The Concept of News in Ancient Greek Literature

292 Pages·2022·2.509 MB·English

by  Raquel Fornieles

Raquel Fornieles
The Concept of News in Ancient Greek Literature
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Volume 141
Raquel Fornieles
The Concept of
News in Ancient
Greek Literature
ISBN 978-3-11-102166-9
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-102237-6
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-102295-6
ISSN 1868-4785
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022946900
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Preface
In this book I aim to show that the concept of news that we have today is not a
modern invention, but rather a social and cultural institution that has been
passed down to us by the Ancient Greeks. This concept is only modified by the
social, political and economic conditions that make our society different from
theirs.
This book started out as my doctoral thesis, “The transmission of news in
Ancient Greek Literature” (recognized with the Award of the Spanish Society for
Classical Studies), which I wrote at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and
submitted in 2015. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Emil-
io Crespo, and thank the members of the committee before whom I defended my
thesis: Marina Benedetti, Luz Conti, Óscar Loureda, Luis Macía and Rafael Mar-
tínez. I was fortunate enough to have been given valuable advice and useful
suggestions from a number of colleagues, including Georgios Giannakis and
Carmen Leal Soares, who also wrote the reports that were required for me to be
awarded an International PhD.
It is very difficult to express in a few words the gratitude I feel towards my
friends and my family. This book would not have been possible if it were not for
the love of the most important people in my life: my parents, Matías and Anto-
nia, my brother, Matías, and, of course, Roberto, whose unconditional support I
felt at every stage of this journey.
This book is dedicated to all of them and, above all, to Adriana and Héctor.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111022376-202

Contents
Preface  V
List of Figures  IX
Introduction  XI
The approach from Anthropology  XIV
The concept of news today  XVI
The concept of news in Ancient Greek Literature  XVII
Using ἄγγελος and its derivatives to understand the concept of news  XVII
Etymology: ἄγγελος, a Greek creation  XX
Meanings  XXI
 Homer: The Iliad and the Odyssey  1
Κήρυκες: heralds by profession  2
Ἄγγελοι: anyone can be a messenger  5
From the death of Patroclus to the return of Odysseus: bad and good
news  13
Final remarks  32
 Greek Lyric Poetry: Pindar and Bacchylides  34
Two practically identical figures  35
The triumph is news  38
Final remarks  45
 Tragedy  47
Κήρυκες: heralds by profession  47
Ἄγγελοι: professional messengers  58
Why messenger scenes?  60
The presence of the chorus makes scene-shifts practically impossible  60
A chorus cannot act crowd-scenes  60
Miracles cannot be shown on stage  61
Death on stage was not feasible  61
Literary tradition  62
Defining the tragic messenger  62
Ἄγγελοι play an informative role  65
Ἄγγελοι are eyewitnesses: the αὐτοψία  66
Ἄγγελοι reinforce their speeches with statements from the main characters of
the events they relate  68
VIII  Contents
The news transmitted by ἄγγελοι is completely reliable  69
Criteria for classifying characters as ἄγγελοι  70
From war to suicides: a wide range of news  72
Final remarks  100
 Aristophanic Comedy  101
Κήρυκες: heralds by profession  101
Ἄγγελοι: the parody of the tragic messenger  106
Absurd announcements: the mockery of tragic news  115
Final remarks  125
 Historians: Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon  127
Ἄγγελοι and κήρυκες: professionals in diplomatic missions  129
Bearers of news  134
Spies looking for information from the enemy  139
Royal messengers  143
From news of war to legal terms  143
Final remarks  182
 Greek Oratory: Isocrates, Lysias, Aeschines and Demosthenes  185
No news from the messenger  185
Public matters and legal language  187
Final remarks  213
 Fake News  215
Derivatives of ἄγγελος: truth and falsehood  216
Fake news in Greek tragedy  219
Fake news in the works of historians  225
Final remarks  229
 Conclusions  230
Bibliography  233
General Index  251
Index Locorum  255
List of Figures
Fig. 1: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Homer, Pindar, Bacchylides, Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Lysias, Isocrates, Demos-
thenes and Aeschines.    XVIII
Fig. 2: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in the Iliad.    14
Fig. 3: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in the Odyssey.    14
Fig. 4: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Pindar’s Odes.    38
Fig. 5: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Bacchylides’ Odes.    38
Fig. 6: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Aeschylus.    73
Fig. 7: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Sophocles.    73
Fig. 8: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Euripides.    74
Fig. 9: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Aristophanes’ comedies.    115
Fig. 10: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Herodotus.    144
Fig. 11: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Thucydides.    145
Fig. 12: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Xenophon.  146
Fig. 13: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Lysias’ speeches.  188
Fig. 14: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Isocrates’ speeches.    188
Fig. 15: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Demosthenes’ speeches.    189
Fig. 16: Ἄγγελος and its derivatives in Aeschines’ speeches.    189
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111022376-204