'Shame'

Terms for “shame” (aidōs, aiskhynē, and their cognates) are not especially common in the Histories, yet shame is a significant motive. Female shame focuses above all on sexuality, the body, and loyalty to husband or father, while male shame most often arises in connection with prowess in battle and competitive self-assertion. But though shame is a highly social and interactive phenomenon, it is not reducible to mere concern for other people’s opinions. Shame and the shameful feature prominently in cross-cultural comparison in the Histories, especially in the schematic contrast between Spartans and other Greeks and between Greeks and non-Greeks.