Modellare identità, tramandare memoria, riformare la polis. A proposito di Munico: un eroe eponimo tra mito e storia

In the foundation account given by the Atthidographer Hellanikos, Mounychos is the eponymous hero who ruled over the topmost part of the Piraeus. In the same source, Mounychos is also the mythical king who gave asylum to the Minyans of Orchomenos fleeing from Boeotia after the Thracian invasion. In addition to literary evidence, on the basis of a Lycurgan period inscription with a dedication to Mounychos by the tribe of ephebes who had won in a torch-race, a possible identification of Mounychos as the eponymous hero of the class of manhood or military age has been suggested. Two key points are at the focus of the question. First, we have to consider the etiological myth reported by Hellanikos as the result of a specific rhetorical project finalized to recall to the mind the image of Athens as a refuge, relying on the Athenian identity basic concept of hospitality and therefore habitability. Second, the issue of the celebration of victory in the ephebic lampas with dedication to Mounychos presupposes and re-actualizes in the ways of the ritual performance a paideutic discourse founded on the building of a civic identity, by means of training contests, and the sharing of a long-running collective memory.