Bremmer J. N., Myth as Propaganda. Athens and Sparta, 1997.pdf

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Myth as Propaganda: Athens and Sparta
Author(s): Jan N. Bremmer
Source:
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik,
Bd. 117 (1997), pp. 9-17
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Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn (Germany)
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9
Myth
The
title of our section
as Propaganda.-
seems
Athens
to suggest
and
Sparta
'Mythos als Argument'
This is of course hardly
rational discussions.1
classic study Cults, Myths, Oracles and Politics
to further political
claims,
word
'argument', we, moderns,
a subject that has received much
mention
used
limit myself
1989
to Germany,
we
have
that in antiquity myth played a role in
in 1951 Martin Nilsson
the case. Already
his
published
in which he showed that myths were
in Ancient Greece,
to legitimate dynasties
and so on.2 In other words,
instead of using the
we
would
rather employ
the term propaganda.
With
propaganda,
attention
had a fine
from sociologists
and historians.
In recent years, to
Grund
study of the term in the invaluable Historische
begriffe, the 1994 study Propaganda. Meinungskampf, Verf?hrung und politische Sinnstiftung 1789
on this paper, Propaganda
as I was working
inDeutschland?
It is hardly surpris
and, announced
let alone Greek antiquity - a feature they
ing that these studies have little to contribute on antiquity,
studies of modern
On the other hand, modern
share with most
studies can sharpen our
propaganda.4
students of myth are not normally
attention for certain features which
interested in. So what could we
learn from the study of propaganda?
is generally
The origin of the term propaganda
Fide. It is clear that in this combination
Propaganda
credited
to the Roman
Catholic
de
Congregatio
the verb propagare
still had a positive meaning.
In
connotation which most of us would attach to the term is relatively
late. It is only in
fact, the negative
will write about propaganda:
1929 that an Englishman
'it has not the sinister meaning
in Europe which
it has acquired in America'.5
And in 1933 the German national-socialist
could still institute
government
a term absolutely
und Propaganda,
the Reichsministerium
to imagine as
f?r Volksaufkl?rung
impossible
in contemporary
the name for a ministry
it was Lenin who in his What is to be
politics.
Interestingly,
done?
the reasoned use of historical
between
and scientific arguments
to indoctri
(1902) distinguished
nate the educated public and the use of slogans, parables and half-truths
to exploit the grievances
of the
For the latter approach, he used the term 'agitation' and he combined
uneducated.
the two approaches
in
the term 'agitprop'. Lenin's
distinction
is still attractive, but modern
research has made some progress.
this is not
which
the place
to elaborate
upon modern
theories,
but they are useful for formulating
varying the insights of the contemporary
questions:
2. What
is the goal? 3. Who
is the
is the propaganda
aimed? 6. Can we
long do the effects
of the propaganda
surely
I will
Naturally,
questions
are rarely put in any systematic way. Slightly
behavioral
employing
theory, we may put the following
propagandist
1.What
is the social and political background
for the propaganda?
agent? 4. Which media and symbols are used? 5. At what
measure
the effect? 7. Can we notice counter-propaganda?
last?
With
consider
audience
8. How
these questions
in mind I want to discuss
two mythical
cases which we
today would
as propaganda.
As Nilsson
has already made an important contribution
to the subject,
1This
paper
was my
contribution
to the classical
section
of the German
Historikertage
inMunich,
September
1996.1
am
most grateful to Professor Hatto H. Schmitt for his invitation and hospitality. For their comments on my
manuscript Iwould
like to thankAnnette Harder and Bob Fowler, who also kindly corrected my English.
2M. P.
Nilsson, Cults, Myths, Oracles and Politics inAncient Greece (Lund, 1951, repr.New York, 1972).
3W. Schieder and C.
Dipper, 'Propaganda', inGeschichtliche Grundbegriffe 5 (Stuttgart, 1984) 69-112; U. Daniel and
W. Siemann (eds.), Propaganda. Meinungskampf, Verfuhrung und politische Sinnstiftung 1789-1989 (Frankfurt, 1994); G.
Diesener and R. Gries (eds.), Propaganda inDeutschland (Darmstadt, 1996).
4 But see H.
Buchli, 6000 Jahre Werbung. Geschichte der Wirtschaftswerbung und der Propaganda I (Berlin, 1962)
65-134 (Rome and Early Christianity); O. Thomson, Mass Persuasion inHistory (Edinburgh, 1977) 55-67 (Rome). Note
now also S. Hornblower, 'Propaganda', in idem and A. Spawforth (eds.), The Oxford Classical
Dictionary (Oxford, 19963)
1257f.
5 G.
Seldes, You can't print that: the truth behind the news, 1918-1928 (New York, 1929) 427.
10
J. Bremmer
concentrate
book. The
on two examples
choice is somewhat
to focus
for which
we
have
had additional
material
have decided
arbitrary, but as it could be illuminating
on the myths of Athenian
Ion and Messenian
Kresphontes.
the publication
to take two contrasting
since
of his
cases,
I
their allies
played a role in the relations of Athens and Sparta with, respectively,
has been the object of lively discussions
Athenian
in recent years,
of Ion in fifth-century
propaganda
has recently received
attention because
of the publication
the myth of Kresphontes
of new
whereas
papyri
Athens
of Euripides'
homonymous
tragedy. As so often, we are of course much better informed about
than Sparta, but this is virtually always the case and one of the 'facts of life' in ancient history.
l.Ion
Both mythical
figures
and subjects. The place
Let us start with
claims between Athens
and the Ionians and
played a role in the mythological
of a genealogical
between
and Sparta.6 The postulation
Ionians and Athe
between Athens
relationship
with the Ionians (685 and
nians is certainly old, since in Iliad XIII Homer already equates the Athenians
and Ionia was well attested around 600 and, therefore,
between Athens
the connection
689). Evidently,
are also closely
The two communities
'the eldest land of Ionia' (fr. 4a.2 West).
Solon can call Athens
Ion, who
connected
the relationship. When
Carl Robert, more
discussed
the figure of Ion, he commented:
than seventy years ago in his Die griechische
Heldensage,
Sohn des Hellen und Bruder des
'Der Vertreter der Ionier hei?t in den hesiodeischen
Xuthos,
Katalogen
in another
text, which
specific
about
und Doros.
Da?
schon dort Ion und Achaios
noch wahrscheinlich.'7
At
seine S?hne waren,
the time, Robert
was
ist zwar nicht
undoubtedly
?berliefert
ausgeschlossen,
the best expert
of
is far more
Aiolos
aber weder
Greek
some twenty years
but how wrong he was! A papyrus of the Katalogoi,
published
mythology,
wrote of Kreousa,
'the daughter with the beautiful cheeks of the divine
ago, showed that pseudo-Hesiod
and Ion famous for his horses';
Ion's name has disap
that 'she bore Achaeus
Erechtheus',
actually,
is obvious
and uncontested
On the
(fr. 10 (a) 23 M-W).
peared from the papyrus, but the supplement
other
hand,
is rather complicated.
As Martin West
the genealogy
the history behind
has observed,
and originally
is only superficial
the genealogy
will have been at
Xouthos'
history
place in Athenian
seems to have been Xouthos'
which
in Euboea,
home
support from
origin. This suggestion
gains
form of the name Ionian, as it appears in Hebrew
that the uncontracted
observation
Burkert's
Jawan,
or Assyrian
the
Iawan(u), probably derives from contact with the Euboeans.8 Moreover,
to a cultic worship
of Ion also point to the east coast of Attica, namely his tomb at Pota
few references
which
for obscure
moi and a sacrifice of a sheep during the main Suniac festival of the Salaminioi,
reasons took place only in alternate years;9 his father Xouthos
is equally at home in this region.10 The
Persian
Yauna
name
Ion derives
from
Iones,
and not
the other way
round,
and
it is most
intriguing
that the name
6 On
Ion see most
recently
R. Parker,
'Myths
of Early
Athens',
in J. Bremmer
(ed.),
Interpretations
of Greek
Mythology
(London, 19882) 187-214, esp. 206f; E. Kearns, The Heroes of Attica (London, 1987) 108-110, 174-175; B. Smarczyk,
Untersuchungen zur Religionspolitik und politischen Propaganda Athens imdelisch-attischen Seebund (Munich, 1990) 132
134;N. Loraux, The Children of Athena (Princeton, 1993) 184-236; R. Parker, Athenian Religion: A History (Oxford, 1996)
144-145,313.
Robert, Die griechische Heldensage II. 1 (Berlin, 1920) 145.
8 M. L. West, The Hesiodic
Catalogue of Women (Oxford, 1985) 58; W. Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution
Western Indian Cave Inscriptions', Yavanika. Journal of the
(Cambridge MA, 1992) 12-13; add A. M. Shastri, 'Yavanas in
Indian Society for Greek and Roman Studies 3 (1993) 58-66.
9 Paus.
1.31.3
(tomb);
Parker,
Athenian
Religion,
313f.
(Sunium).
Smarczyk,
Untersuchungen,
370
n.
103 also mentions
7 C.
a genos Ionidai, but this is refuted by Parker, ibidem, 325.
10 IG I3 255A.13, cf.
Smarczyk, Untersuchungen, 101 n. 142 and SEG 40.4 (date); Eur. Mel Sophe 9-11 (I quote from
the new edition in C. Collard et al, Euripides. Selected Fragmentary Plays I [Warminster, 1995]); Strabo 8.7.1; Konon
FGrH26Fl.
Myth
as Propaganda:
Athens
and Sparta
11
on a Linear B
the probable name I-ja-wo-ne
inMycenaean
times, witness
already may have occurred
tablet from Knossos
(KN X 146,4).n
the
is of course hard to establish, but various indications within
The precise date of the Katalogoi
with the work of Stesichorus
poem and comparisons
date about 580/570.12 The late date of the Athenian
and the pseudo-Hesiodic
if not actually
'adoption',
Aspis strongly suggest a
invention of Ion explains
king list, although his sons were credited with supplying
why there is no place for him in the Athenian
is at least as old as Herodotus
the names for the four old Athenian
tribes, a tradition which
(5.66.2). The
a function which
is relatively
late
could find for him was that of polemarch,
highest position Athenians
the title
although he knows
Ion's lack of a more elaborate and sizeable identity also reflects itself in his complete
polemarchos.13
vase painting. Admittedly,
to identify Ion on one of
Erika Simon has proposed
absence from Athenian
nature of this identi
the completely
but she herself recognises
the fa?ades of the Parthenon,
speculative
fication.14 It is therefore not surprising that cultic worship of Ion is only attested twice in Athens.15
and postdates
the monarchy;
in fact Herodotus
stratarches,
What
Not
tively
can we
that much,
to our set of questions
in response
say about this genealogy
regarding propaganda?
can be made. Smarczyk has attrac
but some observations
since we have little evidence,
Athenians
and Ionians
played
a role
in the Athenian
need not follow
reconstruc
his, necessarily,
speculative
for our genealogy,
which,
together with the
still calls him
between
that the relationship
suggested
struggle for Salamis in the time of Solon.16 We
forms
tion, but his suggestion
proposed date for the Katalogoi
poet of the Katalogoi,
territorial claims.
an excellent
of 580-570,
well
have
background
perfectly
proposed
then, may
fits the early decades of the sixth century. The
his genealogy
in order to support the Athenian
and linguistic
that Ionia was colonized
there are strong archeological
from
arguments
Although
that Homer, when equating Athenians
with Ionians,
there is no need to assume
recorded a
Athens,
to the impor
the relevant verses are probably a testimony
of the Ionians.17 Rather,
collective memory
tance of Athens
as a locale
the Katalogoi
similarly,
not actually composed
for epic performances
before Homer became definitively
fixed in writing;
to Athenian
will also owe their Athenian
references
if the poem was
recitation,
as Martin West
in Athens,
has suggested.18
Epic recitations must have taken
such as the predecessor
of the Panathenaea
before it became reconstructed
in the
place at great festivals,
of the sixth century. These festivals often drew visitors from abroad and so the new genealogy
middle
was probably aimed not only at the Athenians
but also at the immediate neighbours,
who were partners
in the conflict about Salamis.
It is not
overwhelming,
that easy
to reconstruct
the success
of the genealogy.
In any case, in Athens
it was not
to Ion. Regarding
few references
the Ionians, it is impossible
to
to the new genealogy,
but it has not yet been observed
in this
say anything
that in the fifth century various Ionians were called Ion. We have, to mention
connection
only the most
the poets Ion of Chios
immortalised
famous,
(OCD3 s.v. Ion 2) and the rhapsode Ion of Ephesos,
by
Plato's
It fits in with this onomastic
observation
homonymous
dialogue.
Ionians took their name from Ion (7.94, 8.44).
that the Asiatic
that Herodotus
explicitly
says
the relative
considering
about sixth-century
reactions
11But see A.
M?nchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 48 (1987) 139-148; less
Heubeck, 'ZumNamen der "Icove?',
sceptical, C. J. Ruijgh, Scripta Minora I (Amsterdam, 1991) 268.
12 J.
March, The Creative Poet (London, 1987) 157-159; R. Janko, The Iliad: A Commentary IV (Cambridge, 1992) 14.
13
Jacoby on Hellanikos FGrH 323a F 23; P. J. Rhodes, A Commentary on theAristotelian Athenaion Politeia (Oxford,
1981) 100 (Her. 8.44.2; Thuc. 2.15.1; Philochoros FGrH 328 F 13 etc.).
14 E.
Simon,
LIMC
V.l
(Basel,
1990)
s.v.
'Ion'.
15 Sunium
E. Kearns,
16
(above) and IG I3 383.147-149. This hardly makes him 'a central figure' inAthenian cult, as is suggested by
Classical
Dictionary3,
374-378.
763.
Untersuchungen,
'Ion', Oxford
Smarczyk,
17For the
problem see now the subtle discussion by R. Osborne, Greece in the
Making (London, 1996) 33-37.
18
West, The Hesiodic Catalogue, 169-171.
12
J. Bremmer
established
Having
we are now in a better
in the sixth century,
history was of limited importance
situation to judge his place in the fifth century, when he twice plays a noteworthy
run 'boun
role, viz. on two identical Samian inscription and in Euripides'
tragedy Ion. The inscriptions
to Ion at Athens'
(IG I3 1496). The stones once were an
dary marker of the sacred precinct belonging
thesis of an export of Athenian
cults to its colonies
in order to
important argument for John Barron's
that Ion's
role in Athens'
Barron's
has been refuted by
cults.19 However,
dating of the relevant inscriptions
unifying
argued that the inscriptions must date from the period after suppressing
Smarczyk, who has persuasively
are part of a series of boundary markers, which have
the Samian revolt, around 439.20 The inscriptions
and Kos, of which
the majority mentions
been found in Samos, Chalcis, Aegina
'Athena (who rules
propagate
As was the case
1502). They all, therefore, stress the Athenian
Athens)'
provenance.
(IG I3 1481-99,
the land as the property of an absentee
with other boundary stones, the Samian ones marked
landlord, an
of Ion's Athenian
hero (or god). The explicit mention
Athenian
the
origin makes one wonder whether
from the Samians themselves.
In any case, the stress on the
hero had not acquired some form of worship
to personify
it likely that Ion was meant
character of the other gods and heroes makes
Athenian
here the
ancestor and not the 'an der Einheit der Ionier erinnernde
of the Ionians on their Athenian
dependence
Heros'.21
the traumatic revolt of its allies,
of a century later, in 412/11, Athens
experienced
now realised that their only hope for survival
of Samos. The Athenians
with the exception
lay in their
clear in 411, when the protagonist
of Aristopha
alliance with the Ionians. This change of heart becomes
About
a quarter
together 'all the states which are colonies of this land' (582). But the
speaks of bringing
situation had taken a turn for the better and in his Ion Euripi
the strategical and political
to proclaim
the ancestral
role of Athens
the Ionians.22
In his
des once again used the myth
regarding
the ancestor of all the Ionians, whereas
his
Patroos,
tragedy the real father of Ion now became Apollo
to become
Ion's brother by the mortal
the ancestor of the Dorians, was demoted
paternal uncle Doros,
who equally was demoted and is no longer a son of Hellen
Xouthos,
{Ion, 292, 1297, 1589-94). With
- how could the Ionians not
such a divine ancestor
support Athens! One last time, the myth of Ion was
claims.
put at the service of the Athenian
nes' Lysistrata
next year, 410,
are no parallels for this version of the Ion myth and there is no reason to deny this innovation
to Euripides,
since it seems very much determined
by the situation of 410.23 At the same time, this
to make this particular version attractive. Subsequent
moment
in history was too exceptional
generations
to keep a modest
did not accept
His cult
it, but Ion continued
place in the hearts of the Athenians.
There
remained
alive
and his name
remained
popular well
into the Roman
from Athens
themselves
hand, seem to have distanced
completely
to be relatively popular in the fourth and third centuries. For example,
and the figure of Ion continued
the second half of the fourth century an Ion of Samos added an epigram to the Delphian monument
Lysander
after the battle
of Aegospotami
and Hermocles
of Chios
even gave
a public
speech
period.24 The
in the succeeding
Ionians, on the other
centuries. The name
in
for
on Ion in
19 J. P.
Aegina',
20
Barron, 'Religious Propaganda of theDelian League', JHS 84 (1964) 35-48 and 'The Fifth-Century Horoi of
ibidem 103 (1983) 1-12.
58-153
(with extensive bibliographies), who is followed by Parker, Athenian Religion,
Smarczyk, Untersuchungen,
Smarczyk, Untersuchungen, 134. Parker, Athenian Religion, 145 well speaks of the 'grim propriety' of the
dedication of the confiscated land to the 'herowho symbolized their duties to the native city'.
22 For
the date
see
the elegant
argument
of R. Klimek-Winter,
'Euripides
in den
dramatischen
Agonen
Athens.
Zur
144f.
21 Contra
Datierung des Ion', Gymnasium 103 (1996) 289-297.
23 We
know
next
to nothing
of Sophocles'
Ion and Creusa,
cf. W.
Luppe,
ZPE
67
(1987)
1-3.
24 Cult: IG II24711. Name: M. J. Osborne and S. G.
Byrne, A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names II (Oxford, 1994) s.v.
Ion.

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