The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов
BARON
University of Notre Dame
Libyan (North African) tribe of unknown location. Herodotus (4.184.1–2) places the Atarantes third‐to‐last—just before the ATLANTES—on a chain of oases separated by ten‐day journeys stretching west across the Sahara Desert, starting from EGYPT (4.181). The MANUSCRIPTS of the Histories read “Atlantes,” but evidence from later authors, though confused in some respects, supports the modern emendation to “Atarantes” (combining Nicolaus of Damascus, FGrHist 90 F103u, with Steph. Byz. s.v. Ἄτλαντες (A 520); see Corcella in ALC, 707–8). Herodotus singles out the Atarantes as the only people known to have no personal names (see Harrison 1998, 18); he also notes their custom of cursing at the sun during extremely hot WEATHER.
SEE ALSO: Ethnography; Extremes; Insults; Libya; Oasis
REFERENCE
1 Harrison, Thomas. 1998. “Herodotus’ Conception of Foreign Languages.” Histos 2: 1–45.
FURTHER READING
1 Vanhaegendoren, Koen. 1998. Das Afrikanische Volk der Ataranten. Zur ethnographischen Tradition der Antike. Hamburg: LIT.
ATARBECHIS (Ἀτάρβηχις)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
City in EGYPT, on the island of PROSOPITIS in the Nile DELTA which was formed by the Canobic and Sebynnetic branches of the river and a CANAL connecting them (cf. BA 74 D3). According to Herodotus, barges from Atarbechis travel to the rest of Egypt collecting the bones of dead bulls in order to bury them in one place (2.41.5). The city also contains a sanctuary to APHRODITE (Egyptian Hathor). The precise location of Herodotus’ Atarbechis is unclear; the best candidate, the Egyptian city of (Pr) Ḥwt Ḥr Mfk(3t), “House of Hathor Mistress of Turquoise” (modern Terenouthis/Kom Abu Billu), lies on the western, not eastern, bank of the Canobic branch (Robinson 1999, 147 n. 42).
SEE ALSO: Burial Customs; Canobus; Cattle; Nile
REFERENCE
1 Robinson, Eric W. 1999. “Thucydidean Sieges, Prosopitis, and the Hellenic Disaster in Egypt.” ClAnt 18.1: 132–52.
FURTHER READING
1 Lloyd, Alan B. 1976. Herodotus: Book II, Commentary 1–98, 187–89. Leiden: Brill.
ATARNEUS (Ἀταρνεύς)
DANIEL TOBER
Colgate University
A fertile region of MYSIA directly opposite the island of LESBOS (1.160.4, 8.106.1; see Müller II, 434–37), through which the Persian army marched in 480 BCE (7.42.1), and the locale of several colorful Herodotean episodes (BA 56 D3, present day Kale Tepe). It was here, in the district of MALENE, that Histiaeus, in search of grain for his army during the IONIAN REVOLT, was captured by the Persian general HARPAGUS (6.28.2–29.1) and here, fourteen years later, that the eunuch HERMOTIMUS cunningly gelded the slave trader PANIONIUS (8.106). According to Herodotus, CYRUS (II) had awarded Atarneus to the Chians (c. 547/6) in exchange for the capture of the Lydian PACTYES (1.160.4), and CHIOS remained closely associated with the area (in some sense its peraia) well into the fourth century BCE. We find Chian EXILES occupying a fortified Atarneus in 409 (Diod. Sic. 13.65.4) and again in 398 (Xen. Hell. 3.2.11; see Isoc. 4.144); and even after Atarneus rose in power in the fourth century under the tyranny (probably a consequence of the Satraps’ Revolt) first of the Bithynian Eubulus (Arist. Pol. 1267a32; cf. Strabo 13.1.57/C610 and Diog. Laert. 5.3) and then of Herm(e)ias, Chios maintained ties to the region (Theopompus BNJ 115 F291; Ps.‐Scylax 98.7). Atarneus flourished under Hermias, who brought ARISTOTLE from ATHENS and married him to his niece. The tyrant’s death at the hands of Darius III marked the beginning of Atarneus’ decline, later hastened, if we are to believe Pausanias, by mosquitoes (7.2.11).
SEE ALSO: Hermippus; Histiaeus son of Lysagoras
FURTHER READING
1 Hornblower, Simon. 2003. “Panionios of Chios and Hermotimos of Pedasa (Hdt. 8.104–6).” In Herodotus and His World: Essays from a Conference in Memory of George Forrest, edited by Peter Derow and Robert Parker, 37–57. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
IACP no. 803 (1039–40).
ATHAMAS (Ἀθάμας, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Mythical figure, son of AEOLUS. The general story (see Gantz, EGM 176–80 for variants) is that Athamas was forced to sacrifice his son, PHRIXUS, in order to end a famine, but Phrixus was rescued by a golden ram which took him to the COLCHIANS. Athamas then went mad, killing his son Learchus, while his wife INO and another son jumped into the sea (Apollod. Bibl. 1.9.1–2). Herodotus introduces the story of Athamas (7.197) as part of a “local legend” (epikhōrios logos) which, he says, was reported to XERXES by his guides at HALUS in Achaea PHTHIOTIS (THESSALY), in connection with a temple of ZEUS Laphystius (“Devourer”: Larson 2007, 16). In the version Herodotus relates, Athamas and Ino plot to have Phrixus killed; when the Achaeans are about to SACRIFICE Athamas in order to purify their land, he is rescued by a son of Phrixus named CYTISSORUS. As a result, the wrath of the gods falls upon the descendants of the FAMILY, operating through an ordeal inflicted on the eldest living male by the Achaeans: he is sacrificed if he enters the town hall (PRYTANEION). The passage contains textual and logical difficulties (Fowler 2013, 199); possibly we are dealing with a rite of passage ceremony rather than actual HUMAN SACRIFICE (Hughes 1991, 92–96; cf. the pseudo‐Platonic Minos 315b–d). STRABO (9.5.8/C433) names Athamas as the founder of Halus; he is also connected with ORCHOMENUS in BOEOTIA (Paus. 9.34.5).
SEE ALSO: Achaeans of Phthiotis; Curses; Helle; Myth; Ritual
REFERENCES
1 Fowler, Robert L. 2013. Early Greek Mythography. Vol. 2, Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2 Hughes, Dennis D. 1991. Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece. London and New York: Routledge.
3 Larson, Jennifer. 2007. Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide. New York and London: Routledge.
FURTHER READING
1 Caballero González, Manuel. 2017. Der Mythos des Athamas in der griechischen und lateinischen Literatur. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto.
ATHENA (Ἀθηναίη, ἡ)
F. S. NAIDEN
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Histories refer to cults of Athena at ATHENS (Pallas Athena), DELPHI (Athena Pronaea), TEGEA (Athena Alea), SALAMIS, Ilium (TROY), ASSESUS, SAIS, and in LIBYA. Herodotus mentions this goddess by name more often than he does ARTEMIS, APHRODITE, and HESTIA combined. This emphasis confirms the importance of civic gods and goddesses as well as the importance of Athens.
Only in regard to Pallas Athena does Herodotus describe a temple of the goddess or valuable DEDICATIONS, or mention an individual priest (in fact, a priestess chosen from among the Eteoboutadae). Pallas Athena is also the only Athena cult for which he specifies a NOMOS