Böcker av Nicole Loraux

According to one myth, the first Athenian citizen was born from the earth after the sperm of a rejected lover, the god Hephaistos, dripped off the virgin goddess Athena's leg and onto fertile soil. Henceforth Athenian citizens could claim to be truly indigenous to their city and to have divine origins that bypassed maternity. In these essays, the renowned French Hellenist Nicole Loraux examines the implication of this and other Greek origin myths as she explores how Athenians in the fifth century forged and maintained a collective identity.

An exploration of the roles of conflict and forgetting in ancient Athens.

"Nicole Loraux brilliantly elucidates how Athenian politics were 'gendered' in the Classical period. She investigates the Athenian state's interdiction of ritualized mourning by women, in a city where public mourning constituted a vital act of civic...

Frontmatter -- Avant-propos -- Table des matières -- Une invention bien athénienne -- I. L'oraison funèbre dans la cité démocratique -- II. Le discours aux morts et la destination de la parole -- III. L'histoire athénienne d'Athènes -- IV. «K?? ????? ??? ... ?????????? ????????» -- V. L'oraison funèbre, genre politique -- VI. Sous le charme d'une idéalité -- Athènes imaginaire ou l'invention de la cité -- Notes critiques -- Bibliographie -- Index

Loraux presents a radical challenge to what has become the dominant view of tragedy in recent years: that tragedy is primarily a civic phenomenon.

In ordinary life an Athenian woman was allowed no accomplishments beyond leading a quiet, exemplary existence as wife and mother. In Greek tragedy, however, women die violently and, through violence, master their fate. Through her reading of these texts, Loraux elicits an array of insights into Greek attitudes toward death, sexuality, and gender.