Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-npj9w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-09T22:02:42.046Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Eleian Mantic Gene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2015

Graeme Bourke
Graeme Bourke*
Affiliation:
The University of New England
*
gbourke3@une.edu.au
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

The Eleian manteis who practised at the altar of Zeus in Olympia appear to have belonged to two separate gene, the Iamids and the Klytiads. This paper first considers the identity and number of the Eleian mantic gene and then questions the long-held assumption that the Iamid genos was the first to become established at Olympia. It is argued that the foundation myths that appear in Pindar and Pausanias are probably the result of the embellishment of pre-existing tradition in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. While neither archaeology nor further textual evidence entitles us to assume that mantic activity at Olympia predated the late Archaic period, an early Classical inscription, certain of the sculptures on the temple of Zeus and a later series of inscriptions from Olympia do make it possible to infer that two mantic houses, of which the Iamids were one and the Klytiads likely the other, were practising at Olympia from that time or earlier. Some reflection upon the limitations of myth as historical evidence is offered before the conclusion is reached that we cannot be certain that the Iamids constituted the senior house.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 48 , 2014 , pp. 14 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2014

References

Ashmole, B. and Yalouris, N. (1967). Olympia: The Sculptures of the Temple of Zeus. London.Google Scholar
Bourke, G.F. (2011a). ‘The Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Polis of the Eleans’, in McWilliam, J., Puttock, S., Stevenson, T. and Taraporewalla, R. (eds), The Statue of Zeus at Olympia: New Approaches, 9–22. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.Google Scholar
Bourke, G.F. (2011b). ‘Bakkhylides 11 and the Rule of the “Slaves” at Argos’, Chiron 41, 125-48.Google Scholar
Bradford, A.S. (1985). A Prosopography of the Lacedaemonians: From the Earliest Times to the Death of Alexander the Great. Chicago.Google Scholar
Dillery, J. (2005). ‘Chresmologues and Monteis: Independent Diviners and the Problem of Authority’, in Johnston, S.I. and Strack, P.T. (eds), Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination, 167–231. Leiden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dittenberger, W. (1892). Inscriptiones Graecae. Vol. VII. Berlin.Google Scholar
Dittenberger, W. and Purgold, K. (1896). Inschriften von Olympia. Berlin.Google Scholar
Drachmann, A.B. (ed.) (1903). Scholia Vetera in Pindari Carmina. Vol. I. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Flower, M.A. (2008). The Seer in Ancient Greece. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Frazer, J.G. (1898). Pausanias’ Description of Greece. Vol. IV. London.Google Scholar
Frazer, J.G. (1921). Apollodoros: The Library. Vol. I. Cambridge MA.Google Scholar
Godley, A.D. (1946). Herodotus. Vol. IV. Cambridge MA.Google Scholar
Hall, J.M. (2007). ‘Politics and Greek Myth’, in Woodard, R.D. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology, 331-54. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, P.A. (1983). Carmina Epigraphica Graeca. Berlin.Google Scholar
Hornblower, S. (2004). Thucydides and Pindar: Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian Poetry. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
How, W.W. and Wells, J. (1912). A Commentary on Herodotus. Vol. II. Oxford.Google Scholar
Inglis, A. (1998). A History of Elis, ca. 700-365 B.C. Harvard Dissertation.Google Scholar
Johnstone, S.I. (2008). Ancient Greek Divination. Chichester.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leake, W.M. (1830). Travels in the Morea. Vol II. London.Google Scholar
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. (1981). Vol. I. Zürich.Google Scholar
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. (1990) Vol. V.l. Zürich.Google Scholar
Luraghi, N. (1997). ‘Un mantis eleo nella Siracusa di Ierone: Agesia di Siracusa, Iamide di Stinfalo’, Klio 79, 69–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luraghi, N. (2008). The Ancient Messenians: Constructions of Ethnicity and Memory. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malkin, I. (1987). Religion and Colonization in Ancient Greece. Leiden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minon, S. (2007). Les inscriptions éléennes dialectales (VI-II siècle avant J.- C.). Vol. I. Geneva.Google Scholar
Mora, F. (1984). ‘Gli indovini elei e la guerra’, in Sordi, M. (ed.), I Santuari e la guerra nel mondo classico: Contributi dell’Istituto di storia antica 10, 31–40. Milan.Google Scholar
Moretti, L. (1959). ‘Olympionikai, I vincitori negli antichi agoni olimpici’, in Atti della accademia nazionale dei Lincei 8.8, 53–198. Rome.Google Scholar
Most, G.W. (2007). Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue of Women and Other Fragments. Cambridge MA.Google Scholar
Munz, P. (1956). ‘History and Myth’, The Philosophical Quarterly 6.22, 1-16.Google Scholar
Nafissi, M. (2003). ‘Elei e Pisati. Geografia, storia e istituzioni politiche della regione di Olimpia’, Geographia Antiqua 12, 23–55.Google Scholar
Niese, B. (1910). ‘Drei Kapitel eleischer Geschichte’, in Carl Robert zum 8. Marz 1910: Genethliakon, 3–47. Berlin.Google Scholar
Nielsen, T.H. (1996). ‘Was there an Arkadian Confederacy in the Fifth Century B.C.?’, in Hansen, M.H. and Raaflaub, K. (eds), More Studies in the Ancient Greek Polis, 39–61. Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Nielsen, T.H. (2004). ‘Triphylia’, in Hansen, M.H. and Nielsen, T.H. (eds), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, 540-6. Oxford.Google Scholar
Nilsson, M.P. (1972). Cults, Myths, Oracles and Politics in Ancient Greece. New York.Google Scholar
Parke, H.W. (1945). ‘The Deposing of Spartan Kings’, CQ 39, 106-12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parke, H.W. (1967). Oracles of Zeus. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, L.E. (2010). Kinship Myth in Ancient Greece. Austin.Google Scholar
Peek, W. (1937). ‘Verbesserungen zu boiotischen Epigrammen’, Hermes 72, 232-9.Google Scholar
Pritchett, W.K. (1979). ‘Plataiai’, AJPh 100, 145-52.Google Scholar
Pritchett, W.K. (1985). The Greek State at War. Vol. III. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Pritchett, W.K. (1989). Studies in Ancient Greek Topography. Vol. VI. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Roberts, E.S. (1887). An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy. Part I. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Röhl, H. (1883). Imagines Inscriptionum Graecarum Antiquissimarum. Berlin.Google Scholar
Roth, P.A. (1982). Mantis: The Nature, Function and Status of a Greek Prophetic Type. Bryn Mawr College PhD Dissertation.Google Scholar
Roy, J. (1972). ‘An Arcadian League in the Earlier Fifth Century B.C.?’, Phoenix 26, 334-41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, J. (2000). ‘The Frontier between Arkadia and Elis in Classical Antiquity’, in Flensted-Jensen, P., Nielsen, T.H. and Rubinstein, L. (eds), Polis and Politics: Studies in Ancient Greek History. 133-56. Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Roy, J. (2004). ‘Elis’, in Hansen, M.H. and Nielsen, T.H. (eds), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, 489–504. Oxford.Google Scholar
Schachter, A. (2000). ‘The Seer Teisamenos and the Klytiadai’, CQ 50, 292-5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, P.-J. (2003). Discrepancies in Olympiad Dating and Chronological Problems of Archaic Peloponnesian History. Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Sperling, J. (1942). ‘Exploration in Elis, 1939’, AJA 46, 77–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taeuber, H. (1991). ‘Elische Inschriften in Olympia’, in Rizakis, A.D. (ed.), Achaia und Elis in der Antike, Akten des 1. Internationalen Symposiums Athen, 19-21 Mai 1989, Meletemata 13, 111-3. Athens.Google Scholar
Taita, J. (2001). ‘Indovini Stranieri al Servizio dello Stato Spartano: un’ “epoikia” elea a Sparta in una nuova iscrizione da Olimpia’, Dike 4, 39–85.Google Scholar
Taita, J. (2006). ‘L’indovino Kallias di Elide e le relazioni fra Sibari e Olympia in epoca arcaica’, in Amann, P., Pedrazzi, M. and Taeuber, H. (eds), Italo-Tusco-Romano: Festschrift für L. Aigner-Foresti zum 70. Geburtstag am 30. Juli 2006, 345-63. Vienna.Google Scholar
Taita, J. (2007). Olimpia e il suo vicinato in epoca arcaica. Milan.Google Scholar
Wardle, D. (2006). Cicero: On Divination Book 1. Oxford.Google Scholar
Weniger, L. (1915). ‘Die Seher von Olympia’, Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 18, 53–115.Google Scholar
West, M.L. (1985). The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women: Its Nature, Structure, and Origins. Oxford.Google Scholar
Wilamowitz-Möllendorf, U. (1886). Isyllos von Epidauros. Berlin.Google Scholar
Wilamowitz-Möllendorf, U. (1966, first edn 1922). Pindaros. Berlin.Google Scholar
Yalouris, N. (1973). Οδηγός άρχαιότητων άρχαίας Τριφυλίας (νûν'Ολυμπίας)', Olympiaka Chronika 4, 149-82.Google Scholar
Zoumbaki, S.B. (2005). Prosopographie der Eleer bis zum 1 Jh. v. Chr. Paris.Google Scholar