Il multilinguismo e il suo significato sociopolitico secondo i Greci. Alcuni topoi fra Omero e l'età ellenistica

How did the Greeks consider multilingualism in regard to its social and political effects? What does multilingualism ‘mean’ for the Greeks? Differently from what happens in the contemporary western societies, where multilingualism is seen as a ‘normal’ possible condition or even is regarded as a sign of economic and social liveliness, in the Greek texts multilingualism is a negative feature, typical of barbaroi and especially of the eastern ones; it causes disorder and internal discord, capable to bring to a status of political weakness and finally to defeat. Paradoxically enough, multilingualism is, for the same reasons, regarded as a typical feature of despotic regimes, and an instrumentum regni used by tyrannical powers. The Greek texts discussed in this paper range from Homer down to the Hellenistic age and outline a coherent ideological whole.