Cultul eroilor întemeietori în coloniile milesiene din Propontida şi de la Pontul Euxin
Cult of the heroic founders in the miletian colonies from the Propontida and the Pontus Euxinus areas

Summary/Abstract: The object of my study is the cult of the local heroic founders within the Miletian colonies on the Propontida and the Euxinus Pont (the Black Sea) shores. I intend to approach the cult of the heroic founders of Kyzikos, Sinope (Autolykos and Phlogios), Tomis (Tomos), and Phasis (Phrixos). My study stand on written and epigraphic sources. The cult of heroic founders is a preponderent element in defining the identity of the Miletian colonies. That cult in the Greek cities of Miletian origin from the Propontida and the Pontus Euxinus had rather a political than a religious feature, as their main target was to preserve in the collective memory the old times of those peripherical communties of the Greek world. The local heroic founders as Kyzikos, Autolykos, Phlogios, Tomos, and Phrixos were real or mainly legndary characters, an integrated part of the legendary Greek cycles from which the Miletian cities claimed their origin and descent. Remebrance of those Miletian colonies stood both on the legends that propagated the mythic memory of their heroic founding, and the sacrality of places where the relicves were preserved, herôon, the privileged location to re-actualizing the bundle between the heroic founder and community, especially by means of the rituals dedicated to the hero.

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