READING
Schmitt, IPGL, 164 (no. 126).
BUBASTIS (Βούβαστις)
R. DREW GRIFFITH
Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario
1) An Egyptian city on the easternmost (Pelusiac) branch of the NILE Delta, securely identified as modern Tell Basṭa, just south of Zagazig (BA 74 F3). It is named after the goddess Bubastis (3), whom Egyptians called Bastet. The city is known in the Hebrew Bible as Pī‐bheseṭ (Ezekiel 30:17). Herodotus describes the annual feast of Bastet at the city, which is celebrated by a boat procession in bareis (Egyptian boats, see SHIPS AND SAILING) and by the RITUAL abuse (tōthasmos, see Rusten 1977, 161) of the city’s women by the worshippers (2.59–60). Herodotus describes the city’s Bastet‐temple in detail, proclaiming that there is “none more pleasurable to behold” (2.137.4–138).
2) The 18th administrative district (νομός, Egyptian sp˒ ͗t) of Lower EGYPT, which takes its Greek name from Bubastis (1), its capital (in Egyptian the nome was called Imty ḥnty, “Prince of the South”). Herodotus lists Bubastis as one source of men for the CALASIRIES, a group within the Egyptian warrior class (2.166.1).
3) The cat‐ or lion‐headed goddess Bastet (whom Herodotus equates on dubious grounds with ARTEMIS: 2.59, 137, 156), whose name in turn comes from b˒ ͗s, meaning “jar” (Gardiner 1957, 527).
SEE ALSO: Delta (Nile); Festivals; Insults; Temples and Sanctuaries
REFERENCES
1 Gardiner, Alan. 1957. Egyptian Grammar. 3rd edition. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, Griffith Institute.
2 Rusten, Jeffrey S. 1977. “Wasps 1360–1369: Philocleon’s ΤΩΘΑ∑ΜΟ∑.” HSCP 81: 157–61.
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.), 363–92. Cairo: IFAO.
2 Lloyd, Alan B. 1976. Herodotus: Book, II, Commentary 1–98, 268–76. Leiden: Brill.
BUCOLIC, see SEBENNYTUS
BUDIANS (Βούδιοι, οἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Herodotus names the Budians as one of the six tribes (genea) of the MEDES, whom DEIOCES united as one people (ethnos) upon becoming the first king of Media (1.101). They are otherwise unknown.
SEE ALSO: Arizantians; Busae; Magi; Paretacenians; Struchates
FURTHER READING
1 Jones, C. P. 1996. “ἔθνος and γένος in Herodotus.” CQ 46.2: 315–20.
BUDINI (Βουδῖνοι, οἱ)
CAROLYN DEWALD
Bard College
Herodotus locates the Budini as one of the SCYTHIANS’ northern neighbors (4.21), living in a wooded area “fifteen days beyond the SAUROMATIANS,” thus several hundred miles north of Lake MAEOTIS (Sea of Azov) and east of the mouth of the TANAIS River (the Don). Later in Book 4, in the context of DARIUS I’s forthcoming invasion of Scythia c. 513 BCE (4.102, 105, 108–9), he describes them as “a great and numerous people,” relevant as one of the three peoples willing to help the Scythians defend their territory (4.119–23, 136). The Budini are distinctive in their blue eyes (glaukon) and “redness” (pyrrhon), although it is unclear whether this means ruddy in complexion or red‐haired. They are pastoralists and “lice eaters” (phtheirotrageousi), but also live among Greeks in their city constructed of wood, Gelonus (4.108), although they have their own language (4.24, 109). Darius eventually burns Gelonus down (4.123), but the Budini, GELONIANS, and Sauromatians help the Scythians mount a strategic retreat that leads Darius around a long and ultimately ineffective chase through Scythia and neighboring lands (4.119–41).
Many attempts have been made to identify the Budini as ancestors of a variety of modern peoples, among them Votiak Finns, Slavs, and Celts. Corcella (in ALC, 595) thinks they could have inhabited a large area between the Volga, the Don, and the Dnieper RIVERS; Gelonus is sometimes identified with Bel’sk, a settlement on the Vorskla, a tributary of the Dnieper considerably to the west of where Herodotus locates the Budini at 4.21 (Rolle 1989, 117–19), although ARCHAEOLOGY has recently revealed other such settlements as possibilities as well.
SEE ALSO: Ethnography; Language and Communication; Nomads
REFERENCE
1 Rolle, Renate. 1989. The World of the Scythians, translated by F. Walls [orig. German edition 1980]. Munich: C. J. Bucher.
FURTHER READING
1 Bolton, J. D. P. 1962. Aristeas of Proconnesus, 104–15. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
BULIS, see SPERTHIAS AND BULIS
BURA (Βοῦρα, ἡ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
City in the northern PELOPONNESE, less than five miles inland from the Corinthian Gulf (BA 58 C1; Müller I, 753–54), one of the twelve cities/regions (merē) of the Achaeans. Herodotus names Bura as one of the original twelve CITIES of the IONIANS, before they were forced to migrate to Asia Minor by the Achaeans (1.145). Bura was heavily damaged by an EARTHQUAKE in 373 BCE but rebuilt by citizens who had been away on military campaign (Paus. 7.25.8–9).
SEE ALSO: Achaeans (Peloponnesian); Ethnicity
FURTHER READING
1 Anderson, J. K. 1954. “A Topographical and Historical Study of Achaea.” ABSA 49: 72–92.
IACP no. 233 (480–81).
BURIAL CUSTOMS
JOSEPH SKINNER
Newcastle University
Herodotus’ Histories provide a wealth of information regarding the burial customs of a wide variety of non‐Greek peoples. Some of it is archaeologically verifiable: for example Herodotus’ description of the royal burials of the SCYTHIANS (4.71–72) is largely supported by kurgan burials dating
