The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов

The Herodotus Encyclopedia

to the “boondocks” (in casual American parlance). Plato relates the same story, but with Belbina replaced by SERIPHOS (Resp. 329e–330a). Belbina was a member of the DELIAN LEAGUE, appearing in the assessment decree of 425/4 BCE (IG I³ 71.I.88).

SEE ALSO: Honor; Insults; Islands; Jealousy

BELUS (Βῆλος, ὁ)

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

Belus appears in the Histories in two forms. One is a god at BABYLON, “ZEUS Belus,” that is, Marduk (Akk. Belu, Phoenician Ba‘al/Bêl = “Lord”), patron deity of the city (1.181.2; cf. 3.158, Gates of Cissia and Belus). Herodotus admiringly describes the Temple of “Zeus Belus,” Esagila, atop the massive ziggurat or Etemenanki; he also notes RITUALS associated with the god’s worship, including the new‐year FESTIVAL (1.181–83; Asheri in ALC, 201–3).

The name Belus also occurs as a patronymic in the mythological GENEALOGIES of the Heraclid Lydian kings (1.7.2, father of NINUS) and of the Persians (7.61.3, grandfather of ANDROMEDA). Elsewhere in Greek MYTH (Gantz, EGM 200–11), Belus similarly serves to link EUROPE with Africa and ASIA, e.g., a descendent of IO and grandfather of Aegyptus, or the father or grandfather of Phoenix (PHOENICIANS).

SEE ALSO: Chaldeans; Cissians; Heracleidae; Religion, Herodotus’ views on

BERMIUM (Mount) (Βέρμιον ὄρος)

ANGELA ZAUTCKE

University of Notre Dame

Mountain range in MACEDONIA (BA 50 A3; Müller I, 252–55). As Herodotus relates the story of how the Temenids came to rule Macedonia, he mentions Mt. Bermium in his description of the gardens of MIDAS, noting that it is “inaccessible due to the cold” (8.138.3). STRABO reports previous authors’ claims that the source of Midas’ WEALTH was said to be mines around Mt. Bermium (14.5.28/C680, perhaps ultimately from Callisthenes: BNJ 124 F54). The mountain range, known now as the Vermio Mountains in northern Greece, in antiquity separated upper Macedon from the lower Macedonian plain.

SEE ALSO: Mining; Perdiccas; Temenus, Temenids

BESSANS (Βησσοί, οἱ)

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

The Bessans serve as priests at an oracle of DIONYSUS in the territory of the SATRAE, a fierce, mountain‐dwelling Thracian tribe. The sanctuary may be that found at Perperikon in the eastern RHODOPE Mountains. Herodotus notes that the prophetess delivers her ORACLES in the same fashion as the one at DELPHI (7.111.2). By Roman times, the Bessans fully controlled the sanctuary, but they were stripped of it during the reign of Augustus (Graninger 2015, 26–27). STRABO (7.5.12/C318) refers to the Bessans in unflattering terms; like other Thracian tribes they were noted for their height (Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 2.231, immanes Bessi; Sears 2013, 256–57). If the text of Pliny the Elder is correct in referring to the “Diobessi” (HN 4.40), the Bessans may have been related to the Dians who, while serving as Athenian ALLIES during the PELOPONNESIAN WAR, brutally attacked the city of Mycalessus (Thuc. 7.29–30).

SEE ALSO: Priests and Priestesses; Thrace

REFERENCES

1 Graninger, Denver. 2015. “Ethnicity and Ethne.” In A Companion to Ancient Thrace, edited by Julia Valeva, Emil Nankov, and Denver Graninger, 22–32. Malden, MA: Wiley‐Blackwell.

2 Sears, Matthew A. 2013. Athens, Thrace, and the Shaping of Athenian Leadership. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

BETRAYAL, see TREACHERY

BIAS (Βίας, ὁ) brother of Melampus

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

Mythical figure, son of AMYTHAON. Bias is known only in association with his more prominent brother, MELAMPUS. Herodotus mentions Bias when recounting one of Melampus’ exploits, obtaining a share of the kingship at ARGOS (for himself and Bias) in exchange for curing the city’s women of MADNESS (9.34). Bias’ son TALAUS succeeded to the kingship at Argos.

SEE ALSO: Myth; Teisamenus son of Antiochus

BIAS (Βίας, ὁ) of Priene

HELMUT G. LOEFFLER

City University of New York–Queensborough

Bias of PRIENE, son of Teutames, core member (with THALES, PITTACUS, SOLON) of the SEVEN SAGES (Pl. Prt. 343a; Diog. Laert. 1.40–42, 82–88). It is likely that legal decisions of Bias were passed down, leading to him being regarded as an example of a just and sagacious judge equipped with great rhetorical skills (Hipponax F123 West, IEG ²; Heraclitus DK 22 B39). As such he certainly had political influence in Priene in the sixth century BCE.

Herodotus mentions Bias twice. In 1.27 he reports that “some say” Bias was CROESUS’ guest in SARDIS, where he gave the Lydian king advice not to attack the Greeks living on the ISLANDS. This passage is the earliest written account of Greek sages visiting the courts of dynasts. The authenticity of these visits is doubtful. Later Herodotus writes (1.170) that Bias counseled the IONIANS, threatened with CONQUEST by CYRUS (II), to emigrate to SARDINIA and establish a city there for all Ionians. Although there has been discussion, this meeting and counsel are usually considered authentic (in Theognis (ll. 757–68) we might have a fragment of Bias’ poem urging MIGRATION: see Mahaffy 1880, 178). The many pointed sayings, however, that have been attributed to Bias (and the Seven Sages in general) are probably not original but evolved out of novelistic narratives or situations with anecdotal character. A poem of 2,000 lines that Bias supposedly wrote about Ionia (DK 10; Diog. Laert. 1.85) also seems not to be authentic.

REFERENCE

Mahaffy, J. P. 1880. A History of Classical Greek Literature. Vol.1. New York: Harper and Brothers.

The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов