“It is possibly the most interesting  book on the ancient world I have read in the past ten years. . . .On every page there are subtlety and wisdom, in every section new insights, and the whole is permeated with a critical sympathy, critical sadness, even, for a people trying to remember where they have come from and how they might get back. . . . Anyone who wants to teach students about ‘Eurocentrism’ and Egypt, the invention of Barbarians, the invention of the Hellenistic period, and the reception of Greeks by Rome should start here, but the same might well apply to students of pastoral . . . of the history of the noble savage . . . of the Other <I>tout court<I>. . . . If he manages seamlessly to move from Plato to Bossuet to Momigliano, that is because he imagines them as part of one same tradition, a tradition of which he is himself a part, an erudite, clever and elegant tradition, which engages with older authors instead of merely using them. . . . Hartog provides a masterclass in how to use alterity in history.”

James Davidson | TLS

“Hartog continually dazzles the reader with the range of his reading and with the ways in which he draws connections and links between seemingly disparate material; he has an impressive ability to bring out hitherto unnoticed nuances from ancient texts. . . . The book is a sustained and stimulating inquiry into cultural identity, alterity, and memory through the figure of the traveler. . . . Readers also interested in understanding how the issue of travel opens onto questions of identity, otherness, and cultural memory, and poetic anthropology should read this book.”

Phiroze Vasunia | Bryn Mawr Classical Review

“This book is notable for its breadth, ranging through centuries and across cultures to visit a fascinating array of authors struggling to define Greek identity as it emerges through contact with other cultures. . . . The book’s sheer scope and breakneck pace are exhilarating, and much joy comes from the company, the scenery, and the feeling of being in thrall to a master. Hartog does remember Odysseus.”--, American Historical Review

Louise Pratt | American Historical Review

“Traditional Classicists will find themselves often challenged, intrigued, and illuminated by Hartog’s anthropological foray into the question of Greek identity and the “otherness” of the world that surrounded it. . . . An enlightening analysis of historical, philosophical, and literary texts that is informed by an anthropological perspective.”

Leon Golden | Electronic Antiquity