كاوشي در نمود پارسيان هخامنشي به‌مثابۀ «ديگري» در متون كُهَن‌بنياد يونان باستان (507-323پ.م.)؛ رويكردي شرق‌شناسانه

In the sources of the Greek classical era (507 - 323 BC), the term “barbarian” (βάρβαρος) is frequently used to refer to the Achaemenid Persians. This word, which was probably derived from an eastern language (probably Sumerian or Akkadian) several centuries ago, meant only “foreigner” and established a distinction at the level of “language” between “children of Hellas” and “other ethnic groups”. But in less than two centuries (from the 6th to the 4th century BC), βάρβαρος became a dictionary of all Greek anti-ideals and absorbed concepts such as “savage”, “non-Polis-Dweller” (apolis), “uncivilized”, “anti-Hoplite”, “non-swimmer”, “uneducated”, etc. The semantic changes of the word “barbarian” in the late Archaic era (800 - 507 BC) along with the political developments in Greece in the early 5th century BC (the rise of democracy and Greco-Persian wars) made the Persians to be depicted in most of the texts of that era as “Barbarian enemies”, with “degenerate culture” and “declining society”. Until half a century ago, the image of the Persians and their empire found in European historiography was exclusively made based on this attitude and the “poor theoretical model” of the ancient Greeks. In the present research, the author, after eva‎luating the word “barbarian” and its semantic implications, has examined the stereotypes that were used in the Greek classical era to depict “barbarians” (in general) and Achaemenid Persians (in particular). The findings of the present study, which was provided by library resources, show that the four clichés of “the Hybris of Persian kings”, “the tyranny of the Persian court”, “godliness of the Achaemenid rulers” and “decadence of the Persian Empire” formed the basis of Greek perceptions of the Persian “Other” and the repetition of these clichés in Greek literature and art led to the emergence of the concept of “Orientalism”.

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