ALSO: Assyrians; Fortifications; Measures; Nitocris (1); Prisoners of War; Rivers
REFERENCE
1 Forbes, R. J. 1964. Studies in Ancient Technology, vol. 1. Leiden: Brill.
FURTHER READING
1 Scott, Lionel. 2005. Historical Commentary on Herodotus Book 6, 399–401. Leiden: Brill.
ARDYS ( Ἄρδυς, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Lydian king, son of Gyges, second in the Mermnad dynasty. According to Herodotus, Ardys ruled for forty‐nine years, brought PRIENE under Lydian rule, and attacked MILETUS (1.15). Another tradition preserved by Nicolaus of Damascus (FGrHist 90 F63) gives his name as Alyattes (Pedley 1972, 22). We know from Assyrian documents that Gyges’ son (not named) succeeded to the Lydian throne c. 644 BCE (Cogan and Tadmor 1977, 79–80). It is possible that “Ardys” was in fact a title meaning “son” (Carruba 2003, 151–54), and Nicolaus (FGrHist 90 F44) also records an Ardys among the earlier Heraclid kings of LYDIA.
SEE ALSO: Alyattes; Assyrians; Gyges son of Dascylus; Mermnadae; Near Eastern History
REFERENCES
1 Carruba, Onofrio. 2003. “Λυδικὴ ἀρχαιολογία. La Lidia fra II e I millennio.” In Licia e Lidia prima dell’Ellenizzazione, edited by M. Giorgieri, M. Salvini, M.‐C. Trémouille, and P. Vannicelli, 145–70. Rome: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.
2 Cogan, Mordechai, and Hayim Tadmor. 1977. “Gyges and Ashurbanipal: A Study in Literary Transmission.” Orientalia 46.1: 65–85.
3 Pedley, John Griffiths. 1972. Ancient Literary Sources on Sardis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
AREIANS ( Ἄρειοι, οἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Areians (or Arians, but see the separate entry) appear in Old Persian INSCRIPTIONS as Haraiva (e.g., DB §6). They occupied territory in present‐day Afghanistan around Herat (BA 98 B4). In providing a list of the provinces (archai or SATRAPIES, 3.89.1) into which DARIUS I divided the Persian Empire, Herodotus states (3.93.3) that the Areians were part of the sixteenth administrative district (νομός, nome). They also appear in the CATALOGUE of XERXES’ invasion force, carrying Median bows but otherwise equipped like the BACTRIANS (7.66.1, spelled Arioi here).
SEE ALSO: Archery; Arians; Sisamnes
FURTHER READING
Asheri in ALC, 479–81, 538–42.
AREOPAGUS (Ἀρήιος πάγος)
DAVID YATES
Millsaps College
The Areopagus is a rocky outcropping located west of the Athenian ACROPOLIS. Herodotus mentions the hill once as the place from which the Persians began their assault on the Acropolis in 480 BCE (8.52.1). The AMAZONS were later thought to have anticipated the Persians by using this same hill as a base for their earlier attack on the Acropolis (Aesch. Eum. 685–90). Herodotus makes no mention of the Areopagus council, even though ARISTOTLE later believed that its patriotic actions during the evacuation of Attica did much to ensure victory ([Arist.] Ath. pol. 23.1).
SEE ALSO: Athens; Salamis (island and battle)
FURTHER READING
1 Boardman, John. 1982. “Herakles, Theseus and Amazons.” In The Eye of Greece: Studies in the Art of Athens, edited by Donna Kurtz and Brian Sparkes, 1–28. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2 Wallace, Robert W. 1989. The Areopagos Council to 307 B.C., 77–83. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
ARES ( Ἄρης, ὁ)
GIAN FRANCO CHIAI
Freie Universität Berlin
Ares, the god of war, was the son of HERA and ZEUS. In Greek literature, he represents the physical and violent aspect of war (Burkert 2011, 259–61). We find such a metaphoric use of Ares in a Delphic ORACLE quoted by Herodotus (7.140). Describing Egyptian religion, Herodotus mentions the FESTIVAL celebrated in the city of PAPREMIS in honor of Ares, probably the Greek interpretatio of the Egyptian god HORUS or Onuris, said to be the sixth‐most important in EGYPT (2.59.3). During the procession of the Ares cult statue, the celebrants attack each other with wooden clubs, staging a fight (2.63; see Lloyd in ALC, 279–80).
Ares is said by Herodotus to be particularly worshipped by the SCYTHIANS; it is their practice to make images and ALTARS and shrines for Ares, but for no other god (4.59). According to Herodotus, each district in Scythia has an Ares temple, built by piling up bundles of sticks. On this sacred pile, three‐eighths of a mile wide and long, they set up a short IRON sword (akinakes) that represents the cult image (agalma) of the god. The Scythians sacrifice sheep, goats, and HORSES in honor of this sword; furthermore, they sacrifice one man in every hundred from among the enemies that they take alive, in a gruesome procedure described at some length (4.62; see Corcella in ALC, 623–28).
Herodotus reports (5.7) that the THRACIANS worship only Ares, DIONYSUS, and ARTEMIS (Asheri 1990); he also mentions an Ares oracle sanctuary among a people serving in XERXES’ Persian invasion force, whose name has dropped out of our MANUSCRIPTS (7.76; Vannicelli and Corcella 2017, 387–88).
SEE ALSO: Ethnography; Human Sacrifice; Religion, Greek; Ritual; Temples and Sanctuaries
REFERENCES
1 Asheri, David. 1990. “Herodotus on Thracian Society and History.” In Hérodote et les peuples non grecs, edited by Giuseppe Nenci, 131–69. Geneva: Fondation Hardt.
2 Burkert, Walter. 2011. Griechische Religion der archaischen und klassischen Epoche. 2nd edition. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
3 Vannicelli, Pietro, and Aldo Corcella, eds. 2017. Erodoto. Le Storie, libro VII: Serse e Leonida. Milan: Mondadori.
ARETĒ (ἀρετή, ἡ)
JESSICA M. ROMNEY
MacEwan University
Aretē (ἀρετή) is a competitive value often translated as “excellence” or “virtue.” For HOMER and HESIOD there are many different types of aretē (cf. Tyrtaeus F12 West, IEG 2), and Herodotus similarly uses aretē to cover
