Synopses & Reviews
Greek mythology and cult often served both as expressions of collective, historical identity and of attitudes to lands and territories. Functioning historically, myths provided justifications and legitimations of conquest, displacement, and settlement. Focusing on the Spartan Mediterranean--the world of Sparta and its colonies--this book examines the spectrum of the uses of myth. Extending beyond the Greek world, the book also raises the important question of how peoples relate to and justify their national and territorial identities.
Review
"...this book provides a densely detailed and richly annotated gazetteer of every myth concerning Sparta." Pericles Georges, American Historical Review
Synopsis
This book discusses Greek attitudes to settlement and territory as expressed through myths and cults. The emphasis is less on the poetic qualities of the myths, than on their historical function in the archaic and classical periods, ranging from explicit charter myths legitimating conquest, displacement and settlement, to the âprecedent-settingâand even aetiological myths, rendering new landscapes âGreekâ. The concept of a Spartan Mediterranean, in contrast to the image of a land-locked Sparta, is a major contribution of this book.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 236-265) and index.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. The âcolony of the Doriansâand the Return of the Herakleidai; 2. The Homeric king of Sparta: Menelaos in a Spartan Mediterranean; 3. Spartan colonisation in the Aegean and the Peloponnese; 4. Taras: native hostility, territorial possession, and a new-ancient past; 5. Foundation and territory: the cults of Apollo Karneios and Zeus Ammon; 6. Myth and colonial territory: Libya; 7. Promises unfulfilled: Dorieus between North Africa and Sicily; 8. Myth and decolonization: Spartaâs colony at Herakleia Trachinia.