Syssitia in Ancient Crete. (Under the Direction of Dr
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ABSTRACT LEWIS, JESICA JAYD HARRISON. The Warrior’s Banquet: Syssitia in Ancient Crete. (Under the direction of Dr. S. Thomas Parker.) Although the island of Crete is most famously known today as the homeland of the Minoan civilization of the second millennium BCE, during the Classical and Hellenistic periods in Greece (ca. 480 – 67 BCE), the island was famous in the Greek world as the homeland of a large number of independent poleis (Greek city-states). Ancient Greek literature portrays the Cretan poleis as sharing in a common socio-political and economic model of organization, called the Cretan politeia (constition). The Cretan poleis were dominated by an aristocratic upper class of citizen-warriors ruling over dependent populations of slaves, serfs, and free non-citizens. Among the important institutions of the Cretan politeia were the distinction in class between citizen warriors and agricultural producers, the military education of the citizen youth, and the common meals in which adult male citizens and their sons participated, called the syssitia. According to the ancient literature, such a model of organization in the island was considered to be both very ancient (stretching back to the Heroic Age, the time of the legendary King Minos) and was also practiced throughout the island. While many scholars over the last century and a half have pointed to epigraphic and archaeological evidence in support of the literary accounts of the island, recent scholarship has however brought the literary tradition regarding the Cretan politeia under question. Critics of the literary tradition (most notably, Paula Perlman) argue that on the one hand, it is a priori unlikely that such a large number of independent states (numbering at least 49 during the Classical period) would share an identical constitutional format. On the other hand, epigraphic evidence from the island may also demonstrate too great a degree of diversity to warrant speaking of common Cretan constitutional format. Perlman suggests that the idea of a common Cretan politeia was not based in actual knowledge of the island’s socio-political and economic organization, but was rather a philosophical construct that developed amidst philosophical and political debates centered in Athens during the fifth century BCE.1 Despite these objections, scholars continue to employ the ancient literary sources in studies of Cretan society during the Archaic (c. 750 – c. 450 BCE), Classical (ca. 480 BCE – ca. 320 BCE), and Hellenistic (ca. 320 BCE – 67 BCE) periods—collectively referred to in this thesis as the pre-Roman period. Acknowledging however that there was some degree of heterogeneity in the constitutional formats of the Cretan poleis, how might we define the value of the ancient literary portrayals on Cretan society? Using the Cretan common-meal institution of syssitia as a case study, this thesis defines the value of the literary accounts of pre-Roman Crete as (albeit imperfect and perhaps not universal to the island as a whole) reflections of actual practices. This thesis analyzes the degree to which epigraphic and archaeological evidence upholds literary portrayals. This thesis shows that, despite a degree of variation in practices, civic communal dining (syssitia) was in fact a foundational institution of Cretan communities even prior to the formation of the poleis in the Early Iron Age (twelfth to eighth centuries BCE), and continued to play an important role in Cretan poleis in the central and central-east portions of the island throughout the later Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. Further, this thesis proposes explanations for the apparent koine of communal feasting practices in Crete as related to the interconnections between Cretan communities established at an early period in both religious and economic spheres. 1 Perlman 1992, 193-205. The Warrior’s Banquet: Syssitia in Ancient Crete by Jesica Jayd Harrison Lewis A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts History Raleigh, North Carolina 2015 APPROVED BY: _______________________________ _______________________________ S. Thomas Parker Susanna Lee Committee Chair _______________________________ Donald C. Haggis DEDICATION For Mark Lewis, Heather Harrison, and Kenneth Harrison. ii BIOGRAPHY Jesica Jayd H. Lewis holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish Language and Literature, Middle East Studies, and Anthropology from North Carolina State University. As a graduate student in Ancient History at North Carolina State University, Jayd has continued to employ an interdisciplinary approach in her work studying ancient languages, history, and archaeology. Innitially drawn to the island of Crete by an interest in the Minoan civilization, Jayd has focused focused her research on the “post-Minoan” periods of the Greek island of Crete. She has participated as a volunteer on several archaeological projects, including the Azoria Project in Kavousi, Crete, the Palatine East Pottery Project in Rome, Italy, and the Najerilla Valley Research Project in La Rioja, Spain. She has also been involved with the development of digital humanities work in the history department at North Carolina State University and is also the creator and editor of A&P: Antiquorum et Praesentis, a collaborative blog about history and archaeology. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank S. Thomas Parker, Helen Dixon, and Donald C. Haggis for their direction and guidance in the process of writing this thesis. Also, I would like to thank all of the other scholars whose input and suggestions have been helpful to me—most especially Gary Mathews, Scott Gallimore, Anna Strataridaki, and James Whitley. I also thank the History Department of North Carolina State University for providing an excellent and rigorous program of course work to help me prepare for writing this thesis, as well as for sponsoring my travels and research. I would also like to thank my family for their wonderful support during this process, most especially my husband, Mark Lewis, and my parents, Heather and Kenneth Harrison. Thanks also to my wonderful group of friends and colleages who inspired and encouraged me throughout my graduate career. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii CHAPTER I. Introduction 1 Introduction 1 Historiographic Overview 5 CHAPTER II. The Literary Evidence 11 Introduction 11 1. Introduction to the Literary Sources 11 2. Syssitia 13 3. Problems with the Literary Accounts 24 4. Summary 32 CHAPTER III. The Epigraphic Evidence 34 Introduction 34 1. Epigraphic vs. Literary Portrayals of the Cretan politeia 35 2. Limitations of the Inscriptions 40 3. Syssitia and the Epigraphic Evidence 41 Summary 57 CHAPTER IV. The Archaeological Evidence 59 Introduction 59 1. Identifying andreia 60 2. Commensality 62 3. Early Sites of Communal Dining 64 4. Later Tentative andreia 88 Discussion and Summary 98 CHAPTER V. Spatial Analysis and Conclusions 101 Summary 101 Spatial Distribution 102 Further Research 108 REFERENCES 114 APPENDICES 130 APPENDIX A. Key Literary Sources 131 Contents 131 APPENDIX B. Key Epigraphic Sources 165 Key for Transcriptions 165 Contents 165 APPENDIX C. Archaeological Figures 187 APPENDIX D. Maps 203 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Chronological Table 4 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. IC 1.9.1 166 Figure 2. IC 1.10.2 168 Figure 3. IC 1.18.11 169 Figure 4. IC 1.19.3 170 Figure 5. IC 2.5.1 171 Figure 6. IC 2.5.25 172 Figure 7. IC 2.12.26 173 Figure 8. IC 2.23.20 174 Figure 9. IC 3.3.1 176 Figure 10. IC 4.4 177 Figure 11. The Gortyn Code 180 Figure 12. IC 4.75 181 Figure 13. IC 4.78 182 Figure 14. IC 4.84 183 Figure 15. Hearth Temples in Crete 187 Figure 16. Kommos Greek Sanctuary Site Plan 188 Figure 17. Kommos Temple B 189 Figure 18. The Two Acropoleis of Dreros and the Saddle 190 Figure 19. The Saddle of Dreros 191 Figure 20. Temple of Apollo Delphinios in the Saddle at Dreros 192 Figure 21. Site Plan of Lato showing Agora near the Prytaneion 193 Figure 22. Prinias Temple B and Temple A 194 Figure 23. Reconstruction of Temple A at Prinias 195 Figure 24. Female and lion figures of Temple A at Prinias 196 Figure 25. Part of the Warrior Frieze from Temple A at Prinias 196 Figure 26. Building Complex at Smari 197 Figure 27. Acropolis of Axos 198 Figure 28. Aphrati 199 Figure 29. Bronze Helmet from Aphrati 200 Figure 30. Bronze Mitra from Aphrati 200 Figure 31. Plan of the “Almond Tree House” of Praisos 201 Figure 32. Terracotta Plaques from Almond Tree House Dump 201 Figure 33. State Plan of Azoria 202 Figure 34. Map of Crete 203 Figure 35. Map of Crete: Literary Locations 204 Figure 36. Map of Crete: Epigraphic Evidence Locations 205 Figure 37. Map of Crete: Archaeological Locations 206 Figure 38. Map of Crete: All Evidence Locations 207 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BCH Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. BSA Annual of the British School at Athens FHG Müller, Karl Wilhelm Ludwig. 1841-1872. Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum. Paris: Editore Ambrosio Firmin Didot. IC Guarducci, Margarita. 1935-1950. Inscriptiones Creticae: Opera et concilio Friderici Halbherr collectae. Volumes 1-4. Rome: La libreria dello stato. SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. viii CHAPTER I. Introduction ὑπὲρ τῆς Κρήτης ὁµολογεῖται διότι κατὰ τοὺς παλαιοὺς χρόνους ἐτύγχανεν εὐνοµουµένη καὶ ζηλωτὰς ἑαυτῆς τοὺς ἀρίστους τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀπέφηνεν… In regard to Crete, writers agree that in ancient times it had good laws, and rendered the best of the Greeks its emulators… —Strabo, Geography 10.4.92 Introduction “On a fair and fertile sea girt in the midst of the wine-dark sea,”3 during the seventh century BCE a peculiar form of the Aegean-wide phenomenon of the polis (Greek city-state4) began to take shape.