Temesa (ancient city)
Temesa (
History
According to
Croton probably did not lose control of Temesa for long, because Temesan coins from the middle of the fifth century BC still carry Croton's tripod symbol. Based on the coins La Torre concludes that Locri's invasion did not result in the conquest of Temesa, but De Sensi Sestito disagrees with this conclusion. She thinks an unsuccessful invasion would not have explained the failure to rebuild the excavated temple or the larger decline of Temesa and its eclipse by Terina. The coins do not cover the precise period of 480 to 460 BC, and some coins from this period have Temesa's legend erased and replaced with a legend of Croton. This suggests that Croton continued to recognize and validate Temesa's coinage, but that it did not exercise control over the city itself. Nicholson thus concludes that Locri controlled Temesa possibly from around 480 to the late 460s BC.[3]
In 194 BC the city became a
The Hero of Temesa
Pausanias also relates a ghost story which took place in Temesa.[8] It was said that Odysseus was carried down to the shores of Italy and Sicily by storms after the sack of Troy. Temesa was one of the cities he visited. Here one of his sailors got drunk and raped a local woman, for which he was stoned to death by the inhabitants. Odysseus was indifferent to this and sailed away.
The stoned man returned as a
Just when a maiden was sent to the temple to be sacrificed Euthymus of Locri, a boxer and Olympic victor, arrived at Temesa. He fell in love with the maiden, who swore to marry him if he saved her. Euthymus lay in wait for the Hero in the temple and won the fight. The Hero was driven out and sank in the depths of the sea, Euthymus got married and Temesa was freed from the ghost forever.
Strabo gives a shorter version of the same story. In his version, the Hero is Polites, one of the crewmembers of Odysseus. Furthermore, no drunkenness and rape is involved: instead he was "treacherously slain by the barbarians" and collected taxes rather than maidens.[4]
Nicholson argues that the story was invented during the time Locri controlled Temesa. Possibly the expulsion of the hero by the Locrian Euthymus served to express the conquest of the city by Locri.[9]
References
- ^ Strabo 1924, 6.1.5; Pliny the Elder 1855.
- ^ Cerchiai, Jannelli & Longo 2004, p. 114.
- ^ a b Nicholson 2013, p. 14.
- ^ a b c d Strabo 1924, 6.1.5.
- ^ Cerchiai, Jannelli & Longo 2004, pp. 106, 114.
- ^ Wonder 2012, pp. 139–140.
- ^ Livy 1935, 34.45.
- ^ a b Pausanias 1918, 6.6.10.
- ^ Nicholson 2013, p. 14–15.
Sources
Primary sources
- ISBN 978-0-674-99300-6.
- ISBN 978-0-674-99326-6.
- Pliny the Elder (1855). Bostock, John; Riley, H. T. (eds.). Natural History. London: Taylor and Francis.
- ISBN 978-0-674-99201-6.
Secondary sources
- Cerchiai, Luca; Jannelli, Lorena; Longo, Fausto, eds. (2004). The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily. Translated from Italian by the J. Paul Getty Trust. Los Angeles, California: Getty Publications. ISBN 978-0-89236-751-1.
- Nicholson, Nigel (2013). "Cultural Studies, Oral Tradition, and the Promise of Intertextuality". American Journal of Philology. 134 (1): 9–21. .
- Wonder, John W. (2012). "The Italiote League: South Italian Alliances of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC". Classical Antiquity. 31 (1): 128–151. .
Further reading
- Torre, Gioacchino Francesco la (2002). Un tempio arcaico nel territorio dell'antica Temesa: L'edificio sacro in località di Campora san Giovanni (in Italian). Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider Editore. ISBN 978-88-7689-206-6.
- ———, ed. (2009). Dall’ Oliva al Savuto. Studi e ricerche sul territorio dell’ antica Temesa. Conference proceedings, Campora San Giovanni (Amantea, CS), 15–16 September 2007 (in Italian). Pisa: Fabrizio Serra Editore. ISBN 978-88-6227-117-2.