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\u201cIn most of our scholarly literature about the classical world,\u201d writes Columbia University\u2019s William V. Harris in his Restraining Rage: The Ideology of Anger Control in Classical Antiquity <\/i> , \u201cpolitical and religious change . . . seems to take place in a remarkably calm fashion.\u201d Harris doubts that this is the case, and his book is in part an effort to recover the insight of Robert Burton, who wrote that \u201cour histories\u201d bring us \u201calmost . . . no other subject, but what a company of hare-brains have done in their rage.\u201d Harris asks why \u201canger, or excessive anger [was] so much the target of criticism in classical antiquity,\u201d and why \u201ccontrolling anger, or keeping it within limits, or eliminating it, [was] thought to be so important.\u201d It certainly was important: What Harris calls \u201canger discourse\u201d was not only a focus of ethical inquiry, but \u201cpermeates the language of many Greek and Roman authors, from Homer onwards\u201d (think of Achilles\u2019 rage, and the theme of furor <\/i> so prominent in the Aeneid <\/i> ). While the book largely concentrates on philosophical, medical, and literary treatments of rage in antiquity, throughout he attempts to show the social and political contexts and consequences of anger-management strategies, writing chapters on the role of anger control in the ancient polis and the need for rulers to restrain their wrath. In this clear and impressively researched book, he recovers what he considers a crucial dimension of classical history and culture, the tension between the belief that one can control anger and the notion that \u201cstrong emotions are irresistible external forces beyond our control.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIn most of our scholarly literature about the classical world,\u201d writes Columbia University\u2019s William V. Harris in his Restraining Rage: The Ideology of Anger Control in Classical Antiquity , \u201cpolitical and religious change . . . seems to take place in a remarkably calm fashion.\u201d Harris doubts that this is the case, and his book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"yoast_head":"\n