POLYNEICES. In some versions of the “Seven against THEBES” Adrastus leads the expedition, but he survives the fighting (e.g., Eur. Supp. 857–917).
Herodotus mentions a hero‐shrine of Adrastus which still stood in the AGORA of Sicyon and tragic choruses which were held in his honor in previous times. However, the tyrant CLEISTHENES OF SICYON (early sixth century BCE) wished to banish Adrastus due to his Argive connections. When the PYTHIA at DELPHI rather bluntly denied his request, Cleisthenes cleverly introduced the cult of MELANIPPUS SON OF ASTACES to the council‐house at Sicyon—Melanippus had killed Tydeus and Adrastus’ brother MECISTEUS—and eliminated the SACRIFICES and FESTIVALS dedicated to Adrastus (5.67).
SEE ALSO: Aegialeus; Argos; Heroes and Hero Cult; Myth; Tyrants
FURTHER READING
1 Gantz, EGM, 506–19.
2 Griffin, Audrey. 1982. Sikyon. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
3 Hornblower, Simon, ed. 2013. Herodotus: Histories Book V, 198–206. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4 Krauskopf, Ingrid. 1981. “Adrastos.” In LIMC I.1, 231–40.
ADRIATIC SEA (ὁ Ἀδρίης κόλπος)
PASCAL ARNAUD
University Lyon 2 and Institut Universitaire de France
The Adriatic Sea, which today refers to the long, narrow gulf between the Italian and Balkan peninsulas, is a name whose geographical application varied much through time. In antiquity, it eventually included the area south of the Adriatic, between Greece and SICILY, often referred to as the IONIAN GULF. This large extension is likely the one the word already had in ATHENS in 325/4 BCE, when the Athenians sent a naval force in support of an apoikia “in the Adria,” when this was under threat from the Latins (called TYRRHENIANS).
When Herodotus uses the term, he seems to have in mind the more restricted area of today’s Adriatic Sea, especially its northern edge. “Adria(s)” is the country where the ENETI (Veneti) dwell (5.9.2) and whence goods coming from the HYPERBOREANS are sent southwards to DODONA (4.33). Some therefore think that Adrias (ὁ Ἀδρίης) would be the name of the northern Adriatic, the region around Atria, while the Ionian Gulf would refer to the southern Adriatic. But if so, it is a bit more difficult to understand the well‐known passage where the Phocaeans are said to have uncovered “the Adriatic and Tyrrhenia and IBERIA and TARTESSUS” (1.163.1). The Adriatic is not on the route to the West, but the strait of Otranto is. The presence of the Phocaeans in the Adriatic Sea itself is a vexed question, and Herodotus probably meant that the Phocaeans, having sailed the Ionian Gulf, had uncovered the existence of the Adriatic Sea.
SEE ALSO: Phocaea; Sea; Ships and Sailing; Trade
FURTHER READING
1 Biancucci, Giovanni Battista. 1973. “La via iperborea.” RFIC 101.1: 207–20.
2 Coppola, Alessandra. 2002. “I nomi dell'Adriatico.” Hesperìa: Studi sulla grecità di Occidente 15: 101–6.
ADVISERS
SHEILA MURNAGHAN
University of Pennsylvania
Herodotus’ expansive account of prodigious achievements and momentous military ventures includes many occasions for the giving of advice. The individuals and communities who drive historical events interact with human advisers of all ages and stations, named and unnamed, self‐seeking and disinterested, disreputable and high‐minded, whose ideas range from clever practical suggestions, to insights into the laws of nature and human behavior, to broad tenets of traditional wisdom. Those same actors also receive advice from supernatural sources through ORACLES and prophecies. A prominent theme within this larger pattern involves powerful figures who receive wise, usually negative advice but fail to follow it—with disastrous consequences, often recognizing their error after the event. The recurrent dynamic of resistance to advice and late learning is prefigured in HOMER’s depiction of HECTOR and Poulydamas in the Iliad and is a concern that Herodotus conspicuously shares with the tragedians, with the result that the typical wise adviser of the Histories is sometimes labeled a “tragic warner.” The definitive example of this type is SOLON in his programmatic encounter with CROESUS, in which Croesus is deaf to Solon’s warnings about the instability of fortune (1.30–33). When Croesus loses his empire to CYRUS (II) and voices his belated understanding by calling out Solon’s name on his funeral pyre, he saves his own life and himself takes on a new role as wise adviser to Cyrus and his son CAMBYSES (II) (1.85–89, 207; 3.36). Advisers may be recognized sages like Solon or BIAS OF PRIENE (1.27), experienced former rulers like Croesus or the deposed Spartan DEMARATUS (7.3, 101–4, 235), or well‐wishing ALLIES and relatives such as AMASIS (3.40), ARTEMISIA (8.68–69), ARTABANUS (4.83; 7.10, 46–49, 51), or GORGO (5.51; 7.239). Good advice is often ignored because of blind hopes and overconfidence, as in the case of Croesus, but other factors also come into play: in the extended account of XERXES’ decision to invade Greece (7.5–18), Artabanus’ initially successful advice to abandon the plan is overcome by the relentless momentum of Persian expansion, even when its pitfalls are recognized, and by supernatural interference.
A number of Herodotus’ wise advisers have affinities to the historian: the advice attributed to Solon reworks ideas found in Solon’s POETRY in line with Herodotus’ own views about ETHNOGRAPHY, East‐West conflict, human‐divine relations, and the limits of human KNOWLEDGE (Chiasson 2016); the Corinthian SOCLES provides an extended historical narrative in his attempt to dissuade the Peloponnesians from reinstating a TYRANT in ATHENS (5.92); Herodotus’ predecessor HECATAEUS serves as an adviser on several occasions (5.36, 125); and the Histories ends with Cyrus giving the Persians good advice on the Herodotean theme of topography and national character (9.122). This suggests that Herodotus may have envisioned his own work as wise advice aimed at the Athenians with their expanding empire, as many scholars have argued. In any case, Herodotus certainly articulates not only the dismay and self‐reproach of those who have ignored good advice, but also the frustration of those who have good advice to give but cannot change the course of events. On the night before the Battle of PLATAEA, an unnamed Persian observes that he and many of his fellow warriors know they are doomed but are constrained by NECESSITY to follow their foolish leaders, whom it would be useless to warn, adding that “the most painful thing in human life is to understand many things but to lack effective power” (9.16.5).
SEE ALSO: Athens and Herodotus; Decision‐making; Disaster; End of the Histories; Epic Poetry; Thersander of Orchomenus; Tragedy
REFERENCE
1 Chiasson, Charles C. 2016. “Solon’s Poetry and Herodotean Historiography.” AJPh 137.1: 25–60.
FURTHER READING
1 Bischoff, Heinrich. 1932. Der Warner bei Herodot. Marburg: Noske. Partially reprinted in Marg, Walter, ed. 1982. Herodot: Eine Auswahl aus der neueren Forschung, 3rd edition, 302–19, 681–88. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
2 Lattimore, Richmond. 1939. “The Wise Adviser in Herodotus.” CPh 34.1: 24–35.
3 Pelling, Christopher B. R. 1991. “Thucydides’
