Demokrates the democrat?

Lambert, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3692-979X 2019. Demokrates the democrat? Parker, R., ed. Changing Names. Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Greek Onomastics, Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 222. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, pp. 153-166.

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

This paper addresses a topic of central interest in Ancient Greek History, the emergence of the language and ideology of 'democracy'. The relatively early existence of the name 'Demokrates' has long been thought by historians to be a crucial piece of evidence for that emergence, but this paper shows that far from connoting 'democrat', the name originally connoted 'one who exercises power among the people'. Only rather later, after the language of democracy was itself coined, could the name have begun to be associated with democracy. This name also supplies important evidence for an underappreciated type of onomastic change: change in the connotation of a name over time, influenced by changes in other aspects of the language and culture in which it is used.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DE The Mediterranean Region. The Greco-Roman World P Language and Literature > PA Classical philology
Publisher:	Oxford University Press for the British Academy
ISBN:	9780197266540
Last Modified:	04 Nov 2022 12:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/122436

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item