Regional Identities in the Greek World: Myth and Koinon in Ionia

This workshop refers to an article that sheds new light on the dynamic nature of Greek regional identities. It does this with reference to the Ionians of Asia Minor, investigating both the presentation of Ionian collectivity through foundation myths, and the practice of Ionian communality through the Ionian League. It then considers the relationship between the two from the sixth century BCE to the fourth century CE. The Ionian example demonstrates that Greek regional groupings were changeable rather than stable, and that both their importance and social meaning were historically contingent.

Naoíse Mac Sweeney is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Vienna, and the author of books including Foundation Myths in Ancient Ionia (CUP, 2013) and Troy: Myth, City, Icon (Bloomsbury, 2018). Her research focuses on interaction and identity in the Iron Age to classical Greek world, and she is currently the Principal Investigator of the ERC project Migration and the Making of the Ancient Greek World.