Stasis (political History)
Stasis is a term in Greek political history. It refers to:
a) the constant feuds between aristocrats in archaic Greece, struggling about who is the best (aristos is Greek for "the best") both in terms of prestige and property. It led to various Civil wars and the establishment of Tyrannies in many cities of ancient Greece, most notably the Tyranny of Peisistratos in Athens
b) the feuding between oligarchic and democratic factions in the Greek city-states of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. This is a theme of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, which features a famous description of factional fighting on the island of Corcyra (modern Corfu).
Read more about Stasis (political History): The Aristeuein-Ideal, The Resulting Civil Wars, Stasis Under Peisistratos, Bibliography
Famous quotes containing the word stasis:
“I shall speak of ... how melancholy and utopia preclude one another. How they fertilize one another.... Of the revulsion that follows one insight and precedes the next.... Of superabundance and surfeit. Of stasis in progress. And of myself, for whom melancholy and utopia are heads and tails of the same coin.”
—Günther Grass (b. 1927)