
Contents
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Understanding Demosthenes as a Source for Athenian Religion Understanding Demosthenes as a Source for Athenian Religion
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Amateur Dramatics: Some Oaths in the Courtroom Amateur Dramatics: Some Oaths in the Courtroom
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Prioritizing the Gods Prioritizing the Gods
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Drawing on Religious Authority Drawing on Religious Authority
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Sharing in the Sacrifices and Articulating the City Sharing in the Sacrifices and Articulating the City
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Returning to Demosthenes as a Source for Athenian Religion Returning to Demosthenes as a Source for Athenian Religion
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Suggested Reading Suggested Reading
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References References
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21 Religion
Get accessHannah Willey is a Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Murray Edwards College.
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Published:08 January 2019
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Abstract
Chapter 21 examines religion in classical Athens based on Demosthenes’ speeches. Some ancient commentators view the reading of oratory as a near religious experience. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, taken with Demosthenes’ exquisite rhetoric, felt ‘exactly like those who perform the rites of the Mother and Corybantic rituals’. The orator himself could be swept away by the occasion. Drawing on Eratosthenes and on Demetrius of Phaleron, Plutarch reports that in his unprepared speeches Demosthenes’ style was bacchant-esque, including poetic oaths delivered as if under divine influence. The article considers Demosthenes as a source for Athenian religion, oaths in the courtroom as a frequent feature of Attic oratory, and how the gods appear in Demosthenes’ rhetoric. It also discusses appeals to religious authority in the Demosthenic corpus and how Demosthenes in his speeches describes the way in which civic identities and institutions are articulated by sacrifices and other religious rituals.
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