The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others

by Paul Cartledge

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Classics, Greece, Ancient History, Anthropology, Classical Studies

260 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 1993

About the author

Paul Anthony Cartledge is the 1st A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University, having previously held a personal chair in Greek History at Cambridge. He was educated at St Paul's School & New College, Oxford where he took his 1st degree & completed his doctoral thesis in Spartan archaeology in 1975 under Prof. Sir John Boardman. After a period at the University of Warwick he moved in 10/79 to Cambridge University where he's a fellow of Clare College.
He's a world expert on Athens & Sparta in the Classical Age & has been described as a Laconophile. He was chief historical consultant for the BBC TV series The Greeks & the Channel 4 series The Spartans, presented by Bettany Hughes. He's also a holder of the Gold Cross of the Order of Honour & an Honorary Citizen of modern Sparta. Besides the Leventis Professorship, he holds a visiting Global Distinguished Professorship at New York University, funded by the Greek Parliament.

Reviews

[Seren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the guy’s way of writing and narrative voice, though at times it was a little hard to follow.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cartledge's project is to present the subject of alterity (otherness) in ancient Greek society as a system that was structured as a set of binary oppositions. Through this, he explores the notions of Greek-barbarian, man-woman, free-slave and god-mortal, explaining that there was rarely any grey area or third alternative in Greek thinking; e.g. everything that was not Greek was automatically barbarian. He uses this characteristic of Greek thinking to explore the historical works of three main writers, Xenophon, Herodotus and Thucydides, explaining to what degree their works display this polarised system of thought.

There are parts of this book that are accessible to a classics novice like me, but there are other parts that are quite difficult. I would like to come back to this book when I have a deeper understanding of the subject so as to benefit from some of the more subtle parts of Cartledge's argument.

[max]

The title tells it all. There was no Center for Barbarian Studies in downtown Athens. The Greeks saw themselves as culturally superior to everyone who surrounded them, especially the Persians, who were not free people but the servile subjects of the Great King. Cartledge is a world class expert on the Greeks and explores this subject at length in this book.

[sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen. I KNOW that Paul Cartledge’s stated intention in writing this book was to keep the Greeks at a healthy distance—an attempt to dissolve the heavy cultural identification that the West has often felt with Classical Greece, its armies, democracies, and philosophies. However, given that Cartledge aims to do this by highlighting the highly binary & polarized social attitudes of the Greeks—if we can call them that—during the Classical period (500 BC - 300 BC), I feel that it’s almost impossible to not see the current West in it right now.
It’s not a particularly flattering picture for us: through the writings of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and an assortment of other writers from this period, Cartledge describes 5 binaries with which the Greeks, if we take that to mean free men with citizenship of their respective city-state, defined themselves and the “other”:
- Greeks vs barbicans
- Men vs women
- Citizens vs aliens
- Free vs slave
- Gods vs mortals
What emerges is a vivid picture of a society in which political discourse is lively and indeed central to personal identity, where heroes, myths, and deity melt into the mortal realm, and where pride in one’s home is fiercely defended. It is also a culture grounded in the alienation of the other: from the indolent barbarian across the border to the infantile woman inside the home and the man-footed-creature, the slave, working the fields. In order to build a world in which free men could engage whole-heartedly in debate and democracy, the Greeks cultivated a fiercely divided society based on the labor of the Greek and non-Greek other, where extending citizenship to a half-Athenian was liable to spark a war. Paul Cartledge navigates this minefield deftly, drawing up startlingly vivid pictures of the Hellenes as he goes.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based primarily on the writings of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, the author shows how much of Classical Greek society was a result of an us (Greek citizens, i.e. males) vs. them (women, barbarians, slaves)polarity. Informative, fairly readable though a bit dry. Cartledge makes the point that our connection to the Ancient Greeks is not as strong as we'd like to think. However, when he describes that society's biases against perceived "otherness," I thought it sounded much like the prejudices of today.

[James Dransfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting overview of the Greeks and their histories. A tad racist at one point and far too wordy, amounts at most points to no more than toilet paper. I could of picked up the total of the substance in half an hour on Wikipedia. Author slips fluidly between English, French, Latin and Ancient Greek which makes for a magnificently dry read. Avoid unless you have insomnia. 3 Stars as the content was there, despite it being so inaccessible.

[May Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75🌟

It's a very interesting book, especially if you are interested in the notions of identity and otherness, and socially structured discrimination in history/and/or Ancient Greece.

I must admit several moments the author seemed to be rambling, but it probably was my lack of knowledge of the intricacies of Ancient Greek literature.

I would recommend for anyone who is already deeply familiar with Ancient Greek History and culture.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I discovered the author via Melvyn Bragg's radio programme "In Our Time". He is great to listen to and I enjoyed his "Very Small Introduction to Ancient Greece" so much that I read it twice. However, I fear this book will be my last by Professor Cartledge, alas. Perhaps students of classics may find this a very useful source of information, but for me, a general reader looking for something more than just "pop history", it was too much like work, and, after finishing, I do not feel that I learned anything new. So only two stars i.e. it was alright but I did not enjoy reading it.