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(Ἀμφιδάμας; Amphidámas). [German version] [1] Hero from Tegea in Arcadia Hero from Tegea in Arcadia, son of Aleus, brother of Lycurgus son of Cepheus and Auge (Paus. 8,4,8), one of the Argonauts (Apoll. Rhod. 1,161; 2,1046). In Apollod. 3,105 he is not the brother, but the son of Lycurgus, an…

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[German version] (Κινύρας, Kinýras). Mythic founder of the temple of  Aphrodite of Paphus, and progenitor of the priestly family of the Cinyradae, who shared the leadership of the cult together with the Tamiradae family (whose ancestor, the Cilician seer Tamiras, C. had introduced), but later presided alone over the worship and oracle (Tac. Hist. 2,3). C. is connected with  Apollo (Pind. Pyth. 2,15), which indicates the …

[English version] The polarity between Apollo and Dionysus and the phenomena linked with these gods was introduced into modern aesthetic discussion by Friederich Nietzsche. Nietzsche understood the ‘duplicity of Apollo and Dionysus’ as a fundamental opposition of Greek aesthetics : An ihre (sc. der Griechen) beiden Kunstgottheiten, Apollo und Dionysus, knüpft sich unsere Erkenntnis, daß in der griech. Welt ein ungeheurer Gegensatz, nach Ursprung und Zielen, zw. der Kunst des Bildners, der apollinischen, und der unbildlichen Kunst der Musik, als der des Dionysus, besteht (‘it is by those two art-sponsoring deities, Apollo and Dionysus, that we are made to recognize the tremendous split, as regards both origins and objectives, between the plastic, Apollonian arts and the nonvisual art of music inspired by Dionysus’, The Birth of Tragedy, Chap. 1). In the process, Nietzsche adds further pairs of opposites to this polarity : night and day, dream and intoxication, visual and emotional. In this polarity, Nietzsche links the opposition between the plastic arts and th…

[German version] [1] Precious stone According to Theophr. De lapidibus 31 [1.68], a precious stone ( gemma) named after the river of the same name in Sicily (today's Carabi or Canitello), and which, along with 11 others, adorned the official escutcheon of the High Priest Aaron (Ex 39,10-13) [2.204 f.]. According to Plin. HN 37,5, King Pyrrhus of Epirus owned a specimen whose naturally occurring streaks ( maculae) depicted Apollo and the nine Muses. According to Plin. HN 37,139-142, the achates and its many variants, whilst having decreased in value owing to ma…

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(Ἀλήτης; Alḗtēs). Suggestive hero's name, ‘Roamer’. [German version] [1] Mythical conqueror of Corinth Son of the Heraclid Hippotes, captures and colonizes Corinth after expelling the descendants of  Sisyphus with help from Melas, an ancestor of  Cypselus (Str. 8,8,5; Konon FGrH 26 F 1,26; Paus. 2,4,3 f; 5,18,8), or he receives the rulership from the Heraclids (Diod. Sic. 7,9,2). His dynasty is replaced by the  Bacchiadae, and in poetry the Corinthians are called Aletidai after him. He won power in Corin…

(Ἀφείδας; Apheídas). Suggestive heroic name, ‘not miserly’. [German version] [1] Figure of the Odyssee Son of Polypemon from Alybas, as whose son Eperitus Odysseus passes himself off (Hom. Od. 24,304). Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) [German version] [2] King of Athens King of Athens, son of Oxyntes; his illegitimate brother kills him (Demon FGrH 327 F 1; Nikolaus FGrH 90 F 48). He is progenitor of the noble family of the Aphidantidae [1]. Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) …

(Ἄμφιος; Ámphios). [German version] [1] Son of the seer Merops of Percote A. and Adrestus, sons of the seer Merops of Percote, fought in the Trojan war against his will and were slain by Diomedes (Hom. Il. 2,828-834; 11,328-334). Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) …

I. Theory of myth [German version] A. Definition Despite many attempts, it has proven impossible to arrive at a definition of myth (Gr. μῦθος/ mýthos; Lat. mythos) that would satisfy all disciplines. The most satisfactory one refers to G.S. Kirk and W. Burkert who described myth as a ‘traditional narrative of collective significance’ [1; 2]. Still, this definition fails to fully represent the function of myth in the time after Classical Antiquity, when we find myths in entertaining narratives such as Ovidius's ‘Metamorphoses or Nonnus's Dionysiaká. The term ‘traditional’ implies…

[German version] ‘Eternity’, personification of duration of political rule. In the imperial period one can swear by the ‘eternal duration’ of the rule of an emperor, likewise invoke his fame or his well-being (Plin. Ep. 10,41,1; 83). The cult of Aeternitas probably begins in the early imperial period in Spain: coins (for instance from Tarraco and Emerita) under Augustus and Tiberius depict a temple with the legend, Aeternitati Augustae [1]. First depictions of the goddess occur under Vespasian, and the first cult reference is a sacrifice of   the Arvales fratres to A. imperii, after the…

Name of a Roman Plebeian family from Tusculum (who, as mint masters, liked to place on their coins the Dioscuri, who were particularly revered there, RRC 290, 307, cf. 353), whose members often held the office of praetor; the family did not attain the consulate until the early Imperial period. 1. Republican period …

[German version] (Ἄνδροκλος; Ándroklos). Son of king Codrus of Athens. According to Pherecydes (FGrH 3 F 155), the leader of the procession of colonists going from there to Ionia; however, according to Hellanicus (FGrH 4 F 125), Neleus, son of Codrus, already has this role. A. expels Leleges and Lydians and founds Ephesus; the royal lineage in Ephesus may have been called ‘the Androclids’. A. is said to have fought against the Samians and Carians and to have fallen when securing Priene as an Ionian colony (Paus. 7,2,9). Ephesian coins of the imperial period show his image. Graf, Fritz (Colu…

[German version] (Ἄντικλος; Ántiklos). One of the Greeks in the wooden horse. He wanted to answer Helena, when, near the horse standing on the hill fortress, she was imitating the voices of Greek women. However, Odysseus closed his mouth until Athena had led Helena away (Hom. Od. 4,271-89; Q. Smyrn. 12,317; Apollod. ep. 5,19; Ov. Ib. 567). Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH)

[German version] (Αἴγεστος; Aígestos). Son of Trojan parents who had fled to Sicily; fights with Elymus at Troy and founds Egesta/Segesta after his return (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,52). According to another tradition, son of Sicilian river god   Crimisus and the Trojan nymph Egesta/Segesta (Serv. Aen. 1,550). Virgil recounts in Aen. 5, how A. (whom he calls Acestes) receives Aeneas as a guest. Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) Bibliography …

Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) [German version] A. Terminology (CT) Neither Greek nor Latin had a word that precisely corresponds to the modern term 'religion' in its academic sense, whether to designate a specific cultural subsystem ('the religion of the Aztecs') or to refer to the anthropological constant of religion. This modern concept was a result of the Enlightenment and ethnological discoveries, and dates only to the Early Modern era. Ancient concepts focused on individual areas: the Greek thrēskeía, 'worship', and the Greek eusébeia refer only to ritual in the collective…

[German version] (Ἄμυρις; Ámyris). From Siris, called ‘the Wise’, father of Damasus, one of the suitors of  Agariste, the mother of Cleisthenes (Hdt. 6,127). The epithet associates him with the general sphere of the pre-philosophical, archaic Tales of Sages [1]. Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) Bibliography 1 F. Wehrli, Hauptrichtungen des griech. Denkens, 1964, 39-43.

[German version] (Ἀμυθάων; Amytháōn). Son of Cretheus and Tyro in Iolcus, brother of Phereus and Aeson, half brother of Neleus and Pelias, the sons of Poseidon (Hom. Od. 11,235-259; Hes. fr. 38). He settles in Pylos, which Neleus founded, and here he fathers his sons Melampus and Bias (Diod. Sic. 4,68,3; Apollod. 1,93; 96). He appears with his relatives in Iolcus, to demand Iason's inheritance from Pe…