ALSO: Carthage; Colonization; Gelon; Sicania; Tyrants
FURTHER READING
1 Adornato, Gianfranco. 2012. Akragas arcaica. Modelli culturali e linguaggi artistici di una città greca d’Occidente. Milan: Edizione Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto.
2 Holloway, R. Ross. 1991. The Archaeology of Ancient Sicily. London and New York: Routledge.
AGRON ( Ἄγρων, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Legendary king of LYDIA, great‐grandson of ALCAEUS SON OF HERACLES. Herodotus names Agron the first Heraclid king of SARDIS (i.e., Lydia, 1.7.2–3), with CANDAULES being the last of this dynasty. Since Agron’s father and grandfather are Babylonian and Assyrian gods (BELUS and NINUS), some scholars believe that Herodotus reports a Greek (or Greek‐influenced) tradition meant to connect the ancient Near Eastern kings to HERACLES (Asheri in ALC, 79–80); but Burkert (1995, 144) argues that this GENEALOGY only makes sense in the context of Lydian‐Assyrian relations in the seventh century BCE.
SEE ALSO: Assyrians; Ethnography; Gyges son of Dascylus; Heracleidae
REFERENCE
1 Burkert, Walter. 1995. “Lydia Between East and West or How to Date the Trojan War: A Study in Herodotus.” In The Ages of Homer: A Tribute to Emily Townsend Vermeule, edited by Jane B. Carter and Sarah P. Morris, 139–48. Austin: University of Texas Press.
FURTHER READING
1 Roosevelt, Christopher H. 2009. The Archaeology of Lydia, From Gyges to Alexander, 19. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
AGYLLAEANS (Ἀγυλλαῖοι, οἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Agylla is the older Greek name for the Etruscan city of Caere (BA 44 B2), modern Cerveteri northwest of Rome. Herodotus recounts (1.167.1–2) how the Carthaginians and Etruscans after the naval battle of ALALIA (c. 540 BCE) stoned to death their Phocaean prisoners on the Italian shore near Agylla. When, subsequently, every living thing that passed by the site was debilitated, the Agyllaeans sent to DELPHI, where the god instructed them to honor the dead Phocaeans as HEROES. Herodotus states that SACRIFICES and athletic games were still held there in his day. Later authors report a tradition that the city was founded by PELASGIANS (Briquel 1984, 169–224).
SEE ALSO: Carthage; Curses; Italy; Phocaea; Prisoners of War; Tyrrhenians
REFERENCE
1 Briquel, Dominique. 1984. Les Pélasges en Italie: recherches sur l’histoire de la légende. Rome: École française de Rome.
FURTHER READING
1 Asheri in ALC, 187.
2 Hülsken, Daniel. 2012. “Uni‐Astarte und Apollon: Der Wandel der karthagischen Politik gegenüber Sardinien im 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr. und seine religiösen Implikationen.” In L’Africa Romana XIX, edited by Maria Bastiana Cocco, Alberto Gavini, and Antonio Ibba. Vol. 2, 1721–26. Rome: Carocci.
AIRS, WATERS, PLACES, see MEDICAL WRITERS; CLIMATE
AISA , see HAESA
AJAX (Αἴας, ὁ)
EMILY VARTO
Dalhousie University
Hero from the ISLAND of SALAMIS, son of TELAMON and grandson of AEACUS. Telamon was exiled from AEGINA and settled on Salamis, where Ajax was born (Apollod. Bibl. 3.12.7; Diod. Sic. 4.72.7). Ajax fought at TROY and committed SUICIDE after Achilles’ armor was given to Odysseus instead of him (Little Iliad, PEG F2; Pind. Nem. 7.23–30, 8.26–27; Soph. Ajax).
Ajax’s later genealogical connections are inconsistent in the sources. Ajax and Aeacus were claimed as ancestors, via Ajax’s son Philaeus, by the Philaidae FAMILY at ATHENS (Hdt. 6.35.1), which included MILTIADES THE YOUNGER, the victor at MARATHON, and his son CIMON THE YOUNGER, the fifth‐century Athenian general. This genealogical information is irreconcilable with the GENEALOGY of Miltiades given by Pherecydes (BNJ 3 F2), which may be a simplified, enlongated stemma drawing on names from family and local Athenian traditions (Thomas 1989, 161–73; Duplouy 2006, 61–64; Fowler 2013, 474–80). Elsewhere in Pherecydes, Telamon is an Athenian, son of Actaeus (BNJ 3 F60). In other sources, Salamis was given to Athens by Philaeus and Eurysaces, both sons of Ajax (Plut. Sol. 10) or by Philaeus, son of Eurysaces, son of Ajax (Paus. 1.35.2). In any case, Athenian tradition closely associated Ajax with both Salamis and Athens, and with Athens’ control of the island (Duplouy 2006, 61–64).
According to Herodotus, although Ajax was from Salamis, his name was given to one of the Cleisthenic tribes because he was a neighbor and ally (5.66). Before the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE, the Athenians ask the Aeacidae for help, specifically calling upon Ajax and Telamon and bringing cult images of Aeacus and the Aeacidae from Aegina (8.64); following the battle, the Greeks dedicate a victory offering to Ajax on Salamis (8.121).
SEE ALSO: Cleisthenes son of Megacles; Heroes and Hero Cult; Miltiades the Elder; Myth
REFERENCES
1 Duplouy, Alain. 2006. Le prestige des élites: recherches sur les modes de reconnaisance sociale en Grèce entre les Xe et Ve siècles avant J.‐C. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
2 Fowler, Robert L. 2013. Early Greek Mythography. Vol. 2, Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3 Thomas, Rosalind. 1989. Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
FURTHER READING
1 Kearns, Emily. 1989. The Heroes of Attica. London: Institute of Classical Studies.
AKOĒ, see AUTOPSY; EVIDENCE; HISTORICAL METHOD
ALABANDA IN CARIA (Ἀλαβάνδα τὰ ἐν Καρίῃ)
JEREMY LABUFF
Northern Arizona University
City in north‐central CARIA (modern Arabhısar) along the west bank of the MARSYAS River (BA 61 F2), home to the tyrant ARIDOLIS who served in the Persian fleet in 480 BCE (7.195). Little is known of the pre‐Hellenistic city apart from a late classical building and the extent of the fourth‐century circuit WALL. Alabanda remained in the Persian Empire until the Hellenistic period, when it was part of the religious Chrysaorean League and the Seleucid Empire, being temporarily renamed
