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In Archaic Greece, an amphictyony (, a "league of neighbors"), or Amphictyonic League, was an ancient religious association of Tribe History.com ; Encarta . Archived 2009-10-31. formed before the rise of the Greek Poleis.
The six Dorians cities of coastal southwest Anatolia and the twelve Ionians cities to their north that formed the Ionian League after a Meliac war in the mid-7th century BC were already of considerable antiquity when the first written records emerged.
As a result of the war the Anthelan body was known thenceforth as the Delphic Amphictyony and became the official overseer and military defender of the Delphic cult. A strange and revealing anti-Thessalian feeling appeared and a wall was built across the narrow defile at Thermopylae to keep the Thessalians out.
It is suggested that the Shield of Heracles may reflect anti-Thessalian feeling after the First Sacred War. In this epic, a Thessalian hero interfering with the Phocis sanctuary is killed by a Boeotian hero, Heracles, whose mortal father, Amphitryon, had for allies Locris and Phoecians. This was made to be sung at a Boeotian festival at midsummer at the hottest time of the Dog Star, Sirius.L.H.Jeferry (1976). The Archaic Greece. The Greek city states. 700-500 B.C., p.74
The name Hellenes, is related to the members of the league and was broadened to refer to all Greeks when the myth of their patriarch, Hellen, was invented. In Greek mythology, Amphictyon was brother of Hellen, and Graecus was son of his sister Pandora. According to the Parian Chronicle, the previously-named Graeces were renamed Hellenes. Entry No 6: Graeces-Hellenes
Thucydides made recollection of the Lelantine War when writing, "The war between Chalcis and Eretria was the one in which most cities belonging to the rest of Greece were divided up into alliances with one side or the other."Thucydides, I 15, 3. The Lelantine War was fought in Euboea at some point between the late 8th century BC and the first half of the 7th century BC.
Historians have puzzled over the broader meanings of "alliance" in such early times. However, as George Forrest notes, "large-scale associations lead more readily to contacts, to friendships and enmities at a distance than do little city-like units."Forrest, "Greece: The history of the archaic Period", in John Boardman, Jasper Griffin and Oswyn Murray, Greece and the Hellenistic World (Oxford University Press, 1986) 1988:14f. This explains why Phrygia and Assyria were at war with each other about 720–710, raising tensions among interested Greeks.
An amphictyony would survive as a form of religious organization enjoined to support specific temples or sacred places. Traditional amphictyonies coordinated Olympic and Pythian Games. Twelve members would meet at specific times in the same sanctuary to keep religious festivals and conduct other matters as well.
An early amphictyony centered on Kalaureia, an island close to the coast of Troezen in the Peloponnese and sacred to Poseidon, was noted by Strabo. Archaeology of the site suggested to Thomas Kelly that the sacred league was founded in the second quarter of the 7th century BCE, –650.Thomas Kelly, "The Calaurian Amphictiony" American Journal of Archaeology 70.2 (April 1966:113–121). Before that date, there were virtually no remains at the site, which were not used more than sporadically.Some Helladic period objects found at the site related to a few ancient burials without connection to Poseidon. (Kelly 1966:115, 116). The island was known at one time as Eirene (Εἰρήνη) ("Peace"), which is in reference to the amphictyony.In a fragment of Aristotle and in the Suda, s.v. "Kalaunia" (Kelly 1966:118 note 45). StraboStrabo, Geography viii.6.14 lists the polis that belonged: "And there was also a kind of amphictyonic league connected with this temple, a league of seven cities which shared in the sacrifice; they were Ermioni, Epidaurus, Aegina, Athens, Prasiae, Nauplion, and Orchomenus Minyeius;That is, "Minyan Orchomenus, in Boeotia; the eighth-century date of Orchomenus' last access to the sea and the general agreement, following Strabo, that the league was a sea league, have affected the dating of the league. however, the Argives paid dues for the Nauplians,That is, Argos took the place of Nauplia; the Argives destroyed Nauplia shortly after the Second Messenian War, of uncertain date in the mid-seventh century. and the Sparta for the Prasians."That is, Sparta took the place of Prasïeis, which was conquered by Sparta shortly after the middle of the sixth century (Kelly 1966:119, noting Herodotus, i.82)
Based on legend, the Great Amphictyonic League was founded somewhat after the Trojan War, for the protection and administration of the temple of Apollo in Delphi and temple of Demeter in Anthela (Ἀνθήλη), near Thermopylae. The founding myth claimed that it had been founded in the most distant past by an Eponym Amphictyon, brother of Hellen, the common ancestor of all Hellenes. Representatives of the twelve members (called hieromnemones) met in Thermopylae in spring and in Delphi in autumn.
Many different sources have noted eleven to thirteen founding populations. The list below is as enumerated by Aeschines:Aeschines, ii ( On the embassy).116; see also Strabo, ix.3.7, and Pausanias, x.8.2–5.
The League doctrine required that no member would be entirely wiped out in war and no water supply of any member would be cut even in wartime. It did not prevent members from fighting about the dominance over the temples.
The Oracle managed to become independent from the city of Krissa, to which the temple originally belonged. The people of Krissa then imposed a tax on those who were passing through their area to go to Delphi, causing strong complaints and reducing the resources of the Oracle. The Amphictyony, having exhausted all other means to peacefully resolve the crisis, declared the First Sacred War (or Cirrhean War) An Epitome of the Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece. By Henry Fynes Clinton, p. 92. against Krissa that lasted a decade, from 596 to 585 BCE. The result was the destruction of Krissa and the dedication of this country to Apollo, Leto, Artemis, and Athena Pronaia. After this, the Pythian Games were held every four years, under the direction of the Amphictyons.
In 449 or 448, Sparta seized Delphi from the Phocians who controlled it: this was the Second Sacred War. After the Spartans' departure, the Athenians, led by Pericles, gave back to the Phoecians the rule of Delphi and the management of the Pythian Games. In 421, after the Peace of Nicias, Delphi became autonomous again. It is unlikely, however, that Phoecis remained in control of Delphi after members of the Boeotian League defeated Athens at the Battle of Coronea (447 BCE).For a more detailed account of this conflict, see Donald Kagan (1969), The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, pp. 120–124, based largely on Thuc. 1.112-13.
In 356 the Phoecians under Philomelos captured and looted Delphi, and a Third Sacred War was declared against them. After ten years of war, in 346, the Phoecians were expelled from the League and their two votes were given to Macedon, which had helped to defeat them. Philip II of Macedonia used this power to further his expansionist policy in Greece. This resulted in the Fourth Sacred War which culminated in the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BCE), marking the final domination of the Macedonians over Greece.
The Amphictyonic League gradually declined and in the 2nd century CE it was replaced by the Panhellenion, established by the Roman emperor Hadrian. However, the see of the Amphictyonic League was in Athens, the emperor's favorite city. Thus, it seems that the Amphictyony lost influence and came to an end, although we have no specific date for its actual cessation.
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