Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 191

MATTHEW DILLON

University of New England, Australia

An Athenian, whose grandmother—also named Agariste, daughter of the tyrant CLEISTHENES OF SICYON—had married MEGACLES (II) of the ALCMAEONIDAE family of ATHENS. The younger Agariste was the niece (not the granddaughter, as mistakenly in Plut. Per. 3.1) of the Athenian political reformer CLEISTHENES SON OF MEGACLES, whose legislative reforms in 508/7 BCE transformed Athens into a DEMOCRACY. She was married to XANTHIPPUS and was the mother of PERICLES. Herodotus (6.131.2) reports that Agariste had a DREAM while pregnant, that she gave birth to a LION, and a few days later Pericles was born. This is the sole mention of her in the Histories. PLUTARCH follows Herodotus and reports the dream (Plut. Per. 3.1–2), which is as usual a post‐eventum fabrication either of Agariste’s or tradition in general, and follows the pattern of omens and portents prior to or accompanying births, such as that presaging the greatness of the Athenian tyrant PEISISTRATUS (1.159).

SEE ALSO: Agariste (I) daughter of Cleisthenes; Hippocrates (3) son of Megacles; Symbols and Signs; Tyrants; Women in the Histories