Arimoi in
Greek mythology are the people in whose country (or τὰ Ἄριμα – the place in which) lies under the ground bound by Typhon.
Homer describes a place he calls the "couch [or bed] of Typhoeus", which he locates in the land of the Arimoi (εἰν Ἀρίμοις), where Zeus lashes the land about Typhoeus with his thunderbolts.[1] Presumably this is the same land where, according to Hesiod, Typhon's mate
Echidna keeps guard "in Arima" (εἰν Ἀρίμοισιν).[2]
But neither Homer nor Hesiod say anything more about where these Arimoi or this Arima might be. The question of whether an historical place was meant, and its possible location, has been, since ancient times, the subject of speculation and debate.[3]
Strabo discusses the question in some detail.[4] Several locales,
Cilicia,
Syria,
Lydia, and the island of
Ischia, all places associated with Typhon, are given by Strabo as possible locations for Homer's "Arimoi".
Pindar has his Cilician Typhon slain by Zeus "among the Arimoi",[5] and the historian
Callisthenes (4th century BC), located the Arimoi and the Arima mountains in
Cilicia, near the
Calycadnus river, the Corycian cave and the Sarpedon promontory.[6] The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, mentioned above, says
Typhon was born in
Cilicia "under Arimon",[7] and
Nonnus mentions Typhon's "bloodstained cave of Arima" in
Cilicia.[8]Diodorus Siculus localizes them in
Phrygia.[9] Just across the
Gulf of Issus from
Corycus, in ancient Syria, was Mount Kasios (modern
Jebel Aqra) and the
Orontes River, sites associated with Typhon's battle with Zeus,[10] and according to Strabo, the historian
Posidonius (c. 2nd century BC) identified the Arimoi with the
Aramaeans of Syria.[11]
Alternatively, according to Strabo, some placed the Arimoi at
Katakekaumene,[12] while
Xanthus of Lydia (5th century BC) added that "a certain Arimus" ruled there.[13] Strabo also tells us that for "some" Homer's "couch of Typhon" was located "in a wooded place, in the fertile land of Hyde", with Hyde being another name for
Sardis (or its acropolis), and that
Demetrius of Scepsis (2nd century BC) thought that the Arimoi were most plausibly located "in the
Katakekaumene country in Mysia".[14] The 3rd-century BC poet
Lycophron placed the lair of Typhons' mate
Echidna in this region.[15]
Another place, mentioned by Strabo, as being associated with Arima, is the island of
Ischia, where according to
Pherecydes of Athens, Typhon had fled, and in the area where Pindar and others had said Typhon was buried. The connection to Arima, comes from Greek name
Phlegraean Islands, which derives from the Greek word for monkey, and according to Strabo, residents of the island said that "arimoi" was also the Etruscan word for monkeys.[16]
^For an extensive discussion see Lane Fox, especially pp.
39,
107,
283–301;
317–318. See also West 1966, pp. 250–251 line 304 εἰν Ἀρίμοισιν; Ogden 2013a,
p. 76; Fowler 2013,
pp. 28–30.
^CallisthenesFGrH 124 F33 =
Strabo,
13.4.6; Ogden 2013a,
p. 76; Ogden 2013b,
p. 25;
Lane Fox, p. 292.
Lane Fox, pp. 292–298, connects Arima with the
Hittite place names "Erimma" and "Arimmatta" which he associates with the Corycian cave.
^
abStrabo,
16.4.27. According to West 1966, p. 251, "This identification [Arimoi as Aramaeans] has been repeated in modern times." For example for Fontenrose[look down], the "Arimoi, it seems fairly certain, are the Aramaeans, and the country is either Syria or
Cilicia, most likely the latter, since in later sources that is usually Typhon's land." But see Fox Lane, pp.
107,
291–298, which rejects this identification, instead arguing for the derivation of "Arima" from the
Hittite place names "Erimma" and "Arimmatta".
^Joseph Eddy Fontenrose: “Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins”
p. 71 (Quote: “The Arimoi, it seems fairly certain, are the Aramaeans, and the country is either Syria or Cilicia, most likely the latter, since in later sources that is usually Typhon's land”)
Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes:
ISBN978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1),
ISBN978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, (1955) 1960, §36.1–3
Griffiths, J. Gwyn, "The Flight of the Gods Before Typhon: An Unrecognized Myth", Hermes, 88, 1960, pp. 374–376. JSTOR