The Talking Greeks: Speech, Animals, and the Other in Homer, Aeschylus, and Plato

When considering the question of what makes us human, the ancient Greeks provided numerous suggestions. This book argues that the defining criterion in the Hellenic world, however, was the most obvious one: speech. It explores how it was the capacity for authoritative speech which was held to separate humans from other animals, gods from humans, men from women, Greeks from non-Greeks, citizens from slaves, and the mundane from the heroic. John Heath illustrates how Homer’s epics trace the development of immature young men into adults managing speech in entirely human ways and how in Aeschylus’ Oresteia only human speech can disentangle man, beast, and god. Plato’s Dialogues are shown to reveal the consequences of Socratically-imposed silence. With its examination of the Greek focus on speech, animalization, and status, this book offers new readings of key texts and provides significant insights into the Greek approach to understanding our world.

• Presents a model for the factor unifying philosophical and political developments in ancient Greece • Provides new readings of the Iliad, Odyssey, Oresteia and Plato’s Dialogues in which the role of speech is provided • Adopts an interdisciplinary drawing on philosophy, linguistics and classics

Introduction; Part I. Speech, Animals, and Human Status in Homer: 1. Bellowing like a bull: humans and other animals in Homer; 2. Controlling language: Telemachus learns to speak; 3. Talking through the heroic code: Achilles learns to tell tales; Part II. Listening for the Other in Classical Greece: 4. Making a difference: the silence of otherness; Part III. Speech, Animals, and Human Status in Classical Athens: 5. Disentangling the beast: humans and other animals in the Oresteia; 6. Socratic silence: the shame of the Athenians; Epilogue.