Abstract
This paper examines the different images of Lydia and Lydians as they are depicted in Herodotus’ Histories and in the earlier Greek literary tradition, focusing especially on the double-sided portrait of this civilization which seems to stem from the historian’s narrative. It discusses the origins of this ambivalent presentation, due to many reasons, among which the different status of Lydia as an Anatolian region/ethnos and as a powerful State/nation is singled out. Archaeological data and ideological interpretations by the Greek sources are also taken into account, to help clarify the possible roots of the tradition, which made Lydia (and Lydians) a so far, so close world to their Greek neighbours.