<Articles>'Philia' and the Polis in Classical Athens

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  • <論説>古典期アテナイにおけるフィリアと共同体 : 「何人でも欲するもの」による訴追について
  • 古典期アテナイにおけるフィリアと共同体--「何人でも欲するもの」による訴追について
  • コテンキ アテナイ ニ オケル フィリア ト キョウドウタイ ナンビト デモ

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Abstract

Polis society in Classical Athens consisted of various personal relationships which governed the private and public life of each individual citizen. We can cite, for example, the relationship between father and son, kinship, friendship, and social associations such as families, hetaireias, phratries, demes, and the polis community itself. Since the polis was a body of citizens, it could be said that the moral principles which regulated private and public social relationships among individual citizens at the same time provided the basis for the social and political structure of the polis. In this article, the authour focuses on one of these moral principles: the concept of 'philos' and 'philia' among the Greeks. All who were in close relationships, either kin or non-kin, from brothers to co-citizens, could be referred to by the general term 'philos' (philoi). 'Philia' referred to the ties among the 'philoi.' The author attempts to determine which social relationships supported public suits in Athens. In the Athenian legal system, any citizen who wished could prosecute offenders in certain public suits. The author concludes that those who took up public suits on behalf of an injured party as the prosecutors were, in fact, mainly those with close ties to the injured party, and not the citizens in general provided for by law. This situation corresponds to the moral principle concerning 'philia' among the Greeks. The Greeks thought that the amount of justice one owed to another person depended on the amount of 'philia' with him. For this reason, justice for the damaged person in public suits was supported mainly by the close 'philoi, ' who were more obliged to do justice for the damaged and not so much by citizens who were not as close. Thus the concept of 'philia' and the moral principle concerning it supported the system of public suits itself and influenced the ideal and practice of public justice in Athens.

Journal

  • 史林

    史林 78 (4), 523-556, 1995-07-01

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

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