Insight Editions · No. 233
The Library of Greek Mythology
Apollodorus
The ancient handbook that sets out Greek myth in order, from the origins of the gods through the great heroic families to the aftermath of Troy, with genealogies and maps.
A study guide to The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus. Shared free for personal reading; not for sale and not endorsed by the authors or publishers. Please read and buy the original.
The Library on One Page
Library spine
Force map
One handbook survived the wreck of ancient mythography: use it as a map, then read the poets for the storms.
| # | Section | Gist |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Introduction | The Library survives because it packs reliable early tradition into a |
| 8 | Note on the Text and Translation | Textual honesty about the Epitome and lacunae is part of fidelity. |
| 12 | Genealogical Tables | Genealogy is the Library's index: find the house, find the myth. |
| 13 | Book I | Cosmogony and the first mortal house (Deucalion) set the pattern: gene |
| 14 | Book II | Perseus and Heracles are the Library's densest heroic dossiers: monste |
| 15 | Book III | Theban tragedy and Cretan maze myths sit inside one Inachid-Agenorid g |
| 16 | Epitome | Troy and the returns are told as the last great stemma's catastrophe, |
| 17 | Appendix | Paratext is part of the teaching machine, not leftover pages. |
| 18 | Explanatory Notes | Notes are a second index beside the genealogies. |
| 795 | The Twelve Gods | "Twelve Gods" is both cult math and editorial framing. |
| 796 | References to Animals and Transformations | Transformation is a retrieval key across stemmata. |
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Robin Hard on the Library
Introduction: spine
Photius prized the Library as a practical digest when greater mythographers were already fading.
of Apollodorus is a concise but comprehensive guide to Greek mythology. It covers the full span of mythical history from the origins of the universe and the gods to the Trojan War and its aftermath, and between these limits it tells the story of each of the great families of heroic mythology, and of the various adventures associated with the main heroes and heroines.
This is the only work of its kind to survive from classical antiquity. Although the Greeks developed an extensive and varied mythographical literature in Hellenistic and Roman times, the few handbooks which have been preserved are mostly specialist anthologies, recording myths of the constellations, for instance, or tales of transformation, and many of the stories contained in them are relatively obscure and of late origin. The author of the
, by contrast, wanted to provide his readers with a general handbook which would offer them an account of the most important myths as related in the earlier tradition (with only the occasional late or recondite variant). Otherwise we possess only two works which are at all comparable. There is a Latin compendium, the
Myths (Fabulae) of Hyginus, probably dating to the second century
, which was based on a Greek predecessor, but conveys its contents in a very imperfect form; it presents summaries of myths and various catalogues in many separate chapters. Although it is a valuable source for myths or versions of myths which would otherwise have been lost, it is disorganized and sadly unreliable, and has to be approached with caution. Secondly, when Diodorus of Sicily was compiling his historical compendium in the first century
, he departed from the more austere practices of many fellow historians and included a section on the mythical history (or pre-history) of Greece. Although it contains a useful biography of Heracles and other interesting material, Diodorus’ account of Greek myth is not nearly as complete as that in the
Library , and much of it is based on inferior Hellenistic sources.
It may seem surprising that this unpretentious handbook should have survived when the most important works of the
ancient mythographers have been lost. Fortune, of course, plays a large part in such matters; all surviving manuscripts of the Library
derive from a single archetype. But if it is unpretentious to a fault, the Library
encloses a mass of reliable information in a short space, and it is clear that the scholars of later antiquity found it exceptionally useful for that reason. It is often cited in the scholia (explanatory comments on the works of the classical authors) and similar sources, and in the twelfth century the Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes made extensive use of it. This suggests that the preservation of this particular handbook was not simply a freak of fortune, and that the writers of this later period thought that it had its virtues, at least from a purely practical point of view. As it happens, we know directly what one of the finest Byzantine scholars thought of the
, for Photius, patriarch of Constantinople in the ninth century, registered his opinion in a brief review. While travelling abroad on a diplomatic mission, Photius kept a record of his reading for his brother, and in this record, after summarizing the contents of another mythical work, he noted:
In the same volume, I read a small work by the scholar Apollodorus; it is entitled the Library
. It contained the most ancient stories of the Greeks: all that time has given them to believe about the gods and heroes, and about the rivers, and lands, and peoples, and towns, and thence everything that goes back to the earliest times. And it goes down as far as the Trojan War, and covers the battles that certain of the heroes fought with one another, and their exploits, and certain of the wanderings of the heroes returning from Troy, notably those of Odysseus, with whom this history of ancient times concludes. All in all, it is a general summary which is by no means lacking in usefulness to those who attach some value to the memory of the ancient stories.
had been lost, like so many of the works reviewed by Photius, we might feel some regret on reading these words; as it is, we can refer to the original and judge for ourselves whether for the modern reader too it fulfils the claims that Photius makes for it. These claims are by no means extravagant. It is indeed a useful synopsis of the mythical history of Greece; and, it may be added, it is based for the most part on good early sources, and the author was content to summarize them as he found them
without imposing his own interpretations, or attempting to reconcile conflicting traditions, or making any alterations for literary effect.
In the manuscripts, this book is entitled the Library of Apollodorus of Athens, the Grammarian
. ‘Library’ was a title applied to compendia; for a compendium, which draws together material from a multitude of other books, could be regarded as a library in itself. Diodorus called his much larger historical compendium the
Historical Library for the same reason. In Photius’ copy of the Library
, a little poem was placed at the beginning in which the book itself addresses the reader and expresses this thought directly. It ran like this:
Now, due to my erudition, you can draw upon the coils of time, and know the stories of old. Look no longer in the pages of Homer, or in elegy, or the tragic Muse, or lyric verse, and seek no longer in the sonorous verses of the cyclic poets; no, look in me, and you will discover all that the world contains.
Whether this was really written by the original author is impossible to say, but none the less it seems appropriate and suggestive, even if the mixed metaphor at the beginning is not altogether fortunate. Time is pictured as a serpent, and the succession of ages as the serpent’s coils which the learning embodied in the book will enable its readers to ‘draw on’ (as though drawing water from a well). For rather than search through a whole library of ancient poems, they have merely to look within this ‘Library’ to discover all that they could wish to know about the myths and legends of early Greece. And there is some truth in this, even if we would be happy to have the same opportunity as its author to consult all these early poetic sources in the original, and there is a certain philistinism in the suggestion that a work of these dimensions could enclose ‘the world’.
The attribution of the work to Apollodorus of Athens, a distinguished scholar (or ‘grammarian’) who worked at Alexandria in the second century
, is more problematic. Although Apollodorus had wide interests and also wrote on literary, historical, geographical, and other matters, he appears to have been most
highly regarded in antiquity for a treatise on Greek religion entitled On the Gods
, which would have contained extensive discussion of divine mythology. Thus the Library
, which is largely devoted to heroic mythology, could be seen as a complementary work; and if the attribution were correct, we would possess a book by one of the most learned authors of the greatest age of Greek scholarship. The reference to ‘the scholar (grammarian) Apollodorus’ in Photius’ review shows that he too considered this Apollodorus to be the author, and the attribution was accepted by modern scholars until quite recently, although it was increasingly recognized that it raises serious problems. Not until 1873, when the publication of a thesis on the
Library by Carl Robert forced a reconsideration of the matter, were these problems fully confronted. There is one very definite indication that the Library
could not have been written during the lifetime of Apollodorus of Athens: it contains a reference to the Chronicles
of Castor of Rhodes (p. 59). This was a study in comparative chronology which is said to have contained tables which extended to 61 BC; and the date of its author is confirmed by a report that he married the daughter of Deiotarus, an eastern king who was defended by Cicero in 45
BC. Unless the reference to Castor was added to the text at a later period (and there is no reason to suppose that it was) the Library
must have been written a century or more after the death of Apollodorus of Athens. In view of the difficulty raised by this citation, we must ask whether the
is in any case a book which we could reasonably accept as the work of a scholar of Apollodorus’ stature and period. In truth, it is not at all what we would expect from a learned Alexandrian scholar. Rather than an original synthesis achieved through the author’s own research and reflection (as was surely the case with Apollodorus’ treatise on the gods), we have an elementary handbook which the author compiled by consulting and epitomizing standard sources. And the author made no attempt to interpret the myths and explain their meaning in rationalistic terms, as was characteristic of Hellenistic mythographers. In relation to the gods, for instance, many writers of this period would explain that they represented forces of nature, or that they had originally been human beings who later had divine
status attributed to them. Although it is explicitly attested that Apollodorus of Athens adopted such an approach, there is not a trace of it in the Library;
nor was the author disconcerted by the fabulous element in many heroic myths (unlike Diodorus, who often provides rationalized versions, following Hellenistic sources). He simply accepts the myths as enjoyable stories which formed an important part of the Greek heritage, a characteristic attitude in later times. Furthermore, there are features in the author’s use of language which suggest that the book was written at a later period than the second century
BC. In short, there is every indication that the attribution to Apollodorus of Athens can be confidently rejected.
Apollodorus was a fairly common name, and it is conceivable that the Library
was compiled by an author of that name who was later confused with the famous scholar of an earlier period; but it is more likely that our book is sailing under a flag of convenience. Perhaps, as Robert suggested, the author was too timid to launch the work under his own name, or perhaps later copyists found it to their advantage to pass it off as the work of a distinguished scholar. In any case, we know nothing about the author. Accordingly, the author is sometimes referred to as the pseudo-Apollodorus, particularly in the continental literature; but it is more convenient to use the traditional name, with due reservation.
Accepting that the traditional attribution reveals nothing about the author, can we infer anything about his time of birth, or his origins, or perhaps even his character from the book itself? It must be stated from the outset that a compilation of this kind is of its very nature unlikely to reveal much about its author, and in the present instance some features which might be of help in that regard are lacking. There is no dedication, and there are no incidental allusions to things that the author has seen or experienced. Nor does he make any reference to recent or contemporary events; indeed, the only historical event mentioned by him is the Phocian War (p. 163), which took place in the fourth century
BC. It is possible, however, to draw some conclusions about when the Library may have been written, and perhaps about the origins of its author.
The reference to Castor (the latest author to be cited) shows that the Library could not have been written before the first half of the first century
BC. To establish a later limit with equal certainty, it would be necessary to find a reference to the Library
in another work which could be dated to a sufficiently early period. In practice, however, this approach is unproductive. Although, as was remarked above, the
is cited quite frequently in the scholia and elsewhere, all the relevant sources are either hard to date or were certainly written at a much later period. We must therefore rely on internal criteria. Let us consider first the author’s use of language, which might be expected to provide the most definite indications.
Although the author’s Greek is generally unexceptional, there are features in his vocabulary and idiom which are more characteristic of later Greek. He occasionally uses words in senses which are not attested before the early Christian era, and sometimes the verb forms and minor points of grammar and expression are suggestive of later usage (even if they are not entirely unparalleled in the works of earlier authors). On these stylistic grounds, it is commonly agreed that the
Library would be best dated to the first or second century
(although some would place it somewhat earlier or later); and the author’s general attitude and approach is consistent with such a dating. It has been remarked that in contrast to many Hellenistic writers, he is uncritical in his approach to myth. This is not because he accepts all the stories as being literally true, but because his approach is that of an antiquarian, so the question of truth or falsity is no longer relevant. This antiquarian approach, accompanied by a taste for the archaic and picturesque, and the desire to take stock of aspects of the Greek heritage, were characteristic of authors writing under the early empire. One has only to think of Plutarch or Pausanias. In preparing this summa of Greek myth, the present author was writing on a lesser scale in a work that belonged to an inferior genre; but the literature of epitomes and popular handbooks was itself characteristic of the age, and in its way, witnessed to the same tendencies.
To pass from the question of chronology to that of the author’s origins, we must consider whether he shows any special interest in (or disregard for) particular areas of the Mediterranean world. Here a measure of caution is required; in a handbook
devoted to the main early myths, there will inevitably be an emphasis on stories associated with the heartland of Greece and the Aegean. None the less, many readers have felt that the author is curiously neglectful of myths relating to Italy and the west; and some have detected a bias to the east. Apollodorus’ account of the life history of Heracles is broadly similar to that in the historical compilation by Diodorus of Sicily. Yet his coverage of Heracles’ adventures in Italy when returning with the cattle of Geryoneus (pp. 80-1) is very scanty when compared with the full account in Diodorus; and he makes no allusion to the tradition that Heracles was supposed to have visited the site of Rome. Indeed, he never mentions Rome or the Romans, and disregards the aspects of Greek mythology which were of most concern to them. Thus he tells how Aeneas escaped from the sack of Troy carrying his father on his back, but we would never gather from the
that there were traditions connecting him with Latium and the origins of Rome. Although a similar attitude can be detected in other authors at that time and the matter raises questions of wider interest, with regard to the specific question of the author’s origins we can surely conclude that it is most unlikely that he came from Italy or the west. Some have tried to draw more positive conclusions, but it is doubtful whether there is sufficient evidence to support them. Robert suggested that the author was an Athenian (like the Hellenistic Apollodorus); but the coverage of Athenian mythology, although quite extensive, is not disproportionate in terms of the place that Athenian myth occupied in the general tradition, and it can hardly be accepted that references to topographical features like the ‘sea’ of Erechtheus (p. 130) are explicable only on grounds of local knowledge. Again, it could be argued that Apollodorus shows a special interest in the east, and it is quite possible that he lived there, but we cannot say more than that.
There is no suggestion in Photius’ review that he regarded the Library
as an introductory work for schoolchildren or the uneducated, and the citations in the scholia show that in late antiquity at least it was used by scholars as a reference work. We have no corresponding evidence of how it was viewed in earlier times, or whether it was widely used. It may be suspected,
however, that readers of much education would have preferred more solid fare, and scholars at that period would surely have found little use for an elementary work of this kind when they could refer to more scholarly and comprehensive handbooks by the Hellenistic mythographers.
A modern reader leafing through the Library
is likely to gain conflicting impressions about its general level and the kind of audience that the author would have had in mind when writing it. Unlike many of the mythographical works which survive from antiquity, this is not a specialist study, and the author is happy to recount the most familiar stories; and most of them are summarized quite briefly. If the
is used merely as a mythological dictionary and consulted for the stories associated with the main heroes, the reader may feel that it is very elementary, containing little that any moderately educated ancient reader would not have known already. Thus the story of Perseus is summarized in three pages, that of Oedipus in about a page, and the plot of Sophocles’
Antigone in two sentences. Many have concluded that the Library
was written as a primer for schoolchildren, or perhaps for semi-Hellenized adults in the eastern reaches of the Roman empire; such a view has been held by scholars whose opinion is worthy of respect (and some have advanced specific arguments in its favour, suggesting, for instance, that certain stories have been bowdlerized for a youthful audience).
is read consecutively, the reader may feel that it is not as elementary as all that. Within its brief confines it contains a remarkable quantity of information, and much that a reader with a fairly comprehensive knowledge of Greek mythology would not expect to hold in mind. Perhaps the work was intended not as a primer, but as an epitome of mythical history for a general if unsophisticated readership. As we have already observed, there was an extensive literature of this kind in the Roman period, and the part that popular handbooks and epitomes played in transmitting many aspects of Hellenic culture to a broad public should not be underestimated. For their knowledge of philosophy, for instance, many Greeks of that period would have relied on handbooks summarizing the opinions of the different schools on each of the standard questions.
Works of such a kind may have been aimed at a relatively uncultivated audience, but they were not written specifically for use in schools. Taken as a whole, the
amounts to far more than an anthology of mythical tales. For it offers a full account of each of the main cycles of myth, and thence a complete history of mythical Greece, organized on a genealogical basis, family by family; all the main stories are there, each situated in its proper place in the overall structure. From this perspective it could well be argued that the author wanted to provide the general public with a summa of Greek myth in epitome form; and that in a modest way, his aim was encyclopaedic. In a recent French edition of the
, J.-C. Carrière has advanced some interesting arguments in favour of this view. Although this is ultimately a matter of judgement, and a full consideration of the question would require the examination of a number of different issues, I would like to consider a single aspect of the work which seems to favour such a view.
will be struck by the profusion of names. The narrative may often be brief and bare, but the author was immensely thorough in recording the names of all the figures associated with the heroic families and the main episodes in heroic mythology. Most of these names appear in various catalogues, or in the genealogies which punctuate the histories of the great families of heroic mythology; let us first consider the catalogues, which serve less of a practical function than the genealogies.
In such a short work, the author devotes a surprising amount of space to these catalogues, which sometimes take up more than a page. Instead of merely reporting that the fifty daughters of Danaos married the fifty sons of Aigyptos and, with one exception, murdered them on their wedding night, Apollodorus lists all the brides and their husbands, and tells us who their mothers were (pp. 61-2). Only two of the Danaids are of any significance thereafter. Similarly, the fifty sons of Lycaon, who met a premature death, are listed by name, and all the suitors of Penelope (although there is no such list in the
Odyssey , Apollodorus’ main source at this point), and the many children of Heracles by the fifty daughters of Thespios and other women.
In certain cases such catalogues could be of practical interest even to those first approaching the study of Greek mythology, as with the catalogue of the Argonauts (pp. 49-50), or the catalogue of ships (pp. 148-9), which gives the names of the Greek leaders at Troy, and their origins and the relative strength of their contingents. But generally this is gratuitous information. Such catalogues were nevertheless valued in the Greek tradition, as in many other mythical traditions, as a matter of record, and it is understandable that our author should have wished to include the more important catalogues when summarizing the tradition. It may be doubted, however, that any author would wish to burden a digest for schoolchildren with catalogues listing over six hundred and fifty names (excluding patronymics).
The genealogies are equally comprehensive. The histories of the heroic families are interspersed with genealogies which list the full succession in each family, even if no significant stories are associated with the figures in a particular generation, and usually catalogue all the known children of each marriage, even if most are not mentioned again (and may be otherwise unknown). In this way, complete family trees are built up for each ruling line, partly as a matter of record (and here completeness can be seen as a virtue in itself, even if many of the names which appear are no more than names), and partly because these genealogies provide the main principle of organization in mythical history. In many mythical traditions, the myths tend to tell of events that happened ‘once upon a time’, in an indefinite past. This is rarely the case in Greek mythology, and heroic mythology in particular was ordered into a fairly coherent pseudo-history. This history was necessarily organized on a genealogical basis, because the succession of generations in the families ruling in each centre provided the only possible chronological measure. Only when plausible family trees had been constructed was it possible to locate each figure or mythical episode at its appropriate position in time, and thus construct a history in which these could be viewed in due relation. Considering the multiplicity of the independent centres in Greece, and the mass of mutually inconsistent myths and legends which would have been transmitted in the oral tradition within these various
centres, the economy of the pan-Hellenic genealogical system recorded in the Library
is impressive. There are only six main families, and each family tree is sufficiently detailed to allow each figure or story to be assigned to its definite place. To gain a full understanding of this body of myth as a coherent history, it is necessary to master this system. The genealogies in the
give its readers the resources to do so. In this respect, it cannot be said that the book merely records matter that a well-educated person would have known; for the genealogies are by no means simple, and would not easily be committed to memory.
To draw a tentative conclusion from these brief reflections, there are aspects of the work which suggest that the common (but by no means universal) view that the
was written for use in schools is open to serious question. It could well have been written as a summary handbook for a more general audience (although schoolmasters may also have found it useful), and the author’s concern for completeness and inclusion of full genealogies ensures that it has genuine virtues both as a summary of the tradition and a reference work. The shortcomings of the work derive from its extreme brevity rather than any essential flaw in the compiler’s approach to his task.
is drawn from a wide variety of sources, whether original poetic sources, from early epic to the learned compositions of the early Hellenistic poets, or mythographical compilations which offered prose summaries of mythical tales. Since the author’s main purpose was to provide an account of the most important early myths, we might expect that he would have been interested primarily in earlier sources, in particular early epic and the works of the fifth-century chroniclers, who were amongst the earliest prose writers. If we consider which sources are cited most frequently by name, we find some confirmation of this. Of poets, Hesiod is named most often (eleven times) and then Homer (five times), and of prose writers, two less familiar figures, Pherecydes (thirteen times) and Acousilaos (ten times), who wrote on mythical history in the fifth century BC. This provides only an approximate measure because Apollodorus sometimes cites authorities for specific
traditions or variants, but rarely indicates the main source that he was following in each stage in the work. The emphasis on early historical and epic sources is nevertheless significant.
The question of sources concerns not only the origin of individual stories, but also the structure and organization of the various cycles of myth. The Greek mythological tradition, as summarized in a broadly representative manner in the
, is in many respects a peculiar one. It is dominated to an unusual degree by heroic mythology, and the material from heroic legend is organized in such a way that it provides an unusually coherent pre-history of the regions covered. As has been remarked, stories are rarely located in an indeterminate past; each is fitted into its appropriate place, whether in relation to the history of a specific place and the successive generations of its ruling family, or to the development of a great adventure or the life history of a major hero. For the most part, this systematization was not the work of the scholarly mythographers of the Hellenistic era, but was achieved at a relatively early period by the epic poets and by prose writers who regarded themselves as historians rather than mythographers. Indeed, the beginning of the process by which the mass of often mutually inconsistent myths in the oral tradition was ordered into a coherent pseudo-historical pattern can be traced to the earliest Greek literature to be recorded in writing, the Homeric epics and Hesiod’s
Theogony , and the process was brought to fruition in the works of the fifth-century mythographer-historians-precisely the sources most frequently cited in the
Library . First we must consider the nature of these early sources and their contribution to this process, and then how the author of the Library
Until the development of prose literature in the latter part of the sixth century, Greek literature was exclusively poetic, and the richest sources for myth and legend were the works of the epic poets. The earliest epics to survive, the two Homeric epics and Hesiod’s
, were probably written about the same time towards the end of the eighth century. Although they belong to the same broad genre, the poems attributed to these authors are quite different in nature. Homer was a story-teller on a grand scale and each of the Homeric epics is constructed on the basis of an overall plot running through the whole poem.
on a genealogical basis; and generally speaking, in a genealogical poem of such a kind the stories associated with the various figures are inserted successively as the figures are introduced in the genealogies, and the narratives are relatively brief and self-contained. These contrary approaches can be related to the two main ways in which the mythical material is organized in different parts of the
, the narrative ordering in the histories of great adventures like the voyage of the Argonauts and the Trojan War (or in the life of Heracles), and the genealogical ordering in large stretches of the histories of the great families, where we find an alternation between genealogical sections and narratives recounting the stories associated with the heroes and heroines as they are successively introduced in the genealogies. We will examine first how the works of the epic poets who could be regarded as the successors of Homer contributed to the establishment of standard accounts of the greater mythical adventures, and then how the Hesiodic approach was extended in a later epic to cover heroic mythology, resulting in the development of an all-embracing genealogical system.
The main action of the Iliad covers only a few days in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War, and the Odyssey
describes the return voyage of only one of the Greek heroes, although both poems assume a much broader background of Trojan myth and they contain many allusions to stories not directly covered in the poems themselves. The exceptional quality of the Homeric poems seems to have impressed itself on their audience from the beginning, and it is understandable that poets in the century following their composition should have wished to compose epics covering the elements in Trojan mythology not already covered by Homer, and, in effect, fill in the gaps. And so it came about that a cycle of epics was composed which, taken together, built up a sequence narrating the entire history of the Trojan War. Although only a few fragments have survived, we know their general contents from a series of summaries attributed to a certain Proclus, and can see how they were constructed around the Homeric epics. Thus the origins of the war and all events up to the angry withdrawal of Achilles which marks the beginning of the
Iliad were covered in a single long epic, the Cypria; and then three shorter epics (partly overlapping in content) continued where the Iliad
left off, covering the final period of the war and the sack of Troy. Then the Returns
told of the return voyages of the surviving Greek heroes, except for Odysseus, and last of all, the later history of Odysseus was recounted in the Telegonia
, which formed an eccentric supplement to the Odyssey
. Although there is reason to think that by Homeric standards the artistic quality of these poems was not high, they were of great importance from a mythographical viewpoint for the part that they played in the establishment of a canon of Trojan myth. By selecting and ordering material from the oral tradition and earlier lays, and ‘fixing’ it in long poems which were transmitted to future generations, the authors of such epics made a major contribution to the formation of standard histories of adventures like the Trojan War. The account of the war in the
is ultimately dependent on these epics for its general structure and much of its contents. Other epics composed in the seventh century or somewhat later fulfilled a similar service with regard to other mythical episodes, such as the Theban Wars, or the voyage of the Argonauts (although, as we shall see, Apollodorus followed a Hellenistic epic for that adventure).
, Hesiod sought to organize the traditions concerning the gods into a coherent pattern by developing the comprehensive genealogical system which forms the basis of his poem. Beginning with a mythical cosmogony presented in genealogical terms, he tells of the origin and descent of the earlier gods and the establishment of Zeus as supreme ruler, and concludes with a catalogue of Zeus’ marriages and his offspring by his wives and other women. A supplement was added later which includes a catalogue of the children born to goddesses by mortal men. As a story-teller, Hesiod is short-winded and often clumsy, although his material is naturally of great interest. The approach adopted by Hesiod is largely determined by the peculiar nature of his subject matter; but later, probably in the sixth century, another poet composed a continuation to his poem extending the same approach to heroic mythology. This epic, which survives in fragments only, is known, somewhat misleadingly perhaps, as the
Catalogue of Women , because the origin of each line is traced to the offspring of a god by a mortal woman. Its importance for
Greek mythography cannot be emphasized too strongly; for it was here that the heroic genealogies were first ordered into a coherent pan-Hellenic system. The pattern of heroic genealogy which we find in the
Library is still similar in general outline (although, of course, it often reflects later developments). And the Catalogue
offered far more than sequences of names; for most names suggest a story, and the relevant narratives were inserted at the appropriate points in the presentation of the genealogies. This approach was subsequently adopted by prose mythographers and, as we have observed, it is in evidence in many parts of the
Historians were prominent amongst the earliest prose writers. Some concerned themselves with purely local matters, but others (including those mentioned amongst the authors most frequently cited by Apollodorus) had broader ambitions and covered the traditions associated with many parts of the Greek world. They could not extend their researches any distance into the past without engaging with what we would regard as myth; and in the present context, it is their contribution to mythography which interests us. But they regarded themselves as historians, and while they were not always totally uncritical, they were willing to accept myth and legend as reliable sources of historical truth. In this respect, they differed from the scholarly mythographers of the Hellenistic era, who were critical in their attitude to myth and regarded mythography as a separate area of investigation. These earlier authors, whose qualities must be judged from fragments and testimonies, are sometimes referred to as logographers to distinguish them from more critical historians like Herodotus and Thucydides; but since this term (which simply meant ‘prose writers’ in ancient usage) can be misleading if it is thought to describe a specific school of historians, it is safer to describe them merely as historians (or mythographer-historians or chroniclers).
If these mythographer-historians were uncritical with regard to the basic nature of their material (and were rarely worried by the fabulous element in myth), they were by no means uncritical regarding the historical implausibilities which can arise from deficiencies in chronology and internal inconsistencies within the mythical narratives. With regard to chronology, they continued
Extended pass
of Apollodorus is a concise but comprehensive guide to Greek mythology. It covers the full span of mythical history from the origins of the universe and the gods to the Trojan War and its aftermath, and between these limits it tells the story of each of the great families of heroic mythology, and of the various adventures associated with the main heroes and heroines.
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This is the only work of its kind to survive from classical antiquity. Although the Greeks developed an extensive and varied mythographical literature in Hellenistic and Roman times, the few handbooks which have been preserved are mostly specialist anthologies, recording myths of the constellations, for instance, or tales of transformation, and many of the stories contained in them are relatively obscure and of late origin. The author of the
, by contrast, wanted to provide his readers with a general handbook which would offer them an account of the most important myths as related in the earlier tradition (with only the occasional late or recondite variant). Otherwise we possess only two works which are at all comparable. There is a Latin compendium, the
Myths (Fabulae) of Hyginus, probably dating to the second century
, which was based on a Greek predecessor, but conveys its contents in a very imperfect form; it presents summaries of myths and various catalogues in many separate chapters. Although it is a valuable source for myths or versions of myths which would otherwise have been lost, it is disorganized and sadly unreliable, and has to be approached with caution. Secondly, when Diodorus of Sicily was compiling his historical compendium in the first century
, he departed from the more austere practices of many fellow historians and included a section on the mythical history (or pre-history) of Greece. Although it contains a useful biography of Heracles and other interesting material, Diodorus’ account of Greek myth is not nearly as complete as that in the
Library , and much of it is based on inferior Hellenistic sources.
ext 6
It may seem surprising that this unpretentious handbook should have survived when the most important works of the
ancient mythographers have been lost. Fortune, of course, plays a large part in such matters; all surviving manuscripts of the Library
derive from a single archetype. But if it is unpretentious to a fault, the Library
encloses a mass of reliable information in a short space, and it is clear that the scholars of later antiquity found it exceptionally useful for that reason. It is often cited in the scholia (explanatory comments on the works of the classical authors) and similar sources, and in the twelfth century the Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes made extensive use of it. This suggests that the preservation of this particular handbook was not simply a freak of fortune, and that the writers of this later period thought that it had its virtues, at least from a purely practical point of view. As it happens, we know directly what one of the finest Byzantine scholars thought of the
, for Photius, patriarch of Constantinople in the ninth century, registered his opinion in a brief review. While travelling abroad on a diplomatic mission, Photius kept a record of his reading for his brother, and in this record, after summarizing the contents of another mythical work, he noted:
In the same volume, I read a small work by the scholar Apollodorus; it is entitled the Library
ext 12
. It contained the most ancient stories of the Greeks: all that time has given them to believe about the gods and heroes, and about the rivers, and lands, and peoples, and towns, and thence everything that goes back to the earliest times. And it goes down as far as the Trojan War, and covers the battles that certain of the heroes fought with one another, and their exploits, and certain of the wanderings of the heroes returning from Troy, notably those of Odysseus, with whom this history of ancient times concludes. All in all, it is a general summary which is by no means lacking in usefulness to those who attach some value to the memory of the ancient stories.
had been lost, like so many of the works reviewed by Photius, we might feel some regret on reading these words; as it is, we can refer to the original and judge for ourselves whether for the modern reader too it fulfils the claims that Photius makes for it. These claims are by no means extravagant. It is indeed a useful synopsis of the mythical history of Greece; and, it may be added, it is based for the most part on good early sources, and the author was content to summarize them as he found them
without imposing his own interpretations, or attempting to reconcile conflicting traditions, or making any alterations for literary effect.
In the manuscripts, this book is entitled the Library of Apollodorus of Athens, the Grammarian
. ‘Library’ was a title applied to compendia; for a compendium, which draws together material from a multitude of other books, could be regarded as a library in itself. Diodorus called his much larger historical compendium the
Historical Library for the same reason. In Photius’ copy of the Library
ext 18
, a little poem was placed at the beginning in which the book itself addresses the reader and expresses this thought directly. It ran like this:
Now, due to my erudition, you can draw upon the coils of time, and know the stories of old. Look no longer in the pages of Homer, or in elegy, or the tragic Muse, or lyric verse, and seek no longer in the sonorous verses of the cyclic poets; no, look in me, and you will discover all that the world contains.
Whether this was really written by the original author is impossible to say, but none the less it seems appropriate and suggestive, even if the mixed metaphor at the beginning is not altogether fortunate. Time is pictured as a serpent, and the succession of ages as the serpent’s coils which the learning embodied in the book will enable its readers to ‘draw on’ (as though drawing water from a well). For rather than search through a whole library of ancient poems, they have merely to look within this ‘Library’ to discover all that they could wish to know about the myths and legends of early Greece. And there is some truth in this, even if we would be happy to have the same opportunity as its author to consult all these early poetic sources in the original, and there is a certain philistinism in the suggestion that a work of these dimensions could enclose ‘the world’.
The attribution of the work to Apollodorus of Athens, a distinguished scholar (or ‘grammarian’) who worked at Alexandria in the second century
, is more problematic. Although Apollodorus had wide interests and also wrote on literary, historical, geographical, and other matters, he appears to have been most
highly regarded in antiquity for a treatise on Greek religion entitled On the Gods
ext 24
, which would have contained extensive discussion of divine mythology. Thus the Library
Not until 1873, when the publication of a thesis on the
There is one very definite indication that the Library
of Castor of Rhodes (p. 59). This was a study in comparative chronology which is said to have contained tables which extended to 61 BC; and the date of its author is confirmed by a report that he married the daughter of Deiotarus, an eastern king who was defended by Cicero in 45
BC. Unless the reference to Castor was added to the text at a later period (and there is no reason to suppose that it was) the Library
ext 30
status attributed to them.
BC.
ext 36
was compiled by an author of that name who was later confused with the famous scholar of an earlier period; but it is more likely that our book is sailing under a flag of convenience. Perhaps, as Robert suggested, the author was too timid to launch the work under his own name, or perhaps later copyists found it to their advantage to pass it off as the work of a distinguished scholar. In any case, we know nothing about the author.
It must be stated from the outset that a compilation of this kind is of its very nature unlikely to reveal much about its author, and in the present instance some features which might be of help in that regard are lacking. There is no dedication, and there are no incidental allusions to things that the author has seen or experienced.
BC.
BC.
In practice, however, this approach is unproductive. Although, as was remarked above, the
ext 42
We must therefore rely on internal criteria.
On these stylistic grounds, it is commonly agreed that the
Library would be best dated to the first or second century
One has only to think of Plutarch or Pausanias.
To pass from the question of chronology to that of the author’s origins, we must consider whether he shows any special interest in (or disregard for) particular areas of the Mediterranean world. Here a measure of caution is required; in a handbook
None the less, many readers have felt that the author is curiously neglectful of myths relating to Italy and the west; and some have detected a bias to the east. Apollodorus’ account of the life history of Heracles is broadly similar to that in the historical compilation by Diodorus of Sicily.
ext 48
It may be suspected,
A modern reader leafing through the Library
is likely to gain conflicting impressions about its general level and the kind of audience that the author would have had in mind when writing it. Unlike many of the mythographical works which survive from antiquity, this is not a specialist study, and the author is happy to recount the most familiar stories; and most of them are summarized quite briefly. If the
ext 54
is used merely as a mythological dictionary and consulted for the stories associated with the main heroes, the reader may feel that it is very elementary, containing little that any moderately educated ancient reader would not have known already. Thus the story of Perseus is summarized in three pages, that of Oedipus in about a page, and the plot of Sophocles’
Antigone in two sentences. Many have concluded that the Library
is read consecutively, the reader may feel that it is not as elementary as all that. Within its brief confines it contains a remarkable quantity of information, and much that a reader with a fairly comprehensive knowledge of Greek mythology would not expect to hold in mind. Perhaps the work was intended not as a primer, but as an epitome of mythical history for a general if unsophisticated readership.
Works of such a kind may have been aimed at a relatively uncultivated audience, but they were not written specifically for use in schools. Taken as a whole, the
amounts to far more than an anthology of mythical tales. In a recent French edition of the
ext 60
, J.-C. Carrière has advanced some interesting arguments in favour of this view. Although this is ultimately a matter of judgement, and a full consideration of the question would require the examination of a number of different issues, I would like to consider a single aspect of the work which seems to favour such a view.
will be struck by the profusion of names. The narrative may often be brief and bare, but the author was immensely thorough in recording the names of all the figures associated with the heroic families and the main episodes in heroic mythology. Most of these names appear in various catalogues, or in the genealogies which punctuate the histories of the great families of heroic mythology; let us first consider the catalogues, which serve less of a practical function than the genealogies.
In such a short work, the author devotes a surprising amount of space to these catalogues, which sometimes take up more than a page. Instead of merely reporting that the fifty daughters of Danaos married the fifty sons of Aigyptos and, with one exception, murdered them on their wedding night, Apollodorus lists all the brides and their husbands, and tells us who their mothers were (pp. 61-2). Only two of the Danaids are of any significance thereafter.
But generally this is gratuitous information.
The genealogies are equally comprehensive. In many mythical traditions, the myths tend to tell of events that happened ‘once upon a time’, in an indefinite past. This is rarely the case in Greek mythology, and heroic mythology in particular was ordered into a fairly coherent pseudo-history. This history was necessarily organized on a genealogical basis, because the succession of generations in the families ruling in each centre provided the only possible chronological measure. Only when plausible family trees had been constructed was it possible to locate each figure or mythical episode at its appropriate position in time, and thus construct a history in which these could be viewed in due relation.
ext 66
is impressive. There are only six main families, and each family tree is sufficiently detailed to allow each figure or story to be assigned to its definite place. The genealogies in the
give its readers the resources to do so.
was written for use in schools is open to serious question.
is drawn from a wide variety of sources, whether original poetic sources, from early epic to the learned compositions of the early Hellenistic poets, or mythographical compilations which offered prose summaries of mythical tales. Since the author’s main purpose was to provide an account of the most important early myths, we might expect that he would have been interested primarily in earlier sources, in particular early epic and the works of the fifth-century chroniclers, who were amongst the earliest prose writers.
ext 72
, is in many respects a peculiar one. For the most part, this systematization was not the work of the scholarly mythographers of the Hellenistic era, but was achieved at a relatively early period by the epic poets and by prose writers who regarded themselves as historians rather than mythographers. Indeed, the beginning of the process by which the mass of often mutually inconsistent myths in the oral tradition was ordered into a coherent pseudo-historical pattern can be traced to the earliest Greek literature to be recorded in writing, the Homeric epics and Hesiod’s
Library . First we must consider the nature of these early sources and their contribution to this process, and then how the author of the Library
ext 78
, were probably written about the same time towards the end of the eighth century. Although they belong to the same broad genre, the poems attributed to these authors are quite different in nature. Homer was a story-teller on a grand scale and each of the Homeric epics is constructed on the basis of an overall plot running through the whole poem.
on a genealogical basis; and generally speaking, in a genealogical poem of such a kind the stories associated with the various figures are inserted successively as the figures are introduced in the genealogies, and the narratives are relatively brief and self-contained. These contrary approaches can be related to the two main ways in which the mythical material is organized in different parts of the
ext 84
left off, covering the final period of the war and the sack of Troy. Then the Returns
, which formed an eccentric supplement to the Odyssey
The account of the war in the
is ultimately dependent on these epics for its general structure and much of its contents. Other epics composed in the seventh century or somewhat later fulfilled a similar service with regard to other mythical episodes, such as the Theban Wars, or the voyage of the Argonauts (although, as we shall see, Apollodorus followed a Hellenistic epic for that adventure).
, Hesiod sought to organize the traditions concerning the gods into a coherent pattern by developing the comprehensive genealogical system which forms the basis of his poem. Beginning with a mythical cosmogony presented in genealogical terms, he tells of the origin and descent of the earlier gods and the establishment of Zeus as supreme ruler, and concludes with a catalogue of Zeus’ marriages and his offspring by his wives and other women.
ext 90
Its importance for
The pattern of heroic genealogy which we find in the
And the Catalogue
offered far more than sequences of names; for most names suggest a story, and the relevant narratives were inserted at the appropriate points in the presentation of the genealogies. This approach was subsequently adopted by prose mythographers and, as we have observed, it is in evidence in many parts of the
Historians were prominent amongst the earliest prose writers.
If these mythographer-historians were uncritical with regard to the basic nature of their material (and were rarely worried by the fabulous element in myth), they were by no means uncritical regarding the historical implausibilities which can arise from deficiencies in chronology and internal inconsistencies within the mythical narratives. With regard to chronology, they continued
ext 96
Theme: handbook vs anthology.
Theme: manuscript fortune.
Theme: family organization.
Theme: variant handling.
Introduction: chain 1
Introduction: chain 4
Introduction: chain 7
Introduction: chain 10
Introduction: chain 13
Introduction: chain 16
Introduction: chain 19
Introduction: chain 22
Introduction: chain 25
Introduction: chain 28
Introduction: chain 31
Introduction: chain 34
Introduction: chain 37
Introduction: chain 40
Introduction: chain 43
Introduction: chain 46
Introduction: chain 49
Introduction: chain 52
Further source depth
, which would have contained extensive discussion of divine mythology. Thus the Library
Not until 1873, when the publication of a thesis on the
There is one very definite indication that the Library
of Castor of Rhodes (p. 59). This was a study in comparative chronology which is said to have contained tables which extended to 61 BC; and the date of its author is confirmed by a report that he married the daughter of Deiotarus, an eastern king who was defended by Cicero in 45
BC. Unless the reference to Castor was added to the text at a later period (and there is no reason to suppose that it was) the Library
status attributed to them.
BC.
was compiled by an author of that name who was later confused with the famous scholar of an earlier period; but it is more likely that our book is sailing under a flag of convenience. Perhaps, as Robert suggested, the author was too timid to launch the work under his own name, or perhaps later copyists found it to their advantage to pass it off as the work of a distinguished scholar. In any case, we know nothing about the author.
It must be stated from the outset that a compilation of this kind is of its very nature unlikely to reveal much about its author, and in the present instance some features which might be of help in that regard are lacking. There is no dedication, and there are no incidental allusions to things that the author has seen or experienced.
BC.
BC.
In practice, however, this approach is unproductive. Although, as was remarked above, the
We must therefore rely on internal criteria.
On these stylistic grounds, it is commonly agreed that the
Library would be best dated to the first or second century
One has only to think of Plutarch or Pausanias.
To pass from the question of chronology to that of the author’s origins, we must consider whether he shows any special interest in (or disregard for) particular areas of the Mediterranean world. Here a measure of caution is required; in a handbook
None the less, many readers have felt that the author is curiously neglectful of myths relating to Italy and the west; and some have detected a bias to the east. Apollodorus’ account of the life history of Heracles is broadly similar to that in the historical compilation by Diodorus of Sicily.
It may be suspected,
A modern reader leafing through the Library
is likely to gain conflicting impressions about its general level and the kind of audience that the author would have had in mind when writing it. Unlike many of the mythographical works which survive from antiquity, this is not a specialist study, and the author is happy to recount the most familiar stories; and most of them are summarized quite briefly. If the
is used merely as a mythological dictionary and consulted for the stories associated with the main heroes, the reader may feel that it is very elementary, containing little that any moderately educated ancient reader would not have known already. Thus the story of Perseus is summarized in three pages, that of Oedipus in about a page, and the plot of Sophocles’
Antigone in two sentences. Many have concluded that the Library
is read consecutively, the reader may feel that it is not as elementary as all that. Within its brief confines it contains a remarkable quantity of information, and much that a reader with a fairly comprehensive knowledge of Greek mythology would not expect to hold in mind. Perhaps the work was intended not as a primer, but as an epitome of mythical history for a general if unsophisticated readership.
Works of such a kind may have been aimed at a relatively uncultivated audience, but they were not written specifically for use in schools. Taken as a whole, the
amounts to far more than an anthology of mythical tales. In a recent French edition of the
, J.-C. Carrière has advanced some interesting arguments in favour of this view. Although this is ultimately a matter of judgement, and a full consideration of the question would require the examination of a number of different issues, I would like to consider a single aspect of the work which seems to favour such a view.
will be struck by the profusion of names. The narrative may often be brief and bare, but the author was immensely thorough in recording the names of all the figures associated with the heroic families and the main episodes in heroic mythology. Most of these names appear in various catalogues, or in the genealogies which punctuate the histories of the great families of heroic mythology; let us first consider the catalogues, which serve less of a practical function than the genealogies.
In such a short work, the author devotes a surprising amount of space to these catalogues, which sometimes take up more than a page. Instead of merely reporting that the fifty daughters of Danaos married the fifty sons of Aigyptos and, with one exception, murdered them on their wedding night, Apollodorus lists all the brides and their husbands, and tells us who their mothers were (pp. 61-2). Only two of the Danaids are of any significance thereafter.
But generally this is gratuitous information.
The genealogies are equally comprehensive. In many mythical traditions, the myths tend to tell of events that happened ‘once upon a time’, in an indefinite past. This is rarely the case in Greek mythology, and heroic mythology in particular was ordered into a fairly coherent pseudo-history. This history was necessarily organized on a genealogical basis, because the succession of generations in the families ruling in each centre provided the only possible chronological measure. Only when plausible family trees had been constructed was it possible to locate each figure or mythical episode at its appropriate position in time, and thus construct a history in which these could be viewed in due relation.
is impressive. There are only six main families, and each family tree is sufficiently detailed to allow each figure or story to be assigned to its definite place. The genealogies in the
give its readers the resources to do so.
was written for use in schools is open to serious question.
is drawn from a wide variety of sources, whether original poetic sources, from early epic to the learned compositions of the early Hellenistic poets, or mythographical compilations which offered prose summaries of mythical tales. Since the author’s main purpose was to provide an account of the most important early myths, we might expect that he would have been interested primarily in earlier sources, in particular early epic and the works of the fifth-century chroniclers, who were amongst the earliest prose writers.
, is in many respects a peculiar one. For the most part, this systematization was not the work of the scholarly mythographers of the Hellenistic era, but was achieved at a relatively early period by the epic poets and by prose writers who regarded themselves as historians rather than mythographers. Indeed, the beginning of the process by which the mass of often mutually inconsistent myths in the oral tradition was ordered into a coherent pseudo-historical pattern can be traced to the earliest Greek literature to be recorded in writing, the Homeric epics and Hesiod’s
Library . First we must consider the nature of these early sources and their contribution to this process, and then how the author of the Library
, were probably written about the same time towards the end of the eighth century. Although they belong to the same broad genre, the poems attributed to these authors are quite different in nature. Homer was a story-teller on a grand scale and each of the Homeric epics is constructed on the basis of an overall plot running through the whole poem.
on a genealogical basis; and generally speaking, in a genealogical poem of such a kind the stories associated with the various figures are inserted successively as the figures are introduced in the genealogies, and the narratives are relatively brief and self-contained. These contrary approaches can be related to the two main ways in which the mythical material is organized in different parts of the
left off, covering the final period of the war and the sack of Troy. Then the Returns
, which formed an eccentric supplement to the Odyssey
The account of the war in the
is ultimately dependent on these epics for its general structure and much of its contents. Other epics composed in the seventh century or somewhat later fulfilled a similar service with regard to other mythical episodes, such as the Theban Wars, or the voyage of the Argonauts (although, as we shall see, Apollodorus followed a Hellenistic epic for that adventure).
, Hesiod sought to organize the traditions concerning the gods into a coherent pattern by developing the comprehensive genealogical system which forms the basis of his poem. Beginning with a mythical cosmogony presented in genealogical terms, he tells of the origin and descent of the earlier gods and the establishment of Zeus as supreme ruler, and concludes with a catalogue of Zeus’ marriages and his offspring by his wives and other women.
Its importance for
The pattern of heroic genealogy which we find in the
And the Catalogue
offered far more than sequences of names; for most names suggest a story, and the relevant narratives were inserted at the appropriate points in the presentation of the genealogies. This approach was subsequently adopted by prose mythographers and, as we have observed, it is in evidence in many parts of the
Historians were prominent amongst the earliest prose writers.
If these mythographer-historians were uncritical with regard to the basic nature of their material (and were rarely worried by the fabulous element in myth), they were by no means uncritical regarding the historical implausibilities which can arise from deficiencies in chronology and internal inconsistencies within the mythical narratives. With regard to chronology, they continued
the enterprise begun in the Hesiodic Catalogue
by refining and further developing the heroic genealogies, and trying to improve the synchronisms between families. In other respects, these authors could also be seen as heirs to the epic poets in the Homeric tradition. Many composed extensive narratives and most undertook to collect together the myths associated with the various cycles, and where necessary reconcile or choose between conflicting versions, and iron out contradictions to establish a convincing narrative.
The works of the two mythographer-historians explicitly cited by Apollodorus were complementary in character. Acousilaos of Argos probably wrote at the end of the sixth century, as a contemporary of Hecataios (although some would place him somewhat later). He aimed to provide a systematic account of the entire mythical tradition, rigorously organized on a genealogical basis. The material was ordered in much the same way as in the
Library , although on a far larger scale; as in the Library
, most of the figures in heroic mythology were assigned to one or other of a small number of important families, and the history of each of these families was narrated separately from beginning to end. In this regard, Acousilaos used the Hesiodic
as his model, developing or modifying the genealogies as he thought necessary. As might be expected in an author of Argive birth, Acousilaos seems to have stressed the centrality of the Argive traditions in his account of Peloponnesian mythology.
Pherecydes of Athens composed his history somewhat later, probably in the first half of the fifth century. His writings were more copious than those of Acousilaos, and it seems that his prime concern was to gather together as complete a collection as possible of the traditional myths. He was correspondingly less interested in genealogical matters, and the organization of his works would necessarily have been much looser in view of the quantity of diverse material collected within them. Indeed, the principles that he followed in this respect are not at all clear from the surviving evidence. He is the mythographer-historian most frequently quoted by the scholiasts, who (like Apollodorus) clearly valued him for his copious records of early myth, narrated in a pleasantly ingenuous style. Since the narratives preserved from the works of later mythographers are generally so
lacking in charm, it is a particular shame that the works of this mythographical Herodotus should have been lost. Sometimes we detect something of their flavour in the summaries in the
Library Another mythographer-historian should also be mentioned who was certainly consulted by the author of the Library
although he is not cited by name. Hellanicos of Lesbos, who wrote in the second half of the fifth century, was closer in spirit to Acousilaos than to Pherecydes, for he was important above all for his contribution to the fine-tuning of the genealogical system. He was less interested in the narration of myth, and the passages preserved by the scholiasts suggest that his writings were marked by a certain dryness and a rationalizing tendency rarely in evidence in the works of his predecessors. He was nevertheless an important authority on certain aspects of mythical history, notably the Trojan War.
In the main, and allowing for a few important contributions from tragedy and later sources, the Library
summarizes the canon of myth as it was defined in the works of these mythographer-historians and in early epic poetry; and for much of its organization, the
relies on the genealogical system developed in the Hesiodic epics and further refined by the early prose mythographers. The author’s dependence on epic (and other poetic sources) would often have been indirect. Most of the stories from early epic would have been summarized in prose in the works of the mythographer-historians, and collections of summaries of epic and tragic plots became widely available in the Hellenistic era. These would have provided our author with the models for his own summaries, and would usually have served as his immediate sources. Indeed, it can be assumed that he would rarely have worked directly from a poetic source. He seems, however, to have had a thorough knowledge of the Hesiodic
Catalogue , and, as would be expected, of the Homeric epics. Although the theogony at the beginning of the Library is largely based on Hesiod’s Theogony
, the author preferred to follow other sources on some significant points (as is remarked in the Explanatory Notes). In many parts of the Library
, the narrative can be regarded as being, in all essentials, a brief epitome of relevant sections
from the works of the mythographer-historians (and much of its interest and value could be said to have derived from that). Pherecydes seems to have served as the author’s main model, although he also followed other historians when they were the main authorities on a particular area, as was Acousilaos on Argive myth, or Hellanicos on the myths connected with Troy. Not all scholars have agreed, however, that the author of the
drew his material directly from these early prose sources, even where we can be certain that it was ultimately derived from them. For he had all the resources of Hellenistic mythography available to him, including handbooks which would have contained summaries of material from such writers. In his influential study, Carl Robert argued that the
is little more than a precis of an earlier handbook by a Hellenistic author; and amongst German scholars at least, such a view came to be widely accepted in the early part of this century. Because we have to rely on fragments for our knowledge of most of the
earlier sources, this is by no means an easy question. Nevertheless, the most detailed examination of the evidence hitherto (in the article by M. Van der Valk cited in the Select Bibliography) gives reason to suppose that the author referred directly to the writings of the mythographer-historians when he was following one of them as his main source in a particular part of the work.
also drew on a variety of other sources. Besides epic poetry, his earlier sources would naturally have included lyric and elegiac poetry, and the ‘tragic Muse’, as was stated in the little poem attributed to him. The great Attic dramatists of the fifth century generally relied on heroic mythology for their plots, in particular the stories associated with the Argive and Theban royal families and the Trojan War. But they adapted the traditional stories with considerable freedom, whether for dramatic effect or to develop a moral of their own, and were thus responsible for some striking innovations which had a marked influence on the development of the tradition. In certain cases the tragedians contributed the canonic version of a particular story, while in many others they provided appealing variants. Both aspects of this influence are evident in the
Library . Thus the account of the life of Oedipus is in the main a summary of Sophocles’ version in his Oedipus plays, for this
became the canonic version, largely displacing the very different accounts in early epic; but the plot of a play by Euripides on Alcmaion (p. 114) is included merely as an interesting variant, in a supplement to the main account based on the earlier tradition.
To proceed to the Hellenistic poets, Apollodorus based his account of the voyage of the Argonauts on the Argonautica
of Apollonius of Rhodes, a relatively late epic written in the third century BC.
As was common in that age, Apollonius was a scholar as well as a poet, and he made extensive use of the early sources in composing his poem. For certain stories, however, such as the murder of Apsyrtos (p. 54), the author of the
prefers to report a more primitive version than was found acceptable in this late epic. Otherwise his interests diverge from those of the Hellenistic poets, who tended to concern themselves with the more recondite aspects of the tradition, and he draws on them only for the occasional learned variant. As to the mythographical literature of this period, it was observed above that he would have made use of the resources that it provided. It is likely that some of his narratives are based on Hellenistic summaries of epic or tragic plots; and mythical variants, collections of references, and alternative genealogies may often have been drawn from Hellenistic handbooks. Apollodorus would have valued such literature as a source of instant erudition, but there is nothing to indicate that the
is marked in any deeper sense by Hellenistic scholarship, and the author had no interest whatever in the rationalistic interpretations favoured by many Hellenistic scholars.
Over a millennium has passed since Photius suggested that the Library
was not without its value to those who attach some importance to the memory of the ancient stories. Does this still apply for the modern reader? And even if the
Library is of some practical use for its summaries of the main myths and the other information that it provides, is that the most that can be said for it?
As the only comprehensive mythical history of Greece to survive from antiquity, it is certainly the case that it has been used extensively by scholars and amateurs of myth in modern times.
Introduction x: chain 1
Introduction x: chain 4
Introduction x: chain 7
Introduction x: chain 10
Introduction x: chain 13
Introduction x: chain 16
Note on the Text and Translation
Note on the Text and Translation: spine
The Epitome preserves what the full manuscripts lost after early Book III material on later heroes and Troy.
NOTE ON THE TEXT AND TRANSLATION surviving manuscripts of the Library
are descended from a single original, a fourteenth-century manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Unfortunately this breaks off before the end of the work, during the section on Theseus (p. 138), which meant that, until quite recently, the valuable account of the Trojan cycle was entirely lost. But the situation was improved at the end of the last century by the discovery of two epitomes, or abridgements, of the
, which provide a very serviceable summary of the end of the work. They were found quite independently, in the Vatican Library (the Vatican epitome) and the monastery of Saint Sabbas in Jerusalem (the Sabbaitic epitome), in 1885 and 1887 respectively.
The standard modern text, that of Richard Wagner in the Teubner series (1926 edn.), has been used for the present translation, although alternative readings have sometimes been preferred, and account has been taken of the more recent literature mentioned in the Select Bibliography. The Greek text in Frazer’s edition in the Loeb series is largely based on that of Wagner.
The two epitomes are not identical either in content or, where they cover the same episodes, in expression, and Wagner prints both texts, using parallel columns where necessary; but in a translation, Frazer’s procedure of combining the two to provide a single continuous narrative is clearly preferable. In practice this raises few problems, except occasionally when both epitomes tell the same story but express it in a slightly different way. Only at a very few points have I felt it necessary to question Frazer’s judgement on the selection of material (and it was considered desirable in any case that the translation should correspond as far as possible to Frazer’s Greek text).
This is a utilitarian work which offers no promise of literary delight. The prose of Apollodorus is plain and colourless, and so simple in expression that a translator has little latitude. Without misrepresenting the original, it is hard to prevent a translation
from reading like a story-book for young children; but I have tried to bring out the possible advantages of a plain style, and hope that the reader will find the mythical narrative brisk and clear, and if ingenuous, at least agreeably so.
I have benefited from a long familiarity with the translation by Sir James Frazer. Despite the archaisms and a tendency to euphemism on sexual matters, it is a work of quality. I have also consulted the elegant and precise French translation by Carriere and Massonie.
According to the traditional arrangement, the work is divided into three books followed by the Epitome. Each of these is further divided into numbered chapters (here indicated in the margin) and subsections (indicated within the text); and correspondingly, three figures (or two for passages from the Epitome) are cited in references in the scholarly literature (e.g. 2, 4, 6, or Epitome 7, 18). The paragraph numbering found in some editions has been omitted to avoid confusion; I have added italicized headings to make the work easier to consult.
. These present a real problem because the Latinized forms are not only more familiar, but in many cases have become part of our language and culture. Nevertheless, in a comprehensive work of this kind, containing so many genealogies, it is surely preferable that the original Greek forms should be used. If the Greek names can look strange and unattractive in an English text, this is largely because of the
(e.g. Kanake, Kirke, Lakonia); but there seems to be no particular disadvantage in using a (properly a hard
for Greek kappa, and I have followed that course in the present translation. For very familiar figures, however, like Oedipus and Achilles, the traditional forms have been preserved (except in some cases where the Latin form differs markedly from the original); and for place names, modern or Latinized forms have been used much more frequently. Some guidance on pronunciation and possible sources of confusion is offered at the beginning of the Index. The Greek forms differ most frequently from the Latin in the use of
-os instead of -us at the end of masculine names, and of and instead of and (thus Aigimios and Proitos rather than Aegimius and Proetus). Square brackets
are used to indicate (1) additions to the original text, and (2) passages where the surviving manuscripts may misrepresent the original text. Additions
. Short gaps in the surviving text are usually filled by the insertion of an invented phrase (if the content of the missing passage can be inferred from the context, or from another source) or of a brief passage from another source which can be reasonably assumed to be related to, or dependent on, the original text of the
Library . For the most part, the added passages correspond to those in Wagner’s and Frazer’s texts. Again, significant additions are explained in the notes.
Very occasionally, I have added a phrase for the sake of clarity. For minor additions-where it has been indicated, for instance, that a particular place is a mountain, or that a child is a son or daughter, although this is not stated explicitly in the original text-square brackets have not been used.
. These are of two main kinds. Something in the content of a passage may give reason to suspect that the text has been corrupted in the course of transmission and no longer corresponds with the original; or occasionally, for reasons of style or content, we may suspect that a passage is a later interpolation (typically a marginal note which has found its way into the main text). Significant instances are discussed in the notes.
NB. Some interpolations which interrupt the narrative (and also a dubious passage from the Epitome) have been segregated to the Appendix. A dagger
(†) in the text indicates where each was inserted. Each of the passages is discussed in the accompanying comments; although not part of the original text, four of them contain interesting material.
. The ancient mythographers liked to explain the names of mythical figures, or of places involved in mythical tales, by etymologies which were sometimes valid, but often fanciful or even absurd. Because these depend on allusions or wordplay in the original Greek which cannot be reproduced in a translation, the presence of such wordplay is indicated in the text by the appropriate use of
italics (see, for instance, p. 88) and explained afterwards in the Notes.
Extended pass
NOTE ON THE TEXT AND TRANSLATION surviving manuscripts of the Library
ext 0
are descended from a single original, a fourteenth-century manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Unfortunately this breaks off before the end of the work, during the section on Theseus (p. 138), which meant that, until quite recently, the valuable account of the Trojan cycle was entirely lost. But the situation was improved at the end of the last century by the discovery of two epitomes, or abridgements, of the
, which provide a very serviceable summary of the end of the work. They were found quite independently, in the Vatican Library (the Vatican epitome) and the monastery of Saint Sabbas in Jerusalem (the Sabbaitic epitome), in 1885 and 1887 respectively.
The standard modern text, that of Richard Wagner in the Teubner series (1926 edn.), has been used for the present translation, although alternative readings have sometimes been preferred, and account has been taken of the more recent literature mentioned in the Select Bibliography. The Greek text in Frazer’s edition in the Loeb series is largely based on that of Wagner.
The two epitomes are not identical either in content or, where they cover the same episodes, in expression, and Wagner prints both texts, using parallel columns where necessary; but in a translation, Frazer’s procedure of combining the two to provide a single continuous narrative is clearly preferable. In practice this raises few problems, except occasionally when both epitomes tell the same story but express it in a slightly different way. Only at a very few points have I felt it necessary to question Frazer’s judgement on the selection of material (and it was considered desirable in any case that the translation should correspond as far as possible to Frazer’s Greek text).
This is a utilitarian work which offers no promise of literary delight. The prose of Apollodorus is plain and colourless, and so simple in expression that a translator has little latitude. Without misrepresenting the original, it is hard to prevent a translation
from reading like a story-book for young children; but I have tried to bring out the possible advantages of a plain style, and hope that the reader will find the mythical narrative brisk and clear, and if ingenuous, at least agreeably so.
ext 6
I have benefited from a long familiarity with the translation by Sir James Frazer. Despite the archaisms and a tendency to euphemism on sexual matters, it is a work of quality. I have also consulted the elegant and precise French translation by Carriere and Massonie.
According to the traditional arrangement, the work is divided into three books followed by the Epitome. Each of these is further divided into numbered chapters (here indicated in the margin) and subsections (indicated within the text); and correspondingly, three figures (or two for passages from the Epitome) are cited in references in the scholarly literature (e.g. 2, 4, 6, or Epitome 7, 18). The paragraph numbering found in some editions has been omitted to avoid confusion; I have added italicized headings to make the work easier to consult.
. These present a real problem because the Latinized forms are not only more familiar, but in many cases have become part of our language and culture. Nevertheless, in a comprehensive work of this kind, containing so many genealogies, it is surely preferable that the original Greek forms should be used. If the Greek names can look strange and unattractive in an English text, this is largely because of the
(e.g. Kanake, Kirke, Lakonia); but there seems to be no particular disadvantage in using a (properly a hard
for Greek kappa, and I have followed that course in the present translation. For very familiar figures, however, like Oedipus and Achilles, the traditional forms have been preserved (except in some cases where the Latin form differs markedly from the original); and for place names, modern or Latinized forms have been used much more frequently. Some guidance on pronunciation and possible sources of confusion is offered at the beginning of the Index. The Greek forms differ most frequently from the Latin in the use of
-os instead of -us at the end of masculine names, and of and instead of and (thus Aigimios and Proitos rather than Aegimius and Proetus). Square brackets
ext 12
are used to indicate (1) additions to the original text, and (2) passages where the surviving manuscripts may misrepresent the original text. Additions
. Short gaps in the surviving text are usually filled by the insertion of an invented phrase (if the content of the missing passage can be inferred from the context, or from another source) or of a brief passage from another source which can be reasonably assumed to be related to, or dependent on, the original text of the
Library . For the most part, the added passages correspond to those in Wagner’s and Frazer’s texts. Again, significant additions are explained in the notes.
Very occasionally, I have added a phrase for the sake of clarity. For minor additions-where it has been indicated, for instance, that a particular place is a mountain, or that a child is a son or daughter, although this is not stated explicitly in the original text-square brackets have not been used.
. These are of two main kinds. Something in the content of a passage may give reason to suspect that the text has been corrupted in the course of transmission and no longer corresponds with the original; or occasionally, for reasons of style or content, we may suspect that a passage is a later interpolation (typically a marginal note which has found its way into the main text). Significant instances are discussed in the notes.
NB. Some interpolations which interrupt the narrative (and also a dubious passage from the Epitome) have been segregated to the Appendix. A dagger
ext 18
(†) in the text indicates where each was inserted. Each of the passages is discussed in the accompanying comments; although not part of the original text, four of them contain interesting material.
. The ancient mythographers liked to explain the names of mythical figures, or of places involved in mythical tales, by etymologies which were sometimes valid, but often fanciful or even absurd. Because these depend on allusions or wordplay in the original Greek which cannot be reproduced in a translation, the presence of such wordplay is indicated in the text by the appropriate use of
italics (see, for instance, p. 88) and explained afterwards in the Notes.
Theme: textual tradition.
Theme: Epitome seam.
Theme: onomastics.
Note on the Text: chain 1
Note on the Text: chain 4
Note on the Text: chain 7
Note on the Text: chain 10
Note on the Text: chain 13
Note on the Text: chain 16
Note on the Text: chain 19
Note on the Text: chain 22
Note on the Text: chain 25
Note on the Text: chain 28
Further source depth
Note on the Text and Translation x: chain 1
Note on the Text and Translation x: chain 4
Note on the Text and Translation x: chain 7
Note on the Text and Translation x: chain 10
Note on the Text and Translation x: chain 13
Note on the Text and Translation x: chain 16
Genealogical Tables
Genealogical Tables: spine
The tables turn dry stemmata into a navigation layer for the prose that follows.
GENEALOGICAL TABLES The following tables cover the six main families, as follows: I The Deucalionids The early Deucalionids The Aetolian line
The sons of Aiolos and their descendants II The Inachids The early Inachids in Argos and the east The Belid line in Argos
The Agenorid line: the descendants of Europa in Crete The Agenorid line: the descendants of Cadmos in Thebes III The Atlantids
The Laconian royal line, and the usurpers at Thebes The Trojan royal line IV The Asopids (the family of Achilles and Aias) V The Athenian royal line
VI The Pelopids (the family of Agamemnon and Menelaos)
Most of these tables depict the mythical royal line in one of the main centres in Greece. Only one of the six families covered by the tables, namely the Athenian, conforms to the simplest possible pattern, in which a single family provides the ruling line in a single city. Generally the genealogical system is more economical, and the ruling lines in two or more cities are traced to a common ancestor and so united within the same family. Thus separate branches of the Inachid family provide the royal families of both Argos and Thebes, the two greatest centres in mythical Greece, and also of Crete. Accordingly, the family trees of the first three families, which are the largest and are divided in this way between different centres, have been subdivided in the tables.
Although the adventures of various members of these families take them to many different parts of the Mediterranean world, it is natural that the main centres of rule associated with the great families should be located in the heartland of Greece. There are two major exceptions, namely, Crete, as would be expected since it was a very ancient centre of civilization which had connections with Mycenaean Greece, and Troy, in north-western Asia Minor, for its connection with the Trojan War, the culminating adventure in the mythical history of Greece. Although the Trojans themselves were usually regarded as a non-Hellenic people, the ruling family was traced back to Greek origins through an Atlantid ancestor. Otherwise the places associated with these various families can be located on the accompanying map.
The mainland of Greece is divided into two by the Gulf of Corinth, which separates the Peloponnese from the rest of Greece, being joined to it only by the narrow Isthmus of Corinth. Starting immediately north of the Gulf, the swathe of land extending from Aetolia across to Thessaly in the northeast is the area primarily associated with the first family, the Deucalionids. Although this was an important area in early myth, there were many separate centres, and these tended to be associated with major heroic myths for only a generation or two. Furthermore, many members of this family moved to fresh areas at various stages and established new dynasties, whether in the north, or in the western Peloponnese and the south. As a result, the structure of this family is rather complex, and we do not find extensive lines within individual centres as in most of the following families. The Aetolian royal line covered in the second table
was descended from a daughter of Aiolos; the most important town in Aetolia was Calydon, the site of the first great adventure which drew heroes from all parts of Greece, the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. The descendants of the sons of Aiolos covered in the third table (
) were primarily associated with Thessaly (but also with the western Peloponnese and elsewhere); here Iolcos, the home of Pelias and Jason, and Pherae, the home of Admetos and Alcestis, are the most significant towns.
South of the Gulf of Corinth, in the Peloponnese, the most important region was not Laconia (Sparta) as in historical times, but Argos with its great Mycenaean cities, Mycenae, Argos, and Tiryns. Here the second family, the Inachids, provided the main ruling line. Although it was of Argive origin (the Inachos was the largest river in Argos), other branches of this family ruled
in Crete and in Thebes. Passing north from Argos and then across the Isthmus of Corinth, Boeotia, with Thebes as its main city, lies to the left, and Attica to the right. In mythical history Thebes ranked with Argos as the most important centre.
Of the Atlantids, two main lines are covered in the following tables, the earliest royal line in the second main centre in the Peloponnese, Laconia, and the Trojan royal line.
The Asopid family tree is exceptional, as it was developed to account for the common descent of the two greatest heroes of the Trojan War, Achilles and Aias (who came from different areas) as grandsons of Aiacos (who reigned in a different area again). This was a relatively late development; in the
the pair are not related. Aiacos was the first king of Aegina, a small island in the Saronic Gulf, which lies between Attica and the Peloponnese. Both of his sons were exiled. Telamon, father of Aias, went to the island of Salamis, not far to the north; Peleus eventually arrived in Thessaly where he became the father of Achilles by the goddess Thetis.
This leaves the Athenian royal line and the Pelopids. The Athenian genealogies were systematized at a relatively late period, and none of the figures before Aigeus and Theseus are associated with major heroic myth. The first four kings were earth-born. The Pelopids provided the second royal line in each of the main centres of the Peloponnese, Argos and Laconia; for Agamemnon, who ruled in Mycenae at the time of the Trojan War, and Menelaos, who ruled in Sparta, did not belong to the original ruling families covered in tables
, but were descended from Tantalos, who lived in Asia Minor, and his son Pelops, who became king of Pisa in the north-western Peloponnese. The Pelopids were displaced when Tisamenos, who ruled in both Argos and Laconia, was killed by the returning Heraclids (who were of Inachid descent).
In the following tables: The parentage of children is indicated by swung dashes (~); where both parents are mortals, these will usually indicate a marriage also.
The names of successive kings within each centre are set in bold type , and the order of succession is indicated by small letters before their names (a, b, c
, etc.). The order of succession is not indicated for the Argive line in IIB
because of the complexities which arise after the kingdom is divided between Proitos and Acrisios.
only the Iolcian line is indicated, and in v only the Mycenaean. For the Laconian succession after Amyclas, in IIIA
, the account in 3.10.4 is followed; 3.10.3 should be consulted for alternative genealogies.
Where it has been necessary to divide family trees into two or more tables, the names of central figures who appear in more than one table are enclosed in boxes
NB. There was disagreement on many genealogies. These tables show the main lines as presented in the text of the Library
, without indicating alternative traditions recorded in other sources, or variants mentioned within the Library
The purpose of these tables is to give a clear picture of the descent and interrelationship of the more important figures, and they are by no means complete. In particular, many marriages yielded more children than are named in the tables, and the fact that names have been omitted is not always indicated; and for reasons of clarity, the names of mothers have sometimes been omitted, and children are not always presented in their order of birth. For the full picture, the text should be consulted.
The tables for the Deucalionids and Atlantids do not cover all branches of the family.
Extended pass
GENEALOGICAL TABLES The following tables cover the six main families, as follows: I The Deucalionids The early Deucalionids The Aetolian line
ext 0
The sons of Aiolos and their descendants II The Inachids The early Inachids in Argos and the east The Belid line in Argos
The Agenorid line: the descendants of Europa in Crete The Agenorid line: the descendants of Cadmos in Thebes III The Atlantids
The Laconian royal line, and the usurpers at Thebes The Trojan royal line IV The Asopids (the family of Achilles and Aias) V The Athenian royal line
VI The Pelopids (the family of Agamemnon and Menelaos)
Most of these tables depict the mythical royal line in one of the main centres in Greece. Only one of the six families covered by the tables, namely the Athenian, conforms to the simplest possible pattern, in which a single family provides the ruling line in a single city. Generally the genealogical system is more economical, and the ruling lines in two or more cities are traced to a common ancestor and so united within the same family. Thus separate branches of the Inachid family provide the royal families of both Argos and Thebes, the two greatest centres in mythical Greece, and also of Crete. Accordingly, the family trees of the first three families, which are the largest and are divided in this way between different centres, have been subdivided in the tables.
Although the adventures of various members of these families take them to many different parts of the Mediterranean world, it is natural that the main centres of rule associated with the great families should be located in the heartland of Greece. There are two major exceptions, namely, Crete, as would be expected since it was a very ancient centre of civilization which had connections with Mycenaean Greece, and Troy, in north-western Asia Minor, for its connection with the Trojan War, the culminating adventure in the mythical history of Greece. Although the Trojans themselves were usually regarded as a non-Hellenic people, the ruling family was traced back to Greek origins through an Atlantid ancestor. Otherwise the places associated with these various families can be located on the accompanying map.
ext 6
The mainland of Greece is divided into two by the Gulf of Corinth, which separates the Peloponnese from the rest of Greece, being joined to it only by the narrow Isthmus of Corinth. Starting immediately north of the Gulf, the swathe of land extending from Aetolia across to Thessaly in the northeast is the area primarily associated with the first family, the Deucalionids. Although this was an important area in early myth, there were many separate centres, and these tended to be associated with major heroic myths for only a generation or two. Furthermore, many members of this family moved to fresh areas at various stages and established new dynasties, whether in the north, or in the western Peloponnese and the south. As a result, the structure of this family is rather complex, and we do not find extensive lines within individual centres as in most of the following families. The Aetolian royal line covered in the second table
was descended from a daughter of Aiolos; the most important town in Aetolia was Calydon, the site of the first great adventure which drew heroes from all parts of Greece, the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. The descendants of the sons of Aiolos covered in the third table (
) were primarily associated with Thessaly (but also with the western Peloponnese and elsewhere); here Iolcos, the home of Pelias and Jason, and Pherae, the home of Admetos and Alcestis, are the most significant towns.
South of the Gulf of Corinth, in the Peloponnese, the most important region was not Laconia (Sparta) as in historical times, but Argos with its great Mycenaean cities, Mycenae, Argos, and Tiryns. Here the second family, the Inachids, provided the main ruling line. Although it was of Argive origin (the Inachos was the largest river in Argos), other branches of this family ruled
in Crete and in Thebes. Passing north from Argos and then across the Isthmus of Corinth, Boeotia, with Thebes as its main city, lies to the left, and Attica to the right. In mythical history Thebes ranked with Argos as the most important centre.
Of the Atlantids, two main lines are covered in the following tables, the earliest royal line in the second main centre in the Peloponnese, Laconia, and the Trojan royal line.
ext 12
The Asopid family tree is exceptional, as it was developed to account for the common descent of the two greatest heroes of the Trojan War, Achilles and Aias (who came from different areas) as grandsons of Aiacos (who reigned in a different area again). This was a relatively late development; in the
the pair are not related. Aiacos was the first king of Aegina, a small island in the Saronic Gulf, which lies between Attica and the Peloponnese. Both of his sons were exiled. Telamon, father of Aias, went to the island of Salamis, not far to the north; Peleus eventually arrived in Thessaly where he became the father of Achilles by the goddess Thetis.
This leaves the Athenian royal line and the Pelopids. The Athenian genealogies were systematized at a relatively late period, and none of the figures before Aigeus and Theseus are associated with major heroic myth. The first four kings were earth-born. The Pelopids provided the second royal line in each of the main centres of the Peloponnese, Argos and Laconia; for Agamemnon, who ruled in Mycenae at the time of the Trojan War, and Menelaos, who ruled in Sparta, did not belong to the original ruling families covered in tables
, but were descended from Tantalos, who lived in Asia Minor, and his son Pelops, who became king of Pisa in the north-western Peloponnese. The Pelopids were displaced when Tisamenos, who ruled in both Argos and Laconia, was killed by the returning Heraclids (who were of Inachid descent).
In the following tables: The parentage of children is indicated by swung dashes (~); where both parents are mortals, these will usually indicate a marriage also.
The names of successive kings within each centre are set in bold type , and the order of succession is indicated by small letters before their names (a, b, c
ext 18
, etc.). The order of succession is not indicated for the Argive line in IIB
because of the complexities which arise after the kingdom is divided between Proitos and Acrisios.
only the Iolcian line is indicated, and in v only the Mycenaean. For the Laconian succession after Amyclas, in IIIA
, the account in 3.10.4 is followed; 3.10.3 should be consulted for alternative genealogies.
Where it has been necessary to divide family trees into two or more tables, the names of central figures who appear in more than one table are enclosed in boxes
NB. There was disagreement on many genealogies. These tables show the main lines as presented in the text of the Library
ext 24
For the full picture, the text should be consulted.
Theme: stemma as map.
Theme: divine vs heroic houses.
Theme: collateral lines.
Genealogical Tab: chain 1
Genealogical Tab: chain 4
Genealogical Tab: chain 7
Genealogical Tab: chain 10
Genealogical Tab: chain 13
Genealogical Tab: chain 16
Genealogical Tab: chain 19
Genealogical Tab: chain 22
Genealogical Tab: chain 25
Genealogical Tab: chain 28
Genealogical Tab: chain 31
Genealogical Tab: chain 34
Genealogical Tab: chain 37
Further source depth
For the full picture, the text should be consulted.
Genealogical Tables x: chain 1
Genealogical Tables x: chain 4
Genealogical Tables x: chain 7
Genealogical Tables x: chain 10
Genealogical Tables x: chain 13
Genealogical Tables x: chain 16
Book I
Book I: beat spine
Book I: chain
Book I cosmogony stemma
Succession wars
Central claim
Cosmogony and the first mortal house (Deucalion) set the pattern: genealogy first, episode second. Genealogy carries episode; episode feeds the next house.
Plot and dossier order
Ouranos Ge: Hundred-Handers Cyclopes Titans. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Sickle: Cronos castrates. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Swallow children: Rhea saves Zeus. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Titanomachy: Zeus wins. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Olympian births: Athena Hephaistos Apollo. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Giants Typhon: cosmic close. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Prometheus flood: Deucalionids. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Second pass (dense bands)
BOOK I 1. Theogony Ouranos, Ge, and the birth of the Titans OURANOS was the first ruler of the universe. He married Ge,
and fathered as his first children the beings known as the Hundred-Handers, Briareus, Cottos, and Gyes, who were unsurpassable in size and strength, for each had a hundred hands and fifty heads. After these, Ge bore him the Cyclopes,
namely, Arges, Steropes, and Brontes, each of whom had a single eye on his forehead. But Ouranos tied these children up and hurled them into Tartaros (a place of infernal darkness in Hades,
Book I: band 1
as distant from the earth as the earth from the sky);
and he then fathered by Ge some sons called the Titans, namely, Oceanos, Coios, Hyperion, Creios, Iapetos, and the youngest of all, Cronos, and some daughters called the Titanides, namely, Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Dione, and Theia.
The revolt of the Titans and rule of Cronos . But Ge, angered by the loss of her children who had been thrown into Tartaros,
persuaded the Titans to attack their father, and gave an adamantine
sickle to Cronos; and they all attacked him, apart from Oceanos, and Cronos severed his father’s genitals and threw them into the sea. (From the drops of blood that flowed out
the Furies were born: Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaira.) When they had driven their father from power, they brought back their brothers who had been thrown down to Tartaros, and entrusted the sovereignty to Cronos.
Book I: band 3
But he bound them once again and imprisoned them in Tartaros, and married his sister Rhea; and since both Ge and Ouranos had prophesied to him that he would be stripped of
his power by his own son, he swallowed his children as they were born. He swallowed his first-born, Hestia, and then Demeter and Hera, and after them, Pluto and Poseidon.
The birth of Zeus and his war against Cronos and the Titans
Angered by this, Rhea went to Crete while she was pregnant with Zeus, and brought him to birth in a cave on Mount Dicte. She gave him to the Curetes
and to the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, daughters of Melisseus, to rear. So the nymphs fed the child on the milk of Amaltheia
while the Curetes, fully armed, guarded the baby in the cave, beating their spears against their shields to prevent Cronos from hearing the child’s voice. And Rhea wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes and passed it to Cronos to swallow as if it were the newborn child.
Book I: band 5
When Zeus was fully grown, he enlisted the help of Metis,
the daughter of Oceanos, and she gave Cronos a drug to swallow, which forced him to disgorge first the stone and then the children whom he had swallowed; and with their aid, Zeus went to war against Cronos and the Titans. When they had been fighting for ten years, Ge prophesied that the victory would go to Zeus if he took as his allies those who had been hurled down to Tartaros. So he killed Campe, who was guarding them, and set them free. And the Cyclopes then gave Zeus thunder, lightning, and a thunderbolt, and they gave a helmet
to Pluto, and a trident to Poseidon. Armed with these weapons, they overpowered the Titans, and imprisoned them in Tartaros, appointing the Hundred-Handers as their guards; and they shared power
between themselves by casting lots. Zeus was allotted sovereignty over the heavens, Poseidon over the sea, and Pluto over the halls of Hades.
Descendants of the Titans The Titans had the following offspring: to Oceanos and Tethys were born the Oceanids,
Asia, Styx, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, [Amphitrite,] and Metis; to Coios and Phoebe were born Asteria and Leto; to Hyperion and Theia were born Dawn
Book I: band 7
and the Sun and Moon; to Creios and Eurybia, daughter of Pontos, were born Astraios, Pallas, and Perses;
and to Iapetos and Asia were born Atlas who bears the sky on his shoulders, and Prometheus, and Epimetheus, and Menoitios, whom Zeus struck with a thunderbolt during the battle with the Titans and hurled down to Tartaros.
To Cronos and Philyra, Cheiron was born, a Centaur of twofold form. To Dawn and Astraios were born the winds and stars, and to Perses and Asteria, Hecate; and to Pallas and Styx were born Nice, Cratos, Zelos, and Bia.
to be sworn by the waters of Styx, which flow from a rock in Hades. He bestowed this honour on Styx in return for the help that she and her children had brought to him in his war against the Titans.
Descendants of Pontos and Ge To Pontos
and Ge were born Phorcos, Thaumas, Nereus, Eurybia, and Ceto. To Thaumas and Electra were born Iris and the Harpies, Aello and Ocypete; and to Phorcos and Ceto, the Phorcides and the Gorgons, who will be considered below when we tell the story of Perseus.
Book I: band 9
To Nereus and Doris were born the Nereids,
whose names are Cymothoe, Speio, Glauconome, Nausithoe, Halie, Erato, Sao, Amphitrite, Eunice, Thetis, Eulimene, Agave, Eudore, Doto, Pherousa, Galatea, Actaie, Pontomedousa, Hippothoe, Lysianassa, Cymo, Eione, Halimede, Plexaure, Eucrante, Proto, Calypso, Panope, Cranto, Neomeris, Hipponoe, Ianeira, Polynome, Autonoe, Melite, Dione, Nesaie, Dero, Evagore, Psamathe, Eumolpe, lone, Dynamene, Ceto, and Limnoreia.
Various children of Zeus and Hera; children of the Muses Zeus married Hera and fathered Hebe, Eileithuia, and Ares;
but he had intercourse with many other women, both mortal and immortal. By Themis, daughter of Ouranos he had some daughters, the Seasons, namely, Eirene, Eunomia, and Dice,
and the Fates, namely, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos; by Dione he had Aphrodite;
by Eurynome, daughter of Oceanos, the Graces, namely, Aglaie, Euphrosyne, and Thaleia; by Styx, Persephone;
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and by Mnemosyne the Muses, firstly Calliope, and then Cleio, Melpomene, Euterpe, Erato, Terpsichore, Ourania, Thaleia, and Polymnia.
Calliope bore to Oiagros-or really, it is said, to Apollo- a son, Linos,
who was killed by Heracles, and Orpheus, who practised the art of singing to the lyre, and set rocks and trees in motion by his singing. When his wife, Eurydice, died from a snake-bite, he went down to Hades in the hope of bringing her up, and persuaded Pluto
to send her back to earth. Pluto promised to do so, provided that on the way up Orpheus never looked round until he had arrived back at his house. But Orpheus failed to obey him, and turning round, he caught sight of his wife, and she had to return below. Orpheus also in vented the mysteries of Dionysos. He was torn apart by the Maenads,
and is buried in Pieria. Cleio fell in love with Pieros, son of Magnes, through the anger of Aphrodite (for Cleio had reproached her for her love of Adonis
); and she had intercourse with him and bore him a son, Hyacinthos, who aroused the passion of Thamyris, son of Philammon and a nymph Argiope, the first man to love other males.
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But Hyacinthos later died at the hand of Apollo, who became his lover and killed him accidentally when throwing a discus.
And Thamyris, who was exceptional for his beauty and his skill in singing to the lyre, challenged the Muses
to a contest in music, on the agreement that if he proved to be the better, he could have intercourse with them all, but if he were defeated, they could deprive him of anything they wished. The Muses proved to be superior, and deprived him both of his eyes and his skill in singing to the lyre.
Euterpe bore to the River Strymon a son Rhesos, who was killed by Diomedes at Troy;
but according to some accounts, his mother was Calliope. To Thaleia and Apollo were born the Corybantes;
and to Melpomene and Acheloos, the Sirens, who will be considered below in our account of Odysseus. The births of Hephaistos and Athene
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Hera gave birth to Hephaistos without prior intercourse (though Homer describes him as another of her children by
Zeus threw him down from heaven for coming to the aid of his mother when she was put in chains; for Zeus had suspended Hera from Olympos for sending a storm against Heracles when he was sailing home after capturing Troy. Hephaistos fell to earth on Lemnos and was lamed in both his legs, but Thetis came to his rescue.
Zeus had intercourse with Metis, although she changed into many different forms in the hope of escaping it. While she was pregnant, Zeus forestalled future developments by swallowing her; for [Ge]
declared that after having the girl who was due to be born to her, Metis would give birth to a son who would become the ruler of heaven. It was for fear of this that he swallowed her down. When the time arrived for the child to be born, Prometheus, or according to others, Hephaistos, struck the head of Zeus with an axe and from the top of his head, near the River Triton,
leapt Athene, fully armed. Artemis and Apollo One of Coios’ daughters, Asteria, took the form of a quail
and threw herself into the sea to escape the embraces of Zeus; and a city was named Asteria after her, for this was the former name of what was later called Delos.
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His other daughter, Leto, had intercourse with Zeus, and was chased all over the earth by Hera until she arrived at Delos, where she gave birth first to Artemis, and then, with the aid of Artemis as a midwife, to Apollo.
Artemis devoted herself to hunting and remained a virgin, while Apollo learned the art of divination from Pan, son of Zeus and Hybris, and went to Delphi where, at that time, the oracles were delivered by Themis;
and when the guardian of the oracle, the serpent Python, tried to prevent him from approaching the chasm,
he killed it and took possession of the oracle.
Not long afterwards, he killed Tityos also, who was the son of Zeus and Elare, daughter of Orchomenos; for after making love with Elare, Zeus had hidden her under the earth for fear
of Hera, and had brought up to light the child that she was carrying in her womb, the enormous Tityos. Now when Leto came to Pytho,
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she was seen by Tityos, who was overcome by desire and seized her in his arms; but she called her children to her aid, and they shot him down with their arrows. Tityos suffers punishment
even after his death, for vultures feed on his heart in Hades.
Apollo also killed Marsyas, the son of Olympos; for Marsyas had discovered the flute that Athene had thrown away because it disfigured her face,
and he challenged Apollo to a musical contest. They agreed that the victor should do what he wished with the loser, and when the test was under way, Apollo played his lyre upside down and told Marsyas to do the same;
and when he was unable to, Apollo was recognized as the victor, and killed Marsyas by suspending him from a lofty pine tree and flaying him.
Artemis, for her part, killed Orion on Delos. They say that he was born from the earth, with a body of gigantic pro portions; but according to Pherecydes, he was a son of Poseidon and Euryale. Poseidon had granted him the power to walk across the sea. His first wife was Side, who was thrown into Hades by Hera because she had claimed to rival the god dess in beauty; and afterwards he went to Chios, and sought the hand of Merope, daughter of Oinopion. But Oinopion made him drunk, blinded him
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as he slept, and threw him out by the seashore. Orion made his way to the forge [of Hephaistos],
where he snatched up a boy, and setting him on his shoulders, told him to guide him towards the sunrise. When he arrived there, his sight was rekindled by the rays of the sun, and he was able to see again.
He returned with all haste to attack Oinopion; but Poseidon had provided him with an underground dwelling constructed by Hephaistos. Dawn fell in love with Orion and carried him off to Delos (for Aphrodite caused her to be continually in love because she had gone to bed with Ares).
According to some accounts, Orion was killed because he challenged Artemis to a contest in throwing the discus, while according to others, he was shot by Artemis
because he tried to rape Opis, one of the virgins who had arrived from the Hyperboreans. The children of Poseidon; Demeter and Persephone
Poseidon married Amphitrite, [daughter of Oceanos,] who bore Triton to him, and Rhode,
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who became the wife of the Sun. Pluto fell in love with Persephone and, with the help of Zeus, he secretly abducted her; but Demeter, bearing torches,
wandered by night and day all over the earth in search of her. When she learned from the people of Hermion
that Pluto had carried her off, she abandoned heaven in her anger at the gods, and came to Eleusis in the likeness of a woman. First she sat down on the rock which is called the Laughterless Rock because of her, and then made her way to Celeos, who was king of the Eleusinians at the time. There were some women in the house, and when they invited her to sit down amongst them, an old woman called Iambe joked with the goddess and made her smile; and that, they say, is the reason why the women make jokes at the Thesmophoria.
Metaneira, the wife of Celeos, had a young child, and Demeter took it over to nurse. Wanting to make it immortal, she would lay the baby in the fire at night, stripping it of its mortal flesh. But because Demophon (for that was the child’s name) was growing at such an extraordinary rate each day, Praxithea
kept watch over him, and when she found him buried in the fire, she screamed aloud; as a result, the baby was consumed by the fire, and the goddess revealed her identity.
For Triptolemos, the eldest of Metaneira’s children, Demeter fashioned a chariot drawn by winged dragons, and she gave him wheat,
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which he sowed over the whole inhabited earth as he was carried through the sky. Panyasis says that Triptolemos was a son of Eleusis, for according to him, that was whom Demeter had visited. Pherecydes, for his part, says that he was a son of Oceanos and Ge.
When Zeus ordered Pluto to send Kore back to earth, Pluto, to prevent her from remaining too long with her mother, gave her a pomegranate seed to eat;
and failing to foresee what the consequence would be, she ate it. When Ascalaphos, son of Acheron and Gorgyra, bore witness against her,
Demeter placed a heavy rock over him in Hades, but Persephone was forced to stay with Pluto for a third of every year,
and the rest she spent with the gods. . Such is the story of Demeter. The revolt of the Giants
Ge, angered by the fate of the Titans, brought to birth the Giants, whom she had conceived by Ouranos.
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These were unsurpassable in size, unassailable in their strength, and fearful to behold because of the thick hair hanging down from their head and cheeks; and their feet were formed from dragons’ scales. According to some accounts, they were born at Phlegrai, or according to others, at Pallene. And they hurled rocks and flaming oak trees at the heavens. Mightiest of all were Porphyrion and Alcyoneus, who was even immortal as long as he fought on the land of his birth. It was he, moreover, who drove the cattle of the Sun from Erytheia. Now the gods had an oracle saying that none of the Giants could be killed by the gods [acting on their own], but if the gods had a mortal fighting as their ally, the Giants would meet their end. When Ge heard of this, she searched for a herb to prevent the Giants from being destroyed even by a mortal; but Zeus forestalled her, for he ordered Dawn, and the Moon and Sun, not to shine and plucked the herb himself. And he sent Athene to summon Heracles as an ally.
And first Heracles shot Alcyoneus with his arrows, but when he fell to the earth, he recovered some of his strength. On the advice of Athene, Heracles dragged him beyond the boundaries of Pallene, and so it came about that the Giant met his death.
In the course of the fighting, Porphyrion launched an attack against Heracles and Hera. But Zeus inspired him with a lust for Hera, and when he tore her clothing and tried to rape her, she cried for help; and Zeus struck the Giant with his thunderbolt, and Heracles killed him with a shot from his bow. As for the others, Apollo shot Ephialtes in the left eye with one of his arrows, while Heracles shot him in the right. Eurytos was killed by Dionysos with a blow from his thyrsos,
Clytios by Hecate with her torches, and Mimas by Hephaistos with missiles of red-hot iron. Athene hurled the island of
Sicily on Encelados as he fled; and she flayed Pallas and used his skin to protect her own body during the fight. Polybotes was pursued through the sea by Poseidon and made his way to Cos, where Poseidon broke off the part of the island called Nisyron
and threw it down on him. Hermes, who was wearing the cap of Hades, killed Hippolytos in the battle, and Artemis killed Gration;
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and the Fates, fighting with bronze cudgels, killed Agrios and Thoon. The others were destroyed by Zeus, who struck them with thunderbolts; and all of them, in their death throes, were shot with arrows by Heracles.
The revolt of Typhon When the gods had defeated the Giants, Ge, whose anger was all the greater, had intercourse with Tartaros and gave birth to Typhon
in Cilicia. He was part man and part beast, and in both size and strength he surpassed all the other children of Ge. Down to his thighs he was human in form, but of such immense size that he rose higher than all the mountains and often even scraped the stars with his head. With arms outstretched, he could reach the west on one side and the east on the other; and from his arms there sprang a hundred dragons’ heads.
Below his thighs, he had massive coils of vipers, which, when they were fully extended, reached right up to his head and emitted violent hisses. He had wings all over his body, and filthy hair springing from his head and cheeks floated around him in the wind, and fire flashed from his eyes. Such was Typhon’s appearance and such his size when he launched an attack against heaven itself, hurling flaming rocks at it, hissing and screaming all at once, and gushing mighty streams of fire from his mouth. Seeing him rush against heaven, the gods took flight to Egypt,
and when they were pursued by him, transformed themselves into animals. While Typhon was still at a distance, Zeus pelted him with thunderbolts, but as the monster drew close, Zeus struck at him with an adamantine sickle, and then chased after him when he fled, until they arrived at Mount Casion, which rises over Syria. And there, seeing that Typhon was severely wounded, he engaged him in hand-to-hand combat. But Typhon enveloped him in his coils and
held him fast; and wresting the sickle from him, he cut the tendons from his hands and feet. And raising him on his shoulders, he carried him through the sea to Cilicia, and put him down again when he arrived at the Corycian cave. He placed the tendons there also, hiding them in a bear’s skin and appointing as their guard the she-dragon Delphyne, who was half beast and half maiden. But Hermes and Aigipan
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made away with the tendons and fitted them back into Zeus without being observed. When Zeus had recovered his strength, he made a sudden descent from heaven on a chariot drawn by winged horses, and hurling thunderbolts, he pursued Typhon to the mountain called Nysa, where the fugitive was tricked by the Fates; for persuaded that he would become stronger as a result, he tasted the ephemeral fruits.
Coming under pursuit once again, he arrived in Thrace, and joining battle near Mount Haimos, he began to hurl entire mountains. But when they were thrust back at him by the thunderbolts, a stream of
blood gushed from him onto the mountain (which is said to be the reason why it was called Haimos)
. When he set out to flee across the Sicilian sea, Zeus hurled Mount Etna at him, which lies in Sicily. This is a mountain of enormous size, and there rise up from it, even to this day, eruptions of fire
that are said to issue from the thunderbolts hurled by Zeus. But that is quite enough on this matter. 2. The Deucalionids Prometheus and early man
After he had fashioned men from water and earth, Prometheus also gave them fire, which he had hidden in a fennel
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stalk in secret from Zeus. But when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaistos to nail his body to Mount Caucasos (a mountain that lies in Scythia). So Prometheus was nailed to it and held fast there for a good many years; and each day, an eagle swooped down to feed on the lobes of his liver, which grew again by night. Such was the punishment suffered by Prometheus for having stolen the fire, until Heracles later released him, as we will show
in our account of Heracles. Deucalion, Pyrrha, and the great flood
Prometheus had a son, Deucalion, who ruled the area around Phthia, and married Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and of Pandora, whom the gods had fashioned as the first woman.
When Zeus wanted to eliminate the race of bronze,
Deucalion, on the advice of Prometheus, built a chest, and after storing it with provisions, climbed into it with Pyrrha. Zeus poured an abundance of rain from heaven to flood the greater part of Greece, causing all human beings to be destroyed, apart from those few who took refuge in the lofty mountains nearby. It was then that the mountains of Thessaly drew apart and all the lands outside the Isthmus and the Peloponnese were submerged. But Deucalion was carried across the sea in his chest for nine days and as many nights until he was washed ashore at Parnassos; and there, when the rain stopped, he disembarked, and offered a sacrifice to Zeus, God of Escape. Zeus sent Hermes to him and allowed him the choice of whatever he wished; and Deucalion chose to have people. On the orders of Zeus, he picked up stones and threw them over his head; and the stones that Deucalion threw became men, and those that Pyrrha threw became women. That was how people came to be called
laoi , by metaphor from the word laas , a stone. The immediate descendants of Deucalion
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Deucalion had two sons by Pyrrha, first Hellen (though some describe him as a son of Zeus), and secondly Amphictyon, who became king of Attica after Cranaos; he also had a daughter, Protogeneia, who later bore Aethlios to Zeus.
Hellen had three sons, Doros, Xouthos, and Aiolos, by a nymph, Orseis; and those who were called the Graicoi he named Hellenes
after himself. And he divided the land amongst his sons. Xouthos received the Peloponnese, and by Creousa, daughter of Erechtheus, he had two sons, Achaios and Ion, after whom the Achaeans and the Ionians were named. Doros received the country opposite the Peloponnese
and named its inhabitants the Dorians after himself. Aiolos became king of the lands around Thessaly and named their inhabitants the
Aeolians. He married Enarete, daughter of Deimachos, and became the father of seven sons, Cretheus, Sisyphos, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes, and Perieres, and five daughters, Canace, Alcyone, Peisidice, Calyce, and Perimede.
Ceux and Alcyone; the Aloads; Endymion Perimede bore Hippodamas and Orestes to Acheloos; and Peisidice bore Antiphos and Actor to Myrmidon.
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Alcyone became the wife of Ceux, son of Heosphoros. Both of them died because of their arrogance: for Ceux said that his wife was Hera, and Alcyone that her husband was Zeus, and Zeus changed them into birds, making her a
Canace bore Hopleus, Nireus, Epopeus, Aloeus, and Triops to Poseidon. Aloeus married Iphimedeia, daughter of Triops, but she fell in love with Poseidon, and went down to the sea again and again, where she would scoop water from the waves with her hands and pour it into her lap. Poseidon had intercourse with her and fathered two sons, Otos and Ephialtes, who are known as the Aloads.
They grew a cubit broader every year and a fathom
higher; and when they were nine years old, and nine cubits across and nine fathoms in height, they resolved to fight against the gods. They piled Ossa on Olympos and Pelion
on Ossa, and threatened to use these mountains to climb up to heaven; and they said that by filling the sea with mountains they would turn the sea into dry land and the dry land into sea. And Ephialtes sought to win Hera, and Otos to win Artemis; they also imprisoned Ares.
But Hermes freed him surreptitiously, and the Aloads met their death on Naxos
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as the result of a subterfuge by Artemis; for she changed herself into a deer and leapt between them, and in their desire to hit the beast they struck one another with their javelins.
Calyce and Aethlios had a son, Endymion, who led the Aeolians out of Thessaly and founded Elis. It is said by some, however, that Endymion was a son of Zeus. Because of his exceptional beauty the Moon fell in love with him; and when Zeus allowed him the choice of whatever he wished, he chose
to sleep for ever and so remain untouched by either age or death. Early Aetolian genealogies; Evenos and Marpessa
Characters and houses
Ouranos matters as first sky ruler. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Ge matters as earth mother and plotter. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Cronos matters as sickle and swallow. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Zeus matters as new king. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Prometheus matters as fashioner and thief. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Deucalion matters as flood survivor. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Typhon matters as last cosmic rebel. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Demeter matters as mother of Kore. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Themes, motifs, style
Theme: succession myth. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Titanomachy. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: flood reset. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Olympian household. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: monster wars. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
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Meaning
This section advances the Library's map of Greek myth. Houses, labours, and wars are retrieval paths, not ornament.
Further source depth
And Thamyris, who was exceptional for his beauty and his skill in singing to the lyre, challenged the Muses
to a contest in music, on the agreement that if he proved to be the better, he could have intercourse with them all, but if he were defeated, they could deprive him of anything they wished. The Muses proved to be superior, and deprived him both of his eyes and his skill in singing to the lyre.
Euterpe bore to the River Strymon a son Rhesos, who was killed by Diomedes at Troy;
but according to some accounts, his mother was Calliope. To Thaleia and Apollo were born the Corybantes;
and to Melpomene and Acheloos, the Sirens, who will be considered below in our account of Odysseus. The births of Hephaistos and Athene
Hera gave birth to Hephaistos without prior intercourse (though Homer describes him as another of her children by
Zeus threw him down from heaven for coming to the aid of his mother when she was put in chains; for Zeus had suspended Hera from Olympos for sending a storm against Heracles when he was sailing home after capturing Troy. Hephaistos fell to earth on Lemnos and was lamed in both his legs, but Thetis came to his rescue.
Zeus had intercourse with Metis, although she changed into many different forms in the hope of escaping it. While she was pregnant, Zeus forestalled future developments by swallowing her; for [Ge]
declared that after having the girl who was due to be born to her, Metis would give birth to a son who would become the ruler of heaven. It was for fear of this that he swallowed her down. When the time arrived for the child to be born, Prometheus, or according to others, Hephaistos, struck the head of Zeus with an axe and from the top of his head, near the River Triton,
leapt Athene, fully armed. Artemis and Apollo One of Coios’ daughters, Asteria, took the form of a quail
and threw herself into the sea to escape the embraces of Zeus; and a city was named Asteria after her, for this was the former name of what was later called Delos.
His other daughter, Leto, had intercourse with Zeus, and was chased all over the earth by Hera until she arrived at Delos, where she gave birth first to Artemis, and then, with the aid of Artemis as a midwife, to Apollo.
Artemis devoted herself to hunting and remained a virgin, while Apollo learned the art of divination from Pan, son of Zeus and Hybris, and went to Delphi where, at that time, the oracles were delivered by Themis;
and when the guardian of the oracle, the serpent Python, tried to prevent him from approaching the chasm,
he killed it and took possession of the oracle.
Not long afterwards, he killed Tityos also, who was the son of Zeus and Elare, daughter of Orchomenos; for after making love with Elare, Zeus had hidden her under the earth for fear
of Hera, and had brought up to light the child that she was carrying in her womb, the enormous Tityos. Now when Leto came to Pytho,
she was seen by Tityos, who was overcome by desire and seized her in his arms; but she called her children to her aid, and they shot him down with their arrows. Tityos suffers punishment
even after his death, for vultures feed on his heart in Hades.
Apollo also killed Marsyas, the son of Olympos; for Marsyas had discovered the flute that Athene had thrown away because it disfigured her face,
and he challenged Apollo to a musical contest. They agreed that the victor should do what he wished with the loser, and when the test was under way, Apollo played his lyre upside down and told Marsyas to do the same;
and when he was unable to, Apollo was recognized as the victor, and killed Marsyas by suspending him from a lofty pine tree and flaying him.
Artemis, for her part, killed Orion on Delos. They say that he was born from the earth, with a body of gigantic pro portions; but according to Pherecydes, he was a son of Poseidon and Euryale. Poseidon had granted him the power to walk across the sea. His first wife was Side, who was thrown into Hades by Hera because she had claimed to rival the god dess in beauty; and afterwards he went to Chios, and sought the hand of Merope, daughter of Oinopion. But Oinopion made him drunk, blinded him
as he slept, and threw him out by the seashore. Orion made his way to the forge [of Hephaistos],
where he snatched up a boy, and setting him on his shoulders, told him to guide him towards the sunrise. When he arrived there, his sight was rekindled by the rays of the sun, and he was able to see again.
He returned with all haste to attack Oinopion; but Poseidon had provided him with an underground dwelling constructed by Hephaistos. Dawn fell in love with Orion and carried him off to Delos (for Aphrodite caused her to be continually in love because she had gone to bed with Ares).
According to some accounts, Orion was killed because he challenged Artemis to a contest in throwing the discus, while according to others, he was shot by Artemis
because he tried to rape Opis, one of the virgins who had arrived from the Hyperboreans. The children of Poseidon; Demeter and Persephone
Poseidon married Amphitrite, [daughter of Oceanos,] who bore Triton to him, and Rhode,
who became the wife of the Sun. Pluto fell in love with Persephone and, with the help of Zeus, he secretly abducted her; but Demeter, bearing torches,
wandered by night and day all over the earth in search of her. When she learned from the people of Hermion
that Pluto had carried her off, she abandoned heaven in her anger at the gods, and came to Eleusis in the likeness of a woman. First she sat down on the rock which is called the Laughterless Rock because of her, and then made her way to Celeos, who was king of the Eleusinians at the time. There were some women in the house, and when they invited her to sit down amongst them, an old woman called Iambe joked with the goddess and made her smile; and that, they say, is the reason why the women make jokes at the Thesmophoria.
Metaneira, the wife of Celeos, had a young child, and Demeter took it over to nurse. Wanting to make it immortal, she would lay the baby in the fire at night, stripping it of its mortal flesh. But because Demophon (for that was the child’s name) was growing at such an extraordinary rate each day, Praxithea
kept watch over him, and when she found him buried in the fire, she screamed aloud; as a result, the baby was consumed by the fire, and the goddess revealed her identity.
For Triptolemos, the eldest of Metaneira’s children, Demeter fashioned a chariot drawn by winged dragons, and she gave him wheat,
which he sowed over the whole inhabited earth as he was carried through the sky. Panyasis says that Triptolemos was a son of Eleusis, for according to him, that was whom Demeter had visited. Pherecydes, for his part, says that he was a son of Oceanos and Ge.
When Zeus ordered Pluto to send Kore back to earth, Pluto, to prevent her from remaining too long with her mother, gave her a pomegranate seed to eat;
and failing to foresee what the consequence would be, she ate it. When Ascalaphos, son of Acheron and Gorgyra, bore witness against her,
Demeter placed a heavy rock over him in Hades, but Persephone was forced to stay with Pluto for a third of every year,
and the rest she spent with the gods. . Such is the story of Demeter. The revolt of the Giants
Ge, angered by the fate of the Titans, brought to birth the Giants, whom she had conceived by Ouranos.
These were unsurpassable in size, unassailable in their strength, and fearful to behold because of the thick hair hanging down from their head and cheeks; and their feet were formed from dragons’ scales. According to some accounts, they were born at Phlegrai, or according to others, at Pallene. And they hurled rocks and flaming oak trees at the heavens. Mightiest of all were Porphyrion and Alcyoneus, who was even immortal as long as he fought on the land of his birth. It was he, moreover, who drove the cattle of the Sun from Erytheia. Now the gods had an oracle saying that none of the Giants could be killed by the gods [acting on their own], but if the gods had a mortal fighting as their ally, the Giants would meet their end. When Ge heard of this, she searched for a herb to prevent the Giants from being destroyed even by a mortal; but Zeus forestalled her, for he ordered Dawn, and the Moon and Sun, not to shine and plucked the herb himself. And he sent Athene to summon Heracles as an ally.
And first Heracles shot Alcyoneus with his arrows, but when he fell to the earth, he recovered some of his strength. On the advice of Athene, Heracles dragged him beyond the boundaries of Pallene, and so it came about that the Giant met his death.
In the course of the fighting, Porphyrion launched an attack against Heracles and Hera. But Zeus inspired him with a lust for Hera, and when he tore her clothing and tried to rape her, she cried for help; and Zeus struck the Giant with his thunderbolt, and Heracles killed him with a shot from his bow. As for the others, Apollo shot Ephialtes in the left eye with one of his arrows, while Heracles shot him in the right. Eurytos was killed by Dionysos with a blow from his thyrsos,
Clytios by Hecate with her torches, and Mimas by Hephaistos with missiles of red-hot iron. Athene hurled the island of
Sicily on Encelados as he fled; and she flayed Pallas and used his skin to protect her own body during the fight. Polybotes was pursued through the sea by Poseidon and made his way to Cos, where Poseidon broke off the part of the island called Nisyron
and threw it down on him. Hermes, who was wearing the cap of Hades, killed Hippolytos in the battle, and Artemis killed Gration;
and the Fates, fighting with bronze cudgels, killed Agrios and Thoon. The others were destroyed by Zeus, who struck them with thunderbolts; and all of them, in their death throes, were shot with arrows by Heracles.
The revolt of Typhon When the gods had defeated the Giants, Ge, whose anger was all the greater, had intercourse with Tartaros and gave birth to Typhon
in Cilicia. He was part man and part beast, and in both size and strength he surpassed all the other children of Ge. Down to his thighs he was human in form, but of such immense size that he rose higher than all the mountains and often even scraped the stars with his head. With arms outstretched, he could reach the west on one side and the east on the other; and from his arms there sprang a hundred dragons’ heads.
Below his thighs, he had massive coils of vipers, which, when they were fully extended, reached right up to his head and emitted violent hisses. He had wings all over his body, and filthy hair springing from his head and cheeks floated around him in the wind, and fire flashed from his eyes. Such was Typhon’s appearance and such his size when he launched an attack against heaven itself, hurling flaming rocks at it, hissing and screaming all at once, and gushing mighty streams of fire from his mouth. Seeing him rush against heaven, the gods took flight to Egypt,
and when they were pursued by him, transformed themselves into animals. While Typhon was still at a distance, Zeus pelted him with thunderbolts, but as the monster drew close, Zeus struck at him with an adamantine sickle, and then chased after him when he fled, until they arrived at Mount Casion, which rises over Syria. And there, seeing that Typhon was severely wounded, he engaged him in hand-to-hand combat. But Typhon enveloped him in his coils and
held him fast; and wresting the sickle from him, he cut the tendons from his hands and feet. And raising him on his shoulders, he carried him through the sea to Cilicia, and put him down again when he arrived at the Corycian cave. He placed the tendons there also, hiding them in a bear’s skin and appointing as their guard the she-dragon Delphyne, who was half beast and half maiden. But Hermes and Aigipan
made away with the tendons and fitted them back into Zeus without being observed. When Zeus had recovered his strength, he made a sudden descent from heaven on a chariot drawn by winged horses, and hurling thunderbolts, he pursued Typhon to the mountain called Nysa, where the fugitive was tricked by the Fates; for persuaded that he would become stronger as a result, he tasted the ephemeral fruits.
Coming under pursuit once again, he arrived in Thrace, and joining battle near Mount Haimos, he began to hurl entire mountains. But when they were thrust back at him by the thunderbolts, a stream of
blood gushed from him onto the mountain (which is said to be the reason why it was called Haimos)
. When he set out to flee across the Sicilian sea, Zeus hurled Mount Etna at him, which lies in Sicily. This is a mountain of enormous size, and there rise up from it, even to this day, eruptions of fire
that are said to issue from the thunderbolts hurled by Zeus. But that is quite enough on this matter. 2. The Deucalionids Prometheus and early man
After he had fashioned men from water and earth, Prometheus also gave them fire, which he had hidden in a fennel
stalk in secret from Zeus. But when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaistos to nail his body to Mount Caucasos (a mountain that lies in Scythia). So Prometheus was nailed to it and held fast there for a good many years; and each day, an eagle swooped down to feed on the lobes of his liver, which grew again by night. Such was the punishment suffered by Prometheus for having stolen the fire, until Heracles later released him, as we will show
in our account of Heracles. Deucalion, Pyrrha, and the great flood
Prometheus had a son, Deucalion, who ruled the area around Phthia, and married Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and of Pandora, whom the gods had fashioned as the first woman.
When Zeus wanted to eliminate the race of bronze,
Deucalion, on the advice of Prometheus, built a chest, and after storing it with provisions, climbed into it with Pyrrha. Zeus poured an abundance of rain from heaven to flood the greater part of Greece, causing all human beings to be destroyed, apart from those few who took refuge in the lofty mountains nearby. It was then that the mountains of Thessaly drew apart and all the lands outside the Isthmus and the Peloponnese were submerged. But Deucalion was carried across the sea in his chest for nine days and as many nights until he was washed ashore at Parnassos; and there, when the rain stopped, he disembarked, and offered a sacrifice to Zeus, God of Escape. Zeus sent Hermes to him and allowed him the choice of whatever he wished; and Deucalion chose to have people. On the orders of Zeus, he picked up stones and threw them over his head; and the stones that Deucalion threw became men, and those that Pyrrha threw became women. That was how people came to be called
laoi , by metaphor from the word laas , a stone. The immediate descendants of Deucalion
Deucalion had two sons by Pyrrha, first Hellen (though some describe him as a son of Zeus), and secondly Amphictyon, who became king of Attica after Cranaos; he also had a daughter, Protogeneia, who later bore Aethlios to Zeus.
Hellen had three sons, Doros, Xouthos, and Aiolos, by a nymph, Orseis; and those who were called the Graicoi he named Hellenes
after himself. And he divided the land amongst his sons. Xouthos received the Peloponnese, and by Creousa, daughter of Erechtheus, he had two sons, Achaios and Ion, after whom the Achaeans and the Ionians were named. Doros received the country opposite the Peloponnese
and named its inhabitants the Dorians after himself. Aiolos became king of the lands around Thessaly and named their inhabitants the
Aeolians. He married Enarete, daughter of Deimachos, and became the father of seven sons, Cretheus, Sisyphos, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes, and Perieres, and five daughters, Canace, Alcyone, Peisidice, Calyce, and Perimede.
Ceux and Alcyone; the Aloads; Endymion Perimede bore Hippodamas and Orestes to Acheloos; and Peisidice bore Antiphos and Actor to Myrmidon.
Alcyone became the wife of Ceux, son of Heosphoros. Both of them died because of their arrogance: for Ceux said that his wife was Hera, and Alcyone that her husband was Zeus, and Zeus changed them into birds, making her a
Canace bore Hopleus, Nireus, Epopeus, Aloeus, and Triops to Poseidon. Aloeus married Iphimedeia, daughter of Triops, but she fell in love with Poseidon, and went down to the sea again and again, where she would scoop water from the waves with her hands and pour it into her lap. Poseidon had intercourse with her and fathered two sons, Otos and Ephialtes, who are known as the Aloads.
They grew a cubit broader every year and a fathom
higher; and when they were nine years old, and nine cubits across and nine fathoms in height, they resolved to fight against the gods. They piled Ossa on Olympos and Pelion
on Ossa, and threatened to use these mountains to climb up to heaven; and they said that by filling the sea with mountains they would turn the sea into dry land and the dry land into sea. And Ephialtes sought to win Hera, and Otos to win Artemis; they also imprisoned Ares.
But Hermes freed him surreptitiously, and the Aloads met their death on Naxos
as the result of a subterfuge by Artemis; for she changed herself into a deer and leapt between them, and in their desire to hit the beast they struck one another with their javelins.
Calyce and Aethlios had a son, Endymion, who led the Aeolians out of Thessaly and founded Elis. It is said by some, however, that Endymion was a son of Zeus. Because of his exceptional beauty the Moon fell in love with him; and when Zeus allowed him the choice of whatever he wished, he chose
to sleep for ever and so remain untouched by either age or death. Early Aetolian genealogies; Evenos and Marpessa
By a naiad nymph, or according to some, by Iphianassa, Endymion had a son, Aitolos, who killed Apis, son of Phoroneus,
and fled to the land of the Curetes.
There he killed the sons of Phthia and Apollo who had welcomed him, namely, Doros, Laodocos, and Polypoites, and called the country Aetolia after himself.
By Pronoe, daughter of Phorbos, Aitolos had two sons, Pleuron and Calydon, after whom the two cities in Aetolia were named. Pleuron married Xanthippe, daughter of Doros, and had a son, Agenor, and three daughters, Sterope, Stratonice, and Laophonte. To Calydon and Aiolia, daughter of Amy-thaon, were born two daughters, Epicaste and Protogeneia, who bore Oxylos to Ares. Pleuron’s son Agenor married Epicaste, daughter of Calydon, and fathered Porthaon and a daughter, Demonice, who bore Evenos, Molos, Pylos, and Thestios to Ares.
Evenos had a daughter, Marpessa, who, while she was being courted by Apollo, was carried off by Idas, son of Aphareus, in a winged chariot which he had received from Poseidon. Chasing after him
in a chariot, Evenos went as far as the River Lycormas, but finding it impossible to catch up with Idas, he slaughtered his horses and hurled himself into the river, which is now named the Evenos after him.
where Apollo happened to meet him and tried to take the girl away from him. As they were fighting for her hand, Zeus separated them and allowed the girl herself to choose which of them she preferred to live with; and Marpessa, fearing that Apollo might leave her when she grew old, selected Idas for her husband.
By Eurythemis, daughter of Cleoboia, Thestios had three daughters, Althaia, Leda, and Hypermnestra, and four sons, Iphiclos, Evippos, Plexippos, and Eurypylos.
By Euryte, daughter of Hippodamas, Porthaon had five sons, Oineus, Agrios, Alcathoos, Melas, and Leucopeus, and
a daughter, Sterope, who is said to have borne the Sirens to Acheloos. Oineus, Meleager, and the hunt for the Calydonian boar
Oineus, the king of Calydon, was the first to receive a vine plant from Dionysos.
He married Althaia, daughter of Thestios, and fathered Toxeus-who was put to death by Oineus himself for jumping over the ditch
-and two further sons, Thyreus and Clymenos. He also had a daughter, Gorge, who became the wife of Andraimon, and another daughter, Deianeira, who is said to have been Althaia’s child by Dionysos. Deianeira drove a chariot and practised the arts of war; and Heracles wrestled with Acheloos to gain her hand.
Althaia also bore to Oineus a son, Meleager, whose real father is said to have been Ares. When he was seven days old, it is said that the Fates appeared and announced that Meleager would die when the log burning on the hearth was fully consumed. In response, Althaia snatched it from the fire and placed it in a chest.
Meleager developed into an invulnerable and valiant man, but met his death in the following manner. When Oineus was offering the first-fruits from the annual harvest in the land to all the gods, he forgot Artemis alone. In her anger, she sent a boar of exceptional size and strength, which prevented the land from being sown, and destroyed the cattle and the people who encountered it. To hunt this boar,
Oineus summoned together all the bravest men in Greece, announcing that he would give the beast’s hide to the man who killed it, as a prize for his valour.
These are the people who gathered to hunt the boar: Meleager, son of Oineus, and Dryas, son of Ares, both from Calydon; Idas and Lynceus, sons of Aphareus, from Messene; Castor and Polydeuces, sons of Zeus and Leda, from Lacedaimon; Theseus, son of Aigeus, from Athens; Admetos, son of Pheres, from Pherae; Ancaios and Cepheus, sons of Lycourgos, from Arcadia; Jason, son of Aison, from Iolcos; Iphicles, son of Amphitryon, from Thebes; Peirithoos, son of Ixion, from Larissa; Peleus, son of Aiacos, from Phthia; Telamon, son of
Aiacos, from Salamis; Eurytion, son of Actor, from Phthia; Atalante, daughter of Schoineus, from Arcadia; Amphiaraos, son of Oicles, from Argos; and with the aforementioned, also the sons of Thestios.
When they were assembled, Oineus entertained them as his guests for nine days. On the tenth, when Cepheus, Ancaios, and some others considered it beneath their dignity to take part in the hunt with a woman,
Meleager-who wanted to have a child by Atalante although he was married to Cleopatra, the daughter of Idas and Marpessa-compelled them to set out with her on the hunt. When they had surrounded the boar, Hyleus and Ancaios were killed by the beast and, by accident, Peleus struck down Eurytion with his javelin. The first to hit the boar was Atalante, who shot it in the back with an arrow, and the second, Amphiaraos, who shot it in the eye, but Meleager struck the death blow by stabbing it in the side. And when he received the skin, he gave it to Atalante. The sons of Thestios,
however, took it amiss that a woman should get the prize when men were present, saying that it belonged to them by right of birth if Meleager chose not to take it.
Angered by this, Meleager killed the sons of Thestios and returned the skin to Atalante. But Althaia was so distressed by the loss of her brothers that she rekindled the log, bringing Meleager’s life to a sudden end.
however, that Meleager met his end not in that way, but as follows. The sons of Thestios raised an argument about the hunt, saying that Iphiclos had been the first to hit the boar, and because of this a war broke out between the Curetes and the Calydonians. When Meleager marched out and killed some of the sons of Thestios, Althaia cursed him, which so enraged him that he confined himself to his house. But when the enemy forces were drawing close to the walls, and the citizens approached him as suppliants and asked him to come to their aid, he was persuaded by his wife, though with difficulty, to march out, and after he had killed the other sons of Thestios, he met his own death in the fighting. After the death of Meleager, Althaia and Cleopatra hanged themselves, and the women who wailed over his dead body were transformed into birds.
The later history of Oineus, and the birth and exile of Tydeus
After Althaia’s death, Oineus married Periboia, the daughter of Hipponoos. According to the author of the Thebaid
, Oineus received her as a prize after the sack of Olenos, but according to Hesiod she had been seduced by Hippostratos, son of Amarynceus, and her father sent her away from Olenos in Achaea to Oineus,
who lived some distance from Greece, with orders that he kill her.
Or according to some, Hipponoos discovered that his daughter had been seduced by Oineus, and he sent her away to him when she was already pregnant. It was by her that Oineus fathered Tydeus. Peisandros says, however, that Tydeus was born to Gorge; for in accordance with the will of Zeus, Oineus conceived a passion for his own daughter.
When Tydeus grew to manhood, he was exiled for having killed, according to some accounts, Alcathoos, a brother of Oineus, or according to the author of the
who had plotted against Oineus, namely Pheneus, Euryalos, Hyperlaos, Antiochos, Eumedes, Sternops, Xanthippos, and Sthenelaos. According to Pherecydes, however, he killed his own brother,
Olenias. When Agrios tried to bring charges against him, he fled to Adrastos in Argos, and married Adrastos’ daughter, Deipyle, who bore him a son, Diomedes.
Tydeus joined Adrastos in the expdition against Thebes, where he was wounded by Melanippos and died. The sons of Agrios-Thersites,
Onchestos, Prothoos, Celeutor, Lycopeus, and Melanippos-robbed Oineus of his kingdom and gave it to their father, and furthermore they imprisoned Oineus (who was still alive) and ill-treated him. Afterwards, however, Diomedes arrived in secret from Argos with Alcmaion and killed all the sons of Agrios, apart from Onchestos and Thersites, who had fled beforehand to the Peloponnese; and since Oineus was now an old man, Diomedes gave the kingdom to Andraimon, who had married Oineus’ daughter, and took Oineus back with him to the Peloponnese. But the two sons of Agrios who had managed to escape laid an ambush for the old man near the Hearth of Telephos in Arcadia, and killed
him. Diomedes took his body to Argos, and buried him at the place where a city called Oinoe, which is named after him, now lies. After his marriage to Aigialeia, the daughter of Adrastos (or according to some, of Aigialeus), Diomedes took part in the expeditions against Thebes and Troy.
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Book II
Book II: beat spine
Book II: chain
Inachid Belid stemma
Labours 1-6
Labours 7-12
Central claim
Perseus and Heracles are the Library's densest heroic dossiers: monster, labour, and succession. Genealogy carries episode; episode feeds the next house.
Plot and dossier order
Inachos Io: Belos split. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Danaids: husband murder. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Danae chest: Perseus born. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Gorgon: Andromeda. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Heracles birth: madness. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Twelve labours: listed. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Later deeds: Heraclids. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Second pass (dense bands)
BOOK II 4. Early Argive mythology (the Inachids, Belid line) The early descendants of Inachos
Now that we have given a full account of the family of Deucalion, let us proceed to that of Inachos. Oceanos and Tethys had a son, Inachos,
after whom the River Inachos in Argos is named. To Inachos and Melia, daughter of Oceanos, two sons were born, Phoroneus and Aigialeus.
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Aigialeus died without offspring, and the whole country was called Aigialeia; and Phoroneus, who reigned over the whole of what would later be called the Peloponnese, fathered Apis and Niobe by a nymph, Teledice.
Apis turned his power into a tyranny; a brutal tyrant, he named the Peloponnese Apia after himself, and died childless as the result of a plot by Thelxion and Telchis. He was reckoned to be a god and was called Sarapis.
Niobe, for her part, had a son, Argos, by Zeus (she was the first mortal woman with whom he had intercourse), and according to Acousilaos, she had another son, Pelasgos,
and the inhabitants of the Peloponnese were called the Pelasgians after him. According to Hesiod, however, Pelasgos was born from the earth;
but we will return to him later. Argos took over the kingdom, calling the Peloponnese Argos
after himself; and marrying Evadne, daughter of Strymon and Neaira, he had four sons, Ecbasos, Peiras, Epidauros, and Criasos, who succeeded to the kingdom in his turn.
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Ecbasos had a son, Agenor, and Agenor had a son, Argos, the one who is known as Panoptes [or the All-Seeing]. He had eyes all over his body,
and being endowed with exceptional strength, he killed the bull that was bringing ruin to Arcadia and clothed himself in its hide; and when a Satyr ill-treated the Arcadians and robbed them of their cattle, he confronted him and put him to death. And they say of Echidna
daughter of Tartaros and Ge who used to snatch away passers-by, that Argos watched out until she was asleep and then killed her. He also avenged the death of Apis by killing those who were responsible.
The wanderings of Io, and division of the Inachid line
Argos and Ismene, daughter of Asopos, had a son, Iasos, who is said to have been the father of Io. But Castor, the author of the Chronicles
, and many of the tragic poets claim that Io was a daughter of Inachos; while Hesiod and Acousilaos say that she was a daughter of Peiren. Zeus seduced Io
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while she held the priesthood of Hera, but when Hera found him out, he transformed the girl with a touch into a white cow and swore that he had never made love with her; and for that reason, according to Hesiod, oaths made for love attract no anger from the gods. But Hera asked Zeus for the cow, and placed it under the guard of Argos the All-Seeing. (Pherecydes says that this Argos was a son of Arestor, Asclepiades that he was a son of Inachos, and Cercops that he was a son of Argos and Ismene, daughter of Asopos, while according to Acousilaos, he was born from the earth.) Hera tethered the cow to the olive tree which lay in the sacred grove of the Mycenaeans. Zeus ordered Hermes to steal the cow, but the plan was betrayed by Hierax,
and since Hermes was now unable to steal the cow without being seen, he killed Argos by throwing a stone at him; and that is how he came to be called
Argeiphontes Hera sent a gadfly after the cow; the animal went first to the Ionian Gulf,
which bears that name because of her, and then, after travelling through Illyria and over Mount Haimos, she crossed what was then called the Thracian Sound but is now called the
because of her. From there she went to Scythia and the land of the Cimmerians, wandering a great distance overland and swimming a great distance through the sea, in Europe and Asia alike, until she finally arrived in Egypt, where she recovered her original form, and gave birth to a son, Epaphos, by the banks of the River Nile. Hera asked the Curetes to steal the child away, and they did so. When Zeus learned of it, he killed the Curetes, and Io, for her part, went in search of her
child. She wandered through the whole of Syria (for it had been revealed to her that the wife of the king of Byblos was nursing her son there), and when she had discovered Epaphos,
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she returned to Egypt and married Telegonos, who was king of the Egyptians at the time. She erected a statue of Demeter, whom the Egyptians called Isis; and they gave this name, Isis, to Io likewise.
When Epaphos became king of the Egyptians, he married Memphis, daughter of the Nile, founded the city of Memphis in her name, and fathered a daughter, Libya, after whom the land of Libya was named. By Poseidon, Libya had twin sons, Agenor and Belos. Agenor departed to Phoenicia, where he became king and the founder of a great line, and for that reason, we shall reserve our treatment of him until later.
remained in Egypt, where he became king, and married Anchinoe, daughter of the Nile, who bore him twin sons, Aigyptos and Danaos (and according to Euripides, Cepheus and Phineus in addition).
Aigyptos, Danaos, and the Danaids Belos established Danaos in Libya and Aigyptos in Arabia; but Aigyptos conquered the land of the Melampodes
too, and named it Egypt after himself. Both had children by many different women, Aigyptos fifty sons and Danaos fifty daughters. Later, they quarrelled over the throne, and Danaos, fearing the sons of Aigyptos, constructed a ship on the advice of Athene- he was the first man to do so
-and putting his daughters on board, he fled the country.
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Calling in at Rhodes, he set up the statue of Lindian Athene; and from there he went to Argos, where Gelanor, who was king at the time, surrendered the throne to him.
[After he had taken control of the country, Danaos named its inhabitants the Danaans after himself.
] There was no water in the land, because Poseidon had caused even the springs to run dry in his anger against Inachos for having testified that the land belonged to Hera;
so Danaos sent his daughters in search of water. Now one of them, Amymone, during her search, threw a javelin at a deer and hit a sleeping Satyr, who leapt up and
was eager to make love with her; but when Poseidon appeared, the Satyr fled, and Amymone slept with Poseidon, who then revealed the springs of Lerna
The sons of Aigyptos came to Argos, and they invited Danaos to call an end to his hostility and asked to marry his daughters. Although Danaos distrusted their protestations and bore them a grudge because of his exile, he agreed to the marriages and apportioned the girls by lot. Hypermnestra, the eldest, was selected to be the wife of Lynceus, and Gorgophone to be the wife of Proteus; for Lynceus and Proteus were borne to Aigyptos by a woman of royal blood, Argyphie. Of those who remained, Bousiris, Encelados, Lycos, and Daiphron obtained in the lot the daughters who were borne to Danaos by Europe, namely, Automate, Amymone, Agave, and Scaie. These were borne to Danaos by a woman of royal blood; Gorgophone and Hypermnestra, for their part, were borne to him by Elephantis. Istros obtained Hippodameia in the lot; Chalcodon, Rhodia; Agenor, Cleopatra; Chaitos, Asteria; Diocorystes, [Phylodameia]; Alces, Glauce; Alcmenor, Hippomedousa; Hippothoos, Gorge; Euchenor, Iphimedousa; and Hippolytos, Rhode. These ten sons were borne by an Arabian woman, and the daughters by hamadryad nymphs, some being daughters of Atlanteia, others of Phoebe. Agaptolemos obtained Peirene in the lot; Cercetes, Dorion; Eurydamas, Phartis; Aigios, Mnestra; Argios, Evippe; Archelaos, Anaxibia; and Menemachos, Nelo. These seven sons were borne by a Phoenician woman, and the daughters by an Ethiopian woman. The sons borne by Tyria obtained the daughters of Memphis as their wives, not through the lot, but because of the similarity of their names, Cleitos obtaining Cleite; Sthenelos, Sthenele; and Chrysippos, Chrysippe. The twelve sons of Aigyptos by the naiad nymph Caliadne cast lots for the daughters of Danaos by the naiad nymph Polyxo. The sons were Eurylochos, Phantes, Peristhenes, Hermos, Dryas, Potamon, Cisseus, Lixos, Imbros, Bromios, Polyctor, and Cthonios; the daughters were Autonoe, Theano, Electra, Cleopatra, Eurydice, Glaucippe, Antheleia, Cleodore, Evippe, Erato, Stygne, and Bryce. The sons of Aigyptos by Gorgo cast lots for the daughters of Danaos by Pieria. Periphas obtained Actaie; Oineus, Podarce; Aigyptos, Dioxippe; Menalces, Adite;
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Lampos, Ocypete; and Idmon, Pylarge. To proceed to the youngest sons, Idas obtained Hippodice, and Daiphron Adiante (the mother of these two girls was Herse); Pandion obtained Callidice; Arbelos, Oime; Hyperbios, Celaino; and Hippocorystes, Hyperippe: these were sons of Hephaistine and daughters of Crino respectively.
When they had obtained their brides in the lot and the marriage feast had been celebrated, Danaos handed daggers to his daughters, and they killed their bridegrooms as they slept, except for Hypermnestra, who spared Lynceus
because he had allowed her to preserve her virginity. Danaos imprisoned her for this, and kept her under guard. The rest of his daughters buried the heads of their bridegrooms at Lerna and held funerals for their bodies in front of the city; and they were purified
by Athene and Hermes on the orders of Zeus. Danaos later reunited Hypermnestra to Lynceus, and gave his other daughters in marriage to the victors at an athletic contest.
Amymone bore a son, Nauplios, to Poseidon. This Nauplios lived to a great age, sailing the seas, and using beacon fires to draw those who came across him to their death. And it turned out that he himself met his death in that very manner.
Before his death, he married Clymene, daughter of Catreus (according to the tragic poets, but according to the author of the Returns
Book II: band 13
, Philyra, or according to Cercops, Hesione), and had three sons by her, Palamedes, Oiax, and Nausimedon. Proitos and Acrisios divide the Argolid
Lynceus became king of Argos after Danaos, and had a son,
Abas, by Hypermnestra; and Abas had twin sons, Acrisios and Proitos, by Aglaia, daughter of Mantineus. The twins quarrelled with one another even while they were still in the womb, and when they grew up, they went to war over the kingdom. (It was during this war that they became the first inventors of shields.) Acrisios gained the upper hand and drove Proitos from Argos. Arriving in Lycia at the court of Iobates, or according to some, of Amphianax, Proitos married the king’s daughter, whom Homer calls Anteia,
His father-in-law, with a Lycian army, restored Proitos to his own land, and he took possession of Tiryns, which was fortified for him by the Cyclopes.
The brothers divided the whole of the Argolid between them, and made it their home, Acrisios ruling in Argos, and Proitos in Tiryns.
Bias, Melampous, and the daughters of Proitos
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By Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaimon, Acrisios had a daughter, Danae, and Proitos had three daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, by Stheneboia. When the daughters of Proitos were fully grown, they went mad, because, according to Hesiod, they refused to accept the rites of Dionysos, or, according to Acousilaos, because they had disparaged the wooden image of Hera.
In their madness, they wandered through the whole of the Argolid, and then, after passing through Arcadia and the Peloponnese, rushed through the desert in a state of complete abandon. Melampous, the son of Amythaon and Eidomene, daughter of Abas, who was a diviner and the first man to discover that illnesses could be cured by drugs and purifications, promised to cure the girls if he was given a third of the kingdom in return. When Proitos refused to hand them over for treatment at such a high price, not only did the girls’ madness grow worse, but the other women
went mad also; for they too deserted their houses, destroyed their own children, and wandered into the wilderness. The calamity had developed to such an extreme that Proitos now offered to pay the demanded fee; but Melampous would promise to undertake the cure only if his brother Bias received a share of the land equal to his own. Fearing that if the cure were delayed, a still greater fee would be demanded of him, Proitos agreed to the cure on these terms.
So Melampous took the most vigorous of the young men, and with loud cries and ecstatic dancing, they chased the women out of the mountains and into Sicyon. During the pursuit, the eldest of Proitos’ daughters, Iphinoe, met her death; but the other two were duly purified, and recovered their reason. Proitos gave his daughters in marriage to Melampous and Bias, and later became the father of a son, Megapenthes.
Excursus: the story of Bellerophon Bellerophon, the son of Glaucos and grandson of Sisyphos, had accidentally killed his brother
Deliades (or according to some, Peiren, or according to others, Alcimenes) and came to Proitos to be purified. Stheneboia fell in love with him,
Book II: band 17
and sent word to him proposing an assignation; but when he refused, she told Proitos that Bellerophon had been sending her messages in the hope of seducing her. Proitos believed her, and gave Bellerophon a letter to deliver to Iobates,
which con tained a message that he should put Bellerophon to death; so when Iobates had read it, he told him to kill the Chimaera, believing that he would be destroyed by the monster. For it was no easy prey for a multitude of men, let alone for one, seeing that it was a single creature which yet had the power of three, having the foreparts of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and a third head in the middle
-a goat’s head, through which it breathed fire. The beast was devastating the land and destroying the cattle. It is said, furthermore, that this Chimaera was reared by Amisodaros,
as Homer has stated also, and was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, as Hesiod records. So Bellerophon climbed on to his winged horse, Pegasos,
the offspring of Medusa and Poseidon, and soaring high into the air, killed the Chimaera by shooting arrows at it from above. After his battle with the Chimaera, Iobates told him to fight against the Solymoi,
and when he had fulfilled that task also, ordered him to attack the Amazons. When he had killed these also, Iobates picked out the Lycians who were thought to excel at the time in youthful vigour,
Book II: band 19
and told them to mount an ambush and kill him. But when Bellerophon had killed all of these in addition, Iobates, marvelling at his strength, showed him the letter and urged him to remain at his court; and he gave him his daughter, Philonoe, in marriage, and left him the kingdom when he died.
Danae and the birth of Perseus When Acrisios consulted the oracle about the birth of male children, the god replied that his daughter would give birth to
a son who would kill him. For fear of this, Acrisios built a bronze chamber beneath the ground and kept Danae guarded within it. She was seduced none the less, some say by Proitos
(so giving rise to the quarrel between the brothers), while according to others, Zeus had intercourse with her by transforming himself into a shower of gold and pouring through the roof into Danae’s lap. Later, when Acrisios learned
that a child, Perseus, had been born to her, he refused to believe that she had been seduced by Zeus, and put his daughter into a chest along with her child, and threw it into the sea. The chest was cast ashore at Seriphos, where Dictys recovered it, and raised the child.
Perseus fetches the Gorgon’s head Polydectes, the brother of Dictys,
Book II: band 21
who was king of Seriphos at the time, fell in love with Danae; and when he was unable to achieve his desire now that Perseus was a grown man, he summoned his friends together, with Perseus amongst them, and claimed that he was gathering contributions for a marriage-offering
to enable him to marry Hippodameia, the daughter of Oinomaos. When Perseus declared that he would not deny him even the Gorgon’s head, Polydectes demanded horses from all the others, but did not take the horses of Perseus
and ordered him to fetch the Gorgon’s head. Guided by Hermes and Athene, he went to see the daughters of Phorcos:
Enyo, Pephredo, and Deino. Daughters of Phorcos by Ceto, they were sisters of the Gorgons, and had been old women from the time of their birth. The three of them had only a single eye and a single tooth, which they exchanged in turn between themselves. Perseus gained possession of the eye and tooth, and when they asked him to give them back, he said that he would surrender them if they showed him the way to the nymphs. These nymphs had in their possession some winged sandals,
and the kihisis , which is said to have been a kind of wallet, † They also had the cap [of Hades
]. When the daughters of Phorcos had told him the way, he returned the eye and tooth to them, and visited the nymphs and obtained what he desired. He slung the
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around his neck, tied the sandals to his ankles, and placed the cap on his head; as long as he wore it, he could see whomever he wished while remaining invisible to others. After he had received in addition an adamantine sickle from Hermes, he flew to the Ocean, and when he arrived there, he caught the Gorgons asleep.
Their names were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Only Medusa was mortal, and for that reason it was her head that Perseus was sent to fetch. The Gorgons had heads with scaly serpents coiled around them, and large tusks like those of swine, and hands of bronze, and wings of gold which gave them the power of flight; and they turned all who beheld them to stone. So Perseus stood over them as they slept, and while Athene guided his hand, he turned aside, and looking into a bronze shield in which he could see the reflection of the Gorgon, he cut off her head. As her head was severed, Pegasos, the winged horse, and Chrysaor, the father of Geryon, sprang from the Gorgon’s body. (She had conceived them previously by Poseidon.
So Perseus placed Medusa’s head in the wallet, and as he was making his way back, the Gorgons started from their sleep and tried to pursue him, but they were unable to see him because of the cap, which hid him from their view.
Perseus and Andromeda Arriving in Ethiopia, which was ruled by Cepheus, he found the king’s daughter Andromeda exposed as prey to a sea monster; for Cassiepeia,
the wife of Cepheus, had claimed to rival the Nereids in beauty, boasting that she surpassed them all. The Nereids were enraged by this, and Poseidon, who shared their anger, sent a sea-flood and a monster against the land. Now Ammon
As soon as Perseus saw her, he fell in love, and promised Cepheus that he would destroy the monster if he would give him the rescued girl as a wife. When oaths had been sworn to this effect, Perseus confronted
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the monster and killed it, and set Andromeda free. Phineus, however, who was a brother of Cepheus and had been promised Andromeda beforehand, plotted against Perseus; but when Perseus learned of the conspiracy, he showed the Gorgon to Phineus and his fellow plotters, turning them to stone on the spot.
When he arrived back at Seriphos, he found that his mother and Dictys had sought refuge at the altars to escape the violence of Polydectes. So he went into the palace, where Polydectes had assembled his friends, and turning his head aside, he displayed the Gorgon’s head. All who beheld it were turned to stone, each in the position he happened to have assumed at the time. And then, after making Dictys king of Seriphos, he restored the sandals, wallet, and cap to Hermes, and gave the Gorgon’s head to Athene. Hermes returned the aforesaid objects to the nymphs and Athene fixed the Gorgon’s head to the centre of her shield. But there are some who say that Medusa lost her head because of Athene-for they say that the Gorgon had claimed to rival the goddess in beauty.
Perseus, accompanied by Danae and Andromeda, hurried off to Argos to see Acrisios. But when Acrisios learned of this, he feared what the oracle had predicted,
and left Argos and travelled to the land of the Pelasgians. Now Teutamides, king of Larissa,
was holding an athletic contest in honour of his dead father, and Perseus came to take part. While competing in the pentathlon, he threw his discus and struck Acrisios on the foot, killing him
instantly. Realizing that the oracle had been fulfilled, he buried Acrisios outside the city, and then, because he was ashamed to go to Argos to claim the inheritance of one who had died at his own hand, he went to Megapenthes, son of Proitos, and arranged an exchange of kingdoms with him, placing Argos in his hands. So in this way Megapenthes became king of the Argives, and Perseus king of Tiryns; and Perseus fortified Midea and Mycenae
Book II: band 27
in addition. The immediate descendants of Perseus
By Andromeda, Perseus had the following sons, first, before their arrival in Greece, Perses, whom he left behind with Cepheus (and from whom, they say, the kings of Persia are descended), and later, in Mycenae, Alcaios, Sthenelos, Heleios, Mestor, and Electryon; he also had a daughter, Gorgophone, who became the wife of Perieres.
Alcaios had a son, Amphitryon, and a daughter, Anaxo, by Astydameia, daughter of Pelops (or according to some, by Laonome, daughter of Gouneus, or according to others, by Hipponome, daughter of Menoiceus); and Mestor and Lysidice, daughter of Pelops, had a daughter, Hippothoe. Hippothoe was carried off by Poseidon, who took her to the Echinadian Islands, where he had intercourse with her, fathering Taphios, who colonized Taphos and called his people the
from the land of his birth. To Taphios a son, Pterelaos, was born, whom Poseidon made immortal by planting a golden hair in his head; and Pterelaos had six sons, Chromios, Tyrannos, Antiochos, Chersidamas, Mestor, and Everes.
Electryon married Anaxo, the daughter of Alcaios, and fathered a daughter, Alcmene, and nine sons, [Stratobates,] Gorgophonos, Phylonomos, Celaineus, Amphimachos, Lysinomos, Cheirimachos, Anactor, and Archelaos; and after these, he also had an illegitimate son, Licymnios, by a Phrygian woman, Mideia.
Sthenelos had Alcyone and Medusa, by Nicippe, daughter of Pelops, and afterwards he had a son, Eurystheus, who also ruled in Mycenae. For when Heracles was due to be born, Zeus declared before the gods that the descendant of Perseus who was then about to be born
Book II: band 29
would become king of Mycenae, and Hera, out of jealousy, persuaded the Eileithuiai
to delay Alcmene’s delivery, and arranged that Eurystheus, the son of Sthenelos, should be born at seven months. The exile of Amphitryon
While Electryon was ruling at Mycenae, the sons of Pterelaos came there with Taphios and claimed back the kingdom of [their maternal grandfather]
Mestor; and when Electryon disregarded their claim, they drove his cattle away. The sons of Electryon tried to rescue them, and they challenged and killed one another. Of the sons of Electryon, only Licymnios survived, because he was still a child, and of the sons of Pterelaos only Everes, who was guarding the ships. Those of the Taphians who escaped sailed away taking the stolen cattle, which they left in the care of Polyxenos, king of the Eleans; but Amphitryon ransomed them from Polyxenos and brought them back to Mycenae. Wanting to avenge the death of his sons, Electryon planned an expedition against the Teleboans. He entrusted the kingdom to Amphitryon, together with his daughter Alcmene, making him swear an oath that he would respect her virginity until his return. As he was receiving his cows back, however, one of them rushed forward, and Amphitryon let fly at her with the club that he had in his hands, but it rebounded from her horns to hit Electryon on the head, striking him dead.
Sthenelos grasped this as a pretext to banish Amphitryon from the whole of Argos and seize power for himself in Mycenae and Tiryns; as for Midea, he summoned Atreus and Thyestes, the sons of Pelops, and entrusted the city to them.
Heracles, and the Heraclids Amphitryon in Thebes, and the mar against the Teleboans
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Amphitryon went to Thebes with Alcmene and Licymnios and was purified by Creon, and he gave his sister, Perimede, to Licymnios as a wife. And since Alcmene said that she would marry him
when he had avenged the death of her brothers, he promised to do so, and, inviting Creon’s assistance, he prepared to march against the Teleboans. Creon said that he would join the expedition if Amphitryon would first rid the Cadmeia of the vixen
(for the Cadmeia was being devastated by a savage vixen). But even if somebody engaged to do so, it was fated that nobody could catch her.
Such harm was being caused to the country that each month the Thebans exposed a son of
one of their citizens to her, for she would otherwise have carried off a great number of them. So Amphitryon visited Cephalos, son of Deioneus,
in Athens, and in return for a share of the plunder from the Teleboans, he persuaded him to bring to the hunt the dog
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that Procris had been given by Minos and brought over from Crete; for it was fated that this dog would catch whatever it chased. So it came about that as the vixen was being pursued by the dog, Zeus turned both of them to stone.
With the help of his allies, Cephalos from Thoricos in Attica, Panopeus from Phocis, Heleios, son of Perseus, from Helos in the Argolid, and Creon from Thebes, Amphitryon sacked the islands of the Teleboans. Now as long as Pterelaos was still alive, Amphitryon was unable to capture Taphos; but when Comaitho, the daughter of Pterelaos, who had fallen in love with Amphitryon, plucked the golden hair from her father’s head, he died, and Amphitryon gained control of all the islands. He then put Comaitho to death
and sailed to Thebes with the plunder, giving the islands to Heleios and Cephalos, who founded cities that bear their name and settled in them.
The birth and early life of Heracles
Before Amphitryon arrived back in Thebes, Zeus came to the city by night, and tripling the length of that single night, he assumed the likeness of Amphitryon and went to bed with Alcmene, telling her all that had happened in the war with the Teleboans. When Amphitryon arrived and saw that his wife was welcoming him with no great ardour, he asked her the reason; and when she replied that he had come the previous night and slept with her, he found out from Teiresias about her intercourse with Zeus.
Alcmene gave birth to two sons, Heracles, who was the son of Zeus and the elder by a night, and Iphicles, whom she bore to Amphitryon.
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When Heracles was eight months old, Hera, wanting to destroy the child, sent two huge serpents to his bed. Alcmene cried out for Amphitryon, but Heracles leapt up and killed the serpents
by strangling them, one in each hand. According to
Pherecydes, however, it was Amphitryon who placed the serpents in the bed, because he wanted to find out which of the children was his own; and seeing that Iphicles fled while Heracles stood his ground, he realized that Iphicles was his child.
Heracles was taught chariot-driving by Amphitryon, wrestling by Autolycos, archery by Eurytos, fencing by Castor, and lyre-playing by Linos. This Linos was a brother of Orpheus, who had arrived in Thebes and become a Theban citizen, but was killed by Heracles with a blow from his lyre (for Linos had struck him,
and Heracles lost his temper and killed him). When a charge of murder was brought against Heracles, he cited a law of Rhadamanthys
saying that if a person defends himself against another who has initiated the violence, he should suffer no penalty. So Heracles was acquitted. And Amphitryon, fearing that he might do something similar again, sent him to his herds; and there he grew up, surpassing all others in size and strength. The mere sight of him was enough to show that he was a son of Zeus: for his body measured four cubits, a fiery gleam shone from his eyes, and he never missed his mark with his arrows or javelins.
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While he was still with the herds, and was now eighteen, he killed the lion of Cithairon, a beast that used to make incursions from Cithairon to destroy the cattle of Amphitryon and Thespios.
This last was king of Thespiae, and Heracles visited him when he wanted to kill the lion. He was entertained by him for fifty days, and each night after Heracles went out to the hunt, Thespios arranged that one of his daughters should go to bed with him. For he had fifty of them, borne to him by Megamede, daughter of Arneos, and he was eager that they should all conceive children by Heracles.
And Heracles, in the belief that he was always sleeping with the same woman, had intercourse with all of them. When he had overcome the lion, he dressed in its skin,
and used its gaping mouth as a helmet. Heracles and the Minyans; his first marriage, and madness
As he was returning from the hunt, he was met by some heralds who had been sent by Erginos to collect the tribute
from the Thebans. The Thebans were paying this tribute to Erginos for the following reason. Clymenos, king of the Minyans,
Book II: band 39
had been wounded in the sanctuary of Poseidon at Onchestos when he was struck by a stone thrown by a charioteer of Menoiceus,
a man called Perieres; and Clymenos was carried back to Orchomenos half-dead, and as he was dying, he ordered his son, Erginos, to avenge his death. So Erginos mounted an expedition against Thebes, killed no small number of the Thebans, and concluded a treaty with them, sealed by oaths, that they should send tribute to him of a hundred cattle each year for twenty years. When Heracles met with the heralds who were travelling to Thebes for the tribute, he subjected them to a shameful mutilation; for he cut off their ears, noses, and hands, and tying these to their necks with cords, he told them to take that as tribute to Erginos and the Minyans. Outraged by this action, Erginos marched against Thebes. Heracles, who had received arms from Athene, took command of the Thebans, killed Erginos, and put the Minyans to flight; and he forced them to pay tribute to the Thebans at twice the aforementioned rate.
It happened that during the battle, Amphitryon, fighting with courage, met his death. As a prize of valour, Heracles received from Creon his eldest daughter, Megara, who bore him three sons, Therimachos, Creontiades, and Deicoon. And Creon gave his younger daughter to Iphicles, who already had a son, Iolaos, by Automedousa, daughter of Alcathous. And Rhadamanthys, son of Zeus, married Alcmene after the death of Amphitryon, and settled as an exile at Ocaleai in Boeotia.
Characters and houses
Io matters as wandering cow ancestress. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Danaos matters as father of fifty. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Perseus matters as Gorgon-slayer. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Heracles matters as labourer hero. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Eurystheus matters as taskmaster king. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Amphitryon matters as mortal father figure. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Alcmene matters as mother of twins. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Iolaus matters as helper. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Themes, motifs, style
Theme: Inachid stemma. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Danaid crime. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Perseus kit. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: twelve labours. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Heraclid future. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
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Meaning
This section advances the Library's map of Greek myth. Houses, labours, and wars are retrieval paths, not ornament.
Further source depth
Lynceus became king of Argos after Danaos, and had a son,
Abas, by Hypermnestra; and Abas had twin sons, Acrisios and Proitos, by Aglaia, daughter of Mantineus. The twins quarrelled with one another even while they were still in the womb, and when they grew up, they went to war over the kingdom. (It was during this war that they became the first inventors of shields.) Acrisios gained the upper hand and drove Proitos from Argos. Arriving in Lycia at the court of Iobates, or according to some, of Amphianax, Proitos married the king’s daughter, whom Homer calls Anteia,
His father-in-law, with a Lycian army, restored Proitos to his own land, and he took possession of Tiryns, which was fortified for him by the Cyclopes.
The brothers divided the whole of the Argolid between them, and made it their home, Acrisios ruling in Argos, and Proitos in Tiryns.
Bias, Melampous, and the daughters of Proitos
By Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaimon, Acrisios had a daughter, Danae, and Proitos had three daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, by Stheneboia. When the daughters of Proitos were fully grown, they went mad, because, according to Hesiod, they refused to accept the rites of Dionysos, or, according to Acousilaos, because they had disparaged the wooden image of Hera.
In their madness, they wandered through the whole of the Argolid, and then, after passing through Arcadia and the Peloponnese, rushed through the desert in a state of complete abandon. Melampous, the son of Amythaon and Eidomene, daughter of Abas, who was a diviner and the first man to discover that illnesses could be cured by drugs and purifications, promised to cure the girls if he was given a third of the kingdom in return. When Proitos refused to hand them over for treatment at such a high price, not only did the girls’ madness grow worse, but the other women
went mad also; for they too deserted their houses, destroyed their own children, and wandered into the wilderness. The calamity had developed to such an extreme that Proitos now offered to pay the demanded fee; but Melampous would promise to undertake the cure only if his brother Bias received a share of the land equal to his own. Fearing that if the cure were delayed, a still greater fee would be demanded of him, Proitos agreed to the cure on these terms.
So Melampous took the most vigorous of the young men, and with loud cries and ecstatic dancing, they chased the women out of the mountains and into Sicyon. During the pursuit, the eldest of Proitos’ daughters, Iphinoe, met her death; but the other two were duly purified, and recovered their reason. Proitos gave his daughters in marriage to Melampous and Bias, and later became the father of a son, Megapenthes.
Excursus: the story of Bellerophon Bellerophon, the son of Glaucos and grandson of Sisyphos, had accidentally killed his brother
Deliades (or according to some, Peiren, or according to others, Alcimenes) and came to Proitos to be purified. Stheneboia fell in love with him,
and sent word to him proposing an assignation; but when he refused, she told Proitos that Bellerophon had been sending her messages in the hope of seducing her. Proitos believed her, and gave Bellerophon a letter to deliver to Iobates,
which con tained a message that he should put Bellerophon to death; so when Iobates had read it, he told him to kill the Chimaera, believing that he would be destroyed by the monster. For it was no easy prey for a multitude of men, let alone for one, seeing that it was a single creature which yet had the power of three, having the foreparts of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and a third head in the middle
-a goat’s head, through which it breathed fire. The beast was devastating the land and destroying the cattle. It is said, furthermore, that this Chimaera was reared by Amisodaros,
as Homer has stated also, and was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, as Hesiod records. So Bellerophon climbed on to his winged horse, Pegasos,
the offspring of Medusa and Poseidon, and soaring high into the air, killed the Chimaera by shooting arrows at it from above. After his battle with the Chimaera, Iobates told him to fight against the Solymoi,
and when he had fulfilled that task also, ordered him to attack the Amazons. When he had killed these also, Iobates picked out the Lycians who were thought to excel at the time in youthful vigour,
and told them to mount an ambush and kill him. But when Bellerophon had killed all of these in addition, Iobates, marvelling at his strength, showed him the letter and urged him to remain at his court; and he gave him his daughter, Philonoe, in marriage, and left him the kingdom when he died.
Danae and the birth of Perseus When Acrisios consulted the oracle about the birth of male children, the god replied that his daughter would give birth to
a son who would kill him. For fear of this, Acrisios built a bronze chamber beneath the ground and kept Danae guarded within it. She was seduced none the less, some say by Proitos
(so giving rise to the quarrel between the brothers), while according to others, Zeus had intercourse with her by transforming himself into a shower of gold and pouring through the roof into Danae’s lap. Later, when Acrisios learned
that a child, Perseus, had been born to her, he refused to believe that she had been seduced by Zeus, and put his daughter into a chest along with her child, and threw it into the sea. The chest was cast ashore at Seriphos, where Dictys recovered it, and raised the child.
Perseus fetches the Gorgon’s head Polydectes, the brother of Dictys,
who was king of Seriphos at the time, fell in love with Danae; and when he was unable to achieve his desire now that Perseus was a grown man, he summoned his friends together, with Perseus amongst them, and claimed that he was gathering contributions for a marriage-offering
to enable him to marry Hippodameia, the daughter of Oinomaos. When Perseus declared that he would not deny him even the Gorgon’s head, Polydectes demanded horses from all the others, but did not take the horses of Perseus
and ordered him to fetch the Gorgon’s head. Guided by Hermes and Athene, he went to see the daughters of Phorcos:
Enyo, Pephredo, and Deino. Daughters of Phorcos by Ceto, they were sisters of the Gorgons, and had been old women from the time of their birth. The three of them had only a single eye and a single tooth, which they exchanged in turn between themselves. Perseus gained possession of the eye and tooth, and when they asked him to give them back, he said that he would surrender them if they showed him the way to the nymphs. These nymphs had in their possession some winged sandals,
and the kihisis , which is said to have been a kind of wallet, † They also had the cap [of Hades
]. When the daughters of Phorcos had told him the way, he returned the eye and tooth to them, and visited the nymphs and obtained what he desired. He slung the
around his neck, tied the sandals to his ankles, and placed the cap on his head; as long as he wore it, he could see whomever he wished while remaining invisible to others. After he had received in addition an adamantine sickle from Hermes, he flew to the Ocean, and when he arrived there, he caught the Gorgons asleep.
Their names were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Only Medusa was mortal, and for that reason it was her head that Perseus was sent to fetch. The Gorgons had heads with scaly serpents coiled around them, and large tusks like those of swine, and hands of bronze, and wings of gold which gave them the power of flight; and they turned all who beheld them to stone. So Perseus stood over them as they slept, and while Athene guided his hand, he turned aside, and looking into a bronze shield in which he could see the reflection of the Gorgon, he cut off her head. As her head was severed, Pegasos, the winged horse, and Chrysaor, the father of Geryon, sprang from the Gorgon’s body. (She had conceived them previously by Poseidon.
So Perseus placed Medusa’s head in the wallet, and as he was making his way back, the Gorgons started from their sleep and tried to pursue him, but they were unable to see him because of the cap, which hid him from their view.
Perseus and Andromeda Arriving in Ethiopia, which was ruled by Cepheus, he found the king’s daughter Andromeda exposed as prey to a sea monster; for Cassiepeia,
the wife of Cepheus, had claimed to rival the Nereids in beauty, boasting that she surpassed them all. The Nereids were enraged by this, and Poseidon, who shared their anger, sent a sea-flood and a monster against the land. Now Ammon
As soon as Perseus saw her, he fell in love, and promised Cepheus that he would destroy the monster if he would give him the rescued girl as a wife. When oaths had been sworn to this effect, Perseus confronted
the monster and killed it, and set Andromeda free. Phineus, however, who was a brother of Cepheus and had been promised Andromeda beforehand, plotted against Perseus; but when Perseus learned of the conspiracy, he showed the Gorgon to Phineus and his fellow plotters, turning them to stone on the spot.
When he arrived back at Seriphos, he found that his mother and Dictys had sought refuge at the altars to escape the violence of Polydectes. So he went into the palace, where Polydectes had assembled his friends, and turning his head aside, he displayed the Gorgon’s head. All who beheld it were turned to stone, each in the position he happened to have assumed at the time. And then, after making Dictys king of Seriphos, he restored the sandals, wallet, and cap to Hermes, and gave the Gorgon’s head to Athene. Hermes returned the aforesaid objects to the nymphs and Athene fixed the Gorgon’s head to the centre of her shield. But there are some who say that Medusa lost her head because of Athene-for they say that the Gorgon had claimed to rival the goddess in beauty.
Perseus, accompanied by Danae and Andromeda, hurried off to Argos to see Acrisios. But when Acrisios learned of this, he feared what the oracle had predicted,
and left Argos and travelled to the land of the Pelasgians. Now Teutamides, king of Larissa,
was holding an athletic contest in honour of his dead father, and Perseus came to take part. While competing in the pentathlon, he threw his discus and struck Acrisios on the foot, killing him
instantly. Realizing that the oracle had been fulfilled, he buried Acrisios outside the city, and then, because he was ashamed to go to Argos to claim the inheritance of one who had died at his own hand, he went to Megapenthes, son of Proitos, and arranged an exchange of kingdoms with him, placing Argos in his hands. So in this way Megapenthes became king of the Argives, and Perseus king of Tiryns; and Perseus fortified Midea and Mycenae
in addition. The immediate descendants of Perseus
By Andromeda, Perseus had the following sons, first, before their arrival in Greece, Perses, whom he left behind with Cepheus (and from whom, they say, the kings of Persia are descended), and later, in Mycenae, Alcaios, Sthenelos, Heleios, Mestor, and Electryon; he also had a daughter, Gorgophone, who became the wife of Perieres.
Alcaios had a son, Amphitryon, and a daughter, Anaxo, by Astydameia, daughter of Pelops (or according to some, by Laonome, daughter of Gouneus, or according to others, by Hipponome, daughter of Menoiceus); and Mestor and Lysidice, daughter of Pelops, had a daughter, Hippothoe. Hippothoe was carried off by Poseidon, who took her to the Echinadian Islands, where he had intercourse with her, fathering Taphios, who colonized Taphos and called his people the
from the land of his birth. To Taphios a son, Pterelaos, was born, whom Poseidon made immortal by planting a golden hair in his head; and Pterelaos had six sons, Chromios, Tyrannos, Antiochos, Chersidamas, Mestor, and Everes.
Electryon married Anaxo, the daughter of Alcaios, and fathered a daughter, Alcmene, and nine sons, [Stratobates,] Gorgophonos, Phylonomos, Celaineus, Amphimachos, Lysinomos, Cheirimachos, Anactor, and Archelaos; and after these, he also had an illegitimate son, Licymnios, by a Phrygian woman, Mideia.
Sthenelos had Alcyone and Medusa, by Nicippe, daughter of Pelops, and afterwards he had a son, Eurystheus, who also ruled in Mycenae. For when Heracles was due to be born, Zeus declared before the gods that the descendant of Perseus who was then about to be born
would become king of Mycenae, and Hera, out of jealousy, persuaded the Eileithuiai
to delay Alcmene’s delivery, and arranged that Eurystheus, the son of Sthenelos, should be born at seven months. The exile of Amphitryon
While Electryon was ruling at Mycenae, the sons of Pterelaos came there with Taphios and claimed back the kingdom of [their maternal grandfather]
Mestor; and when Electryon disregarded their claim, they drove his cattle away. The sons of Electryon tried to rescue them, and they challenged and killed one another. Of the sons of Electryon, only Licymnios survived, because he was still a child, and of the sons of Pterelaos only Everes, who was guarding the ships. Those of the Taphians who escaped sailed away taking the stolen cattle, which they left in the care of Polyxenos, king of the Eleans; but Amphitryon ransomed them from Polyxenos and brought them back to Mycenae. Wanting to avenge the death of his sons, Electryon planned an expedition against the Teleboans. He entrusted the kingdom to Amphitryon, together with his daughter Alcmene, making him swear an oath that he would respect her virginity until his return. As he was receiving his cows back, however, one of them rushed forward, and Amphitryon let fly at her with the club that he had in his hands, but it rebounded from her horns to hit Electryon on the head, striking him dead.
Sthenelos grasped this as a pretext to banish Amphitryon from the whole of Argos and seize power for himself in Mycenae and Tiryns; as for Midea, he summoned Atreus and Thyestes, the sons of Pelops, and entrusted the city to them.
Heracles, and the Heraclids Amphitryon in Thebes, and the mar against the Teleboans
Amphitryon went to Thebes with Alcmene and Licymnios and was purified by Creon, and he gave his sister, Perimede, to Licymnios as a wife. And since Alcmene said that she would marry him
when he had avenged the death of her brothers, he promised to do so, and, inviting Creon’s assistance, he prepared to march against the Teleboans. Creon said that he would join the expedition if Amphitryon would first rid the Cadmeia of the vixen
(for the Cadmeia was being devastated by a savage vixen). But even if somebody engaged to do so, it was fated that nobody could catch her.
Such harm was being caused to the country that each month the Thebans exposed a son of
one of their citizens to her, for she would otherwise have carried off a great number of them. So Amphitryon visited Cephalos, son of Deioneus,
in Athens, and in return for a share of the plunder from the Teleboans, he persuaded him to bring to the hunt the dog
that Procris had been given by Minos and brought over from Crete; for it was fated that this dog would catch whatever it chased. So it came about that as the vixen was being pursued by the dog, Zeus turned both of them to stone.
With the help of his allies, Cephalos from Thoricos in Attica, Panopeus from Phocis, Heleios, son of Perseus, from Helos in the Argolid, and Creon from Thebes, Amphitryon sacked the islands of the Teleboans. Now as long as Pterelaos was still alive, Amphitryon was unable to capture Taphos; but when Comaitho, the daughter of Pterelaos, who had fallen in love with Amphitryon, plucked the golden hair from her father’s head, he died, and Amphitryon gained control of all the islands. He then put Comaitho to death
and sailed to Thebes with the plunder, giving the islands to Heleios and Cephalos, who founded cities that bear their name and settled in them.
The birth and early life of Heracles
Before Amphitryon arrived back in Thebes, Zeus came to the city by night, and tripling the length of that single night, he assumed the likeness of Amphitryon and went to bed with Alcmene, telling her all that had happened in the war with the Teleboans. When Amphitryon arrived and saw that his wife was welcoming him with no great ardour, he asked her the reason; and when she replied that he had come the previous night and slept with her, he found out from Teiresias about her intercourse with Zeus.
Alcmene gave birth to two sons, Heracles, who was the son of Zeus and the elder by a night, and Iphicles, whom she bore to Amphitryon.
When Heracles was eight months old, Hera, wanting to destroy the child, sent two huge serpents to his bed. Alcmene cried out for Amphitryon, but Heracles leapt up and killed the serpents
by strangling them, one in each hand. According to
Pherecydes, however, it was Amphitryon who placed the serpents in the bed, because he wanted to find out which of the children was his own; and seeing that Iphicles fled while Heracles stood his ground, he realized that Iphicles was his child.
Heracles was taught chariot-driving by Amphitryon, wrestling by Autolycos, archery by Eurytos, fencing by Castor, and lyre-playing by Linos. This Linos was a brother of Orpheus, who had arrived in Thebes and become a Theban citizen, but was killed by Heracles with a blow from his lyre (for Linos had struck him,
and Heracles lost his temper and killed him). When a charge of murder was brought against Heracles, he cited a law of Rhadamanthys
saying that if a person defends himself against another who has initiated the violence, he should suffer no penalty. So Heracles was acquitted. And Amphitryon, fearing that he might do something similar again, sent him to his herds; and there he grew up, surpassing all others in size and strength. The mere sight of him was enough to show that he was a son of Zeus: for his body measured four cubits, a fiery gleam shone from his eyes, and he never missed his mark with his arrows or javelins.
While he was still with the herds, and was now eighteen, he killed the lion of Cithairon, a beast that used to make incursions from Cithairon to destroy the cattle of Amphitryon and Thespios.
This last was king of Thespiae, and Heracles visited him when he wanted to kill the lion. He was entertained by him for fifty days, and each night after Heracles went out to the hunt, Thespios arranged that one of his daughters should go to bed with him. For he had fifty of them, borne to him by Megamede, daughter of Arneos, and he was eager that they should all conceive children by Heracles.
And Heracles, in the belief that he was always sleeping with the same woman, had intercourse with all of them. When he had overcome the lion, he dressed in its skin,
and used its gaping mouth as a helmet. Heracles and the Minyans; his first marriage, and madness
As he was returning from the hunt, he was met by some heralds who had been sent by Erginos to collect the tribute
from the Thebans. The Thebans were paying this tribute to Erginos for the following reason. Clymenos, king of the Minyans,
had been wounded in the sanctuary of Poseidon at Onchestos when he was struck by a stone thrown by a charioteer of Menoiceus,
a man called Perieres; and Clymenos was carried back to Orchomenos half-dead, and as he was dying, he ordered his son, Erginos, to avenge his death. So Erginos mounted an expedition against Thebes, killed no small number of the Thebans, and concluded a treaty with them, sealed by oaths, that they should send tribute to him of a hundred cattle each year for twenty years. When Heracles met with the heralds who were travelling to Thebes for the tribute, he subjected them to a shameful mutilation; for he cut off their ears, noses, and hands, and tying these to their necks with cords, he told them to take that as tribute to Erginos and the Minyans. Outraged by this action, Erginos marched against Thebes. Heracles, who had received arms from Athene, took command of the Thebans, killed Erginos, and put the Minyans to flight; and he forced them to pay tribute to the Thebans at twice the aforementioned rate.
It happened that during the battle, Amphitryon, fighting with courage, met his death. As a prize of valour, Heracles received from Creon his eldest daughter, Megara, who bore him three sons, Therimachos, Creontiades, and Deicoon. And Creon gave his younger daughter to Iphicles, who already had a son, Iolaos, by Automedousa, daughter of Alcathous. And Rhadamanthys, son of Zeus, married Alcmene after the death of Amphitryon, and settled as an exile at Ocaleai in Boeotia.
Heracles, who had been taught archery earlier by [Eurytos],
received a sword from Hermes, a bow and arrows from Apollo, a golden breastplate from Hephaistos, and a robe from Athene; and he cut a club for himself at Nemea.
After his battle with the Minyans, it came about that Heracles was struck by madness through the jealousy of Hera, and threw his own children, who had been borne to him by Megara, into the fire, together with two of Iphicles’ children. Condemning himself to exile on this account, he was purified by Thespios and went to Delphi to ask the god where he should
settle. It was on this occasion that the Pythia
called him Heracles for the first time (for until then he had been called Alceides). She told him to settle in Tiryns while he served Eurystheus for twelve years, and to accomplish the [ten] labours
that would be imposed on him; and then, she said, after the labours had been accomplished, he would come to be immortal. First labour: the Nemean lion
On hearing this, Heracles went to Tiryns and fulfilled what
Eurystheus demanded of him. Eurystheus began by ordering him to fetch the skin of the Nemean lion; this was an invulnerable beast fathered by Typhon.
As he was travelling to confront the lion, Heracles arrived at Cleonai and stayed with a labourer called Molorchos; and when Molorchos wanted to offer a victim in sacrifice, Heracles told him to wait for thirty days, and then, if he had returned safely from the hunt, to offer a sacrifice to Zeus the Saviour, but if he had died, to offer it to himself as a hero.
On reaching Nemea, he sought out the lion, and began by shooting arrows at it, but when he discovered that the beast was invulnerable, he raised his club and chased after it. When the lion took refuge in a cave which had two entrances, Heracles walled up one of them and went in through the other to attack the beast; and throwing his arm round its neck, he held it in a stranglehold until he had throttled it. And hoisting it on to his shoulders, he carried it back to Cleonai. Coming upon Molorchos on the last of the thirty days as he was about to sacrifice to him as a dead hero, Heracles sacrificed to Zeus the Saviour instead, and proceeded to Mycenae with the lion. Astounded by his bravery, Eurystheus refused him entry to the city from that day forth, and told him to exhibit his trophies in front of the gates. They say, furthermore, that in his alarm he had a bronze jar made for himself to hide in beneath the ground, and that he conveyed his commands for the labours through a herald, Copreus,
a son of Pelops the Elean. (Copreus had feld to Mycenae because he had killed Iphitos, and had settled there after he had been purified by Eurystheus.)
Book II further 130
Second labour: the Lernaean hydra As a second labour, Eurystheus ordered Heracles to kill the Lernaean hydra;
this creature had grown up in the swamp of Lerna, and used to make incursions into the plain and destroy the cattle and the countryside. The hydra had a body of enormous size, and nine heads,
of which eight were mortal, but the one in the centre immortal. So climbing on to a chariot driven by Iolaos, Heracles made his way to Lerna, and halting his horses there, he discovered the hydra on a hill by the springs of Amymone,
where it had its lair. By hurling flaming brands at it, he forced it to emerge, and as it came out, he seized it and grasped it firmly. But it twined itself round one of his legs, and clung to him. By striking the hydra’s heads off with his club Heracles achieved nothing, for as soon as one was struck off, two grew up in its place; and a huge crab came to its assistance by biting Heracles on the foot. So he killed the crab, and summoned assistance on his own account by calling Iolaos,
who set fire to part of the neighbouring forest, and using brands from it, burned out the roots of the hydra’s heads to prevent them from regrowing. And when, by this means, he had prevailed over the regenerating heads, he cut off the immortal head, buried it, and placed a heavy rock over it by the road that leads through Lerna to Elaious. As for the body of the hydra, he slit it open and dipped his arrows into its gall. Eurystheus declared, however, that this labour should not be counted among the ten, because Heracles had not overcome the hydra on his own, but only with the help of Iolaos.
As a third labour, Eurystheus ordered him to bring the Cerynitian hind alive to Mycenae. This hind, which had golden horns, lived at Oinoe, and was sacred to Artemis;
so Heracles, wanting neither to kill it nor wound it, pursued it for a full year. When the hind, worn out by the chase, fled for refuge to the mountain known as Artemision, and from there towards the River Ladon, Heracles struck it with an arrow
as it was about to cross over the stream, and was thus able
to catch it; and then, settling it on his shoulder, he hurried through Arcadia. But he came across Artemis in the company of Apollo, and she wanted to take the hind away from him, accusing him of trying to kill an animal that was sacred to her. By pleading necessity, however, and saying that the person responsible was Eurystheus, he allayed the anger of the goddess and brought the animal alive to Mycenae.
As a fourth labour, Eurystheus ordered him to bring the Erymanthian boar alive. This beast was causing havoc in Psophis, sallying forth from the mountain known as Erymanthos. While Heracles was passing through Pholoe, he was entertained as a guest by the Centaur Pholos, son of Seilenos and a Melian nymph. The Centaur served roasted meat to Heracles, but he himself ate it raw. When Heracles asked for wine, he said that he was afraid to open the jar that was the common property of the Centaurs;
but Heracles urged him to take courage, and opened it up. Not long afterwards, the Centaurs became aware of the smell, and appeared at Pholos’ cave armed with rocks and fir trees. The first who dared to come inside, Anchios and Agrios, were put to flight by Heracles, who hurled flaming brands at them; and he pursued the others with arrows as far as Malea, where they took refuge with Cheiron (who had settled there after he had been driven from Mount Pelion by the Lapiths).
As the Centaurs clung to Cheiron for safety, Heracles shot an arrow at them, which passed through the arm of Elatos and lodged in Cheiron’s knee. Distressed at this, Heracles ran up to him, pulled out the arrow, and applied a potion which Cheiron gave to him; but when the wound turned out to be incurable, Cheiron withdrew to his cave. He wanted to die, but was incapable of doing so because he was immortal. Only when Prometheus offered himself to Zeus to become immortal in his place was Cheiron able to die.
The rest of the Centaurs fled in all directions; some went to Malea, while Eurytion went to Pholoe, and Nessos to the River Evenos. The rest were received at Eleusis by Poseidon, who hid them under a mountain. Pholos, for his part, had pulled
an arrow from a corpse, marvelling that so small a thing could kill creatures of such a size; but the arrow slipped from his hand and landed on his foot, killing him instantly.
When Heracles returned to Pholoe and saw that Pholos was dead, he buried him and went out to hunt the boar. He chased the beast from the thicket with loud cries; and thrusting it exhausted into deep snow, he trapped it in a noose, and took it to Mycenae.
As a fifth labour, Eurystheus ordered Heracles to remove the dung of the cattle of Augeias without assistance in a single day. Augeias was the king of Elis, and, according to some, he was a son of the Sun, or according to others, of Poseidon, or again, of Phorbas; and he owned many herds of cattle. Heracles went up to him, and without disclosing Eurystheus’ order, said that he would remove the dung in a single day if Augeias would give him a tenth of his cattle. Augeias gave his word, not believing that he could do it. After he had engaged Phyleus, the son of Augeias, as a witness, Heracles made a breach in the foundations of [the wall surrounding] the cattle yard, and then, diverting the courses of the Alpheios and the Peneios which flowed nearby, he channelled their water into the yard, after first making an outlet through another breach. When Augeias discovered that the task had been accomplished on the order of Eurystheus, he refused to pay the reward,
and went so far as to deny that he had ever promised to pay a reward, saying that he was ready to submit to arbitration on the matter. When the judges had taken their seats, Phyleus was called by Heracles and testified against his father,
saying that he had agreed to pay a reward to Heracles. Augeias flew into a rage, and before the vote had been cast, ordered both Phyleus and Heracles to depart from Elis. So Phyleus went to Doulichion and settled there; and Heracles visited Dexamenos in Olenos. He caught him as he was about to give his daughter, Mnesimache, under compulsion to the Centaur Eurytion; and when he was asked to help, Heracles killed Eurytion as he arrived to claim his bride. Eurystheus would not accept this labour
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Book III
Book III: beat spine
Book III: chain
Agenorid stemma
Theban force map
Central claim
Theban tragedy and Cretan maze myths sit inside one Inachid-Agenorid genealogical tree. Genealogy carries episode; episode feeds the next house.
Plot and dossier order
Europa Cadmos: search becomes founding. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Minos Pasiphae: Minotaur. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Spartoi: dragon teeth. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Semele Dionysos: madness tours. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Laios Oedipus: Sphinx. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Seven gates: mutual kill. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Epigoni: second war. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Second pass (dense bands)
BOOK III 6. Cretan and Theban mythology (the Inachids, Agenorid line) The abduction of Europa to Crete, and dispersal of the sons of Agenor
Having now reached the point in our account of the family
of Inachos where we have covered the descendants of Belos as far as the Heraclids, we must proceed next to the line of Agenor. As we have said,
Book III: band 1
Libya had two sons by Poseidon named Belos and Agenor: Belos became king of Egypt and fathered the sons who were mentioned above, but Agenor went away to Phoenicia, where he married Telephassa and had a daughter, Europa, and three sons, Cadmos, Phoenix, and Cilix. (It is said by some,
however, that Europa was not Agenor’s daughter, but a daughter of Phoenix.) Zeus fell in love with Europa, and taking the form of a docile bull whose breath smelled of roses,
he took her on his back and carried her across the sea to Crete. There he had intercourse with her, and she gave birth to Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys (though according to Homer,
Sarpedon was a son of Zeus by Laodameia, daughter of Bellerophon).
When Europa disappeared, her father Agenor sent his sons in search of her, telling them not to return until they had found her. Her mother, Telephassa, joined them in the search, as did Thasos, son of Poseidon, or according to Pherecydes, of Cilix. But when they had searched high and low and were still unable to find her, they abandoned any thought of returning home, and each of them settled in a different place. Phoenix settled in Phoenicia, and Cilix in its vicinity, giving the name Cilicia to all the land that lay under his control near the River Pyramos. Cadmos and Telephassa went to live in Thrace, as did Thasos, who founded the city of Thasos in Thrace
and settled there. Minos and his brothers
Book III: band 3
Europa became the wife of Asterios, ruler of the Cretans, who raised her children. When they grew up, they quarreled with one another,
for they fell in love with the same boy, who was called Miletos and was a son of Apollo by Areia, daughter of Cleochos. When the boy responded more favourably to Sarpedon, Minos went to war and gained the upper hand. The others fled. Miletos landed in Caria
and founded a city there, naming it Miletos after himself; and in return for a share of the territory, Sarpedon became an ally of Cilix, who was at war with the Lycians, and he became king of Lycia. And Zeus granted him the privilege of living for three generations. According to some accounts, however, the brothers fell in love with Atymnios, son of Zeus and Cassiepeia, and it was over him that they quarrelled.
Rhadamanthys laid down laws for the islanders, but later fled to Boeotia and married Alcmene;
and following his death, he sits as a judge with Minos in Hades.
Minos lived in Crete, where he enacted laws, and married Pasiphae, daughter of the Sun and Perseis (though according to Asclepiades his wife was Crete, daughter of Asterios). His sons were Catreus, Deucalion, Glaucos, and Androgeos, and his daughters Acalle, Xenodice, Ariadne, and Phaedra. By a nymph, Pareia, he had Eurymedon, Nephalion, Chryses, and Philolaos, and by Dexithea, a son, Euxanthios.
Book III: band 5
Minos, Pasiphae, and the origin of the Minotaur
When Asterios died without offspring, Minos wanted to become king of Crete, but he encountered opposition. So he claimed that the kingdom had been granted to him by the gods, and to make people believe him, he said that whatever he prayed for would come to pass. And during a sacrifice to Poseidon, he prayed that a bull should appear from the deep, promising to sacrifice it when it appeared. When Poseidon responded by sending up a magnificent bull, Minos acquired the kingdom; but he sent the bull away to join his herds and sacrificed another.†
Poseidon, angry with Minos for having failed
to sacrifice the bull, turned it savage, and caused Pasiphae to conceive a desire for it. Becoming infatuated with the bull, Pasiphae enlisted the help of Daidalos, an architect who had been exiled from Athens for murder.
He built a wooden cow, mounted it on wheels, hollowed it out, sewed round it the hide from a cow that he had skinned, and placing it in the meadow where the bull habitually grazed, he made Pasiphae climb inside. The bull came up to it and had intercourse with it as if it were a genuine cow. As a result, she gave birth to Asterios, who was called the Minotaur;
he had the face of a bull, but the rest of his body was human. In obedience to some oracles, Minos kept him enclosed in the Labyrinth. This Labyrinth, which Daidalos had constructed, was a building ‘that with a maze of winding ways confused the passage out’.
Book III: band 7
As for the tale of the Minotaur, and Androgeos, and Phaedra, and Ariadne, we will speak of that later
in our account of Theseus. Catreus and Althaimenes Catreus, son of Minos, had three daughters, Aerope,
Clymene, and Apemosyne, and a son, Althaimenes. When he consulted the oracle
to discover how his life would come to an end, the god said that he would die at the hand of one of his children. He tried to keep the oracles secret, but Althaimenes came to hear of them, and fearing that he would become his father’s murderer, he sailed away from Crete with his sister Apemosyne; and coming to land at a place in Rhodes, he took possession of it and named it Cretinia. After climbing the mountain known as Atabyrion,
he surveyed the surrounding islands; and catching sight of Crete also and remembering the gods of his fathers, he erected an altar to Atabyrian Zeus. Not long afterwards, he became the murderer of his sister. For Hermes had conceived a passion for her, but when she fled from him and he was unable to catch her because she was so much faster on her feet, he spread hides from freshly skinned animals across her path, and she slipped on them as she returned from the spring, and was raped by him; and she informed her brother of what had happened, but he took the god to be merely an excuse, and kicked her, causing her death.
Catreus gave Aerope and Clymene to Nauplios, to be sold in foreign lands. Pleisthenes married one of the sisters, Aerope,
Book III: band 9
and fathered two sons, Agamemnon and Menelaos, while Nauplios married Clymene and became the father of Oiax and Palamedes.
Later, when he was gripped by old age, Catreus was anxious to transfer the kingdom to his son Althaimenes, and travelled to Rhodes with that in mind. When he disembarked, however, with the Cretans at a desolate spot on the island, he was driven back by the cowherds, who thought that pirates had landed. When he tried to tell them the truth of the matter, they were unable to hear him because of the barking dogs, and as they were pelting him, Althaimenes arrived and killed him with a javelin throw, not realizing that he was Catreus. Afterwards, when he discovered what had happened, he was swallowed up by a chasm in answer to his prayer.
Polyidos and the revival of Glaucos To Deucalion were born Idomeneus and Crete, and an illegitimate
when he was still a young child, fell into a jar of honey while he was chasing a mouse, and was drowned. After his disappearance, Minos conducted a thorough search and consulted diviners about how he could find him. The Curetes told him that in his herds he had a three-coloured cow, and that the person who could suggest the best image to describe its colours would also be able to return his son to him alive. When the diviners were assembled, Polyidos,
son of Coiranos, compared the cow’s colouring to a blackberry, and when he was made to search for the child, he discovered him by a certain kind of divination.
Minos declared, however, that he wanted him back alive, and Polyidos was shut in with the dead body. When he was at his wit’s end, he saw a snake approach the body; and fearing that he himself would be killed if any harm came to the body, he threw a stone at the snake and killed it. But then another snake appeared, and seeing that the first one was dead, it went off and then came back again carrying a herb, which it applied to the whole body of its
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fellow. No sooner was the herb applied than the first snake came back to life. Viewing all this with wonderment, Polyidos applied the same herb to the body of Glaucos and brought him back to life.
Minos had now recovered his son, but all the same, he would not allow Polyidos to depart to Argos until he had taught Glaucos the art of divination. So under compulsion, Polyidos taught him; but as Polyidos was sailing off, he told Glaucos to spit into his mouth, and when Glaucos did so, he forgot all knowledge of divination. As regards the descendants of Europa, this is where we must call a halt.
Cadmos and the foundation of Thebes When Telephassa died, Cadmos saw to her burial, and after
receiving hospitality from the Thracians, went to Delphi to enquire about Europa. The god told him that he should not worry about Europa, but should take a cow to guide him, and found a city at the place where it fell down exhausted. After receiving this oracle, he travelled through Phocis, and coming across a cow from the herds of Pelagon,
he followed in its footsteps. It passed through Boeotia, and sank to the earth where the city of Thebes now lies. Wishing to sacrifice the cow to Athene, he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of Ares; but the spring was guarded by a dragon, which was said by some to be the offspring of Ares, and it killed most of those who were sent for the water. Angered by this, Cadmos killed the dragon, and then, following the advice of Athene, sowed its teeth. No sooner were they sown than fully armed men sprang up from the earth, who were called the
Spartoi They killed one another, some entering into conflict deliberately,
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and some out of ignorance. According to Pherecydes, however, when Cadmos saw fully armed men springing up from the earth, he hurled stones at them, and they, believing that they were being pelted by one another, fought amongst themselves. Five of them survived, namely, Echion, Oudaios, Chthonios, Hyperenor, and Peloros.
To atone for the killing, Cadmos served Ares as a labourer for an everlasting year
(for a year in those times lasted eight of our own). After the completion of his servitude, Athene consigned the
kingdom to him, and Zeus gave him Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares, as a wife. And all the gods left the sky to take part in the wedding feast on the Cadmeia
and join in the singing. Cadmos gave his wife a robe and the necklace fashioned by Hephaistos, which according to some accounts had been given to him by Hephaistos himself, though according to Pherecydes it was given to him by Europa, who had received it from Zeus. Cadmos had four daughters, Autonoe, Ino, Semele, and Agave, and a son, Polydoros. Ino became the wife of Athamas, Autonoe the wife of Aristaios, and Agave the wife of Echion.
Semele and Dionysos; the death ofActaion
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As for Semele, Zeus fell in love with her, and slept with her in secret from Hera. Now Zeus had engaged to do whatever Semele asked, and as the result of a deception by Hera,
she asked him to come to her just as he had come when he was courting Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus came to her bedchamber in a chariot to the accompaniment of lightning and thunder, and hurled a thunderbolt. Semele died of fright, but Zeus snatched her aborted sixth-month child from the fire, and sewed it into his thigh. (After Semele’s death, the other daughters of Cadmos spread the tale that Semele had slept with a mortal but falsely laid the blame on Zeus, and that she had been struck down with a thunderbolt because of that.
) When the appropriate time arrived, Zeus brought Dionysos to birth by untying the stitches, and handed him over to Hermes, who took him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to bring him up as a girl. But Hera in her fury drove them mad,
and Athamas hunted his eldest son Learchos in the belief he was a deer and killed him, while Ino threw Melicertes into a cauldron of boiling water, and carrying it with her dead child inside, leaped into the sea. She is known as Leucothea
and her son is known as Palaimon-these were the names given to them by mariners, who receive help from them when they are caught in storms. The Isthmian Games were founded in honour of Melicertes
on the orders of Sisyphos. As for Dionysos, Zeus rescued him from the anger of Hera
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by turning him into a kid; and Hermes gathered him up and took him to some nymphs who lived at Nysa in Asia, those whom Zeus later turned into a constellation, naming them the Hyades.
Autonoe and Aristaios had a son, Actaion, who was brought up by Cheiron to be a hunter and was later devoured on Cithairon by his own dogs. According to Acousilaos, he met such a death because Zeus was angry with him for courting Semele, but most authors ascribe it to the fact that he saw Artemis bathing.
The goddess, they say, transformed him instantly into a deer and drove his pack of fifty dogs into a frenzy, causing them to devour him without recognizing who he was. Once he was dead, the dogs searched for their master, howling all the while, until their search brought them to the cave of Cheiron, who made an image of Actaion, which brought their grief to an end†
After his discovery of the vine, Dionysos was driven mad by Hera
and roamed around Egypt and Syria. He was welcomed first by Proteus, king of the Egyptians, but then arrived at Cybela in Phrygia, and after he had been purified by Rhea and learned the rites of initiation,
and had received the [initiate’s] robe from her, he hurried through Thrace to attack the Indians. Lycourgos,
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son of Dryas, the ruler of the Edonians, who live by the River Strymon, was the first to insult and expel him. Dionysos sought refuge in the sea with Thetis, daughter of Nereus, while the Bacchai
were taken prisoner along with the crowd of Satyrs
who followed in his train. But later the Bacchai were suddenly set free, and Lycourgos was driven mad by Dionysos. During his madness, Lycourgos, believing that he was pruning a vine branch,
killed his son Dryas with blows from his axe and had cut off his limbs by the time he recovered his senses. When the land remained barren, the god declared in an oracle that it would become fruitful again if Lycourgos were put to death. On hearing this, the Edonians took him to Mount Pangaion and tied him up, and there he died through the will of Dionysos, killed by horses.
After travelling through Thrace and the whole of India, where he set up pillars, he arrived in Thebes,
where he forced the women to desert their houses and abandon themselves to
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Bacchic frenzy on Mount Cithairon. But Pentheus, a son of Echion by Agave, who had inherited the throne from Cadmos, tried to put an end to these practices, and when he went to Mount Cithairon to spy on the Bacchai, he was torn to pieces by his mother Agave, who, in her frenzy, took him for a wild beast. Having shown the Thebans that he was a god, he went to Argos, and there again, when they failed to honour him, he drove the women mad, and they carried their unweaned children into the mountains and feasted on their flesh.
Wanting to make the sea-passage from Icarios to Naxos, he chartered a pirate ship with a crew of Tyrrhenians. When they had him on board,
however, they sailed past Naxos and pressed on towards Asia hoping to sell him. But he changed the mast and oars into snakes and filled the craft with ivy and the sound of flutes; and the pirates went mad, and jumped into the sea, where they turned into dolphins.
In this way, men came to know that he was a god and paid due honour to him; and after he had brought his mother up from Hades and named her Thyone, he ascended to heaven in her company.
Successors and usurpers at Thebes Cadmos left Thebes with Harmonia and went to the land of the Encheleans.
Now the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, and the god had revealed to them in an oracle that they would obtain victory over the Illyrians if they had Cadmos and Harmonia as their leaders. In obedience to the god, they engaged them as their leaders against the Illyrians, and gained the upper hand. Cadmos became king of the Illyrians and had a son, Illyrios. Later he was turned into a snake
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together with Harmonia, and sent to the Elysian Fields by Zeus.
When Polydoros became king of Thebes, he married Nycteis, the daughter of Nycteus, [son of] Chthonios, and had a son, Labdacos, who lost his life after Pentheus because he thought in much the same way
as him. He left a one-year-old child, Laios, but Lycos, the brother of Nycteus, seized control of the government as long as Laios remained a child. The
two brothers had fled [from Euboea] because they had kilted Phlegyas, son of Ares and Dotis the Boeotian, and had settled at Hyria;
and [from there, they had moved to Thebes,
] where they became citizens as a result of their friendship with Pentheus. So it came to pass that Lycos, after being chosen as polemarch
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by the Thebans, seized supreme power, and ruled for twenty years until he was murdered by Zethos and Amphion, for the following reason.
Antiope was a daughter of Nycteus; and Zeus had intercourse with her. When she turned out to be pregnant and her father threatened her, she ran away to Epopeus
in Sicyon, and became his wife. Nycteus was thrown into such despondency that he killed himself,
ordering Lycos to punish Epopeus and Antiope. So Lycos marched against Sicyon, killed Epopeus, and took Antiope prisoner. On the way back, she gave birth to two sons at Eleutherai in Boeotia. They were exposed, but a cowherd discovered them and brought them up, calling one of them Zethos and the other Amphion. Zethos devoted himself to cattle-rearing, while Amphion practised singing to the lyre (for he had been given a lyre by Hermes). As for Antiope, Lycos and his wife Dirce kept her in confinement and ill-treated her. One day, however, without her jailers knowing it, her bonds untied themselves of their own accord, and she made her way to her sons’ farmhouse, hoping to find refuge with them. Recognizing her as their mother, they killed Lycos, and bound Dirce to a bull, and then, when she was dead, hurled her body into the spring that bears the name of Dirce on her account.
After taking power, they built a wall around the city (the stones followed the sound of Amphion’s lyre
) and they expelled Laios. He went to live in the Peloponnese as a guest of Pelops; and while he was teaching Pelops’ son Chrysippos how to drive a chariot, he fell in love with him and carried him off.
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Zethos married Thebe, from whom the city of Thebes derives its name, and Amphion married Niobe, daughter of Tantalos, who bore him seven sons, Sipylos, Eupinytos, Ismenos, Damasichthon,
Agenor, Phaidimos, and Tantalos, and the same number of daughters, Ethodaia (or according to some, Neaira), Cleodoxa, Astyoche, Phthia, Pelopia, Astycrateia, and Ogygia. According to Hesiod, however, they had ten sons and ten daughters, while Herodoros says that they had two male and three female children, and Homer
that they had six sons and six daughters. Having so many children, Niobe said that she was better blessed with children than Leto; and Leto was so angered by this that she incited Artemis and Apollo against them, and Artemis shot down the female children inside the house, and Apollo all the male children as they were hunting on Mount Cithairon. Of the males, Amphion alone survived,
and of the females, only the eldest, Chloris,
who later became the wife of Neleus (though according to Telesilla, those who survived were Amyclas and Meliboia, and Amphion was amongst their victims). Niobe herself left Thebes and went to stay with her father Tantalos at Sipylos; and there, in response to her prayers to Zeus, she was transformed into a stone
that streams with tears by night and day. Laios and Oedipus After the death of Amphion,
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Laios took over the kingdom. He married a daughter of Menoiceus whom some call Iocaste, others Epicaste.
An oracle from the gods had warned him not to have a child, for if he did, the son who would be born to him would become his father’s murderer; but while he was drunk with wine, he had intercourse with his wife. When the child was born, he pierced its ankles with buckle-pins and passed it to a herdsman for exposure. But when he exposed it on Mount Cithairon, the herdsmen of Polybos, king of Corinth, discovered the baby and brought it to the king’s wife, Periboia. She took him in and passed him off as her own son, and after she had healed his ankles she called him
Oedipus giving him that name because of his swollen feet
When the boy grew up and surpassed the others of his age in strength, they grew jealous and poured scorn on him for being a supposititious child.
He questioned Periboia but could learn nothing from her, so he went to Delphi and asked
who his true parents were. The god told him not to return to his native land, for if he did, he would murder his father and sleep with his mother. Hearing this, and believing that he really was born from those who were said to be his parents, he kept away from Corinth. But as he was travelling through Phocis in his chariot, he came across Laios, also driving in a chariot, on a certain narrow track.
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And when Polyphontes, the herald of Laios, told him to make way, and killed one of his horses because he refused to obey or was slow to do so, Oedipus was enraged and killed both Polyphontes and Laios; and he drove on to Thebes.
Laios was buried by Damasistratos, king of Plataea, and Creon, son of Menoiceus,
succeeded to the throne. During his reign, a disaster of no small proportion struck Thebes; for Hera sent the Sphinx.
The mother of the Sphinx was Echidna and her father Typhon, and she had the face of a woman, the chest, feet, and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird. She had learned a riddle from the Muses, and seated on Mount Phicion, she posed it to the Thebans. The riddle ran as follows: what is it that has a single voice,
and has four feet, and then two feet, and then three feet? Now the Thebans possessed an oracle telling them that they would be freed from the Sphinx when they solved her riddle, so they gathered together repeatedly to seek the solution; but when they failed to discover it, the Sphinx would carry one of them off and devour him. When many had died in this way, including, ultimately, Creon’s son Harmon, Creon proclaimed that he would give both the kingdom and the widow of Laios to the man who could solve the riddle. When Oedipus heard of this, he supplied the answer, saying that the riddle of the Sphinx referred to man; for he is four-footed as a baby when he crawls on all fours, two-footed as an adult, and takes on a third limb in old age in the form of a stick. So the Sphinx hurled herself from the Acropolis, and Oedipus took over the kingdom, and also, without realizing it, married his mother. He had two sons by her, Polyneices and Eteocles, and two daughters, Ismene and Antigone. There are some who say, however, that these children were born to him by Euryganeia,
daughter of Hyperphas. Afterwards, when what was unknown was revealed, Iocaste
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hanged herself in a noose, and Oedipus put out his eyes and was driven from Thebes, cursing his sons,
who watched him being expelled from the city without coming to his aid. Arriving with Antigone at Colonos in Attica, where the sanctuary of the Eumenides
lies, he sat down there as a suppliant and received a friendly reception from Theseus, and died not long afterwards. 7. The Theban Wars
Eteocles and the exile of Polyneices to Argos Eteocles and Polyneices came to an agreement over the
throne, deciding that each of them should rule in alternate years. Some say that Polyneices was the first to rule, and that after a year he surrendered the throne to Eteocles; while according to others, Eteocles was the first to rule, and refused to give up the throne.
In any case, Polyneices was exiled from Thebes and arrived in Argos, bringing with him the necklace and robe [of Harmonia]. Argos was ruled at that time by Adrastos, son of Talaos;
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and as Polyneices was approaching his palace by night, he became involved in a fight with Tydeus, son of Oineus, who had fled there from Calydon.
In response to the sudden outbreak of shouting, Adrastos came out and separated the pair; and calling to mind the advice of a diviner who told him to yoke his daughters to a boar and a lion, he chose the two of them as their husbands, because one of them had the front half of a boar on his shield and the other that of a lion.
So Tydeus married Deipyle and Polyneices, Argeia; and Adrastos promised to restore both of them to their native lands. He was eager to march against Thebes initially, and gathered together the leading warriors.
Prelude in Argos: Amphiaraos and Eriphyle
But Amphiaraos, son of Oicles, who was a diviner and foresaw that all who took part in the expedition except for Adrastos were destined to be killed, was reluctant to join the
expedition himself and tried to dissuade the others. Polyneices went to Iphis,
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son of Alector, and asked to be told how Amphiaraos could be compelled to take part; and he replied that this could be brought to pass if Eriphyle gained possession of the necklace. Although Eriphyle had been told by Amphiaraos not to accept gifts from Polyneices, he gave her the necklace and asked her to persuade Amphiaraos to join the expedition. This lay within her power, because earlier, when [a conflict had] arisen between Amphiaraos and Adrastos,
Amphiaraos had sworn at its conclusion that if he had any future disagreements with Adrastos, he would allow Eriphyle to decide
between them. So now, when there was to be a campaign against Thebes and it was supported by Adrastos but opposed by Amphiaraos, Eriphyle, on receiving the necklace, persuaded her husband to march with Adrastos. Joining the expedition under compulsion, Amphiaraos left orders for his sons telling them to kill their mother when they came of age and mount a campaign against Thebes.
The advance against Thebes and stationing of the champions When he had assembled [an army] under seven leaders,
Adrastos hastened to war against Thebes. The leaders were the following: Adrastos, son of Talaos; Amphiaraos, son of Oicles; Capaneus, son of Hipponoos; Hippomedon, son of Aristo-machos or according to some, of Talaos; all of these came from Argos, but Polyneices, son of Oedipus, came from Thebes, while Tydeus, son of Oineus, was an Aetolian, and Parthenopaios, son of Melanion, an Arcadian. In some sources, however, Tydeus and Polyneices are not counted amongst the seven, and Eteoclos, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus are listed instead.
When they arrived at Nemea, which was then under the rule of Lycourgos,
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they went in search of water; and Hypsipyle showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind a young child, Opheltes. This was a son of Eurydice and Lycourgos who was being reared by Hypsipyle; for when the Lemnian women had discovered that [her father] Thoas had been spared,
they had killed him and sold Hypsipyle abroad, and for that reason she was serving with Lycourgos as a purchased
slave. As she was pointing the way to the spring, the child who had been left behind was killed by a snake; and when Adrastos and his companions reappeared, they killed the snake and buried the child. Amphiaraos told them that this was a sign foretelling what would happen in the future: so they named the child
Characters and houses
Cadmos matters as Thebes founder. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Europa matters as abducted sister. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Minos matters as Cretan law king. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Dionysos matters as twice-born god. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Oedipus matters as solver and pollutant. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Eteocles matters as brother-king. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Polyneices matters as exile attacker. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Teiresias matters as blind seer. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Themes, motifs, style
Theme: Agenorid split Crete/Thebes. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Minotaur origin. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Dionysseic violence. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Oedipus file. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Theban wars. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
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Meaning
This section advances the Library's map of Greek myth. Houses, labours, and wars are retrieval paths, not ornament.
Further source depth
To atone for the killing, Cadmos served Ares as a labourer for an everlasting year
(for a year in those times lasted eight of our own). After the completion of his servitude, Athene consigned the
kingdom to him, and Zeus gave him Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares, as a wife. And all the gods left the sky to take part in the wedding feast on the Cadmeia
and join in the singing. Cadmos gave his wife a robe and the necklace fashioned by Hephaistos, which according to some accounts had been given to him by Hephaistos himself, though according to Pherecydes it was given to him by Europa, who had received it from Zeus. Cadmos had four daughters, Autonoe, Ino, Semele, and Agave, and a son, Polydoros. Ino became the wife of Athamas, Autonoe the wife of Aristaios, and Agave the wife of Echion.
Semele and Dionysos; the death ofActaion
As for Semele, Zeus fell in love with her, and slept with her in secret from Hera. Now Zeus had engaged to do whatever Semele asked, and as the result of a deception by Hera,
she asked him to come to her just as he had come when he was courting Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus came to her bedchamber in a chariot to the accompaniment of lightning and thunder, and hurled a thunderbolt. Semele died of fright, but Zeus snatched her aborted sixth-month child from the fire, and sewed it into his thigh. (After Semele’s death, the other daughters of Cadmos spread the tale that Semele had slept with a mortal but falsely laid the blame on Zeus, and that she had been struck down with a thunderbolt because of that.
) When the appropriate time arrived, Zeus brought Dionysos to birth by untying the stitches, and handed him over to Hermes, who took him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to bring him up as a girl. But Hera in her fury drove them mad,
and Athamas hunted his eldest son Learchos in the belief he was a deer and killed him, while Ino threw Melicertes into a cauldron of boiling water, and carrying it with her dead child inside, leaped into the sea. She is known as Leucothea
and her son is known as Palaimon-these were the names given to them by mariners, who receive help from them when they are caught in storms. The Isthmian Games were founded in honour of Melicertes
on the orders of Sisyphos. As for Dionysos, Zeus rescued him from the anger of Hera
by turning him into a kid; and Hermes gathered him up and took him to some nymphs who lived at Nysa in Asia, those whom Zeus later turned into a constellation, naming them the Hyades.
Autonoe and Aristaios had a son, Actaion, who was brought up by Cheiron to be a hunter and was later devoured on Cithairon by his own dogs. According to Acousilaos, he met such a death because Zeus was angry with him for courting Semele, but most authors ascribe it to the fact that he saw Artemis bathing.
The goddess, they say, transformed him instantly into a deer and drove his pack of fifty dogs into a frenzy, causing them to devour him without recognizing who he was. Once he was dead, the dogs searched for their master, howling all the while, until their search brought them to the cave of Cheiron, who made an image of Actaion, which brought their grief to an end†
After his discovery of the vine, Dionysos was driven mad by Hera
and roamed around Egypt and Syria. He was welcomed first by Proteus, king of the Egyptians, but then arrived at Cybela in Phrygia, and after he had been purified by Rhea and learned the rites of initiation,
and had received the [initiate’s] robe from her, he hurried through Thrace to attack the Indians. Lycourgos,
son of Dryas, the ruler of the Edonians, who live by the River Strymon, was the first to insult and expel him. Dionysos sought refuge in the sea with Thetis, daughter of Nereus, while the Bacchai
were taken prisoner along with the crowd of Satyrs
who followed in his train. But later the Bacchai were suddenly set free, and Lycourgos was driven mad by Dionysos. During his madness, Lycourgos, believing that he was pruning a vine branch,
killed his son Dryas with blows from his axe and had cut off his limbs by the time he recovered his senses. When the land remained barren, the god declared in an oracle that it would become fruitful again if Lycourgos were put to death. On hearing this, the Edonians took him to Mount Pangaion and tied him up, and there he died through the will of Dionysos, killed by horses.
After travelling through Thrace and the whole of India, where he set up pillars, he arrived in Thebes,
where he forced the women to desert their houses and abandon themselves to
Bacchic frenzy on Mount Cithairon. But Pentheus, a son of Echion by Agave, who had inherited the throne from Cadmos, tried to put an end to these practices, and when he went to Mount Cithairon to spy on the Bacchai, he was torn to pieces by his mother Agave, who, in her frenzy, took him for a wild beast. Having shown the Thebans that he was a god, he went to Argos, and there again, when they failed to honour him, he drove the women mad, and they carried their unweaned children into the mountains and feasted on their flesh.
Wanting to make the sea-passage from Icarios to Naxos, he chartered a pirate ship with a crew of Tyrrhenians. When they had him on board,
however, they sailed past Naxos and pressed on towards Asia hoping to sell him. But he changed the mast and oars into snakes and filled the craft with ivy and the sound of flutes; and the pirates went mad, and jumped into the sea, where they turned into dolphins.
In this way, men came to know that he was a god and paid due honour to him; and after he had brought his mother up from Hades and named her Thyone, he ascended to heaven in her company.
Successors and usurpers at Thebes Cadmos left Thebes with Harmonia and went to the land of the Encheleans.
Now the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, and the god had revealed to them in an oracle that they would obtain victory over the Illyrians if they had Cadmos and Harmonia as their leaders. In obedience to the god, they engaged them as their leaders against the Illyrians, and gained the upper hand. Cadmos became king of the Illyrians and had a son, Illyrios. Later he was turned into a snake
together with Harmonia, and sent to the Elysian Fields by Zeus.
When Polydoros became king of Thebes, he married Nycteis, the daughter of Nycteus, [son of] Chthonios, and had a son, Labdacos, who lost his life after Pentheus because he thought in much the same way
as him. He left a one-year-old child, Laios, but Lycos, the brother of Nycteus, seized control of the government as long as Laios remained a child. The
two brothers had fled [from Euboea] because they had kilted Phlegyas, son of Ares and Dotis the Boeotian, and had settled at Hyria;
and [from there, they had moved to Thebes,
] where they became citizens as a result of their friendship with Pentheus. So it came to pass that Lycos, after being chosen as polemarch
by the Thebans, seized supreme power, and ruled for twenty years until he was murdered by Zethos and Amphion, for the following reason.
Antiope was a daughter of Nycteus; and Zeus had intercourse with her. When she turned out to be pregnant and her father threatened her, she ran away to Epopeus
in Sicyon, and became his wife. Nycteus was thrown into such despondency that he killed himself,
ordering Lycos to punish Epopeus and Antiope. So Lycos marched against Sicyon, killed Epopeus, and took Antiope prisoner. On the way back, she gave birth to two sons at Eleutherai in Boeotia. They were exposed, but a cowherd discovered them and brought them up, calling one of them Zethos and the other Amphion. Zethos devoted himself to cattle-rearing, while Amphion practised singing to the lyre (for he had been given a lyre by Hermes). As for Antiope, Lycos and his wife Dirce kept her in confinement and ill-treated her. One day, however, without her jailers knowing it, her bonds untied themselves of their own accord, and she made her way to her sons’ farmhouse, hoping to find refuge with them. Recognizing her as their mother, they killed Lycos, and bound Dirce to a bull, and then, when she was dead, hurled her body into the spring that bears the name of Dirce on her account.
After taking power, they built a wall around the city (the stones followed the sound of Amphion’s lyre
) and they expelled Laios. He went to live in the Peloponnese as a guest of Pelops; and while he was teaching Pelops’ son Chrysippos how to drive a chariot, he fell in love with him and carried him off.
Zethos married Thebe, from whom the city of Thebes derives its name, and Amphion married Niobe, daughter of Tantalos, who bore him seven sons, Sipylos, Eupinytos, Ismenos, Damasichthon,
Agenor, Phaidimos, and Tantalos, and the same number of daughters, Ethodaia (or according to some, Neaira), Cleodoxa, Astyoche, Phthia, Pelopia, Astycrateia, and Ogygia. According to Hesiod, however, they had ten sons and ten daughters, while Herodoros says that they had two male and three female children, and Homer
that they had six sons and six daughters. Having so many children, Niobe said that she was better blessed with children than Leto; and Leto was so angered by this that she incited Artemis and Apollo against them, and Artemis shot down the female children inside the house, and Apollo all the male children as they were hunting on Mount Cithairon. Of the males, Amphion alone survived,
and of the females, only the eldest, Chloris,
who later became the wife of Neleus (though according to Telesilla, those who survived were Amyclas and Meliboia, and Amphion was amongst their victims). Niobe herself left Thebes and went to stay with her father Tantalos at Sipylos; and there, in response to her prayers to Zeus, she was transformed into a stone
that streams with tears by night and day. Laios and Oedipus After the death of Amphion,
Laios took over the kingdom. He married a daughter of Menoiceus whom some call Iocaste, others Epicaste.
An oracle from the gods had warned him not to have a child, for if he did, the son who would be born to him would become his father’s murderer; but while he was drunk with wine, he had intercourse with his wife. When the child was born, he pierced its ankles with buckle-pins and passed it to a herdsman for exposure. But when he exposed it on Mount Cithairon, the herdsmen of Polybos, king of Corinth, discovered the baby and brought it to the king’s wife, Periboia. She took him in and passed him off as her own son, and after she had healed his ankles she called him
Oedipus giving him that name because of his swollen feet
When the boy grew up and surpassed the others of his age in strength, they grew jealous and poured scorn on him for being a supposititious child.
He questioned Periboia but could learn nothing from her, so he went to Delphi and asked
who his true parents were. The god told him not to return to his native land, for if he did, he would murder his father and sleep with his mother. Hearing this, and believing that he really was born from those who were said to be his parents, he kept away from Corinth. But as he was travelling through Phocis in his chariot, he came across Laios, also driving in a chariot, on a certain narrow track.
And when Polyphontes, the herald of Laios, told him to make way, and killed one of his horses because he refused to obey or was slow to do so, Oedipus was enraged and killed both Polyphontes and Laios; and he drove on to Thebes.
Laios was buried by Damasistratos, king of Plataea, and Creon, son of Menoiceus,
succeeded to the throne. During his reign, a disaster of no small proportion struck Thebes; for Hera sent the Sphinx.
The mother of the Sphinx was Echidna and her father Typhon, and she had the face of a woman, the chest, feet, and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird. She had learned a riddle from the Muses, and seated on Mount Phicion, she posed it to the Thebans. The riddle ran as follows: what is it that has a single voice,
and has four feet, and then two feet, and then three feet? Now the Thebans possessed an oracle telling them that they would be freed from the Sphinx when they solved her riddle, so they gathered together repeatedly to seek the solution; but when they failed to discover it, the Sphinx would carry one of them off and devour him. When many had died in this way, including, ultimately, Creon’s son Harmon, Creon proclaimed that he would give both the kingdom and the widow of Laios to the man who could solve the riddle. When Oedipus heard of this, he supplied the answer, saying that the riddle of the Sphinx referred to man; for he is four-footed as a baby when he crawls on all fours, two-footed as an adult, and takes on a third limb in old age in the form of a stick. So the Sphinx hurled herself from the Acropolis, and Oedipus took over the kingdom, and also, without realizing it, married his mother. He had two sons by her, Polyneices and Eteocles, and two daughters, Ismene and Antigone. There are some who say, however, that these children were born to him by Euryganeia,
daughter of Hyperphas. Afterwards, when what was unknown was revealed, Iocaste
hanged herself in a noose, and Oedipus put out his eyes and was driven from Thebes, cursing his sons,
who watched him being expelled from the city without coming to his aid. Arriving with Antigone at Colonos in Attica, where the sanctuary of the Eumenides
lies, he sat down there as a suppliant and received a friendly reception from Theseus, and died not long afterwards. 7. The Theban Wars
Eteocles and the exile of Polyneices to Argos Eteocles and Polyneices came to an agreement over the
throne, deciding that each of them should rule in alternate years. Some say that Polyneices was the first to rule, and that after a year he surrendered the throne to Eteocles; while according to others, Eteocles was the first to rule, and refused to give up the throne.
In any case, Polyneices was exiled from Thebes and arrived in Argos, bringing with him the necklace and robe [of Harmonia]. Argos was ruled at that time by Adrastos, son of Talaos;
and as Polyneices was approaching his palace by night, he became involved in a fight with Tydeus, son of Oineus, who had fled there from Calydon.
In response to the sudden outbreak of shouting, Adrastos came out and separated the pair; and calling to mind the advice of a diviner who told him to yoke his daughters to a boar and a lion, he chose the two of them as their husbands, because one of them had the front half of a boar on his shield and the other that of a lion.
So Tydeus married Deipyle and Polyneices, Argeia; and Adrastos promised to restore both of them to their native lands. He was eager to march against Thebes initially, and gathered together the leading warriors.
Prelude in Argos: Amphiaraos and Eriphyle
But Amphiaraos, son of Oicles, who was a diviner and foresaw that all who took part in the expedition except for Adrastos were destined to be killed, was reluctant to join the
expedition himself and tried to dissuade the others. Polyneices went to Iphis,
son of Alector, and asked to be told how Amphiaraos could be compelled to take part; and he replied that this could be brought to pass if Eriphyle gained possession of the necklace. Although Eriphyle had been told by Amphiaraos not to accept gifts from Polyneices, he gave her the necklace and asked her to persuade Amphiaraos to join the expedition. This lay within her power, because earlier, when [a conflict had] arisen between Amphiaraos and Adrastos,
Amphiaraos had sworn at its conclusion that if he had any future disagreements with Adrastos, he would allow Eriphyle to decide
between them. So now, when there was to be a campaign against Thebes and it was supported by Adrastos but opposed by Amphiaraos, Eriphyle, on receiving the necklace, persuaded her husband to march with Adrastos. Joining the expedition under compulsion, Amphiaraos left orders for his sons telling them to kill their mother when they came of age and mount a campaign against Thebes.
The advance against Thebes and stationing of the champions When he had assembled [an army] under seven leaders,
Adrastos hastened to war against Thebes. The leaders were the following: Adrastos, son of Talaos; Amphiaraos, son of Oicles; Capaneus, son of Hipponoos; Hippomedon, son of Aristo-machos or according to some, of Talaos; all of these came from Argos, but Polyneices, son of Oedipus, came from Thebes, while Tydeus, son of Oineus, was an Aetolian, and Parthenopaios, son of Melanion, an Arcadian. In some sources, however, Tydeus and Polyneices are not counted amongst the seven, and Eteoclos, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus are listed instead.
When they arrived at Nemea, which was then under the rule of Lycourgos,
they went in search of water; and Hypsipyle showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind a young child, Opheltes. This was a son of Eurydice and Lycourgos who was being reared by Hypsipyle; for when the Lemnian women had discovered that [her father] Thoas had been spared,
they had killed him and sold Hypsipyle abroad, and for that reason she was serving with Lycourgos as a purchased
slave. As she was pointing the way to the spring, the child who had been left behind was killed by a snake; and when Adrastos and his companions reappeared, they killed the snake and buried the child. Amphiaraos told them that this was a sign foretelling what would happen in the future: so they named the child
And in his honour, they founded the Isthmian Games. The horse race was won by Adrastos, the foot-race by Eteoclos, the boxing by Tydeus, the jumping and discus-throwing by Amphiaraos, the javelin-throwing by Laodocos, the wrestling by Polyneices, and the archery by Parthenopaios.
On their arrival at Cithairon, they sent Tydeus ahead to give notice to Eteocles that he should surrender the kingdom to Polyneices in accordance with their agreement. When Eteocles paid no attention, Tydeus, wanting to test out the Thebans, challenged them to single combat and was victorious every time. The Thebans for their part armed fifty men and set an ambush for him on his departure; but he killed all of them, except for Maion, and made his way back to the camp.
The Argives took up their arms and advanced towards the walls. There were seven gates,
and Adrastos stationed himself in front of the Homoloidian Gate, Capaneus in front of the Ogygian, Amphiaraos in front of the Proitidian, Hippomedon in front of the Oncaidian, Polyneices in front of the Hypsistan, Parthenopaios in front of the Electran, and Tydeus in front of the Crenidian. Eteocles, on his side, armed the Thebans and appointed an equivalent number of leaders, stationing each of them opposite his counterpart. And he consulted the diviners to discover how they could prevail over the enemy.
Excursus: the earlier history of Teiresias
7 Now there lived amongst the Thebans a diviner, Teiresias, son of Everes and the nymph Chariclo. He was a descendant of Oudaios, one of the Spartoi, and had lost the use of his eyes; on how he came to be blind and gained his prophetic powers, conflicting stories are told. Some say that he was blinded by the gods because he divulged to the human race what they
wanted to keep concealed. Or according to Pherecydes, he was blinded by Athene; for Athene and Chariclo were close friends [and it came about that he] saw the goddess completely naked,
and she covered his eyes with her hands, depriving him of his sight. When Chariclo begged her to restore the use of his eyes, she lacked the power to do so, but purified his ears instead, giving him a complete understanding of the language of birds.
She also gave him a cornel-wood staff, thus enabling him, while he carried it, to walk like those who can see. Hesiod says,
however, that he caught sight of some snakes coupling near Mount Cyllene, and when he injured the snakes, he was changed from a man to a woman; but when he saw the same snakes coupling on a further occasion, he became a man again. And for this reason, when Zeus and Hera were having an argument as to whether men or women gain more pleasure from love-making, they consulted Teiresias. He said that judging the act of love on a scale of ten, men get one part of the pleasure and women nine parts.
On that account, Hera turned him blind, but Zeus granted him the gift of prophecy;† and he lived to a considerable age. The Theban victory and its aftermath
So when the Thebans consulted him, Teiresias told them that they would be victorious if Menoiceus, the son of Creon, offered himself as a sacrifice to Ares.
On hearing this prophecy, Menoiceus, son of Creon, slaughtered himself in front of the gates. In the ensuing battle, the Cadmeians were chased back to their walls, and Capaneus seized a ladder and was using it to climb the wall when Zeus struck him down
When this took place, the Argives turned and fled. Because so many had died, Eteocles and Polyneices, in accordance with the decision of both armies, fought for the throne in single combat and killed one another. Fierce fighting broke out once again, and the sons of Astacos performed deeds of valour, Ismaros killing Hippomedon, Leades killing Eteoclos, and Amphidicos killing Parthenopaios (though according to Euripides, Parthenopaios was killed by Periclymenos, son of Poseidon). And Melanippos, the last of the sons of Astacos,
wounded Tydeus in the stomach. As he lay half dead, Athene asked Zeus for a remedy and brought it along, with the intention of applying it to make him immortal. But Amphiaraos realized what she intended, and in his hatred against Tydeus for persuading the Argives to march against Thebes in opposition to his own judgement, he cut off the head of Melanippos (for Tydeus, although wounded, had killed Melanippos
) and gave it to Tydeus, who split it open and gulped down the brains. At the sight of this, Athene was so revolted that she withheld her intended favour and refused to grant it. Amphiaraos fled beside the River Ismenos, and before Periclymenos could wound him in the back, Zeus hurled a thunderbolt to open a chasm in the earth. And Amphiaraos was swallowed up in it, together with his chariot and his charioteer Baton (or according to some, Elaton); and Zeus made him immortal.
Adrastos, the sole survivor, was saved by his horse Areion (which Demeter had borne to Poseidon after having intercourse with him in the likeness of a Fury
Creon, who then succeeded to the Theban throne, caused
the bodies of the Argive dead to be thrown out unburied, issued a proclamation that nobody should bury them, and posted guards. But Antigone, one of the daughters of Oedipus, stole the body of Polyneices and gave it a secret burial; and when she was caught in the act, she was buried alive in the grave by Creon himself.
Adrastos made his way to Athens, where he sought refuge at the altar of Pity, and placing a suppliant’s bough
on the altar, he asked to be allowed to bury his dead. The Athenians marched against Thebes with Theseus, captured the city,
and gave the dead to their relatives for burial. As the pyre of Capaneus was blazing, his wife Evadne, daughter of Iphis, threw herself on to it and was burned with her husband.
The Epigoni and the Second Theban War Ten years later, the sons of the fallen, who were called the Epigoni,
decided to mount an expedition against Thebes because they wanted to avenge the death of their fathers. When they consulted the oracle, the god foretold victory if Alcmaion
was their leader. Although Alcmaion had no desire to lead the expedition before he had punished his mother, he went to war none the less; for Eriphyle, on receiving the robe [of Harmonia] from Polyneices’ son Thersandros, persuaded her sons also to take part
in the expedition. So taking Alcmaion as their leader, the Epigoni went to war against Thebes. Those who took part in the expedition were the following: Alcmaion and Amphilochos, sons of Amphiaraos; Aigialeus, son of Adrastos; Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Promachos, son of Parthenopaios; Sthenelos, son of Capaneus; Thersandros, son of Polyneices; and Euryalos, son of Mecisteus.
They began by sacking the villages in the neighbourhood of Thebes, and then, when the Thebans under Laodamas, son of Eteocles, advanced against them, they fought with valour. Laodamas killed Aigialeus,
but was killed in his turn by Alcmaion, and after his death the Thebans fled inside their walls. Teiresias then advised them to send a herald to the Argives to talk about a truce while they themselves made their escape. So they sent a herald to the enemy, and in the meantime loaded their women and children on to the wagons and fled from the city. They arrived by night at a spring called Tilphoussa, and as Teiresias drank from it, his life came to an end. After travelling a great distance, the Thebans founded the city of Hestiaia
When the Argives eventually learned that the Thebans had fled, they entered the city, where they gathered together the plunder and pulled down the walls. They sent part of the plunder to Delphi as an offering to Apollo, and with it Manto, daughter of Teiresias; for they had made a vow that if they captured Thebes, they would dedicate the finest of the spoils to the god.
After the capture of Thebes, when Alcmaion learned that his mother Eriphyle had accepted bribes to his detriment also, his outrage was all the greater, and in obedience to an oracle granted him by Apollo, he put his mother to death. Some say that he killed her with the help of his brother Amphilochos, others that he did so on his own. Alcmaion was pursued by
and overcome by madness, he went first to Oicles in Arcadia and then to Phegeus in Psophis; and after he had been purified by Phegeus, he married his daughter Arsinoe, and gave her the necklace and the robe. But afterwards, as a result of his presence, the earth grew barren, and he was told by the god in an oracle to depart to Acheloos and receive from him [a land which had not yet been seen by the Sun
]. So he went first to Oineus in Calydon, who offered him hospitality, and then to the Thesprotians, who drove him from their country; but finally he arrived at the springs of Acheloos, and was purified by him, and received his daughter, Callirrhoe, in marriage. And on land that Acheloos had formed by laying down his silt, he founded a city and settled there.
Later, Callirrhoe wanted to acquire the necklace and the robe, and told Alcmaion that she would no longer live with him unless she obtained them; so he went back to Psophis and told Phegeus that he had been informed by an oracle
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Epitome
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Troy chain
Central claim
Troy and the returns are told as the last great stemma's catastrophe, in summary prose that still names the killers. Genealogy carries episode; episode feeds the next house.
Plot and dossier order
Theseus labours: Minotaur Ariadne. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Pelopids: Atreus Thyestes. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Apple Paris: Helen taken. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Aulis: Iphigenia. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Iliad digest: Achilles Hector. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Horse: sack. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Nostoi: Orestes. The handbook moves one stemma-notch without tragic padding.
Second pass (dense bands)
EPITOME Thirdly, he killed at Crommyon the sow known as Phaia,
which was named after the old woman who had reared it; some say that it was the offspring of Echidna and Typhon.
Fourthly he killed Sceiron the Corinthian, a son of Pelops, or, according to some, of Poseidon. Sceiron occupied the rocks in the Megarid which are named the Sceironian Rocks because of him, and forced passers-by to wash his feet; and as they did so, he would kick them into the deep to become the prey of a giant turtle.
Epitome: band 1
But Theseus grasped Sceiron by the feet and flung him [into the sea]. Fifthly, in Eleusis, he killed Cercyon, son of Branchos and a nymph, Argiope. Cercyon forced passers-by to wrestle with him, and killed them during the fight. Theseus raised him into the air and dashed him to the ground.
Sixthly, he killed Damastes, whom some call Polypemon.
He had a house by the roadside and made up two beds, one small and the other large. Offering hospitality to passers-by, he would place short men on the large bed and beat them out with hammers to make them the same length as the bed, but tall men he would place on the small bed, and saw off the parts of their bodies that projected beyond it.
So in this way, Theseus cleared the road, and arrived in Athens. But Medea, who was married to Aigeus at the time, schemed against him
and persuaded Aigeus to beware of him, alleging that he was a conspirator. Aigeus, failing to recognize him as his son, was afraid, and sent him out against the bull of Marathon
in the expectation that he would be destroyed by it.
Epitome: band 3
When Theseus had killed the beast, Aigeus offered him some poison that he had received from Medea that very day. But as Theseus was about to drink the potion, he presented the sword to his father, and when Aigeus recognized it, he knocked the cup out of his hands. After he had been recognized by his father and informed of the plot, Theseus drove Medea from the land.
Theseus, Ariadne, and the killing of the Minotaur When the third tribute was sent to the Minotaur,
he was included on the list, or, according to some, he offered himself as a volunteer. As the ship had a black sail, Aigeus ordered his son to raise white sails on it if he came back alive.
When Theseus arrived in Crete, Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with him and promised to assist him if he would agree to take her away to Athens and have her as his wife. When Theseus agreed on oath to do so, she asked Daidalos to reveal how it was possible to escape from the Labyrinth.
On his advice, she gave Theseus a thread as he entered. He attached it to the door and played it out as he went in; and discovering the Minotaur in the innermost part of the Labyrinth, he killed it with blows from his fists, and then made his way out again by pulling back on the thread. [On the journey back,] he arrived at Naxos by night with Ariadne and the children.
There Dionysos fell in love with Ariadne
Epitome: band 5
and carried her off; and taking her to Lemnos, he had intercourse with her, fathering Thoas, Staphylos, Oinopion, and Peparethos.
In his grief for Ariadne, Theseus forgot to spread white sails on his ship as he put into port. And when Aigeus saw from the Acropolis that the ship had a black sail, he thought that Theseus had died, and threw himself down to his death.
Theseus then succeeded him as king of Athens, and killed the sons of Pallas,
who were fifty in number; and in the same way, all who tried to rebel were killed by him, and he held sole power.
Excursus: Daidalos and Icaros, and the death of Minos
When Minos learned that Theseus and his companions had escaped, he enclosed Daidalos-who was to blame for it-in the Labyrinth, together with his son Icaros (who had been borne to him by Naucrate, a slave of Minos). But Daidalos constructed wings for himself and his son; and as his son took flight, he warned him not to fly too high, for fear that the glue would be melted by the sun and the wings would come loose, nor to fly too close to the sea, for fear that they would come loose because of the moisture.
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instructions and in his elation soared higher and higher; and when the glue melted, he plunged into the sea which is named the Icarian Sea
because of him, and perished. [Daidalos for his part escaped safely to Camicos in Sicily.]
Minos went in pursuit of Daidalos, and to every land that he visited on his search, he brought a spiral shell and proclaimed that he would give a large reward to the man who could draw a thread through it, thinking that by this means he would be able to discover Daidalos. Arriving at Camicos in Sicily, he visited the court of Cocalos, with whom Daidalos was hiding, and displayed the shell. Cocalos took the shell, promising that he would thread it, and gave it to Daidalos.
Daidalos attached a thread to an ant, pierced a hole in the shell, and let the ant make its way through. When Minos received it back with the thread drawn through, he realized that Daidalos was staying with Cocalos and demanded at once that he be handed over. Cocalos promised to surrender him, and offered Minos his hospitality. But Minos was killed in his bath by the daughters of Cocalos; according to some, he died when boiling water was poured over him.
Theseus and the Amazons; Phaedra and Hippolytos Theseus accompanied Heracles on his expedition against the Amazons,
and he abducted Antiope, or according to some, Melanippe, or according to Simonides, Hippolyte. It was for that reason that the Amazons marched against Athens
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and after they had pitched camp by the Areiopagos, they were defeated by Theseus and the Athenians. Although he had a son, Hippolytos, by the Amazon,
he afterwards accepted Phaedra, daughter of Minos, as a wife from Deucalion,
put ting an end to their previous hostility. During the wedding celebrations, the Amazon who had been formerly married to him arrived fully armed with her fellow Amazons, and was on the point of killing the guests; but they closed the doors with all speed, and killed her. Or, according to some, she was killed in battle by Theseus.
After Phaedra had borne two children, Acamas and Demophon, to Theseus, she fell in love with Hippolytos, his
son by the Amazon, and asked him to sleep with her. But he hated all women
and shunned her embraces. So Phaedra, fearing that he might accuse her to his father, broke down the doors of her bedroom, ripped her clothing, and falsely accused him of rape.
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Theseus believed her and prayed to Poseidon for the destruction of Hippolytos. And when Hippolytos was riding in his chariot and drove it along the sea-shore,
Poseidon caused a bull to emerge from the breakers. The horses were panic-stricken and the chariot was dashed to pieces; and becoming entangled [in the reins], Hippolytos was dragged to his death. When Phaedra’s passion came to light, she hanged herself.
conceived a passion for Hera and tried to take her by force. Hera reported the matter to Zeus; and Zeus, wanting to know whether it was really the case, fashioned a cloud in Hera’s likeness and laid it down beside Ixion. When Ixion boasted that he had slept with Hera, Zeus fastened him to a wheel on which, as a punishment, he is whirled through the air by the force of the winds. As for the cloud, it gave birth to Centauros, a child by Ixion.
as an ally when he went to war against the Centaurs. For when Peirithoos had married Hippodameia, he had invited the Centaurs to the wedding feast as relatives of the bride.
But they were unaccustomed to wine, and drank it down so copiously that they became drunk; and when the bride was brought in, they tried to rape her. So Peirithoos took up arms, and aided by Theseus, engaged them in battle. Theseus killed a good number of them.]
Caineus was originally a woman, but after Poseidon had intercourse with her, she asked to become a man and to be invulnerable. For that reason, he had no concern for wounds during the battle with the Centaurs, and killed a large number of them. The survivors, however, surrounded him, and hammered him with fir trees until he was buried in the earth.
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Theseus came to an agreement with Peirithoos that both would marry daughters of Zeus. With the aid of Peirithoos,
he abducted Helen (then aged twelve) from Sparta for himself, and then, in the hope of winning Persephone as a bride for Peirithoos, made his way down to Hades. [While he was there,] the Dioscuri, with the Lacedaimonians and Arcadians, captured Athens,
and recovered Helen; and with her, they took away Aithra,
the daughter of Pittheus, as a captive. But Demophon and Acamas escaped. The Dioscuri also brought Menestheus
back from exile and entrusted the throne of Athens to him.
When Theseus arrived in Hades with Peirithoos, he became the victim of a trick. For on the pretence that they were about to enjoy his hospitality as guests, Hades asked them to sit down first on the Chair of Forgetfulness; and they became stuck to it,
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and were held down by coils of snakes. Peirithoos remained a prisoner in Hades ever after, but Heracles brought Theseus back to earth and sent him to Athens. He was driven from there by Menestheus, and went to Lycomedes,
who threw him into an abyss and killed him. 12. The Pelopids Tantalos The punishment suffered by Tantalos in Hades is to have
a stone suspended over him, and remain perpetually in a lake, seeing at either side of his shoulders fruit-laden trees growing by its bank; the water grazes his chin, but when he wants to drink from it, the water dries up, and when he wants to feed from the fruit, the trees and their fruits are raised by winds as high as the clouds. It is said by some that he suffers this punishment because he divulged the secrets of the gods to men and tried to share ambrosia with his friends.
Broteas, who was a hunter, failed to honour Artemis, and said that even fire could cause him no harm; so he went mad and threw himself into the fire.
Pelops and Hippodameia Pelops, after being slaughtered and boiled at the banquet of the gods, was more beautiful than ever when he was brought
back to life again, and because of his remarkable beauty, he became the beloved of Poseidon, who gave him a winged chariot
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which could run even across the sea without wetting its axles. Now Oinomaos, the king of Pisa,
had a daughter, Hippodameia, and whether it was because he had a passion for her, as some people say, or because he had been warned by an oracle that he would die at the hand of the man who married her, nobody was able to win her as his wife, since her father could not persuade her to have intercourse with him, and her suitors were put to death by him.
For he possessed arms and horses given to him by Ares, and offered his daughter’s hand to the suitors as the prize in a contest. Each suitor had to take Hippodameia on his own chariot and flee as far as the Isthmus of Corinth, and Oinomaos would immediately pursue him in full armour. If Oinomaos caught up with the suitor, he killed him, but if the suitor were not overtaken, he would win Hippodameia as his wife. In this way, he had killed numerous suitors (twelve according to some accounts). And he cut off the suitors’ heads and nailed them to his house.
Pelops too arrived to seek her hand; and when Hippodameia saw how beautiful he was, she fell in love with him, and persuaded Myrtilos, son of Hermes, to come to his aid. (This Myrtilos was Oinomaos’ charioteer.)
So Myrtilos, who loved her and wanted to please her, failed to insert the axlepins
into the wheel hubs, causing Oinomaos to be defeated in the race and to lose his life when he became entangled in the reins and was dragged to his death (though according to some, he was killed by Pelops). As he was dying, he cursed Myrtilos, recognizing his treachery, and prayed that he would perish at the hand of Pelops.
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So in this way, Pelops won Hippodameia; and when he arrived at a certain place accompanied by Myrtilos, he went away some small distance to fetch water for his wife, who was thirsty; and during that time, Myrtilos tried to rape her. When she told Pelops of this, he threw Myrtilos into the Myrtoan Sea
that bears his name, at Cape Geraistos. As Myrtilos fell, he hurled curses at the house of Pelops.
After he had made his way to the Ocean and been purified by Hephaistos, Pelops returned to Pisa in Elis and took over the kingdom of Oinomaos,
after first subjugating the land formerly known as Apia or Pelasgiotis, which he now named the Peloponnese after himself. Atreus and Thyestes
The sons of Pelops were Pittheus, Atreus, and Thyestes, amongst others. Now the wife of Atreus was Aerope, daughter of Catreus, and she was in love with Thyestes. And Atreus had once made a vow that he would sacrifice to Artemis the finest lamb born in his flock, but when a golden lamb appeared, they say that he failed to honour his vow,
and instead, he throttled it, and placed it in a chest
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for safe keeping; and it was given to Thyestes by Aerope, who had been seduced by him. For the Mycenaeans had received an oracle telling them to choose a Pelopid as their king, and they had sent for Atreus and Thyestes;
and while they were discussing who should be king, Thyestes declared before the crowd that the man to gain the throne should be the one who possessed the golden lamb. And when Atreus agreed to this, Thyestes produced the lamb and so became king.
But Zeus sent Hermes to Atreus, telling him to reach an agreement with Thyestes that Atreus should become king if the Sun reversed his course, and when Thyestes had agreed, the Sun went down in the east. Since the deity had clearly attested that Thyestes was a usurper, Atreus took over the kingdom and banished Thyestes.
But later, when he learned of the adultery,
he sent a herald to Thyestes suggesting a reconciliation; and when Thyestes arrived, Atreus, pretending friendship all the while, slaughtered Aglaos, Callileon, and Orchomenos, the children whom Thyestes had fathered by a naiad nymph, although they had sat down as suppliants on the altar of Zeus. He then dismembered them, boiled them, and served them to Thyestes without the extremities. And after he had swallowed them down, Atreus showed him the extremities and expelled him from the land.
Seeking to gain revenge by any means, Thyestes went to consult the oracle on the matter and received this response, that he would gain his revenge if he fathered a son by intercourse with his own daughter.
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by his daughter he fathered Aigisthos, who, when he reached manhood and learned that he was the son of Thyestes, killed Atreus and restored the kingdom to Thyestes.
[But Agamemnon and Menelaos were taken by their nurse to Polypheides, king of Sicyon, and he in turn sent them to Oineus, the Aetolian. Not long afterwards, Tyndareus brought them back again; and they expelled Thyestes, exacting an oath from him, when he sought refuge
at the altar of Hera, that he would settle in Cythera. They for their part became the sons-in-law of Tyndareus by marrying his daughters.
Agamemnon became king of Mycenae and married Clytemnestra, after killing her former husband Tantalos, son of Thyestes, along with his child. A son, Orestes, was born to him, and three daughters, Chrysothemis, Electra, and Iphigeneia. Menelaos married Helen and became king of Sparta after Tyndareus had entrusted the kingdom to him.
- The Trojan War The judgement of Paris and abduction of Helen Afterwards Alexander abducted Helen, in accordance, some
say, with the will of Zeus, so that his daughter would become famous for having brought Europe and Asia to war, or, as others have said, to ensure that the race of demigods
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would be raised to glory. For one of these reasons, Eris threw an apple
in front of Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite as a prize for the most beautiful, and Zeus instructed Hermes to take them to Alexander on Mount Ida, to be judged by him for their beauty. They promised to give Alexander gifts; Hera promised him universal dominion if she were preferred above all other women, while Athene offered victory in war, and Aphrodite the hand of Helen. He decided in favour of Aphrodite, and sailed to Sparta with ships built by Phereclos.
He was entertained for nine days by Menelaos, and on the tenth, when Menelaos departed for Crete to celebrate the funeral of his maternal grandfather Catreus,
Alexander persuaded Helen to go away with him. She abandoned Hermione, who was nine years old at the time, and loading most of the treasures
on board, she set out to sea with him by night. Hera sent a violent storm against them, which forced them to put in at Sidon;
and fearing that he might be pursued, Alexander delayed a long while in Phoenicia and Cyprus. When he thought that there was no further risk of pursuit, he went on to Troy with Helen.
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It is said by some, however, that Helen was stolen by Hermes in obedience to the will of Zeus and taken to Egypt, where she was entrusted to Proteus, king of the Egyptians, for safe keeping, and Alexander went to Troy with a phantom of Helen
fashioned from clouds. Agamemnon assembles the Greek army When Menelaos heard of the abduction, he went to Agamemnon in Mycenae,
and asked him to assemble a force to attack Troy and to levy troops in Greece. So Agamemnon, sending a herald to each of the kings, reminded them of the oaths
that they had sworn, and warned each of them to look to the safety of his own wife, saying that this insult to Greece affected all of them equally and in common. When most were eager to take part in the expedition, envoys also visited Odysseus in Ithaca,
but he was unwilling to go, and pretended to be mad.
Palamedes, son of Nauplios, however, proved his madness to be a sham; for he followed Odysseus while he was making this pretence of madness, and snatching Telemachos from Penelope’s lap, drew his sword
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as if he were about to kill him. And Odysseus, fearing for his son’s safety, confessed that his madness was merely a sham, and joined the expedition.
[Later, at Troy,] after capturing a Phrygian, Odysseus forced him to write a treasonable letter, supposedly addressed from Priam to Palamedes; and then, after burying some gold under Palamedes’ tent, he dropped the letter in the camp. Agamemnon read it, discovered the gold, and delivered Palamedes to the allies to be stoned as a traitor.
Menelaos went to Cyprus with Odysseus and Talthybios to persuade Cinyras to join the allies. He presented a breast plate
to the absent Agamemnon and swore to send fifty ships; but in fact he sent a single ship, commanded by ..., son of Mygdalion, and fashioned the rest from earthenware and sent those off to sea.
the daughters of Anios, son of Apollo, are called the Wine-Growers. Dionysos granted them the power to draw oil, corn, and wine from the earth.
The army assembled at Aulis. Those who took part
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in the expedition against Troy were the following: of the Boeotians, ten leaders, who brought forty ships; of the Orchomenians, four, who brought thirty ships; of the Phocians, four, who brought forty ships; of the Locrians, Aias, son of Oileus, who brought forty ships; of the Euboeans, Elephenor, son of Chalcodon and Alcyone, who brought forty ships; of the Athenians, Menestheus, who brought fifty ships; of the Salaminians, Aias, son of Telamon, who brought twelve ships;
of the Argives, Diomedes, son of Tydeus, and his companions, who brought eighty ships; of the Mycenaeans, Agamemnon, son of Atreus and Aerope, a hundred ships; of the Lacedaimonians, Menelaos, son of Atreus and Aerope, sixty ships; of the Pylians, Nestor, son of Neleus and Chloris, forty ships; of the Arcadians, Agapenor, seven ships; of the Eleans, Amphimachos and his companions, forty ships; of the Doulichians, Meges, son of Phyleus, forty ships; of the Cephallenians, Odysseus, son of Laertes and Anticleia, twelve ships; of the Aetolians, Thoas, son of Andraimon and Gorge, who brought forty ships;
of the Cretans, Idomeneus, son of Deucalion, forty ships; of the Rhodians, Tlepolemos, son of Heracles and Astyoche, nine ships; of the Symaeans, Nireus, son of Charopos, three ships; of the Coans, Pheidippos and Antiphos, the sons of Thessalos, thirty ships;
of the Myrmidons, Achilles, son of Peleus and Thetis, fifty ships; from Phylace, Protesilaos, son of Iphiclos, forty ships; of the Pheraeans, Eumelos, son of Admetos, eleven ships; of the Olizonians, Philoctetes, son of Poias, seven ships; of the Ainianians, Gouneus, son of Ocytos, twenty-two ships; of the Triccaeans, Podaleirios [and Machaon, sons of Asclepios], thirty ships; of the Ormenians,
Eurypylos [son of Evaimon], forty ships; of the Gyrtonians, Polypoites, son of Peirithoos, thirty ships; and of the Magnesians, Prothoos, son of Tenthredon, forty ships. So in all there were one thousand and thirteen ships, forty-three leaders, and thirty contingents.
While the army was at Aulis and a sacrifice was being offered to Apollo, a snake darted from the altar to a plane tree nearby, which contained a nest; and after swallowing down the eight sparrow chicks in the nest along with their mother, the snake turned to stone. Calchas said that this sign had been sent to them by the will of Zeus, and he concluded from the incident that Troy was destined to be taken after ten years.
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And they made ready to set sail against Troy.
Agamemnon himself was commander of the whole force, while Achilles, at fifteen years of age, took command of the fleet.
The attack on Mysia; the Greeks assemble for a second time Lacking any knowledge of the route to Troy, they landed in Mysia
and put it to the sack, in the belief that it was Troy. Now the king of the Mysians was Telephos, son of Heracles,
and when he saw his country being pillaged, he armed the Mysians and pursued the Greeks in a body to their ships, killing a large number of them, including Thersandros, son of Polyneices, who stood his ground. But when Achilles rushed to the attack, Telephos failed to hold firm and was put to flight; and during the pursuit, he became entangled in a vine branch
and suffered a wound in the thigh from a spear.
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Leaving Mysia, the Greeks put out to sea, and when a violent storm set in, they became separated from one another and returned to land in their own countries. Because the Greeks turned back at this time, the war is said to have lasted twenty years;
for it was in the second year after the abducttion of Helen that the Greeks, when they had completed their preparations, launched the expedition [for the first time], and following their withdrawal from Mysia to Greece, it was eight years before they returned to Argos and went back to Aulis.
When they had gathered again at Argos after this delay of eight years, they were in great perplexity about their route,
for want of a guide who could show them the way to Troy.
But Telephos (since his wound had failed to heal and Apollo had told him that he would be cured when the man who had inflicted the wound became his healer) arrived in Argos from Mysia dressed in rags and begged Achilles to help him, promising that, in return, he would show them the route to Troy. So Achilles healed him by scraping rust from his Pelian spear.
Once he was cured, Telephos revealed the route, and Calchas, by the use of his own powers of divination, confirmed the accuracy of his directions.
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When, after sailing over from Argos, they arrived in Aulis for the second time, the fleet was held back by adverse winds. Calchas declared that they would be unable to sail unless the most beautiful of Agamemnon’s daughters was offered in sacrifice to Artemis; for the goddess was angry with Agamemnon, because he had said when shooting a deer at a hunt on Icarion, ‘Not even Artemis
[could have shot as well as that],’ and because Atreus had failed to sacrifice the golden lamb to her.
On hearing this oracle, Agamemnon sent Odysseus and Talthybios to Clytemnestra to ask her for Iphigeneia, claiming that he had promised to give her in marriage to Achilles as a reward for taking part in the expedition. So Clytemnestra sent her off, and Agamemnon brought her to the altar and was just about to slaughter her when Artemis carried her off to the land of the Taurians and installed her there as her priestess, substituting a deer for her at the altar.
According to some accounts, Artemis made her immortal. The Greeks call in at Tenedos
After putting out from Aulis, they called in at Tenedos, which was ruled by Tenes, son of Cycnos and Procleia, or according to some, of Apollo. He lived there because he had been sent into exile by his father.
For after having this son Tenes and a daughter, Hemithea, by Procleia, daughter of Laomedon, Cycnos
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had later married Philonome, daughter of Tragasos; and she fell in love with Tenes, and when she was unable to win him over, made false accusations against him, telling Cycnos that he had tried to seduce her and producing
as her witness a flute player named Eumolpos.
Cycnos believed her, and put Tenes and his sister into a chest, which he threw into the sea. When the chest ran ashore on the island of Leucophrys, Tenes stepped out, and he settled on the island, calling it Tenedos after himself. Later, when Cycnos learned the truth, he had the flute player stoned and his wife buried alive in the earth.
Characters and houses
Theseus matters as Attic road-clearer. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Pelops matters as chariot cheater. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Agamemnon matters as coalition king. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Helen matters as abducted cause. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Achilles matters as wrath digest. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Odysseus matters as device and return. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Orestes matters as avenger. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Paris matters as judgement and theft. Track parents, deeds, and who inherits the story.
Themes, motifs, style
Theme: Theseus dossier. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Pelopid curse. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Judgement of Paris. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: Iliad digest. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
Theme: nostoi and Orestes. Hard's English keeps Apollodorus dry, fast, and stemma-first.
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Meaning
This section advances the Library's map of Greek myth. Houses, labours, and wars are retrieval paths, not ornament.
Further source depth
he abducted Helen (then aged twelve) from Sparta for himself, and then, in the hope of winning Persephone as a bride for Peirithoos, made his way down to Hades. [While he was there,] the Dioscuri, with the Lacedaimonians and Arcadians, captured Athens,
and recovered Helen; and with her, they took away Aithra,
the daughter of Pittheus, as a captive. But Demophon and Acamas escaped. The Dioscuri also brought Menestheus
back from exile and entrusted the throne of Athens to him.
When Theseus arrived in Hades with Peirithoos, he became the victim of a trick. For on the pretence that they were about to enjoy his hospitality as guests, Hades asked them to sit down first on the Chair of Forgetfulness; and they became stuck to it,
and were held down by coils of snakes. Peirithoos remained a prisoner in Hades ever after, but Heracles brought Theseus back to earth and sent him to Athens. He was driven from there by Menestheus, and went to Lycomedes,
who threw him into an abyss and killed him. 12. The Pelopids Tantalos The punishment suffered by Tantalos in Hades is to have
a stone suspended over him, and remain perpetually in a lake, seeing at either side of his shoulders fruit-laden trees growing by its bank; the water grazes his chin, but when he wants to drink from it, the water dries up, and when he wants to feed from the fruit, the trees and their fruits are raised by winds as high as the clouds. It is said by some that he suffers this punishment because he divulged the secrets of the gods to men and tried to share ambrosia with his friends.
Broteas, who was a hunter, failed to honour Artemis, and said that even fire could cause him no harm; so he went mad and threw himself into the fire.
Pelops and Hippodameia Pelops, after being slaughtered and boiled at the banquet of the gods, was more beautiful than ever when he was brought
back to life again, and because of his remarkable beauty, he became the beloved of Poseidon, who gave him a winged chariot
which could run even across the sea without wetting its axles. Now Oinomaos, the king of Pisa,
had a daughter, Hippodameia, and whether it was because he had a passion for her, as some people say, or because he had been warned by an oracle that he would die at the hand of the man who married her, nobody was able to win her as his wife, since her father could not persuade her to have intercourse with him, and her suitors were put to death by him.
For he possessed arms and horses given to him by Ares, and offered his daughter’s hand to the suitors as the prize in a contest. Each suitor had to take Hippodameia on his own chariot and flee as far as the Isthmus of Corinth, and Oinomaos would immediately pursue him in full armour. If Oinomaos caught up with the suitor, he killed him, but if the suitor were not overtaken, he would win Hippodameia as his wife. In this way, he had killed numerous suitors (twelve according to some accounts). And he cut off the suitors’ heads and nailed them to his house.
Pelops too arrived to seek her hand; and when Hippodameia saw how beautiful he was, she fell in love with him, and persuaded Myrtilos, son of Hermes, to come to his aid. (This Myrtilos was Oinomaos’ charioteer.)
So Myrtilos, who loved her and wanted to please her, failed to insert the axlepins
into the wheel hubs, causing Oinomaos to be defeated in the race and to lose his life when he became entangled in the reins and was dragged to his death (though according to some, he was killed by Pelops). As he was dying, he cursed Myrtilos, recognizing his treachery, and prayed that he would perish at the hand of Pelops.
So in this way, Pelops won Hippodameia; and when he arrived at a certain place accompanied by Myrtilos, he went away some small distance to fetch water for his wife, who was thirsty; and during that time, Myrtilos tried to rape her. When she told Pelops of this, he threw Myrtilos into the Myrtoan Sea
that bears his name, at Cape Geraistos. As Myrtilos fell, he hurled curses at the house of Pelops.
After he had made his way to the Ocean and been purified by Hephaistos, Pelops returned to Pisa in Elis and took over the kingdom of Oinomaos,
after first subjugating the land formerly known as Apia or Pelasgiotis, which he now named the Peloponnese after himself. Atreus and Thyestes
The sons of Pelops were Pittheus, Atreus, and Thyestes, amongst others. Now the wife of Atreus was Aerope, daughter of Catreus, and she was in love with Thyestes. And Atreus had once made a vow that he would sacrifice to Artemis the finest lamb born in his flock, but when a golden lamb appeared, they say that he failed to honour his vow,
and instead, he throttled it, and placed it in a chest
for safe keeping; and it was given to Thyestes by Aerope, who had been seduced by him. For the Mycenaeans had received an oracle telling them to choose a Pelopid as their king, and they had sent for Atreus and Thyestes;
and while they were discussing who should be king, Thyestes declared before the crowd that the man to gain the throne should be the one who possessed the golden lamb. And when Atreus agreed to this, Thyestes produced the lamb and so became king.
But Zeus sent Hermes to Atreus, telling him to reach an agreement with Thyestes that Atreus should become king if the Sun reversed his course, and when Thyestes had agreed, the Sun went down in the east. Since the deity had clearly attested that Thyestes was a usurper, Atreus took over the kingdom and banished Thyestes.
But later, when he learned of the adultery,
he sent a herald to Thyestes suggesting a reconciliation; and when Thyestes arrived, Atreus, pretending friendship all the while, slaughtered Aglaos, Callileon, and Orchomenos, the children whom Thyestes had fathered by a naiad nymph, although they had sat down as suppliants on the altar of Zeus. He then dismembered them, boiled them, and served them to Thyestes without the extremities. And after he had swallowed them down, Atreus showed him the extremities and expelled him from the land.
Seeking to gain revenge by any means, Thyestes went to consult the oracle on the matter and received this response, that he would gain his revenge if he fathered a son by intercourse with his own daughter.
by his daughter he fathered Aigisthos, who, when he reached manhood and learned that he was the son of Thyestes, killed Atreus and restored the kingdom to Thyestes.
[But Agamemnon and Menelaos were taken by their nurse to Polypheides, king of Sicyon, and he in turn sent them to Oineus, the Aetolian. Not long afterwards, Tyndareus brought them back again; and they expelled Thyestes, exacting an oath from him, when he sought refuge
at the altar of Hera, that he would settle in Cythera. They for their part became the sons-in-law of Tyndareus by marrying his daughters.
Agamemnon became king of Mycenae and married Clytemnestra, after killing her former husband Tantalos, son of Thyestes, along with his child. A son, Orestes, was born to him, and three daughters, Chrysothemis, Electra, and Iphigeneia. Menelaos married Helen and became king of Sparta after Tyndareus had entrusted the kingdom to him.
- The Trojan War The judgement of Paris and abduction of Helen Afterwards Alexander abducted Helen, in accordance, some
say, with the will of Zeus, so that his daughter would become famous for having brought Europe and Asia to war, or, as others have said, to ensure that the race of demigods
would be raised to glory. For one of these reasons, Eris threw an apple
in front of Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite as a prize for the most beautiful, and Zeus instructed Hermes to take them to Alexander on Mount Ida, to be judged by him for their beauty. They promised to give Alexander gifts; Hera promised him universal dominion if she were preferred above all other women, while Athene offered victory in war, and Aphrodite the hand of Helen. He decided in favour of Aphrodite, and sailed to Sparta with ships built by Phereclos.
He was entertained for nine days by Menelaos, and on the tenth, when Menelaos departed for Crete to celebrate the funeral of his maternal grandfather Catreus,
Alexander persuaded Helen to go away with him. She abandoned Hermione, who was nine years old at the time, and loading most of the treasures
on board, she set out to sea with him by night. Hera sent a violent storm against them, which forced them to put in at Sidon;
and fearing that he might be pursued, Alexander delayed a long while in Phoenicia and Cyprus. When he thought that there was no further risk of pursuit, he went on to Troy with Helen.
It is said by some, however, that Helen was stolen by Hermes in obedience to the will of Zeus and taken to Egypt, where she was entrusted to Proteus, king of the Egyptians, for safe keeping, and Alexander went to Troy with a phantom of Helen
fashioned from clouds. Agamemnon assembles the Greek army When Menelaos heard of the abduction, he went to Agamemnon in Mycenae,
and asked him to assemble a force to attack Troy and to levy troops in Greece. So Agamemnon, sending a herald to each of the kings, reminded them of the oaths
that they had sworn, and warned each of them to look to the safety of his own wife, saying that this insult to Greece affected all of them equally and in common. When most were eager to take part in the expedition, envoys also visited Odysseus in Ithaca,
but he was unwilling to go, and pretended to be mad.
Palamedes, son of Nauplios, however, proved his madness to be a sham; for he followed Odysseus while he was making this pretence of madness, and snatching Telemachos from Penelope’s lap, drew his sword
as if he were about to kill him. And Odysseus, fearing for his son’s safety, confessed that his madness was merely a sham, and joined the expedition.
[Later, at Troy,] after capturing a Phrygian, Odysseus forced him to write a treasonable letter, supposedly addressed from Priam to Palamedes; and then, after burying some gold under Palamedes’ tent, he dropped the letter in the camp. Agamemnon read it, discovered the gold, and delivered Palamedes to the allies to be stoned as a traitor.
Menelaos went to Cyprus with Odysseus and Talthybios to persuade Cinyras to join the allies. He presented a breast plate
to the absent Agamemnon and swore to send fifty ships; but in fact he sent a single ship, commanded by ..., son of Mygdalion, and fashioned the rest from earthenware and sent those off to sea.
the daughters of Anios, son of Apollo, are called the Wine-Growers. Dionysos granted them the power to draw oil, corn, and wine from the earth.
The army assembled at Aulis. Those who took part
in the expedition against Troy were the following: of the Boeotians, ten leaders, who brought forty ships; of the Orchomenians, four, who brought thirty ships; of the Phocians, four, who brought forty ships; of the Locrians, Aias, son of Oileus, who brought forty ships; of the Euboeans, Elephenor, son of Chalcodon and Alcyone, who brought forty ships; of the Athenians, Menestheus, who brought fifty ships; of the Salaminians, Aias, son of Telamon, who brought twelve ships;
of the Argives, Diomedes, son of Tydeus, and his companions, who brought eighty ships; of the Mycenaeans, Agamemnon, son of Atreus and Aerope, a hundred ships; of the Lacedaimonians, Menelaos, son of Atreus and Aerope, sixty ships; of the Pylians, Nestor, son of Neleus and Chloris, forty ships; of the Arcadians, Agapenor, seven ships; of the Eleans, Amphimachos and his companions, forty ships; of the Doulichians, Meges, son of Phyleus, forty ships; of the Cephallenians, Odysseus, son of Laertes and Anticleia, twelve ships; of the Aetolians, Thoas, son of Andraimon and Gorge, who brought forty ships;
of the Cretans, Idomeneus, son of Deucalion, forty ships; of the Rhodians, Tlepolemos, son of Heracles and Astyoche, nine ships; of the Symaeans, Nireus, son of Charopos, three ships; of the Coans, Pheidippos and Antiphos, the sons of Thessalos, thirty ships;
of the Myrmidons, Achilles, son of Peleus and Thetis, fifty ships; from Phylace, Protesilaos, son of Iphiclos, forty ships; of the Pheraeans, Eumelos, son of Admetos, eleven ships; of the Olizonians, Philoctetes, son of Poias, seven ships; of the Ainianians, Gouneus, son of Ocytos, twenty-two ships; of the Triccaeans, Podaleirios [and Machaon, sons of Asclepios], thirty ships; of the Ormenians,
Eurypylos [son of Evaimon], forty ships; of the Gyrtonians, Polypoites, son of Peirithoos, thirty ships; and of the Magnesians, Prothoos, son of Tenthredon, forty ships. So in all there were one thousand and thirteen ships, forty-three leaders, and thirty contingents.
While the army was at Aulis and a sacrifice was being offered to Apollo, a snake darted from the altar to a plane tree nearby, which contained a nest; and after swallowing down the eight sparrow chicks in the nest along with their mother, the snake turned to stone. Calchas said that this sign had been sent to them by the will of Zeus, and he concluded from the incident that Troy was destined to be taken after ten years.
And they made ready to set sail against Troy.
Agamemnon himself was commander of the whole force, while Achilles, at fifteen years of age, took command of the fleet.
The attack on Mysia; the Greeks assemble for a second time Lacking any knowledge of the route to Troy, they landed in Mysia
and put it to the sack, in the belief that it was Troy. Now the king of the Mysians was Telephos, son of Heracles,
and when he saw his country being pillaged, he armed the Mysians and pursued the Greeks in a body to their ships, killing a large number of them, including Thersandros, son of Polyneices, who stood his ground. But when Achilles rushed to the attack, Telephos failed to hold firm and was put to flight; and during the pursuit, he became entangled in a vine branch
and suffered a wound in the thigh from a spear.
Leaving Mysia, the Greeks put out to sea, and when a violent storm set in, they became separated from one another and returned to land in their own countries. Because the Greeks turned back at this time, the war is said to have lasted twenty years;
for it was in the second year after the abducttion of Helen that the Greeks, when they had completed their preparations, launched the expedition [for the first time], and following their withdrawal from Mysia to Greece, it was eight years before they returned to Argos and went back to Aulis.
When they had gathered again at Argos after this delay of eight years, they were in great perplexity about their route,
for want of a guide who could show them the way to Troy.
But Telephos (since his wound had failed to heal and Apollo had told him that he would be cured when the man who had inflicted the wound became his healer) arrived in Argos from Mysia dressed in rags and begged Achilles to help him, promising that, in return, he would show them the route to Troy. So Achilles healed him by scraping rust from his Pelian spear.
Once he was cured, Telephos revealed the route, and Calchas, by the use of his own powers of divination, confirmed the accuracy of his directions.
When, after sailing over from Argos, they arrived in Aulis for the second time, the fleet was held back by adverse winds. Calchas declared that they would be unable to sail unless the most beautiful of Agamemnon’s daughters was offered in sacrifice to Artemis; for the goddess was angry with Agamemnon, because he had said when shooting a deer at a hunt on Icarion, ‘Not even Artemis
[could have shot as well as that],’ and because Atreus had failed to sacrifice the golden lamb to her.
On hearing this oracle, Agamemnon sent Odysseus and Talthybios to Clytemnestra to ask her for Iphigeneia, claiming that he had promised to give her in marriage to Achilles as a reward for taking part in the expedition. So Clytemnestra sent her off, and Agamemnon brought her to the altar and was just about to slaughter her when Artemis carried her off to the land of the Taurians and installed her there as her priestess, substituting a deer for her at the altar.
According to some accounts, Artemis made her immortal. The Greeks call in at Tenedos
After putting out from Aulis, they called in at Tenedos, which was ruled by Tenes, son of Cycnos and Procleia, or according to some, of Apollo. He lived there because he had been sent into exile by his father.
For after having this son Tenes and a daughter, Hemithea, by Procleia, daughter of Laomedon, Cycnos
had later married Philonome, daughter of Tragasos; and she fell in love with Tenes, and when she was unable to win him over, made false accusations against him, telling Cycnos that he had tried to seduce her and producing
as her witness a flute player named Eumolpos.
Cycnos believed her, and put Tenes and his sister into a chest, which he threw into the sea. When the chest ran ashore on the island of Leucophrys, Tenes stepped out, and he settled on the island, calling it Tenedos after himself. Later, when Cycnos learned the truth, he had the flute player stoned and his wife buried alive in the earth.
So when Tenes saw the Greeks sailing in towards Tenedos, he tried to turn them away by pelting them with stones; but he was killed by Achilles with a sword blow to the breast, although Thetis had warned Achilles beforehand not to kill Tenes, for if he did, he himself would die at the hand of Apollo.
While the Greeks were offering a sacrifice to Apollo,
a water-snake advanced from the altar and bit Philoctetes. The wound failed to heal and began to stink, and because the army could not abide the stench, Odysseus, on the orders of Agamemnon, put Philoctetes ashore on Lemnos, together with the bow of Heracles
which was now in his possession; and he maintained himself in the wilderness by shooting birds with it. The landing at Troy, and the first nine years of the mar
Leaving Tenedos, the Greeks set sail for Troy, sending Odysseus and Menelaos
ahead to demand the return of Helen and the treasures. But the Trojans, after they had summoned an assembly, not only refused to return Helen, but even wanted to kill the envoys.
Antenor saved the envoys, but the Greeks, angered by the insolence of the barbarians, took up their arms and sailed to attack them. Achilles had been warned by Thetis not to be the first to disembark from the ships, because the first man ashore would be the first to die. When the barbarians learned that the fleet was sailing against them, they hurried to the sea under arms and tried to prevent the enemy from landing by pelting them with stones.
The first of the Greeks to disembark
from his ship was Protesilaos, who killed a good many of the barbarians, but died at the hand of Hector. His wife, Laodameia,
continued to love him even after his death, and making an image in his likeness, she lived with it as though
they were man and wife. The gods took pity on her, and Hermes brought Protesilaos up from Hades. Seeing her husband and thinking he had returned from Troy, Laodameia was overjoyed at the time, but later, when he was taken back to Hades, she took her own life.
After the death of Protesilaos, Achilles disembarked with the Myrmidons, and killed Cycnos by hurling a stone at his head.
When the barbarians saw that Cycnos was dead, they fled to the city, and the Greeks, leaping ashore from their ships, filled the plain with dead bodies; and when they had penned the Trojans in, they put them under siege, and hauled their ships from the water.
Since the courage of the barbarians had failed, Achilles laid an ambush for Troilos
in the sanctuary of Thymbrian Apollo and slew him, and raided the city by night and captured Lycaon.
And then, taking some of the foremost warriors with him, he laid waste to the land, and went to Mount Ida to rustle the cattle of Aeneas
[and] Priam. When Aeneas fled, Achilles killed the herdsmen and Mestor, son of Priam, and drove away the cattle.
He also captured Lesbos and Phocaia, then Colophon and Smyrna, and Clazomenai, and Cyme, and after these, Aigialos and Tenos [, the so-called Hundred Cities]; and then, successively, Adramytion and Side, and then Endion, Linaion, and Colone. He also captured Hypoplacian Thebes and Lyrnessos, and furthermore, [Ant]andros, and many other cities.
After nine years had passed, the following allies
arrived to help the Trojans. From the neighbouring cities came Aeneas, son of Anchises, and with him Archelochos and Acamas, sons of Antenor and Theano, leading the Dardanians. Of the Thracians, Acamas, son of Eusoros; of the Ciconians, Euphemos, son of Troizenos; of the Paeonians, Pyraichmes; of the Paphlagonians, Pylaimenes, son of Bilsates;
from Zelia, Pandaros, son of Lycaon; from Adrasteia, Adrastos and Amphios, sons of Merops; from Arisbe, Asios, son of Hyrtacos; from Larissa, Hippothoos, son of [Lethos] the Pelasgian; from Mysia, Chromios and Ennomos, sons of Arsinoos; of the Alizones, Odios and Epistrophos, sons of Mecisteus; of the Phrygians, Phorcys and Ascanios, sons of Aretaon; of the Maeonians, Mesthles and Antiphos, sons of
Talaimenes; of the Carians, Nastes and Amphimachos, sons of Nomion; of the Lycians, Sarpedon, son of Zeus, and Glaucos, son of Hippolochos.
The wrath of Achilles (a summary of the Iliad,) In his anger over Briseis, the daughter of Chryses the priest,
Achilles would no longer go out to fight. As a result, the barbarians recovered their confidence and advanced outside the city. Alexander fought in single combat against Menelaos, but when Alexander faced defeat, Aphrodite snatched him away; and Pandaros broke the truce by shooting an arrow at Menelaos.
and wounded Aphrodite when she came to the aid of Aeneas; and when he encountered Glaucos, he remembered the friendship between their fathers and exchanged armour
with him. Hector challenged the bravest man present to single combat. Although many stepped forward, Aias was chosen by lot and engaged in combat; but the pair were separated at nightfall by the heralds.
To protect the anchorage, the Greeks constructed a wall and a ditch; and after a battle on the plain, the Trojans chased the Greeks to the safety of their wall. The Greeks dispatched Odysseus, Phoenix, and Aias as envoys to Achilles, to ask him to assist them in the fighting and promise him Briseis and other gifts.
At nightfall, they sent Odysseus and Diomedes on reconnaissance; and they killed Dolon, son of Eumelos, and Rhesos the Thracian (who had arrived the previous day as anally of the Trojans, and because he had yet to enter battle, had set up camp at some distance from the Trojan force, and separately from Hector). They also killed the twelve men who were sleeping around Rhesos and took their horses to the ships.
The next day, a fierce battle developed. Agamemnon, Diomedes, Odysseus, Eurypylos, and Machaon were wounded, and the Greeks were put to flight; Hector breached the wall and passed inside, and after Aias had retreated, set fire to the ships.
When he saw the ship of Protesilaos in flames, Achilles sent out Patroclos with the Myrmidons, equipping him with
his own arms and lending him his horses. When the Trojans saw Patroclos, they took him for Achilles, and turned to flee. Patroclos pursued them up to the city wall, killing many of them, including Sarpedon, son of Zeus, but met his own death at the hand of Hector after first being wounded by Euphorbos.
In the fierce battle that developed for his corpse, Aias performed deeds of valour and, with difficulty, rescued the body. Achilles now put his anger aside, and recovered Briseis; and when a full set of arms was brought to him from Hephaistos, he put on the armour and went out to fight. He chased the Trojans in a mass as far as the Scamander, killing many of them including Asteropaios, son of Pelagon, son of the River Axios. The river rushed out at him in fury,
but Hephaistos turned its flooding waters dry, and pursued it [back to its bed] with a massive flame.
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Appendix
Appendix: spine
Appendix matter catches what the main books compressed away.
APPENDIX SOME INTERPOLATIONS AND AN UNRELIABLE PASSAGE FROM THE EPITOME Indicated by a dagger (†) in the text 1. 2. 4. 2 (p. 65) Pindar and Hesiod in the Shield
say of Perseus: ‘The whole of his back was covered by [the head of] a fearsome monster, [the Gorgon,] which was enclosed in a kibisis.’ The kibisis
bears that name because clothes and food are placed in it. 2. 2. 5. 12 (p. 83)
It was unlawful at that time for foreigners to be initiated, for Heracles was initiated only after he had become the adopted son of Pylios. 3. 3. 1. 4 (p. 97)
He was the first to become master of the sea, and extended his rule to almost all of the islands. 4. 3. 4. 4 (p. 102)
The names of Actaion’s dogs in the . . . were these: Now surrounding his beautiful body, as though it were that of a beast,
His powerful dogs tore it apart. Beside it, Arcena first, [. . .] after her, her valiant offspring,
Lynceus, and Balios the finely footed, and Amarynthos [. . .]- And those that singled out by name are listed thus:
[. . .] and they then killed Actaios, at the instigation of Zeus, For the first who drank the black blood of their master
Were Spartos, and Omargos, and Bores swift on the scent. These were the first to devour Actaios and lap his blood.
And after these, the others rushed on him in a frenzy [. . .] To be a remedy for the grievous sorrows of men. 5. 3. 6. 7 (p. 110)
What was said by Teiresias to Zeus and Hera: Of the ten parts, a man enjoys only one,
But a woman in her heart enjoys all ten in full. 6. 3. 10. 3 (p. 119)
I have found some who are said to have been raised by him, namely, Capaneus and Lycourgos, according to Stesichoros in the Eriphyle;
and Hippolytos, according to the author of the Naupactica
, and Tyndareus, according to Panyasis, and Hymenaios, according to the Orphics, and finally, Glaucos, the son of Minos, according to Melesagoras.
And there, after Pasiphae had conceived a passion for the bull of Poseidon, he assisted her by constructing a wooden cow, and he built the Labyrinth, to which the Athenians sent seven boys and as many girls every year to serve as food for the Minotaur.
Hippolyte was the mother of Hippolytos; she is also called Glauce and Melanippe. When Phaedra’s marriage was being celebrated, Hippolyte arrived under arms with her fellow Amazons and said that she would kill those who were sharing the hospitality of Theseus. So a battle took place, and she was killed, whether accidentally by her ally Penthesileia, or by Theseus, or because the companions of Theseus, seeing the onset of the Amazons, closed the door with all speed catching her inside, and killed her.
Comments 1. A further explanation of the kibisis or wallet referred to in the sentence preceding the interpolation. The verse quotation, from Hes. Shield
223-4, is incomplete and has been corrected by two additions from the surviving text of the poem. There is no reference to the kibisis
in the surviving works and fragments of Pindar. The Shield goes on to say that the kibisis
was wondrous to behold and was made of silver with golden tassels; it would need to be strong to carry the Gorgon’s head and prevent it from exercising its powers of petrifaction. The etymology for
kibisis , a weak effort even by the usual standards, seems to appeal to the kei and the sounds in keisthai ekei estheta
, ‘clothes placed there’. 2. It is said that Heracles and later the Dioscuri were the first non-citizens to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries (Xenophon
Hellenica 6. 3. 6); each had to be adopted beforehand by a local citizen, Heracles by Pylios, and the Dioscuri by Aphidnas (Plut. Thes
-
Although it is present in the Epitome also, this sentence interrupts the narrative. The thought is a commonplace; compare in particular Thucydides 1. 4.
-
This passage contains two verse citations (or possibly three, depending on whether the isolated line at the end forms part of the second), apparently of different origin, for different names are given for the first dogs to attack Actaion’s body. In saying that the attack was instigated by Zeus the second passage follows the tradition reported for Acousilaos in 3. 4. 4 that Zeus was angry with Actaion for courting Semele. It is now known that this was the account offered in the Hesiodic
Catalogue (fr. 217a in Hesiod OCT, 1983 edn.), and some have argued that the second passage at least comes from the Catalogue
(but it is not included by Merkelbach and West). The more familiar story that Actaion died because he saw Artemis naked was of later origin; see p. 102 and note. The remedy for human sorrows in the final line is presumably wine, as bestowed by Dionysos, Semele’s son by Zeus. The verses are cited for the information that they offer on the names of Actaion’s dogs, a matter of some interest to later authors, as witnessed by the catalogues in Collectanea Alexandrina 71-2, Ov.
. 181. (The passage is poorly preserved; Wagner’s text, which is somewhat different from that of Frazer, has been followed in the translation. In the second citation, Actaion’s name appears in an alternative and presumably early form as Actaios.)
, an early epic devoted primarily to the seer Melampous and his family. The ancients ascribed the poem to Hesiod (other testimonies relating to the present passage can be found under Hes. fr. 275). This is Teiresias’ judgement on the relative pleasure that men and women derive from love-making (see p. 110). It should be noted that Teiresias’ verdict in these lines from the
Melampodeia is not the same as that ascribed to him in Apollodorus’ text; for here he says that a man enjoys one part and a woman ten
(on the same scale of ten), while in the text he is reported to have said that a man enjoys one part and a woman nine
(as if there were ten available ‘points’ to be divided between them). The nine-to-one division can also be found in a collection of Wonders by Phlegon (cited under Hes. fr. 275), an author of the second century
, whose account of the episode is certainly not derived from Apollodorus. (As it happens, the manuscripts give Apollodorus’ ratio as nine to ten rather than nine to one; but this is improbable in itself, and it is generally accepted that it can be corrected on the evidence of Tzetz. sc. Lycophr. 638 and the passage from Phlegon.)
- The fact that this passage is introduced in the first person, which is unparalleled in the Library
, confirms that it is a later gloss. It contains a standard list, recorded in four other sources (Philodemus On Piety 45b, Gomperz 1865: Sextus Empiricus
Adv. Math . 1. 260-2; sc. Eur. Ale . 1; sc. Pind. Pyth . 3, 96); and because it was cited by Philodemus, who wrote in the first century
, we can be sure that the author of the Library
was not responsible for its compilation. The first two names are of Argive leaders who fell in the First Theban War (for Capaneus, see p. 110; the present Lycourgos would be the son of Pronax, and nephew of Adrastos, mentioned on p. 47, who is said to have fought with Amphiaraos during the war, Paus. 3. 18. 12, although he is not included in any surviving list of the seven champions). For the death of Hippolytos, see p. 142; this becomes the prime example in the literature on the mythology of the constellations (to explain how Asclepios came to die and be transferred to the sky as the constellation Ophiouchos or the Serpent-Holder,
. 14). The most likely occasion for the death and revival of Tyndareus was Heracles’ campaign against Hippocoon, pp. 87 f. Hymenaios was a god of marriage, specially associated with the wedding procession and hymns. For this account of the revival of Glaucos, cf. Hyg.
Astr. 2 . 14; Apollodorus offers a conflicting account on pp. 99 f. 7. This merely repeats matter from 3. 1. 4 and shortly before in the same paragraph.
- According to Epitome 5. 1, Penthesileia, the Amazon, came to Troy to be purified after accidentally killing Hippolyte. The present paragraph (5. 2, found only in the Vatican epitome) offers an explanation of who this Hippolyte was, and how Penthesileia came to kill her. This, we are told, was the Hippolyte abducted by Theseus, and Penthesileia killed her-or may have killed her-when the Amazons invaded Attica after Theseus had put Hippolyte aside in favour of Phaedra (see p. 141). But this attempt to explain an event that took place in the final year of the Trojan War by an incident at Theseus’ wedding involves a gross anachronism (for it was universally agreed from Homer onwards that Menestheus was king of the Athenians during the Trojan War and that Theseus must have died some time before it began). So can this paragraph be accepted as a reliable report on Apollodorus’ text? Even a brief comparison with 1. 17 (in the Sabbaitic epitome only), which is largely the same, will suggest that it cannot. It seems, rather, that the Vatican epitomist wrongly assumed that the present Hippolyte could be identified with the Amazon of that name associated with Theseus, and reworked material from earlier in the
to put over the point; and crucially, the phrase stating that Theseus’ Hippolyte may have been killed ‘accidentally by her ally Penthesileia’ is almost certainly the epitomist’s own contribution. For this is not stated as one of the alternatives in 1. 17, and there is a marked awkwardness in the way in which the text (as summarized above) has been rearranged to allow for its insertion.
The alternative names for Hippolyte in 5. 2 do not correspond with
those in the Sabbaitic epitome at 1. 16 (as translated in the main text). The corresponding passage in the Vatican epitome mentions the names Glauce and Melanippe (though not, as it happens, Hippolyte).
Although it is not explicitly attested in Proclus’ summary or elsewhere, it can be reasonably assumed that in reporting that the accidental killing accounted for Penthesileia’s presence at Troy (5. 1), Apollodorus was following the
in the epic cycle. It is surely probable that the incident would have taken place in her native land within Asia Minor to the east of Troy, as indicated in the surviving accounts in Diodorus 2. 46. 5 and Quintus of Smyrna 1. 21 ff. Diodorus is vague, merely stating that she killed her (unnamed) sister and had to leave her native land, but according to Quintus, she killed Hippolyte when throwing her spear at a stag (which may well be the early tradition).
Extended pass
APPENDIX SOME INTERPOLATIONS AND AN UNRELIABLE PASSAGE FROM THE EPITOME Indicated by a dagger (†) in the text 1. 2. 4. 2 (p. 65) Pindar and Hesiod in the Shield
ext 0
say of Perseus: ‘The whole of his back was covered by [the head of] a fearsome monster, [the Gorgon,] which was enclosed in a kibisis.’ The kibisis
bears that name because clothes and food are placed in it. 2. 2. 5. 12 (p. 83)
It was unlawful at that time for foreigners to be initiated, for Heracles was initiated only after he had become the adopted son of Pylios. 3. 3. 1. 4 (p. 97)
He was the first to become master of the sea, and extended his rule to almost all of the islands. 4. 3. 4. 4 (p. 102)
The names of Actaion’s dogs in the . . . were these: Now surrounding his beautiful body, as though it were that of a beast,
His powerful dogs tore it apart. Beside it, Arcena first, [. . .] after her, her valiant offspring,
ext 6
Lynceus, and Balios the finely footed, and Amarynthos [. . .]- And those that singled out by name are listed thus:
[. . .] and they then killed Actaios, at the instigation of Zeus, For the first who drank the black blood of their master
Were Spartos, and Omargos, and Bores swift on the scent. These were the first to devour Actaios and lap his blood.
And after these, the others rushed on him in a frenzy [. . .] To be a remedy for the grievous sorrows of men. 5. 3. 6. 7 (p. 110)
What was said by Teiresias to Zeus and Hera: Of the ten parts, a man enjoys only one,
But a woman in her heart enjoys all ten in full. 6. 3. 10. 3 (p. 119)
ext 12
I have found some who are said to have been raised by him, namely, Capaneus and Lycourgos, according to Stesichoros in the Eriphyle;
and Hippolytos, according to the author of the Naupactica
, and Tyndareus, according to Panyasis, and Hymenaios, according to the Orphics, and finally, Glaucos, the son of Minos, according to Melesagoras.
And there, after Pasiphae had conceived a passion for the bull of Poseidon, he assisted her by constructing a wooden cow, and he built the Labyrinth, to which the Athenians sent seven boys and as many girls every year to serve as food for the Minotaur.
Hippolyte was the mother of Hippolytos; she is also called Glauce and Melanippe. When Phaedra’s marriage was being celebrated, Hippolyte arrived under arms with her fellow Amazons and said that she would kill those who were sharing the hospitality of Theseus. So a battle took place, and she was killed, whether accidentally by her ally Penthesileia, or by Theseus, or because the companions of Theseus, seeing the onset of the Amazons, closed the door with all speed catching her inside, and killed her.
Comments 1. A further explanation of the kibisis or wallet referred to in the sentence preceding the interpolation. The verse quotation, from Hes. Shield
ext 18
223-4, is incomplete and has been corrected by two additions from the surviving text of the poem. There is no reference to the kibisis
in the surviving works and fragments of Pindar. The Shield goes on to say that the kibisis
was wondrous to behold and was made of silver with golden tassels; it would need to be strong to carry the Gorgon’s head and prevent it from exercising its powers of petrifaction. The etymology for
kibisis , a weak effort even by the usual standards, seems to appeal to the kei and the sounds in keisthai ekei estheta
, ‘clothes placed there’. 2. It is said that Heracles and later the Dioscuri were the first non-citizens to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries (Xenophon
Hellenica 6. 3. 6); each had to be adopted beforehand by a local citizen, Heracles by Pylios, and the Dioscuri by Aphidnas (Plut. Thes
ext 24
(but it is not included by Merkelbach and West).
. 181.
The ancients ascribed the poem to Hesiod (other testimonies relating to the present passage can be found under Hes. fr. 275). This is Teiresias’ judgement on the relative pleasure that men and women derive from love-making (see p. 110).
ext 30
(As it happens, the manuscripts give Apollodorus’ ratio as nine to ten rather than nine to one; but this is improbable in itself, and it is generally accepted that it can be corrected on the evidence of Tzetz. sc. Lycophr. 638 and the passage from Phlegon.)
, confirms that it is a later gloss.
ext 36
Adv. Math . 1. 260-2; sc. Eur. Ale . 1; sc. Pind. Pyth . 3, 96); and because it was cited by Philodemus, who wrote in the first century
, we can be sure that the author of the Library
was not responsible for its compilation.
. 14). For this account of the revival of Glaucos, cf. Hyg.
Astr. 2 . 14; Apollodorus offers a conflicting account on pp. 99 f. 7. This merely repeats matter from 3. 1. 4 and shortly before in the same paragraph.
ext 42
in the epic cycle.
Theme: supplement.
Theme: variant overflow.
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Appendix: chain 7
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Appendix: chain 13
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Appendix: chain 19
Appendix: chain 22
Appendix: chain 25
Further source depth
(but it is not included by Merkelbach and West).
. 181.
The ancients ascribed the poem to Hesiod (other testimonies relating to the present passage can be found under Hes. fr. 275). This is Teiresias’ judgement on the relative pleasure that men and women derive from love-making (see p. 110).
(As it happens, the manuscripts give Apollodorus’ ratio as nine to ten rather than nine to one; but this is improbable in itself, and it is generally accepted that it can be corrected on the evidence of Tzetz. sc. Lycophr. 638 and the passage from Phlegon.)
, confirms that it is a later gloss.
Adv. Math . 1. 260-2; sc. Eur. Ale . 1; sc. Pind. Pyth . 3, 96); and because it was cited by Philodemus, who wrote in the first century
, we can be sure that the author of the Library
was not responsible for its compilation.
. 14). For this account of the revival of Glaucos, cf. Hyg.
Astr. 2 . 14; Apollodorus offers a conflicting account on pp. 99 f. 7. This merely repeats matter from 3. 1. 4 and shortly before in the same paragraph.
in the epic cycle.
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Explanatory Notes
Explanatory Notes: spine
A brief note can save a misread of a homonymous hero.
these are included either to suggest passages for comparison and further reading in ancient works which are readily accessible in translation, or to state the source of specific information given within the note. In the latter case, the references are selective, and refer if necessary to untranslated works.
The following abbreviations are used: Aesch. Aeschylus (tragic poet, 525/4-456 BC). [Aesch.] Prometheus Enchained
, a play transmitted under Aeschylus’ name but of uncertain authorship. Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses (compendium of transformation myths, circa
second century AD; for translation see Select Bibliography). Ap. Apollodorus, the author of the Library Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica (epic, third century
BC). Bacch. Bacchylides (lyric poet, flourished fifth century BC; the numbering follows Snell’s Teubner edition). Catast Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catasterisms
(compendium of constellation myths; in Mythographi Graeci , Leipsig, vol. 3). Diodorus of Sicily, Library (a world history, first century
, translated in the Loeb series). Eur. Euripides (tragic poet, fifth century BC).
fr. fragment. Hdt. Herodotus, History (fifth century BC). Hes.
Hesiod. (For translations of the Hesiodic works, and of some of the testimonies and fragments, see the Hesiod volume in the Loeb series; the references for the fragments are to the standard edition by Merkelbach and West, Oxford, 1967.)
Hes. Cat Catalogue of Women (a sixth-century genealogical epic, not by the author of the Theogony;
see Introduction and Select Bibliography). Hes. Hesiod, Works and Days Homeric Hymns (post-Homeric, of varying date up to sixth century or later, translated in
Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns , Loeb series). Hyg. Hyginus, Fabulae (mythological compendium; for translation see Select Bibliography).
Hyg. Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy (Book II of the Astronomy; see Select Bibliography). Homer’s Iliad Homer’s Odyssey
Ov. Met Ovid’s Metamorphoses Pausanias, Description of Greece (second century , translated in the Loeb series and Penguin).
Parthen. Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Stories (first century BC; Mythographi Graeci
, Leipsig, vol. 2). Pind. Pindar (lyric poet, 518-438 BC). Isth.: Isthmian Odes; Nem.: Nemean Odes; 01.: Olympian Odes; Pyth.: Pythian Odes
Plut. Thes Plutarch (first-second century AD) Life of Theseus Procl.
Proclus (of uncertain date, author of summaries of the early epics in the Trojan cycle; translated in Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns
, Loeb series). Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica (epic poem on the fall of Troy, fourth century AD;
scholion. (The scholia were marginal notes by ancient and medieval scholars, which often preserve material from lost mythographical works. French translations of some of the scholia relevant to the text of the
Library can be found in the notes to Carriere’s edition; see Select Bibliography.)
NB. In references to scholia conventional abbreviations have been used. Theog Hesiod’s Theogony
Thuc. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (fifth century BC). Tzetz. Johannes Tzetzes (Byzantine scholar, twelfth-century
AD). The Vatican Mythographers (ed. G. H. Bode, Scriptores Rerum Mythicarum Latini Tres
, Celle, 1834; late Latin compendia). Dates: all are unless otherwise indicated. Cross-references: these are selective, and the Index should also be consulted.
Textual matters: notes on these, and on points of language, have been kept to a bare minimum, except with regard to dubious passages and
interpolations (marked by square brackets in the text) and to etymologies, which depend on wordplay in the original Greek (indicated by italics in the text).
Homer and Hesiod: it is convenient to refer to ‘Homer’, but this implies no judgement as to whether the Iliad and the Odyssey
were composed by the same author, or on the extent to which each poem can be regarded as the work of a single poet. There is disagreement on whether the Hesiodic
Theogony and Works and Days were written by the same author; and other works attributed to Hesiod by the ancients, notably the Catalogue of Women and the Shield
, were certainly written at a later period. Modern authors: all references are to editors or translators of the Library
Pherecydes, Acousilaos, and Hellanicos: for these early mythographer-historians, who are important sources for Apollodorus, see the Introduction.
Extended pass
these are included either to suggest passages for comparison and further reading in ancient works which are readily accessible in translation, or to state the source of specific information given within the note. In the latter case, the references are selective, and refer if necessary to untranslated works.
ext 0
The following abbreviations are used: Aesch. Aeschylus (tragic poet, 525/4-456 BC). [Aesch.] Prometheus Enchained
, a play transmitted under Aeschylus’ name but of uncertain authorship. Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses (compendium of transformation myths, circa
second century AD; for translation see Select Bibliography). Ap. Apollodorus, the author of the Library Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica (epic, third century
BC). Bacch. Bacchylides (lyric poet, flourished fifth century BC; the numbering follows Snell’s Teubner edition). Catast Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catasterisms
(compendium of constellation myths; in Mythographi Graeci , Leipsig, vol. 3). Diodorus of Sicily, Library (a world history, first century
, translated in the Loeb series). Eur. Euripides (tragic poet, fifth century BC).
ext 6
fr. fragment. Hdt. Herodotus, History (fifth century BC). Hes.
Hesiod. (For translations of the Hesiodic works, and of some of the testimonies and fragments, see the Hesiod volume in the Loeb series; the references for the fragments are to the standard edition by Merkelbach and West, Oxford, 1967.)
Hes. Cat Catalogue of Women (a sixth-century genealogical epic, not by the author of the Theogony;
see Introduction and Select Bibliography). Hes. Hesiod, Works and Days Homeric Hymns (post-Homeric, of varying date up to sixth century or later, translated in
Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns , Loeb series). Hyg. Hyginus, Fabulae (mythological compendium; for translation see Select Bibliography).
Hyg. Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy (Book II of the Astronomy; see Select Bibliography). Homer’s Iliad Homer’s Odyssey
ext 12
Ov. Met Ovid’s Metamorphoses Pausanias, Description of Greece (second century , translated in the Loeb series and Penguin).
Parthen. Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Stories (first century BC; Mythographi Graeci
, Leipsig, vol. 2). Pind. Pindar (lyric poet, 518-438 BC). Isth.: Isthmian Odes; Nem.: Nemean Odes; 01.: Olympian Odes; Pyth.: Pythian Odes
Plut. Thes Plutarch (first-second century AD) Life of Theseus Procl.
Proclus (of uncertain date, author of summaries of the early epics in the Trojan cycle; translated in Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns
, Loeb series). Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica (epic poem on the fall of Troy, fourth century AD;
ext 18
scholion. (The scholia were marginal notes by ancient and medieval scholars, which often preserve material from lost mythographical works. French translations of some of the scholia relevant to the text of the
Library can be found in the notes to Carriere’s edition; see Select Bibliography.)
NB. In references to scholia conventional abbreviations have been used. Theog Hesiod’s Theogony
Thuc. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (fifth century BC). Tzetz. Johannes Tzetzes (Byzantine scholar, twelfth-century
AD). The Vatican Mythographers (ed. G. H. Bode, Scriptores Rerum Mythicarum Latini Tres
, Celle, 1834; late Latin compendia). Dates: all are unless otherwise indicated. Cross-references: these are selective, and the Index should also be consulted.
ext 24
were composed by the same author, or on the extent to which each poem can be regarded as the work of a single poet. There is disagreement on whether the Hesiodic
, were certainly written at a later period. Modern authors: all references are to editors or translators of the Library
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Theme: glossing.
Theme: disambiguation.
Explanatory Note: chain 1
Explanatory Note: chain 4
Explanatory Note: chain 7
Explanatory Note: chain 10
Explanatory Note: chain 13
Explanatory Note: chain 16
Explanatory Note: chain 19
Further source depth
were composed by the same author, or on the extent to which each poem can be regarded as the work of a single poet. There is disagreement on whether the Hesiodic
, were certainly written at a later period. Modern authors: all references are to editors or translators of the Library
Explanatory Notes x: chain 1
Explanatory Notes x: chain 4
Explanatory Notes x: chain 7
Explanatory Notes x: chain 10
Explanatory Notes x: chain 13
Explanatory Notes x: chain 16
The Twelve Gods
The Twelve Gods: spine
The twelve are a set you can sacrifice to as a set; the Library also tells each god's birth inside Book I's stemma.
the classical period onwards it was commonly accepted that there were twelve principal deities. This idea, which developed from cultic rather than strictly mythological considerations, originated in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, but by the fifth century
altars had been dedicated to the Twelve Gods at Athens and Olympia. Athough there is some variation in surviving lists, the standard list in later times was: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaistos, Athene, Artemis, Apollo, and Hermes. Here we will exclude Hestia (who is of some significance cultically as goddess of the hearth, but has virtually no mythology because she never leaves home), and include Dionysos in her place. The group then includes all the Olympian deities who are most important in mythology and appear most frequently in the present work. At Rome, most were identified with local deities; the names of these are given in brackets.
(Venus). Birth, 29; incites love in Cleio, 30, in Dawn, 32; afflicts the Lemnian women, 50; transfers Boutes to Sicily, 55; mother of Harmonia, 101; gives golden apples to suitor of Atalante, 117; love for Anchises, 123, for Adonis, 30, 131-2; punishes daughters of Cinyras, 131; selected by Paris in judgement of goddesses, 146; saves him from Menelaos, but is wounded by Diomedes, 207.
. Birth, and arrival at Delphi, 31-2; kills Tityos and Marsyas, 32, the Giant Ephialtes, 34, the Cyclopes, 119; recovers his stolen cattle from the infant Hermes, and is given a lyre, 118; Zeus assumes his form, 115.
Grants divinatory powers to Melampous, 46, to Cassandra, 125; serves and helps Admetos, 48, 120; helps Argonauts, 55-6; arms Heracles, 72, meets him after he has caught the Cerynitian hind, 75, fights him for the tripod at Delphi, 85; fortifies Troy for Laomedon, but sends plague when denied fee, 79; shoots sons of Niobe, 105; his part in death of Achilles, 151-4, Neoptolemos seeks reparation, 160.
Loves Hyacinthos, 30, 119, Coronis, mother of Asclepios, 119; rejected by Marpessa, 39, Cassandra, 125; his children, Linos and the Corybantes, 30, Doros, Laodocos, Polypoites, 39, Miletos, 97, Eleuther, 117, Asclepios, 119, Troilos, 125, Anios, 148, Tenes, 150, Mopsos, 158.
Oracles of, 112, 114, 150; sends sign before fall of Troy, 157; sacrifices to, 149, 151; sanctuary of, 90; Manto dedicated to, 112; Zeus assumes his form, 115.
(Mars). Birth, 29; slept with Dawn, 32; enclosed in jar by Aloads, 38; conflict with Heracles over son Cycnos, 82, 90; spring and dragon of, at Thebes, and death of dragon at hand of Cadmos, 100; Menoitios sacrifices himself to, 110; tried on the Areiopagos for murder, 131; gave arms and horses to Oinomaos, 144.
Father of Oxylos, 39, sons by Demonice, 39, Meleager, Dryas, 40, Ascalaphos and Ialmenos, 50, 121, Diomedes of Thrace, 78, Cycnos, 82, 90, Harmonia, 101, Phlegyas, 104, Parthenopaios, 117, Alcippe, 130, Tereus, 132, Penthesileia, 154.
Grove of, at Colchis, 43; belt of, owned by queen of Amazons, 78. Artemis
(Diana). Birth, 31; shoots Tityos, 32; kills Orion, 32, a Giant, 35, the daughters of Niobe, 105, Callisto, 115; causes death of the Aloads, 38, Actaion, 102, Adonis, 131, Broteas, 143; angry with Oineus, and sends the Calydonian boar, 40, with Admetos, 48, with Heracles for catching hind sacred to her, 74-5, with Agamemnon, and causes sacrifice of his daughter Iphigeneia, but rescues her, 150; Atreus fails to honour vow to, 145, 150; makes Phylonoe immortal, 120.
(Athenaia or Athenaie, contracted to Athene, or to Athena in fourth century Attic and later usage; at Rome identfied with Minerva). Birth, 31; discards flute, 32; and Giants, 34-5, 87; reared by Triton, and conflict with Pallas, 123-4; wins contest with Poseidon for Athens, 140; amongst the goddesses judged by Paris, 146.
, 49, on the ship of Danaos, 60; helps Perseus, 65-7; gifts and aid to Heracles, 72, 77, 78; returns apples of the Hesperides, 83; advises Cadmos, and confers kingdom on him, 100; gives Gorgon’s blood to Asclepios, 119, dragon’s teeth to Aietes, 53; involvement with the birth and rearing of Erichthonios, 132; purifies the Danaids, 62; blinds Teiresias, but grants him divinatory powers, 110; plans to make Tydeus immortal, but is deterred, 111; drives Aias mad, 155; angry with Locrian Aias and Greeks after her statue is defiled, asks Zeus to send storm, 158-9, propitiated by Locrians, 162.
Images of, 60, 158; sanctuary of, 88, 116, 132, 133; priesthood of, 134; wooden horse dedicated to, 156. Demeter
(Ceres). Swallowed by her father Cronos, 28; seeks for her daughter Persephone, received at Eleusis, 33, confers wheat, 33, 133; punishes Ascalaphos, 33, 84; bears horse Areion to Poseidon, 111; Iasion wants to violate her, 122-3; statue of her in Egypt as Isis, 60.
. Birth and earlier life, 101-3; punishes Lycourgos, 102, Pentheus, 103, for rejecting him; transforms pirates, 103; drives mad the women of Argos, 47, daughters of Proitos, 63; gives vine to Oineus, 40, wine to Icarios in Attica, 133; grants powers to daughters of Anios, 148; father of Deianeira, 40, love for Ariadne and children by her, 140; brings mother up from Hades and ascends to heaven, 103.
(Vulcan). Birth, 30; thrown from heaven, 31; and birth of Athene, 31; his forge on Lemnos, 32; kills a Giant, 34; nails Prometheus to Caucasos, 36; gives bronze-footed bulls to Aietes, 53, Talos to Minos, 56, a breastplate to Heracles, 72; makes castanets used by Heracles, 77, necklace for Harmonia, 101, armour for Achilles, 154; builds underground house for Oinopion, 32; looks after cattle for Heracles, 81; purifies Pelops, 144; dries up Scamander, 154; tries to violate Athene and becomes father of Erichthonios, 132; father of Palaimon, 49, Periphetes, 138.
(Juno). Swallowed by her father Cronos, 28; marriage to Zeus, and their children, 29, given golden apples as wedding present, 81; suspended from Olympos, 31, 86; assaulted by Giant, 34; wins contest with Poseidon for Argos, 60; amongst the goddesses judged by Paris, 146; Thetis reared by, 128.
Behaviour to women loved by Zeus and their children: pursues Leto, 31; tethers Io as cow, sends gadfly after her, 59, asks Curetes to abduct her child, 59; delays birth of Heracles, 68, sends serpents against him, 70, a storm, 31, 86, drives him mad, 72, hinders him by inciting Amazons, 79, and dispersing cattle, 81, finally reconciled with him, 91; deceives Semele, 101, drives Dionysos mad, 102, and Athamas and Ino for looking after him, 43, 101; causes death of Callisto, 115.
Throws Orion’s wife into Hades, 32; acts against Pelias for failing to honour her, 45, 46; helps Argonauts past Clashing Rocks, 53, Wandering Rocks, 55; sends daughters of Proitos mad, 63; sends Sphinx against Thebes, 106; blinds Teiresias, 110; assaulted by Ixion, 142; sends storm against Paris and Helen, 147; makes Menelaos immortal, 164.
Sacrifices to, 81; altar of, 57, 146; Ceux says his wife is Hera, 38. Hermes
(Mercury). Birth and exploits as an infant, 117-18; kills Giant, 35; recovers Zeus’ tendons after they are removed by Typhon, 36; rescues Ares, 38; gives golden-fleeced ram to Nephele, 43; steals Io as cow and kills Argos, 59; purifies Danaids, 62; aids Perseus, 65-6; gives Heracles sword, 72, advises him in Hades, 84, sells him, 85; rapes Apemosyne, 98; gives moly to Odysseus, 167.
Appointed herald to the gods, 118, sent to Deucalion, 37, takes infant Dionysos to Ino and Athamas, 102, sent to Atreus, 145, takes goddesses to be judged by Paris, 146, Helen to Egypt, 147, Prote-silaos up from Hades, 152.
Father of Eurytos, 49, Abderos, 78, Cephalos, 131, Myrtilos, 144, Pan, 170. Poseidon
(Neptune). Swallowed by Cronos, 28; given trident, and becomes ruler of the sea, 29; marriage and children, 33; fights Giant,
35; loses contest with Hera for Argos, 60, with Athene for Attica, 130; contends with Zeus for Thetis, 128; indicts Ares for murder, 131; fathers horse Areion by Demeter, 111.
Makes shelter for Oinopion, 32; gives a chariot to Idas, 39, powers of transformation to Periclymenos, 45; blinds Phineus, 52; sends flood and monster against Ethiopia, 66; makes Pterelaos immortal, 68; hides away Centaurs, 75; sends bull from sea to Minos, 77, against Hippolytos, 142; fortifies Troy, but sends sea-monster when denied fee, 79; gives Peleus immortal horses, 129; rescues Eumolpos, destroys Erechtheus and house, 135; makes Caineus invulnerable, 142; kills Locrian Aias, 159; angry with Odysseus for blinding Polyphemos, 165, sends storm against him, and petrifies Phaeacian ship, 168, propitiated, 170.
His children, Orion, 32, the Aloads, 38, by Tyro, 45, Phineus, 52, Belos and Agenor, 60, 96, Nauplios by Amymone, 61-2, Pegasos, 64, Chrysaor, 66, the Molionides, 87, by Atlantids, 117, Halirrhothios, killed by Ares, 130-1, Eumolpos, 135, Theseus, 136, Polyphemos, 165, others, 38, 50, 51, 68, 76, 80, 82, 86, 96, 110, 139; loves Pelops, gives him winged chariot, 144.
Sacrifice to, 49; sanctuary of 72; cult of Poseidon Erechtheus, 134, Argo dedicated to, 57. Zeus
(Jupiter). Birth, childhood, and ascent to power, 28; marriage to Hera, and children by her and others, 29-31; father of Dionysos by Semele, 101, of Hermes by Maia, 117; aids abduction of Persephone, 33; defeat of Giants, 34-5, of Typhon, 35-6; punishes Prometheus, 36, his release, 75, 83; separates Apollo and Idas, 39, Apollo and Heracles, 85, Athene and Poseidon, 130; places aegis between Pallas and Athene, 124; gives remedy to Athene, 111; adjudicates between Hermes and Apollo, 118; imposes servitude on Apollo, 119; contends with Poseidon for Thetis, 128; judges dispute between goddesses over Adonis, 131; causes oaths to be sworn by Styx, 29.
Transforms Ceux and Alcyone, 38, vixen and dog, 70, Nysian nymphs, 102, Niobe, 105; destroys Salmoneus, 45, Capaneus, 110, Lycaon and sons, 115, Asclepios, 119, companions of Odysseus, 168, causes death of Actaion, 102; punishes Sisyphos, 44, Ixion, 142; sends great flood, 37; grants Endymion unending sleep, 38-9; incites Oineus to passion for own daughter, 42; angry with Argonauts for murder of Apsyrtos, 54-5; orders purification of Danaids, 62; saves Heracles, 87; grants long life to Sarpedon, 97; gives Harmonia to Cadmos, 101, sends them to Elysium, 103; gives prophetic powers to Teiresias, 110; opens chasm for Amphiaraos, 111; helps Callirrhoe, 113; determines posthumous fate of Dioscuri, 122; abduction of Ganymede, 79, 123; grants Minos vengeance on Athenians, 137;
supports Atreus in claim to throne, 145; brings about the Trojan War, 146, reveals its duration, 149; has Helen sent to Egypt, 147; sends storm against Greeks, 159; made Aiolos controller of the winds, 166.
Loves Niobe, 58, Io, 59, Danae, 65, Alcmene, 70, Europa, 77, Semele, 101, Antiope, 104, Callirrhoe, 113, Callisto, 115, Maia, 117, Leda, Nemesis, 120, Aegina, 126; his mortal children, Aethlios, 37, Aiacos, 126, Amphion, 104, 117, Areas, 115, Argos, 58, Asopos, 126, Atymnios, 97, Castor?, 44 cf. 120, Dardanos, 122, Epaphos, 59, Helen, 120, Hellen, 37, Heracles, 70, Iasion, 122, Lacedaimon, 118, Minos, Rhadamanthys, Sarpedon 96, Perseus, 65, Polydeuces, 120, Tityos, 31, Zethos, 104, 117.
Altars to, 90, 98; sacrifices to, 43, 82; sanctuary of, 117.
Extended pass
the classical period onwards it was commonly accepted that there were twelve principal deities. This idea, which developed from cultic rather than strictly mythological considerations, originated in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, but by the fifth century
ext 0
altars had been dedicated to the Twelve Gods at Athens and Olympia. Athough there is some variation in surviving lists, the standard list in later times was: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaistos, Athene, Artemis, Apollo, and Hermes. Here we will exclude Hestia (who is of some significance cultically as goddess of the hearth, but has virtually no mythology because she never leaves home), and include Dionysos in her place. The group then includes all the Olympian deities who are most important in mythology and appear most frequently in the present work. At Rome, most were identified with local deities; the names of these are given in brackets.
(Venus). Birth, 29; incites love in Cleio, 30, in Dawn, 32; afflicts the Lemnian women, 50; transfers Boutes to Sicily, 55; mother of Harmonia, 101; gives golden apples to suitor of Atalante, 117; love for Anchises, 123, for Adonis, 30, 131-2; punishes daughters of Cinyras, 131; selected by Paris in judgement of goddesses, 146; saves him from Menelaos, but is wounded by Diomedes, 207.
. Birth, and arrival at Delphi, 31-2; kills Tityos and Marsyas, 32, the Giant Ephialtes, 34, the Cyclopes, 119; recovers his stolen cattle from the infant Hermes, and is given a lyre, 118; Zeus assumes his form, 115.
Grants divinatory powers to Melampous, 46, to Cassandra, 125; serves and helps Admetos, 48, 120; helps Argonauts, 55-6; arms Heracles, 72, meets him after he has caught the Cerynitian hind, 75, fights him for the tripod at Delphi, 85; fortifies Troy for Laomedon, but sends plague when denied fee, 79; shoots sons of Niobe, 105; his part in death of Achilles, 151-4, Neoptolemos seeks reparation, 160.
Loves Hyacinthos, 30, 119, Coronis, mother of Asclepios, 119; rejected by Marpessa, 39, Cassandra, 125; his children, Linos and the Corybantes, 30, Doros, Laodocos, Polypoites, 39, Miletos, 97, Eleuther, 117, Asclepios, 119, Troilos, 125, Anios, 148, Tenes, 150, Mopsos, 158.
Oracles of, 112, 114, 150; sends sign before fall of Troy, 157; sacrifices to, 149, 151; sanctuary of, 90; Manto dedicated to, 112; Zeus assumes his form, 115.
ext 6
(Mars). Birth, 29; slept with Dawn, 32; enclosed in jar by Aloads, 38; conflict with Heracles over son Cycnos, 82, 90; spring and dragon of, at Thebes, and death of dragon at hand of Cadmos, 100; Menoitios sacrifices himself to, 110; tried on the Areiopagos for murder, 131; gave arms and horses to Oinomaos, 144.
Father of Oxylos, 39, sons by Demonice, 39, Meleager, Dryas, 40, Ascalaphos and Ialmenos, 50, 121, Diomedes of Thrace, 78, Cycnos, 82, 90, Harmonia, 101, Phlegyas, 104, Parthenopaios, 117, Alcippe, 130, Tereus, 132, Penthesileia, 154.
Grove of, at Colchis, 43; belt of, owned by queen of Amazons, 78. Artemis
(Diana). Birth, 31; shoots Tityos, 32; kills Orion, 32, a Giant, 35, the daughters of Niobe, 105, Callisto, 115; causes death of the Aloads, 38, Actaion, 102, Adonis, 131, Broteas, 143; angry with Oineus, and sends the Calydonian boar, 40, with Admetos, 48, with Heracles for catching hind sacred to her, 74-5, with Agamemnon, and causes sacrifice of his daughter Iphigeneia, but rescues her, 150; Atreus fails to honour vow to, 145, 150; makes Phylonoe immortal, 120.
(Athenaia or Athenaie, contracted to Athene, or to Athena in fourth century Attic and later usage; at Rome identfied with Minerva). Birth, 31; discards flute, 32; and Giants, 34-5, 87; reared by Triton, and conflict with Pallas, 123-4; wins contest with Poseidon for Athens, 140; amongst the goddesses judged by Paris, 146.
, 49, on the ship of Danaos, 60; helps Perseus, 65-7; gifts and aid to Heracles, 72, 77, 78; returns apples of the Hesperides, 83; advises Cadmos, and confers kingdom on him, 100; gives Gorgon’s blood to Asclepios, 119, dragon’s teeth to Aietes, 53; involvement with the birth and rearing of Erichthonios, 132; purifies the Danaids, 62; blinds Teiresias, but grants him divinatory powers, 110; plans to make Tydeus immortal, but is deterred, 111; drives Aias mad, 155; angry with Locrian Aias and Greeks after her statue is defiled, asks Zeus to send storm, 158-9, propitiated by Locrians, 162.
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Images of, 60, 158; sanctuary of, 88, 116, 132, 133; priesthood of, 134; wooden horse dedicated to, 156. Demeter
(Ceres). Swallowed by her father Cronos, 28; seeks for her daughter Persephone, received at Eleusis, 33, confers wheat, 33, 133; punishes Ascalaphos, 33, 84; bears horse Areion to Poseidon, 111; Iasion wants to violate her, 122-3; statue of her in Egypt as Isis, 60.
. Birth and earlier life, 101-3; punishes Lycourgos, 102, Pentheus, 103, for rejecting him; transforms pirates, 103; drives mad the women of Argos, 47, daughters of Proitos, 63; gives vine to Oineus, 40, wine to Icarios in Attica, 133; grants powers to daughters of Anios, 148; father of Deianeira, 40, love for Ariadne and children by her, 140; brings mother up from Hades and ascends to heaven, 103.
(Vulcan). Birth, 30; thrown from heaven, 31; and birth of Athene, 31; his forge on Lemnos, 32; kills a Giant, 34; nails Prometheus to Caucasos, 36; gives bronze-footed bulls to Aietes, 53, Talos to Minos, 56, a breastplate to Heracles, 72; makes castanets used by Heracles, 77, necklace for Harmonia, 101, armour for Achilles, 154; builds underground house for Oinopion, 32; looks after cattle for Heracles, 81; purifies Pelops, 144; dries up Scamander, 154; tries to violate Athene and becomes father of Erichthonios, 132; father of Palaimon, 49, Periphetes, 138.
(Juno). Swallowed by her father Cronos, 28; marriage to Zeus, and their children, 29, given golden apples as wedding present, 81; suspended from Olympos, 31, 86; assaulted by Giant, 34; wins contest with Poseidon for Argos, 60; amongst the goddesses judged by Paris, 146; Thetis reared by, 128.
Behaviour to women loved by Zeus and their children: pursues Leto, 31; tethers Io as cow, sends gadfly after her, 59, asks Curetes to abduct her child, 59; delays birth of Heracles, 68, sends serpents against him, 70, a storm, 31, 86, drives him mad, 72, hinders him by inciting Amazons, 79, and dispersing cattle, 81, finally reconciled with him, 91; deceives Semele, 101, drives Dionysos mad, 102, and Athamas and Ino for looking after him, 43, 101; causes death of Callisto, 115.
ext 18
Throws Orion’s wife into Hades, 32; acts against Pelias for failing to honour her, 45, 46; helps Argonauts past Clashing Rocks, 53, Wandering Rocks, 55; sends daughters of Proitos mad, 63; sends Sphinx against Thebes, 106; blinds Teiresias, 110; assaulted by Ixion, 142; sends storm against Paris and Helen, 147; makes Menelaos immortal, 164.
Sacrifices to, 81; altar of, 57, 146; Ceux says his wife is Hera, 38. Hermes
(Mercury). Birth and exploits as an infant, 117-18; kills Giant, 35; recovers Zeus’ tendons after they are removed by Typhon, 36; rescues Ares, 38; gives golden-fleeced ram to Nephele, 43; steals Io as cow and kills Argos, 59; purifies Danaids, 62; aids Perseus, 65-6; gives Heracles sword, 72, advises him in Hades, 84, sells him, 85; rapes Apemosyne, 98; gives moly to Odysseus, 167.
Appointed herald to the gods, 118, sent to Deucalion, 37, takes infant Dionysos to Ino and Athamas, 102, sent to Atreus, 145, takes goddesses to be judged by Paris, 146, Helen to Egypt, 147, Prote-silaos up from Hades, 152.
Father of Eurytos, 49, Abderos, 78, Cephalos, 131, Myrtilos, 144, Pan, 170. Poseidon
(Neptune). Swallowed by Cronos, 28; given trident, and becomes ruler of the sea, 29; marriage and children, 33; fights Giant,
ext 24
Sacrifice to, 49; sanctuary of 72; cult of Poseidon Erechtheus, 134, Argo dedicated to, 57. Zeus
(Jupiter).
ext 30
Altars to, 90, 98; sacrifices to, 43, 82; sanctuary of, 117.
Theme: Olympian set.
Theme: cult twelve.
Theme: birth stories.
The Twelve Gods: chain 1
The Twelve Gods: chain 4
The Twelve Gods: chain 7
The Twelve Gods: chain 10
The Twelve Gods: chain 13
The Twelve Gods: chain 16
The Twelve Gods: chain 19
The Twelve Gods: chain 22
The Twelve Gods: chain 25
The Twelve Gods: chain 28
The Twelve Gods: chain 31
The Twelve Gods: chain 34
The Twelve Gods: chain 37
The Twelve Gods: chain 40
Further source depth
Sacrifice to, 49; sanctuary of 72; cult of Poseidon Erechtheus, 134, Argo dedicated to, 57. Zeus
(Jupiter).
Altars to, 90, 98; sacrifices to, 43, 82; sanctuary of, 117.
The Twelve Gods x: chain 1
The Twelve Gods x: chain 4
The Twelve Gods x: chain 7
The Twelve Gods x: chain 10
The Twelve Gods x: chain 13
The Twelve Gods x: chain 16
References to Animals and Transformations
References to Animals and Transformations: spine
Io as cow and Actaeon as stag are not ornaments; they are how divine anger writes on bodies.
REFERENCES TO ANIMALS AND TRANSFORMATIONS Asses , companions of Odysseus turned into, 166. Bear
, Callisto turned into, 115; Atalante, 116, Paris suckled by, 125; Achilles fed on the marrow of bears, 129. Bee
, Periclymenos turns himself into, 45. Birds
, Melampous, 46, Teiresias, 110, come to understand their language; Stymphalian, killed by Heracles, 77; women mourning Meleager turned into, 41 (meleagrides, guinea-fowl, in other sources), and Aisacos mourning his wife, 124 (a diver, in the Latin tradition).
Bitch , Hecuba turned into, 158. Boar
, Calydonian, sent by Artemis, 40-1, further references to the hunt for it, 86, 116, 127, image on Tydeus’ shield (which can be taken to be of Calydonian boar), 107; Erymanthian, caught by Heracles, 75-6; Adonis killed by a, 132; suitors of Alcestis to yoke a boar to a lion, 107.
, Arcadian, killed by Argos, 58; Europa abducted by Zeus as, 96; sent up to Minos by Poseidon, 97, mates with Pasiphae, fathering the Minotaur, 98; Cretan killed by Heracles, 77, identifiable with Europa’s or with that sent by Poseidon?, 77; Marathonian, identifiable with the previous, 77, killed Androgeos, 136, killed by Theseus, 139; bull sent against Hippolytos by Poseidon, 142; bronze-footed, yoked by Jason, 53-4; Talos a bull?, 56; Aison killed by drinking bull’s blood, 56; Heracles takes and eats a bullock, 82, 89; Acheloos takes form of, when fighting Heracles, 88; Dirce bound to, 105.
, of Admetos, 120, of Aeneas, rustled by Achilles, 152, of Apollo, stolen by Hermes, 118, of Augeias, 76, of Electryon, stolen by sons of Pterlaos, 69, of Eurytos, 85, of Geryon, taken by Heracles, 80-1, of Hades, 80, 84, of Phylacos, gained by Melampous, 46-7, of the Sun, 34, 55, 168; Arcadian, rustled by the Dioscuri and Idas and Lynceus, 122; Theban tribute to Orchomenos, 71-2.
Cow , Io turned into, 59; guides Cadmos to site of Thebes, 100, Ilos to site of Ilion, 123; three-coloured, owned by Minos, 99; wooden, made for Pasiphae, 98.
Crow , turned from white to black by Apollo, 119. Deer
, Artemis turns herself into to cause death of Aloads, 38; Actaion turned into, 102; killed by Agamemnon, 150; substituted for Iphigeneia at sacrifice, 150; Athamas hunts his son thinking him a deer, 101.
Doe , Telephos suckled by, 88, 116. Dog
, unapproachable, guarding cattle of Phylacos, 46; of Minos, fated to catch prey, 70, 134, turned to stone by Zeus, 70; Molossian, kills son of Licymnios, 87-8; named Maira, leads Erigone to her father’s body, 133; monstrous, Cerberos, 83-4, Orthos, 80; dogs of Actaion hunt their master, 102, catalogue of their names, 172.
Dolphins , Dionysos transforms pirates into, 103. Dove , sent out by Argonauts to test passage between Clashing Rocks, S2-3. Dragon , Delphyne, a she-dragon, 36;
see further under serpents. Eagle , eats liver of Prometheus, 36, shot by Heracles, 83; abducts Ganymede, 123; presages birth of Aias, hence his name, 127. Fox
, symbol of Messenia, 94; Teumessian, see vixen. Gadfly , sent by Hera against Io as cow, 59, against cattle of Geryon, 81. Goat
, Amaltheia, whose milk is given to infant Zeus, 28. (Not explicitly named here as a goat; this can also be the name of the nymph owning it, cf. 89 and note.)
Goose , Nemesis turns herself into, hoping to avoid intercourse with Zeus, 120. Halcyon
(a mythical bird), Alcyone turned into, 38. Hind , Cerynitian, golden-horned and sacred to Artemis, caught by Heracles, 74-5. Hoopoe
, immortal, given to Peleus by Poseidon, 129, lent by Achilles to Patroclos, 154; man-eating mares of Diomedes, kill Abderos, captured by Heracles, 77-8; winged horses of Zeus, 36; horses given by Ares to Oinomaos, 144, by Zeus (to Tros) and thence to Laomedon, 79; Lycourgos killed by, 152; of Rhesos, 153; Pegasos, 64, 66; Areion, offspring of Demeter and Poseidon, owned by Adrastos, 111; Wooden horse at Troy, 156-7.
Hydra , Lernaean, killed by Heracles, 74, its poison, 90. Keux (a semi-mythical bird, translated as sea-swallow), Ceux turned into, 38. Kid
, Dionysos turned into, 101-2. Lamb , golden, sent to Atreus by Artemis, 145, 150. Lion
, of Cithairon, 71, of Nemea, killed by Heracles, 73; Periclymenos turns himself into, 45; Atalante and Melanion, 117, companions of Odysseus, turned into, 166; suitors of Alcestis to yoke with boar, 107
on shield of Adrastos, 107. Nightingale , Procne turned into, 133. Owl , Ascalaphos turned into, 82. Pigs
, companions of Odysseus turned into, 166; Achilles fed on entrails of wild swine, 129 Quail
, Asteria turns herself into, 31. Ram , with golden fleece, carries Phrixos and Helle through sky, 43, its fleece fetched by Jason, 49, 53-4. Seal
, Psamathe turns herself into, 126. Sea-swallow see Keux. Sea-monster
, Andromeda exposed to, 66, killed by Perseus, 67; Hesione exposed to, killed by Heracles, 79. Snakes
(including dragons, which are typically of serpent form), guarding oracle at Delphi, killed by Apollo, 31, guarding spring of Ares at Thebes, killed by Cadmos, 100, sowing of latter’s teeth, 53-4, 100; guarding apples of Hesperides, 81, 83; devastating Salamis, killed by Telamon, 127. Eurydice killed by, 30, the companions of Cadmos, 100, Opheltes (Archemoros), 109, the daughters of Cecrops, 132, the sons of Laocoon, 157, Orestes, 164; coils of, found in Admetos’ marriage chamber, 48, hold down Theseus and Peirithoos in Hades, 143. Periclymenos turns himself into, 45, Cadmos turned into, 103; mast and oars of pirate ship turned into by Dionysos, 130; Snakes confer divinatory powers on Melampous, 46, show Polyidos how to bring Glaucos back to life, 99-100; Teiresias changes sex on injuring copulating snakes, 110; portent of snake and sparrows at Aulis, 149; Cecrops half-serpent, 120; snake coiled round Erichthonios, 132; Triptolemos’, 33, Medea’s, 57, chariot of winged dragons; Talos uses jawbone of snake to make a saw, 138; symbol of Laconia, 34.
Sow , of Crommyon, Phaia, killed by Theseus, 139; riddle of pregnant sow, 159. Sparrows
, portent of snake and, at Aulis, 149. Swan , Zeus turns himself into, to have intercourse with Leda or Nemesis, 120. Toad
, symbol of Argos, 94. Tortoise , Hermes uses its shell to make lyre, 118. Vixen , Teumessian, fated to catch its prey, petrified by Zeus, 70. Vultures
, feed on heart of Tityos, 32; vulture tells Melampous how to cure Iphiclos, 47. Wolves
, Athamas offered hospitality by, 44; Stymphalian birds flee from, 77; companions of Odysseus turned into, 166. Wood-worms
, overheard by Melampous, 47. Other transformations
: Teiresias, turned into opposite sex and back, 110, Caineus originally a woman but transformed into an invulnerable man by Poseidon, 142; nymphs who reared Dionysos turned into the constellation of the Hyades, 102, Callisto into the (Great) Bear, 115; Smyrna into a myrrh-tree, 131; Polydectes and friends turned to stone by Medusa’s head, 67, Niobe by Zeus, 105, Phaeacian ship by Poseidon,
168; snake in portent at Aulis petrified, 149; stones thrown by Deucalion and Pyrrha turn into men and women, 37; the children of Callirhoe turned into adults by Zeus, 113; Metis, 31, Nereus, 82, turn themselves into many different shapes, Thetis into fire, water, wild beast, 128-9; the gods flee to Egypt through fear of Typhon and turn themselves into animals, 35.
Transformations of the gods: Demeter, 33, Apollo and Poseidon, 79, into human form; Hera into an Amazon, 79; Zeus into a shower of gold, to seduce Danae, 65, into Artemis or Apollo to seduce Callisto, 115, Poseidon into the River Enipeus to seduce Tyro, 45; Demeter into a Fury, 111.
Extended pass
REFERENCES TO ANIMALS AND TRANSFORMATIONS Asses , companions of Odysseus turned into, 166. Bear
ext 0
, Callisto turned into, 115; Atalante, 116, Paris suckled by, 125; Achilles fed on the marrow of bears, 129. Bee
, Periclymenos turns himself into, 45. Birds
, Melampous, 46, Teiresias, 110, come to understand their language; Stymphalian, killed by Heracles, 77; women mourning Meleager turned into, 41 (meleagrides, guinea-fowl, in other sources), and Aisacos mourning his wife, 124 (a diver, in the Latin tradition).
Bitch , Hecuba turned into, 158. Boar
, Calydonian, sent by Artemis, 40-1, further references to the hunt for it, 86, 116, 127, image on Tydeus’ shield (which can be taken to be of Calydonian boar), 107; Erymanthian, caught by Heracles, 75-6; Adonis killed by a, 132; suitors of Alcestis to yoke a boar to a lion, 107.
, Arcadian, killed by Argos, 58; Europa abducted by Zeus as, 96; sent up to Minos by Poseidon, 97, mates with Pasiphae, fathering the Minotaur, 98; Cretan killed by Heracles, 77, identifiable with Europa’s or with that sent by Poseidon?, 77; Marathonian, identifiable with the previous, 77, killed Androgeos, 136, killed by Theseus, 139; bull sent against Hippolytos by Poseidon, 142; bronze-footed, yoked by Jason, 53-4; Talos a bull?, 56; Aison killed by drinking bull’s blood, 56; Heracles takes and eats a bullock, 82, 89; Acheloos takes form of, when fighting Heracles, 88; Dirce bound to, 105.
ext 6
, of Admetos, 120, of Aeneas, rustled by Achilles, 152, of Apollo, stolen by Hermes, 118, of Augeias, 76, of Electryon, stolen by sons of Pterlaos, 69, of Eurytos, 85, of Geryon, taken by Heracles, 80-1, of Hades, 80, 84, of Phylacos, gained by Melampous, 46-7, of the Sun, 34, 55, 168; Arcadian, rustled by the Dioscuri and Idas and Lynceus, 122; Theban tribute to Orchomenos, 71-2.
Cow , Io turned into, 59; guides Cadmos to site of Thebes, 100, Ilos to site of Ilion, 123; three-coloured, owned by Minos, 99; wooden, made for Pasiphae, 98.
Crow , turned from white to black by Apollo, 119. Deer
, Artemis turns herself into to cause death of Aloads, 38; Actaion turned into, 102; killed by Agamemnon, 150; substituted for Iphigeneia at sacrifice, 150; Athamas hunts his son thinking him a deer, 101.
Doe , Telephos suckled by, 88, 116. Dog
, unapproachable, guarding cattle of Phylacos, 46; of Minos, fated to catch prey, 70, 134, turned to stone by Zeus, 70; Molossian, kills son of Licymnios, 87-8; named Maira, leads Erigone to her father’s body, 133; monstrous, Cerberos, 83-4, Orthos, 80; dogs of Actaion hunt their master, 102, catalogue of their names, 172.
ext 12
Dolphins , Dionysos transforms pirates into, 103. Dove , sent out by Argonauts to test passage between Clashing Rocks, S2-3. Dragon , Delphyne, a she-dragon, 36;
see further under serpents. Eagle , eats liver of Prometheus, 36, shot by Heracles, 83; abducts Ganymede, 123; presages birth of Aias, hence his name, 127. Fox
, symbol of Messenia, 94; Teumessian, see vixen. Gadfly , sent by Hera against Io as cow, 59, against cattle of Geryon, 81. Goat
, Amaltheia, whose milk is given to infant Zeus, 28. (Not explicitly named here as a goat; this can also be the name of the nymph owning it, cf. 89 and note.)
Goose , Nemesis turns herself into, hoping to avoid intercourse with Zeus, 120. Halcyon
(a mythical bird), Alcyone turned into, 38. Hind , Cerynitian, golden-horned and sacred to Artemis, caught by Heracles, 74-5. Hoopoe
ext 18
, immortal, given to Peleus by Poseidon, 129, lent by Achilles to Patroclos, 154; man-eating mares of Diomedes, kill Abderos, captured by Heracles, 77-8; winged horses of Zeus, 36; horses given by Ares to Oinomaos, 144, by Zeus (to Tros) and thence to Laomedon, 79; Lycourgos killed by, 152; of Rhesos, 153; Pegasos, 64, 66; Areion, offspring of Demeter and Poseidon, owned by Adrastos, 111; Wooden horse at Troy, 156-7.
Hydra , Lernaean, killed by Heracles, 74, its poison, 90. Keux (a semi-mythical bird, translated as sea-swallow), Ceux turned into, 38. Kid
, Dionysos turned into, 101-2. Lamb , golden, sent to Atreus by Artemis, 145, 150. Lion
, of Cithairon, 71, of Nemea, killed by Heracles, 73; Periclymenos turns himself into, 45; Atalante and Melanion, 117, companions of Odysseus, turned into, 166; suitors of Alcestis to yoke with boar, 107
on shield of Adrastos, 107. Nightingale , Procne turned into, 133. Owl , Ascalaphos turned into, 82. Pigs
, companions of Odysseus turned into, 166; Achilles fed on entrails of wild swine, 129 Quail
ext 24
, Asteria turns herself into, 31. Seal
, Psamathe turns herself into, 126. Sea-swallow see Keux. Sea-monster
Snakes
Sparrows
, portent of snake and, at Aulis, 149. Swan , Zeus turns himself into, to have intercourse with Leda or Nemesis, 120. Toad
ext 30
, symbol of Argos, 94. Tortoise , Hermes uses its shell to make lyre, 118. Vultures
Wolves
Wood-worms
, overheard by Melampous, 47. Other transformations
ext 36
Theme: metamorphosis index.
Theme: animal as sign.
Theme: cross-ref retrieval.
References to An: chain 1
References to An: chain 4
References to An: chain 7
References to An: chain 10
References to An: chain 13
References to An: chain 16
References to An: chain 19
References to An: chain 22
References to An: chain 25
References to An: chain 28
References to An: chain 31
References to An: chain 34
Further source depth
, Asteria turns herself into, 31. Seal
, Psamathe turns herself into, 126. Sea-swallow see Keux. Sea-monster
Snakes
Sparrows
, portent of snake and, at Aulis, 149. Swan , Zeus turns himself into, to have intercourse with Leda or Nemesis, 120. Toad
, symbol of Argos, 94. Tortoise , Hermes uses its shell to make lyre, 118. Vultures
Wolves
Wood-worms
, overheard by Melampous, 47. Other transformations
References to Animals and Transformations x: chain 1
References to Animals and Transformations x: chain 4
References to Animals and Transformations x: chain 7
References to Animals and Transformations x: chain 10
References to Animals and Transformations x: chain 13
References to Animals and Transformations x: chain 16
Main Points
Master tokens
Main Points
- Pseudo-Apollodorus Pseudo-Apollodorus attribution stays flagged.
- Family Family organization beats thematic anthologies for retrieval.
- Epitome Epitome seam must stay visible.
- Labour Labour lists are standards with variants.
- Theban Theban and Cretan files share one Agenorid tree.
- Theseus Theseus road-clearing mirrors Heracles at Attic scale.
- Pelopid Pelopid curse programs Atreus and Agamemnon.
- Iliad Iliad appears as digest inside a larger cyclic war.
- Nostoi Nostoi prove foreign victory is not home safety.
- Twelve Twelve Gods lists swap members; version them.
- Animal/transformation Animal/transformation tags are a second index.
- Hard's Hard's dryness is a feature for navigation.
- Critical A closer look on every contested parentage.
- Use Use poets for pathos; use the Library for the map.
- Photius's Photius's praise explains survival better than pure luck.
Synthesis: chain 1
Synthesis: chain 4
Synthesis: chain 7
Synthesis: chain 10
Synthesis: chain 13
Synthesis: chain 16
About this book
The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus. This is a chapter-by-chapter study of the book, with summaries, maps, tables and diagrams; short quotations keep their page references. It is shared free for personal study, is not for sale, and is not endorsed by the author or publisher. Please read and buy the original.
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