Abii
The Abii (
In the
Classicist and linguist Steve Reece has proposed an interesting association between Homer's Abii and Aeschylus' Gabii. He proposes that at Iliad 13.6 Homer dropped the gamma from Γάβιοι, the name of the tribe known to Aeschylus, frag. 196, from a source other than Homer in its correct and original form. That is to say, Homer understood an earlier name Γάβιοι as γ' Ἄβιοι through metanalysis, or reshaping, of the words. Homer's motivation may be due to his penchant for finding etymological significance in proper names: i.e., he derived Ἄβιοι from alpha-privative plus βία ("without violence"), a suitable name for those he calls in the same passage "the justest of men."[5] If this is correct, the name Abii was derived exclusively from Homer.[6]
Like the correspondent fabulous people, the Hyperborei, the locations of the Abii seem to have been moved back, as knowledge advanced, further and further into the unknown regions of the north. In the histories of Alexander's expedition we are told that ambassadors came to him at Maracanda (Samarkand) from the Abii Scythae, a tribe who had been independent since the time of Cyrus, and were renowned for their just and peaceful character;[7] but the specific name of the tribe of Scythians who sent this embassy is probably only an instance of the attempts made to illustrate the old mythical geography by Alexander's conquests. In these accounts their precise locality is not indicated: Ammianus Marcellinus places them north of Hyrcania.[8] Stephanus of Byzantium places them on an otherwise unidentified eponymously-named river, the Abianus, that drains to the Euxine.[9]
Notes
- ^ Strabo, Book VII, Chapter 3, verses 2-9.
- ^ Il. 13.5, 13.6.
- ^ For more information, see The dictionary definition of ἀ- at Wiktionary and The dictionary definition of βίος at Wiktionary.
- ^ Eustath. ad Il.; Steph. Byz., s.v. Ἄβιοι.
- ^ Reece, Steve,"The Ἄβιοι and the Γάβιοι: An Aeschylean Solution to a Homeric Problem," American Journal of Philology An_Aeschylean_Solution_to_a_Homeric_Problem 122 (2001) 465-470.
- ^ Almost all later references to the Abii occur in commentaries on Iliad 13.6, or they are embedded in looser allusions to this Homeric passage: Ephorus, Philostephanus, Aristarchus, Apollodorus, Posidonius, Nicolaus, Apollonius Sophista, Didymus, Apion, Philo, Strabo, Herodian, Dionysius Periegetes, Ammianus Marcellinus, Stobaeus, Hesychius, Stephanus of Byzantium, Photius, Etymologicum Genuinum, Etymologicum Symeonis, Etymologicum Magnum, Eustathius. Even those references that are primarily concerned with the Abii as a real historic tribe appear to be drawing the name, at least, and usually some of the tribe’s attributes as well, whether directly or indirectly, from Homer: Diophantus, Cornelius Alexander, Posidonius, Strabo, Arrian, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Claudius Ptolemaeus, Philostratus, Epiphanius.
- The Anabasis of Alexander 4.1; Quintus Curtius Rufus, Histories of Alexander the Great, 7.6
- ^ Res Gestae, 23.6
- ^ Steph. Byz., s.v. Ἄβιοι.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Abii". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.
References
Smith, William, ed.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. (London: John Murray, 1854–1857) "Abii".
Reece, Steve,"The Ἄβιοι and the Γάβιοι: An Aeschylean Solution to a Homeric Problem," American Journal of Philology 122 (2001) 465-470 The Abioi and the Gabioi: An Aeschylean Solution to a Homeric Problem.