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Chapter 4 - Power and the Citizen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2024

Naomi T. Campa
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
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Summary

In Chapter 4, I offer a new theory of citizen power. Every adult male citizen would have been free, but this also made him kurios, or empowered, as opposed to ceding his power to a slave master. When substantivized, kurios indicated a male citizen’s institutionalized role as the head of a household. The lens of the household kurios generates an understanding of citizen power that encompasses both private and public domains. Not simply power as domination, kurios also indicated a shared power to act. As a conceptual metaphor, kurios was applied to the political sphere and structured thought across these different domains. Thus, qualities of the term kurios in its original domain, the household, corresponded systemically in the applied domain, the city. The laws and the corporate citizen body, too, were understood as kurioi. While there may be competing claims to power, the identification of the citizen as sharing in power with and through the laws and the dēmos is distinct from the modern conception of the individual versus the state. The negotiation of power in this way has repercussions for debates regarding sovereignty and the rule of law.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Power and the Citizen
  • Naomi T. Campa, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Freedom and Power in Classical Athens
  • Online publication: 04 April 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009221443.004
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  • Power and the Citizen
  • Naomi T. Campa, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Freedom and Power in Classical Athens
  • Online publication: 04 April 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009221443.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Power and the Citizen
  • Naomi T. Campa, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Freedom and Power in Classical Athens
  • Online publication: 04 April 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009221443.004
Available formats
×