The folds of Parnassos : land and ethnicity in ancient Phokis / Jeremy McInerney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McInerney, Jeremy, 1958- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cities and towns, Ancient--Greece--History.

Cities and towns, Ancient.

Land tenure--Greece--Phzokis Region.

Land tenure.

Phzokis (Greece : Region)--Antiquities.

Phzokis (Greece : Region).

Greece--Ethnic relations.

Greece.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (408 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Austin, Texas : University of Texas Press, 1999.

Summary:

Independent city-states (poleis) such as Athens have been viewed traditionally as the most advanced stage of state formation in ancient Greece. By contrast, this pioneering book argues that for some Greeks the ethnos, a regionally based ethnic group, and the koinon, or regional confederation, were equally valid units of social and political life and that these ethnic identities were astonishingly durable. Jeremy McInerney sets his study in Phokis, a region in central Greece dominated by Mount Parnassos that shared a border with the panhellenic sanctuary at Delphi. He explores how ecological conditions, land use, and external factors such as invasion contributed to the formation of a Phokian territory. Then, drawing on numerous interdisciplinary sources, he traces the history of the region from the Archaic age down to the Roman period. McInerney shows how shared myths, hero cults, and military alliances created an ethnic identity that held the region together over centuries, despite repeated invasions. He concludes that the Phokian koinon survived because it was founded ultimately on the tenacity of the smaller communities of Greece.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

MAPS

PLATES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2 RACE, TRIBE, ETHNICITY

CHAPTER 3 TOPOGRAPHY AND SETTLEMENT

CHAPTER 4 SETTLEMENT AND SOCIETY

CHAPTER 5 HEROES, MYTHS, AND ETHNICITY

CHAPTER 6 PHOKIAN DESPERATION

CHAPTER 7 STATE AND SOCIETY

CHAPTER 8 THE LICTOR'S AXE

APPENDIX 1 A GAZETTEER OF PHOKIAN SITES

APPENDIX 2 THE GREAT ISTHMUS CORRIDOR

APPENDIX 3 THE DATE OF THE FORTIFICATIONS OF PHOKIS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-292-76160-0

OCLC:

1286806888