RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research program

The Third Greece and the West

University Co-ordinator

Università degli Studi di NAPOLI "Federico II" - DISCIPLINE STORICHE - ()

Research Unit Leader

Luisa Breglia

Description

In the area of the general project “Third and Western Greece” the Neapolitan Unit proposes to take into examination the problems of interaction in the Archaic Age between poleis and ethne, between apoikiai and “ethnic” states, with respect to Boeotia, Phocis and Locris ( but also necessarily with respect to Aetolia and Acarnania ). Here the development of ethnic “awareness” (of an ethnicty which is seen as a continuous development, depending on numerous dynamic factors Morgan 2003) seems to proceed at a constant rate and to be the reflection of more complex construct of “social groups”, which led to differing forms of politico-social organisation. If one considers it an acquired truth that such a process is inexplicable without recurring to “models”as mobility and “connectivity” (Purcell 1990, Malkin 2005), attention must be paid to some crucial and distinctive problems: Phocis, and Boeotia, were attacked by the same “external enemy” (Thessalians), or there were clashes between them, even in their different historical events, they share genealogies going back to a single ancestor (cfr. the cases of Lokros and Phokos, the latter also present in the Boeotian genealogies); in particular Aetolia, Locris and Acarnania share being involved in epic and myth cycles of great antiquity like those concerning the Caledonian boar hunt, the fight between Argos and Thebes and the Argonaut cycle; they share the fact of being present in mythical (Phocis and Boeotia) or real (Locris) projects for colonisation of the West; they share relations with Corinth and geographical location in a particular zone, the Gulf of Crisa, which, to recent researchers (Freitag 2000), seems to repropose, on a reduced scale, the same “connective” peculiarities encountered for the Mediterranean in general (Malkin 2005).
Interest in these regions also depends on the wealth of archaeological material recently acquired, in particular in the last twenty years, through research (Phocis, Locris Aetolia ), and above all is fed by the fact that these constitute a privileged case for the study carried out by the Copenhagen Polis Center on questions about the polis, which has had the obvious consequence of a revival, on new methodological foundations of research into ethne; research which, starting from investigation of the sites of cults, the sites and methods of settlement and the use of the land leads to the key questions about the concepts of ethnicity, interaction and connectivity (Malkin, Morris 2005).
Phocis already the subject of excavation campaigns at Kalapodi, has seen a revival of excavations which have put in doubt the identification of a sanctuary with Hyampolis and instead proposed a relation to Abai; there are ongoing campaigns which are trying to reconstruct the typography of the great “isthmic corridor” which connected the Northeren area to the Gulf of Corinth (Kase, Szemler,Wilkie, Wallace 1991..); after the work of Ellinger, research which deserves to be discussed, by J.Mc Inerney (1999), has been dedicated to the study of Phocis’ ethnos and its myths and cults. In the last few years Eastern Locris has revealed new archaeological material, especially in the zone of Atalanti (Opunte), which has permitted the updating of the 1990 work of Fossey and proposes new identification of sites (Dakoronia 1990;1993; cfr. Arch. Rep. 2005/06). Revisions of known epigraphs has brought clarification about the role of certain political authorities(Nielsen 2000). Finally in Boeotia a succession of new discoveries has demonstrated episodes and contacts with the Euboean world in the areas of Oropos and Platea from the X century: If one also keeps in mind that Archaic Euboean material also appears at Kalapodi, one cannot but agree about the necessity of a new examination of the traditions linked to this area, in particular those in literature, which certainly form a considerable part of the Third Greece and of the so-called Euboean koinè ( Lemos ). Aetolia and Locris, which do not appear to participate in this archaeologically documented koinè, are not, however, outsiders to the history of this central area of Greece because of the part they play in its traditional myths.
This Unit therefore proposes:
A) an analysis of the literary traditions, which aims at bringing to light if, to what extent and in what manner “identity” traditions are expressed within them. For what concerns the Homeric tradition, as well as confirming the (obvious) knowledge of belonging to a single “ethnic reality”, there shall be an attempt to identify the value of the poleis present within it; for what concerns the pseudo-Hesiodean genealogy, its composition, the levels in which specific heroes and heroines belonging to different centres are interelated, the epochs to which such interrelations can be ascribed; for what concerns the other traditions in myths which involve this area ( Theban cycle; ; Alkmaionìs; Carmina Naupactia; return of the Heraclides ) a reexamination of the same with the intention of highlighting the intercurrency between the apparently more marginal territories and those which were more active and are better documented.
B) an analysis of the cultural data relative to sanctuary centres, so as to bring to light, if possible, analogous practices; in relation to this, the data concerning the most important divinities of the various centres shall be examined, looking for testimony and documentation at a colonial level. In this area there shall be a special investigation of the type of offering, and an attempt, if possible, to focalise on the problem of the exchanges between colonies and the sanctuaries of the mother country,
C) An analysis of the traditions linked to the myths of the founding of the colonies.

In this way it is hoped to arrive at a mapping of the data on the basis of which to construct (and then later to represent in various ways) the image of self of the various ethne/poleis, which may allow a better understanding of their political being. In this way there the various elements which may have determined the social action and the very choices of the forms of political and social organisation, due in fact to interaction and contact, but also to the exclusion of the other and therefore closure in themselves, will also be identified.
The group also proposes to organise and build a series of interrelated databases in which will highlight the following aspects: a) terminology of the data of syggeneia, etairia and “affinity” with respect to the characters (heroes, oikistai divinities) in the research; b) prosopographics of the single heroes, oikistai etc.;) feats and field of action of the same. The first database shall include the literary texts, starting from the Homeric texts, relative to the “characters” (divinities, oikistai, heroes): a terminological investigation of these texts shall be prepared; the second database shall contain genealogical data linked to the individual “characters”, with all the variants, deriving both from the literary sources and possible epigraphical sources. A third database shall be about the areas and places of action of the divinities, heroes, heroines and oikistai and shall be constructed from the literary data (epics, tragedies, historiographies, etc.) but also from figures (vase or other representations).