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Hellenistic History and Culture

HELLENISTIC

CULTURE AND

SOCIETY

General Editors: Anthony W. Bulloch, Erich S. Gruen, A. A. Long, and Andrew F. Stewart i. Alexander to Actium: T h e Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age, by Peter Green II. Hellenism in the East: T h e Interaction of Greek and Non-Greek Civilizations f r o m Syria to Central Asia after Alexander, edited by Amélie Kuhrt and Susan Sherwin-White hi. T h e Question of "Eclecticism": Studies in Later Greek Philosophy, edited by J. M. Dillon and A. A. Long IV. Antigonos the One-Eyed a n d the Creation of the Hellenistic State, by Richard A. Billows v. A History of Macedonia, by R. Malcolm Errington, translated by Catherine Errington VI. Attic Letter-Cutters of 229 to 86 B.C., by Stephen V. Tracy VII. T h e Vanished Library: A W o n d e r of the Ancient World, by Luciano Canfora v i n . Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind, by Julia Annas ix. Hellenistic History a n d Culture, edited by Peter Green x. T h e Best of the Argonauts: T h e Redefinition of the Epic H e r o in Book O n e of Apollonius' Argonautica, by James J. Clauss xi. Faces of Power: Alexander's Image a n d Hellenistic Politics, by Andrew Stewart xii. Images and Ideologies: Self-definition in the Hellenistic World, edited by Anthony W. Bulloch, Erich S. Gruen, A. A. Long, and Andrew F. Stewart xiii. From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New A p p r o a c h to the Seleucid Empire, by Susan Sherwin-White and Amélie Kuhrt

Hellenistic History and Culture

EDITED AND WITH AN I N T R O D U C T I O N

BY

Peter Green

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London

T h e publisher gratefully a c k n o w l e d g e s the contribution p r o v i d e d by the G e n e r a l E n d o w m e n t F u n d o f the Associates o f the University o f C a l i f o r n i a Press.

University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, L t d . London, England © 1993 by T h e Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hellenistic history and culture / edited and with an introduction by Peter Green. p. cm.—(Hellenistic culture and society: 9) Includes index. I S B N 0-520-07564-1 (cloth: alk. paper) I S B N 0-520-20325-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Hellenism—Congresses. I. Green, Peter. 1924— II. Symposium on Hellenistic History and Culture (1988: University of Texas at Austin) I I I . Series. DF77.H5464 1993 938—dc20

91-31398 CIP

Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T h e paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, A N S I Z 3 9 . 4 8 - 1 9 8 4 . ®

CONTENTS

L I S T OF I L L U S T R A T I O N S PREFACE

/

ABBREVIATIONS

/

vii

ix /

xi

Peter Green Introduction: New Approaches to the Hellenistic World N. G. L. Hammond T h e Macedonian Imprint on the Hellenistic World Response: E. N. Borza / 23 Discussion / 35

S. M. Bur stein T h e Hellenistic Fringe: The Case of Meroe Response: Frank Holt / 54 Discussion / 64 Martin Robertson What is "Hellenistic" about Hellenistic Art? Response: J . J . Pollitt / 90 Discussion / 103

/

38

/ 67

Peter Levi People in a Landscape: Theokritos / 111 Response: David M. Halperin / 127 Discussion / 132 v

/

/ 1

12

vi

CONTENTS

A. A. Long Hellenistic Ethics and Philosophical Power / Response: Paul Woodruff / 157 Discussion / 162 A. E. Samuel T h e Ptolemies and the Ideology of Kingship Response: Diana Delia / 192 Discussion / 204

138

/

168

K. D. White "The Base Mechanic Arts"? Some Thoughts on the Contribution of Science (Pure and Applied) to the Culture of the Hellenistic Age / 211 Response: John Scarborough / 220 Discussion / 233 Erich S. Gruen Hellenism and Persecution: Antiochus IV and the Jews Response: M. Gwyn Morgan / 264 Discussion / 269 CONTRIBUTORS

/

INDEX

277

/

275

/

238

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Macedonia in the fourth century B.C. 2. T h e Meroitic kingdom.

/

/

14

39

3. Ptolemaic elephant-hunting stations.

/

44

4. Representations of elephants from Meroe. 5. The Bactro-Indian frontier.

/

/

45

57

6. Greek and Aramaic translation of an edict by Asoka. Khandahar, mid—third century B.C. / 62 7. Persian-style bell-shaped column capitals. Karli, western India.

/

63

8. Antiochus and Heracles. Relief at Nemrud Dagh, mid-first century B.C. / 70 9. Antimachus of Bactria. Silver tetradrachm, first quarter of second century B.C. / 71 10. Athena. Marble statue from Pergamon, second century B.C., freely copied from fifth-century original. / 75 11. Tyche of Antioch. Small marble statue of Roman imperial date, copied from original of very early third century B.C. / 77 12. Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II. Gold octadrachm of Ptolemy II (285-246 B.C.). / 78 13. Portrait of Chrysippos. Composite cast from marbles of Roman imperial date, copied from original of later third century B.C. / 80 14. Bronze portrait-statue, variously dated from earlier third to earlier first century B.C. / 82 15. Youth with a lance. Marble statue of Roman imperial date, copied from fifth-century original. / 83 vii

ILLUSTRATIONS

16. Slabs of colossal marble relief from podium of Altar of Zeus at Pergamon. Earlier second century B.C. / 87 17. Reconstruction of steps and return of carved marble parapet of Temple of Nike on Athenian Acropolis. Late fifth century B.C. / 88 18. Drunken old woman. Roman marble copy of third- or second-centuryB.c. original. / 92 / 93

19. Nilotic mosaic from Palestrina, circa 80 B.c.

20. Marble votic relief by Archelaos of Priene, circa 150 B.C. 21. Neo-Attic Maenad relief. Marble, circa 100 B.c.

/

94

/

96

/ 95

22. Terme Boxer. Bronze, second or early first century B.C.

23. Portrait of Plato. Roman marble copy of fourth-century-B.c. original. / 98 24. Old fisherman. Roman marble and alabaster copy of original of ? 200-150 B.c. / 99 25. Old woman. Marble, late second or early first century B.c. 26. Kylix by the Hegesiboulos Painter.

/

/ 100

101

27. Portraits from Delos, second or early first century B.c. 28. Odyssey landscape: attack of the Laestrygonians.

/

/

102-3

104

29. Pastoral scene probably representing Theokritos. Silver dish, late Hellenistic period. / 112 30. Socrates.

/

31. Zeno.

147

/

32. Epicurus.

139 /

149

33. Revenue Laws of Ptolemy Philadelphus (259 B.c.), col. 56, lines 7-13. / 170 34. Arsinoé II and Ptolemy Philadelphus as Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt. Tanis, 270-246 B.C. / 198 35. Reconstruction of Ktesibios' water organ.

/

213

36. Ktesibian water pump from Silchester, England.

/

215

37. Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Gold stater, minted at ? Antioch. 38. Map of Palestine and Phoenicia. 39. The Citadel, Jerusalem.

/

248

/

241

/

239

PREFACE

This volume brings together in permanent form the lectures, the responses, and edited selections from the lively subsequent discussions, that made up the Symposium on Hellenistic History and Culture held at the University of Texas at Austin, 20-22 October 1988. I would like to thank, first, all speakers and respondents, not only for the quality of their contributions but also for their patience and conscientiousness throughout the slow and sometimes tediously demanding process of editing their spoken comments into a final printed text. This has been, in every sense, a collective effort. I am also most grateful to Chris Francese, who tape-recorded the discussions following each session, and then carried out an exemplary job of editing the material thus collected before producing a final transcription. His task has made mine inestimably lighter. My final MS was transferred to disk by Leah Himmelhoch and then edited, most skilfully and accurately, by Catherine Fowler. T h e compilation of the index is the work of Roberta Engleman. To all these my sincere thanks. Austin, Texas

Peter

ix

Green

ABBREVIATIONS

AA AB AW ABSA Aelian VH Ag. Abhartd. AHR AJA AJP Am. Stud. Pap. Arte. Soc. ANRW

App. Syr. Praef. Ap. Rhod. Arch. Pap. ARE Arist. EN Aristoph. Arr. Athen Deipn. ATL BAR BASP BGU

Archäologischer Anzeiger Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Annual of the British School at Athens Aelianus Varia historia Agyptologische Abhandlungen American Historical Review American Journal of Archaeology American Journal of Philology American Studies in Papyrology Ancient Society Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Weltgeschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung (Berlin and New York, 1974-) Appian Syrian Wars Praefatio, Roman History Apollonius Rhodius Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt (Chicago, 1906) Aristotle The Nicomachean Ethics Aristophanes Lucius (or Aulus) Flavius Arrianus Anabasis Athenaeus Deipnosophistae B. D. Meritt, H. T. Wade-Gery, and M. F. McGregor The Athenian Tribute Lists, 4 vols. (Princeton, 1939—53) British Archaeological Reports Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists Berliner griechische Urkunden (Berlin, 1895—) xi

xii BIFAO CAH2 CGF

ABBREVIATIONS

Bulletin de l'Institut Française d'archéologie orientale Cambridge Ancient History, 2d ed. (Cambridge) G. Kaibel, ed., Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Berlin, 1899) Chron. d'Eg. Chronique d'Egypte Cic. Marcus Tullius Cicero Ac. Academica Fin. De finibus Phil. Philippicae Tusc. Tusculanae disputationes CIL Corpus inscriptionum latinarum (Berlin, 1863) CJ Classical Journal C. Ord. Ptol. M. T. Langer, ed., Corpus des ordonnances de Ptolémées (Brussels, 1964) Corp. script, hist. byz. Corpus scriptorum historiae byzantinae (Bonn, 1828—97) CP Classical Philology CQ Classical Quarterly CRAI Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres Curt. Quintus Curtius Rufus Historiae Alexandri Magni Macedonis Dan. The Book of Daniel Diog. Laert. Diogenes Laertius De clarorum philosophorum vitis libri decern Dion. Hai. Dionysius of Halicarnassus Antiquitates Romanae D-K H. Diels and W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 12th ed. (Dubin, 1 9 6 6 - 6 7 ) DS Diodorus Siculus The Library of History Epict. Diss. Epictetus Dissertationes (Discourses) FGrH F. Jacoby, ed., Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, 16 vols. (Berlin and Leiden, 1 9 2 3 - 5 8 ) FHG C. Müller, ed., Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, 4 vols. (Paris, 1 8 4 1 - 7 0 ) G&R Greece and Rome GGM C. Müller, ed., Geographici graeci minores, 2 vols. (Paris, 1861-82) GRBS Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies Hdt. Herodotus The Histories Hero Alex. Pneum. Hero Alexandrinus Pneumatica Helck, Lexikon Lexikon der Aegyptologie, ed. W. Helck et al., Wiesbaden, 1982 Helck, Verwaltung W. Helck, Zur Verwaltung des mittleren und neuen Reiches, Leiden, 1958 Helck, Wirtschaftgeschichte W. Helck, Wirtschaftgeschichte des alten Aegypten im 3. und 2. Jahrtausend vor Chr., Leiden, 1975

ABBREVIATIONS

xiii

HSCP

Harvard Studies in Classical Philology

HTR

Harvard Theological Review

IGi3

David Lewis, ed., Inscriptiones graecae, Voluminis I editio

Inschr. Ilion

Peter Frisch, ed., Die Inschriften von Ilion (Bonn, 1975)

tertia fasciculus I, (Berlin and New York, 1981) I. Philae

A . Bernand, ed., Les Inscriptions grecques de Philae, vol. 1, L'Epoque ptolemaique (Paris, 1969)

JARCE

Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt

JEA

Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

Jhrb. Heid. Akad.

Jahrbuch der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften

JHS

Journal of Hellenic Studies

JJP

Journal of Juristic Papyrology

JJS

Journal of Jewish Studies

Jos.

Flavius Josephus

Ant.

Antiquitates judaicae (Jewish Antiquities)

BJ

Bellum Judaicum (The Jewish War)

C. Ap.

Contra Apionem (Against Apion)

JRS

Journal of Roman Studies

Just.

Justin Epitome of Trogus Pompeius

L-S

A . A . L o n g and D. N . Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1987)

I Macc., I I Macc.

T h e First and Second Books of Maccabees

MAS

Münchener ägyptologische Studien

MDAIK

Mitteilungen des deutschen archäologischen Instituts,

Meiggs-Lewis, GHI

Abteilungen Kairo R. Meiggs and D. M. Lewis, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the End of the Fifth Century B.C. ( O x f o r d , 1969)

Milet

T . Wiegand, ed., Milet: Ergebnisse der Atisgrabungen und

Münch. Beitr.

Münchener Beiträge zur Papyrusforschung und antiken

Untersuchungen seit 1899 (Berlin, 1914) Rechtsgeschichte Mus. Helv.

Museum Helveticum

Nock, Essays

A . D. Nock, Essays on Religion and the Ancient World,

O. Bodl.

J. G. Tait et al., eds., Greek Ostraca in the Bodleian Library

2 vols., ed. Z. Stewart ( O x f o r d , 1972) at Oxford and Various Other Collections, 3 vols. (London, 1930, 1955, 1964) OGIS

W . Dittenberger, ed., Orientis graeci inscriptiones selectae, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1903-5)

P. Amh.

B. P. Grenfell and A . S. Hunt, eds., The Amherst Papyri, 2 vols. (London, 1900-01)

P. Cair. Zen.

C. C. Edgar, ed., Zenon Papyri: Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire, 5 vols. (Cairo, 1925-40)

XIV

P. Col. Zen.

P. Edg. P. Enteux. P. Fuad Univ. P. Hib. P. Lille P. Lond. Zen. P. Mich. Zen. P. Par.

P. Rain. P. Rev. Laws

P. Tebt. P. Yale

P. Zen. Pestm. Paus. Plat. Apol. Charm. Rep. Symp. Plin. NH Plut. Adv. Col. Alex. Demetr. Eum. Isis

ABBREVIATIONS

W. L. Westermann et al., eds., Zenon Papyri: Business Papers of the Third Century B.C. Dealing with Palestine and Egypt, 2 vols. (New York, 1934, 1940) C. C. Edgar, ed., "Selected Papers from the Archive of Zenon," Annales du service des antiquités 18—24 (1918—24) O. Guerand, ed., 'EvTeufels: Requêtes et plaintes addressées au Roi d'Egypte au Ille siècle avant J.-C. (Cairo, 1931) D. S. Crawford, ed., Fuad I University Papyri (Alexandria, 1949) B. P. Grenfell et al., eds., The Hibeh Papyri, 2 vols. (London, 1906, 1955) P. Jouguet, P. Collart, J. Lesquier, and M. Xoual, eds., Papyrus grecs (Paris, 1929) T. C. Skeat, ed., Greek Papyri in the British Museum, vol. 7, The Zenon Archive (London, 1974) C. C. Edgar, ed., Zenon Papyri (Ann Arbor, 1931) J. A. Latronne, B. de Presle, and E. Egger, eds., Notices et textes des papyrus grecs du Musée du Louvre et de la Bibliothèque impériale (Paris, 1865) J. Karabacek, ed., Mitteilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer, 6 vols. (Vienna, 1887—97) B. P. Grenfell, ed., Revenue Laws of Ptolemy Philadelphia, (Oxford, 1896); reedited by J. Bingen, Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Ägypten, Beiheft 1 (Göttingen, 1952) B. P. Grenfell et al., eds., The Tebtunis Papyri, 4 vols. (London, 1902-76) J. F. Oates and A. E. Samuel, eds., Yale Papyri in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (New Haven and Toronto, 1967) P. W. Pestman, ed., Greek and Demotic Texts from the Zenon Archive (P. L. Bat. 20) (Leiden, 1980) Pausanias Periegeta Plato Apology Charmides Republic Symposium C. Plinius Secundus Naturalis historia L. Mestrius Plutarchus of Chaeronea Adversus Colotem (Against Colotes) Life of Alexander Life of Demetrius Life of Eumenes De Iside et Osiride

ABBREVIATIONS Marc. Mor. Pyrrh. St. rep. P-M

PMG Page Polyb. Porphyr. PSI RCK RE

REA REJ RAL RIDA Riv. Filol. RN SAOC SB Schol. Theoer. SEG SEHHW SIG3 SSEA Journal Stob. SVF Syncell. Tac. Hist. TAP A Theocr. Id. Thuc.

xv

Life of Marcellus Moralia Life of Pyrrhus De Stoicorum repugnantiis (Stoic self-contradictions) B. Porter and B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings, vol. 5 (Oxford, 1937), vol. 6 (1939), vol. 7 (1952); 2d ed., vol. 2 (1972) D. L. Page, ed., Poetae melici graeci (Oxford, 1967) Polybius The Histories Porphyrius of Tyre Reges Macedonum Papiri greci e latini, Pubblicazioni della Società per la ricerca dei papiri greci e latini in Egitto (Florence, 1912) D. Dunham, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush, 5 vols. (Boston, 1950-63) A. F. von Pauly, G. Wissowa, W. Kroll, and K. Ziegler, eds., Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1893 - Munich, 1978) Revue des Etudes Anciennes Revue des Etudes Juives Rendiconti della reale Accademia dei Lincei Revue internationale des droits de l'antiquité Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica Revue Numismatique Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilizations (Chicago, 1931—) F. Preisigke et al., eds., Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten (Strasbourg, 1915-) C. T. E. Wendel, Scholia in Theocritum Vetera (Leipzig, 1914) Supplementum epigraphicum graecum (Leiden, 1923—) M. I. Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1941); 2d ed. (1952) W. Dittenberger, ed., Sylloge inscriptionum graecarum, 3rd ed., 4 vols. (Leipzig, 1915-24) Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities Ioannes Stobaeus (John of Stobi) H. von Arnim, ed., Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, 4 vols. (Leipzig, 1903-5, 1924) Syncellus the Chronographer Chronographia Cornelius Tacitus The Histories Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association Theocritus Idylls Thucydides History

xvi Tod, GHI 2 UPZ

Val. Max. Veil. Pat. W. Chr. WO Xen. Mem. Cyr. YCS ZPE

ABBREVIATIONS M. N. Tod, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions, vol. 2, From 403 to 323 B.C. (Oxford, 1948) U. Wilcken, Urkunden der Ptolemäerzeit, vol. 1, Papyri aus Unterägypten (Berlin and Leipzig, 1927); vol. 2, Papyri aus Oberägypten (Berlin, 1935—57) Valerius Maximus De factis dictisque memorabilibus C. Velleius Paterculus Historiae romanae L. Mitteis and U. Wilcken, Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde (Leipzig, 1912) Die Welt des Orients: Wissenschaftliche Beiträge zur Kunde des Morgenlandes (Wuppertal, 1947—) Xenophon Memorabilia Cyropaedia Yale Classical Studies Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik

Introduction: New Approaches to the Hellenistic World Peter Green

Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. M I L T O N , AREOPAGITICA

(1664)

Historians are . . . carried along by the general cultural movements of their own times, such as Romanticism, Positivism, or Marxism. They are as much affected as anyone else by the evolution of ways of thinking about the behavior of men in society. . . . Original ways of looking at the past direct the search towards new kinds of evidence. Eventually these seams become exhausted and the venerated leaders are challenged by iconoclasts who become in time the patrons of new orthodoxies. NORMAN HAMPSON,

THE AND

PERMANENT ITS

LEGACY,

REVOLUTION:

1789-1989

THE

FRENCH

REVOLUTION

(1988)

Why are we looking at the same things we looked at fifty years ago and coming up with completely different conclusions? A.

E . S A M U E L , SYMPOSIUM

ON HELLENISTIC

HISTORY

AND

CULTURE

(1988),

IN

DISCUSSION.

Despite all the benefits of sophisticated modern communication systems, scholarship remains an essentially lonely business. T h e world is large, one's area of specialization limited; kindred spirits tend to be widely scattered. Bibliographies, periodicals, and, ultimately, books ensure that our ideas are disseminated; the exchange of offprints is a crucial element in the sharing of knowledge. But the time lag between an inchoate idea in the head and the formulation of that idea into a rational theory is considerable, while the period from the written concept to its final publication can be—experto credite—even longer. Thus during much of one's research one lives in a private—and for a great deal of the time not unwelcome—limbo, working alone, trying out one's ideas on, at most, a few close professional friends, and often not even doing that, at least until a fairly advanced stage in one's thinking. T h e picture may differ somewhat for scientists; but in that cluster of ancillary specialties which 1

2

P E T E R GREEN

composes o u r own area of research in the classics, not least f o r the Hellenistic period, I think this sense of isolation, especially in the early stages of any project, is endemic. It also undoubtedly explains why academics who are neither j o b hunting themselves nor selling their own recent Ph.D.'s still flock enthusiastically, often t h r o u g h appalling winter weather, to meet old friends, exchange shoptalk, and even listen to papers, at APA/AIA meetings. T h e impulse to attend these grisly social reunions, year after year, needs to be an exceptionally strong one, perhaps because classics, as a discipline, does not provide so rich an assortment of those specialist literary conferences that proliferate u n d e r the aegis of institutions such as the MLA, and that have been memorably satirized by David Lodge in his novel Small World. When we decided to organize such a symposium at the University of Texas, Austin, o u r chief aim was, precisely, to facilitate the exchange of ideas on Hellenistic history and culture between a g r o u p of widely scattered experts based in the United States and in Britain. We also tried, for the sake of intellectual stimulus and profitable debate, to bring into confrontation scholars whose conflicting opinions might be expected to ensure not just good entertainment (though of course, as some participants were not slow to point out, this consideration had indeed occurred to us) but also, and more important, a t h o r o u g h scrutiny of all new theories, old dogmas, and overcomforting idées reçues. Professor David Halperin, rather flatteringly, has credited me with being a provocateur, a mischief m a k e r — r a t h e r , one gathers, in the spirit of Sherlock Holmes, of whom it was said, in A Study in Scarlet, that he was quite capable of trying out the latest poison on his friends, not out of malice, but in the disinterested pursuit of scientific knowledge. If so, I can hardly claim to be oversuccessful at stirring u p trouble, since what emerged f r o m this symposium was not, in the first instance, a series of irreconcilable differences but a whole range of illuminating and u n f o r e seen agreements. Debate, when it did occur, tended to be on topics already well aired in print, and, it could be argued, d e p e n d e n t more on personal t e m p e r a m e n t than on h a r d evidence—for example, the sociolegal status of the Macedonian monarchy: model of constitutionalism or ad hoc power-base for warlords? or the "biographical fallacy" in literary criticism; or that perennially baffling puzzle, Antiochus Epiphanes' motives for his root-and-branch attack on Jewish religion. No surprises there. It was, rather, the revealing insights, the fertilizing phrases, the unexpectedly converging or parallel lines of research f r o m d i f f e r e n t subdisciplines, the sense that in this great variegated Hellenistic mosaic a new pattern was emerging, of which we had all become part without knowing it (rather like Molière's M. J o u r d a i n talking prose unawares),

I N T R O D U C T I O N : NEW A P P R O A C H E S

3

that gave o u r m e e t i n g its special, indeed unique, sense of urgency a n d excitement. At the same time this p h e n o m e n o n does, o n reflection, give cause f o r a certain a m o u n t of historiographical concern: serendipitous concinnity is all very encouraging, b u t o n e begins to w o n d e r w h e t h e r o u r old f r i e n d the Zeitgeist may not have been exerting its u n s e e n prior influence o n most of us b e h i n d the scenes. Why are we looking at largely the same evidence a n d coming u p with d i f f e r e n t conclusions? Why, m o r e o r less i n d e p e n d e n t l y , are we stressing areas (such as the f r o n t i e r p r o b l e m ) in which o u r predecessors took comparatively scanty interest? W e have, of course, learned to look o u t f o r their explicable prejudices a n d ad homin e m m o t i v a t i o n s — b u t what about o u r own? We know, f o r example, that Rostovtzeff s position r e g a r d i n g the Russian Revolution almost certainly dictated his interpretation of the Greek economic system, emphasizing private p r o p e r t y a n d a laissez-faire market. Yet is is only b e g i n n i n g to occur to us that his centralized, dirigist, authoritarian m o d e l of Ptolemaic administration, so ably criticized by Professor A. E. Samuel in his presentation, in fact owes a great deal to Marxist, n o less t h a n to Keynesian, theory. Ideas currently in the air tend, like viruses, to be infectious as well as invisible. It may, equally, be n o accident that the c u r r e n t challenge to this (papyrologically based) thesis of a Ptolemaic p l a n n e d economy has surfaced at a time when the p a t e n t a n d acknowledged b a n k r u p t c y of t h e Marxist system is t r a n s f o r m i n g the history of Eastern E u r o p e . I n his stimulating m o n o g r a p h The Shifting Sands of History: Interpretations of Ptolemaic Egypt, Professor Samuel r e m i n d s us that "it is desirable to consider the effects of m o d e r n experience o n the t r e a t m e n t of that period," a n d h e notes various m a j o r t r e n d s a n d events d u r i n g the past century a n d a half that have contributed to s h a p i n g the ancient historian's preconceptions about his craft. 1 T h e liberalism e n g e n d e r e d by the American, French, a n d Greek revolutions too soon f o u n d itself competing with a new a n d flourishing colonial imperialism, as the t r i u m p h a n t nation-states s h o u l d e r e d the White Man's B u r d e n o r were seduced by the d r e a m of Manifest Destiny. Residual guilt over the nastier aspects of military conquest complicated the issue by forcing these new expansionists to advance b e h i n d the morally uplifting b a n n e r of cultural proselytization. T o d o this they unashamedly, a n d o f t e n in all likelihood u n c o n sciously, b o r r o w e d the language a n d imagery of Christian missionaries bringing light to t h e benighted h e a t h e n , aided in this (at least as r e g a r d s Alexander) by section 6 of Plutarch's early essay De Alexandri Magni Fortuna aut Virtute (Mor. 329A—D). T h o u g h A l e x a n d e r was by f a r the most 1

A. E. Samuel, The Shifting Sands of History: Interpretations of Ptolemaic Egypt, Publications of the Association of Ancient Historians, no. 2 (Lanham and London, 1989), ix.

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P E T E R GREEN

notable beneficiary of this exercise in historical sanitization, he by no means stood alone. What is o u r position today? Two world wars, plus such horrors as the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Gulag Archipelago, and the m u r d e r o u s depredations of various committed extremists—the K h m e r Rouge, the IRA, assorted Middle East bombers and hijackers—have left most Western historians with an ingrained distrust, not only of totalitarianism (whether of the Left or the Right) but of all ideological politics whatsoever; not only of the Fiihrerprinzip but of the validity, let alone the attainability, of principles as such. T h e chief casualty, ideologically speaking, has been hope: idealism—and, a fortiori, Idealismus—is today not even a dirty word, but a bad joke. We live in a world of pragmatic calculation, where the dominant concern is self-interest. For many of us ataraxia seems a logical goal, and lathe biosas a desirable motto. We are obsessed by economics, Great Power competition, and the ingenious devices of applied science. It is hard for us to think of soldiers as heroes. Egalitarianism and multiculturalism have r e n d e r e d elitist a pejorative t e r m — w h i l e at the same time competing uneasily with a more-than-Alexandrian academicism and such knee-jerk nationalist p h e n o m e n a as an obsession about flag burning. Feminism, similarly, is u n d e r m i n i n g traditional male assumptions in a society that also contrives to be more preoccupied with sex than any civilization since that of Julio-Claudian Rome. We sneer at experts and bureaucrats while remaining helplessly d e p e n d e n t on them. We complain about the loss of cultural values while energetically deconstructing all the criteria on which such values ultimately rest. O u r talent for paradox, in short, eclipses that of the Socratic tradition, on which Professor Long has thrown so much new light. As for religion, we manage a balancing act in this field too: largely skeptical, as academics, about the efficacy of Christianity, we nevertheless do not underrate, as historians, the continuing force in h u m a n affairs of passionate faith (after the Rushdie affair, who could?), and thus we are perhaps in a better position to u n d e r stand just what the "deification" of h u m a n leaders implied. At least we have got beyond the point of treating it solely as political flim-flam, or even as cynically provided opium for the masses. (In this connection I note with surprise, in retrospect, that during discussion E u h e m e r u s — t o dynastic cults what de Gobineau was to Aryanism—only got mentioned once, by Professor Burstein, while none of us thought of bringing u p the notorious ithyphallic hymn with which Athens greeted Demetrius Poliorcetes in 290.) O n the one hand, intellectual loss of religious faith; on the other, snake handling, Holy Rollering, and astrology, with Islamic fundamentalists burning books and issuing death sentences in the background. T h e paradox continues.

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The relevance of all this to Hellenistic historiography should be readily apparent. We are what we eat, and that includes the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Scholars know this, and remind us of it at intervals. The Swiss historian Eduard Filter was well aware, as early as 1911, that the changes in European society after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 profoundly affected the assumptions of all later Western historians, whatever their chosen field of study. 2 Croce's assumption that all history is contemporary history 3 should be viewed in the same light. But the reminders sometimes are forgotten in the excitement of pursuing new lines of thought; and thus the searching question posed by Professor Samuel (apropos the visual arts, but it has universal application), and placed at the head of thjs introduction as an epigraph, is one that merits careful and detailed consideration. During the symposium itself it was, understandably, sidelined in favor of new aperçus on specific aspects of Hellenistic society; but now, I think, the time has come to take stock of the revisionist findings that we shared and to evaluate them, in perspective, as the product of our own day and age. At the same time, of course, we have to bear in mind certain important caveats. While the Zeitgeist can never be ignored as an influence—least of all when we flatter ourselves we have made due allowance for it—neither is it all-dominant. To a degree that might surprise behaviorists (but not, of course, Dr. Johnson), the intellect and the will do remain free agents. What is more, as Professor Pollitt hinted in discussion, a fashion or trend, no less than new evidence, may start useful inquiry by pointing us in directions we might otherwise never have turned to; and in any case—I hope this is not whistling in the wind—commonsense precautions should save us from the worst excesses of academic behaviorism. Let us start with the big question: Why, during the past decade or two, has the Hellenistic Age come to enjoy such extraordinary vogue as an area of study? And why—even more interestingly—have its achievements been upgraded to a point where the old buzzword "decadence" is now dismissed as a regrettable solecism, on a par with patronizing anthropological references to "the savage mind"? The remarkable, and rapid, rehabilitation of Hellenistic philosophy, so strikingly demonstrated by Professor Long and other scholars, is the most obvious instance of this trend, but by no means the only one. Alexandrian literature is attracting more and more attention in its own right, and not merely as a precursor of, and model for, the writers (less neoteric than is often 2 E. Futer, Geschichte der neueren Historiographie (Munich and Berlin, 1911); cf. Peter Green, Essays in Antiquity (London, 1960), 52ff. 3 Best analyzed by R. G. Collingwood, The Idea of History (Oxford, 1946), 2 0 1 - 4 .

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claimed) o f late R e p u b l i c a n a n d A u g u s t a n R o m e . P r o f e s s o r B u l l o c h ' s description o f C a l l i m a c h u s as "the most o u t s t a n d i n g intellect o f this g e n eration, t h e greatest p o e t that the Hellenistic a g e p r o d u c e d . . . a g r e a t p o e t in his o w n r i g h t " 4 w o u l d h a v e raised a c a d e m i c e y e b r o w s not so l o n g a g o . A l e x a n d r i a n science, most notably in the fields o f m a t h e m a t i c s , a s t r o n o m y , a n d m e d i c i n e , is rapidly b e c o m i n g a g r o w t h i n d u s t r y , as t h e w o r k o f scholars such as W h i t e , S c a r b o r o u g h , L l o y d , V o n S t a d e n , a n d N e u g e b a u e r eloquently attests. Hellenistic a r t — I a m t h i n k i n g in particular o f P r o f e s s o r Pollitt's m a g n i f i c e n t new s u r v e y 5 — h a s u n d e r g o n e a similar u p w a r d revaluation. Most recently o f a l l — a n d p e r h a p s this is t h e most i m m e d i a t e l y notable f e a t u r e o f this s y m p o s i u m — a g r e a t deal o f interest has shifted f r o m the s u p p o s e d centers o f p o w e r to t h e p e r i p h e r y , c r e a t i n g the basis f o r a series o f " f r o n t i e r studies" that will (it seems safe to say) p r o f o u n d l y m o d i f y o u r assessment o f the political, e c o n o m i c , a n d cultural history o f the Hellenistic A g e . T o take the most d r a m a t i c e x a m ple raised: simply by treating the T i b e r as a f r o n t i e r , by r e e x a m i n i n g the relations b e t w e e n R o m e a n d the G r e e k East in such terms, scholars are, at a d e e p a n d radical level, t r a n s f o r m i n g o u r u n d e r l y i n g p r e c o n c e p t i o n s — l i t t l e c h a n g e d hitherto, in essence, since Droysen's d a y — o f Hellenismus. T h i s g e n e r a l l y bullish academic m a r k e t has b e e n b r o u g h t a b o u t (as P r o f e s s o r S a m u e l hinted d u r i n g discussion) by a variety o f disparate factors, n o t all the p r o d u c t o f the Zeitgeist. T h e g r e a t mass o f systematic g r o u n d w o r k c a r r i e d o u t early in this c e n t u r y by p i o n e e r i n g giants s u c h as Wilcken, Berve, Grenfell and Hunt, Rostovtzeff, and Dittenberger—all, significantly, in the first place papyrologists o r e p i g r a p h i s t s — d e p e n d e d u p o n a n i m m e n s e i n f l u x o f raw material to b e edited, p u b l i s h e d , a n d collected, a n d it was in c o n s e q u e n c e particularist to a d e g r e e . Its g r e a t virtue was to m a k e g e n e r a l l y available a l a r g e quantity o f m o r e o r less f r a g m e n t a r y texts, b o t h literary a n d nonliterary (with the occasional substantial b o n a n z a such as the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia a n d , m o r e recently, M e n a n d e r ' s Dyskolos). Its faults w e r e , first, a t e n d e n c y either to g e n e r a l i z e rashly f r o m the m e r e l y local a n d p a r o c h i a l , 6 o r else, p e r contra, a m o n g m o r e cautious scholars, not to see the w o o d f o r the p a p y r u s trees; a n d second, the u n t h i n k i n g retrojection o f m o d e r n a s s u m p t i o n s — o f t e n e c o n o m i c 7 — i n t o ancient sociocultural patterns w h e r e they w e r e inapplicable. 4

A. W. B u l l o c h , The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. 1, Greek Literature ( C a m -

bridge, 1985), 549, 570. 5

J. J . Pollitt, Art in the Hellenistic Age (Cambridge, 1986).

6

Cf. P e t e r G r e e n , Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age ( B e r k e -

ley and London, 1990), xx-xxi. 7

Cf. S a m u e l , Shifting Sands, 51 f f .

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T h e f o u n d a t i o n s , then, were being laid early, with a textual emphasis that, while avoiding the worst excesses of anachronistic bias, also failed to provide an overall view. General interest followed m u c h m o r e slowly. T h e t h r e e t u m u l t u o u s centuries between Alexander's d e a t h a n d Octavian's victory at Actium were ignored as f a r as possible a n d denigrated, in general terms, as a sad falling-off f r o m the classical apogee. Greek achievement was still to a r e m a r k a b l e extent identified with the Greek polis, so that Philip of Macedon's victory over a h a n d f u l of leading Greek states at C h a e r o n e a in 338 came to be seen as a watershed in G r e e k history, a f t e r which nothing, in a sense, m a t t e r e d : Hellenistic culture was bourgeois, decadent, a n d materialist; Periclean idealism was d e a d ; t h e idiotai a n d apragmones h a d t r i u m p h e d ; ataraxia was the goal. W h e n this society fell victim, finally, to the R o m a n military machine, with its crass a n d philistine efficiency, the feeling was that these d e g e n e r a t e Greeklings h a d got n o m o r e t h a n they deserved (as m o r e t h a n o n e m e m b e r of t h e symposium observed, the anti-Roman prejudice a m o n g m o d e r n Hellenists is notable). 8 Byzantium, a n d a fortiori, m o d e r n Greece, despite its amazing twentieth-century literary renaissance, f a r e d even worse: I vividly recall the c o m m e n t of o n e e m i n e n t scholar, who declared (apparently in all seriousness) that he could have n o t h i n g to d o with a society capable of m a k i n g airo govern the accusative case. It was this p o w e r f u l climate of opinion that also felt the n e e d to distort Alexander's p u r s u i t of k \ s o s into altruistic missionary work o n behalf of G r e e k ( m e a n i n g fifth-century Athenian) culture. T h e impact of World W a r II proved, ultimately, inimical, if n o t fatal, to this kind of thinking. W h a t p o p u l a r journalists labeled the C e n t u r y of the C o m m o n Man (against which Evelyn W a u g h f o u g h t so notable a r e a r g u a r d action in Brideshead Revisited) had n o time at all f o r upper-class elitists who were soft on Platonic homoeroticism a n d the kind of de haul en bas social p l a n n i n g (seen, now, as fascism o r worse) so p r o m i n e n t in the Republic a n d the Laws. Victims of real totalitarianism were equally unenthusiastic: Sir Karl P o p p e r p r o d u c e d a n o t h e r catchy label, that of the Closed Society. T h e attitude with r e g a r d to sex was ambivalent: Platonic (or Solonian) pederasty might carry objectionable elitist overtones, but t h e new permissive generation of classical scholars (bliss was it in that pre-AIDS dawn to be alive) lost n o time in abolishing all f o r m s of literary censorship ( A r i s t o p h a n e s — w h o m T h o m a s A r n o l d h a d declared that n o m a n could safely r e a d till h e was over forty—totally u n e x p u r g a t e d ; Martial n o longer in Italian; four-letter words r u n n i n g riot). This, in itself an excellent advance, r e i n f o r c e d that glaring misconception so p o p u l a r 8 Those familiar with the late Professor T. B. L. Webster will recall his elegant off-thecuff diatribes on this topic.

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PETER GREEN

among nonspecialists, the notion of Greek society as a kind of sexual free-for-all. But it also, more importantly for our present discussion, opened up a significant aspect of the Hellenistic Zeitgeist with which many people felt they could identify: the romantic, psychologically sophisticated attitude to erotic passion, best exemplified by Medea's violent obsession with Jason as delineated so skillfully by Apollonius Rhodius in book 3 of his Argonautica.9 Further, the very existence of canons of good taste—something intimately bound up, as its critics were not slow to point out, with the elitist attitude—was, inevitably, challenged; and with the rejection of such criteria (or, at least, of the current ones) the barriers that had held scholars back from an honest appraisal of Hellenistic art and literature were at one stroke removed. An interesting, and still only partially explored, consequence of this release was that Chaeronea came to be seen less and less as a violent dividing line between the old world and the new. Features identified with the Hellenistic world, and supposedly the result of direct political oppression or the destruction of democracy, were found flourishing long before Philip's victory, in the early fourth and even the late fifth century. Aristophanes' last play, the Plutus (388), has more in common with the bourgeois social comedy of Menander than with a politically engaged satire such as the Acharnians (425). No accident, I feel, that both Professor Robertson and Professor Pollitt found themselves stressing the continuity of Greek art through this difficult transitional period rather than the disruptions putatively occasioned by external events; or that Professor Long should have backtracked to Socrates as the role model for systematic Hellenistic thinkers experimenting in the exercise of philosophical power. The loosening and realignment of aesthetic standards has been a twoedged business. We all, I think, welcome the increased range of appreciation and flexibility of judgment that it brings with it; at the same time there is a price to pay, in the shape of alternative experimental systems, ranging from Marxism to deconstruction, designed to reintroduce a set of rules, a yardstick to decide what's good and what's bad (even, perhaps especially, for those who argue that "good" and "bad" have no real meaning). Post-Chomskyan grammar argues, in effect, that Humpty Dumpty was right, that words or idioms mean just what we want them to mean, that airó—to return to an earlier point—can take any case it pleases and that to hold out for the genitive is mere sentimental antiquarianism. By 9

It is instructive to compare the tone of modern commentators—e.g., Francis Vian, Budé ed., vol. 2 (Paris, 1980), 39ff., or R. L. Hunter, Argonautica, Book III (Cambridge, 1989), 27ff.—with that of an earlier scholar such as G. W. Mooney, Argonautica (London, 1912), 3 6 - 3 7 .

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the same token, any slang or patois, however debased, can now claim linguistic autonomy and can deflect all criticism by labeling it racist, elitist, or both. In this brave new world the charge of corruptio optimi pessima is a dangerous one to bring. T o watch o u r new academic Alexandrians walking such a tightrope is the most intriguing paradox of all. Still, advantages have accrued. T h e "base mechanic arts" of the Hellenistic world, long ignored (as Professor White so vividly demonstrates) by scholars with no less class-bound a sense of the banausic than their ancient counterparts, today form a flourishing field of advanced research: technology can no longer be dismissed, by ivory-tower humanists, as a business fit only for artisans. This kind of functional egalitarianism is ethnic as well as class based; hence, in recent years, the fashionable march toward multiculturalism, with its conscious downgrading of the Western, Greco-Roman tradition as such, and its assault on the ingrained concept of Hellenes versus barbarians (e.g., Isocratean panhellenism, and such subtly patronizing essays on the theme of the Noble Savage as the Pergamene sculptures of Gaulish warriors, dying with Homeric panache, but still safely defeated). This movement has produced, in addition to parti pris propaganda like Martin Bernal's Black Athena—ex Africa semper aliquid noui—the far more important, and stimulating, preoccupation with frontiers and frontier cultures offered here in the presentations by Professors Burstein and Holt. Now we have cleared o u r minds of the missionary cant about cultural proselytization, we can clearly see, first, that Ptolemaic or Seleucid outposts of empire were ghettos in an alien and resentful environment, 1 0 and second, that, in Professor Holt's words, "the aim of the Hellenistic states was less to annex these fringe areas than to exploit them with as little involvement and expense as possible" (p. 59). In other words, the removal of the need to justify imperial expansionism, by Alexander or his less romantic successors, has killed a myth and made it correspondingly easier to see what was actually going on; these Nubians and Bactrians now interest us in their own right, and not merely as the uncivilized targets for Greco-Macedonian conquistadors. T h e benefits of such a change in outlook are varied and o f t e n u n p r e dictable; once we stop taking Hellenic assumptions of superiority and justified aggression (e.g., in the matter of panhellenism) at face value, the evidence stares us in the face. It is not always welcome: S. K. Eddy's pioneering work The King Is Dead: Studies in the Near Eastern Resistance to Hellenism, 334—31 B.C. (1961) got a notably cool reception. At a more m u n d a n e level, Alexander scholars have begun to accept the idea (some more reluctantly than others) that their hero simply took over the gov10

Cf. Green, Alexander to Actium, ch. 19, 312ff.

P E T E R GREEN

10

emmental bureaucracy o f any country he conquered, putting in an o f f i cer o f his own at the top to skim o f f the profits, a habit continued by the Diadochoi. As Professor Delia persuasively demonstrates, this is true even o f Egypt. 1 1 T h e pharaonic system (and indeed perhaps even some Persian satrapal survivals, an earlier overlay) continued throughout the Ptolemaic period, aided by a middle-level corps of Greek-speaking Egyptian interpreters, and giving point to the seldom quoted comment o f Augustus, who may be presumed to have understood these matters, that he was amazed at Alexander's lack of interest in organizing the territories he had conquered. 1 2 N o accident either, perhaps, that in a decade o f strangling bureaucracy, governmental corruption, weak leadership, and financial waste, Professor Samuel should be questioning the effectiveness, even the very existence, o f a Ptolemaic dirigist economy centrally controlled by the king. T h e alternative scenario he presents, that o f an independent civil service going its own way while producing just enough in the way o f flattery and fiscal returns to keep the government happy, puts me irresistibly in m i n d — s i parua licet componere magn i s — o f the central thesis embodied in that politically acute British sitcom "Yes, Minister." T h e striking resemblance suggests to me that Professor Samuel may well have tapped a perennial vein in human nature, o f the kind that appealed to Thucydides. This brings me to what must be the most powerful factor, emotionally speaking, that has contributed to the contemporary renaissance in Hellenistic studies. This is something many o f us have experienced; f r o m a personal viewpoint I can d o no better than repeat here what I wrote in the introduction to my own survey o f the period: 1 3 A s my work proceeded, it acquired an unexpected and in ways alarming dimension. I could not help being struck, again and again, by an overp o w e r i n g sense o f déjà vu, far m o r e than f o r any other period o f ancient history known to me: the "distant m i r r o r " that Barbara T u c h m a n held up f r o m the fourteenth century A.D. f o r our o w n troubled age is r e m o t e and pale c o m p a r e d to the ornate, indeed rococo, glass in which Alexandria, Antioch, and P e r g a m o n reflect contemporary fads, failings, and aspirations, f r o m the urban malaise to religious fundamentalism, f r o m Veblenism to haute cuisine, f r o m f u n d e d scholarship and mandarin literature to a flourishing d r o p o u t counter-culture, f r o m political impotence in the indi-

11 Professor Burstein, too, has been working along very similar lines in a paper entitled "Alexander in Egypt: Continuity or Change?" in Achaemenid History: Proceedings of the Achaemenid History Workshop, vol. 8, edited by Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg and Amélie Kuhrt (Leiden: forthcoming), an early draft of which he kindly communicated to me. 12 Cited by Plutarch, Mor. 207D 8: kQavfj.al^ev eî f i i j fislÇov 'A\é£ai'ôpoç épyov riyelro

TOV KTT)v, florens aetate, marries the n y m p h Na'is, and in the second Menalkas addresses Airva, fiarep efid. . . (15). T h e poet gives Menalkas a seashell f r o m the rocks of Ikaria, near Kos, a conch that fed five people. Finally, Idyll 27 is not by Theokritos, and what light it casts is confusing. Daphnis, son of Lycidas, seduces a girl called Akrotime, d a u g h t e r of Menalkas. He is a cowherd and she is (what I wish I knew more about) a shepherdess: X17 fxev aveypofievi] irakiv ecrnxe fiaka vofieveiv dfifiacriv aiSo/jLEVOLS, Kpahir] 8e oi evSov iavdr\. She rose and went again to herd the sheep, Shamed in her eyes, but her heart within was glad.

(69-70)

T h e reapers in Idyll 10 are a gruff, perhaps elderly workman called Milon, given to coarse rustic proverbs, and a lovestruck young man, Bouka'ios, whose name suggests a cowman and his song: in the Iliad Hector uses it as an insult to Ajax, as Antinoos does to Iros in the Odyssey.Homer says (3ovyaior> t>C4

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