The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов
their own ASIES son of COTYS son of MANES as the eponym (4.45.3).
Herodotus is alone among our surviving sources in this regard (Fowler 2013, 113–14). Asia appears in HESIOD’s Theogony (359) as one of the daughters of Oceanus. But our earliest clear evidence for Prometheus’ wife gives her name as Hesione (Acousilaus BNJ 2 F34; Aesch. PV 560). Asia appears later as the mother of Prometheus (Lycoph. Alex. 1283; Apollod. Bibl. 1.2.2–3) while Clymene is named as his wife (e.g., Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.17.3).
SEE ALSO: Boundaries; Geography; Lydia; Ocean
REFERENCE
1 Fowler, Robert L. 2013. Early Greek Mythography. Vol. 2, Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ASIES (Ἀσίης, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Herodotus mentions Asies in his discussion of the difficulties raised by the names for individual continents. While many Greeks think that ASIA was named after the wife of PROMETHEUS, the Lydians claim otherwise, citing Asies son of COTYS son of MANES, from whom the tribe called Asias in SARDIS received its name (4.45.3). That tribe is attested at Sardis in a Roman‐era inscription (SEG 19‐714; Pedley 1972, 8). The name “Asia” may derive ultimately from Hittite Assuwa, which referred to a region of western Anatolia (Bryce 2009, 83; Talamo 1979, 99–107).
SEE ALSO: Asia, wife of Prometheus; Geography; Lydia
REFERENCES
1 Bryce, Trevor. 2009. The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire. London and New York: Routledge.
2 Pedley, John Griffiths. 1972. Ancient Literary Sources on Sardis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
3 Talamo, Clara. 1979. La Lidia arcaica. Bologna: Pàtron.
ASINE (Ἀσίνη, ἡ)
NATASHA BERSHADSKY
Center for Hellenic Studies
Spartan perioecic settlement, on the western coast of the Messenian Gulf (BA 58 B4; modern Koroni), inhabited by DRYOPES (Paus. 4.34.9–12). When Herodotus lists the Greeks who came to the ISTHMUS of CORINTH to defend the PELOPONNESE against the Persians in 480 BCE (8.72), he does not mention Asine, despite the fact that he refers to it immediately afterwards as one of the Dryopian CITIES in the list of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Peloponnese (8.73.2). Herodotus claims that all of the Peloponnesian poleis that he has not enumerated as resisting the Persians remained neutral, which for him amounts to medizing (8.73.3). Since Asine was a perioecic Spartan city, it is not clear whether it was implicitly included in the list of the defenders as a part of the Lacedaemonians, or actually remained neutral.
Pausanias narrates that the Dryopes of Asine had lived in the Argolid, but the Argives destroyed their town and the population was given refuge by the Spartans (Paus. 2.36.4–5, 4.8.3; cf. Strabo 8.6.11/C373). The archaeological record of Argolic Asine is consistent with this narrative, showing a distinctive material culture and a violent destruction c. 720–710 BCE. According to Pausanias, the Asineans of Messenia were the only Dryopes enthusiastically embracing their ethnic identity (Paus. 4.34.11), which was perhaps advantageous in distinguishing themselves from the MESSENIANS (Luraghi 2008, 40–43). The Asineans of Messenia asserted that their progenitor Dryops (whom they honored with cult) was a son of APOLLO, and that they were invited to live in the Argolid by king EURYSTHEUS, when HERACLES expelled the Dryopes from their ancient homeland in central Greece (Paus. 4.34.10–11; the prevalent variant of the MYTH claimed that Heracles forcibly settled the Dryopes in the Argolic Asine).
SEE ALSO: Argos; Cardamyle; Ethnicity; Medize; perioeci; Sparta
REFERENCE
1 Luraghi, Nino. 2008. The Ancient Messenians: Constructions of Ethnicity and Memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
FURTHER READING
IACP no. 313 (559).
ASMACH (Ἀσμάχ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Herodotus states that the Asmach were Egyptian deserters (Gk. automoloi), supposedly 240,000 members of the warrior class whose name indicates “those who stand to the left of the king.” During the reign of PSAMMETICHUS I (Psamtik I, r. 664–610 BCE), they revolted due to overextended guard duty at the three key Egyptian border FORTIFICATIONS (ELEPHANTINE, DAPHNAE, MAREA) and set out for ETHIOPIA. When Psammetichus attempted to persuade them not to abandon their gods and families, they pointed to their genitals and responded that wherever those went, they would find wives and CHILDREN. The Ethiopian king utilized the Asmach to drive out his enemies and then settled them on the land; their presence brought civilized ways to Ethiopia (2.30).
A recently published papyrus fragment contains part of an Egyptian narrative written in Demotic in which “those on the right” and “left” of the army revolt from the king, probably Psamtik I (Ryholt 2012). The demotic term for “left,” smḥ, is almost certainly the derivation for Herodotus’ term Asmach (Quack 2013, 75). Other ancient authors relate the story (including Strabo 17.1.2/C786; Plin. HN 6.191), referring to the Asmach by various names (Lloyd 1976, 126–32).
SEE ALSO: Egypt; Gestures; Short Stories
REFERENCES
1 Lloyd, Alan B. 1976. Herodotus: Book II, Commentary 1–98. Leiden: Brill.
2 Quack, Joachim Friedrich. 2013. “Quelques apports récents des études démotiques à la compréhension du livre II d’Hérodote.” In Hérodote et l’Égypte: regards croisés sur le livre II de l’Enquête d’Hérodote, edited by Laurent Coulon, Pascale Giovanelli‐Jounna, and Flore Kimmel‐Clauzet, 63–88. Lyon: Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée.
3 Ryholt, Kim. 2012. “A Demotic Narrative in Berlin and Brooklyn concerning the Assyrian Invasion of Egypt.” In Forschung in der Papyrussammlung: Eine Festgabe für das neue Museum, edited by Verena M. Lepper, 337–53. Berlin: Akademie‐Verlag.
ASONIDES (Ἀσωνίδης, ό)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Asonides commanded a TRIREME from AEGINA that was captured near SCIATHOS by an advance squadron of the Persian fleet shortly before the Battle of ARTEMISIUM in 480 BCE (7.181.1). His ship was notable because a soldier under his command, PYTHEAS SON OF ISCHENOUS, displayed such valor during the fighting that the Persians felt compelled to treat his wounds and shower him with honors. Asonides presumably shared the fate of the rest of his captured men and was enslaved (7.179–81). One family of MANUSCRIPTS of the Histories reads “Astonides.” Neither name is otherwise attested (Wilson 2015, 146).
SEE ALSO: Prisoners of War; Slavery
REFERENCE
1 Wilson, N. G. 2015. Herodotea. Studies on the Text of Herodotus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ASOPODORUS (Ἀσωπόδορος, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre