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
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Page 6
... Plato, and fragmentary historians such as Ctesias;35 the development of an ideal of Panhellenic unity (through the Panhellenic orations of Gorgias and Lysias and the work of Isocrates).36 This final dimension of fourth-century thought ...
... Plato, and fragmentary historians such as Ctesias;35 the development of an ideal of Panhellenic unity (through the Panhellenic orations of Gorgias and Lysias and the work of Isocrates).36 This final dimension of fourth-century thought ...
Page 9
... Plato, Aristotle – the reader is referred to other chapters (Hartog, Briant, Nippel, Walbank). Almost all the sources (including the artistic material examined by Lissarrague) derive from Athens. The extent to which the pejorative ...
... Plato, Aristotle – the reader is referred to other chapters (Hartog, Briant, Nippel, Walbank). Almost all the sources (including the artistic material examined by Lissarrague) derive from Athens. The extent to which the pejorative ...
Page 26
... Plato's Laws (637C) who arrives in Taras during the feast of Dionysus to find the whole population drunk in the street. Initially the traveler is disapproving, but then: There is one answer which seems to resolve the question, so that ...
... Plato's Laws (637C) who arrives in Taras during the feast of Dionysus to find the whole population drunk in the street. Initially the traveler is disapproving, but then: There is one answer which seems to resolve the question, so that ...
Page 38
... Plato has adapted this contrast to his tripartite division of the soul (including the Greeks as a mediating term): It would be absurd to think that the spirited part could exist in cities except by derivation from individuals who ...
... Plato has adapted this contrast to his tripartite division of the soul (including the Greeks as a mediating term): It would be absurd to think that the spirited part could exist in cities except by derivation from individuals who ...
Page 48
... Plato called “love of learning”) is the special cultural trait of the Greeks (1. 60. 3). From this point of view the Great Persian War is to be seen not so much as a conflict between soft and hard, as a contest between a relatively weak ...
... Plato called “love of learning”) is the special cultural trait of the Greeks (1. 60. 3). From this point of view the Great Persian War is to be seen not so much as a conflict between soft and hard, as a contest between a relatively weak ...
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
according Aeschylus ancient appears argument Asia Athenian Athens authors Barbarian become Cadmus called century classical common concept context contrast course culture customs dialect discussion divine early Egypt Egyptian empire especially ethnic Euripides evidence example existence fact fifth foreign further give gods Greece Greek Hall hand Hellenic Herodotus human idea identity important instance interest interpretation Isocrates Italy king land language later less linguistic matriarchy means mentioned myth nature never nomoi opposition oriental origin Paris particular period Persian Persian Wars Phoenician Plato play political possible present problem question reason refer regard relations religion Roman rule Scythians seems seen shows society sources speak speech story theory thought tradition tragedy turn University various whole women writing