GULF, see ERYTHRAEAN SEA
ARABIANS (Ἀράβιοι, οἱ)
CHRISTOPHER ERLINGER
The Ohio State University
Denizens of Arabia, the southern edge of the inhabited world (3.107.1). An unnamed Arabian king granted safe passage to the army of the Persian king CAMBYSES (II) on its way to EGYPT and provided water during the journey, c. 525 BCE (3.7). In exchange, the Arabians were considered ALLIES, not subjects, of PERSIA and were exempt from paying TRIBUTE (3.88.1, 91.1).
Herodotus writes concerning Arabian religion that Arabians only believe in DIONYSUS and Urania (APHRODITE: see 1.105), whom they call OROTALT and ALILAT, respectively (3.8.3). Elsewhere, he says that the Persians learned to worship Aphrodite from the Arabians (1.131.3). The Arabians held OATHS in especially high regard; they consecrated oaths by cutting their palms, applying their blood to seven stones arranged between the two pledging parties, and invoking Dionysus and Urania (3.8).
Arabia was the ancient Greek world’s only source of frankincense, and a prominent source of other rare spices, including myrrh, cassia, and labdanum (3.107.1). According to Herodotus, the process of harvesting these spices was made difficult by the local fauna. Winged serpents guarded the frankincense TREES (3.108); aggressive bat‐like creatures guarded the lake where cassia grew (3.110); and cinnamon had to be stolen from the nests of giant, CATTLE‐eating BIRDS who procured it from unknown places (3.111). Labdanum was procured in an easier, but equally peculiar way; it naturally built up in goats’ beards, during foraging.
SEE ALSO: Deserts; Ethnography; Extremes; Geography; Gods and the Divine; Snakes; Trade
FURTHER READING
1 Detienne, Marcel. 1994. "The Perfumes of Arabia." In The Gardens of Adonis. 2nd edition, translated by Janet Lloyd, 5–35. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
2 Dihle, Albrecht. 1990. “Arabien und Indien.” In Hérodote et les peuples non grecs, edited by Giuseppe Nenci, 41–67. Geneva: Fondation Hardt.
3 Romm, James. 2006. "Herodotus and the Natural World." In The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus, edited by Carolyn Dewald and John Marincola, 178–91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ARADUS ( Ἄραδος, ἡ; Ἀράδιοι, οἱ)
ERAN ALMAGOR
Jerusalem
A Phoenician city (Arwad) on an ISLAND bearing the same name, modern er‐Ruwad, opposite Tortosa (Tartus) and Marathus (Amrit) on the Syrian mainland (BA 68 A4; Strabo 16.2.13–14/C753–54). It is mentioned in the Amarna letters of the fourteenth century BCE and later in Assyrian and Babylonian texts (Akkad. Arwada, Heb. arvad: Ezekiel 27:8 and 11). Herodotus mentions the Aradians (7.98) in his CATALOGUE of XERXES’ invasion force, as the place of origin of MERBALUS son of AGBALUS, one of the most noteworthy sailors in the service of Xerxes. Aradus was taken by Alexander III of Macedon in 332 BCE (Arr. Anab. 2.13.7, 2.20.1; Curt. 4.1.5).
SEE ALSO: Phoenicians; Syria; Tyre
FURTHER READING
1 Jidejian, Nina. 1996. Tyre through the Ages. 2nd edition. Beirut: Libraire Orientale.
2 Katzenstein, H. Jacob. 1973. The History of Tyre. Jerusalem: Schocken Institute for Jewish Research.
ARARUS RIVER (ὁ Ἄραρος ποταμός)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
River in Scythia, tributary of the ISTER (Danube); perhaps to be identified with the modern Siret in eastern Romania, though this remains uncertain. Herodotus places the Ararus between the PORATA/Pyretus (modern Prut) and TIARANTUS rivers (4.48.2–3; Corcella in ALC, 617).
SEE ALSO: Rivers; Scythians
ARAXES RIVER (ὁ Ἀράξης ποταμός)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
A major river of the CAUCASUS, over 650 miles long (BA 88, 89, and 90), modern Aras or Araks. The Araxes arises in eastern Turkey and flows along the southern side of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. It forms the southern borders (modern) of Armenia and Azerbaijan before joining the Kura River in the latter country, which empties into the CASPIAN SEA about 100 miles south of Baku. For Herodotus, the Araxes represents one potential border between EUROPE and ASIA (4.40.1), though at times he appears to confuse it with the Oxus or Jaxartes Rivers in Central Asia (e.g., 4.11.1).
The Araxes forms a crucial physical and metaphysical boundary in Herodotus’ narrative of the final campaign of the Persian king CYRUS (II), against the MASSAGETAE c. 530 BCE (1.201–14). When Cyrus attempts to bridge the river, the Massagetan queen TOMYRIS offers him the option of choosing which side of the river he would like to fight on. On the advice of CROESUS (and against that of his own generals: cf. 3.36.3), Cyrus elects to cross over the Araxes—thus from Asia into Europe—and fight in enemy territory. After a DREAM in which he sees DARIUS I on the Persian throne, Cyrus dies in battle against the Massagetae. Though Herodotus does not explicitly emphasize it here, the disastrous consequences of violating a “natural” boundary foreshadow the fates of Darius and XERXES.
However, the river at the center of this conflict cannot be the Araxes: Herodotus places the Massagetae east of the Caspian (1.204.1), but elsewhere (1.202.3; 4.40.1) he clearly describes the modern Aras River in the Caucasus. The first of those descriptions accompanies a brief ETHNOGRAPHY of the peoples who live on large ISLANDS in the river or in the swamps around its mouth (Herodotus shows no knowledge of the Kura River, and his story of all but one of the forty mouths ending in the swamps may reflect garbled information about the Volga: How and Wells 1912, 1: 152). He portrays abundant plant and animal life, though the people lead a primitive existence. Similarly, the Massagetae enjoy abundant FISH from the river (1.216.3).
SEE ALSO: Boundaries; Conquest; Geography; Persia; Rivers
REFERENCE
1 How, W. W., and J. Wells. 1912. A Commentary on Herodotus. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
FURTHER READING
1 Prontera, Francesco. 2011. “L’Asia nella geografia di Erodoto: uno spazio in costruzione.” In Herodot und das Persische Weltreich—Herodotus and the Persian Empire, edited by Robert Rollinger, Brigitte Truschnegg, and Reinhold Bichler, 179–95. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
ARCADIAN PELASGIANS, see PELASGIANS
ARCADIANS (Ἀρκάδες, οἱ)
ZOE STAMATOPOULOU
Washington University in St. Louis
