Ariapeithes
Ariapeithes (Ancient Greek: Ἀριαπείθης) was a king of the Scythians in the early 5th century BCE, and the father of Scyles.[1]
Ariapeithes had three wives, each of whom bore him one son: an unnamed Greek woman from Istria (Scyles's mother), an unnamed Thracian woman who was the daughter of the king Teres (mother of Octamasadas), and a Scythian woman named Opoea (mother of Oricus).[2]
Ariapeithes was treacherously killed by Spargapeithes, the king of the Agathyrsi, after which Scyles became the king of the Scythians, and took his stepmother Opoea as one of his wives.[2]
Ariapeithes was a contemporary of the historian Herodotus, for he tells us that he had from Tinines, the guardian of Ariapeithes, an account of the family of the Scythian philosopher Anacharsis.[3]
References
- Peter, Ulrike. "Ariapeithes". Brill's New Pauly. Brill Publishers. Retrieved 2018-08-16.
- Rolle, Renate (1989). The World of the Scythians. University of California Press. p. 123. ISBN 9780520068643. Retrieved 2018-08-16.
- Herodotus, Histories 4.76, 78