Founding myth of Marseille

The founding myth of Marseille is an ancient creation myth telling the legendary foundation of the colony of Massalia (modern Marseille), on the Mediterranean coast of what was later known as southern Gaul, by Greek settlers from Phocaea, a city in western Anatolia. Although the attested versions differ on some details, they all recount the story of the marriage of the princess Gyptis (or Petta), the daughter of Nannus, chief of the native Segobrigii, to the Phocaean sailor Protis (or Euxenus). On her wedding day, the princess chooses to marry the foreigner by giving him a bowl filled with wine or water during the feast.

Only two extensive sources have survived: the story recounted by Aristotle in "The Constitution of the Massaliotes", which is reproduced in Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae, and the version told by Gallo-Roman historian Pompeius Trogus in his Philippic Histories, now lost but later summarized by the Roman historian Justin. The Roman historian Livy also alludes to the myth in his Ab Urbe Condita.

The motif of the princess choosing her future husband in a group of suitors during her wedding is found in other Indo-European myths, notably in the ancient Indian svayamvara tales and in Chares of Mytilene's "Stories about Alexander". The background of the Phocaean version was probably influenced by the actual founding of the colony of Massalia around 600 BC by Greek settlers from the Ionian city of Phocaea, although earlier prototypes may have existed already in Phocaea. The modern inhabitants of Marseille are still colloquially called the 'Phocaeans' (French: Phocéens).