The Roles of Geographical Concepts in the Construction of Ancient Greek Ethno-cultural Identities, from Homer to Herodotus: An Analysis of the Continents and the Mediterranean Sea Cameron McPhail A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand December 2015 Contents Acknowledgements ii List of Abbreviations iii-viii List of Figures ix-x Abstract xi Introduction 1-11 1. A Review of the Primary and Secondary Source Material on Ancient Greek Ethno-cultural Identity Construction 12-50 2. The Theory of Ancient Greek Geographical Ethnocentrism: Locating Hellas and the Mediterranean Sea within the Conceptual Structure of the Oikoumene 51-93 3. The Genesis of the Continental System in Ancient Greek Geographical Thought and its Associations with Ethno-cultural Identity Construction 94-127 4. The Continents and the Evolution of Ancient Greek Ethno-cultural Self- definition in the Athenian Wartime Context: A Case Study of Aeschylus’ Persians 128-164 5. The Herodotean Perspective: Geography and Ethno-cultural Identity in the Histories 165-214 Conclusion 215-220 Bibliography 221-256 Cover Illustration: A modern reconstruction of Hecataeus of Miletus’ world map (c. 500 BC). The continents and the Mediterranean Sea together form the basic geographical structure of the map. Source: Virga (2007) 15, plate 12. i Acknowledgements After more than four years spent writing this thesis, there are, of course, several important people to whom I am greatly indebted. These people have helped make the PhD experience much less daunting and stressful than it otherwise could have been. First, I cannot thank enough my supervisors Associate Prof. Pat Wheatley and Prof. Robert Hannah. Over the past few years, I have learnt a great deal from you both. I am grateful for your sage guidance in all matters relating to my research. Also, I much appreciate your commitment to seeing this thesis through to its completion, especially during the last year once my progress became stalled by full-time work commitments. To my parents, Bill and Judith, it is because of the drive and ambition that you instilled in me that I undertook postgraduate study. Thank you for your support throughout, and especially for your encouragement to pursue something that I am passionate about in life. My final and most important thank you is to my wife Holly. I would have given up long ago without your love, unwavering support and calming influence. You have been with me every step of the way. You have shared all the ups and down, the joys and the burdens that come with a PhD thesis. Although the words are mine, the achievement is yours in equal measure. ii List of Abbreviations General AD anno domini ap. apud BC before Christ c. circa cent. century cf. confer col(s). column(s) comm. commentary ed. editor(s), edited by edn. edition e.g. exemplī grātiā esp. especially et al. et alii fig. figure fl. floruit F fragment(s) i.e. id est n. note no. number pg. page r. reign rev. revised, revised by schol. scholiast, scholia Suppl. supplement s.v. sub verbo T testimonium trans. translation, translated by vol(s). volume(s) iii Modern Works AHR American Historical Review AJP American Journal of Philology AWE Ancient West and East BASP Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists BMCR Bryn Mawr Classical Review BNJ Brill’s New Jacoby Class. Ant. Classical Antiquity CQ Classical Quarterly FGrH Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker G&R Greece and Rome GRBS Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies JRS Journal of Roman Studies LSJ Liddell, Scott and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon OCD Oxford Classical Dictionary RE Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft RLA Reallexikon der Assyriologie TAPhA Transactions of the American Philological Association TrGF Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta Ancient Authors and Works Aesch. Aeschylus Eum. Eumenides Pers. Persians PV Prometheus Bound Supp. Suppliants Aeschin. Aeschines In Ctes. Against Ctesiphon Aët. Aëtius Alc. Alcaeus Alcm. Alcman Anac. Anacreon Anth. Pal. Anthologia Palatina iv A. P. Amherst Papyrus Ap. Rhod. Apollonius Rhodius Argon. Argonautica Ar. Aristophanes Ach. Acharnians Av. Birds Eq. Knights Nub. Clouds Ran. Frogs Thesm. Thesmophoriazusae Vesp. Wasps Archil. Archilochus Arist. Aristotle Mete. Meteorology [Mund.] De mundo Poet. Poetics Pol. Politics Arr. Arrian Anab. Anabasis Peripl. M. Eux. Periplus of the Black Sea Ath. Athenaeus Bacchyl. Bacchylides Cic. Cicero Rep. De re publica Clem. Al. Clement of Alexandria Strom. Stromateis Dem. Demosthenes Dio Chrys. Dio Chrysostom Or. Orations Diod. Sic. Diodorus Siculus Diog. Laert. Diogenes Laertius Eur. Euripides Alc. Alcestis Andr. Andromache v Bacch. Bacchae Hec. Hecuba Hel. Helen Heracl. Heraclidae HF Heracles (Hercules Furens) Hipp. Hippolytus IA Iphigenia in Aulis IT Iphigenia in Tauris Med. Medea Or. Orestes Phoen. The Phoenician Women Rhes. Rhesus Supp. Suppliants Tro. The Trojan Women Ezek. Ezekiel Gell. Aulus Gellius NA Attic Nights Gorg. Gorgias Hdn. Aelius Herodianus Hdt. Herodotus Hes. Hesiod Cat. Catalogue of Women Op. Works and Days Theog. Theogony Hippoc. Hippocrates Aer. Airs, Waters, Places Hom. Homer Il. Iliad Od. Odyssey Hymn. Hom. Ap. Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo IG Inscriptiones Graecae (1873 – ) Isoc. Isocrates Paneg. Panegyricus Josh. Joshua vi Lycurg. Lycurgus Leoc. Against Leocrates Num. Numbers Paus. Pausanias P Berol. Berlin Papyri P. Haun. The Papyrus-Collection at the Department of Greek and Latin, of the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen Philostr. Philostratus V S Vitae sophistarum Phot. Photius Bibl. Bibliotheca Pind. Pindar Isth. Isthmian Odes Nem. Nemean Odes Ol. Olympian Odes Pyth. Pythian Odes Pl. Plato Alc. Alcibiades Criti. Critias Phd. Phaedo Resp. Republic Ti. Timaeus Plin. Pliny the Elder HN Natural History Plut. Plutarch Ages. Agesilaus Alc. Alcibiades Arist. Aristides Mor. Moralia Nic. Nicias Per. Pericles Phil. Philopoemen Pomp. Pompey Them. Themistocles vii Poll. Pollux Onom. Onomasticon Polyb. Polybius Pompon. Pomponius Mela POxy. Oxyrhynchus Papyri (1898 – ) ps.-Scylax Pseudo-Scylax ps.-Scymn. Pseudo-Scymnus ps.-Xenophon Pseudo-Xenophon [Ath. pol.] The Constitution of the Athenians Ptol. Claudius Ptolemy Geog. Geography SEG Supplementum epigraphicum Graecum (1923 – ) Sen. Seneca the Younger Q Nat. Natural Questions Sext. Emp. Sextus Empiricus Math. Adversus mathematicos Simon. Simonides Soph. Sophocles Aj. Ajax El. Electra OC Oedipus at Colonus Phil. Philoctetes Trach. Women of Trachis Steph. Byz. Stephanus of Byzantium Stob. Stobaeus Flor. 0Anqolo/gion Thuc. Thucydides Timoth. Timotheus Pers. Persians Xen. Xenophon An. Anabasis Cyr. Cyropaedia Oec. Oeconomicus Por. Ways and Means viii List of Figures Fig. 1 (pg. 25) Eurymedon Vase (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Attic red-figure, c. 460 BC: 1981.73). Source: http://www.homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~vwohl/images/Eurymedon.jpg Fig. 2 (pg. 56) Babylonian Map of the World (British Museum, cuneiform tablet, Sippar, Iraq: ME 92687). Source: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_image.aspx?image=ps3196 88.jpg&retpage=18873 Fig. 3 (pg. 61) “The world before Alexander”: a modern reconstruction of the Greek view of the oikoumene at the end of the Classical period. Source: Geus (2003) 235, fig. 14.2. Fig. 4 (pg. 66) “Settlements around the Mediterranean, about 550 B.C.”: a map demonstrating the span of Greek, Phoenician and Etruscan colonisation in the late Archaic period. Source: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/greeksahoy!/mediterranean_550.jpg Fig. 5 (pg. 78) The oikoumene according to Herodotus. ix Source: Thomson (1948) 99, fig. 12. Fig. 6 (pg. 82) “Conjectural rendering of the map of Hecataeus”: the image highlights the symmetry formed by the outer ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, and by the bipartite continental configuration that has Europe in the north and Asia in the south. Source: Munn (2006) 215, fig. 13. Fig. 7 (pg. 87) Ephorus’ oikoumene and the four main eschatiai. Source: Thomson (1948) 97, fig. 10. x Abstract The main objective of the thesis is to investigate and explain the roles that concepts of geographical space played in the construction of ancient Greek ethno-cultural identities, from Homer to Herodotus. I focus specifically on two concepts – the continents and the Mediterranean Sea – as evidence from the primary sources shows that the Greeks integrated both into the process of their ethno-cultural identity construction simultaneously. This integration was highly complex because “Greekness” was an aggregation of different and competing identity planes, such as the local/polis, the regional, the tribal and the collective Greek. The issue of ancient Greek ethnicity and identity has produced a fertile field of classical scholarship; however, the geographical dimension has received only minor consideration. The modern philosophical and anthropological concept of alterity has dominated the study of ancient Greek ethno- cultural self-definition. Most significant of all is the conventional association of the ancient Greeks with both geographical ethnocentrism and “Orientalism.” The theory of ancient Greek geographical ethnocentrism refers to a culturally hierarchical centre versus periphery worldview. The Greeks, inhabiting Mediterranean coastlines, believe themselves to occupy the central zone of the oi0koume/nh (“inhabited/known world”), a marker of cultural supremacy. Barbarian peoples, inhabiting distant regions and continental interiors, are consigned to the periphery,