ἀλγηδόνες ὀμμάτων

Abstract

The subject-matter of the of the article are the opinions the ancient Greeks held of Persian women. The starting point is the well-known episode from ‘The Life of Alexander’ by Plutarch in which the Boeotian biographer quotes a famous remark of the Macedonian king that refers to an exceptional beauty of the royal Persian women. Based on other sources of the classical era (especially Xenophon) and later times I try to show that Greek writers created the stereotype of ‘Oriental woman’: not only an entity of incredible beauty but of independent mind and – thanks to the high social status and influences on the Great King’s court – dangerous. This stereotype was a part of a broader phenomenon which was Greek fascination with Oriental Achaemenid monarchy. To be sure the Persians aroused in the Greeks fear but in many ways the vast, powerful monarchy and Oriental institutions (including harem) had in themselves a lot of charm in the eyes of the Greek immigrants.