9781107525832
ClassificationsDewey:882.0109
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises; Printed music items

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 14 May 2015
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Oaths were ubiquitous rituals in ancient Athenian legal, commercial, civic and international spheres. Their importance is reflected by the fact that much of surviving Greek drama features a formal oath sworn before the audience. This is the first comprehensive study of that phenomenon. The book explores how the oath can mark or structure a dramatic plot, at times compelling characters like Euripides' Hippolytus to act contrary to their best interests. It demonstrates how dramatic oaths resonate with oath rituals familiar to the Athenian audiences. Aristophanes' Lysistrata and her accomplices, for example, swear an oath that blends protocols of international treaties with priestesses' vows of sexual abstinence. By employing the principles of speech act theory, this book examines how the performative power of the dramatic oath can mirror the status quo, but also disturb categories of gender, social status and civic identity in ways that redistribute and confound social authority.

Author Biography

Judith Fletcher is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is the author of numerous articles and chapters on ancient Greek poetry, drama, religion and law and has co-edited Virginity Revisited: Configurations of the Unpossessed Body (with Bonnie MacLachlan, 2007) and Horkos: The Oath in Greek Society (with Alan H. Sommerstein, 2007).