PLUTARCH’s virulent reaction against Herodotus’ narrative concerning Adeimantus includes an epitaph for the Corinthians who died at Salamis and were buried on the island by Athenian concession—a fragment of which survives on stone (ML 24)—and an epigram specifically in honor of Adeimantus (Plut. Mor. 870e–871a/DHM 39). Favorinus attributes both to SIMONIDES ([Dio Chrys.] Or. 37.18–19).
SEE ALSO: Athens and Herodotus; Bribery; Corinth; Date of Composition; Ocytus; Source Citations
FURTHER READING
1 Lazenby, J. F. 1993. The Defence of Greece, 490–479 B.C., 151–97. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
2 Salmon, J. B. 1984. Wealthy Corinth: A History of the City to 338 BC, 253–56. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
ADICRAN (Ἀδικράν, ὁ)
TYPHAINE HAZIZA
Université de Caen Normandie
Libyan king who attempted, in vain, to oppose the second wave of Greek COLONIZATION at CYRENE, in the first quarter of the sixth century BCE. Very little is known about Adicran, but it is likely that he was the leader of the ASBYSTAE who inhabited the region near Cyrene. But the desire of BATTUS II (ruled from c. 583 until after 570) to develop the colony went against the territorial interests of his native neighbors. Adicran called on the Egyptian pharaoh APRIES for assistance, but the Egyptian army suffered a heavy defeat at IRASA (c. 570). Herodotus does not report what happened to Adicran after this defeat, which led to a change of ruler in EGYPT (4.159).
SEE ALSO: Amasis (king of Egypt); Libya
FURTHER READING
1 Chamoux, François. 1953. Cyrène sous la monarchie des Battiades, 135. Paris: de Boccard.
2 Colin, Frédéric. 2000. Les peuples libyens de la Cyrénaïque à l’Égypte. D’après les sources de l’Antiquité classique, 89–90. Brussels: Académie Royale de Belgique.
3 Corcella in ALC, 687.
ADRAMYTTIUM (Ἀδραμύττειον πόλις)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
A city in Asia Minor, near the head of the gulf of the same name (BA 56 D2; Müller II, 764–66). Some MANUSCRIPTS have At‐ instead of Adramyttium (see Threatte 1980, 557). Herodotus mentions Adramyttium as XERXES’ invasion force marches through in 480 BCE (7.42.1). It was the most important city of the plain of Thebe (cf. Strabo 13.1.61–66/C612–14); at some point in the Roman era (perhaps the second century CE) it was refounded farther north and inland, on the former site of the town named Thebe, which is where modern Edremit sits.
SEE ALSO: Antandrus; Mysia; Thebe (2)
REFERENCE
1 Threatte, Leslie. 1980. The Grammar of Attic Inscriptions, Volume One: Phonology. Berlin: De Gruyter.
FURTHER READING
1 IACP no. 800 (1038).
2 Stauber, Josef. 1996. Die Bucht von Adramytteion. 2 vols. Bonn: Habelt.
ADRASTUS ( Ἄδρηστος, ὁ) son of Gordias
ANTHONY ELLIS
University of Bern
Adrastus’ appearance in Herodotus’ Histories is brief and tragic. A member of the Phrygian royal house (son of GORDIAS and grandson of MIDAS), he arrives at SARDIS in disgrace (1.35), exiled from his native land for the unintentional MURDER of his brother, and is ritually purified by CROESUS and hosted at the Lydian court. After a DREAM foretells the death of Croesus’ son ATYS, Croesus appoints Adrastus as Atys’ protector during a trip to kill a monstrous boar (see PIGS). At the critical moment Adrastus misthrows his spear and accidentally kills his ward. Returning to Sardis in chains, Adrastus offers himself up to Croesus for execution; Croesus, in pity, opines that the ultimate responsibility for Atys’ DEATH lay with “one of the gods” (words redolent of Homer’s PRIAM, Il. 3.164) and lets him live. Nevertheless, the distraught Adrastus slaughters himself on Atys’ tomb, “recognizing that he was the most ill‐fated (βαρυσυμϕορώτατος) of all the people he knew” (1.45.3). The episode is written in Herodotus’ most emotive and paratactic style, and many similarities with TRAGEDY have been observed (see Chiasson 2003). Adrastus, strongly associated with the word συμϕορή (chance/DISASTER), seems to embody the truth of SOLON’s maxim that “man is entirely συμϕορή” (1.32.4). The details of the story are not related in other sources (though the death of Croesus’ healthy son is mentioned by XENOPHON, Cyr. 7.2.20).
Adrastus, like Atys, has a “speaking‐name”: in Greek ἄ‐δρασ‐τος can be understood as “inescapable” or “unable‐to‐escape,” and the epithet Ἀδράστεια was connected with Nemesis at least as early as Antimachus c. 400 BCE (F53 Wyss = Strabo 13.1.13/C588). That the association predates Antimachus is suggested by the fact that Herodotus’ Adrastus acts as the unwitting agent of “great nemesis from god” (1.34; so Munn 2006, 333–36), and the story may be connected to a foundation MYTH for the cult of Nemesis Adrasteia. The cult of the goddess Adrasteia was, in any case, established in ATHENS by 429/8. Remarkably, the name Ἄδραστος seems to have independent origins in Greek—the hero Ἄδρηστος of SICYON is known to HOMER (Il. 2.572) and Herodotus (5.67), and the name is amply attested in the LGPN with Mycenaean forebears—and in Lydian (perhaps explaining the several Trojan Adrastuses in the Iliad: 2.830, 6.37–65, 16.694). The name is not, however, commonly attested in PHRYGIA outside the LYDIA‐Phrygia border region (van Bremen 2010, 446–50).
SEE ALSO: Adrastus son of Talaus; Fate; Gods and the Divine; Pollution; Prophecy; Suicide
REFERENCES
1 Chiasson, Charles C. 2003. “Herodotus’ Use of Attic Tragedy in the Lydian Logos.” ClAnt 22.1: 5–36.
2 Munn, Mark H. 2006. The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion. Berkeley: University of California Press.
3 van Bremen, Riet. 2010. “Adrastos at Aphrodisias.” In Onomatologos. Studies in Greek Personal Names Presented to Elaine Matthews, edited by Richard Catling and Fabienne Marchand, 440–55. Exeter: Oxbow Books.
ADRASTUS ( Ἄδρηστος, ὁ) son of Talaus
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Mythical, important figure in the Theban EPIC cycle. Although an Argive, Adrastus gained the kingship of SICYON (already in HOMER, Il. 2.572). Herodotus explains (5.67.4) that Adrastus’ mother was the daughter of POLYBUS, the previous Sicyonian king; other sources help us fill in the gaps, notably Adrastus’
