Between Hellenicity and Polis Identity

Since the 8th century BC large parts of the Greek Mediterranean area have been split up into city states (poleis) and corresponding territories. Among the city citizens a collective identity was established, grounding on the peoples` membership to individual city states. This form of identity was expressed by using the name of the polis for the people: the people of Athens, the people of Korinth, etc. The citizens held strong ties to their home cities, but also acknowledged things they had in common and experienced themselves as being "Greek". Both phenomena have been widely acknowledged among historians and in scientific research. The people of Greece living in the first millennium BC belonged to four principle ethnic groups (apart from several smaller ones), called Dorer, Ionier, Äoler and Archaier. Those principle ethnic groups had been established according to a realistic or imagined common heritage and could be traced in historic times already. Research conducted has hardly been focused on this form of collective identity among Greek people, although it can be found in literary documents of the archaic and the classical period. Purpose of the project is to provide a commented collection of source materials in original language and translation, tracing the question whether ethnic belonging influenced the alliance policy of individual city states respectively provided a reason for hostilities. This collection of source materials is to provide a basis for research on the matter of how ethnic identity was used in political propaganda and rhetorics. A sense of belonging respectively actual city state membership might also have been a reason for defamation and could have led to the formation of stereotypes and invectives. The period of investigation comprises the Greek Mediterranean area of the archaic period and the classical period, from the 8th century BC to the year 338 BC. A well documented collection of source materials, as complete as possible, focusing on Greek ethnic identity and its resulting political and societal consequences could therefore provide a broad basis for scientific research of various disciplines.

The projects (`Zwischen Hellenenbewusstsein und Polisidentität`) prime target was to collect and to comment all the ancient sources showing that in Greek antiquity (up to 338 BC) - apart from being citizen of a particular state - a consciousness of belonging to a specific ethnic group existed, which sometimes could also play a major role in history. This goal has been achieved by creating a database where all the relevant sources together with a short comment and a subject catalogue are available. This database will be put online in a few weeks. The author is convinced that this collection will be the basis for all future research concerning ethnic entities in ancient Greece. In a first step the subject of ethnic and regional stereotypes in ancient Greece was investigated by using this database; results shall be published as a monograph during this year. Here is one of the most important results of this investigation: Ethnic as well as regional entities in ancient Greece often got a kind of stigma derived from special features of their clothing, their food, their way of fighting and peculiar customs (especially concerning sexuality). From this very often a kind of `national character` of many ethnic groups was constructed which served as a (mostly negative) hallmark. So for instance the picture of the `effeminate Ionians`, the `primitive Arcadians`, the `uneducated and rustic Boeotians`, the `backward Aetolians` or the `decadent Thessalians` was created. It is remarkable that some of these from the outside created stereotypes were adopted even by the concerned entities: The Ionian Athenians for instance have accepted that according to a kind of effeminacy they were physically inferior to the tough (Dorian) Spartans. From a diachronic point of view it can be seen that such negative - but not hostile - prejudices easily could be converted into hostile propaganda if the political situation favoured it. In Athens for instance the prejudice of the uneducated Boeotians which usually took the form of jokes turned into aggressive propaganda, when war broke out between Athens and the (Boeotian) Thebes. This propaganda also served to strengthen a feeling of superiority among the Athenian population and to justify Athenian aggression. While this first monograph is devoted to the outside view of ethnic and regional entities a further one will deal with the subject `how entities defined their ethnic identity and which political impacts such an identity had`.