Ἄβαι

Abai: a Phokian city, from the nominative singular 'Abe'. It is named after the hero Abas. Herodian says that the form 'Abas', when it denotes a people, is always declined with an extra syllable, but when it is a proper name, both with the same number of syllables and with an extra syllable. This is the river in Italy. So then, just as 'Amyklai' is from the form 'Amykla', so 'Abai' is from 'Aba'. Lykophron: 'longing for Amphissa and famous Abai'. The ethnonym is 'Abaios', and so is the possessive. Let no one regard the setting-out of the ethnonyms as superfluous, because of the dissimilarity. 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 also 'Alybes'. And Artake: 'Artakenos', 'Artakios', not 'Artakaios'. The Abai are a city among the Phokians, where there is a sanctuary of Apollo. This oracle was earlier than the one in Delphoi. There is also another Aba, a city in Karia, as per Herodian, book 11. The ethnonym can be 'Abeus', because of the pattern customary among Karian names, as we shall show.