Greeks And BarbariansEdinburgh University Press, 2019 M07 30 - 288 pages How did the Greeks view foreign peoples? This book considers what the Greeks thought of foreigners and their religions, cultures and politics, and what these beliefs and opinions reveal about the Greeks. The Greeks were occasionally intrigued by the customs and religions of the many different peoples with whom they came into contact; more often they were disdainful or dismissive, tending to regard non-Greeks as at best inferior, and at worst as candidates for conquest and enslavement. Facing up to this less attractive aspect of the classical tradition is vital, Thomas Harrison argues, to seeing both what the ancient world was really like and the full nature of its legacy in the modern. In this book he brings together outstanding European and American scholarship to show the difference and complexity of Greek representations of foreign peoples - or barbarians, as the Greeks called them - and how these representations changed over time.The book looks first at the main sources: the Histories of Herodotus, Greek tragedy, and Athenian art. Part II examines how the Greeks distinguished themselves from barbarians through myth, language and religion. Part III considers Greek representations of two different barbarian peoples - the allegedly decadent and effeminate Persians, and the Egyptians, proverbial for their religious wisdom. In part IV three chapters trace the development of the Greek-barbarian antithesis in later history: in nineteenth-century scholarship, in Byzantine and modern Greece, and in western intellectual history.Of the twelve chapters six are published in English for the first time. The editor has provided an extensive general introduction, as well as introductions to the parts. The book contains two maps, a guide to further reading and an intellectual chronology. All passages of ancient languages are translated, and difficult terms are explained. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 41
Page 1
... play the Persians has been described ( by Edith Hall ) as ' the first unmistakable file in the archive of Orientalism , the discourse by which the European imagination has dominated Asia by conceptualising its inhabitants as defeated ...
... play the Persians has been described ( by Edith Hall ) as ' the first unmistakable file in the archive of Orientalism , the discourse by which the European imagination has dominated Asia by conceptualising its inhabitants as defeated ...
Page 17
... play the Persians , performed in 472 BC within a decade of Xerxes ' expedition to Greece . In another sense , however , they provide a natural starting point . As James Redfield's ' Herodotus the Tourist ' ( Ch . 1 ) demon- strates ...
... play the Persians , performed in 472 BC within a decade of Xerxes ' expedition to Greece . In another sense , however , they provide a natural starting point . As James Redfield's ' Herodotus the Tourist ' ( Ch . 1 ) demon- strates ...
Page 18
... play – the court of the Persian king Xerxes at Susa or that , when 4 See e.g. Romm , ' Herodotus and mythic geography ' , The Edges of the Earth ; Gianotti , ' Ordine e simmetria ' . 6 5 Lloyd , Polarity and Analogy ; Cartledge , The ...
... play – the court of the Persian king Xerxes at Susa or that , when 4 See e.g. Romm , ' Herodotus and mythic geography ' , The Edges of the Earth ; Gianotti , ' Ordine e simmetria ' . 6 5 Lloyd , Polarity and Analogy ; Cartledge , The ...
Page 19
... play is more conventional. Like many of the play's modern interpreters, he sees it as strikingly sympathetic to the plight of the defeated Persians: for Aeschylus to have composed a kommos (or lament) for a defeated enemy is a ...
... play is more conventional. Like many of the play's modern interpreters, he sees it as strikingly sympathetic to the plight of the defeated Persians: for Aeschylus to have composed a kommos (or lament) for a defeated enemy is a ...
Page 20
... play's visual and aural dimensions , however , can obscure other aspects : how , for example , are we to understand Aeschylus ' unrealistic elevation of Xerxes ' father Darius into a positive model of kingship ? " The play can also be ...
... play's visual and aural dimensions , however , can obscure other aspects : how , for example , are we to understand Aeschylus ' unrealistic elevation of Xerxes ' father Darius into a positive model of kingship ? " The play can also be ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
PART II THEMES | 125 |
PART III PEOPLES | 187 |
PART IV OVERVIEWS | 229 |
Intellectual Chronology | 311 |
Guide to Further Reading | 313 |
Bibliography | 314 |
Index | 328 |
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Common terms and phrases
Achaemenid Aeschylus Agamemnon Amazons ancient Antiquity argument Aristotle Athenaeus Athenian Athens Attic Aulis Bacchae Bacchants Barbarian barbarism Bernal Byzantine Cadmus civilisation classical concept context contrast Ctesias cult customs Cyrus Darius dialect Dionysus Doric Egypt Egyptian emphasises empire Emptiness of Asia ethnic ethnographic Euripides example fact fifth century foreign gods Greece Greek cities Greek history Greek nation Greek world Greeks and Barbarians Harrison Hartog Hecataeus Hellas Hellenic Hellenistic Heracles hero Herodotus historian hoplite Ibid identity interpretation Inventing the Barbarian Iphigenia Isocrates king koine language linguistic Lissarrague Menelaus myth mythical nature Nippel nomoi nomos non-Greek Orestes oriental origin panhellenic Paris Pelasgians Persian Wars Phoenician Women Phrygian Plato polis political Pygmies religion Roman sacrifice Saïd Scythians slaves sources Spartan speak speech story Strabo Synodinou Thebes theme theory Thracian Thucydides tradition tragedy Trojan Xenophon Xerxes Zeus δὲ καὶ τῆς