Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean
Greek mythology and cult often served both as expressions of collective, historical identity and of attitudes to lands and territories. Functioning historically, myths provided justifications and legitimations of conquest, displacement, and settlement. Focusing on the Spartan Mediterranean--the world of Sparta and its colonies--this book examines the spectrum of the uses of myth. Extending beyond the Greek world, the book also raises the important question of how peoples relate to and justify their national and territorial identities.
- A study of myth as justification of conquest and colonisation
- A new approach to the history of Sparta
- An application of 'Mediterranean' history to antiquity
Reviews & endorsements
"...this book provides a densely detailed and richly annotated gazetteer of every myth concerning Sparta." Pericles Georges, American Historical Review
Product details
July 2003Paperback
9780521520249
300 pages
229 × 152 × 17 mm
0.44kg
8 maps
Temporarily unavailable - available from TBC
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. The 'colony of the Dorians' and the Return of the Herakleidai
- 2. The Homeric king of Sparta: Menelaos in a Spartan Mediterranean
- 3. Spartan colonisation in the Aegean and the Peloponnese
- 4. Taras: native hostility, territorial possession, and a new-ancient past
- 5. Foundation and territory: the cults of Apollo Karneios and Zeus Ammon
- 6. Myth and colonial territory: Libya
- 7. Promises unfulfilled: Dorieus between North Africa and Sicily
- 8. Myth and decolonization: Sparta's colony at Herakleia Trachinia.