>> The ancient Greeks seem to have been incredibly xenophobic and negatively disposed towards other peoples. I don't know that they were any more xenophobic th

>> The ancient Greeks seem to have been incredibly xenophobic and negatively disposed towards other peoples. I don't know that they were any more xenophobic than is inherent in all peoples. While Barbarian is a Greek word, it's also important to note that in the Greek context it didn't have the Roman implications of lack of civilization: it simply meant a non-Greek speaking people. During the Bronze Age, the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations were highly imitative (and pale imitations at that) of the hydraulic civilizations that had taken hold in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Near East. These immediate predecessors of the Greeks were much poorer than, much less powerful than, and geographically at the periphery of what was then the heart of civilization. As a consequence, there's a certain sense of material inferiority in Ancient Greek culture from the beginning. In much of Greek literature, the East is portrayed as being much wealthier and more powerful, with greater societal sophistication and stratification. In contrast, the Greeks view themselves as poorer, but scrappier, less sophisticated and urbane, but more egalitarian and self-determined, physically weaker, but morally stronger. The Greeks certainly viewed themselves as a "better" people overall, but that didn't prevent them from feeling a sort of awe towards their more ancient neighbors, particularly Egypt and Persia. Likewise, the Greeks absolutely could feel empathy for the other civilizations they came in conflict with: Aeschylus's The Persians presented the glorious Athenian defensive naval victory at Salamis from the perspective of the death and suffering it inflicted on the Persian people. Aeschylus's The Persians was submitted for tragic competition less than 10 years after the events it depicted, events that would have led to the destruction of Greek civilization and the enslavement of its people had the battle gone the other way. It won first prize. Finally, the Greeks, if Herodotus's Histories is any indication, had a deep curiosity in the cultures of other peoples. Herodotus wasn't afraid of making judgements about other cultures, but he wasn't afraid of learning from them or advocating some of their customs either. More than anything, Herodotus felt that there were things that Greeks could learn by traveling among and talking with non-Greeks. Herodotus was surely an outlier as compared to the typical Greek farmer, but the fact that Herodotus's work was instantly acclaimed and kept alive to the present tells you that it had a significant Ancient Greek audience, and wasn't just appreciated in posterity.