Boeotia. Detailed history

Boeotia, in central Greece, was bounded on the southeast by Attica and on the north by Thessaly. It became a major passageway between these two regions, both of which would constantly come into play in Boeotian politics.

The major city of Thebes constantly struggled against Athens for control of the strategic region in the south, and against constant raids from Thessaly to the north. Boeotia was known for its rich plains, good for growing wheat and raising horses. It had two great mountains, Cithaeron and Helicon. Cithaeron separated Attica from Boeotia, and its summit was sacred to Zeus and the rest of the mountain was sacred to Dionysus. It was on this mountain that Oedipus, the mythical king who killed his father and married his mother, was supposedly exposed, or left to die as a baby. Helicon, the largest mountain in Boeotia, was one of the two homes for the muses. The village of Ascra, home of the poet Hesiod, was also here.

The northern region of Boeotia possessed the shallow Lake Copais, whose eels were a famous source of food. The Cephisus River drained into the lake and occasionally flooded, which was one of the reasons why the nearby city of Orchomenus declined. This region had been inhabited since the Neolithic period, and during the Mycenaean Age, it was an important site. Homer, in his Catalogue of Achaean Ships in the Iliad, mentioned thirty-one contingents from Boeotia and probably represented the major villages of the region during the Bronze Age.

This area produced many of the myths that represented Greece in the prehistoric period. Many concerned, and probably originated at, Orchomenus, which controlled Boeotia, including Thebes, and had impressive buildings built by the legendary architects Trophonius and Agamede, who had built Apollo’s temple at Delphi. This city became the major rival for Thebes and was located in the Cephisus valley. Nevertheless, the city of Thebes would ultimately surpass Orchomenus.

While Thebes was the most important city in Boeotia, it was never able to control the entire region, unlike Athens, which controlled all of Attica. In addition, the cities of Thespiae and Plataea consistently refused to accept the Theban overlord, with Plataea even aligning itself with Athens. Orchomenus was known for its magnificent tholos (a beehive tomb), known as the Treasury of Minyas, from Pausanias in the second century CE.

Orchomenus became synonymous with wealth due to the Minyas, who were said to be the race from which most of the Argonauts were descended. The region’s wealth came largely from Lake Copais, which made the plain fertile. Its decline was related to when Heracles, who favored Thebes, destroyed the drainage system, which flooded the plain and city. The city was ultimately destroyed in 364 by a confederacy of Boeotian cities.

Plataea had earned a significant history as the site of the great battle of 479 during the Persian Wars between the allied Greeks, led by Sparta, against Persia, with Thebes as its local supporter. Plataea, although Boeotian, had been more allied with Athens, and at Marathon in 490, he sent troops to help defeat the Persians. Like Athens, Plataea had been sacked in 480 by Xerxes, and after Persia was defeated in 479, Plataea was made independent.

Athens under its general, Myronides, attacked and defeated the Boeotian forces at the Battle of Oenophyta in 457, forcing all but Thebes to become part of its empire. In 447, the Athenians under Tolmides lost control of Boeotia after the Battle of Coronea, although Plataea remained loyal. This loyalty to Athens continually caused Thebes to despise and threaten it, and in 431, Thebes attacked Plataea, resulting in the first battle of the Peloponnesian War. In 427, Plataea was besieged by the Peloponnesian forces, and after its residents were nearly starved, it surrendered, and the garrison was massacred and the city destroyed. In 424, Athens again lost at Delium, which put an end to its attempt to control Boeotia.

With Athens defeated at the end of the fifth century by Sparta and its allies, including Thebes, the region of Boeotia became a battleground for Sparta’s ambition. Thebes soon resented the power of Sparta and its arrogance, and in 371 under Epaminondas, it defeated Sparta at Leuctra. Thebes now gained dominance of Boeotia, which lasted until Philip II defeated Thebes and Athens at Chaeronea in 338 and Alexander in 335 destroyed Thebes.

Boeotia’s greatest literary figure was Hesiod, who wrote Greek epic poetry. His father gave up a profitable naval mercantile career from Cyme in Aeolis on the coast of Asia Minor and settled at Ascra to become a farmer. Hesiod, who was born there, grew up as a farmer and shepherd. According to Hesiod in his Theogony, while he tended sheep on Mount Helicon, he heard the Muses command him to be a poet and sing the praises of the gods.

He became a poet and entered competitions, even winning a tripod (trophy) at Chalcis in Euboea. When his father died, his estate was divided between Hesiod and his brother, Perses, who took more than half and supposedly bribed the judges in his favor. Hesiod supposedly died in Locris in southern Italy, but his tomb was in Orchomenos. His two surviving poems are Theogony and Works and Days. Theogony is a poem of about 1,000 hexameter lines describing the gods and their genealogy.

After describing how the Muses ordered him to write about them, he set out the early history of the gods:
Chaos of the world
Gaia (Earth) produced Uranus (Heaven)
Gaia and Uranus created the Titans, such as Cyclops and Cronus

Gaia convinces Cronus to castrate his father Uranus whose genitalia created Aphrodite
Cronus and his sister Rhea produced the Olympian gods Cronus ate his children except Zeus
Zeus ultimately overthrew his father and forced him to restore his siblings
Hesiod then moves toward the stories concerning Zeus’s interactions with the gods, Titans, and humans:

The Titan Prometheus stole fire from Zeus for man
Zeus punished Prometheus by being bound to a rock and having his liver eaten out by an eagle and restored each night

Zeus punished man by creating woman
Civil war waged between the Titans and the Olympians
Zeus and the Olympians defeated the Titans and imprisoned them in Tartarus
Zeus was made king of the gods and married his sister Hera

Hesiod then ends with the offspring of gods and goddesses and mortals. This work provided the literary myths of the gods and their relationship with humans.

Hesiod’s second piece was Works and Days, a poem of 828 hexameters. The first 765 lines deal with farming activities, while the remainder is an almanac of days that are either favorable or unfavorable for society. The poem centers on the needs of society and the value of hard work. It is at the beginning of this work that the quarrel of Hesiod and his brother, Perses, is discussed. Hesiod uses mythology to explain why man must work hard. In the first third of the poem, Hesiod describes a variety of instances concerning divine anger, justice, and morality.

In the next two-thirds, Hesiod gives his brother instructions on how to be a farmer. These are divided into seasonal activities and practical advice, such as how to build a plow. The poem’s unity is forged through the force of Hesiod’s giving advice and ideas, but within the confines of a life lived by hard work, tied to the soil and guided by the divine.

In many ways, the two poems were clearly identified with Boeotia. The region was home to the gods, and many of the stories that sprang up concerning the interaction of the gods and mortals centered on Thebes. The story of Oedipus was rooted in his position as the son of the king of Thebes, and the tragedy of his life hinged on the peculiarities of the gods. The region was also mainly a farming area, often without commercial sea trade. Boeotia was known for its great plains, producing wheat and other cereals and encouraging the raising of horses. The poems of Hesiod encapsulated the local histories and economies of Boeotia.

Since Thebes could not control all of Boeotia, the region moved toward federalism. In this instance, each city-state had a say in political development, allowing them to work together when needed. Federalism was not always popular or successful; long-standing rivalries had plagued the Boeotia since the Bronze Age.

In addition, the close proximity of city-states and their desire to remain fiercely independent often dominated. A push for federalism lies in their geographical position between Thessaly and Athens and the prevention of their interference in Boeotia. To this end, there was a need to make sure that agricultural resources were potentially shared. This may have been the origins of the religious festival of the Pamboeotia, held at Coronea for Athena Itonia.

This federal league can be seen in the development of coinage. Around 550, some of the cities used the same emblem on their coins—a round or oval shield with semicircular openings on either side. The cities of Tanagra, Haliartus, and Thebes have been identified as issuing coins at this early date. A bit later, a second series saw more cities release coins, although Orchomenus did not use the same design and was probably not in the league.

It appears from their absence and predominance of Thebes that the latter desired to be the senior partner in an unequal league. This federal league was an attempt to ensure the cooperation of its cities under the mutual protection of Boeotia.

When Epaminondas and Pelopidas achieved their victory over Sparta after the Battle of Leuctra in 371, the region of Boeotia was dominated by Thebes for the next fifty years. It was only when Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great, defeated and ultimately destroyed Thebes that Boeotia once again reverted to individual city-states, with no city dominating.