Ἄβαι

Abai: a Phokian city, from the nominative singular 'Abe'. It is named after the hero 'Aba'. Herodian says that the form 'Abas', when it denotes a people, is always declined with an additional syllable, but when it is a proper name, both with the same number of syllables and with an additional syllable. It is the river in Italy. Therefore, as 'Amyklai' is from the form 'Amykla', so 'Abai' is from 'Aba'. Lykophron: 'longing for Amphissa and glorious Abai'. The ethnonym is 'Abaios', and so is the possessive. Let no one suppose the listing of the ethnonyms to be superfluous, because of the dissimilarity. Derbe is a fortress in Isauria, and the ethnonym is 'Derbetes' and 'Derbaios', as 'Sidetes' and 'Pyletes', as will be shown, are from 'Side' and 'Pyle'. [As] also 'Albe', the ethnonym is 'Albanos'. And 'Alybe', the ethnonym is 'Alybaios' and 'Alybeus', whose feminine is 'Alybeis', and 'Alybeios' is the possessive, as 'basileios'; but also 'Alybes'. And from 'Artake' come 'Artakenos', 'Artakios', not 'Artakaios'. Abai is a city among the Phokians, where there is a sanctuary of Apollo. This oracle existed before the one at Delphoi. There is also another Aba, a city in Karia, as Herodian, book 11. The ethnonym can be 'Abeus', because of the pattern customary among Karian forms, as we shall show.