Lektürekurs: Ancient Greek Law

This “Lektürekurs” is intended to provide an introduction to Ancient Greek Law. We start by looking at the very early beginnings of dispute-resolution in Homer’s Iliad, Hesiod’s Work & Days, and the oldest surviving inscriptions from Dreros. Using Draco’s famous law on homicide, we will then approach one of our main topics: the problem of murder and blood feud, still relevant in later speeches by Lysias or Demosthenes. A secondary, yet connected theme shall be the status of persons, i.e. the different rights of citizens, freedmen and foreigners, with an emphasis on regulations both from the so-called LawCode in Gortyn and, again, from Athenian forensic speeches. Thus, we will touch upon a plethora of different sources and shall examine the epics, early archaic poetry, fourth century oratory as well as inscriptions from 650 to 450 BC. And yes, as you might have guessed by now, the “Lektürekurs” will be held in English (but do not despair; it’s not about speaking perfect English, but rather about improving your skills and learning to coherently formulate your arguments in a foreign language – Prüfungsleistungen können dementsprechend auch auf deutsch erbracht werden).

Einführende Literatur

I. Arnaoutoglou: Ancient Greek Laws: A Sourcebook, London 1998; D. MacDowell: The Law in Classical Athens. Aspects of Greek and Roman Life, London 1978; M. Gagarin: Early Greek Law, Berkeley u.a. 1986; M. Gagarin, D. Cohen (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law, Cambridge 2005; J.Hawke: Writing Authority. Elite Competition and Written Law in Early Greece, DeKalb 2011; S.C. Todd: The Shape of Athenian Law, Oxford 1995.