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The Appetite Of Classical Athens

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The appetite for glut was a threatening thing in classical Athens, and the bondage between the members of classical Athens and their fascinating desires was a complicated and compelling one. Dr. James N. Davidson works on social and cultural Greek history and historiography. He served on the Council for the society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies from 2001 to 2004, was a member of Classical Association Journals Board 2000 to 2010, and is a professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick. He has written articles on Polybius, Greek public bars, Dido and child sacrifice and is a regular contributor to The London Review of Books, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. He has just…show more content…
Athens established what we know to be the first Democracy and Davidson does an outstanding job, including all of the minor and major details found within these newly founded democratic lives; even going into how politics and economics controlled their yearning for fish, drinking and sex. Davidson shows the want of moderation within fish, drinking and sex even though many would over-indulge, and also to show the importance of making sure self-excess was supervised because self-excess can lead to social excess which includes theft, thinking with your emotions instead of rationally, bribery and possibly even a nasty tyrant which can all lead to the collapse of their new born democracy. Davidson split this book into multiple chapters: Feasts, Desire, The Citizen, and The City. Inside each chapter of the book, there are sections that give detail and structure to the main idea of each chapter and there are smaller sub-sections within each section. What we see in each of these four chapters is that Davidson stays true to his thesis; the excesses and desires that the people in classical Athens went through including regular citizens, too high class elites, too philosophers, too slaves and Courtesans and he relates all excesses to the main idea of each chapter . His dispute is shown through with fish, alcohol, and intercourse; the three most meaningful desires in Athenian life. Some disputes include, the influence of fish as it was a hankering
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