Tartessos: entre mitos e representações

• Autor(a) principal: Albuquerque, Pedro
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Tipo de documento: Livro
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/9854
• topic: Arqueologia; História antiga; Fontes greco-latinas; Tartessos

This work is the outcome of an analysis over the Herodotus’ representation of Tartessos. This author refers to this territory twice (I, 163 and IV, 152), presenting, in the former, a tyrant that lived for one hundred and twenty years, known by the Phocian and, in the later, an unexplored harbour discovered by the Samian. The purpose of this research was essentially to understand the relationships eventually kept between the texts of Herodotus and the poetical traditions, namely the travel chronicles like Odyssey, as well as with the structuring of landscapes from the occidental limits of the inhabited world. From the methodological point of view, studies concerning the morphology of the travel chronicles are taken into account, as well as the role of the protagonists in the narrative setting. In the chapter «as Fontes» («the sources»), three different insights over the proposed approach are presented: (2.1) Material culture, discussing the processes developed by Archaeology to characterize the Tartessian area and culture, prior to the first written references to this territory (XI to VI centuries BC). On the other way, the relationship between the Phoenician and Iberian communities, and with the Greeks, might have allowed the change of information related with the occidental boundaries, judging by the presence of Greek objects among Phoenician material. In 2.2, etymological traits are discussed, specifically the origin of the terms «Tartessos», «Tarshish», as well as the so called «Tartessian» toponyms. This discussion aims, above all, to acknowledge the extent of the etymological association between the landscapes that might have led, as an example, to the designation of «Tartessos» for a territory that would have been known by the Phoenicians as «Tarshish», and recognized later by the Greeks. Starting with these two principles – Material Culture and Etymology – a framework of the analyzed compositions (Hesiod, Homers and Herodotus) is envisaged (in 2.3), discussing their chronology in connection with the material vestiges that indicate the first Phoenician trips to the Iberian lands. Considering Herodotus, the outline of his work reveals that this author didn’t have a specific interest in the Occident reproducing, probably, the epic style accounts, like in Odyssey. Besides, this poem had great importance in the VIth century BC, precisely because it describes the journey to the boundaries of the inhabited world. The Image of the Occident is a matter discussed on chapter 3. This image seems the have been built around ideas concerning the boundaries of the inhabited world (3.1), resulting on the conception of three kinds of landscape: (3.2) monstrous, inhabited by monsters like Geryon, associated by Stesichorus to Tartessos and involved in the tenth labour of Hercules in Erythia. On the other hand, the conception of scatological landscapes portrays the image of a distant border line world where some heroes are sent, living in an agriculturally productive area with soft climate (Islands of the Blest in the Works and Days of Hesiod, Elysion in Odyssey). These characteristics meet Hesiod’s description in the Golden Age, in his turn relating with landscapes like in Skheria (Odyssey), where Odysseus found hospitable characters like Alcinoos, king of the Phaeaceans. It is in this type of human landscape, analysed and discussed in 3.3, that we can find some relation to Argantonios and with the conception of the literary landscape of Tartessos. The narrative sequence of the journey chronicles, especially in Odyssey, and on the encounter of Odysseus with the Phaeaceans, is a fundamental element in the comparison with the texts of Herodotus and the conception of Tartessos (4). These seem to be based on oral traditions collected by the author in his journeys and reproduced according to the objectives and interests of his work. In 4.1, the discussion is on the general scenery of Herodotus perception of the world’s boundaries, analyzing within this, the journeys of Argantonio. This character seems to relate with the description of human landscapes expressed in 3.3. Within this scenery, above all taking into account the longevity of Argantonio, arise the bases to an understanding on the relation of his 120 years and the stereotype of richness (4.2), especially the agricultural richness (4.2.3). This stereotype of richness (herding, metallurgy, agriculture and slave acquisition) can, eventually, keep some connection with Phoenician interests in Iberian terrain. Finally, in chapter 5, all matters from the previous chapters are discussed, aiming to verify if Tartessos is a real scenery or if it also matches, on the other hand, the literary scenery correlated with the journeys into the boundaries of inhabited world.