ISBN:
0292784791
,
9780292784796
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (xiv, 255 pages)
,
illustrations, maps
Edition:
1st ed
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Patterson, Lee Kinship myth in ancient Greece
Keywords:
Kinship History
;
Mythology, Greek
;
Civilization, Ancient
;
HISTORY ; Ancient
;
HISTORY ; Ancient ; Greece
;
Civilization
;
Civilization, Ancient
;
Diplomatic relations
;
Kinship
;
Mythology, Greek
;
Politics and government
;
History
;
Greece Politics and government
;
Greece Civilization
;
Greece Foreign relations
;
Greece
;
Electronic book
;
Electronic book
Abstract:
Chapter One. Kinship and Constructed Identities Chapter Two. Credulity and Historical Causation Chapter Three. Kinship Myth in the Literary Sources: Alliances and Assistance Chapter Four: Kinship Myth in the Literary Sources: Conquests and Territorial Possession Chapter Five. Alexander the Great Chapter Six. Epigraphical Evidence of Kinship Diplomacy: Paradigmatiic Inscriptions Chapter Seven. Epigraphical Evidence of Kinship Diplomacy: Local Myths in Pausanias.
Abstract:
In Ancient greece, interstate relations, such as in the formation of alliances, calls for assistance, exchanges of citizenship, and territorial conquest, were often grounded in mythical kinship. In these cases, the common ancestor was most often a legendary figure from whom both communities claimed descent
Abstract:
In this detailed study, Lee E. Patterson elevates the current state of research on kinship myth to a consideration of the role it plays in the construction of political and cultural identity. He draws examles both from the literary and epigraphical records and shows the fundamental difference between the two. He also expands his study into the question of Greek credulity--how much of these founding myths did they actually believe, and how much was just a useful fiction for diplomatic relations? Of central importance is the authority the Greeks gave to myth, whether to elaborate narratives or to a simple acknowledgment of an ancestor. Most Greeks could readily accetties of interstate kinship even when local origin narratives could not be reconciled smoothly or when myths used to explain the link between communities were only "discovered" upon the actual occasion of diplomacy, because such claims had been given authority in the colective memory of the Greeks
Abstract:
This study enriches the dialogue on how societies often use myth to construct political, social, and cultural identity--hardly unique to the ancient Greeks, it is rather a human phenomenon for a culture to embrace an identity grounded in a putative ancestry that is expressed in the traditional stories of that culture. --Book Jacket
Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-233) and indexes
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