The Greco-Persian relations in Classical Antiquity through images: Persian women in attic iconography

Abstract

Since ancient times, the East and its peoples have been written about and depicted in Classical sources that tried to describe and analyze this neighboring region, producing diverse discourses that marked its exoticism and difference. The Greco-Persian Wars in the first decades of the fifth century were a determinant event to the relationship between Greece and Persia, of which different aspects can be observed in many documents of the centuries that followed. Such is the case of attic pottery, where there are various examples of red-figured vases depicting women in Persian contexts, such as the court, slavery and departure scenes.