Invention of the Barbarian scholars Flashcards
Dewald and Marincola (Herodotus and the utopia of Greek unity)
such unity had not and would not exist.
Walcot (Amazons as women)
“They challenged and defied woman’s function as wife and as mother”
Stewart (Amazons - threat of daughters)
“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”
Loman (Amazons - negative role models)
“Being everything the Greek woman were not supposed to be, the Amazons, who were beaten by Greek men, acted as ‘negative role models’.”
Villing (cultural interactions)
models of two way cultural interactions
Harrison (nature of the empire - other cultures)
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.
Harrison (Nature of the empire - Persian)
it was a pronouncedly Persian centric world: in which the Persian elite dominated
Sharwood-Smith (the kings - campaign)
“Cyrus, Cambyses and Darius were great warriors and spent much of their time on campaign.
Sharwood-smith (wealth of the persian kings)
The great kings wealth at magnificence was always 100 times greater than that of his nobles and his power was unlimited
Hart (Herodotus on the Persian kings)
“Herodotus suggests that Darius acts in a calculating way, whereas Xerxes acts in a fit of furious temper.]
Brosius (Persians and culture)
“The Persians (…) allowed each ethnic group to retain its cultural identity and heritage”
Kuhrt (Persian kings and the effect of diversity)
emphasize the diversity of their empire, to enhance the supreme power of the Persian Monarch,
Harrison (Persian ‘barbarity’)
“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
Holland (Persian occupation)
a light mist settling over the contours of the empire
Axworthy (Persian empire)
This was an empire that was run on a rather different principle to previous empires
Hall (ethnicity in tragedy’s vs ‘The Persians’)
“In almost all other Greek tragedies, you have a conflict between people of different ethnicity (…) but not in the Persians, everybody is Persian.”
Hall (ethnicity in ‘The Persians’ - religion)
“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
Hall (audience of ‘The Persians’)
“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”
Hall (‘The Persians’ as a faithful record)
“entirely faithful record of how the Greeks liked to think about the Persians”
LLewellyn-Jones (Persian artefacts)
“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”
LLewellyn-Jones (Cyrus the great - territories)
“Within 4-5 years, Cyrus found himself as the master of the whole of Iran, as well as parts of Northern Turkey”
LLewellyn-Jones (Cyrus the great - attitude)
“Cyrus is pragmatic; he works with different gods and different peoples”
Dewald and Marincola (cities in the Persian war)
“Herodotus presents Sparta and Athens as the 2 dominant cities; they are both brave and want power
Holland (barbarians)
“Barbarians: All non Greeks were ‘barbarians’, a term originally signifying incomprehensible language but later used derogatorily to indicate cultural inferiority”
Cartledge (Hellenism)
“Hellenism is a compound of common blood, language and customs
Dewald and Marincola (Herodotus and Greek unity)
harmony between the two (athens and sparta) was necessary for each and for all of Greece
Hall (invention of the barbarian)
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
Rosenblum (emotional power of ‘the Persians’)
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
Dewald and Marincola (Herodotus; Persians and Greeks)
their transgressions must be of a severity and magnitude that justifies their defeat in terms of moral sensibilities
Dewald and Marincola (Herodotus’ depiction of the Persians)
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
Dewald and Marincola (Hs’ Persians - overconfident)
The Persians, to be sure, are too confident in the strength of numbers
Fox (inventing the barbarian)
The battle was for Greek freedom, but the contrasts of justice and luxury were woven into the memories of it
Flower (contrast between ‘the Histories’ and ‘the Persians’)
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)
Villing (image of the Persians)
It was during the Persian wars and the years following them that the Greek image of the Persians was shaped
Green (Modern Europe)
Modern Europe owns nothing to the Achaemenids
Waters (Message of the apadana)
the message of the apadana relief seems rather one of solidarity or inclusiveness between the king and his subjects
Cartledge (Greekness)
‘Greekness’ had enough purchase on reality to allow of a definition that was not purely wishful thinking
Cartledge (Athenian alliance)
the Athenian alliance was not as Hellenic as Athenian propaganda maintained
Cartledge (Aeschylus’ Persians is a)
hymn to democracy
Harrison (persian empire as exploitation)
the persian empire “existed (…) for the exploitation of its subjects”
