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Foundation Myths in Ancient Societies: Dialogues and Discourses. Edited by Naoise Mac Sweeney. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. Pp. viii + 241, abbreviations, introduction, epilogue, contributors, index, acknowledgments. $69.95 hardbound.)
The present work consists of seven chapters, plus introduction and epilogue, on stories of the foundation (or other origin) of particular ancient cities and states. The nine contributors are for the most part classicists, ancient historians, and archaeologists.
In her introduction, Naoise Mac Sweeney observes that stories of origins tend toward plurality. For example, according to one tradition the ancient Athenians were autochthonous, emerging from the very soil upon which they came to dwell, while according to a different tradition they were descendants of Hellen ("Greek") through his grandson Ion and so belonged genealogically to the Ionian branch of the Greek peoples. Such plurality was so common in antiquity that alternative versions must have seemed less problematic to the ancients than they might to us. The present book, the editor declares, proposes a new approach to this phenomenon in that it accepts this plurality and explores its components as being in discourse with one another.
Whereas many myths are discussed in terms of ritual and cult, foundation myths (the editor goes on to say) are frequently considered a form...