This paper provides a reappraisal of the representation of Philetairos as the new founder of Pergamon between the Hellenistic and the Imperial period. The link between Philetairos and the early development of Pergamon as a polis is reassessed in the wake of the recent archaeological scholarship and with particular attention to the occurrences of the toponym Philetaireia, by which the areas of the citadel urbanised before Eumenes II were known. The existence of a cult of Philetairos as Ktistes is possible but unproven for the Attalid period; conversely, its traces are evident in the late 2nd and 1st cent. BC. Finally, by reassessing the sources regarding the charge of “prytanis and priest (of Philetairos)” between 133/2 BC and the advent of the Principatus, it is possible to identify a rupture in the organisation of Pergamon’s civic memory at the beginning of the Imperial period. This overview shows that the characterisation of Philetairos as city founder in Pergamon’s civic memory was probably first shaped by his successors to spread a message of legitimacy but reached its peak in the century between the end of the Attalid dynasty and Augustus. At this time, the city looked at its grand past as a source of identity and prestige, with which the new ruling class wished to connect. Under the Empire, the legacy of Philetairos lost a great deal of its appeal without, however, causing the complete disappearance of Pergamon’s dynastic past from the memory of the civic elites.
Starting from various poleis’ foundation traditions, the paper aims at investigating some figures, somehow linked to κτίσις but seemingly having a “minor” role, either in contrast to the “official” κτίσται or due to their protagonist positions in lesser-known versions. Emphasizing the sociopolitical function of the κτίσις accounts, a series of examples from Asia Minor will serve as main points to attempt to show how, instead, they must have played a significant role in the contexts that developed the traditions of which they are protagonists.
In the rhetorical theory of the early Roman Empire, a distinct subgenre of epideictic oratory emerges: the encomium of cities, absent in earlier rhetorical traditions. A consistent feature of these enkomia is the recounting of a city’s foundation and its earliest history. This article examines specific examples of rhetorical strategies used by speakers who recall well-known historical narratives, draw upon lesser-known mythological tales, or introduce entirely new elements into the tradition. The efforts of orators contributed to shaping the propaganda of poleis and reinforced their prestige.
The contribution aims to analyze the various traditions, mythographic and historiographic, relating to the foundations of Zankle, a polis that, among the Greek apoikiai of Sicily, stands out for its originality and atypicality. The tradition, in fact, elaborated over the centuries, in addition to testifying to the intense vitality that characterized the area since ancient times, also offered the poets interesting ideas for mythopoeic elaboration by setting events of monstrous beings and heroic figures reflecting the essence of those places.
This paper dedicated to the figure of the founder hero aims to reconstruct the most widespread line of development in foundation accounts: probable traces of distant historical memories, through which the community chooses to represent itself, constitute self-identification and self-representation faced with the “other” element of the community-group, often through ethnic mechanisms. The community identifies and represents itself to the others in selected forms and so receives the sanction of religion, that the tradition will eternalize over the centuries through a deity whom the founder is linked to. The instrument by which therefore the community receives the religious sanction – but also ethnic, historical, and military sanction – on a territory that cannot be separated from it, at least ideally – is the founder hero for he is the common origin from which the common history of the city begins. By the blood of the founder and the link with the territory to which the community will be linked, there, the history of the community will begin and the founder hero will receive due honours, in particular through the religious rites and the sacred buildings dedicated to him (then, over time, the distinctive characteristics of the group will take form, fruit of a common life and history destined to last : the founder hero cult is a mark of essentialism).
The aim is to investigate the mythical foundation of Heraclea, based on the few sources known to us. A complex and articulated picture will be outlined, which, however, will demonstrate how the polis managed to obtain a prominent place in the Greek mythical tradition.
In the Hellenistic age, when an intense colonisation process developed in which the rulers themselves played a fundamental role, the cult of the oikist still appears to be a vital and deeply rooted practice. This contribution examines some of the known cases (mostly relating to foundations of Alexander’s diadochoi), in order to verify the role played by the sovereigns and poleis respectively in the establishment and survival of the cults in question.
At the beginning of the 2nd century AD, the city of Gytheion honored an Athenian citizen with the honorary titles of soter kai ktistes. The honored person was Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, the father of the famous sophist and millionaire. The article is an attempt to find an answer to the question of what Atticus did to deserve such an honor and what this title could have meant to him.
Ancient cities often adopted elaborated foundation myths to define civic identities. In accordance with the well-known Greek tradition, many Cilician cities claimed to have been founded by Greek gods or heroes. But some other, regardless of their strong Classical and Hellenistic tradition, looked to further references, which were closely linked to indigenous religious traditions (such as, for instance, Mopsos or Sandan). This means that, from a historical and political perspective, not all the Hellenised cities of Cilicia needed or wanted to define their identity through a pure Greek foundation myth. As far as Rome’s foundation myths, few attestations are known, almost all of which connected with Roman colonies or with the main cities of the region, Tarsos and Anazarbos. This paper aims at a re-assessment and an overview of various sources – written sources, inscriptions, numismatic evidence and, when possible, archaeological information – with the aim of delineating how this process affected the cities of Hellenistic and Roman Cilicia. We will try to understand how and why Cilician cities decided to revive ancient mythical traditions, or to create new mythical points of reference. Final aim is trying to delineate possible cultural trends or, as an alternative, original solutions in the choices of urban and civic self-propaganda.
The tradition attributing the foundation of the Thessalian city of Larissa to Akrisios is very modest and full of contradictions. It seems that in the 5th century BC a version of the myth appeared, according to which Akrisios, king of Argos and grandfather of Perseus, died and was buried in Larisa. This story was probably inspired by the fact that this Thessalian city and the Argive acropolis bore the same name. Knowing this, early mythographers such as Pheredykes and Hellanikos created alternative versions of myths that were originally associated with Argos. New myths enriched the picture of Larisa’s past and may thus have been attractive to its citizens. Although they probably established a hero-cult of Akrisios, it was not until the Roman period that he began to be seen as the founder of the city.
This article examines the founding legends of the Greek polis of Ephesus in Asia Minor. According to a probably older tradition, the warlike Amazons are considered to be the founders of the city and the famous temple of Artemis. A more recent tradition connects the origins of Ephesus with the heros ktistes Androclus, who is said to have founded a city during the so-called Ionian migration. While the story of the Amazons connects Ephesus with the history of Asia, the tradition of the city’s founder Androclus strengthens the connection with Athens and the Greek motherland.
The present text examines one of the best-documented foundation myths in the written sources of Thrace: that of the eponymous and mythical founder of Aegean Abdera, Abderos. The preserved texts not only allow us to outline the main characteristics of the myth and the qualities of the eponymous hero but also provide an opportunity to trace the development of the myth over the centuries and its transformation in accordance with the demands and needs of society. And this transformation can also be drastic. Thus, starting as a Persian or more likely Phoenician figure, Abderos was later transformed into a Hellenic, initially maritime, hero, who was subsequently incorporated into Heracles’ Eighth Labor, and finally even closely associated with the Thracians. These transformations clearly reveal the myth of the eponymous hero as one of the central, if not the most important, myth after that of the historical figure. It serves as a means for a portion of the society and the elite to seek their identity, while also functioning as a unifying narrative for the diverse colonial community. And consequently, it is a prime example per excellence of the presence of constructivism in the foundation myth.
This paper elaborates on a curious episode in the career of Iphicrates—famous Athenian strategos and mercenary commander in the first half of the 4th century B.C. According to Theopompus [FGrH 115 F 161], Iphicrates was somehow involved in a settlement of the Thracian town of Drys. His presence there is also corroborated by a testimony of Demosthenes [XXIII 131–132], but the rhetor does not precise what Iphicrates’ exactly did there. Both sources mentioned above, as well as several others, will be re-examined in this article, eventually leading to a proposal of a different interpretation of Theopompus account and the entire historical episode. Namely, the article suggests that the relevant fragment of Hellenica should be understood as a reference to the reconstruction program of Drys conducted or at least initiated by Iphicrates. The town had presumably suffered some downfall before, which could have been a result of an engagement between Spartans and Athenians, as described by Polyaenus. This event is often placed by modern scholars around the year 375 B.C., although this article opts for an earlier period, one contemporary with the Corinthian War. This way, Iphicrates could have been involved in the re-settlement of the town in the second half of 380s, after he has married a princess of Seuthes’ family. Furthermore, it is suggested that the title of Anaxandrides’ fragmentarily preserved comedy “Protesilaos” was considered by the author to be a reference to Iphicrates and his activities in Thrace.
The colonisation phenomenon and the oikist cult are topics that have been extensively investigated. Specific elaboration processes of narrative plots have contributed to the construction and dissemination of foundational narratives, that appear to be influenced by the mythical-legendary memories transmitted by literary traditions, eventually flowed into historical sources. Concerning the figure of the founders and their important symbolic role in the sphere of cultural memory and collective identity of a community, this contribution focuses on two case studies. The first refers to a legendary mythical founder of literary memory, the siren Parthenope, who helped define the memory and cultural identity of the two settlements linked to this foundation logos. The second case study focuses on some archaeological evidence, such as the mega tumulus of Macedonian royal tombs, that seems to echo some specific styles of “heroic” burials. These peculiar funerary customs of the burial context would seem to suggest that some heroic patterns were deliberately used at the service of the representation of dynastic power legitimacy, conforming to the heroic style of Homeric kings.
