Greek identity and the Persian Wars
Greece was not one country. It was hundreds of independent city-states such as Athens and Sparta. They shared a language, gods, festivals (like the Olympic Games) and many stories. They also fought each other often.
In 490 BC a Persian force landed at Marathon and was beaten by Athens. In 480 BC a much bigger Persian invasion came. A group of Greek cities fought it at Thermopylae and Salamis. In 479 BC, at Plataea, the land army was beaten. These wars gave many Greeks a shared memory of "we stood together against a great empire." Many later Greek writers returned to this memory.
Historians point out that not all Greeks joined the cause, and some even fought on the Persian side. The shared "Greek" identity was strong in memory, but real life was messier.
What is a barbarian?
The Greek word barbaros began as a sound word for people whose speech was not Greek ("bar-bar"). It first meant "non-Greek speaker" and was not always rude. After the Persian Wars it was used more often for Persians and then for other peoples. It often carried ideas such as ruled by a king (not free), soft and luxurious, ruled by feeling, and cruel. Greeks pictured themselves as free citizens who used reason and law.
This is why the topic is called the invention of the barbarian: the contrast was shaped and repeated, not simply found.
Persians in Herodotus and Aeschylus
Herodotus (about 484 to 425 BC) wrote the Histories to record the great deeds of Greeks and "barbarians" and why they fought. He describes many peoples' customs with curiosity. He shows Persian kings as powerful, sometimes wise and sometimes proud and cruel. He also shows Greeks arguing among themselves. So his picture of the barbarian is mixed.
Aeschylus' Persians (472 BC) is the oldest Greek play we still have. It is about a recent event, not an old myth. It is set at the Persian court. The queen, a ghost and the chorus of old men mourn the defeat of King Xerxes. The play says Xerxes' pride (hubris) and his army's sheer size brought disaster. Persians are shown with luxury and loud grief, but also with sympathy. Athenians in the audience watched their enemies suffer, and they had fought in the war themselves.
Barbarians in Euripides' Medea
In Medea (431 BC), Medea comes from Colchis at the edge of the Greek world. She helped Jason win the Golden Fleece, left her home for him, and now he leaves her to marry a Greek princess. She is alone, a foreigner with no city to protect her. She is clever and very angry. She takes terrible revenge, including killing her own children.
The Greek characters call her a barbarian, yet the play shows Jason as the one who broke his oath. The audience feels both fear and sympathy. So Euripides uses the idea of the outsider to question Greek ideas about law, fairness and the way foreign women were treated.
Visual sources
Vase paintings and sculpture also show Persians and other outsiders. Persians are drawn in patterned trousers, soft pointed caps and sleeved coats, so a viewer can tell at once who is "other". The Greek and the foreigner are often shown in a fight. Battles of Greeks against Amazons or centaurs, on temples such as the Parthenon, may also stand for Greeks against barbarians.
When using a picture as evidence, ask: who made it, who bought or saw it, and what did they want to say?
Key formulas and definitions
- Key dates: Marathon 490 BC, Thermopylae and Salamis 480 BC, Plataea 479 BC, Persians (play) 472 BC, Medea 431 BC
- Barbaros: first "a non-Greek speaker" (bar-bar), later "other", often "not free / not rational"
- Source check: WHO speaks, TO whom, WHY?
- Greek city-state = polis (plural: poleis)
Worked examples
1. Why was Aeschylus' Persians unusual for a Greek tragedy?
Most tragedies used old myths. Persians was about a very recent real war, and it showed the enemy's side of the story and their sorrow.
2. How does Herodotus' picture of Persians differ from a simple "Greeks good, barbarians bad" view?
He describes Persian customs with interest, shows wise as well as proud Persian leaders, and shows Greeks quarrelling. So the picture is mixed.
3. What can a vase showing a Greek fighting a man in trousers and a soft cap tell us?
It shows how some Greek artists marked the Persian as "other" by dress and showed him as an opponent. It tells us what the artist and buyer thought, not exactly what happened.
4. Why can Medea be called an "outsider" in two ways?
She is from Colchis (a foreigner) and she is a woman alone without a city or family to protect her in Corinth.
Common mistakes
- Treating "Greek" as one united country. There were many city-states, often rivals.
- Assuming Herodotus or Aeschylus tell us what Persians really thought. They are Greek voices.
- Saying barbaros always meant "savage". At first it just meant "non-Greek speaker".
- Calling Medea only a villain. The play also makes the audience feel sympathy for her.