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 1
... less attractive intellectual movements of western history have seen their justifications in Greek antiquity. To be a European, Edward Said wrote in his enormously influential essay Orientalism, means to belong 'to a part of the earth ...
... less attractive intellectual movements of western history have seen their justifications in Greek antiquity. To be a European, Edward Said wrote in his enormously influential essay Orientalism, means to belong 'to a part of the earth ...
Page 2
... less attractive aspects of the classical tradition is vital, not only to free ourselves from their grip, but also in order better to understand the reality of the ancient past, to prevent the retrospective projection of monolithic ...
... less attractive aspects of the classical tradition is vital, not only to free ourselves from their grip, but also in order better to understand the reality of the ancient past, to prevent the retrospective projection of monolithic ...
Page 3
... less marked in the period before the Persian Wars: tyranny was a feature of many archaic Greek poleis, the aspiration of many aristocratic youths.16 Homer's Trojans in most respects are portrayed as sharing in the same culture and way ...
... less marked in the period before the Persian Wars: tyranny was a feature of many archaic Greek poleis, the aspiration of many aristocratic youths.16 Homer's Trojans in most respects are portrayed as sharing in the same culture and way ...
Page 13
... less, it would have been impossible to compile a book resembling this one even in the early 1980s. In talking of 'ethnic origins' historians now have in mind the imagined origins of a people, the way in which the Greeks or others ...
... less, it would have been impossible to compile a book resembling this one even in the early 1980s. In talking of 'ethnic origins' historians now have in mind the imagined origins of a people, the way in which the Greeks or others ...
Page 14
... less interesting or valuable as literature or art;78 nor is it to single out their creators as uniquely chauvinist. It is rather to attempt to understand them in the context of a broader Greek culture, and to see the Greeks – and ...
... less interesting or valuable as literature or art;78 nor is it to single out their creators as uniquely chauvinist. It is rather to attempt to understand them in the context of a broader Greek culture, and to see the Greeks – 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