K. Kuminova, Master’s Student
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2018.139.07
IMAGES OF ANACHARSIS AND SCYLES IN THE ANCIENT LITERATURE
The article is dedicated to the images of Anacharsis and Scyles in ancient literature. It says in detail about the formation of the image of a noble barbarian in the ancient literature of the 4th century BC. It is analyzed written reports of ancient authors of the 5th cent. BC – 3rd cent. AD in the article. The author described in short, the political and economic situation in Greece and Rome of this period. The first mention of Anacharsis and Scyles we find in «The History» of Herodotus (5th century BC). Anacharsis became a popular literary character. Scyles was forgotten and was not mentioned after Herodotus. This is connected with the peculiarities of the historical process in the ancient Greece of the 4th cent. BC. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) and the crisis of the post-war period made philosophers to think a place of a man in this world. The noble barbarian became the new ideal of ancient philosophy. It is shown that Anacharsis became the ideal image of a noble barbarian for the ancient world. He was a sample of wisdom and purity. Anacharsis became famous for the simplicity of his way of life and his acute observations on the institutions and customs of the Greeks. Scyles is a sample of excessive pleasures. In the following centuries Anacharsis is becoming increasingly popular. The image of a noble barbarian was used also roman authors. Conclusions are drawn that the popularity of Anacharsis and the wise barbarian is the reaction of ancient authors to crises in ancient times. As a conclusion it must be emphasized, that close study of the ancient sources confirmed an idea that had been expressed by Ch. Schubert about two stages of the formation of the image of Anacharsis.
Keywords: Anacharsis, Scyles, literary image, ancient authors, а noble barbarian, crises in the ancient times.
Full text PDF
References:
1. ANDREEV, Yu. (1996). Greki i varvary v Severnom Prichernomor’e (osnovnye metodologicheskie i teoreticheskie problemy mezhetnicheskix konfliktov). [Greeks and Barbarians in the Northern Black Sea Region (Main Methodological and Theoretical Problems of the Inter-ethnic Contacts)]. Vestnik drenvej istorii, 1, 3–17. [In Russian]
2. BELOX, Yu. (2009). Grecheskaya istoriya. [The History of Greece]. Vol. 2. Moscow: Gosudarstvennaya publichnaya istoricheskaya biblioteka Rossii. [In Russian]
3. GIBBON, E. (2008). Istoriya upadka i razrusheniya Velikoj Rimskoj imperii: Zakat i Padenie Rimskoj imperii. [The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]. Vol. 7. Moscow: Terra. [In Russian]
4. GRANT, M. (1998). Rimskie imperatory: Biograficheskii spravochnik pravitelej Rimskoj imperii 31 g. do n.e. – 476 g. n.e. [Roman Emperors: A Biographical Companion of the Rulers of Roman Empire of 31 BC – AD 476]. Moscow: Terra. [In Russian]
5. IVANCHIK, A. (2005). Nakanune kolonizacii. Severnoe Prichernomor’e i stepnye kochevniki VIII-VII vv. do n.e. v anticnoi literaturnoj tradicii: fol’klor, literatura i istoriya. [On the Eve of Colonization. The Northern Black Sea Region and the Steppe Nomads of 8th – 7th Centuries BC in the Classical Literary Tradition: Folklore, Literature and History]. Moscow: Nauka. [In Russian]
6. KNABE, G. (1981). Kornelij Tacit. (Vremya. Zhizn’. Knigi). [Cornelius Tacitus: Time, Life, Books]. Moscow: Nauka. [In Russian]
7. KOZULIN, V.N. (2015). Obraz skifov v antichnoj literaturnoj tradicii. [The Image of the Scythians in the Classical Literary Tradition]. Barnaul: Izdatel’stvo Altajskogo Universiteta. [In Russian]
8. KUKLINA, I. (1971). Anaxarsis [Anacharsis]. Vestnik drevnej istorii, 3, 113–125. [In Russian]
9. SVENCICKAYA I. (1995). Zhenshhina v rannem xristianstve. [The Woman in the Early Christianity]. In: L.P. Marinovich, S. Yu. Saprykin. Zhenshhina v antichnom mire: sbornik statej. Moscow: Nauka. Pp. 156–168. [In Russian]
10. SKRZHINSKAYA, M. (2001). Skifiya glazami ellinov. [The Hellenes Image of the Scythia]. Saint Petersburg: Aletejya. [In Russian]
11. SPIRIDONOV, D. (1918). Urozhency Severnoho poberezh’ya Chernogo moray v istorii greko-rimskoj mysli. [The Natives of the Northern Coast of the Black Sea in the History of Greek-Roman Thought]. Izvestiya Tavricheskoj uchenoj arxivnoj komissii, 54, 187–233. [In Russian]
12. PASTURO, M. (2017). Zelenyj. Istoriya Cveta. [Green. The History of Colour]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie. [In Russian]
13. RANOVICH, A. (1941). Ocherk istorii rannexristianskoj cerkvi. [The Essay on the History of Early Christian Church]. Moscow: OGIZ. [In Russian]
14. ROZHANSKIJ, I. (1995). Rasism i Drevnyaya Greciya. [Racism and Ancient Greece]. Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniya i texniki, 2, 58–65. [In Russian]
15. RUSYAEVA, A. & SUPRINENKO, A. (2003). Istoricheskie lichnosti ellino-skifskoj epoxy (kulturno-politicheskie kontakty i vzaimovliyanie) [Historical Persons of the Hellenic-Scythian Epoch (Cultural-Political Contacts and Interinfluence)]. Kyiv – Komsomol’sk: Arxeologiya. [In Russian]
16. ALY, W. (1921). Volksmärchen, Sage und Novelle bei Herodot und seinen Zeitgenossen. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.
17. DIENEMANN, M. (1919). Judentum und Christentum. Frankfurt аm Main: J. Kauffman.
18. RIESE, A. (1875). Die Idealisierung der Naturvölker des Nordens in der griechischen und römischen Literatur. Heidelberg: Weiss.
19. RÜSSEL, H.W. (1944). Antike Welt und Christentum. Amsterdam – Antwerpen: Pantheon.
20. SALTZMAN, J. (2010). Herodotus as an Ancient Journalist: Reimagining Antiquity’s Historians as Journalists. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, The Denver Sheraton, Denver, CO. [Online]. Retrieved from http://ijpc.uscannenberg.org/journal/index.php/ijpcjournal/article/viewFile/22/29
21. SCMIDT, T. (2017). Barbarians in Plutarch’s political thought. [Online]. Retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/20663040.pdf.
22. SCHUBERT, Ch. (2010). Anacharsis der Weise. Nomade, Skythe, Grieche. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.