The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов

The Herodotus Encyclopedia

mentions Amphilochus twice: as the founder of the city of POSIDEION between CILICIA and SYRIA (3.91.1) and as the progenitor, along with the seer CALCHAS, of the PAMPHYLIANS (7.91).

SEE ALSO: Colonization; Divination; Myth

REFERENCE

1 Baron, Christopher. 2014. “Adopting an Ancestor: Addressing Some Problems Raised by Thucydides’ History of Amphilochian Argos (2.68).” AncW 45.1: 3–17.

AMPHILYTUS (Ἀμϕίλυτος, ὁ)

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

An Acarnanian chrēsmologos (someone who speaks, collects, or interprets ORACLES: Bowden 2003, 261). Amphilytus delivers a PROPHECY to PEISISTRATUS just before the Battle of Pallene (Attica) in 546 BCE: “the net has been cast … and the tuna will rush headlong through the night.” Peisistratus accepts the prophecy, leads his army to victory, and finally establishes himself as TYRANT at ATHENS (1.62.4; see Lavelle 1991). A pseudo‐Platonic dialogue refers to Amphilytus as an “Acharnian,” i.e., from the Attic DEME of Acharnae ([Plato] Theages 124d]; but ACARNANIA was particularly associated with seers (see e.g., MEGISTIAS), and the PEISISTRATIDAE showed great interest in collecting oracles and chrēsmologoi themselves (Shapiro 1990).

SEE ALSO: Divination; Fish; Onomacritus; Pallene (Deme)

REFERENCES

1 Bowden, Hugh. 2003. “Oracles for Sale.” In Herodotus and His World: Essays from a Conference in Memory of George Forrest, edited by Peter Derow and Robert Parker, 256–74. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2 Lavelle, Brian M. 1991. “The Compleat Angler: Observations on the Rise of Peisistratos in Herodotos (1.59–64).” CQ 41.2: 317–24.

3 Shapiro, H. A. 1990. “Oracle‐Mongers in Peisistratid Athens.” Kernos 3: 335–45.

AMPHIMNESTUS (Ἀμϕίμνηστος, ὁ)

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

Amphimnestus, from EPIDAMNUS on the IONIAN GULF, appears as one of the thirteen men who came to SICYON as a suitor for Cleisthenes’ daughter AGARISTE (I), sometime in the sixth century BCE (6.127.2). Nothing else is known of him. (See ALCON for bibliography.)

SEE ALSO: Cleisthenes of Sicyon; Competition; Epistrophus; Hippocleides; Megacles (II)

AMPHION (Ἀμϕίων, ὁ)

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

A member of the BACCHIADAE at CORINTH, father of LABDA (5.92.β.1). Amphion’s decision to marry his daughter to someone outside the clan (supposedly due to her infirmity) led to the downfall of the Bacchiad OLIGARCHY at the hands of her child, CYPSELUS SON OF EËTION, who became TYRANT at Corinth in the mid‐seventh century BCE.

AMPHISSA ( Ἄμϕισσα, ἡ)

JEREMY MCINERNEY

University of Pennsylvania

A West Locrian town located fifteen kilometers northwest of DELPHI (BA 55 C3). When the Persians invaded Greece in 480 BCE, many Phocians fled to Amphissa for protection (8.32.2), as did those Delphians who did not flee to Mt. PARNASSUS (8.36.2). Amphissa’s location explains its importance. It sits at the southern end of a corridor linking the Corinthian Gulf to central Greece. It also dominates the northern end of the Sacred Plain, the territory dedicated to APOLLO and left uncultivated in antiquity. When the Amphissans planted crops here in the 340s, they were denounced by the AMPHICTYONES, precipitating the Fourth Sacred War.

SEE ALSO: Crisaean Plain; Locris (Ozolian); Phocis

AMPHITRYON (Ἀμϕιτρύων, ὁ)

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

Mythical, a grandson of PERSEUS. Amphitryon married his cousin ALCMENE, but she refused to consummate the MARRIAGE until he avenged her brothers’ deaths at the hands of the TELEBOANS (Apollod. Bibl. 2.4.6–7). On the night before Amphitryon’s return from completing his mission, ZEUS appeared to Alcmene disguised as Amphitryon; she then gave birth to HERACLES (and, in some accounts, a fully mortal twin, Iphicles: Gantz, EGM 374–78). However, Herodotus refers to Heracles consistently as the son of Amphitryon, not Zeus (2.43.2, 44.4, 146.1; 6.53.2).

Herodotus employs the fact that Perseus was of Egyptian descent (2.91.5) in his argument that the Greeks took the name of Heracles from the Egyptians, rather than vice versa (2.43.2). He also quotes an INSCRIPTION in “Cadmeian letters” on a TRIPOD claiming to have been dedicated by Amphitryon in the temple of Ismenian APOLLO at Boeotian THEBES after his destruction of the Teleboans (5.59). Herodotus notes that this would be contemporary with LAÏUS (the father of OEDIPUS); other sources relate that Amphitryon sought purification from Creon (Laïus’ brother‐in‐law) at Thebes after he accidentally killed his uncle (and father‐in‐law) Electryon. A supposed tomb of Amphitryon at Thebes is mentioned by PINDAR (Nem. 4.19–22).

SEE ALSO: Chronology; Dedications; Myth; Proof; Writing

AMUN (Ἀμοῦν, ὁ)

JOACHIM FRIEDRICH QUACK

Heidelberg University

Egyptian god, venerated at many places but especially Egyptian THEBES. Originally, Amun seems to have been linked specifically with the wind, but especially in the compound Amun‐Re, he became a solar and creator god. He became EGYPT’s supreme god with the rise of Thebes as capital, and during the New Kingdom his temple was the best‐endowed in all of Egypt. His sacred animals are the NILE goose and the ram. Herodotus identifies the Theban Amun with ZEUS (2.42.5). This is likely based on the fact that Amun was considered the king of the gods in Egypt. It is to be noted that for the Theban god, Herodotus uses the form “Amun” (Ἀμοῦν) which accords with contemporary pronunciation in the Nile valley, while for the god of Sîwa OASIS, he uses the form “AMMON” ( Ἄμμων) which might reflect

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The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов