A City Founded on Oblivion and Memory:
Mythical, Political, and Legal Perspectives on
the Restoration of Athenian Democracy in
403 BC
Anno:
2026
Tipologia prodotto:
Articolo in Rivista
Tipologia ANVUR:
Articolo su rivista
Lingua:
Inglese
Formato:
A Stampa
Referee:
Sì
Nome rivista:
POLEMOS
ISSN Rivista:
2036-4601
N° Volume:
20.1
Intervallo pagine:
19-50
Parole chiave:
Athenian amnesty; memory and oblivion; transitional justice; myth and truth; democratic restoration
Breve descrizione dei contenuti:
This paper explores the paradoxical interplay between memory and
oblivion in ancient Greek thought and its political and legal actualisation in the
aftermath of Athens’ civil strife in 403 BC. Drawing on mythological, philosophical,
and ritual sources, the study interrogates the cultural construction of forgetting as a
performative and regenerative act. Far from being mere erasure, oblivion emerges
as a strategic tool of political reconciliation and legal re-foundation, culminating in
the Athenian amnesty of 403 BC. Through a multidisciplinary lens, the paper
examines how the Amnesty functioned not only as a legal prohibition on recalling
past wrongs, but also as a foundational gesture intertwining selective memory with
deliberate forgetting. The republication of laws, alongside the sacred, political and
legal enforcement of the ban on μνησικακεῖν, reveals a complex model of civic
rebirth premised on a dynamic balance between memory and oblivion, a model that
offers enduring insights into transitional justice and collective identity formation.
Id prodotto:
151506
Handle IRIS:
11562/1193187
ultima modifica:
23 maggio 2026
Citazione bibliografica:
Pelloso, Carlo,
A City Founded on Oblivion and Memory:
Mythical, Political, and Legal Perspectives on
the Restoration of Athenian Democracy in
403 BC«POLEMOS»
, vol. 20.1
, 2026
, pp. 19-50