This collection, in two volumes with English abstracts at the end of vol. 2, presents 25 papers delivered at an international colloquium hosted by the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona in October of 2013. The topics are inspired by the merger of three research teams at UAB with distinct but overlapping interests: Mycenaean Studies, Population Interaction in the Ancient Greek World and Edition and Commentary on the Greek Mythographers. The three main parts of the work reflect these interests and find common ground in the discussion of (1) the use of land as a means of production, (2) the role of territory, i.e. space claimed by human groups as their own, and (3) the political, social, economic, legal and cultural differences among distinct groups inhabiting the same territory.
The first part, ‘Mycenaea’, opens with ‘Mycenaean Textile Crops and Textile Workers’, in which M.-L. Nosch draws from her work on flax at the Center for Textile Research and offers keen readings of the Linear B evidence to build a comprehensive description of the process of Mycenaean textile production. R. Arco Coca also discusses non-edible crops and plants in ‘¿AREPAZOO, una clase social privilegiada’, devoting special attention to the producers of scented oils, one of the most valued Mycenaean exports. Her analysis of the Linear B tablets seeks to delineate their status and privileges and to determine whether there was a hierarchy among the perfumers themselves. In ‘La produzione dei cereali nel mondo miceneo: Interpretazione dei logogrammi *120 e *121’ N.A. Vittiglio returns to the vexed question of the values of logograms *120 and *121, interpreted by most scholars as wheat and barley, respectively. Vittiglio supports the communis opinio and pushes for the interpretation of *120 as unground wheat and *129 as wheat flour.
Tied to agriculture is the leasing and ownership of land. J. Zurbach explores this problem in ‘Les communautés rurales et le palais dans la Grèce mycénienne’, in which he addresses the various types of landholdings attested in Linear B to understand better the relationship between the palace and the damos. His conclusions are in accord with the recent trend that emphasises the autonomy of the damos and local elites. R.D. Gómez Guiu too focuses on landholdings in ‘La posesión de tierras y el personal de culto en las tablillas micénicas: el ejemplo de la(s) ka-ra-wi-po-ro’, following the figure of the key-bearer, a religious official and one of the highest-ranking women in Mycenaean society.
J.L. García Ramón's ‘Las instituciones micénicas a la luz de los textos en Lineal B: interpretaciones globales, filología y gramática del griego’ is a sharp and chastising critique of readings of Linear B terms that seem to violate our understanding of Greek grammar; the author also offers apt alternative readings from his previous work on the subject. J. Weilhartner's ‘The Interrelationship between Mycenaeans and Foreigners’ attempts to reconcile the linguistic, material and textual evidence, all of which points to intense contact with populations overseas, with the almost non-existent depiction of foreigners in Mycenaean art. He concludes that the absence of a foreigner topos in Mycenaean pictorial art may point to peaceful relations abroad and stability at home.
The treatment of foreigners in the Greek world is one of the main topics of the next section, ‘Leges et Institutiones’. In ‘Les cités grecques du Pont-Euxin et les modes d'accueil des professionels’ M. Dana explores the economic and social roles that foreign professional specialists like doctors, architects and judges play in the Greek Pontus, delineating the process by which they are integrated into the poleis of the region, and shedding light on their function as liaisons between their home cities and their new places of residence. The focus on local–foreign relations continues in ‘Hospitalidad y comensalidad. Innovaciones euripídeas’, in which R.-A. Santiago Álvarez explores the meaning of θῆσσαν τράπεζαν in Euripides’ Alcestis, comparing it to Homeric ξενίη τράπεζα and offering some cursory connections to the Linear B evidence. R.C. Fonseca, in ‘δῶρα δέ τοι δώσω ξεινήϊα πολλὰ καὶ ἐσθλά. El intercambio de presentes en la Batracomiomaquia y las transgresiones de la ξενία homérica’, analyses the adaptation and perversion of Homeric ξενία in the Batrachomyomachy. A. Ginestí Rosell's ‘El banquet de les paraules. Reminiscència de xenía a les Quaestiones Convivales de Plutarc’ convincingly argues for Plutarch's recasting of Homeric ξενία in the sympotic context, where words and speeches are the gifts exchanged to cement an enduring relationship, φιλία.
Three pieces turn their attention to the formation of states and the status of poleis relative to one another. B. Antela-Bernárdez, in ‘Macedonia – Seleucia: La tierra de los macedonios’, seeks to reconstruct better the territorial and political organisation of Macedonia before Philip and Alexander by drawing parallels with Seleucia and its early expansion. He contrasts the term makedones with laoi and ethne, which he argues refer to the subjected population. M.D. Gygax's ‘Population Categories and Social Complexity in Ancient Cos: a Discussion of IG XII 4, 2, 1142’ presents a nuanced study of a Roman period decree honouring a public physician. He maintains that at least three distinct groups of different status take part in granting the honour, revealing a growing complexity and diversity in collective decision-making under Roman rule. In ‘The Archaic Settlement of Aulon at Gortyn: a Reassessment of IC IV 64’ A. Piñol Villanueva also discusses an honorary decree and argues that Aulon, dependent on Gortyn at the time of the inscription, was once an independent polis before being assimilated in an early case of sympoliteia.
The topics most discussed in the book (with nine dedicated contributions) are Greek colonisation and city foundation from the early Archaic to the Hellenistic period. M.T. Fau Ramos, in ‘“Hostils, injustos i traïdors”: una visió dels indígenes en certs mites grecs de colonització’, argues that, while indigenous hostility was certainly present in some colonising efforts, native populations were probably more helpful than inimical to the Greeks; he attributes later portrayals of enmity to anti-barbarism in the wake of the Persian Wars. C. Sánchez-Mañas and J. Vela Tejada present ‘Oracles de colonització en Heròdot’, an introductory but useful discussion of Herodotean oracles concerning colonisation. Their study reveals variety and flexibility in the rendition of oracular responses in the Histories.
The last part, ‘Mythographica’, continues the aforementioned trend with five treatments of foundation myths and two discussions of mythological genealogy. E. Calderón Dorda's ‘Tipología de los mitos de fundación en Grecia’ outlines the various stages of city foundation and colonisation, leaning heavily on C. Dougherty's work. He maintains that foundation myths are always etiological and not restricted to particular genres, presenting passages from Pindar's epinician and Aristophanes’ Birds to the learned accounts of the Hellenistic poets. D. Boedeker's ‘In Search of “Founding Mothers”’ focuses on the role of women in city foundation and colonisation narratives, building a case for a Greek tendency to relegate women founders to either supportive or religious roles. The near opposite holds for non-Greek women who, as is the case with Phoenician Dido, often play the lead role in settling their people into new lands. ‘Mitos de fundación: el caso de Zelea’, by J. Pagès Cebrián, offers a political interpretation of the foundation myth of Zelea, suggesting that the casting of its (re)founder Karnabas as a tyrannicide is the result of the anti-Persian sentiment that coalesced in Asia Minor in the early fifth century. In ‘Shaping Space and Territory: Alexander's chlamys and the Foundation Myth of Alexandria’ M. Papadopoulou tracks the sources for the myths surrounding the foundation of Alexandria. She finds in the chlamys a fitting symbol for the Hellenistic city and a worthwhile metaphor for thinking about the conception of the site and the Ptolemies’ desire to weave two cultures into a single yet variegated fabric. J. Cors Meya's ‘De urbis fundatione aliisque historiis et glossis scholiastica marginalia. Edició d'alguns escolis a Od λ inèdits del mss. Marc. Gr. 613 (M) i Harl. 5674 (H)’ offers an edition of several previously unpublished scholia on the Odyssey. Only the first two, on the foundation of Thebes, are marginally pertinent to the collection's themes.
In ‘La geografia dei Tantalidi tra Peloponneso, Vicino Oriente e Lesbo’, a study on the genealogy of the Tantalids based on the Bibliotheca of ps.-Apollodorus, S. Acerbo argues for the centrality of Lesbos in the diffusion of Near Eastern culture into mainland Greece and the importance of the πλῆθος in conferring sovereignty upon their rulers. His connection, admittedly not etymological, of Greek πλῆθος with Hittite pankus seems problematic. N. Villagra offers another study on lineage in ‘Argo en la tradición argiva’, where she sorts out the identities and deeds of Argos Panoptes and an earlier Argos, eponymous founder of the city. She convincingly argues that many of the heroic acts attributed to Argos Panoptes were originally credited to the earlier Argos, ascribing the misattribution to Argos Panoptes’ greater mythological prominence in connection with Io.
‘Bendis dite thrace, ou comment créer une déesse des marges dans l'Athènes du Ve siècle’ is A. Blomart's return to his work on the cult of Bendis, a personification of marginality and eccentricity in Athens, through a survey of the literary, epigraphic and iconographic material. He concludes that, although the cult may have Thracian roots, it is more likely Athenian than foreign in origin. M.-C. Charpentier's ‘Le territoire et les animaux dans les fables d'Esope’, is a unique anthropozoological reading of the fables that reflects on the relationships between animals and the spaces they inhabit, and relates these animal territories to the spaces occupied by human civilisation. She concludes that in the case of the fables the space inhabited by animals is one circumscribed by human society and cannot exist without a human referent.
Overall, this work provides many valuable contributions to the study of ancient Greece. ‘Mycenaea’ offers insightful pieces on fundamental questions of Mycenaean studies such as the form of the economy, land-ownership and religion. ‘Leges et institutiones’ provides detailed studies on the relationships between poleis, the role of foreigners of various statuses and perception of non-Greeks both in friendly instances (ξενία) and less amicable situations (colonisation). ‘Mythographica’ expands on colonisation and city foundation and presents new ways of thinking about how the Greeks themselves used stories to make sense of the lands they inhabited and the social institutions to which they belonged.
As is often the case, the collection's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. The themes organising it are too broad to produce a body of work that offers a comprehensive approach to understanding Greek land, territory and populations. While the whole will probably not be required reading for any specialist, the volume showcases the diversity of approaches and variety of material available for anyone interested in ancient Greece.
