Envy And Athenian Democracy In Classical Age

The relationship between the masses and the elites is a core issue in the study of Athenian democracy.This question directly concerns the nature and political basis of Athenian democracy.There are three main approaches: institutional history,ideology and emotional history.The dissertation takes envy as a starting point to investigate the political discourse of envy among the Athenian masses and elites under the Athenian democracy,so as to make a new understanding of the Athenian democracy.The dissertation argues that Greeks' envy is a kind of malevolent emotion based on social comparison,which is easy to generate among people who are roughly equal.The democratic ideology of Athens emphasized the equality among citizens and tried to build an egalitarian community of citizens.However,Athenian society was full of various forms of inequality,and the class opposition between the masses and the elite was obvious.The tension generated by the inequality of reality and the equality of concept can easily breed the envy of class.From this perspective,envy is embedded in political issues because of the cognitive side of emotions rather than the irrational trait.Honor and wealth are common causes of envy.They are usually social phenomena that exist in human relationships.But because of the close relationship between honor and wealth and the competitive culture of Greece and the Athenian sense of democracy,the envy that surrounds them can be incorporated into politics,from natural emotions to political discourse and,in practice,into political issues that the elite must deal with.In the eyes of the Athenian elite,the fulfillment of liturgy is an effective way to eliminate the envy from the public,not on the basis of liturgy itself,but on the basis of political discourse.Envy was seen as a threat to the principle of reciprocity that resulted from effective charitable giving,which was recognized by the Athenian public and elite.The elites emphasize the charitable contributions they have made and remind the public to suppress envy in order to uphold the principle of reciprocity.In addition,the elite will also use envy as an emotional weapon to attack their opponents on the occasion of litigation.By emphasizing the unjust emotional color of envy,they will conduct the discipline of envy emotion in front of the public.Both approaches are based on the political principle of desert,where the public and the elite respect each other's interests.In short,in the context of Athenian democratic politics in the classical era,envy has both the characteristics of political discourse and the character of natural emotion itself.Only by considering these two aspects at the same time can we deeply understand and grasp the role and connotation of envy in Athenian democracy.