THE IMAGE OF A BARBARIAN IN “LIVES AND OPINIONS OF EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS” OF DIOGENES LAËRTIUS

Abstract

The paper considers two worlds – “ours” and “theirs” in the work of Diogenes Laërtius (3rd century AD). He was a biographer of Greek philosophers. The main objective of article is an analysis of the image “the Other” in “Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers”. Much attention is given to the historiography of problems of formation of the image of the Barbarian in the ancient literature. There were several semantic traditions of usage of the term “barbarian” in ancient culture. The Greeks used the term for those who did not speak Greek and who is perceived as primitive. The results show that Diogenes Laërtius used these two semantic traditions to determine “the barbarian”. The researcher analyzed the biographies of philosophers in “Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers”. Eight of them had barbaric roots, namely Thales of Miletus, Anacharsis, Pittacus, Clitomachus, Herillus, Menippus, Arcesilaus and Antisthenes. It has been found that knowledge of the ancient Greek language was a symbol of civilization for Diogenes Laërtius. All these philosophers were a part of the antique culture and civilization. They were not an example of the idealization of barbarians. Diogenes Laërtius used the image of “the Other” as an example of wildness because he considered that the Greek people and culture were superior to all others. However, this author expressed the idea of equality of different peoples This paper has clearly shown that studying the image of the barbarian has perspectives. We will analyze the work of contemporaries of Diogenes Laërtius in further articles.