Myth and History

The ancient Isthmian Games, one of the four so-called Panhellenic games in antiquity, were allegedly founded in 582 BC and held biannually at the Isthmus of Corinth. Multiple foundation myths about the Isthmian Games exited in antiquity (Gebhard 2002), revealing that a variety of local interests over the sanctuary and its festival games. Foundation myths are aetiologies created to explain existing traditions and practices, all of which should be grounded in particular historical contexts.

A panel at last year’s Annual Meeting entitled “Social Networks and Interconnections in Ancient and Medieval Contexts,” demonstrated some ways that classics and archaeology can use Social Network Analysis (SNA). While most network research focuses on real networks, the imagined networks in mythology also provide valuable information.

This paper interprets the cosmological meaning of the wedding of Zas and Chthoniè, and of the gift of the robe in Pherecydes fr.68 Schibli (D9 Laks-Most) on the grounds of a comparison of its structural features with Hesiod’s cosmo-theology in the Theogony. In choosing Hesiod I am not trying to diminish the importance of a comparison with the Orphic tradition (Bregia Pulci Doria 2000), the near-Eastern sources (West 1971), or Early Greek philosophy (Granger 2007).

Kingship at Sparta has long been an object of fascination amongst ancient historians. Both Carlier (1984) and Cartledge (1987) provide significant overviews of the dyarchy as a political institution from the late Archaic Period through to the Hellenistic rule of Nabis (see also, Cartledge & Spawforth 2001).