plain of the Sacae” (BNJ 4 F65), and CTESIAS recounts a king of the Sacae named Amorges at the time of CYRUS (II) (FGrHist 688 F9.7–8).
SEE ALSO: Catalogues; Persia
REFERENCES
1 Bryce, Trevor. 2012. The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire. London and New York: Routledge.
2 Narain, A. K. 1987. “The Sakā Haumavargā and the ʾΑμύργιοι: The Problem of Their Identity.” BAI 1: 27–31.
AMYRIS ( Ἄμυρις, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Patronymic, father of DAMASUS, of SIRIS in southern ITALY (6.127.1). Damasus came to SICYON as a suitor of AGARISTE (I), Cleisthenes’ daughter, in the sixth century BCE (6.127.1). Herodotus notes that Amyris was known as “the Wise” (cf. Santoni 1983, 95 n. 14). He provides no further details, but later authors give an example. Having witnessed a scene which he realizes fulfills an ORACLE foretelling the demise of his city (SYBARIS rather than Siris here: cf. Ath. 12.520a–c), Amyris quickly sells his property and leaves town. His less‐wise neighbors think him mad, giving rise to the PROVERB Ἄμυρις μαίνεται, “Crazy like Amyris” (Lombardo 1981, 199).
SEE ALSO: Knowledge; Seven Sages
REFERENCES
1 Lombardo, Mario. 1981. “La tradizione su Amyris e la conquista achea di Siri.” PP 36: 193–218.
2 Santoni, Anna. 1983. “Temi e motivi di interesse socio‐economico nella leggenda dei ‘sette sapienti’.” ASNP ser. 3 vol. 13.1: 91–160.
AMYRTAEUS (Ἀμυρταῖος, ὁ)
TYPHAINE HAZIZA
Université de Caen Normandie
Leader of an Egyptian REBELLION against Persian rule in the late 450s BCE (cf. Thuc. 1.112). After the death of INAROS (between 456 and 453), Amyrtaeus—no doubt an ally of Inaros—maintained control of a marshy region in the NILE Delta without being disturbed by the Persians.
Herodotus mentions this “Prince of the Marshes,” originally from SAIS, who was nearly his contemporary, in two passages. The first is very allusive (2.140): in narrating the return to power of ANYSIS, the blind pharaoh who fled to the marshes of the DELTA for fifty years during the reign of the Ethiopian SABACOS, Herodotus notes that the man‐made ISLAND which served as a refuge for Anysis, named ELBO, had not been discovered before the reign of Amyrtaeus, more than 700 years later. Anysis is not identifiable as an Egyptian ruler; the Ethiopian (i.e., Nubian, 25th) Dynasty dates to the eighth century BCE; and the island Elbo is unknown from Egyptian sources. This passage should rather be imagined in a symbolic manner, related to Amyrtaeus’ revolt during the reign of ARTAXERXES. The flight into the marshes is, in fact, an Egyptian topos and can have mythological connections, particularly with the episode of the young HORUS, hidden in the marsh of CHEMMIS.
The second passage (3.15) is 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
