1. Вестник древней истории 3 (84)
2. Hypothebai of the Iliad as an Evidence of the Beginning of the Formation of the Theban Polis

Hypothebai of the Iliad as an Evidence of the Beginning of the Formation of the Theban Polis

Mozhajsky Andrej Yu.

The article discusses the mention in the Iliad (Hom. Il. II. 505) of the ‘well-built’ city of Hypothebai (Ὑποθῆβαι), the identification of which continues to be a subject of discussion among the researchers: historians, philologists, archaeologists, paleotopographers – classicists of all kinds. The understanding of the beginning of the formation of Theban polis, the time of the creation of an organized settlement in Thebes in the eighth century BC depends on the interpretation of this literary evidence. Based on a complex approach, using both literary evidence and linguistic analysis of the text, as well as the latest archaeological and the paleotopographic data regarding Thebes, from the twelfth to the eighth century BC, the article presents an interpretation according to which the Iliad’s Hypothebai is a unique hapax introduced into the poem and reflecting the creation of a new, in relation to the Mycenaean Kadmeia (Thebes), organized settlement. These new Thebes included both the acropolis of Thebes (the Kadmeia), and the new sectors of Greater Thebes beneath the Kadmeia, which was typical for the time of the creation of early Greek poleis in the eighth century BC. It is also not impossible that, in addition to this, the insertion to the text of the Iliad of Hypothebai emphasizes that the population of Potniai, situated around two kilometers from Kadmeia, also belonged to the territory controlled by the early Theban polis.

Keywords: Hypothebai, Thebes, Kadmeia, Potniai, Iliad, Eustathius, epigonoi, Trojan War, polis, sanctuary of Apollo Ismenios, sanctuary of Herakles

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