Customs; Canobus; Cattle; Nile
REFERENCE
1 Robinson, Eric W. 1999. “Thucydidean Sieges, Prosopitis, and the Hellenic Disaster in Egypt.” ClAnt 18.1: 132–52.
FURTHER READING
1 Lloyd, Alan B. 1976. Herodotus: Book II, Commentary 1–98, 187–89. Leiden: Brill.
ATARNEUS (Ἀταρνεύς)
DANIEL TOBER
Colgate University
A fertile region of MYSIA directly opposite the island of LESBOS (1.160.4, 8.106.1; see Müller II, 434–37), through which the Persian army marched in 480 BCE (7.42.1), and the locale of several colorful Herodotean episodes (BA 56 D3, present day Kale Tepe). It was here, in the district of MALENE, that Histiaeus, in search of grain for his army during the IONIAN REVOLT, was captured by the Persian general HARPAGUS (6.28.2–29.1) and here, fourteen years later, that the eunuch HERMOTIMUS cunningly gelded the slave trader PANIONIUS (8.106). According to Herodotus, CYRUS (II) had awarded Atarneus to the Chians (c. 547/6) in exchange for the capture of the Lydian PACTYES (1.160.4), and CHIOS remained closely associated with the area (in some sense its peraia) well into the fourth century BCE. We find Chian EXILES occupying a fortified Atarneus in 409 (Diod. Sic. 13.65.4) and again in 398 (Xen. Hell. 3.2.11; see Isoc. 4.144); and even after Atarneus rose in power in the fourth century under the tyranny (probably a consequence of the Satraps’ Revolt) first of the Bithynian Eubulus (Arist. Pol. 1267a32; cf. Strabo 13.1.57/C610 and Diog. Laert. 5.3) and then of Herm(e)ias, Chios maintained ties to the region (Theopompus BNJ 115 F291; Ps.‐Scylax 98.7). Atarneus flourished under Hermias, who brought ARISTOTLE from ATHENS and married him to his niece. The tyrant’s death at the hands of Darius III marked the beginning of Atarneus’ decline, later hastened, if we are to believe Pausanias, by mosquitoes (7.2.11).
SEE ALSO: Hermippus; Histiaeus son of Lysagoras
FURTHER READING
1 Hornblower, Simon. 2003. “Panionios of Chios and Hermotimos of Pedasa (Hdt. 8.104–6).” In Herodotus and His World: Essays from a Conference in Memory of George Forrest, edited by Peter Derow and Robert Parker, 37–57. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
IACP no. 803 (1039–40).
ATHAMAS (Ἀθάμας, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Mythical figure, son of AEOLUS. The general story (see Gantz, EGM 176–80 for variants) is that Athamas was forced to sacrifice his son, PHRIXUS, in order to end a famine, but Phrixus was rescued by a golden ram which took him to the COLCHIANS. Athamas then went mad, killing his son Learchus, while his wife INO and another son jumped into the sea (Apollod. Bibl. 1.9.1–2). Herodotus introduces the story of Athamas (7.197) as part of a “local legend” (epikhōrios logos) which, he says, was reported to XERXES by his guides at HALUS in Achaea PHTHIOTIS (THESSALY), in connection with a temple of ZEUS Laphystius (“Devourer”: Larson 2007, 16). In the version Herodotus relates, Athamas and Ino plot to have Phrixus killed; when the Achaeans are about to SACRIFICE Athamas in order to purify their land, he is rescued by a son of Phrixus named CYTISSORUS. As a result, the wrath of the gods falls upon the descendants of the FAMILY, operating through an ordeal inflicted on the eldest living male by the Achaeans: he is sacrificed if he enters the town hall (PRYTANEION). The passage contains textual and logical difficulties (Fowler 2013, 199); possibly we are dealing with a rite of passage ceremony rather than actual HUMAN SACRIFICE (Hughes 1991, 92–96; cf. the pseudo‐Platonic Minos 315b–d). STRABO (9.5.8/C433) names Athamas as the founder of Halus; he is also connected with ORCHOMENUS in BOEOTIA (Paus. 9.34.5).
SEE ALSO: Achaeans of Phthiotis; Curses; Helle; Myth; Ritual
REFERENCES
1 Fowler, Robert L. 2013. Early Greek Mythography. Vol. 2, Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2 Hughes, Dennis D. 1991. Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece. London and New York: Routledge.
3 Larson, Jennifer. 2007. Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide. New York and London: Routledge.
FURTHER READING
1 Caballero González, Manuel. 2017. Der Mythos des Athamas in der griechischen und lateinischen Literatur. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto.
ATHENA (Ἀθηναίη, ἡ)
F. S. NAIDEN
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Histories refer to cults of Athena at ATHENS (Pallas Athena), DELPHI (Athena Pronaea), TEGEA (Athena Alea), SALAMIS, Ilium (TROY), ASSESUS, SAIS, and in LIBYA. Herodotus mentions this goddess by name more often than he does ARTEMIS, APHRODITE, and HESTIA combined. This emphasis confirms the importance of civic gods and goddesses as well as the importance of Athens.
Only in regard to Pallas Athena does Herodotus describe a temple of the goddess or valuable DEDICATIONS, or mention an individual priest (in fact, a priestess chosen from among the Eteoboutadae). Pallas Athena is also the only Athena cult for which he specifies a NOMOS relating to the qualifications of worshippers (no DORIANS in the temple) or relates an anecdote (the attempt of the Dorian CLEOMENES to worship). Besides these cultic details, Herodotus offers his only local MYTH—how Athena and POSEIDON vied for the status of civic god by presenting competing gifts to the Athenians—and adds his only report of a miracle wrought by the goddess within living memory, the rebirth of her sacred olive. Most striking is the unparalleled story of how this goddess was impersonated, thanks to the tyrant PEISISTRATUS, who paraded a disguised peasant girl (PHYE) on a cart in order to win backing for his return to power (1.60).
Besides identifying Athena by place of worship, Herodotus sometimes identifies her by name, by attributes, and by myths, and in doing so can mix cultures. At Sais in EGYPT, Athena is said to be Neith, and the interchangeable names are justified by the shared emblem of the owl, found on coins of the Saitic nome. Herodotus describes a feast of Athena, or Neith, that is part of ISIS’ mourning for OSIRIS. Yet Neith, unlike either Athena or Osiris, is mother of the sun, with myths to match (2.59, 62). A similar, but less complicated case is Athena Ilias. Persian MAGI make Greek sacrifices (thusiai) to her, while pouring LIBATIONS to Greek HEROES. Here the goddess is Greek save for the cult, which is culturally mixed because of the personnel. The heroic sacrifices are either gestures of good will towards the Persians’ Greek subjects, or Herodotus has misunderstood them (7.43.2).
Athena Alea, where FETTERS put on Spartan captives were hung up as a memorial of a Tegean victory, illustrates how objects in shrines have stories attached to them, for Herodotus evidently heard this story when he visited the shrine (1.66.4).
SEE ALSO: Acropolis; Gods and the Divine; Priests and Priestesses; Sacrifice; Tegea; Temples and Sanctuaries
FURTHER READING
1 Demargne,
