De saltatione

For we must recognise that there is a connecting bond between Spartan story and that of Troy, which is copious and full of parts to play; in fact, for each person who fell there, a drama offers itself to the theatre. These themes must be kept in mind above all others, from the time of the rape straight through to what happened in the “Home-farings,” with the wandering of Aeneas and the love of Dido.[*](Dido’s story essentially as it was told in the Greek of Tinaeus may still be read in the Latin of Justin (XVIII, 4-8); but Aeneas played no part in it. His introduction into it cannot be traced further back than Naevius. It probably came to Lucian by way of Vergil, from whom, however, it is hardly likely that he derived it at first hand. )

The dramas that centre upon Orestes, including that hero’s adventures in Scythia, are not alien to all this; and what went before is not incongruous, either, but akin to the story of Troy—the virgin life of Achilles in Scyros, the madness of Odysseus, the marooning of Philoctetes, and, in general, the whole wandering of Odysseus, including Circe, Telegonus,[*](Telegonus, the son of Circe and Odysseus, does not appear in the Odyssey, but was the hero of a late sequel to it, the Telegony. Its content is reflected in an abstract by Proclus (Evelyn White, Hesiod, etc. [L.C.L.], p. 530) and in Apoll., Epit., VII, 34-37. In stating that its author represented Telegonus as Odysseus’ son by Calypso, Eustathius is manifestly in error, for the part played by Circe in the conclusion of the story makes it certain that Circe was his mother. ) Aeolus’ sway over the winds, and all the rest of it, to the punishment of the suitors. Also, preceding this, the plot against Palamedes, and the wrath of Nauplius, the madness of Ajax, and the death of the other Ajax among the rocks.

Elis too has many subjects for those who essay the dance—Oenomaus and Myrtilus, Cronus and Zeus, and the first contestants in the Olympic games ;[*](Probably the wrestling match between Cronus and Zeus, by which Zeus won possession of Olympia, is meant here rather than the games in which the gods competed under the presidency of Zeus (Paus., V, 7, 10), or the wrestling match between Zeus and Heracles (Lyc., 39-43), or the games held by Heracles, in which the competitors were his contemporaries (Pindar, Ol., X, 60-75). )

and the Arcadian mythology also is copious—the flight of Daphne, the transformation of Callisto into a wild beast, the drunken riot of the Centaurs, the birth of Pan, the love of Alpheus, and his journey into foreign parts beneath the sea.

Indeed, even if you go to Crete in fancy, the dance garners very many contributions from there— Europe, Pasiphae, both the bulls,[*](The Minotaur, and the bull that fathered him. ) the labyrinth, Ariadne, Phaedra, Androgeos, Daedalus and Icarus, Glaucus and the soothsaying skill of Polyidus, and Talus, the bronze roundsman of Crete.

Or if you cross over to Aetolia, there too the dance finds a great deal—Althea, Meleager, Atalanta, the brand, the wrestling-match between Heracles and the river (Achelous), the birth of the Sirens,[*](Clearly Lucian has in mind the legend that made them daughters of Earth (Eur., Hel., 168), engendered of the blood that dropped from the wound of Achelous, inflicted by Heracles through breaking off one of his horns (Libanius, Progymn., 4). ) the emergence of the Echinades,[*](Five of the Echinades were nymphs, turned into islands for their failure to invite Achelous to a sacrifice. A sixth, Perimele, was a maiden who was thrown into the sea by her father because she had given herself to Achelous; in answer to Achelous’ prayer, Poseidon changed her into an island. So, at all events, says Ovid (Met., VIII, 577-610). ) and the settlement of Alemaeon there after his madness; then Nessus, and the jealousy of Deianeira, and, consequent upon it, the pyre in Oeta.