Prevalent 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 how the
ancients found connections rather than contrasts, how
they expressed admiration for the achievements and
principles of other societies, and how they
discerned--and even invented--kinship relations and
shared roots with diverse peoples. Gruen shows how
the ancients incorporated the traditions of foreign
nations, and imagined blood ties and associations with
distant cultures through myth, legend, and fictive
histories. He looks at a host of creative tales,
including those describing the founding of Thebes by the
Phoenician Cadmus, Rome's embrace of Trojan and Arcadian
origins, and Abraham as ancestor to the Spartans. Gruen
gives in-depth readings of major texts by Aeschylus,
Herodotus, Xenophon, Plutarch, Julius Caesar, Tacitus,
and others, in addition to portions of the Hebrew Bible,
revealing how they offer richly nuanced portraits of the
alien that go well beyond stereotypes and
caricature. Providing extraordinary insight into the
ancient world, this controversial book explores how
ancient attitudes toward the Other often expressed
mutuality and connection, and not simply contrast and
alienation.
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