Library

Apollodorus

Apollodorus. The Library. Frazer, James George, Sir, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.

Sailing by night they encountered a violent storm, and Apollo, taking his stand on the Melantian ridges, flashed lightning down, shooting a shaft into the sea. Then they perceived an island close at hand, and anchoring there they named it Anaphe, because it had loomed up (anaphanenai) unexpectedly. So they founded an altar of Radiant Apollo, and having offered sacrifice they betook them to feasting; and twelve handmaids, whom Arete had given to Medea, jested merrily with the chiefs; whence it is still customary for the women to jest at the sacrifice[*](Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1701-1730; Orphica, Argonautica 1361-1367. From the description of Apollonius we gather that the raillery between men and women at these sacrifices was of a ribald character (αἰσχροῖς ἔπεσσιν.) Here Apollodorus again departs from Apollonius, who places the intervention of Apollo and the appearance of the island of Anaphe after the approach of the Argonauts to Crete, and their repulse by Talos. Moreover, Apollonius tells how, after leaving Phaeacia, the Argonauts were driven by a storm to Libya and the Syrtes, where they suffered much hardship (Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1228-1628). This Libyan episode in the voyage of the Argo is noticed by Diod. 4.56.6, but entirely omitted by Apollodorus.).

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Putting to sea from there, they were hindered from touching at Crete by Talos.[*](As to Talos, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1639- 1693; Orphica, Argonautica 1358-1360; Agatharchides, in Photius, Bibliotheca, p. 443b, lines 22-25, ed. Bekker; Lucian, De saltatione 49; Zenobius, Cent. v.85; Suidas, s.v. Σαρδάνιος γέλως ; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xx.302, p. 1893; Scholiast on Plat. Rep. i, 337a. Talos would seem to have been a bronze image of the sun represented as a man with a bull's head. See The Dying God, pp. 74ff.; A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.718ff. In his account of the death of Talos our author again differs from Apollonius Rhodius, according to whom Talos perished through grazing his ankle against a jagged rock, so that all the ichor in his body gushed out. This incident seems to have been narrated by Sophocles in one of his plays (Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1638; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, i.110ff.). The account, mentioned by Apollodorus, which referred the death of Talos to the spells of Medea, is illustrated by a magnificent vase-painting, in the finest style, which represents Talos swooning to death in presence of the Argonauts, while the enchantress Medea stands by, gazing grimly at her victim and holding in one hand a basket from which she seems to be drawing with the other the fatal herbs. See A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.721, with plate XL1.) Some say that he was a man of the Brazen Race, others that he was given to Minos by Hephaestus; he was a brazen man, but some say that he was a bull. He had a single vein extending from his neck to his ankles, and a bronze nail was rammed home at the end of the vein. This Talos kept guard, running round the island thrice every day; wherefore, when he saw the Argo standing inshore, he pelted it as usual with stones. His death was brought about by the wiles of Medea, whether, as some say, she drove him mad by drugs, or, as others say, she promised to make him immortal and then drew out the nail, so that all the ichor gushed out and he died. But some say that Poeas shot him dead in the ankle. After tarrying a single night there they put in to Aegina to draw water, and a contest arose among them concerning the drawing of the water.[*](Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1765-1772, from whose account we gather that this story was told to explain the origin of a footrace in Aegina, in which young men ran with jars full of water on their shoulders.) Thence they sailed betwixt Euboea and Locris and came to
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Iolcus, having completed the whole voyage in four months.

Now Pelias, despairing of the return of the Argonauts, would have killed Aeson; but he requested to be allowed to take his own life, and in offering a sacrifice drank freely of the bull's blood and died.[*](Compare Diod. 4.50.1; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. i.777ff. The ancients believed that bull's blood was poisonous. Similarly Themistocles was popularly supposed to have killed himself by drinking bull's blood (Plut. Them. 31).) And Jason's mother cursed Pelias and hanged herself,[*](Her name was Perimede, according to Apollod. 1.9.16. Diodorus Siculus calls her Amphinome, and says that she stabbed herself after cursing Pelias (Diod. 4.50.1).) leaving behind an infant son Promachus; but Pelias slew even the son whom she had left behind.[*](Compare Diod. 4.50.1.) On his return Jason surrendered the fleece, but though he longed to avenge his wrongs he bided his time. At that time he sailed with the chiefs to the Isthmus and dedicated the ship to Poseidon, but afterwards he exhorted Medea to devise how he could punish Pelias. So she repaired to the palace of Pelias and persuaded his daughters to make mince meat of their father and boil him, promising to make him young again by her drugs; and to win their confidence she cut up a ram and made it into a lamb by boiling it. So they believed her, made mince meat of their father and boiled him.[*](With this account of the death of Pelias compare Diod. 4.51ff.; Paus. 8.11.2ff.; Zenobius, Cent. iv.92; Plaut. Ps. 868ff.; Cicero, De senectute xxiii.83; Ov. Met. 7.297-349; Hyginus, Fab. 24. The story of the fraud practised by Medea on Pelias is illustrated by Greek vase-paintings. For example, on a black-figured vase the ram is seen issuing from the boiling cauldron, while Medea and the two daughters of Pelias stand by watching it with gestures of glad surprise, and the aged white-haired king himself sits looking on expectant. See Miss J. E. Harrison, Greek Vase Paintings (London, 1894), plate ii; Baumeister, Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums, ii.1201ff. with fig. 1394. According to the author of the epic Returns (Nostoi), Medea in like manner restored to youth Jason's old father, Aeson; according to Pherecydes and Simonides, she applied the magical restorative with success to her husband, Jason. Again, Aeschylus wrote a play called The Nurses of Dionysus, in which he related how Medea similarly renovated not only the nurses but their husbands by the simple process of decoction. See the Greek Argument to the Medea of Euripides, and the Scholiast on Aristophanes, Knights, 1321. (According to Ov. Met. 7.251-294, Medea restored Aeson to youth, not by boiling him, but by draining his body of his effete old blood and replacing it by a magic brew.) Again, when Pelops had been killed and served up at a banquet of the gods by his cruel father Tantalus, the deities in pity restored him to life by boiling him in a cauldron from which he emerged well and whole except for the loss of his shoulder, of which Demeter had inadvertently partaken. See Pind. O. 1.26(40)ff with the Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 152-153. For similar stories of the magical restoration of youth and life, see Frazer's Appendix to Apollodorus, “The Renewal of Youth.”) But Acastus buried his father with the help

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of the inhabitants of Iolcus, and he expelled Jason and Medea from Iolcus.

They went to Corinth, and lived there happily for ten years, till Creon, king of Corinth, betrothed his daughter Glauce to Jason, who married her and divorced Medea. But she invoked the gods by whom Jason had sworn, and after often upbraiding him with his ingratitude she sent the bride a robe steeped in poison, which when Glauce had put on, she was consumed with fierce fire along with her father, who went to her rescue.[*](See Eur. Med. 1136ff. It is said that in her agony Glauce threw herself into a fountain, which was thenceforth named after her (Paus. 2.2.6). The fountain has been discovered and excavated in recent years. See G. W. Elderkin, “The Fountain of Glauce at Corinth,” American Journal of Archaeology, xiv. (1910), pp. 19-50.) But Mermerus and Pheres, the children whom Medea had by Jason, she killed, and having got from the Sun a car drawn by winged dragons she fled on it to Athens.[*](In this account of the tragic end of Medea's stay at Corinth our author has followed the Medea of Euripides. Compare Diod. 4.54; Ov. Met. 7.391ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 25. According to Apuleius, Meta. i.10, Medea contrived to burn the king's palace and the king himself in it, as well as his daughter.) Another tradition is that on her flight she left behind her children, who were still infants, setting them as suppliants on the altar of Hera of the

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Height; but the Corinthians removed them and wounded them to death.[*](Compare Paus. 2.3.6; Ael., Var. Hist. v.21; Scholiast on Eur. Med. 9, 264. Down to a comparatively late date the Corinthians used to offer annual sacrifices and perform other rites for the sake of expiating the murder of the children. Seven boys and seven girls, clad in black and with their hair shorn, had to spend a year in the sanctuary of Hera of the Height, where the murder had been perpetrated. These customs fell into desuetude after Corinth was captured by the Romans. See Paus. 2.3.7; Scholiast on Eur. Med. 264; compare Philostratus, Her. xx.24.) Medea came to Athens, and being there married to Aegeus bore him a son Medus. Afterwards, however, plotting against Theseus, she was driven a fugitive from Athens with her son.[*](According to one account, Medea attempted to poison Theseus, but his father dashed the poison cup from his lips. See below, Apollod. E.1.5ff.; Plut. Thes. 12; Diod. 4.55.4-6; Paus. 2.3.8; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.741; Eustathius, Comment. on Dionysius Perieg. 1017; Ov. Met. 7.406-424. According to Ovid, the poison which Medea made use of to take off Thesus was aconite.) But he conquered many barbarians and called the whole country under him Media,[*](For the etymology, compare Diod. 4.55.5, 7, Diod. 4.56.1; Strab. 11.13.10; Paus. 2.3.8; Eustathius, Comment. on Dionysius Perieg. 1017; Hyginus, Fab. 27.) and marching against the Indians he met his death. And Medea came unknown to Colchis, and finding that Aeetes had been deposed by his brother Perses, she killed Perses and restored the kingdom to her father.[*](According to others, it was not Medea but her son Medus who killed Perses. See Diod. 4.56.1; Hyginus, Fab. 27. Cicero quotes from an otherwise unknown Latin tragedy some lines in which the deposed Aeetes is represented mourning his forlorn state in an unkingly and unmanly strain (Tusculan. Disput. iii.12.26). The narrative of Hyginus has all the appearance of being derived from a tragedy, perhaps the same tragedy from which Cicero quotes. But that tragedy itself was probably based on a Greek original; for Diodorus Siculus introduces his similar account of the assassination of the usurper with the remark that the history of Medea had been embellished and distorted by the extravagant fancies of the tragedians.)
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Having now gone through the family of Deucalion, we have next to speak of that of Inachus. Ocean and Tethys had a son Inachus, after whom a river in Argos is called Inachus.[*](As to Inachus and his descendants, see Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 177 (who follows Apollodorus); Paus. 2.15.5; Scholiast on Eur. Or. 932; Scholiast on Hom. Il. i.22. According to Apion, the flight of the Israelites from Egypt took place during the reign of Inachus at Argos. See Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii, x.10.10ff. On the subject of Phoroneus there was an ancient epic Phoronis, of which a few verses have survived. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 209ff. ) He and Melia, daughter of Ocean, had sons, Phoroneus, and Aegialeus. Aegialeus having died childless, the whole country was called Aegialia; and Phoroneus, reigning over the whole land afterwards named Peloponnese, begat Apis and Niobe by a nymph Teledice. Apis converted his power into a tyranny and named the Peloponnese after himself Apia; but being a stern tyrant he was conspired against and slain by Thelxion and Telchis. He left no child, and being deemed a god was called Sarapis.[*](Apollodorus identifies the Argive Apis with the Egyptian bull Apis, who was in turn identified with Serapis (Sarapis). As to the Egyptian Apis, see Hdt. 2.153 (with Wiedemann's note), iii.27, 28. As to Apia as a name for Peloponnese or Argos, see Aesch. Supp. 260ff.; Paus. 2.5.7; Scholiast on Hom. Il. i.22; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 177; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Ἀπία .) But Niobe had by Zeus ( and she was the first mortal woman with whom Zeus cohabited) a son Argus, and also, so says

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Acusilaus, a son Pelasgus, after whom the inhabitants of the Peloponnese were called Pelasgians. However, Hesiod says that Pelasgus was a son of the soil.

About him I shall speak again.[*](See below, Apollod. 3.8.1.) But Argus received the kingdom and called the Peloponnese after himself Argos; and having married Evadne, daughter of Strymon and Neaera, he begat Ecbasus, Piras, Epidaurus, and Criasus,[*](Compare Scholiast on Eur. Or. 932; Hyginus, Fab. 145.) who also succeeded to the kingdom. Ecbasus had a son Agenor, and Agenor had a son Argus, the one who is called the All-seeing. He had eyes in the whole of his body,[*](As to Argus and his many eyes, compare Aesch. Supp. 303ff.; Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 1116; Ov. Met. 1.625ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 145; Serv. Verg. A. 7.790; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 5ff. (First Vatican Mythographer 18).) and being exceedingly strong he killed the bull that ravaged Arcadia and clad himself in its hide;[*](Compare Dionysius, quoted by the Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 1116, who says merely that Argus was clad in a hide and had eyes all over his body.) and when a satyr wronged the Arcadians and robbed them of their cattle, Argus withstood and killed him. It is said, too, that Echidna,[*](As to the monster Echidna, half woman, half snake, see Hes. Th. 295ff. ) daughter of Tartarus and Earth, who used to carry off passers-by, was caught asleep and slain by Argus. He also avenged the murder of Apis by putting the guilty to death.

Argus and Ismene, daughter of Asopus, had a son Iasus, who is said to have been the father of Io.[*](Compare Paus. 2.16.1; Scholiast on Eur. Or. 932.) But the annalist Castor and many of the tragedians allege that Io was a daughter of Inachus;[*](Compare Aesch. PB 589ff.; Hdt. 1.1; Plut. De Herodoti malignitate 11; Lucian, Dial. Deorum iii.; Lucian, Dial. Marin. vii.1; Paus. 3.18.13; Ov. Met. 1.583ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 145.) and Hesiod

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and Acusilaus say that she was a daughter of Piren. Zeus seduced her while she held the priesthood of Hera, but being detected by Hera he by a touch turned Io into a white cow[*](Compare Aesch. Supp. 291ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. 2.103 (who cites the present passage of Apollodorus); Ov. Met. 1.588ff. ) and swore that he had not known her; wherefore Hesiod remarks that lover's oaths do not draw down the anger of the gods. But Hera requested the cow from Zeus for herself and set Argus the All-seeing to guard it. Pherecydes says that this Argus was a son of Arestor;[*](The passage of Pherecydes is quoted by the Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 1116.) but Asclepiades says that he was a son of Inachus, and Cercops says that he was a son of Argus and Ismene, daughter of Asopus; but Acusilaus says that he was earth-born.[*](So Aesch. PB 305.) He tethered her to the olive tree which was in the grove of the Mycenaeans. But Zeus ordered Hermes to steal the cow, and as Hermes could not do it secretly because Hierax had blabbed, he killed Argus by the cast of a stone;[*](Compare Scholiast on Aesch. Prom. 561; Scholiast on Hom. Il. ii.103.) whence he was called Argiphontes.[*](That is, slayer of Argus.) Hera next sent a gadfly to infest the cow,[*](For the wanderings of Io, goaded by the gadfly, see Aesch. Supp. 540ff., Aesch. PB 786(805)ff.; Ov. Met. 1.724ff. ) and the animal came first to what is called after her the Ionian gulf. Then she journeyed through Illyria and having traversed Mount Haemus she crossed what was then called the Thracian Straits but is now called after her the Bosphorus.[*](Bosphoros, ”Cow's strait” or ” Oxford.”) And having gone away to Scythia and the Cimmerian land she wandered over great tracts of land and swam wide stretches of sea both in Europe and Asia until at last
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she came to Egypt, where she recovered her original form and gave birth to a son Epaphus beside the river Nile.[*](Compare Aesch. PB 846(865)ff.; Hdt. 2.153 Hdt. 3.27; Ov. Met. 1.748ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 145.) Him Hera besought the Curetes to make away with, and make away with him they did. When Zeus learned of it, he slew the Curetes; but Io set out in search of the child. She roamed all over Syria, because there it was revealed to her that the wife of the king of Byblus was nursing her son;[*](Isis, whom the ancients sometimes identified with Io (see below), is said to have nursed the infant son of the king of Byblus. See Plut. Isis et Osiris 15ff. Both stories probably reflect the search said to have been instituted by Isis for the body of the dead Osiris.) and having found Epaphus she came to Egypt and was married to Telegonus, who then reigned over the Egyptians. And she set up an image of Demeter, whom the Egyptians called Isis,[*](For the identification of Demeter with Isis, see Hdt. 2.59, Hdt. 2.156; Diod. 1.13.5, Diod. 1.25.1, Diod. 1.96.5.) and Io likewise they called by the name of Isis.[*](Herodotus remarked (Hdt. 2.41) that in art Isis was represented like Io as a woman with cow's horns. For the identification of Io and Isis, see Diod. 1.24.8; Lucian, Dial. Deorum iii.; Clement of Alexandria, Strom. i.21.106, p. 382, ed. Potter; Prop. iii.20.17ff.; Juvenal vi.526ff.; Statius, Sylv. iii.2.101ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 145.)

Reigning over the Egyptians Epaphus married Memphis, daughter of Nile, founded and named the city of Memphis after her, and begat a daughter Libya, after whom the region of Libya was called.[*](Compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 894.) Libya had by Poseidon twin sons, Agenor and Belus.[*](Compare Tzetzes, Chiliades vii.349ff. ) Agenor departed to Phoenicia and reigned there, and there he became the ancestor of the great stock; hence we shall defer our account of him.[*](See below, Apollod. 3.1.) But Belus remained in Egypt, reigned over the country, and married Anchinoe, daughter of Nile, by whom he had twin

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sons, Egyptus and Danaus,[*](The following account of Egyptus and Danaus, including the settlement of Danaus and his daughters at Argos, is quoted verbally, with a few omissions and changes, by the Scholiast on Hom. Il. i.42, who mentions the second book of Apollodorus as his authority. Compare Aesch. Supp. 318ff.; Scholiast on Eur. Hec. 886, and Scholiast on Eur. Or. 872; Hyginus, Fab. 168; Serv. Verg. A. 10.497.) but according to Euripides, he had also Cepheus and Phineus. Danaus was settled by Belus in Libya, and Egyptus in Arabia; but Egyptus subjugated the country of the Melampods and named it Egypt < after himself>. Both had children by many wives; Egyptus had fifty sons, and Danaus fifty daughters. As they afterwards quarrelled concerning the kingdom, Danaus feared the sons of Egyptus, and by the advice of Athena he built a ship, being the first to do so, and having put his daughters on board he fled. And touching at Rhodes he set up the image of Lindian Athena.[*](Compare Hdt. 2.182; Marmor Parium 15-17, pp. 544, 546, ed. C. Müller (Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, vol. i); Diod. 5.58.1; Strab. 14.2.11; Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii iii.8. As to the worship of the goddess, see Cecil Torr, Rhodes in Ancient Times (Cambridge, 1885), pp. 74ff., 94 sq. In recent years a chronicle of the temple of Lindian Athena has been discovered in Rhodes: it is inscribed on a marble slab. See Chr. Blinkenberg, La Chronique du temple Lindien (Copenhagen, 1912).) Thence he came to Argos and the reigning king Gelanor surrendered the kingdom to him;[*](Compare Paus. 2.16.1, Paus. 2.19.3. ) < and having made himself master of the country he named the inhabitants Danai after himself>. But the country being
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waterless, because Poseidon had dried up even the springs out of anger at Inachus for testifying that the land belonged to Hera,[*](Compare Paus. 2.15.5. ) Danaus sent his daughters to draw water. One of them, Amymone, in her search for water threw a dart at a deer and hit a sleeping satyr, and he, starting up, desired to force her; but Poseidon appearing on the scene, the satyr fled, and Amymone lay with Poseidon, and he revealed to her the springs at Lerna.[*](Compare Eur. Ph. 187ff.; Lucian, Dial. Marin. vi.; Philostratus, Imagines, i.8; Scholiast on Hom. Il. iv.171; Prop. iii.18.47ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 169. There was a stream called Amymone at Lerna. See Strab. 8.6.8; Paus. 2.37.1, Paus. 2.37.4; Hyginus, Fab. 169.)

But the sons of Egyptus came to Argos, and exhorted Danaus to lay aside his enmity, and begged to marry his daughters. Now Danaus distrusted their professions and bore them a grudge on account of his exile; nevertheless he consented to the marriage and allotted the damsels among them.[*](For the marriage of the sons of Egyptus with the daughters of Danaus, and its tragic sequel, see Zenobius, Cent. ii.6; Scholiast on Eur. Hec. 886 and Or. 872; Scholiast on Hom. Il. iv.171; Hyginus, Fab. 168; Serv. Verg. A. 10.497. With the list of names of the bridal pairs as recorded by Apollodorus, compare the list given by Hyginus, Fab. 170.) First, they picked out Hypermnestra as the eldest to be the wife of Lynceus, and Gorgophone to be the wife of Proteus; for Lynceus and Proteus had been borne to Egyptus by a woman of royal blood, Argyphia; but of the rest Busiris, Enceladus, Lycus, and Daiphron obtained by lot the daughters that had been borne to Danaus by Europe, to wit, Automate, Amymone, Agave, and Scaea. These daughters were borne to Danaus by a queen; but Gorgophone and Hypermnestra were borne to him

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by Elephantis. And Istrus got Hippodamia; Chalcodon got Rhodia; Agenor got Cleopatra; Chaetus got Asteria; Diocorystes got Hippodamia; Alces got Glauce; Alcmenor got Hippomedusa; Hippothous got Gorge; Euchenor got Iphimedusa; Hippolytus got Rhode. These ten sons were begotten on an Arabian woman; but the maidens were begotten on Hamadryad nymphs, some being daughters of Atlantia, and others of Phoebe. Agaptolemus got Pirene; Cercetes got Dorium; Eurydamas got Phartis; Aegius got Mnestra; Argius got Evippe; Archelaus got Anaxibia; Menemachus got Nelo. These seven sons were begotten on a Phoenician woman, and the maidens on an Ethiopian woman. The sons of Egyptus by Tyria got as their wives, without drawing lots, the daughters of Danaus by Memphis in virtue of the similarity of their names; thus Clitus got Clite; Sthenelus got Sthenele; Chrysippus got Chrysippe. The twelve sons of Egyptus by the Naiad nymph Caliadne cast lots for the daughters of Danaus by the Naiad nymph Polyxo: the sons were Eurylochus, Phantes, Peristhenes, Hermus, Dryas, Potamon, Cisseus, Lixus, Imbrus, Bromius, Polyctor, Chthonius; and the damsels were Autonoe, Theano, Electra, Cleopatra, Eurydice, Glaucippe, Anthelia, Cleodore, Evippe, Erato, Stygne, Bryce. The sons of Egyptus by Gorgo, cast lots for the daughters of Danaus by Pieria, and Periphas got Actaea, Oeneus got Podarce, Egyptus
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got Dioxippe, Menalces got Adite, Lampus got Ocypete, Idmon got Pylarge. The youngest sons of Egyptus were these: Idas got Hippodice; Daiphron got Adiante ( the mother who bore these damsels was Herse); Pandion got Callidice; Arbelus got Oeme; Hyperbius got Celaeno; Hippocorystes got Hyperippe; the mother of these men was Hephaestine, and the mother of these damsels was Crino. When they had got their brides by lot, Danaus made a feast and gave his daughters daggers; and they slew their bridegrooms as they slept, all but Hypermnestra; for she saved Lynceus because he had respected her virginity:[*](Compare Pind. N. 7.1.6(10), with the Scholiast; Paus. 2.19.6, Paus. 2.20.7, Paus. 2.21.1; Hor. Carm. 3.11.30ff.; Ovid, Her. xiv.) wherefore Danaus shut her up and kept her under ward. But the rest of the daugters of Danaus buried the heads of their bridegrooms in Lerna [*](Compare Zenobius, Cent. iv.86. According to Paus. 2.24.2) the heads of the sons of Egyptus were buried on the Larisa, the acropolis of Argos, and the headless trunks were buried at Lerna.) and paid funeral honors to their bodies in front of the city; and Athena and Hermes purified them at the command of Zeus. Danaus afterwards united Hypermnestra to Lynceus; and bestowed his other daughters on the victors in an athletic contest.[*](Compare Pind. P. 9.112(195), with the Scholiasts; Paus. 3.12.2. The legend may reflect an old custom of racing for a bride. See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii.299ff. It is said that Danaus instituted games which were celebrated every fifth (or, as we should say, every fourth) year, and at which the prize of the victor in the footrace was a shield. See Hyginus, Fab. 170.) Amymone had a son Nauplius by Poseidon.[*](Compare Strab. 8.6.2; Paus. 2.38.2, Paus. 4.35.2.>) This Nauplius lived to a great age, and sailing the sea he used by beacon lights to lure to death such as he fell
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in with.[*](See below, Apollod. E. E.6.7-11.) It came to pass, therefore, that he himself died by that very death. But before his death he married a wife; according to the tragic poets, she was Clymene, daughter of Catreus; but according to the author of The Returns,[*](Nostoi, an epic poem describing the return of the Homeric heroes from Troy. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 52ff.; D. B. Monro, in his edition of Homer, Odyssey, Bks. xiii.- xxiv. pp. 378-382.) she was Philyra; and according to Cercops she was Hesione. By her he had Palamedes, Oeax, and Nausimedon.

Lynceus reigned over Argos after Danaus and begat a son Abas by Hypermnestra; and Abas had twin sons Acrisius and Proetus[*](With this and what follows compare Paus. 2.16.2, Paus. 2.25.7.) by Aglaia, daughter of Mantineus. These two quarrelled with each other while they were still in the womb, and when they were grown up they waged war for the kingdom,[*](So the twins Esau and Jacob quarrelled both in the womb and in after life (Genesis, xxv.21ff.). Compare Rendel Harris, Boanerges, pp. 279ff. who argues that Proetus was the elder twin, who, as in the case of Esau and Jacob, was worsted by his younger brother.) and in the course of the war they were the first to invent shields. And Acrisius gained the mastery and drove Proetus from Argos; and Proetus went to Lycia to the court of Iobates or, as some say, of Amphianax, and married his daughter, whom Homer calls Antia,[*](Hom. Il. 6.160.) but the tragic poets call her Stheneboea.[*](See below, Apollod. 2.3.1, Apollod. 3.9.1. Euripides called her Stheneboea (Eustathius on Hom. Il. vi.158, p 632).) His in-law restored him to his own land with an

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army of Lycians, and he occupied Tiryns, which the Cyclopes had fortified for him.[*](Compare Bacch. 10.77ff., ed. Jebb; Paus. 2.25.8; Strab. 8.6.8.) They divided the whole of the Argive territory between them and settled in it, Acrisius reigning over Argos and Proetus over Tiryns.

And Acrisius had a daughter Danae by Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaemon, and Proetus had daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, by Stheneboea. When these damsels were grown up, they went mad,[*](Compare Bacch. 10.40-112, ed. Jebb; Hdt. 9.34; Strab. 8.3.19; Diod. 4.68; Paus. 2.7.8; Paus. 2.18.4; Paus. 5.5.10; Paus. 8.18.7ff.; Scholiast on Pind. N. 9.13 (30); Clement of Alexandria, Strom. vii.4.26, p. 844, ed. Potter; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Ἀζανία ; Verg. Ecl. 6.48ff.; Ov. Met. 15.325ff.; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxv.47; Serv. Verg. Ecl. 6.48; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. iii.453; Vitruvius viii.3.21. Of these writers, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and, in one passage (Paus. 2.18.4), Pausanias, speak of the madness of the Argive women in general, without mentioning the daughters of Proetus in particular. And, according to Diodorus Siculus, with whom Pausanias in the same passage (Paus. 2.18.4) agrees, the king of Argos at the time of the affair was not Proetus but Anaxagoras, son of Megapenthes. As to Megapenthes, see Apollod. 2.4.4. According to Virgil the damsels imagined that they were turned into cows; and Servius and Lactantius Placidus inform us that this notion was infused into their minds by Hera (Juno) to punish them for the airs of superiority which they assumed towards her; indeed, in one place Lactantius Placidus says that the angry goddess turned them into heifers outright. In these legends Mr. A. B. Cook sees reminiscences of priestesses who assumed the attributes and assimilated themselves to the likeness of the cow-goddess Hera. See his Zeus, i.451ff. But it is possible that the tradition describes, with mythical accessories, a real form of madness by which the Argive women, or some portion of them, were temporarily affected. We may compare a somewhat similar form of temporary insanity to which the women of the wild Jakun tribe in the Malay Peninsula are said to be liable. “A curious complaint was made to the Penghulu of Pianggu, in my presence, by a Jakun man from the Anak Endau. He stated that all the women of his settlement were frequently seized by a kind of madness—presumably some form of hysteria— and that they ran off singing into the jungle, each woman by herself, and stopped there for several days and nights, finally returning almost naked, or with their clothes all torn to shreds. He said that the first outbreak of this kind occurred a few years ago, and that they were still frequent, one usually taking place every two or three months. They were started by one of the women, whereupon all the others followed suit.” See Ivor H. N. Evans, “Further Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of Pahang,” Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums, ix:1, January 1920, p. 27 (Calcutta, 1920).) according to Hesiod, because they would not accept the rites of Dionysus, but according to Acusilaus, because they disparaged the wooden image of Hera. In their madness they roamed over the whole Argive land, and afterwards, passing through Arcadia and the Peloponnese,

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they ran through the desert in the most disorderly fashion. But Melampus, son of Amythaon by Idomene, daughter of Abas, being a seer and the first to devise the cure by means of drugs and purifications, promised to cure the maidens if he should receive the third part of the sovereignty. When Proetus refused to pay so high a fee for the cure, the maidens raved more than ever, and besides that, the other women raved with them; for they also abandoned their houses, destroyed their own children, and flocked to the desert. Not until the evil had reached a very high pitch did Proetus consent to pay the stipulated fee, and Melampus promised to effect a cure whenever his brother Bias should receive just so much land as himself. Fearing that, if the cure were delayed, yet more would be demanded of him, Proetus agreed to let the physician proceed on these terms. So Melampus, taking with him the most stalwart of the young men, chased the women in a bevy from the mountains to Sicyon with shouts and a sort of frenzied dance. In the pursuit Iphinoe, the eldest of the daughters, expired; but the others were lucky enough to be purified and so to recover their wits.[*](According to Bacch. 10.95ff., ed. Jebb, the father of the damsels vowed to sacrifice twenty red oxen to the Sun, if his daughters were healed: the vow was heard, and on the intercession of Artemis the angry Hera consented to allow the cure.) Proetus gave them in marriage to Melampus and Bias, and afterwards begat a son, Megapenthes.

Bellerophon, son of Glaucus, son of Sisyphus, having accidentally killed his brother Deliades or, as some say, Piren, or, as others will have it, Alcimenes,

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came to Proetus and was purified.[*](Compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 17; Tzetzes, Chiliades vii.810ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. vi.155. According to one account, mentioned by these writers, Bellerophon received his name (meaning slayer of Bellerus) because he had slain a tyrant of Corinth called Bellerus.) And Stheneboea fell in love with him,[*](In the following story of Bellerophon, our author follows Hom. Il. 6.155ff. (where the wife of Proetus is called Antia instead of Stheneboea). Compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 17; Tzetzes, Chiliades vii.816ff.; Zenobius, Cent. ii.87 (who probably followed Apollodorus); Hyginus, Fab. 57; Hyginus, Ast. ii.18; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 24, 119 (First Vatican Mythographer 71, 72; Second Vatican Mythographer 131). Euripides composed a tragedy on the subject called Stheneboea. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 567ff. According to Tzetzes (Scholiast on Lycophron 17), Iobates refrained from slaying Bellerophon with his own hand in virtue of an old custom which forbade those who had eaten together to kill each other.) and sent him proposals for a meeting; and when he rejected them, she told Proetus that Bellerophon had sent her a vicious proposal. Proetus believed her, and gave him a letter to take to Iobates, in which it was written that he was to kill Bellerophon. Having read the letter, Iobates ordered him to kill the Chimera, believing that he would be destroyed by the beast, for it was more than a match for many, let alone one; it had the fore part of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and its third head, the middle one, was that of a goat, through which it belched fire. And it devastated the country and harried the cattle; for it was a single creature with the power of three beasts. It is said, too, that this Chimera was bred by Amisodarus, as Homer also affirms,[*](Hom. Il. 16.328ff.) and that it was begotten by Typhon on Echidna, as Hesiod relates.[*](Hes. Th. 319ff.)

So Bellerophon mounted

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his winged steed Pegasus, offspring of Medusa and Poseidon, and soaring on high shot down the Chimera from the height.[*](For the combat of Bellerophon with the Chimera, see Hom. Il. 6.179ff.; Hes. Th. 319ff.; Pind. O. 13.84(120)ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 57.) After that contest Iobates ordered him to fight the Solymi, and when he had finished that task also, he commanded him to combat the Amazons. And when he had killed them also, he picked out the reputed bravest of the Lycians and bade them lay an ambush and slay him. But when Bellerophon had killed them also to a man, Iobates, in admiration of his prowess, showed him the letter and begged him to stay with him; moreover he gave him his daughter Philonoe,[*](Anticlia, according to the Scholiast on Pind. O. 9.59(82); Cassandra, according to the Scholiast on Hom. Il. vi.155.) and dying bequeathed to him the kingdom.