Restraining Rage: The Ideology of Anger Control in Classical Antiquity

481 Pages·2004·1.44 MB·English

by  William V. Harris

RESTRAINING RAGE

WILLIAM V. HARRIS
Restraining
Rage
The Ideology of Anger Control
in Classical Antiquity
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge,Massachusetts,andLondon,England
Copyright©2001bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
FirstHarvardUniversityPresspaperbackedition,2004
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Harris,WilliamV.(WilliamVernon)
Restrainingrage : theideologyofangercontrolin
classicalantiquity / WilliamV.Harris.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences(p.)andindex.
ISBN0-674-00618-6(cloth :alk.paper)
ISBN0-674-01386-7(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Anger—Greece—History. 2.Anger—Rome—History.
3.Civilization,Classical.
I.Title.
BF575.A5H346 2002
152.4(cid:2)7(cid:2)0938—dc21 2001047076
ToSilvanaPatriarca

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xi
I. Approaches
1 StrivingforAngerControl 3
2 ScienceandFeelings 32
3 TheGreekandLatinTerminology 50
4 TheMindsofAncientAuthors 71
5 ATraditionofSelf-Control 80
6 PhilosophiesofRestrainingRage 88
Appendix:TreatisesontheEmotionsandonAnger 127
II. Anger in Society and in the State
7 TheHeroesandtheArchaicState 131
8 LivingTogetherintheClassicalPolis 157
9 TheRomanVersion 201
10 RestrainingtheAngryRuler 229
11 AThesisaboutWomenandAnger 264
viii (cid:127) Contents
III. Intimate Rage
12 FamilyandFriends 285
13 Slavery 317
IV. Anger and the Invention of Psychic Health
14 AngerasaSicknessoftheSoulinClassicalGreece 339
15 CanYouCureEmotions?HellenisticandRoman
AngerTherapy 362
16 FromSicknesstoSin:EarlyChristianityandAnger 391
17 RetrospectandProspect 401
Bibliography 421
Index 457
Acknowledgements
In exploring classical anger, and in writing about what I think that I
found out, I have been helped by a rather large number of people—
which is no doubt an index of how slow I have been, as well as of the
widespreadinterestthesubjectarouses.Iespeciallywishtothankthose
who made comments or raised objections after lectures which I gave
about anger at Rome, Pisa, Leiden, Heidelberg, Oxford, New Haven,
Chapel Hill, Durham (Duke), Boulder (University of Colorado), San
Francisco (at a meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature), Seattle
(University of Washington) and Vancouver (University of British Co-
lumbia).
ButitwasparticularlyatCambridge,whereIgavetheGrayLectures
on this subject in 1998, that I previously put these wares on display. I
offer my warmest thanks to the Faculty Board of Classics there, to my
hosts at St. John’s College (where my godfather, John Thorpe, was an
undergraduate some seven decades ago), and to all my Cambridge
friendsandacquaintances,abovealltoMalcolmSchofield(whoisem-
phaticallynottobeheldresponsibleformyphilosophicalopinions).
Laterin1998IalsobenefitedgreatlyfrombeingafellowoftheNa-
tionalHumanitiesCenterinNorthCarolina,andIthankallwhomade
thatpossibleandhelpedmeduringmystaythere,especiallythedirec-
torofthecenter,W.RobertConnor.Itishardtothinkofanyindivid-
ual who has done more for humanistic scholarship in America in the
past fifteen years than he has. Whether this book should be included
amonghisgooddeeds,otherswilljudge.
Three friends who could probably write better books about anger
controlhaveimprovedthisworksomuchthatIcannothelpimplicat-
ix