Gruen - Rethinking the Other in Antiquity

RETHINKING THE OTHER
IN ANTIQUITY

The Martin Classical Lectures are delivered annually at Oberlin College through a foundation established by his many friends in honor of Charles Beebe Martin, for forty-five years a teacher of classical literature and classical art at Oberlin.

John Peradotto, Man in the Middle Voice: Name and Narration in the Odyssey

Martha C. Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics

Josiah Ober, Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule

Anne Carson, Economy of the Unlost: (Reading Simonides of Keos with Paul Celan)

Helene P. Foley, Female Acts in Greek Tragedy

Mark W. Edwards, Sound, Sense, and Rhythm: Listening to Greek and Latin Poetry

Michael C. J. Putnam, Poetic Interplay: Catullus and Horace

Julia Haig Gaisser, The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass: A Study in Transmission and Reception

Kenneth J. Reckford, Recognizing Persius

Leslie Kurke, Aesopic Conversations: Popular Tradition, Cultural Dialogue, and the Invention of Greek Prose

Erich Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity

Simon Goldhill, Victorian Culture and Classical Antiquity: Art, Opera, Fiction, and the Proclamation of Modernity

ERICH S. GRUEN

Copyright 2011 by the Trustees of Oberlin College

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Third printing, and first paperback printing, 2012
Paperback ISBN 978-0-691-15635-4

The Library of Congress has cataloged the cloth edition of this book as follows

Gruen, Erich S.

Rethinking the other in antiquity / Erich S. Gruen.

p. cm. (Martin classical lectures)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-691-14852-6 (hardcover : acid-free paper)

1. GreeksAttitudesHistoryTo 1500. 2. RomansAttitudesHistoryTo 1500. 3. AliensGreecePublic opinionHistoryTo 1500. 4. AliensRomePublic opinionHistory. 5. GreeceCivilizationTo 146 B.C.Foreign influences. 6. RomeCivilizationForeign influences. 7. Culture conflictHistory. 8. Civilization, Classical. I. Title.

CB251.G78 2011

930.1dc22 2010014739

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Janson Text

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

To the memory of Joan B. Gruen,
who remains ever a vital part of my life

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, HOWEVER HEARTFELT, are never adequate. Numerous people have shared their thoughts with me on one or more aspects of this study over the past several years. Many more attended lectures or conferences at which I presented ideas connected with the theme, offering their reactions, questions, suggestions, criticisms, dissent, and even (occasionally) assent. Obviously the registering of their names is impossible. But they have earned deep gratitude.

Some, however, deserve to be singled out. First and foremost, the Classics Department at Oberlin College paid me the signal honor of inviting me to deliver the Martin Classical Lectures for 2006, out of which this (much larger, though not necessarily better) work eventually emerged. I note in particular Tom Van Nortwick, who issued the invitation, and Kirk Ormand, who chaired the department. The warmth of their hospitality and the pleasure of their company trumped even the challenging weather of Ohio in February. Comments from Oberlin students and faculty alike enriched my experience and enhanced the book.

Several scholars have very kindly read one or another of the chapters in penultimate form, much to my profit. Their pointed observations, both encouraging and sobering, substantially improved the manuscript even though they might withhold agreement on many matters. I am happy to record my gratitude to Stan Burstein, Ada Cohen, Mark Griffith, Chris Kraus, Christopher Krebs, Meg Miller, Sarah Morris, Ellen OGorman, Margaret Root, Dylan Sailor, Tom Scanlon, Ron Stroud, and Christopher Tuplin. They are, of course, not implicated in the outcome.

I have obtained at least equal advantage from the graduate students at Berkeley who participated in my seminar, The Alien in Antiquity, where I floated a number of these ideas, some of which drew their fire but emerged much the better for the shelling. My thanks go to David DeVore, Vera Hannush, Tom Hendrickson, Chris Johnson, Nandini Pandey, David Rosenberg-Wohl, Amy Russell, Greg Smay, Cai Thorman, and John Tully. And I take special pleasure in acknowledging the help of two incisive and industrious research assistants, Nandini Pandey and Amy Russell.

Two generous invitations to spend time outside my normal environs placed me in stimulating and productive settings that markedly advanced the work. I had the great privilege of serving as Villa Professor at the Getty Villa in Malibu during the academic year 2007/8, where I enjoyed the conversations and company of fellow visiting scholars Kevin Butcher, Ada Cohen, Cecilia DErcole, Josephine Quinn, Karen Stern, and Molly Swetnam-Burland, and benefited immeasurably from the learning and congeniality of Ken Lapatin. In the spring of 2009, the hospitality of Merton College, Oxford, and the availability of Oxfords incomparable libraries, effected through the kind offices of Jonathan Prag, allowed me to bring the manuscript to a respectable conclusion.

Certain portions of the book have appeared or will appear elsewhere in modified form. I appreciate the willingness of the publishers, Getty Research Institute, Mohr Siebeck, The Open University, and Eerdmans, to grant permission for republication.

My greatest debt, in countless matters both large and small, is owed to my partner, bride, and loving critic Ann Hasse.

January 2010

RETHINKING THE OTHER
IN ANTIQUITY