1. Motivation for creation and impressions during creation
(1) Motivation for creation
When I was creating a correlation map of the Hellenistic world centered on Alexander the Great, I found that Cadmus, the ancestor of Thebes, Heracles, the paternal ancestor of Alexander the Great, and Aeacus, the maternal ancestor, were characters in mythology. I thought lightly. In fact, the names of the gods of Greek mythology and the names of river gods throughout Greece appear frequently as the names of fathers in historical sources.
The motivation for starting to create the correlation diagram was that I wanted to know when Alexander the Great's ancestor Heracles was actually a person and whether he actually existed.
(2) Impressions during creation
In ancient historical materials, there are expressions such as "how many generations before a certain person" or "60 years after the capture of Troy", but I am surprised at how accurate it is when I create a correlation chart.
The 6th-century BC mythologist Acusilaus wrote his genealogy on the basis of bronze plaques. [FGrH.Nr2.T1]
However, the names of ancestors before Cadmus brought the Phenician script to Greece are also accurately reported. [Suda.Alpha.942]
It is also surprising that there was a means of recording in the era before Cadmus.
Before starting the creation, I thought that it would not be connected like the Hellenistic world, but more than 3,000 people were connected. At the beginning of the creation, the relationship was unknown, and there were many things that were only guesses, but gradually became certain. In addition, there are many things that were unexpected and connected unexpectedly.
For example, Oenomaus in the city of Pisa is mentioned in many sources, but its origins are a mystery. At first, Oenomaus speculated that he might be related to the lineage of King Eris, or that he might be the son of Pisus, son of Perieres, the founder of the city of Pisa, a member of the Aeolis clan rising from Thessaly. However, when connecting the characters so as not to contradict, it turns out that there is Oenomaus with the same name, which seems to be Oenomaus' grandfather, and he was a Pelasgian who moved from Argos to Arcadia and settled in Pisa. It has been found.
Also, many of the leaders in the ancient Greek genealogies were married to other famous people. Conversely, a person whose name appears in a historical document is connected to one of the persons in the genealogy.
2. Creating a person correlation diagram
(1) Determine if it is the same person
In ancient Greek writings, such as the Description of Greece by Pausanias, a geographer in the 2nd century AD, many names appear, some of which are the names of gods. Also, the person who is supposed to have existed is only a name, and the father's name is attached to it, and it is possible to distinguish between the same to some extent. However, in order to judge whether it is the same person, it is necessary to compare the person's hometown and achievements.
Because people's names and ages are rarely connected, people from different ages are often treated as the same person because they have the same name.
For example, Aeolus, son of Hellen, who became the progenitor of the Aeolis race, Aeolus, son of Hippotes, who sent many children from the town of Arne in Thessaly, and Melanippe, who founded the city of Lipara on the Italian peninsula. Aeolus is conflated with Aeolus, the grandfather of Ormenus, who founded the city of Ormenion in Thessaly.
It is also sometimes confused because he took his father's name for his son, for example Oenomaus son of Heraeus and Oenomaus son of Alxion.
They are sometimes confused because they bear the same father's name. Amphictyon, the son of Deucalion, is an example, and there is a confusion between Amphictyon, son-in-law of Cranaus, king of Athens, and Amphictyon, who lived in the region of Locris and drove the Pelasgians out of Thessaly.
Lycaon, son of Pelasgus, is also found in the city of Argos and in the region of Arcadia, and Pelasgus of Argos is four generations after Pelasgus of the city of Argos.
Minos of Crete is also confused with the first Minos, the son of Europa, and the second Minos, the contemporary of King Aegeus of Athens. Some sources say that Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon were brothers of the first Minos. [Diod.4.60.2]
However, Rhadamanthus, after the death of Heracles' father Amphitryon, remarried Heracles' mother Alcmena, and is the second brother of Minos. [Apo.2.4.11]
(2) Select the most appropriate one from multiple candidates
As for his wife's and mother's names, they are often given as different names in multiple sources. As an example of the same person being called by different names, Melanippe, daughter of Aeolus, son of Hippotes of Thessaly, also appears as Arne and Antiopa. [Diod.4.67.3, Hyginus.157, Paus.9.1.1, Paus.9.40.5]
However, there are many cases where it differs from others because it is based on false traditions or because of misunderstanding by the author.
For example, Chloris, the mother of Nestor, who was the eldest to go to war in the Trojan War, is the daughter of Amphion, son of Antiope, in the city of Thebes, and the daughter of Amphion, son of Iasius, of Minyans, in Orchomenus. [Hyginus.14, Apo.3.5.6, Diod.4.68.6, Home.Od.11.281, Paus.9.36.8, 10.29.5, Strabo.8.3.19]
Traditions about Amphion in the city of Thebes survive, but Amphion, the son of Iasius, is told only as the father of a daughter, and it is not surprising that he is misrepresented. A reading and comparison of both theories reveals that Nestor's maternal grandfather was Amphion of Orchomenus.
(3) How to draw a correlation diagram
Husband and wife are side by side, connected by a double line, and their children are placed one step below.
In other words, the upper part of the vertical axis is the older era, and the lower part is the newer era.
Therefore, people who are on the same height are in principle contemporaries.
3. Standards for the vertical axis (age)
(1) List of reigns of Athens kings
Eusebius, a historian of the early 4th century AD, in his Chronicle, quotes the names and reigns of Kings of Athens from the 1st century BC Rhodes rhetorician Castor.
The most dateable among them is the 29th Aeschylus, son of Agamestor. The first Olympiad is said to have been held in the twelfth year of his reign. Since the first Olympiad was held in 776 BC, Aeschylus' reign of 23 years was from 787 BC to 764 BC. [Euseb. Chron. 183-187]
This reign of Aeschylus completes the list of reigns to Cecrops, the first king of Athens.
(2) 21-year gap in total reign
Castor reports that the total reign from the 1st Cecrops to the 15th Thymoetes was 450 years. [Euseb.Chron.181]
However, each king's total reign is 429 years, which is 21 years less. This difference was found in the process of creating the correlation chart, and it is presumed that the last Thymoetes reigned for 29 years instead of 8 years.
In other words, it makes sense if Melanthus, the 16th King of Athens, ascended to the throne in 1111 BC, not in 1132 BC, but 21 years later.
The final return of Heracleidae is reported by Castor, the 2nd-century BC grammarian Apollodorus of Athens, and the 5th-century BC historian Thucydides, 80 years after the fall of Troy. [Euseb.Chron.189, Euseb.Chron.179, Thucy.1.12]
Calculating from 1186 BC, the year of the fall of Troy, which is obtained by creating a human correlation chart, "80 years after the fall of Troy" is 1106 BC, which is roughly the same, although there is a difference of 5 years.
Perhaps 1132 BC is the year Melanthus first became king, which is the year he became king of the region of Messenia, and the accession year of the Athens king is presumed to be 1111 BC.
The five-year error may have been due to the difference in whether the year of the Heracleidae return, "80 years after the fall of Troy," was the year they crossed over to Peloponnesus or the year Tisamenus emigrated from Sparta to the Achaia region.[Paus.2.18.8, Strabo.8.7.1, 8.8.5]
4. How to determine the vertical axis (age)
(1) The number of years in one generation
Approximately 30 years.
(2) Age of fatherhood
Generally, between the ages of 17 and 70.
Examples of fathers who became fathers at an old age include Alexander the Great's military commander Lysimachus, Orchomenus king Erginus who fought and lost against Heracles, and Anchises, the father of Aeneias who escaped from Troy and emigrated to Italy. [FGrH.Nr2.F39, Paus.1.10.3, Paus.9.37.4]
(3) Age of motherhood
Generally, between the ages of 16 and 45.
Therefore, if there was an age difference of 30 years or more between the children, we assumed that the mothers were different.
For example, the twin sons of Tyndareus of Sparta, Castor and Polydeuces, and a daughter, Helen, are said to have been born to his wife Leda, although the age difference between them is more than 30 years; It is believed that she was the child of another woman. [Apo.1.8.2, Apo.3.10.6]
(4) Age difference between couples
Generally, husband is older than his wife.
However, there is also an example of Demetrius, who married Phila, who was considerably older than him, despite being young, and had a son, Antigonus Gonatas, so the age difference was considered appropriate. [Plut.Deme.14, Plut.Deme.53]
5. How to determine the horizontal axis (connection of the same era)
Other than couples, parents and children, and kinship relationships, participants in the following events were identified as contemporaneous.
(1) Contemporaneous recognition by participation in the same event
A. Expedition of the Argonauts (1248 BC)
B. Calydonian boar hunt (1246 BC)
C. Seven Against Thebes (1215 BC)
D. Epigoni's Attack on Thebes (1205 BC)
E. Trojan War (1188-1186 BC)
F. Return of Heracleidae to Peloponnesus (1216-1104 BC)
(2) Contemporaneous recognition due to other events
In addition to being "contemporaneous,"[Cleme.Str.21] persons involved in events such as "there was a flood of Deucalion in his reign,"[Apo.3.8.2, Apo.3.14.5] "banished,"[Strabo.8.3.33] "exiled,"[Paus.9.5.12] and "fought," identified as a contemporaneous person.
However, as in the following example, there are some that seem to be errors in tradition.
A. Pandion (son of Erichthonius) of Athens and Labdacus of Thebes fought over the border. [Apo.3.14.8]
Labdacus (1375-1337 BC) was born after the death of Pandion, the fifth king of Athens (reigned 1442-1402 BC). If Labdacus is mistaken, it is the time of Cadmus, but I doubt that there was a boundary problem between Athens and Thebes at that time.
B. Lamedon of Sicyon fought with the sons of Achaeus. [Paus.2.6.5]
When a correlation chart is created, the difference in birth years between Lamedon and the sons of Achaeus, who appear in the genealogy of King Sicyon, is over 70 years. If it is true that there was a fight, Lamedon seems to be a different person.
6. Other Characters
Persons who appeared in historical materials but were not connected to the genealogy were excluded.
For example, nurse, charioteer, priest, victim, perpetrator, etc.
7. Major historical materials used as references for creating correlation map
(1) "Iliad" and "Odyssey" by Homer, 8th century BC bard
(2) "Histories" by Herodotus, 5th century BC historian
(3) Fabulae by Hyginus, 1st century BC writer
(4) Geographica by Strabo, the early 1st century AD geographer
(5) "Description of Greece" by Pausanias, 2nd century AD geographer
(6) "Bibliotheca" by Pseudo-Apollodorus, 2nd century AD grammarian
(7) "Parallel Lives" and "Moralia" by Plutarch, 2nd century AD writer
(8) Chronography by Eusebius, 4th century AD historian
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