Regards grecs sur le Pont-Euxin : réflexes changeants d’un espace ‘colonial’
Résumé
Since the settling of the Greeks in the Black Sea, after preliminary
expeditions and failed attempts, this region was gradually integrated into
the commercial networks and involved in various events that affected the
Greek world. More remarkably, by locating in the Euxine several mythological
narratives, the Greeks attempted, on the one hand, to take hold of this ‘periphery’ that the presence of local people could transform once
again into axeinos, and on the other hand, to point out its peculiarity. The
threatening landscape, the bloody character of the inhabitants of the region,
the unusual customs, participate in the construction of a singularity characterized
by danger but also by a certain exoticism. This study specifically
examines this last category, perceptible in the manner of speaking, dressing
and behaving of these Greeks surrounded by ’Barbarians’. We have to
ponder on the way in which the Euxine was perceived by other Greeks, as a
place of cultural innovations, but also with respect to the significance of the
tradition and of the cultural heritage which the inhabitants of the Pontus
themselves tried to conserve and bring to the fore. We can finally wonder
how the image of the Euxine, as it is reflected by the external perceptions,
coincides with their self-perception. Caution should be taken in the analysis
of sensitive notions such as identity, assigned or assumed, perceptible
through fragmentary and sometimes contradictory sources.
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