The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов
Press, 2007. (Cited by the author of each book’s commentary: Books 1 and 3 by Asheri; 2 by Lloyd; 4 by Corcella.)
BA = Richard J. A. Talbert and Roger Bagnall, eds. Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. (Cited by Map number and grid coordinates.)
Gantz, EGM = Timothy Gantz. Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
IACP = Mogens Herman Hansen and Thomas Heine Nielsen, eds. An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. (Cited by entry number and page numbers.)
LGPN = P. M. Fraser and Elaine Matthews, eds. A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names. 5 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987–2013. (Cited by volume and page number, followed by the individual’s number in parentheses.)
LIMC = Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. Zürich: Artemis, 1981–99. (Each volume has two parts, the first containing text, the second images if applicable; only the first volume is cited here.)
Müller = Dietram Müller. Topographischer Bildkommentar zu den Historien Herodots, 2 volumes: I, Griechenland (1987); II, Kleinasien und angrenzende Gebiete mit Südostthrakien und Zypern (1997). Tübingen: Wasmuth. (Two thick volumes with wonderful photographs and detailed sketch‐maps of the places Herodotus mentions, plus lists of other ancient references and older scholarship. Cited by volume and page numbers.)
Schmitt, IPGL = Rüdiger Schmitt. Iranische Personennamen in der griechischen Literatur vor Alexander d. Gr. (Iranisches Personennamenbuch, Vol. V, Fasc. 5A) Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2011. (Cited by page numbers and entry number.)
The timing of Nigel Wilson’s publication of the new Oxford Classical Text for Herodotus’ Histories (2015) was fortuitous. This has been used as the standard text; those with Greek reading knowledge should also consult Wilson’s Herodotea (2015) for further notes.
A Note on Orthography
Consistent English spelling of ancient Greek names has long been problematic. In addition to the perennial debate among classicists concerning the best procedure, Herodotus’ Ionic dialect makes the issue even thornier.
In general, I have chosen to use Latinized forms for most names, also employed by the Oxford Classical Dictionary. Thus, names ending in Greek –os appear in English as –us (Herodotus); the ending –on becomes –um (Artemisium; but see below). Much less common are Greek words ending in –ōs and –ōn (omega rather than omicron), which retain that form in English (Sabacos, Daton). At any point in a word, the Greek diphthongs –ai–, –oi–, and –ou– become English –ae–, –oe–, and –u–, respectively. The Greek vowel upsilon is represented by English “y”; the consonants kappa by “c” and chi by “ch” (thus Cyrus, Aeschylus). The Greek vowel eta, in general, is represented by –e– (Herodotus, Agariste, Xerxes); but at word‐end, this is not always the case (Aristagoras, not Aristagores). One exception I have made to the traditional style of Latinization is that –ei– normally remains –ei– (thus Peisistratus, Cleisthenes).
Other exceptions involve adherence to traditional usage. The Aegean islands, for whatever reason, retain their –os endings (Samos, Thasos); the same is true for a handful of cities (Abydos, Sestos). Some mountains similarly retain –on (Pelion, Cithaeron).
For the names of tribes, clans, and peoples, I have tried to maintain the following pattern:
–oi becomes –(i)ans (Boeotians, Pamphylians)
–ai becomes –ae (Sacae)
–es remains –es (Abantes)
But exceptions must be made in many cases where a form has become so recognizable that it would be perverse to insist on strict rules (thus Persai = “Persians,” not “Persae”). The same is true in general for place and personal names which are well‐known enough to have achieved a standard English form: Athens, Corinth, Sicily, Homer.
The biggest nightmare appears with Spartan names. Herodotus employs his Ionic dialect to represent the Spartans’ Doric dialect, neither of which matches the Attic dialect which is most commonly known. Take, for example, the famous King Leonidas: Herodotus writes Λεωνίδης (Leōnidēs). But the alpha‐ending, matching Leonidas’ native Doric dialect, is the accepted English form. In fact, at Sparta, the name would have looked like Λανίδας (Lanidas). So then, what does one do with a more obscure figure like the legendary king whom Herodotus calls Λεωβώτης (Leōbōtēs), the Spartans Λαβώτας (Labōtas)? In general, I have chosen to stay as close as possible to Herodotus’ spelling. On the other hand, names ending in –εως (–eōs) are normally rendered –aus in English (Anaxilaus, Menelaus).
As often as possible, alternate spellings which could easily be missed have been noted in the text of entries, and in some cases (especially word‐initial variants) a blind entry has been created to direct the reader to the proper place.
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Eran Almagor is the author of studies on Plutarch and other Greek imperial‐era writers (Strabo, Josephus). His interests include the history of the Achaemenid Empire and its image in Greek literature (especially in Herodotus and Ctesias), Plutarch’s works (mainly the Lives), and the modern reception of antiquity, particularly in popular culture. He is the author of Plutarch and the Persica (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018), and is co‐editor (with J. Skinner) of Ancient Ethnography: New Approaches (London: Bloomsbury, 2013) and co‐editor (with L. Maurice) of The Reception of Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Popular Culture (Leiden: Brill, 2017).
Pascal Arnaud has fields of expertise in ancient geography and mapping, historical topography, and ancient maritime history and archaeology. He is co‐director, along with S. J. Keay (Southampton), of the ERC‐funded senior grant Portuslimen, Professor Emeritus in Roman History at University Lumière (Lyon 2, France), and Senior Fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France. He is the author of some 180 articles, three books—including Les routes de la navigation antique (2005)—and five edited books, including The Sea in History: The Ancient World—La Mer dans l’Histoire: L’Antiquité (with P. de Souza, 2016).
Egbert J. Bakker is the Alvan Talcott Professor of Classics at Yale University. He is the co‐editor of Brill’s Companion to Herodotus (2002), the editor of A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language (Wiley‐Blackwell, 2010), and the author of The Meaning of Meat and the Structure of the Odyssey (Cambridge, 2013). He is currently working on a commentary on Book 9 of the Odyssey for Cambridge University Press.
Ernst Baltrusch is Professor of Ancient History at the Freie Universität Berlin. He studied (1975–92) Classics at the Georg‐August‐University of Göttingen, the Rheinische Friedrich‐Wilhelms University Bonn, and the Technische University of Berlin (Habilitation). He has published widely on various topics in Ancient History, especially on the Roman Republic, Jews and Judaism in the ancient world, and international law and Sparta in antiquity, including Symmachie und Spondai (1994), Sparta (fourth edition, 2010), Außenpolitik, Bünde und Reichsbildung in der Antike (2008), and Herodes. König im Heiligen Land (2012). He is also the author of an article on “Greek International Law in Thucydides” (2016).