Astrabacus

Astrabacus (Ἀστράβακος) was after Pausanias the son of the Lacedaemonian Irbus and thus a descendant of the mythical Spartan king Agis in the fourth generation. He and his brother Alopecus went mad when they found the cult image of Artemis Orthia, kidnapped by Orestes and Iphigenia to Sparta, in a bush of willow. They were the first to fall victim to the malevolent creature of Orthia in Sparta, whose cult was subsequently associated with human sacrifice until Lycurgus replaced him with the whipping of Ephebe in order to stain the altar of Orthia with human blood and on it Way to satisfy the goddess' thirst for blood.

Astrabacus was revered as a hero in Sparta and also had a corresponding small Heroon as a place of worship, which was located near the Temple of Artemis. The local legend also reported that he was in the form of Ariston, King of Sparta and contemporary of Kroisos in the 6th century BC. Chr., Whose third wife is said to have visited and with her fathered the later king Damaratus, as Herodotus narrates.

Sources

Herodotus 6,69
Pausanias 3,16,6. 9
Clemens of Alexandria, Mahnrede an die Griechen 35

Literatur

Karl Tümpel: Astrabakos. In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie. Band 1,1, Leipzig 1886, Sp. 658 f. (Digitalisat).
Erich Bethe: Astrabakos. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE). Band II,2, Stuttgart 1896, Sp. 1792.

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