San Antonio College Library

Examines the religious beliefs of forth- and fifth-century Athenians based on Greek tragedies, focusing on plays from Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and discussing how each playwright addressed religion in his works, along with the importance of honor in ancient Athenian piety.

Publisher description: What drove the ancient Greeks to explore human nature and invent Western politics? This book argues that the Greeks believed speech made humans different from other animals. But, this zoological comparison also provided the metaphorical means for viewing those 'lacking' authoritative speech--women, barbarians, and slaves, etc.--as bestial. This link between speech, humanity, and status is revealed through close study of both...