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Marc Domingo Gygax

Professor
Princeton University
Gift-Giving in Ancient Greek Society
01 September 2017 - 30 June 2018
History
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Marc Domingo Gygax is Professor of Classics at Princeton University. He has held teaching positions at the University of Tübingen and the Free University of Berlin, and research fellowships at the University of California-Berkeley, the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington/DC, and the University of Barcelona. In 2017 he was joint winner of the Runciman Book Award of the Anglo-Hellenic League for his monograph Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City. The Origins of Euergetism (Cambridge, 2016), which explored the origins of voluntary donations given by wealthy citizens and foreigners to the ancient Greek city-states and the reciprocal recognition of these services as benefactions.

Research interests

Ancient Greek history, in particular, the history of archaic Greece, classical Athens and Hellenistic Asia Minor; historical anthropology; Greek epigraphy; ancient and modern historiography; and historical theory.

Gift-Giving in Ancient Greek Society

The project consists of a book-length study, tentatively entitled Gift-Giving in Ancient Greek Society, that analyses the basic principles and evolution of gift-giving in the Greek world. My interest in the topic derives primarily from my work on Greek euergetism, the phenomenon of voluntary donations by wealthy citizens and foreigners to city-states, and the reciprocal recognition of these services as benefactions.

Ever since the publication of Mauss’ Essai sur le don (1924), the topic of gift-giving has occupied a central place in the work of cultural and social anthropologists, sociologists, economists and philosophers. The significance of the practice is more easily observed in archaic communities, where the lack of a developed monetary economy and the weakness of state institutions led individuals to rely more on gifts to achieve their ends. In this sense, Greek society – ignored by Mauss in his essay – represents a particularly interesting case. Not only does a substantial amount of literary, epigraphic and archaeological information survive, but the rules and language of gift-giving played a significant role in daily interactions between individuals, and in the relationships between mass and elite and between communities and external agents. And while the process of giving and receiving gifts is key to understanding Greek civilization — much more so than Roman society —it also illuminates the role of the gift in the modern Western world in at least two ways. First, by contrast: the Greek practice was characterized by a strong sense of reciprocity, whereas modern behavior has been decisively shaped by Christian morality; and second, from a “genealogical” point of view: despite differences, the Christian conception of the gift has Greek roots and important continuities with pre-Christian gift-giving. In my book, I will attempt to identify regularities, patterns and principles underlying the wide range of human actions related to Greek gift-giving.


Talk by M. Domingo Gygax, 2017-2018 Paris IAS fellow
07 Jun 2018 10:00 -
07 Jun 2018 10:45,
Rethymnon :
Benefaction and Leadership in the Ancient Greek World
Marc Domingo Gygax presents his research project within the framework of the weekly internal seminar
15 May 2018 11:00 -
15 May 2018 13:00,
Paris :
Gift-Giving in Ancient Greek Society
Lecture by M. Domingo Gygax, 2017-2018 Paris IAS fellow
22 Nov 2017 17:00 -
22 Nov 2017 19:00,
Fribourg :
Democracy and Benefaction in Hellenistic Cos
Talk by M. Domingo Gygax, 2017-2018 Paris IAS fellow
07 Nov 2017 10:00 -
07 Nov 2017 11:00,
Hannover :
Thucydides and the Anthropology of Gift-Exchange
Lecture by M. Domingo Gygax, 2017-2018 Paris IAS fellow
03 Nov 2017 14:00 -
03 Nov 2017 15:00,
Cologne :
Shame and Honor in Ancient Cos
Research project: "Gift-Giving in Ancient Greek Society"
10898
2017-2018
Antiquity (3500 BCE – 476 CE)
Western Europe