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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 22:33:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Elias J Theodoracopoulos <ejt1@columbia.edu>
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Subject: Re: underdocumented thetai
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See also Chr. Meier, The Greek Discovery of Politics (eng. trans., 1990),
esp. ch. 3: cf. his index. He cites, inter alia, A. Raubitschek,
"Meeresnaehe und Volksherrschaft," WS 71 (1958), 112 ff. Also: Meier's The 
Political Art of Greek Tragedy (eng. trans. 1993). A detailed study
of dramatic function within as reflecting political & social role without
of low status characters in tragedy (the democratic genre par excellence)
is a desideratum. Ober, Mass and Elite (1989), in a footnote on p. 52 (?
from memory) discusses why he avoids the evidence from tragedy and relies
on oratory instead. EJT
   
On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Dan Tompkins wrote:

> Has anyone noticed how little real discussion of the Athenian thetic 
> class there is?  I've just been digging around as part of my sociological 
> breakdown of my students (into pentakosiomedimnoi, hippeis, zeugitai, 
> thetai, slaves and metics, with a sprinkling of 'wives') and am amazed at 
> the lack of serious discussion of this wealth category--which reflects, 
> of course, a lack of discussion in the literature.  Robert Garland's book 
> on the Peiraeus, for instance, which one might expect to be chockablock 
> with references, mentions thetai only four times.  I don't have the 
> Morris/Raaflaub APA volume on Athens, which is said to deal with this 
> question.  In the Ober/Hedrick Democracy volume there are good essays by 
> Hanson, Raaflaub, and Barry Strauss, who makes a spirited case for the 
> thete.
> 
> These references yield a few, a very few, more detailed modern 
> discussions.  Clearly the lack of good ancient evidence gets in the way.  
> Still, there must be more to say, more methodology to explore.  I'd 
> welcome leads.  
> 
> Best, 
> 
> Dadssss
> 
> 
> 



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