Barbarian Religion in the Graeco-Roman Imagination

Barbarian Religion in the Graeco-Roman Imagination explores how Greek and Roman authors imagined the religious lives of northern peoples, such as Thracians, Scythians, Celts, Germans and others. Drawing on a wide chronological range of literary sources, it shows how images of strange gods, cruel rituals, and manipulative sages were shaped less by ethnographic observation than by Greco-Roman ideas about identity, morality and difference. The book traces how these portrayals were used to express concerns about virtue, impiety, death and wisdom, as well as broader assumptions about human nature. By analysing well-known texts alongside often-overlooked authors, Barbarian Religion in the Graeco-Roman Imagination reveals a flexible and enduring archive of stereotypes that helped ancient writers think through problems closer to home. This study offers scholars of antiquity, religion and cultural history a new understanding of how northern “barbarian” religion was constructed in classical literature, and why it matters for understanding ancient ideas of otherness.