Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners! Reading Mark 2.15-17 in New ...

On Tyranny and Tyrants - Echoes from Ancient Texts

It may seem strange to speak of tyranny and tyrants in the 21^st century. Unfortunately, the year 2022 is displaying a good number of tyrants and the damage is tragically manifest. For this reason, I’d like to dedicate this video to one of my students from Ukraine and to her family. 

 

Concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia, Krišjānis Kariņš, said this: “This is the new ‘usual’, so to speak, we have an aggressive neighbor who is interested in recreating an empire who believes in the right to subjugate others and has a disregard for national self-determination. This is a threat to all of us.” (Source: BBC World News, 23 Feb. 2022). 

 

When I heard this statement, it sounded like something I had read in a speech in one of the ancient histories or tragedies. As a form of rule, tyranny is ancient and very well documented in various types of literature. In this video, we’ll look at some ancient texts that help us to understand why it was attractive to some and why it was opposed by many. 

Some resources:

For definitions of ‘tyranny’ and ‘tyrant’:

 

τυραννίς in The Online Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek-English Lexicon

 

"1. τῠ́ραννος" in: The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, edited by: Franco Montanari. Consulted online on 05/04/2022 

<https://dictionaries.brillonline.com/search#dictionary=montanari&id=120347> First published online: July 2015.

 

Other resources cited in the text or found elsewhere:

 

Andrewes, A. The Greek Tyrants. London: Hutchinson University Library, 1956.

 

Austin, M., “Greek Tyrants and the Persians, 546–479 B.C.” The Classical Quarterly, 40(2), (1990), 289-306. doi:10.1017/S0009838800042889

 

Berve, H. Die Tyrannis bei den Griechen. München: C.H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1967.

 

Ehrenberg, Victor, and P. J. Rhodes. "tyranny." In The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2012. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199545568.001.0001/acref-9780199545568-e-6624.

 

Herodotus, Histories, translation by A. D. Godley, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920.

 

Lewis S. Ancient Tyranny. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.

 

Theognis, elegiac poet, VIBCE, Θέογνις: in IEG 1; ALG 2; PLG 2; ed. D. Young, T 1971; J. Carrière, BL 1948; A. Garzya, Firenze 1958; B. A. van Groningen, b. I, Amsterdam 1966; M. Vetta, b. II, Roma 1980.