Stephanie L Larson (Bucknell University)
In this paper I present select mythic traditions from the archaic and early-to-mid classical periods concerning the physical abduction of female figures which also involve movement across or around the Mediterranean. I highlight two traditions of lesser known figures (Mestra, Sinope and the Asopides), focusing on the earliest Greek sources for these stories (e.g., the Hesiodic Catalogue).
Throughout I apply concepts from network studies as a means of discussing and comparing these stories with each other but also with remains from the material world. One of the advantages of network studies as an analytical tool involves its emphasis on mapping of circulating artifacts in the creation of social ties and place yet its concomitant stress on philological analyses of the literary record (Leidwanger and Knappett). Malkin’s recent work on networks stresses the fundamental contribution of foundation mythology, such as the stories included in this paper, to the creation and maintenance of the Mediterranean as a concept and as an operating factor in Mediterranean identity (Malkin). I base my observations on the work of many others also involved in current network studies (Taylor and Vlassopoulos; Knappett; Malkin, Constantakopoulou, and Panagopoulou).
C. Dougherty convincingly reads myth traditions of abduction and subjugation of the female as metaphorical expressions of the violence involved in Greek colonial expansion. I add to her original synthesis by further emphasizing the nexus between gender and violence in stories that inscribe other types of (real or imagined) routes within networks of intercultural connectivity in the archaic and classical Greek Mediterranean.
I focus in most detail on Mestra, Sinope, and the Asopides. Mestra and Sinope’s traditions illustrate the violence and separation involved in stories of abduction-marriages across the Aegean. I add to L. Doherty and Ormand’s discussions of Mestra, particularly fr. 43a of the Hesiodic Catalogue, by analyzing the tradition’s focus on repeatedly traversing the route between Kos and Athens and by exploring late archaic evidence for a network of trade routes between the two (Mommsen and Villing; Sherwin-White). I next discuss Sinope and the Asopides, delineating their foundational ties to communities on the southern coast of the Black Sea (Bacchylides 9 and Korinna PMG 654), as well as to others, ranging from urban settlements in Boiotia to areas around Sikyon and Argos. I present evidence for these areas and places as nodes in both Aegean and Black Sea macro-networks of the wider Mediterranean by examining data for central Greek and Argive involvement in migration to Aeolia (e.g., Rose; Tsetskhladze; Doonan; Gorman). I briefly compare the elements of Mestra’s and the Asopides’ stories to the better known tales of Arethusa and Io to illustrate the broad applicability of this approach.
This brief study will show the utility of analyzing mythic narratives through network studies as a means of exploring (real or imagined) physical and cultural interactions across and around the Mediterranean at specific times.