The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others (Opus)

This book provides an original and challenging answer to the question: 'Who were the Classical Greeks?' Paul Cartledge - 'one of the most theoretically alert, widely read and prolific of contemporary ancient historians' (TLS) - here examines the Greeks and their achievements in terms of their own self-image, mainly as it was presented by the supposedly objective historians: Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. Many of our modern concepts as we understand them were invented by the Greeks: for example, democracy, theatre, philosophy, and history. Yet despite being our cultural ancestors in many ways, their legacy remains rooted in myth and the mental and material contexts of many of their achievements are deeply alien to our own ways of thinking and acting. The Greeks aims to explore in depth how the dominant group (adult, male, citizen) attempted, with limited success, to define themselves unambiguously in polar opposition to a whole series of 'Others' - non-Greeks, women, non-citizens, slaves and gods. This new edition contains an updated bibliography, a new chapter entitled 'Entr'acte: Others in Images and Images of Others', and a new afterword. Who were the Classical Greeks? This book provides an original and challenging answer by exploring how Greeks (adult, male, citizen) defined themselves in opposition to a whole series of others (non-Greeks, women, slaves, non-citizens, and gods) as presented by supposedly objective historians of the time such as Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. Cartledge looks at the achievements and legacy of the Greeks - history, democracy, philosophy and theatre - and the mental and material contexts of these inventions which are often deeply alien to our own way of thinking and acting. This new edition contains an updated bibliography, a new chapter entitled "Entr'acte: Others in Images and Images of Others," and a new afterword. "The Greeks were the inventors of history as we understand it. Yet their historiography remained rooted in myth, and the social context of the inventions for which we rightly treasure their achievements - democracy, philosophy, theatre - was often deeply alien to our own way of thinking and acting. The aim of this book is to explore that achievement. Paul Cartledge does so by presenting a fascinating portrait of the Greeks in terms of their own self-image, and explores how the dominant Greeks - adult, male, citizens - sought, with limited success, to define themselves in polar opposition to non-Greeks, women, non-citizens, slaves, and gods."--BOOK JACKET. The Greeks were the inventors of history as we understand it. Yet their historiography remained rooted in myth, and the social context of the inventions for which we rightly treasure their achievements -- democracy, philosophy, theatre -- was often deeply alien to our own ways of thinking and acting. The aim of this book is to explore that achievement: Paul Cartledge does so by presenting a fascinating portrait of the Greeks in terms of their own self-image, and explores how the dominant Greeks -- adult, male, citizens -- sought, with limited success, to define themselves in polar opposition to non-Greeks, women, non-citizens, slaves, and gods. My approach to the ancient Greeks is informed by that 'comparativist perspective' without which students of Greek antiquity will easily mistake, indeed can hardly fail to mistake, what may be distinctive, and what may be said to be in no way exceptional, either in the intellectual products of the society they study or in the circumstances and manner of their production.