The Justice of Zeus

Sather Classical Lectures

by Hugh Lloyd-Jones

" What is justice is a question... of vital importance for the understanding of what is most living in the past of Europe, yet it has never been so clearly posed...

Genres: Classics, Religion, Criticism

244 pages, Hardcover

First published March 28, 1971

About the author

Professor Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones was a British classical scholar and Regius Professor of Greek (Oxford) at Oxford University.

He pursued undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Christ Church, Oxford. He supervised many distinguished PhD students, not least Martin Litchfield West. In his inaugural address as Regius Professor in 1961 he called for a reduction in the emphasis laid on composition taught to undergraduates and suggested that Honour Moderations might have to be reformed to encompass studies taken from ancient philosophy and history as well as the traditional literature and language.

He contributed editions of Menander’s Dyscolus (1960) and Sophocles (1990, together with Nigel Wilson) to the Oxford Classical Texts, and editions and translations of the Aeschylean fragments (1960) and Sophocles (2000) to the Loeb Classical Library.

He was married to Mary R. Lefkowitz, Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly interesting study of the concept of justice up to the 5th century B.C. in the context of greek religion. The main point is that justice always refers to a cosmic order which the gods try to maintain. In this they don't shy away from violence. It's not a kind of justice which is beneficial for man but a grim (and maybe because of that a more realistic) kind of justice.
The chapter on the Iliad was brilliant and is essential for the rest of the book, I also liked the one on Sophocles. Unforunately the Odyssey was treated very briefly and some sections seemed rather unnecessary, or I didn't see their contribution to the overall argument - but maybe I'm dumb.
The notes are extensive and provide helpful references (and sometimes funny criticism) of other secundary literature.
Overall a good read with a lot of insights, but I probably cannot recommend it to anyone else since it's hardcore academic.

[K Kamath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I had bit of extemporaneous genius here and web glitch zapped my words. This is a good book for calibrating your thinking about how people used to think and in fact do think now. People only think one way for about three or four generations at most. Then they start thinking differently from the way they did and can't really understand the way the people thought before; we start projecting and interpreting things in terms of where we are now. This book corrects that and can help anyone get a clue. My man HLJ has the throw-back insight for those who want to be right on the way Mark Anthony spoke in Shakespeare as opposed to the way the man actually spoke in ancient Rome. Little man whore! But I digress. Must be an excess of Ate, as opposed to something I ate. Sidestepped the whole Oedipal thing, though. Can't pin that on me.

[Edward Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first-rate inquiry into the theological and cosmological underpinnings of Hellenic ethics, this book is the indispensible prerequisite to any serious study of that tradition.