The terminology of bribery in the Attic dialect of the Ancient Greek language of the 5th - 4th centuries BC

The subject of this article is the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek in the 5th–4th centuries BCE. The focus of the study is the representation of the phenomenon of bribery in the vocabulary of Athenians during this period. Corruption and bribery can be observed in almost all modern states, most of which fight these phenomena with varying success. Such a problem also existed in the city-states of Ancient Greece, particularly in Athens. To understand bribery as a social phenomenon, it is essential first to determine how the Greeks lexically designated it, since we can often draw some conclusions even from the semantics of specific words. Therefore, the author aims to compile the most complete list of different lexemes used to denote this phenomenon. A typological method and a lexical analysis method were employed in the course of this research. The author systematically examines specific terms and expressions used to convey bribery, grouping them by parts of speech or semantic nuances based on lexical dictionaries. Through the analysis and examination of specific cases of usage, the author concludes that there was a great diversity of ways to describe bribery in the Attic dialect of the classical period. Most often, words related to the meaning of gifting were used – δῶρον (gift), δωροδοκία (bribery), and the associated verb δωροδοκέω (to give a bribe). The boundary between the concepts of "bribe" and "gift" was determined solely by the purpose of the gifting: in the case of a threat to the democratic order, such a gift became a bribe. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the fact that such a detailed list of ways to denote bribery in Greek has been compiled for the first time. In the works of other researchers, the consideration of this issue is of an auxiliary nature. The results of the study may be useful in reflecting on the role of bribery as a social phenomenon in the life of the Athenian polis during the classical period.