Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.
Concept
Caucones
Summary
The Caucones kɔːˈkoʊˌniːz,_kəˈkoʊˌniːz (Καύκωνες Kaukônes) were an autochthonous tribe of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), who later migrated to parts of the Greek mainland (Arcadia, Triphylian Pylos and Elis).
The phonology of the name Caucones has been taken as evidence for an origin in the Caucasus Mountains. It is also suggested that they are related to the Late Bronze Age Kaskians, who Hittite tablets locate along the southern shore of the Black Sea. According to Herodotus and other classical era writers, the Caucones were among the tribes displaced or absorbed by the Bithynians, who had migrated from Thrace. This suggests that the Bithynians spoke an Indo-European language, while the Caucones did not.
The Iliad lists the Caucones among the Trojan allies. In Book X, the Trojan herald Dolon describes their homeland as "towards the sea" and mentions them alongside the Karians, Paionians, Leleges, and Pelasgians. In the Odyssey (3.366), Athena tells Nestor at Pylos that she will "go to the Caucones, where there's an old debt still owing me, not a small amount." This allusion may refer to a subgroup of Caucones who had migrated to mainland Greece, as reported by Strabo.
Other references to the Caucones in epic tradition may have been attempts to recognize the Caucones as deserving a place in the Neleiad kingdom in southwestern Greece. Efforts were made, we are told by Pausanias (4.1.5). to 'historicize' Kaukon as the early ancestor of the Athenian genos Lykomidai around 480 BC by inventing a grandson of an earth-born Phlyus named Kaukon who taught the Eleusinian Mysteries to a royal queen Messene. His name was Kaukon, a teacher of religious rites.
Their penetration beyond Arkadia (Strabo 7.7.1–2) and their claims to be sons of Lycaon or Lycos (Apollodorus, Library 3.8.1) explains their enduring presence over time in literature. Pausanias' description of the carved figure of Caucon holding a lyre atop his tomb speaks to their tribal poetic literacy. Several scholars believed Pylian Caucones (Hdt. 4.148, 1.147, 5.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.