고대 아테네의 혈족 집단 신화와 외교술 = Kinship Diplomacy and Myths in Ancient Athens

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper is to trace Athenian’s kinship diplomacy based on tribal myths. According to Herodotus, Athenians were once called Pelasgians, Cranaans, Cecropidae, Athenians, and Ionians after Ion. Then, after the cities of Ionia had been conquered by Persia in the middle of the 6th century BC, Athenians seemed to abandon the association with the Ionians and to turn to the soil of Attica itself, that is, to the idea of autochthony. Here, autochthony meant ‘hegemony’ over other countries. However, the urgent need of close tie with Ionians during the Peloponnesian war, compelled Athenians to restore former relationships with them. In my opinion, this is the background of the birth of the Ion of Euripides. In Euripides’ Ion, Ion is described as the son between Apollo and Athenian princess Kreusa. Euripides’ Ion is the earliest reference to the tradition which make Apollo the father. Euripides created new myths on Ion for specific political purposes: the genealogizing Apollo as their ancestor god would help to establish friendship with Ionians since the worship of Apollo was fairly common in Ionian cities. The other important mythical innovation of Euripides is that the Dorian race is also Athenian born through Kreusa. In this way, Euripides appealed to the Ionians for their close kinship, and urged even Spartans to cease the Peloponnesian war since the Ionians and the Dorians had common ancestor. In short, The Ion was essentially political propaganda creating new tribal myths, and being Ionian was an Athenians’ decision for a kinship diplomacy during the Peloponnesian War.