«EIKASMOS» XXIX (2018) Images of the Hellenistic Peloponnese in Rhianus’ Ἀχαϊκά and Ἠλιακά* This paper examines the Peloponnesian states in the second half of the third century BC from the perspective of Hellenistic poetry. It would seem that Poly- bius’ declaration of decline (κατέφθαρτο) in the late Hellenistic period should be reconsidered1. Many poetical fragments that have come to light in the last decades contribute to a better understanding of the history, society and culture of this turbulent period. Wars waged for territorial and political expansion, together with an efflorescence of the arts and literary scholarship, characterize the Hel- lenistic world. However, it is unclear whether the Peloponnese incorporated or rejected the new features2. Consequently, it would be intriguing to observe how the states of southern Greece are presented in Hellenistic poetry, and especially in the Cretan poet Rhianus. My particular focus is on Rhianus’ epic poems, defined carmina ethnographica by Meineke (1843, 181). We know little about the poems Ἀχαϊκά and Ἠλιακά, due to their fragmentary condition, the surviving lines dominated by city-names and mythical genealogies. It is therefore hard to get a clear idea of either the structure or the mythological-historical context, or to establish the patterns of ethnography, in these two poems3. However, my interpretation of Rhianus’ epic fragments will demonstrate that his use of the mythical past alludes to the recent historical and * Thanks are due to all the people kind enough to review this paper: Ewen Bowie for his academic insights on the text, and the anonymous reviewers of «Eikasmόs». Thanks most espe- cially go to my supervisor Konstantinos Spanoudakis for encouraging my research in Rhianus’ ethnographical poetry. All mistakes and errors, however, are my own. 1 Polyb. II 62,4, see also Walbank 1957, 267f. The Hellenistic Peloponnese has never been the focus of an exhaustive monograph. Walbank (1981) provides excellent discussions of history, politics and warfare, though he covered the Hellenistic world in his entirety and not the Peloponnese in particular. 2 Cf. Shipley 2005 and 2008. Rostovtzeff (1941, 1109-1112) lists important social and ideological innovations such as national consciousness, though afterwards he dismisses them since they do not «counteract the dominant characteristics of Greek institutions». 3 Scholars included Rhianus among the historians of the ethnographical tradition due to the religious, cultural, and mythical references of a region in each poem (see FGrHist IIIb 87- 89). However, they underlined a distinction between the historical and ethnographical epic in the tradition of the narrative hexametric poetry: cf. Pearson (1962, 418), Misgeld (1969, 116- 121), Cameron (1995, 297f.), who considers that regional epic treats a region from mythical to historical times, though «seldom to the writer’s own day»; see also Ambühl 2010, 152. 314 SPANAKIS religious realities of the Peloponnese in the second half of the third century BC. The prominent polis of the classical period has been replaced by federal systems (κοινά) while the balance of power has shifted4. Sparta saw its power reduced, and federations such as the Achaean League played an important role in the struggle for control between the Hellenistic rulers5. Furthermore, quotations from Μεσσηνιακά and Θεσσαλικά will be given to elucidate the poetic construction of Ἀχαϊκά and Ἠλιακά. It is remarkable that Achaia, Elis and Messenia are Peloponnesian states, and through a multitude of ethnic names combined with references to early epic (Homer) and the ethnographic tradition (Herodotus, Hellanicus, Hecataeus) I will show that the poet’s main purpose was to argue for an increased sense of Greek identity and for interaction between the cities both inside and outside the peninsula. Besides, Ithome in Messenia was Rhianus’ possible place of origin and Troezen is mentioned in one of his amatory epigrams6. It has been generally assumed that the poet moved to mainland Greece7. Hence, Rhianus’ links with the Peloponnese became closer and he might have been an eyewitness for some data in his ethnographical works. Map of the Southern Peloponnese in the Hellenistic period. Source: A.J. Hillen, Strategies of Unity within the Achaean League, Diss. Utah 2012. 4 Cf. McInerney 2013, 466-479. 5 Cf. Walbank 1984, 221-256. 6 FGrHist 265 T 1a-b. Ithome is possibly an αὐτοσχεδιασμός because of Rhianus’ famous work Mεσσηνιακά, or, according to Meineke (1843, 173), a city where he actually stayed to ex- plore places for his history. For Rhianus’ epigram about Troezen, cf. AP XII 58 = HE 3204-3207. 7 Cf. Meineke 1843, 173, Gow-Page 1965, II 503f. Images of the Hellenistic Peloponnese in Rhianus’ Ἀχαϊκά and Ἠλιακά 315 1. Federal systems (κοινά) in the Ἀχαϊκά Achaia did not attract much attention among ancient historians either for political or for ethnographic history. Unfortunately, Aristotle’s Ἀχαιῶν Πολιτεία (fr. 143,3 G.) and a Πελληναίων Πολιτεία (fr. 69 W. = Cic. Att. II 2) ascribed to Dicaearchus survive only in titles and their content is unknown. Autocrates (FGrHist 297 FF 1f.) and Autesion (FGrHist 298 FF 1f.) are the only extant his- torians to have written about Achaia, though the only fragments surviving contain no more than mythical references to Zeus (probably Zeus Homarius of the Achaean League). Jacoby tentatively places them between the third and the second century BC, a floruit close to that of Rhianus8. The ethnographical poem Ἀχαϊκά consisted of four books. But only three hexameter lines and four references to ethnics and Achaean city-names survived from the whole poem. Stephanus Byzantius’ Ἐθνικά is the main source of these fragments, raising an important issue: it is open to question whether Stephanus directly consulted Rhianus’ ethnographical poems in order to write his lexicon, or drew his knowledge from an intermediary source. Criticism of sources in the nineteenth century conjectured that Stephanus always had an indirect source for his entries. A number of other citations of Rhianus were transmitted by ancient scholarship (such as scholia and lexica). However, Billerbeck argues that Stephanus could have had Rhianus’ ethnographical poems as a direct source for his lexico- graphical work, as well as Nicander’s, to whom the Hellenistic tradition of the ethnographical epic owes its origins9. In the second book of Ἀχαϊκά, Rhianus begins his narrative with the genea- logy of Apis, son of Phoroneus, son of Inachus. It is said that the land was named Apia after Apis as well as its people Ἀπιδανῆες (FGrHist 265 F 1 = fr. 13 Pow.): ὑμετέρη τοι, τέκνα, Φορωνέος Ἰναχίδαο ἀρχῆθεν γενεή· τοῦ δὲ κλυτὸς ἐκγένετ’ Ἆπις, ὅς ῥ’ Ἀπίην ἐφάτιξε καὶ ἀνέρας Ἀπιδανῆας. 8 See Rigsby 1986, 351f.; Castelli 1994, 75f.; Cameron 1995, 298f. (F.), for Rhianus’ possible date of floruit in the second half of the third century BC. 9 Cf. Billerbeck (2008, 310f.), where it is mentioned that Hellenistic ethnographical epic owes its origins to Nicander, thus assuming that the latter precedes Rhianus. This appears to stem from Cameron’s attempt (1995, 297f.) to postulate a very high chronology for Nicander, making him more or less a contemporary of Callimachus. However, this view proves untenable on several grounds, cf. Massimilla 2000; Magnelli 2006 and 2010; Overduin 2015. Additionally, many citations of Rhianus also occurred in Herodian’s scholarly works edited by Lentz (1867), who assumes (p. CLXII) that all of Stephanus’ entries could have come from Herodian, an un- certain assumption; see also Reitzenstein 1929, 243; Castelli 1998, 10 n. 43. On the problematic reconstruction of Herodian’s treatises, cf. Dyck 1993 and Dickey 2014. 316 SPANAKIS Your generation, children, originates from Phoroneus, son of Inachus; from him descended the glorious Apis, who named the land Apia and the men Apidanes. The mythical tradition offers different versions of Apis’ genealogy. Rhianus fol- lows the tradition according to which Apis was the son of Phoroneus and nymph Teledike (or Laodike), a grandson of the river Inachus and Oceanis Melia, and a brother of Niobe10. These hexameters recall a quite common formula used, for example, in the Iliad for Glaucus’ genealogy, VI 151-153 ἡμετέρην γενεήν … ἴσασιν· / … / ἔνθα δὲ Σίσυφος ἔσκεν, ὃ κέρδιστος γένετ’ ἀνδρῶν11. Glaucus narrates the tale of Bellerophon and his descendants, beginning from κέρδιστος Sisyphus, in a simple and workmanlike style, as an answer to Diomedes about his origins12. Consequently, it could be assumed that Rhianus, a Homeric scholar, uses a similar formula in the proem of his second book, to introduce the myth- ical genealogy of κλυτός Apis, son of Phoroneus. These prefatory verses seem to initiate a song of a mythical origin from the old (ἀρχῆθεν). The use of the second person (ὑμετέρη) indicates that Rhianus addresses the inhabitants (τέκνα) of Peloponnese, considering them descendants of Apis. The main question raised by these hexameters is why Rhianus begins his nar- rat ive in the second book of his ethnographical epic about Achaia with the mythical origin of Apis. The significant term Apia, meaning the peninsula of Peloponnese, could indicate that the poet tried to build a quite comprehensive Peloponnesian periegesis. Homer was the first poet to use the term ἀπία to mean a distant land (τηλόθεν ἐξ ἀπίης γαίης) referring especially to the Peloponnese (Il. I 270, III 49, Od. VII 25, XVI 18). The νεώτεροι poets (cf. St. Byz. α 357 Bill.) claimed that Homer gave that name to the land which he usually calls Argos, and called its inhabitants Ἀπιδόνες or Ἀπιδονῆες13. A tradition about Argos having its origins from Apis is found in the tragic poets Aeschylus (Supp. 260, 777 and Ag. 256) and Sophocles (OC 1303). Furthermore, Apia was also a favourite toponym of the Alexandrians: Callimachus (Iov. 13f. ἀλλά ἑ Ῥείης / ὠγύγιον καλέουσι λεχώιον Ἀπιδανῆες), Apollonius Rhodius (IV 263 οἶοι δ’ ἔσαν Ἀρκάδες Ἀπιδανῆες), Eratosthenes (Hermes fr. 5 Pow.) and Hermesianax (fr.