Greeks and BarbariansThomas Harrison Edinburgh University Press, 2002 - 336 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. |
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... early example of what becomes the norm in Hellenistic eulogy ) . Certainly it is easy to see some unease on Hyperides ' part , especially when he writes vi 15 : καὶ μηδεὶς ὑπολάβῃ με τῶν ἄλλων πολιτῶν μηδένα λόγον ποιεῖσθαι , [ άλλὰ ] ...
... early as the fifth century B.C.E .: he claims in an aside , without any textual references , that the tradition that Kekrops ( founder of Athens ) was Egyptian , was " probably current in Herodotus ' day " ( BA 1:79 ) . I would like to ...
... early 30s of the fourth century spoke of him contemptuously as a barbarian from Pella , + while Isocrates was reminding him that " Aрyos έστí σoι лаτρiç [ ' Аrgos is your fatherland ' ] ( Isocr . , Philip 32 ) . The same Isocrates had ...
Contents
General Introduction | 1 |
3 the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden fig 4 the Museum | 3 |
of Fine Arts Boston fig 5 the Archaeological Institute of | 10 |
Copyright | |
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