Myth, text, and history at Sparta
By: edited by Thomas Figueira
Series: Gorgias studies in classical and late antiquity -- 18; Gorgias studies in classical and late antiquity -- 18.
Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Piscataway, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 343
ISBN-13: 9781463205959
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Sources; History; Historiography; Politics and government; Social policy; Myth; Memory; Collective memory; Ideology
Description: "Myth, Text, and History at Sparta unites three studies that offer close readings concerning the interaction of the source material on Spartan history with the unfolding of actual historical events. These contributions take the position that not only political, but also social, policies at Sparta, as well as the historical actors giving them shape, were intensely--and to an unusual degree--influenced by myth, tradition, and popular memory about the Laconian past. Sparta drew strength from its professed adherence to the legacy of the Dorian conquest and to the legislative program of Lykourgos. And, objectively, Sparta represented the most tightly articulated instance of an archaic Greek sociopolitical order. However, past and present at Sparta co-evolved. The reader will find in the studies brought together in this volume that ideology, recollection, and wish-fulfillment stood in dynamic tension not only with practical decision-making, but also with the enthralling, centuries-long quest by individual Spartans for authority, legitimacy, and authenticity"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction / Thomas Figueira; title: Politeia and Lakonika in Spartan historiography / Thomas Figueira; title: The Lysandreia / Aaron J. Beck-Schachter; title: Getting carried away with Theseus : the evolution and partisan use of the Athenian abduction of Spartan Helen / Aaron Hershkowitz.