Kinship myth in ancient Greece / Lee E. Patterson.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-233) and indexes.

Kinship and constructed identities -- Credulity and historical causation -- Kinship myth in the literary sources : alliances and assistance -- Kinship myth in the literary sources : conquests and territorial possession -- Alexander the Great -- Epigraphical evidence of kinship diplomacy : paradigmatic inscriptions -- Epigraphical evidence of kinship diplomacy : local myths in Pausanias -- Conclusions -- Appendix one. The historical context of Plutarch, Solon 8-10 -- Appendix two. Greek myth and Macedonian identity -- Appendix three. A tale of two Phoci.

In Ancient greece, interstate relations, such as in the formation of alliances, calls for assistance, exchanges of citizenship, and territorial conquest, were often grounded in mythical kinship. In these cases, the common ancestor was most often a legendary figure from whom both communities claimed descent.

In this detailed study, Lee E. Patterson elevates the current state of research on kinship myth to a consideration of the role it plays in the construction of political and cultural identity. He draws examles both from the literary and epigraphical records and shows the fundamental difference between the two. He also expands his study into the question of Greek credulity--how much of these founding myths did they actually believe, and how much was just a useful fiction for diplomatic relations? Of central importance is the authority the Greeks gave to myth, whether to elaborate narratives or to a simple acknowledgment of an ancestor. Most Greeks could readily accetties of interstate kinship even when local origin narratives could not be reconciled smoothly or when myths used to explain the link between communities were only "discovered" upon the actual occasion of diplomacy, because such claims had been given authority in the colective memory of the Greeks.

This study enriches the dialogue on how societies often use myth to construct political, social, and cultural identity--hardly unique to the ancient Greeks, it is rather a human phenomenon for a culture to embrace an identity grounded in a putative ancestry that is expressed in the traditional stories of that culture. --Book Jacket.