Changing Names: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Greek Onomastics

ISBN 10: 0197266541 / ISBN 13: 9780197266540

Published by The British Academy, 2019

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 26375852333

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Changing Names: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Greek Onomastics
• Publisher: The British Academy
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0197266541
• ISBN 13: 9780197266540
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Changing Names investigates, in relation to the ancient Greek world, the ways in which preferences in personal name-giving change: through shifts in population, cultural contact and imperialism, the popularity of new gods, celebrity status of individuals, increased openness to external influence, and shifts in local fashion.

Several major kinds of change due to cultural contact occurred: Greek names spread in regions outside Greece that were subject to Greek cultural influence (and later conquest), while conversely the Roman conquest of the Greek world led to various degrees of adoption of the Roman naming system; late in antiquity, Christianisation led to a profound but rather gradual transformation of the name stock. Individuals in culturally mixed societies sometimes bore two names, one for public or official use, one more domestic; but women of non-Greek origin were more likely to stick with indigenous names. 'Structural' changes (such as the emergence of the English surname) did not occur, though in late antiquity an indication of profession tended to replace the father's name as a secondary identifier; in some regions 'second' names became popular, perhaps in imitation of the longer Roman naming formulae. The volume is arranged partly thematically, partly through regional case studies (from within and beyond old Greece). Individuals who change their names (typically slaves after manumission) are also considered, as is the possibility that a name might change its 'meaning'.

About the Author

Robert Parker was Fellow and Tutor in Greek and Latin Languages and Literature at Oriel College, Oxford from 1976 to 1996, and from 1996 to 2016 Wykeham Professor of Ancient History and Fellow of New College, Oxford. He is Director of the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names project.