Perseus Edition (A.abarbarea_1-A.abas_3)

(Ἀβαρβαρέη), a Naiad, who bore two sons, Aesepus and Pedasus, to Bucolion, the eldest but illegitimate son of the Trojan King Laomedon. (Hom. Il. 6.22, &c.) Other writers do not mention this nymph, but Hesychius (s. v.) mentions Ἀβαρβαρέαι or Ἀβαρβαλαῖαι as the name of a class of nymphs.

[L.S]

(Ἄβαρις), son of Seuthes, was a Hyperborean priest of Apollo (Hdt. 4.36), and came from the country about the Caucasus (Ov. Met. 5.86) to Greece, while his own country was visited by a plague. He was endowed with the gift of prophecy, and by this as well as by his Scythian dress and simplicity and honesty he created great sensation in Greece, and was held in high esteem. (Strab. vii. p. 301.) He travelled about in Greece, carrying with him an arrow as the symbol of Apollo, and gave oracles. Toland, in his History of the Druids, considers him to have been a Druid of the Hebrides, because the arrow formed a part of the costume of a Druid. His history, which is entirely mythical, is related in various ways, and worked in with extraordinary particulars: he is said to have taken no earthly food (Hdt. 4.36), and to have ridden on his arrow, the gift of Apollo, through the air. (Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 314.) He cured diseases by incantations (Plat. Charmid. p. 158, B.), delivered the world from a plague (Suidas, s. v. Ἄβαρις), and built at Sparta a temple of Κόρη σώτειρα. (Paus. 3.13.2.) Suidas and Eudocia ascribe to him several works, such as incantations, Scythian oracles, a poem on the marriage of the river Hebrus, expiatory formulas, the arrival of Apollo among the Hyperboreans, and a prose work on the origin of the gods. But such works, if they were really current in ancient times, were no more genuine than his reputed correspondence with Phalaris the tyrant. The time of his appearance in Greece is stated differently, some fixing it in Ol. 3, others in Ol. 21, and others again make him a contemporary of Croesus. (Bentley, On the Epist. of Phalaris, p. 34.) Lobeck places it about the year B. C. 570, i. e. about Ol. 52. Respecting the perplexing traditions about Abaris see Klopfer, Mythologisches Wörterbuch, i. p. 2; Zapf, Disputatio historica de Abaride, Lips. 1707; Larcher, on Herod. vol. iii. p. 446.

[L.S]

(Ἄβας).

1. A son of Metaneira, was changed by Demeter into a lizard, because he mocked the goddess when she had come on her wanderings into the house of her mother, and drank eagerly to quench her thirst. (Nicander, Theriaca; Natal. Com. 5.14; Ov. Met. 5.450.) Other traditions relate the same story of a boy, Ascalabus, and call his mother Misme. (Antonin. Lib. 23.)

2. The twelfth King of Argos. He was the son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra, and grandson of Danaus. He married Ocaleia, who bore him twin sons, Acrisius and Proetus. (Apollod. 2.2.1; Hyg. Fab. 170.) When he informed his father of the death of Danaus, he was rewarded with the shield of his grandfather, which was sacred to Hera. He is described as a successful conqueror and as the founder of the town of Abae in Phocis (Paus. 10.35.1), and of the Pelasgic Argos in Thessaly. (Strab. ix. p. 431.) The fame of his warlike spirit was so great, that even after his death. when people

revolted, whom he had subdued, they were put to flight by the simple act of showing them his shield. (Verg. A. 3.286; Serv. ad loc.) It was from this Abas that the kings of Argos were called by the patronymic Abantiads. [ABANTIADES.]

[L.S]

(Ἄβας).

1. A Greek sophist and rhetorician about whose life nothing is known. Suidas (s. v. Ἄβας: compare Eudocia, p. 51) ascribes to him ἱστορικὰ ἀπομνήματα and a work on rhetoric (τέχνη ῥητορική). What Photius (Phot. Bibl. 190. p. 150b. ed. Bekker) quotes from him, belongs probably to the former work. (Compare Walz, Rhetor. Graec. 7.1. p. 203.)