Invention of the Barbarian scholars

Question 1

Dewald and Marincola (Herodotus and the utopia of Greek unity)

Answer 1

such unity had not and would not exist.

Question 2

Walcot (Amazons as women)

Answer 2

“They challenged and defied woman’s function as wife and as mother”

Question 3

Stewart (Amazons - threat of daughters)

Answer 3

“they represent the threat that every adolescent daughter possesses to her father’s authority and to the stability of the family”
“unruly teenagers: unripe, underdeveloped, undomesticated”

Question 4

Loman (Amazons - negative role models)

Answer 4

“Being everything the Greek woman were not supposed to be, the Amazons, who were beaten by Greek men, acted as ‘negative role models’.”

Question 5

Villing (cultural interactions)

Answer 5

models of two way cultural interactions

Question 6

Harrison (nature of the empire - other cultures)

Answer 6

The Persian empire, undoubtedly, drew upon the skills of its subject peoples, it engaged with their local traditions, it sought to speak to them in terms they could readily accommodate.

Question 7

Harrison (Nature of the empire - Persian)

Answer 7

it was a pronouncedly Persian centric world: in which the Persian elite dominated

Question 8

Sharwood-Smith (the kings - campaign)

Answer 8

“Cyrus, Cambyses and Darius were great warriors and spent much of their time on campaign.

Question 9

Sharwood-smith (wealth of the persian kings)

Answer 9

The great kings wealth at magnificence was always 100 times greater than that of his nobles and his power was unlimited

Question 10

Hart (Herodotus on the Persian kings)

Answer 10

“Herodotus suggests that Darius acts in a calculating way, whereas Xerxes acts in a fit of furious temper.]

Question 11

Brosius (Persians and culture)

Answer 11

“The Persians (…) allowed each ethnic group to retain its cultural identity and heritage”

Question 12

Kuhrt (Persian kings and the effect of diversity)

Answer 12

emphasize the diversity of their empire, to enhance the supreme power of the Persian Monarch,

Question 13

Harrison (Persian ‘barbarity’)

Answer 13

“In a number of cases, what are presented or appear as excessive or barbaric acts in the Greek sources can be explained, in a near eastern context, as actions whose symbolism has been misunderstood”
e.g. Xerxes’ whipping of the water at the Hellespont is an expression of Zoroastrian beliefs not excess hubris

Question 14

Holland (Persian occupation)

Answer 14

a light mist settling over the contours of the empire

Question 15

Axworthy (Persian empire)

Answer 15

This was an empire that was run on a rather different principle to previous empires

Question 16

Hall (ethnicity in tragedy’s vs ‘The Persians’)

Answer 16

“In almost all other Greek tragedies, you have a conflict between people of different ethnicity (…) but not in the Persians, everybody is Persian.”

Question 17

Hall (ethnicity in ‘The Persians’ - religion)

Answer 17

“The limit of ethnic difference, in the Persians, seems to be over religion” i.e. the Persians in the play seem to worship the Greek pantheon

Question 18

Hall (audience of ‘The Persians’)

Answer 18

“Almost nobody in Aeschylus’ audience had ever been to Persia, hardly any of them would have had an idea of the Persian court, Aeschylus certainly hadn’t”

Question 19

Hall (‘The Persians’ as a faithful record)

Answer 19

“entirely faithful record of how the Greeks liked to think about the Persians”

Question 20

LLewellyn-Jones (Persian artefacts)

Answer 20

“If you look at some of their artefacts, you can get a very clear idea of how the Persians thought of themselves as the center of the world”

Question 21

LLewellyn-Jones (Cyrus the great - territories)

Answer 21

“Within 4-5 years, Cyrus found himself as the master of the whole of Iran, as well as parts of Northern Turkey”

Question 22

LLewellyn-Jones (Cyrus the great - attitude)

Answer 22

“Cyrus is pragmatic; he works with different gods and different peoples”

Question 23

Dewald and Marincola (cities in the Persian war)

Answer 23

“Herodotus presents Sparta and Athens as the 2 dominant cities; they are both brave and want power

Question 24

Holland (barbarians)

Answer 24

“Barbarians: All non Greeks were ‘barbarians’, a term originally signifying incomprehensible language but later used derogatorily to indicate cultural inferiority”

Question 25

Cartledge (Hellenism)

Answer 25

“Hellenism is a compound of common blood, language and customs

Question 26

Dewald and Marincola (Herodotus and Greek unity)

Answer 26

harmony between the two (athens and sparta) was necessary for each and for all of Greece

Question 27

Hall (invention of the barbarian)

Answer 27

The conceptualization of the conflict with Persia as a struggle of united and disciplined Greeks against alien violence was one impetus behind the invention of the barbarian

Question 28

Rosenblum (emotional power of ‘the Persians’)

Answer 28

The words and metre are merely its skeleton. Even so, they convey a sense of the emotional power of the play’s ending and of Aeschylus’ dramatic technique

Question 29

Dewald and Marincola (Herodotus; Persians and Greeks)

Answer 29

their transgressions must be of a severity and magnitude that justifies their defeat in terms of moral sensibilities

Question 30

Dewald and Marincola (Herodotus’ depiction of the Persians)

Answer 30

Overall, they cut a noble figure in The Histories, both in terms of their impossible physical appearance and of their desire to accomplish great deeds

Question 31

Dewald and Marincola (Hs’ Persians - overconfident)

Answer 31

The Persians, to be sure, are too confident in the strength of numbers

Question 32

Fox (inventing the barbarian)

Answer 32

The battle was for Greek freedom, but the contrasts of justice and luxury were woven into the memories of it

Question 33

Flower (contrast between ‘the Histories’ and ‘the Persians’)

Answer 33

The dichotomy between free and manly Greek / Athenian and servile and effeminate barbarian / Persian may be valid in some texts such as Aeschylus’ Persians
(doesn’t correspond with herodotus)

Question 34

Villing (image of the Persians)

Answer 34

It was during the Persian wars and the years following them that the Greek image of the Persians was shaped

Question 35

Green (Modern Europe)

Answer 35

Modern Europe owns nothing to the Achaemenids

Question 36

Waters (Message of the apadana)

Answer 36

the message of the apadana relief seems rather one of solidarity or inclusiveness between the king and his subjects

Question 37

Cartledge (Greekness)

Answer 37

‘Greekness’ had enough purchase on reality to allow of a definition that was not purely wishful thinking

Question 38

Cartledge (Athenian alliance)

Answer 38

the Athenian alliance was not as Hellenic as Athenian propaganda maintained

Question 39

Cartledge (Aeschylus’ Persians is a)

Answer 39

hymn to democracy

Question 40

Harrison (persian empire as exploitation)

Answer 40

the persian empire “existed (…) for the exploitation of its subjects”