Oikistes

Oikistés (οἰκιστής, plural oikistai, οἰκισται) is the Greek word that designates the founder of a new colony (apoikia). Sometimes they are equated to the status of archegétes (ἀρχηγέτης), which properly corresponds to the god Apollo as leader and protector of the colonies (theos patroos) or to Heracles and to the heros ktistes, heros oikistés or eponymous heroes of the original Greek polis (kings -basileos- or heroes -heros- from the Dark Age).

Historical background

The colonial expansion of ancient Greece along the Mediterranean coast took place essentially between 750 B.C. C. and 500 a. C. Each polis tried to become a metropolis (μητρόπολις) establishing colonies as an escape valve to demographic pressure and land shortages (stenochoría, στενοχωρία), which produced social conflicts internal (stásis, στάσις). Such colonies were cities with a high degree of independence, but strongly linked to the city of origin in multiple aspects (cultural, religious, legal, institutional and economic -particularly the maintenance of an active maritime trade-).

To lead the first expedition members who were going to establish themselves in an environment conducive to the founding of a colony, and after ritual consultation with an oracle, an oikistés was sent, usually chosen from among the aristoi (aristocratic or oligarchic families). Once the location was chosen, it was the oikistés who was the protagonist of the founding rites of the new city, notably depositing the sacred fire brought from the metropolis in a temple dedicated to the protective gods of the latter, who also became protectors of the colony. After the act of foundation, the oikistés was supposed to continue with the mandate it had received (it is "the interlocutor between those who leave and those who stay and between the gods and the humans"), with which some of them remained in the colony, maintaining their government; while others returned to the metropolis, leaving the colonists to their fate. The burial place of the oikistes, in the agora, became a place of worship. Tyrants (rulers who came to power illegitimately) gained prestige by associating their figure with similar ritual practices, as "new oikistai".

Main Oikistes

Among the most prominent oikistés were:

• Hipocles de Cime (it is discussed whether it was Cime in Eolia or Cime in Eubea) and Megástenes de Calcis, founders of Cumas. The legendary date attributed to such a foundation (1050 B.C.) is unbelievable
• Tucles, founder of Naxos, who is considered the oldest of the Greek colonies founded in Sicily (734 B.C.) Although oikistes It came from Athens, the settlers (to whom he had managed to convince himself of the opportunity to settle in a territory which he had accidentally arrived on an earlier expedition) mostly came from Calcis, in addition to some of the island of Naxos, which gave the name to the new city.
• Arquias de Corinto, founder of Syracuse, shortly after the foundation of Naxos.
• Evarco de Calcis, founder of Catania.
• Miscelo de Ripes, founder of Crotona.
• Falanto, Spartan who founded Tarento during the Mesenian wars (end of the century)VIII a. C.)
• Bato de Tera, founder of Cirene, north of Africa.
• Lamis de Mégara, founder of Mégara Hiblea.
• Pamilo, from Mégara Hiblea, founder of Selinunte.
• Antiphemo, Rodio de Lindos, founder of Gela (688 B.C.)
• Protis, from Focea, founder of Masalia (ca. 600 B.C.) His descendants, the protiatedThey held a preeminent position in the colony.
• Milcíades el Joven, who took Athenian settlers to Quersoneso Tracio.
• Evagoras, son of Periandro, founder of Potidea
• The Spartan Brásidas was regarded as a founder by the inhabitants of Anphipolis after his death in the battle where he defeated the Athenians, although in fact the city had been founded a few years earlier by Hagnón.

Mythical characters

Many of the narrations of the founding of colonies are so mythologized or related to legendary characters that it is difficult to determine their historicity, having above all an anthropological value in relation to their intermediate situation between the sea and the land (chthonic and aquatic archetypes):

• Parténope, a mermaid to which the foundation of Parténope (then Naples) is attributed.
• Eneas and Dido, respectively leaders of Tyrians and Trojans, to which the foundation of Cartago (Dido) and the lineage of Rómulo and Remo, founders of Rome (Eneas) is attributed.