Overview

The great helmsman, the watchdog of the people, the medicine the state needs: all these images originated in ancient Greece, yet retain the capacity to influence an audience today. This is the first systematic study of political imagery in ancient Greek literature, history and thought, tracing it from its appearance, influenced by Near Eastern precursors, in Homer and Hesiod, to the end of the classical period and Plato's deployment of images like the helmsman and the doctor in the service of his political philosophy. The historical narrative is complemented by thematic studies of influential complexes of images such as the ship of state, the shepherd of the people, and the state as a household, and enhanced by parallels from later literature and history which illustrate the persistence of Greek concepts in later eras.

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9781472591661

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Reviews

Roger Brock's subtle, important and lucidly-written book is the first full-length study of a pervasive aspect of ancient Greek public life: its political imagery. By examining some of the ancient world's greatest poetic and prose texts from this new angle, he convincingly traces and explains changes in attitudes over the well-documented centuries between Homer and Aristotle. -- Professor Simon Hornblower, All Souls College, Oxford University, UK In this timely and stimulating book Roger Brock studies the importance of metaphor and other forms of imagery in the language and thought of ancient Greek politics. Deftly combining typological and historical analysis, Brock uncovers the historical shifts and continuities in the cultural models that political imagery articulates and the shared values to which ancient Greek political discourse appeals. This is a much-needed and comprehensive study of an important and neglected topic. -- Douglas Cairns Douglas Cairns, Professor of Classics, University of Edinburgh We get so used to our familiar metaphors that they are hard-wired into the ways we think about the world; but historians rarely use the images of another culture to illuminate the various ways in which that society could think. That is what Brock delivers here, covering a vast range of Greek literature and teasing out insight after insight into the assumptions that writers and audiences shared. It is a marvellous way of doing history, and Brock does it with magisterial authority. A top-rate scholarly achievement. -- Professor Christopher Pelling, Christ Church College, Oxford University, UK Brock's great strength, as anyone who knows and has profited from his Vorarbeiten and other articles over the years will agree, is the close and thoughtful dissection of individual poetic and prose texts and the elucidation of their relationship one to another. To have the benefits of this sort of intelligent and subtle analysis set out at length, and with its purview extended beyond the original endpoint of Plato, is therefore an unqualified plus. -- David Whitehead, Queen's University Belfast Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Roger Brock's subtle, important and lucidly written book is the first full-length study of a pervasive aspect of ancient Greek public life: its political imagery. By examining some of the ancient world's greatest poetic and prose texts from this new angle, he convincingly traces and explains changes in attitudes over the well-documented centuries between Homer and Aristotle. -- Professor Simon Hornblower, All Souls College, Oxford University, UK In this timely and stimulating book Roger Brock studies the importance of metaphor and other forms of imagery in the language and thought of ancient Greek politics. Deftly combining typological and historical analysis, Brock uncovers the historical shifts and continuities in the cultural models that political imagery articulates and the shared values to which ancient Greek political discourse appeals. This is a much-needed and comprehensive study of an important and neglected topic. -- Douglas Cairns Douglas Cairns, Professor of Classics, University of Edinburgh We get so used to our familiar metaphors that they are hard-wired into the ways we think about the world; but historians rarely use the images of another culture to illuminate the various ways in which that society could think. That is what Brock delivers here, covering a vast range of Greek literature and teasing out insight after insight into the assumptions that writers and audiences shared. It is a marvellous way of doing history, and Brock does it with magisterial authority. A top-rate scholarly achievement. -- Professor Christopher Pelling, Christ Church College, Oxford University, UK Brock's great strength, as anyone who knows and has profited from his Vorarbeiten and other articles over the years will agree, is the close and thoughtful dissection of individual poetic and prose texts and the elucidation of their relationship one to another. To have the benefits of this sort of intelligent and subtle analysis set out at length, and with its purview extended beyond the original endpoint of Plato, is therefore an unqualified plus. -- David Whitehead, Queen's University Belfast Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Brock’s great strength, as anyone who knows and has profited from his Vorarbeiten and other articles over the years will agree, is the close and thoughtful dissection of individual poetic and prose texts and the elucidation of their relationship one to another. To have the benefits of this sort of intelligent and subtle analysis set out at length, and with its purview extended beyond the original endpoint of Plato, is therefore an unqualified plus. -- David Whitehead, Queen’s University Belfast * Bryn Mawr Classical Review * The body of source material he examines is highly impressive ... and he deserves a great deal of credit for so easily navigating so many genres as he transitions masterfully from close philological readings ... to a broader consideration of their historical context ... The bibliography and indices are copious, and the copy-editing flawless. * Classics Ireland * There are books aplenty concerning the practice and theory of Greek politics, as well as the politics (in wider or stricter senses) of Greek literature; but in this long-awaited book, Roger Brock offers something completely missing and highly valuable: an overall study of Greek political imagery in the archaic and classical periods.This is a particularly rich book, not only in its detailed treatment of the subject ... but also in the wider implications of many of its findings. Overall, this is a book that opens significant new paths for the study of Greek politics, and should be widely and attentively read. * The Classical Journal * Roger Brock's subtle, important and lucidly written book is the first full-length study of a pervasive aspect of ancient Greek public life: its political imagery. By examining some of the ancient world's greatest poetic and prose texts from this new angle, he convincingly traces and explains changes in attitudes over the well-documented centuries between Homer and Aristotle. -- Professor Simon Hornblower, All Souls College, Oxford University, UK In this timely and stimulating book Roger Brock studies the importance of metaphor and other forms of imagery in the language and thought of ancient Greek politics. Deftly combining typological and historical analysis, Brock uncovers the historical shifts and continuities in the cultural models that political imagery articulates and the shared values to which ancient Greek political discourse appeals. This is a much-needed and comprehensive study of an important and neglected topic. -- Douglas Cairns * Douglas Cairns, Professor of Classics, University of Edinburgh * We get so used to our familiar metaphors that they are hard-wired into the ways we think about the world; but historians rarely use the images of another culture to illuminate the various ways in which that society could think. That is what Brock delivers here, covering a vast range of Greek literature and teasing out insight after insight into the assumptions that writers and audiences shared. It is a marvellous way of doing history, and Brock does it with magisterial authority. A top-rate scholarly achievement. -- Professor Christopher Pelling, Christ Church College, Oxford University, UK

Author Information

Roger Brock is Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Leeds, UK.

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