Friendship and the Breaking of Oaths: a Study in Greek and Roman Poetry

Abstract

This thesis takes a literary/historical viewpoint on attitudes of ancient poets to the betrayal of friendships. After an account of the etymology of Greek words applicable to oaths and friendship, the status of oaths betrayed in Homer is described. The writings of the early poets, Archilochus and Alcaeus are described and analyzed. A picture emerges of friendship as an institution bound by oaths and committing friends to duties of reciprocal obligation. In the second chapter, two great heroines are examined and their tragic fates described in terms of the oaths and friendly obligations each had undertaken. In both Medea and Dido the ancient ethic of loyalty to oaths remains virtually unchanged from the first utterances of it in Homer. Both Euripides and Vergil express doubts about the validity of its premises in dealing with human feelings. Finally, the poet Catullus's "vocabulary of political alliance" is re-examined from a fresh point of view, using a new assessment of its significance in Roman values. Several poems using this language are interpreted. Catullus's tragedy in Lesbia is seen as her failure to meet the standards he expected of his friends, while at the same time his amor is not destroyed. A remarkable consistency in the ancient poets' expectation of the behaviour of friends is noted.