Introduction

The Peloponnese is primarily a geographical concept, the southernmost part of the Balkan peninsula lying beyond the Isthmus of Corinth. Its topography is fragmented, and any regional solidarity seems to have emerged only under Spartan hegemony, i. e. from the late archaic period onwards (Purcell in OCD3 1133). This chapter is about the Peloponnese other than Lakonia and Messenia, in other words about a geographical area which for most of the archaic period had no political or ideological unity at all. Within the area different communities varied in their evolution, as will be seen. However, the area included such obviously important archaic centres as Corinth and Argos, and lay close to other influential communities in central Greece. Contemporary trends in development penetrated the Peloponnese, and in fact reached not only Corinth and Argos but also much smaller and more obscure settlements.

Comparing how different areas of the archaic Peloponnese evolved is made more difficult by the very uneven evidence, whether literary, epigraphic, or archaeological. The progress of archaeological research has brought much new information, but some areas remain virtually unknown. One such case is the area between the rivers Alpheios and Neda (which later - around 400 - became Triphylia). It barely appears in the literary evidence. The sanctuary of Artemis at Kombothekra (Sinn 1978; 1981), already important in the archaic period, has been excavated, but we still do not know who controlled it. Some archaic material has also been found at Prasidaki near Lepreon, where the late classical temple had an archaic predecessor,1 and at the probable sites of such classical communities as Epeion and Pyrgos.2 Nonetheless the archaic history of the area generally is barely known, and it hardly appears in this chapter.

The uneven coverage offered by the available evidence creates obvious difficulties, for instance for anyone trying to explain how Achaea came to launch several important colonies in Magna Graecia. Nonetheless, despite the inevitable gaps, it is possible

A Companion to Archaic Greece Edited by Kurt A. Raaflaub and Hans van Wees © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978-0-631-23045-8

To see how different communities in the various regions of the archaic Peloponnese participated in major developments of the period, and in some cases led the way.