The main source of information on the cult of the Thracian hero Rhesus at Amphipolis
is a detailed narrative in Polyaenus’ Stratagemata. According to this, the cult was introduced
by the Athenian colonists who founded the city in 437 BC. In that occasion,
a sanctuary (heroon) was built in the place where the supposed relics of Rhesus were
buried. The paper studies the possible origins of Polyaenus’ account in some lost work
of local historiography; it also discusses the remaining sources of information on the
cult and the sanctuary (literary, epigraphic, archaeological, numismatic). On this basis,
some general remarks on the ‘sacred topography’ of Amphipolis in the fifth century BC
and a new interpretation of the historical context of the foundation of the colony are
also suggested. The introduction of a supposedly ‘indigenous’ cult was meant not only
to legitimate the Athenian claims on a much disputed territory and to make the city’s
foundation possible, but also to involve the Thracian tribes of the area in the foundation
itself and to include them in the city’s population. Other elements can confirm such an
interpretation of the mixed nature of the city and of some peculiarities of its pantheon.
