The Study Of Ancient Greek Oath

Oath,as a speech act,played a significant role in the fields of politics,social management,religion and judiciary when there was no complete legal system and strict social management In ancient Greece.Ancient Greeks and the city-states often made a series of transactions by oath,such as the conviction of a lawsuit,the selection of public officials and the conclusion of the diplomatic relations between states.As Burckhardt said,the Greek nation showed us many customs related to oath.And from their rigorous attitude and adherence to oath,we can see the ancient Greek society attached great importance on the oath with religious effect,and the Greeks' reverence for gods and beliefs in gods dominated the realm of ideology(before philosophy era).This paper intends to explore the ancient Greek oath from four aspects.The first one is mainly to trace the mythical origin and the verbal structure of oath.Oath god was born from discord goddess,and she also had siblings such as struggle,lie,slaughter and laborer and so on.When someone or a god sent a false oath,she would bring catastrophes to them with her siblings and Styx River who acted as a overseer.The second aspect is the investigation of the role played by oath in personal disputes,public elections,criminal proceedings and inter-state unions,and the content of the oath under these circumstances.The third aspect,from the perspective of religion and language,is to discuss the definition of the oath and to explore where the effectiveness of the oath comes from.The fourth aspect is to study why the oath comes to a decline ending.The entire Greek nation was encountering a serious landslide in integrity and morality under such a background,and the oath function during this period changed from “evidence” to “ritual”.The conclusion is that this essay helps us draw lessons from the ancient time.The absence of integrity and morality in society brought by the decline of oath paved the way for the decline of the Greek nation,however our modern society also has ethical problems deriving from a lack of integrity,and the significance of the practical oath is to rebuild the morality in modern society.