The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

by Apollodorus

  conflict. . . between Amphiaraos and Adrastos: they had quarrelled over the kingship, and Adrastos had been expelled for a time (see DS 4. 65. 6, with Pind. Nem. 9. 13 f.); he went to Sicyon, and ruled there after the previous king had died (P. 2. 6. 3).

  allow Eriphyle to decide: as the sister of Adrastos and wife of Amphiaraos, she might be expected to be even-handed. Homer alludes to her betrayal of her husband (Od. 11. 326 f.) without telling the story.

  seven leaders: corresponding to the seven gates in the walls of Thebes, see below.

  Lycourgos: son of Pheres, see p. 48; Nemea was on the northern border of the Argolid.

  Thoas had been spared: when the Lemnian women killed their menfolk, Hypsipyle, their queen, spared her father, see p. 50.

  Archemoros: meaning the beginning of death, or first to die; cf. Bacch. 9. 14, ‘an omen of the coming slaughter’.

  sent Tydeus ahead. . . to the camp: cf. Il. 4. 382 ff.; portents from the gods caused him to release Maion (ibid. 398).

  advanced towards the walls: the attack on Thebes was recounted in an early epic, the Thehais, and became a favourite theme in tragedy, see Aesch. Seven against Thebes, and Eur. Phoenissae.

  seven gates: see P. 9. 8. 4 ff. (who offers some explanation of the names). Hypsistan means ‘highest’; the name of the Crenidian suggests that it was by a spring.

  saw the goddess completely naked: preceded by a short gap in the text. For the story, see Callimachus Hymn 5. 57 ff. (probably following Pherecydes). While Athene and Chariclo, the mother of Amphiaraos, were bathing at noon in the Hippocrene, a spring on Mount Helicon in Boeotia, Teiresias, who was out with his dogs, happened to approach the waters, and caught sight of them.

  purified his ears. . , the language of birds: compare the story of Melampous on p. 46 and see notes.

  Hesiod says: in the Melampodeia (Hes. fr. 275), see also Appendix, 4 and note. The following story is reported somewhat differently in sc. Od. 10. 494. There he kills the female snake on the first occasion, and becomes a man again when he kills the male snake on the second; this has a certain logic, but we cannot tell whether it is closer to the version in the Melampodeia in the absence of any relevant quotation. It should be noted, however, that in all other versions, he is said to have wounded or killed one snake or both on the second occasion also (e.g. AL 17, Ov. Met. 3. 316 ff, Hyg. 75). Cyllene lay in Arcadia.

  one part. . . nine parts: apparently a misinterpretation of the Melampodeia, see Appendix, 5 and note.

  to a considerable age: on the same occasion Zeus granted him the privilege of living for seven generations (Phlegon under Hes. fr. 275).

  Menoiceus. . . as a sacrifice to Ares: see Eur. Phoenissae 930 ff.; to gain the favour of Ares, a descendant of one of the Sown Men must offer his life to atone for the murder of Ares’ dragon (see p. 100).

  Zeus struck him down: as retribution for his impious arrogance, for Capaneus boasted that he would sack the town whether Zeus wished it or not, and said that the thunder and lightning of Zeus were no worse than the midday sun (Aesch. Seven against Thebes All ff., cf. Eur. Suppl. 496 ff.). Or he climbed the ladder with two torches, saying that one was thunder and the other lightning (sc. Eur. Phoen. 1173), behaving rather like Salmoneus on p. 45. A descendant of Proitos, Capaneus was a member of the native royal line in Argos.

  for Tydeus. . . killed Melanippos: in all other sources, Amphiaraos himself killed him (e.g. sc. Il. 5. 126, referring to Pherecydes). This may well be an interpolation.

  Zeus made him immortal: he was worshipped as a healer god and had an oracle at Oropos (latterly in Attica, but previously in Boeotia). See P. 1. 34. 2 (and, for the site of his disappearance, 9. 8. 2).

  after having intercourse with him in the likeness of a Fury: but see P. 8. 25. 4 ff. Poseidon wanted to have intercourse with her while she was searching for her daughter; she turned herself into a mare, but Poseidon responded by turning himself into a stallion, and so achieved his desire; and she received the title of Fury (Erinys) because of her anger afterwards (hence the cult of Demeter Erinys at Thelpusa). It was this intercourse in horse-form that led Demeter to give birth to Adrastos’ horse, Areion. On Areion see also Il. 23. 346 f.

  Creon . . . to the Theban throne: thus in Sophocles’ Antigone, Ap.’s source for the following; but the tradition that he was acting as regent until Eteocles’ son Laodamas came of age (P. 1. 39. 2 and 9. 10. 3) is easier to reconcile with other elements in the mythology of this period. It will be seen that Laodamas was king of the Thebans when the Epigoni invaded (and there was indeed a tradition that it was he who caused the death of Antigone, and her sister Ismene too, Arg. Soph. Ant.).

  suppliant’s bough: an olive bough, placed on an altar as a symbolic gesture when claiming divine protection. For the present altar, see p. 92 and note.

  captured the city: it may be doubted that Theseus was ever said to have captured the city, in the strict sense. He either forced the Thebans to surrender the bodies by defeating them in a battle, or persuaded them to do so by negotiation (see Plut. Thes. 29, P. 1. 39. 2, and cf. Eur. Suppliants 653 ff.).

  the Epigoni: ‘the afterborn’, used as a proper name when referring to these sons of the Argive leaders who mounted a second, and now successful, expedition against Thebes.

  Eriphyle, . . persuaded her sons also to take part: a reduplication of the story of Eriphyle and Amphiaraos on p. 108; but it should be noted that she does not have the same hold on her sons as she had on her husband, and far from being fated to die, her sons will survive as leading figures in a successful expedition. Amphiaraos had indeed ordered them to mount such an expedition, p. 108. The story of the Second Theban War was told in an early epic, the Alcmaionis; and there (sc. Od. 11. 326) Alcmaion kills his mother before departing, leaving no place for the present story.

  killed Aigialeus: just as Adrastos was the only leader to survive on the first expedition, his son Aigialeus is the only leader to be killed on the second (thus giving his life in place of his father, as Hyg. 71 explicitly states).

  Hestiaia: in Thessaly; but they are also said to have travelled further north, to Illyria (Hdt. 5. 61; P. 9. 5. 7).

  the Fury of his mother’s murder: those who shed blood, especially within their own family, were liable to be pursued by an Erinys, or avenging spirit.

  a land. . . by the Sun: since the text is hopelessly corrupt at this point, I follow Carriere’s example and simply give the content of the oracle as reported by Thucydies (2. 102). He must seek a land that did not exist when the position was incurred (cf. P. 8. 24. 8). From Aetolia, he travels to me Thesprotians in Epirus in north-western Greece, and thence to the springs of the River Acheloos (also in Epirus) but founds his city much further south at its mouth, by the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf (at Oiniadai in Acarnania, Thuc. 2. 102). Acheloos functions both as a person and a river. On Acheloos see also p. 88 and note.

  had been informed by an oracle: although one might infer from the present narrative that Alcmaion is inventing this, he is said to have received such an oracle (Athenaeus 232d ff. tells how it supposedly ran).

  founded Acarnania: to the west of Aetolia facing the Ionian Sea; see also P. 8. 24. 9.

  Euripides: in his lost tragedy Alcmaion in Corinth.

  founded Amphilochian Argos: Thucydides’ report (2. 68) that it was founded by his uncle Amphilochos, son of Amphiaraos, on his return from Troy reflects the older tradition; the present Amphilochos was apparently invented by Euripides, and his late entry into the family causes nothing but confusion, cf. p. 162 and note.

  as me observed above: see p. 58 and note. Pelasgos, the Arcadian ‘first man’, becomes the father of Lycaon, the founder of the common cult of the Arcadian communities, that of Zeus Lycaios on Mount Lycaion.

  fifty sons: for the most part eponymous founders of Arcadian towns. See also P. 8. 3. The list is one name short.

  a child. . . into the sacrifices: according to a similar account by Nicolaus of Damascus, first century BC (see Frazer i. 390 n. 1 fo
r a translation), the pious Lycaon warned his subjects that Zeus made constant visits to inspect their behaviour; and one day, when he offered a sacrifice saying that the god was about to visit, some of his sons performed the present action to check whether the god really did come (for if he did, he would surely recognize what they had done). There is a conflicting version of this story in which Lycaon himself (angered by Zeus’ seduction of Callisto, see below) served his grandson Areas to Zeus, who reacted by overturning the table and transforming Lycaon into a wolf (see under Hes. Cat. fr. 163, and Hyg. PA 4). See also P. 8. 2. 1 ff. for the local tradition, and Ovid’s portrait of a wicked Lycaon in Met. 1. 196 ff.

  Trapezous: from trapeza, a table; but the town is also said to have been named after one of Lycaon’s sons (P. 8. 3. 3).

  Hesiod. . . one of the nymphs: according to Catast. 1, Hesiod called her a daughter of Lycaon; but Ap. may be reporting the Catalogue, and Catast. the Hesiodic Astronomy.

  Hera persuaded Artemis. . . to shoot her: after discovering what had happened, and leaving Artemis ignorant of the bear’s identity; in a somewhat different version, Callisto sleeps willingly with Zeus and Hera herself transforms her (P. 8. 3. 6 f.; attested for Callimachus in sc. Il. 18. 487). But in the story attributed to Hesiod in Catast. 1, it is Artemis who transforms her, angered to see that her companion is pregnant when she is taking a bath. See also Ov. Met. 2. 409 ff.

  naming him Areas: in Greek there is a similarity in sound between arktos, a bear (his mother’s present form), and Areas. He gave his name to Arcadia (cf. P. 8. 4. 1, formerly named Pelasgia).

  Areas had two sons: for a fuller account of the sons of Areas and their descendants, see P. 8. 4. 2 ff.

  Auge mas raped by Heracles: see also p. 88 and note.

  lasos and Clymene . . . had a daughter, Atalante: this genealogy (cf. Theognis 1287 ff., where her father is called Iasion, and Hyg. 99) connects Atalante with Arcadia; but in the main alternative cited below (that she is a daughter of Schoineus, as in Hes. Cat. fr. 72), she is connected with Boeotia. Some details in the stories associated with her vary according to the tradition (for instance, the husband of the Boeotian Atalante is not Melanion, who is clearly an Arcadian, cf. P. 3. 12. 9, but Hippomenes, son of Megareus, a Boeotian), but the stories themselves are substantially the same, and there is no reason to assume that there were two separate Atalantes, one Arcadian and one Boeotian.

  the hunt for the Calydonian boar: where her presence as the only woman had important repercussions, see p. 41.

  games held in honour of Pelias: for the death of Pelias, see p. 57; the games were held by his son Acastos (see p. 127, which also explains Peleus’ presence there; and cf. Hyg. 273).

  golden apples: from the Hesperides, see p. 81 and note (e.g. VM 1. 39), or according to Ovid (Met. 10. 644 ff.) from the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Tamasos in Cyprus.

  the Pleiades: familiar as the cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus. According to the usual story, Orion pursued them (and their mother) through Boeotia, and the gods, or Zeus, taking pity on them, transferred them to the heavens (Hyg. PA 21; the story was known to Pindar, see Nem. 2. 10 ff).

  gave birth to Hermes: most of the following derives from the fuller account in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, q.v. (but the present narrative differs on certain details).

  Cyllene. . . Pieria: Hermes’ birthplace was in Arcadia; Pieria lay north of Mount Olympos in Thessaly.

  pebbles: thriai, or divining pebbles, which were used none the less in a subordinate role at Apollo’s oracle at Delphi. It is not known exactly how they were employed.

  herald to the gods of the Underworld: he conducted the souls of the dead between this world and Hades (cf. Od. 24. 1 ff. and p. 152).

  Lelex: the local ‘first man’, and eponym of the Leleges, the aboriginal inhabitants; comparable to Pelasgos and the Pelasgians in Arcadia, p. 58 and notes. His son Eurotas represents the main Laced-aimonian river, and his granddaughter Sparta the main Laced-aimonian town. See also P. 3. 1. 1 ff.

  Hyacinthos: see p. 30 and note.

  Aphareus: a Messenian king, see also P. 4. 2. 4 ff.

  but rather of Coronis: as in Hes. Cat. fr. 60. This Thessalian descent is consistent with the tradition that Asclepios was reared by Cheiron (on Mount Pelion in Thessaly). We know Apollo’s own view on this matter because an Arcadian asked the Delphic oracle, and it declared in favour of Coronis (P. 2. 26. 6). For the story of Asclepios’ birth to Coronis, see also Pind. Pyth. 3. 8 ff. (where there is as yet no mention of the crow).

  on the left side: as always, the side of ill omen.

  Zeus. . . struck him down: the story was told in Hes. Cat. (fr. 51). In Pind. Pyth. 3. 54 ff, he raises a single man in return for a handsome bribe; a number of names are cited from early sources in an interpolation here, see Appendix, 6. The theme becomes exaggerated in the later tradition and we find Hades complaining to Zeus about a serious diminution of the dead (DS 4. 71. 2); but to raise a single man is to transgress mortal bounds, meriting this response from Zeus. Asclepios was worshipped initially as a hero, and then as a healing god with an important cult at Epidaurus.

  who had forged the thunderbolt: see p. 28.

  Apollo went to Admetos: see also p. 48.

  there are those. . . Bateia: Perieres was first introduced to us as a Deucalionid king of Messenia, p. 44; but Tyndareus is a figure of such importance in the Laconian genealogies that it was natural that others preferred to regard him as being of purely Laconian descent, and this was the tradition followed by Ap. in the preceding genealogies. Here we are told that some tried to reconcile the conflicting traditions on his birth by claiming that there were two Perieres, one the Messenian son of Aiolos, who fathered Aphareus and Leucippos, two Messenian rulers, and the other the Laconian son of Cynortas, who became the father of Tyndareus.

  Hippocoon expelled Icarios and Tyndareus: Hippocoon (and his sons) and Tyndareus disputed the throne after the death of the previous king, Oibalos (cf. P. 3. 1. 4). There are conflicting traditions on the position of the third brother, for Icarios is also said to have assisted Hippocoon in the expulsion of Tyndareus (P. 3. 1. 4, sc. Eur. Orest. 457; apparently the Lacedaimonian version). Some claim that Hippocoon was an illegitimate son (e.g. sc. Eur. Orest. 457, where his mother is a certain Nicostrate).

  Thestios: an Aetolian, see p. 39, the king of Pleuron; see also P. 3. 13. 8.

  Heracles had killed Hippocoon and his sons: see pp. 87 f.

  Polydeuces. . . Helen . . . Castor: that Helen was a daughter of Zeus was agreed from Homer onwards, but with regard to the Dioscuri —Polydeuces (or under his Latin name, Pollux) and Castor— there was disagreement as to whether Castor was a mortal son of Tyndareus or a son of Zeus like Polydeuces. Although Pindar agrees with the present account in Nem. 10 (see 73 ff., though not in Pyth. 4. 171 f.) and Castor was mortal in the Cypria (Clem. Al. Protr. 2. 30), there was also an early tradition that both were sons of Zeus, as the name Dioscuri implies (Hes. Cat. fr. 24, cf. HH to the Dioscuri).

  and Clytemnestra: most editors favour this addition; but since Clytemnestra has been mentioned already with Timandra and Phylonoe as one of Tyndareus’ children by Leda, it cannot be assumed that Ap. must have listed her as one of the children conceived on this occasion (and Carriere remarks that she is not always included in comparable lists, e.g. VM 2. 132).

  a daughter of Zeus by Nemesis: they had intercourse at Rhamnos in Attica (Catast. 25), where there was a sanctuary of Nemesis (P. 1. 33. 2); according to the local legend, Nemesis was her mother, but Leda suckled and reared her (P. 1. 33. 7). The story goes back to early epic (the Cypria, see Athenaeus 334b ff., with a quotation). Leda too is said to have laid an egg after her intercourse in bird form (it was shown to visitors in Sparta, P. 3. 16. 1).

  to Aphidnai: in Attica; see also p. 143 and note.

  swear an oath: if they are to be eligible. This will be important later because when Helen is abducted by Paris, all her previous suitors will be obliged to go to war to help Menela
os recover her, p. 147.