ALSO: Warfare
FURTHER READING
1 Ball, John. 1942. Egypt in the Classical Geographers, 16–19. Cairo: Government Press.
2 Lloyd, Alan B. 1988. Herodotus: Book II, Commentary 99–182, 191–92. Leiden: Brill.
APHYTIS ( Ἄϕυτις, ἡ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
City on the PALLENE peninsula in northern Greece (ba 51 A4). XERXES’ fleet picks up troops from Aphytis and other CITIES in the region after it passes through the ATHOS canal in 480 BCE (7.123.1). The city was founded in the eighth century; it was known for a sanctuary of DIONYSUS (Xen. Hell. 5.3.19) and, at least from the fourth century, its devotion to Zeus AMMON (Tsigarida 2011, 143–45; cf. Paus. 3.18.3). Aphytis was a particularly loyal member of the DELIAN LEAGUE.
SEE ALSO: Chalcidians in Thrace; Persian Wars
REFERENCE
1 Tsigarida, Bettina. 2011. “Chalcidice.” In Brill’s Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Macedon, 650 BC–300 AD, edited by Robin J. Lane Fox, 137–58. Leiden: Brill.
FURTHER READING
1 IACP no. 563 (825–26).
2 Zahrnt, Michael. 1971. Olynth und die Chalkidier: Untersuchungen zur Staatenbildung auf der Chalkidischen Halbinsel im 5. und 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr., 167–69. Munich: C. H. Beck.
API (Ἀπί, ἡ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
The name of a Scythian goddess whom Herodotus equates with the Greek earth goddess Gaia (Gē, 4.59.2). However, the Old Iranian root āp‐ denotes “water.” Though some scholars believe Herodotus (or his source) to be mistaken, or posit a brief lacuna in the text (Humbach and Faiss 2012, 7), the link between water and the life‐giving power of the earth may explain Herodotus’ identification (Ustinova 1999, 74–75). As a river goddess, Api may correspond to the “daughter of BORYSTHENES” whose union with ZEUS (Scythian PAPAEUS), according to the SCYTHIANS, produced the first man, TARGITAUS (4.5.1).
SEE ALSO: Ethnography; Gods and the Divine; Religion, Greek
REFERENCES
1 Humbach, Helmut, and Klaus Faiss. 2012. Herodotus’s Scythians and Ptolemy’s Central Asia: Semasiological and Onomasiological Studies. Wiesbaden: Reichert.
2 Ustinova, Yulia. 1999. The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom: Celestial Aphrodite and the Most High God. Leiden: Brill.
FURTHER READING
1 Corcella in ALC, 624–25.
2 Mora, Fabio. 1985. Religione e religioni nelle Storie di Erodoto, 49–60. Milan: Jaca.
APIDANUS RIVER (ὁ Ἀπιδανός/ Ἠπιδανός ποταμός)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
A river in THESSALY (BA 55 C2; Müller I, 309), the modern Farsaliotis/Pharsalitis with its source near the ancient city of Pharsalus. Herodotus lists the Apidanus as one of the five most important tributaries of the PENEIUS (all on its right bank), the major river in the region (7.129.2). In fact, the Apidanus and ENIPEUS merge before flowing into the Peneius; ancient authors differed on which of the two took precedence (cf. Strabo 8.3.32/C356 and 9.5.6/C432). Later, Herodotus refers to the Apidanus (spelling it Ἠπ‐ rather than Ἀπ‐) as “the greatest of the RIVERS in Achaea” PHTHIOTIS (southern Thessaly) and notes that it barely provided sufficient water for XERXES’ invasion army (7.196).
SEE ALSO: Geography; Persian Wars
FURTHER READING
1 Decourt, Jean‐Claude. 1990. La vallée de l’Énipeus en Thessalie: études de topographie et de géographie antique, 39–40. Athens: École française d’Athènes.
APIS (Ἆπις, ἡ), city
R. DREW GRIFFITH
Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario
A city in the northwest Nile DELTA near Lake Mareotis (2.18.2). Scholars have identified it with the Egyptian NI͗wt nt Ḥpy, “city of Apis.” The precise location is, however, unknown.
SEE ALSO: Apis (god); Nile; Egypt
FURTHER READING
1 Lloyd, Alan B. 1976. Herodotus: Book, II, Commentary 1–98, 88. Leiden: Brill.
2 Montet, Pierre. 1957. Géographie de l’Égypte ancienne. Vol. 1, 64. Paris: Klincksieck.
APIS (Ἆπις, ὁ; Eg. Ḥpw), god
R. DREW GRIFFITH
Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario
Apis (Eg. Ḥpw) is the sacred bull of MEMPHIS, worshipped since the 1st Dynasty in EGYPT as a fertility god. When each Apis died, he was embalmed and buried, and the priests chose a successor based on a fixed set of physical signs: he must be all black except for a white square on his forehead and on his back must be the form of an eagle. Greeks identified him with Epaphus (2.38, 153), son of ZEUS and the cow‐formed girl, IO (Friis Johansen and Whittle 1980, 2: 42–45). The 26th Dynasty pharaoh PSAMMETICHUS I (Psamtik I, r. c. 664–610 BCE) built him a temple (2.153). As one of the many acts of MADNESS that Herodotus alleges—almost certainly without justification—CAMBYSES (II) of PERSIA perpetrated in Egypt, he fatally stabbed the Apis bull in the thigh, ridiculing the Egyptians for thinking that any being that could feel pain was a god (3.27–29; cf. Plut. de Is. et Os. 44 (Mor. 369)). Greeks, however, did believe gods feel pain (Apul. Met. 5.23 gives a list of instances; Ar. Ran. 634, which denies this, is a joke).
SEE ALSO: Apis (city); Cattle; Gods and the Divine
REFERENCE
1 Friis Johansen, H., and Edward W. Whittle. 1980. Aeschylus: The Suppliants. 2 vols. Denmark: Gyldendalske Boghandel.
FURTHER READING
1 Gardiner, Alan. 1961. Egypt of the Pharaohs,
