Английская Википедия:Eritha

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Шаблон:Infobox person Шаблон:Contains special characters Eritha (Mycenaean Greek: Шаблон:Lang, syllabic transcription Шаблон:Transliteration,Шаблон:Efn pronounced Шаблон:IPAc-la; Шаблон:Floruit) was a Mycenaean priestess. She was a subject of the Mycenaean state of Pylos, in the southwestern Peloponnese, based at the cult site of Sphagianes, near the palatial centre of Pylos.

As a priestess, Eritha held an elevated position in Pylian society. She is the more prominent of the two priestesses known from Pylos, and held economic independence and social prominence unusual for women in the Pylian state. She held authority over several other people, including at least fourteen women who were probably assigned to her by the palatial state as servants to assist with the distribution of religious offerings.

In the last year before the destruction of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos (Шаблон:Circa), Eritha was involved in a legal dispute over the status of her lands against the local Шаблон:Transliteration, which represented the other landholders of Sphagianes. While the precise terms of the dispute are unclear, Eritha appears to have tried to argue that part of her landholdings were held on behalf of her deity, and consequently that she was entitled to lesser tax or other obligations than if they were her personal possession. The outcome of the dispute is unknown.

The record of Eritha's land dispute constitutes the longest preserved sentence of Mycenaean Greek and the first known legal dispute from Europe. It has been used as evidence for the status of women in the Mycenaean world, as well as for relations between the palace, religious organisation and civic society, and for the legal systems and infrastructure that existed in the Pylian state.

Position in society

Photograph of Mycenaean ruins – the foundations of a wall.
The remains of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, Messenia Шаблон:Ndash the centre of the Pylian polity

Eritha is associated with the site of Sphagianes (Mycenaean Greek: Шаблон:Lang, syllabic transcription Шаблон:Transliteration)Шаблон:Efn Sphagianes is known through the Linear B records of the Eb, Ep, En and Eo series, which record landholdings there. The site is believed to have been a religious centre near Pylos, dedicated to the goddess Potnia, who may have been a mother goddess and was possibly the chief goddess of the Pylian pantheon.Шаблон:SfnmШаблон:Efn Most of the landholders there, including Eritha, are described with titles associated with religious cult,Шаблон:Sfn particularly forty-six people labelled as "servants of the god".Шаблон:Refn

Those, such as Eritha, identified by name in the Pylian tablets constitute around 2% of the estimated population of the polity. Dimitri Nakassis has argued that they represent "a broad elite group" within that polity.Шаблон:Sfn Eritha is one of two women named as religious figures, along with another named Karpathia, in the Pylos tablets.Шаблон:Sfn Both were based at Sphagianes;Шаблон:Sfn Eritha appears to have been the more important of the two.Шаблон:Refn Middleton has argued that Eritha may have been a member of an aristocratic or royal family, but equally may have owed her authority to a religious system with little direct correspondence to the ruling palatial system.Шаблон:Sfn Religious organisations in the Pylian state were involved in economic activities, particularly the manufacture of bronze, and had at least some economic independence from the palatial authority.Шаблон:Sfn

Priestesses held positions of power in Mycenaean society: indeed, this is one of few positions of power in which women are shown in Mycenaean art.Шаблон:Sfn They received economic and administrative privileges, and carried out civic functions as well as religious ones, such as animal sacrifice.Шаблон:Sfn Of all the women listed on the Pylian Linear B tablets, Eritha and Karpathia control the largest amount of material goods. Barbara Olsen has described them as the most important women mentioned in the records of either Pylos or the site of Knossos on Crete.Шаблон:Efn Priestesses are shown as having control over land, men, women and material goods, including textiles.Шаблон:Sfn Olsen notes that the religious sphere is an exception to the usually male-dominated nature of Pylian society, writing that "only the institution of religion could trump gender",Шаблон:RefnШаблон:Efn and that the religion appears to have been the only mechanism for women to obtain economic autonomy.Шаблон:Sfn At Pylos, it is rare to find evidence of women having control over land or being involved in economic activities monitored by the palace, though women were more prominent in both areas at Knossos.Шаблон:Sfnm Only 5% of the land recorded on the Pylian Linear B tablets is held by women, and no women without religious offices are recorded as landholders.Шаблон:Sfn Cult officials are also the only women, bar one, to be listed without reference to their marital or child-bearing status.Шаблон:Refn

Another individual at Sphagianes, by the name of Huamia, is listed on the tablet PY Ep 704 as a "servant of the god" and as holding land given to her as a "gift of honour" by a priestess. Nakassis infers that this priestess is likely to be Eritha, who is named on the following line of the same tablet.Шаблон:Sfn Joan Breton Connelly has suggested that those designated as servants of the god had the role of assisting Eritha in her duties.Шаблон:Sfn While the specific nature of these priestly duties is not recorded by the palace, Eritha is unusual as a woman holding power over those designated as "slaves" or "servants":Шаблон:Efn elsewhere, only men are listed as doing so.Шаблон:Sfn The tablet PY Ae 303 lists at least fourteen women, designated as "servants of the priestess", possibly assigned to Eritha by the palace to help with the distribution of gold as religious offerings.Шаблон:Sfn

Land dispute

SVG drawing of an ancient tablet, inscribed with seven lines of text.
A drawing of the tablet PY Ep 704, on which Eritha's land dispute is recorded. Eritha's name can be read at the beginning of the fifth line.

The dispute over Eritha's land is recorded on two Linear B tablets. The first, PY Eb 297, is described by Nakassis as a "preliminary document", and was written by a high-ranking administrator known as Hand 41.Шаблон:Refn The second, PY Ep 704, is written by Hand 1, considered the chief scribe of Pylos.Шаблон:Sfn The case is the earliest known legal dispute from Europe.Шаблон:Sfn

PY Ep 704 records Eritha's landholdings in the following lines. These constitute the longest preserved sentence of Mycenaean Greek,Шаблон:Sfn and the only record of a judicial dispute in the Linear B corpus:Шаблон:Sfn

Шаблон:Blockquote

The word Шаблон:Transliteration referred to a standard allotment of land.Шаблон:Sfn The land in dispute – the second allotment mentioned in the tablet – is described by Nakassis as fairly large by Pylian standards.Шаблон:Sfn The palace appears to have made no decision to settle the dispute.Шаблон:Sfn

Date

Linear B tablets were written on clay and retained for at most a year.Шаблон:Sfnm Their contents may, in normal circumstances, have transferred to other materials such as papyrus or parchment for long-term storage.Шаблон:Sfn It is thought that the clay tablets would normally have been discarded after such a transfer was complete, and in any case that they were not generally intended to be archived or kept for an extended period: indeed, the site of Pylos is unusual in providing evidence for the systematic sorting and storage of these tablets.Шаблон:Sfn

Linear B tablets were not intentionally fired, but were left to dry in the sun.Шаблон:Sfn Those Linear B tablets which survive today were accidentally fired during the destruction by fire of the palace in which they happened to be:Шаблон:Sfn in the case of Pylos, this destruction happened late in the LH IIIB period, around the transition to LH IIIC (that is, Шаблон:Circa).Шаблон:Sfn The surviving tablets from Pylos were found in the so-called "Archives Complex" at the Palace of Nestor.Шаблон:Sfn Given that the tablets were normally retained for less than a year, Eritha's legal dispute must have taken place within months before the palace's destruction.Шаблон:Sfn

The damos

The term Шаблон:Transliteration (plural Шаблон:Transliteration) in Linear B is used for quasi-independent village communities within the lands of the palatial state.Шаблон:Sfn John Bennet and Cynthia Shelmerdine suggest that the word Шаблон:Transliteration referred to an administrative district, and also to the group of local administrators overseeing land allocations in that district.Шаблон:Sfn The local Шаблон:Transliteration, rather than the palace, is generally taken to have controlled all the land at Sphagianes recorded on the Linear B tablets, and therefore to have been able to call upon the service of its land-holding supervisors, known as Шаблон:Transliteration.Шаблон:Refn Land designated as "communal" was leased to individuals by the Шаблон:Transliteration, and conferred obligations on the leaseholder with respect to the Шаблон:Transliteration.Шаблон:Sfn

Rodney Castleden draws a contrast between priestesses like Eritha, whom he considers to have represented the social elite, and the Шаблон:Transliteration, whom he considers to have been "ordinary people".Шаблон:Sfn The term "plot-holders" (Шаблон:Transliteration) was used by Hand 41 on PY Eb 297 to indicate Eritha's opponents, where Шаблон:Transliteration was used by Hand 1 on PY Ep 704, leading to the suggestion that the landholders of Sphagianes either controlled the Шаблон:Transliteration or were themselves equivalent to it. The names of twelve of these landholders are known: six are known to have been Шаблон:Transliteration, at least three were smiths, and one may have been a herdsman.Шаблон:Sfn Lupack, Deger-Jalkotzy and Michel Lejeune suggest that the Шаблон:Transliteration were a group or committee of Шаблон:Transliteration members empowered to act on behalf of the wider Шаблон:Transliteration.Шаблон:Sfn John Chadwick similarly considers that the collective voice of the Шаблон:Transliteration was mediated through its largest landholders.Шаблон:Sfn

Nature of the dispute

Map of the south-western Peloponnese: several sites, including Pylos, are labelled in Linear B, ancient Greek and English.
Some of the key sites within the Pylian state, Шаблон:Circa

As recorded on the tablet, Eritha claimed that the disputed plot was an Шаблон:Transliteration, a term whose precise meaning is obscure.Шаблон:Sfn It is generally agreed that an Шаблон:Transliteration was exempt from at least some of the tax levied upon land.Шаблон:Sfn According to Bennet and Shelmerdine, the substance of the dispute was that Eritha argued that the majority of her holdings were exempt from regular administrative obligations on the grounds of having religious status.Шаблон:Sfn Susan Lupack supports this view, suggesting that an Шаблон:Transliteration was free of all obligations, including taxes.Шаблон:Sfn Nakassis suggests that an Шаблон:Transliteration may have been required to pay no or fewer taxes to the Шаблон:Transliteration than an Шаблон:Transliteration.Шаблон:Sfn

Michael Galaty suggests that, by categorising the land as being held "for the god", Eritha hoped to have it excluded from her property for the purposes of calculating tax obligations.Шаблон:Sfn Lupack suggests that categorising Eritha's holdings as an Шаблон:Transliteration would mean that their production was considered in calculating how much tax was owed to the palatial administration, even though they would not be themselves liable to pay those taxes. She accepts Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy's belief that the Шаблон:Transliteration as a whole was assessed and liable to pay taxes to the palace, and therefore that the other Шаблон:Transliteration members would have to pay additional taxes, commensurate with the assessed value of Eritha's holdings, if the latter were categorised as exempt from taxation. Lupack suggests that the prospect of these additional requirements provoked the Шаблон:Transliteration to object to Eritha's claim.Шаблон:Sfnm Only three plots are listed as Шаблон:Transliteration land in the Linear B tablets: Lupack suggests that these were gifts of the ruler (Шаблон:Transliteration), granted only rarely so as to avoid antagonising the Шаблон:Transliteration.Шаблон:Sfn

Importance for Mycenaean studies

According to Nakassis, the dispute shows that religious institutions, such as the one with which Eritha was connected, were simultanously involved with the palatial authority and at least partially independent of it.Шаблон:Sfn Bennet and Shelmerdine characterise the debate as a clash of "religious authority against the secular power of the Шаблон:Transliteration".Шаблон:Sfn They argue that the tablet's inclusion in the palace archive of Pylos indicates that the palace ultimately had authority to adjudicate the dispute.Шаблон:Sfn At the same time, Nakassis judges that Eritha's claim to hold land "for the god" shows that her authority did not entirely derive from that of the palace.Шаблон:Sfn

Lupack writes that the existence of the dispute is "of great significance", in that it demonstrates that the Шаблон:Transliteration was able to act as a unified legal entity, and that Eritha, as a priestess, was empowered to take legal action on behalf of her sanctuary and deity.Шаблон:Sfn Castleden suggests that the actions of the Шаблон:Transliteration constitute a formal complaint by "ordinary people" against their social superiors, and so evidence that the hierarchy of Pylian society was "not overwhelmingly oppressive".Шаблон:Sfn Stefan Hiller, by contrast, considers Eritha to have been a member of the Шаблон:Transliteration, and so the dispute to have been "not between palace and Шаблон:Transliteration, but ... between an individual member of the Шаблон:Transliteration and the Шаблон:Transliteration community".Шаблон:Sfn Shelmerdine considers the Шаблон:Transliteration to have held at least equal power to Eritha, and perhaps to have had the power to overrule her assessment of her land.Шаблон:Sfn She cites Eritha's dispute as an example of the "frictions" that could emerge between competing loci of religious, civic and royal power in Mycenaean society.Шаблон:Sfn

Deger-Jalkotzy suggests that the lack of a palatial decision in the dispute indicates that the palace saw such property disputes as a matter for the local community to resolve.Шаблон:Sfn Guy Middleton similarly suggests that the palace may have lacked any power or authority to involve itself in the matter,Шаблон:Sfn though Shelmerdine and Bennet argue that the presence of the dispute in the palatial archive indicates that "land tenure was ultimately under the control of the king’s central authority".Шаблон:Sfn

Philippa Steele has argued that the use in the Linear B tablets of verbs of speaking to describe the positions of Eritha and the Шаблон:Transliteration indicates that legal business was conducted orally, rather than through written documentation, and its results recorded only in memory. Other archaeologists, such as Jean-Pierre Olivier, argue that legal documentation, such as records of laws, contracts and sales, was recorded on perishable materials, which are now lost.Шаблон:Sfnm Thomas Palaima notes that the nature of Mycenaean land tenure and the obligations of taxation and service recorded in Linear B must have required judicial rulings and resolution, although no record of any has survived.Шаблон:Sfn

See also

Footnotes

Explanatory notes

Шаблон:Notelist

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Bibliography

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Шаблон:Refend

Шаблон:Portalbar Шаблон:Authority control

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