Classical Greece, and especially classical Athens, was a society permeated by a spirit of rivalry. Games and sports, theatrical performances, courtroom trials, recitation of poetry, canvassing for public office, war itself - all aspects of life were informed by a competitive or agonistic ethos. How did the Greeks view the emotions that entered into such rivalrous activities, and how did they operate in practice?

The object of the second A. G. Leventis Conference at Edinburgh University was to bring together experts in a variety of disciplines to produce a multi-sided analysis of envy, spite and jealousy in their ancient context. The papers examined envy in literary genres such as epic and lyric poetry, historiography and civic orations; discussed the analyses of envy and related emotions in Plato, Aristotle and other ancient philosophers; explored the social and historical contexts in which envy and malice functioned, both in Greece and (for purposes of comparison) in ancient Rome; and attempted to situate ancient Greek concepts in the context of modern studies of the rivalrous emotions.

Among the questions that are raised and discussed in the chapters of this book are: how was envy distinguished from emulation? Was rivalry central to democratic politics? What was the relation between envy and erotic jealousy? Did the views of philosophers correspond to those reflected in the historians, tragic poets and orators? Were there differences in attitude towards the rivalrous emotions within ancient Greece, or between Greece and Rome? Did jealousy, envy and malice have deleterious effects on ancient society, or a positive influence, stimulating effort and innovation? What might the ancient Greek and Roman views of envy, spite and jealousy contribute to our own understanding of these pervasive yet troubling emotions?