The Rhetoric Of Manhood

by Roisman, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780520241923
• ISBN10: 0520241924
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

The concept of manhood was immensely important in ancient Athens, shaping its political, social, legal, and ethical systems. This book, a groundbreaking study of manhood in fourth-century Athens, is the first to provide a comprehensive examination of notions about masculinity found in the Attic orators, who represent one of the most important sources for understanding the social history of this period. While previous studies have assumed a uniform ideology about manhood, Joseph Roisman finds that Athenians had quite varied opinions about what constituted manly values and conduct. He situates the evidence for ideas about manhood found in the Attic orators in its historical, ideological, and theoretical contexts to explore various manifestations of Athenian masculinity as well as the rhetoric that both articulated and questioned it. Roisman focuses on topics such as the nexus between manhood and age; on Athenian men in their roles as family members, friends, and lovers; on the concept of masculine shame; on relations between social and economic status and manhood; on manhood in the military and politics; on the manly virtue of self-control; and on what men feared.

Author Biography

Joseph Roisman is Professor of Classics at Colby College.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Abbreviations	xiii
Introduction	1	(10)
The Study's Scope and Purpose	1	(2)
The Orations	3	(4)
The Ideology of Manhood	7	(4)
1. Manly Youth	11	(15)
Negative Stereotypes and Realistic Expectations	12	(3)
Educating and Supervising the Young	15	(2)
Young Men in Court	17	(9)
2. The Roles and Responsibilities of the Adult Male: Kurios, Husband, Son, Kinsman, Friend, and Citizen	26	(38)
The Kurios: Head of the Household	26	(6)
The Husband: Marital and Extramarital Relationships	32	(9)
Fathers and Sons	41	(5)
The Obligations of Kinship	46	(5)
The Kurios and His Friends	51	(4)
The Kurios and the State	55	(9)
3. Manly Shame	64	(20)
Guarding against Shame	65	(2)
The Rhetoric of Military Defeat	67	(4)
Shame and Violence	71	(8)
The Rhetorical Manipulations of Shame	79	(5)
4. Manhood and Social Standing	84	(21)
Superior Manhood and Elite Status: The Erotic Oration (Dem. 61)	85	(3)
The Unmanly Elite	88	(6)
Manhood and the Masses	94	(11)
5. Men in the Military	105	(25)
The Warrior Ideology	106	(4)
Military Courage and Its Rhetoric	110	(3)
The Rhetoric of War and Peace	113	(4)
The Military Measure	117	(7)
The Double Standard	124	(6)
6. The Struggle over Power	130	(33)
The Manly Demos: The Institutional and Ideological Bases of the Power and Manliness of the Demos	131	(4)
The Power Struggle	135	(4)
Handling Suspicions of the Political Leader as a Man of Words	139	(2)
Handling Suspicions of the Political Leader Stemming from His Activities in the Public Realm	141	(8)
The Demos's Power and Appeals to Pity	149	(4)
The Demos's Power and Appeals to Kharis	153	(3)
The Manhood of the Audience and the Speaker	156	(7)
7. Men, Desires, and Self-Control	163	(23)
Giving in to Pleasures	164	(2)
Ambivalence about Yielding to Eros	166	(4)
Ambivalence about Yielding to Wine	170	(3)
The Evils of Greed	173	(3)
The Rhetoric of Self-Control	176	(10)
8. What Men Fear	186	(19)
Beneficial and Legitimate Fears	186	(2)
Overcoming Fear: Cowardice, Courage, and Rashness	188	(4)
Order, Fear of Disorder, and Their Rhetoric	192	(7)
Consistency and Its Rhetoric	199	(6)
Conclusion. Old Age and Manipulating Manhood	205	(10)
Old Men	205	(7)
Manipulating Masculine Discourse	212	(3)
Works Cited	215	(36)
General Index	251	(8)
Index Locorum	259