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108.2). The island was apparently also known as Laia in antiquity (Ptol. Geog. 4.4.15). Today it is called Jazirat Kirissah (or Geziret Chersa), less than two miles off the Libyan coast between Derna and Kirissah (32°50'17.9"N 22°29'55.8"E).

      SEE ALSO: Geography; Islands

      FURTHER READING

      1 Corcella in ALC, 696.

APHRODITE (Ἀϕροδίτη, ἡ)

      BRUCE LINCOLN

       University of Chicago

      Herodotus never employs the name “Aphrodite” for a Greek deity. Rather, he uses it, sometimes accompanied by the modifier Ouraniē, to denote various erotically‐charged eastern goddesses, including Arabian ALILAT (1.131.3; 3.8.2), Assyrian MYLITTA (1.131.3, 199.3), Scythian ARGIMPASA (4.59.2), Persian “MITRA” (1.131.3), and goddesses of EGYPT (2.41.5, 112.2), ASCALON (1.105.1), and CYRENE (2.181.4), whose indigenous names go unmentioned. Responsibility for (and interest in) sexuality can be a prime feature of these goddesses (MacLachlan 1992), as when a Cyrenean woman asks Aphrodite to help consummate her MARRIAGE (2.181.4); when the Assyrian Aphrodite requires Babylonian women to prostitute themselves (1.199.1–5); or when Ascalon’s Aphrodite (= Atargatis) transforms SCYTHIANS who defiled her temple into androgynes (1.105.1–2; 4.67.2: see ENAREES). Although some scholars still follow Herodotus in grouping these deities together as “Near Eastern fertility goddesses,” this oversimplifies a more complex situation, emphasizing a few shared features of a general sort, while ignoring those distinctive to each goddess, e.g., Alilat’s role as guarantor of OATHS (3.8.1–2), Argimpasa’s control of DIVINATION (4.67.2), or an Egyptian Aphrodite’s concern to exhume and rebury the bones of sacred CATTLE (2.41.4–6). In Greek religion, Aphrodite's role similarly expands well beyond the erotic, as evidenced by her role in certain cosmogonies and the maternal care she shows for her son, Aeneas.

      SEE ALSO: Gods and the Divine; Religion, Herodotus’ Views on; Sex

      REFERENCE

      1 MacLachlan, Bonnie. 1992. “Sacred Prostitution and Aphrodite.” SR 21: 145–62.

      FURTHER READING

      1 Armanski, Gerhard. 2013. Die großen Göttinen: Isis (und Maria), Aphrodite, Venus. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.

      2 Asher‐Greve, Julia M. 2013. Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Genders in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

      3 Friedrich, Paul. 1978. The Meaning of Aphrodite. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

      4 Rudhardt, Jean. 1986. Le rôle d'Eros et d'Aphrodite dans les cosmogonies grecques. Paris: PUF.

      5 Sugimoto, David T., ed. 2014. Transformation of a Goddess: Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

      6 Westenholz, Joan. 2002. “Great Goddesses in Mesopotamia: The Female Aspect of Divinity.” Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 37: 13–26.

APHTHIS (ὁ Ἀϕθίτης νομός)

      CHRISTOPHER BARON

       University of Notre Dame

An administrative district or nome (Greek νομός, Egyptian sp ͗˒t [sepat]) of ancient EGYPT. Herodotus lists Aphthis as one source of men for the CALASIRIES, a group within the Egyptian warrior class (2.166.1). Herodotus’ list does not map exactly onto other ancient evidence for nomes, but Aphthis was probably located in the northeast portion of the Nile DELTA near TANIS.

      SEE ALSO: Warfare

      FURTHER READING

      1 Ball, John. 1942. Egypt in the Classical Geographers, 16–19. Cairo: Government Press.

      2 Lloyd, Alan B. 1988. Herodotus: Book II, Commentary 99–182, 191–92. Leiden: Brill.

APHYTIS ( Ἄϕυτις, ἡ)

      CHRISTOPHER BARON

       University of Notre Dame

      City on the PALLENE peninsula in northern Greece (ba 51 A4). XERXES’ fleet picks up troops from Aphytis and other CITIES in the region after it passes through the ATHOS canal in 480 BCE (7.123.1). The city was founded in the eighth century; it was known for a sanctuary of DIONYSUS (Xen. Hell. 5.3.19) and, at least from the fourth century, its devotion to Zeus AMMON (Tsigarida 2011, 143–45; cf. Paus. 3.18.3). Aphytis was a particularly loyal member of the DELIAN LEAGUE.

      SEE ALSO: Chalcidians in Thrace; Persian Wars

      REFERENCE

      1 Tsigarida, Bettina. 2011. “Chalcidice.” In Brill’s Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Macedon, 650 BC–300 AD, edited by Robin J. Lane Fox, 137–58. Leiden: Brill.

      FURTHER READING

      1 IACP no. 563 (825–26).

      2 Zahrnt, Michael. 1971. Olynth und die Chalkidier: Untersuchungen zur Staatenbildung auf der Chalkidischen Halbinsel im 5. und 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr., 167–69. Munich: C. H. Beck.

API (Ἀπί, ἡ)

      CHRISTOPHER BARON

       University of Notre Dame

      The name of a Scythian goddess whom Herodotus equates with the Greek earth goddess Gaia (Gē, 4.59.2). However, the Old Iranian root āp‐ denotes “water.” Though some scholars believe Herodotus (or his source) to be mistaken, or posit a brief lacuna in the text (Humbach and Faiss 2012, 7), the link between water and the life‐giving power of the earth may explain Herodotus’ identification (Ustinova 1999, 74–75). As a river goddess, Api may correspond to the “daughter of BORYSTHENES” whose union with ZEUS (Scythian PAPAEUS), according to the SCYTHIANS, produced the first man, TARGITAUS (4.5.1).

      SEE ALSO: Ethnography; Gods and the Divine; Religion, Greek

      REFERENCES

      1 Humbach, Helmut, and Klaus Faiss. 2012. Herodotus’s Scythians and Ptolemy’s Central Asia: Semasiological and Onomasiological Studies. Wiesbaden: Reichert.

      2 Ustinova, Yulia. 1999. The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom: Celestial Aphrodite and the Most High God. Leiden: Brill.

      FURTHER READING

      1 Corcella in ALC, 624–25.

      2 Mora, Fabio. 1985. Religione e religioni nelle Storie di Erodoto, 49–60. Milan: Jaca.

APIDANUS RIVER (ὁ Ἀπιδανός/ Ἠπιδανός ποταμός)

      CHRISTOPHER BARON

       University of Notre Dame

A river in THESSALY (BA 55 C2; Müller I, 309), the modern Farsaliotis/Pharsalitis with its source near the ancient city of Pharsalus. Herodotus lists the Apidanus as one of the five most important tributaries of the PENEIUS (all on its right bank), the major river in the region (7.129.2). In fact, the Apidanus and ENIPEUS merge before flowing into the Peneius; ancient authors differed on which of the two took precedence (cf. Strabo 8.3.32/C356 and 9.5.6/C432). Later, Herodotus

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