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Iarbas

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This article is about the legendary figure associated with the foundation of Carthage. For the historical Numidian ruler, see Hiarbas (king).
Iarbas
Progenitor of the Numidians
King of Gaetulia
Mosaic found in North Africa depicting the legendary king of the Getulian Iarbas.
Reignc. 9th century BC
Bornc. 9th century BC
Berberⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ
HouseNumidian
FatherJupiter-Hammon
MotherGaramantian nymph

Iarbas (or Hiarbas) was a legendary Libyan/Berber figure,[1] who was mentioned by the Greek philosopher and historian Plutarch as well as in works by various Roman authors including Ovid and Virgil. The character is possibly based on a real historical king of Numidia.

Classical tradition

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In Roman mythology and Libyan mythology, Iarbas was the son of Jupiter-Hammon (Hammon was a North African god associated by the Romans with Jupiter, and known for his oracle) and a Garamantian nymph.[2][3] Iarbas was said to have led an army across the Libyan desert, however he and his army began suffering from severe thirst. Iarbas implored for the assistance of his father Ammon for aid, the god sent him a ram (the animal of the god) and Iarbas and his army followed the ram to a location, where, the ram struck his hooves to the ground and up sprang a water source, and this is how the Libyans began attributing the animal to Amun (Libyans origin of the cult of ram worship).[3]

Hiarbas is sometimes placed at the origin of the genealogy of the kings of the Kingdom of Numidia.[4]

Iarbas became the king of Getulia. According to Virgil's Aeneid, he was the prince suitor for the Carthaginian queen Dido, Iarbas comments that Carthage is a city of pitiful size[5] and tells Dido how glorious the city could rise from an important marriage with him an infinitely powerful king and a son of Ammon, she however rejected his advances, he then completely drops out of the story after the rejection.[6][7]

Variations of the story were referred to by Ovid. In Ovid's Heroides, Dido describes Iarbas as one of her suitors,[8] her own people arranged a forced marriage between her and king Iarbas so that Carthage may rise to glory[9] Aeneas would be handing her over as a captive if he should leave her she told him,[10] however Aeneas leaves her bitterly to found Rome and she takes her own life from grief of separation. In Ovid's Fasti, Iarbas and the Numidians take over Dido's land after her suicide, resulting in his capturing her palace.[11]

Macrobius, and Pompeius Trogus also tell versions of the myth; in Justin's epitome of Pompeius he is king of the Muxitani.

Silius Italicus, in his epic poem Punica borrows the name of Hiarbas for one of his characters.[12] Hiarbas is the Gately leader of the Gaetuli, Nasamones and Macae and the father of Asbyte, one of the Carthaginian leaders in the Second Punic War.[13] He traces his ancestry back to Jupiter.[14] He is killed by the Saguntine hero Murrus.[12]

First man

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According to a Greek poetic fragment preserved in the Refutation of All Heresies, humankind sprang from the Earth,[15] with the Libyans saying that one Tarbas[16] (Τάρβαντα) was the first man born this way. Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin,[15] and later scholars such as M. David Litwa conjecture that this refers to Iarbas,[16] though others, such as Theodor Bergk, suggest Garamas is more likely.[15] The Loeb Classical Library translates this part of the poem as:

Libyans say that Iarbas was the first-born, rising from the dry plains to offer first-fruits of the sweet nut of Zeus.[17]

The poem was attributed to Pindar by Schneidewin, and identified as his "Hymn to Zeus Ámmon" by Bergk.[15]

A few translations do not interpret him as making an offering to the Earth, such as John Henry MacMahon (1868) where he "on emerging from arid plains, commenced eating the sweet acorn of Jupiter",[18] Francis Legge (1921) where he "crept forth from the parched field to pluck Zeus' sweet acorn",[19] and R. McL. Wilson (1972) where he "arose from the desert lands, and began upon the sweet acorn of Zeus".[20]

Later literature

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Iarbas is briefly referenced in Dante's Purgatorio as owning part of the land south of Italy.[21] Iarbas is also a character in Christopher Marlowe's play Dido, Queen of Carthage.[22]

References

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  1. ^ Revue archéologique (in French). Presses universitaires de France. 1851. p. 641.
  2. ^ Virgil Aeneid 4.198.
  3. ^ a b Revue archéologique (in French). Presses universitaires de France. 1851. p. 640.
  4. ^ History; Schulz, Jean-Louis; lettres, Société des gens de (1781). Histoire universelle, depuis le commencement du monde jusqu'à présent (in French). chez Moutard. p. Volume 28, Page 561. Retrieved 2025-08-14.
  5. ^ Gildenhard, Ingo (2012). Virgil, Aeneid, 4.1–299: Latin Text, Study Questions, Commentary and Interpretative Essays. Open Book Publishers. pp. 32, 188. ISBN 978-1-909254-15-2.
  6. ^ Virgil Aeneid 4.213–214.
  7. ^ Kuhn, John (2024-12-10). Making Pagans: Theatrical Practice and Comparative Religion in Early Modern England. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-1-5128-2510-7.
  8. ^ "Book IV". www.cliffsnotes.com. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  9. ^ Gildenhard, Ingo (2012). Virgil, Aeneid, 4.1–299: Latin Text, Study Questions, Commentary and Interpretative Essays. Open Book Publishers. pp. 75, 188. ISBN 978-1-909254-15-2.
  10. ^ Ovid Heroides 7.125.
  11. ^ Ovid Fasti 3.551–554.
  12. ^ a b Martin T. Dinter, "Epitaphic Gestures in Statius and Silius Italicus", in Antony Augoustakis (ed.), Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic (Oxford University Press, ), pp. 267–286, at 277.
  13. ^ David J. Mattingly (1995), Tripolitania, B. T. Batsford, p. 56.
  14. ^ Alison M. Keith, "Engendering Orientalism in Silius' Pvnica", in Antony Agoustakis (ed.), Brill's Companion to Silius Italicus (Brill, 2010), pp. 353–373, at 367.
  15. ^ a b c d Cook, Arthur Bernard (1914). Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. pp. 366–367.
  16. ^ a b Litwa, M. David (2023). "The Truth of Hellenic Mythology". The Naassenes: Exploring an Early Christian Identity. Taylor & Francis. p. 86. ISBN 1000989925.
  17. ^ Greek Lyric, Volume V: The New School of Poetry and Anonymous Songs and Hymns. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Campbell, David A. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1993. pp. 391–393. doi:10.4159/DLCL.greek_lyric_anonymous_fragments.1993.
  18. ^ Roberts, Alexander; Donaldson, James, eds. (1868). "The Refutation of All Heresies by Hippolytus". Ante-Nicene Christian Library. Vol. 6. Translated by MacMahon, J. H. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. p. 129.
  19. ^ "The Ophite Heresies". Philosophumena; or, the Refutation of All Heresies. Translations of Christian Literature. Vol. 1. Translated by Legge, F. London, New York: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; The Macmillan Company. 1921. p. 122.
  20. ^ Foerster, Werner, ed. (1972). "Systems Invovling Three Principles III: The Naassenes". Gnosis: A Selection of Gnostic Texts. Vol. 1. Translated by Wilson, R. McL. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 264. ISBN 0 19 826433 X.
  21. ^ Dante Purgatorio 31.72.
  22. ^ "Dido, Queen of Carthage | play by Marlowe and Nashe". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
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