Arimoi in Greek mythology are the people in whose country (or τὰ Ἄριμα – the place in which) lies under the ground bound by Typhon.

Homer describes a place he calls the "couch [or bed] of Typhoeus", which he locates in the land of the Arimoi (εἰν Ἀρίμοις), where Zeus lashes the land about Typhoeus with his thunderbolts.Homer, Iliad 2.783. Presumably this is the same land where, according to Hesiod, Typhon's mate Echidna keeps guard "in Arima" (εἰν Ἀρίμοισιν).Hesiod, Theogony 295–305. Fontenrose, pp. 70–72; West 1966, pp. 250–251 line 304 εἰν Ἀρίμοισιν; Lane Fox, p. 288; Ogden 2013a, p. 76; Fowler 2013, pp. 28–29. West, notes that Typhon's "couch" appears to be "not just 'where he lies', but also where he keeps his spouse"; compare with Quintus Smyrnaeus, 8.97–98 (pp. 354–355).

But neither Homer nor Hesiod says anything more about where these Arimoi or this Arima might be. The question of whether a historical place was meant to be and its possible location has been, since ancient times, the subject of speculation and debate.For an extensive discussion see Lane Fox, especially pp. 39, 107, 283–301; 317–318. See also West 1966, pp. 250–251 line 304 εἰν Ἀρίμοισιν; Ogden 2013a, p. 76; Fowler 2013, pp. 28–30.

Strabo discusses the question in some detail.Strabo, 13.4.6. Several locales, Cilicia, Syria, Lydia, and the island of Ischia, all places associated with Typhon, are given by Strabo as possible locations for Homer's "Arimoi". Pindar has his Cilician Typhon slain by Zeus "among the Arimoi",Pindar, fragment 93 apud Strabo, 13.4.6 (Race, pp. 328–329). and the historian Callisthenes (4th century BC), located the Arimoi and the Arima mountains in Cilicia, near the Calycadnus river, the Corycian cave and the Sarpedon promontory.Callisthenes FGrH 124 F33 = Strabo, 13.4.6; Ogden 2013a, p. 76; Ogden 2013b, p. 25; Lane Fox, p. 292. Lane Fox, pp. 292–298, connects Arima with the Hittite place names "Erimma" and "Arimmatta" which he associates with the Corycian cave. The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, mentioned above, says Typhon was born in Cilicia "under Arimon",Kirk, Raven, and Schofield. pp. 59–60 no. 52; Ogden 2013b, pp. 36–38; Gantz, pp. 50–51, Ogden 2013a, p. 76 n. 46. and Nonnus mentions Typhon's "bloodstained cave of Arima" in Cilicia.Nonnus, Dionysiaca 1.140. (I pp. 12–13). Diodorus Siculus localizes them in Phrygia.Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica. V.71.2. Just across the Gulf of Issus from Corycus, in ancient Syria, was Mount Kasios (modern Jebel Aqra) and the Orontes River, sites associated with Typhon's battle with Zeus,Strabo, 16.2.7; Apollodorus, 1.6.3; Ogden 2013a, p. 76. and according to Strabo, the historian Posidonius (c. 2nd century BC) identified the Arimoi with the Aramaeans of Syria.Strabo, 16.4.27. According to West 1966, p. 251, "This identification [Arimoi as Aramaeans] has been repeated in modern times." For example for Fontenrose[look down], the "Arimoi, it seems fairly certain, are the Aramaeans, and the country is either Syria or Cilicia, most likely the latter, since in later sources that is usually Typhon's land." But see Fox Lane, pp. 107, 291–298, which rejects this identification, instead arguing for the derivation of "Arima" from the Hittite place names "Erimma" and "Arimmatta".

Alternatively, according to Strabo, some placed the Arimoi at Katakekaumene,Strabo, 12.8.19. while Xanthus of Lydia (5th century BC) added that "a certain Arimus" ruled there.Strabo, 13.4.11. Strabo also tells us that for "some" Homer's "couch of Typhon" was located "in a wooded place, in the fertile land of Hyde", with Hyde being another name for Sardis (or its acropolis), and that Demetrius of Scepsis (2nd century BC) thought that the Arimoi were most plausibly located "in the Katakekaumene country in Mysia".Strabo, 13.4.6. For Hyde see also Homer, Iliad 20.386. The 3rd-century BC poet Lycophron placed the lair of Typhons' mate Echidna in this region.Lycophron, Alexandra 1351 ff. (pp. 606–607) associates Echidna's "dread bed" with a lake identified as Lake Gygaea or Koloe (modern Lake Marmara), see Robert, pp. 334 ff.; Lane Fox, pp. 290–291. For Lake Gygaea see Homer, Iliad 2.864–866; Herodotus, 1.93; Strabo, 13.4.5–6.

Another place, mentioned by Strabo as being associated with Arima, is the island of Ischia, where, according to Pherecydes of Athens, Typhon had fled and in the area where Pindar and others had said Typhon was buried. The connection to Arima comes from the Greek name Phlegraean Islands, which derives from the Greek word for monkey, and according to Strabo, residents of the island said that "arimoi" was also the Etruscan word for monkeys.Strabo, 13.4.6; Lane Fox, pp. 298–301; Ogden 2013a, p. 76 n. 47; Fowler 2013, p. 29.

In history Assyrian kings and some scholars under this ethnonym meant the Arameans Joseph Eddy Fontenrose: “Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins” p. 71 (Quote: “The Arimoi, it seems fairly certain, are the Aramaeans, and the country is either Syria or Cilicia, most likely the latter, since in later sources that is usually Typhon's land”) G. M. Avetisyan: Early information about the distribution of aramayan tribes in Northern Mesopotamia and the Armenian Highlands (in russian) Y.A. Manandyan: About some controversial problems in the history and geography of ancient Armenia. Yerevan, 1956

Notes

References

Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2). Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, (1955) 1960, §36.1–3 Griffiths, J. Gwyn, "The Flight of the Gods Before Typhon: An Unrecognized Myth", Hermes, 88, 1960, pp. 374–376. JSTOR М. И. Касьянова, «Что такое Аримы? К вопросу о локализации мифа о Тифоне в поэме Нонна Панополитанского “Деяниях Диониса”» // Журнал: "Индоевропейское языкознание и классическая филология" 2008