Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T20:02:44.182Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Of dogs and men: Archilochos, archaeology and the Greek settlement of Thasos1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

Sara Owen
Sara Owen
Affiliation:
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article involves a case-study of one of the most generally accepted literary accounts of a Greek settlement abroad – the Greek colonisation of Thasos. Here, according to the generally accepted account, we have an eye-witness, Archilochos, son of the oikist, who actually settled on Thasos not during the first Greek settlement but during a subsequent wave of settlers. He didn't like it much – he calls it ‘thrice-wretched’ (228W), the settlers were the dregs of Greece (102W), the island looked like the back of an ass (21W), it wasn't pretty like Sybaris in Italy (22W), and the Thracians were described as ‘dogs’ (93aW). Fighting between Greeks and Thracians is portrayed (5W).

The archaeological evidence for the first period of Greek settlement on Thasos is scarce, but what there is has been marshalled in support of this literary model. Archaeology's main role has been to be used in chronological disputes. The orthodoxy dates the Parian colonisation to 680 BC, arguing that the Delphic oracle concerning the foundation of Thasos has Archilochos' father as oikist. The subject-matter of several of the poems has allowed Archilochos' poetry to be dated to 650 BC, and therefore the colonisation of Thasos to a generation before. Pouilloux (1964), indeed, has used the archaeological evidence from a house in the lowest levels of Thasos town to argue for this early date for the Parian settlement, seeing the ‘Thracian’ (and distinctly un-Cycladic) character of many of the finds as indicative of a certain amount of interaction between Parians and Thracians in the first generation of the colony.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 49 , 2003 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adkins, A. W. H. (1985) Poetic craft in the early Greek elegists, Chicago.Google Scholar
Barron, J. P. & Easterling, P. (1985) ‘Elegy and iambus: Archilochus’, in Easterling, P. E & Knox, B. M. W. (eds.) The Cambridge history of classical literature, Cambridge, 117–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergquist, B. (1973) Herakles on Thasos: the archaeological, literary and epigraphic evidence for his sanctuary reconsidered, Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilisations 5, Uppsala.Google Scholar
Bernard, P. (1964) ‘Céramiques de la première moitié du Vile siècle a Thasos’, BCH 88, 77–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besci, L. (1985) ‘Materiali subgeometrici e arcaici nel Nord-Egeo: esportatione da Lemno’, Quaderni del CNR 112, 51–64.Google Scholar
Best, J. (1976) ‘Thrakische Bauten im agaïschen Raum’, Pulpudeva 2, 215–22.Google Scholar
Blakeway, A. (1936) ‘The date of Archilochus’, in Bailey, C.. Bowra, C. M., Barber, E. A., Denniston, J. D. & Page, D. L. (eds.) Greek poetry and life: essays presented to Gilbert Murray, Oxford, 34–55.Google Scholar
Blinkenberg, C. (1926) Fibules grecques et orientates, Lindiaka V, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Boardman, J. (1999) The Greeks overseas: their early colonies and trade (4th enlarged edn.) London.Google Scholar
Bowie, E. L. (1986) ‘Early Greek elegy, symposium and public festivals’, JHS 106, 13–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowie, E. L. (1990) ‘Miles ludens? The problem of martial exhortation in early Greek elegy’, in Murray, O. (ed.) Sympotica, Oxford, 221–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braund, D. (1998) ‘Writing and re-inventing colonial origins: problems from Colchis and the Bosphoros’. in Tsetskhladze, G. (ed.) The Greek colonisation of the Black Sea area, Historia Einzelschriften 121. Stuttgart, 288–96.Google Scholar
Burkert, W. (1990) ‘Herodot als Historiker fremder Religionen’, in Burkert, W. et al. (eds.), Hérodote et les peuples non grecs. EAC 35, Geneva. 1–32.Google Scholar
Burnett, A. P. (1983) Three archaic poets: Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho, London.Google Scholar
Campbell, D. (1982) Greek lyric poetry, London.Google Scholar
Campbell, D. (1983) The golden lyre, London.Google Scholar
Cartledge, P. (1993) The Greeks, Oxford.Google Scholar
Chaniotis, A. (1988) Historie und Historiker in den griechischen Inschriften: epigraphische Beiträge zur griechischen Historiographie, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Dalby, A. (1998) ‘Homer's enemies: lyric and epic in the seventh century’, in Fisher, N. & van Wees, H. (eds.) Archaic Greece: new approaches and new evidence, London, 195–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danov, C. (1960) ‘Thracian penetration into the Greek cities on the west coast of the Black Sea’, Klio 38, 75–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danov, C. (1969) ДpeBHa TpaKИя, Sofia.Google Scholar
Danov, C. (1989) ‘Zu den Anfängen der griechischen Kolonisation an der ägäischen Küste Thrakiens und den Lageverschiebungen der Thrakerstämme gegen Ende des 2. und Anfang des 1. Jahrtausends v.u.Z.’. in Best, J. and de Vries, N. (eds.) Thracians and Mycenaeans, Leiden, 218–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danov, C. (1990) ‘Characteristics of the Greek colonization in Thrace’, in Descoeudres, G. (ed.), 151–5.Google Scholar
Daux, G. (1961) ‘Chronique des fouilles 1960’, BCH 85, 935–6.Google Scholar
Davenport, G. (1964) Carmina Archilochi, London.Google Scholar
Descoeudres, J.-P. (ed.) (1990) Greek colonists and native populations, Oxford.Google Scholar
Devambez, P. (1955) ‘Questions thasiennes’. Journal des Savants, 73–91.Google Scholar
Diehl, E. (1917) Supplementum lyricum: neue Bruchstücke von Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho, Corinna, Pindar, Bacchylides (3rd edn.) Bonn.Google Scholar
Dover, K. (1964) ‘The poetry of Archilochus’, Entretiens Hardt 10, 184–222.Google Scholar
Fairweather, J. (1974) ‘Fiction in the biographies of ancient writers’, Ancient Society 5. 231–75.Google Scholar
Fowler, R. (1987) The nature of early Greek lyric: three preliminary studies. Toronto.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fränkel, H. (1951) Dichtung und Philosophie des frühen Griechentums. New York.Google Scholar
Gerber, D. E. (1999) Greek iambic poetry, Cambridge. Mass.Google Scholar
Gergova, D. (1987) Früh- und Ältereisenzeitlichen Fibeln in Bulgarien. PBF 14.7, Munich.Google Scholar
Goldhill, S. & Osborne, R. (1994) Art and text in ancient Greek culture, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Graham, A. J. (1978) ‘The foundation of Thasos’, BSA 73, 61–98.Google Scholar
Graham, A. J. (2001) ‘Thasian controversies’, in Graham, A. J.Collected papers on Greek colonization, Leiden, 365–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandjean, Y. (1988) Recherches sur l'habitat thasien à l'époque grecque. Études Thasiennes 12, Paris.Google Scholar
Green, P. (1998) ‘The Muses’ birdcage, then and now: Cameron on Apollonios Rhodios’, Arion 6.2, 3rd series. Fall 1998. 57–70.Google Scholar
Hall, E. (1988) ‘When did the Trojans turn into Phrygians? Alcaeus 42.15’. ZPE 73. 15–18.Google Scholar
Hall, E. (1989) Inventing the barbarian: Greek self-definition through tragedy, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hall, J. (1993) ‘Ethnic identity in the Argolid 900–600 BC’, PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hall, J. (1997) Ethnic identity in Greek antiquity. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hiller von Gaetringen, F. (1900) ‘Inschrift von Paros’, Berliner philologische Wochenschrift 20, 606ff.Google Scholar
Hiller von Gaetringen, F. (1934) ‘Noch einmal das Archilochosdenkmal von Paros’. Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, phil.-hist. Kl. 1 (1934–1936) 41–56.Google Scholar
Irwin, E. (2000) ‘Epic situation and the politics of exhortation: political uses of poetic tradition in archaic Greek poetry’, PhD thesis. University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Isaac, B. (1986) The Greek settlements in Thrace until the Macedonian conquest, Leiden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacoby, F. (1941) ‘The date of Archilochus’. CQ 35. 97–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacoby, F. (1950) Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Leiden.Google Scholar
Jones, S. (1997) The archaeology of ethnicity, London.Google Scholar
Kontoleon, N. M. (1952) ῾Νέαι èπιγραϕaὶ περὶ του Ἀρχιλόχου ἐκ Πάρου᾽. Arch. Eph., 32–95.Google Scholar
Kontoleon, N. M. (1965) Ἀρχαικὴ εῳΦόροϛ ἐκ Πάρου᾽ in Χαριστήριον εἰϛ᾽ Αναστάσιον Κ.᾽Ορλάνδον, Τομος Α, Athens, 349–418.Google Scholar
Koukouli-Chrysanthaki, Ch. (1996) Προτοïστορική Θάσοϛ. Athens.Google Scholar
Launey, M. (1944) Le sanctuaire el le culte d'Hérakles à Thasos, Études Thasiennes 1. Paris.Google Scholar
Lazarides, K. (1971) Thasos and its peraia, Athens.Google Scholar
Lefkowitz, M. (1981) The lives of the Greek poets, London.Google Scholar
Leo, F. (1900) ‘De Horatio [epod. 10] et Archilocho’, Göttinger Preisverteilung vom 30. Mai 1900, 7ff.Google Scholar
Luria, S. (1961) ‘Zu Archilochos’, Philologus 105, 178–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maas, P. (1934) ‘Die Fragmente des Archilochos auf dem parischen Denkmal’, Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, phil.-hist. Kl. 1 (1934–1936) 56–8.Google Scholar
Malkin, I. (1998) The returns of Odysseus: colonization and ethnicity, Berkeley, Los Angeles & London.Google Scholar
Malkin, I. (2002) ‘Exploring the validity of the concept of “foundation”: a visit to Megara Hyblaia’, in Gorman, V. B. and Robinson, E. W. (eds.) Oikistes: Studies in constitutions, colonies and military power in the ancient world, offered in honour of A. J. Graham, Leiden.Google Scholar
Markov, K. (1978) ‘La presence thrace a l'île de Thasos du Vile au IIIe s.av.n.ère,’ Pulpudeva 2, 185–91.Google Scholar
Merkelbach, R. & West, M. L. (1974) ‘Ein Archilochos-Papyrus’. ZPE 14. 97–113.Google Scholar
Miller, A. M. (1996) Greek lyric Indianapolis.Google Scholar
Momigliano, A. (1971) The development of Greek biography, Cambridge. Mass.Google Scholar
Mulroy, (1992) Early Greek lyric poetry, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Murray, O. (ed.) (1990) Sympotica, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagy, G. (1979) The best of the Achaeans, Baltimore & London.Google Scholar
Nagy, G. (1996) Poetry as performance, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Najdenova, V. (1990) ‘Rock shrines in Thrace’, in Velkov, V. & Petrov, P. (eds.) Studies in settlement life in ancient Thrace. Sofia, 85–100.Google Scholar
Ohnesorg, A. (1982) ‘Der dorische Prostylos des Archilocheion auf Paros’. AA, 97. 271–90.Google Scholar
Osborne, R. (1996) Greece in the making 1200–479 BC, London & New York.Google Scholar
Owen, S. (2000a) ‘A theory of Greek colonisation: EIA Thrace and initial Greek contacts’, PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Owen, S. (2000b) ‘New light on Thracian Thasos town: a reinterpretation of the cave of Pan’, JHS 120, 139–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parke, H. W. (1939) A history of the Delphic oracle, Oxford.Google Scholar
Parke, H. W. & Wormell, D. E. W. (1956) The Delphic oracle, vol. 1, Oxford.Google Scholar
Pelekidis, C. (1994) ‘The Greeks in Thrace’, in Papoulia, V. et al. (eds.) Thrace. Athens, 98–114.Google Scholar
Podlecki, A. J. (1983) The early Greek poets and their times, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Pouilloux, J. (1954) Recherches sur l'histoire et les cultes de Thasos, Études Thasiennes 3, Paris.Google Scholar
Pouilloux, J. (1964) ‘Archiloque et Thasos’, Entretiens Hardt 10, 3–27.Google Scholar
Pouilloux, J. (1982) ‘La fondation de Thasos’: archéologie, litérature et critique historique’, in Hadermann-Misguich, L. &Raepsaet, G. (in collaboration with Cambier, G.) (eds.) Rayonnement grec: hommages à Charles Delvoye, Brussels, 91–101.Google Scholar
Rankin, H. D. (1977) Archilochus of Paros, Park Ridge, N. J.Google Scholar
Salviat, F. & Servais, J. (1964) ‘Stèle indicatrice thasienne trouvée au sanctuaire d'Aliki’, BCH 88, 267–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salviat, F. & Weill, N. (1960) ‘The sanctuary of Artemis on Thasos’, Archaeology 13, 100–5.Google Scholar
Samsaris, D. (1980) Ὁ᾽Εξελληνισμὸϛ τῆϛ Θράκηϛ κατὰ τὴν έλληνικὴ καὶ ρωμαϊκὴ ἀρχαιότητα. Thessaloniki.Google Scholar
Samsaris, D. (1984) ‘Les colons grecs de Thasos et les Thraces à l'époque archaïque’, Thracia Pontica 4. 69–77.Google Scholar
Slings, S. (1990) The poet's ‘I’ in archaic Greek lyric, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Snell, B. (1941) ‘Das Erwachen der Persönlichkeit in der frühgriechischen Lyrik’, Die Antike 17, 5–34.Google Scholar
Snell, B. (1982) The discovery of the mind in Greek philosophy and literature. New York. (Originally published as Die Entdeckung des Geistes: Studien zur Entstehung des europaïschen Denkens bei den Griechen, Hamburg, 1946).Google Scholar
Stella, L. A. (1986) ‘Note archilochee (in margine alle nuove scoperte archeologiche)’, Boll. Class 7, 81–100.Google Scholar
Tarditi, G. (1956) ‘La nuova epigrafe Archilochea e la tradizione biografica del poeta’, PP 11 122–39.Google Scholar
Tarditi, G. (1968) Archiloco: introduzione, testimonianze, sulla vita e sull'arte, testo critico, traduzione, Rome.Google Scholar
Treu, M. (1959) Archilochus, Munich.Google Scholar
Van Berchem, F. (1967) ‘Sanctuaires d'Hercule Melqart’, Syria 44, 73–109 & 307–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weill, N. (1985) La plastique archaique de Thasos, vol. 1, Études Thasiennes 11, Paris.Google Scholar
West, M. L. (1974) Studies in Greek elegy and iambus, Berlin & New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, M. L. (1975) ‘The dating of the Iliad’, MH 52, 203–19.Google Scholar
West, M. L. (1980) Delectus ex iambis et elegis graecis, Oxford.Google Scholar
West, M. L. (1993) Greek lyric poetry, Oxford.Google Scholar
West, M. L. (1998) Iambi et elegi graeci ante Alexandrum cantati, Oxford (originally printed 1971–2).Google Scholar
Woodhead, A. G. (1967) The study of Greek inscriptions, Cambridge.Google Scholar