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AEOLIANS (Αἰολέες, οἱ)

JEREMY LABUFF

Northern Arizona University

This people is often thought of as one of the three major Greek “tribes,” but Herodotus refers to them as an ethnic group in their own right, if also a subset of the Hellenes (1.6.2, 28; cf. 1.26.2; 3.1.1; 7.9.α.1). Later tradition and most scholars (e.g., Hertel 2007) see the Aeolians as originating in THESSALY or Boeotia and migrating eastward by the end of the eleventh century BCE, to settle on the Anatolian coast north of Ionia and the adjacent ISLANDS. This reconstruction is based on linguistic similarities as well as Protogeometric ceramic evidence, but Parker (2008) refutes the idea of an Aeolic dialect group, and Rose (2008) argues that the archaeological record does not suggest widespread COLONIZATION, instead tying the literary tradition to the formation of the DELIAN LEAGUE in the 470s. Herodotus refers almost exclusively to the Aeolians of Asia Minor and the nearby islands, no doubt as a result of his East Greek point of view. He lists the Aeolian (Αἰολίδες) CITIES (1.149–51) as LARISA, NEON TEICHOS, TEMNUS, CILLA, NOTIUM, AEGIROESSA, PITANE, AEGAEAE, MYRINA, GRYNEIA, and CYME, the last already considered Aeolian by HESIOD (Op. 636). SMYRNA, the twelfth city, was captured by IONIANS. In addition, Aeolians inhabited the cities on Mt. IDA (the Troad), the five cities of LESBOS (MYTILENE, METHYMNA, Antissa, Eresos, and Pyrrha), the island of TENEDOS, and the “HUNDRED ISLES.” Based on the primacy of these areas in the identification of Aeolians by early sources, Jonathan Hall has argued (2002, 71–73) that Aeolian identity originated in Asia Minor, perhaps in opposition to the emerging Ionian identity just to the south. He proposes that the “transfer” of Smyrna to Ionia served as a foundational event in the formation of Aeolian identity.

The closest that Herodotus comes to acknowledging the tradition of an Aeolian MIGRATION from mainland Greece is at 7.176.4, where he calls Thessaly the “Aeolian land.” Apollodorus (Bibl. 1.50.7–9) reports that Thessaly was given to AEOLUS to rule over by HELLEN. This stands in stark contrast to the Boeotian migration tradition, which is at least as early as PINDAR. He refers to a colonizing band of Aeolians from Boeotia led by ORESTES (Nem. 11.34; cf. Hellanicus (BNJ 4 F32), Demon (BNJ 327 F20), Strabo (13.1.3/C582), and Pausanias (3.2.1)). Herodotus, however, sees the Aeolians as former PELASGIANS (7.95.1) and seems to reject the tradition that saw the Pelasgians as displaced by Boeotian Aeolians (Diod. Sic. 5.81; Strabo 13.3.3/C621). Instead, his view seems to be that Thessalian Pelasgians migrated to Asia Minor, either before or after becoming Aeolian Greeks (cf. Hes. F9 M‐W). In this version, was Boeotia a tertiary Aeolian settlement, receiving colonists from Asia Minor such as Hesiod’s father?

The paucity of detail in discussing Aeolia as compared to Herodotus’ much more extensive treatment of the Ionians only underscores his view that the Aeolians were of secondary historical importance to their southern neighbors. His habit is to place the Ionians first when mentioning both groups, and he stresses the minor role of the Aeolians in the founding of the HELLENION at NAUCRATIS (2.178.2) and in the decision to guard the bridge at the ISTER during DARIUS I’s Scythian campaign (4.138.2). In a few places, Herodotus even subsumes them into the term “Ionians,” for example when the Spartans refuse to help the Ionians against CYRUS (II), though the envoys have just been identified as including Aeolians (1.152). Thus, the reader may suspect that Herodotus is a useful source on the Aeolians only insofar as they were associated (or contrasted) with the Ionians, for example, the fourteen passing references to CONQUEST or control by the Lydian and Persian empires (1.6.2, 26.2, 28, 141.1, 171.1; 2.1.1; 3.1.1, 90.1; 4.89.1; 5.123; 6.98.1; 7.9.α.1, 95.1), or when he tells us that both peoples shared the custom of consulting the ORACLE at BRANCHIDAE (1.157.3). Despite the “Ionian” perspective of Herodotus’ account of the Aeolians, scholarly consensus has come to take as fact Beloch’s hypothesis (1912, I.1: 140) that an Aeolian League existed with a religious center at Gryneia. There is no ancient evidence to support this proposal.