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Chapter 4 - Beyond Blackness

Reorienting Greek Geography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2022

Sarah F. Derbew
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
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Summary

Chapter 4 delves into accounts of meetings between the mighty Aithiopians and their distant neighbors. Herodotus’s iteration of Aithiopia (Hdt. 3.17–26) simultaneously looks back to Homer’s utopian Aithiopia and positions Aithiopia as a historical allegory to critique Athenian imperial aggression. Through the Aithiopian king’s comments to Egyptian spies, Herodotus undermines any fixed, negative assumptions of foreigners that may lurk among his readership. Moreover, Herodotus distinguishes Aithiopians by their height, longevity, and skin color, thereby complicating a facile rendering of black people’s “race.” A reciprocal ethnography of Scythians further exposes the instability of race as two Scythian men, Anacharsis and Scyles, wear Greek clothes and maintain their Scythian identity (Hdt. 4.76–80). Their untimely demise reveals the dangers that Hellenocentric Scythians face once they return to their xenophobic homeland.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Beyond Blackness
  • Sarah F. Derbew, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity
  • Online publication: 12 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108861816.004
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  • Beyond Blackness
  • Sarah F. Derbew, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity
  • Online publication: 12 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108861816.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Beyond Blackness
  • Sarah F. Derbew, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity
  • Online publication: 12 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108861816.004
Available formats
×