The Chalybes as an Historical People

Abstract:The mythical iron-workers the Chalybes are described as an historical people by both Greek and Roman writers. This paper examines the ancient sources that describe them as a ‘barbarian’ people inhabiting the peripheral regions of the known world and highlights significant differences between the ‘historical’ Chalybes and the mythical Chalybes. By adopting an approach located at the intersection of several disciplines, such as ethnography, human geography, history of religions, and structuralist methodologies, the author discusses how the presence of the Chalybes in a narrative is a signal of ‘other’ space and how the description of their customs calls into play issues of the construction of individual and ethnic identity.