Introduction
§5. Before I delve into this ritual-myth complex described by Philostratus, however, I focus for the moment on the Locrian Maidens.
The ritual of the Thessalians: text and translation
§10. I show here the text, with translation, of those parts of the Heroikos that highlight the ritualized surreptitiousness of a sacrifice to be performed by Thessalians worshipping Achilles as a cult hero in the region of Troy:
Preliminary answers to three pressing questions before proceeding
§11c. And a third question… What did it mean in the first place, for a Greek to be an Aeolian? From a purely linguistic point of view, a simple answer would be this: an Aeolian was whoever spoke a dialect known as Aeolic, which along with Doric and Ionic was a major dialectal grouping of the Greek language. From an anthropological point of view, however, there is more to it: as we will see later when we consider the relevant remarks of Herodotus in the fifth century BCE, an Aioleus ‘Aeolian’ was whoever belonged to a social grouping of Greeks who distinguished themselves in their rituals and myths from other social groupings. Thus the Aioleîs ‘Aeolians’ were socially distinct from, say, Iōnes ‘Ionians’ and Dōrieîs ‘Dorians’. And these differentiated social groupings of Aioleîs ‘Aeolians’ and Iōnes ‘Ionians’ and Dōrieîs ‘Dorians’ corresponded neatly with the linguistic groupings of the dialects spoken in Asia Minor and on its outlying islands:
- The Aeolian speakers of Aeolic inhabited the northern part of coastal Asia Minor together with the outlying islands of Lesbos and Tenedos.
- The Ionian speakers of Ionic inhabited the central part together with the outlying islands of Chios and Samos.
- The Dorian speakers of Doric inhabited the southern part together with outlying islands like Rhodes.
§12. By contrast with the dialects of these Asian Greeks, however, the corresponding dialects of the European Greeks inhabiting the mainland and islands on the other side of the Aegean Sea are in some cases more difficult to track linguistically. Such is the case with Aeolic dialects spoken on the European mainland, notably in Thessaly and in Boeotia. In the case of Thessaly in particular, the various dialects spoken in this overall region are difficult to correlate with the dialects spoken on the island of Lesbos and on the Asian mainland, but I argue that both these sets of European and Asian dialects are Aeolic; and I also argue for the relevance of the fact that the Thessalians figured themselves as true Aeolians in their rituals and myths. [5]
Thirteen points about the historical background for the ritual of the Thessalians
Point 10. There may be some uncertainties about positively identifying an earlier version of ‘Iliadic’ Athena—hē Ilias—as the goddess who presided over the “place of memory” in the early phases of Troy VIII, but we can be quite certain about the actual linking of the old Troy with epic traditions about an old Troy. And here again the same expression hē Ilias applies: at Point 5, we already saw that Herodotus 5.122.2 says hē Ilias in referring to the territory of Ilion as inhabited by Aioleîs ‘Aeolians’. But now we will see that Herodotus also uses the same expression hē Ilias in a context where he refers to a territory belonging not only to Ilion but also to the Iliadic tradition of poetry. The context is this: Herodotus is describing a scene where representatives of the cities of Mytilene and Athens, which have evidently already fought in many wars over the possession of Sigeion, are submitting their dispute to inter-state arbitration, and now the Aeolians of Mytilene are demanding that the Athenians give back to them the territory of Sigeion and its environs:
As the wording of Herodotus indicates, the city of Mytilene in Lesbos claimed to be representing all Aeolic-speaking Hellenes in claiming possession of the Iliadic territory of Sigeion in the Troad. By contrast, the city of Athens claimed to be representing all Hellenes who took part in the Trojan War. From the standpoint of both sides, then, the disputed territory is poetic as well as political. [HPC 145.]
A reconstruction of the historical foreground for the ritual of the Thessalians
§18. As I come to the end of my argumentation, I offer this formula for summarizing how the Thessalians had once been relevant to the political agenda of the Athenians:
Epilogue
Appendix: Linking Thessalians and Locrians
§23. If the ritual of the Thessalians can be seen as parallel to the ritual of the Locrian Maidens, then we should expect to find other parallelisms that link the Thessalians and Locrians together. Here are two possible examples:
- At Iliad 5.530, the Locrian Ajax is described as excelling in spear-warfare among the pan-Hellēnes and the Achaeans (ἐγχείῃ δ’ ἐκέκαστο Πανέλληνας καὶ Ἀχαιούς). So, this Ajax is counted among all the Hellēnes here, who are ‘men from Hellas’ just like the proto-Thessalian hero Achilles. At Iliad 2.683, the name Hellas is linked with Achilles and his men, who are the Myrmidons. In the next verse, at Iliad 2.684, the Myrmidons are linked with the Hellēnes. In Philostratus, Heroikos 33.22, there is a brief aetiology explaining why all Thessalians are called Myrmidons. The reason, it is said there, is that the hero Protesilaos of Thessaly placed all his Thessalian warriors under the command of Achilles the Myrmidon.
- In Lycophron Σ 365.42-46, we read that the Locrians send a ship every year to a point in the sea where Ajax the Locrian died, and, on board their ship, which is rigged with a black sail, they carry the fire they will use for making a thusiā ‘sacrifice’ to the hero (θυσίαν τῷ ἥρωι) on the surface of a reef sticking out of the waves. We may compare in Philostratus Heroikos 53.9 two details: (a) for their journey to the tomb of Achilles in the Troad to make a sacrifice to the hero there, the Thessalians sail on a ship that is rigged with a black sail, and (b) they bring with them on board the fire that they will use in making the sacrifice. {185|}
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