NICHOLS
University of Florida
Coastal town in MAGNESIA in northern Greece, located on the Gulf of PAGASAE. XERXES stationed his fleet there after losing 400 ships in a storm near Cape SEPIAS (7.193, 196) and used it as a base of operations for his naval campaign against the Greek fleet at ARTEMISIUM in 480 BCE (8.4–12; Diod. Sic. 11.12.3), nearly 80 stades (about 9 miles) to the south. A man named SCYLLIAS was said to have deserted from the Persians by swimming the entire distance from Aphetae to Artemisium underwater (8.8).
The exact location of Aphetae is unknown, but it lay somewhere on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Pagasae, perhaps in the vicinity of Trikeri just inside the gulf’s mouth (Leake 1835, 4: 396–97) or further east on the southern coast of Magnesia facing the Artemisium Channel (Stählin 1967, 55–56; cf. BA 55 E2). According to the tradition reported by Herodotus (7.193; similarly Strabo 9.5.15/C436, Ap. Rhod. 1.591), the place takes its name from the fact that JASON and the Argonauts decided to leave (ἀϕήσειν, aphēsein) HERACLES there when they were heading out to SEA on the way to COLCHIS (cf. Steph. Byz. s.v. ’Αϕέται (A 553)). Drawing from Pherecydes, whom Herodotus may also be following, Apollodorus (Bibl. 1.9.19) reports that it was the ARGO itself who spoke to Jason in a human voice, warning him that Heracles would have been too heavy to take on board.
SEE ALSO: Etymology; Myth; Naval Warfare; Persian Wars; Thessaly
REFERENCES
1 Leake, William Martin. 1835. Travels in Northern Greece. 4 vols. London: J. Rodwell.
2 Stählin, Friedrich. 1967 [1924]. Das hellenische Thessalien: Landeskundliche und geschichtliche Beschreibung Thessaliens in der hellenistischen und römischen Zeit. Amsterdam: Hakkert.
APHIDNA ( Ἄϕιδναι, αἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
A DEME (district, precinct) of ancient ATHENS, in northeastern Attica inland from MARATHON (BA 59 C2; Müller I, 603–4). Aphidna was the second‐largest Attic deme, after Acharnae. Aphidna appears in Herodotus’ mythological DIGRESSION on DECELEA after the Battle of PLATAEA: the Athenians say that when the sons of TYNDAREUS invaded Attica to recover HELEN from THESEUS, they were guided to Aphidna, which TITACUS betrayed to them (9.73). Aphidna also occurs as a demotic for two Athenians: CALLIMACHUS (commander‐in‐chief (polemarch) of the Athenian army at Marathon, 6.109.2) and TIMODEMUS (an enemy of THEMISTOCLES, 8.125.1).
SEE ALSO: Date of Composition; Myth
FURTHER READING
1 Whitehead, David. 1986. The Demes of Attica, 508/7–ca. 250 B.C.: A Political and Social Study. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
APHRODISIAS ISLAND (ἡ Ἀϕροδισιὰς νῆσος)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Island off the coast of LIBYA (north Africa) east of CYRENE (BA 38 D1, Laia/Aphrodites Nesos). Herodotus names Aphrodisias Island as the western boundary of the region inhabited by the GILIGAMAE, and in which silphium grows (4.169.1; Ps.‐Scylax 108.2). The island was apparently also known as Laia in antiquity (Ptol. Geog. 4.4.15). Today it is called Jazirat Kirissah (or Geziret Chersa), less than two miles off the Libyan coast between Derna and Kirissah (32°50'17.9"N 22°29'55.8"E).
SEE ALSO: Geography; Islands
FURTHER READING
1 Corcella in ALC, 696.
APHRODITE (Ἀϕροδίτη, ἡ)
BRUCE LINCOLN
University of Chicago
Herodotus never employs the name “Aphrodite” for a Greek deity. Rather, he uses it, sometimes accompanied by the modifier Ouraniē, to denote various erotically‐charged eastern goddesses, including Arabian ALILAT (1.131.3; 3.8.2), Assyrian MYLITTA (1.131.3, 199.3), Scythian ARGIMPASA (4.59.2), Persian “MITRA” (1.131.3), and goddesses of EGYPT (2.41.5, 112.2), ASCALON (1.105.1), and CYRENE (2.181.4), whose indigenous names go unmentioned. Responsibility for (and interest in) sexuality can be a prime feature of these goddesses (MacLachlan 1992), as when a Cyrenean woman asks Aphrodite to help consummate her MARRIAGE (2.181.4); when the Assyrian Aphrodite requires Babylonian women to prostitute themselves (1.199.1–5); or when Ascalon’s Aphrodite (= Atargatis) transforms SCYTHIANS who defiled her temple into androgynes (1.105.1–2; 4.67.2: see ENAREES). Although some scholars still follow Herodotus in grouping these deities together as “Near Eastern fertility goddesses,” this oversimplifies a more complex situation, emphasizing a few shared features of a general sort, while ignoring those distinctive to each goddess, e.g., Alilat’s role as guarantor of OATHS (3.8.1–2), Argimpasa’s control of DIVINATION (4.67.2), or an Egyptian Aphrodite’s concern to exhume and rebury the bones of sacred CATTLE (2.41.4–6). In Greek religion, Aphrodite's role similarly expands well beyond the erotic, as evidenced by her role in certain cosmogonies and the maternal care she shows for her son, Aeneas.
SEE ALSO: Gods and the Divine; Religion, Herodotus’ Views on; Sex
REFERENCE
1 MacLachlan, Bonnie. 1992. “Sacred Prostitution and Aphrodite.” SR 21: 145–62.
FURTHER READING
1 Armanski, Gerhard. 2013. Die großen Göttinen: Isis (und Maria), Aphrodite, Venus. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.
2 Asher‐Greve, Julia M. 2013. Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Genders in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
3 Friedrich, Paul. 1978. The Meaning of Aphrodite. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
4 Rudhardt, Jean. 1986. Le rôle d'Eros et d'Aphrodite dans les cosmogonies grecques. Paris: PUF.
5 Sugimoto, David T., ed. 2014. Transformation of a Goddess: Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
6 Westenholz, Joan. 2002. “Great Goddesses in Mesopotamia: The Female Aspect of Divinity.” Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 37: 13–26.
APHTHIS (ὁ Ἀϕθίτης νομός)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
An administrative district or nome (Greek νομός, Egyptian sp ͗˒t [sepat]) of ancient EGYPT. Herodotus lists Aphthis as one source of men for the CALASIRIES, a group within the Egyptian warrior class (2.166.1). Herodotus’ list
