Wow! eBook
Coercion, Ambiguity, and Rhetoric in Ancient Greece: The Dangers of Peithō
Author(s): Allannah K. Karas (Author)
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press
- Publication Date: June 25, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 248 pages
- ISBN-10: 1009656864
- ISBN-13: 9781009656863
Book Description
The ancient Greek goddess and action peithō, which was understood as a form of inducement or psychological pressure at work in rhetoric but also in other spheres of human activity, presented dangers to interpersonal and political persuasion. Evidence from poetry, drama, vase painting, oratory, and magical papyri reveals ways in which communities and individuals understood and learned to tolerate peithō’s threats of ambiguity and coercion. Allannah Karas examines peithō in connection with other coercive, semi-divine forces, such as bia (physical force), anankē (constraint, necessity), and thelgein (enchantment), which are perceived as acting on the human psyche and within the human community. She also draws on social psychology, especially the concept of ambiguity tolerance and reactance theory, to illuminate the efficacy of ancient Greek communal practices (e.g. drama, ritual, romanticization and visual humor, and oratorical piety) as mechanisms for managing peithō’s necessary yet dangerous presence in society.
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Shows peithō (inducement) to be a necessary but dangerously coercive force that Greek communities and individuals learned to tolerate.
About the Author
Allannah K. Karas is Assistant Professor in Classics at the University of Miami. She received support for her work from the American Council of Learned Societies and has served on the council for the International Society of the History of Rhetoric. She also writes on reconfigurations of Greco-Roman antiquity by artists of the African diaspora.
