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Identifying a Mycenaean State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

R. Hope Simpson
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Extract

Ancient tradition, as recorded by Strabo and Pausanias, placed the Seven Cities offered by Agamemnon to Achilles in the area of the shores of the Messenian Gulf, between Kardamyle on the south-east and Methone on the south-west. The phrase πᾶσαι δ᾿ ἐγγὺς ἁλός roughly confines them to the coastal area, but it need not exclude identifications with sites farther inland, provided that these are not too far distant from the sea, and are connected with it by easy routes. For example, Kambos (?Ἐνόπη) and the site of the classical Thouria (?Ἄνθεια or Αἴπεια) lie 5 kilometres and 6 kilometres inland respectively, but their territory may have extended towards the coast, and the distance from the sea is not great. I have assumed as a working hypothesis that the Seven Cities actually existed in the Late Mycenaean Period, although possibly with slightly different names, and although they are not mentioned in the Achaean Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad; and I have taken the position of Mycenaean sites in the area to be the most relevant factor to the problem of locating the Seven Cities.

I have carried out surface exploration in south Messenia over a period of five to six weeks with the purpose of finding out the pattern of the Mycenaean and earlier occupation of the district on the shores of the Messenian Gulf, and I shall give an account of the results obtained at each site, together with a discussion of previous work carried out by others, and then compare the facts with the testimony of the ancient writers, in particular Strabo and Pausanias, before stating my conclusions as to the locations of the Seven Cities, and attempting to reconstruct their history. The relevant sites will be discussed in geographical order from south-east to south-west. (See the map of the area, Fig. 1.)

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 52 , November 1957 , pp. 231 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1957

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References

1 The Ancient Sources:

Strabo 359–61.

Paus. iii. 26, 1–11; iv. 1, 1–4; 30, 1–31; 3, 34–35. Select bibliography of modern writers:

Frazer, , Pausanias' Description of Greece (1898).Google Scholar

Forster, , BSA x (1903–1904) 161–6, and 158–9Google Scholar (a good description of the north Mani country). Hereafter called Forster.

Tod, , JHS xxv (1905) 32–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Valmin, , Études topographiques sur la Messénie ancienne (1930).Google Scholar (This work is indispensable for an understanding of the topography of the district.) Hereafter called Valmin.

2 Valmin 207 is probably right in saying ‘mais me semble signifier non “tout près de la mer” mais plutôt “touchant à la mer avec son territoire”’.

3 ii. 494–760. There are other notable omissions in the Catalogue, as is pointed out by Allen, , The Homeric Catalogue of Ships (1921) 146.Google Scholar

4 Il. ii. 585. Forster 160–1.

5 Op. cit. 161–2.

6 Ibid. 162.

7 Paus. iii. 26, 1.

8 Forster 161–2.

9 BSA xi (1904–5) 124–36.

10 Furumark, , The Mycenaean Pottery (1941) 610, form 46, 164.Google Scholar The examples from Thebes are illustrated in AE 1909: 97–98, figs. 16 and 17.

11 BSA xxxviii (1937–8), pl. 31 (from Karphi); AE 1937, 278–91 (from Gazi). Similar also are some small idols from Triada, Hagia, illustrated in Ann x–xii (1927–1929) 614, fig. 647, and 618, fig. 650.Google Scholar A figurine from Eutresis (Goldman, , Eutresis 197–8Google Scholar) has similar painted eyes; and cf. also Athens Nat. Mus. 2595 (exhibited in the Mycenae Acropolis case), and AM lxv (1940) pl. 36, 386 (J) from Sanos.

12 Frödin, and Persson, , Asine (1938) 307, fig. 211.Google Scholar Cf. Nilsson, , The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion (1950) 110–116, fig. 32Google Scholar; and the figurine published by Mylonas, , AJA xli (1937) 237 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Forster 162; Valmin 203–5.

14 At Knossos, Evans, , ‘The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos’ (Archaeologia lix) 35, fig. 327Google Scholar; BSA xlvii (1952) 247, fig. 4; at Mycenae, , AE 1888, 157, fig. 12Google Scholar; AE 1891, 1–11, pl. 1. Possibly the cuttings were made to house wooden doorposts; or they may have been intended simply to serve as a foil to the decoration of the parastades.

15 Wace, and Thompson, , Prehistoric Thessaly (1912) 23 and 164, fig. 111 (ƒ).Google Scholar

16 Holmberg, , Asea (1944) 122, and n. 1.Google Scholar

17 Forster 163; Valmin 199–202.

18 Op. cit. 202, fig. 41.

19 The lower town is described by Valmin and Forster locc. citt.

20 Op. cit. 163.

21 BSA xvi (1909–10) 66. About 3 kilometres to the north of Xerokambi, immediately to the south of the junction formed by the main road from Sparta to Gytheum and the branch road to Xerokambi, is the chapel of Ayios Vasilios, which is the centre of a large L.H. III settlement, so that we now have both a western and an eastern terminus for the Mycenaean route across Taygetus.

22 Op. cit. 201.

23 Wace and Thompson, op. cit. 23.

24 AE 1891, 189–91.

25 BSA xxv. 316–20, figs. 59 and 60. Wace, Mycenae, index s.v. ‘tholos tomb, Panagia tomb’.

26 Loc. cit. and Tsountas, and Manatt, , The Mycenaean Age 229–30, pl. 17.Google Scholar

27 Loc. cit.

28 Collection mycénienne du Musée National (1915) 157–9. The male figure is also illustrated by Bossert, , Altkreta (1923) 30 and pls. 250–1.Google Scholar He dates it L.M. II.

29 Bossert, op. cit. pls. 87–93, the ‘Boxer’ rhyton (M.M. III–L.M. I); pls. 94–97, the ‘Harvesters’ vase; pl. 139 (L.M. II); pl. 141a (? L.M. II. There seems to be no good reason for Bossert's conjecture that the figurine is L.M. III). The above examples and some others are illustrated by Zervos, , L'Art de la Crète (1956), pls. 394–5, 457, 496–7, 500–3, 534–7, 544–7, 552–5.Google Scholar Contrast the L.M. III loincloth in pls. 751–2.

30 Loc. cit.

31 Cf. Blegen, , Prosymna frontispiece and p. 270.Google Scholar

32 Andrews, Kevin, Castles of the Morea (1953) 24–27.Google Scholar

33 Valmin 182–6.

34 Ἑλληνικά 1933, 261–324.

35 Kougeas, op. cit. 264. Valmin, loc. cit.

36 Paus. iii. 26, 8–11.

37 iii. 26, 8.

38 Jan. 16th, 1938.

39 AJA xlii (1938) 304–5.

40 Jan. 19th, 1938.

41 Anapliotes, G., Ἱρή–Ἀβία–Παληοχώρα (Ἔκδοσις Συλλόγου πρὸς διάδοσιν τῶν γραμμάτων, Kalamata, 1956).Google Scholar The pamphlet is available at the Gennadeion Library, Athens. The cups are described on p. 9, n. 1.

42 Loc. cit.

43 Mavrinitsa lies about 1½ kilometres to the south of Sotirianika and 500 metres to the north of the Sandava gorge. At the time of the Venetian invasion the Greeks at the monastery were forced to take refuge in a high, inaccessible, and rocky hill, high above the monastery, about 300 metres to the south-east of it, and in fortified caves on the north side of the precipitous Sandava gorge. The story is that they left quantities of gold behind at Mavrinitsa, ‘where it lies to this day’. Gold is also said to lie hidden at a place called Chrysovritsa, to the north of Sotirianika, in a barren and rocky district.

44 AJA loc. cit.

45 Goldman, , Eutresis pl. 15, 1.Google Scholar

46 Karo, Georg, Schachtgräber von Mykenai 103, and pl. 108.Google Scholar

47 Anapliotes, loc. cit.

48 BSA xvi (1909–10) 66.

49 Paus. iv. 30, 1.

50 Forster 164–5.

51 Loc. cit.: ‘The remains of antiquity at Palaiochora are inconsiderable.’

52 This is conjectured by Anapliotes, op. cit. 12, to be the site of the temple of Asclepius mentioned by Pausanias, loc. cit.

53 Forster 165–6.

54 Scranton, , Greek Walls (1941) 68–69.Google Scholar

55 Pernice, , AM xix (1894) 365–7.Google Scholar Cf. Valmin 49 ff. If this route led across Taygetus, as seems likely, it would presumably descend on the Laconian side in the region of Anavryte or Mistra (McDonald, in AJA xlvi (1942) 542).Google Scholar

56 Commentary on Pausanias iii. 422–3.

57 Loc. cit.

58 Ibid.

55 Strabo 360–1; Paus. iv. 30, 2; 31, 1; Frazer, loc. cit.; Forster 166; Skias, , AE 1911, 108–10Google Scholar; Valmin, index s.v. ‘Kalamai’.

60 Kevin Andrews, op. cit. 28–35.

61 If we may judge from a small bronze engraving in the René Paux collection at the museum in Pylos (Navarino). An enlargement of the engraving now hangs in Kalamata Museum, and it is also reproduced by Anapliotes, , Στὰ χρόνια τῆς Κουγκεστᾶς (Ἔκδοσις Συλλόγου πρὸς διάδοσιν τῶν γραμμάτων, Kalamata, 1953).Google Scholar This booklet is available at the Gennadeion Library, Athens.

62 Biegen, , Zygouries 78–83Google Scholar (‘yellow mottled ware’).

63 As Blegen, Korakou figs. 10–11.

64 Desborough, , Protogeometric Pottery pl. 38.Google Scholar

65 Strabo, loc. cit.; Paus. iv. 31, 1–2; Frazer, op. cit. 424–7; Skias, op. cit. 117–18; Valmin 51–63.

66 Loc. cit.

67 Op. cit. 59–60.

68 Skias, op. cit. 118.

69 Blegen, Zygouries fig. 177.

70 Hesperia xxv (1956) 162, and pl. 47 j–k.

71 Loc. cit. The French is ambiguous (‘une quantité de débris de vases de toutes les époques depuis l'époque mycénienne’), but Nilsson, , The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology (1932) 80Google Scholar, says that a few Mycenaean sherds were found at Pidima, and these were presumably the ones found by Valmin.

72 Valmin, loc. cit.

73 Loc. cit.

74 Op. cit. 63. Nilsson, op. cit. 80, says that a few Mycenaean sherds were found here, but he may be exterpolating from Valmin's account.

75 An account is given by Oikonomakis, , Τὰ σωƷόμενα Ἰθώμησ Μεσσήνης καὶ τῶν περίξ (Kalamata, 1879) 51Google Scholar (available at the Gennadeion Library, Athens):

76 Valmin 64.

77 Loc. cit.

78 Paus. iv. 34, 4; Valmin 179.

79 Tod, , JHS xxv (1905) 40–41Google Scholar; Valmin 154.

80 Valmin 178.

81 Valmin 163–8; Frödin and Persson, , Asine 15–17.Google Scholar On general topographical grounds it is clear that the identification of the Messenian city of Asine with the modern Korone is probably correct, despite the doubts raised by Valmin, in Bull. Lund 1934–1935, 44–46.Google Scholar

82 Paus. ii. 36, 4; iii. 7, 4; iv. 34, 9–12; Strabo 372–3.

83 Tod, op. cit. 34; Valmin 154.

84 Op. cit. 153.

85 Op. cit. 154.

86 Several Mycenaean chamber tombs have been excavated to die south of the acropolis at Epidaurus Limera by Christou, (AJA lix (1955) 226Google Scholar; and 1956, 96–100). I take this opportunity of recording that I have found sherds of L.H. III kylikes and chips of obsidian on the upper slopes of the acropolis.

87 Forster 163. Valmin 199–201.

88 Frazer, op. cit. 402. Many of the errors seem to result from travelling by sea, as Pausanias must have done for the greater part of his travels up the west coast of the Mani.

89 Valmin 207: ‘Pellana a été située loin dans le Taygète et semble moins probable, parce qu'on ne pourrait pas en dire qu'elle était située “près de la mer“.‘

90 By Kougeas and Valmin (see n. 35 above).

91 Strabo is presumably confusing the Homeric with the on the southern borders of Arcadia, which played such an important part in the Messenian Wars (Frazer, op. cit. vi (index to translation) 85, s.v. ‘Ira’; iii. 415ff.). Cf. also von Gaertringen, Hiller and Lattermann, , Berliner Winkel-mannsprogramme ix (1911)Google Scholar ‘Hira und Andania’.

92 Paus. iv. 30, 1.

93 Forster 166.

94 Strabo 360–1. Paus. iv. 30, 2–31, 1.

95 Op. cit. 164–5.

96 Strabo 359–61; Paus. iv. 31, 1 (Ἄνθεια); iv. 34–35 For a more detailed discussion of Strabo's sources, see Jacoby, , FGH ii. D 775 ff.Google Scholar For other ancient sources see RE s.v. Kardamyle, Enope, Hire, Pharai, Antheia, Aipeia, Pedasos. I select the following as of interest: Schol, ad Ptol. iii. 16, 7 (possibly copying Strabo), of Methone: Steph. Byz. s.v. and s.v. Pliny, , HN iv. 5 (8)Google Scholar: ‘oppida Taenarum, Amyclae, Pherae, Leuctra, et intus Sparta, Therapnae, atque ubi fuere Cardamyle, Pitane, Antheia, locus Thyrea, Gerania’.

97 Valmin 211.

98 Strabonis Geographicorum Tabulae xv (1877) 309.

99 As Valmin does (209): ‘Strabon voulait les placer toutes près du golfe de Messénie, tandis que Pausanias les considère comme comprenant aussi la péninsule de l'Akritas.’

100 Androussa castle was an important medieval centre, being the capital of the Messenian deme of Eva (for its history consult the ( 1927) s.v.

101 Valmin 64: ‘La plaine inférieure est separée de la plaine supérieure par une rangée de collines qui forment de l'Ithome jusqu’ à Bala une sorte de seuil, communément appelé “la colline de Skala”.’ The Skala gap on the east of this range was controlled in classical times by the fort Tsoukaleika (Valmin 71–73). Here Valmin found sherds which ‘seemed to be Mycenaean’. I doubt very much whether they were in fact Mycenaean. The site is wholly unsuitable for a Mycenaean settlement, being on a high and barren and very rocky hill. Potsherds of any kind were scarce on the site, as would not be surprising, if the place was only a small classical fort.

102 Valmin, , The Swedish Messenia Expedition (Lund, 1938).Google Scholar

103 Strabo (360) says that they were both founded by Pelops.

104 Paus. iii. 26, 3, 6.

105 BSA xi (1904–5) 124–5.

106 Strabo 361:

107 Ventris, and Chadwick, , Documents in Mycenaean Greek (1956) 145.Google Scholar

108 Il. ii. 824, ‘the lowest foot of Ida’; v. 857, ‘the lowest part of his helmet’.

109 Il. viii. 478, ‘the outermost bounds of the earth’; cf. Od. vii. 127.

110 See LSJ s.v. Strabo 337 says that Homer called the whole of the country as far as Messene ‘Pylos’. This would agree roughly with the position of the border of Pylos that is implied here.

111 Il. v. 541–60.

112 T. W. Allen, op. cit.; Burr, V., Neon Katalogos (Klio Beiheft 49, 1944)Google Scholar; Huxley, G. L., Mycenaean Decline and the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (University of London Institute of Classical Studies, Bulletin no. 3, 1956) 19–30.Google Scholar

113 Il. v. 541–60; Od. iii. 487–90 = xv. 185–8 (Telemachus’ visits to ).

114 Paus. iv. 30, 2.

115 xxi. 13–41.

116 Il. ii. 620.

117 The arguments of Victor Bérard are weak (Bérard, Introduction à l'Odyssée i (1933) 283–7, and Ithaque et la Grèce des Achéens i (1935) 188–9), especially the topographical argument, which depends on the location of the Homeric at Aliphera, a town in Arcadia (Paus. viii. 26, 5–7; 27, 4, 7). This identification cannot now be maintained in view of the excavations of Professor Blegen at Ano Englianos (McDonald, in AJA xlvi (1942) 541–3).Google Scholar The fact thatcertain words in this passage occur only once in Homer and or at most twice and is not in itself a sufficient argument for invalidating the passage, which has a genuine ring.

118 Il. ix. 151.

119 Paus. iv. 3, 1.

120 Strabo 359; cf. 353, 364, 367–8.

121 Loc. cit.

122 Paus. iii. 26, 9 (Gerenta); iv. 3, 2 (Gerenia and Pherae), 3, 9 and 30, 3 (Pherae); cf. also 30, 1 (the temple of Asclepius at Abia—see n. 52 above).

123 If we accept the hypothesis put forward by Palmer, (Minos iv (1956) 120–45).Google Scholar

124 Op. cit. 124.

125 Op. cit. 141; Ventris and Chadwick, op. cit. 144 and 194. The conjecture ‘Phoraphi ’ is weak, since the Homeric spelling is (op. cit. 186).

126 e.g. Ne-da-wa (Palmer, op. cit. 134) and o-ka-ra3(ibid. 135).

Various attempts have been made to locate some of the names on the tablets in the area of the Seven Cities. These attempts are unsatisfactory because they are not systematic; e.g. E-re-e, ‘the obvious place is the seaward end of the Messenian plain’ (Ventris and Chadwick, op. cit. 143). But a location near the Osmanaga lagoon would be equally plausible. The identification of Pe-to-no (Ruipérez, Études mycéniennes (1956) 118) involves an odd substitution of a letter. For Sa-ma-ra (Ruipérez, op. cit. 118), see n. 75 above on the derivation of the name Samarina. One is reminded of Ba-lu/o-ga-s3-ra-n (Hrozný, Les Inscriptions Crétoises (1949) 25).

127 iv. 3, 3.

128 Huxley, op. cit. 25, 27.

129 Blegen, , AJA lxi (1957) 133.Google Scholar

130 Od. xxi. 15.

131 Blegen, , in Athenian Studies presented to W. S. Ferguson (1940) 2.Google Scholar Cf. Nilsson, , The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion (1950) 489–90.Google Scholar

132 Nilsson, , The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology (1932) 80Google Scholar: ‘The upper plain is as yet devoid of Mycenaean remains.’

133 Paus. iv. 1, 1–3, 3.

134 Paus. iii. 26, 2.

135 Paus. iv. 3, 2.

136 See n. 122 above.

137 Od. xxi. 15–16.