Asbameus

A surname of Zeus, the protector of the sanctity of oaths. It was derived from a well, Asbamaeon near Tyana, in Cappadocia, the water of which was said to be beneficial and pleasant to honest persons, but pestilential to those who were guilty of perjury. When perjured persons drank of the water, it produced a disease of the eyes, dropsy, and lameness, so that the guilty persons were unable to walk away from the well, and were obliged to own their crime.

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References

Sources

  • Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii, 6.
  • Philostratus. Vita Apollonii i, 6.
  • Pseudo-Pseudo-Aristotle. De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus, 163.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.