Money and the Early Greek Mind

Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy

AvRichard Seaford

Häftad, Engelska, 2004

666 kr

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Beskrivning

How were the Greeks of the sixth century BC able to invent philosophy and tragedy? In this book Richard Seaford argues that a large part of the answer can be found in another momentous development, the invention and rapid spread of coinage which produced the first ever thoroughly monetised society. By transforming social relations, monetisation contributed to the ideas of the universe as an impersonal system (presocratic philosophy) and of the individual alienated from his own kin and from the gods (in tragedy). Seaford argues that an important precondition for this monetisation was the Greek practice of animal sacrifice, as represented in Homeric Epic, which describes a premonetary world on the point of producing money. This book combines social history, economic anthropology, numismatics and the close reading of literary, inscriptional, and philosophical texts. Questioning the origins and shaping force of Greek philosophy, this is a major book with wide appeal.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2004-03-11
Mått:152 x 228 x 26 mm
Vikt:609 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:384
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9780521539920

Utforska kategorier

Filosofiska discipliner inom Filosofi och religion

Mer om författaren

Richard Seaford is Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Exeter. He is the author of commentaries on Euripides' 'Cyclops' (1984) and 'Bacchae' (1996) and of 'Reciprocity and Ritual: Homer and Tragedy in the Developing City-State' (1994).

Recensioner i media

'This book is of wider relevance than just to teachers and students of classics, for whom it affords an invaluable resource. It relates to all of us who, as Seaford says, 'live in a world in which the monetisation first observable in the Greek polis has had several centuries to develop …' The Lecturer

Innehållsförteckning

1. Introduction; Part I. The Genesis of Coined Money: 2. Homeric transactions; 3. Sacrifice and distribution; 4. Greece and the ancient near East; 5. Greek money; 6. The preconditions of coinage; 7. The earliest coins; 8. The features of money; Part II. The Making of Metaphysics: 9. Did politics produce philosophy?; 10. Anaximander and Xenophanes; 11. The many and the one; 12. Heraclitus and Parmenides; 13. Pythagoreanism and Protagoras; 14. Individualisation; 15. Appendix: was money used in the early near East?