University of Notre Dame
Wife of the legendary Spartan king Aristodemus and mother of the twins EURYSTHENES and PROCLES, progenitors of the two royal houses of SPARTA. Argeia attempts to conceal their order of birth so that both may become king, but the Spartans eventually discover it by watching her treatment of the boys, on the advice of a clever MESSENIAN named PANITES (6.52). Herodotus reports (legousi, “they say”) that through her father AUTESION she counted POLYNEICES as an ancestor. This lineage created a Theban, non‐DORIAN ancestry for the Spartan kings (Hornblower and Pelling 2017, 154), and a connection with ARGOS via Polyneices’ wife (also named Argeia), daughter of the Argive king ADRASTUS SON OF TALAUS (Scott 2005, 225).
SEE ALSO: Aristodemus son of Aristomachus; Deception; Monarchy; Theras; Women in the Histories
REFERENCES
1 Hornblower, Simon, and Christopher Pelling, eds. 2017. Herodotus: Histories Book VI. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2 Scott, Lionel. 2005. Historical Commentary on Herodotus Book 6. Leiden: Brill.
ARGILUS (ἡ Ἄργιλος πόλις)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Greek city in BISALTIA in northern Greece, along the coast west of the STRYMON River (BA 51 B3; Müller I, 148–50). XERXES’ invasion force marched past Argilus in 480 BCE, and troops from the city joined the Persian army (7.115.1). Argilus was a colony of ANDROS (Thuc. 4.103), founded c. 650; coinage is known dating to c. 520 (Liampi 2005). Excavations led by Jacques Perreault at the University of Montreal, begun in 1992, have revealed evidence of the city’s importance as a commercial center, including an early portico. After the PERSIAN WARS, it became an early member of DELIAN LEAGUE, but ATHENS’ founding of nearby Amphipolis and, perhaps, other imperial practices led to conflict in the second half of the fifth century. Argilus lost its independence and was absorbed by MACEDONIA under Philip II in the 350s; by the Roman era the city’s existence had largely been forgotten.
SEE ALSO: Colonization; Thrace
REFERENCE
1 Liampi, Katerini. 2005. Argilos. A Historical and Numismatic Study. Athens: Society for the Study of Numismatics and Economic History.
FURTHER READING
Archaeological mission at Argilus, Université de Montréal. Accessed January 20, 2020. https://cetcl.umontreal.ca/recherche/mission‐archeologique‐dargilos/
IACP no. 554 (820–21).
ARGIMPASA (Ἀργίμπασα, ἡ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Scythian goddess whom Herodotus equates with the Greek APHRODITE Urania (4.59.2). It has been suggested that the reading found in two lesser MANUSCRIPTS of the Histories, “Artimpasa” (Ἀρτίμπασα: see Rosén 1987, 384), may be more correct than “Argimpasa.” The second element of the name derives from the same Iranian root as “lord,” “pasture,” while the Iranian goddess Arti‐ looked over fertility and MARRIAGE (see Ustinova 1999, 75–76). Argimpasa/Aphrodite was a powerful goddess among the SCYTHIANS, represented in much of the surviving iconography (Ustinova 1999, 93–129). Herodotus also writes that the Scythian ENAREES credit their DIVINATION technique to Aphrodite (4.67), though this may also pertain to that goddess’ worship at ASCALON (1.105).
SEE ALSO: Api; Ethnography; Gods and the Divine
REFERENCES
1 Rosén, Haiim B., ed. 1987. Herodoti Historiae. Vol 1. Leipzig: Teubner.
2 Ustinova, Yulia. 1999. The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom: Celestial Aphrodite and the Most High God. Leiden: Brill.
ARGIOPIUM (Ἀργιόπιος χῶρος)
ALISON LANSKI
University of Notre Dame
A place (chōros) near PLATAEA which included a temple of Eleusinian DEMETER (9.57.2). Argiopium’s location is always discussed in relation to the temple of Demeter, “the single most important and most disputed topographical marker in the battle” of Plataea (Flower and Marincola 2002, 207). It may have been north of the modern village of Kriekouki (Müller I, 564–67).
SEE ALSO: Amompharetus; Moloeis River
REFERENCE
1 Flower, Michael A., and John Marincola, eds. 2002. Herodotus: Histories Book IX. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ARGIPPAEANS (Ἀργιππαῖοι, οἱ)
CAROLYN DEWALD
Bard College
Herodotus describes the Argippaeans (4.23) as neighbors of the SCYTHIANS who live in the stony foothills of a mountain range (the Urals? Altai? Karatau?). All Argippaeans are bald, with snub noses and large chins, and speak their own language but DRESS like Scythians. They live in something like yurts in winter, under TREES in summer, have no weapons, settle others’ disputes, and are considered hiroi, holy; they protect fugitives. They live off a tree called ponticon (probably the prunus padus), extracting from it a liquid called aschy, which they eat and also combine with milk, similar to a drink of Turkic peoples today living in the region of the Urals. The Argippaeans are trading‐partners with the Greeks from BORYSTHENES and the Scythians, and from them comes information, some of which Herodotus doubts, about other less well‐known and exotic peoples beyond them (4.24–25).
SEE ALSO: Ethnography; Food; Source Citations; Trade
FURTHER READING
1 Bolton, J. D. P. 1962. Aristeas of Proconnesus, 102–15. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Corcella in ALC, 598–600.
ARGO (Ἀργώ, ἡ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Ship on which JASON and other mythological HEROES (Argonauts) sailed in order to retrieve the golden fleece from COLCHIS. Herodotus largely assumes his AUDIENCE’s knowledge of the tale, mentioning the Argo in connection with three stories: how the MINYANS (descendants of the Argonauts on LEMNOS) came to Lacedaemon (4.145) and eventually
