Ἄβαι

Abai: a Phokian city, from the nominative singular 'Abe'. It has been named after the hero 'Aba'. Herodian says that 'Abas', when it signifies an ethnic group, is always declined imparisyllabically, but when it is a proper name, both parisyllabically and imparisyllabically. It is also the river in Italy. As, then, 'Amyklai' comes from 'Amykla', so 'Abai' from 'Aba'. Lykophron: 'longing for Amphissa and famous Abai'. The ethnicon is 'Abaios', and so is the possessive. Let no one regard the setting side by side of the ethnics as redundant, because they are unlike. For Derbe is a fortress in Isauria, and the ethnicon is 'Derbetes' and 'Derbaios', as 'Sidetes' and 'Pyletes', as will be shown, from 'Side' and 'Pyle'. So too Albe: the ethnicon is 'Albanos'. And Alybe: the ethnicon is 'Alybaios' and 'Alybeus', whose feminine is 'Alybeis', and the possessive 'Alybeios', as in 'basileios'; but there is also 'Alybes'. And Artake: 'Artakenos', 'Artakios', not 'Artakaios'. Abai is a city among the Phokians, where there is a sanctuary of Apollo. This oracle was earlier than the one at Delphi. There is also another Aba, a city in Karia, as Herodian says in the eleventh book. The ethnicon may be 'Abeus', because of the formation customary among Karian names, as we shall show.