Library

Apollodorus

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

Now Hippocoon had sons, to wit: Dorycleus, Scaeus, Enarophorus, Eutiches, Bucolus, Lycaethus,

Tebrus, Hippothous, Eurytus, Hippocorystes, Alcinus, and Alcon. With the help of these sons Hippocoon expelled Icarius and Tyndareus from Lacedaemon.[*](As to the banishment of Tyndareus and his restoration by Herakles, see Diod. 4.33.5; Paus. 2.18.7; Paus. 3.1.4ff.; Paus. 3.21.4; Scholiast on Eur. Or. 457; Scholiast on Hom. Il. ii.581. According to the Scholiasts on Euripides and Homer, Icarius joined Hippocoon in driving his brother Tyndareus out of Sparta.) They fled to Thestius and allied themselves with him in the war which he waged with his neighbors; and Tyndareus married Leda, daughter of Thestius. But afterwards, when Hercules slew Hippocoon and his sons,[*](See above, Apollod. 2.7.3.) they returned, and Tyndareus succeeded to the kingdom.

Icarius and Periboea, a Naiad nymph,[*](According to the Scholiast on Hom. Od. xv.16, the wife of Icarius was Dorodoche, daughter of Ortilochus; but he adds that according to Pherecydes she was Asterodia, daughter of Eurypylus.) had five sons, Thoas, Damasippus, Imeusimus, Aletes, Perileos,[*](Perileos (Perilaus), son of Icarius, is said to have accused the matricide Orestes at the court of the Areopagus. See Paus. 8.34.4.) and a daughter Penelope, whom Ulysses married.[*](Compare Paus. 3.12.1; Paus. 3.20.10ff. According to the former of these passages, Ulysses won her hand in a footrace. As to races for brides, see Apollod. 3.9.2; Apollod. E.2.5; and note on Apollod. 1.7.8.) Tyndareus and Leda had daughters, to wit, Timandra, whom Echemus married,[*](Compare Paus. 8.5.1.) and Clytaemnestra, whom Agamemnon married; also another daughter Phylonoe, whom Artemis made immortal.

But Zeus in the form of a swan consorted with Leda, and on the same night Tyndareus cohabited with her; and she bore Pollux and Helen to Zeus, and Castor and Clytaemnestra to Tyndareus.[*](Compare Eur. Hel. 16ff.; Lucian, Dial. Deorum xx.14; Lucian, Charidemus 7; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.298; Hyginus, Fab. 77; Hyginus, Ast. ii.8; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 27, 64, 119ff., 163 (First Vatican Mythographer 78, 204; Second Vatican Mythographer 132; Third Vatican Mythographer 3.6). As the fruit of her intercourse with the swan, Leda is said to have laid an egg, which in the time of Pausanias was still to be seen hanging by ribbons from the roof of the temple of Hilaira and Phoebe at Sparta. See Paus. 3.16.1. According to one account (First Vatican Mythographer 78), Castor, Pollux, and Helen all emerged from a single egg; according to another account (First Vatican Mythographer 204), Leda laid two eggs, one of which produced Castor and Pollux, and the other Clytaemnestra and Helen. In heaven the twins Castor and Pollux had each, if we may believe Lucian, half an egg on or above his head in token of the way in which he had been hatched. See Lucian, Dial. Deorum xxvi.1. For the distinction between Pollux and Castor, the former being regarded as the son of Zeus and the latter as the son of Tyndareus, see Pind. N. 10.79(149)ff. According to Hesiod, both Pollux and Castor were sons of Zeus. See Scholiast on Pind. N. 10.80(150).) But some say that Helen

was a daughter of Nemesis and Zeus; for that she, flying from the arms of Zeus, changed herself into a goose, but Zeus in his turn took the likeness of a swan and so enjoyed her; and as the fruit of their loves she laid an egg, and a certain shepherd found it in the groves and brought and gave it to Leda; and she put it in a chest and kept it; and when Helen was hatched in due time, Leda brought her up as her own daughter.[*](With this variant story of the birth of Helen compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 88 (who may have followed Apollodorus); Eratosthenes, Cat. 25; Paus. 1.33.7ff.; Scholiast on Callimachus; Hyginus, Ast. ii.8. According to Eratosthenes and the Scholiast on Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis, 232, the meeting between Zeus and Nemesis, in the shape respectively of a swan and a goose, took place at Rhamnus in Attica, where Nemesis had a famous sanctuary, the marble ruins of which may still be seen in a beautiful situation beside the sea. The statue of the goddess at Rhamnus was wrought by the hand of Phidias, and on the base he represented Leda bringing the youthful Helen to her mother Nemesis. In modern times some of these marble reliefs have been found on the spot, but they are too fragmentary to admit of being identified. See Paus. 1.33.2-8, with Frazer's, commentary, vol. ii. pp. 455ff. ) And when she grew into a lovely woman, Theseus carried her off and brought her to Aphidnae.[*](As to the captivity of Helen at Aphidnae, and her rescue by her brothers Castor and Pollux, see Apollod. E.1.23; Hdt. 9.73; Strab. 9.1.17; Diod. 4.63.2-5; Plut. Thes. 31ff.; Paus. 1.17.5; Paus. 1.41.3; Paus. 2.22.6; Paus. 3.18.4ff.; compare Paus. 5.19.3; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 503; Hyginus, Fab. 79. The story was told by the historian Hellanicus (Scholiast on Hom. Il. iii.144), and in part by the poet Alcman (Scholiast on Hom. Il. iii.242).) But when Theseus was in Hades, Pollux and Castor marched against Aphidnae, took the city, got possession of Helen, and led Aethra, the

mother of Theseus, away captive.

Now the kings of Greece repaired to Sparta to win the hand of Helen. The wooers were these:[*](For another list of the suitors of Helen, see Hyginus, Fab. 81. Hesiod in his Catalogues gave a list of the suitors of Helen, and of this list considerable fragments have been discovered in recent years. They include the names of Menelaus, the two sons of Amphiaraus (Alcmaeon and Amphilochus), Ulysses, Podarces, son of Iphiclus, Protesilaus, son of Actor, <Menestheus>, son of Peteos, Ajax of Salamis, Elephenor, son of Chalcodon, and Idomeneus, son of Minos. Thus the list only partially agrees with that of Apollodorus, for it comprises the names of Podarces and Idomeneus, which are omitted by Apollodorus, who also mentions only one son of Amphiaraus, namely Amphilochus. Hyginus includes Idomeneus, but not Podarces, nor the sons of Amphiaraus. In these recently discovered fragments Hesiod does not confine himself to a bare list of names; he contrives to hit off the different characters of the suitors by describing the different manners of their wooing. Thus the canny and thrifty Ulysses brought no wedding presents, because he was quite sure he had no chance of winning the lady. On the other hand, the bold Ajax was extremely liberal with his offer of other people's property; he promised to give magnificent presents in the shape of sheep and oxen which he proposed to lift from the neighbouring coasts and islands. Idomeneus sent nobody to woo the lady, but came himself, trusting apparently to the strength of his personal attractions to win her heart and carry her home with him a blooming bride. See Griechische Dichterfragmente, i., Epische und elegische Fragmente, bearbeitet von W. Schubart und U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (Berlin, 1907), pp. 28ff. (Berliner Klassikertexte 1); Hes. Frag. 68.)— Ulysses, son of Laertes; Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Antilochus, son of Nestor; Agapenor, son of Ancaeus; Sthenelus, son of Capaneus; Amphimachus, son of Cteatus; Thalpius, son of Eurytus; Meges, son of Phyleus; Amphilochus, son of Amphiaraus; Menestheus, son of Peteos; Schedius and Epistrophus, sons of Iphitus; Polyxenus, son of Agasthenes; Peneleos, son of Hippalcimus; Leitus, son of Alector; Ajax, son of Oileus; Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, sons of Ares; Elephenor, son of Chalcodon; Eumelus, son of Admetus; Polypoetes, son of Perithous; Leonteus, son of Coronus; Podalirius and Machaon, sons of Aesculapius; Philoctetes, son of Poeas; Eurypylus, son of Evaemon; Protesilaus, son of Iphiclus; Menelaus, son of Atreus; Ajax and Teucer, sons of

Telamon; Patroclus, son of Menoetius.

Seeing the multitude of them, Tyndareus feared that the preference of one might set the others quarrelling; but Ulysses promised that, if he would help him to win the hand of Penelope, he would suggest a way by which there would be no quarrel. And when Tyndareus promised to help him, Ulysses told him to exact an oath from all the suitors that they would defend the favoured bridegroom against any wrong that might be done him in respect of his marriage. On hearing that, Tyndareus put the suitors on their oath,[*](Compare Hesiod, in Epische und elegische Fragmente, ed. W. Schubart und U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, p. 33; Hes. Frag. 68.89ff.; Eur. IA 57ff.; Thuc. 1.9; Paus. 3.20.9; Scholiast on Hom. Il. 2.339; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 202. According to Paus. 3.20.9 the suitors took the oath standing on the severed pieces of a horse. As to the custom of standing on the pieces of a sacrificial victim or passing between them at the making of solemn covenants, see Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, i.392ff. ) and while he chose Menelaus to be the bridegroom of Helen, he solicited Icarius to bestow Penelope on Ulysses.