5. The language of oaths

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Preface v
3. Contents vii
4. Abbreviations x
5. 1. What is an oath? 1
6. 2. Oath and curse 6
7. 3. Oaths in traditional myth 48
8. 4. Friendship and enmity, trust and suspicion 60
9. 5. The language of oaths 76
10. 6. Ways to give oaths extra sanctity 132
11. 7. Oaths, gender and status 156
12. 8. Oaths and characterization: two Homeric case studies 213
13. 9. Oratory and rhetoric 230
14. 10. “Artful dodging”, or the sidestepping of oaths 240
15. 11. The binding power of oaths 281
16. 12. Responses to perjury 295
17. 13. The informal oath 315
18. 13a. Swearing oaths in the authorial person 348
19. 14. The Hippocratic Oath 372
20. 15. The decline of the oath? 381
21. Bibliography 394
22. Index locorum 413
23. Subject index 445