or ABANTIS, in Ancient Geography, a name of the island Euboea in the Egean sea, extending along the coast of Greece, from the promontory Sounium in Attica to Thessaly, and separated from Bocotia by a narrow strait called Euripus. From its length the island was formerly called Macris; afterwards Abantias or Abantis, from the Abantes, a people originally of Thrace, called by Homer ἀπὸ θεῶν Κραιστῆς, from wearing their hair long behind, having in a battle experienced the inconvenience of wearing long hair before. From cutting their hair before, they were called Curetes.