Ikaros (Failaka Island)

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Ikaros
Ikaros (Failaka Island) is located in Kuwait
Ikaros (Failaka Island)
Shown within Kuwait
LocationKuwait
RegionMesopotamia
Coordinates29°26′20″N 48°20′00″E / 29.43889°N 48.33333°E / 29.43889; 48.33333Coordinates: 29°26′20″N 48°20′00″E / 29.43889°N 48.33333°E / 29.43889; 48.33333 (approximate)

Ikaros (Greek: Ἴκαρος) was the Hellenistic name of the Kuwaiti Failaka Island, in the Persian Gulf.[1]

Having returned from his Indian campaign to Persia, Alexander the Great ordered the island to be called Icarus, after the Icarus island in the Aegean Sea.[2] This was likely a Hellenization of the local name Akar (Aramaic ´KR), derived from the ancient bronze-age toponym Agarum.[3] Another suggestion is that the name Ikaros was influenced by the local É-kara temple, dedicated to the Babylonian sun-god Shamash. That both Failaka and the Aegean Icarus housed bull cults would have made the identification tempting all the more.[4][5]

During Hellenistic times, there was a temple of Artemis on the island.[2][6][7] The wild animals on the island were dedicated to goddess and no one should harm them.[2] Strabo wrote that on the island there was a temple of Apollo and an oracle of Artemis (Tauropolus) (μαντεῖον Ταυροπόλου).[8] The island is also mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium[9] and Ptolemaeus.[10]

Remains of the settlement include a large Hellenistic fort and two Greek temples.[11] Failaka was also a trading post (emporion) of the kingdom of Characene.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ J. Hansamans, Charax and the Karkhen, Iranica Antiquitua 7 (1967) page 21-58
  2. ^ a b c Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, §7.20
  3. ^ Steffen Terp Laursen: Royal Mounds of A'ali in Bahrain: The Emergence of Kingship in Early Dilmun (pp. 340–343). ISD LLC, 2017. ISBN 9788793423190.
  4. ^ Michael Rice: The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf (p. 208). Routledge, 2002. ISBN 9781134967933.
  5. ^ Jean-Jacques Glassner: "Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha" (1988); Indian Ocean In Antiquity (pp. 240-243), edited by Julian Reade. Kegan Paul International, 1996. Reissued by Routledge in 2013. ISBN 9781136155314.
  6. ^ Dionysius of Alexandria, Guide to the Inhabited World, §600
  7. ^ Aelian, Characteristics of Animals, §11.9
  8. ^ Strabo, Geography, §16.3.2
  9. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §I329.12
  10. ^ Ptolemaeus, Geography, §6.7.47
  11. ^ George Fadlo Hourani, John Carswell, Arab Seafaring: In the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times Princeton University Press,page 131
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