Achish
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This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
Achish - angry, perhaps only a general title of royalty applicable to the Philistine kings. Name of two kings of Gath (which is identified by most scholars as Tell es-Safi).
(1.) The king with whom David sought refuge when he fled from Saul (1 Sam. 21:10-15). He is called Abimelech in the superscription of Ps. 34. It was probably this same king to whom David a second time repaired at the head of a band of 600 warriors, and who assigned him Ziklag, whence he carried on war against the surrounding tribes (1 Sam. 27:5-12). Achish had great confidence in the valour and fidelity of David (1 Sam. 28:1,2), but at the instigation of his courtiers did not permit him to go up to battle along with the Philistine hosts (1 Sam. 29:2-11). David remained with Achish a year and four months.
(2.) Another king of Gath, probably grandson of the foregoing, to whom the two servants of Shimei fled. This led Shimei to go to Gath in pursuit of them, and the consequence was that Solomon put him to death (1 Kings 2:39-46).
In the 7th century BCE Royal inscription from Tel Miqne-Ekron the name Achish appears along with four other names of the local kings of Ekron. A similar name (IKAUSU) appears as a king of Ekron in 7th century BCE Assyrian inscriptions. This apparently refers to the same king of Ekron.
This appears to indicate that either that the name Achish was a common name for Philistine kings, used both at Gath and Ekron, or, as Naveh has suggested that the editor of the biblical text used a known name of a Philistine king from the end of the Iron Age (Achish of Ekron) as the name of a king(s) of Gath in narratives relating to earlier periods.
(3.) Also linguistic similarities with the name Ag-chises ( Αγχίσης ) in ancient greek mythology and history should be added:
a) The myth of "Afrodite And Agchises" says in the beginning that "Zeus, they say, made entrance to sweet desire in Afrodite's soul for Agchises, who then grazed on the peaks of Ide oxes and was alike the gods in beauty." Mount Ide (Ίδη) or Pselorites (Ψηλορείτης) is located in Crete and according to one theory their origin is from Crete which is found in the Old Testament and additionaly supported by linguistic similarities with the oldest name of the city of Gaza - Minoah ( Ancient king Minos in Crete) and other technical attributes about metal working noting that Crete was a copper exporting country.
b) Agchises, father of Aeneas (Αινείας) whom he carried on his arms after the fall of Troy.
Many similarities between Mycenaean or Proto-Greek and Philistine civilizations are noted strengtening the theory of cultural, linguistic and geographical relativity of these people
[edit] Meaning of the Name
A common interpretation of the name Achish is to explain the name as being similar to the Greek "Akhayus", meaning the "Achean", incidating the Aegean/Greek origin of the Philistines. As noted above, the name of this king may mean "angry." Another possibility, proposed by R. Corney and Peter van der Veen is that Achish or Akish is a hypocoristicon or abbreviated form of Aki-Shimige, "Shimige has given," Shimige being the Hurrian sun-god. Thus (according to David M. Rohl), the name corresponds to Shuwardata, "the Sun has given," the king of Gath in the Amarna Letters.
