In this volume, an international group of leading academics undertake an examination of epitedeumata ('way of life') in Greek history, looking at cultural practices as acts which relate meaningfully to perceived sequences of past acts.

Patterns of the past : epitåedeumata in the Greek tradition

Moreno.; Rosalind Thomas; Alfonso Moreno

IRL Press at Oxford University Press

Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

German Historical Institute London

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

First edition, New York, NY, 2014

First edition, Oxford, 2014

Illustrated, 2014

Oxford, 2015

In this volume, an international group of leading academics undertake an examination of epitēdeumata ('way of life') in Greek history, looking at cultural practices as acts which relate meaningfully to perceived sequences of past acts. Introduction / Rosalind Thomas and Alfonso Moreno -- The Trojan Horse: between Athena and Artemis / Bruno d'Agostino -- Rediscovering Sacadas / Ewen Bowie -- The early Greek trophy: the iconographic tradition of time and space / Franc̦ois Lissarrague -- The cunning tyrant: the cultural logic of a narrative pattern / Nino Luraghi -- Political traditions in democratic Athens / Pauline Schmitt Pantel -- Past it at thirty: legs and running in ancient Greek culture / James Davidson -- The Greek Polis and the tradition of Polis history: local history, chronicles and the patterning of the past / Rosalind Thomas -- Seeing double in Seleucid Babylonia: rereading the Borsippa cylinder of Antiochus I / Paul Kosmin -- Theopompus and the tradition of Greek paideutic history / Alfonso Moreno -- Agariste's suitors: an Olympic note / Simon Hornblower -- Epilogue: The pleasure of intellectual friendship / Oswyn Murray. edited by Alfonso Moreno and Rosalind Thomas. Includes bibliographical references and index.

This book is about epitēdeumata and culturally determined practices that held particular significance in ancient Greece. Epitēdeumata are basically interpreted and translated as 'practices', a term that seems both elusive and all-encompassing. On closer inspection, though, epitēdeumata overlap with the carrying on of social customs, nomoi. Plato interprets epitēdeumata as something akin to profession or professional practices. The significance of epitēdeumata to Greek cultural history depends on their simultaneous and almost paradoxical relationship to both habit and intentionality. This book explores epitēdeumata in relation to nomoi in the Herodotean sense of old, traditional practices; nomaia, customs in a looser sense; and behaviour, modes of practice, and thought which may not be categorised as formal 'customs'. It also examines why certain fourth-century thinkers became preoccupied with epitēdeumata

Classical Greek consistently uses epitedeumata to signify 'way of life' or even 'everyday habits', but always refers to practices that are deliberately pursued, not traditions and customs that are passively carried on. In this volume, an international group of leading academics undertake an examination of epitedeumata in Greek history, looking at cultural practices as acts which relate meaningfully to perceived sequences of past acts. In doing so, the contributors ask what kinds of attitudes the ancient Greeks had towards their past, and what behaviour such attitudes provoked. Each of the original contributions to this collection focuses on different kinds of epitedeumata as act patterns in the Greek world, incorporating religion and myth, political behaviour, sexuality, and historiography. Book jacket

2024-07-02