Chapters 2 and 3 have examined in detail the four parallel yet interconnected worlds within which interactions between Greeks and non-Greeks took place. The following three chapters will focus on the consequences of these parallel worlds for the social, economic, political and cultural history of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea during the archaic and classical periods. This chapter will focus on intercultural communication in the ancient Mediterranean: in what ways, in which contexts, and for what purposes did Greeks and non-Greeks attempt, succeed or fail to communicate, and what were the consequences of this intercultural communication? Because as historians we specialise in the study of particular cultures, we tend to believe that people within one culture think only in terms of their own culture; but intercultural communication poses very acute challenges to such a perspective. If one reads Egyptian texts and observes Egyptian images addressed to an Egyptian audience, the pharaoh was god on earth, on a level far above any other Egyptian, let alone non-Egyptian Barbarians; but the pharaohs who corresponded with other Near Eastern rulers and called them ‘my brother’ clearly had to think in very different terms when it came to intercultural communication.

Let us start by exploring some examples of intercultural encounters and some forms of intercultural communication in the ancient Mediterranean. We have already come across the Greek and Carian mercenaries who became an important factor in the political and military history of Saite Egypt; their presence at the Egyptian capital of Memphis is illustrated by some fascinating ‘bilingual’ grave stelae, dating from the seventh and sixth centuries (see Figure 16). These are stelae with two or more registers, which have been called bilingual because they combine registers decorated in typical Egyptian fashion with registers showing ekphora scenes which are typical of Greek art; they also carry inscriptions either in both hieroglyphic and Carian or only in Carian and rarely even in Greek.