Envy, jealousy and rivalry are some of the most universal of human experiences, yet attitudes towards them across different societies and eras show vast cross-cultural variations. This book traces the evolution of these emotions from Ancient Greece and Rome to Medieval Christendom, to understand how the diabolical sin of one moral regime could be elevated to a democratic virtue or a tool of self-improvement in the next.

Offering a historical panorama of attitudes towards these emotions, Envy, Jealousy and Rivalry in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean explores how they were affected by shifts in gender relations, class structure, religious belief and language. Anchored in case studies of ancient and medieval cultures, it offers the first long-range intellectual history of envy and jealousy in the European tradition and reveals how these emotions felt in the distant past.

Investigating whether envy and jealousy are indeed two separate emotions or one and the same, it brings insights of the ancient and medieval worlds to bear on questions such as how should we respond to jealousy? What role should envy play in our own relationships? When can these emotions be justified, and when can they not? Challenging our understanding of what is universal and what is culturally specific in the experience of emotions, it provides a new intellectual basis for the study of envy, jealousy and rivalry.