Disentangling the beast: humans and other animals in Aeschylus' Oresteia
1999; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 119; Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/632310
ISSN2041-4099
Autores Tópico(s)Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies
ResumoThe Greeks of the polis, most of them with hands dirty from the earth and animals they worked with and struggled against every day, knew that there was a thin line that separated their own humanity from the life of the beast. Hesiod provides the first explicit testimony to the difference between the two worlds: But you, Perses, deliberate on this in your heart (φρεσί) and listen now to right (δίκη), forgetting violence (βίη) altogether. For the son of Cronus drew up this law for men, that fish and beasts and flying birds eat one another, since right (δίκη) is not in them. But to mankind he gave right (δίκη) which is by far the best. For if anyone knows the right (τὰ δί καια) and is willing to speak it (ἀγορεῦσαι) to him far-seeing Zeus gives prosperity. ( WD 274-81)
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