Envy, Spite and Jealousy : The Rivalrous Emotions in Ancient Greece

Classical Greece, and especially classical Athens, was a society permeated by a spirit of rivalry.

Games and sports, theatrical performances, courtroom trials, recitation of poetry, canvassing for public office, war itself - all aspects of life were informed by a competitive or agonistic ethos.

How did the Greeks view the emotions that entered into such rivalrous activities, and how did they operate in practice?

Did jealousy, envy, and malice have damaging effects on ancient society, or act to stimulate effort and innovation?

What might the ancient Greek and Roman views of envy, spite and jealousy contribute to our own understanding of these pervasive emotions?To seek answers to these and related questions this text considers the issues from the perspectives of philosophy, Greek and Roman history, literature and classical literary criticism and the modern psychology of the emotions, all set in context in a substantial contextual introduction by the editors.