Galatae between Northern and Eastern Stereotypes. Methods, Motives and Motifs of 'Orientalization'




Lampinen, Antti

Antti Lampinen & Björn Forsén

Stuttgart

2024

2024

Oriental Mirages. Stereotypes and Identity Creation in the Ancient World

Oriens et Occidens

42

197

231

34

978-3-515-13672-3

978-3-515-13680-8

1615-4517



In this chapter, I propose to approach the ‘Oriental’ from an oblique angle by examining the methods through which an ancient population group was ascribed ‘Oriental’ characteristics, even though they had existing ties to a different macrogeographic pool of ethnic stereotypes. To understand how the characteristics that held a degree of ‘proverbiality’ among ancient audiences were used to trigger associations with the ‘Eastern’ iconosphere, it may be informative to explore a case in which a group of people (or, indeed, individuals) not commonly understood to belong to the ‘Orient’ by their origin were nonetheless presented as possessing or having obtained ‘Oriental’ characteristics. Such representations are, naturally, full of rhetorical and polemical considerations; and it is exactly for this reason they constitute fascinating evidence for the ancient Graeco-Roman ideas of acculturation and essentialism.



Last updated on 2025-27-01 at 19:36