The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов

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      ABAE ( Ἄβαι, αἱ)

      JEREMY MCINERNEY

       University of Pennsylvania

      Abae was the site of an important oracle of APOLLO. Located in PHOCIS (BA 55 D3), the sanctuary is described by Herodotus as rich, and well‐stocked with TREASURIES and votive offerings. The Phocians dedicated 2,000 shields at Abae after defeating the THESSALIANS in the famous night‐time battle, when they covered themselves in chalk and terrified their opponents (8.27). In the ARCHAIC AGE the sanctuary rivaled DELPHI. The Phocians dedicated statue groups both at Abae and Delphi to commemorate their victory over the Thessalians, and the oracle at Abae was one of the six Greek ORACLES tested by CROESUS (1.46.2).

      Excavations by the German Archaeological Institute at Kalapodi have brought to light a sanctuary continuously used for cult purposes as far back as the Middle Helladic period (c. 2100–1600 BCE). The excavator, Wolf‐Dietrich Niemeier (2010), has proposed that the sanctuary at Kalapodi should be identified as Herodotus’ Abae. The identification is supported by the extraordinary number of WEAPONS found in the excavations, including over 2,000 shields (Felsch 2007). The sanctuary was destroyed by the Persians as they advanced through central Greece in 480 BCE (8.33).

      SEE ALSO: Dedications; Temples and Sanctuaries; Warfare

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ABANTES ( Ἄβαντες, οἱ)

      CHRISTOPHER BARON

       University of Notre Dame

A people from EUBOEA who, Herodotus asserts (1.146.1), formed “not the least part” of the IONIANS inhabiting the twelve CITIES in Asia Minor which claimed exclusive membership in the PANIONION. HOMER uses “Abantis” for Euboea and credits the people with bringing forty ships to fight the Trojans (Il. 2.536–45). Here and elsewhere, the Abantes are known as fierce hand‐to‐hand warriors with a unique hairstyle (Plut. Thes. 5.2–3), and their eponymous ancestor Abas has a place in the mythical Argive GENEALOGY (Mitchell 2001, 345–48). Nevertheless, the Greekness of the Abantes had apparently come into question by the fifth century BCE: this is implied by Herodotus, who criticizes Ionian claims to purity, and in a fragment of his contemporary Ion of Chios (BNJ 392 F1 = Paus. 7.4.9); later, Aristotle of Chalcis gave the Abantes a Thracian origin, via ABAE in PHOCIS (BNJ 423 F3 = Strabo 10.1.3/C445).

      SEE ALSO: Ethnicity; Migration; Myth; Pelasgians

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ABARIS ( Ἄβαρις, ὁ)

      KATHARINA WESSELMANN

       Christian‐Albrechts‐University, Kiel

      Hyperborean shaman, sometimes described as a prophet, healer, and magician (e.g., Pl. Chrm. 158b; Iambl. VP 91). PINDAR (F270 S‐M) makes Abaris a contemporary of CROESUS. He is also supposed to have been a pupil of Pythagoras (Iambl. VP 90–93), to whom he gave the arrow of APOLLO, upon which he had flown to Greece. This same legend is alluded to by Herodotus, who, in his brief discussion of HYPERBOREANS, says he will not tell the story of Abaris having carried the arrow over the whole world without needing nutrition (4.36.1).

      SEE ALSO: Geography; Maps; Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus

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