Rethinking the Other in Antiquity

 Eric S. Gruen  is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, whose previous research has involved understanding identity and diasporas in antiquity.

“...collective identity in terms of (rather than in contrast to) another culture forms a significant ingredient in the ancient outlook.”

In what ways did the Ancient Greeks and Romans perceive the cultures around them?

How does a careful analysis of ancient texts reveal how ancient authors described otherness?

To what extent is it true that ancient people stereotyped each other?

Was it true that the Ancient Greeks and Romans were xenophobic?

This book directly addresses the trend in classical studies to view the ancient Greeks and Romans as prejudiced against other cultures. It is written as a rebuttal to the stereotyping and misreading of different ancient texts.

The book is organized in two parts. The first part is organized by cultural groups - Persians, Egyptians, Carthaginians, Gauls, Germans, Jews, and People of Color - and discusses how each group was viewed in antiquity. The second part traces ancient and mythic genealogies to make an argument for how the people in antiquity saw themselves as interconnected. While some visual evidence is utilized, evaluating some art and material representations of otherness, the bulk of the evidence from this book comes from texts written by ancient authors such as Herodotus, Tacitus, and Caesar.

“Egyptians themselves gained familiarity with the Hellenic folklore of the Trojan War, embraced a variant in which they played a role, adapted it to their own purposes, and reshaped it for Greek inquirers. Instead of resisting inclusion, they embellished their own part in Hellas’ preeminent myth. Overlap rather than “Otherness” predominates.”

Orientalism - the representation of Asia and the Middle East through a Western lens

Ethnicity - a group of people with shared cultural characteristics such as religion, language, practices, and beliefs.

Collective Identity - the identity of a group, a shared identity

Alterity - the state of being other or different

Genealogy - the study of ancestry, in this context mythic ancestry

Gruen’s exploration of otherness does not specifically address race as the difference in skin color in more than one chapter. Gruen also does not utilize the modern definition of race as a justification of structures of power. He instead focuses on cultural differences and how they are perceived. This includes aspects of government, ritualistic practice, perspectives on history, and stereotypes about groups of people. Despite his stress on distinction, Gruen also emphasizes perceptions of unity across these distinctions in the ancient world through mutual respect and appreciation.

This book only addresses race directly during a section called “People of Color”, and otherwise focuses on what now is considered ethnicity. Its approach to the question of “what is race in antiquity” might be considered dated in light of its lack of evaluation of systems of power. Additionally, while there are small sections about visual representations, this book does not offer a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between ancient art/material culture and Gruen’s argument for perceptions of otherness in antiquity. This book’s main focus is analysis of ancient literature.

"But “race” may be an altogether misleading and erroneous category. There is little to suggest that the ancients ascribed moral, intellectual, or cultural deficiencies to persons based on their color. Nor did they assume that such physical characteristics were inherited traits, fixed across the generations."

Joseph Skinner - The Journal of Roman Studies

“The whole is very much greater than the sum of its parts: an impassioned challenge to the lazy monologue of self/other which has cast such a long shadow over modern scholarship” (Skinner 308)

Craig B. Champion - The American Historical Review

“Readers may find that some of the terminology Gruen employs is in need of sharper definition and qualification. Two such examples are the terms ‘nation’ and ‘race’.” (Champion 584)

Michael Nyan - “Talk about “Barbarians” in Antiquity"

“Rethinking the Other in Antiquity by Erich S. Gruen calls into question one of the reigning paradigms used by historians of the classical era, asking whether scholars have not been over-eager to retroject postcolonial notions of the Other (the disparaged, disdained, demonized, and even subhuman) onto the antique world” (Nylan 580)

 The Oxford Classical Dictionary 

 Perseus Digital Library 

The Dictionary of Classical Mythology  by Pierre Grimal

Orientalism, Orientalism Reconsidered, and Orientalism Once More by E.W. Said

Inventing the Barbarian, Rethinking the Other by Edith Hall

“Herodotus passes no overt judgment, and does not need to. Readers can draw their own conclusions. Both connections and disconnects exist between the cultures, an ambiguous relationship that defies polarization.”

Gruen, Erich S. Rethinking the Other in Antiquity. Princeton University Press, 2011. JSTOR,  http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rfwq.  Accessed 13 Mar. 2024.

Skinner, Joseph. The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 102, 2012, pp. 307–09. JSTOR,  http://www.jstor.org/stable/41724973 .  Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.

Champion, Craige B. The American Historical Review, vol. 117, no. 2, 2012, pp. 584–85. JSTOR,  http://www.jstor.org/stable/23310861 . Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.

Nylan, Michael. “Talk about ‘Barbarians’ in Antiquity.” Philosophy East and West, vol. 62, no. 4, 2012, pp. 580–601. JSTOR,  http://www.jstor.org/stable/41684481 . Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.