Money and the Early Greek Mind: Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy

by Richard Seaford

How were the Greeks of the sixth century BC able to invent philosophy and tragedy? Richard Seaford argues that a large part of the answer can be found in another momentous development, the invention and rapid spread of coinage. By transforming social relations, monetization contributed to the concepts of the universe as an impersonal system (fundamental to Presocratic philosophy) and of the individual alienated from his own kin and from the gods, as found in tragedy.

Genres: History, Economics, Philosophy, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Money, Classical Studies

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Richard Seaford was a British classicist. He was professor emeritus of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter. His work focused on ancient Greek culture, especially that of ancient Athens. He died in December 2023.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably should have given this five stars because it's absolutely brilliant. It's an extrmely important contribution to a developing debate on the invention of coinage and its effects on Greek thought: the argument, ridiculously compressed, is essentially that the dual nature of Greek coins, which were at once valuable pieces of metal, that is, whose value seemed to come from their very material substance, but simultaneously, political objects stamped with a collective seal that got some of their value from pure convention, a political decision to treat them as valuable (all ancient coins circulated at a value higher than their pure metal content) was a philosophical problem that kicked off endless debates about the nature of meaning and materialism, the mind/body split, imminence and transcendence, and all those classical Axial Age philosophical problems that have been with us ever since. If it seems far-fetched, the evidence is pretty overwhelming: for instance, the fact that the first Greek philosophers lived in precisely the city (Miletus) that saw the first coinage, at exactly the time it appeared, and also - though Seaford never talks about this - the fact that exactly the same thing seems to have happened in northern China and the Ganges valley of India at just around the same time coinage was invented there as well.

The four stars is mainly to express my displeasure at Seaford's one major flaw, which is that he's extraordinarily ungenerous - a bit of a Classicist-Hellenophile snob I'd even say. For instance, Marc Shell, who made very much the same argument decades ago, but who is not a a Classicist, is almost completely ignored. Sure, Seaford has written a more detailed and ultimately better analysis and Shell is a bit of a wild and crazy thinker, but he's also obviously brilliant and laid the ground-work for all this. Fair's fair! Similarly, Seaford only talks about the civilizations of the Near East to disparage them, arguing that they didn't really have egalitarian distribution in sacrifice (probably true) which is why they never developed coins, in an interesting variation on Bernard Laum's old argument), but goes from there to ultimately argue that those civilizations didn't "really" have money at all - leaving one to wonder what it even means to have "real" money if one can have compound interest rates, expense accounts, and counter-endorsed promissory notes without it. Still, his own argument is fascinating and important.

[Craig A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a super interesting book covering the history and invention of currency, and offering a hypothesis that the near-simultaneous invention of currency and philosophy in the same time and place are closely related. After reading it I'm still not sure I am completely convinced of that hypothesis, but the detail and extensive references this book provides on 6th century BCE Lyida and Greek Ionia is incredibly deep. This is an excellent book for those who are interested in learning about the origins and history of money as well as those who are fascinated by the origins of Greek philosophy.

[Mix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not my typical type of book but I thoroughly enjoyed it and adored learning about something I never truly believed I’ve have a liking for. Excellently and effortlessly phrased, every sentence. Love it.