95 Bacchylides claims these were as roses (xvi.34).
96 Nessus was among the centaurs driven by Heracles from Pholus's cave, whence he fled to the river Evenus (Apollod ii.5.4). Here he served as ferryman, carrying travelers across the water on his back. In their second confrontation, Heracles shot him with an arrow dipped in the blood of the Lemaean Hydra for attempting to violate Meleager's sister Deianira during the crossing. In revenge, the dying Nessus described to Deianira the deadly mixture of his semen and poisoned blood as a ‘love potion’ to be used if Heracles were tempted to betray her (Apollod ii.7.6; Soph, Trach 555ff.; Diod Sic iv.36.3ff.; Strab x.2.5; Dio Chrys,Or 1x; Eusebius Praeparatio Evangelii ii.2.15ff.; Schol. ad Lyc, Alex 50–1; Tzet, Chil ii.457ff.; Ov, Met ix.101ff.; Hyg, Fab xxxiv; Zen, Cent i.33; Serv ad Virg, Aen viii.300; Schol. ad Statius, Theb xi.235). The stench of the centaur's rotting body was one of several hypotheses offered for the malodorous air of neighboring Ozolian Locris (Paus x.38.2–3). Another was ‘the exhalations from a certain river’ whose ‘very waters have a peculiar smell’, which accords with Strabo's belief that Nessus was buried on Mount Taphiassus and that his corpse polluted its springwaters (ix.4.8). At the time of the present expedition, Nessus lived, Locris smelled sweet and Heracles was enslaved to Queen Omphale of Lydia (Apollod ii.6.3, i.9.19; Soph, Trach 248–53; Diod Sic iv.31.4–8; Lucian, Dial Deorum xiii.2; Paus i.35.8; Plut, Quaest Gr xlv, Thes vi.5; Tzet, Chil ii.425ff.; Schol. ad Hom, Od xxi.22; Hyg, Fab xxxii; pseudo-Seneca Herakles Oetaeus 371ff.; Statius, Theb x.646–9; Pherecydes cit. ap. schol. ad Hom, Od xxi.22), who dressed him in women's clothes and, according to some traditions, spanked him with her sandal(Ov, Her ix.55ff., Ars Amat ii.216–22).
97 The Lesser Bear, or the Lesser Wain (Hom, Od v.272), or Cynosura, the ‘Dog's Tail’ (Arat, Phaen 52), was traditionally associated with Callisto (Apollod iii.8.2; Eratos, Cat i; Schol. ad Lyc, Alex 481; Hyg, Fab clv, clxxvi, clxxvii; Ov, Met ii.409–507; Serv ad Virg, Georg i.138; Lactantius Placidus ad Statius, Theb iii.685).
98 Hyginus alone asserts that ‘Parthenon’ (the Virgin) was the daughter of Apollo and Chrysothemis (Ast ii.25.2). Whether any identification with the mother of Parthenopaeus may be allowed is doubtful. A rival Attic account claimed the virgin was Erigone, who hanged herself at the murder of her father, Icarius, who was similarly catasterised as BaÎes, or Arcturus (Callim, Aet 178).
99 ‘Arcturus’ (the Guardian of the Bear) was traditionally Areas, whence ‘Arcadians’ in general and, five generations later, Atalanta in particular (Ov, Met ii.409–530, Fas ii.183; Hyg, Fab clxxvii; Apollod iii.8.2). The morning rising of Arcturus marked the beginning of autumn (Hes, WD 610; Plat, Laws 844e; Soph, Oed Tyr 1137; Hippoc, Epid i.2.4; Thuc ii.78), the evening rising the beginning of spring (Hes, WD 567).
100 Aristoph, Lys 785–96.
101 Apollod iii.9.2.
102 Its ‘melanai’ according to an oracle quoted by Polyaenus (Strategemata i.19). To the Lacedaemonians who inquired after the grave of Orestes the Pythoness of Delphi sang: ‘A certain Tegea there is of Arcadia/In a smooth and level plain, where two winds breathe/and blow falls upon blow.’ Her description was interpreted as a smithy (Hdt i.67.4–68.3; Diod Sic ix.36.3; Paus iii.11.10, iii.3.6). A further prophecy from Delphi sent the Lacedaemonians marching on Tegea carrying chains to enslave the population there. The attackers ended by wearing the manacles themselves while working the fields of the Tegean plain (Hdt i.66. 1–4), presumably the ‘Manthuric’ Plain, extending fifty stades from the city (Paus viii.44.7, viii.54.7). Oak forests lined the roads to Mantinea (Paus viii.11.1), Thyrea and Argos (Paus viii.54.4–5), thus surrounding the plain, but were penetrable even with half a foot missing if the escape of Hegesistratus of Elis is credible (Hdt ix.37.1–3 et vid. n. 103). The road to Argos passed between Creopolus (Strab viii.6.17, but otherwise unknown) and Mount Parthenia (Hdt vi.105.1), which was where Auge, being marched to execution, gave birth to Telephus (Alcidamas, Od 14–16), and which was infested with tortoises: local farmers protected them in superstitious deference to Pan (Paus viii.54.7). The mountains to the south fell within the district of Sciritis and formed a natural barrier against Spartan incursions (Diod Sic xv.64.3). Agesilaus was forced into complicated manoeuvres to avoid ambush in the narrow valley leading to the Tegean plain (Xen, Hell vi.5.16–18), which offered an exposed, yet advantageous position (Xen, Hell vii.5.7–9). In contrast, Arcadian forces opposing Agesilaus were able to travel from Alea to Tegea even by night (Xen, Hell vi.5.15).
103 Xenophon's ‘hunters by night were professionals (Xen, Mem iv.7.4). The invention and use of nets (Op, Cyn ii.25) were censured by both sportsmen (Ar, Cyn xxiv.4–5) and moralists (Plat, Laws vii.822d-24a), but snares were set the night before even the most sporting hunts (Xen, Cyn ix. 11–16) and deer, attested on Mount Parthenia (Apollod ii. 7.4, iii.9.1), were notoriously difficult to catch by day (Xen, Cyn ix.17) unless one were Achilles, who simply outran them (Pind, Nem iii.51–2). Among the equipment dedicated to the gods on a huntsman's retirement are found hunting nets, nooses, foot-traps (Anth Gr vi.107), spring-traps, cages, bird-lime (Anth Gr vi.109), hare-staves, fowling-canes (Anth Gr vi.152), fowling-nets (Anth Gr vi.181), and quail-whistles (Anth Gr vi.296). All are proper to the night-hunt. Hegesistratus's escape from Sparta to Tegea prompted the region's most notorious night-hunt: ‘made fast in iron-bound stocks, he got an iron weapon which was brought by some means into his prison, and straightway conceived a plan of such courage as we have never known; reckoning how best the rest of it might get free, he cut off his own foot at the instep. This done, he tunnelled through the wall out of the way of the guards who kept watch over him, and so escaped to Tegea. All night he journeyed, and all day he hid and lay concealed in the woods, till on the third night he came to Tegea, while all the people of Lacedaemon sought him.’ (Hdt ix.37.2–3). Tegean night fishermen seem to have met with a lack of success comparable to that of Hegesistratus's pursuers (Simonides fr. 163 ap. Aristot, Poet 1.1365a).
104 Deucalion and Pyrrha repopulated the earth after the flood by throwing stones over their heads on Mount Pamassus at the bidding of either Zeus (Apollod i.7.1, iii.14.5, Pind, Ol ix.41–5) or Themis (Ov, Met i.367ff.). Deucalion's stones grew into men, Pyrrha's into women. Cadmus peopled Thebes by slaying a dragon and sowing half its teeth (Eur, Ph 656; Pind, Pyth iii.167, Isth vi.13; Ov, Met iii.32). Jason repeated the act, sowing the remaining teeth in Colchis (Ap Rhod iii.1178ff.). The descendants of these ‘aboriginal sons of the dragon's teeth’ (Plat, Soph 247c) could be recognised by a birthmark in the shape of a spearhead (Aristot, 1454b; Dio Chrys iv.23). Athens traced the lineage of its kings back to three ‘Sons of the Soil’: Cecrops (Apollod iii.14.1), Cranaus (Apollod iii.14.5) and his usurper Amphictyon (Apollod iii.14.6, sed vid. Mar Par 8–10; Paus.i.2.6). The Athenians claimed to have been ‘planted’ there by Hephaestus and Athena (Plat, Crit 109d). Their autochthony was a source of some pride (Eur, Ion 29, 589; Aristot, Rhet 1360b; Plat, Menex 237b) and the pride an occasion for ridicule (Aristoph, Lys 1082, Vesp 1076). Other centres claimed other ‘Earth·born’ founding fathers: Pelasgus (Hes, Cat fr. 30 ap. Apollod ii.1.5; Apollod iii.8.1), Lelex, son of Cleocharia (Apollod iii.10.3), Aetolus (Strab x.3.2, although the inscription quoted is ambiguous) and Locrus (Hes, Cat fr 82 ap. Strab vii.7.2).
105 The sacrifice to Artemis Laphria was witnessed by Pausanias at Patrae, where it was performed by Kalydonians displaced there in 14BC on the orders of Augustus: ‘Round the altar in a circle they set up logs of green wood, each sixteen cubits long, On the altar within the circle is placed the driest wood. Just before the time of the festival they smooth the ascent to the altar, piling earth upon the steps . . . For the people throw alive upon the altar edible birds and every other kind of victim. There are wild boars, deer and gazelles. Some bring wolf-cubs or bear-cubs, others the full-grown beasts. They also place upon the altar fruit of cultivated trees. Next they set fire to the wood. At this point I have seen some of the beasts, including a bear, forcing thei
r way outside at the first rush of the flames, some of them actually escaping by their strength. But those who threw them in drag them back again to the pyre. It is not remembered that anybody has ever been wounded by the beasts’ (Paus vii.18.11–13, et vid. Paus iv.31.7). Lucian Samosatae reports a yet more horrible rite (De Syria Dea xlviiii). The animals’ pacifism was a condition of the sacrifice (Aesch, Ag 1297; Plut, Pel xxii; Porphyr, De abstinentia i.25; lnscr Kos xxxvii; Dio Chrys, Or xxii.51; Apollonius Paradoxographus, Mirabilia xiii). The goddess was surnamed Laphria ‘after a man of Phocis, because the ancient image of Artemis was set up at Kalydon by Laphrius, the son of Castalius, the son of Delphus’ (Paus vii.18.9), or possibly in derivation from ‘Laophorus’ ('Protectress of the Way’ or ‘Carrier of People') or ‘Elaphos’ I the Deer-Goddess). Horns of cows and calves have been found at the site, along with boar-tusks, tortoise shells, locust remains, horse bones and horse teeth but no antlers. Related festivals were the Elaphebolia at Hyampolis and that of the Kouretes at Messene (Paus x. 1.6, Plut, Mul Virt 244). Heracles's self-instigated immolation on Mount Oeta must postdate the festival of Laphria (Pind, Isth iv.67–74; Schol. ad Hom, Il xxii.159). As late as Xenophon, pigs were burnt alive as offerings to Zeus Meilichios (Xen, Anab vii.8.4 et vid. Schol. ad Thuc i.126), but these were a relatively cheap sacrifice.
106 Rather, they are congruent with Kalydon. The lights which punctuate the darkness of Ancient Greece send indirect or ambiguous signals. A great relay of beacons and torches built of pinewood, dried heather, kindling and mountain-wood (Aesch, Ag 288, 295, 305, 497–81 stretched from Mount Ida to Lemnos, from the summit of Mount Athas to the watch-towers of Makistos and Messapion, from there to Cithaeron overlooking the plain of Asopus and Mount Aegiplanctus, across the waters of Gorgopos, then past the headlands of the Saronic Gulf to the watch-tower by Mount Arachnaeus, and so to the palace of Atreus in Argos (Aesch, Ag 281–317). The fires told Clytaemnestra of Agamemnon's return from Troy. Beacons from Sciathus carried news of a lost naval battle to the Athenians’ allies at Artemisium (Hdt vii.183.1), where, much earlier, Lynceus had learned of Hypermnestra's flight from Larissa by the same method, and she of his (Paus ii.25.41). A blaze of nocturnal light bright enough to ‘cast shadows on the earth’ presaged disaster for the Lacedaemonians (Diod Sic xv.50.2–3) and another– possibly a comet (Aristot, Meteor 343b.23) -preceded the sea's engulfing the cities of Buris and Helice (Callisthenes ap. Sen, Quaest Nat vii. 5). Yet the same phenomenon augured well for Timoleon's expedition to Sicily (Diod Sic xvi.66.3). Athena led the Furies from the palace of Atreus to the Underworld by torchlight (Aesch, Eum 1022–4) and Artemis transfixed her prey in the same glare (Paus viii.37.4). Trepidant maidens followed processions of flaring twigs (pyxis, London Brit Mus 1920.12-21.1; stamnos, Mississippi 1977.3.96) to the marriage-altar (Eur, Med 1027, Ion 1474, Hel 723), but their sacrifices were made in darkness: only mad Cassandra lit the tapers in celebration of her own ‘marriage’ after the fall of Troy (Eur, Tro 308–52). Torches raised by Orestes and Capaneus signalled the murder of Hermione (Eur, Or 1573) and the fall of Thebes (Aesch, Sept 433); that held by the laughing Thais provoked the answering laughter of Alexander as he watched Persepolis bum (Diod Sic xvii.72.5). Compare the ‘flash of torches’ by which Iphigenia hoped to cleanse her brother's pollution of the sanctuary at Taurica (Eur, Iph Taur 1224) with those tossed into the pit in honour of Demeter at Argos (Paus ii.22.3); or the light by which Cimon's troops were rallied (Diod Sic xi.61.6–7) with the light shining off the bald head of Odysseus (Hom, Od xviii.354), who was old by then and mocked by the men he would shortly kill. All these lights have yet to shine and the light by which Meleager sees Atalanta turn to the man at her side and speak to him must be a more teasing illumination, such as came from the torches which illuminated the secret rites of a ‘Great Goddess’, but never to the extent of naming her (Soph, Oed Col 1049). He cannot hear, and the lights of Kalydon flicker like the stubs of lamp-wicks (Aristoph, Nub 56–9) floating in salt and oil (Hdt ii.62.1–2), badly trimmed (Aristoph, Vesp 249–54), purple-flamed (cup, Paris Louvre G135) and purple-smoked (skyphos, Paris Louvre G156), choked with the ashes that foretell rain (Aristoph, Vesp 262). Castorberry oil (Hdt ii.94.1–2) would give a better light and olive oil better again (Xen, Sym vii.4).
The heroes move forward. The city is a silent torch race run amok (Paus i.30.2; bell krater, Harvard 1960.344) or a loose glitter in which every glint is a lamp and what it might reveal: a man poring over his ledgers (Aristoph, Nub 18), a woman intent on her toilette (Aristoph, Lys 825–8; bell krater, Harvard 9.1988; kylix, Mississippi.1977.3.112) or working a hand between her thighs (Aristoph, Eccl 1–18). They shift, reform and echo one another: the tents burning on the beach at Troy (Eur, Rh 43) will be mirrored in the light streaming from Helen's chamber (Tryphiodorus, Excidium Il ii 487–521) and replaced by Sinon's treacherous beacon (Apollod, Ep 5.15). The Greeks will deceive, their ships sail; across the sea, Nauplius's answering beacon will draw them onto the rocks of Capheria (Apollod, Ep 6.7, ii.1.5; Eur, Hel 1126–31; Schol. ad Eur, Or 432; Quint Smyrn, Post xiv.611ff.; Schol. ad Lyc, Alex 384; Hyg, Fab cxvi; Sen, Ag 557–75; Dict Cret vi. 1; Virg, Aen xi.260 et Serv ad ibid.; Lact, Plac ad Statius, Achill i.93; Ov, Met xiv.472). For each Mycerinus lighting lamps to turn night into day (Hdt ii.133.4–51 there is an Antigone sweating beneath a sun she cannot bring herself to look upon (Soph, Antig 879); and for every pair of buffoons burning off one another's body-hair (Aristoph, Thes 237) there are the dozen flames of the jury come to indict them (Aristoph, Vesp 219). In the darkness to the east, oaks and olives cover the foothills of Mount Oeta; the upper slopes are pines. Heracles's pyre is still virgin forest (Soph, Trach 1193–1205). The heroes file up the paved way to the city and the lights multiply and spread to either side (Hom, Il viii.555–66). They tow cargos of consequence – Hera's burning temple (Paus ii.17.7). Athena's blazing face (Hom, Od xix.33–4) – which grow larger in the eye until they blot out everything around them (Eur, Cyc 663). As the heroes approach the gate, Kalydon's lights scatter. Meleager has lost sight of Atalanta. His dogs bark to the dogs within and are not answered. Where is the real signal?
‘Athena's lamp’ was redesigned by Callisthenes and furnished with a wick of fireproof ‘Carpasian flax’ (Paus i.26.6–7). The fire stolen by Prometheus hides among its countless progeny (Aesch, Prom 1–11). Kalydon exchanges the lines of its streets for a geography of pinpricks. They are akin to the false fires sometimes glimpsed by sailors (Hom, Il xix.375–6), or the nonsense signals sent from Plataea to Thebes, among which the true signal was jumbled (Thuc iii.22.7-8), or ‘the tapering flame which gives decisions on two points, being a sign of both victory and defeat’ (Eur, Ph 1255–9). The gates open for the heroes. Kalydon is host to a thousand lidless glows; they muster at the far ends of the streets then scatter like embers raked from a fire. The heroes. raise their heads and rub their eyes; they do not recognise these new constellations whose red stars light nothing but themselves. The dogs draw together. But the lights surrounding them are not so distant as stars. They are the red of falling coals, or drifting sparks, or tiny after-images of the pyre in the temple, each pair set in a solidifying darkness. The heroes trace the forming shapes as the lights of Kalydon encircle them. Such lights are unrecorded in the sources, yet they exist. Beyond the limit of the record lies the terrain where their acts will leave no mark or trace: where the boar may be hunted. They watch the glowing eyes which watch themselves. Then the first animal leaps.
107 Hom, Il xix.249–69, Od xi.131, xxiii.277–84; Soph, Trach 1095ff.; Diod Sic iv.12; Apollod ii.5.4; Paus v.10.9, iv.15.8.
108 Bacch v.118–19.
109 Apollod i.8.2; Bacch v.118–19; Paus viii.4.10, viii.45.2.
110 Apallod i.8.2; Schol. ad Aristoph, Nub 1063; Ant Lib xxxviii; Schol. ad Lyc, Alex 175; Pherecydes cit. ap. Schol. ad Lyc, Alex 444.
111 Staphylus fr. 5 ap. schol. ad Argumentum Eur, Med, cf. Diod Sic iv.55; Xen, Hell vi.5.1.
112 Apollod ii.7.3.<
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113 Apollod iii.10.4; Paus iii.15.1–2; Diod Sic iv.33.5ff.
114 Paus iii.15.1–2.
115 Theocr xxii.137ff.; Schol. ad Hom, Il iii.243; Schal. ad Pind, Nem x.112–20; Schol. ad Lyc, Alex 546; Apollod iii.11.2; Hyg, Fab lxxx; Ov, Fas. v.699ff.; Paus iii.15.4–5.
116 Apollod i.8.1; Hes, Cat fr. 98 ap. P Berlin 9777; and not the eponymous son of Eurytus (Hes, Cat fr. 79 ap. schol. ad Soph, Trach 266; Diod Sic iv.37.5).
117 Plut, Thes xxxv; Paus i.17.6; Diod Sic iv.62.4; Apollod, Ep 1.24; Aristot, Ath Con fr. 6 ap. schol. ad Eur, Hipp 11.
118 Schol. ad Lyc, Alex 999; Arctinus Miletus cit. ap. Proc, Chrest ii, cf. Soph, Philoc 441–6 and Plat, Rep 620c, where, in Hades, the soul of Thersites clothes itself in the body of an ape, and Plat, Gorg 525e, where he is partially exonerated.
119 Apollod, Ep 6.12; Euripides's Phoenix is almost wholly lost, cf. Aeschin, i.152; Dem, xix.246.
120 Schol. ad Eur, Tro 1128.
121 Dict Cret vi.7–9; Antipater of Sidon, Anth Pal vii.2.9.
122 Eur, Andr 1253–69.
123 Paus viii.15.5–7.
124 Eur, Ph 172–9, Suppl 925ff.; Apollod iii.6.2–8; Paus i.34.2, v.17.7, ix.41.2; Soph, Elec 836–9; Diod Sic iv.65.5ff.; Asclepiades cit. ap. Schol. ad Hom, Od xi.326; Hyg, Fab lxxiii; Stat, Theb viii.1, cf. Pind, Ol vi.12–15, Nem ix.16–27 et schol., Nem x.9; Hdt viii.134.
125 Apollod, Ep 1.22; Lact Plac ad Statius, Achill 264; Ap Rhod i.57-64; Schol. ad Ap Rhod v.57; Schol. ad Hom, Il i.264; Acusilaus cit. ap. P Oxy xiii.133ff.
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