Anaxandros

While preparing to restart the exploration of the ancient Greek city of Istros, interrupted by the First World War, Vasile Pârvan wrote an inaugural lecture for his course about Attic Drama in 1920 imitating a Platonic dialogue, Anaxandros, between three noble citizens of Istros. Following in a way his example, the paper tries to imagine more than it is usually allowed, aiming to restore a possible cultic and cultural dimension in the life of the archaic polis. The first part identifies a possible foundation story, illustrated both at Sinope and at Istros by the early silver coins with a sea-eagle capturing a dolphin ; the second develops the implications of four spectacular tumuli of the VIth c. BCE which contain evidence of human sacrifices reminding the Homeric description of Patroclus’ funeral