The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов
more informative, since it evokes the role of Amyrtaeus in the revolt initally led by Inaros, which remains difficult to reconstruct: Amyrtaeus perhaps surrendered Inaros in exchange for his own safety, but it is more likely that he continued the struggle and that it was on his initiative that ATHENS sent a rescue fleet which was annihilated by the PHOENICIANS (cf. Thuc. 1.110) around 450 BCE Herodotus also gives the name of Amyrtaeus’ son, PAUSIRIS, whom the Persians supposedly kept in the position which Amyrtaeus had held, on the condition that he accept the role of a “client king.”
SEE ALSO: Athenian Empire; Egypt; Ethiopians; Persia; Thannyras
FURTHER READING
1 Briant, Pierre. 2002. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, translated by Peter T. Daniels, 575–77. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
2 Gozzoli, Roberto. 2009. “History and Stories in Ancient Egypt. Theoretical Issues and the Myth of the Eternal Return.” In Das Ereignis: Geschichtsschreibung zwischen Vorfall und Befund, edited by Martin Fitzenreiter, 103–15. London: Golden House Publications.
3 Lloyd, Alan B. 1975. Herodotus: Book II, Introduction, 47–49. Leiden: Brill.
4 Ruzicka, Stephen. 2012. Trouble in the West: Egypt and the Persian Empire, 525–332 BC, 35–40. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
AMYTHAON (Ἀμυθέων, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Patronymic, father of the mythical seer MELAMPUS (2.49.1) and his brother BIAS. A minor mythical character, Amythaon is associated with PYLOS and OLYMPIA in the western PELOPONNESE (Apollod. Bibl. 1.9.11; Paus. 5.8.2; cf. Pind. Pyth. 4.126).
SEE ALSO: Divination; Myth
FURTHER READING
1 Simon, Erika. 1981. “Amythaon.” In LIMC I.1, 752–53.
ANACHARSIS (Ἀνάχαρσις, ὁ)
ERIC ROSS
University of North Dakota
Mostly legendary Scythian sage of the sixth century BCE. The prototype of the “barbarian wiseman” and “noble savage,” Anacharsis toured Greece and was executed by his own king for attempting to import worship of the Magna Mater into Scythia (4.76–77). According to Herodotus, Anacharsis was the only man known for wisdom in the Pontic region (4.46.1). Along with SCYLES, he illustrates the extreme resistance of the SCYTHIANS to foreign customs. After touring the world, Anacharsis returns home via the HELLESPONT, where he witnesses the rites of the Magna Mater (CYBELE). Upon reaching home, Anacharsis performs the rites himself. Observed practicing foreign religion by a fellow Scythian, he is killed with an arrow by their king SAULIUS (4.76). According to another tradition told by Peloponnesians, and ultimately dismissed by Herodotus as a joke (4.77.2), Anacharsis was sent abroad by the king of Scythia to gain expertise in Greek culture. He returns home to report that among Greeks only the Spartans possess wisdom and the art of conversation.
Anacharsis’ affinity for Greek culture is so strong that some sources assign him a Greek mother and a friendship with SOLON, his Greek counterpart in the Histories (Diog. Laert. 1.101–5). Anacharsis is sometimes included among the SEVEN SAGES, and ten letters from the Hellenistic period, one famously translated by Cicero, are ascribed to him.
SEE ALSO: Barbarians; Gnurus; Knowledge; nomos; Religion, Herodotus’ Views on; Spargapeithes; Travel
FURTHER READING
1 Hartog, François. 1988. The Mirror of Herodotus: The Representation of the Other in the Writing of History, translated by Janet Lloyd [first French edition 1980]. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
2 Kindstrand, Jan Fredrik. 1981. Anacharsis: The Legend and the Apophthegmata. Uppsala and Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
ANACREON (Ἀνακρέων, ὁ)
JESSICA M. ROMNEY
MacEwan University
Anacreon of TEOS (c. 570–485 BCE) is one of the nine lyric poets of Greece. His extant POETRY focuses on the topics of love, beauty, youth vs. old age, and WINE and was performed in the small elite DRINKING occasions known as symposia. Later ages received him as a great lover of wine. His poems and reputation fostered a later tradition of poetry collectively known as “the Anacreontea.”
Herodotus introduces Anacreon near the end of the POLYCRATES cycle in an alternate account for OROETES’ actions. In this version, a MESSENGER from Oroetes arrived on SAMOS to see the tyrant, who “happened to be reclining in the men’s quarters” with Anacreon at the time; they were likely participating in a symposion. Polycrates paid the messenger no heed, thereby insulting the satrap (3.121).
Although Herodotus does not explain why Anacreon was in Samos at the time, the poet was likely there in some sort of capacity as a court poet for Polycrates. After Polycrates’ death, HIPPIAS and HIPPARCHUS, the sons of PEISISTRATUS, brought Anacreon to ATHENS, where again he composed poetry for the TYRANTS’ court (Kantzios 2004–2005). Following the expulsion of Hippias from Athens, Anacreon remained there, and a statue was set up on the ACROPOLIS after his death (Paus. 1.25.1).
SEE ALSO: Causation; Satrapies
REFERENCE
1 Kantzios, Ippokratis. 2004–2005. “Tyranny and the Symposion of Anacreon.” CJ 100.3: 227–45.
FURTHER READING
1 Campbell, David A., ed. 1988. Greek Lyric. Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
2 Rosenmeyer, Patricia A. 1992. The Poetics of Imitation: Anacreon and the Anacreontic Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ANACTORIUM (Ἀνακτόριον, τό)
ALISON LANSKI
University of Notre Dame
A city founded by CORINTH in the mid‐seventh century BCE on the south coast of the Ambracian Gulf (BA 54 C4; Müller I, 894–95). The Anactorians (Herodotus only uses the city‐ethnic, Ἀνακτόριοι), along with the LEUCADIANS, sent eight hundred HOPLITES to PLATAEA in 479 BCE in support of the Greek cause; they were stationed across from the SACAE in the battle line (9.28.5, 31.4). Anactorium was allied with SPARTA during the PELOPONNESIAN WAR (Thuc. 2.9.2). The small bay in front of the city was sometimes referred to as the Anactoric Gulf (Ps.‐Scylax 31, 34). A well‐known sanctuary of APOLLO Aktios was located just outside the city (Thuc. 1.29.3; Strabo 7.7.6/C325).
SEE ALSO: Acarnania; Ambracia; Colonization; Hellenic League
FURTHER READING
1 Hammond, N. G. L. 1967. Epirus, 425–27. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2 IACP no. 114 (356–57).
ANAGYROUS (Ἀναγυροῦς)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
A DEME (district, precinct) of ancient ATHENS, on the western coast of Attica south of HYMETTUS (BA 59 C3), modern Vari. Anagyrous occurs in the Histories only as a demotic (Ἀναγυράσιος) for the Athenian EUMENES, who won special PRAISE