The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов
READING
1 Assmann, Jan. 2012. Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism, translated by Anthony Alcock [first German edition 1983]. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor & Francis.
2 Guermeur, Ivan. 2005. Les cultes d’Amon hors de Thèbes: recherches de géographie religieuse. Turnhout: Brepols.
3 Sethe, Kurt. 1929. Amun und die acht Urgötter von Hermopolis. Eine Untersuchung über Ursprung und Wesen des ägyptischen Götterkönigs. Berlin: Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
AMYNTAS I (Ἀμύντης, ὁ) son of Alcetas
IOANNIS XYDOPOULOS
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Amyntas is the first historically attested king of MACEDONIA (Borza 1990, 98–103), though his role in the Histories is secondary compared with that of his son, ALEXANDER I. Amyntas became a Persian vassal as early as 513/12 BCE, giving EARTH AND WATER to Persian envoys (5.18.1; Hornblower 2013, 109–11). Herodotus has Alexander, in a short speech to those envoys, describe Amyntas as DARIUS I’s hyparchos (a man ruling over the Macedonians, 5.20.4; cf. Tripodi 2007), an indication perhaps of a more intense Persian military presence in Macedonia, implied by Herodotus elsewhere (6.44; 7.108.1). As a client king of PERSIA, Amyntas must have taken advantage of the weakening of the PAEONIANS by Megabazus’ Persian army to expand Macedonian power along his eastern border. His offer of ANTHEMUS to HIPPIAS, who had been driven out of ATHENS in 510, is evidence of this, though it may also indicate that Amyntas was not able to control the area fully (5.94.1; Xydopoulos 2012, with further bibliography). Amyntas’ offer to Hippias illuminates perhaps his policy of creating interpersonal relationships with the PEISISTRATIDAE as well as with the Persians. Amyntas was in this way clearly showing his loyalty to PERSIA—confirmed also by the fact that he gave his daughter, GYGAEA, in marriage to the Persian BUBARES (5.21; 8.136.1)—hoping to get the maximum benefit for his kingdom, a policy followed successfully by his son and successor.
SEE ALSO: Alcetas; Amyntas son of Bubares; Megabazus the Persian; Satrapies
REFERENCES
1 Borza, Eugene N. 1990. In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
2 Hornblower, Simon, ed. 2013. Herodotus: Histories Book V. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3 Tripodi, Bruno. 2007. “Aminta I, Alessandro I e gli hyparchoi in Erodoto.” In Ancient Macedonia VII. Macedonia from the Iron Age to the Death of Philip II, 67–85. Thessaloniki: Institute for Balkan Studies.
4 Xydopoulos, Ι. Κ. 2012. “Anthemus and Hippias: The Policy of Amyntas I.” ICS 37: 21–37.
AMYNTAS (Ἀμύντης, ὁ) son of Bubares
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Son of the Persian nobleman BUBARES and the Macedonian princess GYGAEA (sister of ALEXANDER I). Herodotus reports (8.136.1) that Amyntas was given the Phrygian city of Alabanda by the Persian king (presumably XERXES). Possibly Amyntas, being both an ACHAEMENID and Macedonian royalty, was destined to succeed his uncle as “satrap‐king” of MACEDONIA until the Persians were driven out of EUROPE by the Greeks (Badian 1994, 115–16).
SEE ALSO: Alabanda in Phrygia; Amyntas son of Alcetas; Satrapies
REFERENCE
1 Badian, Ernst. 1994. “Herodotus on Alexander I of Macedon: A Study in Some Subtle Silences.” In Greek Historiography, edited by Simon Hornblower, 107–30. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
AMYRGIANS (Ἀμύργιοι, οἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Alternative name for the Scythian SACAE. Herodotus comments that although a group in XERXES’ invasion force were actually “Amyrgian Scythians,” the Persians called them Sacae, as they do all SCYTHIANS (7.64.2). Many scholars (e.g., Bryce 2012, 608; contra Narain 1987) identify the Amyrgians with the Sakā haumavargā attested in Old Persian INSCRIPTIONS (e.g., A?P §14). Their precise location is unknown but would presumably be in Central Asia; Herodotus lists them as fighting together with the BACTRIANS, commanded by HYSTASPES SON OF DARIUS. Hellanicus called Amyrgion “a plain of the Sacae” (BNJ 4 F65), and CTESIAS recounts a king of the Sacae named Amorges at the time of CYRUS (II) (FGrHist 688 F9.7–8).
SEE ALSO: Catalogues; Persia
REFERENCES
1 Bryce, Trevor. 2012. The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire. London and New York: Routledge.
2 Narain, A. K. 1987. “The Sakā Haumavargā and the ʾΑμύργιοι: The Problem of Their Identity.” BAI 1: 27–31.
AMYRIS ( Ἄμυρις, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Patronymic, father of DAMASUS, of SIRIS in southern ITALY (6.127.1). Damasus came to SICYON as a suitor of AGARISTE (I), Cleisthenes’ daughter, in the sixth century BCE (6.127.1). Herodotus notes that Amyris was known as “the Wise” (cf. Santoni 1983, 95 n. 14). He provides no further details, but later authors give an example. Having witnessed a scene which he realizes fulfills an ORACLE foretelling the demise of his city (SYBARIS rather than Siris here: cf. Ath. 12.520a–c), Amyris quickly sells his property and leaves town. His less‐wise neighbors think him mad, giving rise to the PROVERB Ἄμυρις μαίνεται, “Crazy like Amyris” (Lombardo 1981, 199).
SEE ALSO: Knowledge; Seven Sages
REFERENCES
1 Lombardo, Mario. 1981. “La tradizione su Amyris e la conquista achea di Siri.” PP 36: 193–218.
2 Santoni, Anna. 1983. “Temi e motivi di interesse socio‐economico nella leggenda dei ‘sette sapienti’.” ASNP ser. 3 vol. 13.1: 91–160.
AMYRTAEUS (Ἀμυρταῖος, ὁ)
TYPHAINE HAZIZA
Université de Caen Normandie
Leader of an Egyptian REBELLION against Persian rule in the late 450s BCE (cf. Thuc. 1.112). After the death of INAROS (between 456 and 453), Amyrtaeus—no doubt an ally of Inaros—maintained control of a marshy region in the NILE Delta without being disturbed by the Persians.
Herodotus mentions this “Prince of the Marshes,” originally from SAIS, who was nearly his contemporary, in two passages. The first is very allusive (2.140): in narrating the return to power of ANYSIS, the blind pharaoh who fled to the marshes of the DELTA for fifty years during the reign of the Ethiopian SABACOS, Herodotus notes that the man‐made ISLAND which served as a refuge for Anysis, named ELBO, had not been discovered before the reign of Amyrtaeus, more than 700 years later. Anysis is not identifiable as an Egyptian ruler; the Ethiopian (i.e., Nubian, 25th) Dynasty dates to the eighth century BCE; and the island Elbo is unknown from Egyptian sources. This passage should rather be imagined in a symbolic manner, related to Amyrtaeus’ revolt during the reign of ARTAXERXES. The flight into the marshes is, in fact, an Egyptian topos and can have mythological