Religious Discourse in Attic Oratory and Politics

177 Pages·2020·31.456 MB·English

by  Andreas Serafim

Religious Discourse in Attic

Oratory and Politics
The book offers a critical investigation of a wide range of features of religious
discourse in the transmitted forensic, symbouleutic and epideictic orations of
the Ten Attic Orators, a body of 151 speeches which represents the mature
flourishing of the ancient art of public speaking and persuasion.
Serafim focuses on how the intersections between such religious discourse
and the political, legal and civic institutions of classical Athens help to shed
new light on polis identity- building and the construction of an imagined com-
munity in three institutional contexts – the law court, the Assembly and the
Boulē: a community that unites its members and defines the ways in which
they make decisions. After a full- scale survey of the persistently and recur-
rently used features of religious discourse in Attic oratory, he contextualizes
and explains the use of specific patterns of religious discourse in specific ora-
torical contexts, examining the means or restrictions that these contexts gen-
erate for the speaker. In doing so, he explores the cognitive/e motional and
physical/ sensory reactions of the speaker and the audience when religious
stimuli are provided in orations, and how this contributes to the construction
of civic and political identity in classical Athens.
Religious Discourse in Attic Oratory and Politics will be of interest to anyone
working on classical Athens, particularly its legal institutions, on ancient rhet-
oric, and ancient Greek religion and politics.
Andreas Serafim is a Research Fellow at the Research Centre for Greek and
Latin Literature of the Academy of Athens. He is the author of a previous
monograph, Attic Oratory and Performance (Routledge 2017).
Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies

Titles include:
Animals in Ancient Greek Religion
Edited by Julia Kindt
Classicising Crisis
The Modern Age of Revolutions and the Greco- Roman Repertoire
Edited by Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson
Epigraphic Culture in the Eastern Mediterranean in Antiquity
Edited by Krzysztof Nawotka
Proclus and the Chaldean Oracles
A Study on Proclean Exegesis, with a Translation and Commentary of
Proclus’ Treatise On Chaldean Philosophy
Nicola Spanu
Greek and Roman Military Manuals
Genre and History
Edited by James T. Chlup and Conor Whately
Illiterate Geography in Classical Athens and Rome
Daniela Dueck
Religious Discourse in Attic Oratory and Politics
Andreas Serafim
For more information on this series, visit:
www.routledge.com/ Routledge- Monographs- in- Classical- Studies/
book- series/ RMCS
Religious Discourse in Attic

Oratory and Politics
Andreas Serafim
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Andreas Serafim
The right of Andreas Serafim to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Serafim, Andreas, author.
Title: Religious discourse in Attic oratory and politics / Andreas Serafim.
Other titles: Routledge monographs in classical studies.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2020. |
Series: Routledge monographs in classical studies |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Summary: “The book offers a critical investigation of a wide range of
features of religious discourse in the transmitted forensic, symbouleutic
and epideictic orations of the Ten Attic Orators, a body of 151 speeches
which represents the mature flourishing of the ancient art of public speaking
and persuasion”– Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020023785 | ISBN 9781138570863 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780203703151 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Oratory, Ancient–History and criticism. |
Rhetoric, Ancient–Religious aspects. |
Greek literature–Greece–Attikē–History and criticism.
Classification: LCC PA3562 .S47 2020 | DDC 885/.0109382–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023785
ISBN: 9781138570863 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780203703151 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
To my parents and grandparents

Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Abbreviations xi

Introduction 1

Defining fundamental terms 2
Religion, rhetoric and the polis 9
Current perspectives and approaches 12
What this book is about 17
Outline 19
1 Religious discourse in Attic oratory: A full survey 32

Aeschines 33
Andocides 37
Antiphon 38
Demosthenes 39
Dinarchus 45
Hypereides 45
Isaeus 47
Isocrates 47
Lycurgus 50
Lysias 51
Conclusion 54
2 Contextualizing religious discourse 63

Religious discourse beyond (con)textual limitations 65
The dichotomy between public and private speeches 69
Symbouleutic and epideictic orations 71
Individuality and circumstance 73
Conclusions 74
3 Reacting to the “airy nothing” 82

A two- cornered active involvement: The speaker and the audience 83
Cognitive dispositions and emotional reactions 95
viii Contents
4 Civic/ political identity in religious discourse 120

What is identity? 121
Religious discourse and civic spirit/ patriotism 126
Heroes and statesmen in religious discourse 133
Conclusions 138
Conclusion 153

Index 158
Acknowledgements

The process of writing a book can offer invaluable life lessons. You are moving
inwards to find your professional self, to understand the ways you read, think
and analyze data, to realize your limitations and to count your friends, those
magnanimous people, both within and outside the confines of academia,
who are willing to support you when things get mad and when circumstances
become tough. The gestation period of this book, beyond all the knowledge
and professional skills it gave, also enabled me to understand how important
is to have people in life who sincerely believe in you and unwaveringly support
your professional endeavours. I owe much to many people and institutions
whose help and support have been invaluable to the conception and comple-
tion of this book.
I would like to thank Emma Aston (Reading) for working with me to pre-
pare an application for a postdoctoral fellowship from which the idea of this
book was to germinate and grow. I have been fortunate to work alongside
Emma from my initial inquiries and theoretical meanderings, and it has been
gratifying to see how initial exchanges of ideas and outlines led to the for-
mulation of the chapters of this book, which will enhance our knowledge
and understanding of the features and purposes of religious discourse in
the entirety of the transmitted Attic forensic, symbouleutic (political) and
epideictic speeches – a body of 151 speeches which represent the mature
flourishing of the ancient art of public speaking. I also owe Emma special
thanks for agreeing to read an ample part of this book’s manuscript despite
her already full set of responsibilities. The feedback of Michael Gagarin
(Austin), Michael Edwards (Roehampton), Sophia Papaioannou (Athens),
Andreas Markantonatos (Peloponnese), Ioannis Konstantakos (Athens),
Kostis Apostolakis (Crete) and Alessandro Vatri (Oxford), who read and
commented on parts of the manuscript, has also been important in saving
me from fallacies of argument and all sorts of mistakes. I would also like to
thank Jason Crowley (Manchester) for having sent me his paper, “Patriotism
in Ancient Greece”, prior to publication.
The Department of Classics and Philosophy at the University of Cyprus is
to be thanked for covering a part of the expenses of the conference “Speaking
Religion: Religious Discourse and Public Speaking in Classical Athens and