Tradizioni di fondazione nella Dodecapoli ionica d'Asia Minore

Abstract

This work is a reconstruction of the foundation accounts of seven cities members of the Ionian Dodekapolis in Asia Minor (Lebedos, Klazomenai, Phocaea, Erythrai, Teos, Priene and Samos). The investigation is carried out with historiographical exegetical strategies: first of all, a foundation account is an instrument with which the origins of a polis are re-constructed and represented. Political, social, religious and cultural circumstances can influence its structure and elaboration; therefore, attention is paid to the context: as spatium historicum – the history of the cities and of their relations in the Ionian space in Asia Minor –; and as “literary space” in which the traditions occur – focusing on the transmission in ancient sources –. After a preliminary analysis of the representation of the mobility at the end of Dark Ages in ancient sources – the so-called Ionian Migration, strictly connected to historical origins of the Ionian cities in Asia –, cities’ foundation accounts are investigated: some are about their greek origins, others about their ionian origins – according to specific elements stratified over time: Athens influence them probably by VI century BC –. In addition to the attempt to reconstruct traditions, other aspects are investigated: how the cities tried to self-represent as ionian cities; how they modified their foundation myths over time; how in ancient sources different traditions about the origins of the cities are harmonized and historicized in articulate archaiologiai. If necessary, also archaeological and epigraphic data, appropriately contextualized, are evaluated. [edited by Author]