The Greek origins of the idea of revolution.

231 Pages·2017·9.76 MB·English

UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff MMaassssaacchhuusseettttss AAmmhheerrsstt
SScchhoollaarrWWoorrkkss@@UUMMaassss AAmmhheerrsstt
Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014
1-1-1983
TThhee GGrreeeekk oorriiggiinnss ooff tthhee iiddeeaa ooff rreevvoolluuttiioonn..
Geoffrey Morrison
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1
RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn
Morrison, Geoffrey, "The Greek origins of the idea of revolution." (1983). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 -
February 2014. 1395.
https://doi.org/10.7275/2eep-vc48 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/1395
This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It
has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of
ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected].

THE GREEK ORIGINS OF THE IDEA OF REVOLUTION
A Dissertation Presented
by
GEOFFREY MORRISON
Submitted to the Graduate School of the
University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
May 1983
Department of History
To George and Theodora Kirk
Geoffrey Morrison
All Rights Reserved
*
ABSTRACT
The Greek Origins of the Idea of Revolution
(May 1983)
Geoffrey Morrison B.A., M.A. Amherst College
,
Directed by Winfred Bernhard
Among all the concepts of political philosophy which
have been studied by modern western intellectual historians
"revolution" is one of the few never to have received a
thoroughly empirical and diachronic linguistic analysis.
Its modern history from the Renaissance to the present
is well known, but its history in the medieval and ancient
periods is only imperfectly understood, while its pre-
history--the semantic elements from which it and its lin-
guistic relatives were composed--has never been explored.
This dissertation has four objects: first, to define
and explore the semantic fields of the Greek root
from which the modern English word "revolution"
)eX
and its cognates, ancient and modern, were derived; second,
to catalogue all those Greek roots which convey the image
or the idea of circular or cyclical movement and to suggest
the parameters of their semantic fields; third, to define
and explore the semantic fields of the three Greek roots
—
from the catalogue kukX- *iizX- and *tcA --which are related
, ,
to the of "revolution" through their common ancestor
*{f )eX
iii
iv
in the Indo-European root *quel; and fourth, to illustrate
the capacity of the discipline called "historical linguis-
tics" to locate the social origins of our modern languages'
most abstract terms and thereby to serve as a bridge
between the often competing fields of intellectual and
social history.
.
A NOTE ON TRANSLATION
All translations from Greek are by the author. When-
ever Greek passages are either long enough, important enough
or both, to be included in block quotation, the English
translation appears immediately below the Greek passage
in the same block format Whenever Greek passages are re-
.
tained within the lines of the text of the dissertation,
the English translations appear immediately after the Greek
passages and are placed between brackets Throughout Greek
. ,
poetry is rendered as English poetry; Greek prose by English
prose
V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Note on Translation
V
INTRODUCTION The Apologia of Philosophy for the
Novelty of the State
CHAPTER I The Problem Delimited: Historical
23
and Anhistorical Dimensions to the
Idea of Revolution
CHAPTER II Philology as the Archaeology of 27
Knowledge: The Case of "Revolution"
CHAPTER III Images of Circular Movement in 47
Ancient Greek: A Catalogue of the Data
CHAPTER IV KYKAOZ: The Image of the Circle in 51
Greek Literature
CHAPTER V -nOAOZ: Putting the Circle in Motion 69
CHAPTER VI TEAOZ: The Image of the Moving Circle: 94
Greek Ideas of War and Public Office;
Fate, Doom, and Divinity
CHAPTER VII TEAOZ: The Image of the Moving Circle 134
A Theory of Its Social Origins
CHAPTER VIII Summation: The Contribution of Greek 152
Experience to the Idea of Revolution
NOTES 162
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 178
vi
APPENDIX A A Brief Commentary with Selected
202
Bibliography on Linguistics, Psycho
linguistics and Sociolinguistics
APPENDIX B 'Cyclical' Time in Modern
207
Historiography
APPENDIX C An Excursus on Greek Verbs Meaning 211
'To Be'
APPENDIX D A Brief Comment on the Chadwick- 214
Palmer Debate Over the Mycenaean
Tereta
vii