Strange Creatures: Anthropology in AntiquityIn ancient Greek and Roman thinking, whether the world is flat or spherical it will have imaginary boundaries and liminal areas where the norms of nature and culture are thought to break down. Analogies are constantly drawn between 'primitive' peoples at the 'edges of the world' and 'primitive' people in prehistory. Distance, both in time and space, leads to difference, and the idea that strange things happen out there or happened back then dominates Greek and Roman thinking on other cultures. This book examines ancient ideas of the creation of the world, the beginnings of life and origin of species, humans and animals, utopias and blessed islands, and 'barbarian' cultures beyond the Mediterranean world, before going on to trace the influence of ancient anthropological and ethnological thought on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. We begin with primordial chaos and end with the invention of the Americas, taking in many strange creatures, from the savages of Britain, Gaul and Ireland, to the Man-faced Ox-creatures of Empedocles, the Dog-heads of India, the Amazons, the Centaurs, and the Tupinamba of Brazil. |
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Page 88
The journey from the centre to the outer edges may be a journey back in time, but
the destination is not fixed. The Hyperboreans As I said earlier, the Hyperboreans
are an entirely imaginary people who seem to be called into being to provide ...
The journey from the centre to the outer edges may be a journey back in time, but
the destination is not fixed. The Hyperboreans As I said earlier, the Hyperboreans
are an entirely imaginary people who seem to be called into being to provide ...
Page 89
Neither disease nor destructive old age touch their sacred race, but far from toil
and battle they dwell, fleeing severe Nemesis.76 (Pindar, Pythian Odes 10.29-43
) Pindar's Hyperboreans are not simply difficult but impossible to get to. It seems ...
Neither disease nor destructive old age touch their sacred race, but far from toil
and battle they dwell, fleeing severe Nemesis.76 (Pindar, Pythian Odes 10.29-43
) Pindar's Hyperboreans are not simply difficult but impossible to get to. It seems ...
Page 90
Despite his doubts he still retails the tradition of former direct contact between the
Hyperboreans and the Greek world. Originally they sent sacred offerings to
Apollo at Delos accompanied by two Hyperborean escorts. However, when the ...
Despite his doubts he still retails the tradition of former direct contact between the
Hyperboreans and the Greek world. Originally they sent sacred offerings to
Apollo at Delos accompanied by two Hyperborean escorts. However, when the ...
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Contents
The Origin of Life and the Origin of Species | 17 |
Ancient Theories of Prehistory and the Evolution of Society | 39 |
Blessed Islands and Blessed Lands | 61 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
acorns agriculture Anaximander ancient animals anti-primitivist Arcadians Aristotle atomic barbarians barbaric beasts become blessed lands Cambyses cannibalism chaos civilised clearly climate Columbus cosmogony creation creatures culture Darius Democritus described diet Diodorus Siculus divine Dog-heads earth and water east eating elements Empedocles Epicurean Ethiopians ethnocentric ethnographic extremes Fortunate Isles Gauls geographical Germans gods golden age Greece Greek Hartog Herodotus Hesiod Hieros Gamos History human Hyperboreans ideal ideas India Indies inhabitants king Lery Lery's Libya lifestyle living Lucretius luxury moral myth mythological nature noble savage norms Ocean Ovid Panchaia Paradise Pelasgus perhaps Persians philosopher Pillars of Heracles Plato Pliny prehistory Presocratics primitivist produce Prometheus race rationalisation realm river Roman Romm sacred islands Scythians seafaring seems seen sort status story Strabo Taprobane technologies Theogony theory things Timaeus tion tradition Trans Tupinamba warfare wild Zeus