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 113
The historian Diodorus Siculus gives a slightly different explanation: [In the
eastern portion of Arabia] arise goat-stags and antelopes and other types of
biformed creatures, in which parts of animals which differ widely by nature are
combined .
The historian Diodorus Siculus gives a slightly different explanation: [In the
eastern portion of Arabia] arise goat-stags and antelopes and other types of
biformed creatures, in which parts of animals which differ widely by nature are
combined .
Page 165
333 Us.; Lucretius 5.925-1010; and Diodorus Siculus 1.7. 16. E.g. Pliny, Natural
History 7.56. 17. See Vlastos, 1946. 18. Trans. L&B. 19. The vita more ferarum or
theriodes bios is common to many sources, e.g. Euripides, Suppliants 195ff.; the
...
333 Us.; Lucretius 5.925-1010; and Diodorus Siculus 1.7. 16. E.g. Pliny, Natural
History 7.56. 17. See Vlastos, 1946. 18. Trans. L&B. 19. The vita more ferarum or
theriodes bios is common to many sources, e.g. Euripides, Suppliants 195ff.; the
...
Page 172
Diodorus Siculus, 5.41.4-46.7. See Ferguson, 1975, 102-11. 38. On incense and
exotic luxury see Murphy, 2004, 99-103. 39. Trans. Clay and Purvis, 1999. 40.
Trans. Clay and Purvis, 1999. 41. Herodotus 1.50-1. 42. Diodorus Siculus 5.46.3.
Diodorus Siculus, 5.41.4-46.7. See Ferguson, 1975, 102-11. 38. On incense and
exotic luxury see Murphy, 2004, 99-103. 39. Trans. Clay and Purvis, 1999. 40.
Trans. Clay and Purvis, 1999. 41. Herodotus 1.50-1. 42. Diodorus Siculus 5.46.3.
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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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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 Isles king Lery Lery's Libya lifestyle living Lucretius luxury moral myth mythological nature noble savage norms Ocean origin of species Ovid Panchaia Paradise Pelasgus perhaps Persians philosopher Plato Pliny prehistory Presocratics primitivist produce Prometheus race rationalisation realm river Roman Romm sacred islands Scythians seafaring seems seen sort status story Strabo technologies Theogony theory things Timaeus tion tradition Trans Tupinamba warfare wild Zeus