Qualche riflessione su alterità e identità in Grecia (epoca arcaico-classica)

Mauro Moggi

Abstract:

This paper deals with three topics: first, it examines Greek ethnicity within the framework of archaic colonization (particularly as regards the question of representation of 'Others' in Homeric poetry). Second, it explores Greek identity vis-à-vis the outer world, as well as ethnic and regional identities internal to the Greek world (Peloponnesian Achaia and the Achaean colonies of Magna Graecia). Finally, it considers insularity as a means of creating unified identities with respect to the political assets of the islands. Analyses of this type have served as the starting point for developing original and often stimulating approaches to the study of the ancient world: too little attention has been paid, however, to the specific features of that world. As complex and difficult as they may be, issues such as colonization and ethnogenesis cannot be reconstructed by denying, or ignoring, the ancient sources.