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The City Council in Early Greece THE CITY COUNCIL IN EARLY GREECE An interdisciplinary study of temples as political meeting places, and the rise of the aristocratic polis Fredrik Solemsli _______________________________________________________________ Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History University of Oslo 2011 Contents List of illustrations vii Preface and acknowledgements ix Abbreviations and conventions xi Maps xv PRELUDE 1 INTRODUCTION 3 Qviller, the symposium and the Greek temple 3 From symposium to city council 3 The origins of the Greek temple and the city council 4 A note on terminology 4 Approach and problem statement 5 1. THE MATERIAL EVIDENCE AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 9 Hearth‐temples as bouleutēria and prytaneia – previous research 9 The material evidence 10 Methodological approach and organisation of chapters 11 Homer and history 13 The city council – from inhabited to uninhabited space? 15 From rulers’ dwellings to temples 15 Temples as venues for feasting 17 Bourdieu – space and the objectification of symbolic capital 17 2. THE CITY COUNCIL IN GEOMETRIC GREECE 19 The political institutions of Homeric society 19 Drinking and deliberating 20 Wine and politics – comparative evidence 22 Summary 23 Closing comments 24 3. CRITERIA FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF PRYTANEIA AND THE ROLE OF APOLLO 25 The prytaneion 25 Criteria for the identification of prytaneia 28 Location 28 Architectural form 28 The dining room 29 Contents iv The hearth room 30 Subsidiary functions 30 Some critical considerations 30 The divine element 31 The role of Apollo – politics and the common hearth 31 Apollo and the common hearth 31 The political associations of Apollo and his temples 33 The possible role of other deities 35 Summary 36 Final reflections 37 4. HEARTH‐TEMPLES AS PRYTANEIA? 39 A discussion of the archaeological material 39 Perachora 39 Kommos 40 Temple A 40 Temple B 41 Dreros 43 Prinias 44 Kalapodi (Abai) 46 Pallantion 47 Asine 47 Closing comments 49 5. THE ARISTOCRATIC POLIS AND THE CITY COUNCIL 51 The aristocracy and the common meal in the Cretan poleis 53 Aristocrats, followers and the common meal 56 A comparison with Homer 61 Drinking and deliberating in the temple 63 The hearth – a political rendezvous? 67 6. CONCLUDING REMARKS 71 The use of the archaeological material 71 The study of the hearth‐temple 72 The city council – from inhabited to uninhabited space 72 From EIA dwelling to city council and symposium 73 The temple as an expression of common identity 74 Some reflections on the use of temples as council houses 74 From Homer to polis – some reflections 75 On Homer and democracy 77 Closing comments 77 Contents v Appendix: The archaeological material – a catalogue 81 Plates 85 Bibliography 99 vi List of illustrations FIGURES IN TEXT Fig. 2.1 Painted wooden plaque of a sacrificial procession. 540‐530 BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum 16464 (Photo: Museum; http://www.namuseum.gr/collections/vases/archaic/archaic13‐en.html). 2 Fig. 5.1 The remains of the bouleutērion at Priene, showing the auditorium and the altar in front (Photo: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Priene_Bouleuterion_2009_04_28.jpg) 52 Fig. 5.2 An inscribed wall block from the temple of Apollo at Dreros (after van Effenterre 1946a:597). 56 Fig. 5.3 Reconstruction of Temple A seen from the east (adapted from Beyer 1976:Pl. 24). 58 Fig. 5.4 (a) is a close‐up of the two seated goddesses visible above the doorway on temple A (adapted from Beyer 1976:Pl. 21.1). (b) is a part of the horseman frieze (after Beyer 1976:Pl. 13.1). 59 Fig. 5.5 The two temples at Prinias seen from the east (after Pernier 1914:37, Fig. 13). 60 Fig. 5.6 An inscribed wall block from the temple of Apollo at Dreros (after van Effenterre 1946a:591). 64 Fig. 6.1 (a) illustrates a pre‐polis social structure and (b) a polis structure (after Morris 1987: Fig. 56). 76 PLATES (pp. 85‐98) Pl. 1. Map of the sanctuary of Hera at Perachora (adapted from Payne 1940:Pl. 137). Pl. 2. Plan of the upper terrace of the sanctuary at Perachora (after Whitley 2001:Fig. 12.3). Pl. 3. Plan of the so‐called temple of Hera Limenia at Perachora (adapted from Østby 1995:Fig. 171). Pl. 4. Plan of temple A at Kommos showing the two documented phases (adapted from Shaw and Shaw 2000b:Pl. 1.19). Pl. 5. Plan of temple B at Kommos showing the three documented phases and an isometric restoration of phase 2 (adapted from Shaw and Shaw 2000b:Pl. 1.30, Pl. 1.31). Pl. 6. Building V (after Shaw and Shaw 2000b:Pl. 1.62). Pl. 7. Building Q (after Shaw and Shaw 2000b:Pl. 1.66). Pl. 8. Plan of the Classical sanctuary at Kommos (after Shaw and Shaw 2000b:Pl. 1.79). Pl. 9. Plan of the Hellenistic sanctuary at Kommos (after Shaw and Shaw 2000b:Pl. 1.79). Pl. 10. Map of Dreros (adapted from van Effenterre and Demargne 1937: Fig. 2). Pl. 11. Plan of the temple of Apollo at Dreros, the agora (A), and the cistern (B). The reconstruction of the temple is courtesy of Beyer (adapted from Beyer:1976:Pl. 8.2). Pl. 12. The Delphinion at Dreros, showing both original drawing and the suggested reconstruction by Beyer (after Marinatos 1936:Pl. 27 and Beyer 1976:Pl. 3). Pl. 13. Map of the area around temple A (B.15) and temple B (B.14) at Prinias (after Rizza 2000:Fig. 1). Pl. 14. Temple A (left) and temple B (right) at Prinias (adapted from Shaw and Shaw 2000b:Pl. 8.15). Pl. 15. Plan of temple A and B at Prinias (after Pernier 1914:Fig. 7). Pl. 16. The Pytheion at Gortyn (after Shaw and Shaw 2000b:8.15). Pl. 17. Plan of the city of Gortyn and the temple of Apollo (adapted from Guarducci 1950:xiv). Pl. 18. Plan of the sanctuary at Kalapodi (after Mazarakis Ainian 1997:Fig. 62). Pl. 19. Temple A and B at Kalapodi (adapted from Mazarakis Ainian 1997:61). Pl. 20. Plan of temple A at Pallantion (after Østby 1995:Fig. 18). Pl. 21. The temple of Apollo at Asine (adapted from Østby 1995:Fig. 172). Pl. 22. Map of the Barbouna hill at Asine (after Frödin and Persson 1938:Fig. 130). Pl. 23. The mid‐seventh century building at Dreros (after Miller 1978:Fig. 8). List of illustrations viii Pl. 24. The Late Archaic prytaneion at Delos (after Miller 1978:Fig. 4). Pl. 25. The Classical prytaneion at Lato (after Miller 1978:Fig. 5). Pl. 26. The remains of the Classical prytaneion at Olympia (after Miller 1978:Fig. 6). Pl. 27. The remains of the Hellenistic prytaneion at Olympia (after Miller 1978:Fig. 7). Pl. 28. The Old Bouleuterion in Athens, 6th century BC (adapted from Thompson 1940:Fig. 32). Pl. 29. The New Bouleuterion in Athens, mid‐5th century BC (adapted from Thompson 1940:Fig. 62). Preface and acknowledgements It is indeed a much overused cliché to compare the completion of a study like this to a long journey that finally has been brought to an end. Yet I feel such a description is very much justified as I can truthfully say I have waded great academic extremities since I decided my initial project wasn’t good enough. Moving from a somewhat unusual take on city planning I came to acquire a peculiar interest in sacred trees, and for most of the 2010 spring semester, I had myself convinced it was a clever idea to write about trees. I am sure my supervisor, Prof. J. Rasmus Brandt, didn’t quite share my conviction, but he let me explore my whim, and although it didn’t lead anywhere concrete – except to an inevitable delay – it was indeed a very educational and rewarding experience. I learned much about what research is really all about and how it can take you in directions you could never have foreseen. I owe Rasmus Brandt my greatest gratitude for his patience and guidance, but for this lesson in particular. A special thanks is also due to Dr Knut Ødegård with whom I spoke during the 2010 season of the Greek-Norwegian excavation at Tegea. At that time, my attention had focused on the agora during the Archaic period, coupled with a strong fascination for Homer, but Ødegård pointed to the archaeological difficulties in pursuing such an elusive idea. Instead he introduced me to the research done by Bjørn Qviller and my project was redirected towards the Greek symposium, the aristocracy, and the so-called hearth-temples as venues for feasting, and possibly also deliberation. Most of the autumn semester was spent at the Nordic Library at Athens, reading up on the subject of the Greek symposium, and the study slowly moved towards its present incarnation, that of the city council of the early polis. In that context, I owe many thanks to Prof. Helène Whittaker for taking time to discuss my ideas during her visit to Athens in the spring of 2011. Prof. Erik Østby visited Athens later in the spring, and he was also kind enough to take time to talk. I was long troubled by the best way the approach the hearth-temples, and I am greatly indebted to Østby for putting me on the right track – if any such thing exists with such a complicated and scarce material as the hearth-temples. This study has taken much inspiration from an abstract written by Ewa Samuelsson, and her ideas introduced me to the debate concerning the use of hearth-temples as primitive council houses or even ‘town halls’. Østby could confirm what I had come to suspect, namely that her final paper was never released.
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