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.
ISBN: | 9781009466080 |
Publication date: | 13th June 2024 |
Author: | Irad Malkin |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Format: | Hardback |
Pagination: | 332 pages |
Series: | Cambridge Classical Classics |
Genres: |
Ancient Greek and Roman literature Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval Myths and Legends / Mythic fiction |