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Greek Perceptions of Ethnicity and the Ethnicity of the Macedonians

 

In this important but little known article by the late Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood which appeared in Identità e Prassi Storica nel Mediterraneo Greco (Milan 2002) 173-203, a dual question is examined: Did the Macedonians in antiquity regard themselves as Greek, and did the other Greeks regard the Macedonians as Greek?

Sourvinou-Inwood examines, in chronological order, all the extant historical sources on the question and comes to the conclusion that, once Demosthenes' prejudices are discounted, there is no evidence to show that the Macedonians or the Greeks regarded the former as anything other than the latter. There is, moreover, positive evidence beginning already with Hesiod in the 7th century B.C. that shows the incorporation of the Macedonians firmly in the Greek world. At the end of her essay, S-I shows the fundamental problems of Borza's theory about the presence or absence of Mycenaean Greeks in Macedonia.

 

Click here to view the article in pdf format: Greek Perceptions of Ethnicity and the Ethnicity of the Macedonians