ANCIENT BASICS OF CONNECTIONS BETWEEN WAR AND TOURISM

• Authors: Kostuch, Lucyna

Abstracts

EN

The following article tries to reconstruct a primary and ?live? connection existing between a war campaign (which, after all, is also a journey) and a desire to see something that is worth it or attractive. There are some similarities between a soldier who brings spoils of war when he comes back from a military expedition and a Greek wanderer (tourist) who is armed in sword or at least a knife and comes back home with some souvenirs. We can find the sources of associations between a war and a journey in the Hellenes? mentality who did not separate war from other fields of life ? religion, philosophy, sport (agon) and also journeys made for pleasure and to gain knowledge. For long time in Greek mind there was no category where soldiers could function as a separate professional and social group. Though the Greeks basically combined an excursion, especially a military one, with some difficulties, at the same time they could notice some charm in it. It is proven by literary works, which mention a desire to see a distant country, created by writers who were mercenaries in foreign armies at the same time. Numerous testimonies of military leaders and ordinary warriors and other military tales about attractions seen during an excursion, soldiers? graffiti that can be found in distant countries, as well as different souvenirs brought from expeditions are also the evidence. It seems that Hellenic soldiers-travellers fall into category of ?military tourism? attributed to ?cultural tourism?. In ancient Greece military expeditions were also travels for knowledge and pleasure.

Keywords

EN

ancient history; Greek soldier; tourism; war

• Publisher: Wyższa Szkoła Bankowa w Poznaniu
• Journal: Studia Periegetica
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 8
• Pages: 13-32

Dates

published

2019-12-01

Contributors

author

Kostuch, Lucyna