Reciprocity in Ancient Greece

381 Pages·1998·5.234 MB·English

by  Christopher Gill (editor), Norman Postlethwaite (editor), Richard Seaford (editor)

RECIPROCITY IN
= Br GREECE
Edited by
CHRISTOPHER GILL

NORMAN POSTLETHWAITE
AND RICHARD SEAFORD
Reciprocity in Ancient
Greece

Reciprocity in Ancient
Greece
Edited by:
CHRISTOPHER GILL
NORMAN POSTLETHWAITE
and
RICHARD SEAFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book has been printed digitally and produced in a standard specification
in order to ensure its continuing availability
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dares Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal
Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Oxford University Press 1998
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
Reprinted 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
And you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
ISBN 978-0-19-814997-2
Cover illustration: Attic black-figure neck-amphora from Vulci, signed by Exekias,
c.540 BC, illustrating Dionysos and his son Oinopion (B210). British Museum.
Preface
Tuis volume of new essays is based on a conference on
‘Reciprocity in Ancient Greece’, held at the University of Exeter in
July 1993. All the chapters are either based on papers given at the
conference or were written specifically for the volume. The chap-
ters cover a spectrum of literary, historical, and philosophical
topics out of the very wide range of subjects in ancient Greek cul-
ture to which the idea of reciprocity is relevant; the arrangement of
subjects in the volume is broadly chronological. We should like to
thank the British Academy, the Classical Association of England
and Wales, and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
for financial assistance towards the conference. We are grateful to
Hilary O’Shea for her support and guidance, and to an anonymous
reader for the Press. Special thanks are due to Kerensa Pearson for
her characteristically careful and systematic secretarial work in
preparing the volume for publication.
All secondary works, identified by date, are listed in the
Bibliography, with the exception of standard reference works.
(References within the volume are normally given in this form, ‘see
van Wees, Ch. 1, Sect. ıv’.) Unidentified abbreviations for ancient
authors and works are normally those given in Liddell-Scott-
Jones, Greek-English Lexicon, gth edition (Oxford, 1940). We have
gone further than is customary in transliterating Greek personal
and place names rather than using the conventional Latinate forms,
but we have retained ‘y’ for ‘u’, as in Aiskhylos, Odysseus.
C.G., N.P., B.S.
University of Exeter
January 1997

Contents
Notes on Contributors ΙΧ
In troduction
RICHARD SEAFORD
The Law of Gratitude: Reciprocity in Anthropological
Theory
HANS VAN WEES
Political Reciprocity in Dark Age Greece: Odysseus and
his hetairoi 51
WALTER DONLAN
Beyond Reciprocity: The Akhilleus-Priam Scene in
Ihad 24
GRAHAM ZANKER
Akhilleus and Agamemnon: Generalized Reciprocity 93
NORMAN POSTLETHWAITE
Pleasing Thighs: Reciprocity in Greek Religion 105
ROBERT PARKER
The Reciprocity of Giving and Thanksgiving in Greek
Worship 127
JAN-MAARTEN BREMER
Harming Friends: Problematic Reciprocity in Greek
Tragedy
ELIZABETH BELFIORE
Herodotos on the Problematics of Reciprocity 159
DAVID BRAUND
Reciprocal Generosity in the Foreign Affairs of Fifth-
Century Athens and Sparta 181
ANNA MISSIOU
Vill Contents
10. Reciprocity, Altruism, and the Prisoner’s Dilemma: The
Special Case of Classical Athens 199
GABRIEL HERMAN
11. The Rhetoric of Reciprocity in Classical Athens 227
PAUL MILLETT
12. The Commodification of Symbols: Reciprocity and its
Perversions in Menander 255
SITTA VON REDEN
13. Reciprocity and Friendship 279
DAVID KONSTAN
14. Altruism or Reciprocity in Greek Ethical Philosophy? 303
CHRISTOPHER GILL
Bibliography 329
Index of Ancient Passages 357
General Index 364
Notes on Contributors
ELIZABETH BELFIORE is Associate Professor of Classics at the
University of Minnesota.
Davip Braun is Professor of Mediterranean and Black Sea
History at the University of Exeter.
JaAN-MAARTEN BREMER is Professor of Greek at the University
of Amsterdam.
WALTER DONLAN is Professor of Classics at the University of
California at Irvine.
CHRISTOPHER GILL is Professor of Ancient Thought at the
University of Exeter.
GABRIEL HERMAN is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Davip Konstan is John Rowe Workman Distinguished
Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at Brown
University.
PauL MILLETT is University Lecturer at the University of
Cambridge and Fellow of Downing College.
ANNA Miıssıou is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University
of Crete, Rethymno.
ROBERT PARKER is Wykeham Professor of Greek History at the
University of Oxford and Fellow of New College.
NORMAN POSTLETHWAITE is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the
University of Exeter.
RICHARD SEAFORD is Professor of Greek Literature at the
University of Exeter.
Hans van WEEs is Lecturer in Ancient History at University
College, London.
SITTA VON REDEN is Lecturer in Ancient History at the
University of Bristol.
GRAHAM ZANKER is Research Professor of Classics at the
University of Canterbury, New Zealand.