and character trials for the betrothal of AGARISTE (I), daughter of the tyrant CLEISTHENES OF SICYON (6.126–30) as well as the episode concerning the transfer of victory credit from CIMON THE ELDER to the Athenian tyrant PEISISTRATUS for the tethrippon Olympic victory of 532 (6.103) are indicative of a perception, widespread among sixth‐century elites, of sport as an exclusive upper‐class pursuit (Papakonstantinou 2010 and 2013).
SEE ALSO: Competition; Cylon; Ethnography; Games; Medize; Milo; Panhellenism
REFERENCES
1 Kyle, Donald. 2010. “Pan‐Hellenism and Particularism: Herodotus on Sport, Greekness, Piety and War.” In Sport in the Cultures of the Ancient World: New Perspectives, edited by Zinon Papakonstantinou, 35–63. London and New York: Routledge.
2 Papakonstantinou, Zinon. 2010. “Agariste’s Suitors: Sport, Feasting and Elite Politics in Sixth‐Century bc Greece.” Nikephoros 23: 71–93.
3 Papakonstantinou, Zinon. 2013. “Cimon the Elder, Peisistratus and the tethrippon Olympic Victory of 532 bce.” JAH 1.2: 99–118.
FURTHER READING
1 Christesen, Paul. 2012. Sport and Democracy in the Ancient and Modern Worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2 Golden, Mark. 2004. Sport and Society in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3 Kyle, Donald G. 2014. Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World. 2nd edition. Malden, MA: Wiley‐Blackwell.
4 Mann, Christian. 2001. Athlet und Polis im archaischen und frühklassischen Griechenland. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
5 Nicholson, Nigel James. 2005. Aristocracy and Athletics in Archaic and Classical Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ATHOS ( Ἄθως, ὁ)
KATRIN DOLLE
Justus‐Liebig‐University of Giessen
Mountain on the southern end of ancient Acte, Chalcidice’s easternmost peninsula (width 12 stadia, about 1.5 miles: 7.22.2). Athos was already populated by several Greek poleis in Herodotus’ time (7.22.3: SANE, DIUM, OLOPHYXUS, ACROTHOON, THYSSUS, CLEONAE); today it is an autonomous monastic polity. Owing to its location at the eastern Macedonian border (BA 51 C4), Athos has an impact firstly on the campaign of MARDONIUS (6.43–45, c. 492 BCE), who loses the crews of 300 ships in a storm while circumnavigating the peninsula. This first encounter, collectively remembered by the Persians (e.g., 7.22.1), determines the subsequent campaign of DATIS and Artaphernes (6.95) and, finally, that of XERXES in 480, who has a navigable CANAL dug through the peninsula’s neck over three years (7.22–24, 37, 122; Thuc. 4.109; cf. Juv. 10.173–78). Its existence was confirmed by archaeological surveys in the 1990s. Herodotus comments on the digging methods and ascribes the technical know‐how not so much to the Persian supervisors BUBARES and ARTACHAEES as to the PHOENICIANS (7.22.2–3). For Herodotus, Xerxes’ plan is a mere manifestation of HUBRIS and stems from his wish to endow a MONUMENT to himself (7.24), since it would have been easier to pull the ships over the isthmus. The completion of the canal—a construction against nature—is linked in the narrative with the army’s departure from SARDIS, which is overshadowed by a solar ECLIPSE (7.37; cf. the same event at the ISTHMUS of CORINTH, 9.10). The fleet successfully traverses the Athos canal. But BOREAS, the North Wind, mythically related to the Athenians by marriage, who is said to have already intervened in Mardonius’ attempted circumnavigation (7.189.2), again loyally disrupts the Persians’ plan, and attacks the fleet with even graver losses at MAGNESIA (Greece) (7.188–92).
SEE ALSO: Archaeology; Artaphernes son of Artaphernes; Chalcidians in Thrace; Engineering; Persian Wars; Ships and Sailing; Weather
FURTHER READING
1 Isserlin, B. S. J ., R. E. Jones, V. Karastathis, S. P. Papamarinopoulos, G. E. Syrides, and J. Uren. 2003. “The Canal of Xerxes: Summary of Investigations 1991–2001.” ABSA 98: 369–85.
ATHRIBIS (ὁ Ἀθριβίτης νομός)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
An administrative district or nome (Greek νομός, Egyptian sp͗˒t [sepat]) of ancient EGYPT in the southern Nile DELTA (BA 74 E4), about forty kilometers north of modern Cairo. Herodotus lists Athribis (Egyptian H&c.brvbl;wt‐h&c.brvbl;rj‐jb) as one source of men for the CALASIRIES, a group within the Egyptian warrior class (2.166.1). The city of Athribis, modern Tell Atrib/Benha, was the capital of the tenth lower Egyptian nome.
FURTHER READING
1 Leclère, François. 2008. Les villes de Basse Égypte au Ier millénaire av. J.‐C.: Analyse archéologique et historique de la topographie urbaine (2 vols.), 233–78. Cairo: IFAO.
ATHRYS RIVER (ὁ Ἄθρυς ποταμός)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
River in northern THRACE, tributary of the ISTER (Danube), flowing through the land of the CROBYZIANS along with the NOĒS and ARTANES (4.49.1). Some have identified the Athrys with the Roman Ieterus, modern Jantra (BA 22 C5).
SEE ALSO: Rivers
FURTHER READING
1 Corcella in ALC, 618.
2 Duridanov, Ivan. 1985. Die Sprache der Thraker, 23. Neuried: Hieronymus.
ATLANTES ( Ἄτλαντες, οἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Libyan (North African) tribe of unknown location. Herodotus places them at Mt. Atlas (4.184.3–4), the second‐to‐last on a chain of oases separated by ten‐day journeys stretching west across the Saharan Desert, starting from EGYPT (4.181). Though he states that the last OASIS to the west beyond the Atlantes lies outside the PILLARS OF HERACLES (4.185.1–2), it is difficult to reconcile the distances involved in a way that would put his Atlantes in the modern Atlas Mountains of Morocco and Algeria (let alone near the Strait of Gibraltar). The Atlantes are noteworthy for their habit of not eating any living thing and not dreaming while they sleep.
SEE ALSO: Atarantes; Atlantic Ocean; Dreams; Ethnography; Libya
FURTHER READING
1 Corcella in ALC, 708.
2 Desanges, Jehan. 1962. Catalogue des tribus africaines de l’antiquité classique à l’ouest du Nil, 253–54. Dakar: Université de Dakar.
