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
Page 23
... evidence of the meagreness of Persian cultural influence. The same evidence, by the slightest 'rhetorical redirection', could just as easily be seen as suggestive of significant cultural interplay.35 This line of work has been continued ...
... evidence of the meagreness of Persian cultural influence. The same evidence, by the slightest 'rhetorical redirection', could just as easily be seen as suggestive of significant cultural interplay.35 This line of work has been continued ...
Page 28
... evidence of superiority; we study them, while they do not study us. But this (thinks the ethnographer) is not different from the fact that the tourists visit the natives while the natives do not visit the tourists. The superiority is in ...
... evidence of superiority; we study them, while they do not study us. But this (thinks the ethnographer) is not different from the fact that the tourists visit the natives while the natives do not visit the tourists. The superiority is in ...
Page 32
... evidence that all men have this relation to their nomoi, in particular this: Darius, calling the Greeks who were at his court, asked them how much money they would take to eat their dead fathers. They said they wouldn't do it at any ...
... evidence that all men have this relation to their nomoi, in particular this: Darius, calling the Greeks who were at his court, asked them how much money they would take to eat their dead fathers. They said they wouldn't do it at any ...
Page 33
... evidence. However, the reality of the custom is not at issue here; I am suggesting a different point: the custom, whether actual or mythical, interests Herodotus (and us) because it fills out a systematic opposition. Cremation, the ...
... evidence. However, the reality of the custom is not at issue here; I am suggesting a different point: the custom, whether actual or mythical, interests Herodotus (and us) because it fills out a systematic opposition. Cremation, the ...
Page 34
... evidence another meditation on cannibalism, that in Tristes tropiques:5 Confining ourselves to the forms of anthropophagy which rely on mysticism, magic, or religion ... we can recognize ... that the moral condemnation of such customs ...
... evidence another meditation on cannibalism, that in Tristes tropiques:5 Confining ourselves to the forms of anthropophagy which rely on mysticism, magic, or religion ... we can recognize ... that the moral condemnation of such customs ...
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