Stasis
Civil faction, sedition, or political strife — the internal division that Greeks feared more than foreign invasion as the greatest threat to the city.
The Meaning of Stasis
Stasis named the violent factionalism that tore Greek cities apart from within — the civil war between oligarchs and democrats, rich and poor, that recurred throughout the classical period. Thucydides's analysis of the stasis at Corcyra (427 BCE) in Book III of the History is one of the most devastating accounts of political breakdown in ancient literature: language itself changed meaning under stasis — reckless violence was called courage, reasonable caution was called cowardice — as each faction twisted words to serve its interests. The Corcyra passage became a template for understanding all civil strife. Plato's Republic can be read as an analysis of the soul's stasis — the conflict between reason, spirit, and appetite — and a proposal for the constitutional arrangements that would prevent it in the city. In medicine, stasis named a stoppage of natural flow — blood pooling instead of circulating — using the political metaphor in reverse. The word's root, sta- (to stand), captured the essential quality: stasis was things standing still, stopped from their proper movement and progress.
Parents
{}
Children
{}
Symbols
Fun Fact
Thucydides's analysis of stasis at Corcyra included the observation that language itself became a weapon — each faction redefined virtue words to serve its violence, making stasis a semantic as much as a military catastrophe.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Homonoia
💭 conceptpolitics, philosophy
Concord or like-mindedness — the civic ideal of citizens sharing common purposes and values, the condition necessary for a functioning community.
Tyranny
💭 conceptPolitical science and Athens
A form of government ruled by a single individual who seized power unconstitutionally, derived from the Greek tyrannos, which originally carried no negative connotation
Nosos
💭 conceptDisease and Pollution
The Greek concept of disease as moral and spiritual corruption, not merely physical illness.
Hēgemonia
💭 conceptpolitics, history
Leadership, supremacy, or the dominant position of one state over others — the claim to lead a voluntary alliance that could easily become imperial control.
Antinomia
💭 conceptlaw, philosophy
A contradiction between two laws or principles — the tension when equally valid rules yield opposite conclusions in the same case.
Enantiodromia
💭 conceptphilosophy
The tendency of extremes to reverse into their opposites — the principle that things carried to their limit swing back toward what they denied.
Democracy
💭 conceptPolitical science and Athens
A system of government in which power is held by the people, invented in Athens around 508 BCE and derived from the Greek demos (people) and kratos (power or rule)
Ostracism
💭 conceptPolitical science and Athens
An English word meaning social exclusion, derived from the Athenian practice of banishing citizens by popular vote using pottery shards called ostraka
Agora
💭 conceptLanguage and civic life
An English word for a public gathering place or marketplace, derived from the Agora of Athens, the civic and commercial centre where democracy, philosophy, and daily commerce intersected
Ostracism
💭 conceptdemocracy, exile
The Athenian democratic practice of banishing citizens for ten years by popular vote, using pottery shards as ballots to prevent tyranny.
Plutocracy
💭 conceptPolitical science and language
A form of government in which the wealthy hold power, derived from Ploutos, the Greek god of wealth, combined with kratos, meaning rule or power
Ekstasis
💭 conceptReligion and Mysticism
The experience of standing outside oneself, the Greek term for mystical transport and altered consciousness.