Myth & Territory Spartan Mediterrn - Softcover

Malkin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 052152024X ISBN 13: 9780521520249

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2008

Synopsis

This book discusses Greek attitudes to settlement and territory as articulated through myths and cults. The emphasis is less on the poetic, timeless qualities of the myths, than on 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 colonisation - the Spartan Mediterranean - where the greater challenges to territorial possession and Sparta's acute self-awareness of her 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.

About this title

Review:

"...this book provides a densely detailed and richly annotated gazetteer of every myth concerning Sparta." Pericles Georges, American Historical Review

Book Description:

This book discusses Greek attitudes to settlement and territory as articulated through myths and cults. It covers the spectrum from explicit charter myths legitimating conquest, displacement, and settlement, to the 'precedent-setting' and even aetiological myths, rendering new landscapes 'Greek'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 052152024X
• ISBN 13: 9780521520249
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300