The Impact of Legal thought in the Athenian Democracy on Politics, Religion and Philosophy

FAIN: FA-10195-70

Martin Ostwald
Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA 19081-1390)

Study of the effects of the adoption of nomos (i.e., the law as the ratification of what is generally regarded as valid and binding) as the technical term for statute, replacing themos (i.e., law as the imposition of the law giver), had on the politics, religion and philosophy of fifth-century Athenian democracy. Study grew out of previous book Nomos and the Beginning of Athenian Democracy (1969), in which Fellow demonstrated that the shift from themos to nomos represented a revolutionary change toward a democratic concept of law. Fellow has obtained 2-year leave from both Swarthmore and University of Pennsylvania, where he is a professor of Classical Studies.