Oath And Ancient Greek City Politics

Oath is a ritualized speech act in the Classical Texts. It’s also a religious ritual in solemn occasions. Oath almost always accompanied a solemn sacrifice ritual in the politic field. It contains the ancient Greek’s beliefs, highlights the verbal expression habit and expresses the pubic responsibilities that the one or community should be taken. This article will examine the oath which embedded into the Greek world, consequently, in this paper, the object to be discussed, is not so much the oath ritual in the political life of the polis, rather the political traditional in the oath, even deal with the spirits of the people under social context.In the politics of the polis, oath played an indispensable role. Individuals, groups and the citizens, when they faced the shifts or crisis, often relied on oath to realize the identity change or ensure the recovery of political order. Between the polis, oath was also a necessary process to get the agreement. The thesis tries to discuss from three aspects. First is “introduction rituals and citizenship”. This chapter mainly discusses the introduction rituals of phratries and demes, and also touches upon the constitution of Spartan enōmotia. Introduction ritual defined the citizenship, which excluded those illegitimates from the phratries and demes. Oath ritual was a necessary procedure that the youth must face during the introduction process. They couldn’t be a citizen before they got a permit in the procedure. The second part is the “oath and polis order”. Except the normal officials’ oaths, this chapter also focuses on the internal political crisis and public laws and decrees. Swearing is an important way to ensure officials to deal with their matters justly. On the one hand, oath could deal with the sudden crisis. It’s a good prescription for restoring political order after the political turmoil. On the other hand, in the judicial sphere, every party, including the judges, was required to swear, sometimes be forced to do so, even ended the case by the decisive oath. In the third part, the agreement between the polis would be discussed, mainly about the role of oath in the interstate relations. Three Chapters have intrinsic logic; the logic is from birth to adulthood, from the inside to the outside of polis. People should get legitimate identity by oath firstly, and then they would become citizens. After swearing to obey laws and do things rightly, they took offices. When there were disorder matters, they should swear to get reconciliation and deal with the crisis together. Finally, outside the city border, the thesis would talk about the oath between different polis.In the ending part, the thesis also has a simple discussion regarding the validity of the oath. As a routine ritual, just looking from the form, oath is more of a necessary procedure.