Ancient Anger
Perspectives from Homer to Galen

Brings together significant studies on literary, philosophical, medical and political aspects of ancient anger.

Susanna Braund (Edited by), Glenn W. Most (Edited by)

9780521036429, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 May 2007

336 pages
22.6 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.504 kg

'… an interesting range of further perspectives … This well-produced book succeeds in treating anger as a topic that can open vistas on ancient thinking about psychology, the body, character, social interaction, gender, and the relationship of humans to models of both animal and divine behaviour … The volume is a desirable purchase for all good university libraries.' The Journal of Classics Teaching

Anger is found everywhere in the ancient world, starting with the very first word of the Iliad and continuing through all literary genres and every aspect of public and private life. Yet it is only recently, as a variety of disciplines start to devote attention to the history and nature of the emotions, that Classicists, ancient historians and ancient philosophers have begun to study anger in antiquity with the seriousness and attention it deserves. This volume brings together a number of significant studies by authors from different disciplines and countries, on literary, philosophical, medical and political aspects of ancient anger from Homer until the Roman Imperial Period. It studies some of the most important ancient sources and provides a paradigmatic selection of approaches to them, and should stimulate further research on this important subject in a number of fields.

Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction Susanna Braund and Glenn W. Most
1. Ethics, ethology, terminology: Iliadic anger and the cross-cultural study of emotion D. L. Cairns
2. Anger and pity in Homer's Iliad Glenn W. Most
3. Angry bees, wasps and jurors: the symbolic politics of orge in Athens D. S. Allen
4. Aristotle on anger and the emotions: the strategies of status David Konstan
5. The rage of women W. V. Harris
6. Thumos as masculine ideal and social pathology in ancient Greek magical spells Christopher A. Faraone
7. Anger and gender in Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe J. H. D. Scourfield
8. 'Your mother nursed you with bile': anger in babies and small children Ann Ellis Hanson
9. Reactive and objective attitudes: anger in Virgil's Aeneid and Hellenistic philosophy Christopher Gill
10. The angry poet and the angry gods: problems of theodicy in Lucan's epic of defeat Elaine Fantham
11. An ABC of epic ira: anger, beasts and cannibalism Susanna Braund and Giles Gilbert
References
Index of passages cited
Index of proper names
Index of topics.

Subject Areas: Psychology [JM], Anthropology [JHM], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]