Epitome
Apollodorus
Apollodorus. The Library. Frazer, James George, Sir, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1921
The god gave him leave, so he departed secretly to Mycenae in company with Pylades, and killed both his mother and Aegisthus.[*](This vengeance for the murder of Agamemnon is the theme of three extant Greek tragedies, the Choephori of Aeschylus, the Electra of Sophocles, and the Electra of Euripides. It was related by Hagias in his epic, the Returns, as we learn from the brief summary of Proclus (Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 53). Compare Pind. P. 11.36ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 119. Homer briefly mentions the murder of Aegisthus by Orestes (Hom. Od. 1.29ff.; Hom. Od. 1.298-300; Hom. Od. 3.306ff.); he does not expressly mention, but darkly hints at, the murder of Clytaemnestra by her son (Hom. Od. 3.309ff.).) And not long afterwards, being afflicted with madness and pursued by the Furies, he repaired to Athens and was tried in the Areopagus. He is variously said to have been brought to trial by the Furies, or by Tyndareus, or by Erigone, daughter of Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra; and the votes at his trial being equal he was acquitted.[*](The trial and acquittal of Orestes in the court of the Areopagus at Athens is the subject of Aeschylus's tragedy, the Eumenides, where the poet similarly represents the matricide as acquitted because the votes were equal (Aesch. Eum. 752ff.). The Parian Chronicle also records the acquittal on the same ground, and dates it in the reign of Demophon, king of Athens. See Marmor Parium 40ff. (Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, ed. C. Müller, i.546). Compare Eur. IT 940-967; Eur. IT 1469-1472; Eur. Or. 1648-1652; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 1374; Paus. 1.28.5; Paus. 8.34.4; Dictys Cretensis vi.4. In the Eumenides the accusers of Orestes are the Furies. According to the Parian Chronicler, it was Erigone, the daughter of Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra, who instituted the prosecution for the murder of her father; the chronicler does not mention the murder of Clytaemnestra as an article in the indictment of Orestes. According to the author of the Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. Αἰώρα, p. 42, the prosecution was conducted at Athens jointly by Erigone and her grandfather Tyndareus, and when it failed, Erigone hanged herself. Peloponnesian antiquaries, reported by Paus. 8.34.4, alleged that the accuser was not Tyndareus, who was dead, but Perilaus, a cousin of Clytaemnestra. According to Hyginus, Fab. 119, Orestes was accused by Tyndareus before the people of Mycenae, but was suffered to retire into banishment for the sake of his father. As to the madness of Orestes, caused by the Furies of his murdered mother, see Eur. Or. 931ff.; Paus. 3.22.1; Paus. 8.34.1-4. The incipient symptoms of madness, showing themselves immediately after the commission of the crime, are finely described by Aesch. Lib. 1021ff. )
When he inquired how he should be rid of his disorder, the god answered that he would be rid of it if he should fetch the wooden image that was in the land of the Taurians.[*](As to the oracle, compare Eur. IT 77-92; Eur. IT 970-978; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 1374; Hyginus, Fab. 120.) Now the Taurians are a part of the Scythians, who murder strangers[*](The Taurians inhabited the Crimea. As to their custom of sacrificing castaways and strangers, see Hdt. 4.103; Eur. IT 34-41; Diod. 4.44.7; Paus. 1.43.1; Orphica, Argon. 1075ff., ed Abel; Ovid, Ex Ponto iii.2.45-58; Mela ii.11; Ammianus Marcellinus xxii.8.34. According to Herodotus, these Taurians sacrificed human beings to a Virgin Goddess, whom they identified with Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon. The victims were shipwrecked persons and any Greeks on whom they could lay hands. They were slaughtered by being knocked on the head with a club, after which their heads were set up on stakes and their bodies thrown down a precipice into the sea or buried in the ground; for reports differed in regard to the disposal of the corpses, though all agreed as to the setting of the heads on stakes. Ammianus Marcellinus says that the native name of the goddess was Orsiloche.) and throw them into the sacred fire, which was in the precinct, being wafted up from Hades through a certain rock.[*](This account of the disposal of the bodies of the victims is based on Eur. IT 625ff.:—*)ore/sthsta/fos de\ poi=os de/cetai/ m', o(/tan qa/nw;*)ifige/neiapu=r i(ero\n e)/ndon xa/sma t' eu)rwpo\n pe/tras.Compare Eur. IT 1154ff.:—h)/dh tw=n ce/nwn kath/rcato,a)du/tois t' e)n a(gnoi=s sw=ma la/mpontai puri/;Thus Apollodorus differs from the account which Herodotus gives of the disposal of the bodies. See the preceding note.)
So when Orestes was come with
and having come to Mycenae, he united his sister Electra in marriage to Pylades,[*](As to the marriage of Electra to Pylades, see Eur. El. 1249; Eur. Or. 1658ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 122.) and having himself married Hermione, or, according to some, Erigone, he begat Tisamenus,[*](As to the marriage of Orestes and Hermione, see above, Apollod. E.5.14, with the note. According to Paus. 2.18.6, Orestes had by Hermione a son Tisamenus, who succeeded his father on the throne of Sparta. But Pausanias also mentions a tradition that Orestes had a bastard son Penthilus by Erigone, daughter of Aegisthus, and for this tradition he cites as his authority the old epic poet Cinaethon. Compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 1474.) and was killed by the bite of a snake at Oresteum in Arcadia.[*](Compare Scholiast on Eur. Or. 1645, quoting Asclepiades as his authority; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 1374. In the passage of Euripides on which the Scholiast comments (Eur. Or. 1643-1647), Orestes is bidden by Apollo to retire to Parrhasia, a district of Arcadia, for the space of a year, after which he is to go and stand his trial for the murder of his mother at Athens. This year to be spent in Arcadia is no doubt the year of banishment to which homicides had to submit before they were allowed to resume social intercourse with their fellows. See Frazer's note above on Apollod. 2.5.11 (vol. i. pp. 218ff.). The period is so interpreted by a Scholiast on Eur. Or. 1645. As to Oresteum in Arcadia, see Paus. 8.3.1ff., who says that it was formerly called Oresthasium. A curious story of the madness of Orestes in Arcadia is told by Paus. 8.34.1-4. He says that, when the Furies were about to drive him mad, they appeared to him black, but that he bit off one of his own fingers, whereupon they appeared to him white, and he immediately recovered his wits. The grave of Orestes was near Tegea in Arcadia; from there his bones were stolen by a Spartan and carried to Sparta in compliance with an oracle, which assured the Spartans of victory over their stubborn foes the Tegeans, if only they could get possession of these valuable relics. See Hdt. 1.67ff.; Paus. 3.3.5ff.; Paus. 3.11.10; Paus. 8.54.3.)
Menelaus, with five ships in all under his command, put in at Sunium, a headland of Attica; and being again driven thence by winds to Crete he drifted far away, and wandering up and down Libya, and Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Egypt, he collected much treasure.[*](For the wanderings of Menelaus on the voyage from Troy, see Hom. Od. 3.276-302; compare Paus. 10.25.2.) And according to some, he discovered Helen at the court of Proteus, king of Egypt; for till then Menelaus had only a phantom of her made of clouds.[*](As to the real and the phantom Helen, see above, Apollod. E.3.5, with the note.) And after wandering for eight years he came to port at Mycenae, and there found Orestes, who had avenged his father's murder. And having come to Sparta he regained his own kingdom,[*](The return of Menelaus to his home was related by Hagias in the Returns, as we learn from the brief abstract of that poem by Proclus in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 53.) and being made immortal by Hera he went to the Elysian Fields with Helen.[*](Homer in the Odyssey (Hom. Od. 4.561-569) represents Proteus prophesying to Menelaus that he was fated not to die but to be transported by the gods to the Elysian Fields, there to dwell at ease where there was neither snow, nor storm, or rain, because he had married Helen and was thereby a in-law of Zeus. Compare Eur. Hel. 1676-1679.)
Ulysses, as some say, wandered about Libya, or, as some say, about Sicily, or, as others
And putting to sea from Ilium, he touched at Ismarus, a city of the Cicones, and captured it in war, and pillaged it, sparing Maro alone, who was priest of Apollo.[*](As to the adventures of Ulysses with the Cicones, see Hom. Od. 9.39-66. The Cicones were a Thracian tribe; Xerxes and his army marched through their country (Hdt. 7.110). As to Maro, the priest of Apollo at Ismarus, see Hom. Od. 9.196-211. He dwelt in a wooded grove of Apollo, and bestowed splendid presents and twelve jars of red honey-sweet wine, in return for the protection which he and his wife received at the hands of Ulysses.) And when the Cicones who inhabited the mainland heard of it, they came in arms to withstand him, and having lost six men from each ship he put to sea and fled.
And he landed in the country of the Lotus-eaters,[*](As to the adventures of Ulysses with the Lotus-eaters, see Hom. Od. 9.82-104; Hyginus, Fab. 125. The Lotus-eaters were a tribe of northern Africa, inhabiting the coast of Tripolis (Scylax, Periplus 110; Pliny, Nat. Hist. v.28). As to the lotus, see Hdt. 4.177; Polybius xii.2.1, quoted by Athenaeus xiv.65, p. 651 DF; Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. iv.3.1ff. The tree is the Zizyphus Lotus of the botanists. Theophrastus says that the tree was common in Libya, that is, in northern Africa, and that an army marching on Carthage subsisted on its fruit alone for several days. The modern name of the tree is ssodr or ssidr. A whole district in Tripolis is named Ssodria after it. See A. Wiedemann, Herodots Zweites Buch, p. 385, note on Herodotus, ii.96.) and sent some to learn who inhabited it, but they tasted of the lotus and remained there; for there grew in the country a sweet fruit called lotus, which caused him who tasted it to forget everything. When Ulysses was informed of this, he restrained the rest of his men, and dragged those who had tasted the lotus by force to the ships. And having sailed to the land of the Cyclopes, he stood in for the shore.
And having left the rest of the ships in the neighboring island, he stood in for the land of the Cyclopes with a single ship, and landed with twelve companions.[*](As to the adventures of Ulysses and his companions among the Cyclopes, see Hom. Od. 9.105-542; Hyginus, Fab. 125. The story is a folk-tale found in many lands. See Frazer's Appendix to Apollodorus, “Ulysses and Polyphemus.”) And near the sea was a cave which he entered,
And having lit a fire and sacrificed some of the kids, they feasted. But the Cyclops came, and when he had driven in his flocks, he put a huge stone to the door, and perceiving the men he ate some of them.
But Ulysses gave him of Maro's wine to drink, and when he had drunk, he asked for another draught, and when he had drunk the second, he inquired his name; and when Ulysses said that he was called Nobody, he threatened to devour Nobody last and the others first, and that was the token of friendship which he promised to give him in return. And being overcome by wine, he fell asleep.
But Ulysses found a club lying there, and with the help of four comrades he sharpened it, and, having heated it in the fire, he blinded him. And when Polyphemus cried to the Cyclopes round about for help, they came and asked who was hurting him, and when he said, “ Nobody,” they thought he meant that he was being hurt by nobody, and so they retired.
And when the flocks sought their usual pasture, he opened the cave, and standing at the doorway spread out his hands and felt the sheep. But Ulysses tied three rams together,---and himself getting under the bigger, and hiding under its belly, he passed out with the sheep. And having released his comrades from the sheep, he drove the animals to the ships, and sailing away shouted to the Cyclops that he was Ulysses and that he had escaped
Now the Cyclops had been forewarned by a soothsayer that he should be blinded by Ulysses; and when he learned the name, he tore away rocks and hurled them into the sea, and hardly did the ship evade the rocks. From that time Poseidon was wroth with Ulysses.
Having put to sea with all his ships, he came to the island of Aeolia, of which the king was Aeolus.[*](As to the adventures of Ulysses with Aeolus, the Keeper of the Winds, see Hom. Od. 10.1-76; Hyginus, Fab. 125; Ov. Met. 14.223-232.) He was appointed by Zeus keeper of the winds, both to calm them and to send them forth. Having entertained Ulysses, he gave him an oxhide bag in which he had bound fast the winds, after showing what winds to use on the voyage and binding fast the bag in the vessel. And by using suitable winds Ulysses had a prosperous voyage; and when he was near Ithaca and already saw the smoke rising from the town,[*](Homer says (Hom. Od. 10.30) they were so near land that they could already see the men tending the fires (πυρπολέοντας); but whether the fires were signals to guide the ship to port, or watchfires of shepherds tending their flocks on the hills, does not appear.) he fell asleep.