§ i  [translators' comments] We are certainly thankful that Helmut van Thiel decided to publish his Scholia D in Iliadem in digital, open-source form. ... We have also benefitted from the careful work of Joan Pagès, whose 2007 Barcelona dissertation, Mythographus Homericus: estudii edició comentada, and other subsequent work have been invaluable to understanding the mythographical stories in the D scholia. Finally, a recent publication is worth noting for those who want to know more about the Homeric Mythographer: Joan Pagès and Nereida Villagra, eds. Myths on the Margins of Homer: Prolegomena to the “Mythographus Homericus” (2022). [text] marks an editorial addition to help the reader understand the text. [...] denotes non-mythological material omitted from the translation. {text} gives an etymological note, whether explaining a Greek word or giving the Greek where it shows how names were derived. <...> means that there is something missing in the text itself, usually through a mistake or accident when scribes copied the text, and that we are not confident enough to provide a guess. indicates the material that we think dropped out of the text or our best guess to offer the reader some context. The translations were a collective effort, part of the Greek Myth Lab at the University of New Hampshire, which included undergraduates and occasionally advanced high school students. The original translators are noted by initials after the translation; the final document has been standardized and edited by Scott Smith. The contributors are: AP: Allina Podgurski; AT: Ari Toumpas; ChR: Christian Rhoads; CR: Camden Roy; DBD: Don Bart Doyle; JC: Jacob Compagna; JL: Joseph Laufer; KB: Kennis Barker; MR: Melina Ryan; RSS: R. Scott Smith.

§ 1.2  Achaians (Ἀχαιοῖς) The Greeks {Hellenes}
. Xouthos, the son of Aiolos, married Creousa, the daughter of Erechtheus, and had by her two sons, Ion and Achaios. Of these, Ion lived in Athens, while Achaios, having murdered one of his family members, went to Thessaly, became ruler of the land, and named his subjects “Achaians” after him. All the people of Hellas were collectively called “Hellenes” after Hellen son of Zeus. The first to be called this were people in Thessaly, and not even all of them—only those in the city of Hellas had that name. Later, after Hellen and his children became extremely powerful, all were called “Hellenes” after him. [RSS]

§ 1.5  And the plan of Zeus was brought to pass (Διὸς δ’ ἐτελείετο βουλή)
[...] Others have said that Homer’s statement derived from a certain historia: they say that Ge [Earth] was being burdened by an excessive number of humans, and there was no piety among them. So she asked Zeus to lighten her load. Zeus immediately acted, first creating the Theban War, through which he destroyed a lot of people. And later, taking Momos [Blame] as his counselor, he married Thetis off to a mortal and fathered a beautiful daughter, and from these two things a war arose between the Greeks and barbarians. And this is how it happened that the earth was lightened, with a bunch of people being killed off. The story is in Stasinos, the author of the Cypria (fr. 1 Davies). [RSS]

§ 1.7  Son of Atreus (Ἀτρείδης)
The son of Atreus is Agamemnon. According to Homer Agamemnon is the son of Atreus, the son of Pelops, and his mother was Aerope. According to Hesiod (fr. 194 MW = 137a Most) he was son of Pleisthenes. Agamemnon was Mycenaean by birth and led a fleet to Troy. After he sacked Troy and returned home, he was treacherously killed while feasting by Aigisthos, the son of Thyestes, who had taken advantage of his absence and seduced Agamemnon’s wife, Clytaimnestra. According to the tragedians, it was Clytaimnestra herself who killed him after giving him a cloak without hole for his head. By her Agamemnon had a son, Orestes, and four daughters, Laodice, Chrysothemis, Iphigeneia, and Electra. [RSS]

§ 1.9  the son of Leto and Zeus (Λητοῦς καὶ Διὸς υἱός)
The son of Leto and Zeus is Apollo. [...] Zeus desired Leto, the daughter of Coios (one of the Titans) and Phoibe, and impregnated her. She, after nine months went by, traveled through the sea to the island of Asteria, one of the Cyclades. When she got there, she grasped two trees, an olive and a palm, and gave birth to twins, Artemis and Apollo, and she called the island Delos because it became rooted in one place instead of being in an obscure {adēlos} position. [RSS]

§ 1.10  the host (λαοί)
A mass of soldiers. Stones are called “laes” in a certain dialect. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus. He was ruler over the region around Phthia and married Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, whom the gods fashioned as the first woman. When Zeus wanted to destroy the Bronze Race, Deucalion on Prometheus’ instructions built a chest, loaded the necessary provisions onto it, and boarded it with Pyrrha. Zeus poured torrential rains from heaven and flooded most of Hellas, resulting in the deaths of all people except those few who fled to the nearby high mountains. Then Tempe, the valley in Thessaly, also split apart and everything outside of the Isthmos and the Peloponnesos was flooded. Deucalion was carried through the sea in the chest for nine days and nine nights and landed on Parnassus. There, when the rainstorms came to an end, he disembarked and sacrificed to Zeus Phyxios. Zeus sent Hermes to him and told him to ask what he wanted. Deucalion asked that people be born for him; on Zeus’ instructions, he picked up and threw rocks over his head. The stones that Deucalion threw became men; those that Pyrrha threw became women. This story is found in Apollodorus (Bibl. 1.46–48 = 1.7.2). [RSS]

§ 1.14  holding wreaths in his hands (στέμματ’ ἔχων ἐν χερσίν)
Daphne was the especially beautiful daughter of Ladon, the river in Arcadia. Apollo desired her and, wanting to sleep with her, started chasing her. Just as the god was overtaking her, they say, she prayed to her mother Ge [Earth] to open up and receive her. After this happened and the Earth sent up a tree that bears her name, Apollo saw it and was stunned. He named the tree daphne {“laurel”} after the name of the maiden. He took the branches and wreathed himself with them. [RSS]

§ 1.38a  “and sacred Cilla” (Κίλλαν τε ζαθέην)
Pelops son of Tantalos, as payment for giving up his youthful beauty, got a team of unbroken horses from Poseidon along with a chariot. He then hurried off to Pisa in hopes of marrying Hippodameia, desirous of prevailing over her father, the suitor-killing Oinomaos. When he was in the area of the Troad called “Lesbotis,” beside the region of the Andraioi, his charioteer Cillos died. Cillos visited Pelops, who was greatly grieving his death, in a dream. He lamented his own demise and demanded Pelops provide him a proper funeral. Because of this, when Pelops woke up, he burned Cillos’ image in fire, and then buried his ashes in grand fashion, heaping a burial mound on top of him and building a shrine next to it. He called it the shrine of Apollo Cillaios because of the fact that Cillos died unexpectedly. What is more, he also founded a city and called it Cilla. Cillos, meanwhile, evidently assisted Pelops even after death, helping him defeat Oinomaos in the race. This story is in Theopompus (FGrHist 115 fr. 350). [RSS]

§ 1.38b  Of Tenedos (Τενέδοιό τε)
[...] Tenedos is an island lying in view of Troy. Earlier it did not yet have this name, since Tennes and Leucothea had not yet been born to Cycnos son of Poseidon. The people back then called it Leucophrys. When Tennes and Leucothea were born to Cycnos, their mother did not survive, and Cycnos got remarried to Phylonome (some say is was to Polyboia). Phylonome — Tennes was already a grown man — desired him and sent him messages about getting together. He dutifully made sure the bonds of nature were not broken, so she accused him before his father of having tried to rape her. Believing her accusation, Cycnos arrested his son, put him into a chest, and threw it into the nearby sea. But Poseidon saved him because of his self-control and because he was his grandson. He made the chest land on the island of Leucophrys. After the people there saw the chest, opened it up, and learned what had happened, they not only made him their king, they also named the island Tenedos after him. [RSS]

§ 1.39  Smintheus (Σμινθεῦ)
This is an epithet of Apollo. Sminthos is a place in the Troad where there is a shrine of Apollo Smintheus. The reason is as follows. There was a certain Crinis who lived in Chryse, a city in Mysia, and he was a priest of the Apollo that was worshipped there. The god got angry with him and sent mice against the fields, which kept ruining the crops. Eventually, the god wanted to reconcile with him and came to Ordes, who was in charge of Crinis’ herds. Kindly received by him, the god promised to free him from the blight and at once shot and killed the mice. As the god was leaving, he ordered him to reveal his epiphany to Crinis. When he did, Crinis established a shrine to the god and gave him the epithet “Smintheus,” since according to their local dialect mice are called sminthoi. The story is in Polemon (fr. 31 Preller). Others have said the following. When the Cretans were sending out a colony, they received an oracle from Apollo that told them to found a city wherever they were opposed by “the earthborn” (he was talking about mice). They sent the colonists out. When they got to the Hellespont, during the night mice gnawed through the straps of their armor. When they got up in the morning and saw what had happened, they put their heads together and founded a city there which they called Sminthia because the Cretans call mice sminthoi. Apollo is called Smintheus because he defended this city. [RSS]

§ 1.42  Danaans (Δαναοί)
The Greeks. Here’s the story. Belos, the brother of Agenor and the son of Poseidon and Libya (after whom the land got the name “Libya”), ruled the Egyptians. He married Anchinoe, the daughter of the Nile, and had twin children, Aigyptos and Danaos. Belos settled Danaos in Libya, Aigyptos in Arabia. The latter subdued the land of the Melampodai {“Blackfeet”} and named the land “Egypt” after himself. By many wives Aigyptos had fifty sons and Danaos had fifty daughters. The two quarreled over power. Later, Danaos became afraid of Aigyptos’ sons because he had heard from an oracle that he was going to be murdered by one of them. On Athena’s instructions he built the ship that was called the “Fifty-Oar” after the number of his daughters—the first of its kind. He put the girls onto it and fled. He landed on Rhodes where he dedicated the statue of Lindian Athena. From there he went to Argos, where Gelanor, who was ruler at that time, handed over the kingship to him. He conquered the land and named the inhabitants “Danaans” after him. This story is in Apollodorus’ second book (Bibl. 2.11–13 = 2.1.4). [RSS]

§ 1.52  pyres (πυραί)
In olden times the bodies of the dead were first cremated on account of the fact that it simplified things, then buried in this condition under the earth. The reason the Greeks burn their corpses is as follows. The first person to be buried this way, they say, was Argeios, the son of Licymnios; Heracles did so out of necessity. When Heracles, they say, assembled an army to attack Troy (because Laomedon had broken the agreement that he had made with Heracles, who had saved his daughter Hesione from the sea monster, but had not given him the horses that he had promised him for such a good deed), he asked Argeios to join him just as if he were a relative. They say that Argeios’ father, Licymnios, was reluctant to do so because he had already lost his older son, named Oionos, when he sent him with Heracles against Lacedaimon, and he would not let his son go until Heracles swore that he would bring him home. When Argeios met his end, Heracles was at a loss how he might fulfill his oath. So he burned his corpse and, they say, this man was the first to receive such treatment. The story is in Andron (fr. 10 Fowler; EGM 2.314). [RSS]

§ 1.59  Son of Atreus, now I think we shall return home (Ἀτρείδη νῦν ἄμμε παλιμπλαγχθέντας ὀΐω)
Post-Homeric poets take their cue from this when telling the story about Mysia in the following way. When the Greeks were sailing around Troy, they landed in Mysia and they mistakenly took to sacking the city, thinking it was Troy. Telephos, the son of Heracles and Auge (the daughter of Aleos), was king of the Mysians, and when he saw that his land was being plundered, he armed his men and chased the Greeks back to their ships, killing many. When Achilles attacked him, he did not stand his ground, but fled. While fleeing he got twisted up in a grape vine and was wounded in his thigh (Dionysos was getting his revenge for Telephos’ failure to honor him). The Greeks returned to Argos. When Telephos’ wound would not heal, Achilles cured him after consulting one of the gods (cf. Apd. Epit. 3.16–19). [RSS]

§ 1.106  seer of evils (μάντι κακῶν)
[...] Post-Homeric poets tell the following story. When the Greeks had assembled in the city of Aulis in Boiotia and were held up in port, Calchas the seer proclaimed that the Greeks would not be able to sail to Troy unless Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigeneia to Artemis. This was because he had killed her sacred goat that was being raised in her grove and, what’s more, boastfully said that not even Artemis could have shot like him. Forced under the strain of necessity, Agamemnon led the girl to the altar, but the goddess pitied her and substituted a deer in her place, saving her and saying that she had been sent to the temple of the goddess among the Taurians in Scythia. The story is in many post-Homeric poets and in Dictys, the author of the Trojan Matters (FGrHist 49 fr. 5). [RSS]

§ 1.180  lords over the Myrmidons (μυρμιδόνεσσιν ἄνασσε)
That is, he rules the Myrmidons. Zeus abducted Aigina the daughter of Asopos, the river in Thebes, and brought her to Phlious, where he raped the aforementioned girl and made her pregnant (she would give birth to Aiacos). In his search for her Asopos learned from Sisyphos who had abducted her and where he had gone. Without delay he hurried off. Zeus, about to be caught red-handed, changed Aigina into the island that bears her name while he himself turned into a rock. When Asopos couldn’t find anyone, he returned to his own springs. Zeus wanted to punish the tattletale, so he forced Sisyphos in the underworld to push uphill a giant boulder that was the same size as the one he turned into. Since Aiacos was all alone on the island, Zeus took pity on him and turned the ants {myrmē-} there into people, and this is the reason they are called Myrmidons. [RSS]

§ 1.195  from heaven (οὐρανόθεν)
The poet says that Athena (that is, “sense”) comes from heaven. This is why she has to come down like this and control him [Achilles] by the hair and not some other part of the body, because that is where the logical part of the soul is situated. Mythographers too say with good reason that Metis, being pregnant with Athena, was swallowed by Zeus and when she came to term the goddess emerged fully armed from his head. The story is in Apollodorus in the first book (Bibl. 1.20 = 1.3.6). [RSS]

§ 1.263  Peirithoos (Πειρίθοον)
[...] Peirithoos, the son of Ixion, was an Athenian by birth, but he was related to the Centaurs. When he was getting married to Hippodameia daughter of Boutes, he invited the Centaurs to the festivities. But the Centaurs got drunk and tried to violate all the Greek women who were present. In response to this the Lapiths banded together, fought them off, and chased them all the way to Malea, a mountain in the Peloponnese. <Peirithoos was Zeus’ son. Dia, dwelling...some words uncertain> had sex with Zeus and gave birth to the aforementioned Peirithoos, who was given this name because of the fact that Zeus “ran around” {perithein} in the form of a horse when he had sex with his mother. [RSS]

§ 1.264  And Caineus (Καινέα τε)
Caineus was son of Elatos and king of the Lapiths. At first, he was a beautiful young girl, but after Poseidon slept with her, the girl asked to change into a man. She became invulnerable and proved to be the most valorous man among his peers. Once, he planted a spear in the very middle of the town square and ordered people to consider it a god. Zeus got angry at this and punished him for his impiety: while Caineus was fighting the Centaurs, Zeus allowed them to overcome him, even though he was invulnerable. The aforementioned Centaurs hit him with oak and fir trees and drove him into the earth. [RSS]

§ 1.268  wild beasts (φερσίν)
Homer means the Centaurs. Ixion, the son of Phlegyas, married Dia daughter of Eioneus. But when his father-in-law came for the gifts of the bride-price, Ixion tricked him and burned him to death. After Ixion went mad and was purified by the gods, he desired Hera. Zeus wanted to put the man to the test, to see if he would really go through with it, so he fashioned a cloud to look like Hera and put it in bed with him. Ixion slept with it as if it were Hera and had a son, Centauros, from which the race of Centaurs descends. After Ixion died, Zeus punished him by making him spin violently on an iron wheel in the underworld. [RSS]

§ 1.399  When they tried to bind him (ὁππότε μιν ξυνδῆσαι)
When Zeus took control in the heavens, he wielded his power excessively, committing many wilful acts. Poseidon, Hera and Apollo wished to subjugate him by tying him up. When Thetis heard the plot against Zeus from her father, Nereus (he was a seer), she hurried to him, leading forth as an ally Aigaion to terrify the conspiring gods. He was a sea-god and judged against his father, Poseidon. When Zeus heard Thetis’ message, he hung Hera up in the fetters she intended for him and sentenced Poseidon and Apollo to serve Laomedon. To reward Thetis, he safeguarded the honor of Achilles for the rest of time. Didymos tells the story (p. 179 Schmidt). [AP, MF, CR]

§ 1.418  you were [destined to die young and pitiable] ([ὠκύμωρος καὶ ὀϊξυρός...] ἔπλεο)
For it is said that Thetis learned of Achilles’ fate from Zeus: if he remained in Phthia and did not sail with the Greeks to Troy, he would have a long life, but without fame. But if he did accompany them, his life would be short, but he would be famous in song and story. When Thetis learned of this, she deposited her son, as if a girl, in the women’s quarters of Lycomedes’ palace on Scyros (this is one of the Cyclades islands). [RSS]

§ 1.519  when Hera will rouse my anger (Ἥρη ὅτ᾿ ἄν μ᾿ ἐρέθῃσιν)
Zeus desired Thetis daughter of Nereus and pursued her with the intention of raping her. When he got to Mt. Caucasus, he was stopped by Prometheus, who said that the son born from Thetis would be greater than his own father. Fearing for his own power in the sky, Zeus kept away from the aforementioned goddess but gave her to Peleus as a way to honor his own son, Aiacos. Achilles was her son. He surpassed not only his own father in military prowess but all other heroes at that time. [RSS]

§ 1.590  “for once before I was eager to defend you (ἤδη γάρ με καὶ ἄλλοτ᾿ ἀλεξέμεναι μεμαῶτα)
When Heracles was on his way home after he had sacked Troy in response to Laomedon’s treachery (Laomedon had tried give him mortal horses instead of the immortal ones he had promised as payment), he was detained by a storm due to Hera’s wrath and put into shore on the island of Cos Meropis. She hated the hero and for this reason she had earlier lulled Zeus to sleep. When the people of Cos saw him from the city, they drove him away from it in fear that he was a wild bandit. Angered by this, Heracles sacked the city of Cos. As for Hera’s lulling of Zeus to sleep, he got angry and put her in chains. When Hephaistos tried to free her and was caught red-handed, he was hurled from Olympos. Crashing down on Lemnos, an island off Thrace, he became lame, as the poet says. This is also why Lemnos is sacred to the god. [RSS]

§ 1.609  to his own couch (πρὸς ὃν λέχος)
[...] Cronos’ and Rhea’s male children were Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Their daughters were Hestia, Demeter and Hera. Of these, they say, <Zeus and Hera> fell in love during the reign of Cronos <...there is a gap in the text...> Zeus and Hera for three hundred years, as Callimachus says in the second book of the Aitia “when Zeus loved for three hundred years” (fr. 48 Harder). Sleeping with each other without their parents’ notice, they had a son, Hephaistos, not completely healthy, but lame in both feet—as one can see when Homer calls him “crooked in both feet.” That they slept together without their parents’ knowledge is also attested by Homer, who says (Il. 14.296) “the two came to make love unknown to their own parents.” After Zeus overthrew the Titans and cast Cronos down into Tartaros, he and Hera took over the kingdom in heaven and have ruled over gods and humans up until this very day as husband and wife. Hera received the epithets “Married” {teleia} and “Yoked” {zygia} since she was the only sibling to receive such a husband. She had a daughter, Hebe, whom the poet presents as cupbearer of the gods. [RSS]

§ 2.103  Argeiphontes (Ἀργειφόντῃ)
[...] Some say this is an epithet, which arose for the following reason. Zeus desired Io, the daughter of Inachos, the king of the Argives. After having slept with her, he turned her into a cow because of Hera’s jealousy. Hera asked Zeus for the cow and got her, and then stationed over her as a guard Argos, who was called the “all-seer” since he had eyes all over his body. Zeus ordered Hermes to steal the cow, but when he was unable to slip past Argos, he hit him with a rock and killed him—and that’s how he got the name Argeiphontes {“Argos-killer”}. Hera set a gadfly upon Io as if she were a cow. Driven to flee by the pain, she first came upon the bay which was named “Ionian” after her. Then she crossed the strait {poros} which was once called Thracian but which is now called “Bosporus” {“Cow-Strait”} after her. Having wandered over various other places, she came to Egypt, where, having reclaimed her old form, she gave birth to a son, Epaphos, along the Nile river. This story is more broadly told in Apollodorus’ second book (Bibl. 2.6–9 = 2.1.3). [ChR, CR]

§ 2.104  lord Hermes gave it [the scepter] to Pelops, the horse-driver (Ἑρμείας δὲ ἄναξ δῶκε Πέλοπι πληξίππῳ)
Plexippos means “horse-driver” or “horseman.” When Hippodameia, the daughter of Oinomaos, desired Pelops, she persuaded Myrtilos, the son of Hermes and her own father’s chariot-driver, to help him achieve victory over her father by keeping the latter’s horses from running at full speed. She wanted Pelops to catch the horses and so marry her. For marriage to her was the prize for the victor, but death was the prize for the loser. While they raced, Oinomaos fell from his chariot—the pegs in the axle box came loose, the result of Myrtilos’ treachery. When Oinomaos realized the plot against him, he brought down curses on Myrtilos—that he be killed by Pelops—and this came to pass. For while they were sailing across the Aegean Sea, Hippodameia grew thirsty, and so Pelops got off the ship {harma, confusingly also “chariot”}29 and went in search of water in the wilderness. At that very moment, Hippodameia conceived a desire for Myrtilos and begged him not to reject her. Myrtilos did just that, but when Pelops returned, Hippodameia got to him first and accused Myrtilos of violating her. Pelops pushed Myrtilos from the ship {harma, “chariot” or “ship”} into the sea and took the reins of the ship himself. From this event, the Sea is named Myrtoan after Myrtilos, and Pelops was called the plēxippos {“Horse-driver”}from then on, on account of the fact that he himself drove the horses. [JL, AP, CR, ChR, AT]

§ 2.105  And Pelops in turn (αὐτὰρ ὁ αὖτε Πέλοψ)
Pelops passed it [the scepter] on to Atreus. Pelops had a child, Chrysippos, by his first wife. He then married Hippodameia daughter of Oinomaos, by whom he fathered several children. But Chrysippos was very much loved by Pelops, so his stepmother and her children grew jealous and plotted his death so that Pelops would not pass the kingdom to him. They appointed Atreus and Thyestes, the eldest of the children, to the task. When Pelops realized that Chrysippos had been killed, he banished those children of his that had become murderers. He called down curses on them and their descendants, that they be destroyed. The children were banished from Pisa to various other lands. When Pelops died, Atreus, since he was the older son, went there with a great army and took control of his lands. Hellanicus tells this story (fr. 157 Fowler; EGM 2.432–4). [JL, AP, CR, ChR]

§ 2.106  rich in lambs (πολύαρνι)
Feeding many, wealthy. When Atreus, the son of Pelops, was ruling the Peloponnese, he once vowed to sacrifice to Artemis the most beautiful animal born among his flocks of sheep. When a golden lamb was born, he regretted his vow, and instead shut the lamb away in a box to guard it. Being proud of his possession, he bragged about it in the town square. Vexed by this, Thyestes seduced Aerope and persuaded her to hand the possession over to him. When Thyestes got it, he criticized his brother, saying that it was not proper to brag about this such thing, and he himself stated in public that the man who possesses the golden lamb ought to hold the kingship. Atreus agreed with this . Zeus sent Hermes to Atreus, telling him to make an agreement Thyestes> about the kingship, and he made a revelation about the sunrise: the sun was going to travel backwards. Having come to an agreement about this, the sun set in the east. Thus, with the god bearing witness to the greed of Thyestes, Atreus assumed the kingship and banished Thyestes. [JC, JL, AP, CR, ChR]

§ 2.107  but Thyestes then passed it [the scepter] on to Agamemnon (αὐταρ ὃ αὖτε Θυέστ᾿ Ἀγαμέμνονι)
Atreus ruled over the Peloponnesos and had Agamemnon and Menelaus with Creousa daughter of Telestor or, as some say, with Aerope daughter of Catreus. When he was about to die, he made peace with his brother and granted the kingship to him, so that he could give the scepter to Agamemnon once he reached manhood. His brother, acting in good faith, did just that. [JC, JL, AP, CR, ChR]

§ 2.145  Icarian Sea (πόντου Ἰκαρίοιο)
The Icarian sea was named after Icaros, the son of Daidalos, who fell into it and died as follows. After Pasiphae mated with the bull, Daidalos was wary of Minos’ anger, so he flew away from Crete with his son Icaros on wings. When his son fell into the sea lying below, its name was changed to “Icarian.” Daidalos, however, flew all the way to Camicos on Sicily and, waiting for his son, stayed with the daughters of Cocalos. When Minos came in search of Daidalos, he was killed when the daughters poured boiling water over him. Philostephanus (FHG fr. 36) and Callimachus in the Aitia (fr. 43 Harder) tell this story. [RSS]

§ 2.157  Aigis-bearing (αἰγιόχοιο)
The aigis is Zeus’ weapon, made by Hephaistos. When Zeus, the son of Cronos and Rhea, was in Crete, he got the name “Aigis-bearing” because he was reared there by a goat {aig-} or, as some say, because he killed a goat, clothed himself in its skin, and used the horns to make a bow. This is why a certain place in Crete is called Aigidocos. The story is in Euphorion (fr. 162 Powell). [RSS]

§ 2.212  Thersites alone continued on (Θερσίτης δ᾿ ἔτι μοῦνος)
When Oineus neglected Artemis in regard to sacrifices, the goddess got angry and sent a wild boar against the city. An army of the finest men of Greece came to fight it since it was ravaging the land, as Homer himself says in book 9 [lines 533–42]. Among these was Thersites, who in cowardice abandoned the post where he was stationed and ran off to some high spot, hunting for safety. Meleagros reproached him for this and chased him until he fell from a ledge and became disfigured as Homer presents him. Euphorion tells this story (fr. 106 Powell).

§ 2.220  most hateful (ἔχθιστος)
It must be told that Achilles kills him [Thersites], as the poet Quintus [of Smyrna] narrates the story in his Posthomerica (“Post-Homeric Events”, 1.734–end). He says that, in the battle against the Amazons, Achilles killed Penthesileia, their queen. But afterwards, when he beheld her very beautiful body, he fell in love with her and was greatly saddened by her death. When Thersites saw him taking it all so badly, he starting making fun of him, his typical behavior. The hero was enraged at this and punched him with his fist, killing him on the spot, his teeth dashed down onto the ground.

§ 2.336  horseman (ἱππότα)
Homer uses “horseman” [hippotēs] instead of “refugee” [to describe Nestor]. Here’s why. Heracles marched against Pylos because Neleus did not purify him of the murder of Iphitos and because of Neleus’ sons’ foolishness. He came full force to take the city, but as long as Periclymenos was still alive, the city was hard to take, for he was double-lived. Well, when he had become a bee and landed on Heracles’ chariot, Athena pointed him out to Heracles, leading to his death. At that time, Nestor was being raised among the Gerenians, so when Pylos was sacked and his eleven brothers were killed, he was the only one to survive. This is why he is also called “Gerenian.” Hesiod tells this story in the Catalog of Women (fr. 33 MW = 32 Most). [RSS]

§ 2.339  Where are our agreements? (πῆ δὴ συνθεσίαι τε)
When the best men of Greece had assembled to court Helen on account of her lineage and beauty, her father Tyndareοs (as some say) was trying to avoid the situation where, in favoring one of them, he would make all the others his enemies. So he administered an oath, shared by all: they each swore that if the one who received his daughter was wronged in regard to her, they would come to his defense. This is how he came to give her to Menelaus. Not much later she was carried off by Alexander. So they all took part in the expedition on account of the oaths they made. The story is in Stesichorus (PMG 190). [KB, JC, AP, CR, ChR]

§ 2.494c  Peneleos [led] the Boiotians (Βοιωτῶν μὲν Πηνέλεως)
Boiotia was formerly called Aonia after the Aonians who dwelled there. According to some, the name changed to Boiotia after Boiotos, the son of Poseidon and Arne; according to others the name comes from the cow {bous} that Cadmos drove before him in accordance with an oracle from Delphi. The story: when Phoinix’s daughter Europa was carried off from Sidon by Zeus, her brother Cadmos was sent by their father in search of her. When he did not find her, he went to Delphi to consult the god. The god told him not to worry about Europa, but instead to use a cow as his guide and found a city wherever it grew tired and lay down on its right side. After receiving this oracle, Cadmos made his way through Phocis. There he came across a cow among the herds of Pelagon and followed behind it as it made its way. After passing through the whole of Boiotia, it hesitated and lay down at the spot where Thebes is now. Desiring to sacrifice the cow to Athena, Cadmos sent some of his companions to get sacred water from the Spring of Ares. But the serpent that was guarding the spring—which they say was born of Ares—killed most of those that were sent. Vexed, Cadmos killed the serpent, and on Athena’s instructions he sowed its teeth like seeds, from which grew the “Earthborn Men.” Ares grew angry and was about to kill Cadmos, but Zeus stopped him and gave Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, to Cadmos to be his wife. But first, he ordered him to serve as a slave for a year to atone for his killing of the serpent. At the wedding, they say, the Muses sang and each of the gods gave Harmonia a gift. Hellanicus (fr. 51 Fowler; EGM 2.357–60) gives this information in the Boiotiaka, as does Apollodorus in his third book (Bibl. 3.2 = 3.21–25). [RSS]

§ 2.547  the dēmos [of Erechtheus] (δῆμος [Ἐρεχθέως])
Erechtheus, who was also called Erichthonios, was king of the Athenians and was born of Hephaistos. The story: when Hephaistos desired Athena, he started chasing her, and she fled. When he got close to her with a lot of effort—for he was lame—he tried to have sex with her. But when Athena, being modest and a virgin, was fighting him off, he ejaculated upon the goddess’ leg. Disgusted, Athena wiped away the seed with wool and threw it onto the earth. And this is why the child that rose up from the earth was called Erichthonios based on an etymology: from the wool {erion} and the earth {chthōn}. Callimachus tells the story in the Hecale (fr. 260 Pfeiffer, but see Apd. Bibl. 3.188 = 3.14.6). [JC, JL, CR, ChR]

§ 2.595  Thamyris (Θάμυρις)
This was the son of Philammon and the nymph Argiope [ms. Arseios], a Thracian by birth, who conceived a desire that was disgraceful: he was the first to love men. He surpassed most in beauty and in playing the cithara, and he competed against the Muses in a musical contest on the following terms: if he was found to be better, he got to sleep with them all. If he was beaten, they could deprive him of whatever they wanted. The Muses proved superior; they took away his sight, his musical talent, and his mind. [RSS]

§ 2.629  [Phyleus] who, enraged at his father, once moved to Doulichion (ὅς ποτε Δουλίχιον δ᾿ ἀπενάσσατο πατρὶ χολωθείς)
He [Phyleus] once left and settled in Doulichion because he testified against his father Augeias. He ruled in favor of Heracles concerning the payment that Augeias had promised to give Heracles if he cleaned out his barns that were full of cow dung. The story is also in Callimachus (fr. 77 Harder).37 [RSS]

§ 2.662  he straightway killed his own father’s dear maternal uncle, etc. (αὐτίκα πατρὸς ἑοῖο φίλον μήτρωα κατέκτα καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς)
The story is told that when Tlepolemos saw that Licymnios (the uncle),38 who was by that time old, was being led around carelessly by one of the household slaves, he threw his staff at the slave. But he missed him and struck Licymnios, killing him by accident. This is why he was forced to become an exile from his fatherland. [JC, JL, CR, ChR]

§ 2.721  But he was left on the island suffering terrible pains (ἀλλ᾿ ὁ μὲν ἐν νήσῳ κεῖτο κρατέρ᾿ ἄλγεα πάσχων)
The story is told that Philoctetes, while cleaning the altar of Athena (called the Golden One) on Lemnos, was bitten by a snake and, when he was in the grips of a painful wound, he was left behind there by the Greeks. For they knew that the priests of Hephaistos cared for those bitten by snakes. [JL, AP, ChR, AT]

§ 2.740  steadfast in battle (μενεπτόλεμος)
Enduring in war. Polypoites was the son of Peirithoos. They say that he was given this name by his father because he had exacted retribution {poin-} on many {poly-}—referring to his punishment of the Centaurs, when they acted outrageously at the wedding of his mother Melanippe. [JL, AP, ChR, AT]

§ 3.75  to [horse-pasturing] Argos (Ἄργος ἐς [ἱππόβοτον])
Iasos and Pelasgos were the sons of Triops. After their father died they divided his kingdom up. Pelasgos attained the land towards the river Erasinos and founded Larisa, while Iasos attained the land towards the east. When these two brothers died, their brother Agenor, the youngest, marched against the land, leading forth a great cavalry. This is why Argos was called both “horse-pasturing,” after the cavalry of Agenor, and also called “Iasian,” after Iasos. This is told by Hellanicus in the Argolica (fr. 36 Fowler; EGM 2.242–4). [AP, CR]

§ 3.144  Aithra daughter of Pittheus (Αἴθρη Πιτθῆος)
This Aithra is different from the Aithra who was the mother of Theseus. For it is shameful for Aithra to attend Helen as a servant given that she is believed to have been her mother-in-law. As Hellanicus says (fr. 168c Fowler; EGM 2.488),40 Peirithoos and Theseus, the sons of Zeus and Poseidon respectively, made a pact to marry daughters of Zeus. They first carried off Helen, who was quite young, brought her to Aphidna in Attica and delivered her into the care of Aithra, the daughter of Pittheus and mother of Theseus. Then they traveled into Hades seeking Persephone. The Dioscouroi, when they couldn’t recover their sister, set to destroying the whole of Attica and took Aithra prisoner. [AP, CR]

§ 3.151  like cicadas (τεττίγεσσιν ἐοικότες)
The goddess Hemera (Day) desired Tithonos, the son of Laomedon and Priam’s brother, and gave birth to a son by him, Memnon. When Tithonos was worn out by his long life, the goddess turned him into a cicada. This is why the poet likens his kinsmen, the elders of the city, to cicadas. Hellanicus tells the story (fr. 140 Fowler; EGM 2.526–7). [RSS]41

§ 3.189  Amazons, a match for men (Ἀμάζονες ἀντιάνειραι)
The Amazons are said to be the daughters of Ares and Aphrodite and raised along the Thermodon river in Scythia. They received the name Amazons because their right breasts {mazo-} are cut away since they get in the way when they shoot arrows. Melanippe and Hippolyte, the daughters of Ares, were the leaders of the Amazons’ army. They tried to bring Phrygia under their control because it had good grazing for horses and was rich in vines. They readied their whole army, came into the aforementioned region, and set up their camp along the Sangarios river. The kings of Phrygia at the time were Mygdon and Otreus, who marshalled their own armies and came to the same place as the Amazons to prevent them from advancing across their borders. Priam, the king of Troy, marched with them against the Amazons, being at that very moment in the full prime of life. [RSS]

§ 3.242  shame (αἴσχεα)
Because Helen had been carried off by Alexander, she was unaware of the misfortune that had befallen her brothers, the Dioscouroi, in the meantime. She assumed that they had not come to Troy because they were ashamed of her, seeing that she had been taken earlier by Theseus, as has been said earlier [see 3.144]. Because of that earlier abduction, Aphidna, a city in Attica, was destroyed and Castor was wounded in his right thigh by Phidnos, the king at that time. When the Dioscouroi did not find Theseus, they plundered Athens. The story is in the works of Polemon (fr. 10 Preller)—that is the Cyclic poets (fr. 12 Davies)—and, in part, Alcman the lyric poet (PMG 21). [ChR, MR, AP, CR]

§ 3.243  So she spoke, but [the life-giving earth] already held them (ὣς φάτο, τοὺς δ᾿ ἤδη κάτεχεν [φυσίζοος αἶα])
When Idas and Lynceus, the sons of Aphareus, were celebrating their marriage to Leucippos’ daughters, Phoibe and Hilaira, they invited the Dioscouroi, who were relatives (Tyndareos [their father] was Aphareus’ brother). It is said that the Dioscouroi carried off the girls while they were still virgins. In the violent struggle over the marriage that ensued, Castor was killed. This angered Zeus, who struck Idas with a thunderbolt. He consoled Polydeuces, giving him a choice, whether he wanted to live forever, or to die with his brother for six months and to live for the same length of time. Polydeuces chose to live and die with Castor. The story is in Pindar (N. 10.55-90). [ChR, AP, CR]

§ 3.325  of Paris (Πάριος)
Alexander was called Paris from the fact that he was exposed on Mt. Ida immediately after being born, was raised there and eluded {parelth-} his fate as follows. When Hecuba was pregnant with him, she dreamed that she gave birth to a burning torch which burned down the entire city and the forest standing on Mt Ida. When the seers and those skilled in dream interpretation heard this dream-vision, they told her to cast the child out as food for wild beasts immediately while he was still small. When Alexander was born, they exposed him on Mt. Ida, but a shepherd saw the exceedingly noble-looking child, took him in, and raised him. [ChR, AP, CR, MR]

§ 3.443  nor when I first [carried] you off (οὐδ᾿ ὅτε σε πρῶτον)
Alexander, the son of Priam king of Troy, was also called Paris. At the command of Aphrodite, after Harmonides constructed ships for him (according to some of the post-Homeric poets, it was Phereclos son of Tecton), Paris went with the goddess to Lacedaimon, the city of Menelaus. There, when by the will of Aphrodite he laid his eyes upon Helen and she was lovestruck by Eros’ counterstrike, he took her along with her possessions and went to Sidon in Phoenicia. And after getting married there he went with her to Ilion (this is the capital of Troy). Following the injustices wrought there through oaths and vows, again by the will of Aphrodite, Paris took her home and laid with her, having unexpectedly received his wife again, as the poet shows through his own words. [ChR, AP, CR]

§ 4.171  much-thirsting [Argos] (πολυδίψιον [Ἄργος])
That is “thirsty for many years.” The story: when Danaos came from Egypt and settled in the Peloponnese, he made the land, which was previously arid, well-watered. When his daughters were out searching for water, Poseidon desired one of them, Amymone, so he struck the earth with his trident and revealed to her the spring in Lerna. Others say the following, that it was by the instructions of Athena that Argos, which was previously dry, became well-watered through the daughters of Danaos, for those women came up with the idea of digging wells. When Aigyptos’ sons arrived to marry Danaos’s daughters, the Danaids, following their father’s instructions, murdered them treacherously. For their father had advised them to stop the men from taking their virginity. Hypermnestra alone saved Lynceus from death, because he did not take her virginity. Because of this he later took her as wife and watched over her. [ChR, AP, CR]

§ 4.319  As when I cut down glorious Ereuthalion (ὡς ὅτε δῖον Ἐρευθαλίωνα κατέκταν)
The Pylians and Arcadians were waging war over land boundaries around the mountain called Lycaion. Responding to a challenge, Nestor fought Ereuthalion, the son of Hippomedon (some say of Apheidas), in single combat and killed him. Out of joy he moved out of the designated area for combat. Arcadians>, with Ereuthalion still palpitating, rushed forward and attacked the Pylians, and in this way defeated them. After they buried Ereuthalion and his friends, they engraved on his tomb this epigram “Here the kings of Arcadia established a tomb for Ereuthalion and his friends, the distinguished offspring of Hippomedon, who once overpowered Nestor and his host in battle.” Ariaethus tells the story (FGrHist 316 fr. 7). [ChR]

§ 4.376  without war (ἄτερ πολέμου)
After Oidipous cast Iocasta out, he got remarried to Astymedousa. This woman accused the children from his first marriage of trying to violate her. Oidipous got angry, brought down curses that they would inherit the land through bloodshed, and handed the kingdom over to them. Eteocles, his son, exiled his brother Polyneices on the grounds that he himself was older. When Polyneices reached Argos, he encountered Tydeus, a refugee. He had fled into exile after he, attempting to help his father, killed a cousin who had opposed him. When Adrastos saw that they were clothed in the hides of wild beasts, Tydeus a boar, Polyneices a lion, he figured out the oracle: for he had been told to yoke his daughters to a boar and a lion. So he gave Deipyle to Tydeus, and Argeia to Polyneices. He also sent a message to Mycenae, asking for an alliance against Thebes. Thyestes was ready to give help, but negative omens stopped him. Well, when they reached Thebes, the Argives sent Tydeus as an ambassador. He took part in an athletic competition and, with Athena as an ally, was victorious in every event. On his way back, he caught and killed the fifty young men who were lying in wait to ambush him. [ChR]

§ 5.64  [a bane] unto himself, since he did not know the gods’ decrees ([κακὸν...] οἷ τ᾿ αὐτῷ, ἐπεὶ οὔ τι θεῶν ἐκ θέσφατα ᾔδη)
When the Lacedaimonians were overcome by famine, they consulted an oracle about a solution. The god told them to placate the deities of the Teucrians (this is what the people of Troy were called previously). So Menelaos went to Troy and did what was ordered. From there he traveled to Delphi to receive an oracle about having children. Alexander went along with him too, so that he could consult the oracle about a wife. When both were at the seat of the oracle, it is said that the Pythia gave the following response:
Why do you, two kings, one of the Trojans, the other of the Achaians,
come to my abode no longer thinking alike?
Indeed one has come looking to find the foal’s offspring,
the other to get the foal itself. What, great Zeus, do you have in mind?
Not understanding the oracle, they departed. That’s the story as to why he did not know “the gods’ decrees.” Hellanicus says that the oracle given to the Trojans was to keep away from sailing and stick to farming, lest they employ the sea and thereby destroy themselves and their city (fr. 142 Fowler; EGM 2.529–30). [RSS]

§ 5.126  dauntless [might], the kind [your father] had ([μένος πατρώϊον] ἄτρομον οἷον ἔχεσκε)
During the Theban war Tydeus son of Oineus was wounded by Melanippos son of Astacos. When Amphiaraos killed Melanippos and brought the head to him, Tydeus cracked it open and started gulping down his brains out of anger. Athena, who was in the process of bringing Tydeus immortality, abandoned him when she saw this sacrilegious act. When Tydeus realized what had happened, he asked the goddess to pass along that immortality to his son. The story is in the Cyclic poets. [RSS]

§ 5.385  Ares suffered (τλῆ μὲν Ἄρης)
[...] Well, Otos and Ephialtes were sons of Poseidon, though people called them sons of Aloeus. When these two got enormously huge, they bound Ares in their house. As time went on, Eriboia, their stepmother and wife of Aloeus, convinced Hermes to smuggle Ares out and to punish them for their binding of the god. Hermes was persuaded and did just that. But even then the two did not stop committing outrageous offenses but tried to violate Hera and Artemis. Angered, Artemis sent a female deer to them while they were out hunting. When the deer ran between the two of them, it became the cause of their deaths: when they threw their spears at it, they missed the deer and struck each other, and they died. [...] [RSS]

§ 5.392  Hera suffered (τλῆ δ᾿ Ἥρη)
Eurytos, the king of Oichalia (the one in Boiotia), announced that whoever defeated him (some say his sons) in an archery contest would win his daughter Iole in marriage. For he had received his skill in archery from Apollo. Heracles competed and won, but Eurytos took it badly and did not hand over the girl. Enraged, Heracles sacked Oichalia and led Iole off as a prisoner. But not even that put an end to his anger; no, when Eurytos’ son Iphitos came to Tiryns looking for his horses, Heracles welcomed him into his home and killed him. Trying to cleanse himself of the defilement of murder, Heracles went to Neleus in order to receive purification. But when Neleus’ children did not want to take him in, Neleus drove him off. Heracles departed from there and was taken in by Deiphobos, the king of Arcadia, and was purified of the murder. Later, Heracles marched against Neleus and not only sacked Pylos, but even wounded Hera, who was fighting as Neleus’ ally. As for Neleus himself, Heracles killed him and his children, except for the youngest, Nestor. He was being raised among the Gerenians and that’s why he survived. This is why the poet calls him “Gerenian.”54 [RSS]

§ 5.412  so that wise Aigialeia, Adrastos’ daughter, not... (μὴ δὴν Αἰγιάλεια περίφρων Ἀδραστίνη)
Diomedes married Aigialeia, the youngest of Adrastos’ daughters. (Adrastos had three daughters: Argeia wife of Polyneices, Deipyle wife of Tydeus, , so Aigialeia was his mother’s sister.) When he went on military campaign against Troy, he left Cometes son of Sthenelos to take care of his kingdom and his household. Here’s the account. When Aphrodite was wounded by Diomedes, she could not harm him because Athena was helping him. Instead, she made his wife crazy for sleeping around and for licentiously and indiscriminately carousing with young men of every age. Aphrodite also filled Cometes with desire for her. When Diomedes returned from Troy, Cometes pursued him with his bodyguard, intending to kill him. Diomedes, furnished with only weak support, fled to the altar of Athena. After that he departed for Italy and, it is said, he received from Daunos some people to establish a settlement. In the end, when his fellow settlers were in dire straits and had nothing to eat, Athena turned them in to herons, and Diomedes’ life then came to an end. The story is in Lycophron (592ff.).59 But the poet does not tell this story. Instead he only says that [Diomedes should beware] fighting a stronger god than you [Aphrodite] in battle and being killed: then, if his wife learned about his death, she would mourn alongside his household. [RSS]

§ 5.650  who had done him a favor (εὖ ἔρξαντα)
[Heracles] had done Laomedon a favor by saving his daughter Hesione when she had been set out as food for the sea monster, which, because of Poseidon’s wrath, was bringing ruin to the Trojans. They were paying the price for Laomedon’s failure to render payment to the aforementioned god and Apollo for building the wall, instead chasing them away with threats. This is why Apollo sent a plague and Poseidon sent the sea monster against the Trojans. The sea monster would ride up on a wave and snatch people. Oracles said that they would be freed of the disasters if Laomedon <...> Hesione . [RSS]

§ 6.35  ...lofty Pedasos. And the hero Leitos killed Phylacos (Πήδασον αἰπεινήν, Φύλακον δ᾿ ἕλε Λήϊτος ἥρως)
During the Trojan War, when Achilles was sacking the cities neighboring Troy, he came to the one that was long ago called Monenia, but now known as Pedasos. When he despaired of ever taking the city by siege and was about to leave, they say a young woman inside the walls fell in love with him. She took an apple, inscribed it, and threw it into the middle of the Achaians. This is what was written on it: “Don’t run off, Achilles, until you take Monenia. There’s no water here and their thirst is dire.” So Achilles stayed and took the city because of the lack of water. Demetrios tells this story. [RSS]

§ 6.130  no, not even stout Lycourgos, Dryas’ son (οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδὲ Δρύαντος υἱὸς κρατερὸς Λυκόοργος)
After Dionysos, the son of Zeus and Semele, was purified by Rhea on Mt. Cybele in Phrygia and was initiated into the goddess’ secret rituals, he received his whole getup from the goddess and travelled all across the inhabited world, leading choral dances. The honors he received made him the foremost among all people. But when he got to Thrace, Lycourgos son of Dryas, because of Hera’s hatred, harassed him and drove him out of the land with a cattle prod, and he captured Dionysos’ nurses, who happened to be celebrating the rites with him. Driven by a heaven-sent whip, Lycourgos was eager to punish the god, but Dionysos jumped into the sea out of fear and was held afloat by Thetis and Eurynome. Now, Lycourgos did not sin against the god without paying for it, and he was punished in the worst way: Zeus deprived him of his sight. Many recall this story, but chiefly the one who composed the Europia, Eumelos (fr. 1 Davies, p. 102). [RSS]

§ 6.153  where Sisyphos used to live, the craftiest man that ever was (ἔνθα δὲ Σίσυφος ἔσκεν ὃ κέρδιστος γένετ᾿ ἀνδρῶν)
When Zeus carried Asopos’ daughter, Aigina, away from Phlious to Oinone through Corinth and Asopos went searching for her, Sisyphos told him about the abduction in a crafty way. Because of this, Sisyphos brought the anger of Zeus down on himself, and Zeus sent Thanatos [Death] to him. But Sisyphos saw him coming and bound Death in strong chains. And so it happened that no human being died during that time, until Hades delivered him to Death and freed Death from his chains. But, before he died, Sisyphos told his wife Merope not to send the customary gifts to Hades for him. Time elapsed and his wife did not render what was due. When Hades learned of this, he released Sisyphos so that he could go back up and scold his wife for not doing so. But when he got to Corinth, he did not go back. And so, when he died of old age, Hades forced him to roll a rock into the underworld so that he couldn’t flee again. The story is in Pherecydes (fr. 119 Fowler; EGM 2.180–1). [RSS]

§ 6.155  and Glaucos fathered blameless Bellerophon (αὐτὰρ Γλαῦκος ἔτικτεν ἀμύμονα Βελλεροφόντην)
This man was formerly called Hipponous, but after he killed Belleros, the ruler of the Corinthians, he got the name Bellerophon {“Belleros-killer”}. He was the biological son of Poseidon, but he was called the son of Glaucos. He got from Poseidon the child of the Gorgon Medousa, Pegasos, a winged horse (which got this name because it had “leapt” {ped-} out of the neck of Medusa). After committing murder against one of his own (as I said, he killed Belleros, one of his fellow citizens), he fled to Argos. He was purified by the king, Proitos, and resided with him. Proitos’ wife, Anteia, desired Bellerophon and begged him to sleep with her, but he, honoring what was right in the eyes of the gods, refused her. Anteia was afraid that Bellerophon would reveal her sexual advances to Proitos, so she acted first, making the accusation that he had violated her. Proitos did not want to kill Bellerophon with his own hands, so he sent him to his wife’s father, Iobates, in Lycia, carrying a letter—a letter that condemned him, though he did not know it. When Iobates saw that he had not been killed in the numerous trials he set for him, he surmised that the accusation against him was a terrible and deliberate ploy. After all, Bellerophon had prevailed over such a huge number of troubles through his physical prowess. So he gave his daughter Cassandra to Bellerophon in marriage along with a portion of his kingdom. It is said that he became cocky because of his accomplishments and wanted to visit the heavens on Pegasos (as we said, the horse had wings on his back). Zeus got angry and sent a horsefly to irritate Pegasos, and because of this Bellerophon fell off and crashed down into the plain of Lycia that was named after him “Aleion,” for he wandered {alaz-} around it, crippled. As for the horse, Eos begged Zeus for it as a gift so that she could make her rounds of the world without getting tired, and he gave it to her. The story is in Asclepiades’ Tragodoumena (fr. 13 Villagra). [RSS]

§ 6.396  Eetion, who lived beneath Placos, rich in trees (Ἠετίων ὃς ἔναιεν ὑπὸ Πλάκῳ ὑληέσσῃ)
Granicos (some say it was Atramous), a Pelasgian by birth, once came to the foot of Ida in Lycia and founded a city there, calling it Atramyteion [Adramyttion] after himself. He fathered a daughter named Thebe, and when she reached the age of marriage, he held an athletic contest and set marriage to her as a prize for the winner. Heracles appeared on the scene at just that moment and took Thebe as wife, founded a city beneath the mountain called Placion in Lycia, and called it Placian Thebe after her. The story is in Dicaearchus (fr. 53 Wehrli). [RSS]

§ 7.9  whom the club-man Areithoos and ox-eyed Philomedousa bore (ὃν κορυνήτης γείνατ᾿ Ἀρηΐθοος καὶ Φιλομέδουσα βοῶπις)
Areithoos the Boiotian, the best of men in his region, crossed over into Arcadia (the Boiotians and the Arcadians were clashing over land borders) and carried off a great deal of plunder from there. He treated the Arcadians with contempt, so Lycourgos, the most powerful man there, set an ambush. He put an end to Areithoos’ large force, killed the man himself, and took the booty as well as his entire set of protective armor along with his club. The story is in Pherecydes (fr. 158 Fowler; EGM 2.111). [RSS]

§ 7.44  These Helenos, the son of Priam... (τῶν δ᾿ Ἕλενος Πριάμοιο πάϊς)
The myth is told that, of the children born to Priam by Hecabe, Helenos and Cassandra were twins. When the family was celebrating their birthday in the sanctuary of Thymbraian Apollo, it is said that Helenos and Cassandra fell asleep while playing in the temple. The parents, because they drank too much, forgot about the kids and went home. When they came back to the sanctuary the next day, they saw their childrens’ ear-canals being cleaned out by snakes with their tongues. The women shrieked at this shocking sight; this drove away the snakes, which slithered away into the nearby laurel trees. But both children received the power of prophecy. Anticleides tells this story (FGrHist 140 fr. 17). [RSS]

§ 7.86  and they will heap up a tomb for him on the wide Hellespont (σῆμα τέ οἱ χεύσωσιν ἐπὶ πλατεῖ Ἑλλησπόντῳ)
Athamas, the son of Aiolos and king of Thebes, married Ino daughter of Cadmos and had two sons, Learchos and Melicertes. At the instigation of Hera he divorced Ino and married Nephele, fathering two children by her, Helle and Phrixos. When Nephele saw that he was secretly sleeping with Ino, she left. Now that Ino had control over the household again, she plotted against Nephele’s children. She devised a way to parch the seeds for growing and did just that. And, lo and behold, there was a great crop failure in the land. So Athamas sent priestly ambassadors to Pytho [Delphi]. But Ino convinced them to falsify an oracular response to Phrixos’s detriment: if Athamas made a sacrifice of his offspring, he would be freed of the terrible plight. When Athamas heard the oracular response from the priests, he summoned Phrixos from the fields, and as a pretense he asked him to bring with him the finest animal he had in his flocks for sacrifice. The myth is told that when Phrixos had arrived with his sister, the ram spoke in a human voice through the presence of some divine power. It revealed the whole plot against Phrixos and told him to sit on its back with his sister so that they could escape the impending danger. When they did (it is said) the ram propelled itself into the air with great force. Helle, unable to hold on, fell into the sea lying below, which got its name “Hellespont” from the aforementioned girl. As for the ram, after it carried Phrixos from this sea to Colchis, it died. It is said that it was for this—its fleece—that the Argonauts were dispatched from Thessaly with Jason. They say that when Athamas learned about the details of Ino’s plotting, he did not spare either her or his children by her: he killed Learchos with his own hands and pursued <Melicertes> and Ino with a sword. Just as he was about to overtake them, she saved herself and her son by hurling herself into the sea, receiving honors from the sea gods. Later she was called Leucothea {White Goddess} because of the foam of the sea, and Melicertes was called Palaimon. He watches over people sailing on the sea. The story is in Philostephanus (FHG fr. 37). [RSS]

§ 7.467  the ships came in from Lemnos (νῆες δ᾿ ἐκ Λήμνοιο παρέστασαν)
The Lemnians, by not making the customary sacrifices to Aphrodite, sentenced themselves to death. For is said that the goddess got angry and inspired in the men a desire for Thracian women, ignoring their own. Then she sat by and let things play out. Well, the men kept crossing over to Thrace, honoring and caring about matters there. As for the women of Lemnos, an extraordinary madness fell upon them. Τhey voted unanimously to kill the men, a plan that they did not fail to carry out. After this misfortune involving the men, it is said that Jason and the Argo landed on the island, and he slept with the most powerful of the women there, Hypsipyle. They say he fathered Euneos by her. The story is in Asclepiades’ Tragodoumena (fr. 14 Villagra). [RSS]

§ 8.284  ...you, though a bastard child (καί σε νόθον περ᾿ ἐόντα)
When Heracles sacked Troy, he took as prisoner Hesione, the daughter of Laomedon (and sister of Priam), and gave her as a war-prize to Telamon because he had fought with him. Telamon fathered Teucros by her. Because he had been born of a Trojan woman, they called the child “Teúcros,” moving the accent back to create a proper noun. For the Trojans are called Teucroí after one of their rulers, Teucros. The story has been told in more detail by many, including Apollonios the grammatikos in the second book of On Generations. [RSS]

§ 8.368  the dog of Hades (κύνα Ἀΐδαο)
Cerberos. Though the labors of Heracles were completed in eight years and a month, Eurystheus did not count the labor involving the cattle of Augeias or the one involving the Hydra. So he imposed on him an eleventh labor, to bring back Cerberos from the underworld. This creature had three dog heads, the tail of a serpent, and along his back were the heads of all kinds of snakes. When Heracles was about to set out to get Cerberos, he went to Eumolpos in Eleusis because he wanted to be initiated into the mysteries. Since it was not possible for foreigners to be initiated at the time, he was first adopted by Pylios and then came to be initiated. But since he could not witness the mysteries because he had not been purified of his killing of the Centaurs, he was purified and then initiated by Eumolpos. He then went to Tainaron, a cape in Laconia, where there is an opening that leads down into the underworld, and he started his descent through it. When the souls saw him, they all immediately fled, with the exception of Meleagros and the Gorgon Medousa. He drew his sword against the Gorgon, as if she were alive, but he learned from Hermes that it was only an empty phantom. When he got near the gates of the underworld, he helped Theseus up, who was sitting on a throne that did not allow him to move. He also wanted to help Peirithoos up, but the earth shook violently, and he was unable to. He also rolled the rock off of Ascalaphos. Wanting to offer blood to the souls, he slaughtered one of Hades’ cows. [RSS]

§ 8.479  [to the abyss] of earth and sea, where Iapetos and Cronos... ([πείραθ᾿] ...γαίης καὶ πόντοιο, ἵν᾿ Ἰαπετός τε Κρόνος τε)
When Zeus removed his father Cronos from the kingship and took up the rule over the gods, the Giants, the children of Ge [Earth], got angry and prepared a great war against Zeus in Tartesos (this is a city near Oceanos). Zeus opposed them and defeated them all, and after he banished them into Erebos he entrusted the kingship over them to his father Cronos. And he defeated Ophion, the giant that visibly surpassed the rest, by putting a mountain on top of him, which was called Ophionion after him. [DBD, JL, ChR, RSS]

§ 9.448  fleeing his father Amyntor’s abuse (φεύγων νείκεα πατρὸς Ἀμύντορος)
Amyntor’s son was Phoinix, who was banished from his homeland for the following reason. When his father took a shine to a concubine named Clyteia and openly showed hatred for Hippodameia, by whom he fathered Phoinix, Hippodameia begged her son to sleep with his father’s concubine, Clyteia, and he did. When Amyntor found out, he brought down curses of childlessness on his son. Fearing both his father and the curses he was leveling at him, Phoinix fled to Peleus who, because of their kinship, welcomed him in and gave him the region of Dolopia. He also entrusted him with his son Achilles, who was still small, to raise. The story is in Pyktes; it is told differently in the tragedians. [RSS]

§ 9.529  the Couretes and the Aitolians fought (κουρῆτές τ᾿ ἐμάχοντο καὶ Αἰτωλοί)
When Oineus, the ruler of Aitolia, was sacrificing the first fruits of the yearly crops to the gods, he left out Artemis alone. Enraged, the goddess sent a monstrous wild boar against the Aitolians, which was destroying not only the land, but also the inhabitants. Men from Calydon and Pleuron went out after it. Oineus’ son Meleagros was the first to find success against it and so got the spoils of the boar—the head and hide—as a prize. But he then gave them to Atalanta out of desire (she’d joined them for the hunt). The sons of Thestios—the brothers of Meleagros’ mother Althaia—were furious at Meleagros and schemed against him. When he found out, he killed some and made others flee. This is why the people of Pleuron went to war against the Calydonians. Meleagros, furious at his mother, did not help his fatherland at first, but when the city was being ravaged, his wife Cleopatra convinced him to go forth. He killed some; others he pursued to the cliffs and forced them over. Althaia was overcome with rage toward her son and burned up the log that had been given to her by the Moirai [the Fates]. It had been foretold that when the log was burned entirely, Meleagros too would perish. After her son died, Althaia regretted it and killed herself. [RSS]

§ 9.557  the daughter of Marpessa, etc. (κούρῃ Μαρπήσσης καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς)
Euenos, the son of Ares and king of Aitolia, had an especially beautiful daughter named Marpessa, and he challenged her suitors to a chariot-race, saying that he would give her in marriage to the one who could escape him in pursuit. When he caught them, he beheaded them and put their heads on the wall of his house to scare off the others. Well, many had already been killed when finally Idas (they called him Aphareus’ son but in reality he was Poseidon’s), after getting really fast horses from his father, snatched the girl while she was dancing in the sanctuary of Artemis. When Euenos was unable to catch him, he slaughtered his horses and hurled himself into the Lycormas river, which was then called “Euenos” after him. After Idas escaped the danger, Apollo confronted him over the girl, wanting to take her away for himself. When they were about to fight, Zeus sent Hermes to tell the girl that she could choose whichever one she wanted. Worried that Apollo would abandon her when she got old, she chose Idas. [RSS]

§ 9.562  they called [her] Alcyone (Ἀλκυόνην καλέεσκον)
Ceyx son of Phosphoros (the star) married Alcyone daughter of Aiolos. He got so full of himself that he wanted to be considered a god. And so his wife always called him Zeus and he called her Hera. Zeus got angry over this and changed them into birds that live apart from each other. She was called “Alcyone” {sea-bird} and he “Ceyx” {tern?}. When the Alcyone was giving birth on the sea shore, it happened that waves would roll in and carry off her offspring. When Zeus saw her crying, he pitied her and ordered the winds not to blow during the time she gave birth — for 14 days as winter ramps up.[...] [RSS]

§ 10.334  of a grey wolf (πολιοῖο λύκοιο)
Because of the peculiar nature of its color. In fact, they say that Pelias got his name for this reason. Tyro, the daughter of Salmoneus, after giving birth to two sons by Poseidon, abandoned them by the waters of the Enipeus river. To one, a dog that had lost her puppies offered her teat, while a horse stepped on the other one’s forehead. When the horsekeepers arrived, they picked the children up and raised them. They named one child Pelias {“bruised”} since he was bruised from the gathering of blood, and the other one Neleus since a dog pitied {katēleēse] him. [ChR, CR]

§ 10.435  among them king Rhesos (ἐν δέ σφι Ῥῆσος βασιλεύς)
Rhesοs was a Thracian by birth, the son of Strymon (the river there) and Euterpe, one of the Muses. Being better than his contemporaries in warlike deeds, he went against the Greeks so that he could help the Trojans in war. He entered the fray and was killing many Greeks when Hera, fearing for the Greeks, sent Athena to destroy him. The goddess came down and ordered Odysseus and Diomedes to go forth on the spying mission. Springing on Rhesos while he slept, they killed him and his companions, as Pindar relates the story (fr. 262 Snell). Some say that Rhesos had arrived in Troy during the night, and before he tasted the water of the land, he was killed. For, they say, a prophecy had been given to him, that if he tasted the water and his horses drank from the Scamander and grazed on the pasture there, he would be completely unconquerable. [AP, ChR, CR]

§ 11.1  Eos, from her bed (Ἠὼς δ᾿ ἐκ λεχέων)
The myth is told that Hemera {Day} desired Tithonos, the son of Laomedon and the most attractive young man of those in his day in Troy, and abducted him. She got to sleep with him after he asked for and received immortality from her. But he grew old—for he lacked foresight and did not also ask for eternal youth. Vexed and unable to enjoy what life had to offer, he asked the goddess to release him from living. Since it was not possible for him to die, she changed him into a cicada, the most musical of all winged creatures, so that she could continue to find joy through his voice. Memnon, the king of the Aithiopians, was their son. [RSS]

§ 11.672  When I killed Itymoneus (ὅτ᾿ ἐγὼ κτάνον Ἰτυμονῆα)
Neleus, the son of Poseidon, being the foremost horseman of those in his day, sent a team of horses to Elis to participate in a race being held there by Augeias. When they won, Augeias got jealous, took them for himself, and sent the charioteers home empty handed. When Neleus learned of this, he did nothing, but Nestor, the youngest of his sons, gathered an army and attacked Elis. He killed many, took back the horses, and brought back a lot of plunder from his enemies. The story is in Pherecydes (fr. 118 Fowler; EGM 2.163–4). [RSS]

§ 11.690  Mighty Heracles came and ruined (ἐλθὼν γὰρ ἐκάκωσε βίη Ἡρακληείη)
Heracles came to Pylos in need of purification, but the people of Pylos shut the gates and did not let him in. In response the hero got angry and sacked Pylos. Fighting alongside Neleus were three gods: Poseidon, Hera and Aidoneus, as the poet says in book 5 [line 385]; on Heracles’ side were two, Athena and Zeus. [RSS]

§ 11.698  They did, in fact, owe him a heavy debt (καὶ γὰρ τῷ χρεῖος μέγ᾿ ὀφείλετο)
On Eurystheus’ orders Heracles cleared away the dung of Augeias, but when he asked for his payment, Augeias refused to give it, saying that he had performed the job under orders. Phyleus, Augeias’ son, was the judge in the matter and ruled against his father, who got angry and cast him out of the land. Heracles marched against and sacked Elis, then summoned Phyleus from Doulichion and bestowed the kingship on him. Because there was a shortage of men (many had been killed in the war), Heracles had the wives of those who had died sleep with his army. After many were born in this manner, Heracles established the Olympic Games in Zeus’ honor and he himself was the first to take part in the contests. The story is in Callimachus (Aitia fr. 77 Harder).86 [RSS]

§ 11.709  And with them the two Moliones (μετὰ δέ σφι Μολίονε)
Cteatos and Eurytos were the sons of Poseidon and Molione, the daughter of Molos, but they were called the sons of Actor. They had a nature completely different from all other men: they were of a double nature, having two heads, four hands and the same number of feet, but one body. Because of this, they kept winning contests, whether in war or in athletics. When Heracles went to war against them (they were fighting on Augeias’ side) and was unable to prevail over them in the open, he ambushed and killed them, and that’s how he sacked Elis. The story is in Pherecydes (fr. 79b Fowler; EGM 2.280–1). [RSS]

§ 11.741  [Agamede] who knew all the drugs ([Ἀγαμήδην] ἣ τόσα φάρμακα ᾔδη)
Medeia was the daughter of Aietes and wife of Jason. This woman, after murdering her own children, fled in exile to Athens and married Aigeus son of Pandion. While she was there, Theseus, Aigeus’ son by Aithra, came from Troizen to find and meet his father for the first time. Medeia urged Aigeus to give him a deadly potion, saying that he had come to steal his kingdom. Aigeus believed her and gave his son a poisoned cup when he arrived. But just as he was about to drink it, Aigeus recognized the sword and sandals—he’d left them behind in Troizen as tokens of recognition—and took the poison away from him. He then cast Medeia out of Attica. She then settled Ephyra, which was near Elis, and caused that place to be called “of many drugs” {polypharmakon}. The story is in Crates (fr. 14 Broggiato). [RSS]

§ 12.1  So among the huts the stalwart son of Menoitios (ὣς ὁ μὲν ἐν κλισίῃσι Μενοιτίου ἄλκιμος υἱός)
While growing up in Opous (in Locris), Patroclos son of Menoitios was involved in an involuntary mistake. In a fit of rage over a game of dice he killed a boy his age, Clesonymos, the son of Amphidamas (a man of some importance), but some say it was Aianes he killed. Exiled for this, he went to Phthia and, based on his kinship with Peleus, he stayed there with Achilles. They maintained an exceptional friendship with each other and went on campaign against Troy together. The story is in Hellanicus (fr. 145 Fowler; EGM 2.537). [AP, ChR, CR]

§ 12.93  Paris (Πάρις)
When she was pregnant, Hecabe had a dream in which she gave birth to a torch that caused the whole city to burn down. When the child was born, he was exposed following the judgment of the prophets, but by the will of the gods he was raised by the one who found him, a shepherd who, when he saw a she-bear giving the baby milk, took him in and raised him. He was therefore called “Paris” not because, as some say, he was raised in a pouch {pēra}, but because he avoided {parelth-} his fate. Later he was called Alexander, because he defended {alex-} his country, that is to say he helped when the enemy attacked. [ChR, MR]

§ 12.231  Poulydamas, I no longer like what you’re saying to me (Πουλυδάμα, σὺ μὲν οὐκέτ᾿ ἐμοὶ φίλα ταῦτ᾿ ἀγορεύεις)
After Heracles sacked Troy, Priam son of Laomedon, having received the kingship, sent men to Delphi to consult the oracle about his present situation. When they got there, they not only received an oracular response, they also brought back Panthous, one of the Delphians, so that he would continue to give prophecies to Priam. He married Pronome, Clytios’ daughter, fathered Poulydamas, and instructed him in the art of prophecy. It is said that both Hector and Panthous were born on the same night. [JC, AP, ChR, CR]

§ 12.397  Sarpedon took hold of the rampart with his stout hands (Σαρπηδὼν δ᾿ ἄρ᾿ ἔπαλξιν ἑλὼν χερσὶ στιβαρῇσιν)
When Zeus saw Europa daughter of Phoinix picking flowers with other young girls in a meadow, he desired her. He went down to the field, transformed himself into a bull, and exhaled saffron from his mouth; having deceived Europa in this way, he took off and carried her to Crete, where had sex with her. Then, just like that, he gave her hand in marriage to Asterion, the king of the Cretans. Pregnant, she gave birth to three children, Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys. This is the story in Hesiod (fr. 140 MW = fr. 89 Most) and Bacchylides (fr. 10 Snell-Maehler). [CR]

§ 13.1  when Zeus [had driven] the Trojans and Hector (Ζεὺς δ᾿ ἐπεὶ οὖν ρῶάς τε καὶ Ἕκτορα)
He [Homer] has separated Hector from the rest of the Trojans for prominence. After the sack of Troy, Hector son of Priam received honor from the gods even after his death. When the Thebans in Boiotia were facing difficult times, they consulted an oracle about their deliverance, and the response that was given to them was that the difficulties would end if they brought the bones of Hector from Ophrynion in the Troad to the place the Thebans called “Zeus’ Birthplace.” When they did this and were freed from their troubles, they held Hector in honor and, in urgent times, would call upon him to appear. The story is in Aristodemus (FGrHist 383 fr. 7). [RSS]

§ 13.66  of the two, Aias, the swift son of Oileus, recognized first (τοῖϊν δ᾿ γνω πρόσθεν Ὀϊλῆος ταχὺς Αἴας)
Aias was Locrian by birth, from the city of Naryx, and his father was Oileus. This man was responsible for the destruction of the Greeks after the sack of Troy. This is because he raped Cassandra daughter of Priam in the sanctuary of Athena although she had taken refuge there under the protection of the goddess—an act that caused the goddess to turn the eyes of her statue toward the roof. So when the Greeks were making their return and were off the coast of Euboia, the goddess whipped up great storms, resulting in the destruction of many of them. After Aias swam to the so-called Gyraian Rocks, he said that he had survived even against the will of the gods. Poseidon got angry, split the rock in two, and delivered Aias unto the waves. When Thetis found his corpse washed up on shore, she buried him out of pity. But not even then did Athena relent from her wrath: for a thousand years she forced the Locrians to send maidens chosen by lot to Troy. The story is the first book of Callimachus’ Aitia (fr. 35 Harder), and cursorily told by Homer in the fourth book of the Odyssey [4.485–511]. [RSS]

§ 13.218  ruled the Aitolians (Αἰτωλοῖσιν ἄνασσε)
Aitolos was the son of Endymion. After committing an unintentional homicide, he fled to the area named after him, Aitolia, and there he fathered Pleuron, after whom the city in Aitolia, Pleuron, was named. Pleuron had two sons, Coures and Calydon, after whom two other cities in Aitolia were named. [RSS]

§ 13.302  or with the stout-hearted Phlegyans (ἠὲ μετὰ Φλεγύας εγαλήτορας)
The Phlegyans living around Gyrton lived a life of lawless banditry. They would overrun the neighboring peoples and mistreat them cruelly. The Thebans, being nearby, had lived in fear for quite a long time until Amphion and Zethos, the sons of Zeus and Antiope, fortified Thebes with walls. For Amphion had a lyre that had been bestowed on him by the Muses, with which he charmed even stones, such that they moved on their own accord toward the building of the wall. While these two were still alive, the Phlegyans were unable to do any harm to the Thebans. But once they were dead, they marched against Thebes with their king Eurymachos and took the city. Since they were performing many unjust and cruel acts, by the will of Zeus they were destroyed by Apollo. The story is in Pherecydes (fr. 41c Fowler; EGM 2.365). [RSS]

§ 13.459  he went for Aineias (βῆ δέ μετ᾿ Αἰνείαν)
After Troy was captured Aineias took his father Anchises and fled. Near Mt. Athos he suffered shipwreck and was cast ashore with his father. Anchises died at Mt. Calauros, next to the Anthemos river; Aineias buried him where there is now the place called the Tomb of Anchises. In accordance with the will of his mother, Aphrodite, he founded the city that was called “Aineias” after him. When he died, the son who was born of her secretly went back to his father’s realm and rebuilt a city there. Then he gathered an army, migrated to Italy and founded a city, Rome. [RSS]

§ 14.119  my father, after wandering, came to dwell in Argos (πατὴρ δ’ ἐμὸς ργεϊ νάσθη πλαγχθείς)
As, presumably, Zeus and the other gods willed it. Diomedes elegantly passes over his father’s exile. For after Tydeus killed his own sons, Lycopeus and Alcathoos, he went into exile. The following story has more truth: Tydeus son of Oineus was Aitolian by birth, and he was the strongest of his peers. While he was still young, he watched as his father, because he was old, was kicked out of his kingship by the sons of Agrios. Tydeus killed his cousins because of this, but he also unintentionally killed his brother at the same time. He fled to Argos and its king, Adrastos, where he was purified by him and received his daughter Deipyle. The story is in Pherecydes (fr. 122 Fowler; EGM 2.410). [RSS]

§ 14.226  Pieria (Πιερίην)
A land in Macedonia, but some say it’s a mountain. Macedon, the son of Zeus and Thyia, gained possession of the land, which was part of Thrace, and named it after himself. He married a local woman and fathered two sons, Pieros and Amathos, after whom two cities in Macedonia were named, Pieria and Amathia. The story is in Marsyas (FGrHist 135 fr. 13). [RSS]

§ 14.255  Cos (Κόων δέ)
When Heracles was making his return home after sacking Troy and was on the Aegean Sea, he was held up by a violent storm by the will of Hera. He was driven to Cos Meropis, but he was prevented from disembarking on the island by its king, Eurypylos, the son of Poseidon. But he resorted to force like a pirate: he disembarked anyway, killed Eurypylos and his sons, and slept with his daughter Chalciope, fathering Thessalos. The story is in Pherecydes (fr. 78 Fowler; EGM 2.314).105 [RSS]

§ 14.295  just like the first time we slept together (οἷον ὅτε πρῶτον μισγομέθα)
When Hera was being raised by her parents, one of the Giants, Eurymedon, raped her and made her pregnant. She gave birth to Prometheus. Zeus later married his sister [Hera], and when he found out what had happened, he threw Eurymedon into Tartaros, and hung Prometheus up in chains (he used the fire as a pretext). The story is in Euphorion (fr. 99 Powell). [RSS]

§ 14.319  Not even when [I loved] Danae (οὐδ᾿ ὅτε περ Δανάης)
Danae daughter of Acrisios slept with Zeus and gave birth to Perseus. For when Acrisios, he says, consulted the oracle about fathering male children, the god said that his daughter would give birth to a son who would kill him. Afraid of this, Acrisios built a bronze bedroom under ground and kept Danae under guard. But, as Pindar (fr. 284 Pfeiffer) and others say, she was seduced by her uncle, Proitos, and this is what caused the falling out between the two. But some say that Zeus changed into gold and slept with Danae by flowing through the roof into her lap. When Acrisios later learned that she had given birth to Perseus, he refused to believe that she had been seduced by Zeus, put his daughter into a chest along with her son, and threw it into the sea. They survived, landing on the island of Seriphos; her son was raised at Polydectes’ court or, as some say, by Polydectes’ brother, Dictys. When Acrisios later was driven into exile, Perseus became king of the Argives. [RSS]

§ 14.323a  Not even when [I loved] Semele (οὐδ᾿ ὅτε περ Σεμέλης)
Zeus desired Semele, the daughter of Cadmos, and was sleeping with her without Hera’s knowledge. But Semele was tricked by Hera: when Zeus had agreed to do everything she asked of him, Semele asked him to come to her just as he came to Hera when he was wooing her. Unable to refuse her, Zeus came into her bedroom on a chariot with lightning and thunder and hurled a thunderbolt. Semele died from fright, but Zeus snatched out of the fire the six-month old fetus that had been miscarried and sewed it into his thigh. The story is in Euripides’ Bacchae. [RSS]

§ 14.323b  Nor when [I loved] Alcmene in Thebes (οὐδ᾿ Ἀλκμήνης ἐνὶ Θήβῃς)
Alcmene, the daughter of Electryon and Anaxo daughter of Alcaios, was desired by Amphitryon, who, after killing Electryon in a dispute over cattle, went into exile from Argos to Thebes. Alcmene went with him. They were received hospitably by the rulers of the city, Creon and Henioche, and they were greatly honored there. But Alcmene did not want to get married until the Teleboans, the murderers of her brothers, had been killed. So Amphitryon, taking with him allies from Boiotia, Locris, and Phocis, fought against them and won after a year-long siege. When he returned from campaign he celebrated his wedding to Alcmene, but on that very night Zeus desired her and, taking the form of Amphitryon, slept with her, fathering a son. Amphitryon did the same later in the same night. Nine months after the sexual encounter, Heracles was born from Zeus, Iphicles from Amphitryon. They say that when Zeus was sleeping with Alcmene he persuaded the sun not to rise for three days. This is why Zeus, having slept with her for three nights, fathered “three-evening” Heracles. [RSS]

§ 15.229  But come, take [the aigis] in your hands (ἀλλὰ σύ γ᾿ ἐν χείρεσσι γε)
When Cronos received an oracle that his own son would dethrone him, he swallowed his children as soon as they were born. But when Rhea gave birth to Zeus, she wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes and gave it to Cronos to swallow instead of him. She took her child to Crete and gave him to Themis and Amaltheia (this was a goat {aig-}) to raise. Whenever the Titans looked upon this goat, they grew afraid. It nourished the child by offering its teats to him. When Zeus grew up, he dethroned his father; when the Titans went to war against him, Themis advised him to use the skin of Amaltheia as a cloak, since it was always a terrifying bugbear. Zeus followed the advice and conquered the Titans. Because of this, they say, Zeus got the name “Aigis-bearing.” [RSS]

§ 15.256  Phoibos Apollo of the golden aor (Φοῖβον Ἀπόλλωνα χρυσάορον)
Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia daughter of Atlas, invented the lyre. He stole Apollo’s cattle but was discovered to be the thief by the god through his power of divination. While Apollo was threatening him, Hermes stole the bow right off his shoulders. The god smiled and gave him his prophetic staff, which is why Hermes is called “golden-wand.” Apollo got the lyre from him, and this is why he is called “Chrysaor” from the strap [aortēr] of the lyre. [RSS]

§ 16.14  They say that Menoitios is still alive (ζώειν μὰν ἔτι φασὶν Μενοίτιον)
Aiacos, the son of Zeus and Aigina, married Endeis daughter of Cheiron and had two sons, Peleus and Telamon. He also slept with Psamathe, the Nereid, and fathered Phocos. Peleus killed Phocos which led him to go into exile in Magnesia in Thessaly and stay with Cheiron. Telamon for his part accidentally killed one of his fellow hunters during the Calydonian Boar hunt and went in exile to Salamis, where he married Eriboia daughter of Alcathoos and fathered Aias. Menoitios moved to Opous and fathered Patroklos, who also killed someone involuntarily, Cleisonymos, son of Amphidamas. He fled to Peleus in exile <...three words uncertain...>115 who raised him with Achilles. The story is in Philostephanus (FHG fr. 35). [RSS]

§ 16.36  If you in your mind are avoiding some destiny (εἰ δέ τινα φρεσὶ σῇσι εοπροπίην ἀλεείνεις)
When Thetis was forced by Zeus to marry Peleus, she kept putting the children she gave birth to into fire in the belief that she could burn up the mortal flesh in it while preserving the immortal part. She destroyed six children this way. Achilles, the seventh, she likewise put into the fire, but Peleus saw her do it, rescued the child, and brought him to Mt. Pelion, giving him over to Cheiron to raise. Because Cheiron nourished him on the marrow of lions and bears, he called the boy Achilles. After teaching him the art of medicine and how to play the lyre and sing, he returned him to his father. Thetis, meanwhile, was angry and left Peleus, returning to the sea. But when Achilles was heading off to fight against Troy, she forewarned him: if he fought against the Trojans he would possess a short life, but achieve great glory; but if he stayed away from fighting he would live a long life, but without fame. When he learned this, Achilles chose eternal fame over a transitory life and went to war. The story is in Lycophron (Alex. 178–179) [RSS]

§ 16.140  Only the spear [of Achilles] he did not take (ἔγχος δ᾿ οὐχ ἕλετ᾿ οἶον)
Homer has, in anticipation, held back only the spear itself because Hephaistos does not work wood. During the wedding of Peleus and Thetis the gods gathered on Mt. Pelion for a feast and brought Peleus gifts. Cheiron cut a thriving ash-tree, fashioned a spear and presented it to Peleus. (They say that Athena planed it and Hephaistos fit it out with a spearhead.) It was with this spear that both Peleus and Achilles after him distinguished themselves in battle. The story is in the poet of the Cypria (fr. 3 Davies). [RSS]

§ 16.233  Zeus, lord of Dodona (Ζεῦ ἄνα Δωδωναῖε)
That is, honored in Dodona, a place of the Hyperboreans. What is the account of Dodonaian Zeus and the place that prompts Homer to invoke him in this way? After the flood that happened in his time, Deucalion traveled to Epeiros and consulted the oracle at the oak tree. When the peleias gave him the response, he settled the area, gathering together those that had survived the flood, and he named the land Dodona after Zeus and Dodona, one of Oceanos’ daughters. The story is in Thrasybulus and Acestodorus. [RSS]

§ 17.53  just like a shoot that a man nourishes (οἷον δὲ τρέφει ἔρνος ἀνήρ)
Poseidon and Athena contended over Attica. Poseidon struck the Acropolis of Attica with his trident and created a sea-wave, but Athena created the olive tree. Their judge was Cecrops, the king of the region of Attica, and he awarded the land to the goddess, saying that the sea was everywhere, but the olive tree was unique to Athens. The story is in Callimachus (fr. 194 Pfeiffer). [RSS]

§ 18.10  the best of the Myrmidons (Μυρμιδόνων τὸν ἄριστον)
Actor was a Locrian by birth. He married Aigina, the daughter of Asopos (the river of Thebes), after she had slept with Zeus and after some months fathered Menoitios. Menoitios returned to his father’s homeland, Opous, and fathered Patroclos, whom the poet fittingly called a Myrmidon because his father was born on Aigina. [RSS]

§ 18.486a  Pleiades (Πληϊάδες)
Seven stars lying in the tail of Taurus (or rather where Taurus breaks off, since the bull was not placed in the stars whole, but only up to its haunches). These are the daughters of Atlas and Pleione, whose names are: Maia, Taygete, Celaino, Merope, Electra, Sterope and Alcyone. Atlas, one of the Giants, slept with Pleione daughter of Oceanos and had seven daughters, who prized their virginity and used to hunt alongside Artemis. When Orion saw them he grew desirous and chased after them, wanting to sleep with them. When they were being overtaken, they prayed to the gods to change their form. Zeus pitied them and turned them into doves {peleiades} and placed them among the stars. They were called Pleiades after their mother, Pleione. They say that Electra, not wanting to witness the destruction of Troy (because her descendants had built it), left the spot where she had been placed. That’s why there are six stars instead of the original seven. The story is in the Cyclic poets (p. 74 Davies). [RSS]

§ 18.486b  Hyades (Ὑάδες)
These are the seven stars lying in the horns of Taurus. The are called the Hyades either because of the similarity of their shape to the letter upsilon {Υ} or it is because they are the cause of storms and rainshowers {hyet-}. When Dionysos was born from Zeus’ thigh, Zeus gave the baby over to the nymphs of Dodona to raise: Ambrosia, Coronis, Eudore, Dione, Phaisyle, Polyxo. After they raised him, they traveled alongside him, bestowing the grapevine discovered by the god on humanity. But Lycourgos chased Dionysos to the sea, and Zeus, taking pity on the women, placed them among the stars. The story is in Pherecydes (fr. 90b Fowler; EGM 2.371–7). [RSS]

§ 18.486c  Pleiades and Hyades (Πληϊάδας θ᾿ Ὑάδας τε)
They say that the ones placed among the stars along the brow of Taurus are called the Hyades, while those along its haunches (where Taurus breaks off) are called the Pleiades. The story according to Timaeus (FGrHist 566 fr. 91): Atlas, the son of Iapetos and Aithra daughter of Oceanos, had twelve daughters and one son named Hyas. While the son was hunting in Libya, he was killed by a snake. Five of the sisters died while mourning their brother, all of whom Zeus placed among the stars out of pity, giving them the name “Hyades” after their brother. The greater {plei-} number, seven, died later and were called the Pleiades. Yet, as Pherecydes (fr. 90c Fowler; EGM 2.371–7) puts it, the Hyades were nymphs of Dodona and the nurses of Dionysos, who entrusted Dionysos to Ino’s care on account of their fear of Hera (this was the same time at which they had been driven off by Lycourgos, too). Of the seven Pleiades, the seventh star is extremely faint. As Aratus says in his funeral poem for Theopropus, when Troy was being sacked, Electra, the mother of Dardanos and one of the Pleiades, fled the company of her sisters; sometimes she appears as a comet, having let her hair {komai} down. Hellanicus in the first book of his Atlantica says that six of them had sex with gods (fr. 19 Fowler; EGM 2.417–8): Taygete and Zeus produced Lacedaimon; Maia and Zeus produced Hermes; Electra and Zeus produced Dardanos; Alcyone and Poseidon produced Hyrieus; Celaino and Poseidon produced Lycos; Sterope and Ares produced Oinomaos; Merope and Sisyphos (a mortal, which is why she is faint) produced Glaucos. [...] [RSS]

§ 18.486d  The strength of Orion (τό τε σθένος Ὠρίωνος)
Another way of saying “Orion.” Orion is the biggest star in the heavens, and here is why he was placed there: Hyrieus, the son of Poseidon and Alcyone (one of Atlas’ daughters), lived in Tanagra in Boiotia. Being an excellent host, he once even welcomed gods into his home. Zeus, Poseidon and Hermes were entertained and treated kindly by him, and so they encouraged him to ask them for whatever he wanted. Being childless, he asked for a son. So the gods took the hide of the ox he had sacrificed for them, ejaculated into it, and told him to hide it under the earth and to retrieve it nine months later. When the nine months were up, Ourion was born, so named because it was as if the gods had, so to speak, “urinated” {ourēsai}, but later he lost the inauspicious name and was called Orion. While he was hunting alongside Artemis, he tried to rape her. Enraged, the goddess brought up from the earth a scorpion, which stung him in the ankle, killing him. Zeus out of pity lifted him into the stars, and this is why Orion sets when Scorpio rises. The story is in Euphorion (fr. 101 Powell). [RSS]

§ 18.487  The Bear, which they also call the Wagon (Ἄρκτον θ᾿ ἣν καὶ Ἅμαξαν ἐπίκλησιν καλέουσιν)
Two Bears are shown in the northern regions. This one, the one called the Great Bear, is also called the Wagon because it was placed among the stars in the form of a wagon. The nearby one, the Small Bear, is called the Dog’s Tail because it has a bent tail like a dog’s—but Homer does not mention this one, since it was only later discovered by Thales the Milesian, one of the Seven Wise Men. Zeus desired Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon, and slept with her without Hera knowing about it. But when the goddess did find out, she changed Callisto into a bear, and she ordered Artemis to shoot it as if it were a wild animal. But Zeus took her into the heavens and placed her in the stars, his first catasterism. The story is in Callimachus (fr. 632 Pfeiffer). [RSS]

§ 18.493  A large wedding celebration is afoot (πολὺς δ᾿ ὑμέναιος ὀρώρει)
[...]136 Others say that Hymenaios was an Argive man who, when he was sailing past Athens, arrived just as young women from Attica were being abducted by some Pelasgians. When he appeared, he was the reason they were not violated since he drove off the Pelasgians. Because of this, women who were legally getting married, as if they were appealing to him, used to sing a certain hymn to him called the Hymenaion. [RSS]

§ 18.590  He wrought a dancing floor on it, etc. (ἐν δὲ χορὸν ποίησε καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς)
Hephaistos also carefully wrought on [the shield] a dance that has a similar arrangement of dancers as the one that was created by the inventor Daidalos for Ariadne in the city of Knossos on Crete. For the story is told that when Theseus traveled from Aphidnai to Athens, he arrived just as the tributes—the seven boys and seven girls—were being sent to Minos on Crete. The Athenians were performing this tribute as payment for the treacherous murder of Androgeos, Minos’ son, when he was taking part in the Panathenaia festival and kept winning. Anyways, they say that Theseus willingly enlisted with the those heading off, and when he got to Crete he caught the eye of Ariadne, Minos’ daughter. Because of this he was saved by the skill of Daidalos in the following way. Daidalos gave Ariadne a ball of thread and told her to give it to Theseus so that he could attach the end of the thread to the entranceway. That would allow him to unwind the ball as he entered the Labyrinth, and, once he overcame the beast, he would have a simple and easy way back out of the Labyrinth, which had a complex, interwoven set of passages out. When Theseus got out after overcoming the beast, he along with the other boys and girls weaved a choral dance for the gods in such a way that it reflected his intricate weaving in and out of the Labyrinth. It was Daidalos that came up with and created the practice of choral dance. [RSS]

§ 19.113  great oath (μέγαν ὅρκον)
The water of Styx. Of the children of Ouranos, Styx was the one sister held in the highest honor, and after the battle of the heavenly gods against the so-called Titans, she became the in the following way. Cronos and the other Titans (the children of Ouranos), the older generation, were preparing to bring war against the younger gods led by Zeus. They determined to do this through an ambush and brought their sister into their counsel, but when she learned of the specifics of their plans, she revealed them to Zeus, betraying her siblings. Zeus and the other gods avoided the ambush, met the Titans in war, and defeated them. Then he honored Styx by making the water of Styx the unbreakable oath of the gods. The story is told in more detail in Hesiod’s Theogony (lines 389–403). [RSS]

§ 19.119  and stopped Alcmene [from giving birth] (Ἀλκμήνης δ᾿ ἀπέπαυσεν [τόκον])
Zeus slept with Alcmene daughter of Electryon and made her pregnant (how was explained in book 14 [line 323]). When she was about to give birth, Zeus swore in the presence of the gods that the one born from him on that very day would be king. Out of jealousy, Hera paused Alcmene’s labor and caused Sthenelos’ wife Antibia (some say it was Nicippe), who was six months’ pregnant, to deliver Eurystheus. (This is why even babies born prematurely at six months are cared for.) Eurystheus became king and ordered Heracles to complete the labors; when the latter finished them, he was compensated with immortality following the instructions of Athena and Apollo. The story is in Rhianus (fr. 9 Powell = FGrHist 265 fr. 51). [RSS]

§ 19.326  or my own son, who is being raised on Scyros for me (ἠὲ τὸν ὃς Σκύρῳ μοι ἔνι τρέφεται φίλος υἱός)
After Alexander carried off Helen, Agamemnon and Menelaos assembled the Greeks to march against Troy. Knowing that it was fated for Achilles to die in Troy, Peleus went to king Lycomedes on Scyros and put Achilles in his care. Lycomedes put him in women’s clothing and raised him along with his daughters as a girl. When the Greeks received an oracle that Troy could not be taken without Achilles, they sent Odysseus, Phoinix, and Nestor to Peleus, who said his son wasn’t there with him. So they traveled to Scyros and, suspecting that Achilles was being raised among the young women, followed Odysseus’ suggestion: they tossed weapons and baskets filled with other loom-instruments in front of the women’s quarters. The girls rushed toward the baskets and other items, but Achilles outed himself when he picked up the weapons and that’s how he joined their campaign. Earlier, however, when he was living with the young women, he had seduced Deidameia, Lycomedes’ daughter. She bore him Pyrrhos, who later was named Neoptolemos. Though young, he fought with the Greeks after the death of his father. The story is in the Cyclic poets (p. 75 Davies). [RSS]

§ 20.3  high ground (θρωσμῷ)
A lofty place from which one can “spring” {thor-} or “leap” down. This place is in Troy, about five stades [= 5/8 mile] in circumference, lying between the Simoeis River and the so-called village of the Ilians. This is also where people think the goddesses were judged in the beauty contest. It is called Callicolone {“Beautiful Hill”}, because it is the most conspicuous landmark in the surrounding area. The story is in Demetrius of Scepsis (fr. 23 Gaede). [RSS]

§ 20.145  to the earthen wall of godlike Heracles, lofty, the one the Trojans and Athena made so that he could slip away and escape the sea monster (τεῖχος ἐς ἀμφίχυτον Ἡρακλῆος θείοιο ὑψηλόν, τὸ ῥά οἱ Τρῶες καὶ Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη ποίεον, ὄφρα τὸ κῆτος ὑπεκπροφυγὼν ἀλέαιτο)
When Poseidon and Apollo worked as slaves for Laomedon at Zeus’ command, they built the wall for an agreed-upon price. Breaking his oath and promises, Laomedon did not render payment and drove them off. Enraged, Poseidon sent a sea monster against the land, which continually destroyed all the people and growing crops it met. Laomedon consulted an oracle, and the response was this: he was to set out his daughter Hesione as food for the sea monster and in so doing he would be freed of the terror. He set out his daughter and announced that the would give the person who killed the sea monster the immortal horses that Zeus had given Tros in return for Ganymedes. Heracles came and promised to accomplish the challenge, and after Athena built the wall called “earthen” as a protection for him, he crawled into the beast’s belly through its mouth and destroyed its insides. Laomedon made a switch and gave Heracles mortal horses. When Heracles learned about this, he marched against Troy and sacked it, and that’s how he got those horses. The story is in Hellanicus (fr. 26b Fowler; EGM 2.311–3). [RSS]

§ 20.215  First cloud-gathering Zeus fathered Dardanos (Δάρδανον αὖ πρῶτον τέκετο)
Dardanos, the son of Zeus and Electra (the daughter of Atlas), escaped from Samothrace when great rains came. Building a raft and wrapping himself in a leather sack, he crossed to Mt. Ida in the Troad. He got off the raft and on Zeus’ orders built a city, which he called Dardania after himself. The story is in Lycophron (Alex 69–85). [RSS]

§ 20.307  and then the power of Aineias will rule the Trojans (νῦν δὲ δὴ Αἰνείαο βίη Τρώεσσι ἀνάξει)
When Aphrodite learned of the prophecy that the descendants of Anchises would rule the Trojans after the reign of Priam’s family was brought to an end, she slept with Anchises even though he was past his prime. She gave birth to Aineias. Wanting to create a pretext to bring an end to Priam’s family, she inspired in Paris a desire for Helen. And after he carried Helen away, Aphrodite only appeared to fight on the side of the Trojans (in reality she was encouraging their defeat) so that they would not give up hope completely and give Helen back. The story is in Acusilaus (fr. 39 Fowler; EGM 2.561). [RSS]

§ 20.403  as a bull bellows as it is dragged to the Heliconian lord (ὡς δ᾿ ὅτε ταῦρος ἤρυγεν ἑλκόμενος Ἑλικώνιον ἀμφὶ ἄνακτα)
[...]144 The story is as follows. Neleus, the son of Codros, having received an oracle, sent out a group of settlers from Athens and Achaian Helice to settle Miletos and Caria. When they got to Caria they built a sanctuary for Poseidon and they called the area “Heliconion” after the sacred area in Helice. Whenever they sacrifice to the god, they think the god is receiving the sacrifice favorably if the bulls bellow; but if the bulls make no sound, they are discouraged since they think the god is angry. The story is in Clitophon (FHG fr. 5). [RSS]

§ 21.1  the ford of the river [Xanthos] (πόρον ποταμοῖο...[Ξάνθου])
[...]But there is also another story circulating. Once Heracles, in the grips of dire thirst, prayed to his father Zeus to show him a flowing stream. Not wanting him to die, Zeus threw a thunderbolt and revealed a small trickle of water. When Heracles saw it, he dug {skapt-} to make it flow more closely to the surface and called it “Skamandros,” as if “Kamandros” since it was the cause of his toil {kamat-}. This is why the poet reasonably ties the origin of the river to Zeus. It got the name Xanthos from the fact that the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite were judged in the beauty contest after having washed in its waters having blond {xanth-} hair. [RSS]

§ 21.194  Not even lord Acheloios is his [Zeus’] equal (τῷ οὐδὲ κρείων Ἀχελώϊος ἰσοφαρίζει)
When Heracles descended into the underworld to fetch Cerberos, he encountered Meleagros son of Oineus, who begged him to marry his sister Deianeira. So, when he returned to the light above, Heracles hurried off to Oineus in Aitolia. When he got there, he found that Acheloios, the nearby river, was wooing the girl. Heracles wrestled him even as the river-god took the form of a bull, and during the struggle Heracles broke off one of this horns, thus winning the maiden. They say that Acheloios received a horn from Amaltheia daughter of Oceanos, and by trading that with Heracles, he got back his own horn. The Acheloios is clearly the biggest of all the rivers in Greece, and for this reason they call all water sources by this name. The story is in Pindar (Dith. 2; cf. Apollodorus 2.7.5). [RSS]

§ 21.448  You, Phoibos, herded his shambling, crook-horned cattle (Φοῖβε σὺ δ᾿ εἰλίποδας ἕλικας βοῦς βουκολέεσκες)
They say that Apollo was called “Herder” {nomios} for the following reason. Ancient people thought that plagues came from Apollo, but every plague starts with the animals, as Homer says [Il. 1.50], “He went after the mules and swift dogs first.” So wanting to entreat the god so that he would turn aside the plagues, they called him herder and guard of the flocks—and this is why Homer says that he shepherded flocks under Laomedon and herded horses for Admetus. This is how Apollodorus tells it (of Athens, FGrHist 244 fr. 96). [RSS]

§ 22.29  The dog of Orion (ὅν τε κύν᾿ Ὠρίωνος)
This is how Homer describes the constellation “Dog.” But some say that the dog placed among the stars is not Orion’s dog, but that of Erigone, which was put in the heavens for the following reason. Icarios was an Athenian by birth and had an only daughter, Erigone, who was raising a puppy. Once Icarios hosted Dionysos in his home and received from him both wine and a cutting of a grape vine. Following the god’s instructions, he went around the land publicizing Dionysos’ gift, and he took the dog with him. When he was outside of the city he offered some herders wine, and they all in a group drank their fill. Some fell into a deep sleep, but those who did not thought that the drink was some deadly drug, so they beat Icarios to death. When those who had fallen asleep woke up recovered the next day, they realized their crime and took to flight. But the dog returned to Erigone and indicated what had happened by howling. When Erigone learned the truth, she hanged herself. A plague struck in Athens and the Athenians, following an oracle, started honoring both Icarios and Erigone with yearly honors. They were also placed among the stars: Icarios was called “Bootes” {Cart-Driver}, and Erigone “Parthenos” {Virgin}. The dog kept the same name. The story is in Eratosthenes (fr. 22 Powell). [RSS]

§ 23.91  Let a single urn [hold] the remains of us both (ὣς δὲ καὶ ὀστέα νῶϊν ὁμὴ σορός)
When Hephaistos was on Naxos (one of the Cyclades), Dionysos hosted him and got from him a golden vase as a gift. Later, when Dionysos was chased off by Lycourgos and fled into the sea, he was received kindly by Thetis, and so he gave her the vase that had been made by Hephaistos. And she gifted it to her son, so that after death his remains could be put in it. The story is in Stesichorus (PMG fr. 234). [RSS]

§ 23.144  It appears my father prayed to you in vain, Spercheios, etc. (Σπέρχει᾿ ἄλλως σοί γε πατὴρ ἠρήσατο Πηλεὺς καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς)
It was customary among the ancients to clip the hair of their youth when they reached adulthood and dedicate it to rivers. For they thought that rivers were responsible for nurturing them, and it was for this reason that they brought water from rivers to their wedding celebrations when they take an omen about the birth and raising of children. This is why Peleus too dedicated Achilles’ hair to this river—for he was from Pharsalos in Thessaly. The story is in the authors of the Argolica. [RSS]

§ 23.346  Not even if you were to drive the colt Areion in front of you (οὐδὲ εἴ κεν μετόπισθεν Ἀρείονα πῶλον ἐλαύνοις)
When Poseidon desired Erinys, he changed his form into that of a horse and slept with her in Boiotia beside the spring Tilphousa . Impregnated, she gave birth to a horse, which was called Areion {“better, stouter”} because it was the best. Copreus, who was ruler of Haliartos in Boiotia, received this horse as a gift from Poseidon. He, in turn, gifted it to Heracles when the latter stayed with him. It was competing on this horse that Heracles won a horserace against Cycnos, the son of Ares, in the sanctuary of Pagasaian Apollo (this is near Troizen [incorrect]). Later, in another handoff, Heracles gave the colt to Adrastos, and it was because of the horse that Adrastos survived the Theban War, while the others perished. The story is in the Cyclic poets (Thebaid fr. 6c Davies). [RSS]

§ 23.660  To whoever Apollo grants endurance (ᾧ δὲ κ᾿ Ἀπόλλων δώῃ καμμονίην)
Phorbas was the strongest man in his day. Thinking himself superior, he practiced boxing, forced passers-by to compete against him, and killed them. But, driven by that outsized sense of superiority, he was accustomed to show the same sort of arrogance even toward the gods. So Apollo came to him, engaged him in a fight, and killed him. And it was because of that fight that the god was also thought to be the overseer of the art of boxing. The story is in the Cyclic poets (p. 74 Davies). [RSS]

§ 23.683  a loin cloth (ζῶμα δέ οἱ)
Originally, it was customary for ancient folks to wear a loin cloth over the genitals when they competed in athletic contests. In the Olympiad, when Orsippos the Lacedaimonian competed, his loin cloth slipped off and that was the reason for his victory. From that time on it has been custom to run naked. [RSS]

§ 23.821  he kept trying to hit his neck [with the point of his] shining [spear] (αἰὲν ἐπ᾿ αὐχένι κῦρε φαεινοῦ [δουρὸς ἀκωκῇ])
The story is told that Heracles, who had sailed to the island of Salamis for some reason, arrived at the very moment when Telamon’s son Aias was born. So Heracles stopped, picked up the child, and threw his lion cloak around him, at which point he boasted that he would be invulnerable. And when Aias grew up, he was invulnerable all over, except for his neck. For that, apparently, was the body part that the lion skin happened not to cover at the time. [RSS]

§ 24.24  They kept urging sharp-eyed Argeiphontes to steal [Hector’s body] ([τὸν] κλέψαι δ᾿ ὀτρύνεσκον ἐΰσκοπον Ἀργειφόντην)
Zeus desired Maia, the daughter of Atlas, and slept with her secretly without Hera’s knowledge. Impregnated, she gave birth to Hermes in Cyllene in Arcadia. He had an appetite for stealing {klept-] things because Zeus cheated on {klept-} Hera when he slept with Maia. Once, for instance, when his mother was bathing with her sisters, Hermes snuck in and swiped their clothes right from under them; they, naked, had no idea what to do. Hermes laughed at this and then gave them back their clothes. He also stole Apollo’s cattle. The story is in Eratosthenes (fr. 1 Powell). [RSS]

§ 24.251  Deiphobos and Hippothoos (Δηΐφοβόν τε καὶ Ἱππόθοον)
When Alexander was shot by Philoctetes, Priam set Helen’s hand in marriage as a prize for the man emerged victorious in the contest. Deiphobos won, so he got to marry her. The story is in Lycophron (Alex. 169–71). [RSS]

§ 24.602  For even fair-tressed Niobe remembered food (καὶ γάρ τ᾿ ἠΰκομος Νιόβη ἐμνήσατο σίτου)
Niobe was daughter of Tantalos and the wife of Amphion. After she married Amphion she had twelve children, six girls and six boys. Swollen with pride over the number and the beauty of her children, she threw in Leto’s face that she only had two children, Apollo and Artemis, and she boasted that she was more blessed in children than Leto was. The goddess, enraged, sent her own children after them: Apollo killed the males while they were hunting on Mt. Cithairon, while Artemis killed the females at home. Niobe grieved inconsolably over her great misfortune. Zeus took pity on her and turned her into stone, which even today can be seen on Mt. Sipylos in Phrygia from every direction, sending forth streams of tears. The story is in Euphorion (fr. 102 Powell). [RSS]