The Center for Hellenic Studies

Chapters

Book Chapter

2: The System of Hostage Regulations in Rome and the Greco-Roman World {27–79}

1: Meaning and Purpose of Hostageship in the Greco-Roman World {1–20} The circumstances in which persons acted as sureties in the Greco-Roman world may be classified under four basic categories: exchange, unilateral exaction by formal national agreement, private contract, and extralegal seizure. The words which describe such persons are ῥύσια, ὅμηρος, ἀνάδοχοι, ἐνέχυρα, and obses in all these categories, although obses seems to have had a technical application to just… Read more

Book Chapter

List of Abbreviations

Preface {i-vi} With the eighteenth century died the last societies of Western Europe which practiced the institution of hostageship. After A.D. 1748, when France received two English peers as pledges for the return of Cape Breton, the nations of Europe no longer exacted hostages as living sureties for the fulfillment of international agreements. Consequently the modern European and American historian must make a conscious effort to comprehend the concept of… Read more

Book Chapter

About the Author

About the Author Casey Dué is an associate professor of Classical Studies at the University of Houston. She holds a B.A. in Classics from Brown University, and an M.A. and Ph.D in Classical Philology from Harvard University. Her teaching and research interests include ancient Greek oral traditions, Homeric poetry, Greek tragedy, and textual criticism. … Read more

Book Chapter

Bibliography

Bibliography Ackermann, H. C., and J.-R. Gisler, eds. Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. Zurich: Artemis Verlag, 1981-1997. Adkins, A. W. K. “Threatening, Abusing, and Feeling Angry in the Homeric Poems.” JHS 89 (1960): 7-21. Ahlberg-Cornell, G. Myth and Epos in Early Greek Art: Representation and Interpretation. Jonsered, Sweden: Paul Åströms Förlag, 1992. Aitken, E. “ὁπάων and ὁπάζων: A Study in the… Read more

Book Chapter

Appendix

Appendix Selected Ancient Literary References to Briseis [115]Apollodorus, Library, Epitome 4.1, 4.3, 4.7: Αχιλλεὺς δὲ μηνίων ἐπὶ τὸν πόλεμον οὐκ ἐξῄει διὰ Βρισηίδα (4.1) οἱ δὲ πέμπουσι πρὸς Ἀχιλλέα πρέσβεις Ὀδυσσέα καὶ Φοίνικα καὶ Αἴαντα, συμμαχεῖν ἀξιοῦντες καὶ Βρισηίδα καὶ ἄλλα δῶρα ὑπισχνούμενοι (4.3) Ἀχιλλεὺς δὲ τὴν ὀργὴν ἀποθέμενος καὶ τὴν Βρισηίδα κομί™ζεται. (4.7) … Read more

Book Chapter

Afterword

Afterword Elegizing Briseis in Augustan Rome [91] The poetic potential of our glimpse of Briseis in the Iliad was not lost on the Augustan poets, who also had access to the Epic Cycle, which we have only in summary form. [1] Propertius and later Ovid seize on the figure of Briseis and the tragic aspects of her relationship with Achilles as the perfect… Read more

Book Chapter

Conclusion. Tradition and Innovation

Conclusion. Tradition and Innovation A single man or even a group of men who set out in the most careful way could not make even a beginning at such an oral diction. It must be the work of many poets over many generations. When one singer … has hit upon a phrase which is pleasing and easily used, other singers will hear it, and then, when… Read more