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XI. Christoph Ulf, The Development of Greek Ethnê and their Ethnicity: An Anthropological Perspective

XI. The Development of Greek Ethnê and their Ethnicity: An Anthropological Perspective Christoph Ulf Standard definitions of koinon/league have been, and often still are, based on the assumption of the existence of units that defined themselves in ethnic terms (ethnê), which extend far back in time. This tendency is connected with the conviction that all human communities are “ethnic” in that they are founded on biological… Read more

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Contributors

Contributors Klaus Freitag is Professor of Ancient History at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen. The history of the Gulf of Corinth is one of his main areas of specialization, to which he devoted the book Der Golf von Korinth. Historisch-topographische Untersuchungen von der Archaik bis in das 1. Jh. v. Chr. (Munich 2000). Peter Funke is Professor of Ancient History at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Munster. He has… Read more

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Preface

Preface [In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made elsewhere to the printed version of this book.] On the cover of this book is an image of… Read more

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Introduction. 1. Language and the Female in Early Greek Thought

1. Language and the Female in Early Greek Thought [1] I. The Speech of the Muses At the start of the Theogony, Hesiod describes his poetic initiation. As he was tending his lambs under Mt. Helicon, the Muses “taught him beautiful singing” (καλὴν ἐδίδαξαν ἀοιδήν, Theogony 22), when to him for the first time they made this pronouncement: ποιμένες ἄγραυλοι, κάκ’… Read more

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Part II. Every God Is Plural. 1. Experimenting in the Field of Polytheisms

Chapter 1. Experimenting in the Field of Polytheisms [*] The discovery that gods make good objects of research was not made by contemporary anthropology. The very first anthropologists never failed to recommend making an inventory of the various kinds of powers at large in a village or scattered the length and breadth of a kingdom. However, by the end of the nineteenth… Read more

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Part II. Every God Is Plural. 2. This Is Where I Intend to Build a Glorious Temple

Chapter 2. This Is Where I Intend to Build a Glorious Temple [*] Before making one of the most decisive pronouncements of his career, the young Apollo had experienced what it was to wander, for even before his birth, his doubly pregnant mother was forced to undertake a long march. [1] The story of this great god… Read more

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Part II. Every God Is Plural. 3. Forgetting Delphi Between Apollo and Dionysus

Chapter 3. Forgetting Delphi Between Apollo and Dionysus [*] Let us be clear who is at fault if we are still today attracted and fascinated by the opposition between Apollonian and Dionysian, be it in a Poussin painting or at the origins of Greek religion. It is certainly not the fault of Orpheus’ first disciples, who did make use of the contrasts… Read more

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Part III. “Politics” Doesn’t Fall from the Sky. 1. Doing Comparative Anthropology in the Field of Politics

Chapter 1. Doing Comparative Anthropology in the Field of Politics [*] There is a long history behind the Greeks and us. Clearly, the Greeks are not a tribe or even an ethnic group like others. At the heart of what historians complacently call “the history of the West,” the Greeks represent a real stake, in the sense of what may be either… Read more

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Part III. “Politics” Doesn’t Fall from the Sky. 2. The Gods of Politics in Early Greek Cities

Chapter 2. The Gods of Politics in Early Greek Cities [*] Here, I have decided to speak of “the gods” rather than “religion.” The “gods” know why I have rejected a modern reference to “religion.” I confess that I have never held the terms “religious” and “religion” in high esteem. And that is not solely because those terms, with their associations with… Read more

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Works Cited

Works Cited Abélès, M. 1983. Le lieu du politique. Paris. ———. 2003. “Revenir chez les Ochollo.” In Detienne 2003b:393–413. Ackerman, R. 1987. J. G. Frazer: His Life and Work. Cambridge. Allen, T. W., Halliday, W. R., and Sikes, E. E. 1936. The Homeric Hymns. 2nd ed. Oxford. Altherr-Charon, A., and… Read more