Aglaosthenes (FGrH 499)

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Aglaosthenes (FGrH 499) DENNIS ALLEY

Aglaosthenes (FGrH 499) was a Greek historian of the late fourth to the early third century BCE. The earliest citation of this author comes from ERATOSTHENES’ Katasterismoi (Constellations – or rather an anonymous summary of that work), and almost all extant fragments stem from a work titled Naxika. These fragments and their contexts of citation do not specify book numbers, which makes the size of the text impossible to gauge. Not surprisingly, the fragments express a keen interest in the history and glorification of Naxos, a feature that some scholars have taken as evidence for Aglaosthenes’ Naxian heritage. His mythological interests are reflected in a story that ZEUS was born on CRETE and raised in NAXOS (BNJ 499: F2), accounts of miracles on Naxos involving DIONYSOS (BNJ 499: F4), and a story of Dionysus and the pirates (BNJ 499: F3). In addition to showing interest in mythography, he also attributes the creation of coinage to Naxians

(BNJ 499: F7), expresses interest in paradoxographic topics like the famed skiapods (BNJ 499: T2), and is cited as an authority on the noxious gasses emanating from the mouth of a cave sometimes described as “Aonis” or “Aonian” (BNJ 499: F8). Little else can be said about his work, but a pro-Ptolemaic ideology is conceivably based on Naxos’ reliance on the Ptolemies for independence through the League of the Islanders (Muller 2014). SEE ALSO:

Hellenistic period (concept of ); Historiography, Greek and Roman; Myth.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS Muller, S. (2014) “Aglaosthenes 499.” In I. Worthington, ed., Brill’s New Jacoby. Brill Online. Selzer, C. (2002) “Aglaosthenes 344.” In H. Cancik and H. Schneider, eds., Brill’s New Pauly 1. Leiden. Wellmann, M. (1894) “Aglaosthenes.” In A. Pauly, G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll, eds., Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft 1: 825. Stuttgart.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah26164