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Wellsprings
history

Greek and Barbarian Polarity

Ἕλληνες καὶ βάρβαροι

The ancient habit of splitting the world in two — Greek-speakers on one side, 'barbarians' (everyone else) on the other.

The split between Hellene and barbaros (literally, those whose speech sounds like 'bar-bar') organized much of Greek ethnography and history, used to explain differing customs, freedoms, and the great East-West wars. Herodotus (5th c. BCE) builds his Histories around the clash of Greece and Persia, and after the Persian Wars the antithesis hardened into a cultural framework. It became a lasting lens — and stereotype — through which Greeks defined themselves against others.

Where this idea shows up

7 Greek sources

Where to read it