Editing Thebes, Greece (section)

===Early history===
Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed [[cist]] graves dated to [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] times containing weapons, ivory, and tablets written in [[Linear B]]. Its attested name forms and relevant terms on tablets found locally or elsewhere include {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀳𐀣𐀂}}}}, ''te-qa-i'',{{refn|group=n|Found on the TH Ft 140 tablet.<ref name=LinearB>{{cite web |url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/linear-b-transliterations/thebes/ |title=Thebes |work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B |last=Raymoure |first=K.A. |publisher=Deaditerranean |access-date=19 March 2014 |archive-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115050847/http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/linear-b-transliterations/thebes/ |url-status=dead }} {{cite web |title=The Linear B word te-qa-ja |url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/ShowWord.aspx?Id=16897 |publisher=Palaeolexicon. Word study tool for ancient languages }} {{cite web |title=KN 5864 Ap (103) |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/2035 }} {{cite web |title=PY 539 Ep + fr. + fr. + fr. (1) |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/4577 }} {{cite web |title=TH 65 Wu (γ) |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5503 }} {{cite web |title=MY 508 X (unknown) |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5637 }} {{cite web |title=TH 140 Ft (312) |website=DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5348 |publisher=[[University of Oslo]] }}</ref>}} understood to be read as *''Tʰēgʷai̮s'' (Ancient Greek: {{lang|grc|[[wiktionary:Θῆβαι##Inflection|Θήβαις]]}}, ''Thēbais'', i.e. "at Thebes", ''Thebes'' in the [[dative]]-[[locative]] case), {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀳𐀣𐀆}}}}, ''te-qa-de'',{{refn|group=n|Found on the [[Mycenae|MY]] X 508, TH Wu 65, tablets.<ref name=LinearB/>}} for *''Tʰēgʷasde'' ({{lang|grc|Θήβασδε}}, ''Thēbasde'', i.e. "to Thebes"),<ref name=LSJThebai/><ref>{{LSJ|*qh/basde|Θήβασδε|ref|mLSJ}}.</ref> and {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀳𐀣𐀊}}}}, ''te-qa-ja'',{{refn|group=n|Found on the [[Knossos|KN]] Ap 5864, [[Pylos|PY]] Ep 539, tablets.<ref name=LinearB/>}} for *''Tʰēgʷaja'' ({{lang|grc|Θηβαία}}, ''Thēbaia'', i.e. "Theban woman").<ref name=LSJThebai/>
[[File:Bell idol Louvre CA 573 √.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Theban workshop (Oinochoe type), 7th century BC]]
<nowiki>*</nowiki>''Tʰēgʷai'' was one of the first Greek communities to be drawn together within a fortified city, and that it owed its importance in prehistoric days—as later—to its military strength. [[Sigried Deger-Jalkotzy|Deger-Jalkotzy]] claimed that the statue base from [[Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III|Kom el-Hetan]] in [[Amenhotep III]]'s kingdom ([[Helladic period#Late Helladic III (LHIII)|LHIII]]A:1) mentions a name similar to Thebes, spelled out quasi-syllabically in [[egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphs]] as ''dy-qꜣj-jꜣ-s'', and considered to be one of four ''tj-n3-jj'' ([[Danaan]]?) kingdoms worthy of note (alongside Knossos and Mycenae). *''Tʰēgʷai'' in LHIIIB lost contact with Egypt but gained it with "Miletus" ([[Hittite language|Hittite]]: ''[[Milawata]]'') and "Cyprus" (Hittite: ''[[Alashiya|Alashija]]''). In the late LHIIIB, according to Palaima,<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://sites.utexas.edu/scripts/files/2016/07/palaima_2004a.pdf |title=Sacrificial Feasting in the Linear B documents |journal=Hesperia |volume=73 |issue=2 |year=2004 |pages=217–246 |first=Thomas G. |last=Palaima |doi=10.2972/hesp.2004.73.2.217|s2cid=162875563 }}</ref> *''Tʰēgʷai'' was able to pull resources from Lamos near [[Mount Helicon]], and from [[Karystos]] and [[Amarynthos]] on the Greek side of the isle of [[Euboia]].

The central area of Thebes, known as the [[Cadmea]], shows signs of destruction towards the end of the Mycenaean era and much of the site was abandoned. In the words of [[Richard Hope Simpson]], "The decline of Thebes after the end of the LH IIIB period recalls the Hypothebai (or "sub-Thebes") of the Homeric Catalogue of the Ships (''Iliad'' ii 505), but we have no reliable indications as to where this residual "lower town" may have been located."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hope Simpson |first1=Richard |title=Mycenaean Greece |date=1981 |publisher=Noyes Press |location=Park Ridge, NJ |isbn=0-8155-5061-8 |page=70 |url=https://archive.org/details/mycenaeangreece0000simp/page/70/ |access-date=11 March 2025}}</ref> The Homeric Hypothebai may have been the seed of the Archaic and Classical polity of Thebes when the city was reestablished in earnest.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mozhajsky |first1=Andrej Y. |last2=Юрьевич |first2=Можайский Андрей |title=Hypothebai of the Iliad as an evidence of the beginning of the formation of the Theban polis |journal=Vestnik drevnei istorii |date=1 September 2024 |volume=84 |issue=3 |pages=618–639 |url=https://journals.rcsi.science/0321-0391/article/view/280395 |access-date=11 March 2025 |language=ru |issn=0321-0391}}</ref>