Material for Workshop #4

All material posted for this workshop is posted here for educational purposes only. Do not copy or re-distribute for any reason.

Background Information

Plutarch, De Fort. Rom. 8.321: "The beginning is the greatest thing in everything, but especially in the establishment and founding of a city."

Herodotus and Thucydides suggest that there was a "traditional way" to found a colony:

• select an oikist (founder) who consulted with Delphi before venturing forth and who selected spot for colony once they arrived in new world and divided up the land there
• colonists took with them fire from sacred hearth of homeland to use to kindle sacred hearth of colony
• having established the colony, the oikist often established himself or was selected to be the ruler of the new city

Specific Texts on Greek Colonization

For our workshop, read these texts carefully to decide what they tell us about colonization, what they don't tell us about colonization and for suggestions on how to interpret the ancient textual tradition about colonization. Do not simply read these for simple narrative!

1. Myscellus, founder of Croton:

Myscellus, short-in-the-back, Apollo the far-darter loves you and will give you offspring. But first he commands this for you, that you make your home in mighty Croton among the fair ploughland. (Diod. 8.17. 1)

The far-darter himself points this out to you; pay attention! Here is unploughed Taphiassus, and there Chalcis; the land of the Curetes. . . the sacred land, and these are the Echinades. Great is the ocean to the left. Thus I would expect you not to miss the Lacinian cape, nor sacred Crimisa, nor the river Aesarus. (Diod. 8.17.1)

2. Archilochus on the subject of Thasos, the colony of Paros:

but this [island], stands like the backbone of an ass, crowned with wild jungle; (Fr. 17 T)

For the land is nothing fine nor desired nor lovely, such as that beside the streams of the Siris (Fr. 18 T)

3. Athenaeus quoting Archilochus about Aethiops of Corinth, a founder of Syracuse:

Such a man was Aethiops the Corinthian (as Demetrius of Scepsis says), who is mentioned by Archilochus. It seems that this Aethiops, when voyaging with Archias to Sicily to found Syracuse, was led by his love of pleasure and lack of self-control to give away the allotment of land he was to receive upon arrival to his dinner companion in exchange for a honey cake. (Ath. 4.167d-e)

4. Homer describes Nausithous, founder of Phaeacia:

From here godlike Nausithous had removed and led [them] and settled them in Scheria, far away from men who eat bread; he drove a wall about the city and built houses and established temples of the gods and allotted land holdings. (6.7-10)

5. Pindar describes Battus, founder of Cyrene:

And he founded greater altars for the gods and established for Apollonian processions which protect mortals a straightcut level [path] to be a paved road, resounding with the pounding of horses' hooves. . . (Pyth. 5.89-93)

6. Pindar on Battus, founder of Cyrene:

There, having died, he lies apart, at the edge of the agora. Blessed, on the one hand, he lived among men, and then was a hero, honored by the people. (93-95)

7. Herodotus on Mittiades the Elder and the people of the Chersonese:

Since he died, the people of the Chersonese sacrifice to him as is customary [to honor] a city founder; they hold chariot races and athletic contests. (6.38.1)

8. Diodorus on the founding of Tenedos:

Tennes was the son of Cycnus, who was king of Colone in the Troad. He was a man conspicuous in his excellence. Termes gathered colonists and made an assault upon an uninhabited island called Leucophrys. He portioned out allotments of land to those arranged under him and founded a city named after himself–Tenedos. Serving the city well and bestowing great gifts upon the citizens, he won great favor in his lifetime. Upon his death, he received immortal honors–they built him a sacred precinct and honored him like a god with sacrifices. (5.83.2-3)

9. Thucydides describes actions of people of Amphipolis after the battle:

After this all the allies, following in full armor, gave Brasidas a public funeral in front of what is now the agora. Thereafter the people of Amphipolis made an enclosure around his [Brasidas'] tomb, and they sacrificed to him as to a hero and honored him by holding games and making annual offerings to him. They officially named him founder of their colony, and they razed all the buildings of Hagnon, destroying everything that could possibly remind them that Hagnon had
founded the place. (5. 11. 1)

10. Plutarch on foundation of Syracuse:

Melissus had a son named Actaeon, the most handsome and modest young man of his age; he had many lovers, especially Archias, a descendant of the Heracleidae and the most conspicuous man in Corinth both in wealth and general power. When Archias was not able to persuade the boy to be his lover, he decided to carry him off by force. He gathered together a crowd of friends and servants, and they went to Melissus' house in a drunken revelry to try to take the boy away.
Actaeon's father and friends resisted; the neighbors ran out and helped pull against the assailants, and in the end Actaeon was pulled to pieces and killed. The boys then ran away, and Melissus carried the corpse of his son into the market place of the Corinthians and showed it, asking reparations from those who had done these things. But the Corinthians did nothing more than pity the man. Unsuccessful, Melissus went away and waited for the Isthmian festival where he
went up to the temple of Poseidon and decried the Bacchiadae and reminded the god of his father Habron's good deeds. Calling upon the gods, he threw himself down from the rocks. Not long after this, drought and plague befell the city. When the Corinthians consulted the god about relief, he told them that the anger of Poseidon would not subside until they sought punishment for Actaeon's death. Archias learned these things since he was one of those consulting the oracle, and he decided of his own free will not to return to Corinth. Instead he sailed to Sicily and founded the colony of Syracuse. There he became father of two daughters, Ortygia and Syracusa, and was treacherously killed by Telephus, his lover who had sailed with him to Sicily, in charge of a ship. (Mor. 772e-773b)

11. Strabo on Orestes:

It is said that Orestes once took possession of Orestias–when in exile for the murder of his mother–and left the country bearing his name; it is also said that he founded a city and called it Argos Oresticurn. (Strab. 7.7.8)

12. Plato on colonization:

People who, because they lack the means of sustenance, show themselves ready to follow their leaders in an attack of the have-nots upon the haves, [these people, the legislator] sends abroad as a measure of relief, just as in the case of a deep-seated disease of the city, giving it the euphemistic name of colonization. (735e-736a)

13. Thucydides quotes Nicias on Sicilian campaign:

We must consider [that we are like] those going to settle a city among foreign and enemy peoples for whom it is necessary, on the very first day on which they land, straightaway to conquer the land or know that if they fail, they will encounter complete hostility. (6.23)

14. Mimnermus on settlement of Colophon:

When we left the lofty city of Neleian Pylos, we came by ship to the pleasant land of Asia; and possessing overwhelming violence, we settled at lovely Colophon, leaders full of terrible hybris. From there, we set forth from the Asteis river and by the will of the gods took Aeolian Smyrna. (Strab. 14.1-4)

15. Oracle about foundation of Aegae in Macedonia:

Consider, noble Caranus, and place my words in your mind. Leaving Argos and Greece of beautiful women, go to the springs of Haliacmon, and where first you see goats grazing, there you, enviable, and all your offspring should dwell. (Schol. ad Clem. Al. Protr. 2.11)

16. Thucydides on founding of Acarnania:

There is a story about Alcmaeon, son of Amphiaraus. During his wanderings after the murder of his mother [Eriphyle], the oracle of Apollo is said to have told him there would be no release from his toils until he found a place which, at the time he killed his mother, had not been seen by the sun and was not then land ( tiw te kteine t n mht ra m pv p l ou vr to mhd g n); the rest of the earth was polluted for him. At first he was at a loss, as they say, until he thought of the deposit of the Achelous river that was not piled up enough at the time of his mother's death to be called land-for he had been wandering a long time, He settled the land around Oeniadae, ruled there, and named the place Acarnania after his son, Acarnan. (2.102.5-6)

17. Plutarch on settlement of Ozolian Locris:

Locrus was the son of Physcius, the son of Amphictyon. The son of Locrus and Cabye was Opus. Locrus quarreled with Opus, and taking many of the citizens with him, he went to seek an oracle concerning a colony. The god told him to found a city where he should happen to be bitten by a wooden dog (to d yeo f santow kt zein p lin pouper n t x dhxye w p kun w jul nhw ), and as he was crossing to the other sea, he stepped upon a dog-briar (kun sbaton).
Greatly troubled by the wound, he spent several days there, during which he became familiar with the country and founded the cities of Physcus and Oeantheia and the other cities in which the so-called Ozolian Locrians lived. (Mor. 294 e-f)

18. Oracle re foundation of Tarentum:

Look to Satyrion and the gleaming water of Taras, a harbor on the left, and the place where a goat loves salt water, wetting the tip of his grey beard. There build Tarenturn, mounted upon the Satyrion. (Diod. 8.21.3)

19. Oracle re unnammed foundation:

Blessed are they who will dwell in that sacred city at the Thracian cape by the narrow mouth of the Pontus. Where two whelps lap at the hoary sea and where fish and deer graze at the very same pasture. (Hesych.FGrH 390 Fl.3)

20. Oracle on foundation of Callipolis by Sparta:

When Leucippus of Sparta inquired as to where it was fated for him and his followers to settle, the god commanded them to sail to Italy and to settle in whatever land they stay in for a day and a night ( m ran ka n kta) after landing. The expedition landed near Callipolis, a seaport of the Tarentines, and Leucippus, pleased with the nature of the place, persuaded the Tarantines to permit them to encamp there for a day and a night ( m ran ka n kta). When several days had
passed, and the Tarentines asked them to depart, Leucippus paid no attention to them, claiming that he had received the land from them under a compact for day and night ( m ran ka n kta), and so long as there should be either of these, he would not give up the land. So the Tarentines, realizing that they had been tricked, permitted them to remain. (Dion. Hal. exc. xix 3.3)

21. Delphi’s advice re foundation of Ausonian land:

Where the Apsia, most holy of rivers, falls into the sea, on that spot where as one approaches, the female weds the male, there found the city. He gives you the Ausonian land. (Diod. 8.23.2)

22. Hieron and the foundation of Aetna:

Hieron removed the Naxians and the Catanians from their cities and installed his own settlers, having gathered five thousand from the Peloponnesus and an additional five thousand from Syracuse. He then changed the city's name from. Catana, to Aetna, and he apportioned this land, adding to it much of the neighboring territory, to the entire sum of ten thousand settlers. He did this both because he was eager to have deserving help ready at hand for any need that might arise and so that from this new city of ten thousand men, he would receive heroic honors. (Diod. 11.49)

23. Pindar re Hieron:

May it be pleasing to you, Zeus, who rule this mountain, the brow of a well-fruited land, whose neighboring city of the same name the glorious founder made famous; at the Pythian racecourse, the herald proclaimed it, making his announcement on behalf of Hieron victorious with the chariot. (29-33)

24. Pindar on Battus and Cyrene:

Today you must stand beside a dear man, the king of Cyrene of good horses, so that, Muse, celebrating together with Arcesilaus, you can increase the breath of songs which is owed to the children of Leto and to Pytho where once with Apollo present, the priestess, seated beside the golden eagles of Zeus, prophesied that Battus, would be the founder of fruit-bearing Libya, that leaving the holy island, he would found a well-charioted city on a gleaming white hill,.. . (1-8)

He founded greater altars for the gods and established for Apollonian processions that protect mortals a straightcut level [path] to be a paved road, resounding with the pounding of horses' hooves; there, having died, he [Battus] lies apart at the edge of the agora. Blessed, on the one hand, he lived among men, and then he was a hero honored by the people. (89-95)

25. Homer on Tlepolemus and foundation of Rhodes vs Pindar on same subject:

a. Now when Tlepolemus was grown in the strong-built mansion, at once he struck to death his own father's beloved uncle, Licymnius, scion of Ares, a man already aging. At once he put ships together and assembled a host of people and fled across the sea, since the others threatened,
the rest of the sons and the grandsons of the strength of Heracles. And he came to Rhodes a wanderer, having suffered troubles, and they settled there in triple divisions by tribes, beloved of Zeus. . . .(2.661-69)

b. For he killed Licymnius, the bastard brother of Alcmene, striking him with a scepter of hard olive wood at Tiryns, as he [Licymnius] was leaving the rooms of Midea, he, the founder of this land here–having been driven to anger. Disturbances of the mind cause even a wise man to wander astray. He went to consult the god. And the golden-haired one told him from his well-scented inner chamber to sail from the Lernean cape straight to a land surrounded by sea. . . . (27-33)

c. Here, sweet recompense for bitter sorrow was established for Tlepolemus of Tiryns, the founder, just as if for a god–a procession filled with the smoke of sacrificed sheep and athletic contests. (77-80)

26. Bacchylides on foundation of Tiryns:

For turbulent strife had arisen from harsh beginnings among the brothers, Proetus and Acrisius, and they were destroying the people with grievous and unmeasured fighting; they [the people] begged the sons of Abas to draw lots for the land, rich in barley, and that the younger one settle Tiryns before [Argos] fell into harsh necessity. (64-72)

27. Herodotus 4.150-8 on the foundation of Cyrene.

28. Herodotus 5.39-51 on the Spartan Dorieus' attempt at colonization. Scroll through these two Herodotus links to read each of these selections.

Translations given above in #1-26 are from C. Dougherty, Poetics of Colonization (1993).