Iarbas

This article is about the legendary figure associated with the foundation of Carthage. For the historical Numidian ruler, see Hiarbas (king).

Iarbas (or Hiarbas) was a Roman mythological character, who has appeared in works by various authors including Ovid and Virgil. The character is possibly based on a historical king of Numidia.

In Roman 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.[1] He became the king of Getulia. According to Virgil's Aeneid, he was a suitor for the Carthaginian queen Dido, who rejected his advances.[2]

Variations of the story were referred to by Ovid. In Ovid's Heroides, Dido describes Iarbas as one of her suitors,[3] to whom Aeneas would be handing her over as a captive if he should leave her.[4] In Ovid's Fasti, Iarbas and the Numidians invade Dido's land after her suicide, resulting in his capturing her palace.[5]

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.[6] Hiarbas is the Garamantian leader of the Gaetuli, Nasamones and Macae and the father of Asbyte, one of the Carthaginian leaders in the Second Punic War.[7] He traces his ancestry back to Jupiter.[8] He is killed by the Saguntine hero Murrus.[6]

Iarbas is briefly referenced in Dante's Purgatorio as owning part of the land south of Italy.[9] Iarbas is also a character in Christopher Marlowe's play Dido, Queen of Carthage.[10]

  1. ^ Virgil Aeneid 4.198.
  2. ^ Virgil Aeneid 4.213-4.
  3. ^ "Book IV". www.cliffsnotes.com. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  4. ^ Ovid Heroides 7.125.
  5. ^ Ovid Fasti 3.551-4.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ David J. Mattingly (1995), Tripolitania, B. T. Batsford, p. 56.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Dante Purgatorio 31.72.
  10. ^ "Dido, Queen of Carthage | play by Marlowe and Nashe". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-08-04.