Aristeas the Tourist

Barbu, Daniel Olivier (2014). Aristeas the Tourist. Bulletin der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Judaistische Forschung(23), pp. 5-12. Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Judaistische Forschung

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"Herodotus the Tourist" was the title given by James Redfield to his inquiry into Herodotus's ethnological system (Classical Philology, 80.2, 1985: 97-118). Redfield's insights, together with François Hartog's monograph The mirror of Herodotus (University of California Press, 1988), definitively modified our interpretation of Herodotus's Histories. In the present paper, I analyse the so-called Letter of Aristeas from a narratological perspective, suggesting that the anonymous author of the Letter deliberately constructed his main character ("Aristeas") as a Herodotus-like figure, who visits Judea and Jerusalem as yet another "tourist". In so-doing, the author's pseudo-ethnographic text produces a specific Jewish self-definition and identity in the Hellenistic period, mirroring both Greek representations of the Jews as a people of philosophers, and a Jewish interpretation of the ideal bios philosophikos, best typified through the Jewish compliance with the Mosaic legislation.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

01 Faculty of Theology > Department of Protestant Theology [discontinued] > Institute of Jewish Studies [discontinued]
01 Faculty of Theology > Other Institutions > Teaching Staff, Faculty of Theology

UniBE Contributor:

Barbu, Daniel Olivier

Publisher:

Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Judaistische Forschung

Language:

German

Submitter:

Daniel Olivier Barbu

Date Deposited:

27 Apr 2015 15:43

Last Modified:

03 Mar 2024 13:59

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.67330

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/67330

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