Boiotia in Antiquity
Selected Papers

A collection of papers - revised or previously unpublished - about the history, institutions, and literature of Boiotia, by a leading expert on the region.

Albert Schachter (Author), Hans Beck (Preface by)

9781107650435, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 July 2021

462 pages, 5 b/w illus. 1 map
22.9 x 15.1 x 2.4 cm, 0.662 kg

Boiotia was - next to Athens and Sparta - one of the most important regions of ancient Greece. Albert Schachter, a leading expert on the region, has for many decades pioneered and fostered the exploration of it and its people through his research. His seminal publications have covered all aspects of its history, institutions, cults, and literature from late Mycenaean times to the Roman Empire, revealing a mastery of the epigraphic evidence, archaeological data, and the literary tradition. This volume conveniently brings together twenty-three papers (two previously unpublished, others revised and updated) which display a compelling intellectual coherence and a narrative style refreshingly immune to jargon. All major topics of Boiotian history from early Greece to Roman times are touched upon, and the book can be read as a history of Boiotia, in pieces.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Boiotian beginnings: the creation of an ethnos
Part II. History: Boiotian: 2. Kadmos and the implications of the tradition for Boiotian history
3. Boiotia in the sixth century BC
4. The early Boiotoi: from alliance to federation
5. Politics and personalities in classical Thebes
6. Tanagra: the geographical and historical context
7. From hegemony to disaster: Thebes from 362 to 335
8. Pausanias and Boiotia
Part III. History: Boiotian and Other: 9. The politics of dedication: two Athenian dedications at the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoieus in Boiotia
10. The seer Tisamenos and the Klytiadai
Part IV. Boiotian Institutions: 11. Gods in the service of the state: the Boiotian experience
12. Boiotian military elites (with an appendix on the funereal stelai)
13. Three generations of magistrates from Akraiphia
Part V. Literature: 14. Simonides' elegy on Plataia: the occasion of its performance
15. The singing contest of Kithairon and Helikon: Korinna fr. 654 PMG col. i and ii.1-11: content and context
16. Ovid and Boiotia
Part VI. Cult: 17. The Daphnephoria of Thebes
18. Reflections on an inscription from Tanagra
19. Egyptian cults and local elites in Boiotia
20. Evolutions of a mystery cult: the Theban Kabiroi
21. The Mouseia of Thespiai: organization and development
22. Tilphossa: the site and its cults
23. A consultation of Trophonios (IG 7.4136).

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]