Mythoi Koinoi

venus genetrix Munich Museum of Casts of Classical Statue

luoyaozhang — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 06:10:41 +0000

Plaster Cast statues of two different renditions of Aphrodite Taking A Bath at the Munich Museum of Casts of Classical Statue

luoyaozhang — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 06:10:52 +0000

William Blake Richmond - Venus and Anchises_-_Google_Art_Project (1)

luoyaozhang — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 06:11:27 +0000

Sandro Botticelli - La_nascita_di_Venere

luoyaozhang — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 06:12:41 +0000

Fresco depicting Ares and Aphrodite, from the House of Mars and Venus in Pompeii, Naples National Archaeological Museum (17491135395)

luoyaozhang — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 06:23:39 +0000

aphroditepudica

luoyaozhang — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 06:30:33 +0000

Aphrodite of the Syracuse type. Parian marble, Roman copy of the 2nd century CE after a Greek original of the 4th century BC; neck, head and left arm are restorations by Antonio Canova. Found at Baiae, Southern Italy.

Pistoxenos_Painter_ARV_862_22_Aphrodite_riding_on_a_goose_01

pr0560 — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 00:25:00 +0000

Relief_depicting_the_birth_of_Aphrodite_(Aphrodite_Anadyomene),_Aphrodisias_Museum,_Turkey_(19868596734) (1)

pr0560 — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 00:48:48 +0000

Aineias_Aphrodite_Martin-von-Wagner-Museum_L793

pr0560 — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 01:00:43 +0000

Aphrodisias_Museum_Anchises_and_Aphrodite_4649

pr0560 — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 01:35:42 +0000

Aphrodite and Dione, Parthenon, Eastern Pediment

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:35:55 +0000

Mars and Aphrodite_(Venus)_fresco_from_the_Casa_di_Meleagro,_Pompeii_9256_MH

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:36:03 +0000

Aphrodite_Anadyomene_from_Pompeii_cropped

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:36:05 +0000

Aphrodite_and_Eros,_Roman,_early_2nd_century_AD,_marble_-_Galleria_Borghese_-_Rome,_Italy_-_DSC04596

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:37:18 +0000

Venus Genetrix, Musei Capitolini

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:37:49 +0000

Aphrodite with mirror

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:39:22 +0000

Venus in her shell

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:39:33 +0000

Venus-Isis

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:39:45 +0000

Venus_Genitrix_N367

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:39:47 +0000

Aphrodite of Knidos coin engraving

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:39:48 +0000

Manner of the Meidias Painter ARV 1324 45 Aphrodite and Eros with female allegories(03)

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:41:06 +0000

Lyandros_Painter_ARV_835_1_Aphrodite_with_two_Erotes_-_athletes_(02)

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:42:51 +0000

Medallion painting of Venus

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:44:03 +0000

Seduzione_tra_marte_e_venere,_alla_presenza_di_un_amorino_e_ancella,_da_casa_dell'amore_punito_a_pompei,_9249,_02

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:45:35 +0000

Terracotta statuette of Aphrodite in a shell, 3rd century BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 15:30:25 +0000

Vase BM E178

ammit — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 15:47:43 +0000

Mars Ultor Pediment

ammit — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 19:43:38 +0000

Plaster cast of a fragment of a relief depicting the temple of Mars Ultor, detail showing pediment. Original relief: first half of the 1st century CE. Roman. Marble. Villa Medici, Rome. Plaster cast: Museo della Civiltà Romana, Rome.

Anatomical Venus

taramulder — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 22:11:37 +0000

Sandro_Botticelli_Venus

taramulder — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 22:26:45 +0000

The Sable Venus

taramulder — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 22:26:47 +0000

Terracotta_plaque,_showing_the_goddess_Ishtar._19th-17th_century_BCE._From_Iraq._Pergamon_Museum

rpjohns1987 — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 01:41:57 +0000

Iulius Caesar denarius 44 BC 851830

pr0560 — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 16:35:31 +0000

Hera_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_2685_full

pr0560 — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 20:16:11 +0000

Zeus and Ganymede. Penthesilea Painter

pr0560 — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 05:14:36 +0000

Bronze Drum of Zeus

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 17:38:07 +0000

Combat de Zeus Contre Typhon

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 17:49:07 +0000

Museu d'Olímpia. Cap d'una estàtua d'`Hera.

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 18:00:03 +0000

Judgement Paris Antioch Louvre_Ma3443

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 18:34:15 +0000

The_Capitoline_Triad_Jupiter_Juno_Minerva_Roman_oil_lamp_terracotta_1st_century_AD_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_Munich_8957202441

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 18:49:23 +0000

Terracotta_bell-krater_(mixing_bowl)_MET_DT10908

pr0560 — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 05:57:47 +0000

Harrow Painter Zeus with lightning bolt and eagle

pr0560 — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:09:54 +0000

Ganymede feeding the eagle, Hermitage

pr0560 — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 23:18:52 +0000

RISDM 25-078 v01

ammit — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 20:24:40 +0000

Screenshot 2020-11-17 152650

ammit — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 20:27:34 +0000

Fresco_depicting_Leda_and_the_swan,_from_Pompeii,_50-79_AD,_Naples_National_Archaeological_Museum_(15741568602)

pr0560 — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 21:12:54 +0000

Zeus Ammon

pr0560 — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 21:18:36 +0000

Tétradrachme royaume Seleucide représentation de Zeus

pr0560 — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 21:25:41 +0000

600px-Ancient_Greece_Bronze_Statue_of_Zeus__(28493362195)

pr0560 — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 21:32:57 +0000

Calyx krater with Rape of Europa

pr0560 — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 21:38:14 +0000

Greece, Macedonia, Alexander the Great - Tetradrachm- Zeus Seated on Throne (reverse)

pr0560 — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 21:45:21 +0000

Rome Jupiter Tonans 03

pr0560 — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 21:51:57 +0000

Poseidon_Dionysos_Zeus_neck-amphora_Nationalmuseet

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:10:02 +0000

Screenshot 2020-11-17 140411

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:10:14 +0000

Screenshot 2020-11-17 140411

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:10:21 +0000

Syracuse_Dion_Æ_Hemidrachm_590244

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:10:22 +0000

Theoi Cdm Paris 229

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:10:31 +0000

Zeus Louvre

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:10:44 +0000

Zeus_Olympia_ringstone

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:10:49 +0000

Ancient_Collection_MfA_Boston_0524

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:11:12 +0000

Antiochos_IV_Epiphanes,_Tetradrachm,_175-164_BC,_HGC_9-620a

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:11:55 +0000

download

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:12:05 +0000

DSC00406_-_Tempio_E_di_Selinunte_-_Zeus_ed_Hera_-_Ca._450_a.C._-_Foto_G._Dall_Orto

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:12:12 +0000

Elide,_moneta_di_adriano_con_zeus_olimpio

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:12:39 +0000

Elis Stater 863486

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:12:41 +0000

Exaleiptron_birth_Athena_Louvre_CA616_n2

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:12:43 +0000

Forngrekiska_mynt_från_Elis_med_bilder_efter_Fidias_staty_av_Zeus_i_Olympias_Zeustempel

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:12:44 +0000

11.212.12

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:12:50 +0000

Ganymedes Zeus

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:13:03 +0000

Getty_Villa_-_Collection_(5304590607)

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:13:09 +0000

Hera Prometheus Cdm Paris 542

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:13:48 +0000

Lecane de Zeus venciendo a los gigantes

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:14:43 +0000

Palermo-Museo-Archeologico-bjs-14

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:14:52 +0000

PéliceÁticaConZeusEIris470AC

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:15:04 +0000

Stater Zeus Lampsacus

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:03:37 +0000

Arte romana, triade capitolina

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:44:38 +0000

The seated statue of Tiberius as Jupiter Capitolinus.

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:54:45 +0000

Statua di claudio da lanuvio

ammit — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:57:46 +0000

Getty Villa Collection (5304703605)

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:31:42 +0000

Haliartos Stater 83000126

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:31:51 +0000

Litra,_324-318_BC,_Messana

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:31:51 +0000

Poseidon Dionysos Zeus neck-amphora Nationalmuseet

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:32:24 +0000

Poseidon_enthroned_De_Ridder_418_CdM_Paris

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:32:32 +0000

Poseidon Polybotes Cdm Paris 573

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:32:43 +0000

Reconstruction of the west pediment of the Parthenon

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:32:50 +0000

Teracotta Lekythos (Poseidon Pursuing Amymome)

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:32:53 +0000

SNGANS 606

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:33:02 +0000

Attic Red-Figure

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:33:08 +0000

Athenian black-figure, white-ground, pottery lekythos, 5th century BC, an imposing Poseidon, the god of the sea, trident in hand rides an windged sea-horse while dolphins sport around them, Ashmolean Museum

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:33:10 +0000

1200px-Tétradrachme_en_argent_représentant_Poséidon_à_droite

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:33:12 +0000

Red-figure Calyx Krater; A: Nike and Poseidon; B: Woman and Old Man

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:33:15 +0000

Crátera con escena en la que Poseidón y Atenea rivalizan por la posesión de Atenas

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:34:27 +0000

Terracotta kylix (drinking cup)

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:35:09 +0000

Neptune_Roman_mosaic_Bardo_Museum_Tunis

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 22:22:23 +0000

Mosaico delle stagioni (epoca romana)

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 22:22:25 +0000

House of the Neptune Mosaic (7254082844)

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 22:22:28 +0000

Sousse Neptune

ammit — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 22:22:30 +0000

Hera, Io, and Argus

pr0560 — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 07:13:30 +0000

Oil Flask (Lekythos), ca. 500BCE-475BCE

pr0560 — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 07:20:08 +0000

Hera vestita da sposa, spinta da iride verso zeus

pr0560 — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 07:27:01 +0000

Hieros gamos Selinonte

pr0560 — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 07:31:33 +0000

Attic Red-Figure Pelike, Kerch Style

pr0560 — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 07:38:31 +0000

Hera suckling Herakles

pr0560 — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 07:46:25 +0000

Ring with Greek Inscription to Hera

pr0560 — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 07:55:15 +0000

God council in Olympus: Zeus and Hera throning, Iris serving them

pr0560 — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 19:24:13 +0000

Zeus Olympia Ringstone

pr0560 — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 19:28:40 +0000

Zeus, Museo archeologico nazionale di Napoli

pr0560 — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 19:33:44 +0000

L'Enlèvement de Ganymède

pr0560 — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 21:40:24 +0000

LOC Painting

pr0560 — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 21:51:29 +0000

Leda and the Swan

pr0560 — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 22:04:16 +0000

Terracotta hydria: kalpis (water jar)

pr0560 — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:39:40 +0000

Athena Poseidon Louvre CA7426

pr0560 — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 01:09:55 +0000

Terracotta kylix (drinking cup) (reverse)

pr0560 — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 02:10:26 +0000

Lekythos showing Poseidon Riding a Hippocamp

pr0560 — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 02:19:24 +0000

athena-and-poseidon

taramulder — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 21:15:11 +0000

Agrippa Neptunus coin

ammit — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 02:58:21 +0000

Hadrien_aureus_Gallica_17468_revers

ammit — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 02:58:23 +0000

Denarius Sextus Pompeius-Scilla

ammit — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 02:58:23 +0000

600px-Marble_Statue_of_Demeter

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:14:15 +0000

Aidone. Gli acroliti delle dee Demetra e Kore. Sono preziose sculture di epoca arcaica: teste, mani e piedi che venivano, secondo la tecnica acrolitica, scolpite in materiali preziosi, come il marmo o l'avorio, e si univano a corpi in materiale più povero, legno, ceramica o pietra, che poi venivano vestiti. Qui la stilista Marella Ferrera ha cercato di interpretare l'essenza di questa tecnica.

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:14:17 +0000

Berlin Painter ARV 210 181 Triptolemos and Demeter

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:14:20 +0000

1200px-Pinax_con_Ade_che_rapisce_Kore-Persefone,_da_Locri_-_MARC

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:14:25 +0000

Attic white calyx crater, 440-430 BC, side B, AM Agrigento

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:14:28 +0000

Coppia-di-figure-Tempio-Y-580-570-a.C

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:14:33 +0000

Delphi. Amphictionic issues 89001017

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:14:35 +0000

Demeter_in_horse_chariot_w_daughter_kore_83d40m_wikiC_Tempio_Y_di_Selinunte_sec_VIa

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:14:37 +0000

Didrachme de l'île de Paros

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:14:47 +0000

Volute Krater

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:14:52 +0000

Eleusinian hydria Antikensammlung Berlin 1984

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:15:06 +0000

Terracotta Bell-Krater

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:15:08 +0000

K26.1Ploutos

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:15:11 +0000

Locri Pinax Of Persephone And Hades

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:15:13 +0000

Locri Pinax Persephone Opens Liknon Mystikon

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:15:14 +0000

Lycosoura-group_(cropped)

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:15:16 +0000

PINAX-DA-LOCRI-CON-DIONISO-CHE-OFFRE-UN-KANTHAROS-E-UN-TRALCIO-DI-UVA-A-PERSEFONE-V-SEC-a-C-

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:15:17 +0000

Kylix: Pluto and Persephone Banquetting

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:19:42 +0000

Terracotta hydria

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:20:00 +0000

Hades Abducting Persephone

ammit — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 17:27:23 +0000

Greek - Procession of Twelve Gods and Goddesses - Walters 2340

ammit — Sat, 05 Dec 2020 23:48:51 +0000

Triptolemos Louvre G187

ammit — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:36:06 +0000

thumb01330

ammit — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 12:56:56 +0000

Livia Drusilla as Ceres (M.A.N. Madrid)

ammit — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 12:57:00 +0000

download

ammit — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 12:57:05 +0000

Denarius C. Memmius C. F. Romulus

ammit — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 12:57:07 +0000

Nero Lugdunum sestertius 691535

ammit — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 12:57:07 +0000

Skyphos: Triptolemos takes the gift of corn to mankind.

pr0560 — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 17:11:34 +0000

Berlin Painter ARV 197 11 Gorgo pursuing Perseus (05)

pr0560 — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 20:19:29 +0000

Poseidon enthroned De Ridder 418 CdM Paris

pr0560 — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 20:30:11 +0000

Terracotta skyphos (deep drinking cup)

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:04:32 +0000

ATTICA, Athens. Circa 510 to 500-490 BC

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:07:43 +0000

Tétradrachme athénien représentant Athéna

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:10:35 +0000

Acropole Musée Athéna pensante

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:20:10 +0000

NAMA Athéna Varvakeion

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:24:02 +0000

Anforagrega Atenas

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:28:43 +0000

Athena Herakles Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2648

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:32:08 +0000

Herakles Iolaos Athena Cdm Paris 254

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:36:03 +0000

Athena owl Met 09.221.43

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:40:52 +0000

Amphora birth Athena Louvre F32

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:49:58 +0000

005MA Athena Fighting

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:54:03 +0000

Athena-Schale Hildesheimer Silberfund

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 20:57:18 +0000

Bronzetti Etrusco-romani, Menerva (Atena) 01

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 21:00:45 +0000

Calyx-Krater

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 21:04:35 +0000

Terracotta Calyx-Krater

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 21:10:03 +0000

Sculptures du Parthénon (British Museum) (8706164279)

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 22:02:17 +0000

Ánfora con Apolo, Leto, Ares y Artemisa - M.A.N

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 22:06:53 +0000

Ares Ludovisi Altemps Inv8602 n2

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 22:14:04 +0000

Mars in Gaziantep

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 22:18:46 +0000

Statue de Mars (Pyrrhus) - Musei Capitolini - MC0058

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 22:23:55 +0000

Faustina mother RIC III 328b [Antoninus Pius], Cohen 148, BMC 39 [Antoninus Pius]

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 22:38:57 +0000

Demeter and Persephone Tracing

pr0560 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 22:51:52 +0000

Mars Borghese (Louvre)

ammit — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 11:03:06 +0000

Imperial group Mars Venus Louvre Ma1009

ammit — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 11:03:21 +0000

Amphora

ammit — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 11:03:29 +0000

Kodros Painter ARV 1268 2 Eos and Kephalos - birth of Erichthonios erychthonios

ammit — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 18:46:23 +0000

Hydria

ammit — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 18:46:28 +0000

Tempio C di Selinunte - Perseo e Medusa - Sec. VI a.C. - Foto G. Dall'Orto

ammit — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 18:46:31 +0000

Black-Figure Amphora; A: Birth of Athena; B: Frontal Chariot

ammit — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 18:47:10 +0000

Athena Parthenos on coin from Athens

ammit — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 18:48:04 +0000

Relief Lupercal

pr0560 — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 18:07:28 +0000

Mural Warrior

pr0560 — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 18:14:04 +0000

Andokides Painter ARV 3 1 Herakles Apollon tripod - wrestlers

pr0560 — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 18:44:53 +0000

Reconstruction of the east pediment of the Parthenon 2

pr0560 — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 18:52:40 +0000

Theseus Athena Amphitrite Louvre G104

pr0560 — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 18:52:50 +0000

Bronze Mirror with Menrva

ammit — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 09:48:26 +0000

Douris Cup Jason Vatican 16545

pr0560 — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 21:54:26 +0000

Exaleiptron Birth Athena Louvre CA616

pr0560 — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 22:06:56 +0000

Portrait of Admiral Andrea Doria as Neptune

ammit — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 16:02:20 +0000

Statue 1861,0725.1

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:51:18 +0000

Fresco Apollo kitharoidos Palatino Inv379982

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:51:23 +0000

Pompeii - Italy (14850705399)

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:51:26 +0000

Zeus' temple in Olimpia, frontone west, Apollo

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:51:27 +0000

Apollo of the Belvedere

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:51:28 +0000

Apollon et le corbeau (musée de Delphes) (4204717518)

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:51:49 +0000

Bell Krater 1917,0725.2

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:51:54 +0000

Trefoil-Mouth Oinochoe 1845,1128.1

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:52:02 +0000

Amphora 1843,1103.87

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:52:13 +0000

486283027692ea68b9b1970aec7c3b2a

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:52:19 +0000

Bell Krater 1920,0613.2

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:53:01 +0000

GV47

ammit — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:58:13 +0000

Votive relief with Apollo, Leto and Artemis (5th cent. B.C.) at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens on 4 July 2018

pr0560 — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 17:38:59 +0000

Fris med Aphrodite, Apollon och Poseidon från Parthenontemplets östra del på Akropolis i Aten - Hallwylska museet - 103045

pr0560 — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 18:36:25 +0000

Antimenes Painter - Black-figure Amphora with Herakles and Apollo Fighting Over the Tripod - Walters 4821 - Detail A

pr0560 — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 21:39:13 +0000

Tracing of Ares

pr0560 — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 21:45:31 +0000

Tracing of Ares at the Creation of Pandora

pr0560 — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 21:46:46 +0000

Attic red-figure pelike with a Gigantomachy and youths. SIDE A. About 400 B.C.

pr0560 — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 22:05:29 +0000

Piraeus Arch. Museum, Athens - Artemis - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 14 2009

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:56:20 +0000

Lekythos Attributed to the Carlsruhe Painter

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:56:33 +0000

Figure 1919,0620.5

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:56:40 +0000

Artemis hinds Louvre CA1795

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:56:51 +0000

The Artemis of Ephesus

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:56:55 +0000

636px-Pergamon-Altar_-_Artemis_Giganten_1

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:56:56 +0000

Kleitias e vasaio ergotimos, cratere françois, 570 ac ca. artemide e aiace che porta achille morto

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:56:57 +0000

Didrachme de Ionie

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:56:59 +0000

Pan Painter ARV 556 101 Apollon and Idas fighting for Marpessa (19)

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:57:01 +0000

Terracota que representa a Artemisa de cacería - M.A.N.

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:57:02 +0000

Two fragments of a terracotta skyphos (deep drinking cup)

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:59:59 +0000

Diane the Huntress mosaic in the Bardo National Museum

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:16:22 +0000

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli 119

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:16:30 +0000

Sacrifici d'Ifigènia (Empúries)

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:16:39 +0000

Diane de Versailles Leochares 2

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:17:41 +0000

Wall painting - sacrifice of Iphigenia - Pompeii (VI 8 5) - Napoli MAN 9112 - 01

ammit — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:17:57 +0000

Tempio E di Selinunte - Artemide e Atteone - Ca. 450 a.C. - Foto G. Dall'Orto

pr0560 — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 23:47:15 +0000

Krater Aktaion Louvre CA3482 n2

pr0560 — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 00:58:54 +0000

Apollo Artemis Brygos Louvre G151

pr0560 — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 01:11:52 +0000

Heracles freeing Prometheus, relief from the Temple of Aphrodite at Aphrodisias

ammit — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 10:13:10 +0000

Sarcophagus Prometheus Louvre Ma339

ammit — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 10:13:16 +0000

Calyx_krater_by_the_Branca_Painter_Antikensammlung_Berlin

ammit — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 10:13:24 +0000

Creation Prometheus Louvre Ma445

ammit — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 10:13:26 +0000

eMuseumPlus

ammit — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 10:13:29 +0000

Herakles Prometheus Louvre MNE1309

ammit — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 10:13:30 +0000

prometheustory

ammit — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 10:13:36 +0000

07 Delphi Fries01

ammit — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 10:32:26 +0000

Terracotta Column-Krater

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:12 +0000

Exekias Dionysos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2044

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:18 +0000

The Birth of Dionysus

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:21 +0000

K12.14Dionysos

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:22 +0000

Krater Dionysos Walters Art Museum 48.74

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:24 +0000

Amphora 1843,1103.35

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:25 +0000

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:26 +0000

Amphora 1836,0224.38

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:27 +0000

Museo Bellini - Kylix attica - Antica Grecia 2

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:29 +0000

Papposilenus Dionysophoros Louvre CA463

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:31 +0000

Pella Mosaïque 2

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:33 +0000

Dionysos House of the Centenary

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:38 +0000

Dionysos Mainades Cdm Paris 222

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:40 +0000

Dionysos Panther Louvre K240

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:46 +0000

Testa di Dioniso - Horti Lamiani - Musei Capitolini Roma

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:48 +0000

Red-Figure Satyr

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:50 +0000

Chalice krater fragment with Dionysos feasting, attributed to the circle of the Talos Painter, c. 400 BC, H 5708

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:52 +0000

Athenian_drinking_cup_(back)

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:13:54 +0000

Attic amphora - Getty Villa Collection

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:14:00 +0000

Banquet Apollo Dionysos Hermes MAN

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:14:02 +0000

Dionysus from the East Pediment of the Parthenon

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:14:05 +0000

Caseggiato di Bacco e Arianna1

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:14:07 +0000

Chalkidian black-figure eye kylix with mask of Dionysus, circa 520-510 BC

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:14:10 +0000

11d74f7ced3617e40908bb0dec80af3a

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:14:12 +0000

Hermes and the infant Dionysus by Praxiteles

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:14:14 +0000

Dioniso scopre arianna, da casa dei capitelli colorati a pompei, 9278

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:14:17 +0000

Dionysos thiasos Louvre MNE938

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:14:19 +0000

Etruscan Hydria with black figures attributed to the Micali Painter

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:30:26 +0000

Αναθηματικό ανάγλυφο με τον Διόνυσο και τον Πλούτωνα 9888

ammit — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:38:32 +0000

Mosaic in Musée gallo-romain de Fourvière

ammit — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 10:50:07 +0000

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

ammit — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 10:50:37 +0000

Dioniso seduto, officina neoattica, I sec dc, 6728

ammit — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 10:58:08 +0000

Mosaic: Epiphany of Dionysus

ammit — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 11:00:39 +0000

Apollo on Tripod Vase Trace

pr0560 — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 00:24:00 +0000

Triumph of Bacchus

pr0560 — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 00:58:24 +0000

Neck-Amphora 1836,0224.48

pr0560 — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 01:36:35 +0000

Prometeusz

pr0560 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 08:03:43 +0000

Prometeo y Atenea crean al primer hombre, Museo del Prado

pr0560 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 08:33:02 +0000

Prometheus and Atlas

pr0560 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 08:41:38 +0000

Judgement of Paris Louvre F287

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:25:22 +0000

Euphronios krater side A MET L.2006.10

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:25:29 +0000

Man wearing Petasos Coinage of Kapsa Macedon circa 400 BCE

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:25:31 +0000

Hermes Maia Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2304

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:26:31 +0000

Herma Hermes Getty Villa 79.AA.132

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:09 +0000

Hermes Io Argus

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:13 +0000

Hermes Io Staatliche Antikensammlungen 585

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:15 +0000

Hermes kriophoros Louvre F159

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:17 +0000

Lekythos of Hermes

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:19 +0000

Sabratha - Museum, Wandmalerei Bust of Mercury

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:22 +0000

Hermes Stabia 1

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:25 +0000

asa dei vettii, vestibolo, oechus affrescato sul peristilio, issione legato alla ruota da vulcano alla presenza di giunone 01

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:27 +0000

Berlin Painter ARV 196 1 satyr Hermes deer - satyr (03)

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:29 +0000

Venusia Æ Semis 98000312

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:31 +0000

Early classical white ground lekythos ARV extra Hermes Psychopompos leading deceased woman to Charon

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:35 +0000

Column temple Artemis Ephesos BM Sc1206 n1

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:37 +0000

02 2020 Grecia photo Paolo Villa FO190090 bis (Museo archeologico di Atene) Lekythos funerario con bassorilievi, in marmo, Arte Classica Greca NAMA 4485 - 420-410 a.C. , con gimp

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:52 +0000

Calyx krater with deification of Heracles by Exekias (side A) - AGMA 02

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:28:56 +0000

Herakles Olympos Louvre F30 glare reduced white bg

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:29:07 +0000

Zeus sending forth Hermes and Iris

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:29:11 +0000

Anubis, Anzio, Villa Pamphili, 1st-2nd century AD, Pario marble - Museo Gregoriano Egizio - Vatican Museums - DSC00818

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:29:13 +0000

Pompéi (Nîmes) 12a

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:29:15 +0000

Hermes ithyphallicus Herm 520 BC, NAMA 3728 102564

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:29:17 +0000

Rustic sanctuary Louvre CA2935

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:29:19 +0000

Judgement of Paris Dolon Painter CdM Paris DeRidder422 n1

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:30:18 +0000

Achilles Embassy Louvre G264 n3

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:30:32 +0000

Hermes Ingenui Pio-Clementino Inv544

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:31:17 +0000

Attic Red-Figure Column Krater

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 18:09:27 +0000

Casa degli Amorini Dorati (Pompei) WLM 098

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 18:19:14 +0000

El1-j-yXgAAVJmL

ammit — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 18:20:09 +0000

Lekythos Hermes Herse MAN

pr0560 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 21:27:39 +0000

AGMA Tête d'Hermès

pr0560 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 21:47:20 +0000

Amth88

pr0560 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 22:46:14 +0000

Ambrosios Painter ARV 173 2 Hermes - komos (04)

pr0560 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 23:13:23 +0000

Apotheosis of Herakles Louvre F294

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:36:54 +0000

East pediment - Temple of Aphaia in Egina - Glyptothek - Munich - Germany 2017

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:36:56 +0000

Ercole in riposo (ercole farnese), copia romana del 190-210 ca. da orig. greco del 350-300 ac ca. 01 (6001)

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:36:57 +0000

Herakles Nemean lion BM B621

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:36:59 +0000

Herakles Niobid krater Louvre G341

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:01 +0000

NAMA Héraclès & Busiris

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:02 +0000

Neck-amphora MET DP-1487-002

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:04 +0000

08fb647b7936c54170a296589b484d87

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:05 +0000

Persee Decapitant La Gorgone

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:08 +0000

Hercules Musei Capitolini MC1265

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:10 +0000

Euphronios ARV 16 17 young rider - Herakles and Geryoneus

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:12 +0000

Heracles and Typhon, ACMA Acr. 36 plus, 190713

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:15 +0000

Herakles Amazones Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1711

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:15 +0000

Sarcophagus Relief Depicting Labors of Hercules, 3rd-4th century C.E.; marble; Roman

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:16 +0000

Affresco romano - eracle ed onfale - area vesuviana

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:18 +0000

Arula Herakles Triton Louvre CA5956

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:19 +0000

Hydria Delphic tripod MNA Inv10913

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:23 +0000

Apollo struggling with Heracles on tripod, 525 BC, AM Delphi, 201330

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:26 +0000

Neck-Amphora 1843 1103 80

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:37:58 +0000

Amphora 1843 1103 40 {VASE B163}

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:38:03 +0000

Neck-Amphora 1837,0609.27

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:38:10 +0000

Neck-Amphora 1836,0224.106

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:38:15 +0000

Amphora 737358001

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:38:20 +0000

1200px-Euphronios_ARV_16_17_young_rider_-_Herakles_and_Geryoneus_(12)

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:38:24 +0000

Twelve Labours Altemps Inv8642

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:38:25 +0000

Alexander Tetradrachm Amphipolis

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:38:28 +0000

Anfora attica con heraclee l'idra, 560-540 ac ca., da tarquinia (MAN tarquiniense)

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:38:34 +0000

Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 38315BIS - Mosaico de los trabajos de Hércules 01

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:38:38 +0000

Commodus (Baumeister)

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:38:39 +0000

Commodus as Hercules - Palazzo dei Conservatori - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:39:27 +0000

Dinar, Kushan Empire, Depiction of Hercules, 152-192 AD

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:39:36 +0000

Terracotta hydria (water jar)

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:39:57 +0000

Greek Gold Half Stater of Philip II of Macedonia (359-336 B.C.E.)

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:40:10 +0000

Heracles and Iphicles

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:40:12 +0000

Herakles and the Hydra Water Jar (Etruscan, c. 525 BC) -- Getty Villa - Collection

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:40:15 +0000

Hercules and Omphale (House of Marcus Lucretius)

ammit — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:40:19 +0000

Medeia child Louvre K300

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:50:44 +0000

Jason Pelias Louvre K127

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:50:45 +0000

Medea - Casa dei Dioscuri

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:50:46 +0000

Jason Golden Fleece Altemps Inv8647

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:50:47 +0000

Medeia Kreousa Louvre CA2193

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:50:49 +0000

Red-Figure Calyx-Krater (Mixing Vessel): Medea in Chariot (A); Telephos with Baby Orestes (B)

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:50:55 +0000

1993.01

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:51:02 +0000

Neck-Amphora 1837,0609.62

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:51:04 +0000

Hydria 1843,1103.59

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:51:09 +0000

Hydria 1843,1103.76

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:51:14 +0000

Berlin Medea sarcophagus

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:51:26 +0000

Terracotta column-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:51:36 +0000

Drakon

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:51:45 +0000

Krater by the Underworld Painter Staatliche Antikensammlungen Munich 1

ammit — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:51:48 +0000

Pannelli di giunio basso 01

ammit — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 14:51:06 +0000

Argonauterna, Nordisk familjebok

ammit — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 14:51:09 +0000

Vaso di Talos particolare

ammit — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 14:51:17 +0000

Hylas Saint-Romain-en Gal 07 2011

ammit — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 14:51:29 +0000

Building Argo BM TerrD603

ammit — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 14:51:40 +0000

Krater Niobid Painter A Louvre G341

ammit — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 14:52:04 +0000

Amykos Argonautes Cdm Paris 442

ammit — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 14:52:15 +0000

Phineus Boreads Louvre G364

ammit — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 14:52:29 +0000

Gorgon at the Artemis temple in Corfu

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:27:57 +0000

Kleitias, decorazione del vaso françois, 570 ac ca., gorgoneion 01

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:04 +0000

Kylix Theseus Aison MNA Inv11365 n1 (Atenea)

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:08 +0000

OlympiaGorgo

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:10 +0000

Perseus Medusa Louvre CA795

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:14 +0000

Pettorale di cavallo (protosternopidion) con gorgone, 515-500 ac., da ruvo di puglia (MANN inv. 5715) 03

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:16 +0000

Placa de terracota amb relleu de Perseu i Gògona, exposició La Bellesa del Cos

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:18 +0000

Gorgon from Hekatonpedos, 570 BC, ACMA, Acr 701, 190723

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:24 +0000

Denier Rep Romaine Plautius Plancus avers Gallica 7615

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:26 +0000

Gorgones Cdm Paris 277

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:28 +0000

Gorgoneion Syrakus

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:30 +0000

Akhilleus Memnon Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1410

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:32 +0000

Dinos Gorgon Painter Louvre E874

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:34 +0000

Gorgona Pushkin

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:36 +0000

Museu d'Història de València, detall del mosaic de la Medusa

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:40 +0000

Perseus killing Medusa

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:43 +0000

Mosaic of Medusa from Kos, installed in the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:28:47 +0000

Black-Figure Neck Amphora 86.AE.77

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:35:21 +0000

Olpe 1849,0620.5

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:35:29 +0000

Hydria 1873,0820.352

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:35:35 +0000

Antefissa semiellittica con gorgone, 510-500 ac ca., da taranto (MAN taranto)

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:35:41 +0000

Borchia per portale a forma di testa di medusa, da pompei

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:35:44 +0000

Copa ática con Gorgona (M.A.N.) 01

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:36:17 +0000

Crátera con escena de Teseo disponiéndose a decapitar a Medusa. Pintor de Villa Giulia - M.A.N.

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:37:11 +0000

Ergotimos Terracotta Stand ca. 570 B.C.

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:37:33 +0000

C Painter Terracotta Kylix: Siana Cup (drinking cup) ca. 575 B.C.

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:38:07 +0000

Diosphos Painter Terracotta lekythos (oil flask) ca. 500 B.C.

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:38:29 +0000

Terracotta pelike (jar)

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:38:55 +0000

Cypriot Limestone Sarcophagus ca. 475–450 B.C.

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 23:33:58 +0000

Exekias Suicide d Ajax 01 glare reduced white bg

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 23:34:16 +0000

Polyphemus Amphora (Sarah Murray)

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 23:34:36 +0000

DP-14887-002

ammit — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 23:35:28 +0000

Tempio E di Selinunte - Eracle ed Amazzone - Ca. 450 a.C. - Foto G. Dall'Orto

pr0560 — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 03:33:10 +0000

Temple of Zeus in Olympia - Metopes

pr0560 — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 04:59:29 +0000

Herakles Bousiris Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2428

pr0560 — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 05:57:00 +0000

Pompeii - Casa dei Vettii - Gorgo

pr0560 — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:19:34 +0000

Red-Figure Calyx-Krater (Mixing Vessel): Medea in Chariot (A); Telephos with Baby Orestes (B)

pr0560 — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 19:05:08 +0000

Diana Stabia 1

pr0560 — Mon, 31 May 2021 17:23:29 +0000

Triptolemos Kore Louvre G452 full

pr0560 — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 04:21:19 +0000

NAMA Epinetron Bellérophon

ammit — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 23:54:04 +0000

Bellerophon Khimaira Louvre A478

ammit — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 23:54:07 +0000

Produz. cicladica, piatto con chimera e bellerofonte su pegaso, 650 ac ca., da artemision di thasos, grecia (m. archeol. di Thasos)

ammit — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 23:54:10 +0000

Pittore di baltimora (apulia), piatto con chimera e bellerofonte su pegaso, 350-300 ac ca. (depositi M. Naz. romano)

ammit — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 23:54:14 +0000

Bellerophon Chimaera BM D205

ammit — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 23:54:17 +0000

Box bezel ring (Getty Museum 88.AM.104)

ammit — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 23:56:19 +0000

DSC00405 - Tempio E di Selinunte - Artemide ed Encelado - Ca. 450 a.C. - Foto G. Dall'Orto

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:26:45 +0000

Fregio della gigantomachia 02

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:26:47 +0000

07Delphi Fries01 (cropped)

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:26:51 +0000

Amphore à figures rouges décorée du combat des Dieux et des Géants (Louvre, MNB 810)

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:27:01 +0000

Aristophanes ARV 1318 1 gigantomachy

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:27:12 +0000

800px-GR-delphi-tempelfries

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:27:15 +0000

Red figure volute krater with Gigantomachy, Lycurgus Painter, The Hermitage

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:27:20 +0000

Poseidon Polybotes Louvre F226

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:27:26 +0000

Athena Enkelados Louvre CA3662

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:27:29 +0000

Suessula Painter ARV 1344 1 gigantomachy

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:28:02 +0000

Dionysos Giant Louvre G434

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:28:13 +0000

Cup 1881,0528.1

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:40:18 +0000

Attic white calyx crater, Euaion as Perseus, 440-430 BC, AM Agrigento, 120962x

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 02:14:17 +0000

Loutrophoros Andromeda-MArTA

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 02:14:26 +0000

Perseus and andromeda amphora

ammit — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 02:15:19 +0000

1617 - Archaeological Museum, Athens - Ossuary - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 11 2009

pr0560 — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 20:32:43 +0000

Mosaico con bellerofonte e la chimera, da rodi sud, 300-270 ac. ca. 02.

pr0560 — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 20:42:37 +0000

Antikensammlung Berlin 367

pr0560 — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 23:30:16 +0000

183-Thesee-tuant-le-Minotaure MNA

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:10:28 +0000

Asia minore, anello con gemma di teseo e il minotauro, II-I secolo ac ca

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:10:29 +0000

Euthymides ARV 27 4 Theseus abducting Helena (09)

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:10:31 +0000

The abduction of Antiope by Theseus, 5th cent. B.C. (EAM 1-16-2020)

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:10:33 +0000

Theseus bull Marathon Met 56.171.48

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:10:36 +0000

Copa de Aison - M.A.N. 02

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:10:38 +0000

Kylix 57.1

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:10:41 +0000

אמפורת צוואר אטית אדומת-דמויות המתארת את תסאוס תוקף אמזונה (6)

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:10:43 +0000

Altes Teseo Escirón.TIF

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:10:46 +0000

Terracotta amphora (jar) 47.11.5

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:10:55 +0000

Getty Villa - Collection (3150392251)

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:11:01 +0000

Metope, Treasury of Athenians, Theseus and Minotaur, 500 BC AM Delphi, Dlfm409

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:11:03 +0000

Minotaur

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:11:04 +0000

Theseus and Antiope

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:11:05 +0000

Theseus Castellani Louvre E850 - modification

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:11:08 +0000

Theseus deeds BM E 84

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:11:10 +0000

Theseus Minotaur BM Vase E84

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:11:13 +0000

Theseus Minotaur Louvre F33 n2

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:11:14 +0000

Theseus Sinis Staatliche Antikensammlungen 8771

ammit — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:11:16 +0000

Neck-Amphora 1836,0224.48

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:55:33 +0000

Lip-Cup 1867,0508.962

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:55:34 +0000

Dinos 1971,1101.1

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:55:52 +0000

Colum crater, return of Hefaistos to Olympos, 550-500 BC, AM Agrigento, 550-500 BC, 120995

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:55:53 +0000

Terracotta oinochoe: chous (jug)

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:55:57 +0000

Foundry Painter ARV 400 1 Hephaistos and Thetis - foundry (02)

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:56:12 +0000

Fragmentary terracotta column-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water) MET GR237

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:56:15 +0000

Kleitias - ABV 77 1 - compendium of Greek mythology - Firenze MAN 4209 - 40

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:56:18 +0000

Statuette Vulcanus MBA Lyon A1981

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:45:56 +0000

6793 - Efesto(Museo Pio-Clementino) - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto, 10 june 2011

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:45:56 +0000

Achilles weapons MNA Naples

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:45:58 +0000

Applique Vulcanus Louvre Br39

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:45:59 +0000

Aesernia Æ 139007

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:45:59 +0000

Aurelia 21 79000871

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:45:59 +0000

Fregio con storie di atena ed efesto, II secolo, dalle terme del foro e le terme bizantine 06

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:46:00 +0000

Medaglione di antonino pio, verso con vulcano nell'officina, statua di minerva, scudi, elmi, schinieri

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:46:00 +0000

Pittore di orfeo, cratere attico con ritorno di efesto, 450-425 ac ca

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:46:01 +0000

Vulcanus Bitburg725

ammit — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:46:02 +0000

Piccolo donario pergameneo, copia del II sec da orig greco del II ac., 6012-13-14-15, 02

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:08 +0000

Statua di Amazzone ferita di Sosikles, da policleto (V sec. ac.) 01.

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:10 +0000

Terracotta votive shield, early 7th BC, AM of Nafplio, 202279

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:48 +0000

Amazzone ferita, copia romana da originale di policleto del 430 ac. circa, inv. 2272

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:49 +0000

Marble statue of a wounded Amazon

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:51 +0000

Neck amphora with Herakles and the Amazons, Attic, c. 520 BC, L 200 - Martin von Wagner Museum - Würzburg, Germany - DSC05545

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:52 +0000

Nolan Amphora Munich Amazone 5

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:53 +0000

Pélice ática de figuras rojas de la Necrópolis de Tútugi (Galera, Granada) - M.A.N. 01

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:54 +0000

Amazon Frieze BM GR 1865.7-23.1 n01

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:55 +0000

Amazonomachy Christie Painter MAN

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:56 +0000

Bassar Frieze 1053

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:57 +0000

Bell-krater Akhilleus Penthesileia MAN

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:51:59 +0000

Fragment of a terracotta volute-krater MET DP202056

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:00 +0000

Herakles Amazones Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1711.

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:00 +0000

KunsthistorischesMuseumAmazonen

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:01 +0000

1077 - Archaeological Museum, Athens - Amazonomachy - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 11 2009

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:02 +0000

Shield; Model 1864,0220.18

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:04 +0000

Amphora 1849,0518.10

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:06 +0000

Amphora 1836,0224.127

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:07 +0000

Agrigento museum 2

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:08 +0000

Akhilleus Penthesileia Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1502

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:12 +0000

Alabastron 490 BC with Amazon and man 01

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:14 +0000

AmazonaLuchandoDetalleDePélice480-470AC

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:14 +0000

Amazone Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2342

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:19 +0000

Amazone Staatliche Antikensammlungen 8953

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:24 +0000

Attic red figure pelike, front, Syracuse, Sicily

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:33 +0000

Terracotta amphora (jar)

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:38 +0000

Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:43 +0000

Terracotta volute-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:49 +0000

Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:52 +0000

Terracotta volute-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:57 +0000

Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:52:59 +0000

Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:53:05 +0000

Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:53:07 +0000

Terracotta kylix: Droop cup (drinking cup)

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:53:11 +0000

DP277772

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:53:15 +0000

Terracotta lekythos (oil flask) MET DP297356

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:53:20 +0000

Terracotta lekythos (oil flask) MET DP297356

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:53:26 +0000

Mariemont Greek krater 03

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:53:41 +0000

Painted marble sarcophagus - amazonomachy - from Tarquinia - Firenze MAN 5811 - 01

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:53:55 +0000

Penthesilea Painter ARV 879 1 Achilles killing Penthesilea - youths arming with horses

ammit — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:54:15 +0000

Ariadne and Hephaistos with Dionysos Cup

pr0560 — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 02:01:31 +0000

Antimenes Painter - Black-figure Amphora with Herakles and Apollo Fighting Over the Tripod - Walters 4821 - Detail B

pr0560 — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 02:22:22 +0000

Return Hephaistos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2361

pr0560 — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 16:04:19 +0000

NAMA - Tyrrhenian Amphora by the Prometheus Painter

pr0560 — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 18:46:45 +0000

Wounded Amazon relief, 2nd cent. A.D. (PAM 1-6-2020)

pr0560 — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 18:54:44 +0000

The Aegean Map

taramulder — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 00:49:42 +0000

Attica, cratere di euphronios, 500-470 ac. ca. 06

pr0560 — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 17:14:10 +0000

Allard Pierson Museum Calydonean boar killing 7653

ammit — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 00:13:09 +0000

Aphrodisias Museum Meleager and Atalante 4661

ammit — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 00:13:10 +0000

Atalanta Peleus Staatliche Antikensammlungen 596

ammit — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 00:13:14 +0000

Peleus Atalante Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1541

ammit — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 00:13:17 +0000

Kleitias e vasaio ergotimos, cratere françois, 570 ac ca. giochi funebri per patroclo e cinghiale calidonio

ammit — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 00:15:01 +0000

Atalanta Lekythos, 500-490 BC, Greek, Attic, attributed to Douris, ceramic - Cleveland Museum of Art - DSC08212

ammit — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 00:15:26 +0000

Piccolo donario pergameneo, copia del II sec da orig greco del II ac., 6012-13-14-15, 01

ammit — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 01:06:42 +0000

Amazzone Mattei

ammit — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 01:15:25 +0000

NAMA 15113 Calydonian Hunt 3

pr0560 — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 03:43:50 +0000

Calydonian hunt Louvre E670

ammit — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 15:55:40 +0000

Odysseus Tiresias Cdm Paris 422 n2

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:28 +0000

Aias body Akhilleus Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1470 side A

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:30 +0000

Akhilleus embassy Staatliche Antikensammlungen 8770- cropped white balanced glare reduced

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:32 +0000

Chryses Agamemnon Louvre K1

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:34 +0000

Exekias, anfora con achille e aiace che giocano a dai, castore e polluce, da vulci, 540-30 ac ca. 03.

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:35 +0000

Helen and Menelaos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1383 cropped glare reduced and solid white background

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:38 +0000

Helen Menelaus Louvre G424

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:40 +0000

Menelaos Paris Louvre G115

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:40 +0000

Rhesos krater Antikensammlung Berlin 1984.39 n2

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:41 +0000

Rhesos krater Antikensammlung Berlin 1984.39 n3

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:41 +0000

Amphora 1837,0609.71

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:43:43 +0000

Aias body Akhilleus Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1884

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:44:14 +0000

Aias Carrying Body of Achilles - detail from Francois vase c 565 BCE fForence Italy Arch Museum

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:44:17 +0000

Akhilleus Patroklos Antikensammlung Berlin F2278

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:44:21 +0000

Diomedes Glaucus MAR Gela

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:44:29 +0000

Terracotta amphora (jar)

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:44:33 +0000

East Dorian plate - Menelaos and Hektor fighting over the body of Euphorbos - London BM 1860-0404-1

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:44:59 +0000

Greek vase of Leagros Group in RMO AvL

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:45:18 +0000

Ilioupersis Louvre G152

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:45:29 +0000

Odysseus Ajax Louvre F340

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:45:34 +0000

Sacrifice Polyxena BM GR1897.7-27.2

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:45:40 +0000

Euthymides ARV 26 1 Hector arming - komos

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:45:52 +0000

Aias Kassandra Louvre G458

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:45:53 +0000

Death Sarpedon MNA Policoro

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:45:54 +0000

Sarpedon Louvre F388

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:45:55 +0000

200433

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:45:57 +0000

Hydria 1824,0501.35

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:45:58 +0000

Amphora 1836,0224.138

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:46:01 +0000

Amphora death Priam Louvre F222

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:46:06 +0000

DP115261

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:46:10 +0000

Euthymides ARV 26 1 Hector arming - komos

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:46:33 +0000

Fragment_of_a_terracotta_skyphos_(deep_drinking_cup)_MET_SF0728651a

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:46:44 +0000

Hector Astyanax MN Jatta

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:46:49 +0000

Helene Paris Louvre K6

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:46:55 +0000

Neoptolemos Priamos Martin-von-Wagner-Museum L179

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:47:01 +0000

Paris armour Pomarici Santomasi

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:47:06 +0000

Fragment of a terracotta skyphos (deep drinking cup)

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:47:11 +0000

The Ransom of Hector, hydria, by the Pioneer Group, Attic Greek, 510-500 BC, red-figure terracotta - Sackler Museum - Harvard University - DSC01787

ammit — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:47:26 +0000

Chalcidian Black-Figure Neck Amphora (Right Profile)

pr0560 — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 16:54:23 +0000

Chalcidian Black-Figure Neck Amphora (Left Profile)

pr0560 — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 16:54:26 +0000

Chalcidian Black-Figure Neck Amphora (Back)

pr0560 — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 16:54:28 +0000

Chalcidian Black-Figure Neck Amphora (Front)

pr0560 — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 16:54:43 +0000

From Iliad X – Patroklos’ Death by Oltos .

pr0560 — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 04:54:18 +0000

Aias body Akhilleus Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1415 glare reduced

pr0560 — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 05:27:15 +0000

Athenian drinking cup (kylix), 550–540 BC

pr0560 — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 22:50:09 +0000

Achilles Hector Louvre G153

pr0560 — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 18:25:32 +0000

Sophilos - ABV 39 16 - funerary games of Patroklos - animal friezes - Athens NM 15499

ammit — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 21:46:06 +0000

Tablet K.3375

pr0560 — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 21:56:48 +0000

Bell Krater 1917,1210.1

ammit — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 21:58:27 +0000

Orestes Apollo Louvre Cp710

ammit — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 22:01:18 +0000

Paestan Red-Figure Neck Amphora

ammit — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 22:05:08 +0000

Tablet 78941

pr0560 — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 04:14:46 +0000

Tablet 78971

pr0560 — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 04:33:48 +0000

Lamp 1858,0714.3.b

pr0560 — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 19:38:54 +0000

Odysseus vs. Polyphemus

pr0560 — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 20:00:42 +0000

Crime and Punishment

pr0560 — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 20:00:46 +0000

Orestes Elektra Hermes Louvre K544

pr0560 — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 20:00:48 +0000

Volute Krater 1865,0103.21

ammit — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 21:42:12 +0000

Sacrifici_d'Ifigènia_(Empúries)

ammit — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 21:42:24 +0000

Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

ammit — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 21:44:10 +0000

Stamnos 1843,1103.31

ammit — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 21:45:30 +0000

Mourning of Akhilleus Louvre E643

ammit — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 22:09:55 +0000

Janus Coin 1

pr0560 — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 23:22:00 +0000

S0484.4

pr0560 — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 23:24:48 +0000

MaskOfAgamemnon

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:59:24 +0000

Plan Troy-Hisarlik-en.svg

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:59:28 +0000

Findings from Grave IV (Grave Circle A)(Grave_Circle_A)

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:59:34 +0000

Kadmeio palace 01

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:59:35 +0000

Mycenae 3D Plan IMG 7410

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:59:37 +0000

Palace at the foot of Mount Zara 660m

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:59:42 +0000

Priam's treasure in Pushkin Museum, Moscow (09)

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:59:46 +0000

Lions-Gate-Mycenae

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:59:48 +0000

Interior of Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, 090945

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:59:52 +0000

Mycenae Grave Circle A Artifacts - Archaeological Museum of Mycenae by Joy of Museums

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:59:58 +0000

MycenaeDiadems

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:12 +0000

Mycene gold mask 1 NAMA Athens Greece

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:27 +0000

Turkey-2934 (2216423789) (2)

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:29 +0000

Map of Thebes Ukr

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:30 +0000

Boars's tusk helmet NAMA6568 Athens Greece1

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:36 +0000

Mural composition from the Palace of Thebes (14th-13th c. B.C.) at the Archaeological Museum of Thebes on 10 April 2019

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:41 +0000

Parures du Trésor de Priam (Neues Museum, Berlin) (11502495663)

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:43 +0000

Section Troy-Hisarlik-en

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:45 +0000

Sophia Schliemann

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:49 +0000

Tesoro di priamo, spilla con etsta a cilindro schiacciato, oro, tesoro O, cat. 240

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:52 +0000

The entrance to the Tomb of Agamemnon on October 27, 2019

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:54 +0000

Seven against Thebes Getty Villa 92.AE.86

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:55 +0000

Tesoro di priamo, spialla d'oro, cat. 239.

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:00:56 +0000

Kodros Painter ARV 1268 2 Eos and Kephalos - birth of Erichthonios

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:21:14 +0000

Plan Acropolis of Athens

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:23:20 +0000

Attica 06-13 Athens 50 View from Philopappos - Acropolis Hill

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:31:04 +0000

Temple of Olympian Zeus (Dec. 2016)

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:31:05 +0000

Map Ancient Athens

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:31:05 +0000

Stories of persons and places in Europe (1887) (14781495624)

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 23:02:57 +0000

AgoraAthens5thcentury

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 23:02:59 +0000

Side view of the Erechtheion with the olive tree on May 19, 2020

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 23:04:15 +0000

Acròpoli d'Atenes des del Turó de Filopapo

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 23:04:29 +0000

Olympieion2 copy

ammit — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 23:04:38 +0000

Priam's Treasure

pr0560 — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 23:00:16 +0000

Kadmos dragon Louvre E707

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 02:08:46 +0000

Kadmos dragon Louvre N3157

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 02:08:51 +0000

Luni Pediment Group

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 02:08:54 +0000

Oedipus being questioned by the Sphinx, Attic red-figured kylix, by the Oedipus Painter, 470-460 BC, inv. 16541 - Museo Gregoriano Etrusco - Vatican Museums

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 02:09:06 +0000

Pittore di napoli 2074, cratere a campana con thiasos, da paestum, 380-370 ac ca.

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 02:09:14 +0000

Achilles Painter ARV 990 49 Oedipus and the Sphinx - man (01)

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 02:09:28 +0000

Altorilievo del frontone posteriore del tempio A di pyrgi, con scene della saga tebana, 470-460 ac. ca., 01

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 02:09:43 +0000

Hestia

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:36:36 +0000

L. Cassius Longinus, denarius, 63 BC, RRC 413-1

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:36:37 +0000

Larario nel peristilio della Casa del Meandro (2007)

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:36:39 +0000

Lari e scena di sacrificio, coppia di serpenti, da pompei VII, 6, 3, 8905,_coppia_di_serpenti,_da_pompei_VII,_6,_3,_8905

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:36:48 +0000

NERONE-RIC I 62-155505 VESTA

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:36:51 +0000

Reconstructed Roman house altar in the Painting House

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:36:58 +0000

Roman House - Augusta Raurica - August 2013

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:37:11 +0000

Santa cecilia in trastevere, sotterranei, 04 larario

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:37:20 +0000

Trastevere - s Cecilia - casa romana - larario 1000560

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:37:27 +0000

Atrium of the House of the Menander (Reg I), Pompeii (15142118606)

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:37:40 +0000

Casa degli Amorini Dorati (Pompei) WLM 56

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:37:49 +0000

Casa dei Vettii - Larario

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:38:13 +0000

Casa dello Scheletro - Ercolano

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:38:33 +0000

Urnette fittili di produzione chiusina, 210-90 ac ca. 16 combattimento di eteocle e polinice

ammit — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 03:38:47 +0000

Raffigurazione di Penteo su un vaso greco- 2014-02-08 01-13

ammit — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 21:13:50 +0000

Death Pentheus Louvre G445

ammit — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 21:13:50 +0000

Teatro de Dioniso, Atenas, Grecia, 2019 01

pr0560 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 01:03:58 +0000

The Birth of Dionysus (Tracing)

pr0560 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:38:15 +0000

Hephaestus Helped by a Satyr (Tracing)

pr0560 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:38:23 +0000

Hephaestus in a Winged Chariot (Tracing)

pr0560 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:38:26 +0000

Krater with Perseus, Hermes, and Athena (tracing)

pr0560 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:38:29 +0000

Satyr Riding a Wineskin (Tracing)

pr0560 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:38:33 +0000

Artemis and Actaeon (Tracing)

pr0560 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:38:52 +0000

Theseus and the Minotaur (Tracing)

pr0560 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:38:54 +0000

Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

pr0560 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 22:37:05 +0000

Plan Delphi full

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:45:37 +0000

Plan Delphi Sanctuary of Apollo colored

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:45:39 +0000

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delphi_Museum_Delphic_Tripod_1.jpg

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:45:40 +0000

Scène sacrificielle

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:45:40 +0000

Oracle of Delphi, red-figure kylix, 440-430 BC, Kodros Painter, Berlin F 2538, 141668

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:45:41 +0000

Delphic hymns to Apollo, 128 BC, inscription in AM of Delphi, 201388

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:45:44 +0000

Pupek, Delfy

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:45:46 +0000

Black Fury painter's Orestes crater - Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:45:48 +0000

Delphi - 336-334 BC - silver stater - head of Demeter - Apollon sitting in his sanctuary - Berlin MK AM

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:45:53 +0000

Delphi omphalos

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:46:01 +0000

Delphi-01

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:46:03 +0000

Omphalos pushkin

ammit — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:46:04 +0000

Delfos, museo 01

ammit — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 03:44:40 +0000

07Delphi Theater03

ammit — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 03:44:45 +0000

Altar of apollo 03

ammit — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 03:44:49 +0000

Delfi Apollons tempel

ammit — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 03:44:50 +0000

Ancient stadium at Delphi, Greece

ammit — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 03:44:54 +0000

Calyx-Krater 1867,0508.1133

pr0560 — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 15:14:12 +0000

Kylix 1847,0909.6

pr0560 — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 16:36:18 +0000

Delphi charioteer front DSC06255

ammit — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 17:28:19 +0000

Family Tree of the House of Cadmus

luoyaozhang — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 21:18:11 +0000

22A1413D-9B04-4712-A403-5F958E3450B0_1_201_a

taramulder — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 22:22:29 +0000

Built in the 2nd century CE under the Emperor Hadrian, renovated under Septimus Severus (193-211 CE). It held approximately 15,000 people and was in use until the 5th or 6th century CE.

3B736475-AA65-4CF2-9F8B-47CC8652A299

taramulder — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 22:22:37 +0000

900A315D-CA2C-4506-9BD2-CA8796356738

taramulder — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 22:22:40 +0000

F493D52A-3096-4B64-9C9F-8CC98BA610D3

taramulder — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 22:22:43 +0000

The Deified Claudius

taramulder — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 22:22:46 +0000

"The emperor strides across the panel in vigorous motion, framed behind by a billow of drapery, which in ancient iconography indicated floating, flying, and as here, divine epiphany. He receives in his right hand a cornucopia with the fruits of the earth from a small figure emerging from the ground. On the right he receives a steering oar from a sea figure or marine tritoness. She has fish legs and a fish-scale skirt. The cornucopia and the steering oar symbolize the prosperity of land and sea under the emperor's rule. The composition is an arresting visualization of the Roman emperor as an all powerful hellenistic-style divinity as seen from the eastern provinces. The awkward, rather gauche handling of the proportions of the emperor's body indicates that the composition was designed locally. There were no public monuments in Rome that portrayed such an elevated, panegyrical conception of the emperor's role." http://aphrodisias.classics.ox.ac.uk/sebasteionreliefs.html

Theatre at Aphrodisias

taramulder — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 22:22:51 +0000

Originally built against the prehistoric settlement hill in the late Hellenistic period, updated and expanded throughout the first several centuries CE. 27 rows of seats below the diazoma, and a few above seated about 7,000 people.

CCE088D6-3FE8-4B15-8BF7-510F76E8D374

taramulder — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 22:22:54 +0000

Ceres Archaeological Museum of Milan

taramulder — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 23:46:50 +0000

Close up of a fresco from a Roman ara.

Diana_Stabia_1-1

pr0560 — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 18:13:25 +0000

Apollo, held by Leto, shoots at Python in a landscape with palm trees

pr0560 — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 22:43:45 +0000

Coin of Julius Caesar. Sacred Palladium

pr0560 — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 20:25:43 +0000

Aeneis 3 147

pr0560 — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 20:29:20 +0000

Amphora 1893,0712.11

ammit — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 18:15:57 +0000

Sabouroff Painter ARV 846 196 Hermes leading a deceased to Charon

ammit — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 18:15:59 +0000

White lekythos, Reed Painter, NAMA 2028, 191322

ammit — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 18:16:00 +0000

Classical white ground lekythos ARV extra two women coming to Charon

ammit — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 18:16:00 +0000

Attic Red Figure (White Ground) Lekythos with Charon, attributed to the Tymbos painter, ca 500 - 450 BC, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (22681344331)

ammit — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 18:16:01 +0000

The history of the devil and the idea of evil; from the earliest times to the present day (1899) (14589468968)

ammit — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 18:51:11 +0000

Reconstruction of Nekyia by Polygnotus

ammit — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 18:51:27 +0000

Makron ARV 475 267 actor dressed as satyr at column-krater - man and boy and youth - three youths

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 14:43:28 +0000

Red-figured Bell Krater with Phlyax Theater Scene Greek made in Pulia South Italy about 380 BCE attributed to the Choregos Painter Terracotta

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 14:56:07 +0000

Dionysiac Thiasos on stage - II

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 14:57:17 +0000

Red-figured Bell Krater with a scene of Phlyax actors Greek made in Apulia South Italy 370-360 BCE attributed to the Cotugno Painter Terracotta (2)

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 14:58:30 +0000

Tholos Athena Pronaia

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 15:45:09 +0000

Athenian Treasury - Θησαυρός των Αθηναίων

pr0560 — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 15:50:02 +0000

Altamura crater 1880s

ammit — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 15:53:20 +0000

Sextans 2710029

pr0560 — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 16:17:27 +0000

346/3 As C.CENSORIN Numa Pompilius, Ancus Marcius jugate, Two arches, Prow, statue of Liberty, crescent #1232-11, 26x28mm 10g84

pr0560 — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 16:43:09 +0000

Pompeiii Europa Fresco

taramulder — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 21:27:13 +0000

Fourth-century calyx-krater ARV extra - Athena and Poseidon competing for the protection of Attica - two youths (02)

pr0560 — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 16:48:16 +0000

Map of Ancient Greece

pr0560 — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 18:52:48 +0000

Map of the Ancient Mediterranean World

pr0560 — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 18:52:57 +0000

Family Tree of the Primordial Gods

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Family Tree of Earth and Sea

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Family Tree of Zeus and his Family

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Family Tree of Zeus and his Children

pr0560 — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 20:38:55 +0000

Family Tree of Earth and Sky

pr0560 — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 21:44:39 +0000

Paphos_Haus_des_Dionysos_-_Apollo_und_Daphne_1

ammit — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 01:23:06 +0000

Greek - Procession of Twelve Gods and Goddesses - Walters 2340

ammit — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 14:03:42 +0000

Family Tree of the House of Atreus

pr0560 — Sat, 28 Aug 2021 17:46:52 +0000

Cover Image

taramulder — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 13:13:00 +0000

Cover Image

taramulder — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 13:21:24 +0000

Cover Image

taramulder — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 13:22:10 +0000

Cover Image

taramulder — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 13:22:49 +0000

Noah in the arc

ammit — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 14:02:56 +0000

Noah with the dove

ammit — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 14:05:40 +0000

Noah with two doves

ammit — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 14:07:07 +0000

Hecate burns clytios

taramulder — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 22:52:51 +0000

White marble relief from the Altar of Pergamum. Left hand scene shows Hecate on the right with shield and brandishing torch. To her left the monster Clytios, with snakes for legs is attacking. One of his snake legs bites Hecate's shield. One of Hecate's dogs bites at the lower torso of Clytias.

The North-West Metopes of the Parthenon

taramulder — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 19:03:26 +0000

Ancient Friezes at NW corner of Parthenon. Metopes I to IV are visible, showing possible scenes of an Amazonomachy.

Appendix A: Index of Primary Sources

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:05:40 +0000

Aelian

Historical Miscellany (13.1)

Aeschylus

Agamemnon (1095-1393)
Eumenides (in full)
Libation Bearers (885-1005)
Prometheus Bound (in full)

Apollonius of Rhodes

Argonautica (1502-1536)

Apuleius

The Golden Ass (4.28-6.24)

Aristotle

Poetics (Book 17)

Bacchylides

"Ode 5" (56-90)
"Ode 17" (in full)
"Ode 18" (in full)

Bion

"Lament for Adonis" (in full)

Callimachus

"Hymn 3" (in full)
"Hymn 5" (in full)
"Hymn 6" (in full)

Catullus

Poems 63 (in full)
Poems 64 (in full)

Cleanthes

"Hymn to Zeus" (in full)

Conon

Narrations (Fragment 40)

Diodorus Siculus

Bibliotheca Historica (2.43.1-2.46.6)
Bibliotheca Historica (5.68-5.69)

Euripides

Bacchae (in full)
Electra (698-1035)
Heracles (348-425)
Heracles (1131-1160)
Iphigenia in Aulis (in full)
Iphigenia in Tauris (in full)
Medea (in full)

Fulgentius

Mythologies (1.10-1.11)
Mythologies (2.11)
Mythologies (2.12)

Genesis

Genesis (7:1-8:22)

Gilgamesh Epic

Gilgamesh Epic, Tablet 11 (1-206)

Herodotus

Histories (1.1.0-2.120.5)

Hesiod

Astronomia (Fragment 3)
Catalogue of Women (Fragment 14c)
Theogony (in full)
Theogony (176-205)
Theogony (270-294)
Theogony (885-900)

Homer

Iliad (1.22-1.52)
Iliad (3.181-3.200)
Iliad (5.703-5.766)
Iliad (5.703-5.909)
Iliad (5.846-4.909)
Iliad (6.119-6.211)
Iliad (16.394-16.507)
Iliad (18.368-18.617)
Iliad (19.74-19.144)
Iliad (22.337-22.366)
Iliad (24.552-24.620)
Odyssey (8.256-8.366)
Odyssey (8.485-8.520)
Odyssey (9.1-9.565)
Odyssey (11.385-11.464)
Odyssey (11.593-11.640)
Odyssey (12.1-12.453)
Odyssey (21.1-21.403)
Odyssey (23.1-23.299)

Homeric Hymns

"Hymn 1 To Dionysus" (in full)
"Hymn 2 To Demeter" (in full)
"Hymn 3 To Apollo" (in full)
"Hymn 4 To Hermes" (in full)
"Hymn 5 To Aphrodite" (in full)
"Hymn 5 To Aphrodite" (203-217)
"Hymn 6 To Aphrodite" (in full)
"Hymn 7 To Dionysus" (in full)
"Hymn 8 To Ares" (in full)
"Hymn 9 To Artemis" (in full)
"Hymn 11 To Athena" (in full)
"Hymn 12 To Hera" (in full)
"Hymn 15 To Heracles the Lion-Hearted" (in full)
"Hymn 18 To Hermes" (in full)
"Hymn 20 To Hephaestus" (in full)
"Hymn 21 To Apollo" (in full)
"Hymn 22 To Poseidon" (in full)
"Hymn 24 To Hestia" (in full)
"Hymn 26 To Dionysus" (in full)
"Hymn 27 To Artemis" (in full)
"Hymn 28 To Athena" (in full)
"Hymn 29 To Hestia" (in full)

Horace

Odes (2.19)

Livy

Ab Urbe Condita (1.1-1.8)
Ab Urbe Condita (1.9-1.16)
Ab Urbe Condita (1.18-1.21)
Ab Urbe Condita (1.39-1.43)
Ab Urbe Condita (1.57-1.59)
Ab Urbe Condita (2.10)
Ab Urbe Condita (2.12)
Ab Urbe Condita (2.13)

Lucian

Dialogues of the Gods (The Judgement of Paris)
Dialogues of the Sea Gods (Doris and Thetis)

Ovid

Fasti (3.1-3.43)
Fasti (3.415-3.697)
Fasti (4.943-4.954)
Fasti (6.249-6.461)
Heroides, "1: Penelope to Ulysses" (in full)
Heroides, "4: Phaedra to Hippolytus" (in full)
Heroides, "10: Ariadne to Theseus" (in full)
Heroides, "12: Medea to Jason" (in full)
Metamorphoses (1.1-1.150)
Metamorphoses (1.177-1.437)
Metamorphoses (1.438-1.567)
Metamorphoses (1.622-1.722)
Metamorphoses (4.274-4.388)
Metamorphoses (4.604-4.803)
Metamorphoses (4.706-4.752)
Metamorphoses (4.790-4.803)
Metamorphoses (7.1-7.424)
Metamorphoses (7.404-7.452)
Metamorphoses (8.152-8.182)
Metamorphoses (8.260-8.546)
Metamorphoses (9.1-9.323)
Metamorphoses (10.152-10.160)
Metamorphoses (10.1-10.85)
Metamorphoses (10.560-10.707)
Metamorphoses (11.1-11.145)
Metamorphoses (11.146-11.312)
Metamorphoses (13.839-13.897)

Pausanias

Description of Greece (10.5.5-10.5.13)

Pindar

Odes, "Isthmian 4" (55-65)
Odes, "Isthmian 7" (39-49)
Odes, "Nemean 10" (1-15)
Odes, "Olympian 1" (24-65)
Odes, "Olympian 13" (60-95)
Odes, "Pythian 4" (70-255)
Odes, "Pythian 4" (85-95)
Odes, "Pythian 10" (29-45)

Plato

Phaedrus (246e-247b)
Republic (10.614b-10.621b)

Plutarch

De Defectu Oraculorum (42)
Parallel Lives, "Life of Theseus" (7 & 10)
Parallel Lives, "Life of Theseus" (15-19)
Parallel Lives, "Life of Theseus" (24.1-24.3)

Proclus

Chrestomathia (1-2)
Chrestomathia (2)

Pseudo-Apollodorus

Bibliotheca (1.4.1)
Bibliotheca (1.4.1-1.4.2)
Bibliotheca (1.5.1-1.5.3)
Bibliotheca (1.6.3)
Bibliotheca (1.8.2-1.8.3)
Bibliotheca (1.9.1-1.9.2)
Bibliotheca (1.9.16-1.9.28)
Bibliotheca (2.1.2-2.1.3)
Bibliotheca (2.4.1-2.4.5)
Bibliotheca (2.4.3)
Bibliotheca (2.4.8-2.7.7)
Bibliotheca (3.1.1-E.1.24)
Bibliotheca (3.4.1-3.5.4)
Bibliotheca (3.4.4)
Bibliotheca (3.4.1-3.7.6)
Bibliotheca (3.9.2)
Bibliotheca (3.12.2)
Bibliotheca (3.14.1)
Bibliotheca (3.15.6-E.1.6)
Bibliotheca (E.3.21-E.3.22)
Bibliotheca (E.5.1-E.5.2)

Pseudo-Hyginus

Astronomica (2.26)
Fabulae (31-32)
Fabulae (185)

Sappho

"Ode to Aphrodite" (in full)

Sophocles

Women of Trachis (507-516)

Thucydides

The Pelopponesian War (1.1-12.4)

Virgil

Aeneid (1.1-1.585)
Aeneid (2.228-2.297)
Aeneid (6.1-6.901)
Aeneid (6.703-6.751)

Xenophon

Memorabilia (2.1.21-2.1.34)

Aphrodite

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:22:15 +0000

[caption id="attachment_139" align="aligncenter" width="819"] Aphrodite on a swan, red-figure kylix from ca. 460 BCE (British Museum, London).[/caption]

Origins

Sections & Primary Sources

Birth and Appearance

Hesiod, Theogony, 176-205
Homeric Hymn 6, "To Aphrodite"

Birth and Appearance

[caption id="attachment_142" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Aphrodite being born from the sea, relief from 1st century C.E. (Aphrodisias Museum)[/caption]

There are two origin stories for Aphrodite. In one, she is a Titan, born from the severed genitals of Uranus, the sky, mixed with the water and foam of the sea. In the other, she is an Olympian, daughter of Zeus and the Titan Dione. She was one of the twelve Olympians in the Greek pantheon and her particular [pb_glossary id="4635"]timai[/pb_glossary] was in the realms of erotic desire, beauty, and generation.

Hesiod, Theogony (trans. G. Nagy, adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek epic, ca. 700 BCE

The following excerpt, from Hesiod's Theogony, an epic poem about the birth of the gods and the cosmos written in Greek in the 8th/7th century BCE, describes Aphrodite's birth from the sea.

Not for no purpose did they slip from his hand; for as many gory drops as jetted forth from there, Earth received them all; and when the years rolled round, [185] she gave birth to stern [pb_glossary id="157"]Furies[/pb_glossary] [Erinyes], and mighty [pb_glossary id="601"]Giants[/pb_glossary], gleaming in arms, with long spears in hand, and [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] whom men call Ash-[pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] [Meliai], over the boundless earth. But the genitals, [footnote]The Greek is ambiguous as to whether this refers to both the penis and testicles or just one or the other. [/footnote] since after first severing them with the steel, he had cast them from the land into the heaving sea, [190] kept drifting for a long time up and down the deep, and all around a white foam kept rising from the immortal flesh; and in it a maiden was nourished; first she drew near divine Cythera, and from there came next to wave-washed Cyprus. Then an awesome, beautiful goddess stepped forth; and beneath her delicate feet the grass grew: [195] gods and men name her Aphrodite, the foam-sprung goddess, and fair-wreathed [pb_glossary id="167"]Cytherea[/pb_glossary]—the first because she was nursed in foam, but [pb_glossary id="167"]Cytherea[/pb_glossary], because she touched at Cythera; and Cyprus-born, because she was born in wave-dashed Cyprus; [200] and lover of smiles, because she emerged out of the genitals.[footnote]Aphrodite's Greek epithet "Philomedes" can be translated as either "smile-loving" or "genital-loving."[/footnote] And [pb_glossary id="158"]Eros[/pb_glossary] accompanied her and fair [pb_glossary id="161"]Desire[/pb_glossary] followed her, when first she was born, and came into the host of the gods. And from the beginning she had this honor and this part she obtained by lot among men and immortal gods, [205] the flirtatious conversation of maidens, their smiles and wiles, their sweet delights, their love, and flattery. Taken from: https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5289

Homeric Hymn 6, "To Aphrodite" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

The following short Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, written in Greek in the 7th century BCE, describes her beauty and adornment.

[1] I will sing of stately Aphrodite, gold-crowned and beautiful, whose dominion is the walled cities of all sea-set Cyprus. There the moist breath of the western wind wafted her over the waves of the loud-moaning sea in soft foam, and there the gold-ribboned [pb_glossary id="164"]Hours[/pb_glossary] welcomed her joyously. They clothed her with heavenly garments: on her head they put a fine, well-wrought crown of gold, and in her pierced ears they hung ornaments of orichalc [footnote]A yellow metal prized in ancient times, probably a form of brass or a similar alloy.[/footnote] and precious gold, and adorned her with golden necklaces over her soft neck and snow-white breasts, jewels which the gold-ribboned [pb_glossary id="164"]Hours[/pb_glossary] wear themselves whenever they go to their father's house to join the lovely dances of the gods. And when they had fully decorated her, they brought her to the gods, who welcomed her when they saw her, giving her their hands. Each one of them prayed that he might lead her home to be his wife, so greatly were they amazed at the beauty of violet-crowned [pb_glossary id="167"]Cytherea[/pb_glossary]. [19] Hail, sweetly-winning, coy-eyed goddess! Grant that I may gain the victory in this contest, and compose my song. And now I will remember you and another song also. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#6

Aphrodite in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

Affairs with Mortal Men

Homeric Hymn 5, "To Aphrodite"
Bion, "Lament for Adonis"

A Woman's Aphrodite

Sappho, "Ode to Aphrodite"

Aphrodite in the Iliad Cupid and Psyche

Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Books 4-6 (The Tale of Cupid and Psyche)

Affairs with Mortal Men

[caption id="attachment_149" align="alignnone" width="1013"] Anchises and Aphrodite with baby Aeneas, relief (Aphrodisias Museum); N.B. The symbols that appear to be backward swastikas were a design element that was popular on ancient Greek artwork. The Nazis appropriated the symbol and flipped it around.[/caption] Aphrodite was known for her many sexual affairs with gods and mortal men. Her most constant consort was the god Ares, but she also had famous trysts with two mortals: Anchises, a Trojan shepherd and the father of Aeneas; and Adonis, the most beautiful mortal man who ever lived.

Homeric Hymn 5, "To Aphrodite" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

There are three Homeric Hymns to Aphrodite. The longest of these, Hymn 5, tells of her tryst with the Trojan shepherd, Anchises, and the birth of her demigod son, the Trojan/Roman hero, Aeneas.

[1] Muse, tell me the deeds of golden Aphrodite the Cyprian, who stirs up sweet passion in the gods and subdues the tribes of mortal men and birds that fly in air and all the many creatures that the dry land rears, and all the sea: all these love the deeds of rich-crowned [pb_glossary id="167"]Cytherea[/pb_glossary]. [7] Yet there are three hearts that she cannot bend nor ensnare. First is the daughter of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary], bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]; for she has no pleasure in the deeds of golden Aphrodite, but delights in wars and in the work of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], in strifes and battles and in preparing famous crafts. She first taught earthly craftsmen to make chariots of war and cars variously wrought with bronze, and she, too, teaches tender maidens in the house and puts knowledge of goodly arts in each one's mind. Nor does laughter-loving Aphrodite ever tame in love [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary], the huntress with shafts of gold; for she loves archery and the slaying of wild beasts in the mountains, the lyre also and dancing and thrilling cries and shady woods and the cities of upright men. Nor yet does the pure maiden [pb_glossary id="181"]Hestia[/pb_glossary] love Aphrodite's works. She was the first-born child of wily [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] and youngest too, by will of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary], – a queenly maid whom both [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] sought to wed. But she was wholly unwilling, and stubbornly refused; and touching the head of father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary], she, that fair goddess, swore a great oath which has in truth been fulfilled, that she would be a maiden all her days. So [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the Father gave her a high honour instead of marriage, and she has her place in the midst of the house and has the richest portion. In all the temples of the gods she has a share of honour, and among all mortal men she is chief of the goddesses. [33] Aphrodite cannot bend or ensnare the hearts of these three. But of all others there is nothing among the blessed gods or among mortal men that has escaped Aphrodite. Even the heart of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], who delights in thunder, is led astray by her; though he is greatest of all and has the lot of highest majesty, she beguiles even his wise heart whenever she pleases, and mates him with mortal women, unknown to [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], his sister and his wife, the grandest in beauty among the deathless goddesses – most glorious is she whom wily [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] with her mother [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary] conceived: and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], whose wisdom is everlasting, made her his chaste and careful wife. [45] But upon Aphrodite herself [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] cast the sweet desire to be joined in love with a mortal man, so that not even she should be innocent of loving a mortal; so that laughter-loving Aphrodite cannot one day softly smile and say mockingly among all the gods that she had joined them in love with mortal women, who bore sons of death to the deathless gods, and had mated the goddesses with mortal men. [53] And so he put in her heart sweet desire for [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] who was tending cattle at that time among the steep hills of many-fountained [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary], and who was similar to the immortal gods in his appearance. Therefore, when laughter-loving Aphrodite saw him, she loved him, and desire seized her strongly in her heart. She went to Cyprus, to Paphos, where her precinct is and fragrant altar, and entered into her sweet-smelling temple. There she went in and shut the glittering doors, and there the [pb_glossary id="189"]Graces[/pb_glossary] bathed her with heavenly oil such as blooms upon the bodies of the eternal gods – oil divinely sweet, which she had by her, filled with fragrance. And laughter-loving Aphrodite put on all her rich clothes, and when she had decked herself with gold, she left sweet-smelling Cyprus and went quickly towards [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary], swiftly travelling high up among the clouds. So she came to many-fountained [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary], the mother of wild creatures and went straight to the homestead across the mountains. Behind her came grey wolves, fawning on her, and grim-eyed lions, and bears, and fleet leopards, ravenous for deer: and she was glad in heart to see them, and put desire in their breasts, so that they all mated, two together, around the shadowy valleys. [75] But she herself came to the neat-built shelters, and she found him left all alone in the homestead – the hero [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] who was as lovely as the gods. All the others were following the herds over the grassy pastures, and he, left all alone in the homestead, was roaming here and there and playing thrillingly upon the lyre. And Aphrodite, the daughter of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] stood before him, being like a pure maiden in height and manner, so that he would not be frightened when he caught a glance of her with his eyes. Now when [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] saw her, he marked her well and wondered at her manner and height and shining garments. For she was draped in a robe brighter than fire, a splendid robe of gold, enriched with all sorts of needlework, which shimmered like the moon over her tender breasts, a marvel. Also she wore twisted brooches and shining flower earrings; and lovely necklaces were around her soft throat. [91] And [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] was seized with love, and said to her: "Greetings, lady, whoever of the blessed ones you are that come to this house, whether [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary], or [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], or golden Aphrodite, or high-born [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary], or bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]. Or, maybe, you are one of the [pb_glossary id="189"]Graces[/pb_glossary] come here, who bear the gods company and are called immortal, or else one of those who inhabit this lovely mountain and the springs of rivers and grassy meadows. I will make an altar for you, on a high peak, in place that can be seen from far away, and I will sacrifice rich offerings to you in all seasons. Please feel kindly towards me and grant that I may become an eminent man among the Trojans, and give me strong children in the future. As for my own self, let me live long and happily, seeing the light of the sun, and let me arrive at the threshold of old age, a man prosperous among the people." [106] Then Aphrodite the daughter of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] answered him: "[pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary], most glorious of all men born on earth, know that I am no goddess: why do you compare me to the deathless ones? No, I am only a mortal, and the mother that bore me was a woman. The famous Otreus is my father, if perhaps you have heard of him, and he reigns over all Phrygia rich in fortresses. I understand you well, because a Trojan nurse brought me up at home: she took me from my dear mother and reared me from when I was a little child. That is why, then, that I know your tongue also. And now the [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] with the golden wand has caught me up from the dance of huntress [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary], her with the golden arrows. For there were many of us, [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] and marriageable maidens, playing together; and an innumerable company encircled us: from these the [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] with the golden wand snatched me away. He carried me over many fields of mortal men and over much land untilled and unpossessed, where savage wild-beasts roam through shady valleys, until I thought never again to touch the life-giving earth with my feet. And he said that I would be called the wedded wife of [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary], and would bear you splendid children. But when he had told and advised me, he, the strong [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary], went back to the tribe of the deathless gods, while I have now come to you: for strong necessity is upon me. But I beg you by [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and by your noble parents – for no common folk could get such a son as you – take me now, unmarried and inexperienced in love, and show me to your father and noble mother and to your brothers . I will not be a shameful daughter for them, but a fitting one. In addition, quickly send a messenger to the swift-horsed Phrygians, to tell my father and my grieving mother; and they will send you plenty of gold and woven goods, many splendid gifts; take these as my bride-piece. Do this, and then prepare a sweet marriage that is honourable in the eyes of men and deathless gods." [143] When she had so spoken, the goddess put sweet desire in his heart. And [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] was seized with love, so that he opened his mouth and said: "If you are a mortal and the mother who bore you was a woman, and the famous Otreus is your father, as you say, and if you have come here by the will of [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] the immortal Guide, and are to be called my wife always, then neither god nor mortal man will stop me from joining with you in love right now; no, not even if far-shooting [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] himself should shoot moan-causing arrows from his silver bow. I would willingly go down into the house of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], O lady, beautiful as the goddesses, once I had gone up to your bed." [155] So speaking, he took her by the hand. And laughter-loving Aphrodite, with face turned away and lovely eyes downcast, crept to the well-spread couch which was already laid with soft coverings for the hero; on it were skins of bears and deep-roaring lions, which he himself had slain in the high mountains. And when they had gone up to the well-made bed, first [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] took off her bright jewelry of pins and twisted brooches and earrings and necklaces, and undid her girdle and stripped off her bright garments and laid them down upon a silver-studded seat. Then by the will of the gods and destiny he lay with her, a mortal man with an immortal goddess, not clearly knowing what he did. [168] But, at the time when the herdsmen drive their oxen and fat sheep out fo the flowery pastures, back to the fold, then Aphrodite poured soft sleep over [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary], but she herself put on her rich garments. And when the bright goddess had fully clothed herself, she stood by the couch, and her head reached to the well-made roof beam; from her cheeks shone unearthly beauty such as belongs to rich-crowned [pb_glossary id="167"]Cytherea[/pb_glossary]. Then she roused him from sleep and opened her mouth and said: "Up, son of Dardanus! -- why do you sleep so heavily? -- and consider whether I look as I did when first you saw me with your eyes." [180] So she spoke. And he awoke in a moment and obeyed her. But when he saw the neck and lovely eyes of Aphrodite, he was afraid and turned his eyes aside the other way, hiding his beautiful face with his cloak. Then he uttered winged words and entreated her: "As soon as I saw you with my eyes, goddess, I knew that you were divine; but you did not tell me the truth. Yet by [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary] I beg you, do not leave me to lead a feeble life among men, but have pity on me; for he who lies with a deathless goddess is not a strong man afterwards." [191] Then Aphrodite the daughter of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] answered him: "[pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary], most glorious of mortal men, take courage and do not be too fearful in your heart. You do not need to fear any harm from me nor from the other blessed ones, for you are dear to the gods: and you will have a dear son who will reign among the Trojans, and children's children after him, springing up continually. His name will be [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary], because I felt terrible grief at at falling into the bed of mortal man: yet these humans [demi-gods] are always the most similar to gods of all mortal men in beauty and in stature. [202] "In truth, wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] carried off golden-haired [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymedes[/pb_glossary] because of his beauty, to be among the Deathless Ones and pour drinks for the gods in the house of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] – a wonder to see – honoured by all the immortals as he draws the red nectar from the golden bowl. But grief that could not be soothed filled the heart of Tros; for he did not know from where the heaven-sent whirlwind had caught up his dear son, so that he mourned him always, unceasingly, until [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] pitied him and gave him high-stepping horses such as carry the immortals as recompense for his son. These he gave him as a gift. And at the command of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the Guide, the [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary], told him [[pb_glossary id="5105"]Tros[/pb_glossary]] everything, and how his son would be deathless and unageing, just like the gods. So when [pb_glossary id="5105"]Tros[/pb_glossary] heard these tidings from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], he no longer kept mourning but rejoiced in his heart and rode joyfully with his storm-footed horses. [218] "So also golden-throned [pb_glossary id="215"]Eos[/pb_glossary] snatched away [pb_glossary id="1511"]Tithonus[/pb_glossary], who was of your race and like the deathless gods. And she went to ask the dark-clouded Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] to make him deathless and to give him eternal life; and Zeus bowed his head to her prayer and fulfilled her desire. But queenly [pb_glossary id="215"]Eos[/pb_glossary] was too simple: she did not think to ask for eternal youth for him and to scrape away deadly old age. So while he enjoyed the sweet flower of life he lived rapturously with golden-throned [pb_glossary id="215"]Eos[/pb_glossary], the early-born, by the streams of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], at the ends of the earth; but when the first grey hairs began to ripple from his lovely head and noble chin, queenly [pb_glossary id="215"]Eos[/pb_glossary] kept away from his bed, though she cherished him in her house and nourished him with food and ambrosia and gave him rich clothing. But when wretched old age pressed fully upon him, and he could not move nor lift his limbs, this seemed to her in her heart the best plan: she laid him in a room and closed the shining doors. There he babbles endlessly, and no longer has any strength at all, such as he once had in his supple limbs. [239] "I would not have you be deathless among the deathless gods and live continually in this way. Yet if you could live on such as now you are in appearance, and be called my husband, sorrow would not surround my noble heart. But, as it is, harsh old age will soon enfold you – ruthless age which comes someday to every man, deadly, wearying, dreaded even by the gods. [247] "And now because of you I will have great shame among the deathless gods from now on, continually. For until now they feared my songs and the wiles by which, sooner or later, I paired all the immortals with mortal women, making them all subject to my will. But now my mouth will no longer have this power among the gods; for my madness has been very great, my miserable and dreadful madness, and I went out of my mind, I who have now conceived a child underneath my girdle, mating with a mortal man. As for the child, as soon as he sees the light of the sun, the deep-breasted mountain [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymphs[/pb_glossary] who inhabit this great and holy mountain will raise him. They are neither mortals nor immortals: indeed, they live for a long time, eating heavenly food and dancing the lovely dance among the immortals, and with them the [pb_glossary id="218"]Sileni[/pb_glossary] and the sharp-eyed [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] mate in the depths of pleasant caves; but at their birth pines or high-topped oaks spring up with them upon the fruitful earth, beautiful, flourishing trees, towering high on the lofty mountains (and men call them holy places of the immortals, and never cut them down with the axe); but when the fate of death is near at hand, first those lovely trees wither where they stand, and the bark shrivels away on them, and the twigs fall down, and at last the life of the [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymph[/pb_glossary] and of the tree leave the light of the sun together. These [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymphs[/pb_glossary] will keep my son with them and rear him, and as soon as he has reached lovely boyhood, the goddesses will bring him here to you and show you your child. But, so that I may tell you all that I have in mind, I will come here again around the fifth year and bring you my son. When you see him – a child to delight the eyes – you will rejoice in looking at him; for he will be godlike: then bring him at once to windy [pb_glossary id="4673"]Ilium[/pb_glossary]. And if any mortal man ask you who birthed your dear son, remember to tell him this: say he is the offspring of one of the flower-like [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymphs[/pb_glossary] who inhabit this forest-covered hill. But if you tell all and foolishly boast that you lay with rich-crowned Aphrodite, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] will smite you in his anger with a smoking thunderbolt. Now I have told you everything. Be careful: do not speak my name, but respect the anger of the gods." When the goddess had so spoken, she soared up to windy heaven. [292] Hail, goddess, queen of well-built Cyprus! With you have I begun; now I will turn to another hymn. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#5

Bion, "Lament for Adonis"

In a Greek poem from the 2nd century CE, the poet Bion imagines the devastating aftermath of the death of Adonis, another of Aphrodites' mortal lovers. Here, the goddess weeps over his beautiful, young body as he lies bleeding from a fatal goring of his thigh, inflicted by the tusk of a wild boar that he had been hunting.

Bion, "Lament for Adonis" (trans. Ryan Johnson)

Greek erotic poem, ca. 100 BCE

I wail for [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]: "Beautiful [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] is dead." "Beautiful [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] has perished," the [pb_glossary id="947"]Erotes[/pb_glossary] wail in return. Sleep no more, Aphrodite, in your purple sheets. Wake up to your sorrows, put on a dark robe and beat your breasts[footnote]Traditional Greek mourning (particularly for women) included beating their chest, dressing in dark clothes, and tearing at hair.[/footnote] and tell everyone, "Beautiful [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] is dead." I wail for [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]; the [pb_glossary id="947"]Erotes[/pb_glossary] wail in return. Beautiful [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] lies in the hills, his thigh pierced by a tusk. White pierced by white, and it grieves Aphrodite– the gentle passing of his breath. And his dark blood trickles down over his snow-white flesh, and beneath his brows his eyes began to deaden. The redness flees his lips: And upon them dies as well the kiss which Aphrodite will never have again. The kiss of the dead is now pleasing enough to Aphrodite, but [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] does not know that she has kissed him as he lays dying. I wail for [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]; the [pb_glossary id="947"]Erotes[/pb_glossary] wail in return. Cruel, cruel wound that lies in [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]’ thigh! But even crueler the wound which lies in the heart of Aphrodite. Friendly dogs howl around the young man and the mountain [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] cry in lament. But Aphrodite, loosening her locks of hair as she roams about the woods is mourning with unbraided hair and without sandals. And the brambles scratch her as she goes and draw sacred blood. She wails as she hurries through the long valley. She cries aloud for her Assyrian lover[footnote]The myth of Aphrodite and Adonis draws elements from Mesopotamian myth. The Sumerian myth Inana's Descent to the Netherworld, and the later Akkadian Descent of Ishtar, tell the story of the fertility and love goddess Inana/Ishtar going in search of her lover Tammuz/Dumuzi, who has gone to the Netherworld (world of death). For further reading, see section "Mesopotamian Connections" or visit ORACC.[/footnote] and calls for the young man. Meanwhile the dark blood flowed around his navel and his breast took on the red that came from his thighs, while [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]’ chest that was formerly snow-white began to turn purple. “Alas for Aphrodite!” the [pb_glossary id="947"]Erotes[/pb_glossary] wail in return. [A boar] killed the fair man, and it destroyed as well his holy figure. His figure was attractive to Aphrodite, when [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] was alive, but his beauty is dying away with [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]. “Alas for Aphrodite!” All the hills say, and the oaks: “Alas for [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]!” And the rivers cry the sorrows of Aphrodite. And the springs in the hills shed tears for [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]. The flowers become red from grief, and [the island of] Cythera over every foothill, over every grove sings a pitiable lament: “Alas for Aphrodite, beautiful [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] is dead!” And [pb_glossary id="345"]Echo[/pb_glossary] cries back: “Beautiful [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] is dead!” Who would not have cried in lament over the dire tale of Aphrodite’s love? Thus she saw, thus she observed the irrepressible wound of [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]. Thus she saw the crimson blood about his thigh as it wasted away, and raising her hands she began to wail plaintively: “Stay, [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]! Stay unlucky [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary], so that I may meet with you for the last time; so that I may embrace you and mingle my lips with yours. Awaken, little [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary], and kiss me again for the last time, kiss me for so long as the kiss has been alive, until you give up your breath into my mouth and your spirit flows into my heart, and I draw out your sweet spell of love, and I drink up your love, and I will keep that kiss safe, since [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] himself gave it, since you flee me, miserable that I am, you flee to the great House of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] and you are going to [pb_glossary id="795"]Acheron[/pb_glossary], near the hateful and cruel king. But I, wretched as I am, live and am a goddess and cannot pursue you. O [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary], take my husband! For you yourself are much stronger than me, and all that is good flows down to you. But as for me, I am all without luck, and I have unceasing sorrow, and I cry for my [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary], who is dying, and I am seized with fear for you. You are dying, O thrice-desired one, and my desire flew like a dream, but Aphrodite is a widow, and the [pb_glossary id="947"]Erotes[/pb_glossary] are destitute in her estate. Your embroidered garment is lost as well. O darling, why did you go hunting?Had you, beautiful as you are, gone mad that you wrestled with a beast?” Thus Aphrodite lamented; The [pb_glossary id="947"]Erotes[/pb_glossary] wail in return, “Alas for Aphrodite, beautiful Adonis is dead!” Aphrodite pours out as many tears as [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] pours out his blood, and it all becomes flowers upon the earth. The blood brings forth roses and the tears anemones. I wail for [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary], beautiful [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] is dead. Weep no more for your husband in the woods, Aphrodite. A lonely bed of leaves is no good for [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]. Let Aphrodite bring [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary], even though he is dead, to his marriage-bed. Indeed even his corpse is beautiful, a beautiful corpse, as though he were asleep. Lay him down in the soft sheets in which he used to sleep, upon the couch of solid gold on which he would pass the night with you in sacred sleep. It longs for [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary], stiff as he is. Cast on him wreaths and flowers. Let them all [die] with him. Since he has died let all the flowers die too! Sprinkle him with Syrian unguents, sprinkle him with perfumes! Let all perfumes come to an end, your perfume [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] is perished! Graceful [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] lies in purple wrappings, [footnote]Purple was a very expensive dye, and implies a lavish funeral.[/footnote] and the lamenting [pb_glossary id="947"]Erotes[/pb_glossary] groan aloud all around him, having shorn their locks for [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]. One casts arrows upon him, another a bow, another still a feather, and another a quiver. One loosens [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]’ sandal, others fetch water in a golden basin, still another washes his thighs, and another behind him fans [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] with his wings. “Alas for Aphrodite!” the [pb_glossary id="947"]Erotes[/pb_glossary] wail in return. The god [pb_glossary id="335"]Hymen[/pb_glossary] has put out every torch upon the doorposts and he has scattered the wedding wreath. No longer does [pb_glossary id="335"]Hymen[/pb_glossary] sing his song, but sings along, “Alas!” and “[pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]!” more than there ever was of the wedding song. The graces bewail the son of Kinyras, “Beautiful [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary] is dead!” crying among one another. They sharply cry “Alas!” much more than the [pb_glossary id="2806"]Paean[/pb_glossary]. Even the Fates call out “[pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]! [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary]!” And sing an incantation for him, but he does not give heed to them. Indeed it is not that there is no will, but that [pb_glossary id="790"]Kore[/pb_glossary] will not set him free. Cease your weeping for today, Aphrodite, stop beating your breasts. It will be necessary for you to lament again, to weep again in another year.

A Woman's Aphrodite

In one of the rare pieces of writing by a woman that survives from Greco-Roman antiquity, the poet Sappho, writing in Greek in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, addresses a plea to Aphrodite, the goddess of erotic love.

Sappho, "Ode to Aphrodite" (trans. A.S. Kline, adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek lyrical poem, ca. 600 BCE

Glittering-minded deathless Aphrodite, I beg you, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’s daughter, weaver of snares, Don’t shatter my heart with fierce Pain, goddess, But come now, if ever before You heard my voice, far off, and listened, And left your father’s golden house, And came, Yoking your chariot. Lovely the swift Sparrows that brought you over black earth A whirring of wings through mid-air Down the sky. They came. And you, sacred one, Smiling with deathless face, asking What now, while I suffer: why now I cry out to you, again: What now I desire above all in my Mad heart. Whom now, shall I persuade To admit you again to her love, Sappho, who wrongs you now? If she runs now she’ll follow later, If she refuses gifts she’ll give them. If she loves not, now, she’ll soon Love against her will. Come to me now, then, free me From aching care, and win me All my heart longs to win. You, Be my friend. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Sappho.php

Aphrodite in the Iliad

[caption id="attachment_144" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Aphrodite rescuing her son Aeneas on in battle at Troy, black-figure amphora from ca. 480 B.C.E. (Martin Von Wagner Museum)[/caption] Aphrodite, as the architect of Paris' abduction of Helen (see chapter 26), fights on the side of the Trojans in the Trojan war. At one point she famously enters the battle fray with her consort, Ares, and is wounded by the Greek hero, Diomedes. She also protects and tends to her son Aeneas, who is fighting on the Trojan side.

Cupid and Psyche

We see a quite different side of Venus/Aphrodite in The Golden Ass, a Roman novel from the 2nd century CE. Here, in a story embedded within the main story, Venus is jealous and vengeful. She envies the attention given to the mortal woman Psyche for her beauty, which people say is comparable to Venus' own beauty. And she grows especially incensed when her own son, Cupid (Eros in Greek), falls in love with Psyche.

Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Books 4-6 (The Tale of Cupid and Psyche) (trans. A.S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Roman novel, 2nd century CE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault, assault, suicide (5.25-28), physical abuse (6.9-10)]

The Golden Ass, also called The Metamorphoses, is a Roman novel by Apuleius, written in the 2nd century CE. It tells the story of Lucius, a young man, who, in his curiosity about magic, is accidentally transformed into an ass. He has many adventures and misadventures, including being stolen by a company of thieves, and being sold to a castrated priest of the goddess Cybele. At the end of the novel, Lucius is initiated into the cult of the goddess Isis. At one point in his adventures, he encounters a tricky old woman, who relates the story of Cupid and Psyche. The story covers three out of the novel's eleven total books.

[Book 4: 28-31 ] In a certain city there lived a king and queen, who had three daughters of surpassing beauty. Though the elder two were extremely pleasing, still it was thought they were only worthy of mortal praise; but the youngest girl’s looks were so delightful, so dazzling, no human speech in its poverty could celebrate them, or even rise to adequate description. Crowds of eager citizens and visitors alike, drawn by tales of this peerless vision, stood dumbfounded, marvelling at her exceptional loveliness, pressing thumb and forefinger together and touching them to their lips, and bowing their heads towards her in pious prayer as if she were truly the goddess Venus. Soon the news spread through neighbouring cities, and the lands beyond its borders, that the goddess herself, born from the blue depths of the sea, emerging in spray from the foaming waves, was now gracing the earth in various places, appearing in many a mortal gathering or, if not that, then earth not ocean had given rise to a new creation, a new celestial emanation, another Venus, and as yet a virgin flower. Day by day rumour gathered pace, and the fame of her beauty spread through the nearby islands, the mainland, and all but a few of the provinces. People journeyed from far countries, and sailed the deep sea in swelling throngs, to witness the sight of the age. Venus’s shrines in Paphos, Cnidos, and even Cythera itself were no longer their destinations. Her rites were neglected, her temples abandoned, her cushions were trodden underfoot, the ceremonies uncelebrated, the statues un-garlanded, the altars cold with forsaken ashes. The girl it was, that people worshipped, seeking to propitiate the goddess’ great power in a human face. When she walked out of a morning, they would invoke transcendent Venus in feast and sacrifice. And as she passed through the streets, crowds would shower her with garlands and flowers. This extravagant bestowal of the honours due to heaven on a mere mortal girl roused Venus herself to violent anger. She shook her head impatiently, and uttered these words of indignation to herself with a groan: “Behold me, the primal mother of all that is, the source of the elements, the whole world’s bountiful Venus, driven to divide my imperial honours with a lowly human! Is my name, established in heaven, to be traduced by earthly pollution? Am I to suffer the vagaries of vicarious reverence, a share in the worship of my divinity? Is a girl, destined to die, to tread the earth in my likeness? Was it nothing that [pb_glossary id="317"]Paris[/pb_glossary], that shepherd, whose just and honest verdict was approved by almighty [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary], preferred me for my matchless beauty to those other two great goddesses? But she’ll reap no joy from usurping my honours, whatever she may be: I’ll soon make her regret that illicit beauty of hers.” And she swiftly summoned [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary], that son of hers, a winged and headstrong boy, who with his wicked ways and contempt for public order, armed with his torch and his bow and arrows, goes running around at night in other people’s houses, ruining marriages everywhere, committing such shameful acts with impunity, and doing not an ounce of good. Venus, with her words, rousing his natural impudence and wildness to new heights, led him to the city and showed him [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] in person – such was the girl’s name – and told the tale of her rival’s loveliness, moaning and groaning in indignation. “I beg you,” she said, “by the bond of maternal love, by you arrows’ sweet wounds, by the honeyed licking of your flames, revenge your mother fully; exact harsh punishment from defiant beauty. One act of yours, pursued with a will, would accomplish all: let the girl be seized by violent, burning passion for the most wretched of men, one to whom [pb_glossary id="337"]Fortune[/pb_glossary] has denied rank, wealth, even health, one so insignificant there is none on earth equal to him in misery.” With this she kissed her son long and tenderly with parted lips then, seeking the nearest strand of tide-swept shore, stepped on rose-tinted feet over the trembling crests of the foaming waves, and stood once more on the crystal surface of the deep. The ocean instantly obeyed her wishes, as if commanded in advance. The [pb_glossary id="329"]Nereids[/pb_glossary] were there, singing a choral song; [pb_glossary id="330"]Portunus[/pb_glossary], the god of harbours, with his sea-green beard; [pb_glossary id="1547"]Salacia[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="182"]Neptune[/pb_glossary]’s wife, her lap alive with fish; and [pb_glossary id="333"]Palaemon[/pb_glossary] the dolphins’ little charioteer. Troops of [pb_glossary id="334"]Tritons[/pb_glossary] too leapt here and there in the water. One blew softly on a melodious conch; another with a silk parasol shielded her from the sun’s hostile blaze; another held a mirror to his mistress’ eyes; while yet more swam harnessed in pairs to her chariot. Such was the throng escorting Venus as she moved out to sea. [32 -33] [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], for all her conspicuous beauty, reaped no profit from her charms. Gazed at by all, praised by all, no one, neither prince nor commoner, wishing to marry her, sought her hand. They admired her divine beauty of course, but as we admire a perfectly finished statue. Her two elder sisters, whose plainer looks had never been trumpeted through the world, were soon engaged to royal suitors and so made excellent marriages, but [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] was left at home, a virgin, single, weeping in lonely solitude, ill in body and sore at heart, hating that beauty of form the world found so pleasing. So the wretched girl’s unhappy father, suspecting divine hostility, fearing the gods’ anger, consulted the ancient Miletian oracle of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] at Didyma. With prayer and sacrifice he asked the mighty god for a man to marry the unfortunate girl. [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], though Greek and Ionian too, favoured the author of this Miletian tale with a reply in Latin:

“High on a mountain crag, decked in her finery,

Lead your daughter, king, to her fatal marriage.

And hope for no child of hers born of a mortal,

But a cruel and savage, serpent-like winged evil,

Flying through the heavens, and threatening all,

Menacing ever soul on earth with fire and sword,

Till Jove himself trembles, the gods are terrified,

And rivers quake and the Stygian shades beside.”

The king, blessed till now, on hearing this utterance of sacred prophecy went slowly home in sadness and told his wife the oracle’s dark saying. They moaned, they wept, they wailed for many a day. But the dire and fatal hour soon approached. The scene was set for the poor girl’s dark wedding. The flames of the wedding torches grew dim with black smoky ash; the tune of [pb_glossary id="335"]Hymen[/pb_glossary]’s flute sounded in plaintive Lydian mode, and the marriage-hymn’s cheerful song fell to a mournful wail. The bride-to-be wiped tears away with her flame-red bridal veil; the whole city grieved at the cruel fate that had struck the afflicted house and public business was interrupted as a fitting show of mourning. But the need to obey the divine command sent poor [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] to meet the sentence decreed, the ritual preparations for the fatal marriage were completed in utter sorrow, and the living corpse was led from the house surrounded by all the people. Tearful [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] walked along, not in wedding procession, but in her own funeral cortege. Her parents saddened and overcome by this great misfortune hesitated to carry out the dreadful deed, but their daughter herself urged them on: “Why torment a sorrowful old age with endless weeping? Why exhaust your life’s breath, which is my own, with this constant wailing? Why drown in vain tears those faces I love? Why wound my eyes by wounding your own? Why tear your white hair? Why beat the breasts that fed me? Let this be your glorious reward for my famous beauty. Too late you see the blow that falls is dealt by wicked [pb_glossary id="338"]Envy[/pb_glossary]. When nations and countries granted me divine honours, when with one voice they named me as the new Venus, that’s when you should have mourned, and wept, and grieved as if I were dead. I know now, I realise that her name alone destroys me. Lead me now to that cliff the oracle appointed. I go swiftly towards this fortunate marriage, I go swiftly to meet this noble husband of mine. Why delay, why run from the coming of one who’ll be born for the whole world’s ruin?” With this, the girl fell silent, and went steadfastly on, accompanied by the throng of citizens around her. They came to the steep mountain crag decreed, and placed the girl, as commanded, on its very top, then deserted her, one and all. They left behind the bridal torches, lighted on the way, and now extinguished by their tears, and heads bent low began their journey home, where her unhappy parents, exhausted by this dreadful blow, shut themselves in the darkness of their room, and resigned themselves to endless night. Meanwhile [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], on the topmost summit, frightened, trembling, and in tears, was lifted by a gentle breeze, a softly whispering [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyr[/pb_glossary], stirring her dress around her and causing it to billow, its tranquil breath carrying her slowly down the high cliff slopes to the valley below, where it laid her tenderly on a bed of flowering turf. [Book 5: 1-3] [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], pleasantly reclining in that grassy place on a bed of dew-wet grass, free of her mental perturbation, fell peacefully asleep, and when she was sufficiently refreshed by slumber, rose, feeling calm. She saw a grove planted with great, tall trees; she saw a glittering fount of crystal water. At the very centre of the grove beside the flowing stream was a regal palace, not made by human hands, but built by divine art. You knew from the moment you entered you were viewing the splendid shining residence of a god. There were coffered ceilings, exquisitely carved from ivory and citron-wood supported on golden pillars; the walls were covered with relief-work in silver, wild beasts in savage herds met your gaze as you reached the doorway. They were the work of some eminent master, or a demigod or god perhaps, who with the subtlety of great art had made creatures all of silver. Even the floors were of mosaic, pictures patterned from precious stones cut into tiny tiles. Blessed twice over or more are those who tread on shining jewels and gems! The length and breadth of the rest of the house was equally beyond price, the walls constructed of solid gold gleaming with their own brilliance, so that even without the sun’s rays the house shone like day. The rooms, the colonnades, the very doorposts glowed. And every other feature matched the house in magnificence, so you would have thought, rightly, that this was a heavenly palace made for [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] to use on his visits to the world. Seduced by the attractions of this lovely place [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] moved closer and, gaining confidence, dared to cross the threshold. Now her desire to gaze on all these beautiful things led her to examine every object closely. On the far side of the palace she found storerooms made with noble skill, heaped to the roof with mounds of treasure. All that existed was there. And beyond her amazement at the vast quantities of riches, she was especially startled to find not a lock, or bolt or chain to defend this treasure-house of all the world. As she looked around her, in rapturous delight, a bodiless voice spoke to her: “Lady, why are you so surprised at all this vast wealth? All that is here is yours. So retire to your room, and ease your weariness on the bed, and when you wish you can bathe. The voices you may hear are those of your servants, we who wait on you willingly, and when your body is refreshed we will be ready with a feast.” [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] felt blessed by divine providence, and obeying the guidance of the disembodied voice, eased her weariness with sleep and then a bath. Nearby she found a semi-circular table, and judging from the dinner setting that it was meant for her, she promptly sat down to wait. Instantly trays loaded with food and cups of nectar appeared, without trace of servants, they were wafted and set before her as though by a breath of air. No one was visible, but words could be heard from somewhere; her waiters were merely voices. And after a sumptuous meal, someone invisible came and sang, and someone played a lyre, invisible too. And there came to her ears the interweaving melodies of some large throng, some invisible choir. [4-6] When these delights were ended, prompted by the sight of the evening star, [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] retired to bed. Now, when night was well advanced, gentle whispers sounded in her ears, and all alone she feared for her virgin self, trembling and quivering, frightened most of what she knew nothing of. Her unknown husband had arrived and mounted the bed, and made [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] his wife, departing swiftly before light fell. The servant-voices waiting in her chamber cared for the new bride no longer virgin. Things transpired thus for many a night, and through constant habit, as nature dictates, her new state accustomed her to its pleasures, and that sound of mysterious whispering consoled her solitude. Meanwhile her father and mother, mourning and grieving ceaselessly, aged greatly. The story had spread far and wide, and her elder sisters learning of all that had occurred, abandoned their own homes, and sorrowing and lamenting, vied with each other in bringing solace to their parents. One night [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]’s husband spoke to her, though she could not see him, knowing him nonetheless by touch and hearing. “Sweetest [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary],” he said, “my dear wife, cruel [pb_glossary id="337"]Fortune[/pb_glossary] threatens you with deadly danger, which I want you to guard against with utmost care. Your sisters think you dead and, troubled by this, they’ll soon come to the cliff-top. When they do, if you should chance to hear their lament, don’t answer or even look in their direction, or you’ll cause me the bitterest pain and bring utter ruin on yourself.” Assenting, she promised to behave as her husband wished. But when he had vanished with the darkness, she spent the day weeping and grieving wretchedly, repeating again and again that she was truly dead, caged by the walls of her luxurious prison, bereft of human company and mortal speech, unable to tell her sisters not to mourn for her, and worse unable even to see them. She retired to bed once more, with neither bath nor food nor any drink to restore her, and there she wept profusely. Soon her husband came to join her, earlier than was his wont, and finding her still crying, clasped her in his arms and scolded her. “Is this what you promised me, dear [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]? What can I expect or hope from you? Day and night you never stop tormenting yourself even in the midst of our love-making. Well do as you wish, obey your heart’s fatal demands! But remember my dire warning when, too late, you repent.” But [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] pleaded with him, threatening to die if he would not agree to her desire to see her sisters, speak with them, and ease her sorrows. So he acceded to his new bride’s prayers, and also said she could give them whatever gold or jewellery she wished. But he warned her, time and again, often with threats, never to yield if her sisters gave her bad advice or urged her to investigate his appearance. Otherwise, through curiosity, her act of sacrilege would hurl her from the heights of good fortune, and she would never enjoy his embraces more. She gave him thanks and, happier now, cried: “I’d rather die a hundred times than be robbed of your sweet caresses. Whoever you are I love you deeply, and adore you as much as life itself. Not even [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary] could compare to you. But grant me this favour, I beg: let your servant [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyr[/pb_glossary] waft my sisters here just as he wafted me.” And she began to offer alluring kisses, smother him with caressing words, and wrap him in her entwining limbs, adding to her charms with phrases like: “My honey-sweet, dear husband, your [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]’s tender soul.” He succumbed reluctantly to the strength and power of her seductive murmurs, promising to agree to everything, and then as daylight drew near vanished from his wife’s embrace. [7-10] Meanwhile her sisters hurried to the crag where [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] had been abandoned, and wept their eyes out, beating their breasts, till the cliffs and rocks echoed with the sound of their loud wailing. Then they called their poor sister’s name till [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] came running from the palace, distraught and trembling, at the sound of their melancholy voices descending the slope. “Why tear your selves apart with heart-wrenching grief?” she cried. “I who you mourn am here. Cease those sad sounds and dry your cheeks drenched in tears, you can embrace the girl for whom you weep.” Then she summoned [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyr[/pb_glossary], reminding him of her husband’s orders. He obeyed instantly and her sisters were wafted down to her, safely riding the gentlest of breezes. They all delighted in eager embraces and mutual kisses, and the flow of tears that had been stemmed returned at joy’s urging. “Now enter my home, in happiness,” cried [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], “and ease your troubled minds beside me.” So she showed them the noble treasures of the golden house and called up the throng of attendant voices. They refreshed themselves, luxuriating in a fragrant bath and tasting the delicacies of an out-of-this-world cuisine. And the result was that, overcome by the fine abundance of truly heavenly riches, they began to nurture envy deep in their hearts. They started to question her endlessly, inquisitively, and intensively. Who owned these divine objects? What sort of man was her husband and who on earth was he? But [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] could not banish the thought of her secret promise and violate her pledge to her husband, so she pretended he was a young and handsome man, with just the hint of a beard on his cheeks, who spent his days hunting over the fields and hillsides. But afraid of revealing something if the talk continued, and so betraying his trust, she heaped gold and jewellery in their hands, called there and then for [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyr[/pb_glossary], and placed her sisters in his charge so he might return them. Once this was done, those delightful sisters were victims of envy’s swelling bile and complained loudly to each other. “O blind, cruel, iniquitous [pb_glossary id="337"]Fortune[/pb_glossary],” cried one, “Is it your pleasure that we, daughters with the very same parents, should suffer so different a fate? Are we the elder to live like exiles far from family, bound as slaves to foreign husbands, exiled from home and country, while she the youngest, the last creation of our mother’s exhausted womb acquires such wealth and a god of a husband? Sister, did you see all those fine gems lying around that palace? Did you see those gleaming clothes and sparkling jewels, and all that gold under our feet? Why she’ll not even know how to make use of it! If she keeps that handsome husband of hers, she’ll be the luckiest woman in the world, and perhaps she hopes if their marriage endures and his affection increases her divine husband will make her a goddess too. That’s it, that’s why she behaved and acted as she did! The girl’s already gazing heavenwards, aspiring to deity, with invisible voices serving her, and she giving orders to the breeze. While look at poor me, with a husband older than father, as bald as a pumpkin, and weak as a little child, who makes the house a prison with his bolts and chains!” The other chipped in: “As for mine, he’s bent and bowed with arthritis, and scarcely ever pays homage to my charms. I’m forever massaging his twisted and frozen fingers, and soiling these delicate hands of mine with his odious fomentations, sordid bandages, and fetid poultices. Instead of playing the role of a normal wife, I’m burdened with playing his doctor. Decide for your self, dear sister, with how much patience and, let me be frank, servility you’ll endure this situation, but speaking for myself I won’t tolerate so delightful a fate descending on so undeserving a girl. Just think of the pride and arrogance she showed us, the haughtiness, the boastfulness of her immoderate display, the reluctance with which she threw us a few little trinkets from her caskets, and then, tired of our presence, quickly ordered us driven out, whistled off, and blown away! If there’s a breath left in me, as I’m a woman, I’ll see her cast down from that pile of gold. And if you feel the sting of her insults too, as you should, let’s devise a workable plan between us. Let’s keep from our parents that she’s alive, and hide these things she gave us: it’s enough that we two have seen all that we now regret seeing, let alone that we should bring glorious news of her to them and the world. There is no glory in unknown riches. She’ll discover we’re her elder sisters, not her servants. Now let’s return to our husbands and our plain but respectable homes, and once we’ve thought carefully about it, let’s return in strength and punish her arrogance.” [11-13] This wicked scheme greatly pleased the two wicked sisters. They hid all the costly gifts, and tearing their hair and lacerating their cheeks, as they deserved to do, falsely renewed their lamentations. They soon frightened their parents into reopening the wound of their sorrow also. Then swollen with venom, they hastened home to plan their crime against an innocent sister, even to murder. Meanwhile her unseen husband, on his nightly visit, warned [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] once more: “See how much danger you’re in. [pb_glossary id="337"]Fortune[/pb_glossary] is plotting at a distance, but soon, unless you take firm precautions, she’ll be attacking you face to face. Those treacherous she-wolves[footnote]The Latin word for a female wolf, lupa, was also used as a derogatory or slang term for a sex worker, so Cupid may be referring to this usage in his insult.[/footnote] are working hard to execute some evil act against you, by tempting you to examine my features. But do so and, as I’ve told you, you’ll never see me again. So if those foul [pb_glossary id="341"]harpies[/pb_glossary] armed with their noxious thoughts return, as I know they will, you must hold no conversation with them. And if in your true innocence and tender-heartedness you can’t bear that, then at least, if they speak of me, don’t listen, or if you must don’t answer. You see our family will increase, and your womb, a child’s, must bear another child, who if you keep our secret silently will be divine, though if you profane it, mortal.” [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] blossomed with joy at the news, hailing the solace of a divine child, exulting in the glory of the one to be born, and rejoicing in the name of mother. She counted the swelling days, and the vanishing months, and as a beginner knowing nothing of the burden she bore was amazed at the growth of her seething womb from a tiny pinprick. But those foul and pestilential [pb_glossary id="157"]Furies[/pb_glossary], her sisters, breathing viperous venom, were sailing towards her with impious speed. Now for a second time her husband warned [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] in passing: “The fatal day, the final peril, the malice of your sex and hostile blood have taken arms against you, struck camp, prepared for battle, and sounded the attack. Those wicked sisters of yours with drawn swords are at your throat. What disaster threatens, sweet [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]! Take pity on yourself and me. With resolution and restraint you can free your home and husband, yourself, and our child from the imminent danger that threatens. Don’t look at or listen to those evil women, who with their murderous hostility, their disregard of the bonds of blood, you should not call sisters, as they lean from the cliff-top like [pb_glossary id="343"]Sirens[/pb_glossary] and make the rocks echo with that fatal singing.” Her answer almost lost in tearful sobbing, [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] replied: “Once before you asked for proof of my loyalty and discretion, now too you will find me just as resolute. Give your servant [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyr[/pb_glossary] his orders one more: let him perform his task, and if I am not to see your sacred face, grant me at least a glimpse of my sisters. By those cinnamon-perfumed locks that adorn your head, by those softly rounded cheeks like my own, by your breast so warm, so wonderfully aflame; as I hope to find your looks in my unborn child’s, at least, I beg you, yield to the loving prayers of a yearning suppliant and allow me the pleasure of sisterly embraces. Fill your dedicated and devoted [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]’s spirit with joy once more. I’ll ask no more regarding your appearance. Clasping you in my arms, not even the darkness of the night can hurt me now, my light.” Bewitched by her words and her sweet caresses, her husband wiped away her tears with his hair and gave her his agreement, vanishing swiftly before the light of the new-born day. [14-21] Wedded together in conspiracy, her sisters, landing at the nearest harbour, and not even troubling to visit their parents, now hurried to the cliff, and with wild recklessness, not waiting for the attendant breeze, flung themselves into the air. [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyr[/pb_glossary], mindful of his master’s orders, caught them reluctantly in the folds of his ethereal robes, and set them gently on the ground. Without a moment’s hesitation they marched into the palace side by side and with false affection embraced their victim, flattering her, masking the depths of their secret treachery with pleasing smiles. “Dear [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary],” they said, “no longer the little girl you once were, a mother now, think what a fine thing for us that burden of yours will prove! With what joy you’ll fill our whole house! O how lucky we will be, to share in the care for that golden child! If it takes after its father as it ought, it will be a perfect little [pb_glossary id="158"]cupid[/pb_glossary].” With such simulated expressions of feeling they gradually influenced their sister’s mind. Once eased of their travel weariness by rest, and refreshed by vaporous warm baths, they feasted well on fine rich foods and sweetmeats. She ordered a lyre to play, it sounded; flutes to pipe, they trilled; choirs to perform, and voices swelled. Those sounds with no visible musicians caressed the listeners’ souls with the sweetest of melodies. But the wickedness of those vile women was not lessened at all by those honeyed modulations. They turned the conversation according to their deceitful scheming casually towards her husband: what kind of a man he was, what his birth and background. In her thoughtless innocence [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] forgot her earlier inventions, and composed a fresh fiction. She claimed he came from the neighbouring province, a merchant responsible for extensive trade, middle-aged, with a dash of grey in his hair. Without prolonging the conversation, she heaped lavish gifts on them once again, and sent them back by their airy vehicle. Once conveyed aloft on [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyr[/pb_glossary]’s tranquil breath, they returned home talking spitefully: “Well sister, what do you say to that foolish girl’s monstrous lies? First he’s a young man with a new growth of beard, now he’s middle-aged with a streak of grey in his hair. Who can change so suddenly from one age to another? The answer my sister, is that she’s making the whole thing up or has no idea what her husband looks like. In either case, and we must soon separate her from for her riches. If she’s truly ignorant of what he looks like, she must have married a god, and it’s a divine child that womb of hers is carrying. Well if she becomes the mother of a deity, and let’s hope not, I’ll tie the noose and hang myself. Meanwhile, back to our parents, and weave the threads of guile to match the pattern of our scheming.” They greeted their parents haughtily, but irritated thus, they spent a troubled and a wakeful night. Early in the morning the wretched pair, hastened to the cliff and, with the help of the breeze as usual, swooped downwards angrily. Rubbing their eyelids to squeeze out a tear, they greeted the girl with cunning: “There you sit, feeling blessed and happy, in ignorance of your dire misfortune, careless of your danger; while we’ve been awake all night, unsleeping in our concern for your problems, sadly tormented by your impending disaster. We know the truth now, you see, and sharing of course in your ills and troubles we cannot hide it from you: what sleeps beside you, shrouded by the darkness, is a monstrous serpent, a slippery knot of coils, its blood-filled gaping jaws oozing noxious venom. Remember [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]’s oracle which prophesied you were destined to wed some brutish creature. Hunters, and farmers, and others round about have seen the thing returning from its predations, swimming in the shallows of the nearby river. They say that he’ll soon cease to nourish you with those delightful offerings, in which he indulges, but once your pregnancy reaches full term and burdens you with its richest fruit, he’ll devour you. You must decide about all this, will you listen to your sisters, both concerned for your safety, shun death, and live with us free from danger? Or do you prefer to end in the stomach of that savage beast? If you delight in the sounding solitude of this rural retreat of yours, the foul and perilous embrace of a clandestine love, the clasp of a venomous serpent, well, at least we loving sisters will have performed our duty.” Then poor little [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], naive and vulnerable, was seized with terror at their dark words. Beyond reason, she forgot all the warnings her husband had issued, and her own pledge, and plunged headlong to ruin. Trembling and pale, the blood draining from her face, stammering feverish words through half-open lips, she answered as follows: “Dearest sisters, true and loyal as ever to your own, you are right: I believe those who told you all this speak no lie. Indeed, I have never seen my husband’s face, nor do I know what he truly is. I only hear his midnight whispers, and suffer the attentions of an unseen partner who shuns the light. He must be some strange creature, I agree. He always warns me not to try and reveal his features, and threatens harsh punishment for my curiosity concerning his appearance. If you can save your sister from this danger, help me now. Neglect me and you’ll undo the good your care has brought about.” Her defences were down, and those wicked sisters, having breached the gates of her mind, now quit the cover of their secret scheming, drew their blades, and bore down on the helpless girl’s timidity. Said one: “Since our love of family compels us to shun all danger where a sister’s life is at stake, we’ll show you the only way to reach salvation, a carefully thought out plan. Take a sharp razor, whet it further, hide it in your palm, then place it secretly under the pillow where you lie. Then trim the lamp, fill it with oil, so it shines with a clear light, and conceal it under a little cover. Prepare all this with the utmost caution, and after he’s slithered into bed with you, as he’s lying there enmeshed in the web of sleep, and breathing deeply, slip from the bed and tiptoeing barefoot without a sound free the lamp from its dark prison. Seize the chance for a glorious deed of your own from the light’s clear counsel; and grasping your double-bladed weapon tightly, raise your right hand high, and with the firmest stroke you can muster sever the venomous serpent’s head from his body. Our help will not be lacking. As soon as you’ve won freedom by his death we’ll be waiting anxiously to rush to your aid, and carrying all the treasure back with us, we’ll see you joined in proper marriage vows, mortal to mortal.” With this inflaming speech they kindled their sister’s now heated mind further and then left her, fearing, themselves, to haunt the scene of so evil an act. They were wafted by the winged breeze to the summit of the cliff, as before and, hastening away in swift retreat, boarded their ships and were gone. [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] was left alone, except that a woman driven by hostile [pb_glossary id="157"]Furies[/pb_glossary] is never alone. In her grief, she ebbed and flowed like the ocean tide. Though the scheme was decided and she determined, still as she drew towards the act itself she wavered, confused in mind, torn by the countless conflicting emotions the situation prompted. She prepared and delayed, dared and feared, despaired and felt anger, while, hardest of all to endure, she hated the beast and loved the husband embodied in a single form. Yet, as evening led towards night, she readied all needed for the wicked crime with frantic haste. Night fell, and her husband came, and after love’s skirmishes and struggles he dropped into deep slumber. [22-24] Then [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], though lacking strength and courage, was empowered by cruel fate, and unveiling the lamp, seized the razor, acting a man’s part in her boldness. Yet, as the light shone clear and the bed’s mysteries were revealed, she found her savage beast was the gentlest and sweetest creature of all, that handsome god [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary], handsome now in sleep. At the sight, even the lamp’s flame quickened in joy, and the razor regretted its sacrilegious stroke. But [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], terrified at the marvellous vision, beside her self with fear, and overcome with sudden weariness, sank pale, faint and trembling to her knees. She tried to conceal the weapon, in her own breast! She would indeed have done so if the gleaming blade had not flown from her reckless hands, in horror at her dreadful intent. Exhausted now by the sense of release, she gazed again and again at the beauty of that celestial face, and her spirits revived. She saw the glorious tresses, drenched with ambrosia, on his golden brow, the neatly tied locks straying over his rosy cheeks and milk-white neck, some hanging delicately in front others behind, and the splendour of their shining brilliance made the lamplight dim. Over the winged god’s shoulders white plumage glimmered like petals in the morning dew, and though his wings were at rest, soft little feathers at their edges trembled restlessly in wanton play. The rest of his body was smooth and gleaming, such that Venus had no regrets at having borne such a child. At the foot of the bed lay his bow, and his quiver full of arrows, the graceful weapons of the powerful god. With insatiable curiosity [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] examined, touched, wondered at her husband’s weapons. She drew an arrow from the quiver, testing the point against her thumb-tip, but her hand was still trembling and pressing too hard she pricked the surface, so that tiny drops of crimson blood moistened the skin. Thus without knowing it [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] fell further in love with [pb_glossary id="158"]Love[/pb_glossary] himself, so that now inflamed with desire for [pb_glossary id="161"]Desire[/pb_glossary], she leaned over [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary], desperate for him. She covered him eagerly with passionate impetuous kisses till she feared she might wake him. Then as her wounded heart beat with the tremor of such bliss, the lamp, in wicked treachery, or malicious jealousy, or simply longing to touch and kiss, in some fashion, that wondrous body, shed a drop of hot oil from the depths of its flame on to the god’s right shoulder. O bold and careless lamp, a poor servant to [pb_glossary id="158"]Love[/pb_glossary], scorching the god of flame himself, though a lover it was who first invented you so as to enjoy, even at night, an endless sight of his beloved! Scalded like this the god leapt up, and realising his secret had been betrayed, flew swiftly and silently from his unhappy wife’s kisses and embrace. Yet, as he rose, [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] clasped his right leg with both hands, a piteous impediment to his soaring flight; a trailing appendage; a dangling companion amongst the cloudy regions. At last she fell to the ground, exhausted. As she lay there, her divine lover chose not to desert her, but flew to a nearby cypress tree, from whose heights he spoke to her in her distress: “Poor innocent [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary],” he cried, “Venus commanded me, though I have disobeyed my mother’s orders, to fill you with passion for some vile wretch and sentence you to the meanest kind of marriage, but I flew to you as your lover instead. It was a foolish thing to do, I see that, and illustrious archer though I am, I shot myself with my own arrow, and made you my wife, only for you to think me some savage monster, and sever my head with a sword, a head that bears the very eyes that love you. I told you time and again to beware of this, I warned you over and over for your own good. As for those precious advisors of yours, I’ll soon take my revenge for their pernicious machinations; you I punish merely by my flight.” With this he took wing and soared into the air. [25-27] [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] lay there, on the ground, watching her husband’s passage till he was out of sight, tormenting herself with the saddest lamentations. But once he was lost to view, sped onwards into the distance by his beating wings, she hurled herself from the margin of the nearest river. Yet the tender stream, respecting the god who can make even water burn, fearing for its own flow, quickly clasped her in its innocuous current and placed her on the soft turf of its flowery bank. By chance, [pb_glossary id="344"]Pan[/pb_glossary], god of the wild, was seated on the shore, caressing [pb_glossary id="345"]Echo[/pb_glossary] the mountain goddess, teaching her to repeat tunes in a thousand modes. By the river’s edge, wandering she-goats grazed and frolicked, cropping the flowing grasses. The goat-legged god, catching sight of the sad and weary [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], and not unconscious of her plight, called to her gently and calmed her with soothing words. “Sweet lady, though I’m only a rustic herdsman, I benefit from the experience of many a long year. If I surmise rightly, though wise men call it not surmise but rather divination, by your weak and wandering footsteps, your deathly pale complexion, your constant sighs and those sad eyes, you are suffering from love’s extremes. But listen to what I say, don’t try to find death again by a suicidal leap or in some other way. Cease your mourning, end this sorrow. Rather pray to [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary], greatest of the gods, worship him and earn his favour through blandishments and deference, for he’s a pleasure-seeking, tender-hearted youth.” [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] gave no reply to the shepherd god, but gave him reverence as he finished speaking, and went her way. After she’d wearily walked a good deal further, not knowing where she was, she came at twilight to a city where one of her brothers-in-law was king. Realising this, [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] asked that her arrival be communicated to her sister. She was quickly led to her, and when they were done with embraces and greetings, her sister asked the reason for her presence. [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] explained, “You’ll recall your counsel, when you both advised me to take a sharp razor and kill the monster that played the role of husband and slept with me, before its rapacious jaws might swallow me whole. Well, I acted on that advice, with the lamp my accomplice, but when I gazed on his face I saw an utterly wonderful, a divine sight: Venus’ child, the goddess’ son, [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary] himself I say, lying there, and sleeping peacefully. Roused by that blissful vision, disturbed by excess of joy, distressed at being unable to delight in him much longer, through dreadful mischance a drop of hot oil spurted onto his shoulder. The pain roused him from sleep and, seeing that I was armed with flame and steel, he cried: ‘For your wicked crime, you are banished from my bed, take what is yours and go. I shall embrace your sister now – he spoke your name formally – in holy matrimony.’ Then he ordered [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyr[/pb_glossary] to drive me from the palace.” [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] had barely finished speaking before her sister spurred on by raging passion and venomous jealousy had conceived a tale to deceive her husband. Pretending she had just had news of her parents’ deaths, she took ship, and travelled to the cliff-edge. Though an adverse wind was blowing, filled with desire and in blind hope she cried: “Accept a wife worthy of you, [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary]: carry your mistress to him, [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyr[/pb_glossary]! And she took a headlong leap. Yet even in death she could not reach her goal. Her body was broken and torn on the jagged rocks, as she deserved, and her lacerated corpse provided a ready banquet for the wild beasts and carrion birds. Nor was the second sister’s punishment slow in arriving. [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] wandered on to the city where her other sibling lived in similar style, who likewise roused by her sister’s story, eager to supplant her wickedly in marriage, rushed to the cliff and met the selfsame end. [28-31] [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] wandered through the land, seeking [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary], while he lay in his mother’s chamber groaning with pain from his scorched shoulder. Meanwhile a snow-white bird, the seagull that skims the surface of the sea, dived swiftly beneath the ocean waves, found Venus where she swam and bathed in the deep, and gave her the news that [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary] had been burned, was in the utmost pain from his wound, and lay there in doubtful health; moreover the rumours circling through the world, by word of mouth, had heaped reproach on her and gained her whole household a dreadful reputation. People said that they’d both abandoned their post, he to dally in the mountains, she to sport in the sea; that all delight, grace and charm was gone; that all was boorish, rough, unkempt; no nuptial rites, no friendly gatherings, no love of children; only a vast confusion, and a squalid disregard for the chafing bonds of marriage. So that loquacious, meddlesome bird cackled on in Venus’ ear, tearing her son to shreds before her eyes. Venus at once grew angry, crying, “So, now that fine son of mine has a girlfriend has he? Come tell me then, my only loving servant, the name of the creature that’s seduced a simple innocent child. Is she one of the host of [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymphs[/pb_glossary], or the troop of [pb_glossary id="164"]Hours[/pb_glossary], or the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary]’ choir, or my own companions the Graces?” The talkative bird’s tongue ran on, “Mistress, I’m not sure, but I heard he was desperately in love with a girl – [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], by name, if I remember rightly.” Now Venus screamed, loud with indignation: “[pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], that witch who steals my form, that pretender to my name! Is she the one who delights him? Does the imp take me for some procuress, who pointed that same girl out so he might know her?” With this cry, she swiftly emerged from the sea, and sought her golden chamber, where she found her son, indisposed as she had heard. She shouted from the doorway at the top of her voice: “Fine behaviour, highly creditable to your birth and reputation! First you disregard your mother’s orders, or rather your queen’s I should say, and fail to visit a sordid passion on the girl, then, a mere boy, you couple with her, my enemy, in reckless, immature love-making, presumably thinking I’d love that woman I hate as a daughter-in-law? You presume you’ll remain the only prince, unlovable, worthless, rake that you are, and that I’m too old to conceive again. Well, know that I’ll produce a better son than you. You’ll feel the insult all the more when I adopt one of my slave boys, and grant him your wings and torches, bow and arrows, and all the rest of the gear I gave you, which was never intended to be used this way. Remember your father Vulcan makes no allowance from his estate for equipping you. You were badly brought up from infancy, quick to raise your hands and fire arrows at your elders in disrespect, and expose me, your mother, to shame each day, you monster! You often make me your target, sneer at me as ‘the widow’, without fearing your step-father, [pb_glossary id="179"]Mars[/pb_glossary], the world’s strongest and mightiest warrior. Why would you, since you provide that adulterer with a ready supply of girls to torment me with? But I warn you: you’ll be sorry for mocking me, when that marriage of yours leaves a sour, bitter taste in your mouth!” He was silent, but she went on complaining to herself: “Oh, what shall I do, where can I turn now everyone’s laughing at me? Dare I ask for help from my enemy [pb_glossary id="349"]Moderation[/pb_glossary], whom my son’s very excesses so often offend? Yet I shudder at the thought of tackling that squalid old peasant woman. Still, whatever its source, the solace of revenge is not to be spurned. I must certainly use her, her alone, to impose the harshest punishment on that good-for-nothing, shatter his quiver and blunt his arrows, unstring his bow, and quench his torch. And I’ll spoil his looks with a harsher medicine still: I’ll not consider my injuries atoned for till she’s shaved off his golden hair, which I brushed myself till it shone like gold; and clipped those wings of his, that I steeped in the stream of milky nectar from my breasts.” With that she rushed out again, bitterly angry, in a storm of passion. At that instant she met with [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="351"]Ceres[/pb_glossary], who seeing her wrathful look, asked why that sullen frown was marring the loveliness of her bright eyes. “How opportune,” she cried, “my heart is ablaze and here you come to do me a kindness. Exert your considerable powers, I beg, to find my elusive runaway [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]. I assume the widespread tale of my family, the exploits of that unspeakable son of mine, have not escaped you.” Then they, aware of what had gone on, tried to assuage Venus’ savage anger: “My dear,” they said, “what is this fault your son committed that you take so seriously, so much so you set out to thwart his pleasures, and seem so eager to ruin the girl he loves? What crime is it, we ask, if he likes to smile at a pretty girl? Don’t you know he’s young and male? Or have you forgotten his age? Just because he carries his years lightly, do you think him forever a child? You’re a mother and a sensible woman besides. Stop spying so keenly on your son’s pursuits, blaming his self-indulgence, scolding him for his love affairs, in short finding fault with your own pleasures and talents, in the shape of your handsome son. What god, indeed what mortal, could endure your sowing the seeds of desire everywhere yet constraining love bitterly where your own home is concerned, and shuttering the official workshop where women’s faults are made?” So they obligingly provided the absent [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary] with a plausible defence but Venus, offended that her wrongs were being ridiculed, turned her back on them and swept off towards the sea. [Book 6: 1-4] Meanwhile [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] wandered day and night, restlessly seeking her husband, eager if she could not mollify his anger with a wife’s caresses, at least to appease him with a devotee’s prayers. Spying a temple on the summit of a high mountain, she thought: “How do I know he might not live there?” Swiftly she moved towards it. Though she was wearied from her efforts, hope and desire quickened her step. When she had clambered up to the lofty ridge, she entered the shrine and stood by the sacred couch. It was heaped with ears of wheat, some woven into wreaths, and ears of barley. There were sickles, and all the other harvest implements, but scattered about in total disorder, as if left there by the harvesters escaping the summer sun. [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] sorted them all into separate piles, thinking she should not neglect the temples or rituals of any deity, but rather appeal to the kindness and mercy of them all. It was bountiful [pb_glossary id="351"]Ceres[/pb_glossary] who found her, carefully and diligently caring for her shrine, and called to her from afar: “[pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], poor girl, what’s this? Venus, her heart afire, is searching intently for you. She wants to punish you severely, demanding vengeance with all her divine power. Yet here you are looking after my affairs. How can you think of anything but your own safety?” [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] drenched the goddess’ feet with a flood of tears, and swept the temple floor with her hair, as she prostrated herself on the ground, uttering countless prayers, seeking to win the deity’s favour: “I beseech you by the fruitful power of your right hand, by the joy-filled ceremony of the harvest, by the unspoken mystery of the sacred basket, by the winged flight of your dragon-servants, by the furrowed Sicilian fields and [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary]’s chariot and the swallowing earth, by [pb_glossary id="353"]Proserpine[/pb_glossary]’s descent to a gloomy wedding, the torch-lit discovery of that same daughter of yours and her return, and by all the other secrets which your sanctuary in Attica, Eleusis, cloaks in silence, oh, save the life of wretched [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], your suppliant. Let me hide for a few days here at least among your store of grain, till the great goddess’s raging anger abates with the passage of time, or until my strength, exhausted by my long journey, is restored by a chance to rest.” [pb_glossary id="351"]Ceres[/pb_glossary] answered: “Your tears and prayers move me more than I can say, and I long to help you, but Venus is not simply my niece, we share ancient ties of friendship, and besides she’s so good-hearted, I can’t afford to offend her. I fear you must leave the shrine at once, and count yourself fortunate not to be held here as my captive.” Driven away despite her hopes, doubly afflicted with sorrow, [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] retraced her steps. In the valley below, at the centre of a dimly-lit grove, she caught sight of another beautifully-fashioned temple. Not wishing to miss any path, however uncertain, that might lead to better expectations, and happy to seek help from any deity, she approached the sacred doors. There she saw rich offerings, gold embroidered ribbons, attached to the branches and the doorposts, whose lettering spelled the name of the goddess to whom they were dedicated, with thanks for her aid. So [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] knelt and clasped the altar, still warm from sacrifice, in her arms, then dried her tears and prayed: “Sister and consort of mighty [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary], whether you reside in the ancient sanctuary of Samos, which was granted the sole glory of your birth and infant tears and nurturing; or whether you frequent the lofty site of blessed Carthage, where they worship you as a Virgin riding the Lion through the sky; or whether you are defending Argos’ famous walls beside the banks of [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary], where they call you the Thunderer’s bride, queen of the gods; you whom the East adores as Zygia, goddess of marriage, and the West as [pb_glossary id="783"]Lucina[/pb_glossary] goddess of childbirth: be [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] the Protectress to me in my dire misfortune. I am so weary from my great troubles. Free me from the dangers that threaten, for I know you come willingly to the help of pregnant people in peril.” As she bowed in supplication, [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] appeared in all the glorious majesty of her divinity. “How I wish,” she cried, at once, “I could match my will to your prayer. But it would bring me shame to go against the wishes of Venus, [pb_glossary id="356"]Vulcan[/pb_glossary]’s wife and my daughter-in-law, whom I’ve always loved as if she were my own. And then the law prevents me harbouring another’s fugitive servant without their consent.” [5-8] Terrified at this second shipwreck of her hopes, unable to find her winged husband, [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] abandoned all thought of salvation, and took counsel of her thoughts: “What else can I try, what other aid can ease my tribulations, since the goddesses despite their favourable views cannot help me? Where else can I turn, caught in such a web? What roof can conceal me, what darkness can hide me from the all-penetrating eyes of powerful Venus? Why not pluck up courage, as a man would, and abandon idle hope? Go to your mistress willingly, though late, and by yielding to her furious pursuit mollify her. Besides, who knows that you may not find the one you’ve long searched for, there, in his mother’s house?” So, ready to risk the unknown consequences of surrender, even destruction itself, she pondered how she should commence her imminent appeal. Meanwhile Venus, abandoning all attempts to find her on earth, sought the heavens. She ordered her chariot readied, that [pb_glossary id="356"]Vulcan[/pb_glossary] the goldsmith had carefully wrought with subtle skill, offering it to her as a gift before they entered into marriage. It was noted for its filigree work and more valuable for the very gold removed by the refining file! Four white doves, with glad demeanour, emerged from the dovecote surrounding her chamber, offered their snowy necks to the jewelled harness, then lifted the burden of their mistress and happily took flight. Sparrows rose in the chariot’s wake, chirping madly at its approach; and all the birds, that sing so sweetly, great Venus’s retinue filled with song and unafraid of rapacious eagles or circling hawks along the way, echoed their delight with honeyed melodies. Thus the clouds parted, the Heavens opened, to welcome their daughter and the highest ether received the goddess with joy. She went straight to [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary]’s royal citadel, and urgently demanded to borrow the services of [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary], the messenger god. Nor was [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s celestial assent denied her. In triumph she descended from the sky, with [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary] too in her wake, and gave him careful instructions: “Arcadian, you know your sister Venus has never accomplished a thing without your presence, and no doubt you’re aware I’m trying in vain to find a runaway servant. So nothing remains but for you to publicly proclaim a reward for whoever finds her. Go carry out my order at once, and describe her features clearly, so that no one charged with wrongfully hiding her can claim ignorance as a defence.” With that she handed him the details, [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]’s name and the rest, and promptly left for home. [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary] rushed to comply, running here and there from person to person, fulfilling his task with this proclamation: “If any man knows the whereabouts of, or can arrest in flight, the runaway servant of Venus, the princess named [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], he should meet with [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary], author of this announcement, by the shrine of Venus Murcia in the Circus Maximus. The reward offered is seven sweet kisses from Venus herself, and one more deeply honeyed touch of her caressing tongue.” After his proclamation, the desire for so fine a reward roused the competitive instinct in every mortal man, and more than anything it put an end to [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]’s previous hesitation. Familiarity, a servant of Venus, ran at her as she approached her mistress’ door, and began shouting at the top of her voice: “So, you worthless girl, you’ve at last remembered you have a mistress! Just like your thoughtless behaviour to pretend ignorance of all the trouble we’ve endured, searching for you. But now you’ve fallen into my hands and a good thing too, now you’re in [pb_glossary id="357"]Death[/pb_glossary]’s claws indeed, and you’ll pay the price for this endless defiance.” [9-10] With that she seized her tight by the hair and dragged her inside. The unresisting [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] was thrust into Venus’ presence. The goddess burst into savage laughter as women do when deeply enraged, beating her round the head and dragging her about by the ear, crying: “So you deign to call on your mother-in-law at last, do you? Or are you here to visit that husband of yours, laid low by your own hand? Don’t you worry, I’ll entertain you as a fine daughter-in-law deserves. Where are those attendants of mine, Anxiety and Sorrow?” When they entered she handed the girl over to them for punishment. At the goddess’s command they flogged poor [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] and tortured her in other ways, then returned her to their mistress’s sight. Then Venus screeched with laughter again: “Look at her,” she cried, “trying to stir my pity with that offering, that swollen belly of hers! No doubt she thinks its illustrious origin might gladden its grandmother’s heart. Indeed what joy, in the very flower of my youth, to be known as a grandmother, with the offspring of a lowly servant as Venus’ own grandson! But how foolish of me to call it such: since this ‘marriage’ of mortal and god took place in some country villa, with nary a witness, without the father’s consent. It was not done within the law, and your child too will be illegitimate, if indeed I allow the birth at all.” Having launched this tirade, Venus flew at her, beat her about the head severely, tore her hair, and ripped her clothes to pieces. Then the goddess called for wheat, millet and barley, poppy-seeds, chickpeas, lentils and beans, and mixed the heaps all together in one pile. Then she returned to [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]: “You look such a hideous creature you’ll only attract a lover by hard work. So I’ll test out your industriousness myself. Sort that pile into separate kinds, each in its own heap, finish it all by this evening, and show it me for approval.” With that Venus took herself off to a marriage feast. [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] sat there dumbfounded, gazing silently at that confused and inextricable mountain of a task, dismayed by its sheer enormity. But a passing ant, a little ant of the fields, pitied the great god’s bride, and seeing the intractable nature of the problem, condemned the goddess’s cruelty. Running this way and that, it summoned and gathered together a whole squadron of local ants, crying: “Nimble creatures of [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary], the Mother of all, take pity on this pretty girl in trouble, run swiftly now to the aid of the wife of Love himself!” Wave after wave of the six-footed folk appeared, and with tireless industry took the heap apart piece by piece, and sorted it into differing piles each of a separate nature, then quickly vanished from sight. [11-13] Venus returned from the wedding festivities that evening, smelling of balsam and soaked with wine, her whole body garlanded in gleaming roses. When she saw how perfectly the difficult task had been performed, she cried: “This is not your doing, you wretch, but the work of that boy who fell in love with you to your misfortune and his.” Then she threw [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] a lump of bread for her supper, and went to her bed. [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary] was still under close custody, locked in a room deep in the house, partly for fear his injury would be worsened by wanton self-indulgence, partly to keep him from meeting his sweetheart. So, under one roof but separated, the lovers spent a wretched night. But as soon as [pb_glossary id="215"]Dawn[/pb_glossary]’s chariot mounted the sky, Venus summoned [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] and gave her a fresh task: “Do you see the wood which borders all that bank of the flowing river, where dense thickets overlook the source nearby? Sheep, with fleece that glistens with purest gold, wander there and graze unguarded. Obtain a hank of that precious wool, in any manner you please, and bring it to me straight away, such is my decree.” [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] left willingly, not to fulfil the goddess’ demand, but to escape from her troubles by throwing herself from a cliff into the river. But a green reed, that piper of sweet music, stirred by the touch of a gentle breeze, was divinely inspired to prophesy thus: “Poor [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], though you’re assailed by a host of sorrows, don’t pollute these sacred waters with a pitiful act of suicide. Conceal yourself carefully behind this tall plane-tree that bathes in the same current as I do. Don’t go near those dreadful sheep right now, as they soak up heat from the burning sun and burst out in wild fits of madness, venting their fury on passers-by with those sharp horns set in stony foreheads and their venomous bite, but wait till the sun’s heat fades in late afternoon, when the flock settles to rest under the calming influence of the river breeze. Then while their savagery is assuaged and their temper eased, just explore the trees in the wood nearby, and you’ll find the golden wool clinging here and there to the bent branches.” Thus a simple reed, in its kindness, taught [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] in distress how to save herself. She never faltered, nor had reason to regret obeying the advice so carefully given, but accepted her instructions, and easily filled the folds of her dress with soft gleaming gold, carrying her spoils to Venus. Yet her success at this second dangerous task garnered no favour in her mistress’ eyes. Venus frowned and said with a cruel smile: “I know the true author of this achievement only too well. But now a serious test will prove if you’ve real courage and true intelligence. Do you see that steep mountain peak, rising above those towering cliffs? Dark waters flow from a black fount there, down to the nearby valley’s confined depths, and they feed the swamps of [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary], and the bitter stream of [pb_glossary id="362"]Cocytus[/pb_glossary]. Draw me some of the freezing liquid from the bubbling heart of that spring, and bring it me quickly in this little phial.” With that, she gave her a crystal jar, and added a few harsh threats for good measure. [14-15] [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], determined now, if she failed, to end her wretched life at last, clambered swiftly and steadfastly towards the mountain summit. But when she neared the ridge that was her goal, she saw the vast difficulty of her deadly task. A high and immense rock wall, jagged, precarious, and inaccessible, emitted dread streams from jaws of stone, flowing downwards from their precipitous source through a narrow funnel they had carved, and sliding unseen down to the gorge below. On either side fierce serpents slithered from holes in the cliffs, extending their heads, eyes given to unblinking vigil, their pupils on watch at every moment. Even the waters were alive and on guard, crying out: “Off with you! Where are you going? See here! What are you doing? Beware! Be gone! You’ll die!” As if changed to stone though present in body, the helpless [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] took leave of her senses, and overwhelmed by the threat of inescapable disaster lacked even the last solace of tears. But the sharp eyes of kindly [pb_glossary id="363"]Providence[/pb_glossary] saw an innocent soul in trouble. Mighty [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s royal eagle, wings outstretched, was there to aid her: the raptor recalled that time long ago when at [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary]’s command he had served to carry [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymede[/pb_glossary], the Phrygian cup-bearer, through the heavens to [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary]. Now he brought timely assistance, honouring [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid’s[/pb_glossary] claim on him. Seeing the ordeal the god’s wife was enduring, he left the bright roads of high heaven, and circling above her called: “Simple and innocent as you are, do you really expect even to touch, never mind steal, a single drop from that most sacred and cruel of founts? [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] himself, and all the gods, fear these Stygian waters. Surely you know that, just as you swear by the power of the gods, so the gods in turn swear by the power of [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary]. Now, pass me that phial!” He snatched it from her hand, and swept off to fill it from the stream. Balanced on his great sweeping wings he flew beyond the serpents’ reach, those savage jaws, those incisors, those triply-grooved flickering tongues, swerving to right and left. The water rose and threatened to harm him if he did not desist, but he gathered them, claiming he sought them at Venus’ orders, acting on her behalf, and was granted easier access on that account. [16-20] So [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] regained the little jar, now full, and quickly brought it to Venus. But still the cruel goddess’s will was not appeased. Menacing her with greater, more terrible threats, Venus glared at her balefully: “Now I see how readily you’ve performed those impossible tasks of mine, I’m certain you must be some kind of high and mighty witch. But there’s one more little service you must perform, my dear. Take the jar and plunge from the light of day to the underworld, to the dismal abode of [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary] himself. Hand the jar to [pb_glossary id="353"]Proserpine[/pb_glossary] and say: ‘Venus asks that you send her a little of your beauty, enough for one brief day. She has used and exhausted all she had while caring for her son who’s ill.’ And don’t be slow to return, since I need to apply it before I attend a gathering of deities.” Now [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] felt that this was indeed the end of everything: the veil had been drawn aside, and she saw she was being driven openly to imminent destruction, forced, was it not obvious, to go willingly on her own two feet to [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] and the shades. Instantly she climbed to the summit of the highest tower, intending to throw herself from it, as the swiftest and cleanest route to the underworld. But the turret suddenly burst into speech: “Unhappy girl, why seek to destroy your self in this way? Why rashly surrender everything before this the last of your tasks? Once your breath is gone from your body, you’ll sink to the depths of [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] indeed, but from there you’ll not return. Listen to me. Not far from here is the famous city of [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaean[/pb_glossary] Sparta. Seek Cape Taenarus there, in the region, it’s remote, that borders on Lacedaemon. There is a breathing-hole of [pb_glossary id="368"]Dis[/pb_glossary], and through its gaping portal they’ll show you a rough-made path. Once cross the threshold and take that road and you’ll reach [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary]’s palace by the shortest way. But don’t go into the shadows without bearing in each hand a barley-cake soaked in honeyed wine, and hold two coins in your mouth. When you’ve completed a good part of your gloomy journey, you’ll meet with a lame ass carrying wood, and an equally lame driver, who’ll ask you to hand him some sticks that have fallen from his load. But don’t utter a single word, and pass them by in silence. Not long afterwards you’ll reach the river of the dead, where [pb_glossary id="369"]Charon[/pb_glossary] the ferryman demands an instant toll, then carries the shades to the further bank in his patched-up skiff. Thus we see that avarice lives even amongst the dead, and [pb_glossary id="369"]Charon[/pb_glossary], the tax collector for [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary], that great deity, does nothing without a fee. A pauper who’s dying must find the passage-money, and unless there’s a coin to hand, no one will allow him to expire. Let that squalid old man have one of the coins you bear, but make sure he takes it out of your mouth with his very own hand. And when you’re crossing that slow-moving stream an aged corpse afloat on the surface will raise its rotting hands and beg you to lift him into the boat: but don’t be swayed by mistaken pity. One you are across the river, and have gone a little further, some old women weaving, at the loom, will ask you to lend a hand for a while, but you must not help them either. All these and more are traps laid for you by Venus, to make you let go of one of those barley-cakes. And don’t think losing a barley-cake is of little consequence, if you lose either cake you’ll not see daylight again. For you’ll arrive at the monstrous dog, with triple heads of enormous size, a huge and fearsome creature with thunderous jaws, who barks enough to frighten the dead but in vain; he can do them no harm. He keeps constant guard at the threshold of [pb_glossary id="353"]Proserpine[/pb_glossary]’s dark halls, defending the insubstantial palace of [pb_glossary id="368"]Dis[/pb_glossary]. One barley-cake thrown as a sop will hold him, and you can get by easily, and enter [pb_glossary id="353"]Proserpine[/pb_glossary]’s presence. She’ll receive you courteously and benignly, and try to tempt you to sit down by her in comfort, and eat a sumptuous meal. But you must squat on the ground, demand common bread and eat that. Then tell her why you are there, take what is set before you, and make your way back, bribing the savage dog with that second barley-cake. Give the avaricious ferryman the coin you kept in reserve, cross the river, retrace your steps, and you’ll return to the heavenly choir of stars. But above all else, I warn you, be careful, whatever you do, not to open and not to look in the jar you’ve tied to your waist, and don’t let your curiosity loose by thinking too much about that hidden treasure, divine beauty.” Thus the far-seeing tower performed its prophetic service. [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] reached Taenarus without delay and, with both coins and cakes, hastened down the path to the underworld. She passed the lame ass-driver in silence, gave up her toll to the ferryman, ignored the cries of the floating corpse, spurned the cunning requests of the weaver-women, fed the dog a cake to assuage his fearful madness, and entered the palace of [pb_glossary id="353"]Proserpine[/pb_glossary] . She accepted neither the pleasant seat nor the luxurious meal her hostess offered, but sat on the ground at her feet, and contenting her self with a simple crust, achieved what Venus had asked. In secret, the jar was quickly filled and sealed, and [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] gathered it up again. She silenced the barking dog with the ruse of that second cake, paid her last coin to the ferryman, and ran even more swiftly back from the underworld. But despite her haste to be done with her terms of service, once she’d returned to the brightness of day, and greeted it with reverence, her mind was overcome by a most unwise curiosity, “Behold,” she said to herself, “I’m foolish to be the bearer of such divine beauty, and not take a tiny drop of it for myself. It might even help me please my beautiful lover.” [21-22] And with those words she unsealed the jar; but there was never a drop of beauty there, nothing but deathly, truly Stygian sleep. When the cover was lifted slumber attacked her instantly, enveloping her entire body in a dense cloud of somnolence. She collapsed where she stood, fell on the path, and deep slumber overcame her. She lay there motionless, like a corpse but fast asleep. [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary], feeling better now that his scar had healed, could no longer endure the absence of his beloved [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] and, dropped from the high window of the room where he’d been confined. With wings restored by his long rest, he flew all the more swiftly, and swooping to [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]’s side he wiped away the sleep with care and returned it to the jar where it belonged. Then he roused her with a harmless touch of his arrow, saying: “Look how you’ve nearly ruined yourself again, poor child, with that insatiable curiosity of yours. Now be quick and finish the task my mother assigned. I’ll take care of everything else.” With this he took lightly to his wings, while [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], for her part, swiftly carried [pb_glossary id="353"]Proserpine[/pb_glossary]’s gift to Venus. Now [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary], pale of face, devoured by uncontrollable love, was so concerned by his mother’s sudden harshness he returned to his old tricks, quickly flying to heaven’s heights on his swift wings, kneeling before great [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary], and attempting to win support for his cause. [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] tweaked [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary]’s cheek, raised the lad’s hand to his lips, kissed it and replied. “My dear son, despite the fact you’ve never shown the slightest respect granted me by all other deities, but wounded my heart again and again, and shamed me with endless bouts of earthly passion, I, who command the elements, I, who ordain the course of the stars; and despite the fact you defy the law, even the Lex Julia itself, and the rules that maintain public order; that you’ve injured my good name, and destroyed my reputation through scandalous adulteries, transforming my tranquil features vilely into snakes and flames, and birds and beasts, and even cattle; nevertheless, because of my sweet disposition, and the fact that you were cradled in my own arms, I’ll do as you ask. But only on one condition; that you beware of making me your rival by giving me, in payment for this favour, some other girl of outstanding beauty.” [23-24] So saying, he ordered [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary] to call an impromptu gathering of the gods, with a fine of a hundred pieces of gold for failing to attend the heavenly assembly, which threat guaranteed the celestial theatre was filled. Almighty [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary], from his high throne, gave the following address: “O deities, inscribed in the roll-call of the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary], you all know it to be true that I raised this lad with my own hands. I’ve decided the impulses of his hot youth need curbing in some manner. We must take away the opportunity; restrain his childish indulgence with the bonds of matrimony. He’s found a girl, he’s taken her virginity. Let him have her, hold her, and in [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary]’s arms indulge his passions forever.” Then he turned to Venus saying: “Now my daughter, don’t be despondent. Don’t fear for your lineage or status, because of his wedding a mortal. I’ll make it a marriage of equals, legitimate, in accord with civil law.” And he ordered [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary] to bring [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] to heaven at once. Once there he handed her a cup of ambrosia, saying: “Drink this [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary], and be immortal. [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary] will never renege on the bond, and the marriage will last forever.” Presently a rich wedding feast appeared. The bridegroom reclined at the head, clasping [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] in his arms. [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] sat beside them, and all the deities in order. [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymede[/pb_glossary], the cup-bearing shepherd lad, served [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] his nectar, that wine of the gods, and [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary]-[pb_glossary id="371"]Liber[/pb_glossary] served all the rest, while [pb_glossary id="356"]Vulcan[/pb_glossary] cooked the meal. Now the [pb_glossary id="164"]Hours[/pb_glossary] adorned everyone with roses and hosts of other flowers; the [pb_glossary id="189"]Graces[/pb_glossary] scattered balsam; the choir of the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] sounded; [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] sang to the lyre, and Venus danced charmingly to that outpouring of sweet music, arranging the scene so the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] chimed together, with a [pb_glossary id="372"]Satyr[/pb_glossary] fluting away, and a woodland creature of [pb_glossary id="344"]Pan[/pb_glossary]’s piping his reeds. So [pb_glossary id="2637"]Psyche[/pb_glossary] was given in marriage to [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary] according to the rite, and when her term was due a daughter was born to them both, whom we call [pb_glossary id="373"]Pleasure[/pb_glossary].’ Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Apuleiushome.php

Art and Symbolism

[caption id="attachment_248" align="aligncenter" width="589"] Aphrodite winning the Judgement of Paris, red-figure hydria, ca. 470 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

In Greek art, Aphrodite was usually represented as a young woman, slender and beautiful, embodying the ideals of female physical attractiveness and allure.

[caption id="attachment_231" align="alignnone" width="1138"] Venus Genetrix, Roman copy of Greek statue from the 5th century BCE (Capitoline Museums, Rome)[/caption]

The two most common mediums in which the goddess is represented are vase painting and sculpture (both reliefs and statues). Her image can also be found on coins and, less commonly, paintings and frescoes. Very few frescoes and free-standing paintings from Ancient Greece have survived, while vases and sculptures have a higher chance of being preserved.

In vase paintings, small sculptures, and coins, Aphrodite is commonly represented fully clothed and wearing jewels. Necklaces, earrings, diadems, and bracelets are all part of her arsenal of beauty-enhancing tools. Occasionally, she can also be represented holding or standing next to objects such as mirrors, jewel boxes, fans, and parasols. In rare instances she can also hold a sceptre.

[caption id="attachment_233" align="aligncenter" width="332"] Aphrodite with mirror and jewels, red-figure volute-krater, ca. 330-310 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]

As for attributes pertaining to the natural world, the main ones are various birds, the myrtle plant, and the shell. Doves, geese, sparrows, swallows, and swans were sacred to Aphrodite, and she can often be seen in their company. On some occasions she can even use them as transportation methods, either riding on the back of the larger birds or having them drag her chariot through the air.

Myrtle was a plant sacred to the goddess, who is sometimes represented holding a little branch of this plant. Flowers and floral crowns or garlands were also associated with the goddess because of their fragrance, and can appear in depictions of her.

[caption id="attachment_238" align="alignnone" width="1414"] Aphrodite sitting next to a myrtle branch, with Eros on her shoulder, red-figure lekythos, ca. 420-400 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

Lastly, and most importantly, Aphrodite could be represented coming out of a scallop shell. This is a nod to her birth from the sea, but it also refers to her role as goddess of sexuality, as the shape of the shell is reminiscent of the female genitalia. It is interesting to note that even when she is emerging from a shell and has no clothes on, Aphrodite is usually represented as wearing her signature jewels.

[caption id="attachment_246" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] Terracotta statuette of Aphrodite in a shell, 3rd century BCE (State Collections of Antiquities, Munich)[/caption] The first life-sized statue of a naked Aphrodite was sculpted by Praxiteles of Athens (ca. 400–340 BCE) and acquired by the city of Knidos to be used as a cult image. Although the original is lost, many copies and descriptions survive. This particular image greatly influenced the way that Aphrodite was represented during the [pb_glossary id="5112"]Hellenistic Period[/pb_glossary], so much that it became the most popular iconography for sculptures of the goddess (although clothed depictions did not cease to be produced). Copies and variations depicted Aphrodite naked, usually emerging from a bath, squeezing water from her hair, or grabbing a piece of cloth to cover up. A famous variation was the so-called 'kallipygos' ("beautiful buttocks") type, representing the goddess coyly admiring her own backside. [caption id="attachment_237" align="aligncenter" width="509"] Engraving of a coin showing a depiction of the Knidian Aphrodite statue, 4th century BCE[/caption] [caption id="attachment_129" align="alignleft" width="248"] Venus 'Pudica', Roman Copy of Greek Original from 4th Century BCE (National Archaeological Museum of Athens)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_122" align="alignright" width="387"] Plaster Cast statues of two different renditions of Aphrodite Taking a Bath (Munich Museum of Casts of Classical Statues)[/caption]

Aphrodite can also be accompanied by other divine or semi-divine figures. The most common is her son [pb_glossary id="158"]Eros[/pb_glossary], usually represented as a winged child or teenager. Other members of her entourage include the Graces, the [pb_glossary id="164"]Hours[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="161"]Himeros[/pb_glossary] and Peitho (the personifications of desire and persuasion, respectively). When portrayed in the context of an assembly of deities, Aphrodite is commonly found alongside her lover, the war god [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]; on certain occasions she is also depicted in the company of her mother, [pb_glossary id="1548"]Dione[/pb_glossary].

[caption id="attachment_227" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Aphrodite lying on the lap of her mother Dione, with Hestia, Parthenon East Pediment, 5th century BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

Mesopotamian Connections

[caption id="attachment_301" align="aligncenter" width="1898"] A terracotta plaque of Ishtar in the nude, wearing a necklace and the horned crown of divinity. 19th-17th century B.C.E., Iraq. Currently in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.[/caption]

The Babylonian Ishtar (also known by her older Sumerian name, Inanna) is the oldest known predecessor of Aphrodite. She was worshiped primarily in Babylonia and Assyria (modern-day Iraq), but her cult was known in other parts of the Mediterranean world, such as Syria and Anatolia, and her attributes influenced other goddesses such as Astarte (worshiped by the Phoenicians in Lebanon, coastal Syria, and Cyprus) who would go on to influence the Greek Aphrodite in turn. Ishtar was the goddess both of sexual love and of war, and so her attributes are contradictory, though both are associated with physicality. She was considered to possess a feminine side, associated with her role as the goddess of sexual love, as well as a masculine side, associated with war. An echo of this duality is found in the love affair between Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love, and Ares, the god of war. Lastly, Ishtar was associated with the boundaries between the world of the living and the world of the dead. This is due to the fact that in Mesopotamian myth she descended to the Netherworld and later returned.

Like Aphrodite, Ishtar was affiliated with all aspects of human sexuality. She could be appealed to by her worshipers to lend her aid in matters of unrequited love and sexual potency. She was also the patron goddess of sex workers. It should be noted, however, that Ishtar was not associated with pregnancy or childbirth. Also, like Aphrodite, Ishtar was known for occasionally taking or attempting to take mortal lovers. The Epic of Gilgamesh contains an episode in which Ishtar, enamored with the titular hero, makes sexual advances towards him. Gilgamesh rejects the goddess's proposition, which earns him her wrath. Thus, similar to how Aphrodite was enraged by Hippolytus' refusal to honor her, so too did Ishtar grow angry at being rejected by mortals.

As a war goddess, Ishtar was frequently depicted wearing a flounced robe with weapons coming out of her shoulders, as well as holding at least one other weapon. She was sometimes shown with a beard to emphasize her masculine, warlike characteristics. Finally, her animal attribute was the lion. Her warlike aspect was frequently invoked, especially in the Assyrian Empire. During this period her main cult centers were at the cities of Nineveh and Arbela (modern Erbil), and she was strongly associated with the Assyrian king. So, Ishtar was also a patroness of royal power and military might.

In relation to the underworld, there are multiple accounts of Ishtar's descent to, and return from, the land of the dead. Thus, it was no coincidence that Mesopotamian grave goods bore the iconography of Ishtar more than any other deity.

Further reading: http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/inanaitar/

Venus

[caption id="attachment_240" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Venus, from the House of Marcus Fabius Rufus in Pompeii, 1st century BCE[/caption]

Many of Venus' attributes in art were the same as her Greek counterpart, Aphrodite: jewels and staffs, myrtle, flowers, doves, and the shell. Moreover, many depictions were variations on the 4th-century-BCE Knidian Aphrodite type, in which the goddess was almost or completely naked. She was also often accompanied by her lover [pb_glossary id="179"]Mars[/pb_glossary] (sometimes depicted as a young man and sometimes as a more mature warrior), or by her son [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary] and other winged [pb_glossary id="947"]Erotes[/pb_glossary].

[caption id="attachment_125" align="aligncenter" width="802"] Venus and Mars, Pompeii fresco, ca. 1st century CE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_234" align="aligncenter" width="705"] Venus in her shell, Pompeii, Casa della Venere, 1st century CE[/caption] [caption id="attachment_241" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Mars seduces Venus, Pompeii, Casa dell'Amore Punito, 1st century AD[/caption]

As the Roman state came into contact with different cultures and religions, Venus started to be assimilated to other, similar goddesses from Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine. This resulted in syncretic portrayals in which the image of Venus has incorporated iconographical attributes of other goddesses, such as Isis' knotted robe and crown.

[caption id="attachment_235" align="alignnone" width="1107"] Venus-Isis, Roman bronze statue, 2nd century CE (Walters Art Museum)[/caption]

Two new epithets and, consequently, iconographies of the goddess gained prominence between the end of the [pb_glossary id="5113"]Republican Period [/pb_glossary]and the very beginning of the [pb_glossary id="5114"]Imperial Period[/pb_glossary]: Venus Victrix ('victorious') and Venus Genetrix ('foundress of the family'). The former was particularly venerated by general Pompey, as she had 'granted him victory' in his military campaigns. He then funded the construction of a temple dedicated to this particular iteration of the goddess, and issued coins that sometimes showed her holding a small winged Nike in one hand and a shield or scepter in the other.

[caption id="attachment_315" align="aligncenter" width="394"] Venus Victrix holding a statue of Nike, Roman coin, ca. 44 BCE (Private Collection)[/caption]

On the other hand, Venus Genetrix was particularly worshipped by the Gens Iulia, which claimed to descend from her through the Trojan hero Aeneas. The temple of Venus Genetrix, dedicated by Julius Caesar, was finished and consecrated by Augustus. The cult statue of the goddess, created by Greek sculptor Arkesilaos, probably depicted Venus as dressed and robed, with Cupid on her shoulder (as portrayed on the pediment of the nearby temple of Mars Ultor), or holding a small winged Nike and a scepter. Both types kept being depicted on imperial coins in the following centuries, sometimes swapping the face of Venus with that of the current empress.

[caption id="attachment_253" align="aligncenter" width="509"] Relief depicting the temple of Mars Ultor, detail showing pediment. Venus Genetrix is the the third figure from the left (Museo della Civiltà Romana, Rome.)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Zeus

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:56:42 +0000

[caption id="attachment_469" align="alignnone" width="1089"] Zeus fighting a giant. Red-figure lekane, Apulian production, ca. 350 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Madrid)[/caption]

Origins

[caption id="attachment_383" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Bronze drum depicting Zeus found at Mt. Ida, Crete, 8th century BCE (Archaeological Museum of Heraklion).[/caption] Zeus is the last child of Cronus and Rhea. Like his father Uranus before him, the Titan Cronus feared a prophesy that his son would overthrow him. To thwart the oracle, as his wife Rhea delivered each of his children, he would immediately snatch the infant and swallow it. After Cronus had done this five times, Rhea, desperate to save her sixth child, appealed to her mother Gaia for help. Together they conspired for Rhea to deliver the baby Zeus in secret. Instead of his newborn son, Rhea presented to Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes.

The hidden Zeus was able to grow in secret, raised and nurtured by nymphs. When he came of age, he and Rhea again conspired to overthrow Cronus and restore his five siblings. Rhea gave Cronus a poisoned drink that caused him to vomit up Hera, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, and Hestia. Together, the six children drove off their father and established a new seat for themselves on Mount Olympus.

Diodorus Siculus Histories 5.70.1-6 (trans. by C. H. Oldfather, adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek geography, 1st century BCE

The following passage comes from the historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in Greek in the 1st century BCE. He takes what is called a [pb_glossary id="5226"]euhemerizing[/pb_glossary] approach to mythology. That is, he attempts to explain the origins of a myth using actual or probable events. This approach to myth is named after an ancient Greek man named Euhemerus, who was apparently the first to try to rationalize the fantastical Greek myths.

[5.70.1] There is no agreement regarding the birth of Zeus and the manner in which he came to be king. Some say that he succeeded to the throne after Cronus died and passed from the company of men into the company of the gods, not by conquering his father with violence, but justly and in the customary manner. That is, he was judged to be worthy of the honour. But others tell the following myth: Cronus received an oracle regarding the birth of Zeus, which stated that his son would take the kingship from him by force. [5.70.2] Consequently, over and over again Cronus killed the children that he begot; but Rhea, upset, though without the power to change her husband's mind, after she had given birth to Zeus, concealed him in Idê, as it is called. Without Cronus' knowledge she entrusted him to the care of the Curetes who lived in the neighbourhood of Mount Idê. The Curetes carried him off to a certain cave where they handed him over to the Nymphs, with the command that they should see to his every need. [5.70.3] And the Nymphs raised the child on a mixture of honey and milk and fed him right at the udder of a goat named Amaltheia. Much evidence of the birth and upbringing of this god remain even today on the island. [5.70.4] For instance, they say that when he was being carried away by the Curetes while still an infant, his umbilical cord (omphalos) fell off near the river known as Triton, and that this spot has been made sacred and has been called Omphalus after that incident. Similarly, the plain around it is known as Omphaleium. And on Mount Idê, where the god was nurtured, the cave in which he spent his days was declared sacred to him, and the meadows around it, which lie upon the ridges of the mountain, were likewise consecrated to him. [5.70.5] But the most astonishing part of the myth has to do with the bees, and we won't neglect to mention it: They say that the gods, wishing to preserve a reminder of his close association with the bees for all time, changed their colour, making it like copper with the gleam of gold. And since the region lay at a very high altitude, where fierce winds blew around it and heavy snows fell, he made the bees impervious and unaffected by such things, since they must forage over the most wintry stretches. [5.70.6] Zeus also gave certain honours to the goat (aeg-) which suckled him, and specifically, he took a nickname from it: Aegiochus.33 And when he had reached manhood he founded a city in Dicta, where indeed the myth states that he was born; in later times this city was abandoned, but some of the stone blocks of its foundations are still preserved.

Zeus in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

Zeus Defeats Typhon

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.6.3

Zeus Deliberates Whether to Defy Fate

Homer, The Iliad 16.394-507

Zeus Carries off Ganymede

Homeric Hymn 5, "To Aphrodite," 203-217
Theognis, Fragment 1.1345
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3.12.2
Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10.152-160

Zeus Punishes Tantalus

Pindar, Odes, "Olympian 1," 24-65

The God of Stoics

Cleanthes, Hymn to Zeus

Zeus' main function in this early party of the cosmogony is to establish the cosmos, the order of the universe and everything in it. According to some versions of the myth, Zeus apportions to each of his siblings their particular [pb_glossary id="4635"]time[/pb_glossary] (pronounced tee-may), or realm of influence in the world: Poseidon rules over the seas and is responsible for hurricanes and earthquakes; Hades has dominion over the dead in the realm named after him; Hestia is responsible for tending the sacred hearth on Mount Olympus and was worshipped as a domestic goddess within the homes of ancient Greece; Hera is the goddess of marriage and motherhood; and Demeter was responsible for the growth and cultivation of crops. Zeus himself was the ruler of the heavens and the air, wielder of the thunderbolt and creator of rain and storms.

Hesiod's Theogony tells of the early struggles of Zeus and the other Olympians to establish and cement their rule: the Titanomachy (the battle fought against Cronus and the other Titans), the Gigantomachy (the battle between the Olympians and Gaia's monstrous children, the Cyclops, Giants, and the Hundred-Handers), and the final battle with Typhon, Gaia's last attempt to challenge Zeus' control of the earth.

Zeus has sexual relations and reproduces abundantly with many gods and mortals. These include Themis, Metis (the mother of Athena), Hera (the mother of Ares, Eileithyia (the midwife of the gods), and Hebe (goddess of youth)), Demeter (the mother of Persephone), Mnemosyne (the mother of the nine Muses), Dione (the mother of Aphrodite in some accounts), Leto (the mother of Artemis and Apollo), and many others.

Additionally, he sexually assaults and generates offspring with several mortal women. These children make up the gods, demi-gods, and heroes that fill out the ancient Greek pantheon and the mythic world: Dionysus, Heracles, Helen, and many others. Zeus' rapes of mortal women, often in strange guises (swan, bull, shower of gold), are the subject of much artwork from the ancient Greco-Roman world.

Zeus Defeats Typhon

[caption id="attachment_385" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Zeus fights Typhon, reproduced from a black-figure hydria ca. 430 BCE.[/caption] The fight with the half man/ half snake monster, Typhon, is Zeus' last major battle before he assumes control of Mount Olympus and becomes the ruler of gods and men.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.6.3 (trans. by K. Aldrich, adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek mythography, 2nd century CE

In his collection of myths, written in Greek in the 1st or 2nd century CE, Pseudo-Apollodorus, describes the appearance of [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] and his battle with Zeus and the other Olympians. During the fight Zeus is temporarily bested by the monster, but ultimately prevails.

[1.6.3] The defeat of the Gigantes ([pb_glossary id="601"]Giants[/pb_glossary]) by the gods angered [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] even more, so she had intercourse with [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartaros[/pb_glossary] and gave birth to [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] in Cilicia. He was a mixture of man and beast, the largest and strongest of all [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary]'s children. From the thighs up he had the form of a human. He was so large that he extended beyond all the mountains and his head often touched the stars. One hand reached to the west, the other to the east, and attached to these were the heads of one hundred serpents. From the thighs down he had great vipers, which coiled around and extended up to the top of his head, hissing mightily. He had wings, and the hair that flowed from his head and cheeks in the wind was matted and dirty. Fire flashed in his eyes. This was the size and appearance of [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] as he hurled red-hot rocks at the sky itself, and attacked it with mixed hisses and shouts, as a great storm of fire boiled out from his mouth. When the gods saw him rushing toward the sky, they headed for Egypt to escape him, and as he pursued them they changed themselves into animal shapes. Zeus hurled thunderbolts at [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] from a distance, and when he drew closer, Zeus tried to strike him down with an adamantine sickle. [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] took flight, but Zeus pursued him right up to Mount Casium, which lies in Syria. Seeing that he was badly wounded, Zeus fell on him with his hands. But [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] entwined the god and held him fast in his coils, and grabbing the sickle he cut out the sinews from Zeus' hands and feet. Then, placing Zeus up on his shoulders, he carried him across the sea to Cilicia, where he deposited him in the Corycian cave. He also hid away the sinews there in the skin of a bear, and posted as guard over them the [pb_glossary id="603"]Dracaena[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="604"]Delphyne[/pb_glossary], a girl who was half animal. But [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="606"]Aegipan[/pb_glossary] stole back the sinews and succeeded in replanting them in Zeus without being seen. So Zeus, again having his strength, suddenly appeared from the sky in a chariot drawn by winged horses, and with thunderbolts chased [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] to the mountain called [pb_glossary id="607"]Nysa[/pb_glossary]. There the [pb_glossary id="605"]Moirai[/pb_glossary] deceived the pursued creature, for he ate some of the ephemeral fruit on [pb_glossary id="607"]Nysa[/pb_glossary] [i.e. the intoxicating grape of [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary]] after they had persuaded him that he would gain strength from it. Again pursued, [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] made his way to Thrace, where, while fighting round Haimos he threw whole mountains at Zeus. But when these were pushed back upon him by the thunderbolt, a great quantity of his blood streamed out on the mountain, which allegedly is why the mountain is called Haimos[footnote]Haimos signifies "blood" in Greek[/footnote]. Then, as [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] started to flee again through the Sicilian Sea, Zeus brought down Sicily's Mount [pb_glossary id="609"]Aitna[/pb_glossary] on him , a great mountain which they say still erupts fire from the thunderbolts thrown by Zeus. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Gigante/Typhoeus.html

Zeus Deliberates Whether to Defy Fate

[caption id="attachment_400" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Europa watching Sleep and Death carry Sarpedon's body to her, red-figure krater, ca. 400 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art)[/caption]

During the Trojan War, Zeus famously refuses to take sides, instead recognizing that Fate– stronger than all the gods, even himself– decrees that Troy is destined to fall. At different points in the conflict, he helps one side or the other to gain the advantage in the fighting. When Achilles withdraws from battle at the beginning of the Iliad because of his quarrel with Agamemnon, Zeus acquiesces to the request of Achilles' mother, the divine sea-nymph Thetis, that the Achaeans (the Greeks) should start to lose the war, driven back to the beaches and ships by the Trojans.

In Book 16 of the Iliad, Achilles' cousin and companion Patroclus, disguises himself in Achilles' armor. Under his command the Achaeans are starting to regain some ground. At the climax of the book, Patroclus faces off with one of the Trojan heroes, Sarpedon, son of Zeus and king of the Lycians (a city on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey).

During the battle, Zeus debates whether to rescue his beloved son from his certain death. Hera councils him to be careful how he chooses to defy fate. What he wants for his son, surely all the other Olympians will want for their children as well, many of whom are destined to die on the battlefield at Troy.

For further discussion of Sarpedon and the Trojan War, see chapter 27.

Homer, Iliad, Book 16 (trans. by A.T. Murray 1924; adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek epic, ca. 8th century BCE

This passage has been used to show the limits of Zeus' power. Even he is subject to the will of [pb_glossary id="605"]Fate[/pb_glossary] (or the [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary], if we consider them in their tripartite form as three old women who spin, measure, and cut the thread of each mortal life and each event on heaven and earth). It also shows a rare, emotional side of Zeus, as he weeps tears of blood, anticipating the death of [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary].

[394-507] But when [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary] saw his comrades, who wear their tunics loose, [420] being flattened beneath the hands of [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary], son of Menoetius, he called aloud, scolding his godlike Lycians warriors: “Shame on you, Lycians, where do you flee? Stand fast in the fight; for I myself will meet this man, so that that I may know who he is that is so strong here, and who has caused so much mischief for the Trojans, [425] since he has loosed the knees of many good men.” He spoke, and leapt in his armour from his chariot to the ground. And [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary], towering over him, when he beheld him, sprang from his chariot. And as vultures with crooked talon and curved beaks fight with loud cries upon a high rock, [430] so with cries they rushed against one another. And the son of crooked-counselling [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] took pity when he saw them, and spoke to [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], his sister and his wife: “Ah, woe is me, for it is fated that [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary], dearest of men to me, be slain by [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary], son of Menoetius! [435] And my heart is divided along two paths as I consider whether to snatch him up while he is still living and set him far from the tearful war in the rich land of Lycia, or whether I shall slay him now beneath the hands of the son of Menoetius.” Then ox-eyed queenly [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] answered him: [440] “Most dread son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], what a statement! Are you really inclined to rescue from mournful death a man that is mortal, doomed long since by fate? Do as you will; but know that the rest of us gods do not all agree. And I'll tell you another thing and do take it to heart: [445] if you send [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary] living to his house, consider that afterwards some other god may also want to send his own dear son away from the fierce conflict; for there are many fighting around the great city of [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary] that are sons of the immortals, and you will instill dread wrath among the gods. [450] But if he is dear to you, and your heart grieves for him, allow him to be slain in the fierce conflict beneath the hands of [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary], son of Menoetius; but when his soul and life have left him, then send [pb_glossary id="357"]Death[/pb_glossary] and sweet [pb_glossary id="616"]Sleep[/pb_glossary] to bear him away [455] until they come to the land of wide Lycia; and there his brethren and his kinsfolk will give him burial with mound and pillar; for this is what is owed to the dead.” So she spoke, and the father of gods and men listened; but he wept tears of blood that fell to the earth, [460] honouring his dear son—his own son whom [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary] was about to slay in the rich-soiled land of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary], far from his native land. Now when when they had advanced close to one another, [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary] struck glorious Thrasymelus, the valiant squire of the prince [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary]; [465] him he hit on the lower belly, and loosed his limbs. Then [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary], making his throw, missed him with his bright spear, but struck the horse Pedasus on the right shoulder; and the horse shrieked aloud as he gasped forth his life, and down he fell in the dust with a moan, as his spirit flew from him. [470] But the other two horses reared this way and that, and the yoke creaked, and above them the reins were entangled, when the outside horse lay low in the dust. At this, Automedon [Patroclus' charioteer], famed for his spear, saw what to do; drawing his long sword from beside his big thigh, he sprang forth and without hesitating, cut loose the outside horse,[475] and the other two were righted, and strained at the reins; and the two warriors came together again in soul-devouring strife. Then again [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary] missed with his bright spear, as it flew over the left shoulder of [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary] and did not strike him. [480] But [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary] in turn threw his bronze spear, and not in vain did the shaft speed from his hand, but struck his foe where the throbbing heart is enclosed in the muscles of the chest. And he fell as an oak falls, or a poplar, or a tall pine, that carpenters chop down among the mountains with their sharpened axes to be a ship's timber; [485] so he lay there outstretched in front of his horses and chariot, moaning aloud and clutching at the bloody dust. And as a lion comes into the midst of a herd to slay a bull, pale brown and brave amid the slow footed cattle, and with a groan he dies beneath the jaws of the lion; [490] so beneath [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary] did the leader of the Lycian shield-men struggle in death; and he called to his beloved comrade by name: “Dear [pb_glossary id="1205"]Glaucus[/pb_glossary], warrior of warriors, now you must be a spearman and bold fighter; now, if you are brave, let dread war consume your heart. [495] First, go up and down everywhere, and urge on the leaders of the Lycians to fight for [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary], and then you yourself fight with the bronze in my defence. For I will be a source of shame for you for all your days, [500] if the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary] rob me of my armour, here where I fell beside the gathered ships. But hold your ground valiantly, and urge on all our men.” Even as he spoke these words, the end of death enfolded him, covering his eyes and his nostrils; and [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary], setting his foot upon his chest, drew the spear from the flesh, and his chest came with it; [505] so that at the same time he drew forth the spear-point and the soul of [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary]. And the [pb_glossary id="620"]Myrmidons[/pb_glossary] held the snorting horses, trying to flee now that they had left their lord's chariot. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D16%3Acard%3D394

Zeus Carries off Ganymede

[content warning for the following section: sexual assault]

[caption id="attachment_381" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Zeus and Ganymede, red-figure pottery, ca. 470 BCE (Ferrara Archaeological Museum).[/caption]

One of Zeus' rapes in particular demonstrates the broad sexuality of men in the ancient Greek world. Gazing down from Mount Olympus one day, Zeus spies a beautiful young Trojan man named Ganymede. Disguising himself as an eagle, he swoops down and abducts the young man, bringing him to Olympus to serve as his personal cup-bearer and boy lover.

Ancient Greek men were not expected to be sexually faithful to their wives. Nor were they expected to have sexual relationships only with women. The categories of heterosexual and homosexual would have been unintelligible to the ancient Greeks. Rather, ancient Greek men were expected to take on an active, penetrative role in sexual relationships with people of various sexes and genders. They had nearly full sexual impunity– rape was an act of legal hubris, or "insult" against another man, rather than a violation of a woman's sexual and bodily autonomy. If a man raped a married woman, then he was liable to that woman's husband; if he raped an unmarried woman, then he might owe a penalty to that woman's father, depending on how wealthy the father was and how much his daughter's virginity was worth to him. The rape of an enslaved man, woman, or child, who was understood to be legally the property of their owner, was viewed as damage done to that property and the rapist might be liable for those damages. All of these power relations would have impacted how the ancient Greeks viewed Zeus and his sexual behavior towards young women and men.

[caption id="attachment_463" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Zeus and Ganymede, red-figure krater, ca. 490 BCE Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).[/caption]

Homeric Hymn 5, "To Aphrodite," 203-217 (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek hymn, ca. 7th - 4th century BCE

This passage from Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite, written in Greek sometime in the 7th-4th centuries BCE, describes Zeus' abduction of Ganymede. The second part of the passage shows the sort of transactional penalty that the rapist would have had to pay to the father of the victimized woman or man.

[203] Indeed wise Zeus carried off golden-haired [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymede[/pb_glossary] because of his beauty, to be among the Deathless Ones and pour drink for the gods in the house of Zeus– a wonder to see–, honoured by all the immortals as he draws the red nectar from the golden bowl. But grief that could not be soothed filled the heart of Tros; for he did not know where the heaven-sent whirlwind had taken his dear son, so that he mourned him always, unceasingly, until Zeus pitied him and gave him prancing horses such as carry the immortals, as recompense for his son. These he gave him as a gift. And at the command of Zeus, the guide, [pb_glossary id="647"]Argeiphontes[/pb_glossary], told him all, and how his son would be deathless and unageing, just like the gods. So when Tros heard this news from Zeus, he no longer kept mourning but rejoiced in his heart and rode joyfully with his storm-footed horses. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH%205. For full hymn and context, see chapter 4.

Theognis, Fragment 1. 1345 (trans. D. Gerber)

Greek elegy, 6th century BCE

This passage, which may be contemporaneous with Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite, shows the connection between the story of Ganymede and the sexual practices of men in the ancient Greek world. Theognis was an ancient Greek lyric poet from Megara (a city 40 km west of Athens), who was writing in the 6th century BCE.

There is some pleasure in loving a youth, since once in fact even [Zeus] the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] king of the immortals, fell in love with [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymede[/pb_glossary], seized him, carried him off to [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and made him divine, keeping the lovely bloom of boyhood. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Ganymede.html

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Book 3 (trans. K. Aldrich)

Greek mythography, 2nd century CE

Writing in the 2nd century CE, the Greek mythographer known as Pseudo-Apllodorus, informs us that it was in the form of an eagle that Zeus carried off Ganymede, a detail that is evident much earlier in artistic depictions of the abduction.

[3.12.2] Tros married [pb_glossary id="1218"]Scamander[/pb_glossary]'s daughter Callirhoe, had a daughter Cleopatra, and sons [pb_glossary id="2747"]Ilus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="4191"]Assaracus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymede[/pb_glossary]. Because of his beauty, Zeus kidnapped [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymede [/pb_glossary]by means of an eagle, and made him cupbearer in the sky. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Ganymede.html

[caption id="attachment_410" align="alignnone" width="1209"] Ganymede feeding the eagle, Roman relief, 1st century CE St. Petersburg State Hermitage Museum).[/caption]

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 10 (trans. A.D. Melville, adapted by T. Mulder)

Roman epic, ca. 1st century BCE-1st century CE

The figure of Ganymede was also important to the Romans. Here in Book 10 of the Metamorphoses, Ovid shows us Juno (Hera)'s reaction to Jupiter (Zeus) bring Ganymede to Mt. Olympus and making him the divine cupbearer to the gods.

[152] But now I need a lighter tune, to sing of boys beloved by gods and girls bewitched by lawless passions who paid the price of lust. The King of Heaven (Rex Superum) once was fired with love of [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymede[/pb_glossary] Phrygius (the Phrygian), and Zeus devised a trick to be something that he was not. But he wanted to be no bird other than one that had the power to bear his thunderbolts. At once his spurious pinions beat the breeze and off he swept Iliades [ [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymede[/pb_glossary] ]; who now, mixing the nectar, waits in heaven above, though [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] frowns, and hands the cup to Jove. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Ganymede.html

Zeus Punishes Tantalus

The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

Part of Zeus' [pb_glossary id="4635"]time[/pb_glossary] was his adjudication of right and wrong among gods and mortals. One story of his role as adjudicator involved his own son, Tantalus, the king of Lydia. Being his son, Tantalus was beloved by Zeus, but he wanted to test the real power of his divine father and the other Olympians. Tantalus invited the gods to a feast and served them a stew made from the flesh his own son, Pelops. The gods knew immediately that the meat they were served was human flesh (except for Demeter who was grieving for her missing daughter, Persephone, and had eaten a bit of Pelops’ shoulder). The gods grew very angry at Tantalus’ sacrilege. They put Pelops together again (giving him an ivory shoulder to replace the one that had been eaten) and Tantalus was punished in the Underworld by having to stand up to his neck in a lake that would recede any time he moved to take a drink and overhead was a tree with delicious, ripe fruit that would move away from him when he tried to reach up and grab one. This myth is the origin of the word "tantalize".

Pindar, Odes, "Olympian 1" (trans. D. A. Svarlien, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek lyrical poem, 476 BCE

The ancient Greek poet, Pindar, wrote celebratory odes for victorious athletes. He often included mythological themes in these poems. Here, in his "Olympian Ode 1," written for Hieron of Syracuse's victory in single horse racing in the Olympic games of 476 BCE, Pindar recounts the myth of Tantalus.

His [Hieron of Syracuse's] glory shines in the settlement of fine men founded by Lydian [pb_glossary id="632"]Pelops[/pb_glossary], [25] with whom the mighty holder of the earth [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] fell in love, when Clotho took him out of the pure cauldron, furnished with a gleaming ivory shoulder. Yes, there are many marvels, and yet I suppose the speech of mortals beyond the true account can be deceptive, stories adorned with embroidered lies; [30] and Grace, who fashions all gentle things for men, confers esteem and often contrives to make believable the unbelievable. But the days to come are the wisest witnesses. [35] It is proper for a man to speak well of the gods; for the blame is less that way. Son of [pb_glossary id="633"]Tantalus[/pb_glossary], I will speak of you, contrary to earlier stories. When your father invited the gods to a very well-ordered banquet at his own dear Sipylus, in return for the meals he had enjoyed, [40] then it was that the god of the splendid trident [ [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] ] seized you, his mind overcome with desire, and carried you away on his team of golden horses to the highest home of widely-honoured Zeus, to which at a later time [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymede[/pb_glossary] came also, [45] to perform the same service for Zeus. But when you disappeared, and people did not bring you back to your mother, for all their searching, right away some envious neighbor whispered that they cut you limb from limb with a knife into the water's rolling boil over the fire, [50] and among the tables at the last course they divided and ate your flesh. For me it is impossible to call one of the blessed gods a glutton. I stand back from it. Often the lot of evil-speakers is profitlessness. If indeed the watchers of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] ever honoured a mortal man, [55] that man was [pb_glossary id="633"]Tantalus[/pb_glossary]. But he was not able to digest his great prosperity, and for his greed he gained overpowering ruin, which the Father [Zeus] hung over him: a mighty stone. Always longing to cast it away from his head, he wanders far from the joy of festivity. He has this helpless life of never-ending labor, [60] a fourth toil after three others, because he stole from the gods nectar and ambrosia,[footnote]Drink and food of the gods[/footnote] with which they had made him immortal, and gave them to his drinking companions. If any man expects that what he does escapes the notice of a god, he is wrong. [65] Because of that the immortals sent the son of [pb_glossary id="633"]Tantalus[/pb_glossary] back again to the swift-doomed race of men. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DO.

The God of Stoics

Cleanthes, Hymn to Zeus (trans. R. Johnson)

Stoic Hymn, 3rd century BCE

Cleanthes was an Ancient Greek Stoic philosopher. Stoics believed that pleasure and the passions (love, anger, fear, grief) were at odds with what was good and worthwhile, namely the rational life. A well-known Stoic maxim was that the goal of life is to "live consistently with nature." That is, to approach the vicissitudes of life with consistency and cheerful submission. Because the universe is ordered according to reason, they argued, humans should be content to follow that order. This Hymn to Zeus is the largest piece of Cleanthes' writing that survives. It was preserved a 5th century CE anthology that contained extracts from earlier Greek writers. The Hymn is composed in dactylic hexameters, just like the Homeric Hymns. Here Zeus is imagined as the principle of Reason which orders everything on earth and in the universe.

Most honoured of the immortals, of many names, all-powerful forever, Zeus, Prime Mover of the universe, guiding everything according to law, Hail! For it is right for mortals to address you. For we are born from you, who alone have obtained the image of God,* All of us mortal things who live and creep upon the earth: For this I shall hymn you greatly and I shall forever sing of your power. This whole universe revolving around the earth Obeys you wherever you should lead it and is willingly mastered by you: Such is the servant you hold in your unconquerable hands, The two-edged, blazing, everlasting thunderbolt! For every work of the universe is accomplished under threat of its strike With it you guide the universal Reason, which travels Through everything, mixing with the great and small lights. [ . . . ] In such a way you have become the supreme king for all time. No deed comes upon the earth apart from you, God, Neither in the divine vault of high heaven nor in the sea, Except whatever deeds evil men do in their ignorance. But you even know how to make the odd even, And to order the disordered, and that which is not dear dear to you. For so you have harmonized all the good with the bad into one So that there is for all a single divine purpose (logos) which exists forever, Those who flee it would be those among mortals who are wicked, Ill-fated ones who are always coveting the gains of good men Neither look to the universal law of God nor pay it heed, In obeying it they would have a good life with sense: But these men rush straightaway without sense, each to his own way, Some make haste to unholy strife for the sake of honour, Others turning to gains in no way decent, Still others to indulgence and the pleasures of the body: But they have their share of misfortunes, some at one time, others at another, Though they altogether wish the opposite to come to pass. But, O Zeus Giver of All, Wrapped in Dark Clouds, Lord of Lightning, Deliver mankind from their destructive ignorance! Disperse it, Father, from our soul, and grant that we Obtain discernment, on which you are reliant as you steer everything with justice, In order that when honoured we repay you with honour, Hymning your deeds continuously, as is proper For one who is mortal, since no other gift is greater for mortals Or for gods than to hymn the everlasting universal law in justice. *God in this text should be understood as Zeus in his capacity as the superseding intelligence of the universe, not as the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Art and Symbolism

In Greek art, Zeus was generally represented as a mature, bearded man. [caption id="attachment_472" align="alignnone" width="2200"] Head of Zeus, gold coin, ca. 350 BCE (Cabinet des Medailles, Paris)[/caption] In vase painting, sculpture, and coins, Zeus was commonly represented clothed. He can often be seen sitting on a throne, sometimes holding a sceptre and wearing a laurel or olive crown, although his sacred tree was the oak. [caption id="attachment_521" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Zeus, Hera, and Iris, red-figure amphora, ca. 500 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Berlin).[/caption] His two most recognizable attributes are the eagle and the thunderbolt. The latter is shaped like a sort of three-pointed spearhead, and it is sometimes showed being employed as a weapon during battles. [caption id="attachment_430" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Bronze statuette of Zeus, ca. 490 BCE (National Archaeological Museum of Greece, Athens)[/caption] When the artistic depictions portrayed certain myths, Zeus could also be represented in animal form. For instance, he is often shown as a white bull when the scene being depicted is the abduction of princess Europa, and as a swan during the rape of Leda. [caption id="attachment_431" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Krater depicting Zeus in the form of a bull carrying off Europa (National Archaeological Museum, Paestum)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_4643" align="alignnone" width="1936"] Zeus as a bull and Europa, Pompei fresco, ca. 1st century CE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[/caption] After the Macedonian conquest of Egypt, local artists would sometimes add ram horns to the depiction of Zeus in order to stress the correspondence between the Greek god and his Egyptian counterpart, Amun. [caption id="attachment_426" align="alignnone" width="1464"] Zeus Ammon, Roman copy of a Greek statue from ca. 5th century BCE (Antikensammlung Munchen)[/caption] One of the most famous sculptures of Zeus was created by Pheidias around 435 BCE for the temple of the god in Olympia. The statue, made of gold and ivory over a wooden frame, depicted Zeus enthroned. He wore a crown, and held a Nike on his right hand and a sceptre in his left. His sandals rested on a footstool decorated with a relief representing the mythical fight between the Greeks and the Amazons. This artwork was reportedly 12.4 metres (41 ft) tall, and was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Although the original is lost, its appearance has been reconstructed on the basis of literary accounts and depictions on other media, such as coins and later copies. [caption id="attachment_524" align="aligncenter" width="537"] Ringstone impression of throned Zeus, Roman period.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_428" align="alignnone" width="2000"] Drachma depicting Zeus' head (left) and Zeus Olympios, ca. 4th to 1st century BCE (right).[/caption]

Jupiter

[caption id="attachment_526" align="alignnone" width="1657"] Jupiter with a scepter and eagle, Pompei fresco (Naples National Archaeological Museum).[/caption] Most of Jupiter's attributes in art were the same as his Greek counterpart, Zeus: the eagle, the sceptre, the thunderbolt, and the oak-tree. Jupiter was almost exclusively represented as a mature, bearded man, or as an animal if the myth being depicted told the story of one of his many transformations. In Roman art, Jupiter could also be depicted as part of the so-called "Capitoline Triad" a group of three important deities consisting of Jupiter, his wife Juno, and his daughter Minerva, the goddess of war. [caption id="attachment_473" align="alignnone" width="2560"] The capitoline triad of Minerva, Jupiter, and Juno, Roman statue, ca. 170 CE (Civic Archaeological Museum, Milan)[/caption] During the first century AD, some Roman Emperors were depicted in the guise of Jupiter in order to showcase their power and legitimacy. [caption id="attachment_477" align="alignright" width="308"] Emperor Claudius as Jupiter, Roman statue, ca. 54 CE (Vatican Museums, Rome)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_475" align="alignleft" width="330"] Emperor Tiberius as Jupiter, Roman statue, 1st century CE (Vatican Museums, Rome)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Hera

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:57:13 +0000

[caption id="attachment_466" align="alignnone" width="1730"] Hera and Prometheus, red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BCE (Cabinet des Medailles, Paris)[/caption]

Origins

Hera is one of the six children of Cronus and Rhea. Along with four of her siblings, she suffered the fate of being swallowed by her father Cronus. After being freed by Zeus and Rhea, she was allotted control over the sphere of marriage and its related concerns: aspects of household management and childbearing. She is the third and final wife of Zeus and together they produce Ares, Hebe (goddess of youth), and Eileithyia (goddess of childbirth). In response to Zeus birthing Athena from his own head, Hera produces Hephaestus on her own ([pb_glossary id="4645"]parthenogenesis[/pb_glossary]). According to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (see chapter 12) she, not Gaia, is the mother of Typhoeus (her way of getting back at Zeus for the birth of Athena).

Although Hera is primarily remembered now as the unpleasant, jealous sister-wife of Zeus, in ancient Greece she had a strong religious presence. There were prominent and much-visited sanctuaries of Hera all over the ancient Greek world. The most famous of these was near Argos.

Indeed it is possible that during the period of pan-Hellenization in the 8th/7th centuries BCE, an earlier version of Hera as a goddess of married, child-bearing women was syncretized with Hera, the sister and wife of Zeus. Thus, the Hera that we see in the literary texts does not always seem to sit comfortably with the Hera that appears on the ancient artwork. She was certainly a beloved and much-worshipped goddess in ancient Greece, despite the stories of her impotent rages at Zeus' many infidelities.

Hera in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

Hera as Zeus' Counterpart

Homeric Hymn 12, "To Hera"

Hera at Argos

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.1.2-2.1.3
Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.622-722

[caption id="attachment_390" align="alignnone" width="2560"] The Judgment of Paris, Roman mosaic ca. 150 CE Louvre Museum)[/caption]

Hera as Zeus' Counterpart

Hera features in the stories of other gods and heroes more than in her own stories. But we should not imagine, because of her absence in the literary sources, that she was not an important figure to the ancient Greeks. According to some of our evidence she was worshiped on par with Zeus, as his feminine counterpart and consort.

Homeric Hymn 12, "To Hera" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek hymn, 7th-4th BCE

This very brief Homeric Hymn 12 "To Hera", written in Greek, sometime in the 7th-4th centuries BCE, speaks to the goddesses' power and prominence among the Olympians.

I sing of golden-throned Hera whom [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary] bore. She is queen of the Immortals, surpassing all in beauty: she is the sister and wife of loud-thundering [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary],–the glorious one whom all the blessed throughout high [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympos[/pb_glossary] revere and honour as much as [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who delights in thunder Taken from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0138:hymn=12

Hera at Argos

[caption id="attachment_509" align="alignnone" width="1002"] Zeus, Hera, Io (as a cow), Argus with many eyes, and Hermes. From a red-figure hydria ca. 5th century BCE (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).[/caption]

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 2 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century CE

This passage from Pseudo-Apollodorus about Hera's response to Zeus' rape of her priestess, Io, is typical of the myths told about Hera. Here she is a suspicious and jealous wife to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], mercilessly punishing the mortal women whom [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] assaults.

[2.1.2] Ecbasus had a son Agenor, and Agenor had a son [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary], the one who is called the All-seeing. He had eyes in the whole of his body, and being exceedingly strong he killed the bull that ravaged Arcadia and dressed himself in its hide; and when a [pb_glossary id="372"]satyr[/pb_glossary] wronged the Arcadians and robbed them of their cattle, [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] withstood and killed him. It is said, too, that [pb_glossary id="643"]Echidna[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary], who used to carry off passers-by, was caught asleep and slain by [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary]. He also avenged the murder of Apis by putting the guilty to death. [2.1.3] [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] and Ismene, daughter of [pb_glossary id="2331"]Asopus[/pb_glossary], had a son Iasus, who is said to have been the father of [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary]. But the writer Castor and many of the tragedians allege that [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary] was a daughter of [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary]; and Hesiod and Acusilaus say that she was a daughter of Piren. [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] seduced her while she held the priesthood of Hera, but being detected by Hera, he turned [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary] into a white cow with one touch and swore that he had not had intercourse with her; for this reason Hesiod remarks that lovers' oaths do not draw down the anger of the gods. But Hera requested the cow from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] for herself and set [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] the All-seeing to guard it. Pherecydes says that this [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] was a son of Arestor, but Asclepiades says that he was a son of [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary], and Cercops says that he was a son of [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] and Ismene, daughter of [pb_glossary id="2331"]Asopus[/pb_glossary]; but Acusilaus says that he was earth-born. He tethered her to the olive tree which was in the grove of the Mycenaeans [ people of [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary] ]. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ordered [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] to steal the cow, and as [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] could not do it secretly because Hierax had blabbed, he killed [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] by the cast of a stone; for this reason he was called [pb_glossary id="647"]Argeiphontes[/pb_glossary]. Hera next sent a gadfly to irritate the cow, 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.[footnote]Bosporus can be translated as "ox/cow passage."[/footnote] 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 she came to Egypt, where she recovered her original form and gave birth to a son [pb_glossary id="1220"]Epaphus[/pb_glossary] beside the river Nile. Hera asked the [pb_glossary id="926"]Curetes[/pb_glossary] to take him away, and they took him away. When [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] learned of it, he slew the [pb_glossary id="926"]Curetes[/pb_glossary]; but [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary] 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; and having found [pb_glossary id="1220"]Epaphus[/pb_glossary] she came to Egypt and was married to Telegonus, who then reigned over the Egyptians. And she set up an image of [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary], whom the Egyptians called Isis, and [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary] likewise they called by the name of Isis.[footnote]In some accounts, Io is called by the name of Isis, and is conflated with the Egyptian deity Isis.[/footnote] Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus2.html#1

Ovid tells his version of this story in the first book of his Metamorphoses.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 1 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Latin epic, 1st century BCE-1st century CE

In this episode from Ovid's epic poem, we get the added detail that, after his death, Hera takes the eyes of the slain Argos and puts them on the tail of her favourite bird, the peacock. The story of Hermes slaying Argos thus also functions as an [pb_glossary id="4647"]etiological myth[/pb_glossary] for how the peacock got its tail.

[622-641] Though her rival [ [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary] ] was given up, the goddess [Hera] did not abandon her fears at once, cautious of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] and afraid of his trickery, until she had given [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary] into [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary]’ keeping, that son of Arestor. [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] had a hundred eyes around his head, that took their rest two at a time in succession while the others kept watch and stayed on guard. Wherever he stood he was looking at [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary], and had [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary] in front of his eyes when his back was turned. He let her graze in the light, but when the sun sank below the earth, he penned her, and fastened a rope around her innocent neck. She grazed on the leaves of trees and bitter herbs. She often lay on the bare ground, and the poor thing drank water from muddy streams. When she wished to stretch her arms out to [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] in supplication, she had no arms to stretch. Trying to complain, a lowing came from her mouth, and she was alarmed and frightened by the sound of her own voice. When she came to [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary]’ riverbanks where she often used to play and saw her gaping mouth and her new horns in the water, she grew frightened and fled, terrified of herself.

[642-667] The [pb_glossary id="1081"]naiads[/pb_glossary] did not know her: [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary] himself did not know her, but she followed her father, followed her sisters, allowing herself to be petted, and offering herself to be admired. Old [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary] pulled some grasses and held them out to her: she licked her father’s hand and kissed his palm, could not hold back her tears, and if only words could have come she would have begged for help, telling her name and her distress. With letters drawn in the dust with her hoof, instead of words, she traced the sad story of her changed form. ‘Pity me!’ said her father [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary], clinging to the groaning heifer’s horns and snow-white neck, ‘Pity me!’ he sighed; ‘Are you really my daughter I searched the wide world for? There was less sadness with you lost than found! Without speech, you do not answer in words to mine, only heave deep sighs from your breast, and all you can do is low in reply to me. Unknowingly I was arranging marriage and a marriage-bed for you, hoping for a son-in-law first and then grandchildren. Now you must find a mate from the herd, and from the herd get you a son. I am not allowed by dying to end such sorrow; it is hard to be a god, the door of death closed to me, my grief goes on immortal for ever.’ As he mourned, [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] with his star-like eyes drove her to distant pastures, dragging her out of her father’s arms. There, sitting at a distance he occupied a high peak of the mountain, where resting he could keep a watch on every side. [668-688] Now the king of the gods [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] ] can no longer stand Phoronis' [ [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary]'s ] great sufferings, and he calls his son, born of the shining [pb_glossary id="681"]Pleiad[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] ], and orders him to kill [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary], quickly puts on his winged sandals, takes his sleep-inducing wand in his divine hand, and sets his cap on his head. Dressed like this the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] touches down on the earth from his father’s stronghold. There, he takes off his cap, and removes his wings, only keeping his wand. Taking this, disguised as a shepherd, he drives she-goats, stolen on the way, through solitary lanes, and plays his reed pipe as he goes. Juno’s guard is captivated by this new sound. ‘You there, whoever you are,’ [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] calls ‘you could sit here beside me on this rock; there’s no better grass elsewhere for your flock, and you can see that the shade is fine for shepherds.’ The descendant of [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] sits down, and passes the day in conversation, talking of many things, and playing on his reed pipe, trying to conquer those watching eyes. [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary] however fights to overcome gentle sleep, and though he allows some of his eyes to close, the rest stay vigilant. He even asks, since the reed pipe has only just been invented, how it was invented. [689-721] So the god explained ‘On Arcadia’s cold mountain slopes among the wood [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary], the hamadryads, of Mount Nonacris, one was the most celebrated: the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] called her Syrinx. She had often escaped from the [pb_glossary id="372"]satyrs[/pb_glossary] chasing her, and from others of the demi-gods that live in shadowy woods and fertile fields. But she followed the worship of the Ortygian goddess [ [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary] ] in staying virgin. With her clothes styled like [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary]'s, she deceives the eye, and could be mistaken for [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]’s daughter, except that her bow is of horn, and the other’s is of gold. Even so she is deceptive. [pb_glossary id="344"]Pan[/pb_glossary], whose head is crowned with a wreath of sharp pine shoots, saw her, coming from Mount Lycaeus, and spoke to her.’ Now [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary] still had to relate what [pb_glossary id="344"]Pan[/pb_glossary] said, and how the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary], hating his advances, ran through the wilds until she came to the calm waters of sandy Ladon; and how when the river stopped her flight she begged her sisters of the stream to change her; and how [pb_glossary id="344"]Pan[/pb_glossary], when he thought he now had Syrinx, found that instead of the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary]’s body he only held reeds from the marsh; and, while he sighed there, the wind in the reeds, moving, gave out a clear, plaintive sound. Charmed by this new art and its sweet tones the god said ‘This way of communing with you is still left to me.’ So unequal lengths of reed, joined together with wax, preserved the girl’s name. About to tell all this, Cyllenian [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary] saw that every eye had succumbed and their light was lost in sleep. Quickly he stops speaking and deepens their rest, caressing those drowsy eyes with touches of his magic wand. Then straightaway he strikes the nodding head, where it joins the neck, with his curved sword, and sends it bloody down the rocks, staining the steep cliff. [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary], you are overthrown, the light of your many eyes is extinguished, and one dark sleeps under so many eyelids. [722] [pb_glossary id="640"]Saturnia[/pb_glossary] took his eyes and set them into the feathers of her own bird, and filled the tail with star-like jewels. Immediately she blazed with anger, and did not hold back from its consequences.

Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph.php#anchor_Toc64105477

These stories aside, the reality of Hera's worship at Argos may have been quite different for the ancient Greeks. This gold ring, found among over six-hundred rings dedicated at the sanctuary to Hera in Argos, is inscribed with the Greek words, "Harriknidas dedicated [this] to the goddess white-armed Hera." Almost all of the other rings dedicated at the sanctuary were made of bronze and un-inscribed. These ring dedications likely pertained to requests related to marriage: hopes for a future spouse, requests for conjugal harmony and/or fidelity, attempts to repair damaged marital bonds.

[caption id="attachment_518" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Ring inscribed with a dedication to Hera, ca. 575 BCE (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)[/caption]

Art and Symbolism

[caption id="attachment_379" align="alignnone" width="1710"] Hera on the tondo of an Attic Kylix, ca. 470 BCE (Berlin Staatliche Museum)[/caption]

In Greek art, Hera was usually represented as a beautiful woman wearing an elaborate dress, often covered with a cloak and veil. Her most recognizable attributes in art were the diadem and the sceptre. The goddess is often represented enthroned or standing close to Zeus, to highlight her position as queen of the gods.

[caption id="attachment_448" align="aligncenter" width="791"] Hermes, Athena, Zeus, Hera, and Ares (left to right), black-figure amphora, 6th century BCE (Cabinet des Medailles, Paris).[/caption] [caption id="attachment_521" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Zeus, Hera, and Iris, red-figure amphora, ca. 500 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Berlin).[/caption]

Another common scene involving Hera in Greek art was the depiction of her marriage to Zeus ('hieros gamos').

According to literary sources, her sacred bird was the cuckoo, but this animal is seldom represented in art. From the late 4th century BCE onwards the peacock also became one of Hera's sacred animals, but it was very rarely seen in artistic depictions until much later in time.

[caption id="attachment_510" align="aligncenter" width="581"] Throned Hera with a bird, red-figure lekythos, ca. 500-475 BCE (RISD Museum, Providence)[/caption]

Juno

[caption id="attachment_512" align="aligncenter" width="687"] Juno and Jupiter, Roman fresco (Archaeological Museum, Naples)[/caption]

Much like the Roman counterpart of her husband, Zeus/Jupiter, the iconography of Juno remained essentially the same as that of Hera. She kept being represented as a mature woman, usually enthroned, wearing jewels and carrying a sceptre. She was also sometimes portrayed as part of the Capitoline Triad alongside Jupiter and Minerva.

[caption id="attachment_473" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] The capitoline triad of Minerva, Jupiter, and Juno, Roman statue ca. 170 CE Civic Archaeological Museum, Milan)[/caption]

Roman artists had a fascination with the goddess' sacred bird, the peacock, as it was an exotic import with multicolored feathers. However, representations of Juno very rarely showed her in the company of this animal.

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Demeter and Persephone

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:58:04 +0000

[caption id="attachment_1719" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Triptolemus and Persephone, red-figure kylix, ca. 470 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

Origins

The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

Demeter was a daughter of Cronus and Rhea and was swallowed by her father (along with the rest of her siblings) shortly after her birth. After Zeus rescued his older siblings from their father, Demeter had a sexual relationship with her brother Zeus which resulted in a daughter, Persephone.

Demeter was probably an indigenous pre-Hellenic goddess of fertility. Her name means “Mother Da,” which may or may not mean “Mother Earth”. She is closely connected with her daughter and is worshipped in the manner of chthonic (earth) deities.

Demeter and Persephone in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

The Myth of Demeter and Persephone

"Homeric Hymn 2 To Demeter"
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.5.1-1.5.3

Demeter and Persephone in Ritual

Callimachus, Hymn 6, "To Demeter"

Demeter and Persephone as Allegory

Fulgentius, Mythologies, 1.10-1.11

[caption id="attachment_591" align="alignnone" width="2000"] Abduction of Persephone (deities clockwise from top left: Eros and Aphrodite, Zeus, Hecate, Athena, Demeter), red-figure hydria, ca. 340 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)[/caption]

The Myth of Demeter and Persephone

Demeter was a goddess of grain, crops, and fertility. Persephone was the queen of the underworld and a goddess of death and rebirth. Persephone was also connected to seeds and flowers as she and her mother represented different aspects of the agricultural cycles. Persephone's annual trip up from the underworld for part of the year and her descent down to Hades for the other part of the year was an [pb_glossary id="4647"]etiological myth[/pb_glossary] that explained the changing of the seasons. The mother/daughter pair was celebrated in [pb_glossary id="4705"]mystery religions[/pb_glossary] in ancient Greece. In particular, they were worshipped in the Eleusinian [pb_glossary id="4705"]Mysteries[/pb_glossary] that took place outside of Athens every year, as well as at the all-woman [pb_glossary id="789"]Thesmophoria[/pb_glossary] festival.

"Homeric Hymn 2 To Demeter" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault]

The largest, most well-preserved literary source for the myth of Demeter and Persephone and the establishment of the Eleusinian Mysteries, is this 7th century "Homeric Hymn 2 To Demeter."

[1] I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awesome goddess – of her and her pretty-ankled daughter whom [pb_glossary id="211"]Aidoneus[/pb_glossary] snatched away, given to him by all-seeing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the loud-thunderer. [4] Separate from Demeter, lady of the golden sword and glorious fruits, she [Persephone] was playing with the full-breasted daughters of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] and gathering flowers in a soft meadow: roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also and hyacinths and the narcissus, which [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary] grew at the bidding of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’ and the [pb_glossary id="874"]Host of Many[/pb_glossary] as a trap for the girl who was pretty as a flower – a marvelous, radiant flower. The narcissus was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a hundred blooms and it smelled the most sweet, so that all wide heaven above and the whole earth and the sea's salt swell laughed for joy. And the girl was amazed and reached out with both hands to take the lovely toy; but the wide-pathed earth yawned there in the plain of [pb_glossary id="607"]Nysa[/pb_glossary], and the lord, [pb_glossary id="874"]Host of Many[/pb_glossary], with his immortal horses, sprang out upon her – the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], He who has many names. [19] He dragged the reluctant girl up onto his golden chariot and bore her away as she wept. Then she cried out in a shrill voice, calling upon her father, the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ], who is most high and excellent. But no one, either of the deathless gods or of mortal men, heard her voice, not even the olive-trees bearing rich fruit: only tender-hearted [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary], bright-haired, the daughter of Persaeus, heard the girl from her cave, and the lord [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="878"]Hyperion[/pb_glossary]'s bright son, as the girl cried to her father, the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]. But he was sitting aloof, apart from the gods, in his temple where many pray, and receiving sweet offerings from mortal men. So he, that Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], of many names, who is Ruler of Many and [pb_glossary id="874"]Host of Many[/pb_glossary], was carrying her away on his immortal chariot by permission of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]-- his own brother's child and she unwilling. [33] And as long as she, the goddess, yet saw the earth and starry heaven and the strong-flowing sea where fishes cluster together, and the rays of the sun, and still hoped to see her dear mother and the tribes of the eternal gods, as long as she saw all these, hope calmed her great heart in spite of all her trouble ((lacuna)) . . . and the heights of the mountains and the depths of the sea rang with her immortal voice: and her queenly mother heard her. [40] Bitter pain seized her [Demeter’s] heart, and she tore the covering on her divine hair with her dear hands: her dark cloak she threw down from both her shoulders and sped, like a wild-bird, over the firm land and yielding sea, seeking her child. But no one would tell her the truth, neither god nor mortal men; and of the birds of omen none came with true news for her. Then for nine days queenly [pb_glossary id="879"]Deo[/pb_glossary] wandered over the earth with flaming torches in her hands, so grieved that she never tasted ambrosia and the sweet draught of nectar, nor sprinkled her body with water. But when the tenth bright dawn had come, [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary], with a torch in her hands, met her, and spoke to her and told her news, "Queenly Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of good gifts, what god of heaven or what mortal man has snatched way Persephone and pierced your dear heart with sorrow? For I heard her voice, yet did not see with my eyes who it was. But I tell you truly and briefly all I know." [59] So spoke [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary]. And the daughter of rich-haired [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary] did not reply, but sped swiftly with her, holding flaming torches in her hands. So they came to [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary], who is watchman of both gods and men, and stood in front of his horses: and the bright goddess enquired of him, "[pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary], acknowledge me, goddess as I am, if I have ever cheered your heart and spirit by my word or deed. Through the fruitless air, I heard the piercing cry of my daughter whom I birthed, sweet child of my body and lovely in form, a cry as though she were seized violently; though with my eyes I saw nothing. But you -- for with your beams you look down from the bright upper air over all the earth and sea -- tell me truly of my dear child, if you have seen her anywhere, what god or mortal man has violently seized her against her will and mine, and so made off." [74] So she spoke. And the Son of [pb_glossary id="878"]Hyperion[/pb_glossary] answered her, "Queen Demeter, daughter of rich-haired [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary], I will tell you the truth; for I greatly reverence and pity you in your grief for your slender-ankled daughter. None other of the deathless gods is to blame, but only cloud-gathering [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who gave her to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], her father's brother, to be called his ravishing wife. And [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] seized her and took her as she cried loudly in his chariot down to his realm of mist and gloom. Yet, goddess, stop your loud lament and do not be eternally angry– it is useless. [pb_glossary id="880"]Aidoneus[/pb_glossary], the Ruler of Many, is a fine husband among the deathless gods for your child, being your own brother and born of the same stock: also, for honour, he has that third share of the world which he received when it was first divided, and is appointed lord of those among whom he dwells." So he spoke, and called to his horses: and at his urging they quickly whirled the swift sun chariot along, like long-winged birds. [90] But grief even more terrible and savage came into the heart of Demeter, and thereafter she was so angered with the dark-clouded Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] that she avoided the gathering of the gods and high [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and went to the towns and rich fields of men, disfiguring herself for a long time. And no one of men or full-breasted women knew her when they saw her, until she came to the house of wise [pb_glossary id="793"]Celeus[/pb_glossary], who was lord of fragrant [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary] at that time. Vexed in her dear heart, she sat near the wayside by the [pb_glossary id="776"]Maiden Well[/pb_glossary], from which the women of the place were used to draw water, in a shady place over which grew an olive shrub. And she was like an old woman who is cut off from childbearing and the gifts of garland-loving [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], like the nurses of king's children who deal justice, or like the house-keepers in their echoing halls. There the daughters of [pb_glossary id="793"]Celeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary], saw her, as they were coming for easy-drawn water, to carry it in pitchers of bronze to their dear father's house: four were they and like goddesses in the flower of their girlhood, Callidice and Cleisidice and lovely Demo and Callithoe who was the eldest of them all. They did not recognize her, – for the gods are not easily recognized by mortals – but standing near by her they spoke winged words: [113] "Old mother, where do you come from and who are your people? Why have you left the city and not draw near the houses? For there in the shady halls are women of just such age as you, and others younger; and they would welcome you both by word and by deed." [118] Thus they spoke. And she, that queen among goddesses answered them saying, "Hail, dear children, whoever you are. I will tell you my story; for it is appropriate that I should tell you truly what you ask. Doso is my name, for my stately mother gave it to me. And now I come from Crete over the sea's wide back, – not willingly; but pirates brought me from there by force of strength against my wishes. Afterwards they sailed with their swift ship to Thoricus, and there the women landed on the shore in a large crowd and the men likewise, and they began to make a meal by the stern-cables of the ship. But my heart did not crave pleasant food, and I fled secretly across the dark country and escaped the pirate, so that they could not take me unpurchased across the sea, there to sell me for a price. And so I wandered and arrived here: and I have no idea what land this is or what people are in it. But may all the gods who dwell on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] give you husbands and admirable children, if you take pity on me, maidens, and guide me, dear children, to a house where I may work cheerfully at such tasks as belong to a woman of my age. I could easily be the nurse to a new born child, holding him in my arms, or keep house, or make my masters' bed in a recess of the well-built chamber, or teach the women their work." [145] So said the goddess. And right away the unwed maiden Callidice, most goddess-like in body of the daughters of [pb_glossary id="793"]Celeus[/pb_glossary], answered her and said, "Mother, what the gods send us, we mortals bear by necessity, although we suffer; for they are much stronger than we. But now I will guide you clearly, telling you the names of men who have great power and honour here and are chief among the people, guarding our city's collection of towers by their wisdom and true judgements: there is wise [pb_glossary id="777"]Triptolemus[/pb_glossary] and Dioclus and Polyxeinus and blameless Eumolpus and Dolichus and our own brave father. All these have wives who manage their houses, and no one of them, as soon as she has seen you, would dishonour you and turn you from the house, but they will welcome you; for indeed you are godlike. But if you will, stay here; and we will go to our father's house and tell [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary], our full-breasted mother, all about you, so that she can invite you into our home, rather than send you to the houses of others. She has one and only son, just recently born, who is being nursed in our well-built house, a welcome child, the answer of many prayers: if you could bring him up until he reached the full measure of youth, any one of womankind who should see you would immediately envy you, such gifts would our mother give for his upbringing." [169] So she spoke: and the goddess bowed her head in agreement. And they filled their shining vessels with water and carried them off rejoicing. Quickly they came to their father's great house and immediately told their mother what they had seen and heard. Then she directed them to go with all speed and invite the stranger to come and work. As hinds or heifers in spring time, when sated with pasture, bound about a meadow, so they, holding up the folds of their lovely garments, darted down the hollow path, and their hair like a crocus flower streamed about their shoulders. And they found the good goddess near the wayside where they had left her before, and led her to the house of their dear father. And she walked behind, distressed in her dear heart, with her head veiled and wearing a dark cloak which waved about the slender feet of the goddess. [184] Soon they came to the house of heaven-nurtured [pb_glossary id="793"]Celeus[/pb_glossary] and went through the portico to where their queenly mother sat by a pillar of the close-fitted roof, holding her son, a tender child, in her bosom. And the girls ran to her. But the goddess walked to the threshold: and her head reached the roof and she filled the doorway with a heavenly radiance. Then awe and reverence and pale fear took hold of [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary], and she rose up from her couch before Demeter, and asked her to be seated. But Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of perfect gifts, would not sit upon the bright couch, but stayed silent with lovely eyes cast down until careful Iambe placed a simple chair for her and threw over it a silvery fleece. Then she sat down and held her veil in her hands before her face. A long time she sat upon the chair without speaking because of her sorrow, and greeted no one by word or by sign, but rested, never smiling, and tasting neither food nor drink, because she pined with longing for her full-breasted daughter, until careful [pb_glossary id="791"]Iambe[/pb_glossary] – who also brightened her moods in later times – moved the holy lady with many a quip and jest to smile and laugh and cheer her heart. Then [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary] filled a cup with sweet wine and offered it to her; but she refused it, for she said it was not lawful for her to drink red wine, but asked them to mix grain meal and water with soft mint and give her to drink. And [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary] mixed the draught and gave it to the goddess as she asked. So the great queen [pb_glossary id="879"]Deo[/pb_glossary] received it to observe the ritual((lacuna)) . . . [212] And of them all, well-girded [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary] first began to speak, "Hail, lady! For I think you are not lowly but nobly born; truly dignity and grace are apparent upon your eyes as in the eyes of kings that deal justice. Yet we mortals bear by necessity what the gods send us, though we be grieved; for a yoke is set upon our necks. But now, since you have come here, you shall have what I can bestow: act as a nurse for this child whom the gods gave me in my old age and beyond my hope, a son much prayed for. If you should bring him up until he reaches the full measure of youth, any one of womankind that sees you will immediately envy you, so great a reward would I give for his upbringing." [224] Then rich-haired Demeter answered her, "And you, also, lady, all hail, and may the gods be good to you! Gladly will I take the boy to my breast, as you bid me, and will nurse him. Never, I expect, due to any carelessness of his nurse, will witchcraft hurt him or even the Undercutter: for I know a charm far stronger than the Woodcutter, and I know an excellent safeguard against dreadful witchcraft.[footnote]"Undercutter" and "Woodcutter" are likely the names of some sort of demon. Evelyn-White suggests that they refer to the mythological worm thought to cause teething [/footnote]" [231] When she had so spoken, she took the child in her fragrant bosom with her divine hands: and his mother was glad in her heart. So, in the palace, the goddess nursed [pb_glossary id="794"]Demophoon[/pb_glossary], wise [pb_glossary id="793"]Celeus[/pb_glossary]' goodly son whom well-girded [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary] bore. And the child grew like some immortal being, not fed with food nor nourished at the breast: for by day rich-crowned Demeter would anoint him with ambrosia as if he were the offspring of a god and breathe sweetly upon him as she held him in her bosom. But at night she would hide him like a log in the flames of the fire, unknown to his dear parents. And they marveled that he grew beyond his age; for he was like the gods face to face. And she would have made him deathless and unageing, had not well-girded [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary] in her carelessness kept watch by night from her sweet-smelling chamber and spied. But she cried out and struck her two hips, because she feared for her son and was greatly distraught in her heart; so she lamented and uttered winged words, "[pb_glossary id="794"]Demophoon[/pb_glossary], my son, the strange woman buries you deep in fire and makes grief and bitter sorrow for me." [250] Thus she spoke, mourning. And the bright goddess, lovely-crowned Demeter, heard her, and was angry with her. So with her divine hands she snatched from the fire the dear son whom [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary] had born unhoped-for in the palace, and cast him from her to the ground; for she was terribly angry in her heart. Then she said to well-girded [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary], "Foolish are you mortals and unable to foresee the fate, whether of good or evil, that comes upon you. For now in your carelessness you have made an irreparable mistake– I swear by the relentless water of the river [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary], the oath of the gods– I would have made your dear son deathless and unaging all his days and would have bestowed on him everlasting honour. But now he cannot escape death and the fates in any way. Yet, unfailing honour will always be upon him, because he lay upon my knees and slept in my arms. But, as the years move round and when he is in his prime, the sons of the Eleusinians will always be at war with one another. Lo! I am that Demeter who has share of honour and is the greatest help and cause of joy to the undying gods and mortal men. But now, let all the people build me a great temple and an altar below it and beneath the city and its sheer wall upon a rising hill above [pb_glossary id="776"]Callichorus[/pb_glossary]. And I myself will teach my rites, that hereafter you may reverently perform them and so win the favour of my heart." [275] When she spoken thus, the goddess changed her stature and her looks, thrusting old age away from her: beauty spread around her and a lovely fragrance wafted from her sweet-smelling robes, and from the divine body of the goddess a strong light shone, while golden curls spread down over her shoulders, so that the strong house was filled with brightness as with lightning. And like this she went out from the palace. [281] And immediately [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary]'s knees buckled and she remained speechless for a long while and did not remember to take up her young son from the ground. But his sisters heard his pitiful wailing and sprang down from their well-spread beds: one of them took up the child in her arms and laid him in her bosom, while another revived the fire, and a third rushed with soft feet to bring their mother from her fragrant chamber. And they gathered about the struggling child and washed him, embracing him lovingly; but he was not comforted, because nurses and handmaids much less skilful were holding him now. [292] All night long they sought to appease the glorious goddess, quaking with fear. But, as soon as dawn began to show, they told powerful [pb_glossary id="793"]Celeus[/pb_glossary] all things without fail, as the lovely-crowned goddess Demeter charged them. So [pb_glossary id="793"]Celeus[/pb_glossary] called the countless people to an assembly and ordered them to make a large temple for rich-haired Demeter and an altar upon the rising hill. And they obeyed him quickly, doing as he commanded. As for the child, he grew like an immortal being. [301] Now when they had finished building and had drawn back from their toil, each man went to his house. But golden-haired Demeter sat there apart from all the blessed gods and stayed, wasting away with yearning for her full-breasted daughter. Then she caused a very dreadful and cruel year for mankind over the all-nourishing earth: the ground would not make any seed sprout, for rich-crowned Demeter kept it hidden. In the fields the oxen drew many a curved plough in vain, and much white barley was uselessly cast upon the land. So she would have destroyed the whole race of man with cruel famine and have robbed them who dwell on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] of their glorious right of gifts and sacrifices, if [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had not seen and understood in his heart what was happening. First he sent golden-winged Iris to call rich-haired Demeter, lovely in form. So he commanded. And she obeyed the dark-clouded Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], and sped with swift feet across the space between. She came to the stronghold of fragrant [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary], and there finding dark-cloaked Demeter in her temple, spoke to her and uttered winged words, "Demeter, father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], whose wisdom is everlasting, calls you to come join the tribes of the eternal gods: therefore, come! And do not let disobey the message I bring from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]." [324] Thus said [pb_glossary id="885"]Iris[/pb_glossary] imploring her. But Demeter's heart was not moved. Then again the father sent forth all the rest of the blessed and eternal gods: and they came, one after the other, and kept calling her and offering many very beautiful gifts and whatever power she might be pleased to choose among the deathless gods. Yet no one was able to persuade her mind and will, so angry was she in her heart; but she stubbornly rejected all their words: for she vowed that she would never set foot on fragrant [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] nor let fruit spring out of the ground, until she saw with her eyes her own fair-faced daughter. [334] Now when all-seeing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the loud-thunderer heard this, he sent the [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] with the golden wand to [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary], so that having won over [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] with soft words, he might lead forth chaste Persephone to the light from the misty gloom to join the gods, and that her mother might see her with her eyes and cease from her anger. And [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] obeyed, and leaving the house of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], immediately sprang down with speed to the hidden places of the earth. And he found the lord [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] in his house seated upon a couch, and his shy bride with him, very reluctant, because she yearned for her mother. But she was far off in her mind, stewing over her dreadful circumstances, brought on by the deeds of the blessed gods. And the strong [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] drew near and said: [347] "Dark-haired [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], ruler over the departed, father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] orders me to bring noble Persephone up from [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary] to the gods, so that her mother may see her with her eyes and cease from her dread anger with the immortals; for now she plans an awful deed, to destroy the weak tribes of earthborn men by keeping the seeds hidden beneath the earth. And so she brings an end to the honours of the undying gods. For she hold onto her fearful anger and does not associate with the gods, but sits aloof in her fragrant temple, dwelling in the rocky hold of [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary]." [357] So he spoke. And [pb_glossary id="880"]Aidoneus[/pb_glossary], ruler over the dead, smiled grimly and obeyed the command of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus [/pb_glossary]the king. For he immediately urged wise Persephone, saying, "Go now, Persephone, to your dark-robed mother, go, and have good feelings for me in your heart: do not be so dejected; for I will be a fine husband for you among the deathless gods, since I am the brother of father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] himself. And while you are here, you shall rule all that lives and moves and shall have the greatest rights among the deathless gods: those who cheat you and do not appease you with offerings, reverently performing rites and giving appropriate gifts, will be punished for eternity." [370] When he said this, wise Persephone was filled with joy and quickly sprang up in happiness. But he on his part secretly gave her sweet pomegranate seed to eat, seeing to it that she did not always stay with grave, dark-robed Demeter. Then [pb_glossary id="880"]Aidoneus[/pb_glossary] the Ruler of Many openly readied his deathless horses and golden chariot. And she mounted the chariot, and the strong [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] took the reins and whip in his dear hands and drove forth from the hall, the horses eagerly speeding up. Swiftly they traveled the long journey, and neither the sea nor river-waters nor grassy glens nor mountain-peaks impeded the immortal horses, but they clawed the high air above them as they went. And [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] brought them to the place where rich-crowned Demeter was staying and stopped them before her fragrant temple. [384] And when Demeter saw them, she rushed out like a [pb_glossary id="887"]Maenad[/pb_glossary] down some thick-wooded mountain, while Persephone on the other side, when she saw her mother's sweet eyes, left the chariot and horses, and leaped down to run to her, and falling upon her neck, embraced her. But while Demeter was still holding her dear child in her arms, her heart suddenly suspected some trick, so that she was very afraid and stopped embracing her daughter and asked her at once, "My child, tell me, surely you have not tasted any food while you were below? Speak out and hide nothing, but let us both know. For if you have not, you will come back from loathsome [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] and live with me and your father, the dark-clouded Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] and be honoured by all the deathless gods; but if you have tasted food, you must go back again beneath the secret places of the earth, there to dwell for one third of every year: but for the other two parts you will be with me and the other deathless gods. But when the earth blooms with every kind of fragrant flowers of spring, then from the realm of darkness and gloom you will come up once more to be a wonder for gods and mortal men. And now tell me how he snatched you away to the realm of darkness and gloom, and by what trick did the strong [pb_glossary id="874"]Host of Many[/pb_glossary] beguile you?" [405] Then beautiful Persephone answered her thus, "Mother, I will tell you everything, just as it happened. When luck-bringing [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] came, swift messenger from my father the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus [/pb_glossary]and the other Sons of Heaven, bidding me come back from [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary] that you might see me with your eyes and so cease from your anger and fearful wrath against the gods, I sprang up at once for joy; but he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will. Also I will tell how he snatched me away according to the elaborate plan of my father the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] and carried me off under the depths of the earth, and will tell the whole matter as you ask. We were all playing in a lovely meadow, Leucippe and Phaeno and Electra and Ianthe, Melita also and Iache with Rhodea and Callirhoe and Melobosis and [pb_glossary id="337"]Tyche[/pb_glossary] and Ocyrhoe, fair as a flower, Chryseis, Ianeira, Acaste and Admete and Rhodope and Pluto and charming Calypso; [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary] too was there and Urania and lovely Galaxaura with [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] who rouses battles and [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] delighting in arrows: we were playing and gathering sweet flowers in our hands, soft crocuses mingled with irises and hyacinths, and rose-blooms and lilies, marvelous to see, and the narcissus which the wide earth caused to grow yellow as a crocus. That flower I plucked in my joy; but the earth opened under me and there the strong lord, the [pb_glossary id="874"]Host of Many[/pb_glossary], sprang forth and in his golden chariot he bore me away, all unwilling, beneath the earth: then I cried with a shrill cry. All this is true, as difficult as it is for me tell.” [434] So then they turned, their hearts reunited in joy, and embraced many times, cheering each other’s soul and spirit. Their hearts were relieved from their sufferings and they delighted in their mutual happiness. [438] Then bright-coiffed [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary] came near to them, and embraced the daughter of holy Demeter many times: and from that time the lady [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary] was minister and companion to Persephone. [441] And all-seeing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] sent a messenger to them, rich-haired [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary], to bring dark-cloaked Demeter to join the families of the gods: and he promised to give her what right she should choose among the deathless gods and agreed that her daughter would go down for the third part of the circling year to darkness and gloom, but for the two parts would live with her mother and the other deathless gods. Thus he commanded. And the goddess did not disobey the message of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]; swiftly she rushed down from the peaks of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] and came to the plain of Rharus, rich, fertile corn-land once, but at that time not at all fruitful, for it lay idle and utterly leafless, because the white grains were hidden by design of trim-ankled Demeter. But afterwards, as springtime waxed, it would soon be waving with long ears of corn, and its rich furrows would be loaded with grain upon the ground, while others would already be bound in sheaves. There first she landed from the empty upper air: and the goddesses were glad to see each other and cheered in heart. [459] Then bright-coiffed [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary] said to Demeter, "Come, my daughter; for far-seeing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the loud-thunderer calls you to join the families of the gods, and has promised to give you what rights you please among the deathless gods, and has agreed that for a third part of the circling year your daughter will go down to darkness and gloom, but for the two parts will be with you and the other deathless gods: so has he declared it will be and has bowed his head in token. But come, my child, obey, and do not be angry unrelentingly with the dark-clouded Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]; but rather immediately increase for men the fruit that gives them life." [470] So spoke [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary]. And rich-crowned Demeter did not refuse but right away caused fruit to spring up from the rich lands, so that the whole wide earth was laden with leaves and flowers. Then she went, and to the kings who deal justice, [pb_glossary id="777"]Triptolemus[/pb_glossary] and Diocles, the horse-driver, and to doughty Eumolpus and [pb_glossary id="793"]Celeus[/pb_glossary], leader of the people, she showed the conduct of her rites and taught them all her mysteries, to [pb_glossary id="777"]Triptolemus[/pb_glossary] and Polyxeinus and Diocles also, –powerful mysteries which no one may in any way transgress or pry into or utter, for deep awe of the gods checks the voice. He who, among men on earth, has seen these mysteries is happy, is happy; but he who is uninitiated and who has no part in them, gets no part of good things once he is dead, down in the darkness and gloom. [483] But when the bright goddess had taught them all, they went to [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] to the gathering of the other gods. And there they dwell beside [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who delights in thunder, powerful and revered goddesses. Right blessed is he among men on earth whom they freely love: soon they send [pb_glossary id="889"]Plutus[/pb_glossary] as guest to his great house, [pb_glossary id="889"]Plutus[/pb_glossary] who gives wealth to mortal men. [490] And now, queen of the land of sweet [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary] and sea-girt Paros and rocky Antron, lady, giver of good gifts, bringer of seasons, queen [pb_glossary id="879"]Deo[/pb_glossary], be gracious, you and your daughter all beauteous Persephone, and for my song grant me heart-cheering substance. And now I will remember you and another song also. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns1.html

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 1 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century CE

In this passage, Pseudo-Apollodorus summarizes the story of Hades' rape of Persephone. Here Hades is called, "Pluto," another one of his many names.

[1.5.1] [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary] fell in love with Persephone, and with the help of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] he carried her off secretly. But Demeter went about seeking her all over the earth with torches by night and day, and learning from the people of Hermion that [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary] had carried her off, she was angry with the gods and left the heavens, and came in the disguise of a woman to [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary]. And first she sat down on the rock which has been named Laughless after her, beside what is called the Well of the Fair Dances [ [pb_glossary id="776"]Callichorus[/pb_glossary] ]; then she made her way to [pb_glossary id="793"]Celeus[/pb_glossary], who at that time reigned over the Eleusinians. Some women were in the house, and when they asked her to sit down beside them, a certain old crone, [pb_glossary id="791"]Iambe[/pb_glossary], joked to the goddess and made her smile. For that reason they say that the women make jokes at the [pb_glossary id="789"]Thesmophoria[/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id="792"]Metaneira[/pb_glossary], wife of [pb_glossary id="793"]Celeus[/pb_glossary], had a child and Demeter received it to nurse, and wishing to make it immortal she set the babe on the fire at night and stripped off its mortal flesh. But as [pb_glossary id="794"]Demophon[/pb_glossary] – for that was the child's name – grew marvelously by day, Praxithea watched, and discovering him buried in the fire she cried out; then the babe was consumed by the fire and the goddess revealed herself. [1.5.2] But for [pb_glossary id="777"]Triptolemus[/pb_glossary], the elder of Metaneira's children, she made a chariot of winged dragons, and gave him wheat, with which, floating through the sky, he sowed the whole inhabited earth. But Panyasis affirms that [pb_glossary id="777"]Triptolemus[/pb_glossary] was a son of [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary], for he says that Demeter came to him. Pherecydes, however, says that he was a son of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary]. [1.5.3] But when [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ordered [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary] to send up the [pb_glossary id="790"]Maiden[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary] gave her a seed of a pomegranate to eat, so that she might not remain with her mother for long. Not foreseeing the consequence, she swallowed it; and because Ascalaphus, son of [pb_glossary id="795"]Acheron[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="361"]Gorgyra[/pb_glossary], bore witness against her, Demeter laid a heavy rock on him in [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. But Persephone was compelled to remain a third of every year with [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary] and the rest of the time with the gods. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html#5

Demeter and Persephone in Ritual

Callimachus, Hymn 6, "To Demeter" (trans. A. W. Mair, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 3rd century BCE

In his Hymn to Demeter, written in Greek in the 3rd Century BCE, Callimachus writes about events that took place while Demeter was traveling the world looking for Persephone, including a run-in with a mortal man named Erysichthon. The Hymn opens and closes with invocations to the goddess, such as would be sung during the [pb_glossary id="789"]Thesmophoria[/pb_glossary]. At the end of the hymn we get a portrait of who would have been participating in the worship of Demeter and Persephone at the festival, "Sing, you maidens, and you mothers..." The Hymn asks for specific benefits from the goddess to be bestowed upon the worshippers for their piety.

[1] As the basket comes, meet it, women, saying “Demeter, many greetings, much nourishing one, who has many measures of grain.” As the basket comes, you will watch from the ground, you who are uninitiated, and not from the roof or from above– no child or wife or maid who has shed her hair shall do so – neither then, nor when we spit from our parched mouths during the fast.[footnote]This passage refers to the Thesmophoria, a festival for Demeter. One of the stages of this ritual event was a fast.[/footnote] [pb_glossary id="773"]Hesperus[/pb_glossary] from the clouds marks the time of it [the basket’s] coming: [pb_glossary id="773"]Hesperus[/pb_glossary], who alone persuaded Demeter to drink, when she pursued the unknown tracks of her stolen daughter [Persephone]. [9] Revered goddess, how were your feet able to carry you to the West, to those who are dark skinned and where the golden apples are? You did not drink or eat during that time, nor did you wash. Three times you crossed [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary] with his silver eddies, and as often you passed over each of the ever-flowing rivers, and three times you sat on the ground beside the fountain [pb_glossary id="776"]Callichorus[/pb_glossary], parched and without drinking, and you did not eat or wash. [17] No, no, let us not speak of that which brought the tear to Deo [Demeter]! Better to tell how she gave cities pleasing decrees; better to tell how she was the first to cut straw and holy sheaves of grain and put in oxen to thresh them, when [pb_glossary id="777"]Triptolemus[/pb_glossary] was taught the good craft [of agriculture]; better to tell how she made the son of Triopas [ [pb_glossary id="778"]Erysichthon[/pb_glossary] ] hateful and pitiful to look at – a warning to men so that they avoid transgression. [24] The Pelasgians did not yet live in the land of Cnidus, but still in holy Dotium, and for you [Demeter] they made a lovely grove with many trees; hardly could an arrow have passed through them [they were so thick]. In the grove there were pines, and mighty elms, and pear trees, and fair sweet apples; and from the ditches water gushed up as if it were amber. And the goddess loved the place madly, even as much as she loved [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary], and Triopum, and Enna. [31] But when their favouring fortune became angry with the Triopidae [the people of Triopas], then a terrible idea seized [pb_glossary id="778"]Erysichthon[/pb_glossary]. He hastened with twenty attendants, all in their prime, all men-giants [androgigantes] able to lift a whole city, arming them with double axes and with hatchets, and they rushed shamelessly into the grove of Demeter. Now there was a poplar, a great tree reaching to the sky, and there the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] liked to play at noon. This poplar was struck first, and it cried a woeful cry to the others. Demeter noticed that her holy tree was in pain, and she was angered and said: “Who cuts down my beautiful tree?” Then she took on the appearance of Nicippe, whom the city had appointed to be her public priestess, and in her hand she grasped her garlands and her poppy, and from her shoulder hung her key. And she spoke to soothe the wicked and shameless man and said: “My child who cuts down the trees that are dedicated to the gods, stop, my child, child of your parents’ many prayers, stop and turn back your attendants, in case the lady Demeter is angered, whose holy place you are desolating.” [50] But with a look more fierce than that with which a lioness looks on the hunter on the hills of Tmarus – a lioness with new-born cubs, whose eye they say the most terribly of all – he said: “Stay back, or I will fix my great axe in your flesh! These trees will make my tightly built home, in which I will forever hold pleasing banquets for my companions.” So the young man spoke and [pb_glossary id="338"]Nemesis[/pb_glossary] took note of his evil speech. And Demeter was angered beyond words and put on her goddess form. Her steps touched the earth, but her head reached to [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. And they, half-dead when they saw the revered goddess, rushed suddenly away, leaving the bronze axes in the trees. And she left the others alone – because they were forced to follow their master’s orders – but she answered their angry king: “Yes, yes, build your house, dog, dog, that you are, in which you shall have festivals; for frequent banquets shall be yours from now on.” So much she said and devised evil things for [pb_glossary id="778"]Erysichthon[/pb_glossary]. [66] Then she sent on him a cruel and evil hunger – a burning hunger and a strong one – and he was tormented by a terrible disease. Wretched man, no matter how much he ate, he always wanted more. Twenty prepared the banquet for him, and twelve drew wine. For anything that bothers Demeter, bothers also [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary]; for [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus [/pb_glossary] shares the anger of Demeter. His [[pb_glossary id="778"]Erysichthon[/pb_glossary]’s] parents, out of shame, did not send him to common feasts or banquets, and they made all manner of excuses. The sons of Ormenus came to ask him to attend the games of Itonian [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]. His mother refused the request: “He is not at home: for yesterday he went to Crannon to demand a debt of a hundred oxen.” Polyxo came, mother of Actorion – for she was preparing a marriage for her child – inviting both Triopas and his son. But the lady, heavy-hearted, answered with tears: “Triopas will come, but [pb_glossary id="778"]Erysichthon[/pb_glossary] was wounded by a boar at Pindus of the fair glens, and he has been bed-ridden for nine days.” Poor child-loving mother, what lie did you not tell? One was giving a feast: “[pb_glossary id="778"]Erysichthon[/pb_glossary] is abroad.” One was bringing home a bride: “A discus has struck [pb_glossary id="778"]Erysichthon[/pb_glossary],” or “he has had a fall from his chariot,” or “he is counting his flocks of sheep on [pb_glossary id="781"]Othrys[/pb_glossary].” Then within the house, he, an all-day banqueter, ate more things than can be counted. But his evil belly churned more, the more he ate, and all the food flowed down, in vain and thanklessly, as if it was flowing into the depths of the sea. And like the snow on Mimas, like a wax doll in the sun, yes, even more than these, he melted down to sinews: the wretched man only had tendons and bones left. His mother wept, and his two sisters groaned deeply, and the breast that suckled him and the ten handmaidens over and over. [96] And Triopas himself laid his hands on his grey hair, calling on [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], who did not listen, with words like these: “False father, behold this the third generation of your sons – if I am a son of you and of Canace, daughter of [pb_glossary id="782"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary], and this unlucky child is mine. I wish that he had been struck by [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] and that my hands had buried him! But now he sits before my eyes, an accursed glutton. Either remove his cruel disease from him, or take and feed him yourself; for my tables are already exhausted. My sheep folds are desolate and my cowsheds empty of four-footed beasts; for already the cooks have said to me ‘no.’” [107] They even took the mules from the great wagons, and he ate the heifer that his mother was feeding for [pb_glossary id="181"]Hestia[/pb_glossary], and the racing horse and the war charger, and the cat that scared off the little vermin. [111] So long as there were food stores in the house of Triopas, only the chambers of the house were aware of the evil thing; but when his teeth dried up the rich house, then the king’s son sat at the crossroads, begging for crusts and for the cast out leftovers of the feast. O Demeter, may that man who is hateful to you never be my friend, nor may he ever share an apartment wall with me; I hate bad neighbours. [118] Sing, you maidens, and you mothers, say with them: “Demeter, many greetings, much nourishing one, who has many measures of grain.” And as the four white horses carry the basket, so to us will the great goddess of wide dominion come, bringing white spring and white harvest and winter and autumn, and keep us to another year. And as we walk the city unsandalled and with hair unbound, so will we have foot and head unharmed forever. And as the basket-bearers bear baskets full of gold, so may we get gold in abundance. Though the city officials let the uninitiated follow them far, the initiated may follow all the way to the very shrine of the goddess – those who are under sixty years old. But she that is heavy [pregnant], and she that stretches her hand to [pb_glossary id="783"]Eileithyia[/pb_glossary] and she that is in pain – it is sufficient for them to go as far as their knees are able. And to them Deo [Demeter] shall give all things in abundance, like if they had come all the way to her temple. [134] Greetings, goddess, and preserve these people in harmony and in prosperity, and in the fields bring us all pleasant things! Feed our cattle, bring us flocks, bring us the wheat, bring us harvest! And nurse peace, that he who sows may also reap. Be gracious, O thrice-prayed for, great queen of goddesses! Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/CallimachusHymns2.html#6

Demeter and Persephone as Allegory

Fulgentius, Mythologies, Book 1 (trans. L. G. Whitbread, adapted by P. Rogak)

Latin mythography, ca. 500 CE

In these passages, written in Latin in the 6th century CE, Fulgentius takes an allegorical approach to the myth of Demeter and Persephone:

[1.10: The Fable of Proserpine] They also choose to have Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres, married to [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary]; for Ceres is the Greek for joy, and they also chose her to be the goddess of grain, because where there is plentiful increase of crops, there must be much joy. They intended Proserpina for crops, that is, creeping forward (proserpentem) through the earth with roots, and so she is also called [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary] in Greek,[footnote]Though Hecate is a Greek goddess often associated with Demeter and Persephone, Fulgentius' claim that Persephone is Hecate is not entirely accurate as Hecate is a distinct goddess. [/footnote] because hecaton is the Greek for hundred; and they also explain this name for her in the sense that crops yield fruit one hundredfold. [1.11: The Fable of Ceres] It is also said that her mother searched for her, when she was stolen away, with torches, and so the day of Ceres is celebrated with torches, clearly for the reason that at that time crops are joyfully reaped with torches, that is, in the sun’s heat. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/FulgentiusMythologies1.html#10

Art and Symbolism

In Greek art, Demeter was usually represented as a mature woman wearing a long robe and a veil over her head. Occasionally she could also be portrayed wearing a diadem or holding a scepter.

[caption id="attachment_577" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Veiled Demeter, Delphi coin, ca. 336 BCE[/caption]

The most common mediums in which the goddess is represented are vase painting and large sculpture. Her image could also be found on coins and frescoes. Many small terracotta statuettes depicting women wearing long dresses and carrying offerings (such as piglets and fruit) found in sanctuaries dedicated to Demeter have been interpreted as images of the goddess. However, these objects may also represent female worshippers rather than the divinity herself.

[caption id="attachment_595" align="aligncenter" width="679"] Demeter (center) in procession, marble relief, ca. 1st century BCE (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore)[/caption]

Some of the most common attributes of Demeter in art are the scepter and sheaves. As goddess of the earth and crops, she could be represented holding sheaves in her hand, or wearing a grain wreath.

[caption id="attachment_732" align="alignnone" width="2736"] Persephone and Demeter, tracing from red-figure lekythos from the 5th century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_580" align="alignnone" width="2000"] Demeter and ears of corn, two sides of a coin, ca. 200 BCE[/caption]

Another object commonly associated with Demeter in art is the torch – especially relevant in relation to the myth of the kidnapping of her daughter, Persephone, who traveled between the world of the living and that of the dead by night, accompanied by torch-bearing companions such as Hecate. The latter was another underworld-related goddess who was often portrayed in the company of Demeter and Persephone.

[caption id="attachment_583" align="aligncenter" width="680"] Hermes and Hecate guiding Persephone (left) out of the underworld to meet Demeter, red-figure krater, ca. 440 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)[/caption]

Demeter was often represented alongside her daughter, with whom she shared several visual features: the sheaves, the robe and veil, and the torches. However, Persephone was also often portrayed with her husband, Hades. They were generally represented enthroned, sometimes receiving offerings, or during her abduction.

[caption id="attachment_586" align="alignleft" width="306"] Relief of Hades and Persephone, Locri votive tablet (Museo Nazionale Archeologico, Reggio di Calabria)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_590" align="alignright" width="341"] Persephone and Hades, red-figure kylix, ca. 430 BCE British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_594" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Hades abducting Persephone, Macedonian fresco, ca. 340 BCE[/caption]

Another myth involving Demeter often represented in art was the episode where she sent the hero Triptolemus around the earth on a flying chariot to teach humankind the art of agriculture.

[caption id="attachment_674" align="alignnone" width="1724"] Triptolemus with Demeter (left), Persephone, and Eleusis (right), red-figure skyphos, ca. 500 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_596" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Triptolemos with Persephone (left) and Demeter (right), red-figure stamnos, ca. 480 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

Ceres and Proserpina

The iconography of Ceres borrowed many elements from that of her Greek counterpart Demeter from the Hellenistic Period onwards. The goddess was often represented enthroned holding wheat sheaves or a scepter, and wearing a crown of wheat.

[caption id="attachment_662" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Romulus and Ceres, Roman coin, ca. 56 BCE[/caption]

A symbol associated with Ceres that was particularly popular in Roman art was the cornucopia, a hollow animal horn filled with fruits and wheat representing abundance and fertility. Other iconographic elements relating to the goddess were garlands, snakes, and torches (referring to her search for her daughter).

[caption id="attachment_663" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Laureate head, and Annona (left) and Ceres (right), Roman coin, ca. 68 CE[/caption]

Various empresses ere also depicted as Ceres both in sculpture and on coins during the first and second century CE.

[caption id="attachment_731" align="alignnone" width="2031"] Faustina (mother of emperor Commodus) and Demeter, Roman coin, 2nd century CE (accessed via Ancient Roman Coin)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_660" align="alignnone" width="1627"] Livia Drusilla as Ceres, Roman statue, ca. 1st century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Madrid)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Apollo

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:58:33 +0000

motherApollo, white-ground kylix, ca. 480 BCE (Archaeological Museum, Delphi)

Origins

The god Apollo (whose epithet is Phoebus, which literally means 'bright') was born on the island of Delos. He was the twin brother of Artemis, and the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Leto. In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, the pregnant Leto, having been driven from land to land by the jealous Hera, eventually comes to Delos to give birth. Leto had to swear an oath that Delos would serve as a sacred precinct for Apollo. After nine days of labor on the island, she gives birth to the god, under either a palm or an olive tree. After his birth, Apollo is given nectar and ambrosia by Themis, and in some accounts, having tasted it, immediately demands a lyre and a bow. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes, however, gives a different [pb_glossary id="4647"]etiology[/pb_glossary] for Apollo's lyre: the god receives it in exchange l for a cattle whip as a gift of reconciliation from Hermes (see chapter 16).

Apollo in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

God of Oracles

"Homeric Hymn 3 To Apollo"

God of Music

"Homeric Hymn 21 To Apollo"

Challenging the God

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.4.1-1.4.2

God of Plagues

Homer, Iliad, 1.22-52

Daphne

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.452-567

God of Oracles

Apollo presided over many areas of life, such as light, medicine and the arts. Perhaps most importantly, he was the god of oracles and prophecy, with his oracular center located at Delphi. Apollo acquired possession of Delphi and the oracle (perhaps originally from Themis) after slaying the giant serpent Python, which guarded the site. The presiding priestess prophetess at Delphi is called the Pythia.

For further discussion of the Oracle of Delphi, see chapter 42.

Apollo was also associated with prophecy in the Roman tradition, most notably with the Cumaean Sibyl. The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess and prophet of the Apollonian temple of Cumae (located near modern-day Naples, Italy). She is most famous for appearing in Virgil's Aeneid, wherein she guides the hero Aeneas to visit his father in the Underworld.

For the myth of Aeneas and the Cumaean Sibyl, see chapter 41.

"Homeric Hymn 3 To Apollo" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

This Homeric Hymn to Apollo starts with the difficulties that his mother, Leto, faces surrounding his and his twin sister Artemis' birth. It then details some of his myths and stories, including his defeat of Python.

I will remember and not forget Apollo, the Far-shooter. As he goes through the house of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the gods tremble before him and all spring up from their seats when he draws near, as he bends his bright bow. But [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] alone stays by the side of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who delights in thunder; and she unstrings his bow, and closes his quiver, and takes his archery from his strong shoulders in her hands and hangs them on a golden peg against a pillar of his father's house. Then she leads him to a seat and makes him sit: and the Father [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ] gives him nectar in a golden cup, welcoming his dear son, while the other gods make him sit down there, and queenly [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] rejoices because she bore a mighty son and an archer. Rejoice, blessed [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], for you bore glorious children, the lord Apollo and [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] who delights in arrows; her in Ortygia, and him in rocky [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary], as you rested against the great mass of the Cynthian hill, next to a palm-tree by the streams of Inopus. [19] How, then, will I sing of you, who is in all ways a worthy theme for a song? For everywhere, O [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], songs fall to you, both over the mainland that rears heifers and over the isles. All mountain-peaks and high headlands of lofty hills and rivers flowing out to the deep sea and beaches sloping seawards and havens of the sea are your delight. Should I sing how in the beginning [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] gave birth to you as a joy for men, as she rested against Mount Cynthus in that rocky isle, in sea-bordered [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos [/pb_glossary]– while on either side dark waves rolled landwards driven by shrill winds – from where you rose to rule over all mortal men? [30] Among those who are in Crete, and in the township of Athens, and in the isle of Aegina and Euboea, famous for ships, in Aegae and Eiresiae and Peparethus near the sea, in Thracian Athos and [pb_glossary id="2333"]Pelion[/pb_glossary]'s towering heights and Thracian Samos and the shady hills of [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary], in Scyros and Phocaea and the high hill of Autocane and fair-lying Imbros and smouldering Lemnos and rich Lesbos, home of Macar, the son of [pb_glossary id="1180"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary], and Chios, brightest of all the isles that lie in the sea, and craggy Mimas and the heights of Corycus and gleaming Claros and the sheer hill of Aesagea and watered Samos and the steep heights of Mycale, in Miletus and Cos, the city of Meropian men, and steep Cnidos and windy Carpathos, in Naxos and Paros and rocky Rhenaea – so far [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] roamed in painful labour with the the Far-shooter [Apollo], to see if any land would be willing to be a home for her son. But they trembled greatly and were afraid, and none, not even the richest of them, dared receive [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], until queenly [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] set foot on [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary] and uttered winged words and asked her: [51] "[pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary], if only you would be willing to be the home of my son [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo and make him a rich temple. For no one else will ever will touch you, nor honour you: and I do not think you will ever be rich in cattle or sheep, nor will you bear a harvest nor produce plants abundantly. But if you have the temple of far-shooting Apollo, all men will bring you [pb_glossary id="1204"]hecatombs[/pb_glossary] and gather here, and you will have the unceasing savour of rich sacrifices, and you will feed your inhabitants from the hands of strangers; for your own soil is not rich." [62] So spoke [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]. And [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary] rejoiced and answered, saying, "Leto, most glorious daughter of great [pb_glossary id="1545"]Coeus[/pb_glossary], I would joyfully receive your child, the far-shooting lord; for it is true that I am ill-spoken of among men, and in this way I would become very greatly honoured. But, that said, I am afraid, and I will not hide it from you, [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]. They say that Apollo will be very haughty and will greatly lord it among gods and men all over the fruitful earth. Therefore, I am very afraid in heart and spirit that as soon as he sees the light of the sun, he will scorn this island – because I truly have hard, rocky soil – and overturn me and thrust me down with his feet in the depths of the sea; then the great ocean will wash deep over my head forever, and he will go to another land that pleases him, and there make his temple and wooded groves. Then, many-footed creatures of the sea will make their lairs in me and the black seals will make their undisturbed homes, because I lack people. But if you will swear a great oath, goddess, that he will build a glorious temple here first, as an oracle for men, then let him afterwards make temples and wooded groves all over the world; for he will surely be greatly renowned." [83] So said [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary]. And [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] swore the great oath of the gods, "Now hear this, [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary] and wide [pb_glossary id="1546"]Heaven[/pb_glossary] above, and dropping water of [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary] (this is the strongest and most mighty oath for the blessed gods), I swear that [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] will have his fragrant altar and precinct here, and he shall honour you above all." [89] Now when [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] had sworn this oath, [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary] was very glad at the birth of the far-shooting lord. But [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] was racked nine days and nine nights with unusual contractions. And all the most important goddesses were there with her, [pb_glossary id="1548"]Dione[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary] and Ichnaean [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary] and loud-moaning [pb_glossary id="1547"]Amphitrite[/pb_glossary] and the other deathless goddesses, except white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], who sat in the halls of cloud-gathering [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. Only [pb_glossary id="783"]Eilithyia[/pb_glossary], goddess of childbirth, had not heard about [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]'s trouble, for she sat on the top of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] beneath golden clouds due to the contriving of white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], who kept her close because of envy, because [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] with the lovely tresses was about to bear a faultless and strong son. [102] But the goddesses sent Iris out from the well-set island to bring [pb_glossary id="783"]Eilithyia[/pb_glossary], promising her a great necklace strung with golden threads, nine cubits [about 4 meters] long. And they asked [pb_glossary id="885"]Iris[/pb_glossary] to call her aside from white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], in case she might dissuade her from coming with her words. When swift [pb_glossary id="885"]Iris[/pb_glossary], fast as the wind on foot, had heard all this, she ran; and quickly covering the whole distance she came to the home of the gods, steep [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and immediately called [pb_glossary id="783"]Eilithyia[/pb_glossary] out to the door from the hall and spoke winged words to her, telling her everything, as the goddesses who dwell on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus [/pb_glossary] had asked her to. So she moved the heart of [pb_glossary id="783"]Eilithyia[/pb_glossary] in her dear breast; and they went their way, like shy wild doves in their going. [115] And as soon as [pb_glossary id="783"]Eilithyia[/pb_glossary] the goddess of childbirth set foot on [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary], the pains of birth seized [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], and she longed to push; so she threw her arms around a palm tree and kneeled on the soft meadow while the earth laughed for joy beneath her. Then the child leaped forth to the light, and all the goddesses washed you purely and cleanly with sweet water, and swathed you in a white garment of fine texture, new-woven, and fastened a golden band around you. [123][pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] did not breastfeed Apollo, bearer of the golden blade;[pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary] served him nectar and ambrosia with her divine hands: and [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] was glad because she had borne a strong son and an archer. But as soon as you had tasted that divine heavenly food, O [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], you could no longer then be held by golden cords nor confined with bands, but all the ties came undone. Then [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo spoke out among the deathless goddesses, "The lyre and the curved bow shall always be dear to me, and I will speak to men the infallible will of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]." [133] So said [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], the long-haired god, Far-shooter, and he began to walk upon the wide-pathed earth; and all the goddesses were amazed at him. Then all [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary] was covered with golden fauna as it saw the child of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], in joy because the god had chosen her for his dwelling out of all the islands and the mainlaind: and she loved him yet more in her heart, and blossomed as does a mountain-top with woodland flowers. [140] And you, lord Apollo, god of the silver bow, Far-shooter, sometimes walked on craggy Cynthus, and sometimes wandered around the islands and world of men. You have many temples and wooded groves , and all the peaks and towering bluffs of lofty mountains and rivers flowing to the sea are special to you, [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], but [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary] most delights you; the long robed Ionians gather with their children and wives there, in your honour: when they come together, thinking of you, they delight you with boxing and dancing and singing. A man might think that they immortal, if he were to see the Ionians when they are gathered together in this way. He would see their grace be pleased, gazing at the men and well-girded women with their swift ships and great wealth. And besides, there is this marvelous thing, whose fame will never die: the girls of [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary], hand-maidens of the Far-shooter; after they have praised Apollo, and also [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] who delights in arrows, they sing a song about men and women of the past, and charm the tribes of men. They can imitate the tongues of all men and their clattering speech: each man would swear that he himself were singing, so accurate is their sweet song. [165] And now may Apollo be favourable and also [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary]; and farewell all you maidens. Remember me later, whenever anyone on earth, a stranger who has seen and suffered much, comes here and asks you, "Who do you think, girls, is the sweetest singer, and who most delights you?" Then answer, all of you, in one voice, "He is a blind man, and dwells on rocky Chios: his poems are the great for all time." As for me, I will carry your fame as far as I wander over the earth, to the well-placed cities of man, and they will also believe; for indeed this thing is true. And I will never cease to praise far-shooting Apollo, god of the silver bow, whom rich-haired [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] bore. [179 TO PYTHIAN APOLLO] O Lord, Lycia is yours and lovely Maeonia and Miletus, charming city by the sea, but you reign especially over wave-bordered [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary]. [182] [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]'s all-glorious son goes to rocky [pb_glossary id="945"]Pytho[/pb_glossary], playing his hollow lyre, dressed in divine, perfumed garments; at the touch of the golden key his lyre sings sweetly. From there, quick as a thought, he speeds from earth to [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], to the house of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], to join the gathering of the other gods: then immediately the undying gods think only of the lyre and song, and all the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] together, voice sweetly answering voice, sing about the unending gifts the gods enjoy and the sufferings of men, all that they endure at the hands of the deathless gods, and how they live senseless and helpless and cannot find a remedy for death or defence against old age. Meanwhile the rich-haired [pb_glossary id="189"]Graces[/pb_glossary] and cheerful [pb_glossary id="164"]Seasons[/pb_glossary] dance with [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], holding each other by the wrists. And among them there is one who sings, who is not small or weak, but tall and enviable in appearance: [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] who delights in arrows, sister of Apollo. Among them, [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] and the sharp-eyed [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] , while Apollo strums his lyre, leaping gracefully and a radiance shines around him, the gleaming of his feet and close-woven vest. And even gold-tressed [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] and wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] rejoice as they watch their dear son playing among the undying gods. [207] How then will I sing of you – though you are in every way a worthy subject for song? Should I sing of you as a suitor, in the fields of love, how you pursued the daughter of Azan along with god-like Ischys the son of well-horsed Elatius, or with Phorbas sprung from Triops, or with Ereutheus, or with Leucippus and the wife of Leucippus ((lacuna))[footnote]Indicates a gap or missing segment in the text[/footnote] . . . you on foot, he with his chariot, measuring up to Triops. Or should I sing how at first you went around the earth, looking for a place to make an oracle for men, O far-shooting Apollo? You first went down from [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] to Pieria, and passed by sandy Lectus and Enienae and through the land of the Perrhaebi. Soon you came to Iolcus and set foot on Cenaeum in Euboea, famed for ships: you stood on the Lelantine plain, but you did not want to make a temple and wooded groves there. From there you crossed the Euripus, far-shooting Apollo, and went up the green, holy hills, going on to Mycalessus and grassy-bedded Teumessus, and came to the wood-covered home of Thebe; nobody lived in holy Thebe yet, nor were there tracks or roads around Thebe's wheat-bearing plain as yet. [229] And you went further, far-shooting Apollo, and you came to Onchestus, [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]'s bright grove. There the newly-broken colt, tired from drawing the sleek chariot, perks up, and the skilled driver jumps from his car and goes on his way. Then the horses draw the empty, rattling chariot for a while, free of guidance. If they crash the chariot in the woody grove, men look after the horses, but turn the chariot over and leave it there; for this was the ritual from the beginning. The drivers pray to the lord of the shrine, but the chariot becomes the god's. [239] You went even further, far-shooting Apollo, and reached the stream of Cephissus, which pours out sweet- flowing water from Lilaea, and crossing over it, One Who Works from Afar, you passed many-towered Ocalea and reached grassy Haliartus.[244] Then you went towards [pb_glossary id="1550"]Telphusa[/pb_glossary]. The place seemed like a good spot for building a temple and wooded grove. You came very close and spoke to her, "[pb_glossary id="1550"]Telphusa[/pb_glossary], I am thinking that I will make a glorious temple here, an oracle for men. They will bring perfect [pb_glossary id="1204"]hecatombs[/pb_glossary] here, both those who live in rich Peloponnesus and those in Europe and all the wave-washed islands, coming to seek oracles. I will give them infallible prophecies, delivering answers in my rich temple." [254] So said [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo, and laid out the wide, and very long foundations. But when [pb_glossary id="1550"]Telphusa[/pb_glossary] saw this, she was angry and said, "Lord [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], worker from afar, I will give you a piece of advice, since you want to set up a glorious temple here as an oracle for men who will always bring perfect [pb_glossary id="1204"]hecatombs[/pb_glossary] for you; yet I will speak out, and you should consider my words carefully. The trampling of swift horses and the sound of mules watering at my sacred springs will always bother you, and men will prefer to gaze at the well-made chariots and stamping, swift-footed horses than at your great temple and the many treasures in it. But if I can persuade you – for you, lord, are stronger and mightier than I, and your strength is very great –build at Crisa below the glades of Parnassus: there, bright chariots will not clash, and there will be no noise from swift-footed horses near your well-built altar. But the glorious tribes of men will bring gifts to you as they sing you hymns (calling to you, 'Greetings, Healer!'), and with delight you will receive rich sacrifices from the people dwelling all around." So said [pb_glossary id="1550"]Telphusa[/pb_glossary], so that she alone, and not the Far-Shooter, would be famous there; and she persuaded the Far-Shooter. [277] Further still you went, far-shooting Apollo, until you came to the town of the presumptuous Phlegyae who live in a lovely glade near the Cephisian lake, not caring for [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. And from there you went speeding swiftly to the mountain ridge, and came to Crisa, beneath snowy Parnassus, a foothill that faces the west. A cliff hangs over if from above, and a hollow, rugged glade runs under. There the lord [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo resolved to make his lovely temple, and so he said, "In this place I wish to build a glorious temple to be an oracle for men, and here they will always bring perfect [pb_glossary id="1204"]hecatombs[/pb_glossary], both they who dwell in rich Peloponnesus and the men of Europe and from all the wave-washed isles, coming to seek oracles. I will give them infallible prophecies, delivering answers in my rich temple." [294] When he had said this, [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo laid out all the foundations, wide and very long. The sons of Erginus, Trophonius and Agamedes, men dear to the deathless gods, laid a stone threshold on it. And the countless tribes of men built the whole temple out of cut stones, to be sung of forever. [300] Nearby there was a sweet flowing spring, and at the spring, with his strong bow, the lord, the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], killed a large, well-fed dragon, a fierce monster, who often did great evil to men on the earth, both to men themselves and to their long-legged sheep; she was a blood-stinking calamity. She was the one who once received evil, cruel [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] from gold-throned [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] and brought him up to be a plague to men. At one time [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] gave birth to him because she was angry with father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], when the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] bore all-glorious [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] in his head. For that reason queenly [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] was angry and spoke to the assembled gods: [311] "Listen to me, all gods and goddesses, as I tell you how cloud-gathering [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] wantonly dishonours me, after making me his dear wife. See how, without me he has given birth to bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] who is outstanding among the blessed gods. But my son [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], whom I myself bore, was weak among all the blessed gods and had a shriveled foot. I took him in my hands and I threw him into the great sea. But silver-footed [pb_glossary id="1551"]Thetis[/pb_glossary] the daughter of [pb_glossary id="1431"]Nereus[/pb_glossary] accepted and cared for him along with her sisters. I wish that she would have done another service for the blessed gods! You wicked and crafty one! What else will you plot? How did you dare to give birth to bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]? Wouldn't I have given you a child – I, who was your wife, at least in name, among the undying gods who hold wide heaven. Beware now, or I may devise something evil for you. Yes, now I will contrive to bear a son, who will be foremost among the undying gods. I will do it without tarnishing our marriage bed. Indeed, I will not come to your bed, but will associate with the blessed gods far away from you." [331] When she had said this, she went away from the gods, being very angry. Then immediately large-eyed queenly [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] prayed, striking the ground with the palm of her hand, and saying, "Listen, I beg you [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary] and wide [pb_glossary id="1546"]Heaven[/pb_glossary] above, and you [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titan[/pb_glossary] gods who dwell beneath the earth around great [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary], and from whom gods and men sprang! Listen to me now, one and all, and grant that I may bear a child apart from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], not lesser than him in strength – no, let him be as much stronger than [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], an all-seeing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] is than [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]." [340] So she cried and lashed the earth with her strong hand. Then the life-giving earth was moved: and when [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] saw it she was glad in heart, for she thought her prayer would be fulfilled. After that she did not go to the bed of wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] for a full year, and she did not sit in her carved chair making wise plans for him, as she used to, but stayed in her temples, where many people pray, and delighted in her offerings, large-eyed queenly [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. But when the months and days were fulfilled and the seasons changed as the earth moved round, she bore a child that was not like the gods nor like mortal men: cruel [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary], a troublesome plague to men. Promptly large-eyed queenly [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] took him and, joining one evil thing to another, she gave him to the dragoness; and the dragoness received him in turn. And [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] used to do great evil to the renowned tribes of men. Whoever met the dragoness would meet his doom until the lord Apollo, who deals death from afar, shot a strong arrow at her. Then she, split with bitter pangs, lay drawing great gasps of breath and rolling around that place. An awful, unspeakable noise swelled up as she writhed continually this way and that amid the woods, and so she left her life, breathing it forth in blood. [362] Then [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo boasted over her, "Now rot here upon the soil that feeds men! You will no longer live as an evil bane to men who eat the fruit of the all-nourishing earth, and who will bring perfect [pb_glossary id="1204"]hecatombs[/pb_glossary] here. Neither [ [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] ]nor ill-famed [pb_glossary id="1209"]Chimera[/pb_glossary] will defend you against cruel death, but here the [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary] and shining [pb_glossary id="878"]Hyperion[/pb_glossary] will make you rot." [370] So said [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], rejoicing over her: and darkness covered her eyes. And the holy strength of [pb_glossary id="876"]Helius[/pb_glossary] made her rot away; therefore the place is now called [pb_glossary id="945"]Pytho[/pb_glossary], and men call the lord Apollo by another name, Pythian, because on that spot the power of piercing [pb_glossary id="876"]Helius[/pb_glossary] made the monster rot away. [375] Then [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo saw that the sweet-flowing spring had tricked him, and he rushed against [pb_glossary id="1550"]Telphusa[/pb_glossary] in anger. And soon coming to her, he stood close by and spoke to her, "[pb_glossary id="1550"]Telphusa[/pb_glossary], were you trying to keep this lovely place for yourself and pour forth your clear flowing water by deceiving my mind? Here I will also be famous, not only you." [382] So spoke the lord, far-working Apollo, and pushed a crag down onto her with a shower of rocks, hiding her streams, and he made himself an altar in a wooded grove very near the clear-flowing stream. In that place all men pray to the great one by the name Telphusian, because he humbled the stream of holy [pb_glossary id="1550"]Telphusa[/pb_glossary]. [388] Then [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo pondered what men he should bring in to be his agents of sacrifice and to serve him in rocky Pytho. And while he considered this, he became aware of a swift ship upon the wine-dark sea, in which there were many good men, Cretans from Cnossos, the city of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]. They were men who make sacrifices to the lord and announce his decrees, whatever [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo of the golden sword speaks in prophesy from his laurel tree below the dells of Parnassus. These men were sailing in their black ship to sandy Pylos and to the men of Pylos for the purposes of business and for profit . But [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo met them. He sprang upon their swift ship in the open sea, in the form of a dolphin, and lay there, a great and awesome monster. None of them tried to understand, instead they sought to cast the dolphin overboard. But he kept shaking the black ship every way and made the timbers quiver. So they sat silent in their ship in fear, and did not loosen the ropes throughout the black, hollow ship, nor lower the sail of their dark-prowed vessel, but they kept it as they had first set it with the oxhide ropes and continued sailing. For a rushing south wind pressed the swift ship from behind. First they passed by Malea, and then along the Laconian coast they came to Taenarum, sea-surrounded town and country of [pb_glossary id="876"]Helius[/pb_glossary] who makes men happy, where the thick-fleeced sheep of the lord [pb_glossary id="876"]Helius[/pb_glossary] feed continually and occupy a joyful country. There they wished to put their ship to shore and look at the great marvel and see with their eyes whether the monster would remain on the deck of their hollow ship, or spring back into the briny deep where fishes form shoals. But the well-built ship would not obey the helm. It went on its way all along Peloponnesus. And the lord, far-working Apollo, guided it easily with the breath of the breeze. So the ship ran on its course and came to Arena and lovely Argyphea and Thryon, the ford of Alpheus, and well-placed Aepy and sandy Pylos and the men of Pylos; it went past Cruni and Chalcis and past Dyme and fair Elis, where the Epei rule. And at the time when the ship was making for Pherae, delighting in the breeze from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the steep mountain of Ithaca appeared to them below the clouds and Dulichium and Same and wooded Zacynthus. But when they had passed by the whole Peloponnesian coast, then, towards Crisa, that vast gulf, which in its length cuts off the rich isle of [pb_glossary id="632"]Pelops[/pb_glossary], began to heave in sight. A strong, clear west-wind came on them there by command of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and blew vehemently from heaven, so that with all speed the ship would finish coursing over the briny water of the sea. So they began again to voyage back towards the dawn and the sun, and the lord Apollo, son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], led them on until they reached far-seen Crisa, land of vines, and into shelter. There the sea-coursing ship ran aground on the sands. [440] Then, like a star at midday, the lord, far-working Apollo, leaped from the ship. Flashes of fire flew thickly from him and their brightness reached to heaven. He entered into his shrine between priceless tripods, and there caused a flame to flare up brightly, showing off the splendour of his shafts, so that their radiance filled all Crisa, and the wives and well-girded daughters of the Crisaeans raised a cry at that outburst of Phoebus, for he cast great fear upon them all. From his shrine he sprang forth again, swift as a thought, to speed again to the ship, in the form of a man, brisk and sturdy, in the prime of his youth, his broad shoulders covered with his hair. And he spoke to the Cretans, uttering winged words: [452] "Strangers, who are you? From where have you come, sailing along the paths of the sea? Are you here for trade, or do you wander at random over the sea as pirates do who put their own lives at risk and bring mischief to foreign men as they roam? Why do you rest, afraid, and not go ashore nor stow the gear from your black ship? For that is the custom of men who live by bread, whenever they come from the sea to land in their dark ships, spent with toil. Right away, a desire for sweet food seizes them." [462] So speaking, he put courage in their hearts, and the master of the Cretans answered him and said, "Stranger– though you look nothing like a mortal man, but are similar to the deathless gods– greetings and all happiness to you, and may the gods be good to you. Now tell me truly, what country is this, and what land, and what men live here? As for us, aiming elsewhere, we were sailing over the great sea to Pylos from Crete (for that is where we are from), but have now arrived here unwillingly on our ship and we would gladly return home. But one of the deathless gods brought us here against our will." [474] Then far-working Apollo answered and said, "Strangers who once lived around wooded Cnossos but who now will never return to their beloved cities and fair houses and dear wives, here you will tend to my rich temple that is honoured by many men. I am the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. Apollo is my name: I brought you here over the wide gulf of the sea, meaning you no harm. Here you will keep my rich temple that is greatly honoured among men, and you will know the plans of the deathless gods, and by their will you will be honoured continually for all time. And now come, make haste and do as I say. First loose the sheets and lower the sail, and then draw the swift ship up upon the land. Take out your goods and the gear of the straight ship, and make an altar upon the beach. Light a fire upon it and make an offering of white meal. Next, stand side by side around the altar and pray. And since, out on the hazy sea I first sprang upon the swift ship in the form of a dolphin, pray to me as Apollo Delphinius. The altar itself will also be called Delphinius and will be overlooking forever. Afterwards, dine beside your dark ship and pour an offering to the blessed gods who live on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. But when you have put away your craving for sweet food, come with me, singing the hymn Ie [pb_glossary id="2806"]Paean[/pb_glossary] (Greetings, Healer!), until you come to the place where you will keep my rich temple." [502] So said Apollo. And they readily listened to him and obeyed him. First they unfastened the sheets and let down the sail and lowered the mast by the forestays upon the mast-rest. Then, landing upon the beach, they hauled up the ship from the water to dry land and fixed long stays under it. They made an altar upon the beach, and when they had lit a fire, made an offering of white meal, and prayed standing around the altar as Apollo had instructed them. Then they took their meal by the swift, black ship, and poured an offering to the blessed gods who dwell on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. And when they had put away their craving for drink and food, they started out with the lord Apollo, the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], leading them, holding a lyre in his hands, and playing sweetly as he stepped high and gracefully. So the Cretans followed him to [pb_glossary id="945"]Pytho[/pb_glossary], marching in time as they chanted the Ie [pb_glossary id="2806"]Paean[/pb_glossary] in the manner of the Cretan [pb_glossary id="2806"]paean[/pb_glossary]–singers and those in whose hearts the heavenly [pb_glossary id="348"]Muse[/pb_glossary] has put sweet-voiced song. With tireless feet they approached the ridge and straightway came to Parnassus and the lovely place where they were to live honoured by many men. Apollo brought them there and showed them his most holy sanctuary and rich temple. [524] But their spirits were stirred in their breasts, and the master of the Cretans asked him, saying, "Lord, since you have brought us here, far from our dear ones and our fatherland, – for so it seemed good to you, – tell us now how we will live. We want to know. This land is not good for vineyards or for pastures, which would allow us to live well here and also minister to men." [531] Then Apollo, the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], smiled upon them and said, "Foolish mortals and poor labourers you are, that you seek worries and hard toils and problems! Take this to heart: if each one of you, with knife in hand, were to slaughter sheep continually, you would always have more, all the sheep that the glorious tribes of men will bring here for me. But guard my temple and receive the tribes of men that gather to this place, and especially show mortal men my will, and keep righteousness in your heart. But if any of you are disobedient and ignore my warning, of if there is any idle word or deed and outrage as is common among mortal men, then other men will be your masters and will make you their subjects forever. I have told you everyhing. Keep it in your heart." [545] And so, farewell, son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]. I will remember you and also another hymn. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns1.html

God of Music

"Homeric Hymn 21 To Apollo" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 7th-4th century BCE

[1] [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], of you even the swan sings with clear voice to the beating of his wings, as he lands upon the bank by the swirling river [pb_glossary id="4261"]Peneus[/pb_glossary]; and the sweet-tongued bard, holding his high-pitched lyre, always sings of you both first and last. And so hail to you, lord! I seek your favour with my song. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#21

Challenging the God

Like the other Olympian gods, Apollo punished mortals and demigods who challenged him– particularly in the realms of music and archery.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 1 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century CE

[content warning for the following source: suicide (1.4.1), sexual assault (1.4.1), graphic description of death and hanging (1.4.2)]

This section of Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca, starts, like the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, with the god's birth. It describes his musical contest with the satyr Marsyas, including the penalty that the satyr had to pay for challenging the god to a musical contest.

[1.4.1] One of the daughters of [pb_glossary id="1545"]Coeus[/pb_glossary], Asteria flung herself into the sea in the form of a quail in order to escape the amorous advances of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and a city was formerly called after her Asteria, but afterwards it was named [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary]. But because of her affair with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] was hunted by [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] over the whole earth, until she came to [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary] and gave birth first to [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary], by the help of whose midwifery she afterwards gave birth to Apollo. Now [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] devoted herself to the chase and remained a virgin; but Apollo learned the art of prophecy from [pb_glossary id="344"]Pan[/pb_glossary], the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and Hybris, and came to [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary], where [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary] at that time used to deliver oracles; and when the snake [pb_glossary id="1555"]Python[/pb_glossary], which guarded the oracle, tried to prevent him from approaching the chasm, he killed it and took over the oracle. Not long afterwards he also killed [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary], who was a son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and Elare, daughter of Orchomenus; for, after he had seduced her, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] hid her under the earth for fear of [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], and brought forth to the light the son [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary], of monstrous size, whom she had borne in her womb. When [ [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] ] came to [pb_glossary id="945"]Pytho[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary] saw her, and overpowered by lust, he drew her to him. But she called her children to her aid, and they shot him down with their arrows. And he is punished even after death; for vultures eat his heart in [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. [1.4.2] Apollo also slew [pb_glossary id="1557"]Marsyas[/pb_glossary], the son of [pb_glossary id="1558"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. For [pb_glossary id="1557"]Marsyas[/pb_glossary], having found the pipes which [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] had thrown away because they disfigured her face, engaged in a musical contest with Apollo. They agreed that the victor should have his way with vanquished, and when the trial took place Apollo turned his lyre upside down in the competition and asked [pb_glossary id="1557"]Marsyas[/pb_glossary] to do the same. But [pb_glossary id="1557"]Marsyas[/pb_glossary] could not, so Apollo was judged the victor and killed [pb_glossary id="1557"]Marsyas[/pb_glossary] by hanging him on a tall pine tree and stripping off his skin. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html#4

God of Plagues

Despite being the god of medicine and healing, Apollo was also associated with illness and plagues. He could inflict deadly sickness on a population by shooting his silver arrows. This aspect of his [pb_glossary id="4635"]timé [/pb_glossary] is important at the start of the Iliad, where, because the Greek hero Agamemnon insults one of his priests, he sends a plague down on the Achaean camp during the Trojan War.

Homer, Iliad, Book 1 (trans. A.S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek epic poem, 8th century BCE

[content warning for the following source: slavery, implied sexual violence]

This passage from Homer's Iliad comes at the start of the epic poem. The Greeks (called Achaeans in the poem) have been besieging Troy for ten years. Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaeans dishonoured a priest of Apollo, Chryses, by enslaving his daughter, Chryseis. In retaliation for this mistreatment of his priest, Apollo sends a plague to the Achaean camps, which first infects the animals, and then the men. As the passage opens, the Achaeans are trying to decide how to rid themselves of the plague.

[22-52] Then the rest of the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary] shouted in agreement that the priest [ [pb_glossary id="1564"]Chryses[/pb_glossary] ]should be respected, and the fine ransom taken; but this troubled the heart of [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1562"]Atreus[/pb_glossary], and he dismissed the priest harshly, and dealt with him sternly, "Old man, don’t let me catch you loitering by the hollow ships today, and don’t be back later, in case your staff and the god’s ribbons fail to protect you. Her [ [pb_glossary id="1563"]Chryseis[/pb_glossary] ], I will not free; old age will claim her first, far from her own country, in Argos, my home, where she can tend the loom, and share my bed. Away now! Don’t provoke me, if you want to leave safely." So he spoke, and the old man, seized by fear, obeyed. Silently, he walked the shore of the echoing sea, and when he was quite alone, the old man prayed deeply to Lord Apollo, the son of bright-haired [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], "Hear me, Silver Bow, protector of Chryse and holy Cilla, high lord of Tenedos. If I ever built a shrine that pleased you, if ever I burned the fat thighs of a bull or goat for you, grant my wish. [pb_glossary id="1560"]Smintheus[/pb_glossary], make the Greeks pay for my tears with your arrows." So he prayed, and [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] Apollo heard him. He came down in fury from the heights of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], with his bow and inlaid quiver at his back. The arrows rattled at his shoulder as the god descended like the night, in anger. He landed by the ships and fired a shaft with a fearful twang of his silver bow. First, he attacked the mules and the swift hounds, then loosed his vicious darts at the men; so the dense pyres for the dead burned endlessly. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Iliad1.php#anchor_Toc328052744

Daphne

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 1 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault]

Like most of the gods, Apollo had many relationships with people both mortal and divine (some consensual, and other not). One such nonconsensual relationship involved the nymph Daphne, one of the daughters of the river god Peneus and the nymph Creusa in Aeolia (modern-dayThessaly). In the following passage from the Metamorphoses, Ovid tells the story of Apollo and Daphne. Cupid, in anger, causes Apollo to be attracted to the nymph Daphne. Apollo pursues Daphne, but, as he is about to catch her, she calls out to her father for salvation, and her father transforms her into a laurel tree. Ovid also uses this as an [pb_glossary id="4647"]etiological myth[/pb_glossary] for the laurel tree– a symbol of Apollo and of victory.

[438-472] Indeed, though she [ [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] ] would not have desired to, she then gave birth to you, great [pb_glossary id="1555"]Python[/pb_glossary], covering a great area of the mountain slopes, a snake not known before, a terror to the new race of men. The archer god, with lethal shafts that he had only used before on fleeing red deer and roe, with a thousand arrows, almost emptying his quiver, destroyed the creature, the venom running out from its black wounds. Then he founded the sacred Pythian games,[footnote]See chapter 42.[/footnote] celebrated by contests, named from the serpent he had conquered. There the young winners in boxing, in foot, and in chariot racing were honoured with oak wreaths. There was no laurel yet, so [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] crowned his own temples, his handsome curling hair, with leaves of any tree. [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary]’ first love was [pb_glossary id="4260"]Daphne[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="4261"]Peneus[/pb_glossary], and not by chance but because of [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary]’s fierce anger. Recently, the Delian god, celebrating his victory over the serpent, had seen him bending his tightly strung bow and said, "Impudent boy, what are you doing with a man’s weapons? That one is suited to my shoulders, since I can hit wild beasts without fail, and wound my enemies, and not long ago, with countless arrows, destroyed the swollen [pb_glossary id="1555"]Python[/pb_glossary] that covered many acres with its plague-ridden belly. You should be intent on stirring the concealed fires of love with your burning brand, not laying claim to my glories!" [pb_glossary id="882"]Venus[/pb_glossary]’ son replied, "You may hit every other thing, [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], but my bow will strike you. To the degree that all living creatures are less than gods, by that degree is your glory less than mine." He spoke, and striking the air fiercely with beating wings, he landed on the shady peak of Parnassus, and took two arrows with opposite effects from his full quiver: one kindles love, the other dispels it. The one that kindles is golden with a sharp glistening point, the one that dispels is blunt with lead beneath its shaft. With the second he transfixed [pb_glossary id="4261"]Peneus[/pb_glossary]’ daughter [ [pb_glossary id="4260"]Daphne[/pb_glossary] ], but with the first he wounded Apollo piercing him to the marrow of his bones. [473-503] Now the one loved, and the other fled from love’s name, taking delight in the depths of the woods and the skins of the wild beasts she caught, emulating virgin Phoebe [ [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary] ], a careless ribbon holding back her hair. Many courted her, but she, opposed to being wooed, free from men and unable to endure them, roamed the pathless woods, careless of [pb_glossary id="335"]Hymen[/pb_glossary] or [pb_glossary id="158"]Amor[/pb_glossary], or whatever marriage might be. Her father often said, "Girl you owe me a son-in-law," and again often, "Daughter, you owe me grandsons." But, hating the wedding torch as if it smacked of crime, she would blush red with shame all over her beautiful face, and clinging to her father’s neck with coaxing arms, she would say, "Dearest father, let me be a virgin for ever! [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary]’s father granted it to her." He yields to that plea, but your beauty itself, [pb_glossary id="4260"]Daphne[/pb_glossary], prevents your wish, and your loveliness opposes your prayer. [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] loves her at first sight and wishes to marry her, and hopes for what he desires, but his own oracular powers fail him. Just like the light stubble of an empty cornfield blazes, or like sparks light up a hedge when a traveller, by bad luck, lets them get too close, or forgets them in the morning, so the god was altered by the flames, and all his heart burned, feeding his useless desire with hope. He sees her disordered hair hanging about her neck and sighs, "What if it were properly dressed?" He gazes at her eyes sparkling with the brightness of starlight. He gazes on her lips, where mere gazing does not satisfy. He praises her wrists and hands and fingers, and her arms bare to the shoulder. Whatever is hidden, he imagines is more beautiful. But she flees swifter than the lightest breath of air and resists his words calling her back again. [504-524] "Wait, [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="4261"]Peneus[/pb_glossary], I beg you! I who am chasing you am not your enemy. [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymph[/pb_glossary], wait! This is the way a sheep runs from the wolf, a deer from the mountain lion, and a dove with fluttering wings flies from the eagle. Everything flies from its foes, but it is love that is driving me to follow you! Pity me! I am afraid you might fall headlong or thorns might undeservedly scar your legs and I may be a cause of grief to you! These are rough places you run through. Slow down, I ask you, check your flight, and I too will slow. At least ask whom it is you have charmed. I am no mountain man, no shepherd, no rough guardian of the herds and flocks. Rash girl, you do not know, you cannot realise, who you run from, and so you run. [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary]’s lands are mine, Claros and Tenedos, and Patara acknowledge me as king. [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] is my father. Through me what was, what is, and what will be, are revealed. Through me, strings sound in harmony and song. My aim is certain, but an arrow truer than mine has wounded my free heart! The whole world calls me the bringer of aid! Medicine is my invention. My power is in herbs. But love cannot be healed by any herb, nor can the arts that cure others cure their lord!" [525-552] He would have said more as timid Peneis [ daughter of [pb_glossary id="4261"]Peneus[/pb_glossary] ] ran, still lovely to see, leaving him with his words unfinished. The winds bared her body, the opposing breezes in her way fluttered her clothes, and the light airs threw her streaming hair behind her, her beauty enhanced by flight. But the young god could no longer waste time on further flattery, urged on by [pb_glossary id="158"]Amor[/pb_glossary], he ran at full speed. Like a hound of Gaul startling a hare in an empty field, that heads for its prey, she headed for safety. He, seeming about to clutch her, thinks now, or now, he has her caught, grazing her heels with his outstretched jaws, while she, uncertain whether she is already caught, escaping his bite, runs from the muzzle touching her. So the virgin and the god, he driven by desire, she by fear. He ran faster, [pb_glossary id="158"]Amor[/pb_glossary] giving him wings, and allowed her no rest, hung on her fleeing shoulders, breathed on the hair flying round her neck. Her strength was gone, she grew pale, overcome by the effort of her rapid flight, and seeing [pb_glossary id="4261"]Peneus[/pb_glossary]’ waters near cried out, "Help me father! If your streams have divine powers change me, destroy this beauty that pleases too well!" Her prayer was scarcely done when a heavy numbness seized her limbs, thin bark closed over her breast, her hair turned into leaves, her arms into branches, her feet so swift a moment ago stuck fast in slow-growing roots, her face was lost in the canopy. Only her shining beauty was left. [553-567] Even like this [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] loved her and, placing his hand against the trunk, he felt her heart still quivering under the new bark. He clasped the branches as if they were parts of human arms, and kissed the wood. But even the wood shrank from his kisses, and the god said, "Since you cannot be my bride, you must be my tree! Laurel, with you my hair will be wreathed, with you my lyre, with you my quiver. You will go with the Roman generals when joyful voices acclaim their triumph, and the Capitol witnesses their long processions. You will stand outside [pb_glossary id="3145"]Augustus[/pb_glossary]’ doorposts, a faithful guardian, and keep watch over the crown of oak between them. And just as my head with its un-cropped hair is always young, so you also will wear the beauty of undying leaves." [pb_glossary id="2806"]Paean[/pb_glossary] had done: the laurel bowed her newly made branches and seemed to shake her leafy crown like a head giving consent. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph.php#anchor_Toc64105469

Art and Symbolism

[caption id="attachment_835" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Poseidon, Apollo, and Aphrodite, Parthenon Frieze, ca. 437 BCE (Acropolis Museum, Athens)[/caption]

In Greek art, Apollo was always represented as a young, athletic man. He did not have a beard, and his hair could be either long or short. He would also often be seen wearing a laurel crown, since he is associated with laurel, myrtle, and bay trees, or a narrow strip of fabric on his head.

[caption id="attachment_820" align="alignleft" width="211"] Apollo, 2nd century CE marble replica of Hellenistic statue (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_823" align="alignright" width="435"] Apollo, with a fragment of Peirithos, Olympia statue, ca. 5th century BCE (Archaeological Museum, Olympia)[/caption]

Apart from the laurel branch, his most recognizable attributes are the tripod, the kithara (a seven-stringed musical instrument), and the bow and arrows.

[caption id="attachment_1027" align="alignnone" width="1349"] Apollo flying over the sea on a winged tripod, tracing from a red-figure hydria from the 5th century BCE (accessed via Theoi.com/the Gregorian Etruscan Museum)[/caption]

Apollo's sacred animals were swans, crows, ravens, dolphins, and the mythical griffins, said to live in the extreme northern regions of the Hyperboreans where Apollo resided for three months a year during the winter. Wolves were also sacred to him, but they were seldom represented in art.

[caption id="attachment_827" align="alignleft" width="268"] Apollo riding a griffin, with Artemis, red-figure oinochoe, ca. 420 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_833" align="alignright" width="341"] Apollo riding a griffin, red-figure kylix (Getty Villa Collections, Los Angeles)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_826" align="alignnone" width="2500"] Apollo riding a swan, with women and a satyr, red-figure krater, ca. 400 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

The god was often represented in the company of his mother Leto and his twin sister Artemis; this family group is referred to as the 'Delphic triad' from the name of Apollo's most important sanctuary, Delphi.

[caption id="attachment_834" align="alignnone" width="2497"] Artemis (left), Apollo, and Leto (right), votive relief, 5th century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_828" align="alignnone" width="2010"] Leto (left), Apollo, and Artemis (right), red-figure amphora, ca. 520 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

In his role as god of music, Apollo could also be portrayed along with the Muses, while playing the kithara. Some of the most common myths concerning the god represented in art were his fight against Heracles for the Delphic tripod, and the musical contest against the satyr Marsyas. The slaying of the giant snake Python, although not portrayed often, was sometimes alluded to through the inclusion of a snake in the iconography of the god.

[caption id="attachment_837" align="alignnone" width="1799"] Heracles and Apollo fight over the Delphic tripod, with Athena (left) and Artemis (right), black-figure Amphora, ca. 520 BCE (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_859" align="alignnone" width="2208"] Leto (far left), Artemis and the satyr Marsyas, red-figure skyphos, ca. 420 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] Apollo was also often depicted fighting alongside his sister Artemis. In scenes representing the Gigantomachy, they can usually be seen slaying enemies side by side. Other scenes included the massacre of the children of Niobe, and the killing of the giant Tityus. [caption id="attachment_905" align="alignnone" width="1106"] Apollo and Artemis fighting in the Gigantomachy, Siphnian treasury frieze (Archaeological Museum, Delphi)[/caption]

Apollo in Rome

[caption id="attachment_821" align="alignnone" width="1190"] Apollo with a kithara, Roman fresco, ca. 1st century CE (Palatine Museum, Rome)[/caption]

There seems to have been no Latin or Etruscan counterpart to Apollo. As a result, his Greek name, iconography, and myths were adopted as they were. The god continued to be represented as a muscular youth with flowing hair yielding either a bow or a kithara.

[caption id="attachment_824" align="aligncenter" width="528"] Apollo Belvedere, Roman marble statue, ca. 120 CE (Vatican Museums, Vatican City)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Artemis

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:58:47 +0000

[caption id="attachment_871" align="alignnone" width="2410"] Apollo and Artemis, red-figure skyphos, ca. 470 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

Origins

Sections & Primary Sources

Callimachus, Hymn 3, "To Artemis"

In the Greek mythological tradition, Artemis and Apollo were both the children of Zeus and Leto. This made them full siblings, unlike most of the younger Olympians, and in some traditions they were twins. Pseudo-Apollodorus (1.4.1) says they are twins, and that Artemis was born first and assisted her mother in the birth of her brother, thus reflecting her role as a goddess of childbirth.

As a young girl, Artemis goes to Zeus and asks that he give her a bow and arrows and nymphs to be her companions. She requests that she be allowed to remain a virgin forever and never marry or know the company of men.

Callimachus, Hymn 3, "To Artemis" (trans. A. W. Mair, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 3rd century BCE

This hymn to Artemis was written by the Greek poet Callimachus in the third century BCE. Callimachian hymns are similar in style and content to the Homeric Hymns, but because we can trace them to a single author, we can date their composition more precisely. As with all ancient Greek hymns, this one opens with an invocation of and praise for the goddess.

[1] Artemis we hymn – it is no light thing for singers to forget her – whose study is the bow and the shooting of hares and the spacious dance and sport in the mountains; beginning with the time when, still a little girl sitting on her father’s knees, she spoke these words to her father [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ], “Allow me to keep my virginity, Father, forever, and allow me to have so many names, that [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] cannot compete with me. Give me arrows and a bow – wait, Father, I do not ask you for a quiver or for a mighty bow. The [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclopes[/pb_glossary] right away will make arrows and a well-bent bow for me. But allow me to be Bringer of Light and allow me to be dressed in a tunic with an embroidered border reaching to the knee, so that I can slay wild beasts. And give me sixty daughters of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] for my choir – all nine years old, all maidens still ungirdled– and give me twenty [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] of [pb_glossary id="1655"]Amnisus[/pb_glossary] as handmaidens, who will care for my boots, and, when I no longer shoot at lynx or stag, will tend my swift hounds. And give me all mountains. For my city, assign me any, whichever you want. For Artemis seldom goes down to the town. I will live on the mountains, and I will visit the cities of men only when women plagued by the sharp pang of childbirth call me to their aid. Even in the hour when I was born the [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary] ordained that I should be their helper, for my mother suffered no pain either when she gave me birth or when she carried me in her womb, but delivered me without labour.” So spoke the child and would have touched her father’s beard, but she reached out many times in vain, trying to touch it. [28] And her father smiled and bowed his agreement. And as he caressed her, he said, “When goddesses bear me children like this, I do not need to worry about the anger of jealous [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. Take all that you ask for, my child, happily. Yes, and you father will also give you other things that are even greater. I will give you three times ten cities and towers– three times ten cities that will not glorify any other god except you and be called 'of Artemis.' And you will be Watcher over Streets and Harbours.” So he spoke and bent his head to confirm his words. [40] And the maiden travelled to the white mountain of Crete, leafy with woods; from there to [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary]; and she chose many [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary], all nine years old, all maidens still ungirdled. And the river [pb_glossary id="1655"]Caeratus[/pb_glossary] was exceedingly glad, and [pb_glossary id="1656"]Tethys[/pb_glossary] was glad that they were sending their daughters to be handmaidens to the daughter of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]. [46] And then she went to visit the [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclopes[/pb_glossary]. She found them on the island of Lipara – at that time its name was Meligunis – at the anvils of [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], standing around a molten mass of iron. For they were quickly completing a great work. They fashioned a horse-trough for [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]. And the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] were frightened when they saw the terrible monsters that looked like the crags of Ossa: all had single eyes beneath their brows, like a shield made of four hides in size, glaring terribly. And they were frightened when they heard the din of the anvil echoing loudly, and the great blast of the bellows, and the heavy groaning of the [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclopes[/pb_glossary] themselves. For [pb_glossary id="1182"]Etna[/pb_glossary] cried aloud, and Trinacia cried, the seat of the Sicanians, and their neighbour Italy cried too, and Cyrnos uttered a mighty noise together with them, when they lifted their hammers above their shoulders and smote with rhythmic swing the bronze glowing from the furnace or iron, labouring greatly. So the daughters of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] could not look at them face to face nor endure the din in their ears without feeling upset. No shame! The daughters of the blessed gods cannot even look at them without shuddering, though they are long past childhood’s years. But when any of the maidens disobeys her mother, the mother calls the [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclopes[/pb_glossary] to her child – Arges or Steropes– and [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] comes out of the house, stained with burnt ashes. And then he plays the bogeyman, and the child runs into her mother’s lap, with her hands over her eyes. But you, Maiden, even earlier, while still only three years old, when [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] came bearing you in her arms at the bidding of [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] so that he might give you gifts, and Brontes [a [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclops[/pb_glossary]] set you on his stout knees – you plucked the shaggy hair of his great breast and tore it out by force. And even to this day the mid part of his breast remains hairless, like when mange settles on a man’s temples and eats the hair away. [80] So you addressed them boldly, “[pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclopes[/pb_glossary], fashion for me a Cydonian bow and arrows and a hollow quiver for my shafts; for I am also a child of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], just like [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]. And if, with my bow, I slay some wild creature or monstrous beast, you [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclopes[/pb_glossary] will have it to eat.” So you spoke and they carried out your request. Then you armed yourself, Goddess. And speedily again you went to get your hounds; and you came to the Arcadian fold of [pb_glossary id="344"]Pan[/pb_glossary]. And he was cutting up the flesh of a lynx of Maenalus so that his dogs might eat it for food. And the Bearded God gave you two black-and-white dogs, three reddish, and one spotted one, which could even pull down lions, clutching their throats and dragging them still living to the fold. And he gave you seven Cynosurian hounds swifter than the winds – that breed which is swiftest at pursuing fawns and the hare which does not close his eyes; swiftest too at marking the lair of the stag and where the porcupine has his burrow, and following the track of the gazelle. [98] Departing from there, your hounds speeding with you, you found a mighty herd of deer frolicking by the base of the Parrhasian hill. They always gathered by the banks of the black-pebbled Anaurus, larger than bulls, with shining gold horns. And you were suddenly amazed and said to yourself, “This would be a first capture worthy of Artemis.” There were five in all and you captured four on your own speedy feet, without the help of your dogs, to draw your swift chariot. But one [ the [pb_glossary id="1414"]Cerynitian Hind[/pb_glossary] ] escaped over the river Celadon, by [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]'s devising, so that it might be a labour for [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary] in the future, and the Ceryneian hill received her. [109] Artemis, Maiden, Slayer of [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary], your arms were golden and your belt was gold, and you yolked a golden chariot, and put golden bridles on your deer. And where did your horned team first carry you? To Thracian Haemus, from where the hurricane of [pb_glossary id="1660"]Boreas[/pb_glossary] comes, bringing an evil breath of frost to cloakless men. And where did you cut the pine and with what flame did you light it on fire? It was on Mysian Olympus [in the Uludağ mountains], and you put the breath of unquenchable flame in it, which your Father’s bolts create. And how often goddess, did you test out your silver bow? You shot first at an elm, and next at an oak, and third at a wild beast. But the fourth time – it was not long before you shot at the city of unjust men, those who did many evil deeds to one another and towards strangers, cruel men, on whom you inflict your harsh wrath. Plague feeds on their cattle, frost on their crops, and the old men cut their hair in mourning for their sons, and their wives are either struck down or die in childbirth, or, if they escape, bear children cannot stand on straight ankles. But on whomever you look, smiling and gracious, for them the crops bear grain abundantly, and the four-footed animals prosper abundantly. They do not go to the tomb, except when they carry the old people there. And family divisions separate them – divisions which ca ravage even a well-established houses. But brother’s wife and husband’s sister set their chairs around one table. [134] Lady, be my true friend, and I will be yours, Queen. And may I zealously pursue the art of song forever. My song will have the marriage of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], in which your name will be sung many times. [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] will be in that song, and all your labours, and your hounds and your bow and your chariots, which carry you lightly in your splendour, when you drive to the house of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. There in the entrance you meet [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] the Lord of Blessing, takes your weapons, [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] takes whatever wild beast you bring. Or at least [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] did before strong [pb_glossary id="1480"]Alcides[/pb_glossary] came, but now [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] no longer has this task. And the Anvil of Tiryns [ [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary] ] stands ever before the gates, waiting to see if you will come home with some fat morsel. And all the gods laugh endlessly at him and most of all his own wife’s mother, when he brings from the chariot a great bull or a wild boar, struggling to carry it by the hind foot. He admonishes you, goddess, with this stunning speech, “Shoot at the evil wild beasts, so that mortals will call you their helper like they call me. Leave deer and hares to feed upon the hills. What harm could deer and hares do? It is boars which ravage the crops of men and boars which ravage the plants; and oxen are a great curse to men. Shoot also at those.” So he spoke and swiftly busied himself in preparing the mighty beast. For although beneath a Phrygian oak tree, his flesh was made into that of a god, still he has not ceased from his gluttony. He still has that belly with which he met Theiodamas at the plough. [162] The [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] of [pb_glossary id="1655"]Amnisus[/pb_glossary] rub down the deer for you, after they are freed from the yoke, and they gather much swift-springing clover from the field of [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] for them to feed on, which also the horses of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] eat; and they fill golden troughs with water to be a pleasant drink for the deer. And you yourself enter your Father’s house, and everyone offers you a seat, but you sit beside [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]. [170] But when the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] encircle you in the dance, near the springs of Egyptian Inopus or Pitane – for Pitane too is yours– or in Limnae, or in Alae Araphenides, where you came to live from Scythia, renouncing the rites of the Tauri, then may I not have to work for a foreign ploughman, earning a wage by driving my cattle as they plow a four-acre, fallow field. Or they would surely return to the cowshed injured and with tired necks, even if they were Stymphaean cattle, nine years of age, drawing by the horns. These [Stymphaean] cattle are by far the best for plowing a deep furrow. For the god [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] never passes by that beautiful dance, without stopping his chariot to gaze at the sight, and the lights of day are lengthened. [183] Which islands, what hill, do you favour the most? What haven? What city? Which of the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] do you love above the rest, and what heroines have you taken as your companions? Tell me, goddess, and I will sing your words to others. Out of the islands, Doliche is your favourite; of cities, Perge; of hills, Taygeton; of havens, Euripus. And more than any of the others you love the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] of Gortyn, Britomartis, slayer of stags, the noble archer. Long ago, [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] was distraught from love of her and roamed the hills of Crete. And the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] would hide herself first under the shaggy oaks and then in the low meadows. And for nine months he roamed over crag and cliff and did not stop pursuing, until, nearly caught, she leapt into the sea from the top of a cliff and fell into the nets of fishermen, which saved her. From then on the Cydonians called her the Lady of the Nets (Dictyna) and the hill from which the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] leaped they call the hill of Nets (Dictaeon), and there they set up altars and make sacrifices. And on that day they wear pine or mastich garlands, but they do not touch myrtle. For when she was in flight, a myrtle branch became entangled in the maiden’s robes. For this reason she was greatly angered against the myrtle. The Cretans also call you Upis, Queen, fair-faced Bringer of Light, after that [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary]. [206] And you made Cyrene your comrade, to whom you yourself once gave two hunting dogs, with whom the maiden daughter of Hypseus won the prize beside the Iolcian tomb. And you made the fair-haired wife of [pb_glossary id="1769"]Cephalus[/pb_glossary], son of Deioneus, your companion in the chase, Mistress. And they say you loved fair Anticleia as much as your own eyes. These were the first who wore the gallant bow and arrow-holding quivers on their shoulders. They carried the quiver strap on their right shoulders, and their right breasts were always bare. Furthermore, you greatly praised swift-footed [pb_glossary id="1662"]Atalanta[/pb_glossary], the slayer of boars, daughter of Arcadian Iasius, and taught her how to hunt with dogs and the skill of archery. Those men who were called to the Calydian boar hunt found no fault with her. Indeed the tokens of victory went to Arcadia, which still holds the boar's tusks. And I do not think that Hylaeus and foolish Rhoecus, for all their hate, insult her archery down in [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. For their flanks, whose blood flowed down from the height of Maenalus [mountain], will not support the lie.[footnote]Hylaeus and Rhoecus attempted to rape Atalanta, but she killed them with her bow on Mount Maenalus.[/footnote] [225] Lady of many shrines, of many cities, greetings! Goddess of the Tunic, sojourner in Miletus! [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary] made you his guide when he left with his ships from the land of [pb_glossary id="1585"]Cecrops[/pb_glossary]. Lady of Chesion and of Imbrasus, on the highest throne, [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary] dedicate the rudder of his ship to you in your shrine, a charm against bad weather, when you bound the winds for him, that time when the Achaean ships sailed to attack the [pb_glossary id="4673"]cities of the Teucri[/pb_glossary], angry for Rhamnusian [pb_glossary id="1663"]Helen[/pb_glossary]. [233][pb_glossary id="1216"]Proetus[/pb_glossary] established two shrines for you, one for Artemis the Maiden, because you gathered his maiden daughters for him when they were wandering over the Azanian hills; the other he founded in Lusa to Artemis the Gentle, because you took the spirit of wildness from his daughters.[footnote]Proetus' daughters (Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa) were cursed by either Hera or Dionysus to believe that they were cows and roam the hills. The healer Melampus cured them at a shrine of Artemis.[/footnote] The [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary], whose mind is set on war, established an image for you, beneath an oak trunk in your shrine in Ephesus beside the sea, and [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippo[/pb_glossary] performed a holy rite for you, and they themselves, Upis Queen, danced a war-dance around the image – first in shields and armour, and again in a circular choir. And the loud pipes piped shrill accompaniment for them, so that they could dance together (for not yet did they pierce the bones of the fawn, [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]’s handiwork, a curse to the deer).[footnote]Athena is often credited with inventing the aulos flute, which was traditionally made from the bones of deer.[/footnote] And the echo reached to Sardis and to the Berecynthian range. And they beat loudly with their feet and their quivers rattled. [248] And afterwards a shrine of broad foundations was raised around that image. Dawn sees nothing more divine than it, nothing richer. It would easily outdo [pb_glossary id="945"]Pytho[/pb_glossary]. For which reason, in madness insolent Lygdamis threatened that he would destroy it, and brought a host of Cimmerians against it, people as numerous as grains of sand, who milk mares, and who have their homes near the Straits of the cow [the Cimmerian Bosporus], daughter of [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary], [ [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary] ]. Ah! foolish king, how greatly he erred! For neither he nor any other of those whose wagons stood in the Caystrian plain were destined to return again to Scythia. And your arrows are set in front of Ephesus forever as a defence. [258] Lady of Munychia, Watcher of Harbours, greetings, Lady of Pherae! Let no one disparage Artemis. For no pleasant struggles came upon [pb_glossary id="1461"]Oeneus[/pb_glossary], who dishonoured her altar. Nor let any compete with her in the shooting of stags or in archery. For the son of [pb_glossary id="1562"]Atreus[/pb_glossary] suffered no small punishment for his boasting. Neither let any court the Maiden; for neither [pb_glossary id="1665"]Otus[/pb_glossary], nor [pb_glossary id="1666"]Orion[/pb_glossary] courted her to their own good. Nor let any neglect the yearly dance; for [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippo[/pb_glossary]’s refusal to dance around the altar was not without tears. Greetings, great queen, and graciously receive my song. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/CallimachusHymns1.html#3

Artemis in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

Goddess of the Hunt

Homeric Hymn 9, "To Artemis"
Homeric Hymn 27, "To Artemis"

Actaeon

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3.4.4

Orion

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica, 2.26

Callisto

Hesiod, Astronomia, Fragment 3

Iphigenia

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, E.3.21-E.3.22

Tityus

Pindar, Odes, "Pythian 4," 85-95
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.4.1

Niobe

Homer, Iliad, 24.552-620
Ovid, Metamorphoses, 11.146-312
Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 48.395

Goddess of the Hunt

Artemis' main pastime was hunting in the woods with her nymph companions, who had, like herself, made vows of permanent chastity.

Homeric Hymn 9, "To Artemis" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

This short Homeric Hymn, written in Greek in the 7th century BCE, touches on some of main attributes of the Artemis, the virgin goddess of hunting.

[1] [pb_glossary id="348"]Muse[/pb_glossary], sing of Artemis, sister of the [pb_glossary id="183"]Far-Shooter[/pb_glossary], the virgin who delights in arrows, who was raised with [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]. She waters her horses from Meles deep in reeds, and swiftly drives her all-golden chariot through Smyrna to vine-clad Claros, where [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], god of the silver bow, sits waiting for the far-shooting goddess who delights in arrows. And so greetings to you, Artemis, in my song and to all goddesses as well. I sing of you first and I begin with you. Now that I have begun with you, I will turn to another song. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#9

Homeric Hymn 27, "To Artemis" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

This second Homeric Hymn to Artemis, also written in Greek in the 7th century BCE, expands on the themes of the previous one, detailing the attributes and pastimes of Artemis and her twin brother Apollo.

[1] I sing of Artemis, whose arrows are of gold, who cheers on the hounds, the pure maiden, shooter of stags, who delights in archery, sister of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] with the golden sword. Over the shadowy hills and windy peaks she draws her golden bow, rejoicing in the chase, and sends out dreadful arrows. The tops of the high mountains tremble and the tangled wood echoes awesomely with the outcry of beasts, the earth quakes and the sea also where fishes shoal. But the goddess with a bold heart turns in every direction, destroying the race of wild beasts and when she is satisfied and has cheered her heart, this huntress who delights in arrows loosens her supple bow and goes to the great house of her dear brother [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], to the rich land of [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary], there to order the lovely dance of the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="189"]Graces[/pb_glossary]. There she hangs up her curved bow and her arrows and leads the dances, gracefully arrayed, while all utter their heavenly voice, singing about how neat-ankled [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] bore children supreme among the immortals, both in thought and in deed. Greetings to you, children of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and rich-haired [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]! And now I will remember you and another song also. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#27

Actaeon

Several of Artemis' myths involve her protecting herself or other women from the unwanted gaze and sexual advances of men (gods and mortals alike). Perhaps the most famous of these stories is that of Actaeon, a cousin of Dionysus and a prince of Thebes.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang)

Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE

This passage from the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus summarizes the demise of the hunter Acteon, a prince of Thebes, when he fell afoul of Artemis' wrath.

[3.4.4] [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="959"]Aristaeus[/pb_glossary] had a son named [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary], who was raised by [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary] to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary] by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus, because [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] was angry at him for wooing [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary]; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] bathing. And they say that the goddess at once transformed him into a deer, and drove the fifty dogs in his pack mad, who devoured him, not knowing who he was. When [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary] was gone, the dogs howled pitifully, seeking their master, and in the search they came to the cave of [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary], who fashioned an image of [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary], which soothed their grief. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus3.html#4

Orion

[content warning for the following section: sexual assault]

The story of Orion has quite a few variations. In some versions of the myth he is a giant who challenges Artemis to a contest (of discus or archery) and attempts to rape one of her nymphs; she kills him in anger. In another version, he is a friend and hunting companion of Artemis. In his arrogance, he claims that he can kill any beast produced on the earth, which angers Gaia, who then kills him. Finally, a third version of the myth tells us that Apollo was jealous of Artemis' closeness with Orion, and so he tricked his sister into killing her friend. To commemorate her hunting companion, Artemis put Orion up in the sky as a constellation.

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica (trans. M. Grant, adapted by T. Mulder and P. Rogak)

Latin mythography, 2nd century CE

In some versions of the myth, such as this one here, it is Leto or Zeus who makes Orion and his foe, the scorpion, into constellations.

[2.26] The constellation [Scorpio] was put in the sky, it is said, for the following reason: [pb_glossary id="1666"]Orion[/pb_glossary], since he used to hunt, and felt confident that he was most skilled of all in that pursuit, said to Diana and [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto [/pb_glossary] that he was able to kill anything the earth produced. [pb_glossary id="358"]Tellus[/pb_glossary], angered at this, sent the Scorpion, which is said to have killed him. [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary], however, admiring the courage of both, put the Scorpion among the stars, as a lesson to men not to be too self-confident. Diana, then, because of her affection for [pb_glossary id="1666"]Orion[/pb_glossary], asked [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] to show to her request the same favour he had given of his own accord to [pb_glossary id="358"]Tellus[/pb_glossary]. And so the constellation was established in such a way that when Scorpion rises, [pb_glossary id="1666"]Orion[/pb_glossary] sets. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisFavour.html#Orion

Callisto

[content warning for the following section: sexual assault]

Another myth with different versions is that of Artemis' companion, Callisto. According to one version of the story, after Zeus sexually assaulted Callisto, the jealous Hera turned her into a bear. Not knowing what had happened, Artemis accidentally killed Callisto while out hunting. She placed her among the stars as the constellation Ursa Major in commemoration. In another version of the myth, Artemis herself changed Callisto into a bear as a punishment for breaking her vow of chastity, despite the fact that Zeus had assaulted her against her will.

Hesiod, Astronomia, Fragment 3 (from Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catasterismi Frag 1.2) (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by T. Mulder and P. Rogak)

Greek epic, ca. 8th century BCE

This is one version of the Callisto myth, a fragment from an ancient Greek epic poem called the Astronomia, which has been attributed to the poet Hesiod. This fragment was preserved in a fragment of another text called the Catasterismi by Pseudo-Eratosthenes. Many texts from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds are known to us only in fragments like this one, preserved in the works of other authors.

The Great Bear [Constellation Ursa Major]. Hesiod says [ [pb_glossary id="1674"]Callisto[/pb_glossary] ] was the daughter of [pb_glossary id="2648"]Lycaon[/pb_glossary] and lived in Arcadia. She chose to hunt wild beasts in the mountains together with Artemis. When she was raped by [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], this kept going on for some time without the goddess knowing, but after a while [pb_glossary id="1674"]Callisto[/pb_glossary] was seen bathing and so it was discovered that she was pregnant. Upon learning this fact, the goddess was enraged and turned her into a beast. [pb_glossary id="1674"]Callisto[/pb_glossary] became a bear and gave birth to a son called Arkas . . . but [later] [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] rescued her because of his previous exploit with her and transformed her into a constellation bearing the name Bear (Arktos) because of what had happened to her. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisWrath3.html#Kallisto

Iphigenia

[caption id="attachment_863" align="aligncenter" width="828"] The sacrifice of Iphigenia, Roman mosaic (Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya MAC, Barcelona)[/caption]

Before the start of the Trojan War, the Achaean (Greek) army was preparing to set sail for Troy. The leader of the Achaeans, Agamemnon, had angered Artemis by claiming that he was a better hunter than she was. To punish him, she withheld the winds that the Achaean's needed to sail to Troy. She informed Agamemnon that in order to restore the winds, he needed to sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia. In some versions of this myth, at the last minute Artemis rescues Iphigenia, carrying her off to safety and substituting a deer in her place on the sacrificial altar.

For further discussion of the Sacrifice of Iphigenia, see chapter 26 and chapter 30.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Epitome (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century CE

The myth of the sacrifice of Iphigenia is given in this passage of the Bibliotheca by Pseudo-Apollodorus. In this version, Artemis rescues Iphigenia at the altar.

[E.3.21] But when they set sail from Argos and arrived for the second time at Aulis, the fleet was windbound, and [pb_glossary id="2314"]Calchas[/pb_glossary] said that they could not sail unless the most beautiful of [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary]'s daughters were presented as a sacrifice to Artemis; for the goddess was angry with [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary], both because, after shooting a deer, he had said, “Artemis herself could not (do it better),” and because [pb_glossary id="1562"]Atreus[/pb_glossary] had not sacrificed to her the golden lamb. [E.3.22] When he received this oracle, [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary] sent [pb_glossary id="1495"]Ulysses[/pb_glossary] and Talthybius to [pb_glossary id="1672"]Clytemnestra[/pb_glossary] and asked for [pb_glossary id="1673"]Iphigenia[/pb_glossary], mentioning a promise of his to marry her to [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] as a reward for his military service. So [pb_glossary id="1672"]Clytemnestra[/pb_glossary] sent her, and [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary] set her beside the altar, and was about to slaughter her, when Artemis carried her off to the Taurians and appointed her to be her priestess, substituting a deer for her at the altar; but some say that Artemis made her immortal. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html#3

Tityus

In addition to her protection of young women, Artemis, along with her brother Apollo, took revenge against anyone who attempted to harm or insult their mother, Leto. They slew the giant Tityus and killed the children of the mortal woman Niobe.

Pindar, Odes, "Pythian 4" (trans. D. A. Svarlien)

Greek victory ode, 462 BCE

The giant Tityus and his punishment at the hand of Apollo and Artemis appears in one of Pindar's victory odes (a poem celebrating a win), which he composed for Arcesilus of Cyrene, the winner of the chariot race in the Pythian Games in 462 BCE. These victory odes often contained mythological themes, usually incorporating many stories into one ode.

[85] Nevertheless, one of the awed onlookers said even this, “Surely this is not [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], nor [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], the husband of [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], with his bronze chariot. And they say that the sons of Iphimedeia—[pb_glossary id="1665"]Otus[/pb_glossary] and you, bold lord [pb_glossary id="1678"]Ephialtes[/pb_glossary]—died in splendid Naxos. [90] And indeed [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary] was hunted down by the swift arrow of Artemis, which she shot from her unconquerable quiver, so that men might desire to touch only the objects of their love that are within their reach.” Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DP.%3Apoem%3D4

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 1 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault]

In this section of Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca, Apollo and Artemis kill the giant Tityus, son of Zeus and Elare, after he tries to rape their mother Leto.

[1.4.1] Not long afterwards he [ [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] ] also killed [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary], who was a son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and Elare, daughter of Orchomenus; for, after he had seduced her, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] hid her under the earth for fear of [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], and brought forth to the light the son [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary], of monstrous size, whom she had borne in her womb. When [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] came to [pb_glossary id="945"]Pytho[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary] saw her, and overpowered by lust drew her to himself. But she called her children to her aid, and they shot him down with their arrows. And he is punished even after death; for vultures eat his heart in [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html#4

Niobe

Niobe was a queen of Thebes who boasted that she had twelve children, six sons and six daughters, while the goddess Leto only had two, Apollo and Artemis. In punishment for her arrogance, Apollo and Artemis killed Niobe's twelve children. She wept uncontrollably until Zeus turned her into a stone.

Homer, Iliad, Book 24 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek epic poem, 8th century BCE

The passage comes from the end of the final book of Homer's Iliad. The old king Priam has slipped secretly into the Greek camp to beg for the body of his son Hector from the Greek hero, Achilles. After killing Hector, Achilles has been abusing his body for days, dragging it around the walls of Troy behind his chariot. Achilles agrees to hand over Hector's body to his father and, with compassion for the old man, in whom he sees a likeness of his own father, Achilles encourages Priam to eat, drawing an analogy to Niobe, who even in her grief at the loss of her children, ate.

[552-620] With this, noble [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] returned to the hut and sat down again on his richly inlaid chair opposite [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary], saying: ‘Venerable lord, your son’s body has been placed on a bier and I shall release it to you as you wished. At dawn you may look on him, and carry him back, but now let us eat. Even long-haired [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] eventually thought to eat, though her twelve children had been slain, six daughters, six sons in their prime. [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] angry that [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] had boasted of bearing so many children compared with [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] who had borne but two, killed the sons with arrows from his silver bow, while his sister Artemis killed the daughters. The pair slew them all, and left them lying in their blood, for nine days, since [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had turned the people to stone and there was no one to bury the corpses. On the tenth day the heavenly gods gave them burial, and only then did [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary], exhausted by her grief, take sustenance. Now, turned to stone herself, she stands among the crags on the desolate slopes of Sipylus, where men say the [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymphs[/pb_glossary] that dance on the banks of [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary] take their rest, and broods on the sorrows the gods sent her. Come let us too take sustenance, venerable lord: in [pb_glossary id="4673"]Ilium[/pb_glossary] you can lament your son once more, and grieve for him with a flood of tears.’ Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Iliad24.php

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 11 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Latin epic poem, 1st century CE

[content warning for the following source: graphic descriptions of death (206-312), suicide (267-312)]

This version of the myth of Niobe comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, a Latin epic poem written in the 1st century CE. Ovid connects this story about the hubris (meaning arrogance) of Niobe to the similar myth of Arachne. Both involve women who did not show proper reverence to the gods and were punished.

[146-203] All of Lydia murmurs: the tale goes through the towns of Phrygia, and fills the whole world with talk. [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] had known [pb_glossary id="1604"]Arachne[/pb_glossary]. As a girl, before her marriage, she had lived in Maeonia, near Mount Sipylus. Nevertheless, she was not warned by her countrywoman’s fate, to give the gods respect, and use more modest words. Many things swelled her pride, but neither her husband [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary]’s marvelous art in music, nor both of their high lineages, nor the might of their great kingdom of [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], pleased her (though they did please her) as much as her children did. And [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] would have been spoken of as the most fortunate of mothers, if she had not seemed so to herself. Now Manto, the daughter of [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary], prescient of the future, stirred by divine impulse, went through the middle of the streets, declaiming. ‘Women of [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], Ismenides, go, as a crowd, and wreathe your hair with laurel, and bring incense with holy prayer to [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]’s children, Diana and [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] commands it through my mouth.’ They obey: all the Theban women, as commanded, dress their temples with sweet-bay, and bring incense and words of prayer to the sacred flames. Look, [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] comes, followed by a crowded throng, visible, in her Phrygian robes woven with gold, and as beautiful as anger will let her be. Turning her lovely head with the hair falling loose over both her shoulders, she pauses, and looks around with pride in her eyes, from her full height, saying ‘What madness, to prefer the gods you are told about to the ones you see? Why is [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] worshipped at the altars, while as yet my godhead is without its incense? [pb_glossary id="633"]Tantalus[/pb_glossary] is my father, who is the only man to eat the food of the gods. My mother is one of the seven sisters, the [pb_glossary id="681"]Pleiades[/pb_glossary]. Great [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], who carries the axis of the heavens on his shoulders, is one of my grandfathers. [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] is the other, and I glory in having him as my father-in-law as well. The people of Phrygia fear me. [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary]' royal house is under my rule: and the walls, built to my husband’s lyre, and [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary]’ people, will be ruled by his power and mine. Whichever part of the palace I turn my eyes to, I look at immense wealth. Augment it with my beauty, worthy of a goddess, and add to this my seven daughters, as many sons, and soon my sons- and daughters-in-law! Now, ask what the reason is for my pride, and then dare to prefer [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] to me, that Titaness, daughter of [pb_glossary id="1545"]Coeus[/pb_glossary], whoever he is. [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], whom the wide earth once refused even a little piece of ground to give birth on. 'Land, sea, and sky were no refuge for your goddess. She was exiled from the world, until [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary], pitying the wanderer, gave her a precarious place, saying “Friend, you wander the earth, I the sea.” There she gave birth to twins, only a seventh of my offspring. I am fortunate (indeed, who can deny it?) and I will stay fortunate (and who can doubt that too?). My riches make me safe. I am greater than any whom [pb_glossary id="337"]Fortune[/pb_glossary] can harm, and though she could take much away, she would leave me much more. Surely my comforts banish fear. Imagine that some of this host of children could be taken from me, I would still not, bereaved, be reduced to the two of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]’s family. In that state, how far is she from childlessness? Go home – enough of holy things – and take those laurel wreaths from your hair!’ They drop them, and leave the rite unfinished, except what is their right, worshipping the goddess in a secret murmur. [204-266] The goddess was deeply angered, and on the summit of Mount Cynthus she spoke to her twin children. ‘See, it will be doubted whether I, your mother, proud to have borne you, and giving way to no goddess, except [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary], am a goddess, and worship will be prevented at my altars through all the ages, unless you help me, my children. Nor is this my only grief. This daughter of [pb_glossary id="633"]Tantalus[/pb_glossary] has added insult to injury, and has dared to put her children above you, and has called me childless, may that recoil on her own head, and has shown she has her father’s tongue for wickedness.’ [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] would have added her complaints to what she had told, but [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] cried ‘Enough! Long complaint delays her punishment!’ Phoebe [Diana] said the same, and falling swiftly through the air, concealed by clouds, they reached the house of [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary]. There was a broad, open plain near the walls, flattened by the constant passage of horses, where many wheels and hard hooves had levelled the turf beneath them. There, a number of [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary]’s seven sons mounted on their strong horses, and sitting firmly on their backs, bright with Tyrian purple, guided them using reins heavy with gold. While Ismenus, one of these, who had been the first of his mother’s burdens, was wheeling his horse’s path around in an unfaltering circle, and hauling at the foaming bit, he cried out ‘Oh, I am wounded!’ and revealed an arrow fixed in his chest, and dropping the reins from his dying hands, slipped gradually, sideways, over his mount’s right shoulder. Next Sipylus, hearing the sound of a quiver in the empty air, let out the reins, just as a shipmaster sensing a storm runs for it when he sees the cloud, and claps on all sail, so that not even the slightest breeze is lost. Still giving full rein, he was overtaken, by the arrow that none can avoid, and the shaft stuck quivering in his neck, and the naked tip protruded from his throat. Leaning forward, as he was, he rolled down over the mane and the galloping hooves, and stained the ground with warm blood. Unlucky Phaedimus, and Tantalus, who carried his grandfather’s name, at the end of the usual task asked of them, had joined the exercise of the young men, and were gleaming with oil in the wrestling match. And now they were fully engaged, in a tight hold, chest to chest, when an arrow, loosed from the taut bow, pierced them both, as they were. They groaned as one, and fell as one, their limbs contorted with pain. As they lay there, they cast a last dying look, as one, and, as one, gave up the ghost. Alphenor saw them die, and striking at his breast in anguish, he ran to them to lift their cold bodies in his embrace. In this filial service he also fell, for Delian [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] tore at his innermost parts with deadly steel. As the shaft was removed, a section of his lung was drawn with it, caught on the barbs, and with his life’s blood his spirit rushed out into the air. But it was not a simple wound that long-haired Damasicthon suffered. He was hit where the shin begins, and where the sinews of the knee leave a soft place between. While he was trying to pull out the fatal shaft with his hand, another arrow was driven into his throat as far as the feathers. The rush of blood expelled it, and gushing out, spurted high in the air, in a long jet. The last son, Ilioneus, stretched out his arms in vain entreaty. ‘O you company of all the gods, spare me!’ he cried, unaware that he need not ask them all. The archer god [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] was moved, though already the dart could not be recalled: yet only a slight wound killed the boy, the arrow not striking deeply in his heart. [267-312] The rumour of trouble, the people’s sorrow, and the tears of her own family, confirming sudden disaster to the mother, left her astounded that the gods could have done it, and angered that they had such power, and dared to use it. Now, she learned that the father, [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary], driving the iron blade through his heart, had, in dying, ended pain and life together. Alas, how different this [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] from that [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary], the one, who a moment ago chased the people from [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]’s altar, and made her way through the city with head held high, enviable to her friends, and now more to be pitied by her enemies. She threw herself on the cold bodies, and without regard for due ceremony, gave all her sons a last kiss. Turning from them she lifted her bruised arms to the sky, and cried out ‘Feed your heart, cruel one, [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], on my pain, feed your heart, and be done! Be done, savage spirit! I have been buried seven times. Celebrate and triumph over your enemy! But where is the victory? Even in my misery I have more than you in your happiness. After so many deaths, I still outdo you!’ She spoke, and the twang of a taut bowstring sounded, terrifying all of them, except [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary]. Pain gave her courage. The sisters, with black garments, and loosened hair, were standing by their brothers’ bodies. One, grasping at an arrow piercing her side, falling, fainted in death beside her brother’s face. A second, attempting to comfort her grieving mother, fell silent, and was bent in agony with a hidden wound. She pressed her lips together, but life had already fled. One fell trying in vain to run, and her sister fell across her. One tried to hide, while another trembled in full view. Now six had been dealt death, suffering their various wounds: the last remained. The mother, with all her robes and with her body, protected her, and cried out ‘Leave me just one, the youngest! I only ask for one, the youngest of all!’ While she prayed, she, for whom she prayed, was dead. Childless, she sat among the bodies of her sons, her daughters, and her husband, frozen in grief. The breeze stirs not a hair, the colour of her cheeks is bloodless, and her eyes are fixed motionless in her sad face: nothing in that likeness is alive. Inwardly her tongue is frozen to the solid roof of her mouth, and her veins cease their power to throb. Her neck cannot bend, nor her arms recall their movement, nor her feet lead her anywhere. Inside, her body is stone. Yet she weeps, and, enclosed in a powerful whirlwind, she is snatched away to her own country: there, set on a mountain top, she wears away, and even now tears flow from the marble. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph6.php#anchor_Toc64106367

Nonnus, Dionysiaca, Book 48 (trans. W. H. D. Rouse, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek epic, 5th century CE

The Dionysica, written in Greek by Nonnus in the 5th century CE, is the longest epic that survives from Greco-Roman antiquity. Like the Homeric epics, it is written in dactylic hexameters and comprises 48 books, centered around the life of the god Dionysus. Here, in the last book, the goddess of divine retribution, Nemesis, has a conversation with Artemis about mortals who have offended the hunting goddess.

[395] [[pb_glossary id="338"]Nemesis[/pb_glossary] speaking to Artemis :] If some prolific wife provokes your mother [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], let her weep for her children, another [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] of stone. Why should not I make another statue on Sipylus? . . . But if some woman is persecuting you as one did your mother [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], I will be the avenger of the offended Archeress [. . .]" [Artemis] broke in and said to the goddess who saves men from evil , "[. . .] I have suffered just as my mother did: we are both alike--in Phrygia [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] offended [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] the mother of twins, in Phrygia again impious [pb_glossary id="1704"]Aura[/pb_glossary] offended me.[footnote][cw: sexual assault] Refers to an incident recounted by Nonnus, in which Artemis punishes Aura for questioning her virginity. Nemesis, Artemis, and Eros then compel Dionysus to rape Aura. [/footnote] But [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] paid for it by changing into another form, that daughter of [pb_glossary id="633"]Tantalus[/pb_glossary] whose children were her sorrow, and she still weeps with stony eyes." Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisWrath.html#Niobe

Art and Symbolism

[caption id="attachment_856" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Artemis and Apollo, red-figure psykter, ca. 480 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]

The earliest representations of Artemis in Greek art portrayed her as Mistress of the Animals (potnia theron), a winged female deity holding two wild beasts to her side.

[caption id="attachment_854" align="aligncenter" width="429"] Artemis, with Ajax carrying the body of Achilles, black-figure krater, ca. 570 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Florence)[/caption]

Although the relationship with animals remained a well-established feature in the portrayal of the goddess, in time her image changed to that of a maiden huntress, young and athletic. Artemis was represented either in traditional hunting attire (short tunic and boots), or wearing long robes. Her main attributes were the quiver and bow, and often the skin of an animal draped around her torso. Her hair could be worn tied up with a hairband, in a bonnet, or let loose.

[caption id="attachment_862" align="alignright" width="419"] Artemis, bronze bust, ca. 11 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_847" align="alignleft" width="220"] Artemis, red-figure lekythos, ca. 460 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]

The cult of Artemis was syncretized (combined different features and beliefs) with those of two Anatolian deities, which resulted in different iconographies. The first was a fertility goddess whose main center of worship was Ephesus. The cult image of Ephesian Artemis shows her standing, flanked by animals, wearing an elaborate dress and headdress decorated with parts of animals and plants. Her temple, first built in monumental form in the 7th century BCE over an earlier structure, was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and its cult continued well into the early 5th century CE.

[caption id="attachment_852" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Artemis of Ephesus, Ephesian statue, 1st century CE (Ephesus Archaeological Museum, Selçuk)[/caption]

The second deity with which Artemis was identified was Bendis, a Thracian goddess of the hunt allegedly introduced to Greece by the Thracians residing in Athens during the 5th century BCE. The iconography of Artemis Bendis was very similar to that of the Greek goddess, with the addition of a Phrygian cap.

[caption id="attachment_848" align="alignnone" width="1894"] Artemis Bendis, terracotta figurine, ca. 350 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

As mistress of the animals and goddess of the hunt Artemis was almost invariably represented accompanied by deer (sometimes seen dragging her chariot) or hunting dog.

[caption id="attachment_855" align="aligncenter" width="621"] Artemis and a deer, Ephesian coin, ca. 258 BCE[/caption] [caption id="attachment_857" align="alignright" width="333"] Artemis with wild animals, terracotta figurines (National Archaeological Museum, Madrid)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_850" align="alignleft" width="313"] Artemis with hinds, red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

One of the myths involving Artemis most commonly represented in art is the death of the hunter Actaeon, transformed into a deer and mauled by his own hounds as a punishment for having seen Artemis and her nymphs taking a bath at a mountain spring.

[caption id="attachment_869" align="alignnone" width="1464"] Artemis watching the death of Actaeon, Greek relief from Selinunte, ca. 450 BCE (Museo Archeologico Regionale Antonio Salinas, Palermo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3856" align="alignnone" width="1813"] The death of Actaeon, tracing from red-figure krater from the 5th century BCE (accessed via Theoi.com/the Boston Museum of Fine Arts)[/caption] The goddess was also often portrayed in the company of her mother Leto and twin brother Apollo. [caption id="attachment_859" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Leto (far left), Artemis and the satyr Marsyas, red-figure skyphos, ca. 420 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]

Diana

[caption id="attachment_861" align="alignnone" width="927"] Diana, Utica mosaic, ca. 150 CE (Bardo National Museum, Tunis)[/caption]

The iconography of Diana, the Roman equivalent of Artemis, did not differ drastically from that of her Greek counterpart. The goddess kept being represented as a young huntress holding bow and arrows, sometimes accompanied by deer or other wild animals.

[caption id="attachment_864" align="alignright" width="368"] Diana of Versailles, Roman marble statue, 1st-2nd centuries CE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_4249" align="alignnone" width="286"] Diana, Pompeii fresco, 1st century CE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[/caption]

A myth that seems to have been particularly popular in Roman art was that of the rescue of princess Iphigenia, spirited away by Diana right before being sacrificed and swapped with a deer.

[caption id="attachment_866" align="aligncenter" width="887"] The sacrifice of Iphigenia, Pompeii fresco, 1st century CE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Ares

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:59:07 +0000

[caption id="attachment_841" align="alignnone" width="1708"] Ares fights in the Gigantomachy, red-figure pelike, 5th century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption]

Origins

The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera. He was one of the twelve Olympians, but as a war god was feared. He was the least popular among the Greeks and among his fellow gods due to his combative nature. The only one who seemed to like him was Aphrodite. The two were portrayed as having a long-standing affair, and they had four children together. He also had many children with mortal women from [pb_glossary id="5382"]Thrace[/pb_glossary]. He was the father of several of the Argonauts and of the Amazon queen, Penthesileia (see chapter 23).

Ares was primarily worshipped outside of Greece, particularly in [pb_glossary id="5382"]Thrace[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="5383"]Scythia[/pb_glossary]. In myth he was associated with the Amazons and the Colchians. The belt that Heracles steals from the Amazon queen, Hippolyte, during his ninth labour, was given to her by Ares (see chapter 17). The grove which held the Golden Fleece, the object of the quest of Jason and the Argonauts (see chapter 18), was sacred to Ares.

Ares in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

God of War

Homer, Iliad, 5.846-909
Homeric Hymn 8, "To Ares"

God of War

The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

Despite being a war god, in Greek myths, Ares was often bested by the other gods. Athena wounds him in combat during the Trojan War and Heracles manages to take him down four times while fighting at Pylus. The giants Otus and Ephialtes trap him in a pot and he is stuck there for over a year until Hermes rescues him.

One might wonder why Ares' associations with war would hurt his reputation while Athena, a war goddess, was so popular. However, the Greeks viewed Ares' bloodthirstiness as antithetical to their tactical style of warfare, exemplified by Athena (see passage from the Iliad, below).

However, Ares' Roman counterpart, Mars, was a favourite of the Romans. They traced their lineage to him, as the father of Romulus and Remus by the Vestal Virgin, Rhea Silvia. Mars was the protector of the Romans and their patron god.

For further discussion of Mars and the foundation of Rome, see the following sections and chapter 32.

Homer, Iliad, Book 5 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek epic poem, 8th century BCE

In this passage from Homer's Iliad, Ares returns to Olympus after being wounded in a fight with Diomedes, and Zeus expresses his contempt for Ares.

[846-909] Like the dark column that whirls from the cloud when a tornado forms in heated air, so brazen [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] seemed to [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], as he sped through the sky to high heaven. Swiftly he reached the gods’ home on steep [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and sat down at [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’ side, in anguish. [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] showed [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the divine ichor flowing from the wound, and spoke in a sad voice, "Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], does it not stir your indignation to see all this violence? We gods always suffer cruelly at each other’s hands when we show mortals favour. We are all at odds with you because you cursed the world with that mad daughter of yours who is ever bent on lawlessness. The rest of us Olympians obey you and bow to you, but you say and do nothing to stop her antics, you condone them rather, simply because this girl who wreaks havoc is yours. Now she spurs on foolhardy [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary] to vent his anger on us immortals. First in a close encounter he wounded [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] on the wrist then he ran at me like a very demon. Quick on my feet, I sprang away, or I would have suffered there for ages among the grisly dead, or been crippled by his spear-blows." [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the Cloud-gatherer, turned on him angrily, "Don’t come here to whine, you backslider. Strife, conflict, and war are all you care for, so much so that I loathe you more than all the other Olympians. You share your mother [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]’s intolerable, headstrong spirit; she too will scarcely obey my word. I suspect she prompted this and caused your wound. Yet as my offspring I’ll not let you suffer, since it was to me she bore you, though if any other god had fathered so violent a son, you’d have been ranked below the sons of [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary], long ago.’ So saying, he ordered [pb_glossary id="2806"]Paean[/pb_glossary] to heal him, by spreading soothing ointment on the wound, for Ares was no mortal. He healed the fierce god as swiftly as fig-juice thickens milk that curdles when stirred. Then [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary] bathed him, and dressed him in fine clothes, and he sat down again by [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’ side, in all his former glory. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Iliad5.php#anchor_Toc239244910

Homeric Hymn 8, "To Ares" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

This very early, 7th century BCE hymn to Ares follows the typical pattern of a religious invocation. Ares is addressed by all his various names and epithets and asked to bring a specific propitiation upon the reciter. Contrary to what we might expect, Ares is not being asked to bring the suppliant bravery in war, but rather he is invoked as a means to prevent war and conflict. The hymn asks for Aries to grant the reciter, "boldness to abide within the harmless laws of peace, avoiding conflict and hatred."

Ares, exceeding in strength, chariot-rider, golden-helmed, brave of heart, shield-bearer, saviour of cities, harnessed in bronze, strong of arm, unwearying, mighty with the spear, O defence of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], father of warlike [pb_glossary id="1037"]Victory[/pb_glossary], ally of [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary], stern governor of the rebellious, leader of righteous men, sceptered king of manliness, who whirls your fiery sphere among the planets in their sevenfold courses through the [pb_glossary id="1038"]aether[/pb_glossary], in which your blazing steeds forever carry you above the third level of heaven; hear me, helper of men, giver of fearless youth! Shed down a kindly ray from above upon my life, and strength of war, that I may be able to drive away bitter cowardice from my head and crush down the deceitful impulses of my soul. Restrain also the keen fury of my heart which provokes me to tread the ways of blood-curdling conflict. Rather, O blessed one, give me boldness to abide within the harmless laws of peace, avoiding conflict and hatred and the violent fiends of death. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#8

Art and Symbolism

[caption id="attachment_838" align="alignnone" width="1273"] Ares, tracing from black-figure krater, ca. 570 BCE (accessed via Theoi.com/the National Archaeological Museum of Florence)[/caption]

In Greek art, Ares was commonly represented as a fully-armed warrior, wearing a hoplite armour composed of helmet, cuirass, greaves, and a large shield.

[caption id="attachment_839" align="alignnone" width="1153"] Ares, tracing from red-figure krater, ca. 5th century BCE (accessed via Theoi.com/the Ashmolean Museum)[/caption]

As the god of war was feared, his representations on most mediums seem to have been fairly rare until the Hellenistic Period (323-31 BCE). In vase paintings and reliefs, Ares is usually depicted as a member of the assembly of the gods in collective scenes. He rarely appears alone, unlike Athena who is often portrayed solo.

[caption id="attachment_747" align="alignnone" width="1536"] Birth of Athena, black-figure amphora, ca. 560 BCE (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven)[/caption]

One of the few myths about Ares that is found in art is the killing of his son, Kyknos, at the hands of Heracles. This scene usually depicts the two combatants flanked by their protectors: Athena on the side of Heracles, and Ares on the side of Kyknos, pitting Athena and Ares conceptually and visually against one another.

[caption id="attachment_738" align="alignnone" width="887"] Athena (left) and Ares (right) attending a fight between Heracles and Kyknos, black-figure amphora, ca. 500 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

Mars

[caption id="attachment_724" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Ludovisi Ares, Roman copy of Greek statue from ca. 320 BCE (Museo nazionale romano di palazzo Altemps, Rome)[/caption]

The Roman god Mars, much like his Greek counterpart, was usually depicted as an armed warrior. He could be portrayed either as a naked youth surrounded by his weapons, or as a more mature, bearded man in full armour.

[caption id="attachment_736" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mars Borghese, Roman replica (ca. 1st century CE) of a Greek bronze statue from the 5th century BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

The first iteration of Mars was generally used in depictions of scenes inspired by Greek myth, such as his relationship with Aphrodite/Venus. The second one was employed when referring to Mars as the ancestral god of the city of Rome.

[caption id="attachment_750" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Mars, Faustulus, Romulus, and Remus, Roman relief from the Ara Pacis, ca. 9 BCE (Museo dell'Ara Pacis, Rome). Note that much of this relief is reconstruction, and very little of the original relief is preserved.[/caption]

During the Imperial Period (27 BC to 284 BCE), some emperors were also portrayed in the guise of Mars to underline their military prowess and to tie them to Rome's origins.

[caption id="attachment_737" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Emperor Hadrian and an imperial woman (possibly Lucilla) as Mars and Venus, Roman statues, ca. 170 CE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Poseidon

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:59:20 +0000

[caption id="attachment_488" align="alignnone" width="1601"] Poseidon fighting Polybotes, red-figure kylix, ca. 475 BCE (Cabinet des Medailles, Paris)[/caption]

Origins

The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

Poseidon was the son of Cronus and Rhea. Most stories relate that he was swallowed by his father and rescued by Zeus along with his other siblings. After the Olympians overthrew their Titan parents, the three Olympian brothers, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon, drew lots to divide up the realms. Poseidon was allotted domain over the seas, but he always remained immensely jealous of Zeus’ position as King of the Gods. He once convinced Hera and Athena to join him in a rebellion against Zeus, whom they managed to imprison in chains until Thetis brought Briareus, the chief of the Hundred-Handers, to release him (Homer, Iliad, 1.396-405).

Poseidon in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

God of Sea and Horses

Homeric Hymn 22, "To Poseidon"

Contests for Cities Children of Poseidon

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 13.839-897

Poseidon and Demeter: the Origin of Horses Poseidon and Medusa Poseidon in the Trojan War

God of Sea and Horses

Homeric Hymn 22, "To Poseidon" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

This hymn to Poseidon, from the 7th century BCE, names two of his major spheres of influence: the sea and horses. He was understood to be the father of horses (with [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary] as mother) and he was in charge of everything that happened in and on the sea, including the activities of ships. Not named in this hymn is his role as god of earthquakes. One of the epithets of Poseidon was "earth-shaker."

[1] I begin to sing about Poseidon, the great god, mover of the earth and fruitless sea, god of the deep who is also lord of [pb_glossary id="698"]Helicon[/pb_glossary] and wide Aegae. The gods allotted you two offices, O Shaker of the Earth, to be a tamer of horses and a saviour of ships! Hail, Poseidon, Holder of the Earth, dark-haired lord! O blessed one, be kindly in heart and help those who voyage in ships! Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#22

Contests for Cities

[caption id="attachment_562" align="aligncenter" width="665"] Athena and Poseidon compete for patronage of Athens, black figure amphora, ca. 550-510 BCE (Cabinet des Médailles, Paris)[/caption] The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

The gods often competed with each other to win patronage over areas in Greece. Poseidon vied with many of his fellow gods for several areas, though he did not often fare well in these contests. He and Helios (god of the sun) both wanted Corinth and could not agree, so they took their dispute to Briareus, the chief of the Hundred-Handers, who divided the area between the two, giving the citadel to Helios and the isthmus to Poseidon. Hera and Poseidon fought passionately over Argos, and when the three river gods who were given the task of judging the dispute found in favor of Hera, Poseidon flooded the city and dried up the rivers in anger. Athena and Poseidon argued over possession of Troezen and Zeus ruled that they should share possession of the city. The most famous of Poseidon’s contests for power was over Athens, where he competed unsuccessfully with Athena.

The Children of Poseidon

The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound.

Poseidon was married to Amphitrite, a daughter of Ocean and Tethys, and they had a few children, most notably Triton. The cyclops Polyphemus (who famously appears in the Odyssey) was his son by the sea nymph, Thoosa, and he fathered the hunter Orion with Euryale, the daughter of Minos.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 13 (trans. A.S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

In this episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses, written in Latin in the 1st century CE, Poseidon's son, the cyclops [pb_glossary id="1713"]Polyphemus[/pb_glossary], tries to woo the nymph [pb_glossary id="1714"]Galatea[/pb_glossary]. Because this is a Latin poem, Poseidon is called by his Roman name, Neptune.

[839-897] [[pb_glossary id="1713"]Polyphemus[/pb_glossary] speaking:] "Now [pb_glossary id="1714"]Galatea[/pb_glossary], only lift your shining head from the dark blue sea: come, do not scorn my gifts. Lately, I examined myself, it’s true, and looked at my reflection in the clear water, and, seeing myself, it pleased me. Look how large I am: [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary], in the sky (since you are accustomed to saying some [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] or other rules there) has no bigger a body. Luxurious hair hangs over my face, and shades my shoulders like a grove. And do not consider it ugly for my whole body to be bristling with thick prickly hair. A tree is ugly without its leaves: a horse is ugly unless a golden mane covers its neck: feathers hide the birds: their wool becomes the sheep: a beard and shaggy hair befits a man’s body. I only have one eye in the middle of my forehead, but it is as big as a large shield. Well? Does great [pb_glossary id="876"]Sol[/pb_glossary] not see all this from the sky? Yet [pb_glossary id="876"]Sol[/pb_glossary]’s orb is only one. Added to that, my father Neptune, rules over your waters: I give you him as a father-in-law. Only have pity, and listen to my humble prayers! I, who scorn [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] and his heaven and his piercing lightning bolt, submit to you alone: I fear you, [pb_glossary id="329"]Nereid[/pb_glossary] your anger is fiercer than lightning. And I could bear this contempt of yours more patiently, if you fled from everyone. But why, rejecting [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclops[/pb_glossary], love Acis, and prefer Acis’s embrace to mine? Though he is pleased with himself, and, what I dislike, pleases you too, [pb_glossary id="1714"]Galatea[/pb_glossary], let me just have a chance at him. Then he will know I am as strong as I am big! I’ll tear out his entrails while he lives, rend his limbs and scatter them over the fields, and over your ocean, (so he can join you!) For I am on fire, and, wounded, I burn with a fiercer flame, and I seem to bear [pb_glossary id="1182"]Etna[/pb_glossary] with all his violent powers sunk in my breast, yet you, [pb_glossary id="1714"]Galatea[/pb_glossary], are unmoved." Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph13.php#anchor_Toc64105851

Poseidon seduced Tyro (the mother of Aeson and the grandmother of the hero, Jason) in the form of a river and became the father of Pelias, who sent Jason on the quest for the golden fleece, and Neleus, who was the father of Nestor (a hero in both the Iliad and the Odyssey). Theseus was also a son of Poseidon. Unlike Hera, Amphitrite does not seem to have cared much that her husband had sexual relationships outside of marriage. In fact, in one version of Theseus’ journey to Crete when Theseus arrived in on the island, Minos questioned his paternity, and Theseus questioned Minos’. So, each one had to prove to the other that he was the son of a god. Minos prayed to his father Zeus for a sign and received thunder and lightning. Theseus jumped into the sea and Amphitrite gave him her tiara to prove his connection to her husband (F=for this myth, see chapter 22.) Indeed, if you add them up, Poseidon has more sexual affairs (with both men and women) than Zeus himself.

Poseidon and Demeter: The Origin of Horses

[content warning for the following section: sexual assault]

The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

It seems strange that a sea god should be connected to horses, but Poseidon has several myths establishing him as a god of horses. While Demeter was wandering the earth looking for Persephone, Poseidon decided to pursue her. Demeter, trying to avoid her brother, turned into a mare, but Poseidon responded by turning into a stallion and raping her. The product of this union was the divine horse, Arion.

Poseidon and Medusa

[content warning for the following section: sexual assault]

[caption id="attachment_690" align="alignnone" width="2560"] A gorgon, red-figure amphora, Archaic period (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, München)[/caption] The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

Poseidon is also sometimes involved in the myth of the origin of the Gorgon Medusa. In Ovid's account of Medusa (though not in Hesiod's version of the myth), Poseidon raped her inside one of Athena’s temples. Athena was angry that her temple was so defiled. She retaliated by transforming Medusa into a gorgon, a hideous monster with snakes for hair who would turn anyone who looked at her into stone.

For further discussion of Medusa, see chapter 20.

Later, when Perseus cut off Medusa’s head, the winged horse Pegasus was born from her neck, the product of intercourse between Medusa and Poseidon. Pegasus was later tamed by another of Poseidon’s sons, Bellerophon.

For further discussion of Pegasus and Bellerophon, see chapter 21.

Furthermore, Peleus, the father of Achilles, was given the immortal horses, Xanthus and Balius, at his wedding by Poseidon. The god was also a friend to the centaurs and helped hide them from Heracles when he waged war on them.

Poseidon in the Trojan War

[caption id="attachment_500" align="alignnone" width="2355"] Poseidon among Greek warriors, black-figure kylix, ca. 540 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

During the Trojan War, Poseidon sided with the Greeks at least in part because he was still angry with Troy for the treatment he had received at the hands of Laomedon, the father of King Priam. Apollo and Poseidon were contracted by Laomedon to build walls around the city. The two gods agreed to perform this manual labor either because they wanted to test him or because Zeus had decreed, as punishment for a rebellion of which they had both been a part, that they work for Laomedon for a year. In any case, at the end of the year, Laomedon would not pay them and even threatened to sell them as slaves. Apollo responded by sending a plague and Poseidon sent a sea monster to terrorize them. Apollo, apparently, did not hold a grudge, since he always favored the Trojans, but Poseidon sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War. Despite favoring the Greeks, however, Poseidon, like Athena, was quickly angered by the rapacious behavior of the victorious Greeks. Poseidon helped Athena punish the Lesser Ajax for his rape of Cassandra during the sack of Troy and he kept Odysseus from his home for ten years to punish the hero for blinding his son Polyphemus.

Art and Symbolism

[caption id="attachment_692" align="alignnone" width="1900"] Poseidon, red-figure calyx, 5th century BCE (Cabinet des Médailles, Paris)[/caption]

In Greek art, Poseidon was usually represented as a mature, bearded man with long hair. The most common and unmistakable attribute of Poseidon in art was the trident, the symbol of the god's power over the sea and earthquakes alike. He is almost universally represented holding it in scenes of both peace and war.

[caption id="attachment_490" align="alignleft" width="220"] Poseidon pursuing Amymome, red-figure lekythos, ca. 440 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_497" align="alignright" width="398"] Poseidon and Nike, red-figure krater, ca. 470 BCE (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven)[/caption] On coins, Poseidon could either be depicted naked and ready to throw his trident, or the figure of the god could be omitted completely in favour of his trident. [caption id="attachment_484" align="aligncenter" width="580"] Trident and Poseidon, Greek coin, ca. 400 BCE.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_492" align="aligncenter" width="582"] Poseidon, two sides of a coin, ca. 530 BCE (Sylloge Nummorum Greacorum, Copenhagen)[/caption]

As he was the god of the sea, marine creatures were considered sacred to him. In particular, he was often represented in the company of dolphins and hippocamps, creatures with the head and fore-parts of a horse, wings, and a fish tail. Both animals could also be used as transportation means on their own, or to drag the god's chariot.

[caption id="attachment_550" align="alignright" width="220"] Poseidon riding a hippocamp, black-figure lekythos, ca. 500 BCE (Yale University Art Gallery)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_541" align="alignright" width="220"] Poseidon and Pelops, red-figure hydria, 4th century BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_495" align="alignnone" width="195"] Poseidon on a hippocampus, black-figure lekythos, 5th century BCE (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)[/caption]

One very important scene from mythology concerning Poseidon represented in art was that of his contest against Athena for the control of Athens. The two divinities could be depicted facing each other, sometimes standing close to the gifts they bestowed on the city - the olive tree for Athena, and a salt water spring for Poseidon.

[caption id="attachment_494" align="alignleft" width="306"] Athena and Poseidon competing for the Athenian Acropolis, red-figure hydria, 4th century BCE (State Museum of the Hermitage, St. Petersburg)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_545" align="alignright" width="299"] Athena and Poseidon in competition, red-figure krater, ca. 360 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

This scene was represented on the western pediment of the Parthenon, the great temple of Athena on the acropolis of Athens.

[caption id="attachment_489" align="alignnone" width="1081"] Poseidon and Athena competing for Athens, West Pediment of the Parthenon, ca. 447 BCE (Acropolis Museum, Athens)[/caption]

Neptune

[caption id="attachment_506" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Neptune, Roman mosaic (Regional Archaeological Museum, Palermo)[/caption] Most of Neptune's attributes in art were the same as his Greek counterpart, Poseidon: the trident, dolphins, and hippocamps. Poseidon was exclusively represented as a mature, bearded man, often on his chariot dragged by sea creatures. [caption id="attachment_508" align="alignnone" width="1058"] Neptune, Roman mosaic, 3rd century CE (Archaeological Museum, Sousse)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_507" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Neptune and his wife Amphitrite, Roman mosaic, ca. 1st century CE (House of Neptune and Amphitrite, Herculaneum)[/caption] During the late Republic and Imperial period, Neptune could be represented on the obverse of coins minted to celebrate naval victories. [caption id="attachment_567" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Head of Agrippa and Neptune, Roman coin, ca. 37 CE.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_569" align="aligncenter" width="379"] Roman ship adorned with statue of Poseidon, and (obverse) monster Scylla, Roman coin, ca. 40 BCE.[/caption]

Reception

During the Renaissance, Italian condottieri who had obtained naval victories often employed images of Neptune and his court as an allegory of their triumphs. Some, like Andrea Doria, were also portrayed in the guise of the god himself.

[caption id="attachment_767" align="aligncenter" width="222"] "Portrait of Andrea Doria as Neptune", oil painting by Agnolo Bronzino, 1550-1555[/caption] Poseidon in modern day India. [images of Poseidon tattoos]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Athena

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 19:00:07 +0000

[caption id="attachment_755" align="alignnone" width="1977"] Athena with Theseus (left) and Amphitrite (right), red-figure kylix, ca. 500 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

Origins

Sections & Primary Sources

Athena Tritogeneia

Hesiod, Theogony, 885-900
Homeric Hymn 28, "To Athena"

[caption id="attachment_764" align="alignnone" width="1552"] The birth of Athena, black-figure exaleiptron, ca. 570 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

Athena Tritogeneia

The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

Athena was the daughter of Zeus and his first wife [pb_glossary id="1568"]Metis[/pb_glossary]. Gaia told Zeus that Metis would first bear a daughter, and then a son who would overthrow his father. Zeus, like his father and grandfather before him, wanted to avoid this fate, so when Metis became pregnant, he swallowed his wife whole. After a few months, Zeus developed a splitting headache and asked Hephaestus (or in some versions, the Titan Prometheus) to help him relieve the pressure. Hephaestus took up his axe and split open Zeus’ head. Out jumped Athena, fully dressed in armor. Another tradition has it that Athena was born near a river called Triton in Boeotia, an [pb_glossary id="4647"]etiological myth[/pb_glossary] that was created to explain her epithet [pb_glossary id="1567"]Tritogeneia[/pb_glossary]. The epithet may also come from lake Tritonis in Libya, another location given for the goddess's birth.

Athena may possibly have originated as a warrior goddess of the Mycenaeans, an early Greek-speaking people based in the Peloponnese. She is associated with snakes, but it is not clear what the significance of the snake is to Athena.

Hesiod, Theogony (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by P. Rogak and T. Mulder)

Greek epic, ca. 700 BCE

In this selection from his epic poem, the Theogony, written in the 8th or 7th century BCE, Hesiod describes the birth of Athena.

[885] Now [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], king of the gods, made [pb_glossary id="1568"]Metis[/pb_glossary] his wife first, and she was the wisest among gods and mortal men. But when she was about to give birth to the goddess bright-eyed Athena, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] craftily deceived her [890] with cunning words and put her in his own belly, as [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary] and starry [pb_glossary id="1546"]Heaven[/pb_glossary] advised. They advised him to do this so that no one else should hold royal power over the eternal gods in place of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]; for very wise children were destined to be born of her, [895] first the maiden, bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="1567"]Tritogeneia[/pb_glossary], equal to her father in strength and in wise understanding; but afterward she was to bear a son of overbearing spirit, king of gods and men. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] put her into his own belly first, [900] so that the goddess might both good and evil plots for him. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D886

Homeric Hymn 28, "To Athena" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang, P. Rogak, and T. Mulder)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

This short Homeric Hymn 28 "To Athena," written in Greek, probably in the 7th century BCE, describes the goddess' birth and her attributes:

[1] I begin to sing of [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] Athena, the glorious goddess, bright-eyed, inventive, unbending of heart, pure virgin, saviour of cities, courageous, [pb_glossary id="1567"]Tritogeneia[/pb_glossary]. From his awe-inspiring head wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] himself gave birth to her, adorned with warlike weapons of flashing gold, and awe seized all the gods as they watched. But Athena sprang quickly from the immortal head and stood before [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary], shaking a sharp spear: great [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] began to reel horribly at the might of the bright-eyed goddess, and earth round about cried fearfully, and the sea was moved and tossed with dark waves, while foam burst forth suddenly: the bright Son of [pb_glossary id="878"]Hyperion[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] ] stopped his swift-footed horses for a long time, until the maiden [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] Athena had stripped the divine armour from her immortal shoulders. And wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] was glad. And so hail to you, daughter of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]! Now I will remember you and another song as well. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#28

Athena in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

Athena as Protector of Heroes

Aeschylus, Eumenides

Athena the Warrior

Homeric Hymn 11, "To Athena"
Homer, Iliad, 5.703-909

Athena as Patron of Athens

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3.14.1

Athena's Virginity

Callimachus, Hymn 5, "The Bath of Pallas"
Fulgentius, Mythologies, 2.11

Athena and Arachne

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 11.1-145

Athena as Protector of Heroes

The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.

Athena was particularly fond of courageous young men, and she helped many heroes in their quests. When Perseus was sent to kill the Gorgon, Medusa, Athena provided the sword and shiny shield needed to slay the Gorgon without looking at her (see chapter 21). She gave the hero Bellerophon the golden bridle he needed to ride the winged horse, Pegasus; by riding on Pegasus’ back, Bellerophon was able to kill the monster, Chimera (see chapter 21). The Argonauts were saved from the Clashing Rocks by Athena’s help (see chapter 18).

Odysseus, because of his cunning, was one of Athena’s favorite mortals. Odysseus’ return home after the Trojan War was only possible because of Athena’s crafty help. Her intervention also helped him survive the Greater Ajax’s wrath in Sophocles’ Ajax. Whenever Odysseus is depicted in a myth, Athena is never far away (see chapter 30).

Similarly, sfter Orestes murdered his mother Clytemnestra in order to avenge the murder of his father Agamemnon, the Greek commander in the Trojan War, Athena helped the young man to escape punishment.

Aeschylus, Eumenides (trans. H. W. Smyth, adapted by L. Zhang, P. Rogak, and Tara Mulder)

Greek tragedy, 5th century BCE

ORESTES:

[pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary], savior of my house! I was deprived of a fatherland, and it is you who have given me a home there again. [755] The [pb_glossary id="2276"]Hellenes[/pb_glossary] will say, “The man is an [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argive[/pb_glossary] once again, and lives in his father's estate, by the grace of [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] and of [pb_glossary id="1577"]Loxias[/pb_glossary] and of that third god, the one who accomplishes everything, the savior”—the one who, honouring my father's death, [760] saves me, in the face of my mother's advocates. I will go home now, after I swear an oath to this land and to your people for the future and for all time to come, that no commander of my land [765] will ever come here and do violence against them with a well-equipped spear. I will ensure this even from the grave. I will curse them with non-remediable failure, making their marches spiritless and their journeys ill-omened. [770] Those who violate this oath of mine will regret their enterprise. But while they remain true and they hold this city of [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] as allies in everlasting honour, I will be the more well-disposed to them. And so farewell—you and the people who guard your city. [775] May none of your enemies escape you and may you have safety and victory with the spear! Exit. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0006%3Acard%3D566

Athena the Warrior

Athena was one of the war gods of the ancient Mediterranean. She was often compared to her brother Ares, but whereas the Greek saw him as the god of bloodthirsty, irrational battle lust, her domain was strategy and tactical warfare. However, this comparison was not always at the forefront of literary depictions of the two.

Homeric Hymn 11, "To Athena" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang and T. Mulder)

Greek hymn, 7th-4th century BCE

This brief hymn to Athena, written sometime in the 7th-4th centuries CE, addresses Athena and Ares as a duo. Together, they love "deeds of war, the raiding of cities, and the shouting of the battle."

[1] Of [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] Athena, guardian of the city, I begin to sing. She is greatly revered, and with [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] she loves deeds of war, the raiding of cities and the shouting of the battle. It is she who saves the people when they go out to war and come back. Hail, goddess, and give us good fortune along with happiness! Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#11

Homer, Iliad, Book 5 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang, P. Rogak, and T. Mulder)

Greek epic poem, 8th century BCE

In this selection from the Iliad, Book 5, Athena fights alongside the Greek hero, Diomedes. She helps him to wound Aries, who is fighting on the side of the Trojans.

[703-766] And when the goddess, white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] saw the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] being slaughtered in mortal combat, she swiftly spoke winged words to Athena, "Oh, child of [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]-bearing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1580"]Atrytone[/pb_glossary], if we let savage [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] rage like this, then what good is our promise to Menelaus that he will sack the high walls of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] before returning home? Come let us also think of wild bravery.’ Bright-eyed Athena hastened to obey her words. [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], the great goddess, daughter of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], ran to harness her steeds with gold, while [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary] swiftly fitted the eight-spoked wheels of bronze on the chariot’s iron axle. The rims of these chariot wheels are imperishable gold: the tires are bronze, a wonder to see; while the whirling hubs are silver. The platform is woven with straps of silver and gold, with a double rail, and a long silver pole to which she fastened the golden yoke and breast straps. Then Hera, eager to fight, yoked her swift horses. Meanwhile Athena, daughter of [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]-bearing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], took off her soft, richly embroidered robe, that she had made herself. She left it at the entrance to her father's house and dressed herself in the tunic of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the Cloud-Driver, and put on her armour, ready for gloomy war. She threw the frightening, tasseled [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary] over her shoulders, a garment filled with terror, violence and strife, adorned with the monstrous image of the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary]’s head, the grim and awful emblem of [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]-bearing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. On her head she put the golden helmet with its four cones and double-crest, decorated with warriors of a hundred cities. Then she set foot on the fiery chariot, grasped her huge, strong, weighty spear, with which this daughter of a mighty Father shatters the ranks in anger. At once, [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] whipped up the horses, and the gates of Olympus groaned open on their hinges all on their own accord, gates that the [pb_glossary id="164"]Hours[/pb_glossary] guard, the wardens of wide heaven and [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], hiding or showing them as they see fit. Through the gates they drove their steady horses, and found [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ] the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] sitting alone on the topmost peak of many-ridged [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. There white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] reined in the horses, and asked lofty [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], " Father Zeus, aren't you seething mad at [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] for his reckless violence that has destroyed a vast army of noble [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary], causing me great distress? Meanwhile Cyprian [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], Lord of the Silver Bow, delightedly unleashing lawless carnage. Will you be angry, Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], if I strike [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] hard and drive him from the field?" "Instead of that, rouse Athena, always the first to chase the spoils, and let her face him," [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the Cloud-Gatherer replied. "She, above all, is accustomed to causing him pain." [767-845] The goddess, white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], sped to obey his order, flicking the horses with her whip, and the willing pair galloped between earth and the starry heavens. Those thundering horses of the gods cover the distance at one bound that a man can see through the distant haze, gazing from a watchtower over the wine-dark sea. They soon reached [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary], land of the two rivers, and there at the meeting of [pb_glossary id="1581"]Simoeis[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1218"]Scamander[/pb_glossary], the white-armed goddess [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] reined in her horses, and loosed them from the yoke. She veiled them with a thick mist, while [pb_glossary id="1581"]Simoeis[/pb_glossary] made ambrosia spring up for them to graze. Then the two goddesses strutted forward, like bold pigeons, in their eagerness to aid the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argive[/pb_glossary] army. When they had reached the place where a select force of [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary], arrayed like ravenous lions or formidable wild boars, had gathered round mighty [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], tamer of horses, the goddess, white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] halted and called aloud, imitating bronze-voiced Stentor’s great shout, louder than fifty men, "Shame on you, Greeks, fine to look at, but cowards inside! When noble [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] led the fight no Trojan dared to leave the Dardanian Gates, they feared his great spear so much, but now far from their city they fight by your hollow ships." With these words she roused the courage and daring in every man. Meanwhile bright-eyed Athena, seeing [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary]’ son beside his horses and chariot with the arrow-wound that Pandarus had given him, ran swiftly to his side. Beneath the broad shoulder-strap of his round shield the sweat was irritating him, and he lifted the strap to wipe away the dark blood beneath his weakened arm. The goddess laid her hand on the chariot yoke saying, "[pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary]’ son is hardly like his father. Small though he was, he was a fighter. Even when I wanted him not to fight or make a row, when he strode alone into the crowd of Cadmeians at [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], bearing them a message, even when I’d told him to sit and banquet quietly in their hall, he with his great heart had to challenge the Cadmeian youth, and beat them easily, as ever, though with my help. But you, I stand by your side, I shield you from harm, ready to urge you on against the Trojans, yet you seem too tired to attack again or fear robs you of your strength. If that is so, then you are no child of [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1461"]Oeneus[/pb_glossary]’ warlike son!" "I know you, daughter of [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]-bearing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]," answered mighty [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], "so I will speak freely, hiding nothing. Neither blind fear nor fatigue possess me, I am merely obeying your command not to fight with the gods face to face, unless [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] daughter of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] enters the fray, whom I am allowed to wound with my sharp blade. But it is [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] I see controlling the field of war, so I have retreated and told the rest of the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] to gather here around me." "Dearest [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], true son of [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary]," bright-eyed Athena replied, "have no fear of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] or any of the immortals, and I will be here beside you to defend you. Drive your swift steeds towards him, and strike him at close range. Do not be in awe of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] raging in his fury, treacherous plague that he is, who promised [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] and I that he would help the Greeks against the Trojans, but now forgets what he swore and fights for [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]." She reached out as she spoke and, grasping Sthenelus, hustled him from the chariot. He was quick to leave and she mounted beside [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], eager herself for battle. The beech-wood axle groaned beneath its burden, weighed down by the mighty warrior and the fearsome goddess. [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] Athena grasped the reins, and whipped the swift horses towards [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] as he was stripping the armour from the great Periphas, noble son of Ochesius and pride of the Aetolians. Spattered with blood, he despoiled the corpse, while Athena donned [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]’ helmet of invisibility, to hide her identity from the mighty god. [846-909] But the moment [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], bane of the living, glimpsed [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], he left great Periphas where he had killed him, and headed straight for the [pb_glossary id="1192"]horse-tamer[/pb_glossary]. When they were at close quarters, [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] thrust with his bronze spear over the reins and yoke at [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], eager to strike him dead: but bright-eyed Athena caught the spear in her hand, and drove it above the chariot into the air. Now, [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], of the loud war-cry, thrust his bronze-spear at [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] Athena drove it home into the lower belly, where he wore a defensive apron. There the thrust landed, tearing the flesh, and [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary] wrenched it free again. Then bronze-clad [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] bellowed as loud as ten thousand warriors shout in battle, when they meet in the war-god’s shadow. The Greeks and Trojans trembled with fear at insatiable [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]’ cry. Like the dark column that whirls from the cloud when a tornado forms in heated air, so brazen [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] seemed to [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], as he sped through the sky to high heaven. Swiftly he reached the gods’ home on steep [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and sat down at [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’ side, in anguish. [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] showed [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the divine ichor flowing from the wound, and spoke in a sad voice, "Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], does it not stir your indignation to see all this violence? We gods always suffer cruelly at each other’s hands when we show favour to mortals. We are all at odds with you because you cursed the world with that mad daughter of yours who is always bent on lawlessness. The rest of us Olympians obey you and bow to you, but you say and do nothing to stop her antics, you condone them rather, simply because this girl who wreaks havoc is yours. Now she spurs on foolhardy [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary] to vent his anger on us immortals. First in a close encounter he wounded [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] on the wrist then he ran at me like a demon. Quick on my feet, I sprang away, or I would have suffered there for ages among the grisly dead, or been crippled by his spear-blows." Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Iliad5.php#anchor_Toc239244908

Athena as Patron of Athens

Athena earned her special association with the city of Athens by winning a contest with Poseidon for patronage of the city. Differing versions say that Zeus, a council of the gods, or even the Athenians themselves served as judges. In any event, each god was asked to provide a gift for the city and the judge(s) would decide who had given the better gift. Poseidon struck a rock with his trident and out came a spring of salt water and Athena grew an olive tree. The judge(s) decided that the olive was more useful than the saltwater spring and awarded the city to Athena. When Athena was not living on Olympus, she often lived in the Parthenon, the temple to her on the Acropolis in Athens.

For further discussion of the foundation and mythology of Athens, see chapter 36.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 3 (trans. J.G. Frazer, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century CE

In this section of the Bibliotheca, Pseudo-Apollodorus writes about the contest between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage of Athens.

[3.14.1] [pb_glossary id="1585"]Cecrops[/pb_glossary], a son of the soil, with a body that was half man and half serpent, was the first king of Attica. The country that was formerly called Acte he named Cecropia after himself. In his lifetime, it is said that the gods decided to take possession of cities that would worship them particularly. So [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] was the first that came to Attica, and with a blow of his trident in the middle of the acropolis, he produced a sea which they now call Erechtheis. After him came Athena, and, having called on [pb_glossary id="1585"]Cecrops[/pb_glossary] to witness her action, she planted an olive tree, which is still shown in the Pandrosium. But when the two struggled for possession of the country, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] separated them and appointed judges. These judges were not, as some have claimed, [pb_glossary id="1585"]Cecrops[/pb_glossary] and Cranaus, nor even Erysichthon [of Attica], but the twelve gods. And by their verdict the country was awarded to Athena, because [pb_glossary id="1585"]Cecrops[/pb_glossary] witnessed that she had been the first to plant the olive tree. Athena, therefore, called the city [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] after herself, and [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] in hot anger flooded the Thriasian plain and laid Attica under the sea. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus3.html#14

Athena’s Virginity

[content warning for the following section: sexual assault]

Like Artemis and Hestia, Athena was a virgin goddess. Her virginity entailed not only abstaining from sexual relations, but also preventing anything that could be considered adjacent to sex from occurring (such as being seen naked).

Callimachus, Hymn 5, "The Bath of Pallas" (trans. J.G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 3rd century BCE

Callimachus' 3rd century BCE Greek hymn to Athena describes the ritual bathing of the statue of Athena by the women of Athens. It describes the differences between Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, and Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and erotic desire. It also warns the listener about what will happen if anyone attempts to violate the virginity of Athena or sees her naked, even accidentally.

[1] All you who are companions of the Bath of [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary], come out, come out! I heard the snorting of the sacred steeds just now and the goddess is ready to go. Hurry now, fair-haired daughters of Pelasgus, hurry! Never did Athena wash her mighty arms before she removed the dust from the flanks of her horses – not even when, her armour all dirtied with filth, she returned from the battle with the lawless [pb_glossary id="601"]Giants[/pb_glossary]; but first she freed her horses’ necks from their yoke, and in the springs of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] washed the flecks of sweat and from their mouths that chewed the bit, cleansed the clotted foam. [13] Come, daughters of Achaea, and do not bring perfume or alabasters (I hear the voice of the wheel hubs!); do not bring perfume or alabasters for [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary], you companions of the Bath (for Athena does not love mixed ointments), and also do not bring a mirror. Her face is always beautiful, and, even when the Phrygian [ [pb_glossary id="317"]Paris[/pb_glossary] ] judged the contest on Ida, the great goddess did not look into [polished metal] orichalc, nor into the transparent currents of [pb_glossary id="1581"]Simoeis[/pb_glossary], nor did [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. But Cypris [ [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] ] took the shining bronze and often altered and altered again the same lock of hair. But [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary], after running twice sixty double courses, just like, beside the Eurotas [river], the Lacedaemonian Stars [ [pb_glossary id="1407"]Castor[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1590"]Pollux[/pb_glossary] ], took and skillfully anointed herself with simple ointments, the birth of her own tree [olive oil]. And, O maidens, the red blush arose on her, as the colour of the morning rose or the seed of a pomegranate. For that reason now also bring only the manly olive oil, with which [pb_glossary id="1407"]Castor[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary] anoint themselves. And bring her a comb all of gold, so that she may comb her hair, once she has anointed her glossy tresses. [33] Come forth, Athena! A company pleasing to your heart awaits you, the maiden akestoridan.[footnote]Frazer translates this as "daughters of Acestor’s sons." However, it is unclear who this Acestor is and who these daughters are. It may be an epithet for Apollo, or refer to a different hero.[/footnote] And with them, O Athena, is carried the shield of [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], since this is the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argive[/pb_glossary] custom which, in olden days, Eumedes taught them: a priest who found favour with you: who one time, when he knew that the people were plotting and planning death for him, fled with your holy image and lived in the Creion hill – lived on the hill of Creion and established you, O goddess, on the rugged rocks, whose name is now the Pallantid rocks. [42] Come forth, Athena, Sacker of Cities, golden-helmeted, who rejoices in the sounds of horse and shield. Today, you water-carriers, do not dip your pitchers – today, O Argos, drink from the fountains and not from the river; today, you handmaidens carry your pitchers to [the springs] Physadeia or Amymone, daughter of [pb_glossary id="1190"]Danaus[/pb_glossary]. For, mingling his waters with gold and with flowers, [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary] will come from his pastoral hills, bringing fair water for the Bath of Athena. But beware, O Pelasgian, in case even unwittingly you see the Queen. Whoever sees [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary], Keeper of Cities, naked, shall look on Argos for the last time. Lady Athena, come forth, and meanwhile I will say something to these people. The story is not mine but told by others. [57] Maidens, in [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary] one [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] of old, the mother of [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary], loved Athena a lot, far beyond all her other companions, and was never apart from her. But when she [Athena] drove her steeds towards ancient Thespiae or towards Coroneia or to Haliartus, passing through the tilled fields of the Boeotians – or toward Coroneia where the fragrant grove and altars are set by the river Coralius – often did the goddess set the nymph upon her chariot, and there was no festivity of nymphs nor sweet ordering of dance, where [pb_glossary id="1595"]Chariclo[/pb_glossary] did not lead. [68] Yet many tears awaited her, in the days to come, although she was a companion who pleased the heart of Athena. One day those two undid the buckles of their robes beside the fair-flowing Fountain of the Horse on [pb_glossary id="698"]Helicon[/pb_glossary] and bathed; and midday was quiet across the whole hill. Those two were bathing and it was the noon hour and a great quiet held that hill. Only [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary], on whose cheek the hair was just darkening, still roamed with his hounds at the holy place. And, with a great thirst, he came to the flowing fountain, wretched man! He unwillingly saw that which is not lawful to be seen. And Athena was angered, and said to him: “What god, O son of Everes, led you on this tragic way? From now on you will never have the use of your eyes again!” [83] She spoke and darkness seized the eyes of the youth. And he stood there speechless; for pain glued his knees and helplessness stopped his voice. But the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] cried: “What have you done to my boy, lady? Is this what the friendship of you goddesses is? You have taken away the eyes of my son. Foolish child! You have seen the breast and body of Athena, but the sun you shall not see again. O unhappy me! O hill, O [pb_glossary id="698"]Helicon[/pb_glossary], where I may no more come, surely a great price has been exacted for a small thing. Losing a few gazelles and deer, you have taken the eyes of my child.” [93] Then the mother clasped her beloved child in both her arms and, wailing the heavy lament of the mournful nightingale, led him away. And the goddess Athena pitied her companion and said to her: “Noble lady, take back all the words that you have spoken in anger. I'm am not the one that made your child blind. For it is no sweet thing for Athena to snatch away the eyes of children. But the laws of Cronius [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ] order thus: Whoever sees any of the immortals, when the god himself does not choose to be seen, looks for a heavy price. Noble lady, the thing that is done can no more be taken back; since the thread of the [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary] spun when you bore him from the beginning; but now, son of Everes, you will take the outcome which is due to you. How many burnt offerings will the daughter of [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary] ] burn in the days to come? How many will [pb_glossary id="959"]Aristaeus[/pb_glossary] burn? – praying that they might see their only son, the young [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary], blind. And yet he shall be a companion of the chase to great [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary]. But neither the chase nor companionship in archery on the hills will save him in that hour, when, though unwillingly, he will see the beautiful bathing of the goddess. No, his own dogs will then devour their former lord. And his mother will gather the bones of her son, spread over all the thickets. She will call you happiest of women and say you have a happy fate, because you received your son home from the hills – blind. Therefore, O companion, do not lament; for your son – for your sake – will gain many other honours from me. For I will make him a seer to be sung of by men from now on, yes, more excellent than any other. He will know the birds – which is of good omen among all the countless birds that fly, and what birds are of ill-omened flight.[footnote]Referring to the practise of interpreting birds for prophecy, called augury.[/footnote] Many oracles will he utter to the Boeotians and many to [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary], and to the mighty sons of Labdacus in later days. Also I will give him a great staff which will guide his feet as he has need, and I will give him a long life. And he only, when he dies, will walk among the dead having understanding, honoured by the great Leader of Peoples [ [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] ].” [130] So she spoke and bowed her head; and a promise over which [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] bows will be fulfilled; since to Athena only among his daughters had [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] granted that she should have all the things that are his, companions of the Bath, and no mother bore that goddess, but the head of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. The head of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] does not bow in falsehood, and in falsehood his daughter has no part. [137] Now comes Athena, indeed. O maidens, whose task it is, receive the goddess with pious greeting and with prayer, and with the voice of gratitude. Hail, goddess, and have Inachian Argos in your keeping! Hail when you drive forth your steeds, and may you drive home again with joy, and preserve all the estate of the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Danaans[/pb_glossary]. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/CallimachusHymns2.html#5

Fulgentius, Mythologies, Book 2 (trans. L. G. Whitbread, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Latin mythography, ca. 500 CE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault]

In another story, here told in a Roman version by the much later 5th/6th century CE writer, Fulgentius, Vulcan (Hephaestus) tries to rape Minerva (Athena). She fends him off, but his semen falls on the ground and from it springs up the half-man/half-snake, Ericthonius, whom Athena adopts as her own son. She raises him in her temple and he eventually becomes one of the earliest kings of Athens. Fulgentius uses this myth to explain the origin of chariots and chariot racing. He uses an allegorical interpretation of the myth, where Minerva (Athena) stands for wisdom and Vulcan (Hephaestus) stands for rage. You will notice that this version of the myth also contains several etymologies, which are explanations of the origins of words and names.

[2.11] When [pb_glossary id="356"]Vulcan[/pb_glossary] made the thunderbolts of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary], he accepted a promise from [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] that he might take anything that he wanted. He asked for Minerva in marriage; [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] ordered Minerva to defend her virginity by strength of arms. When they were supposed to enter the marriage bed, [pb_glossary id="356"]Vulcan[/pb_glossary] in the struggle spilled his seed on the floor, and from it was born [pb_glossary id="1599"]Erichthonius[/pb_glossary] with the feet of a serpent, for eris is the Greek for strife, and ctonus is the name for the earth. Minerva hid him in a basket and entrusted him, with a serpent nearby as guardian, to the two sisters, [pb_glossary id="1600"]Aglaurus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1601"]Pandora[/pb_glossary]. It was he who first invented the chariot. They explained [pb_glossary id="356"]Vulcan[/pb_glossary] as the fire of rage, and so [pb_glossary id="356"]Vulcan[/pb_glossary] is named as the heat of desire; he made the lightning for [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary], that is, he stirred up rage. They chose him to be the husband of Minerva because even rage is somewhat reduced for the wise. She defended her maidenhood by force of arms, that is, all wisdom by strength of mind protects the integrity of its own habits against fury. From where indeed [pb_glossary id="1599"]Erichthonius[/pb_glossary] was born, for eris is the Greek for strife, and tonos is not only earth, but can also mean envy, and so Thales of Miletus says: “Envy is the devourer of worldly fame.” And what else but the strife of envy could the weakening rage of wisdom produce? Wisdom, that is, Minerva, hid it in a basket, that is, concealed it in her heart, for every wise man hides his rage in his heart. Minerva placed a serpent close by as a guardian, that is, destruction, which she entrusted to the two maidens, [pb_glossary id="1600"]Aglaurus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1601"]Pandora[/pb_glossary]. For [pb_glossary id="1601"]Pandora[/pb_glossary] is called the gift of all, and [pb_glossary id="1600"]Aglaurus[/pb_glossary] is for acouleron, that is, the forgetting of sadness. For the wise man entrusts his grief either to that kindheartedness which is the gift of all or to forgetting, as was said of Caesar: “You who forget nothing except the wrongs done you.” When [pb_glossary id="1599"]Erichthonius[/pb_glossary] grew up, what is he said to have invented? Nothing less than the racecourse, where there is always the strife of envy, as Virgil says: “[pb_glossary id="1599"]Erichthonius[/pb_glossary] first dared to join chariots and four horses.” Take note what value there is when chastity is joined to wisdom, for against it even the god of fire could not prevail. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/FulgentiusMythologies2.html#11

Athena and Arachne

Athena, like the other gods, was quick to punish mortals who thought they were equal to the gods, as exemplified by her interactions with Arachne, the talented mortal weaver.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 11 (trans. A.S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

[content warning for the following source: mention of sexual assault (103-128), suicide (129-145)]

In this excerpt from Ovid's Metamorphoses, the mortal woman Arachne goes head to head with Minerva (Athena) in a weaving contest.

[1-25] “Tritonian Minerva had listened to every word, and approved of the Aonian [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary]’s song, and their justified indignation. Then she said, to herself, ‘To give praise is not enough; let me be praised as well, and do not allow my divine powers to be scorned without inflicting punishment.’ Her thoughts turned to [pb_glossary id="1604"]Arachne[/pb_glossary], of Maeonia, whom she had heard would not give her due credit in the art of spinning. The girl was not known for her place of birth, or family, but for her skill. Her father, Idmon of Colophon, dyed the absorbent wool purple, with Phocaean murex. Her mother was dead. She too had been of humble birth, and the father the same. Nevertheless, though she lived in a modest home, in little Hypaepa, [pb_glossary id="1604"]Arachne[/pb_glossary] had gained a name for artistry throughout the cities of Lydia. “Often the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] of Mount Tmolus deserted their vine-covered slopes, and the nymphs of the River Pactolus deserted their waves, to examine her wonderful workmanship. It was not only a joy to see the finished cloths, but also to watch them made: so much beauty added to art. Whether at first she was winding the rough yarn into a new ball, or working the stuff with her fingers, teasing out the clouds of wool, repeatedly, drawing them into long equal threads, twirling the slender spindle with practised thumb, or embroidering with her needle, you could see she was taught by [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary]. Yet she denied it, and took offence at the idea of such a teacher. ‘Compete with me’ she said ‘I will not disagree at all if I am beaten’. [26-69] “[pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] Minerva took the shape of an old woman: adding grey hair to her temples, and aging her limbs, which she supported with a stick. Then she spoke, to the girl, as follows. ‘Not everything old age has is to be shunned: knowledge comes with advancing years. Do not reject my advice: seek great fame amongst mortals for your skill in weaving, but give way to the goddess, and ask her forgiveness, rash girl, with a humble voice: she will forgive if you will ask.’ [pb_glossary id="1604"]Arachne[/pb_glossary] looked fiercely at her and left the work she was on: scarcely restraining her hands, and with dark anger in her face. Pallas, disguised it is true, received this answer. ‘Weak-minded and worn out by tedious old age you come here and having lived too long destroys you. Let your daughter-in-law if you have one, let your daughter if you have one, listen to your voice. I have wisdom enough of my own. You think your advice is never heeded: that is my feeling too. Why does she not come herself? Why does she shirk this contest?’ “The goddess said ‘She is here!’ and, relinquishing the old woman’s form, revealed [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] Minerva. The [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] and the Phrygian women worshipped her godhead: the girl alone remained unafraid, yet she did blush, like how the sky is accustomed to redden when [pb_glossary id="215"]Aurora[/pb_glossary] first stirs, and, after a while, to whiten at the sun from the east. She is stubborn in her attempt, and rushes on to her fate, eager for a worthless prize. Now, [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s daughter does not refuse, and does not give warning, or delay the contest a moment. Immediately they both position themselves, in separate places, and stretch out the fine threads for the warp over twin frames. The frame is fastened to the cross-beam; the threads of the warp separated with the reed; the thread of the weft is inserted between, in the pointed shuttles that their fingers have readied; and, drawn through the warp, the threads of the weft are beaten into place, struck by the comb’s notched teeth. They each work quickly, and, with their clothes gathered in tight, under their breasts, apply skillful arms, their zeal not making it seem like work. There, shades of purple, dyed in Tyrian bronze vessels, are woven into the cloth, and also lighter colours, shading off gradually. The threads that touch seem the same, but the extremes are distant, as when, often, after a rainstorm, the expanse of the sky, struck by the sunlight, is stained by a rainbow in one vast arch, in which a thousand separate colours shine, but the eye itself still cannot see the transitions. There are inserted lasting threads of gold, and an ancient tale is spun in the web. [70-102] “[pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] Athena depicts the hill of [pb_glossary id="179"]Mars[/pb_glossary], and the court of the [pb_glossary id="4702"]Aeropagus[/pb_glossary], in [pb_glossary id="1585"]Cecrops[/pb_glossary]’s [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], and the old dispute between [pb_glossary id="182"]Neptune[/pb_glossary] and herself, as to who had the right to the city and its name. There the twelve gods sit in great majesty, on their high thrones, with [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] in the middle. She weaves the gods with their familiar attributes. The image of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] is a royal one. There she portrays the ocean god, standing and striking the rough stone, with his long trident, and seawater flowing from the centre of the shattered rock, a token of his claim to the city. She gives herself a shield, a sharp pointed spear, and a helmet for her head, while the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary] protects her chest. She shows an olive-tree with a pale trunk, thick with fruit, born from the earth at a blow from her spear, the gods marveling: and [pb_glossary id="1037"]Victory[/pb_glossary] crowns the work. Then she adds four scenes of contest in the four corners, each with miniature figures, in their own clear colours, so that her rival might learn, from the examples quoted, what prize she might expect, for her outrageous daring. One corner shows Thracian Mount Rhodope and Mount Haemus, now icy peaks, once mortal beings who ascribed the names of the highest gods to themselves. A second corner shows the miserable fate of the queen of the Pygmies: how [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary], having overcome her in a contest, ordered her to become a crane and make war on her own people. Also she pictures Antigone, whom Queen [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] turned into a bird for having dared to compete with [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s great consort: neither her father [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary], nor her city [pb_glossary id="4673"]Ilium[/pb_glossary] were of any use to her, but taking wing as a white stork she applauds herself with clattering beak. The only corner left shows Cinyras, bereaved: and he is seen weeping as he clasps the stone steps of the temple that were once his daughters’ limbs. Minerva surrounded the outer edges with the olive wreaths of peace (this was the last part) and so ended her work with emblems of her own tree. [103-128] “The Maeonian girl depicts [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary] deceived by the form of the bull: you would have thought it a real bull and real waves. She is seen looking back to the shore she has left, and calling to her companions, displaying fear at the touch of the surging water, and drawing up her shrinking feet. Also [pb_glossary id="1604"]Arachne[/pb_glossary] showed Asterie, held by the eagle, struggling, and [pb_glossary id="1605"]Leda[/pb_glossary] lying beneath the swan’s wings. She added [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] who, hidden in the form of a satyr, filled [pb_glossary id="4601"]Antiope[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="4606"]Nycteus[/pb_glossary] with twin offspring; who, as [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary], was charmed by you, [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary], of Tiryns; by [pb_glossary id="1143"]Danae[/pb_glossary], as a golden shower; by [pb_glossary id="2330"]Aegina[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="2331"]Asopus[/pb_glossary], as a flame; by Mnemosyne, as a shepherd; by [pb_glossary id="353"]Proserpine[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="351"]Ceres[/pb_glossary]’s daughter, as a spotted snake. She wove you, [pb_glossary id="182"]Neptune[/pb_glossary], also, changed to a fierce bull for Canace, [pb_glossary id="782"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary]’s daughter. In [pb_glossary id="2059"]Enipeus[/pb_glossary]’ form you conceived the [pb_glossary id="1606"]Aloadae[/pb_glossary], and deceived Theophane as a ram. The golden-haired, gentlest, mother of the cornfields [ [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary] ], knew you as a horse. The snake-haired mother [ [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary] ] of the winged horse [ [pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary] ], knew you as a winged bird. Melantho knew you as a dolphin. She gave all these their own aspects, and the aspects of the place. Here is [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] like a countryman, and she shows him now with the wings of a hawk, and now in a lion’s skin, and how as a shepherd he tricked Isse, Macareus’s daughter. She showed how [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary] ensnared Erigone with delusive grapes, and how [pb_glossary id="169"]Saturn[/pb_glossary] as the double of a horse conceived [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary]. The outer edge of the web, surrounded by a narrow border, had flowers interwoven with entangled ivy. [129-145] “Neither [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] nor [pb_glossary id="338"]Envy[/pb_glossary] itself could fault that work. The golden-haired warrior goddess was grieved by its success, and tore the tapestry, embroidered with the gods’ crimes, and as she held her shuttle made of boxwood from Mount Cytorus, she struck Idmonian [pb_glossary id="1604"]Arachne[/pb_glossary], three or four times, on the forehead. The unfortunate girl could not bear it, and courageously slipped a noose around her neck: [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary], in pity, lifted her, as she hung there, and said these words, ‘Live on then, and yet hang, condemned one, but, in case you are careless in the future, this same condition is declared, in punishment, against your descendants, to the last generation!’ Departing after saying this, she sprinkled her with the juice of [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary]’s herb, and immediately at the touch of this dark poison, [pb_glossary id="1604"]Arachne[/pb_glossary]’s hair fell out. With it went her nose and ears, her head shrank to the smallest size, and her whole body became tiny. Her slender fingers stuck to her sides as legs, the rest is belly, from which she still spins a thread, and, as a spider, weaves her ancient web. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph6.php

Art and Symbolism

[caption id="attachment_752" align="alignnone" width="1696"] Athena, red-figure amphora, ca. 525 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[/caption]

In Greek art, Athena was particularly popular in objects produced in the region of Attica. She was usually represented as a young woman wearing a long chiton and a helmet. She could also be depicted wielding a spear, a shield, or both.

[caption id="attachment_760" align="alignnone" width="1592"] Athena watching as Jason is spat out of the dragon, red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BCE (Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Vatican City)[/caption] In vase paintings, sculptures, and coins, one of her most recognizable attributes is the aegis, a magic garment usually represented as a shield or scaled mantle with snakes as tassels draped over the chest of the goddess. At the centre of it sat the severed head of the gorgon Medusa, whose gaze could turn living things into stone. [caption id="attachment_700" align="alignnone" width="1686"] Owl, red-figure skyphos, 5th century BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] Athena's sacred bird was the owl, which was frequently depicted accompanying her, or as a stand-in for her. Famously, Athenian coins had the head of Athena on one side, and an owl on the other. [caption id="attachment_701" align="alignright" width="300"] Head of Athena and an owl, Attic coin, ca. 500 BCE[/caption] [caption id="attachment_702" align="alignleft" width="300"] Head of Athena and an owl, Attic coin, ca. 410 BCE[/caption] Another Athenian figure who was represented alongside the goddess was Erichthonios, a human-snake hybrid boy whom she had adopted and raised. [caption id="attachment_743" align="alignnone" width="1204"] Gaia gives the baby Ericthonios to Athena, red-figure kylix, ca. 440 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[/caption]

Olive trees were sacred to Athena, who was said to have created the first one during her fight against Poseidon for the city of Athens. This scene was often represented in art with the goddess standing next to a newly sprouted olive tree, and it was carved on the western pediment of the Parthenon.

[caption id="attachment_489" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Poseidon and Athena competing for Athens, West Pediment of the Parthenon, ca. 447 BCE (Acropolis Museum, Athens)[/caption]

The other pediment of the temple featured another one of Athena's best-known myths, that of her birth from the head of Zeus. This scene generally shows Athena coming out as a fully armoured adult in the presence of other deities. On the following amphora, Athena can be seen standing atop Zeus' head.

[caption id="attachment_747" align="alignnone" width="1536"] Birth of Athena, black-figure Amphora, ca. 560 BCE (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_754" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Athena newly born from the head of Zeus, reconstruction of the east pediment of the Parthenon, ca. 438 BCE (Acropolis Museum, Athens)[/caption]

Athena was also often represented killing Enkelados during the Gigantomachy or helping various heroes, such as Heracles and Perseus.

[caption id="attachment_707" align="alignnone" width="1905"] Athena and Herakles, red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_745" align="aligncenter" width="725"] Perseus beheading Medusa, Greek relief from Selinunte (Museo Archeologico Regionale Antonio Salinas, Palermo)[/caption]

One of the most famous sculptures of Athena was created by Pheidias around 447 BCE for the Parthenon. The statue, made of gold and ivory over a wooden frame, depicted the victorious goddess. She wore a three-crested helmet (which most representations of the goddess after this point replicated), held a winged Nike in her right hand, and shield and spear (or just the shield) in her left. This artwork was reportedly 11.5 metres (37 ft 9 in) tall. Although the original statue is lost, its appearance has been reconstructed on the basis of literary accounts and depictions on other media, such as coins and later copies.

[caption id="attachment_748" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Head of Athena and Athena Parthenos, Athenian coin, ca. 264 BCE[/caption] [caption id="attachment_705" align="aligncenter" width="535"] Copy of Pheidias' Athena Parthenos statue, marble statue, 3rd century CE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption]

Minerva

Minerva was originally an indigenous Italic goddess of war worshipped by the Etruscans. She was sometimes depicted as the bearer of the lightning bolt.

[caption id="attachment_758" align="alignnone" width="1370"] Minerva, tracing of a bronze mirror, 3rd century BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlung, Berlin)[/caption]

However, many of Minerva's attributes in art were the same as her Greek counterpart, Athena. Like Athena, Minerva was represented fully armed with her aegis, helmet, shield, and spear, and accompanied by her owl.

The goddess was also a member of the Capitoline Triad alongside Jupiter and Juno, indicating that she was one of the most revered deities of Rome's pantheon.

[caption id="attachment_718" align="alignnone" width="1844"] Minerva, silver bowl, 1st century BCE (Antikensammlung, Berlin)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Dionysus

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 19:00:36 +0000

[caption id="attachment_964" align="alignnone" width="1542"] Dionysus sailing to Naxos, black-figure kylix, ca. 530 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]

Origins

Sections & Primary Sources

Zeus and Semele Birthplace

"Homeric Hymn 1 To Dionysus"
"Homeric Hymn 26 To Dionysus"

Dionysus as Allegory

Fulgentius, Mythologies, 2.12

Zeus and Semele

Dionysus was a son of Zeus and one of the twelve Olympians. According to the Greek mythological tradition, he was created by the sexual union of Zeus and the mortal woman Semele who was the daughter of Cadmus, king of Thebes. When Hera learned that Semele was pregnant with Zeus' child, out of jealousy she disguised herself as Semele's nurse and convinced her to make a demand of Zeus: she should make him promise to grant her any favour she might ask, and then she should ask him to appear to her as he did to his wife. Semele did so and Zeus complied. But when Zeus appeared to Semele in his true form, as the god of lightening and thunder, mortal Semele was not able to withstand his power and was burned up. As Semele was burning, Hermes rescued the unborn baby from her womb and sewed the child up in Zeus' thigh. When he was ready to be born, Dionysus emerged from his father's thigh.

Where the ancient god Dionysus came from, historically speaking, is hard to say. His name appears in a Mycenaean inscription from around 1200-1000 BCE. The myths about him also suggest that he came from east of mainland Greece, from Thrace, or from Asia minor (modern-day Turkey).

Dionysus, whose Roman name is Bacchus, was associated with wine, revelry, wildness, and ecstasy. His followers were called "Maenads" or "Bacchae": women who, possessed by the god, had left their homes and domestic duties to dance wildly in the mountains and glens. They would strip off their clothes, unbind their hair, and kill wild animals with their bare hands.

Birthplace

"Homeric Hymn 1 To Dionysus" (trans. H. G. Evelyn White, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

In this text, the author says that Dionysus was born a reared on the mythological Mount Nysa, which they here place in Egypt. Other accounts place Mount Nysa in Ethiopia, Arabia, Lydia, India, and several other places.

[1] ((lacuna))[footnote]Indicates a gap or missing segment in the text.[/footnote] . . . For some say that pregnant [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary] bore you to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the thunder-lover at Dracanum; and some, on windy Icarus; and some, in Naxos, O Heaven-born, Insewn; and others by the deep-flowing river Alpheus. And others yet, lord, say you were born in [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary]; but all these people lie. The Father of men and gods [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ] gave birth to you far from men and secretly from white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. There is a certain [pb_glossary id="607"]Nysa[/pb_glossary], a tall mountain covered by a thick forest, far off in Phoenice, near the streams of Aegyptus. ((lacuna)) . . . [10] [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] speaking:] " . . . and men will present her many offerings in her shrines. And as these things are three, so shall mortals ever sacrifice perfect [pb_glossary id="1204"]hecatombs[/pb_glossary] to you at your feasts every three years." The Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] spoke and nodded with his dark brows. And the divine locks of the king flowed forward from his immortal head, and he made great [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] shake. So spoke wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and confirmed it with a nod. [17] Be favourable, O Insewn, Inspirer of frenzied women [ [pb_glossary id="887"]maenads[/pb_glossary] ]! We singers sing of you as we begin and as we end a verse, and none may call a holy song to mind if they forget you. And so, farewell, Dionysus, Insewn, with your mother [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary] whom men call [pb_glossary id="908']Thyone[/pb_glossary]. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns1.html

"Homeric Hymn 26 To Dionysus" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

This hymn also places the birth of Dionysus at Nysa, but does not specify where Mount Nysa is located.

[1] I begin to sing of ivy-crowned Dionysus, the loud-crying god, splendid son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and glorious [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary]. The rich-haired [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] received him in their bosoms from the lord his father and fostered and nurtured him carefully in the valleys of [pb_glossary id="607"]Nysa[/pb_glossary], where by the will of his father he grew up in a sweet-smelling cave, being regarded as one of the immortals. But after the goddesses had raised him, a god for whom hymns were often sung, he began to wander continually through the woody valleys, thickly wreathed with ivy and laurel. And the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] followed in his train with him as their leader; and the boundless forest was filled with their outcry. And so hail to you, Dionysus, god of abundant clusters [of grapes]! Grant that we may come again rejoicing to this season, and from that season onwards for many years. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#26

Dionysus as Allegory

Fulgentius, Mythologies, Book 2 (trans. L. G. Whitbread, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Latin mythography, ca. 500 CE

About 1,100 years after the Homeric Hymns to Dionysus were written, Fulgentius, a Latin mythographer from the 6th century CE, wrote this allegorical account of the origins of Dionysus. He associated Dionysus' mother, Semele, and her three sisters, Ino, Autonoe, Semele, and Agave, with four different stages of intoxication. This passage also displays elements of environmental racism, which the geographical and topographical features of where a group of people lives is used to explain their (often negative) characteristics.

[2.12] [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] slept with [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary], by whom Father [pb_glossary id="371"]Liber[/pb_glossary] was born; he roared as he came against her with his thunderbolt; and so the father, carrying off the boy, placed him in his own thigh and later gave him to Maro for nursing. There were four sisters named, including [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary]: [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary]. Let us investigate what this fable symbolizes. There are four stages of intoxication – that is, first, excess of wine; second, forgetting things; third, lust; fourth, madness – from which these four received the name of [pb_glossary id="887"]Bacchae[/pb_glossary]: the [pb_glossary id="887"]Bacchae[/pb_glossary] are so called for their raging (baccantes) with wine. First is [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary], for inos, the Greek word we have for wine; second, [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary] for autenunoe, that is, ignorant of herself; third, [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary], for somalion, which in Latin we call the released body, where she is said to have born Father [pb_glossary id="371"]Liber[/pb_glossary], that is, intoxication born of lust; fourth, [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary], who is comparable to insanity because in her violence she cut off her son’s head. Thus he is called Father [pb_glossary id="371"]Liber[/pb_glossary] because the rage of wine frees men’s minds; he is said to have conquered the people of India [of the Indus River Valley] because that race is certainly given to wine, in two respects: one, that the fierce heat of the sun makes them drinkers, the other that in that part of the world there is wine like that of Falernum or Meroë, in which there is such strength that even a confirmed drunkard will hardly drink a pint in a whole month; and so Lucan says: “Falernian, to which add Meroë, forcing its stubborn nature to ferment,” for it cannot be in any way weakened by water. For nursing Dionysus was handed over to Maro, a form of Mero, for by merum is sustained all intoxication. He is also said to ride on tigers, because all intoxication goes with savageness; and minds affected by wine are softened, from which he is also called Lyaeus, distinguished for softness. Dionysus is depicted as a youth, because drunkenness is never mature; and he is shown as naked, either because every wine-drinker becomes exposed to robbery or because the drunkard lays bare the secrets of his mind. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/FulgentiusMythologies2.html#12

Dionysus in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

The Destruction of the House of Cadmus

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3.4.1-3.5.4

Dionysus and the Tyrrhenian Pirates

"Homeric Hymn 7 To Dionysus"

Dionysus and Cybele

Catullus, Poems 63, "Of Berecynthia and Attis"

Bacchus and Liber

Horace, Odes, 2.19

The Bacchae

Euripides, Bacchae

The Destruction of the House of Cadmus

When Dionysus was born, Hermes spirited the child away to live with his mortal aunt Ino (one of his mother's sisters). Ino and her husband Athamas raised Dionysus as a girl to try to hide him from Hera's jealous wrath, but Hera was not fooled, and caused Ino to go mad. Ino's madness, along with Semele's demise, and other events, signaled the destruction of the house of Cadmus, the tragic dynasty of Thebes.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang)

Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE

[content warning for the following source: graphic descriptions of death, suicide (3.4.3), ableist language]

The Bibliotheca, from the 2nd century Greek mythographer pseudo-Apollodorus, chronicles the destruction of the four daughters of Cadmus, king of Thebes, and their sons (the mother, aunts, and cousins of Dionysus).

[3.4.1] When [pb_glossary id="1728"]Telephassa[/pb_glossary] died, [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] to inquire about [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary]. The god told him not to worry about [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary], but to be guided by a cow, and to found a city wherever she should fall down for weariness. After receiving such an oracle he journeyed through Phocis; then falling in with a cow among the herds of Pelagon, he followed it behind. And after traversing Boeotia, it sank down where is now the city of [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary]. Wishing to sacrifice the cow to [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary], he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] killed the dragon, and by the advice of [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called [pb_glossary id="1830"]Sparti[/pb_glossary]. These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] saw armed men growing up out of the ground, he flung stones at them, and they, supposing that they were being pelted by each other, came to blows. However, five of them survived, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelorus. [3.4.2] But [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary], to atone for the slaughter, served [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our calendar. After his servitude, [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] procured for him the kingdom, and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] gave to him [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary] as wife, daughter of [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]. And all the gods left the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns. [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], which some say was given to [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] by [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], but Pherecydes says that it was given by [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary], who had received it from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. And to [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] were born daughters, [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary], and a son, Polydorus. [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] was married to [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id="959"]Aristaeus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary] to Echion. [3.4.3] But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] loved [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary] and slept with her, unknown to [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. Now [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] she asked him to come to her as he came when he was wooing [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. Unable to refuse, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary] died of fright, and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it into his own thigh. Upon the death of [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary], the other daughters of [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] spread a rumour that [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary] had slept with a mortal man, and had falsely accused [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But, at the proper time, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus, and entrusted him to [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary]. And he conveyed him to [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary], and persuaded them to raise him as a girl. But [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] indignantly drove them mad, and [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary] hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him, and [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] threw [pb_glossary id="333"]Melicertes[/pb_glossary] into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she jumped into the sea. And she herself is called [pb_glossary id="931"]Leucothea[/pb_glossary], and the boy is called [pb_glossary id="333"]Palaemon[/pb_glossary], such being the names they get from sailors; for they assist storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian games were instituted by [pb_glossary id="1213"]Sisyphus[/pb_glossary] in honour of [pb_glossary id="333"]Melicertes[/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] escaped the wrath of [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] by turning Dionysus into a goat kid, and [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] took him and brought him to the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] who dwelt at [pb_glossary id="607"]Nysa[/pb_glossary] in Asia, whom [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] afterwards changed into stars and named them the [pb_glossary id="4470"]Hyades[/pb_glossary]. [3.4.4] [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="959"]Aristaeus[/pb_glossary] had a son [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary], who was raised by [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary] to be a hunter and then afterwards was mauled on [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary] by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus, because [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] was angry at him for wooing [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary]; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] bathing. And they say that the goddess at once transformed him into a deer, and drove mad the fifty dogs in his pack, which killed him unknowingly. [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary] being gone, the dogs sought their master howling sadly, and in their search they came to the cave of [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary], who made a statue of [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary], which soothed their grief. [The names of [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary]'s dogs from the ((lacuna)) . . . So now surrounding his fair body, as if it were that of a beast, the strong dogs tore it. Near Arcena first ((lacuna)) . . . after her a mighty brood, Lynceus and Balius goodly-footed, and Amarynthus. -- And these he listed continuously by name. And then [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary] perished at the instigation of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. For the first that drank their master's black blood were Spartus and Omargus and Bores, the swift on the track. These first fed on [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary] and lapped his blood. And after them others rushed on him eagerly ((lacuna)) . . . to be a remedy for grievous pains to men.] [3.5.1] Dionysus discovered the vine, and being driven mad by [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], he roamed about Egypt and Syria. At first he was received by [pb_glossary id="2368"]Proteus[/pb_glossary], king of Egypt, but afterwards he arrived at Cybela in Phrygia. And there, after he had been healed by [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary] and learned the rites of initiation, he received from her the costume and hastened through Thrace against the Indians [of the Indus River Valley]. But [pb_glossary id="1633"]Lycurgus[/pb_glossary], son of Dryas, was king of the Edonians, who live beside the river Strymon, and he was the first who insulted and expelled him. Dionysus took refuge in the sea with [pb_glossary id="1551"]Thetis[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="1431"]Nereus[/pb_glossary], and the [pb_glossary id="887"]Maenads[/pb_glossary] were taken prisoners together with the multitude of [pb_glossary id="372"]Satyrs[/pb_glossary] that attended him. But afterwards the [pb_glossary id="887"]Maenads[/pb_glossary] were suddenly released, and Dionysus drove [pb_glossary id="1633"]Lycurgus[/pb_glossary] mad. And in his madness he struck his son Dryas dead with an axe, imagining that he was curbing a branch of a vine, and when he had cut off his son's limbs, he recovered his senses. But the land remaining barren, the god declared through an oracle that it would bear fruit again if [pb_glossary id="1633"]Lycurgus[/pb_glossary] was put to death. On hearing that, the Edonians led him to Mount Pangaeum and bound him, and there by the will of Dionysus he died, destroyed by horses. [3.5.2] Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there, he came to [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy on [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id="914"]Pentheus[/pb_glossary], whom [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary] bore to Echion, had succeeded [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to these proceedings. And coming to [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary] to spy on the Maenads, he was torn limb from limb by his mother [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary] in a fit of madness; for she thought he was a wild beast. And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, Dionysus came to Argos, and there again, because they did not honour him, he drove the women mad, and they on the mountains devoured the flesh of the infants whom they carried at their breasts. [3.5.3] And, wishing to be ferried across from Icaria to Naxos, he hired a pirate ship of Tyrrhenians. But when they had put him on board, they sailed past Naxos and made for Asia, intending to sell him. However, he turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes. And the pirates went mad, and leaped into the sea, and were turned into dolphins. Thus men understood that he was a god and honoured him; and having brought up his mother from [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] and named her [pb_glossary id="908"]Thyone[/pb_glossary], he ascended up with her to heaven. [3.5.4] But [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary] left [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary] and went to the Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary] as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary], turned into a serpent and sent away by [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] to the Elysian Fields. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus3.html#4

Dionysus and the Tyrrhenian Pirates

"Homeric Hymn 7 To Dionysus" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang and K. Minniti)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

[content warning for the following source: ableist language]

One famous myths about Dionysus concerns his interactions with Tyrrhenian (Etruscan) pirates. In varying accounts of this myth, Dionysus is abducted by Tyrrhenian pirates who wish to extract a bounty from his capture. Dionysus reveals himself as a god by causing all sorts of natural, wild phenomena (such as bears appearing out of nowhere and grape vines cropping up around the ship). In one version, he turns the crew-members into dolphins. These scenes underline Dionysus' association with all things wild, untamable, and bacchic. This story is told most comprehensively in this "Homeric Hymn 7 To Dionysus," from the 7th century BCE.

[1] I will sing of Dionysus, the son of glorious [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary]. He appeared on a headland by the shore of the salty sea, looking like a young teenager: his long dark hair was flowing around him, and he wore a purple robe on his broad shoulders. Suddenly over the shimmering sea came Tyrrhenian pirates on a sturdy ship, led on by their own doom. When they saw him they signaled to one another and sprang out quickly to seize him, and brought him on board of their own ship triumphantly; for they thought he was the son of a God. They tried to bind him with crude ropes, but the bonds would not hold him, and the bindings fell down from his hands and feet, while he sat there with a smile in his dark eyes.

[15] Then the helmsman understood and cried out at once to his companions, and said 'You fools! What God is this whom you have kidnapped and bound, as strong as he is? Not even this sturdy ship can carry him. Surely this is either [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] or [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], bearer of the silver bow, or [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], for he does not look like a mortal man but like one of the gods who live on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. Come, then, let us set him free on the dark shore at once: do not play hands on him, in case he grows angry and stirs up dangerous winds and heavy storms.'

[25] So he said. But the captain scolded him with taunting words. 'Fool, mark the wind and help host the sail on the ship, and let us set forth in full sail. As for these men, we will see to him; I think he may be bound for Egypt, or Cyprus, or the [pb_glossary id="1203"]Hyperboreans[/pb_glossary], or further still. But in the end he will speak out and tell us about his friends, and all his wealth, and his brothers, now that fate has put him in our way.'

[32] When he had said this, he had the mast and sails hoisted on the ship, and wind filled the sails, and the crew hauled the sheets on either side. But soon strange things were seen among them. First of all, sweep, fragrant wine ran streaming throughout the whole black ship, emanating a wonderful smell, and all the sailors were amazed when they saw it. And suddenly a vine spread out both ways along the top of the sail with many clusters of grapes hanging down from it, and a dark ivy plant twined about the mast, blossoming with flowers and with reach berries growing on it; an all the full pins were covered with garlands. When the pirates saw all this, then at last they asked the helmsman to put the ship to land. But the god transformed into a dreadful lion there on the ship, and roared loudly; and he also showed his power by creating a shaggy bear who stood up in rage, while the lion was growling at the front of the ship. And so the sailors fled towards the stern and crowded confusedly around the right-minded helmsman, until suddenly the lion leaped upon the captain and mauled him. And when the pirates saw this, they all jumped overboard into the bright sea to escape a miserable fate, and were transformed into dolphins. But Dionysus had mercy on the helmsman and held him back from jumping, and made him happy by saying to him 'take courage, good ((lacuna))...for you have found favor in my heart. I am Dionysus of the loud cry, born of the union of the daughter of [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary].

[58] Hail to you, child of radiant [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary]! He who forgets you can in no way command a sweet song.

Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#7

Dionysus and Cybele

Hera hated Dionysus and she drove him mad, causing him to run away and wander around the world until he came to Phrygia (in what is now central Turkey). Here he met Cybele, a Phrygian mother goddess whose worship had been accepted by the Greeks. Cybele cured him of his madness and Dionysus established his cult and rites of worship. Dionysus’ rites were similar to those of Cybele, and they involved drinking, wild dancing, playing the tambourine, and a feeling of ecstasy, or divine possession. (“Ecstasy” is from a Greek word, meaning “to stand outside oneself.”) Dionysus also gained a group of female followers, called Maenads (or Bacchae or Bacchants), who followed him around, singing, dancing, drinking, and playing the tambourine. Maenads (their name means “mad women”) are usually shown in a state of ecstasy.

Catullus, Poems 63, "Of Berecynthia and Attis" (trans. A.S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Latin poem, 1st century BCE

[content warning for the following source: self harm, ableist language, trans- and intersex-phobic language]

In his 63rd poem, the Roman poet Catullus tells the myth of the Mediterranean mother goddess Cybele and her follower, Attis.

As soon as [pb_glossary id="1623"]Attis[/pb_glossary], carried over the deep seas in a swift boat, had reached the Phrygian woods, with rapid eager steps, had returned to a dark corner of the goddess’s grove, goaded by mad fury, and there, his wits wandering had sliced off his testicles with a sharp stone, and had seen his remaining members devoid of power, and that country’s soil spotted with fresh blood, he took up the drum lightly in his pale hands, your drum, [pb_glossary id="170"]Cybele[/pb_glossary], yours, Great Mother, in your rite, and striking the sounding bull’s-hide with delicate fingers, chanted to his followers, as it quivered from his assault: "[pb_glossary id="1624"]Gallae[/pb_glossary], come, rise, to the high woods of [pb_glossary id="170"]Cybele[/pb_glossary], now, come, now, wandering cattle of Dindymus’ Lady, like exiles wandering here on an alien shore, followers of my way, lead by me, my friends, you suffered the swift seas and the wild waves and sheared your sex from your bodies with great hatred: gladden the Lady’s spirit with swift movements. Banish dull delay from your minds: come, now, follow, to Phrygian [pb_glossary id="170"]Cybele[/pb_glossary]’s house, the Phrygian goddess’s grove, where the voice of the cymbal clashes, the drum echoes, where the Phrygian flute-player plays on a curving reed, where the ivy-crowned [pb_glossary id="887"]Maenads[/pb_glossary] violently toss their heads, where they act out the sacred rites with high-pitched howls, where the goddess’s wandering retinue often hovers, where we should hurry with our swift triple-step.’ As [pb_glossary id="1623"]Attis[/pb_glossary], the counterfeit woman, sings this to his friends, the Bacchic choir suddenly cries with quivering tongues, the drum echoes it gently, the hollow cymbals ring. The swift choir comes to green [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary] on hurrying feet. [pb_glossary id="1623"]Attis[/pb_glossary], leading, panting wildly, goading his scattered wits, enters the dark grove accompanied by the drum, like a wild heifer escaping the weight of the yoke: The agile [pb_glossary id="1624"]Gallae[/pb_glossary] follow their swift-footed leader. Then, since wearied, foodless, they reach [pb_glossary id="170"]Cybele[/pb_glossary]’s grove, they’re seized by sleep from their excessive labours. Dull tiredness overwhelms eyes giving way to languor: mad frenzy vanishes in the calm of gentle breath. But when the Sun from his golden face scanned the bright heavens with radiant eye, the harsh earth, and wild sea, and dispelled the shadows of night with his lively steeds, then the [pb_glossary id="189"]Grace[/pb_glossary], Pasithea, takes swift Sleep, flying from the waking [pb_glossary id="1623"]Attis[/pb_glossary], to her beating heart. So, rapidly, from sweet dream and free of madness, [pb_glossary id="1623"]Attis[/pb_glossary] recollected his actions in his thoughts, and saw with a clear heart what and where he had been, turning again with passionate mind to the sea. There gazing at the wide waters with tearful eyes he raised his voice and sadly bemoaned his homeland: "Land that fathered me, land that mothered me, I, who left you so sadly, have reached the groves of [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary], like a slave fleeing his master, so am I among snows, and the frozen lairs of wild creatures, and should I in madness enter one of their dens where would I think to find you buried in those places? The keen eye itself desires to turn itself towards you, while my thoughts are free of the wild creatures for a while. Have I been brought from my distant home for this grove? Shall I lose country, possessions, friends, kin? Shall I lose forum, wrestling ring, stadium and gymnasium? Sorrow on sorrow, again and again complaint in the heart. What form have I not been, what have I not performed? I a woman, I a young man, a youth, a boy, I the flower of the athletes, the glory of the wrestling ring: my doorway frequented, my threshold warm, my house was garlanded with wreaths of flowers, at the dawn separation from my bed. Now am I brought here priest and slave of divine [pb_glossary id="170"]Cybele[/pb_glossary]? I, to be [pb_glossary id="887"]Maenad[/pb_glossary]: a part of myself: a sterile man? I to worship on green [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary] in a place cloaked in frozen snow? I to live my life beneath the high summits of Phrygia, where deer haunt the woods, where the wild boar roams? Now I grieve for what I did, now I repent." As the swift sounds leave his rosy lips the fresh words reach the twin ears of the goddess, as [pb_glossary id="170"]Cybele[/pb_glossary] is loosing the lions from their yoke and goading the left-hand beast: she spoke to it, saying, "Go now, be fierce, so you make him mad, so he is forced to return to the grove by the pain of his madness, he who desires to escape my rule so freely. Let your tail wound your back, let the lashes show, make the whole place echo to your bellowing roar, shake your red mane fiercely over your taut neck." So [pb_glossary id="170"]Cybele[/pb_glossary] spoke in threat and loosened the leash. The wild beast, urging itself to speed, roused in spirit, tore away, roared, broke madly through the thickets. and when it reached the wet margin of the white sands, and saw delicate [pb_glossary id="1623"]Attis[/pb_glossary] near to the ocean waves, it charged. He fled maddened to the wild wood: there to be ever enslaved, for the rest of his life. Goddess, Great Goddess, [pb_glossary id="170"]Cybele[/pb_glossary], Lady of Dindymus, Mistress, let all your anger be far from my house: make others aroused, make other men raving mad. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Catullus.php#anchor_Toc531846788

Bacchus and Liber

Horace, Odes, Book 2 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Latin lyrical poem, 1st century BCE

Around the same time as Catullus, the Roman poet Horace wrote this poem describing the Roman version of Dionysus, called Bacchus. Bacchus combines elements of the Greek Dionysus and the Phrygian Cybele with elements of the native Italian god, Liber.

[2:19 To Bacchus] I saw Bacchus on distant cliffs - believe me, O history- he was teaching songs there, and the [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymphs[/pb_glossary] were learning them, and all the goat-footed [pb_glossary id="372"]Satyrs[/pb_glossary] with pointed ears. Evoe![footnote]The exclamation "evoe" is associated with ecstatic worship of Dionysus, and with being in a Bacchic frenzy.[/footnote] My mind fills with fresh fear, my heart filled with Bacchus, is troubled, and violently rejoices. Evoe! Spare me, [pb_glossary id="371"]Liber[/pb_glossary], dreaded for your mighty [pb_glossary id="913"]thyrsus[/pb_glossary], spare me. It’s right to sing of the willful [pb_glossary id="887"]Bacchantes[/pb_glossary], the fountain of wine, and the rivers of milk, to sing of the honey that’s welling, and sliding down from the hollow tree-trunks: It’s right to sing of your bride turned goddess, your [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], crowned among stars: the palace of [pb_glossary id="914"]Pentheus[/pb_glossary], shattered in ruins, and the ending of Thracian [pb_glossary id="1633"]Lycurgus[/pb_glossary]. You direct the streams, and the barbarous sea, and on distant summits, you drunkenly tie the hair of the Bistonian women, with harmless knots made of venomous snakes. When the impious army of [pb_glossary id="601"]Giants[/pb_glossary] tried to climb through the sky to [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s kingdom, you hurled back Rhoetus, with the claws and teeth of the terrifying lion. Though you’re said to be more suited to dancing, laughter, and games, and not equipped to suffer the fighting, nevertheless you shared the thick of battle as well as the peace. [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary] saw you, unharmed, and adorned with your golden horn, and, stroking you gently, with his tail, as you departed, licked your ankles and feet with his triple tongue. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/HoraceOdesBkII.php#anchor_Toc39742793

The Bacchae

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_1030" align="alignnone" width="1556"] Dionysus with a lion, black-figure amphora, ca. 520 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]
Dionysus is one of the deities whose representation in art changed the most throughout antiquity. In his earliest appearances on vases, Dionysus is usually portrayed as a mature, bearded man holding a wineskin or other drinking implements.
[caption id="attachment_981" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Dionysus, fragment from red-figure krater (Martin von Wagner Museum, Würzburg)[/caption]
This way of representing the god never really went out of style; however, later in time another iconography emerged, in which the god appeared as a beardless youth.
[caption id="attachment_984" align="alignleft" width="285"] Apollo, Dionysus, and Hermes, red-figure situla, ca. 350 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Madrid)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_985" align="alignright" width="356"] Dionysus, Parthenon East Pediment sculpture, ca. 447 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]
Dionysus' most common attributes in art are all related to the world of symposia and wine-making: drinking cups and horns, vines, and grapes.
[caption id="attachment_991" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Dionysus with his attendants, black-figure krater, ca. 525 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1003" align="alignnone" width="1200"] The Epiphany of Dionysus, Dion mosaic (Archaeological Museum, Dion)[/caption]
The god is usually represented wearing a crown of ivy leaves and holding a staff called a thyrsus that was covered with ivy vines surmounted by a pinecone. Dionysus was also often portrayed as riding a leopard (or a panther), or on a chariot dragged by a couple of them or other wild felines.
[caption id="attachment_978" align="alignright" width="356"] Dionysus on a panther, with a silenus, red-figure krater, ca. 370 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_974" align="alignleft" width="289"] Dionysus riding a leopard, Pellas Mosaic (Archaeological Museum, Pella)[/caption]
A particular category of Athenian drinking vessels called 'eye-cups' featured the god's head shown from the front, bearded and crowned with ivy vines, between two eyes.
[caption id="attachment_963" align="alignnone" width="1846"] Dionysus, black-figure eye krater, ca. 520 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_987" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Dionysus, black-figure eye cup, ca. 520 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]
Dionysus is one of the few gods to be occasionally portrayed as a child. One of the most common scenes involving him is that of his "birth" from Zeus' thigh, but he could also be shown as a child being held by either Hermes or old Silenus.
[caption id="attachment_989" align="alignleft" width="298"] Hermes holding infant Dionysus, marble statue, 4th century BCE (Archaeological Museum, Olympia)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_973" align="alignright" width="349"] Silenus holding infant Dionysus, Tanagra terracotta figure, ca. 4th century BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3850" align="alignnone" width="1581"] Hermes at the birth of Dionysus, tracing from red-figure lekythos from ca. 470 BCE (accessed via Theoi.com/the Boston Museum of Fine Arts)[/caption]
Another common theme for Dionysus in art is his attempted kidnapping by Tyrrhenian pirates. This attempt always fails, and the god turns his would-be kidnappers into dolphins.
[caption id="attachment_994" align="alignnone" width="2560"] The Tyrrhenian sailors transforming into dolphins, black-figure hydria, ca. 500 BCE (Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Rome)[/caption]
When not represented in the company of other deities, the god's usual companions in art are satyrs and syleni (goat-men hybrids), Maenads, as well as his wife, the Cretan princess Ariadne.
[caption id="attachment_968" align="alignleft" width="303"] Dionysus with a satyr and maenad, red-figure amphora, ca. 500 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_970" align="alignright" width="335"] Dionysus with Ariadne and attendants, black-figure amphora, ca. 520 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

Bacchus in Art
[caption id="attachment_1002" align="alignnone" width="1999"] Bacchus, Roman relief (Museo Archaeologico, Naples)[/caption]
The representation of Bacchus was not radically different from that of his Greek counterpart Dionysus.
[caption id="attachment_976" align="aligncenter" width="519"] Dionysus, Pompeii fresco, ca. 1st century CE (Museo Archaeologico, Naples)[/caption]
The god kept being portrayed as a young man crowned with ivy vines or grape leaves, often holding a thyrsus or drinking vessels, accompanied by maenads and satyrs, and sometimes riding a leopard.
[caption id="attachment_1029" align="aligncenter" width="586"] Triumph in honour of Bacchus, Roman mosaic, 3rd century CE (Sousse Archaeological Museum)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_998" align="aligncenter" width="769"] Bacchus on a panther, Roman mosaic (Musée Gallo-Romain de Fourvières, Lyon)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Hermes

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 19:01:33 +0000
[caption id="attachment_1131" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Hermes, red-figure kylix, ca. 510 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]

Origins

Sections & Primary Sources

Zeus and Maia

Homeric Hymn 18, "To Hermes"

[caption id="attachment_1094" align="alignnone" width="2331"] Hermes and Maia, red-figure amphora, ca. 500 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]
Zeus and Maia

Hermes was another son of Zeus and one of the twelve Olympians. He was born of the sexual union between Zeus and the nymph Maia, who lived in a cave on Mount Cyllene, in the northern Peloponnese. He was the messenger of the Olympians, a god of crossroads, and a trickster. He wore a special, large brimmed hat and winged sandals. He is also given the epithet Argeiphontes, meaning "Slayer of Argus," since he killed the one-hundred-eyed-giant, Argus. In Roman myth, Hermes is called Mercury.

Homeric Hymn 18, "To Hermes" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

This 7th century BCE Homeric Hymn to Hermes gives a brief version of the god's origin.
[1] I sing of Cyllenian Hermes, the Slayer of [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary], lord of Cyllene and Arcadia rich in flocks, luck-bringing messenger of the undying gods. He was born of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary], a shy goddess and the daughter of [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], when she slept with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. She [ [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] ] always avoided the crowds of the blessed gods, and lived in a shadowy cave. And there the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] [Zeus] used to sleep with the rich-tressed [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] at dead of night, while white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] lay in sweet sleep: and no undying god, nor any mortal, knew about it. And so hail to you, Son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary]; with you I have begun: now I will turn to another song! Hail, Hermes, giver of grace, guide, and giver of good things! Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#18

Hermes in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

Hermes and the Invention of the Lyre

Homeric Hymn 4, "To Hermes"

Hermes Argeiphontes Hermaphroditus

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.274-388

Hermes and the Invention of the Lyre

Homeric Hymn 4, "To Hermes" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

This longer Homeric Hymn to Hermes is about the first trick that Hermes plays on his brother Apollo shortly after his birth, while he is still a young infant. This trick establishes Hermes reputation as a trickster god and also cements the friendship between Hermes and Apollo. Further, it functions as an etiological myth for the lyre, the popular stringed instrument of ancient Greece and important accouterment of Apollo.
[1] [pb_glossary id="348"]Muse[/pb_glossary], sing of Hermes, the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary], lord of Cyllene and of Arcadia rich in flocks, the luck-bringing messenger of the immortals whom [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] bore, the rich-haired [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary], when she was joined in love with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], -- a shy goddess, for she avoided the company of the blessed gods, and lived within a deep, shady cave. There the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] used to lie with the rich-haired [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary], unseen by deathless gods and mortal men, at dead of night while sweet sleep held white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] tight. And when the purpose of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] was fixed in heaven, she was delivered and a notable thing came to pass. For then she [ [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] ] gave birth to a son, of many shifts, consistently cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods. Born at dawn, at midday he played on the lyre, and in the evening he stole the cattle of far-shooting [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] on the fourth day of the month; for on that day queenly [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] gave birth to him. As soon as he had leaped from his mother's heavenly womb, he did not lie and wait long in his holy cradle, but he sprang up and sought the oxen of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]. But as he stepped over the threshold of the high-roofed cave, he found a tortoise there and gained endless delight. For it was Hermes who first made the tortoise a singer.[footnote]Lyres were typically made of tortoise shells, or of wood stylized to mimic a tortoise shell.[/footnote] The creature crossed his path at the courtyard gate, where it was feeding on the rich grass in front of the dwelling, waddling along. [28] When he saw it, the luck-bringing son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] laughed and said, "An omen of great luck for me so soon! I do not reject it. Hail, comrade of the feast, lovely in shape, sounding at the dance! With joy I meet you! Where did you get that rich ornament, that spangled shell -- a tortoise living in the mountains? But I will take you and carry you in: you will help me and I will do you no disgrace, though first of all you must do something of profit to me. It is better to be at home: harm may come out of doors. Living, you shall be a spell against mischievous witchcraft;[footnote]Some writers considered tortoises to be protective talismans.[/footnote] but if you die, then you shall make sweetest song." [39] Thus speaking, he took up the tortoise in both hands and went back into the house carrying his charming toy. Then he cut off its limbs and scooped out the marrow of the mountain-tortoise with a scoop of grey iron. Like a swift thought that darts through the heart of a man when many worries haunt him, or like bright glances that flash from the eye, so glorious Hermes planned both thought and deed at once. He cut stalks of reed to measure and fixed them, fastening their ends across the back and through the shell of the tortoise, and then stretched ox hide all over it by his skill. Also he put in the horns and fitted a cross-piece upon the two of them, and stretched seven strings of sheep-gut. But when he had made it, he tested each string in turn with the key, as he held the lovely thing. At the touch of his hand it sounded marvelously; and, as he tried it, the god sang sweet random snatches [of songs], like how youths exchange taunts at festivals. He sang of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], and of neat-footed [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary], and the conversation which they had before when they were together in love, telling all the glorious tale of his own conceiving. He celebrated, too, the handmaids of the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary], and her bright home, and the tripods all about the house, and the abundant cauldrons. [62] But while he was singing of all these things, his heart was bent on other matters. And he took the hollow lyre and laid it in his sacred cradle, and sprang from the sweet-smelling hall to a watch-place, pondering sheer trickery in his heart -- deeds like those that dishonourable people pursue in the dark night-time; for he longed to taste meat. [68] The [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary] was going down beneath the earth towards [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] with his horses and chariot when Hermes came hurrying to the shadowy mountains of Pieria, where the divine cattle of the blessed gods had their steads and grazed the pleasant, unmown meadows. Of these the Son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary], the sharp-eyed [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] then cut off from the herd fifty loud-lowing cattle, and drove them straggling-wise across a sandy place, turning their hoof-prints aside. Also, he thought of a crafty ruse and reversed the marks of their hoofs, making the front behind and the hind before, while he himself walked the other way. Then he wove sandals with wicker-work by the sand of the sea, wonderful things, unthought of, unimagined; for he mixed together tamarisk and myrtle-twigs, fastening together an armful of their fresh, young wood, and tied them, leaves and all securely under his feet as light sandals. The glorious [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] plucked the brushwood in Pieria, as he was preparing for his journey, making his clever device like one making haste for a long journey. [87] But an old man tilling his flowering vineyard saw him as he was hurrying down the plain through grassy Onchestus. So the Son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] began and said to him, "Old man, digging about your vines with bowed shoulders, surely you shall have much wine when all these bear fruit, if you obey me and strictly remember not to have seen what you have seen, and not to have heard what you have heard, and to keep silent when nothing of your own is harmed." [94] When he had said this much, he hurried the strong cattle on together: through many shadowy mountains and echoing gorges and flowery plains glorious Hermes drove them. And now the divine night, his dark ally, was mostly passed, and dawn that sets folk to work was quickly coming on, while bright [pb_glossary id="1537"]Selene[/pb_glossary], daughter of the lord [pb_glossary id="1538"]Pallas[/pb_glossary], Megamedes' son, had just climbed her watch-post, when the strong Son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] drove the wide-browed cattle of [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] to the river Alpheus. And they came unwearied to the high-roofed sheds and the drinking-troughs that were by the noble meadow. Then, after he had well-fed the loud-bellowing cattle with fodder and driven them into the cowshed, close-packed and chewing lotus, he began to seek the art of fire. He chose a stout laurel branch and trimmed it with the knife ((lacuna))[footnote]Indicates a gap or missing segment in the text[/footnote] . . .held firmly in his hand: and the hot smoke rose up. For it was Hermes who first invented fire-sticks and fire. Next he took many dried sticks and piled them thick and plenty in a sunken trench: and flame began to glow, spreading afar the blast of fierce-burning fire. [115] And while the strength of glorious [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] was beginning to kindle the fire, he dragged out two lowing, horned cows close to the fire; for great strength was with him. He threw them both panting upon their backs on the ground, and rolled them on their sides, bending their necks over, and pierced their vital chord. Then he went on from task to task: first he cut up the rich, fatty meat, and pierced it with wooden spits, and roasted flesh and the honourable backbone and the abdomen full of dark blood all together. He laid them there upon the ground, and spread out the hides on a rugged rock: and so they are still there many ages afterwards, a long, long time after all this, and are continually. Next, glad-hearted Hermes dragged the rich meats he had prepared and put them on a smooth, flat stone, and divided them into twelve portions distributed by lot, making each portion wholly honourable. Then glorious Hermes longed for the sacrificial meat, for the sweet flavour wearied him, god though he was; nevertheless his proud heart did not give in to devouring the flesh, although he greatly desired to. But he put away the fat and all the flesh in the high-roofed cowshed, placing them high up to be a token of his youthful theft. And after that he gathered dry sticks and utterly destroyed with fire all the hoofs and all the heads. [138] And when the god had duly finished all, he threw his sandals into deep-eddying Alpheus, and quenched the embers, covering the black ashes with sand, and so spent the night while [pb_glossary id="1537"]Selene[/pb_glossary]'s soft light shone down. Then the god went straight back again at dawn to the bright crests of Cyllene, and no one met him on the long journey either of the blessed gods or mortal men, nor did any dog bark. And luck-bringing Hermes, the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], passed edgeways through the key-hole of the hall like the autumn breeze, even as mist: straight through the cave he went and came to the rich inner chamber, walking softly, and making no noise as one might upon the floor. Then glorious Hermes went hurriedly to his cradle, wrapping his swaddling clothes about his shoulders as though he were a weak baby, and lay playing with the covering about his knees; but at his left hand he kept close his sweet lyre. [155] But the god did not pass unseen by the goddess his mother; but she said to him, "How now, you rogue! Where did you come from back so at night-time, you who wears shamelessness as a garment? And now I surely believe the son of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] will soon have you thrown out of doors with unbreakable cords about your ribs, or you will live a rogue's life in the narrow valleys robbing with your wits alone. Go to, then; your father got you to be a great worry to mortal men and deathless gods." [162] Then Hermes answered her with crafty words, "Mother, why do you seek to frighten me like a feeble child whose heart knows few words of blame, a fearful baby that fears its mother's scolding? Nay, but I will try whatever plan is best, and so feed myself and you continually. We will not be content to remain here, as you bid, the only ones of all the gods not fed with offerings and prayers. Better to live in fellowship with the deathless gods continually, rich, wealthy, and enjoying stories of grain, than to sit always in a gloomy cave: and, as regards honour, I too will enter upon the rite that [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] has. If my father will not give it to me, I will seek -- and I am able -- to be a prince of robbers. And if [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]'s most glorious son shall seek me out, I think another and a greater loss will befall him. For I will go to [pb_glossary id="945"]Pytho[/pb_glossary] to break into his great house, and will plunder therefrom splendid tripods, and cauldrons, and gold, and plenty of bright iron, and much apparel; and you will see it if you want." [182] With such words they spoke together, the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary], and the lady [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary]. Now [pb_glossary id="215"]Eos[/pb_glossary] the early-born was rising from deep-flowing [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], bringing light to men, when [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], as he went, came to Onchestus, the lovely grove and sacred place of the loud-roaring Holder of the Earth [ [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] ]. There he found an old man grazing his beast along the pathway from his court-yard fence, and the all-glorious Son of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] began and said to him, "Old man, weeder of grassy Onchestus, I am come here from Pieria seeking cattle, cows all of them, all with curving horns, from my herd. The black bull was grazing alone away from the rest, but fierce-eyed hounds followed the cows, four of them, all of one mind, like men. These were left behind, the dogs and the bull -- which is great wonder; but the cows strayed out of the soft meadow, away from the pasture when the sun was just going down. Now tell me this, old man born long ago: have you seen anyone going by behind those cows?" [201] Then the old man answered him and said, "My son, it is hard to tell all that one's eyes see; for many wayfarers pass back and forth this way, some bent on much evil, and some on good: it is difficult to know each one. However, I was digging about my plot of vineyard all day long until the sun went down, and I thought, good sir, but I do not know for certain, that I marked a child, whoever the child was, that followed long-horned cattle -- an infant who had a staff and kept walking from side to side: he was driving them backwards way, with their heads toward him." [212] So said the old man. And when [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] heard this report, he went yet more quickly on his way, and presently, seeing a long-winged bird, he knew at once by that omen that thief was the child of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]. So the lord [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], hurried on to goodly Pylos seeking his shambling oxen, and he had his broad shoulders covered with a dark cloud. But when the Far-Shooter saw the tracks, he cried, "Oh, oh! Truly this is a great wonder that my eyes behold! These are indeed the tracks of straight-horned oxen, but they are turned backwards towards the flowery meadow. But these others are not the footprints of man or woman or grey wolves or bears or lions, nor do I think they are the tracks of a rough-maned [pb_glossary id="1398"]Centaur[/pb_glossary] -- whoever it is that with swift feet makes such monstrous footprints; wonderful are the tracks on this side of the way, but yet more wonderfully are those on that." [227] When he had so said, the lord [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], the Son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] hurried on and came to the forest-clad mountain of Cyllene and the deep-shadowed cave in the rock where the divine nymph brought forth the child of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who is the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]. A sweet odour spread over the lovely hill, and many thin-shanked sheep were grazing on the grass. Then far-shooting [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] himself stepped down in haste over the stone threshold into the dusky cave. [235] Now when the Son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] saw [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] in a rage about his cattle, he snuggled down in his fragrant swaddling-clothes; and as wood-ash covers over the deep embers of tree-stumps, so Hermes cuddled himself up when he saw the Far-Shooter. He squeezed head and hands and feet together in a small space, like a new born child seeking sweet sleep, though in truth he was wide awake, and he kept his lyre under his armpit. But the Son of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] was aware and did not fail to perceive the beautiful mountain-[pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] and her dear son, albeit a little child and swathed so craftily. He looked in every corner of the great dwelling and, taking a bright key, he opened three closets full of nectar and lovely ambrosia. And much gold and silver was stored in them, and many garments of the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary], some purple and some silvery white, such as are kept in the sacred houses of the blessed gods. [252] Then, after the Son of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] had searched out the recesses of the great house, he spoke to glorious Hermes, "Child, lying in the cradle, make haste and tell me of my cattle, or we two will soon fall out angrily. For I will take and cast you into dusty [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] and awful hopeless darkness, and neither your mother nor your father shall free you or bring you up again to the light, but you will wander under the earth and be the leader amongst little folk." [260] Then Hermes answered him with crafty words, "Son of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], what harsh words are these you have spoken? And is it cattle of the field you have come here to seek? I have not seen them. I have not heard of them. No one has told me of them. I cannot give news of them, nor win the reward for news. Am I like a cattle-lifter, a strong person? This is no task for me: rather I care for other things: I care for sleep, and milk of my mother's breast, and wrappings round my shoulders, and warm baths. Let no one hear the cause of this dispute; for this would be a great wonder indeed among the deathless gods, that a child newly born should pass in through the forepart of the house with cattle of the field: by saying so you speak extravagantly. I was born yesterday, and my feet are soft and the ground beneath is rough; nevertheless, if you will have it so, I will swear a great oath by my father's head and vow that neither am I guilty myself, neither have I seen any other who stole your cows -- whatever cows may be; for I know them only by hearsay." [278] So, then, said Hermes, shooting quick glances from his eyes: and he kept raising his brows and looking this way and that, whistling long and listening to [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]'s story as to an idle tale. But far-working [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] laughed softly and said to him, "O rogue, deceiver, crafty in heart, you talk so innocently that I most surely believe that you have broken into many a well- built house and stripped more than one poor wretch bare this night, gathering his goods together all over the house without noise. You will plague many lonely herdsmen in mountain glades, when you come upon herds and thick-fleeced sheep, and have a hankering after flesh. But come now, if you would not sleep your last and latest sleep, get out of your cradle, you comrade of dark night. Surely hereafter this shall be your title amongst the deathless gods, to be called the prince of robbers continually." [293] So said [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], and took the child and began to carry him. But at that moment the strong [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] executed his plan: while [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] held him in his hands, he sent forth an omen, a hard-working serf, a common messenger [this is referring to a fart], and then sneezed immediately after. And when [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] heard it, he dropped glorious Hermes out of his hands on the ground. Then, sitting down before him, though he was eager to go on his way, he spoke mockingly to Hermes, "Fear not, little swaddling baby, son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary]. I shall find the strong cattle presently by these omens, and you shall lead the way." [304] When [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] had said this, Cyllenian Hermes sprang up quickly, jumping hastily. With both hands he pushed the covering that he had wrapped around his shoulders up to his ears and said, "Where are you carrying me, Far-Worker, hastiest of all the gods? Is it because of your cattle that you are so angry and harass me? O dear, I wish that all the oxen in the world would die; for it is not I who stole your cows, nor did I see another person steal them -- whatever cows are, since I have only ever heard stories about them. No, go on and take it up with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]." [313] So Hermes the shepherd and [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]'s glorious son kept stubbornly disputing each part of their argument: [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], speaking truly ((lacuna)) . . . unfairly sought to seize glorious Hermes because of the cows; but he, the Cyllenian, tried to deceive the God of the Silver Bow [Apollo] with tricks and cunning words. Even though he [Hermes] had many tricks, he found that the other [ [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] ] had as many cunning devices, and he began to walk across the sand, himself in front, while the Son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] came behind. Soon these lovely children of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] came to the top of fragrant [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], to their father, the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]; for the scales of judgement were set up there for both of them. There was an assembly on snowy [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and the immortals who do not die were gathering in the hour after the rising of gold-throned [pb_glossary id="215"]Dawn[/pb_glossary]. [327] Then Hermes and [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] of the Silver Bow stood at the knees of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]: and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who thunders on high spoke to his glorious son and asked him, "[pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], where do you come from, driving this great spoil, a newborn child that has the look of a herald? This is a heavy matter that has come before the council of the gods." [333] Then the lord, far-working [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], answered him, "O my father, you shall soon hear no innocent tale, though you reproach me that I alone am fond of robbery. Here is a child, a burgling robber, whom I found after a long journey in the hills of Cyllene: for my part I have never seen one so cheeky either among the gods or all men that catch folk unawares throughout the world. He stole away my cows from their meadow and drove them off in the evening along the shore of the loud-roaring sea, making straight for Pylos. There were double tracks, and wonderful they were, such as one might marvel at, the doing of a clever sprite; for as for the cows, the dark dust kept and showed their footprints leading towards the flowery meadow; but he himself -- bewildering creature -- crossed the sandy ground outside the path, not on his feet nor yet on his hands; but, furnished with some other means he trudged his way -- wonder of wonders! -- as though one walked on slender oak-trees. Now while he followed the cattle across sandy ground, all the tracks showed quite clearly in the dust; but when he had finished the long way across the sand, presently the cows' track and his own could not be traced over the hard ground. But a mortal man noticed him as he drove the wide-browed cattle straight towards Pylos. And as soon as he had shut them up quietly, and had gone home by crafty turns and twists, he lay down in his cradle in the gloom of a dim cave, as still as dark night, so that not even an eagle keenly gazing would have spied him. Much he rubbed his eyes with his hands as he prepared his lie, and he immediately said emphatically: "I have not seen them: I have not heard of them: no man has told me of them. I could not tell you of them, nor win the reward of telling.'" [365] When he had so spoken, [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] sat down. But Hermes on his part answered and said, pointing at the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], the lord of all the gods, "[pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], my father, indeed I will speak truth to you; for I am truthful and I cannot tell a lie. He came to our house today looking for his shambling cows, as the sun was newly rising. He brought no witnesses with him nor any of the blessed gods who had seen the theft, but with great violence ordered me to confess, threatening much to throw me into wide [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary]. For he has the rich bloom of glorious youth, while I was born but yesterday -- as he too knows -- nor am I like a cattle-lifter, a sturdy fellow. Believe my tale (for you claim to be my own father), that I did not drive his cows to my house -- so may I prosper -- nor crossed the threshold: this I say truly. I reverence [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] greatly and the other gods, and you I love and him I dread. You yourself know that I am not guilty: and I will swear a great oath upon it: -- No! by these rich-decked porticoes of the gods. And some day I will punish him, strong as he is, for this pitiless inquisition; but now do you help the younger." [387] So spoke the Cyllenian, the [pb_glossary id="647"]Slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary], while he kept shooting sidelong glances and kept his swaddling-clothes upon his arm, and did not cast them away. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] laughed out loud to see his evil-plotting child well and cunningly denying guilt about the cattle. And he asked them both to be of one mind and search for the cattle, and asked guiding Hermes to lead the way and, without mischievousness of heart, to show the place where now he had hidden the strong cattle. Then the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] bowed his head: and goodly Hermes obeyed him; for the will of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary] easily prevailed with him. [397] Then the two all-glorious children of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] hastened both to sandy Pylos, and reached the ford of Alpheus, and came to the fields and the high-roofed cowshed where the beasts were protected at night-time. Now while Hermes went to the cave in the rock and began to drive out the strong cattle, the son of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], looking aside, saw the cowhides on the sheer rock. And he asked glorious Hermes at once, "How were you able, you crafty rogue, to flay two cows, new-born and babyish as you are? For my part, I dread the strength that will be yours: there is no need you should keep growing long, Cyllenian, son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary]!" [409] So saying, [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] twisted strong osier branches with his hands meaning to bind Hermes with firm bands; but the bands would not hold him, and the branches of osier fell far from him and began to grow at once from the ground beneath their feet in that very place. And intertwining with one another, they quickly grew and covered all the wild-roving cattle by the will of thievish Hermes, so that [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] was astonished as he watched. [414] Then the strong [pb_glossary id="647"]slayer of Argus[/pb_glossary] looked furtively upon the ground with eyes flashing fire ((lacuna)) . . . desiring to hide ((lacuna)) . . . Very easily he softened the son of all-glorious [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] as he wanted, stern though the Far-shooter was. He took the lyre upon his left arm and tried each string in turn with the key, so that it sounded awesomely at his touch. And [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] laughed for joy; for the sweet throb of the marvelous music went to his heart, and a soft longing took hold on his soul as he listened. Then the son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary], harping sweetly upon his lyre, took courage and stood at the left hand of [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]; and soon, while he played shrilly on his lyre, he lifted up his voice and sang, and lovely was the sound of his voice that followed. He sang the story of the deathless gods and of the dark earth, how at the first they came to be, and how each one received his portion. First among the gods he honoured Mnemosyne, mother of the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary], in his song; for the son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] was of her following. And next the goodly son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] hymned the rest of the immortals according to their order in age, and told how each was born, mentioning all in order as he struck the lyre upon his arm. [433] But [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] was seized with a longing not to be appeased, and he opened his mouth and spoke winged words to Hermes, "Slayer of oxen, trickster, busy one, comrade of the feast, this song of yours is worth fifty cows, and I believe that soon we shall settle our quarrel peacefully. But come now, tell me this, resourceful son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary]: has this marvelous thing been with you from your birth, or did some god or mortal man give it to you -- a noble gift -- and teach you heavenly song? For wonderful is this new-uttered sound I hear, the like of which I vow that no man nor god dwelling on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] ever yet has known but you, O thievish son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary]. What skill is this? What song for desperate cares? What way of song? For truly here are three things to hand all at once from which to choose, -- mirth, and love, and sweet sleep. And though I am a follower of the Olympian [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] who love dances and the bright path of song -- the full-toned chant and ravishing thrill of flutes -- yet I never cared for any of those feats of skill at young men's revels, as I do now for this: I am filled with wonder, O son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], at your sweet playing. But now, since you, though little, have such glorious skill, sit down, dear boy, and respect the words of your elders. For now you shall have renown among the deathless gods, you and your mother also. This I will declare to you exactly: by this shaft of cornel wood [the caduceus] I will surely make you a leader renowned among the deathless gods, and fortunate, and will give you glorious gifts and will not deceive you from first to last." [463] Then Hermes answered him with artful words, "You question me carefully, O Far-worker; yet I am not jealous that you should enter upon my art: this day you shall know it. For I seek to be friendly with you both in thought and word. Now you well know all things in your heart, since you sit foremost among the deathless gods, O son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and are goodly and strong. And wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] loves you as all right is, and has given you splendid gifts. And they say that from the teachings of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] you have learned both the honours due to the gods, O Far-worker, and oracles from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], even all his ordinances. Of all these I myself have already learned that you have great wealth. Now, you are free to learn whatever you please; but since, as it seems, your heart is so strongly set on playing the lyre, chant, and play upon it, and give yourself to merriment, taking this as a gift from me, and do you, my friend, bestow glory on me. Sing well with this clear-voiced companion in your hands; for you are skilled in good, well-ordered words. From now on bring it confidently to rich feasts and lovely dances and glorious revels, a joy by night and by day. Whoever with wit and wisdom asks of it cunningly, [the lyre] it teaches through its sound all manner of things that delight the mind, being easily played with gentle familiarities, for it hates laborious drudgery; but whoever in ignorance asks of it violently, to him it chatters only vanity and foolishness. But you are able to learn whatever you please. So then, I will give you this lyre, glorious son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], while I for my part will graze down with wild-roving cattle the pastures on hill and horse-feeding plain: so the cows covered by the bulls will produce many calves, both males and females. And now there is no need for you, bargainer though you are, to be furiously angry." [496] When Hermes had said this, he held out the lyre: and [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] took it, and readily put his shining whip in Hermes' hand, and ordained him keeper of herds. The son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] received it joyfully, while the glorious son of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], the lord far-working [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], took the lyre upon his left arm and tried each string with the key. Awesomely it sounded at the touch of the god, while he sang sweetly to its note. [503] Afterwards they two, the all-glorious sons of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] turned the cows back towards the sacred meadow, but themselves rushed back to snowy [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], delighting in the lyre. Then wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] was glad and made them both friends. And Hermes loved the son of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] continually, even as he does now, when he had given the lyre as token to the Far-shooter, who played it skilfully, holding it upon his arm. But for himself Hermes found out another cunning art and made himself the pipes whose sound is heard afar. [513] Then the son of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] said to Hermes, "Son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary], guide and cunning one, I fear you may steal from me the lyre and my curved bow together; for you have an office from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], to establish deeds of barter amongst men throughout the fruitful earth. Now if you would only swear me the great oath of the gods, either by nodding your head, or by the potent water of [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary], you would do all that can please and ease my heart." [521] Then [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary]'s son nodded his head and promised that he would never steal anything of all the Far-shooter possessed, and would never go near his strong house; but [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], swore to be fellow and friend to Hermes, vowing that he would love no other among the immortals, neither god nor man sprung from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], better than Hermes: and the Father sent forth an eagle in confirmation. And [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] swore also, "Truly I will make you only to be an omen for the immortals and all alike, trusted and honoured by my heart. Furthermore, I will give you a splendid staff of riches and wealth: it is of gold, with three branches, and will keep you scatheless, accomplishing every task, whether of words or deeds that are good, which I claim to know through the teachings of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. But as for sooth-saying, noble, heaven-born child, of which you ask, it is not lawful for you to learn it, nor for any other of the deathless gods: only the mind of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] knows that. I am pledged and have vowed and sworn a strong oath that no other of the eternal gods save I should know the wise-hearted counsel of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. And do not, my brother, bearer of the golden wand, ask me to tell you those decrees which all-seeing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] intends. As for men, I will harm one and profit another, sorely perplexing the tribes of unenviable men. Whoever comes guided by the call and flight of birds of sure omen, that man shall have advantage through my voice, and I will not deceive him. But whoever trusts idly-chattering birds and seeks to invoke my prophetic art against my will, and to understand more than the eternal gods, I declare that he shall come on a futile journey; yet his gifts I would take. [550] "But I will tell you another thing, Son of all-glorious [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary], luck-bringing genius of the gods. There are certain holy ones, sisters born -- three virgins gifted with wings: their heads are besprinkled with white meal, and they dwell under a ridge of Parnassus. These are teachers of divination apart from me, the art which I practiced while still a boy following herds, though my father paid no attention to it. From their home they fly now here, now there, feeding on honey-comb and bringing all things to pass. And when they are inspired through eating yellow honey, they are willing to speak truth; but if they are deprived of the gods' sweet food, then they speak falsely, as they swarm in and out together. These, then, I give you; enquire of them strictly and delight your heart: and if you should teach any mortal to do so, often will he hear your response -- if he has good fortune. Take these, Son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary], and tend the wild roving, horned oxen and horses and patient mules." [568] So he spoke. And from heaven father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] himself gave confirmation to his words, and commanded that glorious Hermes should be lord over all birds of omen and grim-eyed lions, and boars with gleaming tusks, and over dogs and all flocks that the wide earth nourishes, and over all sheep; also that he only should be the appointed messenger to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], who, though he takes no gifts, will give him no small prize. [574] Thus the lord [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] showed his kindness for the Son of [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary] by all manner of friendship: and the Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] gave him grace besides. He consorts with all mortals and immortals: a little he profits, but continually throughout the dark night he tricks the tribes of mortal men. [579] And so, farewell, Son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary]; but I will remember you and another song also. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns2.html

Hermes Argeiphontes
[content warning for the following section: sexual violence]
Zeus often employed Hermes not only in sending messages but in performing tasks that Zeus was not able to do himself. One such instance was with Io, a mortal woman and priestess of Hera, whom Zeus lusted after. Zeus sent Io dreams commanding her to join him in the fields where her father kept his herds and flocks. She resisted these dreams, but eventually was compelled to come to the meadow. When she realized what Zeus wanted from her, she ran away. Zeus pursued and raped her. Hera, eager to catch her husband in the act of cheating, and came down from Olympus to confront him. Zeus quickly changed Io into a cow to hide his promiscuity from his wife. Hera, who knew that the cow was really Io, asked him to give her the beautiful cow as a present. He had to acquiesce in order to not give away his deception. Hera placed Io in a grove, guarded by Argus Panoptes (Argus "all-eyes"), a hundred-eyed monster.

Zeus sent the Hermes to get Io, but not even the trickster could steal her away, since Argus was able to make his eyes sleep in shifts and constantly be on guard. Hermes decided to disguise himself as a goatherd. He sat down by Argus and gently played his panpipes until all of Argus’ eyes had closed in sleep. Then, Hermes took up his sword and cut off the head of the monster, earning his name Argeiphontes, "Slayer of Argus."
For more on the myth of Hera, Io, and Zeus, see chapter 6.
Hermaphroditus

Hermes had many children by many different goddesses and mortal women. One of his offspring was Hermaphroditus, born from his sexual union with Aphrodite.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 4 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault (346-388), femme- and intersex-phobic language]

The story of Hermaphroditus, here told by Ovid as part of his Metamorphoses, is the etiological myth for the origin of intersex people.
[274-316] “Now you will hear where the pool of [pb_glossary id="1078"]Salmacis[/pb_glossary] got its bad reputation from, how its strength-draining waters weaken people, and soften the limbs they touch. The reason for it is hidden, but the fountain’s effect is widely known. The [pb_glossary id="1081"]Naiads[/pb_glossary] nursed a child born of Hermes, and a goddess, [pb_glossary id="167"]Cytherean[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], in [pb_glossary id="187"]Mount Ida[/pb_glossary]’s caves. His features were such that, in them, both mother and father could be seen: and from them he took his name, [pb_glossary id="1082"]Hermaphroditus[/pb_glossary]. When Hermes was fifteen years old, he left his native mountains and [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary], his nursery. He delighted in wandering in unknown lands, and gazing at unknown rivers, his enthusiasm making it easy to travel. He even reached the Lycian cities, and the Carians by Lycia. Here he saw a pool of water, clear to its very depths. There were no marsh reeds around it, no sterile sedge, no spikes of rushes: it is crystal liquid. The edges of the pool are bordered by fresh turf, and the grass is always green. A [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] lives there, but she is not skilled at the chase, or used to flexing the bow, or the effort of running, the only [pb_glossary id="1081"]Naiad[/pb_glossary] not known by swift-footed [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary]. “Often, it’s said, her sisters would tell her ‘[pb_glossary id="1078"]Salmacis[/pb_glossary], take up the hunting-spear or the painted quiver and vary your idleness with some hard work, hunting!’ But she takes up neither the hunting spear nor the painted quiver, and will not vary her idleness with the hardship of hunting. She only bathes her shapely limbs in the pool, often combs out her hair, with a comb that is made of boxwood from Cytorus, and looks in the water to see what suits it best. Then draped in a translucent robe, she lies down on the soft leaves, or in the soft grass. Often she gathers flowers. And she was also busy gathering them, then, when she saw the boy, and what she saw she longed to have. [317-345] “She did not go near him yet, though she was quick to go to him, waiting until she had calmed herself, checked her appearance, composed her expression, and merited being seen as beautiful. Then she began to say ‘Youth, O most worthy to be thought a god, if you are a god, you must be [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary], or, if you are mortal, whoever engendered you is blessed, and any brother of yours is happy, any sister fortunate, if you have sisters, and even the nurse who suckled you at her breast. But far beyond them, and far more blessed is she, if there is a she, promised to you, whom you think worthy of marriage. If there is someone, let mine be a stolen pleasure, if not, I will be the one, and let us enter into marriage together.’ “After this the [pb_glossary id="1081"]naiad[/pb_glossary] was silent. A red flush branded the boy’s face. He did not know what love was, though the blush was very becoming. Apples are tinged with this colour, hanging in a sunlit tree, or ivory painted with red, or the moon, eclipsed, blushing in her brightness, while the bronze shields clash, in vain, to rescue her. The [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] begged endlessly for at least a sisterly kiss, and, about to throw her arms round his ivory-white neck, he said ‘Stop this, or shall I go, and leave this place, and you?’ [pb_glossary id="1078"]Salmacis[/pb_glossary], afraid, turning away, pretended to go, saying, ‘I freely surrender this place to you, be my guest.’ But she still looked back, and hid herself among bushes in the secluded woods, on her bended knees. But he, obviously at leisure, as if unobserved, walks here and there on the grass and playfully, at the end of his walk, dips his feet and ankles in the pool. Then, quickly captured by the coolness of the enticing water, he stripped the soft clothes from his slender body. [346-388] “Then she [ [pb_glossary id="1078"]Salmacis[/pb_glossary] ] was truly pleased. And [pb_glossary id="1078"]Salmacis[/pb_glossary] was inflamed with desire for his naked form. The [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary]’s eyes blazed with passion, as when [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary]’s likeness is reflected from a mirror that faces his brightest unclouded orb [the sun]. She can scarcely wait, scarcely contain her delight, now longing to hold him, now unable to keep her love to herself. He, clapping his open palms to his side, dives into the pool, and leading with one arm and then the other, he gleams through the pure water, as if one sheathed an ivory statue or bright lilies behind clear glass. ‘I have won, he is mine’, the [pb_glossary id="1081"]naiad[/pb_glossary] cries, and flinging aside all her garments, she throws herself into the midst of the water. “She held him to her, struggling, snatching kisses from the fight, putting her hands beneath him, touching his unwilling breast, overwhelming the youth from this side and that. At last, she entwines herself face to face with his beauty, like a snake, lifted by the king of birds and caught up into the air, as [pb_glossary id="1082"]Hermaphroditus[/pb_glossary] tries to slip away. Hanging there she winds around his head and feet and entangles his spreading wings in her coils. Or as ivy often interlaces tall tree trunks. Or as the cuttlefish holds the prey that it has surprised, underwater, wrapping its tentacles everywhere. “[ [pb_glossary id="1082"]Hermaphroditus[/pb_glossary] ] the descendant of [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] holds out, denying the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary]’s wished-for pleasure: she hugs him, and clings, as though she is joined to his whole body. ‘It is right to struggle, stubborn one,’ she says, ‘but you will still not escape. Grant this, you gods, that no day comes to part me from him, or him from me.’ Her prayer reached the gods. Now the entwined bodies of the two were joined together, and one form covered both. Just as when someone grafts a twig into the bark, they see both grow joined together, and develop as one, so when they were mated together in a close embrace, they were not two, but a two-fold form, so that they could not be called male or female, and seemed neither or either. “When he saw now that the clear waters which he had penetrated as a man, had made him a creature of both sexes, and his limbs had been softened there, [pb_glossary id="1082"]Hermaphroditus[/pb_glossary], stretching out his hands, said, but not in a man’s voice, ‘Father and mother, grant this gift to your son, who bears both your names: whoever comes to these fountains as a man, let him leave them half a man, and weaken suddenly at the touch of these waters!’ Both his parents moved by this, granted the prayer of their twin-formed son, and contaminated the pool with a damaging drug.” Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph4.php#anchor_Toc64106260
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved.

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_1111" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Hermes, Zeus, and Iris, tracing from red-figure stamnos from ca. 480 BCE.[/caption]
In Greek art, Hermes could be represented either as a bearded man or a beardless youth. His most recognizable attributes were the large-brim hat (petasos), the herald sceptre (kerykeion), and the winged sandals (talaria).
[caption id="attachment_1104" align="alignright" width="436"] Hermes and a winged boot, Apulian coin, 2nd century BCE (Classical Numismatic Group)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1093" align="alignnone" width="200"] Man in a petasos, Macedonian coin, ca. 400 BCE (Classical Numismatic Group)[/caption]
The god could also be portrayed wearing a short cloak usually donned by travelers, or more conventional clothes.
[caption id="attachment_1127" align="alignleft" width="317"] Hermes pursuing a woman, red-figure lekythos, ca. 470 BCE (National Archaeology Museum, Madrid)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1103" align="alignright" width="317"] Hermes with a satyr, red-figure amphora, ca. 490 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[/caption]
One of the god's epithets, psychopompos ('conductor of souls') was also part of his artistic representations, as Hermes was often shown on funerary stelae and vessels while escorting the deceased to the Underworld. Similarly, as another one of his epithets was kriophoros ('bearer of rams'), he could also be portrayed carrying a ram on his shoulders.
[caption id="attachment_1107" align="alignright" width="355"] Hermes Psychopomp leading a woman to Hades, relief funerary lekythos, ca. 420 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1098" align="alignleft" width="288"] Hermes Kriophoros, black-figure olpe, ca. 510 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1105" align="aligncenter" width="822"] Hermes Psychopomp, white-ground lekythos, ca. 450 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]
Hermes usually appeared in depictions of the myth of Io and Argus, as he was the one who put the monstrous guardian to sleep -- and then slayed him.
[caption id="attachment_1096" align="alignnone" width="1129"] Hermes kills Argus, with Zeus and the cow Io, tracing from red-figure vase from the 5th century BCE.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1097" align="alignnone" width="1126"] Hermes and the cow Io, black-figure amphora, ca. 540 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]
He could also be represented while escorting Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera in the scene of the judgement of Paris.
[caption id="attachment_1091" align="alignright" width="375"] Hermes at the judgment of Paris with Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, black-figure hydria, ca. 520 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1117" align="alignnone" width="286"] Hermes at the judgment of Paris, red-figure krater, ca. 380 BCE (Cabinet des Médailles, Paris)[/caption]
Hermai or herms, quadrangular pillars set up at crossroads, were sacred to the god as protector of travels and boundaries, and were most often surmounted by a head of the bearded variety. An erect phallus, thought to ward off bad luck and favour fertility, was also added to the front of these pillars.
[caption id="attachment_1121" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Two men making offerings on an altar before a herm, red-figure krater, ca. 480 BCE (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1114" align="alignleft" width="354"] Herm of Hermes, Sifnos, ca. 520 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1095" align="alignright" width="283"] Herm of Hermes, 1st century CE Roman copy of Greek original (Getty Villa, Los Angeles)[/caption]

Mercury
[caption id="attachment_1100" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Mercury, Sabratha fresco (Sabratha Museum)[/caption]
In Roman art, Mercury was represented as the youthful version of his Greek counterpart Hermes. The most common iconography remained that of a young, beardless man wearing the hat and winged sandals (and at times a winged hat) and carrying the sceptre.
[caption id="attachment_1102" align="alignright" width="420"] Hermes at the punishment of Ixion, Pompeii fresco, 1st century CE[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1119" align="alignnone" width="207"] Hermes Ingenui, marble statue, 2nd century copy of 5th century Greek statue (Vatican Museums, Vatican City)[/caption]
An interesting artistic variation was that of Hermanubis, a fusion between Mercury/Hermes and the jackal-headed Egyptian god Anubis, who was also a god of the Underworld. This [pb_glossary id="5728"]syncretic[/pb_glossary] god maintained the youthful body and attributes of Mercury, but was represented with the head of a jackal.
[caption id="attachment_1112" align="alignright" width="282"] Hermanubis, marble statue (Vatican Museums, Vatican City)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1113" align="alignnone" width="338"] Hermanubis, marble statue, 1st century CE (Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei nel Castello di Baia, Naples)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Prometheus

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 19:29:45 +0000
[caption id="attachment_1797" align="alignnone" width="1293"] The making of Pandora, red-figure kylix, ca. 470 BCE (British Museum, Paris)[/caption]

Origins

Prometheus was the son of the Titan Iapetus and Clymene, one of the daughters of Ocean. His great-grandparents were Gaia and Uranus. In some versions of his myth, his mother was Themis, the first wife of Zeus and the goddess of "right counsel." His brothers were Atlas and Epimetheus.
The name "Prometheus" means something like "forethought" in ancient Greek. Prometheus possessed the ability to foresee the future. Accordingly, he was the god of foresight and crafty council. In contrast, his brother Epimetheus, whose name, whose name means something like, "afterthought," was the god of hindsight.

Prometheus in Action

Sections & Primary Sources

Prometheus in the Titanomachy Prometheus Creates Men and Tricks Zeus Prometheus Steals Fire Pandora and the Invention of Women

Hesiod, Works and Days 43-106

Prometheus Bound

Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

[caption id="attachment_896" align="alignnone" width="1020"] Prometheus creating humankind, marble relief, 3rd century CE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]
Prometheus in the Titanomachy
The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound.
Because of his ability to see the future, Prometheus was able to anticipate the outcome of the Titanomachy, the conflict between the Titans and the Olympians. He convinced his brother Epimetheus to join with him on the side of Zeus and the Olympians, and thus did not suffer the same punishment as the other Titans when they lost.

Prometheus Creates Men & Tricks Zeus
The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound.
After the battle between Zeus and the Olympians, Zeus gave Prometheus the task of creating human beings out of clay. He created the first men (no women). However, the world was filled with beasts and getting enough food to stay alive was a difficult task. This task was only made harder by Zeus, who insisted that mortal men sacrifice animal flesh to the gods frequently. Prometheus appealed to Zeus to allow the mortals to give only a portion of each slaughtered animal to the gods and to keep the rest for themselves. Zeus agreed, but the two could not decide on which parts would be reserved for the gods.

Prometheus knew that Zeus wanted all the best parts of the animal, and so he came up with a plan to trick him. Prometheus took an animal and divided the choice cuts of the meat from the bones and other less savory tissues. He placed fat and a small portion of nice meat on top of the pile of bones to disguise it, and on top of the pile of good meat he placed some lesser meat and gristle. He had Zeus choose from the two piles. When the options were presented to him, Zeus chose the pile of bones. From then on, men would sacrifice the less desirable parts of the animal to the gods and keep the meat for themselves. Zeus was very angry that Prometheus had tricked him into choosing the sacrifice of lower quality and decided to punish him accordingly.
For a version of this myth, see chapter 1.
Prometheus Steals Fire
The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound.
Men now had meat, but they still had difficulty surviving because they could not keep warm or cook their food. Prometheus knew that fire would save them, but Zeus kept fire for the gods alone as retaliation for Prometheus' deception. Again, Prometheus thought up a plan: he took a red-hot coal from the fire on Mount Olympus and hid it inside a woody fennel stalk to give to mortals. He had effectively stolen fire from the gods. Now the mortals could cook and keep warm, and they were much happier; they worshipped Prometheus as the inventor of all the arts of civilization. But when Zeus saw mankind using fire, he became furious at having been tricked again. He ordered that Prometheus be nailed to a lonely spot in the [pb_glossary id="5706"]Caucasus[/pb_glossary] Mountains. In further punishment, every day an eagle would come to peck out his liver, and every night Prometheus’ liver would grow back so the eagle could eat it again. This myth is linked to the scientific fact that livers have the special ability to significantly repair themselves after damage.

Pandora and the Invention of Women
The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound.
Men lived on earth harmoniously and without suffering, but Zeus was not finished with his punishments: now he would make mankind answer for Prometheus' trickery. He instructed Hephaestus to build a beautiful woman, named [pb_glossary id="1601"]Pandora[/pb_glossary], and all of the gods adorned her with gifts. Zeus sent her to Epimetheus. Even though Prometheus had warned his brother not to accept any gift from the gods, Epimetheus (true to his name) forgot all about his brother’s warning. As soon as Epimetheus saw Pandora, he knew he had to have her for his wife. However, Pandora brought with her a jar that was filled with evils. When curiosity overtook her, Pandora opened the jar, allowing all the evils to fly out into the world. She hastily shut the jar, which now held only one thing back from humankind: hope.

Hesiod, Works and Days 43-106(trans. G. Nagy, adapted by T. Mulder)

Greek Epic, 7th century BCE

The Works and Days is considered epic poetry because it is written in dactylic hexameter, but it is also an example of didactic or educational poetry. Hesiod addressed the poem to his brother Perses, whom he believed needed to be taught some important life lessons after a dispute between the two brothers over their inheritance. The Works and Days reads like a manual for being a good person (according to the standards of the time). It also contains the following telling of the myth of Prometheus and Pandora, which is somewhat different that the version contained in Hesiod's own Theogony.
The gods had hidden away the true means of livelihood for humankind, and they still keep it that way. If it were otherwise, it would be easy for you to do in just one day all the work you need to do, and have enough to last you a year, even if you were idle. (45) Right away, you could store your steering-oar over the fireplace, and all that you had plowed with your oxen or hard-working mules could go to waste. But Zeus hid it [the true means of livelihood for humankind], angry in his thoughts, because Prometheus, with crooked plans, deceived him. Because of this, he [Zeus] devised destructive plans for humankind. (50) And he hid fire. But the good son of [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary] [Prometheus] stole it for humankind from Zeus the Planner, putting it inside a hollow fennel-stalk, escaping the notice of Zeus the Thunderer. Angered at him, Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, spoke, “Son of [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary], you who know more schemes than anyone else, (55) you rejoice at your theft of fire and at the trick you played on me. But great torment waits both for you and for future mankind. As punishment for the fire, I will give them an evil thing, in which they may all take delight, happy in their hearts, embracing this evil thing of their own making.” Thus spoke the father of men and gods, and he laughed out loud. (60) Then he ordered [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], famous everywhere, as quickly as possible to shape some wet clay, and to put into it a human voice and strength, and to make it look like the immortal goddesses, with the beautiful and lovely appearance of a virgin. And he ordered [pb_glossary id="5217"]Athena[/pb_glossary] to teach her own craft to her, weaving a very intricate web. (65) And he ordered [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] to shed golden charm over her head; also harsh longing, and anxieties that eat away at the limbs. And he ordered [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary], the messenger and Argos-killer, to put inside her bitchy intent and a sneaky temperament. Zeus spoke, and the gods obeyed the Lord Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Kronos[/pb_glossary]. (70) Right away the famed Limping One [[pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary]] shaped out of the clay of the Earth into something that looked like a pretty girl—all on account of the will of Zeus, son of [pb_glossary id="5252"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="5217"]Athena[/pb_glossary] dressed her and tied her girdle, adorning her. And the goddesses who are called the Graces, as well as the Lady Peithō [Persuasion], placed golden necklaces on its skin, and the [pb_glossary id="164"]Horae[/pb_glossary], (75) with their beautiful hair, braided springtime garlands around her head. Pallas [pb_glossary id="5217"]Athena[/pb_glossary] placed on her skin every manner of ornament [kosmos]. And within her breast the messenger and Argos-killer [[pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary]] fashioned lies [pseudea], crafty words, and a sneaky disposition, according to the plans of Zeus the loud-thunderer. And the messenger of the gods (80) put inside her a voice, and he called this woman Pandora, because all [pan] the gods who dwell on Olympus gave her as a gift [dōron], a pain for grain-eating men. But when the gods completed this deception of sheer doom, against which there is no remedy, Father Zeus sent the famed [pb_glossary id="210"]Argos-killer[/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id="2427"]Epimetheus[/pb_glossary], (85) the swift messenger of the gods, bringing the gift [dōron]. Nor did [pb_glossary id="2427"]Epimetheus[/pb_glossary] heed heed the advice from Prometheus, that he should never accept a gift [dōron] from Zeus the Olympian, but to send it right back, lest an evil thing happen to mortals. But he [pb_glossary id="2427"]Epimetheus[/pb_glossary] accepted it, and only then did he take note in his mind that he had an evil thing on his hands. (90) Before this, the various kinds of humanity lived on earth without evils and without harsh labor, (92) without wretched diseases that give disasters to men. (94) But the woman took the great lid off the jar (95) and scattered what was inside. She devised baneful anxieties for humankind. The only thing that stayed within the unbreakable contours of the jar was Hope. It did not fly out. Before it could, she put back the lid on top of the jar, according to the plans of aegis-bearing Zeus, the cloud-gatherer. (100) But as for the other things, countless baneful things, they are randomly scattered all over humankind. Full is the earth of evils, full is the sea. Diseases for humans are a day-to-day thing. Every night, they [the diseases] wander about at random, bringing evils upon mortals silently—for Zeus had taken away their voice. (105) So it is that there is no way to elude the will of Zeus.

Prometheus Bound
The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound.
Prometheus remained chained to the mountains until Heracles, who was completing his labor of retrieving the apple of the Hesperides (see chapter 17), shot the liver-eating eagle with his arrow and set the Titan free. Zeus allowed Heracles to free Prometheus because he held some secret knowledge that he would only divulge once he had been freed. After he was freed, Prometheus informed Zeus that the goddess Thetis, with whom Zeus was infatuated, was fated to give birth to a son who would be greater than his father. Before Zeus knew of this prophecy, he and Poseidon had been rivals for Thetis’ hand. Once the prophecy was known, however, neither god wanted anything to do with her. Zeus and Poseidon agreed that Thetis should be safely married off to a mortal. Because of this, Thetis, a sea-goddess, married Peleus, who was a mortal. Peleus and Thetis became the parents of the hero Achilles (see chapter 27.)

Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (trans. H. W. Smyth, adapted by L. Zhang)

Greek Tragedy, 5th century BCE

In the 5th Century BCE at Athens, the Greek playwright Aeschylus wrote the tragedy, Prometheus Bound, which opens with Prometheus being chained to a rock in the Caucuses by Cratos and Bios, personifications of "Power" and "Force," minions of Zeus and helpers of Hephaestus:
Enter [pb_glossary id="2662"]Power[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="2663"]Force[/pb_glossary], bringing with them the captive Prometheus; also [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary].
POWER:
We come to the most remote limit of the earth, to Scythia,[footnote]The geography of the play is confusing and inaccurate. For further discussion of how Aeschylus uses geography in Pometheus Bound, see: Finkelberg, M. The Geography of "Prometheus Vinctus." Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 141 (2), 119-141. [/footnote] an empty place, where no one has ever set foot. And now, [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], you must obey the command of Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]—to chain this criminal [5] up on the craggy rocks, binding him in unbreakable iron shackles. He has stolen fire, which belongs to you, and is the source of all arts, and he has given it to mortals. This is his offence; for this he must pay the penalty to the gods, [10] so that he learns to submit. to the rule of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and cease his mankind-loving ways.
HEPHAESTUS:
[pb_glossary id="2662"]Power[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="2663"]Force[/pb_glossary], you have done what [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] commanded you to do. You do not need to do anything else. As for me—I do not have the nerve [15] to bind a kindred god to this rocky, icy cliff. But whatever happens, I need to muster up the courage to do it; for it is dangerous to disobey the command of father Zeus. You, Prometheus! You righteous son of wise [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary]! It is against my will as much as yours that I must nail you with unremovable brass bonds [20] to this deserted cliff, where you will neither hear nor see any mortal man; but, scorched by the sun's bright beams, your flesh will scorch and whither. You will be glad when sparkling-robed night covers his brightness, [25] at least until the sun again scatters the morning frost. The burden of your pains will wear you down, since the one who will free you has not even been born yet. This is the prize you get for championing men. Even though you are a god, you did not fear the anger of the gods, and [30] you gave mortals more honour than they deserved. Therefore, you must stand guard, upright, and sleepless on this joyless rock, groaning and wailing. For [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] has a hard heart. [35] Every new ruler is merciless.
POWER:
Come on, why do you stand there, delaying and pitying him?! Don't you detest a god that is repugnant to the gods? He took your very own gift and gave it to mortals!
HEPHAESTUS:
Kinship is a strangely strong bond, and friendship as well.
POWER:
[40] I agree; yet, can you possibly disobey the Father's commands? Aren't you afraid of doing that?
HEPHAESTUS:
As ever, you are pitiless, steeped in arrogance and cruelty.
POWER:
Yes, because it does no good to cry over him. Stop wasting your labour on something that does you no good.
HEPHAESTUS:
[45] Ahhh, I hate my hateful craft!
POWER:
Why hate it? Your craft is not to blame for these troubles.
HEPHAESTUS:
Nevertheless, I wish someone else had to do this job.
POWER:
Every job is burdensome, unless it is being ruler of the gods; [50] no one is free except [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary].
HEPHAESTUS:
Because of this job, I know! I can't argue with that.
POWER:
Then hurry up and throw the manacles around him, so that the Father doesn't see you hesitating.
HEPHAESTUS:
Alright! The bands are ready, as you can see.
POWER:
[55] Throw them around his wrists and strike them with your mighty hammer; chain him to the rocks.
HEPHAESTUS:
There! The work is done and done well.
POWER:
Strike harder, clamp him tight, leave nothing loose; he is very clever at finding his way out of desperate circumstances.
HEPHAESTUS:
[60] This arm, at least, is fixed in place for good.
POWER:
Now bind this one securely too, so that he learns that, in spite of all his cleverness, he is a fool compared to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary].
HEPHAESTUS:
No one but Prometheus could find fault with my work.
POWER:
Now pound the iron nail straight [65] through his chest with full force.
HEPHAESTUS:
Ahhh, Prometheus, I feel your anguish!
POWER:
What are you doing?! Cowering again and feeling pity for [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]'s enemies? Be careful that you aren't feeling sorry for yourself some day!
HEPHAESTUS:
You are seeing a sight that is unbearable to see.
POWER:
[70] I see this man getting his fair punishment. Come, strap in his torso.
HEPHAESTUS:
I know what I have to do; stop ordering me around.
POWER:
Indeed, I will order you, yes and even more that that—I'll hound you. Crouch down and bind his legs with force.
HEPHAESTUS:
[75] There now! The work's done and without too much effort.
POWER:
Now, give the nails one last strong pounding; the boss is a harsh critic.
HEPHAESTUS:
Your ugly words match your ugly face.
POWER:
Be a bleeding-heart then, [80] but don't insult me.
HEPHAESTUS:
Let's go. He's all chained up. Exit [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary]
POWER:
There now, indulge your arrogance! Keep taking the gods' honours and giving them to mortals, who only live for a day. Can mortals help you now? [85] The gods are wrong to call you Prometheus, for you lack the forethought to get yourself out of this mess. Exit [pb_glossary id="2662"]Power[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="2663"]Force[/pb_glossary]
PROMETHEUS:
You, bright sky, and you, swift-winged breezes, you, rivers, and [90] ocean waves with your infinite laughter! Universal mother [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary], and you, all-seeing sun, I call out to you! Look at what I, a god, have to endure from the gods! Look at the shameful torture I will suffer [95] for endless years! This is the bondage that the new commander of the blessed gods has put on me. Arghhhh! I cry out from my present agony and for the agony that will come. [100] When will it end! But what am I saying? I know everything that will happen to me, in advance and in full. I need to bear this punishment as well as I can, knowing that [105] [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary] allows me no resistance or escape. But I can't speak and I can't be quiet about my fate. It is because I gave gifts to mortals that I am being punished, bound by [105] [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary]. I found and stored fire in a hollow fennel stalk [110], which acted as a teacher for humans in every art and craft. This is the offence for which I pay the penalty, bound and chained beneath the open sky. Hey! What's that? [115] What murmur do I hear? What smell floats up to me? Is it god or human or both? I cannot see. Has someone come to this cliff at the edge of the world to gawk at me as I suffer? Or for some other reason? Look at me! A doomed god, all chained up, [120] the enemy of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], hated by everyone in his house because of my love of mortals. What's that? What's that rustling I hear close by? Birds? The air is whirring with the rush of wings. What is coming? The Daughters of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] enter on a winged chariot
CHORUS:
Don't be afraid! We have come to this cliff as your friends, [130] arriving on swift wings. Our father reluctantly gave his permission. Down in our caves, we felt the reverberations iron being pounded up on the mountain and our fear for you drove away any shyness that we had. [135] We have come so quickly in our flying chariot, that we forgot our sandals!
PROMETHEUS:
Ah! Ah! Children of fertile [pb_glossary id="1656"]Tethys[/pb_glossary] and of he who surrounds the whole earth with his sleepless current, children of [140] [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], look at me! Look at the fetters that bind me to the peak of this mountain, where I hold my unenviable post.
CHORUS:
I see, Prometheus! [145] Tears and trepidation spread over my eyes, as I first saw your body withering wretchedly. on this rock, in these iron chains. For there are new rulers in heaven, and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] governs with [150] harsh, new laws, replacing and negating the old powers. PROMETHEUS: I wish he had hurled me below the earth! Yes beneath [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], host of the dead, into impenetrable [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary], [155] and had bound me ruthlessly there, in unremovable binds, so that no god or human could gloat over my agony! But, as it is, I am a miserable plaything for the wind, and my suffering delights my enemies.
CHORUS:
[160] What god is so cruel that they delight in this? Who wouldn't sympathize with you—except [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], of course? He is inflexible in his malice165] and keeps the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary], the children of [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary], in subjection to himself. He will not stop until he is either sated, or someone else uses cunning and tricks to seize his unassailable throne.
PROMETHEUS:
Actually, although right now I am tortured by these iron manacles, [170] the day will come when [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the prince of the gods, will need me. He will ask me to reveal the future, how one day he will be stripped of all his power. But he won't be able to persuade or charm me; [175] and I will never yield to his threats. I won't divulge the secret, until he releases me from my cruel bonds and give me compensation for this outrage.
CHORUS:
[180] You are bold and defiant, Prometheus. You do not yield before this bitter torture, and you speak your mind. But I am agitated by fear for you, [185] wondering to what safe habour you can steer your ship to end your sorrowful voyage. For [pb_glossary id=""169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]' son [[pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]] is impervious to appeals and he is unrelenting.
PROMETHEUS:
I know that [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] is harsh and [190] has his own form of justice; but nevertheless, one day he will let up, once he has been crushed in the way that I know he will be. Then, letting go of his anger, [195] he will be eager to be my friend.
CHORUS:
Tell us the whole story. What crime does [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] charge you with? What did he catch you doing? Why does he punish you like this? Tell us! Unless there is some good reason not to.
PROMETHEUS:
It is painful to me to tell the story, [200] and painful to keep it silent. My case is unfortunate in every way. When conflict arose among the gods– with some eager to expel [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] from his throne so that [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] could rule, while others wanted [205] the opposite, so that [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] would never win control over the gods—I tried to persuade the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary], children of [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary] to accept Zeus as their new ruler. But I was unsuccessful. They rejected my ideas and thought that their physical strength [210] would let them win easily. My mother [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary], or [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary]- she has many different names– had often told me the future what was fated. She told me that the victors would not win with brute strength and violence, [215] but by trickery. And even though I told them this, the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary] did not pay any attention to me. So I decided that it was best to join with my mother, [220] and volunteer for [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]'s side. And it is because of the advice that I gave him, that gloomy [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] now holds ancient [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] and his allies. So I helped the tyrant of the gods [225] and this is how he repays me. It is a disease of tyranny to have no faith in one's friends. However, you have asked why he torments me. I will tell you. [230] As soon as he sat on his father's throne, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] immediately assigned to the gods their special privileges and powers. But paid no attention to the wretched mortals. He wanted to end [235] the whole race and create a new one in its place. Nobody dared to stand against him except for me— only I had the courage. I saved mortals so that their race was not eradicated and they did not descend permanently to the house of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. This is why I am tortured, [240] why I suffer painfully, pitifully. I, who pitied mortals, am deemed unworthy of pity myself. Instead I am disciplined mercilessly, a spectacle that shames the glory of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary].
CHORUS:
Whoever feels no compassion for you is iron-hearted and made of stone, Prometheus. [245] As for myself, I did not want this for you. Now that I see what you are suffering, my heart is in pain.
PROMETHEUS:
Yes, well, at least to my friends I am a spectacle of pity.
CHORUS:
Did you maybe do something even worse?
PROMETHEUS:
[250] Yes, I allowed mortals to stop foreseeing their own deaths.
CHORUS:
What cure did you find for this affliction?
PROMETHEUS:
I put blind hope in their breasts.
CHORUS:
You gave a great gift to mortals.
PROMETHEUS:
Also, I gave them fire.
CHORUS:
[255] What! So these short-lived creatures have flame-eyed fire now?
PROMETHEUS:
Yes, and they will learn many arts from it.
CHORUS:
Then this was the crime for which [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]—
PROMETHEUS:
Torments me and allows me to respite from pain.
CHORUS:
Will there be no to your ordeal?
PROMETHEUS:
[260] No, none, except when he says so.
CHORUS:
But how will he ever say so? What hope is there? Don't you see that you are in the wrong? Though, it is unpleasant for me to talk about your crime, and it is painful for you. So, let's stop. I hope you can find some escape.
PROMETHEUS:
[265] It's easy for one who is out of harm's way to give advice to one who is miserable. I knew all along what would happen. I did it anyway– I don't deny it. Through helping mortals, I brought suffering on myself. [270] But I did not think that I would be punished like this, wasting away in the open air, on this desolate and bleak cliff. Don't feel sorry for me anymore. Land your chariot, and listen [275] to what is going to happen to me in the future. Please, I beg you. Pity the one who is suffering. Indeed, suffering is impartial and, eventually, comes to everyone. CHORUS: We are willing to listen, [280] Prometheus. So we will climb down from out swift, flying chariot, setting our light feet on the ground. We will leave the pure air, the pathway of birds, for the rugged ground. We want to hear [285] everything. [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] enters on a winged horse.
OCEANUS:
I have made a long to journey to get here, Prometheus, riding this swift-winged birth without a bridle to guide it. [290] I feel compassion for you. I have to, because of our kinship, but even if we were not related, there is no one I respect more than you. [295] You know that this is the truth and I do not lie. Tell me, how can I help? You will never be able to say that you have a better friend than [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary].
PROMETHEUS:
[300] Ha! What's this? So you have also come to gawk at my suffering? How did you work up the courage to leave your stream and your rock caves to come to this iron land? Did you come [305] to see my predicament and sympathize with me? Just look at me— a spectacle! A friend to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], who helped him gain his power. Look at how he tortures me!
OCEANUS:
I see, Prometheus. And even though I know you are wise, I'd like to give you some advice. [310] Know yourself and adapt yourself to the new times. There is a new ruler among the gods. Even though he is far away on his throne in the sky, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] might hear you, if you continue to speak so harshly, with such a sharp edge to your words. [315] Then your present trouble will seem like child's play. Poor victim! Let go of your anger and look for a way out of this misery. Maybe you will think that this advice is old and dull, [320] but your plight, Prometheus, is what you get for your pride and boasting. You have not learned how to be humble. And you do not collapse under punishment. Instead, you add miseries on top of miseries. Take it from me: [325] do not add insult to injury, since a harsh king is in charge now, who is accountable to no one. I'm going to leave now and see whether I can negotiate for your release. Hold your tongue and quit your blustering. [330] Or, can it be that for all your infinite wisdom, you do not realize that a wagging tongue brings about its own destruction.
PROMETHEUS:
I envy you because, although you share in my troubles, you share none of the blame. Leave me alone and don't let it concern you. [335] Do what you want, but you can't persuade him [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. He is not easy to persuade. Be careful that you don't harm yourself by undertaking this mission.
OCEANUS:
Clearly you are better at advising others than advising yourself. I base this observation on fact and not on heresay. [340] Don't hold me back; I want to go. I'm confident that [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] will grant me this favor and free you from your sufferings.
PROMETHEUS:
I will never stop thanking you for this. You certainly do not lack spirit! But don't trouble yourself. Your efforts will be in vain and [345] will not help me, even if you want to take on the pain. No, keep quiet and stay safe. Even if things are hard for me, I wouldn't wish this fate on anyone else. Not at all! Besides myself, I am distressed for [350] my brother [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], who, stands in the west, holding the pillar of heaven and earth on his shoulders, a hard burden to bear. I was saddened, too, when I saw [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary], the earth-born inhabitant of the Cilician caves, the gruesome, hundred-headed monster, struck down violently [355]. He withstood all of the gods, hissing out terror from his horrid jaws, glaring from his hideous eyes, seeming as though he might conquer [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] by force. [360] But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] struck him down with his unsleeping thunderbolt, the swooping lightening brand with its fiery breath. It charred the boasts on his tongue and, struck in his frightened heart, he was burned to ashes and all his strength was blasted away. [365] Now he is a helpless, sprawling bulk, lying pressed down by the narrows of the sea, beneath the roots of [pb_glossary id="1182"]Mount Etna[/pb_glossary]. And on the top summit [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] sits and hammers out molten ore. One day, rivers of fire will burst forth [370] from there, devouring with savage jaws the fields of Sicily, the land of beautiful fruit. [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] will send his boiling rage spewing out, hot, fire-breathing jets, even though he himself was charred by the blazing lightening of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. [375] But you are experience, and I do not need to tell you. Save yourself, as best you can. I will strengthen my resolve, until [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] abandons his wrath.
OCEANUS:
Don't you know, Prometheus, that [380] words are the best remedy for anger?
PROMETHEUS:
Yes, if you tend to wound at the right time, and not while it is raging.
OCEANUS:
What danger do you see in someone being eager to help you? Tell me.
PROMETHEUS:
[385] Wasted effort and stupid naiveté.
OCEANUS:
That's my problem to deal with. It can be advantageous to seem like a fool, when one is actually very wise. PROMETHEUS: It will look like my fault.
OCEANUS:
You clearly want me to go back home.
PROMETHEUS:
[390] Just so that you won't bring hatred on yourself for taking my side.
OCEANUS:
You mean in the eyes of our new, omnipotent tyrant?
PROMETHEUS:
Beware that you don't turn his anger on yourself.
OCEANUS:
Your plight is instructive to me.
PROMETHEUS:
Go away! Leave! Keep your sympathies to yourself.
OCEANUS:
[395] Well, now I want to go as much as you want me to leave. And my four-footed, winged beast impatiently beats the air with his wings; he'll be happy to rest his knees in his stall at home. [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] exits.
CHORUS:
I mourn your unfortunate fate, Prometheus. [400] I soak my tender cheeks, shedding flowing streams of tears from my eyes. Zeus rules with his own harsh and unbending laws [405] and treats the old gods with disdain. Now the whole earth cries aloud in lamentation; ((lacuna))[footnote]Indicates a gap or missing segment in the text[/footnote]. . . lament for your great flory and honour, [410] the honour that belonged to you and your brother. All mortals living in holy Asia share your anguished suffering. [415] And those who live in Colchis, the fearless, fighting maidens [the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary]]; and the throng of Scythians, who live in the most remote region of the earth, bordering lake Maeotis. [420] And the warlike flower of Arabia, those who hold the high-cragged citadel near the Caucasus, a hostile group that roars amidst their sharp-pointed spears. [† [425] There is one other [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titan[/pb_glossary] who I have seen before this, distressed and caught in adamantine bonds—[pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], unparalleled in strength, who moans as he supports [430] all of heaven on his back.] The waves utter a cry as they fall, the deep sea laments, the black abyss of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] rumbles in response, and the streams of pure-flowing rivers [435] weep for your miserable pain.
PROMETHEUS:
Don't think that I am silent out of pride or stubbornness. Painful thoughts eat at my heart, as I see myself mistreated in this way. And yet, who else but I divvied up [440] the gifts for these new gods? But I won't mention it, because I wouldn't be telling you something you don't already know. Still, hear about how humans have suffered, about how foolish they used to be, how I have them sense and reason. [445] I do not say this to criticize them, but to explain why I helped them. In the first place, they had eyes, but could not see; they had ears, but they did not understand. Like random shapes in dreams, they went their whole lives confused, [450] doing things at random with no purpose. They did not know how to build houses out of brick that face towards the sun, or how to work with wood. The lived in sunless caves underground, like swarming ants. They did not know how to tell when winter [455] was coming, or spring or summer. There were no signs of the changing season and everything seemed to happen at random, until I taught them how to read the risings and settings of the stars. I invented numbers for them– the best of the arts! I showed them how to combine letters so as to hold things in their memory– the mother of the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary]. I was the first one to use beasts to bear men's burdens, yoking them to collars and loading them with saddle bags. [465] I harnessed horses to chariots and taught them to obey the reins, as a status symbol. And it was me, not anyone else, who invented the chariot with cloth wings in which sailors roam over the sea. I may be wretched, but I invented all these arts [470] for humans. Yet, I cannot think of one clever trick to get myself out of my present bind.
CHORUS:
You have endured sorrow and humiliation; you are out of your mind. Like a sick doctor, you have become despondent and cannot [475] find the cure for your own disease.
PROMETHEUS:
Listen to the rest and you will be even more amazed at the arts and resources I created. First of all, it used to be that if humans ever got sick, they had no defence. No healing food [480], no ointment, no drink. They wasted away without any medicine. Until I showed then how to mix up the soothing remedies that they now use to prevent illness. And I showed them many different ways to read the future [485]: how to tell which dreams will come true, how to interpret confusing voices and coincidences. I showed them augury (future telling from the flights of birds), noting which birds are auspicious and which ones suspicious; their different ways of life, which birds are friends and which enemies, and which ones sit together.[footnote]Referring to the practise of interpreting birds for prophecy, called augury. [/footnote] I explained the smoothness of their entrails, and what colour of gall pleases [495] the gods. I showed them the speckled symmetry of the liver. I showed them the ritual of the thigh-bones wrapped in fat and how to burn the long backbone of the animal. I initiated them into this challenging cult. I gave them the ability to read signs from flames, which were opaque before. [500] But enough about these arts. Who else but me can say that he discovered bronze, iron, silver, and gold– all the beneficial elements that lie hidden in the earth? No one! Unless he is a liar. [505] In short, every art that humans have comes from Prometheus.
CHORUS:
Don't help mortals too much and ignore your own distress! Though, I'm confident that you will freed [510] from your bonds and will have power equal to that of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary].
PROMETHEUS:
That's not what [pb_glossary id="2664"]Fate[/pb_glossary] has in store for me. I will only escape after I have been humbled by infinite pangs and tortures. [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary] is stronger than skill.
CHORUS:
[515] Who is the pilot of [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary]?
PROMETHEUS:
The three-bodied [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary] and the [pb_glossary id="157"]Furies[/pb_glossary] who never forget.
CHORUS:
Is it true that even [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] has less power than them?
PROMETHEUS:
Yes, to the extent that even he cannot avoid what is fated.
CHORUS:
But, what is [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]'s fate, other than to hold eternal power?
PROMETHEUS:
[520] You cannot know this yet, so don't ask me.
CHORUS:
It must be some great secret that you are covering up.
PROMETHEUS:
Let's change the subject. It is too soon to talk about this. No matter what, it must be kept secret. For, it is only by keeping this information close that [525] I will be able to escape my shameful bonds and my misery.
CHORUS:
I pray that [pb_glossary id="172"']Zeus[/pb_glossary], who distributes everything to everyone, never has a reason to quarrel with me, [530] and that I never fail to sacrifice slain oxen to the gods, worshipping beside the always-flowing stream of[pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], my father. [535] And I pray that I never say anything that offends them and that I always keep this rule fresh in my mind forever. It is sweet to spend one's whole life full of hope, feeding the spirit with happy festivities. But I shudder [540] as I look at you, racked by infinite tortures. You are not afraid of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], Prometheus, but instead, you stubbornly give too much honour to mortals. [545] But tell me, my friend, what did mortals ever do for you? What kind of benefit could such an ephemeral race ever give you? What aid? Didn't you see how frail and powerless they are? Fleeting as dreams, blind, and shackled. [550] Plans made by human beings will never be able to subvert the will of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. I have learned this lesson by observing your fate, Prometheus. I thought about the difference [555] between this song that I am singing now and the one I sang before– about your wedding bed and your wedding bath. The song I sang to celebrate your marriage to our sister [560] [pb_glossary id="1391"]Hesione[/pb_glossary], after you wooed her with lovely gifts. Enter [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary]
IO:
What is this land? Who are these people? Who do I see chained to the rock there, naked and exposed? What did you do to deserve such a punishment? [565] Where on earth have I wandered in my wretchedness? Oh, oh! Aah! Aah! A gadfly, the ghost of earth-born [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary], is stinging me again! Keep him away, [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary]! I am afraid when I see visions of that hundred-eyed herdsman. He still has his shifty gaze on me. [570] Even though he is dead, his spirit is not buried. He hounds me and drive me, starving and wretched, along the seashore. [575] The clear strains from the shepherd's [[pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary]] wax-bound pipes try to lull me to sleep. Ah! Ah! Where is this wandering taking me? Alas, alas! Where is my far-roaming wandering course taking me?How have I offended you, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], such that you have bound me [580] to this yoke of misery—aah! What transgression have I committed to make you harass me like this– terrorizing me with a stinging gadfly? Burn me on the pyre, bury me in the earth, feed me to the monsters of sea, if you must, but grant me this one request! I have learned enough from my wandering. I do not know how to escape this suffering! Can you hear the voice of the horned maiden?
PROMETHEUS:
How can I not hear the girl driven to madness by the gadfly, the [590] daughter of [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary]? She is the one who inflames [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]'s heart with lust, and who now, because of Hera's hatred, is forced to wander endlessly.
IO:
How do you know my father? Who are you?[595] How do you know my name? Tell me! Ah, I'm so unfortunate! So wretched and miserable! How do you know about this god-sent plague that is causing me to waste away, stinging me with its maddening goad? Ahhh! I come leaping crazily, [600] driven by hunger, the victim of [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]'s machinations. Who, of all those who suffer– ahh! ahh!– suffers like me? Tell me [605] what more I must endure! What remedy or cure for my affliction! If you know, tell me! Tell the unfortunate, wandering girl.
PROMETHEUS:
I will tell you plainly and simply what you want to know [610]. I won't speak inscrutably or tell riddles. It is best to speak openly to friends. Look at me. I am Prometheus, the one who gave fire to humans.
IO:
But why, as a benefactor of humans, do you suffer like this?
PROMETHEUS:
[615] I have just finished cataloguing and bemoaning my own hardships.
IO:
So you won't do this favour for me?
PROMETHEUS:
Way what you want; I can tell you anything.
IO:
Who has chained you up in this ravine?
PROMETHEUS:
It was [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]'s order, but [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary]'s hand.
IO:
[620] And what was your crime?
PROMETHEUS:
I've said enough.
IO:
No! Tell me also about the end of my wandering. When will it come? PROMETHEUS: In your case, it's better to not know.
IO:
[625] Please, don't hide my future suffering from me.
PROMETHEUS:
It's not that I don't want to tell you.
IO:
Then why your reluctance?
PROMETHEUS:
I'm willing; but I don't want to crush your spirit.
IO:
Don't be kinder to me than I am to myself.
PROMETHEUS:
[630] Since you insist, I'll say. Listen.
CHORUS:
Wait! Allow us some enjoyment too. First let us ask her about her affliction and let her tell us herself the events that transpired and brought about this misery. Then you can tell her what she has left to face in the future.
PROMETHEUS:
[635] It's up to you, Io. They are your father's sisters. And it is worthwhile to indulge in tears over your bad luck, when you are likely to have a sympathetic ear.
IO:
[640] I can't say no. I will tell the truth about everything you ask. But I am ashamed to talk about this god-sent storm: the ruin of my body, and where it came from, swooping down on wretched me. [645] Night visions, always haunting my bedchamber, tried to beguile and seduce me, saying, "Lucky girl, why do you stay a virgin, when you could have the most powerful lover? [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] is inflamed with lust [650] for you and is eager to lay with you. Do not resist his advances, my child. Go to the meadow of Lerna, the land of deep pastures, where your father keeps his sheep and feeds his cattle, so that the eye of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] may may have some relief from its craving.” [655] This dream haunted me night after night, until I worked up the courage to tell my father about it. He sent many messengers to the oracles at [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="2668"]Dodona[/pb_glossary] to try to find out [660] what he could say or do to please the gods. But they all returned with strangely worded oracles, riddling and obscure. Finally, my father received a clear, unmistakable command: [665] he was to banish me from my home and native land and I was to wander to most remotes limits of the earth. If he did not, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] would send a fiery thunderbolt to destroy his whole race. Obeying this prophetic proclamation from [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], [670] he drove me out and barred from his house. He wish it and neither did I, but [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had placed a yoke of necessity on him, forcing him to act. Immediately I was disfigured, as you can see. Horns grew on my forehead, and [675] I rushed, stung by a sharp-fanged gadfly, leaping in frantic bounds to Cerchnea's sweet stream and Lerna's spring. But the earth-born herdsman, [pb_glossary id="641"]Argus[/pb_glossary], pursued me with unbounded rage, tracking my steps with his many eyes. [680] Suddenly and unexpectedly he died, but I am still tormented by the gadfly. It drives me from land to land, a god-sent plague. That is what happened. If you know what troubles are coming, tell me. Don't try [685] to soothe me with lies because you pity me. Lying is the foulest sickness.
CHORUS:
Ah! Ah! I never thought I would hear such strange things, [690] suffering so great to see and so great to endure. I feel like I have been struck with a two-pronged goad. Ah! [pb_glossary id="2664"]Fate[/pb_glossary]! [pb_glossary id="2664"]Fate[/pb_glossary]! [695] I shudder at [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary]'s plight.
PROMETHEUS:
You weep and shudder too soon. Wait until you hear the rest.
CHORUS:
Go on, tell us everything. The sick can take comfort in knowing what pain is still coming.
PROMETHEUS:
[700] You got what you first asked for– to hear about her ordeal from [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary] herself. Now listen to the rest: what she is fated to endure further at [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]'s hand. [705] And you, [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary], take my words to heart, so that you may learn how your wanderings will end. First, from here, turn towards the rising sun and make your way over the untilled plains. You will reach the Scythian nomads, who live [710] in thatched houses, on top of strong-wheeled wagons, and who carry powerful bows. Don't go near them, but stick to the rugged shore, where the roaring sea breaks, and pass beyond their land. From there, on your left you will find the country of the iron workers, [715] the Chalybes,[footnote]The Chalybes, a people of northern Anatolia, were said to be the first people to develop iron.[/footnote]. Beware of them. They are savage and should not be approached by strangers. Then you will reach the river Hybristes, whose name is appropriate.[footnote]"Hybristes" comes from the Greek for "violence (ὕβρις)[/footnote] Do not cross this. It is too hard. Wait until you come to the Caucasus, highest of mountains,[720] from whose brow the river pours out in mighty fury. You must cross the crest of the mountain, which reachers up to the stars, and head southward. You will come to the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary], who loathe all men. In the future, they will [725] inhabit Themiscyra, near the Thermodon river, where, in front of the sea, is the rugged jaw of the city of Salmydessus.' It is an enemy to sailors and a step-mother to ships. The [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary] will happily guide you on your way. Next, at the narrow port of the harbour, you will reach [730] the Cimmerian isthmus. You must be brave and leave this place and pass through the channel of Maeotis. Forever afterwards, people will talk about your passing, and it will be called the Bosporus after you.[footnote]Bosporus means "cow crossing" in Ancient Greek. [/footnote] Then you will leave Europe [735] and come to the continent of Asia. Doesn't it seem to you that the tyrant of the gods is violent in everything that he does? For this god, wanting to have sex with this mortal girl, has imposed these wanderings on her. My dear, you have gained a cruel suitor [740]. Everything that you have just heard– understand– is only the beginning of your trouble.
IO:
Ah! Ah!
PROMETHEUS:
What! Are you crying again? Just wait until you hear the rest.
CHORUS:
[745] Can it really be that you have more to tell her?
PROMETHEUS:
Yes, a tempestuous sea of calamitous distress.
IO:
Then what point is there in living? What shouldn't I just throw myself off this cliff, so that I can be free [750] all my sufferings? It is better to die once and for all than to spend my days prolonging my misery.
PROMETHEUS:
Ah, you would find hard to endure what I have to. I am not destined to die. Though death would have freed me from my misery. [755] But there will be no limit to my suffering until [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] is thrown from power.
IO:
What! [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] will one day be thrown from power?!
PROMETHEUS:
You, I think, would be glad to see that happen.
IO:
Why now? It is at [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]'s hand that I suffer?
PROMETHEUS:
[760] Then be reassured that it will happen.
IO:
Who will strip him of his power?
PROMETHEUS:
He himself and his own empty-headed purposes.
IO:
How? Tell me, please, if there is no harm in telling.
PROMETHEUS:
He will enter into a marriage that will destroy him.
IO:
[765] With a god or with a mortal? Tell me, if you can.
PROMETHEUS:
Why ask with whom? I cannot speak of this.
IO:
Will his wife dethrone him?
PROMETHEUS:
Yes, because she will give birth to a son who will be mightier than his father.
IO:
And has he no way to avert this doom?
PROMETHEUS:
[770] None except me, if I am released from my bondage.
IO:
Who would release you against [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]'s will?
PROMETHEUS:
It will be one of your own grandchildren?
IO:
What did you say? One of my children will release you from your misery?
PROMETHEUS:
Yes. One from the thirteenth generation of your descendants.
IO:
[775] Your prophecy is hard to understand.
PROMETHEUS:
So, don't ask about the rest of your sufferings, then.
IO:
Don't offer to me a favour and then withdraw it.
PROMETHEUS:
I will tell you one of two things.
IO:
What two things? Lay them out and I will choose.
PROMETHEUS:
[780] Here's the offer: choose whether you want me to tell you about your future sufferings or about the one who is going to free me.
CHORUS:
Please tell her one and me the other. Don't keep the story from me! Tell her about her future wanderings, [785] and tell me who will free you. I want to know!
PROMETHEUS:
Well, since you insist, I won't refuse. I will tell you everything you want to know. First, I will tell you, [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary], about your future, tormented wanderings. Sear it into your mind. [790] After you cross the stream that connects the two continents, you will turn towards the east, where the sun walks. Then you will cross the surging sea until you reach the Gorgonean plains of Cisthene, where the daughters of [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary] dwell [ the [pb_glossary id="1151"]Graeae[/pb_glossary] ], three ancient maids. [795] They are shaped like swans and they possess one eye and one tooth between them. The sun does not shine on them, and neither does the moon. Close to them are their three sisters, the winged, snake-haired [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgons[/pb_glossary], loathed by mankind. [800] No human can look at them and live. Guard against this danger. But now listen to another frightening spectacle. Watch out [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]'s sharp-beaked hounds, who do not bark– the gryphons– and [805] and the one-eyed Arimaspian people, who ride on horses, and who live around the floods of [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary]'s stream that flows with gold. Do not approach them. Then you will come to a far-away country with dark-skinned people, who live by the waters of the sun, near the river Ethiope. [810] Follow the banks of this river until you reach the cataract, where the Nile sends forth its sacred, sweet stream from the Bybline mountains. The river will lead you to the land of three-angled Nilotis, where, it is declared, [815] [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary], that, at last, you and your children will found your distant colony. If any of this is confusing or hard to understand, just say so. I will repeat it. For I have more time available than I want.
CHORUS:
If there is anything left or left out [820] about her dreadful wandering, say it. But if you have told us everything, than grant us the favour that we asked. Surely you remember it.
PROMETHEUS:
She has now heard everything up to the end of her travels. In addition, so that she knows that what I have said will come to pass, [825] I will describe the toils she endured before she came here, as proof that I know what I am talking about. I will pass over most of the weary tale, picking it at the end of your wanderings. When you reached the Molossian plains [830] and the sheer mountain ridge that encircles [pb_glossary id="2668"]Dodona[/pb_glossary]. There, in that place, is the oracle of Thesprotian[footnote]An epithet for Zeus' prophetic aspect[/footnote] [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and the marvelous talking oak trees. They greeted you clearly as [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]'s famous [835] bride-to-be. Did that please you? then, stung by the gadfly, you rushed along the seaside path to the great gulf of [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary], where you were driven back on your course. From that point on and forever in the future, that sea [840] will be called "Ionian" in memory of your crossing. This, then, is evidence that I know more than I have shown. Now I will tell you all the rest, [845] picking up where I left off before. There is a city called Canobus at the mouth of the Nile. There at last [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] restores your sanity with a touch of his soft hand. [850] You will give birth to a dark skinned child, [pb_glossary id="1220"]Epaphus[/pb_glossary], named for his conception.[footnote]Refers to Epaphus having been born from the touch of Zeus' hand, as Epaphus (ἔφαξις) means "touch."[/footnote] He will harvest the crops from all the land that is watered by the broad-flowing Nile. But in the fifth generation after him, fifty young women [the [pb_glossary id="2672"]Danaids[/pb_glossary]] will return to Argos, [855] fleeing unwanted marriages with their cousins. And the cousins will pursue them like falcons hunting doves, hearts on fire with lust, seeking unlawful marriages. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] will prevent the marriages from being consummated. [860] The city of Argos will provide a home for the young women, where, in the middle of the night, each woman will slay her new husband, a daring deed done by a woman's hand. Each bride will take her husband's life, staining a two-edged sword with his blood. I wish [pb_glossary id="158"]Love[/pb_glossary] would visit my enemies in the same way! [865] But one of the women will be overcome by her own desire. [[pb_glossary id="1191"]Hypermnestra[/pb_glossary]] not to slay her groom. She will lose her resolve and decide to be called coward rather than murderer. So she will give birth to a royal line in Argos. [870] It would take a long story to explain all of this, but from her line there will be born a bold man [[pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary]], famous with the bow, who will free me from these toils. This is the oracle that my mother, the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titan[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary], told me, she who was born a long time ago. [875] How it will happen would take a long speech for me to tell you, and there wouldn't be any benefit in it.
IO:
Oh! Oh! Ah! Pain and frenzy strike my brain with their invisible flames. I am stung by the gadfly's barb. [880] My heart knocks against my ribs in terror and by eyeballs roll wildly around and around. Madness drives me off course. I've lost control of my tongue [885] and a stream of turbid words beats recklessly against the billows of dark destruction. Io exits.
CHORUS:
He was wise indeed who first thought and spoke this truth: [890] it is best to marry within one's own class. A poor man should not seek to marry among the wealthy or noble. Immortal [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary]! [895] I pray that I am never a partner in the bed of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and that I never have a groom who has descended from heaven. I shudder when I see the virgin [pb_glossary id="639"]Io[/pb_glossary], loveless and crushed [900] by her [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]-sent wanderings. I don't think marriage is anything to be feared when it is on equal terms. So I hope that no mightier gods cast their inescapable glances of lust on me. That would be a war impossible to fight and a source of resourceless misery. [905] I don't know what my fate would be, for I don't see how I could escape the designs of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary].
PROMETHEUS:
The day will come when [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], with his stubborn soul, will be humbled. He plots a union that will [910] hurl him from his sovereignty and throne into oblivion. The curse his father [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] uttered as he fell from his ancient throne will be utterly fulfilled [footnote]This "curse" refers to Cronus invoking the prophesy that, like how Cronus was overthrown by his son Zeus (see chapter 1), Zeus would be overthrown by a powerful son as well.[/footnote]. None of the gods can show him how to escape his ruin except for me. [915] I know the way and means. So let him sit there in his self-assurance, trusting in his thunder and lightening bolt. They will not save him from shameful ruin. [920] He is preparing quite an adversary, despite himself, a prodigy, one who will find a flame mightier than lightening, and a deafening crash to outroar the thunder. A prodigy who will make [925] [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]'s trident, that scourge of the sea and shaker of the land, shiver with fear. Then, wrecked upon this evil, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] will learn how different it is to be a ruler and a slave.
CHORUS:
Surely this is wishful thinking on your part, that you utter as a curse against [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary].
PROMETHEUS:
What I have said will happen and it will be what I want.
CHORUS:
[930] Should we really look out for someone to conquer [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]?
PROMETHEUS:
Yes, and he will bear pains more humiliating than mine on his neck.
CHORUS:
How are you not afraid to taunt [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] like this?
PROMETHEUS:
Why should I be afraid? I am immortal.
CHORUS:
But he might give you a punishment even worse than this.
PROMETHEUS:
[935] Let him, for all I care! I am prepared for anything.
CHORUS:
They are wise who honour [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary].
PROMETHEUS:
Worship, adore, and fawn upon whoever is your lord. But I care less than nothing for [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] Let him do his will, let him hold his power [940] for his little day. He will not hold sway over the gods for long. But look– over there I see his messenger, the servant of our new lord and master. He has surely come to announce some news. Enter [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary]
HERMES:
You! I speak to you, you clever and crafty thief, you bitter wretch, [945] who has dishonoured the gods by stealing fire and giving it to mortals. Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] orders you to say what marriage you boast of, which will cast him out of power. Tell me clearly and pointedly exactly as the case stands, [950] without games and riddles. [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] gets angry at cryptic replies, so don't make me come back here again!
PROMETHEUS:
You speech is oh so brave and swollen with pride, as befits a little minion of the gods. [955] You are young, as is your power. Do you think that you are untouchable, beyond the reach of grief? I seen two rulers cast out from these heights. I will leave to see a third, this present lord, cast out swiftly in shameful ruin. Do you think [960] I tremble before these upstart gods? Far from it. Not at all. Scurry back the way you came. You will get no answers from me.
HERMES:
It was this same proud willfulness that earlier [965] brought you to this harbour of distress.
PROMETHEUS:
I wouldn't trade my hard fate for your servitude.
HERMES:
It is no doubt better to serve this rock than to be the trusted messenger of Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]!
PROMETHEUS:
[970] It is fitting for the insolent to offer insults.
HERMES:
I think you revel in your present plight.
PROMETHEUS:
Revel? Oh, I wish that I might see my enemies revelling in this way! And I count you too among them.
HERMES:
What! You blame me in some way for your calamities?
PROMETHEUS:
[975] Put simply, I hate all the gods that benefitted at my hands and pay me back with so unjustly.
HERMES:
Your words declare you mad.
PROMETHEUS:
I may be mad—if it is madness to loathe one's enemies.
HERMES:
If you were fortunate, you would be unbearable.
PROMETHEUS:
[980] Argh!
HERMES:
“Argh”? That is a word unknown to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary].
PROMETHEUS:
But ever-aging Time teaches all things.
HERMES:
But you haven't even learned how to be moderate yet.
PROMETHEUS:
Or else I would not have spoke to you, an underling.
HERMES:
It seems that you will answer none of Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]' demands.
PROMETHEUS:
[985] But there is actually much that owe him.
HERMES:
You tease me as though I were a child.
PROMETHEUS:
Aren't you a child and even more foolish than a child if you expect to learn anything from me? And are you not a child and even more witless than a child if you expect to learn anything from me? There is no torment or device by which [990] [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] will induce me to divulge what I know until he removes these injurious bonds. Let him hurl his blazing lightning and let the whole world convulse with white-winged blizzards and rumbling earthquakes. [995] None of this will convince me to tell him at whose hands he is fated to be hurled from his rule.
HERMES:
Does this course really seem wise to you?
PROMETHEUS:
This course was foreseen and determined a long time ago.
HERMES:
Submit! Submit, you fool! Be wise [1000] in the face of your present sufferings.
PROMETHEUS:
You harass me in vain. It is as though you were trying to persuade a wave. Know that fear of the will of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] will not give me a womanish mind. Nor will I ape women's ways, turning my hands upwards and begging my enemy to release me from these bonds. As if!
HERMES:
I think any more speaking will be useless. My entreaties do not soothe or soften you. You take the bit in your teeth like a new-harnessed [1010] colt and struggle against the reins. But your vehemence is useless. Stubborn people who are in the wrong profit less than those who are not stubborn at all. But if my words cannot persuade you, [1015] think about what a storm and a towering wave of inescapable woe will break over you. First, Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] will shatter this jagged cliff with thunder and lightning, and will bury you, while the rock still holds you clasped in its embrace. [1020] Once a long stretch of time has gone by, you will return to the light of day. Then the winged hound of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the ravening eagle, coming as an uninvited feaster for the whole day, will tear your body, piece by piece with his savage appetite, and feast his fill [1025] on your liver until it is black with the gnawing. Expect no end to your agony until some god appears, who, sympathizing with you, will take it upon himself to descend into the sunless realm of [pb_glossary id="357"]Death[/pb_glossary] and the dark depths of [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary]. [1030] Consider yourself warned. This is not an idle boast, but the utter truth. For the mouth of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] does not know how to utter lies, but will bring every word to pass. Consider carefully and reflect. Never deem [1035] stubbornness better than wise counsel.
CHORUS:
[[pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] seems to finally say something useful; for he urges you to put your stubbornness aside and be wise. Take heed! It is shameful for the wise to persist in error.
PROMETHEUS:
[1040] This fellow's ruckus is not news to me. But for an enemy to suffer at the hands of an enemy is not disgraceful. So therefore, let the forked curl of lightning be cast upon my head and let the sky [1045] be convulsed with thunder and the wrack of savage winds; let the hurricane shake the earth from its rooted base, and let the waves of the sea mingle the courses [1050] of the stars in heaven with their savage surge; let him lift me up high and hurl me down to black [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] with the swirling floods of stern [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary]. Whatever he does, he cannot kill me.
HERMES:
These are the thoughts and words [1055] of a madman. How is this any different from raving? Where does his frenzy end? In any case, all you who sympathize with his anguish, [1060] withdraw from this spot quickly, so that the relentless roar of the thunder does not stun your senses.
CHORUS:
Try some other tack or urge me on some other course that is more convincing, because [1065] what you have said is unacceptable. How can you tell me to be a coward? I will suffer any fate along with him. I have learned to detest traitors and there is no pest [1070] I abhor more than this.
HERMES:
Well then, remember my warning and do not blame fate when you are in trouble. And do not say that it was [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who unexpectedly caused you [1075] to suffer. You will have only yourself to blame. You have been warned and it will not be suddenly or secretly that you are entangled in the inextricable net of calamity due to your own foolishness. Exit [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary]
PROMETHEUS:
[1080] His word has turned into deed! Ah! The earth rocks! The thunder from the depths of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] rolls roaring past me. The fiery ringed lightening flashes forth! Whirlwinds toss the [1085] swirling dust. Wind blasts leap forth in hostile fury and strife. The sky is mixing. with the ocean. Look! You can can see the storm advancing against me! [1090] [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] sends it to frighten me. Holy mother! Holy Ether who shines light on the world. Look at the wrongs I suffer! Amid thunder and lightning Prometheus vanishes from sight; and the daughters of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] disappear with him. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0010

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_891" align="aligncenter" width="675"] Heracles frees Prometheus, relief from temple of Aphrodite, ca. 3rd century BCE (Aphrodisias Museum, Karacasu)[/caption]
In Greek and Roman art, Prometheus was usually depicted as a mature, bearded man. He was almost always portrayed in scenes depicting either his punishment or his liberation at the hands of Herakles.
[caption id="attachment_898" align="alignleft" width="362"] Heracles frees Prometheus, black-figure kylix, ca. 500 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1074" align="alignright" width="288"] Prometheus punished by the eagle, and Atlas holding the world, black-figure kylic, ca. 570 BCE (Gregoriano Etrusco Museum, Vatican)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1072" align="aligncenter" width="704"] Heracles frees Prometheus and slays the eagle, black-figure vase.[/caption]
However, a different myth seems to have been fairly popular on Roman sarcophagi: that of the creation of humankind. In these scenes, Prometheus is usually portrayed sitting behind the pottery wheel, in the act of creating the first human beings.
[caption id="attachment_892" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Prometheus (second from left, seated) creates humans, sarcophagus relief, ca. 240 CE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] Prometheus and Athena create the first human, sarcophagus relief, ca. 185 CE (Museo Del Prado, Madrid)
Pandora is very rarely represented in Greek art. When she does appear, she is portrayed in the moment of her creation as a young woman dressed in a rich [pb_glossary id="5719"]peplos,[/pb_glossary] usually wearing or receiving jewels from the gods.
[caption id="attachment_720" align="alignnone" width="2185"] Gods at the creation of Pandora, red-figure krater, 460 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Hesiod's Theogony

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:26:05 +0000
[caption id="attachment_1792" align="aligncenter" width="613"] Athena fighting the giant Enceladus, red-figure tondo, ca. 525 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

The Theogony

The ancient Greeks told myths about how the universe came to be in cosmogonies, from the ancient Greek words cosmos, "order (of things) and gonos, "procreation." So a cosmogony is a myth about the procreation of the order (of things). They also had theogonies (from gonos and theoi, "gods"). These stories told about the creation of the gods and the struggles and hierarchies among them.

The earliest cosmogony and theogony from ancient Greece that still survives today is an epic poem written by the poet Hesiod, who lived in Boeotia (an area in north eastern Greece) in the 8th/7th century BCE. Hesiod's Theogony starts with the birth of the first primordial gods out of formless chaos and recounts how the major and minor gods, demigods, heroes, and humans came to be. It combines genealogies (catalogues of who is descended from whom) and etiological myths for how the various aspects of the universe and world came to be.

Hesiod, Theogony (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang, P. Rogak and T. Mulder)

Greek epic, ca. 700 BCE

The Theogony describes the ordering of the universe, including the ascendancy of Zeus and the other Olympians, and the births of the major divinities. The poem falls into discrete parts: 1-104: Invocation to the muses 105-122: Chaos and the primordial deities 123-232: The second generation of gods (the children of the primordial deities) 233-335: The descendants of Pontos 336-506: Children of the Titans 507-884: Challenges to Zeus 885-966: Children of the Olympians 967-1020: Goddesses who bore children to mortal men The poem leaves off with a transition into another of Hesiod's poems, called The Catalogue of Women, which exists today only in fragments. These fragments can be read here.
Let us begin our song with the Heliconian [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary], who hold great and holy [pb_glossary id="698"] Mount Helicon[/pb_glossary], and dance on soft feet around the deep-blue spring and the altar of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary].[footnote]Mount Helicon was in Hesiod's native Boeotia. Writers of myth often associate their hometowns to significant mythic events, which lends prestige to their place of origin and therefore authority to themselves as writers.[/footnote] [5] After they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus or in the Horse's Spring[footnote]Refers to a spring on Helicon, called Hippocrene. In some accounts, it is named the Horse's Spring because it was created when Pegasus kicked a rock. [/footnote] or Olmeius, they dance fair and lovely on the highest peak of [pb_glossary id="698"]Helicon[/pb_glossary], moving with vigorous feet. At night, they rise from there and go out into the world, [10] veiled in thick mist, and they sing their song with lovely voices, praising [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]-holder, and queenly [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] of [pb_glossary id="5308"][pb_glossary id="5308"]Argos[/pb_glossary] who walks on golden sandals, and the daughter of the aegis-holder, bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] who delights in arrows, [15] and [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] the earth holder who shakes the earth, and revered [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary], and quick-glancing [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary] with the crown of gold, and fair [pb_glossary id="1548"]Dione[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] the crafty counsellor, [pb_glossary id="215"]Eos[/pb_glossary], and great [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary], and bright [pb_glossary id="1537"]Selene[/pb_glossary], [20] [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary], too, and great [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], and dark [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary], and all the other deathless gods, who live forever. One day they taught me their glorious song while I was shepherding my lambs under holy [pb_glossary id="698"]Helicon[/pb_glossary]. The goddesses— [25] the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], daughters of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]– first said this to me, “Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched, shameful things, only looking to fill your bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but, when we want to, we know how to say true things too.” The quick-voiced daughters of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] said this to me and they gave [30] me a marvellous rod made of sturdy laurel. And they breathed a divine voice into me, so that I can celebrate the things that will be and the things that happened before. And they commanded me to sing about the race of the blessed gods, who live eternally, but always to sing about themselves both first and last. [35] But why all this about oak or stone? Come you, let's begin with the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] who gladden the great spirit of their father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] in [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] with their songs, telling of things that are and that will be and that were in times before with consenting voice. Unwearying flows the sweet sound [40] from their lips, and the house of their father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the loud-thunderer is joyful at the lily-like voice of the goddesses as it spreads abroad, and the peaks of snowy [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] resound, and the homes of the immortals. And they, uttering their immortal voice, celebrate in song first of all the revered race of the gods [45] from the beginning, those whom [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] and wide [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] produced, and the gods sprung of these, givers of good things. Then next, the goddesses sing of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the father of gods and men, as they begin and end their song, how much he is the most excellent among the gods and supreme in power. [50] And again, they chant the race of men and strong giants, and gladden the heart of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] within [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary],—the Olympian [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary], daughters of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]-holder. In Piera, [pb_glossary id="2409"]Mnemosyne[/pb_glossary], who reigns over the hills of Eleuther, bears them from union with the father, the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], [55] a forgetting of ills and a rest from sorrow. For nine nights did wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] lie with her, entering her holy bed remote from the other immortals. And when a year passed and the seasons came round as the months waned, and many days were accomplished, [60] she bore nine daughters, all of one mind, whose hearts are set upon song, and whose spirit is free from care, a little way from the top-most peak of snowy [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. There are their bright dancing places and beautiful homes, and beside them the [pb_glossary id="189"]Graces[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="161"]Himeros[/pb_glossary] live [65] in delight. And they, uttering through their lips a lovely voice, sing the laws of all and the good ways of the immortals, uttering their lovely voice. Then they went to [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], delightful in their sweet voice, with heavenly song, and the dark earth resounded [70] about them as they chanted and a lovely sound rose up beneath their feet as they went to their father. And he was reigning in heaven, holding the lightning and glowing thunderbolt, after he had overcome his father [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] by force; and he distributed fairly to the immortals their portions and declared their privileges. [75] These things, then, the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] sang who dwell on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], nine daughters conceived by great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]: Cleio and Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene and Terpsichore, and Erato and Polyhymnia and Urania and Calliope, who is the leader of them all, [80] for she attends on worshipful princes: whichever of the heaven-nourished princes the daughters of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] honour and behold at his birth, they pour sweet dew upon his tongue, and from his lips flow gracious words. All the people [85] look towards him while he settles cases with true judgements: and he, speaking confidently, would soon bring a wise end to even a great quarrel; for this reason there are princes with wise hearts wise, because when the people are misguided in their assembly, they [the princes] easily set matters right again [90], persuading them with gentle words. And when he passes through a gathering, they greet him as a god with gentle reverence, and he stands out among the assembled: such is the holy gift of the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] to men. For it is through the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] and far-shooting [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] that [95] there are singers and harpers upon the earth; but princes are from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and happy is he whom the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] love: speech flows sweetly from his mouth. For although a man has sorrow and grief in his newly-troubled soul and lives in dread because his heart is distressed, yet, when a singer, [100] the servant of the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary], chants the glorious deeds of men of old and the blessed gods who inhabit [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], at once he forgets his heaviness and does not remember his sorrows at all; but the gifts of the goddesses soon turn him away from these. Hail, children of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]! Grant lovely song [105] and celebrate the holy race of the deathless gods who are forever, those that were born of [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] and starry [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] and gloomy [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary] and them that briny [pb_glossary id="2404"]Pontus[/pb_glossary] reared. Tell how, in the beginning, gods and earth came to be, and rivers, and the boundless sea with its raging swell, [110] and the gleaming stars, and the wide heaven above, and the gods who were born of them, givers of good things, and how they divided their wealth, and how they shared their honours amongst themselves, and also how they first took many-folded [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. Declare to me these things, from the beginning, you [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] who dwell in the house of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], [115] and tell me which of them happened first. In truth at first [pb_glossary id="2405"]Chaos[/pb_glossary] came to be, but next wide-bosomed [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary], the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and dim [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] in the depth of the wide-pathed earth, [120] and [pb_glossary id="158"]Eros[/pb_glossary], fairest among the deathless gods, who loosens the limbs and overcomes the mind and the wise counsels of all gods and all men. From [pb_glossary id="2405"]Chaos[/pb_glossary] came forth [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary] and black [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary]; but from [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary] were born [pb_glossary id="1038"]Aether[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="2406"]Day[/pb_glossary], [125] whom she conceived and bore from (sexual) union in love with [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary]. And [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] first bore starry [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary], equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long hills, graceful homes [130] of the [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymphs[/pb_glossary] who dwell among the glens of the hills. She bore also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, [pb_glossary id="2404"]Pontus[/pb_glossary], without the sweet union of love. But afterwards she lay with [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] and bore deep-swirling [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1545"]Coeus[/pb_glossary] and Crius and [pb_glossary id="878"]Hyperion[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary], [135] Theia and [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="2409"]Mnemosyne[/pb_glossary] and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely [pb_glossary id="1656"]Tethys[/pb_glossary]. After them was born [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty father. And again, she bore the [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclopes[/pb_glossary], overbearing in spirit, [140] Brontes, and Steropes and stubborn-hearted Arges, who gave [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the thunder and made the thunderbolt: in all else they were like the gods, [145] but one eye only was set in the midst of their foreheads. And they were called [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclopes[/pb_glossary] [Orb-eyed] because one orbed eye was set in their foreheads. Their works had strength and might and craft. And again, three other sons were born of [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary], great and mighty beyond telling, Cottus and Briareus and Gyges [ the [pb_glossary id="4812"]Hecatoncheires[/pb_glossary] ], arrogant children. [150] From their shoulders sprang a hundred arms, not to be approached, and fifty heads grew from the shoulders upon the strong limbs of each, and the stubborn strength they had in their great bodies was invincible . Of all the children that were born from [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary], [155] these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the day they were born. And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] so soon as each was born, and would not allow them to come up into the light: and [pb_glossary id="1546"]Heaven[/pb_glossary] rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] [160] groaned within, being restricted, and she came up with a crafty and evil plan. Right away she created the element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her dear sons her plan. And she spoke, encouraging them, while she was vexed in her dear heart, [165] “My children, sired by a wicked father, if you obey me, we will punish the vile abuse of your father; for he first thought of doing shameful things.” So she spoke; but fear seized them all, and none of them uttered a word. But great [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] the wily took courage and answered his dear mother, [170] “Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I do not care for our evil father, for he first thought of doing shameful things.” So he spoke and vast [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] rejoiced greatly in spirit, and hid and set him up for an ambush, and put in his hands [175] a jagged sickle, and revealed to him the whole plot. And [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay over top of [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] spreading himself fully upon her. Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle [180] with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's genitals and cast them away to fall behind him. And they did not fall from his hand uselessly; for [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] received all the bloody drops that gushed forth, and as the seasons progressed [185] she gave birth to the strong [pb_glossary id="157"]Erinyes[/pb_glossary] and the great [pb_glossary id="601"]Giants[/pb_glossary] with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymphs[/pb_glossary] whom they call Meliae all over the boundless earth. And as soon as he had cut off the genitals with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, [190] they were swept away over the watercourse for a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. First she came close to holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and emerged as a powerful and lovely goddess, and grass [195] grew up around her, beneath her shapely feet. Gods and men call her [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], the foam-born goddess, and rich-crowned [pb_glossary id="167"]Cytherea[/pb_glossary]. Foam-born because she grew amid the foam, and [pb_glossary id="167"]Cytherea[/pb_glossary] because she reached Cythera. They also called her Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, [200] and Philommedes[footnote]Philommedes can mean either "genital-loving" (as Hesiod here interprets it) or "laughter-loving"[/footnote] as well because she sprang from the genitals of [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary]. And with her went [pb_glossary id="158"]Eros[/pb_glossary], and lovely Desire [ [pb_glossary id="161"]Himeros[/pb_glossary] ] followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods. This honour she has from the beginning, and this is the portion allotted to her among men and undying gods,— [205] the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness. But these sons whom he begot himself great [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] used to call [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary] [Strainers] in reproach, for he said that they strained and arrogantly did [210] a dreadful deed, and that vengeance for it would come afterwards. And [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary] bore hateful Doom [Moiros] and black Fate [Ker] and [pb_glossary id="357"]Death[/pb_glossary], and she bore [pb_glossary id="616"]Sleep[/pb_glossary] and the tribe of Dreams [Oneiroi]. [214] And again the goddess murky [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary], though she lay with no one, [213] bore Blame [Momos] and painful Woe [Oizys], [215] and the [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary] who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary]. Also she bore the Destinies and ruthless avenging [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary]: Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos, who give men both evil and good at their birth, [220] and they pursue the transgressions of men and of gods. And these goddesses never cease from their dreadful anger until they punish the transgressor with a terrible penalty. Also deadly [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary] bore [pb_glossary id="338"]Nemesis[/pb_glossary] to afflict mortal men, and after her, Deceit [Apate] and Friendship [Philotes] [225] and hateful Old Age [Geras] and hard-hearted [pb_glossary id="2421"]Strife[/pb_glossary]. But abhorred [pb_glossary id="2421"]Strife[/pb_glossary] bore painful Toil [Ponos] and [pb_glossary id="2422"]Forgetfulness[/pb_glossary] and Famine [Limos] and tearful Sorrows [Algea], Fightings [Hysminai] also, Battles [Makhai], Murders [Phonoi], Manslaughters [Androktasiai], Quarrels [Neikea], Lying Words [Pseudo-Logoi], Disputes [Amphilogiai], [230] Lawlessness [Dysnomia] and [pb_glossary id="1492"]Ruin[/pb_glossary], all of one nature, and Oath [Horkos] who most troubles men upon earth when anyone willfully swears a false oath. And [pb_glossary id="2404"]Pontus[/pb_glossary] [the sea] fathered [pb_glossary id="1431"]Nereus[/pb_glossary], the eldest of his children, who tells the truth and does not lie and men call him the Old Man [235] because he is trusty and gentle and does not forget the laws of righteousness, but thinks just and kindly thoughts. And yet again he fathered great Thaumas and proud [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary], mating with [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary], and fair-cheeked [pb_glossary id="1150"]Ceto[/pb_glossary] and Eurybia who has a heart of flint within her. [240] And from [pb_glossary id="1431"]Nereus[/pb_glossary] and rich-haired [pb_glossary id="4433"]Doris[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] the perfect river, were born children, the lovely goddesses Ploto, Eucrante, Sao, and [pb_glossary id="1547"]Amphitrite[/pb_glossary], and Eudora, and [pb_glossary id="1551"]Thetis[/pb_glossary], Galene and Glauce, [245] Cymothoe, Speo, Thoe and lovely Halie, and Pasithea, and Erato, and rosy-armed Eunice, and gracious Melite, and Eulimene, and Agaue, Doto, Proto, Pherusa, and Dynamene, and Nisaea, and Actaea, and Protomedea, [250] Doris, Panopea, and comely [pb_glossary id="1714"]Galatea[/pb_glossary], and lovely Hippothoe, and rosy-armed Hipponoe, and Cymodoce who with Cymatolege and [pb_glossary id="1547"]Amphitrite[/pb_glossary] easily calms the waves upon the misty sea and the blasts of raging winds, [255] and Cymo, and Eione, and rich-crowned Alimede, and Glauconome, fond of laughter, and Pontoporea, Leagore, Euagore, and Laomedea, and Polynoe, and Autonoe, and Lysianassa, and Euarne, lovely of shape and without blemish of form, [260] and Psamathe of charming figure and divine Menippe, Neso, Eupompe, Themisto, Pronoe, and Nemertes who has the nature of her deathless father. These fifty daughters sprang from virtuous [pb_glossary id="1431"]Nereus[/pb_glossary], skilled in excellent crafts. [265] And Thaumas wedded Electra the daughter of deep-flowing [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], and she bore him swift [pb_glossary id="885"]Iris[/pb_glossary] and the long-haired [pb_glossary id="341"]Harpies[/pb_glossary], Aello [Storm-swift] and Ocypetes [Swift-flier] who on their swift wings keep pace with the blasts of the winds and the birds; for they dart along quick as time. [270] And again, [pb_glossary id="1150"]Ceto[/pb_glossary] bore to [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary] the fair-cheeked [pb_glossary id="1151"]Graeae[/pb_glossary], sisters grey from their birth. And both deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them [pb_glossary id="1151"]Graeae[/pb_glossary], Pemphredo well-dressed, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgons[/pb_glossary] who dwell beyond glorious [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] [275] in the frontier land towards [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary] where the clear-voiced [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary] are, Sthenno, and Euryale, and [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary] who suffered a deplorable fate: she was mortal, but the two were deathless and did not grow old. The Dark-haired One [ [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] ] lay with her in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. [280] And when [pb_glossary id="1493"]Perseus[/pb_glossary] cut off her head, there sprang forth great [pb_glossary id="1158"]Chrysaor[/pb_glossary] and the horse [pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary] who is so called because he was born near the springs of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary]; and that other, because he held a golden blade in his hands. Now [pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary] flew away and left the earth, the mother of flocks, [285] and came to the deathless gods: and he dwells in the house of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and brings to wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the thunder and lightning. But [pb_glossary id="1158"]Chrysaor[/pb_glossary] was joined in love to Callirrhoe, the daughter of glorious [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], and begot three-headed [pb_glossary id="1162"]Geryon[/pb_glossary]. Mighty [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary] slew [290] him in sea-girt Erythea by his shambling oxen on that day when he drove the wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns, and had crossed the ford of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] and killed [pb_glossary id="2423"]Orthus[/pb_glossary] and Eurytion the herdsman in the dim place out beyond glorious [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary]. [300] And in a hollow cave she bore another monster, irresistible, in no way like mortal men or undying gods, the goddess fierce [pb_glossary id="643"]Echidna[/pb_glossary] who is half a [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim [pb_glossary id="643"]Echidna[/pb_glossary], [305] a [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] who does not die or grow old all her days. Men say that [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] the terrible, outrageous and lawless, was joined in love to her, the maid with glancing eyes [Echidna]. So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bore [pb_glossary id="2423"]Orthus[/pb_glossary] the hound of [pb_glossary id="1162"]Geryon[/pb_glossary], [310] and then again she bore a second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary] who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], fifty-headed, relentless and strong. And again she bore a third, the evil-minded [pb_glossary id="1413"]Hydra of Lerna[/pb_glossary], whom the goddess, white-armed [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] nourished, [315] being angry beyond measure with the mighty [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary]. And her [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary], the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], of the house of [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary], together with warlike [pb_glossary id="1412"]Iolaus[/pb_glossary], destroyed with the unpitying sword through the plans of [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] the plunderer. She [Echidna] was the mother of [pb_glossary id="1209"]Chimera[/pb_glossary] who breathed raging fire, [320] a creature fearful, great, swift footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion, another of a goat, and another of a snake, a fierce dragon; in her forepart she was a lion; in her back-end, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. [325][pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary] and noble [pb_glossary id="1726"]Bellerophon[/pb_glossary] slew her; but [pb_glossary id="643"]Echidna[/pb_glossary] was subdued in intercourse with [pb_glossary id="2423"]Orthus[/pb_glossary] and brought forth the deadly [pb_glossary id="4617"]Sphinx[/pb_glossary], which destroyed the Cadmeans, and the [pb_glossary id="1484"]Nemean lion[/pb_glossary], which [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], the good wife of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], brought up and made to haunt the hills of Nemea, a plague to men. [330] There he preyed upon the tribes of her own people and had power over Tretus of Nemea and Apesas: yet the strength of forceful [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary] overcame him. And [pb_glossary id="1150"]Ceto[/pb_glossary] was joined in love to [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary] and bore her youngest, the awful snake who guards [335] the golden apples in the secret places of the dark earth at its great endpoint. This is the race of [pb_glossary id="1150"]Ceto[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary]. And [pb_glossary id="1656"]Tethys[/pb_glossary] bore to [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] eddying rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair stream of Ister, [340] and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver eddies of [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary], Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, and Aesepus, and holy [pb_glossary id="1581"]Simoeis[/pb_glossary], and Peneus, and Hermus, and Caicus' fair stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, [345] Euenus, Ardescus, and divine [pb_glossary id="1218"]Scamander[/pb_glossary]. Also she brought forth a holy company of daughters who with the lord [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] and the Rivers have youths in their keeping—to this charge [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] appointed them—Peitho, and Admete, and Ianthe, and Electra, [350] and Doris, and Prymno, and Urania divine in form, Hippo, Clymene, Rhodea, and Callirrhoe, Zeuxo and Clytie, and Idyia, and Pasithoe, Plexaura, and Galaxaura, and lovely [pb_glossary id="1548"]Dione[/pb_glossary], Melobosis and Thoe and handsome Polydora, [355] Cerceis lovely of form, and soft eyed Pluto, Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, Xanthe, Petraea the fair, Menestho, and Europa, [pb_glossary id="1568"]Metis[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="2444"]Eurynome[/pb_glossary], and Telesto saffron-clad, Chryseis and Asia and charming [pb_glossary id="2037"]Calypso[/pb_glossary], [360] Eudora, and Tyche, Amphirho, and Ocyrrhoe, and [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary] who is the foremost of them all. These are the eldest daughters that sprang from [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1656"]Tethys[/pb_glossary]; but there are many others. For there are three thousand neat-ankled daughters of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] who are dispersed far and wide, [365] and in every place equally serve the earth and the deep waters, children who are glorious among goddesses. And as many other rivers are there, babbling as they flow, sons of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], whom queenly [pb_glossary id="1656"]Tethys[/pb_glossary] bore, but their names it is hard for a mortal man to tell, [370] but people know those by which they each dwell. And Theia was subdued in intercourse to [pb_glossary id="878"]Hyperion[/pb_glossary] and bore great [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] and clear [pb_glossary id="1537"]Selene[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="215"]Eos[/pb_glossary] who shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven. [375] And Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to Crius and bore great Astraeus, and [pb_glossary id="1538"]Pallas[/pb_glossary], and Perses who also was eminent among all men in wisdom. And [pb_glossary id="215"]Eos[/pb_glossary] bore to Astraeus the strong-hearted winds, brightening [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyrus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1660"]Boreas[/pb_glossary], headlong in his course, [380] and [pb_glossary id="2432"]Notus[/pb_glossary],—a goddess mating in love with a god. And after these Erigeneia bore the star Eosphorus [Dawn-bringer], and the gleaming stars with which heaven is crowned. And [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary] the daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] was joined to [pb_glossary id="1538"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] and bore Zelus [Zeal] and trim-ankled [pb_glossary id="1037"]Nike[/pb_glossary] in the house. Also she brought forth [385] [pb_glossary id="2662"]Cratos[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="2663"]Bia[/pb_glossary], famous children. These have no house apart from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], nor any dwelling nor path except that wherein the god leads them, but they dwell always with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the loud-thunderer. For so did [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary] the deathless daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] plan [390] on that day when the Olympian Lightning god called all the deathless gods to great [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and said that whosoever of the gods would fight with him against the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary], he would not deprive him of his rights, but each should have the office which he had before amongst the deathless gods. [395] And he declared that he who was without office or right under [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], should be raised to both office and rights as is just. So deathless [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary] came first to [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] with her children through the wit of her dear father. And [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] honoured her, and gave her very great gifts, [400] for he appointed her to be the great oath of the gods, and her children to live with him always. And carried out his promises to them all. But he himself reigns and rules mightily. Again, Phoebe came to the desired embrace of [pb_glossary id="1545"]Coeus[/pb_glossary]. [405] Then through the love of the god the goddess conceived and brought forth dark-gowned [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], always mild, kind to men and to the deathless gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. Also she bore Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once [410] led to his great house to be called his dear wife. And she conceived and bore [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary] whom [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] honoured above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honour also in starry heaven, [415] and is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods. For to this day, whenever any man on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favor according to custom, he calls upon [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary]. Great honour comes easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favorably, [420] and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power is with her. For as many as were born of [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] amongst all these she has her due portion. The son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titan[/pb_glossary] gods: [425] but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, [427] privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea. [426] Also, because she is an only child, the goddess does not receive less honour, [428] but much more still, for [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] honours her. She greatly aids and advances whomever she wants: [434] she sits by worshipful kings in judgement, [430] and in the assembly, whoever she wants is distinguished among the people. And when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, [433] then the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whomever she wants [435] She is also good when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is with them and profits them: and he who gets the victory by might and strength wins the rich prize easily with joy, and brings glory to his parents. And she stands by whichever horsemen she wants: [440] and to those whose business is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary] and the loud-crashing [pb_glossary id="2039"]Earth-Shaker[/pb_glossary], easily the glorious goddess gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon as seen, if so she wants. She is good in the farmstead with [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] to increase the stock. [445] The droves of cattle and wide herds of goats and flocks of fleecy sheep, if she wants, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less. So, then, although her mother's only child, she is honoured amongst all the deathless gods. [450] And the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] made her a nurse of the young who after that day saw with their eyes the light of all-seeing [pb_glossary id="215"]Dawn[/pb_glossary]. So from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her honours. But [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary] was made wife to [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] and bore splendid children, [pb_glossary id="181"]Hestia[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary], and gold-sandaled [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] [455] and strong [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth, and the loud-crashing [pb_glossary id="2039"]Earth-Shaker[/pb_glossary], and wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], father of gods and men, by whose thunder the wide earth is shaken. These great [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] swallowed as each [460] came forth from the womb to their mother's knees with this intent, that no other of the proud sons of [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] should be king among the deathless gods. For he learned from [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] and starry [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] that he was destined to be overcome by his own son, [465] strong though he was, through the contriving of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. Therefore he kept no blind outlook, but watched and swallowed down his children: and unceasing grief seized [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary]. But when she was about to bear [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the father of gods and men, [470] then she begged her own dear parents, [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] and starry [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] , to devise some plan with her to conceal the birth of her dear child, and some retribution to overtake great, crafty [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] for his own father and also for the children whom he had swallowed down. And they readily heard and obeyed their dear daughter, [475] and told her all that was destined to happen, both to [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] the king and his stout-hearted son. So they sent her to Lyctus, to the rich land of Crete, when she was ready to bear great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the youngest of her children. Vast [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] received him from [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary] [480] in wide Crete to nourish and to bring up. To that place came [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] carrying him swiftly through the black night to Lyctus first, and took him in her arms and hid him in a remote cave beneath the secret places of the holy earth on thick-wooded Mount Aegeum; but to the mightily ruling son of [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary], the earlier king of the gods, [485] she gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then he took it in his hands and thrust it down into his belly: wretch! he did not know that in place of the stone his son was left behind, unconquered and untroubled, [490] and that he was soon to overcome him by force and might and drive him from his honours, himself to reign over the deathless gods. After that, the strength and glorious limbs of the prince [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ] increased quickly, and as the years rolled on, great [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] the wily was beguiled by the deep suggestions of [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary], [495] and brought up again his offspring, vanquished by the arts and might of his own son, and he vomited up first [500] the stone which he had swallowed last. And [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] set it firm in the wide-pathed earth at holy [pb_glossary id="945"]Pytho[/pb_glossary] under the glens of Parnassus, to be a sign from that time on and a marvel to mortal men. And he set free from their deadly bonds [the [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclopes[/pb_glossary],] the brothers of his father, sons of [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] whom his father in his foolishness had bound. And they remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder and the glowing thunderbolt [505] and lightning: for before that, huge [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] had hidden these. In them he trusts and rules over mortals and immortals. Now [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary] took in marriage the neat-ankled maid Clymene, daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], and went up with her into one bed. And she bore him a stout-hearted son, [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary]: [510] also she bore very glorious Menoetius and clever [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary], full of various wiles, and scatter-brained [pb_glossary id="2427"]Epimetheus[/pb_glossary] who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for it was he who first accepted from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the woman, the maiden whom he had formed. But Menoetius was outrageous, and farseeing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] [515] struck him with a smokey thunderbolt and sent him down to [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary] because of his mad presumption and exceeding pride. And constrained [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] holds up the wide heaven with untiring head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary]; [520] for this lot wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] assigned to him. And ready-witted [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary] he bound with inextricable bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through his middle, and set a long-winged eagle on him, which used to eat his immortal liver; but by night the liver grew [525] back as much as the long-winged bird devoured in the whole day.[pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary], the valiant son of shapely-ankled [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary], slew that bird ; and delivered the son of [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary] ] from the cruel plague, and released him from his affliction—but not without the will of Olympian [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who reigns on high, [530] that the glory of [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary] the Theban-born might be yet greater than it was before over the plenteous earth. He was amazed at and honoured his famous son; though he was angry, he ceased from the wrath he had held because [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary] matched wits with the almighty son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]. [535] For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mecone, even then [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary] was forward to cut up a great ox and set portions before them, trying to deceive the mind of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. Before the rest he set flesh and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide [good meat], covering them with an ox paunch; [540] but for [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] he put the white bones dressed up with cunning art and covered with shining fat. Then the father of men and of gods said to him: “Son of [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary], most glorious of all lords, good sir, how unfairly you have divided the portions!” [545] So said [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him. But wily [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary] answered him, smiling softly and not forgetting his cunning trick: “[pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], most glorious and greatest of the eternal gods, take whichever of these portions your heart within you wants.” [550] So he said, thinking trickery. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], whose wisdom is everlasting, saw and failed not to perceive the trick, and in his heart he plotted against mortal men. With both hands he took up the white fat and was angry at heart, and wrath came to his spirit [555] when he saw the white ox-bones craftily tricked out: and because of this the tribes of men upon earth burn white bones to the deathless gods upon fragrant altars. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who drives the clouds was greatly vexed and said to him: “Son of [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary], clever above all! [560] So, you have not yet forgotten your cunning arts!” So spoke [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] in anger, whose wisdom is everlasting; and from that time he was always mindful of the trick, and would not give the power of unwearying fire to the Melian race of mortal men[footnote]The meliae were nymphs of trees, or specifically ash trees. In another of Hesiod's works, Works and Days, the humans of the mythical Bronze Age were offspring of the Meliae (see Hesiod, Works and Days, 140-145). The "Melian race of mortals" may therefore be a reference to this origin of humanity, or to the people of the Bronze Age.[/footnote] who live on the earth. [565] But the noble son of [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary] outwitted him and stole the far-seen gleam of unwearying fire in a hollow fennel stalk. And [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who thunders on high was stung in spirit, and his dear heart was angered when he saw the far-seen ray of fire among men. [570] Then he made an evil thing for men as the price of fire; for the very famous Limping God [ [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] ] formed from earth the likeness of a shy maiden as the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] willed. And the goddess bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] girded and clothed her with silvery garments, and down from her head [575] she spread with her hands an embroidered veil, a wonder to see; and she, [pb_glossary id="882"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary], put about her head lovely garlands, flowers of new-grown herbs. Also she put upon her head a crown of gold which the very famous Limping God [ [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] ] made himself [580] and worked with his own hands as a favor to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], his father. It was much curious work, wonderful to see; for of the many creatures which the land and sea rear up, he put most upon it, wonderful things, like living beings with voices: and great beauty shone out from it.[footnote]For more on the creation of the first woman Pandora, see chapter 14.[/footnote] [585] But when he had made the beautiful evil to be the price for the blessing [of fire], he brought her out, delighting in the finery which the bright-eyed daughter of a mighty father [ [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] ] had given her, to the place where the other gods and men were. And wonder took hold of the deathless gods and mortal men when they saw that which was sheer guile, not to be withstood by men. [590] For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live among mortal men to their great trouble, no assistance in hateful poverty, but only in wealth. And as in thatched hives bees [595] feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief—by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered hives and reap the toil of others into their own bellies— [600] even so [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who thunders on high made women as an evil for mortal men, with a nature prone to doing evil. And he gave them a second evil, as a price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age [605] without anyone to tend to him, and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions among themselves. And as for the man who chooses marriage and takes a good wife suited to his mind, evil continually contends with good; [610] for whoever happens to have mischievous children, lives always with unceasing grief in his spirit and heart; and this evil cannot be healed. So it is not possible to deceive or go beyond the will of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]: for not even the son of [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary], kindly [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary], [615] escaped his heavy anger, but of necessity strong bands confined him, although he knew many tricks. But when their father was first offended by Briareus and Cottus and Gyges, he bound them in cruel bonds, because he was jealous of their exceeding manhood and appearance [620] and great size: and he made them live beneath the wide-pathed earth, where they were afflicted, sent to live under the ground, at the end of the earth, at its great borders, in bitter anguish for a long time and with great grief at heart. But the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] and the other deathless gods [625] whom rich-haired [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary] bore from union with [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], brought them up again to the light at [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary]'s advising. For she herself recounted all things to the gods fully, how with these they might gain victory and a glorious means to raise themselves up. [630] For the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titan[/pb_glossary] gods and the children of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] had been fighting against each other for a long time in unending war with heart-grieving toil. On one side were the lordly [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary] from high [pb_glossary id="781"]Othrys[/pb_glossary] and on the other were the Olympian gods, givers of good, whom rich-haired [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary] bore in union with [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], from [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. [635] So they, with bitter wrath, were fighting continually with one another at that time for ten full years, and the hard strife had no close or end for either side, and the war hung evenly balanced. But when he had provided those three [Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges] with all things fitting, [640] nectar and ambrosia which the gods themselves eat, and when their proud spirit revived within them after they had fed on nectar and delicious ambrosia, then it was that the father of men and gods [Zeus] spoke to them: “Hear me, bright children of [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary], [645] so that I may say what my heart within me commands. For a long time now we, who are sprung from [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] and the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titan[/pb_glossary] gods have fought with each other every day to be victorious and to prevail. But show your great might and unconquerable strength, and [650] face the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary] in bitter strife; for remember our friendly kindness, and the liberation from sufferings we have given you, who have come back to the light from your cruel bondage under misty gloom through our plans.” So he spoke. And noble Cottus answered him: “[655] Divine one, you say what we know well: no, even on our own we know that your wisdom and understanding is exceeding, and that you became a defender of the deathless ones from chill doom. And through your devising we have come back again from the murky gloom and from our merciless bonds, [660] enjoying what the unexpected, O lord, son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]. And so now with fixed purpose and deliberate counsel we will aid your power in dreadful strife and will fight against the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary] in hard battle.” So he spoke: and the gods, givers of good things, applauded when [665] they heard his words, and their spirits longed for war even more than before, and they all, both male and female, stirred up hated battle that day, the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titan[/pb_glossary] gods, and all that were born of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] together with those dread, mighty ones of overwhelming strength [670] whom [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] brought up to the light from [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary] beneath the earth. A hundred arms sprang from the shoulders of each of them, and each had fifty heads growing from his shoulders upon strong limbs. These, then, stood against the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary] in grim strife, [675] holding huge rocks in their strong hands. And on the other part the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary] eagerly strengthened their ranks, and both sides at one time showed the work of their hands and their might. The boundless sea rang out terribly, and the earth crashed loudly: wide [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] was shaken and [680] groaned, and high [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] reeled from its foundation under the charge of the undying gods, and a heavy quaking reached dim [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] and the deep sound of their feet in the fearful onset and of their hard missiles. So, then, they launched their grievous shafts upon one another, [685] and the cry of both armies as they shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great battle-cry. Then [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] no longer held back his might; but immediately his heart was filled with fury and he displayed all his strength. From [pb_glossary id="1546"]Heaven[/pb_glossary] and from [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] [690] he came immediately, hurling his lightning: the bolts flew thick and fast from his strong hand together with thunder and lightning, whirling an awesome flame. The life-giving earth crashed around, burning, and the vast wood crackled loud with fire all about. [695] All the land seethed, and [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary]'s streams and the barren sea. The hot vapor lapped round the earthborn [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary]: flame unspeakable rose to the bright upper air: even thought they were strong, the flashing glare of the thunderbolts and lightning blinded their eyes. [700] Fearful heat seized [pb_glossary id="2405"]Chaos[/pb_glossary]: and to see with eyes and to hear the sound with ears it seemed as if [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] and wide [pb_glossary id="1546"]Heaven[/pb_glossary] above came together; for such a mighty crash would have arisen if [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] were being hurled to ruin, and [pb_glossary id="1546"]Heaven[/pb_glossary] from on high were hurling her down; [705] so great a crash was there while the gods were meeting together in strife. Also the winds brought rumbling earthquake and dust storm, thunder and lightning and the smokey thunderbolt, which are the shafts of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and carried the clamor and the war cry into the midst of the two armies. A horrible uproar [710] of terrible strife arose: mighty deeds were displayed and the battle increased. But until then, they kept at one another and fought continually in cruel war. And amongst the foremost Cottus and Briareus and Gyges insatiate for war [715] fought fiercely: three hundred rocks, one upon another, they launched from their strong hands and overshadowed the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary] with their missiles, and hurled them beneath the wide-pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains when they had conquered them by their strength, [720] as far beneath the earth as heaven is above earth; for so far is it from earth to [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary]. For a copper anvil falling down from heaven nine nights and days would reach the earth on the tenth: and again, a copper anvil falling from earth nine nights and days [725] would reach [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] on the tenth. Round it runs a fence of bronze, and night spreads in triple line all about it like a necklace, while above grow the roots of the earth and barren sea. There, by the counsel of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who drives the clouds, the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titan[/pb_glossary] gods [730] are hidden under misty gloom, in a dank place at the ends of the huge earth. And they may not go out; for [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a wall runs all round it on every side. There Gyes and Cottus and great-souled Obriareus [735] live, trusty guards of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]. And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of gloomy earth and misty [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] and the barren sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor. [740] It is a great gulf, and if ever a man were within the gates, he would not reach the floor until a whole year had passed, but cruel blast upon blast would carry him this way and that. And this marvel is awful even to the deathless gods. There stands the awful home of murky [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary] [745] wrapped in dark clouds. In front of it the son of [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] ] stands immovably upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying hands, where [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="2406"]Day[/pb_glossary] draw near and greet one another as they pass the great threshold [750] of bronze: and while the one is about to go down into the house, the other comes out at the door. And the house never holds them both within; but always one is outside the house passing over the earth, while the other stays at home and waits until the time for her journeying comes; [755] and the one holds all-seeing light for them on earth, but the other holds in her arms [pb_glossary id="616"]Sleep[/pb_glossary] the brother of [pb_glossary id="357"]Death[/pb_glossary], evil [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary], wrapped in a vaporous cloud. And there the children of dark [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary] have their dwellings, [pb_glossary id="616"]Sleep[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="357"]Death[/pb_glossary], awful gods. [760] The glowing [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary] never looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over the earth and the sea's broad back and is kindly to men; but the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him [765] is pitiless as bronze: whomever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods. There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god of the lower-world, strong [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], and of dread [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary]. A fearful hound guards the house in front, [770] pitiless, and he has a cruel trick. He happily greets those who arrive with his tail and both his ears, but does not allow them to go back out again, but keeps watch and devours whomever he catches going out of the gates of strong [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] and dread [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary]. [775] And there dwells the goddess loathed by the deathless gods, terrible [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary], eldest daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] who encircles the earth. She lives apart from the gods in her glorious house vaulted over with great rocks and propped up to heaven all round with silver pillars. [780] Rarely does the daughter of Thaumas, swift-footed [pb_glossary id="885"]Iris[/pb_glossary], come to her with a message over the sea's wide back. But when strife and quarrel arise among the deathless gods, and when any one of them who live in the house of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] lies, then [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] sends [pb_glossary id="885"]Iris[/pb_glossary] to bring in a golden jug the great oath of the gods [785] from far away, the famous cold water which trickles down from a high and projecting rock. Far under the wide-pathed earth a branch of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] flows through the dark night out of the holy stream, and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her. [790] With nine silver-swirling streams he winds about the earth and the sea's wide back, and then falls into the sea; but the tenth flows out from a rock, a sore trouble to the gods. For whoever of the deathless gods that hold the peaks of snowy [pb_glossary id="628"']Olympus[/pb_glossary] pours a libation of her water and is forsworn, [795] must lie breathless until a full year is completed, and never come near to taste ambrosia and nectar, but lie spiritless and voiceless on a strewn bed: and a heavy trance overshadows him. But when he has spent a long year in his sickness, [800] another penance more hard follows after the first. For nine years he is cut off from the eternal gods and never joins their councils or their feasts, nine full years. But in the tenth year he comes again to join the assemblies of the deathless gods who live in the house of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. [805] Such an oath, then, did the gods appoint the eternal and primeval water of [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary] to be: and it spouts through a rugged place. And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of the dark earth and misty [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] and the barren sea and starry heaven, [810] loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor. And there are shining gates and an immovable threshold of bronze having unending roots, and it is self-grown. And beyond, away from all the gods, live the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary], beyond gloomy [pb_glossary id="2405"]Chaos[/pb_glossary]. [815] But the glorious allies of loud-crashing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] have their dwelling upon [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary]'s foundations, even Cottus and Gyges; but Briareus, being noble, the deep-roaring [pb_glossary id="2039"]Earth-Shaker[/pb_glossary] made his son-in-law, giving him Cymopolea his daughter to wed. [820] But when [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had driven the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary] from heaven, huge [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] bore her youngest child [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] from intercourse with [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary], by the aid of golden [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary]. Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders [825] grew a hundred snake heads, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared. And there were voices in all his dreadful heads [830] which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable; for at one time they made sounds such that the gods understood, but at another, the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound of a lion, relentless of heart; and at another, sounds like puppies, strange to hear; [835] and again, at another, he would hiss, so that the high mountains re-echoed. And truly a thing past help would have happened on that day, and he would have come to reign over mortals and immortals, had not the father of men and gods been quick to perceive it. But he thundered hard and mightily: and the earth around [840] resounded terribly and the wide heaven above, and the sea and [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary]'s streams and the lower parts of the earth. Great [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] reeled beneath the divine feet of the king as he arose and earth groaned. And through the two of them heat took hold on the dark-blue sea, [845] through the thunder and lightning, and through the fire from the monster, and the scorching winds and blazing thunderbolt. The whole earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long waves raged along the beaches round and about at the rush of the deathless gods: and there arose an endless shaking. [850] [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] trembled where he rules over the dead below, and the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary] under [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] who live with [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], because of the unending clamor and the fearful strife. So when [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had raised up his might and seized his arms, thunder and lightning and smokey thunderbolt, [855] he leaped from [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] and struck him [ [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhoeus[/pb_glossary] ], and burned all the marvellous heads of the monster about him. But when [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had conquered him and lashed him with strokes, [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhoeus[/pb_glossary] was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth groaned. And flame shot forth from the thunder-stricken lord [860] in the dim rugged glens of the mountain, when he was defeated. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened [865] by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary]. Like this, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire. And in the bitterness of his anger [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] cast him into wide [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary]. And from [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhoeus[/pb_glossary] come boisterous winds which blow damply, [870] except [pb_glossary id="2432"]Notus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1660"]Boreas[/pb_glossary] and clear [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyr[/pb_glossary]. These are a god-sent kind, and a great blessing to men; but the others blow fitfully upon the sea. Some rush upon the misty sea and cause much destruction for men with their evil, raging blasts; [875] for varying with the season they blow, scattering ships and destroying sailors. And men who meet these upon the sea have no help against the mischief. Others again over the boundless, flowering earth spoil the fair fields of men who dwell below, [880] filling them with dust and cruel uproar. But when the blessed gods had finished their toil, and settled by force their struggle for honours with the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary], they encouraged far-seeing Olympian [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] to reign and to rule over them, by [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary]'s prompting. So he divided their offices amongst them. [885] Now [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], king of the gods, made [pb_glossary id="1568"]Metis[/pb_glossary] his wife first, and she was wisest among gods and mortal men. But when she was about to give birth to the goddess bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] craftily deceived her [890] with cunning words and put her in his own belly, as [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary] and starry [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary] advised. For they advised him so, so that no other should hold royal sway over the eternal gods in place of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]; for very wise children were destined to be born of her, [895] first the maiden bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="1567"]Tritogeneia[/pb_glossary], equal to her father in strength and in wise understanding; but afterwards she was to bear a son of overbearing spirit, king of gods and men. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] put her into his own belly first, [900] that the goddess might plot for him both good and evil. Next he married bright [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary] who bore the [pb_glossary id="164"]Horae[/pb_glossary], and Eunomia [Order], Dikë [Justice], and blooming Eirene [Peace], who mind the works of mortal men, and the [pb_glossary id="605"]Moirai[/pb_glossary] to whom wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] gave the greatest honour, [905] Clotho, and Lachesis, and Atropos who give mortal men evil and good to have. And [pb_glossary id="2444"]Eurynome[/pb_glossary], the daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], beautiful in form, bore him three fair-cheeked [pb_glossary id="189"]Charites[/pb_glossary]], Aglaea, and Euphrosyne, and lovely Thaleia, [910] from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that loosens the limbs: and beautiful is their glance beneath their brows. Also he came to the bed of all-nourishing [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary], and she bore white-armed [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary] whom [pb_glossary id="880"]Aidoneus[/pb_glossary] carried off from her mother; but wise [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] gave her to him. [915] And again, he loved [pb_glossary id="2409"]Mnemosyne[/pb_glossary] with the beautiful hair: and of her the nine gold-crowned [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] were born who delight in feasts and the pleasures of song. And [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] was joined in love with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary], [920] and bore [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] delighting in arrows, children lovely above all the descendants [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary]. Lastly, he made [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] his blooming wife: and she was joined in love with the king of gods and men, and brought forth [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="783"]Eileithyia[/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] himself gave birth from his own head to bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="1567"]Tritogeneia[/pb_glossary], [925] the awe-inspiring, the strife-stirring, the host-leader, the unwearying, the queen, who delights in tumults and wars and battles. But [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] without union with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]—for she was very angry and argued with her partner—bore famous [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], who is skilled in crafts more than all the descendants of [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary]. [929a] But [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] was very angry and argued with her partner. And because of this strife she bore without union with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary] a glorious son, [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], who excelled all the sons of [pb_glossary id="1546"]Heaven[/pb_glossary] in crafts. [929e] But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] lay with the fair-cheeked daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1656"]Tethys[/pb_glossary] apart from [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] ((lacuna))[footnote]Indicates a gap or missing segment in the text[/footnote]. . . deceiving [pb_glossary id="1568"]Metis[/pb_glossary] although she was full wise. But he seized her with his hands and put her in his belly, for fear that she might bring forth something stronger than his thunderbolt: [929j] therefore did [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], who sits on high and dwells in the [pb_glossary id="1038"]aether[/pb_glossary], swallow her down suddenly. But she straightway conceived [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]: and the father of men and gods gave birth to her by way of his head on the banks of the river Trito. And she remained hidden beneath the inward parts of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], [929o] [pb_glossary id="1568"]Metis[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]'s mother, worker of righteousness, who was wiser than gods and mortal men. There the goddess received what she needed to she excelled in strength all the deathless less ones who dwell in [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], she who made the host-scaring weapon of [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]. [929t] And with it [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ] gave birth to her, arrayed in arms of war. [930] And from [pb_glossary id="1547"]Amphitrite[/pb_glossary] and the loud-roaring [pb_glossary id="2039"]Earth-Shaker[/pb_glossary] was born great, wide-ruling [pb_glossary id="334"]Triton[/pb_glossary], and he owns the depths of the sea, living with his dear mother and the lord his father in their golden house, a fearsome god. Also [pb_glossary id="167"]Cytherea[/pb_glossary] bore to [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] the shield-piercer Panic [Deimos] and Fear [Phobos], [935] terrible gods who drive the close ranks of men into discord in numbing war, with the help of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], sacker of towns; and [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary] whom high-spirited [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] made his wife. And [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary], the daughter of [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], bore to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] glorious [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary], the herald of the deathless gods, for she went up into his holy bed. [940] And [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] was joined with him [Zeus] in love and bore him a splendid son, joyous [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary],—a mortal woman, an immortal son. And now they both are gods. And [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] was joined in love with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who drives the clouds and bore mighty [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary]. [945] And [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], the famous Lame One, made Aglaea, youngest of the [pb_glossary id="189"]Graces[/pb_glossary], his buxom wife. And golden-haired [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary] made brown-haired [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], the daughter of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], his buxom wife: and the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] made her deathless and unageing for him. [950] And mighty [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary], the valiant son of neat-ankled [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary], when he had finished his terrible labours, made [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary] the child of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and gold-sandaled [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] his shy wife in snowy [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. A happy man! For he has finished his great work [955] and lives amongst the undying gods, untroubled and unaging all his days. And Perseis, the daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], bore to unwearying [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeetes[/pb_glossary] the king. And [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeetes[/pb_glossary], the son of [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] who shows light to men, [960] took to wife fair-cheeked Idyia, daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] the perfect stream, by the will of the gods: and she was subdued him in love through golden [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] and bore him neat-ankled [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary]. And now farewell, you dwellers on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and you islands and continents, and you briny sea within. [965] Now sing the company of goddesses, sweet-voiced [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], daughters of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary],—even those deathless ones who lay with mortal men and bore children like gods. [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary], bright goddess, was joined in sweet love [970] with the hero Iasion in a thrice-ploughed fallow in the rich land of Crete, and bore [pb_glossary id="889"]Plutus[/pb_glossary], a kindly god who goes everywhere over land and the sea's wide back, and he makes rich the man who finds him and into whose hands he comes, bestowing great wealth upon him. [975] And [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary], the daughter of golden [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], bore to [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary] and fair-cheeked [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary] whom long haired [pb_glossary id="959"]Aristaeus[/pb_glossary] wedded, and Polydorus also in rich-crowned [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary]. And the daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], Callirrhoe [980] was joined in the love of rich [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] with stout-hearted [pb_glossary id="1158"]Chrysaor[/pb_glossary] and bore a son who was the strongest of all men, [pb_glossary id="1162"]Geryon[/pb_glossary], whom mighty [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary] killed in sea-girt Erythea for the sake of his shambling oxen. And [pb_glossary id="215"]Eos[/pb_glossary] bore to [pb_glossary id="1511"]Tithonus[/pb_glossary] brazen-crested Memnon, [985] king of the Ethiopians, and the Lord Emathion. And to Cephalus she bore a splendid son, strong Phaethon, a man like the gods, whom, when he was a young boy in the tender flower of glorious youth with childish thoughts, laughter-loving [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] [990] seized and caught up and made a keeper of her shrine by night, a divine spirit. And [ [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] ] the son of [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary] by the will of the gods led away from [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeetes[/pb_glossary] the daughter [ [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary] ] of [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeetes[/pb_glossary] the heaven-nurtured king, when he had finished the many grievous labours [995] which the great king, overbearing [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary], that outrageous and presumptuous doer of violence, put upon him. But when the son of [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary] had finished them, he came to Iolcus after long toil bringing the coy-eyed girl with him on his swift ship, and made her his buxom wife. [1000] And she was wife to [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], shepherd of the people, and bore a son Medeus whom [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary] the son of Philyra brought up in the mountains. And the will of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] was fulfilled. But of the daughters of [pb_glossary id="1431"]Nereus[/pb_glossary], the Old man of the Sea, Psamathe the fair goddess, [1005] was loved by [pb_glossary id="2324"]Aeacus[/pb_glossary] through golden [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] and bore Phocus. And the silver-sandaled goddess [pb_glossary id="1551"]Thetis[/pb_glossary] was made wife to [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary] and brought forth lion-hearted [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], the destroyer of men. And [pb_glossary id="167"]Cytherea[/pb_glossary] with the beautiful crown was joined in sweet love with the hero [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] and bore [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] [1010] on the peaks of [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary] with its many wooded glens. And [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary] the daughter of [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="878"]Hyperion[/pb_glossary]'s son, loved steadfast [pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] and bore Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth [pb_glossary id="2025"]Telegonus[/pb_glossary] by the will of golden [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary]. [1015] And they ruled over the famous Tyrsenians, very far off in a recess of the holy islands. And the bright goddess [pb_glossary id="2037"]Calypso[/pb_glossary] was joined to [pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] in sweet love, and bore him Nausithous and Nausinous. [1020] These are the immortal goddesses who lay with mortal men and bore them children like gods. But now, sweet-voiced [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] of [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], daughters of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] who holds the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary], sing of the company of women. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0130

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_1785" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gigantomachy, Delphi Siphnian Treasury frieze, ca. 525 BCE (Archaeological Museum, Delphi)[/caption] While there are no known representations of the battle between the Olympians and the Titans (the Titanomachy), the victory over the Giants (the Gigantomachy) was one of the most popular themes in ancient Greek art. [caption id="attachment_1793" align="alignleft" width="333"] Gigantomachy, red-figure amphora, ca. 400 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1790" align="alignright" width="308"] Gigantomachy, red-figure krater, ca. 350 BCE (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)[/caption]
In our earliest examples, from the [pb_glossary id="5123"]Archaic[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="5125"]Classical periods[/pb_glossary], the Olympian gods were portrayed with their usual attributes, but also holding various weapons. The Giants were initially depicted as bearded warriors in hoplite armour with no monstrous features.
[caption id="attachment_1786" align="alignnone" width="1249"] Gigantomachy, red-figure amphora, 4th century BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]
However, during the [pb_glossary id="5112"]Hellenistic period[/pb_glossary] the iconography of the Giants changed to mixed creatures with human heads and torsos and snake-like legs. This was meant to stress their connection to Gaia, their mother: snakes were seen as chthonic animals, and consequently many of the children of Gaia were represented with serpentine features in art.
[caption id="attachment_469" align="alignnone" width="1089"] Zeus fighting a giant, red-figure tondo, ca. 350 BCE National Archaeological Museum, Madrid)[/caption]
Specific Olympian gods were almost always represented fighting the same adversaries during the war: Athena slays Enceladus with her spear, Dionysus kills Eurytus, Poseidon throws an island on Polybotes, Hecate burns Clytios.
[caption id="attachment_1783" align="alignleft" width="261"] Athena fights the giant Enceladus, Selinunte relief, ca. 450 BCE (Museo Archaeologico Regionale, Palermo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1795" align="alignright" width="386"] Dionysus fighting the giant Eurytus, red-figure pelike, ca. 460 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1791" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Poseidon and the giant Polybotes, black-figure amphora, ca. 540 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_5315" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Hecate fighting Clytios (far left) in the Gigantomachy, Pergamon Altar frieze, 2nd century BCE (Pergamon Museum, Berlin)[/caption]
The victory against the Giants was often used as a tool of political propaganda to celebrate victories against foreign enemies. For instance, sculptures representing this myth were displayed on the metopes on the eastern side of the Parthenon to remember Athens' victory against the Persians, and on the massive Altar of Zeus in Pergamon to commemorate the local king’s victory against the Galatian Gauls.
[caption id="attachment_1784" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Athena in the Gigantomachy, Pergamon Altar frieze, 2nd century BCE (Pergamon Museum, Berlin)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Ovid on Creation

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:26:29 +0000
[caption id="attachment_4136" align="alignnone" width="1083"] The chariot of the sun, red-figure krater, ca. 430 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

Ovid on Creation

Ovid (43 BCE – 17/18 CE) was a Roman poet, writing in Latin at the turn of the first millennium. He wrote in a variety of different poetic styles, though his longest work was an epic poem called The Metamorphoses, which traces the mythological history of the world from its creation through the deification of Julius Caesar and the rise of the emperor Augustus.

The first 150 lines of the poem offer another cosmogony that is quite different from the one given by Hesiod. This description of the origin of the world involves a singular divine creator or demiurge, who fashions the world out of chaos. It was influenced by stoicism and epicureanism, two philosophical schools that were prominent at Rome during this time. Ovid's cosmogony also fits into the larger theme of the Metamorphoses, which deals with transformations ("metamorphoses") of beings and forms into other beings and forms.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 1 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE
[1-20] I want to speak about bodies changed into new forms. You, gods, since you are the ones who alter these, and all other things, inspire my attempt, and spin out a continuous thread of words, from the world's first origins to my own time. Before there was earth or sea or the sky that covers everything, Nature appeared the same throughout the whole world: what we call chaos: a raw confused mass, nothing but inert matter, badly combined discordant atoms of things, confused in one place. There was no Titan [ [pb_glossary id="876"]Sol[/pb_glossary] / [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] ] yet, shining his light on the world, or waxing Phoebe [ [pb_glossary id="1537"]Luna[/pb_glossary] / [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary] ] renewing her white horns, or the earth hovering in surrounding air balanced by her own weight, or watery [pb_glossary id="1547"]Amphitrite[/pb_glossary] stretching out her arms along the vast shores of the world. Though there was land and sea and air, it was unstable land, unswimmable water, air needing light. Nothing retained its shape, one thing obstructed another, because in the one body, cold fought with heat, moist with dry, soft with hard, and weight with weightless things. [21-31] This conflict was ended by a god and a greater order of nature, since he split off the earth from the sky, and the sea from the land, and divided the transparent heavens from the dense air. When he had disentangled the elements, and freed them from the obscure mass, he fixed them in separate spaces in harmonious peace. The weightless fire, that forms the heavens, darted upwards to make its home in the furthest heights. Next came air in lightness and place. Earth, heavier than either of these, drew down the largest elements, and was compressed by its own weight. The surrounding water took up the last space and enclosed the solid world. [32-51] When whichever god it was had ordered and divided the mass, and collected it into separate parts, he first gathered the earth into a great ball so that it was uniform on all sides. Then he ordered the seas to spread and rise in waves in the flowing winds and pour around the coasts of the encircled land. He added springs and standing pools and lakes, and contained in shelving banks the widely separated rivers, some of which are swallowed by the earth itself, others of which reach the sea and entering the expanse of open waters beat against coastlines instead of riverbanks. He ordered the plains to extend, the valleys to subside, leaves to hide the trees, stony mountains to rise: and just as the heavens are divided into two zones to the north and two to the south, with a fifth and hotter between them, so the god carefully marked out the enclosed matter with the same number, and described as many regions on the earth. The equatorial zone is too hot to be habitable; the two poles are covered by deep snow; and he placed two regions between and gave them a temperate climate mixing heat and cold. [52-68] Air overhangs them, heavier than fire by as much as water’s weight is lighter than earth. There he ordered the clouds and vapours to exist, and thunder to shake the minds of human beings, and winds that create lightning-bolts and flashes. The world’s maker did not allow these, either, to possess the air indiscriminately; as it is they are scarcely prevented from tearing the world apart, each with its blasts steering a separate course: like the discord between brothers. Eurus, the east wind, drew back to the realms of [pb_glossary id="215"]Aurora[/pb_glossary], to Nabatea, Persia, and the heights under the morning light: Evening, and the coasts that cool in the setting sun, are close to [pb_glossary id="339"]Zephyrus[/pb_glossary], the west wind. Chill [pb_glossary id="1660"]Boreas[/pb_glossary], the north wind, seized Scythia and the seven stars of the Plough[Ursa Major]: while the south wind, [pb_glossary id="2432"]Auster[/pb_glossary], drenches the lands opposite with incessant clouds and rain. Above these he placed the transparent, weightless heavens free of the dregs of earth. [68-88] He had barely separated out everything within fixed limits when the constellations that had been hidden for a long time in dark fog began to blaze out throughout the whole sky. And so that no region might lack its own animate beings, the stars and the forms of gods occupied the floor of heaven, the sea gave a home to the shining fish, earth took the wild animals, and the light air flying things. As yet there was no animal capable of higher thought that could be ruler of all the rest. Then Humankind was born. Either the creator god, source of a better world, seeded it from the divine, or the newborn earth just drawn from the highest heavens still contained fragments related to the skies, so that [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary], blending them with streams of rain, moulded them into an image of the all-controlling gods. While other animals look downwards at the ground, he gave human beings an upturned aspect, commanding them to look towards the skies, and, upright, raise their face to the stars. So the earth, that had been, a moment ago, uncarved and imageless, changed and assumed the unknown shapes of human beings. [89-112] This was the Golden Age that, without coercion, without laws, spontaneously nurtured the good and the true. There was no fear or punishment: there were no threatening words to be read, fixed in bronze, no crowd of suppliants fearing the judge’s face: they lived safely without protection. No pine tree felled in the mountains had yet reached the flowing waves to travel to other lands: human beings only knew their own shores. There were no steep ditches surrounding towns, no straight war-trumpets, no coiled horns, no swords and helmets. Without the use of armies, people passed their lives in gentle peace and security. The earth herself also, freely, without the scars of ploughs, untouched by hoes, produced everything from herself. Contented with food that grew without cultivation, they collected mountain strawberries and the fruit of the strawberry tree, wild cherries, blackberries clinging to the tough brambles, and acorns fallen from [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s spreading oak-tree. Spring was eternal, and gentle breezes caressed with warm air the flowers that grew without being seeded. Then the untilled earth gave of its produce and, without needing renewal, the fields whitened with heavy ears of corn. Sometimes rivers of milk flowed, sometimes streams of nectar, and golden honey trickled from the green holm oak. [113-124] When [pb_glossary id="169"]Saturn[/pb_glossary] was banished to gloomy [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] ruled the world, then came the people of the age of silver that is inferior to gold, more valuable than yellow bronze. [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] shortened spring’s first duration and made the year consist of four seasons, winter, summer, changeable autumn, and brief spring. Then parched air first glowed white scorched with the heat, and ice hung down frozen by the wind. Then houses were first made for shelter: before that homes had been made in caves, and dense thickets, or under branches fastened with bark. Then seeds of corn were first buried in the long furrows, and bullocks groaned, burdened under the yoke. [125-150] Third came the people of the bronze age, with fiercer natures, readier to indulge in savage warfare, but not yet vicious. The harsh iron age was last. Immediately every kind of wickedness erupted into this age of baser natures: truth, shame and honour vanished; in their place were fraud, deceit, and trickery, violence and pernicious desires. They set sails to the wind, though as yet the seamen had poor knowledge of their use, and the ships’ keels that once were trees standing amongst high mountains, now leaped through uncharted waves. The land that was once common to all, as the light of the sun is, and the air, was marked out, to its furthest boundaries, by wary surveyors. Not only did they demand the crops and the food the rich soil owed them, but they entered the bowels of the earth, and excavating brought up the wealth it had concealed in Stygian [ adjectival form of [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary] ] shade, wealth that incites men to crime. And now harmful iron appeared, and gold which was more harmful than iron. War came, whose struggles employ both, waving clashing arms with bloodstained hands. They lived on plunder: friend was not safe with friend, relative with relative, kindness was rare between brothers. Husbands longed for the death of their wives, wives for the death of their husbands. Murderous stepmothers mixed deadly aconite, and sons inquired into their father’s years before their time. Piety was dead, and virgin [pb_glossary id="2459"]Astraea[/pb_glossary], last of all the immortals to depart, herself abandoned the blood-drenched earth. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph.php#anchor_Toc64105451
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved

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Flood Myths

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:26:54 +0000
[caption id="attachment_2888" align="aligncenter" width="795"] Atrahasis III tablet from Sippar, clay tablet, 17th century BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

Introduction

In cultures around the world, there are myths that narrate the arrival of a universal flood that almost destroyed the human race. In this regard, the Mediterranean world is not an exception. Within Greco-Roman mythology, the most important flood myth comes from Ovid´s Metamorphoses. Nevertheless, this account was preceded in the region by Atrahasis and Gilgamesh Epic, which were written over one thousand years earlier and by the account of the flood in Genesis , which was written hundreds of years earlier.

In these myths, floods mark a turning point between “antediluvian” (before the flood) and “postdiluvian” (after the flood) times. Antediluvian times contain elements of utopia, but eventually descend into chaos, evil, or other turmoil. The flood provides some form of "reset" of creation, and the period after the flood comprises rebuilding and reparations, often leading away from the “mythical” qualities of the antediluvian times and towards a more “historical” age where "mythical" qualities are still present but with much less prominence.

Atrahasis
[caption id="attachment_2887" align="aligncenter" width="467"] Atrahasis tablet from Sippar, clay tablet, 17th century BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]
One of the oldest flood myths from the Mediterranean region comes from the [pb_glossary id="5765"]Atrahasis,[/pb_glossary] whose most known and complete version comes from the Old Babylonian period (18th century BCE). This epic, told across three cuneiform tablets, describes early conflicts between the gods, the origin of humanity, and the story of the flood. The Annunaki (Assembly of gods and goddesses) decides to create the human race in order to mitigate the hard work involved on the creation of Earth. The number of human beings grew rapidly, and their noises started to bother certain divinities such as Enlil who decided, on several occasions, that the best solution to end with this noise was to destroy humanity. However, the god Enki sides with the humans by secretly telling Atrahasis, a wise man, to build a boat and save himself and others. All these crises were stopped thanks to the instructions that the god Enki gave to the human Atrahasis in order to calm the anger of Enlil. Finally, Enlil manages to convince all the divinities of the Annunaki to send the Great Flood and destroy humanity. When the flood sets in, the gods become hungry as there are no more humans to offer them sacrifices, and so the flood ends. After the flood and the destruction of almost all of humanity, the gods and goddesses regretted what they had done, but fortunately Atrahasis and his wife had survived thanks to Enki, meaning that humanity had still another chance. The divinities decided to establish a series of limits, such as death and infertility, to prevent this situation from recurring. At the end, Atrahasis and his wife were rewarded with immortality.

The Epic was originally written in Akkadian, a language spoken in Mesopotamia from the 3rd millenium BCE and used as a written language up until the first century. Akkadian is written using cuneiform, a script written with a triangular stylus on clay tablets. It is one of the oldest known scripts (along with Egyptian hieroglyphics), and was used to write a variety languages including Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hittite.[footnote]The literary work of Atrahasis was widely distributed, so far seven manuscripts from the Old Babylonian period, two from the second half of the second millennium B.C., a dozen of the following millennium, and even some fragments from a later period are preserved of this text . Nevertheless, regarding the reconstruction of this story, it has to admitted that the Old Babylonian and the Neo-Assyrian fragments have played a key role in this process, especially the Old Babylonian tablets as they contain the oldest and most extensive manuscript of this literary work. Despite this, the fragments of the Old Babylonian period have not been fully deciphered yet, only 700 lines of the 1245 that conform this manuscript. Hence, the importance of the rest of the fragments as complementary pieces that serve to fill in the gaps of the Old Babylonian version in order to obtain the most complete version of the work possible.[/footnote]

You can read an English translation of the epic here.

The Epic of Gilgamesh
[caption id="attachment_2862" align="alignnone" width="1555"] Bezold, "Gilgamesh 11th Tablet (7th century BCE) from the Library of Ashurbanipal (Kouyunjik) (K.3375)", in British Museum.[/caption]
Parts of Atrahasis (see above) reappear in the Standard Babylonian Version (SBV) of the Gilgamesh Epic. The SBV, attributed to a scribe named Sîn-leqi-unninni, was complied and written down by the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. Though the flood myth appears only in the SBV, many of the episodes and stories in the SBV are based on an earlier Old Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic (ca. 19th century BCE), and on even earlier Sumerian myths about the hero Gilgamesh. The flood myth does not only appear in this 11th tablet, but there also references to this event in the Sumerian myths of Gilgamesh previously mentioned. Moreover, the Epic´s version of the flood narrative also appears to draw heavily from the earlier Atrahasis, including a reference to the name "Atra-hasis," as well as other narrative details like, for example, the presence of completely identical sentences in both writings.

The Epic tells the story of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk. The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the different adventures and missions on which Gilgamesh and his loyal companion Enkidu go on together. After Gilgamesh’s good friend (and possibly romantic partner) Enkidu dies at the hands of the gods, Gilgamesh begins to fear his own mortality. Hoping to find a way to escape death, he sets out on a quest to the far end of the world to find Ut-Napishtim, the only human to whom the gods had ever granted immortality.

The SBV comprises between eleven or twelve clay tablets written in cuneiform script, in Neo-Assyrian Akkadian. The inclusion of the twelfth tablet (Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld) has sparked debate, often being classified as an "inorganic appendae", in other words, an element that interrupts the plot of the story. After all, a priori, it seems that this story does not have anything to do with the general plot. Nevertheless, this version has been discussed more and more in recent times, understanding that its inclusion in the Epic of Gilgamesh is not a mistake, but a clear literary evolution. The flood account occurs on Tablet 11. Though many fragments and copies of this tablet exist, the earliest, most complete, and most famous is the so-called “Flood Tablet” from the Library of Ashurbanipal.
You can read the full SBV here.

The Epic of Gilgamesh (Standard Babylonian Version), Tablet 11, 1-206 (trans. R. C. Thompson, adapted by P. Rogak)

Akkadian epic, ca. 1200 BCE

After travelling to the far end of the world and crossing the ocean of the Netherworld with the help of the ferryman Ur-Shanabi, Gilgamesh arrives at the home of Ut-Napishtim and his wife. When Gilgamesh asks Ut-Napishtim how he and his wife acquired eternal life, Ut-Napishtim explains by telling him the story of flood, much of which draws heavily from Atrahasis.
[1] Gilgamesh said to him, to Ut-Napishtim the Distant:[footnote]The name "Ut-Napishtim" is derived from the word napištum, meaning "life" or "good health," in reference to Ut-Napishtim having achieved eternal life.[/footnote] "Ut-Napishtim, I look at you, (but) you seem in no way Strange, (for) you are like me, and you are in no way different; You are like me; my whole heart is set on fighting you, [ ][footnote]Indicates an unreadable or broken section of the tablet. Cuneiform tablets often have many gaps due to broken segments and wear. This is typically shown with a gap in the translation itself, and the distance of the gap in the translation often roughly corresponds with the amount of the line that is unreadable. Translators may attempt to reconstruct what may be missing based on partially visible signs, or by comparing other tablets that recount the same myth. This translation, for example, was created using many fragments of the Gilgamesh flood narrative. For further reading and an illustration of how fragmented tablets may be combined, see Andrew George's transliterated "score" of the SBV.[/footnote] you lie on your back [ ], how did you Stand in the Assembly of Gods to petition for (eternal) life?" Ut-Napishtim spoke to him, Gilgamesh, and answered: "Gilgamesh, I will reveal the (whole) hidden story, [10] And I will tell you the secrets of the Gods. The city Shuruppak, a city that you know of, is set [on the banks] of the Euphrates [river], This city is old, and close to the gods. The great gods decided to send a flood [ ] there was Anu, their father;[footnote]The chief god of the heavens. For further reading, see ORACC.[/footnote] Their adviser was warrior Enlil;[footnote]The god of kingship. Unlike the Greek deities, the hierarchy of gods in Mesopotamia was fluid across location and time. In some traditions, therefore, Enlil is praised before Anu (see note 1) while in later traditions (as the city of Babylon rose to power), Marduk (the patron god of Babylon) became the head of the pantheon. For further reading, see ORACC.[/footnote] Ninurta[footnote]A god variously associated with warriors, fertility, and agriculture. For further reading, see: Jones, L, "Ninurta," Encyclopedia of Religions, 2nd edition (Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.)[/footnote] was their herald; Their canal-digger was Ennugi[footnote]Because of the major significance of irrigation ditches for agriculture in Mesopotamia, the divine role of "canal-digger" or "master of canals" appears on multiple occasions in Akkadian literature, and has an important link to fertility and land.[/footnote]; Prince Ea[footnote]The god of the Apsu (see note below) and freshwater. He is also associated with trickery, wisdom, and magic. In this version of the flood myth, and in Atrahasis, he is presented as a helper to humans (similar to Prometheus). Many texts (such as in Atrahasis, above) also refer to Ea as "Enki." Both are names for the same deity, "Enki" being the earlier Sumerian name, while "Ea" is his later Akkadian name. For further reading, see ORACC.[/footnote] swore to secrecy [20] (But) he betrayed their counsel to a reed-hut: [footnote]Ea is not supposed to reveal the plans for the flood to humans, but finds a loophole in Anu's orders by pretending to be speaking only to the wall of the house and not to a person. The "reed wall" line has become one of the most famous lines of the epic.[/footnote] "O Reed-hut, O Reed-hut! Wall, wall! Listen, O Reed-hut, consider, O Wall! One of Shuruppak, son of Ubara-Tutu, (your) house Pull down, (and) fashion a ship; abandon possessions, Seek out life, (and) disregard your hoard, Put the descendants of all living things into the centre of your boat. The boat that you build, [30] measure exactly; its beam and its length must be equal. Like the Abzu,[footnote]The Abzu in Mesopotamian myth is an underground freshwater spring or ocean. It is the domain of the god Ea.[/footnote] cover it. I understood and said to my lord Ea, '[See], Lord, what you say, I honour, I will do (But) how will I explain to the people and the elders?” Ea answered me, his servant, ‘You, mortal, will speak to them like this: "It is only me (?) whom Enlil hates, and so I in your city [40] cannot live (anymore), Nor turn my face toward the land which is Enlil's. [I will go] down to the Abzu, (there) living with Ea, my lord, (Wherefore) he shower down plenty on you, many birds, Plenty of fish [ ] the harvest. [ ] causing a plentiful rainfall (?) to come down upon you."' [ ] of morning had dawned [ ] [Five lines damaged] [55] The children provided pitch The weak brought whatever (else) was necessary. On the fifth day, I laid out the shape (of the ship), in accord with the plan (?), Ten gar each was the height of her sides, Ten gar to match was the size of her deck (?) [60] I laid down the shape of the forepart (?), made in the same way; Six times cross-pinned her, I divided her seven times [ ] Divided her inwards nine times, Hammered the caulking within her, (and) found myself a punt, (All) that was necessary, I added; I smeared the hull with six shar of bitumen, I smeared three shar of pitch on the inside. Some people, bearing a container of grease, brought three shar; (and) I left one shar of grease for the rigging (?); (and) the boatman [70] Stowed away two shar of grease; cattle for the [ ] I slaughtered, Each day I killed lambs. The workmen [drank] mead, beer, oil, and wine as though they were water and made a great feast like the New Year. The Shamash[footnote]The god of the sun and justice. For further reading, see ORACC.[/footnote] [ ] I added salve for the hand(s) Before the great Shamash [ ] the vessel was finished [ ] was difficult [ ] I caused to bring above and below Two-thirds of it [ ] [80] [All I possessed, I] loaded on board; I loaded all the silver that I possessed; All the that gold I possessed, I loaded on board, All of the descendants of all living things that I possessed, [I loaded on board]. Into the ship I embarked all my kindred and family (with me), Embarked on the boat. Cattle (and) beasts of the field (and) the descendants of the people. Shamash decreed, "[ ](?) In the evening will let a plentiful rainfall(?) pour down You will enter the vessel, and shut the hatch." [90] That hour came [ ] (?) In the evening a plentiful rainfall(?) poured down [ ] (?) I looked at the day, and saw a horror, I entered the vessel, and shut the hatch, To Puzur-Amurri the boatman, I delivered the palace [the ship], with its equipment. When some of dawn had appeared, A dark cloud rose from the horizon. Adad[footnote]The god of storms and rain. For further reading, see ORACC.[/footnote] was rumbling within it, [100] Shullat and Hanish[footnote]Attendants of Adad[/footnote] were at the front of the vanguard, And coming as heralds over the hills and the levels. Irragal wrenched out the mooring bollards [footnote] I.e. Irragal untied the boat[/footnote]; Ninurta let loose havoc as he came, The Anunnaki[footnote]Anunnaki (or Igigi) is a collective term to refer to the gods of the heavens. It is particularly used to distinguish the gods of the heavens (or Anu's retinue) from Cthonic or Netherworld deities.[/footnote] brandished their torches And shrivelled the land with their flames. Desolation from Adad stretched to Heaven, All that was bright was turned into darkness. The land like [ ] For one day the st[orm] [ ] [110] Fiercely blew [ ] Like a battle [ ] Nor could a brother see his brother; No mortals could be seen from heaven. The gods were stricken with terror at the flood, Fleeing, they rose to the Heaven of Anu, and crouched in the outskirts, The gods were cowering like dogs, Ishtar[footnote]A goddess of sex, fertility, love, and war. Often connected to Aphrodite (see chapter 4). For further reading, see ORACC.[/footnote] cried like a woman in labour. Shrieking aloud, the sweet-spoken Lady of the gods[footnote]This title refers to the goddess Ninmah/Nintur, a goddess associated with child birth and the creation of humans. For further reading, see ORACC.[/footnote] said: 'May that day turn to dust, [120] because I said evil things in the Assembly of Gods! O, how could I utter (such) evil things in the Assembly of Gods, To blot out my people, allowing havoc! Am I to give birth to my own people Only to fill the sea (with their bodies) as though they were fish-spawn?' Gods, the Anunnaki, wept with her, the gods were sitting (all) humbled, In (their) weeping, (and) closed were their lips in(?) the Assembly. Six days and seven nights The hurricane, deluge, (and) tempest continued sweeping the land. [130] When the seventh day came, The warfare was quelled, Tempest (and) deluge, which had been fighting like an army. Lulled was the sea, (all) spent was the gale, assuaged was the deluge, (So) did I look on the day; sound was (all) stilled; And every human back to (its) clay was returned, And bog was level with roof-tree. I opened a hatch, and the sunlight streamed down on my cheek, Bowing myself down, I sat weeping, my tears over my cheek(s) overflowing, [140] Into the distance I gazed, to the furthest bounds of the Ocean, Land was showing at twelve (points), And the ship grounded on the Mountain of Nisir The Mountain of Nisir held fast, and did not let her (the ship) shift. One day, two, Nisir held fast, and did not let her shift. Three days, four, Nisir held fast, and did not let her shift, Five days, six, Nisir held fast, and did not let her shift. When the seventh day dawned, I put forth a dove, and released it.[footnote]Compare Genesis 7:6-12[/footnote] The dove went to and fro, [150] It returned because there was not a resting-place. I put forth a swallow and released it; The swallow went to and fro. It returned because there was not a resting-place. I put forth a raven, releasing it; The raven went, too, and saw the receding of the waters And she ate as she waded (and) splashed, not returning. Unto the four winds I freed (all the beasts)? And sacrificed an offering, and poured a libation on the peak of the mountain, Offering twice seven flagons, [160] (and) heaped up beneath them sweet cane, (and) cedar, and myrtle. The gods smelled the aroma, The gods smelled the sweet aroma, (And) the gods assembled like flies over the one making the offering.[footnote]Because there were no humans remaining to offer sacrifices (which sustain the gods), the gods were starving and are drawn to this sacrifice.[/footnote] Upon arriving, the Queen of the gods [Ninmah] Lifted up the magnificent jewels, which Anu had made in accord with her wishes; 'O Gods! I would (rather) forget this, my necklace of sapphires, Than not maintain these days in remembrance, nor ever forget them. (So), though (the rest of) the gods may be present at the offering, Enlil may not come to the offering, [170] Because he, unreasonably, brought on a flood, And consigned my people to destruction. Enlil, upon on his arrival, Saw the ship, and Enlil burst into anger, Swollen with anger against the gods, the Igigi: Do any of mortals live? Never could a man have lived through this ruin.' Ninurta gave answer and spoke, Saying to the warrior Enlil, Who can there be to devise such a plan, except Ea? [180] Surely, it is Ea, who knew of the plan (for the flood).' Ea answered and spoke Saying to the warrior Enlil: Ruler of the gods, you warrior! How could you, uncounseled, send down a flood? Punish the faulty one for his fault, Punish the criminal for his crime, (But) have mercy, that he will not be cut off; be clement, that he may not [perish]. Instead of sending down a flood Let a lion come to decrease humans; [190] Instead of sending down flood, Let a jackal come to decrease humans; Instead of sending down a flood, Let a famine occur, so that the country may be [devoured(?)]; Instead of sending down a flood, Let the Erra[footnote]A god associated with plagues and wars. For further reading, see ORACC.[/footnote] come and the people [overwhelm]. I did not reveal the Great Gods’ secret, (But) I entrusted to Atra-hasis[footnote]The name Atra-hasis means “of much wisdom.” It is here used as an epithet for Ut-napishtim, who is sometimes equated with the character of Atrahasis from Atrahasis. See section "Atrahasis."[/footnote] a dream, He of the gods heard the secret. Deliberate, now, on his counsel'. Enlil came up to the boat; [200] He grasped my hands and uplifted My wife, too, he raised and made us bend down onto our arms. He touched our foreheads as he stood there between us, blessing us: 'Ut-Napishtim has until now only been mortal, Now Ut-Napishtim and his wife will be equal, like us gods. Ut-Napishtim will dwell in the distance at the mouth of the rivers.’ [206] (So) they took me and made me dwell at the mouth of the rivers in the distance.
Taken from: https://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/eog/eog13.htm

Genesis

There is also a well-known flood narrative in the Book of Genesis. The Book of Genesis (Bereshit, translated as "In the beginning) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. This book consists on an account of the creation of the world by God, the first step of humanity and the history of Israel´s ancestors. Following a very similar structure to the work of Atrahasis, the Bookf of Genesis can be divided in two parts: 1) The primeval history (chapters 1-11) in which the relationship between God and humankind is the main topic and 2)The ancestral history (chapters 12-50) which is more focused on the origins of the Jewish people and the ancestors of Israel. There are clear similarities between the primeval history of the Bookf of Genesis and the antediluvian times of Atrahasis since in both of them the reader is introduced to an utopic world, created by a divinity or various divinities, where everything is in harmony. Nevertheless, the introduction of mankind changes everything, making this world become a chaotic reality. In Atrahasis, the problem was the "noise", in the Book of Genesis is the bad actions of mankind. At the end, the solution is the same for both pieces: the arrival of a flood to end up with mankind and, therefore, return Earth to its original harmony. Nevertheless, God decides to save only a group of humans, the family of Noah, and entrust them with the mission of reconstructing mankind again.

Two very similar accounts of the flood, featuring Noah (called “Nuh”), also occur in the Qur’an (Sura 11.25-49 and Sura 71.1-28).

Genesis, chapters 7-8 (ASV translation, revised by Rainbow Missions Inc. and adapted by L. Zhang)

Hebrew Bible narrative, date varies[footnote]There is broad scholarly consensus that the book of Genesis was composed by many authors and editors from different contexts and periods. The most well-known model is J.H. Wellhausen's "Documentary Hypothesis", which proposes that four different sources were combined to form the Pentateuch, though there are many newer hypotheses that build on and complicated Wellhausen's view. For a brief introduction to the Documentary Hypothesis, see: Tigay, Jeffrey H. Documentary Hypothesis, Empirical Models and Holistic Interpretation. [/footnote]

In this account, there is only a single creator, God, who after observing the wickedness of the world he has created decides to send a flood to end the human race. Nevertheless, God spares Noah and his family, as they are the only non-wicked people remaining on Earth, and orders them to bring animals onto an arc they have to build to save them and start humanity all over again once the flood has ended.
7.1 The LORD[footnote]This passage uses two different Hebrew names for God: Elohim, and the Tetragrammaton. In this translation, the term "God" is used for the Hebrew Elohim, while the term "the LORD" is used in instances where the Tetragrammaton occurs. [/footnote] said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. 2 You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female. 3 Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth. 4 In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.” 5 Noah did everything that the LORD commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7 Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters. 8 Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground 9 went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah. 10 After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened. 12 It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the sons of Noah—and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship— 14 they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 15 Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went into the ship to Noah. 16 Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; then the LORD shut him in. 17 The flood lasted forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth. 18 The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters. 19 The waters rose very high on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered. 20 The waters rose fifteen cubits higher,[footnote]A cubit is around 46cm, so the water rose approximately 690cm.[/footnote] and the mountains were covered. 21 All flesh that moved on earth died, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22 All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. 23 Every living thing that was on the surface of the ground was destroyed, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship. 24 The waters flooded the earth for one hundred fifty days. 8.1 God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided. 2 The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained. 3 The waters continually receded from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters receded. 4 The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s mountains. 5 The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.[footnote]The Genesis flood famously inspired a rise in tourists and pseudo-archaeologists seeking to find the landing place of the arc. Christian tradition names Mount Ararat as the landing site, while some say that it landed at the Durupinar Site (on a neighbouring mountain), where an impression and large "anchor stones" were found. However, there is no known historical, scientific, or archaeological evidence for Noah's arc or the site of his landing.[/footnote] 6 At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made, 7 and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground, 9 but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned into the ship to him, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship. 10 He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship. 11 The dove came back to him in the evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth. 12 He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him any more. 13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15 God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ship, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.” 18 Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship. 20 Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasant aroma. The LORD said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.” Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0156%3Abook%3DGenesis%3Achapter%3D7%3Averse%3D1

Ovid
For a complete introduction to Ovid’s Metamorphoses and cosmogony, see chapter 2.

Ovid´s account of the flood appears in the first book of the Metamorphoses, following his cosmogony. Ovid starts the Metamorphoses explaining the peaceful golden age when the Earth was created and the gods and goddesses ruled the world. The harmonic golden age later turned into the iron age when it was man who rule the earth. The god Jupiter decided to visit the King Lycaon, expecting to be treated with kindness and hospitality, however, the experience was everything but friendly. After the disrespectful and wicked acts of the king towards the god, Jupiter decided to punish humanity and ask the god Poseidon to send a great flood to wipe out humanity and start all the process again. A second, postdiluvian, generation of humans emerges after the flood, as well as a new generation of monsters.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 1 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

After an incident with king Lycaon, the last straw of humanity’s disrespect for the gods, Jupiter asks Poseidon to send a flood. Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only lucky survivors, reach Mount Parnassus and give worship to the nymphs and gods. Upon seeing that only these two pious people remain, Jupiter ends the flood. With the help of the goddess Themis, Deucalion and Pyrrha humanity was reborn. Nevertheless, they were not the only ones recreated since new monsters and animals also appeared from the earth.
[177-198] "When the gods had taken their seats in the marble council chamber their king [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] ], sitting high above them, leaning on his ivory sceptre, shook his formidable mane three times and then a fourth, disturbing the earth, sea and stars. Then he opened his lips in indignation and spoke. ‘I was not more troubled than I am now concerning the world’s sovereignty than when each of the snake-footed giants prepared to throw his hundred arms around the imprisoned sky. Though they were fierce enemies, still their attack came in one body and from one source. Now I must destroy the human race, wherever [pb_glossary id="1431"]Nereus[/pb_glossary] sounds, throughout the world. I swear it by the infernal streams that glide below the earth through the Stygian groves. All means should first be tried, but the incurable flesh must be removed by the surgical knife, so that the healthy part is not infected. Mine are the demigods, the wild spirits, [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="372"]fauns[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="372"]satyrs[/pb_glossary], and sylvan deities of the hills. Since we have not yet thought them worth a place in heaven let us at least allow them to live in safety in the lands we have given them. Perhaps you gods believe they will be safe, even when [pb_glossary id="2648"]Lycaon[/pb_glossary], known for his savagery, plays tricks against me, who holds the thunderbolt, and reigns over you.’ [199-243] All the gods murmured aloud and, zealously and eagerly, demanded punishment of the man who committed such actions. When the impious band of conspirators were burning to drown the name of Rome in Caesar’s blood, the human race was suddenly terrified by fear of just such a disaster, and the whole world shuddered with horror. Your subjects’ loyalty is no less pleasing to you, Augustus, than theirs was to [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]. After he had checked their murmuring with voice and gesture, they were all silent. When the noise had subsided, quieted by his royal authority, [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] again broke the silence with these words: ‘Have no fear, he has indeed been punished, but I will tell you his crime, and what the penalty was. News of these evil times had reached my ears. Hoping it was false, I left [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]’ heights, and travelled the earth, a god in human form. It would take too long to tell what wickedness I found everywhere. Those rumours were even milder than the truth. I had crossed Maenala, those mountains bristling with wild beasts’ lairs, Cyllene, and the pinewoods of chill Lycaeus. Then, as the last shadows gave way to night, I entered the inhospitable house of the Arcadian king. I gave them signs that a god had come, and the people began to worship me. At first [pb_glossary id="2648"]Lycaon[/pb_glossary] ridiculed their piety, then exclaimed ‘I will prove by a straightforward test whether he is a god or a mortal. The truth will not be in doubt.’ He planned to destroy me in the depths of sleep, unexpectedly, by night. That is how he resolved to prove the truth. Not satisfied with this he took a hostage sent by the Molossi, opened his throat with a knife, and made some of the still warm limbs tender in seething water, roasting others in the fire. No sooner were these placed on the table than I brought the roof down on the household gods, with my avenging flames, those gods worthy of such a master. He himself ran in terror, and reaching the silent fields howled aloud, having lost his ability to form speech. Foaming at the mouth, and greedy as ever for killing, he turned against the sheep, still delighting in blood. His clothes became bristling hair, his arms became legs. He was a wolf, but kept some vestige of his former shape. There were the same grey hairs, the same violent face, the same glittering eyes, the same savage image. One house has fallen, but others deserve to also. Wherever the earth extends the avenging furies rule. You would think men were sworn to crime! Let them all pay the penalty they deserve, and quickly. That is my intent.’ [244-273] When he had spoken, some of the gods encouraged [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s anger, shouting their approval of his words, while others consented silently. They were all saddened though at this destruction of the human species, and questioned what the future of the world would be free of humanity. Who would honour their altars with incense? Did he mean to surrender the world to the ravages of wild creatures? In answer the king of the gods calmed their anxiety, the rest would be his concern, and he promised them a people different from the first, of a marvellous creation. Now he was ready to hurl his lightning-bolts at the whole world but feared that the sacred heavens might burst into flame from the fires below, and burn to the furthest pole: and he remembered that a time was fated to come when sea and land, and the untouched courts of the skies would ignite, and the troubled mass of the world be besieged by fire. So he set aside the weapons the [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclopes[/pb_glossary] forged, and resolved on a different punishment, to send down rain from the whole sky and drown humanity beneath the waves. Straight away he shut up the north winds in [pb_glossary id="1180"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary]’ caves, with the gales that disperse the gathering clouds, and let loose the south wind, he who flies with dripping wings, his terrible aspect shrouded in pitch-black darkness. His beard is heavy with rain, water streams from his grey hair, mists wreathe his forehead, and his feathers and the folds of his robes distil the dew. When he crushes the hanging clouds in his outstretched hand there is a crash, and the dense vapours pour down rain from heaven. [pb_glossary id="885"]Iris[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary]’s messenger, dressed in the colours of the rainbow, gathers water and feeds it back to the clouds. The cornfields are flattened and saddening the farmers, the crops, the object of their prayers, are ruined, and the long year’s labour wasted. [274-292] [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s anger is not satisfied with only his own aerial waters: his brother the sea-god [Neptune] helps him with the ocean waves. He calls the rivers to council, and when they have entered their ruler’s house, says ‘Now is not the time for long speeches! Exert all your strength. That is what is needed. Throw open your doors, drain the dams, and set loose the reins of all your streams!’ Those are his commands. The rivers return and uncurb their fountains’ mouths, and race an unbridled course to the sea. [pb_glossary id="182"]Neptune[/pb_glossary] himself strikes the ground with his trident, so that it trembles, and with that blow opens up channels for the waters. Overflowing, the rivers rush across the open plains, sweeping away at the same time not just orchards, flocks, houses and human beings, but sacred temples and their contents. Any building that has stood firm, surviving the great disaster undamaged, still has its roof drowned by the highest waves, and its towers buried below the flood. And now the land and sea are not distinct, all is the sea, the sea without a shore. [293-312] There one man escapes to a hilltop, while another seated in his rowing boat pulls the oars over places where lately he was ploughing. One man sails over his cornfields or over the roof of his drowned farmhouse, while another man fishes in the topmost branches of an elm. Sometimes, by chance, an anchor embeds itself in a green meadow, or the curved boats graze the tops of vineyards. Where lately lean goats browsed, shapeless seals played. The [pb_glossary id="329"]Nereids[/pb_glossary] are astonished to see woodlands, houses and whole towns under the water. There are dolphins in the trees: disturbing the upper branches and stirring the oak-trees as they brush against them. Wolves swim among the sheep, and the waves carry tigers and tawny lions. The boar has no use for his powerful tusks, the deer for its quick legs, both are swept away together, and the circling bird, after a long search for a place to land, falls on tired wings into the water. The sea in unchecked freedom has buried the hills, and fresh waves beat against the mountaintops. The waters wash away most living things, and those the sea spares, lacking food, are defeated by slow starvation. [313-347] Phocis, a fertile country when it was still land, separates Aonia from Oeta, though at that time it was part of the sea, a wide expanse of suddenly created water. There Mount Parnassus lifts its twin steep summits to the stars, its peaks above the clouds. When [pb_glossary id="2650"]Deucalion[/pb_glossary] and his wife [ [pb_glossary id="2651"]Pyrrha[/pb_glossary] ] landed here in their small boat, everywhere else being drowned by the waters, they worshipped the Corycian [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary], the mountain gods, and the goddess of the oracles, prophetic [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary]. No one was more virtuous or fonder of justice than he was, and no woman showed greater reverence for the gods. When [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] saw the earth covered with the clear waters, and that only one man was left of all those thousands of men, only one woman left of all those thousands of women, both innocent and both worshippers of the gods, he scattered the clouds and mist, with the north wind, and revealed the heavens to the earth and the earth to the sky. It was no longer an angry sea, since the king of the oceans putting aside his three-pronged spear calmed the waves, and called sea-dark [pb_glossary id="334"]Triton[/pb_glossary], showing from the depths his shoulders thick with shells, to blow into his echoing conch and give the rivers and streams the signal to return. He lifted the hollow shell that coils from its base in broad spirals, that shell that filled with his breath in mid-ocean makes the eastern and the western shores sound. So now when it touched the god’s mouth, and dripping beard, and sounded out the order for retreat, it was heard by all the waters on earth and in the ocean, and all the waters hearing it were checked. Now the sea has shorelines, the brimming rivers keep to their channels, the floods subside, and hills appear. Earth rises, the soil increasing as the water ebbs, and finally the trees show their naked tops, the slime still clinging to their leaves. [348-380] The world was restored. But when [pb_glossary id="2650"]Deucalion[/pb_glossary] saw its emptiness, and the deep silence of the desolate lands, he spoke to [pb_glossary id="2651"]Pyrrha[/pb_glossary], through welling tears. ‘Wife, cousin, sole surviving woman, joined to me by our shared race, our family origins, then by the marriage bed, and now joined to me in danger, we two are the people of all the countries seen by the setting and the rising sun, the sea took all the rest. Even now our lives are not guaranteed with certainty: the storm clouds still terrify my mind. How would you feel now, poor soul, if the fates had willed you to be saved, but not me? How could you endure your fear alone? Who would comfort your tears? Believe me, dear wife, if the sea had you, I would follow you, and the sea would have me too. If only I, by my father’s arts, could recreate earth’s peoples, and breathe life into the shaping clay! The human race remains in us. The gods willed it that we are the only examples of mankind left behind.’ He spoke and they wept, resolving to appeal to the sky-god, and ask his help by sacred oracles. Immediately they went side by side to the springs of Cephisus that, though still unclear, flowed in its usual course. When they had sprinkled their heads and clothing with its watery libations, they traced their steps to the temple of the sacred goddess, whose pediments were green with disfiguring moss, her altars without fire. When they reached the steps of the sanctuary they fell forward together and lay prone on the ground, and kissing the cold rock with trembling lips, said ‘If the gods’ wills soften, appeased by the prayers of the just, if in this way their anger can be deflected, [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary] tell us by what art the damage to our race can be repaired, and bring help, most gentle one, to this drowned world!’ [381-415] The goddess was moved, and uttered an oracle: ‘Leave the temple and with veiled heads and loosened clothes throw behind you the bones of your great mother!’ For a long time they stand there, dumbfounded. [pb_glossary id="2651"]Pyrrha[/pb_glossary] is first to break the silence: she refuses to obey the goddess’s command. Her lips trembling, she asks for pardon, fearing to offend her mother’s spirit by scattering her bones. Meanwhile they reconsider the dark words the oracle gave, and their uncertain meaning, turning them over and over in their minds. Then [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary]’ son comforted [pb_glossary id="2427"]Epimetheus[/pb_glossary]’ daughter with quiet words: ‘Either this idea is wrong, or, since oracles are godly and never urge evil, our great mother must be the earth: I think the bones she spoke about are stones in the body of the earth. It is these we are told to throw behind us.’ Though the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titan[/pb_glossary]’s daughter is stirred by her husband’s thoughts, still hope is uncertain: they are both so unsure of the divine promptings; but what harm can it do to try? They descended the steps, covered their heads and loosened their clothes, and threw the stones needed behind them. The stones, and who would believe it if it were not for ancient tradition, began to lose their rigidity and hardness, and after a while softened, and once softened acquired new form. Then after growing, and ripening in nature, a certain likeness to a human shape could be vaguely seen, like marble statues at first inexact and roughly carved. The earthy part, however, wet with moisture, turned to flesh; what was solid and inflexible mutated to bone; the veins stayed veins; and quickly, through the power of the gods, stones the man threw took on the shapes of men, and women were remade from those thrown by the woman. So the toughness of our race, our ability to endure hard labour, and the proof we give of the source from which we are sprung. [416-437] [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary] spontaneously created other diverse forms of animal life. After the remaining moisture had warmed in the sun’s fire, the wet mud of the marshlands swelled with heat, and the fertile seeds of things, nourished by life-giving soil as if in a mother’s womb, grew, and in time acquired a nature. So, when the seven-mouthed Nile retreats from the drowned fields and returns to its former bed, and the fresh mud boils in the sun, farmers find many creatures as they turn the lumps of earth. Amongst them they see some just spawned, on the edge of life, some with incomplete bodies and number of limbs, and often in the same matter one part is alive and the other is raw earth. In fact when heat and moisture are mixed they conceive, and from these two things the whole of life originates. And though fire and water fight each other, heat and moisture create everything, and this discordant union is suitable for growth. So when the earth muddied from the recent flood glowed again heated by the deep heaven-sent light of the sun she produced innumerable species, partly remaking previous forms, partly creating new monsters." Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph.php#anchor_Toc64105460
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Glossary

pr0560 — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 02:22:36 +0000

About the Authors

taramulder — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 15:04:16 +0000

Kate Minniti has a PhD in Classical Archaeology from the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. She has a Master's Degree in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU and has been working as a field archaeologist around the Mediterranean for a decade.

Tara Mulder is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. She has been teaching in higher education for eight years and regularly teaches Greek and Roman Mythology to hundreds of undergraduate students at UBC.

Pippa Rogak has a BA from the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, with an additional minor in German Studies. They have a certificate of makeup artistry from the Blanche Macdonald Centre and are currently pursuing an MA in Library and Information Studies at UBC.

Luoyao (Lorrieya) Zhang has a BA from the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. She is currently working as an archaeologist in the cultural resource management sector in British Columbia.

Plautus' Amphitruo

taramulder — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 20:11:59 +0000

Plautus' Amphitruo
This is the only comic play that we are going to be reading in its entirety for this course. It is also the only ancient Roman comic play that centers around a mythological theme and includes gods as characters. The play tells the story of Jupiter's (Zeus) seduction/ rape (depends on the version of the story) of the mortal woman Alcmene/ Alcumene. In order to have sex with her, Jupiter disguises himself as her husband, Amphitruo, who has just left on a military campaign. Mercurius (Mercury/Hermes) disguises himself by taking on the form of Amphitruo's slave Sosia in order to assist his father. Alcumena ends up being impregnated by both her husband (the night before he leaves on campaign) and Jupiter (the very next night). After nine months, during which time Jupiter continues to visit her in the guise of Amphitruo, Alcumena gives birth to twin boys, one from each father: Iphicles and Herclues. Much of the humor in the play revolves around the double doubling (Jupiter as Amphitruo and Mercurius as Sosia), as well as around physical violence, particularly violence directed at slave characters, as well as the suspicion and verbal violence directed at Alcumena for what Amphitruo perceives to be her infidelity. The humor of this violence does not translate for a modern audience. However, we will be approaching this text as a primary source that is a Roman adaptation of a Greek myth. You will likely find some of it dense and difficult to understand. Don't worry to much about trying to understand all of it. This translation has been written for perfomance, so as you read it, try to imagine it being performed. Focus on the characters of Jupiter, Mercurius, and Alcumena, who are all famous figures of Greco-Roman mythology. As you read, consider the following questions: - How does the play expand our understanding of Jupiter (Zeus) and Mercurius/ Mercury (Hermes) as mythological figures? Did you find anything surprising about their appearance in this play or in the way that they were portrayed? - What do you think might be the particularly Roman aspects of this play? - This play, like many of the writings on mythological themes form antiquity, includes violence, sexual violence, and slavery. How does this play (attempt) to make these themes palatable in a comic context? Does it work? Or does it just seem very foreign to our modern values? - Compare Alcumena as a heroine and sexual conquest of Zeus to the other heroines and victims of Zeus that we have seen already in this course (e.g. Io in the Prometheus Bound). - How do Prometheus Bound and Amphitruo touch on the same themes (about Zeus as a god, his rule, the role of Mercury/Hermes in the rule of the Olympians, power, etc.)? How are they similar and how do their differences emerge (e.g. tragedy vs. comedy, Greek vs. Roman)? The play opens with a very long monolgue from Mercury (disguised as the slave Sosia). Try not to get bogged down in this monologue. It's not all that important for the rest of the play. It is just establishing the scene and explaining the circumstances, which I have given you a summary of here. Please note that all lines in italics, including all stage directions have been added in by the translator and were not originally part of the text.

Plautus, Amphitruo (trans. C.W. Marshall)

Roman comedy, 3rd-2nd century BCE
CW: sexual violence, slavery, violence against enslaved persons
Scene 1
A street in Thebes, a Greek town, with the house of Amphitruo (a single door, and a roof). An exit (traditionally stage right) leads to the harbour, and stage left (not used) leads to the forum. Enter MERCURIUS, god of tricks, trade, and contracts, who begins immediately with a contract for the audience.
MERCURIUS
Whereas you wish,when merchandise of yours is bought or sold, that I do gladly grant great gain and help in every circumstance; and as you wish your wealth and every plan be well advanced at home and overseas, 5 and henceforth grow your gains both good and great, the things you’ve done and those you plan to do; and as you wish I bring to you and yours good news for all, what I provide and tell what will be best for your collective wealth 10 (for you of course know it was fixed, by all the gods, that I’m in charge of news and gain); and as you wish I bless, get gain for you that it will be there always through the year; then see you keep your silence for this play 15 and also all be judges just and fair. At whose behest I’m here, and why I’ve come I’ll tell you now, and also what’s my name. It’s Jove’s behest. My name’s Mercurius. [mer-CURE-ee-US Dad sent me here to make my case with you. 20 Although his order to you shows he knew what you would do, and since he understood you feared and worshipped him, as Jove deserves, in fact he really ordered me to seek this favor from you gently with nice words. 25 The Jupiter at whose behest I come, no less than you, fears that he might be beat.° He’s born with human mom and human dad. No wonder then he’s frightened for himself. And even I, who am the son of Jove, 30 have caught from dad the fear of being beat. And so in peace I come, and peace I bring. A fair and easy gift I ask of you, for fair things from the fair are fair to seek, and unfair from the fair would not be right. 35 And seeking fair from unfair’s foolishness, since those unjust don’t know or care what’s fair. Now turn your minds this way to what I say. You all should wish what we wish for. We’ve earned it, dad and I, from you and from the state. 40 But why should I—like those in tragedies° I’ve seen when Neptune, Victory, and Worth, Bellona, Mars remind you what good things [bell-OH-nah they’ve done—why list the riches from my dad, gods’ ruler and the architect of all? 45 It never was the habit of my dad to boast to good folk of the good he does. He thinks that he is thanked by you for that and you deserve the good he does for you. I’ll first announce what I came here to ask, 50 Then I’ll describe this tragedy’s events. What’s that? You squint your brow since “tragedy” is what’s to come? I’ll change it, I’m a god. This same play from a tragedy I’ll make a comedy, with every verse the same. 55 Do you want this or not? But I’m a dope, as if, a god, I didn’t know your wants. I gather what your souls do wish to see. I’ll mix it up—a tragic-comedy!° For me to make it comedy alone 60 would not be right when gods come on, and kings. What then? Since one role also is a slave, I’ll make it “tragicomic” as I said. Now Jupiter sent me to tell you this: to every single seat inquisitors 65 should go throughout the audience’s coop° and if they spot some cheerers who’ve been comp’ed they’ll take the cloaks in trust from those cooped up. If any think our actors worth a prize or any of our team, or written script, 70 or nominates himself or has it done, producers° even falsely give reward then Jupiter’s decreed the same law goes as if he’d pipped himself for public post. He said you live as winners with your worth, 75 and not with fraud or whingeing. Why should law treat actors any less than the elect? One ought to win by worth, and not applause. They always get applause who do things right, if those whose hands in which this lies are true. 80 He even also bade me bid you this: there should for actors be inquisitors, if those they’ve comp’ed and told to clap for them or make another please less than they should, that they should flay their costume and their hide. 85 I don’t want you surprised why Jupiter now cares for actors. Do not be surprised. By Jove, he’ll act this comedy himself. What’s that? You wonder if the news now’s new? Has Jupiter become an actor too? 90 Why, just last year when actors on this stage called “oh my god” he came and gave them help. And, he has played in tragedies before. I say, today, will Jove perform this play himself, and I with him. Now listen up 95 while I describe the comic plot to you. This city’s Thebes. Within those doors does live Amphitruo, from Argos like his dad; [am-FIT-roo-OH Alcumena’s his wife, Electrus’ girl. [al-CUE-men-UH Amphitruo now leads the legions° here 100 [ee-LEC-truss for war arose in Telebos with Thebes. [TELL-a-BOSS [THEEBS Before he left here for his troops, did he knock up his wife Alcumena himself. I trust you know now what my dad is like how free he is in matters of this kind, 105 how great a lover when his fancy’s seized. He starts a secret lust, Alcumena he took her body for himself to use. In his embrace he made her pregnant too. So of Alcumena remember this: 110 she’s pregnant from them both, both man and Jove. My dad now inside here does lie with her, and for their sake the night is lengthened out, while he with her takes what delight he wants. And he’s disguised, like he’s Amphitruo. 115 Now do not wonder at my costume here, Because I come in slavish get-up so. Old and ancient stuff I bring you new, so I come costumed in a novel style. Look. Jupiter my dad is inside now. 120 He’s turned into Amphitruonic form, and all the slaves who see him trust he’s him. He shapeshifts thus whenever he should wish. I took the face of Sosia the slave [SOH-see-YA who with Amphitruo left for the troops 125 so I could help my dad pursue his lust. So household slaves won’t ask me who I am when at the house they see me loitering. Now since they trust I am their fellow slave none asks who I may be, or why I’ve come. 130 My dad now gratifies his will inside: He lies entwined with her he most desires. My dad relates his battle-deeds to her, Alcumena. She trusts he is her man though she is with the letch. My dad in there 135 relates how foreign legions fled from him and by what means were many gifts bestowed. The gifts Amphitruo had won out there we swiped with ease. My dad does what he wants. Amphitruo comes home from war today 140 and also does the slave whose face I take. Now so that you can tell us all apart, I’ll always have this feather on my hat and there will be a small gold band on dad’s. This token won’t be on Amphitruo’s. 145 These tokens no one of the household here can yet perceive, but you perceive them plain. Enter SOSIA from the harbour, with a lantern. He is enslaved, a soldier returning home from war. Now here’s Amphitruo’s slave Sosia. He comes here from the port with lantern now. I’ll drive him from these doors as he arrives. 150 Stay here! It will be worth your while to watch Mercurius and Jove be actors here.Scene 2Mercurius stands aside unnoticed, eavesdropping on Sosia. SOSIA (singing) [Slower, quite freely] What other man is braver or more daring than am I? I know young men's behaviour, yet I walk alone here... why?! Tonight, tonight, toniiiiiight, the ma-gis- -trates - the Three Amigos - will throw me in a cell, 155 And we know how this story goes – it doesn't end that well. Next they haul me out at break of day and beat me to a pulp; There’ll be no chance to have my say, or beg my boss’s hulp! As with one voice, they'll all insist I get my just deserts: So eight big boys with anvil fists can hit me where it hurts. Poor poor poor poor me 160 I travel all this way from port with joyful tidings for ’em And yet, it seems, the welcome here is not exactly war-em. What a tale of misery: I am bid to go, by Amphitruo so I come home, unwillingly. If this errand's so essential, you might think it could have waited 165 Til it's light, when there's a chance I'll make it home unviolated. But no, but no, but noooooooo: ‘cos that's not how it goes with slavery. Poor poor poor poor poor poor poor poor me! My work is hard and life's a bitch, I'm sure you get the picture: But when your boss is really rich, your life is so much bitch-er. All day, all night, do this do that, it never ends, alas... No rest for me, while he gets fat from sitting on his ass! 170 He plays at being magnaminous, says “all will get their wish”, But we know when someone’s scammin’ us. This is not even fair-ish! Poor poor poor poor me Poor poor poor poor poor poor poor poor me! So many things to do each day and most of them are crappy. But I always muddle through, and hey! Sometimes I'm even happy: That's the tragic irony: if life were rosier for poor old Sosia I wouldn't be: Poor poor poor poor poor poor poor poor Poor p-p-p-poor P-p-p-poor Poor Me! 175 MERCURIUS : (singing, unnoticed by Sosia) I've far more right that he to sing of my unhappy lot. He never has been free. I was last night... and now I'm not! Oh how I miss my liberty. Poor poor poor poor poor poor poor poor me. Imagine how it feels to find you're suddenly enslaved. I'm sure his master's mean, but mine's a god, and he's depraved. And what is worse? He's family! That's why Mercurius is rightly furious I'll match him note for note, and sing full throat- -ed ly: Poor pooooooooooooooooooooor Me! --- SOSIA I’m a bondsman bound for being beat. Did it occur to me 180 just now to thank the gods and praise them as they all deserve? In truth if they by Pollux° cared to give the thanks that I deserve [PAUL-ux] they’d get some guy to smash my face real hard when I returned, since I was thankless, though they did this good for me unasked. MERCURIUS (unnoticed) He does what folk so seldom do: he knows what he is worth. 185
SOSIA
Some thing that I have never thought, nor any townsman either, would come to pass, has happened: we have reached our homes alive. Conquering legions conquered foes and came back home again. The war hath ended finally,° the enemy’s destroyed, which granted to the Thebans many bitter funerals. 190 By soldiers’ might and mien the town’s been conquered and subdued through tactics and my boss’s boons, Amphitruo the Great. Riches, land, and glory has he given to his folk, and for the king of Thebes, for Creon, he has fixed his rule. [KREE-on and he dispatched me home from port so I could tell his wife 195 how he’s made news as general, as leader, and as chief. Now I’ll consider in what way I’ll say these things to her when I approach. If I should lie, I’m doing as I should. When they were fighting fiercely, then did I so fiercely flee. So I shall act like I’d been there, I’ll say what I have heard. 200 But in what style and with what words it’s fit that I narrate I want to first consider here alone. I’ll say it thus: “At first when we arrived there, when we first did touch the earth, Amphitruo chose leaders from the men of highest birth. He deputized and ordered them to tell the Teleboeans: [TELL-a-BOY-ans] if without war or violence returning what they’d stolen, if they gave back what they’d removed, he’d bring back his brigade home right away, his Argives leave their land, and he would give [AR-guyvs them peace and ease; but if they caviled, kept what he had sought, then he would trounce that town himself with force and all his forces. 210 When they’d repeated fully what Amphitruo said to tell, the Teleboians, mighty men who trust in manliness and men,° did proudly, much too loudly, curse our diplomats. They said they could protect themselves and theirs with war, and so we should with haste withdraw our troops from their borders now. 215 The diplomats related this, Amphitruo then led the troops forth from his camp. Against the Teleboean town, who led their legions out, and they were armed with pretty swords. (singing) When the armies on our side were set out and partitioned Heroes were positioned, Soldiers were commissioned 220 In the classic Theban style We deployed in single file, While the legions on the other side were also stood in lines. Then the Generals met up to give each other a good hearing Far from their soldiers’ cheering In the middle of a clearing They agreed, in their meetin’ That whichever team was beaten 225
Would give up their cities, farms, and homes, themselves, and all their shrines.

Then the brassy bugles blasted, a fearful fanfare sounded

All around, it shook the ground,

The soldiers found their voices drownd-ed

Next the leaders stopped to say a

Hasty pre-engagement prayer

To honour mighty Jove, and fill the troops with hope divine. 230

For every man there, this was it -

The hitty shouty stabby death-y bit!

The air was hot and wet,

With heavy breathy steamy sticky sweat

The atmosphere: oppressive,

The noise was even more so...

On every blade of grass a hero bleeding from his torso.

And this is the beginning 235

Of the end. Fast fell the foe.

When they sensed we might be winning,

The Gen’rals shouted 'GO!'

The enemy stood still

To face the fast on-rushing tide:

They'd sooner have been killed

Than budge an inch, and thus... they died. 240

And all thanks to Amphitruo - with victory still elusive,

His ever-clever use of

Cavalry would prove conclusive.

He snuck them round the back

Before unleashing an attack. 245

So as the noble Theban horsemen trampled through them,

The big ol’ baddies got just what was coming to them.

MERCURIUS (unnoticed)

Up to this point there’s not a single word been said amiss.

For I was there in person when they fought and so was dad.

SOSIA

“The enemy began to flee, and courage filled our men. 250

When the Teleboians turned, their bodies stuffed with spears,

Amphitruo himself cut down King Pterela. [p’TARE-e-LAH]

So then and there this fight was fought, from dawn till twilight fell.

I have remembered this so well, I had no lunch that day.

But when night intervened at last this battle did conclude. 255

The next day weeping princes left their city, came to camp.

They held an olive branch and prayed that we forgive their sins.

They put themselves, their town, their kids, all blessèd and profane,

into the sway and under judgement of the folk of Thebes.

They gave Amphitruo my boss, a golden cup for valour 260

From which Pterela the king would drink.” That’s what I’ll say.

Now I’ll haste and hurry home, as my boss commands.

MERCURIUS (unnoticed)
Lookee, he is coming this way,

I’ll go up and meet him here.

I will never let this fellow

ever reach these doors today.

Since I am his perfect likeness

I will surely swindle him. 265

Really, since I stole his shape

and the way he holds his head

I should also fake his habits,

so that I am just like him.

I should be corrupt and clever,

therefore, and be shrewd-ish too.

With his weapon, wickedness,

I shall drive him from his entry.

But what’s this? He scans the sky.

I shall watch what else he does. 270

SOSIA

Pollux! If there’s anything

that I believe or that I know

I know Nocturnus this night is

hungover and sleeping in.

Seven stars of Ursa Major

cease their movement through the sky;

Luna finds itself no other

place than when it first appeared;

neither Venus, nor Pleiades, [ply-ADD-eez]

nor Orion sinks away. 275 [oh-RYE-un]

So it is that signs stand still

and night withholds the break of day.

MERCURIUS (unnoticed)

Press on, Night, as you’ve been doing,

be obliging to my dad

splendid splendour for the splendrous

giving gifts most splendidly.

SOSIA I don’t think that I have ever

seen a longer night than this,

save that one time I was pummeled

hung in perpetuity. 280

This one, Pollux, masters that one

beating it in magnitude.

Sun’s asleep, I think, by Pollux,

and supremely sloshed as well.

Miracles take place – unless it drank its health too much at dinner.

MERCURIUS (unnoticed) Do you say so, punching bag?

Do you think you’re like the gods?

I will get you for these actions

and your words, you cross-bound-creep, 285

Pollux, just come here, I beg you,

You will find catastrophe.

SOSIA (to the audience) Anyone from out of town

visiting for the weekend?

Get your money’s worth, since in

a single night you’ll stay for three.

MERCURIUS (unnoticed) Now my dad obeys instructions

wisely and judiciously.

Lust obeyed, the lover slumbers,

wrapped around Alcumena. 290

SOSIA I’ll go tell Alcumena

What it is my boss has ordered.

SOSIA (sees Mercurius, and turns back to the audience).

Who’s this guy I see this night

before the doors? I like it not.

MERCURIUS No one’s cowardly as this guy.

SOSIA Now I see that this guy’s looming,

wants to weave me a new cloak –

i.e. that he will warp my woof.

MERCURIUSHe’s afraid. I’ll go and trick him.

SOSIA I am dead! My teeth all shiver. 295

When I get there he will greet me

to a Pounder’s Welcome Fist.

Maybe he’s kind-hearted. Now due

to the fact my boss has made me

keep the night-watch, with his fists

today he’ll see I go to sleep.

I am dead. I beg you, please,

by Herc, how big and strong he is.

MERCURIUS Loudly I will speak in answer

so he hears what I will say. 300

That way, to a fuller factor,

he will start to feel more fear.

Come now, fists, it’s been a while

since you’ve got my paunch a lunch.

Feels so long since when you punched

and knocked out four men yesterday,

left them naked in the street.

SOSIA I’m completely terrified

that I’ll change my name and turn

from Sosia to Number Five. 305

He insists he has knocked out

four men and I fear that I’ll

add one more onto that number.

MERCURIUS (getting ready to fight)

There, I’m set. It’s how I like it.

SOSIA He prepares, he girds himself.

MERCURIUS He’ll not flee without a flogging.

SOSIA (to Mercurius for the first time)

Who is “he”?

MERCURIUS (to Sosia)

Whoever comes here,

that’s the one who’ll eat my fists.

SOSIA

Go away! I have just eaten

I don’t like to dine this late. 310

Give that dinner, if you’re clever,

to the people underfed.

MERCURIUS

This hook has a hearty heft.

SOSIA (to audience)

Help, I hurt! He hefts his hook.

MERCURIUS (to audience) What if I just tap him lightly

so he sleeps?

SOSIA (to Mercurius)You’ll save my life!

These three nights, without a break,

I’ve stayed awake.

MERCURIUS (to Sosia) That is the worst!

(he swings and misses; they’re too far apart)

(to audience) Useless action, jabbing jawlines.

My hand learns this wretchedly. 315

Jaws you jab with glancing blows should

take another shape with punches.

SOSIA (to audience) This guy’s going to decorate

my face and make it something new.

MERCURIUS (to his fist) Whom you pummel properly

ought to have his face defaced.

SOSIA

This guy thinks how he’ll de-bone my

my face like it’s an eel. How strange.

Off with those who like deboning.

I am dead if he should see me. 320

MERCURIUS (to audience)I have caught the scent of someone.

SOSIA

Yikes! Have I begun to stink?

MERCURIUS

Even though he’s greatly distant,

truly he is close at hand.

SOSIA

This guy’s a prognosticator!

MERCURIUS

And my fists fight zealously.

SOSIA (to Mercurius)

If I am your punching bag,

then do your warm-up on a wall.

MERCURIUS

To my ears doth fly a voice.

SOSIA (to audience)

An ill-starred man I have become, 325

I who didn’t pluck my pinions.

I have words that go on wings.

MERCURIUS

He demands I beat him up

and weigh him down like he’s a mule.

SOSIA

I do not have any donkey.

MERCURIUS

He’ll be burdened being beat.

SOSIA

Herc, I’m tired, since I just landed

here by ship. I’m also seasick.

I can barely go unladen,

with a load I cannot go. 330

MERCURIUS

Someone I don’t know is speaking.

SOSIA

I am safe, he doesn’t see me.

He says “Someone” speaks, but surely

“Sosia” is what my name is.

MERCURIUS

Here, it seems a voice has hit

my ears, it’s coming from the right.

SOSIA

I’ll be flogged today I fear,

not my voice which struck at him.

MERCURIUS

Awesome, look, he comes my way.

SOSIA

I am worried, wholly numb. 335

Where on earth I am, by Pollux,

I don’t know, if someone asks.

Wretched me, I cannot budge,

Because of chicken-heartedness.

All is done! My boss’s bidding

dies along with Sosia.

Really, I’m resolved to reckon

roughly face to face with him,

so that I will seem a tough guy

and he keep his hand from me. 340

MERCURIUS (to Sosia)

Where do you go walking, you who wrap your Vulcan in a horn?

SOSIA (to Mercurius)

Why do you ask this, you who with fists deface this person’s face?

MERCURIUS

Slave or free?

SOSIA

Whichever one my spirit happens to prefer.

MERCURIUS

Speak you truly?

SOSIA

I speak truly.

MERCURIUS

I will beat you.

SOSIA

Now you lie.

MERCURIUS

Now I’ll see you say I say the truth.

SOSIA

What need is there for this? 345

MERCURIUS

May I know where you are headed, Where you’re from and who you are?

SOSIA

I go here, at boss’s bidding. I’m his slave. Is that now clearer?

MERCURIUS

Scoundrel, I’ll restrain that tongue of yours today.

SOSIA

I think you can’t. She is modest and demure.

MERCURIUS

Do you keep on making jokes? What’s your business at these doors?

SOSIA

I could ask the same of you. 350

MERCURIUS

Good King Creon always sets out single sentries for the night.

SOSIA

He does well. Since we’ve been absent, everything’s been safe at home. Now begone. Let it be known the household slave is home again.

MERCURIUS

I don’t know how you can be a household slave. Unless you scram, I’ll ensure that you’re not welcomed by the household, “household slave”. 355

SOSIA

I live here, I say, and I’m enslaved by them.

MERCURIUS

You know what’s up? I will see you lifted up unless you go away.

SOSIA

How’s that?

MERCURIUS

You’ll be carried off, not proudly walking, when I fetch my club.

SOSIA

I proclaim myself to be the household slave of this whole house.

MERCURIUS

See how soon you get a beating if you don’t slink off from here. 360

SOSIA

I’ve returned from overseas, and keeping me from home’s your plan?

MERCURIUS

Here’s your house?

SOSIA

I say it is.

MERCURIUS

Who then is the boss of you?

SOSIA

He’s the leader of the Theban legions now, Amphitruo, he who wed Alcumena.

MERCURIUS

Listen up: what is your name?

SOSIA

Thebans call me Sosia, begotten of my father, Dave. 365

MERCURIUS

You came here all by your self with your fabricated fibs, paragon of pride, today, with your stitched-together schemes.

SOSIA

I come here with just my tunic, not with stitched-together schemes.

MERCURIUS

You are lying. You’ve come here with your feet, and not your tunic.

SOSIA

Really true.

MERCURIUS

And so now really you’ll be beaten for your lies. 370

SOSIA

Really, Pollux, I don’t want that.

MERCURIUS

Really, Pollux, though unwilling This one thing is really sure, not done arbitrarily. He hits Sosia.

SOSIA

Please, I beg you!

MERCURIUS

Do you dare To give your name as Sosia since I’m he?

SOSIA

I’m dead!

MERCURIUS

Still more you say, compared with what’s to come. He hits Sosia again. Who’s your master?

SOSIA

You are, since with your fists, you use me up. 375

MERCURIUS hits Sosia again. (to audience)

Help me, Theban citizens!

MERCURIUS

Still you shout, you dead-meat-maker? Tell me why you’ve come.

SOSIA

It’s so there’s someone you can punch to death.

MERCURIUS

Whose are you?

SOSIA

Amphitruo’s Sosia I am.

MERCURIUS

Then you’ll be beaten more since you’re a poser. He hits Sosia again. I am Sosia, not you.

SOSIA

May the gods grant that you could be, so that I can beat on you. 380

MERCURIUS

Still you mumble?

SOSIA

I’ll be quiet.

MERCURIUS

Who’s your boss?

SOSIA

I do not care.

MERCURIUS

What then? What are you now called?

He hits Sosia again.

SOSIA

Nothing, only what you say.

MERCURIUS

You said you’re Amphitruo’s Sosia?

SOSIA

Well, I was wrong. I should have said myself to be Amphitruo’s associate.

MERCURIUS

I sure knew we had no other slave but me called Sosia. 385 Reason’s vanished.

SOSIA

On that subject: would your fists had done the same.

MERCURIUS

I am that man Sosia whom you claimed yourself to be. He hits Sosia again.

SOSIA

Please just let me speak to you peacefully and not be beaten.

MERCURIUS

No, but there can be a passing truce if you should wish to speak.

SOSIA

I won’t speak unless there’s peace, since you are stronger with your fists. 390

MERCURIUS

Speak your mind, I will not hurt you.

SOSIA

Should I trust you?

MERCURIUS

Yes, you should.

SOSIA

If you’re lying?

MERCURIUS

Then Mercurius will rage on Sosia.

SOSIA

Pay attention. Now that I can say what I should wish to freely. I am Sosia the slave, Amphitruo’s.

MERCURIUS

What, this again?

SOSIA

I’ve made peace, I’ve made a treaty. I speak truth.

MERCURIUS

Now get a beating. 395 He hits Sosia again.

SOSIA

As you like, do what you like, since you are stronger with your fists. But, by Herc, no matter what you mean to do, I won’t keep quiet.

MERCURIUS

While I live today you’ll never see that I’m not Sosia.

SOSIA

Sure by Pollux you won’t make me someone else’s while I’m ours. Nor with just us both together, there’s no other Sosia. 400 With Amphitruo I went away from here into the army.

MERCURIUS

This man is not sane.

SOSIA

The fault you say I have is what is yours. Dammit, am I not a slave, Amphitruo’s own Sosia? Did our ship not just this night from the Port of Persicus [PURR-sick-US arrive, and did it bring me here? And did my boss not send me here? 405 Don’t I stand before our house with a lantern in my hand? Don’t I speak? Am I awake? Did he not hit me with his fists? Herc, he did, for even now my jaws are sore, o woe is me! Why then do I hesitate? Why not enter in our house?

MERCURIUS

This your house?

SOSIA

It is indeed.

MERCURIUS

All you’ve said in truth just now are 410 lies. For I am Sosia, he who is Amphitruo’s. For this night our ship had sailed from the Port of Persicus, and we laid siege to the town where King Pterela did rule, and we captured Teleboian legions with our battle force and Amphitruo himself fought and killed King Pterela. 415

SOSIA (to audience)

I do not believe my self when I hear me say these things. Things that happened there for certain he remembers memorably. (to Mercurius) Tell me what the Teleboeans gave then to Amphitruo.

MERCURIUS

Pterela the King, he liked to guzzle from a golden cup.

SOSIA (to audience)

He’s said it right. (to Mercurius) And where’s the cup gone now?

MERCURIUS

It’s in a little chest, 420 with Amphitruo’s seal sealed.

SOSIA

Say what kind of seal it is.

MERCURIUS

“Rising Sun with Horses Four.” You can’t trick me, dead-meat maker.

SOSIA (to the audience)

He has won with evidence. I must find another name. I don’t know how he could see this. Now I must deceive him fully. What I did when I was lonely and when no one else was there 425 in my shelter. That is something he can never tell today. (to Mercurius) If you say you’re Sosia, when the legions fought most fiercely, what did I do in my shelter? I’m defeated if you say.

MERCURIUS

From a cask of wine I filled a pitcher.

SOSIA (to audience)

He has started right.

MERCURIUS

I then drained the unmixed wine, like a baby from its mom. 430

SOSIA

That’s the truth. Since there I drank a pitcher of some unmixed wine. I’m astounded if he didn’t hide inside that pitcher there.

MERCURIUS

Now what? Do I prove to you that you are not Sosia?

SOSIA (to Mercurius)

You deny I’m me?

MERCURIUS

Why should I not deny, since I am me?

SOSIA

Jupiter, I swear I’m me and I do not tell a lie. 435

MERCURIUS

By Mercurius I swear that Jove does not believe in you. I know he’ll believe me more without an oath than you on oath.

SOSIA

Who am I then if I’m not Sosia? I’m asking you.

MERCURIUS

When I’m Sosia no more, you’ll be Sosia again. Now, since I am he, you no-one, you’ll be flogged unless you flee. 440

SOSIA (to audience)

Pol, when I examine him, and compare my countenance, how I stand – I mirror-gaze a lot – he’s quite alike to me. Hat and outfit just like mine he’s got. He’s as alike as I am. Shinbone. Footprint. Stature. Haircut. Eyes and ears and mouth and nose. Jawline. Chin, and beard, and throat. Everything. Well, why waste words? 445 If his back is full of scars, nothing’s more alike in likeness. When I think, I’m sure I am the same that I have always been. It’s our house, I know my boss. My faculties are full; I feel. I won’t yield to him and what he says. So at the door I’ll knock.

MERCURIUS

Where you heading?

SOSIA (to Mercurius)

Home.

MERCURIUS

If you now climbed into Jove’s chariot, 450 fled from here, you’d hardly be set to flee catastrophe.

SOSIA

May I not announce to mistress what my boss told me to say?

MERCURIUS

If you wish, announce to yours. Ours in here I won’t allow. If you bother me, today what you’ll suffer here’s a hip-wreck.

SOSIA

Deathless gods! I’d rather leave. I beseech you for your help. 455 Where’d I die? Where was I changed? Wherever did I lose my looks? Did I leave my self behind, if maybe I forgot myself? He now holds all that I was before this, a perfect likeness. I’m alive, but when I’m dead no one will look like this for me. I’ll go to the port and tell my boss the things that happened here, 460 granted he knows who I am. May Jupiter himself make sure that I today will shave my head, and bald, take up a freedman’s cap. Exit SOSIA, to the harbour.

Scene 3

MERCURIUS alone. MERCURIUS (to audience)

This job today has gone quite well for me. I nudged a nasty nuisance from the doors so dad was safe and free to fondle her. 465 Now when he finds Amphitruo his boss he’ll say slave Sosia sent him away, then he will think he’s lying to himself and won’t believe he came here as he should. Mistakes and madnesses I’ll make for both 470 of them and all Amphitruo’s household, until my dad has had his fill of her whom he’s seduced. And then at last will all know what’s occurred: then Jupiter will guide Alcumena to former wedded peace. 475 Amphitruo’s about to start a fight, declare his wife’s disgrace. But then my dad will stop her separation from him still. About Alcumena I didn’t say before: she’s giving birth to twins today! 480 One son’s Amphitruo’s, the other’s Jove’s. 483 The younger son has got the greater dad, and the reverse. So now you know what’s what. 485 To see Alcumena is honoured more, my dad’s ensured that she be spared a twin ordeal with birth and labour each made one, 488 although, Amphitruo will learn it all 491 as I said just before. What then? No one will think Alcumena’s to blame, it is not fair a god should let his felony and his own failure on a mortal fall. 495 The door creaks and opens. I’ll stop my speech. The doors have creaked. Behold! a substitute Amphitruo appears, and with Alcumena, the wife on loan.

MERCURIUS steps to the side to listen.

Scene 4

Enter from the house JUPITER, disguised as Amphitruo, but with a staff and a gold band on his hat, and ALCUMENA, nine months pregnant.

JUPITER

Take good care, Alcumena, as always of our shared concern. Please be careful, for you see the months for you are coming due. 500 I must leave, but when it’s time, be sure the child is registered.

ALCUMENA

Husband, what’s this business why you go away so suddenly from home?

JUPITER

It’s surely not, by Pol, because I’m bored with you at home. When the topmost general is not there present with his troops, what should not take place occurs more quickly than what should take place. 505

MERCURIUS (unnoticed)

He’s a very charming cheater and he also is my dad. Check him out, how pleasantly he soothes the woman with his words.

ALCUMENA

I’ve, by Castor, come to know how highly you esteem your wife.

JUPITER

Is it not enough that there’s no woman that I love as much?

MERCURIUS (unnoticed)

May your wife not come to know, these things you’re getting done, by Pol. 510 In that case I bet you’d rather be Amphitruo than Jove.

ALCUMENA

I’d prefer to come to know than be reminded of your love. You depart before the bed where you have slept has gotten cold. You came yesterday at midnight. Now you go – that’s what you want?

MERCURIUS (unnoticed)

I’ll approach and call to her, And play the sycophant to dad. 515 (approaching, to Alcumena) I believe by Pol no mortal man has ever loved his wife, struck with love as much as this guy dies for you while struck with love.

JUPITER (to Mercurius)

Dead-meat-maker, don’t I know you? Won’t you get far from my sight? What concern of yours is this, you punching bag? Don’t breathe a word. Now this walking stick of mine will…

ALCUMENA

Ah! I don’t…

JUPITER (to Mercurius)

Don’t breathe a word. 520

MERCURIUS (to audience)

My first try at sycophancy almost ended in disaster.

JUPITER (to Alcumena)

As for what you said, my wife, you shouldn’t be upset at me. Secretly I slipped away, I left my legion-tasks for you. So that you could learn this from me, how I saved the public good. I related everything to you. Unless I loved you most, 525 I’d not do so.

MERCURIUS

It’s as I said! Thus he soothes her shrinking self.

JUPITER

So the troops don’t lack their orders, secretly I’ll head back there, so they will not say I hold my wife above my state affairs.

ALCUMENA

After your departure, you will make your wife lament.

JUPITER

Hush, hush. Do not spoil your eyes. I’ll come back quickly.

ALCUMENA

Quickly’s far away. 530

JUPITER

I don’t go away from here, or leave you willingly.

ALCUMENA

I know. for you leave the very night you came to me. She clings to him.

JUPITER

Why hold me so? It is time. I wish to leave the town before it starts to dawn.

JUPITER elaborately produces a cup from somewhere and gives it to her.

Now to you this cup that was bestowed on me for honour’s sake, from which drank King Pterela, a man I killed with my own hand, 535 I give to Alcumena.

ALCUMENA takes the cup.

ALCUMENA

You do as you always do. Castor! What a precious prize, just like he who gives the prize.

MERCURIUS

Not at all! A precious prize, just like she who’s given it.

JUPITER (to Mercurius)

You still here? You cross-bound creep, can I not get rid of you?

ALCUMENA

No, Amphitruo, I beg you, don’t blame Sosia for me. 540

JUPITER (to Alcumena)

I’ll do as you wish.

MERCURIUS

It’s love that makes him act ferociously.

JUPITER

Nothing else?

ALCUMENA

When we’re apart, we love the other when they’re gone.

MERCURIUS

Come, “Amphitruo.” It’s light.

JUPITER (to Mercurius)

Go ahead, now, “Sosia,” I will follow.

MERCURIUS exits to the harbour. (to Alcumena)

Nothing else?

ALCUMENA

Just come back quickly.

JUPITER

Very well. I’ll be back before you even know I’m gone. Now have good cheer. 545

ALCUMENA exits into the house.

You have waited for me, Night. I bid you to yield to Day. So that with light clear and pure he’ll illuminate mankind. Night, as much as you were longer than the night we had before, so much shorter will I make this day be, to balance out. Go! Let Day appear from Night. I’ll pursue Mercurius. 550

Exit JUPITER to the harbour. An empty stage. [A short musical break.]

Scene 5

AMPHITRUO enters from the harbour (not seeing Jupiter), followed by SOSIA and at least one other enslaved person carrying baggage. They are not yet at the door.

AMPHITRUO (singing)

Come on, keep up.

SOSIA

I follow, follow you.

AMPHITRUO

You’re the worst.

SOSIA

Why? Tell me more, please do!

AMPHITRUO

By saying what’s impossible

You're making me irascible.

It isn’t now, it never was, nor ever shall be true.

SOSIA

Oh

That's so Amphitruo

Master don't you think you owe

Your closest aide a little trust

No wonder you're so strussed! 555

AMPHITRUO

What? How so? By Herc, I’ll cut your tongue

For this, you wretch, It’s Götterdammerung!

SOSIA

I’m your slave, and you can do with me

Whatever, till you’re through with me

But don't stop me averring

Things that were and are occurring. 560

AMPHITRUO

You lie! In song! And this is what you’ve sung!

Though you're here beside me now (-s)

Somehow you're also in my house?

SOSIA

I'm being honest with you, truly.

AMPHITRUO

You'll be beaten black and bluely,

By the gods, and not unduly

by me too.

SOSIA

I know my place.

But Master, dear - why the long face?

AMPHITRUO

You punching bag, persisting with this mockery

And tales of idiotic poppy-cockery! 565

A thing that no one’s ever seen,

Because it never could have been:

That you're over there now, and in

fact I see you here - you're standin'

by my side. You can't be both

at once!

SOSIA

Exactly - by my troth!

AMPHITRUO

May Jove now ruin you for being so cocky!

SOSIA

Do I deserve a kicking

From my boss? 570

AMPHITRUO

Now time is ticking

You still chatter! You're to blame

You and your funny little game.

SOSIA

If you can actually prove that I'm a liar

Then batter me and throw me in the deep fat friar

But I beg you, please be gracious

I would never be mendacious...

AMPHITRUO

The man is drunk.

SOSIA

I wish!

AMPHITRUO

See he admits

His number one concern is dulling his own wits. 575

SOSIA (spoken)

Eh?

AMPHITRUO

Where did you get this wasted?

SOSIA

I swear I haven't tasted…

AMPHITRUO

Then who was this other fellow?

SOSIA

For the tenth time - listen, Hello?!

Sosia was at the war

And he was also at our door!

It's quite a simple story

Did I tell it badly? Or he -'s

Drunk himself, why are all masters hypocrites!

AMPHITRUO

Enough now, leave me please.

SOSIA

What’s wrong? 580

AMPHITRUO

You're addled, and diseased.

SOSIA

Nah, I feel fine, come on, let's go

home safe and sound, Amphitruo.

AMPHITRUO

You feel fine? You piece of trash, you

won't say that when I have thrashed you -

Now it's safe to go back home?!

And you traipse after me, vile gnome,

You dare to mock your boss? No need to ask - Oh!

What a deluded double-cross! What a fiasco! 585

Since you have not done the things

Your boss had ordered you to do,

Now you come here making mock

of master. With what you describe, which

couldn’t be, you dead-meat-maker,

no one’s ever heard of it.

But today I’ll see these lies

of yours will land upon your back.

SOSIA

This despair’s the most despairing

for good slaves, Amphitruo, 590

speaking true things to their boss,

if the truth is trounced by toughness.

AMPHITRUO

Howsoever could this be?

Dammit, think with facts for me.

You’re now here and at home too?

How that’s so, I want to know.

SOSIA

Truly I am here and there.

You may marvel at this fact.

But this marvel seems no more

marvellous for you than me. 595

AMPHITRUO

How?

SOSIA

I swear, there’s nothing more

marvellous for you than me.

Gods adore me, I at first

did not believe in Sosia,

till that Sosia himself

made me put my trust in me.

He laid it all out in order

what was done to make it so,

when we set against the foe,

he swiped my bearing and my name. 600

Milk’s no more alike with milk

than that me is alike with me.

When you sent me to our home,

from the port before first light…

AMPHITRUO

What?

SOSIA

… I was already there

before I came, before the door.

AMPHITRUO

Damn this nonsense, are you sane?

SOSIA

I am as you see I am.

AMPHITRUO (to audience)

On this man an evil hand

has cast some evil – don’t know what – 605

after he had left me.

SOSIA

I was

pummelled painfully with punches.

AMPHITRUO

Who was beating you?

SOSIA

Myself!

I, the me who’s now at home.

AMPHITRUO

Be sure you don’t answer me

anything unless I ask.

First of all, I want this said:

who this Sosia might be.

SOSIA

He’s your slave.

AMPHITRUO

With you I’ve got

one more you than I still want. 610

In my life I’ve not had any

slave named Sosia save you.

SOSIA

Now, Amphitruo, I say,

I’ll make sure at home you’ll find

Sosia the other slave

than me, I swear, when you arrive.

Child of Dave, the same as me,

with age and stature same as well.

What need now is there for words?

For you this Sosia is twinned. 615

AMPHITRUO

You relate such massive marvels,

but did you also see my wife?

SOSIA

I was not allowed to go

past the doors inside.

AMPHITRUO

Who stopped you?

SOSIA

Sosia, who all this time

I told you of, who pummelled me.

AMPHITRUO

Who’s this Sosia?

SOSIA

It’s me.

How often must I tell you this?

AMPHITRUO

Listen up: did you just maybe

fall asleep?

SOSIA

No, not at all. 620

AMPHITRUO

Maybe there in sleep is where

you saw that certain Sosia.

SOSIA

I’m not used to somnolently

follow orders from my boss.

Wide awake I saw, awake

I still see now, awake I speak.

He, awake, a while back

pummelled me, awake, with punches.

AMPHITRUO

Who is he?

SOSIA

It’s Sosia,

I said. He’s me. What don’t you get? 625

AMPHITRUO

Dammit, who could ever get it?

You are blabbing nonsense now.

SOSIA

You will quickly see the truth

when you see slave Sosia.

AMPHITRUO

Therefore follow me this way.

I must first sort out this mess. 628

Would the gods make what you say

turn out to not be real today. 632

Scene 6

Enter ALCUMENA from the house. She does not notice AMPHITRUO and SOSIA, and the slave with the baggage.

ALCUMENA

(singing) Pleasure is the tiniest thing, isn’t it?

In life and through the passing of the years.

Small compared with things that are quite difficult

Every human life is marked by tears.

AMPHITRUO

…[See that everything I ordered

Now is brought up from the ship.

SOSIA

I’m attentive and I care

what you order should appear. 630

I did not gulp down your order

At the same time as the wine.]

ALCUMENA

That is how the gods seem to prefer it: 635

Sadness is the friend who comes along

Following behind, right after Pleasure.

That’s the lesson – take it from this song.

For each good thing, there’s trouble coming after.

I know this well, I learned it long before.

I was given pleasure only briefly.

I had him once, and still I need him more.

At dawn my husband left me. I’m alone now. 640

The man I love is going far away.

And the sickness, now he's gone is so much greater

than the pleasure he gave me yesterday.

At least today one thing can make me happy:

His enemy’s defeated - he'll come home.

Returning full of triumph, full of honour

A great relief to me and to all Rome.

He goes and he returns to bathe in glory.

And while he's gone, I live – that’s my reward. 645

My heart is resolute, and if I’m lucky

I'll be the wife of a hero of the war.

Who could ask for more? Therefore…

Courage is the greatest prize, isn’t it?

It stands apart, outshines all other ones:

Your self, your safety, freedom, home, possessions. 650

Courage before parents, before sons.

Things can be preserved, people protected

Courage carries everything within.

All good things belong to the courageous.

Let's hear it for the virtue masculine.

The same thing that you find reflected in

The hopes of an expectant heroine.

AMPHITRUO (unnoticed by Alcumena)

I believe when I come home

I’ll be quite welcome with my wife.

I love her, she loves me back,

above all with these deeds done well. 655

Rivals are defeated, those who

no one thought would be defeated.

I was leading and in charge;

we vanquished them when first we met.

She, awaiting my arrival,

yearns for me; of this I’m sure.

SOSIA

What? You don’t suppose my girl’s

not waiting my arrival too?

ALCUMENA (noticing Amphitruo and Sosia, to audience)

Here’s my husband.

AMPHITRUO

Follow me

this way.

ALCUMENA

Why does he come back 660

When he just said he was rushed?

Perhaps he’s testing me on purpose,

And he wants to learn how much

I yearn for him when he’s away.

I am not averse, by Castor,

to receive him back again.

SOSIA

We had best, Amphitruo,

go back to the ship.

AMPHITRUO

How come?

Any thing that is good may neuer be dainty.

SOSIA Since at home no one will give

some lunch to us when we arrive. 665

AMPHITRUO

Why is this now on your thoughts?

SOSIA

Since we’ve got here far too late.

AMPHITRUO

Why?

SOSIA

Because Alcumena

I see her by the door—she’s stuffed!

AMPHITRUO

When I went away I left her

pregnant here.

SOSIA

You’re killing me!

AMPHITRUO

What is wrong with you?

SOSIA

I’ve come

home in time to fetch her water.

If I reckon numbers right,

it’ll be her ninth month now. 670

AMPHITRUO

So be glad!

SOSIA

You know how glad

I am? When I pick up a bucket,

you, by Pol, will never trust me

even if I vow it later,

if I do not drain that well

of all its breath once I begin.

AMPHITRUO

Follow me this way. Fear not.

I’ll pick another for this task.

ALCUMENA

Now I’d show my proper duty

if I went to him, I think. 675

AMPHITRUO and ALCUMENA approach each other and embrace.

AMPHITRUO

Happily Amphitruo

Greets his so long longed-for wife.

Of the Theban women, all,

her husband judges her the best.

Citizens of Thebes all rumour

her to be so virtuous.

Are you healthy? Are you sure?

Thrilled I’m back?

SOSIA (to audience)

I never saw her

thrilled so much. She greets him barely

more than when she greets the dog. 680

AMPHITRUO

Wonderful, to see you so

pregnant, and so full of… beauty.

ALCUMENA

Castor! For what reason do you

tease me so, I beg of you,

when you greet and meet me thus –

as if you hadn’t, here at home,

seen me; like you’re just back now,

from the foe for the first time?

And you greet me just as if

you hadn’t seen me for so long? 685

AMPHITRUO

I’ve not seen you anywhere

on earth today except just now.

ALCUMENA

Why deny?

AMPHITRUO

I’m taught to speak

the truth.

ALCUMENA

It is not fair to un-teach

what’s been taught. Do you examine

what my disposition is?

But why do you come back so soon?

Were you stopped by horoscopes?

Did the weather hold you back? 690

You did not go to the legions

as you said you would just now.

AMPHITRUO

Just now? When was this “just now”?

ALCUMENA

You tease. “Just now” means recently.

AMPHITRUO

How could this be so, you ask?

“Recently”, and so “just now”?

ALCUMENA

What’s your thinking? That I mock you

since you’re mocking me in turn?

You say now you’ve just come back?

You just went away from here. 695

AMPHITRUO

This one, she speaks balderdash.

SOSIA

Wait for just a little while,

while she sleeps off a certain sleep.

AMPHITRUO

Does she sleep while wide awake?

ALCUMENA

I’m awake, by Castor, and

awake I’m saying what took place.

For just now before first light

I saw this one and you.

AMPHITRUO

But where?

ALCUMENA

Where you live inside these doors.

AMPHITRUO

Never happened.

SOSIA

Hush a sec. 700

Maybe while we slept, the ship

brought us from the port to here.

AMPHITRUO

You are also on her side?

SOSIA

What do you desire be done?

Don’t you know? If you desire

to go against a crazy cultist,°

not just nuts, but nutzier

she’ll go, and hit you all the more.

If you listen, she will settle

for one punch.

AMPHITRUO

But Pol it’s certain 705

I will scold her, since she didn’t

want to greet me when I came back

home today.

SOSIA

You will stir up

A hornet’s nest.

AMPHITRUO

Be quiet, you.

I would like, Alcumena,

To ask you one thing.

ALCUMENA

Ask away.

AMPHITRUO

Does absurdity approach or overweening overcome you?

ALCUMENA

How does it occur to you to cross-examine me, my husband? 710

AMPHITRUO

Since before this you would always greet me when I came back home, speak to me exactly like modest women greet their husbands. Coming home, I find that you have lost that custom which you had.

ALCUMENA

When you came home yesterday I surely greeted you, by Castor, welcomed you, and at the same time asked if you were well as well. 715 Then I took your hand, my husband, and I offered you a kiss.

SOSIA

Yesterday you welcomed him?

ALCUMENA

And you also, Sosia.

SOSIA

I had hoped, Amphitruo, she would bear to you a son. She’s not pregnant with a son.

AMPHITRUO

What then?

SOSIA

With insanity.

ALCUMENA

I am sane of course and beg the gods I bear a healthy son. 720 (to Sosia) You will get a big bad beating if he does what duty asks. For that omen, Captain Omen, you will get what you deserve.

SOSIA

Pregnant women should be given palm-I-granted – (to audience) pomegranate so that she can chew on it, if she starts with morning sickness.

AMPHITRUO (to Alcumena)

Yesterday you saw me here?

ALCUMENA

I say I did, ten times I say. 725

AMPHITRUO

Sleeping, maybe?

ALCUMENA

No, awake! While wide awake.

AMPHITRUO

O what a fate!

SOSIA

What is wrong?

AMPHITRUO

My wife’s gone mad.

SOSIA

I am messed up with this bile. Nothing forces people to be quite so mad and quite so quick.

AMPHITRUO

Woman, when did you first feel that these things were infecting you?

ALCUMENA

I am sane and sound, by Castor.

AMPHITRUO

Therefore why do you insist 730 that you saw me yesterday, when we came to port this night? There I dined and there I slept, through the night within the ship. I’ve not placed my foot within these doors since when I first set out with my army, where we won against the Teleboean foe.

ALCUMENA

No! In truth, you dined with me and slept with me as well.

AMPHITRUO

I what? 735

ALCUMENA

I speak truth.

AMPHITRUO

On this, by Herc, you don’t; on other things, who knows?

ALCUMENA

At the break of day you left back to your legions.

AMPHITRUO

Huh? How so?

SOSIA

She speaks right, as she remembers. She is telling you her dream. (to Alcumena) Now that you woke up, though, woman, you should pray to Jove today, he that turns away bad omens, with salted grains or frankincense. 740

ALCUMENA

Damn your head!

SOSIA

So yours will be, if you don’t tread carefully.

ALCUMENA (to Amphitruo)

He insults me yet again and without him being beaten.

AMPHITRUO (to Sosia)

Quiet, you. (to Alcumena) And you now speak. I left from here, from you at dawn?

ALCUMENA

Who except for you could tell me how the battle went for you?

AMPHITRUO

You know this?

ALCUMENA

Of course. I heard from you how you had sacked that 745 mighty town, and you yourself had killed a king named Pterela.

AMPHITRUO

I said this?

ALCUMENA

Yes, you yourself. And Sosia was standing by.

AMPHITRUO (to Sosia)

You heard me say this to her today?

SOSIA

Where else would I have heard it?

AMPHITRUO

Ask her.

SOSIA

What I know is this did not take place with me nearby.

ALCUMENA

No surprise he doesn’t cross you.

AMPHITRUO

Sosia, come, look at me. 750

SOSIA

See, I look.

AMPHITRUO

I tell the truth. Do not simply side with me. Did you hear me say to her those things she says I said today?

SOSIA

Please, by Pollux, are you also crazy when you ask me this? I myself see her just now for the first time, same as you.

AMPHITRUO

What now, woman? Do you hear him?

ALCUMENA

I do hear him tell a lie. 755

AMPHITRUO

You believe not him nor me, your husband?

ALCUMENA

This is so since I believe myself the most and I know things are as I said.

AMPHITRUO

You say I came yesterday?

ALCUMENA

You deny you left today?

AMPHITRUO

I deny it fully and I say I’ve come home now to you.

ALCUMENA

Please, do you deny this too? That you gave me a golden cup 760 as a gift today which you were gifted with, when you were there?

AMPHITRUO

Pol, I didn’t give or say it, but I had it in my mind that I give this cup to you and so I’m here. Who told you this?

ALCUMENA

I heard of the cup from you, and I did take it from your hand.

AMPHITRUO (to Alcumena)

Please be patient. Please, be patient. (to Sosia) Sosia, I’m quite surprised 765 that she knows a golden cup was given to me there, unless you met her a while back and you told her everything.

SOSIA

Pol! I didn’t see or say anything except with you.

AMPHITRUO

What a person she must be!

ALCUMENA

Do you want the cup?

AMPHITRUO

I do.

ALCUMENA

Good then. (shouting into the house) You there, Thessala, bring the cup outside the house 770 that my husband brought today.

AMPHITRUO

Sosia, come over here. AMPHITRUO and SOSIA move to the side.

Truly if she has the cup, I’ll be more astounded than by other things astounding me.

SOSIA

Do you believe that? It is sealed With your seal inside this case.

SOSIA removes case from the luggage he had been carrying.

AMPHITRUO

Seal’s secure?

SOSIA

Check for yourself.

AMPHITRUO

Good. It’s as I sealed it.

SOSIA

Please, why don’t you demand that she be 775 purified; she’s muy loca.

AMPHITRUO

This, by Pollux, must be done. She, by Pollux, is filled up with poltergeists.

Enter THESSALA, a female domestic slave, with a golden goblet.

ALCUMENA (interrupting Amphitruo)

What need for words?

THESSALA gives the cup to ALCUMENA.

Look, your cup.

AMPHITRUO

Give it to me.

ALCUMENA

Come, look here, right now, at this, you who doubt what did take place.

ALCUMENA

holds up the cup and shows it to Amphitruo. I shall prove to you right here, in plain sight, that it’s the cup you gave me.

AMPHITRUO

Highest Jupiter, 780 What is this? It is the cup, for sure. I’m dying, Sosia.

SOSIA

Pol, this woman either is the greatest sorceress by far, or the cup should be in here. He indicates the case.

AMPHITRUO

Come then, open up the case.

SOSIA

Why then should I open it? It is sealed, and all is well. (to Alcumena) You have twinned Amphitruo; and I’m a second Sosia. 785 If the cup’s now twinned a cup, we have all been doubled up.

AMPHITRUO

I must check and open it.

SOSIA

See then if the seal is yours, so you don’t place blame on me later on.

AMPHITRUO

Then open it, for indeed she plans to make us go crazy with her words.

ALCUMENA

Where’s this from, if not from you, a gift which you presented me? 790 She holds up the cup again.

AMPHITRUO

This I must investigate. AMPHITRUO and SOSIA unbreak the seal on the case and open it.

The case is empty.

SOSIA

Jupiter! By Jupiter!

AMPHITRUO

What is wrong?

SOSIA

There is no cup inside this case.

AMPHITRUO

What’s this I hear?

SOSIA

It’s the truth.

AMPHITRUO

Unless it’s here, a death-by-cross for you is near.

ALCUMENA

Here it does appear.

AMPHITRUO

Well who gave it to you?

ALCUMENA

The one who asks.

She hands the cup to THESSALA, who takes it and exits inside.

SOSIA (to Amphitruo)

You are tricking me since you ran here in secret from the ship 795 on another street, and you removed the cup from here, gave it to her, and then you in secret sealed it back again.

AMPHITRUO

Ay, ay, ay! And now you too are helping her insanity? (to Alcumena) Did we come here yesterday?

ALCUMENA

Yes, and when you came, right then, you greeted me, as I did you, and I gave to you a kiss. 800

AMPHITRUO

I don’t like the sound of this, about the kiss. Now carry on.

ALCUMENA

You did bathe.

AMPHITRUO

And after that?

ALCUMENA

You sat to eat.

SOSIA (to Amphitruo)

Oh, very good! Now inquire...

AMPHITRUO (to Sosia)

Don’t interrupt. (to Alcumena) You continue to describe.

ALCUMENA

Dinner was laid out. You dined with me, and I reclined with you.

AMPHITRUO

Were we on the same recliner?

ALCUMENA

Yes, the same.

AMPHITRUO

I hate this feast. 805 Let her give the evidence: (to Alcumena) what then after we had dined?

ALCUMENA

You were saying you were tired. The table went; we went to bed.

AMPHITRUO

Where did you sleep?

ALCUMENA

In our room. In the same bed next to you.

AMPHITRUO

You have killed me!

SOSIA

What is wrong?

AMPHITRUO

She has sentenced me to die.

ALCUMENA

What, my love?

AMPHITRUO

Don’t speak to me.

SOSIA

What is wrong?

AMPHITRUO

You’re killing me. 810 While I was away this stain was added to her “modesty”.

ALCUMENA

Please, by Castor, husband mine, why do I hear this from you?

AMPHITRUO

I’m your husband? Faithless woman, don’t call me that faithless name.

SOSIA

This is sticky: he’s a she? If not a husband, he’s a wife.

ALCUMENA (ignoring Sosia)

What did I do that deserves that I be called with such a name? 815

AMPHITRUO

You yourself said what you did, and you ask me what you did wrong.

ALCUMENA

What did I do wrong to you, when I was with the one I wed?

AMPHITRUO

You had been with me? Oh, what is bolder than a shameless wife? If you lack in modesty, you might as well take out a loan.

ALCUMENA

You accuse me of this deed, which does not befit our clan. 820 If you try to catch me in some shameless action, you cannot.

AMPHITRUO

O immortal gods! At least do you know me, Sosia?

SOSIA

Yes, I do.

AMPHITRUO

Did I then dine at the Port of Persicus?

ALCUMENA

There are also witnesses who will attest to what I say.

SOSIA

I don’t know what I can say on this affair unless there is some 825 alternate Amphitruo, who though you’re absent yet perhaps tends your tasks, and though you’re absent carries out your duties too. Since the pseudo-Sosia seems to be so very strange, surely stranger still is this alternate Amphitruo.

AMPHITRUO

Some thaumaturgist or other makes this woman seem a fool. 830

ALCUMENA

I swear by the Great King’s kingdom, by the holy goddess mother Juno, whom I do respect and rightly fear especially: save for you alone, no mortal’s touched my body with his body. That would make me be immodest.

AMPHITRUO

I would wish these words were true.

ALCUMENA

I speak truth, but it’s for nothing, since you do not wish to trust. 835

AMPHITRUO

You’re a woman, you swear boldly.

ALCUMENA

She who’s done no wrong should be Bold. She should speak for herself forcefully and daringly.

AMPHITRUO

Bold enough.

ALCUMENA

As fits a modest woman.

AMPHITRUO

You are good in word.

ALCUMENA

What I brought into this marriage isn’t what was called a dowry. Rather it’s my modesty, shame, my well controlled-desires, 840 fear of gods, and love of parents, harmony with relatives, deference to you, and giving to the worthy, help the good.

SOSIA (to audience)

If she speaks the truth, by Pollux, is she not completely perfect?

AMPHITRUO (to Sosia)

I am so completely smitten That I don’t know who I am.

SOSIA

You’re Amphitruo completely – see that you don’t lose yourself. 845 People now appear to change so often since we’ve come back home.

AMPHITRUO

Woman, I won’t let this matter stand without investigation.

ALCUMENA

Pollux, do it. I’ll be happy.

AMPHITRUO

What is that? Just answer me. What if I should bring your kinsman Naucrates here from our ship, [NOW-kra-TEEZ he who made a single journey on a single ship with me? 850 If he said things aren’t as you say, what result would you say’s fair? Would you not say I had reason To divorce you right away?

ALCUMENA

If I did some wrong, you would.

AMPHITRUO

It’s agreed. You, Sosia, Bring them in, and I’ll bring with me Naucrates back from the ship.

Exit AMPHITRUO to the harbour.

SOSIA

Now that there is no one with us, tell me truly, earnestly: 855 is another Sosia in there who is just like me?

ALCUMENA

Leave me be, slave who deserves your master.

SOSIA

I go, as you wish.

Exit SOSIA (and other servants) with baggage into the house.

ALCUMENA

Truly it’s a strange event by Castor, that my husband thinks it’s right to charge me in this way wrongly of so bad an action. I’ll soon learn what it might be from my kinsman, Naucrates. 860

ALCUMENA exits into the house.

Scene 7

Enter JUPITER, from the harbour.

JUPITER (to audience)

Amphitruo’s my name, and Sosia, my slave, becomes Mercurius at times. I live up there, up on the highest floor, and when it suits, I’m Jupiter as well. When here I make my entrance, on the spot 865 “Amphitruo” I am, and change my clothes. I come here now for your dear sake, so that I don’t conclude this comedy too soon. I’ve also come to bring Alcumena some help, whom, free of shame, Amphitruo 870 indicts. The fault is mine, which I contrived, if innocent Alcumena is blamed. So as I started, I’ll pretend to be Amphitruo, and I will throw this house today into the greatest puzzlement. 875 Then after that I’ll see that all’s made clear, and I will help Alcumena in time. I’ll see that she delivers without pain her husband’s child and mine, the both at once. I told Mercurius to follow straight 880 in case I had a job.

Enter ALCUMENA from the house. She does not see Jupiter.

I’ll speak to her.

ALCUMENA (to audience)

I can’t remain inside. Accused by him of cheating, shameful sex, adultery. He cries aloud that what’s not done was done, says what’s not happened I am guilty of, 885 and trusts I’ll think this all beside the point. I’ve done no wrong, by Pollux. I won’t bear the shame of false indictment. Either he’ll apologize or else I will leave him. For I am blameless of what he’s alleged. 890

JUPITER (to audience)

I have to do what she demands if I’m to lure her back to me as her true love. Since what I did has hurt Amphitruo, and my romance has caused such strife for him. He’s blameless, and though I am blameless too 895 his rage at her and curses fall on me.

ALCUMENA (noticing Jupiter)

But look, I see him there who falsely swears that I’ve had shameful sex.

JUPITER

Let’s speak, my wife. He reaches for her, and ALCUMENA turns away. Hey, why do you pull back?

ALCUMENA

It’s my innate nature. I always hate to look on foes. 900

JUPITER

Oh come, we’re foes?

ALCUMENA

It’s so. I speak the truth. Unless you claim that even this is false?

JUPITER

You’re very angry. He tries to hold her.

ALCUMENA

Can’t you watch your hands? She pulls away again. For certain, if you’re sane and had some sense, You would not speak, in jest or earnestly, 905 with someone who you called and judged unchaste. Unless you’re dumber than the dumbest dolt.

JUPITER

My words don’t make it so, and I believe you, so I have returned to make amends. For never was my heart so sick as when 910 I heard that you were angriest at me. “You said this, why?” you ask; I will explain. It’s not because I thought you were unchaste. I tested if your heart was truly true, what you would do, and how, if you’re accused. 915 I said these things to you before in jest.

ALCUMENA slaps him. It was a joke. Just go ask Sosia.

ALCUMENA

Why don’t you bring my kinsman Naucrates? Did you not say before you’d bring him here to be a witness?

JUPITER

If I made a jest, 920 it isn’t fair that you treat it as real.

ALCUMENA

Everything I know’s destroyed my heart.

JUPITER (reaching for her hand)

By your right hand, Alcumena, I beg you please, give way to me. Be calm. Forgive.

ALCUMENA

My virtue made these words of no account. 925 Now since I’ve kept away from unchaste deeds I want to stay away from unchaste words. Farewell. You’ll keep what’s yours; I’ll take what’s mine. Let servants come.

JUPITER

Are you insane?

ALCUMENA

If not, I’ll go alone, with just my Chastity. 930 She starts to leave.

JUPITER

Hold on. I’ll swear an oath on terms you state that I believe my wife is truly chaste. (to the heavens) And if I lie, I ask you, Highest Jove, be always angry with Amphitruo.

ALCUMENA draws out the moment. She and JUPITER lock eyes, and she relents.

ALCUMENA

Let him wish him well.

JUPITER

I’m sure he will. 935 I swore a trusty oath to answer you. So now you are not mad?

ALCUMENA

I’m not.

JUPITER

Well, good. In human life, does much turn out just so. They seek for pleasure then they seek for pain. Angers erupt, and then comes calm again. 940 And if some angers just like this arise between them, and if apologies ensue, then things are twice as friendly than before.

ALCUMENA

To start it shouldn’t have been said at all, but if you show remorse, it can be borne. 945

JUPITER

Then order clean equipment be prepared, so all the vows I made while on campaign if I came home again, I’ll now fulfill.

ALCUMENA

I shall do that.

JUPITER

And call out Sosia,

so he can fetch our helmsman Blepharo 950 [BLEFF-ah-ROH for he’s with us on ship, and we’ll have lunch. (to audience) He will be lightly made a lunch-less fool, when by the throat I drag Amphitruo. from here.

ALCUMENA (to audience)

I wonder what he wordless says.

Enter SOSIA from the house. The door reveals that Sosia appears. 955

Scene 8

SOSIA

I am here, Amphitruo. What you command, is what I’ll do.

JUPITER

Sosia, it’s good you’re here.

SOSIA

Is there peace between you now? I am happy and rejoice, when I see you both unperturbed. It seems right then if a slave makes himself seem decent too. As his bosses are, so he should be. His face should match their face. 960 He’ll be sad, when boss is sad, and he be glad, if they rejoice. Come, then, answer this. Have you returned into a peaceful state?

JUPITER

You are teasing, since you know I said these things before in jest.

SOSIA

Did you speak in jest? I thought for sure that you were serious.

JUPITER

I have had a scouring. Peace is made. celebrating the sacrifice. By imitating Amphitruo, Jupiter has found a way to get both parts of the sacrifice, and Amphitruo is left without lunch.

SOSIA

That’s excellent. 965

JUPITER

I’ll address divine affairs inside, all that was vowed.

SOSIA

Good plan.

JUPITER

You invite the helmsman here from the ship, with my own words, Blepharo, so he with me can eat post-sacrificial lunch.

SOSIA

I will be back here while you think I’m still there.

JUPITER

Just come right back.

Exit SOSIA to the harbour.

ALCUMENA

You don’t mind if I go in? I’ll prepare what is required. 970

JUPITER

Sure thing, go. And see that all is ready soon as possible.

ALCUMENA

You come in when you might like. I’ll see there will be no delay.

JUPITER

You speak properly, and it’s exactly as a good wife should.

Exit ALCUMENA into the house. (to audience)

Now both the slave and mistress have been duped. They wrongly think that I’m Amphitruo. 975 He speaks telepathically to Mercurius. Now Sosia Divine, be present here. You hear my words although you are not here. Now keep away Amphitruo when he returns. Invent whatever scheme you like. I want them to be fooled, while I pass time 980 now with the wife on loan. Ensure these things are done exactly as you think I want. And you’ll help, as I sacrifice to me.

Exit JUPITER into the house.

Scene 9

Enter MERCURIUS, from the harbour (or through the audience?), rushing.

MERCURIUS (to audience)

Get out the way! Make way, you all! Clear a path for me! May no one be so unafraid that they would block my way. 985 Should I be less allowed, by Herc, to threaten those who don’t clear off, since I’m a god? I’m like a slave in comedy. The slave says an old man arrives, or that the ship is safe. I listen to the word of Jove, and come at his command. And so it’s best to clear the way! Clear the road for me! 990 My father calls, and I obey, on his commanding word. So be a good son to your dad, just like I am to mine. I help his love, I urge, stand by, I warn and I rejoice. If my dad has some passion, it becomes my passion too. He loves; he’s wise. He does what’s right when acting on an urge. 995 All humans should behave like this, if moderation rules. My dad now wants Amphitruo be tricked. I’ll see that he is duped, o audience, right now, before your very eyes. I’ll cap my cranium with crowns, and I’ll feign drunkenness. He looks at the roof of the house. And I’ll climb up. From there I’ll send the man away in style, 1000 from up on high, when he arrives. Sloshed, though he’ll be sober. Then Sosia his slave will suffer sentence straightaway. He’ll blame him for what I’ve done today. But do I care? I ought to help my dad, since I’m enslaved to his behests. But here he comes, Amphitruo. Now he will properly 1005 be duped, if you would like to listen to the plan I give. I’ll go backstage, and find a costume fitting for a drunk. Then I’ll climb on the roof so I can keep him far away.

Exit MERCURIUS into house.

AMPHITRUO (to audience)

Naucrates I’d hoped to meet, but he was not aboard the ship. I could not find any one at home, in town, who had seen him. 1010 I had crept all through the plazas, gyms, and the perfumeries, at the market, at the butcher’s, wrestling rings, and in the forum, at the doctor’s, at the barber’s, and in every sacred space. I’m exhausted now from seeking – nowhere I find Naucrates. Now I’ll go back home and ask my wife again about this problem, 1015 who it was with whom she filled her body through her shameful sex. I’d prefer to be a dead man than allow this question to stay unanswered here today. He tries the door and is unable to open it. The door is bolted. That’s just great. This is being done exactly as the others. I will knock. Open up. Hey, who is here? Who can open up this portal? 1020

MERCURIUS appears on the roof, wearing a garland and holding a bottle.

MERCURIUS

Who is at the door?

AMPHITRUO

I am.

MERCURIUS

Which “I am”?

AMPHITRUO

It’s as I said.

MERCURIUS

Jove and all the gods are angry at the one who pounds this door.

AMPHITRUO

Why is that?

MERCURIUS

It’s for this reason: so you’ll live your life accursed.

AMPHITRUO

Sosia!

MERCURIUS

I’m Sosia, unless you think that I’ve forgotten. What is up?

AMPHITRUO

You crook, you ask me what I wanted, even now? 1025

MERCURIUS

Yes, I ask. You almost broke the bolts, you dolt, upon the door. Do you think we purchase portals charging to the public purse? Why d’you stare, you stupid dope? What d’you want? Or what’s your name?

AMPHITRUO (threatening to beat him)

Punching bag, you’re asking still who I am? You’re an elm-rod graveyard. For these words today, by Pol, I will see you shine with scars. 1030

MERCURIUS

In your youth once long ago you must have squandered all your cash.

AMPHITRUO

Why is that?

MERCURIUS

Because you’re begging now you’re older… for a beating.

AMPHITRUO

Sling these words, you household slave, you’ll swing today then, from a cross.

MERCURIUS (holding up the bottle)

I will sacrifice to you.

AMPHITRUO

Why?

MERCURIUS

For glory in misfortune. 1034

AMPHITRUO

I’ll give glory with a cross and crucifixion, whipping post. fr. 1

This is where the text breaks off, since several pages were lost from the manuscripts sometime between the fifth and tenth centuries. This exchange between Amphitruo and Mercurius continues, and based on surviving fragments, it seems the following action takes place. Mercurius threatens Amphitruo if he knocks at the door any more. Mercurius denies Amphitruo is who he is. Instead, he pretends Amphitruo is inside:

MERCURIUS

Boss Amphitruo is busy… fr. 2

Mercurius attempts to drive him away:

MERCURIUS

There’s still time to get away. fr. 3

He even threatens to throw down something from his high perch. Maybe ashes:

MERCURIUS

On your head by every right a bowl of ashes could be smashed. fr. 4

Maybe water on his head:

MERCURIUS

You’d be asking for a flask of water dumped upon your jug. fr. 5

In the end, he likely pours whatever his is drinking onto Amphitruo. Amphitruo is angry, and Mercurius (as Sosia) accuses him of being possessed.

MERCURIUS

Plagued by demons, what a wretched man, by Pollux. Find a doctor. fr. 6

Triumphant, Mercurius leaves the roof and goes back in the house. Amphitruo is left alone on stage. We do not know in what order the lines were originally delivered.

Scene 10
Possibly AMPHITRUO gives a brief speech to the audience, but no lines from this speech survive. ALCUMENA emerges from the house, and is surprised to find Amphitruo outside, since she has recently left Jupiter disguised as Amphitruo inside. When Amphitruo renews his accusations (unexpectedly from her perspective), she reminds him that they had just made up:
ALCUMENA

You swore you said it to me all in jest.

Echoing Mercurius (fr. 6), she urges him to seek medical help:

ALCUMENA

I beg you, cure your sickness at its source. You are possessed or muy loco…

Alcumena insists on her integrity:

ALCUMENA

Unless it happened as I swear it did, there is no bar to say that I’m unchaste.

She goes back inside the house. Amphitruo, talking to himself, continues to suggest Alcumena has become a prostitute:

AMPHITRUO

…for whom? She lent her body, with me gone. fr. 10

We do not know in what order the lines were originally delivered.

Scene 11

Enter SOSIA with the helmsman BLEPHARO, from the harbour. AMPHITRUO does not know why Belpharo has been summoned; he had been looking for Naucrates. He also doesn’t know why Sosia is no longer drunk, and why he’s denying that he poured wine on him. Amphitruo tries to establish the facts of their previous interaction:

AMPHITRUO

What did you say that you’d do if I pounded on these doors? fr. 11

He also threatens Sosia with an extraordinary punishment of manual labour:

AMPHITRUO

You’ll be digging more than sixty ditches for me every day. fr. 12

BLEPHARO intercedes on behalf of the enslaved person:

BLEPHARO

Calm yourself. fr. 14

But Amphitruo rejects any possibility of tolerance for Sosia:

AMPHITRUO

Don’t ask something for that scum.fr. 13

Sosia is driven away, perhaps back to the ship. We do not know in what order the lines were originally delivered.

AMPHITRUO knocks at the door, and JUPITER answers. This is the meeting we have been waiting for. The two see each other, and Amphitruo assumes that the other version of him is sleeping with his wife:

AMPHITRUO

Have you any shame, you crook, to come into the sight of all? (he gestures to audience) fr. 17

Jupiter’s strategy is to pretend to be Amphitruo, and the two begin grappling each other:

JUPITER

By his twisted throat I hold this shameful thief of wives, exposed. fr. 15

AMPHITRUO

I hold him! You Theban citizens! He ensnared my wife at home fr. 16 disrespectfully, a treasure trove of shocking, shameful sex.

The actions of the divine Amphitruo have occurred within, speaker uncertain privately. fr. 18 The text continues after several minutes of stage time (let’s assume they were hilarious) until finally Amphitruo appeals to BLEPHARO to identify his captain, but the helmsman cannot. The play resumes from here:

JUPITER (to Blepharo)

You cannot determine which of us two’s Amphitruo. fr. 19

BLEPHARO

You can share her, both of you. I am going, I have business. 1035 (to audience) I think I have never, ever seen such unexpected things.

AMPHITRUO

Blepharo, please be my witness. Do not go away.

BLEPHARO

I’m off. Why do you need me as witness, when I don’t know which I saw?

Exit BLEPHARO, to the harbour.

ALCUMENA gives a shout from within, indicating the beginning of her labour.

JUPITER

I will go, Alcumena is giving birth inside.

AMPHITRUO

I’m dead!

Exit JUPITER into the house.

Wretched me, what should I do? My witnesses and friends have fled. 1040 Pollux! What’s-his-name, that guy will never trick me unavenged. I’ll go straight unto the king and tell him all that’s happened here. Pol! I’ll find revenge this day, on that Thessalian sorcerer! He’s distraught my household’s brains and left them dazed in disarray. Where is he? He went inside, by Pol, I think, to see my wife. 1045 No one else in Thebes lives worse than I do! What should I do now? Every human mocks me freely, and they don’t know who I am? He draws his sword. One thing’s sure: I’ll burst inside the house, and when I spot someone, whether it’s a slave or slave-girl, or my wife, or else her lover, or my dad or grand-dad that I see, I’ll murder them inside. 1050 Neither Jove nor all the gods will stop this, even if they want to. I shall do this as I’ve planned. I’ll go inside now right away.

AMPHITRUO turns to enter the palace, and a loud peal of thunder is heard. Amphitruo collapses face-down.

Enter BROMIA, one of the enslaved women in Amphitruo’s household.

BROMIA (to audience)

The hope and help to keep my life lie buried in my chest. There’s no assurance in my heart, since I have let it go. For everything now seems to chase me – earth and sea and sky – 1055 I’m overwhelmed, oh wretched me, and I’m about to die What can I do? So strange inside. Woe for wretched me. My spirit’s down, I need a drink. I’m ruined and I’m wrecked. My head’s in pain, don’t hear a thing, my eyes don’t look ahead. No sadder woman does exist, nor could one seem to be. 1060 My mistress met with such a fate, and then her water broke. suspicion and threat posed by magic. At 777 it was clear that there was an enslaved Thessalian woman in the house. (singing) There was never a maid rotunder as she called the gods in wonder And the sky was ripped asunder With a crash so loud it stunned her: [crash smash bang boom blast] How quick, how close the thunder! and someone (no one knew who, knew who, knew who) shouted loudly “Yoo-hoooooooooooooooooo…. “Fear not, my dear, it's ME! The supreme deity, Appearing helpfully To tell you: all will be... [wait for it...] ...just fine! Hunky-dory." 1065 Since I was thrown aground, aground, aground I stood back up astoooooooooooooooun- -ded. The burning house was brightened Alcumena, enlightened Called out for me, still frightened In an anxious state most heightened [this is the best bit] And I learned as her face whitened, That amidst all of that noisy noisy, noise She’d delivered two twin boooooooys: 1070 While the fire and thunder smote us, smote us, smote us No-one even nooooooooooooooooooooticed But oh There's an old man in a poor way Spreadeagled by our doorway By Jove has he been struck? I think he has, by Pol, bad luck! Alas he must be dead, poor schmuck. Get it together, Bromia, Honour him with encomia… I’ll approach - it's best to know... Eek! [shouted:] It’s my boss, Amphitruo! 1075 (to Amphitruo) Amphitruo!

AMPHITRUO

I’m dead.

BROMIA

Get up.

AMPHITRUO

I’m buried.

BROMIA

Take my hand.

AMPHITRUO

Who holds me?

BROMIA

Your slave Bromia.

AMPHITRUO

I’m thunder-struck by Jove. I feel like I’ve just come from hell. But why’d you come outside the house?

BROMIA

We women were afraid, struck with a common dread inside the house where you do live. I saw such marvels. Woe! 1080 Amphitruo, now my mind’s gone as well.

AMPHITRUO

Come on, explain: D’you know me as Amphitruo, your boss?

BROMIA

Yes.

AMPHITRUO

Check.

BROMIA

I do.

AMPHITRUO (to audience)

Of all my household she alone still has a healthy mind.

BROMIA

No, we are all now fully sane.

AMPHITRUO

My wife makes me insane due to her sordid deeds.

BROMIA

But still, I’ll make you change that tune. 1085 Dutiful and chaste, Amphitruo, is how you’ll know your wife to be. Signs of how this is I’ll say in outline with a shortened speech. First of all: Alcumena Has given birth to double sons.

AMPHITRUO

You say twins?

BROMIA

It’s twins.

AMPHITRUO

O gods protect me.

BROMIA

Let me say some more, so you’ll know that all the gods think kindly of your wife and you. 1090

AMPHITRUO

Speak!

BROMIA

Your wife, once she began

delivering the boys today, when contraction pains emerged, as people do when birthing starts, she called on immortal gods that they would bring their help to her. Hands were clean, her head was covered.° There and then it thundered loud with the greatest noise. At first we thought your house would fall on us. 1095 All the house was shining forth like it was made of solid gold.

AMPHITRUO

Answer this for me right now, please, you’ve joked sufficiently. What came next?

BROMIA

While this took place, in all this time, not one of us heard your wife let out a groan or start to weep in any way. Thus I swear she did give birth free from pain.

AMPHITRUO

For this I’m glad, 1100 heedless of her deeds to me.

BROMIA

Stop that. Hear these things I say. After she gave birth, she ordered us to wash the boys. We did. But the boy which I was washing, he was just so big and strong, no one there was able to wrap him in his swaddling clothes.

AMPHITRUO

You describe things far too strange. If this is true, I do not doubt 1105 some divinity has brought assistance to my darling wife.

BROMIA

I will see you call it stranger. After he was in the cradle, crested snakes flew down from high through the skylight,° in a pair. They were huge! And right away Both lifted up their heads.

AMPHITRUO

Oh no!

BROMIA

Do not fret! Now with their eyes the serpents glared around at all. 1110 Once they saw the boys, they quickly made their way towards the cribs. Backing up, I dragged the cribs. Frightened for the boys, I pulled. Also fearing for myself, all the fiercer did the serpents chase. And once the serpents saw the twin who I’d described before, he jumped quickly from his crib. He attacked them straightaway. 1115 Straightaway he grasped them both Each of them in each his hands.

AMPHITRUO

What you say is strange indeed, you tell of tasks that petrify! Terror takes these limbs of mine terribly, at what you say. What came after? Say what followed.

BROMIA

Child strangled both the snakes. While this happened, with a voice so clear, he spoke unto your wife. 1120

AMPHITRUO

Who did?

BROMIA

Highest Jupiter Ruler of both gods and men. He said he had secret sex – Alcumena was unaware – in your bed and that the boy was his, who conquered both the snakes. She pauses while this sinks in. And he said the other boy was yours.

AMPHITRUO

By Pol, it does not make me sad, if I get half the good dividing it with Jupiter. 1125 Go inside, and see that clean containers are set out for me. So I’ll sacrifice for peace to highest Jove with many gifts.

Exit BROMIA into the house.

I shall call oracular Tiresias and I will ask [tie-REE-see-US what he thinks that I should do. I’ll also tell what’s happened here. There is loud thunder. What is this? How loud it thundered. Gods, I beg your trust in me! 1130

JUPITER appears on the rooftop (or on the crane?).

JUPITER

Be glad! I’m here to help, Amphitruo, both you and yours. Fear not. Send soothsayers and seers away. I’ll say what’s past and what will come as good as them. I’m Jupiter! So yes, I took Alcumena on loan, 1135 in bed I made her pregnant with my son. You also made her pregnant when you left to fight. Together she gave birth to both. And of the two, the one born of my seed will bring immortal glory with his deeds. 1140 Restore the former favour to your wife Alcumena. No fault’s deserved by her. I did it all by force. I’m heading up.

JUPITER disappears on a cloud.

AMPHITRUO

I’ll do as you bid, and ask you keep the promises you made. Forgetting old Tiresias I’ll go to my wife inside. 1145 (to audience) Now, spectators, give a hand for the sake of highest Jove.

AMPHITRUO exits into the house.

Cover Image

openubc — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 21:22:04 +0000

Heracles

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:27:41 +0000
[caption id="attachment_707" align="aligncenter" width="1905"] Athena and Heracles, red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]

Birth

Sections & Primary Sources

Alcmene and Amphitryon

Homer, Iliad, 19.74-144

Heracles and the Snakes

Pindar, Odes, "Pythian 9" 84-90

Pindar, Odes, "Nemean 1" 34-75

Alcmene and Amphitryon
The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound by T. Mulder.
Heracles was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Alcmene. Alcmene was married to Amphitryon, the heir to the throne of Tiryns. But Alcmene refused to consummate her marriage until Amphitryon had avenged the murder of her brothers, who had been killed by Taphian Pirates. Consequently, Amphitryon traveled to the Taphian Islands (off the western coast of Greece, near Ithaca) and stayed there for several weeks, until he had killed all of the Taphian Pirates.

On the night before Amphitryon returned from his journey, Zeus came to Alcmene in the form of her husband. He told her that he had just returned from avenging her brothers. Alcmene was overjoyed and gladly allowed him into her bed. The next day when the real Amphitryon returned home, he wondered why she did not give him a hero’s welcome. After speaking with his wife, he discovered the truth: Alcmene had spent the previous night with someone else. Amphitryon did not believe Alcmene’s story, that the man she had been with had looked and sounded exactly like him, but the seer Teiresias told him that the interloper had been Zeus himself and that Alcmene’s story was true. Amphitryon believed her and they finally consummated their marriage. This early part of Heracles' story was dramatized in the play Amphitryon, created by the Roman playwright Plautus in the late 3rd century BCE.

Alcmene was pregnant with twins: one of them from Zeus and another one from Amphitryon. Upon discovering that Alcmene was carrying Zeus’ child, Hera grew irritated. When Alcmene went into labor, Hera sent Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent the birth from taking place. No birth can take place unless Eileithyia is physically present and allows the birth to proceed. Eileithyia sat outside the delivery room crossing her fingers and legs which halted the labour. Alcmene was close to breathing her last breath when her nurse, Galanthis, came up with a trick to break Eileithyia’s spell. She shouted that the baby had already come. Eileithyia, in confusion as to how this could have happened, jumped up and broke her spell, allowing Alcmene to deliver two baby boys. In her anger at being tricked, Eileithyia turned Galanthis into a weasel. The two babies were named Iphicles and Heracles. But the parents did not know which one of their sons was Zeus’ child and which one was the child of Amphitryon.

Homer, Iliad, Book 19 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek epic poem, 8th century BCE

In this passage from the Iliad, the trick that Hera plays on Zeus to delay the birth of Iphicles and Heracles is narrated.

[74-144] "Even [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], they say, was blinded by her [ [pb_glossary id="1492"]Atë[/pb_glossary] ] once, though he’s supreme among gods and men. It was [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], a mere woman, cunningly tricked him, when [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] was due to bear the mighty Heracles in turreted [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had made a proud boast to the immortals: ‘Listen, gods and goddesses, while I speak what my heart prompts. This very day [pb_glossary id="783"]Eileithyia[/pb_glossary], goddess of childbirth, will bring a boy-child into the world, born of a race descended from me, who will hold power over all his neighbours. At that moment Queen [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] showed her cunning: ‘As usual, you’ll play the deceiver, and nothing will come of your words. So then, Olympian, give us instead your solemn oath that the man, born of your stock, who issues from between a woman’s thighs today, will indeed hold power over all his neighbours.’ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], misled by her cunning, in his blindness swore a mighty oath. Then [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] darted swiftly from high [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] to Argos in Achaea where she knew that Nicippe, noble wife of Sthenelus, [pb_glossary id="1493"]Perseus[/pb_glossary]’ son, was seven months pregnant with a boy-child. [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] induced the child prematurely, while restraining the [pb_glossary id="783"]Eileithyiae[/pb_glossary], and delaying [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary]’s labour. Then she told [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], the news: ‘Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], lord of the lightning-flash, a word with you. That mighty man is born indeed who shall rule the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary], fitting, truly, for a child of your lineage. It is [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], a boy-child for Sthenelus, [pb_glossary id="1493"]Perseus[/pb_glossary]’ son.’ At her words he felt a sharp pain deep in his mind, and in a blaze of anger he at once seized [pb_glossary id="1492"]Atë[/pb_glossary] by her gleaming tresses, swearing a mighty oath that she who blinds us all should never again be found on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] or in the starry heavens. With that, he whirled her round and flung her from the sky down to the ploughed fields of men below. [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] would think of her and groan later, whenever he saw his dear son Heracles toiling at [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary]’ labours. Recovered from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Iliad19.php#anchor_Toc239246275
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Heracles and the Snakes

When they were about eighteen months old, Hera sent two snakes to kill both Iphicles and Heracles while they were sleeping in their crib. While Iphicles screamed in terror and cowered in the corner, Heracles grabbed hold of the snakes and strangled one in each hand. In doing so he also made clear that he was the son of Zeus.

Pindar, Odes, "Pythian 9" (trans. D.A. Svarlien)

Greek victory ode, 474 BCE

This poem was written to celebrate the victory of Telesicrates of Cyrene in the hoplite race at the Pythian games in 474 BCE. Here Pindar describes the circumstances of Heracles' conception and birth.
Wise [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] lay with [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] and with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and bore [85] in a single birth twin sons, strong and victorious in battle. Only a mute man does not have Heracles' name on his lips, and does not always remember the waters of [pb_glossary id="1477"]Dirce[/pb_glossary], which reared him and [pb_glossary id="1404"]Iphicles[/pb_glossary]. Taken from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DP.%3Apoem%3D9

Pindar, Odes, "Nemean 1" (trans. D.A. Svarlien, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek victory ode, 476? BCE

Pindar wrote this ode to celebrate the victory of Chromius of Aetna in chariot racing at the Nemean Games, probably in 476 BCE. He describes the episode with Heracles and the snakes sent by Hera.
But as for me, I cling to the theme of Heracles gladly, calling up an ancient story from among the great heights of his excellence, [35] of how, when the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] suddenly came out of his mother's womb into the brilliant light, escaping her birth-pangs, with his twin brother, he did not escape the notice of gold-throned [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] when he was placed in his saffron swaddling-clothes. But the queen of the gods, [40] offended in her heart, immediately sent serpents. The doors opened, and they crept into the spacious inner-chamber, eager to coil their swift jaws around the babies. But Heracles lifted his head straight up, and had his first experience of battle, seizing [45] the two necks of the serpents in his two irresistible hands. When they were strangled, time squeezed the breath of life out of their unspeakable limbs. Unbearable fear struck the women who were then helping [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] at her bedside; [50] for she herself leapt to her feet from her bed, undressed as she was, and tried to ward off the violent attack of the monsters. And swiftly the chiefs of the Cadmeans rushed in together in their bronze armor, and [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] came brandishing a sword drawn from its scabbard, overcome with sharp distress. For each man alike is oppressed by his own trouble, but the heart recovers quickly from someone else's grief. [55] He stood, possessed by overwhelming astonishment and delight. For he saw the supernatural courage and power of his son; the immortals had turned the story of the messengers to falsehood for him. [60] And he called his neighbor, the outstanding prophet of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the highest, the truthful seer [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary]. And the prophet told him and all the men what fortunes the boy would encounter: how many he would slay on land, and how many lawless monsters at sea. And he told of a certain one, [65] most hateful, who walked with crooked insolence towards men, whom the boy would send to his doom. For he said that when the gods meet the [pb_glossary id="601"]giants[/pb_glossary] in battle on the plain of Phlegra, the shining hair of the [pb_glossary id="601"]giants[/pb_glossary] will be stained with dirt beneath the rushing arrows of that hero. But he himself [70] will have allotted to him in peace, as an extraordinary reward for his great hardship, continuous peace for all time among the homes of the blessed. He will receive flourishing [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary] as his bride and celebrate the wedding-feast, and in the presence of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] he will praise the sacred law. Taken from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DN.

Early Adventures

Sections & Primary Sources

Linus and Thespius Megara

Euripides, Heracles, 1131-1339

Linus and Thespius

As he grew older, Heracles learned many important skills from great teachers, but he had a short temper and did not realize his own strength. When his music teacher, Linus, who was the brother of Orpheus, reprimanded him for not practicing enough, Heracles took his chair and smashed it over Linus’ head, killing him instantly. Amphitryon decided to send Heracles to live at his country estate to protect his family.

By the time Heracles was seventeen, he had grown to be a tall and strong young man. Around the same time, a lion was roaming in the area of Mount Cithaeron and was terrorizing the countryside. Thespius, the king of the area, asked Heracles to come and stay with him and help his men kill the lion. Thespius also happened to have fifty daughters. For fifty days Heracles went out to find the lion, and each night Thespius sent a different daughter in to sleep with Heracles, though Heracles thought it was the same daughter each night. After the fifty days, Heracles had killed the lion and all of Thespius’ fifty daughters were pregnant.

Megara

Heracles stayed in the area of Thebes long enough to distinguish himself in a war the Thebans were fighting against the Minyans, an autochthonous group that inhabited the Aegean region according to Greek mythology. The king of Thebes was so happy to have had Heracles’ help that he offered his daughter, Megara, to become Heracles´ wife. Megara and Heracles married and had two sons. They lived for a few years in peace, but Hera was still out to torment Heracles, so she sent him into madness. In his madness, Heracles killed his wife and children. When he regained his sanity, Heracles was devastated and decided to go to the Oracle at Delphi to ask Apollo how he could be purified for this murder. The Pythia told him that he had to go to Tiryns and perform twelve labours for the ruler, Eurystheus. If he could complete all twelve labours successfully, he would not only be purified of the murders, but he would also achieve immortality.

Euripides, Heracles, 1131-1339 (trans. E. P. Coleridge, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek tragedy, ca. 416 BCE

[content warning for the following source: infanticide, suicide]

This tragic play, written by Euripides, was likely performed in 416 BCE at the City Dionysia Festival in Athens. While in most accounts of the myth of Heracles, it is the hero's deranged killing of his wife, Megara, and their children (under the influence of madness sent by Hera) that initiates his undertaking of the twelve labours, in this play, Euripides has Heracles complete his twelve labours before killing Megara and the children. It is while he is performing the twelfth labour of bringing the three headed dog Cerberus up from Hades that the events of the play begin. This scene, towards the end of the play, opens as Heracles, with the help of his mortal father, Amphitryon, is becoming aware of what he has done in his moment of madness.

AMPHITRYON:
[1131] See here the corpses of your children.
HERACLES:
O horror! What sight is here? Ah me!
AMPHITRYON:
My son, against your children you have waged unnatural war.
HERACLES:
War! what do you mean? Who killed them?
AMPHITRYON:
[1135] You and your bow and some god, whoever is to blame.
HERACLES:
What are you saying? What have I done? Speak, father, you messenger of evil!
AMPHITRYON:
You were insane; it is a sad explanation that you are asking for.
HERACLES:
Was it I that killed my wife also?
AMPHITRYON:
Your own arm alone has done all this.
HERACLES:
[1140] Alas! A cloud of mourning wraps me round.
AMPHITRYON:
For this reason I lament your fate.
HERACLES:
Did I break my house to pieces in my frenzy?
AMPHITRYON:
I know nothing but this: that you are utterly undone.
HERACLES:
Where did the madness seize me? Where did it destroy me?
AMPHITRYON:
[1145] When you were purifying yourself with fire at the altar.
HERACLES:
Ah me! Why do I spare my own life when I have become the murderer of my dear children? Shall I not rush to leap from some high rock, or aim the sword against my heart [1150] and avenge my children's blood, or burn my body, which she [ [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] ] drove mad, in the fire and so avert from my life the infamy which now awaits me? But here I see [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] coming to check my deadly counsels, my kinsman and friend. [1155] Now shall I stand revealed, and the dearest of my friends will see the pollution I have incurred by my children's murder.[footnote]"Pollution" here refers to the Greek concept of miasma, the idea that death defiles someone or makes them impure. For further explanation, see Mythology Unbound.[/footnote] Ah, woe is me! What am I to do? Where can I find freedom from my sorrows? Shall I take wings or plunge beneath the earth? Come, let me veil my head in darkness; [1160] for I am ashamed of the evil I have done, and, since for these I have incurred fresh blood-guiltiness, I do not want to harm the innocent. Theseus and his retinue enter.
THESEUS:
I have come, and others with me, young warriors from the land of Athens, encamped by the streams of Asopus, [1165] to bring an allied army to your son, old friend. For a rumour reached the city of the Erechtheidae, that Lycus had usurped the scepter of this land and had become your enemy even to battle. Wherefore I came making recompense for the former kindness of Heracles [1170] in saving me from the world below, if you have any need of such aid as I or my allies can give, old man. Ha! why this heap of dead upon the floor? Surely I have not delayed too long and come too late to check new ills? Who slew these children? [1175] whose wife is this I see? Boys do not go to battle; no, it must be some other strange mischance I here discover. In the following lines, Amphitryon makes sung responses to Theseus' spoken questions.
AMPHITRYON
O king, whose home is that olive-clad hill!
THESEUS:
Why this piteous prelude in addressing me?
AMPHITRYON
[1180] The gods have afflicted us with grievous suffering.
THESEUS:
Whose are these children, over whom you weep?
AMPHITRYON
My own son's children, woe to him! he was their father and butcher both, hardening his heart to the bloody deed.
THESEUS:
Hush! good words only!
AMPHITRYON
[1185] I would I could obey!
THESEUS:
What dreadful words!
AMPHITRYON
Fortune has spread her wings, and we are ruined, ruined.
THESEUS:
What do you mean? what has he done?
AMPHITRYON
Slain them in a wild fit of frenzy [1190] with arrows dipped in the venom of the hundred-headed hydra.
THESEUS:
This is Hera's work; but who lies there among the dead, old man?
AMPHITRYON
My son, my own enduring son, that marched with gods to Phlegra's plain, there to battle with giants and slay them, warrior that he was.
THESEUS:
[1195] Ah, ah! whose fortune was ever so cursed as his?
AMPHITRYON
Never will you find another mortal that has suffered more or been driven harder.
THESEUS:
Why does he veil his head, poor wretch, in his robe?
AMPHITRYON
He is ashamed to meet your eye; [1200] his kinsman's kind intent and his children's blood make him abashed.
THESEUS:
But I come to sympathize; uncover him.
AMPHITRYON
My son, remove that mantle [1205] from your eyes, throw it from you, show your face to the sun. As a counterweight, fighting along with my tears, I entreat you as a suppliant, as I grasp your beard, your knees, your hands, and let fall [1210] the tear from my old eyes. O my child! restrain your savage lion-like temper, for you are rushing forth on an unholy course of bloodshed, eager to join woe to woe, child.

THESEUS:
Enough! To you I call who are huddled there in your misery, [1215] show to your friends your face; for no darkness is black enough to hide your sad mischance. Why do you wave your hand at me, signifying murder? is it that I may not be polluted by speaking with you? [1220] If I share your misfortune, what is that to me? For once I had good fortune with you. I must refer to the time when you brought me safe from the dead to the light of life. I hate a friend whose gratitude grows old; one who is ready to enjoy his friends' prosperity [1225] but unwilling to sail in the same ship with them when they are unfortunate. Arise, unveil your head, poor wretch! and look on me. The gallant soul endures such blows as heaven deals and does not refuse them.
HERACLES
O Theseus, did you see this struggle with my children?
THESEUS:
[1230] I heard of it, and now I see the horrors you mean.
HERACLES
Why then have you unveiled my head to the sun?
THESEUS:
Why have I? you, a mortal, can not pollute what is of the gods.
HERACLES
Try to escape, luckless wretch, from my unholy taint.
THESEUS:
The avenging fiend does not go forth from friend to friend.
HERACLES
[1235] For this I thank you; I do not regret the service I did you.
THESEUS:
While I, for kindness then received, now show my pity for you.
HERACLES
Ah yes! I am piteous, a murderer of my sons.
THESEUS:
I weep for you in your changed fortunes.
HERACLES
Did you ever find another more afflicted?
THESEUS:
[1240] Your misfortunes reach from earth to heaven.
HERACLES
Therefore I am resolved on death.
THESEUS:
Do you think the gods pay attention to your threats?
HERACLES
The god has been remorseless to me; so I will be the same to the gods.
THESEUS:
Hush! lest your presumption add to your sufferings.
HERACLES
[1245] My ship is freighted full with sorrow; there is no room to stow anything further.
THESEUS:
What will you do? Where is your fury drifting you?
HERACLES
I will die and return to that world below from which I have just come.
THESEUS:
Such language is fit for any common fellow.
HERACLES
Ah! yours is the advice of one outside sorrow.
THESEUS:
[1250] Are these indeed the words of Heracles, the much-enduring?
HERACLES
Though never so much as this. Endurance must have a limit.
THESEUS:
Is this the benefactor and great friend to mortals?
HERACLES
Mortals bring no help to me; no! Hera has her way.
THESEUS:
Never would Hellas allow you to die through sheer perversity.
HERACLES
[1255] Hear me a moment, that I may enter the contest with words in answer to your admonitions; and I will unfold to you why life now as well as formerly has been unbearable to me. First I am the son of a man who incurred the guilt of blood, before he married my mother Alcmena, [1260] by slaying her aged father. Now when the foundation is badly laid at birth, it is necessary for the race to be cursed with woe; and Zeus, whoever this Zeus may be, begot me as an enemy to Hera; yet do not be vexed, old man; [1265] for you rather than Zeus I regard as my father. Then while I was being suckled, that bedfellow of Zeus foisted into my cradle fearsome snakes to cause my death. After I took on a cloak of youthful flesh, [1270] of all the toils I then endured what need to tell? what did I not destroy, whether lions, or triple-bodied Typhons, or giants or the battle against the hosts of four-legged Centaurs? or how when I had killed the hydra, [1275] that monster with a ring of heads with power to grow again, I passed through a herd of countless other toils besides and came to the dead to fetch to the light at the bidding of Eurystheus the three-headed hound, hell's porter. Last, ah, woe is me! I have dared this labor, [1280] to crown the sorrows of my house with my children's murder. I have come to this point of necessity; no longer may I dwell in Thebes, the city that I love; for suppose I stay, to what temple or gathering of friends shall I go? For mine is no curse that invites greetings. [1285] Shall I go to Argos? how can I, when I am an exile from my country? Well, is there a single other city I can rush to? Am I then to be looked at askance as a marked man, held by cruel stabbing tongues: “Is not this the son of Zeus that once murdered children [1290] and wife? Plague take him from the land!” Now to one who was once called happy, such changes are a grievous thing; though he who is always unfortunate feels no such pain, for sorrow is his birthright. This, I think, is the piteous pass I shall one day come to; [1295] for earth will cry out forbidding me to touch her, the sea and the river-springs will refuse me a crossing, and I shall become like Ixion who revolves in chains upon that wheel. And so this is best, that I should be seen by no one of the Hellenes, [1300] among whom in happier days I lived in bliss. What right have I to live? what profit can I have in the possession of a useless, impious life? So let that noble wife of Zeus dance, beating her foot in its shoe; [1305] for now has she worked her heart's desire in utterly confounding the first of Hellas' sons. Who would pray to such a goddess? Her jealousy of Zeus for his love of a woman has destroyed [1310] the benefactors of Hellas, guiltless though they were.
CHORUS LEADER
This is the work of none other of the gods than the wife of Zeus; you are right in that surmise.
THESEUS:
I cannot counsel you . . . rather than to go on suffering. There is not a man alive that has wholly escaped misfortune's taint, [1315] nor any god either, if what poets sing is true. Have they not intermarried in ways that law forbids? Have they not thrown fathers into ignominious chains to gain the sovereign power? Still they inhabit Olympus and brave the issue of their crimes. [1320] And yet what shall you say in your defence, if you, a child of man, take your fate excessively hard, while they, as gods, do not? No, then, leave Thebes in compliance with the law, and come with me to the city of Pallas. There, when I have purified you of your pollution, [1325] I will give you homes and the half of all I have. Yes, I will give you all those presents I received from the citizens for saving their fourteen children, when I slew the bull of Crete; for I have plots of land assigned me throughout the country; these shall henceforth [1330] be called after you by men, while you live; and at your death, when you have gone to Hades' halls, the whole city of Athens shall exalt your honor with sacrifices and a monument of stone. For it is a noble crown of a good reputation [1335] for citizens to win from Hellas, by helping a man of worth. This is the return that I will make you for saving me, for now you are in need of friends. But when the gods honor a man, he has no need of friends; for the god's aid, when he chooses to give it, is enough.

Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0102%3Acard%3D1131

The 12 Labours

Sections & Primary Sources

Eurystheus

Euripides, Heracles, 348-425

Pseudo-Apollodorus, 2.4.8-2.7.7

Bacchylides, "Ode 5," 56-90

1. The Nemean Lion 2. The Lernean Hydra 3. The Cerynetian Hind 4. The Erymanthian Boar 5. The Augeian Stables 6. The Symphalian Birds 7. The Cretan Bull 8. The Mares of Diomedes 9. The Belt of Hippolyte 10. The Cattle of Geryon 11. The Golden Apples of the Hesperides 12. Cerberus

[caption id="attachment_1360" align="alignnone" width="1125"] Heracles' Twelve Labours, reconstruction of metopes from the Olympia temple of Zeus, ca. 457 BCE.[/caption]
Eurystheus

As a punishment for the murder of his own children, Heracles was told by the Pythia that he had to perform twelve tasks for Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns. Eurystheus was also king of Mycenae. Eurystheus had inherited the throne of Mycenae from his father, Sthenelos, who had usurped it from Amphitryon, Heracles’ mortal father. Therefore, Heracles should really have been king of Mycenae instead of Eurystheus. Heracles had to perform any twelve tasks that Eurystheus set for him, even though Eurystheus had usurped Heracles’ throne and he was neither as strong nor as brave as Heracles. This subordinate relationship to Eurystheus was humiliating for Heracles, and that was obviously part of the punishment. While the first six of Heracles’ labours took place in the Peloponnese, the last six labours took place throughout the Greek world.

Euripides, Heracles, 348-425 (trans. E. P. Coleridge, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak

Greek tragedy, ca. 416 BCE

This tragic play by Euripides was likely performed in 416 BCE at the City Dionysia Festival in Athens. Early in the play, the chorus, made up of old men of Thebes, recounts some of Heracles' previous labours.

CHORUS:
[348] [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] is singing an elegy, after singing his happier songs, [350] for [pb_glossary id="1408"]Linus[/pb_glossary] dead in his beauty, playing his lyre in a key of gold; but I wish to sing a song of praise, a crown to all his labour, on the one who has gone to the gloom beneath the Netherworld, [355] whether I am to call him son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] or of [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary]. For the virtue of noble works is a glory to the dead First he cleared the grove of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] [360] of a lion, and put its skin upon his back, hiding his yellow hair in its fearful tawny gaping jaws. And then one day with a murderous bow he wounded [365] the race of wild [pb_glossary id="1398"]Centaurs[/pb_glossary], that roam the hills, slaying them with winged shafts. Peneus, the river of lovely currents, knows him well, as do those far uncultivated fields, [370] the farms on [pb_glossary id="2333"]Pelion[/pb_glossary], and the neighboring caves of Homole, from where the [pb_glossary id="1398"]Centaurs[/pb_glossary] rode forth to conquer Thessaly, arming themselves with pine trees. [375] And he slew that dappled deer with horns of gold [ the [pb_glossary id="1414"]Cerynitian hind[/pb_glossary] ], that preyed upon the country-folk, glorifying [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary], huntress queen of Oenoe. [380] Next he mounted on a chariot and tamed the horses of [pb_glossary id="1425"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], that greedily chewed their bloody food in gory troughs with unbridled jaws, devouring with hideous joy the flesh of men; [385] then crossing the heights of Hebrus that flow with silver, he continued to labour for the tyrant of [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary]. And he came to those minstrel maids [ the [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary] ], [395] to their orchard in the west, to pluck from golden leaves the apple-bearing fruit, when he had slain the tawny dragon, whose terrible coils were twined all round to guard it; [400] and he made his way into [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary]'s lairs, bringing calm to men that use the oar. And he stretched out his hands to uphold the sky, [405] seeking the home of [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], and on his manly shoulders took the starry mansions of the gods. Then he went through the waves of heaving Euxine against the mounted host of [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary] living round Maeotis, [410] the lake that is fed by many streams, having gathered to his standard all his friends from Hellas, to fetch the gold-embroidered garment of the warrior queen, [415] a deadly quest for a girdle. Hellas won those glorious spoils of the barbarian maid, and they are safe in [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary]. [425] And many other glorious achievements he brought to a happy ending; to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]' house of tears has he now sailed, the goal of his labours, where he is ending his career of toil, and he does not come back again. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0102%3Acard%3D348

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 2 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century CE

[content warning for the following source: infanticide (2.4.12), sexual assault (2.7.6), graphic description of death (2.7.7), suicide (2.7.7)]

This section from Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca is the most comprehensive account of Heracles' twelve labours and other myths about Heracles.
[2.4.8] But before [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] reached [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] came in the night and, prolonging the one night so that is seemed like three, he assumed the appearance of [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] and slept with [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary], relating to her what had happened concerning the Teleboans. But when [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] arrived and saw that he was not welcomed by his wife, he inquired about the cause; and when she told him that he had come the night before and slept with her, he learned from [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary] how [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had slept with her. And [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] bore two sons: Heracles, whom she had by [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and who was the elder by one night, and [pb_glossary id="1404"]Iphicles[/pb_glossary], whom she had by [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary]. When the child [Hercules] was eight months old, [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] wished to destroy him, and sent two huge serpents to the bed. [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] called [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] to her help, but Hercules arose and killed the serpents by strangling them with both his hands. However, Pherecydes says that it was [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] who put the serpents in the bed, so that he would know which of the two children was his, and that when [pb_glossary id="1404"]Iphicles[/pb_glossary] fled, and Hercules stood his ground, he knew that [pb_glossary id="1404"]Iphicles[/pb_glossary] was begotten of his body. [2.4.9] Hercules was taught to drive a chariot by [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary], to wrestle by [pb_glossary id="1405"]Autolycus[/pb_glossary], to shoot with the bow by [pb_glossary id="1406"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary], to fence by [pb_glossary id="1407"]Castor[/pb_glossary], and to play the lyre by [pb_glossary id="1408"]Linus[/pb_glossary]. This [pb_glossary id="1408"]Linus[/pb_glossary] was a brother of [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary]; he came to [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary] and became a Theban, but was killed by Hercules with a blow of the lyre; for being struck by him, Hercules flew into a rage and slew him. When he was tried for murder, Hercules quoted a law of Rhadamanthys, who laid it down that whoever defends himself against a wrongful aggressor shall go free, and so he was acquitted. But fearing he might do the like again, [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] sent him to the cattle farm; and there he was nurtured and outdid all in stature and strength. Even by the look of him it was plain that he was a son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]; for his body measured four cubits, and he flashed a gleam of fire from his eyes; and he did not miss, neither with the bow nor with the javelin. While he was with the herds and had reached his eighteenth year he slew the lion of [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary], for that animal, coming from [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary], plagued the cattle of [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] and of Thespius. [2.4.10] Now this Thespius was king of Thespiae, and Hercules went to him when he wished to catch the lion. The king entertained him for fifty days, and each night, as Hercules went forth to the hunt, Thespius made one of his daughters sleep with Hercules (fifty daughters having been borne to him by Megamede, daughter of Arneus); for he was anxious that all of them should have children by Hercules. Thus Hercules, though he thought that his bed-fellow was always the same, had intercourse with them all. And having vanquished the lion, he dressed himself in the skin and wore the scalp as a helmet. [2.4.11] As he was returning from the hunt, he met heralds sent by Erginus to receive the tribute from the Thebans. Now, the Thebans paid tribute to Erginus for the following reason: Clymenus, king of the Minyans, was wounded by a stone thrown by a charioteer of Menoeceus, named Perieres, in a precinct of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] at Onchestus. And, while being carried dying to Orchomenus, with his last breath he tasked his son Erginus to avenge his death. So Erginus marched against [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], and after slaughtering many of the Thebans, he concluded a treaty with them, confirmed by oaths, that they should send him tribute for twenty years, a hundred cattle every year. Falling in with the heralds on their way to [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary] to demand this tribute, Hercules outraged them; he cut off their ears and noses and hands, and having fastened them by ropes from their necks, he told them to carry that tribute to Erginus and the Minyans. Indignant at this outrage, Erginus marched against [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary]. But Hercules, having received weapons from [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] and taken the command, killed Erginus, put the Minyans to flight, and compelled them to pay double the tribute to the Thebans. And it chanced that in the fight [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] fell fighting bravely. And Hercules received from Creon his eldest daughter [pb_glossary id="1390"]Megara[/pb_glossary] as a prize of valor, and by her he had three sons, Therimachus, Creontiades, and Deicoon. But Creon gave his younger daughter to [pb_glossary id="1404"]Iphicles[/pb_glossary], who already had a son [pb_glossary id="1412"]Iolaus[/pb_glossary] by Automedusa, daughter of Alcathus. And Rhadamanthys, son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], married [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] after the death of [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary], and dwelt as an exile at Ocaleae in Boeotia. Having first learned from [pb_glossary id="1406"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary] the art of archery, Hercules received a sword from [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary], a bow and arrows from [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], a golden breastplate from [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], and a robe from [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]; for he had himself cut a club at Nemea. [2.4.12] Now it came to pass that after the battle with the Minyans, Hercules was driven mad through the jealousy of [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] and flung his own children, whom he had by [pb_glossary id="1390"]Megara[/pb_glossary], and two children of [pb_glossary id="1404"]Iphicles[/pb_glossary] into the fire; he thus he condemned himself to exile, and was purified by Thespius, and appealing to [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] he inquired of the god [ [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] ] where he should dwell. The Pythian priestess then first called him Hercules, for before this point he was called [pb_glossary id="1480"]Alcides[/pb_glossary]. And she told him to dwell in Tiryns, serving [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] for twelve years, and to perform the ten labours imposed on him, and so, she said, when the tasks were accomplished, he would be immortal. [2.5.1] When Hercules heard that, he went to Tiryns and did as [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] commanded. First, [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] ordered him to bring the skin of the [pb_glossary id="1484"]Nemean lion[/pb_glossary], an invulnerable beast begotten by [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary]. On his way to attack the lion he came to Cleonae and lodged at the house of a day-laborer, Molorchus; and when his host would have offered a victim in sacrifice, Hercules told him to wait for thirty days, and then, if he had returned safe from the hunt, to sacrifice to Saviour [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], but if he were dead, to sacrifice to him as to a hero. And having come to Nemea and tracked the lion, he first shot an arrow at it, but when he perceived that the beast was invulnerable, he heaved up his club and made after it. And when the lion took refuge in a cave with two mouths, Hercules built up the one entrance and came in upon the beast through the other, and putting his arm round its neck held it tight till he had choked it; so laying it on his shoulders he carried it to Cleonae. And finding Molorchus on the last of the thirty days about to sacrifice the victim to him as to a dead man, he sacrificed to Saviour [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and brought the lion to [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary]. Amazed at his manhood, [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] forbade him from then on to enter the city, but ordered him to exhibit the fruits of his labours before the gates. They say, too, that in his fear he had a bronze jar made for himself to hide in under the earth, and that he sent his commands for the labours through a herald, Copreus, son of Pelops the Elean. This Copreus had killed Iphitus and fled to [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary], where he was purified by [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] and took up his abode. [2.5.2] As a second labour he [ [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] ] ordered him to kill the [pb_glossary id="1413"]Lernaean hydra[/pb_glossary]. That creature, bred in the swamp of Lerna, used to go forth into the plain and ravage both the cattle and the country. Now the [pb_glossary id="1413"]hydra[/pb_glossary] had a huge body, with nine heads, eight mortal, but the middle one immortal. So, mounting a chariot driven by [pb_glossary id="1412"]Iolaus[/pb_glossary], he came to Lerna, and having halted his horses, he discovered the hydra on a hill beside the springs of the Amymone, where its den was. By pelting it with fiery arrows, he forced it to come out, and in the act of doing so he seized and held it fast. But the [pb_glossary id="1413"]hydra[/pb_glossary] wound itself about one of his feet and clung to him. Nor could he achieve anything by smashing its heads with his club, for as fast as one head was smashed, two grew back. A huge crab also came to the help of the [pb_glossary id="1413"]hydra[/pb_glossary] by biting his foot. So he killed it, and in his turn called for help on [pb_glossary id="1412"]Iolaus[/pb_glossary] who, by setting fire to a piece of the neighboring wood and burning the roots of the heads with the brands, prevented them from sprouting. Having thus got the better of the sprouting heads, he chopped off the immortal head, and buried it, and put a heavy rock on it, beside the road that leads through Lerna to Elaeus. But the body of the [pb_glossary id="1413"]hydra[/pb_glossary] he sliced up, and he dipped his arrows in the gall. However, [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] said that this labour should not be counted among the ten because he had not defeated the hydra by himself, but with the help of [pb_glossary id="1412"]Iolaus[/pb_glossary]. [2.5.3] As a third labour he ordered him to bring the [pb_glossary id="1414"]Cerynitian hind[/pb_glossary] alive to [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary]. Now the hind was at Oenoe; it had golden horns and was sacred to [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary]; so wishing neither to kill nor wound it, Hercules hunted it a whole year. But when, weary with the chase, the beast took refuge on the mountain called Artemisius, and from there passed to the river Ladon, Hercules shot it just as it was about to cross the stream. He caught it and put it on his shoulders and hastened through Arcadia. But [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] met him, and would have wrested the hind from him, and rebuked him for attempting to kill her sacred animal. However, by pleading necessity and laying the blame on [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], he appeased the anger of the goddess and carried the beast alive to [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary]. [2.5.4] As a fourth labour he ordered him to bring the [pb_glossary id="1415"]Erymanthian boar[/pb_glossary] alive; now that animal ravaged Psophis, descending from a mountain which they call Erymanthus. So passing through Pholoe he was entertained by the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaur[/pb_glossary] Pholus, a son of [pb_glossary id="218"]Silenus[/pb_glossary] by a Melian [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary]. He set roast meat before Hercules, while he himself ate his meat raw. When Hercules called for wine, he said he feared to open the jar, which belonged to the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaurs[/pb_glossary] in common. But Hercules, bidding him be of good courage, opened it, and not long afterwards, scenting the smell, the centaurs arrived at the cave of Pholus, armed with rocks and firs. The first who dared to enter, Anchius and Agrius, were repelled by Hercules with a shower of brands, and the rest of them he shot and pursued as far as Malea. There they took refuge with [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary], who, driven by the [pb_glossary id="1418"]Lapiths[/pb_glossary] from [pb_glossary id="2333"]Mount Pelion[/pb_glossary], lived at Malea. As the centaurs cowered around [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary], Hercules shot an arrow at them, which, passing through the arm of Elatus, stuck in the knee of [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary]. Distressed at this, Hercules ran up to him, drew out the shaft, and applied a medicine which [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary] gave him. But the hurt proved incurable, and [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary] retired to the cave. He wished to die there, but he could not, for he was immortal. However, [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary] offered himself to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] to be immortal in his stead, and so [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary] died. The rest of the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaurs[/pb_glossary] fled in different directions, and some came to Mount Malea, and Eurytion to Pholoe, and [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary] to the river Evenus. The rest of them Poseidon received at Eleusis and hid in a mountain. But Pholus, drawing the arrow from a corpse, wondered that so little a thing could kill such big fellows; however, it slipped from his hand and landed on his foot killed him on the spot. So when Hercules returned to Pholoe, he saw Pholus dead; and he buried him and proceeded to the boar hunt. And when he had chased the boar with shouts from a thicket, he drove the exhausted animal into deep snow, trapped it, and brought it to [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary]. [2.5.5] The fifth labour he laid on him was to carry out the dung of the cattle of [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary] in a single day. Now [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary] was king of Elis; some say that he was a son of the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary], others that he was a son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], and others that he was a son of Phorbas; and he had many herds of cattle. Hercules accosted him, and without revealing the command of [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], said that he would carry out the dung in one day, if [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary] would give him the tithe of the cattle. [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary] was incredulous, but promised. Having taken [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary]'s son Phyleus to witness, Hercules made a breach in the foundations of the cattle-yard, and then, diverting the courses of the Alpheus and Peneus [rivers], which flowed near each other, he turned them into the yard, having first made an outlet for the water through another opening. When [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary] learned that this had been accomplished at the command of [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], he would not pay the reward; furthermore, he denied that he had promised to pay it, and on that point he professed himself ready to submit to arbitration. The arbitrators having taken their seats, Phyleus was called by Hercules and bore witness against his father, affirming that he had agreed to give him a reward. In a rage [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary], before the voting took place, ordered both Phyleus and Hercules to leave Elis. So Phyleus went to Dulichium and lived there, and Hercules went to Dexamenus at Olenus. He found Dexamenus on the point of betrothing his daughter Mnesimache to the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaur[/pb_glossary] Eurytion, and being called upon by him for help, he slew Eurytion when that centaur came to fetch his bride. But [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] would not admit this labour either among the ten, alleging that it had been performed for hire. [2.5.6] The sixth labour he enjoined on him was to chase away the [pb_glossary id="1421"]Stymphalian birds[/pb_glossary]. Now at the city of Stymphalus in Arcadia was the lake called Stymphalian, in the midst of a deep wood. To it countless birds had flocked for refuge, fearing to be preyed upon by the wolves. So when Hercules was at a loss how to drive the birds from the wood, [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] gave him bronze castanets, which she had received from [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary]. By clashing these on a mountain that overhung the lake, he scared the birds. They could not tolerate the sound, but fluttered up in a fright, and in that way Hercules shot them. [2.5.7] The seventh labour he enjoined on him was to bring the [pb_glossary id="1422"]Cretan bull[/pb_glossary]. Acusilaus says that this was the bull that ferried across [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary] for [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]; but some say it was the bull that Poseidon sent up from the sea when [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] promised to sacrifice to [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] what should appear out of the sea. And they say that when he saw the beauty of the bull he sent it away to the herds and sacrificed another to [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]; at which the god was angry and made the bull savage. To attack this bull Hercules came to Crete, and when, in reply to his request for aid, [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] told him to fight and catch the bull for himself, he caught it and brought it to [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], and having shown it to him he let it afterwards go free. But the bull roamed to Sparta and all Arcadia, and traversing the Isthmus arrived at Marathon in Attica and bothered the inhabitants. [2.5.8] The eighth labour he enjoined on him was to bring the mares of [pb_glossary id="1425"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary] the Thracian to [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary]. Now this [pb_glossary id="1425"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary] was a son of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] and Cyrene, and he was king of the Bistones, a very warlike Thracian people, and he owned man-eating mares. So Hercules sailed with a band of volunteers, and having overpowered the grooms who were in charge of the mangers, he drove the mares to the sea. When the Bistones in arms came to the rescue, he entrusted the mares to the guardianship of Abderus, who was a son of [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary], a native of Opus in Locris, and a minion of Hercules; but the mares killed him by dragging him after them. But Hercules fought against the Bistones, slew [pb_glossary id="1425"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary] and compelled the rest to flee. And he founded a city Abdera beside the grave of Abderus who had been killed, and bringing the mares he gave them to [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] let them go, and they came to [pb_glossary id="628"]Mount Olympus[/pb_glossary], as it is called, and there they were destroyed by the wild beasts. [2.5.9] The ninth labour he enjoined on Hercules was to bring the belt of [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyte[/pb_glossary]. She was queen of the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary], who dwelt by the river Thermodon, a people great in war. They cultivated the manly virtues, and if ever they gave birth to children through intercourse with the other sex, they raised the females; and they pinched off the right breasts that they might not be hindered by them when throwing javelins, but they kept the left breasts, so that they could suckle. Now [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyte[/pb_glossary] had the belt of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] to show her superiority over all the others. Hercules was sent to fetch this belt because Admete, daughter of [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], wanted to have it. So taking with him a band of volunteer comrades in a single ship, he set sail and put in to the island of Paros, which was inhabited by the sons of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]: Eurymedon, Chryses, Nephalion, and Philolaus. But it happened that two of those in the ship landed and were killed by the sons of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]. Indignant at this, Hercules killed the sons of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] on the spot and besieged the rest, until they sent envoys to request that in the place of the murdered men he would take two of them, whomever he wanted. So he ended the siege, and taking on board Alcaeus and Sthenelus, the sons of [pb_glossary id="1735"]Androgeus[/pb_glossary] son of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], he came to Mysia, to the court of [pb_glossary id="3900"]Lycus[/pb_glossary], son of Dascylus, and was entertained by him; and in a battle between him and the king of the Bebryces, Hercules sided with [pb_glossary id="3900"]Lycus[/pb_glossary] and slew many, amongst others King Mygdon, brother of [pb_glossary id="1996"]Amycus[/pb_glossary]. And he took much land from the Bebryces and gave it to [pb_glossary id="3900"]Lycus[/pb_glossary], who called it all Heraclea. Having put in at the harbor of Themiscyra, he received a visit from [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyte[/pb_glossary], who inquired why he had come, and promised to give him the belt. But [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], in disguise as an [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazon[/pb_glossary], went up and down the multitude saying that the strangers who had arrived were carrying off the queen. So the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary] in arms charged on horseback down on the ship. But when Hercules saw them in arms, he suspected treachery, and killing [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyte[/pb_glossary] stripped her of her belt. And after fighting the rest he sailed away and landed at [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]. But it happened that the city was then in distress, as a result of the wrath of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]. Because, wanting to put the wantonness of [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary] to the test, [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] assumed the appearance of men and undertook to fortify Pergamum for wages. But when they had fortified it, he [ [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary] ] would not pay them their wages. Therefore [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] sent a pestilence, and [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] a sea monster, which, carried up by a flood, snatched away the people of the plain. But as oracles foretold deliverance from these disasters if [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary] would expose his daughter [pb_glossary id="1391"]Hesione[/pb_glossary] to be devoured by the sea monster, he exposed her by fastening her to the rocks near the sea. Seeing her exposed, Hercules promised to save her, on the condition that he would receive from [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary] the mares that [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had given in compensation for the rape of [pb_glossary id="364"]Ganymede[/pb_glossary]. When [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary]'s promised that he would give them, Hercules killed the monster and saved [pb_glossary id="1391"]Hesione[/pb_glossary]. But when [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary] would not give the promies reward, Hercules set out to sea, after threatening to make war on [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]. And he landed at Aenus, where he was hosted by Poltys. And as he was sailing away he shot and killed on the Aenian beach a rude man, Sarpedon, son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] and brother of Poltys. And he came to Thasos and subjugated the Thracians who lived on the island, then gave it [Thasos] to the sons of [pb_glossary id="1735"]Androgeus[/pb_glossary] to dwell in. From Thasos he proceeded to Torone, and there, being challenged to wrestle by Polygonus and Telegonus, sons of Proteus, son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], he killed them in the wrestling match. And he brought the belt to [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary] and gave it to [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary]. [2.5.10] As a tenth labour he was ordered to fetch the cattle of [pb_glossary id="1162"]Geryon[/pb_glossary] from Erythia. Now Erythia was an island near the ocean; it is now called Gadira. This island was inhabited by [pb_glossary id="1162"]Geryon[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1158"]Chrysaor[/pb_glossary] by Callirrhoe, daughter of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary]. He had the body of three men grown together and joined in one at the waist, but separated in three from the hips and thighs. He owned red cattle, of which Eurytion was the herdsman and [pb_glossary id="2423"]Orthus[/pb_glossary], the two-headed hound, begotten by [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="643"]Echidna[/pb_glossary], was the watchdog. So journeying through Europe to fetch the cattle of Geryon, he destroyed many wild beasts and set foot in Libya. Proceeding to Tartessus, he erected as tokens of his journey two pillars over against each other at the boundaries of Europe and Libya. But being heated by the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary] on his journey, he aimed his bow at the god, who in admiration of his boldness, gave him a golden goblet in which he crossed the ocean. And having reached Erythia he camped on Mount Abas. However the dog, perceiving him, rushed at him; but he struck it with his club, and when the herdsman Eurytion came to help the dog, Hercules killed him also. But Menoetes, who was there pasturing the cattle of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], reported to [pb_glossary id="1162"]Geryon[/pb_glossary] what had occurred. He [ [pb_glossary id="1162"]Geryon[/pb_glossary] ], coming up to Hercules beside the river Anthemus, as he was driving away the cattle, joined battle with him and was shot dead. And Hercules, embarking the cattle in the goblet and sailing across to Tartessus, gave back the goblet to the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary]. And passing through Abderia he came to Liguria, where Ialebion and Dercynus, sons of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], attempted to rob him of the cattle, but he killed them and went on his way through Tyrrhenia. But at Rhegium a bull escaped, and hastily plunging into the sea swam across to Sicily, and having passed through the neighboring country since called Italy after it, for the Tyrrhenians called the bull italus, came to the plain of Eryx, who reigned over the Elymi. Now Eryx was a son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], and he joined the bull with his own herds. So Hercules entrusted the cattle to [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] and hurried away in search of the bull. He found it in the herds of Eryx, and when the king refused to surrender it unless Hercules should beat him in a wrestling match, Hercules beat him three times, killed him in the wrestling, and took the bull and drove it with the rest of the herd to the Ionian Sea. But when he came to the creeks of the sea, [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] afflicted the cows with a gadfly, and they dispersed among the skirts of the mountains of Thrace. Hercules went in pursuit, and having caught some, drove them to the Hellespont; but the remainder were from then on wild. Having with difficulty collected the cows, Hercules blamed the river Strymon, and while it had been navigable before, he made it unnavigable by filling it with rocks; and he conveyed the cattle and gave them to [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], who sacrificed them to [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. [2.5.11] When the labours had been performed in eight years and a month, [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] ordered Hercules, as an eleventh labour, to fetch golden apples from the [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary], for he did not acknowledge the labour of the cattle of [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary] nor that of the [pb_glossary id="1413"]hydra[/pb_glossary]. These apples were not, as some have said, in Libya, but on [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] among the [pb_glossary id="1203"]Hyperboreans[/pb_glossary]. They were presented to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] after his marriage with Hera, and guarded by an immortal dragon with a hundred heads, offspring of [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="643"]Echidna[/pb_glossary], which spoke with many and diverse sorts of voices. With it the [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary] Aegle, Erythia, Hesperia, and Arethusa were also on guard. He journeyed and came to the river Echedorus. And [pb_glossary id="1388"]Cycnus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] and Pyrene, challenged him to single combat. [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] championed the cause of [pb_glossary id="1388"]Cycnus[/pb_glossary] and marshalled the combat, but a thunderbolt was hurled between the two and parted the combatants. And going on foot through Illyria and hastening to the river Eridanus, he came to the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary], the daughters of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary]. They revealed [pb_glossary id="1431"]Nereus[/pb_glossary] to him, and Hercules seized him while he slept, and though the god turned himself into all kinds of shapes, the hero bound him and did not release him until he had learned from him where the apples and the [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary] were. With this information, he travelled across Libya. That country was then ruled by [pb_glossary id="1382"]Antaeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], who used to kill strangers by forcing them to wrestle. Being forced to wrestle with him, Hercules hugged him, lifted him aloft, broke and killed him; for when he touched earth he grew stronger, for which reason some said that he was a son of [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary]. After Libya he travelled through Egypt. That country was then ruled by [pb_glossary id="1385"]Busiris[/pb_glossary], a son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] by Lysianassa, daughter of Epaphus. This [pb_glossary id="1385"]Busiris[/pb_glossary] used to sacrifice strangers on an altar of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] in accordance with an oracle. For Egypt was visited with shortages for nine years, and Phrasius, a wise seer who had come from Cyprus, said that the shortages would end if they slaughtered a stranger in honour of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] every year. [pb_glossary id="1385"]Busiris[/pb_glossary] began by slaughtering the seer himself and continued to slaughter the strangers who landed. So Hercules also was seized and hauled to the altars, but he burst his bonds and killed both [pb_glossary id="1385"]Busiris[/pb_glossary] and his son Amphidamas. And travelling across Asia he landed at Thermydrae, the harbor of the Lindians. And he freed one of the bullocks from the cart of a cowherd and he sacrificed it, and feasted. But the cowherd, unable to protect himself, stood on a mountain and cursed. For this reason, to this day, when they sacrifice to Hercules, they do it with curses. And passing by Arabia he killed Emathion, son of [pb_glossary id="1511"]Tithonus[/pb_glossary], and journeying through Libya to the outer sea he received the goblet from the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary]. And having crossed to the opposite mainland he shot on the Caucasus the eagle, offspring of [pb_glossary id="643"]Echidna[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary], that was devouring the liver of [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary], and he released [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary]. He chose for himself the crown of olive branches, and to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] he presented [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary], who, though immortal, agreed to die in his place. Now [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary] had told Hercules not to go after the apples himself, but to send [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], first relieving him of the burden of the sphere; so when he had come to [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] in the land of the [pb_glossary id="1203"]Hyperboreans[/pb_glossary], he took the advice and relieved [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary]. But when [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] had received three apples from the [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary], he came to Hercules, and not wishing to support the sphere put a pad on his head. When [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] heard that, he laid the apples down on the ground and took the sphere from Hercules. And so Hercules picked up the apples and departed. But some say that he did not get them from [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], but that he plucked the apples himself after killing the guardian snake. And he brought the apples and gave them to [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary]. But he, on receiving them, gave them back to Hercules, who gave them to [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] to bring back to the garden; for it was not lawful that they should be laid down anywhere. [2.5.12] A twelfth labour imposed on Hercules was to bring [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary] from [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. Now this [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary] had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes. When Hercules was about to depart to fetch him, he went to Eumolpus at [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary], wishing to be initiated [into the Eleusinian cult]. However it was not lawful for foreigners to be initiated, so he proposed to be initiated as the adoptive son of Pylius. But he was not able to see the mysteries because he had not been cleansed of the slaughter of the centaurs, and so he was cleansed by Eumolpus and then initiated. And he came to Taenarum in Laconia, where the mouth of the descent to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] is, and he descended through it. But when the souls saw him, they fled, except for [pb_glossary id="1231"]Meleager[/pb_glossary] and the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary]. And Hercules drew his sword against the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary], thinking she was alive, but he learned from [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] that she was an empty phantom. And as he approached the gates of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], he found [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] and Pirithous, him who courted [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary] when she was already married and was therefore imprisoned. And when they saw Hercules, they stretched out their hands as if they would be raised from the dead by his might. And [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary], indeed, he took by the hand and raised up. But when he would have brought up Pirithous, the earth quaked and he let go. And he also rolled away the stone of Ascalaphus. And wishing to provide the souls with blood, he slaughtered one of the cattle of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. But Menoetes, son of Ceuthonymus, who tended the king, challenged Hercules to wrestle, and, being seized around the middle, had his ribs broken; however, he was let off at the request of [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary]. When Hercules asked [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary] for [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluto[/pb_glossary] ordered him to take the animal, on the condition that he master it without the use of the weapons which he carried. Hercules found it at the gates of [pb_glossary id="795"]Acheron[/pb_glossary], and, armoured in his cuirass and covered by the lion's skin, he flung his arms round the head of the brute, and though the dragon in its tail bit him, he never relaxed his grip and pressure until it yielded. So he carried it off and ascended through Troezen. But [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary] turned Ascalaphus into a short-eared owl, and Hercules, after showing [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], carried him back to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. [2.6.1] After his labours, Hercules went to [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary] and gave [pb_glossary id="1390"]Megara[/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id="1412"]Iolaus[/pb_glossary]. And, wishing to marry, he ascertained that [pb_glossary id="1406"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary], prince of Oechalia, had proposed the hand of his daughter [pb_glossary id="1439"]Iole[/pb_glossary] as a prize to whoever vanquished himself and his sons in archery. So he went to Oechalia, and though he proved himself better than them at archery, he did not get the bride; for while [pb_glossary id="1441"]Iphitus[/pb_glossary], the elder of [pb_glossary id="1406"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary]' sons, said that [pb_glossary id="1439"]Iole[/pb_glossary] should be given to Hercules, [pb_glossary id="1406"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary] and the others refused, and said they feared that, if he got children, he would again kill his offspring. [2.6.2] Not long after, some cattle were stolen from Euboea by [pb_glossary id="1405"]Autolycus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1406"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary] supposed that it was done by Hercules; but [pb_glossary id="1441"]Iphitus[/pb_glossary] did not believe it and went to Hercules. And meeting him, as he came from Pherae after having saved the dead Alcestis for Admetus, he [ [pb_glossary id="1441"]Iphitus[/pb_glossary] ] invited him [Hercules] to seek the cattle with him. Hercules promised to do so and entertained him; but going mad again he threw him from the walls of Tiryns. Wishing to be purified of the murder he went to [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary], who was prince of the Pylians. And when [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary] rejected his request on the score of his friendship with [pb_glossary id="1406"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary], he went to Amyclae and was purified by Deiphobus, son of Hippolytus. But being afflicted with a dire disease on account of the murder of [pb_glossary id="1441"]Iphitus[/pb_glossary], he went to [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] and inquired how he might be rid of the disease. As the Pythian priestess did not answer him with oracles, he wanted to plunder the temple, and, carrying off the tripod, to establish an oracle of his own. But [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] fought him, and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] threw a thunderbolt between them. When they had thus been parted, Hercules received an oracle, which declared that the remedy for his disease was for him to be sold, and to serve for three years, and to pay compensation for the murder to [pb_glossary id="1406"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary]. [2.6.3] After the delivery of the oracle, [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] sold Hercules, and he was bought by [pb_glossary id="1399"]Omphale[/pb_glossary], daughter of Iardanes, queen of Lydia, who had become head of state at the death of her husband. [pb_glossary id="1406"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary] did not accept the compensation when it was presented to him, but Hercules served [pb_glossary id="1399"]Omphale[/pb_glossary] as a slave, and in the course of his servitude he seized and bound the [pb_glossary id="1442"]Cercopes[/pb_glossary] at Ephesus; and as for Syleus in Aulis, who compelled passing strangers to dig, Hercules killed him with his daughter Xenodoce, after burning the vines with the roots. And having put in to the island of Doliche, he saw the body of [pb_glossary id="1443"]Icarus[/pb_glossary] washed ashore and buried it, and he called the island Icaria instead of Doliche. In return [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] made a portrait statue of Hercules at Pisa, which Hercules mistook at night for living and threw a stone and hit it. And during the time of his servitude with [pb_glossary id="1399"]Omphale[/pb_glossary] it is said that the voyage to Colchis and the [pb_glossary id="1445"]hunt of the Calydonian boar[/pb_glossary] took place, and that [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] on his way from Troezen cleared the Isthmus of malefactors. [2.6.4] After his servitude, having gotten rid of his disease, he mustered an army of noble volunteers and sailed for [pb_glossary id="4673"]Ilium[/pb_glossary] with eighteen ships of fifty oars each. And having come to port at [pb_glossary id="4673"]Ilium[/pb_glossary], he left the guard of the ships to Oicles, while he and the rest of the champions set out to attack the city. However, [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary] marched against the ships with an army and slew Oicles in battle, but the troops of Hercules drove him back and besieged him. Once the siege was set, [pb_glossary id="1447"]Telamon[/pb_glossary] was the first to breach the wall and enter the city, and after him Hercules. But when he saw that [pb_glossary id="1447"]Telamon[/pb_glossary] had entered it first, he drew his sword and rushed at him, not wanting anybody to be seen as a better man than he. Perceiving that, [pb_glossary id="1447"]Telamon[/pb_glossary] collected stones that lay to hand, and when Hercules asked him what he was doing, he said he was building an altar to Hercules the Glorious Victor. Hercules thanked him, and when he had taken the city and shot down [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary] and his sons, except [pb_glossary id="614"]Podarces[/pb_glossary], he assigned [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary]'s daughter [pb_glossary id="1391"]Hesione[/pb_glossary] as a prize to [pb_glossary id="1447"]Telamon[/pb_glossary] and allowed her to take with her whicher of the captives she wanted. When she chose her brother [pb_glossary id="614"]Podarces[/pb_glossary], Hercules said that he must first be a slave and then be bought by her. So when he was being sold she took the veil from her head and gave it as a ransom; and so [pb_glossary id="614"]Podarces[/pb_glossary] was called [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]. [2.7.1] When Hercules was sailing from [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] sent terrible storms, which angered [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] so much that he hung her from [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. Hercules sailed to Cos, and the Coans, thinking he was leading a squadron of pirates, tried to prevent his approach with a shower of stones. But he forced his way in and took the city by night, and killed the king, [pb_glossary id="1941"]Eurypylus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] by Astypalaea. And Hercules was wounded in the battle by Chalcedon; but [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] snatched him away, so that he was not harmed. And having laid waste Cos, he came through [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]'s agency to Phlegra, and sided with the gods in their victorious war on the [pb_glossary id="601"]giants[/pb_glossary]. [2.7.2] Not long afterwards he collected an Arcadian army, and being joined by volunteers from the first men in Greece he marched against [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary], hearing of the war that Hercules was preparing for, appointed [pb_glossary id="2583"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="2584"]Cteatus[/pb_glossary] as generals of the Eleans. They were like two men in one, who surpassed all of that generation in strength and were sons of Actor by Molione, though their father was said to be [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]; Actor was a brother of [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary]. But it came to pass that on the expedition Hercules fell sick; so he made a truce with the Molionides [sons of Molione]. But afterwards, learning of Hercules’ illness, they [the Molionides] attacked the army and killed many. On that occasion, therefore, Hercules retreated; but afterwards at the celebration of the third Isthmian festival, when the Eleans sent the Molionides to take part in the sacrifices, Hercules waylaid and killed them at Cleonae, and marched on Elis and took the city. And having killed [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary] and his sons, he restored Phyleus and gave him the kingdom. He also celebrated the Olympian games and founded an altar of [pb_glossary id="632"]Pelops[/pb_glossary], and built six altars of the twelve gods. [2.7.3] After the capture of Elis, he marched against Pylus, and having taken the city he killed [pb_glossary id="1451"]Periclymenus[/pb_glossary], the most valiant of the sons of [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary], who used to change his shape in battle. And he killed [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary] and his sons, except [pb_glossary id="1452"]Nestor[/pb_glossary]; for he was a youth and was being brought up among the Gerenians. In the fight he also wounded [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], who was siding with the Pylians. Having taken Pylus he marched against Lacedaemon, wishing to punish the sons of [pb_glossary id="1456"]Hippocoon[/pb_glossary], because he was angry with them, both because they fought for [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary], and because they had killed the son of Licymnius. For when he [the son of Licymnius ] was looking at the palace of [pb_glossary id="1456"]Hippocoon[/pb_glossary], a Molossian hound ran out and rushed at him, and he threw a stone and hit the dog, which prompted the Hippocoontids to dart out and kill him with blows of their cudgels. It was to avenge his death that Hercules mustered an army against the Lacedaemonians. And having come to Arcadia he begged [pb_glossary id="1454"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] to join him with his twenty sons. But fearing that, if he left Tegea, the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] would march against it, [pb_glossary id="1454"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] refused to join the expedition. But Hercules had received from [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] a lock of the [pb_glossary id="1155"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary]'s hair in a bronze jar and gave it to Sterope, daughter of [pb_glossary id="1454"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary], saying that if an army advanced against the city, she was to hold up the lock of hair three times from the walls, and that, as long as she did not look in front of her, the enemy would be turned to flight. That being so, [pb_glossary id="1454"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] and his sons took the field, and in the battle he and his sons perished, and besides them Iphicles, the brother of Hercules. Having killed [pb_glossary id="1456"]Hippocoon[/pb_glossary] and his sons and subjugated the city, Hercules restored [pb_glossary id="1458"]Tyndareus[/pb_glossary] to power and entrusted the kingdom to him. [2.7.4] Passing by Tegea, Hercules slept with Auge, not knowing her to be a daughter of Aleus. And she gave birth to her baby secretly and deposited it in the precinct of [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]. But when the country was ravaged by a pestilence, Aleus entered the precinct and on investigation discovered his daughter's motherhood. So he exposed the babe on Mount Parthenius, and by the providence of the gods it was preserved: for a doe that had just cast her fawn gave it milk, and shepherds took up the baby and called it Telephus. And her father gave Auge to Nauplius, son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], to sell far away in a foreign land; and Nauplius gave her to Teuthras, the prince of Teuthrania, who made her his wife. [2.7.5] And having come to Calydon, Hercules courted [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="1461"]Oeneus[/pb_glossary]. He wrestled for her hand with [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary], who assumed the appearance of a bull; but Hercules broke off one of his horns. So Hercules married [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary], but [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary] recovered the horn by giving the horn of Amalthea as a trade. Now Amalthea was a daughter of Haemonius, and she had a bull's horn, which, according to Pherecydes, had the power of supplying meat or drink in abundance, whatever one wanted. [2.7.6] And Hercules marched with the Calydonians against the Thesprotians, and having taken the city of Ephyra, of which Phylas was king, he had intercourse with the king's daughter Astyoche, and became the father of Tlepolemus. While he stayed among them, he sent word to Thespius to keep seven of his sons, to send three to [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary] and to send the remaining forty to the island of Sardinia to plant a colony. After these events, as he was feasting with [pb_glossary id="1461"]Oeneus[/pb_glossary], he killed with a blow of his knuckles the son of Architeles, when the boy was pouring water on his hands; the boy was a relative of [pb_glossary id="1461"]Oeneus[/pb_glossary]. Seeing that it was an accident, the boy’s father pardoned Hercules; but Hercules wished, in accordance with the law, to suffer the penalty of exile, and resolved to depart to Ceyx at Trachis. And taking [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary] with him, he came to the river Evenus, at which the centaur [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary] sat and ferried passengers across for hire, alleging that he had received the ferry from the gods for his righteousness. So Hercules crossed the river by himself, but when he was asked to pay the fare, he entrusted [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary] to carry over. But he, in ferrying her across, attempted to rape her. She cried out, Hercules heard her, and shot [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary] in the heart when he emerged from the river. On the verge of death, [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary] called [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary] to him and said that if she would have a love charm to operate on Hercules she should mix the seed he had dropped on the ground with the blood that flowed from the wound inflicted by the arrow. She did so and kept it by her. [2.7.7] As he was travelling through the country of the Dryopes, Hercules had a shortage of food. Hercules met Thiodamas driving a pair of bullocks; so he released and slaughtered one of the bullocks and feasted. And when he came to Ceyx at Trachis he was hosted by him and conquered the Dryopes. And afterwards setting out from there, he fought as an ally of Aegimius, king of the Dorians. For the [pb_glossary id="1418"]Lapiths[/pb_glossary], commanded by Coronus, were at war with him in a dispute about the boundaries of the country; and being besieged he called in the help of Hercules, offering him a share of the country. So Hercules came to his help and slew Coronus and others, and handed the whole country over to Aegimius free. He killed also Laogoras, king of the Dryopes, with his children, as he was banqueting in a precinct of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]; for the king was a violent person and an ally of the [pb_glossary id="1418"]Lapiths[/pb_glossary]. And as he passed by Itonus he was challenged to single combat by [pb_glossary id="1388"]Cycnus[/pb_glossary] a son of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] and Pelopia; and closing with him Hercules killed him also. But when he came to Ormenium, king Amyntor took arms and prevented him from marching through; but because he would have hindered his passage, Hercules killed him also. On his arrival at Trachis he mustered an army to attack Oechalia, wishing to punish [pb_glossary id="1449"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary]. Being joined by Arcadians, Melians from Trachis, and Epicnemidian Locrians, he slew [pb_glossary id="1449"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary] and his sons and took the city. After burying those of his own side who had fallen, to wit, Hippasus, son of Ceyx, and Argius and Melas, the sons of Licymnius, he pillaged the city and led [pb_glossary id="1439"]Iole[/pb_glossary] captive. And having put in at Cenaeum, a headland of Euboea, he built an altar of Cenaean [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. Intending to offer sacrifice, he sent the herald Lichas to Trachis to fetch fine garments. From him [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary] learned about [pb_glossary id="1439"]Iole[/pb_glossary], and fearing that Hercules might love that damsel more than her, she supposed that the spilt blood of [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary] was really a love-charm, and she smeared the tunic with it. So Hercules put it on and proceeded to offer sacrifice. But no sooner was the tunic warmed than the poison of the [pb_glossary id="1413"]hydra[/pb_glossary] began to corrode his skin; and on that he lifted Lichas by the feet, hurled him down from the headland, and tore off the tunic, which clung to his body, so that his flesh was torn away with it. In such a sad plight he was carried on shipboard to Trachis: and [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary], on learning what had happened, hanged herself. But Hercules, after charging [pb_glossary id="1486"]Hyllus[/pb_glossary] his elder son by [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary], to marry [pb_glossary id="1439"]Iole[/pb_glossary] when he came of age, proceeded to Mount Oeta, in the Trachinian territory, and there constructed a pyre, mounted it, and gave orders to kindle it. When no one would do so, Poeas, passing by to look for his flocks, set a light to it. Hercules gave his bow to him. While the pyre was burning, it is said that a cloud passed under Hercules and with a peal of thunder wafted him up to heaven. Thereafter he obtained immortality, and being reconciled to [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] he married her daughter [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary], by whom he had sons, Alexiares and Anicetus. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus2.html#4

Bacchylides, "Ode 5" (trans. D. A. Svarlien, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek victory ode, ca. 476 BCE

Bacchylides wrote this ode for the victory of Hieron of Syracuse in single horse racing at the Olympian games of 476 BCE (the same occasion for which Pindar wrote his Olympian 1 ode). This section of the ode deals with Heracles' journey to the underworld to fetch Cerberus, the three-headed dog (his twelfth labour) and his encounter with the dead hero, Meleager (slayer of the Calydonian Boar):
[56] So it was, they say, that the gate-destroying unconquerable son [Heracles] of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] of the flashing thunderbolt went down to the halls of slender-ankled [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary], [60] to bring up into the light from [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] the razor-toothed dog [ [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary] ], son of the fearsome [pb_glossary id="643"]Echidna[/pb_glossary]. There he saw the souls of miserable mortals by the streams of Cocytus, [65] like leaves swirled by the wind along the sheep-pasturing headlands of shining [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary]. Among them, the shade of Porthaon's bold, [70] spear-wielding descendant [ [pb_glossary id="1231"]Meleager[/pb_glossary] ] stood out. When the marvellous hero [Heracles], son of [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary], saw him shining in his armor, he stretched the clear-sounding bowstring onto his bow, and opened the lid of his quiver and drew out a bronze-tipped [75] arrow. But the soul of [pb_glossary id="1231"]Meleager[/pb_glossary] appeared in front of him and spoke to him, knowing him well: “Son of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], [80] stand where you are, and calm your spirit— Do not shoot a harsh arrow from your hands in vain against the souls of those who have perished. You have no need to fear.” So he spoke. And [Heracles] the son of [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary] was astonished, [85] and said, “What god or mortal raised such a fine young plant as you? In what land? Who killed you? No doubt [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] with her beautiful belt will soon [90] send that killer after me. But that must be the concern of golden-haired [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary].” Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0064%3Abook%3DEp%3Apoem%3D5#note2
The following summaries of the Twelve Labours are adapted from Mythology Unbound by T. Mulder and P. Rogak.
1. The Nemean Lion

Eurystheus first told Heracles to kill the lion that had been terrorizing the area of Nemea. This lion was no ordinary lion; it was the offspring of Typhoeus (see chapter 5). Heracles tracked the Nemean Lion to its cave, blocked off the entrance, and tried to kill the lion by shooting it with his bow and arrows. But the arrows bounced right off the lion’s hide, doing the animal no harm. Undeterred, Heracles used brute force to strangle the beast and brought the lion back to Tiryns for Eurystheus. Eurystheus, surprised that Heracles had survived the adventure, became very fearful of Heracles. Because Eurystheus did not want the lion, Heracles skinned it and used the hide as a cloak, with the lion’s head serving as a sort of helmet. The lion’s skin became Heracles’ trademark, and he wore it on all his future endeavors.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.1.
2. The Lernean Hydra

Next, Eurystheus sent Heracles to kill the Hydra. The Hydra was a sea-monster (its name comes from hydōr [ὕδωρ] which means “water” in Greek), that had many snake-like heads. The Hydra lived in a swampy area near Lerna, and Heracles came to its den. He engaged the Hydra by grabbing one of the heads and hacking at it with his sword until the head was severed from the body. But as soon as Heracles had cut off the Hydra’s head, two more heads grew in its place. At this point, Heracles realized that simply cutting off the Hydra’s heads was not going to work. He also realized that he could not kill the Hydra alone, so he called Iolaus, his charioteer and nephew, to bring a burning brand so he could cauterize the neck after Heracles cut off each head, to prevent new heads from growing back. Heracles and Iolaus managed to destroy each head and burn the neck for all the Hydra’s heads until just one head, which was immortal, survived. They buried this head beneath a giant rock. The Hydra’s blood was a deadly poison, so Heracles dipped his arrows in the blood to make sure that anyone he hit would die of his wound. Heracles would one day regret that the Hydra’s blood was so deadly.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.2.
3. The Cerynitian Hind

Eurystheus then sent Heracles to capture the Cerynitian Hind, a deer with golden horns which was sacred to the goddess Artemis. Since the deer was sacred to Artemis, Heracles could not kill it; he had to capture it alive. For a year he tracked the deer around the forests of the Peloponnese which was not an easy task since it was the fastest deer in the world, . He finally captured it in Arcadia when it had paused for a little rest by creeping up behind it and surprising it. On his way back to Tiryns, Heracles encountered Apollo and Artemis hunting. Artemis was not happy to find her sacred deer so constrained, but after he explained his task, Artemis allowed Heracles to take the deer as long as it remained unharmed and it would be released after he was finished with it.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.3.
4. The Erymanthian Boar

When the Cerynitian Hind had been released, Heracles now had to capture the Erymanthian Boar, which was ravaging the countryside around Mount Erymanthus and doing a lot of damage to the crops. On his way to find the Erymanthian Boar, Heracles met Pholus, a centaur who, unlike his fellow centaurs, was quite well mannered. Pholus hosted Heracles like a proper guest and offered him some wine. This wine was noticed by the other centaurs, however, who are known for loving wine but also for being unable to hold their liquor. When the centaurs smelled the wine, they went into a frenzy and started attacking Heracles and Pholus in order to steal it. The two successfully drove the centaurs away, but in the process, Pholus dropped one of Heracles’ arrows on his foot and, unfortunately, the Hydra’s poison caused him to die in agony. After this unfortunate incident, Heracles caught up with the Erymanthian Boar and trapped it by driving it into deep snow. He brought the boar back alive to Tiryns to show to Eurystheus, but Eurystheus was so frightened of the enormous beast that he hid in a large storage jar (called a pithos) and only peeked out a little so he could verify that Heracles had completed his task.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.4.
At this point, word had spread throughout Greece that Jason was looking for the greatest Greek heroes to go with him on an expedition for the Golden Fleece. Heracles took a break from his labours to join the crew. However, he did not make the entire journey to Colchis. The Argonauts left Heracles behind in Mysia while he searched for his lover Hylas. Unable to find Hylas, Heracles returned to Tiryns for his next labor.
For further discussion of Heracles, Hylas, and the Argonauts, see chapter 18.
5. The Augean Stables

The next task Eurystheus had for Heracles was to clean the Augean stables in one day. Augeas was king of Elis, and he had massive stables which had never been cleaned, and so were filled with many years’ worth of horse dung. Heracles came to Augeas and told him that he could clean out the stables in one day if he paid the right sum, one tenth of his cattle. Augeas agreed and Heracles set to work. He diverted the courses of two rivers so they flowed right through the stables and washed away the years of filth. Augeas had not believed that Heracles could perform the task, so he refused to pay the outrageous sum. Heracles was livid, but at this point there was nothing he could do, so he went back to Tiryns.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.5.
6. The Symphalian Birds

Next Heracles was sent to clear away the Stymphalian birds. Lake Stymphalus was overrun by a flock of man-eating birds. Heracles decided that a loud noise would be enough to accomplish this task, so he crashed a few shields together to scare the birds into taking flight. As the birds few into the air, he picked them off one by one with his arrows.

In some versions of this myth, he receives the help of Athena to complete this task. Athena gives Heracles a set of bronze castanets made by Hephaestus, which he uses to make noise and frighten the Stymphalian Birds out of hiding.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.6.
7. The Cretan Bull

Heracles was next sent to capture the Cretan bull. Bulls appear in many significant myths of Crete, and this particular bull was also the father of the Minotaur (see chapter 22). Heracles trapped the bull and brought it back to Tiryns alive. Eurystheus did not want it, so Heracles let the bull go. The bull wandered up to the area around Athens, and Theseus later killed it as one of his heroic feats.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.7.
8. The Mares of Diomedes

The eighth labor was to retrieve the mares of Diomedes. Diomedes was a Thracian king and he had man-eating mares. Heracles, with the help of his lover Abderus, stole the mares from their stable and herded them down to the sea-shore. Diomedes’ men were in hot pursuit, so he left Abderus to take care of the mares while he dispatched with Diomedes and routed his men. When Heracles came back, however, he found that the mares had eaten most of Abderus. Heracles was upset at the death of his lover, and he carefully buried Abderus’ remains. He then gathered the mares into his ship and took them back to Eurystheus. Again, Eurystheus did not want the terrible creatures in his city, so Heracles let the mares loose. They were eventually eaten by wild animals as they wandered on Mount Olympus.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.8.
9. The Belt of Hippolyte

For his next labor, Heracles had to retrieve the belt of the Amazon queen, Hippolyte. Heracles was joined on this expedition by his friend Theseus and they set off together. When they reached Themiscyra, Hippolyte came aboard their ship to meet them. She agreed to give them her belt with no fight. However, Hera was not about to allow this labor to be easy, so she came down from Olympus, disguised as an Amazon. Hera told the Amazons that Heracles was kidnapping their queen, and she roused them to fight the heroes. Growing angry because he believed the whole thing had been a set-up, Heracles killed Hippolyte and he and Theseus left taking Hippolyte’s sister, Antiope, and the belt. Other versions say that Hippolyte was not killed at all, but that she was the one whom Theseus took with him to Athens, where she became the mother of Theseus’ son Hippolytus (see chapter 22).

See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.9.
For further discussion of the Amazons, see chapter 23.
10. The Cattle of Geryon

Next, Heracles was sent to steal the cattle of Geryon, the King of Erytheia (which is modern day Cadiz in Spain). Geryon had three heads and three upper bodies, as well as six arms and six legs. Furthermore, his cattle were guarded by a two-headed watch dog named Orthus. Heracles decided to go through Africa to make his way to Spain. As he crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, he set up large rocks on either side, called the Pillars of Heracles, to show how far he had come across the world. The sun beat down upon him, greatly annoying Heracles, so he drew his bow and pointed it at the sun, chastising it. Helios, the sun god, was amused by this little stunt, so he lent his golden cup to Heracles to use as a boat to take him the rest of his way to Erytheia. When he arrived, Heracles dispatched of Geryon and Orthus.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.10.
11. The Golden Apples of the Hesperides

Nearly done with his labours, Heracles now went to retrieve the apples of the Hesperides. The Hesperides were nymphs who lived in Libya near the mountains where Atlas held up the world (now called the Atlas Mountains) and tended a garden growing golden apples. On his way there, Heracles passed by the Caucasus Mountains and shot the eagle that had long tortured Prometheus, freeing him from his bonds. Grateful for his help, Prometheus gave Heracles some advice as to how to retrieve the apples. Prometheus told Heracles to ask Atlas, who happened to be Prometheus’ own brother, to go get the apples for him.
For further discussion of Prometheus, see chapter 14.
Heracles heeded Prometheus' advice and asked Atlas to get the apples while he held up the world. Atlas was happy to retrieve the apples, but he had no intention of returning to his post. When he returned with the apples, Atlas offered to take them to Eurystheus for Heracles, intending to never return. But Heracles knew what Atlas was planning. He made a show of agreeing to Atlas’ plan, but he asked the Titan to hold the world just for a minute so he could place a pad on his shoulders to made the task more bearable. Atlas took the world onto his shoulders again and Heracles picked up the apples and went back to Tiryns. After he had shown them to Eurystheus, he gave them to Athena, and she, in turn, returned them to the Hesperides.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.11.
12. Cerberus

Heracles’ final labor was to bring Cerberus back from Hades; and, of course, he could not kill the three-headed dog in the process. Heracles began this labor by being initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, a mystery cult of Demeter at Eleusis (see chapter 10). Then Hermes led him down into the Underworld. In Hades, Heracles saw his friends, Theseus and Pirithous, stuck to chairs and they begged Heracles to set them free. Heracles managed to pry Theseus loose and began to move on to Pirithous, but the earth began to shake, and Heracles desisted. Heracles and Theseus were allowed to leave, but Hades insisted that Pirithous remain.

For further discussion of Theseus and Pirithous' descent to the Underworld, see chapter 22. For further discussion of katabasis (hero descents to the Underworld), see chapter 41.

When Heracles came to Hades’ palace, he asked the ruler of the Underworld if he could take Cerberus with him. Hades agreed as long as Heracles did not use weapons to capture him. Heracles grabbed the hell-hound and dragged him all the way to Tiryns. Eurystheus hid as soon as he saw Cerberus, and, from his hiding place, ordered that he be taken back to Hades and Heracles obliged. With all the labours completed, Heracles was now free to go about his life as he wished. He was also promised that he would become immortal upon his death.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.5.12.

Other Adventures

Sections & Primary Sources

The Death of Iphitus Omphale Deianeira

Sophocles, Women of Trachis, 507-516

Further Labours

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae, 31-32

Encounter with Virtue and Vice

Xenophon, The Memorabilia, 2.1.21-2.1.34

The Death of Iphitus
The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound by T. Mulder.
After the twelve labours, Heracles set out, looking for a new wife with whom he could start over. Eurytus of Oechalia, who had taught Heracles how to shoot a bow and arrow, was looking for a husband for his daughter, Iole. Eurytus had set up the condition that whoever could beat him in an archery contest would win Iole, and Heracles won easily.

However, Eurytus knew about the misfortunes Heracles had had with Megara and refused to give Iole to Heracles. Heracles was furious, but at this point there was nothing he could do. At the same time this was happening, some of Eurytus’ mares went missing (sources vary on whether Heracles had anything to do with the disappearance). Eurytus’ son, Iphitus, who believed Heracles was innocent, went with Heracles to find the mares. The two eventually ended up in Tiryns at Heracles’ house. After they located the mares, the two friends were drinking on the roof of Heracles’ house. What happened after that is not clear, but somehow they got into an argument and Heracles ended up throwing Iphitus from the roof. Heracles was stricken with a disease as punishment for his crime. When he consulted the Delphic Oracle, the Pythia told Heracles that he had to sell himself as a slave for three years for whatever price Iphitus’ sons established.

Omphale
The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound by T. Mulder.
Heracles did as the Pythia said and he was sold to Omphale, the Queen and ruler of Lydia, who had inherited power from her late husband. The kingdom of Lydia had some enemies and now that Omphale had control of the kingdom, those enemies took the opportunity to cause problems. Heracles used his strength and fortitude to solve these problems for Omphale, who was incredibly grateful. She freed Heracles and the disease left him.

Deianira
[content warning for the following section: sexual assualt] The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound by T. Mulder.
After many years, and many adventures, Heracles found himself in Calydon, where he fell in love with King Oeneus’ daughter, Deianira. However, Achelous, a local river god, competed with Heracles for her hand. The two fought until Heracles managed to break off one of the god’s horns, which caused the god to yield. Heracles and Deianira married, but they were not able to live happily very long. Heracles, still not aware of his strength, killed Oeneus’ cupbearer when he gave the boy a quick blow as punishment for some offense. Oeneus forgave his son-in-law, but Heracles, in his guilt, insisted that he go into exile for his crime. Heracles left Calydon with Deianira in tow.

At some point in their trip, Heracles and Deianira came to a very deep and very large lake. Heracles could easily swim across the lake, but Deianira could not and Heracles could not carry her while swimming across. Just at that time, the centaur Nessus approached the newlyweds and he offered to ferry Deianira across the river. Heracles gratefully agreed. Half way across the lake, however, Nessus began to rape Deianira. Heracles heard her screams and shot off one of his arrows dipped in the Hydra’s blood. Of course, the arrow hit its mark and, as Nessus knew, Hydra’s blood was a deadly poison. But Nessus decided to get back at Heracles, even though he would not live to see his revenge. As he lay dying, Nessus told Deianira that if she took some of his blood and wiped it on a robe for Heracles to wear, it would act as a love potion. This, of course, was a lie. Deianira was aware of her husband’s wandering affections, so she collected some of Nessus’ blood and kept it in case she ever had need of it. She had no idea that the deadly Hydra poison was also a part of her “love potion”.

Sophocles, Women of Trachis (trans. R. Torrance, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek tragedy, 5th century BCE

This tragic play was written by Sophocles and performed at Athens sometime between 450-425 BCE. It examines Deianira's distress, first at Heracles' long absence from Trachis and then with the realization that he is replacing her with a younger woman, Iole, the princess of Oechalia. As this scene opens, the chorus, made up of women of Trachis, is recalling the contest between the river god Achelous and Heracles for Deianira's hand in marriage.
[507-516] One was a violent river in a bull's form, four-leggèd, high-horned [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary] from [the town of] Oeniadae; the other came from Bacchian [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], and his bow was bent and he wielded the spear and club - [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]'s son [Heracles]; and they came together in battle, desiring to win her [ [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary] ] in wedlock, while [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] the blesser of marriage sat in the middle and judged them. Then was the clash of fists and arrows mingled with the clatter of bull's horns; intricate grapplings were joined; there were deadly blows of the forehead, and groaning was heard from both. But she, in tender beauty, on a far-seen hilltop, sat and waited for her husband even as the battle raged. The bride these men had fought for piteously remained; and then she left her mother like a lost and helpless calf. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0222%3Acard%3D507

Further Labours

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae (trans. M. Grant, adapted by P. Rogak)

Latin mythography, 1st century CE

The Roman mythographer Hyginus catalogued further labours of Hercules in his Fabulae, "Fables," from the 1st century CE. Notice how the timeline of events differs here from what we have seen so far. Such is the nature of myth, particularly myths involving Heracles who, as a pan-Hellenic hero, inspired many different mythological traditions throughout Greece.
§ 31 INCIDENTAL LABOURS OF THAT SAME HERCULES: He slew [pb_glossary id="1382"]Antaeus[/pb_glossary], son of Earth, in Libya. This man would compel visitors to wrestle with him, and when they were exhausted would kill them. He slew them in wrestling. In Egypt [he slew] [pb_glossary id="1385"]Busiris[/pb_glossary], whose custom it was to sacrifice visitors. When Hercules heard of his customary practice, he allowed himself to be led to the altar with the fillet of sacrifice, but when [pb_glossary id="1385"]Busiris[/pb_glossary] was about to invoke the gods, Hercules with his club killed him and the attendants at the sacrifice as well. He killed [pb_glossary id="1388"]Cygnus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="179"]Mars[/pb_glossary], conquering him by force of arms. When [pb_glossary id="179"]Mars[/pb_glossary] came there, and wanted to contend with him in arms because of his son, [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] hurled a thunderbolt between them. He killed at [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] the sea-monster to whom [pb_glossary id="1391"]Hesione[/pb_glossary] was offered. He killed [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1391"]Hesione[/pb_glossary]'s father, with arrows because he did not give her back. The shining eagle that was eating out the heart of [pb_glossary id="1389"]Prometheus[/pb_glossary], he killed with arrows. He killed [pb_glossary id="1475"]Lycus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Neptune[/pb_glossary], because he was planning to kill his wife [pb_glossary id="1390"]Megara[/pb_glossary], daughter of Creon, and their sons Therimachus and Ophites. The River [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary] used to change himself into all sorts of shapes. When he fought with Hercules to win [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary] in marriage, he changed himself into a bull. Hercules tore off his horn, presenting it to the [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary] or the [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymphs[/pb_glossary], and the goddesses filled it with fruits and called it Cornucopia. He killed [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary] and his ten sons for refusing to cleanse or purify him at the time when he had killed his wife [pb_glossary id="1390"]Megara[/pb_glossary], daughter of Creon, and his sons Therimachus and Ophites. He killed [pb_glossary id="1406"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary] because he refused him when he sought his daughter Iole in marriage. He killed the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaur[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary] because he tried to violate [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary]. He killed Eurytion the [pb_glossary id="1398"]Centaur[/pb_glossary] because he wooed [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary], daughter of Dexamenus, his hoped-for bride. § 32 MEGARA: When Hercules had been sent for the three-headed dog [ [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary] ] by King [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1475"]Lycus[/pb_glossary], son of Neptune, thought he [Hercules] had perished and planned to kill his [Hercules’] wife [pb_glossary id="1390"]Megara[/pb_glossary], daughter of Creon, and his sons, Therimachus and Ophites, and seize the kingdom. Hercules stopped [pb_glossary id="1475"]Lycus[/pb_glossary] and killed him. Later, when [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] sent madness upon him [Hercules], he killed [pb_glossary id="1390"]Megara[/pb_glossary] and his sons, Therimachus and Ophites. When he came to his right mind, he begged [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] to give him an oracular reply on how to expiate his crime. Because [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] was unwilling, Hercules wrathfully carried off the tripod from his shrine. Later, at the command of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary], he returned it [the tripod], and asked him [ [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] ] to give the reply, though he was unwilling to do so. Because of this offence, [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary] gave Hercules in servitude to Queen [pb_glossary id="1399"]Omphale[/pb_glossary]. Taken from: https://topostext.org/work/206#

Encounter with Virtue and Vice

Xenophon, The Memorabilia, Book 2 (trans. H. G. Dakyns, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek Socratic dialogue, 4th century BCE

In this Socratic dialogue from the 4th century BCE, the Greek philosophical writer Xenophon uses the figure of Heracles allegorically to discuss the nature of virtue and vice.
[1.21-1.34] And that wise man Prodicus makes a similar statement about virtue in that speech of his about Heracles, which crowds have listened to.[footnote]Prodicus was a famous Greek philosopher and Sophist who gave many speeches on ethics. This Xenophone passage refers to a well-known speech Prodicus made about Heracles, though the text of Prodicus' original speech is not preserved.[/footnote] This, as far as I can recollect it, is the substance at least of what he says: "When Heracles was emerging from boyhood into the bloom of youth, having reached that season in which the young man, now standing on the edge of independence, shows plainly whether he will enter upon the path of virtue or of vice, he went out to a quiet place, and sat debating with himself which of those two paths he should pursue; and as he there sat musing, there appeared to him two women of great stature which drew near to him. The one was fair to look upon, frank and free by gift of nature, her limbs adorned with purity and her eyes with bashfulness; sobriety set the rhythm of her gait, and she was clad in white apparel. The other was of a different type; the fleshy softness of her limbs betrayed her nurture, while the complexion of her skin was embellished that she might appear whiter and rosier than she really was, and her figure that she might seem taller than nature made her; she stared with wide-open eyes, and the garment that she wore served but to reveal the ripeness of her bloom. With frequent glances she surveyed her person, or looked to see if others noticed her; while ever and anon she intently fixed her gaze upon the shadow of herself. "Now when these two had drawn near to Heracles, she who was first named advanced steadily towards him, but the other, in her eagerness to beat her, ran forward to the youth, exclaiming, 'I see you, Heracles, in doubt and difficulty what path of life to choose; make me your friend, and I will lead you to the pleasantest road and easiest. This I promise you: you shall taste all of life's sweets and escape all bitters. In the first place, you shall not trouble your brain with war or business; other topics shall engage your mind; your only dilemma, what meat or drink you shall find agreeable to your palate; what delights of ear or eye; what pleasures of smell or touch; what darling lover's intercourse shall most enrapture you; how you shall pillow your limbs in softest slumber; how to pick each individual pleasure without ruining it with pain; and if ever the suspicion steals upon you that the stream of joys will one day fade, trust me: I will not lead you where you shall replenish the store by toil of body and trouble of soul. No! others shall labour, but you shall reap the fruit of their labours; you shall withhold your hand from nothing that will bring you gain. For to all my followers I give authority and power to help themselves freely from every side.' "Heracles hearing these words made the answer: 'What, O lady, is the name you bear?' To which she replied: 'Know that my friends call me Happiness, but those who hate me have their own nicknames for me, Vice and Naughtiness.' "But just then the other of those fair women approached and spoke: 'Heracles, I too am come to you, seeing that your parents are well known to me, and in your nurture I have gauged your nature; for this reason I have good hope that if you choose the path which leads to me, you shall make a great effort to be the doer of many a brave deed of noble enterprise; and that I too shall be held in even higher honour for your sake, bathed in the splendour of your virtues. I will not cheat you with honeyed overtures of pleasure, but I will relate to you the things that are according to the ordinances of God in very truth. Know then that among things that are lovely and of good report, not one have the gods bestowed upon mortal men without toil and pains. If you wish to obtain the favour of the gods, then you must pay these same gods service; if you wish to be loved by your friends, you must benefit these friends; if you desire to be honoured by the state, you must give the state your aid; if you claim admiration for your virtue from all Hellas, you must strive to do some good to Hellas; if you wish earth to yield her fruits to you abundantly, to earth must you pay your court; if you seek to amass riches from your flocks and herds, on them must you bestow your labour; or is it your ambition to be potent as a warrior, able to save your friends and to subdue your foes, in which case you must learn the arts of war from those who have the knowledge, and practise their application in the field when learned; or if you wish to be powerful of limb and body, then you must train limbs and body to obey the mind, and exercise yourself with toil and sweat.' "At this point, (as Prodicus relates) Vice broke in exclaiming: 'See you, Heracles, how hard and long the road is by which this woman would escort you to her festive joys. But I will guide you by a short and easy road to happiness.' "Then spoke [pb_glossary id="4204"]Virtue[/pb_glossary]: 'No, wretched one, what good thing do you have? Or what sweet thing do you know that will stir neither hand nor foot to gain it? You do not even wait for the desire of pleasure, but are already satiated, or that desire always returns; eating before you are hungry, and drinking before you are thirsty; you, to fabricate an appetite, must invent an army of cooks and confectioners; and to stimulate your thirst must lay down costliest wines, and run up and down in search of ice in summer-time; to help your slumbers, soft coverlets are not sufficient, but couches and feather-beds must be prepared for you and rockers to rock you to rest; since desire for sleep in your case springs not from toil but from emptiness and from having nothing in the world to do. Even the natural appetite of love you force prematurely by every means you may devise, confounding the sexes in your service. Thus you educate your friends: with insult during the night season and slumber during the precious hours of the day. Immortal, you are cast out from the company of gods, and by good men are dishonoured: that sweetest sound of all, the voice of praise, has never thrilled your ears; and the fairest of all fair visions is hidden from your eyes that have never seen one good deed done by your own hand. If you open your lips in speech, who will believe your word? If you need something, no one will help you. What sane man will venture to join your inferior parties? Your revellers are indeed ill to look upon, young men impotent of body, and old men witless in mind: in the heyday of life they thrive in sleek idleness, and tiredly do they drag through an age of wrinkled wretchedness. And why? they blush with shame at the thought of deeds done in the past, and groan for weariness at what is left to do. During their youth they ran riot through their sweet things, and laid up for themselves large store of bitterness against old age. But my companionship is with the gods; and my conversation is with the good among men; no good deed, divine or human, is done without my aid. Therefore I am honoured in Heaven pre-eminently, and upon earth among men whose right it is to honour me; as a beloved fellow-worker of all craftsmen; a faithful guardian of house and lands, whom the owners bless; a kindly helpful companion of servants; a brave assistant in the labours of peace; an unflinching ally in the deeds of war; a sharer in all indispensable friendships. To my friends is given an enjoyment of meats and drinks, which is sweet in itself and free of trouble, in that they can last until desire ripens, and sleep more delicious visits them than those who do not work. Yet they are not pained to part with it [sleep]; nor for the sake of slumber do they let slip the performance of their duties. Among my followers the youth delights in the praises of his elders, and the old man glories in the honour of the young; with joy they call to memory their deeds of old, and in to-day's well-doing are well pleased. For my sake they are dear in the sight of God, beloved of their friends and honoured by the country of their birth. When the appointed goal is reached they lie not down in oblivion with dishonour, but bloom afresh—their praise resounded on the lips of men for ever. O son of noble parents, Heracles, it is your role to meet with labours like these and, having endured, to enter into the heritage of transcendant happiness that I promise you.'" This, Aristippus, in rough sketch is the theme which Prodicus pursues in his "Education of Heracles by [pb_glossary id="2000"]Virtue[/pb_glossary]," only he laid out his sentiments, I admit, in far more magnificent phrases than I have. Is it not good, Aristippus, to take to heart these sayings, and to strive to think somewhat of that which touches the future of our life? Taken from: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1177/1177-h/1177-h.htm#link2H_4_0004

Death and Apotheosis

Section & Primary Sources

Death

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 9.1-323

Apotheosis and Afterlife

Homeric Hymn 15, "To Heracles the Lion-Hearted"

Homer, Odyssey, 11.593-640

Pindar, Odes, "Isthmian 4," 55-65

Death
[content warning for the following section:graphic description of death, suicide] The following content is adapted from Mythology Unbound by T. Mulder.
Deianira was justified in her suspicions of her husband, although it did not happen right away. But many years later, Heracles decided to get revenge on Eurytus, who had refused to give Heracles his daughter, Iole, in marriage. Heracles killed Eurytus and his sons in battle and brought Iole back home to be his concubine. Deianira knew about her husband’s many affairs, but she did not want to live in the same house with a younger rival, so she decided to put Nessus’ plan into action. She smeared Nessus’ blood on a beautiful new robe and gave it to her husband when he returned home, bringing Iole with him. Heracles put on the beautiful robe to give an offering to Zeus for a successful return home, but as soon as he put on the robe, his skin immediately caught fire. When Heracles tried to take off the robe, parts of his skin came off with it, and Heracles continued to burn. Realizing the terrible mistake she had made, Deianira took her own life. But Heracles was in agony; he could not take off the robe because it was sticking to his skin, he could not put out the fire, and Heracles was burning so slowly that it seemed to be taking forever for him to die. Heracles decided to end his life as soon as possible.

He took his son Hyllus up into the mountains and asked him to build a funeral pyre. Hyllus agreed to build the pyre, but he refused to light it because he could not bear to end his father’s life. A passing shepherd and his son, Philoctetes, agreed to light the pyre and so Heracles gave his famous bow and arrows to Philoctetes.
For the continuation of the story of Philoctetes, see chapter 29.
The fire burned away Heracles’ mortal flesh and he became immortal. He was taken up to Olympus to live with the other gods and he married his half-sister, Hebe. Hera finally put aside her anger against him. It seems that Heracles could only find peace after his death.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 9 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault (89-158), graphic description of death (159-210)]

In this section of the Metamorphoses, Ovid writes about the downfall of Hercules, from his winning of Deianeira's hand through to his apotheosis, or transformation into a god:
[1-88] “[pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary], the hero, reputed son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Neptune[/pb_glossary], asked [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary] why he had sighed, and the reason for his damaged forehead. The Calydonian river-god, his uncut hair wreathed with reeds, replied: ‘You ask something painful of me. Who wants to recall the battles he has lost? But, I will tell it as it happened: since the shame of being beaten is no less than the honour of having fought. It is a great consolation to me that the victor was so famous. "'If her name has ever come to your notice, [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary] was once the most beautiful girl, and the jealous hope of many suitors. When, with them [the suitors], I entered the house of [pb_glossary id="1461"]Oeneus[/pb_glossary], her father and the man I sought as my father-in-law, I said: “Accept me as your son-in-law, son of Parthaon.” Hercules, scion of Alceus, said the same. The others gave way before the two of us. Hercules declared that he could offer [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] as his bride’s father-in-law, spoke of his famous labours, and of how he had survived what his stepmother, [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary], had prescribed for him. On my side I said: “It would be shameful for a god to concede to a mortal”’ – He was not yet a god – “In me you see the lord of the waters, that flow in winding rivers, through your kingdom. As your son-in-law I would not be a stranger sent from a foreign shore, but a native, and wedded to your own interests. Only don’t let it harm my case that Queen [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] does not hate me, and all the punishment of the labours, she demanded, passed me by! ‘“Now, listen, Hercules, you, son of [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary]: [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary], whose child you boast of being, is either wrongly called your father, or is truly a wrongdoer. You seek your father in a mother’s adultery. Choose whether you prefer this fiction of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] as a father, or to be born the son of shame.” As I spoke, he gazed at me fiercely, the whole time, and unable to act like a man and control his blazing anger, he merely replied in these words: “My right hand is more powerful than my tongue. As long as I beat you at wrestling, you can win the talking”, and he came at me ferociously. I was ashamed to retreat, after my words: I took off my green robes; put up my arms; held my hands, fingers curved, in front of my chest in fighting stance; and readied my limbs for the match. He caught up dust in the hollow of his hands and threw it over me, and, in turn, was, himself, gilded by the yellow sand. Now he caught at my neck, or you might think he caught me, now at my legs, now at my loins: and attacked me from every side. My weight protected me, and his attempts were useless. I was like a massive pile that the roaring flood assaults with all its might: it remains, secure in its own bulk. “'We pulled away for a moment, returned to the conflict, and stood firm, determined not to concede. Foot was set against foot, and I pushed at him, with my chest full forward, fingers locked with fingers, and head to head. I have seen two strong bulls come together like that, when they try for the sleekest heifer in the pasture as their prize in the contest. The herd watches in fear, not sure to which one victory will grant overriding supremacy. Three times without success Hercules tried to push my gleaming chest away from him. At the fourth attempt, he broke my grip, loosed himself from my constricting arms, and with a blow of his hand – certainly, I myself confess it is the truth – he turned me about, and clung, with all his weight, to my back. "'If you can believe it - I am not seeking to gain false credit by saying it – I seemed to have a mountain pressing on top of me. With difficulty I thrust my arms, pouring with sweat from the great effort it took, under him, and, with difficulty, freed his firm hold on my body. He pressed me hard, as I gasped for breath, prevented me from gathering my strength, and gripped my neck. Then, at last, my knee touched the ground, and my mouth tasted sand. Inferior to him in strength, I turned to my magic arts, and slipped from his grasp in the shape of a long snake. But when I had wound my body in sinuous coils, and, hissing fiercely, darted my forked tongue at him, Tiryns’s hero laughed, and mocking my magic arts, said: “My task in the cradle was to defeat snakes, and, though you are greater than other reptiles, [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary], how big a slice of the [pb_glossary id="1413"]Lernean Hydra[/pb_glossary] would your one serpent be? It multiplied by its wounds, and not one of its hundred heads was safely cut off without its neck generating two more. I overcame it, and having overcome it, disembowelled that monster, with branching snake-heads, that grew from their own destruction, thriving on evil. What do you think will happen to you, who are only a false snake, using unfamiliar weapons, whom a shifting form hides?” "'He spoke and knotted his fingers round my throat. I was suffocating, as if my throat was gripped by a vice, and struggled to tear his thumbs away from my windpipe. Overpowered in this form, only my third, fierce, bull-shape remained. So I fought on, my limbs those of a bull. From the left he threw his arms around my bulging neck; and he followed me as I charged off; he was dragging at me, my horns piercing the hard ground as he pulled me down. And he toppled me into the deep sand. As if that was not enough, holding the tough horn in his cruel hand, he broke it and tore it away from my mutilated brow. The [pb_glossary id="1081"]Naiads[/pb_glossary] took it, filling it with fruit and scented flowers, and made it sacred: the Goddess of Abundance is rich now because of my horn of plenty.’ [89-158] “He spoke: and a [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary], one of his attendants, dressed like [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary], her hair streaming over her shoulders, came to them, bringing all of autumn’s harvest in an overflowing horn, and, for a dessert, delicious fruits. Light gathered, and as the first rays struck the mountain summits, the warriors left, not waiting for the river to flow calmly and placidly or for the falling waters to subside. [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary] hid his wild features and his head, marred by its broken horn, in the depths of the waves. “Nevertheless he only had the loss of that adornment [the horn], which had been taken from him, to lament: he was otherwise unhurt. Also he hid his loss with a wreath of willow leaves or reeds. But you, fierce [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary], the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaur[/pb_glossary], a passion for that same virgin girl destroyed you, when you were hit in the back by a flying arrow. “Hercules, son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary], on his way to his native city with [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary], his new bride, came to the swift waters of the River Euenus. The flood was higher than normal, increased by winter rains, with frequent whirlpools, and impassable. He had no fear of going on himself, but was anxious for his bride, when [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary] approached, strong of limb, and knowing the fords. ‘With my help, [pb_glossary id="1480"]Alcides[/pb_glossary],’ he said, ‘she will be set down on the far bank. Use your strength to swim!’ The Theban handed over the Calydonian girl, she, pale with fear, frightened of the river and of the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaur[/pb_glossary] himself. “Straight away, weighed down as he was by his quiver and his lion’s skin - he had thrown his club and his curved bow across to the other bank – the hero said: ‘Let me endure the river since I have started to cross.’ He did not hesitate, and did not search for where the river was calmest, scorning to claim the water’s allegiance. He had gained the bank, and was picking up the bow he had thrown, when he heard his wife’s voice, and shouted to [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary], who was preparing to betray his trust: ‘Where are you carrying her off to, you rapist, trusting in vain to your swiftness of foot? I am speaking to you, [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary], the twice-formed. Listen: do not steal what is mine. If you have no respect for me, the thought of your father, [pb_glossary id="1482"]Ixion[/pb_glossary], on his whirling wheel might prevent this illicit union. However much you trust in your horse-craft, you will not escape. With wounds, not feet, I will follow you.’ He made good his last words with his actions, shooting the arrow he fired, across, at the fleeing back. The barbed tip jutted from the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaur[/pb_glossary]’s chest. When the shaft was pulled out, blood, mixed with the deadly arrow-poison of the [pb_glossary id="1413"]Lernean Hydra[/pb_glossary], gushed out simultaneously from the entry and exit wounds. [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary] trapped this, and murmured, to himself of course: ‘I will not die without revenge,’ and gave his tunic soaked with warm blood to [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary], whom he had abducted, presenting it to her as if it were a gift for reviving a waning love. “A long space of intervening time passed by, and the tales of mighty Hercules had filled the world, and overcome his stepmother’s hatred. As the victor at Oechalia, in Euboea (where he had avenged an insult offered him by King [pb_glossary id="1449"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary]) he was preparing to sacrifice to [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] at Cenaeum, when talkative [pb_glossary id="1483"]Rumour[/pb_glossary], who loves to add lies to fact, and expands from the tiniest truth by her falsehoods, brought her tale on ahead, to your ears, [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary]. She [ [pb_glossary id="1483"]Rumour[/pb_glossary] ] claimed that Hercules, reputed son of [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary], was filled with passion for [pb_glossary id="1439"]Iole[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="1449"]Eurytus[/pb_glossary]. “The loving wife believes it, and terrified at first by the rumour of this new affair, she indulges in tears, and the poor girl vents her misery in weeping. But she soon says ‘Why do I weep? That adulteress will laugh at my tears. Since she is coming here, I must plan quickly, while I can, while another has not yet taken my place. Should I complain, or keep silent? Return to Calydon or stay? Should I leave my house? Or, if I can do nothing else, should I at least stand in their way? What if, remembering I am your sister, [pb_glossary id="1231"]Meleager[/pb_glossary], I prepare, boldly, to commit a crime, and, by cutting that adulteress’s throat, show what revenge and a woman’s grief can do?’ "Her thought traced various courses. Of all of them she preferred that of sending the shirt, imbued with [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary]’s blood, to restore her husband’s waning love. Unwittingly, she entrusted what became her future grief, to the servant, Lichas, he not knowing what he had been entrusted with: and the unfortunate woman, ordered him, with persuasive words, to give the present to her husband. Hercules, the hero, took it, without a thought, and put on the shirt of [pb_glossary id="1397"]Nessus[/pb_glossary], soaked in the poison of the [pb_glossary id="1413"]Lernean Hydra[/pb_glossary]. [159-210] “He was making offerings of incense and reciting prayers over the first flames, and pouring a libation bowl of wine on to the marble altar. The power of the venom, warmed and released by the flames, dissolved, dispersing widely through the limbs of Hercules. With his usual courage, he repressed his groans while he could. When his strength to endure the venom was exhausted, he overturned the altar, and filled woody Oeta with his shouts. “He tries at once to tear off the fatal clothing: where it is pulled away, it pulls skin away with it, and, revolting to tell, it either sticks to the limbs from which he tries in vain to remove it, or reveals the lacerated limbs and his massive bones. His blood itself hisses and boils, with the virulence of the poison, like incandescent metal, dipped in a cold pool. There is no end to it: the consuming fires suck at the air in his chest: dark sweat pours from his whole body: his scorched sinews crackle. His marrow liquefying with the secret corruption, he raises his hands to the heavens, crying: ‘[pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary], Saturnia, feed on my ruin: feed, cruel one: gaze, from the heights, at this destruction, and sate your savage heart! Or if this suffering seems pitiable even to an enemy, even to you, take away this sorrowful and hateful life, with its fearful torments, that was only made for toil. Death would be a gift to me, a fitting offering from a stepmother. “‘Was it for this I overcame [pb_glossary id="1385"]Busiris[/pb_glossary] who defiled the temples with the blood of sacrificed strangers? For this that I lifted fierce [pb_glossary id="1382"]Antaeus[/pb_glossary], robbing him of the strength of his mother [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary]? For this, that I was unmoved, by [pb_glossary id="1162"]Geryon[/pb_glossary]’s triple form, the herdsman of Spain, or your triple form, [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary]? For this, you hands of mine, that you dragged down the horns of the strong [pb_glossary id="1422"]Cretan bull[/pb_glossary]: that the stables of King [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary] of Elis know of your efforts: the Stymphalian Lake: and the woods of Mount Parthenius, with its [pb_glossary id="1414"]golden-antlered stag[/pb_glossary]? For this, that, by your virtue, the gold engraved girdle of [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyte[/pb_glossary] of Thermodon was taken, and the apples of the [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary], guarded by the sleepless dragon? Was it for this, that the [pb_glossary id="1398"]Centaurs[/pb_glossary] could not withstand me, nor the [pb_glossary id="1415"]Erymanthian Boar[/pb_glossary] that laid Arcady to waste? For this, that it did not help the [pb_glossary id="1413"]Hydra[/pb_glossary] to thrive on destruction and gain redoubled strength? What of the time when I saw Thracian [pb_glossary id="1425"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary]' horses, fed on human blood, their stalls filled with broken bodies, and, seeing them, overthrew them, and finished off them, and their master? The [pb_glossary id="1484"]Nemean Lion[/pb_glossary] lies crushed by these massive arms: and for [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] these shoulders of mine held up the sky. [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s cruel consort is tired of giving commands: I am not tired of performing them. “‘But now a strange disease affects me that I cannot withstand by courage, weapons or strength. Deep in my lungs a devouring fire wanders, feeding on my whole body. But [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], my enemy is well! Are there those then who can believe that the gods exist?’ So saying he roamed, in his illness, over the heights of Oeta, as a bull carries around a hunting spear embedded in its body, though the hunter who threw it has long gone. Picture him there, in the mountains, in his anger, often groaning, often shouting out, often attempting, again and again, to rid himself of the last of the garment, overturning trees, or stretching his arms out to his native skies. [211-272] “Then he caught sight of the terrified Lichas, cowering in a hollow of the cliff, and pain concentrated all his fury. ‘Was it not you, Lichas,’ he said, ‘who gave me this fatal gift? Are you not the agent of my death?’ The man trembled, grew pale with fear, and, timidly, made excuses. While he was speaking, and trying to clasp the hero’s knees, [pb_glossary id="1480"]Alcides[/pb_glossary] seized him, and, swinging him round three or four times, hurled him, more violently than a catapult bolt, into the Euboean waters. Hanging in the air, he hardened with the wind. As rain freezes in the icy blasts and becomes snow, whirling snowflakes bind together in a soft mass, and they, in turn, accumulate as a body of solid hailstones: so he, the ancient tradition says, flung by strong arms through the void, bloodless with fright, and devoid of moisture, turned to hard flint. Now, in the Euboean Gulf, a low rock rises out of the depths, and keeps the semblance of a human shape. Sailors are afraid to set foot on this, as though it could sense them, and they call it, Lichas. “But you [Hercules], famous son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary], felled the trees that grew on steep Oeta, and made a funeral pyre, and commanded [pb_glossary id="1485"]Philoctetes[/pb_glossary], son of Poeas, who supplied the flame that was plunged into it, to take your bow, your ample quiver, and the arrows, that were fated to see, once more, the kingdom of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] (as they did when you rescued [pb_glossary id="1391"]Hesione[/pb_glossary]). As the mass caught light from the eager fire, you spread the [pb_glossary id="1484"]Nemean Lion[/pb_glossary]’s pelt on the summit of the pile of logs, and lay down, your neck resting on your club, and with an aspect no different from that of a guest, reclining amongst the full wine cups, crowned with garlands. “Now the fierce flames, spreading on every side, were crackling loudly, and licking at his body, but he was unconcerned and scornful of them. The gods were fearful for earth’s champion. Saturnian [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] spoke to them, gladly, since he understood their feelings. ‘O divine beings, your fear for him delights me, and I willingly congratulate myself, with all my heart, that I am called father and ruler of a thoughtful race, and that my offspring is protected by your favour also. Though this tribute is paid to his great deeds, I am indebted to you, also. But do not allow your loyal hearts to feel baseless fears. Forget Oeta’s flames! He, who has defeated all things, will defeat the fires you see, nor will he feel [pb_glossary id="356"]Vulcan[/pb_glossary]’s power, except in the mortal part that he owes to his mother, [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary]. What he has from me is immortal, deathless and eternal: and that, no flame can destroy. When it is done with the earth, I will accept it into the celestial regions, and I trust my action will please all the gods. But if there is anyone, anyone at all, who is unhappy at Hercules’s deification, and would not wish to grant this gift, he or she should know that it was given for merit, and should approve it, though unwillingly.’ The gods agreed. [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary], also, appeared to accept the rest of his words with compliance, but not the last ones, upset that she was being censored. “Meanwhile, [pb_glossary id="356"]Mulciber[/pb_glossary] had consumed whatever the flames could destroy, and no recognisable form of Hercules remained, no semblance of what came to him from his mother: he only retained his inheritance from [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary]. As a snake enjoys its newness, shedding old age with its skin, gleaming with fresh scales; so, when the Tirynthian hero had shed his mortal body, he became his better part, beginning to appear greater, and more to be revered, in his high majesty. The all-powerful father of the gods carrying him upwards, in his four-horse chariot, through the substance-less clouds, set him among the shining stars. [273-323] “[pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] felt the weight of the new constellation. But even now the anger of [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], son of Sthenelus, was not appeased, and he pursued his unyielding hatred of the father through the children. [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argive[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary], troubled by endless cares, had Iole, as one to whom she could confide an old woman’s miseries, to whom she could relate her son’s labours, known to all the world, and her own misfortunes. At Hercules request, [pb_glossary id="1486"]Hyllus[/pb_glossary], his son by [pb_glossary id="1235"]Deianira[/pb_glossary], had taken [pb_glossary id="1439"]Iole[/pb_glossary] to his marriage-bed, and his heart, and had planted a child of that noble race in her womb. [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] said to her: ‘Let the gods at least favour you, and shorten that time when, in childbirth, you call on [pb_glossary id="783"]Ilithyia[/pb_glossary], that [pb_glossary id="783"]Lucina[/pb_glossary] who watches over frightened women, who, thanks to [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary]’s influence, made things hard for me. “‘When the time for Hercules’s difficult birth came, and Capricorn, the tenth sign, was hidden by the sun, the weight of the child stretched my womb: what I carried was so great, you could tell that [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary] was the father of my hidden burden. I could not bear my labour pains much longer. Even now, as I speak, a cold horror grips my body, and part of me remembers it with pain. Tortured for seven nights and as many days, worn out with agony, stretching my arms to heaven, with a great cry, I called out to [pb_glossary id="783"]Lucina[/pb_glossary], and her companion gods of birth, the Nixi. Indeed, she came, but committed in advance, determined to surrender my life to unjust [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary]. She sat on the altar, in front of the door, and listened to my groans. With her right knee crossed over her left, and held with interlocking fingers, she held back the birth, She murmured spells, too, in a low voice, and the spells halted the birth once it began. I laboured, and, maddened, made useless outcries against ungrateful [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary]. I wanted to die, and my moans would have moved the flinty rocks. The Theban women who were there, took up my prayers, and gave me encouragement in my pain. “‘Tawny-haired Galanthis, one of my servant-girls, was there, humbly born but faithful in carrying out orders, loved by me for the services she rendered. She sensed that unjust [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] was up to something, and, as she was often in and out of the house, she saw the goddess, [pb_glossary id="783"]Lucina[/pb_glossary], squatting on the altar, arms linked by her fingers, clasping her knees, and said “Whoever you are, congratulate the mistress. [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] of Argolis is eased, and the prayers to aid childbirth have been answered.” “‘The goddess with power over the womb leapt up in consternation, releasing her clasped hands: by releasing the bonds, herself, easing the birth. They say Galanthis laughed at the duped goddess. As she laughed, the heaven-born one, in her anger, caught her by the hair, and dragged her down, and as she tried to lift her body from the ground, she arched her over, and changed her arms into forelegs. Her old energy remained, and the hair on her back did not lose her hair’s previous colour: but her former shape was changed to that of a weasel. And because her lying mouth helped in childbirth, she gives birth through her mouth, and often visits my house, as before.’” Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph9.php
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved.

Apotheosis and Afterlife

Homeric Hymn 15, "To Heracles the Lion-Hearted" (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek hymn, 7th century BCE

Even in the archaic period, ancient Greeks celebrated Heracles apotheosis, or transformation into a god such as in this 7th century BCE poem, Homeric Hymn 15 "To Heracles the Lion-Hearted."
"[1] I will sing of Heracles, the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and much the mightiest of men on earth. [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] birthed him in [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], the city of lovely dances, after the dark-clouded [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ] Son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] had slept with her. Once he [Heracles] used to wander over unmeasured stretches of land and sea at the bidding of King [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary], and he himself did many deeds of violence and endured many; but now he lives happily in the glorious home of snowy [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and has neat-ankled [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary] for his wife. Hail, lord, son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]! Give me success and prosperity." Taken from: theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#15

Homer, Odyssey, Book 11 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek epic poem, 8th century BCE

As part of his katabasis, or journey to and from the Underworld in Book 11 of the Odyssey, the hero Odysseus encounters the shade (ghost) of the dead Heracles in Hades.
[593-640] "Then I [ [pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] ]caught sight of mighty Heracles, I mean his phantom, since he enjoys feasting among the deathless gods, with slim-ankled [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary] for wife, she the daughter of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and golden-sandalled [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. Around Heracles a clamour rose from the dead, like wild birds flying up in terror, and he dark as night, his bow unsheathed and an arrow strung, glared round fiercely as if about to shoot. His golden shoulder-belt was terrifying too, on which there were marvellous decorations, bears, wild boars, lions with glittering eyes, battle and conflict, murder and mayhem. I hope that whatever craftsman retained the design of that belt, he never made another, and never will. "When he saw me, he in turn knew me, and weeping spoke in winged words: '[pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] of many resources, scion of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1496"]Laertes[/pb_glossary], wretched spirit are you too playing out your evil fate such as I once endured under the sun? A son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]’ son, I still suffered misery beyond all measure, since I served a man far inferior to me, and he set me difficult tasks. He even sent me here [to the Underworld] to bring back the Hound of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary] ], unable to think of a harder labour. I carried off the creature too, and led him away. [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] and bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] were my guides.'" Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Odyssey11.php#anchor_Toc90267986
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved.

Pindar, Odes, "Isthmian 4" (trans. D. A. Svarlien, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek victory ode, 5th century BCE

Pindar wrote this ode for Melissus of Thebes, the victor in the pankration (an empty hand combat sport with few rules that could involve boxing, wrestling, kicking, holds, joint locks, and chokes) at the Isthmian games in 474/3 BCE. As part of the ode, Pindar celebrates the apotheosis of Heracles.
"[55] He went to [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], after he had explored all lands and the high-cliffed hollow of the gray sea, and had tamed the straits for sailors. Now he lives beside [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]-bearing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and has the most beautiful prosperity. He is honoured as a friend by the immortals and is married to [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary]; [60] he is lord of a golden house, and son-in-law to [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. For him, we Thebans, busily preparing the feast and the circle of newly-built altars above the Electran gates, pile up burnt offerings,in honour of the eight bronze-clad sons, now dead, whom [pb_glossary id="1390"]Megara[/pb_glossary], Creon's daughter, bore him. [65] For them the flame rises in the rays of the setting sun and blazes all night long, prodding the air with fragrant smoke." Taken from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DI.%3Apoem%3D4

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_1246" align="alignleft" width="280"] Heracles, black-ground krater, ca. 450 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1245" align="alignright" width="370"] Heracles and the Nemean Lion, black-figure oinochoe, ca. 500 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1282" align="alignnone" width="1260"] Young Heracles strangling the snakes, red-figure stamnos, ca. 480 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]
In Greek art, Heracles was one of the most popular heroes, and was represented on all sorts of mediums. He was usually depicted as a muscular man, either bearded or clean-shaven. One exception to this portrayal is whenever the hero is depicted as a child performing his very first feat of strength, strangling the snakes sent by Hera to kill him and his brother in their cradles.

In vase paintings, sculptures, and coins, one of his most recognizable attributes is the leonte', the hide of the invulnerable Nemean Lion, worn as a garment with the head of the beast usually working as a hood. Heracles' main weapons are the club, bow, and arrow. The hero is easily recognizable because he is almost invariably represented with one, two, or all three of these attributes. Occasionally, he could also be portrayed wearing an olive or oak wreath.
[caption id="attachment_1243" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Heracles as an archer, Temple of Aphaia in Egina, east pediment, ca. 500 BCE (Glyptothek, Munich)[/caption]
The most commonly represented mythical scenes involving Heracles are, naturally, his labours.
[caption id="attachment_1265" align="alignleft" width="316"] Heracles and the Stymphalian birds, black-figure amphora, ca. 540 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1264" align="alignright" width="334"] Heracles capturing the Keryneian stag, black-figure amphora, ca. 540 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1268" align="alignright" width="316"] Heracles throwing the Erythmanthian boar onto Eurystheus, black-figure amphora, ca. 520 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1266" align="alignleft" width="326"] Heracles fighting the Amazons, black-figure amphora, ca. 510 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1253" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Heracles fighting Geryon, red-figure kylix, ca. 510 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]
Art also often depicts his fights with other adversaries, both human and divine, such as the Amazons, the centaur Nessus, Apollo himself, a group of Egyptian priests who wanted to sacrifice him, and the sea-monsters Triton and Nereus, among many others.
[caption id="attachment_1247" align="alignleft" width="253"] Heracles fighting Busiris, red-figure pelike, ca. 470 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1250" align="alignright" width="385"] Heracles fighting Nessus, black-figure pithos (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1262" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Heracles and Apollo struggling for the tripod, pediment of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, 525 BCE (Archaeological Museum, Delphi)[/caption]
The importance of the hero as a slayer of monsters cannot be overstated, so much so that during the Archaic Period (ca. 776-480 BCE) the scene of Heracles fighting Triton was employed by tyrants to celebrate their naval victories, as well as the construction of aqueducts and fountains for their own cities, drawing a parallel between themselves 'taming' rivers and Heracles defeating water monsters.
[caption id="attachment_1279" align="alignleft" width="362"] Heracles wrestling Triton, black-figure hydria, ca. 550 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1267" align="alignright" width="273"] Heracles wrestling Triton, black-figure amphora, ca. 520 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1259" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Heracles fighting Triton, Sicily altar relief, 6th century BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1255" align="aligncenter" width="878"] Heracles fighting a sea monster, from west pediment of the Hekatompedon, ca. 490 BCE (Acropolis Museum, Athens)[/caption]
Another popular scene with Heracles was that of his deification. The hero is usually represented either on a chariot with Athena as the driver, or alongside the goddess to Zeus and the rest of the Olympians.
[caption id="attachment_1242" align="aligncenter" width="675"] Apotheosis of Heracles, black-figure hydria, ca. 530 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]
The image of Heracles was also used on coins minted in Macedon by the Argead dynasty, whose kings considered themselves descendants of the hero. hero. Later on, the generals of Alexander the Great also used this motif in order to present themselves as the king's legitimate successors.
[caption id="attachment_1273" align="aligncenter" width="845"] Alexander the Great in a lion skin, Macedonian coin, ca. 300 BCE.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1281" align="aligncenter" width="816"] Philip II of Macedonia in a lion skin, Pella coin, ca. 359 BCE[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Jason and the Argonauts

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:28:11 +0000
[caption id="attachment_760" align="alignnone" width="1592"] Athena watching as Jason is spat out of the dragon, red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BCE (Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Vatican City)[/caption]

Birth & Early Adventures

Jason was one of the rare heroes who was not the child of a deity. His father was Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus, an ancient Greek city in Thessaly. But, before Jason was born, his father was deposed by his brother, Jason's uncle, Pelias. When Jason was born, in order to protect from Pelias, Aeson sent him to Mount Pelion to be raised by the centaur, Chiron (the same centaur who would also raise Achilles, a hero of the Trojan War).

Pelias, meanwhile, lived in fear of a man with one sandal. He had previously been given a warning by the famous Oracle of Delphi that he was fated to be killed by a man wearing only one sandal.

When Jason came of age, he decided to return to Iolcus to reclaim the throne that was his due. As he was journeying home he came to a river. On the bank of the river sat an old woman who was unable to cross on her own. Jason carried her over the river, unaware that she was really the goddess Hera in disguise. As he was carrying the old woman/Hera across the river, one of his sandals got stuck in the mud. He had to continue his journey wearing only one sandal.

Once Jason arrived in Iolcus, news of his coming and of his missing sandal had reached Pelias. Upon meeting him and learning of his reason for coming, rather than killing him Pelias sent Jason to retrieve the legendary Golden Fleece from the kingdom of Colchis on the far side of Black Sea. The Golden Fleece had come from a magical, flying, golden ram, who had saved a young man named Phrixus from being killed by his step-mother. The ram flew Phrixus to Colchis and there told the young man to sacrifice him and hang his golden fleece up in a grove that was sacred to Ares, where it was guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. Pelias agreed that if Jason brought him the golden fleece he (Pelias) would give up the throne.
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, written in Greek in the second century BCE, explains the origin of the Golden Fleece:

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE

[content warning for the following source: suicide (1.9.2)]
[1.9.1] Of the sons of [pb_glossary id="782"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary] ruled over Boeotia and had a son [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary] and a daughter [pb_glossary id="1956"]Helle[/pb_glossary] by [pb_glossary id="1957"]Nephele[/pb_glossary]. And he married a second wife, [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary], by whom he had Learchus and [pb_glossary id="333"]Melicertes[/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] plotted against the children of [pb_glossary id="1957"]Nephele[/pb_glossary] and persuaded the women to roast the wheat seeds; and having got the wheat they did so without the knowledge of the men. But the earth, being sown with cooked wheat, did not yield its annual crops; so [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary] sent messengers to [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] to inquire how he might deal with the famine. Now [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] persuaded the messengers to say that it was foretold that the infertility would cease if [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary] were sacrificed to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. When [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary] heard that, he was forced by the inhabitants of the land to bring [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary] to the altar. But [pb_glossary id="1957"]Nephele[/pb_glossary] lifted him and her daughter up and gave them a ram with a golden fleece, which she had received from [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary], and carried through the sky by the ram they crossed land and sea. But when they were over the sea which lies between Sigeum and the Chersonese, [pb_glossary id="1956"]Helle[/pb_glossary] slipped into the deep and drowned, and the sea was called Hellespont after her. But [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary] came to the Colchians, whose king was [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeetes[/pb_glossary], son of the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary] and of Perseis, and brother of [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1730"]Pasiphae[/pb_glossary], whom [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] married. He took [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary] in and gave him one of his daughters, Chalciope. And [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary] sacrificed the ram with the golden fleece to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the god of Escape, and the fleece he gave to [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeetes[/pb_glossary], who nailed it to an oak in a grove of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]. And [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary] had children by Chalciope, namely, Argus, Melas, Phrontis, and Cytisorus. [1.9.2] But afterwards [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary] also lost his children by [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] through the wrath of [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]; for he went mad and shot Learchus with an arrow, and [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] cast herself and [pb_glossary id="333"]Melicertes[/pb_glossary] into the sea. Being banished from Boeotia, [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary] inquired of the god where he should live, and on receiving an oracle that he should live in whatever place where he was entertained by wild beasts, he crossed a great amount of country until he encountered with wolves that were devouring pieces of sheep; but when they saw him they abandoned their prey and fled. So [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary] settled in that country and named it Athamantia after himself; and he married Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, and fathered Leucon, Erythrius, Schoeneus, and Ptous. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html#9

The Argonauts

In order steal the Golden Fleece, Jason organized a crew of heroes from all over the Greek world. The exact roster varies from source to source, but some of the most famous members included Heracles, Orpheus, the Dioscuri (Castor and Polyduces/Pollux), Telemon (the father of Ajax the Greater), and Pelius (the father of Achilles). According to some sources, the female hero Atalanta also sailed with the group. Argus, a famous ship building and another member of the crew, built a ship (named the Argo after himself) with the help of the goddess Athena. The ship featured a talking beam from the sacred oak at the oracle of Zeus in Dodona. Together the crew of heroes on the ship were called the Argonauts, which in Greek means "sailors of the Argo." The Argonauts had many adventures on their way to Colchis and the Golden Fleece.

The Lemnian Women

The expedition first came to Lemnos, an island inhabited only by women. Sometime before the Argonauts arrived, the women on the island had neglected to properly worship the goddess Aphrodite. As punishment Aphrodite had caused all of the women to give off a terrible odor. In disgust, the men began to avoid the women, eventually sailing to Thrace and bringing back Thracian women to have sex with instead of their wives. The Lemnian women grew angry at this insult and they killed all the men and all the Thracian women as well. Only one man survived. Hypsipyle, the princess of Lemnos, hid her father in a chest and put him out to sea. He drifted ashore on the island of Oenoë.

Because of their terrible deed the the Lemnian women lived in constant fear that the Thracians would come to retaliate. When the Argonauts landed on Lemnos the Lemnian women thought that they were the Thracians and they prepared for battle. Jason sent one of the crew, a son of Hermes, as a messenger to ask the women if the Argonauts could camp on their shore. Convinced that they were not in immediate danger, the Lemnian women held a council at which they decided that having some strong men around would be a good idea. So they sent a messenger to invite the heroes into the city.

Most of the Argonauts were thrilled to spend the night in the city, but Heracles and a few others stayed with the ship. Queen Hypsipyle became quite enamoured with Jason and offered to allow the Argonauts stay. He thanked Hypsipyle but told her that he and his men had to continue on with their journey. Most authors say that the Argonauts spent only a few days on Lemnos, but this was long enough for a new generation of Lemnian to be conceived.

The Doliones

After leaving Lemnos the Argonauts sailed for the Hellespont. They landed on an island in the Sea of Marmara inhabited by a people called the Doliones. The king offered to give them shelter and to restock their supplies because an oracle had told him to offer aid to such travelers. Only a few men were left to guard the ship, so when a group of giants came upon the guards, the ship would have been easily destroyed had the mighty Heracles not been one of the guards. Heracles singlehandedly shot several of the giants and chased the others away. The King of the Doliones showed Jason the route for the next leg of their journey and the Argo soon headed off, but contrary winds pushed the ship back into the harbor.

By now it was dark, however, and no one could see very well. When the Argonauts disembarked, they did not realize where they were; the Doliones believed a group of raiders had come to attack them, and so a battle ensued. Eventually the Doliones retreated, having lost a large number of their men. The next morning, the Argonauts realized their mistake when they found the body of the king. The Argonauts and the Doliones together celebrated a magnificent funeral for all the deceased. A few days later, the Argonauts moved on.

Heracles and Hylas

The next day the Argonauts came to the coast of Mysia. Here, Heracles broke his oar, so the group put ashore to make a new one. Heracles went into the woods to cut down the wood for a new oar while his lover, Hylas, went to a stream to get some water. Hylas’ striking beauty caught the eye of nymph that lived in the stream and she abducted him, grabbing him as he leaned over the water, and pulled him down to her palace under the water. Heracles was devastated by Hylas' disappearance and spent the entire night searching for him. He was still out searching the next day when the rest of the crew were getting ready to leave, and in their hurry, they left Heracles behind. Heracles managed to find his way home, where he continued his labours.

Phineas and the Harpies

Next, the Argonauts headed for the Bosporus and landed in Salmydessus, the capital of Thynia. Here they met the king, a man named Phineus, who was blind and was being hounded by the Harpies. The Harpies were women with the wings, beaks, and talons of birds. Their name comes from the Greek verb harpazein (ἁρπάζειν) meaning “to snatch” and that’s what they did. Whenever Phineus tried to eat anything the Harpies would swoop down and steal some of the food; they left droppings on the rest so as to make it inedible. Phineus was slowly starving to death. He was very weak by the time the Argonauts found him. He asked them for their help and they obliged.

Two of the Argonauts. Zetes and Calaïs, were the sons of Boreas, the North Wind, and because of this, they had wings on their backs. A wonderful feast was prepared and when the Harpies came to snatch it, Zetes and Calaïs took flight and chased the Harpies away. The brothers would have killed the Harpies with their bows and arrows, but Iris (who was the rainbow and also the messenger of Zeus) told them that Zeus wanted them to spare the Harpies’ lives, as long as the Harpies promised never to bother Phineus again. When Zetes and Calaïs returned to Salmydessus, everyone enjoyed the feast. In return for their help, Phineus gave them the information they needed to get past the Symplegades (the Clashing Rocks).

The Clashing Rocks

The expedition now headed for the Symplegades, the Clashing Rocks, located at the entrance to the Bosphorus. These were floating islands that would crash together with tremendous speed at unpredictable intervals. When they got there, the Argonauts did as Phineus had instructed and sent a dove to fly between the rocks. They watched to see what would happen to the bird, since Phineus had told them that if the bird survived, they had a chance of making it through. If the bird did not, it was useless and they would most definitely perish if they tried. The dove successfully made it through the rocks, though it lost its tail feathers. As the rocks separated, the sailors prepared to row as hard as they possibly could because their lives depended on it. The boat rushed forward at top speed, but the waves created by the moving rocks nearly capsized the Argo. The crew would have perished had Athena not stepped in and held the rocks apart while pushing the Argo through. After the Argo escaped, the rocks stayed in place; the gods had decided long ago that once a ship had passed through them, they would never crash together again.

The Sons of Phrixus

After more sailing, the ship came to a desert island sacred to Ares which Phineus had advised them to visit because they would find something vital to their mission while there. The island was filled with birds with feathers so sharp they could cut through flesh. To get onto the island, the Argonauts held their shields over their heads as a cover. They then clashed their weapons together to scare the birds away. Now able to move around, the crew found the sons of Phrixus stranded on the island. Phrixus was the youth who had been carried to Colchis by the golden ram. He was able to show the Argonauts the rest of the way to Colchis.

Stealing the Golden Fleece

When the crew finally arrived in Colchis, they had no idea how they were going to get the golden fleece, but Hera and Athena asked Aphrodite for her help. Aphrodite sent her son, Eros to shoot Medea, the daughter of King Aeëtes, with his arrows so she would fall in love with Jason. The moment Medea saw Jason she instantly fell in love with him. She brought them into the house and her father, because of the principle of xenia, had to allow the strangers to join them for dinner.

At the dinner banquet, Argus (one of Phrixus’ sons) explained who they were and that they had come for the Golden Fleece. Unexpectedly, Aeëtes told the Argonauts that he would give them the fleece; he said he would only ask Jason to perform a few tasks first. All Jason had to do was to yoke a pair of fire-breathing bulls to a plow, sow a field with dragon’s teeth, and then, when fully-armed warriors sprang up from the teeth he would have to kill all of the warriors. Jason had no idea how he was going to perform these tasks, but he reluctantly agreed. Later that night, Medea, who was a priestess of Hecate and a skilled witch, paid a visit to Jason. Medea made Jason promise that he would take her back to Iolcus with him if she helped him complete these impossible tasks. Jason eagerly agreed and Medea gave him a potion and told him what to do.

The night before he had to complete his tasks, Jason sacrificed to Hecate in the manner Medea had instructed him. Then early the next morning he rubbed the potion into his skin and went to find the fire-breathing bulls. Jason was able to yoke the bulls to the plow because the potion protected him from their fire. He plowed the field with the bulls and sowed the dragon’s teeth. From the soil came hundreds of fierce warriors, but Jason had been told by Medea what he needed to do. Jason threw a rock into the middle of the warriors, and they, thinking their fellows were attacking them, began to attack one another. Jason waited while they fought one another until only one was left and he killed the remaining warrior.

Pindar, Odes, "Pythian 4: For Arcesilas of Cyrene Chariot Race 462 BCE" (trans. D.A. Svarlien, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek victory ode, 5th century BCE
There was a divine prophecy that [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] would be killed by the illustrious descendants of [pb_glossary id="782"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary], either at their hands or through their unflinching counsels; and an oracle came to him that chilled his shrewd spirit, spoken beside the central navel of well-wooded mother earth: [75] to be on careful guard in every way against a man with one sandal, whenever he should come from the homesteads in the steep mountains to the sunny land of famous Iolcus, whether he be stranger or citizen. And in time he arrived: an awesome man armed with two spears. He wore two different types of clothing: [80] his native Magnesian dress fitted to his marvelous limbs, and a leopard-skin wrapped around him protected him from shivering showers. His splendid locks of hair had not been cut away, but flowed shining down his back. He quickly went straight ahead, making use of his dauntless spirit, and stood [85] in the marketplace crowded with people. They did not recognize him. Nevertheless, one of the awed onlookers said even this: “Surely this is not [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], nor [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], the husband of [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], [ [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] ] with his bronze chariot. And they say that the sons of Iphimedeia—[pb_glossary id="1665"]Otus[/pb_glossary] and you, bold lord [pb_glossary id="1678"]Ephialtes[/pb_glossary]—died in splendid Naxos. [90] And indeed [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary] was hunted down by the swift arrow of [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary], which she sped from her unconquerable quiver, so that men might desire to touch only the loves that are within their reach.” They said such things among themselves; and [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] arrived, rushing headlong with his mule team and his polished chariot. [95] He was instantly astonished, looking at the single sandal, easy to see on the stranger's right foot. But he hid his fear in his heart and said: “What country, stranger, do you claim as your fatherland? And what woman, of mortals on earth, bore you from her aged womb? Do not dirty your story with most hateful lies, [100] but tell me of your birth.” And the stranger boldly answered him with gentle words, in this way: “I say that I am going to bring the teaching of [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary]; for I come from his cave, from the presence of [pb_glossary id="1944"]Chariclo[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1945"]Philyra[/pb_glossary], where the holy daughters of the [pb_glossary id="1398"]Centaur[/pb_glossary] raised me. Living twenty years without [105] having said or done anything shameful in their house, I have come to my home to recover the ancient honor of my father, now held improperly, which once [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] granted to [pb_glossary id="782"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary], the leader of the people, and to his sons. For I hear that lawless [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary], yielding to his empty mind, [110] violently robbed it from my parents, who were the rulers by right. When I first saw the light [i.e. was born], they feared the arrogance of the monstrous ruler, and made a show of dark mourning in the home, with the wailing of women as if someone had died, and sent me away secretly, in purple swaddling clothes, [115] making the night my escort on the journey, and gave me to [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary] the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] to rear. But you know the main points of this story. Good citizens, show me clearly the home of my ancestors, who rode on white horses. For I am the son of [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary], and a native; I do not arrive in a strange foreign land. The divine centaur called me by the name Jason.” [120] So he spoke; and as he entered, his father's eyes recognized him, and tears burst forth from his aged eyelids, for his soul rejoiced when he saw his son, the choicest and most handsome of men. And both his father's brothers [125] came when they heard the report of Jason. Pheres was nearby; he came from the Hypereian spring, and Amythaon came from Messene. Admetus and Melampus came quickly, showing kindness to their cousin. And while they joined in the banquet, Jason, welcoming them with gentle words and offering them fitting hospitality, extended every kind of joyfulness, [130] reaping the sacred bloom of good living for five full nights and as many days. But on the sixth day, speaking in earnest, Jason confided the entire story from the beginning to his kinsmen; and they took his side. At once he hurried from the camp with them, and they came to the hall of [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary]. [135] They rushed in, and took their stand. And when [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] heard them he came to meet them himself, the son of Tyro with beautiful hair. And Jason, with his soothing voice distilling gentle language, laid the foundation of skillful words: “Son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], Cleaver of the Rock, the minds of mortals are all too swift [140] to praise crafty gain rather than justice, although they are moving towards a harsh reckoning. But you and I must govern our tempers rightly and weave our future prosperity. You know what I am going to say. A single cow was mother to Cretheus and to bold-thinking Salmoneus. And now we, sprung from them in the third generation, look on the golden strength of the sun. [145] May the [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary] withdraw if there is any hatred between members of the same family, which blots out reverence. It is not right for us to resort to swords of sharp bronze or spears in dividing the great honors of our ancestors. I leave you the flocks, and the golden herds of cattle, and all the fields, which you keep, having stolen them [150] from my ancestors, feeding fat your wealth; and it does not grieve me that they provide for your household beyond all measure. But as for the royal scepter and the throne, in which [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary] son of Cretheus once sat, and dispensed straight justice for a nation of horsemen: without any distress between us, [155] release these to me, lest some more disturbing evil arise from them.” So he spoke. And [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] answered softly: “I will be such a man as you ask. But already old age attends me, while the flower of your youth is now swelling. You have it in your power to remove the anger of the gods below. For [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary] asks us to bring his soul home, [160] going to the halls of [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeetes[/pb_glossary], and to recover the deep-fleeced hide of the ram, on which he was once saved from the sea and from the impious weapons of his stepmother. A marvelous dream came and told me these things, and I have asked the oracle at Castalia whether it must be pursued; and the oracle urges me to make ready as soon as possible a ship to escort him home. [165] Willingly fulfill this quest, and I swear that I will deliver up to you the royal power and the kingdom. And, as a mighty oath, may [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], who is ancestor to us both, be our witness.” They approved this agreement, and they parted. And Jason himself at once [170] sent messengers everywhere to announce the voyage. Soon there came the three sons [ [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1407"]Castor[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1590"]Pollux[/pb_glossary] ], untiring in battle, whom dark-eyed [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1605"]Leda[/pb_glossary] bore to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]; and two high-haired men, sons of the earth-shaker [ [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] ], obeying their innate valor, one from Pylos and the other from the headland of Taenarus; you both achieved [175] noble fame, Euphemus and wide-ruling [pb_glossary id="1451"]Periclymenus[/pb_glossary]. And from [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] the lyre-player came, the father of songs, much-praised [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary]. And [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] of the golden wand sent two sons to take part in the unabating toil, Echion and Erytus, bursting with youth. Swiftly [180] came those that dwell around the foothills of Mount Pangaeon, for with a smiling spirit their father [pb_glossary id="1660"]Boreas[/pb_glossary], king of the winds, quickly and willingly equipped Zetes and Calais [ the [pb_glossary id="1949"]Boreads[/pb_glossary] ] with purple wings bristling down their backs. And [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] kindled in the demigods an all-persuasive sweet longing [185] for the ship [pb_glossary id="1823"]Argo[/pb_glossary], so that no one would be left behind to stay by his mother's side, nursing a life without danger, but even at the risk of death would find the finest elixir of excellence together with his other companions. When the choicest seamen came down to Iolcus, Jason reviewed and praised them all; and [190] the seer Mopsus, making his prophecy from birds and the casting of sacred lots, gladly gave the men the signal to set out. And when they hung the anchor over the ship's ram, the leader, standing at the stern, took in his hands a golden goblet and called on the father of [pb_glossary id="1546"]Uranus[/pb_glossary]' descendants, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] whose spear is the thunderbolt; and he called on the [195] swift-rushing waves and winds, and on the nights, and the paths of the sea, and the propitious days, and on the kindly fortune of their homecoming. And from the clouds there answered an auspicious peal of thunder, and bright flashes of lightning came bursting forth, and the heroes drew a breath of relief, trusting in the sign of the god. [200] The seer shouted to them to throw themselves into the oars, announcing that their hopes were sweet; and the rowing sped on under their swift hands, insatiably. Escorted by the breezes of the South wind, they reached the mouth of the Inhospitable Sea, and there they set up a holy precinct to [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], god of the sea; [205] there was a herd of red Thracian bulls, and a newly-built hollow of altar stones. And as they rushed into deep danger, they entreated the lord of ships that they might escape the irresistible onset of the clashing rocks [ the [pb_glossary id="1950"]Symplegades[/pb_glossary] ]. There was a pair of them; they were alive, and they rolled onward more swiftly [210] than the battle-lines of the loud-thundering winds. But that voyage of the demigods put an end to them. And then the [pb_glossary id="1836"]Argonauts[/pb_glossary] came to Phasis, where they clashed with the dark-faced Colchians in the realm of [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeetes[/pb_glossary] himself. And the queen of sharpest arrows [ [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] ] brought the dappled wryneck [bird] from [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], bound to the four spokes [215] of the indissoluble wheel: [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] of Cyprus brought the maddening bird to men for the first time, and she taught the son of [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary] skill in prayerful incantations, so that he could rob [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary] of reverence for her parents, and a longing for Greece would lash her, her mind on fire, with the whip of Persuasion. [220] And she quickly revealed the means of performing the labors set by her father; and she mixed drugs with olive oil as a remedy for hard pains, and gave it to him to anoint himself. They agreed to be united with each other in sweet wedlock. But when [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeetes[/pb_glossary] placed in their midst the unbreakable iron plough [225] and the oxen, who breathed the flame of burning fire from their golden jaws and stamped at the earth in turn with their bronze hoofs, he led them along and single-handedly brought them under the yoke. And he drove them, stretching the furrows straight, and split the back of the clodded earth, a fathom deep. Then he spoke in this way: “Let your king, [230] whoever commands the ship, complete this work for me; then let him carry off the immortal coverlet, the fleece gleaming with its golden fringe.” When he had spoken thus, Jason threw off his saffron cloak and, trusting in the god, set his hand to the task. The fire did not touch him; he followed the advice of the foreign woman [ [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary] ] who knew every kind of remedy. He grasped the plough, and bound the necks of the oxen in the irresistible [235] harness, and prodding their strong-ribbed bulk with the unceasing goad, the powerful man accomplished the allotted measure of his task. And [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeetes[/pb_glossary] wailed, though his cry was silent, amazed at Jason's strength. His companions stretched their friendly hands towards the mighty man, [240] and crowned him with garlands of laurel, and greeted him with gentle words. But at once the marvelous son of [pb_glossary id="876"]Helius[/pb_glossary] spoke of the shining fleece, telling where the sword of [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary] had stretched it out. He expected that Jason would not be able to accomplish this further labor. For the fleece lay in a thicket, held in the ravening jaws of a serpent, [245] which in thickness and length surpassed a ship with fifty oars, built by the blows of a hammer. It is too long a way for me to go by the beaten track; for time presses, and I know a shortcut. In poetic skill I am a guide to many others. Jason killed the gray-eyed serpent with its dappled back by cunning, [250] Arcesilas, and stole away [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary], with her own help, to be the death of [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary]. And they reached the expanses of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], and the Red Sea, and the race of the [pb_glossary id="1951"]Lemnian women[/pb_glossary], who killed their husbands. There they displayed their prowess of limbs in athletic contests with a cloak for a prize, and they went to bed with the women. In foreign [255] fields then the fated day, or night, received the seed of your shining prosperity; for there the race of Euphemus was planted, to continue forever. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DP.%3Apoem%3D4

Jason and Medea
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, written in Greek in the second century BCE, gives a version of the myth of Jason and Medea. You will notice some differences from the version given in the text summaries in this chapter and the next (on Medea), which come from other sources, including Apollonius' of Rhodes epic poem, the Argonautica, and Euripides' tragic play, Medea.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE

[content warning for the following source: suicide (1.9.27), infanticide (1.9.24, 1.9.27-28)]
[1.9.16] [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary], son of Cretheus, had a son Jason by Polymede, daughter of [pb_glossary id="1405"]Autolycus[/pb_glossary]. Now Jason lived in Iolcus, of which [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] was king after Cretheus. But when [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] consulted the oracle concerning the kingdom, the god warned him to beware of the man with a single sandal. At first the king did not understand the oracle, but afterwards he understood it. For when he was offering a sacrifice at the sea to [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], he sent for Jason, among many others, to participate in it. Now Jason loved animal husbandry and therefore lived in the country, but he hurried to the sacrifice, and in crossing the river Anaurus he lost a sandal in the stream and landed with only one. When [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] saw him, he recalled the oracle and, going up to Jason, he asked him what, supposing he had the power, he would do if he had received an oracle that he should be murdered by one of the citizens. Jason answered, whether at haphazard or instigated by the angry [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] in order that [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary] should prove a curse to [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary], who did not honor [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], “I would command him,” said he, “to bring the Golden Fleece.” No sooner did [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] hear that than he told him to go on a quest for the fleece. Now it was at Colchis in a grove of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], hanging on an oak and guarded by a sleepless dragon. Sent to fetch the fleece, Jason called in the help of [pb_glossary id="1966"]Argus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary]; and [pb_glossary id="1966"]Argus[/pb_glossary], by [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]'s advice, built a ship of fifty oars named [pb_glossary id="1823"]Argo[/pb_glossary] after its builder; and at the prow [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] fitted in a speaking timber from the oak of Dodona. When the ship was built, and he inquired of the oracle, the god [ [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] ] advised him to assemble the nobles of Greece and sail away. And those who assembled were as follows:[footnote]Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica lists the crew of the Argo in full in greater detail in Book 1:23-228[/footnote] Tiphys, son of Hagnias, who steered the ship; [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary], son of Oeagrus; Zetes and Calais [ the [pb_glossary id="1949"]Boreads[/pb_glossary] ], sons of [pb_glossary id="1660"]Boreas[/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id="1407"]Castor[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1590"]Pollux[/pb_glossary], sons of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id="1447"]Telamon[/pb_glossary] and Peleus, sons of Aeacus; [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary]; Idas and Lynceus, sons of Aphareus; [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary], son of Oicles; Caeneus, son of Coronus; Palaemon, son of [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] or of Aetolus; Cepheus, son of Aleus; Laertes son of Arcisius; [pb_glossary id="1405"]Autolycus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id="1662"]Atalanta[/pb_glossary], daughter of Schoeneus; Menoetius, son of Actor; Actor, son of Hippasus; Admetus, son of Pheres; Acastus, son of [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary]; Eurytus, son of [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id="1231"]Meleager[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1461"]Oeneus[/pb_glossary]; Ancaeus, son of Lycurgus; Euphemus, son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]; Poeas, son of Thaumacus; Butes, son of Teleon; Phanus and Staphylus, sons of [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary]; Erginus, son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id="1451"]Periclymenus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id="1420"]Augeas[/pb_glossary], son of the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary]; Iphiclus, son of Thestius; [pb_glossary id="1966"]Argus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary]; Euryalus, son of Mecisteus; Peneleos, son of Hippalmus; Leitus, son of Alector; Iphitus, son of Naubolus; Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, sons of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]; Asterius, son of Cometes; [pb_glossary id="1975"]Polyphemus[/pb_glossary], son of Elatus. [1.9.17] These people, with Jason as captain, put to sea and landed at Lemnos.[footnote]Apollodorus' account of the Argonauts' adventures draws heavily from Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica. The events at Lemnos parallel Argonautica Book 1:592-899[/footnote][argonautica 1.592-899] At that time it happened that Lemnos was lacking in men and ruled over by a queen, [pb_glossary id="1971"]Hypsipyle[/pb_glossary], daughter of Thoas, the reason for which was as follows. The [pb_glossary id="1951"]Lemnian women[/pb_glossary] did not honor [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], and she visited them with a foul smell; therefore their spouses took captive women from the neighboring country of Thrace and slept with them instead. Thus dishonored, the [pb_glossary id="1951"]Lemnian women[/pb_glossary] murdered their fathers and husbands, but [pb_glossary id="1971"]Hypsipyle[/pb_glossary] alone saved her father Thoas by hiding him. So having put in to Lemnos, at that time ruled by women, the [pb_glossary id="1836"]Argonauts[/pb_glossary] had intercourse with the women, and [pb_glossary id="1971"]Hypsipyle[/pb_glossary] slept with Jason and bore sons, Euneus and Nebrophonus. [1.9.18] And after Lemnos they landed among the Doliones, of whom [pb_glossary id="1972"]Cyzicus[/pb_glossary] was king.[footnote]Parallel passage: Argonautica 1.936-1079[/footnote] He received them kindly. But having put to sea from there by night and met with contrary winds, they lost their bearings and landed again among the Doliones. However, the Doliones, taking them for a Pelasgian army (for they were constantly harassed by the Pelasgians), did battle with them by night in mutual ignorance of each other. The [pb_glossary id="1836"]Argonauts[/pb_glossary] slew many and among the rest [pb_glossary id="1972"]Cyzicus[/pb_glossary]; but by day, when they knew what they had done, they mourned and cut off their hair and gave [pb_glossary id="1972"]Cyzicus[/pb_glossary] a costly burial; and after the burial they sailed away and landed at Mysia. [1.9.19] There they left [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1975"]Polyphemus[/pb_glossary].[footnote]Argonautica 1.1207-1344[/footnote] For [pb_glossary id="1976"]Hylas[/pb_glossary], son of Thiodamas, a companion of [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary], had been sent to draw water and was kidnapped by [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] on account of his beauty. But [pb_glossary id="1975"]Polyphemus[/pb_glossary] heard him cry out, and drawing his sword gave chase in the belief that he was being carried off by robbers. Falling in with [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary], he told him; and while the two were seeking for [pb_glossary id="1976"]Hylas[/pb_glossary], the ship put to sea. So [pb_glossary id="1975"]Polyphemus[/pb_glossary] founded a city Cius in Mysia and reigned as king; but [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary] returned to Argos. However, Herodorus says that [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary] did not sail at all at that time, but served as a slave at the court of [pb_glossary id="1399"]Omphale[/pb_glossary]. But Pherecydes says that he was left behind at Aphetae in Thessaly, the [pb_glossary id="1823"]Argo[/pb_glossary] having declared with human voice that she could not bear his weight. Nevertheless Demaratus has recorded that [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary] sailed to Colchis; for Dionysius even affirms that he was the leader of the [pb_glossary id="1836"]Argonauts[/pb_glossary]. [1.9.20] From Mysia they departed to the land of the Bebryces, which was ruled by King Amycus, son of Poseidon and a Bithynian nymph.[Arg 2.1-154] Being a brave and persistent man he compelled the strangers that landed to box with him and in that way killed them. So going to the Argo as usual, he challenged the best man of the crew to a boxing match. Pollux undertook to box against him and killed him with a blow on the elbow. When the Bebryces made a rush at him, the Argonauts snatched up their weapons and put them to flight with great slaughter. [1.9.21] Then they put to sea and came to land at Salmydessus in Thrace, Phineus, a seer who had lost the sight of both eyes, lived. [Arg 2.178-619]Some say he was a son of Agenor, but others that he was a son of Poseidon, and he is variously alleged to have been blinded by the gods for foretelling men the future; or by Boreas and the Argonauts because he blinded his own sons at the instigation of their stepmother; or by Poseidon, because he revealed to the children of Phrixus how they could sail from Colchis to Greece. The gods also sent the Harpies to him. These were winged female creatures, and when a table was laid for Phineus, they flew down from the sky and snatched up most of the food, and what little they left stank so that nobody could touch it. When the Argonauts wanted to consult him about the voyage, he said that he would advise them about it if they would rid him of the Harpies. So the Argonauts laid out a feast beside him, and the Harpies with a shriek suddenly pounced down and snatched away the food. When Zetes and Calais, the sons of Boreas, saw that, they drew their swords and, being winged, pursued them through the air. Now it was fated that the Harpies would perish by the sons of Boreas, and that the sons of Boreas would die when they could not catch up to their target. So the Harpies were pursued and one of them fell into the river Tigres in Peloponnese, the river that is now called Harpys after her; some call her Nicothoe, but others Aellopus. But the other, named Ocypete or, according to others, Ocythoe (but Hesiod calls her Ocypode) fled by the Propontis until she came to the Echinadian Islands, which are now called Strophades after her; for when she came to them she turned (estraphe) and, being at the shore, fell for out of sheer weariness of her pursuer. But Apollonius in the Argonautica says that the Harpies were pursued to the Strophades Islands and suffered no harm, having sworn an oath that they would wrong Phineus no more. [1.9.22] Being rid of the Harpies, Phineus revealed to the Argonauts the course of their voyage, and advised them about the Clashing Rocks in the sea. These were huge cliffs, which, dashed together by the force of the winds, closed the sea passage. Thick was the mist that swept over them, and loud the crash, and it was impossible for even the birds to pass between them. So he told them to let a dove fly between the rocks, and, if they saw it pass safely through, to move through the narrows with an easy mind, but if they saw it perish, then not to force a passage. When they heard that, they put to sea, and on nearing the rocks let fly a dove from the prow, and as she flew the clash of the rocks nipped off the tip of her tail. So, waiting until the rocks had recoiled, with hard rowing and the help of Hera, they passed through, the extremity of the ship's ornamented stern being shorn away right round. From then on, the Clashing Rocks stood still; for it was fated that, when a ship had made the passage, they would come to rest completely. [1.9.23] The Argonauts now arrived among the Mariandynians, and there King Lycus received them kindly. There, Idmon the seer died of a wound inflicted by a boar; and Tiphys died there too, and Ancaeus undertook to steer the ship. [Arg 2.720-894] And having sailed past the Thermodon and the Caucasus they came to the river Phasis, which is in the Colchian land. When the ship was brought into port, Jason went to Aeetes, and telling him the task given to him by Pelias,asked him to give him the fleece. [Arg 3.210-4.206] The other promised to give it if single-handed he would yoke the brazen-footed bulls. These were two wild bulls that he had, of enormous size, a gift of Hephaestus; they had bronze feet and puffed fire from their mouths. These creatures, Aeetes ordered him to yoke and to sow dragon's teeth; for he had got from Athena half of the dragon's teeth which Cadmus sowed in Thebes. While Jason puzzled how he could yoke the bulls, Medea fell in love with him; now, she was a witch, daughter of Aeetes and Idyia, daughter of Ocean. And fearing that he might be destroyed by the bulls, she, keeping it secret from her father, promised to help him to yoke the bulls and to deliver to him the fleece, if he would swear to have her as a wife and would take her with him on the voyage to Greece. When Jason swore to do so, she gave him a drug with which she told him him to anoint his shield, spear, and body when he was about to yoke the bulls; for she said that, anointed with it, he could for a single day be harmed neither by fire nor by iron. And she told him that, when the teeth were sown, armed men would spring up from the ground against him; and when he saw them group together, he was to throw stones into their midst from a distance, and when they fought each other about that, he could kill them. On hearing that, Jason anointed himself with the drug, and upon arriving at the grove of the temple he sought the bulls, and though they charged him with a flame of fire, he yoked them. And when he had sowed the teeth, there rose armed men from the ground; and where he saw several together, he pelted them unseen with stones, and when they fought each other he drew near and slew them. But though the bulls were yoked, Aeetes did not give the fleece; for he wished to burn down the Argo and kill the crew. But before he could do so, Medea brought Jason by night to the fleece, and having lulled to sleep by her drugs the dragon that guarded it, she possessed herself of the fleece and in Jason's company came to the Argo. She was attended, too, by her brother Apsyrtus. And with them the Argonauts put to sea by night. [1.9.24] When Aeetes discovered the daring deeds done by Medea, he started off in pursuit of the ship; but when she saw him near, Medea murdered her brother and, cutting him limb from limb, threw the pieces into the deep.[Arg. 4.212-503, different version in which Apsyrtus follows them] Gathering the child's limbs, Aeetes fell behind in the pursuit; wherefore he turned back and, having buried the rescued limbs of his child, he called the place Tomi. But he sent out many of the Colchians to search for the Argo, threatening that, if they did not bring Medea to him, they should suffer the punishment due to her; so they separated and pursued the search in many places. When the Argonauts were already sailing past the Eridanus river, Zeus sent a furious storm upon them, and drove them out of their course, because he was angry at the murder of Apsyrtus. And as they were sailing past the Apsyrtides Islands, the ship spoke, saying that the wrath of Zeus would not cease unless they journeyed to Ausonia and were purified by Circe for the murder of Apsyrtus. [Arg 4.557-753] So when they had sailed past the Ligurian and Celtic nations and had voyaged through the Sardinian Sea, they skirted Tyrrhenia and came to Aeaea, where they supplicated Circe and were purified. [1.9.25] And as they sailed past the Sirens, Orpheus restrained the Argonauts by singing a counter-melody. Butes alone swam off to the Sirens, but Aphrodite carried him away and settled him in Lilybaeum. [Arg. 4.885-922] After the Sirens, the ship encountered Charybdis and Scylla and the Wandering Rocks, above which a great flame and smoke were seen rising. But Thetis with the Nereids steered the ship through them at the summons of Hera. [Arg 4.922-982] Having passed by the Island of Thrinacia, where the cattle of the Sun were, they came to Corcyra, the island of the Phaeacians, of which Alcinous was king. But when the Colchians could not find the ship, some of them settled at the Ceraunian mountains, and some journeyed to Illyria and colonized the Apsyrtides Islands. But some came to the Phaeacians, and finding the Argo there, they demanded of Alcinous that he should give up Medea. He answered, that if she had already slept with Jason, he would give her to him [Jason], but that if she were still a virgin he would send her away to her father. However, Arete, wife of Alcinous, anticipated matters by marrying Medea to Jason; hence the Colchians settled down among the Phaeacians and the Argonauts put to sea with Medea. [Arg 4.982-1228] [1.9.26] Sailing by night they encountered a violent storm, and Apollo, standing on the Melantian ridges, flashed lightning down, shooting a shaft into the sea.[Arg 4.1694-1765] 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 feasted; and twelve handmaids, whom Arete had given to Medea, sexually entertained the chiefs; and there, it is still customary for the women to do so at sacrifices. Putting to sea from there, they were hindered from landing at Crete by Talos.[Arg 4.1638-1694] Some say that he was a man of the Brazen Race, others that he was given to Minos by Hephaestus; he was a bronze 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; and so, when he saw the Argo waiting just offshore, 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 staying a single night there, they landed at Aegina for water, and a contest arose among them concerning the drawing of the water. There, they sailed between Euboea and Locris and came to Iolcus, having completed the whole voyage in four months. [1.9.27] Now Pelias, dreading the return of the Argonauts, would have killed Aeson; but Aeson requested to be allowed to take his own life, and in offering a sacrifice drank freely of the bull's blood and died. And Jason's mother cursed Pelias and hanged herself, leaving behind an infant son Promachus; but Pelias killed even the son whom she had left behind. On his return Jason handed over the fleece, but though he longed to avenge the wrongs done to him, he bided his time. At that time he sailed with the Argonauts to the Isthmus and dedicated the ship to Poseidon, but afterwards he asked Medea to devise how he could punish Pelias. So she went to the palace of Pelias and persuaded his daughters to make mincemeat 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 mincemeat of their father and boiled him. But Acastus buried his father with the help of the inhabitants of Iolcus, and he expelled Jason and Medea from Iolcus. [1.9.28] They went to Corinth, and lived there happily for ten years, until 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 reprimanding 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. 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. Another tradition is that on her flight she left behind her children, who were still infants, setting them to take refuge at the altar of Hera of the Height; but the Corinthians removed them and wounded them to death. Medea came to Athens, and there married the king Aegeus and bore him a son, Medus. Afterwards, however, plotting against Theseus, she was driven as a fugitive from Athens with her son. But Medus conquered many barbarians and called the whole country under him Media, and marching against the Indians he met his death. And Medea came secretly to Colchis, and finding that Aeetes had been deposed by his brother Perses, she killed Perses and restored the kingdom to her father. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html#9

Death

Some accounts say that Jason took his own life, but the more popular story is that, many years after these events, he was sitting under the rotting ruins of the Argo, the ship that had made him so famous, when a beam from the ship fell and struck him on the head, killing him.

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_1300" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Jason stealing the fleece, red-figure krater, ca. 470 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]
In Greek art, Jason is most commonly represented fighting the dragon while trying to steal the golden fleece. His appearance is generally that of a young, muscular man, either bearded or clean-shaven, but there is no attribute that allows us to immediately identify him if he is not named or holding the golden fleece.
[caption id="attachment_1301" align="aligncenter" width="328"] Jason taking the fleece from the drakon, red-figure vessel,[/caption]
Other scenes in which Jason appears are usually either episodes from the saga of the Argonauts, or the tragic conclusion of his dealings with Medea.
[caption id="attachment_1305" align="alignleft" width="364"] Talos defeated by the Argonauts, red-figure krater, 5th century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Ruvo di Puglia)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1311" align="alignright" width="280"] The Boreads rescue Phineus, red-figure krater, ca. 460 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1310" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Amycus being punished by the Argonauts, red-figure hydria, ca. 400 BCE (Cabinet des Médailles, Paris)[/caption]

Medea

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:28:29 +0000
[caption id="attachment_1375" align="alignnone" width="1568"] Medea in her dragon chariot, red-figure krater, ca. 400 BCE (Cleveland Museum of Art)[/caption]

Birth

Medea was born in Colchis, an ancient kingdom located in the west of the present-day nation of Georgia that was also the home of the Golden Fleece. Medea was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, the son of Helios, the sun god. Her father was a sorcerer, as was her paternal aunt, [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary]. Another one of her paternal aunts was Pasiphae, the queen of Crete and mother of the Minotaur. Medea herself was a priestess and witch who understood and could harness the magical powers of herbs and potions. She makes many appearances throughout Greco-Roman mythology and literature, including in tragedy and epic.

Adventures

Sections & Primary Sources

The Murder of Absyrtus Circe The Sirens The Daughters of Pelias Jason and Medea in Corinth

Euripides, Medea, 1-1415

Ovid on Medea

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 7.1-424

Ovid, Heroides 12, "Medea to Jason"

When Jason and the Argonauts arrived in Colchis to steal the golden fleece, Aphrodite caused Medea to fall in love with Jason. Under Aphrodites' influence, Medea used her magic and her cleverness to help Jason complete the tasks given to him by her father, Aeëtes (see chapter 18). Jason promised to marry Medea in exchange for her assistance.

Once Jason had stolen the Golden Fleece, he and Medea set sail back to Greece with the rest of the Argonauts. They kidnapped Medea's younger brother, Absyrtus and took him on board with them. King Aeëtes pursued them.

The Murder of Absyrtus

As Aeëtes and his fleet began to gain on the Argo, Medea killed Absyrtus and chopped him into pieces. She flung the pieces of his body over the side of the ship. Aeëtes was forced to pause his pursuit of the ship to collect the pieces of his murdered son. He returned to Colchis to give Absyrtus a proper burial and by the time he set out to pursue Medea and Jason again, the Argo was long gone.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.9.24.
Circe

Zeus was angry at the crew for the murder of Absyrtus, so Hera blew them off their course, sending them to the waters around Italy to protect them from Zeus’ wrath. The beam of the ship, which possessed the ability to speak, told the crew that they could not return home until they had been purified of Absyrtus’ murder by Aeëtes’ sister,[pb_glossary id="1958"] Circe[/pb_glossary], an enchantress who lived on an island called Aeaea. They found [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary], and she performed the proper sacrifices and purification rituals. After this was done, [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary] asked who they were, and Medea explained the story to her. [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary] was appalled to learn that her niece had stolen the [pb_glossary id="1824"]Golden Fleece[/pb_glossary]. She ordered the [pb_glossary id="1836"]Argonauts[/pb_glossary] to leave her island.

The Sirens

Now that the Argo's crew had been purified of the murder, Hera helped them make their journey to Iolcus. They passed the Sirens, who are described as birds with the heads of women. The Sirens had the ability to sing so wonderfully that any sailor who heard their song would jump out of the boat and swim toward their island where they would die of starvation. Luckily, the Argonauts had Orpheus amongst their crew. Orpheus played a song that rivalled the song of the Sirens and allowed the Argo to pass unharmed. The Argo also traveled past Scylla (a monster with dogs for legs) and Charybdis (a whirlpool that would suck up water and then regurgitate it). The crew would have surely perished if it were not for Thetis, a sea nymph, and her sisters, who guided the Argo through the waters. Thetis would later become the bride of one of the Argonauts, Peleus, and the mother of the hero Achilles.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.9.25.
The Daughters of Pelias

The Argonauts returned to Iolcus with the Golden Fleece, bringing with them Jason’s new wife, the Colchian princess Medea. Jason suspected that his uncle would not hand over the kingship, so the group stayed outside the city while trying to figure out what to do. Medea came up with a plan. Using her magic, she disguised herself as an old woman and went to the palace, claiming to be a priestess of Artemis who had come to rejuvenate the king. When she transformed herself from an old woman into her real, youthful form, Pelias agreed to allow her to bring back his youth. Medea told his daughters that they needed to cut their father into pieces and boil him in her cauldron, along with some magical herbs, in order for the process to work. The girls were skeptical, but Medea convinced them by performing the procedure on a ram. When a little lamb leaped from the cauldron, they agreed to cut their father into pieces. But, when the daughters of Pelias tried this, their rejuvenated father did not spring out of the cauldron, but instead died in the boiling water.
See Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.9.27.
Jason and Medea in Corinth
[caption id="attachment_1298" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Story of Medea and Creusa, Roman sarcophagus, ca. 150 CE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[/caption]
One of the Argonauts, Pelias' son Acastus, became king after his father’s death and exiled Jason and Medea for the brutal killing of his father. The king of Corinth, Creon, offered them a home in his kingdom on account of the fame that the expedition of the Argo had brought to Jason. There they lived peacefully for about ten years, and they had two sons. Eventually, however, Jason grew tired of living with a barbarian witch who brought him no social standing. Creon offered his daughter, named either Glauce or Creusa, in marriage to the hero. Jason divorced Medea and married the princess.

Medea was devastated and most of all angry at Jason's betrayal. After all, she had helped Jason steal the Golden Fleece, she had helped him sail safely back to Greece, and she had helped him punish Peleus for seizing the throne; she had also born him two sons. But Medea was not about to suffer in silence. She hatched a plan to hurt Jason in every way possible. She sent her sons to deliver wedding gifts for the princess: a tiara and a beautiful dress. As soon as the princess put them on, however, they burst into flames. Her father, hearing her screams, ran to help, but once he had touched her he could not pull away, and he burned alive alongside his daughter.

Medea’s sons, because they were accessories to the murders, were in danger as well. Some versions say the Corinthians killed the boys, leading their spirits to later avenge themselves by punishing the city. However, the more prominent version, popularized by Euripides, has Medea herself killing the children to take revenge on their father. Medea, who was the granddaughter of the Titan sun god Helios, asked for and received her grandfather’s chariot (drawn by four winged horses) to help her escape. Medea flew to Athens in Helios’ chariot and went to live with King Aegeus.

Euripides, Medea (trans. D. Kovacs, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek tragedy, 431 BCE

This play was first performed at the City Dionysia festival in Athens in 431 BCE. The trilogy that it was part of won 3rd place in the tragic play competition that year. Euripides' version of the Medea myth begins after Medea and Jason have been living in Corinth for many years.

[content warning for the following source: graphic depiction of death (1135-1220), infanticide, discussion of suicide, misogyny and xenophobia]
Enter the Nurse from the central door of the skene.
NURSE:
Would that the [pb_glossary id="1823"]Argo[/pb_glossary] had never winged its way to the land of Colchis through the dark-blue [pb_glossary id="1950"]Symplegades[/pb_glossary]! Would that the pine trees had never been felled in the glens of [pb_glossary id="2333"]Mount Pelion[/pb_glossary] and furnished oars for the hands [5] of the heroes who at [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary]' command set forth in quest of the [pb_glossary id="1824"]Golden Fleece[/pb_glossary]! For then my lady Medea would not have sailed to the towers of Iolcus, her heart smitten with love for [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], or persuaded the daughters of [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] to kill [10] their father and hence now be inhabiting this land of Corinth, [separated from her loved ones and country. At first, to be sure, she had, even in Corinth, a good life] with her husband and children, an exile loved by the citizens to whose land she had come, and lending to [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] himself all her support. This it is that most rescues life from trouble, [15] when a woman is not at variance with her husband. But now all is enmity, and love's bonds are diseased. For [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], abandoning his own children and my mistress, is settling down in a royal match, having married the daughter of [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary], ruler of this land. [20] Poor Medea, finding herself thus cast aside, calls loudly on his oaths, invokes the mighty assurance of his sworn right hand, and calls the gods to witness the unjust return she is getting from [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary]. She lies fasting, giving her body up to pain, [25] wasting away in tears all the time ever since she learned that she was wronged by her husband, neither lifting her face nor taking her eyes from the ground. She is as deaf to the advice of her friends as a stone or a wave of the sea: [30] she is silent, except sometimes when she turns her snow-white neck and weeps to herself for her dear father and her country and her ancestral house. All these she abandoned when she came here with a man who has now cast her aside. The poor woman has learned at misfortune's hand [35] what a good thing it is not to be cut off from one's native land. She loathes the children and takes no joy in looking at them. And I am afraid that she will hatch some sinister plan. For she has a terrible temper and will not put up with bad treatment (I know her), and I fear [40] she may thrust a sharpened sword through her vital organs, [slipping quietly into the house where the bed is spread,] or kill the royal family and the bride-groom and then create some greater disaster. For she is dangerous. I tell you, no man who clashes with her [45] will find it easy to crow in victory. Enter Tutor by Eisodos [side entrance] A, escorting the two sons of [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] and Medea. But see, her boys are coming home after their games. They have no thought of their mother's troubles: it is not usual for young minds to dwell on grief.
TUTOR:
Aged slave of my mistress' household, [50] why do you stand alone like this at the palace-gate, complaining of your troubles to your own ears? How can Medea not need your service?
NURSE:
Old attendant to the children of [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], to loyal servants it is a disaster when the dice of their masters' fortunes [55] fall badly: it touches their hearts. So great is the grief I feel that the desire stole over me to come out here and speak my mistress' troubles to the earth and the sky.
TUTOR:
What? Has the poor woman not yet stopped moaning?
NURSE:
[60] Your ignorance is enviable. Her misfortune is still beginning and has not yet reached its peak.
TUTOR:
Poor fool (if I may speak thus of my masters), how little she knows of her latest trouble!
NURSE:
What is it, old man? Do not begrudge me the news.
TUTOR:
Nothing. I am sorry I said as much as I have.
NURSE:
[65] I beg you: by your beard, do not conceal this from your fellow-slave! I will keep it a secret if I must.
TUTOR:
As I approached the gaming-tables where the old men sit, near the holy spring of Peirene, I heard someone say (I was pretending not to listen) [70] that [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary], this country's king, was going to exile these children and their mother from the land of Corinth. Whether the story is true I do not know. I could wish it were not so.
NURSE:
But will [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] allow this to happen [75] to his sons even if he is at odds with their mother?
TUTOR:
Old marriage-ties give way to new: he is no friend to this house.
NURSE:
We are done for, it seems, if we add this new trouble to our old ones before we've overcome those.
TUTOR:
[80] But you, hold your peace, since it is not the right time for your mistress to know this, and say nothing of this tale.
NURSE:
O children, do you hear what kind of man your father is towards you? A curse on him!—but no, he is my master. Yet he is certainly guilty of disloyalty towards his loved ones.
TUTOR:
[85] As what mortal is not? Are you just now learning this, that each man loves himself more than his neighbor, [some fairly, others for the sake of gain,] seeing that their father does not love these boys because of his bride?
NURSE:
Go into the house, children, all will be well. [90] And you, keep them as far off as you can and do not bring them near their mother in her distress. For I have seen her turn a savage glance at them, as if she meant to do something to them. And she will not let go of her wrath, I am sure, before she brings it down on someone's head. [95] But may it be enemies, not loved ones, that feel her wrath!
MEDEA:
(Within) Oh, what a wretch am I, how miserable in my sorrows! Ah ah, how I wish I could die!
NURSE:
Just as I said, dear children. Your mother is stirring up her feelings, stirring up her anger. [100] Go quickly into the house, and do not come into her sight or approach her, but beware of her fierce nature and the hatefulness of her wilful temper. [105] Go inside as quickly as you can. Exit Tutor and children into the house. It is clear that she will soon kindle with even greater passion the cloud of lament now rising from its source: what will her proud soul, so hard to check, [110] do when stung by this injury?
MEDEA:
Oh, what sufferings are mine, sufferings that call for loud lamentation! O accursed children of a hateful mother, may you perish with your father and the whole house collapse in ruin!
NURSE:
[115] Oh, woe is me! Why do you make the children sharers in their father's sin? Why do you hate them? O children, how terrified I am that you may come to harm. The minds of royalty are dangerous: [120] since they often command and seldom obey, they are subject to violent changes of mood. For it is better to be accustomed to living on terms of equality. At any rate, may I be able to grow old in modest state and with security. [125] For moderate fortune has a name that is fairest on the tongue, and in practice it is by far the most beneficial thing for mortals. But excessive riches mean no advantage for mortals, and when a god is angry at a house, [130] they make the ruin greater. Enter by Eisodos B a group of Corinthian women as Chorus.
CHORUS:
I have heard the voice, I have heard the cry, of the unhappy woman of Colchis: is she not yet calmed down? Tell me, old woman, [135] for I heard from a servant of her shouting within the house, and it is no joy I feel at this house's misfortunes since I have shared the cup of friendship with it.
NURSE:
The house is no more: it has perished. [140] For the husband is held fast in a royal marriage, while the wife, my mistress, wastes away her life in her chamber, her heart in no way soothed by the words of any of her friends.
MEDEA:
Oh! May a flash of lightning pierce my head! [145] Are there any other benefits for me in life? Ah, ah! May I find my rest in death and leave behind my hateful life!
CHORUS:
Did you hear, O [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and earth and light of the sun, what a wail the miserable [150] woman utters? What is this desire you feel for the bed of death, the bed we should not approach, foolish woman? Death will come all too quickly: do not pray for it. [155] But if your husband holds another marriage-bed in honour, do not anger yourself on his account: [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] will be your advocate in this. Do not grieve excessively or weep over your husband.
MEDEA:
[160] O mighty [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary] and my lady [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary], do you see what I suffer, I who have bound my accursed husband with mighty oaths? May I one day see him and his new bride ground to destruction, and their whole house with them, [165] so terrible are the wrongs they are bold to do to me unprovoked! O father, O my native city, from you I departed in shame, having killed my brother.
NURSE:
Do you hear what she says, how she calls on [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary] invoked in prayer, daughter of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], [170] who is deemed guardian of men's oaths? It is not possible that my mistress will bring her wrath to an end in some minor deed.
CHORUS:
Oh, how I wish she could come face to face with us and receive the sound [175] of our words to her, on the chance that somehow she might give up her angry temper! May my good will never desert my friends! [180] But go now and bring her out of the house. Tell her that here are friends, and hurry before she harms those inside. For this grief of hers is charging powerfully forward.
NURSE:
I will do so. But there is doubt whether I shall persuade [185] my mistress. Still, I will make you a further present of my labor, though she glares at the servants with the look of a lioness with cubs when any of them approaches her with something to say. [190] You would be right to call men of the past foolish, not at all wise: for while they invented songs for festivities, banquets, and dinners and added pleasant sounds to human life, [195] no one discovered how to put an end to mortals' bitter griefs with music and song sung to the lyre. It is because of these griefs that deaths and terrible disasters overthrow houses. It would have been a gain for mortals [200] to cure these ills by song. Where there are feasts of plenty, why do they raise the loud song to no purpose? The abundance of the feast at hand provides mortals with its own pleasure. Exit Nurse into the house.
CHORUS:
[205] I have heard her cry full of groans, how she utters shrill charges against the husband who betrayed her bed. Having suffered wrong, she raises her cry to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]' daughter, [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary], goddess of oaths, the goddess who brought her [210] to Hellas across the sea through the dark salt-water over the briny gateway of the Black Sea, a gateway few traverse. Enter Medea with the Nurse from the house.
MEDEA:
Women of Corinth, I have come out of the house [215], so that you don’t find some flaw in me. For I know that though many mortals are haughty both in private and in public, others get a reputation for indifference to their neighbors from their secluded manner of life. There is no justice in mortals' eyes [220] since, before they get sure knowledge of a man's true character, they hate him on sight even though he has done them no harm. Now a foreigner must be quite compliant with the city, nor do I have any words of praise for the citizen who is stubborn and causes his fellow-citizens pain by his lack of breeding. [225] In my case, however, this sudden blow that has struck me has destroyed my life. I am undone, I have resigned all joy in life, and I want to die. For the man on whom everything I had depended, as I well know—my husband—has proved the worst of men. [230] Of all creatures that have breath and sensation, we women are the most unfortunate. First at an exorbitant price we must buy a husband and master of our bodies. [This misfortune is more painful than misfortune.] [235] And the outcome of our life's striving hangs on this, whether we take a bad or a good husband. For divorce is discreditable for women and it is not possible to refuse to marry. And when a woman comes into the new customs and practices of her husband's house, she must somehow figure out, since she has not learned it at home, [240] how she shall best deal with her husband. If after we have spent great efforts on these tasks, our husbands live with us without resenting the marriage-yoke, and our life is enviable. Otherwise, death is preferable. A man, whenever he is annoyed with the company of those in the house, [245] goes elsewhere and thus rids his soul of its boredom [turning to some male friend or age-mate]. But we must fix our gaze on one person only. Men say that we live a life free from danger at home while they fight with the spear. [250] How wrong they are! I would rather stand three times with a shield in battle than give birth once. But your story and mine are not the same: you have a city and a father's house, the enjoyment of life and the company of friends, [255] while I, without relatives or city, am suffering outrage from my husband. I was carried off as booty from a foreign land and have no mother, no brother, no kinsman to shelter me from this disaster. And so I shall ask from you this much as a favor: [260] if I find any means or method to punish my husband for these wrongs [and the bride's father and the bride], keep my secret. In all other things a woman is full of fear, incapable of looking on battle or cold steel; [265] but when she is injured in love, no mind is more murderous than hers.
CHORUS LEADER:
I will do so. For you will be right to punish your husband, Medea, and I am not surprised that you grieve at what has happened. Enter [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary] by Eisodos B. But I see [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon [/pb_glossary] coming, ruler of this land. [270] He will have some new decisions to report.
CREON:
You, Medea, scowling with rage against your husband, I order you to leave this land and go into exile, taking your two children with you, and instantly. I am the executor of this decree, [275] and I will not return home again until I expel you from this land.
MEDEA:
Oh, I am undone, wholly lost! My enemies are making full sail against me, and there is no haven from disaster that I can reach. [280] Still, though I am ill-treated, I will ask you: Why are you exiling me, [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary]?
CREON:
I am afraid (no need to lie) that you will do some deadly harm to my daughter. Many signs of this combine: [285] you are a clever woman and skilled in many evil arts, and you are hurting with the loss of your husband's love. And I hear that you are threatening—such is the report people bring—to harm the bride, her father, and her husband. So I shall take precautions before the event. [290] It is better for me to incur your hatred now, woman, than to be soft now and regret it later.
MEDEA:
Ah me! This is not the first time, [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary], but often before now my reputation has done me great harm. No man who is sensible ought ever [295] to have his children educated beyond the common run. For apart from the charge of idleness they incur, they earn hostility and ill-will from their fellow-citizens. If you bring new wisdom to fools, you will be regarded as useless, not wise; [300] and if the city sees you as greater than those with a reputation for cleverness, you will be thought frustrating. I myself am a sharer in this lot, for since I am clever, in the eyes of some I am an object of ill-will, [others find me retiring, others the opposite, [305] others an obstacle, yet I am not so very wise,] while you on the other hand fear me. What harm are you afraid of? Have no fear, [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary], I am not the kind of person to commit crimes against my rulers. What injustice have you done to me? You married your daughter [310] to the man your heart told you to. It is my husband I hate, while you, I think, acted with perfect good sense in this. And now I do not resent your prosperity. Make your marriage, all of you, and may good fortune be with you. But let me stay in this land. For although I have been wronged, [315] I will hold my peace, yielding to my superiors.
CREON:
Your words are soothing to listen to, but I am afraid that in your heart you are plotting some harm. I trust you much less than before. A hot-tempered woman—and a hot-tempered man likewise— [320] is easier to guard against than a clever woman who keeps her own counsel. No, go into exile at once—speak me no speeches—since my resolve is fixed and there is no way you can remain in our midst since you are hostile to me. Medea kneels before him in the attitude of a suppliant, grasping his knees and hand.[footnote]A "suppliant" (ἱκέτης) in ancient Greece had a more formal definition, such that if someone performed the gestures of supplication towards someone, they would be honour-bound to respect the suppliant's need.[/footnote]
MEDEA:
Do not, I beg you by your knees and by your newly-wedded daughter.
CREON:
[325] You waste your words. You will never win me over.
MEDEA:
But will you banish me without the regard due a suppliant?
CREON:
Yes: I do not love you more than my own house.
MEDEA:
O fatherland, how I think of you now!
CREON:
Yes, after my children it is much the dearest thing to me.
MEDEA:
[330] Oh, what a curse love is to mortals.
CREON:
I think that depends on the circumstances.
MEDEA:
[pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], do not forget who has caused all this sorrow!
CREON:
Go, foolish woman, and rid me of my trouble.
MEDEA:
Trouble I have already. I have no need of more.
CREON:
[335] In a moment you will be thrown out of the country by my servants.
MEDEA:
No, no, not that, I beg you, [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary]!
CREON:
Woman, it seems you are bent on causing me annoyance.
MEDEA:
I accept my exile: it was not exile that I wanted reprieve from.
CREON:
Why then are you still applying force and clinging to my hand?
MEDEA:
[340] Allow me to remain this one day and to complete my plans for exile and to ensure some provision for my children, since their father does not care to do so. Have pity on them: you too are a parent, [345] and we might expect you to be well-disposed towards them. I do not care if I myself go into exile. It is their experience of misfortune I weep for.
CREON:
My nature is not at all a tyrant's, and by showing consideration I have often suffered loss. [350] And now, though I see that I am making a serious mistake, nonetheless, woman, you shall have your request. But I warn you, if tomorrow's sun sees you and your children within the borders of this land, you will be put to death. I mean what I have said. [355] Now stay, if stay you must, for one more day. You will not do the mischief I fear by then. Exit [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary] by Eisodos B. Medea rises to her feet.
CHORUS LEADER:
[Unhappy woman,] O dear, crushed by your misfortunes, where will you turn? What protector of strangers will you find, [360] what house, what land, to save you from disaster? Medea, a god has cast you into a hopeless sea of troubles.
MEDEA:
In every way the situation is bad: who will deny it? [365] But it is not thus—do not imagine it—that things . There are still struggles for the newly-wedded pair, and for the maker of the match difficulties that are not unimportant. Do you think I would ever have fawned on this man unless I stood to gain, unless I were plotting? [370] I would not even have spoken to him or touched him with my hands. But he has reached such a level of folly that, while it lay in his power to check my plans by banishing me, he has permitted me to stay for this day, a day on which I shall make corpses of three of my enemies: [375] the father, his daughter, and my husband. Now since I possess many ways of killing them, I do not know which I should try first, my friends: shall I set the bridal chamber on fire, [or thrust a sharp sword through their vitals], [380] creeping into the house where the marriage-bed is spread? One thing, however, stands in my path: if I am caught entering the house and plotting its destruction, I will be killed and bring joy to my enemies. Best to proceed by the direct route, in which I am [385] the most skilled, and kill them with poison. So be it! Now let us suppose they have been killed. What city will receive me? What friend will give me a safe country and a secure house and rescue me? There is no one. And so I will wait a short time yet, [390] and if some tower of safety appears, I will go about this murder by stealth. But if hard circumstances force me into the open, I will take the sword and, even though I am sure to die for it, kill them with my own hand, going to the very limits of daring. [395] By the goddess I worship most of all, my chosen helper [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary], who lives in the inner chamber of my house, none of them will hurt my heart and smile at it! Bitter will I make their marriage, [400] bitter [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary]'s marriage-alliance, and bitter my banishment from the land! Come, Medea, spare nothing of the arts that you are mistress of as you plot and contrive! Into the battle! Now it is a contest of courage. Do you see what is being done to you? You must not suffer mockery [405] from this Sisyphean marriage[footnote]Sisyphus was famed for his trickery and for cheating death. He was also from Corinth, like Creon and Glauce.[/footnote] of [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], you who are sprung from a noble father and have [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] for your grandsire. But you understand how to proceed. And furthermore we are women, unable to perform great deeds of valor, but most skillful architects of every evil.
CHORUS:
[410] Backward to their sources flow the streams of holy rivers, and the order of all things is reversed: men's thoughts have become deceitful and their oaths by the gods do not hold fast. [415] The common talk will change so that women's ways will have a good reputation. Honor is coming to the female sex: no more will women be maligned [420] by slanderous rumor. The poetry of ancient bards will stop recounting our faithlessness. [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] lord of song never gifted our minds [425] with the glorious strains of the lyre, or else I could have sounded a hymn in reply to the male sex. The long expanse of time can say many things of men's lot [430] as well as of women's. But you sailed from your father's halls, passing with love-maddened heart between the twin rocks of the Euxine. [435] On strange soil you now live, you have lost your marriage-bed, your husband's love, poor wretch, and you are being driven from this land an exile without rights. The magical power of an oath has gone, and [pb_glossary id="2010"]Shame[/pb_glossary] is no more [440] to be found in wide Hellas: she has taken wing to heaven. You have no father's home in which to find an anchorage, unhappy woman, and another, a princess, greater match than yourself, [445] holds sway in the house. Enter [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] by Eisodos B.
JASON:
Not now for the first time, but often before as well, I have seen what an impossible evil to deal with a fierce temper is. Although you could have kept this land and this house by patiently bearing with your superiors' arrangements, [450] you will be exiled because of your foolish talk. Not that it bothers me: go on, if you like, calling [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] the worst man alive. But as for your words against the ruling family, count yourself lucky that your punishment is exile. [455] For my part I have always tried to soothe the king's angry temper, and I wanted you to stay. But you would not stop your folly and always kept insulting the ruling house. For that you will be exiled. Still, even after this I have not failed my loved ones [460] but have come here in your interests, woman, so that you might not go into exile with your children penniless or in need of anything: exile brings many hardships with it. Even if you hate me, I could never bear you ill-will.
MEDEA:
[465] Vilest of scoundrels—for that is the worst insult my tongue can speak against your lack of manly worth—have you really come to see me when you have made yourself my worst enemy [to the gods, to me, and to the whole human race]? This is not boldness or courage— [470] to wrong your loved ones and then look them in the face—but the worst of all mortal vices, shamelessness. But you did well to come, for it will relieve my feelings to tell you how wicked you are, and you will be stung by what I have to say. [475] I shall begin my speech from the beginning. I saved your life—as all the Greeks who went on board the [pb_glossary id="1823"]Argo[/pb_glossary] with you witnessed—when you were sent to master the fire-breathing bulls with a yoke and to sow the field of death. [480] The dragon who kept watch over the [pb_glossary id="1824"]Golden Fleece[/pb_glossary], sleeplessly guarding it with his sinuous coils, I killed, and I raised aloft for you the fair light of escape from death. Of my own accord I abandoned my father and my home and came with you to Iolcus under [pb_glossary id="2333"]Pelion[/pb_glossary], [485] showing more love than sense. I murdered [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] by the most horrible of deaths—at the hand of his own daughters—and I destroyed his whole house. And after such benefits from me, o worst of men, you have betrayed me and have taken a new marriage, [490] though we had children. For if you were still childless, your desire for this marriage would be understandable. Respect for your oaths is gone, and I cannot tell whether you think that the gods of old no longer rule or that new ordinances have now been set up for mortals, [495] since you are surely aware that you have not kept your oath to me. O right hand of mine, which you often grasped together with my knees, how profitless was the suppliant grasp upon us of a scoundrel, and how we have been cheated of our hopes! But come now—for I will share my thoughts with you as a friend [500] (yet what benefit can I expect to get from you? Still I will do it, for you will be shown up in an uglier light by my questions) —where am I now to turn? To my father's house, which like my country I betrayed for your sake when I came here? Or to the wretched daughters of [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary]? A fine [505] reception they would give me in their house since I killed their father. This is how things stand: to my own people I have become an enemy, and by my services to you I have made enemies of those that I need not have harmed. That, doubtless, is why you have made me so happy in the eyes of many Greek women, [510] in return for these favors. I, poor wretch, have in you a wonderful and faithful husband if I am to flee the country, sent into exile, deprived of friends, abandoned with my abandoned children. This is splendid praise for a new bridegroom, [515] that his children are wandering as beggars, and she who saved him likewise. O [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], why, when you gave to men sure signs of gold that is counterfeit, is there no mark on the human body by which one could identify bad men?
CHORUS LEADER:
[520] Terrible and hard to heal is the wrath that comes when kin join in conflict with kin.
JASON:
It appears, woman, that I must be no mean speaker, but like the good helmsman of a ship, reef my sail up to its hem and run before the storm [525] of your tiresome prattling. Since you so exaggerate your kindness to me, I for my part think that Aphrodite alone of gods and mortals was the savior of my expedition. As for you, I grant you have a clever mind—but to tell [530] how [pb_glossary id="158"]Eros[/pb_glossary] forced you with his inescapable arrows to save me would expose me to ill-will. No, I will not make too strict a reckoning on this point. So far as you did help me, you did well. But in return for saving me [535] you got more than you gave, as I shall make clear. First, you now live among Greeks and not barbarians, and you understand justice and the rule of law, with no concession to force. All the Greeks have learned that you are clever, [540] and you have won renown. But if you lived at the world's edge, there would be no talk of you. May I have neither gold in my house nor power to sing songs sweeter than [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary] if it is not my lot to have high renown! [545] Thus far I have spoken to you regarding my labors: for it was you who started this contest of words. As for your reproaches to me against my royal marriage, here I shall show, first, that I am wise, second, self-controlled, and third a great friend to you [550] and my children. Medea makes a gesture of impatience. No! Hold your peace! When I first moved here from the land of Iolcus, bringing with me many misfortunes hard to deal with, what luckier find than this could I have made, marriage with the daughter of the king, though I was an exile? [550] It was not—the point that seems to irk you—that I was weary of your bed and smitten with desire for a new bride, nor was I eager to rival others in the number of my children (we have enough already and I make no complaint), but my purpose was that we should live well—which is the main thing— [560] and not be in want, knowing that everyone goes out of his way to avoid a penniless friend. I wanted to raise the children in a manner befitting my house, to father brothers to the children born from you, and put them on the same footing with them so that, by drawing the family into one, [565] I might prosper. For your part, what need do you have of any more children? For me, it is advantageous to use future children to benefit those already born. Was this a bad plan? Not even you would say so if you were not angered by the matter of sex. But you women are so far gone in foolish belief that if all is well [570] in bed you think you have everything, while if some misfortune in that domain occurs, you regard as hateful your best and truest interests. Mortals should, you know, have children from some other source, and there should be no female sex. [575] Then mankind would have no trouble.
CHORUS LEADER:
[pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], you have organized your arguments very skillfully, but I think, even though it may be imprudent to say so, that in abandoning your wife you are not doing right.
MEDEA:
I realize I have far different views from the majority of mortals. [580] To my mind, the plausible speaker who is a scoundrel incurs the greatest punishment. For since he is confident that he can cleverly cloak injustice with his words, his boldness stops at no dishonesty. Yet he is not as wise as all that. So it is with you. Do not, therefore, give me your misleadingly attractive arguments [585] and oratory, for one word will lay you out: if you were not a scoundrel, you would have gained my consent before making this marriage, not done it behind your family's back.
JASON:
Fine support, I think, would you have given to my proposal if I had mentioned the marriage to you, seeing that even now [590] you cannot bring yourself to lay aside the towering rage in your heart.
MEDEA:
It was not this. You thought that in later years a barbarian wife would discredit you.
JASON:
You may be quite sure of this, that it was not for the sake of a woman that I married the royal bride I now have, [595] but as I have just said, because I wanted to save you and to father princes as brothers to my children, to be a pillar of support for the house.
MEDEA:
A prosperous life that causes pain is no wish of mine, nor do I want any wealth that torments my heart.
JASON:
[600] Do you know how to change your prayer and seem wiser? Pray that you may never consider advantage as painful nor think yourself wretched when you are fortunate.
MEDEA:
Go on, insult me! You have a refuge, but I go friendless into exile.
JASON:
[605] You yourself chose that. You have no one else to blame.
MEDEA:
How? By taking another wife and abandoning you?
JASON:
By uttering unholy curses against the royal family.
MEDEA:
Yes, and I am a curse to your house too.
JASON:
I will not argue any more of this case with you. [610] But if you wish to get some of my money to help the children and yourself in exile, say the word, for I am ready to give with a generous hand, and also to send tokens to my friends, who will treat you well. [615] You would be a fool not to accept this offer, woman. Forget your anger and it will be better for you.
MEDEA:
I will accept no help from your friends nor will I take anything from you, so do not offer it. The gifts of a dishonourable man bring no benefit.
JASON:
At any rate I call the gods to witness [620] that I am willing to help you and the children as much as I can. But you refuse good treatment and obstinately rebuff your friends. This will only make your pain greater. Exit [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] by Eisodos B.
MEDEA:
Go: it is clear that you are seized by longing for your new bride as you linger so long away from the palace. [625] Go, play the bridegroom! For perhaps—and this will prove to be prophetic—you will make such a marriage as to cause you to weep.
CHORUS:
Loves that come to us in excess bring no good name or goodness to men. [630] If [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] comes in moderation, no other goddess brings such happiness. Never, o goddess, may you smear with desire one of your inescapable arrows and let it fly against my heart [635] from your golden bow! May moderation attend me, fairest gift of the gods. May [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] never cast contentious wrath and insatiate quarreling upon me and [640] madden my heart with love for a stranger's bed. But may she honour marriages that are peaceful and wisely determine whom we are to wed. [645] O fatherland, o house, may I never be stripped of my city, never have a life of helplessness, a cruel life, most pitiable of woes. [650] In death, O in death may I be brought low before that, ending the light of my life. Of troubles none is greater than to be robbed of one's native land. We ourselves have seen it, and it is not from others' [655] report that I can tell this tale. For no city, no friend has taken pity on you who have suffered the most grievous of sufferings. May that man die unloved who cannot [660] honour his friends, unlocking to them his honest mind. To me at any rate he shall never be a friend. Enter by Eisodos A [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], the aged king of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], in a travelling costume.
AEGEUS:
Medea, I wish you joy: no one knows a better way than this to address a friend.
MEDEA:
[665] Joy to you as well, [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], son of wise [pb_glossary id="1756"]Pandion[/pb_glossary]! Where have you come from to be visiting the soil of this land?
AEGEUS:
I have come from the ancient oracle of [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary].
MEDEA:
Why did you go to earth's prophetic center?
AEGEUS:
To inquire how I might get offspring.
MEDEA:
[670] Have you really lived so long a life without children?
AEGEUS:
I am childless: it is the act of some god.
MEDEA:
Do you have a wife, or do you have no experience of marriage?
AEGEUS:
I am not without a wife to share my bed.
MEDEA:
What then did [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] tell you about children?
AEGEUS:
[675] Words too wise for mortals to interpret.
MEDEA:
Is it lawful for me to hear the response?
AEGEUS:
Most certainly: it calls for a wise mind.
MEDEA:
What then did the god say? Tell me, if it is lawful to hear.
AEGEUS:
‘Do not the wineskin's salient foot untie. . .'
MEDEA:
[680] Until you do what or come to what country?
AEGEUS:
'. . .until you come to hearth and home again.’
MEDEA:
And what were you in need of, that you sailed to this land?
AEGEUS:
There is a man named [pb_glossary id="1770"]Pittheus[/pb_glossary], king of Troezen.
MEDEA:
The son of [pb_glossary id="632"]Pelops[/pb_glossary] and a man most pious, they say.
AEGEUS:
[685] It is with him that I wish to share the god's response.
MEDEA:
The man is wise and experienced in such matters.
AEGEUS:
What is more, he is the closest of all my allies.
MEDEA:
Well, good luck be with you, and may you obtain what you desire.
AEGEUS:
(Noticing Medea's distraught demeanor) But why is your face dissolved in tears?
MEDEA:
[690] [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], my husband is the most dishonourable of men.
AEGEUS:
What is this you say? Tell me the details of your unhappiness.
MEDEA:
[pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] wrongs me, though he has suffered no wrong from me.
AEGEUS:
What has he done? Tell me in detail.
MEDEA:
He has put another woman over me as mistress of the house.
AEGEUS:
[695] Surely he has not dared such a shameful act?
MEDEA:
He has indeed. Once he loved me, but now I am cast off.
AEGEUS:
Was it some passion, or did he grow tired of your bed?
MEDEA:
A great passion. He has been unfaithful to his family.
AEGEUS:
Pay him no mind then since, as you say, he is dishonourable.
MEDEA:
[700] His passion was to marry a king's daughter.
AEGEUS:
Who has given his daughter to him? Tell me the rest.
MEDEA:
[pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary], who rules this land of Corinth.
AEGEUS:
But it is quite understandable, then, that you are distressed.
MEDEA:
I am finished. Furthermore, I am being exiled from the country.
AEGEUS:
[705] By whom? This is yet another misfortune you speak of.
MEDEA:
It is [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary] who exiles me from Corinth.
AEGEUS:
Does [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] agree to this? I do not approve of that either.
MEDEA:
He pretends not to, but he is ready to put up with it. Medea kneels before [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] in the posture of a suppliant. But I beg you by your beard [710] and by your knees and I make myself your suppliant: have pity, have pity on an unfortunate woman, and do not allow me to be cast into exile without a friend, but receive me into your land and your house as a suppliant. If you do so, may your longing for children [715] be brought to fulfillment by the gods, and may you yourself die happy! You do not know what a lucky find you have made in me. I will put an end to your childlessness and cause you to have children, for I know the medicines to do it.
AEGEUS:
Dear woman, for many reasons [720] I am eager to grant you this favor: first, for the sake of the gods, then for the children you promise I will have. For, on account of that, I am completely undone. But here is how matters stand with me: if you come to my country, I will in justice try to act as your protector. [725] This much, however, I tell you in advance: I will not consent to take you from this land. But if you manage by yourself to come to my house, you may stay there in safety, and I will never give you up to anyone. You must go on your own, then, from this land. [730] I wish to be blameless in the eyes of my hosts as well.
MEDEA:
It will be so. But if you were to give me a promise of this, I would have all that I could want from you.
AEGEUS:
Do you not trust me? What is your difficulty?
MEDEA:
I trust you. But [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary]' house is hostile to me, [735] and [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary] as well. If you are bound by an oath, you will not give me up to them when they come to take me out of the country. But if you have made an agreement in mere words and have not sworn by the gods, you might become their friend and comply with diplomatic requests. For I am weak, [740] while they have wealth and royal power.
AEGEUS:
You have shown much prudence in your speech. Well, if you like, I do not object to doing this. Not only is this plan safer for me, since I can show your enemies some pretext, [745] but your own case is more secure. Name the gods I must swear by.
MEDEA:
Swear by the plain of [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary], by [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary], my grandfather, and by the whole race of gods all together.
AEGEUS:
To do what or to refrain from what? You must say.
MEDEA:
That you yourself will never banish me from your land [750] and that, if any of my enemies ask to take me, you will not willingly give me up as long as you live.
AEGEUS:
I swear by [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary], by the holy light of [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary], and by all the gods that I will do as I have heard from your lips.
MEDEA:
That is good. But what punishment do you call down on yourself if you do not abide by your oath?
AEGEUS:
[755] The punishment that befalls the impious among mortals.
MEDEA:
Go your way with joy. For all is well, and I shall come to your city as soon as I can, when I have accomplished what I intend and gained what I wish. Exit [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] by Eisodos A
CHORUS LEADER:
May [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1086"]Maia[/pb_glossary]'s son, patron of travellers, [760] bring you safely to your house, and may you accomplish what you have set your heart on, [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], since in my eyes you are a generous man.
MEDEA:
O [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]' justice, o light of the sun, [765] now, my friends, I shall be victorious over my enemies: I have set my foot on the path. Now I may confidently expect that my enemies will pay the penalty. For this man, at the very point where I was most in trouble, has appeared as a harbor for my plans: [770] to him will I tie my cable when I go to the city of [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]. Now I will tell you all of my plans. Hear, then, words that will give you no pleasure. I will send one of my servants and ask [775] [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] to come to see me. When he arrives, I will speak soothing words to him, saying that I hold the same opinion as he, that the royal marriage he has made by abandoning me is well made, that these are beneficial and good decisions. [780] I will ask that the children be allowed to stay, not with the thought that I might leave my children behind on hostile soil for my enemies to insult, but so that I may kill the princess by guile. I will send them bearing gifts, [785] [bearing them to the bride so as not to be exiled,] a finely-woven gown and a diadem of beaten gold. If she takes this finery and puts it on, she will die a painful death, and likewise anyone who touches her: with such poisons will I smear these gifts. [790] This subject, however, I now leave behind. Ah me, I groan at what a deed I must do next. I will kill my children: there is no one who can rescue them. [795] When I have utterly confounded the whole house of [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], I will leave the land, in flight from the murder of my own dear sons, having committed a most unholy deed. The laughter of one's enemies is unendurable, my friends. Let that be as it will. What do I gain by living? I have no fatherland, no house and no means to turn aside misfortune. [800] My mistake was when I left my father's house, persuaded by the words of a Greek. This man—a god being my helper—will pay the price of his deeds to me. He will never from this day see his children by me alive, nor will he have children [805] by his new bride since that wretch must die a wretched death by my poisons. Let no one think of me as weak, contemptible, untroublesome. No, quite the opposite: hurtful to foes, to friends kindly. [810] Such people live a life of greatest glory.
CHORUS LEADER:
Since you have shared this plan with me, and since I wish to help you and uphold the laws of society, I urge you not to do this deed.
MEDEA:
It cannot be otherwise. I excuse you for speaking [815] thus since you have not suffered as I have.
CHORUS LEADER:
Yet will you bring yourself to kill your own offspring, woman?
MEDEA:
It is the way to hurt my husband most.
CHORUS LEADER:
And for yourself to become the most wretched of women.
MEDEA:
Be that as it may. Until then all talk is superfluous. (To the Nurse) [820] But you, go and fetch [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] (for I use your service on all errands of trust). Tell him nothing of my intentions, if you are loyal to your mistress and a woman. Exit Nurse by Eisodos B, Medea into the house.
CHORUS:
From ancient times the sons of [pb_glossary id="1599"]Erechtheus[/pb_glossary] have been favored; [825] they are children of the blessed gods sprung from a holy land never pillaged by the enemy. They feed on wisdom most glorious, always stepping gracefully [830] through the bright air, where once, they say, the nine Pierian [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary] gave birth to fair-haired [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary]. [835] Legend tells that [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], filling her pail at the streams of the Cephisus, blew down upon the land temperate [840] and sweetly blowing breezes. And, always dressing her hair with a fragrant garland of roses, she sends the Loves [ [pb_glossary id="947"]Erotes[/pb_glossary] ] to sit at Wisdom's side, [845] joint workers in every kind of excellence. How then will this city of holy rivers, or this land that walks at the side of gods, host you, the killer of your children, stained with their blood, [850] in the company of her citizens? Think about the slaying of your children, think what slaughter you are committing! Do not, we beg you by your knees and in every way we can, [855] do not kill your children! How will you summon up the strength of purpose or the courage of hand and heart to dare this dreadful deed? [860] When you have turned your eyes upon your children, how will you behold their fate with tearless eyes? When your children fall as suppliants at your feet, you will not be able to drench your hand in their blood [865] with a hardened heart. Enter Medea from the house, then [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] by Eisodos B accompanied by the Nurse.
JASON:
I have come at your request. For though you hate me, you will not fail to obtain a hearing from me. What more do you want from me, woman?
MEDEA:
[pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], I beg you to forgive [870] what I said: it is reasonable for you to put up with my anger since many acts of love have passed between us in the past. I have talked with myself and reproached myself thus: ‘Foolish creature, why am I raving and fighting those who plan things for the best? [875] Why am I making myself an enemy to the rulers of this land and to my husband, who is acting in my interests by marrying a princess and fathering brothers for my children? Will I not cease from my wrath (what has come over me?) when the gods are being so kind? [880] Do I not have children? Is it not true that we are exiles and in need of friends?’ These reflections have made me realize that I was being very foolish and was being angry for nothing. So now I approve and I agree that you are acting with sober sense [885] by contracting this marriage-alliance for us. It is I who am the fool, since I should be sharing in your plans, helping you carry them out, standing by the marriage-bed, and taking joy in the match I was making with your bride. But we women are, I will not say bad creatures, [890] but we are what we are. So you should not imitate our nature or return our childishness with childishness. I give in: I admit that I was foolish then, but now I have taken a better view of the matter. Children, children, come here, leave the house, [895] come out. The children enter from the house with the Tutor. Greet your father, speak to him with me, and join your mother in making an end to our former hostility against one dear to us. We have made a truce, and our anger has vanished. Take his right hand. Ah, how I think [900] of something the future keeps hidden! My children, will you continue all your lives long to stretch out your dear hands so? Unhappy me! How prone to tears I am, how full of foreboding. And as I now at long last make up the quarrel with your father, [905] my tender eyes are filled with tears.
CHORUS LEADER:
(Darkly) From my eyes too a pale tear starts. May misfortune go no further than it has!
JASON:
I approve of this, woman. Nor do I blame your earlier resentment. For it is natural for a woman to get angry [910] when a marriage of a different sort presents itself to the husband. But your thoughts have changed for the better, and though it took time, you have recognized the superior plan. These are the acts of a prudent woman. Children, your father has given anxious thought [915] and has secured for you—with the gods' help—abundant prosperity. I think that some day with your new brothers you will hold the very first place in the land of Corinth. But grow to manhood. The rest your father will see to, with the help of whatever god it is that smiles on him. [920] May I see you as fine strapping lads coming to young manhood, victorious over my enemies! Medea turns away weeping. You there, why do you dampen your eyes with pale tears and turn your white cheek away, and why are you not pleased to hear these words from me?
MEDEA:
[925] It is nothing. I was thinking about the children.
JASON:
But why, poor soul, do you lament over these children?
MEDEA:
I gave birth to them, and when you prayed that they might live, I felt pity for them wondering whether this would be.
JASON:
Have no fear! I will take good care of that.
MEDEA:
[927] I will do so. I will not distrust your words. But a woman is by nature female and prone to tears. But of the reasons for our conversation, some have been spoken of, others I will mention now. The rulers of this land have resolved to exile me— [935] and it is all for the best for me, I am well aware, that I do not stay where I am in your way or that of the country's rulers, for I am thought to be an enemy to this house. Therefore I, for my part, will leave this land in exile. But in order that the children may be raised by you, [940] beg [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary] that they not be sent into exile.
JASON:
I don't know whether I will win him over, but I must try.
MEDEA:
Well, then, tell your wife to ask her father that the children not be exiled.
JASON:
Most certainly, and I think I will persuade her.
MEDEA:
[945] Yes, if she is a woman like the rest. But I too will lend a hand in this. I will send her gifts, gifts I know well are more beautiful by far than any now among mortals [a finely-woven gown and a diadem of beaten gold] [950] by the hand of my children. (To her servants) One of you servants, quick, bring the garment out to me. One of the servants goes into the house. (To [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary]) She will have not one happiness but countless, getting in you an excellent husband to share her bed and possessing clothes which my grandfather [955] [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] gave to his descendants. The servant returns with the gifts. Take this bridal dowry, children, into your hands. Take and give it to the happy royal bride. It will be no hated gift that she receives.
JASON:
Silly woman, why do you deprive yourself of these things? [960] Do you think the royal house needs gowns or gold? Keep them, don't give them away. For if my wife holds me in any regard, she will value my wishes more highly than wealth, I am quite sure.
MEDEA:
Not a word! They say gifts win over even the gods, [965] and gold is more to mortals than ten thousand words. Her star is on the rise [heaven is enhancing her lot, she is young and on the throne]. And to free my children from exile I would give my life, not merely gold. Now, children, when you have entered the rich palace, [970] entreat your father's new wife, my mistress, and beg her that you not be exiled. And give her the clothes: this is the most important thing, that she receives the gifts into her hands. Go with all speed. And may you have success [975] and bring back to your mother the good news she longs to hear. Exit [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] and children, accompanied by the Tutor and the Nurse, by Eisodos B.
CHORUS:
Now no longer can I hope that the children will live, no longer. For already they are walking the road to murder. The bride will accept, will accept, unhappy woman, ruin in the form of a golden diadem; [980] about her fair hair with her own hand she will place the finery of [pb_glossary id="357"]Death[/pb_glossary]. Their charm and heavenly gleam will entice her to put on the gown and the circlet of fashioned gold. [985] But the bridal bed she lies in will be among the dead. Such is the trap, such the death, she will fall into. She will not escape destruction. [990] And you, unlucky bridegroom, married into the house of kings, completely unaware, you bring destruction upon your children's life and upon your wife a dreadful death. [995] Unhappy man, how wrong you were about your destiny. Your sorrows next I mourn, unhappy mother of the children, who mean to kill your sons because of your marriage-bed. [1000] Your husband wickedly abandoned it and now lives with another as his wife. Enter the Tutor with the children by Eisodos B.
TUTOR:
My lady, your sons here have been saved from exile, and the princess has been pleased to take the gifts into her hands. From that forgiveness, the children have peace. Medea turns away and weeps. Ah! [1005] Why are you standing in distress when your fortune is good? [Why have you turned your face away and why do you show no pleasure at this news?]
MEDEA:
Alas!
TUTOR:
This is not in tune with my news.
MEDEA:
Alas once more!
TUTOR:
Do I in ignorance report some mishap [1010] and wrongly think my news is good?
MEDEA:
You have reported what you have reported. I find no fault with you.
TUTOR:
Why then is your face downcast? Why do you weep?
MEDEA:
I have every reason, old man. The gods, and I in my madness, have contrived it so.
TUTOR:
[1015] Cheer up: one day your children will bring you home.
MEDEA:
Before that there are others I will bring home, wretch that I am.
TUTOR:
You are not the only woman to be separated from her children. We mortals must bear misfortune with resignation.
MEDEA:
I will do so. But go into the house [1020] and provide the children with their daily needs. Exit Tutor into the house. My children, my children, you have a city and a home, in which, leaving your poor mother behind, you will live from now on, without me. But I will go to another land as an exile [1025] before I have the enjoyment of you and see you happy, before I have tended to your baths and wives and marriage-beds and held the wedding-torches aloft. How wretched my stubbornness has made me! It was all in vain, I see, that I brought you up, [1030] all in vain that I labored and was wracked with toils, enduring harsh pains in childbirth. Truly, many were the hopes that I, poor fool, once had in you, that you would tend me in my old age and when I died dress me for burial with your own hands, [1035] an enviable fate for mortals. But now this sweet imagining has perished. For without you I will live out my life in pain and grief. And you will no longer see your mother with loving eyes but pass into another manner of life. [1040] Oh! What is the meaning of your glance at me, children? Why do you smile at me this last smile of yours? Alas, what am I to do? My courage is gone, women, ever since I saw the bright faces of the children. I cannot do it. Farewell, my former [1045] plans! I will take my children out of the land. Why should I wound their father with their pain and win for myself pain twice as great? I will not: farewell, my plans! But what is coming over me? Do I wish to suffer mockery, [1050] letting my enemies go unpunished? Must I put up with that? No, it is mere weakness in me even to allow such tender words to enter my heart. Children, go into the house. Whoever is not permitted to attend my sacrifice [1055] will feel concern for them: I will not weaken my hand. [Oh! Do not, my angry heart, do not do these things. Let them go, hard-hearted wretch, spare the children. If they live with me in that other place [ [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] ], they will make you happy. By Hell's avenging [pb_glossary id="157"]Furies[/pb_glossary], [1060] I will never leave my children for my enemies to outrage. They must die in any case. And since they must, the one who gave them birth will kill them. These things are settled in any case and cannot be undone.] The children begin to move toward the house. [1065] Already the crown is on her head and the royal bride is perishing in the robe, I know it well. But—since I now go down the road of greatest misery and send these down one unhappier yet—I want to say farewell to the children. The children return to Medea. Give me [1070] your right hands to kiss, my children, give them to me. O hands and lips so dear to me, o noble face and bearing of my children, I wish you happiness—but in that other place. What is here, your father has taken away. Oh, how sweet is the touch, [1075] how tender the skin, how fragrant the breath of these children! Go in, go in. I can no longer look at you but am overwhelmed with my pain. And I know well what pain I am about to undergo, but my wrath overpowers my calculation, [1080] wrath that brings mortal men their gravest hurt. Exit the children into the house followed by Medea.
CHORUS LEADER:
Often before, I have engaged in discourses subtler, and entered contests greater, than are right for a woman to take part in. [1085] No, we too possess a muse, who consorts with us to bring us wisdom: not with all of us, for it is in some small group, one woman among many, that you will find with a share in the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muse[/pb_glossary]. [1090] I say that those mortals who are utterly without experience of children and have never borne them have the advantage in good fortune over those who have. For the childless, because they do not possess children [1095] and do not know whether they are a pleasure or a trouble to mortals, hold themselves distant from many griefs. But those who have in their house the sweet gift of children, them I see [1100] worn down their whole life with care: first, how they will raise their children well and how they may leave them some livelihood. And after that it is unclear whether all their labour is expended on worthless or worthy objects. [1105] But the last of all misfortunes for all mortals I will now mention. Suppose they have found a sufficient livelihood, suppose the children's bodies have arrived at young manhood and their character is good: yet if their destiny [1110] so chances, off goes death carrying the children's bodies to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. How then does it profit us that, for the sake of heirs, the gods cast upon mortals, in addition to their other troubles, [1115] this further grief most painful? Enter Medea from the house.
MEDEA:
My friends, for a long time now I have been expecting the event, waiting to see how matters in that quarter will turn out. And look, here I see one of [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary]'s servants coming. His agitated breathing [1120] shows that he is about to announce some fresh disaster. Enter Messenger by Eisodos B.
MESSENGER:
[You that have done a terrible deed unlawfully,] Medea, run for your life. Take ship, take chariot, and flee.
MEDEA:
What event calls for my fleeing thus?
MESSENGER:
[1125] The princess and her father [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary] have just been killed by your poisons.
MEDEA:
A splendid report you bring! From now on I will regard you as one of my benefactors and friends.
MESSENGER:
What? Can you be in your right mind and not mad, woman? [1130] Can you commit an outrage against the royal house, and then rejoice at the news and not be afraid?
MEDEA:
I too have something that I could say in reply to your words. Do not be hot and hasty, friend, but tell me: how did they die? You will give me [1135] twice the pleasure if they died in agony.
MESSENGER:
When your two children came with their father and entered the bride's house, all of us servants who were troubled by your misfortunes were glad. For our ears buzzed with the loud report [1140] that you and your husband had brought your former quarrel to an end. And someone kissed the hands and another the blond heads of the children. And I myself for very joy went along with the children into the women's quarters. Here the mistress we now honour instead of you, [1145] before she saw the two children, had eyes only for [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary]. Then she veiled her eyes and turned her white cheek away, disgusted at seeing the children come in. But your husband [1150] tried to take away the girl's angry mood and said, ‘You must not be unkind to your kin but must cease your anger and turn your face towards us again, finding those whom your husband finds near and dear, near and dear to yourself as well. Receive these gifts and ask your father [1155] to grant these children release from their exile for my sake.’ When she had seen the clothes, she immediately agreed to all her husband asked, and before your children and their father had gone far from the house, she took the multi-colored gown and put it on, [1160] and setting the gold crown on her hair, she arranged her hair in a bright mirror, smiling at the lifeless image of her body. And then getting up from her seat she paraded about the room, her white feet making dainty steps, [1165] entranced with the gifts, glancing back again and again at the straight tendon of her leg. But thereafter there was a terrible sight to behold. For her color changed, and with legs trembling she staggered back sidelong, and by falling on the chair [1170] barely escaped collapsing on the floor. And one old woman among the servants, thinking, I suppose, that a frenzy from [pb_glossary id="344"]Pan[/pb_glossary] or one of the other gods had come upon her, raised a loud shout to the god, until she saw the white foam coming between her lips and her eyes [1175] starting out of their sockets and her skin all pale and bloodless. Then indeed she raised a wail in answer to her former shout. And at once one servant went to her father's house, another to her new husband to tell of the bride's misfortune: the whole [1180] house rang with the sound of drumming footsteps. And by now a sprinter, putting his legs in swift motion, would be reaching the finish-line of the two-hundred-yard course, when the poor woman wakened from her silence, opened her eyes, and gave forth a terrible groan. [1185] For she was being attacked with a double pain. The golden circlet about her head shot forth a terrible stream of consuming fire, and the fine-spun gown, gift of your sons, was eating into the wretched girl's white flesh. [1190] And all aflame she leapt from the chair and fled, tossing her hair this way and that, trying to shake off the diadem. But the gold crown held its fastenings firmly, and when she shook her hair, the fire only blazed up twice as high. [1195] She fell to the floor, overwhelmed by disaster, barely recognizable to any but her father. Her eyes no longer kept their usual form nor did her shapely face, and from the top of her head blood dripped, mingled with fire, [1200] and her flesh dropped from her bones like resin from a pine-torch, torn by the unseen jaws of the poison, a dreadful sight to behold. And we were all afraid to touch the corpse, taught well by the event we had seen. But her poor father, ignorant of the disaster, [1205] stumbled upon her body unprepared as he entered the chamber. And at once he groaned aloud and threw his arms about her, kissed her and said, ‘O unhappy child, which of the gods has destroyed you so shamefully and has robbed me of you, me, an old man [1210] at death's door? Oh, may I die with you, my child!’ But when he had stopped wailing and lamenting and wished to raise up his aged body to his feet, he stuck fast to the fine-spun dress, as ivy clings to laurel-shoots, and a terrible wrestling ensued. [1215] For he wanted to rise to his knees, but she held him tight and prevented him. And if he used force, he would rip his aged flesh from his bones. Finally the poor man gave up and breathed his last, for he could not overcome the disaster. [1220] They lie dead, the daughter and her old father [nearby, a disaster that calls for tears] As for your fate, I will say nothing: you will know soon enough the punishment that will visit you. As for our mortal life, this is not the first time that I have thought it to be a shadow, [1225] and I would say without any fear that those mortals who seem to be clever and workers-up of polished speeches are guilty of the greatest folly. For no mortal ever attains to blessedness. One may be luckier than another [1230] when wealth flows his way, but never blessed. Exit Messenger by Eisodos B.
CHORUS:
It seems that fate is this day fastening calamity on [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], and with justice. [O poor woman, daughter of [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary], how we pity your misfortune: because of your marriage to [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] [1235] you have departed to the halls of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary].]
MEDEA:
My friends, my resolve is fixed on the deed, to kill my children with all speed and to flee from this land: I must not, by lingering, deliver my children for murder to a less kindly hand. [1240] They must die at all events, and since they must I, who gave birth to them, will kill them. Come, put on your armor, my heart. Why do I put off doing the terrible deed that must be done? Come, wretched hand, take the sword, [1245] take it and go to your life's miserable goal. Do not weaken, do not remember that you love the children, that you gave them life. Instead, for this brief day forget them—and mourn after: for even if you kill them, [1250] they were dear to you. Oh, what an unhappy woman I am! Exit Medea into the house.
CHORUS:
O earth, O ray of the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary] that lightens all, turn your gaze, O turn it to this ruinous woman before she lays her bloody murderous hands upon her children! [1255] They are sprung from your race of gold, and it is a fearful thing for the blood of a god to be spilt upon the ground by the hands of mortal men. O light begotten of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], check the cruel and murderous [pb_glossary id="157"]Fury[/pb_glossary], take her from this house [1260] plagued by spirits of vengeance. The labour of bearing your children has come to naught, it was to no purpose that you birthed your dear offspring, you who left behind the inhospitable strait where the dark-blue [pb_glossary id="1950"]Symplegades[/pb_glossary] clash. [1265] O unhappy woman, why does anger fall so heavy upon your mind and one rash murder follow another? Terrible for mortals is the stain of kindred blood. For the murderers are dogged by woes equal to their deeds, [1270] sent by the gods upon their houses.
FIRST CHILD:
(Within) Help!
CHORUS:
Do you hear the cry, the children's cry? O wretched and accursed woman!
FIRST CHILD:
Oh, what shall I do? How can I escape my mother's hands?
SECOND CHILD:
I know not, dear brother. We are done for.
CHORUS:
[1275] Should I enter the house? I am determined to stop the death of the children.
FIRST CHILD:
Yes, in heaven's name, stop it! Now is the time.
SECOND CHILD:
We are now close to the snare of the sword.
CHORUS:
[1280] Hard-hearted wretch, you are, it seems, a stone or a piece of iron. You mean to kill the children you gave birth to with a fate your own hand deals out. One woman, only one, of all that have been, have I heard of who put her hand to her own children: [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] driven mad by the gods when [1285] [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] sent her forth to wander in madness from the house. The unhappy woman fell into the sea, impiously murdering her children. Stepping over the sea's edge, she perished with her two children. [1290] What possible further horror now remains? O womankind and marriage fraught with pain, how many are the troubles you have already created for mortal men! Enter [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] by Eisodos B.
JASON:
You women who stand near the house, is Medea inside, she who has done these dreadful deeds, [1295] or has she fled? She will have to hide herself beneath the earth or soar aloft to heaven if she is not going to surrender to the royal house. Does she think that having killed this land's ruling family [1300] she will escape from this house unscathed? But it is not so much about her that I am concerned, as about the children. She will be punished by those she has wronged, but I have come to save my children's life, that no harm may come to them from the next of kin, [1305] avenging on them their mother's impious crime.
CHORUS LEADER:
Poor [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], you have no idea how far gone you are in misfortune, or else you would not have spoken these words.
JASON:
What is it? Surely she does not mean to kill me as well?
CHORUS LEADER:
Your children are dead, killed by their mother's hand.
JASON:
[1310] What can you mean? You have destroyed me, woman.
CHORUS LEADER:
You must realize that your children are no more.
JASON:
Where did she kill them? In the house or outside?
CHORUS LEADER:
Open the gates and you will see your slaughtered sons.
JASON:
Servants, remove the bar at once [1315] so that I may see a double disaster, these children's corpses I may exact punishment. [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] tries to open the doors of the house. Medea appears aloft in a winged chariot upon the mechane [crane], which rises from behind the skene [backdrop].
MEDEA:
Why do you rattle these gates and try to unbar them, in search of the corpses and me who did the deed? Stop your labour. If you need anything from me, [1320] speak if you like. But your hand can never touch me: such is the chariot [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] my grandfather has given me to ward off a hostile hand.
JASON:
O detestable creature, utterly hateful to the gods, to me, and to the whole human race, [1325] you brought yourself to take the sword to your own children and destroyed my life with childlessness! And having done this can you look on the sun and the earth, when you are guilty of a most abominable deed? Death and ruin seize you! Now I am in my right mind, though I was insane before [1330] when I brought you from your home among the barbarians to a Greek house. A great curse you were even then, betrayer of father and of the land that nourished you. But the avenging spirit meant for you, the gods have visited on me. For you killed your own brother at the hearth [1335] and then stepped aboard the fair-prowed [pb_glossary id="1823"]Argo[/pb_glossary]. It was with acts like these that you began. But now when you were married to me and had borne me children, you killed them because of sex and the marriage-bed. No Greek woman [1340] would have dared to do this, yet I married you in preference to them, and a hateful and destructive match it has proved. You are a she-lion, not a woman, with a nature more savage than [pb_glossary id="1832"]Scylla[/pb_glossary] the Tuscan monster. But since ten thousand insults of mine would fail [1345] to sting you—such is your native impudence—be gone, doer of disgraceful deeds and murderer of your children! Mine is a fate to bewail: I will never have the benefit of my new bride, nor will I be able to speak to my children alive, [1350] the children I fathered and raised, but have lost them.
MEDEA:
Long would have been the speech I had made in reply to these words of yours if Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] did not know clearly what kind of treatment you have had from me and how you have repaid it. You were not going to cast aside my bed [1355] and then spend a pleasant life laughing at me, no, nor the princess either, nor was [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary], who offered you his daughter, going to exile me with impunity. Call me a she-lion, then, if you like, and [pb_glossary id="1832"]Scylla[/pb_glossary], dweller on the Tuscan cliff. [1360] For I have touched your heart in the vital spot.
JASON:
Yes, and you also have grief and are a sharer in my misfortune.
MEDEA:
Of course, but the pain is worthwhile if you cannot mock me.
JASON:
Children, what an evil mother you got.
MEDEA:
Children, how you have perished by your father's fault.
JASON:
[1365] It was not my hand, you know, that killed them.
MEDEA:
No: it was the outrage of your new marriage.
JASON:
Did you really think it right to kill them because of a marriage?
MEDEA:
Do you imagine that loss of love is a trivial grief for a woman?
JASON:
For a woman of sense, yes. But you find everything a disaster.
MEDEA:
[1370] But the children are dead: this will wound you to the core.
JASON:
They live, alas, as spirits to take vengeance on your crimes.
MEDEA:
The gods know who struck the first blow.
JASON:
Yes, they do indeed know your horrible heart.
MEDEA:
Hate on! I detest the hateful sound of your voice.
JASON:
[1375] And I of yours. To part will be easy.
MEDEA:
How? What will I do? For that is very much my wish as well.
JASON:
Allow me to bury these dead children and to mourn them.
MEDEA:
Certainly not. I will bury them with my own hand, taking them to the sanctuary of [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] Akraia, [1380] so that none of my enemies may outrage them by tearing up their graves. And I will enjoin on this land of [pb_glossary id="1213"]Sisyphus[/pb_glossary] a solemn festival and holy rites for all time to come in payment for this unholy murder. As for myself, I will go to the land of [pb_glossary id="1599"]Erechtheus[/pb_glossary] [1385] to live with [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1756"]Pandion[/pb_glossary]. But you, as is fitting, will die the miserable death of a coward, struck on the head by a piece of the [pb_glossary id="1823"]Argo[/pb_glossary], having seen the bitter result of your marriage to me.
JASON:
May the [pb_glossary id="157"]Fury[/pb_glossary] that punishes your children's death, and [1390] Justice the murderous, destroy you utterly!
MEDEA:
What god or power above will listen to you, who broke your oath and deceived a stranger?
JASON:
Pah! Unclean wretch! Child-murderer!
MEDEA:
Go home! Bury your wife!
JASON:
[1395] Yes—robbed of my two sons—I go.
MEDEA:
Your mourning has yet to begin. Wait until old age.
JASON:
O children most dear.
MEDEA:
Yes, to their mother, not to you.
JASON:
And so you killed them?
MEDEA:
Yes, to cause you grief.
JASON:
Alas, how I long for the dear faces of my children, [1400] to enfold them in my arms.
MEDEA:
Now you speak to them, now you greet them, when before you pushed them away from you.
JASON:
By the gods, I beg you, let me touch the tender flesh of my children!
MEDEA:
It cannot be. Your words are spoken in vain.
JASON:
[1405] [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], do you hear this, how I am driven away and what treatment I endure from this unclean, child-murdering monster? But with all the strength I have, I make my lament and invoke the gods, [1410] calling the heavenly powers to witness that you killed my sons and now forbid me to touch them or to bury their bodies. Oh, I wish I had never had them, never seen them dead at your hands! Medea with the corpses of her children is borne aloft away from Corinth. Exit [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] by Eisodos B.
CHORUS LEADER:
[1415] [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] on [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] has many things in his treasure-house, and many are the things the gods accomplish against our expectation. What men expect is not brought to pass, but a god finds a way to achieve the unexpected. Such is the outcome of this story. Exit Chorus by Eisodos B. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0114%3Acard%3D1

Ovid on Medea

The story of Medea and Jason was a favourite of the Roman poet Ovid. We have two extensive treatments of the myth by him that survive: one from his epic poem, the Metamorphoses, that details the events from their meeting in Colchis through Medea's flight to Athens; and another from his collection of poems called the Heroides, a series of hypothetical letters from famous mythological heroines to their male lovers. The Heroides poem, Medea to Jason, focuses on Medea's reaction to the news that Jason is divorcing her in order to marry the princess of Corinth. One of the texts that has been lost to time is Ovid's tragic play, the Medea.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 7 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

In this section from the seventh book of the Metamorphoses, Ovid describes the first meeting of Jason and Medea in Colchis, through the event in Corinth and Medea's flight to Athens.
[1-73] And now the [pb_glossary id="1836"]Argonauts[/pb_glossary] were ploughing through the sea in their ship, built in Thessalian Pagasae. They had visited Phineus, king of Thracian Salmydessus, living out a useless old age in perpetual blindness, and the winged sons of [pb_glossary id="1660"]Boreas[/pb_glossary] had driven the birdlike [pb_glossary id="341"]Harpies[/pb_glossary] from the presence of the unhappy, aged man. At last, after enduring many trials, under their famous leader, [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], they reached the turbulent river-waters of the muddy Phasis, in the land of Colchis. While they were standing before King [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeëtes[/pb_glossary], of Aea, requesting the return of the [pb_glossary id="1824"]Golden Fleece[/pb_glossary], taken from the divine ram that carried [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary], and while extreme terms were being imposed, involving daunting tasks, Medea, the daughter of the king, conceived an overwhelming passion for [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary]. She fought against it for a time, but when reason could not overcome desire, she debated with herself. ‘Medea, you struggle in vain: some god, I do not know which, opposes you. I wonder if this, or something, like this, is what people indeed call love? Or why would the tasks my father demands of [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] seem so hard? They are more than hard! Why am I afraid of his death, when I have scarcely seen him? What is the cause of all this fear? Quench, if you can, unhappy girl, these flames that you feel in your virgin heart! If I could, I would be wiser! But a strange power draws me to him against my will. Love urges one thing: reason another. I see, and I desire the better: I follow the worse. Why do you burn for a stranger, royal virgin, and dream of marriage in an alien land? This earth can also give you what you can love. Whether he lives or dies, is in the hands of the gods. Let him live! I can pray for this even if I may not love him: what is [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] guilty of? Who, but the heartless, would not be touched by [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary]’s youth, and birth, and courage? Who, though the other qualities were absent, could not be stirred by his beauty? "He has stirred my heart, indeed. And unless I offer my help, he will feel the fiery breath of the bronze-footed bulls; have to meet that enemy, sprung from the soil, born of his own sowing [ the [pb_glossary id="1830"]Spartoi[/pb_glossary] ]; or be given as captured prey to the dragon’s greed. If I allow this, then I am born of the tigress: then I show I have a heart of stone and iron! Why can I not watch him die, and shame my eyes by seeing? Why do I not urge the bulls on, to meet him, and the wild earth-born warriors, and the unsleeping dragon? Let the gods also desire the better! Though it is not for me to pray for, but to bring about. Shall I betray my father’s country? Shall some stranger be saved by my powers, and unhurt because of me, without me, set his sails to the wind, and be husband to another, leaving Medea to be punished? If he could do that, if he could set another woman above me, let him die, the ungrateful man! But his look, his nobility of spirit, and his graceful form, do not make me fear deceit or forgetfulness of my kindness. And he will give me his word beforehand, and I will gather the gods to witness our pledge. Why fear when it is certain? Prepare yourself, and dispel all delay: [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] will be forever in your debt, take you to himself in sacred marriage, and through the cities of Pelasgian Greece, the crowds of women will glorify you as his saviour. Carried by the winds, shall I leave my native country, my sister, my brother, my father, and my gods? Well then, my father is barbarous, and my country is savage, and my brother is still a child: my sister’s prayers are for me, and the greatest god is within! I will not be leaving greatness behind, but pursuing greatness: honour as a saviour of these [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaean[/pb_glossary] people, familiarity with a better land and with cities whose fame is flourishing even here, the culture and arts of those places, and the man, the son of [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary], for whom I would barter those things that the wide world owns, joined to whom I will be called fortunate, dear to the gods, and my head will be crowned with the stars. What of the stories of mountains that clash together in mid-ocean, and [pb_glossary id="1833"]Charybdis[/pb_glossary] the bane of sailors, now sucking in, now spewing out the sea, and ravenous dog-headed [pb_glossary id="1832"]Scylla[/pb_glossary], yelping over the Sicilian deeps? Well, holding what I love, clinging to [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary]’s breast, I shall be carried over the wide seas: in his arms, I will fear nothing, or if I am afraid, I will only be afraid for him. But do you call that marriage, Medea, and clothe your fault with fair names? Consider instead, how great a sin you are near to, and while you can, shun the crime!" She spoke, and in front of her eyes were rectitude, piety, modesty: and now, [pb_glossary id="947"]Cupid[/pb_glossary], defeated, was turning away. [74-99] She went to the ancient altars of [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary], daughter of the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titan[/pb_glossary] Perses, that the shadowy grove conceals, in the remote forest. And now she was strong and her passion, now conquered, had ebbed, when she saw the son of [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary] and the flame that was dead, relit. Her cheeks flushed, and then her whole face became pale. Just as a tiny spark that lies buried under the ashes, takes life from a breath of air, and grows and, living, regains its previous strength, so now her calmed passion, that you would have thought had dulled, when she saw the young hero, flared up at his visible presence. It just happened that [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary]’s son was more than usually handsome that day: you could forgive her for loving him. She gazed at him, and fixed her eyes on him as if she had never looked at him before, and in her infatuation, seeing his face, could not believe him mortal, nor could she turn away. So that when, indeed, the stranger grasped her right hand, and began to speak, and in a submissive voice asked for her help, promising marriage, she replied in a flood of tears. ‘I see what I am doing: it is not ignorance of the truth that ensnares me, but love. Your salvation is in my gift, but being saved, remember your promise!’ He swore by the sacred rites of the Triple Goddess [ [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary] ], by the divine presence of the grove, by the all-seeing [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary], who was the father of King [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeëtes[/pb_glossary], his father-in-law to be, and by his own good fortune, and by his great danger. Immediately, as he was now trusted, he accepted the magic herbs from her, and learnt their use, and returned to the palace, joyfully. [100-158] The next day’s dawn dispelled the glittering stars. Then the people gathered on the sacred field of [pb_glossary id="179"]Mars[/pb_glossary] and took up their position on the ridge. The king was seated in the middle, clothed in purple, and distinguished by his ivory sceptre. Behold, the bronze-footed bulls, breathing [pb_glossary id="356"]Vulcan[/pb_glossary]’s fire from nostrils of steel. At the touch of their heat the grass shrivels, and as stoked fires roar, or as broken limestone, that has absorbed the heat inside an earthen furnace, hisses explosively, when cool water is scattered over it, so the flames sounded, pent up in their heaving chests and burning throats. Still the son of [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary] went out to meet them. As he came to them, the fierce creatures, with their iron-tipped horns, turned their terrible gaze towards him, pawed the dusty ground with their cloven feet, and filled the air with the steam of their bellowing. The Minyans were frozen in fear. He went up to the bulls, not feeling their fiery breath (so great is the power of magic drugs!), and stroking their hanging dewlaps, with a bold hand, yoked them together, and forced them to pull the heavy blade, and till the virgin field with the iron plough. The Colchians were stunned, but the [pb_glossary id="1836"]Argonauts[/pb_glossary] increased their shouting, and heightened his courage. Then he took the dragon’s teeth from the bronze helmet, and scattered them over the turned earth. The soil softened the seeds that had been steeped in virulent poison, and they sprouted, and the teeth, freshly sown, produced new bodies. As an embryo takes on human form in the mother’s womb, and is fully developed there in every aspect, not emerging to the living air until it is complete, so when those shapes of men had been made in the bowels of the pregnant earth, they surged from the teeming soil, and, what is even more wonderful, clashed weapons, created with them. The Pelasgians’ faces fell in fear, and their courage failed them, when they saw these warriors preparing to hurl their sharp spears, at the head of the Haemonian hero. She also, who had rendered him safe, was afraid. When she saw the solitary youth attacked by so many enemies, she grew pale, and sat there, suddenly cold and bloodless. And in case the herbs she had given him had not been potent enough, she chanted a spell to support them, and called on her secret arts. He threw a boulder into the midst of his enemies, and this turned their attack, on him, against themselves. The earth-born brothers died at each other’s hands, and fell as in civil war. The [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary] cheered, and clung to the victor, and hugged him in eager embraces. You also, princess among the Barbarians, longed to hold the victorious man: but modesty prevented it. Still, you might have held him, but concern for your reputation stopped you from doing so. What you might fittingly do you did, rejoicing silently, giving thanks, for your incantations, and the gods who inspired them. The final task was to put the dragon to sleep with the magic drugs. Known for its crest, its triple tongues and curved fangs, it was the dread guardian of the tree’s gold. But when [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] had sprinkled it with the Lethean[footnote]Adjective derived from the river Lethe, a river of the Underworld associated with forgetfulness and drowsiness.[/footnote] juice of a certain herb, and three times repeated the words that bring tranquil sleep, that calm the rough seas and turbulent rivers, sleep came to those sleepless eyes, and the heroic son of [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary] gained the Golden Fleece. Proud of his prize, and taking with him a further prize, the one who had helped him gain it, the hero, and his wife Medea, returned to the harbour at Iolchos. [159-178] The elderly Haemonian mothers and fathers bring offerings to mark their sons’ return, and melt incense heaped in the flames. The sacrifice, with gilded horns, that they have dedicated, is led in and killed. But [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary] is absent from the rejoicing, now near death, and weary with the long years. Then [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], his son, said ‘O my wife, to whom I confess I owe my life, though you have already given me everything, and the total of all your kindnesses is beyond any promises we made, let your incantations, if they can (what indeed can they not do?) reduce my own years and add them to my father’s!’ He could not restrain his tears. Medea was moved by the loving request, and the contrast with [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeëtes[/pb_glossary], abandoned by her, came to mind. Yet, not allowing herself to be affected by such thoughts, she answered ‘Husband, what dreadful words have escaped your lips? Do you think I can transfer any part of your life to another? [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary] would not allow it: nor is yours a just request. But I will try to grant a greater gift than the one you ask for, [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary]. If only the Triple Goddess [ [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary] ] will aid me, and give her assent in person to this great act of daring, I will attempt to renew your father’s length of years, without need for yours.’ [179-233] Three nights were lacking before the moon’s horns met, to make their complete orb. When it was shining at its fullest, and gazed on the earth, with perfect form, Medea left the palace, dressed in unclasped robes. Her feet were bare, her unbound hair streamed down, over her shoulders, and she wandered, companionless, through midnight’s still silence. Men, beasts, and birds were freed in deep sleep. There were no murmurs in the hedgerows: the still leaves were silent, in silent, dew-filled, air. Only the flickering stars moved. Stretching her arms to them she three times turned herself about, three times sprinkled her head, with water from the running stream, three times let out a wailing cry, then knelt on the hard earth, and prayed: ‘Night, most faithful keeper of our secret rites; Stars, that, with the golden moon, succeed the fires of light; Triple [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary], you who know all our undertakings, and come, to aid the witches’ art, and all our incantations: You, [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary], who yield the sorceress herbs of magic force: You, airs and breezes, pools and hills, and every watercourse; Be here; all you Gods of Night, and Gods of Groves endorse. Streams, at will, by banks amazed, turn backwards to their source. I calm rough seas, and stir the calm by my magic spells: bring clouds, disperse the clouds, raise storms and storms dispel; and, with my incantations, I break the serpent’s teeth; and root up nature’s oaks, and rocks, from their native heath; and move the forests, and command the mountain tops to shake, earth to groan, and from their tombs the sleeping dead to wake. You also, [pb_glossary id="1537"]Luna[/pb_glossary], I draw down, eclipsed, from heaven’s stain, though bronzes of Temese clash, to take away your pains; and at my chant, the chariot of the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary]-god, my grandsire, grows pale: [pb_glossary id="215"]Aurora[/pb_glossary], at my poisons, dims her morning fire. You quench the bulls’ hot flame for me: force their necks to bow, beneath the heavy yoke, that never pulled the curving plough: You turn the savage warfare, born of the serpent’s teeth, against itself, and lull the watcher, innocent of sleep; that guard deceived, bring golden spoil, to the towns of Greece. Now I need the juice by which old age may be renewed, that can regain the prime of years, return the flower of youth, and You will grant it. Not in vain, stars glittered in reply: not in vain, winged dragons bring my chariot, through the sky.’ There, sent from the sky, was her chariot. When she had mounted, stroked the dragons’ bridled necks, and shaken the light reins in her hands, she was snatched up on high. She looked down on Thessalian Tempe far below, and sent the dragons to certain places that she knew. She considered those herbs that grow on Mount Ossa, those of [pb_glossary id="2333"]Mount Pelion[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="781"]Othrys[/pb_glossary] and Pindus, and higher [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], and of those that pleased her, plucked some by the roots, and cut others, with a curved pruning-knife of bronze. Many she chose, as well, from the banks of the Apidanus. Many she chose, as well, from the Amphrysus. Nor did she omit the [pb_glossary id="2059"]Enipeus[/pb_glossary]. Peneus, and Spercheus’ waters gave something, and the reedy shores of Boebe. And at Anthedon, by Euboea, she picked a plant of long life, not yet famous for the change it made in Glaucus’ body.[footnote]Refers to a fisherman, whose story is recounted in books 13 and 14 of Ovid's Metamorphoses [/footnote]. [234-293] Then she returned, after nine days and nine nights surveying all the lands she had crossed, from her chariot, drawn by the winged dragons. The dragons had only smelt the herbs, yet they shed their skins of many years. Reaching her door and threshold, she stopped on the outside, and under the open sky, avoiding contact with any man, she set up two altars of turf, one on the right to [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary], one on the left to [pb_glossary id="1239"]Youth[/pb_glossary]. She wreathed them with sacred boughs from the wildwood, then dug two trenches near by in the earth, and performed the sacrifice, plunging her knife into the throat of a black-fleeced sheep, and drenching the wide ditches with blood. She poured over it cups of pure honey, and again she poured over it cups of warm milk, uttering words as she did so, calling on the spirits of the earth, and begging the shadowy king and his stolen bride, not to be too quick to steal life from the old man’s limbs. When she had appeased the gods by prayer and murmured a while, she ordered [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary]’s exhausted body to be carried into the air, and freeing him to deep sleep with her spells, she stretched him out like a corpse on a bed of herbs. She ordered [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], his son, to go far off, and the attendants to go far off, and warned them to keep profane eyes away from the mysteries. They went as she had ordered. Medea, with streaming hair, circled the burning altars, like a [pb_glossary id="887"]Bacchante[/pb_glossary], and dipping many-branched torches into the black ditches filled with blood, she lit them, once they were darkened, at the twin altars. Three times with fire, three times with water, three times with sulphur, she purified the old man. Meanwhile a potent mixture is heating in a bronze cauldron set on the flames, bubbling, and seething, white with turbulent froth. She boils there, roots dug from a Thessalian valley, seeds, flowerheads, and dark juices. She throws in precious stones searched for in the distant east, and sands that the ebbing tide of ocean washes. She adds hoar-frost collected by night under the moon, the wings and flesh of a vile screech-owl, and the slavering foam of a sacrificed were-wolf, that can change its savage features to those of a man. She does not forget the scaly skin of a thin Cinyphian water-snake, the liver of a long-lived stag, the eggs and the head of a crow that has lived for nine human life-times. With these, and a thousand other nameless things, the barbarian witch pursued her greater than mortal purpose. She stirred it all with a long-dry branch of a fruitful olive, mixing the depths with the surface. Look! The ancient staff turned in the hot cauldron, first grew green again, then in a short time sprouted leaves, and was, suddenly, heavily loaded with olives. And whenever the flames caused froth to spatter from the hollow bronze, and warm drops to fall on the earth, the soil blossomed, and flowers and soft grasses grew. As soon as she saw this, Medea unsheathed a knife, and cut the old man’s throat, and letting the old blood out, filled the dry veins with the juice. When [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary] had absorbed it, part through his mouth, and part through the wound, the white of his hair and beard quickly vanished, and a dark colour took its place. At a stroke his leanness went, and his pallor and dullness of mind. The deep hollows were filled with rounded flesh, and his limbs expanded. [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary] marvelled, recalling that this was his self of forty years ago. [294-349] [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary] saw this wondrous miracle from heaven’s heights, and realising from it, that the [pb_glossary id="217"]Nymphs[/pb_glossary] of [pb_glossary id="607"]Mount Nysa[/pb_glossary], who had nursed him, could have their youth restored, he secured that gift from the witch of Colchis. There was no end to her magic. Phasian Medea, pretending to a sham quarrel with her husband, fled as a suppliant to [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary]’ threshold, he who had usurped [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary]’s throne. There, the king’s daughters received her, since he himself was weighed down by the years. The lying Colchian soon won them over by a skillful show of friendship, and when she told them of one of her greatest gifts, the removal of [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary]’s many years, and lingered over it, hope was aroused in [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary]’ daughters that similar magic arts might rejuvenate their father. They begged her, and told her to set a price however great. She was silent for a moment, and appeared to hesitate, keeping the minds of her petitioners in suspense by a show of solemn pretence. When, eventually, she promised to do it, she said ‘To give you greater confidence in my gift, your oldest ram, the leader of your flocks, will by turned into a young lamb again, by my magic drugs.’ Straight away the woolly creature, worn out by innumerable years, was dragged forward, his horns curving round his hollow temples. When the witch had cut his wizened throat with her Thessalian knife, hardly staining the blade with blood, she immersed the sheep’s carcass in the bronze cauldron, along with her powerful magic herbs. These shrank its limbs, melted away its horns, and, with its horns, the years. A high-pitched bleating came from inside the vessel, and while they were wondering at the bleating, a lamb leapt out, and frisked away, seeking the udder and milk. [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary]’ daughters were stunned, and now the truth of her promise had been displayed, they insisted even more eagerly. Three times [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] had unyoked his horses, after their plunge into the western ocean, and on the fourth night the stars were glittering in all their radiance, when the deceitful daughter of [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeëtes[/pb_glossary] set clear water, and herbs, but ineffectual ones, over a blazing fire. And now the king and his guards also were deep in death-like sleep, achieved by her incantations and the power of her magic spells. The king’s daughters, at her command, crossed the threshold, with the Colchian witch, and stood around his bed. ‘Why do you hesitate, so timidly?’ she said. ‘Un-sheath your blades, and let out the old blood, so that I can fill the empty veins with new! Your father’s life and youth are in your hands. If you have any filial affection, if those are not vain hopes that stir you, render your father this service, banish old age with your weapons, and drive out his poisoned blood with a stroke of the iron blade!’ Urged on by these words, the more love each had for him, the quicker she was to act without love, and did evil, to avoid greater evil. Nevertheless they could not bear to see their own blows, and turned their eyes away, and with averted faces, wounded him blindly with cruel hands. Streaming blood, the old man still raised himself on his elbow, and, though mutilated, tried to rise from his bed. Stretching his pale hands out among the many weapons, he cried ‘Daughters, why are you doing this? What has made you take up weapons against your father’s life?’ Their strength and courage vanished. But as he was about to utter more words, the Colchian witch cut his throat, and plunged his torn body into the seething water. [350-403] She would not have escaped punishment had she not taken to the air, with her winged dragons. Through the high sky, clockwise, she fled, over the shadowy slopes of [pb_glossary id="2333"]Pelion[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary]’s home; over [pb_glossary id="781"]Othrys[/pb_glossary] and the places made famous by the ancient fate of Cerambus, who, aided by the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] and changed to a winged scarab beetle, lifted into the air, when the all-powerful sea drowned the solid earth, and so escaped un-drowned from Deucalion’s flood. She passed Aeolian Pitane on the left, with its huge stone serpent image, and [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary]’s grove where [pb_glossary id="371"]Liber[/pb_glossary] concealed, in the deceptive shape of a stag, the bullock stolen by his son. She passed the place where the father of Corythus, [pb_glossary id="317"]Paris[/pb_glossary], lay, buried under a little sand; and where [pb_glossary id="1840"]Hecuba[/pb_glossary], changed to a black dog of [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary], Maera, spread terror through the fields with her strange barking. She flew over Astypalaea, the city of [pb_glossary id="1941"]Eurypylus[/pb_glossary], where the women of the island, of Cos, acquired horns when they abused [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary], as he and his company departed: over Rhodes, beloved of [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary]: and the [pb_glossary id="1942"]Telchines[/pb_glossary] of the city of Ialysos on Rhodes, whose eyes corrupted everything they looked on, so that [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary], disgusted with them, sank them under his brother’s ocean waves. She passed the walls of ancient Carthaea, on the island of Ceos, where Alcidamas, as a father, would marvel, one day, that a peace-loving dove could spring from the body of his daughter, Ctesylla. Then she saw Lake Hyrie, and Cycnean Tempe, made famous suddenly by a swan. There Phylius, at the boy Cycnus’ command, brought him birds and a fierce lion he had tamed. Ordered to overcome a wild bull as well, he did overcome him, but angry that his love was rejected so often, he refused to grant this last gift of a bull, when asked. Cycnus, angered, said ‘You will wish you had’ and leapt from a high cliff. All thought he had fallen, but changed to a swan he beat through the air on white wings, though his mother, Hyrie, not knowing he was safe, pined away with weeping, and became the lake that carries her name. Near there was the city of Pleuron, where Combe the daughter of Ophius, on flickering wings, escaped death at the hands of her sons, the Aetolian Curetes. And then Medea looked down at the fields of Calaurea’s isle, sacred to [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], whose king and queen were also changed to birds. On her right was Cyllene, where Menephron lay with his mother, as though he were a wild beast. Further on she sees the Cephisus, the river-god lamenting his grandson’s fate, changed by [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] into a lumbering seal, and the home of Eumelus, mourning his son Botres, reborn as a bird, the bee-eater, in the air. At last, the dragon’s wings brought her to Corinth, the ancient Ephyre, and its Pirenian spring. Here, tradition says, that in earliest times, human bodies sprang from fungi, swollen by rain. After [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary]’s new bride [pb_glossary id="1829"]Glauce[/pb_glossary] had been consumed by the fires of vengeful Colchian witchcraft and both the Isthmus’ gulfs had witnessed flame consuming the king’s palace, Medea impiously bathed her sword in the blood of their sons. Then, after performing this evil act, she fled from [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary]’s wrath. Carried by her dragons that are born of the [pb_glossary id="1553"]Titans[/pb_glossary], she reached [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary]’ citadel of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary]. This once knew you Phene, the most righteous, and you old Periphas, both flying in the air, as birds, the eagle and the osprey: and Alcyone, granddaughter of Polypemon, resting on strange new wings. It was [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] who gave Medea sanctuary there, damned thereafter by that one action: and not content with taking her in, he even entered into a contract of marriage with her. [404-424] Now [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] came to [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary]’s son but as yet unknown to him. He, by his courage, had brought peace to the Isthmus between the two gulfs. Medea, seeking his destruction, prepared a mixture of poisonous aconite [monkshood/wolf’s bane] that she had brought with her from the coast of Scythia. This poison is said to have dripped from the teeth of [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary], the Echidnean dog. There is a dark cavern with a gaping mouth, and a path into the depths, up which [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary], hero of Tiryns, dragged the dog, tied with steel chains, resisting and twisting its eyes away from the daylight and the shining rays. [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary], provoked to a rabid frenzy, filled all the air with his simultaneous three-headed howling, and spattered the green fields with white flecks of foam. These are supposed to have congealed and found food to multiply, gaining harmful strength from the rich soil. Because they are long-lived, springing from the hard rock, the country people call these shoots, of wolf-bane, ‘soil-less’ aconites. Through his wife’s cunning [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], the father, himself offered the poison to his son, as if he were a stranger. [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary], unwittingly, had taken the cup he was given in his right hand, when his father recognised the emblems of his own house, on the ivory hilt of his son’s sword, and knocked the evil drink away from his mouth. But she [Medea] escaped death, in a dark mist, raised by her incantations. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph7.php
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved

Ovid, Heroides 12, "Medea to Jason" (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Latin epistolary poem, 1st century BCE

Ovid's Heroides are a series of hypothetical letters from famous mythological heroines to their male lovers. This one, called Medea to Jason, focuses on Medea's reaction to Jason divorcing her in order to marry the princess of Corinth.
Scorned Medea, the helpless exile, speaks to her recent husband, surely you can spare some time from your kingship? Oh, as I remember, the Queen of Colchis found time to bring you riches, when you sought my arts! Then, the Sisters [ [pb_glossary id="605"]Moirai[/pb_glossary] ] who spin mortality’s threads, should have unwound mine from the spindle: Then you might have died well, Medea! Whatever life’s brought since that time’s been punishment. Ah me! Why was that Pelian ship [ the [pb_glossary id="1823"]Argo[/pb_glossary] ] driven forward by youthful arms, seeking the ram of [pb_glossary id="1948"]Phrixus[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="1824"]Golden Fleece[/pb_glossary] ]? Why did we of Colchis ever see the Thessalian [pb_glossary id="1823"]Argo[/pb_glossary], and your Greek crew drink the waters of Phasis? Why did I take more pleasure than I should in your golden hair, and your comeliness, and the lying favours of your tongue? If not, once your strange ship had beached on our sands, and had brought your brave warriors here, [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary]’s son [ [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary] ] might have gone unmindful, unprotected by charms, into the fiery breath, and burning muzzles, of the bulls! He might have scattered the seed, and sown as many enemies, so that the one who sowed fell prey to his own sowing! What great treachery would have died with you, wicked man! What great evils would have been averted from my head! There’s some kind of delight in reproaching your ingratitude for my kindness: I’ll enjoy the only pleasure I’ll have from you. Ordered to turn your untried ship towards Colchis, you entered the lovely kingdom of my native land. Medea was there what your new bride is here: as rich as her father is, my father was as rich. Her father holds Corinth, between two seas, mine all that lies to the left of Pontus, as far as the Scythian snows. [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeëtes[/pb_glossary] welcomes the young Greek heroes as guests, and Pelasgian bodies grace the ornate beds. Then I saw you; then I began to know what you might be; that was the first ruin of my affections. I saw and I perished! I burnt, not with familiar fires, but as a pine torch might burn before the great gods. And you were handsome, and my fate lured me on: the light of your eyes stole mine away. You sensed it, faithless one! For who can easily hide love? Its flame is obvious, displaying the evidence. Meanwhile rules were laid down for you: to yoke the strong necks, first, of fierce bulls to the unaccustomed plough. They were the bulls of [pb_glossary id="179"]Mars[/pb_glossary], more cruel than just their horns, also their exhalations were terrible with fire, their hooves were solid bronze, and bronze coated their nostrils, and these too were blackened by their breath. Besides that, you were ordered to scatter seed to breed a nation, through the wide fields, with dutiful hands, who would attack your body with co-born spears: a harvest hostile to the farmer. Your last labour, by some art, to deceive the guardian [dragon] that knows no sleep, and make its eyes succumb. So said King [pb_glossary id="1828"]Aeëtes[/pb_glossary]: all rose sorrowfully, and the shining benches were pushed from the high table. How far, from you, then was the kingdom, [pb_glossary id="1829"]Creusa[/pb_glossary]’s dowry, your father-in-law, and that daughter of great [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary]. You leave, downcast. My wet gaze follows you as you go, and my shaky voice murmurs: ‘Farewell!’ Though I reached the bed, made up in my room, stricken grievously, how much of that night for me was spent in tears. Before my eyes were the bronze bulls, the impious harvest [ the [pb_glossary id="1830"]Spartoi[/pb_glossary] ], before my sleepless eyes was the serpent. Here is love, here fear – fear itself increased my love. It was morning and my dear sister entered my room and found me, with scattered hair, lying face downwards, and everything drenched in my tears. She prays for help for the Minyans; one asks, the other obtains; what she requests for [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary]’s son, I give. There’s a wood, dark with pine and oak branches, the sun’s rays can scarcely reach there; in it, there is – or was for certain – a temple of [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary]; there a golden goddess stood made by barbarian hands. Do you know it, or has the place been forgotten, along with me? We came there; you began to speak first, with false words; ‘Fortune indeed has given you the means of my salvation and my life and death are in your hands. It’s enough to destroy me if you were to delight in that; but it will be more honour to you to help me. I beg you by our troubles, which you can lighten, by your race, and the divinity of the all-seeing [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary], your grandfather, by [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary]’s triple face and sacred mysteries, and if my people’s gods have worth, those too. O Virgin, take pity on me, take pity on my men, grant me your services for all time! If, perhaps, you do not scorn to have a Pelasgian husband – but can it be so easily granted me, and by which of my gods? – let my spirit vanish into thin air, if any bride enters my bed, unless that bride be you. Let [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] share in this, who oversees holy matrimony, and that goddess in whose marble shrine we stand!’ This passion – and how much of it was words? – moved a naive girl, and our right hands touched. I even saw tears – or were they partly lies? So I quickly became a girl captivated by your words. And you yoked the brazen-footed steeds, your body un-scorched, and split the solid earth with the plough, as you were ordered. You filled the furrows with venomous teeth, instead of seed, and warriors were born, armed with swords and shields. I, who gave you the charms, sat there pale of face, when I saw these men, suddenly born, take up arms, until the earth-born brothers – marvelous happening! – with drawn swords, joined battle amongst themselves. Behold the sleepless guardian, coated with rattling scales, hissed, and swept the ground with his writhing body. Where was the rich dowry then? Where was the royal bride for you then, and that Isthmus splitting the waters of twin seas? I, the woman who has come to seem, at last, a barbarian to you, who am now poor, who am now seen to be harmful, subdued those burning eyes, with sleep-inducing drugs, and safely gave you the fleece you carried away. My father is betrayed, kingdom and country forsaken, for which, it is right, my reward’s to suffer exile, my virginity becomes the prize of a foreign thief, my most dearly beloved sister, with my mother, lost. But [pb_glossary id="1831"]Absyrtus[/pb_glossary], my brother, I did not abandon you, fleeing without me. This letter of mine is lacking in one thing: what I dared to do my right hand cannot write. So should I have been torn apart, but with you! Yet I had no fear – what was to be feared after that? – believing myself a woman at sea, already guilty. Where is divine power? Where are the gods? Justice is near us on the deep, you punished for fraud, I for credulity. I wish that the clashing rocks, the Symplegades, had crushed us, so that my bones might cling to your bones! Or ravening [pb_glossary id="1832"]Scylla[/pb_glossary] might have caught us, to be eaten by her dogs! [pb_glossary id="1832"]Scylla[/pb_glossary] is destined to harm ungrateful men. And [pb_glossary id="1833"]Charybdis[/pb_glossary], who so often swallows and spews out the tide, should also have sucked us beneath Sicilian waters! You return safe to the cities of Thessaly: the golden fleece is placed before your gods. Why speak of the daughters of [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary], piously harming him, and carving their father’s body with virgin hands? Though others blame me, you must praise me, you for whom I was forced to be so guilty. You dared – oh words fail themselves, in righteous indignation! – you dared to say: ‘Depart from [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary]’s house!’ As you ordered, I left the house, accompanied by our two children, and, what will pursue me always, my love of you. When suddenly the songs of [pb_glossary id="335"]Hymen[/pb_glossary] came to my ears, and the torches shone with illuminating fire, and the flutes poured out the marriage tunes for you, but a mournful funeral piping for me, I was afraid, I hadn’t thought till now so much wickedness could be, but still I was chilled through my whole body. The crowd rushed on, continually shouting: ‘[pb_glossary id="335"]Hymen[/pb_glossary], Hymenaee!’ the nearer they came the worse it was for me. The servants wept apart, and hid their tears – who wants to be the bearer of such evil news? It would have been better for me not to know what happened, but it was as if I knew, my mind was sad, when the younger of our sons, ordered to be on the lookout, stationed at the outer threshold of the double doors, called to me: ‘Mother, come here! [pb_glossary id="1825"]Jason[/pb_glossary], my father, is leading the procession, and he’s driving a team of gilded horses!’ Straightaway, tearing my clothes, I beat my breasts, nor was my face safe from my nails. My heart urged me to go, in procession, among the crowd, and to throw away the garlands arranged in my hair. I could scarcely keep myself from shouting, my hair dishevelled, ‘He’s mine!’ and taking possession of you. My wounded father, rejoice! Colchians, forsaken, rejoice! My brother’s shade, in me find offerings to the dead! I abandon my lost kingdom, my country, my home, my husband, who alone was everything to me. Thus, I could subdue serpents and raging bulls, but I could not subdue this one man. And I’ve driven off wild fires with skillful potions, but I’ve no power to turn the flames from myself. My charms and herbs and arts forsake me, nor does the goddess, sacred [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary], act with power. The day does not please me. I’m awake through nights of bitterness, and gentle sleep is absent from my miserable breast. What cannot make me sleep made a dragon sleep. My cures are more use to others than myself. My rival clasps that body that I saved and she has the fruits of my labours. Indeed, perhaps when you wish to mention married foolishness, and speak in a way that suits unjust ears, you invent new faults in my face, and my manner. Let her laugh, and lie there, lifted up on Tyrian purple – she’ll weep, and, scorched, she’ll surpass my fires. While there are blades, and flames, and poisonous juices, no enemy will go unpunished by Medea. If by chance my prayers move your breast of steel now hear these humble words from my heart. I’m as much a suppliant, to you, as you often were to me, nor do I hesitate to throw myself at your feet. If I’m worthless to you, consider the children we have: a dread stepmother, in my place, will be cruel to them. And they’re so like you, and touched by your semblance, and as often as I see them, my eyes are wet with tears. I beg you, by the gods, by the light of the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary], my grandfather’s fire, by my kindness to you, and by our two children, our pledges, return to the bed for which I, insanely, abandoned so many things! Add truth to your words, and return the help I gave you! I don’t beg your help against bulls, or warriors, or that a dragon sleeps conquered by your aid: I ask for you, whom I deserve, who gave yourself to me, a father by whom I was equally made a mother. You ask, where’s my dowry? I numbered it on that field that was ploughed by you, in taking the fleece. My dowry’s that golden ram known by its thick fleece, that you’d deny me if I said to you, ‘Return it.’ My dowry is your safety; my dowry’s the youth of Greece. Cruel man, go; compare this to the wealth of Corinth. That you live, that you have a wife and powerful father-in-law, that you can even be ungrateful, all that’s due to me. Indeed, what’s on hand – but why should I be concerned to warn you of your punishment? Great anger teems with threats. I’ll follow where anger takes me. Perhaps I’ll regret my deeds: I regret having been concerned for an unfaithful husband. Let the god see to that, who now disturbs my heart. Assuredly I do not know what moves my spirit most. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Heroides8-15.php#anchor_Toc524696649
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="729"] Medea preparing for the murder of her children, Pompeii fresco, 1st century CE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[/caption]
In Greek art, Medea could be portrayed either as wearing extravagant 'Eastern' garments (Phrygian cap, boots, and a garishly decorated dress), or in typical Greek clothes.
[caption id="attachment_1291" align="alignnone" width="920"] Jason and Medea, Roman sarcophagus, 2nd century CE (Museo Nazionale Romano di Palazzo Altemps, Rome)[/caption]
The scenes in which she most often appeared are the deception of the daughters of Pelias, and the escape on the flying chariot. She is also is regularly depicted preparing for the murder of her children, as above, or actually killing them.
[caption id="attachment_1296" align="alignleft" width="318"] Medea boiling the ram, black-figure hydria, ca. 500 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="alignright" width="320"] Medea boiling the ram, red-figure hydria, ca. 480 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="alignleft" width="280"] Medea boiling the ram, black-figure amphora, ca. 500 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="alignright" width="361"] Medea in her dragon chariot, red-figure krater, ca. 400 BCE (Cleveland Museum of Art)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1292" align="alignnone" width="1035"] Medea giving gifts to Creusa, red-figure krater, ca. 390 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Medusa

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:28:44 +0000
[caption id="attachment_1347" align="alignnone" width="1817"] Gorgon, black-figure kylix, ca. 575 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]

Origin

Sections & Primary Sources

The Gorgons

Hesiod, Theogony, 270-294

Athena, Poseidon, and Medusa

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.790-803

The Gorgons

There are two mythological origin stories for Medusa. According to one version, she is one of three sisters, called the Gorgons (or Gorgones). These three were monsters, women with snakes for hair, that were born to [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary], a primordial sea god, who is depicted by the Romans as a merman, and his wife, [pb_glossary id="1150"]Ceto[/pb_glossary], whose name means “sea monster.” [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1150"]Ceto[/pb_glossary] were the parents of several monsters, including Echidna, the Graeae, and Ladon. Echidna, in turn, was the mother of many more monsters with her mate Typhon, including Orthrus, Cerberus, the Lernaean Hydra, the Sphinx, and the Nemean Lion. Medusa was mortal, but her two Gorgon sisters, Sthenno and Euryale, were immortal.

Hesiod, Theogony (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek epic poem, 8th/7th century BCE

In this very early version of the myth from Hesiod's Theogony, Medusa is born, along with her sisters, from the union of [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1150"]Ceto[/pb_glossary]. She has sex with Poseidon in a meadow, and the relationship appears to be consensual, which conflicts with other versions of the myth.
[270-294] And to [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1150"]Ceto[/pb_glossary] bore the [pb_glossary id="1151"]Graeae[/pb_glossary], with fair faces and gray from birth. These the gods who are immortal and men who walk on the earth call [pb_glossary id="1151"]Graeae[/pb_glossary], the gray sisters, Pemphredo robed in beauty and Enyo robed in saffron, and the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgons[/pb_glossary] who, beyond the famous stream of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], live in the utmost place toward night, by the singing [pb_glossary id="1396"]Hesperides[/pb_glossary]. They are Sthenno, Euryale, and Medusa, whose fate is a sad one, for she was mortal, but the other two immortal and ageless both alike. [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], he of the dark hair, lay with one of these, in a soft meadow and among spring flowers. But when [pb_glossary id="1493"]Perseus[/pb_glossary] had cut off the head of Medusa, there sprang from her blood great [pb_glossary id="1158"]Chrysaor[/pb_glossary] and the horse [pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary] so named from the springs (pegai) of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], where she was born. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodTheogony.html

Athena, Poseidon, and Medusa

[content warning for the following section: sexual assault]

According to another version of Medusa's myth, she was once a beautiful young woman who was raped by the god Poseidon in a temple of Athena. As retribution for the violation of the virgin goddess' shrine, Athena caused Medusa to be turned into a gorgon and to join the other two gorgons living at the edge of the world. In a variation on this version of the myth, Athena turns Medusa into a gorgon not because she was raped by Poseidon, but because she claimed to be as beautiful as Athena.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 4 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault]

In this version of Medusa's myth, recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses, she becomes a Gorgon after being raped by Poseidon.
[790-803] Next one of the many princes asked why Medusa, alone among her sisters, had snakes twining in her hair. The guest [ [pb_glossary id="1493"]Perseus[/pb_glossary] ] replied, "Since what you ask is worth the telling, hear the answer to your question. She was once most beautiful, and the jealous aspiration of many suitors. Of all her beauties none was more admired than her hair: I came across a man who recalled having seen her. They say that [pb_glossary id="182"]Neptune[/pb_glossary], lord of the seas, violated her in the temple of [pb_glossary id="173"]Minerva[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s daughter turned away, and hid her chaste eyes behind her [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]. So that it might not go unpunished, she changed the Gorgon’s hair to foul snakes. And now, to terrify her enemies, numbing them with fear, the goddess wears the snakes, that she created, as a breastplate." Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph4.php#anchor_Toc64106272
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved

Conflict and Death
[caption id="attachment_1349" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Perseus beheading Medusa, red-figure pelike, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]
Medusa was killed by the Greek hero Perseus. He was sent to kill her by King Polydectes of Seriphos, under the assumption that he would fail, leaving nobody to object to Polydectes marrying Perseus' mother, Danae. Assisted by Athena and Hermes, Perseus found Medusa in a cave and cut off her head, which Athena showed him using her reflective bronze shield as a mirror.

When Perseus cut off Medusa's head, the winged horse Pegasus and the monster Chrysaor sprang from her bleeding neck. These were the offspring of Poseidon's rape of Medusa.
For further discussion and art of Perseus and Medusa, see chapter 21.

Afterlife

Sections & Primary Sources

The Origin of Vipers

Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, 1502-1536

The Origin of Coral

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.706-752

The Aegis

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.4.3

Homer, Iliad, 5.703-766

The Origin of Vipers

Perseus put Medusa's severed head into a bag and flew away from the cave of the Gorgons on the winged horse Pegasus. As he was flying back to Polydectes on the Island of Seriphos, he flew over the Libyan desert. It is said that drops of blood from Medusa's severed head fell onto the sand below and spawned poisonous vipers.

Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica (trans. R. C. Seaton, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek Epic, 3rd century BCE

In his epic about the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts, Apollonius of Rhodes explains the origin of the deadly vipers in the Libyan desert.
[1502] And then, on the same day, a pitiless fate seized [pb_glossary id="2585"]Mopsus[/pb_glossary] too, son of Ampycus; and he did not escape a bitter doom by his prophesying; for there is no way to escape death. Now there lay in the sand, avoiding the midday heat, a terrifying serpent, too sluggish of his own will to strike at an unwilling foe, nor yet would he dart full face at one that would shrink back. But into whatever of all living beings that life-giving earth sustains that serpent once injects his black venom, his path to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] becomes not so much as a cubit's length, not even if [pb_glossary id="2806"]Paean[/pb_glossary], if it is right for me to say this openly, should tend him, when its teeth have only grazed the skin. For when godlike [pb_glossary id="1493"]Perseus[/pb_glossary] Eurymedon (for by that name his mother called him) flew over Libya -- bearing to the king the Gorgon's head newly severed, all the drops of dark blood that fell to the earth, produced a brood of those serpents. Now [pb_glossary id="2585"]Mopsus[/pb_glossary] stepped on the end of its spine, setting thereon the sole of his left foot; and it writhed round in pain and bit and tore the flesh between the shin and the muscles. And [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary] and her handmaids fled in terror; but Canthus bravely felt the bleeding wound; for no excessive pain harassed him. Poor wretch! Already a numbness that loosed his limbs was stealing beneath his skin, and a thick mist was spreading over his eyes. Straightway his heavy limbs sank helplessly to the ground and he grew cold; and his comrades and the hero, [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary]'s son, gathered round, marvelling at the close-coming doom. And, though dead, he could not lie beneath the sun even for a little time. For at once the poison began to rot his flesh within, and the hair decayed and fell from the skin. And quickly and in haste they dug a deep grave with pick-axe of bronze; and they tore their hair, the heroes and the maidens, bewailing the dead man's piteous suffering; and when he had received due burial rites, thrice they marched round the tomb in full armour, and heaped above him a mound of earth. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApolloniusRhodius4.html

The Origin of Coral
Perseus next came to Red Sea, where he saw the Libyan princess, Andromeda, chained to a rock, a sacrificial victim to the sea monster that had been ravaging the area. After he killed the sea monster and rescued Andromeda, he sat down to rest on the shores of the Red Sea. He set down the head of Medusa down on a bed of seaweed, which immediately hardened because of Medusa's magical ability of petrification. This is the etiological myth (that is, the creation story) for the origin of coral.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 4 (trans. A. S. Kline)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

In this section of the Metamorphoses, Ovid describes the aftermath of Perseus' slaying of the sea monster and his rescue of the Libyan princess, Andromeda. Here we see an etiological myth for the origin of coral.
[706-752] Released from her chains, the girl [ [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary] ] comes forward, the prize and the cause of his efforts. He [ [pb_glossary id="1493"]Perseus[/pb_glossary] ] washes his hands after the victory in seawater drawn for him and, so that Medusa’s head, covered with its snakes, is not bruised by the harsh sand. He makes the ground soft with leaves, spreads out plants from below the waves and places the head of that daughter of [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary] on them. The fresh plants, still living inside, and absorbent, respond to the influence of the Gorgon’s head, and harden at its touch, acquiring a new rigidity in branches and fronds. And the ocean [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] try out this wonder on more plants, and are delighted that the same thing happens at its touch, and repeat it by scattering the seeds from the plants through the waves. Even now corals have the same nature, hardening at a touch of air, and what was alive under the water, above water is turned to stone. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph4.php#anchor_Toc64106271

The Aegis

After completing his adventures, Perseus gave the head of Medusa to Athena as thanks for helping him. Athena wears Medusa's head on a cloak that she pins around her shoulders. This garment, as well as Zeus' shield, is called the Aegis. According to other versions of the myth, Athena also carries the gorgon's head on her shield. Today, people use the term aegis to mean someone's metaphorical sphere of influence or protection: e.g., doing something under someone's aegis means you are doing so with their blessing or on their behalf.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 2 (trans. K. Aldrich, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century CE

In this passage from the Bibliotheca, Pseudo-Apollodorus explains where Athena got the Gorgon's head, which he says that she carries on her shield. The author of this text was originally thought to be Apollodorus of Athens. Over time, however, this attribution became widely considered to be false. Thus, "Pseudo-" (meaning 'lie', 'fake') precedes the name Apollodorus.
[2.4.3] [[pb_glossary id="1493"]Perseus[/pb_glossary] gave] the Gorgon's head to [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] [. . .][pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] placed the Gorgon's head in the center of her shield. It is affirmed by some that Medusa was beheaded because of [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary], for they say the Gorgon had been willing to be compared with [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] in beauty. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Gorgones.html

Homer, Iliad, Book 5 (trans. A. S. Kline)

Greek Epic, 8th century BCE

Here in the fifth book of the Iliad, Homer describes the Aegis of Athena.
[703-766] Meanwhile [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]-bearing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], shed her soft richly embroidered robe the work of her own two hands, at her Father’s threshold, dressed herself in the tunic of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the Cloud-Driver, and donned her armour ready for sad war. She threw the dreadful tasselled [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary] about her shoulders, crowned at every point with terror, violence and strife within, adorned with the monstrous image of the Gorgon’s head, grim and awful emblem of [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]-bearing [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. She set on her head the golden helmet with its four cones and double-crest, adorned with warriors of a hundred cities. Then she set foot on the fiery chariot, grasped her huge, strong, weighty spear, with which this daughter of a mighty Father shatters the ranks in anger. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Iliad5.php#anchor_Toc239244908 Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_1330" align="alignnone" width="997"] Medusa, terracotta plaque, ca. 700 BCE (Museo Archaeologico Regionale, Syracuse)[/caption]
Medusa is one of the most popular and most easily recognizable figures in Greek art. She is typically portrayed as a female snake-haired monster with a large mouth showing animal fangs, as well as with a long tongue, wings, and sometimes a belt made of snakes. Her body is usually that of a woman, but in one of the earliest representations of the myth she is shown as a centaur. Even when her body is depicted sideways, her head is always shown as frontal, staring back at the spectator so as to turn them into stone.
[caption id="attachment_1353" align="alignleft" width="344"] Gorgons, black-figure amphora, ca. 650 BCE (Archaeological Museum of Eleusis)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1329" align="alignright" width="287"] Gorgons, black-figure lekythos, ca. 530 BCE (Cabinet des Médailles, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1332" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Perseus being pursued by the Gorgons, black-figure dinos, ca. 600 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] From the Classical Period, as artistic standards changed, Medusa stopped being represented as a grotesque monster. She was instead portrayed as a beautiful woman, while still maintaining some unsettling features such as frontality and snakes. [caption id="attachment_1342" align="alignleft" width="318"] Medusa, bronze handle (Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1334" align="alignright" width="326"] Medusa, Roman mosaic, 2nd century CE (Museu de la Història de València)[/caption]
When not used as a decoration, Medusa was usually portrayed in art in the scene of her demise, where she is usually shown in the process of being slain by Perseus, who is averting his gaze.
[caption id="attachment_1323" align="alignnone" width="1080"] Perseus beheading Medusa, terracotta relief, ca. 660 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1335" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Perseus beheading Medusa, sarcophagus relief, 2nd century CE (Hungarian National Museum, Budapest)[/caption]
Another popular scene to depict was the moment immediately after her death, when Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor were born from Medusa's decapitated body.
[caption id="attachment_1351" align="alignleft" width="285"] Death of Medusa, limestone sarcophagus, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1325" align="alignright" width="346"] Perseus beheading Medusa, terracotta plaque, ca. 490 BCE (Archaeological Museum of Alicante)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1348" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Death of Medusa, black-figure white-ground lekythos, ca. 500 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]
The severed head of Medusa, called the gorgoneion, was one of the most popular motifs in Greek art from the Archaic Period. It had a life on its own as a decoration or protective symbol on vessels, sculptures, architecture, jewels, and weapons.
[caption id="attachment_1346" align="alignleft" width="323"] Gorgoneion, terracotta stand, ca. 570 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1328" align="alignright" width="317"] Gorgoneion, Roman coin, ca. 47 BCE (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1322" align="alignleft" width="304"] Gorgoneion, shield ornament, ca. 600 BCE (Archaeological Museum, Olympia)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1327" align="alignright" width="286"] Gorgon, antefix from the Hekatompedos, ca. 570 BCE (Acropolis Museum, Athens)[/caption]
Most notably, the gorgoneion was also almost always depicted on the aegis, the cloak worn by goddess Athena. The attributes of the gorgoneion were very similar to those of Medusa herself: frontality, fangs, protruding tongue, snakes, and sometimes even a beard.
[caption id="attachment_1321" align="alignleft" width="219"] Athena wearing the Aegis, red-figure kylix, ca. 435 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Madrid)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1331" align="alignright" width="428"] Achilles fighting Memnon, black-figure amphora, ca. 510 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1352" align="alignnone" width="1146"] Ajax, black-figure amphora, ca. 530 BCE (Château-Musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer)[/caption]

Media Attributions

Perseus and Bellerophon

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:29:35 +0000
[caption id="attachment_1778" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Bellerophon and the Chimera, red-figure tondo, 4th century BCE (Palazzo Massimo, Rome)[/caption]

Births
Both Perseus and Bellerophon were monster-slaying Greek heroes. However, their individual stories became conflated by the end of the Classical period, a development that continued into the Renaissance and beyond. Since Perseus was the earlier, more culturally popular hero, Bellerophon's deeds are most commonly attributed to Perseus.

Sections & Primary Sources

Birth of Perseus

Lucian, Dialogues of Sea Gods, "Doris and Thetis"

Pindar, Odes, "Nemean 10," 1-15

Birth of Bellerophon

Birth of Perseus
[content warning: sexual violence, abduction]
The hero Perseus was the son of Zeus and and Danae, a mortal woman and the only child of King Acrisius of Argos. Acrisius asked the oracle of Delphi whether he would ever have a son. The oracle told him that he would not have a son, but that his daughter would, and he would be killed by his own grandson. To prevent the oracular prophecy from coming true, Acrisius locked his daughter up in a chamber with only a small opening at the top to let in some light and air. In this way he hoped to keep her from ever having sex and giving birth to a child.

However, Zeus saw Danae locked in the chamber and lusted after her. He changed himself into a shower of gold and rained down into the chamber, impregnating Danae. When Danae gave birth a boy, Perseus, Acrisius put her and her son into a wooden chest and set them out to sea, counting on them to drown.

The chest washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where is was found by a fisherman, Dictys, the brother of the king of the island, Polydectes. Dictys gave Danae a home and raised Perseus.

Lucian, Dialogues of Sea Gods, "Doris and Thetis" (trans. H. W. & F. G. Fowler, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek satire, 2nd century CE

In the second century CE, the Greek satirical writer Lucian of Samosata envisioned a conversation between the sea nymphs Doris and Thetis (mother of Achilles) about Danae and Perseus shut up in the chest. According to Lucian's account, it is Doris and Thetis who take action to rescue the mother and baby from drowning.

DORIS:
Crying, dear?
THETIS:
Oh, [pb_glossary id="4433"]Doris[/pb_glossary], I have just seen a lovely girl thrown into a chest by her father, and her little baby with her; and he gave the chest to some sailors, and told them, as soon as they were far enough from the shore, to drop it into the water; he meant them to be drowned, poor things.
DORIS:
Oh, sister, but why? What was it all about? Did you hear?
THETIS:
Her father, [pb_glossary id="1141"]Acrisius[/pb_glossary], wanted to keep her from marrying. And, as she was so pretty, he shut her up in an iron room. And—I don't know whether it's true—but they say that [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] turned himself into gold, and came showering down through the roof, and she caught the gold in her lap,—and it was [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the whole time. And then her father found out about it—he is a horrid, jealous old man—and he was furious, and thought she had been receiving a lover; and he put her into the chest, the moment the child was born.
DORIS:
And what did she do then?
THETIS:
She never said a word against her own sentence; she was ready to submit: but she pleaded hard for the child's life, and cried, and held him up for his grandfather to see; and there was the sweet baby, that thought no harm, smiling at the waves. I am beginning [to cry] again, at the memory of it.
DORIS:
You make me cry, too. And is it all over?
THETIS:
No; the chest has carried them safely so far; it is by Seriphus.
DORIS:
Then why should we not save them? We can put the chest into those fishermen's nets, look; and then of course they will be hauled in, and come safely to shore.
THETIS:
The very thing. She shall not die; nor the child, sweet treasure!
Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/LucianDialoguesGods2.html#12

Pindar, Odes, "Nemean 10" (trans. D. A. Svarlien, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek victory ode, 5th century BCE

Pindar's victory ode for Theaeus of Argos (ca. 444 BCE) praises the glory of Argos, mentioning Danae and her son Perseus.
[pb_glossary id="189"]Graces[/pb_glossary], sing of the city of [pb_glossary id="1190"]Danaus[/pb_glossary] and his fifty daughters on their splendid thrones, [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]'s Argos, a home suitable for a god; it blazes with countless excellences because of its bold deeds. Long indeed is the story of Perseus and the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary], [5] and many are the cities founded in Egypt by the devising of [pb_glossary id="1220"]Epaphus[/pb_glossary]. And [pb_glossary id="1191"]Hypermnestra[/pb_glossary] did not go astray, when she kept her sword in its scabbard, the only one to make this choice. And once the golden-haired, gray-eyed goddess [ [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] ] made [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary] an immortal god; and the earth in [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], thunder-struck by the bolts of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], swallowed up the prophetic son of Oicles, [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary], the storm-cloud of war. And Argos has long been the best city for women with beautiful hair; [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] made this saying clear by visiting [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1143"]Danae[/pb_glossary], and he united the qualities of intelligence and straightforward justice in the father of [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary], and in [pb_glossary id="1202"]Lynceus[/pb_glossary]. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DN.%3Apoem%3D10

Birth of Bellerophon

There is no significant myth about the birth of Bellerophon. He is a hero from Corinth, but his parentage varies greatly between sources. Homer's Iliad (see "Adventures of Bellerophon") states that Bellerophon is a son of [pb_glossary id="1205"]Glaucus[/pb_glossary], who was the son of [pb_glossary id="1213"]Sisyphus[/pb_glossary], while other sources say that Bellerophon's father is [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary].

Adventures of Perseus

Sections & Primary Sources

The Quest for the Gorgon's Head

Pindar, Odes, "Pythian 10," 29-45

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.4.1-2.4.5

Andromeda

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.604-803

Conon, Narrations, Fragment 40

The Quest for the Gorgon's Head

Perseus is best known for his quest to retrieve the head of the Gorgon Medusa. Polydectes, the king of Seriphos, wished to marry Danae, but could not do so because of her son Perseus. In an attempt to get rid of Perseus, therefore, Polydectes sent him to retrieve the head of Medusa, hoping that Medusa would petrify him, preventing him from returning from this quest

With the help of various divine figures, including Athena, Hermes, and the Graeae, Perseus travelled to the far reaches of the world and beheaded Medusa. Upon his return to Seriphos, Perseus used the head to turn Polydectes to stone and save Danae.
For further discussion of Perseus and Medusa, see chapter 20.

Pindar, Odes, "Pythian 10" (trans. D. A. Svarlien, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek victory ode, 5th century BCE
Neither by ship nor on foot could you find [30] the marvelous road to the meeting-place of the [pb_glossary id="1203"]Hyperboreans[/pb_glossary]— Once Perseus, the leader of his people, entered their homes and feasted among them, when he found them sacrificing glorious [pb_glossary id="1204"]hecatombs[/pb_glossary] of donkeys to the god [ [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] ]. In the festivities of those people [35] and in their praises [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] rejoices most, and he laughs when he sees the erect arrogance of the beasts. The [pb_glossary id="348"]Muse[/pb_glossary] is not absent from their customs; all around swirl the dances of girls, the lyre’s loud chords and the cries of flutes. [40] They wreathe their hair with golden laurel branches and celebrate joyfully. No sickness or ruinous old age is mixed into that sacred race; without toil or battles they live without fear of strict [pb_glossary id="338"]Nemesis[/pb_glossary]. Breathing boldness of spirit [45] once the son of [pb_glossary id="1143"]Danae[/pb_glossary] went to that gathering of blessed men, and [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] led him there. He killed the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary], and came back bringing stony death to the islanders, the head that shimmered with hair made of serpents. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DP.%3Apoem%3D10

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 2 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE

In the following passage, Pseudo-Apollodorus gives a summary of the birth and adventures of Perseus. The author of this text was originally thought to be Apollodorus of Athens. Over time, however, this attribution became widely considered to be false. Thus, “Pseudo-” (meaning ‘lie’, ‘fake’) precedes the name Apollodorus.
[2.4.1] When [pb_glossary id="1141"]Acrisius[/pb_glossary] inquired of the oracle how he should get male children, the god said that his daughter would give birth to a son who would kill him. Fearing that, [pb_glossary id="1141"]Acrisius[/pb_glossary] built a brass chamber under ground and there guarded [pb_glossary id="1143"]Danae[/pb_glossary]. However, she was seduced, as some say, by [pb_glossary id="1216"]Proetus[/pb_glossary], and that was what caused the argument between them; but some say that [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had intercourse with her in the shape of a stream of gold which poured through the roof into [pb_glossary id="1143"]Danae[/pb_glossary]'s lap. When [pb_glossary id="1141"]Acrisius[/pb_glossary] afterwards learned that she had got a child, Perseus, he would not believe that she had been seduced by [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and putting his daughter with the child in a chest, he cast it into the sea. The chest was washed ashore on Seriphus, and [pb_glossary id="1145"]Dictys[/pb_glossary] took up the boy and reared him. [2.4.2] [pb_glossary id="1147"]Polydectes[/pb_glossary], brother of [pb_glossary id="1145"]Dictys[/pb_glossary], was then king of Seriphus and fell in love with [pb_glossary id="1143"]Danae[/pb_glossary], but could not make her his wife, because Perseus was grown to man's estate. So he called together his friends, including Perseus, under the pretext of collecting contributions towards a wedding gift for [pb_glossary id="3192"]Hippodamia[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="3195"]Oenomaus[/pb_glossary]. Now Perseus declared that he would not hesitate to get even the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary]'s head [as a gift]. [pb_glossary id="1147"]Polydectes[/pb_glossary] required the others to gift them horses and, not getting horses from Perseus, he ordered him to bring the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary]'s head. So under the guidance of [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] he [Perseus] made his way to the daughters of [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary], that is to say, [the [pb_glossary id="1151"]Graeae[/pb_glossary] ] Enyo, Pephredo, and Dino; for [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary] had them by [pb_glossary id="1150"]Ceto[/pb_glossary], and they were sisters of the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgons[/pb_glossary], and old women from their birth. The three had but one eye and one tooth, and these they passed to each other in turn. Perseus got possession of the eye and the tooth, and when they asked for them back, he said he would give them up if they would show him the way to the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary]. Now these [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] had winged sandals and the [pb_glossary id="1153"]kibisis[/pb_glossary], which they say was a wallet. [But Pindar and Hesiod in The Shield say of Perseus: -- “But all his back had on the head of a dread monster, and round him ran the [pb_glossary id="1153"]kibisis[/pb_glossary]].” The [pb_glossary id="1153"]kibisis[/pb_glossary] is so called because dress and food are deposited in it. They also had the cap . When the [pb_glossary id="1151"]Phorcides[/pb_glossary] had shown him the way, he gave them back the tooth and the eye, and coming to the nymphs, he got what he wanted. So he slung the wallet ([pb_glossary id="1153"]kibisis[/pb_glossary]) about him, fitted the sandals to his ankles, and put the cap on his head. Wearing it, he saw whom he pleased, but was not seen by others. And having received also from [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] a sickle made of strong metal, he flew to the ocean and caught the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgons[/pb_glossary] asleep. They were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Now [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary] alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head. But the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgons[/pb_glossary] had heads covered with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like a swine's, and brassy hands, and golden wings, by which they flew; and they turned to stone those who beheld them. So Perseus stood over them as they slept, and while [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] guided his hand and he looked with averted gaze on a brass shield, in which he beheld the image of the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary] ], he beheaded her. When her head was cut off, there sprang from the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary] the winged horse [pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1158"]Chrysaor[/pb_glossary], the father of [pb_glossary id="1162"]Geryon[/pb_glossary]; these she had by [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]. [2.4.3] So Perseus put the head of [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary] in the wallet ([pb_glossary id="1153"]kibisis[/pb_glossary]) and went back again; but the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgons[/pb_glossary] woke up from their slumber and pursued Perseus: but they could not see him on account of the cap, for he was hidden by it. Arriving in Ethiopia, of which [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] was king, he found the king's daughter [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary] set out to be the prey of a sea monster. For [pb_glossary id="1166"]Cassiopeia[/pb_glossary], the wife of [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary], competed with the [pb_glossary id="329"]Nereids[/pb_glossary] in beauty and boasted to be better than them all; hence the [pb_glossary id="329"]Nereids[/pb_glossary] were angry, and [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], sharing their wrath, sent a flood and a monster to invade the land. But because Ammon[footnote]Referring to an oracle of the god Ammon. Ammon (or Zeus Ammon) is the hellenized form of the Egyptian god Amun (see chapter 5, "Zeus: Art and Symbolism").[/footnote] predicted deliverance from the calamity if [pb_glossary id="1166"]Cassiopeia[/pb_glossary]'s daughter [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary] were exposed as a prey to the monster, [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] was compelled by the Ethiopians to do it, and he bound his daughter to a rock. When Perseus beheld her, he loved her and promised [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] that he would kill the monster, if he would give him the rescued damsel to be his wife. These terms having been sworn to, Perseus fought and killed the monster and released [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary]. However, Phineus, who was a brother of [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary], and to whom [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary] had been first betrothed, plotted against him; but Perseus discovered the plot, and by showing the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary] turned him and his fellow conspirators at once into stone. And having come to Seriphus he found that his mother and [pb_glossary id="1145"]Dictys[/pb_glossary] had taken refuge at the altars on account of the violence of [pb_glossary id="1147"]Polydectes[/pb_glossary]; so he entered the palace, where [pb_glossary id="1147"]Polydectes[/pb_glossary] had gathered his friends, and with averted face he showed the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary]'s head; and all who beheld it were turned to stone, each in the pose which he happened to have struck. Having appointed [pb_glossary id="1145"]Dictys[/pb_glossary] king of Seriphus, he gave back the sandals and the wallet ([pb_glossary id="1153"]kibisis[/pb_glossary]) and the cap to [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary], but the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary]'s head he gave to [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] restored the aforesaid things to the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] inserted the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary]'s head in the middle of her shield. But it is alleged by some that [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary] was beheaded for [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary]'s sake; and they say that the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary] was in the habit of comparing herself with the goddess even in beauty. [2.4.4] Perseus hurried with [pb_glossary id="1143"]Danae[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary] to Argos hoping to see [pb_glossary id="1141"]Acrisius[/pb_glossary]. But he [ [pb_glossary id="1141"]Acrisius[/pb_glossary] ], learning of this and dreading the oracle, abandoned Argos and departed to the Pelasgian land. Now Teutamides, king of Larissa, was holding athletic games in honour of his dead father, and Perseus came to compete. He engaged in the pentathlon, but in throwing the discus he struck [pb_glossary id="1141"]Acrisius[/pb_glossary] on the foot and killed him instantly. Perceiving that the oracle was fulfilled, he [Perseus] buried [pb_glossary id="1141"]Acrisius[/pb_glossary] outside the city, and being ashamed to return to Argos to claim the inheritance of the one who had died by his hand, he went to Megapenthes, son of Proetus, at Tiryns and made an exchange with him, surrendering Argos into his hands. So Megapenthes reigned over the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary], and Perseus reigned over Tiryns, after fortifying also Midea and Mycenae. [2.4.5] And he had sons by [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary]: before he came to Greece he had Perses, whom he left behind with [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] (and from him it is said that the kings of Persia are descended); and in Mycenae he had Alcaeus and Sthenelus and Heleus and Mestor and Electryon, and a daughter Gorgophone, whom Perieres married. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus2.html

Andromeda

On his way back to Seriphos after defeating [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary], Perseus passed through the region of ancient Ethiopia. There, he encountered the princess [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary], who had been chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea serpent. According to Ovid's account in Latin, [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary]'s mother, [pb_glossary id="1166"]Cassiopeia[/pb_glossary], had boasted that she was more beautiful than the [pb_glossary id="329"]Nereids[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] had sent the sea serpent (called Cetus) to punish the kingdom. [pb_glossary id="1166"]Cassiopeia[/pb_glossary] and her husband [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] then offered their daughter to the serpent to appease it. Perseus rescued [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary] and brought her back to Seriphos as his wife.
This myth has some parallels with the story of [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary]' rescue of Hesione (see chapter 17).

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 4 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault (753-803)]

Ovid recounts how, after a brief encounter with the Titan Atlas, Perseus arrives in Ethiopia and encounters Andromeda. After rescuing and marrying her, Perseus remains some time in Ethiopia and tells of his quest.
[604-662] “Nevertheless, even in their altered form,[footnote]This passage comes immediately after Ovid's account of how Cadmus and Harmonia, the founders of Thebes, were transformed into snakes ("their altered form")[/footnote] their grandson [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary], whom conquered India worshipped and to whose newly created temples the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary] thronged, gave them great consolation. Only [pb_glossary id="1141"]Acrisius[/pb_glossary], son of Abas, born from the same roots (through Belus brother of [pb_glossary id="1727"]Agenor[/pb_glossary]), was an exception, who closed Argos within its walls, took up weapons against the god [ [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary] ], and did not consider him a child of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]. And he did not consider Perseus, as a child of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] whom [pb_glossary id="1143"]Danae[/pb_glossary] conceived of a shower of gold, to be his grandson. Though later (such is the power of truth) [pb_glossary id="1141"]Acrisius[/pb_glossary] repented for having angered the god, and for not acknowledging his grandson. One [ [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary] ] had taken his place in the heavens, but the other [Perseus] was travelling through the gentle air, on beating wings, bringing back an amazing, monstrous prize. As the victor [Perseus] flew above the Libyan sands, bloody drops fell from the [pb_glossary id="956"] Gorgon[/pb_glossary]’s head. The earth caught them and gave them life, as species of snakes, and so that country is infested with deadly serpents. “He was driven away from there by conflicting winds, carried this way and that, through vast spaces, like a rain cloud. He flew over the whole world, looking down through the air from a great height at remote countries. Three times he saw the frozen constellations of the Bears [Ursa Major and Minor], three times the Crab’s [Cancer’s] pincers. Often he was forced below the west, often into the east, and now as the light died, afraid to go fall sleep, he landed in the western regions of [pb_glossary id="773"]Hesperus[/pb_glossary], in the kingdom of [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary]. He hoped to rest there for a while, until Lucifer [the Morning Star, the planet Venus] summoned up [pb_glossary id="215"]Aurora[/pb_glossary]’s fires, and [pb_glossary id="215"]Aurora[/pb_glossary] brought the chariot of dawn. Here was [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1178"]Iapetus[/pb_glossary], exceeding all men in the size of his body. The most remote land was under [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary]’ rule, as was the ocean, into which [pb_glossary id="876"]Sol[/pb_glossary]’s panting horses plunged, and where his straining axle was welcomed. He had a thousand flocks, and as many herds of cattle wandering through the grass, and no neighbouring land was richer than his. The leaves of the trees, bright with radiant gold, covered branches of gold, and fruit of gold. Perseus said to him, ‘Friend, if high birth impresses you, [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] is responsible for my birth. Or if you admire great deeds, you will admire mine. I ask for hospitality and rest.’ “[pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] remembered an ancient prophecy. [pb_glossary id="192"]Themis[/pb_glossary] on Parnassus had given that prophecy. ‘[pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], the time will come when your tree will be stripped of its gold, and he who steals it will be called the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary].’ Fearful of this, [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] had enclosed his orchard with solid walls, and set a huge dragon to guard it, and kept all strangers away from his borders. To Perseus, he said, ‘Go far away, lest the glory of the deeds, that you lie about, and [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] himself, fail you!’ He added weight to his threats by trying to push him away with his great hands. But Perseus held his ground resolutely, and combined his resolve with calm words. Inferior in strength (who could equal [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] in strength?), he said, ‘Well now, since you show me so little kindness, accept a gift’ and turning away himself, he held out [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary]’s foul head, on his left hand side. [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] became a mountain, as huge as he himself had been. Now his hair and beard were changed into trees, his shoulders and hands into ridges. What had been his head before was the crest on the mountain summit. His bones became stones. Then he grew to an immense height in every part (so you gods determined) and the whole sky, with its many stars, rested on him. [663-705] “[pb_glossary id="1180"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary], son of Hippotas, had confined the winds in their prison under [pb_glossary id="1182"]Mount Etna[/pb_glossary], and Lucifer, who urges us to work, shone brightest of all in the depths of the eastern sky. Perseus strapped the winged sandals he had put to one side to his feet, armed himself with his curved sword, and cut through the clear air on beating pinions. Leaving innumerable nations behind, below and around him, he came in sight of the Ethiopian peoples, and the fields of [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary]. There [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] Ammon had unjustly ordered the innocent [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary] to pay the penalty for her mother [pb_glossary id="1166"]Cassiopeia[/pb_glossary]’s words. “As soon as Perseus, great-grandson of Abas, saw her fastened by her arms to the hard rock, he would have thought she was a marble statue, except that a light breeze stirred her hair, and warm tears ran from her eyes. His heart caught fire without him knowing it and he was stunned, and seized by the vision of the form he saw, he almost forgot to flicker his wings in the air. As soon as he had landed, he said ‘O, you do not deserve these chains, but rather those that link passionate lovers together. Tell me your name, I wish to know it, and the name of your country, and why you are wearing these chains.' At first she was silent: a virgin, she did not dare to address a man, and she would have hidden her face modestly with her hands, if they had not been fastened behind her. She used her eyes instead, and they filled with welling tears. At his repeated insistence, so as not to seem to be acknowledging a fault of her own, she told him her name and the name of her country, and what confidence her mother had had in her own beauty. “Before she had finished speaking, all the waves thundered, and a monster menaced them, rising from the deep sea, and covered the wide waters with its breadth. The girl cried out: her grieving father and mother were together nearby, both wretched, but the mother more justifiably so. They bring no help with them, only weeping and lamentations to suit the moment, and cling to her chained body. Then the stranger [Perseus] speaks, ‘There will be plenty of time left for tears, but we only have a short time to work. If I asked for this girl as Perseus, son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] and of [pb_glossary id="1143"]Danae[/pb_glossary], imprisoned in the brazen tower, whom [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] filled with his rich golden shower; Perseus conqueror of the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary] with snakes for hair, he who dared to fly, driven through the air, on soaring wings, then surely I should be preferred to all other suitors as a son-in-law. If the gods favour me, I will try to add further merit to these great gifts. I will make a bargain. Rescued by my courage, she must be mine.’ Her parents accept the contract (who would hesitate?) and, entreating him, promise a kingdom, as well, for a dowry. [706-752] “See how the creature comes, parting the waves with its surging breast, like a fast ship with a pointed prow ploughing the water, driven by the sweat-covered muscles of her crew. It was as far from the rock as a Balearic sling can send a lead shot through the air, when suddenly the young hero, pushing his feet hard against the earth, shot up high into the clouds. When the shadow of a man appeared on the water’ surface, the creature raged against the shadow it had seen. Like how [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s eagle, when it sees a snake in an open field showing its livid body to the sun, grabs the snake from behind and fixes its eager talons in the scaly neck in case it twists back its cruel fangs, so the descendant of [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary], [Perseus], hurling himself headlong, in swift flight, through empty space, attacked the creature’s back, and, as it roared, buried his sword, to the end of the curved blade, in the right side of its neck. Hurt by the deep wound, now it reared high in the air, now it dove underwater, or turned now, like a fierce wild boar when the dogs scare him, and the pack is barking around him. Perseus evades the eager jaws on swift wings, and strikes with his curved sword wherever the monster is exposed, now at the back encrusted with barnacles, now at the sides of the body, now where the tail is slenderest, ending fishlike. The beast vomits seawater mixed with purplish blood. The pinions grow heavy, soaked with spray. Not daring to trust his drenched wings any further, he sees a rock whose highest point stands above quiet water, hidden by rough seas. Resting there, and holding on to the topmost pinnacle with his left hand, he drives his sword in three or four times, repeatedly. “The shores, and the high places of the gods, fill with the clamour of applause. [pb_glossary id="1166"]Cassiopeia[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] rejoice, and greet their son-in-law, acknowledging him as the pillar of their house, and their deliverer. Released from her chains, the girl comes forward, the prize and the cause of his efforts. He washes his hands after the victory in seawater drawn for him and, so that [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary]’s head, covered with its snakes, is not bruised by the harsh sand, he makes the ground soft with leaves, spreads out plants from below the waves and places the head of that daughter of [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary] on them. The fresh plants, still living inside, and absorbent, respond to the influence of the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary]’s head, and harden at its touch, acquiring a new rigidity in branches and fronds. And the ocean nymphs try out this wonder on more plants, and are delighted that the same thing happens at its touch, and repeat it by scattering the seeds from the plants through the waves. Even now corals have the same nature, hardening at a touch of air, and what was alive, under the water, above water is turned to stone. [753-803] “To the three gods, he builds the same number of altars out of turf: to you [pb_glossary id="210"]Mercury[/pb_glossary] on the left, to you [pb_glossary id="173"]Minerva[/pb_glossary], warlike virgin, on the right, and an altar of [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] in the centre. He sacrifices a cow to [pb_glossary id="173"]Minerva[/pb_glossary], a calf to the wing-footed god, and a bull to you, greatest of the gods. Then he claims [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary], without a dowry, valuing her as the worthiest prize. [pb_glossary id="335"]Hymen[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="158"]Amor[/pb_glossary] wave the marriage torch, the fires are saturated with strong perfumes, garlands hang from the rafters, and everywhere flutes and pipes, and singing, ring out, the happy evidence of joyful hearts. The doors fold back to show the whole of the golden hall, and the noble Ethiopian princes enter to a richly prepared banquet already set out for them. “When they have attacked the feast, and their spirits are cheered by wine, the generous gift of [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary], Perseus asks about the country and its culture, its customs and the character of its people. At the same time as he instructed him about these, one of the guests said ‘Perseus, I beg you to tell us by what prowess and by what arts you captured that head with snakes for hair.’ The descendant of [pb_glossary id="1727"]Agenor[/pb_glossary] told how there was a cave lying below the frozen slopes of [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary], safely hidden in its solid mass. At the entrance to this place the sisters lived, the [pb_glossary id="1151"]Graeae[/pb_glossary], daughters of [pb_glossary id="1149"]Phorcus[/pb_glossary], similar to each other in appearance and sharing only one eye between them. He removed it [the eye], cleverly, and stealthily, cunningly substituting his own hand while they were passing it from one to another. Far from there, by hidden tracks, and through rocks bristling with shaggy trees, he reached the place where the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgons[/pb_glossary] lived. In the fields and along the paths, here and there, he saw the shapes of men and animals changed from their natures to hard stone by [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary]’s gaze. Nevertheless he had himself looked at the dread form of [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary] reflected in a circular shield of polished bronze that he carried on his left arm. And while a deep sleep held the snakes and herself, he struck her head from her neck. And the swift winged horse [pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary] and his brother the warrior [pb_glossary id="1158"]Chrysaor[/pb_glossary], were born from their mother’s blood. “He told of his long journeys, of dangers that were not imaginary ones, what seas and lands he had seen below from his high flight, and what stars he had brushed against with beating wings. He still finished speaking before they wished. Next one of the many princes asked why [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary], alone among her sisters, had snakes twining in her hair. The guest replied, ‘Since what you ask is worth telling, hear the answer to your question. She was once most beautiful, and the jealous aspiration of many suitors. Of all her beauties none was more admired than her hair: I came across a man who recalled having seen her. They say that [pb_glossary id="182"]Neptune[/pb_glossary], lord of the seas, raped her in the temple of [pb_glossary id="173"]Minerva[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s daughter [ [pb_glossary id="173"]Minerva[/pb_glossary] ] turned away, and hid her chaste eyes behind her [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]. So that it would not go unpunished, she changed the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary]’s hair to foul snakes. And now, to terrify her enemies, to numb them with fear, the goddess wears the snakes that she made as a breastplate.’” Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph4.php#anchor_Toc64106269
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved.

Conon, Narrations (trans. from Greek to French by A. Gedoyn, and from French to English by P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, ca. 1st century CE

This fragment from Conon's Narrations 40 is known from the writings of Photius of Constantinople. Conon was an Athenian mythographer, and here he gives a “euhemerizing” account of the tale of Perseus and Andromeda. A "euhemerism" is an attempt to explain the mythological elements of the story in a more realistic way, such as by drawing on real historical events. In Conon's version, Cetus is the name of Phoinix' ship (rather than an actual sea monster), and the Gorgon's head does not turn people to stone.
The 40th story tells the history of [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary] quite differently from the Greeks. [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1465"]Phineus[/pb_glossary], he [Conon] says, were two brothers. [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] ruled in the land that is now called Phoenicia but at the time was called Joppa, taking its name from Joppe the seaside city. His realm extended from our sea [the Mediterranean] up to the Arabs who live on the Red Sea. [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] had a very beautiful daughter, named [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary], and whom both his own brother [pb_glossary id="1465"]Phineus[/pb_glossary], as well as [pb_glossary id="1466"]Phoinix[/pb_glossary], wished to marry. After weighing the options for a long time, [pb_glossary id="1165"]Cepheus[/pb_glossary] decided to give her to the latter [ [pb_glossary id="1466"]Phoinix[/pb_glossary] ]. But, because he did not want to argue with his brother, he pretended to reject [pb_glossary id="1466"]Phoinix[/pb_glossary], but at the same time allowed him to kidnap her. [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary] often went to a deserted island to make sacrifices to [pb_glossary id="882"]Venus[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="1466"]Phoinix[/pb_glossary] took this opportunity and kidnapped her, and brought her onto a ship (which was called Cetus [sea monster], either because it looked like one, or for some other reason). [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary], assuming she was being kidnapped, began to wail and scream in desperation. In this moment, by some stroke of fortune, Perseus, who was sailing on the sea, came across the ship of [pb_glossary id="1466"]Phoinix[/pb_glossary]. He heard the cries, and saw a young woman calling for help. Struck by her beauty, and moved as much by pity as by love, he decided to free her. He attacked the the ship of [pb_glossary id="1466"]Phoinix[/pb_glossary] with a rage and took it over; those who were aboard were killed without a fight, as they were frozen with shock. Perseus thus freed [pb_glossary id="1164"]Andromeda[/pb_glossary], brought her onboard his own ship, and brought her to Argos, where they lived and reigned together. From this, the Greeks constructed the myth of the sea monster that was going to eat Andromeda, and of the people turned to stone by the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary]'s head. Taken from: http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/erudits/photius/conon.htm

Adventures of Bellerophon

Sections & Primary Sources

The Chimera

Homer, Iliad, 6.119-211

Pegasus

Pindar, Odes, "Olympian 13," 60-95

The Chimera

Anteia, the queen of Argos, fell in love with Bellerophon. When he did not return her affection, she accused him of assaulting her, and told her husband Proetus to kill Bellerophon. Proetus did not wish to kill Bellerophon himself, so he passed the job off to his cousin Iobates, the king of Lycia.

Similarly to how Polydectes attempted to kill Perseus by sending him to fight Medusa (see "Adventures of Perseus," above), Iobates sent Bellerophon to kill the Chimera, assuming that he would die in the attempt. Bellerophon, however, defeated the Chimera and returned to Argos. Iobates attempted a few more times to kill Bellerophon by sending him to fight other enemies (the Solymi and the Amazons), but Bellerophon defeated them all. Impressed by Bellerophon's strength, Iobates stopped trying to kill him, and granted him land in Lycia.

Homer, Iliad, Book 6 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek epic, ca. 8th/7th century BCE

In this passage from Homer's Iliad, Glaucus of Lycia tells Diomedes of Argos about his parentage, and recounts the great deeds of his ancestor Bellerophon.
[119-211] “There’s a town called Ephyre in a corner of Argos, the horse-pasture, and a man lived there called [pb_glossary id="1213"]Sisyphus[/pb_glossary], the craftiest of men, a son of [pb_glossary id="782"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary]. He had a son called [pb_glossary id="1215"]Glaucus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1215"]Glaucus[/pb_glossary] was father of the unrivaled Bellerophon, to whom the gods gave beauty and every manly grace. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] made him subject to King [pb_glossary id="1216"]Proetus[/pb_glossary], who was stronger and plotted against him, and drove him from [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argive[/pb_glossary] lands. Now [pb_glossary id="1216"]Proetus[/pb_glossary]’ wife, the beautiful [pb_glossary id="1217"]Anteia[/pb_glossary], longed madly for Bellerophon, and begged him to sleep with her in secret, but wise Bellerophon was a righteous man and could not be persuaded. So she wove a web of deceit, and said to King [pb_glossary id="1216"]Proetus[/pb_glossary]: ‘Kill this Bellerophon, who tried to take me by force, or die trying.’ The king was angered by her words. He would not kill Bellerophon, as his heart shrank from murder, but he sent him off to Lycia. He scratched many deadly signs on a folded tablet, gave him [Bellerophon] that fatal token, and told him to hand it to the Lycian king, his father-in-law, so as to engineer his death. Bellerophon went to Lycia escorted by unrivaled gods, and when he reached the streams of [pb_glossary id="1218"]Xanthus[/pb_glossary], the king of great Lycia, [ [pb_glossary id="1219"]Iobates[/pb_glossary] ], welcomed him with honour, entertaining him for nine days, and sacrificing nine oxen. But when rosy-fingered [pb_glossary id="215"]Dawn[/pb_glossary] lit the tenth day, his host questioned him, and asked what token he brought him from his son-in-law [pb_glossary id="1216"]Proetus[/pb_glossary]. “On first deciphering the fatal message, he ordered Bellerophon to kill the monstrous [pb_glossary id="1209"]Chimera[/pb_glossary], born from gods and not men, that had a lion’s head, goat’s body and serpent’s tail, and breathed out deadly blasts of scorching fire. But Bellerophon slew her, guided by the gods. Next he was sent against the notorious [pb_glossary id="1210"]Solymi[/pb_glossary], and fought, he said, the mightiest battle he ever fought. Then thirdly he slaughtered the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary], women who were equal to men. The king planned a deadly ruse for his return, staging an ambush by the best of the Lycian warriors. But not one of them returned: the unmatched Bellerophon killed them all. The king then realised he was a true son of the gods, and offered him his daughter and half of his kingdom, to stay. The Lycians moreover marked out for him an estate of the first rank, with tracts of orchards and plough-land for his delight. “The lady bore to Bellerophon, that warlike man, three children: Isander, Hippolochus and Laodameia. [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the Counsellor slept with Laodameia and she bore godlike [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary], now a bronze-clad warrior. But the time came when Bellerophon too was loathed by the gods, and wandered off alone over the Aleian plain, eating his heart away and shunning the ways of men. [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], unwearied by war, killed his [Bellerophon's] son Isander, in a battle with the glorious [pb_glossary id="1210"]Solymi[/pb_glossary]; and Laodameia was slain in anger by [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] of the Golden Reins. Hippolochus remained and fathered me [ [pb_glossary id="1205"]Glaucus[/pb_glossary] ], and from him I am descended. He sent me here to [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] and tasked me earnestly to be the best and bravest, and not bring shame on my ancestors, the best men in Ephyre and all broad Lycia. Such is my lineage, from that blood am I sprung.” Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Iliad6.php#anchor_Toc239244954
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Pegasus

The second famous deed of Bellerophon was his taming of the winged horse Pegasus, the child of Medusa and Poseidon (see "Adventures of Perseus," above). This deed is, however, often attributed to Perseus, who likely came to be associated with the Pegasus due to his killing of Medusa.

Pindar, Odes, "Olympian 13" (trans. D. A. Svarlien, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek victory ode, 5th century BCE

In his ode for Xenophon of Corinth (ca. 464 BCE), Pindar compares Xenophon to Bellerophon, and describes how Bellerophon tamed Pegasus with the help of the goddess Athena.
And the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Danaans[/pb_glossary] trembled before [pb_glossary id="1205"]Glaucus[/pb_glossary], when he came from Lycia; he boasted to them that in the city of Peirene lay the rule and rich estate and hall of his ancestor, Bellerophon, who once suffered greatly. When beside the spring [at Peirene], he wanted to harness [pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary], the son of the snake-entwined [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary]. [65] Then the maiden [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] brought to him a bridle with golden cheek-pieces. The dream suddenly became waking reality, and she spoke: “Are you sleeping, king, son [descendant] of [pb_glossary id="782"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary]? Come, take this charm for the horse; and, sacrificing a white bull, show it to your ancestor, [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] the Horse-Tamer.” [70] The goddess of the dark [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary] seemed to say these words to him as he slept in the darkness, and he leapt straight up to his feet. He seized the marvelous thing [the bridle] that lay beside him, and gladly went to the seer of the land. [75] And he told [ [pb_glossary id="1206"]Polyidus[/pb_glossary] ] the son of Coeranus the whole story: how, at the seer's bidding, he had gone to sleep for the night on the altar of the goddess, and how the daughter herself of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] whose spear is the thunderbolt had given him the spirit-taming gold. The seer told him to obey the dream with all speed; [80] and, when he sacrificed a strong-footed bull to the widely powerful holder of the earth [ [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] ], straightaway to dedicate an altar to [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary], goddess of horses. The power of the gods easily accomplishes things that are contrary to oaths and expectations. And so mighty Bellerophon eagerly [85] stretched the gentle charmed bridle around its jaws and caught the winged horse. Mounted on its back and armored in bronze, at once he began to play with weapons. And with [pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary], from the chilly bosom of the lonely air, he once attacked the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary], the female army of archers, [90] and he killed the fire-breathing [pb_glossary id="1209"]Chimera[/pb_glossary], and the [pb_glossary id="1210"]Solymi[/pb_glossary]. I shall pass over his death in silence; but [pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary] has found his shelter in the ancient stables of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] in [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DO.%3Apoem%3D13

Deaths

Sections & Primary Sources

Death of Perseus Death of Bellerophon

Pindar, Odes, "Isthmian 7," 39-49

Death of Perseus

Unlike many Greek heroes, Perseus has no notable myth attached to his death. Rather, it is said that he lived peacefully with his wife Andromeda for many years and fathered many children. He was also credited with the foundation of various cities, most notably Mycenae.

For further discussion of the foundation of Mycenae, see chapter 39.

Death of Bellerophon
After taming Pegasus, Bellerophon was said to have attempted to fly to Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. However, attempts by non-gods to reach Mount Olympus are never successful. The Giants Otus and Ephialtes, for example, piled up mountains in their own attempt to reach Olympus, but were promptly killed by Artemis and Apollo (see chapter 13). As punishment for his hubris, Bellerophon fell from Pegasus to his death.

Pindar, Odes, "Isthmian 7" (trans. D. A. Svarlien, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek victory ode, 5th century BCE
May the envy of the immortals not disturb [40] whatever delight I pursue from day to day as I peacefully make my way towards old age and the allotted span of my life. For we die all alike, but our fates are diverse. If a man looks to things far away, he is too short to reach the bronze-floored home of the gods; winged [pb_glossary id="1157"]Pegasus[/pb_glossary] threw his master Bellerophon, who wanted to go to the dwelling-places of heaven and be in the company of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. A thing that is sweet beyond measure is awaited by a most bitter end. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DI.%3Apoem%3D7

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_1800" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Perseus, white-ground krater, ca. 440 BCE (Archaeological Museum, Agrigento)[/caption]
Perseus was one of the most popular heroes in Greek myth - and consequently one of the most commonly depicted heroes in Greek art. He was portrayed as a young beardless man, usually wearing Hades’ cap of invisibility or Hermes’ winged sandals (or both), and wielding a curved sword (harpe). He is also often holding a magic bag (kibisis). These items are related to his most famous heroic deed - and the scene in which he was most often depicted, the slaying of the Gorgon Medusa.
[caption id="attachment_3854" align="alignnone" width="1328"] Perseus, Athena, and Hermes with the head of Medusa, tracing from red-figure krater from ca. 400 BCE (accessed via the Boston Museum of Fine Arts)[/caption]
Perseus is generally shown either diverting his gaze while he kills the monster, or running away after the fact to avoid the wrath of the other two Gorgons. He can be accompanied by Athena or Hermes, the two gods who gave him the necessary magical equipment.
[caption id="attachment_1349" align="alignleft" width="273"] Perseus beheading Medusa, red-figure pelike, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1879" align="alignright" width="351"] Athena and Perseus, red-figure hydria, ca. 470 BCE (Antikensammlung Berlin)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1345" align="alignnone" width="1599"] Perseus beheading Medusa, red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1348" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Death of Medusa, black-figure white-ground lekythos, ca. 500 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]
The second popular myth of Perseus represented in art was the rescue of princess Andromeda from a sea monster discussed above in 'Andromeda.' The hero is generally facing or killing the monster. He is wearing his typical attire (cap, sandals, sword); sometimes he is even riding Pegasus, freshly born from Medusa’s blood.
[caption id="attachment_1801" align="aligncenter" width="905"] Perseus and Andromeda, red-figure loutrophoros, ca. 340 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Taranto)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1806" align="aligncenter" width="763"] Perseus and Andromeda, black-figure amphora (Altes Museum, Berlin)[/caption]
The second hero, Bellerophon, is usually represented as a young beardless man. He is sometimes depicted wearing a Phrygian or Thessalian hat, and is almost always shown riding the winged horse Pegasus while slaying the Chimera.
[caption id="attachment_1775" align="alignleft" width="332"] Bellerophon and the Chimera, red-figure epinetron, ca. 425 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1777" align="alignright" width="305"] Bellerophon and the Chimera, black-figure tondo, ca. 650 BCE (Palazzo Massimo, Rome)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1780" align="alignleft" width="316"] Bellerophon and the Chimera, gold ring, 4th century BCE (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1779" align="alignright" width="323"] Bellerophon and the Chimera, terracotta flask, 3rd century BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1776" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bellerophon and the Chimera, black-figure kylix, ca. 550 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Theseus

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:29:56 +0000
[caption id="attachment_1897" align="aligncenter" width="786"] Athena, Theseus, and the Minotaur, red-figure kylix (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples)[/caption]

Birth and Early Adventures

Sections & Primary Sources

Aethra, Aegeus, and Pittheus The Road to Athens

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3.15.6-E.1.6

Bacchylides, Odes, "Ode 18"

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 7.404-452

Aethra, Aegeus, and Pittheus
The following content is adapted by T. Mulder from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.
Theseus, like Heracles had a presumed mortal father and an actual divine father. He was the son of Aethra, the daughter of Pittheus, who was king of Troezen (a small town in the northeastern Peloponnese of modern-day Greece).

Aegeus, who was the king of Athens, was having trouble producing an heir, so he went to the Oracle of Delphi to ask for help. The Pythia (the priestess of Apollo at the Oracle of Delphi) said, "The bulging foot of the wineskin, O best of men, loosen it not until you have reached the height of Athens." As was typical with these oracles, the meaning was cryptic.

On his way home to Athens, Aegeus stopped off at Troezen to ask his wise friend Pittheus what the oracle meant. In ancient Greece, wineskins were made from a whole goatskin, and one foot of the goatskin was used for the spout. When the Pythia said, “Don’t open the foot of the wineskin,” she was literally saying, “Don’t uncork the wine.” The foot of the wineskin also resembled a penis and was a phallic symbol. So the Pythia was actually advising Aegeus not to have sex with any woman until he returned home, since the next woman he had sex with would bear him a son.

Pittheus realized the meaning of the oracle, but instead of telling Aegeus, he got Aegeus drunk and had him sleep with his daughter, Aethra. He did this because Aegeus was the very powerful king of Athens, and Pittheus wanted his future grandson to become king of Athens. The god Poseidon also had sex with Aethra later that same night, which Aegeus did not know, and so Theseus' parentage was ambiguous.
[caption id="attachment_3855" align="alignnone" width="1315"] A satyr riding a wineskin, tracing from red-figure kylix from ca. 500 BCE (accessed via Laurie Annie/the Boston Museum of Fine Arts)[/caption]
The Road to Athens

Theseus grew up in Troezen with his mother Aethra. When he was old enough and strong enough, Aethra sent him to Athens to be reunited with Aegeus. Theseus travelled to Athens overland on a notoriously dangerous road. On the road, he encountered many bandits, marauders, and beasts, all of whom he handily defeated, thereby making a heroic name for himself and making the road to Athens safe for all future travelers.

On the road, Theseus killed Periphetes, Sinis, the Crommyonian Sow, Sciron, Cercyon, and Damastes. These encounters are called the "Six Labours" of Theseus.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 3 and Epitome (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE

The Bibliotheca gives the story of Theseus' conception and birth as well as his early labours. Whereas Heracles was a panhellenic (meaning 'all of Greece') hero who completed twelve famous labours, Theseus was a more localized, Athenian hero who completed six labours on the road to Athens. This selection from the Bibliotheca describes the six labours of Theseus and also the origin of the Minotaur, the half bull/half human creature whom Theseus faces in his most famous adventure.
[3.15.6] After the death of [pb_glossary id="1756"]Pandion[/pb_glossary] his sons marched against [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], expelled the Metionids [sons of Metion], and divided the government in four; but [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] had the whole power. The first wife whom he married was Meta, daughter of Hoples, and the second was Chalciope, daughter of Rhexenor. As no child was borne to him, he feared his brothers, and went to Pythia [ [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] ] and consulted the oracle concerning the begetting of children. The god answered him: "The bulging foot of the wineskin, O best of men, loosen it not until you have reached the height of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary]." Not knowing what to make of the oracle, he set out on his return to [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary]. [3.15.7] Journeying by way of Troezen, he lodged with [pb_glossary id="1770"]Pittheus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="632"]Pelops[/pb_glossary], who, understanding the oracle, made him drunk and caused him to lie with his daughter [pb_glossary id="1734"]Aethra[/pb_glossary]. But in the same night [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] also had intercourse with her. Now [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] charged [pb_glossary id="1734"]Aethra[/pb_glossary] with the task that, if she gave birth to a male child, she should raise it, without telling whose child it was; and he left a sword and sandals under a certain rock, saying that when the boy could roll away the rock and take them up, she was then to send him away with them. But he himself [[pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]] came to [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] and celebrated the games of the Panathenian festival, in which [pb_glossary id="1735"]Androgeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], vanquished all competitors. He was the one whom [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] sent against the bull of Marathon, and who was killed by said bull. But some say that as he journeyed to [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary] to take part in the games in honour of [pb_glossary id="4503"]Laius[/pb_glossary], he was waylaid and murdered by the jealous competitors. But when the news of his death were brought to [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], as he was sacrificing to the [pb_glossary id="189"]Graces[/pb_glossary] in Paros, he threw away the garland from his head and stopped the music of the flute, but nevertheless completed the sacrifice; and so down to this day they sacrifice to the [pb_glossary id="189"]Graces[/pb_glossary] in Paros without flutes and garlands. [3.15.8] But not long afterwards, being master of the sea, he attacked [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] with a fleet and captured Megara, then ruled by king Nisus, son of [pb_glossary id="1756"]Pandion[/pb_glossary], and he slew Megareus, son of Hippomenes, who had come from Onchestus to the help of Nisus. Now Nisus perished through his daughter's treachery. For he had a purple hair on the middle of his head, and an oracle said that when it was pulled out he would die; and his daughter [pb_glossary id="1736"]Scylla[/pb_glossary] fell in love with [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] and pulled out the hair. But when [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] had made himself master of Megara, he tied the damsel by the feet to the stern of the ship and drowned her. When the war stretched on and he could not conquer [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], he prayed to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] for revenge on the Athenians. And the city was visited with a famine and a pestilence, and the Athenians at first, in obedience to an ancient oracle, slaughtered the daughters of Hyacinth (Antheis, Aegleis, Lytaea, and Orthaea) on the grave of Geraestus, the [pb_glossary id="1654"]Cyclops[/pb_glossary]; now Hyacinth, the father of the damsels, had come from Lacedaemon and lived in [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary]. But when this was of no avail, they inquired of the oracle how they could be saved; and the god answered them that they should give [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] whatever satisfaction he might choose. So they sent a message to [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] and left it to him to claim his compensation. And [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] ordered them to send seven youths and the same number of damsels without weapons to be food for the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary]. Now the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary] was confined in a labyrinth, in which he who entered could not find his way out; for many a winding turn shut off the secret outward way. The labyrinth was constructed by [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary], whose father was Eupalamus, son of Metion, and whose mother was Alcippe; for he was an excellent architect and the first inventor of images. He had fled from [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], because he had thrown down from the acropolis Talos, the son of his sister Perdix; for Talos was his pupil, and [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] feared that with his talents he might surpass himself, seeing that he had sawed a thin stick with a jawbone of a snake which he had found. But the corpse was discovered; [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] was tried in the Areopagus, and being condemned fled to Minos. And there [pb_glossary id="1730"]Pasiphae[/pb_glossary] having fallen in love with the bull of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] acted as her accomplice by contriving a wooden cow, and he constructed the labyrinth, to which the Athenians every year sent seven youths and as many damsels to be food for the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary]. [3.16.1] [pb_glossary id="1734"]Aethra[/pb_glossary] bore to [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] a son Theseus, and when he was grown up, he pushed away the rock and took up the sandals and the sword, and hastened on foot to [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary]. And he cleared the road, which had been plagued by evildoers. For first in Epidaurus he slew [pb_glossary id="4418"]Periphetes[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] and Anticleia, who was surnamed the Clubman from the club which he carried. For being crazy on his legs he carried an iron club, with which he murdered the passersby. That club Theseus wrested from him and continued to carry around. [3.16.2] Second, he killed [pb_glossary id="1757"]Sinis[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1760"]Polypemon[/pb_glossary] and Sylea, daughter of Corinthus. This [pb_glossary id="1757"]Sinis[/pb_glossary] was surnamed the Pine-bender; for inhabiting the Isthmus of Corinth he used to force the passersby to keep bending pine trees; but they were too weak to do so, and being tossed up by the trees they perished miserably. In that way also Theseus killed [pb_glossary id="1757"]Sinis[/pb_glossary]. [E.1.1] Third, he killed at Crommyon the sow that was called [pb_glossary id="1809"]Phaea[/pb_glossary] after the old woman who bred it; that sow, some say, was the offspring of [pb_glossary id="643"]Echidna[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary]. [E.1.2] Fourth, he slew [pb_glossary id="1758"]Sciron[/pb_glossary], the Corinthian, son of [pb_glossary id="632"]Pelops[/pb_glossary], or, as some say, of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]. He in the Megarian territory held the rocks called after him Scironian, and compelled passersby to wash his feet, and in the act of washing he kicked them into the deep to be the prey of a huge turtle. [E.1.3] But Theseus seized him by the feet and threw him into the sea. Fifth, in [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary] he slew [pb_glossary id="1761"]Cercyon[/pb_glossary], son of Branchus and a [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] Argiope. This [pb_glossary id="1761"]Cercyon[/pb_glossary] compelled passersby to wrestle, and in wrestling killed them. But Theseus lifted him up on high and smashed him to the ground. [E.1.4] Sixth, he slew [pb_glossary id="1760"]Damastes[/pb_glossary], whom some call [pb_glossary id="1760"]Polypemon[/pb_glossary]. He had his dwelling beside the road, and made up two beds, one small and the other big; and offering hospitality to the passersby, he laid the short men on the big bed and hammered them, to make them fit the bed; but the tall men he laid on the little bed and sawed off the portions of the body that projected beyond it. So, having cleared the road, Theseus came to [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary]. [E.1.5] But [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary], being then married to [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], plotted against him and persuaded [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] to beware of him as a traitor. And [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], not knowing his own son, was afraid and sent him against the Marathonian bull. [E.1.6] And when Theseus had killed it, [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] presented to him a poison which he had received the same day from [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary]. But just as the drink was about to be administered to him, he gave his father the sword, and on recognizing it [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] knocked the cup from his hands. And when Theseus was thus made known to his father and informed of the plot, he expelled [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary]. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus3.html

Bacchylides, “Ode 18” (trans. D. A. Svarlien, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek victory ode, ca. 476 BCE

In a Greek ode for a victorious Athlete, written around 476 BCE, the poet Bacchylides dramatizes the young Theseus' journey to Athens after he has completed his six labours.

CHORUS:
King of sacred [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], lord of the luxuriously-living Ionians, why has the bronze-belled trumpet just now sounded a war song? [5] Does some enemy of our land attack our borders, leading an army? Or are evil-plotting robbers, against the will of the shepherds, [10] rustling our flocks of sheep by force? What is it that tears your heart? Speak; for I think that you of all mortals have the aid of valiant young men at your disposal, [15] son of [pb_glossary id="1756"]Pandion[/pb_glossary] and Creusa.
AEGEUS:
Just now a herald arrived, having come by foot on the long road from the Isthmus. He tells of the indescribable deeds of a mighty man. That man killed overweening [20] [pb_glossary id="1757"]Sinis[/pb_glossary], who was the greatest of mortals in strength; he is the son of Lytaeus the [pb_glossary id="2039"]Earth-shaker[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]. And he has slain the man-killing boar in the valleys of Cremmyon, and reckless [25] [pb_glossary id="1758"]Sciron[/pb_glossary]. He has closed the wrestling school of [pb_glossary id="1761"]Cercyon[/pb_glossary]; Procoptes has met a better man and dropped the powerful hammer of [pb_glossary id="1760"]Polypemon[/pb_glossary]. [30] I fear how this will end.
CHORUS:
Who is the man said to be, and from where? How is he equipped? Is he leading a great army with weapons of war? [35] Or does he come alone with only his attendants, like a traveler wandering among foreign people, this man who is so strong, valiant, and bold, who has overcome the powerful strength [40] of such great men? Indeed a god propels him, so that he can bring justice down on the unjust; for it is not easy to accomplish deed after deed and not meet with evil. [45] In the long course of time all things come to an end.
AEGEUS:
The herald says that only two men accompany him, and that he has a sword slung over his bright shoulders ((lacuna))[footnote]Indicates a gap or missing segment in the text[/footnote] . . . and two polished javelins in his hands, [50] and a well-made Laconian hat on his head with its fire-red hair. A purple tunic covers his chest, and a woolen Thessalian cloak. [55] Bright red Lemnian fire flashes from his eyes. He is a boy in the prime of youth, intent on the playthings of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]: war and battles of clashing bronze. [60] He is on his way to splendor-loving [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary]. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0064%3Abook%3DDith%3Apoem%3D18

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 7 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

In his Latin epic poem, the Metamorphoses, from the first century CE, Ovid dwells on the first meeting between Theseus, his father Aegeus, and Aegeus' third wife, [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea [/pb_glossary](recall that Medea fled to Athens after killing her children in Corinth). Ovid describes the origin of the poison that Medea attempts to use to kill Theseus.
[404-424] "Now Theseus came to [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary]’s son but as yet unknown to him. He, by his courage, had brought peace to the Isthmus between the two gulfs. [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary], seeking his destruction, prepared a mixture of poisonous aconite [monkshood/wolf’s bane] that she had brought with her from the coast of Scythia. This poison is said to have dripped from the teeth of [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary], the Echidnean dog. There is a dark cavern with a gaping mouth, and a path into the depths, up which [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary], hero of Tiryns, dragged the dog, tied with steel chains, resisting and twisting its eyes away from the daylight and the shining rays. [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary], provoked to a rabid frenzy, filled all the air with his simultaneous three-headed howling, and spattered the green fields with white flecks of foam. These are supposed to have congealed and found food to multiply, gaining harmful strength from the rich soil. Because they are long-lived, springing from the hard rock, the country people call these shoots, of wolf-bane, ‘soil-less’ aconites. Through his wife’s cunning [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], the father, himself offered the poison to his son, as if he were a stranger. Theseus, unwittingly, had taken the cup he was given in his right hand, when his father recognised the emblems of his own house, on the ivory hilt of his son’s sword, and knocked the evil drink away from his mouth. But she [ [pb_glossary id="1738"]Medea[/pb_glossary] ] escaped death, in a dark mist, raised by her incantations. [425-452] Though the father was overjoyed that his son was unharmed, he was still horrified that so great a crime could have come so close to success. He lit fires on the altars, and heaped gifts for the gods. His axes struck the mountainous necks of oxen, their horns tied with the sacrificial ribbons. They say that was the happiest day that dawned in the city of Erectheus.[footnote]Erectheus may refer to various figures in Athens' history: Erectheus I (also called Erichthonius), Erectheus II (a later king of Athens), or Poseidon, who was worshipped in Athens with the epithet Erectheus.[/footnote] The statesmen celebrated among the people, and they sang verses, made even more inspired by the wine. ‘Great Theseus, admired in Marathon, for the blood of the [pb_glossary id="1422"]Cretan bull[/pb_glossary], your act and gift made Cromyon’s fields safe [ from the [pb_glossary id="1809"]Crommyonian Sow[/pb_glossary] ] for the farmers plough. Epidaurus’ land saw you defeat [pb_glossary id="356"]Vulcan[/pb_glossary]’s club-wielding son [ [pb_glossary id="4418"]Periphetes[/pb_glossary] ], and the banks of the River Cephisus saw evil [pb_glossary id="1760"]Procrustes[/pb_glossary] brought down. [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary], sacred to [pb_glossary id="351"]Ceres[/pb_glossary] the Mother, witnessed [pb_glossary id="1761"]Cercyon[/pb_glossary]’s fall: [pb_glossary id="1757"]Sinis[/pb_glossary], you killed, a man of great strength twisted to evil art, who could bend pine-tree trunks to the earth, and tear men’s bodies apart: and [pb_glossary id="1758"]Sciron[/pb_glossary] is done for, and safe paths reach Megara’s Lelegeïan wall: though the ocean denied his bones a grave, and the land denied the same, till, long-time hurled, they hardened to cliffs, and the cliffs bear [pb_glossary id="1758"]Sciron[/pb_glossary]’s name. If we wanted to count your years and your honours, the deeds would exceed the years: to you, the bravest, we empty our wine-cups, and offer our public prayers.’ The palace echoed to the people’s applause and the prayers of friends, and there was no sad place in the whole city." Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph7.php#anchor_Toc64106443
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved

The Minotaur

Sections & Primary Sources

The Tribute to Minos

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3.1.1-E.1.24

Plutarch, Parallel Lives 1, "Life of Theseus," 15-19

Bacchylides, Odes, "Ode 17"

Ariadne

Catullus, Poems 64, “Of the Argonauts and an Epithalamium for Peleus and Thetis”

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 8.152-182

Ovid, Ars Amatoria, 1.15

Ovid, Heroides 10, "Ariadne to Theseus"

The Tribute to Minos

After being reunited with his mortal father at Athens, Theseus learns that the Athenians are being forced to send young men and women as human sacrifices to King Minos of Crete, to be fed to the king's half human/half bull son, the Minotaur. He volunteers to be one of these youths. His intention is to kill the beast and free Athens from its obligation to King Minos. Theseus gets help from Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, in navigating the labyrinth in which the Minotaur lives.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 3 and Epitome (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE

[content warning for the following source: suicide (E.1.10, E.1.19), sexual assault (E.1.20-23)]

Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca, gives the background for the Minotaur's lineage and how the half human/half bull creature came to be. He recounts Theseus' battle against the Minotaur, and also what happens to Dedaelus, the famous architect who made the Minotaur's conception possible and who built the labyrinth. Finally, he narrates what happens to Theseus when he returns to Athens: his battle against the Amazons with Heracles, his journey to the underworld with Pirithuous to kidnap Persephone, and tragic events that take place between Theseus' wife, Phaedre, and his son Hippolytus, whom he produced with Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons.
[3.1.1] Having now run over the family of [pb_glossary id="1183"]Inachus[/pb_glossary] and described them from Belus down to the Heraclids, we have next to speak of the house of [pb_glossary id="1727"]Agenor[/pb_glossary]. For as I have said, Libya had by [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] two sons, Belus and [pb_glossary id="1727"]Agenor[/pb_glossary]. Now Belus reigned over the Egyptians and fathered the aforesaid sons; but [pb_glossary id="1727"]Agenor[/pb_glossary] went to Phoenicia, married [pb_glossary id="1728"]Telephassa[/pb_glossary], and fathered a daughter [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary] and three sons, [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1724"]Phoenix[/pb_glossary], and Cilix. But some say that [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary] was a daughter not of [pb_glossary id="1727"]Agenor[/pb_glossary] but of [pb_glossary id="1724"]Phoenix[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] loved her, and turning himself into a tame bull, he mounted her on his back and conveyed her through the sea to Crete. There [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] slept with her, and she gave birth to [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1725"]Rhadamanthus[/pb_glossary]; but according to Homer, [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary] was a son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] by Laodamia, daughter of [pb_glossary id="1726"]Bellerophon[/pb_glossary]. Upon the disappearance of [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary], her father [pb_glossary id="1727"]Agenor[/pb_glossary] sent out his sons in search of her, telling them not to return until they had found [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary]. With them her mother [pb_glossary id="1728"]Telephassa[/pb_glossary], and Thasus son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] (or according to Pherecydes, of Cilix) went forth in search of her. But when, after diligent search, they could not find [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary], they gave up the thought of returning home, and took up residence in different places; [pb_glossary id="1724"]Phoenix[/pb_glossary] settled in Phoenicia; Cilix settled near Phoenicia, and all the country subject to himself near the river Pyramus he called Cilicia; and [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1728"]Telephassa[/pb_glossary] took up residence in Thrace and in the same way Thasus founded a city Thasus in an island off Thrace and dwelt there. [3.1.2] Now [pb_glossary id="1732"]Asterius[/pb_glossary], prince of the Cretans, married [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary] and brought up her children. But when they were grown up, they quarreled with each other; for they loved a boy called Miletus, son of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] by Aria, daughter of Cleochus. Because the boy was more friendly to [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] went to war and won it, and the others fled. Miletus landed in Caria and there founded a city which he called Miletus after himself; and [pb_glossary id="611"]Sarpedon[/pb_glossary] allied himself with Cilix, who was at war with the Lycians, and having stipulated for a share of the country, he became king of Lycia. And [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] granted him to live for three generations. But some say that they loved Atymnius, the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1166"]Cassiopeia[/pb_glossary], and that it was about him that they quarreled. [pb_glossary id="1725"]Rhadamanthus[/pb_glossary] legislated for the islanders, but afterwards he fled to Boeotia and married [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary]; and since his departure from the world he acts as judge in [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] along with [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], residing in Crete, passed laws, and married [pb_glossary id="1730"]Pasiphae[/pb_glossary], daughter of the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary] and Perseis; but Asclepiades says that his wife was Crete, daughter of [pb_glossary id="1732"]Asterius[/pb_glossary]. He fathered sons (Catreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, and [pb_glossary id="1735"]Androgeus[/pb_glossary]) and daughters (Acalle, Xenodice, [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1740"]Phaedra[/pb_glossary]); and by a [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] Paria he had Eurymedon, Nephalion, [pb_glossary id="1564"]Chryses[/pb_glossary], and Philolaus; and by Dexithea he had Euxanthius. [3.1.3] [pb_glossary id="1732"]Asterius[/pb_glossary] dying childless, [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] wished to reign over Crete, but his claim was opposed. So he alleged that he had received the kingdom from the gods, and in proof of it he said that whatever he prayed for would be done. And in sacrificing to [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] he prayed that a bull might appear from the depths, promising to sacrifice it when it appeared. [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] did send him up a fine bull, and [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] obtained the kingdom, but he sent the bull to the herds and sacrificed another. [Being the first to obtain the dominion of the sea, he extended his rule over almost all the islands.] [3.1.4] But angry at him for not sacrificing the bull, [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] made the animal savage, and contrived that [pb_glossary id="1730"]Pasiphae[/pb_glossary] should conceive a passion for it. In her love for the bull she found an accomplice in [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary], an architect, who had been banished from [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] for murder. He constructed a wooden cow on wheels, took it, hollowed it out in the inside, sewed it up in the hide of a cow which he had skinned, and set it in the meadow in which the bull used to graze. Then he led [pb_glossary id="1730"]Pasiphae[/pb_glossary] into it; and the bull came and coupled with it, as if it were a real cow. And she gave birth to Asterius, who was called the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary]. He had the face of a bull, but the rest of him was human; and [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], in compliance with certain oracles, shut him up and guarded him in the Labyrinth. Now the Labyrinth which [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] constructed was a chamber “that with its tangled windings perplexed the outward way.” The story of the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1735"]Androgeus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1740"]Phaedra[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], I will tell hereafter in my account of Theseus. [. . .] [E.1.7] And he (Theseus) was counted among those who were to be sent as the third tribute to the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary]; or, as some affirm, he offered himself voluntarily. And as the ship had a black sail, Aegeus charged his son, if he returned alive, to spread white sails on the ship. [E.1.8] And when he came to Crete, [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], having fallen in love with him, offered to help him if he would agree to carry her away to [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] and take her as his wife. Theseus having agreed on oath to do so, she asked [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] to disclose the way out of the labyrinth. [E.1.9] And at his suggestion she gave Theseus a clew [ball of thread] when he went in; Theseus fastened it to the door, and, drawing it after him, entered in. And having found the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary] in the last part of the labyrinth, he killed him by smiting him with his fists; and drawing the ball of thread after him made his way out again. And by night he arrived with [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary] and the rescued Athenian children at Naxos. There [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary] fell in love with [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary] and carried her off; and having brought her to Lemnos he slept with her, and she gave birth to Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus. [E.1.10] In his grief on account of [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], Theseus forgot to spread white sails on his ship when he stood for port; and [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], seeing from the acropolis the ship with a black sail, supposed that Theseus had perished; so he cast himself down and died. [E.1.11] But Theseus inherited the sovereignty of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], and killed the sons of Pallas [ of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] ], fifty in number; likewise all who would oppose him were killed by him, and he got the whole government to himself. [E.1.12] On being informed of the flight of Theseus and those with him, [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] imprisoned the guilty [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] in the labyrinth, along with his son [pb_glossary id="1443"]Icarus[/pb_glossary], who had been borne to [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] by Naucrate, a female slave of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] constructed wings for himself and his son, and instructed his son, when he took to flight, neither to fly high, in case the glue melted in the sun and the wings dropped off, nor to fly near the sea, in case the pinions became detached by the damp. [E.1.13] But the excited [pb_glossary id="1443"]Icarus[/pb_glossary], disregarding his father's instructions, soared ever higher until, the glue melting, he fell into the sea (which was named after him, the Icarian Sea) and perished. But [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] made his way safely to Camicus in Sicily. [E.1.14] And [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] pursued [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary], and in every country that he searched he carried a spiral shell and promised to give a great reward to him who should pass a thread through the shell, believing that by that means he would find [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary]. And having come to Camicus in Sicily, to the court of Cocalus, with whom [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] was concealed, he showed the spiral shell. Cocalus took it, and promised to thread it, and gave it to [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary]. [E.1.15] And [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] fastened a thread to an ant, and, having bored a hole in the spiral shell, allowed the ant to pass through it. But when [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] found the thread passed through the shell, he perceived that [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] was with Cocalus, and at once demanded his surrender. Cocalus promised to turn him over, and made an entertainment for [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]; but after his bath [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] was defeated by the daughters of Cocalus; some say, however, that he died through being drenched with boiling water. [E.1.16] Theseus joined [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary] in his expedition against the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary] and carried off Antiope, or, as some say, Melanippe; but Simonides calls her [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyte[/pb_glossary]. For this reason the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary] marched against [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], and having taken up a position around the Areopagus, they were defeated by the Athenians under Theseus. And though he had a son [pb_glossary id="1739"]Hippolytus[/pb_glossary] by the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazon[/pb_glossary], [E.1.17] Theseus afterwards received from Deucalion in marriage [pb_glossary id="1740"]Phaedra[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]; and when her marriage was being celebrated, the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazon[/pb_glossary] that had before been married to him appeared in arms with her [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary], and threatened to kill the assembled guests. But they hastily closed the doors and killed her. However, some say that she was killed in battle by Theseus. [E.1.18] And [pb_glossary id="1740"]Phaedra[/pb_glossary], after she had given birth to two children, Acamas and Demophon, to Theseus, fell in love with the son he had by the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazon[/pb_glossary], Hippolytus, and asked him to sleep with her. However, he fled from her embraces, because he hated all women. But [pb_glossary id="1740"]Phaedra[/pb_glossary], fearing that he might report her advances to his father, left open the doors of her bed-chamber, tore her garments, and falsely charged [pb_glossary id="1739"]Hippolytus[/pb_glossary] with an assault. [E.1.19] Theseus believed her and prayed to [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] that [pb_glossary id="1739"]Hippolytus[/pb_glossary] might perish. So, when [pb_glossary id="1739"]Hippolytus[/pb_glossary] was riding in his chariot and driving beside the sea, [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] sent up a bull from the surf, and the horses were frightened, the chariot dashed in pieces, and [pb_glossary id="1739"]Hippolytus[/pb_glossary], entangled in the reins, was dragged to death. And when her passion was made public, [pb_glossary id="1740"]Phaedra[/pb_glossary] hanged herself. [E.1.20] [pb_glossary id="1482"]Ixion[/pb_glossary] fell in love with [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] and attempted to rape her; and when [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] reported it, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], wishing to know if the thing were so, made a cloud in the likeness of [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] and laid it beside him; and when [pb_glossary id="1482"]Ixion[/pb_glossary] boasted that he had slept with [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] bound him to a wheel, on which he is whirled by winds through the air; such is the penalty he pays. And the cloud, impregnated by [pb_glossary id="1482"]Ixion[/pb_glossary], gave birth to the [pb_glossary id="1398"]Centaurs[/pb_glossary]. [E.1.21] And Theseus allied himself with [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary], when he engaged in war against the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaurs[/pb_glossary]. For when [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] wooed Hippodamia, he feasted the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaurs[/pb_glossary] because they were her kinsmen. But being unaccustomed to wine, they made themselves drunk by drinking it greedily, and when the bride was brought in, they attempted to rape her. But [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary], fully armed, with Theseus, joined battle with them, and Theseus killed many of them.[footnote]The Centauromachy, the battle between the Lapiths and the centaurs at the wedding of Hippodamia and Pirithous, is a common theme in Greek art (such as on the famous West Pediment of the temple of Zeus and Olympia). [/footnote] [E.1.22] [pb_glossary id="1747"]Caeneus[/pb_glossary] was formerly a woman, but after that [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] had intercourse with her, she asked to become an invulnerable man;[footnote]Book 12 of Ovid's Metamorphoses provides the most detailed account of the story of Caeneus. Caeneus, born Caenis (a feminine ending of the name), was raped by Poseidon, and then asked Poseidon to transform her into a man. Poseidon fulfilled this wish and gave Caeneus the additional gift of being invulnerable to weapons. For further discussion of the story of Caeneus and the concepts of gender and transgender in this myth, see: Northrop, C. (2020). Caeneus and Heroic (Trans)Masculinity in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Arethusa 53(1), 25-41 and Power M., (2020) “Non-Binary and Intersex Visibility and Erasure in Roman Archaeology”, Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 3(1). p.11.[/footnote] and so in the battle with the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaurs[/pb_glossary] he thought nothing of wounds and killed many of the [pb_glossary id="1398"]centaurs[/pb_glossary]; but the rest of them surrounded him and by striking him with fir trees buried him in the earth. [E.1.23] Having made an agreement with [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] that they would marry daughters of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], Theseus, with the help of [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary], carried off [pb_glossary id="1663"]Helen[/pb_glossary] from Sparta for himself, when she was twelve years old, and in the endeavor to win [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary] as a bride for [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] he went down to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. And the [pb_glossary id="1743"]Dioscuri[/pb_glossary], with the Lacedaemonians and Arcadians, captured [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] and carried away [pb_glossary id="1663"]Helen[/pb_glossary], and with her [pb_glossary id="1734"]Aethra[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="1770"]Pittheus[/pb_glossary], into captivity; but Demophon and Acamas fled. And the [pb_glossary id="1743"]Dioscuri[/pb_glossary] also brought back Menestheus from exile, and gave him the sovereignty of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary]. [E.1.24] But when Theseus arrived with [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] in [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], he was tricked; for, on the pretense that they were about to partake of good cheer, [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] asked them first to be seated on the Chair of Forgetfulness, to which they grew and were held tight by coils of serpents. [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary], therefore, remained bound for ever, but [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary] brought Theseus up and sent him to [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary]. As a result, he was driven away by Menestheus and went to Lycomedes, who threw him down an abyss and killed him. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus3.html

Plutarch, Parallel Lives 1, "Life of Theseus," Chapters 15-19 (trans. W. W. Skeat, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek biography, 2nd century CE

Plutarch, a Greek philosopher and historian from the second century CE, wrote a euhemerizing account of Theseus and the Minotaur, attempting to give a rational explanation for the myth.
15 Not long after, king [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]' ambassadors came from Crete to demand tribute for the third time. This tribute was paid by the Athenians for this reason: [pb_glossary id="1735"]Androgeus[/pb_glossary], the eldest son of king [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], was treacherously slain within the country of Attica. Because of this, [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], in order to avenge his death, made war on Athenians and did them much damage. In addition, the gods harshly punished and scourged all the country with barrenness and famine, with plague, and with other misfortunes, even drying up their rivers. The Athenians, perceiving these dire troubles and plagues, ran to the oracle of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], who answered them that they should appease [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], and when they had made their peace with him then the wrath of the gods would cease and their troubles would end. Thus the Athenians sent a message immediately to him [ [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] ], and asked him for peace, which he granted them, on the condition that every year they send to Crete seven young boys and just as many young girls. Now the historiographers agree up to this point, but not on the rest of the tale. And those who are the most preposterous say that when these young boys were delivered to Crete, they were devoured by the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary] within the labyrinth, or they were shut within this labyrinth, wandering up and down, and could find no place to get out until they died of starvation. And this [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary], as Euripides the poet wrote, was "A form combin'd, which monstrous might be deemed: A boy and a bull, both man and beast it seemed." 16 But Philochorus writes that the Cretans do not admit that, but rather say that this labyrinth was a jail or prison. In this prison, those who were kept there suffered no other punishment except that they were kept under lock and key and could not fly or run away; and that in memory of his son, [pb_glossary id="1735"]Androgeus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] had instituted games and prizes, in which he gave the young Athenian children as prizes to those who won. In the meantime, the children were kept locked in the prison of the labyrinth. At the first of these games one of the king's captains named Taurus [whose name means "bull"], who was a favourite of his master, won the prize. This Taurus was an ill-mannered man and very hard and cruel to these Athenian children. And to verify this account, the philosopher Aristotle, in his Constitution of the Bottiaeans, made clear that he never thought that [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] had ever put the Athenian children to death. He said instead that they laboured as slaves in Crete for the rest of their lives. 17 When the time came for the third tribute and the fathers with unmarried children were forced to put their children forward for the drawing of lots, the citizens of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] began to speak out against [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], lamenting that he, who was the only cause of all this evil, was the only one exempted from this grief. And that, while he placed the government of the realm into the hands of a stranger, he did not care, that they were deprived of all their natural children and were unnaturally forced to leave and forsake them. These sorrows and complaints of the fathers whose children were taken pierced the heart of Theseus, who, willing to yield to reason, and to have the same fate as the citizens did, offered himself as tribute to be sent to Crete. The citizens thought highly of his courage and honourable disposition and loved him greatly for his community-minded spirit. [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] tried to persuade Theseus to change his mind, but seeing in the end that there was no other option, he drew lots for the children to go with him. [pb_glossary id="5689"]Hellanicus[/pb_glossary] instead writes that it was not the Athenians who drew lots for the children to send, but that [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] himself went to Athens in person and chose them. He chose Theseus first, on the condition agreed between them: the Athenians should provide them with a ship, and the children should sail with him, carrying no weapons of war, and that after the death of the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary] this tribute would end. Before this time there was never any hope of a safe return; therefore the Athenians always sent the children out on a ship with a black sail to signify their certain doom. Nevertheless, Theseus encouraged his father to have faith in him and boldly promised that he would defeat the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary]. So, [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] gave the master of the ship a white sail, commanding him that at his return he should put out the white sail if his son had escaped: if not, then he should set up the black sail, to signal his misfortune. Simonides writes instead that this sail that [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] gave to the shipmaster was not white but red, dyed in grain, and of the colour of scarlet, and that he gave it to him to signal their delivery and safety. This master was called Phereclus Amarsiadas, according to Simonides. But Philochorus writes that Scirus the Salaminian gave to Theseus a shipmaster called Nausitheus, and another mariner to tackle the sails, who was called Phaeas (because the Athenians at that time were not very skilled at sea). And Scirus did this because one of the children who was chosen by lot was his nephew. And standing as testament to this are the shrines which Theseus built afterwards in honour of Nausitheus and of Phaeas, in the village of Phalerus, joining to the temple of Scirus. And it is said moreover that the feast which they call Cybernesia, the feast of patrons of the ships, is celebrated in honour of them. 18 Now after the lots were drawn, Theseus took with him the children allotted for the tribute and went from the palace to the temple called Delphinion to make an offering to [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] on behalf of himself and the children– an offering of supplication, which they call hiceteria, which was a sacred olive bough encircled with white wool. After he had made his prayer, he went down to the sea-side to embark on the sixth day of the month of March– the day on which, even at this present time, they send their young girls to the same temple of Delphinion to make their prayers and petitions to the gods. But some say that the oracle of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] in the city of [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] had answered him, that he should take [pb_glossary id="882"]Venus[/pb_glossary] for his guide, and that he should call upon her to lead him in his voyage. For this reason he sacrificed a goat to her upon the sea-side, which suddenly turned into a ram, and so they surnamed this goddess Epitragia, “the goddess of the ram.” 19 Then, after he arrived in Crete, he slew the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary] (as most of the ancient authors write) with the help of [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary] who, having fallen in love with him, gave him a clew of thread, with which she taught him how to easily wind out of the twist and turns of the labyrinth. And they say that, having killed this [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary], he returned back again the same way he went, bringing with him those other young Athenian children. He also took [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary]. Pherecides adds that he broke the keels or bottoms of all the ships of Crete, so that they could not immediately set out after them. And Demon writes, the aforementioned [pb_glossary id="1867"]Taurus[/pb_glossary] (the captain of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]) was killed in a fight with Theseus at the entrance to the port as they were preparing to sail away. Yet Philochorus reports that after king [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] had set up the games, as he did every year in the honour and memory of his son, everyone began to envy captain [pb_glossary id="1867"]Taurus[/pb_glossary], because they all assumed that he would carry away the game and victory, as he had done in previous years. Furthermore, he attracted much ill will and envy because he was proud and haughty and people suspected that he was having an affair with Queen [pb_glossary id="1730"]Pasiphae[/pb_glossary]. This is why, when Theseus asked to duel with [pb_glossary id="1867"]Taurus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] easily granted it. Since it was customary in Crete for women to view the games, [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary] was there and fell even more in love with Theseus when she saw that he was so great a person, so strong, and invincible in wrestling that he beat every one else. King [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] was so glad that Theseus had beaten [pb_glossary id="1867"]Taurus[/pb_glossary] that he sent him home free along with all the other prisoners of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary]. And he released and forgave the city of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] the tribute, which they paid him yearly. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.03.0078%3Atext%3DThes.

Bacchylides, “Ode 17” (trans. D.A. Svarlien, adapted by L. Zhang)

Greek victory ode, ca. 476 BCE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault (10-45)]

In an ode for a victorious athlete, written around 476 BCE, the Greek poet Bacchylides describes the meeting of the two heroes and demigods: Minos, the son of Zeus and Europa, and Theseus, the son of Poseidon and Aethra. Each hero proves his semi-divine status with a sign from his divine father.
A dark-prowed ship, carrying Theseus, steady in the noise of battle, and two-times-seven splendid Ionian youths, was cleaving the Cretan sea; [5] for northern breezes fell on the far-shining sail, by the will of glorious [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary], shaker of the [pb_glossary id="168"]aegis[/pb_glossary]. And the holy gifts of Cypris [ [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] ] with her lovely headband scratched the heart of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]. [10] He no longer kept his hand away from the maiden [ [pb_glossary id="1751"]Eriboea[/pb_glossary] ]; he touched her white cheeks. And [pb_glossary id="1751"]Eriboea[/pb_glossary] cried out [15] to the descendant of [pb_glossary id="1756"]Pandion[/pb_glossary] [Theseus] with his bronze breastplate. Theseus saw, and he rolled his dark eyes under his brows; cruel pain tore his heart, [20] and he spoke: “Son of greatest [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the spirit you guide in your heart is no longer pious. Hero, restrain your overbearing force. Whatever the all-powerful fate of the gods [25] has granted for us, and however the scale of Justice tips, we shall fulfill our appointed destiny when it comes. As for you, hold back from your oppressive scheme. It may be that the dear [30] lovely-named daughter of [pb_glossary id="1724"]Phoenix[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary] ] went to the bed of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] beneath the brow of [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary] and bore you, greatest of mortals, but I too was borne by the daughter of rich [pb_glossary id="1770"]Pittheus[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="1734"]Aethra[/pb_glossary] ], [35] who coupled with the sea-god [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], and the violet-haired [pb_glossary id="329"]Nereids[/pb_glossary] gave her a golden veil. And so, war-lord of Knossos, [40] I ask you to restrain your terrible violence; for I would not want to see the lovely immortal light of [pb_glossary id="215"]Dawn[/pb_glossary] if you were to subdue one of these young people against her will. [45] Before that we will show the force of our arms, and what comes after that a god will decide.” So spoke the hero, excellent with the spear; and the sailors were astonished at the man's extraordinary [50] boldness. The son-in-law of [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] was angered in his heart, and he wove a new scheme, and spoke: “Father [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], great in strength, hear me! If indeed the white-armed Phoenician girl [ [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary] ] bore me to you, [55] now send forth from the sky a fire-haired lightning bolt, a conspicuous sign. And you, if Troezenian [pb_glossary id="1734"]Aethra[/pb_glossary] bore you to [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] the [pb_glossary id="2039"]earth-shaker[/pb_glossary], [60] bring this splendid gold ornament on my hand back from the depths of the sea, casting your body boldly down to your father's home. And you shall see whether my prayers are heard [65] by the son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], lord of the thunder and ruler of all.” And [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], great in strength, heard his blameless prayer, and brought about a majestic honour for [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], wanting it [70] to be seen by all for the sake of his dear son; he sent the lightning. And the hero, steadfast in battle, seeing the marvel which pleased his spirit, stretched his hands to the glorious sky and said, “Theseus, [75] you see [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]' clear gifts to me. It is your turn to leap into the loud-roaring sea. And your father lord [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary], will grant you supreme [80] glory throughout the well-wooded earth.” So he spoke. And Theseus' spirit did not recoil; he stood on the well-built deck, and leapt, [85] and the precinct of the sea received him willingly. And the son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] was astonished in his heart, and gave an order to hold the ornate ship before the wind; but fate was preparing another path. [90] The swift-moving ship hurtled forwards; and the north wind, blowing astern, drove it along. But the ((lacuna)) . . . race of Athenian youths was afraid, when the hero jumped into the sea, [95] and they shed tears from their lily eyes, awaiting terrible compulsion. But sea-dwelling dolphins swiftly carried great Theseus to the home of his father, lord of horses; [100] and he came to the hall of the gods. There he saw the glorious daughters of prosperous [pb_glossary id="1431"]Nereus[/pb_glossary], and was afraid; for brightness shone like fire from their splendid limbs, [105] and ribbons woven with gold whirled around their hair. They were delighting their hearts in a dance, with flowing feet. And he saw in that lovely dwelling the dear wife of his father, [110] holy, ox-eyed [pb_glossary id="1547"]Amphitrite[/pb_glossary]. She threw a purple cloak around him and placed on his curly hair a perfect wreath, [115] dark with roses, which deceptive [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] had once given her at her marriage. Nothing of the gods’ will is unbelievable to sensible men. Theseus appeared beside the ship with its slender stern. Oh, [120] from what thoughts did he stop the war-lord of Knossos, when he emerged dry from the sea, a marvel to all, and the gifts of the gods shone on his body. [125] The splendid-throned maidens cried out with new-founded joy, and the sea resounded. Nearby the young people sang a triumphal song with lovely voices. [130] God of [pb_glossary id="1696"]Delos[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] ], may the choruses of the Ceans warm your heart, and may you grant god-sent noble fortune. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text? doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0064%3Abook%3DDith%3Apoem%3D17

Ariadne

Minos' daughter Ariadne helped Theseus extensively in his conflict with the Minotaur in the Labyrinth of Minos. Theseus then brought her away from Crete, promising to marry her. Accounts vary as to what occurred afterwards. In the most common version of the myth (particularly in Ovid's accounts), Theseus abandons Ariadne on the island of Naxos, and Dionysus comes to her rescue. She then becomes an immortal goddess and the wife of Dionysus on Olympus.

Catullus, Poems 64, "Of the Argonauts and an Epithalamium for Peleus and Thetis" (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang)

Latin poem, 1st century BCE

The longest version of Theseus' abandonment of Ariadne is a poem by the Roman poet Catullus, written in the first century BCE, a generation before Ovid wrote the Metamorphoses. This poem is commonly called "Catullus 64," as it is ordered 64th in the collection of his surviving poems. It is an epithalamium, meaning a wedding poem.
Here are seen the wave-echoing shores of Naxos, Theseus, aboard his ship, vanishing swiftly, watched by [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], ungovernable passion in her heart, not yet believing that she sees what she does see, still only just awoken from deceptive sleep, finding herself abandoned wretchedly to empty sands. But uncaring the hero fleeing strikes the deep with his oars, casting his empty promises to the stormy winds. The Minoan girl goes on gazing at the distance, with mournful eyes, like the statue of a [pb_glossary id="887"]Bacchante[/pb_glossary], gazes, alas, and swells with great waves of sorrow, no longer does the fine turban remain on her golden hair, no longer is she hidden by her lightly-concealing dress, no longer does the shapely band hold her milk-white breasts all of it scattered, slipping entirely from her body, plays about her feet in the salt flood. But, not caring now for turban or flowing dress, the lost girl gazed towards you, Theseus, with all her heart, spirit, mind. Wretched thing, for whom bright [pb_glossary id="882"]Venus[/pb_glossary] reserved the thorny cares of constant mourning in your heart, from that time when it suited warlike Theseus, leaving the curving shores of Piraeus, to reach the Cretan regions of the unbending king. For then forced by cruel plague, they say, as punishment, to absolve the murder of [pb_glossary id="1735"]Androgeus[/pb_glossary] ten chosen young men of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] and ten unmarried girls used to be given together as sacrifice to the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary]. With which evil the narrow walls were troubled until Theseus chose to offer himself for his dear [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] rather than such Athenian dead be carried un-dead to Crete. And so in a swift ship and with gentle breezes he came to great [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] and his proud halls. As soon as the royal girl cast her eye on him with desire, she whom the chaste bed nourished, breathing sweet perfumes in her mother’s gentle embrace, even as Eurotas’ streams surround a myrtle that sheds its varied colours on the spring breeze, she did not turn her blazing eyes away from him, till she conceived a flame through her whole body that burned utterly to the depths of her bones. Ah sadly the Boy [ [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary] ] incites inexorable passion in chaste hearts, he who mixes joy and pains for mortals, and she [ [pb_glossary id="882"]Venus[/pb_glossary] ] who rules Golgos and leafy Idalia, even she, who shakes the mind of a smitten girl, often sighing for a blonde-haired stranger! How many fears the girl suffers in her weak heart! How often she grows pale: more so than pale gold. As Theseus went off eager to fight the savage monster either death approached or fame’s reward! Promising small gifts, not unwelcome or in vain, she made her prayers to the gods with closed lips. Now as a storm uproots a quivering branch of oak, or a cone-bearing pine with resinous bark, on the heights of Mount Taurus, twisting its unconquered strength in the wind (it falls headlong, far off, plucked out by the roots, shattering anything and everything in its way) so Theseus upended the conquered body of the beast its useless horns overthrown, emptied of breath. Then he turned back, unharmed, to great glory, guided by the wandering track of fine thread, so that his exit from the fickle labyrinth of the palace would not be prevented by some unnoticed error. But what should I recite, digressing further from my poem’s theme: the girl, abandoning her father’s sight, her sisters’ embraces, and lastly her mother’s, she wretched at her lost daughter’s joy in preferring the sweet love of Theseus to all this: or her being carried by ship to Naxos’ foaming shore, or her consort with uncaring heart vanishing, she conquered, her eyes softening in sleep? Often loud shrieks cried the frenzy in her ardent heart poured out from the depths of her breast, and then she would climb the steep cliffs in her grief, where the vast sea-surge stretches out to the view, then run against the waves into the salt tremor holding her soft clothes above her naked calves, and call out mournfully this last complaint, a frozen sob issuing from her wet face: ‘False Theseus, is this why you take me from my father’s land, faithless man, to abandon me on a desert shore? Is this how you vanish, heedless of the god’s power, ah, uncaring, bearing home your accursed perjuries? Nothing could alter the measure of your cruel mind? No mercy was near to you, relentless man, that you might take pity on my heart? Yet once you made promises to me in that flattering voice, you told me to hope, not for this misery but for joyful marriage, the longed-for wedding songs, all in vain, dispersed on the airy breezes. Now, no woman should believe a man’s pledges, or believe there’s any truth in a man’s words: when their minds are intent on their desire, they have no fear of oaths, don’t spare their promises: but as soon as the lust of their eager mind is slaked they fear no words, they care nothing for perjury. Surely I rescued you from the midst of the tempest of fate, and more, I gave up my half-brother, whom I abandoned to you with treachery at the end. For that I’m left to be torn apart by beasts, and a prey to sea-birds, unburied, when dead, in the scattered earth. What lioness whelped you under a desert rock, what sea conceived and spat you from foaming waves, what Syrtis [shoals], what fierce [pb_glossary id="1832"]Scylla[/pb_glossary], what vast [pb_glossary id="1833"]Charybdis[/pb_glossary], you who return me this, for the gift of your sweet life? If marriage with me was not in your heart, because you feared your old father’s cruel command, you could still have led me back to your house, where I would have served you, a slave happy in her task, washing your beautiful feet in clear water, covering your bed with the purple fabric. But why complain to the uncaring wind in vain? It is beyond evil, and without senses, unable to hear what is said, without voice to reply. It is already turning now towards mid-ocean, and nothing human appears in this waste of weed. So cruel chance taunts me in my last moments, even depriving my ears of my own lament. All-powerful [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary], if only the Athenian ships had not touched the shores of Knossos, from the start, carrying their fatal cargo for the ungovernable bull, a faithless captain mooring his ropes to Crete, an evil guest, hiding a cruel purpose under a handsome appearance, finding rest in our halls! Now where can I return? What desperate hope depend on? Shall I seek out the slopes of [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary]? But the cruel sea with its divisive depths of water separates me from them. Or shall I hope for my father’s help? Did I not leave him, to follow a man stained with my brother’s blood? Or should I trust in a husband’s love to console me? Who hardly bends slow oars in running from me? More, I’m alive on a lonely island without shelter, and no escape seen from the encircling ocean waves. No way to fly, no hope: all is mute, all is deserted, all speaks of ruin. Yet still my eyes do not droop in death, not till my senses have left my weary body, till true justice is handed down by the gods, and the divine help I pray for in my last hour. So you [pb_glossary id="157"]Eumenides[/pb_glossary] who punish by avenging the crimes of men, your foreheads crowned with snaky hair, bearing anger in your breath, here, here, come to me, listen to my complaints, that I, wretched alas, force, weakened, burning, out of the marrow of my bones, blind with mad rage. Since these truths are born in the depths of my breast, you won’t allow my lament to pass you by, but as Theseus left me alone, through his intent, goddesses, by that will, pursue him and his with murder.’ When these words had poured from her sad breast, the troubled girl praying for cruel actions, the chief of the gods nodded with unconquerable will: at which the earth and the cruel sea trembled and the glittering stars shook in the heavens. Now Theseus’ mind was filled with a dark mist and all the instructions he had held fixed in memory before this, were erased from his thoughts, failing to raise the sweet signal to his mourning father, when the harbour of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] safely came in sight. For they say that when [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary] parted from his son, as the goddess’s ship left the city, he yielded him to the wind’s embrace with these words: ‘Son, more dear to me than my long life, son, whom I abandoned through chance uncertainty, lately returned to me in the last days of my old age, since my fate and your fierce virtue tear you away from me, against my will, whose failing eyes are not yet sated with my dear son’s face, I don’t send you off happily with joyful heart, or allow you to carry flags of good fortune, but start with the many sorrows in my mind, marring my white hairs with earth and sprinkled ashes, then hang unfinished canvas from the wandering mast, so the darkened sail of gloomy Spanish flax might speak the grief and passion in my mind. But if the one who dwells in sacred Iton [ [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] ], who promised to defend the people and city of Erectheus,[footnote]See footnote 1[/footnote] allows you to wet your hand with the blood of the bull, then make sure this command is done, buried in your remembering heart, not to be erased by time: that as soon as you set eyes on our hills, strip the dark fabric fully from the yards, and hoist white sails with your twisted ropes, so that seeing them from the first, I’ll know joy in my glad heart, when a happy time reveals your return.’ These words to Theseus, once held constantly in mind, vanished like clouds of snow struck by a blast of wind on the summits of high mountains. But when his father, searching the view from the citadel’s height, endless tears flooding his anxious eyes, first saw the sails of dark fabric, he threw himself head first from the height of the cliff, believing Theseus lost to inexorable fate. So fierce Theseus entered the palace in mourning for his father’s death, and knew the same grief of mind that he had caused neglected [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], she who was gazing then where his ship had vanished pondering the many cares in her wounded heart. But bright [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary] hurries from elsewhere with his chorus of [pb_glossary id="372"]Satyrs[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="218"]Sileni[/pb_glossary] from [pb_glossary id="607"]Nysa[/pb_glossary], seeking you, [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], burning with love for you. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Catullus.php#anchor_Toc531846789 Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 8 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang)

Latin narrative poem, 1st century CE

In his Metamorphoses, Ovid gives a poetic version of Theseus' slaying of the Minotaur. Contrary to the account in Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca, where Dionysus steals Ariadne away from Theseus while they are resting on the island of Naxos, in Ovid's version, Theseus actually abandons Ariadne on Naxos, sailing back to Athens without her. As Ariadne weeps on the shores of the island, Dionysus (here "Bacchus," his Roman name), comes to rescue her.
[152-182] When [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] reached Cretan soil he paid his dues to [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary], with the sacrifice of a hundred bulls, and hung up his war trophies to adorn the palace. The scandal concerning his family grew, and the queen’s unnatural adultery was evident from the birth of a strange hybrid monster. [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] resolved to remove this shame, the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary], from his house, and hide it away in a labyrinth with blind passageways. [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary], celebrated for his skill in architecture, laid out the design, and confused the clues to direction, and led the eye into a tortuous maze, by the windings of alternating paths. No differently from the way in which the watery Maeander deludes the sight, flowing backwards and forwards in its changeable course, through the meadows of Phrygia, facing the running waves advancing to meet it, now directing its uncertain waters towards its source, now towards the open sea: so [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] made the endless pathways of the maze, and was scarcely able to recover the entrance himself: the building was as deceptive as that. In there, [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] walled up the twin form of bull and man, and twice had it nourished on Athenian blood. But the third repetition of the tribute, which happened every nine-years and was chosen by lot, caused the monster’s downfall. When, through the help of the virgin princess, [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], by rewinding the thread, Theseus, son of [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], won his way back to the elusive threshold, that no one had previously regained, he immediately set sail for Dia, stealing the daughter of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] away with him, then cruelly abandoned her on that shore. Deserted and weeping bitterly, as she was, [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary]-[pb_glossary id="371"]Liber[/pb_glossary] brought her help and comfort. So that she might shine among the eternal stars, he took the crown from her forehead, and set it in the sky. It soared through the rarefied air, and as it soared its jewels changed to bright fires, and took their place, retaining the appearance of a crown, as the Corona Borealis, between the kneeling Hercules and the head of the serpent that Ophiuchus holds. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph8.php#anchor_Toc64106496 Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved

Ovid, Ars Amatoria, Book 1 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang)

Latin elegy, 1st century CE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault]

In his Ars Amatoria, a set of three long elegiac poems in which he claims to teach the art of love to young men and women, Ovid explains how Ariadne's grief made her attractive to Bacchus, causing the god to abduct the abandoned girl.
[15] Ah, [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary] calls to his poet: he helps lovers too, and supports the fire with which he is inflamed. The frantic Cretan girl wandered the unknown sands, that the waters of tiny sea-borne Dia showed. Just as she was, from sleep, veiled by her loose robe, barefoot, with her yellow hair unbound, she called, for cruel Theseus, to the unhearing waves, her gentle cheeks wet with tears of shame. She called, and wept as well, but both became her, she was made no less beautiful by her tears. Now striking her sweet breast with her hands, again and again, she cried: ‘That faithless man’s gone: what of me, now? What will happen to me?’ she cried: and the whole shore echoed to the sound of cymbals and frenzied drums. She fainted in terror, her next words were stifled: no sign of blood in her almost lifeless body. Behold! The [pb_glossary id="887"]Bacchantes[/pb_glossary] with loose streaming hair: Behold! The wanton [pb_glossary id="372"]Satyrs[/pb_glossary], a crowd before the god: Behold! Old [pb_glossary id="218"]Silenus[/pb_glossary], barely astride his swaybacked mule, clutching tightly to its mane in front. While he pursues the [pb_glossary id="887"]Bacchae[/pb_glossary], the [pb_glossary id="887"]Bacchae[/pb_glossary] flee and return, as the rascal urges the mount on with his staff. He slips from his long-eared mule and falls headfirst: the [pb_glossary id="372"]Satyrs[/pb_glossary] cry: ‘Rise again, father, rise,’ Now the God in his chariot, wreathed with vines, curbing his team of tigers, with golden reins: the girl’s voice and colour and Theseus all lost: three times she tried to run, three times fear held her back. She shook, like a slender stalk of wheat stirred by the wind, and trembled like a light reed in a marshy pool. To whom the god said: ‘See, I come, more faithful in love: have no fear: Cretan, you’ll be bride to [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary]. Take the heavens for dowry: be seen as heavenly stars: and guide the anxious sailor often to your Cretan Crown [the Corona Borealis].’ He spoke, and leapt from the chariot, in case she feared his tigers: the sand yielded under his feet: clasped in his arms (she had no power to struggle), he carried her away: all’s easily possible to a god. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/ArtofLoveBkI.php#anchor_Toc521049271
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved

Ovid, Heroides 10, "Ariadne to Theseus" (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Latin epistolary poem, 1st century BCE

Finally, one of Ovid's Heroides, his fictional, poetic letters written from the point of view of mythic heroines, features Ariadne writing a letter to Theseus, detailing her grief at his abandonment of her.
Even now, left to the wild beasts, she might live, cruel Theseus. Do you expect her to have endured this too, patiently? The whole tribe of creatures contrive to be gentler than you: not one have I had less confidence in than you. Theseus, what you read has been sent to you from this land, from which your sails carried your ship without me, in which my sleep, and you, evilly betrayed me, conceiving your plans against me while I slept. It was the time when the earth’s first sprinkled with glassy frost, and the hidden birds lament in the leaves: waking uncertainly, and stirring languidly in sleep, half-turning, my hand reached out for Theseus: there was no one there. I drew back, and tried again, and moved my arm across the bed: no one there. Fear broke through my drowsiness: terrified, I rose and hurled my body from the empty bed. Straight away my hands drummed on my breast, and tore at my hair, just as it was, on waking, from my confused sleep. There was a moon: I looked and saw nothing but the shore: wherever my eyes could see, there was nothing but sand. I ran here and there without any sense of purpose, the deep sand slowing a girl’s feet. Meanwhile I called: ‘Theseus!’ over the whole beach your name echoing from the hollow cliffs and as often as I called you, the place itself called too: the place itself wished to give aid to my misery. There was a hill: a few bushes were visible on its summit: a crag hangs there hollowed out by the harsh waves. I climbed it: courage gave me strength: and I scanned the wide waters from that height with my gaze. Then I saw – now the cruel winds were also felt – your ship driven before a fierce southerly gale. Either with what I saw, or what I may have thought I’d seen: I was frozen like ice and half-alive. But grief allowed no time for languor. I was roused by it, and roused, I called to Theseus at the top of my voice. ‘Where are you going?’ I shouted ‘turn back, wicked Theseus! Work your ship! You’re without one of your number!’ So I called. When my voice failed I beat my breast instead: my blows were interspaced with my words. If you could not hear at least you might still see: I made wide signals with my outstretched hands. I hung a white cloth on a tall branch, hoping those who’d forgotten would remember me. Now you were lost to sight. Then finally I wept: till then my cheeks were numb with grief. What could my eyes do but weep at myself, once they had ceased to see your sails? Either I wandered alone, with disheveled hair, like a [pb_glossary id="887"]Maenad[/pb_glossary] shaken by the Theban god [ [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary] ]: or I sat on the cold rock gazing at the sea, and I was as much a stone as the stones I sat on. Often I seek again the bed that accepted us both, but it shows no sign of that acceptance, and I touch what I can of the traces of you, instead of you, and the sheets your body warmed. I lie there and, wetting the bed with my flowing tears, I cry out: ‘We two burdened you, restore the two! We came here together: why shouldn’t we go together? Faithless bed, where’s the better part of me now? What am I to do? Why endure alone? The island’s unploughed: I see no human beings: I can’t imagine there’s an ox. The land’s encircled by the sea on every side: no sailors, no ship to set sail on its uncertain way. Suppose I was given companions, winds and ship, where would I make for? My country denies me access. If my boat slid gently through peaceful waters, calmed by Aeolian winds, I’d be an exile still. I could not gaze at you, Crete, split in a hundred cities, a land that was known to the infant [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary]. But my father and that land justly ruled by my father, those dear names, were both betrayed by me. while you, the victor who retraced your steps, would have died in the winding labyrinth, unless guided by the thread I gave you, Then, you said to me: ‘I swear by the dangers overcome, that you’ll be mine while we both shall live.’ We live, and I’m not yours, Theseus, if you still live, I’m a woman buried by the fraud of a lying man. Club that killed my brother, the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary], condemn me too! The promise that you gave should be dissolved by death. Now I see not only what I must endure, but what any castaway would suffer. A thousand images of dying fill my mind, and I fear death less than delay in that penalty of death. At every moment I dream it, coming from here or there, as if wolves tore my entrails with eager teeth. Perhaps this land breeds tawny lions? Who knows if this island harbours savage tigers? And they say that the ocean throws up huge sea-lions: and who could prevent some sword piercing my side? If only I might not be a captive, bound with harsh chains, nor draw out endless threads with a slave’s hand, I whose father is [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], whose mother [ [pb_glossary id="1730"]Pasiphae[/pb_glossary] ] is the [pb_glossary id="876"]Sun[/pb_glossary]’s daughter, because of that I remember the more, that I was bound to you! If I see the ocean, the land and the wide shore, I fear many things on land, many on the waves. The sky remains: I fear visions from the gods: I’m forsaken, a prey and food for swift beasts. If men live here and cultivate this place, I distrust them: I’ve thoroughly learned to fear wounds from strangers. I wish my brother [pb_glossary id="1735"]Androgeus[/pb_glossary] lived and you [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], land of [pb_glossary id="1585"]Cecrops[/pb_glossary], hadn’t paid with your children’s deaths for his impious murder: and that you, Theseus hadn’t killed the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary], half human, half bull, wielding a knotted club in your strong hand: and that I hadn’t given you the thread that marked your way back, the thread so often received back into the hand that drew it. I’m not surprised that victory was yours, and the monster, prone, lay groaning on the Cretan earth. His horns could not pierce your iron heart: though you might fail to shield it, your breast would be safe. There you revealed flints and adamants, there you’ve a Theseus harder than flint. Cruel sleep, why did you hold me there, senseless? Rather I should have been buried forever in eternal night. You too cruel winds, you gales, all too ready and overzealous in bringing tears to me: cruel right hand that causes my death, and my brother’s, and offered the promise I asked, an empty name: Sleep, the breeze, the promise conspired against me: one girl, I’m betrayed by three causes. So it seems I’ll die without seeing my mother’s tears, and there’ll be no one to close my eyes. My unhappy spirit will vanish on a foreign breeze, no friendly hand will anoint my laid-out body. The seabirds will hover over my unburied bones: these are the ceremonies fit for my tomb. You’ll be carried to [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], and be received by your homeland, where you’ll stand in the high fortress of your city, and speak cleverly of the death of man and bull, and the labyrinth’s winding paths cut from the rock: speak of me also, abandoned in a lonely land: I’m not to be dropped, secretly, from your list! Your father’s not [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary]: [pb_glossary id="1734"]Aethra[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="1770"]Pittheus[/pb_glossary], is not your mother: your creators were stone and sea. May the gods have ordained that you saw me from the high stern, that my mournful figure altered your expression. Now see me not with your eyes, but as you can, with your mind, clinging to a rock the fickle sea beats against: see my disheveled hair like one who is in mourning and my clothes heavy with rain-like tears! My body trembles like ears of wheat struck by a north wind and the letters I write waver in my unsteady fingers. I don’t entreat you by my kindness, since that has ended badly: let no gratitude be owed for my deeds. But no punishment either. If I’m not the cause of your health, that’s still no reason why you should cause me harm. These hands weary of beating my sad breast for you, unhappily I stretch them out over the wide waters: I mournfully display to you what remains of my hair: I beg you by these tears your actions have caused: turn your ship, Theseus, fall back against the wind: if I die first, you can still bear my bones. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Heroides8-15.php#anchor_Toc524696647 Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved

Athens and Later Life

Sections & Primary Sources

Theseus in Athens Theseus' Pursuits of Women

Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Life of Theseus,"6, 7, 10, 15, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 35

Phaedra and Hippolytus

Ovid, Heroides 4, "Phaedra to Hippolytus"

Theseus in Athens

After the death of his father Aegeus, Theseus inherited kingship of Athens. He was credited with creating many political institutions, and unifying Attica as the democratic state of Athens.

For further discussion of the foundation of Athens, see chapter 36.

After abandoning Ariadne, Theseus embarked on a mission, alongside his friend Pirithous, to find a wife.

Like Heracles, Bellerophon, Achilles, and other Greek heroes, his adventures included an encounter with the Amazons. Theseus (either with Heracles or alone) went to the Amazons and kidnapped their queen, called either Hippolyte or Antiope. Theseus and Hippolyte had a son, Hippolytus (see "Phaedra and Hippolytus," below).

Additionally, Theseus and Pirithous attempted unsuccessfully to kidnap Helen of Sparta and the goddess Persephone.
For further discussion of the Amazons, see chapter 23. For further discussion of Theseus' descent to the Underworld to capture Persephone, see chapter 41.

Plutarch, Parallel Lives 1, "Life of Theseus," Chapters 6, 7, 10, 15, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 35 (trans. W. W. Skeat, B. Perrin, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek biography, 2nd century CE

[content warning for the following source: suicide]

Plutarch was a Greek author from the 2nd century CE. Among his many works are the ‘Parallel Lives,’ biographies of famous Greeks and Romans that paralleled one another. His ‘Life of Theseus’ was the counterpart to his ‘Life of Romulus.’ Although Plutarch tended towards the rationalizing or euhemerizing versions of stories, he couldn’t resist slipping in some fantastical tales as well.

Chapter 6
During the rest of the time, then, [pb_glossary id="1734"]Aethra[/pb_glossary] kept his true birth concealed from Theseus, and a report was spread abroad by [pb_glossary id="1770"]Pittheus[/pb_glossary] that he was begotten by Poseidon. For Poseidon is highly honored by the people of Troezen, and he is the patron god of their city; to him they offer first fruits in sacrifice, and they have his trident as an emblem on their coinage. [2] But when, in his young manhood, Theseus displayed, along with his vigor of body, prowess also, and a firm spirit united with intelligence and sagacity, then [pb_glossary id="1734"]Aethra[/pb_glossary] brought him to the rock, told him the truth about his birth, and bade him take away his fathers tokens and go by sea to Athens. [3] Theseus put his shoulder to the rock and easily raised it up, but he refused to make his journey by sea, although safety lay in that course, and his grandfather and his mother begged him to take it. For it was difficult to make the journey to Athens by land, since no part of it was clear nor yet without peril from robbers and miscreants. [4] For verily that age produced men who, in work of hand and speed of foot and vigor of body, were extraordinary and indefatigable, but they applied their powers to nothing that was fitting or useful. Nay rather, they exulted in monstrous insolence, and reaped from their strength a harvest of cruelty and bitterness, mastering and forcing and destroying everything that came in their path. And as for reverence and righteousness, justice and humanity, they thought that most men praised these qualities for lack of courage to do wrong and for fear of being wronged, and considered them no concern of men who were strong enough to get the upper hand. [5] Some of these creatures Heracles cut off and destroyed as he went about, but some escaped his notice as he passed by, crouching down and shrinking back, and were overlooked in their abjectness. And when Heracles met with calamity and, after the slaying of [pb_glossary id="1441"]Iphitus[/pb_glossary], removed into Lydia and for a long time did slave’s service there in the house of Omphale, then Lydia indeed obtained great peace and security; but in the regions of Hellas the old villainies burst forth and broke out anew, there being none to rebuke and none to restrain them. [6] The journey was therefore a perilous one for travelers by land from Peloponnesus to Athens, and [pb_glossary id="1770"]Pittheus[/pb_glossary], by describing each of the miscreants at length, what sort of a monster he was, and what deeds he wrought upon strangers, tried to persuade Theseus to make his journey by sea. But he, as it would seem, had long since been secretly fired by the glorious valor of Heracles, and made the greatest account of that hero, and was a most eager listener to those who told what manner of man he was, and above all to those who had seen him and been present at some deed or speech of his. [7] And it is altogether plain that he then experienced what Themistocles many generations afterwards experienced, when he said that he could not sleep for the trophy of Miltiades. In like manner Theseus admired the valor of Heracles, until by night his dreams were of the hero’s achievements, and by day his ardor led him along and spurred him on in his purpose to achieve the like.
Chapter 7
Regarding the voyage he made by sea, Major, Philochorus, and some others are of the opinion that he went there with [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary] to fight against the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary]: and that to honour his valiantness, Hercules gave him [pb_glossary id="1869"]Antiopa[/pb_glossary] the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazon[/pb_glossary]. But most of the other historiographers, namely Hellanicus, Pherecides, and Herodotus, write that Theseus went there alone, after Hercules' voyage, and that he took this [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazon[/pb_glossary] prisoner; which is more likely to be true. For we do not find that any other, aside from Theseus, who went this journey or took any [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazon[/pb_glossary] prisoner. Bion, also a historiographer, despite this claim, says that he brought her away by deceit and stealth. For the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazons[/pb_glossary] (he states) naturally loved men and did not flee at all when they saw them land in their country, but sent them presents, and Theseus enticed the one who had brought him a present to come aboard his ship. And when she was on board, he hoisted his sail and carried her away. Another historiographer Menecrates, who wrote the history of the city of Nicea in the country of Bithynia, said that Theseus, having this [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazon[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="1869"]Antiopa[/pb_glossary] with him, remained a certain time on those coasts, and that he had in his company three younger brethren of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], Euneus, Thoas, and Solois (among others). This last one, Solois, was marvelousIy in love with [pb_glossary id="1869"]Antiopa[/pb_glossary], and never told any of his companions, except one with whom he was most familiar and whom he trusted best, so that he reported this matter to [pb_glossary id="1869"]Antiopa[/pb_glossary]. But she utterly rejected his advances, though otherwise she handled it wisely and courteously, and did not complain to Theseus of him. However, the young man, despairing about his love, took it so personally that, desperately, he leaped into the river and drowned himself. Which, when Theseus understood the reason for his demise, was very angry and full of regret. Then he remembered a certain oracle of [pb_glossary id="1870"]Pythia[/pb_glossary], by whom he was commanded to build a city in the place in a foreign country where he was most regretful, and should leave some of the people who were with him at that time to govern the place. For this reason, therefore, he built a city in that place, which he named Pythopolis, because he built it only by the commandment of the priestess [pb_glossary id="1870"]Pythia[/pb_glossary]. He called the river, in which the young man was drowned “Solois”, in memory of him, and left his two brethren for his deputies and as governors of this new city, with another gentleman of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], called Hermus.
Chapter 10
Theseus and [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] went together to the city of Lacedaemon [Sparta], where they took away [pb_glossary id="1663"]Helen[/pb_glossary] (who was still very young) even as she was dancing in the temple of [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary] Orthia, and they fled for their lives. The Lacedaemonians chased after her; but those that followed went no further than the city of Tegea. When they had escaped of the Peloponnesus, they agreed to draw lots together to determine which of the two of them should have her, on the condition that whoever had her should take her to be his wife and would be bound to also to help his companion to get him another. It was Theseus' luck to win the lot and he carried her to the city of Aphidnae because she was still too young to be married. He had his mother to come raise her to adulthood and gave his friend, Aphidnus, guardianship of them both. He placed [pb_glossary id="1663"]Helen[/pb_glossary] in his good care and tasked him to keep it so secret that nobody should know what had happened to her. Because he would do the same for [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] (according to the agreement made between them) he went into Epirus with him to steal the daughter of [pb_glossary id="880"]Aidoneus[/pb_glossary], king of the Molossians, who had named his wife Proserpina, his daughter Proserpina, and his dog (with whom he made those who came to ask for his daughter in marriage fight) Cerberus.[footnote]In some accounts (as here), the names of Hades (Aidoneus) and Persephone (Proserpina) are transposed onto mortal human characters to create a euheumerized version of the myth of the abduction of Persephone (see chapter 10). Cerberus, too, refers not to the three-headed dog of the Underworld, but rather to the king Aidoneus' normal dog.[/footnote] He promised to give her to whoever defeated his Cerberus. But the king knew that [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] came not to request his daughter in marriage, but to steal her away, so he took him prisoner with Theseus. He had [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] torn to pieces by his dog, and shut Theseus up in a secure prison.
Chapter 15
Not long afterwards there came from Crete for the third time the collectors of the tribute. Now as to this tribute, most writers agree that because Androgeos was thought to have been treacherously killed within the confines of Attica, not only did Minos harass the inhabitants of that country greatly in war,¹ but Heaven also laid it waste, for barrenness and pestilence smote it sorely, and its rivers dried up; also that when their god assured them in his commands that if they appeased Minos and became reconciled to him, the wrath of Heaven would abate and there would be an end of their miseries, they sent heralds and made their supplication and entered into an agreement to send him every nine years a tribute of seven youths and as many maidens. [2] And the most dramatic version of the story declares that these young men and women, on being brought to Crete, were destroyed by the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, or else wandered about at their own will and, being unable to find an exit, perished there; and that the Minotaur, as Euripides says, was “A mingled form and hybrid birth of monstrous shape,” and that “Two different natures, man and bull, were joined in him.”
Chapter 16
Philochorus, however, says that the Cretans do not admit this, but declare that the Labyrinth was a dungeon, with no other inconvenience than that its prisoners could not escape; and that Minos instituted funeral games in honor of Androgeos, and as prizes for the victors, gave these Athenian youth, who were in the meantime imprisoned in the Labyrinth and that the victor in the first games was the man who had the greatest power at that time under Minos, and was his general, Taurus by name, who was not reasonable and gentle in his disposition, but treated the Athenian youth with arrogance and cruelty. [2] And Aristotle himself also, in his Constitution of Bottiaea, clearly does not think that these youths were put to death by Minos, but that they spent the rest of their lives as slaves in Crete. And he says that the Cretans once, in fulfillment of an ancient vow, sent an offering of their first-born to Delphi, and that some descendants of those Athenians were among the victims, and went forth with them; and that when they were unable to support themselves there, they first crossed over into Italy and dwelt in that country round about Iapygia, and from there journeyed again into Thrace and were called Bottiaeans; and that this was the reason why the maidens of Bottiaea, in performing a certain sacrifice, sing as an accompaniment ‘To Athens let us go!’ And verily it seems to be a grievous thing for a man to be at enmity with a city which has a language and a literature. [3] For Minos was always abused and reviled in the Attic theaters, and it did not avail him either that Hesiod² called him ‘most royal,’ or that Homer³ styled him ‘a confidant of Zeus,’ but the tragic poets prevailed, and from platform and stage showered obloquy down upon him, as a man of cruelty and violence. And yet they say that Minos was a king and lawgiver, and that Rhadamanthus was a judge under him, and a guardian of the principles of justice defined by him.
Chapter 23
The ship on which Theseus sailed with the youths and returned in safety, the thirty-oared galley, was preserved by the Athenians down to the time of Demetrius Phalereus.¹ They took away the old timbers from time to time, and put new and sound ones in their places, so that the vessel became a standing illustration for the philosophers in the mooted question of growth, some declaring that it remained the same, others that it was not the same vessel. [2] It was Theseus who instituted also the Athenian festival of the Oschophoria. For it is said that he did not take away with him all the maidens on whom the lot fell at that time, but picked out two young men of his acquaintance who had fresh and girlish faces, but eager and manly spirits, and changed their outward appearance almost entirely by giving them warn baths and keeping them out of the sun, by arranging their hair, and by smoothing their skin and beautifying their complexions with unguents; he also taught them to imitate maidens as closely as possible in their speech, their dress, and their gait, and to leave no difference that could be observed, and then enrolled them among the maidens who were going to Crete, and was undiscovered by any. [3] And when he was come back, he himself and these two young men headed a procession, arrayed as those are now arrayed who carry the vine-branches. They carry these in honor of Dionysus and Ariadne, and because of their part in the story; or rather, because they came back home at the time of the vintage. And the women called Deipnophoroi, or supper-carriers, take part in the procession and share in the sacrifice, in imitation of the mothers of the young men and maidens on whom the lot fell, for these kept coming with bread and meat for their children. And tales are told at this festival, because these mothers, for the sake of comforting and encouraging their children, spun out tales for them. At any rate, these details are to be found in the history of Demon. Furthermore, a sacred precinct was also set apart for Theseus, and he ordered the members of the families which had furnished the tribute to the Minotaur to make contributions towards a sacrifice to himself. This sacrifice was superintended by the Phytalidae, and Theseus thus repaid them for their hospitality.
Chapter 24
After the death of Aegeus, Theseus conceived a wonderful design, and settled all the residents of Attica in one city, thus making one people of one city out of those who up to that time had been scattered about and were not easily called together for the common interests of all, nay, they sometimes actually quarrelled and fought with each other. [2] He visited them, then, and tried to win them over to his project township by township and clan by clan. The common folk and the poor quickly answered to his summons; to the powerful he promised government without a king and a democracy, in which he should only be commander in war and guardian of the laws, while in all else everyone should be on an equal footing. [3] Some he readily persuaded to this course, and others, fearing his power, which was already great, and his boldness, chose to be persuaded rather than forced to agree to it. Accordingly, after doing away with the townhalls and council-chambers and magistracies in the several communities, and after building a common town-hall and council-chamber for all on the ground where the upper town of the present day stands, he named the city Athens, and instituted a Panathenaic festival. [4] He instituted also the Metoecia, or Festival of Settlement, on the sixteenth day of the month Hecatombaeon, and this is still celebrated. Then, laying aside the royal power, as he had agreed, he proceeded to arrange the government, and that too with the sanction of the gods. For an oracle came to him from Delphi, in answer to his enquiries about the city, as follows:— [5] “Theseus, offspring of Aegeus, son of the daughter of Pittheus, Many indeed the cities to which my father has given Bounds and future fates within your citadel’s confines. Therefore be not dismayed, but with firm and confident spirit Counsel only; the bladder will traverse the sea and its surges.” And this oracle they say the Sibyl afterwards repeated to the city, when she cried:—”‘Bladder may be submerged; but its sinking will not be permitted.’”
Chapter 25
Desiring still further to enlarge the city, he invited all men thither on equal terms, and the phrase ‘Come hither all ye people,’ they say was a proclamation of Theseus when he established a people, as it were, of all sorts and conditions. However, he did not suffer his democracy to become disordered or confused from an indiscriminate multitude streaming into it, but was the first to separate the people into noblemen and husbandmen and handicraftsmen. [2] To the noblemen he committed the care of religious rites, the supply of magistrates, the teaching of the laws, and the interpretation of the will of Heaven, and for the rest of the citizens he established a balance of privilege, the noblemen being thought to excel in dignity, the husbandmen in usefulness, and the handicraftsmen in numbers. And that he was the first to show a leaning towards the multitude, as Aristotle says, and gave up his absolute rule, seems to be the testimony of Homer also, in the Catalogue of Ships,¹ where he speaks of the Athenians alone as a ‘people.’ [3]…
Chapter 26
He also made a voyage into the Euxine Sea, as Philochorus and sundry others say, on a campaign with Heracles against the Amazons, and received Antiope as a reward of his valor; but the majority of writers, including Pherecydes, Hellanicus, and Herodorus, say that Theseus made this voyage on his own account, after the time of Heracles, and took the Amazon captive; and this is the more probable story. For it is not recorded that any one else among those who shared his expedition took an Amazon captive. [2] And Bion says that even this Amazon he took and carried off by means of a stratagem. The Amazons, he says, were naturally friendly to men, and did not fly from Theseus when he touched upon their coasts, but actually sent him presents, and he invited the one who brought them to come on board his ship; she came on board, and he put out to sea…
Chapter 27
Well, then, such were the grounds for the war of the Amazons, which seems to have been no trivial nor womanish enterprise for Theseus. For they would not have pitched their camp within the city, nor fought hand to hand battles in the neighborhood of the Pnyx and the Museum, had they not mastered the surrounding country and approached the city with impunity. [2] Whether, now, as Hellanicus writes, they came round by the Cimmerian Bosporus, which they crossed on the ice, may be doubted; but the fact that they encamped almost in the heart of the city is attested both by the names of the localities there and by the graves of those who fell in battle.
Chapter 29
There are, however, other stories also about marriages of Theseus which were neither honorable in their beginnings nor fortunate in their endings, but these have not been dramatized. For instance, he is said to have carried off Anaxo, a maiden of Troezen, and after slaying Sinis and Cercyon to have ravished their daughters; also to have married Periboea, the mother of Aias, and Phereboea afterwards, and Iope, the daughter of Iphicles; [2] and because of his passion for Aegle, the daughter of Panopeus, as I have already said,¹ he is accused of the desertion of Ariadne, which was not honorable nor even decent; and finally, his rape of Helen is said to have filled Attica with war, and to have brought about at last his banishment and death, of which things I shall speak a little later. [3] Of the many exploits performed in those days by the bravest men, Herodorus thinks that Theseus took part in none, except that he aided the Lapithae in their war with the Centaurs; but others say that he was not only with Jason at Colchis,² but helped Meleager to slay the Calydonian boar, and that hence arose the proverb ‘Not without Theseus’; that he himself, however, without asking for any ally, performed many glorious exploits, and that the phrase ‘Lo! another Heracles’ became current with reference to him.
Chapter 30
The friendship of Peirithous and Theseus is said to have come about in the following manner. Theseus had a very great reputation for strength and bravery, and Peirithous was desirous of making test and proof of it. Accordingly, he drove Theseus’s cattle away from Marathon, and when he learned that their owner was pursuing him in arms, he did not fly, but turned back and met him. [2] When, however, each beheld the other with astonishment at his beauty and admiration of his daring, they refrained from battle, and Peirithous, stretching out his hand the first, bade Theseus himself be judge of his robbery, for he would willingly submit to any penalty which the other might assign. Then Theseus not only remitted his penalty, but invited him to be a friend and brother in arms; whereupon they ratified their friendship with oaths. [3] After this, when Peirithous was about to marry Deidameia, he asked Theseus to come to the wedding, and see the country, and become acquainted with the Lapithae. Now he had invited the Centaurs also to the wedding feast. And when these were flown with insolence and wine, and laid hands upon the women, the Lapithae took vengeance upon them. Some of them they slew upon the spot, the rest they afterwards overcame in war and expelled from the country, Theseus fighting with them at the banquet and in the war.
Chapter 35
But when he desired to rule again as before, and to direct the state, he became involved in factions and disturbances; he found that those who hated him when he went away, had now added to their hatred contempt, and he saw that a large part of the people were corrupted, and wished to be cajoled into service instead of doing silently what they were told to do. [3] Attempting, then, to force his wishes upon them, he was overpowered by demagogues and factions, and finally, despairing of his cause, he sent his children away privately into Euboea, to Elephenor, the son of Chalcodon, while he himself, after invoking curses upon the Athenians at Gargettus, where there is to this day the place called Araterion,¹ sailed away to the island of Scyros, where the people were friendly to him, as he thought, and where he had ancestral estates. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.03.0078%3Atext%3DThes. and https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Theseus*.html

Phaedra and Hippolytus

[content warning for the following section: mention of rape, suicide]
The following content is adapted by T. Mulder from Mythology Unbound and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.
Many years later, Theseus married Minos’ youngest daughter, Phaedra, to smooth over relations with Crete. But when he brought Phaedra back to Athens, she fell in love with Hippolytus, his son by the Amazon queen, Hippolyte, who was now about nineteen or twenty years old (and much closer to Phaedra in age than Theseus was). Some say that Aphrodite had caused Phaedra fall in love because Hippolytus was a devotee of the virgin goddess Artemis. Since Artemis was a virgin, Hippolytus had vowed to remain a virgin as well, and Aphrodite took this as a personal affront. In any case, Phaedra was sick with love for the handsome young man. But despite her personal pain, she vowed never to breath a word of her feelings to anyone.

But Phaedra's nurse, who was an astute observer, figured out what was going on. She contrived to bring Phaedra and Hippolytus together, but he was aggressively opposed to this idea. Out of shame, Phaedra decided to kill herself. Before she did, she addressed a note to Theseus, falsely claiming that Hippolytus had tried to rape her. Despite Hippolytus' protestations, Theseus believed what he read in the note. He banished Hippolytus from Athens and called upon his own father, Poseidon, to punish the young man. As Hippolytus was driving his chariot out of Athens along the seashore, a terrifying bull emerged from the water. The horses were so frightened that they all reared up and ran in different directions. Hippolytus got tangled in the reins of his chariot and was eventually pulled apart by his horses. After this happened, Artemis told Theseus the truth.

The whole myth is most famously told by the Greek playwright Euripides, in his tragic play, Hippolytus, which won first place in the theatre contest at the Festival of Dionysus in Athens in 428 BCE.

Ovid, Heroides 4, "Phaedra to Hippolytus" (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang)

Latin epistolary poem, 1st century BCE

Ovid dramatizes the myth in his fourth Heroides, an imagined latter from Phaedra to Hippolytus, written in Latin in the 1st century BCE.
The Cretan girl, who lacks health unless he grants it to her, wishes good health to the man who’s the [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazon[/pb_glossary]’s son. Read what is here. How could reading a letter harm you? There might even be something in it that pleases you. My secrets are carried, by these letters, over land and sea: even enemies read letters received from their enemies. I’ve tried to speak to you three times, three times my tongue clung to my mouth, three times the sound died on my lips. It’s right and natural that shame is mingled with love: love ordered me to write, to say what shames me. Whatever love commands cannot be wholly denied: He [ [pb_glossary id="158"]Cupid[/pb_glossary] ] rules and is a law among the gods. He told me to pen words, in my first confusion: ‘Write! Having conquered, he’ll give his cruel hand.’ He helps me, and, seeing that he heats my marrow with greedy fire, he may also fix your affections as I wish. I would not break my marriage contract through sin – you can enquire – my reputation’s free of any stain. Love that comes late is deeper. We burn within; we burn, and our feelings suffer the secret wounds. I suppose that, as a young ox is chafed by the yoke, and a horse captured from the herd scarcely tolerates the harness, so with great difficulty, with rawness, the heart suffers new love. and this burden does not lie easy on my spirit. When guilt’s fully learnt in early years, it becomes an art: love that comes with the claims of time, loves less easily. You will enjoy a new libation, one that has been guarded from sin, and both of us will become equally guilty. What’s plucked from the loaded branches in the orchard is valuable, and the rose first gathered by slender fingers. But even if that first purity, that I bring you free of sin, were to be marked by this unaccustomed stain, then I would still accept being burnt by a worthy fire: a vile adulterer is more harmful than the adultery. If [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary] yielded me [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary], her husband and brother, I’d consider [pb_glossary id="1739"]Hippolytus[/pb_glossary] preferable to [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary]! Now too – you’ll scarcely believe this – I take up new arts: I have the urge to be among wild creatures: now my chief goddess is [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary], known for her curved bow: in following her I follow your preference: I love to pass through the woods and drive deer into my nets, urging my swift hounds over the tops of the hills, or launch a quivering spear from my trembling arm, or throw my body down on the grassy earth. often I delight in driving a light chariot through the dust, and twisting the bit in the mouth of a fleeing horse, Now I’m swept away, like the [pb_glossary id="887"]Maenads[/pb_glossary] roused by Bacchic frenzy, like those who beat their drums on the slopes of [pb_glossary id="187"]Mount Ida[/pb_glossary], or those semi-divine [pb_glossary id="1766"]Dryads[/pb_glossary], and twin-horned [pb_glossary id="372"]Fauns[/pb_glossary], who are stunned, touched by his power. And then others relate it all, when the madness abates: I silently burn, conscious of love. Perhaps by my fate I’m paying for the passions of my race, and [pb_glossary id="882"]Venus[/pb_glossary] may be seeking a tribute from all the tribe. [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] loved [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary], as a bull, hiding his godhead, – she was the first origin of our people. A burden and a reproach was born from the womb of my mother, [pb_glossary id="1730"]Pasiphae[/pb_glossary], mounted by a bull she tricked. Treacherous Theseus, following the guiding thread escaped the labyrinth with the help of [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], my sister. Indeed, I now, lest I might be thought no child of [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], am the latest to be subject to the common rules of my tribe. This was destined too: one House pleased both of us: your beauty captivated me, your father’s my sister. Theseus and his son have seized on two sisters: build twin memorials to us then in your house! At the time when I entered [pb_glossary id="351"]Ceres[/pb_glossary]’s [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary] – the soil of Crete should have held me back – then you above all pleased me (though you had before): fierce love clung to me in the depths of my bones. You were clothed in white, your hair surrounded by flowers, a modest blush tinged your golden cheeks: others call your face grim and severe, in [pb_glossary id="1740"]Phaedra[/pb_glossary]’s judgment that severity is strength. let men who are adorned like women stay far from me: beauty loves the masculine, adorned in moderation.[footnote]In the Late Republic and early Augustan period (when Ovid wrote), "severity" was an attribute equated with manliness and highly praised, often apparent in art.[/footnote] That severity of yours suits you, hair placed without art, and the light dust on your distinguished face. I admire it if you struggle with the arched necks of fiery horses, forcing them to turn their hooves in a tight circle: or if you calmly hurl the javelin with your strong arm, your warlike face turned towards your shoulder: or grasp the wide-bladed hunting spear of cornel wood – in the end whatever you do delights my eyes. Only expend your harshness on the wooded hills: I’m not a fit subject to be destroyed by you. Why delight in the study of high-girt [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary]’s occupation, and avoid what you owe to [pb_glossary id="882"]Venus[/pb_glossary]? What lacks rest now and then, will not last: rest renews the powers, and restores weary limbs. The bow (indeed, your weapons imitate [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary]’s) which never ceases to be strung, grows slack. [pb_glossary id="1769"]Cephalus[/pb_glossary] was distinguished in hunting, and many creatures were killed, among the grasses, by his blows: yet he didn’t do badly in yielding to [pb_glossary id="215"]Aurora[/pb_glossary]’s lovemaking: the discreet goddess went to him from her aged husband. The grass beneath the oak trees often held [pb_glossary id="882"]Venus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1768"]Adonis[/pb_glossary], both, lying there relaxed. And [pb_glossary id="1231"]Meleager[/pb_glossary] was on fire for Arcadian [pb_glossary id="1662"]Atalanta[/pb_glossary]: she had the wild boar’s hide as a token of his love. We too could soon be numbered in this throng! If you take Love away your woods are uncivilised. I’ll come myself as your companion, the hidden rocks don’t worry me, nor fear of the boar’s curving tooth. Two seas pound the Isthmus with their waves, and the slender stretch of land hears both their waters. There I might live with you, in Troezen, [pb_glossary id="1770"]Pittheus[/pb_glossary]’s kingdom: it’s now a country dearer to me than my own. Theseus, [pb_glossary id="182"]Neptune[/pb_glossary]’s son, has been away a while, and will be, longer, [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] keeps him there in his country. Theseus, unless we deny what’s obvious, prefers [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id="1740"]Phaedra[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary] to you. That is not all: injury comes to us from him: we have both been wounded deeply, in fact. Breaking my brother’s [ the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary]’s ] bones with his three-knotted club, he scattered them over the soil: left my sister [ [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary] ] a prey to wild beasts. Your mother, worthy, by her energy, of her son, bore you, she the most courageous of the axe-wielding [pb_glossary id="1207"]Amazon[/pb_glossary] girls. If you ask where she is, Theseus pierced her body with his sword: not even such a child as you guaranteed her safety! Indeed she was not even a bride, experiencing the wedding torch – why, if not that you, a bastard, mightn’t hold your father’s kingdom? Brothers he took from me, he gave to you. Yet I was not the reason for taking them all away, he was. O I wish the harm done you, in your heart’s core, might be ended by the most beautiful of actions! Come now, show your respect for your worthy father’s bed like this: he who fled, and himself disowned his deeds. Nor, because I’d be seen as a stepmother coupling with her stepson, should you let your mind fear those empty names. That old morality was held to be dying, as far as future ages, were concerned, by [pb_glossary id="169"]Saturn[/pb_glossary], in his primitive kingdom. Whatever might give [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] pleasure he declared lawful, and divine law allows any sister to be married to her brother. The tie is firm that’s made by procreation, those bonds that [pb_glossary id="882"]Venus[/pb_glossary] herself imposes. It’s no effort to hide them, though! Seek the gift from her of being able to mask guilt by known kinship. Let someone see us embrace: we’ll both be praised, I’ll be said to be a stepmother loyal to her stepson. Not for you the unbarring of a harsh husband’s gate, in the shadows, nor the deceiving of a guardian: the house will hold as one, what it held as two. Open kisses you gave, open kisses you’ll give. You’ll be safe with me, and guilt will earn praise, even if you are observed in my bed. Rid yourself of delay, and join quickly in a compact! Love will spare you, then, that which rages in me now! I don’t scorn to be a suppliant, or beg humbly of you. Ah! Where are pride and noble words now? Lost! And I was certain I’d struggle for a long time – if [pb_glossary id="158"]Love[/pb_glossary] can be certain – and not submit to sin. Conquered, I beg you, and clasp your knees with royal arms. No lover thinks about what’s fitting. I have no shame, and shame, fleeing, relinquishes its standards. Acknowledge the favour given and conquer your hard heart! For [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], who is my father, rules the seas, the lightning comes from one grandfather, [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s raised hand, the other, [pb_glossary id="876"]Sol[/pb_glossary], his forehead fenced with sharp rays, drives his gleaming chariot through the heat of day – Nobility lies here subject to love: pity my forefathers and if your power cannot spare me, spare them! The land of Crete, [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s island, is my dowry: all my kingdom would serve [pb_glossary id="1739"]Hippolytus[/pb_glossary]. Cruel man, change your mind! My mother could seduce a bull: will you be more savage than that wild bull? Spare me, I beg you, by [pb_glossary id="882"]Venus[/pb_glossary] who’s closest to me: and so may you never love, what scorns you: may the nimble goddess [ [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary] ] be with you in secret glades, may the deep woods offer you creatures for plunder: may the [pb_glossary id="372"]Satyrs[/pb_glossary] and the [pb_glossary id="344"]Pans[/pb_glossary], mountain gods, favour you, and the wild boar fall, pierced by your opposing spear: may the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary], though you’re said to hate the girls, give you that water which quenches parching thirst! I add tears also to these prayers. You who read words of prayer, imagine that you can also see my tears! Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Heroides1-7.php#anchor_Toc523806688
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved

Death

Theseus now had to live with the terrible truth that he had killed his own son, and for no good reason. He continued on as king of Athens, but life was never the same. He became moody and sullen, and he neglected his duties as king. The Athenians asked him to leave, and Theseus agreed. He decided to go to the island of Scyrus, Aegeus’ homeland, and Lycomedes, the king of Scyrus, agreed to give Theseus some land that had once belonged to Aegeus. But deep down, Lycomedes felt threatened by the presence of such a great hero. As Theseus was walking with Lycomedes along the cliffs at the edge of the island, somehow Theseus tripped (or did Lycomedes push him?) and he fell to his death.

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_1898" align="alignnone" width="1199"] Theseus and the bull of Marathon, silver kylix, ca. 445 BCE (Vassil Bojkov Collection, Sofia)[/caption]
Theseus was the most popular Athenian hero, so his image is particularly prominent in Athenian art. He was usually represented as a young man, often beardless, sometimes wearing a wide-brimmed hat (petasos), and carrying a sword. As his appearance is not immediately distinctive, it is easier to recognize Theseus from the mythical episodes in which he was involved.
[caption id="attachment_1892" align="alignleft" width="322"] Theseus and the Minotaur, black-figure amphora, ca. 480 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1901" align="alignright" width="314"] Theseus and the Minotaur, black-figure amphora, ca. 540 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1906" align="alignnone" width="1042"] Theseus and the Minotaur, black-figure amphora, ca. 575 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3857" align="alignnone" width="2170"] Theseus and the Minotaur, tracing from red-figure hydria from ca. 480 BCE (accessed via Jason Brooks)[/caption]
The most common scene depicting Theseus is the slaying of the Minotaur. The hero usually uses a sword to kill the monster; Athena or Ariadne are sometimes present.
[caption id="attachment_1893" align="alignleft" width="310"] Theseus and the Minotaur, ring, ca. 100 BCE (Detroit Institute of Arts)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1903" align="alignright" width="333"] Theseus and the Minotaur, Delphi Athenian Treasury, ca. 500 BCE (Archaeological Museum, Delphi)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1904" align="alignleft" width="291"] Theseus and the Minotaur, black-figure vase, 6th century BCE[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1909" align="alignright" width="357"] Theseus and the Minotaur, black-figure amphora, ca. 540 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1902" align="alignnone" width="675"] Theseus and the Minotaur, black-figure amphora, ca. 550 BCE (Getty Villa, Los Angeles)[/caption]
Another set of episodes often represented in art was that of the killing of various brigands on the way from Troezen to Athens, as well as the taming of the Bull of Marathon.
[caption id="attachment_1910" align="alignleft" width="272"] Theseus and Sinis, red-figure kylix, ca. 490 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1900" align="alignright" width="363"] Theseus fighting Sciron, red-figure kylix, ca. 500 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1907" align="alignnone" width="1163"] Deeds of Theseus. Centre: Theseus and the Minotaur. Clockwise from top: Cercyon, Procrustes, Sciron, the bull of Marathon, Sinis, the Crommyonian sow. Red-figure kylix, ca. 440 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1896" align="alignnone" width="1102"] Theseus and the bull of Marathon, red-figure krater, ca. 440 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]
Theseus was also often portrayed kidnapping of the queen of the Amazons, Antiope, or that of young Helen.
[caption id="attachment_1895" align="alignleft" width="271"] Theseus and Antiope, Greek statue, 5th century BCE (Archaeological Museum of Eretria)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1905" align="alignright" width="367"] Theseus and Antiope, Delphi Athenian Treasury metope, ca. 500 BCE (Archaeological Museum, Delphi)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1894" align="aligncenter" width="795"] Theseus abducting Helen, red-figure amphora, ca. 510 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1899" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Theseus fighting the Amazons, red-figure amphora, 5th century BCE (Israel Museum, Jerusalem)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Athens

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:30:10 +0000
[caption id="attachment_4681" align="alignnone" width="1633"] Athena and Poseidon compete for Athens (possibly with the personification of Athens), red-figure krater, 4th century BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]

Foundation

Sections & Primary Sources

Mythological Foundation

Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Life of Theseus," 24.1-24.3

Historical Foundation

Mythological Foundation
[caption id="attachment_3539" align="alignnone" width="956"] Cecrops at the birth of Erichthonius, red-figure kylix, ca. 440 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[/caption]
Athens is the modern-day capital of Greece, and the most populous urban center in the region of Attica. In ancient mythology, the foundation of the city was attributed to the hero Cecrops, who was also the first king. Both he and his successor, Erichthonius, were depicted as snake-human hybrids to symbolize the autochthony of the Athenians who had inhabited the land since the beginning of times.

The most important landmark mentioned in myth is the acropolis, which was considered the centre of political and religious power, as it hosted the royal palace and the main buildings for the worship of the protectress of the city, Athena, as well as the sacred olive tree and the salt water spring that she and Poseidon had gifted to the city during their contest to claim its ownership.
For further discussion of Athena and the mythological foundation of Athens, see chapter 11.
In myth, the foundation of Athens is also tied to the hero Theseus. An early king of Athens, Theseus was credited with establishing elements of the Athenian political system and instituting the Panathenaic Festival.

For further discussion of Theseus, see chapter 22.

Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Life of Theseus," Part 24 (trans. B. Perrin, adapted by L. Zhang)

Latin biography, 2nd century CE

Plutarch, a philosopher and historian, wrote a euhemerizing account of the life of Theseus, in which he attempted to incorporate the myths of Theseus into real history. In this passage, he describes Theseus' unification of Attica into the democratic state of Athens.
[24.1] After the death of [pb_glossary id="1575"]Aegeus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] came up with a wonderful plan, and settled all the residents of Attica in one city. He thus made one people, of one city, out of those who had, up until then, been scattered about and not easily called together for the common interests of all. In fact, they sometimes actually argued and fought with each other. [24.2] He visited them and tried to win them over to his project, township by township and clan by clan. The common folk and the poor quickly answered to his summons. To the powerful, he promised a government without a king and a democracy, in which he would only be commander in war and guardian of the laws, while in all else everyone should be on an equal footing. [24.3] Some he readily persuaded of this plan. Others, fearing his power (which was already great) and his boldness, chose to be persuaded rather than to be forced to agree to it. Accordingly, after getting rid of the town-halls and council-chambers and magistracies in the several communities, and after building a common town-hall and council-chamber for all on the ground where the upper town of the present day stands, he named the city Athens, and instituted a Panathenaic festival. Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0067%3Achapter%3D24%3Asection%3D1

Historical Foundation

The acropolis is indeed one of the places with the earliest traces of human occupation, including large fortification works dating from the 15th century BCE, the so-called ‘Cyclopean Walls’. Athens does not seem to have been a major Mycenaean palatial centre, but it was still affected by the collapse of the Bronze Age. During the Archaic Period the city expanded with an ambitious building program sponsored by both the tyrants of the city and aristocratic families that funded new walls, an aqueduct, temples, and a sacred way that connected Athens to the sanctuary of Eleusis. Most of the remains that are visible nowadays are, however, dating from the Classical and Hellenistic periods, when the city rose to fame and was monumentalized by its own democratic government and foreign kings alike.

Archaeology
[caption id="attachment_3543" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Map of Athens ca. 430 BCE.[/caption]
Several of the most important archaeological remains are located along the Panathenaic Way that connected Eleusis and Athens coming through the northwestern Dipylon Gate. This route went through the cemetery of Kerameikos, the agora, where the most important public buildings such as fountains, the mint, and the seat of the assembly had been situated since the late Archaic Period. The same area also contained important religious buildings such as the Altar of the Twelve Gods, from which all distances were calculated, and a large temple dedicated to Athena and Hephaistos as patrons of craftsmen.
[caption id="attachment_3545" align="aligncenter" width="808"] Map of the Agora in Athens in the 5th century BCE, by MadMedea.[/caption]
The Panathenaic Way proceeded southeast and climbed up to the acropolis, and ended at its monumental entrance, the Propylaia. On the top of the hill were the Parthenon, dedicated to Athena as protectress of the city, the Erechtheion, a religious building containing the sacred olive tree as well as other ancestral cults, and various altars and sacred precincts dedicated to Zeus and other gods.
[caption id="attachment_3540" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Plan of the Acropolis at Athens, by Tomisti and Qirille.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3546" align="alignnone" width="2560"] The Erechtheion in Athens.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3541" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Acropolis in Athens.[/caption] The area south of the acropolis is occupied by the 2nd century CE Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a long Hellenistic portico, the great Theatre of Dionysus (built in its current form in the late fifth century BCE over an earlier structure), and the coeval Odeion of Pericles, another building for public assemblies. [caption id="attachment_3782" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Theatre of Dionysus in Athens.[/caption] Lastly, on the southeastern portion of the city was the great temple of Olympian Zeus, started in the late 6th century BCE and completed only in the 2nd century AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian. [caption id="attachment_3542" align="alignnone" width="1199"] Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3548" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Reconstruction of the temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, by Valentin Fiumefreddo.[/caption]

Media Attributions

Thebes

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:30:21 +0000
Oedipus and the Sphinx, red-figure kylix, ca. 460 BCE (Museo Gregoriano Estrusco, Vatican City)

Foundation

Mythological

In mythology, Thebes was founded by the Phoenician prince [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary]. He arrived in Greece while searching for his sister, [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary], who had been kidnapped by Zeus and taken to Crete. The royal family of Thebes was then descended from [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] and Harmonia, the daughter of the deities Aphrodite and Ares. The family was famously plagued by curses, murders, and vendettas. The city was known for its fortified citadel, the Cadmea, and its walls with seven gates built with magic by the demigod [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary].

Historical

The archaeological record shows that Thebes, situated in Boeotia in central Greece, has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BCE. The city rose to prominence during the [pb_glossary id="5127"]Bronze Age[/pb_glossary] and became a powerful [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenaean[/pb_glossary] palatial centre. The Cadmea hill, which hosted the main religious and political buildings, was walled and fortified during this period. Thebes was affected by the Bronze Age Collapse, but recovered and established itself as one of the most prominent city-states of Greece during the [pb_glossary id="5123"]Archaic[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="5125"]Classical[/pb_glossary] periods. After being destroyed by Alexander the Great in 335 BCE, the city was rebuilt and repopulated. The continuous occupation of the site makes it difficult to have a clear picture of the size and extension of the ancient city. The majority of the visible remains date from the [pb_glossary id="5125"]Classical[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="5112"]Hellenistic[/pb_glossary] periods; however, part of the [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenaean[/pb_glossary] palace is still visible in the city centre.

Mythology

Sections & Primary Sources

The House of Cadmus

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3.4.1-3.7.6

The Theban Cycle

The House of Cadmus
[caption id="attachment_4215" align="alignnone" width="960"] Family tree of the house of Cadmus[/caption]

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang)

Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE

[content warning for the following source: graphic descriptions of death, self harm and suicide]

After Europa was kidnapped by Zeus in the form of a bull and brought to Crete, as a princess of the Phoenician royalty, her brothers were commanded by their father (Agenor) to find her. One of whom is Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. The following is the account of the founding of Thebes and the fate of Cadmus’ line in Pseudo-Apollodorus.
[3.4.1] When [pb_glossary id="1728"]Telephassa[/pb_glossary] died, [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] to inquire about [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary]. The god told him not to worry about [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary], but to be guided by a cow, and to found a city wherever she should fall down for weariness. After receiving such an oracle he journeyed through Phocis; then falling in with a cow among the herds of Pelagon, he followed it behind. And after traversing Boeotia, it sank down where is now the city of Thebes. Wishing to sacrifice the cow to [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary], he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] killed the dragon, and by the advice of [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called [pb_glossary id="1830"]Sparti[/pb_glossary]. These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] saw armed men growing up out of the ground, he flung stones at them, and they, supposing that they were being pelted by each other, came to blows. However, five of them survived, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelorus. [3.4.2] But [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary], to atone for the slaughter, served [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our calendar. After his servitude, [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] procured for him the kingdom, and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] gave to him [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary] as wife, daughter of [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]. And all the gods left the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns. [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], which some say was given to [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] by [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary], but Pherecydes[footnote]Pherecydes was a mythology writer from the 6th century BCE. He is quoted by other famous authors such as Aristotle and Plutarch, but his works are lost.[/footnote] says that it was given by [pb_glossary id="1423"]Europa[/pb_glossary], who had received it from [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. And to [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] were born daughters, [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary], and a son Polydorus. [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] was married to [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id="959"]Aristaeus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary] to Echion. [3.4.3] But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] loved [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary] and slept with her, unknown to [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. Now [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] she asked him to come to her as he came when he was wooing [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. Unable to refuse, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary] died of fright, and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it into his thigh. Upon the death of [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary], the other daughters of [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] spread a report that [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary] had slept with a mortal man, and had falsely accused [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But, at the proper time, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] undid the stitches and gave birth to [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary], and entrusted him to [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary]. And he conveyed him to [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary], and persuaded them to raise him as a girl.[footnote]The practise of "raising a boy as a girl" may be in reference to a custom of dressing boys as girls in order to avert the evil eye. Other figures in Greek mythology, such as Achilles, were also raised in this way (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer taken from Theoi.com). For further discussion of the birth and raising of Dionysus, see chapter 15.[/footnote] But [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] indignantly drove them mad, and [pb_glossary id="1955"]Athamas[/pb_glossary] hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him, and [pb_glossary id="931"]Ino[/pb_glossary] threw [pb_glossary id="333"]Melicertes[/pb_glossary] into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she sprang into the deep. And she herself is called [pb_glossary id="931"]Leucothea[/pb_glossary], and the boy is called [pb_glossary id="333"]Palaemon[/pb_glossary], such being the names they get from sailors; for they assist storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian games were instituted by [pb_glossary id="1213"]Sisyphus[/pb_glossary] in honour of [pb_glossary id="333"]Melicertes[/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] escaped the wrath of [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] by turning [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary] into a goat kid, and [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] took him and brought him to the [pb_glossary id="217"]nymphs[/pb_glossary] who dwelt at [pb_glossary id="607"]Nysa[/pb_glossary] in Asia, whom [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] afterwards changed into stars and named them the [pb_glossary id="4470"]Hyades[/pb_glossary]. [3.4.4] [pb_glossary id="933"]Autonoe[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="959"]Aristaeus[/pb_glossary] had a son [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary], who was raised by [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary] to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary] by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus,[footnote]Acusilaus of Argos was a Greek mytholographer and logographer of the late 6th Century BCE. His work only survive in fragments or in summaries by later authors.[/footnote] because [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] was angry at him for wooing [pb_glossary id="908"]Semele[/pb_glossary]; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] bathing. And they say that the goddess at once transformed him into a deer, and drove mad the fifty dogs in his pack, which devoured him unknowingly. [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary] being gone, the dogs sought their master howling lamentably, and in the search they came to the cave of [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary], who fashioned an image of [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary], which soothed their grief. [The names of [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary]'s dogs from the ((lacuna))[footnote]Indicates a gap or missing section of the text.[/footnote] . . . So now surrounding his fair body, as if it were that of a beast, the strong dogs tore it. Near Arcena first ((lacuna)) . . . after her a mighty brood, Lynceus and Balius goodly-footed, and Amarynthus. -- And these he listed continuously by name. And then [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary] perished at the instigation of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. For the first that drank their master's black blood were Spartus and Omargus and Bores, the swift on the track. These first fed on [pb_glossary id="934"]Actaeon[/pb_glossary] and lapped his blood. And after them others rushed on him eagerly ((lacuna)) . . . to be a remedy for grievous pains to men.] [ . . . ] [3.5.2] Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there, [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary] arrived to Thebes, and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy on [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id="914"]Pentheus[/pb_glossary], whom [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary] bore to Echion, had succeeded [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to these proceedings. And coming to [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary] to spy on the Bacchanals [ [pb_glossary id="887"]Bacchantes[/pb_glossary] ], he was torn limb from limb by his mother [pb_glossary id="932"]Agave[/pb_glossary] in a fit of madness; for she thought he was a wild beast.[footnote]See chapter 15.[/footnote] And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary] came to Argos, and there again, because they did not honour him, he drove the women mad, and they on the mountains devoured the flesh of the infants whom they carried at their breasts. [3.5.3] And wishing to be ferried across from Icaria to Naxos he hired a pirate ship of Tyrrhenians. But when they had put him on board, they sailed past Naxos and made for Asia, intending to sell him. Howbeit, he turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes. And the pirates went mad, and leaped into the sea, and were turned into dolphins.[footnote]See chapter 15.[/footnote] Thus men perceived that he was a god and honoured him; and having brought up his mother from [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] and named her [pb_glossary id="908"]Thyone[/pb_glossary], he ascended up with her to heaven. [3.5.4] But [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary] left Thebes and went to the Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god [ [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] ] declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary] as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And [pb_glossary id="910"]Cadmus[/pb_glossary] reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with [pb_glossary id="958"]Harmonia[/pb_glossary], turned into a serpent and sent away by [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] to the [pb_glossary id="4196"]Elysian Fields[/pb_glossary]. [3.5.5] Polydorus, having become king of Thebes, married Nycteis, daughter of [pb_glossary id="4606"]Nycteus[/pb_glossary], son of Chthonius, and had Labdacus, who perished after [pb_glossary id="914"]Pentheus[/pb_glossary] because he agreed with him. But Labdacus having left a year-old son, [pb_glossary id="4503"]Laius[/pb_glossary], the government was usurped by [pb_glossary id="1475"]Lycus[/pb_glossary], brother of [pb_glossary id="4606"]Nycteus[/pb_glossary], so long as [pb_glossary id="4503"]Laius[/pb_glossary] was a child. [pb_glossary id="1475"]Lycus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="4606"]Nycteus[/pb_glossary] had fled [from Euboea] because they had killed Phlegyas, son of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] and Dotis the Boeotian, and they took up their abode at Hyria, and having come to Thebes since then, they were made citizens through their friendship with [pb_glossary id="914"]Pentheus[/pb_glossary]. So after being chosen commander-in-chief by the Thebans, [pb_glossary id=1475"]Lycus[/pb_glossary] compassed the supreme power and reigned for twenty years, but was murdered by [pb_glossary id="4607"]Zethus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary] for the following reason. [pb_glossary id="4601"]Antiope[/pb_glossary] was a daughter of [pb_glossary id="4606"]Nycteus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] had intercourse with her. When she was with child, and her father threatened her, she ran away to Epopeus at Sicyon and was married to him. In a state of hopelessness, [pb_glossary id="4606"]Nycteus[/pb_glossary] killed himself, after charging [pb_glossary id="1475"]Lycus[/pb_glossary] with the task to punish Epopeus and [pb_glossary id="4601"]Antiope[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="1475"]Lycus[/pb_glossary] marched against Sicyon, subdued it, slew Epopeus, and led [pb_glossary id="4601"]Antiope[/pb_glossary] away captive. On the way she gave birth to two sons at Eleurethae in Boeotia. The infants were exposed,[footnote]The process of "exposure" in ancient Greece was a fairly common method of getting rid of an undesired child (often a female child when a male child was wanted) by abandoning them out in nature.[/footnote] but a cowherd found and reared them, and he called the one [pb_glossary id="4607"]Zethus[/pb_glossary] and the other [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary]. Now [pb_glossary id="4607"]Zethus[/pb_glossary] paid attention to cattle-breeding, but [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary] practiced music, for [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] had given him a lyre. But [pb_glossary id="1475"]Lycus[/pb_glossary] and his wife [pb_glossary id="1477"]Dirce[/pb_glossary] imprisoned [pb_glossary id="4601"]Antiope[/pb_glossary] and treated her poorly. However, one day her bonds fell off themselves, and unknown to her keepers she came to her sons cottage, begging that they would take her in. They recognized their mother and slew [pb_glossary id="1475"]Lycus[/pb_glossary], but they tied [pb_glossary id="1477"]Dirce[/pb_glossary] to a bull, and flung her dead body into the spring that is called [pb_glossary id="1477"]Dirce[/pb_glossary] after her. And having succeeded to the sovereignty they fortified the city, the stones moving with [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary]'s music; and they expelled [pb_glossary id="4503"]Laius[/pb_glossary]. He resided in Peloponnese, being hospitably received by [pb_glossary id="632"]Pelops[/pb_glossary]; and while he taught Chrysippus, the son of [pb_glossary id="632"]Pelops[/pb_glossary], to drive a chariot, he conceived a passion for the lad and kidnapped him. [3.5.6] [pb_glossary id="4607"]Zethus[/pb_glossary] married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes is named; and Amphion married [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id="633"]Tantalus[/pb_glossary], who bore seven sons, Sipylus, Eupinytus, Ismenus, Damasichthon, Agenor, Phaedimus, Tantalus, and the same number of daughters, Ethodaia (or, as some say, Neaera), Cleodoxa, Astyoche, Phthia, Pelopia, Astycratia, and Ogygia, But Hesiod says that they had ten sons and ten daughters; Herodorus that they had two male children and three female; and Homer that they had six sons and six daughters. Being blessed with children, [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] said that she was more blessed with children than [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]. Stung by the taunt, [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary] incited [pb_glossary id="180]Artemis[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] against them, and [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] shot down the females in the house, and [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] killed all the males together as they were hunting on [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary]. Of the males [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary] alone was saved, and of the females Chloris the elder, whom [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary] married. But according to Telesilla there were saved Amyclas and Meliboea, and [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary] also was shot by them. But [pb_glossary id="1684"]Niobe[/pb_glossary] herself left Thebes and went to her father [pb_glossary id="633"]Tantalus[/pb_glossary] at Sipylus, and there, on praying to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], she was transformed into a stone, and tears flow night and day from the stone.[footnote]For Ovid's account of the myth of Niobe, see chapter 13.[/footnote] [3.5.7] After [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary]'s death, [pb_glossary id="4503"]Laius[/pb_glossary] succeeded to the kingdom. And he married a daughter of Menoeceus; some say that she was [pb_glossary id="2063"]Jocasta[/pb_glossary], and some that she was Epicasta. The oracle had warned him not to have a son, for that son would kill his father; nevertheless, drunk with wine, he had intercourse with his wife. And when the infant was born he pierced the child's ankles with brooches and gave it to a herdsman to expose. But the herdsman exposed it on [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary]; and the cowherds of Polybus, king of Corinth, found the infant and brought it to his wife Periboea. She adopted him and raised him as her own, and after she had healed his ankles she called him [pb_glossary id="2062"]Oedipus[/pb_glossary], giving him that name on account of his swollen feet.[footnote]Oedipus roughly translates to "swollen foot".[/footnote]When the boy grew up and excelled among his peers in strength, they spitefully ridiculed him for being a substitute. He asked Periboea, but could learn nothing; so he went to [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] and inquired about his true parents. The god told him not to go to his native land, because he would murder his father and lie with his mother. On hearing that, and believing himself to be the son of those who raised him, he left Corinth, and riding in a chariot through Phocis he met [pb_glossary id="4503"]Laius[/pb_glossary] who was driving in a chariot in a certain narrow road.[footnote]The “narrow road” is the famous Cleft Way (Pausanias. 10.5.3) now called the Crossroad of Megas (Stavrodromi tou Mega), where the road from Daulis and the road from Thebes and Lebadea meet and unite in the single road ascending through the long valley to Delphi.[/footnote] And when Polyphontes, the herald of [pb_glossary id="4503"]Laius[/pb_glossary], ordered him to make way and killed one of his horses because he disobeyed and delayed them, [pb_glossary id="2062"]Oedipus[/pb_glossary] killed both Polyphontes and [pb_glossary id="4503"]Laius[/pb_glossary] out of anger before arriving in Thebes. [3.5.8] [pb_glossary id="4503"]Laius[/pb_glossary] was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea, and [pb_glossary id="4620"]Creon[/pb_glossary], son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign a heavy calamity befell Thebes. For [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] sent the [pb_glossary id="4617"]Sphinx[/pb_glossary], whose mother was [pb_glossary id="643"]Echidna[/pb_glossary] and her father [pb_glossary id="602"]Typhon[/pb_glossary]; and she had the face of a woman, the breast and feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird. And having learned a riddle from the [pb_glossary id="348"]Muses[/pb_glossary], she sat on Mount Phicium, and posited it to the Thebans. And the riddle was this: -- What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed? Now the Thebans were in possession of an oracle which declared that they should be rid of the [pb_glossary id="4617"]Sphinx[/pb_glossary] whenever they had solved her riddle; so they often met and discussed the answer, and when they could not find it the [pb_glossary id="4617"]Sphinx[/pb_glossary] used to snatch away one of them as her meal. When many had perished, and last of all [pb_glossary id="4620"]Creon[/pb_glossary]'s son Haemon, [pb_glossary id="4620"]Creon[/pb_glossary] made proclamation that to him who should solve the riddle he would give both the kingdom and the wife of [pb_glossary id="4503"]Laius[/pb_glossary]. On hearing that, [pb_glossary id="2062"]Oedipus[/pb_glossary] found the solution, declaring that the riddle of the [pb_glossary id="4617"]Sphinx[/pb_glossary] referred to man; for as a babe he is four-footed, going on four limbs, as an adult he is two-footed, and as an old man he gets besides a third support in a staff. So the [pb_glossary id="4617"]Sphinx[/pb_glossary] threw herself from the citadel, and [pb_glossary id="2062"]Oedipus[/pb_glossary] both succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his mother, and begat sons by her, [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="4305"]Eteocles[/pb_glossary], and daughters, Ismene and [pb_glossary id="4621"]Antigone[/pb_glossary]. But some say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas. [3.5.9] When the secret afterwards came to light, [pb_glossary id="2063"]Jocasta[/pb_glossary] hanged herself in a noose, and [pb_glossary id="2062"]Oedipus[/pb_glossary] was driven from Thebes, after he had blinded himself and cursed his sons, who saw him cast out of the city without lifting a hand to help him. And having gone with [pb_glossary id="4621"]Antigone[/pb_glossary] to Colonus in Attica, the precinct of the [pb_glossary id="157"]Eumenides[/pb_glossary], he sat down there as a suppliant, was kindly received by [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary], and died not long afterwards. [3.6.1] Now [pb_glossary id="4305"]Eteocles[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary] made a contract with each other concerning the kingdom and resolved that each should rule alternately for a year at a time. Some say that [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary] was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed over the kingdom to [pb_glossary id="4305"]Eteocles[/pb_glossary]; but some say that [pb_glossary id="4305"]Eteocles[/pb_glossary] was the first to rule, and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary] came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe [of Harmonia]. The king of Argos was [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary], son of Talaus; and [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary] went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1461"]Oeneus[/pb_glossary], who had fled from Calydon. At the sudden outcry [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary] appeared and parted them, and remembering the words of a certain seer who told him to yoke his daughters in marriage to a boar and a lion,[footnote]Adrastus received an oracle from Apollo telling him to "yoke his daughters to a boar and a lion." According to one interpretation the boar on the shield of Tydeus referred to the Calydonian boar, while the lion on the shield of Polynices referred to the lion-faced [pb_glossary id="4617"]Sphinx[/pb_glossary]. Others preferred to suppose that the two chieftains were clad in the skins of a boar and a lion respectively (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer, taken from Theoi.com).[/footnote] he accepted them both as bridegrooms, because they had on their shields, the one the forepart of a boar, and the other the forepart of a lion. And [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary] married Deipyle, and [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary] married Argia; and [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary] promised that he would restore them both to their native lands. And first he was eager to march against Thebes, and he mustered the chiefs. [3.6.2] But [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary], son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined in the expedition except [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary] were destined to perish, refused to go and discouraged the rest. However, [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary] went to Iphis, son of Alector, and begged to know how [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary] could be compelled to go to the war. He answered that it could be done if [pb_glossary id="4181"]Eriphyle[/pb_glossary] got the necklace [of Harmonia]. Now [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary] had forbidden [pb_glossary id="4181"]Eriphyle[/pb_glossary] to accept gifts from [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary]; but [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary] gave her the necklace and begged her to persuade [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary] to go to the war; for the decision lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary], he reconciled with him and sworn to let [pb_glossary id="4181"]Eriphyle[/pb_glossary] decide any future dispute he might have with [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary]. Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and the measure was advocated by [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary] and opposed by [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="4181"]Eriphyle[/pb_glossary] accepted the necklace and persuaded him to march with [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary]. Thus forced to go to the war, [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary] laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up, they should slay their mother and march against Thebes. [3.6.3] Having mustered an army with seven leaders, [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary] hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these: [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary], son of Talaus; [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary], son of Oicles; [pb_glossary id="4296"]Capaneus[/pb_glossary], son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="2062"]Oedipus[/pb_glossary], came from Thebes; [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1461"]Oeneus[/pb_glossary], was an Aetolian; [pb_glossary id="4301"]Parthenopaeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="2590"]Melanion[/pb_glossary], was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not agree [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary] among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus in the list of the seven.[footnote]The list of the Seven Against Thebes varies between sources, and many sources also list a number other than seven.[/footnote] [3.6.4] Having come to Nemea, of which [pb_glossary id="4589"]Lycurgus[/pb_glossary] was king, they asked for water; and [pb_glossary id="1971"]Hypsipyle[/pb_glossary] showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of [pb_glossary id="4159"]Eurydice[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="4589"]Lycurgus[/pb_glossary]. For the Lemnian women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive, put him to death and sold [pb_glossary id="1971"]Hypsipyle[/pb_glossary] into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of [pb_glossary id="4589"]Lycurgus[/pb_glossary] as a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was killed by a serpent. When [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary] and his party appeared on the scene, they slew the serpent and buried the boy; but [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary] told them that the sign foreboded the future, and they called the boy Archemorus.[footnote]"Archemorus" translates to “beginner of doom”; hence “ominous,” “foreboding.”[/footnote] They celebrated the Nemean games in his honour; and [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary] won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary] the boxing match, [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary] the leaping and discus match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing match, [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary] the wrestling match, and [pb_glossary id="4301"]Parthenopaeus[/pb_glossary] the archery match. [3.6.5] When they came to [pb_glossary id="918"]Cithaeron[/pb_glossary], they sent [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary] to tell [pb_glossary id="4305"]Eteocles[/pb_glossary] in advance that he must cede the kingdom to [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary], as they had agreed among themselves. As [pb_glossary id="4305"]Eteocles[/pb_glossary] paid no heed to the message, [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary], by way of testing the Thebans, challenged them to single combat and was victorious in every encounter; and though the Thebans set fifty armed men to lie in wait for him as he went away, he slew them all but Maeon, and then came back to the camp. [3.6.6] Having armed themselves, the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] approached the walls; and as there were seven gates, [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary] was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, [pb_glossary id="4296"]Capaneus[/pb_glossary] at the Ogygian, [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary] at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices at the Hypsistan, Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary] at the Crenidian. [pb_glossary id="4305"]Eteocles[/pb_glossary] on his side armed the Thebans, and having appointed leaders to match those of the enemy in number, he put the battle in array, and resorted to divination to learn how they might overcome the foe. [3.6.7] Now there was among the Thebans a soothsayer, [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary], son of Everes and a [pb_glossary id="217"]nymph[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="1595"]Chariclo[/pb_glossary], of the family of Udaeus, the Spartan [ one of the [pb_glossary id="1830"]Spartoi[/pb_glossary] ] and he had lost the sight of his eyes. Different stories are told about his blindness and his power of soothsaying. For some say that he was blinded by the gods because he revealed their secrets to men. But Pherecydes says that he was blinded by Athena[footnote]See chapter 11.[/footnote]; for [pb_glossary id="1595"]Chariclo[/pb_glossary] was dear to [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] ((lacuna)). . . and [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary] saw the goddess stark naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, and so rendered him sightless. And when [pb_glossary id="1595"]Chariclo[/pb_glossary] asked her to restore his sight, she could not do so, but by cleansing his ears she caused him to understand every note of birds; and she gave him a staff of cornel-wood, with which he walked like those who see. But Hesiod says that he saw snakes copulating on Cyllene, and that having wounded them he was turned from a man into a woman, but that on observing the same snakes copulating again, he became a man. Hence, when [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] disputed whether the pleasures of love are felt more by women or by men, they referred to him for a decision. He said that if the pleasures of love be reckoned at ten, men enjoy one and women nine. For this reason [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary] blinded him, but [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] bestowed on him the art of soothsaying. The saying of [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], "Of ten parts a man enjoys one only; but a woman enjoys the full ten parts in her heart." He also lived to a great age. So when the Thebans sought counsel of him, he said that they should be victorious if Menoeceus, son of [pb_glossary id="4620"]Creon[/pb_glossary], would offer himself freely as a sacrifice to [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]. On hearing that, Menoeceus, son of [pb_glossary id="4620"]Creon[/pb_glossary], slew himself before the gates. But a battle having taken place, the Cadmeans were chased in a crowd as far as the walls, and [pb_glossary id="4296"]Capaneus[/pb_glossary], seizing a ladder, was climbing up it to the walls, when [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] smote him with a thunderbolt. [3.6.8] At the sight of the smiting, the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] turned to flee. And as many fell, [pb_glossary id="4305"]Eteocles[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary], by the resolution of both armies, fought a single combat for the kingdom, and slew each other. In another fierce battle the sons of Astacus did brave deeds; for Ismarus slew Hippomedon, Leades slew Eteoclus, and Amphidicus slew [pb_glossary id="4301"]Parthenopaeus[/pb_glossary]. But Euripides says that [pb_glossary id="4301"]Parthenopaeus[/pb_glossary] was slain by [pb_glossary id="1451"]Periclymenus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]. And Melanippus, the remaining one of the sons of Astacus, wounded [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary] in the belly. As he lay half dead, [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] brought a medicine which she had begged of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], and by which she intended to make him immortal. But [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary] hated [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary] for thwarting him by persuading the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] to march to Thebes; so when he perceived the intention of the goddess he cut off the head of Melanippus and gave it to [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary], who, wounded though he was, had killed him. And [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary] split open the head and gulped up the brains. But when [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] saw that, in disgust she was enraged and withheld the intended benefit. [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary] fled beside the river Ismenus, and before [pb_glossary id="1451"]Periclymenus[/pb_glossary] could wound him in the back, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] cleft the earth by throwing a thunderbolt, and [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary] vanished with his chariot and his charioteer Baton, or, as some say, Elato; and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] made him immortal. [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary] alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] begot by [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary], when in the likeness of a [pb_glossary id="157"]Fury[/pb_glossary] she consorted with him. [3.7.1] Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes, [pb_glossary id="4620"]Creon[/pb_glossary] cast out the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argive[/pb_glossary] dead unburied, issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But [pb_glossary id="4621"]Antigone[/pb_glossary], one of the daughters of [pb_glossary id="2062"]Oedipus[/pb_glossary], stole the body of [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary], and secretly buried it, and having been detected by [pb_glossary id="4620"]Creon[/pb_glossary] himself, she was interred alive in the grave. [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary] fled to [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary] and took refuge at the altar of Mercy, and laying on it the suppliant's bough[footnote]A "suppliant" (αἰδώς) in ancient Greece had a more formal definition, such that if someone performed the gestures of supplication towards someone, they would be honour-bound to respect the suppliant's need. The "suppliant's bow" refers to the branch of olive which a suppliant laid on the altar of a god as a token to show that they sought divine protection (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer, taken from Theoi.com).[/footnote] he prayed that they would bury the dead. And the Athenians marched with [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary], captured Thebes, and gave the dead to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of [pb_glossary id="4296"]Capaneus[/pb_glossary] was burning, his wife [pb_glossary id="4590"]Evadne[/pb_glossary], the daughter of Iphis, threw herself on the pyre, and was burned with him. [3.7.2] Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the [pb_glossary id="4591"]Epigoni[/pb_glossary], purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers; and when they consulted the oracle, the god [ [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] ] predicted victory under the leadership of [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary]. So [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary] joined the expedition, though he did not want to lead the army until he had punished his mother; for [pb_glossary id="4181"]Eriphyle [/pb_glossary]had received the robe from Thersander, son of [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary], and had persuaded her sons also to go to the war. Having chosen [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary] as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary] and Amphilochus, sons of [pb_glossary id="1196"]Amphiaraus[/pb_glossary]; Aegialeus, son of [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary]; Promachus, son of [pb_glossary id="4301"]Parthenopaeus[/pb_glossary]; Sthenelus, son of [pb_glossary id="4296"]Capaneus[/pb_glossary]; Thersander, son of [pb_glossary id="4299"]Polynices[/pb_glossary]; and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus. [3.7.3] They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of [pb_glossary id="4305"]Eteocles[/pb_glossary], they fought bravely, and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was himself killed by [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary], and after his death the Thebans fled in a body within the walls. But as [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary] told them to send a herald to treat with the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary], and themselves to take to flight, they did send a herald to the enemy, and, mounting their children and women on the wagons, themselves fled from the city. When they had come by night to the spring called Tilphussa, [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary] drank of it and died. After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took up their abode there. [3.7.4] But the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary], on learning afterwards the flight of the Thebans, entered the city and collected the booty, and pulled down the walls. But they sent a portion of the booty to [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] at [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] and with it Manto, daughter of [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary]; for they had vowed that, if they took Thebes, they would dedicate to him the fairest of the spoils. [3.7.5] After the capture of Thebes, when [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary] learned that his mother [pb_glossary id="4181"]Eriphyle[/pb_glossary] had been bribed to his undoing along with his father's, he was more angry than ever, and in accordance with an oracle given to him by [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] he killed his mother. Some say that he killed her in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus, others that he did it alone. But [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary] was visited by the [pb_glossary id="157"]Fury[/pb_glossary] of his mother's murder, and going mad he first sought help from his paternal grandfather, Oicles, in Arcadia, and then to Phegeus at Psophis.[footnote]Compare the myth of Orestes and the Furies in chapter 11 and chapter 30.[/footnote] And having been purified[footnote]"purification" here refers to the Greek concept of miasma, the idea that death defiles someone or makes them impure. For further explanation, see Mythology Unbound.[/footnote] by him he married Arsinoe, daughter of Phegeus, and gave her the necklace and the robe. But afterwards the ground became barren on his account, and the god told him in an oracle to depart to [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary] and to stand another trial on the river bank. At first he went to [pb_glossary id="1461"]Oeneus[/pb_glossary] at Calydon and was hosted by him; then he went to the Thesprotians, but was driven away from the country; and finally he went to the springs of [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary], and was purified by him, and received Callirrhoe, his daughter, to wife. Moreover he colonized the land which the [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary] had formed by its silt, and he took up his abode there. But afterwards Callirrhoe coveted the necklace and robe, and said she would not live with him if she did not get them. So away [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary] went to Psophis and told Phegeus how it had been predicted that he should be rid of his madness when he had brought the necklace and the robe to [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] and dedicated them. Phegeus believed him and gave them to him. But a servant having let out that he was taking the things to Callirrhoe, Phegeus commanded his sons, and they lay in wait and killed him. When Arsinoe reproached them, the sons of Phegeus shoved her into a chest and carried her to Tegea and gave her as a slave to Agapenor, falsely accusing her of [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary]'s murder. [3.7.6] Being informed of [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary]'s untimely end and courted by [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], Callirrhoe requested that the sons she had by [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary] might be full grown in order to avenge their father's murder. And being suddenly full-grown, the sons went forth to right their father's wrong. Now Pronous and Agenor, the sons of Phegeus, carrying the necklace and robe to [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] to dedicate them, turned in at the house of Agapenor at the same time as Amphoterus and Acarnan, the sons of [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary]. The sons of [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary] killed their father's murderers, and going to Psophis and entering the palace they slew both Phegeus and his wife. They were pursued as far as Tegea, but saved by the intervention of the Tegeans and some [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary], and the Psophidians took to flight. [3.7.7] Having told their mother these things, they went to [pb_glossary id="945"]Delphi[/pb_glossary] and dedicated the necklace and robe according to the injunction of [pb_glossary id="774"]Achelous[/pb_glossary]. Then they journeyed to Epirus, collected settlers, and colonized Acarnania. But Euripides says that in the time of his madness [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary] had two children, Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone, by Manto, daughter of [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary] and that he brought the babes to Corinth and gave them to [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary], king of Corinth, to bring up; and that on account of her extraordinary beauty Tisiphone was sold as a slave by [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary]'s spouse, who feared that [pb_glossary id="2002"]Creon[/pb_glossary] might make her his wedded wife. But [pb_glossary id="4593"]Alcmaeon[/pb_glossary] bought her and kept her as a handmaid, not knowing that she was his daughter, and coming to Corinth to get back his children he recovered his son also. And Amphilochus colonized Amphilochian Argos in obedience to oracles of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary]. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus3.html#4

The Theban Cycle

[content warning for the following source: self harm, suicide]

The Theban Cycle is a collection of lost four epic-style poetry within the Epic Cycle. It takes place before the Trojan War and it tells the mythological history of the founding family of the city of Thebes. The epics of the Theban Cycle are as follows: the Oedipodea, the Thebaid, the Epigoni, and the Alcmeonis. While these poems are lost, the content of the poems can be pieced together from fragments and mentions from other ancient authors.
For further discussion of the Epic Cycle, see chapter 29.
The Oedipodea tells the story of Oedipus and the Sphinx. Pausanias cites this poem to claim that Oedipus never has any children in his marriage with his mother, Jocasta (Description of Greece 9.5.10-11). Another source on the tragedy of Oedipus and his children survives in the trilogy of plays by the Athenian playwright, Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is determined to find who murdered the previous king, Laius, in order to end a plague upon the city. When it is revealed that it was himself who killed his father and thus he had married and had children with his own mother, Jocasta, his queen, Jocasta hangs herself and Oepidus blinds himself. Oedipus at Colonus details Oedipus' exile to Colonus, near Athens, with his daughters, Ismene and Antigone. He curses his sons for not being able to protect him well from Creon, who plans to kill him. He receives citizenship and protection in Athens, where he ultimately dies.

You can read the entirety of Oedipus Rex here and Oedipus at Colonus in English here.

The Thebaid describes the succession wars between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles after his death. The events are famously retold by Athenian playwright, Aeschylus, in his tragic play, Seven Against Thebes. This play concerns the siege against the city led by Polynices and his Argive allies captained by the eponymous Seven and Eteocles sending out Theban champions to duel against the Seven. Ultimately, the Thebans drove away their enemies but both brothers die fighting each other.
You can read the entirety of Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes in English here.
Sophocles' third Theban play, Antigone, details the events after the brothers die. It tells how their sister, Antigone, gives Polynices a proper burial against the now king Creon's orders. The play ends in the death of Antigone, Haemon (Creon's living son), and Eurydice (Creon's wife).
You can read the entirety of Antigone in English here.
The Epigoni tells the tale of how the sons (the Epigoni) of the Seven caused the ultimate downfall of Thebes in a second war ten years after the first to take revenge for their fallen fathers. The Alcmeonis is the final of the Theban Cycle and is about Alcmaeon, one of the Epigoni, who kills his mother to avenge the death of his father. This story bears some similarities to the myth of Orestes and Clytemnestra (see chapter 11 and chapter 30).

The Thebes of Athenian playwrights often served as the flawed foil of Athens. The Thebans were enemies of Athens because they sided with the Persians during the Persian Wars, and the agenda of playwrights to win contests in the City Dionysia festival and gain popularity in Athens by villainizing Thebes should be kept in mind when reading these sources.
For further discussion of theatre culture in Athens, see chapter 43.

Art and Symbolism

[content warning for the following section: graphic depiction of death]
[caption id="attachment_3967" align="alignnone" width="2308"] Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]
There are four main episodes from the mythology of the Theban Cycle that are very often represented in Greek and Roman art: Cadmus slaying the dragon; Oedipus being interrogated by the Sphinx; the expedition of the seven Argive armies against Thebes; and the death of king Pentheus at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. Another scene, the death of Actaeon mauled by his own dogs, was already discussed in the chapter dedicated to Artemis.

For the first one, the scene usually shows Cadmus fighting a giant snake. As the scene takes place at the Ismenian Spring, the hero is often portrayed holding a water jug alongside his weapons. Athena is usually represented behind Cadmus, as she assisted him in this feat, while Ares, to whom the dragon was sacred, is standing behind the monster.
[caption id="attachment_3760" align="alignleft" width="304"] Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 380 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3757" align="alignright" width="341"] Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 350 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3756" align="alignnone" width="300"] Cadmus and the dragon, black-figure amphora, ca. 560 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption]
The encounter between Oedipus and the Sphinx was another very popular theme in ancient Greek art. The hero is usually represented wearing the cloak and hat of travelers (as he was indeed on the road) and holding a walking stick, while the monster, a winged lion with a human head, is perching either on a column or a rock.
[caption id="attachment_3763" align="aligncenter" width="1292"] Oedipus and the Sphinx, red-figure pelike, ca. 450 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[/caption]
The third myth is usually represented in two ways: either the leaders of the Argive expedition arming themselves, or episodes from the battle at the gates.
[caption id="attachment_3764" align="alignnone" width="1555"] The Seven Against Thebes, terracotta relief, ca. 470 BCE (Villa Giulia, Rome)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3537" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Capaneus scales the walls of Thebes, red-figure amphora, ca. 340 BCE (Getty Villa, Los Angeles)[/caption]
Two popular scenes from the second category are the fall of Capaneus from the walls, and the duel between Eteocles and Polynices. The siege of Thebes became very popular in Etruscan art, so that the expedition of the Seven was represented on at least two temple pediments from the 5th and 2nd century BCE, and the duel between Eteocles and Polynices was a common decorative motif funerary urns during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.
[caption id="attachment_3758" align="alignnone" width="1590"] Duel of Eteocles and Polynices and the siege of Thebes, terracotta pediment from the temple of Talamone, 2nd century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Florence)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3779" align="alignnone" width="2560"] The duel of Eteocles and Polynices, Etruscan funerary urns, ca. 2nd century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Siena)[/caption]
The last mythological episode from the Theban Cycle to be fairly common in art is the death of Pentheus. Greek and Roman artists usually represented the moment of or the moments immediately his ritual dismemberment (sparagmos) at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. The women are generally shown carrying away their macabre trophies, and Agave, Pentheus' mother, is the one holding his head.
[caption id="attachment_3781" align="aligncenter" width="603"] Death of Pentheus, red-figure lekane lid, ca. 450 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3780" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Death of Pentheus, red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BCE (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

Troy

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:31:45 +0000
[caption id="attachment_3533" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Sophia Schliemann wearing jewelry from Priam's Treasure[/caption]

Foundation

Mythological

In mythology, the city of Troy or Ilion was founded by Ilus, son of king Tros of Dardania, and governed by his descendants until at the end of a ten-year long siege the Achaeans sacked it and burned it to the ground. The most impressive features of Troy mentioned in myths are the massive walls and imposing gates, as well as a citadel containing the royal palace and the main temples (one of which dedicated to Athena).

Historical

Enthusiasts and scholars alike tried to identify the geographical location of Troy in the real world since the 16th century CE. At the end of the 1860s the remains of a city that had been inhabited from the Bronze Age to the 5th century CE were discovered in modern-day western Turkey and attributed to the mythical city of Troy based on the fact that its location matched some of the features described in the Homeric poems.

Mythology

The most significant mythological account of Troy is the myth of the Trojan War, known most famously from Homer's Iliad.

For further discussion of the Trojan War and the mythology of Troy, see chapter 26, chapter 27, chapter 28, chapter 29, and chapter 30.

Archaeology
[caption id="attachment_3750" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Priam's Treasure[/caption]
The goal of the first excavation was to dig down to the earliest phases of the city to uncover artifacts that could potentially prove that that was, indeed, the city described in the Trojan Cycle. As a consequence, a rich assemblage of jewels, weapons, and fine pottery discovered during this expedition was immediately labeled as ‘Priam’s Treasure’.
[caption id="attachment_3535" align="alignleft" width="274"] Brooch from Priam's Treasure (Pushkin Museum, Moscow)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3538" align="alignright" width="378"] Brooch from Priam's Treasure (Pushkin Museum, Moscow)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3521" align="aligncenter" width="936"] Blades from Priam's Treasure (Pushkin Museum, Moscow)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3531" align="aligncenter" width="747"] Jewelry from the Treasure of Priam (Neues Museum, Berlin)[/caption]
Subsequent (and more rigorous) excavations helped clarify the various phases of life of the city, which was destroyed and rebuilt at least four times. Based on its size and material remains, Troy seems to have been a flourishing city during the Bronze Age, with massive walls, palaces, tombs, and temples; thanks to its position, it was also well connected to international trading routes. Like many other important centres, Troy lost much of its effective power after the Bronze Age Collapse, but it later became somewhat of a touristic destination during the Classical and Imperial periods, as the remains of the ancient city were interpreted as those of the Troy described in the Homeric poems.
[caption id="attachment_3527" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Archaeological Remains from Troy[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3516" align="alignnone" width="996"] Map of the citadel of Troy with archaeological layers, by Bibi Saint-Pol.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3532" align="alignnone" width="5313"] Cross-section of archaeological layers of the acropolis of Troy, by Bibi Saint-Pol.[/caption]

Media Attributions

The Amazons

taramulder — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:32:41 +0000
[caption id="attachment_2136" align="alignnone" width="1824"] An Amazon, red-figure kylix, ca. 500 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption]
Origins

The Amazons were a mythological tribe of warrior women who lived to the east of Greece, in and around the area of the Black Sea. Many legends suggest their capital city was Themiscyra, located in northeastern Anatolia (modern Turkey), although they are also described as living in other locations, including Scythia (modern-day Ukraine), Colchis (the modern-day nation of Georgia), Thrace, and northern Africa (modern-day Tunisia). They were said to be the daughters of Otrera, who was the first queen of the Amazons, and the god Ares. The stories told about the Amazons emphasize separation from men, their ability to do tasks that the Greeks traditionally considered male (such as hunting), and their fierce battle prowess. For the Greeks, the female Amazons represented a complete inversion of their deeply-ingrained cultural beliefs about gender and society.

Adventures

Sections & Primary Sources

Hippolyte Penthesileia

Homer, Iliad, 3.181-200

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, E.5.1-E.5.2

Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica, 1-1103 (abridged)

The Historical Amazons

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, 2.43.1-2.46.6

Amazonomachy

In the Ancient Greek mythological tradition, the Amazons functioned as foils to the Greek heroes. Each Greek male hero had his own encounter with an Amazon woman, finding her at first to be a formidable foe, but ultimately besting her in combat, often even killing her. Many of the Greek heroes fell in love with and/or had sexual trysts with the Amazons, often producing children.

The most famous Amazons were Hippolyte and Penthesileia. Other Amazons included Antiope, Orythia, and Melanippe.

Hippolyte

Hippolyte (or Hippolyta) was a queen of the Amazons who features prominently in myths about Heracles and his labours. For his ninth labour, Heracles was sent to steal the belt (or "girdle") of Hippolyta. Some versions of the myth say that Theseus accompanied him on this journey. Other versions say that Theseus had his own interaction with Hippolyta later on, well after Heracles had completed the twelve labours. She was the mother of Theseus' first son, Hippolytus. Other accounts say that the mother of Hippolytus was Antiope, Hippolyte's sister.
For further discussion of Heracles and Hippolyte, see chapter 17. For further discussion of Theseus and Hippolyte, see chapter 22.
Penthesileia

Penthesileia was the queen of the Amazons during the Trojan War. In many myths about Penthesileia, she is described as having a warlike nature and is strongly associated with her father, Ares. Despite her battle prowess, in many accounts she is overpowered by Achilles on the fields of Troy, and killed by him, as shown by many vases (see Art and Symbolism below). Some accounts even relay a version of the story in which Achilles fell in love with Penthesileia as he killed her.
For further discussion of Penthesileia, see chapter 27.

Homer, Iliad, Book 3 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang)

Greek epic poem, 8th century BCE

In book three of the Iliad, the Trojan king Priam recalls a battle with the Amazons that he fought as a young man. This recollection anticipates the arrival of Penthesileia after the death of Hector.
[181] The old man viewed [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary] with wonder, "Ah, happy son of [pb_glossary id="1562"]Atreus[/pb_glossary], fortune’s child, blessed by the gods! All these [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary], then, are your subjects. I journeyed to vine-rich Phrygia once, and saw the host of warriors, masters of gleaming horses, men of Otreus’ army and godlike Mygdon’s too, camped by the banks of the River Sangarius. Their ally, I was with them when the Amazon women attacked and fought like men. But that force would be outnumbered by these bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary]." Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Iliad3.php#anchor_Toc239244771
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Epitome (trans. K. Aldrich, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek mythography, 2nd century CE

After the death of Hector in the Trojan War, the Greek and Trojans paused from the fighting for several days so that the Trojans could celebrate their fallen leader with the traditional funeral games. Following the games, the Amazon Penthesileia showed up with an entourage to fight on the side of the Trojans. Pseudo-Apollodorus explains that she fought for the Trojans because of the purification that King Priam had granted to her after she accidentally killed her fellow Amazon, Queen Hippolyta (alternate version of the myth say that Hippolyta was killed by Theseus or other Greek men).
[E.5.1-2] After the games [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary] came to [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], ransomed [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary]'s body, and buried it. [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary], the daughter of [pb_glossary id="2616"]Otrera[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], who had accidentally killed [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyte[/pb_glossary] and been purified by [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary], killed many in battle, including Machaon; but later she was herself killed by [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], who fell in love with the Amazon after she died, and slew [pb_glossary id="2717"]Thersites[/pb_glossary] for rebuking him. [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyte[/pb_glossary], also known as Glauce and Melanippe, was the mother of [pb_glossary id="1739"]Hippolytus[/pb_glossary]. As the marriage of [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] was being celebrated, she showed up with arms together with her Amazons, and told [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] she was going to murder the whole gathering. In the ensuing battle she died, either involuntarily killed by her ally [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary], or by [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary], or because the men with [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary], as soon as they noted the arrival of the Amazons, quickly bolted the doors, caught her inside and killed her. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Heroine/AmazonPenthesileia.html

Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica, Book 1 (abridged) (trans. A. S. Way, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek epic, 4th century CE

The arrival of Penthesileia is dramatized by Quintus Smyrnaeus (also called Quintus of Smyrna), a Greek epic poet who was likely writing in the 4th century, CE. In his Posthomerica (literally, "After Homer), he continues the story of the Trojan War from where Homer left on in the Iliad.
[1] When godlike [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary] was killed by Peleides [ [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] ], and the pyre had devoured up his flesh, and earth had veiled his bones, the Trojans then lingered in [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]'s city, afraid of the might of courageous [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], grandson of [pb_glossary id="2324"]Aeacus[/pb_glossary]. [. . .] [22] Then from Thermodon, from broad-sweeping streams, clothed with the beauty of goddesses, came [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary]-- she came longing for groan-resounding battle, but also to flee from hated reproach and evil fame, fearing her own people would condemn her because of her sister's death. [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyta[/pb_glossary], forever lamented by [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary], had been struck dead accidentally by [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary]’s spear when she aimed at a stag. So she came to the far-famed land of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]. More than this, her warrior spirit drove her to cleanse her soul of the dreaded pollution of murder[footnote]"Pollution" here refers to the Greek concept of miasma, the idea that death defiles someone or has the capacity to make surrounding people and places impure. For further explanation, see Mythology Unbound. [/footnote] and to appease the Awful Ones, the [pb_glossary id="157"]Erinyes[/pb_glossary] with sacrifice, for they immediately haunted her, unseen, angry about her slain sister; they are always hovering near the sinner's steps and none may escape from these goddesses. [40] And twelve maidens followed beside her, each one a princess, eager for war and grim battle. Though all highborn, they attended to her as handmaidens; but [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] outshone them all. As how in the broad sky amidst the stars the [pb_glossary id="1537"]Moon[/pb_glossary] rides over all, supreme, when the cleaving heavens open through the thunderclouds and the fury-breathing winds die; so unequalled was [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] amidst those charging maidens. Clonia was there, Polemusa, Derinoe, Euandre, and Antandre, and Bremusa, Hippothoe, dark-eyed Harmothoe, Alcibia, Derimachea, Antibrote, and Thermodosa glorying with the spear. All these went to battle with warrior-souled [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] [ . . . ] and over them all, how flawless and fair these girls may be, her splendour of beauty glows supreme; so peerless amid all the Amazons, [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] came to [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]. To right, to left, from all sides The Trojans hurried to her side, greatly marvelling, when they saw the tireless War-god's child, the armored maiden. She was like the Blessed Gods; for in her face glowed beauty, glorious and fierce. Her smile was ravishing: beneath her brows her lovely eyes shone like stars, her cheeks were coloured like a crimson rose with a modest blush, and mantled above all this was an Unearthly grace and battle-prowess. [73] Then the Trojans rejoiced, despite past sufferings [. . .] when they saw [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] arrive at their land for battle, they felt exceeding glad; for when the heart is thrilled with hope of good, all pain of evils past is wiped away: so, after all his sighing and his pain, [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]’s soul was gladdened a little [. . .] so happy was he to see that mighty queen . . . Into his halls he led the maiden, and with he honoured her gladly, just like one who greets a daughter to her home after returning from a far country in the twentieth year away; and set a feast before her, as splendid as that of battle-glorious kings, who have brought low nations of foes, a display of grandeur, with hearts filled with pride of a triumphal victory. And he gave her gifts, expensive and pleasant to the eye, and pledged to give many more if she would save the Trojans from the imminent doom. And she returned to him a promise that no mortal man had even hoped to fulfill, to slay [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], to destroy the vast army of the Argive men, and to set their fleet aflame. Ah fool! She knew little of the lord of ashen spears and how far [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary]’ skills surpassed her in the warrior-wasting strife known as battle. [119] But when [pb_glossary id="2718"]Andromache[/pb_glossary], the noble child of king Eetion, heard the wild queen's boast, she murmured bitterly to herself: “Ah hapless woman! Why do you make such swelling claims with your arrogant heart? You do not have the strength to combat [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]' fearless son. No, he will bring you doom and a swift death. Pitiful woman! What madness stirs your soul? Fate and the end which [pb_glossary id="357"]Death[/pb_glossary] brings stand by your side! [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary] was a far mightier spearsman, yet despite all his prowess he was slain [. . .]” [146] In its swift journey around the sky, [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] sank into the [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary]' deep stream and daylight died. So when the banqueters ceased from the wine-cup and the great feast, the serving women spread a heart-cheering couch in [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]'s halls for brave [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] and she laid down to rest; mist-like slumber veiled her eyes like rounded sweet dew. From the blue heavens slid down a dream of deceitful power at [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary]' order, so that the warrior-maid might see it and become a curse to [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] and to herself by straining her soul for the whirlwind of battle. In this way [pb_glossary id="1567"]Tritogeneia[/pb_glossary], the cunning one, planned: the baleful dream stood over the maiden's head in the likeness of her father [ [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] ], urging her to fearlessly meet in fight fleetfoot [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary]. And she heard the voice, and her entire heart was filled with joy, for she believed that she would, on that dawning day, achieve a mighty deed in battle's deadly toil. Ah, fool, who unfortunately trusted a dream out of the dusk, which often beguiles the wretched tribes of men, whispering mocking lies in sleeping ears; it deceived her, urging her to battle! [173] But when rosy-ankled [pb_glossary id="215"]Eos[/pb_glossary] leapt up from her bed, then, clad in mighty strength of spirit, suddenly [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] rose from her couch. Then she dressed herself in those wondrous armour given to her by [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]. First she laid beneath her silver-gleaming knees the golden greaves, clipped close to her strong limbs. She clasped her iridescent breastplate about her, and around her shoulders she slung, with glory in her heart, the heavy sword whose shining length was in a scabbard crafted from ivory and silver. Next, she took her shield, unearthly splendid, whose rim swelled like the young crescent moon's arching chariot-rail [. . .] the light which shone from it was indescribably fair. Then on her head she settled the bright helmet plumed with a wild mane of golden-glistering hairs. And so she stood in her intricate armour seeming as if a bolt of lightning [. . .] Then in hot haste she made her way out of [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]’s halls, taking two javelins in the hand that grasped her shield-band on her way; in her strong right hand lay a huge halberd, sharp on either side, which terrible [pb_glossary id="2421"]Eris[/pb_glossary] gave to [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]' child to be her Titanous weapon in the strife that devours the souls of men. Laughing in delight, she swiftly flashed past the ring of defence towers. Her arrival sparked all the sons of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] to rush into the battle which crowns men with glory. They all swiftly obeyed her urgings to battle, and the best warriors came in throngs, yes, even when before they had shrank back from standing in battle against [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] the all-conquering. In pride and triumph, she rode enthroned on a fine and swift steed, the gift of Oreithyia, bride of wild [pb_glossary id="1660"]Boreas[/pb_glossary] the North-wind, when the warrior-maiden went to Thrace and was Oreithyia’s guest. It was a steed whose flying feet could match the [pb_glossary id="341"]Harpies[/pb_glossary]' wings. Mounted on this steed, noble [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] left the tall palaces of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] behind. And the ghastly-visaged Keres [spirits of Death] were ever-thrusting her into battle, doomed to be her first against the Greeks--and last! To right, to left, with unreturning feet the Trojan thousands followed to the fray, the pitiless fray, they followed that death-doomed warrior-maid in throngs [. . .] filled with battle-fury, strong Trojans and wild-hearted Amazones. And she seemed like Tritonis [ [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] ] when she went to fight the [pb_glossary id="601"]Giants[/pb_glossary], or like [pb_glossary id="2421"]Eris[/pb_glossary], rouser of discord, flashes through an army. So mighty in the Trojans' midst she seemed, [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] of the flying feet [. . .] [238] Then the son of [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary] [ [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary] ] raised his hands unto [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]’ son [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ]. . . and he prayed , "Father, hear me! Grant that on this day Achaea's army may fall before the hands of our warrior-queen, the War-god's child; and let her return to my halls unscathed: we pray to you that by the love you bear for your son, [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] of the fiery heart, and to the queen also! Is she not most wondrous like the heavenly goddesses? And is she not the child of your own seed? And pity my stricken heart! You know all the agonies I have suffered in the deaths of my dear sons whom the [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary] have torn from me by Argive hands in the devouring fight. Feel compassion for us, while a remnant yet remains of noble [pb_glossary id="2720"]Dardanus[/pb_glossary]' blood, while this city stands unwasted! Let us have some respite from ghastly slaughter and strife!" [260] In passionate prayer he spoke but an eagle darted swiftly by with a shrill scream and in his talons was a gasping dove. Then all the blood in [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]’s heart was chilled with fear. Quietly to himself he said, "I will never see [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] return alive from war!’ On that very day the [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary] prepared to fulfill this omen of his and his heart broke with the anguish of despair. [269] Far across the plain, upon seeing the hosts of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] charge down on them with [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]' child, amidst them, the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] marvelled. The Trojans seemed like ravening beasts among the hills that bring grim slaughter to the fleecy flocks; and she seemed like a rushing blast of flame that maddened through the dead branches summer-scorched thickets, driven on by the wind. As they mustered together, they spoke to each other, "Who is this who can rouse the Trojans to war, now that [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary] has been slain? [. . .]" [290] So they shouted and cast their shining battle-gear about themselves. From the ships they poured out cloaked in the rage of fight. Then their battles closed, front to front, like wild beasts locked in a tangle of gory strife. Clanged their shining armour together, clashed the spears, the breastplates, the stubborn-welded shields, and adamant helmets. Each stabbed at the other's flesh with the fierce bronze. Neither party could stop to parlay or rest and the soil of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] was stained crimson-red. [300] First [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] slew Molion; now Persinous falls, and now Eilissos. She trapped Antitheus underneath her spear and the pride of Lernos was subdued. She bore down Hippalmos beneath the hoofs of her horse. Haimon's son died, she withered stalwart Elasippos' strength. And [the Amazon] Derinoe laid low Laogonos and [the Amazon] Clonia, Menippos, him who had sailed from Phylace, led by his lord Protesilaus to the war with [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]. Podarces, son of Iphiklos, angered by his death as Menippos was his most beloved out of all his companions. Swiftly he hurled his spear at Clonia, the maid fair as a Goddess; the unswerving spear plunged through her stomach and her bloody bowels gushed out after the spear. [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary], furious, drove the long point of her spear through the brawn of his right arm, shearing his blood-brimming veins, and through the wide gash of the wound, a crimson fountain sprouted. With a groan Podarces sprang backward, his courage wholly quelled by bitter pain; the men of Phylace grieved his absence as he fled. He stopped a short way from the fight and he died in the small space between the arms of his friends. Then Idoemeneus thrust out his spear and stabbed [the Amazon] Bremusa in her right breast. The beating of her heart was stilled forever. She fell as gracefully as a mighty mountain pine struck down by woodmen: heavily, sighing through all its boughs as it crashes down. So with a wailing shriek she fell, and death unstrung her every limb; her spirit mingled with multitudinous-sighing winds. Then, as [the Amazon] Euandre rushed through the murderous fray with Thermodosa, Meriones, like a lion standing in their path, slew them, driving his spear right into the heart of one and stabbing the other lightning quick sword-thrust in the stomach. Their life leapt through their wounds and escaped away. Oileus' fiery son killed [the Amazon] Derinoe, stabbing her between her throat and shoulder with his ruthless spear; and [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary]' terrible son [ [pb_glossary id="1192"]Diomedes[/pb_glossary] ] swooped on [the Amazon] Alcibia and [the Amazon] Derimachea: head and neck removed clean from their shoulders by his sword. Together they fell down [. . .] by the hands of [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary]' son they were laid low upon the Trojan plain, far, far away from their own highland-home, they fell . . . [411] [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] was unwavering [. . .] that warrior-maiden leapt on the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Danaans[/pb_glossary]. And they, their souls were cowed. They shrank back and she followed fast [. . . ] So she chased and hurled through their ranks, shouting fierce threats at them: ‘You dogs, you shall pay for the evil outrage you have done to [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary] today! Not a single one of you shall escape with your life from my hands and return home to gladden the eyes of your parents or comfort your wife or children. You shall lie dead, as food for vultures and wolves, and no one will bury your body under the earth. Where is the strength of [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary]' son? Where is the might of [pb_glossary id="2324"]Aeacus[/pb_glossary]' scion [ [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] ]? Where is [pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary]' bulk? You boast that they are the mightiest men of all your rabble. Ha! They dare not duel me in battle, lest I drag their craven souls from their fainting frames!’ [449] She then leapt on the foe, unrelenting as a tigress, crashing through ranks upon ranks of [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary], now using that huge, heavy ax and hurling her sharp spear, while her battle-horse flashed through the fight, and on his shoulder bore her quiver and death-bringing bow, close to her hand, if amidst that revel of blood she willed to shoot the bitter-biting shaft. Behind her followed the charging lines of fleet-footed men, friends and brethren of the man, [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary], who never flinched from hand-to-hand combat, all panting with the hot breath of the War-god from their breasts, all slaying [pb_glossary id="2276"]Danaans[/pb_glossary] with the ashen spear, who fell as frost-touched leaves in autumn fall one after other, or as drops of rain. And the [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary] groaned, blood-drenched and heaped with corpse on corpse. Horses pierced through with arrows, or impaled on spears, were snorting forth their last of strength with screaming neighings. Men, with gnashing teeth biting the dust, lay gasping, while the steeds of Trojan charioteers stormed in pursuit, trampling the dying mingled with the dead as oxen trample corn in threshing-floors. Then one of the Trojans amazed, watched [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] in the midst of the Trojans as she rushed on through the foes' array, like the black storm that maddens over the sea [. . .] and thus, filled with vain hope, he shouted , "O friends, one of the deathless Gods has manifest among us on this day to fight the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary], all of love for us and with sanction of almighty [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], he whose compassion now remember strong-hearted [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary], who may boast a lineage of immortal blood. For I think that no mortal woman can be so daring and is so clad in splendour-flashing arms; No, surely she is [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] or the mighty-souled [pb_glossary id="2723"]Enyo[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="2421"]Eris[/pb_glossary], or [ [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] ] the Child of famous [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary]. Oh yes, I see her amidst the Argive men bringing slaughter, see her set aflame to their ships from which they came long years ago, bringing us many sorrows, yes, they came bringing us the intolerable woes of war. Ha! They will never joyfully return to their home-land, Hellas, since the Gods fight on our side." [500] That was the haughty exultation that Trojan boasted. Fool! He did not know of the ruin rushing upon himself and [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] herself. For no news of the wild battle had arrived at stormy-souled [pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary], nor to [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], waster of tower and town. But on the grave-mound of [pb_glossary id="2326"]Menoetius[/pb_glossary]' son [ [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary] ] they were both lying, with sad memories of a dear fallen comrade, and echoing each other's groaning. One of the Blessed Gods was holding these two back from the battle-tumult far away, until many Greeks could fulfill their fate, slain by Trojan foes and glorious [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary], who pursued with murderous intent their rifled ranks. And her strength and valour never waxed, only grew more. She never missed her target as she thrust with her spear; she pierced the backs of those who fled, the breasts of those who charged to meet her. All along the long shaft of her spear dripped with steaming blood. Her feet were as swift as the wind as she swooped down on her foes. Her fearless spirit did not weary and her might was like the strongest of metals. The impending Ker [Doom], which had not yet driven the terrible strife unto [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], still clothed her with glory. She was still unbeknownst of the that the dread [pb_glossary id="2662"]Power[/pb_glossary] stood by her and how she would still shed splendour of triumph over those ordained for death but only for a little while longer, until it would crush that Maiden underneath the hands of [pb_glossary id="2324"]Aeacus[/pb_glossary]' scion [ [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] ]. Hidden in darkness, it continued to drive her forwards with an invisible hand, and drew her feet towards her destruction, lighting her path to death with glory, while she slew foe after foe [. . .] So she charged, [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]' child, through the squadrons of Achaea’s sons, slaying some, and hunting those who fled in panic. [545] From [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] afar the women marvelling, gazed at the Maiden's battle-prowess [. . .] and Theano spoke [to the Trojan Women] , "[. . .] Amazons have trained in ruthless fight, in charging steeds, from the beginning of their days: they enjoy all of the toil of men and therefore the spirit of the War-god thrills through them evermore. They do not fall short of men in anything: their labour-hardened bodies make their hearts great: their knees never weaken nor tremble. Rumour says their queen is a daughter of the mighty Lord of War. Therefore no woman may compare with her in prowess--if she be a woman, not a God come down in answer to our prayers [ . . .] [643] Still [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] broke the ranks, and still before her quivered the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary]; they could not find escape from imminent death [. . .] In each man's heart all lust of battle died, and fear alone lived. This way and that way fled the panic-stricken; some had flung the armour from their shoulder to the ground and some grovelled in terror in the dust underneath their shields. Horses fled through the havoc without their charioteers. In a rapture of triumph charged the Amazons; with groans and screams of agony died the Greeks. Withered was their manhood in that terrible chaos and brief was the life of all whom that fierce maid overtook in the grim jaws of battle overtook [. . . ] So the great [pb_glossary id="2276"]Danaan[/pb_glossary] army lay, dashed to dust by doom of Fate, by [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary]'s spear. [671] But when the ships were about to be set aflame by the Trojans, mighty [pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary] heard from afar the panicked cries, and spoke to [pb_glossary id="2324"]Aeacus[/pb_glossary]' scion, "[pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], all the air about my ears is full of very many cries; it is full of thunder of battle rolling nearer. Let us go forth then, in case the Trojans reach the ships and make great slaughter there [. . .]" [690] Then both of them hurried and donned their splendid warrior-gear. Now they stood facing their storm-tossed foes. Loud clashed their glorious armour and in their souls a battle-fury like [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]' wrath maddened; such might was breathed into the two of them by Atrytone [ [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] ], Shaker of the Shield, as they pressed onwards [. . .] many they slew with their resistless spears [. . . and] [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]' son [ [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] ] lept on the Amazons, killing Antandre, Polemusa, Antibrote, fierce-souled Hippothoe, and hurled Harmothoe down on slain sisters. Then he pressed hard on all their-reeling ranks with [pb_glossary id="1447"]Telamon[/pb_glossary]'s mighty-hearted son [ [pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary] ] and before their hands the battalions were dense and strong [. . .] [734] When battle-eager [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] saw them, as they rushed like ravening beasts through the scourging storm of war, she rushed to meet them in battle [. . .] While the two warriors, clad in armour and putting trust in their long spears, await her lightning leap. The brazen plates clanged about their shoulders as they moved. And [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] first threw her long-shafted spear. It flew straight to the shield of [pb_glossary id="2324"]Aeacus[/pb_glossary]' son and fell into slivered fragments as it glanced from the rock-like shield: of such divine quality were the gifts of the cunning-hearted Fire-god [ [pb_glossary id-"356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] ]. Then the warrior-maiden threw a second javelin with fury against [pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary]] as she threatened the men with fierce words, "Ha, one spear has left my hand in vain! But with this second look I shall put an end to the strength and courage of two foes. That’s right, even though you claim to be mighty men of war amid your Danaans! You shall die, and the load of war’s afflictions shall be lighter upon the horse-taming Trojans. Draw closer, come through the soldiers to fight with me, so you shall earn what might wells up in the breasts of Amazones. My blood is mingled with war itself! It was not a mortal man who fathered me but [Ares] the Lord of War, insatiate of the battle-cry, himself. Therefore my might is more than any man's.’ [767] With scornful laughter she spoke, then she hurled her second lance; but they in utter scorn laughed now, as the shaft hit the silver greave of [pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary], and was thereby foiled; all its fury could not scar the flesh within for fate had ordered that no blade of enemies should taste the blood of [pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary] in the bitter war. But he paid no attention to the Amazon and turned to rush onto the host of Trojan men instead, leaving [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]' son alone, for well he knew his heart within that she, for all her prowess, would nonetheless be as effortless a battle to [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] as a dove to a hawk. [782] She cried angrily that her spears were thrown in vain and it was [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary]’ turn to rebuked her with mocking words, "Woman, with what empty boasts have you come forth against us, all eager to fight us, who are far mightier than earthborn heroes? We boast our descent from [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]' Son [ [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] ], the Thunder-roller. Even [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary], the battle-swift, feared us even upon seeing our charge into grim battle from afar; and indeed it was my spear that slew him, for all his might. But you--your heart is utterly mad to have dared to threaten us with death today! Your last hour will come quickly --it comes! The War-god will not rescue you from my hands, but you will pay the debt of dark doom, death, just as when a young deer meets a lion in the mountains. What, woman, have you not heard of the heaps of corpses that I thrust into Xanthos’ rushing streams? Or have you heard of it, but because the Blessed Ones have stolen your wit and discretion so that Doom’s relentless depth might open for you?’ [807] So he spoke, and he swung up his mighty hand and sped his warrior-slaying long spear, crafted by [pb_glossary id="1416"]Chiron[/pb_glossary], and pierced above the right breast of the battle-eager maiden. The red blood leapt forth, as a fountain wells, and all at once fainted the strength of [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary]'s limbs; the great battle-axe dropped from her nerveless hand; a mist of darkness veiled over her eyes, and anguish passed through her soul. Yet even so she still drew breath with difficulty, still dimly seeing the hero, even now in action to drag her from the swift steed's back. Confusedly she thought, "Should I draw my mighty sword, and wait for [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] to rush towards me, or hastily dismount my horse down to earth, and kneel in front of this godlike man, and with wild breath promise great heaps of bronze and gold, which pacifies the hearts of victors so that it quenches their bloodlust, if so the murderous might of [pb_glossary id="2324"]Aeacus[/pb_glossary]' son may relent and spare me; or perhaps he may feel compassion for my youth and grant me reprise to see my home again? For oh, I long to live!" [831] So surged the wild thoughts in her; but the Gods ordained it otherwise. Even now [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]’ son rushed on in terrible anger; he thrust suddenly with his spear, and its shaft impaled the body of her storm-footed steed [. . .] So that deadly spear of [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]' son ripped clean through the good steed, piercing [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary]. Immediately she fell down into the dust of earth, the arms of death, graceful as nothing shameful dishonoured her fair form. She lay on the long spear face down, gasping out her last breath, stretched upon that fleet horse as though on a couch [. . .] So from the once fleet steed fell [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary], all her shattered strength brought down to this, and all her loveliness. [858] Now when the Trojans saw the Warrior-queen struck down in battle, a shiver of panic ran through all their lines. Straightway they turned to flee back to their walls, heart-agonized with grief [. . .] so, [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]-ward as they fled from battle, all those Trojans wept for her, the Child of the resistless War-god, and wept for friends who died in that groan-resounding fight. [874] Then the son of [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary] boasted over her with scornful laughter, "In the dust lie there a prey to the teeth of dogs, to ravens' beaks, you wretched thing! Who tricked you into fighting against me? And you thought you could return home alive bearing royal gifts from the old king [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary], as a reward for slain [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary]? Ha, it was not the immortals gods who inspired you with these thoughts, as they know that I am the mightiest of heroes, the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Danaans[/pb_glossary]’ light of safety, a woe to Trojans and to you! No, it was the darkness-shrouded [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary] and your own foolishness that drove you to leave the works of women, and to take to warfare, from which strong men shrink shuddering back." [891] So he spoke, and the son of [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary] drew his ashen spear from that swift horse, and from [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] in death's agony. Then both the steed and rider gasped their lives away, killed by one spear. Now from her head he took the splendid helmet which flashed like the beams of the great sun, or [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]' own glory-light. Then, there as fallen in dust and blood she lay, like a rose, like the breaking of the dawn, and he saw underneath her dainty-pencilled brows a lovely face, beautiful in death. The [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] gathered around, and the all saw and marvelled, for she seemed like an Immortal. In her armour there upon the earth she lay, and she seemed like the Child of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], the tireless Huntress [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary], sleeping, tired after a lion hunt over far-stretching hills. She was made a wonder of beauty even in her death by glorious-crowned [pb_glossary id="882"]Aphrodite[/pb_glossary], the Bride of the strong War-god, to the end that he, the son of noble [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary], might be pierced with the sharp arrow of regret-filled love. The warriors gazed, and in their hearts they prayed that their wives would lie fair and sweet like her on the bed of love, when they returned home victorious. And [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary]' very heart was wrung with love's remorse to have slain a thing so sweet, who might have found her home as his queenly bride, in chariot-glorious Phthia; for she was flawless, a very daughter of the Gods, divinely tall, and most divinely fair. [958] Then [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]' heart was filled with grief and rage for his slain daughter. He darted straight down from [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], swift and bright as thunderbolt terribly flashing from the mighty hand of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], leaping far over the trackless sea, or flaming over the land, while shaking all [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] as it passed by. So through the quivering air with heart aflame swooped [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] armour-clad, as soon as he heard the dread doom of his daughter. For the [pb_glossary id="1704"]Aurae[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1660"]Boreas[/pb_glossary] the North-Wind's fleet-winged daughters, brought to him, as through the wide halls of the sky he strode, the news of the maiden's woeful end. As soon as he heard it, like thunder down to the ridges of [pb_glossary id="187"]Mount Ida[/pb_glossary] he leapt. The great forests and deep ravines quaked under his feet --all of [pb_glossary id="187"]Ida[/pb_glossary]'s rivers and all of its far-stretching hills. [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] had brought with him a day of mourning on the [pb_glossary id="620"]Myrmidons[/pb_glossary], but [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] himself from far [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary] sent shattering thunders terror of lightning bolts which leapt thick and fast through the sky down before his feet, blazing with fearful flames. And [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] saw, and knew the stormy threat of the mighty-thundering Father, and he stopped his eager steps on the very brink of battle's turmoil [. . .] [975] Then did the warrior sons of Argos strip with eager haste from corpses strewn all round the blood-stained spoils. But [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]' son continued to gaze at [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary], wild with regret. He looked at the strong and beautiful maiden who lay in the dust. His entire heart was wrung and broken down with sorrowing love, deep, and as strong as he had known when that beloved friend [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary] died. [984] [pb_glossary id="2717"]Thersites[/pb_glossary] jeered loudly, mocking him to his face, "Sorry-souled [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary]! Are you not shamed to let some evil power beguile your heart to pity a pitiful Amazon whose furious spirit moved for nothing but to bring ill to us and our comrades? Ha! You are woman-mad and your soul lusts for this thing, as if she were some lady wise in household ways, with gifts and pure intent for honoured wedlock! It would have been good if it was her spear that reached your heart, the heart that still sighs for women! You no longer care, with your unmanly-soul, for valour's glorious path when your eyes land on a woman! Sorry wretch, where is your valour now? Where is your wit? And where is the might that befits a noble king? Do you not know what misery this same madness for women brought to [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]? There is nothing there more ruinous to men than lust for a woman's beauty; it makes fools of wise men. The toil of war attains renown, on the other hand. To a hero, the glory of victory and the War-god's works are sweet. Only a coward craves the beauty and the bed of a woman such as her!" [1009] Long and loud were his insults; the mighty heart of [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]' son leapt into flame of wrath. A sudden strike of his resistless fist made contact with [pb_glossary id="2717"]Thersites[/pb_glossary]’ ear and all his teeth were dashed to the earth. He fell on his face and blood gushed like a torrent from his lips; that despicable soul fled swiftly from that vile coward’s body [. . .] [1062] Then, out of, pity the Atreid kings [ [pb_glossary id="2021"]Menelaus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary] ] (for they marvelled at too at the imperial loveliness of [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] ) allowed the men of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] to bring her body and her armour back to the famous citadel of [pb_glossary id="2747"]Ilus[/pb_glossary]. For a herald had come with this request from [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]; for the king longed with deep yearning of the heart to lay that battle-eager maiden, with her armaments and with her war-horse, in the great earth-mound of old [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary]. And so he heaped a great pyre before the city wall and upon its peak they laid down that warrior-queen and heaped costly treasures around her, all that befits to burn around a mighty queen slain in battle. And so the Fire-god's [ [pb_glossary id="356"]Hephaestus[/pb_glossary] ] swift-upleaping might, the ferocious flame, consumed her. All around the people stood and quenched the pyre with odorous wine. Then they gathered the bones, poured sweet ointment over them, and laid them in a casket. Over the casket they placed the rich fat of the best cow that grazed on [pb_glossary id="187"]Mount Ida[/pb_glossary]'s slope. And, as for a beloved daughter, rang all around the heart-stricken wail of the Trojan men as they buried her by the stately wall on an outstanding tower, beside the bones of old [pb_glossary id="1428"]Laomedon[/pb_glossary], a queen beside a king. This honour for [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary]' sake they rendered, and for [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary]'s own. And in the plain beside her they buried the Amazons, all that followed her to battle, slain by Argive spears. For [pb_glossary id="1562"]Atreus[/pb_glossary]' sons [ [pb_glossary id="2021"]Menelaus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary] ] did not begrudge them the honour of properly lamented graves and let their friends, the Trojan warriors, recover their corpses along with the bodies of their own from that grim harvest-field. No wrath falls upon the dead; once their life leaves their body, they are no longer foes but objects of pity. [1103] Far off across the plain, while smoke rose from the pyres upon where the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] laid the many heroes overthrown and slain by Trojan swords, unending lamentations were wailed over the perished. But above the rest they mourned brave Podarces, who in fight was no less mighty than his heroic brother, Protesilaus, he who fell long ago at the hand of [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary]. Podarces, struck down by [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary]'s spear, had cast over all Argive hearts the mantle of grief [. . .] And in several distant pits they tossed the cowardly [pb_glossary id="2717"]Thersites[/pb_glossary]' wretched corpse. Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Heroine/AmazonPenthesileia.html

The Historical Amazons

The mythological Amazons were probably based on actual nomadic tribes in the ancient area of Scythia, or what is now modern-day Turkey. The Scythians had an egalitarian social organization, with people of various genders undertaking the work of the tribe, wearing similar clothing, and fighting together in battle. The Scythians were not a female-dominated society, as the Greeks believed of the Amazons. Nonetheless they represented a culture that the Greeks considered opposite to their own. Graves for warrior women have been discovered in the area around the Black Sea, suggesting a likely origin for Ancient Greek myths about the Amazons.[footnote]For more on the historical Amazons, see the work of Adrienne Mayor, in particular her 2016 book "The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World." [/footnote]

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Book 2 (trans. C. H. Oldfather, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek geography, 1st century BCE

Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian writing in the 1st century BCE, describes the origins of the Scythians and the Amazons as a blend of myth and history.
[43.1] But now, in turn, we shall discuss the Scythians who inhabit the country bordering upon India.[footnote]The Ancient Greeks used "India" to refer generally to the people south-east of the Himalayas, or the peoples of the Indus River Valley.[/footnote] This people originally possessed little territory, but later, as they gradually increased in power, they seized much territory by reason of their deeds of might and their bravery and advanced their nation to great leadership and renown. [43.2] At first, then, they dwelt on the Araxes river, altogether few in number and despised because of their lack of renown; but since one of their early kings was warlike and of unusual skill as a general they acquired territory, in the mountains as far as the Caucasus, and in the steppes along the ocean and Lake Maeotis and the rest of that country as far as the Tanaïs river.
[43.3] At a later time, as the Scythians recount the myth, there was born among them a maiden sprung from the earth; the upper parts of her body as far as her waist were those of a woman, but the lower parts were those of a snake. With her [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] lay begat a son whose name was Scythes. This son became more famous than any who had preceded him and called the folk Scythians after his own name. Now among the descendants of this king there were two brothers who were distinguished for their valour, the one named Palus and the other Napes.

[43.4] And since these two performed renowned deeds and divided the kingship between them, some of the people were called Pali after one of them and some Napae after the other. But some time later the descendants of these kings, because of their unusual valour and skill as generals, subdued much of the territory beyond the Tanaïs river as far as Thrace, and advancing with their armies to the other side they extended their power as far as the Nile in Egypt.

[43.5] And after enslaving many great peoples which lay between the Thracians and the Egyptians they advanced the empire of the Scythians on the one side as far as the ocean to the east, and on the other side to the Caspian Sea and Lake Maeotis; for this people increased to great strength and had notable kings, one of whom gave his name to the Sacae, another to the Massagetae, another to the Arimaspi, and several other tribes received their names in like manner.

[43.6] It was by these kings that many of the conquered peoples were removed to other homes, and two of these became very great colonies: the one was composed of Assyrians and was removed to the land between Paphlagonia and [pb_glossary id="2404"]Pontus[/pb_glossary], and the other was drawn from Media and planted along the Tanaïs, its people receiving the name Sauromatae.

[43.7] Many years later this people became powerful and ravaged a large part of Scythia, and destroying utterly all whom they subdued they turned most of the land into a desert.

[44.1] After these events there came in Scythia a period of revolutions, in which the sovereigns were women endowed with exceptional valour. For among these peoples the women train for war just as do the men and in acts of manly valour are in no wise inferior to the men. Consequently distinguished women have been the authors of many great deeds, not in Scythia alone, but also in the territory bordering upon it.

[44.2] For instance, when Cyrus the king of the Persians, the mightiest ruler of his day, made a campaign with a vast army into Scythia, the queen of the Scythians not only cut the army of the Persians to pieces but she even took Cyrus prisoner and crucified him; and the nation of the Amazons, after it was once organized, was so distinguished for its manly prowess that it not only overran much of the neighbouring territory but even subdued a large part of Europe and Asia.

[44.3] But for our part, since we have mentioned the Amazons, we feel that it is not foreign to our purpose to discuss them, even though what we shall say will be so marvellous that it will resemble a tale from mythology.

[45.1] Now in the country along the Thermodon river, as the account goes, the sovereignty was in the hands of a people among whom the women held the supreme power, and its women performed the services of war just as did the men. Of these women one, who possessed the royal authority, was remarkable for her prowess in war and her bodily strength, and gathering together an army of women she drilled it in the use of arms and subdued in war some of the neighbouring peoples.

[45.2] And since her valour and fame increased, she made war upon people after people of neighbouring lands, and as the tide of her fortune continued favourable, she was so filled with pride that she gave herself the appellation of Daughter of Ares; but to the men she assigned the spinning of wool and such other domestic duties as belong to women. Laws were also established by her, by virtue of which she led forth the women to the contests of war, but upon the men she fastened humiliation and slavery.

[45.3] And as for their children, they mutilated both the legs and the arms of the males, incapacitating them in this way for the demands of war, and in the case of the females they seared the right breast that it might not project when their bodies matured and be in the way; and it is for this reason that the nation of the Amazons received the name it bears.[footnote]Amazon' can be translated as "breastless," but this is likely only a folk etymology, and not the true historical origin of the word. Nonetheless, some Greeks took this folk etymology to mean that the Amazons removed their right breast in order to more effectively draw back a bow.[/footnote]

[45.4] In general, this queen was remarkable for her intelligence and ability as a general, and she founded a great city named Themiscyra at the mouth of the Thermodon river and built there a famous palace; furthermore, in her campaigns she devoted much attention to military discipline and at the outset subdued all her neighbours as far as the Tanaïs river.

[45.5] And this queen, they say, accomplished the deeds which have been mentioned, and fighting brilliantly in a certain battle she ended her life heroically.

[46.1] The daughter of this queen, the account continues, on succeeding to the throne matched the excellence of her mother, and even surpassed her in some particular deeds. For instance, she exercised in the chase the maidens from their earliest girlhood and drilled them daily in the arts of war, and she also established magnificent festivals both to [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] and to the [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] who is called Tauropolus.[footnote]This epithet for Artemis may be a reference to her worship at Tauris, or to an association with bulls (taurus).[/footnote]

[46.2] Then she campaigned against the territory lying beyond the Tanaïs and subdued all the peoples one after another as far as Thrace; and returning to her native land with much booty she built magnificent shrines to the deities mentioned above, and by reason of her kindly rule over her subjects received from them the greatest approbation. She also campaigned on the other side and subdued a large part of Asia and extended her power as far as Syria.

[46.3] After the death of this queen, as their account continues, women of her family, succeeding to the queenship from time to time, ruled with distinction and advanced the nation of the Amazons in both power and fame. And many generations after these events, when the excellence of these women had been noised abroad through the whole inhabited world, they say that [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary], the son of [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], was assigned by [pb_glossary id="1240"]Eurystheus[/pb_glossary] the Labour of securing the girdle of [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyta[/pb_glossary] the Amazon.

[46.4] Consequently he embarked on this campaign, and coming off victorious in a great battle he not only cut to pieces the army of the Amazons but also, after taking captive [pb_glossary id="1426"]Hippolyta[/pb_glossary] together with her girdle, completely crushed this nation. Consequently the neighbouring barbarians, despising the weakness of this people and remembering against them their past injuries, waged continuous wars against the nation to such a degree that they left in existence not even the name of the race of the Amazons.

[46.5] For a few years after the campaign of [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary] against them, they say, during the time of the Trojan War, [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary], the queen of the surviving Amazons, who was a daughter of [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary] and had slain one of her kindred, fled from her native land because of the sacrilege. And fighting as an ally of the Trojans after the death of [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary] she slew many of the Greeks, and after gaining distinction in the struggle she ended her life heroically at the hands of [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary].

[46.6] Now they say that [pb_glossary id="2615"]Penthesileia[/pb_glossary] was the last of the Amazons to win distinction for bravery and that for the future the race diminished more and more and then lost all its strength; consequently in later times, whenever any writers recount their prowess, men consider the ancient stories about the Amazons to be fictitious tales.
Taken from: https://www.loebclassics.com/view/diodorus_siculus-library_history/1933/pb_LCL303.1.xml

Amazonomachy
The term Amazonomachy refers to any battle fought between the Greeks and the Amazons. The Amazonomachy sometimes refers to a specific battle fought between Theseus and the Amazons in Athens after Theseus helped Heracles steal the belt (or girdle) of Hippolyta. This particular battle was portrayed extensively in the artwork of Ancient Greece and Rome, but does not show up much in the literary sources.

Art and Symbolism
[caption id="attachment_2118" align="alignleft" width="313"] An Amazon, red-figure amphora, ca. 430 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2119" align="alignright" width="327"] An Amazon, red-figure pelike, ca. 375 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Madrid)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2121" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Amazonomachy, red-figure krater, ca. 440 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Madrid)[/caption]
The Amazons appeared in Ancient Greek art at the end of the sixth century BCE and became immensely popular. After 490 BCE, the Greek victory over the Persian Empire inspired a flurry of new art representing Greeks triumphing over foreign enemies, both real and mythical - including the Amazons.
[caption id="attachment_2133" align="alignleft" width="275"] An Amazon, white-ground alabastron, ca. 490 BCE (Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, Basel)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2247" align="alignright" width="370"] Amazonomachy, red-figure krater, ca. 500 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2113" align="alignnone" width="5971"] Amazons, terracotta votive shield, 7th century BCE (Archaeological Museum, Nafplion)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2147" align="alignnone" width="4000"] Amazonomachy, black-figure kylix, ca. 540 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2144" align="alignleft" width="315"] Amazonomachy, one side of a red-figure krater, ca. 460 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2146" align="alignright" width="323"] Amazonomachy, second side of a red-figure krater, ca. 460 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2142" align="alignleft" width="318"] Amazonomachy, third side of a red-figure krater, ca. 460 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2145" align="alignright" width="322"] Amazonomachy, fourth side of a red-figure krater, ca. 460 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, London)[/caption]
These scenes were so popular that they were included twice in the decoration of the Parthenon in Athens: on the metopes of the western side of the temple, and on the shield of the great statue of Athena herself. The western metopes of the Parthenon are quite damaged and it is hard to make out what is going on, but archaeologists and art historians agree that they seem to depict various stages in an Amazonomachy fought in Attica between the Amazons and Theseus (along with other historical Athenian figures.)[footnote]For a detailed description of the scenes on the western metopes of the Parthenon see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metopes_of_the_Parthenon[/footnote]
[caption id="attachment_5328" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Ancient Friezes at the northwestern corner of Parthenon. Metopes I to IV are visible, showing possible scenes of an Amazonomachy.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2128" align="alignnone" width="2500"] Pericles of Athens and the sculptor Pheidias as warriors in the Amazonomachy, 3rd-century Roman marble copy of the shield from the Athena Parthenos from the 5th century BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2120" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Amazonomachy, Halicarnassus Mausoleum frieze, ca. 350 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2126" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Amazonomachy, sarcophagus relief (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2154" align="alignnone" width="3794"] Amazonomachy, Greek painted marble sarcophagus, ca. 350 BCE (Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Firenze)[/caption]
The women belonging to this tribe were usually portrayed as young and athletic, armed with spears or axes, bows, and crescent-shaped shields (peltai), fighting on horseback or on foot.
[caption id="attachment_2141" align="alignleft" width="320"] Amazonomachy, one side of a red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2143" align="alignright" width="319"] Amazonomachy, other side of a red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2150" align="alignleft" width="314"] Amazonomachy, one side of a red-figure lekythos, ca. 420 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2149" align="alignright" width="320"] Amazonomachy, the other side of a red-figure lekythos, ca. 420 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]
They could be wearing either Greek-style garments and armour or a much more 'foreign' attire consisting of Phrygian cap, long-sleeved shirt, leggings, and sometimes boots.
[caption id="attachment_2135" align="alignleft" width="385"] An Amazon, red-figure amphora, ca. 420 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2137" align="alignright" width="267"] Amazonomachy, red-figure pelike, ca. 430 BCE (Museo Archaeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi, Syracuse)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2152" align="alignnone" width="4000"] Amazons, red-figure krater, ca. 330 BCE (Musée Royal, Mariemont)[/caption]
Apart from the fighting scenes mentioned above, mythical episodes involving famous heroes and Amazons were popular in Greek art. There are three specific encounters between heroes and Amazons that are frequently represented in art: Achilles slaying their queen Penthesileia during the Trojan War, Heracles stealing Hippolyta's girdle for his ninth labour, and Theseus kidnapping queen Hippolyta and then fighting her companions (see chapter 22 for images of Theseus and Hippolyta). These encounters are described in the primary source texts above.
[caption id="attachment_2129" align="alignleft" width="287"] Achilles and Penthesileia, black-figure amphora, ca. 535 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2130" align="alignright" width="350"] Achilles and Penthesileia, black-figure amphora, ca. 530 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2155" align="alignnone" width="5069"] Achilles and Penthesileia, red-figure kylix, ca. 450 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2123" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Achilles and Penthesileia, red-figure krater, 5th century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2139" align="alignleft" width="314"] Heracles and Amazons, black-figure amphora, ca. 530 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2140" align="alignright" width="329"] Heracles and Amazons, black-figure amphora, ca. 520 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2125" align="alignleft" width="404"] Heracles and Amazons, black-figure hydria, ca. 530 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2117" align="alignright" width="247"] Heracles and Amazons, black-figure amphora, ca. 520 BCE (Martin von Wagner Museum, Würzburg)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2124" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Heracles and Amazons, red-figure krater fragment, ca. 330 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption]
Historical sources report that during the second half of the 5th century BCE a competition was held for the creation of statues of wounded Amazons to dedicate to the newly built Artemision of Ephesus. Although the originals are all lost, their descriptions have helped scholars to identify later copies, as well as at least three sculptural 'types' inspired to the competition entries made by Phidias, Polycleitus, and Cresilas.
[caption id="attachment_2116" align="alignleft" width="264"] Wounded Amazon (Polyclitus Type), ca. 1st century CE Roman marble copy of Greek original from the 5th century BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2452" align="alignright" width="177"] Wounded Amazon (Mattei Types), marble statue, ca. 2nd century CE[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2112" align="alignnone" width="209"] Wounded Amazon (Sosicles Type), Greek statue, 5th century BCE (Capitoline Museum, Rome)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2186" align="alignnone" width="1025"] Wounded Amazon, relief, 2nd century CE (Archaeological Museum, Piraeus)[/caption]
The theme of the slain Amazons was also employed by the Pergamene king Attalos I in his triumphal monuments. To commemorate his victory over the Galatians, a tribe of Gauls, he commissioned a series of smaller-than-life statues, poignantly placed on the Acropolis of Athens, representing the mythical victories of the Greeks against the Giants, the Amazons, the Persians, and the Galatians themselves.
[caption id="attachment_2448" align="alignnone" width="3272"] Wounded figure, marble statues, 2nd century CE (Farnese Collection, Naples)[/caption]

Media Attributions and Footnotes

The Underworld

pr0560 — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 02:42:11 +0000
[caption id="attachment_4170" align="aligncenter" width="855"] Persephone and Hades, red-figure kylix, ca. 430 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]

Hades

Sections & Primary Sources

God of the Underworld

Diodorus, Bibliotheca Historica, 5.68-69

God of the Underworld

Hades was a son of Cronus and Rhea and brother to Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter. After the Titanomachy and the Gigantomachy, when Zeus became the ruler on Mount Olympus, Hades was allotted control over the underworld, which came to bear his name. So Hades refers both the god who is ruler of the underworld and to the underworld itself. As such, he is not one of the twelve Olympian gods, but along with his wife, Persephone, is known as a chthonic god, or a god of the earth.

In addition, Hades had many names and epithets that related to his role. He was called Aidoneus, which means "the unseen one" and Plouton, which means something like, "the wealthy one", since Hades was lord of all the riches and bounties of the earth (the soil, precious metals and stones). His epithets included "The Ruler of Many" or "The Lord of Many Hosts" because he ruled over every person who had ever lived and died. He was also called "The One Who Carries Away All" and "Zeus of The Underworld." The Romans called him Pluto, taken from Pluton. They also called him Dis or Dis Pater and Orcus. The Romans would also refer to the underworld itself as Dis.

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Book 5 (trans. C. H. Oldfather, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek geography, 1st century BCE

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault]
[68] To [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary], we are told, were born [pb_glossary id="181"]Hestia[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. Of these, they say, [pb_glossary id="181"]Hestia[/pb_glossary] discovered how to build houses, and because of this benefaction of hers practically all men have established her shrine in every home, giving her honours and sacrifices. And [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary], since the grain still grew wild together with the other plants and was still unknown to men, was the first to gather it in, to devise how to prepare and preserve it, and to instruct mankind how to sow it. Now she had discovered the grain before she gave birth to her daughter [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary], but after the birth of her daughter and the rape of her by [pb_glossary id="211"]Pluton[/pb_glossary], she burned all the fruit of the grain, both because of her anger at [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and because of her grief over her daughter. After she had found [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary], however, she became reconciled with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and gave [pb_glossary id="777"]Triptolemus[/pb_glossary] the grain to sow, instructing him both to share the gift with men everywhere and to teach them everything concerned with the labour of sowing. And some men say that it was she also who introduced laws, by obedience to which men have become accustomed to deal justly with one another, and that mankind has called this goddess Thesmophoros after the laws which she gave them.[footnote] From the Greek thesmós ("law") and phorós (verb "to bear/carry") [/footnote] And since [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary] has been responsible for the greatest blessings to mankind, she has been accorded the most notable honours and sacrifices, and magnificent feasts and festivals as well, not only by the Greeks, but also by almost all barbarians who have partaken of this kind of food. [69] There is dispute about the discovery of the fruit of the grain on the part of many peoples, who claim that they were the first among whom the goddess was seen and to whom she made known both the nature and use of the grain. The Egyptians, for example, say that [pb _glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary]and Isis are the same, and that she was first to bring the seed to Egypt, since the river Nile waters the fields at the proper time and that land enjoys the most temperate seasons. Also the Athenians, though they assert that the discovery of this fruit took place in their country, are nevertheless witnesses to its having been brought to Attica from some other region; for the place which originally received this gift they call [pb_glossary id="779"]Eleusis[/pb_glossary], from the fact that the seed of the grain came from others and was conveyed to them. But the inhabitants of Sicily, dwelling as they do on an island which is sacred to [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="790"]Kore[/pb_glossary], say that it is reasonable to believe that the gift of which we are speaking was made to them first, since the land they cultivate is the one the goddess holds most dear; for it would be strange indeed, they maintain, for the goddess to take for her own, so to speak, a land which is the most fertile known and yet to give it, the last of all, a share in her benefaction, as though it were nothing to her, especially since she has her dwelling there, all men agreeing that the Rape of [pb_glossary id="790"]Kore[/pb_glossary] took place on this island. Moreover, this land is the best adapted for these fruits, even as the poet also says: "But all these things grow there for them unsown And even untilled, both wheat and barley."[footnote]"the poet" refers to Homer (Odyssey 9:109)[/footnote] This, then, is what the myths have to say about [pb_glossary id="351"]Demeter[/pb_glossary]. As for the rest of the gods who were born to [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="170"]Rhea[/pb_glossary], the Cretans say that [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] was the first to concern himself with sea-faring and to fit out fleets, [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary] having given him the lordship in such matters; and this is why the tradition has been passed along to succeeding generations that he controls whatever is done on the sea, and why mariners honour him by means of sacrifices. Men further bestow upon [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] the distinction of having been the first to tame horses and to introduce the knowledge of horsemanship (hippikê), because of which he is called "Hippius." And of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] it is said that he laid down the rules which are concerned with burials and funerals and the honours which are paid to the dead, no concern having been given to the dead before this time; and this is why tradition tells us that [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] is lord of the dead, since there were assigned to him in ancient times the first offices in such matters and the concern for them. Taken from: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html

Location and Topography

The topography of the underworld, called Hades or Erebos (meaning "the place of darkness") was organized primarily around rivers: the Styx, the Acheron, the Cocytus, the Phlegethon, and the Lethe. Those who died first had to cross the river Styx in order to enter Hades. To do so, they had to pay the ferryman, Charon, an obol (a small coin), which would have been placed in the mouth of the deceased by their relatives or friends. The most powerful oaths, for gods and humans, were sworn on the River Styx. The River Lethe held the water of forgetfulness and, according to some accounts, the souls of the dead would drink from it to forget their previous life on earth.

Hades also contained a deeper level, called Tartarus ("the pit"), a place of punishment, where all the worst people and creatures were held. Tartarus was where Zeus locked up the Titans and the Giants after the Titanomachy and Gigantomachy. Another part of the underworld held the Elysian fields (or Elysium) and the Island(s) of the Blessed, where all the best, most heroic mortals went after death.

We do not get a clear map of the underworld from ancient literary or visual sources and different writers and artists depicted the underworld in slightly different ways. Generally it was understood to exist in a separate metaphysical realm under the earth. However, there were certain places on earth, usually situated near lakes or caves in sites with volcanic activity, that were considered to be entrances to the realm of the dead (Lake Avernum in Campania, Lake Pergusa in Sicily, the Ploutonion of Hierapolis, the temple of Poseidon at Taenarum, and the Necromantion of Ephyra).

Inhabitants

Sections & Primary Sources

Rulers Gatekeepers Judges Criminals The Erinyes

Rulers
Hades and Persephone (called Proserpina by the Romans) were the king and queen of Hades. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus and the niece of Hades. He abducted her against her will and forced her to become the queen of the underworld (see chapter 10). [caption id="attachment_4412" align="alignnone" width="1224"] Persephone and Hades in the Underworld, tracing from pottery vessel[/caption]
Gatekeepers
[caption id="attachment_4407" align="alignleft" width="304"] Charon, white-ground lekythos, 5th century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_4408" align="alignright" width="341"] Charon, with a woman and her shade, white-ground lekythos, ca. 450 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[/caption]
There were two gatekeepers of the underworld. The first was Charon, the old ferryman, who shuttled dead souls across the River Styx (provided they had received a proper burial and had the obol to pay him). The second was the three-headed dog Cerberus, one of the notorious monsters of the ancient world.
[caption id="attachment_4409" align="alignleft" width="270"] Charon and a shade, white-ground lekythos, ca. 500 BCE (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_4406" align="alignright" width="380"] Charon (with Hermes), white-ground lekythos, ca. 440 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[/caption]

Judges

The three judges of the underworld, Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus, meted out punishments and rewards to the dead. They were all legendary kings who gained their status as judges of the dead after their own deaths. Aeacus was a king of Aegina and Rhadamanthus and Minos were both kings of Crete.

Criminals
There were several infamous criminals in the underworld, who all faced their own particular eternal punishments. We give a few of them here, though there are more.
Tityus

Tityus attempted to rape the goddess Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis (recounted in chapter 13). The twins killed him and his punishment was to have his liver devoured by a vulture for eternity.

Tantalus

Tantalus fed his son Pelops to the gods in a stew. For the crimes of kin slaying and cannibalism he was punished with eternal hunger and thirst. He stood in the underworld in a shallow pool, with loaded fruit branches hanging about his head. Whenever he bent his head down to drink the water and quench his thirst, the water would recede from his grasp and whenever he would reach up to take the fruit, the branches would retract away from his hands.

Sisyphus

Sisyphus was the founder and king of Ephyra (ancient Corinth). He cheated death twice, so as his punishment he had to push a rock up a hill, which would never quite reach the top before rolling down again endlessly.

The Erinyes

The Erinyes, called the Furies by the Romans, were goddess of retribution and punishment. They primarily went after people who broke their oaths and those who murdered their own family members. They were born from the blood of the castrated genitals of Uranus that landed on the earth (whereas the goddess Aphrodite was born from the severed genitals themselves when they landed in the sea). They were three goddesses (sometimes depicted as more) with snakes for hair and snakes twined around their bodies. The Erinyes guarded the entrance to Tartarus and meted out punishments to those who were confined within the pit. They could also journey up to the surface of the earth to pursue and punish guilty mortals.

Descent to the Underworld

Sections & Primary Sources

Heracles Theseus Orpheus

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10.1-85

Odysseus

Homer, Odyssey, 11.1-640

Aeneas

Virgil, Aeneid, Book 6

A katabasis, literally a "going down" to the underworld, is an important part of the mythology of certain Greek and Roman heroes. What makes these descents different from those of other mortals is that the heroes make these journeys while alive and they are permitted to return to the earth and the world of the living.

Heracles

For his twelfth labour, Heracles has to go to Hades to fetch the three headed dog Cerberus. He does so successfully, freeing his friend Theseus at the same time, who had gotten stuck down there on his own katabasis. After presenting Cerberus to his cousin Eurystheus, Heracles returns the dog to Hades.

For further discussion of Heracles' Labours, see chapter 17.
[caption id="attachment_4405" align="alignnone" width="1822"] Heracles leading Cerberus (with Hermes and Persephone), black-figure amphora, ca. 490 BCE (British Museum, London)[/caption]
Theseus

Theseus takes a journey down to the underworld along with his buddy Pirithous to try to steal Persephone so that she can be Pirithous' wife. The friends are caught by Hades and Persephone and are forcibly stuck by their seats to a stone bench. Theseus, who carried less blame since he was not trying to get Persephone for himself, is eventually freed by Heracles, but Pirithous remains stuck in the underworld for eternity. See chapter 22 on Theseus.

Orpheus

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 10.1-85 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by P. Rogak)

Latin epic poem, 1st Century CE

The tragic love story of Orpheus and Eurydice opens the tenth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, his epic poem about mythical transformations that starts with the origins of the cosmos and ends with the deification of Julius Caesar. Orpheus was a mythic Greek hero, known for his ability to play the lyre (a guitar-like stringed instrument) better than anyone else. He could tame wild beasts and even moved Persephone, queen of the dead, with his music. In this passage, he must make a [pb_glossary id="5335"]katabasis[/pb_glossary] to the underworld to try to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, who has died on their wedding day from the bite of a poisonous snake.
[1-85] [pb_glossary id="335"]Hymen[/pb_glossary], called by the voice of [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary], departed, and dressed in his saffron robes, made his way through the vast skies to the Ciconian coast: but in vain. He was present at [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary]’ marriage, true, but he did not speak the usual words, display a joyful expression, or bring good luck. The torch, too, that he held sputtered continually with tear-provoking fumes and no amount of shaking contrived to light it properly.[footnote]One of the symbols of Hymen was a lit torch, and torches were thus considered an important symbol for marriage.[/footnote] The result was worse than any omens. While the newly wedded bride, [pb_glossary id="4159"]Eurydice[/pb_glossary], was walking through the grass with a crowd of [pb_glossary id="1081"]naiads[/pb_glossary] as her companions, she was killed by a bite on her ankle from a snake sheltering there. When Thracian [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary], the poet of Rhodope, had mourned for her greatly in the upper world he also dared to go down to [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary], through the gate of Taenarus, to see if he might not move the dead. Through the weightless throng and the ghosts that had received proper burial, he came to [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary] and the lord of the shadows, he who rules the joyless kingdom. Then striking the lyre-strings to accompany his words, he sang: ‘O gods of this world, placed below the earth, to which all who are created mortal descend! If you allow me, and it is lawful, to set aside the fictions of idle tongues and speak the truth, I have not come here to see dark [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary], nor to bind [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1155"]Medusa[/pb_glossary]’s child, with his three necks, and snaky hair. My wife is the cause of my journey. A viper she trod on diffused its venom into her body and robbed her of her best years. I longed to be able to accept it and I do not say I have not tried: Love won. 'He is a god well known in the world above, though I do not know if that is so here; though I imagine him to be here, as well, and if the story of that abduction in ancient times is not a lie,[footnote]Refers to the myth of Persephone's abduction by Hades. See chapter 10.[/footnote] you also were wedded by [pb_glossary id="158"]Amor[/pb_glossary]. I beg you, by these fearful places, by this immense abyss, and the silence of your vast realms, reverse [pb_glossary id="4159"]Eurydice[/pb_glossary]’s swift death. All things are destined to be yours, and though we delay a while, sooner or later, we hasten home. Here we are all bound, this is our final abode, and you hold the longest reign over the human race. [pb_glossary id="4159"]Eurydice[/pb_glossary], too, will be yours to command, when she has lived out her fair span of years to old age. I ask this benefit as a gift; but, if the fates refuse my wife this kindness, I am determined not to return: you can delight in both our deaths.’ The bloodless spirits wept as he spoke, accompanying his words with the music. [pb_glossary id="633"]Tantalus[/pb_glossary] did not reach for the ever-retreating water; [pb_glossary id="1482"]Ixion[/pb_glossary]’s wheel was stilled; the vultures did not pluck at [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary]’ liver; the Belides, the daughters of [pb_glossary id="1190"]Danaus[/pb_glossary], left their water jars; and you, [pb_glossary id="1213"]Sisyphus[/pb_glossary], perched there on your rock. Then they say, for the first time, the faces of the [pb_glossary id="157"]Furies[/pb_glossary] were wet with tears, won over by his song. The king of the deep and his royal bride could not bear to refuse his prayer and called for [pb_glossary id="4159"]Eurydice[/pb_glossary]. She was among the recent ghosts and walked falteringly because of her wound. The poet of Rhodope received her and, at the same time, accepted this condition: that he must not turn his eyes behind him, until he emerged from the vale of [pb_glossary id="4163"]Avernus[/pb_glossary], or the gift would be null and void. They took the upward path, through the still silence, steep and dark, shadowy with dense fog, drawing near to the threshold of the upper world. Afraid she was no longer there, and eager to see her, the lover turned his eyes. In an instant, she dropped back and he, unhappy man, stretching out his arms to hold her and be held, clutched at nothing but the receding air. Dying a second time, now, there was no complaint to her husband (what, then, could she complain of, except that she had been loved?). She spoke a last ‘farewell’ that, now, scarcely reached his ears and turned again towards that same place. Stunned by the double loss of his wife, [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary] was like that coward who saw [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary], the three-headed dog, chained by the central neck and whose fear vanished with his nature, as stone transformed his body. Or like Olenos, and you, his Lethaea, too proud of your beauty. He [Olenos] wished to be charged with your crime, and seem guilty himself. Once wedded hearts, you are now rocks set on moist [pb_glossary id="187"]Mount Ida[/pb_glossary].[footnote]In the myth of Lethaea and Olenos, Lethaea claimed to be more beautiful than the goddesses and was punished by being turned to stone. Olenos chose to be punished alongside her. This myth does not appear anywhere other than in this passage of the Metamorphoses.[/footnote] [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary] wished and prayed, in vain, to cross the [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary] again, but the ferryman fended him off. Still, for seven days, he sat there by the shore, neglecting himself and not taking nourishment. Sorrow, troubled thought, and tears were his food. He took himself to lofty Mount Rhodope, and Haemus, swept by the winds, complaining that the gods of [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary] were cruel. Three times the sun had ended the year in watery Pisces and [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary] had abstained from the love of women, either because things ended badly for him or because he had sworn to do so. Yet, many felt a desire to be joined with the poet and many grieved at rejection. Indeed, he was the first of the Thracian people to transfer his love to young boys and enjoy their brief springtime and early flowering this side of manhood.[footnote]The practise of pederasty, where an adult (man) had a romantic and sexual relationship with a (boy) child or teenager, was common in ancient Greece and Rome. For further discussion of this practice, see the myth of Ganymede in chapter 5.[/footnote] Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph10.php
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved

Odysseus
[caption id="attachment_4413" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Reconstruction of the Nekyia of Polygnotus depicting Odysseus' visit to the Underworld, by Carl Robert and Hermann Schenck[/caption]

Homer, Odyssey, Book 11 (trans. A. S. Kline, adapted by L. Zhang and P. Rogak)

Greek epic poem, 8th century BCE

In Book 11 of the Odyssey, Odysseys travels down to the underworld to speak to the profit Tiresias. He is given directions and instructions for how to get down there by the divine witch, Circe.

[content warning for the following source: sexual assault (225-332), suicide (225-332), graphic description of death (385-464)]
[1-50] ‘On reaching the shore we dragged the vessel down to the glittering sea and set up mast and sail in our black ship. Then we hauled the sheep aboard and embarked ourselves, weeping, shedding huge tears. Still, [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary] of the lovely tresses, dread goddess with a human voice, sent us a good companion to help us, a fresh wind from astern of our dark-prowed ship to fill the sail. And when we had set the tackle in order fore and aft we sat down and let the wind and the helmsman keep her course. All day long with straining sail she glided over the sea until the sun set and all the waves grew dark. So she [the ship] came to the deep flowing [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] that surrounds the earth, and the city and country of the Cimmerians, wrapped in cloud and mist. The bright sun never shines down on them with his rays neither by climbing the starry heavens nor turning back again towards earth, but instead dreadful [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary] looms over a wretched people. There we beached our ship, and landed the sheep, and made our way along the [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary] stream, until we came to the place [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary] described. Perimedes and [pb_glossary id="2050"]Eurylochus[/pb_glossary] restrained the sacrificial victims while I drew my sharp sword from its sheath and with it dug a pit two foot square, then poured a libation all around to the dead, first of milk and honey, then of sweet wine, thirdly of water sprinkled with white barley meal. Then I prayed devoutly to the powerless ghosts of the departed, swearing that when I reached Ithaca I would sacrifice a barren heifer in my palace, the best of the herd, and would heap the altar with rich spoils and offer a ram, apart, to [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary], the finest jet-black ram in the flock. When with prayers and vows I had invoked the hosts of the dead, I led the sheep to the pit and cut their throats so the dark blood flowed. Then the ghosts of the dead swarmed out of [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary] – brides, and young men yet unwed, old men worn out with toil, girls once vibrant and still new to grief, and ranks of warriors slain in battle, showing their wounds from bronze-tipped spears, their armour stained with blood. Round the pit from every side the crowd thronged, with strange cries, and I turned pale with fear. Then I called to my comrades and told them to flay and burn the sheep killed by the pitiless bronze with prayers to the divinities, to mighty [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] and dread [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary]. I myself, drawing my sharp sword from its sheath, sat there preventing the powerless ghosts from drawing near to the blood until I could question [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary].’ [51-89] ‘The first ghost to appear was that of my comrade [pb_glossary id="2045"]Elpenor[/pb_glossary]. He had not yet been buried beneath the broad-tracked earth, for we left his corpse behind in [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary]’s hall, unburied and unwept, while another more urgent task drove us on. I wept now when I saw him and pitied him and I spoke to him with winged words, “[pb_glossary id="2045"]Elpenor[/pb_glossary], how did you come here to the gloomy dark? You are here sooner on foot than I in my black ship.” At this he groaned and answered me, saying, “[pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary], man of many resources, scion of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1496"]Laertes[/pb_glossary], some god’s hostile decree was my undoing and too much wine. I lay down to sleep in [pb_glossary id="1958"]Circe[/pb_glossary]’s house and forgetting the way down by the long ladder fell headlong from the roof. My neck was shattered where it joins the spine and my ghost descended to the House of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. I know as you go from here, from [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]’ House, your good ship will touch again at Aeaea’s Isle and I beg you, by those, our absent ones we left behind, by your wife [ [pb_glossary id="2023"]Penelope[/pb_glossary] ], by your father [ [pb_glossary id="1496"]Laertes[/pb_glossary] ] who cared for you as a child, by your only son [pb_glossary id="2024"]Telemachus[/pb_glossary] forsaken in your halls, I beg you, my lord, remember me. When you sail from there do not leave me behind unwept, unburied and turn away so that I do not become a source of divine anger against you. Burn me with whatever armour I own and heap up a mound for me on the grey sea’s shore in memory of a man of no fortune, so that I may be known by those yet to be. Do this for me and on my mound raise the oar I rowed with when I was alive and among my friends.” He spoke, and I replied, “Man of no fortune, all this I will remember to do.” So we sat exchanging joyless words, I on one side of the trench, holding my sword above the blood, my friend’s ghost on the other, pouring out his speech. Then there appeared the soul of my dead mother, [pb_glossary id="2055"]Anticleia[/pb_glossary], daughter of noble [pb_glossary id="1405"]Autolycus[/pb_glossary]: she who was still alive when I left to sail for sacred [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]. I wept at the sight of her, and my heart was filled with pity, yet I could not let her approach the blood, despite my grief, until I had questioned [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary]. [90-149] Then the ghost of Theban [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary] appeared, carrying his golden staff, and he recognized me, and spoke,“[pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary], man of many resources, scion of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1496"]Laertes[/pb_glossary], how now, luckless man? Why have you left the sunlight to view the dead in this joyless place? Move back from the trench and turn aside your blade so I may drink the blood and prophecy truth to you.” At this, I drew back and sheathed my silver-embossed sword. When he had drunk the black blood, the infallible seer spoke and said, “Noble [pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary], you ask about your sweet homecoming, but the god [ [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] ] will make it a bitter journey. I think you will not escape the [pb_glossary id="2039"]Earth-Shaker[/pb_glossary], who is angered at heart against you, angered because you blinded his son. Even so, though you will suffer, you and your friends may yet reach home when you have sailed your good ship to the island of Thrinacia and escaped the dark blue sea and found there the cattle and the fat flocks of [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary], he who sees and hears everything, if only you can control your own and your comrades’ greed. If you keep your hands off them and think only of your homeward course, you may yet reach Ithaca, though you will suffer. But if you lay hands on them, then I foresee shipwreck for you and your friends, and even if you yourself escape, you will come unexpectedly to your home in sore distress, losing all comrades, in another’s vessel, to find great trouble in your house, insolent men who destroy your goods, who court your wife and offer gifts of courtship. Yet, I speak truth, when you arrive there you will take revenge on them for their outrages. When, though, you have killed the [pb_glossary id="2056"]Suitors[/pb_glossary] in your palace, by cunning or openly, with your sharp sword, then pick up a shapely oar and travel on until you come to a race that knows nothing of the sea, that eat no salt with their food, and have never heard of crimson-painted ships, or the well-shaped oars that serve as wings. And let this be your sign, you cannot miss it: that meeting another traveler he will say you carry a winnowing-fan on your broad shoulder. There you must plant your shapely oar in the ground, and make a rich sacrifice to Lord [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]: a ram, a bull, and a breeding-boar. Then leave for home and make sacred offerings there to the deathless gods who hold the wide heavens, to all of them and in their due order. And death will come to you far from the sea, the gentlest of deaths, taking you when you are bowed with comfortable old age and your people prosperous about you. This that I speak to you is the truth.” He finished and I replied, saying, “[pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary], no doubt the gods themselves have spun this fate for me. Come tell me the truth of this now. Here I see my dead mother’s ghost; she sits beside the blood silently and cannot look at her own son’s face or speak with him. Tell me, my lord, how she knows that it is I.” Swiftly he answered my words, “It is a simple thing to explain to you. Whoever of the dead departed you allow to approach the blood will speak to you indeed; but whoever you deny will draw back.”’ [150-224] With this, the ghost of Lord [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary], its prophecy complete, drew back to the House of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. But I remained, undaunted, until my mother approached and drank the black blood. Then she knew me and in sorrow spoke to me with winged words, “My son, how do you come, living, to the gloomy dark? It is difficult for those alive to find these realms, since there are great rivers and dreadful waters between us, not least [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], which no man can cross except in a well-made ship. Do you only now come from [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary], after long wandering with your ship and crew? Have you not been to Ithaca yet, not seen your wife and home?” To this I replied, “Mother, necessity brought me to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]’ House, to hear the ghost of Theban [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary] and his prophecy. No, I have not yet neared Achaea’s shores, not set foot in my own country, but have wandered constantly, burdened with trouble, from the day I left for [pb_glossary id="4673"]Ilium[/pb_glossary], the city famous for horses, with noble [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary], to fight the Trojans. But tell me now, in truth, what pitiless fate overtook you? Was it a wasting disease or did [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] of the Bow attack you with her gentle arrows and kill you? And what of my father and son I left behind? Does my realm still rest with them, or has some other man possessed it, saying I will no longer return? And tell me of my wife, her thoughts and intentions. Is she still with her son and all safe? Or has whoever is best among the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary] wedded her?” So I spoke and my revered mother swiftly replied, “Truly, that loyal heart still lives in your palace and the days and night pass sadly for her, weeping. No man has yet taken your noble realm and [pb_glossary id="2024"]Telemachus[/pb_glossary] holds the land unchallenged, feasting at the banquets of his peers, at least those it is fitting for a maker of laws to share, since all men invite him. But your father lives alone in the fields, not travelling to the city, and owns no bed with bright rugs and cloaks for bedding, but sleeps where peasants sleep, in the ashes by the hearth all winter through, and wears only simple clothes. When summer comes and mellow autumn, then you will find his humble beds of fallen leaves scattered here and there on the vineyard’s slopes. There he lies, burdened with age, grieving, nursing great sadness in his heart, longing for your return. So too fate brought me to the grave. It was not the clear-sighted Goddess of the Bow [ [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary] ] who slew me in the palace with gentle arrows, nor did I die of some disease, one of those that often steals the body’s strength and wastes us wretchedly. No, what robbed me of my life and its honeyed sweetness was yearning for you, my glorious [pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary], for your kindness and your counsels.” So she spoke and I wondered how I might embrace my dead mother’s ghost. Three times my will urged me to clasp her and I started towards her, three times she escaped my arms like a shadow or a dream. And the pain seemed deeper in my heart. Then I spoke to her with winged words, “Mother, since I wish for it, why do you not let me embrace you, so that even in [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]’ House we might clasp our arms around each other and satisfy ourselves with cold mourning? Are you a mere phantom royal [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary] has sent, to make me groan and grieve the more? My revered mother replied quickly, “Oh, my child, most unfortunate of men, [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’ daughter, does not deceive you: this is the way it is with mortals after death. The sinews no longer bind flesh and bone, the fierce heat of the blazing pyre consumes them, and the spirit flees from our white bones, a ghost that flutters and goes like a dream. Hurry to the light with all speed; remember these things so that you can speak to your wife of them.”’ [225-332] ‘So we talked together and then the women, the wives and daughters of heroes, came, sent by royal [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary]. They thronged around the black blood in a crowd and I considered how best to question them, and this was my idea: to draw my long sword from its sheath and prevent them from drinking of the blood together. Then each came forward, one by one, and declared her lineage, and I questioned all. Know then, the first I saw was noble [pb_glossary id="2058"]Tyro[/pb_glossary], who told me she was peerless Salmoneus’ daughter, and wife to [pb_glossary id="2060"]Cretheus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="782"]Aeolus[/pb_glossary]’ son. She fell in love with the god of the River [pb_glossary id="2059"]Enipeus[/pb_glossary], most beautiful of [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary]’s rivers, and used to wander by its lovely waters. But the [pb_glossary id="2039"]Earth-Shaker[/pb_glossary], Earth-Bearer [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], took [pb_glossary id="2059"]Enipeus[/pb_glossary]’ form, and lay with her at the swirling river-mouth. A dark wave, mountain-high, curled over them and hid the mortal woman and the god. There he unclasped the virgin’s girdle, and then he sealed her eyes in sleep. When he had finished making love to her, he took her by the hand, and said: “Lady, be happy in this love of ours and as the year progresses you will bear glorious children, for a god’s embrace is not without power. Nurse them and rear them, but for now go home and keep silent and know I am [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary], the [pb_glossary id="2039"]Earth-Shaker[/pb_glossary].” With this he sank beneath the surging sea. Tyro conceived, and bore [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary], two mighty servants of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="1834"]Pelias[/pb_glossary], rich in flocks, lived in spacious Iolcus, while [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary] lived in sandy Pylos. This queen among women bore other children to [pb_glossary id="2060"]Cretheus[/pb_glossary]: [pb_glossary id="1826"]Aeson[/pb_glossary], Pheres and Amythaon, filled with the charioteer’s delight in battle. Next I saw [pb_glossary id="4601"]Antiope[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="2331"]Asopus[/pb_glossary]’ daughter, who claimed she had slept with [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] himself. She gave birth to two sons, [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="4607"]Zethus[/pb_glossary], who founded Seven-Gated [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], ringing it with walls, since powerful as they were they could not live in a [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary] vast but unfortified. Then came [pb_glossary id="1199"]Alcmene[/pb_glossary], wife of [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary], who conceived [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary], lion-hearted, fierce in fight, when she lay in great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’ arms. And I saw [pb_glossary id="1390"]Megara[/pb_glossary], proud Creon’s daughter, who married that same indomitable son of [pb_glossary id="1230"]Amphitryon[/pb_glossary]. Then [pb_glossary id="2062"]Oedipus[/pb_glossary]’ mother came, the beautiful [pb_glossary id="2063"]Jocasta[/pb_glossary], who unknowingly did a monstrous thing: she wed her own son. He killed his father and married his mother; only then did the gods reveal the truth. By the gods’ dark design despite his suffering he still ruled the Cadmeans in lovely [pb_glossary id="4675"]Thebes[/pb_glossary], but she descended to the house of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], mighty jailor, tying a fatal noose to the high ceiling, hung by her own grief, leaving endless pain for [pb_glossary id="2062"]Oedipus[/pb_glossary], all that a mother’s avenging [pb_glossary id="157"]Furies[/pb_glossary] can inflict. And lovely Chloris I saw, youngest daughter of [pb_glossary id="4608"]Amphion[/pb_glossary], son of Iasus once the great Minyan King of Orchomenus. [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary] wooing her gave her countless gifts, marrying her because of her beauty: and she was Queen in Pylos. She bore her husband glorious children, [pb_glossary id="1452"]Nestor[/pb_glossary], Chromius, and noble [pb_glossary id="1451"]Periclymenus[/pb_glossary], and the lovely Pero, she a wonder to men, so that all her neighbours tried for her hand, but [pb_glossary id="1394"]Neleus[/pb_glossary] would only give her to the man who could drive great [pb_glossary id="1404"]Iphicles[/pb_glossary]’ cattle from Phylace: a broad and spiral-horned herd, and hard to drive. The infallible prophet, [pb_glossary id="2067"]Melampus[/pb_glossary], alone, agreed to try, but the gods’ dark design snared him, and the savage herdsmen’s cruel bonds. Only when days and months had passed, the seasons had altered, and a new year came, did mighty [pb_glossary id="1404"]Iphicles[/pb_glossary] release him, since he had exhausted all his prophecies, and [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’ will was done. [pb_glossary id="1605"]Leda[/pb_glossary], I saw, [pb_glossary id="1458"]Tyndareus[/pb_glossary]’ wife, who bore him those stout-hearted twins, [pb_glossary id="1407"]Castor[/pb_glossary], the horse-tamer, and [pb_glossary id="1590"]Polydeuces[/pb_glossary], the boxer. Though they still live, they have even been honoured by [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] in the underworld, beneath the fruitful [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary]. Each alternately is alive for a day, and the next day that one is dead: they are honoured as if they were gods. Next I saw Iphimedeia, Aloeus wife, who claimed she had slept with [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary]. She too bore twins, short-lived, godlike [pb_glossary id="1665"]Otus[/pb_glossary] and famous [pb_glossary id="1678"]Ephialtes[/pb_glossary], the tallest most handsome men by far, aside from great [pb_glossary id="1666"]Orion[/pb_glossary], whom the fertile [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary] ever nourished. They were fifteen feet wide, and fifty feet high at nine years old, and threatened to sound the battle-cry of savage war even against the Olympian gods. They longed to add [Mount] Ossa to [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary], then [pb_glossary id="2333"]Pelion[/pb_glossary] and its waving woods to Ossa, and scale the heavens themselves. They would have done it too, if they had already reached manhood, but [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’ son, born of lovely [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], slew them both, before the down had covered their faces, and their beards began to grow. And [pb_glossary id="1740"]Phaedra[/pb_glossary] too I saw, and [pb_glossary id="4180"]Procris[/pb_glossary], and fair [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary], daughter of baleful [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] tried to carry her off from Crete to the sacred hill of [pb_glossary id="4669"]Athens[/pb_glossary], but had no joy, for [pb_glossary id="180"]Artemis[/pb_glossary], warned by [pb_glossary id="370"]Dionysus[/pb_glossary], killed her on sea-encircled Dia. And Maera came, and Clymene, and hateful Eriphyle, who sold her own husband’s life for gold. I cannot count or name all the wives and daughters of heroes I saw there, or all this immortal night would be gone. And it is time for me to sleep, here in the palace, or with my crew by the swift ship. My journey home is in your hands, and in the hands of the gods.’ [333-384] So [pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] spoke. Spellbound at his words, all had fallen silent in the darkened hall. White-armed [pb_glossary id="2000"]Arete[/pb_glossary] was the first of the gathering to speak: ‘Phaeacians, what do you think of this man’s looks, his stature, and judgement? He is my guest, as well, though you all share in that honour. So don’t be in a hurry to send him on his way, nor fail in generosity to one who stands in need, for favoured by the gods your homes are full of treasures.’ Then a Phaeacian elder, the aged hero Echeneus, said: ‘Friends, our wise queen’s words are fitting and match our thoughts. Respond to them, though words and actions here are still subject to [pb_glossary id="1999"]Alcinous[/pb_glossary].’ ‘Her word is good,’ [pb_glossary id="1999"]Alcinous[/pb_glossary] replied, ‘as long as I live and rule the sea-loving Phaeacians. Yet our guest must stay until tomorrow, despite his longing for home, while we add to our gifts. The men shall concern themselves, all of them, with his passage, I most of all, since the power here rests with me.’ Then resourceful [pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] replied: ‘Renowned [pb_glossary id="1999"]Alcinous[/pb_glossary], my lord, if you further my passage and offer me glorious gifts, though you commanded me to stay, even for another year, I would accept it. It would be better to reach my country with full hands. I would win more honour and love from those who witness my return to Ithaca.’ Again [pb_glossary id="1999"]Alcinous[/pb_glossary] spoke: ‘[pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary], when we gaze at you, we certainly do not think of you as one of those liars and cheats the black earth breeds in such numbers among the ranks of humankind, men who fashion falsehoods out of things beyond experience. You have a wise and eloquent heart, and have told us your adventures and of the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary]’ sad misfortunes with the skillfulness of a bard. But tell me the truth of this, in [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] did you see any of your godlike comrades, warriors who travelled to [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] with you, and met their death there? The night is long, and it cannot be time to sleep yet, not on such a marvelous night as this. Tell me the wondrous things you have done. I could stay awake till shining dawn, listening as long as you are willing to speak of your misfortunes.’ To this resourceful [pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] answered: ‘Lord [pb_glossary id="1999"]Alcinous[/pb_glossary], most renowned of men, there is a time for words, and a time for sleep. But if you long to hear I cannot refuse to speak of a sadder thing than these, the fate of friends who escaped the dread ranks of the Trojans only to die later, to die on their return through an evil woman’s wiles.’ [385-464] ‘When sacred [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary] had dispersed the female spirits, the ghost of [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1562"]Atreus[/pb_glossary], came grieving, and other ghosts were gathered round him, those who met their fate alongside him, murdered in [pb_glossary id="2022"]Aegisthus[/pb_glossary]’ palace. Drinking the black blood he knew me, and wept loudly, shedding great tears, stretching his hands out in his eagerness to touch me. But all his power and strength was gone, all that vigour his body one possessed. I wept when I saw him, and pitied him, and spoke to him with winged words: “[pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary], king of men, glorious son of [pb_glossary id="1562"]Atreus[/pb_glossary], what pitiless stroke of fate destroyed you? Did [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] stir the cruel winds to a raging tempest, and swamp your ships? Or perhaps you were attacked in enemy country, while you were driving off their cattle and fine flocks, or fighting to take their city and its women?” He answered my words swiftly: “[pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] of many resources, scion of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1496"]Laertes[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="182"]Poseidon[/pb_glossary] stirred no cruel winds to raging tempest, nor swamped my ships, nor was I attacked in enemy country. It was [pb_glossary id="2022"]Aegisthus[/pb_glossary] who engineered my fate, inviting me to his palace for a feast, murdering me with my accursed wife’s help, as you might kill an ox in its stall. I died wretchedly, and around me my companions were slaughtered ruthlessly, like white-tusked swine for a wedding banquet in the hall of some rich and powerful man, or at a communal meal, or a great drinking session. You yourself have witnessed the killing of men, in single combat or in the thick of the fight, but you would have felt the deepest pity at that sight, the floor swimming with blood where our corpses lay, by the mixing bowl and the heavily-laden tables. But the most pitiful cry of all came from [pb_glossary id="2075"]Cassandra[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]’s daughter, whom treacherous [pb_glossary id="1672"]Clytemnestra[/pb_glossary] killed as she clung to me. Brought low by [pb_glossary id="2022"]Aegisthus[/pb_glossary]’ sword I tried to lift my arms in dying, but bitch that she was my wife turned away, and though I was going to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]’ Halls she disdained even to close my eyelids or my mouth. Truly there is nothing more terrible or shameless than a woman who can contemplate such acts, planning and executing a husband’s murder. I had thought to be welcomed by my house and children, but she with her mind intent on that final horror has brought shame on herself and all future women, even those who are virtuous.” To this I answered: “Indeed, from the very beginning, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] the Thunderer has tormented the race of [pb_glossary id="1562"]Atreus[/pb_glossary], through women’s machinations! So many men died for [pb_glossary id="1663"]Helen[/pb_glossary]’s sake while [pb_glossary id="1672"]Clytemnestra[/pb_glossary] plotted in your absence.” I spoke, and he made answer swiftly: “So don’t be too open with your own wife, don’t tell her every thought in your mind, reveal a part, keep the rest to yourself. Not that death will come to you from wise [pb_glossary id="2023"]Penelope[/pb_glossary], Icarius’ daughter, she who is so tender-hearted, and cautious. A newly wedded bride she was when we left for the war, with a baby son at her breast who must be a man now and prospering. His loving father will see him when he returns, and he will kiss his father as is right and proper. But that wife of mine did not even allow me to set eyes on my son before she killed me. Let me say this too, and take my words to heart, don’t bring your ship to anchor openly, when you reach home, but do it secretly, since women can no longer be trusted. Come tell me, in truth, have you heard if my son is still alive, maybe in Orchomenus or sandy Pylos, or in [pb_glossary id="2021"]Menelaus[/pb_glossary]’ broad Sparta: that my noble [pb_glossary id="1572"]Orestes[/pb_glossary] is not yet dead?” To this I answered: “Son of [pb_glossary id="1562"]Atreus[/pb_glossary], why ask this of me? I cannot tell if he is dead or living, and it is wrong to utter empty words.”’ [465-540] ‘So we stood, exchanging words of sadness, grieving and shedding tears. And now the spirit of [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] son of [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary] appeared, and the spirits of [pb_glossary id="612"]Patroclus[/pb_glossary] and peerless [pb_glossary id="2089"]Antilochus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary] who for beauty and stature was supreme among the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Danaans[/pb_glossary], save only for [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]’ flawless son. And the ghost of swift-footed [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], grandson of [pb_glossary id="2324"]Aeacus[/pb_glossary], knew me, and spoke through the tears: “[pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] of many resources, scion of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1496"]Laertes[/pb_glossary], what could your resolute mind devise that exceeds this: to dare to descend to [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], where live the heedless dead, the disembodied ghosts of men?” So he spoke, and I replied: “[pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary], greatest of [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaean[/pb_glossary] warriors, I came to find [pb_glossary id="929"]Teiresias[/pb_glossary], to see if he would show me the way to reach rocky Ithaca. I have not yet touched Achaea, not set foot in my own land, but have suffered endless troubles, yet no man has been more blessed than you, [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], nor will be in time to come, since we [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] considered you a god while you lived, and now you rule, a power, among the un-living. Do not grieve, then, [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], at your death.” These words he answered, swiftly: “Glorious [pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary]: don’t try to reconcile me to my dying. I’d rather serve as another man’s labourer, as a poor peasant without land, and be alive on Earth, than be lord of all the lifeless dead. Give me news of my son, instead. Did he follow me to war, and become a leader? Tell me, too, what you know of noble [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]. Is he honoured still among the Myrmidons, or because old age ties him hand and foot do Hellas and Phthia fail to honour him? I am no longer up there in the sunlight to help him with that strength I had on [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]’s wide plain, where I killed the flower of their host to defend the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary]. If I could only return strong to my father’s house, for a single hour, I would give those who abuse him and his honour cause to regret the power of my invincible hands.” To this I answered: “Truly, I have heard nothing of faultless [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary], but I can tell you all about [pb_glossary id="2027"]Neoptolemus[/pb_glossary], your resolute son, since you command me. I myself brought him from Scyros, in my well-made hollow ship, to join the bronze-greaved ranks of the Acheans. When we debated our plans before [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] he was always first to speak and his words were eloquent: only godlike [pb_glossary id="1452"]Nestor[/pb_glossary] and I were more so. And when we fought with our bronze spears on the plains of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary], he never lagged behind in the crowded ranks but always advanced far in the lead, yielding to no one in skill. Many were the men he killed in mortal combat. I could not count or name them, all those victims of his, killed as he fought for the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary], but what a warrior that hero Eurypylus, son of Telephus was, who fell to his sword, and Eurypylus’ Mysian comrades slain around him, all because of a woman’s desire for gain. Next to noble Memnon, he was the handsomest man I ever saw. Then again, when we [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argive[/pb_glossary] leaders climbed into the [Trojan] Horse that [pb_glossary id="2771"]Epeius[/pb_glossary] made, and it fell to me to open the hatch of our well-made hiding place, or keep it closed, the other [pb_glossary id="2276"]Danaan[/pb_glossary] generals and counsellors kept on wiping the tears from their eyes and their limbs trembled, but he begged me endlessly to let him leap from the Horse, toying with his sword hilt and his heavy bronze spear, eager to wreak havoc on the Trojans. And when we had sacked [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]’s high city, he took ship with his share of the spoils and a noble prize, and never a wound, untouched by the sharp spears, unmarked by close combat, something rare in battle, since [pb_glossary id="179"]Ares[/pb_glossary], the God of War, is indiscriminate in his fury.” When I had spoken, the spirit of [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="2324"]Aeacus[/pb_glossary]’ grandson, went away with great strides through the field of asphodel, rejoicing at my news of his son’s greatness.’ [541-592] ‘The other ghosts of the dead departed stood there grieving, and each asked me about their dear ones. Only the spirit of [pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1447"]Telamon[/pb_glossary]’s son, stood apart, still angered over my victory in the contest by the ships for [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary]’ weapons. [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary]’ divine mother, [pb_glossary id="1551"]Thetis[/pb_glossary], had offered them as a prize, with the Trojan prisoners and [pb_glossary id="888"]Pallas[/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] herself as judges. I wish I had never won the reward for that debate, that armour that caused the earth to close over so noble a head as that of [pb_glossary id="2976"]Ajax[/pb_glossary], who in beauty and martial action was supreme among the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Danaans[/pb_glossary], save for that faultless son of [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]. I spoke to his ghost in calming words: “[pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary], son of faultless [pb_glossary id="1447"]Telamon[/pb_glossary], even in death can you not forget your anger with me, over those fatal weapons? The gods themselves must have cursed the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Argives[/pb_glossary] with them. In you a tower of strength was lost to us, and we [pb_glossary id="2276"]Achaeans[/pb_glossary] never cease to share as great a grief for you, as we do for [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="2032"]Peleus[/pb_glossary]’ son. But [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] alone is to blame whose deadly hatred for the [pb_glossary id="2276"]Danaan[/pb_glossary] host hastened your doom. Come closer to me, my lord, so you can hear my speech. Curb your wrath: restrain your proud spirit.” He chose not to give a single word in answer, but went his way into [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary] to join the other ghosts of the dead departed. For all his anger he might still have spoken to me, or I to him, but my heart desired to see other ghosts of those who were gone. Know that I saw [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary] there, [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’ glorious son, seated with the golden sceptre in his hand, passing judgement on the dead as they sat or stood around him, making their case, in the broad-gated House of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]. I next saw great [pb_glossary id="1666"]Orion[/pb_glossary], carrying his indestructible bronze club, driving the phantoms of wild creatures he once killed in the lonely hills over the fields of asphodel. I saw [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary], son of glorious [pb_glossary id="358"]Gaia[/pb_glossary], spread out over a hundred yards of ground, while a vulture sat on either side tearing his liver, plucking at his entrails, his hands powerless to beat them away. He is punished for his rape of [pb_glossary id="191"]Leto[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary]’ honoured consort, as she journeyed to Pytho through lovely Panopeus. I saw [pb_glossary id="633"]Tantalus[/pb_glossary] in agonising torment, in a pool of water reaching to his chin. He was tortured by thirst, but could not drink, since every time he stooped eagerly the water was swallowed up and vanished, and at his feet only black earth remained, parched by some god. Fruit hung from the boughs of tall leafy trees, pears and pomegranates, juicy apples, sweet figs and ripe olives. But whenever the old man reached towards them to grasp them in his hands, the wind would sweep them off into the shadowy clouds.’ [593-640] ‘And I saw [pb_glossary id="1213"]Sisyphus[/pb_glossary] in agonising torment trying to roll a huge stone to the top of a hill. He would brace himself, and push it towards the summit with both hands, but just as he was about to heave it over the crest its weight overcame him, and then down again to the plain came bounding that pitiless boulder. He would wrestle again, and lever it back, while the sweat poured from his limbs, and the dust swirled round his head. Then I caught sight of mighty [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary], I mean his phantom, since he enjoys feasting among the deathless gods, with slim-ankled [pb_glossary id="1239"]Hebe[/pb_glossary] for wife, she the daughter of great [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary] and golden-sandalled [pb_glossary id="185"]Hera[/pb_glossary]. Around [pb_glossary id="1591"]Heracles[/pb_glossary] a clamour rose from the dead, like wild birds flying up in terror, and he dark as night, his bow unsheathed and an arrow strung, glared round fiercely as if about to shoot. His golden shoulder-belt was terrifying too, where marvelous things were wrought, bears, wild boars, lions with glittering eyes, battle and conflict, murder and mayhem. I hope that whatever craftsman retained the design of that belt he never made another, and never will. When he saw me, he in turn knew me, and weeping spoke in winged words: “[pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] of many resources, scion of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id="1496"]Laertes[/pb_glossary], wretched spirit are you too playing out your evil fate such as I once endured under the sun? A son of [pb_glossary id="172"]Zeus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="169"]Cronus[/pb_glossary]’ son, I still suffered misery beyond all measure, since I served a man far inferior to me, and he set me difficult tasks. He even sent me here to bring back the Hound of [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary], unable to think of a harder labour. I carried off the creature too, and led him away. [pb_glossary id="210"]Hermes[/pb_glossary] and bright-eyed [pb_glossary id="173"]Athena[/pb_glossary] were my guides.” With this he departed into [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]’ House, but I stood fast, hoping some other heroic warrior of ancient times might still appear. And I might have seen those men of the past I longed to see, [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary], bright sons of the gods. But long before that the countless hosts of the dead came thronging with eerie cries, and I was gripped by pale fear that royal [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary] might send up the head of that ghastly monster, the [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgon[/pb_glossary], from [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary]’ House. So I hurried to the ship, and ordered my friends to embark, and let loose the cables. Swiftly they climbed aboard, and took their seats at the oars, and as we rowed the force of the current carried her down the River of [pb_glossary id="216"]Ocean[/pb_glossary], until afterwards a fair breeze blew.' Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Odyssey11.php
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved

Aeneas
In Book VI of the Aeneid, the hero Aeneas travels to the underworld to speak to his father Anchises.

Virgil, Aeneid, Book 6 (trans. A.S. Kline)

Latin epic poem, 19 CE

At the start of book VI, Aeneas and his fellow Trojans, fleeing the destruction of Troy after the end of the war, have arrived in Italy. Before they start fighting with the native Italians for control of the land, Aeneas takes a trip to the underworld to speak to his dead father. Here we see the priestess, the Sybil showing him the way the underworld, where he will speak with his father and see images of the future Romans that will be his descendants
[1-55] So [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] spoke, weeping, gave his fleet full rein, and glided at last to the shores of Euboean Cumae. They turned their prows to the sea, secured the ships’ anchors, by the grip of their flukes [anchors], and the curved boats lined the beach. The youthful band leapt eagerly to the Hesperian shore: some sought the means of fire contained in veins of flint, some raided the woods the dense coverts of game, pointing out streams they found. But pious [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] sought the summits, where [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] rules on high, and the vast cavern nearby, the secret place of the terrifying [pb_glossary id="4189"]Sibyl[/pb_glossary], in whom the Delian prophet inspires greatness of mind and spirit, and reveals the future. Soon they entered the grove of [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary], and the golden house. [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary], so the story goes, fleeing from [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary]’ kingdom, dared to trust himself to the air on swift wings, and, gliding on unknown paths to the frozen North, hovered lightly at last above the Chalcidian hill. First returning to earth here, he dedicated his oar-like wings to you [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], and built a gigantic temple. On the doors the Death of [pb_glossary id="1735"]Androgeus[/pb_glossary]: then the Athenians, [pb_glossary id="1585"]Cecrops[/pb_glossary]’ descendants, commanded, sadly, to pay annual tribute of seven of their sons: there the urn stands with the lots drawn. Facing it, rising from the sea, the Cretan land is depicted: and here the bull’s savage passion, [pb_glossary id="1730"]Pasiphae[/pb_glossary]’s secret union, and the [pb_glossary id="1733"]Minotaur[/pb_glossary], hybrid offspring, that mixture of species, proof of unnatural relations: the artwork here is that palace, and its inextricable maze: and yet [pb_glossary id="1444"]Daedalus[/pb_glossary] himself, pitying the noble princess [pb_glossary id="1632"]Ariadne[/pb_glossary]’s love, unravelled the deceptive tangle of corridors, guiding [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary]’ blind footsteps with the clue of thread. You’d have shared largely in such a work, [pb_glossary id="1443"]Icarus[/pb_glossary], if grief had allowed, he’d twice attempted to fashion your fate in gold, twice your father’s hands fell. Eyes would have read the whole continuously, if Achetes had not arrived from his errand, with Deiophobe [the [pb_glossary id="4189"]Sibyl[/pb_glossary] ], Glaucus’ daughter, the priestess of [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary], who spoke to the leader: ‘This moment doesn’t require your sightseeing: it would be better to sacrifice seven bullocks from a virgin herd, and as many carefully chosen two-year old sheep.’ Having spoken to [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] in this way (without delay they sacrificed as ordered) the priestess called the Trojans to her high shrine. The vast flank of the Euboean cliff is pitted with caves, from which a hundred wide tunnels, a hundred mouths lead, from which as many voices rush: the [pb_glossary id="4189"]Sibyl[/pb_glossary]’s replies. They had come to the threshold, when the virgin cried out: ‘It is time to question the Oracle, behold, the god, the god!’ As she so spoke in front of the doors, suddenly neither her face nor colour were the same, nor did her hair remain bound, but her chest heaved, her heart swelled with wild frenzy, she seemed taller, and sounded not-human, for now the power of the god is closer. ‘Are you slow with your vows and prayers, [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary], are you slow?’ she cried. ‘The great lips of the House of Inspiration will not open without.’ And so saying she fell silent. An icy shudder ran to the Trojans’ very spines, and their leader poured out heartfelt prayers: [56-97] ‘[pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], you who always pitied [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]’s intense suffering, who guided the hand of [pb_glossary id="317"]Paris[/pb_glossary], and the Dardan arrow, against [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary]’ body, with you as leader I entered all those seas, encircling vast lands, and penetrated the remote Massilian tribes and the fields edged by Syrtes: now at last we have the coast of elusive Italy in our grasp: [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]’s ill fortune only followed us as far as here. You too with justice can spare the Trojan race, and all you gods and goddesses to whom the great glory of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Ilium[/pb_glossary] and Dardania was an offence. O most sacred of prophetesses, you who see the future, (I ask for no lands not owed me by my destiny) grant that we Trojans may settle Latium, with the exiled gods and storm-tossed powers of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]. Then I’ll dedicate a temple of solid marble to [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="180"]Diana[/pb_glossary] Trivia, [footnote]Trivia is an epithet for Diana from the Latin for the number 3. It refers to her aspect as a guardian of crossroads.[/footnote] and sacred days in [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary]’ name. A noble inner shrine waits for you too in our kingdom. There, gracious one, I will place your oracles, and mystic utterances spoken to my people, and consecrate picked men. Only do not write your verses on the leaves, lest they fly, disordered playthings of the rushing winds: chant them from your own mouth.’ He put an end to his mouth’s speaking. But the wild prophetess raged in her cavern, not yet submitting to [pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary], as if she might shake the great god from her spirit: yet he exhausted her raving mouth all the more, taming her wild heart, shaping her by constraint. And now the shrine’s hundred mighty lips have opened of themselves, and carry the seer’s answer through the air: ‘Oh, you who are done with all the perils of the sea, (yet greater await you on land) the Trojans will come to the realm of Lavinium (put that care from your heart): but will not enjoy their coming. War, fierce war, I see: and the [pb_glossary id="3165"]Tiber[/pb_glossary] foaming with much blood. You will not lack a [pb_glossary id="1581"]Simoeis[/pb_glossary], a [pb_glossary id="1218"]Xanthus[/pb_glossary], a Greek camp: even now another [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] is born in Latium, he too the son of a goddess: nor will [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary], the Trojans’ bane, be ever far away, while you, humbled and destitute, what races and cities of Italy will you not beg in! Once again a foreign bride is the cause of all these Trojan ills, once more an alien marriage. Do not give way to misfortunes, meet them more bravely, as your destiny allows. The path of safety will open up for you from where you least imagine it, a Greek city.’ [98-155] With such words, the [pb_glossary id="4189"]Sibyl[/pb_glossary] of Cumae chants fearful enigmas, from her shrine, echoing from the cave, tangling truths and mysteries: as she raves, [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] thrashes the reins, and twists the spur under her breast. When the frenzy quietens, and the mad mouth hushes, [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary], the Hero, begins: ‘O Virgin, no new, unexpected kind of suffering appears: I’ve foreseen them all and travelled them before, in my own spirit. One thing I ask: for they say the gate of the King of Darkness is here, and the shadowy marsh, [pb_glossary id="795"]Acheron[/pb_glossary]’s overflow: let me have sight of my dear father, his face: show me the way, open wide the sacred doors. I saved him, brought him out from the thick of the enemy, through the flames, on these shoulders, with a thousand spears behind me: companion on my journey, he endured with me all the seas, all the threats of sky and ocean, weak, beyond his power, and his allotted span of old age. He ordered me, with prayers, to seek you out, humbly, and approach your threshold: I ask you, kindly one, pity both father and son: since you are all power, not for nothing has [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary] set you to rule the groves of [pb_glossary id="4163"]Avernus[/pb_glossary]. If [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary] could summon the shade of his wife, relying on his Thracian lyre, its melodious strings: if [pb_glossary id="1590"]Pollux[/pb_glossary], crossing that way, and returning, so often, could redeem his brother by dying in turn – and great [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary], what of him, or [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary]? – well, my race too is [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary]’s on high.’ With these words he prayed, and grasped the altar, as the priestess began to speak: ‘Trojan son of [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary], sprung from the blood of the gods, the path to hell is easy: black [pb_glossary id="368"]Dis[/pb_glossary]’ door is open night and day: but to retrace your steps, and go out to the air above, that is work, that is the task. Some sons of the gods have done it, whom favouring [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] loved, or whom burning virtue lifted to heaven. Woods cover all the middle part, and [pb_glossary id="362"]Cocytus[/pb_glossary] is round it, sliding in dark coils. But if such desire is in your mind, such a longing to sail the Stygian lake twice, and twice see [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary], and if it delights you to indulge in insane effort, listen to what you must first undertake. Hidden in a dark tree is a golden bough, golden in leaves and pliant stem, sacred to [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary], the underworld’s [pb_glossary id="185"]Juno[/pb_glossary], all the groves shroud it, and shadows enclose the secret valleys. But only one who’s taken a gold-leaved fruit from the tree is allowed to enter earth’s hidden places. This lovely [pb_glossary id="353"]Proserpine[/pb_glossary] has commanded to be brought to her as a gift: a second fruit of gold never fails to appear when the first one’s picked, the twig’s leafed with the same metal. So look for it up high, and when you’ve found it with your eyes, take it, of right, in your hand: since, if the [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary] have chosen you, it will come away easily, freely of itself: otherwise you won’t conquer it by any force, or cut it with the sharpest steel. And the inanimate body of your friend lies there (Ah! You do not know) and taints your whole fleet with death, while you seek advice and hang about our threshold. Carry him first to his place and bury him in the tomb. Lead black cattle there: let those be your first offerings of atonement. Only then can you look on the Stygian groves, and the realms forbidden to the living.’ She spoke and with closed lips fell silent. [156-182] Leaving the cave, [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] walked away, with sad face and downcast eyes, turning their dark fate over in his mind. Loyal Achates walked at his side and fashioned his steps with similar concern. They engaged in intricate discussion between them, as to who the dead friend, the body to be interred, was, whom the priestess spoke of. And as they passed along they saw Misenus, ruined by shameful death, on the dry sand, Misenus, son of Aeolus, than whom none was more outstanding in rousing men with the war-trumpet, kindling conflict with music. He was great [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary]’s friend: with [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary] he went to battle, distinguished by his spear and trumpet. When victorious [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary] despoiled [pb_glossary id="2173"]Hector[/pb_glossary] of life, this most courageous hero joined the company of Trojan [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary], serving no lesser a man. But when, by chance, he foolishly made the ocean sound to a hollow conch-shell, and called gods to compete in playing, if the tale can be believed, [pb_glossary id="334"]Triton[/pb_glossary] overheard him and drowned him in the foaming waves among the rocks. So, with pious [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] at the front, they all mourned round the body with loud clamour. Then, without delay, weeping, they hurried to carry out the [pb_glossary id="4189"]Sibyl[/pb_glossary]’s orders, and laboured to pile tree-trunks as a funeral pyre, raising it to the heavens. They enter the ancient wood, the deep coverts of wild creatures: the pine-trees fell, the oaks rang to the blows of the axe, ash trunks and fissile oak were split with wedges, and they rolled large rowan trees down from the hills. [183-235] [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] was no less active in such efforts, encouraging his companions, and employing similar tools. And he turned things over in his own saddened mind, gazing at the immense forest, and by chance prayed so: ‘If only that golden bough would show itself to us now, on some such tree, among the woods! For the prophetess spoke truly of you Misenus, alas, only too truly.’ He had barely spoken when by chance a pair of doves came flying down from the sky, beneath his very eyes, and settled on the green grass. Then the great hero knew they were his mother’s birds, and prayed in his joy: ‘O be my guides, if there is some way, and steer a course through the air, to that grove where the rich branch casts its shadow on fertile soil. And you mother, O goddess, don’t fail me in time of doubt.’ So saying he halted his footsteps, observing what signs the doves might give, and which direction they might take. As they fed they went forward in flight just as far as, following, his eyes could keep them in sight. Then, when they reached the foul jaws of stinking [pb_glossary id="4163"]Avernus[/pb_glossary], they quickly rose and, gliding through the clear air, perched on the longed-for dual-natured tree, from which the alien gleam of gold shone out, among the branches. Just as mistletoe, that does not form a tree of its own, grows in the woods in the cold of winter, with a foreign leaf, and surrounds a smooth trunk with yellow berries: such was the vision of this leafy gold in the dark oak-tree, so the foil tinkled in the light breeze. [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] immediately plucked it, eagerly breaking the tough bough, and carried it to the cave of the Sibylline prophetess. Meanwhile, on the shore, the Trojans were weeping bitterly for Misenus and paying their last respects to his senseless ashes. First they raised a huge pyre, heavy with cut oak and pine, weaving the sides with dark foliage, set funereal cypress in front, and decorated it above with shining weapons. Some heated water, making the cauldrons boil on the flames, and washed and anointed the chill corpse. They made lament. Then, having wept, they placed his limbs on the couch, and threw purple robes over them, his usual dress. Some raised the great bier, a sad duty, and, with averted faces, set a torch below, in ancestral fashion. Gifts were heaped on the flames, of incense, foodstuffs, bowls brimming with olive-oil. When the ashes collapsed, and the blaze died, they washed the remains of the parched bones in wine, and Corynaeus, collecting the fragments, closed them in a bronze urn. Also he circled his comrades three times with pure water to purify them, sprinkling fine dew from a full olive branch, and spoke the words of parting. And virtuous [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] heaped up a great mound for his tomb, with the hero’s own weapons, his trumpet and oar, beneath a high mountain which is called Misenus now after him, and preserves his ever-living name throughout the ages. [236-263] This done, he quickly carried out the [pb_glossary id="4189"]Sibyl[/pb_glossary]’s orders. There was a deep stony cave, huge and gaping wide, sheltered by a dark lake and shadowy woods, over which nothing could extend its wings in safe flight, since such a breath flowed from those black jaws, and was carried to the over-arching sky, that the Greeks called it by the name Aornos, that is [pb_glossary id="4163"]Avernus[/pb_glossary], or the Bird-less. Here the priestess first of all tethered four black heifers, poured wine over their foreheads, and placed the topmost bristles that she plucked, growing between their horns, in the sacred fire, as a first offering, calling aloud to [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary], powerful in Heaven and Hell. Others slit the victim’s throats and caught the warm blood in bowls. [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] himself sacrificed a black-fleeced lamb to [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary], mother of the [pb_glossary id="157"]Furies[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary], her mighty sister, and a barren heifer to you, [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary]. Then he kindled the midnight altars for the Stygian King [ [pb_glossary id="211"]Hades[/pb_glossary] ], and placed whole carcasses of bulls on the flames,[footnote]In Roman worship, the order and type of sacrifice offered to gods reflected their role and importance. A black animal was typically sacrificed to a Cthonic deity (as to Night, here), female animals were usually sacrificed to female deities (as to Persephone, here), and the most important deity (here, Hades) often received the largest and last sacrifice.[/footnote] pouring rich oil over the blazing entrails. See now, at the dawn light of the rising sun, the ground bellowed under their feet, the wooded hills began to move, and, at the coming of the Goddess, dogs seemed to howl in the shadows. ‘Away, stand far away, O you profane ones,’ the priestess cried, ‘absent yourselves from all this grove: and you now, [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary], be on your way, and tear your sword from the sheathe: you need courage, and a firm mind, now.’ So saying, she plunged wildly into the open cave: he, fearlessly, kept pace with his vanishing guide. [264-294] You gods, whose is the realm of spirits, and you, dumb shadows, and [pb_glossary id="2405"]Chaos[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="4173"]Phlegethon[/pb_glossary], wide silent places of the night, let me tell what I have heard: by your power, let me reveal things buried in the deep earth, and the darkness. On they went, hidden in solitary night, through gloom, through [pb_glossary id="368"]Dis[/pb_glossary]’ empty halls, and insubstantial kingdom, like a path through a wood, in the faint light under a wavering moon, when [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] has buried the sky in shadow, and black night has stolen the colour from things. Right before the entrance, in the very jaws of Orcus, Grief and vengeful Care have made their beds, and pallid Sickness lives there, and sad Old Age, and Fear, and persuasive Hunger, and vile Need, forms terrible to look on, and [pb_glossary id="357"]Death[/pb_glossary] and Pain: then [pb_glossary id="357"]Death[/pb_glossary]’s brother [pb_glossary id="616"]Sleep[/pb_glossary], and Evil Pleasure of the mind, and, on the threshold opposite, death-dealing War, and the steel chambers of the [pb_glossary id="157"]Furies[/pb_glossary], and mad [pb_glossary id="2421"]Discord[/pb_glossary], her snaky hair entwined with blood-wet ribbons. In the centre a vast shadowy elm spreads its aged trunks and branches: the seat, they say, that false Dreams hold, thronging, clinging beneath every leaf. And many other monstrous shapes of varied creatures, are stabled by the doors, [pb_glossary id="1398"]Centaurs[/pb_glossary] and bi-formed [pb_glossary id="1832"]Scylla[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="4812"]hundred-armed[/pb_glossary] Briareus, and the [pb_glossary id="1413"]Lernean Hydra[/pb_glossary], hissing fiercely, and the [pb_glossary id="1209"]Chimera[/pb_glossary] armed with flame, [pb_glossary id="956"]Gorgons[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="341"]Harpies[/pb_glossary], and the triple bodied shade, [pb_glossary id="1162"]Geryon[/pb_glossary]. At this, trembling suddenly with terror, [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] grasped his sword, and set the naked blade against their approach: and, if his knowing companion had not warned him that these were tenuous bodiless lives flitting about with a hollow semblance of form, he would have rushed at them, and hacked at the shadows uselessly with his sword. [295-336] From here there is a road that leads to the waters of Tartarean [pb_glossary id="795"]Acheron[/pb_glossary]. Here thick with mud a whirlpool seethes in the vast depths, and spews all its sands into [pb_glossary id="362"]Cocytus[/pb_glossary]. A grim ferryman watches over the rivers and streams, [pb_glossary id="369"]Charon[/pb_glossary], dreadful in his squalor, with a mass of unkempt white hair straggling from his chin: flames glow in his eyes, a dirty garment hangs, knotted from his shoulders. He poles the boat and trims the sails himself, and ferries the dead in his dark skiff, old now, but a god’s old age is fresh and green. Here all the crowd streams, hurrying to the shores, women and men, the lifeless bodies of noble heroes, boys and unmarried girls, sons laid on the pyre in front of their father’s eyes: as many as the leaves that fall in the woods at the first frost of autumn, as many as the birds that flock to land from ocean deeps, when the cold of the year drives them abroad and dispatches them to sunnier countries. They stood there, pleading to be first to make the crossing, stretching out their hands in longing for the far shore. But the dismal boatman accepts now these, now those, but driving others away, keeps them far from the sand. Then [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary], stirred and astonished at the tumult, said: ‘O virgin, tell me, what does this crowding to the river mean? What do the souls want? And by what criterion do these leave the bank, and those sweep off with the oars on the leaden stream? The ancient priestess spoke briefly to him, so: ‘Son of [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary], true child of the gods, you see the deep pools of [pb_glossary id="362"]Cocytus[/pb_glossary], and the Marsh of [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary], by whose name the gods fear to swear falsely. All this crowd, you see, were destitute and unburied: that ferryman is [pb_glossary id="369"]Charon[/pb_glossary]: those the waves carry were buried: he may not carry them from the fearful shore on the harsh waters before their bones are at rest in the earth. They roam for a hundred years and flit around these shores: only then are they admitted, and revisit the pools they long for.’ The son of [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] halted, and checked his footsteps, thinking deeply, and pitying their sad fate in his heart. He saw Leucaspis and Orontes, captain of the Lycian fleet, there, grieving and lacking honour in death, whom a Southerly overwhelmed, as they sailed together from [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary] on the windswept waters, engulfing both the ship and crew in the waves. [337-383] Behold, there came the helmsman, [pb_glossary id="4176"]Palinurus[/pb_glossary], who fell from the stern on the Libyan passage, flung into the midst of the waves, as he watched the stars. When [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] had recognised him with difficulty sorrowing among the deep shadows, he spoke first, saying: ‘What god tore you from us, [pb_glossary id="4176"]Palinurus[/pb_glossary], and drowned you mid-ocean? For in this one prophecy [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] has misled me, he whom I never found false before, he said that you would be safe at sea and reach Ausonia’s shores. Is this the truth of his promise?’ But he replied: ‘[pb_glossary id="946"]Phoebus[/pb_glossary]’ tripod did not fail you, [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary], my captain, nor did a god drown me in the deep. By chance the helm was torn from me with violence, as I clung there, on duty as ordered, steering our course, and I dragged it headlong with me. I swear by the cruel sea that I feared less for myself than for your ship, lest robbed of its gear, and cleared of its helmsman, it might founder among such surging waves. The Southerly drove me violently through the vast seas for three stormy nights: high on the crest of a wave, in the fourth dawn, I could just make out Italy. Gradually I swam to shore: grasped now at safety, but as I caught at the sharp tips of the rocks, weighed down by my water-soaked clothes, the savage people attacked me with knives, ignorantly thinking me a prize. Now the waves have me, and the winds roll me along the shore. Unconquered one, I beg you, by the sweet light and air of heaven, by your father, and your hopes in Iulus to come, save me from this evil: either find Velia’s harbour again (for you can) and sprinkle earth on me, or if there is some way, if your divine mother shows you one (since you’d not attempt to sail such waters, and the Stygian marsh, without a god’s will, I think) then give this wretch your hand and take me with you through the waves that at least I might rest in some quiet place in death.’ So he spoke, and the priestess began to reply like this: ‘Where does this dire longing of yours come from, O [pb_glossary id="4176"]Palinurus[/pb_glossary]? Can you see the Stygian waters, unburied, or the grim river of the [pb_glossary id="157"]Furies[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="362"]Cocytus[/pb_glossary], or come unasked to the shore? Cease to hope that divine fate can be tempered by prayer. But hold my words in your memory, as a comfort in your hardship: the nearby peoples, from cities far and wide, will be moved by divine omens to worship your bones, and build a tomb, and send offerings to the tomb, and the place will have [pb_glossary id="4176"]Palinurus[/pb_glossary] as its everlasting name.’ His anxiety was quelled by her words, and, for a little while, grief was banished from his sad heart: he delighted in the land being so named. [384-416] So they pursued their former journey, and drew near the river. Now when the Boatman [ [pb_glossary id="369"]Charon[/pb_glossary] ] saw them from the Stygian wave walking through the silent wood, and directing their footsteps towards its bank, he attacked them verbally, first, and unprompted, rebuking them: ‘Whoever you are, who come armed to my river, tell me, from over there, why you’re here, and halt your steps. This is a place of shadows, of [pb_glossary id="616"]Sleep[/pb_glossary] and drowsy [pb_glossary id="1576"]Night[/pb_glossary]: I’m not allowed to carry living bodies in the Stygian boat. Truly it was no pleasure for me to take [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary] on his journey over the lake, nor [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary], though they may have been children of gods, unrivalled in strength. The first came for [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary] the watchdog of [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary], and dragged him away quivering from under the king’s throne: the others were after snatching our Queen [ [pb_glossary id="353"]Persephone[/pb_glossary] ] from [pb_glossary id="368"]Dis[/pb_glossary]’ chamber.’ To this the prophetess of Amphrysian [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary][footnote]In Callimachus' "Hymn 2," Apollo passes by the river Amphrysus. Callimachus explains that this is the origin for the epithet "Amphrysian."[/footnote] briefly answered: ‘There’s no such trickery here (don’t be disturbed), our weapons offer no affront: your huge guard-dog can terrify the bloodless shades with his eternal howling: chaste [pb_glossary id="353"]Proserpine[/pb_glossary] can keep to her uncle’s threshold. [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] the Trojan, renowned in piety and warfare, goes down to the deepest shadows of [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary], to his father. If the idea of such affection does not move you, still you must recognise this bough.’ (She showed the branch, hidden in her robes.) Then the anger in his swollen breast subsided. No more was said. Marvelling at the revered offering, of fateful twigs, seen again after so long, he turned the stern of the dark skiff towards them and neared the bank. Then he turned off the other souls who sat on the long benches, cleared the gangways: and received mighty [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] on board. The seamed skiff groaned with the weight and let in quantities of marsh-water through the chinks. At last, the river crossed, he landed the prophetess and the hero safe, on the unstable mud, among the blue-grey sedge. [417-439] Huge [pb_glossary id="1228"]Cerberus[/pb_glossary] sets these regions echoing with his triple-throated howling, crouching monstrously in a cave opposite. Seeing the snakes rearing round his neck, the prophetess threw him a pellet, a soporific of honey and drugged wheat. Opening his three throats, in rabid hunger, he seized what she threw and, flexing his massive spine, sank to earth spreading his giant bulk over the whole cave-floor. With the guard unconscious [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] won to the entrance, and quickly escaped the bank of the river of no return. Immediately a loud crying of voices was heard, the spirits of weeping infants, whom a dark day stole at the first threshold of this sweet life, those chosen to be torn from the breast, and drowned in bitter death. Nearby are those condemned to die on false charges. Yet their place is not ordained without the allotted jury: [pb_glossary id="1424"]Minos[/pb_glossary], the judge, shakes the urn: he convenes the voiceless court, and hears their lives and sins. Then the next place is held by those gloomy spirits who, innocent of crime, died by their own hand, and, hating the light, threw away their lives. How willingly now they’d endure poverty and harsh suffering, in the air above! Divine Law prevents it, and the sad marsh and its hateful waters binds them, and nine-fold [pb_glossary id="361"]Styx[/pb_glossary] confines them. [440-476] Not far from there the Fields of Mourning are revealed, spread out on all sides: so they name them. There, those whom harsh love devours with cruel pining are concealed in secret walkways, encircled by a myrtle grove: even in death their troubles do not leave them. Here [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] saw [pb_glossary id="1740"]Phaedra[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="4180"]Procris[/pb_glossary], and sad [pb_glossary id="4181"]Eriphyle[/pb_glossary], displaying the wounds made by her cruel son, [pb_glossary id="4590"]Evadne[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="1730"]Pasiphae[/pb_glossary]: with them walked Laodamia,[footnote]Laodamia may refer to many different women in Greek myth. It likely here refers to the Laodamia who committed suicide after her husband was killed in the Trojan War.[/footnote] and [pb_glossary id="1747"]Caeneus[/pb_glossary], now a woman, once a young man, returned by her fate to her own form again.[footnote]Book 12 of Ovid's Metamorphoses provides the most detailed account of the story of Caeneus. Caeneus, born Caenis (a feminine ending of the name), was raped by Poseidon, and then asked Poseidon to transform her into a man. Poseidon fulfilled this wish and gave Caeneus the additional gift of being invulnerable to weapons. For further discussion of the story of Caeneus and the concepts of gender and transgender in this myth, see: Northrop, C. (2020). Caeneus and Heroic (Trans)Masculinity in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Arethusa 53(1), 25-41 and Power M., (2020) “Non-Binary and Intersex Visibility and Erasure in Roman Archaeology”, Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 3(1). p.11.[/footnote] Among them Phoenician [pb_glossary id="4185"]Dido[/pb_glossary] wandered, in the great wood, her wound still fresh. As soon as the Trojan hero stood near her and knew her, shadowy among the shadows, like a man who sees, or thinks he sees, the new moon rising through a cloud, as its month begins, he wept tears and spoke to her with tender affection: ‘[pb_glossary id="4185"]Dido[/pb_glossary], unhappy spirit, was the news, that came to me of your death, true then, taking your life with a blade? Alas, was I the cause of your dying? I swear by the stars, by the gods above, by whatever truth may be in the depths of the earth, I left your shores unwillingly, my queen. I was commanded by gods, who drove me by their decrees, that now force me to go among the shades, through places thorny with neglect, and deepest night: nor did I think my leaving there would ever bring such grief to you. Halt your footsteps and do not take yourself from my sight. What do you flee? This is the last speech with you that fate allows.’ With such words [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] would have calmed her fiery spirit and wild looks, and provoked her tears. She turned away, her eyes fixed on the ground, no more altered in expression by the speech he had begun than if hard flint stood there, or a cliff of Parian marble. At the last she tore herself away, and, hostile to him, fled to the shadowy grove where Sychaeus, her husband in former times, responded to her suffering, and gave her love for love. [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary], no less shaken by the injustice of fate, followed her, far off, with his tears, and pitied her as she went. [477-534] From there he laboured on the way that was granted them. And soon they reached the most distant fields, the remote places where those famous in war crowd together. Here [pb_glossary id="1583"]Tydeus[/pb_glossary] met him, [pb_glossary id="4301"]Parthenopaeus[/pb_glossary] glorious in arms, and the pale form of [pb_glossary id="1201"]Adrastus[/pb_glossary]: here were the Trojans, wept for deeply above, fallen in war, whom, seeing them all in their long ranks, he groaned at, Glaucus, Medon and Thersilochus, the three sons of Antenor, Polyboetes, the priest of [pb_glossary id="351"]Ceres[/pb_glossary], and Idaeus still with his chariot, and his weapons. The spirits stand there in crowds to left and right. They are not satisfied with seeing him only once: they delight in lingering on, walking beside him, and learning the reason for his coming. But the Greek princes and [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary]’s phalanxes, trembled with great fear, when they saw the hero, and his gleaming weapons, among the shades: some turned to run, as they once sought their ships: some raised a faint cry, the noise they made belying their gaping mouths. And he saw [pb_glossary id="4187"]Deiphobus[/pb_glossary] there, [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]’s son, his whole body mutilated, his face brutally torn, his face and hands both, the ears ripped from his ruined head, his nostrils sheared by an ugly wound. Indeed [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] barely recognised the quivering form, hiding its dire punishment, even as he called to him, unprompted, in familiar tones: ‘[pb_glossary id="4187"]Deiphobus[/pb_glossary], powerful in war, born of Teucer’s noble blood, who chose to work such brutal punishment on you? Who was allowed to treat you so? Rumour has it that on that final night, wearied by endless killing of Greeks, you sank down on a pile of the slaughtered. Then I set up an empty tomb on the Rhoetean shore, and called on your spirit three times in a loud voice. Your name and weapons watch over the site: I could not see you, friend, to set you, as I left, in your native soil.’ To this [pb_glossary id="614"]Priam[/pb_glossary]’s son replied: ‘O my friend, you’ve neglected nothing: you’ve paid all that’s due to [pb_glossary id="4187"]Deiphobus[/pb_glossary] and a dead man’s spirit. My own destiny, and that Spartan woman’s [ [pb_glossary id="1663"]Helen[/pb_glossary]'s ] deadly crime, drowned me in these sorrows: she left me these memorials. You know how we passed that last night in illusory joy: and you must remember it only too well. When the fateful Horse came leaping the walls of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary], pregnant with the armed warriors it carried in its womb, she led the Trojan women about, wailing in dance, aping the Bacchic rites: she held a huge torch in their midst, signalling to the Greeks from the heights of the citadel. I was then in our unlucky marriage-chamber, worn out with care, and heavy with sleep, a sweet deep slumber weighing on me as I lay there, the very semblance of peaceful death. Meanwhile that illustrious wife of mine removed every weapon from the house, even stealing my faithful sword from under my head: she calls [pb_glossary id="2021"]Menelaus[/pb_glossary] into the house and throws open the doors, hoping I suppose it would prove a great gift for her lover, and in that way the infamy of her past sins might be erased. Why drag out the tale? They burst into the room, and with them [pb_glossary id="1495"]Ulysses[/pb_glossary] the Aeolid, their co-inciter to wickedness. Gods, so repay the Greeks, if these lips I pray for vengeance with are virtuous. But you, in turn, tell what fate has brought you here, living. Do you come here, driven by your wandering on the sea, or exhorted by the gods? If not, what misfortune torments you, that you enter these sad sunless houses, this troubled place?’ [535-627] While they spoke [pb_glossary id="215"]Aurora[/pb_glossary] and her rosy chariot had passed the zenith of her ethereal path, and they might perhaps have spent all the time allowed in such talk, but the [pb_glossary id="4189"]Sibyl[/pb_glossary], his companion, warned him briefly saying: ‘Night approaches, [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary]: we waste the hours with weeping. This is the place where the path splits itself in two: there on the right is our road to [pb_glossary id="4196"]Elysium[/pb_glossary], that runs beneath the walls of mighty [pb_glossary id="368"]Dis[/pb_glossary]: but the left works punishment on the wicked, and sends them on to godless [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary].’ [pb_glossary id="4187"]Deiphobus[/pb_glossary] replied: ‘Do not be angry, great priestess: I will leave: I will make up the numbers, and return to the darkness. Go now glory of our race: enjoy a better fate.’ So he spoke, and in speaking turned away. [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] suddenly looked back, and, below the left hand cliff, he saw wide battlements, surrounded by a triple wall, and encircled by a swift river of red-hot flames, the Tartarean [pb_glossary id="4173"]Phlegethon[/pb_glossary], churning with echoing rocks. A gate fronts it, vast, with pillars of solid steel, that no human force, not the heavenly gods themselves, can overturn by war: an iron tower rises into the air, and seated before it, Tisiphone, clothed in a blood-wet dress, keeps guard of the doorway, sleeplessly, night and day. Groans came from there, and the cruel sound of the lash, then the clank of iron, and dragging chains. [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] halted, and stood rooted, terrified by the noise. ‘What evil is practised here? O Virgin, tell me: by what torments are they oppressed? Why are there such sounds in the air?’ Then the prophetess began to speak as follows: ‘Famous leader of the Trojans, it is forbidden for the pure to cross the evil threshold: but when [pb_glossary id="814"]Hecate[/pb_glossary] appointed me to the wood of [pb_glossary id="4163"]Avernus[/pb_glossary], she taught me the divine torments, and guided me through them all. Cretan [pb_glossary id="1725"]Rhadamanthus[/pb_glossary] rules this harshest of kingdoms, and hears their guilt, extracts confessions, and punishes whoever has deferred atonement for their sins too long till death, delighting in useless concealment, in the world above. Tisiphone the avenger, armed with her whip, leaps on the guilty immediately, lashes them, and threatening them with the fierce snakes in her left hand, calls to her savage troop of sisters. Then at last the accursed doors open, screeching on jarring hinges. You comprehend what guardian sits at the door, what shape watches the threshold? Well still fiercer is the monstrous [pb_glossary id="1413"]Hydra[/pb_glossary] inside, with her fifty black gaping jaws. There [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary] itself falls sheer, and stretches down into the darkness: twice as far as we gaze upwards to heavenly [pb_glossary id="628"]Olympus[/pb_glossary]. Here the Titanic race, the ancient sons of [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary], hurled down by the lightning-bolt, writhe in the depths. And here I saw the two sons of Aloeus [ the [pb_glossary id="1606"]Aloadae[/pb_glossary] ], giant forms, who tried to tear down the heavens with their hands, and topple [pb_glossary id="172"]Jupiter[/pb_glossary] from his high kingdom. And I saw Salmoneus paying a savage penalty for imitating [pb_glossary id="172"]Jove[/pb_glossary]’s lightning, and the Olympian thunder. Brandishing a torch, and drawn by four horses he rode in triumph among the Greeks, through Elis’ city, claiming the gods’ honours as his own, a fool, who mimicked the storm-clouds and the inimitable thunderbolt with bronze cymbals and the sound of horses’ hoof-beats. But the all-powerful father hurled his lighting from dense cloud, not for him fiery torches, or pine-branches’ smoky light and drove him headlong with the mighty whirlwind. And [pb_glossary id="1556"]Tityus[/pb_glossary] was to be seen as well, the foster-child of [pb_glossary id="358"]Earth[/pb_glossary], our universal mother, whose body stretches over nine acres, and a great vulture with hooked beak feeds on his indestructible liver, and his entrails ripe for punishment, lodged deep inside the chest, groping for his feast, no respite given to the ever-renewing tissue. Shall I speak of the [pb_glossary id="1418"]Lapiths[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1482"]Ixion[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="1742"]Pirithous[/pb_glossary], over whom hangs a dark crag that seems to slip and fall? High couches for their feast gleam with golden frames, and a banquet of royal luxury is spread before their eyes: nearby the eldest [pb_glossary id="157"]Fury[/pb_glossary], crouching, prevents their fingers touching the table: rising up, and brandishing her torch, with a voice of thunder. Here are those who hated their brothers, in life, or struck a parent, or contrived to defraud a client, or who crouched alone over the riches they’d made, without setting any aside for their kin (their crowd is largest), those who were killed for adultery, or pursued civil war, not fearing to break their pledges to their masters: shut in they see their punishment. Don’t ask to know that punishment, or what kind of suffering drowns them. Some roll huge stones, or hang spread-eagled on wheel-spokes: wretched [pb_glossary id="1438"]Theseus[/pb_glossary] sits still, and will sit for eternity: Phlegyas, the most unfortunate, warns them all and bears witness in a loud voice among the shades: “Learn justice: be warned, and don’t despise the gods.” Here’s one who sold his country for gold, and set up a despotic lord: this one made law and remade it for a price: he entered his daughter’s bed and a forbidden marriage: all of them dared monstrous sin, and did what they dared. Not if I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, a voice of iron, could I tell all the forms of wickedness or spell out the names of every torment.’ [628-678] When she had spoken of this, the aged priestess of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary] said: ‘But come now, travel the road, and complete the task set for you: let us hurry, I see the battlements that were forged in the Cyclopean fires, and the gates in the arch opposite us where we are told to set down the gifts as ordered.’ She spoke and keeping step they hastened along the dark path crossing the space between and arriving near the doors. [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] gained the entrance, sprinkled fresh water over his body, and set up the branch on the threshold before him. Having at last achieved this, the goddess’ task fulfilled, they came to the pleasant places, the delightful grassy turf of the Fortunate Groves, and the homes of the blessed. Here freer air and radiant light clothe the plain, and these have their own sun, and their own stars. Some exercise their bodies in a grassy gymnasium, compete in sports and wrestle on the yellow sand: others tread out the steps of a dance, and sing songs. There [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus [/pb_glossary]too, the long-robed priest of Thrace, accompanies their voices with the seven-note scale, playing now with fingers, now with the ivory quill. Here are Teucer’s ancient people, loveliest of children, great-hearted heroes, born in happier years, [pb_glossary id="2747"]Ilus[/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id="4191"]Assaracus[/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id="2720"]Dardanus[/pb_glossary] founder of [pb_glossary id="4673"]Troy[/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] marvels from a distance at their idle chariots and their weapons: their spears fixed in the ground, and their horses scattered freely browsing over the plain: the pleasure they took in chariots and armour while alive, the care in tending shining horses, follows them below the earth. Look, he sees others on the grass to right and left, feasting, and singing a joyful [pb_glossary id="2806"]paean[/pb_glossary] in chorus, among the fragrant groves of laurel, out of which the Eridanus’ broad river flows through the woodlands to the world above. Here is the company of those who suffered wounds fighting for their country: and those who were pure priests, while they lived, and those who were faithful poets, singers worthy of [pb_glossary id="183"]Apollo[/pb_glossary], and those who improved life, with discoveries in Art or Science, and those who by merit caused others to remember them: the brows of all these were bound with white headbands. As they crowded round, the [pb_glossary id="4189"]Sibyl[/pb_glossary] addressed them, Musaeus above all: since he holds the centre of the vast crowd, all looking up to him, his tall shoulders towering above: ‘Blessed spirits, and you, greatest of Poets, say what region or place contains [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary]. We have come here, crossing the great rivers of [pb_glossary id="886"]Erebus[/pb_glossary], for him.’ And the hero replied to her briefly in these words: ‘None of us have a fixed abode: we live in the shadowy woods, and make couches of river-banks, and inhabit fresh-water meadows. But climb this ridge, if your hearts-wish so inclines, and I will soon set you on an easy path.’ He spoke and went on before them, and showed them the bright plains below: then they left the mountain heights. [679-702] But deep in a green valley his father [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] was surveying the spirits enclosed there, destined for the light above, thinking carefully, and was reviewing as it chanced the numbers of his own folk, his dear grandsons, and their fate and fortunes as men, and their ways and works. And when he saw [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] heading towards him over the grass he stretched out both his hands eagerly, his face streaming with tears, and a cry issued from his lips: ‘Have you come at last, and has the loyalty your father expected conquered the harsh road? Is it granted me to see your face, my son, and hear and speak in familiar tones? I calculated it in my mind, and thought it would be so, counting off the hours, nor has my trouble failed me. From travel over what lands and seas, do I receive you! What dangers have hurled you about, my son! How I feared the realms of Libya might harm you!’ He answered: ‘Father, your image, yours, appearing to me so often, drove me to reach this threshold: My ships ride the Etruscan waves. Father, let me clasp your hand, let me, and do not draw away from my embrace.’ So speaking, his face was also drowned in a flood of tears. Three times he tries to throw his arms round his father’s neck, three times, clasped in vain, that semblance slips though his hands, like the light breeze, most of all like a winged dream. [703-723] And now [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] saw a secluded grove in a receding valley, with rustling woodland thickets, and the river of [pb_glossary id="2422"]Lethe[/pb_glossary] gliding past those peaceful places. Innumerable tribes and peoples hovered round it: just as, in the meadows, on a cloudless summer’s day, the bees settle on the multifarious flowers, and stream round the bright lilies, and all the fields hum with their buzzing. [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] was thrilled by the sudden sight, and, in ignorance, asked the cause: what the river is in the distance, who the men are crowding the banks in such numbers. Then his father [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] answered: ‘They are spirits, owed a second body by destiny, and they drink the happy waters, and a last forgetting, at [pb_glossary id="2422"]Lethe[/pb_glossary]’s stream. Indeed, for a long time I’ve wished to tell you of them, and show you them face to face, to enumerate my children’s descendants, so you might joy with me more at finding Italy.’ ‘O father, is it to be thought that any spirits go from here to the sky above, returning again to dull matter?’ ‘Indeed I’ll tell you, son, not keep you in doubt,’ [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] answered, and revealed each thing in order. [724-751] ‘Firstly, a spirit within them nourishes the sky and earth, the watery plains, the shining orb of the moon, and Titan’s [ [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] ] star, and Mind, flowing through matter, vivifies the whole mass, and mingles with its vast frame. From it come the species of man and beast, and winged lives, and the monsters the sea contains beneath its marbled waves. The power of those seeds is fiery, and their origin divine, so long as harmful matter doesn’t impede them and terrestrial bodies and mortal limbs don’t dull them. Through those they fear and desire, and grieve and joy, and enclosed in night and a dark dungeon, can’t see the light. Why, when life leaves them at the final hour, still all of the evil, all the plagues of the flesh, alas, have not completely vanished, and many things, long hardened deep within, must of necessity be ingrained, in strange ways. So they are scourged by torments, and pay the price for former sins: some are hung, stretched out, to the hollow winds, the taint of wickedness is cleansed for others in vast gulfs, or burned away with fire: each spirit suffers its own: then we are sent through wide [pb_glossary id="4196"]Elysium[/pb_glossary], and we few stay in the joyous fields, for a length of days, till the cycle of time, complete, removes the hardened stain, and leaves pure ethereal thought, and the brightness of natural air. All these others the god calls in a great crowd to the river [pb_glossary id="2422"]Lethe[/pb_glossary], after they have turned the wheel for a thousand years, so that, truly forgetting, they can revisit the vault above, and begin with a desire to return to the flesh.’ [752-776] [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] had spoken, and he drew the [pb_glossary id="4189"]Sibyl[/pb_glossary] and his son, both together, into the middle of the gathering and the murmuring crowd, and chose a hill from which he could see all the long ranks opposite, and watch their faces as they came by him. ‘Come, I will now explain what glory will pursue the children of [pb_glossary id="2720"]Dardanus[/pb_glossary], what descendants await you of the Italian race, illustrious spirits to march onwards in our name, and I will teach you your destiny. See that boy, who leans on a headless spear, he is fated to hold a place nearest the light, first to rise to the upper air, sharing Italian blood, Silvius, of Alban name, your last-born son, who your wife [pb_glossary id="3172"]Lavinia[/pb_glossary], late in your old age, will give birth to in the wood, a king and the father of kings, through whom our race will rule in Alba Longa.[footnote]Anchises here foretells the founding of Rome. For further discussion of the descendants of Aeneas and foundation of Rome, see chapter 32.[/footnote] Next to him is Procas, glory of the Trojan people, and Capys and [pb_glossary id="3177"]Numitor[/pb_glossary], and he who’ll revive your name, Silvius Aeneas, outstanding like you in virtue and arms, if he might at last achieve the Alban throne. What men! See what authority they display, their foreheads shaded by the civic oak-leaf crown! They will build Nomentum, Gabii, and Fidenae’s city: Collatia’s fortress in the hills, Pometii and the Fort of Inus, and Bola, and Cora. Those will be names that are now nameless land. [777-807] Yes, and a child of [pb_glossary id="179"]Mars[/pb_glossary] will join his grandfather to accompany him, [pb_glossary id="3140"]Romulus[/pb_glossary], whom his mother Ilia will bear, of [pb_glossary id="4191"]Assaracus[/pb_glossary]’ line. See how [pb_glossary id="179"]Mars[/pb_glossary]’ twin plumes stand on his crest, and his father marks him out for the world above with his own emblems? Behold, my son, under his command glorious Rome will match earth’s power and heaven’s will, and encircle seven hills with a single wall, happy in her race of men: as [pb_glossary id="170"]Cybele[/pb_glossary], the Berecynthian ‘Great Mother’, crowned with turrets, rides through the Phrygian cities, delighting in her divine children, clasping a hundred descendants, all gods, all dwelling in the heights above. Now direct your eyes here, gaze at this people, your own Romans. Here is Caesar, and all the offspring of Iulus destined to live under the pole of heaven. This is the man, this is him, whom you so often hear promised you, [pb_glossary id="3145"]Augustus[/pb_glossary] Caesar, son of the Deified, who will make a Golden Age again in the fields where [pb_glossary id="169"]Saturn[/pb_glossary] once reigned, and extend the empire beyond the Libyans and the Indians (to a land that lies outside the zodiac’s belt, beyond the sun’s ecliptic and the year’s, where sky-carrying [pb_glossary id="1085"]Atlas[/pb_glossary] turns the sphere, inset with gleaming stars, on his shoulders): Even now the Caspian realms, and Maeotian earth, tremble at divine prophecies of his coming, and the restless mouths of the seven-branched Nile are troubled. Truly, [pb_glossary id="1591"]Hercules[/pb_glossary] never crossed so much of the earth, though he shot the bronze-footed Arcadian deer, brought peace to the woods of Erymanthus, made Lerna tremble at his bow:[footnote]Refers to three of the labours of Heracles: catching the Cerynitian Hind, hunting the Erymanthian Boar, and killing the Lernean Hydra.[/footnote] nor did [pb_glossary id="370"]Bacchus[/pb_glossary], who steers his chariot, in triumph, with reins made of vines, guiding his tigers down from [pb_glossary id="607"]Nysa[/pb_glossary]’s high peak. Do we really hesitate still to extend our power by our actions, and does fear prevent us settling the Italian lands? [808-853] Who is he, though, over there, distinguished by his olive branches, carrying offerings? I know the hair and the white-bearded chin of a king of Rome, [pb_glossary id="3139"]Numa[/pb_glossary], called to supreme authority from little Cures’ poverty-stricken earth, who will secure our first city under the rule of law. Then Tullus will succeed him who will shatter the country’s peace, and call to arms sedentary men, ranks now unused to triumphs. The over-boastful Ancus follows him closely, delighting too much even now in the people’s opinion. Will you look too at [pb_glossary id="3159"]Tarquin[/pb_glossary]’s dynasty, and the proud spirit of Brutus the avenger, the rods of office reclaimed? He’ll be the first to win a consul’s powers and the savage axes, and when the sons foment a new civil war, the father will call them to account, for lovely freedom’s sake: ah, to be pitied, whatever posterity says of his actions: his love of country will prevail, and great appetite for glory. Ah, see over there, the Decii and Drusi, and Torquatus brutal with the axe, and Camillus rescuing the standards. But those others, you can discern, shining in matching armour, souls in harmony now, while they are cloaked in darkness, ah, if they reach the light of the living, what civil war what battle and slaughter, they’ll cause, Julius Caesar, the father-in-law, down from the Alpine ramparts, from the fortress of Monoecus: Pompey, the son-in-law, opposing with Eastern forces. My sons, don’t inure your spirits to such wars, never turn the powerful forces of your country on itself: You be the first to halt, you, who derive your race from heaven: hurl the sword from your hand, who are of my blood! There’s Mummius: triumphing over Corinth, he’ll drive his chariot, victorious, to the high Capitol, famed for the Greeks he’s killed: and Aemilius Paulus, who, avenging his Trojan ancestors, and [pb_glossary id="173"]Minerva[/pb_glossary]’s desecrated shrine, will destroy [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary]’s [pb_glossary id="4671"]Mycenae[/pb_glossary], and Argos, and Perseus the Aeacid himself, descendant of war-mighty [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary]. Who would pass over you in silence, great Cato, or you Cossus, or the Gracchus’ race, or the two Scipios, war’s lightning bolts, the scourges of Libya, or you Fabricius, powerful in poverty, or you, Regulus Serranus, sowing your furrow with seed? Fabii, where do you hurry my weary steps? You, Fabius Maximus, the Delayer, are he who alone renew our State. Others (I can well believe) will hammer out bronze that breathes with more delicacy than us, draw out living features from the marble: plead their causes better, trace with instruments the movement of the skies, and tell the rising of the constellations: remember, Roman, it is for you to rule the nations with your power, (that will be your skill) to crown peace with law, to spare the conquered, and subdue the proud.’ [854-885] So father [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] spoke, and while they marvelled, added: ‘See, how Claudius Marcellus, distinguished by the Supreme Prize, comes forward, and towers, victorious, over other men. As a knight, he’ll support the Roman State, turbulent with fierce confusion, strike the Cathaginians and rebellious Gauls, and dedicate captured weapons, a third time, to father Quirinus.’ And, at this, [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] said (since he saw a youth of outstanding beauty with shining armour, walking with Marcellus, but his face lacking in joy, and his eyes downcast): ‘Father, who is this who accompanies him on his way? His son: or another of his long line of descendants? What murmuring round them! What presence he has! But dark night, with its sad shadows, hovers round his head.’ Then his father [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary], with welling tears, replied: ‘O, do not ask about your people’s great sorrow, my son. The [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary] will only show him to the world, not allow him to stay longer. The Roman people would seem too powerful to you gods, if this gift were lasting. What mourning from mankind that Field of [pb_glossary id="179"]Mars[/pb_glossary] will deliver to the mighty city! And what funeral processions you, [pb_glossary id="3165"]Tiber[/pb_glossary], will see, as you glide past his new-made tomb! No boy of the line of Ilius shall so exalt his Latin ancestors by his show of promise, nor will [pb_glossary id="3140"]Romulus[/pb_glossary]’ land ever take more pride in one of its sons. Alas for virtue, alas for the honour of ancient times, and a hand invincible in war! No one might have attacked him safely when armed, whether he met the enemy on foot, or dug his spurs into the flank of his foaming charger. Ah, boy to be pitied, if only you may shatter harsh fate, you’ll be a Marcellus! Give me handfuls of white lilies, let me scatter radiant flowers, let me load my scion’s spirit with those gifts at least, in discharging that poor duty.’ [886-901] So they wander here and there through the whole region, over the wide airy plain, and gaze at everything. And when [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] has led his son through each place, and inflamed his spirit with love of the glory that is to come, he tells him then of the wars he must soon fight, and teaches him about the Laurentine peoples, and the city of [pb_glossary id="3171"]Latinus[/pb_glossary], and how to avoid or face each trial. There are two gates of [pb_glossary id="616"]Sleep[/pb_glossary]: one of which is said to be of horn, through which an easy passage is given to true shades, the other gleams with the whiteness of polished ivory, but through it the Gods of the Dead send false dreams to the world above. After his words, [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] accompanies his son there, and, frees him, together with the [pb_glossary id="4189"]Sibyl[/pb_glossary], through the ivory gate. [pb_glossary id="212"]Aeneas[/pb_glossary] makes his way to the ships and rejoins his friends: then coasts straight to Caieta’s harbour along the shore. The anchors are thrown from the prows: on the shore the sterns rest. Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidVI.php
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2002 All Rights Reserved

Philosophy of Afterlife

Sections & Primary Sources

The Transmigration of Souls

Virgil, Aeneid, 6.703-751

Plato, Republic, 10.614b-621b

Virgil's depiction of the underworld in the Aeneid Book VI was very influential, especially on Christian ideas of the underworld. It shows influence from a number of different literary sources, including Homer's Odyssey, Book 11 (included above in this chapter) and from the philosopher Plato's "Myth of Er", a story from his Republic Book 10, written in the 4th century BCE. It also reflects ideas from the philosopher Pythagoras, who lived in the 6th century BCE, from stoic philosophy, and from the Cult of Orpheus.

The Transmigration of Souls

In particular, Book VI of the Aeneid contains a description of a Greco-Roman philosophical idea called The Transmigration of Souls, a kind of resurrection whereby souls in the underworld are cleansed of errors from their previous life and, after paying any penalties that they owe, are sent back to earth in new bodies.

Virgil, Aeneid, Book 6 (trans. A. S. Kline)

Latin epic poem, 19 BCE
[703-723] Then his father [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] answered: ‘They are spirits, owed a second body by destiny, and they drink the happy waters, and a last forgetting, at [pb_glossary id="2422"]Lethe[/pb_glossary]’s stream. Indeed, for a long time I’ve wished to tell you of them, and show you them face to face, to enumerate my children’s descendants, so you might joy with me more at finding Italy.’ ‘O father, is it to be thought that any spirits go from here to the sky above, returning again to dull matter?’ ‘Indeed I’ll tell you, son, not keep you in doubt,’ [pb_glossary id="188"]Anchises[/pb_glossary] answered, and revealed each thing in order. [724-751] ‘Firstly, a spirit within them nourishes the sky and earth, the watery plains, the shining orb of the moon, and Titan’s [ [pb_glossary id="876"]Helios[/pb_glossary] ] star, and Mind, flowing through matter, vivifies the whole mass, and mingles with its vast frame. From it come the species of man and beast, and winged lives, and the monsters the sea contains beneath its marbled waves. The power of those seeds is fiery, and their origin divine, so long as harmful matter doesn’t impede them and terrestrial bodies and mortal limbs don’t dull them. Through those they fear and desire, and grieve and joy, and enclosed in night and a dark dungeon, can’t see the light. Why, when life leaves them at the final hour, still all of the evil, all the plagues of the flesh, alas, have not completely vanished, and many things, long hardened deep within, must of necessity be ingrained, in strange ways. So they are scourged by torments, and pay the price for former sins: some are hung, stretched out, to the hollow winds, the taint of wickedness is cleansed for others in vast gulfs, or burned away with fire: each spirit suffers its own: then we are sent through wide [pb_glossary id="4196"]Elysium[/pb_glossary], and we few stay in the joyous fields, for a length of days, till the cycle of time, complete, removes the hardened stain, and leaves pure ethereal thought, and the brightness of natural air. All these others the god calls in a great crowd to the river [pb_glossary id="2422"]Lethe[/pb_glossary], after they have turned the wheel for a thousand years, so that, truly forgetting, they can revisit the vault above, and begin with a desire to return to the flesh.’ Taken from: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidVI.php#anchor_Toc2242938
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2002 All Rights Reserved

This idea had been described much earlier, in the 4th century BCE, by Plato, in Book 10 of his Republic.

Plato, Republic, Book 10 (trans. P. Shorey, adapted by P. Rogak)

Greek Socratic dialogue, ca. 335 BCE

Plato's Republic is a dialogue in which Socrates discusses the structure of society and the human condition with various characters. Socrates concludes his discussion of morality (which he defines in terms of "just" and "unjust") by telling Glaucon the "Myth of Er." Socrates tells that, after being killed in battle, Er was sent back to life to tell people about what he saw in the afterlife.
"He [ [pb_glossary id="4202"]Er[/pb_glossary] ] once upon a time was killed in battle, and when the corpses were taken up on the tenth day already decayed, he was found intact. Having been brought home, at the moment of his funeral, on the twelfth day as he lay upon the pyre, he revived, and after coming to life told about what, he said, he had seen in the world beyond. He said that when his soul went forth from his body, he journeyed with a great group of people, [614c] and that they came to a mysterious region where there were two openings side by side in the earth, and above and over against them in the heavens two others, and that judges were sitting between these, and that after every judgement they told the righteous to journey to the right and upwards through the heaven with tokens attached to them in front of the judgement passed upon them, and the unjust to take the road to the left and downward, they too wearing behind signs [614d] of all that had befallen them. [He said] that when he himself drew near, they [the judges] told him that he must be the messenger to mankind to tell them of that other world, and they charged him to give ear and to observe everything in the place. And so he said that here he saw, by each opening of heaven and earth, the souls departing after judgement had been passed upon them, while, by the other pair of openings, there came up from the one in the earth souls full of squalor and dust, and from the second there came down from heaven a second procession of souls clean and pure, [614e] and that those which arrived from time to time appeared to have come as it were from a long journey and gladly departed to the meadow and encamped there as at a festival, and acquaintances greeted one another, and those which came from the earth questioned the others about conditions up yonder, and those from heaven asked how it fared with those others. And they told their stories to one another, the one lamenting [615a] and wailing as they recalled how many and how dreadful things they had suffered and seen in their journey beneath the earth—it lasted a thousand years—while those from heaven related their delights and visions of a beauty beyond words. To tell it all, Glaucon, would take all our time, but the summary, he said, was this: for all the wrongs they had ever done to anyone and all whom they had severally wronged, they had paid the penalty in turn tenfold for each, and the measure of this was by periods of a hundred years each, [615b] so that on the assumption that this was the length of human life the punishment might be ten times the crime; as for example that if anyone had been the cause of many deaths or had betrayed cities and armies and reduced them to slavery, or had been participant in any other iniquity, they might receive in punishment pains tenfold for each of these wrongs. And again if any had done deeds of kindness and been just [615c] and holy men, they might receive their due reward in the same measure. And other things not worthy of record he said of those who had just been born and lived but a short time. And he had to tell of still greater rewards and punishments for piety and impiety towards the gods and parents and for self-slaughter. For he said that he stood by when one was questioned by another: ‘Where is Ardiaeus the Great?’ Now this Ardiaeus had been tyrant in a certain city of Pamphylia just a thousand years before that time and had put to death his old father [615d] and his elder brother, and had done many other unholy deeds, as was the report. So he said that the one questioned replied, ‘He has not come,’ said he, ‘nor will he be likely to come here. For indeed this was one of the dreadful sights we beheld: when we were near the mouth and about to issue forth and all our other sufferings were ended, we suddenly caught sight of him and of others, most of them, I may say, tyrants. But there were some [615e] of private station, of those who had committed great crimes. And when these supposed that at last they were about to go up and out, the mouth would not receive them, but it bellowed when anyone of the incurably wicked or of those who had not completed their punishment tried to come up. And then,’ he said, ‘fierce men of fiery aspect who stood by and took orders from the voice took hold of them and carried them away. But Ardiaeus [616a] and others they bound hand and foot and head, and flung down and flayed them and dragged them by the wayside, carding them on thorns and signifying to those who from time to time passed by for what cause they were taken away, and that they were to be hurled into [pb_glossary id="367"]Tartarus[/pb_glossary]. And then, though many and diverse terrible things had happened to them, this fear exceeded all: that each one should hear the voice when he tried to go up, and each went up most gladly when it had kept silent. And the judgements and penalties were somewhat like this, [616b] and the blessings were their counterparts. But when seven days had elapsed for each group in the meadow, they were required to rise up on the eighth and journey on, and they came in four days to a spot from where they could see, extended from above throughout the heaven and the earth, a straight light like a pillar, most nearly resembling the rainbow, but brighter and purer. To this they came [616c] after going forward a day's journey, and they saw there at the middle of the light the extremities of its fastenings stretched from heaven; for this light was the girdle of the heavens like the undergirders of triremes [ships], holding together in a similar manner the entire revolving vault. And from the extremities was stretched the spindle of [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary], through which all the orbits turned. Its staff and its hook were made of adamant, and the whorl of these and other kinds was mixed. And the nature of the whorl was this: [616d] Its shape was that of those [spindles] in our world, but from his description we must imagine it to be as if in one great whorl, hollow and scooped out, there lay enclosed, right through, another like it but smaller, fitting into it as boxes that fit into one another, and in like manner another, a third, and a fourth, and four others, for there were eight of the whorls in all, lying within one another, [616e] showing their rims as circles from above and forming the continuous back of a single whorl about the shaft, which was driven home through the middle of the eighth. Now the first and outermost whorl had the broadest circular rim, that of the sixth was second, and third was that of the fourth, and fourth was that of the eighth, fifth that of the seventh, sixth that of the fifth, seventh that of the third, eighth that of the second; and that of the greatest was spangled, that of the seventh brightest, that of the eighth [617a] took its color from the seventh, which shone upon it. The colors of the second and fifth were like one another and more yellow than the two former. The third had the whitest color, and the fourth was of a slightly ruddy hue; the sixth was second in whiteness. The staff turned as a whole in a circle with the same movement, but within the whole as it revolved the seven inner circles revolved gently in the opposite direction to the whole, and of these seven the eighth moved most swiftly, [617b] and next and together with one another the seventh, sixth and fifth; and third in swiftness, as it appeared to them, moved the fourth with returns upon itself, and fourth the third and fifth the second. And the spindle turned on the knees of [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary], and up above on each of the rims of the circles a [pb_glossary id="343"]Siren[/pb_glossary] stood, borne around in its revolution and uttering one sound, one note, and from all the eight there was the concord of a single harmony. And there were another three [617c] who sat around at equal intervals, each one on her throne, the [pb_glossary id="605"]Fates[/pb_glossary], daughters of [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary], dressed in white vestments with filleted heads: Lachesis, and Clotho, and Atropos, who sang in unison with the music of the [pb_glossary id="343"]Sirens[/pb_glossary], Lachesis singing the things that were, Clotho the things that are, and Atropos the things that are to be. And Clotho with the touch of her right hand helped to turn the outer circumference of the spindle, pausing from time to time. Atropos with her left hand in like manner helped to turn the inner circles, and Lachesis [617d] alternately with either hand lent a hand to each. “Now when they arrived they were immediately told to go before Lachesis, and then a certain prophet first marshalled them in orderly intervals, and thereupon took from the lap of Lachesis lots and patterns of lives and went up to a lofty platform and spoke, ‘This is the word of Lachesis, the maiden daughter of [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary]: “Souls that live for a day, now is the beginning of another cycle of mortal generation where birth is the beacon of death. [617e] No divinity will cast lots for you, but you will choose your own deity. Let him to whom falls the first lot first select a life to which he will go, of necessity. But [pb_glossary id="4204"]Virtue[/pb_glossary] has no master, and each will have more or less of it as he honours or dishonours it. The blame is his who chooses: the god is blameless.“’ So saying, the prophet flung the lots out among them all, and each took up the lot that fell by his side, except himself; him they did not permit. And whoever took up a lot saw plainly what number he had drawn. [618a] And after this again the prophet placed the patterns of lives before them on the ground, far more numerous than the assembly. They were of every variety, for there were lives of all kinds of animals and all sorts of human lives, for there were tyrannies among them, some uninterrupted until the end and others destroyed midway and resulting in penuries and exiles and beggaries; and there were lives of men of repute for their forms and beauty and bodily strength [618b] and prowess and the high birth and the virtues of their ancestors, and others of ill repute in the same things, and similarly of women. But there was no determination of the quality of soul, because the choice of a different life inevitably determined a different character. But all other things were mixed with one another and with wealth and poverty and sickness and health and the intermediate conditions. —And there, dear Glaucon, it appears, is the supreme hazard for a man. [618c] And this is the main reason why it should be our main concern that each of us, neglecting all other studies, should seek after and study this thing: if in any way he may be able to learn of and discover the man who will give him the ability and the knowledge to distinguish the life that is good from that which is bad, and always and everywhere to choose the best that the conditions allow, and, taking into account all the things of which we have spoken and estimating the effect on the goodness of his life of their conjunction or their severance, to know how beauty mixed with poverty or wealth and combined with [618d] what habit of soul operates for good or for evil, and what are the effects of high and low birth and private station and office and strength and weakness and quickness of apprehension and dullness and all similar natural and acquired habits of the soul, when blended and combined with one another, so that with consideration of all these things he will be able to make a reasoned choice between the better and the worse life, [618e] with his eyes fixed on the nature of his soul, naming the worse life that which will tend to make it more unjust and the better that which will make it more just. But all other considerations he will dismiss, for we have seen that this is the best choice, [619a] both for life and death. And a man must take with him to the house of death an adamantine [strong] faith in this, that even there he may be undazzled by riches and similar trumpery, and may not throw himself into tyrannies and similar doings and so work many evils past cure and suffer still greater himself, but may know how always to choose in such things the life that is seated in the middle and shun the excess in either direction, both in this world so far as may be and in all the life to come; [619b] for this is the greatest happiness for man. “And at that time also the messenger from that other world reported that the prophet spoke thus: ‘Even for him who comes forward last, if he makes his choice wisely and lives strenuously, there is reserved an acceptable life, no evil one. Let not the first to choose be careless nor the last be discouraged.’ When the prophet had thus spoken, he said that the drawer of the first lot at once sprang to seize the greatest tyranny, and that in his folly and greed he chose it [619c] without sufficient examination, and failed to observe that it involved the fate of eating his own children, and other horrors, and that when he inspected it at leisure he beat his breast and bewailed his choice, not listening to the forewarning of the prophet. For he did not blame himself for his woes, but fortune and the gods and anything except himself. He was one of those who had come down from heaven, a man who had lived in a well-ordered polity in his former existence, [619d] participating in virtue by habit and not by philosophy; and one may perhaps say that a majority of those who were thus caught were of the company that had come from heaven, inasmuch as they were unexercised in suffering. But most of those who came up from the earth, since they had themselves suffered and seen the sufferings of others, did not make their choice hastily. For which reason also there was an interchange of good and evil for most of the souls, as well as because of the chances of the lot. Yet if at each return to the life of this world [619e] a man loved wisdom sanely, and the lot of his choice did not fall out among the last, we may venture to affirm, from what was reported thence, that not only will he be happy here but that the path of his journey there and the return to this world will not be underground and rough but smooth and through the heavens. For he said that it was a sight worth seeing to observe how the several souls selected their lives. [620a] He said it was a strange, pitiful, and ridiculous spectacle, as the choice was determined for the most part by the habits of their former lives. He saw the soul that had been [pb_glossary id="950"]Orpheus[/pb_glossary]’, he said, selecting the life of a swan, because from hatred of the tribe of women, owing to his death at their hands, it was unwilling to be conceived and born of a woman. He saw the soul of Thamyras choosing the life of a nightingale; and he saw a swan changing to the choice of the life of man, and similarly other musical animals. [620b] The soul that drew the twentieth lot chose the life of a lion; it was the soul of [pb_glossary id="2076"]Ajax[/pb_glossary], the son of [pb_glossary id="1447"]Telamon[/pb_glossary], which, because it remembered the adjudication of the arms of [pb_glossary id="1582"]Achilles[/pb_glossary], was unwilling to become a man. The next, the soul of [pb_glossary id="1561"]Agamemnon[/pb_glossary], likewise from hatred of the human race because of its sufferings, substituted the life of an eagle. Drawing one of the middle lots, the soul of [pb_glossary id="1662"]Atalanta[/pb_glossary] caught sight of the great honours attached to an athlete's life and could not pass them by but snatched at them. [620c] After her, he said, he saw the soul of [pb_glossary id="2771"]Epeius[/pb_glossary], the son of Panopeus, entering into the nature of an arts and crafts woman. Far off in the rear he saw the soul of the buffoon [pb_glossary id="2717"]Thersites[/pb_glossary] clothing itself in the body of an ape. And it fell out that the soul of [pb_glossary id="1495"]Odysseus[/pb_glossary] drew the last lot of all and came to make its choice, and, from memory of its former toils having flung away ambition, went about for a long time in quest of the life of an ordinary citizen who minded his own business, and with difficulty found it lying in some corner disregarded by the others, [620d] and upon seeing it said that it would have done the same had it drawn the first lot, and chose it gladly. And in a similar way, of the other beasts some entered into men and into one another, the unjust into wild creatures, the just transformed to tame, and there was every kind of mixture and combination. But when, to conclude, all the souls had chosen their lives in the order of their lots, they were marshalled and went before Lachesis. And she sent with each, [620e] as the guardian of his life and the fulfiller of his choice, the genius that he had chosen, and this divinity led the soul first to Clotho, under her hand and her turning of the spindle to ratify the destiny of his lot and choice; and after contact with her the genius again led the soul to the spinning of Atropos to make the web of its destiny irreversible, and then without a backward look it passed beneath the throne of [pb_glossary id="2664"]Necessity[/pb_glossary],. [621a] And after it had passed through that, when the others also had passed, they all journeyed to the Plain of Oblivion, through a terrible and stifling heat, for it was bare of trees and all plants, and there they camped at eventide by the River of Forgetfulness [ the river [pb_glossary id="2422"]Lethe[/pb_glossary] ], whose waters no vessel can contain. They were all required to drink a measure of the water, and those who were not saved by their good sense drank more than the measure, and each one as he drank forgot all things. [621b] And after they had fallen asleep and it was the middle of the night, there was a sound of thunder and a quaking of the earth, and they were suddenly blown from there, one this way, one that, upward to their birth like shooting stars. [pb_glossary id="4202"]Er[/pb_glossary] himself, he said, was not allowed to drink of the water, yet how and in what way he returned to the body he said he did not know, but suddenly recovering his sight he saw himself at dawn lying on the funeral pyre.—And so, Glaucon, the tale was saved, as the saying is, and was not lost.” Taken from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168%3Abook%3D10%3Asection%3D614b

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