4 ms·

Atlantis legends predate racism.

• VanTheBrand 4y ago
  There wasn’t racism in 360 BC when Plato established the Atlantis legend?
• jcranmer 4y ago
  First off, the Atlantean theory being talked about bears rather little relation to Plato's description. It rather harkens back to the 1880s, when Atlantis shifted from being a tale of hubris to a world-spanning civilization responsible for most or all indigenous innovations. Second, racism is... old. After all, recall that Greeks were the ones who named their out-class of foreigners after the sounds sheep made ("bar-bar", hence modern "barbarian").
  • adolph 4y ago
    Oikophilia, as opposed to xenophobia, is hardly racism. After all, many cultures do have a general term for other people. The passage of a word over the course of 2k+ years to its current bearers is hardly an indictment of those who first mint it. In Ancient Greece, the Greeks used the term not only towards those who did not speak Greek and follow classical Greek customs, but also towards Greek populations on the fringe of the Greek world with peculiar dialects. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarian https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarian
    • suslik 4y ago
      Weren't even Macedonians considered barbarians by Peloponnese Greeks during Philip / Alexander times?