Patterns of Persecution

Witchcraft' Trials in Classical Athens

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4748552
AutoresEsther Eidinow (0000-0003-3822-6024, University College Birmingham, autor de correspondencia)
Año2010
Volumen208
Número1
Páginas9-35
Fecha de publicación2010-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPast & Present (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0031-2746 • E-ISSN: 1477-464X
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/pastj/gtq001
OpenAlexW2091971264
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas23

A number of historical periods feature systematic attacks on individuals (especially women) for illicit supernatural activities. These events are usually analysed in the context of Christian ideology, and discussed in terms of 'witchcraft'. But a remarkable series of legal trials (both real and fictional) from fourth-century bce Athens resonate with, but do not fit, this familiar framework. The defendants were all women, all prosecuted on charges that involved a combination of supernatural activities. Disagreements between, and the brevity of, the ancient sources obscure the precise nature of the charges brought against these women; and this forms the primary focus of most scholarly analyses.1 In contrast, this article argues that the confusion around these charges may itself be regarded as significant, forming the starting point for a different kind of historical investigation - one which explores the complex social processes that brought these women to court.2 For ancient historians, it is a truism that the detailed information needed to assemble an account of local circumstances rarely survives. Nevertheless, by bringing together a wide variety of different kinds of evidence from across the ancient world, as well as by drawing on resources from other periods and disciplines, it may be possible to piece together an alternative account that suggests, if not describes, more local or individualized events. This approach is neither based on nor arguing for the precise replication of historical or cultural circumstances across time and place. Rather, it is intended to encourage a kind of 'pattern-recognition': that is, to aid and guide the identification of particular sequences of social dynamics that may help to make sense of partial or fragmentary evidence

Ancient history · Persecution · Political science · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Law · Philosophy