Introduction

Invention of the Barbarian – Aeschylus and Herodotus

In this course, Professor Lynette Mitchell (University of Exeter) explores the presentation of Persians and other non-Greeks (‘barbarians’) in Aeschylus’ Persians and Herodotus’ Histories. In the first module, we offer a brief history of the concept of ‘barbarian’ in Greek thought, focusing in particular on the idea of ‘barbarianism’ in early lyric poetry and the division of the world into a Greek Europe and barbarian Asia in the work of Hecataeus (c. 550-576 BC). In the second and third modules, we think about the presentation of ‘the barbarian’ in Aeschylus’ Persians, before turning in the fourth and fifth modules to consider how Herodotus develops the idea of the barbarian in his Histories. Finally, in the sixth module, we think about the extent to which Herodotus is a reliable source for Persian history and, indeed, whether we should think of Herodotus’ Histories as a ‘history’ at all.

Throughout this course, we use Edith Hall’s translation of Aeschylus’ Persians (Aris and Philips Classical Texts, 1996) and Robin Waterfield’s translation of Herodotus’ Histories (Oxford World Classics, 2008) unless otherwise stated.

Introduction

In this module, we offer a brief history of the idea of the ‘barbarian’ in Greek thought, focusing in particular on: (i) the idea of ‘barbarianism’ in early lyric poetry, particularly in relation to the Lydians; (ii) the division of the world into (Greek) Europe and (barbarian) Asia in the work of Hecataeus (c. 550-476 BC) and the enduring influence of such a world-view of both Aeschylus and Herodotus; and (iii) the extent to which the Persian Wars (490-79 BC) solidified and transformed some of these ideas.