chapter 1 Introduction Located on a fertile mountainside amidst boulders, springs and pine trees, the site of the shrine of Zeus at Labraunda is now an idyllic retreat from the bustle of urban Milas and the highways that carry traffic from Bodrum to Izmir. The peaceful setting of the sanctuary, however, belies the power of the place when it was a hub in the Hekatomnids’ network of territorial control in the fourth century BC, and a century later, when it became contested space between the resident priests, the civic body of Mylasa, and a local governor under the Seleukid kings. The question of who Labraunda belonged to is one that has many different answers, all of which involve its sacred landscape and the people whose lives were invested in its fortunes. Sanctuary, landscape, and community are three intertwined strands that are central to this research, which seeks to understand their role in the pro- cesses of urbanization that were characteristic of the Hellenistic period in Asia Minor. Towns sprang up almost overnight, yet were from the start under the protection of a deity that was well established in the vicinity. As religious cen- ters, places of cult in Asia Minor could take on many different forms, reflect- ing the needs and especially the composition of the societies to whom they belonged. This could vary from a local ‘specialist’ shrine, to a common center for a cluster of regional settlements, to a major complex at the heart of a theo- cratic community. Landscape was an important part of the equation as the location of shrines resonated with the desires and perceptions of the commu- nity. Whether on hilltops, in valleys, along coasts, near rivers or thoroughfares, sanctuaries were centers of their own sacred landscapes, shared by settle- ments, farmsteads, or cities, and connected to them by routes, pathways, and sightlines. These sanctuaries were tightly bound to their countries, in every physical, social, and political sense. This research examines four such ‘country sanctuaries’ in Karia, in south- west Asia Minor, as case studies to interpret the larger transformations that took place at such local or regional shrines in the Hellenistic period, a time when many of them were turned into major civic sanctuaries. The turbulent period that Karia underwent as it passed in the fourth-century from rule of the Hekatomnids, satraps of the Persian rulers, to later rivalling Hellenistic kings may be read in the biographies of its major sanctuaries, as at Labraunda, but also at the shrine of Sinuri, both near Mylasa, and the sacred centers of Hekate at Lagina and Zeus at Panamara, both near Stratonikeia. Each of these © CHRISTINA G. WILLIAMSON, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004461277_002 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.Christina G. Williamson - 9789004461277 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 12:49:16AM via free access 2 chapter 1 cult places are extremely well documented and the transformations that they underwent shed light on the pivotal role of sanctuaries in helping local com- munities come to terms with their new position in an expanding world of cit- ies, shifting allegiances and hierarchies of power. As such, each case forms a microcosm that allows us to identify issues that were surely relevant to other areas of Asia Minor as well. In the wake of Alexander the Great, Asia Minor underwent an unprec- edented wave of urbanism as the Greek city, or polis, became the common denominator in a globalizing world. This world also found itself confronted with new and colliding superpowers; new poleis were founded to anchor their rule to their territory, while older communities wishing to keep up with the times often reinvented themselves through Hellenic institutions.1 Several of these communities were restructured along the political and spatial format of the Greek polis while others were created as military colonies or administrative centers, or even as new centers of regional power. That many of these poleis are still major cities in modern Turkey today is a testimony to the effectiveness of their transition. In a world in which politics and religion were tightly interwoven, the incor- poration of the gods already embedded in the sacred landscape of the region was surely integral to the success of these new or restyled cities. Several of these gods were adopted as protective deities that stood symbol for the rising city. In return, their sanctuaries were monumentalized and made the venues of great civic festivals – a symbiosis clearly took place between both entities as they merged into one. This makes it all the more interesting to observe that several of these sanctuaries were located well beyond the confines of the urban cen- ters of the poleis that they came to represent (Figure 1.1 and Table 1.1, p. 4–5). In this book I argue that these sanctuaries embodied this urban transforma- tion. They were used to forge the identity of the developing polis, accommo- dating local communities while redirecting the new civic focus. Gods that were local or regional began to appear on civic coinage, received grand festivals and processions, and their once rustic shrines took on the shape of urban space. As the rising polis took its identity from these gods, so the gaze of the gods was shifted towards the new community, and their sanctuaries reorganized to meet its aspirations. But what exactly happened to these places of cult, why were they so important to the polis? How were landscape, space, and especially ritual implicated in this transformation? These are some of the larger ques- tions addressed by this present investigation. 1 E.g. Gauthier (1984), also (1987–1989); Savalli-Lestrade (2005); van Nijf (2008); Mileta (2009b); Cohen (1995). Christina G. Williamson - 9789004461277 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 12:49:16AM via free access Introduction 3 1 Major Urban-Oriented Sanctuaries in the Countryside in Asia Minor The phenomenon of urban-oriented sanctuaries located beyond the civic cen- ter was fairly common in Hellenistic Asia Minor. As the map in Figure 1.1 and corresponding table both show, at least 30 cities are known to have had major sanctuaries that were situated beyond the limits of the town proper. Some of these sanctuaries were ‘extramural’, located just outside the city walls or perim- eter. Others were farther away marking critical places in the countryside, such as federation sanctuaries in neutral spaces (e.g. Xanthos, Kastabos), oracular shrines at natural features (e.g. Didyma, Klaros, Patara), shrines along a vital passage of access (e.g. Labraunda, Meter Steunene at Aizanoi), or peak sanc- tuaries that dominate naturally commanding positions (e.g. Meter Theon near Pergamon, Men Askaenos near Pisidian Antioch, Zeus Stratios near Amaseia). This list of cities with major sanctuaries at a distance is not exhaustive yet does give an indication of their distribution. Roughly half of these cities were new ruler-driven foundations (or refoundations of older cities) in the Hellenistic period, with several appearing in the more inland regions, especially Mysia, Lydia, and Karia.2 Others were autochthonous poleis, i.e. local communities or agglomerations of communities with a long-established presence in Asia Minor that underwent a major phase of urban development or expansion in the Hellenistic period. Several were a combination of both top-down and bottom-up initiatives. The question is how pre-existing sanctuaries, with their local or regional appeal, came to be urban-oriented, or rather, why they were so crucial to the cities that took hold of them. This book focuses on such new or developing poleis that grafted their identity onto an existing sanctuary and its god(s) in the wider region of the territory of the central settlement. Specifically it centers on Karia, a landscape that harbored many smaller hilltop communities that found themselves confronted with the reality of wave of urbanization in the period after Alexander the Great. The sanctuaries of Zeus Labraundos and Sinuri, both drawn into the orbit of the rising polis of Mylasa (no. 15 on the map), and the sanctuaries of Hekate at Lagina and Zeus at Panamara, who became the two poliad deities of the Seleukid foundation of Stratonikeia (no. 16), espe- cially highlight important dynamics in the transformation of a sanctuary and its community. The selection of these will be discussed in more detail below. In studies of Archaic and Classical Greece and Magna Graecia, such sanctu- aries are generally qualified as ‘rural’ or ‘extra-urban’ and are often interpreted 2 Cohen (1995). Christina G. Williamson - 9789004461277 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 12:49:16AM via free access 4 chapter 1 figure 1.1 Map showing cities with major country sanctuaries in Asia Minor, corresponding with Table 1.1 table 1.1 List of cities and their major country sanctuaries, corresponding to the map in Figure 1.1 No. Polis Sanctuary Distance to urban center Meter Theon (Mamurt Kale) >30 km SE 1 Pergamona Meter (Kapıkaya) 6.5 km NW Asklepios 5 km SW Athena Nikephoros (extramural) ? 2 Aigai Apollo Chresterios c. 3 km E 3 Kyme Meter Extramural 4 Magnesia under Sipylosa Meter Sipylene c. 7 km E 5 Sardisa Artemis 1 km SW Apollo Pleurenos ? 6 Nysaa Kore & Pluton (Acharaca) c. 6 km W 7 Trallesa Zeus Larasios (Larasa) ? Christina G. Williamson - 9789004461277 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 12:49:16AM via free access Introduction 5 table 1.1 List of cities and their major country sanctuaries (cont.) No. Polis Sanctuary Distance to urban center 8 Notion/Kolophona Apollo Klaros c. 13 km to S 9 Ephesosa Artemis c. 2.3 to NE 10 Prienea Poseidon (Panionion) 10/27 km to N 11 Miletos Apollo Didyma 20 km to S 12 Iasosa Artemis? (Çanacık Tepe) c.