Antiphemus Explained

Antiphemus (grc|Ἀντίφημος) was a man from ancient Greece from Rhodes who was the founder of Gela, around 690 BCE. The colony was composed of Rhodians and Cretans, the latter led by Entimus the Cretan,^{[1] [2]} the former chiefly from Lindus,^[3] and to this town Antiphemus himself belonged.^[4]

From the Etymologicum Magnum^[5] and Aristaenetus in Stephanus of Byzantium^[6] it appears the tale ran that Antiphemus and his brother Lacius, the founder of Phaselis, were, when at Delphi, suddenly bid to go forth, one eastward, one westward; and from his laughing at the unexpected response, the city took its name. From Pausanias we hear of his taking the Sicanian town of Omphace as an oikistes,^[7] and carrying off from it a statue made by the legendary Daedalus.^{[8] [9] [10] [11] [12]}

The 19th century scholar Karl Otfried Müller considered Antiphemus a mythical person.^[13]

Notes and References

1. [Thucydides]
2. [Scholiast]
3. [Herodotus]
4. [Philostephanus]
5. Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. Γέλα
6. [Stephanus of Byzantium]
7. [Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]
8. [August Böckh]
9. [Henry Fynes Clinton|Clinton]
10. Hermann, Pol. Antiq. § 85
11. Göller, de Orig. Syracus. p. 265
12. Book: Morris, Sarah P. . Sarah P. Morris

    . Sarah P. Morris . Daidalos and the Origins of Greek Art . . 1995 . 200–202 . 9780691001609 . 2016-01-30.

13. [Karl Otfried Müller]