Title: Crooked Kings of Ancient Greece
First published: 1996
Description: By comparing traditional narratives concerning archaic colonists and tyrants, Ogden shows that monarchic rulers in archaic Greece were often paradoxically conceptualized as deformed scapegoats or as evil malformed babies of sinister birth. This way of thinking helped to explain their extraordinary power, for they embodied in their twisted limbs a terrible pollution that enabled them to overthrow their communities. The author considers a diverse range of related themes, including the myth of Oedipus, the fables of Aesop, the meanings attached to monkeys, pigs and mice, demonic cooks, the characters of early farce, Spartan hairstyles, and the beginnings of Greek democracy and ostracism at Athens.
Subjects: Ancient Kings and rulers, Kings and rulers, Kings and rulers, Ancient, Politics and government, Greece, politics and government
Places: Greece
Time periods: To 146 B.C.
LC classification: DF82 .O44 1997