Local Panhellenism at the Ancient Greek Sanctuaries of the Northeast Peloponnese

Panhellenism is a modern concept that has crept into the subconscious of historical narratives of ancient Greece. This term has been used in two general ways—either as a set of “soft” shared cultural characteristics or a “hard” political ideology that promoted a unified crusade against the “barbarian” Persian Empire. The emergence of the term in the early 19th century points to an embedded sense of Greek nationalism that projects such unity onto Greek antiquity. This dissertation measures the applicability of Panhellenism in the northeast Peloponnese region from the Archaic Period (beginning c. 800 BC) to the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC.I examine four major extraurban sanctuaries of the northeast Peloponnese region as case studies: Zeus at Nemea, Poseidon at Isthmia, Hera at Argos, and Asclepius at Epidaurus. Each has been described as “Panhellenic” at some point in its history, yet, such a label erases local agency. Using textual, archaeological, and epigraphic evidence, I argue that these sanctuaries were exclusively the product of local production, negotiation, and contestation. This dissertation emphasizes the role of local communities in the creation of mythic, civic, and physical landscapes in the region. Chapter 1 outlines the origins of ancient Panhellenism as a modern concept and its associations with modern nationalism. I propose a new model known as Local Panhellenism to describe the process of juxtaposing local city-state culture with “Panhellenic” ideas to promote local distinctiveness within the Greek community. Chapter 2 scrutinizes the various foundation myths associated with the sanctuaries and their festivals, connecting changes in the myths to changing historical contexts to the end of the 5th century BC. Chapter 3 examines two offices, the agonothetai and hellanodikai, to show how sanctuary administration was inseparable from polis governments and how locals and non-locals relied on the sanctuaries and festivals to enact local agendas. Chapter 4 uses the concept of relational space to reconstruct local narratives of the built environment. Chapter 5 serves as a conclusion and reiterates the thesis that the sanctuaries of the northeast Peloponnese were multivocal sites, but locals were the primary audience and architects of meaning