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 7
... customs often present a mirror image of those of the Greeks: Egyptian women, for instance, urinate standing, men sitting (2.35). At the same time, however, he compares the funerals of Spartan and Persian kings (6.58), and details how ...
... customs often present a mirror image of those of the Greeks: Egyptian women, for instance, urinate standing, men sitting (2.35). At the same time, however, he compares the funerals of Spartan and Persian kings (6.58), and details how ...
Page 17
... customs or nomoi – and introduce an enormous range of 'barbarians'. Redfield's distinction of 'hard' and 'soft' peoples, and his demonstration of how the Persians, initially hard, become soft through their conquests of the soft peoples ...
... customs or nomoi – and introduce an enormous range of 'barbarians'. Redfield's distinction of 'hard' and 'soft' peoples, and his demonstration of how the Persians, initially hard, become soft through their conquests of the soft peoples ...
Page 21
... customs.26 Finally in this part, François Lissarrague (Ch. 4), like Suzanne Saïd, collapses the Greek–barbarian antithesis in his examination of the images of foreign peoples on Attic pottery. Lissarrague explains these scenes in terms ...
... customs.26 Finally in this part, François Lissarrague (Ch. 4), like Suzanne Saïd, collapses the Greek–barbarian antithesis in his examination of the images of foreign peoples on Attic pottery. Lissarrague explains these scenes in terms ...
Page 24
... customs but the clothes they wear are rather those of the rest of the Libyans. Their women wear a bangle on each shin, made of bronze. They let the hair on their head grow long, and when a woman catches lice on herself she bites them in ...
... customs but the clothes they wear are rather those of the rest of the Libyans. Their women wear a bangle on each shin, made of bronze. They let the hair on their head grow long, and when a woman catches lice on herself she bites them in ...
Page 25
... customs and odd ideas of the proper and the shameful—odd, that is, by the standard of one's own culture. Woman bites louse is news. Herodotus seems thus not so much the precursor of Malinowski and Boas, as of Strange as It Seems and ...
... customs and odd ideas of the proper and the shameful—odd, that is, by the standard of one's own culture. Woman bites louse is news. Herodotus seems thus not so much the precursor of Malinowski and Boas, as of Strange as It Seems and ...
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