Clio fell in love with Pierus, son of Magnes, in consequence of the wrath of Aphrodite, whom she had twitted with her love of Adonis; and having met him she bore him a son Hyacinth, for whom Thamyris, the son of Philammon and a nymph Argiope, conceived a passion, he being the first to become enamored of males. But afterwards Apollo loved Hyacinth and killed him involuntarily by the cast of a quoit.[*](As to the death of Hyacinth, killed by the cast of Apollo's quoit, see Nicander, Ther. 901ff.; Paus. 3.19.4ff.; Lucian, Dial. Deorum xiv.; Philostratus, Im. i.23(24); Palaephatus, De incredib. 47; Ov. Met. 10.162ff.; Serv. Verg. Ecl. 3.63; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. iv.223; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 37, 135ff. ( First Vatican Mythographer 117; Second Vatican Mythographer 181). The usual story ran that Apollo and the West Wind, or, according to others, the North Wind, were rivals for the affection of Hyacinth; that Hyacinth preferred Apollo, and that the jealous West Wind took his revenge by blowing a blast which diverted the quoit thrown by Apollo, so that it struck Hyacinth on the head and killed him. From the blood of the slain youth sprang the hyacinth, inscribed with letters which commemorated his tragic death; though the ancients were not at one in the reading of them. Some, like Ovid, read in them the exclamation AI AI, that is, “Alas, alas!” Others, like the Second Vatican Mythographer, fancied that they could detect in the dark lines of the flower the first Greek letter (Υ) of Hyacinth's name.) And
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Thamyris, who excelled in beauty and in minstrelsy, engaged in a musical contest with the Muses, the agreement being that, if he won, he should enjoy them all, but that if he should be vanquished he should be bereft of what they would. So the Muses got the better of him and bereft him both of his eyes and of his minstrelsy.
[*](This account of Thamyris and his contest with the Muses is repeated almost verbally by Zenobius, Cent. iv.27, and by a Scholiast on Hom. Il. 2.595. As to the bard's rivalry with the Muses, and the blindness they inflicted on him, see Hom. Il. 2.594-600; compare Eur. Rh. 915ff.; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 60 (First Vatican Mythographer 197). The story of the punishment of Thamyris in hell was told in the epic poem The Minyad, attributed to Prodicus the Phocaean (Paus. 4.33.7). In the great picture of the underworld painted by Polygnotus at Delphi, the blind musician was portrayed sitting with long flowing locks and a broken lyre at his feet (Paus. 10.30.8).) Euterpe had by the river Strymon a son Rhesus, whom Diomedes slew at Troy;[*](As to the death of Rhesus, see Hom. Il. 10.474ff.; compare Conon 4. It is the subject of Euripides's tragedy Rhesus; see particularly verses Eur. Rh. 756ff. Euripides represents Rhesus as a son of the river Strymon by one of the Muses ( Eur. Rh. 279, Eur. Rh. 915ff.), but he does not name the particular Muse who bore him.) but some say his mother was Calliope. Thalia had by Apollo the Corybantes;[*](Very discrepant accounts were given of the parentage of the Corybantes. Some said that they were sons of the Sun by Athena; others that their parents were Zeus and the Muse Calliope; others that their father was Cronus. See Strab. 10.3.19. According to another account, their mother was the Mother of the Gods, who settled them in Samothrace, or the Holy Isle, as the name Samothrace was believed to signify. The name of the father of the Corybantes was kept a secret from the profane vulgar, but was revealed to the initiated at the Samothracian mysteries. See Diod. 3.55.8ff. ) and Melpomene had by Achelous the Sirens, of whom we shall speak in treating of Ulysses.[*](As to the Sirens, see Apollod. E.7.18ff. Elsewhere (Apollod. 1.7.10) Apollodorus mentions the view that the mother of the Sirens was Sterope.)
Hera gave birth to Hephaestus without intercourse with the other sex,[*](Compare Hes. Th. 927ff.; Lucian, De sacrificiis 6. So Juno is said to have conceived Mars by the help of the goddess Flora and without intercourse with Jupiter (Ovid, Fasti v.229ff.). The belief in the possible impregnation of women without sexual intercourse appears to have been common, if not universal, among men at a certain stage of social evolution, and it is still held by many savages. See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3rd ed. i.92ff.; Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, ii.204, notes; A. et G. Grandidier, Ethnographie de Madagascar, ii. (Paris, 1914), pp. 245ff. The subject is fully discussed by Mr. E. S. Hartland in his Primitive Paternity (London, 1909-1910).) but according to Homer he was
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one of her children by Zeus.
[*](Compare Hom. Il. 1.571ff., Hom. Il. 1.577ff. In these lines Hephaestus plainly recognizes Hera as his mother, but it is not equally clear that he recognizes Zeus as his father; the epithet “father” which he applies to him may refer to the god's general paternity in relation to gods and men.) Him Zeus cast out of heaven, because he came to the rescue of Hera in her bonds.
[*](See Hom. Il. 1.590ff. ) For when Hercules had taken Troy and was at sea, Hera sent a storm after him; so Zeus hung her from Olympus.
[*](See Hom. Il. 15.18ff., where Zeus is said to have tied two anvils to the feet of Hera when he hung her out of heaven. Compare Apollod. 2.7.1; Nonnus, in Westermann's Mythographi Graeci (Brunswick, 1843), Appendix Narrationum, xxix, 1, pp. 371ff. ) Hephaestus fell on Lemnos and was lamed of his legs,
[*](The significance of lameness in myth and ritual is obscure. The Yorubas of West Africa say that Shankpanna, the god of smallpox, is lame and limps along with the aid of a stick, one of his legs being withered. See A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (London, 1894), p. 73. The Ekoi of Southern Nigeria relate how the first fire on earth was stolen from heaven by a boy, whom the Creator (Obassi Osaw) punished with lameness for the theft. See P. Amaury Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush (London, 1912), pp. 370ff. This lame boy seems to play the part of a good fairy in Ekoi tales, and he is occasionally represented in a “stilt play” by an actor who has a short stilt bound round his right leg and limps like a cripple. See P. Amaury Talbot, op. cit. pp. 58, 285. Among the Edo of Benin “custom enjoined that once a year a lame man should be dragged around the city, and then as far as a place on the Enyai road, called Adaneha. This was probably a ceremony of purification.” See W. N. Thomas, Anthropological Report on the speaking peoples of Nigeria, Part 1. (London, 1910), p. 35. In a race called “the King's Race,” which used to be run by lads on Good Friday or Easter Saturday in some parts of the Mark of Brandenburg, the winner was called “the King,” and the last to come in was called “the Lame Carpenter.” One of the Carpenter's legs was bandaged with splints as if it were broken, and he had to hobble along on a crutch. Thus he was led from house to house by his comrades, who collected eggs to bake a cake. See A. Kuhn, Märkische Sagen und Marchen (Berlin, 1843), pp. 323ff. ) but Thetis saved him.
[*](As to the fall of Hephaestus on Lemnos, see Hom. Il. 1.590ff.; Lucian, De sacrificiis 6. The association of the fire-god with Lemnos is supposed to have been suggested by a volcano called Moschylus, which has disappeared—perhaps submerged in the sea. See H. F. Tozer, The Islands of the Aegean, pp. 269ff.; Jebb on Soph. Ph. 800, with the Appendix, pp. 243-245. According to another account, Hephaestus fell, not on Lemnos, but into the sea, where he was saved by Thetis. See Hom. Il. 18.394ff. )