A Glossary of Athenian Legal Terms

nomos, pl. nomoi · Lit. a “norm,” in the sense both of “custom” and of “law.” Nomos is often contrasted, especially in fifth-century Greek thought, with phusis (lit. “nature”); the latter represents underlying reality, and the former denotes the patterns by which men try to shape this. In this sense nomos is normally translated “convention.”

Greek: νόμος, νόμοι.

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When using this article as a resource, cite it thus:

S.C. Todd, selections by Michael de Brauw, “A Glossary of Athenian Legal Terms,” in Adriaan Lanni, ed., “Athenian Law in its Democratic Context” (Center for Hellenic Studies On-line Discussion Series). Republished in C.W. Blackwell, ed., Dēmos: Classical Athenian Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, edd., The Stoa: a consortium for electronic publication in the humanities [www.stoa.org]) edition of March 16, 2003. Contact: cwb@stoa.org.

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