Cult and Koinon in Hellenistic Thessaly Brill Studies in Greek and Roman Epigraphy

Cult and Koinon in Hellenistic Thessaly Brill Studies in Greek and Roman Epigraphy Editorial Board Adele Scafuro,BrownUniversity John Bodel,BrownUniversity Cult and Koinon in Hellenistic Thessaly By Denver Graninger LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011 Cover illustration: Larisa Museum, no. 70/117. Dedication of the Thessalian League of an honorary statue of M. Caninius Rebilius, dated to ca. 171. Ed. pr. Tziaphalias 1984b, pp. 221–222, no. 101 (SEG 35, 597; BullÉp 1988, no. 743). Cf. Habicht 1987c, pp. 26–28 (SEG 37, 483; BullÉp 1988, no. 743). This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Graninger, Denver. Cult and koinon in Hellenistic Thessaly / by Denver Graninger. p. cm. – (Brill studies in Greek and Roman epigraphy, ISSN 1876-2557) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-20710-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Thessaly (Greece)–Religion. 2. Religion and state–Greece–Thessaly. 3. Cults–Greece–Thessaly. 4. Athena (Greek deity)–Cult–Greece–Thessaly. 5. Zeus (Greek deity)–Cult–Greece–Thessaly. 6. Calendar, Greek–Greece–Thessaly. 7. Inscriptions, Greek–Greece–Thessaly. I. Title. DF261.T5G73 2011 292.080938'2–dc23 2011018139 ISSN 1876-2557 ISBN 978 90 04 20710 3 Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. ες μνμην κα τιμ ν τ CHARLES DOUGLAS GRANINGER .ii.–.xii. CONTENTS Acknowledgments..................................................... ix Map..................................................................... xi Introduction ........................................................... 1 I.ThessalianHistories ............................................... 7 II.TheFederalSanctuaries ........................................... 43 III. The Thessalian Calendars . ...................................... 87 IV.InternationalReligion............................................. 115 ConclusionandPostscript:AinianFutures........................... 153 EpigraphicAppendix.................................................. 159 Bibliography ........................................................... 183 IndexLocorum ........................................................ 199 SubjectIndex........................................................... 209 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The present monograph began its life as a Cornell dissertation, although it has evolved considerably in form and content since then. Kevin Clinton, Hayden Pelliccia, and Jeffery Rusten were a patient and thoughtful dissertation committee. William Slater and Merle Langdon each read the dissertation in its entirety soon after its defense and their criticisms helped to refine my research questions in the field of Thessalian religion. My thinking on a number of problems tackled in this manuscript has been improved by conversations and correspondence with the growing number of ‘Thessalians’ in the fields of Archaeology and Ancient His- tory: Emma Aston, Richard Bouchon, Yannis Georganis, Bruno Helly, Sofia Kravaritou, Yannis Lolos, Alexander Mazarakis-Ainian, Maria Mili, Reinder Reinders, Jacek Rzepka, Sławomir Sprawski. Special thanks are due to the welcoming staff of the ΙΕ’Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in Larisa, especially Athanasios Tziaphalias, former Ephor, and Anthi Batziou-Efstathiou, current Ephor. The support staff at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens was exceptionally helpful in securing permissions for me to study the inscriptions which lay at the foundation of this book. I am especially grateful to Elena Kourakou and Maria Pilali. Klaus Hallof, Sebastian Prignitz, and the entire staff of the Inscrip- tiones Graecae project at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences provided a very supportive and collegial atmosphere during a research trip to Berlin. I have had the benefit of access to two exceptional libraries during the research, writing, and editing of this book: Hodges Library at the Uni- versity of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the Blegen Library at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. I have been blessed with supportive colleagues in both Knoxville and Athens: Salvador Bartera, Christopher Craig, Jack Davis, Michael Kulikowski, Maura Lafferty, Merle Langdon, Susan Martin, Margie Miles, Robert Sklenar, Elizabeth Sutherland, David Tandy, and Aleydis Van de Moortel. This monograph has benefitted from the formidable knowledge of Christian Habicht and David Tandy, who generously read and com- mented on the full manuscript and improved nearly every page. x acknowledgments Adele Scafuro has been a generous editor whose eye for argument and ear for style have spared the reader much suffering. The errors that remain are my own. While this work is dedicated to the memory of my father, who would always press me with the refrain ‘So, how’s the book going?’ whenever we spoke, it belongs to Tanya, who endured the lows and celebrated the highs of this process as only a true love will. INTRODUCTION Cult and Koinon in Hellenistic Thessaly, examines the state religion of the Thessalian League, ca. –. These were decades of political transfor- mation and economic prosperity, and there is a perceptible effusion of cult activity throughout the region. State cults received special emphasis and I will argue that they played a central role in the successful development of a regional political identity that was vital for the Thessalian League during these years of territorial expansion and consolidation. There is, for example, considerable evidence for the adoption of acom- mon Thessalian calendar by new members of the League, for the estab- lishment of new regional festivals (e.g., the Eleutheria at Larisa), and for the elaboration or reorganization of older cults (e.g., that of Athena Itonia at Philia). I will also demonstrate, however, that older religious traditions of member ethne continued to be maintained in these newly ‘Thessalian’ territories that in some cases assumed new significance by encouraging the persistence of a local, cultic identity beside a regional, political ideal. In Chapter One, ‘Histories’,I introduce the fundamental issues of political geography and cultural identity in ancient Thessaly. In the Archaic period, the two central plains of Thessaly were divided into four districts (tetrads) for administrative purposes. Tetradic Thessaly was inhabited by ThessaloiwhomayhaveexercisedsomeformofhegemonyintheArchaic and Classical period over the neighboring territories (often described as perioikoi in modern scholarship) of Perrhaibia, Magnesia, and Achaia Phthiotis. The residents of the latter were regarded as politically and cul- turally distinct from the Thessaloi. Some such relationship may also have with the ethne of the Spercheios valley further to the south (Malis, Ainis, Oitaia, Dolopia). From this foundation, the chapter traces the local histories of these regions beginning with the Archaic and Classical periods of Thessalian ascendency and concluding with the formal incorporation of the Thessalian League into the Roman province of Achaia in . Spe- cial emphasis falls on politics and society from , when T. Quinctius Flamininus reorganized the Thessalian League at the end of the Second Macedonian War, to . These years witnessed the independence and sovereignty of many territories previously subordinate to Thessaly in the Archaic and Classical period and their subsequent incorporation into the Thessalian League. introduction Chapter Two, ‘League Sanctuaries’, explores in detail two Thessalian cults—those of Athena Itonia and Zeus Eleutherios—and their relationship to the development of a regional Thessalian identity during the Hel- lenistic era.1 The primary sanctuary of Athena Itonia was located near the modern village of Philia in rural, western Thessaly. Although she had received cult at this site since the early Iron Age, there is no evidence that Athena Itonia was perceived as a central goddess of the Thes- salian state until the second century, when her sanctuary at Philia was reinvigorated after the Flamininan settlement in . The decision to elevate this particular sanctuary at this time seems to have been both strategic and sentimental: It lay near the mythic invasion route of Thes- saloi from southern Epiros and staked a strong claim to territory that in recent decades had been the site of friction among Macedonia, Aitolia, and Athamania. Zeus Eleutherios was, by comparison, a new cult for the region established in Larisa after the renewal of the Thessalian League in . The foundation elevated the prestige of the new capital city of the koinon and deliberately evoked the Hellenic patriotism of the Per- sian Wars. The Thessalians, conspicuous medizers, could here be recast as instrumental in this most recent liberation of Greek territory from for- eign domination. The Eleutheria, a festival with athletic and cultural con- tests, attracted participants

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