Halizones

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The Halizones (Greek Ἁλιζῶνες, also Halizonians or Alazones) are an obscure people that appear in Homer's Iliad as allies of Troy during the Trojan War. Their leaders were Odius and Epistrophus, said in the Bibliotheca to be sons of a man named Mecisteus. According to Homer, the Halizones came from "Alybe far away, where is the birth-place of silver,..." Strabo (in his Geography) speculates that "Alybe far away" may originally have read as "Chalybe far away", and he suggests that the Halizones may have been Chalybes, as well as Khaldi. Strabo's speculation equating the Halizones with the Chalybes still has proponents, such as the Soviet historian, Igor D'iakonov^[1]

There has been much other speculation as to the origin of the name 'Halizones', with connections to both the 'Amazons' and the River Halys being suggested. It is not even clear that Homer thought the Halizones really existed.

Homer's scholiast derived the name from hals, sea, explaining that they lived in a land surrounded by the sea. However he stated elsewhere that Odius was chief of the Paphlagonians. Herodotus (4.17, 52) placed the Halizones among the Scythians in the region of modern Vinnytsia Ukraine, while Ephorus, equating them with Amazons, located them near Cyme in Asia Minor. A later scholiast to Homer calls them a Thracian tribe.^[2] Meanwhile, Pliny the Elder, Hecataeus of Miletus, Menecrates of Elaea, and Palaephatus placed the Halizones or Alazones in Mysia.

References

v t e Characters in the Iliad

Achaeans	Acamas Achilles Agamemnon Agapenor Ajax the Greater Ajax the Lesser Alcimus Anticlus Antilochus Arcesilaus Ascalaphus Automedon Balius and Xanthus Bias Calchas Diomedes Elephenor Epeius Eudoros Euneus Euryalus Eurybates Eurydamas Guneus Helen Ialmenus Idomeneus Leitus Leonteus Lykomedes Machaon Mecisteus Medon Meges Menelaus Menestheus Meriones Neoptolemus Nestor Nireus Odysseus Palamedes Patroclus Peneleos Philoctetes Phoenix Podalirius Podarces Polites Polypoetes Promachus Protesilaus Prothoenor Schedius Stentor Sthenelus Talthybius Teucer Thersites Thoas Thrasymedes Tlepolemus

Trojans	Aeneas Aesepus Agenor Alcathous Amphimachus Anchises Andromache Antenor Antiphates Antiphus Archelochus Asius Asteropaios Astyanax Atymnius Axylus Briseis Calesius Caletor Cassandra Chryseis Chryses Clytius Coön Dares Phrygius Deiphobus Dolon Epistrophus Eteoneus Euphemus Euphorbus Eurypylus Glaucus Gorgythion Halizones Hector Hecuba Helenus Hyperenor Hypsenor Ilioneus Imbrius Iphidamas Kebriones Laocoön Lycaon Melanippus Mentes Mydon Mygdon of Phrygia Othryoneus Pandarus Panthous Paris Pedasus Peirous Phorcys Polites Polydamas Polybus Polydorus Priam Pylaemenes Pylaeus Pyraechmes Rhesus of Thrace Sarpedon Theano Ucalegon

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