MR4

• Why were foundation stories so important to the Ancient Greeks and Romans?
• Ancient Greek and Roman belief about how Athens and Rome were founded by their associated heroes, including how and why the myths are depicted as they are; what these myths meant to the city; the role of the hero; the role of the Gods.
• Topics covered


  • Greece: The naming of Athens, The adventures of Theseus
  • Rome: The founding of the Roman Race, The founding of Rome
  • Greece and Rome: A comparison of Theseus and Romulus
• Prescribed sources


  • Livy, The Early History of Rome
  • Plutarch, Parallel Lives: comparison of Theseus and Romulus
  • Kylix showing the labours of Theseus
• Many cities in the Classical world thought to link their beginnings to the gods and heroes. Athens and Rome were no different.
• Stories of how cities were founded were passed down by oral tradition and were not written down until the cities were well established.
• One single version of a city's foundation did not exist.
• Ancient writers saw no issue in presenting their opinion alongside that of others when writing their own accounts.
• We cannot be sure if the Greeks and Romans actually believed these events happened.
• A city's founding myth could give its population a sense of unity and patriotism.
• Cecrops


  Legendary king of Athens
• Poseidon


  Offered a salt water spring as a gift to become patron god of Athens
• Athena


  Offered an olive tree as a gift to become patron god of Athens
• Athena was made the winner and the patron saint of Athens
• Theseus


  United Attica under the political leadership of Athens and was a great reformer, although not the founder of Athens
• Theseus' heroic adventures


  1. Birth

  2. Sinis

  3. Crommyonian sow

  4. Sciron

  5. Cercyon

  6. Procrustes

  7. Theseus in Athens

  8. Theseus and the Minotaur
• Theseus destroyed all the small town halls and council chambers and instead built a central town hall and council chamber in Athens to symbolise the new alliance
• Theseus founded the Panathenaic Games to unite all religions and cultures in Athens
• After his death, the Athenians honoured Theseus as a demigod
• Theseus was credited with uniting the city with the neighbouring towns, introducing democracy, and laying the marker that others followed or tried to suppress
• Livy


  Roman historian who wrote The Early History of Rome
• Livy lived through one of the most significant periods of Roman history, from the time of the Civil War between Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus to the beginning of the Roman Empire under Augustus
• Livy's The Early History of Rome tells the history of Rome from Aeneas to Romulus
• He saw Caesar's adopted son, Octavian, and Mark Anthony defeat Caesar's murderers, Cassius and Brutus at Philippi in Greece
• He lived through the Battle of Actium in 31BC after Anthony and Octavian's relationship soured when Anthony met Cleopatra in Egypt
• Octavian ushered in a golden age of building, literature and politics and, ultimately, the beginning of Empire after Octavian was given the name Augustus by the Senate in 27BC
• Livy


  Source of Roman History
• Livy


  • Tells the history of Rome from Aeneas to Romulus
• I do not know whether I would achieve anything worthy of the effort involved, if I were to write down the history of the Roman people from the foundation of the city
• Nor would I dare to say it if I did know, since naturally I think that the theme is not only old, but also clichéd
• As long as the constant succession of new writers believe either that the information they present is more accurate, or that their writing will improve upon the less sophisticated efforts of the ancient authors
• But, however this will turn out, it will be a pleasure to have done everything in my power to commemorate the deeds of the greatest and most powerful people on earth
• And, if my own reputation is to become obscure in such a great crowd of writers, then I would be cheered by the greatness and renown of those who take the limelight from my name
• Besides, my subject is one which involves huge exertion: it must look back over more than seven hundred years, and has advanced from small beginnings to the present day, where it considers itself burdened by its own greatness
• I also have no doubt at all that for the majority of readers, the earliest origins and the period which follows them will offer little enjoyment
• They will hasten to the present, in which the might of a long-distinguished people is consuming itself
• I, on the contrary, will seek an additional reward for my efforts in this task, so I might look away from the troubles which our age has witnessed for so many years
• I will achieve this so long as I devote my entire mind to these ancient records and am not distracted, nor privy to any of the cares which, even if they could not divert a writer's soul from the truth, might still cause it anxiety
• It is not my intention either to confirm or deny the traditions which came before the city was founded, or whilst it was in the process of being built; they are more suited to decorating the stories of the poet than the uncorrupted records of the historian
• This indulgence is granted to the ancients; by mixing human actions with divine ones, they might make the origins of cities more sacred