Research on oral poetry was initiated as a discipline in the 1930s by Milman Parry (died 1935), during field studies in Bosnia. His papers applying his results on the Homeric epics were collected in Parry 1987; cf. Visser 2006.29 29 Powell 1991.
30 30 Generally, Donlan 1999.
31 31 Drews 1993, 161: “The Homeric description of chariots as battle taxis may be a reminiscence of this twelfth-century development. Possibly in (LH) IIIC Greece the horses and vehicles that survived from the pre-Catastrophe chariot forces became nothing more than prestige vehicles for the professional warriors…”.
32 32 E.g. Il. 4.365, 419 with 5.109ff. (Diomedes, Sthenelus); 5.221ff. (Aeneas, Pandarus).
33 33 The divine and therefore most prestigious horses of Aeneas are a most instructive example. Before attacking the Trojan chariot, Diomedes instructs his own driver to get hold of them in case he should kill or put to flight Aeneas and Pandarus being with him: Il. 5.259ff.
34 34 Il. 24.325ff., cf. 440ff. (Priam, Hermes); Od. 3.475ff. (Telemachus, Pisistratus).
35 35 Also the two originators participated in “reconfiguring the past”; see e.g. Dillery 1996 (for Herodotus).
36 36 Plut. mor. 760f.–761a: Cleomachus of Pharsalus.
37 37 Even more wars were fought by coalitions, e.g. the First Sacred War (c. 595–585, of dubious historicity): Allegedly it was undertaken by the Pylaean-Delphic amphictyony on behalf of the interests of Delphic Apollo, to punish the city of Crisa for having violated the sanctuary’s holy claims. But the true intention must have been to eliminate a place situated in the plain below Delphi near the coast since it controlled the ascent from the sea up to Delphi and thence through Phocis into Thessaly. See Forrest 1956; Jeffery 1976, 73–82; Scott 2014, 71ff., 144–145.
38 38 Stein-Hölkeskamp 1999, 38. Generally Tausend 1987; Parker 1997; Walker 2004, 156–182.
39 39 Tedeschi 1975.
40 40 Donlan 1970.
41 41 Most typical in chivalry (albeit a duel is avoided) is the encounter between Diomedes and Glaukos (Il. 6.119–236).
42 42 For a possible explanation see Walker 2004, 159. A contrary view: Wheeler 1987.
43 43 Jeffery 1976, 66; Parker 1997, 82ff.
44 44 Bradeen 1947, cf. Ragone 2006.
45 45 The early option is supported by Thucydides reporting that “the (Lelantine) War occurred in a very early time” (1.15.3: palai pote genomenos polemos). This dating also marks the end of the Dark Age settlement near modern Lefkandi, situated on the Lelantian coast halfway between Chalcis and Eretria, see Boardman and Price 1980, 74: “The Lefkandi desertion should have taken place about 710, but possibly later…”.
46 46 Walker 2004, 156ff.
47 47 Herodotus (5.99.1) reports that the Milesians supported Eretria whereas the Samians took the side of Chalcis, maybe motivated by regional conflicts in Asia Minor. The wide support can be explained by the fact that both opponents were prominent in the colonization. So early, purely economic motives can be excluded.
48 48 Following Thucydides, “260 years before the end of this (i.e. the Peloponnesian) war” (421, 404?); cf. Salmon 1984, 218–219 and 222–223.
49 49 Asheri et al. 2007, 186ff., with pertinent scholarly literature; Sachs 2014, 132ff.
50 50 An Etruscan bronze helmet from the spoils, dedicated at Olympia, bears the inscription: “Hieron, son of Deinomenes | and the Syracusians | for Zeus, from the Tyrhen(ioi = Etruscans) at Cyme” (ML 29, with comm.).
51 51 Cartledge 1979, 65–81, who overestimates the gap between late Mycenaean and Dark Age (Proto-Geometric) ceramics at the Amyklaion; there was no interval of settlement for some centuries, as Coulson 1985, 63–66 points out after fresh analysis of the (very fragmented) pottery. The earliest sherds unearthed in Sparta, from the sanctuary of (Artemis) Ortheia (found in a stratified excavation on virgin ground), from an Heroon near the Eurotas and, not stratified, from the akropolis near the temple of Athena Chalcioikos, go back to the middle of the tenth century (or soon after). The vessel types are clearly influenced by those from Amyclae which, in turn, depend on the late Mycenaean ceramics; cf. Coulson 1985, 30–31 (with n. 30–31).
52 52 Collected by Hammond 1975, 690–696.
53 53 POxy 38.2824 = fr. 2 in Gerber’s Loeb edn. of “Greek Elegiac Poetry,” ll. 12–15, with Turner’s supplements (in POxy) adopted by Gerber.
54 54 From lat. ducere: to lead. The Greek term is derived from arche: “command, i.e. body of troops” (LSJ II5, cf. the Pylian o-ka), and (Doric) hagéomai (noun: hagetas): “to go before, lead the way” (LSJ 1a), here meaning the commander of a migration group organized as a military body. The position became permanent after settling down. The two leaders were regarded as descendants of Heracles; see Hdt. 7.204 and 8.131.
55 55 Lazenby 1985, 69 with n. 21 is more reserved, but fundamentally agrees. Possibly the Great Rhetra (transmitted by Plut. Lyc. 6.2, see Tyrtaeus fr. 4 Gerber) belongs to this context.
56 56 Ventris and Chadwick 1956, 27 (words in -inthos). On his cult feast (Hyakinthia) see Pettersson 1992, 9–41.
57 57 Meier 1998, 91–99.
58 58 Loeb edition of Greek Elegiac Poetry.
59 59 Meier 1998, 100–120.
60 60 Dillery 1996; cf. (generally) Krentz 2007a. Sparta was victorious once more in 494, at Sepeia, when Argos lost practically a whole generation, allegedly by acts of deceit of the Spartan King Cleomenes (Hdt. 6.77ff.); but Herodotus evidently draws from traditions hostile to the king.
61 61 Cawkwell 1993; Lendon 1994; Cartledge 2002, 118ff.
62 62 Cartledge 2002, 121–122.
63 63 On the theory of oral tradition, see Vansina 1961 and 1985 (based on research on African tribal societies), Finnegan 1977, and some papers in Olson and Torrance 1991.
64 64 Cf. Thuc. 1.19.1: “The Lacedaemonians did not collect tribute from their allies but saw to it that their states were oligarchies…”.
65 65 Jeffery 1962; Figueira 1977.
CHAPTER 2 The Persian Wars to Alexander
Sabine Müller
Introduction: Persia and Greece, No Archenemies
As this chapter on Greco-Persian wars shows, from the end of the sixth century to the Macedonian conquest of Persia, the Persian Empire under the Achaemenids, Darius I’s family, formed an inextricable part of the history of Greek politics and warfare. For Greek politicians, Persia was never out of sight or monolithically perceived as an oppressive
