Description
Book SynopsisPrevalent among classicists today is the notion that Greeks, Romans, and Jews enhanced their own self-perception by contrasting themselves with the so-called Other--Egyptians, Phoenicians, Ethiopians, Gauls, and other foreigners--frequently through hostile stereotypes, distortions, and caricature. In this provocative book, Erich Gruen demonstrates
Trade ReviewShortlisted for the 2012 Runciman Award, Anglo-Hellenic League "[T]he range of research, and the depth of thought, are extraordinary. Gruen has taken on a massively important subject, and he has brought a genuinely new perspective to the scholarly conversation."--Emily Wilson, New Republic "[Gruen] is at his best when he dissects Greco-Roman perceptions of the Jews and the Jewish reception of Greco-Roman culture and accommodation with the world of the goyim."--Choice "Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, by Erich S. Gruen, out this month from Princeton University Press, like all excellent scholarship massages the mind in useful new directions... Gruen's mission ... is to unpack the contrary story, far less told: 'that Greeks, Romans, and Jews (who provide us with almost all the relevant extant texts) had far more mixed, nuanced, and complex opinions about other peoples.' In the main text and many useful footnotes of this info-packed but never boring study, Gruen accomplishes that."--Carlin Romano, Chronicle Review "Anthropologists should seriously consider Gruen's case, and it would be wonderful if this appreciation of and openness to different peoples and cultures could somehow enter into contemporary politics and culture."--Jack David Eller, Anthropology Review Database "Rethinking the Other is an extremely valuable departure from a scholarly viewpoint that has threatened to become ossified of late, and as such is very worthwhile to everyone involved in the study of ancient conceptions of foreignness and belonging."--Antti Lampinen, ARCTOS "Erich Gruen's Rethinking the Other in Antiquity is a book that, for one reason or another, desperately needed to be written, ideally by someone possessing G.'s authoritative command of the vast array of sources indicative of ancient knowledge of, and interest in, foreign peoples... The result is a provocative, wide-ranging and thoroughly engaging volume that is both beautifully produced--with copious footnotes, helpful indices and handsome book-jacket featuring a (highly apposite) janiform vase--and (very) reasonably priced. The latter is fortuitous since it will automatically become a set text for courses touching on ancient self-conception and relations with foreign peoples and mandatory reading for anyone researching these and cognate fields."--Joseph Skinner, Journal of Roman Studies "Rethinking the Other in Antiquity amounts to a major reassessment of an important topic. In light of the voluminous evidence Gruen assembles, it seems untenable to contend that Greek, Roman, and Jewish views of other cultures can be reduced to self-serving stereotypes and denigrations. Hopefully his book will help usher in more nuanced and charitable perspectives."--Eric Adler, European Legacy
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 PART I. IMPRESSIONS OF THE "OTHER" CHAPTER ONE: Persia in the Greek Perception: Aeschylus and Herodotus 09 Aeschylus' Persae 09 Herodotus 21 Some Visual Representations 40 CHAPTER TWO: Persia in the Greek Perception: Xenophon and Alexander 53 Xenophon's Cyropaedia 53 Alexander and the Persians 65 CHAPTER THREE: Egypt in the Classical Imagination 76 Herodotus 76 Diodorus 90 Assorted Assessments 99 Plutarch 111 CHAPTER FOUR: Punica Fides 115 The Hellenic Backdrop 116 In the Shadow of the Punic Wars 122 The Manipulation of the Image 132 The Enhancement of the Image 137 CHAPTER FIVE: Caesar on the Gauls 141 Prior Portraits 141 The Caesarian Rendering 147 CHAPTER SIX: Tacitus on the Germans 159 Germans and Romans 159 Interpretatio Romana? 169 CHAPTER SEVEN: Tacitus and the Defamation of the Jews 179 The Question 180 Tacitean Irony 187 CHAPTER EIGHT: People of Color 197 Textual Images 197 Visual Images 211 PART II. CONNECTIONS WITH THE "OTHER" CHAPTER NINE: Foundation Legends 223 Foundation Tales as Cultural Thievery 224 Pelops 227 Danaus 229 Cadmus 233 Athenians and Pelasgians 236 Rome, Troy, and Arcadia 243 Israel's Fictive Founders 250 CHAPTER TEN: Fictitious Kinships: Greeks and Others 253 Perseus as Multiculturalist 253 Athens and Egypt 265 The Legend of Nectanebos 267 Numidians and the Near East 272 CHAPTER ELEVEN: Fictitious Kinships: Jews and Others 277 The Separatist Impression 277 The Bible's Other Side 287 Ishmaelites and Arabs 299 Jews and Greeks as Kinsmen 302 CHAPTER TWELVE: Cultural Interlockings and Overlappings 308 Jews and Greeks as Philosophers 308 Jewish Presentations of Gentiles 325 Phoenicians and Greeks 341 Roman Adaptation and Appropriation 343 Conclusion 352 Bibliography 359 Index of Citations 385 Subject Index 403
