Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean

Greek attitudes to settlement and territory were often articulated through myths and cults. This book emphasizes less the poetic, timeless qualities of the myths than their historical function in the archaic and Classical periods, covering the spectrum from explicit charter myths legitimating conquest, displacement, and settlement to the 'precedent-setting' and even aetiological myths, rendering new landscapes 'Greek'. This spectrum is broadest in the world of Spartan colonization – the Spartan Mediterranean – where the greater challenges to territorial possession and Sparta's acute self-awareness of its relative national youthfulness elicited explicit responses in the form of charter myths. The concept of a Spartan Mediterranean, in contrast to the image of a land-locked Sparta, is a major contribution of this book. This revised edition contains a substantial new Introduction which engages with critical and scholarly developments on Sparta since the original publication.

• Examines the role of mythology in the ancient Greek world and its use as justification for conquest and colonization
• Introduces the concept of a Spartan Mediterranean, rather than land-locked Sparta, to reframe what it meant to be 'Spartan' in the ancient world
• Contains a substantial new Introduction engaging with critical and scholarly developments since the original publication