Ἄβαι

Abai: a city in Phokis, from the nominative singular 'Abe'. It is named after the hero Abas. Herodian says that the word 'Abas', when it denotes a people, is always declined imparisyllabically, but when it is a proper name, both parisyllabically and imparisyllabically. There is also the river in Italy. As then 'Amyklai' is from 'Amykla', so 'Abai' is from 'Aba'. Lykophron: 'yearning for Amphissa and glorious Abai'. The ethnonym and the possessive are both 'Abaios'. No one should regard the citation of the ethnonyms as superfluous, because of the lack of uniformity. For 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'. So too Albe: the ethnonym is 'Albanos'. And Alybe: the ethnonym is 'Alybaios' and 'Alybeus', whose feminine is 'Alybeis', and the possessive is '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 existed before the one in Delphoi. There is also another Aba, a city in Karia, as per Herodian, book 11. The ethnonym may be 'Abeus', because of the pattern customary among Karian forms, as we shall show.