Greek Oracles and Divination

Dr Angela Voss - What is the Daimon? An Exploration of the Oracular Intelligence. Divine Molecule Talks at Tyringham – Part II Exploring Entheogenic Entity Encounters, a private symposium, Tyringham Hall, September 2015 (curator and compère).

Please do not use the preview of the excel files; download and use them on your computer.
animal ankle bones ("astragaloi") have 4 sides, each taken with a numerical value of 1/3/4/6 by the ancient Greeks, represented here by the symbols |∆✧⇕ respectively.
By using one of the 2 excel files here, you can get your own oracle (even without using the ancient analogic method which was throwing at once 5 ankle bones of animals), and then read your oracle in http://users.sch.gr/ioakenanid/astragalomancy.htm
Here for the first time these oracle texts are presented with all metrical and philologicical restorations, and word for word translation into modern Greek, often with notes useful to understand the texts.

""En Filipo II y el Arte de la Guerra tendremos la oportunidad de conocer en profundidad a uno de los más grandes reyes de la antigua Macedonia. Gracias a su habilidad como estratega, diplomático, político y soldado, heredó un reino pobre, débil y acosado por innumerables enemigos y lo transformó en el más poderoso de toda Grecia.

A lo largo de sus páginas podremos conocer la historia del reino Macedonio, desde sus orígenes míticos hasta la formación de un imperio, de la mano del que, a la postre, se convertiría en el padre del mítico Alejandro Magno y en el forjador de un nuevo ejército que cambiaria el devenir de la guerra en la Antigüedad. Filipo II fue el creador de la falange macedonia, formación que se demostraría como inigualable en el campo de batalla y que reportaría incontables victorias sobre poderosos enemigos, como los ilirios, los tesalios, los tracios, los beocios o los atenienses. Pero no sólo eso, logró integrar en el campo de batalla a la infantería y a la caballería para emplearlos en nuevas formaciones tácticas: armó a sus soldados con las míticas sarissas y apreció como pocos las posibilidades militares que la maquinaria de guerra podía proporcionarle, siendo el mecenas de numerosos avances en este campo. Soñó con conquistar el Imperio persa, cuando ya había logrado lo que nadie antes fue capaz: el control de Grecia.

Sólo la muerte le arrebató esa hazaña, pero sentó las bases de lo que más tarde conseguiría su propio hijo. Su figura levantó tanto odios como pasiones; se le conocía como mujeriego y bebedor, pero también por su habilidad para la oratoria, por sus astucia, determinación y valor. Siempre luchó en primera línea junto a sus soldados y nunca permitió que éstos le llamaran rey, sino solo "General".

Despite much argument we still do not know where the Greek hexameter came from.  But so
many ancient Greeks did, or thought they did.  Pausanias the periegete  can lead us on the trail  to an answer, and introduces  us to some not-to-be-forgotten poets along the way.

In Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War there are fourteen references to oracular responses published not only by the oracles but also by several diviners during the war period. Although certain people under the influence of the Sophist movement cast doubt upon the possibility of having any kind of real knowledge about deity, which was the source of all oracles, the public opinion of that time took the traditional religion and the published oracles into account. The result of this situation was the involvement of the religious authorities –especially of Delphi and other oracles- in the politics of the city-states.

The sole extant primary source on the Persian invasion of Greece, Herodotus, cites over 50 oracles from the Delphic seer in his work, which at one time comprised more than a quarter of all extant oracles from Delphi.  This article seeks to present Herodotus as an inadvertent apologist for the Delphic Oracle in the years after the Persian invasion of 480 BC, due to the necessities of Herodotus’ work in the creation of a new genre of analytical and narrative writing.  Herodotus’ work also gives us insight into the role that Delphi played in ancient Greece, and how it presented itself to the Greek world as a whole.

Il racconto onirico è fondato sull’accostamento di due domini distinti e relativamente indipendenti – sonno e veglia – connessi da relazioni di natura diversa e separati da confini più o meno permeabili. All’interno di una più generale tendenza alla ricerca di una conferma del carattere significativo del sogno, il racconto onirico elabora diversi strumenti per garantire oggettività e ‘credibilità’ all’esperienza onirica (confronto con un punto di vista esterno al sognatore, importazione di un oggetto mediatore dal mondo del sogno etc.). Di questo meccanismo più generale il sogno doppio – visione dello stesso sogno da parte di due sognatori distinti o incontro di due sognatori all’interno di un comune spazio onirico – costituisce una variante significativa. Prendendo in esame testi diversi, da Omero alle raccolte incubatorie cristiane, il saggio analizza – all’interno del modello narratologico della Possible-Worlds Theory  – le numerose variazioni consentite da un modello di realtà strutturata a più livelli propria del sogno doppio.

A very popular form of ancient divination relies on reading the signs delivered by the human body, such as quivering or skin irregularities. A treatise attributed to Melampous lists predictions and psychological interpretations drawn from the observation of cutaneous defects. Physiognomic omens are well evidenced in ancient Babylonia, as well as in later Arabic and Jewish traditions. This practice did exert a marked influence in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. It appealed to all, the elite as well as the plebe, to men and women. Several texts allude to professionals, men and women, who read the future from facial features. Allusions to elaioscopy may be found in iconography, and the treatise of pseudo-Melampous could offer a key for interpreting the presence of moles on portraits, mostly of the Roman Republican period.

It is known from ancient sources that “laurel”, identified with sweet bay, was used at the ancient Greek oracle of Delphi. The Pythia, the priestess who spoke the prophecies, purportedly used “laurel” as a means to inspire her divine frenzy. However, the clinical symptoms of the Pythia, as described in ancient sources, cannot be attributed to the use of sweet bay, which is harmless. A review of contemporary toxicological literature indicates that it is oleander (bitter bay) that causes symptoms similar to those of the Pythia, while a closer examination of ancient literary texts indicates that oleander was often included under the generic term “laurel”. It is therefore likely that the “laurel” of Delphi actually concerned oleander, and that it was oleander, not sweet bay, that the Pythia used before the oracular procedure. This explanation could also shed light on other ancient accounts regarding the alleged “spirit” and the “chasm” of Delphi, accounts that have been the subject of intense debate and interdisciplinary research for the last one hundred years.

In S. Hodkinson & D. Geary (eds), Slaves and Religions in Graeco-Roman Antiquity and the Modern Americas. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, 2011, pp. 244-27.

This paper attempts to track down the figure of the slave-as-consultant at ancient Greek oracular sanctuaries during the classical period. Although there is evidence from later periods for slaves consulting oracles, the ancient literature of the fifth and fourth centuries offers only sparse evidence for the presence of slaves as consultants at oracles, and, until recently, epigraphic evidence has revealed even less.

However, a series of question tablets from the oracle site at Dodona, in Epirus, northwest Greece, may significantly change this situation, transforming our understanding of the relationship between ancient Greek oracles and some experiences of slavery. These tablets date to the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, and appear to include questions related to particular issues of slavery. Not only is it likely that some were composed by slaveowners, but also, and more remarkably, it is possible that some were written by slaves themselves.This material indicates that we need to think again about the meaning and exercise of resistance among slaves, and reconsider some of our assumptions about ancient Greek attitudes to slavery. More specifically, it suggests that the oracles of Delphi and Dodona had distinctive approaches to the presence and consultation of slaves. This paper proposes that evidence for these different approaches can be traced in literary sources, and may have become part of the discourse differentiating oracular sanctuaries in the late Archaic period.

La Lycie, territoire situé au sud-ouest de l’Anatolie, avait, durant l’Antiquité, la particularité de receler de nombreux oracles. Ceux-ci fonctionnaient selon divers vecteurs divinatoires, c’est-à-dire que la parole divine — en l’occurrence celle d’Apollon, dieu grec de la divination — était transmise à travers différents médiums : parfois il s’agissait de poissons (ichthyomancie), d’autres fois d’osselets (astragalomancie) ou de tables alphabétiques, à une occasion d’eau (hydromancie) et de songes (oniromancie). Or, malgré ce foisonnement oraculaire, nul n’a à ce jour tenté de dresser un portrait complet des sanctuaires divinatoires de la région ; un projet que nous nous proposons à présent d’entreprendre.

Étant donné la documentation limitée sur le sujet, l’ensemble des sources disponibles, qu’elles soient archéologiques, épigraphiques, littéraires ou numismatiques, ont leur place dans cette étude. À la lumière de celles-ci, nous avons cherché à établir pour chaque site, lorsque cela était possible, l’époque à laquelle les activités oraculaires avaient commencé et s’étaient terminées, quelle était la procédure suivie, la nature des installations, la structure du clergé en place, le niveau d’achalandage, la clientèle visée, la renommée, etc.

Nous avons ainsi réussi à fixer le nombre d’oracles dans la région, tâche qui n’avait point encore été exécutée avec précision, à onze : Patara, Tlos, Kyaneai, Soura, Limyra, Tyriaion, Kitanaura, Olympos I et II, Oinoanda et Kibyra. Sur le premier des sites, l’oniromancie était pratiquée, au second le mode divinatoire est incertain, au troisième il s’agit d’hydromancie, les deux suivants d’ichthyomancie, les six derniers comptaient deux sites astragalomantiques et quatre sites alphabétiques. La Lycie était donc, surtout à l’époque romaine, un véritable réceptacle pour une panoplie de traditions divinatoires différentes, qui ont peut-être pu se côtoyer toutes en même temps au IIe siècle p. C. Certaines d’entre elles, l’oniromancie et l’ichthyomancie, revêtent, par ailleurs, un caractère étrange aux yeux des Grecs et leur origine serait plutôt à mettre en lien avec des pratiques oraculaires hittito-louvites datant du second millénaire a. C. Nous sommes d’avis que ces dernières, malgré le gouffre chronologique qui sépare les témoignages anatoliens des sources gréco-romaines, ont pu perdurer, sous une forme quelque peu altérée, au cours des siècles en Lycie et notamment donner naissance à un type d’oracles inconnu du monde hellénique : les sanctuaires ichthyomantiques.

This article is about the presence of Alexander the Great in Babylon in 331 and 323 BC. Five Babylonian texts are edited and discussed (among which fragments of astronomical diaries and the "Dynastic Prophecy", a precursor of prophecies as in Daniel 11). The impact of Babylonian wisdom (astronomy, astrology and divination) on Alexander's decisions is explored.

This paper - first published in German, in Herdfeuer (2020) 56 - presents, as an important finding for the history of Germanic religion, in the Christian Middle Ages, an analysis of the praise poem, Carmen de Imagine Tetrici, by the Carolingian theologian, Walahfrid Strabo (8009 - 849), chaplain at the royal court, at the time. By close analysis, mindful of the rules of contemporary aesthetics, and of theologically based reception of the religious-cultural heritage of Antiquiy, including the pagan Germanic, it van be shown, that Walahfrid invokes 'Lady Holda' ad patron deity of divination or seerdom. The persistance of this understanding of Lady Holda - the Mother Holle of Grimm's folk tale collection - and its vitality in cultural awareness, is shown by analysis of a sermon of Martin Luther for Advent. This is framed by a view to present public interest in Mother Holle, as deity, and on her sites of worship, in a discernible movement of retrieval of cultural roots, and by a concluding section on divination in Greco-Roman Antiquity, as presented and discussed by Plutarch. Consequences for the retrieval and practice of divination are considered.

Both literary and archaeological evidence indicates that the playing of board games was a widespread and culturally significant phenomenon of the Roman world. In spite of their common presence, ancient board games have been paid little attention by the disciplines studying classical antiquity, and especially their material aspect has been neglected. In most studies, a game board is seen primarily as a particular disposition of places for the counters, in order to identify the types of games that were played on a given board; much less attention is paid to the materiality of the actual boards. Yet, in several cities of southwestern Asia Minor, game boards have been found carved on large stone blocks which must have been part of a more permanent setup or installation. Together with their formal attributes and their prominent locations in public spaces, they can be considered public installations. The focus of enquiry of this article is a series of such monumental boards that have been unearthed at the ancient Pisidian city of Sagalassos (southwestern Asia Minor). The analysis of these boards will not only identify the type of game these were used for but will also provide information on their materiality and location. The presentation of the boards will be used to address further questions. Although very popular, dicing was generally frowned upon by public authorities which makes public installations for these practices somewhat surprising. What caused such a different attitude in this and other cities of southwestern Asia Minor towards a popular practice that was generally condoned but never publicly supported? The paper will try to approach this aspect by looking at another type of public installations erected for dicing and restricted to this part of the Mediterranean, the astragalos oracle.

A review of Helmut Seng and Giulia Sfameni Gasparro (eds.), Theologische Orakel in der Spätantike (Bibliotheca Chaldaica 5; Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2016, ISBN 978-3-8253-7685-7), and Helmut Seng, Luciana Soares Santoprete, and Chiara O. Tommasi Moreschini (eds.), Formen und Nebenformen des Platonismus in der Spätantike (Bibliotheca Chaldaica 6; Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2016, ISBN 978-3-8253-6696-4).

A journey into the world of divination and premonition. From the Sumerian texts to the Indian epics, to the Hebrew Bible up to the literature of the twentieth century and the daily life of today. Methods, experiences, hypotheses on the interweaving of space-time dimensions.

En el año 1979 se define por primera vez el término enteógeno, refiriéndose a aquellas drogas utilizadas en contextos rituales que favorecía el contacto con los dioses. Ese mismo año se publica Road to Eleusis, el primer trabajo que propone que estas sustancias eran utilizadas por los griegos antiguos en los Misterios de Eleusis. El uso de enteógenos por distintas culturas puede abordarse desde distintas disciplinas; además de ser estudiada por historiadores, ha sido analizada por antropólogos, sociólogos, y también desde el punto de vista de la Farmacología y las Neurociencias.
En nuestro estudio, nos hemos acercado a fuentes y documentos de todas ellas, sin olvidar que el objetivo fundamental es el conocimiento del uso y consumo de enteógenos en el mundo griego y romano de la Antigüedad desde un punto de vista histórico, es decir, utilizando fuentes y metodología propias del área de conocimiento de la Historia Antigua.
Metodológicamente, nuestro trabajo ha consistido en buscar y analizar la documentación literaria, arqueológica, iconográfica y numismática que nos acerque al contexto cultural y religioso de estudio y, por otra parte, nos ha parecido fundamental la búsqueda de información farmacológica, científicamente contrastada, sobre los efectos de las sustancias estudiadas.
A partir de todos estos datos presentaremos, en primer lugar, las plantas y sustancias enteógenas consumidas en el Mundo Antiguo y analizaremos sus bases farmacológicas y neuropsicológicas, así como los efectos que producen sobre el cuerpo y la mente humana, principalmente en relación con los denominados Estados Alterados de Conciencia de carácter místico y/o religioso. Como ejemplo destacado del conocimiento de estas plantas analizaremos las fuentes numismáticas y la iconografía de una de las plantas de mayor utilización en el Mundo Antiguo: la adormidera o amapola del opio.
Tras revisar brevemente los antecedentes históricos del consumo de sustancias psicoactivas desde la Prehistoria, nos centraremos en el mundo griego y en el debate que se generado en torno a la posible existencia del denominado «chamanismo griego». Para ello, comenzaremos analizando el fenómeno chamánico como tal, propondremos una herramienta conceptual, el chamán-tipo, que nos ayude a identificar a estas figuras y, posteriormente, volveremos a las fuentes antiguas para conocer con más profundidad a
aquellos sujetos de la Antigüedad que han sido identificados como chamanes historiográficamente. Finalizaremos proponiendo un nuevo acercamiento a la figura de las Pitias o sacerdotisas del Oráculo de Delfos.
Por último, estudiaremos en profundidad el consumo de enteógenos en tres grandes Misterios de la Antigüedad.
En primer lugar, los Misterios de Eleusis, los más importantes del mundo griego. Revisaremos las distintas propuestas realizadas hasta la fecha, especialmente la presentada por Wasson, Hoffman y Ruck en su Road to Eleusis y actualizaremos con datos arqueológicos la posibilidad del consumo de ergot contenido en una bebida ritual, el kykeon.
En cuanto a los Misterios de Mitra, la ausencia de textos litúrgicos y mitológicos obliga a una aproximación a partir de fuentes arqueológicas, iconográficas y literarias indirectas. En el libro titulado Mushrooms, Myth & Mythras (2011) se propone la relación entre los rituales mitraicos y el consumo de haoma, la droga utilizada por los antiguos iranios y que, tradicionalmente, se ha considerado equivalente al soma védico. Nuestro trabajo consistirá en contrastar esta hipótesis con las fuentes que nos han llegado.
Finalmente, retrocedemos en el tiempo y volvemos a Grecia para analizar los Misterios de los Grandes Dioses de Samotracia y de los Cabiros de Lemnos y Tebas. Proponemos un nuevo enfoque y asociamos el posible consumo de drogas psicoactivas con la danza ritual para obtener un Estado Alterado de Conciencia compatible con el éxtasis místico, favorecedor de la «experiencia de lo sagrado» propia de los Misterios.

This work on the Piacenza Liver (previously published May 9, 2006 on Etruscan Phrases, maravot.com) is based upon three different photos – showing different angles – and a common transliteration found on the internet. Through the three different views I was able to correct the common transliteration seen on most sites on the Piacenza Liver. There are parts of the liver that are still hard to read, and a better photo of the bronze would be helpful in this regard. Piacenza liver rendition by Mel Copeland, correcting some errors from renderings found on the internet

This paper sets out to investigate and challenge the claims of competition between oracular sanctuaries, and suggests an alternative way to think about the divinatory ‘market’.
First, it looks at the material and literary evidence for competition between oracles, in particular Delphi and Dodona, during the archaic period. It examines the local influences on the development of these sanctuaries, their representations in mythological accounts of their origins and the ways in which scholars have interpreted these accounts. It suggests that co-operation, not competition was the key dynamic between them. Next, it examines the idea of competition itself, and some of the ways in which theories of religious economies and competition have been developed in other contexts by Rodney Stark and others, some of whose ideas have been applied to ancient Roman religion.
Finally, it suggests that oracular sanctuaries emerged into an existing ‘market in futures’ comprising individual, and often itinerant, oracle-sellers and seers, and examines the likely relationship between the two. Underlying this approach lies a model of ancient Greek religion as consisting of networks of relationships, rather than a more schematic structure of institutional hierarchies. This paper builds on that initial idea to examine the networks of relationships, and the nature of those relationships, in the ancient market in futures.

La consideración por parte de Posidonio como “mentira” o “invención” fenicia (ψεῦσμα Φοινικικόν) de ciertos elementos del relato sobre la fundación de Gadir recogido por Estrabón (3.5.5.) genera dudas sobre si el oráculo de Melqart pertenece a la tradición fenicia original o es un préstamo griego posterior. En la presente contribución se revisa el papel del oráculo de Melqart en las tradiciones sobre los orígenes de Tiro y Gadir, constatando su antigüedad y arraigo en ambas comunidades, que debían compartir una narrativa fundacional muy similar. Una nueva lectura del pasaje de Justino (44.5), habitualmente asociado a la fundación de Gadir, pero que interpretamos como el reflejo de la creación de una subcolonia gaditana con la participación, a través de su oráculo, del Melqart de Tiro, lleva a confirmar la importancia de este elemento en las leyendas sobre los orígenes de las comunidades que asumían un origen tirio. Ese componente oracular y fundacional es el que podría explicar, por otra parte, la caracterización como "archegetes" del Melqart de Tiro.

It is known from ancient sources that “laurel”, identified with sweet bay, was used at the ancient Greek oracle of Delphi. The Pythia, the priestess who spoke the prophecies, purportedly used “laurel” as a means to inspire her divine frenzy. However, the clinical symptoms of the Pythia, as described in ancient sources, cannot be attributed to the use of sweet bay, which is harmless. A review of contemporary toxicological literature indicates that it is oleander (bitter bay) that causes symptoms similar to those of the Pythia, while a closer examination of ancient literary texts indicates that oleander was often included under the generic term “laurel”. It is therefore likely that the “laurel” of Delphi actually concerned oleander, and that it was oleander, not sweet bay, that the Pythia used before the oracular procedure. This explanation could also shed light on other ancient accounts regarding the alleged “spirit” and the “chasm” of Delphi, accounts that have been the subject of intense debate and interdisciplinary research for the last one hundred years.

The Oracle of Delphi - Nestled into a rock faced mountainous hillside beneath two white-stained limestone cliffs on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus, the ancient city of Delphi appears to have had its modest beginnings around 1400 BC as a small village. According to Greek myth and legend, Mount Parnassus was the “omphalos” of the earth, which translates effectively as the “center” of the earth. One of the relics uncovered at Delphi is the conical stone that supposedly marked the center of the world. According to tradition, Zeus had set two eagles to fly toward the center of the world, one from the east and one from the west. The conical stone was placed where the two eagles met. Omphalos is the Greek word for “navel.” It is believed that prior to the arrival of the Greeks “mother earth” was worshiped as a deity. Gaia, mother earth, appears to have been the the first cult worshiped in the region of Delphi. Archaeological excavations have unearthed terracotta statuettes of the female form dating from the Mycenaean Age (1900 to 1100 BC).
In Greek mythology, Mount Parnassus was the battleground between Apollo and the monster Python. According to the myth, the goddess Gaia had set the Python at Mount Parnassus to guard the omphalos. Gaia was more of a primordial force that personified Earth than a goddess. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods, the Titans and the Giants were born from her union with Uranus (the sky), while the sea-gods were born from her union with Pontus (the sea). According to legend, Apollo, slew the serpent Python with his first arrow as an infant. Because of this act, Apollo was forced to flee and spent eight years at menial labor. (ll. 300-310) But nearby was a sweet flowing spring, and there with his strong bow the lord, the son of Zeus, killed the bloated, great she-dragon, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth, to men themselves and to their thin- shanked sheep; for she was a very bloody plague
Near Delphi, where the stream Pleistos joined the sea, a large settlement named Kirrha dates back to the Early Helladic period (2800 to 2100 BC). Inland, during the Middle Helladic period, an acropolis was built at the site of Crisa (2100 to 1550 BC). Gaia was the first cult worshiped in the area. Excavations have unearthed terracotta statuettes of the female form dating from the Mycenaean Age (1900 to 1100 BC. The land at Delphi was unsuitable for cultivation, so it would seem that Delphi, situated on the major east-west route through Greece, must have been from the start a site of a temple of worship.

Surprisingly, the interaction between Milesian and Megarian colonisation in the 7th/6th centuries BCE has rarely been addressed. Krister Hanell, in his comparative study on Megara and her colonies, published in 1934, already came to the conclusion that Megara and Miletos had built up a “Kolonisationsbündnis”, a “colonisation alliance” (HANELL, Studien, p. 135). During the 1999 conference on “Early Ionia”, the late Yuri Vinogradov delivered a paper entitled: “Milet und Megara erschließen den Pontos Euxeinos”. There he re-interpreted an important, but seldom addressed Milesian inscription (I.Milet 732), an epigram referring to a war of Archaic times in which both Miletos and Megara were involved. He revived Hanell’s observation and assumed that there were coordinated ventures by both metropoleis which he detected in the mixed Ionian-Dorian onomastics in Chersonasos and her mother city Herakleia Pontika, herself a colony of Megara. Both scholars’ hypothesis was met mostly with skepticism, but there have since been some voices in favour of their opinion.
This paper aims at comparing crucial elements of Megarian and Milesian colonisation of the Propontis and Black Sea to show that in the seventh/sixth century BCE these two cities indeed acted in accordance with each other, to control access to a region that was rich in resources. This close relationship between a ‘Dorian’ and an ‘Ionian’ city is surprising. But it can be shown that both poleis shared important elements of their religious and political structures, making cooperation possible. First of all, both acted under the leadership and sanction of an Apollo oracle: Megara cooperated with that of Delphi, while Miletos had her own, that of Apollo Didymeus Milesios in Didyma. Furthermore, there are striking parallels in their political organisation; for instance the basileus, ‘king’, a remnant of the basileis ruling in Protogeometric and Geometric times, and a board of proaisimnatas/proaisimnon and aisimnatai (Megara), or aisymnetes and proshetairoi (Miletos), functioning as prytaneis of both cities’ oligarchic governments. In light of the appearance of these magistracies in the Megarian and Milesian colonies of the seventh/sixth centuries BCE, the existence of these offices can be presumed in the mother cities already before 700 BCE.
The striking resemblance between Megara and Miletos hints at the existence of xenia relationships between the leading aristocratic families. Concerted mythopoiesis played a prominent role in this process: the elites of both city states were able to strengthen their contacts via interconnected kinship myths, which even took into account a common pre-Greek, Karian-Lelegian past. Additionally, Herakles and the Argonauts are recorded as visiting or founding Megarian (Byzantion, Herakleia Pontika) as well as Milesian (Kyzikos, Kios, Sinope) colonies, and thus both colonisation partners became followers of Herakles, Jason, and other paradigmatic Greek discoverer heroes that manned the ship Argo. The function of the Argonautika as a charter myth becomes evident here.
The background to all of this may have been Megara’s and Miletos’ joint participation in the Eretrian coalition against Chalkis and her allies during the ‘Lelantine War’ of around 700 BCE, the first pan-Greek war, which resulted in an amazing boom of both Megara and Miletos in the 7th century. The subsequent colonisation of the Propontis and the Pontos was from a strategic point of view only possible, because Gyges’ Lydia, which was the main land power of central Asia Minor from ca 680 BCE and holding the former Phrygian key site Daskyleion/Hisartepe, permitted this expansion.