Kadmos reloaded. The Shaping of Cultural Memory between Phoenicia, Greece and Rome

Corinne Bonnet (1)

1 PLH - Patrimoine, Littérature, Histoire

This paper provides a long-term analysis of Kadmos’ figure, a Greek symbol of Phoenicia, from the Archaic to the Hellenistic and Roman period. The analysis emphasizes his aptitude to build bridges between Phoenicia and Greece and to illustrate the traditional categories of “self ” and “other”, “Greek” and “Barbarian”, which gradually blurred according to new historical agendas. Kadmos, because of his complex kinship bonds, is used by different authors in different contexts and performances to embody a broad set of cross-cultural strategies and transactions. The paper shows how Kadmos was an excellent resource to combine different worlds, in different periods.

Mots clés: Kinship; Thebes; Multiculturalism; Kadmos; Cultural Memory

Domaines: Histoire

Corinne Bonnet. Kadmos reloaded. The Shaping of Cultural Memory between Phoenicia, Greece and Rome. Cercando con zelo di conoscere la storia fenicia. Atti della giornata di studi dedicata a Sergio Ribichini, Mar 2015, Rome, Italy. pp.49-61. ⟨hal-02171490⟩