The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics) (33 page)

founded a city
: called Salmone (Strabo 7. 3. 31); Elis was in the north-west Peloponnese. On Salmoneus, see also Virgil
Aen
. 6. 585 ff.

Poseidon had intercourse with her
: see
Od
. 11. 235 ff.

Pelias
: so called because he had been left with a livid or black-and-blue mark
(pelion ti)
, resembling a bruise (or a birthmark).

Sidero
: see DS 4. 68. 2, she married Salmoneus after the death of Tyro’s mother, Alcidice, and treated Tyro harshly ‘as a stepmother would’; it seems that no further explanation is required. Her name suggests that she had an
iron
nature.

in Messene, he founded Pylos
: Nestor’s ‘sandy Pylos’ (
Il
. 9. 295 etc.) lay in the south-western Peloponnese, but it has been disputed since ancient times whether it should be identified with the Messenian Pylos near Sphacteria (as assumed here) or with the Pylos that lay further north in the west-central province of Triphylia. The archaeological evidence suggests that the former was the city behind the legend (although there are elements in Homer’s accounts, notably in
Il
. 11. 711 ff., which favour the more northerly location). Strabo argued for the Triphylian location (8. 3. 7).

he was killed by Heracles
: for his attack on Pylos, see p. 87. The story of Periclymenos’ death was told in Hes.
Cat
. (fr. 33b): Athene told him who the bee was, and Heracles killed it with an arrow. In the later tradition Heracles is also said to have shot him as an eagle (Ov.
Met
. 12. 549 ff., Hyg. 10) or swatted him as a fly (sc. AR 1. 156). He was granted his powers of transformation by his grandfather Poseidon (Hes.
Cat
. fr. 33a. 13 ff.).

purified his ears
: snakes, as chthonic creatures, are naturally associated with prophecy, and other seers (e.g. Cassandra and Helenos, according to one tradition, Tzetz. Arg. Lye.) are said to have acquired their prophetic powers in this way.

could understand. . . the birds flying overhead
: the interpretation of bird-flights was an important aspect of technical divination, but this takes us into the realm of magic.

Phylacos
: for his birth, see p. 44; Phylace lay in south-eastern Thessaly.

Melampous promised his assistance
: the basic elements of the following story can be found in Homer,
Od
. 11. 287 ff., without the name of the seer, or, predictably, the talking woodworms; we are simply told that Iphicles released Melampous in return for the oracles that he had delivered for him (ibid. 297 f., cf. P. 4. 36. 3).

gelding lambs . . . took fright
: in Pherecydes’ version (sc.
Od
. 11, 287), his father pursued him with his knife because he saw him doing something improper (masturbating presumably) and there is no mention
of the gelding; but the original story may have included both elements. This caused Iphicles to become impotent.

scraped off the rust. . . in a drink
: because the rust comes from the instrument that inflicted the harm, it will also cure it, following a basic principle of sympathetic magic (compare the cure of Telephos on p. 150).

the women of Argos mad
: see p. 63 (where this story is combined with the story of the cure of Proitos’ daughters) and note.

Apollo mas serving him
: for the circumstances, see pp. 119—20. Apollo performs the following favours in gratitude for the kind treatment that he has received from Admetos (cf. Hyg. 50).

coils of snakes
: as creatures of the earth, they are portents of death; hence the favour that Apollo asks of the Fates.

Kore sent her back
: out of pity and admiration for her self-sacrifice (cf. Plato
Symposium
179c). Kore is a name for Persephone (see p. 33 and note).

Heracles fought with Hades for her
: as in Eur.
Alcestis
(although the theme goes back to Phrynichos, an early Athenian tragedian); after blundering into Admetos’ house at the time of Alcestis’ funeral, Heracles rescued her out of gratitude for Admetos’ hospitality and remorse for his own tactless behaviour. In the play, he wrestled not with Hades personally, but with Death (Thanatos) when he came up for his prey.

Pelias. . . succeeded Cretheus
: Jason’s father, Aison, might have been expected to succeed his father Cretheus on the Iolcian throne, so the position of Pelias (the son of Tyro by Poseidon and thus Aison’s half-brother) was at least dubious. Ap. is uninformative on the background; in Hes.
Cat
. fr. 40, and Pind.
Pyth
. 4. 102 ff. (where Pelias is definitely a usurper), Jason was reared in the country by the Centaur Cheiron.

the wrath of Hera
: for its cause, see p. 45; Medea will return from Colchis with Jason and cause Pelias’ death, p. 57.

the golden fleece
: for its origins see p. 43.

Colchis
: a land south of the Caucasus at the eastern end of the Black Sea; a remote area for the early Greeks.

the Argo after its builder
: it is likely that its name was originally derived from the adjective
argos
, meaning swift (mentioned in DS 4. 41. 3, as an alternative etymology).

Dodona
: an ancient oracle of Zeus at Epirus in north-western Greece (known to Homer,
Il
. 16. 233–5). The great oak, whose
rustling leaves were supposed to reveal the will of Zeus, was a suitable source for the speaking (and oracular) timber.

they set out to sea
: for further details on all the following, see Ap.’s main source, the
Argonautica
of Apollonius of Rhodes; this is a relatively late epic dating from the third century
BC
, but it draws extensively on early sources. Significant divergences will be noted.

Polyphemos
: a Lapith from Thessaly, who is said by Homer,
Il
. 1. 264 ff., to have played a heroic role in the war between the Lapiths and the Centaurs (see p. 142): he was married to Heracles’ sister Laonome (sc. AR 1. 1241a).

snatched away by nymphs
: Hylas was drawn into the spring by a water-nymph (AR 1. 1228 ff.) or nymphs (three in Theocritus
Idyll
13. 43 ff.), and was never seen again; in AR 1, 1310 ff. the prophetic sea-god Glaucos appears to the Argonauts and tells them that a nymph has made him her husband.

There they abandoned Heracles. . . leader of the Argonauts
: the initial narrative follows AR 1. 1207 ff. Views on Heracles’ involvement in the expedition vary greatly. Some deny that he ever joined the expedition (e.g. Herodoros, mentioned here, a fifth-fourth-century mythographer, and Ephoros, the fourth-century historian, and doubtless the earliest tradition). According to the sixth-century Hesiodic
Marriage of Ceux
he was left behind accidentally at Aphetai when sent for water (sc. AR 1. 1289); but the Hylas story, probably of later origin (fifth century?), is most favoured by later authors. Only in late novelistic accounts (e.g. by Dionysios ‘the leather-armed’, second/first century, cited here) does he travel all the way to Colchis and, inevitably, overshadow Jason.

by Boreas . . . their stepmother
: see p. 135 and note.

the Harpies
: for their parentage see p. 29, cf.
Theog
. 265 ff. The meaning of their name, ‘Snatchers’, is reflected in their characteristic action of swooping down and snatching away people (or here, Phineus’ food).

failed to catch those they pursued
: so here both of them die, because the Harpies fall down exhausted before they can catch them; for the birth of the Boreads, and another account of their death, see p. 134 and notes. Boreas was the North Wind, so it is natural that his sons should be swift-moving and winged.

Ocypode according to Hesiod
: not in
Theog
. 267, where the Harpies are called Aello and
Ocypete
(meaning swift flier as against Ocypode, swift of foot), but this may be a reference to Hes.
Cat
. (which contained an account of the pursuit, frs. 150–7).

Strophades
: these islands, which lie to the west of the Peloponnese opposite Messenia, mark the point where she ‘turned’
(estraphe)
. Ap. is wrong to suggest that this name was given to the Echinadian Islands (which were known under that name in historical times, and lie further north, near the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf facing Acarnania); according to AR 2. 297, the islands thus renamed were formerly known as the Plotai or ‘Floating Islands’.

in the Argonautica
: see 2. 284 ff. Iris (who was the messenger of the gods, but was acting on her own initiative here, presumably as a sister of the Harpies,
Theog
. 266 f.) intervened to say that the Harpies were simply performing their duties as the ‘hounds of Zeus’ and it was unlawful to destroy them. AR is misreported on the oath, for it is Iris who swore that the Harpies would never approach Phineus again. They departed to their den in Crete.

that Cadmos had sowed at Thebes
: see p. 100; not of course the same teeth, but half of the teeth from the Theban dragon that Athene (or Athene and Ares, sc. Pind.
Isth
. 4. 13, citing Pherecydes) had held back and given to Aietes, cf. AR 3. 1183 f. This is a secondary motif, directly modelled on the Theban story.

a potion
: see AR 3. 844 ff; extracted from the Colchicum, or autumn crocus, which came into existence when the blood from the tormented Prometheus, p. 36, fell to the earth. The drug from its seed, used until modern times for treating rheumatism and gout, is here endowed with magical properties.

he put them under the yoke
: on the bulls and their yoking by Jason, see also Pind.
Pyth
. 4. 224–41.

murdered her brother
: Ap. prefers an earlier and more primitive version of this story to that in AR 4. 303 ff. where Apsyrtos is of military age and is sent in pursuit of Jason and Medea by his father, and is treacherously killed by Jason in a temple of Artemis on an island at the mouth of the Danube. Ap.’s version is similar to that in Pherecydes (sc. AR 4. 223 and 226), but there Medea takes the infant child from his bed in Colchis on Jason’s instructions, and Jason participates in the killing and dismemberment. In the earlier tradition and AR alike the murder is of central importance as the cause of the Argonauts’ diversion to the western Mediterranean.

Tomoi
: meaning ‘Pieces’; on the western shore of the Black Sea.

past the Ligurian and Celtic peoples
: cf. AR 4. 646 f. In AR (592 ff.) they sail from the Adriatic up the Eridanos (or Po), down the Rhone, and then towards Italy and along its coast. The Ligurians lived in
north-western Italy and the eastern Riviera, and the Celts to the west and north of that; the vagueness of the language here may be deliberate, reflecting the author’s awareness that the river voyage is geographically impossible.

Aiaie
: a mythical island, cf.
Od
. 10. 135 ff. Although Homer placed her island in the remote east (in
Od
. 12. 3–4, it is described as the home of Dawn and associated with the rising Sun), the fabulous realms familiar from the
Odyssey
are now located firmly in the west.

to counter their own
: as the finest of singers himself, p. 30, Orpheus could reasonably expect to outcharm the Sirens (cf. Hyg. 14); in AR 4. 905 ff. it is largely a matter of volume.

the island of the Phaeacians
: see
Od
. 6–8; here identified with Corcyra, now Corfu.

a violent storm
: the Argonauts encounter a storm in AR also when they leave Phaeacia, but it drives them to the coast of Africa (4. 1232 ff.). It is surprising that Ap. should omit all mention of the traditions connecting the Argonauts with Libya, for the theme is of early origin. The occasion for their visit varies. In one version, they return from Colchis by an eastward route along the River Phasis to the Ocean and thence the Red Sea, and then carry the
Argo
from there to Libya (sc. AR 4. 259 and 282, cf. Pind.
Pyth
. 4. 25 ff); in Hdt. 4. 179 ff. they are driven there by a storm on the voyage out, but in DS 4. 56. 6 on their return as in AR.

Anaphe
: its name is traced to the way in which it ‘appeared’ (from
anaphainein)
before the Argonauts. One of the southernmost Aegean islands, next to Thera (Santorini); but it is north of Crete, and in AR (4. 1717) they came to Anaphe after their encounter with Talos in Crete, on their voyage north from Africa.

make jokes
: see AR 4. 1720 ff.; the story explains why the local women directed obscene jokes at the men when sacrifices were made to Apollo on Anaphe.

a man of bronze
: to be understood literally, cf. AR 4. 1638 ff.; and it is thus natural that Hephaistos, famed as a creator of automata (see
Il
. 18. 373 ff. and 417 ff.), should have constructed him. That some (e.g. AR 4. 1641 f.) should have associated him with Hesiod’s race of bronze (see Hes.
WD
143 ff.) is understandable, but Hesiod was speaking metaphorically when he named his sequence of races after different metals.

a bull
: otherwise unattested, but not unduly surprising in the Cretan context (cf. pp. 97 f).

a single vein
: AR speaks of a vein at his ankle covered by a thin layer of skin (4. 1646 ff.), but there is no mention of the bronze nail which acts as a stopper, an appealingly archaic element preserved here. Talos would be invulnerable if it were not for this vein.

the ichor flowed away
: the fluid of life (originally a term for the fluid that takes the place of blood in the gods,
Il
. 5. 339 ff., but later used in a more general sense for animal serum). In AR 4. 1665 ff., Medea invokes the Keres, spirits of death, with songs and prayers, and when Talos tries to hurl boulders to repel them, he grazes his ankle on a rock, causing the ichor to pour out like molten lead. The alternative in which Poias (the father of Philoctetes who lit Heracles’ pyre, p. 91) shoots him in the ankle implies the same cause of death.