Abstract

BASILE, Gastón Javier. Herodotus, V, 19-21: Alexander I of Macedon. Beyond the Inherited Bounds. Nova tellus [online]. 2015, vol.32, n.2, pp.173-206. ISSN 0185-3058.

In V, 19-21, Herodotus narrates the reception of the Persian envoys by Amyntas I of Macedon and his son, Alexander I. The episode signposts a ‘turning-point’ at various levels in the Herodotean narrative and displays an ambivalent framing, characterization and language. Such ambiguity manifests itself, for one thing, in the inadequacy of the language of xenía as a means of portraying the contact between social groups -which foreshadows the emergence of the ‘other’ as barbarian in the Histories. Furthermore, Alexander’s individual identity, as well as the Macedonians’ social identity, is ambiguously depicted between a Greek and non-Greek ethos.

Keywords : Herodotus; Alexander I; Macedonians; Xenia; Identity.

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