La petite cité grecque d’Ilion offre un exemple original d’identité civique complexe mêlant éléments grecs et « barbares » (i. e. non grecs) grâce à l’utilisation des différents mythes liés à la guerre de Troie. Cette construction identitaire mythique s’enracine dans un site particulièrement riche où les différents niveaux archéologiques se superposent et s’enchevêtrent de l’âge du Bronze à l’époque romaine (Troie I à IX). Elle est aussi nourrie de diverses influences, anatoliennes et égéennes, particulièrement sensibles dans le cas d’Ilion car cette cité, située au bord de l’Hellespont, se trouve en situation de carrefour géopolitique et culturel entre Europe et Asie. Le sanctuaire d’Athéna Ilias joue un rôle central dans l’identité, les mythes et l’histoire de la cité. Mais ce sanctuaire est aussi le centre d’une association religieuse regroupant plusieurs autres cités, principalement de Troade mais aussi d’au-delà, comme Myrléa en Propontide et même Chalcédoine sur le Bosphore, qui administrent en commun le sanctuaire et participent à des panégyries et des concours sacrés en l’honneur de cette divinité à la fois civique et fédérale. L’autre principal lieu de culte d’Ilion, le « Sanctuaire Ouest », témoigne lui aussi d’influences à la fois européennes et asiatiques. / This PhD thesis intends to offer a synthesis concerning the Greek city-State of Ilion. This city-State offers an original example of a complex civic identity which mixes Greek and “barbaric” (i.e. non-Greek) elements through the use of different myths relating to the Trojan war. This mythical construction of identity is rooted in a particularly rich site where the various archaeological levels are superimposed and tangled together, from the Bronze age to the Roman period (Troy I to IX), as evidenced by H. Schliemann, the inventor of the site, which is still nowadays being excavated by German and American teams. Ilion’s identity is also fueled by various influences, Anatolian and Aegean, that are particularly sensitive because of the fact that the city is located at a geopolitical and cultural crossroad between Europe and Asia. The sanctuaries of Ilion play a central role in the identity, the myths and the history of the city, especially the sanctuary of Athena Ilias. It is the centre of a religious association (koinon) which regroups several other cities, from Troad and even beyond, who administer the sanctuary together and participate in festivals and sacred games in honor of this divinity that is both civic and federal. The second main cult site of Ilion, called “West Sanctuary”, is also a testimony of European and Asian influences.

The dissertation analyses the reliefs and paintings on thirty-one different tombs in Western Anatolia erected between 600 and 450 BC, in order to illuminate the ways in which non-Greek elites were identified on their memorials. The tombs from three areas are treated: Phrygia, Hellespontine Phrygia and Lydia, where the primary language groups were Phrygian, Mysian and Lydian. There is little literary evidence for these regions, and what there is tends to focus on political developments. Descriptions of people and society are few, and tend to represent them from an outside perspective, grouping them according to cultural characteristics which differentiate them from Greeks. It is clear, however, that the regions were important, prosperous places, controlled by illustrious grandees and land marked with a relatively high proportion of monumental tombs. Of these monumental tombs, there is a relatively high number decorated with striking and articulate images. There is much to be gained from examining the images on these tombs, as ‘indigenous’ sources for how elite Western Anatolians described themselves. Previous approaches to the tombs and their images have tended to look at them individually or in smaller groups, and to concentrate on the transmission and reception of Persian and Greek culture in the Achaemenid provinces. This dissertation contributes a broader comparative study of the decorated tombs, focussing on the kinds of statuses the images represent and the cultural forms these took. By comparing the various methods of self-representation, it clarifies patterns of identities in Western Anatolia and their relationship to historical circumstances. The dissertation is divided into five chapters. An introduction outlines the scope and sample, the historical background, previous studies of the monuments, the definition of ‘identity’ and the methods of analysis adopted here. Three case study chapters present the regions and the decorated monuments within them. A concluding chapter synthesises three aspects: social identities (roles and spheres of life represented); geographic and chronological patterns; and cultural affiliations and orientations. The dissertation concludes that a tension between Persian identities and local traditions is evident in some of the tomb images, which relates to the political upheavals in Western Anatolia and the Aegean at the time of the Persian Wars.