1. CLAS 1120Q / ARCH 1707 THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD MWF 12 – 12:50 p.m. Rhode Island Hall 108 Prof. John Cherry Class 8 September 25, 2015 Herodotus Greeks and Non-Greeks This Old Pyramid

3. The Khufu ship 143 ft long x 19.5 ft wide Sealed in a bedrock pit at the south edge of the Khufu pyramid. Discovered only in 1954. Found disassembled in 1,223 cedarwood pieces (75’ to 4” in size) A “solar barge” (a ritual vessel designed to carry the resurrected king with the sun-god Ra) May have carried the king’s embalmed body from Memphis to Giza — i.e., a boat used in a real funeral voyage that afterwards had to be ritually buried

4. Khufu’s second boat pit investigated by Boston University, 1987 contained another disassembled boat

5. Herodotus Born ca. 484 BC, in Halicarnassus (Bodrum, SW coast of Turkey) Died ca. 425 BC The Histories (earliest surviving Greek prose of any length) “The father of history” — but also of ethnography, and travel-writing “The father of lies” (claimed he was reporting only what he had seen for himself or what he had been told) A record of his historia (Greek: “inquiry”), an investigation in to the origins of the Persian War with the Greek world, ca. 490-479 BC. Includes a wealth of geographical and ethnographic information

6. Herodotus’s travels…

7. … took place mostly within the Persian Empire ( seen here ca. 500 BC)

8. Herodotus of Halicarnassus: his Researches are here set down to preserve the memory of the past by putting on record the astonishing achievements both of our own and of other peoples; and more particularly, to show how they came into conflict. Herodotus’s purpose in writing The opening of Book I: “We Greeks” compared to “other people” “Digressions are part of my plan” (Book IV, 30) “Astonishing achievements” — the start of wonder? “Monuments which beggar description” (Book II, 35)

9. Hellenes (Greeks) — occupants of Hellas vs Barbaroi (non-Greeks) Barbarophonoi, a word first used by Homer, refers to those peoples who do not speak Greek, but unintelligible “bar-bar-blah-blah…” sounds Greeks felt themselves linked by features which served to distinguish them from all other people…

10. A common language, Greek — although many dialects Shared religious outlook: many deities in common, and a shared body of myths Zeus Herakles

11. Shared culture in art, architecture, literature

12. Institutional embodiments of Greek unity (e.g., Delphic oracle, Panhellenic [“All-Greek”] Games, such as those at Olympia)

13. Greeks and “others” To be fully Greek meant being: male, adult, free, a citizen of a polis Greeks typically defined themselves in terms of negative, polar, binary opposition to a whole series of non-Greek “others” — e.g.: Slaves Children Females Non-citizens (e.g. resident aliens) Non-Greek speakers Members of other ethnic groups (e.g. Macedonians) Non-mortals (the superhuman gods) Semi-human monsters (e.g. Amazons, Centaurs, Giants) Alterity (otherness)

14. Fundamental pairings that become confused as categories: US :: THEM GREEK :: BARBARIAN MEN :: WOMEN CITIZEN :: ALIEN FREE :: SLAVE MORTALS :: GODS Herodotus says: a barbarian is a person who does not share To Hellenikon (“the Greek thing”, “Greekness”) — common blood, language, religion, customs

15. men women standingsitting EgyptianGreek EgyptianGreek Herodotus, Histories Book II, 35-40 (= pp. 115-117 in the pdf extracts on the class Canvas site) About Egypt itself I shall have a great deal more to relate because of the number of remarkable things which the country contains, and because of the fact that more monuments that beggar description are to be found there than anywhere else… Not only is the Egyptian climate peculiar to that country, and the Nile different in its behavior from other rivers elsewhere, but the Egyptians themselves in their manners and customs seem to have reversed the ordinary practices of mankind. For instance… The Greek “othering” of non-Greeks

16. Herodotus’s reaction to Egyptian art: Not interested!

17. Herodotus 2.106.2-5 Describes rock-cut “engravings” in a pass between Sardis and Smyrna in western Turkey. He claims it represented a pharaoh Sesostris who (he was told by Egyptian priests) led an expedition into parts of Europe. The hieroglyphic inscription, he thought, read: “I myself won this land with the strength of my shoulders.” What he saw was probably the 13 th -century rock-cut Hittite reliefs in the Karabel Pass. Luwian inscription describes the figure as “Tarkasnawa, king of the Land of Mira”

18. Herodotus’s reaction to the pyramids — mainly as feats of engineering the ramp from the river to the pyramid and up its sides (“just about as big a piece of work as the pyramid” work gangs and how they operated in shifts size of the hewn blocks and how they were raised and set in place how the monument was finished off (from the top down) how much time it all took (10 years for ramp, 20 for pyramid) how much it cost (radishes, onions, and garlic for the workmen) — His measurements are quite accurate (800’ rather than 760’) — paced out? — No sense at all of what the monument meant in ideological terms — But this is the first narrative, eye-witness account of a Wonder