Salt and Olives - Morality and Custom in Ancient Greece

John Dillon describes intriguing aspects of everyday life in Athenian society and considers the moral and ethical questions the Greeks associated with them. Chapters are devoted to the family (including relations between husband and wife and parents and children); the position of non-citizen women (the problems and limited rights of courtesans, for example); inheritance (securing the male heir, the rights of widows, daughters); behaviour towards friends and enemies; friendship and love; homosexuality and pseudo-homosexuality; slavery (what it was like to be a slave, the various conditions of slaves, etc); and piety and impiety. Each chapter draws on historical sources to tell two or more contrasting stories chosen to give students a handle on attitudes and beliefs as well as on texts from contemporary literature, history, or philosophy that bear on the issues of the chapter. The book is as much an introduction to ancient Greek thought and literature as to its moral codes and behaviour. It is based on a course given at Trinity College Dublin over several years.