Chapter 3 - Cults and Myths

Summary

The first part of the third chapter investigates the role that Ionianness played in the cultic life of cities in Roman Ionia, and examines whether there were religious elements (cult epithets, festivals, rituals) which the Ionian cities had in common and which distinguished them from the other Greeks, particularly those in Asia Minor. The second part of the chapter is dedicated to the study of Ionian (foundation) myths as attested in the Roman period; it contextualises them within the discourses of their contemporary society in order to establish their significance for the construction of Ionian identities. Juxtaposing the analyses of the two complementary aspects of ritual and myth allows us to uncover projections of cultural identity in different contexts and media, and to better understand the place Ionianness occupied in the individual, civic, and regional collective imagination.