ABSTRACT
The fi rst part of a Greek city-state’s local chronicle was concerned with origins and foundations: origins of civilization, in general, and Hellenic, in particular; of the specifi c people themselves, where they came from, how they reached their present territory (usually involving a ‘mythos’ justifying their ownership); of their culture; origins of leading families and of names of places and topographical phenomena; foundations of cults and religious practices and festivals, of sacred sites, of legal, administrative and political institutions. In fact, it served to establish the national identity of a polis. The Athenian chronicle was in no respect different (Harding 2007: 180-88).
