Insight Editions · No. 194
The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology
Based on H. J. Rose’s Handbook of Greek Mythology
Robin Hard
Robin Hard surveys Greek mythology through its sources, divine genealogies, Olympian gods, heroic cycles, and regional traditions, tracing variant stories from creation myths to the Trojan War.
A study guide to The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology by Robin Hard. Shared free for personal reading; not for sale and not endorsed by the authors or publishers. Please read and buy the original.
The Book in Brief
Robin Hard's Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Robin Hard's handbook survey of Greek myth. A reference handbook: gods, heroes, cycles, and variants as Hard organizes them for study.
Argument map
| Ch | Title | Gist |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Half-Title | ~331w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 2 | Preface | ~1,642w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 3 | 1 Sources for Greek myth | ~10,678w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 4 | 2 First beginnings and the Age of the Titans | ~13,002w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 5 | 3 The three great divine families | ~18,926w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 6 | 4 The rise of Zeus and revolts against his rule | ~18,015w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 7 | 5 Hades, Demeter, and the mythology of the Underwo | ~16,911w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 8 | 6 Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon | ~9,832w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 9 | 7 Apollo, Artemis, and Athena | ~19,329w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 10 | 8 Dionysos, Hermes, Hephaistos, and Aphrodite | ~18,050w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 11 | 9 Lesser Deities and Nature-Spirits | ~13,576w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 12 | 10 The early mythical history of Argos | ~17,045w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 13 | 11 The life of Heracles | ~28,199w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 14 | 12 The return of the Heraclids | ~7,708w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 15 | 13 Minos, Theseus and the myths of Crete | ~13,435w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 16 | 14 The kings of Athens | ~15,956w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 17 | 15 Theban mythology from Cadmos to Oedipus | ~14,047w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 18 | 16 The Theban Wars | ~14,307w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 19 | 17 The family of Deucalion and the hunt for the Ca | ~12,499w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 20 | 18 Jason and the Argonauts | ~17,752w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 21 | 19 The early Pelopids and the family of Achilles a | ~14,619w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 22 | 20 The royal families of Troy and Sparta, and the | ~14,518w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 23 | 21 The Trojan War | ~22,313w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 24 | 22 The return journeys of the Greek heroes | ~20,459w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 25 | 23 Aeneas, Romulus, and the origins of Rome | ~12,712w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 26 | 24 Legends of Arcadia and final miscellany | ~26,372w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 27 | Genealogical tables | ~350w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 28 | General index | ~13,357w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
| 29 | The Great Olympian Gods | ~5,075w source; keep claims, names, scenes |
Half-Title
'The new Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology retains all the acclaimed virtues of the 2004 edition, a completely rewritten and meticulously updated version of H.J. Rose's time-tested compendium.
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The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology
'The new Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology retains all the acclaimed virtues of the 2004 edition, a completely rewritten and meticulously updated version of H.J. But this latest version provides an even more useful tool: Robin Hard has totally reorganized the earlier presentation of the often-complex stories about gods and heroes, more lucidly streamlining and sequencing the material, highlighting interconnections, and drawing attention to such matters as ancient cosmology and cult. The result is a fresh, clear narrative, featuring a strong story line while also attuned to curious lesser-known variants.
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An ideally accessible reference work, it can also be read straight through, with pleasure'.
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Richard Martin, Stanford University, USA
Now in its eighth edition, this magisterial work offers a comprehensive survey of the stories of Greek myth, from the Olympian gods, through the lesser gods and deities, to the heroes, adventures, and foundation myths of the ancient Greek world. The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology sets out to provide a comprehensive history of the divine order and mythical prehistory of Greece, as systematized on a genealogical basis by Hesiod and the ancient mythographers, while also taking into account the ways in which individual myths have changed and evolved over time in different genres of literature.
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This new edition has been extensively rewritten and reorganized to make it more accessible to readers who may have no particular knowledge of the ancient world and Greek mythology, and to ensure that information on each myth or mythical figure is easy to find within the book. This new edition of the handbook continues to offer an essential reference resource for all students of Greek mythology, and it provides an accessible and comprehensive overview of these stories for anyone with an interest in the classical world.
Robin Hard has published translations of the Library of Apollodorus, the only surviving comprehensive ancient handbook of Greek mythology, and of treatises on astral mythology and various philosophical works.
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Preface
The names of deities and heroes and heroines from Greek myth are given in their original Greek form, except in certain cases in the Latinized forms are almost always used in English, and it would thus not only be pedantic to retain the Greek form but might also cause confusion. We will thus talk of Clytemnestra, for instance, rather than of Klytaimnestra, and of Ajax rather than Aias; and modern or Latinized forms are used in general for place names (e.g.
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Greek and Latin forms of names
The names of deities and heroes and heroines from Greek myth are given in their original Greek form, except in certain cases in the Latinized forms are almost always used in English, and it would thus not only be pedantic to retain the Greek form but might also cause confusion. We will thus talk of Clytemnestra, for instance, rather than of Klytaimnestra, and of Ajax rather than Aias; and modern or Latinized forms are used in general for place names (e.g.
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Boeotia rather Boiotia) and for the names of ancient Greek authors, as is customary outside purely academic literature. In most cases the differences between the Greek and Latin forms are not very great, and even if the Latin may be more familiar to many readers, no confusion need arise if the following distinctions are kept in mind: The final -os often found in men's names, e.g. Hippolytos and Anios, is not represented as -us as in Latin usage.
The Greek diphthongs ai and oi (pronounced as in 'aisle' and 'coin') are not transliterated into ae and oe as in Latin usage. 'Aithra' and 'Oineus' will thus be found rather than 'Aethra' and 'Oeneus'. The Greek diphthongs - or strictly speaking, digraphs - ei and ou are not transliterated into long i and u as in Latin usage.
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'Teiresias' will thus be found rather than 'Tiresias', and 'Boutes' rather than 'Butes'. Latin usage has been retained in one respect, however, in this eighth edition of the handbook, in response to comments that I have received (and indeed my own preference when translating ancient mythological works). Since the letter k can look strange and unappealing in Greek names that are inserted into an English text, Greek kappa has been transcribed with a c rather than a k (except in a few cases such as Nike and Ker), and we will thus refer to Circe and the Cyclopes rather than to Kirke and the Kyklopes.
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As representing kappa, this c is properly a hard c. When Greek tales from Roman sources are summarized in the text, the mythical figures who appear in them will naturally be cited under their original Greek names, rather than under the Latin names used in the Latin sources and in most English translations of them (e.g. of Ovid's Metamorphoses or of Hyginus' mythological compendium).
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Pronunciation of Greek names
For everyday purposes and in ordinary conversation, it is neither customary nor even desirable for English speakers to attempt to pronounce Greek names exactly as they would have been pronounced in, say, classical Athens. If a semi-Anglicized pronunciation is adopted, Greek names can easily be pronounced without grave distortion if a few basic rules are observed. With regard to consonants, the Greek consonant chi is transliterated as ch and represents an aspirated k (much as can be heard in the English word 'cat' when it is emphatically enunciated).
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In Greek names, it may be pronounced as a k, as when we speak of Achilles, but should certainly not be pronounced as in 'chess'. The Greek g (gamma) is properly a hard g as in 'game', but it may be pronounced as a soft g in English as in 'gin' when that seems more natural (as in Aigeus, as against Aigyptos). Greek kappa, here transcribed as c, is likewise properly hard as has already been mentioned, but may also be pronounced as soft in English when that seems more natural (as in the name Eurydice).
With regard to vowels: There are no mute vowels in Greek words. In particular, a final -e and the e in final -es should always be sounded as a long e, as when we speak of Aphrodite and Socrates. In Greek, ae, oe, and oo (as found, for instance, in the names of Pasiphae, Callirhoe, and Acheloos) are never diphthongs, and each vowel should be sounded separately.
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In names, ai will usually be a diphthong and may be pronounced as in 'aisle', while the diphthongs oi may be pronounced as in coin, au as in 'how', and eu as in 'eulogy. The digraph ei (as found in names like Cheiron or Medeia) may be pronounced as in 'pay', and ou as in 'boule'. Latin names for Greek deities The Romans liked to identify Greek gods with equivalent deities from the Roman and Italian tradition, and they would refer to Greek deities under their Latin names when narrating myths from the Greek tradition.
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Although their Greek names have been used in this book irrespective of whether specific narratives are derived from Greek or Latin sources, it should be kept in mind that Roman authors such as Ovid and Hyginus refer to the main Greek deities as follows:
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Zeus as Iuppiter (anglicized to Jupiter)
The name of Persephone was corrupted to Proserpina in Latin, that of Leto to Latona, and that of Heracles (whether as god or hero) to Hercules. Other names were translated, e.g. Eros to Cupido or Amor, or Pluto to Dis (see p.
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Periods of Greek history
When indicating the time of origin of Greek writings and legends, and so on, it is often convenient or indeed necessary to refer to broad eras of Greek history rather than to specific centuries or dates. The Archaic period can be regarded as having extended from 800 or 750 bc to 480, i.e. from the end of the dark ages to the time of the Persian Wars; the Classical period from 480 bc to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 bc (or more loosely as extending over the fifth and fourth centuries, which was generally speaking the period of the greatest cultural achievements of the Greeks); the Hellenistic period from the death of Alexander to the end of the first century bc; and the Roman period from the first century ad onwards (or more precisely from 31 bc, when Augustus defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium).
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When quoting passages from ancient literature I have made my own translations, which are designed above all to be clear and literal, and do not aim to provide an adequate impression of the literary qualities of the original. And finally, the names of mythical characters are marked in capitals at the beginning of the main discussion (or main discussions) of their mythology, while bold type is used to indicate that a succession of mythical figures belong to a relevant common group, for instance as children of the same parents or as participants in a joint enterprise.
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1 Sources for Greek myth
The myths of the ancient Greeks, like the myths of most other cultures, were forever in a state of flux, undergoing constant change as they were passed on by word of mouth and retold in different ways by authors of successive ages. A handbook such as this must aim in the first place to provide a systematic account of the canon of early Greek myth, as initially established in archaic and classical poetic literature, especially early epic and tragedy, and then summarized and systematized in prose by the early mythographers.
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Sources for Greek myth
The myths of the ancient Greeks, like the myths of most other cultures, were forever in a state of flux, undergoing constant change as they were passed on by word of mouth and retold in different ways by authors of successive ages. A handbook such as this must aim in the first place to provide a systematic account of the canon of early Greek myth, as initially established in archaic and classical poetic literature, especially early epic and tragedy, and then summarized and systematized in prose by the early mythographers.
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A good impression of the nature of the resulting vulgate or standard tradition, as conceived by mythographers of the Hellenistic or early Roman period, can be gained from the only general mythological handbook to survive from Greek antiquity, the Library of Apollodorus. The main myths and legends were organized into a pseudo-historical pattern to provide a remarkably coherent history of the universe and divine order and of the Greek world in the heroic era (which was conventionally thought to have ended in the period following the Trojan War); and this history was underpinned by rigorous systems of divine and heroic genealogy, which were essential if consistent chronologies were to be developed.
The individual myths within this broad framework could be recorded in a variety of forms; even within the earlier literature, between the time, say, of Homer and that of Euripides, they could undergo a multitude of variations, and later developments could also leave their mark. Although powerful versions might tend to establish themselves in the general imagination at the expense of others, as in the case, for instance, of Aeschylus' account of the murder of Agamemnon (see p. 514), it is almost always misleading to talk as if there could be a standard version of a myth that was set in stone from some early time.
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Quite apart from merely narrating myths and placing them in their proper context within the wider body of divine or heroic myth, a handbook must therefore also attempt to trace the history of the more important myths, examining how they evolved over time and came to be narrated in differing ways by different authors in different genres. Since people who have an interest in Greek myth will not necessarily have any very extensive knowledge of ancient literature, and since some authors and writings that are important for myth are not widely familiar outside specialist circles, it was thought that it might thus be helpful to preface this handbook with a brief survey of the main literary sources for Greek myth.
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The relevant authors are listed separately in alphabetical order rather than discussed together in their historical setting to make it easier for readers to seek further information on authors or works of literature that are mentioned in the main text. Cross-references to other authors are marked by an asterisk preceding the name of the author. For reasons indicated in the preface, ancient Greek authors are referred to under the Anglicized form of their name (which is often of Latin origin) even though figures from myth are usually referred to under the proper Greek form of their name.
The authors who are named in the list were Greek (or at least wrote in Greek) unless otherwise stated. The history of Greece after the dark ages is conventionally divided into four main eras, the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman; please see the preface for the significance of these terms. ACUSILAUS of Argos (probably writing at the end of the sixth century bc), early mythographer who wrote about the legendary history of his native Argolid and other regions, providing prose accounts of many legends from the epic tradition.
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Less is recorded about his writings than about those of his most important successors, *Pherecydes and *Hellanicus. ad 172-235), prose author whose Historical Miscellany and anthology of animal stories contain some material of mythological interest. Translations of both are available in the Loeb series.
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AESCHYLUS (525-456 bc), the earliest of the three great Athenian tragic poets whose works are not entirely lost. Of the eighty or ninety plays of Aeschylus, six of undoubted authenticity have survived. The three plays of the Oresteia trilogy, which portray a cycle of revenge within the Pelopid ruling family at Mycenae, are works of extraordinary profundity and resonance that can be ranked with the Homeric epics as the most imposing monuments of ancient literature.
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The first play in the trilogy, Agamemnon, shows how the Mycenaean king of that name was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra after he arrived back from the Trojan War; and the next play, The Libation Bearers (Choephoroi), shows how Agamemnon's son Orestes, who was sent abroad before the murder and grew up in exile, returned to Mycenae to avenge his father's death by killing Clytemnestra and her lover Aigisthos. The final play in the trilogy, The Eumenides, shows how Orestes was then persecuted by the Erinyes (Furies), even though Apollo had sanctioned the killings, until he was acquitted of matricide at Athens at a trial superintended by Athena (see p.
The other surviving plays are stiffer and less immediately engaging. The Seven against Thebes, the last play in a Theban trilogy, tells how seven champions from Argos confronted seven Theban defenders at the seven gates of Thebes during the first of the two Theban Wars (see p. 357); and The Suppliants, which was the last play in a trilogy devoted to the myth of the Danaids, tells how the fifty Danaids approached the Argives as suppliants after fleeing from Egypt to avoid marrying their cousins, the fifty sons of Aigyptos.
There is very little direct action in either play; indeed, more than half of the latter is composed of choral lyrics. The Persians is one of the rare tragedies that dealt with historical subjects, in this case the defeat of Xerxes during the Persian Wars. As regards Prometheus Bound, the seventh play attributed to Aeschylus, there is disagreement on whether it is a genuine work of Aeschylus or was written at a slightly later period by another author (or at least heavily revised from a play by Aeschylus).
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It is remarkable in any case for its unusual portrayal of Zeus, who is presented as a newly established tyrant who exercises his power by the naked use of force. He has Prometheus nailed to a rock to punish him for having opposed his will by championing the interests of mortals; but Prometheus came to be released in a later play in the trilogy, and some sort of reconciliation must therefore have been achieved between Zeus and himself (see pp. ALCAEUS of Mytilene (born in the second half of the seventh century bc), an early lyric poet who was a contemporary and compatriot of Sappho.
ALCMAN (seventh century bc), early author of choral lyric who lived in Sparta. ANTONINUS LIBERALIS (probably second century ad), mythographer, author of a surviving anthology of transformation myths, the Collection of Metamorphoses, which provides prose summaries of forty-nine stories of the kind. Most of the narratives are based on lost poetic accounts by two Hellenistic authors, *Nicander, who composed a poem in five books on mythical transformations, and a certain Boio or Boios (probably a pseudonym), who wrote a long poem called Ornithogonia, which contained rather artificial tales in which groups of people were turned into birds.
There is an English translation by F. Celoria (London, 1992) and a French translation in the Budé series. APOLLODORUS is the name traditionally ascribed to the author of the Bibliotheke or Library, the only comprehensive mythological handbook to have survived from classical antiquity.
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Although once regarded as a work of Apollodorus of Athens, a learned scholar of the second century bc who wrote about mythology and religion among other subjects, it is in fact a relatively late compilation of unpretentious character, probably written in the first or second century ad. The final sections of the book (dealing mainly with the Pelopids and the Trojan War) are preserved only in two prose epitomes discovered in the late nineteenth century; but the narrative is so concise throughout that most readers are unlikely to notice any change.
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The Library is in effect a mythical history of Greece, organized on a genealogical basis in accordance with the pattern established in the Hesiodic Catalogue (see under Hesiod) and followed by early prose mythographers such as *Pherecydes - the authority most frequently cited - and *Hellanicus; and since it is largely based on good early sources and very little has survived from the works of the early mythographers, it is extremely useful as a summary guide to the early vulgate tradition. Even if it may seem rather elementary in parts, it provides the best surviving accounts of many stories (hence the extensive use that has been made of it by compilers of mythological dictionaries and handbooks), and the stories are all placed in their proper context and accompanied by full genealogies.
Translations are available in the Loeb series (in two volumes with useful references to other ancient sources) and Oxford World's Classics. APOLLONIUS of Rhodes (third century bc), a learned Hellenistic poet, author of the Argonautica, an epic in four books that recounts the story of Jason's quest for the golden fleece and his travels with the Argonauts. Since nothing has survived of early the Argonautic epic, this is our main source for the legend along with the accompanying *scholia, which provide all manner of information on earlier versions of the story and local legends associated with the voyage and other relevant matters.
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From an artistic point of view, the poem is more impressive for its depiction of the changing feelings of Medeia and the love that develops between her and Jason than for its portrayals of heroic action. We also possess an incomplete Argonautica in Latin by a poet of the first century ad, Valerius Flaccus, and a curious late poem in Greek, the Orphic Argonautica, which is largely dependent on Apollonius (although it also borrows from other sources and offers a divergent account of the return journey of the Argonauts).
A French translation of the latter poem may be found in the Budé series. The Fourth Pythian Ode of Pindar provides the fullest earlier account of the story of the Argonauts. 315-240 bc), Hellenistic didactic poet, author of an extremely popular astronomical poem, the Phaenomena, which describes the constellations and their risings and settings on the basis of information provided by the great astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidus (active in the first half of the fourth century bc).
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Although Aratus lays no great emphasis on astral mythology, recounting or referring to such myths on only twelve occasions, his poem did much to encourage popular interest in the constellations and their myths. The standard collection of constellation myths was compiled somewhat later by *Eratosthenes in a prose treatise. The scholia to the Phaenomena have more to say about the matter, as do the Latin adaptations of the poem by Germanicus Caesar (15 bc-ad 19) and Avienus (fourth century ad).
ARISTOPHANES (born mid-fifth century bc), Athenian comic playwright, author of eleven surviving plays. Although not based directly on traditional myths, as is usually the case with early tragedy, these are sometimes of value for what they reveal about particular myths or popular attitudes to myth and religion. The Frogs, in which Dionysos and his slave Xanthias make a visit to the land of the dead, may be singled out for what it reveals about the mythology and popular lore of the Underworld in the classical period.
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ARISTOTLE (Aristoteles, 384-322 bc), philosopher with an encyclopaedic range of interest. His writings occasionally touch on mythological matters, and a spurious work in the Aristotelian corpus, On Marvellous Things Heard, records some curious mythological traditions relating to foreign parts. The remains of the pseudo-Aristotelian Peplos are of some interest for what they report about the fates of various warriors who fought at Troy.
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ATHENAEUS (writing in about ad 200), author of the Sophists' Banquet (Deipnosophistai), an eccentric compilation in fifteen books that records more than anyone could possibly want to know about banquets and convivialities. Since Athenaeus draws on a wide range of sources and is never reluctant to provide a quotation, much of value that would otherwise have been lost, some of it relating to myth, is preserved among the dross. There is a translation with a full index in the Loeb series.
BACCHYLIDES (died mid-fifth century bc), lyric poet, a nephew of Simonides and contemporary of Pindar. Substantial remains of his epinician odes (choral odes written in honour of victors at the games) and six of his dithyrambs have been recovered from papyri discovered in the nineteenth century. The former poems are constructed in a similar manner to those of *Pindar, with a mythical narrative at their heart; and although Bacchylides lacks the dash and genius of his greater contemporary, he has distinctive gifts of his own as a storyteller.
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A good impression of this may be gained from the fifth of his epinician odes, which describes how Heracles met and conversed with the shade of Meleager when he descended to the Underworld to fetch Cerberos, and how he was moved to tears by Meleager's account of his premature death. Another well-preserved ode describes how the daughters of Proitos, king of Tiryns, once offended Artemis and were stricken with madness until the goddess was appeased. The dithyrambs also contain attractive mythical narratives, describing, for instance, how Theseus proved to Minos that he was a son of Poseidon (see pp.
295-6) or how he first arrived in his ancestral homeland of Athens. BION of Smyrna (late second century bc), a pastoral poet who is best known as the probable author of the Lament for Adonis. 305-240 bc), Hellenistic poet and scholar who compiled the classified catalogue of the books in the library at Alexandria.
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His six Hymns, which are full of interesting mythological lore, have survived complete because some editor in late antiquity included them in a collection of hymns along with the Homeric Hymns and other poems of a comparable nature. Although modelled on the *Homeric Hymns, they are altogether different in character, as would be expected, as highly sophisticated poems that are learnedly playful and often gently ironic in tone. The third hymn, addressed to Artemis, is particularly charming.
The fifth tells how Teiresias came to be struck blind after seeing Athena naked (see p. 365), while the sixth describes how the Thessalian hero Erysichthon was punished with insatiable hunger after felling some trees in a grove of Demeter (see p. Even if these poems may seem rather dry on first acquaintance, they can be very beguiling when one comes to appreciate their author's distinctive humour and tone of voice.
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The rest of his poetry is preserved in fragments alone, many recovered from papyri. CICERO (106-43 bc), Roman politician, orator, and prose writer, who sometimes refers to Greek legends and mythical matters in his religious and philosophical treatises. COLLUTHUS (probably fifth century ad), author of the Rape of Helen, a mercifully short epic poem in 394 lines; translated in the Loeb series.
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CONON (probably writing at the end of the first century bc or beginning of the next), mythographer, author of a collection of fifty legends of varied nature in which foundation legends are especially prominent. It is preserved in an epitome prepared by the Byzantine scholar Photius (and a French translation is thus available in the Budé edition of Photius' Library). of Sicily, first century bc), Greek Sicilian historian, author of a universal history in fourteen books.
In contrast to historians of a more critical turn of mind, Diodorus did not exclude the period of legend from his survey, and the earlier books are thus of considerable value to the mythologist. As is understandable in a work with historical pretensions, he tended to favour rationalistic accounts from the Hellenistic period, but some of the material that he included as a consequence is of great interest in its own right, notably a report on *Euhemerus and extracts from two works of Dionysius Scytobrachion ('the Leather-armed', in reference to his prolific output) that offered novelistic versions of the myths of the Argonauts and the Amazons.
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The fourth book, however, which deals with the mythical history of the heartland of Greece, seems to have been largely based on a mythological handbook and includes more conventional material from the earlier vulgate. The biography of Heracles is worthy of special note since it provides a valuable supplement to that in *Apollodorus' handbook. There is an excellent translation in the Loeb series.
DIONYSIUS of Halicarnassus (first century bc), Greek literary critic and historian. He lived at Rome for over twenty years, where he compiled the Roman Antiquities (Romaikē Archaiologikē), a long and indeed tiresomely prolix history of Rome from the earliest times up until the Punic Wars. The first book, which deals with the prehistory of the area and the origins and founding of the city, has much to say about Greek legend in so far as it relates to Rome and Italy.
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EPIC CYCLE, and early epic in general (apart from the works of *Homer and *Hesiod). (i) The epic cycle was a collection of early epic poems that were ordered into a cycle to provide a chronological account of major episodes from Greek myth. Although there may well have been different collections that varied in their content, the poems that are described as cyclic in the surviving records are an obscure poem called the Titanomachia, which dealt with the earliest history of the world and the gods (presumably covering some of the same ground as the Theogony), and two series of heroic epics, a shorter series dealing with the family of Oedipus and the Theban Wars and a longer series dealing with the Trojan War and its origins and aftermath.
(ii) Although very little is known about the Titanomachia and the Theban epics, we are better informed about the poems of the Trojan cycle, partly because more fragments and testimonies have been preserved, and partly because we possess short summaries of their contents that were compiled in the Roman period by a certain *Proclus. The first of the Trojan epics, the Cypria, explained the origins of the war and offered an account of its progress up until the period covered in the Iliad.
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The significance of its title is wholly uncertain. The Aithiopis picks up the story again where the Iliad leaves off, describing how the Amazon Penthesileia and the Ethiopian prince Memnon arrived to fight as allies of the Trojans (see pp. It also described the death of Achilles, who was shot by Apollo and Paris as he was advancing towards the city after killing Memnon.
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The contents of the next two epics, the Little Iliad (Ilias Mikra) and the Sack of Troy (Iliupersis), seem to have overlapped to some extent. The former epic described the suicide of Aias (Ajax) and the events that immediately preceded the fall of Troy, and apparently went on to describe the sack itself, which was of course the subject of the latter poem. The Returns (Nostoi) provided a supplement to the Odyssey by describing the return journeys of the main Greek heroes other than Odysseus (see pp.
495), and the final epic in the series, a relatively late poem called the Telegonia, provided an eccentric account of the later life of Odysseus after his wanderings (see p. Proclus' summaries and fragments from the poems are translated in the Hesiod volume in the Loeb series. (iii) Although we know the names of many other archaic epic poems and epic poets, little or nothing is recorded about most of them.
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Various poets wrote epics about Heracles, for instance, including a Spartan called Cinaethon and a Rhodian called Peisander, and, at a relatively late period, Herodotus' uncle Panyassis of Halicarnassus. Similar poems were written about Theseus, and the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts must also have been a popular subject; the *scholia to Apollonius tell us a certain amount about how the latter story was recounted in an early epic called the Naupactia. The legends of the Greek regions would also have been recounted in early epic; a poem called the Phoronis offered an account of the earliest history of the Argolid (see pp.
55-6) and a Corinthian epic poet called Eumelus offered a distinctive account of the earliest history of his own land (see pp 512-13). Since epic poems, oral and written, would have been the main literary medium for mythical narrative in the archaic period, it is salutary to remember how very little we know about these early epics. For a helpful guide to this area of Greek literature, with translations of relevant passages, see G.L.
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Huxley, Greek Epic Poetry; Eumelos to Panyassis (London, 1966). 285-194 bc), versatile Alexandrian scholar who compiled the standard collection of constellation myths, the Catasterisms (Katasterismoi). The short book of that title that has been transmitted to us under his name is an epitome that was prepared by some later author; further information about the contents of the original work can be found in the Astronomy of *Hyginus and the scholia to *Aratus' Phaenomena and to Germanicus' Latin adaptation of that poem.
A translation of the epitome and the relevant sections of Hyginus' Astronomy can be found in Theony Condos, Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans (Grand Rapids, 1997) and Eratosthenes and Hyginus, Constellation Myths (Oxford, 2015). EUHEMERUS of Messenia (writing in about 300 bc), author of the Sacred Scriptures, a book that explained the origin of the gods in rationalistic terms by suggesting that they had been great rulers and conquerors of the past who had come to be accorded divine honours.
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Although the original work is lost, much is known about it from what is recorded by *Diodorus (6.1, easily accessible in the Loeb translation) and Lactantius. 485-406 bc), Athenian tragic poet, a slightly younger contemporary of Sophocles. Since two collections of his plays have survived, one an anthology put together in the Roman period and the other a section of an alphabetical edition of his complete works, we possess nineteen of his tragedies, far more than for Aeschylus and Sophocles.
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Seven relate to the Trojan War and its aftermath. Iphigeneia at Aulis tells how that daughter of Agamemnon was brought to sacrifice to enable the Greek fleet to sail to Troy (see pp. 463-4), while Iphigeneia in Tauris tells how she was recovered from the distant land of the Taurians by her brother Orestes some years after the war (see pp.
Rhesus (which may be wrongly ascribed to Euripides) dramatizes a tale from the Iliad, telling how the Thracian prince of that name was killed in his sleep by Odysseus and Diomedes after he arrived at Troy to fight as an ally of the Trojans. The Trojan Women (Troades) and Hecuba (Hecabe) are poignant tragedies that portray the fate of leading women of Troy after the fall of the city. Helen is a curious tragicomedy based on an unconventional version of Helen's legend in which a phantom of her accompanied Paris to Troy while she herself remained in Egypt during the years of the war (see p.
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Hector's widow Andromache was said to have become the concubine of Achilles' son Neoptolemos in Epirus after the war; Euripides' Andromache presents her as falling victim to the jealousy of Neoptolemos' childless wife Hermione, who plots unsuccessfully to kill Andromache along with her young son (see p. Three other tragedies of Euripides are devoted to Theban myth. The Bacchae, a very late work and perhaps the finest of the surviving plays, shows how Pentheus, king of Thebes, was visited with a gruesome punishment when he tried to outlaw the unbridled rites of Dionysos (see pp.
The Phoenician Women is a very long play (apparently with a post-Euripidean ending) that deals with the quarrel between the sons of Oedipus and the resulting Theban War, while The Suppliants tells how the mothers of the Argive chieftains who were killed in the conflict sought the help of Theseus after the Thebans forbade the burial of the Argive dead. The plots of two tragedies that are devoted to stories from Athenian myth, Hippolytus and Ion, are summarized below on p.
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Three other plays deal with Heracles and his children. Alcestis tells how Heracles saved Alcestis from death after she volunteered to die in place of her husband Admetos, while The Madness of Heracles tells how the hero rescued his family from a usurper at Thebes, but then proceeded to slaughter his children in a fit of madness inspired by Hera. Soon after the death of Heracles, Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, tried to save himself from any future threat from the family by eliminating the hero's children; in The Children of Heracles (Herakleidai), Euripides shows how they appealed to the Athenians as suppliants and defeated and killed Eurystheus with their help (see pp.
In Orestes, the Mycenaean prince of that name narrowly escapes death after being brought to trial by the citizens of Argos for killing his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aigisthos; and Medea (Medeia) shows how the Colchian heroine of that name exacted revenge on her husband Jason after he told her that he was planning to abandon her to marry a Corinthian princess (see p. And finally, Cyclops is the only complete Satyr-play to survive from antiquity; it offers a comical version of the Homeric story of Odysseus and Polyphemos, in which Seilenos and his Satyrs are presented as having been taken prisoner by the ogre just before the arrival of Odysseus.
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EUSTATHIUS (twelfth century ad), Byzantine scholar and churchman, author of long surviving commentaries on the Iliad and the Odyssey. These are of value in so far as they preserve material from the ancient scholarly tradition that would otherwise have been lost. HELLANICUS of Lesbos (active in the second half of the fifth century bc), mythographer and author of writings on ethnography and chronology.
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More is recorded about his works than those of any other early mythographer apart from *Pherecydes. He compiled useful histories of various legendary families such as the Deucalionids and Atlantids, and left his mark on the subsequent tradition by refining and synchronizing the heroic genealogies. He was apparently an inelegant writer, however, whose narratives were less appealing than those of Pherecydes.
Through his Atthis, a local history of Attica (which is mentioned by Thucydides, 1.97, though not with any great enthusiasm), he helped to inaugurate the distinctive genre of Atthidography (see p. HERODOTUS (fifth century bc), author of a long historical work in nine books, the Histories (Historiai, i.e. 'Investigations'), which provides an account of the conflict between Greece and Persia and its historical background.
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It is a very wide-ranging study that sets out to explain the growth of Persian power in relation to the histories of other lands outside Greece and developments within the Greek world itself. It is of great value as a source for legend and for matters relating to legend, all the more so since the author is always willing to digress and can never resist a good story. 700 bc), Boeotian epic and didactic poet.
(i) Two surviving poems, the Theogony and the Works and Days, can be regarded as genuine works of Hesiod (even if it is not universally agreed that they can be ascribed to the same poet). One further poem, the Shield, which was certainly not of his authorship, has been transmitted to us under his name, and a number of other poems are ascribed to him in ancient sources. Very little is known of most of these other poems, but one of them, the Catalogue of Women, which was again of post-Hesiodic origin, was a mythological poem of considerable importance that can be partially reconstructed from many surviving fragments and testimonies.
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(ii) The Theogony (Theogonia, i.e. birth or generation of the gods) provides a comprehensive genealogical history of the origins of the gods, explaining how the universe and the main gods and goddesses came into being, and how the present divine order came to be established under the third ruler of the universe, Zeus. Since this was not only a very ancient account of these matters but came to be accepted as the standard account, the poem is a mythological document of the first importance, and we will take it as our main guide in Chapter 2 and much of Chapter 3.
It also describes how Zeus quelled a revolt by the fearsome monster Typhon. The end of the poem was altered when the Catalogue of Women was appended to it, but although it is accepted that part of the concluding section of the present text is post-Hesiodic, scholars have disagreed as to where exactly the genuine work of Hesiod breaks off. The most distinguished modern editor of the poem, M.L.
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West, has argued that the end comes at line 900, while others would place it later at line 929 or 962. (iii) As a poem that is mostly about farming and favourable and unfavourable days of the month, the Works and Days is less relevant to our subject, except in the two sections of the poem that narrate the story of the first woman Pandora (42-105) and the myth of the five races (106-201, see p. (iv) The only other complete poem to be preserved under Hesiod's name is the Shield (Aspis), a short work in 480 lines that describes how Heracles defeated the Thessalian villain Cycnos and his divine father Ares in two successive fights (see p.
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The poem is known as the Shield because more than a third of it is devoted to a description of the images on Heracles' shield, in a passage that was evidently modelled on Homer's description of the shield of Achilles in the Iliad. It is prefaced with an ehoie (see below) from the Catalogue relating to Alcmene and was presumably written after that poem in the sixth century bc. A translation can be found in the Hesiod volume in the Loeb series; since the author was too incompetent to be able to organize his material properly or bring his subject to life, the poem cannot be said to be anything more than a historical curiosity.
(v) Most of the other poems that were ascribed to Hesiod are little more than names to us. They include an astronomical poem known as the Astronomia and a book of moral precepts known as the Maxims of Cheiron, and mythological poems such as the Melampodia, which recounted the legends of Melampous and other seers (providing for instance an account of the contest in divination between Mopsos and Calchas, see p. 500), and the Aigimios, which is named after a Dorian associate of Heracles but apparently recounted a variety of legends including that of Io.
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(v) The genealogical epic known as the Catalogue of Women - or simply the Catalogue - is the only pseudo-Hesiodic poem (apart of course from the Shield) for which we possess substantial remains. Well after the lifetime of Hesiod, probably in the early sixth century bc, some unknown author decided to write a continuation to the Theogony so as to provide a genealogical history of the main heroic families also. As was noted above, the end of the Theogony was altered quite radically to prepare for the transition to this new subject-matter, as can be appreciated from the present state of the text.
Since the origin of each of the main heroic lines was traced to a mating between a god and a mortal woman, the new poem (or relevant portion of the combined poem) came to be known as the Catalogue of Women; it was also called the Ehoiai because the story of each of these women was introduced with the formulaic phrase ē hoiē, 'or like she who …'. From its semi-divine beginning, each heroic line would have been followed down to the period of the Trojan War or thereabouts, and the principal legends associated with the members of the line would have been narrated, usually quite briefly, as the successive heroes and heroines were introduced.
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It was a work of the first importance, comparable in its own way to the Theogony, because it established the Panhellenic system of heroic genealogy that was adopted and refined by the early prose mythographers (such as *Pherecydes and *Hellanicus) and can still be recognized, though with many variations from the later tradition, in the mythological handbook of *Apollodorus. In tracing the histories of such families as the Inachids, Deucalionids, and Atlantids in the second part of the present handbook, we will be following the lines that were laid down by the Catalogue-poet.
Although no manuscripts of the poem have survived, a fair number of quotations and testimonies can be found in the works of ancient authors, and many additional fragments, some quite extensive, have been recovered from papyri. As a consequence, a surprising amount has come to be known about the structure of the poem, and parts of it can be reconstructed in some detail; for a full discussion, see M.L. West, The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (Oxford, 1985).
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Many of the individual fragments are translated in the Hesiod volume in the Loeb series, but they lose much of their meaning when taken out of context. There is an Italian parallel translation of the standard edition of Merkelbach and West (from Fragmenta Hesiodea, Oxford, 1967) in the Hesiod volume in the French Pléiade series; it may be hoped that someone will publish a similar translation in English one day. HOMER (probably late eighth century bc).
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(i) The Iliad and the Odyssey, the national epics of the Greeks, were traditionally ascribed to a poet called Homer (Homeros), on whom we have no trustworthy information. There is disagreement on whether the two poems can be ascribed to the same author (and indeed on whether each of them was basically the work of a single author, although scholars have been less inclined to attempt to trace different sections to different origins since greater understanding has been gained of the process of creation in oral poetry).
There is good reason to suppose that they were composed in Ionia on the west coast of Asia Minor. They certainly contain some later interpolations, even if these cannot always be recognized with any assurance. (ii) In contrast to the usual pattern in epic, in which a succession of episodes would be described in simple chronological order and the traditional history of the war or adventure or whatever provided the principle of unity, the entire narrative of the Iliad is ordered around a single incident in the tenth year of the Trojan War - the anger and withdrawal of Achilles - and the time-span is comparatively restricted.
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The main action is concentrated in a period of only four days and nights, and the span of the whole story does not extend beyond fifty-one days; but the poem is artfully constructed so as to make it seem that it epitomizes the entire trajectory of the war. The articulating theme of the poem, as announced in the first line, is the wrath of Achilles, the mightiest of the Greek warriors, who withdraws from the fighting in anger at being deprived of his captive maiden Briseis by the Greek commander Agamemnon, giving the Trojans an opportunity to advance out of their city and place the Greek army under severe threat; but after his closest friend Patroclos is killed, he returns to the battlefield to seek vengeance and drives the Trojans back, killing many of them including their greatest warrior, Hector.
A full summary of the plot may be found on pp. (iii) The poem makes many allusions to the preceding history of the war and to its conclusion and aftermath, and also refers to events from the earlier lives of the participants and to stories from other cycles of legend and from divine mythology. The loquacious Nestor likes to reminisce about his youthful adventures in the western Peloponnese, and Phoinix recounts the story of the Aetolian hero Meleager while trying to persuade Achilles to return to the fight (see p.
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473); but full narratives of stories that have no direct connection with the war are naturally infrequent. The long muster list in the second book (the so-called 'catalogue of ships', 2.493-759) preserves a large amount of very ancient information about the geography of Greece in the legendary era and the heroic families that were supposed to have ruled in it. A useful summary of the mythical history of Troy is provided by Aineias in the twentieth book (208-40).
The poem also has much to say about the lives and characters of the gods. For instance, it records two versions of myth in which the young Hephaistos was said to have been hurled down from Olympos (see p. (iv) The hero of the Odyssey, Odysseus, was a cunning and resourceful warrior who came from the island of Ithaca off the west coast of Greece.
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The epic describes how he wandered through distant seas for ten long years after being driven far off course while sailing home from Troy, and how, on his return, he exacted vengeance against a crowd of local noblemen who had been revelling in his palace during his absence, squandering his property, and courting his wife. for a summary of his adventures. The epic falls into three main parts.
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The first four books (the so-called Telemachia) tell how Telemachos, the young son of Odysseus, visited Nestor at Pylos and Menelaos at Sparta to seek news of his missing father; the next eight books (5-12) describe the adventures of Odysseus in foreign seas, partly as narrated by Odysseus himself at a banquet in his last port of call (9-12); and the last twelve books tell how he arrived home in Ithaca, exacted vengeance against the suitors after due preparation, and was reunited with his faithful wife Penelope. In books 3 and 4, the poem reveals a fair amount about the events that immediately followed the sack of Troy, and about how other heroes, including Agamemnon, fared during their return voyages and after arriving home (see pp.
HOMERIC HYMNS, a collection of thirty-three poems in epic metre addressed to various greater and lesser deities. Although widely ascribed to Homer in ancient times, they are in fact of varied authorship and were composed at widely differing times, ranging from the seventh or eighth century bc to the fifth century or even later. While many are no more than brief preludes (prooimia) that would be chanted by rhapsodes before epic recitations, a few are substantial narrative poems of considerable charm that describe important episodes in the lives of the gods.
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The Hymn to Demeter (no. 2) tells how the corn-goddess Demeter searched for her daughter Persephone after she was abducted by Hades, and finally forced Zeus to take action on her behalf by causing the earth to remain barren and so depriving the gods of their sacrifices (see pp. The poem explains the origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries and alludes to various aspects of Eleusinian cult, and was presumably composed in the area of Eleusis, perhaps in the late seventh century bc.
The Hymn to Apollo (no. 3), which may well have been put together from two originally separate poems, describes how Leto came to give birth to her divine twins Apollo and Artemis on the island of Delos, and goes on to explain how Apollo came to establish his oracle and shrine at Delphi (see pp. The Hymn to Hermes (no.
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4), which is broadly humorous in tone, describes how the infant Hermes set off to rustle the cattle of Hermes on the day of his birth, but reached an accommodation with Apollo soon afterwards and was assigned his main functions as a god (see pp. The longer of the two hymns addressed to Aphrodite, the fifth, describes how the goddess seduced Anchises, a member of the Trojan royal family, on Mount Ida in the Troad and conceived Aineias to him (see p.
The much shorter Hymn to Dionysos (no. 7) describes how some pirates tried to abduct the god in his youth, provoking him to transform them into dolphins after first working some miracles as a manifestation of his power (see pp. The short Hymn to Pan (no.
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19) is also of some interest for its description of the nature and birth of the goat-footed god. Translations are available in the Hesiod volume in the Loeb series and elsewhere; they make delightful reading even in a plain prose translation. HYGINUS (Gaius Julius Hyginus), a learned freedman of Augustus who became the librarian of the Palatine Library, the putative author of two works of mythological interest, the Fabulae (i.e.
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Mythical Tales, also known as the Genealogiae), a handbook of mythology, and the Astronomia, a popular treatise on astronomy. Both books were compiled from Greek sources. Since their author was a scholar of limited competence who could make elementary mistakes in translating from the Greek, it is generally agreed that these cannot be genuine works of Hyginus, and they were probably written after his time in the second century ad.
The 220 chapters of the Fabulae consist either of brief mythological narratives or of catalogues (e.g. of mothers who killed their sons, persons who were suckled by animals, or inventors and their inventions). Although the sources of the narratives are rarely indicated, the book seems to draw most heavily on tragic sources.
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The second book of the Astronomia contains the fullest surviving collection of constellation myths, derived mainly from *Eratosthenes. English translations of the Fabulae and this 'poetic astronomy' may be found in Hyginus, The Myths, ed. Grant (Lawrence, Kansas, 1960), and there are good French translations, with useful notes, in the Budé series.
LUCIAN (Loukianos, second century ad), orator and prose writer of Syrian birth who quite often touches on mythological matters in his copious works. In some of his satirical dialogues, most notably the Dialogues of the Gods and Dialogues of the Sea-gods, he makes fun of the traditional portrayal of the gods and traditional themes from myth, while other works, such as Charon and the Dialogues of the Dead, are of interest in relation to traditional ideas about the afterlife and Underworld.
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320 bc), Hellenistic poet, author of a mythological puzzle-poem, the Alexandra, in which the Trojan seer Cassandra delivers riddling prophecies about the fall of Troy and the subsequent fates of those who took part in the war. Although not exactly pleasurable reading, it is of great value as a source of mythological information if read in conjunction with the extensive ancient *scholia and the Byzantine commentary of John Tzetzes. Particular attention is devoted to the Italian west.
Primarily on account of a seemingly anachronistic reference to Roman power (Alexandra 1227ff.), some scholars have argued that the poem must have been written somewhat later by another author in the second century bc. MIMNERMUS (second half of the sixth century bc), elegiac poet. The fragments of one of his poems, the Nanno, contain interesting mythical allusions to Jason's quest and to Helios' nightly journey to the place of his rising (see p.
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MOSCHUS of Syracuse (second century bc), bucolic poet, author of an attractive epyllion or miniature epic, the Europa, which tells how Zeus assumed the form of a bull to abduct the heroine of that name from Phoenicia to Crete. MUSAEUS (probably late fifth century ad), author of an attractive miniature epic that tells the tragic story of Hero and Leander, two lovers who lived on opposite banks of the Hellespont (see p. 570); a translation may be found in the Loeb series (in the same volume as the fragments of Callimachus).
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NICANDER of Colophon (second century bc), Hellenistic poet. Two of his didactic poems, the Theriaka, and Alexipharmaka (which dealt with poisonous animals and antidotes to poisons respectively), have survived intact, but he was of greater importance from a mythological point of view for his lost Heteroioumena (i.e. Metamorphoses), a collection of transformation myths.
*Ovid drew on the poem when writing his Metamorphoses, and *Antoninus Liberalis provides summaries of some of the stories recounted in it. NONNUS (probably fifth century ad), of Panopolis in Egypt, author of the Dionysiaca, an interminable epic in forty-eight books that deals with Dionysos and his expedition to India; translated in the Loeb series. OVID (Publius Ovidius Naso, 70-19 bc), Roman poet who had an extensive knowledge of Greek myth and Alexandrian poetry.
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His most ambitious poem, the Metamorphoses, is a collection of transformation legends in fifteen books. The poem begins with the origin of the universe and ends with the apotheosis of Romulus, and the intervening stories are skilfully woven together with regular alterations in tone to ensure that it forms a unified epic-style poem. Except in the last two books, which are devoted to Roman and Italian matters, the stories are drawn almost exclusively from Greek legend.
Some were quite ancient while others originated in the more recent literature, for transformations were a popular theme among Hellenistic poets such as *Nicander. Most of the fictional letters in Ovid's Heroides are addressed from heroines of Greek legend to their lovers or husbands, and the poet also refers to Greek myths elsewhere in his poems. PALAEPHATUS (probably fourth century bc), author of the Incredible Tales (Peri Apistōn), a mythographical work that provides rationalistic (if highly implausible) explanations for the origins of seemingly impossible tales from heroic legend, for instance those that involve monsters.
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The author, who may have written under a pseudonym, was apparently an associate of Aristotle who was active in the latter part of the fourth century bc; if that is the case, the book provides the earliest evidence for a number of important legends. A translation and commentary are available, by J. A similar work of later origin has been transmitted to us under the name of Heraclitus.
In contrast to *Euhemerus and his followers, such authors did not attempt to rationalize divine myths. PARTHENIUS of Nicaea (first century bc), late Hellenistic poet and mythographer, author of Sufferings in Love (Erōtika Pathēmata), a collection of prose summaries of thirty-six love stories, mostly obscure and of relatively late origin. In relation to early myth, many are of interest for the way in which standard motifs from earlier myth are recycled in them.
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Translations are available in the Loeb series and in J.L. Lightfoot's edition of the works of Parthenius (Oxford, 1999, with illuminating discussions and commentary). PAUSANIAS (second century ad), author of the Description of Greece in ten books, covering the entire Peloponnese and much of Central Greece.
Pausanias visited all the main towns and other sites of interest in these areas to investigate their traditions and topography, monuments and antiquities, and cults and local mythology. The resulting work is a source of the very highest value for the mythologist. It records local traditions about the ancient history of the cities and lands that he passed through, and many legends that were attached to local monuments and landmarks; and although it has to be remembered that he collected this local material at a relatively late period, he also preserves a large amount of information that relates unquestionably to the early mythical tradition, both in references to early literature (for he was widely read and was willing to extend his reading to seek answers to specific questions) and in descriptions of early works of art such as the mural paintings of Polygnotos (fifth century bc) or the chest of Cypselos (sixth century bc).
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PHERECYDES of Athens (probably active in the first half of the fifth century bc), early mythographer, a prolific writer who compiled comprehensive accounts of the legendary history of Greece, drawing most of his material from early epic and organizing it on a genealogical basis in accordance with the procedure developed in the Hesiodic Catalogue (see under Hesiod).
These works of Pherecydes, which were known as the Historiai or Genealogiai, were published by the Alexandrian scholars in an edition of ten books, and were very widely consulted by scholars and poets as a standard source for narratives from early legend. As we know from a few surviving passages, the stories were recounted with pleasing simplicity in a naïve paratactic style. Although no manuscripts of Pherecydes' writings have been transmitted to us, we know a fair amount about their contents, largely because the scholiasts refer to them with notable frequency.
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*Apollodorus cites Pherecydes by name thirteen times in his little manual, more than any other authority, and uses him as his main source in some sections of the book (for instance in his account of the life of Perseus). 518-438 bc), author of choral lyric, perhaps the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece. In addition to numerous fragments, four complete books of his poetry have survived, consisting of odes that he wrote in honour of victors at the four main athletic festivals, the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian Games.
'odes of victory') are of greater value as sources of myth than might be supposed, for the poet rarely devotes many lines to the victory or victor but soon passes on to a mythical narrative after a short prelude, and devotes much of the poem to the myth before returning to praise the victor and his prowess or good fortune at the end. His victory is most effectively ennobled by being presented against this mythical background. The myth could be introduced on a variety of pretexts, typically in connection with the family history of the victor or with the traditions of his homeland or the place of his victory.
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Although the narratives may be quite long, they are rarely developed in a straightforward chronological manner as in epic poetry, for the poet tends to concentrate on particular aspects of the story that are relevant to his 'argument', and to start in the middle of the story and range backwards and forwards in time. Pindar recounts or refers to a great many myths in his poems and provides the first surviving mention or proper account of many a story. Three full and relatively straightforward narratives may be singled out by way of example.
In his Seventh Olympian Ode, Pindar explains how the Sun-god Helios came to win the island of Rhodes as his special domain (see p. 41); in his Ninth Pythian Ode, he tells how Apollo abducted the nymph Cyrene to North Africa as his mistress after seeing her wrestling with a lion in her native Thessaly (see p. 146); and in his Sixth Olympian Ode, he describes the birth, exposure, and rescue of the seer Iamos (see p.
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The oldest detailed account of the very ancient myth of the Argonauts may be found in the Fourth Pythian Ode. 429-347 bc), Athenian philosopher and author of philosophical dialogues. Although his writings cannot be said to be of any great value as a source for myth (except perhaps in relation to the mythology of the Underworld and afterlife), they are full of mythological allusions and contain distinctive philosophical myths of Plato's own invention.
PLINY the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus, ad 23/4-79), Roman writer, author of the Natural History in thirty-seven books, an encyclopaedia of the natural world that records a vast amount of miscellaneous information. PLUTARCH (mid-first century ad until after 120), author of biographies and of essays and dialogues on moral, religious, and other subjects. He quite often touches on mythological matters in the latter works (which are known collectively as the Moralia).
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The apocryphal myths in the pseudo-Plutarchean Greek and Roman Parallel Stories and On Rivers should not be taken too seriously. A very useful life of Theseus may be found among Plutarch's biographies, but his life of Heracles is lost (which would be more regrettable if we did not possess full accounts of that hero's life by Diodorus and Apollodorus). PROCLUS, the author of some surviving summaries of the Trojan epics in the *epic cycle.
It is not known whether the Proclus in question was the Neoplatonic philosopher of that name (fifth century ad) or a grammarian of the second century ad. QUINTUS of Smyrna (probably fourth century ad), author of a late epic poem in fourteen books, the Posthomerica, which was written to provide a synoptic account of the final stages and conclusion of the Trojan War after the poems of the *epic cycle had ceased to be read (or at least fallen from favour).
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It describes all that took place after the period covered in the Iliad, ending with the sack of Troy and the perilous return voyage of the conquering army. Although Quintus would have drawn much of his material from fairly late sources, he was deliberately conservative in his choice of sources, taking care to avoid novelistic or revisionist accounts. A translation is available in the Loeb series; although there are some attractive passages, the poem as a whole is long-winded and artificial and does not often come to life.
SAPPHO of Lesbos (born late seventh century bc), author of lyric poetry, mainly of an intimate character. SCHOLIA, ancient explanatory notes preserved in the margins of ancient writings. Since myth so often provided the subject-matter for Greek poetry and drama, many of these are inevitably devoted to mythological matters, narrating myths to account for allusions in the text in question, explaining specific points that arise from narratives in the text, citing parallels and variants from other sources (often from literature that is lost to us), and so on.
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Most of what we know of early mythographers such as *Pherecydes and *Hellanicus is derived from scholia. The scholia to the Homeric epics and to Pindar, Euripides, Apollonius, and Lycophron are particularly valuable as sources of mythological information. Latin scholia can also be useful to the student of Greek mythology, notably the scholia to the poems of Vergil and the Theban epic of Statius.
40 bc-ad 65), Roman politician, philosopher and writer, author of nine melodramatic tragedies that were based on stories from Greek legend and modelled on plays of the Attic tragedians, especially Euripides, namely the Hercules Furens, Hercules on Oeta, Medea, Phaedra, Oedipus, Thyestes, Agamemnon, Troades, and Phoenissae. SERVIUS (fourth century ad), Roman scholar who is best remembered as the author of a commentary on the poems of *Vergil. The longer version of his commentary (known as Servius auctus or Servius Danielis) incorporates material from other authors.
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These and other ancient notes on Vergil's works contain valuable reports on Greek legend, preserving some stories that are recorded in no other source. Far less of his poetry survives than is the case with his nephew Bacchylides and great successor Pindar, and little of what does survive has anything to do with myth. This is a shame because he seems to have had gifts of his own as a narrative poet who was capable of writing with great simplicity and pathos.
These qualities are shown to the full in a wonderful little poem (543 PMG) in which Danae sings a sad lament to her sleeping baby Perseus as they are drifting through rough seas in a little chest (see p. We have to rely in the main on scholiasts' reports for an idea of how Simonides recounted other myths. 496-406 bc), Athenian tragic poet, a contemporary of Euripides.
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The most widely familiar of his seven surviving plays are those that portray the sad fate of Oedipus and his daughter Antigone. In Oedipus the King (Oidipous Tyrannos), Sophocles shows how it finally came to be revealed that Oedipus had unknowingly killed his father and married his mother; and Oedipus at Colonus, a very late work, portrays the last hours of the blind and exiled king of Thebes, describing how he died in mysterious circumstances at Colonus (Kolonos) in Attica after arriving there with Antigone as his guide.
Antigone herself is the heroine of Antigone, which tells how she provoked her own death by attending to the burial of her brother Polyneices in contravention of a decree of Creon, king of Thebes. Two of the other plays of Sophocles are set in the final period of the Trojan War, namely Ajax, which tells how the mighty warrior of that name came to commit suicide after being defeated in a contest for the arms of the dead Achilles (see p.
Cycle 499
479), and the Philoctetes, which tells how the great archer of that name was finally recovered from the island of Lemnos after being marooned there by his comrades (see p. Women of Trachis (Trachiniai) deals with the events that led up to the death of Heracles, while Electra portrays the predicament of Electra, daughter of Agamemnon, at Mycenae after the murder of her father. The action of the latter play is set at the time when Electra's brother Orestes returns to avenge the murder.
Substantial remains of one of Sophocles' Satyr-plays, the Trackers (Ichneutai), have been recovered from papyri; it tells how Seilenos and his crew of cowardly Satyrs tracked down the infant Hermes after his theft of Apollo's cattle. STATIUS (Publius Papinius Statius, c. 45-96 ad), Roman poet, author of the Thebais, a Theban epic in twelve books that tells the story of the conflict between the two sons of Oedipus.
Flow 500
He also embarked on an epic account of the life of Achilles, the Achilleis, of which only two books were completed. sixth century ad), author of a large geographical lexicon, the Ethnica, which contained information on mythological and historical matters. Although we possess very little of the original text, its contents are partially preserved in a surviving epitome.
STESICHORUS (first half of the sixth century bc), Greek Sicilian lyric poet. Although classed as an author of choral lyric, Stesichorus wrote long narrative poems that seem to have had more in common with epic than with conventional lyric poetry. Among the many mythical subjects that are known to have been treated by him are the hunt for the Calydonian boar, Heracles' theft of the cattle of Geryon (see p.
Ladder 501
250, probably providing the basis for Apollodorus' account of that episode), Eriphyle's betrayal of her husband, the sack of Troy, and the revenge of Orestes; but although his poems apparently exerted a considerable influence on the development of the mythical tradition, almost nothing is preserved of them. Stesichorus himself became a subject of legend, as we will see (p. 456), for he was said to have written a poem of recantation to win back his eyesight after he had been blinded by Helen for insulting her in one of his poems.
64 bc-ad 19), historian and geographer, author of a surviving geographical treatise in seventeen books. The bulk of the work is a descriptive regional geography of the known world, compiled chiefly from secondary sources. Since Strabo is primarily interested in the world as a habitation for man and a setting for human activities and history, he quite often has occasion to refer to mythological matters in relation to the traditions and historical background of the areas that he surveys.
Compare 502
His respect for Homer's authority encouraged him to include antiquarian material. A translation with a good index can be found in the Loeb series. THEOCRITUS (active in the first half of the third century bc), a Hellenistic poet who is best remembered as the founder of the ancient genre of bucolic or pastoral poetry, although he was actually more versatile than this might suggest.
His poems (apart from the epigrams) are traditionally known as Idylls, but it should not be inferred from this that all are idyllic in the modern sense since the term could originally be applied to poems that contained a wide range of subject-matter; one of the finest of Theocritus' idylls is a thus a portrayal of city life in which two chattering women set off from home to attend a festival of Adonis, while others are mythical narratives in miniature epic form. Idyll 13, Hylas, tells how Heracles' favourite of that name was snatched away by amorous spring-nymphs; Idyll 24, Herakliskos (Little Heracles), tells how the infant Heracles strangled two snakes that were sent against him by Hera; Idyll 22, Hymn to the Dioscuri, tells how Pollux confronted the brutal Amycos in a lethal boxing match (see p.
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402), and then offers a rather unusual account of the conflict between the Dioscuri and the sons of Aphareus (see p. From among the spurious poems in the Theocritean corpus, Idyll 25, Heracles the Lion-killer, is worthy of mention, and others too, genuine and spurious, are of mythological interest; Idyll 6, for instance, is a pastoral poem in which two shepherds sing of the love of Polyphemos and Galateia. We possess poems by two of Theocritus' successors, *Moschus and *Bion, and there is an anonymous poem of related type, Megara, in which the wife and mother of Heracles talk to one another of their sorrows.
The poems of Theocritus are translated along with those of his successors in the volume in the Loeb series entitled The Greek Bucolic Poets, and other translations can be found elsewhere. THEOGNIS (sixth century bc), elegiac poet of aristocratic temper; almost 1,400 lines of verse, evidently of varied origin, are preserved under his name, but only a handful are of mythological interest. 400 bc), author of a history of the Peloponnesian War, which is the most impressive exercise in historical analysis to have been attempted by any ancient author.
Cycle 504
The work starts with a short account of the earlier history of Greece extending back into the period of legend (Chapters 2-19 of the first book, known as the archaiologia). TRYPHIODORUS (probably fifth century ad), author of the Capture of Troy, a short epic in 691 lines; translated in the Loeb series. VALERIUS FLACCUS (writing in the latter part of the first century bc), Roman poet, author of an incomplete Argonautic epic, the Argonautica.
VATICAN MYTHOGRAPHERS, the name ascribed to the authors of three medieval collections of mythical tales that are preserved in a manuscript in the Vatican Library; the narratives are drawn from Latin scholia and late Latin sources. French translations are available or in the course of preparation. VERGIL (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70-19 bc), Roman poet, author of the Eclogues, a book of pastoral poems, the Georgics, a poem about farming and bee-keeping, and the Aeneid, an epic poem in twelve books that describes how the Trojan prince Aeneas (Aineias in Greek) wandered to Italy after the fall of Troy and established himself in Latium to become the ancestor of the founder of Rome (see pp.
Flow 505
Vergil often refers to persons or stories from Greek legend, borrows from Greek legend, or adapts it to suit his own purposes; and the surviving commentaries on his works by *Servius and other scholars often refer to such matters as a consequence, and so can be a valuable source for the mythologist. 430-354 bc), historian and author of prose treatises, mainly on practical subjects; he rarely has occasion to refer to matters of mythological concern.
2 First beginnings and the Age of the Titans
Although conflicting accounts inevitably came to be offered of the origins of the gods and of the physical universe, Hesiod's Theogony, an epic history of the divine order composed in about 700 bc (see p. 8), won general acceptance among the Greeks as the standard mythical account of the earliest history of the world, and we will adopt it as our main guide in the first section of this book, as we examine how the world and the lesser and higher deities were supposed to have come into existence in due succession, and how Zeus and the Olympian gods finally attained supreme authority.
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First beginnings and the Age of the Titans
Although conflicting accounts inevitably came to be offered of the origins of the gods and of the physical universe, Hesiod's Theogony, an epic history of the divine order composed in about 700 bc (see p. 8), won general acceptance among the Greeks as the standard mythical account of the earliest history of the world, and we will adopt it as our main guide in the first section of this book, as we examine how the world and the lesser and higher deities were supposed to have come into existence in due succession, and how Zeus and the Olympian gods finally attained supreme authority.
Ladder 506
Before considering Hesiod's cosmogony, it may be useful to try to imagine how the world was visualized by the Greeks in early times. As viewed from their perspective, as people who lived on the edge of a land mass, it might naturally have appeared to take the form of a circular disc, more or less level except were hills or mountains rose up from it, capped by the immense roof or dome of the sky. On the one side the sun and stars could be seen rising above the horizon, while on the other they disappeared at their setting; and since they always rose on the same side, in the east, they must presumably have made their way back again, either under the ground or by some other hidden route.
It was imagined that the outermost boundary of this disc of the earth was formed by the stream of Ocean (Oceanos), which was not an ocean in the modern sense but a great river flowing in a circle around the edges of the earth. The sky was envisioned as a substantial roof or, later, dome sometimes said to be made of bronze or iron, which rose to a considerable, though not immeasurable, height above the earth. Zeus and the higher gods could be imagined as residing in the sky itself, or else on the summit of Mt Olympos in north-eastern Greece, hence their familiar name of Olympian gods.
Compare 507
If one could pile three large mountains one above another, as the gigantic Aloadai set out to do when they revolted against the gods (see p. 84), it would be sufficient to form a ladder to heaven. The tale of Phaethon's ascent in the chariot of the Sun (see pp.
Hub 508
42-3), to take but one example, implies that if one could travel far enough to the east, one would reach the place where the sky touches the earth and the sun-god begins his ascent. Far to the west on the other hand, where the sun goes down, there was a place of darkness, with an entrance to Hades located nearby, as we will see in connection with Odysseus' visit to the world of the dead (see p. Hades was pictured, of course, as a murky field that lay somewhere far beneath the earth and might thus also be reached through one of the many deep chasms or sinkholes in the Greek rocks, known in the modern language as katavóthra, most especially the famous one at Tainaron in the southern Peloponnese.
This is amply witnessed in the myths of Orpheus, Heracles, and other heroes who were said to have ventured into Hades by such routes while still alive. Even further down, below Hades, there was thought to be another dark region called Tartaros, which formed the lowermost part of the world and could serve as a prison for banished gods; as time progressed, however, Tartaros came to be regarded as being no more than a subregion of Hades. Such was the earliest Greek picture of the world, presupposed by the earliest myths and surviving with varying degrees of change into those of later origin.
Cycle 509
First beginnings Having this general notion of the world in which they lived, the Greeks were interested from quite early times in the question of how it came into being, and it is natural that Hesiod's theogony, or account of the origins and successive generations of the gods, should start with a cosmogony, to explain how the universe that the gods now inhabited and ruled came to acquire its present form. The first things that came into being, so the poet relates, were the four primal entities, Chaos, Earth, Tartaros, and Eros.
Flow 510
Ladder 31
Broadly speaking, he grows younger and more frivolous as time progresses; he will be considered further in his nature as a god of love when we come to deal with Aphrodite (see p. It is harder to say why Hesiod should have included TARTAROS among these first entities.
Ladder 511
He was barely regarded as a personal being, however, and from the Homeric epics onwards the word Erebos was generally employed merely as a poetic synonym for the Underworld, when the author had occasion to speak of people descending to the darkness down below or being sent to it. Night for her part was a highly respected but rather vague figure in Greek myth. A tale in the Iliad seems to suggest that even Zeus held her in awe, for when Sleep (Hypnos) once sought refuge with her to escape the fury of Zeus (see p.
Compare 512
Compare 32
Hub 513
Cycle 514
Some of the most interesting and elaborate schemes are those preserved in the Orphic literature, that is to say, in apocryphal writings ascribed to the legendary singer Orpheus (see p. 565) that circulated from the late archaic period onwards. A characteristic feature of these cosmogonies was the world-egg from which a demiurge or creator-god - who was given various names such as Phanes, Protogonos, or Eros - was supposed to have sprung.
Flow 515
Hub 33
If Chaos will become the ancestor of all manner of negative and baneful forces through children who are brought forth by her daughter Night, Earth will found her two different families in another way, by mating with her two self-generated sons, Ouranos, or Sky as we may call him henceforth, and Pontos or Sea. She will enter into a proper marriage with Sky to found her main family, which will account for the origin of all the most important gods and most of the higher ones, but will also found another family through children conceived to Sea, consisting mainly of sea-beings and of monsters who could not be fittingly included in her other family.
By contrast to Chaos, Earth will thus be the progenitor of all that is venerable and positive in the world, even if some unappealing monsters will also be included among her descendants. Although all the supreme deities will be descended from Earth and Sky, as members of the more exalted of Earth's two families, the deities who will finally preside over the world, that is to say Zeus and the Olympian deities, will not be brought to birth as the immediate offspring of Earth and Sky.
Ladder 516
For the main children of the marriage, known collectively as the Titans, will form an initial ruling order after the mightiest of them, Cronos, has established himself as the supreme god by mutilating and displacing his father Sky; and the final ruling order will subsequently be established in the third generation, when Zeus rises up against his father Cronos and the other Titans with the support of his brothers and sisters. A central feature of the Theogony is thus a 'succession myth' which is recounted in four stages in different parts of the poem, the first two stages being separated by a long genealogical section that surveys the three great divine families mentioned above.
As well as explaining how Cronos and the Titans rose to power, to then be succeeded by Zeus and the Olympian deities, this succession myth also includes an account of an unsuccessful revolt that was raised against Zeus and the Olympian deities by Typhon, the most fearsome of all monsters. Even if Hesiod recounts the succession myth in four stages, it can be said to fall into two main parts in relation to the history of the divine ordering of the world.
Compare 517
The first part begins with the marriage of Earth and Sky, and tells how the initial ruling order came to be established under the Titans when that marriage was brought to a violent end, while the second part tells how Zeus rose up against Cronos to take the lead in banishing him and the other Titans, and so establish the Olympian ruling order. The first of these two stages will be examined in the rest of this chapter, along with all the mythology of Cronos and the Titans, and the second stage in Chapter 4, which deals with the rise of Zeus and origin of the Olympian order.
The intervening chapter will be devoted to the three great divine families mentioned above, as described in Hesiod's genealogical scheme.
Cycle 34
The marriage of Earth and Sky
The Greek succession myth Of the two partners of Earth, Sky alone can be regarded as having been a true husband of hers, since she is linked to Sea, who has no myths and is barely personified, for genealogical purposes alone. Earth and Sky are in fact the primordial couple in Hesiod's account of the earliest history of the world, even if they are not the first beings of all or the ancestors of all subsequent divine beings; and the first proper myth in that history is the one that tells how Sky provoked the dissolution of his marriage and his own downfall by his mistreatment of his wife and children.
Hub 518
Cycle 519
This aspect of the story has obvious cosmological implications, although Hesiod is not interested in them, having little concern in general for such matters. Since the sky now rises high above the earth, it is suggested in the myths of many cultures that Earth and Sky, as the first couple, or at least a primordial couple, must somehow have been drawn apart at a very early stage in the history of the world, something that is often achieved in a gentler fashion than in the present myth.
Flow 520
Flow 35
Ladder 521
Hesiod makes no reference, however, to the raising up of the sky, and he may not even have been aware of the point, since his interest was focused on the dynastic implications of the conflict that arose within the divine family. As a result of Earth's scheme, which had now been successfully implemented by Cronos, the Titans were finally able to emerge into the light, and Cronos displaced his father as the supreme god, establishing himself as lord of the universe with his fellow Titans as subordinate members of the new ruling order.
Compare 522
Although one might have assumed that the monstrous offspring of Earth and Sky, the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers, would have been released at the same time as their brothers and sisters, they seem to have remained imprisoned beneath the earth in this Hesiodic version of the succession myth (by contrast to that recorded by Apollodorus, see p. 68) until Zeus finally set them free for his own purposes. The divine ruling order that was now established would not be the final ruling order, as already mentioned, because Cronos mistreated his children as grievously as his father had, and he was thus destined to be displaced in his turn.
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Ladder 36
The Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers, the monstrous offspring of the marriage
After giving birth to the Titans, Earth bore two sets of monsters to Sky as the final children of their marriage, the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires or Hundred-Handers. Although it may seem surprising that beings of such a kind should have been born into this foremost divine family from which the highest deities would spring, these monsters differ from those in the family of Earth and Sea (see p. 53ff.) in so far as they are introduced to play a positive role in the succession myth, by helping Zeus to rise to power, rather than to serve a function in the ordering of the world or to become fearsome opponents for heroes of legend.
Cycle 524
Flow 525
The second group of monstrous sons of Earth and Sky consisted of three gigantic beings who each had fifty heads and a hundred arms; although Hesiod refers to them by their individual names alone, Cottos, Briareos, and Gyges, mythographers in later times devised a convenient name for them, calling them the HECATONCHEIRES or HUNDRED-HANDERS42 (the corresponding adjective is already applied to Briareos in the Iliad 43). As hundred-handed giants of irresistible strength, they would be invaluable allies for Zeus in the struggle against the Titans (see p.
Ladder 526
Compare 37
Compare 527
Hub 528
The children who were conceived by Earth as a result of the mutilation of Sky In addition to the children whom she conceived to Sky as offspring of their marriage, Earth subsequently conceived some further children to him in less conventional circumstances, as a result of Zeus's action in severing his genitals. For Hesiod reports that when Zeus cut them off, some blood gushed forth from them and fell on the earth, causing Earth to become pregnant with three more sets of children, the Erinyes, the Giants, and the Meliai.
Cycle 529
Flow 530
As one of the most important forms of nymphs, who make some appearance in mythical tales, they will be considered along with all the other nymphs in Chapter 6. The remaining set of children, the ERINYES or FURIES, are the only ones that will require any detailed examination here. They were avenging spirits who exacted terrible but just retribution against people who committed murder and other grave crimes, especially within the family.
Ladder 531
Hub 38
Compare 532
Hub 533
They thus embody early ideas of justice from a time before it came to be appreciated that animus is a necessary part of every crime, and that a deed committed through mere accident or as a result of external compulsion does not carry with it the full moral or legal responsibility of a deliberate act. Yet even so, they are a long way from representing the most primitive stages of moral consciousness, for they punish, not families or clans, but solely the individual who commits the deed.
Cycle 534
They may, however, be said to represent the moral ideas of the clan, for they are regularly on the side of the elders, not only of fathers or mothers but also of elder brothers. They are represented in art and literature as fearsome beings of stern appearance, who carry torches and scourges, and are generally wreathed with serpents, or have serpents in their hair or carry them in their hands. They were presented in an especially loathsome form in Aeschylus' Eumenides, as dark vampire-like creatures who crawled around on all fours, with pus oozing from their eyes and sinister rasping breath;61 it was said, indeed, that they were so horrifying at the first performance that some women in the audience suffered miscarriages.
Flow 535
Cycle 39
They had no equivalents in Roman belief, their Latin name, Furiae, being perhaps no more than an attempt at a translation (furere, to be raging mad, being taken as an equivalent to Greek erineuein).
Flow 40
Hesiod’s account of the origin of Aphrodite
And finally, one of the great Olympian deities is presented by Hesiod as having been born in very early times as a result of the marriage of Earth and Sky, or at least of its violent end. For when the severed genitals of Sky fell into the sea, white sea-foam (aphros) gathered around them, and the goddess APHRODITE grew up from it. After first drifting past the island of Cythera off the south-east corner of the Peloponnese, hence her title of Cythereia (probably not originally connected with the island, although Cythera was noted for its ancient cult of Aphrodite, see p.
Ladder 536
Ladder 41
Cronos and the Titans
The twelve deities who are classed by Hesiod as Titans It is obvious from a casual glance that the deities in Hesiod's list of Titans are of such disparate nature and origin that they could not possibly have formed a common group from very early times. Some have Greek names, others foreign names; some are nature-gods, some are abstractions, some are nonentities who were probably never anything more than genealogical links. Some of them, moreover, for reasons that will be considered presently, could not have shared the common fate of the Titans as former gods who were banished forever.
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It is altogether probable that the Titans, with the possible exception of Cronos, were originally an anonymous collective body, and one may suspect that most of the deities in the standard list, as established in the Theogony, were first named as Titans by Hesiod himself (who may well have been responsible too for first establishing that they were specifically twelve in number). It was essential that he should provide them with a full set of names if he was to draw them into his genealogical system; and he liked to assign appropriate names to members of groups of deities in any case, even to the many Nereids and Ocean-nymphs.
So before passing on to consider them in their collective nature as a group, we must examine the nature of the deities, six male and six female, who are enlisted as Titans in the Theogony,67 and consider why Hesiod should have selected them for that role, in so far as it can be assumed that he was responsible for doing so. There is good reason to suppose that three of the deities in Hesiod's list - Cronos and Rhea of course, and also Iapetos - would already have been regarded as Titans at the time at which he was writing.
Hub 538
The formulaic epithets Cronios and Cronides that are regularly applied to Zeus in the Homeric epics indicate clearly enough that Cronos had been viewed as the father of Zeus from very ancient times; and since such epithets are not applied to any other deity, Zeus may perhaps have been his only child in the original tradition. It seems likely that Cronos was first brought into the succession myth, and so enlisted as a Titan, because he was the acknowledged father of Zeus in the native tradition.
Cycle 539
His consort Rhea is also assigned a central role in the succession myth, as the 'mother of the gods' (i.e. of the first generation of Olympian gods), and by virtue of the central part that she plays in saving Zeus from being swallowed by Cronos. She is named as a Titan in the Theogony, and had presumably long been identified as such, unless the Titans were once thought to be exclusively male.
Since Iapetos (the father of Atlas and Prometheus, see p. 46) is mentioned along with Cronos in the Iliad as a god imprisoned in Tartaros,68 it would seem that he had come to be classed as a Titan by the time of Homer and Hesiod, perhaps because he was a father of children who were enemies of Zeus. There is no evidence to suggest, however, that any of the other nine Titans in the list had already come to be regarded as such.
Flow 540
Ladder 541
Even if they could not be regarded in that way in the context of the succession myth, they could be fittingly placed among the Titans as venerable deities whose union could account for the origin of all the lesser streams in the world, and, by doing so, Hesiod accorded them only a slightly lower status than in the Homeric account. And yet, on the other hand, Oceanos seems ill-fitted to take part in the collective actions of the Titans and share their common fate, since his waters are a permanent feature of the world, and one might suppose that he would be obliged to remain in them at the edges of the earth.
Compare 42
Compare 542
Hyperion and Coios have Titan consorts assigned to them, Theia, 'the Divine', and Phoibe, 'the Radiant', respectively; it required no great ingenuity, whether on the part of Hesiod or some predecessor, to invent figures such as these. And finally there is Creios (or Crios), whose nature and origin are a mystery. As we will see, he served a useful if minor genealogical function by fathering husbands for some early goddesses.
It should be apparent from the preceding summary of the succession myth that Cronos and Rhea are the only Titans who are accorded a distinctive role in it, while the others act solely as a collective body, in so far as they act at all. Indeed, in the Theogony the other Titans make no contribution whatever to the ousting of Sky, and, when it is suggested in subsequent sources that they assisted in the enterprise, they assist in some unspecified way as a group.
Hub 543
They benefit, however, from Cronos' initiative by becoming the chief gods of the pre-Olympian order under his sovereignty. It is one of their number, Rhea, the consort of Cronos, who opens the way for the ending of that order, by saving her last-born child, Zeus, from being swallowed by her husband, and so enabling him to mount a revolt against her husband. The Titans support Cronos in the ensuing war, the Titanomachy (see p.
Hub 43
67), again without having any specific deeds ascribed to them as individuals, but are ultimately defeated and banished by the younger gods. The nature of the Titans was a subject that naturally aroused much speculation among earlier scholars. Some were tempted to explain the myth of the great war between the Olympians and Titans in simple historical terms, by suggesting that the Titans were old pre-Hellenic gods who had been displaced by the Olympian gods of the Greeks after the Greeks arrived in their final homeland, in which case the myth could be interpreted as reflecting the struggle of belief that the suppression of the old religion had entailed.
Cycle 544
One such myth tells of the sequence of events that led to the accession of the Hurrian equivalent of Zeus. Anu (Sky), who corresponds to the Greek Ouranos, seized power by deposing an obscure predecessor, Alalu, and reigned for nine years until his cupbearer, Kumarbi, engaged him in battle and defeated him. As Anu was trying to escape into the heavens, Kumarbi dragged him down by his feet and bit off his genitals and swallowed them.
Flow 545
If this was the case, a group of displaced earlier gods corresponding to the Titans must have been introduced as part of the imported myth. The Hurro-Hittite equivalents of the Titans were known as the former gods (Hesiod refers to the Titans or Cronos in corresponding terms on two occasions79), while their Babylonian equivalents were known as the dead gods. If the question of the origin of the Titans is viewed from this perspective, two possibilities arise.
There may have been an early group of native gods of that name who were identified with the former gods of the imported myth; or else the name Titan was simply a title that was applied by the Greeks to the gods of eastern origin. There is no way of telling which alternative is true, and it makes little practical difference in any case, since we know nothing whatever of the original nature of the Titans if they had once enjoyed a separate existence in Greece.
Ladder 546
The essential point is that the Titans, as they are known to us as a collective body from the time of Hesiod onwards, are precisely what they are presented as being in the succession myth of eastern origin, the former ruling gods who were banished from the upper world when the present divine order was established. This is their 'nature', and nothing is served by enquiring any further; they have no other stories or functions as a collective body in conventional myth, and they had no place in Greek cult.
Compare 547
The ancient Greeks did not usually share our modern faith in the virtues of progress but tended to think that the world must have been closer to the divine, and things thus more perfect, before the present harsh dispensation came into being. So the age of Cronos, lying as it did near the very beginning of the world, could easily be imagined as having been a golden age, not because Cronos was presented in myth as having been in any way benevolent, but because he had presided over a primordial divine order in which conditions could be supposed to have been quite the opposite of those under which we now have to suffer.
Hub 548
We belong to the fifth and worst race, that of iron. The gods created a golden race of mortals first of all, who lived an ideal life under Cronos in accordance with the idea described above; and when these first people came to die, as though falling asleep, without ever having suffered the ravages of age, they became beneficent spirits (daimones) who roam the earth delivering mortals from harm and watching over their deeds. The gods replaced them with a silver race that was inferior in both body and mind.
Cycle 549
Flow 550
The development of this ideal picture of the age of Cronos, as an era of just and benevolent rule, affected another aspect of that deity's mythology, for it came to be suggested that he ruled over the Isles of the Blessed after his fall from power, rather than being imprisoned forever in Tartaros. This thought was evidently suggested by the fact that conditions on the islands, which were a home for the favoured dead (see p. 105), were imagined as being much the same as those that had prevailed during the age of Cronos.
Ladder 551
Compare 552
Vergil alludes to this tradition in the Aeneid, saying that Saturnus (i.e. Cronos) had ruled at the future site of Rome during his exile, where he had unified the local people and ushered in a golden age.91
Further mythology of Cronos and Rhea
Cronos has already been considered in relation to the central part that he played in the succession myth. Although he was honoured to only a very limited extent in cult, he had a most interesting festival, the Cronia, which was celebrated at Athens and other Ionian cities in particular, and also at Thebes in conjunction with a musical contest. On the day of the festival, the normal social distinctions were overturned, and slaves would be feasted by their masters and allowed to rampage through the town creating as much noise as they wished.
This could be regarded as a temporary return to the life without toil or subordination that was supposed to have prevailed during the reign of Cronos (see above). Although the Cronia has often been viewed as a harvest-festival, this is now disputed. It was celebrated well after harvest-time at Athens (though not all places), in the month of Hecatombeion, which is said to have been known as Cronion in early times; and Cronos' customary attribute of the sickle does not necessarily have agricultural connotations, since it is associated with him in connection with his assault against his father in the succession myth.
Hub 553
Besides, sickles are used for similar purposes by other mythical figures who have nothing to do with agriculture (e.g. by Perseus against the Gorgon, p. 227, or by Heracles against the hydra, p.
The rare representations of Cronos in art show him as a majestic but sorrowful old man holding a sickle. The Romans identified him with Saturn (Saturnus or Saeturnus), an old Italian deity whose functions are obscure; Saturn's annual festival of the Saturnalia, at which slaves were granted exceptional liberties, resembled the Cronia in some notable respects, as was recognized in ancient times. RHEA or RHEIA, the consort of Cronos, had little place in Greek cult, except in so far as she came to be identified with Cybele.
She was honoured to some extent, however, in conjunction with her husband, as at Athens, where she shared a temple with him in the precinct of Olympian Zeus, and at Olympia, where one of the six altars of the Twelve Gods (see p. 75) was dedicated to the two of them; and she had a sacred cave on Mt Thaumasion in Arcadia, which was closed to everyone except her own priestess. Since it was commonly believed that Zeus was born in Crete, it is understandable that this should sometimes have been regarded as Rhea's home in the later tradition; but there is no early evidence to suggest that she was actually a goddess of Cretan origin.
Cycle 554
As the mother of the gods (i.e. of the Olympian gods of the first generation), Rhea could easily be identified with that very old and widely worshipped power, the Mother, who was honoured under all manner of names in Greece, the Aegean islands, and the Asian mainland, sometimes in conjunction with a male partner, sometimes alone. Although deeply rooted in the native tradition, the Greek cult of the Great Mother (Meter) came to be strongly influenced by the cult of the Phrygian mother-goddess Cybele, which entered the Greek world from Asia Minor.
The Great Mother was identified with both Rhea and Demeter; and Rhea was often equated with Cybele, whose cult finally spread through much of the Roman Empire. This had implications for myth, above all because the Cretan Couretes, who were associated with Rhea in connection with the rearing of Zeus (see below, p. 69), came to be confused or equated with the Corybantes, attendants of Cybele in Asia Minor (see p.
Much of the mythology of Rhea, orthodox and unorthodox alike, is connected with her rescue of the new-born Zeus. Since there were local legends that claimed that Zeus was born and reared in various places other than Crete, such tales take Rhea to many corners of the Greek world and of Asia Minor, see further on p. For an Arcadian legend of a comparable nature in which she is said to have hidden the new-born Poseidon in Arcadia, giving Cronos a foal to swallow in place of him, see p.
Flow 555
In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Zeus sends Rhea as his envoy when he wants to inform Demeter of his decision with regard to the fate of Persephone; and in one quite early version of the story of the slaughter and revival of Pelops (see p. 420), it is Rhea who restores him to life again after he has been served as a meal to the gods. In addition to the great deities whom he fathered as children of his marriage, Cronos was said to have fathered another child of a very different nature, the centaur CHEIRON, by an Oceanid nymph called PHILYRA (or Phillyra).
This seems to have been quite an ancient story, since there is report of an early epic account (ascribed to the Gigantomachy, but probably from the Titanomachy) in which Cronos transformed himself into a horse to have intercourse with Philyra, as would seem appropriate in view of the semi-equine form of the resulting child. Later sources explain that he transformed himself in that way because Philyra had turned herself into a mare to try to escape from him, a natural course of action for a sea-nymph who could be expected to be a shapeshifter.
In a version recounted by Apollonius, he was caught in the act by Rhea while having intercourse with Philyra on an island of the same name in the Black Sea and leapt up in the form of a horse (presumably by way of disguise), while Philyra fled the area in shame to settle in Thessaly, the traditional homeland of Cheiron. Since Cheiron is called Phillyrides at the end of the Theogony, and is described by Pindar as a son of Cronos and Philyra, there is no reason to doubt that the underlying story was quite old.
Ladder 556
Hyginus reports that the incident took place while Cronos was roaming the world in search of the infant Zeus, and if Philyra could be associated with a remote island in the Black Sea, that could provide a plausible context for the story if it was recounted in the Titanomachy; but when Hyginus goes on to say that Philyra was so shocked by the appearance of her child that she prayed to Zeus to be transformed, and was thus turned into a lime tree (philyra in Greek), this was evidently a later addition inspired by the etymology. In accordance with his divine origin, Cheiron was a wise and noble being, and the nature of his birth serves to distinguish him from the ordinary centaurs, who were brutal and lascivious creatures of very different origin (see p.
2F6; as demiurgic force, Pherecydes of Syros 7A11, B13 DK, the Orphic theogonies, etc. 264-5 (Orestes fears that he may be consigned to Tartaros) and, from later times, Verg. 15 Westermann, Mythographoi, Braunschweig, 1843, p.
18 Genesis 1.2-5 19 Hes. 28 Kern, Mousaios 2B14 DK, Epimenides 3B5 DK. 24 See for instance Aristotle's discussion of the different views of the earlier philosophers on the first principle, Metaphysics 1.3.
19.258-60 (Earth invoked as witness for oath, along with Zeus, Helios, and the Erinyes). Hymn 30 to Earth the Mother of All, 1-10. Grimal (ed.), Larousse World Mythology, 1965, p.
3.10.4; already in Hesiodic Catalogue, see frr. 41 Polyphemos' single eye, Hom. 9.382ff., etc., his parentage, 1.68-72, 9.528-9; Homer says nothing about the appearance or birth of the Cyclopes in his general account of them, 9.105-15, or subsequently.
Compare 557
3.278-9, where not explicitly named). 1.1.4; all three names can be found in the Aeneid, 7.324, 6.571, 12.846 respectively. 74 Helios as son of Hyperion, Hom.
Demeter 26, 74; Hyperion as title of Helios, Hom. Grimal (ed.) Larousse World Mythology, 1965, 73-6, Hesiod Theogony, ed. 207-10; the meaning of the first etymology is uncertain, see West on 209.
8.319ff., 355-8; see also D.H. 1.34.5, 1.36.1 (Golden Age in Italy under Cronos), Euhemerus 63F16.
3 The three great divine families
The families of the Titans can be divided into two main categories, those that account for the origin of the Olympian deities and other beings associated with the new order, and those that are made up primarily of deities who were connected with the natural world. Cronos and Rhea were the progenitors, either as parents or grandparents, of all the great Olympian deities (with one possible exception), while Coios and Phoibe were grandparents of two of them, Apollo, and Artemis, through their daughter Leto.
Cycle 44
The families founded by the Titans, the main children of Earth and Sky
The families of the Titans can be divided into two main categories, those that account for the origin of the Olympian deities and other beings associated with the new order, and those that are made up primarily of deities who were connected with the natural world. Cronos and Rhea were the progenitors, either as parents or grandparents, of all the great Olympian deities (with one possible exception), while Coios and Phoibe were grandparents of two of them, Apollo, and Artemis, through their daughter Leto.
Hub 558
Themis and Mnemosyne for their part bore some groups of lesser female deities to Zeus. As for the Titans whose families belong to the second category, Oceanos and Tethys brought forth offspring connected with the waters of the world, sea-nymphs, and others, as would be expected, while Hyperion and Theia founded a family that consisted primarily of deities of the sky above, including the main luminaries of the heavens. The two remaining families were founded by Titans who married outside the circle of their sisters, namely Creios, who fathered three sons to serve as husbands for greater goddesses of Titan descent, and Iapetos, who fathered Atlas, who held up the sky, and Prometheus and Iapetos, two opponents of Zeus.
Flow 45
Cronos and Rhea and the origin of the Olympian deities
Cronos and Rhea were the parents of the Olympian deities of the first generation, namely Zeus, who displaced Cronos as lord of the universe, Poseidon, who became the great god of the sea, Hades, who became the god of the Underworld and ruler of the dead, Hera, the goddess of marriage and consort of Zeus, and the corn-goddess Demeter, and Hestia, goddess of the hearth. With the possible exception of Aphrodite, if she was born as in Hesiod's account described above (see p.
Cycle 559
27), all the other great Olympian deities were grandchildren of Cronos and Rhea, all being children of Zeus, unless Hera brought Hephaistos to birth as a child of her very own. Most were born in the period that immediately followed Zeus's rise to power, but two of them, Hermes and Dionysos, were born later during the heroic era; for a full discussion, see p.
Ladder 46
Coios and Phoibe, the grandparents of Apollo, Artemis, and Hecate
Flow 560
136), Asterie was sometimes drawn into the story of the birth of Artemis and Apollo, and had a mythical tale of her own in that connection; it is doubtless significant that Asterie was sometimes said to have been the original name of their birthplace, the island of Delos. In Hesiod's scheme HECATE, who came to be thought of as a rather sinister goddess, is thus classed as a first cousin of Artemis. Although the two goddesses were in fact quite frequently identified from the classical period onwards, they were of a very different character in most respects and plainly of separate origin, Hecate being a goddess who was associated, at least in her final form, with magic and ghosts and the pathways of the night.
It has commonly been accepted (though not without question) that she originated in Caria in the south-western corner of Asia Minor; many related place names can be found in that area, and her most important sanctuary was located there, at Lagaria. If she was indeed of Asian origin, she was plainly introduced to Greece at an early period, certainly by the seventh century bc since she is mentioned in both the Theogony and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Hesiod praises her at some length and with evident personal enthusiasm as a universal goddess.
Ladder 561
He declares that she bestows all manner of gifts on worshippers who enjoy her favour, such as wealth, success at the games, skill in horsemanship, victory in war, and good counsel; and he states that Zeus granted her exceptional privileges in spite of her Titan birth, in both heaven and on earth and at sea. The only field to be left out of account is the Underworld, the very field that is most closely associated with her in the later tradition.
Compare 562
Hub 563
It is apparently for that reason that Hecate's statues often represent her in triple form, so that she may look simultaneously down all the roads that meet at the point where she is standing. She would send spooks up into the world at night, or would appear in her own right, especially at crossroads under the dim light of the moon, to roam the pathways at the head of a crew of ghosts. Her retinue, the host of Hecate, was made up of shades of the restless dead who had died prematurely or violently, or who had received no proper burial.
Cycle 564
Compare 47
Magicians and sorcerers, on the other hand, would summon her aid for their own nefarious purposes, or even try to summon her up in person. The sorceress Medeia invokes her as her mistress and helper in Euripides' Medeia; and in Theocritus' second Idyll, a young woman is shown as praying for her help in some love-magic: Shine brightly for me, o Moon, for it is to you that I shall chant, silent goddess, and to infernal Hecate, who causes the very dogs to tremble before her as she passes over the graves of the dead and the dark blood.
Hub 48
Children of Themis and Mnemosyne
Flow 565
Cycle 49
Oceanos and Tethys and their children the Oceanids and rivers
Ladder 566
Although the names of many of them are no more than poetic inventions, as in the case of the Nereids, a few noteworthy figures may be found among them. Metis, the personification of cunning intelligence, was swallowed by Zeus after conceiving Athena to him, and reappears accordingly in a later section of the Theogony (see p. 73), as does the Oceanid Eurynome, who bore the Graces to him (see p.
Peitho (Persuasion), who presided over all forms of persuasion from the political to the amatory, was often regarded as an attendant of Aphrodite (see p. Tyche (Fortune, equivalent to the Roman Fortuna) became a goddess of some importance in Hellenistic and later times when she came to be widely honoured in cult, both as a universal power and in relation to the fortunes of particular places or potentates. Dione, who was sometimes regarded as a consort of Zeus, was the mother of Aphrodite in the Homeric account (see p.
Compare 567
Doris married Nereus to become the mother of another family of sea-nymphs, the Nereids (see p. 48), Clymene for her part became the wife of the Titan Iapetos (see p. 46), and Callirhoe the wife of Chrysaor (see p.
Hub 568
Flow 50
Cycle 569
Flow 570
The ACHELOOS, which rose in Epirus in north-western Greece and flowed to the sea near the northern entrance to the Corinthian Gulf, was the largest river in Greece. The god of the river makes a notable appearance in heroic myth in connection with Heracles, who wrestled with him for the hand of Deianeira, a daughter of Oineus, king of Calydon, whose city lay no great distance from his streams (see p. 265), and he also plays a role in the legend of the Argive hero Alcmaion, who married his daughter Callirhoe (the Fair-flowing; see p.
Ladder 571
Compare 572
Hub 573
Ladder 51
Cycle 574
Flow 575
Pindar recounts a legend that explains how he came to be lord of the island. Long ago, when the gods were dividing the earth among themselves, Helios was granted no land of his own because he happened to be absent (presumably on his daily journey through the sky). Although Zeus offered to make amends by ordering a recasting of the lot, Helios told him that he would be satisfied with a wonderful new land that he had seen rising up from the sea, the fertile island of Rhodes.
Ladder 576
Compare 577
Compare 52
When detained on this island by bad weather, the followers of Odysseus killed some of the cattle to satisfy their hunger even though their leader had expressly ordered them not to, an act of sacrilege that was reported to Helios by his daughter Lampetie. Helios was so angry that he approached Zeus and the other gods with his grievance, threatening to desert the sky and shine among the dead in Hades if he was not adequately avenged; so Zeus took action on his behalf by striking Odysseus' ship with a thunderbolt, causing the death of everyone on board apart from Odysseus himself (see also on p.
Hub 578
Cycle 579
405ff.), and the enchantress Circe, whose remote island home in the far west was visited by Odysseus (see p. 507) and the Argonauts (see p. Further children came to be credited to the couple in the later tradition, most notably Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, and Aloeus, a primordial king of Sicyon (see p.
Flow 580
The story takes the following form in the fullest narrative by Ovid. Phaethon was reared by Clymene in her husband's palace, which lay in the remote east, no great distance from the palace of Helios. She told him that he was a son of Helios, and he bragged about his high descent until one of his comrades could stand it no longer and retorted that it was a lie.
When he approached his mother for reassurance, she swore by Helios himself that she had spoken the truth and advised him to visit his father's palace if he wanted further confirmation. So he set off for the splendid palace of the sun-god, which had walls and pillars of gleaming metal and a roof of ivory; and he received a kindly welcome from Helios, who acknowledged him as his son and offered him the choice of whatever he most desired. When he responded by asking to drive the chariot of the sun across the sky on the following day, Helios tried to warn him of the dangers, but finally had to allow him to do so in accordance with his promise.
Ladder 581
Hub 53
As Helios had foreseen, Phaethon was unable to control the spirited chariot-horses and drove through the sky on an erratic course, sometimes soaring too high and sometimes descending too low, much to the alarm of Earth, who began to fear for her own survival as her surface caught fire and her waters dried up. So she appealed urgently to Zeus, who hurled a thunderbolt at Phaethon, causing him to fall from the chariot and plunge to his death far below in the river Eridanos (see p.
Compare 582
Hub 583
Helios fell desperately in love with LEUCOTHOE, daughter of Orchamos, king of Persia, forgetting all his previous loves, and assumed the form of Leucothoe's mother to make his way into her room. He then dismissed her attendants, and now revealing his identity, resumed his true form and splendour to seduce her. He had a former mistress, however, called Clytie (described elsewhere as a sister of Leucothoe), who was so jealous of Leucothoe that she caused it to become generally known that she had a lover, persuading her father above all of that fact.
Cycle 584
In his anger, the brutal king buried her beneath the earth, and she died before Helios could come to her rescue. Overcome by sorrow, he sprinkled nectar over her body and the surrounding soil, causing an incense-tree to grow up in place of her. As for Clytie, he would have nothing to do with her, and she pined away for love of him, refusing all food and drink, until she finally turned into a heliotrope; and she retains her love for Helios even in this new form, as is witnessed in the movement of the flowers of the heliotrope.
Flow 585
Cycle 54
Ladder 586
Compare 587
As a light-bringing goddess who ascends into the sky ahead of Helios, she represents something more than what we might ordinarily understand by the dawn, namely the light of the new day (and, to an increasing extent, even daylight without qualification). Hemera, Day personified, was often identified with Eos as a consequence, even if she is a separate being in the Theogony (see p. Eos is usually shown as winged in works of art, unlike her brother and sister; but in her capacity as a light-bringer, she ascends in a chariot just as they do, commonly a two-horse chariot like that of Selene.
Hub 588
Cycle 589
Flow 55
Flow 590
Ladder 591
Even if Eos were not the mother of all the stars, it might naturally be assumed that she would be the mother of Heosphoros because he is the forerunner of the dawn, and that may perhaps have been the initial thought that prompted Hesiod to make her the mother of all the stars and give her a starry husband. Heosphoros has no myths as a personal being, although he makes some slight appearance in the heroic genealogies (e.g. as the father of Ceux, see p.
Compare 592
Eos was presumably regarded as a suitable mother for the winds because the wind often rises at dawn in Greece. Hesiod classes the three greatest winds as her children while all the harmful winds of an inferior nature are described as offspring of the monstrous Typhon (see p. Although ZEPHYROS (the West Wind) is characterized as a cleansing wind in the Theogony and tends to be stormy in Homer, he is customarily viewed as mild and gentle in the later tradition (an idea preserved in our English word 'zephyr').
Hub 593
Ladder 56
His most important story is the Athenian legend that told how he abducted Oreithuia, a princess of that land, to make her his wife (see further on p. She bore him twin sons, Zetes and Calais, the Boreads (Boreadai), who shared something of their father's nature as winged beings who could fly swiftly through the air and were famous for their pursuit of the Harpies (see p. As a consequence of his marital connection with Athens, Boreas brought special help to the Athenians on more than one occasion (see p.
Cycle 594
NOTOS, the god of the moist west wind (which was considered to be unhealthy) never developed into a mythical figure of any significance. The Winds were usually pictured as winged and bearded, and often as wild in appearance. According to differing conceptions that can both be found in Homer, the winds could be regarded either as independent agents or as being subject to the control of Aiolos, the lord of the winds (see p.
Compare 57
The three sons of Creios and Eurybia
Flow 595
Pallados, the well-known title of Athena) married STYX, the goddess of the infernal river of that name (see p. 99), and fathered Victory and three other personifications by her, see further on p. PERSES, for his part, married Asterie, the youngest daughter of the Titans Coios and Phoibe, and fathered the goddess Hecate by her (see p.
37); Hesiod remarks that he was pre-eminent for his wisdom, but no myths are recorded to show how he displayed it. He should be distinguished from two mortal heroes of the same name, a brother of Aietes (see p. 413) and a son of Perseus (see p.
Ladder 596
Hub 58
Iapetos and Clymene, the parents of Atlas and Prometheus
Compare 597
Hub 598
Cycle 599
257) is his only myth that is at all ancient. He was of genealogical importance nonetheless as the founder of one of the great heroic families, that of the Atlantids, which was formed from the descendants of the seven daughters who were borne to him by his wife Pleione, daughter of Oceanos, see further on pp. There is no mention in the Theogony of him having any wife and family, and his seven daughters are first named in the Hesiodic Catalogue 81 (Figure 3.1).
Figure 3.1 Heracles holds up the sky for Atlas. Drawing after a Greek vase-painting.
Cycle 59
The family of Earth and Sea
To move on to the second of Earth's families, the one that she founded by mating with her self-generated son PONTOS or SEA is of mixed character, consisting partly of sea-gods and sea-nymphs as might be expected of descendants of Sea, partly of winged aerial beings, and partly of monsters who needed to be kept apart from the higher gods and might be fittingly imagined as having sprung from the formless element. Earth bore three sons to Sea, two 'old men of the sea', Nereus and Phorcys, and the mysterious Thaumas (who may have been a sea-god too, although there is no evidence to show that).
Flow 600
Nereus fathered a family of sea-nymphs, the Nereids, while Thaumas became the father of Iris, the swift-flying goddess of the rainbow, and of the Harpies, who were originally wind-spirits. Phorcys, for his part, married his sister Ceto to found an alarming family of monsters. Eurybia, the last of these children of Earth and Sea, married the Titan Creios, and her family has thus already been considered in the next chapter along with the other families of Titan descent, see p.
Sea himself was barely personified and had no myths or cult; the great god of the seas in the Greek tradition was Poseidon, an Olympian deity who was of later birth.82
Flow 60
Nereus and Doris and their daughters the Nereids
NEREUS, the eldest son of Pontos and Gaia, was an ancient sea-god who belonged to an older generation than Poseidon and was rather cast into the shade by him as were other 'old men of the sea'. Of very limited significance in myth and virtually none in cult, he is pictured in the Iliad as living in a shining cave in the depths of the sea with his many daughters, the Nereid sea-nymphs, who were of far greater importance than he was and have even survived into modern folklore.
Ladder 601
Nereus was credited with prophetic powers, as was characteristic of sea-gods of this kind, and also with the ability to transform himself at will, a power that was commonly attributed to gods and nymphs who inhabited the formless element. He had only a single story of any real note, the quite ancient myth in which Heracles was said to have wrestled with him to force him to reveal the route to the Hesperides (see p. 255), much as Menelaos and his companions forced Proteus to disclose such secrets in a famous scene in the Odyssey (see p.
Compare 602
Although he tried to escape by transforming himself into water and fire and all manner of different beasts, the hero kept a firm grip on him until he was finally willing to speak;84 the struggle is depicted on vase-paintings from the sixth and fifth centuries bc, which show Nereus with a fish-tail in the earliest representations but later in fully human form. In another quite early tale, Nereus delivered the cup of the sun to Heracles after the sun-god Helios had offered to lend it to him (see pp.
Hub 603
By another shift of meaning, the name Gorgon has come to be applied to mermaids. A Nereid riding a cuttlefish. Drawing after a Greek vase-painting.
Cycle 604
474 and 478), and it is stated in later epic that they helped the Argonauts through the Wandering Rocks at the bidding of Hera (see p. Three Nereids emerge as separate personalities with stories of their own, and two of these were figures of very high note from an early period, Amphitrite as the consort of Poseidon and queen of the sea (see further on p. 129), and Thetis as the mother of the great hero Achilles, whom she bore after suffering the exceptional fate of being forced into marriage with a mortal.
Ladder 61
And a third sister, Galateia, appears in a relatively late myth of less serious nature, in which she was said to have aroused the helpless love of the one-eyed ogre Polyphemos. Mention should perhaps also be made of the Nereid Psamathe, who became the mother of Phocos after being caught by surprise by Aiacos, king of Aegina (see p. Peleus and his wife, the Nereid Thetis.
Tondo of an attic red-figure kylix (drinking cup) from Vulci. © bpk Bildagentur/Art Resource, NY. The myths of Thetis, who married Peleus, king of Phthia in Thessaly, and bore Achilles to him, will be considered later in connection with the birth of her son (see p.
429ff) and her further involvement with him during the Trojan War. GALATEIA attracted the desire of a most improbable suitor, the Cyclops Polyphemos, who is familiar from the Odyssey as the ogre who captured Odysseus and ate some of his men (see p. In so far as his character is softened by the effects of love, he is presented as being a less savage and fearsome creature than in Homer's portrayal, and he sets out to win the favour of the sea-nymph with such naïvely inept love-songs as his none-too-copious intelligence can suggest.
Flow 605
There could be no question, of course, of her yielding to her uncouth admirer, and she is able to keep him at a safe distance by remaining in her own element. This one-sided love affair was set in Sicily, and the story can be traced back to a dithyramb of Philoxenus of Cythera (c. 436-380 bc) entitled the Cyclops, of which only a few brief fragments survive.
Ladder 606
Compare 607
When she set off to Olympos to join the other gods, she wanted to take Nerites with her and offered him a pair of wings (evidently to equip him for the journey); but he preferred to remain beneath the waves with his parents and many sisters. Angered by the rejection, the goddess turned him into a sea-snail (nēritēs) and bestowed the wings on Eros instead, making him her constant companion from that time onwards. There is also mention of another story in which Nerites was a favourite of Poseidon and was transformed by Helios, who was angered for some reason by the speed at which he drove his chariot across the waves.95
Thaumas and Electra and their daughters Iris and the Harpies
Since the rainbow that 'the son of Cronos has set in the sky as a portent for men'97 is a sign and a wonder, Thaumas is very suitable father for her, and Electra is a suitable mother too, in so far as her name is suggestive of shining brightness. The chief role of Iris, where she is not simply a personification of the rainbow itself, is to act as a messenger for the gods. Although she monopolizes this role in the Iliad, Hermes largely displaces her in that regard in the subsequent literature (see p.
Hub 608
There is no indication that Hesiod viewed them as being in any way monstrous, and they were originally pictured as winged women who looked very similar to Iris, hence their enrolment as her sisters; alarming though they may have been in their nature as snatchers, vase-paintings from the classical period portray them as beautiful. As time progressed, however, they came increasingly to be imagined as ugly, bird-like creatures with large talons and a woman's head. Although Hesiod says nothing about their activities, merely observing that they keep pace with the blasts of the wind,103 they are mentioned on three occasions in the Odyssey as female death-spirits who snatch people away, causing them to disappear in this mysterious fashion.
Cycle 609
Flow 610
They appear at their most unpleasant in this connection, as revolting creatures, which seem to be modelled on carrion-eating birds. For they are not only hideous and very greedy but are so filthy that they leave an intolerable stench behind and taint any food that they come into contact with. For the various stories that were offered to explain why Phineus came to be persecuted by them, and the story of how they were put to flight and perhaps even killed by two winged Argonauts, the Boreads, see p.
The monstrous children and descendants of Phorcys and Ceto
PHORCYS, the last of the three sons of Pontos, resembled his brother Thaumas in having no myths or cult. The Odyssey applies the title of 'old man of the sea' to him, as to his brother Nereus, and he is of genealogical significance in the Theogony as the founder of a remarkable family of monsters,112 which seems to take the form indicated in Table 3 (if two ambiguities in the text are rightly interpreted there). His wife and sister Ceto had an appropriate name accordingly in so far as ketos was a Greek term for a sea-monster, The first children of Phorcys and Ceto were the Graiai and Gorgons, two groups of sisters whose myths are intertwined.
Ladder 611
Compare 612
Hub 613
for repelling harm and danger), such images were carved on breastplates and shields in historical times, and also on walls and gates. Portrayals from early Greek art accord well with the Homeric passages, showing a horrible grinning head with a flat nose, lolling tongue, and staring eyes. It seems likely that the Gorgon's head or gorgoneion originated as an apotropaic image, existing independently as such before it was turned into a complete monster and thence into a trio of monsters (Figure 3.4).
The Gorgon Medusa, from a vase, sixth century bc. © Science History Images/Alamy Stock Photo. To explain why Poseidon should have wished to sleep with Medusa, it sometimes came to be suggested that she had been exceptionally beautiful until she came to be transformed into the familiar monster.
Cycle 614
Medusa's head, or even her hair and blood, retained an extraordinary potency after her death. There are various tales in which Perseus is said to have made use of her head to turn his enemies to stone (see pp. 227-8); Heracles gave a lock of her hair to Sterope, daughter of Cepheus, to protect the Arcadian city of Tegea (see p.
Flow 615
Ladder 616
Compare 617
Hub 618
Cycle 619
Flow 620
The family of Night
After bearing her two radiant children Aither and Day to her brother Erebos, to bring the light of day into the world, Night generated many more children from herself, all associated with the dark in one way or another. In modern terms many of them might be described as abstractions, but Hesiod and his contemporaries would have viewed them from a different perspective, regarding them as dark and negative forces that exercise a real power in the world, as in a sense they most certainly do.
Ladder 621
Compare 622
Hub 623
The Hesperides and the Moirai or Fates
Cycle 624
255); in connection with that labour, as we will see, the garden and those who lived there were sometimes relocated to the remote north. The Hesperides were famous for their beautiful voices and would doubtless have entertained themselves by singing and dancing as was customary for nymphs. There were usually thought to be three of them, although they vary in number from two to seven, and they are generally named as Hespere (or Hesperie, or Hesperathousa) and Erytheia (or Erytheis), and Aigle,167 in reference to the evening, the red of the evening sky, and the brightness of day respectively.
Flow 625
The MOIRAI or FATES were a group of goddesses who assigned individual destinies to mortals at birth, particularly with regard to the timing of their death. The word moira means 'portion' or 'allotment' and could be used accordingly as a term for a portion of land, or a person's portion at a meal, or the share that is allotted to a man when spoils are being divided. By a natural extension, the word could be applied to describe the lot or fate that is apportioned to a person in life; and the awesome power that apportions our fates could thus be personified as Moira (Fate or Necessity), or as this trio of Moirai or 'Apportioners'.
Ladder 626
These Moirai are initially classed in the Theogony as children of Night, in accordance with their nature as appointers of death, but are later reclassified in a part of the poem that was added after Hesiod's time, now being described as daughters of Zeus and Themis (Law or Right Order)168 because they contribute to the proper ordering of the world under the authority of Zeus (see p. It would seem that they originated not as abstract powers of destiny but as birth-spirits, much like the ones who in the modern folklore of the area visit new-born children and determine what their portion in life shall be.
The famous myth in which the Moirai appear after the birth of Meleager to foretell what his lot shall be, and also to specify a condition for his death (see p. 283), was surely rooted in very ancient folklore. In their capacity as goddesses who appoint the fate of mortals, they were objects of cult in many parts of the Greek world, as inscriptions and monuments abundantly testify.
Compare 627
Hub 628
Cycle 629
Flow 630
Ladder 631
Compare 632
Hub 633
337-70; Oceanids look after young, 347. 3.694-6; early allusions, Ibycus 42, Pi. 22.147-52 (two springs), 20.73-4 (two names).
24 (citing Aeschylus, but the part of the story in which the two gods are identified may have been drawn from elsewhere). For the radiance of Apollo, e.g. Hymn 31 to Helios (across sky on chariot, etc.), Eur.
Ion 82 (four-horse chariot), 122 (wings), Ov. 183 (names of horses), Eur. 779.8 Nauck (riding on horseback).
8.485 (plunges into Ocean), Aesch. 186 Nauck (washes self and horses in western sea after journey); for the cup of the sun, see Athen. 11.469d ff, citing a string of poets from Stesichorus (= 185) and Mimnermus (= 12) onwards.
Helen 27; Aloeus, Eumelos fr. 49 The artistic record is more helpful on these matters than the literary record, but see for instance Pi. 32 to Selene (bore Pandeia to Zeus, 14-6).
84 Nereus as old man of sea, Hom. 1.358, 18.36, etc.; Proteus, Od. 18.36-8, 49-50 (with father in cave under sea), Hdt.
7.191 (Persians offer sacrifice to them), Eur. Ion 1078-86 (out of sea to dance), Iph. 2.11-4 (habits as portrayed in imaginary work of art); Theoc.
7.59-60 (with halcyons in waves). 2.786ff., 8.397ff., 11.185ff., 15.143ff., 24.74ff., 143ff.; for Hera, 18.166ff.; summons winds, 23.198ff., also acts on own initiative, 3.121ff., 5.353ff.; golden-winged, 8.398, 11.185. 100 Proclus on Cypria; for other early appearances, see Hom.
102 Cited by Athenaeus, 14.645b. 1.9.21 (gives variants); Celaino added, e.g. Bound 792-800 (single eye and tooth, live near Gorgons).
3F11 (Hermes and Athena point her out to Perseus as the only mortal Gorgon), Apollod. 186 (six-armed, six-legged, and winged), Aesch. Madness of Heracles 423-4 (triple-bodied), Apollod.
2.5.10 (three bodies joined together at waist). 249a SM, Horace Odes 2.13.34; nine, Alcaeus 443. Madness of Heracles, 611, Apollod.
333-6; first called Ladon, A.R. 4.1396; hundred-headed according to Pher. 156 Licymnius 771 PMG, Diogenian.
162 Aesop fable 124 Chambry, cf. 163 Aristotle Parts of Animals 3.2. 215-6 (Hesperides), 334-5 (snake), Eur.
742-3, Madness of Heracles 394-9, A.R. 4.1396-9 (snake first named as Ladon) with schol. 4 (thread turned to gold as Nero's fate is being spun), Stat.
8.59, iterataque pensa Sororum (on Eurydice being restored to Orpheus). 175 Isidorus Etymologiae 8.11.93, cf. 792 Riese (tres sunt fatales quae ducunt fila sorores;/Clotho baiulat, Lachesis trahit, Atropos occat).
176 Ps.Aristotle On the Universe 7.401b18ff.
4 The rise of Zeus and revolts against his rule
Zeus found a consort within his own family by marrying his sister HERA. As the great goddess of Argos since time immemorial, Hera was perhaps the most exalted of all the Greek goddesses, and it is thus understandable that she should have come to be linked to the supreme god as his queen, even though she would originally have had no connection with him, and indeed remained largely independent of him in matters of cult.
Compare 62
The children of Zeus and Hera
Zeus found a consort within his own family by marrying his sister HERA. As the great goddess of Argos since time immemorial, Hera was perhaps the most exalted of all the Greek goddesses, and it is thus understandable that she should have come to be linked to the supreme god as his queen, even though she would originally have had no connection with him, and indeed remained largely independent of him in matters of cult. She was primarily the goddess of marriage and of married women; her nature and functions will be considered in Chapter 6, as will various tales that were recounted in different places about her wedding to Zeus or first intercourse with him (see pp.
Cycle 634
As yet only the first generation of Olympian deities had been brought into being, consisting of the six children of Cronos and Rhea; and Aphrodite too had been born by this time if she entered the world in the remarkable circumstances described in the Theogony (see p. The marriage of Zeus and Hera would make only a limited contribution to the completing of the Olympian circle, resulting in the birth of only two of the foremost Olympian deities, while the rest would be fathered by Zeus through liaisons with other goddesses or with mortal women.
Flow 635
Irrespective of the latter point, one is struck by two things when considering the family of Zeus and Hera, firstly that their children could hardly be regarded as being among the very highest deities of the Olympian order, and secondly that, in view of their diverse origin, Ares being Thracian, Hebe Greek, Eileithuia Cretan, and Hephaistos probably Anatolian, they were not brought together into this same family on the basis of any very ancient tradition. Although Hephaistos must be acknowledged to have been a god of some importance, his cult was relatively restricted in its spread, and he was a somewhat ambiguous figure in myth as a lame god who worked with his hands; we will return to him in Chapter 8 (see pp.
Ladder 636
177ff.), concentrating for the present on the three lesser children who were universally regarded as having been born to both parents. Although classed as one of the main Olympian gods, ARES, the god of war, was a deity of lesser standing than one might expect because he was primarily associated with the more brutal aspects of warfare, battle frenzy, slaughter, and strife as enjoyed for their own sakes. His name seems to have originated as an ancient word for war or battle, and he can virtually be regarded as bellicosity personified.
Compare 637
Hub 638
Hub 63
249 and 267), Tereus of Thrace who raped and mutilated his sister-in-law (see p. 322), and others of that kind who will be mentioned later. In a looser sense, any warlike hero could be described as a scion of Ares.
Cycle 639
Although Ares appears quite frequently in the Iliad, he is rarely introduced into mythical narratives in the subsequent literature even where war and carnage are involved. The one major story in which he does play an important part is the Theban foundation-myth, in which the founder, Cadmos, was said to have killed his sacred dragon in a spring near the site of the future city, and so had to appease him before he could found the city (see pp. After they are reconciled, the god offers his daughter Harmonia to Cadmos as a wife (although in some accounts his anger was not yet fully allayed, see p.
He was also closely associated with the Amazons, as their main god and as the father of notable Amazons (or even of the entire race), and the Athenian high court of the Areiopagos was supposed to have been named after him after he was brought before it to be tried for murder, in the first trial ever to be held there (see p. Hebe and Eileithuia were deities of even lower standing, if of a more attractive nature. As the goddesses who personified the bloom of youth and presided over childbirth respectively, they were very appropriate children for Hera as a goddess who was intimately concerned with the life of women.
Flow 640
If this provided Hebe with her first and only really notable role in myth, there is also a tale from Euripides in which she is said to have rejuvenated a nephew of Heracles, Iolaos, to enable him to kill an enemy of the family, see p. EILEITHUIA was a very ancient goddess of childbirth who was honoured throughout the Greek world. The Odyssey refers to her sacred cave at Amnisos on Crete, and, since a Linear B tablet from Cnossos refers to honey-offerings that were made to her there, her cult can definitely be traced back to the Mycenaean period.
Cycle 64
Although she is mentioned quite often in mythical contexts in connection with her function in easing childbirth, it is an understandable if somewhat paradoxical fact that she makes her only significant appearances in myths in which she is prevented from performing her function, on occasions when Hera sets out to hinder the births of illegitimate children of Zeus. Hera thus ensures that Eileithuia is held back on Olympos, for a time at least, when Leto is due to give birth to Apollo and Artemis (see further on p.
135), and also restrains her from helping in the birth of Heracles (see p. We also find references in the Iliad and elsewhere to Eileithuiai in the plural, as a collective body of goddesses of childbirth;40 and although Homer talks more often of Eileithuia as an individual figure, it is the Eileithuiai who are described as being held back by Hera in his account of the last-mentioned myth. Since the goddess and goddesses alike are wholly transparent in their function, without any individual character, it makes little difference in myth or cult whether there be one or more.
Ladder 641
Eileithuia also appears as a title of Hera in so far as she concerned herself with childbirth, and of Artemis too, another great goddess who took an interest in such matters. The Romans equated Eileithuia with Lucina or Juno Lucina, their own goddess of childbirth. At Olympia in the province of Elis, Eileithuia was honoured in conjunction with a divine child called Sosipolis.
The origin of this cult was explained by the following legend. On a certain occasion long ago, as the Eleians were expecting a counter-attack from an invading army of Arcadians, a local woman approached the Eleian commanders with a baby and told them that he was her own son and that a dream had ordered her to hand him over to fight for Elis. Taking her at her word, the authorities laid him naked in front of the army; and when the Arcadians advanced, he changed into a snake, causing them such alarm that they turned and fled.
Compare 642
He fathered Apollo and Artemis by the goddess Leto, who was herself of purely Titan descent as we have already seen (p. 37), and although he brought Athena to birth from his own head, she was also in some sense a daughter of the goddess Metis, as we will see shortly. If Aphrodite had not been born at a very early period in the manner described in the Theogony (see p.
Hub 643
180), Zeus fathered her by another goddess, Dione, see below; but Hermes and Dionysos were both borne to him by mortal women, Maia, daughter of Atlas, and Semele, daughter of Cadmos, respectively, and must thus have been born at a later time, during the heroic era. Towards the end of the Theogony, in a part of the poem that was almost certainly added after Hesiod's time, six of the main divine mistresses of Zeus are presented as having been former wives of his, before his final marriage to Hera.
Flow 65
Although this scheme seems to have left little mark on the subsequent tradition, it will be convenient to consider these various liaisons in the order in which they are listed in the poem,42 since we have been taking it as our main guide. The first union, with the Oceanid nymph Metis, is of particular interest because it accounted for the origin of Zeus's favourite daughter, Athena. One of the many daughters of Oceanos and Tethys (see pp.
Cycle 644
The various elements in the myth of Athena's birth can be disentangled without any great difficulty. By swallowing Metis, he could be imagined furthermore to have taken possession of the cunning wisdom that she represented.
Flow 645
In all probability, the story of Athena's birth from his head originated in very early times as a separate myth, independently of any connection with Metis; but Metis was a suitable mother for Athena in so far as both goddesses were connected with practical wisdom, and Zeus's swallowing of her could explain besides how he came to be 'pregnant' with Athena in the first place. After swallowing his first wife (as Metis is presented as having been in the Hesiodic scheme), Zeus turned to the Titan Themis, who could be thought to represent another aspect of his rule as the personification of law and right order.
Ladder 646
Ladder 66
Since Leto was generally presented in this regard as having been a victim of Hera's jealousy, it could be more fittingly assumed that Zeus became involved with her after his marriage to Hera, rather than before as in the scheme in the Theogony. There is one consort of Zeus, and assuredly a very ancient one, who is not included in the list of his supposed prior marriages in the Theogony, namely DIONE, who is presented in the Iliad as having borne Aphrodite to Zeus.
Compare 647
Her absence is hardly surprising, since Hesiod offers a wholly different account of the origin of Aphrodite, connecting it with the mutilation of Sky (see p. Although Dione is mentioned twice in earlier parts of the Theogony, first among the deities who are praised in the processional songs of the Muses, and then among the daughters of Oceanos,54 it is nowhere suggested that she has any special connection with Zeus. She makes only single appearance in the Homeric epics, comforting and consoling Aphrodite when she arrives on Olympos after having been wounded in battle by Diomedes (p.
Hub 648
Cycle 649
124), is included in the list while Dionysos is absent; but those who are named in it are otherwise the deities who would be regarded as the principal Olympians from a mythological point of view. A variety of other gods were listed among the Twelve in connection with the cult of the Twelve Gods in other localities. The following gods were honoured, for instance, at the six altars at Olympia: Zeus Olympios, Poseidon, Hera, Athena, Hermes, Apollo, the Charites (Graces), Dionysos, Athena, Alpheios (a river-god of the area, see p.
Compare 67
Hub 68
Revolts against Zeus and the Olympian order
Zeus as the all-powerful sky-god As is implied in the above-mentioned story of the division of power between Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, Zeus was above all the god of the sky, and most especially of the phenomena of the lower atmosphere, of cloud, rain, and storm. As his titles and epithets suggest, he is the cloud-gatherer, the thunderer, the sender of lightning or of rain, or of favourable winds. Many Indo-European peoples had a deity who more or less corresponded with him, such as Dyaus in India, Iuppiter (i.e.
Flow 650
Dyaus pita, the addition meaning 'father') in Italy, or Tiwaz among the Germanic people. He was so widely worshipped, however, and acquired so many responsibilities as the supreme god, that there was hardly a department of nature or of human activity with which he was not connected in some way. He was the protector of the household and social order, and all sovereignty and law proceeded from him; he was represented as having moral concerns from an early period, particularly as a guardian of suppliants and strangers, and an overseer of oaths and justice.
In the course of time his name came to be used by thinkers of a monotheistic tendency as being practically equivalent to 'God'. Even if his myths can be grotesque or frivolous, he is consistently represented in art as a stately and majestic figure, a vigorous man in the prime of life, standing or sitting in a dignified attitude, usually draped from the waist down, bearing a sceptre or thunderbolt, or both, and attended by his special bird, the eagle. The thunderbolt was consistently regarded as one of the most important attributes of Zeus.
Ladder 651
Before it came to be understood that lightning is an electrical discharge, its destructive power encouraged the thought that some heavy, pointed missile must come down from the sky along with the lightning-flash; and what could be more natural than to assume that this was the special weapon of the sky-god? In artistic images Zeus's thunderbolt was represented as a biconical object, often having conventionalized lightning-flashes attached to it, and sometimes wings too. As we have seen, it was supposed to have been fashioned for him by the Cyclopes.
Compare 652
From the way in which it is described and the literal meaning of the word, which simply means goat-skin, it is clear that it was imagined as a goat-skin with the hairs left in place, forming a fringe. As a garment of rough hide it would serve as a defence, not only against the weather but also against a blow from an enemy; and a divine aegis, as worn or brandished by an immensely powerful deity, might be imagined as a potent defence and an awe-inspiring object.
Hub 653
Cycle 654
Cycle 69
It is at least possible that there was an ancient tale in which these three deities, who were keen supporters of the Greek cause in the Trojan War, wanted to attempt to force their will on Zeus at some stage in the conflict. It was commonly agreed, however, that all the serious threats against Zeus came from outside the Olympian circle and were directed against the Olympian order as a whole. There were two revolts that led to direct conflict and placed that order under serious threat, launched by the monstrous Typhon and then the race of Giants.
There was also a threatened revolt by two gigantic brothers, the Aloadai, which was frustrated before it could be put into effect (or full effect), because they were killed by Apollo before they could reach full growth.
Flow 70
The Revolt of Typhon
The myth of the revolt of Typhon seems to have been of earlier origin than that of the Giants, since it is recounted by Hesiod as the last stage of the succession myth, while he apparently had no knowledge of any conflict between the gods and the Giants. The canonic account of the later episode seems to have been established somewhat later, in an early epic that had become widely known by the end of the sixth century bc. The story of the revolt of Typhon was probably introduced from the east, by contrast, as part of the succession myth, in view of the eastern connections of Typhon, who was particularly associated with Cilicia as we will see, and of the fact that similar tales of a revolt by a monster or group of monsters can be found in eastern succession myths.
In the above-mentioned Hurro-Hittite succession myth (see pp. 29-30), the sky-god is thus confronted with a revolt from a monstrous being called Ullikummi. The name of the monstrous opponent of Zeus appears in two different forms, as TYPHON (Typhaon in epic) or as TYPHOEUS.
Flow 655
Hesiod does not explain why Earth, who had shown favour to Zeus and had played a central role in helping him to rise to power, should have wished to bring forth a monster that would present such a danger to him, nor does he say that she did so with any hostile intent. In all likelihood, the poet was not interested in the point, and simply made her his mother since she was an obvious parent for such a gigantic monster.
The resulting conflict is presented by him as a primordial conflict that took place as the next notable event after the Titanomachy, before Zeus was formally accepted by the other gods as the new ruler of the universe. The war between the gods and the Giants, when that story was subsequently introduced, had to be placed at a much later period, not long before the Trojan War, because the assistance that Heracles provided to the gods as a mortal helper was a central feature of the myth from the beginning.
Ladder 656
Compare 657
Ladder 71
Since snakes are chthonic beings that emerge from crevices in earth, earth-born men or monsters are quite often imagined as being serpent-tailed (as in the case of Cecrops, see p. 318, or the Giants in later portrayals). In Apollodorus' description of Typhon, which is full and memorable, if muddled in places, there seems to be some confusion between these serpent's tails, as found in artistic images, and the serpent's heads that spring from Typhon's shoulders in the Theogony; for we are told that a hundred dragon's heads sprang from his arms, and that the serpent's coils from beneath his thighs reached up to his head when fully extended and emitted violent hisses.
Hub 658
Cycle 659
Swiftly recognizing that the monster presented a grave threat, Zeus directed his full power against him, thundering mightily, causing the earth, sky, and sea to resound, and Olympos to reel beneath his feet. Such heat was created by Zeus's thunder and lightning, and by the fire from the monster, that the earth, sea, and sky began to boil, and there was such an uproar that Hades trembled in his subterranean field, as did even the Titans far below in Tartaros. Although the flame that issued from Typhon seems to have been generated here by Zeus's thunderbolts, some later authors assumed that the monster made his own contribution by breathing fire from his mouth.
Flow 660
Ladder 661
Compare 662
Compare 72
Hub 663
After Typhon began to attack heaven, hurling flaming rocks at it and breathing streams of fire from his mouth, all the gods fled with the sole exception of Zeus, who thus had to confront him without their help, by first pelting him with thunderbolts from a distance and then lashing out at him with an adamantine sickle (harpē). After pursuing the severely wounded monster to Mt Casion in Syria, he grappled with him face to face; but Typhon managed to envelop Zeus in his coils and wrested the sickle away from him to cut the tendons from his hands and feet.
He then carried him through the sea to Cilicia in the south-eastern corner of Asia Minor, and deposited him in a cave known as the Corycian cave, hiding the severed tendons inside in a bear's skin; and he appointed a fellow-monster as guard, the she-dragon Delphyne, who was formed half like a snake and half like a beautiful maiden. Hermes and Aigipan (Goat-Pan) stole away the tendons, however, and fitted them back into Zeus, who soon recovered his vigour and returned to the fray.
Cycle 664
Descending from heaven in a chariot, Zeus hurled thunderbolts at Typhon and pursued him to Mt Nysa (of uncertain location, see p. 164), where the Moirai (Fates) deceived the monster into eating the 'ephemeral fruits' (otherwise unknown), which robbed him of some of his strength. When pursued north to Haimon, however, a mountain range in Thrace, he was still strong enough to hurl whole mountains at Zeus, who thrust them back against him by use of his thunderbolt, causing Typhon to shed so much blood (haima) that the range below was known as Haimon from that time forth.
Flow 665
Ladder 666
Hub 73
Compare 667
83), or that the forge of Hephaistos was located in it (see p. It should perhaps be mentioned that the Homeric Hymn to Apollo and the early lyric poet Stesichorus offer a different account of Typhon's origin, in which Hera is said to have brought him to birth as a fatherless child because she was so angry that Zeus had brought Athena to birth from his head. According to the Hymn, she struck the ground with her hand in her fury, and prayed to Earth, Sky, and the Titans below that she should bear a child of her very own without Zeus being involved, a child who would be as much stronger than him as he was stronger than Cronos.
Hub 668
Cycle 669
There is no reason to suppose, however, that these Homeric Giants who lived in such remote parts are the same as the Hesiodic Giants (any more than in the case of the Cyclopes, see p. 24), or that their fall had anything to do with a revolt against the gods. The early evidence is too thin, alas, for it to be possible to trace the early development of their mythology before the time of the first evidence for their war against the gods.
Flow 670
Cycle 74
Ladder 671
Compare 672
If the individual motifs from his narrative are checked against the earliest artistic and literary record, it soon becomes evident that this is a composite version that was constructed mainly from early material but also contains a few stories (or variants) from the later tradition. An element that is certainly old is the involvement of Heracles who was on the island of Cos at this time, having been driven there by storm-winds while sailing back from his campaign against Troy (see p.
The gods knew from an oracle that none of the Giants could be killed if they attacked them on their own, but that they needed to enlist the help of a mortal ally if they were to destroy them. When Gaia heard of this oracle, she searched for a herb that would prevent her sons from being destroyed by such an ally, but Zeus forestalled her by ordering Dawn and the Sun and Moon not to shine until he himself had plucked the herb, and he then told Athena to summon Heracles as the ally who was required.
Hub 673
Cycle 674
Flow 75
Flow 675
Much as one would like to know how this legend developed and varied over the course of time, the evidence is thus very patchy. We must now trace the story to its conclusion as recounted in Apollodorus' version. After the death of Alcyoneus, Porphyrion launched an attack against Heracles and Hera, but Zeus distracted him by inspiring him with a lust for Hera and then struck him with a thunderbolt as he was tearing at the goddess's robes.
Although this would surely have sufficed to kill the Giant in any normal circumstances, Heracles in his role as special helper of the gods was obliged to finish him off with one of his arrows; and likewise in every succeeding case, gods would bring Giants to the ground in their various ways, leaving it for Heracles to deal the death-blow with his arrows. Since Apollo was a consummate archer like Heracles, the two of them attacked the Giant Ephialtes in conjunction, Apollo shooting him in the left eye and Heracles in the right; Dionysos and Hecate used their cultic emblems, the thyrsos and flaming torches respectively, against two other Giants, Eurytos and Clytios; Hephaistos, the divine blacksmith, pelted Mimas with missiles of red-hot iron; Athena killed the fleeing Encelados by hurling the island of Sicily on top of him, and flayed another Giant, Pallas, to use his skin as a shield; while pursuing the Giant Polybotes through the Aegean, Poseidon broke a corner off the island of Cos and hurled it down on him, so creating the little island of Nisyros not far to the south; Hades, who wore the cap of invisibility (see p.
Ladder 676
Although they must obviously have been very large and powerful if they were to match themselves against the gods, they were not originally imagined as giants in the full modern sense of the word. It is significant in this respect that when an ordinary mortal is called a gigas in early Greek literature, as in the case of the brutal Capaneus (see p. 356) in Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes,107 the word is suggestive of reckless or impious violence rather than of exceptional size.
Compare 677
Hub 678
Ladder 76
Cycle 679
Flow 680
Ladder 681
Compare 682
Compare 77
46), revolted against the authority of his cousin Zeus, not in the hope of gaining power on his own account as in the case of Typhon and the Giants, but to bring benefits and justice to the human race; and by resorting to subterfuge rather than the use of force, he achieved a considerable measure of success, even if he had to pay a heavy penalty afterwards. The myth of Prometheus was altered and developed significantly as time progressed. In the Hesiodic poems, he advances the interests of mortals in two specific respects alone and suffers for his actions ever afterwards, while in the later tradition from Aeschylus onwards, he is the general benefactor (and sometimes even the creator and saviour) of the human race, and he is eventually freed from his punishment and reconciled with Zeus.
Hub 683
We will start with Hesiod's account of his story in the Theogony. When gods and mortals ceased to associate directly and eat together, a new relationship was established in which mortals would sacrifice animals to the gods and share the meat of the victim with them without meeting face to face. According to Greek custom, the flesh and offal of the victims would be eaten after the sacrifice while their bones would be wrapped in fat and burned on the altar for the gods.
To explain this arrangement, which seems to work to the disadvantage of the gods, Hesiod offers the following story. When the gods and mortals had quarrelled over the matter in the earliest times at Mecone (later Sicyon), Prometheus, for some unexplained reason, settled the dispute to the advantage of mortals by working a deception on Zeus. He killed an ox, cut it up, and separated the flesh and entrails from the bones; and he then covered the flesh and entrails with the ox's stomach to make that portion look unappetizing, and concealed the bones under a layer of shining fat.
Cycle 684
ferula communis, a relative of the British cow parsley whose stems contain a slow-burning white pith). Zeus responded to this second provocation by imposing a second punishment on mortal men (for there were no women as yet) and by consigning Prometheus to everlasting torment. As man's price for the stolen fire, Zeus arranged for the creation of a 'beautiful evil' (kalon kakon), the first woman.
Flow 685
Hephaistos fashioned her from moistened earth at Zeus's order, and Athena clothed her in silvery robes and an embroidered veil and adorned her with garlands and a golden crown of Hephaistos' workmanship. She was then brought before an assembly of men and gods, who wondered at the sight of her, realizing that she would be an irresistible snare for men. In the present account from the Theogony, in which the first woman is left unnamed, Hesiod says nothing about her subsequent life, but simply expatiates with some ardour on the miseries that women and marriage have brought to men ever since.
Ladder 686
Hub 78
Compare 687
Hub 688
After arriving among mortals, Pandora opened the lid of a great jar that she had with her, causing a host of evils and diseases to be released among mortals for the first time; for until that moment, men had lived on the earth free from toil and sickness and other ills. Hesiod says nothing about the origin of the jar; presumably she had brought it with her from the gods. Through the will of Zeus, she replaced the lid of the jar before Elpis (Hope) could fly out.
Cycle 689
Flow 690
Cycle 79
Ladder 691
Heracles arrived at some stage and shot the eagle, as in the old account by Hesiod; and he then proceeded to release Prometheus from his chains, as is indicated in the title of the play. Prometheus must have appeased Zeus in the course of the play by revealing that Thetis was the goddess who was fated to bear a son who would surpass his father; but since he had been so stubborn in refusing to reveal the secret in the previous play, his change of heart was presumably motivated by something more than self-interest alone.
Compare 692
Hub 693
Torch races were held in his honour at his Athenian festival of the Prometheia, and there was an altar to him as Fire-bringer (Pyrphoros) at the Academy.143 Notes 1 Hes. 11 Dicte and Ida cited as alternative locations, Call. Hymn 1.4-6; Ida the earlier, e.g.
5.40-1, Dicte first in Call. 33 (where erroneously placed near Ida). Musaeus 2B8 DK (from Eratosth.
1.1.6-7 (Adrasteia and Ida, daughters of Melisseus, fed Zeus on milk of Amaltheia), Hyg. 2.13 (similar, but daughters of Melisseus not named); cf. 3.132-6 (Adrasteia nurse of Zeus, made beautiful ball for him), D.S.
5.70.3 (nymphs not named), schol. Hymn 1.51-3 (earliest surviving source), D.S. 1.1.7, Lucretius 2.633-9, Ovid Fasti 4.207-10 (here with Corybantes, see p.
See also Epimenides 3B22, Eur. 8.312 (Hephaistos indicates that he has two parents) with Il. 5.333 and 592-3; as mother or daughter of Ares, schol.
5.337, Cornutus 21; her statue in temple of Ares at Athens, Paus. 4.440, 15.119-20; 13.299 (Phobos a son of Ares), Hes. 933-6 (Deimos and Phobos his sons by Aphrodite); Hes.
his charioteers); cult of Phobos at Sparta, Plut. 35 Cydoimos and Ker, Hom. For Cydoimos, see also Il.
4.2-3, 5.722 and 5.905 respectively. 1.44.3 (sanctuary of Eileithuiai at Megara). 46 Proclus on Cypria, Hom.
Hymn 23 to Cronos 2-3. 48 On succession at Delphi, e.g. 2.456-52, 5.733-42, 18.203-6, 21.400-2; Apollo, 15.229-30 with 318-22, and 24.18-21.
85 See West on Theog. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Princeton 1955, 125-6. 239 for circumstances of birth.
106 Euripides mentions that Encelados fell to Athena, Madness of Heracles 906-9. The Sicilian location may have been introduced by Callimachus, see fr. 1.6.1 (a late feature of his account), Ov.
1.184, Claudian Gigantomachy 80-1; Paus. 8.29.3 regards the notion as absurd. 6.582 indicates that they were punished in Tartarus, but gives no details.
907-19, with 209-13, 515-25; the secret is obscurely indicated rather than directly stated. Unbound, frr; in Caucasus, fr 199 Radt (from Str. 4.1.7), tormented there by eagle, fr.
2.22-5), chorus of Titans, fr. 141 Philemon 89, Horace Ode 1.16.13-6, Apollod.
5 Hades, Demeter, and the mythology of the Underworld
Zeus had two brothers, Poseidon and Hades, and three sisters, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. When the world was divided between Zeus and his two brothers after the defeat of the Titans (see pp.
Flow 80
Hades, Demeter, and the mythology of the Underworld
Zeus had two brothers, Poseidon and Hades, and three sisters, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. When the world was divided between Zeus and his two brothers after the defeat of the Titans (see pp. 67-8), Poseidon and Hades were allotted item of their own, the seas and the Underworld respectively, and so acquired sovereign status within their specific domains, even if Zeus retained ultimate power as the king of the gods.
Cycle 694
Zeus also had his special domain, of course, as the lord of the heavens. Through the possession of these separate kingdoms, the gods of this older generation were set apart from the younger Olympian gods, who had no comparable domains. Since Hades withdrew to his subterranean field after receiving it in the draw and rarely left it thereafter, he led an isolated existence, having little to do with his fellow gods or the world of the living.
His only myth of any real importance, which told how he abducted Demeter's daughter Persephone to make her his wife, was also the main myth of Demeter herself, since she engaged in an eventful search for her daughter and eventually reached a compromise with Hades over her daughter's fate. Although Hades' role in myth was inevitably limited and specialized, the mythology of the Underworld and afterlife is both rich and exceptionally interesting, not least because it evolved in many notable respects over the course of time.
Flow 695
We will examine that body of myth in the present chapter, in conjunction with the partly interconnected mythology of Hades and the corn-goddess Demeter, to complete our survey of how the world was supposed to have become ordered and governed, and will pass on to the three remaining Olympian deities of the first generation, Hera, Poseidon, and Hestia, in the next chapter.
Ladder 696
Ladder 81
The grim lord of the Underworld
After winning the Underworld as his special domain, HADES lived apart from the other gods and had little to do with the affairs of the living. As the ruler of the dead, he was grim and sombre in his character and functions alike, acting rather like a jailer in so far as he ensured that the dead who entered his field never escaped back to the light of day, and in so far as he presided over a place of punishment where some who had gravely offended the gods, or wrongdoers more generally, according to later ideas, would be subjected to torment or to corrective punishment.
Compare 697
Since wealth comes from the depths of the ground in the form of crops and minerals, the Greeks often referred to Hades under the title of Plouton (the Wealthy or Wealth-giver), at least from the fifth century bc onwards. As Plato remarks, it was fear that caused people to call him by such a name, and this was of course a euphemistic title, other such titles being Polydegmon, Polydectes or Polyxeinos (all meaning the receiver or host of many, and hence the Hospitable), or Eubouleus (Wise in Counsel) or Clymenos (the Renowned).
Whether to avoid ill-omened remarks or to pass over unpleasant realities, the Greeks generally preferred not to speak directly of death in connection with themselves or their friends, and would say that someone had 'departed' (bēbēken) or refer to the dead person as the 'blessed one' (ho makaristēs), or even begin such matter-of-fact documents as wills with the formula 'All will go well; but if anything should happen, I make the following dispositions',3 and they would refer to Hades by euphemistic titles for much the same reason. As the absolute ruler of a field that was set apart from the rest of the world, Hades could also be called Zeus Katachthonios (Zeus of the Underworld) or simply 'the Other Zeus'.
Hub 698
Cycle 699
Compare 82
Flow 700
254 and 565), and sometimes less so, as in the case of Theseus and Peirithoos (see p. He also played some part in heroic myth in so far as he granted temporary leave of absence to heroes such as Protesilaos (see p. 466) and Sisyphos (who abused the privilege, see p.
Ladder 701
How Hades abducted Persephone as his bride, and her mother Demeter set out in search of her When the time came for Hades to seek a wife, he chose to take PERSEPHONE, the only daughter of his sister DEMETER, who was the goddess of corn and of agriculture in general, and patroness of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Since he stole Persephone from the upper world in secret from her mother, who was greatly distressed by her disappearance and made every effort to recover her, the ancient myth that tells of the abduction and all that resulted from it is the principal myth of Demeter too, as well as of Hades and of the maiden herself.
In the end, a compromise was reached in which Persephone spent part of the year below with Hades and part in the upper world with her mother. Persephone was a goddess of twofold character accordingly, being on the one hand the awesome queen of the dead, and on the other hand a goddess of the fertility of the earth in conjunction with Demeter. She was often closely associated with her mother in cult, so much so that the pair could be referred to simply as the Two Goddesses (tō Theō) or the two Demeters or two Thesmophoriai.
Compare 702
Persephone was also known as Kore (the Girl) in cult. Although the latter part of Demeter's name certainly means mother, the meaning of the first syllable is a matter for conjecture; the once-popular idea, already current in antiquity, that the name means 'Earth Mother' has come to be regarded as ill-founded. The story of the abduction of Persephone, and of her mother's search for her, is recounted as follows in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which provides the earliest and fullest account.
Hub 703
While the maiden was once gathering flowers with her companions, Earth caused a wonderful flower to spring up in her path at the bidding of Zeus and to gratify Hades, a bloom of unparalleled beauty and fragrance; and when Persephone reached forward to pluck it, the ground opened up and Hades rushed out in his golden chariot to seize her and carry her down to the Underworld. Although the Hymn names the Nysian plain, a purely mythical place, as the site of the abduction, the incident was usually placed in Sicily in the later tradition.
Persephone's cries were heard by Hecate and Helios alone. Her mother soon grew anxious and hurried off in search of her, but could find no news of her, whether from gods or mortals or birds of omen. So, lighting two torches (from the flames of Etna according to a later tradition), Demeter wandered the world for nine days, fasting all the while, until she met Hecate, who told her that she had heard her daughter crying out; and the two goddesses went off to consult the sun-god Helios, who can see everything from his vantage point in the sky.
Cycle 704
Hub 83
Flow 705
So they went off to consult their mother, Metaneira, who told them to invite the old woman home to act as nursemaid to her infant son Demophoon. After entering the palace, Demeter sat in disconsolate silence until her spirits were lifted by the jokes of a certain Iambe, who caused her to laugh for the first time since the loss of her daughter; and when Metaneira then offered her some wine, she asked for kykeōn instead, a drink containing barley-meal and pennyroyal.
Ladder 706
Enraged by this unexpected interference, the goddess threw the child to the ground and rebuked the queen, telling her that she was Demeter and would have rendered her child immortal if it had not been for her meddling. But he would enjoy everlasting honour nonetheless, so she said, because he had been associated with her, and she ordered that a great temple and altar should be erected there in her honour, saying that she herself would instruct the people of the town in her rites and so enable them to win her favour.
Compare 707
After the completion of her temple at Eleusis, she remained there grieving for a year, until the gods came to fear that the human race would die of hunger and that they would be deprived of their sacrifices as a consequence. So Zeus sent the divine messenger Iris to Demeter to instruct her to return to Olympos, but she refused to obey; and when he then sent all the other gods to her one after another to offer her handsome gifts and whatever she might desire, she still refused to change her mind, declaring that she would never set foot on Olympos nor allow the crops to spring forth until she had seen her daughter with her own eyes.
Faced with this ultimatum, Zeus was obliged to send Hermes to the lord of the Underworld to ask him to release Persephone. Hades acceded to his brother's request, but secretly induced Persephone to eat a pomegranate seed (or seeds in some later accounts) before she left, and so ensured that she would remain bound to his field forever. When Demeter learned of this from her daughter after they were reunited, she realized that she would have to accept a compromise, and agreed to Zeus's proposal that Persephone should spend a third of the year in the world below as the consort of Hades, and the other two-thirds with her mother and the Olympian gods (see Figure 5.1).
Hub 708
Cycle 84
Cycle 709
The Eleusis relief, fifth century bc. Photo courtesy of Richard Stoneman. In the original version of the story, the mere action of eating from the pomegranate in the world below sufficed to bind Persephone to that world forever; but it is suggested in some later accounts that this fate came to be imposed on her because an inhabitant of the Underworld bore witness to the fact that she had eaten there.
Flow 710
Ladder 711
Compare 712
Flow 85
Persephone appears quite frequently in myth as the awesome queen of the Underworld. It was assumed from the time of Homer onwards that she wielded considerable authority in that field, joining together with her husband to make decisions with regard to the dead or to living heroes who ventured below, and even acting on her own initiative on occasion. It is suggested in the Iliad that she could be invoked in curses, and act in response to them in conjunction with Hades (see p.
Hub 713
Cycle 714
Ladder 86
The mythology of the Underworld
The gloomy land of the dead We must now go on to examine the mythology of the subterranean field of Hades, by considering how his kingdom was imagined and portrayed at different periods, how the dead were thought to be conveyed there, and what fate they might expect to encounter after their arrival, perhaps involving punishment or reward. Although it was commonly assumed, of course, that the kingdom of Hades lay somewhere far underground, the Greeks were also inclined to place that dark land in the far west, as already noted (p.
Both ideas can be found in the Homeric epics, but they need not be regarded as contradictory, since Odysseus' westward journey to the land of the dead31 is no more than a special means of approach to an underground field, which might otherwise be approached through some chasm that lay much closer to home. Except in a passage in the final book of the Odyssey, which is almost certainly part of a later interpolation,32 there is no suggestion in Homer that the shades of the dead have to travel to the Underworld by a westward route, or indeed seek any opening in the ground.
Flow 715
Heracles was supposed, for example, to have found his way below through a bottomless cave at Tainaron in the southern Peloponnese (see p. 314), as was Orpheus too in some accounts, this being the most famous of these passages. Or in divine myth, Dionysos was said to have descended through a bottomless lake at Lerna in the Argolid when he went to fetch his dead mother (see p.
Ladder 716
Compare 717
Compare 87
Hub 718
Cycle 719
Flow 720
Ladder 721
56) guards the gates in this savage fashion, the ever-righteous Aiacos (see p. 426) was sometimes said to act as door-keeper or keeper of the keys (See Figure 5.2). Attic white ground lekythos 2777, c.
Hub 88
Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, München, Germany. How the dead passed below; their guide Hermes and ferryman Charon We must now consider how the dead were supposed to make their way from this world to the other. There is no mention in the Homeric epics of anyone ferrying the dead across the boundary-river, and Hermes appears as escort of the shades in a single passage alone in the final book of the Odyssey.
Compare 722
Hub 723
Cycle 724
It is also difficult to tell exactly when Hermes first acquired his role as conductor of the dead (psychopompos). By the fifth century in any case, the Homeric account of the passing of the dead had been displaced by another in which Hermes guided the shades of the dead to the nether regions, and Charon then ferried them across the boundary-river (usually Acheron, occasionally Styx) into the world of the dead. As we have seen, Hermes is portrayed as conductor of the dead in the present text of the Odyssey; but if it can be accepted that the relevant passage forms part of a later addition to the epic (perhaps dating to the early sixth century), it is reasonable to assume that this function was first assigned to the god at some stage in the archaic period.
Flow 725
Cycle 89
Ladder 726
Except in one dubious case, no genealogy is offered for him, and he should presumably be regarded as a daimon or minor divinity. It is his duty to ensure that only those who are rightly qualified are allowed to pass into the world of the dead, and his only proper myth states accordingly that he was once thrown into chains for a year for ferrying Heracles across while still alive (when the hero was sent below to fetch Cerberos as one of his labours, see p.
Compare 727
The witless insubstantial ghosts who throng the Underworld are the merest shadows of living human beings, lacking all that is needed for real vigorous life. All that survives from the living person is the tenuous psychē or 'breath-soul' (the word is related to pyschein, to breathe), which departs from the body at the time of death and finds its way to the world of the dead. The word 'soul' can be rather misleading in this context, since the psyche was originally pictured as being more like a wraith than a soul in the modern (or Platonic) sense, as a centre of consciousness, or indeed, spiritual centre.
The loss of bodily substance that resulted when it took over from the living person was thought to bring about a corresponding loss of mental power. Homer never uses the term psychē in connection with the mental functions of the living, referring instead to an array of 'faculties' that depend on the living body for their activity (such as the thymos, a sort of life-soul or affective centre, the noos or understanding, and the phrenes, literally the midriff). The psychē by contrast is the departing breath and the wraith that takes over as a continuation of the dead person's self.
Hub 728
Dead heroes and heroines who met with exceptional fates; the privileged few in Elysion or the Isles of the Blessed Since the dead are not subjected to any form of posthumous judgement in the Homeric account, the mass of them share a common fate in the Underworld, living together as gibbering shades, rather like bats in a cave. Although this would certainly seem a dispiriting prospect, the dying would have nothing positively dreadful to fear, however they may have behaved in their previous life.
Cycle 729
Flow 90
Pindar and Aeschylus are the first authors to refer to a general judgement of the dead that might assign individuals to a happier or worse fate in accordance with their merits. Aeschylus states that sentence will be passed by 'another Zeus', that is to say, Hades himself (as we may also be supposed to infer from Pindar's vague reference to an anonymous 'somebody');66 but in the subsequent tradition from the time of Plato onwards, the task was usually assigned to Minos and other dead heroes who had been renowned for their justice during their earthly lives (see further on pp.
Flow 730
Ladder 731
301), has encouraged some to argue that Elysion was a survival from Minoan belief, but this is by no means certain. Whatever its origin, it is a land in which all is perfect happiness, materially conceived but grossly so, and no one ever dies. Since this corresponds to the state of affairs in the golden age when Cronos reigned (see pp.
Compare 732
Hub 733
Ladder 91
Cycle 734
Dead heroes and heroines who suffered cruel punishments in the world below If some who were especially dear to the gods were transferred to an earthly paradise as an alternative to death, some who had especially offended the gods were subjected to cruel and ingenious tortures in the Underworld after their death. Here again the earliest ideas are not strictly ethical, since those who are singled out for these punishments are not the worst evil-doers, let alone the wicked in general, but simply certain persons who have excited the particular hatred of the gods.
Flow 735
Ladder 736
Although nothing is said in the Odyssey about the nature of Tantalos' crime, it is explained in the Returns that when he had been invited to live with the gods, and had been offered a choice of whatever he most desired, he had presumptuously asked to live exactly like the gods; so Zeus fulfilled the promise in a purely formal manner, by setting every kind of good thing in from of him but in such circumstances that he could never enjoy it. In later accounts, he was also said to have suffered this punishment for various other reasons, see further on p.
Compare 737
Compare 92
That certainly seems to have been the case with Tityos, since the liver was often regarded as the seat of the desires in ancient times; and if this notion was already current in Homer's age, it could have been appreciated that Tityos was made to suffer in the part of him with which he had lusted after Leto. Tantalos for his part had been admitted to the table of the gods and had abused the privilege, and it is therefore wholly fitting that he should not merely be made to suffer hunger and thirst, but to suffer it in such a way that he is kept permanently and painfully aware of his reversal of fortune.
Hub 738
This is clearly the moral that was supposed to be drawn from his punishment in the Returns, and it is reasonable to assume that Homer's audience would have interpreted it in a similar way. The significance of Sisyphos' punishment is less immediately obvious. Of the various explanations that have been suggested, the most plausible relates it to the special nature of his crime as in the preceding cases: since he suffered this penalty (in one version at least) because he had cheated death by escaping back to the upper world, a symbolic meaning might be detected in the process by which he is perpetually checked and forced back again as he tries to make his way upwards.
It would assuredly have been difficult for him to escape again if he was constantly having to roll his stone. Comparable punishments were assigned to other villains in the post-Homeric tradition, but none became as celebrated for their sufferings as the Homeric trio, apart perhaps from Ixion, who attempted nothing less than to seduce the wife of Zeus. A Thessalian chieftain who belonged to the warlike Lapith people (see p.
Cycle 739
311), Ixion had first started on the downward path by murdering his father-in-law. For when seeking to win Dia, daughter of Deioneus, as his wife, he promised to give her father many bride-gifts, but refused to hand them over after the marriage. When Deioneus seized some horses from him as security for the gifts, Ixion dug a fire-pit, filled it with burning coals, and invited his father-in-law to come and collect the gifts; and he caused him to fall into the fire-pit, or threw him into it, on his arrival.
As the first man to murder a close relation, Ixion found it impossible to find anyone, man or god, who was willing to purify him, until Zeus finally took pity on him, and not only purified him but invited him to come up to share in the life of the gods. By way of gratitude, Ixion tried to seduce his benefactor's wife, and on learning of this, Zeus tested him by fashioning a cloud-image of Hera; and when Ixion demonstrated his intentions by having intercourse with the image (see also on p.
Flow 740
Ladder 741
Hub 93
Compare 742
In subsequent eschatological schemes, however, which involve a judgement of the dead, it came to be imagined that the deserving and undeserving dead would be consigned to different regions of the Underworld, which would be bright and blissful in the one case, and a gloomy place of misery in the other. From the time of Plato onwards, the place of punishment or correction (or the worst part of it) was quite often called Tartaros. This usage entailed a shift of meaning, as when the abode of the virtuous dead in the Underworld came to be called Elysion, since Tartaros was originally a wholly separate place that served as a prison for banished deities (see p.
Hub 743
Developments in eschatological belief, and the idea of a universal judgement of the dead The evolution of Underworld mythology over the centuries was inevitably much affected by developments in eschatological belief, whether in Greek society in general or in narrower circles within it. Although it would take us far out of our way to attempt to trace these developments in any detail, something must be said about the broader trends. With regard to the fate of the dead in the afterlife, two conceptions subsisted side by side in the classical period, the old one that suggested most of the dead would share a common fate, and a newer one that suggested the dead would meet with differing fates in accordance with their merits.
Cycle 744
In that case, a pattern of light and shade is introduced into the picture, for some must be consigned to a brighter destiny, presumably in a brighter region of the Underworld, and others to a darker destiny. The mysteries, especially those at Eleusis, certainly exercised a considerable influence in this connection; most Athenians and many Greeks from elsewhere were initiated at Eleusis, and the rites seem to have been effective in enduing initiates with the subjective assurance that they would fare well in the afterlife.
Although strictly ethical considerations remained very much in the background in Eleusinian eschatological belief, the simple evolution of moral sentiment encouraged the idea that the good might be rewarded and the evil punished in the afterlife; for since evil is so often rewarded in this world and the good often suffer, it came to be surmised that the accounts must be balanced in the afterlife if there is, indeed, any order of justice. As we will see, such ideas were certainly current in popular belief in the classical period, and they marked an advance on the cruder idea that people's crimes might be punished in their children or descendants.
Flow 745
Cycle 94
Various eschatological beliefs of an unorthodox nature that developed in relatively narrow circles, Pythagorean, Orphic, and Bacchic, were also of significance in this respect from the late archaic period onwards. Although ritual factors were also involved, members of such circles usually believed that it was necessary to lead a good and pure life if one was to meet with good fortune in the afterlife. Among Pythagoreans and others who accepted the idea of the transmigration of the soul, elaborate eschatological schemes were devised in which the soul was thought to undergo successive rebirths, living alternately in an earthly body and in the other world, and to pass to equivalents of hell, purgatory, and paradise after each earthly incarnation.
Ladder 746
These ideas found their way into high literature and general culture through the writings of such authors as Pindar and, above all, Plato. Thus, in the second Olympian Ode of Pindar, which has already been partially quoted above, those who have lived a just and pious life in this world will enjoy a life of ease below in a region where the sun shines forever, while wrongdoers will be subjected to punishment; the soul then returns to the upper world, and whosoever keeps his soul free from all wrong on either side of the grave for three successive cycles will pass to the paradisal place described in the quotation (see p.
Compare 747
As the traditional Homeric ideas thus came to be interblended with later ideas of diverse origin, authors from the time of Plato onwards came to offer curiously heterogeneous descriptions of the afterlife, accompanied by increasingly elaborate and definite accounts of the topography of Hades. As has already been mentioned, Pindar and Aeschylus are the first authors to make any definite reference to a judgement of the dead (see p. 104), and it was generally agreed thereafter that the judgement was performed not by Hades himself, but by dead mortals who had been exceptionally just during their earthly lives.
The three mythical heroes who were most often credited with this honour were Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aiacos. Plato (died 347 bc) is the first author to identify them as such,91 but it can be inferred from the way in which he speaks of them that he was following an earlier tradition, probably derived from the mythology associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries. In heroic mythology, Minos and Rhadamanthys were two early members of the Cretan royal family who were celebrated for their justice and their wisdom as lawmakers (see pp.
Hub 748
289 and 301), while Aiacos was a primordial king of Aegina who was a paragon of righteousness and was often invited accordingly to arbitrate in disputes (see p. Plato adds the Eleusinian hero Triptolemos (see p. 112) to the list in his Apology, along with 'other demigods who have lived just lives',92 but Triptolemos is rarely mentioned again in this role.
Cycle 749
Flow 95
Broadly speaking, the abode and manner of life of the favoured dead are pictured in terms of the imagery that was traditionally associated with Elysion, or the Isles of the Blessed, while the unrighteous dead are condemned to the dismal half-life that was the common lot of the dead in the Homeric account, and perhaps to hard labour also, and some form of correction or punishment. If due exception is made for the cruel fates that were traditionally assigned to a few notable figures from myth, Greek accounts of the punishment of the dead are very restrained by comparison that those that were once current in the Christian tradition.
Flow 750
There is little direct reference to the infliction of physical torment, up until the Roman period at least. Such punishments as are recorded in connection with Eleusis are of a symbolic nature; the impure will lie in mud, the uninitiated will strive in vain to carry purifying water in leaky vessels (see p. The picture darkens, however, as the Hellenistic period advances.
Ladder 751
Compare 752
Hub 753
Ladder 96
Cycle 754
They then follow a path that runs through the various regions or zones that harbour those of the dead who are neither in Elysion nor in Tartaros. All are people who have died before their proper time for one reason or another. First, at the very entranceway, the souls of dead infants can be heard bewailing their fate; in the second zone come those who have been condemned to death on false charges, but are now receiving true justice at a court convened by Minos; in the third zone come those who have died by their own hand (even though they would now be willing to endure any suffering under the light of the day, if only it were possible for them to find their way back again across the encircling coils of Styx); the fourth zone is formed by the Fields of Mourning (Campi Lugentes), the sorrowful home of those who have pined away for love or perished through its consequences; and finally, in the innermost zone, come warriors who have died a glorious death in battle.
Flow 755
The Sibyl explains that Tisiphone, with some help from her sister-Furies, whips the most wicked of the dead through the gates with her scourge after Rhadamanthys has passed sentence on them; and she then tells Aeneas of the sufferings that are imposed in Tartaros on various mythical heroes such as Tantalos, Ixion, and Phlegyas (see pp. 106ff), and also on the Titans (who are now to be found in the same place since Tartaros has come to be regarded as a part of the Underworld).
Ladder 756
Here Vergil places, among others, great and successful patriots, renowned warriors, priests, and poets of more than common inspiration.111 At this point we can take our leave of Aeneas, before he is accorded his preview of the future history of Rome (see p.
Other myths of Demeter
Compare 757
In literary accounts, however, his chariot is drawn by winged dragons, which are involved in two of the stories in which people try to interfere with his mission. So he set off through the air to sow the Greek world, or whole inhabited world, with grain, and to spread knowledge of its cultivation. Although Sophocles offered an account of his adventures in a lost play, the Triptolemos, we now have to rely on sources from the Roman period for any account of his adventures.
Hub 758
Cycle 759
Flow 760
Ladder 761
Compare 762
Hub 763
Cycle 764
For when ERISYCHTHON, son of Triopas or Myrmidon, wanted wood to build a new hall or palace, he was foolish enough to think that it would be a good idea to cut down her sacred grove to procure the necessary timber, and she punished him by afflicting him with perpetual hunger. In the first full account of the story by Callimachus, he set out to perform the task with twenty attendants, whom he had provided with axes and hatchets, and when the goddess herself tried to warn him off in the guise of her priestess Nicippe, he merely threatened to strike her with his axe if she failed to move out of his way.
Flow 765
Angered beyond telling by his behaviour, Demeter resumed her true appearance as a goddess, and told him to continue with the work because he would soon have real need of a banqueting-hall. She then afflicted him with a ravenous and insatiable hunger. The more he ate, the hungrier he grew and the thinner he became.
Ladder 766
All the Dryads of the grove approached Demeter dressed in black mourning-robes to beg her to inflict due punishment on Erysichthon. The goddess did so in the usual fashion, and he finally sold his daughter to raise money for food. She prayed to Poseidon to come to her aid, and he transformed her into a fisherman to enable her to escape.
Compare 767
5.395-8; he went up to Olympos to be healed by Paian in any case, ibid. 14 Half the year in each field, e.g. For the myth as a whole, see also Apollod.
20 Trampled by Demeter, Oppian On Hunting 3.486ff; transformed by Persephone, Str. 5.409-37 27 Cicero Against Varro 2.4.106; Persephone abducted near Henna, Ov. 23.71-4 (unnamed boundary-river), 8.369 (Styx), cf.
6.384ff; Acheron first as boundary-river in Alcaeus 38, cf. 1.17.5 (also mentions the Thesprotian Cocytos), 9.30.3 (oracle of dead by it at Aornos), Plut. Cimon 6 (at Acheron near Heracleia); Acheron in Elis, Str.
Pugliese Carratelli, Parola del Passato, 154-5, 1974, pp. 10-1; English translation in W. Burkert, Greek Religion, Cambridge, Mass., 1985, p.
49 Gates of Hades, Hom. 773; Hades as warder of gates, Hom. 61 And perhaps Athena too if she actually accompanied Heracles when she helped him to fetch Cerberos, Hom.
10.492-5, 11.476; examples of spontaneous action, Il. 2.78-9 (Peleus, Kadmos, Achilles), Ibycus 291 (Achilles and Medeia), 294 (Diomedes), Eur. 1338-9 (Cadmos and Harmonia), Ant.
74 Achilles on Leuce, Proclus on Aethiopis, Pi. 583) sees heroes of the Trojan War on island, Paus. 3.19.12; further lore in Philostr.
10.31.2 (in Polygnotos' painting), Apollod. 718 (committed first murder), Pi. 62 (bound to wheel by Hermes), schol.
1185 (fiery wheel); suffers punishment in Underworld, A.R. 99 Democritus 68B297 DK, cf. 113 For alternatives, see e.g.
1.19, 1.163; identified with child nursed by Demeter, Ov. 147; for Rarian Meadow, see Paus. 3 p.648 Dindorf, Suidas s.v Iacchos.
123 Tried to rape her, Apollod. 1.61.4; desecration of cultic image, Hellanic. 5.48.2 (eccentric account of Iasion's legend in 5.48-9), Ov.
3.10.25; son of Catreus, son of Minos, schol.
6 Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon
Three Olympian deities of the first generation still remain to be considered. Most of the more important myths of Hera, the goddess of marriage, are related in one way or another to her own marriage to Zeus.
Compare 97
Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon
Three Olympian deities of the first generation still remain to be considered. Most of the more important myths of Hera, the goddess of marriage, are related in one way or another to her own marriage to Zeus. The least conspicuous member of the family, Hestia, was the virgin goddess of the hearth and thus had little occasion to make any appearance whatever in myth, although she was highly honoured in her way in cult.
Hub 768
Poseidon was allotted his own special field, as were his two brothers, and so became the great god of the sea, but his activities were by no means limited to the sea, and he presided more generally over violent forces of nature, especially as lord of the earthquake.
Hub 98
Hera, the wife of Zeus, and goddess of marriage
As we have already seen, HERA became the consort of her brother Zeus, and bore him three children of no very exceptional stature, Ares, Hebe and Eileithuia, and perhaps Hephaistos too as a further child of the marriage, unless she brought him to birth without prior intercourse with her husband (see p. Although the cult of Hera was largely unconnected with that of Zeus, her legends are mainly concerned with her marriage to him and all that followed from it, for better or for worse, and she came to be viewed above all as the goddess of marriage and of married women.
Cycle 769
Her cult spread far and wide, however, flourishing in the Peloponnese and the Aegean islands in particular, and latterly the Greek colonies of the Italian west. Although her name may simply mean Lady or Mistress (as a feminine form of the word herōs), other etymologies have also been proposed. Hera was pictured as a mature and even matronly woman whose noble and severe beauty was very different from that of Aphrodite.
Flow 770
In art, she is shown as a tall and stately figure, usually fully draped, crowned with a sort of diadem (polos, sometimes with accompanying veil) or wearing a wreath, and carrying a sceptre. Homer refers to her as 'cow-eyed' (boōpis), an epithet that doubtless reflects her special connection with cattle in her native Argos; herds of cows were kept at the Argive Heraion, many votive images of cows have been discovered there, and it is known that Argive Hera particularly appreciated sacrifices of white cows.
Ladder 771
Her status as a marriage-goddess is indicated in many of her cultic titles. As the goddess who presides over the solemnization (telos) of marriage, she was widely honoured as Hera Teleia; and she could also be invoked as Zygia or Syzygia (she who unites in marriage), Gamostoles (she who prepares the wedding), and Gamelia (she who presides over marriage). Since the bride approaches legitimate marriage as a virgin, Hera can also be addressed and honoured as such, whether as Pais (the Girl) or Parthenos (the Maiden, as in her cult at Hermione, see below) or Nymphe (the Bride).
Compare 772
As a goddess of married women, she would bring help to women in childbirth; she was honoured as Hera Eileithuia at Argos and Athens, and is presented in myth as taking direct action to ease the birth of Eurystheus (see p. It is thus understandable that Eileithuia, the goddess of child-birth, a very ancient deity who can be traced back to the Mycenaean period, should have come to be classed as her daughter. Such emphasis was laid on Hera's function as a wife and patroness of married women that she was hardly conceived at all as a mother.
Hub 773
She was never invoked or portrayed as such, and she had no very close or ancient connection with the children who came to be ascribed to her. Hera was not at all kind to her malformed son Hephaistos; for her unmotherly treatment of him, and his ingenious act of revenge, see p. Local myths and cultic traditions relating to Hera's marriage or first union with Zeus The most distinctive myths of Hera fall into two groups, those that tell how she was supposed to have married Zeus or have first been seduced by him in various parts of the Greek world, and those of a more negative nature that tell how she persecuted mistresses and illegitimate children of Zeus.
Cycle 99
One of the main rites of her festival of the Tonaia on the island seems to have referred to her wedding to Zeus (even if that did not necessarily exhaust the meaning of the ritual). Hera's statue was brought out of her temple each year during that festival and carried down to the seashore, where it was purified and concealed under willow branches, with cakes set out in front of it; the celebrants would then withdraw, and make a show of searching for the statue and discovering it.
Cycle 774
Flow 775
On seeing Hera there on her own before the time of her marriage, Zeus set out to seduce her. He assumed the form of a cuckoo and settled on the mountain that was known thenceforth as Cuckoo Mountain (Coccyx or Coccygion); and after stirring up a violent thunderstorm, he flew over to Hera as she was sitting on the mountain of Pron (the Headland) opposite, and alighted on her lap. Feeling pity for the wet and bedraggled bird, she sheltered it under her robe, at which point Zeus returned to his original form and proceeded to make love to her.
Flow 100
A Boeotian legend placed the prenuptial union on Mt Cithairon, on the southern borders of the province. After Hera had been brought up on the island of Euboea, Zeus abducted her to Boeotia on the mainland opposite, and they took refuge on Cithairon, which, in the words of Plutarch, 'provided them with a shady cave, forming a natural bridal-chamber'. When Macris, the Euboean nymph who had reared Hera, came to look for her missing ward, she was warned off by Cithairon (i.e.
Ladder 776
Compare 777
When Hera had once quarrelled with Zeus, as she so often did, she had withdrawn to her childhood home of Euboea and had refused every attempt at reconciliation. So Zeus sought the advice of the wisest man on earth, Cithairon, the eponym of the mountain (rather than the god of it, as in the Boeotian legend above), who ruled at Plataia below in the very earliest times. Cithairon advised him to make a wooden image of a woman, to veil it in the manner of a bride, and then to have it drawn along in an ox-cart, after spreading the rumour that he was planning to marry Plataia, a daughter of the river-god Asopos.
Hub 778
Ladder 101
These are not actually as numerous as one might suppose; she is not reported to have taken any action at all with regard to most of Zeus's innumerable love affairs. There are in fact only four notable bodies of myth of early origin in which she was said to have taken action in such circumstances, namely those in which she persecuted Leto, while she was pregnant with divine twins by Zeus (see pp. 134ff), and Semele, her son Dionysos and his nurses (see pp.
Cycle 779
163ff etc.), and Io, an Argive mistress of Zeus (see pp. 212ff.), and Heracles during his earthly life. She also caused the death of Callisto in some versions of that heroine's legend (see p.
As the guardian of marriage and wife of the supreme god, Hera could not conceivably have had any lovers herself; nor would any god or man normally have dared to lay hands on her. There is only a single myth of any note that tells of an attempt on her virtue, the quite early tale in which Ixion, a mortal protégé of her husband's, was foolish enough to try to seduce her. She merely informed her husband, who laid a trap for Ixion by fashioning a cloud-image of her (see p.
Flow 780
Endymion was sometimes said to have been condemned to his eternal sleep (or hurled down to Hades) for a similar offence (see p. As a ruse of war, Zeus himself inspired one of the Giants with lust for her during the conflict between the Giants and the gods (see p. Like all the great goddesses, Hera could be ruthless towards mortals who offended her.
To avenge the impieties of Pelias, who committed a murder in her sanctuary and scorned her rites thereafter, she set in course the train of events that led to his death (see pp. 396ff); after she was passed over in the judgement of Paris, she became an enemy of Paris (sending storms against him while he was sailing off with Helen, see p. 456), and an ardent supporter of the Greeks during the Trojan War; in what was probably the original version of the myth of the Proitides, she sent them mad for mocking the poverty of one of her sanctuaries (see p.
Ladder 781
224); for her blinding of Teiresias, see p. In lesser stories, she sent Orion's wife to Hades for claiming to rival her in beauty (see p. 561), and turned Antigone, a daughter of Laomedon, king of Troy, into a stork for the same offence.
Compare 102
Compare 782
At the most, vase-paintings sometimes show her accompanying the other gods to festal occasions, such as marriage of Peleus and Thetis. She could normally be imagined, however, as being confined to her place at the centre of the home, and Plato alludes to her predicament (which was also in a sense her privilege) in his great myth in the Phaedrus, by stating that when the other gods pass in procession through the sky under the leadership of Zeus, 'Hestia remains in the house of the gods, all alone'.
Hub 783
Hub 103
Poseidon, the lord of the seas and the earthquake
Cycle 784
Flow 785
He is sometimes presented as creating them with a blow of his trident, as in the case of the salt-spring on the Athenian Acropolis (see p. 128), or the spring of Amymone in Argos (see p. Perhaps the most likely etymology of Poseidon's name is the one that presents it as meaning 'Husband of Earth', on the assumption that the second element in it, -da-, is an ancient name of the earth-goddess; this is far from certain, however, and other etymologies have been proposed that would link Poseidon's name to the seas or waters.
Whatever the origin of his name, he was a very ancient Hellenic deity whose name appears on Mycenaean tablets from Pylos and Cnossos; at Pylos, indeed, on the Messenian coast, he was apparently the principal god, of greater importance even than Zeus. Although he is represented above all as the great god of the seas in Homeric epic and the subsequent tradition, this can hardly reflect his original nature if he was brought to Greece by the Hellenes, since they came from far inland and had no acquaintance with the sea until they arrived in their final home.
It would seem that his character must have undergone considerable change in early times as he was developed into a sea-god and then specialized in that function; but the course of that process is now impossible to trace, unless by way of speculation. Accounts of him from the literary record follow the pattern set by Homer, who portrays him in his familiar guise as the majestic and intimidating monarch of the sea, rising from his allotted field, and journeying over it and plunging into it, and stirring its waters according to his desire.
Ladder 786
Cycle 104
In art, he is shown as a tall, mature, and stately figure, not unlike Zeus in general appearance, but distinguished by his emblem, the trident, and by his wilder and more uncouth appearance, a feature that is emphasized in Hellenistic art especially. The Romans, for want of a better equivalent (for they originally had no maritime gods whatsoever), equated him with a rather obscure water-deity, Neptunus, anglicized into Neptune. If Hades was sometimes described as 'another Zeus', the same could be also said of Poseidon, who was the Zeus of the sea.
Compare 787
Hub 788
131), dolphins, and Hippocamps (Hippokampoi in Greek). These latter creatures, monsters with the foreparts of a horse and the hind parts of a fish, are sometimes shown as drawing him in his chariot, or even as carrying him on their back. The splendour of his progress is vividly evoked in the Iliad, in a famous passage, which describes how he set off through the sea after descending from the highest peak of Samothrace: thrice he strode forwards, and with the fourth stride reached his goal, Aigai, where his glorious palace was built in the depths of the sea, golden and resplendent, imperishable forever; there he went, and harnessed a pair of bronze-hooved horses to his chariot ...
Cycle 789
Flow 790
289), his connection with horses was especially close in both myth and cult. This seems appropriate for a variety of reasons, whether because the horse represented one of the most powerful forces of nature that human beings could dominate, or because horses had chthonic associations, or because they were often credited with the creation of springs in Greek folklore. Poseidon's connection with horses was probably very ancient, perhaps even more ancient than his connection with the sea.
Ladder 791
Flow 105
In heroic myth, his sons Pelias (see p. 396) and Hippothoon are said to have been suckled by mares, and he is said to have given winged or wondrous horses to Idas, and to his favourite Pelops, to help them win their brides (see pp. His most interesting horse-myths, however, are legends of a more primitive nature, which tell how he was supposed to have fathered notable wonder-horses, or indeed the first horse of all.
Compare 792
According to Hesiod, as we have seen (see p. 54), he once slept with the monstrous Medusa, causing her to conceive the winged horse Pegasos, who sprang out of her body (along with Chrysaor) after Perseus cut off her head; and a legend that is no less extraordinary tells how he came to father the divine horse Areion by mating with Demeter while the two of them were in horse-form. As recounted at Thelpousa in Arcadia, where the goddess was honoured as Demeter Erinys, the myth ran as follows.
While Demeter was wandering through the world in search of her lost daughter (see pp. 94ff.), Poseidon followed her in the hope of having intercourse with her; and when she tried to hide from him by turning herself into a mare and grazing among some other horses outside Thelpousa, he turned himself into a stallion and subjected her to his will. The products of this union were the horse Areion or Arion (whose name probably meant 'very swift') and a daughter whose name could be revealed to initiates alone.
Hub 793
Cycle 794
to be adopted as the patron-deity of those lands). In the most famous by far, he competed with Athena for the possession of Attica in a contest that was judged by the Twelve Gods, or by the king of Athens, or its citizens. On arriving first in the land, Poseidon tried to establish his priority by striking the Acropolis with his trident to create a salt-water well, the so-called 'sea' of the Erechtheion (which lay inside the temple, and is said to have produced a sound resembling that of waves whenever the wind blew from the south).
Flow 795
Ladder 106
Athena arrived next and staked her claim by planting the first of Attica's many olive trees, calling on Cecrops, the first king of Athens, to act as her witness. When Zeus referred the dispute to the Twelve Gods for arbitration, they judged in favour of Athena after hearing the testimony of Cecrops, apparently reaching this decision because they set greater store on the value of Athena's gift (which would be a mainstay of the economy) than on the question of priority.
Ladder 796
Compare 797
Hub 798
Cycle 799
Compare 107
In the subsequent literature, he makes fewer appearances in heroic mythology than one might have expected, being mentioned mainly in connection with his mortal children and the stories of their conception. Other characteristic legends tell how he sent bulls or monsters up from the sea to bring benefit or harm to mortals. He thus sent up a bull as a favour for Minos, although with ultimately disastrous consequences (see p.
Flow 800
289), and another at the request of Theseus to cause the death of his son Hippolytos (see p. 310); and to punish Laomedon, king of Troy, for his double-dealing (see p. 443), and the mother of Andromeda for a presumptuous boast (see p.
Ladder 801
According to one account, Poseidon abducted her from the island of Naxos after she had emerged from the sea to dance on the shore with her sisters;65 or else she fled from him when he tried to court her, and hid herself in the depths of the Ocean near Atlas (i.e. In the latter case, Poseidon sent many envoys in search of her, including his special beast the dolphin, who discovered her in the outer Ocean and carried her to Poseidon on its back (or at least let him know where she was hiding).
Compare 802
Although she is depicted quite frequently in works of art as a goddess of noble aspect, often enthroned beside her husband, she rarely appears in mythical tales. According to a fairly ancient legend, she offered a gracious reception to Theseus (here regarded as a son of Poseidon) when he threw himself off a ship to prove to Minos that he was a son of the god of the sea (see pp. 295-6); and a story of later origin claimed that she caused Scylla to be turned into a monster after discovering that her husband had embarked on a love affair with her (see p.
Hub 803
Hub 108
Nothing is known for certain about the meaning and origin of the names of Amphitrite and Triton, although it is possible that the common trito element (which is also to be found in Athena's ancient title of Tritogeneia, see p. 155) may have had something to do with water or the sea. TRITON was pictured as a merman with a human head and upper body and a fishtail.
Cycle 804
Greek sea-beings of this type probably originated in the native tradition as products of the popular imagination, even if representations of them may sometimes have been influenced by images of eastern deities of such hybrid appearance. Although Triton is presented as a sea-god of some dignity in the passage quoted from the Theogony, he makes no significant appearance in conventional mythology except in his specific role as the god of Lake Tritonis in Libya. According to a tale of quite early origin, which was known to Pindar and Herodotus,69 he appeared to the Argonauts when they became trapped in the lake during their return voyage, and not only showed them the way to the open sea, but gave one of them a clod of earth from which the island of Thera would grow (see further on pp.
To explain Athena's title of Tritogeneia, some claimed that the goddess had been reared by Triton in Libya (see p. This god of the lake was presumably a local deity who came to be identified with the Greek god. In vase-paintings from the sixth century bc, Heracles can be seen wrestling with Triton (rather than Nereus in all surviving literary accounts) to force him to reveal the way to the Hesperides (see p.
Flow 805
These became a favourite subject with artists in Hellenistic Greece, and eventually in Italy too, especially for the decorative detail of sea-pieces; and female Tritons and Triton families also came to be depicted, an idea foreign to early Greek tradition. As nature-spirits of no very high status, the Tritons entered into folklore in much the same way as mermaids in more recent times, and many stories would surely have been transmitted about them among sailors and people of coastal communities. As so often, we can refer to Pausanias for one or two local tales.
Ladder 806
Compare 807
These can be divided into two main groups. As a god who was notoriously wild and unpredictable, Poseidon was naturally regarded as a suitable father for heroes or giants of a violent and uncouth nature; but as a great god who ranked second only to Zeus, he was also introduced into heroic genealogies for much the same reasons as his brother, to be enrolled as the divine founder of local royal lines, or as the divine father of notable heroes without adverse judgement as to their character.
His greatest son in the latter group was Theseus (at least in the tradition of his birthplace, see p. 292); Pelias and Neleus may also be cited (see p. 396 for the story of their conception), and Belos and Agenor, the founders of the two main branches of the Inachid family (see p.
Hub 808
Others will be mentioned as they arise. Among his wild children in the other group, we find colourful and disreputable figures, such as the Cyclops Polyphemos (see p. 506), the giant hunter Orion (in one account at least, see p.
560), the Aloadai who tried to storm heaven (see p. 84), Amycos who killed passing strangers in boxing matches (see p. 402), the Athenian rapist Halirrhothios (see p.
320), and many of the ruffians who confronted Heracles (e.g. Sceiron and Sinis, see pp. 12 Euboea sacred to Hera, schol.
4.1138; reared there by Macris, schol. 3.1.6 (= On the Plataian Daidalia fr. 3; see Loeb Plutarch vol.
22 Transformation of Antigone, Ov. Hymn 22 to Poseidon 1-5. Hymn 22 to Poseidon 5.
The nature and purpose of the rite is disputed; it seems unlikely that the damaged chariot would have been dedicated to the god and left in the grove. 3.6.8 (Demeter mated with him in the form of an Erinys). 4.138 (both Thessalian versions), schol.
Cycle 809
4.43 (blow of trident, Areion too). 766 (at Colonos, also called Sceironites). 164 (Zeus sends Hermes to restrain Poseidon); Paus.
1.26.6 (mark of trident and sea of Erechtheion). 1.12-14 with Servius on 1.12, Vat. 3.14.1 (Cecrops and Cranaos, or Erysichthon, as variants).
51 Varro in Augustine City of God 18.9. Apollo was a firm supporter of the Trojans however. books 13-4; warned off by Zeus, 15.185ff.
1.19-21 and 68ff, 5.286ff, etc. 243; consort of Poseidon, ibid. 17.109-11; presented as mother of Nereids, Mel.
21; she is mentioned as a great goddess of the seas on four occasions in the Odyssey, 3.91, 5.421-2, 12.60, 12.97. 9.20.4; on Tritons, see also Ael.
7 Apollo, Artemis, and Athena
The great Olympian deities who remain to be considered were all of younger birth than Zeus and the other children of Cronos and Rhea, with the possible exception of Aphrodite, if she was born from the sea-foam that surrounded the severed genitals of Sky. The mythology of the war-god Ares has already been discussed along with that of the two daughters of Zeus and Hera (see p.
Cycle 109
Apollo, Artemis, and Athena
The great Olympian deities who remain to be considered were all of younger birth than Zeus and the other children of Cronos and Rhea, with the possible exception of Aphrodite, if she was born from the sea-foam that surrounded the severed genitals of Sky. The mythology of the war-god Ares has already been discussed along with that of the two daughters of Zeus and Hera (see p. 71); as was explained in that connection, there was disagreement as to whether Hephaistos was another child of Zeus and Hera, or whether Hera brought him to birth as a child of her very own (see p.
Flow 810
Zeus fathered Artemis and Apollo at the same early period as twin children of the goddess Leto, and also brought Athena to birth from his head after swallowing her mother Metis (see p. If Aphrodite was a daughter of his, he fathered her by the goddess Dione at the same period (see p. He subsequently completed the Olympian family during the heroic era by fathering Hermes and Dionysos as a result of liaisons with mortal women.
As a radiant god of prophecy, music, and healing, Apollo was the most exalted of the younger Olympian deities, and we will thus begin by examining his nature and myths in the present chapter, along with those of his twin sister Artemis and their mother Leto. The other main virgin goddess among the Olympians, Athena, can also be fittingly included in this company; for she and Artemis were similar in so far as both were virgin goddesses who enjoyed active and often ungentle pursuits, Athena as a warrior- and city-goddess who was a patroness of arts and handicrafts, and Artemis as a divine huntress who liked to roam the wilds with her attendant nymphs.
Ladder 811
The two later-born Olympian deities will be considered in the next chapter, along with Hephaistos and Aphrodite.
Flow 110
How Leto came to give birth to Artemis and Apollo on Delos
As the time approached for Leto to give birth to her twin children, she had great difficulty in finding a place that would permit her to do so on its territory, for although she visited any number of lands, from Crete and Athens to Lemnos and Naxos, all of them turned her away, even the richest, because they did not dare to become the birthplace of Apollo. The reason for their fear is left unexplained until she arrives at the last place that she comes to, the barren island of Delos, which expresses similar reluctance on the grounds that Apollo might be expected to be a very overbearing god who would lord it over gods and mortals alike, and might scorn Delos in particular for its poverty.
Compare 812
Hub 813
At the bidding of Zeus, however, Boreas, the North Wind, carried her away to Poseidon, who then took her to Delos, known thereafter as Ortygia, and covered it over with waves to cut it off from the light of the sun for a while, so as to enable Leto to give birth there without contravening Hera's decree. Four days after Apollo was born, so the story recounts, he avenged Python's treatment of his mother by travelling to central Greece to shoot him dead (see p.
Cycle 814
Ladder 111
Flow 815
Ladder 816
140), and Leto herself seems to have originated in Asia Minor. How Apollo established his oracle at Delphi; the omphalos and tripod If Artemis showed some sign of precocity in helping to bring her brother to birth, Apollo now gave ample sign of his own wondrous nature by setting off almost immediately to found his oracular shrine at Delphi. According to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, which provides the earliest account of his precocious exploits, his mother never even offered him her breast, since he was given some nectar and ambrosia instead by Themis and burst free of his swaddling-clothes as soon as he tasted them.
Compare 817
Hub 818
366) and to have been buried nearby. Apollo now had to consider how he could find suitable priests for his oracular shrine. As he was pondering the matter, he noticed that a fine swift ship was sailing from Crete to engage in trade at Pylos on the west coast of the Peloponnese.
Cycle 819
Compare 112
Flow 820
It is assuredly the case that Python was closely interwoven with the traditions and ritual of the place in historical times. At the great festival of the Stepteria (Festival of Wreathes), for example, the central figure, a well-born Delphian youth, would be led to a lightly constructed house known as 'Python's palace', which would be set on fire. The youth, apparently impersonating Apollo, would then make a show of going into exile, and actually set off on a long journey with attendants and much ceremony, passing by the sacred Pythian way northwards through Thessaly to the Vale of Tempe, where he would be purified; and he would come back afterwards crowned with laurel, Apollo's special plant.
Ladder 821
The omphalos or navel-stone was supposed to mark the midpoint of the world (as understood in terms of sacred geography). It was conical in form, shaped like an old-fashioned beehive, and was covered with fillets of wool. On a striking ancient copy of it that can be seen at Delphi, the woollen meshes are sculpted on to the surface of the stone.
Compare 822
Occasionally we find Python coiled around it. Apollo and Heracles struggle for the tripod at Delphi. The sacred tripod, which was set up in a sunken area at the end of the temple of Apollo, served as the seat of prophecy, since the priestess of Apollo, who was known as the Pythia, used sit on top of it while delivering the oracles in a trance-like state.
It was altogether exceptional for a tripod to be used in this way, and no explanation is offered for the practice in ancient sources. Perhaps it was though that the holy influence of the god could enter the Pythia from below while she was lifted clear of the ground in this way. It is suggested in Hellenistic and later sources that her ecstasy was induced by vapours that rose up from a cleft in the ground,25 but excavations have revealed no sign of any vent of that kind.
Hub 823
Hub 113
Although it was once thought that the idea could be firmly ruled out on geological grounds, the evidence now seems more equivocal. The Pythia was a virgin of Delphian birth who entered the service of the god for life, and always dressed like a girl. Her responses were rendered into verse form (hexameters) by the priests before they were passed on to the enquirer.
Cycle 824
The SIBYL (Sibylla), who was the supposed source of many oracles that circulated in writing, was said to deliver her prophecies in a state of inspired frenzy, just as in the case of the Pythia,26 and was sometimes linked to Apollo and Delphi. In the oldest form of her legend, there was apparently a single prophetic woman called Sibylla who uttered her prophecies somewhere in Asia Minor. The village of Marpessos on Mt Ida in the Troad, an obscure place that is remembered for nothing else, claimed the Sibyl as its own, as did the more important town of Erythrai on the Lydian coast, and there was much controversy on the subject in antiquity.
This Asian Sibyl won the favour of Apollo, to whose service she was much devoted, and he inspired her to give marvellous and infallible, if rather riddling, prophecies; some said that she wandered off to Delphi (among other places) at some stage and delivered prophecies there. The meaning of her name, which may be of eastern origin, is wholly obscure. An ever-increasing number of these oracles entered circulation and they were very popular.
Flow 825
There is no reason to suppose that ecstatic prophecy as practised by the Delphic prophetess and her more shadowy sisters would have involved any deliberate fraud. The modern practice of spiritualism has made everyone familiar with the fact that certain persons can, voluntarily or otherwise, pass into an abnormal condition in which they can speak, or even write, more or less intelligibly, without being conscious of it at the time or remembering it afterwards. Apollo, like many deities in more recent cultures who speak through prophets or mediums, was doubtless able to find many people with the required capacities to serve him in all sincerity, even if the priests at Delphi may often have altered or developed the Pythia's responses to a greater or lesser extent when preparing the official record.
Ladder 826
The edited response was generally rendered in verse form in indifferent hexameters, couched for the most part in obscure and enigmatic language, so that the god could always take refuge behind another interpretation if the apparent sense of the prophecy should prove false. The name, nature, and origin of Apollo Whatever his origin, APOLLO (Apollon) is the most distinctively Greek of all the gods in the form in which he was finally imagined, and he is still widely familiar today as an embodiment of the Hellenic values of reason, harmony, lucidity, and moderation.
We are perhaps inclined to think of him first as the god of prophetic and poetic inspiration. In the former capacity, he is the unerring prophet who knows the true and the right, and the will of Zeus, and reveals them to mortals through his many oracles, though often in enigmatic fashion; and in the latter capacity, he is the leader of the Muses (Mousagetes) and the greatest divine patron of poetry and music, especially that of the lyre. He is a god of purification and healing, whose cultic song, the paean, can serve too as a healing hymn, but he is also the archer-god 'who strikes from afar' and inflicts plague and death with his arrows.
Compare 827
Cycle 114
Although agriculture is not one of his main concerns, he acts as a protector of flocks and herds, and preserves grain and crops from bad weather, blight, and vermin. In the visual arts, he is shown as an idealized youthful male figure, representing the ideal of the kouros or noble youth. His main attributes are the lyre and the bow.
Hub 828
Although he was worshipped throughout the Greek world, his most famous shrines in Greece proper were Delphi on the mainland and the holy island of Delos; and he had many shrines in Asia Minor too, the best known being those at Claros, Branchidai, and Patara. His cult was introduced to Rome at an early period by way of Etruria and the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia, the first temple being erected to him in 432 bc; he was honoured there under his Greek name, having no proper Italian equivalent or parallel.
There is no general agreement on the derivation of Apollo's name. The most interesting of the various etymologies that have been proposed is the one that links his name, in its early Dorian form Apellon, to the word apella, a Dorian expression for a sheepfold and thence for annual assemblies that were held by the Dorian peoples. It has been suggested that Apollo may have been worshipped by the Dorians from an early period, as a god who watched over flocks and herds, and that he may have been the god who presided over the apellai, and perhaps especially over young men's initiations that would have taken place there (for Apollo represents the ideal of the ephebos, the adolescent arriving at manhood).
Cycle 829
No other Greek etymology seems very convincing. The fitting suggestion, for instance, that Apollo could mean 'he who drives away' (i.e. plague, disease) rests on the doubtful assumption that there was a word in Greek corresponding to pellere in Latin.
It is also possible that his name was of non-Greek origin. From the time of Homer onwards, Apollo is often called Phoibos Apollo or Phoibos; this title is frequently interpreted as meaning 'Bright' or 'Radiant', but its etymology is by no means certain. As a god who was undoubtedly associated with the idea of luminosity and radiance, Apollo was quite often identified with the sun-god Helios from the fifth century bc onwards (see p.
Flow 830
Another notable title of Apollo, of very ancient origin, is that of Lycios or Lyceios, which was interpreted in three different ways in antiquity, as meaning either 'Lycian', or else 'Wolf-god' (lykos being a wolf in Greek) or, less plausibly, as signifying that Apollo was a god of light (cf. If the former interpretation is correct, it would refer to the god's activities in warding away wolves from flocks and herds; it has had its proponents, especially among those who set great store on Apollo's Dorian connections.
Ladder 831
Flow 115
Lycia was also linked in various ways to Apollo's cultic centre of Delos; the mysterious poet Olen, for instance, who was supposed to have written certain ancient hymns that were sung on Delos, was described as a Lycian. Because of Apollo's many connections with Asia Minor, it was once widely argued that he and his cult were imported into Greece from that area. In further support of this view, it was suggested (for instance) that his mother Leto could be identified with the Lycian goddess Lada, and that it is significant that the Greeks should often have referred to him as Letoides, 'son of Leto', since this accorded with the Lycian custom, as attested by Herodotus, of using matronymics (rather than patronymics as was normal in Greece).
Compare 832
The main rival theory, which was of long standing but was rather eclipsed by the Asian theory, proposed instead that Apollo had been imported into Greece from the north. His Dorian connections might be interpreted as favouring such a view, and its advocates also pointed to certain features of his cult, notably the offerings that used to be sent to his shrine on Delos each year by a circuitous route from the north, supposedly from the Hyperboreans (see p. 137), and the great procession of the Stepteria that proceeded north from Delphi (see p.
142), perhaps following in reverse direction the route by which the god had first come to his Delphian shrine. If such theories about the god's origin have rather fallen into discredit in recent times, it is only partly because specific arguments advanced in favour of one view or another have been felt to be unsatisfactory, even if that has often been the case. It is doubtful, for instance, whether the cultic features that were cited in favour of the northern theory can bear the weight that was placed on them, or, on the other side, that Apollo's epithet of Letoides is really of any significance, since other sons of Zeus are regularly referred to as sons of their mother (e.g.
Hub 833
Hermes as son of Maia). Even if it can be accepted, however, that Apollo had ancient and definite connections with Asia Minor, as was certainly the case, or with the Dorians and the north, it has come increasingly to be felt that it is pointless to seek for a single 'origin' for a god who was as complex as the classical Apollo, as if he had simply been imported from abroad with his name and cult, and major aspects of his mythology.
It would seem, rather, that he was a many-faceted figure who absorbed features from a variety of deities and from the cults and myths of different areas. If some features associate him with the west coast of Asia Minor, or with the Dorians and the north, there are also features that associate him with other areas; in so far as he was a plague-god, for instance, who inflicts pestilence and death with his arrows, he was apparently modelled on the Semitic plague-god Reshep, who caused disease by shooting firebrands.
Cycle 834
Reshep was worshipped by the Phoenicians in Cyprus, where he was equated with Apollo. Notable features of Apollonian religion such as ecstatic prophecy and purification also associate him with the Near East, while his cultic hymn, the paean, seems to have originated in Crete.
Ladder 116
Apollo and Artemis work together to kill the gigantic Tityos and the Niobids
As can be seen in the case of notable examples from heroic legend (see p. 220 and 448), twins tended to be portrayed in myth either as the best of friends or the worst of enemies, and Leto's children can definitely be assigned to the former category. Artemis was sometimes said to have helped to bring her brother to birth, and if she did indeed help in the killing of Python, the two worked happily together from the very beginning.
Flow 835
She was often said to have joined together with her brother soon afterwards in any case to kill a giant who presented a threat to their mother. For while Leto was travelling to Delphi after her son had established his oracle there, she was waylaid by the gigantic TITYOS, who tried to rape her. Homer refers to this episode in the Iliad to explain why Tityos was subjected to everlasting torment in the Underworld (where two vultures constantly pecked at his liver, see p.
Ladder 836
Compare 837
Hub 838
Cycle 839
Compare 117
Wrapped in wheat-straw and of unspecified nature, they were sent by relay from some unknown location in the north. Herodotus provides a summary of their route, so far as it was known, saying that they were sent to Scythia initially and then passed on by a circuitous route until they first entered Greek hands at Dodona (in Epirus in the north-west); from there they were relayed in a south-easterly direction to the Malian Gulf and across to Euboea, and then down to the southern tip of the island and thence by sea to Tenos and Delos.
Flow 840
Although Asclepios was honoured both as a god and as a hero in cult, it seems likely that he originated as a hero and was raised to full divine status at a secondary stage. According to the standard tradition, Apollo fathered him by CORONIS, daughter of Phlegyas. Although her brigandly father and his people, the Phlegyans, had important Beoetian connections (see p.
Ladder 841
Hub 118
Compare 842
Among them we find Hygeia (Health personified), who may often be seen in works of art either on her own or standing by her seated father, and Iaso (Healing), Panaceia (Cure-all, cf. panacea in Latin and English) and the little hooded child-god Telesphoros (Accomplisher).61 Figure 7.2. White ground kylix, fifth century bc.
Hub 843
Cycle 844
Snakes were emblematic of his person and cult, and he was often portrayed as holding a staff with a snake coiled around it, hence the modern medical symbol. In astral mythology, Zeus was said to have raised him to the sky after his death, out of regard for Apollo, to become the constellation Ophiuchus (the Serpent-holder).64
Cycle 119
Flow 120
Apollo’s servitude to Admetos, and the story of Alcestis
Flow 845
Ladder 846
It is very interesting for the way in which Admetos is presented as reacting when he comes to appreciate the full implications of his behaviour after his wife's departure. He comes to feel that his life is hardly worth living now that he has bought his survival at her expense; but it is never quite suggested that it was actually wrong for him to have accepted her self-sacrifice. Apollo and Cyrene, and their son the rustic god Aristaios Another of Apollo's myths tells how he fell in love with the Thessalian huntress CYRENE, and fathered ARISTAIOS by her, a rustic semi-deity who was expert in all kinds of rural skills and pursuits.
Compare 847
Ladder 121
Although she is mentioned in a fragment from the Hesiodic Catalogue, which remarks that she lived beside the river Peneios and had the beauty of the Graces,74 we have to rely on Pindar for the earliest account of her liaison with Apollo. He describes her as a daughter of Hypseus, king of the Lapiths, who was a son of the god of the afore-mentioned river. Having no taste for spinning or the company of girls of her own age, she preferred to roam the hills of her wild northern homeland hunting wild beasts.
Hub 848
Apollo happened to catch sight of her one day while she was wrestling with a huge lion, all on her own without any weapons. Impressed by her bravery and smitten with love, he consulted with the wise Centaur Cheiron, who foretold that he would carry her across the sea to Libya to make her the queen of a great city (for she was the eponym of Cyrene, the most important Greek colony in North Africa). So he carried her off from the windswept vales of Mt Pelion in his golden chariot and slept with her in Libya on that very day, causing her to conceive Aristaios.
Cycle 849
Flow 850
Since Eurydice was a dryad nymph, her fellow nymphs took revenge on Aristaios by causing all his bees to die. As Vergil narrates in his fourth Georgic, he then sought the advice of his mother Cyrene, who referred him in turn to Proteus, the old man of the sea. By seizing Proteus as he lay asleep and maintaining his grip on him as he repeatedly changed shape, Aristaios forced him to reveal who was responsible for the trouble, and then reported back to his mother.
Ladder 851
How Apollo met with frustration in his love for Marpessa and other mortals, and accidentally killed Hyacinthos When Apollo fell in love with mortals, things tended to turn out less well for him than in the preceding legend. We have already seen an example of this in the story of Coronis, and he was also displaced by a mortal rival in another early myth, when the Aetolian princess MARPESSA, daughter of Euenos, chose to marry the Messenian prince Idas while Apollo was competing for her love.
Compare 852
Compare 122
Hub 853
Cycle 854
Although it is never indicated in the Homeric epics that she possessed prophetic powers, this was apparently an early feature of her legend, since she is reported to have delivered prophecies to Paris in the Cypria, the first epic in the Trojan cycle; but there is no evidence to show that she was said to have acquired her powers from Apollo in early epic. According to a conflicting account recorded in some late sources, she acquired them in same way as the seer Melampous (see p.
Flow 855
In the earliest surviving account by the Hellenistic mythographer Parthenius, DAPHNE was a daughter of Amyclas (an early king of Sparta, see p. 446) who used to roam through the Peloponnese as a huntress with a group of female companions. As a true follower of Artemis, she wanted to have nothing to do with love, but Leucippos, a son of Oinomaos, king of Pisa, conceived a passion for her and managed to win her friendship by disguising himself as a girl and joining her hunting party.
Ladder 856
Hub 123
Compare 857
He makes his first literary appearance in a poorly preserved fragment from the Hesiodic Catalogue, as a son of Amyclas, an early king of Sparta who was the eponym of the town of Amyclai (see p. 446); since a discus is mentioned at the end of the fragment, it can be inferred that Apollo killed him accidentally with a discus as in the standard later tradition. Euripides alludes to such a story in his Helen, saying that the Spartans performed nocturnal rites in honour of Hyacinthos who was killed by Apollo while they were competing in throwing the discus.
Hub 858
The name of Hyacinthos is marked by the -nth-component as being non-Indo-European. He originated as a pre-Hellenic deity who was especially honoured at Amyclai and gave his name to the ancient Dorian festival of the Hyacinthia. Whether his main myth was intended to account for his cultic subordination to Apollo, or owed anything at all to his cult at Amyclai, is a matter for dispute.
Cycle 859
On finding the double flute (aulos) that had been discarded by its inventor Athena, who had thrown it away because it made her look ugly when she blew into it (see p. 157), the Phrygian Satyr Marsyas taught himself to play it with great skill, eventually becoming so proficient that he dared to challenge Apollo to compete with him in a musical contest. Apollo agreed to do so on condition that the victor could do whatever he wished with the loser, and the Muses were invited to act as judges.
Flow 860
Cycle 124
When the contest began (or when Marsyas seemed to be gaining the upper hand), Apollo turned his lyre upside down, played on it with consummate skill, and then challenged Marsyas to do the same; and since the Satyr was naturally unable to perform the same trick with his double flute, which has to be blown from the right end as a wind instrument, Apollo was adjudged to be the victor. By way of a punishment, he suspended Marsyas from a pine tree and flayed him alive.
Ladder 861
Apollo showed what he thought of Midas' taste in music by transforming his ears into those of an ass. The king was thoroughly ashamed and wore a turban over his ears to conceal the deformity. The secret was inevitably observed, however, by the slave who trimmed his hair, and not daring to reveal the disgrace and yet bursting to talk about it all the same, the barber dug a hole in the ground and whispered the secret into it.
Compare 862
Hub 863
Artemis the virgin huntress The essential characteristics of Apollo's sister ARTEMIS can be easily inferred from the way in which she is portrayed in works of art, in which she is generally represented as a tall and vigorous young woman who wears a short tunic reaching to her knees, carries a bow and quiver, and is often accompanied by a stag or doe. She is invariably described as a virgin who devotes herself to hunting, and loves wild, untamed lands and the beasts that inhabit them (hence her title of Agrotera, 'She of the Wild', an epithet already applied to her by Homer99).
Cycle 864
Flow 125
Flow 865
This side of her nature is much to the fore in her mythical tales, which frequently show her inflicting death and disaster on mortals. As is understandable for a goddess who was connected with the life of women, Artemis came to be associated (or indeed equated) with the moon, to an even greater extent than Hera, but this was a comparatively late development. Artemis' connection with wild animals connects her, not with any Hellenic goddess, but with the old deity who is often called the Mistress of Wild Animals (a title suggested by the Homeric phrase potnia thērōn, as applied to Artemis in the Iliad), a great goddess of very ancient origin who was honoured under various names by the people of Minoan Crete, pre-Hellenic Greece and Asia Minor.
As we will see, Artemis was equated with two Cretan goddesses of that type, Britomartis and Dictynna. The etymology of her name is too uncertain to provide any evidence on her origin. It is known from Linear B inscriptions that she was worshipped at Pylos in the Myceneaean period, but her sanctuaries provide very little evidence of any great antiquity for her cult, except at Hyampolis in Phocis.
Ladder 866
We can be sure that she was originally independent of Apollo and Leto. If she originated as a Mistress of Wild Animals, it must be acknowledged that she has undergone a considerable change, since the Aegean and Eastern goddesses of that type were mature mother-goddesses, while Artemis is young and virginal (except in her cult at Ephesus, where she was represented as a many-breasted fertility-goddess). The main features of the classical Artemis are already in evidence in the Homeric epics.
Compare 867
Although she is clearly out of place in the military world of the Iliad, Homer portrays her in a less unflattering light in her proper environment, in a passage in the Odyssey in which he describes the way in which Artemis stands out among her attendant nymphs to illustrate how Nausicaa (see p. 510) stood out among her handmaidens: Just as when Artemis the archer roams across the mountains, over lofty Taygetos or Erymanthos, taking delight in the pursuit of boars or swift-running deer, and the nymphs of the countryside, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, join with her in the sport, and Leto is glad of heart, while Artemis rises head and shoulders above them all and may be recognized with ease though all are beautiful - so did the unmarried maiden [i.e.
Hub 868
Ladder 126
Cycle 869
The Italian goddess had no native statues of course, so in art the familiar figure of the huntress Artemis (Diane chasseresse) was used for both alike. As has been mentioned, the goddess is typically portrayed as a young and beautiful woman, with her chiton girt up to the knee, generally armed with a bow and quiver, and regularly accompanied by a stag or other beast. She is sometimes portrayed in long robes however.
In so far as she came to be identified with the moon, her head may be surmounted by a crescent. Her emblems, besides attendant beasts and weapons, include the torch, which is a common attribute of goddesses of fertility because light is very commonly associated with life and birth. This is a point in which she resembled the goddess Hecate, who also aided women in childbirth and carried torches as a regular attribute.
Flow 870
Revenge myths of Artemis, and her Cretan equivalent or associate Britomartis Most of the myths of Artemis are tales of vengeance. We have already seen how she joined together with Apollo to avenge offences against their mother Leto, and how she shot Coronis on her brother's behalf. She was naturally no less ruthless in punishing offences against her own person, and was merciless towards those who lost their virginity or ceased to join her on the hunting field, or slighted her in any respect.
One such episode was of notable importance in heroic myth, because it provided occasion for one of the great Panhellenic adventures, the hunt for the Calydonian boar; for when Oineus, king of Calydon, forgot to include her when he was once offering sacrifices to all of the gods, she sent a huge boar to ravage his land, see further on p. Or, according to another tale of this kind that has already been mentioned, she avenged a similar offence by filling the marriage chamber of Admetos with coils of snakes as an omen of early death, see p.
Ladder 871
Perhaps the most interesting of these revenge myths is that in which she demanded the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigeneia to punish an offence that she had committed, for in many accounts of this story, including the oldest, she showed mercy towards Iphigeneia herself, rescuing her at the last moment to render her immortal, or to install her as a priestess of her own cult, see further on p. Characteristic myths of a similar kind tell how she acted towards erring companions.
By becoming her attendant and accompanying her on her hunting trips, nymphs and maidens who attached themselves to her bound themselves irrevocably to the same way of life, and she showed no mercy towards those who lost their virginity or abandoned her company. The most famous of her erring associates (if that is proper term for a victim of rape) was the Arcadian heroine CALLISTO, who was likewise an ancient figure, and may well have originated as a by-form of the goddess herself (who had a cult in Arcadia, and in Athens too, as Artemis Calliste, 'the most beautiful').
Compare 872
Hub 873
246);111 she was presumably another companion who was raped or seduced on account of her beauty. If Artemis was harsh in her treatment of erring companions, she naturally showed no pity whatever towards those who offended against her own person. In one account at least of the death of Orion, her only male hunting companion, she killed him because he tried to court or rape her (see p.
Cycle 874
Flow 875
Ladder 876
It is difficult to tell when this ancient but obscure goddess first came to be identified with Britomartis/Dictynna; it is quite possible that the identification was relatively late, perhaps originating in the learned poetry of the Hellenistic era. Athena, goddess of warfare and handicrafts Athena was a virgin war-goddess, a protector of cities, and a divine patroness of arts and handicrafts. In accordance with her origin as a child who had been conceived by Metis, the personification of cunning wisdom, she was marked out by her wisdom, which would originally have been conceived as practical wisdom that might involve a measure of cunning.
The fuller form of her name, Athenaia or Athenaie, was shortened to Athene in epic and to Athena in later Attic usage. She was scarcely less important that Hera herself, and of greater importance in Athens where she was worshipped as the city's patron-goddess. Although scholars have long disagreed as to whether she gave her name to her favourite city or derived her name from it, the latter alternative seems more probable.
Compare 877
She appears on a Linear B tablet from Knossos as Atana Potinija (i.e. the Mistress of Atana or Athana), and it has been argued that she may have originated as a Mycenaean palace-goddess who protected the households and citadels of early kings. This would plausibly account for two main aspects of her nature that might seem inconsistent at first sight; her martial character and her connection with peaceful handicrafts, notably weaving and spinning, that were usually practised by women within the household.
If she was once a divine protectress of the fortress-palaces of Mycenaean princes, she would presumably have assumed a martial aspect, and would thus have been well-fitted to become the city-goddess of later times, Athena Polias or Poliouchos (of the city, protector of the city), the armed maiden who acted as a guardian of the city, often from her temple on its fortress-hill. Her temple of the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, which had once been the site of a Mycenaean palace, is still the crowning monument of Athens.
Hub 878
In her other main aspect as a goddess of handicrafts (Athena Ergane), her patronage was wide ranging, even if her original concern may have been the domestic crafts that were exercised in palace households. Her interests were by no means confined to women's crafts, for she could also serve as a patroness to craftsmen such as carpenters, potters, and jewellery makers; in this connection, her cult at Athens was closely linked with that of Hephaistos (see p. From this beginning, she developed increasingly into a goddess of wisdom in general, until late mythographers could consider her a personification of Wisdom in the abstract.
She was represented as a moral and righteous deity of whom few, if any, unworthy tales were told. At Rome, she was identified with the important Italian goddess Minerva, who was a patroness of arts and crafts like herself. Drawing from a bronze relief, shield band panel from Olympia, c.
Cycle 879
The birth of Athena
Flow 880
She is represented in art and literature as a stately woman with a beautiful but severe face, grey-eyes, and a powerful yet graceful build. She is normally shown fully armed with an elaborately crested helmet, wearing the aegis, which serves her as a cuirass and cloak (see p. 76), and holding a long spear, while the Gorgon's head (see p.
Ladder 881
228) may be set on her aegis or shield, and her special bird, the owl, may be seated on her shoulder. In representations of the battle between the gods and the Giants, she is always prominent, and is shown striking down some of the most formidable of the enemy. Her titles constantly bear witness to her warlike character; in various places she is called Promachos (Champion), Sthenias (Mighty), Areia (Warlike, or companion of Ares), and so forth.
The other side of her character, as the peaceful protector of her worshippers and their leader in all manner of skilled occupations, is brought out likewise by a series of titles. She is Polias (Goddess of the City), Bouleia (She of the Council), Ergane (Worker), Courotrophos (Nurturer of Children, a title shared by several other goddesses). From Macedonia to Sparta, her importance was second only to that of Zeus himself, whose favourite daughter she was; in Homer, he has his special pet name for her, 'dear grey-eyes',122 and pays special heed to her even to the extent of arousing jealousy among the other gods.
Pallas was one of the commonest titles of Athena. Rarely if ever a cultic title, it was regularly applied to her in poetic contexts from the time of Homer onwards. The Homeric epics thus often refer to her as Pallas Athenaie or Pallas Athene, while in the subsequent literature from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter onwards the title is also used on its own, until it virtually becomes an alternative name for the goddess.
Compare 882
Hub 883
According to an interesting myth recounted by Pindar, she was supposed to have come to the aid of the hero Bellerophon in the latter connection after he found that he was unable to harness the immortal, winged horse Pegasos. For when he then slept overnight in her shrine on the advice of a seer, she appeared to him in a dream and presented him with a golden bridle of divine origin, telling him to use it to tame the horse; and he awoke to find that the wondrous bridle was actually lying at his side, and put it to good effect,127 see further on p.
Warships were also of interest to Athena, and we will see that she supervised the building of the Argo (see p. 339), the mythical precursor of the fifty-oared ships (penteconters) that were used as war-galleys in antiquity. On the borderline between her peaceful and her warlike occupations we may place her connection with music.
Cycle 884
Flow 885
At the festival of the Panathenaia at Athens, she would be presented with a robe (peplos) that was woven by the women of the city to clothe her great statue in the Parthenon. A memorable if not particularly early myth, which first appears in Vergil and Ovid, tells how Athena once came into conflict with a mortal craftswoman called ARACHNE, who was the finest weaver in Lydia and went so far as to boast that she could even surpass Athena herself.
The goddess appeared to her in the guise of an old woman and warned her to retract her presumptuous claim, but Arachne merely abused her and asked why the goddess seemed to want to avoid a contest. Athena then threw off her disguise and took up the challenge, weaving into her own pattern the story of her contest with Poseidon for Athens, and, as due warning to Arachne, the stories of various mortals who had aroused the anger of the gods and been signally punished.
Ladder 886
She would provide technical assistance in enterprises such as the construction of the Argo or the Wooden Horse, and was always ready to offer support and advice to favoured heroes such as Perseus and Heracles. She supported the Greeks in the Trojan War, as might be expected after her defeat in the judgement of Paris, and plays a prominent role in the Odyssey, providing invaluable assistance to Odysseus and his son Telemachos. In her one notable revenge-story from the early tradition, she sent a violent storm against the Greek fleet after the Trojan War to avenge a grave act of sacrilege committed during the sack of Troy (see p.
Compare 887
486); and in a myth, which first appears in the Hellenistic period, she blinded Teiresias because he stumbled across her while she was naked, although Zeus granted him some measure of compensation afterwards by endowing him with the gift of prophecy (see p.
Athena and her Athenian foster-son Erichthonios
It is only to be expected that special legends should have been developed to account for Athena's close relationship with Athens. According to a familiar tale, which has already been recounted (see p. 127-8), she initially established herself as the patron-goddess of Attica by defeating Poseidon in a contest for the land.
As we saw above, this particular legend follows a fairly common pattern, for Poseidon was said to have met with failure (or limited success) in contests for a variety of lands, including Argos, where he was defeated by Hera. The Athenians had a further legend, however, of a wholly distinctive nature, which told how Athena established an even closer connection with Athens by becoming the 'mother' (so far as this was possible for a virgin goddess) of Erichthonios, the autochthonous ancestor of the Athenian people.
Hub 888
Although the remarkable myth of his conception is recorded in differing forms, the basic story is always the same: Hephaistos tried to make love to Athena, but she repelled him in such circumstances that he emitted some semen on to the ground, causing it to become fertilized. Even if she could not be the mother of the child, she was thus involved in his conception; and she claimed him as her own by adopting and rearing him after he was brought to birth.
This added refinement was by no means essential, however, because it could also be explained that he had acquired his name because he had been born from the ground as a result of the struggle, eris, between the two deities!138 When the time came for Earth to bring the child to birth, she rose up from the ground to hand him to Athena, who thus became his adoptive mother. Although Athena initially placed him in a chest and entrusted it to the daughters of Cecrops, king of Athens, this proved to be a short-lived experiment for reasons that will be considered later (see p.
Cycle 889
321), and she soon received him back again. From then onwards she reared him herself on the Acropolis; and when he grew up, he won the throne of Athens and established the royal line from which the subsequent kings would be descended. He honoured his divine foster-mother by founding her greatest Athenian festival, the Panathenaia (see further on p.
543) and others of their kind who sprang up from the ground without need for a father; for he is conceived to Hephaistos, a god who was worshipped at Athens along with Athena as a patron of handicrafts, and he is brought into a quasi-filial relationship with the virgin goddess herself. 91-119; Artemis on Ortygia, 14-8. See also the shorter accounts of the birth of the twins in Theognis 5-10 and Pi.
Flow 890
1.4.1; on Artemis as midwife of Apollo, cf. 1.37 (which says that this is why the virgin goddess is invoked by women in childbirth). 3.73 (Hera incites Python to pursue the pregnant Leto).
1.4.1 (Asterie then turned herself into a quail), Hyg. 53 (transformed by Zeus), Serv. 2.706, male form Delphynes, schol.
21 For the Stepteria, Plut. Moralia 293c, 418ab, 1136b, Ael. 9.419 respectively 25 For the alleged vapour, e.g.
16.26.1-3 for a quaint tale that links the discovery of the oracle to the vapour (some goats and their goatherd came within range of the vapour and experienced its divinely maddening effects; and when news of the matter was noised abroad, it was agreed that this must be an oracle of Earth). 26 It is in this connection that she is first mentioned by the philosopher Heraclitus, 22B92 DK. 27 Heracleides Ponticus in Clem.
1.108 (Hellespontine and Erythraean Sibyls), Varro in Lactant. 1.6 (Hellespontine and Marpessan), Paus. 10.12.1-4 (competing claims of Marpessos and Erythrai for the early Sibyl Herophile, who later came to Delphi).
3.18.15 (on Amyclaian throne), Pi. 4.90.2 (mentions Artemis alone), A.R. 11.571-2 (also source for his height).
3.5.6 (gives variants on numbers of children), D.S. 2.15 (after shooting the Cyclopes, Apollo hid the arrow in the land of the Hyperboreans). 3.34 (she lived by the lake).
3.10.3 and Paus 2.26.5 respectively. 50 Crow first mentioned, Hes. 51 Artemon 569F5 (transformation first mentioned); Ant.
5.8 (Podaleirios), Proclus on Little Iliad (Machaon). 3.54-8 (revived unnamed person for pay), Apollod. 3.10.3-4 (includes interpolation giving alternative names from different sources for the person revived), Hyg.
4.71.1-3 (revived so many that Hades complained). 1-10; the story was recounted in the Hesiodic Catalogue, see frr. 3F35 (also that Asclepios was condemned to serve Admetos for a year).
1.9.15 (mentioned as variant), cf. 251, Lucian de Luctu 5. 805-60 (Heracles discovers the truth and resolves to rescue Alcestis), 1098ff (restores her to Admetos).
Thanatos appears in person at the beginning of Euripides' Alcestis, 24-76; Heracles explains that he has fought with him to recover Alcestis, ibid. 9.4-70; Cyrene's story was apparently recounted in the Hesiodic Catalogue, see frr. 215-6, but virtually nothing has survived.
Ladder 891
9.557, citing Simonides (= 563 PMG), Apollod. 93 the two versions are run together. 8.20 (Daphne here a daughter of Ladon; ends with death of Leucippos without mention of Daphne's transformation), Prob.
1.452-567; also a daughter of Peneios in Hyg. 203; laurel from Tempe, Call. 91 Zephyros as rival, Palaeph.
3.19.4-5; Boreas as rival, Serv. 1.34; from ashes, Philargyrius on Ecl. 3.63; full transformation, Servius on Ecl.
7.26 (skin at Celainai, flayed by Apollo), Xen. 1.2.8 (skin, defeated in contest, no details); full narrative, Apollod. 95 From his blood, Palaeph.
1.15, etc.; from tears shed for him, Ov. 2.401-95; full references will be given in connection with the main discussion in Chapter 24. 5.76.3-4 (rejects usual story, claims that Britomartis was called Dictynna because she invented hunting-nets), ps.Verg.
Hymn 28 to Athena, cf. 1.3.6 (Hephaistos or Prometheus), Lucian D.D. 1.3.6 (born by river Triton) and 3.2.3 (reared by god Triton), schol.
355; hence her title of Pallas, schol. 145 (Hera and Aphrodite made fun of her, and she understood the reason when she viewed her reflection in a spring as she played); cf. 138 As stated in Hyg.
166; the preceding etymology is merely implied. 3.14.6; see further in Chapter 10.
8 Dionysos, Hermes, Hephaistos, and Aphrodite
The myths of three of the younger Olympian deities have yet to be examined, and also those of Aphrodite, who may have been the oldest. The two last-born Olympian gods, who were borne to Zeus by mortal women, were both gods of highly idiosyncratic character, Dionysos as a god of wine and ecstasy who could exact terrible revenge if not received with due honour, and Hermes as a divine trickster and messenger who was much concerned with boundaries and their transgression.
Compare 127
Dionysos, Hermes, Hephaistos, and Aphrodite
The myths of three of the younger Olympian deities have yet to be examined, and also those of Aphrodite, who may have been the oldest. The two last-born Olympian gods, who were borne to Zeus by mortal women, were both gods of highly idiosyncratic character, Dionysos as a god of wine and ecstasy who could exact terrible revenge if not received with due honour, and Hermes as a divine trickster and messenger who was much concerned with boundaries and their transgression.
Compare 892
Whether a son of Zeus and Hera, or a son of Hera alone, Hephaistos was also a god of rather exceptional character, being something of an outsider among the Olympians, not only because he laboured with his hands as the divine blacksmith, but also because he was partially deformed. If Aphrodite was born from the sea-foam that surrounded the severed genitals of Sky, as in the standard account derived from Hesiod, she was born near the beginning of the world as the first-born Olympian deity, as would be appropriate since she represented a force that exerted a strong power among the gods from the beginning, as latterly among mortals too.
It makes no practical difference, however, whether she was born at that early period or somewhat later as the daughter of Zeus and Dione, since she was imagined as being forever young and forever supremely beautiful as the goddess of love and sexual allure. Dionysos, the god of wine and ecstasy
Hub 893
Hub 128
Zeus and Semele, and the birth and infancy of their son Dionysos
Although SEMELE, the mother of Dionysos, is always fully mortal in surviving Greek myth, she was probably a goddess in the earliest tradition, and it has been conjectured that she originated as a Thraco-Phrygian earth-goddess called Zemelo (cf. zemlya in the sense of earth in Russian). In all mythical accounts of the god's birth, however, she was a Theban princess, one of the four daughters of the city's founder, Cadmos (see p.
Cycle 894
334), who aroused the love of Zeus and met an early death as a consequence. Although Pindar already indicates in passing that she was killed by a thunderbolt, in spite of the love that Zeus felt for her, we have to rely on authors from the Roman period for any full account of how this came about. As Dionysos himself remarks at the beginning of Euripides' Bacchae,1 the jealousy of Hera was to blame, for as later authors tell us, Hera assumed the form of one of Semele's female friends or attendants (her nurse Beroe, according to Ovid) and persuaded her to ask Zeus to appear to her in his true divine form.
Flow 895
Ladder 896
Compare 897
Hub 898
The couple paid a heavy price for their services to Dionysos in any case, for while suffering from their madness, Ino threw their younger son into a boiling cauldron and jumped into the sea with him, while Athamas hunted down their elder son in the delusion that he was a deer; see further on p. The people of Brasiai or Prasiai, a town on the eastern seaboard of Laconia, offered their own distinctive account of the birth and childhood of Dionysos.
Cycle 129
In contrast to the other Greeks, they claimed that Semele had survived to give birth to him in the normal way, and that her father had enclosed her in a chest with her new-born child and had cast it into the sea. When the chest drifted ashore at Brasiai, Semele was found to be dead, but Dionysos was safe and sound. By a convenient chance, Ino happened to pass by and asked to be allowed to take care of her nephew, and she reared him there in a grotto, which was shown to visitors as the scene of his childhood, and had a patch of ground stretching out in front of it, which was known as the garden of Dionysos.
The setting adrift of an erring daughter and her child is a standard motif in Greek myth, as can be seen in the story of Danae and Perseus (see p. 225), or of Rhoio and Anios (see p. 462), and the child who survives such an ordeal is marked out for a special destiny.
The present tale diverges from others of the kind in one significant respect, however, that the mother failed to survive; for it was so firmly established that Semele had died leaving Dionysos an orphan that the framers of the local myth accepted this into their story.12
Cycle 899
Flow 130
The origin and name of Dionysos
Although it was once assumed that it had been settled almost beyond question that DIONYSOS, the god of wine and ecstasy, was a deity of foreign origin who arrived in Greece at a relatively late period, this can no longer be taken for granted. According to the traditional argument, he was introduced into Greece from Thrace after perhaps originating in Asia Minor, and his late irruption into the Greek scene is reflected in some of his most characteristic myths that tell how he had to overcome determined resistance in various parts of Greece.
It has often been thought significant, furthermore, that he is barely mentioned by Homer (even if the poet knows something of his wild rites and his conflict with Lycourgos of Thrace). Some of the more recent archaeological evidence seems to point in another direction, however, suggesting that the name and cult of Dionysos could be of Mycenaean origin. His name has been found on Linear B tablets from Pylos in the Peloponnese, and he was apparently honoured without break at the sanctuary of Ayia Irini on Ceos (an Aegean island to the south-east of Attica) from the early Mycenaean period into Greek times.
Flow 900
How the young Dionysos was mistreated by Lycougos and by some pirates Some of the most characteristic myths of Dionsyos are those in which he exacts revenge in his own distinctive manner on those who reject or mistreat him. Two of these myths may be separated from the others as being set during his childhood or at least earlier years, one being an ancient story first recounted in the Iliad that tells of his encounter with LYCOURGOS. Homer reports how Lycourgos once chased the nurses of Dionysos down from the sacred mountain of Nysa, striking them with an ox-goad and causing the god himself to plunge beneath the waves in terror.
Ladder 901
In the version recorded by Apollodorus, Dionysos was accompanied by the Bacchants and Satyrs, who were his usual companions during his adult years, and he arrived in the Thracian kingdom of Lycourgos, son of Dryas, king of the Edonians, while he was wandering around the world after having been driven mad by Hera. He had previously visited Egypt and Phrygia, and would go on to roam as far as India; we will return shortly to this aspect of his mythology. When confronted by Lycourgos, Dionysos took refuge beneath the sea with Thetis as in the Homeric account, and his companions were initially thrown into prison; but they were later released all of a sudden, evidently through the miraculous intervention of their divine master, who proceeded to drive their captor mad.
Compare 902
Ladder 131
Hub 903
First of all, fragrant wine streamed through the ship and a divine smell rose up from it; and then a vine, with many clusters of grapes hanging down, spread along the top of the sail, and an ivy plant twined around the mast, and garlands appeared on the rowlocks; and finally, and most fearsomely, the god turned himself into a lion and caused a huge shaggy bear to appear on the ship. The sailors fled to the stern in terror, and when the captain was then seized by the lion, they jumped overboard into the sea, where they were turned into dolphins.
Cycle 904
Flow 905
Ladder 906
Compare 907
Compare 132
Hub 908
Myths in which Dionysos exacts terrible vengeance on those who reject him and his rites We now come to the main body of opposition myths in which the adult Dionysos exacts revenge against rulers, or members of royal families, who deny his divinity and reject his rites when he first introduces them into their land. The most famous of these myths is set in his mother's home city of Thebes, and forms the subject of what is perhaps Euripides' finest surviving tragedy, the Bacchae.
Cycle 909
Flow 910
When the other women of the city left their homes to roam the mountains as Bacchants, the three industrious princesses, who are named here as Leucippe, Arsippe, and Alcathoe, strongly criticized them for doing so, and preferred to sit at home at their looms. Although Dionysos himself appeared to them in the guise of a young girl to urge them not to neglect his rites and mysteries, they spurned the advice, and he responded by changing into a bull, a lion, and then a leopard, and by causing milk and nectar to drip down from the frames of their looms.
Ladder 911
Hub 133
Compare 912
Hub 913
Cycle 914
These women were also known as Bassarides, probably meaning 'wearers of fox-skins' after one form of their ritual costume, another being the skin of a fawn. They would regularly perform strange miracles, so it was claimed, making fountains of milk or wine spring up from the ground; they were madly strong, able to tear goats, bulls, and human beings to pieces with their bare hands; fire would not burn them, nor would weapons cause them any harm; and in spite of the violence that they would sometimes show towards animals, they had a deep sympathy for them, often suckling kids and fawns for instance.
All of this, extravagant though it may sound, is nothing other than an idealized picture of the enthusiastic ritual of the god. His worshippers sought, by ecstatic dancing, and perhaps also the use of wine, to become possessed by their god; they would then then be called Bacchants after one of his many names. Tales in which they rend and devour an animal victim also had some basis in fact; these wild sacrifices followed from the desire that worshippers had to assimilate themselves to the god himself, who was sometimes conceived as human in form, and sometimes as bestial, his most common manifestations being the bull and the goat, although he often appears as a serpent.
Flow 915
Cycle 134
He was in fact a god of the fertility of nature; and even if he tended to become a wine-god and god of ecstasy principally, he was never restricted to that sphere. The nature-spirits who belonged to his retinue will be discussed along with the nymphs in the next chapter (see p. Although it is certainly possible that the rites of Dionysos may have met with real opposition here and there, it would be unwise to interpret the opposition myths in any simple historical sense; they express something essential about his permanent nature as a god whose epiphany subverts the norms of everyday morality and civic society.
Ladder 916
Flow 135
The myth of Icarios and Erigone
Only a single legend of any real note, the Attic tale of Icarios, is recorded in connection with Dionysos' peaceful activities in spreading his gift of wine, and even here his visit has unfortunate consequences for those who become directly or indirectly involved, as a result of the equivocal nature of wine as an intoxicating drink. The only other legend of the kind that is worth mentioning is that of Oineus ('Wine-man'), king of Calydon, who received a vine from the god and instruction in its cultivation, as a reward for his perhaps over-generous hospitality, see further on p.
Compare 917
When they became intoxicated, however, they thought that Icarios had poisoned them or put a spell on them, and clubbed him to death; or when some of them fell to the ground in a drunken stupor, their companions thought that they had been poisoned and responded by killing Icarios. They threw his body into a ditch afterwards, or buried it under a tree. Now it happened that Icarios had been accompanied by the family dog, Maira by name, which now rushed home in distress, howling in such a way that Erigone suspected the worst; and the dog then grasped her dress with its teeth and led her to the body.
Hub 918
It hardly needs saying that the rites would have been older than the myth that was devised to explain them; swinging rituals of this kind were by no means peculiar to the Aiora. It was said that Zeus (or Dionysos) felt such pity at the fate of Icarios, Erigone, and the dog that he represented them among the stars45 as the constellations Bootes (the Oxherd), Virgo (the Virgin) and Canis Major (the Large Dog). Or else the dog Maira was turned into the dog-star Sirius (Seirios in Greek), which was thought to bring the heat of the dog-days of summer because the hottest time of the year began after its early rising.
In a further story that came to be attached to the myth of Icarios, his murderers were said to have fled to Ceos, an island lying to the south-east of Attica. To punish the Ceans for sheltering them, the dog Maira, in his new form as the dog-star, scorched the land with his heat, causing famine and disease. The island was then under the rule of Aristaios, son of Apollo, who had settled there after the tragic death of his son Actaion (see pp.
335-6), and he sought the advice of his father's oracle, which instructed him to offer sacrifices to expiate for the death of Icarios, and to pray to Zeus to send cooling winds to moderate the heat of the star. So he founded the cult of Zeus Icmaios ('of moisture') on Ceos together with the annual rites that supposedly elicited the Etesian winds, cooling northerly winds that blew in the Aegean for some forty days after the rising of the dog-star.46
Cycle 919
Ladder 136
Compare 137
The wife and loves of Dionysos
Dionysos' conduct in the amorous sphere is rather exceptional for an Olympian god; he took a mortal, ARIADNE, as his consort, and had little or no interest in passing dalliances. Ariadne was a daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and Dionysos was sometimes said to have married her on Crete, but more often on Naxos after she had sailed away with Theseus after advising him how to escape from the labyrinth; in the latter case, Theseus either abandoned her on Naxos, or was instructed by Athena to leave her behind because Dionysos wanted to marry her, see further on pp.
Flow 920
Divine honours were paid to her in some places, and she had presumably originated as a Cretan goddess. No children are mentioned for Dionysos and Ariadne in the Theogony, or indeed in any early source. Various children, all relatively insignificant, are credited to them in the later tradition, including Oinopion ('Wine-face'), a mythical king of Chios who is best remembered for his encounter with Orion (see p.
Ladder 921
Since Chios was noted for its wines and vineyards, it could be explained that the Chians had first learned the art of wine making from this son of Dionysos who had ruled them in the very earliest times. Among the other children of the marriage, we find such figures as Thoas, who was king of Lemnos when the Argonauts arrived there (see p. 400), and Staphylos ('Grape-bunch'), who was the father of Rhoio and grandfather of Anios, the priest-king of Delos who was visited by the Greeks during their voyage to Troy (see p.
Compare 922
According to Ovid, he seduced Erigone while introducing wine to Attica, winning her favour by offering her a bunch of grapes, but this was plainly not an original feature of her legend. Priapos was a child of Dionysos and Aphrodite according local tradition in the region of the Hellespont, which was the main centre of that god's cult (see pp. As for Ampelos, a youth who is mentioned by Ovid and Nonnus as having attracted the love of Dionysos, he is no more than a personification of the vine (ampelos).
Hub 923
Cycle 924
Vase-paintings often show him wreathed in ivy or vine, and holding a cup (kantharos) or drinking horn in his hand. He may wear a panther skin or deer skin. From the latter part of the fifth century onwards, he is usually portrayed as a youthful figure, without a beard, who is lightly dressed if at all.
Hub 138
His special emblem, which may be carried by himself or by his attendants or worshippers, is the thyrsos, a staff that is tipped with an ornament resembling a pine cone, and often entwined with ivy or vine. His cultic hymn is the dithyramb (dithyrambos, probably a word of foreign origin). Hermes, the divine messenger and trickster HERMES was borne to Zeus by his Arcadian mistress MAIA, who was normally regarded as a mortal woman as one of the seven daughters of Atlas (see p.
Flow 925
Ladder 926
Cycle 139
The story is recounted as follows by Antoninus Liberalis, whose main source was probably the Hellenistic poet Nicander (although he also cites other authors including the Hesiodic Catalogue). Hermes saw an opportunity for the theft because Apollo had fallen in love with Hymenaios (see p. 206, here described as a son of Magnes, the eponym of the Thessalian region of Magnesia), and was constantly hanging around his father's house.
Compare 927
So he began by drugging Apollo's watchdogs, and then drove away a hundred of his oxen along with twelve heifers and a bull, tying branches to the tails of each to brush away their tracks. As he was passing through Arcadia, however, after arriving back in the Peloponnese, this Battos, who lived on a mountain top, saw that he was driving stolen cattle, and demanded a reward for his silence. Although Battos swore to keep his side of the bargain, Hermes mistrusted him and came back in disguise to test him as soon as he had hidden the cattle, and Battos duly betrayed the secret in return for a woollen cloak.
Hub 928
In this case, Hermes turned him to flint.67
Flow 140
The name and nature of Hermes
Something has already been indicated about the character and functions of Hermes in the tales that were told about his early exploits. He was an ancient god whose name, which already appears on Linear B tablets, was almost certainly derived from the Greek word herma, meaning a cairn or heap of stones. Such cairns were a common sight by the Greek wayside, where they served as landmarks and boundary-markers; and as in the popular lore of other regions and ages, they became a focus for all kinds of superstitions.
Cycle 929
Athens was particularly noted for the many herms that could be seen in its streets and squares. When imagined in fully anthropomorphic form, Hermes was pictured above all as a herald and wayfarer. In this capacity, he was characteristically represented as wearing the broad-brimmed felt hat (petasos) that Greek travellers would wear to keep the sun out of their eyes, and carrying a herald's staff (kerykeion, or caduceus in Latin).
He was, of course, far swifter and less earthbound than any human traveller, as is indicated in many images through his winged sandals or hat. His most important role by far in legend was to act as a messenger for the gods, and for Zeus in particular. He is sometimes merely dispatched to communicate the will of Zeus, as when he speeds above the waves like a bird to the remote island of Calypso to order her to release Odysseus (see p.
Flow 930
226-7) and also to Heracles during that hero's incursion into the Underworld. As would be expected of a herald, he rarely took the lead in any course of action, and he did not hold a particularly high position in the Olympian family, being viewed rather as the younger son who ran errands for the rest. Mortal heralds could naturally call on his protection, and he also presided over the arts that are required for effective communication, such as oratory and persuasive speech or interpretation in dealing with foreigners.
An interpreter was known as a hermeneus accordingly (hence the modern term of hermeneutics) (Figure 8.2). National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. In accordance with his original nature as the spirit of the stone-pile, most of the functions of Hermes were related in one way or another to the wayside and wayfaring and to boundaries and the transgression of boundaries.
Under such titles as Hodios (God of the Road) and Hegemenos or Agetor (Leader, Guide), he was the god of the road and the protector of all who travelled on it, whether openly on legitimate business or more covertly for nefarious purposes. If he was the patron god of merchants and traders, he was also the patron of tricksters and thieves, and a conferrer of fortune whether honestly or dishonestly gained. Brigandage and cattle-raiding, especially where undetected, were quite respectable sources of fortune in early days, and Hermes was supposed to have begun his career by rustling the cattle of Apollo.
Ladder 931
Ladder 141
He was a god of luck, moreover, in the widest sense, and windfalls and strokes of good fortune of every kind lay within his gift. A lucky find or treasure trove was known accordingly as a hermaion or hermaia dosis (i.e. Like Apollo Nomios, he was also a god whose influence extended over the traditional ancient forms of wealth, namely flocks and herds and their increase.
Compare 932
In this connection in particular, he had a special association with Arcadia. He was concerned likewise with human fertility, and one of his oldest cultic emblems was the phallus, which always remained a prominent feature of his cult. As a god who was concerned with boundaries and their transgression, he was able to cross over and so help others to cross over the most formidable boundary of all, that which separates the world of the living from the world of the dead.
Hub 933
He was exceptional in this respect among the Olympian deities, who generally avoided all contact with death and the dead; no other god passed over this frontier, apart from Persephone of course (and perhaps one or two others in exceptional circumstances). In classical and later times at least, it was supposed that one of his most important functions was to serve as the psychopompos or 'conductor of souls' who guided the shades of the newly dead to their future home in the sunless field.
As was noted on pp. 102-3 in connection with the mythology of the Underworld, it seems likely that this was not a very ancient conception, and that this duty was first assigned to him well after the time of Homer and Hesiod (even if he is once presented as performing it in the present text of the Odyssey, see p. Associated though he may have come to be with death and the journey below, he was never pictured as a grim or intimidating god, as in the case of Hades and Thanatos, but always as courteous and considerate, as was proper for a herald.
Cycle 934
In his earlier images from archaic art, Hermes was typically represented as a mature figure with a beard, as continued to be the case when his head was portrayed on herms. He appears with great frequency in Attic vase-paintings, whether as a leading figure in exploits of his own or as an attendant figure, usually clad in the traveller's garb described above. From the latter part of the fifth century bc onwards, his artistic type changes in accordance with developments in sculpture, and he comes to be represented as a beardless and naked youth (ephēbos), not unlike his half-brother Apollo, but younger and less muscular.
Flow 935
He is shown in that way in the famous statue in the museum at Olympia, which may be the only surviving work of Praxiteles (born c. Such images of him were very often set up in the gymnasia and wrestling schools (palaistrai), and he came increasingly to be regarded as a special patron of adolescent youths and their exercises. Hermes could also be portrayed in rustic guise as Criophoros (the Ram-bearer), carrying a ram in his arm or on his shoulders.
Although Hermes engaged in love affairs with some mortal women, notably Philonis (see p. 554) and Herse (see p. 320), and was said to have fathered various children by such liaisons, he never married, nor is he linked to any goddess in early myth.
Ladder 936
Compare 142
Pan was commonly classed as a son of his (see p. 199-200), as is understandable since he resembled Pan in some respects as a pastoral god who had special connections with Arcadia; and it was doubtless inevitable that it should have come to be suggested in the late tradition that Hermpahroditos was a son who was borne to him by Aphrodite (see p. The Italians identified Hermes with Mercurius (Mercury), whose name indicates in Latin that he was a god of merchants and their wares; Mercurius was often represented with similar attributes to those of Hermes, and apparently originated as a Roman offshoot of the Greek god.
Compare 937
Hub 938
Cycle 939
After having plunged through the air for a full day, he fell to the ground on the island of Lemnos at sunset in a state of exhaustion, but received good care from the Sintians (Sinties), as the inhabitants are called here. Although nothing is stated in the Iliad about the circumstances in which Hephaistos had tried to help his mother, Apollodorus says that it was when Zeus suspended her from Olympos for sending a storm against Heracles (see p. Since that story is mentioned in the Iliad, and Zeus says in that connection that he will throw any god down from heaven if he catches him coming to her aid, it is quite possible that Homer would have expected his audience to draw that connection.
Flow 940
Hub 143
In Asia Minor, he was particularly associated with Lycia in the south-west, and above all the region of the Lycian Olympos, which was remarkable for the presence of large quantities of natural gas; he appears to have been the principal god of Phaselis, the main coastal city of that region. It has been suggested that he may have originated as a fire-god among the native peoples of Lycia, and that his cult may have spread from this original centre, not only to other areas of the mainland of Asia Minor, but also to adjacent islands, especially Lemnos, whose mountain, Moschylos, is volcanic though long extinct.
Ladder 941
The city of Hephaistias on the north coast of the island was named after Hephaistos, and he had a special association with the island from an early period, as shown in the Homeric legend in which he fell to earth there, after being thrown down from Olympos. As a deity who was associated with fire, he was pictured as a divine blacksmith from a very early period, and various places came to be identified as the site of his underground forge, wherever its presence could be inferred from extensive emissions of fire and smoke.
When his cult was transferred to the volcanic regions of the west, the Aeolian (Lipari) islands near Sicily came to be connected with him, and also to some extent Sicily itself and southern Campania. He was universally familiar, of course, as a god of myth even in areas where he was not extensively honoured in cult. In Rome, Hephaistos was identified with Volcanus (Vulcan), but perhaps not altogether appropriately, since Hephaistos came to be regarded almost exclusively as a smith-god, whereas Volcanus was the god of destroying fire and had nothing to do with its productive applications.
Compare 942
From the classical period onwards, his forge was imagined as being located at various places in the everyday world. It was sometimes placed on Lemnos, where the blinded Orion was supposed to have visited it and to have received assistance from its owner (see p. 561);80 but since Lemnos had no active volcano, most authors preferred to imagine that the divine forge lay in the west, either under Mt Etna in Sicily81, or under a volcano in the Aeolian islands to the north,82 hence the flames and smoke that arose from them.
Hub 943
Cycle 944
Cycle 144
Flow 945
410), and a golden dog that guarded a shrine of Zeus on the island (see p. 419), and golden singing figures that stood on the pediment of the Delphian temple mentioned above. And thirdly, Hephaistos made splendid arms and armour, and jewellery and other fine artefacts, which sometimes remained in the possession of the gods but are generally more important in myth if they entered the possession of mortals.
The armour of Achilles (see p. 474), the breastplate of Diomedes, and the sceptre of Agamemnon (see p. 425) may be mentioned from the Iliad,90 and the necklace of Harmonia (see p.
333), the crown of Ariadne (see p. 296), and the sword of Peleus (see p. In a looser sense, any strange or wonderful object that makes an appearance in heroic legend, from the underground house of Oinopion (see p.
Ladder 946
It was to him that Zeus assigned the task of creating the first woman, Pandora, whom he moulded from moistened clay (see p. 87), and he split the head of Zeus with an axe to ease the birth of Athena (see p. In a famous story from the Odyssey, in which Aphrodite is regarded as being his wife, he catches her in adultery with Ares by laying a fine-woven net across his bed, and so exposes the two of them to ridicule, see further on p.
Compare 947
Hub 948
Aphrodite's title of Ourania, the Heavenly, corresponds to Astarte's as Queen of Heaven, and various aspects of her cult, such as the use of incense-altars and dove-sacrifices, and the occasional practice of temple-prostitution as at Corinth, can be related to cultic practices associated with Astarte/Ishtar. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, and also of married love to some extent, although Hera tended to dominate in that area. She had marine associations as a goddess who was naturally associated with water and moisture, and was said to have risen up from the sea in the usual myth of her birth (hence her title of Anadyomene, 'she who rises up from the sea'); she was often shown with a shell as her attribute, or with a dolphin, and was widely honoured as a protector of sailors who could bring calm to the sea or victory in sea-battles.
Cycle 949
She had various titles in this connection, such as Pontia, Thalassia, and Einalia (all meaning 'of the sea') or Euploia (as a goddess who can ensure 'a good voyage'). Her martial aspect, which may seem more surprising, can be explained by a similar trait in her Semitic equivalent; she was worshipped as an armed war-goddess at Cythera and Sparta especially, and as Nikephoros, the Bringer of Victory, at Argos. Although the Greeks followed Hesiod in relating her name to the aphros, sea-foam, from which she had supposedly sprung, its true origin and meaning are wholly uncertain, and it seems likely that it was not of Indo-European origin.
Flow 950
Ladder 951
When the vow was due to be fulfilled after he won a double victory in the foot-race and pancration (all-in wrestling), Pindar was commissioned to write an ode to be sung in Aphrodite's temple, and responded with his customary panache by writing a poem that began, Guest-loving girls, servants of Persuasion [Peitho, see p. 39] in wealthy Corinth, who burn the golden tears of fresh incense, often soaring upwards in your minds to Aphrodite, the heavenly mother of loves, she who has granted you to pluck without reproach, girls, on lovely couches the fruit of gentle beauty.101
Eros and other associates of Aphrodite
Compare 952
148-9), and a blunt lead-tipped arrow into Daphne to cause her to take an aversion to her new admirer.108 As a fairy tale with a considerable allegorical content, the story of Cupid (i.e. Eros) and Psyche (the soul personified) in Apuleius' Golden Ass stands apart from the ordinary mythology of Eros. It was probably based on a Hellenistic original.
Hub 953
According to this tale, Psyche was a young princess who became so celebrated for her beauty that Aphrodite grew jealous and sent Cupid to wreak vengeance on her, telling him to make her fall in love with some utterly worthless man; but the plan went wrong because Cupid himself fell in love with the girl. Now Psyche was so extremely beautiful that no man dared to court her; and when her parents consulted an oracle of Apollo about the matter, they were told to expose her in bridal robes on a mountain, where some apparently fearsome bridegroom would come to claim her.
When they did so, she was carried away by the wind to a deep valley, and found her way into a wondrously beautiful palace nearby. This turned out to be a magical palace where she was tended by invisible servants, and Cupid visited her there in her bedroom each night, and made love to her in the dark without revealing his identity. In the meantime, her two elder sisters had set out in search of her, and Cupid allowed them to see her, though against his better judgement, warning her to ignore them if they tried to persuade her to discover what he looked like.
Such was their envy at her good fortune that they cast her into a panic by suggesting that her mysterious husband was an enormous snake who would finally swallow her alive. At their urging, she hid a knife and a lamp in her bedroom so as to kill him while he was asleep; but when she shone the lamp on him to do so, she saw that he was a winged youth of surpassing beauty and fell more in love with him than ever.
Cycle 954
All might have been well if some scalding oil from the lamp had not dripped on to his shoulder, causing him to wake with a start and then abandon her in anger at her disobedience. Overcome by regret and longing, the unfortunate Psyche, who was pregnant by now, roamed the world in search of him until she finally fell into the hands of Aphrodite, who forced her to undertake four seemingly impossible tasks. She was to separate a large heap of seeds and grains into its different components in a single day; but the ants of the neighbourhood took pity on her and she achieved the task with their aid.
She was to fetch some wool from a flock of homicidal sheep; but a reed was stirred by some divine wind to tell her to wait until they were asleep, and then collect the wool that had become snagged on the thorns of the surrounding plants. She was sent to fetch a jar of water from the sacred streams of the Styx; but the eagle of Zeus remembered a debt that he owed to Cupid (who had helped him to carry off Ganymedes) and fetched the water on her behalf.
And finally, she was to fetch Persephone's beauty-casket from the Underworld. She succeeded once again, with some supernatural aid, but disaster struck when she allowed her curiosity to get the better of her and opened the casket, for she was immediately overcome by a death-like sleep. Cupid had recovered from his wound in the meantime, and had come to miss Psyche so greatly that he had flown off to find her.
Flow 955
Eros had a counterpart or double in ANTEROS (Counter-love, Love Returned); the altar of Anteros near the Acropolis at Athens had the following tale attached to it. An Athenian boy called Meles spurned the love of a metic (resident alien) called Timagoras, and told him to jump off the Acropolis if he really wanted to prove his love. But when the despairing Timagoras took him at his word and actually did so, Meles felt such remorse that he threw himself down from the same spot.
Ladder 956
In commemoration, the metics set up the altar of Anteros.112 Pausanias mentions that there was a relief at the youths' training ground at Elis that showed Anteros trying to wrest a palm branch from Eros.113
Aphrodite and Adonis
288),115 he was always said to have been born to the eastern princess Smyrna (or Myrrha in Latin) as the result of an incestuous union with her father, who was an Assyrian or Cypriot king. According to the earliest known account by Panyasis, an epic poet of the fifth century bc, Smyrna refused to honour Aphrodite, who was so angry that she inspired her with a passion for her own father, Theias, king of the Assyrians; so the girl slipped into his bed under cover of darkness with the connivance of her nurse, and he slept with her for twelve nights in succession without realizing who she was.
Compare 957
Hub 958
Ovid offers a divergent account of Adonis' story, saying that he was brought up by local nymphs after he was born from the myrrh tree in Arabia, and first attracted the attention and love of Aphrodite when he grew up to become an exceptionally handsome young man. Since hunting was his main enthusiasm, she abandoned her usual habits and haunts to accompany him through the wilds on his hunting trips, tucking her clothes up to her knees just as though she were Artemis.
She kept well clear of the fiercest beasts, however, such as lions, wolves, and boars, and urged her young favourite to do the same, warning that his youthful beauty was no defence against their teeth and claws. Her worst fears were realized when he was carried away by his enthusiasm and tried to kill a wild boar with his spear, for it chased after him and sank its tusks into his groin, inflicting a fatal wound. The grief-stricken goddess sprinkled nectar into his blood, causing a fragile blood-red flower, an anemone, to spring up from it.
Cycle 959
This is simply a reworking, of course, in a rather different context, of the myth in which Persephone herself spends part of the year below with Hades and part above with her mother, the corn-goddess Demeter (see p. The death of the youthful favourite at the time of the dying of nature is also figured in the story of his premature death in the hunting field. His cult as a dying god is already in evidence in the poetry of Sappho (late seventh century bc) and was popular in Greece from the fifth century.
Flow 960
In this case, however, the tale is woven into heroic legend to account for the origin of a major hero, the great Aineias, see further on p.
Aphrodite, Ares, and Hephaistos
The last two legends represent the goddess not as married, but as forming more or less temporary unions with young males much inferior to herself, a proceeding quite characteristic of eastern goddesses, who are essentially mothers rather than wives, and beside whom their lovers or husbands sink into comparative insignificance, even if some of them are not unimportant gods. Within the Olympian circle, Aphrodite is linked to two gods, the fire-god Hephaistos, who was of eastern origin like herself, and the war-god Ares.
In a famous tale in the Odyssey, Hephaistos is presented as her husband, and he catches her out when she secretly engages in an adulterous love affair with Ares, having learned of this from the sun-god Helios, who can see everything as he travels across the sky and came to tell him that Ares had been sleeping with his wife in his own home. Not daring to confront Ares on equal terms, Hephaistos fashioned a subtle net, which was immensely strong but so finely spun as to be invisible, and spread it around his bed, causing the guilty couple to be caught up in it when they lay down to make love; and he then summoned the other gods to witness the sight.
Ladder 961
Although it is often stated on the basis of this story that Aphrodite was married to Hephaistos, as though that were the regular tradition in antiquity, this Homeric passage is in fact rather exceptional in that regard. Hephaistos has another wife in the Theogony, and indeed in the Iliad (see p. 180), and it is clear from visual images from the archaic period onwards - and literary references from the classical period onwards - that Ares was generally regarded as the husband of Aphrodite, or at least as her accredited lover.
Compare 962
Their union could be viewed in any case as a piquant union of opposites, which resulted most appropriately in the birth of a daughter called Harmonia.128 Although Aphrodite was sometimes credited with various other children, including Hermaphroditos (see p. 205) and Eryx (see p. 252), no love stories are recorded for her beyond those already mentioned.
In her myths, the love-goddess is thus by no means promiscuous. She occasionally intervened to help mortal lovers, notably Paris after he judged her to be more beautiful than Hera and Athena (see pp. 455ff), and the suitor of Atalanta (see p.
552); and conversely, she occasionally acted against mortals who refused to honour her or scorned the gift of love, as we have just seen with Smyrna, or in the story of Hippolytos (see p. Mention should also be made of two striking tales from the Greek islands, in which Aphrodite brought a statue of a beautiful woman to life for Pygmalion, king of Cyprus (see p. 570), and rejuvenated PHAON, a virtuous ferryman of Mytilene in Lesbos (see p.
Hub 963
As in mythology, so in art, Aphrodite wavers between several types. Her oriental figures, as in the archaic idols found in Cyprus, show her in crudely naked form, typically with one or both hands up by her breasts and with her genitals frankly emphasized. In her earlier Greek statues, however, from the archaic and classical periods, she is decorously draped in long robes for the most part, and possesses a certain stiff dignity such as would not be inappropriate to Aphrodite Pandemos.
From the mid-fourth century onwards, sculptures regularly portray her in graciously naked or semi-naked form, in images that vary with the skill of the artist from meritorious studies of the body of a healthy and well-proportioned woman to monuments that convey a suggestion of an ideal beauty. The Cnidian Aphrodite of Praxiteles (c. 350 bc, now lost, but familiar from copies), which showed her laying her clothing aside as she was about to enter her bath, became her most celebrated image in Graeco-Roman antiquity.
The most popular of her surviving statues, the Venus de Milo (i.e. Aphrodite of Melos) in the Louvre, is an original work from the second century bc. 3.4.3 (similar though less detailed); but in D.S.
4.2.1-3 Semele makes the fateful request on her own initiative. From the earlier tradition, see Eur. 1-9 (Hera to blame for Semele's fate, no details); Hyg.
167, 179 (only way to know full pleasure of intercourse with a god). 14.325 (Semele bore Dionysos to Zeus), Hes. 941-3 (likewise, and that mother and child divinized), Hom.
Hymn 1 to Dionysos (Zeus brought him to birth, but account lost; the epithet eiraphiotes as applied to Dionysos in lines 2, 17 and 20 is significant in this regard if it means 'insewn'); Pi. 2.25-6 (first states that Semele killed by thunderbolt), cf. 6ff; full story of birth of D., D.S.
Cycle 964
25-6 (apparently rendered divine by thunderbolt), Pyth. 3.99 (refers to Semele by divine name of Thyone); D. descended to Hades to fetch her, D.S.
3.5.3; through Alcyonian Lake, Paus. Hymn 1 to Dionysos 1-8, Hom. Hymn 26 to Dionysos 1-6.
the discussion and references in W. Burkert, Greek Religion, Cambridge, Mass., 1985, p. 132; self-mutilation also in Serv.
Hymn 7 to Dionysos 2-6. 3.5.3; Naxos as destination, Ov. 1.122 and generally in later sources.
On this myth, see also Apollod. 10; on death of Hippasos, see also Plut. 42 Both versions in Hyg.
230 (the suggestion that Canicula can be identified with Procyon, i.e. the constellation of the Lesser Dog, is erroneous; it is really the dog-star, Greek Seirios). Hymn 7 to Dionysos 2-6.
49 Children listed in late sources only, notably Apollod. 1.9 (Thoas, Staphylos, Oinopion and Peparethos), schol. 3.997 (Oinopion, Thoas, Staphylos, Latramys, Euanthes, Tauropolis).
There was an alternative tradition in which Oinopion and Staphylos were children of Theseus and Ariadne, Ion of Chios 204 (as cited in Plut. 938-19 (daughter of Atlas), Hom. Hermes, 51, Hermes strings the lyre with sheep-gut.
Flow 965
1.577-9 and 14.338 with Od. 1.3.5 (also noting Homeric version), cf. the humorous treatment of the matter in Lucian de Sacrificiis 6.
Apollo 317-21 (tended by Thetis and her sisters). both assume that he was lamed by the fall. Hephaistos is addressed as lord of Etna in Eur.
3.88 (reputed to be at Hiera in the Aeolian Islands); Call. Hymn 3.46-50 (at isle of Lipara), cf. 8.414-54 (Lipara, linked to Etna by an underground cavern and galleries).
84 His own house, Hom. 18.369ff, houses for other gods, 1.605-8, cf. 8.266ff, in which he is married to Aphrodite.
5.330, 422, etc.; her sanctuary at Paphos in Cyprus, Hom. 120-2 (in cosmogony), 201-2 (with Aphrodite). 104 Sappho 130, 47, 188, Ibycus 287.
3.83-166 (Aphrodite bribes him to take action), 275-98 (he shoots an arrow into Medeia). 109 Apuleius Golden Ass 4.28-6.26. 114 Ezekiel 8.14, et ecce ibi mulieres sedebant plangentes Adonidem; the Pentateuch and the Authorized Version keep the name Thamouz/Tammuz as in the Hebrew text.
Ladder 966
10.18, etc.; much of this may go back to Panyasis, see fr. 120 Both variants in schol. 122 Sappho 140a; Bion 1.
123 Rites of Adonis, see e.g. Nicias 13 (regarding an event set in 415 bc), Arist. 388ff (refers to same event); gardens of Adonis, Hesych.
s.v Adonidos kepoi (and paroemiographers on the same), Pl. 276b, Theophrastus History of Plants 6.7.3. 933-7 (together with Panic and Fear, see p.
169, who are very much their father's children).
9 Lesser Deities and Nature-Spirits
Before we move on from divine to heroic mythology, there are various lesser divinities who remain to be considered. From among the children who were fathered by Zeus with goddesses other than Hera (see pp.
Flow 145
Lesser Deities and Nature-Spirits
Before we move on from divine to heroic mythology, there are various lesser divinities who remain to be considered. From among the children who were fathered by Zeus with goddesses other than Hera (see pp. 73ff.), three gracious groups of sister-deities, the Muses, Charites (Graces), and Horai (Seasons), have yet to be discussed; and ranking somewhere between deities such as these and the mortal race were the countless nature-spirits who haunted the waters, countryside, and wilderness.
Compare 967
Of most importance in everyday belief were the female spirits, the nymphs, familiar presences who were very popular in rural cult; their main male equivalents, the Satyrs and Seilenoi, belonged more to the world of art and literature, as mythical attendants of Dionysos. These male nature-spirits had animal features and ill-controlled appetites, as did the rustic god Pan, who originated in Arcadia as a god of shepherds and herdsmen and figures in characteristic myths as a frustrated lover. The Phrygian myth of Attis and Cybele strikes a more exotic note in so far as it finds a place in the corpus of Greek mythology.
We will conclude by examining various minor gods and daimones who are not included in Hesiod's genealogies, ranging from the Couretes and Corybantes to the lustful Priapos and the wedding-god Hymenaios.
Ladder 146
The Muses
Hub 968
Cycle 969
They are mentioned as being nine in number in a passage in the Odyssey,9 but in a part of the poem that may well have been added after Homer's time. Their pretty 'speaking names', which were probably invented by Hesiod himself, would originally have been devised to reflect aspects of their common nature and shared activities; since they liked to dance and sing, for instance, 'delighting in their beautiful voice',10 four of them were called Calliope (Beautiful Voice), Polhymnia (Many Songs), Melpomene (She who Sings), and Terpsichore (Delighting in the Dance).
Flow 970
It was not until a considerably later period that authors tried to assign individual functions to each of the Muses in accordance with the specific meaning of her name. Calliope of the beautiful voice could then be regarded as the Muse of epic poetry specifically, and Polhymnia as the Muse who concerned herself with hymns to the gods (or later, pantomime), and Terpsichore as the Muse of choral lyric and dancing. Cleio (or Clio in Latin form) is still familiar as the Muse of history, a responsibility that she acquired because her name might suggest that she celebrates (kleiei) the glorious deeds (kleia) of heroes and heroines of the past.
Ladder 971
Compare 972
Compare 147
The Romans identified them with some obscure deities of their own, the Camenae, who had a sacred grove and spring outside the Porta Capena at Rome. Like other deities, the Muses were jealous of their honour, and their only myths of any real significance tell how they punished mortals who dared to challenge them as singers. The Thracian bard THAMYRIS (or Thamyras), who was a son of the mythical musician Philammon and a grandson of Apollo (see p.
Although Sophocles wrote a play about him, we have to rely on the Hellenistic mythographer Asclepiades for the next full account of his story, which was probably derived from a tragic source. He engaged in contest with the Muses in his Thracian homeland, so we are told, on the agreement that he would be able to sleep with all of them if he won, in accordance with what he claimed to be the polygamous custom of the land, while they for their part would be able to treat him just as they wished if he should lose.
Hub 973
In the version ascribed to Nicander, Pieros, an earth-born king of Emathia, fathered a family of nine daughters at much the same time as when the Muses were fathered by Zeus. These daughters, the Emathides, formed a choir to rival that of the Muses, and the two groups put their skills to the test in a singing contest on Mt Helicon. When the Emathides raised their voices, the whole of nature darkened and nothing paid heed to their chorus; but when the Muses sang, the sky and stars and the sea and rivers ceased from their motions, and Mt Helicon swelled with pleasure, rising up into the sky until Pegasos, at the order of Poseidon, halted the mountain's ascent by striking its summit with his hoof.
Cycle 974
Hub 148
333 and 430), or arrived with Thetis and the Nereids to sing dirges for the dead Achilles (see p. Although they might be best imagined as a group of virgin goddesses, children are quite often ascribed to one or another of them, above all because they seemed to be appropriate mothers for mythical musicians. Singers or dancers such as Orpheus and Linos or the Sirens and Corybantes are thus regularly identified as being offspring of a Muse.24
Flow 975
Cycle 149
The Charites (Graces) and Horai (Seasons)
The CHARITES were lovely daughters of Zeus, usually imagined as being three in number, who embody all that is beautiful and charming, and can thus lend grace and allure (charis) to nature and works of art, and to every area of life. They are known as the GRACES in English in accordance with Latin usage (for their name was translated into Gratiae in Latin). Although they have no proper myths of their own, they are mentioned with some frequency as beings who bring charm to the gatherings of the gods, and more particularly as associates of Aphrodite and the Muses.
Ladder 976
Compare 977
They were most commonly imagined as being three in number, and they could be pictured as representing the main seasons of spring, summer, and winter. It should be remarked, however, that it was only from the Hellenistic period onwards that each sister came to be portrayed with distinctive attributes, as representing her own particular season. As deities who were connected in this way with the turning of the year, they were associated most closely with the seasons of growth and fertility, as goddesses who cause the plants to grow, and most especially the flowers of the spring, which adorn the setting and also serve for the adornment of the human body.
Hub 978
Flow 150
Ladder 151
The Nymphs
Some of the most appealing figures in ancient mythology and folklore are the multitude of NYMPHS (Nymphai) who were thought to inhabit nature in many of its aspects as spirits of the meadows and mountains, of trees and groves, and of springs, streams, and the sea. Their name literally means 'young marriageable women' or the like. Although some who were classed as nymphs could be quite important goddesses, as in the case of some of the Oceanids and Nereids (e.g.
Cycle 979
Amphitrite and Thetis), the mass of the nymphs were semi-divinities of comparatively minor status. They were of considerable significance in popular cult, however, precisely because they could be regarded as more accessible than the grander deities of public cult, and as beings who were more likely to be sympathetic to the everyday worries of mortals, especially those of women. They appear very frequently in myth, though often in a supporting or purely decorative role.
Flow 980
151) and Dionysos on his revels; they were available to act as nurses to infant gods, such as Zeus and Dionysos (see pp. 69 and 164), and indeed to mortals on occasion, as in the case of Aineias (see p. 445); they can often be found in the upper reaches of heroic genealogies as the wives of earth-born first men and primordial rulers; and as figures of greater individuality, they regularly appear in transformation myths, especially in those that were devised (mostly at a fairly late period) to account for the origin of plants and springs.
Ladder 981
They are represented one and all as beautiful and youthful, as fond of music and dancing, and very often as amorous, for they repeatedly appear as partners in love not only of Satyrs but of gods and mortals too. They have prophetic powers, and can exert a strange spell on mortals, causing them to become nympholēptai, or filled with divine madness. Like the fairies of later folklore, whom they greatly resemble in some respects, they could become formidable when crossed, as we will see.
Nymphs were divided into different categories according to the provinces of nature that they inhabited or animated. There were nymphs of the hills, valleys, pastures, and mountains, nymphs of springs, rivers, lakes, and the sea, and wood-nymphs and tree-nymphs. Apart from the Oceanids and Nereids, who have already been discussed, the only nymphs who are likely to be encountered in translated literature under their Greek titles are the Dryads and Hamadryads (Dryades, Hamadryades), who were tree-nymphs, the Naiads (Naiades), who were water-nymphs, whether of springs, rivers, or lakes, and perhaps also the Oreads (Oreiades), who were mountain-nymphs.
Compare 982
The Dryads, or tree-nymphs, derived their name from the word drus, which strictly meant an oak, but could also be used in a looser sense as a term for any large tree. Hamadryads were much the same, and although mythographers from the Roman period sometimes drew a distinction between Hamadryads, as nymphs who lived in specific trees and perished with them, and Dryads, as nymphs who simply lived among trees, it is most unlikely that any such distinction was observed in ordinary usage.
Hub 983
The finer classifications of nymphs need not be taken too seriously, since feminine adjectives could be attached to the noun nymphē virtually at will, and the Naiads, for instance, could thus be divided into Potamiads (river-nymphs), Creneids (spring-nymphs), Limniads (nymphs of pools and lakes), and so forth. The fact is that these were hardly proper names at all, and ancient authors were often careless or arbitrary in their use of such titles. Although nymphs were certainly long-lived by comparison to human beings, they were not usually regarded as immortal.
Compare 152
Cycle 984
The grateful tree-nymph, who had thus been saved from perishing along with her tree, offered him the choice of whatever he most desired, and he asked to become her lover. Appointing a bee to act as their go-between, she granted his request on condition that he should have nothing to do with other women. One day, however, when the bee came to summon him while he was playing a game of draughts, he was somewhat brusque in his response, and the nymph was so angry that she turned him blind.
Flow 985
Hub 153
The Satyrs and Seilenoi
It is a peculiarity of ancient Greek folklore that female nature-spirits, whether of land or sea, were imagined as being fully human in form while male nature-spirits were imagined as having animal features. The principal male nature-spirits were the SATYRS (Satyroi) and SEILENOI, lustful creatures of the wild who formed part of the retinue of Dionysos, and diverted themselves with wine-drinking, music, and the pursuit of nymphs. As spirits of the wild life of the woods and hills, and particularly of their unrestrained and unguided fertility, they would have originated as creations of the popular imagination, in much the same way as the nymphs; but they became specialized in their role as attendants of Dionysos and had no place in cult.
Ladder 986
The Satyrs and their counterparts the Seilenoi, who are not easily distinguished from one another in earlier depictions at least, were consistently portrayed as quasi-human, but as more or less grotesque in their build and features, always male, always lustful, often visibly excited, and with some part of them definitely bestial. In the earlier tradition, as in Attic vase-paintings of the sixth to fifth century bc, Satyrs are usually shown with horse's tails and ears, and sometimes with legs resembling the hind legs of horses.
They also have distinctive snub-nosed facial features; the traditional portrayal of Socrates shows him as looking much like a Satyr in that respect. From the Hellenistic period onwards, they often have something of the goat about them, being shown with little horns, prick-ears, and often goat's legs. This, the type familiar from the famous Satyr of Praxiteles and other well-known works of art, clearly resembles Pan.
Compare 987
In this later period, the Seilenoi are typically distinguished from the Satyrs as being older (and also retaining their equine ears). We sometimes hear of Papposeilenoi (i.e. daddy Seilenoi), and while the Satyrs are often merry with wine, the Seilenoi are apt to become extremely drunk; a not uncommon subject in art is a Satyr supporting a Seilenos who has drunk to excess.
Hub 988
In Italy, the Satyrs were identified with some native wood-spirits, the Fauni. There is no mention of Satyrs or Seilenoi in Homer or the genuine works of Hesiod. The earliest reference to Satyrs in the surviving literature can be found in a fragment from the Hesiodic Catalogue, which classes 'the worthless good-for-nothing Satyrs' with the mountain-nymphs and Couretes as children of the daughters of Doros (see p.
Cycle 989
An idea of the nature of this curious genre of literature can be gained from the extensive remains of Sophocles' Trackers (Ichneutai) and the surviving Cyclops of Euripides, in which Seilenos and his Satyrs are introduced into the story of Odysseus and Polyphemos (see p. 506; and for an artistic portrayal of characteristic behavior, see Figure 9.1). Figure 9.1: Satyrs in action.
Flow 990
© The Trustees of the British Museum. The one Satyr who stands out from the mass as an individual with a story of his own is Marsyas, who came to a bad end because he presumed to challenge Apollo to a musical contest (see p. SEILENOS, the archetype or leader of the Seilenoi, is represented as a swaggering Falstaffian figure in his role as leader of the chorus in Satyr-plays, but also appears in more serious myth as the possessor of such wisdom as is to be found among beings of his kind.
Cycle 154
Having been instructed in the mysteries of Dionysos by Orpheus and Eumolpos, Midas knew something about the god and recognized at once that this strange captive was a companion of his. So he entertained him liberally for ten days and nights, presumably making him drunker than ever, and then restored him to his young master. Delighted to have his tutor back again, Dionysos rewarded Midas by granting him a wish, and the king asked that whatever he touched should be turned at once to gold.
Ladder 991
Although initially entranced by his good fortune, Midas soon discovered that his new-found powers brought unexpected difficulties, because his food and drink turned to gold before he could consume them. When his thirst grew insupportable and he was threatened with starvation, he prayed to Dionysos to relieve him from the sufferings that he had incurred by his boundless greed, and the god ordered him to travel to the uplands of Lydia to wash himself in the source of the river Pactolus.
Although the semi-equine Centaurs surely originated as creatures of folklore, as wild spirits of the mountains and forests, they appear solely as beings of the mythical past in the recorded tradition, and they will therefore be considered in connection with heroic mythology. They were associated with two areas in particular, the region of Mt Pelion in Thessaly, where they became embroiled in a conflict with the neighbouring Lapiths (see p. 311), and north-western Arcadia, where they provoked a fight with Heracles (see p.
Compare 992
Flow 155
Hub 993
If she did not bear Pan to Hermes, Penelope bore him to Apollo, or to her husband, or to one of her suitors or indeed all of them (a bizarre idea that was apparently inspired by the fact that the god's name can mean 'all'). Among other fancies, we find the suggestion that Zeus fathered him on Hybris (i.e. Wantonness) or that a shepherd called Crathis fathered him by one of his goats;65 but that is quite enough on this matter.
Pan was forever pursuing the nymphs of the countryside, much like the Satyrs (although he did not share their other vice of heavy drinking, which they developed as a result of their association with Dionysos). He appears accordingly in various love stories, in which he usually meets with nothing but frustration; the previously mentioned tale of his seduction of the moon-goddess Selene (see p. 44) is something of an exception.
Cycle 994
The picturesque story of SYRINX (Pan-pipes) explains the origin of his favourite musical instrument. Syrinx was a beautiful hamadryad nymph who rejected the approaches of the Satyrs and other nature-spirits, preferring to live as a virgin huntress. On catching sight of her one day, Pan conceived a passionate desire for her; and when he found that she would have nothing to do with him, he chased her through the countryside until she arrived at the river Ladon, where she prayed to the nymph of the stream (or to Earth) to save her, and was instantly transformed into a clump of reeds.
Flow 995
It is therefore no surprise to hear that he should have fallen in love with a nymph called PITYS (Pine), a figure who is first mentioned in Theocritus' Syrinx. As in the case of Syrinx, his love was not reciprocated, and Pitys was turned into a pine tree as she fled. In another version, Boreas (the North Wind) competed with Pan for her love, and was so angry when she preferred Pan that he killed her by blowing her over a cliff; but Earth took pity on her and transformed her into a pine tree.
Ladder 156
Ladder 996
According to Herodotus, the Athenians sent Philippides (also called Pheidippides in some manuscripts, probably by error) to seek help from the Spartans in confronting the Persians, but although he reached Sparta on the following day, they said that their laws prevented them from marching out before the full moon. On his return, he was also able to report that Pan had hailed him in the mountains near the Arcadian city of Tegea and had told him to ask the Athenians why they paid no respect to him, although he was their friend and had often helped them before, and would do so again.
Compare 997
During the reign of Tiberius, a ship that was sailing from Italy to Greece was becalmed near the islands of Paxos and Propaxos off north-western Greece. A voice from the shore suddenly cried 'Thamuz!', which was the name of the ship's pilot, who was an Egyptian. He made no reply at first, but finally responded to the third appeal, and the voice then told him, 'When you draw opposite Palodes, tell them that great Pan is dead'.
Hub 998
Compare 157
Attis and Cybele; the Couretes and Corybantes
Just on the frontiers of classical belief and cult was the great Asiatic goddess CYBELE (or Cybebe), with her cult-partner ATTIS. According to the cultic legend from Pessinous, a main centre of her cult in Galatia (a central province of Asia Minor), she acquired her partner in the following circumstances. Agdistis, a doublet of Cybele, sprang up from the ground in that region after Zeus shed some semen on to it in his sleep, or while he was vainly attempting to make love to Cybele.
Although the new-born being had both male and female genital organs, the gods were disturbed by its appearance and chopped off the male organs; or else Dionysos did so at the will of the gods to curb its excessive and violent desires. An almond tree sprang up from them bearing nuts that were already ripe (or else a pomegranate tree bearing fruit already ripe). When Nana, a daughter of the local river Sangarios, placed some of these nuts (or a pomegranate fruit) inside her dress, the nuts (or fruit) disappeared and she found that she was pregnant with a child.
Cycle 999
She exposed the child at birth (or her father had him exposed), but a he-goat somehow contrived to look after him (or someone recovered him and nourished him on he-goat's milk!), and he thus survived to grow up into a wonderfully handsome youth called Attis or Attes, who attracted the love of Agdistis. When he was due to marry the daughter of the king of Pessinous, the goddess grew frantically jealous, and so appeared at the wedding and drove him into a mad frenzy in which he cut off his genitals with fatal effect.
Flow 1000
Apollodorus records a curious tale in which Zeus is said to have killed them for abducting his son Epaphos from Egypt (see p. 215); but since they are presumably standing in for a group of foreign divinities in this case, this cannot be regarded as part of their conventional mythology. The name of the Couretes simply means young men or young warriors, and it has long been suspected that their main story is a mythical reflection of annual rites in which choruses of Cretan youths would perform ritual dances in honour of Zeus, probably to promote fertility.
Ladder 1001
Hub 158
In the hymn to Zeus from Palaikastro in Crete, which probably dates to the fourth century bc, such a chorus invites the son of Cronos with music and song (and by implication, dances too) to return to his birthplace of Dicte for the coming year, and to 'leap' to bring fertility to the island's animals and crops, and also bring benefit to its cities and ships, and so forth. It is significant that Zeus should be invoked in this poem as the great Couros who had once stepped out at the head of his daimones (i.e.
Compare 1002
Hub 1003
Plato makes several interesting allusions to the Corybantic rites, above all in a passage in the Laws in which he explains how they provided a cure for mental disturbances;79 the cure was homeopathic in nature, for it was supposed that the patients could recover their mental equilibrium if their human madness could be displaced by divine madness induced by ecstatic music and dancing. The Corybantes have no proper myths except in so far as they came to be identified with the Couretes (as was doubtless inevitable after Cybele came to be identified with Rhea).
Cycle 1004
Their name is of uncertain meaning and origin; although it has long been argued that it may have been derived from a Semitic word, qabir, meaning mighty (which accords very well with their Greek titles as the theoi megaloi or dunatai, the great or mighty gods), there is nothing provably Semitic about their ritual or the history of their cult. It may perhaps have originated in Asia Minor. Be that as it may, they presided over an ancient mystery-cult whose content and rituals are largely unrecorded.
Flow 1005
They were often identified with another group of gods who presided over a mystery-cult in the northern Aegean, the GODS OF SAMOTHRACE (who were left unnamed in connection with their cult). These latter gods were supposed to protect initiates from all manner of dangers, especially those of the sea. Their effectiveness in this regard was attested by the many votive offerings that were set up at Samothrace by seafarers who had escaped disaster (although Diogenes the Cynic pertinently remarked that there would have been many more of them if they were also set up by those who were not saved81).
In myth, the Argonauts were initiated at Samothrace before sailing into unknown waters (see p. 400); and in historical times, the Samothracian mysteries became widely favoured during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, coming to be regarded as second only to those at Eleusis. There is no indication that the Samothracian mysteries and those of the Cabeiroi provided initiates with better expectations for the afterlife than did those at Eleusis.
Ladder 1006
Cycle 159
Compare 1007
Hub 1008
Cycle 1009
Glaucos, Priapos, and Hymenaios
Flow 1010
A preposterous little god who was represented as a more or less grotesquely misshapen man with an erect phallus of disproportionate size, he never seems to have been regarded as a very serious deity outside his original homeland. He watched over flocks, herds, and bees, and brought help to herdsmen and fishermen; in later times, he was viewed above all as a guardian of vineyards, orchards, and gardens, part scarecrow, part warning to human thieves, part luck-bringer; and in his capacity as a luck-bringer, he was often to be found at the doors of houses.
Elegantly obscene Priapic verses were composed in his honour in both Greek and Latin. Such is the Priapos who is most familiar to us from his later career. In his region of origin, however, at Lampsacos and the surrounding area on the Asian shore of the Hellespont, he was a fertility-god of the first importance who was honoured on a level with the Olympian gods.
Ladder 1011
Donkeys were sacrificed to him at Lampsacos, doubtless because they were credited with a lustful nature and exceptional progenitive powers. The myths of Priapos are late and artificial; some are birth-legends from his native Hellespontine region while others are tales that link him to his special animal, the donkey. He came to be described as a son of Dionysos and Aphrodite, as is understandable since he was associated with abandonment and sex; or perhaps Aphrodite conceived him to her favourite Adonis while Dionysos was away on his campaign in India.
According to a local legend, which sets his birth in Aparnis (later Abarnis) near Lampsacos, the jealous Hera touched the body of his pregnant mother to cause him to be born deformed, and Aphrodite was so horrified when she gave birth to a misshapen son with outsized genitals that she renounced him (aparneito, hence the name of Aparnis), abandoning him to be reared by shepherds. This story was probably inspired by the similar story that was told about the birth of Pan (see p.
Compare 1012
Ovid probably invented it to accord with the general theme of the poem (although it is of course possible that this was the original Greek version of the story of the attempted rape). According to another donkey story, probably derived from a Satyr-play, Dionysos once came up against an impassable swamp as he was travelling to his father's oracle at Dodona to seek a cure for a fit of madness that had been inflicted on him by Hera. He found a way across, however, by riding through the marshes on a donkey that he encountered there; and after achieving his cure at Dodona, he rewarded the beast by granting it the power of human speech.
Hub 1013
To pass on to a more respectable god, HYMENAIOS was the deity who presided over weddings. His name was derived from the traditional wedding-cry of Hymen o Hymenaie (or the like), which could be interpreted as an invocation to a deity called Hymenaios (or Hymen). He was commonly pictured as a handsome young man, tall and rather epicene, carrying a bridal torch and wreath as his attributes.
Cycle 1014
One day, as she and her friends were participating in the rites of Demeter at Eleusis, they were snatched away by some pirates, who also seized Hymenaios because he had been trailing his beloved. After the voyage, however, he managed to kill the pirates in their sleep, and made his way back to Athens on his own. On his arrival, he told the citizens about the fate of their missing daughters, and he offered to fetch them back again if he were allowed to marry the one whom he loved.
Flow 1015
Diodorus, who is the first author to refer to him in the surviving literature, describes him as a son of Hermes and Aphrodite,116 an idea that was bound to arise because it is suggested in his name. Although Diodorus seems to assume that he was a hermaphrodite from the time of his birth, Ovid recounts a legend that explains his distinctive form by saying that he had been a handsome young man who had fused with an amorous water-nymph. Hermaphroditos, as he was called after his parents, was reared by naiad nymphs in the caves of Mt Ida in the Troad, but left home at the age of fifteen to wander through Asia Minor.
When he reached Caria in the south-west, Salmacis, the nymph of a spring in that area, fell violently in love with him when she saw him approaching her pool. Although the ignorant youth was simply embarrassed when she made direct advances to him, she gained her opportunity when he jumped into her waters to bathe. Seizing him in a tight embrace, she prayed that the two of them should be united forever, and they were fused into a single being who shared the characteristics of both sexes.
Ladder 1016
9.29.2 citing Mimnermus (= 13 West), schol. 1.1 ('Sing, goddess, of the wrath of Peleus' son Achilles'), and 2.484-93. 11 For such differentiations, see e.g.
9, 504 and 505, Anth. 53-5 (born in Pieria), cf. 25, 36ff on Olympian Muses.
9.14 (Sicyonian; and also referring to three Delphian Muses named Nete, Mese and Hypate); on this question, see also e.g. For the earlier tradition, see also Hes. 65 (Thamyris blinded in Dotian Fields), Minyas fr.
pays the penalty in Hades for his boast; from Paus. Aptera (contest took place at Aptera in Crete). 24 All mentioned as children of Muses in Apollod.
Hymn 5 to Aphrodite 58-63. 28 Sappho 53 (invoked on their own), 103, 128 (with Muses); Pi.Ol. 9.38.1; the Charites of Orchomenos are invoked in Pi.
Hymn 6 to Aphrodite 1-15, cf. 4 Davies (garments made for Aphrodite by Horai and Charites). 13.102ff for the sacred cave of the nymphs by the shore at Ithaca.
11 Davies as reported in Apollod. 3.9.1 (that Arcas fathered his two sons by the nymph Chrysopeleia). 1.48; caught in the 'Gardens of Midas' in Macedonia, Hdt.
8.138; Midas caught 'the Satyr' at a spring in Phrygia by mixing wine into it Xen. 1.2.13; in Theopompus 115F75c (as cited in Ael. 3.18), Midas delivers a moral lecture to Midas by telling him of the contrasting ways of life of some imaginary peoples in an imaginary geographical setting.
10.23.5-6 (description of Panic terror in war), Polyaen. 1.2 (Pan as general and tactical innovator); Shepherd-god, lover of music, Hom. Hymn 19 to Pan 1-.26; Pan philochoros, Aesch.
448; his skill on the 'pan-pipes', Theoc. 347; rationalized version, Longus 2.34, Achilles Tatius 8.6 (set near Ephesus with local aetiology). 67 Nonnus 42.258ff (simpler version), Liban.
27 and 28 (version involving Boreas); allusions to the story in Theoc. Syrinx 4, Propertius 1.18.20, Lucian D.D. 68 Daphnis and Chloe 3.23; allusions to Pan's love for Echo in Theoc.
73 Sallustius On Gods and Universe 4. 77 For translation and discussion, see W.K.C. Guthrie, The Greeks and their Gods, London, 1950, 46ff.
3F48 (children of Apollo and Rhytia), Apollod. 1.3.4 (of Apollo and the Muse Thalia), Str. 9.25.6, with evidence from the visual arts and votive inscriptions (referring to Cabeiro and pais, i.e.
2.6 (in Analecta Studemundi 1, p. 5.64.3; five of each sex, Soph. 282 (discovered metal-working in Crete), Str.
1.932; for Hellespontine traditions regarding his birth, see also schol.
10 The early mythical history of Argos
Flow 160
The first Inachids in Argos and in Egypt and Phoenicia
Compare 1017
543) or Cecrops in Attica (see p. 318), two other Greek lands whose inhabitants prided themselves on being able to trace their history back to the very beginnings of human civilization. Just as Athens was noted for its association with Athena, Argos was marked out from other lands by its special association with Hera, who had been the great goddess of Argos from time immemorial, or, in mythical terms, ever since the reign of its first king.
Hub 1018
Cycle 1019
The father of Io (whoever he may have been) appointed her to be the virgin priestess of Argive Hera, but she was so very beautiful that Zeus seduced her, and she came to be transformed as a result into a cow, temporarily at least. In Apollodorus' account, which may have been largely based on that offered in the Hesiodic Catalogue, Zeus turned her into a white cow with a touch of his hand when Hera came to learn of their relationship, and then swore to his wife that he had never had intercourse with the girl; and as a result of this divine precedent, so 'Hesiod' is said to have remarked, perjuries committed by lovers never draw down any anger from the gods.
Flow 1020
Ladder 1021
Ladder 161
She did not do so, however, and finally summoned up the courage to report the matter to her father Inachos, who sent envoys to the oracles at Delphi and Dodona to ask what he should do. When he finally received a clear response, he was told that he should turn Io out of his house, or else his entire race would be destroyed by a thunderbolt from Zeus. So he did so under force of necessity, and Io was then immediately transformed into a cow and driven to Lerna by a gadfly.
Compare 1022
Hera realized that her husband was up to mischief on observing a patch of darkness that he had spread over the land to conceal his dalliance. As she was hurrying to the spot, Zeus turned Io into a cow to hide her presence, but Hera realized what had happened and asked that the beast should be handed over to her. She then placed it under guard of Argos as in the traditional version summarized above.
Hub 1023
Compare 162
In the final form of the myth, Io wandered all the way to Egypt before finding any relief. Although it is impossible to trace the earlier evolution of the myth in any detail or with much certainty, her wanderings would surely have been confined to the Argolid in the earliest tradition; and it has been plausibly suggested that she would have roamed from the city of Argos to the great Heraion near Mycenae, which was located on a hill known as Euboea.
Cycle 1024
Flow 1025
Ladder 1026
Hub 163
Cycle 164
Danaos returns to Argos with his daughters, the Danaids
Compare 1027
He and Danaos fathered large families by many different women in a manner that was more eastern than Greek, Aigyptos fathering fifty sons, and Danaos fifty daughters who were known as the DANAIDS (DANAIDES). The two brothers eventually quarrelled because Aigyptos was determined to marry his sons to the Danaids, a scheme that was repugnant to Danaos because it would mean that his family would be absorbed into that of his brother, and his own position would be greatly weakened as a consequence.
Hub 1028
Cycle 1029
A local version of the story is recorded in the cultic legend that was devised to explain the origin of the shrine of Apollo Lycaios at Argos. When Danaos arrived to claim the kingdom, the citizens of Argos listened patiently to his arguments and those of Gelanor but found that the issue seemed so evenly balanced (as it might well have been on the main criterion of descent) that they deferred their decision until the next day. The matter was resolved on their behalf, however, by a sign from the gods; for at dawn on the following morning, a wolf suddenly broke into a herd of cattle that was grazing just outside the city walls, and killed the leading bull; and the Argives interpreted this as a portent that indicated that the newcomer (as represented in the wolf) should displace the present ruler (as represented in the bull).
Flow 1030
Ladder 1031
They assumed a conciliatory tone, inviting Danaos to abandon his enmity and consent to a union between the two families; but he mistrusted them, and bore them a grudge besides because he had been forced to flee from his original kingdom. So he mollified them by pretending to agree to the marriages and cast lots to assign each of his daughters to a specific bridegroom. When the time came for the wedding, however, he secretly provided his daughters with daggers and instructed them to kill their husbands while they were asleep on their wedding-night.
Flow 165
As Pindar tells the story, Danaos found new husbands for forty-eight of his daughters (i.e. all except Hypermnestra and Amymone, see below, p. 219) before noon on a single day by lining them up at the finishing-line of a race track and causing their suitors to race for them.
Compare 1032
The massacre was said to have been committed at Lerna, a marshy region lying by the Argolic Gulf, a few miles south of the city of Argos, famous in myth as the home of the hydra that was killed by Heracles as his second labour (see p. This was where the sons of Aigyptos had set up their camp. After they were murdered, their heads were buried separately from the rest of their bodies.
By contrast to most of 'thirsty Argos', this was a well-watered region with permanent springs, streams, and marshlands, and it was explained that it owed its abundant water to Amymone (in part at least) because she encountered Poseidon there and he rewarded her for her favours by creating a spring or springs with a blow of his trident. A Satyr is involved in all the fullest accounts, in accordance with a version developed by Aeschylus, who wrote a Satyr-play about Amymone to complement his Danaid trilogy.
Hub 1033
Ladder 166
His legends fall into two groups, those in which rulers asked him to dispose of their daughters for different reasons (see pp. 304 and 423), and those in which he took action against the Greeks who had fought at Troy (see pp. 498 and 503) to avenge the murder of his son Palamedes at Troy (see p.
Cycle 1034
Ancient authors ascribe all these stories to the same person even though this would mean that he must have lived for many generations; Apollodorus notes the point by remarking that he was long-lived (makrobios, perhaps as a privilege granted to him by his divine father, as in the case of Sarpedon, see p. Apollonius and some subsequent authors mention a later Nauplios who was a descendant of the original in the fifth generation, but only as a skilled seaman who sailed with the Argonauts;60 there is no indication in surviving sources that the Nauplios who acted against the Greeks after the Trojan War was ever identified with this other Nauplios, son of Klytoneos, rather than the earlier son of Poseidon and Amymone.
In the Returns, an early epic in the Trojan cycle, the wife of Nauplios was apparently a certain Philyra, but in tragedy and later sources she is always Clymene, a daughter of Catreus, king of Crete,61 whom he came to marry in circumstances recounted on p. The couple had one son of major importance, Palamedes, an ingenious inventor who met an ignominious death at Troy through the machinations of Odysseus (see pp. 471-2), and two other sons of lesser note, Oiax (see p.
Flow 1035
Ladder 1036
Compare 167
Proitos and Acrisios, and the arrival of Bellerophon and Melampous
Compare 1037
So Acrisios, as the first-born, took power at the ancestral capital of Argos, while Proitos founded a new centre of rule at Tiryns, on a rocky hill in the Argive plain a few miles to the south-east of Argos. The reputed site of the battle was marked in historical times by a pyramidal monument with relief sculptures of Argive shields on the side; it was often said that the brothers invented these distinctive round shields during the conflict, making them either from wood or from bronze.
Hub 1038
Cycle 1039
The unfortunate guest was BELLEROPHON, a grandson of Sisyphos, king of Corinth, whose career may be fittingly considered in the present context not only because of his fateful encounter with Proitos, but also because he was a monster-slaying hero of comparable nature to Acrisios' grandson Perseus. He was generally thought to have been the only son of Glaucos, the son and successor of Sisyphos, although there was also an early tradition that suggested that Poseidon was his true father (see further on p.
Flow 1040
When she found herself rejected, her desire turned to fury, and she told her husband that he had tried to force himself on her. Although Proitos believed her story, he was reluctant to exact vengeance in person against a guest whom he had purified, and so sent him away to his father-in-law Iobates in Lycia with a sealed tablet or letter asking that he should be put to death. As Homer recounts the tale, the king of Lycia (here unnamed) entertained him on his arrival for nine days, slaughtering nine cows, and finally questioned him at dawn on the tenth day, asking to see the message that he had brought.
Ladder 1041
On discovering what Proitos was asking of him, he ordered Bellerophon to kill the CHIMAIRA, a fire-breathing monster that was thought to be invincible. Homer describes it as being like a lion in front, a dragon behind, and a goat (chimaira, hence its name) in the middle; in subsequent depictions, it resembles a lion in its basic form, but has a snake in place of a tail, and a goat's head projecting from the middle of its back. Bellerophon proceeded to kill it, trusting in signs from the gods.
Hub 168
Laodameia bore a notable child to Zeus, namely Sarpedon, who commanded the Lycians as allies of Troy during the Trojan War (see p. 574), with the afore-mentioned Glaucos as his second-in-command. Isandros for his part met an early death while fighting against the Solymoi.
Compare 1042
Hub 1043
We must trace the earlier history of the two brothers before attempting to disentangle the conflicting traditions that came to be associated with these cures. MELAMPOUS and BIAS, who were of Deucalionid descent (see p. 379), were born in Messenia to Amythaon, a son of Cretheus, king of Iolcos (see p.
Cycle 169
397), who had left his northern birthplace to settle in the south-western region of the Peloponnese. Melampous became the finest seer of his age after acquiring his prophetic powers in the following way as a young man. While he was living in the Messenian countryside outside Pylos, his servants killed some snakes, which had made their home in an oak tree outside his house; and on learning of this, he gathered some wood to cremate the dead beasts and took care of their young.
Cycle 1044
302), the seer Teiresias underwent his changes of sex as a result of encounters with snakes (see p. 365); and Iamos, the founder of a clan of seers at Olympia, was fed by snakes when he was exposed as an infant (see p. Before setting off from Argos to assist Proitos, Melampous used his special powers to procure a wife for his brother Bias, who had fallen in love with Pero, the only daughter of Neleus, who ruled much of Messenia at that time (see p.
Flow 1045
She had so many suitors that her father exploited the matter to his own advantage, by promising her to the one who would bring him the cattle of Phylacos, the king of Phylace in Thessaly; and since Bias knew that this would be a very hazardous task because the cattle were guarded by a fierce dog that neither man nor beast could approach, he sought the assistance of Melampous, who agreed to perform the task on his behalf. Before setting off, the seer prophesied that he would be caught in the act as he tried to steal the cattle, but that he would gain possession of them nonetheless after suffering a year's imprisonment.
He was arrested just as he had foreseen, and when the year had almost passed, he heard some wood-worms talking together in the roof of his cell; when one of them asked how much of the roof beam had been eaten away, another replied that very little was left. On learning of these events, Phylacos realized that his prisoner must be gifted with exceptional powers.
Ladder 1046
So he offered Melampous his freedom and the cattle besides if he could find a cure for his son IPHICLOS, who was afflicted with impotence. For one day, as he had been gelding some rams, Phylacos had seen his son misbehaving in some unspecified way and had chased after him with the bloodied knife in his hand, causing him such a fright that he had become impotent. Melampous soon discovered the cause of the impotence from a vulture, which told him that he could achieve a cure if he scraped some rust from the knife into some water and gave it to the young man to drink for ten days.
Flow 170
There can be few episodes in Greek myth in which the tradition is more complex and inconsistent, and it would seem that this came about because there were originally two separate madness legends, set at different periods, in which case Melampous would presumably have been associated with one story alone in the earliest tradition. To start with Pherecydes' version, which was probably quite ancient, Hera afflicted the daughters of Proitos with madness because they had mocked the poverty of her Argive temple, saying that their father's palace was more splendid by far.
Compare 1047
Hub 1048
When the daughters of Proitos were driven mad, either by Hera or by Dionysos (for both possibilities are indicated), they roamed through Arcadia and the rest of the Peloponnese in a state of complete abandon. Although Melampous offered to cure them in return for a third of the kingdom, Proitos considered this to be exorbitant and refused to pay; but when the other women went mad also, abandoning their homes and even killing their own children, Proitos agreed to pay the stipulated fee.
Cycle 1049
Ladder 171
Megapenthes succeeded to his father's kingdom, but later agreed to exchange it for that of Perseus, the grandson of Acrisios (see p. Proitos' branch of the family next rose into prominence in connection with the Theban wars, and its subsequent history will thus be considered in that context, see pp. Although Proitos had only two daughters named Lysippe and Iphianassa in the account ascribed to Pherecydes, Apollodorus adds a third, named Iphinoe (probably in accord with the Hesiodic Catalogue), and most other sources agree that there were three even if there is less agreement about their names.
Flow 1050
Ladder 1051
Letting it be known that he was planning to marry Hippodameia, daughter of Oinomaos, and wanted to collect contributions for the bride-price that he would have to pay to her father, Polydectes invited the leading men of the island, including Perseus, to an eranos (a form of feast at which those who attended were expected to make a contribution). When Perseus asked him what sort of contribution he was expecting, he replied 'a horse' (a very valuable item in those days), and the young man exclaimed that he would grudge him nothing, not even the Gorgon's head; so on the next day, when all the contributors arrived with their horses, Polydectes refused to accept a horse from Perseus, but pretended to take his purely rhetorical offer seriously and demanded that he should actually fetch the Gorgon's head.
Compare 1052
Compare 172
By seizing the single eye and tooth that the three sisters shared between them (see p. 53), Perseus forced them to reveal the way to some nymphs who would be able to furnish him with the tools that would enable him to fulfil his task, namely some winged sandals to carry him through the air to the lair of the Gorgons at the ends of the earth, the cap of Hades to render him invisible as he seized the Gorgon's head, and a metallic satchel (kibisis, a word that appears in no other context) to hold the head after he had cut it off.
After acquiring these objects from the nymphs, and also receiving an adamantine sickle (harpē) from Hermes, Perseus flew beyond the outer Ocean with Hermes and Athena and crept up on the Gorgons as they lay asleep. For their origin and nature, see pp. The two deities advised him to avert his gaze as he cut off the Gorgon's head, and pointed to MEDUSA as the one whom he should attack, as the only one of the three sisters who was mortal.
Hub 1053
So he went up to Medusa, severed her head, placed it in the kibisis, and fled with all speed, successfully escaping the other two Gorgons, who tried to pursue him but were unable to find him because he was wearing the cap of invisibility. Such is Pherecydes' version, which originated in early epic; it is reported in subsequent accounts that Athena guided his hand as he cut off the head, and that he assisted himself in the process by observing the Gorgon's reflection in the polished surface of his bronze shield.
Cycle 1054
To start with the latter tales, which are set at an earlier stage of the journey, Ovid tells how Perseus asked to rest for the night in the field of a local ruler called Atlas, who was of enormous size and owned huge flocks of sheep; but on learning that he was a son of Zeus, Atlas turned him away by force because a prophecy had warned him that a wonderful tree that he owned would be robbed of its fruit by a son of Zeus. The prophecy referred of course to the apples of Hesperides, which would be robbed of their fruit by another son of Zeus, namely Heracles (see p.
Flow 1055
For the queen had foolishly boasted that she was lovelier than the Nereids, angering not only the sea-nymphs themselves but Poseidon too, who responded by sending a flood and a sea-monster against the land; and when the oracle of Ammon (at the oasis of Siwa in the Libyan desert) had declared that the calamity would not be brought to an end until Cassiepeia's daughter was offered up to the monster, the king had bound her to a rock by the shore at the insistence of his people. Perseus fell in love with her at first sight, however, and undertook to slay the monster if she would promise to marry him; or in a slightly different version, he approached her father Cepheus and won an equivalent promise from him.
Hub 173
Ladder 1056
Compare 1057
Polydectes is presented in this account as a benefactor of Perseus rather than his enemy, and the quest for the Gorgon's head is eliminated. On discovering Danae and her infant in the chest, Dictys brought them immediately to his brother, who took Danae as his wife and arranged for Perseus to be reared in the temple of Artemis. When Acrisios eventually learned that they were on the island and came in search of them, apparently many years later, Polydectes interceded on their behalf, and Perseus swore for his part that he would never cause his grandfather any harm.
Hub 1058
Cycle 174
Cycle 1059
Electryon, who was initially the most powerful of his sons, succeeded him as king of Mycenae, and ruled there until he was killed in a freakish accident by his nephew Amphitryon, the son of Electryon's elder brother Alcaios. A younger son of Perseus, Sthenelos, turned the situation to his own advantage by seizing power at Mycenae and banishing Amphitryon from the land on an accusation of murder. So Amphitryon went away to Thebes, never returning to Mycenae, and married his cousin Alcmene, the daughter of Electryon.
Flow 1060
After sleeping with Zeus and Amphitryon on the same night, Alcmene gave birth to twin sons, bearing Heracles to Zeus and another son of lesser stature to her husband. Through both his mother and his putative father, who was a son of the eldest son of Perseus, Heracles had a good claim to the Myceneaean throne, but circumstances dictated that he should be born and reared in exile at Thebes, while lesser men with a perhaps inferior claim, initially Sthenelos and then his son Eurystheus, ruled over the former kingdom of Perseus (or at least the richest part of it).
Zeus had intended, to be sure, that his son Heracles should become the great ruler in Argos, but Hera tricked him, as we will see, to ensure that Eurystheus, who was born at much the same time as Heracles, would gain that inheritance instead; and, what is more, Heracles even became obliged to serve the ignoble Eurystheus as a subordinate and perform a series of dangerous tasks for him. This sequence of events was first set in course when ELECTRYON came under threat from some descendants of his brother Mestor and called on the assistance of his nephew Amphitryon.
Ladder 1061
Mestor and his wife, Lysidice, daughter of Pelops, had a single child, Hippothoe, who was abducted by Poseidon to the Echinadian islands, just to the north of the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf. He slept with her there, and she bore him a son, Taphios (or Taphos), who founded the royal family that would rule the islands from that time onwards. He called his people the Teleboans because he had 'gone far' (tēlou ebē) from his ancestral Argos.
Flow 175
As things turned out, however, Electryon was never able to leave his native shore. For Amphitryon soon recovered the stolen cattle by ransoming them from Polyxenos and brought them to Mycenae, but as Electryon was receiving them back, one of them broke free and charged forward, and when Amphitryon threw his club at it to try to deter it, the club rebounded from its horns and struck Electryon on the head, causing his death. Or, in a conflicting version from the Hesiodic Shield, Amphitryon killed his uncle in anger while quarrelling with him over cattle (presumably because Electryon refused to grant him a share of them as reward for recovering them).
Compare 1062
Hub 1063
The Odyssey refers to the Taphians as islanders who were inclined to piracy and mentions the island (or islands) of Taphos in connection with them;142 their islands, of uncertain location, came to be identified with the Echinadian islands, which lay not far from the mouth of the river Acheloos. Even if there was some initial division of power between the sons of Perseus, Sthenelos and his son EURYSTHEUS seem to have been pictured as controlling all or most of the territories and cities that had formerly been ruled by Perseus, including Tiryns and Midea.
Eurystheus was of importance in myth only in relation to his great half-cousin Heracles, whose life-history will be traced in the next chapter. His reign was as uneventful as that of his father until Heracles arrived in the Argolid, at the order of the Delphic oracle, to perform a series of dangerous tasks at his command (see pp. Although Heracles was born at Thebes and spent most of his life in exile, he thus came to be based in his ancestral land during that period.
Cycle 1064
It was commonly agreed that Eurystheus was as mean-minded and cowardly (see e.g. 245) as Heracles was noble and brave. After the death of Heracles, Eurystheus tried to free himself from the danger of any threat from the hero's descendants by attacking the sons of Heracles while they were at their most vulnerable (see pp.
Ladder 176
277-8); but he was defeated and killed, and they invaded the Peloponnese soon afterwards to try to seize control of his kingdom and other territories too. It was the will of the gods, however, that the descendants of Heracles (the Heraclids) should not establish themselves in the Peloponnese until well after the Trojan War, and they were thus obliged to withdraw after an initial invasion, or were checked at the Isthmus of Corinth (see pp. After the death of Eurystheus and the failure on the initial Heraclid invasion of the Peloponnese, the Mycenaeans were advised by an oracle that they should choose a member of a wholly different family, the Pelopids, as their new ruler.
So the kingdom passed to Atreus, son of Pelops, and remained under Pelopid rule until his great-grandson Teisamenos was ousted by the Heraclids when they finally made their successful invasion (see pp. The interlude of Pelopid rule at Mycenae will be considered in relation to the Trojan War (see pp. 2 Phoronis fr.1 Davies, cf.
Flow 1065
932 respectively for name of wife; Apollod. l.c on Niobe and Apis. 2.1.3 (ascribed to 'many of the tragedians'), Aesch.
16 As stated in Hes. 640-86; Zeus touches her in Egypt and Epaphos is thus born there, ibid. 1.568ff; writes with hoof in dust, 649-50.
Bound 567; son of Arestor, also Hes. 1116; son of Agenor, Apollod. l.c.; son of Peiranthos, Hyg.
296 (Euboea named after cow), Str. 10.1.3 (named after her because she gave birth to Epaphos in cave there), Et. Argoura (both quoted under Hes.
also refers to Io's passage through the 'Cimmerian land'. 2.1.3; on the touch of Zeus, Aesch. 31 Identified with Isis, Call.
145 (Zeus made her a goddess of the Egyptians called Isis), Lucian D.D. The Greeks also identified Isis with Demeter as Apollodorus remarks, cf. Epaphos identified with Apis, Hdt.
Bound 810-5 (the 'distant colony' here is evidently Memphis). 137-8 (Belos and Agenor mentioned, but no surviving record of parentage), Aesch. 317 (Belos as son of Libye), Moschus 2.38-40 (Libye seduced by Poseidon).
39 They were described as such by Euripides, for instance, according to Apollod. 137 (cited by Str., 1.2.34, who ascribes the same to Stesichorus). Aigyptos could fear for his own part that Danaos would become too powerful through marriage-alliances if he married his daughters elsewhere, cf.
Ladder 1066
2.1.4 (ship described as first of kind), cf. 2.19.3 (wolf story), 2.16.1 (descent of Gelanor), Apollod. 2.1.4 (merely that Gelanor surrendered the kingdom to Danaos).
Axiochos 371e (probably first century bc) is our first literary source for the Danaids as water-carriers, but they already appear as such in southern Italian vase-paintings of the fourth century bc; also in Ovid Ibis 177-8, 355-6, Horace Ode 3.11.22-32, Lucian D.M. 872 citing Phrynichos (= fr.1 Snell), Paus. On this episode, see also Aesch.
Compare 1067
128-33 Mette, Propertius 2.26.45-50, Lucian D.M. 2.1.4; as founder of Nauplion, Paus. 2.1.5, citing Returns (= fr.
1 Davies) and the tragic poets. 886 respectively; or because of her desire for children according to Aesch. 1.6 (Hypermnestra alone kept sword in scabbard) and Horace's fine lines in Ode 3.11.33-52 (which suggest that she will be parted from Lynceus forever, cf.
Hub 1068
2.1.5 (imprisoned by Danaos), Paus. 2.19.6 (trial, statue), 2.20.5 (site of trial), 2.21.1 (sanctuary). the similar tradition about Crisos and Panopeus, p.
565, and the Hebrew story of Jacob and Esau, Genesis 25.22-3. On this conflict, see also schol. 129.24 for names of daughters; there are two Proitides only, Lysippe and Iphianassa, in Pher.
3F114, and their names vary to differing extents in other sources. Bellerophon's wife unnamed in Il., Philonoe in Apollod., Anticleia in schol. On Chimaira, see also Hes.
319-25, on B's Lycian ordeals, Pi. 2.18 (overcome by fear when looked down). 37.1-8 (reference to story), fr.
3F114 (Lysippe and Iphianassa only, latter married Melampous), Ael. 3.42 (Elege and Kelaine), Serv. 6.45 (Lysippe, Iphinoe, Cyrianassa); D.S.
4.68.5 (Melampous married Iphianeira, daughter of Megapenthes). Pherecydes seems to have been Apollodorus' main source for his account of the life of Perseus. 105 Horace Odes 3.16.1-4, Ov.
135, but the papyrus is too poorly preserved for it to be possible to tell whether the 'golden' in line 5 has anything to do with a shower of gold. 14.319; the main features of the story already in Hes. cit.); cited as variant in Apollod.
3F10; descent of Dictys and brother, Apollod. 3F11; allusion to eranos, Pi. 112 Although Apollodorus' language is somewhat ambiguous, we should surely understand that Polydectes refuses to take the contribution from Perseus, rather than that he fails to get it; this is made absolutely clear by Pherecydes, who was probably Apollodorus' source at this point.
Cycle 1069
Pherecydes also indicates that each guest was expected to contribute a single horse; Apollodorus' reference to 'horses' in connection with Perseus is probably an error. 4.770-86; decapitation of Medusa and birth of her two children in Hes. 22 along with other material cited under Aesch.
2.4.3 (gains marriage-promise from Cepheus), Eur. 132 Nauck (from Andromeda herself); full narrative Ov. 2.9 and 11 (exposure of Andromeda in Euripides' play), Eratosth.
2.10 (Cassiepeia had claimed to rival the Nereids in beauty in Sophocles' Andromeda), Hyg. 64 (Cassiepeia claimed that Andromeda's beauty surpassed that of Nereids), schol. 836 (Perseus turned monster to stone).
119 As can be inferred from the fragments of Euripides' Andromeda. 2.4.3 with 2.4.5 (Perses); on Perses, see also Hdt. 10.46-8 and 12.12 (turned islanders to stone, without further details).
2.4.4 (it is possible, however, that this is simply a careless summary of Pherecydes' version). 3.45, buried in temple of Athena on acropolis of city. 133 Both etymologies in Paus.
2.16.3; the first also in Hecat. 135 (poorly preserved, but probably Sthenelos, Alcaios and Electryon as three sons), Herodorus 31F15 (Mestor added). 2.4.5 (genealogies), 2.4.6 (sons of Pterelaos arrive to claim land).
932 (probably following Apollod.); cf. 1.747-51 (allusion to fight as portrayed on cloak of Jason) with schol. 2.4.6; Electryon killed in anger, Hes.
4.323 (killed as a result of disagreement over cattle). 1.417-9 (Taphos), Taphians as pirates, ibid.
11 The life of Heracles
The birth of Heracles and his early life at Thebes Amphitryon arrives in Thebes with Alcmene and mounts a campaign against the Teleboans Although Heracles was a member of the old Argive royal family, as a descendant of Perseus, he was born abroad in Thebes after his putative father AMPHITRYON was forced to depart into exile with his mother ALCMENE. As was described at the end of the last chapter, Amphitryon was banished by his uncle Sthenelos for having killed another of his uncles, Electryon, king of Mycenae (by accident according to the usual tradition).
Compare 177
The life of Heracles
The birth of Heracles and his early life at Thebes Amphitryon arrives in Thebes with Alcmene and mounts a campaign against the Teleboans Although Heracles was a member of the old Argive royal family, as a descendant of Perseus, he was born abroad in Thebes after his putative father AMPHITRYON was forced to depart into exile with his mother ALCMENE. As was described at the end of the last chapter, Amphitryon was banished by his uncle Sthenelos for having killed another of his uncles, Electryon, king of Mycenae (by accident according to the usual tradition).
Flow 1070
Sthenelos became the new king of Mycenae, to be succeeded by his son Eurystheus, while the great Heracles was fated to be born in another land and live a wandering life without ever having a kingdom of his own. Amphitryon was accompanied to Thebes by Electryon's daughter Alcmene, who was already betrothed to Amphitryon, and also by her only surviving brother, Licymnios. Her other brothers had all been killed by members of another branch of the family who had sailed to Argos in the hope of seizing the Mycenaean throne.
Ladder 1071
So Amphitryon immediately set to work to mount an expedition against the Teleboans; and it was while he was away on this forthcoming campaign that Zeus approached Alcmene to father Heracles. When Amphitryon asked Creon to assist him in this enterprise, the king promised to do so if he would first rescue the Thebans from the depredations of the TEUMESSIAN FOX. For, according to a tale that can be traced back to early epic, a huge ferocious vixen had established its lair on Mt Teumessos, about five miles north-east of Thebes; it had been sent by the gods to punish the Thebans for some unexplained reason (or sent by Dionsyos specifically, doubtless because he had been rejected by Pentheus, see p.
Compare 1072
162), and was ravaging the land. This beast presented an extremely difficult problem because it was fated never to be caught, but Amphitryon knew that an Athenian hero, Cephalos, son of Deion, owned a dog that was fated always to catch its prey (see p. 326 for the story of Cephalos and the origin of his dog), so he visited Cephalos in Attica and asked him to bring his dog to hunt down the fox, promising him a share of the spoils from the forthcoming war if he would do so.
Hub 1073
Cycle 1074
Hub 178
Cycle 179
The conception and birth of Heracles
As soon as the spoils had been collected together, Amphitryon set sail for Boeotia, eager to prove his success to his beloved and win his way into her bed. Shortly before he arrived back at Thebes, however, Zeus forestalled him by assuming his guise to seduce Alcmene. On being assured that vengeance had been exacted against the Teleboans as she had demanded, and on being offered a magnificent cup moreover from the spoils by way of proof, Alcmene welcomed the disguised god into her arms; and he extended the time of their love-making by lengthening the night to three times its normal length.
Flow 1075
He originally intended, furthermore, that this son of his should be a mighty ruler in Argos, but this part of his plan was foiled by Hera. As the story is recounted in the Iliad, Zeus boasted of his intentions to the other gods, telling them that Eileithuia, the goddess of childbirth, would bring a male child to birth on that day who would become king over all who lived around him (i.e. in Argos), and would be born from the race of those who came from Zeus's blood (i.e.
from the Perseids, who were descended from Perseus, a son of Zeus). By making this ill-advised declaration, he alerted Hera, who resented all her husband's illegitimate children and immediately plotted to rob this one of his intended inheritance. She happened to know that Alcmene was not the only woman who was expecting a child of Perseid descent because Nicippe (or Amphibia), the wife of the present king of Mycenae (Sthenelos, son of Perseus), was also heavily pregnant.
So she persuaded Zeus to swear on oath that the son of his stock who would be born on that day would enjoy the destiny that he had announced; and she then instructed the Eileithuiai (goddesses of childbirth) to delay Alcmene's delivery, while she herself hurried down from Olympos to ensure that the wife of Sthenelos should bring her child to birth at once in the seventh month of her pregnancy. As a consequence, Eurystheus, the son of Sthenelos, was born on that day instead of Heracles, and Zeus was therefore obliged by his oath to grant him the inheritance that he had been planning to grant to Heracles.
Ladder 1076
In the familiar version by Ovid, the goddess of childbirth, here appearing under her Latin name of Lucina, delayed the hero's birth by seven days and nights by sitting outside Alcmene's bedroom door with her legs crossed and her fingers intertwined (gestures of enclosure that would achieve their effect by a form of sympathetic magic). Alcmene had a clever servant-maid, however, who noticed how the goddess was sitting and realized why she had adopted that attitude. So this maid, GALANTHIS by name, called out to her, saying, 'You must congratulate my mistress because her prayers have been answered and she has given birth to her child!', and so provoked the goddess to leap up in astonishment and unclench her hands.
Compare 1077
Flow 180
The story is much the same as in Ovid, except that the Moirai (Fates) work together with the goddess of childbirth to hinder the birth, as a favour to Hera, and it is they who turn Galinthias into a weasel after she foils their scheme. This Greek account refers to an important matter, however, which is passed over by Ovid, the cultic implications of the myth. For we are told that Hecate made the weasel her attendant out of pity for Galinthias, and that Heracles later commemorated her services to him by erecting an altar to her outside his house at Thebes and offering sacrifices on it, hence the sacrifices that the Thebans used to offer to Galinthias before their festival of Heracles.
Hub 1078
Cycle 1079
Paris, Musée du Louvre, France. As would be expected, the hero's education was traditionally said to have been entrusted to the most celebrated experts. He learned the art of bowmanship from Eurytos of Oichalia, who was a grandson of Apollo (see p.
Flow 1080
258) and a skilled archer like his divine ancestor, as were all the male members of his family. In one form of this legend, indeed, Eurytos was eventually killed by Apollo because he dared to challenge the god to an archery contest (see p. 150); but he was more commonly said to have died at the hand of Heracles himself, his greatest pupil (see p.
Ladder 1081
Compare 1082
Ladder 181
Hub 1083
The Linos of Argive tradition differed from the others in being a non-musician who died as a child. After bearing him to Apollo, Psamathe, the daughter of an early Argive king called Crotopos, had him exposed for fear of her father's anger, but the shepherd who was assigned to perform that task reared him as a member of his own family instead, until the child happened to be torn apart by his dogs. On hearing of this, Psamathe was so distressed that she told the whole story to her father, who refused to believe that she had really borne the child to a god and ordered that she should be put to death.
When Argos was then struck by a plague through the anger of Apollo, the citizens were advised by an oracle to appease the dead mother and child, and they achieved this by means of prayers and laments, hence the origin of the Linos-song.17
Cycle 1084
Compare 182
The lion of Cithairon, the daughters of Thespios, and a first campaign
When Heracles reached the age of eighteen, he embarked on his first adventure by setting off to confront the ferocious lion of Cithairon, which lived in the mountain range of that name on the southern borders of Boeotia. Since it was preying not only on Amphitryon's cattle but also on those of THESPIOS, the eponymous ruler of Thespiai in south-western Boeotia, Heracles stayed at his court for fifty nights while trying to track the beast. Now the king had fifty daughters, and he was so impressed by the young hero's strength that he wanted to ensure that each of his daughters should conceive a child to him.
Flow 1085
Erginos was the king of the powerful city of Orchomenos in north-eastern Boeotia, and his people were known as the Minyans (see p. The tribute had come to be imposed on the Thebans in the following circumstances. Some years before, Clymenos, the father of Erginos, had visited Onchestos, a town that lay between Orchomenos and Thebes, to attend a festival of Poseidon, and he had been fatally wounded by a stone thrown by the charioteer of Creon's father Menoiceus, or else murdered by some Thebans as a result of some trivial quarrel.
After hearing of his father's death (or after receiving a direct order from his dying father), Erginos had waged a successful campaign against the Thebans, and had forced them to agree to send him an annual tribute of a hundred cattle for twenty years. Heracles was so angered by this imposition and by the arrogant behaviour of the heralds that he cut off their noses, ears, and hands, and hung them around their necks on cords, telling them to take those to their king by way of tribute.
Ladder 1086
In Diodorus' version, which was probably of Hellenistic origin, the Minyans had deprived the Thebans of their weapons after imposing the tribute, as a precaution against any future revolt, and Creon was thus ready to yield to their superior power when Erginos demanded the surrender of the men who had mutilated his heralds. Heracles obtained arms for the Thebans, however, by stripping their temples of all the weapons that had been dedicated in them, and persuaded the young men of the city to fight for their freedom.
Compare 1087
Hub 183
Hub 1088
Cycle 1089
Flow 1090
Ladder 1091
While Heracles was away fetching Cerberos from Hades as his final labour, a certain Lycos (who was descended from the famous Lycos whose Theban career will be described in Chapter 15) killed Creon to seize power at Thebes; and Megara found herself under threat and sought refuge at the altar of Zeus with her children. On returning to find that Lycos had been planning to burn them to death, Heracles came to their rescue and killed the usurper; but he was then driven mad by Hera, who sent Lyssa (Manic Fury personified) against him, causing him to slaughter his wife and children.
Having heard rumours that Heracles was under threat from Lycos, Theseus arrived at Thebes after the hero had returned to his senses and invited him back to Athens to be purified.
Compare 1092
Cycle 184
Hub 1093
These were known to the Greeks as the athloi, a term generally rendered as labores in Latin, hence our modern expression, 'the labours', although neither of these translations quite catches the flavour of the original; an athlos was literally a contest, especially for a prize, and by extension a struggle or ordeal that involves toil and trouble. The term could therefore be applied most appropriately to describe the arduous tasks that were performed by Heracles for Eurystheus, and all the more so because he was thought to have won immortality as the ultimate reward for his labours.
Cycle 1094
The full canonic sequence first appears in a series of carvings for the metopes for the temple of Zeus at Olympia, which can be dated to c. Some have argued that these sculptures played a decisive role in establishing the canonic list, and that the standard number was thus determined by architectural considerations; or else the sequence may have imposed itself through an earlier epic account, perhaps in the Heracleia of Herodotus' uncle Panyasis; but this remains a matter for conjecture.
Flow 1095
According to a classification that was devised by the early Greek mythographers, the exploits of Heracles could be divided into three main classes. These athloi, or labours, were distinguished on the one hand from the parerga, or incidentals, the chance adventures that befell the hero while he was performing his labours, and on the other hand from the praxeis or deeds, the major exploits that he performed of his own accord rather than at the order of Eurystheus. Artificial though it may have been, this scheme proved most convenient in enabling the mythographers to bring some sort of order into the mass of myth that accumulated around the hero.
Legends that were located in areas associated with the labours could be bracketed with an appropriate labour as parerga, even if they had no original connection with that labour; and the other main deeds of the hero (apart from one or two youthful deeds set in Boeotia) could be relegated to the period after his labours as his various praxeis. We will now follow the labours with their associated parerga before passing on to the other adventures that were relegated in this way to the latter part of Heracles' life.
Ladder 1096
Flow 185
While performing his labours, Heracles received his orders from Eurystheus at Mycenae but lived elsewhere, basing himself at the ancient citadel of Tiryns to the south. He was accompanied to the Argolid by his nephew Iolaos, who assisted him in his labours as his charioteer, and also his half-brother Iphicles; but Megara remained at Thebes until Heracles visited her after completing his labours to settle his marital affairs (see p. According to a tradition mentioned by Apollodorus alone, the priestess at Delphi originally told the hero that he would have to perform ten labours over twelve years, but he was obliged to perform twelve labours in the end because Eurystheus refused to acknowledge two of them, objecting that Iolaos had helped him to kill the hydra (see below, p.
Compare 1097
Hub 1098
According to the narrative associated with this story, Heracles pursued the lion for twenty-eight days and throttled it to death on the twenty-ninth day, but then promptly fell asleep from exhaustion. As soon as he awoke, however, he hoisted the lion onto his shoulders and hurried away to Cleonai, first plucking some wild parsley (selinon) to make a crown for the sacrifice; and he arrived back just in time to prevent Molorchos from offering sacrifice to him as a dead hero.
Cycle 1099
Heracles strangles the Nemean lion. Attic amphora, circle of Exekias. After killing the lion, Heracles stripped it of its hide to provide himself with his familiar costume.
Ladder 186
Flow 1100
Ladder 1101
To make matters worse, Hera provided it with an ally by sending an enormous crab to bite Heracles on the foot. He managed to kill the crab, however, by crushing it underfoot, and now felt that he was justified in calling on the help of Iolaos as an ally of his own. So Iolaos prepared some firebrands, and whenever Heracles cut off one of the hydra's heads, he would assist him by cauterizing the stump to prevent a new head (or heads) from growing.
Compare 1102
Hub 1103
Compare 187
While searching for the boar, he had visited the Centaur PHOLOS, who lived in a cave on Mt Pholoe, to the south of the mountain where the boar had its lair. Pholos offered him some roast meat while eating his own meat raw (an indication of his semi-animal status), but hesitated to offer him any wine because the wine-jar in his cave was the joint property of all the Centaurs. Heracles insisted on having some wine nonetheless and opened the jar, provoking anger among the other Centaurs, who soon detected the smell of the wine and appeared at the cave, armed with rocks and uprooted fir trees.
Cycle 1104
Or, in a somewhat different version, Dionysos had left the wine with a Centaur four generations earlier, ordering that it should not be opened until Heracles arrived there, but when it was now opened for him by Pholos, the sweet scent of the old wine drove the neighbouring Centaurs into such a frenzy that they thronged to the cave to seize it for themselves. A fight broke out in any case between them and Heracles, who shot some of them on the spot with his arrows and put the rest to flight.
They sought refuge with Cheiron, who was a Centaur of nobler character, like Pholos. He was then living at Cape Malea at the south-east tip of the Peloponnese, after having been driven from his original home in Thessaly by the Lapiths. Heracles pursued the fleeing Centaurs all the way, and on arriving to find them cowering around Cheiron, shot an arrow at them which happened to strike Cheiron on the knee.
Flow 1105
Of those who survived the present confrontation, Nessos settled on the river Euenos in Aetolia, where he would later have another encounter with Heracles (see p. 266), while others were received at Eleusis by Poseidon, who hid them under a mountain. There were none at all to be seen by historical times.
Ladder 1106
Fourth labour: the Cerynitian hind The golden-horned Cerynitian (or Ceryneian) hind, which was sacred to Artemis, lived by the river Cerynites (or on Mt Ceryneia) in north-eastern Arcadia. Heracles was ordered to capture it alive; and, since it was a sacred beast, it would be improper for him to cause it even the slightest harm. According to Apollodorus, he chased it through Arcadia for an entire year until he finally brought it to the ground with a skilful arrow-shot (evidently without injuring it) as it was about to cross the river Ladon.
Compare 1107
Hub 188
Hub 1108
The birds were not dangerous in the original story; they look rather like geese in vase-paintings, with short bodies and long necks. They could be expected to present a problem to Heracles simply because there were so many of them. In literary accounts, the hero frightened the birds out of their coverts by creating a din with a bronze rattle or castanets, and then shot them down with his arrows as they rose up into the air.
Cycle 1109
Flow 1110
Before setting to work, he negotiated a fee, asking that he should be given a tenth of the cattle (or part of the kingdom) in return, which Augeias was happy to promise because he was unable to believe that the task could be fully completed. Rather than attempting to achieve it by hand, which would doubtless have been as impractical as it was humiliating, Heracles devised a more ingenious approach by diverting a local river (or rivers) through the enclosures to wash away the dung.
In different accounts, he diverted the Peneios and Alpheios, the two main rivers of the area, for this purpose, or the Alpheios alone, or else the Manios, a tributary of the Alpheios that ran through the city of Elis. Heracles returned to Augeias in triumph to claim his fee, only to find that the king had learned in the meantime that he was acting under order from Eurystheus, and now refused to pay him for work that he would have had to perform in any case.
Ladder 1111
Cycle 189
He even went so far as to deny that he had ever promised him a reward and declared that he would be ready to submit to arbitration; but when the matter was brought forward to be judged, his own son, Phyleus, testified on behalf of Heracles, saying that a reward had indeed been offered. Or else Phyleus himself acted as arbitrator and judged in favour of Heracles, or simply criticized his father for repaying a benefit with an injury. Augeias continued to refuse to pay the reward in any case and expelled his son from the kingdom.
Compare 1112
Hub 1113
When Heracles tried to claim his reward for clearing the stables, a certain LEPREOS (the eponym of Eleian town of Lepreon or Lepreos) advised Augeias to throw him into chains. Aggrieved by the insult, Heracles went to visit him at his home afterwards to teach him a lesson; but he agreed to be reconciled with him at the urging of his mother, and then proceeded to compete with him in a series of contests, in throwing the discus, in bailing-out water, and in seeing who could consume a whole ox in the shortest time.
Cycle 1114
Or, in a divergent account by the early Argive mythographer Acusilaus,74 it was the bull that had carried Europa to Crete (see p. 288; usually regarded as having been Zeus himself in animal form). Heracles was ordered to bring it back alive.
Although Diodorus states that he was helped in the enterprise by Minos, Apollodorus says quite the opposite, reporting that he sought the help of Minos but was told to tackle the beast on his own. For information on how he was supposed to have achieved this, we have to rely on vase-paintings, which indicate that he wrestled the bull to its knees and hobbled it. Diodorus reports that he rode through the sea to the Peloponnese on its back.
Flow 1115
Flow 190
Ladder 1116
Ladder 191
Eighth labour: the horses of Diomedes
Compare 1117
After overpowering the men who were in charge of the stables, Heracles seized the mares and led them down towards the sea; but Diomedes and his followers came to recover them before he could sail away, and he left them in the charge of Abderos while he was confronting the enemy force. Heracles soon killed Diomedes and put the Bistonians to flight, but he returned to find that Abderos had been killed by the horses in the meantime. So he buried him at the spot and founded the city of Abdera in his memory (on the northern coast of the Aegean about halfway between the Chalcidice and the Hellespont).
Compare 192
Ninth labour: the belt of Hippolyte
Hub 1118
Cycle 1119
Flow 1120
Apollodorus may be consulted for various minor episodes that came to be associated with Heracles' voyage to Asia.
Hub 193
Tenth labour: the cattle of Geryon
The monstrous GERYON (or Geryoneus, or Geryones), who was three men joined into one, has already been mentioned as a child of Chrysaor (see pp. 55-6); Heracles was ordered to fetch Geryon's cattle from his home island of Erytheia (Red Island), which lay in the outer Ocean towards the sunset in the far west. The hero travelled out through North Africa, killing many wild beasts on the way to prepare the area for human settlement.
Ladder 1121
Compare 1122
The dog soon detected the presence of the stranger and rushed to the attack, but was clubbed to death by Heracles, who also killed Eurytion when he came to the aid of the beast. On learning of the disturbance from Menoitios, who was pasturing the cattle of Hades on the island, Geryon set off in search of Heracles and found him driving the cattle away along the side of a river. A fierce fight ensued in which Geryon was shot dead.
Hub 1123
Cycle 1124
Flow 1125
Cycle 194
Ladder 1126
Compare 1127
Originally a private cult administered by two old patrician families, the Potitii and the Pinarii, it was considered to be of venerable antiquity (even if it cannot really have been so very ancient since Greek rites were practised at it). So what could be more natural than to imagine that it might have been founded by Heracles/Hercules himself in the very earliest times while he was in Italy, before he was a god and before the city yet existed? As he was resting by the Tiber with the cattle, so the story goes, a monster or brigand of the area called CACUS caught sight of the beasts from his lair on the Palatine hill (or the Aventine in one version) and stole some of them while the hero was lying asleep.
Flow 195
Dragging them tail-foremost to his cave, he blocked up the entrance with a huge boulder and awaited the departure of their owner. Although Hercules (as we may call him in this context) noticed their absence and tried to find them, he failed in his efforts because all the tracks seemed to lead away from the cave, and he was finally obliged set off without them. As he was driving the remaining beasts away, however, some of them began to low and their fellows within the cave (or just one of them) bellowed in reply.
Hastily seizing his club, Hercules rushed up the hillside towards the source of the noise, forced his way into the cave, and cudgelled or throttled Cacus to death to recover the cattle. In the traditional version, Cacus was a fire-breathing monster of semi-human appearance who tried to defend himself by spewing out blasts of flame; or, in rationalistic accounts, he was simply a ruffian of exceptional size. On hearing of the death of Cacus, Evander (Euandros in Greek), an Arcadian who was said to have ruled at the site at that time, approached Hercules to express his gratitude, and reported that his mother (who was a prophetic nymph) had foretold that Hercules was destined to be raised to the heavens as a god.
Although he appears as a seer in Etruscan images, he was apparently honoured as a fire-deity in early Rome in conjunction with a female counterpart called Caca. He was associated with the Palatine hill in particular (even if Vergil transfers his cave to the Aventine); a flight of steps known as the Scala Caci or 'Steps of Cacus' was cut into southern flank of the hill, leading up from the Circus Maximus. As a godling who was associated with fire, Cacus could easily be transformed into a fire-breathing monster who could serve as a worthy opponent for Hercules; and the fact that his name could be equated with kakos, the Greek adjective for bad or evil, may have encouraged this reinterpretation of his nature.
The most imaginative detail in the resulting story, the monster's ruse in making the cattle walk backwards to his cave, was surely recycled from the famous episode in early Greek myth in which Hermes tried to conceal his theft of Apollo's cattle by that means (see p. After his Italian detour, Heracles drove the cattle around the top of the Adriatic and down towards Greece. But as he was doing so, Hera tried to frustrate him by sending a gadfly against the cattle, causing them to disperse among the foothills of the mountains of Thrace.
She managed to detain him in Scythia for some time, bearing him three sons, Agathyrsos, Gelanos, and Scythes; and when the time came for him to depart, he left one of his bows and a sword-belt behind, telling her that the kingdom should go to the son who could draw the bow and put on the sword-belt in the proper way. When it later turned out that only the youngest, Scythes, was able to do so, she drove the other two away in obedience to their father's orders.
Ladder 196
The three brothers were the eponymous mythical ancestors of the Scythians and two neighbouring peoples, the Agathyrsoi and Gelanoi; and the story explained the origin of the distinctive Scythian bow, which resembled the bow that was supposed to have been used by Heracles.107
Compare 197
Eleventh labour: the fetching of Cerberos
As he advanced further into the land of the dead, he came across Theseus and Peirithoos, who had been imprisoned there ever since they had entered Hades alive with the crazy intent of abducting Persephone (see p. 314); and he raised Theseus up from his seat to set him free (along with Peirithoos in some accounts). He also tried to help Ascalaphos, an inhabitant of the Underworld who had been buried under a stone by Demeter (see further on p.
Other images show the hero approaching Persephone or Hades beforehand; since one or the other of them is sometimes shown watching as he pacifies Cerberos, it would seem that he was thought to have gained their permission beforehand as in the preceding literary accounts. After successfully intimidating or mollifying Cerberos, Heracles brought him up to the world above to show him to Eurystheus, ascending at Tainaron (or through the temple of Artemis at Troizen, or through a cleft in the earth at Hermione nearby, or through a bottomless cave at Heracleia by the Black Sea116).
As soon as he had proved the success of his mission, causing Eurystheus a considerable fright as he did so, he returned Cerberos to the gates of Hades to allow him to resume his normal duties. It was said that Heracles had himself initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries to prepare for his journey to Hades, which would have been a good idea because initiates could expect to be assured of a better fate in the Underworld (although normally after their death of course).
Hub 198
Cycle 199
Twelfth labour: the apples of the Hesperides
In the accounts offered by Pherecydes and Apollodorus,121 however, he travels to the northern fringes of the world by a strangely circuitous route: starting near the Ocean in the west, he travels across the whole breadth of Africa until he reaches the encircling Ocean again on the opposite side of the world, and sails around it to the Caucasus, where he meets Prometheus, and then proceeds on foot towards Atlas and the Hesperides, here located in the remote north near the Hyperboreans. This relocation was evidently thought necessary because of the role that Prometheus, as a prisoner in the Caucasus, was supposed to have played in this version of the story (see below, p.
We will begin by tracing in greater detail the outward journey as it is described in this latter version. The curious route makes some sort of sense if it is remembered that the present starting-point by the Ocean would have been the original goal of the journey, and that Heracles would originally have travelled west through Africa to reach it. Here too, of course, he must initially have passed west by some route after questioning Nereus.
The supposed tomb of Tinge could be seen near Tangier. According to a none-too-serious tale, Heracles was tied down by Pygmies while he was lying asleep after his encounter with Antaios (see p. After arriving in Egypt, Heracles fell under threat from yet another son of Poseidon, the fictional pharaoh BOUSIRIS, who seized and imprisoned him with the intention of bringing him to sacrifice, as was his usual practice with strangers.
The name of Bousiris was derived from that of a town in the Nile delta, Per-Usire or the House of Osiris, and he was said to have been borne to Poseidon by Lysianassa, a daughter of Epaphos, even though Epaphos, as the son of Io (see p. 215), must have lived many generations earlier. When the kingdom of Bousiris had once remained barren for nine years, a seer from Cyprus, a certain Phrasios, had revealed that fertility would be restored if a male visitor from abroad were to be sacrificed to Zeus every year; and after initiating the process by slaughtering the seer himself, Bousiris had continued to sacrifice foreigners ever since.
Flow 200
He arrived somewhere on the eastern shores of Africa in any case and borrowed the cup of Helios once again to sail north around the outer Ocean until he arrived at the Caucasus. Prometheus had been chained to a cliff in the Caucasus ever since he had incurred the anger of Zeus by stealing fire for mortals (see p. 87); and he was subjected to ever-renewed torment, for an eagle would peck each day at his liver, which grew anew each night.
Prometheus repaid Heracles for his services by advising him on how he could best achieve his quest. He suggested that the hero should not attempt to fetch the apples himself, but should ask Atlas to do so on his behalf, offering to take over the burden of the sky in the meantime. Happy to be released from his exertions for a while, Atlas set off on his way, procured three apples from the Hesperides, and brought them back to Heracles; but he was understandably reluctant to return to his arduous duty, and asked Heracles to continue to hold the sky for the present, saying that he himself would take the apples to Eurystheus.
Heracles' servitude to Omphale and major campaigns Heracles tries to win Iole as his wife, murders her brother Iphitos, and is enslaved to Omphale Now that Heracles was able to turn his thoughts to personal matters, he decided that the time had come for him to seek a new wife and found a new family. Since there could be no question of him returning to his original wife after killing the children of their union, he first travelled to Thebes to settle his affairs with Megara by arranging for her to marry his nephew Iolaos;139 and having heard that EURYTOS, king of Oichalia, was offering his daughter IOLE to anyone who could defeat him and his sons in at archery, he travelled on to Oichalia (apparently in Euboea, see pp.
267-8) to take up the challenge. We have already encountered Eurytos as the man who instructed the young Heracles in archery (see p. 238); his father Melaneus was a son of the archer-god Apollo.
As often in such cases, we can rely on Apollodorus for a good summary. When the priestess at Delphi initially refused to grant a response to Heracles (because he was still polluted by the murder of Iphitos), he was so enraged that he wanted to plunder the temple and carry off the tripod (on which the priestess sat while delivering her prophecies, see p. 138) with the intention of founding an oracle of his own; but Apollo came to seize it back; and the two fought together until Zeus separated them by hurling a thunderbolt between them.
So Apollo recovered the tripod and Heracles was now granted a response. According to the tradition at Delphi in Pausanias' time, Heracles picked up the tripod to remove it from the temple when the priestess, Xenocleia, refused to reply, but gave it back again when she speedily relented. Pausanias, who evidently regarded this as the original story, remarks that the poets had taken it up to sing about Heracles' fight with Apollo for the tripod.
This campaign marks the beginning of the period of his greatest deeds (praxeis, as opposed to his athloi or labours, see p. 242); for after bringing his Trojan campaign to a successful conclusion, he also became involved in a conflict with the Coans during his return, and went on to conduct three major campaigns within the Peloponnese itself. Since his war against Troy and subsequent campaign against Augeias in the Peloponnese were launched to avenge grievances that had been incurred during his labours, and since his three Peloponnesian campaigns fall into a natural group, these 'deeds' of Heracles could be plausibly assigned to a common period while he was still living in the Peloponnese after his labours.
This could be regarded as the third period of his life, after his early life at Thebes and the period of his labours, while the fourth and final period of his life could be said to have begun when he left the Peloponnese to marry the Aetolian princess Deianeira. According to the usual biographical pattern, as can be found in Diodorus and Apollodorus, he lived in central Greece from that time onwards, first at Deianeira's home city of Calydon and later at Trachis; and the adventures that were recorded for him in central and northern Greece (apart from the early episodes while he was based at Thebes) came to be assigned to this last period of his life.
During the third and penultimate period of his life with which we are presently concerned, Heracles either continued to live at Tiryns as he had during his labours, or else was forced out by Eurystheus after a time and moved to Pheneos in northern Arcadia, the home city of his grandmother Laonome. According to the latter tradition, Eurystheus ordered him to leave after he first tried to take revenge against Augeias (see p. 262), alleging that he was plotting to seize power in Argos.
This was HESIONE, the daughter of the king, who had been exposed there at the order of an oracle, to serve as prey to a sea-monster that had been sent against the land by Poseidon (see further on p. Feeling pity for the princess and seeing an opportunity for gain, Heracles had approached her father LAOMEDON and had offered to kill the monster in return for a specific reward, the divine horses that had been presented to Tros as compensation for the abduction of Ganymedes (see p.
401), for no specific tales were recorded for him in this connection and he might have had the effect of casting the colourless Jason into the shade. Some authors who were more interested in spinning a good yarn than observing the tradition acknowledged this latter point by making Heracles the leader of the expedition. If he did join the Argonauts, he sailed with them during the period of his labours or shortly after completing them.
In another account, Heracles lost five of his six ships in the storm and was wrecked on Cos in the last of them. After coming ashore, he met Antagoras, a son of the king who was tending the royal flocks, and asked him for a sheep to still his hunger; but Antagoras challenged him to a fight, and a general battle ensued when the Coans came to the help of Antagoras and Heracles too received support from his followers. On finding that the tide of battle was turning against him, Heracles sought refuge in a cottage that was inhabited by an old Thracian woman, who disguised him by dressing him in women's clothing.
Augeias had angered him in much the same way as Laomedon, by refusing to pay him the promised reward for a valuable service that he had performed, in this case the clearing of the Augeian stables (see p. On hearing of Heracles' intentions, Augeias assembled an army of his own, placing it under the command of Eurytos and Cteatos, the MOLIONIDES (or Moliones), who would prove to be a match even for Heracles himself because they were two men joined into one.
The later life of Heracles in Central and Northern Greece
In the Roman world, the magical horn was known as the cornu copias (i.e. horn of plenty), or in later Latin cornucopia; and it could be regarded as an attribute of Copia, the personification of Plenty (and also of Ceres, the harvest-goddess, as a goddess of plenty). Ovid combines Greek and Roman motifs by suggesting that naiad-nymphs filled the broken horn of Acheloos with fruits and flowers, and that Copia came to possess it as her horn of plenty.
He was accompanied on the journey by his wife and young son Hyllos, and perhaps other children too. Heracles confronts the Centaur Nessos and the Dryopians while travelling to his final home The journey was not without its risks and adventures. To begin with, Heracles and his wife had an disagreeable encounter with a Centaur on reaching the river Euenos not far to the east of Calydon.
This Centaur, NESSOS, used to carry people across the river in return for a fee and offered to do so on the present occasion, claiming that the gods had appointed him to the post of ferryman because he was of such excellent character. Although Heracles was quite capable of crossing over unaided, he willingly paid Nessos to carry Deianeira across. But the Centaur was in fact of no better character than most of his kind, and he attempted to rape Deianeira in mid-stream or on arriving at the opposite bank.
She alerted her husband through her loud screams, however, and he brought Nessos down with one of his poisoned arrows. As the life ebbed from his body, Nessos told Deianeira that if she wanted to acquire a powerful love-potion to use on her husband, she should collect some of the semen that he had shed on to the ground and mix it with some blood from his wound. She took him at his word and did so, little realizing that the mixture would be a virulent poison because the blood was tainted with the poison (i.e.
As this would indicate, the Dorians were living in northern Greece at this time prior to their arrival in Doris. Accompanied by some Arcadian followers, Heracles fought in support of Aigimios, helping him to defeat the Lapiths and killing their leader, Coronos, son of Caineus, with his own hand. Although he had been promised a share of Aigimios' kingdom as a reward, he refused to take it, asking instead that it should be kept in trust for his descendants.
There was no settled tradition on the location of Eurytos' city of Oichalia, for it was variously identified with places in Arcadia, Messenia, northern Thessaly and Euboea. Since it apparently lay no great distance by sea from Trachis, and Heracles stopped off at the north-western cape of Euboea during his return voyage, the Euboean site seems most plausible in connection with the present sequence of events. In that case, the city would have been situated near Eretria in the east-central region of the island, opposite southern Boeotia.
The death and apotheosis of Heracles
In the course of his return voyage, Heracles called at Cape Cenaion (now Cape Lichada) at the south-western tip of Euboea to offer a sacrifice to his father Zeus. He was unable to proceed with it at once, however, because he lacked the proper clothing, and he sent his herald LICHAS ahead to Trachis to fetch some ceremonial robes. While fulfilling his task, Lichas happened to mention to Deianeira that her husband was bringing Iole home with him as a captive; or he even told her that Heracles was in love with the princess.
Alarmed by this unwelcome news, Deianeira called to mind the supposed love-potion that she had acquired by collecting the blood and semen of the dying Centaur Nessos (see p. As we saw above, Nessos had told her that this mixture would ensure the fidelity of her husband, but it was in fact a virulent poison because the Centaur's blood had been contaminated with hydra's venom from Heracles' arrow. Taking Nessos at his word, however, Deianeira rubbed some of it into her husband's robes before passing them on to Lichas.
Or, in another story of the kind, she adopted him by offering him her breast.240 After his eventful life as a hero, he now enjoyed the timeless existence of a god, leaving little for his biographer to report. The story of the fox goes back to the epic cycle, fr. Comaitho fell in love with Cephalos, schol.
Cup and lengthening of night first in Pher. 24.1, new-born, Plautus Amphitryo 1123ff. 1327-8 with scholia; other versions, D.S.
3.32 (kills Linos with plectrum). 1.43.7, Conon 19; see also Paus. 9.27.5; seven nights, Herodorus 31F20.
33 Proclus, summary of Cypria. 2.4.12 (the Pythia changed his name from Alceides). 44 Epimenides 3B2 DK, cf.
Herodorus 31F4 and 21 (from moon, beings born there are fifteen times bigger than on earth), Euphorion fr. Moralia 677a; lion son of Selene), Hyg. 30 (nourished by Moon in a two-mouthed cave), Steph.
12 (killed by strangulation, as already described by Pisander = fr. 15.639-40 (that Copreus took messages from Eurystheus to Heracles). Madness of Heracles 1274, Palaeph.
Madness of Heracles, 419-22, Paus. 4F103, Herodorus 31F23; the proverbial phrase was already known to Archilochus, fr. 4.12.3-8 (Dionysos left the wine-jar); early references in Stes.
181 (Pholos served wine to Heracles in a huge bowl), Soph. 1095-6 (Heracles defeated the Centaurs). Madness of Heracles, 375-9, D.S.
2.5.6 (receives castanets from Athena), cf. 3F72; rationalistic accounts in which Heracles made them himself, Hellanic. 8.22.4, Heracles did not kill the birds).
30 (Stymphalian birds shoot out feathers), schol. 2.382 (the birds took refuge on isle of Ares after chased away by Heracles), Serv. 5.1.9-10 (Manios); see also Pi.
2.629 and 11.700 (Phyleus as arbiter, judges against Augeias); Hom. 2.628-30 (reference to exile of Phyleus). 1.27.9 (origin of bull of Marathon).
482-98, Madness of Heracles 380-5. 4F105 (Abderos torn apart by horses of Diomedes). Madness of Heracles 408-18; cf.
Madness of Heracles 235ff (opened straits). Early reference to raising of pillars, Pi. The episode was mentioned in the Prometheus Unbound, Aesch.
3.16.4-5; on Dorieus, see also Hdt. 15.12-59 (the city's foundation legend; mentions Heracles' visit to the site, but not the Lacinios episode). 102 Conon 3 (Latinos in MSS, sometimes amended to Lacinos).
104 Livy 1.7.3-15, Propertius 4.9, Verg. Madness of Heracles 23, Apollod. 2.354 citing Herodorus (= 31F31) and Euphorion (= fr.
2.5.12 (adopted by Pylios, initiated by Eumolpos), Plut. 4.25.1 (initiated by Mousaios), 4.14.3 (Demeter founds Lesser Mysteries). Odysseus' interrogation of the shape-shifting Proteus, Hom.
Madness of Heracles 394-9, A.R. Apollodorus is exceptional in referring to cattle rather than horses. 3F82b, but doubtful); see Hom.
21.22-30 for an early account of the murder of Iphitos. 3F82b (sold by Hermes for three talents), Apollod. 2.6.2 (Eurytos refuses money); cf.
247-52 (sold into slavery for a year), D.S. 4.31.5-7 (sold by friend abroad, compensation paid to sons of Iphitos), Hyg. Moralia 557c; first definite literary reference, Cicero N.D.
3.16.42, possible early reference, Pi. 4.31.7 (killed Syleus with own hoe). 3F78.; early references to episode, Hom.
3F78 (Thessalos fathered on Chalciope). 8.14.9 (Iphicles killed by Molionides). 5.3.1 (different version in which Augeias is spared).
156-60; sometimes described as a son of Poseidon, e.g. 3.26.8 (Nestor at Gerenia; Gerenios is an epithet of Nestor in the Iliad, e.g. 5.395-7 (disputed passage about Heracles' wounding of Hades) with schol.
398-402 (to Olympos to be healed); Pi. 2.7.3 (Hades wounded while assisting Pylians); Paus. 6.25.2-3 (Heracles assisting Eleian Pylians).
Shield 357-67, Panyasis fr.6 Davies. (Cepheus and sons and Iphikles killed), D.S. 4.33.5-6 (three sons of Cepheus survive).
286 (lost poem that told how Heracles courted Deianeira and fought the tauriform Acheloos). 195 Origin of horn, Zenob. 2.48; early references to it, Anacreon 361, Pher.
3F42; Amaltheia as goat itself, Call. 31; for rationalizations, see D.S. 4.36.1 (king here named Phyleus).
4F2 and Herodorus 31F3 (both in Athen. 2.13.8 (disliked something that the boy gave him to drink), schol. 1.1212 (used water from foot-bath).
16.31-5 (baneful gift from Nessos). 4.34.9; Dryopians in Messenia, Paus. 68ff (stirred up by Apollo), 367-422 (the fight).
Deianeira asks Lichas to take the robe to Heracles, 600ff.; its effects reported to her, 750ff. 36 (rock appeared in sea at place where he fell). 930-1 (Deianeira stabbed herself), 971ff (Heracles' arrival in Trachis), Paus.
2.23.5 (her tomb near Trachis or at Argos). 231 Poias lights pyre, Apollod. 2.7.7; Philoctetes does so, D.S.
236 Lucian Hermotimus 7, Ov. 285-6 on the late origin of these passages); Hes.
12 The return of the Heraclids
The adventures of the sons and descendants of Heracles and Deianeira form the subject of an important legend, or body of legend, extending over four or more generations, which tells how the Heraclids eventually established themselves in the main centres of the Peloponnese after various setbacks. Since they were said to have accomplished their aim with the help of a mainly Dorian invasion force, this legend of the 'return' of the Heraclids provides a mythological account of the Dorian migration to the Peloponnese, the so-called Dorian invasion.
Ladder 201
The return of the Heraclids
The adventures of the sons and descendants of Heracles and Deianeira form the subject of an important legend, or body of legend, extending over four or more generations, which tells how the Heraclids eventually established themselves in the main centres of the Peloponnese after various setbacks. Since they were said to have accomplished their aim with the help of a mainly Dorian invasion force, this legend of the 'return' of the Heraclids provides a mythological account of the Dorian migration to the Peloponnese, the so-called Dorian invasion.
The Heraclids could lay claim to Mycenae and the Perseid lands of the Argolid by virtue of Heracles' Perseid descent, and they could thus be described as having returned to their ancestral homeland. The Greek word for their enterprise, kathodos, was in fact doubly suitable, because it could mean both return and descent: by descending from Central Greece into the Peloponnese, they were returning to the land of their forebears to claim an inheritance that circumstances had denied to Heracles himself.
Since he had settled the succession at the two other main centres in the Peloponnese, namely at Sparta (see p. 264) and at Pylos (see p. 263, then the dominant city of Messenia), they could also lay claim with some show of plausibility to the two southern lands of the peninsula.
Although all the children and descendants of Heracles could be described as Heraclids (just as all descendants of Inachos are Inachids), the name was applied in particular to his legitimate sons and their descendants who took part in this enterprise, the final accomplishment of which was destined to be delayed until many decades after the hero's death. His half-cousin Eurystheus tried to destroy his family after his death, but Eurystheus and his sons were killed during the ensuing conflict, and the Heraclids then assumed the offensive by trying to invade the Peloponnese.
Their initial hopes were frustrated, however, for reasons that will be considered shortly, and the final conquest would not be achieved until well after the Trojan War, fifty years after it ended according to the usual tradition. The legend of the return thus takes us almost to the very end of the mythical era. The conquest had to be dated to this late period because it was well-established in the early tradition that Pelopids still ruled at Mycenae and Sparta, and Neleids at Pylos, for a generation or two after the Trojan War, and the Dorians were known moreover to have been latecomers to the Peloponnese.
It was explained that the Dorians supported the Heraclids in their enterprise as a result of the ties that Heracles had established with them by helping Aigimios in his war against the Lapiths (see p. 267), when they were still living in northern Thessaly. Since the Dorians, as a people of northern origin, could have had no prior claim to any territory in the Peloponnese, this legend provided a mythical justification for their settlement in the peninsula, by presenting them as having been led by Heraclids who had founded the royal lines in the conquered territories on the basis of legitimate claims.
We should not expect to discover anything of value about the historical movement of peoples from this body of legend, any more than from the mythical account of the Ionian settlement of Asia Minor that came to be brought into connection with it (see p. It was a mythical construction, which was of relatively late origin for the most part, and there is good reason to suppose, moreover, that the story of the Dorian invasion was first brought into connection with the return of the Heraclids at a secondary stage.
It should be remembered, besides, that the migration of the Dorians to the areas where they settled would not have been an invasion of the kind described in the myth, but a very gradual process. Eurystheus meets his own death while trying to eliminate the Heraclids When Heracles was no longer available to protect his sons, Eurystheus naturally attempted to eliminate them, to ensure that his own branch of the family would be able to maintain its dominance in the Perseid lands of the Argolid in the long term.
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That king was named either as Theseus or his son Demophon, with careless disregard for the normal mythical tradition in either case, since neither could have been on the throne at the time in question, after the death of Heracles and not long before the Trojan War; for Theseus had to go into exile immediately after he was rescued from the Underworld by Heracles (see p. 315), and Demophon, if he ever became king of Athens, did not recover his father's throne until after the Trojan War (see pp.
So it was necessary that a mythical explanation should be offered to account not only for their failure on the present occasion, but also for the long delay that would ensue after that initial failure. Two main stories were put forward for that purpose. In one Hyllos, who was leader of the Heraclids during this first invasion, fought in single combat with a Peloponnesian champion, on the sworn agreement that if he were defeated, the Heraclids would stay away from the Peloponnese for fifty or a hundred years, i.e.
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for the full period of the delay. Or, according to the other account, an oracle ordered them to withdraw from the Peloponnese after they mounted a successful initial invasion, and they then met with defeat in successive generations, as a result of their misinterpretation of subsequent oracles, when they repeatedly tried to invade before the proper time. As is indicated most clearly in the latter version, the delay was not merely accidental but was providentially ordained.
To start the simpler version, which is first recounted by Herodotus, the Heraclids tried to force their way into the Peloponnese soon after the death of Eurystheus, but were confronted by a strong Peloponnesian army at the Isthmus of Corinth. This anachronistic notion of a united Peloponnesian force, anticipating the Peloponnesian League, which was first established in the sixth century bc, gives some indication of the late origin of this legend. Wanting to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, Hyllos suggested that the issue should be settled by a duel between himself and a champion from the opposing army, on the sworn condition that the Heraclids would be able to reclaim their ancestral rights in the Peloponnese if Hyllos won, but would attempt no further incursion for a hundred years (or fifty years) if he should lose.
So they withdrew to Attica and settled at Marathon for the time being. Whether by the same oracle or a different one, the former subjects of Eurystheus at Mycenae were instructed to choose a Pelopid as their new ruler, and the resulting accession of Thyestes, son of Pelops, and then his brother Atreus (see p. 422), marked the beginning of an interlude of Pelopid rule at Mycenae and subsequently at Sparta.
After leading the Heraclids out of the Peloponnese, Hyllos consulted the Delphic oracle about when they could properly return, and was told that they should wait 'until the third harvest'. Naturally assuming that this meant three years (rather than three generations), he led an army into the Peloponnese at that time, only to meet his death. There is a gap in the relevant text at this point, but even if he was killed by Echemos at the Isthmus, it would not have been as the result of a duel on the above-mentioned terms; for the Heraclids continued to seek oracles to find out when they should return, and when we are able to pick up the story again, Hyllos' grandson ARISTOMACHOS is consulting the Delphic oracle about a fresh invasion (possibly after a failed attempt by his father Cleodaios).
On being told that the invasion would succeed if the Heraclids approached the Peloponnese 'by the narrow route', Aristomachos led them across the narrow Isthmus of Corinth, but was defeated and killed nonetheless. When Aristomachos' eldest son, TEMENOS, came of age, he consulted the Delphic oracle once again (together with his two brothers in one account), and was surprised to receive the same advice as before. On further questioning, the god explained that the Heraclids had brought their previous misfortunes on themselves by misinterpreting his oracles.
Cycle 204
While it was still at Naupactos, a priest of Apollo, Carnos by name, arrived there and wandered among the troops delivering oracles in an inspired frenzy. Although he meant no harm, they took him for a sorcerer who had been sent by the enemy to cause their destruction. So Hippotes, son of Phylas, one of the Heraclids, killed him with his spear, provoking Apollo to afflict the army with a famine and cause the destruction of the fleet.
In that case he himself would have taken part in the drawing of the lots, but in the usual tradition his share of the inheritance was allotted to his infant sons Procles and Eurysthenes. Cresphontes was so anxious to gain possession of Messenia, the fertile south-western region of the Peloponnese, that he rigged the draw to ensure that he did. In most accounts he achieved that as follows.
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Ladder 206
The first Heraclid rulers of Sparta, Messenia, and Argos
As a result of the draw, however unsatisfactory it may have been, Temenos became the first Heraclid king of Argos, and Cresphontes that of Messenia, while Sparta was allotted to the sons of Aristodemos or to Aristodemos himself. If Sparta was allotted to Procles and Eurysthenes, the infant sons of Aristodemos, after the death of their father, as the usual tradition suggested, THERAS, son of Autesion, who was descended from the kings of Thebes (see p. 364), ruled from the beginning on their behalf as regent, after having represented them during the draw.
So far as the story can be reconstructed from fragments and other records, Polyphontes was aware that the child had survived, and promised a reward of gold to anyone who would kill him; but he grew up unharmed and later returned to Messenia to avenge his father's death. He approached Polyphontes under a false name and told him that he had come to claim the reward for having killed the prince. While he was sleeping as a guest in the palace, his mother Merope, who had been forced into marriage with Polyphontes in the meantime, entered his room with an axe to kill him in the belief that he had murdered her son; but an old servant who was aware of his true identity warned her just in time.
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For his son ARCHELAOS had been driven into exile by his brothers, so the story went, and had sought refuge in Macedonia with a local ruler called Cisseus. Being under attack from some neighbours at the time, Cisseus promised to award him the throne and his daughter's hand if he would put these enemies to flight. When Archelaos claimed his reward, however, after defeating these enemies in battle, Cisseus tried to kill him by means of a ruse; for he told his servants to dig a pit, to fill it with burning coals, and to cover it over with light branches so that Archelaos would fall in and be killed.
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As has been mentioned, he was not himself of Heraclid descent, but belonged to the old Theban royal family and had gained his position because his sister was married to the Heraclid leader Aristodemos (see p. The island of Thera in the southern Aegean, which is formed from the remains of an ancient volcano that erupted in a massive explosion in about 1400 bc, was said to have been visited by Cadmos during his fruitless search for Europa (see p. On that occasion he had installed some of his Phoenician followers there under the leadership of a certain Membliaros,41 and the island had thus remained under the rule of descendants of Membliaros until Theras arrived there eight generations later, and laid claim to the throne as a descendant of Cadmos.
This feature was introduced into the legend to enable a link to be established between the origin of Thera and the founding of Cyrene, the most important Greek colony in Africa, which was founded from Thera in the mid-seventh century bc. When the Argonauts had called in at Lemnos during their outward journey, they had fathered children by the women of the island (see p. 400 for the circumstances), and descendants of these children were later expelled from Lemnos, so it was said, and settled in Laconia, where they married local women; but they behaved with such arrogance that their hosts turned against them, and some of them, including descendants of Euphemos, were thus happy to sail away with Theras when he invited them to do so.
During the reign of Thymoites, a war broke out between Attica and Boeotia, and the Boeotians proposed that the outcome should be settled by single combat between the kings of the two lands; and being none too brave, Thymoites was unwilling to take the risk, and offered to surrender the throne to anyone who was willing to fight the duel on his behalf. The challenge was taken up by Melanthos, who won the fight by means of a ruse, for as the king of Boeotia was drawing close to Xanthios (or Xanthos), Melanthos accused the king of having cheated by bringing a second man to support him, and when the king looked back in astonishment to see if someone was really following him, Melanthos hurled his spear at him and struck him dead.
Cycle 209
Along with some contingents from other parts of Greece, the younger sons of Codros set off accordingly with a mixed force in which Ionians predominated. On arriving at the central region of the west coast of Asia Minor, the emigrants divided into separate groups to found the twelve main cities of the area, which was known as Ionia from that time forth. Some of these cities had independent foundation-myths of their own that had to be reconciled with this story.
(Macaria offers herself; it should be mentioned, however, that she is not directly named in the text); Paus. 1.32.5 (child of Heracles to offer self, spring of Macaria at Marathon); Zenob. 2.61 (Macaria in proverbial phrase).
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(messenger reports, including, 844-64, Iolaos and capture of Eurystheus), 928ff. (Alcmene and killing of Eurystheus). 4.58.1-5 (Heraclids must withdraw for fifty years).
3.13.4 (indicates that this is an aetiological legend explaining the origin of the cult of Apollo Carneios), Conon 26.1. 5.3.5-6 (driving one-eyed mule, specifies crossing-point), Str. 8.3.33 (= Ephorus 70F115); for the story of how he seized the city of Elis, and his rule there, see Paus.
2.8.3, two latter versions, Paus. For names of Medon and Strophios, Paus. 2.8.5; Hyrnethos' tomb in Argos, Paus.
2.19.1 (Ceisos becomes king), 2.26.2 (Deiphontes in Eidauros; see also 2.28.3 for the story of the death of Hyrnetho at Epidauros). 137 for probable plot; Eur. Diodorus states unhelpfully that Tlepolemos killed Likymnios 'in a quarrel over certain matters'; on this, see also schol.
Conon 26.2 (here Aletes drove out the Sisyphid kings). The rise to power of Phalces, Aletes and Oxylos is noted by Ephorus 70F18b (from Str. 8.8.5) along with other dynastic changes associated with return of the Heraclids.
8.137-8 (a good story); D.S. Hellanic 4F125 (similar except that Aletes is not named), Pl.Symp. 7.2.1-2; Neleus as founder of twelve cities of Ionia, first Hellanic.
Ladder 211
13 Minos, Theseus and the myths of Crete
After having traced the history of the Argive branch of the great Inachid family, which was descended from the Argive river-god Inachos, we must now pass on to a second main branch of it, the royal family of Crete. As was explained at the beginning of Chapter 10, Io, a close descendant of Inachos, wandered far away from her native Argos to settle in Egypt, and three major ruling lines, those of Argos, Crete, and Thebes, were founded (or in the case of Argos, continued) by descendants of Io who were born in Egypt or Phoenicia (see p.
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Minos, Theseus and the myths of Crete
After having traced the history of the Argive branch of the great Inachid family, which was descended from the Argive river-god Inachos, we must now pass on to a second main branch of it, the royal family of Crete. As was explained at the beginning of Chapter 10, Io, a close descendant of Inachos, wandered far away from her native Argos to settle in Egypt, and three major ruling lines, those of Argos, Crete, and Thebes, were founded (or in the case of Argos, continued) by descendants of Io who were born in Egypt or Phoenicia (see p.
The Cretan branch was descended from Europa, a descendant of Io in the fourth generation, who was abducted to the island by Zeus from Phoenicia, the land of her birth. The mythical history of Crete during the time of its greatest king, Minos, the eldest son of Zeus and Europa, was closely interwoven with that of Athens during the time of Theseus and his father Aigeus, as anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with the myth of the Minotaur will be aware.
An exile from Athens, Daidalos, helped Minos' wife to conceive the monster and built the labyrinth as a home for it; by sailing against Athens during the reign of Aigeus, Minos forced the Athenians to send a regular tribute of young people as food for it; and the young Theseus eventually killed it with the aid of advice from Daidalos, setting in course the train of events that would lead to the death of Minos himself. In view of this connection, it will be convenient to consider the mythology of Minos in conjunction with that of the young Theseus, during the period before he became king of Athens.
We will return to Theseus in the next chapter to follow his adventures as king after tracing the further history of the Cretan royal family, which is a relatively short history compared to that of the Argive and Theban branches of the Inachid family, because Minos had only two successors before the accession of his grandson Idomoneus, who was ruling at the time of the Trojan War.
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Minos, the Minotaur, and the young Theseus
Europa is abducted to Crete by Zeus and bears Minos and other children to him As was described in Chapter 10 (see pp. 215ff.), Libye, a granddaughter of Io, the Argive princess who had wandered away to Egypt, bore twin sons to Poseidon named Belos and Agenor, who were destined to become the ancestors of the three afore-mentioned Inachid royal lines; for Danaos, a son of Belos, returned to his ancestral homeland of Argos with his many daughters and took up the throne there, in succession to rulers from another branch of the family (see p.
Mystified by her sudden disappearance, Agenor ordered his sons to set off in search of her, telling them not to return under any circumstances until they had found her. They all failed in their search, however, and were therefore obliged to settle elsewhere. By bearing Minos to her divine abductor in Crete, Europa became the founder of the Inachid ruling line there, while her brother Cadmos founded the great city of Thebes in Central Greece and the royal family that ruled there (see pp.
It should be mentioned that Europa is sometimes described as a child of Phoinix rather than of Agenor, as is Cadmos too, but this makes no practical difference to their story, see further on p. In the earliest surviving account of Europa's abduction, as ascribed to Hesiod (i.e. the author of the Catalogue) and Bacchylides, Zeus fell in love with her when he saw her gathering flowers with her attendant maidens in a meadow in Phoenicia, and turned himself into a bull to carry her away.
He gave her some marvellous gifts, a necklace from the workshop of Hephaistos (sometimes identified with the necklace of Harmonia, see p. 333), a huge man of bronze called Talos, who guarded the coasts of the island until he was killed by Medeia (see p. 410), and an infallible hunting dog and hunting-spear (which were later taken to Attica by Procris, see p.
325).4 When the time came for him to take leave of her, he arranged for her to marry ASTERIOS (or Asterion), king of Crete, who adopted her divinely begotten sons and fathered no further children by her.5
Cycle 214
Flow 215
Minos, Pasiphae, and the origin of the Minotaur
There was also a dissenting tradition, however, especially fostered at Athens (a land oppressed by him in myth as we will see), that represented him as having been a brutal tyrant. His name has been associated with the distinctive 'Minoan' civilization of Crete ever since that name was attached to it by its discoverer Sir Arthur Evans, but it is safer on the whole to put this out of one's mind when considering his myths. Most of the main legends of Minos were connected in one way or another with the MINOTAUR, and it was in connection with that monster that his story becomes intertwined with that of Theseus.
The Minotaur came to be born to his wife Pasiphae in the following circumstances. To demonstrate to the Cretans that his claim to the throne was approved by the gods, Minos prayed to Poseidon to send a bull up from the sea, promising to sacrifice it to him on its arrival; but he was so impressed by its beauty when it appeared that he mixed it into his own herds, substituting another at the sacrifice. Or, in a rather different version, he used to sacrifice the finest bull that was born in his herds each year as an offering to Poseidon, but when a beast of wholly exceptional beauty was born one year, he kept it for himself and sacrificed another instead.
bull of Minos), although some mythographers report that it was properly named Asterios or Asterion after Minos' adoptive father.12 At the request of Minos, Daidalos constructed a huge covered maze, the Labyrinth, to serve as its home and prison (see Figure 13.1).13 Figure 13.1. Pasiphae nurses the infant Minotaur. Interior of an Etruscan canteen.
Cliché Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. Daidalos was an Athenian who had fled from his native city because he had murdered his nephew. For he had taken his nephew Talos (or Calos, or Perdix) into his house as an apprentice, but had grown increasingly jealous when the youth proved to be so ingenious that he threatened to overshadow his master.
Ladder 216
For Talos proceeded to invent all kinds of wonderful devices including the potter's wheel and an instrument for inscribing circles; and when the sight of a snake's jawbone with its neat row of jagged teeth (or else the sight of the backbone of a fish), inspired him to invent the first saw, this ultimate feat overstrained the jealousy of Daidalos, who murdered him by hurling him down from the Acropolis. When his corpse was discovered on the ground below, Daidalos was arraigned for murder at the court of the Areiopagos (see p.
As one of the finest athletes of the age, ANDROGEOS, son of Minos, travelled to Athens to compete in the Panathenaic Games, only to meet his death there in circumstances that are variously described. It was commonly agreed that he aroused resentment by winning the victory in every event, and in one version his jealous rivals killed him as a consequence, by ambushing him as he was travelling to Thebes to compete in the funeral games for Laios;17 but in another version Aigeus, the king of Athens, contrived his death for reasons of state, sending him to confront the ferocious bull of Marathon (see p.
For another tale in which a girl came to a bad end after removing a magical hair from her father's head, see p. Athens was able to offer more effective resistance, and the war dragged on until Minos eventually lost patience and prayed to his father Zeus for assistance, prompting him to afflict the Athenians with a famine and a plague. After attempting to free themselves from their troubles by means of human sacrifices, the Athenians consulted the Delphic oracle, which advised them to compensate Minos by offering him whatever reparation he might demand.
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The birth of Theseus and his adventures on the road to Athens
Although AIGEUS, king of Athens, married twice over after ascending to the throne, taking Meta, daughter of Hoples, as his first wife, and Chalciope, daughter of Rhexenor, as his second, he failed to father any children by either marriage and came to feel increasingly vulnerable without an heir to support and succeed him. When he consulted the Delphic oracle about the matter, he received an enigmatic response advising him 'not to untie the mouth of the wineskin until he arrived at the heights of Athens'.
In terms of some fairly obvious symbolism, this meant that he should not have intercourse with any woman until he reached his wife in Athens, evidently because this would result in the conception of a son. Aigeus was mystified, however, and travelled out of his way during his return journey to seek the advice of PITTHEUS, son of Pelops, the king of Troizen, who was renowned for his wisdom. Although Pittheus recognized the meaning of the oracle at once, he kept it to himself because he wanted to ensure that his daughter AITHRA would bear the child to Aigeus (for the first and perhaps only son of the king of Athens would surely be destined for a glorious future).
This idea may well have originated Troizen, where Poseidon was highly honoured as patron god of the city. According to a local legend recorded by Pausanias, Athena sent a dream to Aithra to tell her to cross over to Sphairia, a little island just off the coast, to pour a libation to Sphairos (a former chariot-driver of Pelops who was buried there), and when she did so, Poseidon caught her by surprise and had intercourse with her, causing her to conceive Theseus.
Cycle 219
Flow 220
Theseus is acknowledged as heir to the Athenian throne, and sets off for Crete with the tribute Now that Theseus had arrived safely in Athens, it should have been easy for him to prove his identity to his father by showing him the tokens that he had brought, and so come to be acknowledged as his son and heir; but he was faced with an unexpected problem because Jason's former wife, Medeia, a woman of strong and ruthless character, had married Aigeus in the meantime (see p. 413) and had borne him a son, Medos, and she now set to work to plot the death of Theseus to protect her own interests and ensure that her own son would succeed to the throne.
She attempted to achieve her aim in two ways, by contriving that he should be sent out against the fierce bull of Marathon, and that he should be poisoned at a banquet. Realizing who he was, before he was able to prove his identity to his father, she persuaded Aigeus that the newly arrived stranger was conspiring to seize the throne, and the king responded by sending him to confront the bull, in the belief that he would surely be killed by it.
This savage beast, which was causing havoc in the countryside around Marathon in north-eastern Attica, was often identified with the Cretan bull that had been sent mad by Poseidon in his anger against Minos (see p. 289), and had later been brought to the mainland by Heracles as one of his labours (see pp. Theseus set off without delay to confront the bull at its usual haunts and subjected it to his will; for it would seem that he did not kill it on the spot in the earliest version of the story, but subdued it to bring it back to Athens.
While travelling across Attica to confront the bull, Theseus was caught by a storm and was granted shelter and hospitality by an old woman called HECALE, who lived in the deme (parish) of that name between Athens and Marathon. As he set off on the following morning, she vowed to offer a sacrifice to Zeus if he returned safely from his encounter with the bull. When he arrived back afterwards, however, he discovered to his sorrow that she had died in the meantime, and acknowledged her kindness by founding the local festival of Zeus Hecaleios.
Ladder 221
When he rose up from the sea with the divine gifts and the ring, Minos was put to shame and the young Athenians rejoiced. Theseus kills the Minotaur with help from Ariadne, but abandons her during the return voyage After his arrival in Crete, Theseus received invaluable assistance from one of the king's daughters, ARIADNE, who fell in love with him and did her best to ensure that he should survive. We will begin by following the earliest full account, as ascribed to the early mythographer Pherecydes, who showed a special interest in Theseus as an Athenian author.
Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of string, so we are told, which she had acquired from Daidalos, the builder of the labyrinth, and told him to tie the end of it to the door as he entered, and then unwind it until he reached the innermost part of the maze; and if he caught the Minotaur asleep there, he should seize him by the hairs of his head and sacrifice him to Poseidon, and then make his way out of the labyrinth by winding the thread back again. He duly killed the Minotaur, presumably with his sword, escaped from the labyrinth, and embarked on the ship on which he had come, along with Ariadne and the youths and maidens from the tribute whom he had saved in this way.
There was also another version of the story, recorded in the astronomical literature, in which Theseus lit his way through the labyrinth with a wondrous crown that he had received from Ariadne. For Dionysos had previously visited Crete with the intention of seducing her, and had given her this marvellous crown, which had been made by Hephaistos with gold and Indian jewels, and it shone in the dark, enabling Theseus to lighten the gloom of the labyrinth (and presumably escape without any need for the thread).
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Lekythos depicting Theseus and Ariadne being woken up by Athena, 460 bc red-figure pottery, Italy. Ancient Greek civilization, Magna Graecia, fifth century bc. © akg-images/De Agostini Picture Lib./G.
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The flight of Daidalos and Icaros, and death of Minos
On discovering that Daidalos had helped Theseus to escape through the advice that he had offered to Ariadne, Minos ordered that he should be arrested and imprisoned in the labyrinth along with his son ICAROS, who had been borne to him by a slave-girl in the palace. Or, in another account, Minos took this action after discovering (rather belatedly it would seem) that Daidalos had enabled Pasiphae to conceive the Minotaur by building the wooden cow for her. Daidalos was far too clever to submit to incarceration without devising a means of escape, and set to work to make pairs of wings for himself and his son, constructing them from birds' feathers and wax.
Before flying off, he warned his son not to soar too high, since the wax would then be melted by the sun, nor to descend too low, since the wings would then be damaged by moisture from the sea; but Icaros was so exhilarated by the flight that he soared higher and higher until his wings eventually melted and he plunged to his death in the sea below. He fell into the south-eastern region of the Aegean that was known as the Icarian Sea ever afterwards.
Cycle 224
The family of Minos and later kings of Crete
Sarpedon is driven out by Minos, and he and Miletos cross over to Asia Minor After the death of Minos, the throne passed to his eldest son Catreus, but before passing on to the later mythical history of Crete, we must consider the myths of Sarpedon and Rhadamanthys, the two younger brothers of Minos. Although Zeus and Europa are said to have had two sons alone in the Iliad, Minos and Rhadamanthys, SARPEDON was named as a further son of theirs in the Hesiodic Catalogue,72 and this Sarpedon was identified moreover with the Sarpedon who fought at Troy, even though the Trojan War must have taken place long after the death of Minos, and the Sarpedon who fought in it was associated with Lycia in Asia Minor rather than with Crete or the Greek islands.
This Homeric account of Sarpedon's origins came to be displaced in the later tradition by one that made him a son of Europa born in Crete. It is by no means clear why the author of the Catalogue, if he was responsible for this innovation, should have regarded such a change as desirable (although it has been suggested that it may have been introduced to provide Sarpedon with a more favourable ancestry, since Sisyphos, who was the founder of his line in the Homeric genealogy, was a notorious rogue whose descendants tended to come to a bad end).
Although nothing is known about how the matter was treated in the Catalogue, a power struggle with Minos might be thought to be the most obvious cause for his departure, and Herodotus states accordingly that he fought with Minos for the Cretan throne, but was defeated and expelled along with his followers. The exiles then established themselves in the land that would come to be known as Lycia, and began to call themselves Lycians when Lycos, son of Pandion, king of Athens, arrived among them after being expelled from Attica by his brother Aigeus (see p.
His mother, who is called Areia as in Apollodorus' account, hid him in a yew tree (milax) after his birth, according to this tale, but he was recovered by his grandfather Cleochos, who named him Miletos after his hiding place. The report is vague about the circumstances of his subsequent exile, merely stating that he had to go abroad because he aroused the resentment of Minos (perhaps in matters of love, or because Minos suspected that he was plotting a revolt, as in a later account by Ovid).
Flow 225
The children of Minos and Pasiphae, and the legend of Glaucos
Catreus succeeded his father as the eldest son, to be followed by his brother Deucalion, after he and his only son died in quick succession in tragic circumstances. Deucalion's son and successor Idomoneus was on the throne when the Trojan War broke out, and led the Cretan contingent to Troy. Before tracing the history of the rulers of Crete, we must consider a remarkable story recorded for Minos' youngest son Glaucos, and the various fates of Minos' daughters.
In any normal circumstances GLAUCOS would have died during his early childhood, for he fell into a huge jar of honey while chasing a mouse (or while playing with a ball) and was drowned. Mystified by his disappearance, Minos searched for him everywhere without success, and finally summoned together the finest seers of the age to ask how the child might be found. Having been told by the Couretes (see p.
202) or Apollo that he would be found by the man who could find the best image to describe a marvellous cow in the king's possession, which changed colour every four hours (or twice a day) from white to red and then to black, Minos put this question to the seers, and Polyidos, a Corinthian descended from the great seer Melampous, provided the best answer by saying that the cow resembled a blackberry (or mulberry), which changes colour in that sequence as it ripens. Polyidos then immediately set to work to discover the child, and seeing an owl putting birds to flight above the place Glaucos had met his accident, he recognized this as a sign and searched the cellar below until he found the child's body.
Minos was not satisfied with a mere corpse, however, and ordered that Polyidos should be shut in with the dead child until he discovered a way to bring him back to life again. When a snake happened to approach the child's body, Polyidos threw a stone at it and killed it, thinking that he would be in even worse trouble if any harm came to the body. This action proved to be his salvation, because another snake crept up to its dead companion and brought it back to life by applying a special herb to it, and Polyidos then imitated the snake by applying the herb to the body of Glaucos, causing him to be brought back to life in his turn.
Before allowing the seer to sail home with his reward, Minos demanded that he should teach Glaucos to become a seer like himself. So Polyidos instructed him under force of necessity, but told him to spit into his mouth just before he sailed away, and on doing so the child forgot everything that he had learned. An alternative version in which Glaucos was restored to life by Asclepios was presumably of secondary origin.
According to Apollonius, Minos became so angry with her after she had once become pregnant by Apollo that he drove her from the land, causing her to settle in Libya, where she gave birth to Garamas, the eponym of a Libyan people called the Garamantes, a grandson who would come into conflict with the Argonauts.96
Catreus and his children, Idomoneus and Meriones
423), she is always said to have been delivered to Pleisthenes in the surviving accounts of this story. She became the mother of Agamemnon and Menelaos in either case. As for Clymene, she bore two or more sons to Nauplios, most notably the ingenious inventor Palamedes who was murdered by Odysseus at Troy (see p.
3.1.1; Agenor's wife as Argiope, Pher. 12.92 citing Hesiod (= fr. 171) and Bacchylides (= fr.
4.60.3, etc.; the necklace, Hes. 4.1643-4; dog and spear, Eratosth. 6 Ibid.; Ariadne and Deucalion mentioned as children of Minos in Hom.
8 The supposed sea-empire of Minos, e.g. 1.171, Aristotle Politics 2.10 (1271b 33-40), Str. 9 Visits to Zeus, Pl.
5.78.3; the idea was apparently inspired by Hom. 3.1.3-4 (bull sent up from sea), D.S. 4.77.2-4 (latter version); see also Hes.
145 (very incomplete, but bull apparently sent up from sea and became father of Minotaur), Eur. For another account of why the bull was sent, see Paus. 2 (first mention of wooden cow), D.S.
40 (Pasiphae inspired with the aberrant desire by Aphrodite for neglecting her cult). 4.77.4 etc.; labyrinth first mentioned as home of Minotaur, Philochorus 328F17, Call. 14 Murder of Talos and exile, D.S.
1.21.5 (Calos as victim), Soph. 8.236-59 (Perdix transformed into a partridge, perdix, afterwards). 16 Son of Metion, Pher.
4.76.1; son of Eupalamos, Bacch. 1.27.8; on childhood of Theseus, see also Plut. 2.32.7 ('Theseus' Rock' near Hermione).
35 For the cycle as a whole, see Apollod. 37 For this and each of the following exploits, see the sources cited in n. 39 This version in D.S.
45 Construction of road, Paus. 1.44.10; blocked during Persian War, Hdt. 48 For this less common account, D.S.
14 (following Philochorus = 328F109), Call. 54 By lot, Pher 3F148; Minos comes, Hellanic. 4F164 (cited as variant by Plut.
4.61.4; scarlet sails to be raised as signal, Simon. 42 (again brief and uninformative), schol. 18.590; sabotaged Cretan ships, Pher.
19; the story was so famous that Plutarch felt no need to offer any further details). Thesesu is here described as killing the monster with his bare fists. 43 (abandons her because he fears disapproval if he brings her to Athens).
1.9; for other variants, see Plut. 1.22.5; hence the name of the Aegean Sea, Hyg. 4.77.5-9 (with rationalized alternative), Paus.
7.170 (Minos died in Sicily while seeking Daidalos), Soph. 324 Radt (mention of shell). 78 Ephoros 70F127 (= Str.
79 Aritokritos 493F3; for Ovid's account, see Met. 16.419-507; conveyed to Lycia by Sleep and Death, ibid. 3.1.2 (Rhadamanthys laid down laws for the islanders).
50 (left Crete after killing brother). 33 (citing Pherecydes = 3F84). 136 (explains nature of wondrous cow and mentions omen of owl and bees); cf.
This was the subject of Aeschylus' Kressai, Sophocles' Manteis, and Euripides' Polyidos. 4.1492; mother of Miletos, Ant. 105 Proclus on Cypria, Apollod.
106 Commended by Agamemnon, Hom. 112 Son of Molos, Hom. 10.269-70; Molos brother of Deucalion, D.S.
5.79.4, illegitimate son of Deucalion, Apollod. 116 Grave in Crete, D.S. 5.79.4; see also ps.Aristotle Peplos 15.
14 The kings of Athens
Theseus becomes king of Athens, quells a revolt, and abducts an Amazon, provoking an Amazon invasion We must now return to Theseus, to consider his further career after he became king of Athens. He ascended to the throne immediately after his return from Crete as a result of the suicide of his father, and proceeded to institute many political reforms.
Ladder 226
The reign and adventures of Theseus
Theseus becomes king of Athens, quells a revolt, and abducts an Amazon, provoking an Amazon invasion We must now return to Theseus, to consider his further career after he became king of Athens. He ascended to the throne immediately after his return from Crete as a result of the suicide of his father, and proceeded to institute many political reforms. Or, so it came to be increasingly claimed, for his older mythology has to be distinguished from the mass of pseudo-historical material, mostly of Hellenistic origin, that came to be attached to the story of his reign.
Pandion had long resented the fact that Aigeus had taken the Athenian throne for himself after recovering it with the help of his brothers (see p. 327); and it is also reported that he alleged that Aigeus (and thus Theseus too) had no rightful claim in any case because he had merely been an adopted son of Pandion, his true father having been a certain Scyrios (presumably the eponym of the island of Scyros, where Theseus was supposed to have owned ancestral properties, see p.
Compare 227
The tomb of Antiope could be seen at Athens in historical times, as could that of the Amazon who had killed her.14
Hub 228
The tragedy of Phaidra and Hippolytos
In this play, Hippolytos is presented as a chaste and austere huntsman who is an ardent devotee of the virgin goddess Artemis. In his single-mindedness, he has, by contrast, scorned the cult and works of Aphrodite as the goddess of love, provoking her to create trouble for him by causing his stepmother to fall helplessly in love with him. Although Phaidra is ashamed of her semi-incestuous passion and struggles against it in secret, even trying to find a release in death by refusing her food, her practically minded nurse worms the secret out of her, and then approaches Hippolytos on her behalf without her knowledge.
The young Hippolytos, who is portrayed as an unimaginative and self-righteous young man, is thoroughly shocked and responds with a long rant about the vileness of women in general and of Phaidra in particular; and when Phaidra hears of this, she fears that Hippolytos will denounce her and takes her own life, leaving a note accusing him of rape (partly out of anger, and partly to ensure that her reputation and the prospects of her sons will be salvaged). On reading the letter, Theseus curses Hippolytos to his father Poseidon (who had previously promised him the fulfilment of three curses), and scornfully brushes aside his son's protestations of innocence.
Diana's most notable cultic centre was her sacred grove at Aricia, which was located beneath the Alban Mount, about seventeen miles south-east of Rome. The grove lay in a wooded hollow by a still lake, the Lacus Nemorensis (Lake of Nemi), also known by the more poetic name of Diana's Mirror, and the goddess shared it with two lesser deities, the spring-nymph Egeria and an obscure minor god of aged appearance called VIRBIUS. Now it was a rule of the grove that horses were strictly excluded from it, and to explain the origin of that rule and of Virbius himself, the following supplement was added to the legend of Hippolytos.
After he was revived by Asclepios (with the help of the healing-god Paian in this account from Ovid) Diana/Artemis enshrouded him in a deep mist because she knew that the lord of the Underworld disapproved of the revival of mortals. To ensure his future safety, she then transformed his appearance to make him look older, conferred a new name on him (which would have been desirable in any case since his old one would have reminded him of horses, hippoi), and spirited him away to her grove at Aricia to live there under her protection as a minor god.
Cycle 229
The LAPITHS (Lapithai) were a warlike people of that northern land who were best remembered for their conflict with the CENTAURS, a struggle in which Theseus was often said to have become involved as a result of his friendship with Peirithoos. Thessaly was the original homeland of the Centaurs, and quite apart from being neighbours of the Lapiths, they could also be said to have been related to them, because they had been brought into being by a son whom Ixion, the father of Peirithoos, had fathered in the following remarkable circumstances.
They were pictured either as a complete man with the chest and hindquarters of a horse springing from his back, or else as a horse with the upper body of a man springing from where its equine head would otherwise be, the former representation being the more ancient. Female Centaurs were a later invention, for as in the case of other semi-animal nature-spirits, such as Satyrs and Tritons, it was traditionally imagined that they had nymphs as their wives and daughters.
After being defeated, the Centaurs had to seek a new home and settled in Arcadia, another wild mountainous region, where they lived until they were foolish enough to provoke a conflict with Heracles (see p. The legend of the conflict between the Lapiths and the Centaurs was a very ancient story, which was known to Homer. The aged Nestor remarks in the Iliad that the mightiest warriors whom he had ever seen, or ever expected to see, were Peirithoos, Dryas, Caineus, Exadios, and Polyphemos (all Lapiths) and their ally Theseus, who had fought and destroyed the mighty beasts (phēres) of the mountains;33 and the Odyssey reveals something about the origin of the hostilities, if the same episode is envisaged, as seems likely.
Flow 230
A child of the Lapith chieftain Elatos, he was originally born as a girl called Cainis, but came to be transformed into a man in the following circumstances. When still quite young, Cainis was raped by Poseidon, who then tried to offer some sort of reparation by allowing her to choose whatever she most desired; and to ensure that she could never be subjected to such treatment again, she asked to be transformed into a man, and into an invulnerable man moreover.
Since he was invulnerable and could thus suffer no harm from spears, swords, and other piercing weapons, it might be thought that the Centaurs were not faced with the easiest of tasks, but they managed to kill him by hammering him into the ground with tree-trunks or boulders (or both), which were in any case their normal weapons (see Figure 14.1). It is added by Ovid, probably through his own invention, that Caineus now underwent a second transformation, for a bird with golden wings flew up into the air at the place where he had been buried beneath the earth.
Since the bird is of the appropriate colour and is described moreover as being the only one of its kind, it would seem that we are meant to think that he was turned into the phoenix.39 Figure 14.1. Caineus battered into the ground by Centaurs. Bronze relief from Olympia, c.
Theseus and Peirithoos abduct Helen from Sparta, and try to abduct Persephone from the Underworld After helping to defeat the Centaurs, Theseus and Peirithoos went off together at some point to take part in the hunt for the Calydonian boar and (in some accounts) the voyage of the Argonauts;40 but their most remarkable enterprise was the final one in which they set out to abduct two daughters of Zeus, including the queen of the Underworld, as their brides after their previous wives had died. There seems to have been nothing unusual about the circumstances of Hippodameia's death, by contrast to that of Phaidra.
Ladder 231
Compare 232
The exile and death of Theseus
While Theseus was far away in the world below, Helen's brothers (or half-brothers) the Dioscuri came to Attica to recover her, and proceeded to ravage the land when the Athenians told them that they did not have her and did not know where she was. In the end, however, the secret of her hiding place leaked out or was betrayed to them. Two main stories were put forwards to explain how this came about.
When he noticed one day that an eagle had landed on what appeared to be a burial mound, and was pecking at it with its beak and tearing at it with its talons, he concluded that this must be a sign and ordered his followers to dig at that spot. When they did so, they found the coffin of a man who had been of enormous size (as would be expected of a hero of old), with a bronze spear and a sword lying beside it.
348); at the urging of Adrastos, he forced Creon, king of Thebes, to consent to the burial of the Argive dead after the expedition of the Seven (see p. 358); and he granted refuge to the Heraclids at Athens after the death of their father and helped them to defeat their persecutor, Eurystheus (see p.
Hub 233
Acamas and Demophon, the sons of Theseus; the last Theseid kings of Athens
His sons DEMOPHON and ACAMAS are not mentioned in the Homeric epics, but that is by no means surprising because they were exiles who had no followers to lead to war. It is known, however, that two later epics in the Trojan cycle, the Little Iliad and Sack of Troy, described how they recovered their grandmother Aithra from Troy at the end of the war. She had been serving Helen as a maidservant since the Dioscuri had captured her while rescuing Helen from Attica, and she stole out of Troy at the time of its fall, according to the Little Iliad, and found her way to the Greek camp, where she was recognized by her grandsons.
It was usually said that one of them achieved that after the other had lost his life on the way, as the result as the result of an encounter with a Thracian princess called PHYLLIS, who was the daughter of the king of the Bisaltians or Edonians of south-western Thrace. According to Apollodorus, Phyllis fell in love with Demophon when he called in at her land, and her father offered her to him as a wife with the kingdom as a dowry.
Cycle 234
Demophon was supposed to have been succeeded by his son Oxyntes, whose son Thymoites was the last descendant of Theseus to rule at Athens.74 For the inglorious story of how Thymoites came to lose his throne, and the subsequent end of the Athenian monarchy, see p. The earlier kings of Athens
Flow 235
Athenian legends and the Athenian king-list
We must now complete our survey of Athenian myth by tracing the mythical history of Attica from the earliest times up until the birth of Theseus. Although Attica had a hero of the very first rank in Theseus, and also produced a few lesser figures such as Daidalos, Cephalos and Menestheus, who played a role in major episodes from saga, the province was of surprisingly limited significance in early heroic myth. If due exception is made for the stories that have already been covered in this and the previous chapter, most of the legends of Attica and the Athenian royal family can be assigned to the category of local myth, either as tales from folklore, or as antiquarian legends that were devised to account for the origin of local cults, institutions, and other peculiarities.
Even if Attic legends of this kind were probably of no greater interest or number than those of many another province, the cultural and political prominence of Athens from the time of the Persian Wars onwards, and also the eloquence of its writers, ensured that they came to be better known than many of their equivalents in other lands. The legends of the province also attracted special interest from the mythographers. Hellanicus made a particular study of them in the fifth century bc, and authors of the Hellenistic period followed his lead by developing a special branch of literature, Atthidography, that was devoted to the antiquities of the land.
For reasons such as these, this largely provincial body of legend established a firm foothold in the canon of Panhellenic myth (as is attested by the full treatment of it in Apollodorus' handbook). The Attic king-list was a highly artificial creation that did not finally acquire its definitive form, as shown in Table 19, until as late as the third century bc. In the time of Herodotus, it would seem that only four kings were recognized as having reigned before Theseus, firstly Cecrops and Erechtheus/Erichthonios, the earth-born first rulers of the land, and then Pandion and Aigeus, the two predecessors of Theseus.
But since Cecrops and Erichthonios were supposed to have lived at the very beginning of history (like Pelasgos in Arcadia or Deucalion in Central Greece) while Theseus and his immediate predecessors must have lived in the period directly preceding the Trojan War, the mythographers were obliged to add several new names to the list if it was to be synchronized with comparable lines in other places, such as Argos or Thebes. This was achieved in two ways. In the first place, additional earth-born rulers, Cranaos and Amphictyon (who were already known as early mythical figures but not as kings), were inserted between Cecrops and Erichthonios at the head of the list; and second, some kings who were already included in the list were reduplicated.
A second Cecrops and a second Pandion were thus introduced, while Erechtheus/Erichthonios (who was originally the same person under two different names, see p. 322) was divided into two separate individuals, the earth-born Erichthonios and his grandson Erechtheus, son of Pandion. By this process, the following king-list was developed: Cecrops I - Cranaos - Amphictyon - Erichthonios - Pandion I - Erechtheus - Cecrops II - Pandion II - Aigeus - Theseus.
Since the early kings of Athens not only originated in cult rather than in heroic myth, but were also reduplicated in some cases, it is hardly surprising that most of them should be insubstantial figures with few proper myths. As a further step in the systematization of Attic myth, mythographers allocated floating stories associated with other heroes or heroines to a specific point in time, usually by attaching the relevant hero or heroine to the royal line as a child or descendant of a particular king.
Ladder 236
Among other innovations, he was said to have introduced the first laws, the building of cities, the practice of burying the dead, the use of animal-skins for clothing, and even the art of writing (although Cadmos, see p.
321), a later king of Athens whose mythology will be considered below, all three of them were also said to have embarked on love affairs with gods, which resulted in the birth of various minor children. According to a fairly old tradition, Aglauros bore a daughter ALCIPPE to Ares, the god of war. This Alcippe appears together with her father in a legend that was devised to account for the origin of the Areiopagos, an ancient high court at Athens, which tried crimes involving bloodshed.
326), Daidalos was condemned to death in his absence for murdering his nephew (see p. 289), and, most famously of all, Orestes was said to have been before this court for killing his mother Clytemnestra, in the first case to be judged by a jury of Athenian citizens (see p. Other tales told how the god Hermes was supposed to have entered into liaisons with one or more of the daughters of Cecrops.
Compare 237
Athena was angry with Aglauros, however, for having opened the chest that contained the infant Erichthonios (see below), and the goddess was thus determined that she should not win the favour of Hermes and a fortune in gold besides. So, she incited Envy (Invidia in Ovid's Latin) to frustrate her plan by causing her to become jealous of her sister for having gained the love of a god. Overcome by this new-found jealousy, Aglauros was no longer willing to assist Hermes when he arrived to court her sister, but seated herself in front of the door of Herse's bedroom to prevent him from entering.
When Gaia brought him to birth, she rose up from the ground to present him to Athena, who shut him up in a chest and entrusted it to one or all of the daughters of Cecrops, strictly ordering them not to open it under any circumstances. As mentioned just above, these maidens were named Herse, Pandrosos, and Aglauros. Needless to say, the temptation to look was irresistible, and one or more of the sisters peeped into the chest, with disastrous consequences.
Hub 238
In the earliest surviving account, in Euripides' Ion, the three sisters opened the chest to discover that Athena had placed two guardian snakes in it along with the child, and they met a bloody death afterwards on some rocks, presumably after having thrown themselves down from the Acropolis in terror or madness, as in some later accounts. It is generally stated in subsequent sources that one or two of the sisters alone peeped into the chest, and that Athena had placed one or two snakes inside to guard the child.
According to Apollodorus, the chest was entrusted to Pandrosos, but was then opened by her two sisters, who saw a snake coiled around the infant; and in some accounts, so he reports, the guilty sisters were killed by the snake, while in other accounts they were sent mad by Athena and hurled themselves down from the Acropolis. Herse and Aglauros were the erring sisters in Pausanias' account too, although the chest is now said to have been entrusted to all three of them; or in an account by the early Hellenistic mythographer Amelesagoras, the offence was committed by Aglauros and Pandrosos, or in Ovid's version, by Aglauros alone, not that these variations make any great difference.
In the Hellenistic and later tradition, a clear distinction was drawn between this Erichthonios, as the marvellous child who was born from the earth and reared by Athena, and Erechtheus, as a subsequent ruler who was remembered in more adult roles as a leader in war and paterfamilias, and was honoured in cult on the Acropolis in close connection with Poseidon. It is generally believed, however, that this distinction with the accompanying division of roles was first established for chronological reasons by the mythographers, and that the two figures were originally a single person under alternative names.
Since games were held in connection with the festival, it was further suggested that he invented the four-horse chariot and used to compete as a chariot-driver in the games; and an astral myth adds that Zeus was so impressed by his initiative in imitating the sun-god Helios (who travelled across the sky in a chariot of this kind, see p. 41) that he raised him to the heavens to become the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). It is no surprise to discover that his wife, who is described as a naiad nymph, bore the same name, Praxithea, as the wife of Erechtheus; she bore him a single son, Pandion, who succeeded him as king of Athens.93
Cycle 239
Pandion and his daughters, Procne and Philomela
When Pandion became embroiled in a border-dispute with Labdacos, king of Thebes, he sought the assistance of TEREUS, king of Thrace, a fierce son of Ares; and after bringing the war to a successful conclusion with his aid, he expressed his gratitude by offering him his elder daughter PROCNE as a wife. So, Tereus took her away to his northern homeland, where she bore him a son, Itys, and everything went well initially, until Procne began to feel lonely and asked her husband to travel to Athens to fetch her sister PHILOMELA for a visit.
While travelling back with Philomela, he was overcome by lust for her and raped her, and then cut out her tongue and hid her away in a remote spot to conceal his crime, telling Procne that she had died in the course of the journey. But Philomela wove an account of her sufferings into a pattern and sent it to her sister, who fetched her and set to work to exact ruthless revenge on Tereus. Slaughtering Itys, the only child of their union, she boiled his flesh, and served it as a meal to her unknowing husband, and then took flight with Philomela, heading southwards.
Flow 240
Erechtheus and his war against Eumolpos and the Eleusinians
95), came to be absorbed into the Athenian state. The legend first appears in the remains of a lost play by Euripides, the Erechtheus. When the war broke out, the Eleusinians summoned the aid of EUMOLPOS, son of Poseidon, who marched to their assistance with a large force of Thracians.
Ladder 241
The daughters of Erechtheus, and the legend of Cephalos and Procris
Irrespective of the above-mentioned tale of their sacrifice and suicide, the daughters of Erechtheus were said to have married, and two indeed were said to have had remarkable adventures. CHTHONIA, who is sometimes named as the daughter who was sacrificed, was otherwise supposed to have married her uncle Boutes (see p. 322),117 while CREOUSA married Xouthos, a son of Hellen who took refuge in Athens after being exiled from his native Thessaly, and became the mother of Ion and Achaios (see p.
For Euripides' exceptional portrayal of the history of Creousa and Ion, in which she had quite as eventful a life as her other two sisters, see p. OREITHUIA was carried away by Boreas, the wild North Wind, while she was playing or gathering flowers by the banks of the Ilissos, just outside Athens, in quiet and pretty surroundings that are described by Plato at the beginning of the Phaedrus. An altar was erected to Boreas at the spot where this was supposed to have happened.
Or, in other accounts, she was seized from the Acropolis or Areiopagos. As Plato remarks, the myth could easily be rationalized if it was imagined that she had been blown to her death from some rocks by a gust of wind. The legend stated all the same that Boreas carried her off to his chilly home in Thrace, where she bore him twin sons, Zetes and Calais, known jointly as the Boreads (Boreadai), winged beings who were able to fly through the air like their divine father.
PROCRIS, the remaining daughter of Erechtheus, married CEPHALOS, a son of Deion (or Deioneus), son of Aiolos, from Central Greece, and lived with him in the country outside Athens. There are several conflicting accounts of their troubled marriage. In the earliest surviving narrative by Pherecydes, Cephalos subjected her to a bizarre test soon after their wedding by abandoning her for eight years and then returning in disguise to see whether he could seduce her by offering her some finery; but although she yielded to the temptation, the two of them patched up their differences and resumed their married life.
According to Apollodorus, a certain Pteleon won his way into her bed by offering her a golden crown, and she sought refuge with Minos in Crete after her husband found out. Minos fell in love with her and was eager to seduce her; but his wife Pasiphae had become so exasperated by his infidelities that she had put a spell on him, causing him to ejaculate wild beasts (snakes, scorpions, and millipedes, according to another source) if he ever slept with another woman, with fatal effect on her.
In return for two precious gifts, however, a very swift dog and a marvellous hunting-spear that always hit its mark, Procris found a cure for his malady by giving him a magical potion containing the 'Circaian root', and then went to bed with him. Fearing the jealousy of Pasiphae, she then returned to Athens, taking the gifts with her, and reached an accommodation with her husband. She liked to go hunting with him, for she was as fond of hunting as he was; and as she was pursuing some game through the thicket one day, Cephalos hurled his javelin (presumably the infallible one from Crete) without realizing that it was her, and struck her dead.
45, rather than a son of Deion). It seems likely that this was an innovation introduced by Nicander. We may start with the familiar account in Ovid's Metamorphoses before passing on to that recorded by Antoninus, which probably follows Nicander more closely (although no source is indicated).
The dawn-goddess abducted Cephalos two months after his marriage, so Ovid relates, but he yearned so passionately for his wife that the goddess soon lost patience with him and sent him back to her. In her anger at being scorned, however, Eos encouraged him to doubt the fidelity of his wife, and transformed his appearance to enable him to test her in the guise of a stranger. By promising her a fortune in return for her favours, he brought her to the point of yielding and then revealed his true identity.
Overcome by shame, and feeling resentment at the male sex on account of his underhand behaviour, she left home in shame to wander the hills as a huntress. Finding that he was tormented by love in her absence, he finally sought a reconciliation, confessing that he too might have yielded to such a temptation. So, she returned to him, bringing two marvellous gifts, a swift-running dog and a wonderful spear, which she had received from Artemis in this version.
Although she refused an initial offer of gold, she agreed to sleep with the stranger when he doubled the bribe, and was duly caught by her husband when she arrived for the assignation. She abandoned him in shame and sought refuge with Minos in Crete. As in Apollodorus' version above, she won the favour of Minos by helping him to overcome his strange sexual problem; in this account he was distressed by this affliction (which is not said to have been imposed on him by his wife) because it was preventing him from fathering children by his wife.
Procris contrived a mechanical solution by inserting a goat's bladder into a woman's vagina and causing him to discharge the snakes, scorpions, and millipedes into it before he had intercourse with his wife. On finding that he was therefore now able to father children by her, he rewarded Procris by giving her the infallible dog and hunting-spear. She then returned to Attica and put Cephalos to the test in his turn.
Eos accosted Cephalos while he was out hunting one morning, but he rejected her, saying that he had sworn to remain faithful to his wife. So the goddess transformed his appearance and gave him some beautiful gifts to enable him to test whether his wife was as faithful as he was. Procris was caught out in the usual way and fled to Crete, where she sought to join the hunting party of Artemis; but she was turned away because the goddess accepted virgins alone as her companions.
On hearing Procris' story, however, Artemis felt sorry for her, and gave her the unfailing dog and spear and sent her off to test Cephalos. She achieved this in the same way as in the preceding version. The couple resumed their married life now that the wrongs were balanced out, and all might have been well if Procris had not feared that her husband might be meeting Eos in secret.
Nisos also figures in the body of myth associated with Theseus and Minos, since Minos attacked him at Megara (see p. 291) before proceeding to Athens to impose the tribute of food for the Minotaur. Notes 1 Isocrates Helen 35, D.S.
13 (claim that Aigeus merely adopted), Apollod. 3.15.5 (Scyrios said to have been true father). 1.16 (mentioning Melanippe and Hippolyte as variants, citing Simonides for the latter, cf.
26 (citing Philochorus = 328F110), Hyg. 10 'Most authorities, including Pherecydes (= 3F151), Hellanicus (= 4F156) and Herodorus (= 31F26), tell us that Theseus made an expedition of his own there after the time of Heracles', Plut. 175 and vase-paintings; Phorbas, Pher.
685-90; On the Amazoneion, D.S. 1.16 (camped by the Areiopagos). 14 Full account with variants in Plut.
1.2.1 (tombs of Antiope and Molpadia), 1.41.7 (Amazons flee to Megara). Phaidra is mentioned among the celebrated women in the Underworld in Hom. 28 citing the Theseis (= fr.
II (brief remarks on the contrast between the two plays), cf. Asclepiades 12F28 (a version of this kind, perhaps based on Hippol. 33, Ovid Heroides 17.248 respectively.
32 War between Lapiths and Centaurs, D.S. 12.210-535; Centaurs try to rape bride, conflict apparently settled in battle immediately, Apollod. 1.21; Theseus arrives after start of conflict, Herodorus 31F27 (from Plut.
Helen 26; alternative account in which war starts because Centaurs demand share of kingdom, D.S. 12.189-207; early references to change of sex, Hes. 2F22 (here called Caine as girl).
42 Alcman 21 (one source Paus. 1.41.5), Stesichorus 191 (see p. 4F134 (because sons of Zeus and Poseidon).
1 Davies (cited in Paus. 9 Davies (as reported in Paus. 1.24 (held down by snakes also), Vat.
1, 48 (chained down), Horace Odes 3.4.78-80 (Peirithoos still chained), 4.7.27-8 ('Lethaean bonds'). Madness of Heracles 1169-70 (earliest reference to rescue of Theseus), schol. 4.63.4 (some say neither released), cf.
55 Stesichorus 191 (as reported in Paus. 1.23-4 (suggests, perhaps mistakenly, that the Dioscuri captured Athens), Paus. 1.24 (Lycomedes cast him into an abyss), Paus.
1.17.6 (Lycomedes plotted his death because of his high reputation), Lyc. 2.553-5; 4.327-8, 13.331ff, 13.195-6, 689-90. 35 (died at Troy), Tzetz.
23 Davies, Sack of Troy fr. except that Acamas takes the place of Demophon), Lucian On Dancing 40. The story was familiar to the Roman poets, see e.g.
3.14.1; his double form, Eur. 76 Cecrops as judge, Xen. 3.14.1; Cecrops and Cranaos as judges, Apollod.
7.194, Cicero On Laws 2.63, Philochorus 328F98, Tacitus Annals 11.14. On this matter in general, see Philochorus F94-8 with Jacoby's notes. 63 Wehrli; later Justin 2.6.7, Suidas s.v.
8.2.3 (Zeus Hypatos), 1.26.6 (bloodless sacrifices), Philochorus 328F97 (Cronia). 3.14.2 (mother and daughter named as Agraulos), Paus. Aglauros the usual form, first Eur.
Actaios as first king of Athens. 81 Died young and childless, Apollod. 1.31.2 (death and tomb), 1.18.5 (statue from Delos), Athen.
9, 392d (= Phanodemos 325F2, on mission to Delos). 1.21.7; Euripides alludes to the tale in Electra 1258-63, Iph. 83 Son of Aglauros, Paus.
1.38.3; of Pandrosos, Androtion 324F1; of Herse, Inscriptiones Graecae 14.1389. 986-91 refers to his connection with Eos without saying anything about his birth. 1.2.6, Marmor Parium 239A 2,4 Jac.
2.552-61; see also Euphorion fr. Autochthones, 'Pindar and the author of the Danais say that Erichthionios appeared from the earth' (= Pi. Clear distinction between the earthborn Erichthonios and the later Erechtheus in Eur.
The name Erichthonios first on a hydria dated to c. 93 Founder of Panathenaia, Hellanic. 3.14.6; invented chariot, became constellation, Eratosth.
568 and Sappho 135 (swallow called Pandionis), Aesch. 58-67 (wife of Tereus killed own child, now pursued as nightingale by hawk, cf. 45 in which Tereus became hawk), Soph.
581-95 Radt (apparently much as in later vulgate). 3.15.1; descent of Daidalos from Erechtheus ibid. 3.15.4, much as in Eur.
360 Nauck (one of three daughters must be killed); cf. 46 (curious version in which Poseidon orders the sacrifice after Erechtheus has killed Eumolpos). 50 and 65 Austin; for another explanation of the origin of the Hyacinthides.
Ion 275-80 (killed all but the youngest, Creousa), Demosthenes 60.27. 111 See Lycurgus Against Leocrates 98-100. 113 Isocrates Panathenaicus 193, Hyg.
Moralia 607b, Lucian Demonax 34. 118 Abduction first mentioned, Simon. 5.19.1 (on chest of Cypselos); Acus.
12.61 for a comparable story associated with Thurii. 3.15.1; fled to Thebes, Paus. 122 Fr.ep.incerti loci 1 Davies.
1.5.3; on exile of king of Megara in Peloponnese, Paus. 130 Exile in Messenia, Paus. 4.1.6-7, 4.2.6; in Lycia, Hdt.
s.v Lykia; his prophecies, Paus.
15 Theban mythology from Cadmos to Oedipus
The great city of Thebes in southern Boeotia, which ranked with Argos in early mythical history as one of the two most important centres in Greece, was ruled by another of the three main branches of the Inachid family, descended from Europa's brother Cadmos. In this chapter we will trace the mythical history of Thebes from its foundation until the death of Oedipus, before passing on in the next chapter to the culminating episode in its history, the Theban Wars, two conflicts in which the city was attacked by armies that had set out from Argos.
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Theban mythology from Cadmos to Oedipus
The great city of Thebes in southern Boeotia, which ranked with Argos in early mythical history as one of the two most important centres in Greece, was ruled by another of the three main branches of the Inachid family, descended from Europa's brother Cadmos. In this chapter we will trace the mythical history of Thebes from its foundation until the death of Oedipus, before passing on in the next chapter to the culminating episode in its history, the Theban Wars, two conflicts in which the city was attacked by armies that had set out from Argos.
As we have seen, the Inachids were descended from the Argive river-god Inachos, and the family divided into its three main branches after a close descendant of his, Io, wandered far away from her native Argos to Egypt. These three branches were descended from her great-grandsons Belos and Agenor (see p. 216), for while Danaos, a son of Belos, returned to his ancestral homeland with his many daughters to become king of Argos, two children of Agenor, Cadmos, and Europa, became the founders of the Theban and Cretan royal families.
It will be remembered that Agenor founded a kingdom in Phoenicia, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and that when his daughter Europa disappeared from the land, he ordered his sons to set off in search of her and not return until they had found her (see pp. No one knew that Europa had in fact been abducted to Crete by Zeus, where she bore Minos to him, the first Inachid king of the island; and her brothers failed without exception in their search and settled abroad in different lands.
Hub 243
Cadmos and the founding of Thebes
After searching through much of the Aegean for Europa without meeting with any success, they finally arrived in Thrace on the northern shores of the sea. When Telephassa died there, Thasos gave up in despair and settled on the island off the Thracian coast that thus came to be known as Thasos. According to Herodotus, the island's famous gold mines were first discovered by the Phoenicians who settled there with him.
Cycle 244
Jason threw stones at them accordingly to try to reduce their numbers by provoking them to fight among themselves, whereas Cadmos, who had no interest in killing in them because they would provide him with useful citizens, was said to have hurled the stones in panic, if he did so. If the central difference in the circumstances is kept in mind, it can be inferred with some certainty that the motif of the stone throwing originated in Argonautic myth, and that there was thus traffic in both directions between the two bodies of myth.
Flow 245
There were rival legends, however, as so often with inventions, and some authors were naturally inclined to ascribe a purely Greek origin to the art of writing by crediting the ever-ingenious Palamedes (see p. 471) with its invention, or Cecrops, a primordial king of Athens.24
Ladder 246
The children of Cadmos and Harmonia; the death of Actaion
The disasters that befell the daughters of Cadmos are mostly considered elsewhere. Semele provoked her own destruction by making her lover Zeus promise to visit her in his true divine form (see p. 163); she was pregnant at the time with his son Dionysos, who was snatched from her womb and sewn into the thigh of Zeus until it was time for him to be born.
Ino and her husband Athamas reared the infant Dionysos for a while, much to the anger of Hera, who punished them by sending them mad and so caused the destruction of Ino and her two children (see p. Agave married Echion, one of the five Spartoi, and bore him a son Pentheus, who ruled Thebes for a short period as the successor of Cadmos. She and her son were destined to suffer at the hand of Dionysos, who incited her and other Theban women to tear Pentheus to pieces to punish him for having failed to acknowledge his divinity (see pp.
Autonoe for her part married a minor rustic god, Aristaios (see p. 146), and bore him a single child, ACTAION, who is remembered for the story of his death. He had a passion for hunting, liking nothing better than to roam through the uplands of Boeotia with a large pack of hounds.
He was destined to meet a terrible death, however, while still at a young age, when Artemis turned him into a stag and caused him to be hunted down by his own dogs. In the earliest tradition, she imposed this grim fate on him on behalf of Zeus, because he was courting his aunt Semele, even though she had aroused the desire of Zeus himself (see p. Such is the version of the story that appears in our earliest sources for it, the Hesiodic Catalogue and Stesichorus, a poet of the mid-sixth century bc.
Compare 247
As ill fortune would have it, Artemis had come there with the same intent, and he came across her as she was bathing in a shady spring with her attendant nymphs. The angry goddess threw some water into his face, exclaiming that he could now tell everyone that he had seen her naked, if he was capable of doing so. The meaning of her words became apparent when horns began to sprout from his head where the water had struck him, and he then turned progressively into a deer.
336), while Autonoe went away to the Boeotian village of the same name, where her tomb could be seen in historical times.32
Hub 248
The exile and ultimate fate of Cadmos and Harmonia
Although there is no direct reference to their Illyrian exile, doubtless because there is a gap in the text immediately before, the god goes on to say that they will sack many cities at the head of a barbarian army, driven in an ox-cart, until the attackers meet with disaster after plundering the oracle of Apollo. These barbarians are plainly Cadmos' new Illyrian subjects, and we know from Herodotus that there was a tradition that some Encheleans and Illyrians had once met with destruction when they had attacked Apollo's temple at Delphi (a story that would probably have had no connection with Cadmos originally).
Cycle 249
The early Labdacids, and the Theban careers of Lycos and Nycteus
POLYDOROS, son of Cadmos, who succeeded to the throne after the brief and unfortunate reign of Pentheus, is hardly more than a name; for, as was noted above, he was of genealogical significance alone as the link who served to tie the Theban dynasty of the Labdacids to the founder Cadmos. According to the unified genealogical scheme that was developed through this linkage, Polydoros was the father of Labdacos, the eponymous founder of the Labdacid dynasty, which included Oedipus and his warring sons Polyneices and Eteocles among its members.
Since Labdacos was still an infant when Polydoros fell fatally ill, he entrusted his young son and throne to his brother-in-law Nycteus, inviting him to rule for the present as regent. When Nycteus came to die in his turn, in circumstances that will be described on p. 339, he transferred this charge to his brother Lycos, who duly transferred power to Labdacos when he came of age.
Only a single story is recorded of Labdacos as a ruler, that he became embroiled in a border-war with his southern neighbour, Pandion, king of Athens, who defeated him with the aid of a Thracian ally, Tereus (see p. Otherwise we have only an elliptical statement by Apollodorus, who remarks that he perished because he was of like mind to Pentheus, which would suggest that he met a premature end because he tried to oppose Dionysos. Since his son LAIOS was only a year old at the time of his death, Lycos assumed power in Thebes once again, ruling on behalf of Laios as regent (or else taking advantage of the situation to seize power for himself).
The Labdacids themselves, as the successive rulers of the native ruling dynasty, are colourless figures until Oedipus arrives on the scene as a descendant of Cadmos in the fourth generation, whereas almost all of the memorable stories and important myths were with men from outside who ruled in their stead for much of the time, whether as regents or as usurpers. So, we must concentrate on these outsiders for the present, before returning to Laios and the story of how his son Oedipus came to be born.
According to the usual tradition, LYCOS and NYCTEUS were born in Hyria, another Boeotian town of far less significance than Thebes, set on the east coast of the province facing the island of Euboea. They were sons of Hyrieus, the eponymous founder of the city, who fathered them by a nymph called Clonie. Hyrieus was fitted into the Atlantid genealogies (see p.
440) by being classed as a son of Alcyone, daughter of Atlas, but that is of little significance in the present context. An alternative genealogy in which the two brothers were described as sons of Chthonios, one of the Spartoi or Sown Men, was almost certainly of later origin, and was presumably devised at Thebes to provide the interlopers with proper Theban descent. After growing up in Hyria, the brothers decided to seek their fortune in the great city of Thebes, arriving there during the reign of Pentheus.
Flow 250
As a result of their friendship with the king, they were readily accepted as honoured citizens, and Lycos was eventually elected to a position of considerable power as the polemarch (military commander) of the city. Nycteus had two daughters, Nycteis, who married Polydoros as we have seen, and Antiope, whose troubled life will be considered in the next section. Lycos married a woman called Dirce, whom we will meet on p.
In the Antiope, a lost play by Euripides, the circumstances of their birth were described as follows. Approaching Antiope in the guise of a Satyr, Zeus raped her and caused her to become pregnant; and she then fled to Sicyon, on the far side of the Gulf of Corinth, to escape the anger of her father, as he threatened her with punishment or even with death. After meeting her by chance in Sicyon, the local ruler, Epopeus, took her home and invited her to become his wife.
Nycteus was so upset by this course of events that he soon died, but not before he had made his brother Lycos swear to exact vengeance on Antiope. Lycos, who succeeded him as ruler of Thebes, duly marched against Sicyon after his death, killed Epopeus, and brought Antiope back to Thebes as a captive. During the journey, when they had reached Eleutherai in southern Boeotia, Antiope gave birth to Zethos and Amphion, the twin sons whom she had conceived to Zeus, and exposed them on Mt Cithairon; but they were rescued, as is customary in myths of this kind, by a shepherd, who conferred their names on them.
Once Antiope was back in Thebes, she was handed over to Dirce, the wife of Lycos, who cruelly mistreated her. When the opportunity arose, however, she took flight and went in search of her sons, who had been reared by the shepherd in the meantime on the slopes of Mt Cithairon, on the southern border of Boeotia; but Zethos mistook her for a runaway slave, and refused to accept her as his mother. Meanwhile, Dirce happened to pass by while roaming the hills as a Bacchant, and caught sight of Antiope and dragged her way with the intention of killing her.
But now having learned from the shepherd that she really was their mother, her sons rushed off in pursuit of her and rescued her from Dirce. To avenge Dirce's mistreatment of their mother, they tied her to a bull by her long hair and so caused her death. Although they then travelled to Thebes with the intention of killing Lycos in his turn, Hermes forbade it and ordered Lycos to surrender the throne to Amphion.
Ladder 251
Pausanias records a different version of these events from the Sicyonian tradition, in which Epopeus abducted Antiope from Thebes (perhaps after she rejected an offer of marriage from him) while her father Nycteus was acting as regent for Labdacos. Nycteus marched against Sicyon as a consequence, but Epopeus gained the upper hand even though he was wounded in battle, and he inflicted a fatal wound on Nycteus and forced the Thebans to withdraw. While lying on his death-bed, after being brought back to Thebes, Nycteus transferred the regency to his brother and asked him to launch an even larger expedition against Sicyon to exact vengeance on Epopeus; and for less obvious reasons, he also asked him to punish Antiope if he could catch her (perhaps because she had colluded in her own abduction).
He cast her aside, however, to marry Dirce instead after she was raped by Epopeus in unspecified circumstances. Dirce subsequently came to suspect that her husband had been sleeping with Antiope (presumably after noticing that she had become pregnant, as the result of a liaison with Zeus), and kept her chained up in the dark; but Zeus contrived that she should escape when her pregnancy reached full term, and she took flight and brought her sons to birth on Mt Cithairon.
She was eventually rescued from this fate, however, by Phocos, son of Ornytion, who cured her of her madness (presumably by means of purificatory rites), married her and settled down with her at Tithorea in northern Phocis (some ten miles north-east of Delphi). Along with Phocos, son of Aiacos, this present Phocos, who was a grandson of Sisyphos from Corinth, was one of the two eponyms of the small province of Phocis (see p. The joint grave of Phocos and Antiope could be seen at Tithorea in historical times.
Each year, when the sun was in the constellation of the Bull (Taurus), the Tithoreans would attempt to steal some earth from the burial mound of Zethos and Amphion at Thebes to place it on that of Antiope; for a prophecy had revealed that their crops would thrive if they could do so, while those of the Thebans would fail.56
Compare 252
Hub 253
The reign of Zethos and Amphion, and the massacre of the Niobids
By killing or expelling Lycos and displacing the young Labdacid heir Laios, who was either already in exile or was smuggled out by his supporters, Zethos and Amphion established themselves as the joint rulers of Thebes. They then proceeded to extend and fortify the city, by building the lower city below the citadel, known as the Cadmeia, which had been established by Cadmos, and by encircling the whole city with magnificent walls with seven gates, the famous walls that figure so prominently in the legend of the Seven against Thebes (see pp.
Each of the brothers contributed as best he could to the building-work, Zethos relying on his practical skills and brute strength while Amphion exploited his skills as a musician by singing so enchantingly to his lyre that the stones followed him to their correct positions of their own accord. The musical powers of Amphion are described in similar terms to those of Orpheus (see p. This was probably a fairly ancient feature of his legend, even if it is not mentioned in the relevant passage in the Odyssey, since the Europeia (an early epic ascribed to the Corinthian poet Eumelos) is reported to have stated that Hermes taught Amphion to play the lyre, as the first mortal to possess that skill, and that stones and animals were drawn to him when he sang to it.
A pattern of this kind might seem to suggest that there were two separate foundation myths that needed to be reconciled; and it is in fact the case that there are accounts from the early tradition, in which Zethos and Amphion are presented as the original founders. As already mentioned, the Odyssey presented them as such, saying that they 'first founded the seat of seven-gated Thebes and fortified it with walls, for they could not live in spacious Thebes without the defence of walls, mighty though they were'.
419), who bore him numerous sons and daughters, from seven to ten of each in most accounts. As has already been mentioned (see p. 141), Niobe was so proud of her large family that she boasted that she had many more children than the goddess Leto, who had two alone, Artemis and Apollo.
Cycle 254
Although he kept out of his wife's bed for a time, he had intercourse with her one night while he was flushed with wine, causing her to conceive the fateful son. Soon after the child was born, Laios handed him over to a shepherd to be exposed, first thrusting a spike through his feet to ensure that he would not be recovered and reared, hence his name of OEDIPUS (properly OIDIPOUS in Greek) or 'Swell-foot'. In the most familiar account of these events, the shepherd (sometimes named as Euphorbos or Phorbos) was told to place him out to die on Mt Cithairon on the southern borders of Boeotia.
Flow 255
According to Sophocles in Oedipus the King, he became concerned about the matter after he was taunted at a banquet by a drunken guest who accused him of not being a true son of Polybos. Although the king and queen tried to reassure him, the rumours persisted and the matter continued to trouble him until he decided to consult the Delphic oracle without the knowledge of his putative parents. The god at Delphi offered no response to him on the point in question, but revealed instead that he was destined to kill his father, and then to marry his own mother and to father children by her.
Assuming that the oracle was referring to Polybos and Merope, he resolved to stay away from his former home forever, and set off in the direction of Thebes. As he was approaching a point on his route where three roads ran together, he happened to meet an old man who was travelling by cart in the opposite direction accompanied by five attendants. When the herald who was proceeding at the head of the group tried to force him off the road, Oedipus struck back at him and continued on his way; but as he was passing the cart, the old man hit him on the head with his ox-goad.
Ladder 256
Hesiod classes her as a child of Orthos and Chimaira (see p. 57), and refers to her as 'the deadly Phix that brought destruction to the Cadmeians'; in view of Hesiod's Boeotian origin and later reports that state that the monster sat on Mt Phicion outside Thebes, it would appear that Phix was a local Boeotian form of her name. According to her usual legend, she would set a riddle for passers-by and would kill them if they were unable to solve it, but was fated to meet her own death if anyone should provide the correct solution.
Either in the hope of winning this reward, or by chance while he was seeking a new home in exile, Oedipus now arrived at Thebes and provided the correct answer to the riddle of the Sphinx (see Figure 15.1). This riddle, which has been recorded in comparable forms in many parts of the world, asked what single being is four-footed, two-footed and three-footed. In its traditional form, as recorded in some hexameter verses, which probably originated in Attic tragedy (or possibly early epic), it ran as follows: Figure 15.1.
The young Oedipus ponders the riddle of the Sphinx. Red-figured Greek vase circa 470 bc. © Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo.
Since Oedipus continued to rule at Thebes in this version of his story, the sorrows that are ascribed to him in the Odyssey could hardly be related to any blinding or exile as in the later tradition; one should perhaps suppose that the poet was referring above all to the hostility that arose between Oedipus and his sons, which is known to have been a central feature of his story in early epic (see p. He would doubtless have been troubled by regret and conscience too.
The dominant account of the fall of Oedipus was established once and for all in a tragedy that was composed half a century or more later, Sophocles' Oedipus the King, which related the story as follows. After Oedipus had reigned at Thebes as a highly respected sovereign for many years, the city was struck by a terrible plague, and he dispatched Creon to Delphi to enquire about a cure; and when the oracle declared that the epidemic would be brought to an end if the murderer of Laios were killed or at least expelled, the king set to work to discover who this might be.
When she was told that Teiresias had accused her husband of having committed the murder, she tried to reassure him by arguing that prophecies are not to be trusted, at least to judge by the oracle that had been delivered to Laios about his son (whom she naturally supposed to be dead), and by asserting furthermore that Oedipus could hardly have been responsible for the death of Laios, since he had been killed abroad by brigands at a place where three roads ran together. Far from being reassured, however, Oedipus was alarmed by what she said about the crossroads, for he himself had once killed an aged man at a crossroads.
After his marriage to Jocasta, he happened to pass through the same area with her after performing some sacrifices on Mt Cithairon, and he told her about the incident, pointing to the relevant spot and showing her the belt. Although she gathered from this that he must have been the man who had killed her former husband, she kept quiet for the moment in spite of her distress, not yet being aware of the worst of the matter, that Oedipus was her son.
Since the truth about the king's past was revealed before Jocasta had time to bear any children to him, and he went on to father his children by his second wife, some have argued that this account, which seems ill-suited besides for presentation in a tragedy, may have originated in early epic. The death of Oedipus and his final resting place There were three traditions about the final resting place of Oedipus. In early epic accounts, in which he remained at Thebes after his origins were revealed, he apparently received a splendid funeral at Thebes, as is indicated in the Iliad and was doubtless also the case in the Hesiodic Catalogue;101 whereas in Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonos and the standard later tradition, he died in exile and was buried at Colonos, just outside Athens, where a heroic shrine was erected to him in historical times; and there was also a further tradition that claimed that he was buried at the Boeotian town of Eteonos.
Oedipus has received an oracle telling him that he will at last come to rest when he finds shelter in a sanctuary of the Semnai (Awful Goddesses, i.e. Erinyes, Furies); Creon, who is now ruling at Thebes after having expelled Oedipus, has learned from the Delphic oracle that Oedipus must be buried at Thebes if the city is to be secure, while Athens will prevail over Thebes if he is buried in Attica; and third, Oedipus' son Polyneices has been told that he will prevail in his conflict with his brother Eteocles if he has his father's support.
Cilix becomes eponym of Cilicia, Hdt. 178; Phoinix in Phoenicia, Apollod. 6.46-7 (here a son of Phoinix); for his connection with the island of Thasos, also Conon 37.1, Apollod.
3.1.1 (poorly expressed if properly preserved), Paus. 140, 141.7-8; Phoinix as son of Agenor and father of Phineus, Hes. 5 As children of Agenor, Hdt.
178 and most Hellenistic and later sources; as children of Phoinix, Hellanic. 6 Son of Phoinix, Hdt. 5.25.12; of Poseidon or Cilix, Apollod.
3.1.1 (citing Pherecydes for latter parentage = 3F87). 638 (cites supposed oracle), Paus. 9 Sacrifices to Athena, Hellanic.
4F51 (said to be son of Ares), Apollod. 3.4.1 (some say he was the son of Ares); schol. 126 (son of Erinys Tilphousa); Eur.
11 By unspecified means, Hellanic. 3.50-94 (with stone and javelin). Madness of Heracles 252-3, Stesichorus 195 respectively.
4F1, and likewise in later sources, e.g. 3.4.2 (a great year; it is erroneously stated that he underwent this servitude to atone for the slaughter of the Sown Men, see p. 3.86ff, Theognis 15-18 (Muses and Graces sing), Paus.
9.12.3 (site on acropolis where Muses sang). 4F98 (necklace from Aphrodite, robe from Athena), D.S. 4.66.3 (both from Aphrodite), schol.
3.167a (necklace from Aphrodite), Apollod. 3.4.2 (both from Cadmos, who had acquired them from Hephaistos), Pher. l.c., Cadmos acquired necklace from Europa), etc.
7 citing Ephorus and Demagoras, D.S. 5.59 (introduced by Cadmos and his companions), D.S. 213 (invented by Palamedes), Aesch.
11.14 (by Cecrops), Photius s.v. Hymn 5.107-18 (mention of Actaion, 109). 35 Passes throne to Polydoros, Paus.
9.5.1; transfers throne to Pentheus initially, Eur. 1330ff; Kadmos' response to prophecy, 1352ff; cf. 9.43 (Enchelean attack on Delphi).
1331-2 (transformation), 1338-9 (Ares transfers them to Isles of Blessed), cf. 8 (ascribed to Antiope of Euripides), schol. 4.1090 (Zeus raped Antiope in form of Satyr).
54 Thrown into spring, Apollod. 90F7; eponym of stream, Paus. 9.25.3; body turned into stream, Hyg.
7, blood turned into stream, Vat. 9.5.3 (built lower city), D.S. in Page SLP 68.86-9, Apollod.
41 (citing 'Hesiod' for use of lyre in wall-building, = fr. 9.5.4 (includes reference to Europeia = Eumelus Europeia fr.3 Davies); Pher. 3F41a (had acquired lyre from Muses).
Antiope, frr 183-8 Nauck, Pl. 63 Telesilla 721 PMG, Paus. Thebes was also said to have been a mistress of Zeus, Paus.
3.5.5 (abduction alone mentioned), Peisandros 16F10 (adds that Chrysippos killed himself), Athen. 85; it is stated in this account that Laios abducted Chrysippos from the Nemean Games. In the revisionist account in Dositheos 54F1 (see Plut.
Moralia 313c), Pelops finally condones the love affair because Laios says that he is in love with the boy, and Chrysippos is killed by his mother while he is lying at Laios's side. 12-31 (exposed, and then recovered by servants of Polybos). 66; Medusa or Antiochis, schol.
King 775, citing Pherecydes (= 3F93) for former. 326 with schol.; her riddle first mentioned in Soph. King 130-1, 393-4, or in Pi.
177d SM if the unnamed riddler is the Sphinx; Eur. 82 Hera, Peisandros 16F10, Apollod. 3.5.8 (without explanation); Dionysos, schol.
1031, citing Euripides (= fr. 83 Haimon killed, Oedipodeia fr. 1 Davies, Peisandros 16F10, Apollod.
456b); for riddle, see also Apollod. 4.64.4; killed by Oedipus, e.g. Mode of death not stated in Soph.
King and standard later tradition, e.g. 100 Peisandros 16F10 (= schol.
16 The Theban Wars
Polyneices, son of Oedipus, quarrels with his brother Eteocles and departs to Argos POLYNEICES and ETEOCLES, the two sons of Oedipus, quarrelled over the succession after the exile or death of their father (or when he became too old to rule, or when they were due to take over from Creon who had been ruling as regent until they came of age). The resulting conflict proved to be disastrous for both of them, since they died at another's hands when Polyneices tried to settle the matter by marching against Thebes with foreign allies from Argos.
Compare 257
The Seven against Thebes and the myth of Antigone
Polyneices, son of Oedipus, quarrels with his brother Eteocles and departs to Argos POLYNEICES and ETEOCLES, the two sons of Oedipus, quarrelled over the succession after the exile or death of their father (or when he became too old to rule, or when they were due to take over from Creon who had been ruling as regent until they came of age). The resulting conflict proved to be disastrous for both of them, since they died at another's hands when Polyneices tried to settle the matter by marching against Thebes with foreign allies from Argos.
The quarrel also brought disaster to Thebes itself; for although it remained unconquered during this first Theban War, the sons of the defeated Argive leaders launched a second expedition ten years later and captured the city, which never recovered its former strength and glory. The first expedition was known as that of the Seven because its leader appointed seven of the bravest participants to serve as champions, and the second as that of the Epigonoi (i.e. Although disputes could easily arise between rival heirs in the absence of any strict rules of primogeniture, the fundamental cause of the quarrel between Eteocles and Polyneices was usually said to have been a curse that was uttered against them by their father.
In the Thebais, a poem in the early epic cycle, Oedipus indeed cursed his sons twice over, on the first occasion because they had angered him by serving him at a silver table that had belonged to Cadmos and by passing wine to him in a golden cup of the same origin, even though he had expressly ordered them not to do so (presumably because these heirlooms reminded him of the crime that he had committed against his father). So he prayed that they should not divide their patrimony in friendship, but that war and hatred should always be their lot; and when they angered him once again by sending him a haunch of meat as his portion at a sacrifice rather than the more honourable shoulder-piece (whether by negligence or design), he cursed them yet more grievously by praying that they should die by one another's hand.
Hub 258
Adrastos appoints seven champions for an expedition against Thebes; Amphiaraos and Eriphyle Adrastos lost no time in gathering together a sizeable army to attack Thebes. Since most of the leading warriors and other troops who marched against Thebes in both Theban Wars came from the Argolid, these were in large part wars between Argos and Thebes, and something must be said in this connection about the complicated pattern of rule that had become established in the Argolid by this period of mythical history.
The north-western section of the province, which was ruled from Mycenae and also included Tiryns and Midea, had now fallen under the control of Atreus' branch of the Pelopid family, which was of foreign origin (see pp. The Pelopids and those who were under their rule played no part in either of the Theban Wars. Although the rest of the Argolid was still partly under the control of the old Inachid ruling family, whose history was traced in Chapter 10, two other ruling lines had become installed there when Proitos, king of Argos, had been forced to share the kingdom with the seer Melampous and his brother Bias (see pp.
So three royal families were now ruling concurrently in the non-Pelopid lands of the Argolid, namely the Proitids (i.e. the Inachids who were descended from Proitos), the Melampodids and the Biantids. Adrastos, who ruled from his palace in the city of Argos, was of Biantid descent, and although he was the most powerful ruler in that part of the Argolid, he had to seek support from the other two families when attacking the mighty city of Thebes.
Although Adrastos had clearly achieved a dominant position, the other two ruling families had not been reduced to a subordinate status, and their members were not directly subject to his command. Such authority as he possessed had been painfully acquired, because he and his family had previously come out worse in a power struggle with Amphiaraos, the senior member of the Melampodid family, and his Proitid allies. Things had indeed gone so badly for Adrastos that he had been forced into exile, and had taken refuge at Sicyon, to the west of Corinth.
Cycle 259
As for the remaining champion, he was variously named as Mecisteus, a younger brother of Adrastos, or Hippomedon, son of Aristomachos, a nephew of Adrastos, or Eteoclos, son of Iphis, a cousin of Capaneus, all three of whom were so lacking in individual character as to be virtually interchangeable. If any of the usual champions were omitted for some reason, more than one of these lesser figures could find a place in the list. Thus in Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes, in which Adrastos does not include himself among the champions (see p.
357), both Eteoclos and Hippomedon are numbered among the Seven; or additional Argives could be included from among the lesser men if Polyneices and Tydeus were excluded because they were foreigners. Since many members of the three Argive royal families took part in the two Theban Wars, and Adrastos was the only champion to return from the first war, these wars would have serious implications for the dynastic history of the Argolid, and so would have as grave an effect on Argos as on Thebes itself.
This aspect of the Theban Wars will be discussed separately at the end of the chapter. AMPHIARAOS, who was perhaps the most formidable of the champions who were appointed by Adrastos, was a gifted seer like his forebear Melampous and knew in advance that the enterprise was doomed to disaster. Foreseeing that none of the leaders would return alive apart from Adrastos, he initially refused to take part and tried to discourage the others.
Anxious to find a solution to this difficulty, Polyneices sought the advice of a prominent Argive, Iphis, son of Alector (see p. 368), who told him that the seer could be forced to take part if his wife ERIPHYLE desired it; for Amphiaraos had sworn in circumstance already described to accept her decision if he should ever fall into serious disagreement with Adrastos. So Polyneices approached her in secret and promised her his splendid ancestral treasure, the divine necklace of Harmonia, if she would order her husband to march off against Thebes as Adrastos wished.
Flow 260
The death of Opheltes and embassy of Tydeus
As Adrastos and his army were marching towards the Isthmus, they passed through Nemea in the northern Argolid, where they became involved in a strange incident that led to the founding of the Nemean Games. The city was ruled at that time by Lycourgos, son of Pheres, who had appointed HYPSIPYLE, the former queen of Lemnos, to act as nursemaid to his infant son OPHELTES. As we will see, the Lemnian women had conspired together to kill all their menfolk, but Hypsipyle had broken the agreement by sparing her aged father Thoas (see p.
Although an oracle had warned that Opheltes should never be placed on the ground until he could walk, she thought that he would be safe because he would not come into direct contact with the ground. On returning from the spring, however, she found that the child had been killed by a snake. Adrastos and his followers killed the snake, and interceded with Lycourgos on Hypsipyle's behalf; and they then gave little Opheltes a magnificent funeral, renaming him Archemoros (Beginning of Doom) because Amphiaraos declared that his death was an evil sign that indicated that many members of the army would lose their lives in the forthcoming conflict.
In the earliest account in the Iliad, Tydeus set off after the army had passed some distance on its way and had reached the thickly reeded Asopos (presumably the river of that name in southern Boeotia), and found the Cadmeians (i.e. Thebans) feasting in the palace of Eteocles when he arrived in the city. He challenged them all to contests, doubtless in wrestling or the like, and defeated all of them very easily with a little help from Athena.
Angered by the humiliation, the Thebans laid an ambush for him, posting fifty young men to attack him during his return journey, but he killed all of them apart from one of their leaders, Maion, son of Haimon, a grandson of Creon, whom he spared in response to portents from the gods. Although Homer does not say that Tydeus failed in his main purpose, we can assume that the mission failed, as in the case of the similar embassy before the Trojan War (see p.
467).21 In Apollodorus' account, he is said to have challenged all the Thebans to single combat by way of a test after Eteocles rejected his overtures.22 Diodorus offers a somewhat different account of the story in which Adrastos sent him from Argos before the start of the expedition, and he was ambushed on the way to Thebes.23
Ladder 261
The fighting at Thebes and fate of the Seven
Compare 262
Actor, son of Oinops
Homoloides Amphiaraos Lasthenes Hypsistai Polyneices Eteocles With the exception of Eteocles, Melanippos, and Megareus, the defenders are otherwise unknown, and some of them may have been invented by Aeschylus himself. Towards the end of the play, a messenger reports that all has gone well for the Thebans at six of the gates, but that the king of Thebes and his brother have killed one another at the seventh gate;33 this would mean, of course, that the outcome was settled by a series of single combats at the individual gates before there could be occasion for any subsequent fighting in front of the city.
To maintain a consistent pattern, Aeschylus departs from the usual tradition by excluding Adrastos, as a known survivor, from his list of champions. It will be noted, furthermore, that except in the case of the opponents of Polyneices and Tydeus, the defenders who kill the champions are not the men who are usually said to have killed them. For a tale from Euripides in which Menoiceus, son of Creon, is said to have sacrificed himself to ensure victory for Thebes, see p.
On arriving to investigate, Theseus responds sympathetically to the entreaties of Adrastos and the women of the chorus, who are now supported by Aithra, and agrees to take up their cause. Ignoring a Theban herald who asks him to expel Adrastos and warns him not to set foot on Theban soil, Theseus collects an army together to attack Thebes, defeats Creon and the Thebans, and takes the dead back to give them an honourable burial. Since Capaneus was killed by a thunderbolt from Zeus, his corpse is marked off from the others as sacred and burned on a separate funeral-pyre;41 as it is burning, his wife Euadne throws herself on to it to join him in death,42 an act reminiscent of Hindu sati, but without parallel in Greek mythology.
It is a happy thought of various latish authors to make the suppliants take refuge at the altar of Mercy (Eleos) in Athens rather than at Eleusis.43
Hub 263
The mythology of Antigone
There are versions of her story in which she is saved from death by her fiancé Haimon when she is first arraigned in front of Creon. Hyginus records an account of this kind in which Antigone removed Polyneices' body under cover of darkness with the help of his wife Argeia and placed it on the funeral-pyre of Eteocles. She was captured by the guards, although Argeia managed to escape, and was brought in front of Creon, who handed her over to Haimon to be put to death; but Haimon, who was betrothed to her, as in Sophocles' version, loved her too much to make more than a pretence of obeying, and secretly hid her away with some shepherds.
Cycle 264
We may conclude with a mysterious early account of the death of Ismene. The elegiac poet Mimnermus (second half of the seventh century bc) is reported to have stated that she was killed by Tydeus at the instigation of Athena while she was having intercourse with a certain Theoclymenos. There is otherwise no record of a hero of this name at Thebes.
Pherecydes also states that Ismene was killed by Tydeus, at a spring that bore her name.62 The second Theban War and its consequences
Flow 265
The Epigonoi capture Thebes under the leadership of Alcmaion
Although Adrastos, the Biantid king of Argos, accompanies the expedition, he is now too old to fight as one of the leading warriors, and is replaced in that respect by his son Aigialeus, who will be the only leader to die on this successful expedition, just as his father had been the only champion to survive defeat in the first war. As for the main representatives of the two other Argive royal families, the Melampodid Alcmaion takes the place of his father Amphiaraos, and Proitid Sthenelos takes the place of his father Capaneus.
Since the last of the seven champions in the first war was named variously as Mecisteus, Hippomedon, or Eteoclos, sons of these - Euryalos, Maion, and Polydoros respectively - may sometimes be found among the Epigonoi. It should be remarked, however, that the number of the Epigonoi was not strictly limited to seven as in the case of the Seven against Thebes, and most catalogues list eight or more, especially since Alcmaion was often said to have been accompanied by his brother Amphilochos, and more than one son of Polyneices was often said to have taken part.
The exact nature of the list makes little difference, however, because hardly any of the Epgonoi are credited with distinctive roles in the surviving accounts. It was perhaps inevitable that some authors should have recycled the story of Eriphyle's treachery (see p. 355) by suggesting that Thersandros, son of Polyneices, bribed her to persuade her sons to join the Epigonoi by offering her the robe of Harmonia, just as Polyneices had bribed Eriphyle to force her husband to join the Seven by offering her the necklace of Harmonia.
This was not a happy inspiration, however, since her sons had no reason to fear disaster as their father had, and she was not in a position to compel them in any case as she had been with their father. Apollodorus offers some sort of explanation, saying that her persuasions were needed because Alcmaion was reluctant to march off before he had punished her for her betrayal of Amphiaraos. It will be remembered that Amphiaraos had ordered Alcmaion to avenge him.
Although LAODAMAS, son of Eteocles, the king and commander of the Thebans, killed Aigialeus, the son of Adrastos, he was soon killed in his turn by Alcamion, and the Thebans were so dismayed by his death that they lost courage and took refuge behind their city walls. Realizing that the city was doomed, the seer Teiresias advised them to send a herald to the enemy to distract them with talk of a settlement while the citizens made a secret departure by night.
Ladder 266
354), having additional reason to do so in the version of the story in which she also accepted a bribe to persuade her sons to go to war (see p. After first having won the approval of Apollo at Delphi, he put her to death, either on his own or in conjunction with his brother Amphilochos; but although he had taken the precaution of consulting the Delphic oracle, he was persecuted nevertheless by his mother's Erinyes (Furies), just as Orestes was said to have been after killing his mother Clytemnestra (see p.
An oracle advised him to search for a land on which the sun had not yet shone at the time when he had killed his mother;75 and his search took him across the Isthmus to the Greek mainland. After spending some time with Oineus at Calydon, he travelled further north into Epirus and visited the springs of the great River Acheloos, where he received purification from the god of the river. On arriving at the mouth of the Acheloos at the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf, he finally discovered the land that the oracle had indicated, for new land had been laid down there by silt from the river since the time of his mother's death.
Compare 267
So he made that his new home, marrying Callirhoe, a daughter of the river-god. When she subsequently asked to be given the necklace and robe of Harmonia, threatening to leave him if she failed to acquire them, he returned to Psophis and tricked Phegeus into handing them over, by claiming that the Delphic oracle had advised him that he should dedicate them at Delphi if he was to be cured of his madness. After his departure, however, a servant of his told Phegeus that he was really taking the treasures to his new wife.
So the king ordered his two sons, Pronoos and Agenor, to lay an ambush for him and put him to death. When their sister Arsinoe reproached them afterwards for having murdered her former husband, they took her to Tegea in south-eastern Arcadia and handed her over to the ruler, Agapenor, as a slave-woman, telling him that she herself had committed the murder. On learning of Alcmaion's fate, his new wife Callirhoe appealed to Zeus (who had become her lover) to cause her two young sons, ACARNAN and AMPHOTEROS, to grow to maturity immediately to enable them to avenge their father's murder.
Her request was duly granted, and the two young men (as they had now become) set off at once for Arcadia. They happened to call in at the palace of Agapenor while the sons of Phegeus were still there after having brought their sister, and they took advantage of this opportunity to kill them; and they then travelled on to Psophis to kill Phegeus, the instigator of the murder, along with his wife. Although they were pursued afterwards as far as Tegea, they were saved by the intervention of the Tegeans and some Argives, and hurried back to their mother to report their success.
Hub 268
When the young Teiresias, who was out hunting on the mountain with his dogs, happened to come to the spring to quench his thirst, he saw Athena naked and was told by her that he would be deprived of his eyesight forever. Chariclo cried out in reproach and distress, asking if this was what was meant by the friendship of a goddess; but Athena assured her that she was not to blame for her son's blindness because the laws of Cronos (i.e.
Cycle 269
335);94 it is likely that one of these two stories inspired the development of the other, but we cannot tell for sure which was of earlier origin. In Attic tragedy and the later tradition (and doubtless in early epic too, although we have no definite evidence on the matter), Teiresias was said to have performed valuable services for Thebes and the Theban kings at various stages in the troubled history of the city. When Thebes was about to be attacked by the Seven, for instance, he revealed that there was only one means by which the city could be saved, since the blood-guilt for the sacred dragon (see p.
332-3) still weighed heavily on it, namely that a descendant of the Spartoi who was still a virgin should sacrifice his own life at the spot where the dragon had been killed, so as to atone for its death and finally allay the anger of Ares. MENOICEUS, son of Creon, who alone answered to these specifications, resolved to take this action for the sake of the city in spite of his father's opposition, and stabbed himself accordingly on the city walls, ensuring that he would fall into the former lair of the dragon below.
In the dramatic context, the seer tends to be greeted with disbelief or scorn when he first offers his advice or revelations. It is recorded elsewhere, among other things, that he advised Laios to appease Hera for having abducted the young Chrysippos; that he told Amphitryon that Zeus had assumed his form to sleep with his wife (see p. 236); and that he revealed the destiny that awaited Heracles after the infant hero first demonstrated his prowess by strangling two snakes (see p.
Teiresias met his long-delayed death when the glory of his city was brought to an end by the victory of the Epigonoi. As he was fleeing the area along with most of the other citizens, he stopped to drink at the spring of Tilphousa (see p. 136) in western Boeotia, and expired as he was doing so, apparently because of the chill of the water.
Flow 270
In a lost play by Euripides, Alcmaion in Corinth, Alcmaion was said to have fathered two children by Manto, a son Amphilochos and a daughter Tisiphone. He entrusted them to Creon, king of Corinth, to be reared, but Tisiphone grew up to be so beautiful that the king's wife began to imagine that her husband might fall in love with her, and sold her into slavery for fear of being displaced. As chance would have it, Tisiphone was purchased by Alcmaion, who kept her as a maidservant without realizing that she was his daughter.
The truth finally emerged, however, when he returned to Corinth to recover his two children. Since this story conflicts with Manto's usual legend, and there is no previous record of Tisiphone or the present Amphilochos (who is evidently a doublet of Amphilochos, son of Amphiaraos, see p. 361), there is good reason to suppose that this story was invented by Euripides himself.103
Ladder 271
How the Theban Wars affected the dynastic history of Argos
Since many members of the three royal families that ruled the non-Pelopid lands of the Argolid were killed in the Theban Wars or as a result of them, this inevitably had a major effect on the dynastic history of the region. It will be remembered that there were three such families, the Proitids, who were descended from Proitos as members of the old Inachid ruling family (see Chapter 10 for its earlier history), the Melampodids, who were descended from the seer Melampous and were often gifted with divinatory powers, and the Biantids, who were descended from Bias, the brother of Melampous, who gained a share of the kingdom at the same time as him (see pp.
Adrastos, the senior member of the Biantid family, was the most powerful ruler in the land at the time of the outbreak of the first Theban War. It will be the purpose of this final section of the chapter to summarize the effects that the two wars had on these three families, and to provide a sketch of their future history during the Trojan War and immediately afterwards. The Theban Wars were supposed to have taken place a generation or so before the Trojan War.
(i) The Biantids during the time of the Theban Wars
His only son Aigialeus and his nephew Euryalos, the son of the above-mentioned Mecisteus, were the leading warriors from the Biantid family on this second occasion. Aigialeus was killed in battle and the grief-stricken Adrastos died during the return journey. Since no male heir was left to inherit his throne, it passed through the female line to his grandson Diomedes, who had also marched with the Epigonoi.
Diomedes was the only son of Tydeus, a member of the Aetolian royal family who had married Adrastos' daughter Deipyle after being exiled from his native land (see pp. Tydeus was dead by this time, having been killed as one of the Seven. As a great warrior who inherited Adrastos' position as the overlord of the non-Pelopid lands of the Argolid, Diomedes would command the men from that region who took part in the Trojan War.
(ii) The Melampodids during the time of the Theban Wars
Amphiaraos, the only son of Oicles and a great-grandson of Melampous,106 took part in the expedition of the Seven as the only member of his line who was available to do so. Although he could foresee by his own prophetic powers that he would not return, his wife Eriphyle forced him to march off with Adrastos (see p. His two sons Alcamaion and Amphilochos took part in the second Theban War, but although they survived, were not destined to play any significant role in the affairs of their native land after their return.
For Alcmaion, who would have inherited his father's position as one of the rulers of the land in normal circumstances, had to depart into exile after killing his mother Eriphyle, to avenge her treatment of his father, and met his death abroad before the Trojan War in the circumstances described above (see p. His two sons Acarnan and Amphoteros were born outside their native land accordingly and remained far away in Acarnania (see p. Alcmaion's younger brother Amphilochos would seem to have lived in the Argolid after returning from the second Theban War, but in no prominent capacity; he was a seer like his father, and it is in that role that we next hear of him in a story set after the Trojan War.
(iii) The Proitids during the time of the Theban Wars
The old Argive royal family was represented among the Seven by Capaneus, son of Hipponoos, a descendant of Proitos in the fifth generation,107 and by Eteoclos son of Iphis, a descendant of Proitos in the third or fourth generation; see Table 5. It will be noted that these genealogies are not properly synchronized with those of the other two families. Because Capaneus' father Hipponoos lived abroad as king of Olenos in Achaea, his father-in-law Iphis, the father of Eteoclos, was the senior member of this royal line within the Argolid at this period.
Sthenelos, the lieutenant of Diomedes from the old Argive royal family, made a safe return, as already mentioned, and took up his throne again as the local ruler in this line. For an account of the subsequent mythical history of the area, as imagined in the later tradition after it had come to be accepted that Diomedes left for Italy, we may turn to Pausanias. While Sthemelos ruled as heir to the Proitid inheritance, Cyanippos, a late-invented grandson of Adrastos (see p.
518) inherited the position that had been occupied by the great Biantid ruler Adrastos and his successor Diomedes. Sthenelos was succeeded by his son Cylarabos (or Cylarabes, or Cylasabos), who also inherited the Biantid share of the kingdom when Cyanippos died without an heir. And when Cylarabos himself died without an heir, the kingdom fell into the hands of Orestes, son of Agamenmon, the Pelopid king of Mycenae, and the whole of the Argolid was thus united under Pelopid rule, remaining so until the Heraclids mounted their successful invasion of the Peloponnese (see p.
After the war, he joined together with another seer to found an oracle in Asia Minor, making only a temporary and unsatisfactory visit to Argos during that period (see further on p. 500); and since he died in Asia soon afterwards, the Melampodid line that had ruled in Argos was then extinct. 67 states that Oedipus ordered the alternation.
9.13-15 (flight from Argos) with schol. 5.67 (inherited Sicyonian throne as grandson of Polybos), Paus. 2.6.3 (as son-in-law of Polybos).
16 For records of their names, see Aesch. 73 (Adrastos made the necklace and offered it to Eriphyle); earlier allusions to Eriphyle's treacherous acceptance of a bribe, Hom. 5.17.7-8 (episode portrayed on chest of Cypselos), ibid.
Bond, Oxford, 1963; earliest references to fate of Opheltes/Archemoros, Simon. 9.10-20; tomb of Opheltes, Paus. 24 For a useful summary of the course of events, see Apollod.
41 (Athena planned to confer immortality on Tydeus), school. 10.12 (she made his son Diomedes immortal instead, as the dying hero requests in Pherecydes' account). 9.18.4, also citing a local tradition in which Parthenopaios was killed by a certain Asphodicos), Eur.
3.6.8 citing Euripides (mentions variant in which killed by Amphidicos, son of Astacos). 5.17.8 (Baton on chest of Cypselos), 2.23.2 and 10.10.2 (on Baton). 1.34.1-2 (Oropos), 1.34.2 and 9.19.4 (Harma); 9.8.2 (Cnopia); see also Str.
9.2.10 (oracle moved from Cnopia to Oropos). 8.25.8; line on Areion quoted), Apollod. 3.7.1 (Creon succeeds as king, forbids burial), Paus.
9.5.6 (as regent for Laodamas). Ol.6.22, together at family burial-place. 9.18.3, near Proitian Gates, where honoured in hero-cult; when offerings were burned to them, so it was claimed, the flames and even the smoke would divide into two, cf.
35 Where their supposed graves could be seen in historical times, Paus. 37 As reported in Plut. 446-525 with 773-80 (Antigone's sentence).
54 Ion of Chios 740 PMG. frr; address to Dionysos, fr. 60 Mimnermus 21; Periclymenos as killer of Parthenopaios, Thebais fr.
4 Davies, as son of Poseidon, Eur. 3.7.2; Homer alludes to the expedition and its success, Il. 1.56; allusion to Epigonoi, ibid.
9.5.7, 9.8.3, 9.9.2, 9.19.2; Hdt. 5.61 (Thebans settled in land of Encheleis in Illyria). 3.7.4 (Epigonoi enter city, nothing stated on the succession), Paus.
74 The best source for this oracle is Thuc. 8.24.8; the text of our main narrative, Apollod. l.c., is imperfectly preserved at the relevant point.
75 For the whole preceding story, Apollod. 8.24.8-10 (sons of Phegeus here called Temenos and Axion), Ov. 682, citing Hesiodic verses (= fr.
276); Tzetzes remarks that others said that Teiresias lived for nine generations. 85 Ibid., citing Hesiod (under fr. 10.492 (female snake, then male); Hyg.
75 (trampling mentioned as alternative), Vat. 10.494, Cyllene more often, e.g. 90 This version in Apollod.
only, doubtless through misinterpretation of the relevant lines of the Melampodeia (as cited in schol. 683 and, in a slightly different form, in an interpolation in Apollodorus' text). 683 (all quoted under Hes.
3.6.7, citing Pherecydes (= 3F92). 834ff; parting speech of Menoiceus, 987-1018, Creon laments his death, 1310-21. 9.33.1 (also mentions that his tomb could be seen beside the spring).
7.3.1 (son of Rhacios), Apollod. 107 For descent of Capaneus, see schol. Nem 9.30 (Hipponoos here son of Megapenthes).
17 The family of Deucalion and the hunt for the Calydonian boar
Apart from the Theban Wars, there were two other adventures that drew leading heroes together from different parts of Greece not long before the Trojan War, namely the voyage of the Argonauts and the hunt for the Calydonian boar. These latter adventures attracted participants from a wider range of places indeed than was the case with the Theban Wars, in which most of the participants came from Thebes and the Argolid, and they can thus be described as being truly Panhellenic in the same way as the last and greatest of these adventures, the Trojan War.
Compare 272
The family of Deucalion and the hunt for the Calydonian boar
Apart from the Theban Wars, there were two other adventures that drew leading heroes together from different parts of Greece not long before the Trojan War, namely the voyage of the Argonauts and the hunt for the Calydonian boar. These latter adventures attracted participants from a wider range of places indeed than was the case with the Theban Wars, in which most of the participants came from Thebes and the Argolid, and they can thus be described as being truly Panhellenic in the same way as the last and greatest of these adventures, the Trojan War.
The fathers of many Homeric heroes can be found accordingly among the Argonauts and boar-hunters, who embarked on their enterprises a generation or so before the Trojan War. The voyage of the Argonauts was thought to have been the earliest of these adventures, to be followed by the boar-hunt and then the Theban Wars, all within the same general period. The hunt for the Calydonian boar was the most notable event in the mythical history of Aetolia, which lay in the south-western corner of the Greek mainland above the Gulf of Corinth.
After having been mainly concerned with heroes and heroines of Inachid descent in the preceding chapters, we come into contact with another notable family in this chapter and the next, the great Deucalionid family, formed from the descendants of the primordial hero Deucalion, which ranks with that of the Inachids as one of the most extensive and important families in heroic mythology; for the Aetolian royal family was descended from Deucalion, as was Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, and Pelias, the Thessalian king who sent Jason to fetch the golden fleece. We will consider the myths of Deucalion himself, and the early history and general structure of the Deucalionid family, in the first part of this chapter, before turning our attention to the Aeolian branch of it in particular, and the Panhellenic adventure set in Aetolia, in the second part of the chapter.
Three other branches of the family will be considered in the next chapter in connection with Jason and his quest. Deucalion, son of Prometheus, the founder of the family, and his wife Pyrrha were the central figures in the myth that was devised to account for the origin of the people of Eastern Locris in east-central Greece. After surviving a great primordial flood that inundated much of Greece, they created a new race of people there by tossing stones over their shoulders; and they also produced various children by natural process, including Hellen, the eponym of the Greek people, the Hellenes.
Hellen was in his turn the father or grandfather of Aiolos, Doros, Achaios, and Ion, the eponyms of the four main divisions of the Greek people, the Aeolians, Dorians, Achaeans, and Ionians. None of these were of any significance as heroes of legend (apart from Ion to some limited extent). All the main heroes and heroines of the family were descended from Aiolos alone through his seven sons and one of his daughters.
Since the family of Aiolos was so large and his sons scattered to different parts of the Greek world, the Deucalionid family is more complicated in its structure than that of Inachids, which had only three main branches, all located in places of the first importance. Not only did Deucalionids come to establish ruling lines in a great variety of places of varying significance, but each of them tended to be prominent in mythical history for only a generation or two (in marked contrast to the Inachid lines in Thebes and Argos).
The Aetolian royal family was descended from Calyce, one of the daughters of Aiolos, as was the less important Eleian line that will be considered in connection with it. Calydon, the foremost city of Aetolia, was famous in myth as the home of Oineus and his son Meleager, who led the hunt for the Calydonian boar. All the other main branches of the family were descended from sons of Aiolos, including the three that will be considered in the next chapter.
Apart from the ruling line established at Corinth by Sisyphos, most of the lines descended from the children of Aiolos were located in three areas, namely southern Thessaly, Aetolia and the western Peloponnese. The main Deucalionid kingdoms may thus be pictured as lying on a semicircle centred on the family's place of origin in Locris, extending from Thessaly to Aetolia in the south-western reaches of the mainland, and then across the Gulf of Corinth to Elis and Messenia. Deucalion and his family Deucalion and Pyrrha survive the great flood DEUCALION, the first man of Central Greece and a survivor of the great flood, was a son of Prometheus, who was himself of divine birth as a son of the Titan Iapetos (see p.
Hub 273
When the myth of the great flood was introduced from the Near East, Noah's role (or something broadly comparable) was assigned to Deucalion as a hero from the suitably remote past. The earliest full account to survive in any Greek source is that offered by Apollodorus, which runs as follows. In response to a warning from his father Prometheus, who knew that Zeus was planning to send a flood to destroy the race of bronze (a violent race of men who lived in the very earliest times, see p.
31), Deucalion constructed a large chest, loaded it with provisions, and climbed into it along with his wife. Zeus duly proceeded to pour an abundance of rain from the sky, causing most of Greece to be submerged and every human being to be destroyed apart from a few who found refuge on the highest mountains; but Deucalion and Pyrrha floated safely in their chest for nine days and nights, eventually drifting ashore on Mt Parnassos. After the rains ceased, Deucalion climbed out and offered a sacrifice to Zeus Phyxios (of Escape).
In Roman accounts, however, the flood is transformed into a universal deluge that covered the entire world, leaving only a few mountain tops (or Parnassos alone) still exposed. According to Ovid, Zeus was so shocked by the crime of Lycaon and human iniquity in general that he decided to eliminate the present race to replace it with a new one. Although he initially intended to achieve this by hurling thunderbolts at every part of the earth, he feared that he might set fire to the heavens if he adopted that course, and resorted to the use of water instead.
Cycle 274
The Nereids were soon amazed to see groves and towns beneath the sea, and dolphins took possession of the woods and knocked against the tops of oak trees, and birds dropped into the sea in exhaustion for want of anywhere to settle. Everyone drowned or died of starvation until no mortal was left alive apart from Deucalion and Pyrrha, who sailed through the waters in a little boat until they ran ashore on Parnassos; and Zeus was contented that they should survive because he knew of their virtue and piety.
It was of course appreciated that the different tribal groups had not always lived in the same regions, and that the pattern of distribution in classical times was the outcome of a long and complicated process of migration. We are to imagine that Hellen lived in the district of Phthiotis in southern Thessaly, the home of the Hellenes in the Iliad, and that he was succeeded there by Aiolos, whose children and descendants would scatter to various parts of the adjoining mainland and western Peloponnese.
Flow 275
Doros could be imagined as having settled in northern Thessaly, which was regarded as the original homeland of the Dorians, or in the little province of Doris in Central Greece, which was also associated with them. Hellen's other son, Xouthos, was said to have gone away to Athens, the most important Ionian city, where he married an Athenian princess and fathered Ion and Achaios by her. Doros, Ion, and Achaios would originally have been little more than eponyms; for not only would they have had no legends, but they would also have been of little significance genealogically because all the main subsequent branches of the Deucalionid family were presented in this scheme as having been descended from Aiolos.
For that reason, Aiolos will be considered separately in the next section in relation to those other branches of the family. DOROS had a single son, AIGIMIOS, who was of some importance in legend for the connections that he was supposed to have established with Heracles. As was described in Chapter 11, this came about because Heracles supported him in a war that he was fighting against the Lapiths, a warlike people of northern Thessaly.
This would indicate that the Dorians were still living in those northern parts at the time, before moving to Doris; it was explained that they moved there after Heracles expelled the original inhabitants, the Dryopians (see p. The ties that were established in this way would prove to be firm and enduring, for when the Heraclids (sons and descendants of Heracles) set out to invade the Peloponnese, they did so with the support of the Dorians, who accompanied them as allies and finally settled there under their rule.
This mythical account of the Dorian migration is discussed in Chapter 12 in connection with the return of the Heraclids. Aigimios had two sons, Dymas and Pamphylos, who were the eponyms of two of the Dorian tribes, the Dymanes and Pamphyloi. Hyllos, son of Heracles, the initial leader of the Heraclids, who was sometimes said to have become an adoptive son of Aigimios, came to be regarded as the eponym of the third tribe, the Hylleis (even if only on the basis of an accidental resemblance between the two names).17
Ladder 276
Ion and Achaios and their descendants
Although Xouthos, the third son of Hellen was born in Thessaly like his brothers, he had to depart into exile and settled in Athens. According to one account, he was driven out as the result of a quarrel that developed between his brothers, who accused him of having stolen from their joint inheritance; or else he was obliged to settle abroad because Hellen bequeathed his throne to his eldest son Aiolos, ordering his other sons to seek their fortune elsewhere. Xouthos received a friendly reception from the Athenian king, Erechtheus, winning his favour according to Euripides by helping him in a war against the Euboeans.
It was difficult to find any further place for Xouthos and Ion in the mythical history of Athens. Although Ion was sometimes said to have been offered the throne after helping the Athenians to victory in war or simply because of his personal qualities, he could not easily be fitted into the succession and was not included in the standard king-lists. It was thus more often claimed that he served the Athenians as a military commander, most particularly in their war against Eumolpos and the Eleusinians (see p.
It was naturally assumed that the settlers had set out from Athens, as the greatest Ionian city. As was described at the end of Chapter 12, the leaders of the enterprise were supposed to have been sons of the last king of Athens, Codros, who was of Heraclid descent; see further on p. In recounting the events that were supposed to have led up to the founding of the Ionian settlements in Asia, Pausanias provides a detailed account of the history of Xouthos and his descendants, which is as distinctive in its different way as that of Euripides, being in this case a pseudo-historical narrative of late invention that was devised to account for the origin of most of the 'Ionians' who accompanied the sons of Codros to Asia.
Compare 277
For it describes them as being Peloponnesian descendants of Ion whose families had settled at Athens in the time of Codros' father, after having been forced out of their original home as a result of the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese. In this narrative we are told that Xouthos was asked to arbitrate on the Athenian succession after the death of his host Erechtheus, and that his decision in awarding the throne to the king's eldest son, Cecrops, so enraged the other Athenian princes that they drove him out of the land.
This came about at the time of the return of the Heraclids, as a result of the following sequence of events. Two sons of Achaios, named Archandros and Architeles, decided to leave the Thessalian Achaea to make their home in the Peloponnese, where they married two daughters of Danaos, king of Argos; and since they came to rule over Argos and Sparta, evidently in succession to their father-in-law, the people of those lands came to be known as Achaeans. When Teisamenos, king of Argos and Sparta, who was of course a Pelopid (see p.
520) but is presented here as ruling over these Achaean subjects, was expelled by the Heraclids and their Dorian allies several generations later, the banished king led his 'Achaeans' north to Aigialos and tried to reach a peaceful settlement with the descendants of Ion who ruled the land. Fearing however that Teismenos would be chosen as supreme ruler if the two populations were allowed to merge, the Ionian princes resorted to war; but although Teisamenos himself was killed, his Achaeans prevailed and forced their opponents into exile.
Although two of his sons remained in Thessaly, most of them settled elsewhere, either in Boeotia or further south in Corinth, or in the western Peloponnese. The other main branch of the family, which ruled in Aetolia and Elis, was descended from one of his daughters, as we will see. Although we will be concerned primarily with that branch in the present chapter, it may be helpful to offer a general outline of the nature of the family, starting with the sons of Aiolos.
Hub 278
(i) Athamas was a much-married Boeotian ruler who was of significance above all for the part that he played in the story that accounted for the origin of the golden fleece, and he and his family will thus be considered in connection with the myth of the Argonauts (see pp. The infant Dionysos was also said to have been reared by him and one of his wives, Ino (see p. He was notable for the stories that were told about him and his immediate family rather than for having been the founder of a dynasty.
(ii) Cretheus was the founder of Iolcos in Thessaly, and the grandfather of Jason, who was sent by Pelias to fetch the golden fleece. Although Pelias succeeded Cretheus as king of Iolcos, he was not a son of Cretheus himself, but had been borne to Poseidon by his wife before she had married him; and the fact that the throne passed to Pelias rather than to Cretheus' eldest son Aison, the father of Jason, was a central factor in the sequence of events that would lead Pelias to send Jason on his dangerous mission, see further on pp.
Through his son Pheres, Cretheus was also the ancestor of another Thessalian ruling line (see p. 397), and through another son, Amythaon, the ancestor of an important family of seers and Argive rulers (see pp. (iii) Salmoneus, who founded a city in Elis, was remembered for the impieties that condemned him and his city to early destruction; his daughter Tyro survived, however, to become the mother of Pelias and wife of Cretheus, and his history and the subsequent life of his daughter will thus be considered in connection with the Argonauts, see p.
(iv) Perieres settled in Messenia in the south-western corner of the Peloponnese and founded the old Messenian royal family, see p. One of his sons offered refuge to Neleus, the twin brother of Pelias, when he was expelled from Thessaly by his brother, and for reasons that will be explained on p. 451, Neleus' son Nestor came to be the most powerful ruler in Messenia by the time of the Trojan War.
(v) Sisyphos was the cunning founder of the Corinthian royal family (see p. 553), of which Bellerophon was the other most notable member (see p. (vi) And finally there are two brothers of lesser note, the first of whom, Deion, was associated with Phocis in Central Greece and founded the family from which Protesilaos, the first Greek victim of the Trojan War, was descended (see p.
(vii) Magnes for his part was the eponym of the Thessalian coastal province of Magnesia, and was the father of Polydectes, king of Seriphos, and his brother Dictys, who played an important role in the legend of Perseus (see pp. To pass on to the daughters of Aiolos, one of them, Calyce, was of comparable genealogical significance to his sons as ancestor of the Eleian and Aetolian royal families, while Alcyone achieved fame in another way as the heroine of a transformation myth (see below).
His three other daughters are of less interest. Peisidice married Myrmidon, the eponym of the Myrmidons, the warlike people who were commanded at Troy by Achilles. She bore him a son Actor who succeeded him as ruler of the Myrmidons at Phthia in Thessaly, to be followed by his own son Eurytion, who received Peleus, the father of Achilles, into his kingdom, see pp.
Cycle 279
428-9.33 Canace for her part bore a number of children to Poseidon, including Aloeus, the father of the gigantic Aloadai (see p. 84), and Triopas, the father of the ill-fated Erysichthon (see p. 114),34 while Perimede bore two children to the Aetolian river-god Acheloos, including Hippodamas, a grandfather of Oineus (see p.
It was said that Zeus imposed this calm, lasting a week or a fortnight, because he had felt sorry at seeing the offspring of the transformed Alcyone being carried away by the waves; or in Ovid's version, in which Alcyone's father is identified with the Aiolos in the Odyssey who was keeper of the winds, Aiolos restrains the wind for a week each year to provide a smooth sea for his avian descendants.38
Flow 280
Endymion and his family in Elis
For after inheriting the throne from his father (or first founding the kingdom if he was born in Thessaly), he married a naiad nymph or a mortal woman who is variously named, and fathered three sons, Paion, Epeios, and AITOLOS. To decide who should be his successor, he told the three of them to race for the throne at Olympia, and Epeios proved victorious. Although Aitolos was content to remain in Elis under his brother's rule, Paion was so angry at being defeated that he went as far away as possible, settling in the region of northern Macedonia that was known as Paionia from that time onwards (but see also p.
Although Aigeias, as a son of the sun-god Helios, did not really fit into the Eleian succession, the problem is resolved in Pausanias' pseudo-history of the land through a neat rationalization, for it is explained that Augeias was really a son of the afore-mentioned Eleios, but came to be thought to have been a son of Helios because the god's name sounds rather similar.50
Ladder 281
Aitolos founds the Aetolian branch of the Deucalionid family
Of the other sons of Porthaon, only Agrios (the Wild) is worthy of mention, in so far as he was the father of the brutish Thersites, the ugliest man at Troy (see p. 475), and became king of Calydon for a while after the aged Oineus was deposed by his sons (see p. Although Porthaon's sister DEMODICE was so beautiful that she attracted many suitors, who promised her magnificent gifts, she yielded to none of them and bore four children to the god Ares instead, including Euenos, the father of Marpessa (see p.
His daughter Althaia married Oineus and played a central part in the story of their son Meleager, as will be described in the next section, while Leda married Tyndareos, king of Sparta, and became the mother of Helen and the Dioscuri among others (see p. 447), and Hypermnestra married an Argive ruler Diocles, to become the mother of the great seer Amphiaraos, who was one of the Seven against Thebes (see p. To gain a clearer picture of this branch of the Deucalionid family, it may be helpful to consult Table 10.
Compare 282
In view of the fact that the name of Oineus simply means Wine-man, it is hardly surprising that there should have been tales that associated him with Dionysos and the introduction of wine. Apollodorus remarks that he was the first mortal to receive a vine from Dionysos,59 and Hyginus provides a tale to explain how this came about. While visiting Oineus in Calydon, Dionysos fell in love with his wife Althaia, and when Oineus noticed that this was the case, he was considerate enough to remove himself from the scene on the pretext that he had to offer a sacrifice outside the city.
The Iliad reports that he once entertained Bellerophon at his home for twenty days and exchanged splendid gifts with him;62 and Heracles stayed with him for some years after marrying his daughter Deianeira, until he and his wife finally had to leave as the result of an unfortunate accident (see p.
Hub 283
Meleager and the hunt for the Calydonian boar
Since he was little more than an adolescent at the time, Oineus arranged for him to be accompanied by his maternal uncle Iphiclos and another uncle, Laocoon, who was a half-brother of Oineus himself. Maternal uncles often played a role in the initiation of young men. Meleager comes out well in Apollonius' Argonautica, killing two of the enemy during the battle with the Doliones (see p.
As has already been mentioned, the hunt was supposed to have taken place shortly after the voyage of the Argonauts, and many of the heroes who participated in these adventures were fathers of heroes who fought at Troy. Among those who came to be named among the boar-hunters were Jason and a number of former Argonauts; Theseus and his friend Peirithoos; Peleus, the father of Achilles; and his brother Telamon, the father of Ajax; and Ancaios and Cepheus from Arcadia; Idas and Lynceus from Messenia; the Dioscuri from Sparta; and Admetos and Eurytion from Thessaly.
If Amphiaraos joined the hunt, as he did in one account, he was the only boar-hunter who went on to march against Thebes. Since such lists are in effect little more than inventories of the major heroes of the period, very few of whom have any specific stories ascribed to them in connection with the hunt, the exact content of the list is not a matter of any great concern. Apollodorus and Hyginus provide catalogues, as does Ovid in his Metamorphoses.
Cycle 284
As it turned out, she proved to be a more valiant and effective hunter than any of the men, apart from Meleager himself. According to Bacchylides, the hunt lasted for six days and the main victims of the boar were Ancaios (a redoubtable Arcadian who wore a bearskin and carried a double-headed axe, see p. 548) and Meleager's favourite brother Agelaos.
Flow 285
The death of Meleager
Although it might have been expected that all would have ended happily with the killing of the boar, the awarding of the trophies provided occasion for a violent disagreement that would result in the death of Meleager. It will be convenient to start by considering how both matters were represented in the standard later tradition, in which, as we have seen, the heroine Atalanta had come to be accorded a central role. It could be suggested accordingly that the present trouble arose because Meleager chose to award the spoils of the hunt to her.
Matters follow a very different course in the earliest account in the Iliad, since the quarrel between Meleager and his uncles develops into a full-scale war, and there is no mention whatever of Atalanta or of the fateful log. Homer states without further detail that a quarrel developed between the Aetolians and the Couretes over the head and shaggy hide of the boar, which resulted in a war that went badly for the Couretes as long as Meleager still remained in the fray.
These Couretes, who are mentioned elsewhere as the aboriginal inhabitants of Aetolia, may presumably be identified with the people who were under the rule of Thestios and his family, i.e. the Pleuronians, while their opponents were primarily the Calydonians. The course of the struggle changed when Meleager angered his mother by killing one of her brothers (or some of them, the text is ambiguous), for she cursed him, praying for his death, and he was so upset and enraged by this that he withdrew from the fighting, and the tide then turned in favour of the Couretes, who launched an assault against Calydon and placed it under increasing threat.
355; there were conflicting traditions about his parentage). The later life of Oineus, and his successors at Calydon After losing his wife Althaia in the tragic circumstances described above, Oineus married Periboia, daughter of Hipponoos, who was descended from the old Inachid ruling family of Argos. She was born outside the Argolid, however, because her father was king of Olenos in Achaea, the northern coastal province of the Peloponnese.
353 for the circumstances), but he was killed at Thebes before that promise could be put into effect (see p. Although a fine warrior, he had a reputation for being brutally violent beyond the bounds of civilized behaviour, as is shown most starkly in the tale of his death. He left a single son, Diomedes, who was one of the greatest heroes of his age.
When Adrastos died without an heir, Diomedes inherited his kingdom in the Argolid, and so became one of the most powerful of all the Greek rulers, and he went on to play a prominent part in the Trojan War as the leader of the men of his land, see p. This second family of Oineus was thus of the highest importance in heroic legend, but as belonging to Argive rather than to Aetolian legend. When Oineus grew too old to retain proper control of his kingdom, some nephews of his, the sons of Agrios, revolted against him to place their father on the throne; and they not only robbed him of his kingdom but also imprisoned him and cruelly mistreated him.
As a reward for his services, Oxylos asked to be granted the throne of Elis, which had been ruled by his ancestors many generations earlier before Aitolos had gone away to Aetolia. 7.7.2); the stone-throwing is also mentioned in Acus. 4F6 (king of Thessaly), Apollod.
1.7.2 (king of Phthia), Conon 27 (Phthiotis). 8 Marmor Parium 239A4 Jac., Paus. See also Horace Ode 1.2.5-12, Manil.
152 for universal flood, and Prob. 3F23 (Protogeneia first attested as daughter); Amphictyon, Hdt. 10.8.1-2 (this Amphictyon should properly be distinguished from the Athenian king of that name, although the two were sometimes identified, e.g.
17 Death of sons of Aigimios, Apollod. 8.7.1 (Hellen sends younger sons abroad), Paus. 7.1.2 (Xouthos driven out by brothers on accusation of stealing); marriage of X.
Ion 57-64, 294-8 (Creousa assigned to him for help in Euboean war), Conon 27, Apollod. 8.7.1 and Conon 27 respectively. 988-1208 (Creousa's plot and its failure).
11.410-750 (Alcyone here described as a daughter of Aiolos, ruler of the winds), Hyg. 10a.58-62 (parentage of Endymion), Paus. 5.1.3 (Aethlios first king of Elis, his wife not named).
14.1.8 (grave on Latmos), Paus. 6.20.9 (grave in Elis), Paus. 5.1.5 (conflicting traditions, story of his move).
1.7.6 (that he killed Jason). 22 (courted by many), Apollod. 1.87 (herdsman here called Ovista).
1.8.2 (when seven days old), D.S. 4.34.6 (Moirai appear in a dream), Ov. 8.541ff; earliest sources for fateful log, Phrynichos Pleuroniai cited Paus.
1.8.2; half of kingdom too in Vat. 5.115-20 (Ancaios and Agelaos), Apollod. 1.8.2 (Hyleus and Ancaios), Ov.
8.362-4 (Ainesimos); for death of Ancaios, see Ov. 4.35.1, sends her to him after she claims to have become pregnant by Ares.
18 Jason and the Argonauts
The myth of the Argonauts told how Jason, son of Aison, sailed from Iolcos in Thessaly with a crew of fifty heroes at the order of his uncle Pelias, the king of Iolcos, to fetch a golden fleece from Colchis at the far end of the Black Sea. Although the early epic accounts of the expedition have been lost, as in the case of the Theban Wars and Calydonian boar-hunt, we know far more about this adventure than we do about the other two, largely because an Argonautic epic has survived from the Hellenistic era along with invaluable scholia (ancient explanatory notes), which provide a large amount of information about the earlier tradition and Argonautic lore in general.
Ladder 286
Jason and the Argonauts
The myth of the Argonauts told how Jason, son of Aison, sailed from Iolcos in Thessaly with a crew of fifty heroes at the order of his uncle Pelias, the king of Iolcos, to fetch a golden fleece from Colchis at the far end of the Black Sea. Although the early epic accounts of the expedition have been lost, as in the case of the Theban Wars and Calydonian boar-hunt, we know far more about this adventure than we do about the other two, largely because an Argonautic epic has survived from the Hellenistic era along with invaluable scholia (ancient explanatory notes), which provide a large amount of information about the earlier tradition and Argonautic lore in general.
We will use this poem, The Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, as our main guide in following the course of the expedition, while referring at the same time to what is known of the earlier tradition. Before passing on to the expedition itself, we must consider the origin and nature of the object of Jason's quest, and the motives that Pelias may have had for sending him on his dangerous mission, in relation to the previous history of Iolcos and of its ruling family.
After arriving in Colchis, Jason had to rely on the help of the king's daughter, Medeia, to be able to escape with the golden fleece, and she accompanied him back to Greece and became his wife; in the final part of the chapter, we will follow the subsequent life of Jason and Medeia in Greece until its tragic conclusion. The golden fleece and why Jason was sent to fetch it The origin of the golden fleece The golden fleece had come from a wondrous ram that had carried a young Boeotian prince, PHRIXOS, to safety in Colchis after his stepmother had plotted to cause his death.
His father ATHAMAS, whom we have already encountered as a foster-parent of the infant Dionysos (see p. 164), was a Boeotian king who was famed for his tangled marital affairs. He was of Deucalionid descent as one of the seven sons of Aiolos (see p.
379) and was sometimes said to have ruled at Orchomenos in north-western Boeotia (see p. 392) or even at Thebes (although there is no proper place for him in the succession). According to the standard tradition, he first married Nephele (Cloud, apparently a minor goddess), who bore him two children, Phrixos and Helle; but he later put her aside to marry Ino, daughter of Cadmos, who bore him two further children, Learchos and Melicertes.
As is the manner of stepmothers in folklore, INO resented the children whom her husband had fathered by his previous wife, and indeed she hated them so greatly that she set out to contrive their death, or at least the death of the male child. Although there are quite frequent references to the story in earlier sources, we have to turn to mythographers from the Roman period for a full and coherent narrative. To start with Apollodorus' account, Ino persuaded the women of the land to parch the coming year's seed-grain (i.e.
roast it over a fire) in secret from the men, and when the grain failed to germinate as a result of this treatment, Athamas sent envoys to Delphi, as Ino would doubtless have anticipated, to ask how the land could be delivered from its infertility. Ino then bribed the envoys to report that the oracle had declared that the famine would come to an end if Phrixos were sacrificed to Zeus, and although Athamas was reluctant to order the death of his son, his people insisted that he should be brought to the altar.
Compare 287
His kingdom would originally have been imagined as lying within a purely mythical field, in the same way as Circe's island. In connection with the Argonauts, he is generally represented as being a cold-hearted despot who has a suspicious mind and is utterly ruthless. In the early tradition, however, he seems to have offered a quite friendly reception to Phrixos, presumably won round by the gift of the fleece, welcoming him to his court and offering him his daughter Chalciope (or Iophossa) as a wife.
So he made his home in that region, which was known as the Athamantian Plain from that time onwards. He now married yet again, taking THEMISTO, a daughter of the Thessalian hero Hypseus, as his third wife. Of the four sons of this marriage, only Schoineus is worthy of mention, as the father of Atalanta in the Boeotian tradition (see p.
Hub 288
For, according to a tale recounted by Hyginus, which he ascribes to Euripides, Athamas married Ino as his first wife, fathering Learchos and Melicertes by her as usual, but married Themisto when he came to think that Ino must have died, evidently after she had disappeared in mysterious circumstances. He later discovered, however, that Ino had simply gone away to take part in Bacchic revels on Mt Parnassos, and he brought her back into his home under a concealed identity, pretending to Themisto that she was merely a maidservant.
By piecing together material from three separate chapters of his book, the following narrative can be constructed. After being put aside in favour of Ino, Themisto hid in the palace with the intention of killing Ino's children, but she accidentally killed her own children instead because the nurse had dressed them in the wrong clothing, and so she took her own life. Ino in turn wanted to kill Nephele's children, to ensure that her own sons alone would survive, and parched the seed-grain as in the usual story.
At her instigation, the messenger who had been sent to Delphi reported that the oracle had ordered that Phrixos should be sacrificed, and when the king refused to order the death of his son, Phrixos volunteered to die so as to deliver the land from its distress. On seeing him brought to the altar, however, the messenger felt pity for him and betrayed Ino's plot to the king at the last moment. Athamas then ordered that Ino should be put to death along with her son Melicertes; but Dionysos, who owed a debt to Ino for having nursed him during his infancy, saved her by casting a mist around her.
The family of Cretheus at Iolcos, and the origin of his successor Pelias Phrixos' adventure with the flying ram provided the Argonauts with a suitable object for their quest, the golden fleece that came to be deposited as a consequence in the remote land of Colchis at the far end of the Black Sea. To understand why Pelias, king of Iolcos, should have asked his nephew Jason to undertake the perilous task leading an expedition to fetch it, it is necessary to consider the previous history of Iolcos and of its ruling family, which belonged once again to the great Deucalionid family (see p.
Cycle 289
This city of Iolcos, which lay near the coast at the head of the Gulf of Pagasai in southern Thessaly, was founded by Cretheus, a son of Aiolos who lived in Thessaly, the region of his birth. Cretheus married his niece Tyro, who was entrusted to him after her father Salmoneus, a son of Aiolos who had left Thessaly to found a city in the Peloponnese, met an early death as a result of his impious behaviour. Tyro bore three sons to Cretheus, including Aison, the father of Jason; but although, as the eldest son, Aison might have expected to have inherit from his father in normal circumstances, Tyro happened to have borne two sons to the great god Poseidon before her marriage, and one of these, Pelias, became king instead after the death of Cretheus, excluding Aison and his son Jason from the succession.
Jason lived near Iolcos under the rule of Pelias until the king, for reasons that are variously explained, sent him to fetch the golden fleece in the hope and expectation that he would die in the attempt. We must begin by considering how TYRO came to be entrusted to Cretheus and attracted the attention of Poseidon. Her father SALMONEUS, son of Aiolos, had settled in Elis in the north-west corner of the Peloponnese, where he had founded a city beside the river Alpheios, naming it Salmone after himself.
Flow 290
One told how Apollo had to work for him as a serf for a year, and helped him to win Alcestis as his wife, see p. 145; and the other told how Alcestis later came to be rescued from death by Heracles after volunteering to die on her husband's behalf, see p. Their son Eumelos ('Rich in flocks') commanded the men from Pherai, Iolcos, and the neighbouring towns at Troy.
Why Pelias sent his nephew Jason to fetch the golden fleece We now come to the central point in the story, that in which Pelias sent his nephew Jason away to fetch the fleece.
While Pelias was reigning at Iolcos as Cretheus' successor, Jason preferred to live in the country outside the city, so we are told, because he had a passion for agriculture. There is no reason to suppose that he stayed away from the city because he had any fear for his safety, as in the other main version that will be considered shortly. When he came to Iolcos to have his fateful meeting with Pelias, it was in response to a general summons issued by the king rather than because he wanted to take any action against him.
Ladder 291
For when Pelias was once intending to offer a sacrifice to Poseidon by the seashore, he summoned all the citizens to attend, including Jason, who received the message while he was ploughing his fields beside the river Anauros. He took off his sandals to cross the river but forgot to put his left sandal on again when he arrived at the opposite bank (or else lost it in the current). Now Pelias had once received an oracle warning him to beware of the man with a single sandal; and when he saw Jason arrive at the ceremony with one foot bare, he called the prophecy to mind and was thoroughly alarmed.
So he invited Jason to the palace on the following day and asked him what he would do if he had been told by an oracle that he would be murdered by one of his fellow-citizens. At the inspiration of Hera, who had long hated Pelias for reasons already explained, Jason immediately replied that he would send him to fetch the golden fleece; for the goddess put this thought into Jason's mind because she knew that if he were sent on that mission, he would return with the Colchian enchantress Medeia, who would cause the death of Pelias (see p.
They entrusted him to the care of the Centaur Cheiron, who lived in a cave on Mt Pelion to the east. We should doubtless assume that Jason was reared by Cheiron in the preceding version too. Jason remained in hiding in the country, unknown to Pelias or anyone outside his family circle, until he was twenty years old, when he returned to Iolcos to demand the throne from Pelias.
Now Pelias had received two oracles, one telling him that death would come to him from a descendant of Aiolos, and the other warning him to beware of the man who would come down from the mountains wearing only a single sandal; so when Jason, who was a great-grandson of Aiolos, appeared in the city wearing a single sandal and demanded the throne, Pelias realized that he would have to contrive his removal and destruction. Pretending that he was willing to surrender the throne, he asked Jason to perform a special favour for him before taking over the kingdom; for Phrixos had appeared to him in a dream, so he claimed, to ask that the golden fleece should be fetched home to Greece, and this was a task that was better suited to a young man like Jason than an old man like himself.
Compare 292
Hub 293
The voyage of the Argonauts
Jason arranges for a ship to be built and summons his companions Jason prepared for his mission by organizing the construction of the greatest ship that had ever been built, the Argo, and by summoning leading heroes from all parts of Greece to accompany him on the voyage. The 'Argo which is famous to all (pasimelousa)', as Homer already calls her,47 was said to have been the first large seagoing ship (although the ship that carried the fifty Danaids to Argos, see p.
It seems likely that Jason would have been accompanied by a crew of Minyans (legendary inhabitants of his own region) in the earliest tradition, and that the voyage of the Argonauts would have taken them into a purely mythical field at the eastern edges of the earth. As time progressed, however, and the Greeks became better acquainted with the lands and seas to the east of them, the geography became less fanciful, and Colchis, a real land at the eastern end of the Black Sea, replaced the mythical land of Aia as the destination of Jason's quest; and in due course, the adventure was developed into a Panhellenic enterprise involving heroes from far beyond Jason's home in north-eastern Greece.
To recruit worthy companions to sail with him in the Argo, Jason sent messengers to every corner of Greece to summon fifty of the foremost heroes of the age. These would have been men who reached their maturity a generation or so before the Trojan War, and many were fathers of great warriors who fought at Troy. As is commonly the case with collaborative enterprises in legend, no two lists are in full agreement on the names of the participants; since the Argonauts generally acted as a collective body (in surviving accounts at least) and few were remembered for any individual exploits, plausible names from the appropriate era could be suggested almost at will by poets and mythographers.
568), Hylas (a favourite of Heracles, see below), Idas and Lynceus, the seer Idmon, Iphiclos, son of Phylacos, Cepheus, son of Aleos, Meleager, Menoitios, Polyphemos, son of Elatos, the helmsman Tiphys, and Telamon, the father of Ajax.
Cycle 294
The outward voyage of the Argonauts
Heracles was sometimes said to have been left behind there (see below, p. 401).55 (ii) They then skirted northern Thessaly and the Chalcidice before sailing east across the open sea to Lemnos, where they made their longest halt. There were no men on the island at the time because they had all been killed by the women.
For not long before, Aphrodite had afflicted the women with an evil smell to punish them for having neglected her cult, causing them to become so repulsive to their husbands that they had driven them from their beds and replaced them with captive women from Thrace; and the Lemnian women had been so enraged by this treatment that they had conspired together to murder every man on the island in a single night. One woman alone had broken the agreement, HYPSIPYLE, the daughter of the king and present queen of the island, who had saved her aged father Thoas by secretly sending him out to sea in a chest (or putting him on a ship, or hiding him away in the palace).
On seeing the Argo approaching their shore, the women armed themselves and poured down to the beach, fearing that they were under attack from the Thracians; but the Argonauts sent their herald Aithalides to Hypsipyle to assure her that they had no hostile intentions. So she convened an assembly, and the women agreed to invite the Argonauts into their homes; for they realized that they would need male protectors or at least male children to guard them from attack and provide for them in their old age.
The next morning, as they were climbing a neighbouring mountain to survey their route, the Argo was attacked by the Gegeneis (Earth-born), a race of six-armed giants who lived on the mountain; but Heracles, who had stayed on the ship with some of the younger heroes, kept them at bay with his arrows, bringing many of them to the ground, until the rest of the crew returned to complete the slaughter. By a stroke of ill-fortune, the Argonauts were caught by adverse winds on the night after their departure and were driven back to their starting-point; and when they jumped ashore in the dark without realizing where they were, their former hosts mistook them for enemies from Euboea and engaged them in battle.
Flow 295
On seeing a pine tree that would suit the purpose, he knocked it with his club to free it from the ground and then pulled it up, roots and all. He had been accompanied on the expedition by a young favourite of his, HYLAS, son of Theiodamas or Ceux, who also wandered off on his own to fetch some water from a spring. He was destined never to return, because the nymph of the spring was so enchanted by his youthful beauty that she pulled him into the water to keep him for herself.
Or, in Theocritus' account, he was seized by three such nymphs as he leant over the pool to fill his jar. His cries were heard by one Argonaut alone, Polyphemos, son of Elatos, a Thessalian Lapith, who warned Heracles that something had happened to his favourite; but although the two of them searched all night, they were unable to find any trace of him. Their comrades sailed off at dawn without realizing that anything was amiss, and they travelled some distance before discovering that the crew was incomplete.
On this occasion, however, the finest of all boxers, Pollux (one of the Dioscuri, see p. 448), was present to respond to the challenge and stepped forward with alacrity. So the two pugilists wrapped thongs of leather around their hands in accordance with ancient practice, and then exchanged punches until Pollux shattered the king's skull with a blow above the ear.
Ladder 296
Sophocles wrote at least two plays on this matter, but little is known for sure about their content except that Phineus blinded his two children at the instigation of their stepmother. The Hellenistic mythographer Asclepiades provides a full narrative in which Phineus first married Cleopatra, daughter of Boreas (as in Sophocles' Phineus), and then a certain Eurytie, who laid false accusations against the sons of his first marriage; so he handed them over to her to be killed, much to the anger of Zeus, who offered him the choice of either death or blindness.
Compare 297
On the advice of an Arcadian called Amphidamas, who had seen Heracles use a bronze rattle to put the Stymphalian birds to flight (see p. 247), the Argonauts frightened the birds off by shouting loudly and striking their shields. Phineus had ordered them to visit the island because he knew that they would find some useful helpers there, namely the sons of Phrixos, who had been shipwrecked in the area as they were trying to sail from Colchis to Greece (see p.
Hub 298
In the first place, he must yoke two fire-breathing, bronze-hooved bulls to a plough and then plough the intractable meadow of Ares with them; and, after achieving this, he must sow the field with teeth from a dragon and then kill all the armed warriors who would spring up from them. The bulls had been presented to the king by Hephaistos, while the teeth had come from the Theban dragon that had been killed by Cadmos several generations earlier (for Athena had kept some of its teeth and had passed them on to Aietes, see p.
The task was completed by mid-afternoon, and the armed warriors began to spring up from the furrows shortly afterwards. Putting his trust in Medeia's advice, Jason raised a boulder from the ground and hurled it among them without revealing himself; and they duly attacked one another and fought until only a few were left alive, at which point he rushed forward and finished them off with little difficulty. Aietes was so enraged at Jason's triumph that he strode back to the city without saying a word.
Cycle 299
In a fairly full account by Pindar, Aietes himself performed the initial task of yoking the bulls and ploughing the field, and then challenged Jason to do the same, promising the fleece to him if he should succeed. There is no mention of the dragon's teeth, but the poet may have expected his audience to fill in that detail for themselves, since this was an ancient feature of the legend, known to Pherecydes, which probably went back to early epic. Jason duly performed the task, with the benefit of advice that he had received from Medeia, to the consternation of Aietes, who told him that he must seize the fleece for himself from the thicket where it was guarded by the huge dragon.
In Euripides' Medeia the formidable heroine boasts of having killed the dragon herself, thus taking over the hero's role, but that is exceptional.100 Figure 18.1. Jason disgorged by a dragon, red-figure cup attributed to Douris, from Cerveteri, c. Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco.
© Adam Eastland/Alamy Stock Photo In Apollonius' account, as we have seen, Jason and the Argonauts stole away immediately after removing the fleece from the grove of Ares, but there were also accounts in which they left from the palace of Aietes. In an early epic called the Naupactia, Aietes schemed to murder the Argonauts while they were asleep after having been feasted by him, but Aphrodite distracted him at the critical time by inspiring him with a sudden lust for his wife Eurylyte.
During his absence, the Argonauts took flight on the advice of the seer Idmon, and on hearing the clatter of their feet, Medeia rushed after them, bringing the fleece with her.101 It is not clear whether the fleece was kept in the palace, or had been brought there after Jason had killed the dragon to gain possession of it.
Flow 300
The return voyage of the Argonauts
The object of the journey was now accomplished, and the Argonauts could begin their return. Although it was commonly agreed that the Argonauts sailed out to Colchis by way of the Hellespont, Bosporos, and the Black Sea, accounts of their return journey were far more varied. The proposed itineraries can be divided into five main categories.
(i) It could simply be imagined that they retraced the route of their outward journey, sailing west across the Black Sea and then back to the Aegean by way of the Bosporos and Hellespont; but although they are occasionally stated to have followed this course in tragedy and later sources,102 most authors favoured a more adventurous itinerary. (ii) In some accounts from the earlier tradition, the Argonauts rowed eastwards up the Phasis to the encircling Ocean and then passed southwards around it until they arrived at the east coast of Africa.
Dragging the Argo ashore there, they hauled or carried it overland in a westerly or north-westerly direction, either to Lake Tritonis in Libya (which was supposed to have an outlet that opened into the Mediterranean, see p. 410) or to the Nile. After reaching the Mediterranean, they were able to make their way home by a known route.
(v) And finally the historian Timaeus of Tauromenium (died c. 260 bc), inspired by the northern explorations of the Greek seafarer Pytheas of Massalia (Marseilles), proposed a route that took the Argonauts far to the north. Finding that they were unable to escape through the Bosporos because it was blocked by the Colchians, the Argonauts sailed across to the north-eastern corner of the Black Sea to make their way back through the river Tanais (Don).
Ladder 301
Remembering that the seer Phineus had advised them to choose a different route on their return, they discussed the matter during this halt and agreed to a suggestion from Argos, son of Phrixos, who proposed that they should sail up the Istros (Danube) and then down to the Adriatic through a side branch of the river. A large Colchian fleet had set out in the meantime under the command of Apsyrtos; after crossing the Black Sea without finding any sign of the Argonauts, the fleet separated into two sections, one passing out through the Bosporos while the other headed for the Istros.
By encouraging her brother to believe that she would help him to regain the fleece, she lured him to a secret meeting on the island in the river-mouth where she was supposed to be put ashore; and when he arrived at the appointed meeting place at the temple of Artemis, Jason, who had been waiting in ambush nearby, caught him by surprise and murdered him. As a prearranged signal, Medeia raised a torch to the Argonauts, who massacred the crew of Apsyrtos' ship in a surprise attack and then rowed through to the open sea with Jason and Medeia.
On the way, they were confronted by some of the dangers that would later threaten Odysseus when he passed through the same seas after the Trojan War. As they were sailing past the island of the Sirens - enchanting singers who lured sailors to their death through the beauty of their song (see p. 508) - Orpheus drowned out their voices by strumming a loud and rapid melody on his lyre.
Compare 302
Medeia approached Arete, the queen of the Phaeacians, and appealed to her as a suppliant, arousing such pity in her that she begged her husband to resist the Colchian demands. When Alcinoos replied that he would not separate Medeia from Jason if she were married to him, but that he would feel obliged to return her to her father if she were still a virgin, Arete sent a secret message to Jason to inform him of the decision. So he married Medeia without delay, and the couple spent their wedding-night in the sacred cave of Macris, lying together on the golden fleece.
On the advice of the guardian-nymphs of the land, they hoisted the ship on to their shoulders and carried it overland for twelve days and nights until they arrived at Lake Tritonis. They lost two of their companions in the area before proceeding on their way, for Canthos, son of Abas, was killed by Caphauros (a local herdsman who was descended from Minos) while trying to rustle his sheep, and the seer Mopsos died from a snakebite. Poisonous snakes had abounded in Libya ever since they had first sprung up from the blood that had dripped from the Gorgon's head as Perseus was flying over the land (see p.
After launching the ship on to the waters of the lake, the Argonauts searched in vain for an outlet to the sea. Orpheus proposed that they should set a tripod on the shore as an offering to the local gods for their safe return; and when they did so, Triton, the god of the lake, appeared to them in the guise of a young man and directed them on their way. He also gave Euphemos the clod of earth from which the island of Thera would subsequently grow (see pp.
The Argonauts continued northwards through the Aegean islands, stopping briefly at Aegina, and then passed through the straits between Euboea and Central Greece to reach their home-port in Thessaly.129
Jason returns to Iolcos with the fleece and Medeia contrives the death of Pelias
Pelias was not always presented as a usurper, however, and other reasons were also put forward to explain his death, namely that it was contrived by his enemy Hera, or that Pelias incurred the enmity of Jason by having caused the death of his father Aison during his absence. According to Apollodorus, Pelias decided to kill Aison to eliminate that branch of the family when he came to believe Jason would never come back, but Aison asked to be allowed to take his own life, and he did so by drinking bull's blood (which was thought to be dangerous because it would congeal in the drinker's throat).
Jason and Medeia in Corinth and Medeia’s flight to Athens
According to a wholly different account of these events that was offered by the Corinthian epic poet Eumelos, the Corinthians invited Medeia to their city to become their queen since the land had been granted to her father by Helios long before, and the throne had fallen vacant in the meantime (see further on pp. Medeia ruled there in conjunction with Jason until he discovered that she had caused the death of all of their children at birth, having buried each of them in turn in the sanctuary of Hera in the hope of rendering them immortal.
In the early epic tradition, however, Jason would doubtless have been a hero of unimpeachable valour who could rank with other great monster-slaying heroes such as Perseus, Theseus, or Bellerophon. 22; Phrixos volunteers to be sacrificed, Pher. 2; ram first mentioned, Hes.
7.58 (Helle's tomb by Hellespont), A.R. 4F129 (lies in temple of Zeus). 2.1140-56; wife as Iophossa, Hes.
1.44.11 alludes to this version too; cf. 1286-92 (Ino jumps into sea with both children), schol. 4.531-42; for various traditions about Leucothea and Melicertes, Paus.
2.514 (plain named after him because he settled there after expelled from kingdom). 14 Nauck (imitation of thunder and lightning respectively), Verg. 11.238-54 (mating with Enipeus), Hes.
33 See Aristotle Poetics 16, 1454b25. 35 Both faults in Apollod. 37 The parting of the brothers, Apollod.
2.763-7; in chariot-race at funeral games for Patroclos, 23.287-565. 50 Both explanations of name in D.S. For Argos and the building of the Argo, see also A.R.
14, Orphic Argonautica 119-231, Val. 1.559-2.1285; for a summary with some material from other sources, see Apollod. 1.9.17; earlier references to killing of Lemnian men, Pi.
253-4, Argonauts compete in games there and sleep with women, on return voyage), Aesch. 1.769 on Aeschylus' Hypsipyle and Sophocles' Lemniai; Hom. 7.467-9 (Euneos as son of Jason and Hypsipyle).
Scenes from the visit would have been presented in Aeschylus' Kabeiroi (in which Jason and his comrades appeared in a drunken state, Athen. 26 citing Nicander (Hylas here a son of Ceux). 6.21 (follows Apollodorus for the Hylas story).
263 (for marriage of Ceux), Hdt. 1.9.19 citing Pherecydes (= 3F11a), Aristotle Politics 3, 1284a16. 1.9.19 citing Demaratus (to Colchis) and Dionysius Scytobrachion (as leader); cf.
13.74-6 (to Colchis on foot after left behind in Mysia). 22.27-134; the episode was portrayed in a Satyr-play by Sophocles, the Amykos, frr. 111-12 Radt, and a comedy by Epicharmus, frr.
1.9.21 (cited as variant), Istros 334F67. 434, Harpies went to Mt Dicte in Crete, cf. 3A Davies (to Mt Arginous in Crete).
1.9.21 (it can be inferred that the Boreads must have died too although this is not explicitly stated). 1.9.23; on death of Idmon and Tiphys, cf. Herodorus 31F50-1, 54 (Idmon died during return voyage), Nymphis 432F15, 16.
2.1030-1225; Phrixos advised them to travel there, ibid. The birds that shoot out their feathers already in Eur. 3F22a (on origin of dragon's teeth), 3F112 (bulls fire-breathing and bronze-hooved).
3.1163-1407; on fulfilment of tasks, cf. 6-7 Davies; Herodorus apparently offered a similar account, 31F53. 547 Radt, implied in Eur.
105 Apollonius' account, 4.595ff; rationalized accounts, Pliny N.H. 1.9.24-6 (omitting visit to Africa). For another account of the murder of Apsyrtos set at a later stage in the voyage, see Hyg.
4.894-921; Aphrodite bore Eryx to Boutes, Hyg. 4.1223-1637; on Triton episode, cf. 4.1638-44 (given to Europa by Zeus), Simon.
568 (given to Minos by Hephaistos), Apollod. 1.9.26 (gives Simonides' story and, as variants, that Talos was a member of the bronze race or was formed like a bull). 126 Both variants in Apollod.
5.17.9-10 (Jason and various Argonauts at games on chest of Cypselos). Flacc 1.693-826 (both parents drink bull's blood). 8.11.2-3; the story can be traced back to the last quarter of the sixth century bc in vase-paintings.
136 Aison in Returns fr.6 Davies, Ov. 137 Euripides in Nauck 2 550f., D.S. Flacc 1.693-826 (both parents drink bull's blood).
24 (because Acastos had been a fellow-Argonaut), D.S. the elaborate version in Hyg.
19 The early Pelopids and the family of Achilles and Ajax
Before following the events of the Trojan War, we must consider the family background of some of the leading figures who became involved in it. In the present chapter, the first of two, we will trace the history of the families of four of the most eminent heroes on the Greek side, namely the brothers Agamemnon and Menelaos, who led the expeditionary force, and the cousins Achilles and Ajax, who were the most formidable of the Greek warriors.
Hub 303
The early Pelopids and the family of Achilles and Ajax
Before following the events of the Trojan War, we must consider the family background of some of the leading figures who became involved in it. In the present chapter, the first of two, we will trace the history of the families of four of the most eminent heroes on the Greek side, namely the brothers Agamemnon and Menelaos, who led the expeditionary force, and the cousins Achilles and Ajax, who were the most formidable of the Greek warriors. The former pair, who were two of the most powerful rulers in Greece as the kings of Mycenae and Sparta respectively, belonged to the Pelopid family, which had become established in the Peloponnese at a later period than the other great ruling families of the land, in the time of their grandfather Pelops, who had crossed over from Asia Minor.
The other pair, Achilles and Ajax, who were marked out by their personal prowess and came from kingdoms of no great note, belonged to the less familiar Asopid family, which was formed from descendants of Asopos, the god of a river of the northern Peloponnese. Menelaos became king of Sparta only shortly before the outbreak of the war, after the death of his father-in-law Tyndareos, who belonged to the old Spartan royal, which will be considered in the next chapter. As the husband of Helen, who was nominally one of the children of Tyndareos but really a daughter of Zeus, Menelaos was the immediately aggrieved party in the quarrel that broke out between Greece and Troy as a result of her abduction; and since his brother Agamemnon, who naturally hurried to his support, was perhaps the mightiest and wealthiest of all Greek monarchs, the two brothers became the joint leaders of the expedition.
The Pelopids were latecomers to the Argolid as well as to Sparta, Agamemnon's uncle Thyestes having been the first Pelopid king of Mycenae, which had previously been ruled by members of the original ruling family of the area, the Inachids. In this chapter we will follow the early history of the Pelopids, up until the time when Agamemnon first became king of Mycenae, leaving it to the next chapter to consider the events that immediately led up to the outbreak of the war, and to Chapter 22 to see how the bloody cycle of revenge within the family was continued after Agamemnon returned from the war.
Although Achilles and Ajax, who came from different parts of Greece, were not originally thought to have been related to one another, they came to be drawn together into the same family, evidently because of their equivalent stature as warriors, by being classed as grandsons of Aiacos, king of Aegina, and thus as Asopids because Aiacos had been born to a daughter of Asopos. Although the Asopid family became quite extensive as ever more daughters came to be attributed to the river-god, the Aiacid branch of it is the only one that contains major heroes from heroic myth, not only the two great heroes of the Trojan War, but also their fathers Peleus and Telamon.
The rest of the family, which consists mainly of eponyms of various places in the Greek world, will require no more than brief consideration. In the next chapter we will pass on to the Trojan and old Spartan royal families, and see how they finally came into conflict with one another, as part of a divine plan that was designed to provoke a great war.
Cycle 304
Tantalos of Lydia and his children
Flow 305
He married Hippodameia as soon as he had been purified by Hephaistos. Since he was supposed to have given his name to the entire Peloponnese, it was doubtless often assumed that he extended his power far beyond the little territory of Pisa in Elis, and gave his name to the peninsula after conquering much or all of it, as is suggested by Apollodorus;27 but this can hardly be reconciled with the usual traditions about the early history of the other main regions of the Peloponnese.
If it is in fact the case that Pelops was originally the eponym of a people called the Pelopes, these would presumably have been associated with a wider area of the Peloponnese than merely Pisa alone.
Ladder 306
The children of Pelops and Hippodameia, and exile of Atreus and Thyestes
Compare 307
Cynosuras, and Letreus
Hub 308
After inadvertently eating his children, Thyestes fled to the court of Thesprotos (the eponym of the Thesprotians) in Epirus, and then travelled on to Sicyon, where his daughter Pelopia was staying at the time. He happened to arrive on a night on which sacrifices were being offered to Artemis, and hid himself in a grove for fear of profaning the rites. The dancers were being led by Pelopia, who stained her robes with blood from the sacrifices and went down to a stream to wash; and as she was doing so, Thyestes jumped out of the bushes with his head veiled and raped her.
Although neither was aware of the other's identity, Pelopia secured some evidence for the future by seizing her assailant's sword and hiding it away. Back in the Argolid, Mycenae was afflicted by barrenness as a result of the crime of Atreus, and the king was advised by an oracle to fetch his brother back. Knowing that Thyestes had sought refuge with Thesprotos, Atreus travelled to Epirus to seek him out, but found no sign of him because he had departed abroad to his grandfather's homeland in Asia Minor.
Atreus did catch sight of Pelopia, however, at the court of Thesprotos, and he asked to marry her in the belief that she was a daughter of the king. After arriving at Mycenae, she gave birth to her incestuously conceived son, and exposed him; but some shepherds suckled him at the teats of a goat (aiga in Greek, hence his name of Aigisthos) until he was recovered at the order of Atreus, who brought him up as his own son. Some time later, Agamemnon and Menelaos caught Thyestes at Delphi and brought him back to Mycenae.
Cycle 309
Atreus threw him into prison and ordered Aigisthos (who was grown up by this time) to kill him. Thyestes recognized Aigisthos' sword as the one that had been seized from him during the rape at Sicyon, and asked him where it had come from; and when the young man replied that his mother had given it to him, Thyestes asked that she should be fetched. She told him that she had seized it during the rape, and then picked it up as if to examine it and plunged it into her breast (for she had evidently realized as a result of the preceding conversation that the rapist had been her father).
Pulling the blood-stained sword out of her body, Aigisthos took it away and showed it to Atreus to make him believe that he had killed Thyestes in accordance with his order; and when Atreus was subsequently offering a sacrifice on the shore (presumably in thanksgiving for the death of his brother), Aigisthos took advantage of this opportunity to kill him, and restored the throne to Thyestes.57
Flow 310
Agamemnon and Menelaos survive to expel Thyestes
AGAMEMNON and MENELAOS, who were still quite young at the time when their father (or grandfather) Atreus was murdered, were smuggled abroad to neighbouring Sicyon by their nurse. The king of Sicyon sent them on to the court of Oineus, king of Calydon, in Aetolia on the other side of the Gulf of Corinth, presumably because he thought that they would be safer if they were sent further away. They then came under the protection of Tyndareos, king of Sparta, who presumably met them at Oineus' court while he was living in Aetolia during the period of his exile (see p.
This sanguinary body of myth with its many variations was developed with some relish over a long period of time, notable contributions being made by Attic tragedy. It is indicated, by contrast, in the Iliad that power had been transferred peacefully up until this point from one ruler to another. For Homer tells of a wonderful sceptre that had been passed down in the family as a symbol of its rule, which had been made by Hephaistos, who had given it to Zeus, who had given it to Hermes, who had given it to Pelops, who had passed it on to Atreus, who had bequeathed it to Thyestes, who had bequeathed it in turn to Agamemnon, for him to carry as king.
So there is no sign as yet of any cycle of revenge and bloodshed.61 For the later history of the family, beginning with the murder of Agamemnon, see pp.
Ladder 311
Achilles, Ajax, and the Asopid family
Achilles and Ajax come to be classed as grandsons of Aiacos, and thus as Asopids As the bravest and most formidable of the Greek warriors at Troy, Achilles and Ajax form a natural pair in much the same way as the two leaders of the expedition, and it was doubtless for that reason that they came to be classed as cousins, even if they were originally thought to have been unrelated, as might be assumed of heroes who came from quite different regions, the northern land of Thessaly in the case of Achilles, and the island of Salamis off the coast of Attica in the case of Ajax. Achilles states in the Iliad that he is the son of Peleus and a grandson of Aiacos,62 but although the Homeric epics are less informative about Ajax in this regard, saying nothing about the ancestry of his father Telamon, it is never suggested in any way that the two are related, and most significantly, the title of Aiacides (meaning son or descendant of Aiacos) is applied quite frequently to Achilles and his father Peleus, but never to Ajax and his half-brother Teucros.
It was explained that they came to be born in different areas because their fathers, Peleus and Telamon, were expelled from Aegina by Aiacos for committing murder within the family, and went to different parts of Greece. Aiacos for his part was said to have been a son of Zeus by Aigina, the eponym of the island, who was herself a daughter of Asopos, the god of a Peloponnesian river that flows into the sea to the west of Corinth. The myth of Aigina's abduction to the island of Aegina by Zeus provided a model for the development of many other myths of that kind, in which daughters of Asopos were said to have been carried away to different places by one god or another, to found local ruling families through a son borne to their abductor, or simply to serves as eponyms for the place to which they were carried.
On learning that she had disappeared, her father Asopos set off in search of her, and visited Corinth first of all to ask whether its ruler, Sisyphos, knew anything about the matter, since he could see for miles around from his towering citadel of Acrocorinthos. It happened that the abduction had indeed been observed by Sisyphos, who betrayed the secret to the river-god in return for the creation of a spring on his acropolis. This turned out to be a dubious bargain, however, because Zeus could hardly allow such an indiscretion to go unpunished, see further on p.
Compare 312
Pindar recounts a tale, possibly of his own invention, in which Apollo and Poseidon are said to have summoned the help of Aiacos when they were building the walls of Troy (see p. 443 for the circumstances); for as the scholiast explains, the walls would surely have been impregnable if they had been of purely divine construction. Aiacos was an ideal choice for the part because descendants of his would contribute to the fall of the city on two occasions.
Accounts differ on whether the fatal blow was delivered by Peleus or Telamon, or by both of them jointly. According to the usual tradition, one or the other killed Phocos by hurling a discus at his head while the three of them were exercising together. There were also versions, plainly of secondary origin, in which they killed him because they were jealous of his athletic skills, or simply by accident.
Although Homer never refers to Aiacos' mother, merely saying that he was a son of Zeus, she may perhaps originally have been a daughter of the Thessalian Asopos, which flowed into the Malian Gulf in the very region that Peleus came to rule. Before we consider the further adventures of Peleus and Telamon, something should be said about Phocos in so far as he was the eponym of Phocis and an ancestor of Phocian heroes. This small province in Central Greece, to the west of Boeotia, did in fact have two different eponyms, the other being Phocos, son of Ornytion, a grandson of Sisyphos, king of Corinth.
Hub 313
Cycle 314
Peleus at Phthia and Iolcos in Thessaly
After being banished from his birthplace, Peleus made his way to Phthia in southern Thessaly, where he was purified by EURYTION (or Eurytos), the ruler of the land. The Phthian ruling line had been founded by Eurytion's grandfather, Myrmidon, son of Zeus and Eurymedousa, who was the eponym of the local people, the Myrmidons; Myrmidon had married Peisidice, one of the daughters of Aiolos (see p. 380), who had borne him two sons including Actor, the father of Eurytion.
221), Acastos believed her allegations, but he was unwilling to take action against a guest. So he invited Peleus to accompany him when he and some friends went hunting on Mt Pelion, with the intention of exposing him there to mortal danger. Peleus met with great success in the hunt itself, defeating Acastos and his companions in a hunting contest; for although they tried to cheat by stealing animals that were killed by him, he took the precaution of cutting out the tongues of his victims, and exposed the deception by producing them from his knapsack.
When he fell asleep afterwards, Acastos abandoned him on the mountainside, hiding his sword under a pile of dung to leave him exposed without defence to the Centaurs and wild beasts that roamed the slopes. His sword was a divine weapon incidentally, which had been made for him by Hephaistos. While searching for it after he awoke, he was seized by a band of Centaurs, and would surely have been killed by them if the noble Centaur Cheiron had not come to his rescue.
Flow 315
This would imply that his first wife, Antigone, must have died in the meantime. Apollodorus provides a very neat explanation for her disappearance, saying that Astydameia provoked her to commit suicide as a further act of revenge against Peleus, by sending Antigone a message which claimed that Peleus was intending to put her aside to marry Sterope, a daughter of Acastos.94
Ladder 316
Peleus’ marriage to the Nereid Thetis and the birth of Achilles
THETIS was a beautiful Nereid sea-nymph, one of the many daughters of the sea-god Nereus and Oceanid nymph Doris (see p. Only in very exceptional circumstances would a divine being of her kind enter into a union with a mortal; her sister Amphitrite became the wife, indeed, of one of the very highest gods, Poseidon. Thetis herself was once courted by both Poseidon and Zeus, but it was fated that she would give birth to a son who would be mightier than his father, and the Titan Themis, who was gifted with prophetic powers, alerted the two gods to this danger, adding that if either of them should father this son by her, he would wield a weapon mightier than either the thunderbolt or trident.
She liked to ride in from the sea naked on a dolphin to lie down in a cave by the Thessalian shore, and Peleus happened to discover her there one day while she was asleep. When his words failed to move her, he resorted to force, but she proceeded to transform herself, first into a bird, then into a tree and lastly into a fearsome tigress, giving him such a fright that he allowed her to escape. He then sought the help of the gods of the sea, offering libations and sacrifices to them by the shore, until Proteus rose up and told him how his prospective bride could be captured, advising him to bind her fast while she was asleep and then hold her tight however often she transformed herself until she returned to her original shape.
Compare 317
333) as an illustration of the highest happiness that could be attained by a mortal man;109 but the happiness of Peleus was destined to be short-lived because Thetis continued to feel that the union was unworthy of her, and abandoned her mortal husband soon after the birth of their only child (or only surviving child) Achilles (see Figure 19.1). Thetis makes Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the River Styx. Thomas Banks (1735-1805), Victoria and Albert Museum.
Even if Thetis abandoned her husband, she did not cease to take a sympathetic interest in her son, and was always ready to offer him her help and advice. Peleus lived to a great age; for some stories that were recounted about his later life and final fate, see p. The early life of Achilles, and how he was recruited to fight at Troy After the departure of Thetis, Peleus entrusted the young Achilles to the Centaur Cheiron to be reared on Mt Pelion.
Telamon becomes king of Salamis, and fathers Ajax and Teucros
TELAMON, the other exiled son of Aiacos, remained closer to his birthplace, settling on the island of Salamis not far to the north, just off the coast of Attica. Its ruler, Cychreus, had been borne to Poseidon by Salamis, daughter of Asopos (see p. 434), and he was thus related to Telamon; and having no sons of his own, he offered his daughter Glauce to his Aeginetan kinsman and adopted him as his heir.
250); but he was best remembered for having been the foremost ally of Heracles during the first sack of Troy (see further on p. As a reward for his assistance on that occasion, Heracles offered him Hesione, the daughter of Laomedon, the defeated king, as a concubine; and she bore him another worthy son, TEUCROS, who accompanied Ajax on the second and greatest of the Greek expeditions against Troy. As we will see, Teucros alone would return, because his half-brother committed suicide towards the end of the war (see p.
486), so angering Athena that she imperilled many of his comrades during their return voyage and caused his own death (see pp.
Lesser Asopids
The Asopid family grew ever larger as the mythical tradition evolved and Asopos was credited with ever more daughters to serve as eponyms for places in the Greek world. The next branch to be added after that of Aigina was doubtless the branch associated with Salamis, the only other island of any significance in gulf between Argos and Attica. Aigina had a sister called SALAMIS, who was abducted to the island by Poseidon, where she bore him a son, CYCHREUS, who became the island's first ruler.
Another island that came to be credited with an Asopid eponym was Corcyra (Kerkyra, modern Corfu) in the Ionian Sea off north-western Greece. Corcyra acquired its most important mythical associations at second hand because it came to be identified with the Homeric island of the Phaeacians (Phaiakes), which was visited by Odysseus (see p. 510) and was also introduced into Argonautic myth (see p.
As the eponym of the Greek colony of Sinope on the north coast of Asia Minor, SINOPE was the Asopid who was carried furthest from home. Zeus abducted her to the site of the future city (a trading-port that is best remembered as the birthplace of Diogenes the Cynic) and tried to win her over by promising to give her whatever she most desired; but she proved to be too clever for him, for she told him that what she most desired was to remain a virgin.
Orestes 5; mother as Plouto, schol. 2.22.4; lived at Sipylos, Pi. 3F38 and generally in the subsequent tradition.
8 Pelops is already named as a son of Tantalos in Cypria fr. 13 Davies; Niobe is connected with Sipylos in Hom. 24.605-17, but is not identified as a daughter of Tantalos, as is agreed in subsequent sources from Hes.
1.35-53 (story mentioned but rejected, cf. 42 SM (Rhea cured Pelops by putting him into a cauldron), Apollod. 1.26-7 (alludes to ivory shoulder), Lyc.
152-5 (first mentions that Demeter ate shoulder), schol. 152 (distracted by loss of daughter), Ov. 83 (Demeter fitted it), schol.
1.40 (Hermes did so at bidding of Zeus). 1.67-88 (chariot with winged horses from Poseidon, apparently won without help from Myrtilos); full account of race, D.S. 2.3-5; suitors previously killed, Hes.
23; alternatively, Sterope was the wife of Oinomaos, Apollod. 2.4 (both variants), Lucian Charid. 1.67-88 (chariot with winged horses from Poseidon, apparently won without help from Myrtilos); full account of race, D.S.
2.3-5; suitors previously killed, Hes. 3F37a (substituted waxen dummies); schol. 2.104 respectively; see also Eur.
1.89 (unnamed, three lists in schol. 144); thirteen lists in schol. 30 These were doubtless regarded as sons of Pelops by Homer's time, see Il.
15.639; he is already mentioned by Homer, Il. 2F3; otherwise Cleon or Cleonos, schol. 4, or Cleone, daughter of Pelops, Paus.
4 (similar accounts, the former specifying the nature of the curse, and the latter that the corpse was thrown into a well); Paus. 6.20.7 (Hippodameia exiled), Dositheos 54F1 (Hippodameia committed the murder). 6.22.1-2; 5.17.9 (Pisos shown on chest of Cypselos).
42 For a convenient summary of the ensuing events, see Apollod. 1001-6 (sun reverses course temporarily to travel east), Eur. Statesman 268e-9a (sun reverses course forever to establish present pattern), Eur.
812-16 (allusion to change of course); Zeus sends Hermes to Atreus beforehand, Apollod. (these the only sons named although it is stated that there were three). Tristia 2.391-2, Seneca Thyestes 776ff., Martial 1.45.1-2, Hyg.
88, 258; apparently already in Sophocles, see Anth. 52 Aerope seems to be the mother of Menelaos in the papyrus fragment in Hes. 195, even if Tzetzes (under fr.
194) quotes 'Hesiod' as saying that Menelaos and Agamemnon were children of Pleisthenes and Cleolla. 3.2.2, Nauplios married Aerope to Pleisthenes, who fathered A. by her (a story probably derived from Euripides, see schol.
55 On advice of oracle, Apollod. Chiliades 1.456-65 (as inserted into gap in Apollod. 3.12.6; that Asopos bribed Sisyphos with offer of spring, Paus.
8.17-23 and Paean 6.134-40 (both referring to the abduction without details), Pher. told Asopos that Zeus had abducted Aigina), Call. Hymn 4.78 (Asopos struck by thunderbolt).
4.402 (transformation story set in Peleus' Thessaly). 4.6.1-2 (drought caused by murder of Androgeos), Isocr. Bacch 13.96-9 (two sons by Endeis), Pi.
5.8-13; Phocos as son by Psamathe, already Hes. 3.12.6 (Telamon kills Phocos), Alcmaeonis fr. 1 Davies (Telamon strikes with discus, Peleus kills with axe), Paus.
10.32.6-7, 9.17.3-4 (joint grave of Phocos and Antiope). 58 (wife Asterodia, sons quarrelled in womb), Paus. 2.29.4 (citing Asius = fr.
4 Davies, on name of sons), Lyc. 2.29.4; as builder of Wooden Horse, Hom. 38 (received by Eurytion, son of Iros), D.S.
4.72.6 (received by Actor, who leaves the kingdom to him because he has no heir). 273 (Peleus victor in wrestling), Paus. 5.17.10 (was shown wrestling against Jason on chest of Cypselos).
208, 209 (Acastos hides Peleus' sword in the hope that he will be killed by Centaurs), Pi. 4.790 (combined version in which Zeus persists nonetheless until he receives the prophecy from Themis), Apollod. 24.59-60 (Thetis reared by Hera).
4.62-8 and schol., 3.35-6 and schol., Soph. 1.22.6 (Achilles shown among girls on Scyros in a painting by Polygnotos, fifth century bc, earliest definite evidence for story). 3.13.8 (discovered by blowing of trumpet).
3.13.8, etc; on his love for Deidameia, see also Bion 2. 19.326-7, Proclus on Cypria, with fr.16 Davies. 130 On Teucros, see e.g.
8.266-72; on the Locrian Ajax, 13.701-8, 14.520-3. 23.473ff.; corselet, speed and skill with spear, ibid.
20 The royal families of Troy and Sparta, and the origin of the Trojan War
The culminating event of the mythical history of Greece was the great war, in which Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and Menelaos, king of Sparta, led a large force of warriors across the sea to attack Troy, a rich and powerful city in the north-west corner of Asia Minor, and finally prevailed after besieging the city for ten years. This was the greatest of the Panhellenic adventures, not only because of its huge scale and long duration, but also because it involved a clash between two different worlds.
Hub 318
The royal families of Troy and Sparta, and the origin of the Trojan War
The culminating event of the mythical history of Greece was the great war, in which Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and Menelaos, king of Sparta, led a large force of warriors across the sea to attack Troy, a rich and powerful city in the north-west corner of Asia Minor, and finally prevailed after besieging the city for ten years. This was the greatest of the Panhellenic adventures, not only because of its huge scale and long duration, but also because it involved a clash between two different worlds.
The conflict was provoked by the abduction of Menelaos' wife Helen, who was carried away by Paris, a son of Priam, king of Troy; and that deed and the resulting war formed part of a divine plan that had been devised to rid the earth of its excessive population. The history of the war, from its first devising to the return voyages of the Greeks, was recounted in the early epics of the Trojan cycle, of which only the two Homeric poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, have survived, although some idea of the content of the lost epics can be gathered from testimonies and fragments.
The early history of the Pelopid family, of which Agamemnon and his brother Menelaos (who had only recently ascended to the Spartan throne) were members, has already been recounted in the first part of Chapter 19. In the present chapter, we will trace the histories of the Trojan royal family and the old Spartan royal family, of which Helen was a member, and will then conclude by considering the events that brought these two families into conflict and provoked the war.
When comprehensive heroic genealogies were developed, the families of Paris and Priam at Troy and of Helen and Tyndareos at Sparta were brought together into the same genealogical system, by being presented as two branches of the great Atlantid family, which was formed from the descendants of the seven daughters of Atlas. One of his seven daughters bore the god Hermes to Zeus, while five others bore children who became the ancestors of various royal families. We will briefly consider the other branches of the family before passing on to the two that are our main concern, first the Trojan branch and then the Spartan.
Their astral myths will be considered separately in the final chapter in connection with those of Orion (see p. 562), and we will concentrate here on their genealogical function. To summarize the general structure of the Atlantid family, they brought forth the following children and founded the following families: (i) The Trojan royal line was descended from Electra through her son Dardanos (see pp.
441ff.), while (ii) the Spartan royal line was descended from Taygete through her son Lacedaimon, whom she bore likewise to Zeus (see pp. (iii) The most splendid destiny was reserved for Maia, who became the mother of the Olympian god Hermes. For she attracted the love of Zeus, who secretly visited her in her secluded home, a cave on Mt Cyllene in Arcadia, and fathered Hermes by her.
Cycle 319
HYRIEUS, the founder of the city of Hyria in eastern Boeotia, married a nymph called Clonia and fathered two sons by her, Lycos and Nycteus, who settled at Thebes and gained considerable influence and power there, as has already been described in Chapter 15 (see pp. Through his daughter Antiope, Nycteus was the grandfather of Zethos and Amphion, who ruled the city for a time (see p. There was also a conflicting tradition that presented Hyrieus as being childless (and indeed wifeless) until three visiting gods provided him with a son, Orion, by highly unconventional means (see p.
553).10 She was thus the grandmother of the great hero Bellerophon. (vii) And finally, the framers of the Atlantid genealogies made Sterope (or Asterope) the mother of Oinomaos, king of Pisa (although he was of different birth according to the local tradition, see p. As we saw in the preceding chapter (pp.
Flow 320
Ladder 321
The goddess bore him a son, Memnon, who fought as an ally of the Trojans in the final stages of the Trojan War (see p. Priam is familiar from the Homeric epics as the king of Troy at the time of that war, while his sister Hesione was centrally involved, as we will see, in the events that led to Laomedon's downfall and Priam's rise to power. Laomedon was a powerful but heedlessly arrogant ruler who brought disaster on himself and his people by two dishonourable acts of ingratitude, first towards Apollo and Poseidon and then towards Heracles.
The two gods were once obliged to serve him as labourers for a year as a penalty for having rebelled against Zeus; or else they submitted themselves to him of their own accord to test whether he was really as presumptuous as he was reputed to be. While they were staying with him, they fortified Ilion with massive walls on the agreement that they would receive a fee for their work; but when the work was completed, Laomedon not only refused to pay them but treated them in a most insulting manner, threatening to sell them into slavery and cut off their ears.
As has already been recounted in Chapter 11, he promised to save Hesione in return for the divine horses that had been presented to Tros as compensation for the loss of Ganymedes; but when he tried to claim his reward after fulfilling the task, Laomedon refused to hand over the horses, or tried to substitute mortal ones. So he returned at a later date with a sizeable force of allies and sacked Ilion for the first time in its history, killing Laomedon and all of his sons apart from the youngest, PRIAM (see further on p.
In the light of the fine portrait that is offered by Homer, who presents him as a noble and sympathetic character, it is possible to imagine him as a living individual, by contrast to his predecessors. He makes his most telling appearances in Book 3 of the Iliad, as he talks to Helen and the Trojan elders on the ramparts of the city, and in the final book, when he visits Achilles to seek the return of Hector's body. The poem credits him with fifty sons, nineteen of whom were born to him by his wife HECUBA (properly Hecabe in Greek), and with many female children too, including twelve married daughters who lived with him in the palace.
Compare 322
Since Priam was too old to fight in person, his eldest son Hector was the leading warrior on the Trojan side. For the present we will concentrate on Paris, who was marked out for a special role that would set him apart from his brothers, as the one who was destined to provoke the Trojan War. The birth and early life of Paris Although Homer gives no indication that there were any exceptional events associated with the birth of Paris, it was commonly agreed in the later tradition that Hecuba was disturbed during her pregnancy by a sinister dream, which caused Priam to order that her new-born child should be exposed.
In the earliest such account by Pindar, she dreamed that she gave birth to a fire-breathing Hundred-Handed Erinys (Fury) who hurled the entire city to the ground; or else she saw herself giving birth to a flaming torch, which burned down the city, and perhaps the forests of Mt Ida too. Priam consulted the diviners, who could hardly have found it difficult to interpret this particular dream, and was advised that the forthcoming child should be exposed at birth to ensure that it could never bring any harm to the city.
One day, however, a favourite bull of his was seized and taken away by some servants of Priam; for the king, who naturally supposed that his exposed son was long dead, had decided to hold some games in memory of him, and had sent some men out into the countryside to fetch a suitable prize. On seeing them leading his bull away, Paris ran after them to demand an explanation, and was told about the games. So he went to Troy to win his bull back again and proved victorious in every contest, defeating every rival including his brothers.
Hub 323
But the divine plan that would cause him to bring disaster to Troy was still underway, and it would be set in full course when Hermes brought three goddesses to Paris to be judged for their beauty (see p. Before considering this divine plan and seeing how it led him to abduct Helen from her Spartan homeland, we must trace the history of the Spartan royal family of which she was a member, after turning aside for a moment to consider the junior branch of the Trojan royal family.
As the story is recounted in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, she went to her precinct at Paphos on Cyprus beforehand to be bathed and bedecked by the Graces, and then assumed the guise of a Phrygian princess to approach Anchises, so that he should not be frightened off by seeing her in her true nature as a goddess. She told him that Hermes had carried her away to Mt Ida so that she should become his wife, and proposed that they should consummate their union without delay.
Like Paris, who also lived outside the city before becoming reunited with his family, he was something of an outsider who stood apart from the rest of the royal family. His branch of the family was cast into the shade by the senior branch that ruled from the city, and the Iliad presents him as feeling some resentment at his position, especially when he feels that Priam is failing to pay him the honour that he deserves. He first became involved in the Trojan War when Achilles came to Mt Ida to seize his cattle (see p.
Cycle 324
The alternative name of Sparta, which carried poetic and patriotic overtones, was also applied to the city and, in a looser sense, to the land as a whole. Taygete for her part was the eponym of Taygetos, the towering mountain range that divided Lacedaimon from Messenia to the west. The only mythical tale recorded for her, in which she was said to have dedicated the Cerynitian hind to Artemis after the goddess saved her from being raped by Zeus (see p.
247), does not accord well with the tradition that makes her the founder of a royal line through a son born to Zeus. LACEDAIMON married Sparta, a corresponding eponymous figure, who was a daughter of Eurotas, the eponym of the main river of the land, and a granddaughter (or great-granddaughter) of Lelex, the earth-born first ruler of the land. Lacedaimon and Sparta had a daughter Eurydice, who became the wife of Acrisios, king of Argos (see p.
225), and a son and successor Amyclas, who was the eponymous founder of Amyclai, an ancient town on the Eurotas about three miles south-east of Sparta. Amyclas was succeeded by his son Cynortas or Cynortes (either directly or after the death of an elder brother Argalos). It hardly needs saying that this is mythical history of a most elementary kind in which we encounter little more than a series of eponyms.
Flow 325
The hero then invited Tyndareos back to take over the throne as the rightful king. ICARIOS was otherwise remembered for having been the father of PENELOPE,54 who became the wife of Odysseus, and it is no surprise to discover that his most interesting myths are connected with her and her marriage. In one account, Odysseus' father Laertes interceded with Icarios to help his son to win Penelope as a wife,55 or in another, Tyndareos interceded on Odysseus' behalf in return for advice from him on how to avoid trouble from Helen's suitors (see further on p.
In circumstances that will be described below, the Pelopid Menelaos won her as his wife, with the support of his brother Agamemnon, the rich and powerful king of Mycenae. Meneleaos was already living in Sparta as a protégé of Tyndareos (for reasons explained on pp. 424-5), and he now settled down at the Spartan court with his wife.
If it had not been for the early death of the Dioscuri, who were destined to be killed before the Trojan War, his prospects would have been limited, but he came to inherit the throne of his father-in-law as a result of that misfortune, and was one of the most powerful men in Greece when the war broke out. We will thus consider the life and death of the Dioscuri before returning to Helen's story.
Ladder 326
Compare 327
The Dioscuri, and their conflict with the sons of Aphareus
Before considering the various traditions about the conflict between the two pairs of brothers, we must trace the previous history of the Messenian royal family into which Idas and Lynceus were born. They were of Deucalionid stock as grandsons of PERIERES, a son of Aiolos, who left his native Thessaly to settle in the fertile land of Messenia to the west of Laconia. Perieres established himself as its ruler and married Gorgophone ('Dragon-slayer'), a daughter of Perseus whose name commemorated her father's greatest feat.
Hub 328
Beyond that, the different accounts vary considerably in their details. The end of the previously mentioned narrative by Apollodorus follows a similar course to the more detailed account of these ensuing events in Pindar's tenth Nemean Ode. When the Dioscuri tried to lay an ambush for the Apharetidai in Messenai, they were foiled, so Pindar tells us, by the extraordinary visual powers of Lynceus, who had keener eyesight than anyone on earth.
For on climbing the height of Taygetos, the mountain range between Laconia and Messenia, to survey all the country that lay around, he observed that the twins were hiding inside a hollow oak tree, apparently using his magical vision to see through its trunk. This feature of the story is already recorded in some surviving verses from the Cypria, in which it is stated that Lynceus was able to survey the entire Peloponnese from his vantage point. Apollodorus merely says that he caught sight of Castor without any further details.
According to Pindar, Pollux returned to his fallen brother to find that he was on the point of death, and prayed to Zeus to be allowed to die with him; but Zeus responded by offering him two choices, saying that he could either enjoy full immortality on Olympos in accordance with his divine parentage, or else share his immortality with his brother, so that each of them would spend half of their time in the Underworld and the other half with the gods on Olympos. Pollux chose the latter alternative without a moment's hesitation.
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Nestor's father NELEUS was one of the twin sons who were born to Poseidon by Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus (see p. 396); and since Salmoneus was a son of Aiolos like Perieres, the founder of the Messenian royal family, the families of Neleus and Perieres were related to one another as being of common Deucalionid descent (see pp. When Neleus was expelled from Thessaly, the land of his birth, by his brother Peleus, the future king of Iolcos, (see p.
The third book of the Odyssey describes how Nestor received Telemachos, the young son of Odysseus, at the Pylian court shortly after the war. If he is one of the best-known characters in the mythology of the Trojan War, this is largely because of the affectionate and yet humorous portrayal of him in the Iliad. Since he was much older than the other leaders, more than sixty years of age at the period covered in the Iliad, he was unable to achieve as much as he might have wished in the battlefield, but was highly valued nonetheless for his shrewd if sometimes erratic advice and his long-winded but engaging reminiscences.
The birth and early life of Helen, and her marriage to Menelaos HELEN of Sparta and Troy was no ordinary woman but a daughter of Zeus whose beauty was tinged with more than a trace of the divine. Although she was reared by Leda at the Spartan court, there was disagreement as to whether Leda was her mother or merely her foster-mother; for in accordance with a tradition that went back to early epic, it was sometimes said that Zeus fathered her by the minor goddess Nemesis (Retribution personified, a daughter of Night, see p.
Flow 330
61) rather than by Leda herself. The tale that was offered to explain how Nemesis came to give birth to Helen, the only myth recorded for her, was recounted in the Cypria, the first epic in the Trojan cycle. A surviving fragment from that poem describes how she tried to escape the unwelcome advances of Zeus, fleeing over land and sea to escape his embrace, and then assuming all kinds of different forms when he continued to pursue her, turning now into a fish to speed through the waters of the sea, and then into all manner of dreadful beasts as she fled overland.
Her childhood was brutally interrupted when Theseus and Peirithoos abducted her to Attica, while she was still below marriageable age, perhaps as young as eight or ten; but the Dioscuri rescued her while Theseus was away in the Underworld, and thus prevented him from being able to fulfil his plan of marrying when she came of age, see further on pp. While recovering her, they captured Aithra, the mother of Theseus, who had been looking after Helen on her son's behalf while he was away.
It should be remembered that Agamemnon himself and the great hero Achilles, who might otherwise have been formidable contenders, were not in a position to compete for Helen's hand because the former was already married to Clytemnestra, the half-sister of Helen, and the latter was too young. According to the early account in the Hesiodic Catalogue, in so far as it is known from quite extensive fragments, the suitors conducted their courtship at a distance (initially at any rate) by sending heralds to Sparta with all kinds of valuable gifts.
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The Dioscuri seem to have played a central role both in dealing with the envoys and in determining the outcome. They finally chose in favour of Menelaos, even though they had been planning to award Helen to another suitor (whose name is not preserved) until Agamemnon intervened on his brother's behalf. Since Agamemnon was not only rich enough to offer precious gifts but was also a son-in-law of Tyndareos, it is understandable that his intervention should have proved decisive.
As this story of the oath-taking would imply, most of the Greek leaders at Troy were reckoned to have been among the suitors of Helen. Apollodorus and Hyginus provide catalogues of the suitors,99 evidently based for the most part on the muster list in the second book of the Iliad. The following suitors are named in the surviving fragments of the Hesiodic Catalogue: Menelaos, the great Ajax, the two sons of Amphiaraos (i.e.
Alcmaion and Amphilochos), Elephenor of Euboea, Idomoneus of Crete, Patroclos and Iphiclos from Thessaly, Thoas from Aetolia, and Odysseus. All of these are listed as Greek leaders in the Iliad except for the sons of Amphiaraos (one of whom, Alcmaion, died before the outbreak of the war). Since Apollodorus excludes Patroclos and Idomoneus from his list, it is unlikely that he based it on the Catalogue.
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By the time of the Trojan War, Pelopids thus were ruling in both Mycenae and Sparta. According to Apollodorus, Hermione was nine years old when Paris arrived in Sparta to abduct her mother and so provoke the outbreak of the war.104
The origin of the Trojan War
Zeus lays plans for a great war We can now pass on to the events that led up to the outbreak of the Trojan War. If Paris was directly responsible for provoking it through his abduction of the Greek princess Helen, he did not embark on that course as the result of an arbitrary decision of his own, but was induced to do so because the abduction formed part of a broader divine plan. Since Homer has nothing to say about this plan, except in one brief allusion, it will be necessary to rely on what can be gathered about how it was described in the Cypria, the first epic in the Trojan cycle.
Gaia (Earth) was distressed by the weight of the many mortals who were swarming over her surface, who were not only all too numerous but impious besides; so she appealed to Zeus, who took pity on her and resolved to reduce their numbers, making an initial contribution to that end by provoking the Theban Wars. When he was then intending to cause even greater carnage by means of thunderbolts and floods, Momos, the personification of fault-finding (see p. 58), criticized his plans and proposed a subtler approach, suggesting that a destructive war should be provoked between Europe and Asia by indirect means.
Zeus consulted accordingly with the wise prophetic goddess Themis to plan how this could be best achieved. The central first step would be to incite a quarrel between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, which would be referred to Paris for adjudication. So when Thetis married Peleus at a magnificent wedding attended by all the gods (see p.
Helen);106 but although the actions that Zeus took in these two respects were central to the unfolding of the plan, it is far from certain that he was presented in the Cypria as having brought about the marriage, or having fathered Helen for the specific purpose of advancing the plan. That poem is reported, indeed, to have offered a wholly different explanation for Zeus's action in forcing Thetis to marry Peleus (see p. There is only a single direct reference to the judgement of Paris in the Iliad, even if a number of passages relating to Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena can be best interpreted in the light of that event; for after making it clear throughout the poem that Hera and Athena were exceptionally hostile to Troy, Homer offers some explanation for their attitude in the final book.
The question arises in connection with Achilles' mistreatment of Hector's corpse (see p. When the gods finally became so disgusted by Achilles' behaviour that they wanted to send Hermes to steal the corpse away from him, the plan finds favour with all the gods apart from Hera, Poseidon, and Athena, who persist in the hatred that they had long felt for Troy and for Priam and his people 'because of the blind folly (atē) of Alexandros (Paris), who had scorned the goddesses (i.e.
The judgement of Paris
In accordance with a familiar pattern in folklore, Paris was being asked to choose between the things that were most highly valued in popular estimation, and so make a choice between different forms of life, exposing himself to judgement in his turn through the decision that he reached. By deciding in favour of Aphrodite and what she represented, he earned the undying hatred of the other goddesses; and by then proceeding to abduct Helen with her help, he would incur the vengeance of Menelaos and the Greeks in general.
As we have seen, Menelaos could call on the support of all the former suitors of Helen in such circumstances, and the Trojan War would therefore be set in train and the plan of Zeus fulfilled.109
Paris sails to Greece to abduct Helen
Her predicament was particularly sad because she had known from the beginning that the love of Paris would bring her nothing but sorrow. When Paris had assured her of his love and had sworn that he would never abandon her, she had been able to tell him through her own prophetic powers (which she had acquired from the gods, or from Rhea specifically) that he would abandon her one day to abduct a woman from Europe. As he was about to set off for Greece, she told him that he would suffer a serious wound as a result of the conflict that would be provoked by his action, and that she alone would be able to cure him; and when he did indeed suffer a dangerous arrow-wound towards the end of the war (see p.
After nine days had passed, Menelaos had to sail away to Crete to attend the funeral of Catreus, the former king of the island (who was his maternal grandfather, see p. 304), and he thus entrusted his guests to the care of Helen, telling her to provide them with whatever they might wish. Paris took advantage of his absence to pay court to Helen, an endeavour that proved none too difficult in view of his own physical attractions and the support that he received from Aphrodite.
The idea on which this claim was founded can be traced back to Stesichorus, a poet of the sixth century bc, who recounted two versions of Helen's story, first offering the usual version, but then writing a Palinode, or poem of recantation, in which he provided a wholly different tale, apparently of his own invention, to vindicate Helen's honour. Legend claimed that she had struck him blind for insulting her in his first poem, and that he had then composed the recantation in order to regain his sight (see further on p.
This phantom was abducted to Troy by Paris, while the true Helen was conveyed to Egypt by Hermes, and lived there at the royal court until the end of the war; and when Menelaos was shipwrecked in Egypt, while sailing home with the phantom Helen after the war, the phantom disappeared and the true Helen took her place. According to Euripides, Helen was in danger of being held back in Egypt because the original ruler, Proteus, had died during the time of the war and had been succeeded by his vicious son Theoclymenos, who wanted to force Helen to marry him, and killed every Greek who ventured into his field; but Helen managed to deceive him with the help of his noble-minded sister, the priestess Theonoe.
Hymn 4 to Hermes 1-12, Hom. Hymn 18 to Hermes 1-9, Apollod. Hymn 4 to Hermes 3-4.
3.10.1; Merope first named as his wife, Pher. 4F23 (her children Dardanos, Eetion and Harmonia). Electra was apparently the mother of Dardanos and Eetion in the Hesiodic Cataogue, fr.
177, although the relevant papyrus is full of gaps. 4.75.3, without name of wife. l.c., without name of wife.
3.12.2; turned himself into eagle, Ov. 33 On these events, see e.g. 2.5.9 with 2.6.4; fuller references will be found under the full discussion in Chapter 11.
91 (serpents issue from firebrand), schol. 86 (forests on Ida burned too). 224 (Thymoites true father of child), Serv.
94 (boasted to companions over wine), Verg. 2.648-9 with Servius ad loc. 3.1.1-4; almost nothing has survived from the relevant sections of the Hesiodic Catalogue, see fr.
129.10-12 (reference to Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaimon, who married Acrisios, cf. 171 (very patchy, but apparently refers to Hyacinthos as a son of Amyclas). 23a (three daughters of Tyndareos and Leda).
1.9.16; Polydeuces kills Amycos, A.R. 1.8.3 (hanged herself after Meleager's death). 1.151-5 (and passim) and Apollod.
Proclus on Cypria with frr. 6 (Castor mortal) and 13 Davies (Lynceus sees Dioscuri hiding in oak). 2.8, Zeus adopts similar ruse to seduce Nemesis.
93 On all of this, see pp. 105 Proclus on Cypria with fr. 108 Proclus on Cypria, Cypria fr.
5.59-68 (built Paris's ships, 62-3), Apollod. 4 (=Hegesianax 45F2), Conon 23; Apollod. 3.12.6 (brings remedies but too late).
On Paris and Oinone, see also Lyc. 10.259-331 (refuses help when wounded), 411-89 (throws herself on to his funeral-pyre). 113 Proclus on Cypria, Apollod.
116 Proclus on Cypria, Apollod. 192; for legend of poet's blinding and recantation, Pl. 243a-b (with quotation from palinode), Isocr.
Helen 64, Horace Epode 17.38-45; phantom Helen, Pl. 2.112-20, with general discussion of question.
21 The Trojan War
The Greeks cross over the sea and lay siege to Troy Menelaos assembles a Greek force after the abduction of Helen When Paris abducted Helen, the wife of Menelaos, king of Sparta, Menelaos was away in Crete attending the funeral of Catreus, the former king of the island. The news of her abduction was brought to him by Iris, the goddess of the rainbow who often acted as a divine messenger (see p.
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The Trojan War
In the other such story, already recounted in the Cypria, Odysseus resorted to a ruse on his own part, by feigning madness to try to avoid having to serve, but he had to respond to the summons after the ruse was exposed, see further on p. As already mentioned, Menelaos and Agamemnon became the leaders of the expedition because Menelaos was the aggrieved party as the husband of Helen, while Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, was not only his brother but was also able to offer him the greatest support as the richest and most powerful of the Greek rulers.
In the Homeric epics and later tradition alike, Agamemnon is presented as owing his prestige more to his high position as king of Mycenae than to any outstanding merits of his own, even though he is brave and effective as a warrior. He lacks a sure touch in dealing with his fellow-leaders, who, it should be remembered, were not formally obliged to obey his orders, for he tends to act in an abrupt and high-handed manner and yet lacks the force of character to provide a proper lead in the face of misfortune, tending to fall into despondency when the army is confronted with any serious reverse.
Menelaos is somewhat eclipsed by his more eminent brother and is a man of less distinctive character in Homer's portrayal at least. Although a fine warrior, he could be said to be of the very first rank in that regard, only being outclassed by Achilles, Ajax, Agamemnon, and Diomedes. He is a noble figure nonetheless in the early tradition, and hostile portrayals of him in Attic tragedy, which are coloured by anti-Spartan sentiment, should not be taken as representative.
Something has already been said about the characteristics and earlier life of Achilles and Ajax, the most formidable warriors on the Greek side, see pp. 431ff., and also about Diomedes, a leading hero of less distinctive character, see p. A comprehensive and very ancient catalogue of all the leaders, which provides valuable information about their places of origin and relative power, may be found in the second book of the Iliad (lines 494-759).
When the Greek leaders and their followers gathered together at Aulis, they witnessed a disconcerting portent, which was interpreted for them by the seer Calchas. It is known that the Cypria offered an account of this episode, and the portent is described in some detail in the Iliad. While a large sacrifice was being offered to the gods at some altars that were set around a spring below a plane tree, a fearsome snake with a blood-red back slid from beneath one of the altars and climbed into the tree, which held a nest containing eight sparrow chicks.
Cycle 334
550 for the stories that were put forward to explain how he came to be established in this Asian kingdom). On discovering that his land was under attack, Telephos hastily gathered some men together and pursued the Greeks back to their ships, killing many of them, including Thersandros, son of Polyneices, the leader of the Boeotian contingent (see p. 363); but Achilles demonstrated his prowess for the first time by putting him to flight, and wounded him in the thigh with his spear when he became entangled in some vines.
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According to the Cypria, he shot a stag while hunting in the area and was then foolish enough to boast that he was a finer hunter than Artemis herself. When the goddess punished his presumption by sending adverse winds (or imposing a dead calm) to prevent the fleet from sailing, the seer Calchas revealed that Agamemnon was to blame, and that to allay the anger of Artemis, it was necessary that his daughter IPHIGENEIA should be offered in sacrifice to her.
Iphigeneia is replaced at the altar by a deer. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Although the early epic account of the cause of Artemis' anger remained the standard one, alternative versions came to be developed with regard to this matter too.
Ladder 336
It called in first at the island of Tenedos just off the coast of the Troad. TENES (or Tennes), the king of the island, had become embittered and hostile to strangers as a result of his unhappy earlier history. His father, Cycnos, son of Poseidon, who ruled at Colonai in the Troad, had fathered him by his first wife Procleia, a daughter of Laomedon, king of Troy, but had remarried after death taking Philonome, daughter of Tragasos, as his second wife.
Philonome conceived a passion for her stepson and made advances to him, but she was overcome by rancour when she found herself rejected, and exacted revenge on him by telling her husband that he had tried to seduce her. Cycnos believed her and became even more convinced when she persuaded a flautist, Eumolpos, to bear false witness to her claim. So Cycnos locked Tenes into a chest along with his sister Hemithea, who had spoken in support of him, and launched it into the sea.
Compare 337
Wanting to preserve his oath in a formal sense at least, he said nothing but indicated the hero's burial place with a stamp of his foot. He paid for his transgression nonetheless, for one of the poisoned arrows fell from his quiver during the journey to Troy and inflicted an apparently incurable wound on his foot. So his comrades abandoned him as in the usual story, after first seizing the remaining arrows.39
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The Greek landing at Troy and death of Protesilaos
On seeing the invasion force sailing in from the sea, the Trojans attempted to prevent the Greeks from landing by pelting their ships with stones. The first Greek warrior to leap ashore was PROTESILAOS, son of Iphiclos, who commanded the men from Phylace and the neighbouring cities of southern Thessaly. The main features of his story are already noted in the Iliad, which mentions that he was killed by a Dardanian warrior as soon as he landed, leaving a grieving wife in Phylace and a half-completed house (for he was newly married).
To return to the story of the Greek landing, Achilles jumped ashore at the head of his Thessalian followers, the Myrmidons, after the death of Protesilaos and confronted CYCNOS, son of Poseidon, the most formidable of the many warriors who were opposing the Greek landing. It is quite possible that this Cycnos may be identified with the Cycnos who was the father of Tenes (see p. 464), although this is never stated.
Cycle 339
In so far as it is possible to talk of a 'peace party' and 'war party' at Troy, these were headed by Antenor and Antimachos respectively, the senior members of two noble families at Troy. The two Greek ambassadors received hospitality from ANTENOR, a wise elder who was married to THEANO, the Trojan priestess of Athena, who entertained the two Greek ambassadors in his house, and they then addressed the assembled Trojans; but their appeal was rejected, and they even fell into some danger because ANTIMACHOS, who had received a handsome gift of gold from Paris, not only spoke against them but urged that they should be put to death on the spot.
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Priam was now too old to take part in the fighting, although he continued to be the ultimate source of all authority. The Iliad refers to twenty-two of his sons by name, and later sources add further names to the list, whether from early epic or as products of later invention. For the most part, however, they have no specific stories, and merely appear for a moment in an epic battle scene before being killed or captured by a Greek opponent.
Although Priam complains at the end of the Iliad that he has been robbed of most of his sons, he mentions the names of only two who were killed in the preceding years of the conflict, namely Mestor, whose legend has not survived, and Troilos,69 who was killed at an early stage by Achilles when he was little more than a child, in circumstances that will be described below. His brother Lycaon was also caught by surprise by Achilles early in the war, but the Greek hero initially spared him, as we will see, even if he proved to be less forbearing when he encountered him on a second occasion.
By virtue of his role as the prime defender of Troy in the Iliad, Hector stands out from the other sons of Priam as the greatest warrior among them, and as a hero moreover of distinctive and rounded character. In the latter respect, Paris alone is remotely comparable; and since the contrary often seems to be assumed, it should be remarked that Paris too was no mean warrior in spite of his effeminate airs. Hector is portrayed in the Iliad not only as a brave and chivalrous warrior who is surpassed by Achilles alone, but also as an affectionate husband and father.
Polydoros appears in the Iliad as the youngest and dearest son of Priam who enters battle against his father's order and is soon killed by Achilles;71 but, according to a conflicting tale that first appears in tragedy, Priam tried to secure him from danger, unsuccessfully as it turned out, by sending him away to Polymestor, a Thracian son-in-law of his, along with a quantity of treasure (see p. Something has already been said about Aineias (see p. 446), who belonged to a junior branch of the Trojan royal family.
The events of this period of the war were recounted as follows in the latter part of the Cypria. After the failure of their diplomatic mission, the Greeks attacked the city, evidently without success, and then ravaged the countryside and cities of the area. When Achilles then wished to see Helen, a meeting was arranged by Thetis and Aphrodite; although it is understandable that he should have been curious to meet her, since he had been too young to be one of her suitors, nothing is known about any further motives that he might have had, since the story is never mentioned again in any subsequent source, as is also the case with the next episode in the Cypria, in which Achilles restrained the troops when they wanted to leave and sail home.
Ladder 341
He then drove away the cattle of Aineias, and of Lyrnessos, Pedasos, and many of the neighbouring cities. The contrasting fates of two young sons of Priam were described in the next section of the poem, which told how the young Troilos was killed by Achilles, while Lycaon was sold into slavery on Lemnos by Patroclos (presumably after having been captured by Achilles as described in the Iliad). When prizes of war were then awarded, Achilles received Briseis and Agamemnon received Chryseis; the subsequent fate of these female captives is a central feature in the plot of the Iliad.
As can be seen in vase-paintings of the incident, Troilos was hardly more than a child. Although Priam refers to his death in the Iliad,78 no details are offered there or in any other pre-Hellenistic source, and we have to rely on visual images to gain an idea of how the story would have been told in the earliest tradition. On the François vase, which can be dated to about 570 bc, Achilles can be seen pursuing the beardless Troilos as he tries to escape on his horse, and a woman, almost certainly Polyxena as in other images of the kind, is shown running away ahead of them.
Achilles spared his life, however, and took him away to the island of Lemnos, where he sold him to Euneos, a son of Jason (see p. 400 for the circumstances of Euneos' birth). Or, in the Cypria, as we have seen, Patroclos sold him there on Achilles' behalf.
Lycaon was subsequently ransomed by a friend of the family, but although his rescuer tried to keep him away from the war, he ran away and returned to his father's palace in Troy. After he had enjoyed the company of his friends for eleven days, he entered battle on the twelfth (for we are now in the period covered in the Iliad, after direct hostilities have resumed); and when he had the misfortune to encounter Achilles for a second time, he was slaughtered without mercy, plead though he might.82
Compare 342
Hub 343
Odysseus and the murder of Palamedes
There is one notable story from the early years of the war that remains to be considered, the inglorious tale of the murder of Palamedes, whose death was contrived by Odysseus with some help from Diomedes. Odysseus and Palamedes resembled one another in so far as both were marked out by their intelligence and ingenuity, and it was this common feature that caused them to come into conflict in the first place, creating the ill-feeling that would provide occasion for the murder.
ODYSSEUS was the king of rocky Ithaca, an island that lay of the west coast of Central Greece, and the husband of the proverbially faithful Penelope. She was a daughter of Icarios, the younger brother of Tyndareos, king of Sparta; for the circumstances of her marriage to Odysseus, see pp. Telemachos, their only child, was still an infant when the war broke out.
Achilles and Ajax playing draughts. This murder, however it was contrived, would have fateful consequences for the Greeks in general at a later time, because Nauplios, the father of Palamedes, would set out to avenge it by luring many of them to their death while they were sailing home from Troy, see further on p. Foreign allies and final confrontations
Cycle 344
The events of the Iliad
The events narrated in the Iliad are set in the tenth and final year of the war and mark the beginning of the final stage of the conflict. Direct confrontation has now resumed between the Greeks and the Trojans, and a series of exotic allies will come to the support of the Trojans, starting with Rhesos, a Thracian, within the period covered in the Iliad; and some of the very foremost warriors will finally meet their deaths, including Hector, Achilles, Paris, and (through suicide) Ajax.
As the last events before the fall of the city are contrived at long last through a ruse, various prophetically announced preconditions then have to be fulfilled. By contrast to the other epics in the Trojan cycle, which were composed somewhat later (even if most of their content would probably have been familiar to Homer), the Iliad has a very limited timescale, and the bulk of the poem is devoted to four central days in the fighting. It is announced at the beginning of the poem that its theme will be the anger of Achilles, as provoked by a quarrel between him and the leader of the expedition, Agamemnon, who offended his pride by depriving him of his concubine and valued war-prize, BRISEIS.
Agamemnon had been awarded a similar war-prize, a captive woman called CHRYSEIS, but her father Chryses, who was a priest of Apollo, had come to the Greek camp to request her ransom; and when Agamemnon had sent him away under threat of violence, he had prayed for vengeance to Apollo, who had proceeded to shoot arrows into the Greek camp to cause a plague. When the seer Calchas had explained the cause of the disease, stating that it could be brought to an end only if Chryseis were returned to her father without demand of a ransom, Agamemnon had reluctantly agreed to surrender her; but he had insisted on being compensated for his loss, and had reacted to some critical comments from Achilles by telling him to hand over Briseis for that purpose.
Each of the envoys pressed him to accept these terms, Odysseus speaking first and then old Phoinix, who was able to appeal to him in more personal terms because he had known him since his childhood, having acted as his tutor for a period. He, too, failed to sway the embittered Achilles, however, and the last speaker, Ajax, was not much more successful, even though his inarticulate appeal proved to be more effective than the eloquent speeches of his companions. Achilles would promise no more than to reconsider his position if the enemy should break through to the Greek camp and begin to set fire to the ships.
On hearing of his friend's death, Achilles lamented so bitterly that his mother Thetis rose up from the sea with her sister-Nereids to investigate. He told her that he was determined to avenge the death of Patroclos by killing Hector, even though he was warned by her that he would be fated to meet his own death soon afterwards. After she left to fetch him a new set of armour from Hephaistos, he took some immediate action on the advice of the divine messenger Iris, by advancing to the trench that protected the camp and giving three mighty shouts to cast fear into the Trojans.
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He might even have forced his way into the city if Apollo had not intervened, first by inciting Agenor to make a stand and then by luring Achilles away in the guise of Agenor (see p. All the Trojan warriors were able to escape back into the city as a consequence, leaving Hector alone to confront Achilles outside the city walls. On seeing Achilles advancing towards him like a war-god, Hector lost his nerve and took to flight; but after he had been pursued three times around the walls, Athena appeared to him in the guise of his brother Deiphobos to trick him into making a stand.
Thetis was dispatched to her son to order him to accept a ransom for Hector's body, while Iris visited Priam to order him to bring a ransom to Achilles. So Priam made a secret visit to the Greek camp at night under the guidance of Hermes, and appealed as a suppliant to Achilles, who was at last moved to pity and joined with the old man in lamenting the sorrows of the war. Achilles sent him away with his son's body on the following morning, and the poem ends with Hector's funeral.103
Ladder 346
Three foreign allies of the Trojans: Rhesos, Penthesileia, and Memnon
The Greeks were never entirely able to sever the communications between the Trojans and their numerous allies in Thrace and Asia. These allies can be divided into two main groups, those who are listed in the catalogue of Trojan forces at the end of the second book of the Iliad 104 (most of whom were apparently present from the early years of the war) and the handful of allies of more exotic character who arrived in the last stages of the war.
Few significant heroes are to be found among the allies of the first group; only Sarpedon and Glaucos, from Lycia in the south-western corner of Asia Minor (see pp. 298ff.), are of any real importance. Sarpedon was the most prominent victim of Patroclos; after his death, Zeus ordered Hypnos and Thanatos (Sleep and Death) to carry his body home to Lycia.
His horses were whiter than snow and swifter than the wind, his chariot was fashioned from gold and silver, and his magnificent golden armour seemed more suitable for a god than a mortal. During his first night at Troy, which was fated to be his last, Odysseus and Diomedes happened to creep out as scouts to check on what the enemy were doing; and they ran across Dolon, a none too heroic Trojan who had set out on a comparable mission.
Dolon was dressed in a wolf's skin, and he had undertaken the mission after Hector had promised to give him the chariot and divine horses of Achilles. Overcome with terror, he soon informed his captors about the dispositions of the Trojans and about their new ally in particular; but it brought him no benefit since Diomedes cut off his head all the same. As a result of this stroke of fortune, the two Greeks were able to catch the Thracians in their sleep.
Compare 347
He also mutilated her corpse in some accounts, by gouging out one or both of her eyes with the point of his spear. Achilles lost his temper and killed him with a blow to the face; and since the slaying caused dissension in the Greek camp, he sailed away to Lesbos afterwards to be purified. The rites were performed by Odysseus after Achilles had first offered sacrifices to Apollo, Artemis, and Leto.
Hub 348
504), were formed at the will of Zeus from the smoke that rose up from Memnon's pyre, and they then divided into groups and fought with one another until they finally fell down on to the ashes as death-offerings to the hero.123
Cycle 349
The death of Achilles and suicide of Ajax
After the death of Memnon, Achilles put the Trojans to flight, chasing them back across the plain, only to be killed in his turn by Paris and Apollo as he was rushing into the city in close pursuit. Such was the account that was offered in the Aethiopis of the next episode, in which the Greeks seem to have come as close as they ever could to seizing Troy by force of arms, rather than through a deception after the death of this greatest warrior of theirs, as would eventually come about.
431) does not appear in literary sources until the Roma period, vase-paintings suggest that it was already believed at a much earlier period that he was shot in that region; and if that was the case, and it was in fact necessary that he should be shot there and nowhere else, Apollo's intervention would have been all the more necessary and significant. A mighty struggle then ensued between the Greeks and Trojans for the body of Achilles (so the Aethiopis went on to recount), and Ajax seized hold of the corpse and carried it back to the Greek ships, while Odysseus fought off the Trojans from behind.
Flow 350
They fetched their long-abandoned comrade Philoctetes, who proceeded to kill Paris with the bow of Heracles; they fetched Achilles' young son Neoptolemos, who would make a central contribution to the subsequent fighting, helping to fill the gap that had been left by the death of his father; and Odysseus stole into Troy to steal its protective talisman, the Palladion (an ancient image of Athena, see p. These measures were revealed by a prophecy (or prophecies) as actions that needed to be taken as preconditions for the fall of Troy.
In the Little Iliad, Odysseus mounted an ambush to capture Helenos, a son of Priam who was a gifted seer; and Helenos revealed, doubtless under pressure, that the great archer Philoctetes should be fetched from Lemnos (where he had been marooned during the outward voyage because he had come to be afflicted with a festering wound, see p. Once he had been recovered from Lemnos by Diomedes, he was finally cured of his wound by Machaon, who was a son of Asclepios, the greatest of all healers.
269 for the story of how he came to acquire it). In response to that prophecy, Odysseus travelled to Lemnos with Diomedes, gained hold of the bow through a trick, and persuaded Philoctetes - who had good reason to be disaffected with his comrades - to sail to Troy. After being healed of his wound, by Machaon's brother Podaleirios in this account, Philoctetes shot Paris dead as usual.
Ladder 351
419) may have had some connection with the matter. According to a tale recorded by Pausanias, only a shoulder-bone was fetched, and it was lost during the return voyage when the ship that was carrying it was wrecked in a storm off Euboea (evidently the storm that was sent by Athena, see p. Many years later, a fisherman from the Euboean city of Eretrea caught the bone in his nets, and he was so amazed by its size that he travelled to Delphi to consult the oracle about it.
Compare 352
During the return journey, Odysseus raised his sword to seize the trophy and the glory for himself, but Diomedes was alerted by a glint of moonlight from the blade (or by the shadow of the blade), and so forced Odysseus to walk in front of him for the rest of the way. This story was cited in explanation of the proverbial phrase 'Diomedeian compulsion', which is said to have originated in the Little Iliad. Although some such incident was presumably described in that epic, the circumstances must have been rather different because Odysseus himself was presented as carrying the Palladion out of the city.158
The stratagem of the Wooden Horse; the ruse of Sinon and fate of Laocoon
Finding that the city still seemed as impregnable as ever in spite of these various measures, the Greeks adopted a new approach by attempting a ruse rather than relying on the open use of force as hitherto. For, at the suggestion of Athena (or of that most ingenious of mortals Odysseus), they constructed a huge Wooden Horse with a hollow interior to serve as a hiding place for a concealed force of troops (see Figure 21.6). A cleverly disguised trap-door was set in its side to enable them to enter and leave.
According to the earliest account in the Odyssey, it was built by Epeios, son of Panopeus, a hero from Phocis (see p. 427), with the assistance of Athena, and the Greeks hid a force of men inside under the command of Odysseus and then sailed away, setting fire to their huts to make the Trojans believe that they were leaving. The Trojans dragged the Horse into the city and argued at length about what they should do with it, some proposing that they should break it open, others that they should drag it to the top of a cliff and throw it over, and others again that they should leave it where it was as an offering to the gods.
Drawing after an archaic vase. Estimates of the number of the troops who were hidden in the Horse vary in later sources from twelve to fifty or a hundred, and it is made plain that they were intended to serve merely as an advance guard, who would open the city gates to the main force if the Trojans dragged the Horse into the city. For the Greek fleet was waiting off the coast by the island of Tenedos in the meantime, watching out for the signal that would summon it back.
The priest Laocoon, who would play such an important part in later accounts, is now introduced into the story. As the Trojans were feasting, thinking that the war was now at an end, two serpents appeared and killed Laocoon and one of his two sons; and Aineias and his followers were so alarmed by this portent that they withdrew to Mt Ida. The meaning of the portent is by no means hard to interpret, the death of Laocoon indicated the impending fall of the city, while the death of his son (doubtless the elder) pointed to the destruction of Priam's senior branch of the Trojan royal family; so by withdrawing, Aineias, as the leading representative of the junior branch, would survive to take over.
The priest Laocoon now assumes a new role by taking the lead in advancing the latter view, and almost proves his point by thrusting his spear into the side of the Horse, causing it to echo within; but at that very moment, Sinon, who has been captured in accordance with the Greek plan, is brought forward for questioning. He claims to have been on bad terms with the other Greeks ever since he had vowed to avenge the unjust killing of Palamedes (see p.
471), and alleges that Odysseus had plotted his death by persuading the seer Calchas to declare that he should be sacrificed to ensure the safe departure of the Greek fleet; and as soon as the Trojans are convinced by his story and are ready to believe that he hates his former comrades, they listen trustingly to what he has to say about the Wooden Horse. He tells them that the Greeks built the Horse on the advice of Calchas to expiate for their sacrilege in having stolen Athena's cultic image, the Palladion; and if the Trojans should harm this sacred object, they would be sure to suffer a terrible destruction, but they could expect a splendid destiny on the other hand if they were to bring it into their city.
The sack of Troy
All the Greek troops were now able to join together to slaughter the unsuspecting Trojans. No full early account has survived of the course of events on the night of the sack, even if continuous narratives from a later period can be found in book 2 of the Aeneid and book 13 of Quintus' Posthomerica. We will concentrate on the fates of the most prominent Trojans, as these would have been presented in the early epic tradition in particular.
The first author to speak unequivocally of a rape is Lycophron, who adds that the statue raised its eyes upwards in disgust.192 Figure 21.7. Drinking cup (skyphos) with the departure and recovery of Helen; Greek, Late Archaic period about 490 bc, painter Makron, potter Hieron. Boston MFA/Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912.
Something must now be said about the main survivors among the Trojan men. Of the sons of Priam, Helenos was already in the Greek camp, having betrayed preconditions for the fall of Troy under a greater or lesser degree of compulsion (see p. 480); he would accompany Neoptolemos to Epirus after the war (see p.
In the post-epic tradition at least, Priam had sent his youngest son Polydoros abroad in the hope of ensuring his safety, but to no effect since he was murdered by his host (see below, p. Aineias, who belonged to a junior branch of the family, left the city before it fell in the earliest tradition, as has already been described, after beholding the fate of Laocoon and his son, but from the classical period onwards he was usually represented as having fled from the city on the night of the sack with his aged father on his back.
It was suggested by Xenophon and others that the Greeks allowed him safe passage out of admiration for the piety that he showed in rescuing his father and household gods. This Greek tradition about his conduct on that fateful night provided the model for the Roman characterization of the just and pious Aeneas. The Trojan nobleman Antenor was spared along with his family because he had supported the Greek ambassadors when they had tried to negotiate a peaceful settlement at the outbreak of the war (see pp.
According to different traditions, he went away to Cyrene in Libya, where he was honoured in hero-cult in historical times, or else travelled to north-eastern Italy by way of Thrace with his sons, where he founded the city of Patavium (Padua).193
The fate of the Trojan women
The daughters of Priam and Hecabe met with varying fates. Their prophetic daughter Cassandra, who had already suffered at the hands of the lesser Ajax during the night of the sack, was awarded to Agamemnon as a prize of war and was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra soon after she arrived in Greece (see p. 514);206 while according to a story that was already recounted in the Sack of Troy, Polyxena was slaughtered close to home on the grave of Achilles.
It is explained in later sources that the ghost of Achilles had demanded that she should be offered to him in this way as his share of the spoils, or as his bride in death, and that the sacrifice was performed by the hero's son, Neoptolemos. Although Sophocles' play on the matter, the Polyxena, has been lost, an account of this disturbing episode can be found Euripides' Hecuba, in which a herald describes how she courageously offered her throat to the knife.
3.10 (wife of Anios not named). 570 (quoting Pherecydes = 3F140, and claiming that some such story was recounted in the Cypria = fr. 13 Proclus on Cypria, Pi.
14 Proclus on Cypria, Apollod. 101 (fuller narrative), Propertius 2.1.63-4 (mode of cure first recorded). Telephos ffr, scene from that play mocked in Arist.
l.c (married to Laodice, daughter of Priam), Apollod. 3.20 (reveals route, the seer Calchas confirms the accuracy of his directions). 26 This is of course central to the plot of Aeschylus' Agamemnon, cf.
3.26; Proclus on Cypria merely states that the Greeks sailed to Tenedos. 240-2 with schol; on mother's warning, cf. 33 Euripides' Philoctetes as reported in Dio Chrysostom Or.
8-11, 1032-4; how he fed himself on island, ibid. 164-7, 287-92, 706-11; Lemnos uninhabited, Soph. 40 Killed by Dardanian, Hom.
2.695-702; killed by Hector, Proclus on Cypria, Soph. 43 Report on Euripides' Protesilaos, Nauck p. 563 (from a scholion to Aristides, vol.
From the Roman literature, see also Ov. Heroides 13 (a letter written by Laodameia). 48 Nestor considers it a feat to have once beaten him in a foot-race, Hom.
23.636; Podarces his son, 2.704-5. 49 For his fatal encounter with the Amazons, Quint. 1.9.4; Phylacos as founder of Phylace, Steph.
1.45; already mentioned as father of Iphiclos, Hom. 2.705, 13.698; as father of Alcimede, Pher. 54 Proclus on Cypria, Arist.
Rhetoric 2.24, 1396b 16-18, Soph. 57 Proclus on Cypria, Apollod. 3.205-6, Proclus on Cypria (embassy sent after landing), Bacch 15, Hdt.
2.118 (with unconventional matter), Apollod. 10.27.2 (in Polygnotos' painting of the sack of Troy), schol. 72 Incident mentioned in Proclus on Cypria; on the miseries suffered by the troops, Aesch.
558-72; see also the comments of Thucydides, 1.11. 9.128-30 (sack of Lesbos), 2.690-3 (Lyrnessos and Hypoplacian Thebes), Proclus on Cypria (Lyrnessos, Pedasos and many neighbouring cities), Apollod. 3.32-3 (Clazomenae, Smyrna, Colophon, etc.), schol.
Proclus on Cypria ('Achilles kills Troilos'), Ibycus 282a.41-5 (beauty of T.), schol. ambushed while exercising horses near Thymbraion); see also Apollod. and slaughtered him in the sanctuary of Thymbraian Apollo).
81 It first appears in the Roman de Troie of Benoit de Sainte-More (12th century); Chaucer followed the version in Boccaccio's Il Filostrato. 21.34-135, 23.740-7; Proclus on Cypria (Patroclos took Lycaon to Lemnos). 2.81 (draughts as diversion for troops).
Book 5 (Diomedes dominates)-7 (434ff, Greeks make ditch and wall). Books 19-22; death and defilement of Hector in 22. 105 A translation is conveniently available in the Loeb series, as also of the shorter Capture of Troy by Tryphiodorus.
469-73 with Servius on p. 1.18ff (accidentally killed sister Hippolyte while aiming spear at a boar), cf. 5.1 (killed Hippolyte; in 5.2, this Hippolyte is wrongly identified with the Amazon abducted by Theseus, an absurdity in chronological terms); Hellanic.
4F149 (Amazon came to win glory). 111 Proclus on Aethiopis, cf. 113 Proclus on Aethiopis, Apollod.
(Thersites gouged out eye), Q.S. 3F123 (thrown over cliff), schol. 2.212 citing Euphorion (chased over cliff).
5.54 (Susa as city of Memnon), D.S. 2.22 following Ctesias (Susa); cf. 15.3.2 (also citing Simonides = 539 PMG, for burial in Syria).
124 Proclus on Aethiopis, Hom. 125 Pindar Paean 6.75ff; Apollod. 3.26-66; Paris alone mentioned, Eur.
387-8; Apollo guides hand of Paris, Verg. 127 Proclus on Aethiopis, Apollod. 489-91 (rather be serf in world above).
2.142-3; married posthumously to Medeia, Apollod. 814 citing Ibycus and Simonides as first to offer story. 27 (Iphigeneia as Orsilochia); to Polyxena, Seneca Troad.
135 Proclus on Little Iliad. Ajax 1008-20 (Teucros suspects that his father will banish him). 143 Proclus on Little Iliad.
148 Proclus on Little Iliad. 154 Proclus on Little Iliad with fr. 158 Conon 34, Zenob s.v., Serv.
162 Proclus on Little Iliad with fr. 163 Proclus on Sack of Troy. 165 Lyc 344 with schol.
12.218ff (capture and torture of Sinon, 360-422). 12.444ff, blinds him, 395ff; for the death of Laocoon and his sons in Verg. 2.201, with Servius ad loc.
135 (corrected from Acoetes) and Tzetz. 11 Davies (at midnight, as the clear moon was rising), Proclus on Sack of Troy (lit fire-signal after entering the city by a pretence), Apollod. 510-11 (on tomb of Achilles), Q.S.
5.20 (on rope after first to leave, Echion, son of Portheus, was killed when jumping), Verg. 13.306-60 (on ladder constructed by Epeios). 6.515-19 (Helen's signal), 2.254-9 (Sinon).
179 Proclus on Sack of Troy, Eur. Hecuba 22-4, Troades 16-17, 481-4, Apollod. 2.557 with Servius on ibid.
13.220-50; on grave of Achilles, Serv. 13.214 (Neoptolemos kills Polites when attacked by him in the course of the fighting). 184 Proclus on Sack of Troy.
627-31 for former story, with schol. 628 (ascribing it to Ibycus also). 188 Proclus on Sack of Troy with fr.
On the fate of Astyanax, see also Eur. 13.252-7 (killed by Greeks on night of sack); allusion to possible fate, Hom. 190 Proclus on Sack of Troy, cf.
5.19.5 (as depicted on chest of Cypselos). 2.402-6, makes no mention of the rape. 330-4, 1174-88 with scholia, Vat.
678ff, body brought to Hecuba. 205 Hekabe's confrontation with Polymestor and sons, Eur. 207 Proclus on Sack of Troy, Eur.
35-44 (ghost of Achilles demands her sacrifice if Greeks are to sail), 93-5, cf. 107-15, 309-10 (as his share of the spoils), 534-8, Lyc. 323-9 (his bride in death), Ov.
110; the story is developed at length in Dictys 3-5.
22 The return journeys of the Greek heroes
Athena's wrath at the sacrilege of the lesser Ajax, and its implications for the Greek returns Of all the deeds that were committed by the Greeks during the sack of Troy, none was considered more shameful than the lesser Ajax's act of sacrilege in seizing Cassandra from her place of sanctuary in the temple of Athena, and even raping her by the altar in some accounts (see p. 487).
Hub 353
The returns of the Greeks
Athena's wrath at the sacrilege of the lesser Ajax, and its implications for the Greek returns Of all the deeds that were committed by the Greeks during the sack of Troy, none was considered more shameful than the lesser Ajax's act of sacrilege in seizing Cassandra from her place of sanctuary in the temple of Athena, and even raping her by the altar in some accounts (see p. It was indicated at the end of the Sack of Troy, the epic poem that provided the earliest known account of this story, that Athena planned to bring disaster to the Greeks at sea,1 plainly because she was angered by this sacrilege, which had gone unpunished as we have already seen.
The resulting theme of the wrath of Athena is already in evidence in Nestor's account of the Greek returns in the Odyssey, and it was central to the plot of the Returns (even if neither the Odyssey nor the surviving testimonies on the Returns make any explicit mention of the cause of the goddess's anger). Even before the Greek force was ready to depart, Athena incited its two main leaders to quarrel over the best course of action, Agamemnon arguing that they should delay their departure until they had taken measures to appease the goddess, while his brother Menelaos urged that they should depart immediately.
The fleet was divided as a consequence, because Menelaos and those who shared his opinion, including Nestor and Diomedes, set off in advance of Agamemnon and the rest of the army. When Agamemnon subsequently led the others out to sea after offering sacrifices to Athena, he soon had reason to appreciate that the mind of the goddess had not yet been softened, for the fleet was struck by a violent storm in which the lesser Ajax, who had caused the trouble in the first place, met a well-deserved death.
Agamemnon escaped, however, and arrived home safely, as did Nestor and Diomedes after setting off previously with Menelaos. Special fates were reserved for Menelaos and Odysseus, whose returns were delayed for a number of years while they wandered in foreign parts. Thus far the Returns was in agreement with the Odyssey, but it went beyond the earlier epic by offering an account of two overland journeys, the first within Asia Minor by the seer Calchas and some companions, and the second by Neoptolemos, who travelled by land to northern Greece with Helenos and others.
When Telemachos, the son of Odysseus, visits Nestor and Menelaos in the Odyssey to seek news of his long-absent father, they have much of interest to say about their own return voyages and the fate of their comrades. Nestor tells him that Zeus had planned a dismal return for the Greeks because not all of them had behaved wisely or righteously (presumably during the sack of the city), and many of them had come to grief accordingly through the wrath of Athena.
The goddess had started the mischief by inciting Agamemnon and Menelaos to quarrel immediately after the fall of Troy. The two leaders summoned a meeting of the troops to put forward their opposing views, Menelaos arguing that they should make an immediate departure, and Agamemnon that they should delay until they had offered splendid sacrifices to Athena (little realizing that she would not be appeased by them, for the mind of a god is not turned in a moment). The meeting was an ill-ordered and ill-tempered affair, held at sunset when the troops were befuddled with wine; and no common decision was reached at it since neither brother was able to convince more than part of the audience.
Cycle 354
In the end, however, the sea-nymph Eidothea took pity on him and told him to lie in wait for her father Proteus, the old man of the sea, who would be able to provide the advice that he needed. She guided him and three of his companions to the cave in which Proteus used to take his noon-tide siesta among his herds of seals; and she disguised them by wrapping them in freshly cut seal-skins, placing a dab of ambrosia under their noses to counteract the foul stench.
They were thus able to catch Proteus by surprise, and they kept a firm grip on him even though he tried to escape by constantly changing his shape, turning first into a lion and then into a snake, a leopard, a boar, and running water and a towering tree. When finally compelled to speak, he revealed that Menelaos and his followers had been held back because they had failed to offer the proper sacrifices to Zeus and the other gods before setting out to sea, and he recommended that they should return to the Nile to rectify the omission.
Flow 355
The old man of the sea, who was something of a seer, like other sea-gods of his kind, had declared that only two of the Greek leaders had perished since leaving Troy, the lesser Ajax out at sea and Agamemnon in his homeland; for Ajax had been shipwrecked and killed by Poseidon, and Agamemnon had been murdered as soon as he had arrived in the Argolid. With regard to Ajax, Proteus had explained that Poseidon had driven him on to the Gyraian Rocks (of uncertain location, see below, p.
It is not clear from the Odyssey whether all the Greeks who had sailed off with Agamemnon were imperilled by a great storm, as was certainly the case in the Returns. In the latter epic, the ghost of Achilles appeared to Agamemnon and the others as they were sailing away from Troy, and tried to hold the fleet back by foretelling what would befall them (evidently a storm that would be sent against them as a result of the anger of Athena).
Ladder 356
Before long, however, the two seers quarrelled over the art of divination and challenged one another to a contest, a risky enterprise for Calchas because he had been warned by an oracle that he would die if he ever met a better diviner than himself. In Apollodorus' account of the story, Calchas started the contest by posing a question to Mopsos, who was asked to say how many figs were growing on a fig tree nearby. He replied that there were ten thousand, or a bushel by volume with a single fig left over, which turned out to be correct; but when Mopsos then asked Calchas to tell him how many piglets a certain sow was carrying, Calchas replied incorrectly that there were eight, and Mopsos was able to correct him in advance by foretelling that the sow would give birth to nine piglets, all of them male, at the sixth hour on the following day.
Compare 357
Since his grandfather Peleus, the king of Phthia in southern Thessaly, was commonly thought to have still been alive at the time, Phthia might have seemed a more obvious destination for him, and the Odyssey seems to indicate that he did indeed go there, for it states that he brought the Myrmidons (i.e. men from Peleus' kingdom, see p. 426) home safely;43 but Neoptolemos was presented in the Returns as travelling to Epirus, and that became the accepted tradition.
Hub 358
When it is stated in the summary of the Returns that Peleus acknowledged Neoptolemos in the land of the Molossians, that could imply that he was already presented in that poem as having been expelled from Phthia. A late source, Dictys, provides an interesting narrative, which may have originated in tragedy, saying that Neoptolemos sailed over from Molossia to help his grandfather after hearing of his expulsion, and found him hiding in a cave on the Sepiades, a group of islands to the west of southern Thessaly.
Although varying accounts were offered of the precise course of events, it was commonly agreed that Neoptolemos met a violent end at a comparatively young age during a visit to Delphi. Three main versions of the story of his death can be distinguished, suggesting that he was killed in a quarrel over the sacrifices, or that he provoked his own death by demanding reparation from Apollo for the death of his father, or that Orestes murdered him or arranged his murder because he was angry at having lost Hermione to him.
Cycle 359
In the Hellenistic and later tradition, however, a number of well-known figures were said to have travelled to the west, to Italy, or even to Iberia, to become involved in further adventures and found cities in those distant parts, after having been blown off course or having met with trouble on arriving home. Although any detailed consideration of this Italian appendix to the mythology of the returns would take us out of our way, it may be of interest to consider the stories of this kind that came to be attached to four notable heroes, Diomedes, Philoctetes, Idomoneus, and Epeios.
Flow 360
Since these myths were of late and arbitrary invention, moreover, they are hardly ever accompanied by memorable stories, and are thus are not of any great interest in any respect. Myths of a rather different kind were also developed, however, sometimes of much greater interest, in which a Greek or Trojan pre-history was attached to a city of later foundation, as we have already seen with two notable colonies in a part of Italy that was supposed to have been visited by Heracles (see p.
The most picturesque feature of the Italian legend of Diomedes is the lore associated with some remarkable birds, known as the birds of Diomedes, which lived on the island off Diomedeia, off the Apulian coast (presumably one of the Isole Tramiti), where the hero was supposed to have been buried. For it was said that these birds were friendly to Greek visitors but would attack anyone else who set foot on the island, and that they tended the grave of Diomedes by sprinkling fresh water on it every day.
Idomoneus had entrusted his kingdom to a certain Leucos, son of Talos, whom he had reared as a foster-child; but during his absence, Leucos killed his wife Meda and daughter Cleisitheira, seized power for himself, and drove the king away on his return. Because of the inadequacy of our sources, it is not clear why Leucos should have killed the two women, or indeed whether he was always credited with the same motives for doing so. Lycophron indicates that Leucos was betrothed to the king's daughter, and that Nauplios incited trouble in some unexplained fashion through his lies; while Apollodorus, whose account is preserved only in brief summary, reports more specifically that Nauplios incited Meda to be unfaithful to her husband, presumably with Leucos.
Ladder 361
427), was hardly a hero of the same stature as the last three, his transfer to Italy allowed it to be claimed that some very notable relics of the Trojan War could be seen there, the tools that he had used when constructing the Horse. It came to be said that he had been driven to Italy while trying to sail home and had founded the cities of Metapontum and Lagaria in Lucania, just above the toe of Italy. He dedicated his tools in the temple of Athena at Lagaria, after that goddess, who had advised him during the building of the Horse, appeared to him in a dream and instructed him to do so.83
Compare 362
The wanderings of Odysseus
Odysseus wanders through distant seas for ten years Odysseus was driven far off course and wandered the seas for ten years, passing into a purely mythical field in the far west, before he was finally able to rejoin his ever-faithful wife, Penelope, in his native Ithaca; we will follow his adventures as they are described in the Odyssey, marking each successive landfall. (i) According to Nestor's account of the Greek returns in the Odyssey, Odysseus was among the first to set off from Troy along with Nestor and Diomedes, but he parted with the others as a result of unspecified disagreements when this group of ships called in at the island of Tenedos nearby (see p.
Against all the advice of his comrades, who urged him to steal some provisions and hurry away, Odysseus insisted that they should wait until the owner returned, for he was curious to see what he was like and hoped to receive gifts of hospitality. After driving his flocks into the cave, Polyphemos blocked up the entrance with a huge rock; and on discovering the strangers, he demonstrated his notion of hospitality by dashing out the brains of two of them and eating their flesh for his supper.
In the morning, he breakfasted in the same way and then drove his flocks to pasture, pushing the rock back afterwards to leave the men imprisoned. Odysseus now had time to devise a means of vengeance. To kill the giant as he slept would achieve nothing because he and his comrades would be unable to shift the rock; so he sharpened a stake and hardened its end in the fire to procure a weapon for use against the Cyclops, and on that evening, when Polyphemos had supped on two more of his men, gave him a draught of some very powerful wine that he had received from Maron at Ismaros.
Having made him very drunk by this means, he and his men heated the end of the stake and used it to gouge out the single eye of their jailer. Polyphemos cried out to his fellow Cyclopes, who lived on the heights around, and they came rushing from every side to investigate. Odysseus had prepared for this eventuality, however, by telling Polyphemos that his name was Nobody (Outis); so when the Cyclopes asked him what the trouble was, and he replied from inside that 'Nobody' was attacking him, they went away again, supposing that he must simply be ill if nobody was causing him any harm.
Hub 363
His kingdom is a purely mythical place in the Odyssey, a floating island surrounded by cliffs of unyielding bronze; but it came to be suggested in the later tradition that he lived on one of the Aeolian (Lipari) Islands to the north of Sicily. He finally helped Odysseus on his way by enclosing all but one of the winds in a leather bag and attaching it to his ship, so that only the gentle west wind was left to blow him safely home.
When three of the crew were sent ashore to investigate, they encountered the daughter of the king as she was fetching water, and she took them to the palace; the queen, who was as large as a mountain, summoned her husband Antiphates, who seized one of the men for his supper while the others fled to the ships. Alerted by the shouts of Antiphates, the other Laistrygonians hurried to the cliffs around the harbour, sank the ships below by hurling huge boulders at them, and then speared the crewmen like fish to provide themselves with fresh meat.
Circe seemed most friendly and invited them to drink some barley-mixture, but it contained some drugs that transformed them into pigs, although they retained their human intelligence. Eurylochos had remained outside, however, suspecting a trap, and he rushed back to Odysseus to report what had happened. As Odysseus was hurrying to the rescue, he came across Hermes, who gave him a herb called moly to serve as a counter-charm.
He was thus unaffected by Circe's drugs, and she was so dismayed when he proceeded to threaten her with his sword that she proposed that they should settle their differences by going to bed together. She then swore not to harm him and agreed to return his comrades to their original form. In the later tradition, Circe was said to have borne children to Odysseus, namely Telegonos (see below, p.
Cycle 364
509-10); and he also told him that he could expect trouble at home, since his halls were thronged with suitors who were courting his wife and wasting his property. After killing the suitors, he should travel abroad to the mainland (so Teiresias advised), and proceed inland with an oar until he met people who knew nothing of the sea and mistook the oar for a winnowing-fan. He should then fix the oar into the ground and make his peace with Poseidon by sacrificing a ram, a bull, and a boar to him.
Odysseus, tied to the mast, listens to the Sirens' song. © The Trustees of the British Museum. According to a tradition that first appears in Apollonius' Argonautica, they had once been servants or companions of the young Persephone.101 Transformation myths were devised in this connection to explain their peculiar form.
Flow 365
So the god set to work to reverse his good fortune, by raising a mighty storm to wreck his boat (see further on p. His plight was observed, however, by the sea-goddess Leucothea (formerly Ino, see p. 394), who felt pity for him and lent him her divine veil (krēdemnon), telling him that he would be saved from drowning if he tied it around his chest.
Ladder 366
Penelope at her loom with Telemachos. By pretending that he was a brother of Idomeneus, king of Crete, and that he had entertained Odysseus on his home island shortly after the war, the disguised Odysseus won the sympathy of Penelope, who was now at her wits' end. For she had tried to put the suitors off by telling them that she would be unable to remarry until she had woven a shroud in preparation for the death of her father-in-law Laertes, and then extending the task by unravelling each day's work during the following night; but the stratagem had finally been betrayed by one of her maids, and she had now reached the end of the work.
The objections of the suitors were brushed aside by Penelope, who thought it shameful that a stranger should be treated with discourtesy, and also by Telemachos, who was aware of his father's plan. Penelope left the hall at the stranger's request before he set to work. He strung the bow without difficulty, performed the prescribed feat, and then shot Antinoos, the arrogant ringleader of the suitors, through the throat.
Compare 367
The epic in question, the Telegonia, which was named after Telegonos, a son who was borne to Odysseus by Circe, was an eccentric poem that took Odysseus abroad for further adventures and provided him with an exotic death on his return. It will be remembered that when Odysseus met Teiresias during his visit to the Underworld in the Odyssey, the seer instructed him to visit the mainland after killing the suitors to offer sacrifices to Poseidon; although this is plainly envisaged as a temporary visit in the Homeric account, the author of the Telegonia took up the story and expanded it to introduce Odysseus into a long-lasting foreign entanglement.
For a representative sample, we may turn to three stories cited by Apollodorus as variants after his summary of the events of the Telegonia. Odysseus sent Penelope away to her father because she had been seduced by the chief suitor Antinoos, and she bore Pan to Hermes in Arcadia on the way; or Odysseus killed her because she had been seduced by Amphinomos (another of her suitors, who is presented in the Odyssey as being more civilized and scrupulous than his fellows); or Odysseus was sentenced to exile for having killed the suitors, and sought refuge at the court of Thoas in Aetolia (see p.
388), where he married the king's daughter and fathered a son by her.134 Tales of this kind are really of little interest except as curiosities; it is surely better to leave Odysseus and Penelope as Homer leaves them at the end of the Odyssey, living peacefully together in Ithaca after quite enough adventures and misadventures.
Hub 368
Aigisthos and Clytemnestra plot the death of Agamemnon
While Agamemnon, the great king of Mycenae, was away at Troy, his cousin Aigisthos took advantage of his absence to advance his own interests and restore the fortunes of his branch of the Pelopid family. It will be remembered that he had killed Atreus, the father of Agamemnon, to restore the Mycenaean throne to his own father, Thyestes, who had been the first Pelopid to hold it (see pp. 422-3); but Agamemnon had later recovered the throne for the Atreid branch of the family by expelling Thyestes with the help of his brother Menelaos (see p.
The story of the murder of Agamemnon is a very ancient myth that is already recounted in the Odyssey.
It should be kept in mind, however, that Aigisthos would not have been seen as the murderer of Agamemnon's father in the earliest tradition, and that Homer apparently imagined that there had been an orderly transfer of power between the first three Pelopid kings of Mycenae (see p. In the Homeric version of the story, which runs as follows, there is accordingly every indication that Aigisthos was motivated by passion rather than dynastic considerations. While the Greek warriors were exerting themselves at Troy, Aigisthos, who was living at ease in a corner of Argos, kept trying to seduce Clytemnestra, although the king had posted one of his servants, a minstrel, to watch over her, and the gods sent Hermes to Aigisthos to warn him not to court the queen or to kill her husband.
After the festivities, he felled his unsuspecting guest like an ox at the corn-crib; his followers then crept out of their hiding place to attack Agamemnon's companions, and they exchanged blows with them until not a man was left alive from either party. As Agamemnon lay dying on the floor, Clytemnestra emerged to kill Cassandra, a captive whom he had brought from Troy as a prize of war (see p. Clytemnestra would have been obliged to keep out of sight until that time because she had no proper occasion to be in the house of Aigisthos.
In this play Clytemnestra is a woman of strong and ruthless character who has become the dominant partner in the intrigue. Although Agamemnon must necessarily be killed if the usurper is to maintain his position, as in the earlier tradition, her actions are now also motivated by revenge, for she has hated her husband ever since he ordered the sacrifice of their daughter Iphigeneia before the war (see p. It is she who takes the precautions against Agamemnon's return, appointing a lookout to watch for a beacon-fire announcing the fall of Troy; and she receives the returning conqueror with deceptive enthusiasm at his own palace while Aigisthos remains out of sight.
After persuading Agamemnon to enter the palace over a path spread with purple robes, and thus to commit an act of arrogance that is designed to provoke the gods, she incapacitates him in his bath by throwing some clothing around him, and then strikes him down with three blows (presumably sword-blows, although this is not stated). The horror of the murder is in no way diminished by the fact that it takes place off-stage, and that the audience learns of it from Agamemnon's cries and from Clytemnestra's exultant account when she reappears afterwards.
Cycle 369
After learning from Apollo at Delphi that he must kill those who have been responsible for his father's murder or else suffer grievously himself, he makes his way to Mycenae together with Pylades. While visiting his father's grave after his arrival to dedicate a lock of his hair, he encounters his sister Electra, who has arrived at the grave with a group of slave-women to pour libations at the order of her mother. Electra explains to her brother, Clytemnestra has been troubled by a sinister dream in which she fancied that she gave birth to a snake (evidently signifying Orestes), which bit her, drawing blood, when she tried to suckle it, and she has therefore ordered that libations should be offered in the hope of averting the portended danger.
Sophocles' Electra portrays her as having been present when Orestes' childhood attendant (paidagōgos) arrived at the palace to allege that Orestes had been killed in a chariot-race, a false report at which she was as much dismayed as her mother was relieved. Now believing that her brother was no longer alive to avenge the murder of Agamemnon, Electra herself sets to work to kill Clytemnestra and Aigisthos, but she is unable to persuade her more cautious sister Chrysothemis (who is rather like Ismene in Antigone, see p.
Flow 370
She has naturally become embittered, and when Orestes arrives at the farmhouse with his friend, she eagerly assists him in plotting the death of Aigisthos and Clytemnestra; and in the case of the latter she even plays a direct part in the execution of the murder, exhorting her weaker-minded brother when he hesitates, and putting her hand to the sword as he plunges it in. In this version, Orestes commits the murders outside the palace where nobody would be available to protect the victims, killing Aigisthos in the meadows while he is offering a sacrifice to the nymphs, and then killing Clytemnestra in the farmhouse after she has been summoned there on the pretence that Electra has given birth to a son.144
Ladder 371
Orestes is persecuted by the Erinyes
If she was either killed or rendered immortal by Artemis, as in other accounts, her earthly life came to an end at that point, but in the distinctive account that is offered by Euripides in this tragedy, she is rescued by Artemis and transferred abroad as a living mortal, and can thus re-enter the history of the Pelopid family and of Greece after she is recovered from her exile by her brother. She was already associated with the land of the Taurians in the earliest known account of her fate in the Cypria, but as a goddess rather than priestess.
On learning that the pair have come from Argos, Iphigeneia offers to release one of them if he will take a message home; and when she explains who she is and asks that her brother should be informed of her predicament, Orestes realizes that she must be his sister, whom he had considered to be dead. After sharing in the joy of their reunion and exchanging news, Iphigeneia sets to work to contrive their escape. She tells Thoas that the captives are polluted because they have killed their mother, and says that they will have to be purified in the sea along with the statue (which has been polluted by their presence) before they can be brought to sacrifice; and she adds that the king himself should remain in the temple during their absence to purify it, and that the local people should be ordered to stay indoors to avoid any danger of pollution.
Electra decided to travel to Delphi to question the oracle about her brother's fate, and happened to arrive there just as Orestes and Iphigeneia arrived following their escape from the land of the Taurians.
Because the marriage proved to be childless, she grew increasingly jealous of her husband's concubine Andromache, who had borne him a son (here unnamed, usually Molossos, see p. 501), and even imagined that Andromache was using magic to render her barren. So while Neoptolemos was away on a trip to Delphi, she and her father Menelaos (who had come from Sparta for that purpose) set out to kill Andromache and her son, causing her to send her son away and take refuge at the shrine of Thetis; Menelaos gained hold of Andromache's son, however, and prised her away from her place of sanctuary by threatening to kill him.
He and his daughter would then have killed Andromache and her son alike if Peleus, the grandfather of Neoptolemos, had not made an opportune appearance and rescued them. Menelaos then made a hasty departure, leaving Hermione to worry about the reaction of Neoptolemos when he returned to hear of the plot. Orestes, who had been betrothed to her previously, happened to call in at this time as he was travelling north to consult the oracle at Dodona; and on learning of her predicament, he offered to take her away with him, explaining that he had already taken measures to ensure that Neoptolemos would be killed at Delphi.
The meaning of the oracle remained a mystery until a Spartan agent called Lichas happened to call in at a smithy in Tegea while some iron was being hammered out. When the smith remarked to him that he had discovered a huge coffin, ten feet long, while digging a well in the courtyard outside, Lichas reflected on the work that was being carried out in front of him, and suddenly realized that the oracle must have been referring to a smithy, and that the remains in the coffin would therefore be those of Orestes.
He reigned as his father's successor until his reign was brought to an end by the Heraclids and their Dorian allies, when they established themselves in the Peloponnese two generations after the Trojan War (see p. Although he was originally said to have been killed by them in battle, another account was also developed in which he withdrew to Achaea, the northern coastal province of the Peloponnese, after being defeated by them. In that case, he was soon killed nonetheless when he became embroiled in a war there, but his followers proved victorious, see further on p.
Aratus 351 (star rises as ships sail south), Str. 1.1.6 (recently named); there was probably a catasterism in the lost Kanobos of Apollonius of Rhodes. 19 Mentioned as more recent name in Apollod.
20 First references to Nauplios' activities, Eur. Helen 766-7 (shipwrecks, beacon lit by Nauplios in Euboea), 1126-31 (many lured on to rocks at Cape Caphareus); this was the subject of the Nauplios Pyrkaios (Nauplios the Fire-Kindler) of Sophocles, but almost nothing is recorded of the play; Nauplios is mentioned in Returns fr. 2.1.5, that his wife was called Philyra).
25 Borrows Zeus's lightning to use it against the Greek ships, Eur. 14.443-540, kills Ajax with thunderbolt, Apollod. 31 Meges and Prothoos, Tzetz.
902 (citing 'Apollodorus and the rest' = Apollod. 899 (Gouneus and Prothoos in Libya), Tzetz. 426-30 (similar, but answers not specified), schol.
427 (both questions posed by Mopsos; latter reply, ten piglets of which one male). l.c.); three piglets (or properly ten?) of which one female. For a wholly different account of the death of Calchas, see Serv.
6.18; settled at Syrnos in Caria, Paus. 6.19 (Amphilochos, son of Alcmaion, see p. 331, as opposed to the son of Amphiaraos, is here described as Mopsoss' partner in the duel, probably by error).
Trojan Women 1128; in the play itself, 1126-9, Peleus is said to have been expelled by Acastos himself. It has been suggested that Cos may be a mistake for Icos, which is mentioned as the burial-place of Peleus in Anth. Trojan Women 1126-9 with schol.
6.13 (succeeded to kingdom after his grandfather was expelled by the sons of Acastos and died). He presumably came to rule in Phthia in the earliest tradition, although the Odyssey mentions nothing more than his safe return and his subsequent presence in Phthia, 3.186-9, 4.5-9. Hermione as reported in schol.
cit.) states that almost all the poets agree that Machaireus was the killer, and names his father as Daïtes. Machaireus also appears as the killer on other versions of the story, e.g. Tried to plunder Delphi, Paus.
1085-165; killed by Orestes himself, Verg. 1421-30 (the divine Heracles foretells his fortunate future to him). 956-7 (mother named as Perseis).
1011-16 (in a post-Hesiodic section of the poem); Telegonos, also Proclus on Telegonia. 20 (Scylla originally the name of a pirate ship). 119 Odysseus among the Phaeacians, Hom.
7-8; he recounts his adventures to them, ibid. 129 Proclus on Telegonia, Apollod. 130 Proclus on Telegonia, Apollod.
133 Proclus on Telegonia, Apollod. 127 (states that Telemachos and Penelope travelled to Circe's island at the order of Athena, who also proposed the marriages). 1.35-43 (Aigisthos warned by Hermes), Hom.
3.263-75 (maroons minstrel, seduces Cytemnestra). 4.513-37, 11.409-34; see also 3.234-5, 4.91-2, 24.96-7, 24.199-200 (passages indicating that Clytemnestra shared in the guilt of the murder); cf. Proclus on Returns (merely that Agamemnon murdered by C.
(watchman, 1ff; trampling of purple, 905-74; the murder as heard by the chorus from outside, 1343ff; Cassandra's account of it, 1372ff; as avenging sacrifice of Iphigeneia, 1412ff; Aigisthos' speech after the murder, 1577ff). 139 Taken away by nurse, Pi. 25b citing Pherecydes (= 3F144) and Herodorus (= 31F11); by Talthybios, Dictys 6.2; saved by Electra, Soph.
117; sent away by mother, Aesch. 15-16 (best of friends with Pylades), Iph. 916-19 (Strophios married to a daughter of Atreus), Paus.
2.29.4 (married to Anaxibia, sister of Agamemnon, citing Asius = fr. 3.306-12, Proclus on Returns (vengeance of Orestes and Pylades, no details), Hes. Libation-Bearers (Clytemnestra's dream, 523-33, cf.
417-25; Orestes' final confrontation with his mother, 829ff). Elektra (paidagōgos comes to palace, 660ff.; Electra seeks help of Chrysothemis in killing Aigisthos, 938ff; Orestes and Pylades arrive, 1098ff; killing of Clytemnestra, 1367ff, of A., 1442ff). married to farmer, 19ff; killing of Aigisthos described, 774ff; of Clytemnestra, 1201ff).
1.293-300; see also 1.39-44, 3.303-12, 4.546-7, 11.461. 2.31.7, 11 and 3.22.1 respectively. 6.25, Marmor Parium 239F25, Et.
Aiora (acted with Tyndareos, hanged herself afterwards), Dictys 6.4 (hanged herself). 119; mentioned as variant without any details in Apollod. (recognition scene, 769ff; I.'s plan for escape, 1029ff; Athena's revelations, 1435ff).
1.23.9, 1.33.1; at Sparta, Paus. Hermione as reported in schol. 2.18.5, reporting Cinaethon (= fr.
4 Davies), 3.2.1 (Penthilos on Lesbos), Str. 173 Asclepiades 12F25 (seventy at time), Apollod. 1.1.3 (died at ninety, place not stated).
2.8.3 (killed in battle), Paus. 7.1.3 (expelled and killed later in Achaea).
23 Aeneas, Romulus, and the origins of Rome
Many of the legends of early Rome were modelled more or less directly on older stories from Greece, and the same is also true of the relatively few original myths that came to be developed about the Roman gods (mainly by Ovid in the surviving literature); but even if the associated bodies of legend were partly of a hybrid nature as a consequence, they belong to the Roman tradition rather than the Greek and must be interpreted in relation to Roman concerns, and therefore lie beyond the scope of a survey of Greek myth. Of rather greater relevance are the Roman aetiological tales that added a Roman extension to Greek myth by bringing Greek heroes in person to Rome or the surrounding area.
Compare 372
Aeneas, Romulus, and the origins of Rome
Many of the legends of early Rome were modelled more or less directly on older stories from Greece, and the same is also true of the relatively few original myths that came to be developed about the Roman gods (mainly by Ovid in the surviving literature); but even if the associated bodies of legend were partly of a hybrid nature as a consequence, they belong to the Roman tradition rather than the Greek and must be interpreted in relation to Roman concerns, and therefore lie beyond the scope of a survey of Greek myth. Of rather greater relevance are the Roman aetiological tales that added a Roman extension to Greek myth by bringing Greek heroes in person to Rome or the surrounding area.
We have had occasion to refer to a remarkable appendix to the legend of Hippolytos, son of Theseus, in which it was claimed that he had been transferred to Latium after his death and revival to become a cultic associate of Diana, the local equivalent of his patron goddess Artemis, at her sacred grove at Aricia (see p. To explain another feature of the grove, it was also suggested that Orestes deposited the statue of Taurian Artemis there after stealing it from its original home with the help of his sister Iphigeneia (see p.
It inevitably came to be imagined that Heracles, who was honoured in Roman cult as Hercules, might have called in at the site of Rome while he was travelling through Italy with the cattle of Geryon, and Roman authors took advantage of this possibility to propose that his most ancient cult had come to be founded there on the occasion of his visit (see p. As we saw in connection with that legend, the site of the future city was said to have been ruled at this time by a Greek, Evander, who had left his native city of Pallantion in Arcadia to settle on the Palatine hill.
By far the most important legend of this kind, however, or rather body of legend, is the one that presented AINEIAS, a Trojan hero from Greek myth, as having travelled to the Italian West after the fall of Troy, to become connected, in a central fashion if at some remove, with the origins and founding of Rome itself, according to traditions that won general acceptance there. Greek legends that associated Aineias with the founding of Rome, and their chronological implausibility As was described at the end of Chapter 21, most of the surviving members of the Trojan royal family, men and women alike, met their death either during the sack of Troy or shortly afterwards.
Very few survived to travel elsewhere or to be taken elsewhere. Of the women, Priam's daughter Cassandra was taken to Mycenae by Agamemnon, only to be swiftly murdered by his wife Clytemnestra, while Hector's wife Andromache became a concubine of Achilles' son Neoptolemos in his newly won kingdom in Epirus. Priam's only surviving son Helenos, who had become estranged from the other Trojans and had fallen into the hands of the Greeks before the fall of the city, also accompanied Neoptolemos to north-western Greece and later married Andromache in some accounts.
In the early tradition a special destiny was reserved for Aineias, as the leading member of the junior branch of the Trojan royal family, precisely because Priam's branch of the family met with such complete destruction. He was preserved through the will of the gods because someone needed to be available to rule at Troy in the future, after the city recovered to some degree and life resumed its normal course; see further on p. If later tradition presented him as having travelled abroad to found a Trojan colony in another land, that represented a complete reversal of his original function in myth.
As a result of his acknowledged survival, however, he was available nevertheless to be transferred abroad as the mythical tradition evolved; and as we have seen in connection with the return voyages of the Greek heroes of the war, some came to be credited with a further career in distant parts even though that stood in direct conflict with the early epic tradition (see pp. In the case of Aineias, the change was eased by the fact that no specific stories seem have been related in the early tradition about his life after the fall of Troy.
Largely to explain the origins of local cults and dedications, or of place names that seemed to have some connection with him, it came to be suggested quite early that Aineias had settled in neighbouring Thrace, or even in a variety of places in Greece itself; and the fateful suggestion then came to be made that he had travelled even further abroad to Italy. Much as one would like to be able to trace how the Italian legend of Aineias first developed within the Greek tradition, the surviving evidence is so inadequate that this is no longer possible.
Hub 373
Inscriptions on the Tabula Iliaca Capitolina, an Italian limestone relief dating from about 15 bc, seem to suggest that Stesichorus, a Greek-Sicilian poet of the sixth century bc, already presented Aineias as sailing off to Hesperia (i.e. the Italian West);1 but it has been convincingly argued on a variety of grounds that we cannot rely on this monument for reliable information on what Stesichorus may have said about Aineias. Quite apart from anything else, if the poet had really presented him as sailing to Greece, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who was well acquainted with his works, could hardly have failed to mention it in his detailed survey of Aineias' Italian legend.
We thus also hear of a certain Romis, tyrant of the Latins, who drove the Etruscans from the area to found the new city,8 or we are told on the contrary that it was founded by some Pelasgians (aboriginals) who named it Rome in commemoration of their military strength (rhomē, a purely Greek etymology);9 but that is quite enough of this nonsense. Most of these Greek accounts of the founding of Rome are either anonymous or are ascribed to obscure writers who are not easily datable.
If it is accepted that the account ascribed to Hellanicus is of doubtful origin, the earliest datable version is one that is recorded for a minor historian called Callias, who would have been writing at around 300 bc (see p. It continued to be accepted that Aineias had some connection with the origin of Rome long after these facile inventions had fallen by the wayside, but the idea that the city was directly founded by Aineias, or by an associate or immediate descendant of his, was a purely Greek idea that never seems to have been taken very seriously at Rome itself.
Cycle 374
It is generally believed nowadays that this was a legend of indigenous origin and respectable antiquity, perhaps dating back to the sixth century bc; and it is known for certain that the story was well established by the end of the fourth century (see p. In contrast to the Greek stories mentioned above, which would never have been more than rudimentary, this Roman legend was rich in content and grew ever more so, making extensive reference to the local topography and traditions, and embracing many local aetiologies.
It overshadowed all other stories of the kind, leaving them as no more than historical curiosities; for not only was it bound to impose itself at the expense of arbitrarily invented foreign stories, but chronological research showed ever more clearly that Rome could not possibly have been founded by Aineias or a near contemporary of his as most Greek stories suggested. On any rational chronology, Rome must have been founded considerably later than the period immediately following the fall of Troy (i.e.
the closing stages of the era of legend in Greece). The historian Timaeus (died c. 260 bc), a Greek-Sicilian who had a good knowledge of the local traditions in Italy, dated the founding of Rome to 814 bc, while Roman antiquaries during the following two centuries came to favour a somewhat later date, finally accepting Varro's estimate of 754/3 bc as canonic.
By any calculation, the heroes of Trojan legend must have lived in a remoter antiquity than this. According to the most widely accepted chronology, as developed by Eratosthenes of Alexandria in the third century bc, Troy fell in 1184 bc (towards the end of the Mycenaean period in our reckoning, which seems appropriate enough). If a connection was to be established between Aineias and the founding of Rome, this meant that there was a gap of at least four centuries to be filled between the time of his arrival in Italy and the actual foundation of the city.
Although it might be imagined that Aineias could easily have fallen out of the picture as a result of these developments, things actually turned out quite differently, and a central role came to be ascribed to him in the long course of events that led up to the founding of the city. For in what came to be accepted as the standard Roman account of its prehistory, the founder Romulus, who would originally have had no connection whatever with Aineias or Troy, was viewed as being a fairly distant descendant of Aineias who founded Rome many generations after his Trojan forebear had emigrated to that area; and in the formation of this hybrid Greco-Roman body of myth, an elaborate prehistory and full genealogies were developed to fill the gap, involving three different cities in Latium, the region on the east side of Italy in which Rome would finally be planted.
On arriving in Latium, Aineias established himself there with his Trojan followers after some initial conflict with the native Italians, and founded the city of Lavinium as his new home not far from the site of his landing. His son and successor Ascanios (or Ascanius in Latin) did not remain at Lavinium, however, but ventured further inland to found Alba Longa, about twelve miles south-east of the site of Rome. Descendants of Aineias then ruled Alba for some twelve generations, until Romulus was born into the family under perilous circumstances after his father had been excluded from his rightful throne.
Flow 375
Romulus survived nevertheless, with his twin brother Remus, to restore him to the Alban throne, and then went on to found the new city of Rome, peopling it initially with Alban settlers. Aeneas' travels and arrival in Latium as described by Vergil The Roman legend of Aeneas may be approached most conveniently through the Aeneid, which tells how he wandered to the west after the destruction of Troy and established himself in Latium. We may call him AENEAS henceforth in accordance with Latin usage, and follow the same procedure when referring to other figures from Greek legend who appear in the story.
After the fall of Troy, Aeneas and other Trojan survivors constructed a fleet of ships and sailed off to seek a new home. Although Aeneas initially wanted to settle nearby on the southern coast of Thrace, Polydoros, a son of Priam who had been treacherously murdered there (see p. 488), spoke up from his grave to warn him to forsake that savage land.
So he sailed southward, calling in next at the holy island of Delos, where he received a friendly welcome from the priest-king Anius (see p. When Aeneas entered the temple of Apollo to pray for guidance, a supernatural voice ordered him and his followers to seek out the land of their ancestors, declaring that his descendants were destined to rule the world from it. On being reminded by his father Anchises that Troy had originally been settled from Crete by Teucer (Teucros, see p.
441), he led his fellow Trojans to that island and proceeded to found a city there, but the newcomers were soon afflicted by a famine and a plague. The significance of this was revealed when the family gods of Aeneas appeared to him in a dream one night and told him that Delian Apollo had not intended him to settle in Crete but rather in Italy, for that had been the original homeland of his ancestor Dardanus, the founder of the Trojan royal line.
501), and was married to Hector's widow Andromache. He had assuaged his nostalgia for his homeland by building an imitation of the Trojan citadel and by naming features of the setting after corresponding features at Troy. Through his powers as a seer, he was able to advise Aeneas about his forthcoming journey, telling him above all that he should found his new city where he saw a huge white sow lying on the ground suckling thirty piglets.
Ladder 376
Its eponym Acestes, or AIGESTES in Greek, who already held power in the area at the time of Aeneas' arrival, was himself of Trojan descent, having come to be born on the island to a Trojan mother in the following circumstances. When Poseidon had sent the sea-monster against Troy during the reign of Laomedon (see p. 443), an oracle from Apollo had declared that maidens of noble birth should be exposed to it, prompting many Trojan noblemen to send their daughters abroad.
Compare 377
After he escaped back into the upper world, he and his followers sailed up the coast to the mouth of the Tiber and landed in Latium. As they were eating an improvised meal in the open air nearby, seated on the grass and using flat cakes of bread as platters, they felt so hungry that they finished off by eating the platters themselves, causing the son of Aeneas to joke that they were even devouring their tables; and on hearing his words, Aeneas suddenly realized that the Harpy's prophecy had been fulfilled and that they had therefore discovered their new homeland.
Since Evander was too old to fight on his own account, he provided a force of cavalry under the command of his son Pallas. Latinus stood apart from the conflict. After fierce fighting and various shifts of fortune, Aeneas defeated his opponents, sealing his victory by killing Turnus in single combat (the culminating episode that marks the end of the Aeneid).
He then proceeded to marry Latinus' daughter after making peace on terms that were very favourable to the conquered Latins, who were to retain their names and customs but to accept the gods and sacred rites that Aeneas had brought to their land. Latinus (or Latinos in Greek), the eponym of Latium and the Latins, is a quite ancient figure who is mentioned at the end of Hesiod's Theogony, in a section of the poem that was probably added in the sixth century bc.
Hub 378
Or in the accounts offered by Dionysius and Diodorus,32 which seem to reflect the influence of Greek tales of animal-guides (as in the Theban foundation-legend, see p. 332), Aeneas was advised by an oracle that a four-footed animal would lead him to the site of his city; and when a pregnant white sow escaped as he was bringing it to sacrifice after his landing and then fled to a certain hill where it gave birth to thirty young, he called the oracle to mind and resolved to found his city there.
Cycle 379
Now the Romans believed that their state Penates, the Penates publici, had come from Lavinium, and that they could be identified with the Trojan gods who had been established there by Aeneas. There may have been a measure of truth in this, to the extent that the state cult of the Penates may have been introduced from Lavinium or at least reorganized in connection with the Lavinian cult.
Flow 380
Ascanius, son of Aeneas, and the founding of Alba Longa
The founding of Alba Longa marks the next stage in the legend. In contrast to Lavinium, Alba had once been a powerful place, and it was believed that Rome and various other Latin cities had been founded from it. Since Roman tradition stated accordingly that the founder Romulus was of Alban descent, any linkage with Aeneas and the Trojans had to be established by way of Alba, by making Romulus and his Alban forebears descendants of Aeneas.
Through the harmonization of Greek, Roman, and Lavinate traditions, the canonic pattern was thus established in which Aeneas founded Lavinium while his son Ascanius founded Alba and his descendant Romulus founded Rome. It is not necessary to assume that Alba Longa (which was destroyed by the Romans at quite an early period) ever had a Trojan legend of its own in the same way as Lavinium. If Alban families at Rome such as the Julii and Cloelii claimed Trojan descent, it is surely more probable that this was a late development inspired by antiquarian lore than an ancient claim rooted in Alban tradition.
ASCANIOS (known as Ascanius in Latin) was taken over from the Greek tradition. Although Homer makes no mention of him or indeed of any son of Aineias (referring only to an Ascanios who was a Bithynian ally of the Trojans41), it is reasonable to assume that he was already named in early epic as Aineias' heir. Aineias certainly had such an heir in the early tradition since the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite presents the goddess as telling Anchises that his son (i.e.
Aineias) and descendants will rule among the Trojans42; and Ascanios is the name that is invariably given to this son of Aineias from the classical period onwards. When it came to be imagined that Aineias had settled abroad after the fall of Troy rather than staying to rule in the Troad, Ascanios was naturally said to have accompanied him, and he was thus available to become the founder of Alba in Italian legend. In the usual tradition, as would be expected, Aeneas was said to have fathered Ascanios by his Trojan wife, who was originally known as Eurydice, but later as Creousa (or Creusa in Latin form, as in the Aeneid).
Julius Caesar belonged to the gens Julia, a family of Alban origin, as did Augustus too through his mother's line and by adoption, and the Julian family claimed descent from Ascanius by equating him with Iulus, the legendary founder of their line. For it was explained in this connection that Ascanius had been known as Ilus (i.e. man of Ilion or Troy) during his Trojan years, and that this alternative name of his was altered slightly to Iulus in his new homeland.
Now if Aeneas fathered Ascanius by his Italian wife, as in the version just recounted, rather than by his wife at Troy as in the standard tradition, Ascanius could not be identified with Iulus on those grounds, which would seem to suggest that this may have been an anti-Julian version that was developed to exclude the identification. Since Ascanius might have been expected to take his household gods with him, a story was devised to explain why the 'Trojan' cult of the Penates remained in Lavinium.
Ladder 381
Compare 382
The Albam dynasty of the Silvii
Aeneas Silvius, Latinus Silvius, and Romulus Silvius are shadows of their more famous namesakes. It is reported that Romulus Silvius provoked the anger of Jupiter by imitating his thunder and lightning, and was struck dead by a thunderbolt,50 but this was simply a reworking of the Greek myth of Salmoneus (see p. His house was supposed to have been submerged below the Alban Lake, where its remains could be seen in historical times.
Hub 383
It was associated with a minor goddess called Rumina, who presided over the suckling of children. That a tree of that kind should have been her special tree is understandable in view of its milky sap, and it was presumably introduced into the story of the abandoned infants because of its connection with suckling. Since its name bears some resemblance to that of Romulus, however, some authors came to claim that it had been named after him, having originally been known as the Romularis fig tree.
Cycle 384
They and their friends lived on the Palatine hill, while the herdsmen of Numitor pastured their cattle on the neighbouring Aventine; and the two different groups were constantly quarrelling over grazing-rights and other matters. One day, after the feud had turned violent, the herdsmen of Numitor captured Remus in an ambush while his brother and friends were attending a sacrifice (or taking part in the disorderly festival of the Lupercalia), and hauled him in front of their master on a charge of cattle-theft.
Or else they took him to Amulius, who handed him over to his brother for judgement. On hearing of Remus' plight, Faustulus told Romulus all that he knew or had guessed about the origin of the two brothers and their royal birth; and fortified by this knowledge, Romulus hurried off to Numitor to intercede on his brother's behalf. Numitor had already inferred from Remus' noble appearance and conduct that he might be something more than an ordinary herdsman, and had therefore been making enquiries of his own.
The three of them then conspired together to avenge the wrongs that had been inflicted on them by Amulius. With the help of their rustic friends, who stole into Alba by separate routes beforehand, Romulus and Remus caught Amulius by surprise in the palace and killed him; and Numitor then summoned a meeting of the citizens to reveal the crimes of the usurper and reclaim his rightful throne.
Flow 385
Anyone who crossed over the Roman walls in historical times was in fact liable to a death penalty. It should also be remembered in this connection that the Romans and Etruscans (unlike the Greeks) regarded city-walls as sacred. There is no reason to suppose that the legend of the death of Remus was modelled on stories from Greece; it was known to Ennius and was probably a central feature of the foundation-legend from early times.
So Romulus resorted to trickery. He invited men from the surrounding territories, particularly the Sabines, to attend the Roman festival of the Consualia with their wives and children, announcing that there would be splendid sacrifices and public games and shows; and in response to a prearranged signal, the young men of Rome rushed into the crowd during the festivities and carried off all the unmarried girls. The episode has come to be known as the rape (i.e.
236 and 291), the Sabines were so shocked by Tarpeia's behaviour (even though they had benefited from it) that they preferred to kill her rather than to reward her for it. After this initial success, the Sabines were able to use the Capitol as a base to attack the main Roman force on the Palatine. The opposing armies clashed on low ground between the two hills, on the site of the Forum, then a marshy and undrained strip of land.
A hard-fought battle ensued in which the Romans finally began to win the upper hand; but as the two armies were preparing for the final confrontation, the abducted women, many of them mothers by this time and carrying their infants in their arms, rushed in between the Romans and Sabines and appealed to them to make peace, protesting that they would rather die than lose their husbands on the one hand or their fathers on the other. This appeal had the desired effect, and the two leaders stepped forward to make terms.
The ensuing period of dual kingship, in which Titus Tatius was supposed to have ruled alongside Romulus, could serve as a precedent for the dual consulship of the republican era. This shadowy colleague of the founder, who never found his way into the canonic list of Roman kings, was probably a figure of relatively late invention. He was supposed to have given his name to one of the three early Roman tribes, the Titii or Titienses, and to have founded a minor priestly college at Rome, the Sodales Titii, whose original function is unknown (before it was refounded in connection with the cult of the Emperor).
In the sixth year of this dual kingship, Titus Tatius provoked his own death through some unjust acts, leaving Romulus to rule on his own once again. For after some friends of his became involved in some depredations committed on the territory of Lavinium, he not only frustrated the attempts of the Lavinians to gain satisfaction through the law, but also intervened to help the guilty men after the Lavinian ambassadors were murdered. So when he subsequently visited Lavinium to perform an annual sacrifice (see p.
Can it be supposed that it was a genuine product of the Roman imagination, perhaps even originating in folklore independently of Greek influence? The tale of exposure and wondrous deliverance of the twins certainly follows a pattern that is very familiar in Greek myth, in which a hero is conceived to a god by a girl who is isolated in some way from ordinary family life, and is exposed at birth but comes to be saved by the attentions of an animal, which suckles the child until he is discovered by a shepherd or herdsman; and his rescuer then rears him in rural isolation until he emerges to fulfil some exceptional destiny.
Twins figure, moreover, in some Greek myths of this kind, such as that of Pelias and Neleus (see p. If the story of the exposure of Romulus and Remus was not of native origin, it would surely have been easy enough for some Greek or Roman author to invent it by taking famous Greek legends of the kind as a model; and precisely because the parallels are so striking, and for various other reasons too, most classical scholars were once inclined to believe that it was a literary fabrication of relatively late origin.
Tales of the exposure and rescue of royal children are by no means confined to Greek myth however, but accord with a widespread pattern, which is attested in the traditions of other Indo-European peoples and far beyond. So there is nothing inherently implausible in the notion that the Romulus legend may have been developed at Rome independently of Greek influence, perhaps even as a folk-tale. Partly as the result of the admission of a wider range of comparative evidence, but above all as the result of a reassessment of relevant aspects of the Greek and Roman tradition, there has been a marked shift in the consensus in recent decades, and most authorities are now inclined to accept that the legend of Romulus and Remus was a fairly ancient story of indigenous origin.
Although there is no positive evidence to show exactly when the legend of the exposure of Romulus and Remus was first developed, we can at least be sure that it was familiar at Rome by the end of the fourth century bc. Livy reports that two Roman magistrates (curule aediles), Cnaeus Ogulnius and Quintus Ogulnius, raised a statue of the wolf and twins near the Ruminalis fig tree in 296 bc, paying for it with fines that they had collected from usurers;86 and some thirty years later, probably in 266 bc, this group of the wolf and twins was shown on the earliest silver coinage minted at Rome.
This would suggest that the story was not only well established by this period, but had acquired an accepted status at Rome as the standard foundation-legend. Since the minor historian Callias, who worked at the court of Agathocles of Syracuse (died 289 bc), is the earliest datable Greek author known to have referred to Romulus in connection with the founding of Rome,87 the evidence from Greek literature takes us no further back. If it is indeed the case that the legend of Romulus and Remus was of native invention, it is reasonable to assume nonetheless that the basic story was quite old, perhaps dating back to the early sixth century bc.
1.72.5 (by Aineias), 1.72.6 (by Ascanios), Plut. For a rationalized version of the myth, see D.H. 7.148ff.; oracle granted to Latinus on marriage of daughter, 7.81-101.
The succeeding events take us to the end of the epic. 7.5.4-5 (citing Fabius Pictor), D.H. 39 Livy 1.2.6 (does not commit himself on whether deified), Serv.
1.259 (some say that fell into river, Ovid that carried up to heaven), Ov. 14.581-608 (turned into a god), Verg. 1.295-6, 12.794-5 (this foretold); D.H.
1.64 (with rationalistic explanation), Fest. 1.70; and in all catalogues of Alban kings (see p. 6.760; Silvius chosen instead of Iulus, D.H.
7.5.11 (here as Aramulius Silvius); cf. 10.145, this Capys also mentioned 1.183, 9.576. Ode 1.2.18 (citing Ennius), Serv.
1.273, Justin 34.2, Conon 48. 7-10, Livy 1.5.6, Justin 43.2-3. For another version involving an initial deception on the part of Romulus, see Plut.
72 Livy 1.7 (cited as commoner version), Ennius Annals 94-6, D.H. 10 (but ditch instead of wall), Florus 1.1.8. (earliest mention), Livy 1.8.5, D.H.
8.635; Fabius Pictor 809F5, Ennius Scen. 9.6.1, Festus 496 L, Propertius 4.4. 87 As cited in D.H.
24 Legends of Arcadia and final miscellany
Every part of Greece had its local legends, as did the Greek islands too and the Greek colonies overseas. The more important ones have already been considered for the most part, either in connection with the mythical history of the major centres or while we were tracing the tangled histories of the great families of heroic mythology; but there are also many others, some relating to notable figures such as Orpheus and Orion who did not belong to any of the great families, and others that never came to be of more than regional significance, and others again that became more widely known outside their area of origin simply because they were taken up by some famous poet or were particularly appealing in themselves.
Ladder 386
Legends of Arcadia and final miscellany
Every part of Greece had its local legends, as did the Greek islands too and the Greek colonies overseas. The more important ones have already been considered for the most part, either in connection with the mythical history of the major centres or while we were tracing the tangled histories of the great families of heroic mythology; but there are also many others, some relating to notable figures such as Orpheus and Orion who did not belong to any of the great families, and others that never came to be of more than regional significance, and others again that became more widely known outside their area of origin simply because they were taken up by some famous poet or were particularly appealing in themselves.
This final chapter will offer a selection of some of the more interesting of these remaining legends, some of venerable antiquity and others of Hellenistic or later origin. There is also one quite substantial body of myth that has yet to be considered, the mythology of Arcadia, the mountainous central province of the Peloponnese, which was something of a world apart. The Arcadian royal family, which was descended from Pelasgos, the earth-born first man of the land, was rather similar in character to the Athenian royal family prior to Theseus, in so far as few of its members played any major role in heroic saga and it was associated above all with a distinctive body of local legend.
We will approach this remaining material on a regional basis, starting in the Peloponnese with the myths of Arcadia and the family of Sisyphos at Corinth, before proceeding northwards to Central Greece and Thrace, and finally venturing overseas to the Aegean islands and remoter parts.
Compare 387
Legends of Arcadia
Although Lycaon himself was almost certainly the original transgressor, the crime is more commonly assigned to his sons, apparently because authors of later ages found it hard to believe that the pious founder of the main cult of Zeus in Arcadia could have been guilty of such an act. Apollodorus explains accordingly that the sons of Lycaon exceeded all others in arrogance and impiety, and showed this in full measure when Zeus visited them in the guise of a poor traveller to test whether they were really as bad as their reputation suggested; for they invited him into the palace to enjoy their hospitality, but mixed the guts of a slaughtered child into the meat from the sacrifices, and served this unholy mixture to him as a meal.
Hub 388
Cycle 389
Callisto and Arcas
CALLISTO, the daughter of Lycaon, left home to roam the mountains of Arcadia as a virgin hunting companion of Artemis; but she attracted the roving eye of Zeus, who raped or seduced her, causing her to become pregnant with a male child, Arcas. Although this proved disastrous to Callisto herself, who was transformed into a bear as a consequence, it at least ensured that Lycaon had an heir to succeed him after losing his sons. Arcas ascended to the throne either immediately after the death of his grandfather, or after the intervening reign of Nyctimos in the accounts in which that son of Lycaon escaped the fate of his brothers.
Although it was generally agreed that Callisto was raped or seduced by Zeus while she was a companion of Artemis, and that she was transformed into a bear (arktos) thereafter and gave birth to her son Arcas while in that form, the story was recounted in all manner of different versions. All of them can be assigned, however, to one of two main categories. (i) In the simpler version of the story, Zeus transformed Callisto into a bear after raping her to try to conceal the matter from his jealous wife, who had gained an idea of what was happening when she had seen him pursuing Callisto into a wood, and wanted to catch him in the act.
Hera was by no means deceived, however, when she found a bear in place of the girl whom she had expected, and she incited Artemis to kill the bear by calling it to her attention while she was out hunting. After the transformed Callisto was killed in this way, Zeus recovered her child, presumably by snatching him from her womb (as Apollo did with Asclepios, see p. 143), and then entrusted it to Maia, an Arcadian mistress of his (see p.
As an easily accessible example of such a version, we may first turn to Ovid's narrative in the Metamorphoses. When Zeus once happened to catch sight of Callisto lying on her own in the grass, he assumed the form of Artemis to approach her and then proceeded to rape her in spite of her determined resistance. On a sultry day nine months afterwards, Artemis invited her attendants to bathe with her after the hunt and noticed that Callisto was pregnant when she was obliged to undress.
So the goddess expelled her from her company, and Callisto gave birth to her child shortly afterwards. Now Hera had known all along that she had attracted the desire of Zeus, and the birth of the child added a further sting to her resentment, provoking her to take action against the girl at last by transforming her into a bear. Callisto roamed the countryside in that form for fifteen years until her son ran across her one day while he was out hunting.
Although there would presumably have been versions that concluded in much the same way as Ovid's, with her simply being hunted by her son when he grew up, the surviving accounts are more complicated and apparently rather garbled. We are told in one such account that the transformed Callisto was captured in the mountains by some goatherds, who handed her over to Lycaon along with her child. Some time later, she happened to wander into the precinct of Lycaian Zeus, which was forbidden ground to any mortal under pain of death; and her son chased after her along with some other Arcadians and would have killed her if Zeus, calling to mind their former relationship, had not snatched them away and transferred them to the stars.
Flow 390
One may suppose that they would have taken Lycaon alone to the king in the original story, and that he later ran across his bear-mother by accident while out hunting; and when he chased the bear on to the precinct, the local people would have pursued Lycaon with the intention of killing him as the law demanded, also taking the opportunity to hunt down the bear at the same time. Such, then, are the more elaborate versions of Callisto's story that belong to the second category.
It may also be worth mentioning that Amphis, a Hellenistic comic poet, developed a humorous version in which Zeus assumed the form of Artemis to approach and seduce Callisto. He deceived her so thoroughly that when Artemis subsequently questioned Callisto about her pregnancy, she naively protested that the goddess herself was to blame. Artemis was thoroughly annoyed by her reply, as is understandable, and transformed her into a bear.
Ladder 391
It has been suggested accordingly that this genealogical system was not of native origin, but was devised in Argos, and thus presents a limited picture of Arcadia as viewed from its eastern neighbour. Although a scheme of inheritance was eventually devised in which descendants of Arcas from both main branches of the family were presented as ruling the whole of Arcadia (or the greater part of it) in ordered succession, the resulting pseudo-history is too artificial to be worth tracing here; Pausanias may be consulted on the matter.
We will simply pick out some of the more interesting heroes in the present section, before passing on to consider the myths of the Tegean princess Auge, whose life was disrupted as the result of an encounter with Heracles, and the remarkable Amazonian heroine Atalanta (who also had Boeotian connections). APHEIDAS' Tegean portion of the land was the most prominent in myth, as is by no means surprising, since Tegea was not only the most important city in the province (until the foundation of Megalopolis in the fourth century bc), but was also more exposed to the outside world than any other, lying as it did in the south-eastern plain rather than in the mountains, and on the main route between Argos and Sparta.
Compare 392
Although she tried to conceal her pregnancy, her guardian did not fail to observe it, and he hurried off to Delphi to seek the advice of the oracle. Euadne gave birth to her child while Aipytos was away and exposed him in the countryside, though with a heavy heart; but two snakes saved his life at the will of the gods by feeding him on honey. Aipytos had discovered from the oracle in the meantime that the child was a son of Apollo, and that he was destined to be a great seer who would found an unfailing line of prophets.
The whole of Greece was afflicted by a terrible famine as a result of this crime until the pious Aiacos interceded with the gods through his prayers (see p. 426).39 In some accounts at least, Stymphalos was the father of the mythical builder Agamedes (see p. Two of his more distant descendants are worthy of mention.
AIPYTOS, son of Hippothoon, who ruled in Arcadia after the Trojan War,40 met a remarkable death as the result of an act of impiety. This occurred at Mantineia in eastern Arcadia where the great builders Trophonios and Agamedes (see pp. 558-9) had raised a wooden temple to Poseidon, and had spread a woollen thread across its entrance to indicate that no mortal was allowed to set foot in it.
Hub 393
Auge and her son Telephos Aleos, the above-mentioned king of Tegea, founded the Tegean cult of Athene Alea44 and appointed his daughter AUGE to serve as the virgin priestess of the goddess. Heracles raped or seduced her, however, while he was passing through Tegea after his campaign against Hippocoon, king of Sparta (see p. 264), and so caused her to become pregnant with a son, TELEPHOS, who would ultimately become the king of Mysia in the north-western corner of Asia Minor.
There are two full narratives in which Nauplios is drawn into the story. To start with that of Apollodorus, Auge tried to conceal her child in the Tegean precinct of Athene Alea after giving birth to him, but the land was struck by a famine and plague as a result of the sacrilege, and when oracles explained that the precinct had been profaned, the king searched it and discovered the infant. He ordered that it should be exposed on Mt Parthenion, and handed his daughter over to Nauplios to be sold in a foreign land.
Nauplios offered her to Teuthras as a wife, however, and things went well for her exposed son too, for he was suckled by a doe in the wilds until he was rescued by some shepherds. By a characteristically tortured etymology, it could thus be explained that he was called Telephos because he had been suckled at the teat (thēlē) of a deer (elaphos). When he came of age, he travelled to Delphi to question the oracle about his birth, and was advised to cross over to Mysia, where he was reunited with his mother.
She gave birth to her child on Mt Parthenion during the journey to the coast and hid him away in some bushes. Nauplios took him to his home city, the port of Nauplia or Nauplion in the Argolid, where he passed her on to some Carian travellers who were setting out for Asia Minor. Her story ended happily as a consequence, for they entrusted her to Teuthras after arriving home in Asia.
Cycle 394
Flow 395
The legend of Atalanta in Arcadia and Boeotia
385) and was exposed at birth by her father (see below) was always regarded as an Arcadian, while the legend of Atalanta's bridal-races was primarily associated with the Boeotian heroine of that name. So it is certainly possible that there were two Atalantas of separate origin; but even if this was the case, the two came to be confused or identified with each other from a quite early period, and it will therefore be convenient to treat the Arcadian and Boeotian as a single person, taking due note of any regional distinctions.
When Atalanta was born in Arcadia, her father Iasos ordered that she should be exposed in the wilds because he wanted male children alone. After she was abandoned on Mt Parthenion, however, she was suckled by a she-wolf that had lost its cubs, and she was eventually rescued by some passing hunters. They brought her up in the mountains and she chose to remain there when she grew up, living a hardy life as a virgin huntress with a cave for a home.
Ladder 396
The story can be traced back to the fourth century bc but was probably rather older. According to the earliest complete account in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Hippomenes angered Aphrodite by failing to thank her for having provided him with the golden apples. So she incited the couple to make love in a cave that was sacred to the Mother of the Gods (here identified with Cybele) while they were travelling home; and the Mother punished them for the sacrilege by turning them into lions.
Compare 397
Sisyphos, king of Corinth, and the thief Autolycos
Craftiness always remained the defining feature of Sisyphos' character, and he was commonly portrayed as a not unappealing rogue. As has been mentioned in previous discussion of the myths of the Underworld, he was said to have been punished in the afterlife by constantly having to roll a huge stone uphill, however much it came rolling down again. No explanation is offered for this punishment when it is first described in the Odyssey, but later sources say that it was imposed on him because he had cheated death on a previous occasion or had betrayed a secret of Zeus.
The following story, recounted by Pherecydes, lay behind both of these explanations. When Zeus abducted Aigina, a daughter of the Peloponnesian river-god Asopos, from her birthplace (see p. 426), he took her through the territory ruled by Sisyphos, who informed Asopos of that fact when he came in search of her, in return for the creation of a spring on the Corinthian Acropolis.
According to Pherecydes, Deion, son of Aiolos, a brother of Sisyphos who ruled the land of Phocis in Central Greece, had a daughter called Philonis who attracted the desire of two Olympian gods, Hermes and Apollo; and both slept with her on the same day, and she thus conceived the thief Autolycos to the former and the musician Philammon to the latter. Both spent their lives on Parnassos, the mountain that dominated their grandfather's field. Philammon fathered Thamyris, an even greater musician than himself, on a Parnassian nymph named Argiope, who gave birth to her child in Thrace, where he would later engage in his famous contest with the Muses (see p.
Hub 398
Cycle 399
Glaucos, son of Sisyphos
555) and was the father of Antiope's husband Phocos (see p. Glaucos was remembered more for the remarkable manner of his death than for anything that he did during his lifetime, for he was said to have been torn apart by his own chariot-horses. Various explanations were offered to account for this.
According to an alternative account, however, he was merely the putative father of Bellerophon, who was really a son of Poseidon; and in that case his marital affairs were more complicated than in the usual tradition. For Sisyphos initially chose Mestra, the shapeshifting daughter of Erysichthon (see p. 114) as a bride for Glaucos, so we are told in a fragment from the Hesiodic Catalogue, but she soon fled back to her father's house, doubtless by use of her special powers.
Flow 400
Other aspects of the mythology of Corinth
Such was the standard account of the mythical history of Corinth, in which it was said to be ruled by the family of Sisyphos, but it must be said that there is very little that is distinctively Corinthian about the myths of Sisyphos or his two notable descendants. The early Corinthian epic poet Eumelos offered an account of the city's earliest history in which it had been under the rule of another family before the arrival of Sisyphos. According to him, the territory of Corinth was originally awarded to Aietes, the future king of Colchis, by his father the sun-god Helios, who awarded the adjoining 'Asopian land' (i.e.
region of Sicyon to the west) to another son of his called Aloeus. When Aietes left for Colchis (where he would later be visited by Jason and the Argonauts, see p. 405), he entrusted his property on the isthmus to a certain Bounos, son of Hermes.
After the death of Bounos, both territories fell under the control of Epopeus, son of Aloeus, who bequeathed them to his son Marathon. To escape his father's violence and lawlessness, Marathon took refuge in Attica (hence the name of the village of Marathon in the north-east), only making a brief visit to his original homeland after his father's death to divide it between his two sons Corinthos and Sicyon, who gave their names to the territories that they came to rule.
When Corinthos subsequently died without a male heir, the Corinthians invited Medeia, the daughter of Aietes, to become their queen, and she ruled there for a time in conjunction with her husband Jason. As she gave birth to each of her children, she hid them away in the sanctuary of Hera in the hope of making them immortal, but they died in every case, and Jason was so appalled when he finally learned of this that he sailed away to Iolcos.
Not far from Patrai, near the mouth of the river Selemnos, there was once a town called Argyra (although it was no more than a ruin by Pausanias' time). According to local legend, a handsome shepherd boy called SELEMNOS had once lived in that area, and had attracted the love of a sea-nymph called ARGYRA, who used to emerge from the sea to consort with him; but she ceased to visit him when his beauty began to fade, and he died of a broken heart.
According to the temple legend, a maiden called COMAITHO had once served as a priestess in the temple long before the Trojan War, and had fallen in love with a young man called MELANIPPOS; but their parents had refused to allow them to marry, and they had consummated their passion in secret, making love inside the temple on more than one occasion. In her anger at the sacrilege, Artemis afflicted the land with famine and disease; and when the local people sought the advice of the Delphic oracle, they were told not only that the guilty couple should be offered in sacrifice to Artemis, but also that the most attractive youth and maiden in the area should be offered up to her likewise in each successive year.
Ladder 401
The oracle indicated that the Patraians would be relieved of this painful duty when a foreign king arrived in their land with a foreign deity, an event that finally occurred in the following circumstances just after the Trojan War. During the division of the spoils after the sack of Troy, EURYPYLOS, son of Euaimon, a Thessalian ruler, was given a most precious object, a chest containing a statue of Dionysos that had been fashioned by Hephaistos; this statue had been passed down in the Trojan royal family ever since it had been presented to the first king, Dardanos, by his father Zeus.
Since Cassandra had put a curse on any Greek who found the statue, Eurypylos was driven mad when he opened the chest to look at it. He was sufficiently lucid at times, however, to be able to consult the Delphic oracle, which told him to settle in a land where he found a people offering a strange sacrifice and to install the chest there for worship. When his ship was then blown to the northern coast of the Peloponnese in the region of Patrai, he stepped ashore there and saw a maiden and youth being led to the altar of Artemis for that year's sacrifice.
Among some plunder from Aetolia that was deposited at the city by the emperor, there was an ancient statue of Dionysos from Calydon, which thus came to be housed in the Patraian temple of Calydonian Dionysos; the following tale, which is set in its place of origin on the mainland opposite, was recounted in connection with it. A Calydonian priest of Dionysos called CORESOS had fallen in love with a maiden called CALLIRHOE, but the more he pressed himself on her the less she liked him.
Finding that all his pleas and promises made no impression on her, he prayed to the cultic image (apparently for vengeance rather than assistance), and Dionysos responded by afflicting the Calydonians with a madness that caused many of them to die insane. When they sought the advice of the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, they were told that Dionysos was to blame, and that his anger would not be allayed until Coresos had sacrificed a human victim to him, either Callirhoe or someone who volunteered to take her place.
As Callirhoe was being brought to the altar, Coresos found that his love for her outweighed his meaner feelings of resentment, and sacrificed himself to the god in place of her as a willing substitute. On seeing him lying dead at her feet, Callirhoe felt pity for him and remorse at the way that she had treated him, and killed herself in her turn, cutting her throat by a local spring that was known by her name ever afterwards.91
Compare 402
The Minyans of Orchomenos; the master-builders Trophonios and Agamedes
Minyas was credited with various other children, including Orchomenos, the eponym of the city, Elara, the mother of the gigantic Tityos (see p. 141), and Clymene, the wife of Phylacos and maternal grandmother of Jason. The first Orchomenian ruler to play a role of any significance in mythical history is ERGINOS, son of Clymenos, who imposed a tribute on the Thebans after his father was killed by a man of that city; Heracles delivered them from this in his first campaign, as has already been recounted, leading them to victory against the Minyans and killing Erginos (see p.
When they were once planning to drive their mother Cydippe to the festival of the goddess in an ox-cart, the oxen happened to be late in returning from the fields; and since time was running short, the two brothers harnessed themselves to the cart instead and dragged their mother from the city of Argos to the great temple of Hera, a distance of forty-five stades (more than five miles). Their mother was so proud of their action and the acclaim that they won by it that she addressed a special prayer to Hera, asking that they should be granted the greatest blessing that mortals can receive, and the goddess rewarded them by granting them a peaceful death on that same day, while they were lying asleep after the sacrifices and feasting.
Hub 403
The experience was so terrifying that people who visited Trophonios were said to be incapable of laughing for some time afterwards, or even for the rest of their life according to popular lore.108
Cycle 404
Phlegyas and the Phlegyans
Or, in another account, which first appears in Hellenistic times, he was born from the earth in Boeotia in most extraordinary circumstances. When Hyrieus, the eponymous founder of Hyria in eastern Boeotia (see p. 440), was once entertaining Zeus, Poseidon, and Hermes at his home, they rewarded him for his gracious hospitality by allowing him to choose what he most desired; and being childless and indeed unmarried, he asked to be granted a son.
Flow 405
For when an oracle revealed that the infernal gods who had inflicted the plague would be appeased if two maidens offered themselves up to them in sacrifice, the daughters of Orion cried out three times to the gods below that they were offering themselves as willing victims and cut their throats with the shuttles from their looms. Feeling pity for the two maidens, Hades and Persephone caused their bodies to disappear and two comets to rise up into the sky in place of them.
On learning of this outrage, Oinopion blinded him as he was lying asleep afterwards, and cast him out on the shore, or drove him out of the island. Having no idea where he was heading or indeed where he should try to go, Orion wandered helplessly around the Aegean. He was able to roam unrestrictedly because he was gifted with the power, acquired from his father Poseidon, of being able to walk over the sea (or at least wade through it with ease).
Ladder 406
In the end he happened to find himself on the island of Lemnos, where the divine blacksmith Hephaistos, who had his forge there, took pity on him and offered him his assistant, Cedalion, as a guide. Hoisting Cedalion on to his shoulders, he headed east towards the sunrise as directed by him, until he was able to find a cure for his blindness by turning his face towards the rays of the rising sun, or else was healed by the sun-god Helios himself.
As with the myth of his pursuit of the Pleiades, which will be considered below, this is a true astral myth that was directly inspired by an observable feature of the night sky; for since the constellation of the Scorpion rises as Orion sets below the horizon, it seems to pursue him through the sky. In the standard version of this astral myth, derived from Eratosthenes, Orion once boasted that he would kill every beast on the earth while he was hunting on Crete with Artemis and Leto, arousing such anger in Gaia (Earth) that she sent forth a huge scorpion, which stung him and so caused his death.
Her brother Apollo was thoroughly dismayed, but she paid no heed to his objections; so one day, when he saw the head of Orion bobbing in the waves as he was swimming far out at sea, he bet his sister that she would be unable to hit the distant speck with one of her arrows. Since she valued nothing more highly than her reputation as an archer, she rose to the challenge and shot an arrow straight through Orion's head without realizing what it was.
When his body was subsequently washed ashore, she was grief-stricken and transferred her dead suitor to the stars.139
Compare 407
Hub 408
Myths of the Pleiades
The daughters of Atlas were assigned different roles in myth, not always reconcilable, depending on whether they were viewed collectively as a group of maidens in relation to the star-cluster, or as individuals who founded various branches of one of the great families of heroic mythology, that of the Atlantids (see p. We will consider them here in their former nature, in so far as they figure in astral mythology. Their astral myths fall into two categories, some explaining how the seven came to be transferred as a group to the heavens to become the star-cluster, and others explaining why one of the Pleiades shines less brightly than the others.
One such story provided a joint explanation for the origin of the Pleiades and of the Hyades, another star-cluster in the Bull made up of five stars that outline the bull's face. It is suggested in this connection that the Pleiades were not the only children of Atlas, but were members of a larger family along with five other sisters and a brother called HYAS. When Hyas was killed by a lion (or snake, or boar) during a hunting trip in Libya, five of his sisters were so overwhelmed by their grief that they soon died of a broken heart, arousing the pity of Zeus, who placed them in the sky as the Hyades; and when the seven remaining sisters also died after a lapse of time, Zeus transferred them to the same region of the sky as the Pleiades.
441ff.) that she covered her face and has been barely visible ever since; or else she abandoned her sisters altogether to become a comet, an idea inspired by the thought that the tail of a comet (i.e. long-haired star, astēr komētēs) resembles the loosened hair of a woman in mourning.146
The fate of Narcissos
NARCISSOS was a young man who lived in the Boeotian town of Thespiai. He was a son of Cephisos, the god of a local river, who had fathered him by a nymph called Leiriope, and he was so beautiful that he fell in love with himself on seeing his features reflected in a spring on Mt Helicon; unable to tear himself away, he finally died of love beside the waters of the spring, which was known ever afterwards as the Spring of Narcissos.
For to save her fellow nymphs from being caught by Hera while they were dallying with Zeus, Echo used to distract the goddess with a constant flow of talk until they could get safely away. When Hera came to realize that she had been tricked in this fashion, she punished the nymph by greatly reducing her powers of speech, so that she could no longer utter any thought of her own, but merely repeat the last words that she had heard from others.
While subject to this handicap, she fell in love with Narcissos and followed him around in secret until she could contrive a meeting. He fled from her approach, however, when she tried to embrace him, since he was cold by nature, and she then wasted away in solitary grief until nothing was left of her apart from her bones and voice, and finally her re-echoing voice alone after her bones turned to stone. When Narcissos had rejected many admirers in this way, nymphs and youths alike, a scorned youth prayed that he should suffer an unrequited passion in his turn.
So one day, as he was leaning over a woodland pool to drink, he fell in love with his own reflection and remained forever at that spot, unable to tear himself away, until he died from exhaustion and unsatisfied desire. His hopeless passion was witnessed by Echo, who re-echoed his sighs and laments. Even in the Underworld, so Ovid tells us, he continues to stare at his reflection in the Styx.
Narcissus had a cruel heart, so we are told and hated all his (male) admirers, until he came to conceive a love for his own form. He wept for his beauty on seeing his face reflected, as delightful as a dream, within a spring, and killed himself, shedding his blood on the earth (evidently to give rise to the flower that bore his name).150
Orpheus and Harpalyce, two notable Thracians
Although not strictly a part of Greece, the land of Thrace, on the northern shores of the Aegean, was of some importance in Greek myth as the home of a variety of gods and heroes who were mostly of a violent disposition; the war-god Ares had his home there, as did Boreas, the wild North Wind, and such heroes as Lycourgos, who persecuted the young Dionysos and his nurses (see p. 165), and Diomedes, who fed his horses on human flesh (see p.
249), and Tereus, who raped his sister-in-law and cut out her tongue (see p. Some Thracians were remembered for something other than their brutality, however, such as Rhesos, a colourful but short-lived ally of the Trojans (see p. 475), and the musician Thamyris (see p.
According to Vergil, this came about when the rustic deity Aristaios tried to rape her and she trod on a poisonous snake as she was fleeing from him (see p. 147); or, in Ovid's account, the accident occurred while she was roaming the meadows with her fellow nymphs shortly after her wedding, which had been attended by sinister omens. Orpheus was grief-stricken in any case, and resolved to make his way down into the Underworld in the hope of recovering her.
He turned his gifts as a singer to good advantage during this perilous enterprise, exploiting it to charm Cerberos into allowing him into the world of the dead and then to soften the heart of grim Hades himself. The Roman poets embroider on this theme at will, suggesting that the shades of the dead were entranced by his singing, and that those who were subjected to everlasting punishment below were moved to pause for a while from their futile labours, and that the vultures stopped pecking at the liver of Tantalos, and that Ixion's wheel stopped in its flight, and that the pitiless Furies wept for the first time in their lives.
Our report states, rather mysteriously, that Orpheus ceased to honour Dionysos after his visit to the Underworld because of what he had seen there, and came to honour the sun-god Helios instead as the greatest of the gods, equating him with Apollo. He used to climb Pangaion, a lofty mountain in southern Thrace, before sunrise every morning to ensure that he would always be the first to behold the object of his worship. Dionysos grew so angry at his behaviour, however, that he caused his death by sending the Bassarids (i.e.
Here are a few memorable stories from other islands. We may begin with stories associated with the island of Ceos, lying to the south-east of the tip of Attica. ACONTIOS, a young Cean from a respectable but relatively poor family, fell in love with CYDIPPE, a Naxian or Athenian of higher birth, when he happened to meet her at a festival on Delos.
After following her to the temple of Artemis, he threw an apple down in front of her inscribed with the words, 'I swear by Artemis to marry none other than Acontios', and she picked it up and innocently read the message, speaking the words aloud as readers commonly did in ancient times, and so bound herself to Acontios by a solemn oath. When her father subsequently tried to marry her to a man of his own choice, she fell prey to a mysterious illness and he was obliged to postpone the marriage; and after being forced to do so on two further occasions, he sought the advice of the Delphic oracle, which revealed that Artemis was making his daughter ill to prevent her from breaking her oath.
A tame stag lived on the island at this time, a splendid beast, which was sacred to the nymphs and wholly lacking in fear; and although it was friendly to everyone, Cyparissos was especially fond of it and used to lead it to new pastures and refreshing springs, and would wreathe its horns with garlands and even ride on its back, guiding it with scarlet reins. One day, however, while it was resting under the shade of some trees in the midday heat, Cyparissos happened to throw his hunting-spear in that direction and accidentally killed it.
411), to have been settled by followers of Cadmos (see p. 332), and later ruled by a descendant of his, Theras (see p. To pass across to the Eastern Sporades off the west coast of Asia Minor, the island of Cos received a famous visit from Heracles while he was sailing home after sacking Troy (see p.
It was ruled in the very earliest times by an earthborn king called MEROPS, who was finally transformed into an eagle. In the version recounted in the astronomical literature, this came about after Artemis caused him to lose his much-loved wife, the nymph Echemeia (or Ethemeia), who had offended the goddess by ceasing to honour her, and who was shot by her as a consequence. Perhaps she had been a devotee of Artemis and had angered her by abandoning her virginity to marry the king.
The goddess would have killed her with her arrows in any case if Persephone had not intervened, for some unknown reason, and had removed her to the Underworld while she was still alive. Merops missed her so greatly that he wanted to kill himself, but Hera (presumably as the goddess who presided over married love) took pity on him and transferred him to the heavens, turning him into an eagle before doing so, to ensure that he would not retain his human memory and so continue to grieve for his wife.
He was borne to Zeus or Poseidon by Astypalaia, the eponym of an island of that name to the west of Cos), and ruled over the Leleges, the aboriginal inhabitants of Samos. He was skilled in the arts of seamanship, as befits an islander, and volunteered to become the steersman of the Argo after the original helmsman, Tiphys, died on the outward journey (see p. When he arrived home from after the voyage, he turned his attention to agriculture and planted many vines, but was warned by a seer that he would meet his death before he could drink from their fruit.
Since all seemed well with him when the crop was ripe, he pressed some grapes and summoned the seer to rebuke him for his incompetence. 'I'm still alive', he said, 'and the fruit is ripe, and I'm just about to drink; look, you can see the wine in the cup'. In no way disconcerted, the seer replied, 'There's many a slip between the cup and the lip'; and at that very moment, a man ran up to warn Ancaios that a wild boar was ravaging his vineyard.
In a play by Cratinos, another author of comedies, Phaon seems to have been portrayed in a similar role to that of Adonis, for Aphrodite herself apparently fell in love with him and hid him away in a lettuce-bed.178
Cinyras, Pygmalion, and the legends of Cyprus
Cyprus attracted settlers from Greece and the Levant alike from the late Bronze Age onwards, and it was thus significant as a point of contact between Greek and Near Eastern culture. It was a principal centre for the cult of Aphrodite, hence the goddess's title of the Cyprian (Cypris, or Cypria). The most notable Cypriot in Greek heroic legend was CINYRAS, the mythical founder of the cult of Aphrodite-Astarte at Paphos on the west coast of the island (where the goddess was supposed to have come ashore after she was born among the waves).
Ovid is our sole source, however, for the version that has become canonic in modern times, in which the statue is brought to life. After having lived unmarried and without a partner for many years, so the poet recounts, because he was repelled by the loose morals of the women around him (the shameless Propoitides mentioned above), Pygmalion set to work to create an ivory woman of ideal beauty, and then proceeded to fall in love with his own creation. He kissed and embraced it, presented gifts to it as though it were alive, adorned it with robes and fine jewellery, and laid it out on a couch strewn with purple cloth; and when the day arrived for the feast of Aphrodite, he offered rich sacrifices to the goddess and prayed to be granted a wife like the ivory maiden, not quite daring to say that the statue itself was the object of his desire.
Three love stories from Asia Minor and beyond HERO and LEANDER (properly Leandros in Greek) were two ill-starred lovers who lived on either side of the narrow straits of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Leander, who lived at Abydos on the Asian shore, fell in love with Hero, a young priestess of Aphrodite, after meeting her at a festival of the goddess in her home town of Sestos on the opposite shore. He used to swim across the straits at night to visit her in secret, guided on his way by a lamp that she shone from her tower by the shore; but one night, when he rashly attempted to make the crossing even though a fierce storm was blowing, Hero's guiding flame was extinguished by the wind, and he soon lost his bearings and was swept to his death by the dangerous current.
The legend of PHILEMON and BAUCIS, which is also set in Asia Minor and was apparently based on Phrygian traditions, is a love- story too in its very different way. As Zeus and Hermes were once travelling through Phrygia in human disguise and looking for somewhere to rest, they were turned away from countless homes until Philemon and Baucis, a poor and aged peasant couple, welcomed them into their lowly cottage. As the pair were providing their guests with such food and drink as their means allowed, they noticed that the mixing-bowl that they were using for the wine filled itself of its own accord as often as it was drained, and inferred from this that their visitors must be gods.
Although they were then eager to kill their only goose in honour of their divine guests, the two gods prevented them and told them that they were planning to punish the people all around, but that the old pair would escape if they climbed to the top of the mountain that rose up behind their cottage. On reaching the top, the couple looked back and saw that the gods had flooded the countryside below to punish the local people for their hard-heartedness, leaving only their own cottage unaffected.
The ill-starred lovers PYRAMOS and THISBE appear in two legends of a very different nature. The less familiar sources connect them with a river and a spring, the river Pyramos, which flowed to the sea in Cilicia in the south-eastern corner of Asia Minor, and the spring of Thisbe, which issued into the sea nearby (or perhaps into the mouth of the river itself). Long ago, so it was said, there had been two lovers called Pyramos and Thisbe whose passion had ended in tragedy, for Thisbe had committed suicide after becoming pregnant and Pyramos had followed her example after learning of her fate; but the gods had taken pity on them and had transformed them into the above-mentioned river and spring, to enable them to associate intimately in their new form by mingling their waters (just as Alpheios was supposed to mingle his waters with those of Arethousa, see p.
Ovid's hero and heroine lived further to the east, having grown up in adjoining houses in Babylon. When their youthful passion turned to love and they sought to marry, their parents ordered them to stop associating with one another, and they were reduced to communicating through a chink in the wall that separated their two houses. They finally arranged to steal away at night to meet outside the city by the tomb of a certain Ninus, where they could lie beneath a mulberry tree that stood beside a cool spring.
Thisbe arrived first but was soon scared away when a lioness came down to the spring to quench its thirst after a kill. The veil that she had been wearing to conceal her features slipped from her shoulders as she fled; and the lion caught sight of it on the ground and ripped it to pieces with its blood-stained jaws. When Pyramos arrived and saw the bloodied fabric lying there with the lion's footprints all around, he naturally assumed that his beloved had been devoured and killed himself with his sword.
The elder Pliny (first century ad) provides a useful catalogue of these monstrous races,195 which later found their way into mediaeval lore; the majority of them, and certainly the most imaginative, had been introduced into the Greek tradition by Ctesias and authors of the Hellenistic period, who compiled fanciful accounts of the marvels of the east. Ctesias of Cnidos worked as a physician at the Persian court at the end of the fifth century bc and wrote a book called Indica on his return, which was full of tall tales and helped to establish the enduring notion that India was a land of wonders.
Among the people who were described in the book were the Dogheads (Kynokephaloi, or Cynocephali in Latin form), people with dog's heads who lived in the mountains of India and communicated by barking rather than through articulate speech; and the Shadefeet (Sciapodes), who could hop along quite briskly on their single leg when necessity demanded, but preferred to spend their time lying on their backs using their single large foot as a parasol; and another race of people had ears that reached down to their shoulders, and were born with white hair that turned dark with age. These latter people reappear in exaggerated form in the medieval tradition as the Panotii (All-ears), people whose ears were so large that they could use them as blankets.
If monstrous races such as these were of comparatively late invention, others of a less extreme nature, the Pygmies and Arimaspians, can be traced back to the archaic era. The diminutive PYGMIES (Pygmaioi) lived somewhere in Africa. Their small stature is indicated in their name, which refers to a Greek unit of measurement, the pygmē (fist), corresponding to the distance between a man's elbow and knuckles.
They too engaged in regular hostilities with some animal neighbours, in this case the fabulous GRIFFINS (grypes), monsters of Near Eastern design with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. The trouble arose because the Arimaspians were constantly trying to steal from large hoards of gold that were jealously guarded by the Griffins. This story was related in an early hexameter poem, the Arimaspea, probably dating to the seventh century bc, which told how its reputed author, Aristeas of Proconnesos, was supposed to have travelled to the far north while possessed by Apollo.
Among the artists and writers who sought to benefit from their patronage was ARION of Methymna, a lyric poet of the seventh century bc, who was born on Lesbos but spent most of his life at the court of Periander (Periandros in Greek), the ruthless but cultivated tyrant of Corinth. At one time, so the story goes, Arion made a tour of Sicily and Italy, amassing a considerable profit from his recitations, until he finally set off for Greece in a Corinthian ship that was sailing out of Tarentum.
When it reached the open sea, he came to realize that the sailors were plotting to throw him overboard in order to steal his money. After vainly entreating them to accept his money in return for his life, he asked to be allowed to give a final recital at the stern in his magnificent singing-robes, saying that he would then take his own life by jumping into the sea. As soon as he landed in the water, however, he was rescued by a dolphin that had been attracted by the sound of his music; and it took him on its back and carried him to Greece, putting him ashore at Cape Tainaron at the southern tip of the Peloponnese.
He hurried back to Corinth and told the whole story to Periander, who was reluctant to believe him until he could interrogate the crew of the ship. When they claimed on their arrival that they had left Arion safe and well at Tarentum, the poet suddenly revealed himself wearing the robes that he had donned for his farewell recital. Their lies were thus exposed in a most dramatic fashion, and Periander sentenced them to death.
The Partheniai were led by a Spartan called PHALANTHOS, so it was claimed, who had received an oracle at Delphi before his departure telling him that he would win a land and city for himself when rain fell on him from a clear sky. Although he met with some success in battle after his arrival in Italy, he failed to capture any city or territory and grew increasingly despondent, suspecting that the god at Delphi had set an impossible condition for his success.
Believing that their colony had been founded from Naryx in Eastern Locris, which was the birthplace of the Locrian Ajax, a violent hero of the Trojan War (see p. 434), the men of Epizephyrean Locri used to leave an empty space in their battle-line in the hope that their ancestral hero would come to their assistance. One day (so the story goes), as they were fighting against an army from Croton, a city further up the coast, a Crotoniate called AUTOLEON (or Leonymos) tried to rush through the empty space to attack the enemy line from the rear (or indeed deliberately attacked at the point where he had heard that Ajax was supposed to be standing).
He was severely wounded in the thigh (or chest) by the long-dead hero, and when the wound failed to heal, he was advised by an oracle (or the Delphic oracle specifically) to seek a cure from Ajax himself on Leuce (the White Island) in the Black Sea, which was the posthumous home of Achilles and other great heroes of the Trojan War (see p. On arriving there, he offered sacrifice to these heroes and to Ajax, who duly healed him of his wound.
Now Helen was living there too, as the posthumous consort of Achilles, and she took advantage of the visit of this man from Croton to ask him to take a message to the poet Stesichorus, who lived in Sicily no very great distance from his home city. For she had blinded the poet for insulting her in one of his poems, and she now wanted him to know that he would recover his sight if he composed a recantation to retract what he had said.
388) had founded it after the Trojan War. It was supposed to have been troubled in the earliest times by an aggressive ghost, the so-called HERO OF TEMESA. The problem had begun, so the story went, when Odysseus called in at the town in the course of his wanderings, and one of his followers, a certain Polites (who is mentioned in the Odyssey as a victim of Circe's enchantments) got drunk and raped a local girl; for the inhabitants responded by stoning him to death, and his angry spirit then proceeded to subject them to a reign of terror, murdering some of them and attacking others, old and young alike.
Although the Temesians wanted to abandon their town as a result and leave Italy altogether, the Delphic oracle advised them to appease their tormentor by honouring him as a hero, building him a shrine to him, and sacrificing the most beautiful of their maidens to him each year to be his bride. This proved effective in stopping the attacks, although at the cost of the grim annual sacrifice, which was offered every year, so the story claims, until a boxer called Euthymos happened to visit Temesa when Polites was about to receive one of his brides.
This Euthymos was a historical figure, a famous boxer from Locri in southern Italy who won Olympian victories in 484, 476, and 472 bc. Feeling pity for the girl who was due to be sacrificed, and then falling in love with her, he set out to save her after she swore that she would marry him. So he lay in wait at the shrine in place of her, and fought against the hero, giving him such a beating that he fled the land, dived into the sea, and disappeared forever.
This was evidently a very sturdy ghost, more like a revenant than a shade. Euthymos himself came to be honoured in hero-cult in his native Locri.208 Notes 1 A.R. 264 (citing Aristotle = fr.
549 Rose, and other authors). 8.1.4, citing Asius (= fr. 8 Davies); Pelasgos as earthborn, also Apollod.
2.1.1 and 3.8.1 citing Hesiod (= fr. 5.2.4 citing Ephorus (= 70F113) and quoting Hesiodic verses (= fr. 161 (Lycaon son of Pelasgos).
1648 (named Zeus as Lycaios, founded games); on Mt Lycaon, see Paus. 3.8.1; for a different catalogue, see Paus. 481; otherwise named after its founder Trapezous, son of Lycaon, Paus.
8, citing Hesiod = fr. the similar version cited in Hyg. 18 Artemis kills her unknowingly, Call.
2.1; kills her knowingly, e.g. 2.401-530; although Ovid does not name the constellations here, he does so in the Fasti in connection with the rising of Bootes, 2.189-92. 47 (as reported in Hyg.
3.8.2 citing Hesiod (= fr. 163); as daughter of Lycaon, Eratosth. 1, citing Hesiod (possibly the Astronomy if the report can be relied upon).
8.4.10, 8.11.4 (tomb of Areithoos by narrow road). 1.397-8, 425-30; on Bebrycians, ibid. 1.397-8, 425-30; on Bebrycians, ibid.
8.4.8; Aleos as founder of Tegea, 8.45.1. 13.1.69 (that mother and child put into chest in unnamed play by Euripides). 99, 100 for stories in which Auge is the adopted daughter of Teuthras.
3.9.2; more detailed account of confrontation with Centaurs in Ael. 74 and 76 (Hippomenes), Apollod. 3.113; in shrine of Zeus, Apollod.
Story first mentioned in Palaeph. 3.9.2 (by Ares or Melanion). 3.12.6 (passing reference only); earliest allusions to episode, Alcaeus 38, Theognis 702-12; Paus.
2.5.1 (bribed with offer of spring). 344; on Autolycos' powers, see also Hes. 6.154-5 (wife not named), Asclep.
12F1 (perhaps following the lost Glaukos Potnieus of Aeschylus), cf. 250 (devoured at funeral games for Pelias, no details), Paus. 268; on the well, see Paus.
6.20.15-18 (offering other suggestions too). 6.154 (Bellerophon, son of Glaucos). 3A and 5 Davies (from Paus.
4.10.5 (Heracles razes Orchomenos), Paus. Moralia 109a (citing Pindar), ps.Pl. 1.47 (specifies that their mother was a priestess of Hera); see Paus.
2.19.4 for another story about Biton. 115 Coronis as daughter of Phlegyas, Hes. 3.10.3, etc.; she lived by the Boibian Lake in the Dotian Fields, Hes.
Hymn 16 to Asclepios 2-3, hence Dotis as a name for the mother of Phlegyas. 3.62 (citing Euripides = fr. Gyrton was the city of Ixion and Peirithoos; the Phlegyans were sometimes identified with the Gyrtonians, e.g.
Apollo 278-80; on Phlegya, Steph. 128 Corinna 654.38, 655.14, 662, 673, Euphorion fr. 1.4.3, Ovid Art of Love 1.731 (only other reference to Side), Athen.
5.79.1 (learned art of wine-making from Dionysos), Athen. 26b (red wine on Chios). 20 (events on Chios only, daughter of Oinopion called Hairo), Apollod.
28-9 (guided by Cedalion, cured by Helios). 15 (Artemis and Leto send scorpion against him for some reason). 18.486 citing Euphorion (= fr.
2.3 citing Istros (= Istros 334F64). 146 Ovid Fasti 4.177-8, schol. 1.3.2, etc.; son of Apollo, e.g.
2.7 (some say that torn apart because introduced love of young boys). Moralia 557e; contrasting account in Anth. 1.19 (buried with head), Lucian Adv.
193; rescues father from Getae, Serv. 1.10, Ovid Heroides 20, 21. 3.680; Syrian location also in Philostr.
12.18 (states that executed for adultery), Palaeph. 10.2.9 (quoting Menander = fr. 2.69d, citing Cratinus (= fr.
191 Musaeus Hero and Leander; Verg. 8.18 (Hero exacted a tribute, Euthymos forced him to repay it with interest), Str. 6.1.5 (temple of Polites at Temesa).
Genealogical tables
Table 12 Deucalionids 4: Further descendants of Aiolos Table 13 Deucalionids 5: The descendants of Melampous Note: The names marked in italics are those not mentioned by Homer in his account of the family in Odyssey 15. 225â€"56.
Cycle 409
Table 11 Deucalionids 3: Descendants of Aiolos in Messenia and Thessaly
Table 12 Deucalionids 4: Further descendants of Aiolos Table 13 Deucalionids 5: The descendants of Melampous Note: The names marked in italics are those not mentioned by Homer in his account of the family in Odyssey 15. Table 14 Deucalionids 6: The descendants of Bias
Flow 410
Ladder 411
Compare 412
Hub 413
Cycle 414
Flow 415
Ladder 416
The Great Olympian Gods
I Her birth 67, 80, 194-5; her nature and origin 195-6; her associates Eros, Himeros, Pothos and Peitho 196-8; her love for Adonis 198-200; how she seduced Anchises to father Aineias 200-1; her husband, lovers and children 201-2; her image in works of art 202-3. II She distracts Aietes to enable the Argonauts to flee 392; aids the suitor of Atalanta 546-7, causes the destruction of Atalanta and her husband 547; rescues the Argonaut Boutes from the sea and transfers him to Sicily 395; is wounded in battle by Diomedes 461, and punishes him by causing his wife to be unfaithful 487; causes Eos to be constantly falling in love 48; causes the death of Glaukos of Corinth by sending his horses mad 432; gives a gift to Harmonía at her wedding 297; mother of Hermaphroditos 164; causes the ruin of Hippolytos by causing his stepmother Phaidra to fall in love with him 358-9; abducts Kephalos, son of Eos, to make him her temple-servant 47; transforms Kerastai (Cerastae) of Cyprus into bulls 574; causes the daughters of Kinyras to become prostitutes 574; afflicts the Lemnian women with an evil smell 384; arranges for Medeia to fall in love with Jason 197, 390; inspires Myrrha with an incestuous love for her father 198; reared by Nereus 51; her love for Nerites 56; incites women of Thrace against Orpheus 553; fosters the daughters of Pandareos 57; confers grace and allure on Pandora 95; selected by Paris in his judgement of the three goddesses 447, and helps him to win the love of Helen 445; rejuvenates Phaon 202; becomes the mother of Priapos 222; brings a statue to life as a bride for Pygmalion 574-5; transforms Selemnos into a river 568; transforms the Sirens into their monstrous form 496; punishes Tyndareos by causing his daughters to be faithless 526.
Ladder 431
Aphrodite
I Her birth 67, 80, 194-5; her nature and origin 195-6; her associates Eros, Himeros, Pothos and Peitho 196-8; her love for Adonis 198-200; how she seduced Anchises to father Aineias 200-1; her husband, lovers and children 201-2; her image in works of art 202-3. II She distracts Aietes to enable the Argonauts to flee 392; aids the suitor of Atalanta 546-7, causes the destruction of Atalanta and her husband 547; rescues the Argonaut Boutes from the sea and transfers him to Sicily 395; is wounded in battle by Diomedes 461, and punishes him by causing his wife to be unfaithful 487; causes Eos to be constantly falling in love 48; causes the death of Glaukos of Corinth by sending his horses mad 432; gives a gift to Harmonía at her wedding 297; mother of Hermaphroditos 164; causes the ruin of Hippolytos by causing his stepmother Phaidra to fall in love with him 358-9; abducts Kephalos, son of Eos, to make him her temple-servant 47; transforms Kerastai (Cerastae) of Cyprus into bulls 574; causes the daughters of Kinyras to become prostitutes 574; afflicts the Lemnian women with an evil smell 384; arranges for Medeia to fall in love with Jason 197, 390; inspires Myrrha with an incestuous love for her father 198; reared by Nereus 51; her love for Nerites 56; incites women of Thrace against Orpheus 553; fosters the daughters of Pandareos 57; confers grace and allure on Pandora 95; selected by Paris in his judgement of the three goddesses 447, and helps him to win the love of Helen 445; rejuvenates Phaon 202; becomes the mother of Priapos 222; brings a statue to life as a bride for Pygmalion 574-5; transforms Selemnos into a river 568; transforms the Sirens into their monstrous form 496; punishes Tyndareos by causing his daughters to be faithless 526.
His birth 188-9; his nature, name and origins 142-4; he establishes his oracle at Delphi 144-6; he kills Tityos for molesting his mother 147-8; his association with the Hyperboreans 148-9; he engages in a love affair with Koronis, avenges her infidelity and rescues their unborn son, the healing-god Asklepios 149-51; he is enslaved to Admetos for killing the Kyklopes and helps him in various ways 151-2; he abducts Kyrene and fathers the rustic god Aristaios 152-3; he meets with frustration or unhappiness in love 153-6; he joins with his sister Artemis in killing the Niobids and engages in a musical contest with Marsyas 157-8. He kills Achilles or helps Paris to kill him 468; saves Agenor from Achilles and assumes his form 455; helps Alkathoos to fortify the acropolis at Megara 567; agrees that Alkmaion should kill his mother 327; kills the Aloadai 91; fathers Anios and instructs him in divination 569-70; he pursues Daphne, but she escapes through a transformation 155; kills Eurytos 250; shoots the Giant Ephialtes 90; provides musical accompaniment at the wedding of Harmonía 297; transfers Hekabe to Lycia 479; identified with Helios 43; arms Herakles with a bow 257, fights with him for the Delphian tripod 273, is confronted by him at Pylos 278; tracks down the infant Hermes to recover his stolen cattle 162; courts Hestia 140; loves Hyakinthos but accidentally kills him 155-6; rapes Kreousa to father Ion 407-8; fathers Iamos and instructs him in prophecy 548-9; reveals Anaphe to Jason and the Argonauts 397; grants prophetic powers to Kassandra in return for her favours but condemns her to be disbelieved when she refuses to yield to him 154; causes the destruction of the grave of Kyknos 283; his love for Kyparissos 571; helps to build the wall of Troy for Laomedon, but sends a plague when his fee is withheld 523; avenges the death of his son Linos 250; he competes with Idas for Marpessa, but she rejects him when Zeus grants her the choice 154; instructs Melampous in prophecy 426; shoots Meleagros 417; fathers Melaneus 412; causes the death of Neoptolemos at Delphi 491; leader of the Muses 207; agrees that Orestes should kill his mother 510 and advises him when he is persecuted by the Erinyes 511; helps to bring about the birth of Orion 561, contrives his destruction 564; gives Orpheus a lyre and instructs him in music 551; causes the destruction of Patroklos 464; fathers Philammon 435; punishes Phlegyas and the Phlegyans for attacking Delphi 560; tricked by Sinope 537; punishes the spring-nymph Telphousa for deceiving him 144; flees from Typhon 85.
His birth 79; his nature and associates 168-70; becomes husband or lover of Aphrodite 201-2, their children 169. He causes the death of Adonis 199; Aietes dedicates the golden fleece to him 378-9, Aietes receives dragon's teeth from him 296; he fathers Alkippe by Aglauros 365; is imprisoned in a jar by the Aloadai 92; fathers children by Demodike 413; is wounded by Diomedes 461, and complains to Zeus 168; helps in the defeat of the Giants 90; kills Halirrhothios for raping his daughter Alkippe and is prosecuted for murder at the Areiopagos 365-6; Hephaistos traps him in adultery with Aphrodite 201; is wounded by Herakles at Pylos 278; suffers humiliation when he fights Herakles to avenge the death of his son Kyknos 282; is angered when Kadmos kills his Theban dragon 295-6, but is subsequently reconciled with him 297 and finally transfers him and his wife to the Isles of the Blessed 300; was perhaps the true father of Meleagros 413; Menoikeus kills himself to allay his anger over the death of the Theban dragon 330; gives a golden chariot and winged horses to his son Oinomaos 503; frees Thanatos (Death) after he is tied up by Sisyphos 431.
Her birth 188-9; her nature and origin 186-8; her early deeds and her relationship with her companions 190-2; tales of vengeance 192. Punishes Admetos for failing to sacrifice to her 151; sends a boar against Adonis 199; inflicts a grisly death on Aktaion for seeing her naked 299; causes the death of the Aloadai for making advances to her and Hera 92; helps Arethousa to escape the advances of the river-god Alpheios 42; kills Ariadne on behalf of Dionysos 348; sends a golden lamb into the flocks of Atreus 506; kills Bouphagos 192; Broteas sinks into madness after failing to honour her 503; the travails of her companion Britomartis 191-2; the Cerynitian hind is dedicated to her by Taygete 260, she threatens to remove it from Herakles 259; kills Chione for an impertinence 192; identified with Diana 193; helps in the defeat of the Giants 90; transforms Hippe for ceasing to honour her and hunt with her 191, 410; Hippolytos honours her at the expense of Aphrodite 358-9, Artemis/Diana asks Asklepios to revive the dead Hippolytos and transfers him to Italy 359; Iphigeneia is brought to sacrifice to appease her anger 447-8, but is saved by her and transferred abroad 447, 512-13; punishes her companion Kallisto after she becomes pregnant by Zeus 191, 540-1; kills Kenchrias 536; kills Koronis on behalf of Apollo 149; shoots Maira for ceasing to accompany her in the hunt after becoming pregnant 191; transforms the sisters of Meleagros into birds 417; joins with Apollo in killing the Niobids 157; sends the Calydonian boar to punish Oineus for failing to sacrifice to her 516; causes the death of her hunting-companion Orion 563-4; confers immortality on Phylonoe 525; helps Prokris 373; identified with Selene 46; turns Siproites into a woman 192; saves Taygete from being raped 260; kills Tityos 148; flees from Typhon 85.
She is born from the head of Zeus after he has swallowed her mother Metis 77-8, 181; her nature, origin and functions 180-1, 182-4; her special relationship with Athens and her Athenian foster-son Erichthonios 184-6. Judges or interferes in the contest between Aias, son of Telamon, and Odysseus for the arms of Achilles 469, and sends Aias mad afterwards 471; causes the humiliation of the lesser Aias at the funeral games for Achilles 456, is angered by his sacrilegious behaviour during the sack of Troy 478, 481-2, and therefore causes the Greek leaders to quarrel 482-3 and a storm to be sent against the returning fleet 485-6; gives dragon's teeth to Aietes 296, 390; uses the aigis 74, 182; enters into a weaving-contest with Arachne and transforms her into a spider 184; guides Argos in the construction of the Argo 382; gives Gorgon's blood to Asklepios to enable him to heal and revive people 61; helps Bellerophon to tame Pegasos 183, 434; purifies the Danaids 234; aids Diomedes in battle at Troy 461; gives Erichthonios a phial of Gorgon's blood 61; helps in the defeat of the Giants 90; gives Harmonia a robe at her wedding 297; tricks Hektor into a fatal confrontation with Achilles 465; rewards the Heliadai for being the first to pay honour to her 182; saves Herakles from killing his father 253, provides him with a bird-scarer 260, assists him in the Underworld 268, fetches him to assist in fighting the Giants 277, helps him in battle at Pylos 278, helps him to defeat Ares 283; incites Tydeus to kill Ismene 324-5; helps Kadmos by sowing dragon's teeth 296; punishes the daughters of Kekrops for opening the chest in which Erichthonios had been placed by her 365; gives Kepheus a lock of the Gorgon's hair to protect his city 547; she invents the flute and discards it, but it is recovered by Marsyas 157, 183; transforms Medusa into a monster 61; in fable of Momos 27; helps Odysseus during his return voyage and after his arrival in Ithaca 497-500; presides at the trial of Orestes and acquits him with her casting vote 511; creates the palladion in commemoration of Pallas after accidentally killing her 183; teaches handicrafts to the daughters of Pandareos 57; adorns and teaches Pandora 93, 95; is judged for her beauty by Paris 443; guides Perseus to the Graiai and helps him to acquire the Gorgon's head 239-40, receives the head from him after his return 242; competes with Poseidon for possession of Attica 102-3, and of Troizen 103; blinds Teiresias for seeing her naked, but compensates him by granting him the gift of prophecy 330; urges Telemachos to take action against Penelope's suitors 511; tells Theseus to leave Ariadne on Naxos for Dionysos 347; reared by Triton 182; plans to confer immortality on the dying Tydeus, but is deterred 320; recovers the heart of Zagreus 35; plots a revolt against Zeus 67, 88.
Born as a child of Kronos and Rhea 67; is swallowed at birth by Kronos but later vomited up again 68; becomes a wife or mistress of Zeus and bears Persephone to him 78; seeks to recover Persephone after she is abducted by Hades 125-8 and agrees to share her with Hades 128; stays at Eleusis and reveals her mysteries 127-8; sends Triptolemos to spread her gift of grain 131-3; her love affair with Iasion, who fathers Ploutos by her 132. She transforms Askalabos into a gecko 129; punishes Askalaphos for revealing that Persephone has eaten in the Underworld 129; punishes Charnabon for plotting the destruction of Triptolemos 132; reveals her mysteries in Argos after Chrysanthis, the wife of the king, reveals that Persephone had been abducted there 129; is interrupted when she tries to confer immortality on the infant Demophoon 128; afflicts Erysichthon (or Triopas) with insatiable hunger to punish him for desecrating her grove 133; founds rites to purify Herakles before he is initiated at Eleusis 269; receives a snake as her attendant after it has been reared by Kychreus on Salamis 535; transforms Minthe into a herb 129; absent-mindedly eats a shoulder of Pelops 503; gives the first fig-tree to Phytalos 129; transforms negligent companions of Persephone into Sirens 496; her part in the myth of Zagreus 35.
His birth 170-1; his childhood and nurses 171-2; he exacts vengeance on mortals who reject him and his rites 173-5; his rites and attendants 175-6; he grants the gift of wine to Ikarios in Attica with unfortunate consequences for him and his daughter Erigone 176-7; some pirates come to a bad end when they try to abduct him 177-9; his expedition to India 179; his wife and loves 179-80. He punishes Akrisios 175; his love for Ampelos 179; teaches Amphiktyon to water wine 367; grants special powers to the daughters of Anios 570; drives Antiope mad 304; takes Ariadne as his wife 179, 347-8; afflicts the daughters of Eleuther with madness 175; helps in the defeat of the Giants 90; persuades Hephaistos to return to Olympos 166; is tended as an infant by Ino and Athamas 172, 421; afflicts the Calydonians with madness to punish the sacrilege of Koresos and Kallirhoe 569; sends Lykourgos mad and causes his death as punishment for persecuting him and his nurses 173; is tended as an infant by Makris 395; grants Midas the power to turn things to gold 214; is tended as an infant by the nymphs of Nysa 172; punishes the Minyades for rejecting his rites 174; instructs Oineus in the cultivation of vines after sleeping with his wife Althaia to father Deianeira 413-14; provokes the death of Orpheus 553; contrives the death of Pentheus to punish him for scorning his rites 173-4; is repelled by Perseus when he attacks Argos with the Sea-women 175; competes with Poseidon for possession of Naxos 503; fathers Priapos 222; afflicts the daughters of Proitos or the Argive women with madness 174-5, 428-9; attended by Satyrs and Seilenoi 175, 212; punishes Telephos for neglecting his cult 446; protects Tanagran women from a Triton 106; his unconventional mythology in the myth of Zagreus 35.
Compare 432
Hephaistos
His birth 79, 165; his nature and origin 164-6; he is thrown down from Olympos by Hera or Zeus and brought back again by Dionysos 165-6; his achievements as a craftsman 166-7; his marriage and children 166-7. He makes armour for Achilles 464; provides Aietes with bronze-footed bulls 167, 390; traps Aphrodite in bed with Ares 201; makes an early temple of Apollo at Delphi 167; makes a crown that Dionysos passes on to Ariadne 347; helps to bring Athena to birth from the head of Zeus 181; brings about the birth of an earthborn son Erichthonios while trying to make love to Athena 184-5; helps in the defeat of the Giants 90; made a bird-scarer used by Herakles 260; made the necklace of Harmonia 297; made the golden cup that enabled Helios to travel back to the east on the Ocean 44; made the weapon that caused the death of Odysseus 500; makes an underground horse for Oinopion 563; provides the blinded Orion with a guide 563; made the golden dog that was stolen by Pandareos 502; fashions Pandora from moistened earth 93-6; makes a sword for Peleus 534; made a sceptre which was passed down in the family of Pelops 508; chains Prometheus to a rock 95; forces Skamandros to return to his courses 43; makes the bronze man Talos to guard the shores of Crete 396; flees from Typhon 85; identified with Volcanus 167.
Born as child of Kronos and Rhea 67; is swallowed at birth by Kronos but later vomited up again 68; marries Zeus and bears Ares, Hebe and Eileithuia to him 78-9; bears Hephaistos as another child by Zeus or as a fatherless child 79; her nature as the goddess of marriage 134-5; local traditions relating to her marriage or first union with Zeus 135-8; myths of revenge 138-9. She causes the death of the Aeginetans in anger at Zeus' love affair with Aigina 531; molested by one of the Aloadai 92; transforms Antigone, daughter of Laomedon 139; helps the Argonauts during their return voyage 394; deprives Echo of the power of independent speech 217; molested by a Giant 89, raped by a Giant 88; throws her deformed son Hephaistos down from Olympos 165-6; delays the birth of Herakles to ensure that Eurystheus becomes king of Mycenae instead of him 247-8, persecutes Herakles 249, 252, 254, 264, 267, 276, wounded by him at Pylos 278, finally reconciled with him 286; sends Ino and Athamas mad for rearing Dionysos 172, 421; persuades Hypnos to lull Zeus to sleep 30; places the transformed Io under guard 228-9, sends a gadfly after her, causing her to wander to Egypt 229-31, incites the Kouretes to abduct her son Epaphos 232; Iris is often presented as her special messenger 57; Ixion comes to a bad end after attempting to seduce her 554; Jason wins her favour by an act of benevolence 382, she contrives that Pelias sends him to fetch the golden fleece 381, arranges that Medeia shall fall in love with him 390; grants an easeful death to Kleobis and Biton 559; rears the Lernaian hydra to be a danger to Herakles 63, sends a crab to assist it against Herakles 258; transforms Kallisto to cause her death after she becomes pregnant by Zeus 541; tries to prevent Leto from giving birth to her children 189; expels Makris from Euboea for rearing Dionysos 395; transfers Merops to the heavens as an eagle 572; persuades the Muses to compete with the Sirens in a singing-contest 207; rears the Nemean lion to be a danger to Herakles 64, 256; Okeanos and Tethys rear her under the Ocean 40; confers benefits on the daughters of Pandareos 57; is judged for her beauty by Paris 443, sends storm-winds against his ship 445; sends a snake against Philoktetes 449; competes with Poseidon for possession of Argos 103; causes Priapos to be born deformed 222; afflicts the daughters of Proitos with madness 428-9; contrives the destruction of Semele to put an end to her love affair with Zeus 170-1; sends Side, wife of Orion, to the Underworld 562; sends the Sphinx against Thebes 307, 309; blinds Teiresias 329-30; brings Typhon to birth as a fatherless child 84; incites the Titans to attack Zagreus 35; plots a revolt against Zeus 67, 82.
His birth 161, 519; his nature, functions and origin 158-61; he rustles the cattle of Apollo as a new-born child, but is soon reconciled with him and is allotted his functions by Zeus 161-3. Warns Aigisthos not to court Klytaimnestra or harm Agamemnon 508; transfers Alkmene to the Isles of the Blessed 352; gives a lyre to Amphion 305; rapes Apemosyne on Rhodes 354; rescues Ares after he is imprisoned by the Alaoadai 92; kills Argos Panoptes to steal the transformed Io 229; takes the infant Arkas to Maia to be reared 541; recovers the unborn Asklepios from his mother's body 149; sends a golden lamb into the flocks of Atreus 506, visits him to tell him that the gods support his claim to the Mycenaean throne 506; bribes Battos not to reveal that he has stolen the cattle of Apollo and punishes him for his subsequent perfidy 163; purifies the Danaids 234; raises Daphnis to heaven 211; is sent to Deukalion after the great flood to offer him the choice of what he most desires 403; conveys the infant Dionysos to Ino and Athamas 172; is sent to Hades to ask him to release Persephone 128; conveys Helen to Egypt 445; deceives Hera into suckling the infant Herakles 249, arms him with a sword 257, helps him in the Underworld 268, sells him at auction to Omphale 274; father of Hermaphroditos 164; seduces Herse and turns her sister Aglauros to stone 366; transfers the infant Ion to Delphi 408; tends to displace Iris as messenger of the gods 56-7; identified with Mercurius 164; gives Odysseus a herb to render him invulnerable to Kirke's spells 494 and is sent to Kalypso to order her to allow him to return home 497; plays a part in bringing Orion to birth 561; father of Pan 215, 501; recovers a golden dog stolen by Pandareos 502; confers speech and guile on Pandora 95; brings Hera, Athena and Aphrodite to Mt Ida to be judged by Paris 443; brings a sword to Peleus to enable him to defend himself in the wilds 534; guides the dead suitors of Penelope to the Underworld 112; helps Perseus to acquire the Gorgon's head 239-40, 242; visits Philemon and Baucis 577; sleeps with Philonis 435; provides a marvellous ram for the rescue of Phrixos 378; guides Priam to the Greek camp to see Achilles 158, 465; is sent by Zeus to interrogate Prometheus 96; restores Protesilaos temporarily to the world of the living 450-1; learns divinatory arts from the Thriai 162; is sent to compensate Tros for the abduction of Ganymedes 522; recovers Zeus's tendons after they are removed by Typhon 84, flees from Typhon 85.
Born as child of Kronos and Rhea 67; is swallowed at birth by Kronos but later vomited up again 68; receives the seas as his special domain when he divides the universe with Zeus and Hades 76, 98; his nature as the lord of the seas and of the earthquake 98-100; as god of horses 101-2; myths in which he competes with other deities for possession of Greek lands 102-4; he marries Amphitrite and fathers Triton and other children by her 104-7; his other children by mortal mothers 107. He causes the death of the lesser Aias 485-6; protects Aineias 585; sleeps with Iphimedeia to father the Aloadai 91; rescues Amymone from a Satyr and fathers Nauplios by her 235; fathers the divine horse Areion by mating with Demeter in animal form 101; prosecutes Ares for killing his son Halirrhothios 365; competes with Athena for possession of Attica 102-3, of Troizen 103; perhaps the true father of Bellerophon 433, gives Pegasos to him 434; hides Centaurs under a mountain 259; competes with Dionysos for Naxos 103; causes the death of Erechtheus for killing his son Eumolpos 369-70; fathers Eumolpos by Chione and rescues him after she throws him into the sea 370; helps in the defeat of the Giants 90; competes with Helios for Corinth 103; rescues Helle from the Hellespont and fathers a son by her 379; competes with Hera for Argos 103; wounded by Herakles 278; courts Hestia 140; causes the death of Hippolytos in response to the curse of his father Theseus 342; abducts Hippothoe to the Echinadian Islands and fathers Taphios by her 244; rapes Kainis and transforms her into an invulnerable man, Kaineus 557; sends a sea-monster against Ethiopia to punish Kassiepeia for a sacrilegious boast 240; renders his son Kyknos invulnerable and transforms him after his death 451; helps to build the walls of Troy for Laomedon, but sends a sea-monster when his fee is withheld 523; provides Idas with marvellous chariot-horses 153; sleeps with Medusa on a spring meadow to father Pegasos and Chrysaor 60; removes Mestra to Cos and fathers children by her 433; sends a bull up from the sea for Minos, and sends it mad 338; raises the sea against Odysseus to punish him for blinding his son Polyphemos 100, 492-3, 497; arranges the construction of a refuge for Oinopion 563; fathers Orion or plays a part in bringing him to birth 561-2; falls in love with Pelops and removes him to Olympos 503, provides him with winged horses to enable him to win his bride 503; grants his son Periklymenos the power to change his shape 278; blinds Phineus 386; angers his wife by engaging in a love affair with Skylla 497; plants a golden hair in the head of Pterelaos to render him immortal 247; fathers the first horse Skyphios or Skeironites 102; raised by the Telchines 221; mates with Theophane in animal form to father a golden ram 379; sleeps with Aithra to father Theseus 342; courts Thetis 52; has intercourse with Tyro in the form of a river-god to father Pelias and Neleus 380; plots a revolt against Zeus 67, 82, competes with him for Aegina 103.
Rhea brings him to birth as a son of Kronos, and hides him in Crete to save him from being swallowed by his father 68, 74-5; local traditions in which he was reared or concealed elsewhere in the Greek world 75-6; his rise to power as the third lord of the universe, as described in the succession myth 65-9; he forces Kronos to disgorge his swallowed children 68, wins power by defeating and banishing Kronos and the Titans 68-9; divides the world with Hades and Poseidon 76, 98; his nature and titles 73-4; his thunderbolt and aigis 74; his earlier wives or divine mistresses and his children by them 76-8; his marriage to Hera and children by her 78-9; local traditions relating to his marriage or first union with Hera 135-8; Zeus and Dione 80; he suppresses revolts against his rule by Typhon 82-6, and by the Giants 86-91; the Aloadai fail in a subsequent revolt 91-2; Prometheus arouses the enmity of Zeus by championing the interests of the human race 92-7; Zeus plots the outbreak of the Trojan War 437-8. He orders that Adonis shall be shared between Aphrodite and Persephone 199; causes Agdistis to spring up as his earthborn child 218; provides Aiakos with subjects by transforming the local ants into people 531; abducts Aigina and fathers Aiakos by her 530-1; causes Alkmaion's children to grow up immediately to enable them to avenge their father's murder 327; sleeps with Alkmene in the form of her husband to father Herakles 247; transforms Alkyone and Keux into birds 410; opens a chasm in the ground to save Amphiaraos 321; seduces or rapes Antiope to father Zethos and Amphion 303-4; re-routes the Argonauts in anger at the murder of Apsyrtos 394; condemns Apollo to a period of servitude for killing the Kyklopes 151; kills Asklepios for reviving the dead 151; pursues Asterie 189; hurls Ate down to earth 31; brings Athena to birth from his head after swallowing her mother Metis 77-8, 181, sends a storm against the Greek fleet at her request 486; supports Atreus in his claim to the Mycenaean throne 506; causes Bellerophon to fall to the earth when he tries to fly up to heaven on Pegasos 434; his part in the origin of the cornucopia or horn of Amaltheia 280; approaches Danae in the form of a shower of gold to father Perseus 238; orders the purification of the Danaids 234; causes a great flood in the age of Deukalion 403-4; brings Dionysos to birth from his thigh after the death of his mother Semele 171; punishes Endymion for trying to seduce Hera 411; abducts Europa to Crete and fathers Minos and other children by her 337; takes Ganymedes up to heaven and becomes his lover 522; fathers Helen by mating with Nemesis or Leda in bird form 438-9; ensures that Helios gains his special domain 43; throws Hephaistos down from Olympos 166; Hera tricks him into granting Herakles a lesser inheritance than he had intended 248, he separates Herakles and Apollo when they fight over the Delphian tripod 273, he raises Herakles to heaven 286; fathers Hermes by Maia 161, 519, adjudicates when Apollo accuses him of having stolen his cattle 162, grants Hermes his functions 162; allows Hestia to remain a virgin and grants her special privileges 140; transforms Hippe 410; seduces Io, transforms her into a cow and tries to steal the cow from Hera 228-9, fathers Epaphos by her 230-1; strikes Iasion with a thunderbolt for engaging in a love affair with Demeter 132, 521; punishes Ixion for trying to seduce Hera 118, 554; grants Harmonia to Kadmos as a wife 297, sends them to Elysion 300; causes the destruction of Kaineus as punishment for his impiety 557; rapes or seduces Kallisto to father Arkas 540, turns her into a bear 541, transfers her and her son to the heavens 542; strikes Kapaneus with a thunderbolt to punish him for his impious boasting 320; destroys the family of Lykaon 539-40, turns Lykaon into a wolf 540, 542; in fable of Momos 27; separates Apollo and Idas when they quarrel over Marpessa, and allows her to choose between them 154; strikes Menoitios with a thunderbolt 49; advises his son Minos on law-making 338, helps him to impose his will on the Athenians 341; takes Niobe, daughter of Phoroneus, as his mistress, fathering Argos as his first mortal child 228; turns Niobe, daughter of Tantalos, to stone to relieve her sorrow 157, 306; inspires Oineus with an incestuous passion for his daughter 418; accidentally causes the death of Pallas while she is fighting with Athena 183; consents to Hades' abduction of Persephone 127, asks him to return her to the upper world 128, arranges a compromise 128; strikes Phaethon with a thunderbolt when he is unable to control the chariot of the Sun 45; visits Philemon and Baucis and grants them special privileges 577-8; transfers the Pleiades to the heavens 518; allows his son Polydeukes to share his immortality with his halfbrother Kastor 528; destroys Salmoneus and his city as punishment for his impious behaviour 422; grants his son Sarpedon an abnormally long life 350; engages in a love affair with Semele, but inadvertently causes her death 170-1; abducts Sinope 537; punishes Sisyphos for revealing his abduction of Aigina 117, 431, 530; adopts the children of Styx and orders that divine oaths should be sworn by her waters 49; grants prophetic powers to Teiresias 330; transfers the Teumessian fox and its pursuer to the heavens 247; courts Thetis but marries her to a mortal when warned off by Themis 52; fathers Zagreus by Persephone 35.
Hub 433
Cycle 434
Flow 435
Ladder 436
Compare 437
Hub 438
Cycle 439
Main Points
1. Start from cosmogony and Olympian structure before hero cycles. 2. Local variants matter as much as "standard" school myths. 3. Heroic cycles (Heracles, Theseus, Argonauts, Troy) interlock. 4. Hard maps sources; follow his citations back when stakes are high. 5. Genealogy tables prevent name collisions. 6. Divine epithets encode cult and story roles. 7. Tragedy and early epic remake myths for new audiences. 8. Do not overwrite Cambridge/Blackwell/Apollodorus editions; this is a separate handbook. 9. A closer look for nineteenth-century rationalizations still echoing. 10. Sparse Oct 2026 checks only for living factual debates. 11. Use diagrams for stemmata and cycle maps. 12. Handbook prose is survey density: keep names and parentage. 13. Cross-ref Troy and Thebes carefully; they share personnel. 14. Monster and metamorphosis chapters are pattern libraries. 15.
Frameworks
| Name | What it says | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| Handbook spine | Cosmos → gods → heroes → cycles → reception | When browsing randomly |
| Variant fork | Local tale vs panhellenic standard | When sources disagree |
| Stemma habit | Parentage → deeds → death/catasterism | When memorizing figures |
About this book
The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H. J. Rose’s Handbook of Greek Mythology by Robin Hard, 2004. 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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