Internal Otherness: The Brave Athenians, the Dilatory Spartans, the Treacherous Thebans

Abstract

This paper shows new aspects of Greeks’ perception of their own identity. It discusses some historical and mythical themes of Greek political debate which developed from the Persian wars onwards (the Persian wars, the Amazons, the Heraclides, the Seven against Thebes, etc.). These topics contribute to the forming of stereptyped views of peoples which were shared by both historians and orators in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.