Subjectivity, multiplicity, creativity and freedom in classical Athens

The life, identity and education of the Athenian (male) citizen was constituted as a complex multiplicity of intersecting lines. But as Oswyn Murray argues, these were lines of flight as much as lines of control, enabling a kind of transversal freedom and creativity:

This freedom derives precisely from the fact that the same man belongs to a deme, a phatry, a family, a group of relatives, a religious association; and living in a complex world of conflicting groups and social duties, he possesses the freedom to choose between their demands, and so to escape any particular dominant form of social patterning. (Murray, 1986: 210)

Now contrast that to the lot of women in Athens, being governed by a single relationship with their alloted governing male.

Murray, Oswyn "Life and Society in Classical Greece" in The Oxford History of the Classical World, OUP, 1986.

Robert O'Toole : 19 Jan 2010 07:43 |  Tags: Inspiration |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem