RICERCA ITALIANA     

The Third Greece and the West

Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II"

Abstract

This research proposes the study of the modalities with which the communities, of the “polis” type and of the “ethnos” and “koinon” types, were structured in Central Greece, an area which has been conventionally seen as a marginal part of Greece. The harsh judgement of Thucidides, who seemed to share a vision of these regions of Northwest Greece as backward, from the cultural and political point of view, has certainly slowed down research on these terrritories for a long time, even though in the past there were some relevant monographic works on the subject. The group proposes investigating the formation of the various identities, both at the level of the image of themselves they wanted to transmit (displayed in “narrations of myths”, genealogies, and also in coin symbols), and at the level of the institutional structures which they gave themselves (magistrates, assemblies, counsellors etvc.). Both these levels shall be considered as the outcome of the interrelations among the settlements in the various “zones” and of the relations of each of them with the Gulf of Corinth, a miniature Mediterranean within the Mediterranean, as well as of their interrelations with the colonial world, and in a vaster sense, with the Greekness of the West.
The basic working hypothesis is the conviction, largely advanced in recent studies (C.Morgan, Early Greek States Beyond the Polis, London 2003; but cfr. Già J.L.Amselle, Logiques Métisses, Paris 2002) that identities tend to modify over time, following the necessities of relations with the outside, but also adhering to a need to close out the external world. This has encouraged a long term study, thanks to which it would be easier to follow, also by investigating particular cases, the evolution of this area, which seems to present itself as homogenous, The involvement of most of the regions involved in the “attraction” dynamic of the Gulf of Corinth, make it a “special place” for the study of these phenomena, which on the one hand allowed the formation of city entities of the “classical polis” type, and on the other saw these in coexistence with other types of organisation of the state.
Thanks, therefore, to the various investigations carried out by the single researchers on this issue, it is believed possible to come to a better understanding of the political evolution and the role this part of the “Third” Greece had in the various events in which it was involved, and which perhaps, in turn, determined some of its peculiarities <<<

Principal Investigator

Luisa Breglia Università degli Studi di NAPOLI "Federico II"

Research Objectives

The various groups participating in this research intend to study and deepen knowledge of the composite reality which has recently been given the designation of the Third Greece, using, as a point of reference, the Gulf of Corinth and the dynamics acting on it both from the coastal hinterland and from its opening to the West. In the last few decades the entire area, has, to varying degrees, been the subject of international research which has led to evaluating the history of the same by considering it in itself and not through the filter of a historiography of Ionic, Attic or Corinthian stamp, but, with evidence coming from necropolises, places of local and inter-ethnic cults, settlements and forms of utilization of the territory and epigraphs. Thus the idea of a Western koiné has taken shape, with its history independent of that of the East or the Aegean. Form has been given to the question of the interrelations between these two areas, as a question of when, why and how such relations grew. Problems connected to the links established within this area between its Western and Eastern sectors (Aetolia and Akarnania) have been reproposed; the projection towards Illyria, Epirus Corcyra and the Ionic islands, and the colonies in Italy and Sicily. But at the same time these studies have posed the question of the construction of a space reserved for politics within communites which present ethnic structures alongside those of citizenship, but which also suffer under the counterattack of opposing hegemonic aims, in a particular way those of Corinth, of Athens, of Siracuse in the IV century (with the two Dionisii, Timoleon and Agatocles). In this context the koinòn of the Molossi takes on substance. and determines the conditions for intervention in the West, first by Alexander the Molossian and then by Pyrrus. Therefore, this is an area which starts from a condition which would have it isolated, barbaric and backward and in the end takes on the role of protagonist in the later phases of its history. An area, therefore, which is worth restudying so as to deepen knowledge of the internal political dynamics, revealing their limits and the forces of expansion.
To start with this shall be a study of the set of interstate relations between poleis and ethne gravitating around the Gulf of Corinth and on the Ionic Islands, both with regard to their geographical proximity, and to their common experience of the connection with the phenomena of internal and external colonisation of the Gulf (task of the Venice and Parma Units), giving consideration to commercial relationships and their protagonists, to the contributions to culture spreading along the routes out of Central Greece towards the West (task of the Rome and Calabria Units). Poleis and ethne of this vast area were themselves the object of colonisation as an attempt at hegemony (in the case of Athens). On the other hand the decentralised position of these areas, to differing extents and in differing epochs, makes them a perfect ‘laboratory’ for the study of all the less known institutional, juridical and social relations of the Greek world, which escape the dynamic of the great opposing blocs (Athens and Sparta and their allies). One may consider in the first instance the reality of the basileiai and the communities of an ethnic type and their institutions, and in particular Epirus. On the contrary the existence of a colony like Locris Epizefirii, with the archaeological documentation from its site, like that from its principal, temples, with particular regard to the epigraphic profile of the temple of Zeus, allows verification of the original patrimony of the ethnos from above, while from below there is the development induced by its impact and relations within the context of Magna Graecia. Finally in this setting regions like the two Locris and Boeotia, thrown in the middle between Euripos and the Gulf of Crisa, were, together with Phocis, called on to play the role of hinge, which explains the interest given to them in the archaeological setting and justifies the need for renewed study (Naples Unit).
In particular the Venice, Parma and Calabria Units intend to concentrate on the historical-geographical hinge between the metropolitan west and the colonial west constituted by the Corcyran axis, and on the internal dynamics and the international relations of Northwest Greece. Each Unit shall give a different contribution to the great themes indicated in the titles of the single research units – in fact, the interaction and collaboration of the Units is one of the main aims of the project - , but each shall operate on improving understanding of the specific themes. Attention shall be given to the Epirus setting and, among other things, the tradition of the founding feat of Timoleonte shall be reassessed , reconsidering it from the perspective of the subcolonies’ of Corinth, of Western Greece and of the Ionic islands. The problem of the basileis, and the ideology of the Hellenistic period shall then lead to a better understanding of the role of Corcyra in the relationship between Agatocle and the other basileis.
The object of study of the Parma Unit shall be Northwestern Greece (Ionic islands, Akarnaniam, Gulf of Corinth) its internal political dynamic and its international relations in the Ancient and Classical Ages. In the first instance this shall make a deeper re-examination of the relevant literary documentation necessary; in parallel, great atttention shall be given to the complex mythographic bustle which involves this region (for example the saga of Alcmaion). But the investigation shall also take in to consideration the interesting, though scanty and for many reasons problematic, epigraphic documentation, and shall attempt to use the results of the intense excavation and recognition activity carried out in the last few years in Akarnania and in the adjacent areas.
The “La Sapienza” University of Rome Unit shall study in particular the epigraphc data of the Tavole di Locris and all the recent epigraphic finds in the zone of Rhegion, in the colonies of Locris, but also in Crotone and Sibaris, while another object of the study of this Unit shall be the mobility between Magna Graecia and the Gulf of Corinth.
The Calabria Unit in turn, shall study Epirus, Corcyra and the Greekness of the West. In particular, in the light of the problems posed by the peculiarity of the Epirotic reality (ethnic composition, territorial organisation, particular forms of regality, archaic characteristics of the religion), the intention is to conduct a systematic reexamination of the different interserctions verifiable at the level of traditional myths and real history and to make a concise comparison of the ways of managing the territory, to the nature of the cults and the typology of the socio-political aspects and their development between the VII and III centuries B.C..
The Naples Unit shall propose an analysis of the literary traditions: Homer, Hesiod and the other ancient historians . Another analysis shall follow on from this, relating to the relevant cultural data of sanctuary centres, so as to highlight, if possible, analogous practices. Concerning this there data about the most important deities of the various centres shall be examined, looking for evidence and documentation within this which refers to the colonies. In this setting the type of offering shall be studied, and, if possible, an attempt shall be made to focus on the question of exchanges, from colonies to sanctuaries in the mother country. The traditions connected to the foundation myths shall also be examined, so as to arrive at a better comprehension of the external projections of these realities once considered “marginal”. <<<

First Results

The Units associated with this research project act using presupposed common methodologies. They start from a common reflection on the theme of origins and identity and aim at verifying the possibilities and outcomes for such issues. They take into account the results of research in the field and the interpretations which have been proposed concerning the issues. Besides, in this context they see the necessity of reexamining the set of available documents, taking into account the fact that the reply to the question of identity cannot be found starting from a single sector of documents, but comes from the comparing them with the set of documentation belonging to politics, cults, artistic and artesan production, numismatics, and last but not least, the literary tradition, without which the interpretation of the material data risks becoming subjective and arbitrary. To come to the area under study, the so-called Third Greece, it seems obvious to all that for the ancient era the first level of attention is given to the traditions in myth. This area has been at the centre of the Homeric tradition and that of the nostoi (Odysseus, Diomedes, Ajax), but it has also been at the centre of scenes of myth connected to Oineus and Meleager, Tydeus, Alcmaion and his family. It has been the object of epic poems in the Aetolia and in general in the products of the Boeotian and Hesiodian schools. It has received Argonaut traditions and has been influenced by Corinthian traditions joining each other under the name of Eumelos. Unfortunately such traditions have come down in fragments or in later prose testimony, but the principal lines can be reconstructed and the echoes which they have had in local sites can be perceived in the form of cults and representations. It is necessary to reexamine them and to order them, comparing them to the most ancient archaeological testimony, as has been done, for example, for the traditions about Heracles and other heroes. The instruments to undertake this study are not lacking. In the first place we may consider the iconographic lexicon of Greek mythology and the material collected therein, but then there are also epigraphs, coins, temples and their decor and the sites mentioned in these traditions. At first sight the comparison of these various series of documents, also extending to the Classical and the Hellenistic periods, appears to be a necessity and an obligation both because of the epoch in which they were founded and because of the echoes and refunctionalising of the past that they enacted. The forces in action, their proven competence, their cooperation, the shared initiatives which they intend to take, the circulation and cataloguing of the information which has already been partly done and is foreseen to increase, in our opinion, give substance to the belief that even though a definitive solution to all the questions posed shall not be achieved, it will at least give initial indications which, given the current data, with respect to an area all-in-all quite unified by the presence of an obligatory rite of passage like the Gulf of Corinth, have the expectation of providing the most ample and most comprehensive solutions. The description of the objectives made above, the quality of the forces involved, the proofs they have already given and the means available seem to be a very good starting point. <<<

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The work of H.J.Gehrke, Jenseits von Athen und Sparta. Das dritte Griechenland und seine Staatenwelt, which appeard in 1986 costituted a novelty in the field of studies concerning regions and cities other than Athens and Sparta. As has been stated, unlike other studies (for example, M.Amit Great and Small Poleis, Bruxelles 1973), which dwelt on the problem of the relations between the “great powers” and the “small cities”, Gehrke treated the “Greek Third World”, organising it by taxonomies, essentially on an economic basis, thereby also providing researchers with a complete survey of the life of the “third” Greek poleis, which took into consideration not only their political history, but also data concerning economics, landscape and myth. Since then there has been a growing interest in these problems, and also in the problem of defining what a polis is exactly (already present in the studies of de Polignac in 1984, in the review of A. Snodgrass of the works of Van Effenterre and de Polignac himself; and above all thanks to the studies of the Copenhagen Polis Centre of M.H.Hansen). The problem of the possible definition of what a polis is was thus put alongside that of defining an ethnos and of following the role of the poleis from within that ethnos. Recently an important contribution to the definition of the ethne, but also to that of the “minor” poleis seemed to come from the anthropological point of view which invited the study of the phenomena of aggregation and of structuring, from the point of view of the formation of awareness of identity. This is difficult work in that it is necessary to choose what should be the indicators of this awareness of this “identity”, which changes and is rebuilt continuously in relation to the needs of the relations with other realities in other poleis and in relation to communities which it is in contact with. Other monographic or group works, such as Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity by J.M.Hall (Cambridge 1997), Greek Alternatives to Athens (ed. R. Brock-S.Hodkinson, Oxford 2000), Ancient Perceptions of Greek Identity (ed. I. Malkin, Harward 2001), The Cultures within Ancient Greek Cultures (ed. C.Dougherty-L.Kurke, Cambridge 2003), and yet others which could be added, have contributed to enriching heuristic instruments in the field.
The widening of the issue and the wealth of the new archaeological data and the refining of investigative methods impose, therefore, on the one hand, readressing the problem of “Third Greece”, but they also circumscribe it, in comparison to the work of Gehrke from 1986. Therefore the choice has been made to investigate the area of Central-Western Greece/ Western Central Greece, particularly that connected to the Gulf of Corinth (of which the Ionic islands and Akarnania specifically have been considered an integral part in recent studies, like those of Freitag or of Morgan), extending checks, because of clear problems of contact and exchanges, to Epirus and to Illyria. Besides, since it is clearer and clearer, on the basis of the studies mentioned above, that the problem of the internal political structures of these poleis and states is also the consequence of their international relations, it was considered necessary to address the examination of the data concerning their relations and with other Greek states, in particular Athens and Sparta, (thereby also reconnecting to the work of M.Amit, though it is a bit dated), but especially with the relations that the entire zone had with the West.
In the last few years Boeotia and Phocis have been the locations of excavation and recognition campaigns which have brought to light new sites and have documented the revival of life, after the collapse of Mycene the end of the X century B.C. (Oropus in particular, but also Kalapodi in Phocis) and obviously the material for the successive period has also become richer (a review and a collection of data from the Mycenean Age to the Roman Imperial Age is found in J.Fossey, Topography and Population of Ancient Boiotia); contemporaneously there are new data collections on the sanctuaries and on the sites of cults, and new attempts at interpretation of the value of the sanctuaries in the upper Ancient Age (Mazarakis Ainian). These propose revising under a new light the first expressions of communities which we later find as poleis or as important places for religious meetings of koinà, if not as koinà themselves (a problem particularly relevant to Phocis, as seen in the work of McInerney and of Morgan). In Locris resent excavations and recognition digs, like that of W.K Pritchett (East Lokris revisted in Studies in Ancient Greek Topography V, Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1985) and J. Fossey, The Ancient Topography of Opuntian Lokris, Amsterdam 1990, have brought epigraphic data to light, as well as the sites of necropolises from the Mycenean Age. In parallel the already rich epigraphic body of Locri Epizephirii, has been enriched with new dataewhile others have emerged from the colonies of Locri Epizephirii itself. This new data confirms the close relations between the Locrians of Greece proper and all the Locrian settings of Magna Graecia, also regarding data concerning the position of women within Locrian society, and mobililty between Greece and Magna Graecia and vice versa. The epigraphic data for this zone pose peculiar linguistic problems, for which the Rome Unit (especially Lazzarini, who has already carried out research on the issue) has been in contact with Italian and foreign linguists (Dubois, École des Hautes Études- Paris) for some time.
Besides the data from cultural material, which are sometimes difficult to interpret, the tradition of myths can be important for the reconstruction of perceptions which an ethnos or a polis had about themselves or which they wanted to transmit to the outside. While data of such a kind, concerning Boeotia and Phocis have been much studied (Buck, Schachter, Bernardini), and those of Phocis have been reexamined by McInerney, recent comprehensive work on the traditions of Locris are missing for the metropolitan Locrian cities, while they do exist for Locri Epizephyrii and its colonies (Mele).
For Aetolia and Akarnania the results of the topographic investigations in Aetolia and Akarnania (l’Aetolian Strouza Project and the Palairos Research Project and the Stratiké Research Project) have revealed themselves as being decisive, as have the results of excavations carried out by various Italian, German and Greek field teams in these zones. In the same way the Epirus zone has been the object of excavations by both Italian and German teams, but also by French scholars (in particular the works of P. Cabanes and those of di Funke are recommended); while the zone of Tesprozia has been of interest for I. Malkin (The Returns of Odysseus, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London 1998) who investigated a lot in this zone, also keeping in mind the data from myth found in thetraditions of the Odyssey and also in those of the nostoi. The importance of the nostoi tradition has also been revealed as relevant for Akarnania. Here, the works of Prinz, Jouan, Gehrke and also Breglia, have shown the possibility of reconstructiong how in the lower Ancient era the area was already reconnected to a mythical founder, and also how this myth was remodelled for purposes of identity in a later epoch. These contributions envisage, therefore, the possibility of revising the image of this zone as a “backward” zone. Studies on the importance of Akarnania in the V century, both during the Peleponnesian War (Fantasia) and in a preceding period, but also the reflection on the contacts between Corinth and the Akarnanian coastal strip, have reproposed the question of the structuring of both the Scarnian koinan itself and of the single poleis present in it, as the result of a set of distinct processes, corresponding on the one side to the necessity of relations and clashes with the outside, but also corresponding to the need of exclusion of the outside, so as to revendicate their own peculiarities.
All these regions, Aetolia, Akarnania, Epirus, Illyria and the Ionic islands have also supplied rich and interesting epigraphic material: the Laboratory of Epigraphy (Greek section, coordinated by Prof. Antonetti of the Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità of the V.O. of the University of Venice), which houses an important archive of autograph epigraphs, casts, drawings and now digitised photographs of Aetolian and Akarnanian inscriptions, may constitute a reference point for scholars of the group while the same archive may be further enriched, thanks to existing contacts between the Venice Unit and the Seminar für Alte Geschichte della Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster and the scholars of the Inscriptiones Grecae della Berlin-Brandeburgische Akademie.
Also for the Adriatic area the data from contacts between the two shores are an element of fundamental importance. There is also no lack of studies in this sector studies , some even as long-term projects. The recent contributions of the Acts of the XXXIV “Convegno” of Studies on Magna Grecia, dedicated to Corinth and the West (Taranto 1995) or the other”Convegno”, dedicated to Alexnder the Molossian and the “condottieri” in Magna Grecia (Atti XLIII Convegno of Studies on Magna Grecia, Taranto 2004; in particular the work of G.De Sensi Sestito) may be recalled. In relation to these contacts, studies concerning the role of Corcyra (Antonetti), have seen this island the role of a not merely geographical hinge between the two zones. Besides, the importance of the island as a stop off for navigation between the East and West has been stressed ever since the work of J. Bérard, La colonisation grecque de l’Italie méridionale et de la Sicile dans l’antiquité. L’histoire et la légende, Paris 1957.
The chance of acheiving a complete survey of how the ethne (and within them the poleis) defined themselves on the basis of what relations and contacts in the various moments of their histories now largely depends on the work of archaeological teams. Through the examination of single zones and thanks to the specific competences of the Units constituting the group, matured through studying these zones, the research which we propose to carry out shall be done on the basis of shared methodological principles and above all taking into account the well-known phenomenon of Mediterranean “mobililty” and the role of “connectivity” in the Mediterranean itself. <<<