hesperia yy (2008) SEPARATING FACT Pages399-430 FROM FICTION IN THE AIOLIAN MIGRATION ABSTRACT Iron Age settlementsin the northeastAegean are usuallyattributed to Aioliancolonists who journeyed across the Aegean from mainland Greece. This articlereviews the literary accounts of the migration and presentsthe relevantarchaeological evidence, with a focuson newmaterial from Troy. No onearea played a dominantrole in colonizing Aiolis, nor is sucha widespread colonizationsupported by the archaeologicalrecord. But the aggressive promotionof migrationaccounts after the PersianWars provedmutually beneficialto bothsides of theAegean and justified the composition of the Delian League. Scholarlyassessments of habitation in thenortheast Aegean during the EarlyIron Age are remarkably consistent: most settlements are attributed toAiolian colonists who had journeyed across the Aegean from Thessaly, Boiotia,Akhaia, or a combinationof all three.1There is no uniformityin theancient sources that deal with the migration, although Orestes and his descendantsare named as theleaders in mostaccounts, and are credited withfounding colonies over a broadgeographic area, including Lesbos, Tenedos,the western and southerncoasts of theTroad, and theregion betweenthe bays of Adramyttion and Smyrna(Fig. 1). In otherwords, mainlandGreece has repeatedly been viewed as theagent responsible for 1. TroyIV, pp. 147-148,248-249; appendixgradually developed into a Mountjoy,Holt Parker,Gabe Pizzorno, Berard1959; Cook 1962,pp. 25-29; magisterialstudy that is includedhere Allison Sterrett,John Wallrodt, Mal- 1973,pp. 360-363;Vanschoonwinkel as a companionarticle (Parker 2008). colm Wiener, and the anonymous 1991,pp. 405-421; Tenger 1999, It is our hope that readersinterested in reviewersfor Hesperia. Most of trie pp. 121-126;Boardman 1999, pp. 23- the Aiolian migrationwill read both articlewas writtenin the Burnham 33; Fisher2000, pp. 17-20; Bayne articles,since theyconstitute two sides Classics Libraryof the Universityof 2000,pp. 133-135,265-268, 315-316; of the same coin, and each is dependent Cincinnati,and I thankJacquie Riley Hertel2003, pp. 186-191;2007; Le- on the other. and Mike Braunlin,in particular,for mos2007, pp. 722-723. For assistancein the preparationof theirhelp. When I beganwriting this article, this article,I would like to thank Afterthis articlewent to press,a I recognizedthe need for an appendix Carolyn Asian, JohnBennet, Andrea new book on a similarsubject appeared: on theAiolic dialect, and mycolleague Berlin,Barbara Burrell,Jack Davis, Hertel 2008. Holt Parkeragreed to supplyit. That Pavol Hnila, PeterJablonka, Penelope © The American School of Classical Studies at Athens o c O *d .2I j i ! 3 'u I I S I s- & THE AIOLIAN MIGRATION 4OI the Aiolian settlementsin Lesbos and northwesternAsia Minor,which werebelieved to havebeen foundedafter the Trojan War. This featureof earlyGreek history has becomeso widelyaccepted by scholarsthat the evidencefor it is rarelyassessed anymore. The same has been trueof my own work: during the past 18 years,in whichI haveserved as head of Greekand Roman excavationsat Troy,I neverquestioned the migrationmodel, and assumedAiolian colonizationin all of mypublica- tionson thenew excavations.2 In reexaminingthe Iron Age materialfrom Troyin preparationfor final publication, however, it became clearto me thata reassessmentof the evidence for the Aiolian migration was essential, withthe archaeological and literarymaterial given equal weight,and with an eyetoward historiography, both ancient and modern. Assessing the evidence for the migrationrequires an analysisof ancientsettlements on both sides of the Aegean,and it is worthnoting how infrequentlysuch analyses have been undertaken.Even thoughmost archaeologistswould claim thatthe modernpolitical divisions between Greece and Turkeydo not influencetheir evaluations of the historical evidence,the existing scholarship speaks otherwise.3 This holdstrue even forbooks produced recently: historians tend to focuson eitherGreece or Turkey,and publications that accord equal treatment to bothareas are rare.4 In thisarticle, I firstreview the literary accounts of the migration and then presentthe relevant archaeological evidence, focusing on newmaterial from Troy.I nextsituate the evidencein its historicalcontext, examining cases in whichthe promotionof east-westconnections served some social or politicalpurpose, and considerthe extentto whichthe migrationstories areborne out bythe materialrecord. THE ANCIENT LITERARY SOURCES The firstappearance of the term"Aiolic" may be in the LinearB textsof Knossos,where one finds"a3-wo-re-u-si" as a dativeplural. This maybe a formof "Aiwoleusi,"or "Aiolians,"but the firstsign is broken,and cer- taintyis impossible.In laterGreek, "ai6A,o<;" (of uncertainetymology) means"rapid" and "shining,bright."5 Nothing relating to eitherAiolis or Greekcolonization in westernAsia Minor appearsin theHomeric epics. Odysseustravels to Lesbos but establishesno settlement,and the king of the island is a non-Greeknamed Makar (Od. 4.342-344; II 24.544; Diod. Sic. 1.3; 5.57.2).6The firstuse of theword as a geographicalterm comes in the Worksand Days of Hesiod (lines 635-638), wherethe poet describeshis father'splight in Aiolian Kymeand eventualemigration to Boiotia.7"Aiolic" was subsequentlyapplied by Mimnermos to Smyrnaas well,which means that the rubric's link to partof the west central coast of 2. Cf. Snodgrass1987, pp. 52-66, 4. E.g., Spencer1995; Mountjoy Schwertheimtranslates aa3-wo-re-u- forthe impact of Thucydides' descrip- 1998;Latacz 2004. si"as "foreignwarriors," but this is far tionof the Sicilian colonies on their 5. DerNeuePauly 1, 1996, pp. 335- fromcertain. I thankHolt Parkerfor excavators:the archaeological results 342,s.v. Aeolis (E. Schwertheim). assistancehere. weresometimes forced to conformto CoMIKW KN Wm 1707;Aura Jorro 6. See Spencer1995, pp. 303- theliterary accounts. 1985,s.v. Aioles. A fulllist of ancient 304. 3. Spencer1995, p. 272;Janik and literarysources regarding the Aiolian 7. West1978, p. 317. Zawadzka1996, pp. 118-119. migrationappears in Berard1959. 402 C. BRIAN ROSE AsiaMinor was in placeby the 7th century.8 Nevertheless, in no partof Hesioddo wefind mention of the foundation of colonies in the northeast Aegeanby mainland Greeks. The nextrelevant references occur in theArchaic poetry of Lesbos, inthe works of Alkaios and Sappho. The rulingfamily of Lesbos bore the namePenthelidai, after Penthilos, the son of Orestes, who was named by Hellanikos,Strabo, and Pausanias, among others, as theman who led the Aioliansto Lesbos(Tzetz. ad Lykophr.1374; Strabo 13.1.3; Paus. 3.2.1; Pind.Nem. 11.33).9 By thelater 7th century, then, the rulers of Lesbos appearto have claimed descent from the house of Atreus as a consequence ofpost-Trojan War migration. At moreor less the same time, in theHo- mericHymn to Apollo, Makar, king of Lesbos, is namedas a sonof Aiolos who,in turn,is referredto as a Thessalianking and listedwith Doros andXouthos as sonsof Hellen {Hymn. Horn. Ap. 37).10Aiolos therefore entersinto the family of Hellen; Makar and his Mytilinean descendants acquiremainland Greek origins; andThessaly assumes a role in the Aiolian migration. The islandof Tenedos begins to figurein themigration accounts in the5th century: Pindar s 11thNemean Ode celebratesAristagoras, a citizenof Tenedos, whose Spartan ancestor Peisandros joined Orestes in leadingan Aiolianforce to theshores of Tenedos (Pind. Nem. 11.33). The implicationis that one generation after the Trojan War, Tenedos, like Lesbos,had been seized by a groupof men from the Peloponnese, which includedthe ancestor of Aristagoras. Up tothis point, the authors dealing withthe migration had provided no specificreason for its inauguration, buta religiousmotive is suppliedby Demon of Athens (fl. ca. 300 B.C.), whorecords a prophecy that a plaguein central Greece would end only if Oresteswere to foundcolonies and restore shrines in areasthat had been damagedduring the Trojan War.11 Notall of these authors agreed on what or where Aiolis actually was. Bythe 6th century, according to Herodotos,the original region of Aiolis laybetween Pergamon and Smyrna along or near the coast, and was con- trolledby a leagueof 12 citiesheadquartered inthe sanctuary ofApollo at Gryneion,between Elaia and Myrina. Herodotos separated this area from thecities of which he links to Lesbosand Tenedos theTroad/>£r^, (Hdt. 8. ForAiolic West the4th theterm had been Smyrna: 1992, 1.149-151).By centuryB.C., however, applied p. 87,fr. 9. Forthe Iron Age settlement tothe western Troad in additionto theoriginal cities (Strabo 13.1.4, 39). at Smyrna,see Cook andNicholls BothHerodotos and Thucydides also refer to partsof mainland Greece 1998,pp. 43-45; Ozgunel1978. The - as havingoriginally been called Aiolis Thessaly,according to the former, firstfortification wall at thesite dates to thelate 9th andthe part of Aitolia between Pleuron and Kalydon, adjacent to Ozolian century. 9. Page 1955,pp. 149-150. Lokris,according to the latter (Hdt. 7.176.4; Thuc. 3.102.5; see also Diod. 10.The referenceto Aiolosas a Sic.4.67.2). Thessalian,and as brotherto Doros One ofthe fullest accounts of the migration isprovided by Strabo, who andXouthos, appears in the6th-cen- includesunder the rubric "Aiolis" the entire area from Kyzikos to Kyme, turyCatalogue of Women,fr. 9: see Mer- 7. See also includingTenedos and Lesbos, with the first stage of the migration dat- kelbachand West 1967, p. 60 afterthe War Ulf1996, pp. 249-271; Hall 1997, ing years