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
REFERENCES
1 Felsch, Rainer C. S. 2007. “Die Bronzefunde.” In Kalapodi II: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen im Heiligtum der Artemis und des Apollon von Hyampolis in der antiken Phokis, edited by Rainer C. S. Felsch, 28–247. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
2 Niemeier, Wolf‐Dietrich. 2010. “Ausgrabungen und Forschungen, Kalapodi (Abai).” In Jahresbericht 2009 des DAI, Abteilung Athen 1 Beiheft, 2009: 106–8.
FURTHER READING
1 McInerney, Jeremy. 2013. “Making Phokian Space: Sanctuary and Community in the Definition of Phokis.” In Greek Federal States and Their Sanctuaries: Identity and Integration, edited by Peter Funke and Matthias Haake, 185–204. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
2 Niemeier, Wolf‐Dietrich. 2016. Das Orakelheiligtum des Apollon von Abai/Kalapodi. Eines der bedeutendsten griechischen Heiligtümer nach den Ergebnissen der neuen Ausgrabungen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
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
REFERENCE
1 Mitchell, Lynette G. 2001. “Euboean Io.” CQ 51.2: 339–52.
FURTHER READING
1 Kirk, G. S. 1985. The Iliad: A Commentary. Volume 1: Books 1–4, 203–5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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
FURTHER READING
1 Bolton, J. D. P. 1962. Aristeas of Proconnesus, 156–58. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2 Corcella in ALC, 607–8.
ABDERA ( Ἄβδηρα, τά)
MATTHEW A. SEARS
University of New Brunswick
Abdera was an important city with a fertile plain on the Aegean coast of THRACE, just east of the mouth of the NESTUS RIVER (BA 51 D3). Known for its produce and fishing, Abdera dominated one of the best overland routes from the AEGEAN SEA to the ISTER (Danube) River and EUXINE (Black) Sea. Abdera was colonized primarily by the Ionian city TEOS in the mid‐sixth century BCE, after an earlier settlement of the site by CLAZOMENAE (1.168). Thereafter, Abdera was a center of Greco‐Thracian relations (cf. 7.137.3), and much of the population seems to have been a mixture of Greeks and Thracians who followed many Thracian practices, including the worship of DIONYSUS.
Abdera may have served as a naval base for Persian operations under DARIUS I in the 490s (6.46–48). During XERXES’ invasion of Greece in 480, Abdera enthusiastically supported the Persians. On its way to Greece, Xerxes’ army was provisioned from Abdera, which prompted one Abderite (MEGACREON) to quip that if Xerxes’ forces had needed two meals from the city, the residents would have been better off fleeing than being crushed by the expense (7.120). Upon Xerxes’ retreat after the Battle of SALAMIS, Abdera was so welcoming to the king that he declared a pact of FRIENDSHIP with the city and presented the residents with a GOLD sword (akinakēs) and gold TIARA. Herodotus also reports, though does not believe, the Abderite claim that their city was the first place Xerxes felt safe enough to undo his belt (8.120). This story is remarkable because it shows no sign that Abdera was later ashamed of its association with PERSIA.
SEE ALSO: Colonization; Medize; Nymphodorus; Persian Wars; Sources for Herodotus; Timesius
FURTHER READING
1 IACP no. 640 (872–75).
2 Isaac, Benjamin. 1986. The Greek Settlements in Thrace until the Macedonian Conquest, 73–108. Leiden: Brill.
3 Moustaka, Aliki, Eudokia Skarlatidou, Maria‐Christina Tzannes, and Yaşar Ersoy, eds. 2004. Klazomenai, Teos and Abdera: Metropoleis and Colony. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press.
ABDUCTION , see RAPE; WOMEN IN THE HISTORIES
ABROCOMES (Ἀβροκόμης, ὁ)
MARGARET COOL ROOT
University of Michigan
Abrocomes (7.244.2) was one of the two sons of DARIUS I by his niece‐wife PHRATAGUNE. He was thus one of Artanes’ two grandsons—both of whom died at THERMOPYLAE in 480 BCE along with their grandfather.
SEE ALSO: Artanes son of Hystaspes
FURTHER READING
1 Balcer, Jack Martin. 1993. A Prosopographical Study of the Ancient Persians Royal and Noble c. 550–450 B.C., 108–9. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
ABRONICHUS (Ἀβρώνιχος, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Athenian, son of LYSICLES, of the DEME Lamptrae, assigned to bring news of the fate of LEONIDAS and the Greek army at THERMOPYLAE to the fleet at ARTEMISIUM in 480 BCE Abronichus’ arrival there after the naval battle had been fought convinced the fleet to withdraw (8.21). After the war, Abronichus (perhaps more correctly spelled Habronichus) served as an ambassador to SPARTA in conjunction with THEMISTOCLES’ ruse to rebuild Athens’ WALLS despite Spartan reluctance to allow it (Thuc. 1.91.3). Abronichus’ name appears on a number of ostraca from the 480s (Lang 1990, 47 nos. 124–27;