Europe Before the Mirror. Critique of Historical Representations

"Greeks" and "barbarians", "Christians" and "heretics", "backwardness" and "civilization" - where do these oppositions, on which the entire history of Europe relies, come from and why? A person defines themselves by gazing into the "others" and highlighting the traits that... distinguish them from them. But when one accepts this image as true, they build representations of the surrounding world in accordance with that image. According to the Catalan historian Prof. Fontana (1931-2018), the established European identity is a sum of reflections in distorted mirrors, the result of a linear, simplified view of history.
"So what shall we do now, without the barbarians? For this would be at least some way out…"