Seriphus (or Serifos) is one of the Cyclades islands scattered around the sacred island of Delos in the southern regions of the Aegean Sea. Whereas Delos was venerated and famous in ancient times as the alleged birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, the nearby island of Seriphus was contrastingly well-known in the Greco-Roman world for less flattering reasons. Unfortunately, in the public consciousness of ancient Greece and Rome, the inhabitants of Seriphus were stigmatized with a reputation for ignorance and backwardness. This reputation was known to the renowned philosopher, Plato (c. 427-347 BCE). In his text, The Republic, Plato included an anecdote about the famed Athenian politician and general, Themistocles, in which the famous figure was criticized and harassed by a heckler who insinuated that Themistocles’ prestige was not due to skill or deeds, but only a result of him being from Athens. Different storytellers claimed that the heckler was from different regions, but Plato (presumably for greater reputational contrast) chose to label the rude individual as a man from infamous Seriphus. Plato wrote, “The story about Themistocles is relevant here, who, when a man from the little island of Seriphus grew abusive and told him that he owed his fame not to himself but to the city from which he came, replied that neither would he himself ever have made a name if he had been born in Seriphus nor the other if he had been an Athenian” (Plato, The Republic, Bekker page 329e-330a). Unfortunately, the reputation of Seriphus being an ignorant and backward place persisted in Greece, and the stereotype also came to be believed by the Romans.
Cicero (106-43 BCE), one of the most famous orators and authors of Rome, is interestingly one of the best sources for examples of the types of stereotyping that Seripheans had to endure. Notably, in his text On the Nature of the Gods, Cicero painted the inhabitants of Seriphus as people who would have no knowledge about any wildlife other than the local flora and fauna of their small island. Cicero stated, “It is like imagining that you were born on Seriphus and had never left the island, where you were used to seeing small creatures like hares and foxes—and refusing to believe in lions and panthers when they were described to you. As for the elephant, if anyone told you about it, you would believe that you were the butt of a joke!” (Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, 1.96). Such is the unfortunate reputation that Seriphus and the Seripheans obtained for centuries in ancient Greece and Rome.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Cropped face of the Man from the Island of Sérifos, created in the workshop of Jean Baptiste Vanmour between 1700 – 1737, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the Rijksmuseum.jpg).
Sources:
- Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, translated by P. G. Walsh. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, 1998, 2008.
- Republic by Plato, translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, 2008.
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D329e
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.%208.125&lang=original
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/thayer/e/roman/texts/cicero/cato_maior_de_senectute/text*.html
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Cyclades
