APOLLODORUS FOOTNOTES 2B

APOLLODURS, THE LIBRARY BOOK 2 FOOTNOTES BY J. G. FRAZER

151. For Herakles and Busiris, see Diod. 4.18.1, Diod. 4.27.2ff.; Plut. Parallela 38; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron ii.367ff.; Ov. Met. 9.182ff.; Ovid, Ars Am. i.647-652; Scholiast on Ovid, Ibis 397 (p. 72, ed. R. Ellis); Hyginus, Fab. 31, 56; Serv. Verg. A. 8.300 and Georg. iii.5; Philargyrius on Verg. G. 3.5; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. xii.155. Ovid, with his Scholiasts, Hyginus and Philargyrius, like Apollodorus, allege a nine or eight years' dearth or drought as the cause of the human sacrifices instituted by Busiris. Their account may be derived from Pherecydes, who is the authority cited by the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396. Hyginus, Fab. 56 adds that the seer Phrasius, who advised the sacrifice, was a brother of Pygmalion. Herodotus, without mentioning Busiris, scouts the story on the ground that human sacrifices were utterly alien to the spirit of Egyptian religion (Hdt. 2.45). Isocrates also discredited the tradition, in so far as it relates to Herakles, because Herakles was four generations younger, and Busiris more than two hundred years older, than Perseus. See Isoc. 11.15. Yet there are grounds for thinking that the Greek tradition was substantially correct. For Manetho, our highest ancient authority, definitely affirmed that in the city of Ilithyia it was customary to burn alive “Typhonian men” and to scatter their ashes by means of winnowing fans (Plut. Isis et Osiris 73). These “Typhonian men” were red-haired, because Typhon, the Egyptian embodiment of evil, was also redhaired (Plut. Isis et Osiris 30, 33). But redhaired men would commonly be foreigners, in contrast to the black-haired natives of Egypt; and it was just foreigners who, according to Greek tradition, were chosen as victims. Diodorus Siculus points this out (Diod. 1.88.5) in confirmation of the Greek tradition, and he tells us that the redhaired men were sacrificed at the grave of Osiris, though this statement may be an inference from his etymology of the name Busiris, which he explains to mean “grave of Osiris.” The etymology is correct, Busiris being a Greek rendering of the Egyptian Asir “place of Osiris.” See A. Wiedemann, Herodots Zweites Buch (Leipsic, 1890), p. 213. Porphyry informs us, on the authority of Manetho, that the Egyptian custom of sacrificing human beings at the City of the Sun was suppressed by Amosis (Amasis), who ordered waxen effigies to be substituted for the victims. He adds that the human victims used to be examined just like calves for the sacrifice, and that they were sealed in token of their fitness for the altar. See Porphyry, De abstinentia iii.35. Sextus Empiricus even speaks of human sacrifices in Egypt as if they were practised down to his own time, which was about 200 A.D. See Sextus Empiricus, p. 173, ed. Bekker. Seleucus wrote a special treatise on human sacrifices in Egypt (Athenaeus iv.72, p. 172 D). In view of these facts, the Greek tradition that the sacrifices were offered in order to restore the fertility of the land or to procure rain after a long drought, and that on one occasion the king himself was the victim, may be not without significance. For kings or chiefs have been often sacrificed under similar circumstances (see Apollod. 3.5.1; Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3rd ed. ii.97ff.; The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i.344ff., 352ff.); and in ancient Egypt the rulers are definitely said to have been held responsible for the failure of the crops (Ammianus Marcellinus xxviii.5.14); hence it would not be surprising if in extreme cases they were put to death. Busiris was the theme of a Satyric play by Euripides. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 452ff.

152. The Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396 calls him Iphidamas, and adds “the herald Chalbes and the attendants” to the list of those slain by Herakles.

153. Thermydra is the form of the name given by Stephanus Byzantius, s.v.. In his account of this incident Tzetzes calls the harbour Thermydron (Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.385). Lindus was one of the chief cities of Rhodes.

154. Compare Conon 11; Philostratus, Im. ii.24; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.385ff.; Lactantius, Divin. Inst. i.21. According to all these writers except Tzetzes (who clearly follows Apollodorus), Herakles's victim in this affair was not a waggoner, but a ploughman engaged in the act of ploughing; Philostratus names him Thiodamus, and adds: “Hence a ploughing ox is sacrificed to Herakles and they begin the sacrifice with curses such as, I suppose, the husbandman then made use of; and Herakles is pleased and blesses the Lindians in return for their curses.” According to Lactantius, it was a pair of oxen that was sacrificed, and the altar at which the sacrifice took place bore the name of bouzygos, that is, “yoke of oxen.” Hence it seems probable that the sacrifice which the story purported to explain was offered at the time of ploughing in order to ensure a blessing on the ploughman's labours. This is confirmed by the ritual of the sacred ploughing observed at Eleusis, where members of the old priestly family of the Bouzygai or Ox-yokers uttered many curses as they guided the plough down the furrows of the Rarian Plain. See Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. Bouzugia, p. 206, lines 47ff.; Anecdota Graeca, ed. Bekker, i.221; Hesychius, s.v. Bouzugês; Paroemiographi Graeci, ed. Leutsch and Schneidewin, i. p. 388; Scholiast on Soph. Ant. 255; Plut. Praecepta Conjugalia 42. Compare J. Toepffer, Attische Genealogie (Berlin, 1889), rr. 136ff.; Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i.108ff. The Greeks seem to have deemed curses of special efficacy to promote the fertility of the ground; for we are told that when a Greek sowed cummin he was expected to utter imprecations or the corn would not turn out well. See Theophrastus, Historia plantarum vii.3.3, ix.8.8; Plut. Quaest. Conviv. vii.2.3; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xix.120. Roman writers mention a like custom observed by the sowers of rue and basil. See Palladius, De re rustica, iv.9; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xix.120. As to the beneficent effect of curses, when properly directed, see further The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i.278ff.

155. Compare Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.369ff., who as usual follows Apollodorus. According to Diod. 4.27.3, after Herakles had slain Busiris, he ascended the Nile to Ethiopia and there slew Emathion, king of Ethiopia.

156. As to Herakles and Prometheus, see Diod. 4.15.2; Paus. 5.11.6; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.370ff.; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.1248, iv.1396; Hyginus, Ast. ii.15; Hyginus, Fab. 31, 54, and 144; Serv. Verg. Ecl. 6.42. The Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.1248 agrees with Apollodorus as to the parentage of the eagle which preyed on Prometheus, and he cites as his authority Pherecydes; hence we may surmise that Apollodorus is following the same author in the present passage. The time during which Prometheus suffered on the Caucasus was said by Aeschylus to be thirty thousand years (Hyginus, Ast. ii.15); but Hyginus, though he reports this in one passage, elsewhere reduces the term of suffering to thirty years (Hyginus, Fab. 54, 144).

157. The reference seems to be to the crown of olive which Herakles brought from the land of the Hyperboreans and instituted as the badge of victory in the Olympic games. See Pind. O. 3.11(20)ff.; Paus. 5.7.7. The ancients had a curious notion that the custom of wearing crowns or garlands on the head and rings on the fingers was a memorial of the shackles once worn for their sake by their great benefactor Prometheus among the rocks and snows of the Caucasus. In order that the will of Zeus, who had sworn never to release Prometheus, might not be frustrated by the entire liberation of his prisoner from his chains, Prometheus on obtaining his freedom was ordered to wear on his finger a ring made out of his iron fetters and of the rock to which he had been chained; hence, in memory of their saviour's sufferings, men have worn rings ever since. The practice of wearing crowns or garlands was explained by some people in the same way. See Hyginus, Ast. ii.15; Serv. Verg. Ecl. 6.42; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxvii.2; Isidore, Orig. xix.32.1. According to one version of the legend, the crown which the sufferer on regaining his liberty was doomed to wear was a crown of willow; and the Carians, who used to crown their brows with branches of willow, explained that they did so in imitation of Prometheus. See Athenaeus xv.11-13, pp. 671-673 EB. In the present passage of Apollodorus, if the text is correct, Herakles, as the deliverer of Prometheus, is obliged to bind himself vicariously for the prisoner whom he has released; and he chooses to do so with his favourite olive. Similarly he has to find a substitute to die instead of Prometheus, and he discovers the substitute in Chiron. As to the substitution of Chiron for Prometheus, see Apollod. 2.5.4. It is remarkable that, though Prometheus was supposed to have attained to immortality and to be the great benefactor, and even the creator, of mankind, he appears not to have been worshipped by the Greeks; Lucian says that nowhere were temples of Prometheus to be seen (Lucian, Prometheus 14).

158. The passage in angular brackets is wanting in the manuscripts of Apollodorus, but is restored from the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396, who quotes as his authority Pherecydes, the writer here seemingly followed by Apollodorus. See the Critical Note. The story of the contest of wits between Herakles and Atlas is represented in one of the extant metopes of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, which were seen and described by Paus. 5.10.9. See Frazer, note on Pausanias (vol. iii. pp. 524ff.).

159. As to Herakles and Cerberus, see Hom. Il. 8.366ff.; Hom. Od. 11.623ff.; Bacch. 5.56ff., ed. Jebb; Eur. Herc. 23ff.; Eur. Her. 1277ff.; Diod. 4.25.1, Diod. 4.26.1; Paus. 2.31.6; Paus. 2.35.10; Paus. 3.18.13; Paus. 3.25.5ff.; Paus. 5.26.7; Paus. 9.34.5; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.388-405 (who seems to follow Apollodorus); Scholiast on Hom. Il. viii.368; Ov. Met. 7.410ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 31; Seneca, Agamemnon 859ff.; Eur. Herc. 50ff.; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 20 (First Vatican Mythographer 57). Ancient writers differ as to the number of Cerberus's heads. Hesiod assigned him fifty (Hes. Th. 311ff.); Pindar raised the number to a hundred (Scholiast on Hom. Il. viii.368), a liberal estimate which was accepted by Tzetzes in one place (Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 699) and by Horace in another (Hor. Carm. 2.13.34). Others reduced the number to three. See Soph. Trach. 1098; Eur. Herc. 24; Eur. Herc. 1277; Paus. 3.25.6; Hor. Carm. 2.19.29ff., iii.11.17ff.; Verg. G. 4.483, Aen. vi.417ff.; Ov. Met. 4.451ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 151; Seneca, Agamemnon 62; Seneca, Herakles Furens 783ff. Apollodorus apparently seeks to reconcile these contradictions, and he is followed as usual by Tzetzes (Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.390ff.), who, however, at the same time speaks of Cerberus as fifty-headed. The whole of the present passage of Apollodorus, from the description of Cerberus down to Herakles's slaughter of one of the kine of Hades, is quoted, with a few small variations, by a Scholiast on Hom. Il. viii.368. See Dindorf's edition of the Scholia, vol. i. p. 287. The quotation is omitted by Bekker in his edition of the Scholia p. 233.

160. As to the initiation of Herakles at Eleusis, compare Diod. 4.25.1; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.394. According to Diodorus, the rites were performed on this occasion by Musaeus, son of Orpheus. Elsewhere (Tzetzes, Chiliades iv.14.3) the same writer says that Demeter instituted the lesser Eleusinian mysteries in honour of Herakles for the purpose of purifying him after his slaughter of the centaurs. The statement that Pylius acted as adoptive father to Herakles at his initiation is repeated by Plut. Thes. 33, who mentions that before Castor and Pollux were initiated at Athens they were in like manner adopted by Aphidnus. Herodotus says (Hdt. 8.65) that any Greek who pleased might be initiated at Eleusis. The initiation of Herakles is represented in ancient reliefs. See A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.425ff.

161. Compare Eur. Herc. 23ff.; Paus. 3.25.5; Seneca, Herakles Furens 807ff. Sophocles seems to have written a Satyric drama on the descent of Herakles into the infernal regions at Taenarum. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. i. pp. 167ff. According to another account, Herakles descended, not at Taenarum but at the Acherusian Chersonese, near Heraclea Pontica on the Black Sea. The marks of the descent were there pointed out to a great depth. See Xen. Ana. 6.2.2.

162. So Bacch. 5.71ff., ed. Jebb represents Herakles in Hades drawing his bow against the ghost of Meleager in shining armour, who reminds the hero that there is nothing to fear from the souls of the dead; so, too, Verg. A. 6.290ff. describes Aeneas in Hades drawing his sword on the Gorgons and Harpies, till the Sibyl tells him that they are mere flitting empty shades. Apollodorus more correctly speaks of the ghost of only one Gorgon (Medusa), because of the three Gorgons she alone was mortal. See Apollod. 2.4.2. Compare Hom. Od. 11.634ff.

163. On Theseus and Pirithous in hell, see Apollod. E.1.23ff.; Hom. Od. 1.631; Eur. Herc. 619; Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.101ff., with the Scholiast on 101; Diod. 4.26.1, Diod. 4.63.4ff.; Paus. 1.17.4; Paus. 9.31.5; Paus. 10.29.9; Apostolius, Cent. iii.36; Suidas, s.v. lispoi; Scholiast on Aristoph. Kn. 1368; Verg. A. 6.392ff., 617ff.; Hor. Carm. 3.4.79ff., iv.7.27ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 79; Aulus Gellius x.16.13; Serv. Verg. A. 6.617; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 18 (First Vatican Mythographer 48). The general opinion seems to have been that Herakles rescued Theseus, but that he could not save Pirithous. Others, however, alleged that he brought up both from the dead (Hyginus, Fab. 79); others again affirmed that he brought up neither (Diod. 4.63.5). A dull rationalistic version of the romantic story converted Hades into a king of the Molossians or Thesprotians, named Aidoneus, who had a wife Persephone, a daughter Cora, and a dog Cerberus, which he set to worry his daughter's suitors, promising to give her in marriage to him who could master the ferocious animal. Discovering that Theseus and Pirithous were come not to woo but to steal his daughter, he arrested them. The dog made short work of Pirithous, but Theseus was kept in durance till the king consented to release him at the intercession of Herakles. See Plut. Thes. 31.4-35.1ff.; Ael., Var. Hist. iv.5; Paus. 1.17.4, Paus. 1.18.4, Paus. 2.22.6, Paus. 3.18.5; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.406ff.

164. See Apollod. 1.5.3.

165. Compare Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.396ff., who calls the herdsman Menoetius.

166. Literally, “till he persuaded (it).”

167. Compare Paus. 2.31.2. According to others, the ascent of Herakles with Cerberus took place at Hermione (Paus. 2.35.10) or on Mount Laphystius in Boeotia (Paus. 9.34.5).

168. Compare Ov. Met. 5.538ff. As to the short-eared owl (ôtos), see D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds, pp. 200ff.

169. With this and what follows down to the adventure with Syleus, compare Diod. 4.31 (who seems to be following the same authority as Apollodorus); Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.412-435.

170. Compare Scholiast on Hom. Il. 5.392; Soph. Trach. 260ff., with the Scholiast on Soph. Trach. 266; Scholiast on Eur. Hipp. 545.

171. As he had killed the children he had by Megara. See Apollod. 2.4.12.

172. The story is told somewhat differently by Hom. Od. 21.23-30. According to him, Iphitus had lost twelve mares (not oxen) and came in search of them to Herakles, who murdered him in his house and kept the mares. A Scholiast on Hom. Od. xxi.22 says that the mares had been stolen by Autolycus and sold by him to Herakles. Another Scholiast on the same passage of Homer, who refers to Pherecydes as his authority, says that Herakles treacherously lured Iphitus to the top of the wall, then hurled him down. As to the quest of the mares and the murder of Iphitus, see also Soph. Trach. 270-273; Diod. 4.31.2ff. (who says that Herakles himself stole the mares out of spite at Eurytus); Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.417-423; Scholiast on Hom. Il. v.392. Apollodorus seems to be the only writer who substitutes cattle for mares in this story.

173. Compare Diod. 4.31.4ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. v.392.

174. As to the attempt of Herakles to carry off the tripod, see Plut. De EI apud Delphos 6; Plut. De sera numinis vindicta 12 (who says that Herakles carried it off to Pheneus); Paus. 3.21.8, Paus. 8.37.1, Paus. 10.13.7ff.; Scholiast on Pind. O. 9.29(43); Cicero, De natura deorum iii.16.42; Hyginus, Fab. 32; Serv. Verg. A. 8.300. The subject was often represented in ancient art; for example, it was sculptured in the gable of the Treasury of the Siphnians at Delphi; the principal pieces of the sculpture were discovered by the French in their excavation of the sanctuary. See E. Bourguet, Les ruines de Delphes (Paris, 1914), pp. 76ff., and Frazer, commentary on Pausanias, vol. v. pp. 274ff.

175. As to Herakles and Omphale, see Soph. Trach. 247ff.; Diod. 4.31.5-8; Lucian, Dial. Deorum. xiii.2; Plut. Quaest. Graec. 45; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.425ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xxi.22; Joannes Lydus, De magistratibus iii.64; Ovid, Her. ix.55ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 32; Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 371ff.; Statius, Theb. x.646-649. According to Pherecydes, cited by the Scholiast on Hom. Od. xxi.22, Hermes sold Herakles to Omphale for three talents. The sum obtained by his sale was to be paid as compensation to the sons of the murdered Iphitus, according to Diod. 4.31.5-8. The period of his servitude, according to Soph. Trach. 252ff., was only one year; but Herodorus, cited by the Scholiast on Soph. Tr. 253, says that it was three years, which agrees with the statement of Apollodorus.

176. As to the Cercopes, see Diod. 4.31.7; Nonnus, in Mythographi Graeci, ed. A. Westermann, Appendix Narrationum, 39, p. 375; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.431, v.73ff.; Zenobius, Cent. v.10; Apostolius, Cent. xi.19. These malefactors were two in number. Herakles is said to have carried them hanging with their heads downward from a pole. They are so represented in Greek art. See W. H. Roscher, Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, ii.1166ff. The name Cercopes seems to mean “tailed men,” (from kerkos, “tail”). One story concerning them was that they were deceitful men whom Zeus punished by turning them into apes, and that the islands of Ischia and Procida, off the Bay of Naples, were called Pithecusae (“Ape Islands”) after them. See Harpocration, s.v. Kerkôps; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xix.247, p. 1864; Ov. Met. 14.88ff. According to Pherecydes, the Cercopes were turned into stone. See Scholiast on Lucian, Alexander 4, p. 181, ed. H. Rabe. The story of Herakles and the Cercopes has been interpreted as a reminiscence of Phoenician traders bringing apes to Greek markets. See O. Keller, Thiere des classischen Alterthums (Innsbruck, 1887), p. 1. The interpretation may perhaps be supported by an Assyrian bas-relief which represents a Herculean male figure carrying an ape on his head and leading another ape by a leash, the animals being apparently brought as tribute to a king. See O. Keller, op. cit., p. 11, fig. 2; Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité, ii.547, fig 254.

177. Compare Diod. 4.31.7; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.432ff.; Conon 17. Euripides wrote a satyric play on the subject. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 575ff. The legend may be based on a custom practised by vine-dressers on passing strangers. See W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 12, 53ff., who, for the rough jests of vine dressers in antiquity, refers to Hor. Sat. i.8.28ff.; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii.26.66(249).

178. That is, the voyage of the Argo. See above, Apollod. 1.9.16ff. As to the hunt of the Calydonian boar, see above, Apollod. 1.8.2ff. As to the clearance of the Isthmus by Theseus, see below, Apollod. 3.16, and the Apollod. E.1.1ff.

179. As to the siege and capture of Troy by Herakles, see Hom. Il. 5.640-643, Hom. Il. 5.648-651; Pind. I. 6.26(38)ff.; Diod. 4.32; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.443ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 34; Ov. Met. 11.213-217, xiii.22ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 89. The account given by Diodorus agrees so closely in matter, though not in words, with that of Apollodorus that both authors probably drew on the same source. Homer, with whom Tzetzes agrees, says that Herakles went to Troy with only six ships. Diodorus notices the Homeric statement, but mentions that according to some the fleet of Herakles numbered “eighteen long ships.”

180. As to Oicles at Troy, compare Diod. 4.32.3; Paus. 8.36.6, who says that his tomb was shown near Megalopolis in Arcadia. Sophocles seems to have written a play called Oicles, though there is some doubt as to the spelling of the name. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, ii.119.

181. This incident is recorded also by Tzetzes (Scholiast on Lycophron 469); but according to him the title which Telamon applied to Herakles at the altar was Averter of Ills (Alexikakos), not Glorious Victor (Kallinikos).

182. Compare Soph. Aj. 1299-1303; Scholiast on Hom. Il. 8.284; Ov. Met. 11.216ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 89.

183. This derivation of the name Priam from the verb priamai, “to buy,” is repeated, somewhat more clearly, by Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 34, Podarkên epriato, hothen kai eklêthê priamos. Compare Hyginus, Fab. 89, Podarci, filio eius infanti, regnum dedit, qui postea Priamus est appellatus, apo tou priasthai. For the bestowal by Herakles of the kingdom on the youthful Priam, compare Seneca, Troades 718ff.

184. See Hom. Il. 14.249ff., Hom. Il. 15.24ff.

185. See Apollod. 1.3.5.

186. With the following account of Herakles's adventures in Cos, compare the Scholiasts on Hom. Il. i.590, xiv.255; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.445; Ov. Met. 7.363ff. The Scholiast on Hom. Il. xiv.255 tells us that the story was found in Pherecydes, whom Apollodorus probably follows in the present passage.

187. See Apollod. 1.6.1ff.

188. For the expedition of Herakles against Augeas, see Diod. 4.33.1; Paus. 5.1.10ff.; Paus. 5.2.1; Paus. 6.20.16; Scholiast on Pind. O. 9.31(40).

189. As to Eurytus and Cteatus, who were called Actoriones after their father Actor, and Moliones or Molionides, after their mother Molione, see Hom. Il. 2.621, Hom. Il. 11.709ff., Hom. Il. 11.751ff., Hom. Il. 13.638; Paus. 5.1.10ff.; Paus. 5.2.1ff. and Paus. 5.2.5ff. According to some, they had two bodies joined in one (Scholiast on Hom. Il. 13.638, 639). According to others, they had each two heads four hands, and four feet but only one body (Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.709). Compare Eustathius on Hom. Il. xi.749, p. 882. The poet Ibycus spoke of them as twins, born of a silver egg and “with equal heads in one body” (isokephalous heniguious). See Athenaeus ii.50, pp. 57ff. Their story was told by Pherecydes (Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.709), whom Apollodorus may have followed in the present passage.

190. Compare Pind. O. 10.26(32)ff.; Diod. 4.33.3; Paus. 2.15.1, Paus. 5.2.1.

191. Compare Pind. O. 10.34(43)ff.; Diod. 4.33.4; Paus. 5.3.1; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.700.

192. Herakles is said to have marked out the sacred precinct at Olympia, instituted the quadriennial Olympic festival, and celebrated the Olympic games for the first time. See Pind. O. 3.3ff., Pind. O. 6.67ff., Pind. O. 10.43(51)ff.; Diod. 4.14.1ff., Diod. 5.64.6; Paus. 5.7.9; Paus. 5.8.1 and Paus. 5.8.3ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 41; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.700; Hyginus, Fab. 273.

193. Apollodorus is probably mistaken in speaking of an altar of Pelops at Olympia. The more accurate Pausanias describes (Paus. 5.13.1ff.) a precinct of Pelops founded by Herakles at Olympia and containing a pit, in which the magistrates annually sacrificed a black ram to the hero: he does not mention an altar. As a hero, that is, a worshipful dead man, Pelops was not entitled to an altar, he had only a right to a sacrificial pit. For sacrifices to the dead in pits see Hom. Od. 11.23ff.; Philostratus, Her. xx.27; Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 274; Paus. 9.39.6; Fr. Pfister, Der Reliquienkult im Altertum, pp. 474ff.

194. As to the six double altars, each dedicated to a pair of deities, see Pind. O. 5.4(8)ff.; Pind. O. 10.24(30); Scholiast on Pind. O. 5.4(8) and Pind. O. 5.5(10), who cites Herodorus on the foundation of the altars by Herakles.

195. As to the war of Herakles on Pylus, see Hom. Il. 5.392ff.; Hom. Il. 11.690ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. ii.396; Paus. 2.18.7; Paus. 3.26.8; Paus. 5.3.1; Paus. 6.22.5; Paus. 6.25.2ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.451; Ov. Met. 12.549ff.

196. See Apollod. 1.9.9, with the note.

197. See Hom. Il. 5.395ff.; Paus. 6.25.2ff. In the same battle Herakles is said to have wounded Hera with an arrow in the right breast. See Hom. Il. 5.392ff.; Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii.36, p. 31, ed. Potter, from whom we learn that Panyasis mentioned the wounding of the goddess by the hero. Again, in the same fight at Pylus, we read that Herakles gashed the thigh of Ares with his spear and laid that doughty deity in the dust. See Hes. Sh. 359ff.

198. As to the war of Herakles with Hippocoon and his sons, see Diod. 4.33.5ff.; Paus. 2.18.7, Paus. 3.10.6, Paus. 3.15.3-6, Paus. 3.19.7, Paus. 8.53.9.

199. Compare Paus. 8.47.5.

200. As to the story of Herakles, Auge, and Telephus, see Apollod. 3.9.1; Diod. 4.33.7-12; Strab. 13.1.69; Paus. 8.4.9, Paus. 8.47.4, Paus. 8.48.7, Paus. 8.54.6, Paus. 10.28.8; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 206; Hyginus, Fab. 99ff. The tale was told by Hecataeus (Paus. 8.4.9, Paus. 8.47.4), and was the theme of tragedies by Sophocles and Euripides. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 146ff., 436ff.; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, i. 46ff., ii.70ff. Different versions of the story were current among ancient writers and illustrated by ancient artists. See Frazer, note on Paus. 1.4.6 (vol. ii. pp. 75ff.). One of these versions, which I omitted to notice in that place, ran as follows. On a visit to Delphi, king Aleus of Tegea was warned by the oracle that his daughter would bear a son who would kill his maternal uncles, the sons of Aleus. To guard against this catastrophe, Aleus hurried home and appointed his daughter priestess of Athena, declaring that, should she prove unchaste, he would put her to death. As chance would have it, Herakles arrived at Tegea on his way to Elis, where he purposed to make war on Augeas. The king entertained him hospitably in the sanctuary of Athena, and there the hero, flushed with wine, violated the maiden priestess. Learning that she was with child, her father Aleus sent for the experienced ferryman Nauplius, father of Palamedes, and entrusted his daughter to him to take and drown her. On their way to the sea the girl (Auge) gave birth to Telephus on Mount Parthenius, and instead of drowning her and the infant the ferryman sold them both to king Teuthras in Mysia, who, being childless, married Auge and adopted Telephus. See Alcidamas, Od. 14-16, pp. 179ff., ed. Blass (appended to his edition of Antiphon). This version, which represents mother and child as sold together to Teuthras, differs from the version adopted by Apollodorus, according to whom Auge alone was sold to Teuthras in Mysia, while her infant son Telephus was left behind in Arcadia and reared by herdsmen (Apollod. 3.9.1). The sons of Aleus and maternal uncles of Telephus were Cepheus and Lycurgus (Apollod. 3.9.1). Ancient writers do not tell us how Telephus fulfilled the oracle by killing them, though the murder is mentioned by Hyginus, Fab. 244 and a Greek proverb-writer (Paroemiographi Graeci, ed. Leutsch and Schneidewin, i. p. 212). Sophocles appears to have told the story in his lost play, The Mysians; for in it he described how Telephus came, silent and speechless, from Tegea to Mysia (Aristot. Poet. 1460a 32), and this silence of Telephus seems to have been proverbial. For the comic poet Alexis, speaking of a greedy parasite who used to gobble up his dinner without exchanging a word with anybody, says that, “he dines like speechless Telephus, answering all questions put to him only with nods” (Athenaeus x.18, p. 421 D). And another comic poet, Amphis, describing the high and mighty airs with which fish-mongers treated their customers in the market, says that it was a thousand times easier to get speech of a general than of a fish-monger; for if you addressed one of these gentry and, pointing to a fish, asked “How much?” he would not at first deign to look at you, much less speak to you, but would stoop down, silent as Telephus, over his wares; though in time, his desire of lucre overcoming his contempt of you, he would slap a bloated octopus and mutter meditatively, as if soliloquizing, “ Sixpence for him, and a bob for the hammerfish.” This latter poet explains incidentally why Telephus was silent; he says it was very natural that fish-mongers should hold their tongue, “for all homicides are in the same case,” thus at once informing us of a curious point in Greek law or custom and gratifying his spite at the “cursed fish-mongers,” whom he compares to the worst class of criminals. See Athenaeus vi.5, p. 224 DE. As Greek homicides were supposed to be haunted by the ghosts of their victims until a ceremony of purification was performed which rid them of their invisible, but dangerous, pursuers, we may conjecture that the rule of silence had to be observed by them until the accomplishment of the purificatory rite released them from the restrictions under which they laboured during their uncleanness, and permitted them once more to associate freely with their fellows. As to the restrictions imposed on homicides in ancient Greece, see Psyche's Task, 2nd ed. pp. 113ff.; Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, i.80, 83ff. The motive of the homicide's silence may have been a fear lest by speaking he should attract the attention, and draw down on himself the vengeance, of his victim's ghost. Similarly, among certain peoples, a widow is bound to observe silence for some time after her husband's death, and the rule appears to be based on a like dread of exciting the angry or amorous passions of her departed spouse by the sound of the familiar voice. See Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, iii.71ff.

201. Apollodorus seems to derive the name Telephus from thêlê, “a dug,” and elaphos, “a doe.”

202. When Herakles went down to hell to fetch up Cerberus, he met the ghost of Meleager, and conversing with him proposed to marry the dead hero's sister, Deianira. The story of the match thus made, not in heaven but in hell, is told by Bacch. 5.165ff., ed. Jebb, and seems to have been related by Pindar in a lost poem (Scholiast on Hom. Il. xxi.194). As to the marriage of Herakles with Deianira at Calydon, the home of her father Oeneus, see also Diod. 4.34.1.

203. On the struggle of Herakles with the river Achelous, see Soph. Trach. 9-21; Diod. 4.35.3ff.; Dio Chrysostom lx.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xxi.194; Ov. Met. 9.1-88; Hyginus, Fab. 31; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 20, 131 (First Vatican Mythographer 58; Second Vatican Mythographer 165). According to Ovid, the river-god turned himself first into a serpent and then into a bull. The story was told by Archilochus, who represented the river Achelous in the form of a bull, as we learn from the Scholiast on Hom. Il. xxi.194. Diodorus rationalized the legend in his dull manner by supposing that it referred to a canal which the eminent philanthropist Herakles dug for the benefit of the people of Calydon.

204. According to some, Amalthea was the goat on whose milk the infant Zeus was fed. From one of its horns flowed ambrosia, and from the other flowed nectar. See Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus 48ff., with the Scholiast. According to others, Amalthea was only the nymph who owned the goat which suckled the god. See Eratosthenes, Cat. 13; Hyginus, Ast. ii.13; Ovid, Fasti v.115ff. Some said that, in gratitude for having been nurtured on the animal's milk, Zeus made a constellation of the goat and bestowed one of its horns on the nymphs who had reared him, at the same time ordaining that the horn should produce whatever they asked for. See Zenobius, Cent. ii.48. As to the horn, see A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.501ff.

205. Compare Diod. 4.36.1, who gives Phyleus as the name of the king of Ephyra, but does not mention the name of his daughter. According to Pind. O. 7.23(40)ff., with the Scholiast), the mother of Tlepolemus by Herakles was not Astyoche but Astydamia.

206. The sons referred to are those whom Herakles had by the fifty daughters of Thespius. See Apollod. 2.4.10. Compare Diod. 4.29, who says that two (not three) of these sons of Herakles remained in Thebes, and that their descendants were honoured down to the historian's time. He informs us also that, on account of the youth of his sons, Herakles committed the leadership of the colony to his nephew Iolaus. As to the Sardinian colony see also Paus. 1.29.5, Paus. 7.2.2, Paus. 9.23.1, Paus. 10.17.5, who says (Paus. 10.17.5) that there were still places called Iolaia in Sardinia, and that Iolaus was still worshipped by the inhabitants down to his own time. As Pseudo-Aristotle, Mirab. Auscult. 100, (Westermann, Scriptores rerum mirabilium Graeci, p. 31) tells us that the works ascribed to Iolaus included round buildings finely built of masonry in the ancient Greek style, we can hardly doubt that the reference is to the remarkable prehistoric round towers which are still found in the island, and to which nothing exactly similar is known elsewhere. The natives call them nouraghes. They are built in the form of truncated cones, and their material consists of squared or rough blocks of stone, sometimes of enormous size. See Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité, iv.22ff. The Sardinian Iolaus was probably a native god or hero, whom the Greeks identified with their own Iolaus on account of the similarity of his name. It has been surmised that he was of Phoenician origin, being identical with Esmun. See W. W. Baudissin, Adonis und Esmun (Leipsig, 1911), pp. 282ff.

207. Compare Diod. 4.36.2; Paus. 2.13.8; Athenaeus ix.80, pp. 410 411 FA; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1212; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50-51; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.456ff. From Athenaeus ix.80, pp. 410 411 FA we learn that the story was told or alluded to by Hellanicus, Herodorus, and Nicander. The victim's name is variously given as Eunomus, Ennomus, Eurynomus, Archias, Cherias, and Cyathus. He was cupbearer to Oeneus, the father-in-law of Herakles. The scene of the tragedy seems to have been generally laid at Calydon, of which Oeneus was king (Apollod. 1.8.1), but Pausanias transfers the scene to Phlius.

208. As to Herakles and Nessus, and the fatal affray at the ferry, see Soph. Trach. 555ff.; Diod. 4.36.3ff.; Strab. 10.2.5; Dio Chrysostom lx; Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii, ii.2.15ff.; Nonnus, in Westermann's Mythographi Graeci, Appendix Narrationum, xxviii.8. p. 371; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50-51; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.457ff.; Ov. Met. 9.101ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 34; Servius. on Virgil, Aen. viii 300; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. xi.235; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 20ff., 131 (First Vatican Mythographer 58; Second Vatican Mythographer 165). The tale was told by Archilochus, Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1212. Apollodorus's version of the story is copied, with a few verbal changes and omissions, by Zenobius, Cent. i.33, but as usual without acknowledgment.

209. As to Herakles and Thiodamas, compare Callimachus, Hymn to Diana 160ff., with the Scholiast on 161 (who calls Thiodamas king of the Dryopians); Nonnus (Westermann, Mythographi Graeci, Appendix Narrationum, xxviii.6, pp. 370ff.); Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1212; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.464ff. From the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1212, we learn that the tale was told by Pherecydes, whom Apollodorus may here be following. The story seems to be a doublet of the one told about Herakles at Lindus in Rhodes. See Apollod. 2.5.11, with the note.

210. On the reception of Herakles by Ceyx, see Diod. 4.36.5; Paus. 1.32.6. As to the conquest of the Dryopians by Herakles, see Hdt. 8.43, compare 73; Diod. 4.37.1ff.; Strab. 8.6.13; Paus. 4.34.9ff.; Nonnus, in Westermann's Mythographi Graeci, Appendix Narrationum, xxix.6, p. 371; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1212, 1218. From these accounts we gather that the Dryopians were a wild robber tribe, whose original home was in the fastnesses of Mount Parnassus. Driven from there by the advance of the Dorians, they dispersed and settled, some in Thessaly, some in Euboea, some in Peloponnese, and some even in Cyprus. Down to the second century of our era the descendants of the Dryopians maintained their national or tribal traditions and pride of birth at Asine, on the coast of Messenia (Paus. 1.32.6).

211. On the war which Herakles, in alliance with Aegimius, king of the Dorians, waged with the Lapiths, see Diod. 4.37.3ff.

212. Compare Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.466.

213. On the combat of Herakles with Cycnus, see Hes. Sh. 57ff.; Pind. O. 2.82(147), with the Scholia to Pind. O. 10.15(19); Eur. Herc. 391ff.; Plut. Thes. 11; Paus. 1.27.6; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.467. It is said that Cycnus used to cut off the heads of passing strangers, intending with these gory trophies to build a temple to his father Ares. This we learn from the Scholiasts on Pind. O. 2.82. The scene of his exploits was Thessaly. According to Paus. 1.27.6, Herakles slew the ruffian on the banks of the Peneus river; but Hesiod places the scene at Pagasae, and says that the grave of Cycnus was washed away by the river Anaurus, a small stream which flows into the Pagasaean gulf. See Hes. Sh. 70ff., Hes. Sh. 472ff. The story of Cycnus was told in a poem of Stesichorus. See Scholiast on Pind. O. 10.15(19). For the combat of Herakles with another Cycnus, see Apollod. 2.5.11.

214. It is said that the king refused to give his daughter Astydamia in marriage to Herakles. So Herakles killed him, took Astydamia by force, and had a son Ctesippus by her. See Diod. 4.37.4. Ormenium was a small town at the foot of Mount Pelion. See Strab. 9.5.18.

215. Eurytus was the king of Oechalia. See Apollod. 2.6.1ff. As to the capture of Oechalia by Herakles, see Soph. Trach. 351-365; Soph. Trach. 476-478; Diod. 4.37.5; Zenobius, Cent. i.33; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.469ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50-51; Scholiast on Hom. Il. v.392; Scholiast on Eur. Hipp. 545; Hyginus, Fab. 35; Serv. Verg. A. 8.291; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 129ff., 131ff. (Second Vatican Mythographer 159, 165). The situation of Oechalia, the city of Eurytus, was much debated. Homer seems to place it in Thessaly (Hom. Il. 2.730). But according to others it was in Euboea, or Arcadia, or Messenia. See Strab. 9.5.17; Paus. 4.2.2ff.; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.87; Second Vatican Mythographer 165. Apollodorus apparently placed it in Euboea. See above, Apollod. 2.6.1ff. There was an ancient epic called The Capture of Oechalia, which was commonly attributed to Creophilus of Samos, though some thought it was by Homer. See Strab. 14.1.18; compare Strab. 9.5.17; Paus. 4.2.3 (who calls the poem Heraclea); Callimachus, Epigram 6(7); Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 60ff.; F. G. Welcker, Der epische Cyclus (Bonn, 1835), pp. 229ff. As to the names of the sons of Eurytus, see the Scholiast on Soph. Trach. 266. He quotes a passage from a lost poem of Hesiod in which the poet mentions Deion, Clytius, Toxeus, and Iphitus as the sons, and Iola (Iole) as the daughter of Eurytus. The Scholiast adds that according to Creophylus and Aristocrates the names of the sons were Toxeus, Clytius, and Deion. Diod. 4.37.5 calls the sons Toxeus, Molion, and Clytius.

216. Compare Soph. Trach. 237ff., Soph. Trach. 752ff., Soph. Trach. 993ff.; Diod. 4.37.5; Ov. Met. 9.136ff.; Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 102ff., 782ff. Cenaeum is the modern Cape Lithada, the extreme northwestern point of Euboea. It is a low flat promontory, terminating a peninsula which runs far out westward into the sea, as if to meet the opposite coast of Locris. But while the cape is low and flat, the greater part of the peninsula is occupied by steep, rugged, and barren mountains, overgrown generally with lentisk and other shrubs, and presenting in their bareness and aridity a strong contrast to the beautiful woods and rich vegetation which clothe much of northern Euboea, especially in the valleys and glens. But if the mountains themselves are gaunt and bare, the prospect from their summits is glorious, stretching over the sea which washes the sides of the peninsula, and across it to the long line of blue mountains which bound, as in a vast amphitheatre, the horizon on the north, the west, and the south. These blue mountains are in Magnesia, Phthiotis, and Locris. At their foot the whole valley of the Spercheus lies open to view. The sanctuary of Zeus, at which Herakles is said to have offered his famous sacrifice, was probably at “the steep city of Dium,” as Homer calls it (Hom. Il. 2.538), which may have occupied the site of the modern Lithada, a village situated high up on the western face of the mountains, embowered in tall olives, pomegranates, mulberries, and other trees, and supplied with abundance of flowing water. The inhabitants say that a great city once stood here, and the heaps of stones, many of them presenting the aspect of artificial mounds, may perhaps support, if they did not suggest, the tradition. See W. Vischer, Erinnerungen und Eindrucke aus Griechenland (Basel, 1857), pp. 659-661; H. N. Ulrichs, Reisen und Forschungen in Griechenland, ii. (Berlin, 1863), pp. 236ff.; C. Bursian, Geographie von Griechenland, ii.409ff. At Dium (Lithada?), in a spot named after a church of St. Constantine, the foundations of a temple and fair-sized precinct, with a circular base of three steps at the east end, have been observed in recent years. These ruins may be the remains of the sanctuary of Caenean Zeus. See A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.123, note 9.

217. With this and what follows compare Soph. Trach. 756ff.; Diod. 4.38.1ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.472ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50-51; Ov. Met. 9.136ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 36; Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 485ff.; Serv. Verg. A. 8.300; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 21, 132 (First Vatican Mythographer 58; Second Vatican Mythographer 165). The following passage of Apollodorus, down to and including the ascension of Herakles to heaven, is copied verbally, with a few unimportant omissions and changes, by Zenobius, Cent. i.33, but as usual without acknowledgment.

218. That is, the “fine raiment” which Lichas had fetched, from Trachis for the use of Herakles at the sacrifice.

219. The reading is uncertain. See the critical note.

220. Compare Diod. 4.38.3. According to Soph. Trach. 930ff.), Deianira stabbed herself with a sword. But hanging was the favourite mode of suicide adopted by Greek legendary heroines, as by Jocasta, Erigone, Phaedra, and Oenone. See Apollod. 1.8.3, Apollod. 1.9.27, Apollod. 3.5.9, Apollod. 3.12.6, Apollod. 3.13.3, Apollod. 3.14.7, Apollod. E.1.19. It does not seem to have been practised by men.

221. For this dying charge of Herakles, see Soph. Trach. 1216ff.; Ov. Met. 9.278ff. It is remarkable that Herakles should be represented as so earnestly desiring that his concubine should become the wife of his eldest son by Deianira. In many polygamous tribes of Africa it is customary for the eldest son to inherit all his father's wives, except his own mother. See Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, i.541, note 3, ii.280. Absalom's treatment of his father's concubines (2 Samuel, xvi.21ff.) suggests that a similar custom formerly obtained in Israel., I do not remember to have met with any other seeming trace of a similar practice in Greece.

222. For the death of Herakles on the pyre, see Soph. Trach. 1191ff.; Diod. 4.38.3-8; Lucian, Hermotimus 7; Ov. Met. 9.229ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 36; Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 1483ff.; Serv. Verg. A. 8.300; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 21, 132 (First Vatican Mythographer 58; Second Vatican Mythographer 165). According to the usual account, it was not Poeas but his son Philoctetes who set a light to the pyre. So Diod. 4.38.4, Lucian, De morte Peregrini 21, Ov. Met. 9.233ff., Hyginus, Fab. 36, Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 1485ff., 1727, and the Second Vatican Mythographer. According to a different and less famous version of the legend, Herakles was not burned to death on a pyre, but, tortured by the agony of the poisoned robe, which took fire in the sun, he flung himself into a neighbouring stream to ease his pain and was drowned. The waters of the stream have been hot ever since, and are called Thermopylae. See Nonnus, in Westermann's Mythographi Graeci, Appendix Narrationum, xxviii.8; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50-51. Nonnus expressly says that the poisoned tunic took fire and burned Herakles. That it was thought to be kindled by exposure to the heat of the sun appears from the narrative of Hyginus, Fab. 36; compare Soph. Trach. 684-704; Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 485ff., 716ff. The waters of Thermopylae are steaming hot to this day. See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3rd ed. i.210ff. The Vatican Mythographers, perhaps through the blunder of a copyist, transfer the death of Herakles from Mount Oeta to Mount Etna.

223. The ascension of Herakles to heaven in a cloud is described also by Zenobius, Cent. i.33, who copies Apollodorus. In a more sceptical vein Diod. 4.38.4 relates that, as soon as a light was set to the pyre, a thunderstorm burst, and that when the friends of the hero came to collect his bones they could find none, and therefore supposed he had been translated to the gods. As to the traditional mode of Herakles's death, compare Alberuni's India, English ed. by E. C. Sachau, ii.168: “Galenus says in his commentary to the apothegms of Hippocrates: ‘It is generally known that Asclepius was raised to the angels in a column of fire, the like of which is also related with regard to Dionysos, Heracles, and others, who laboured for the benefit of mankind. People say that God did thus with them in order to destroy the mortal and earthly part of them by the fire, and afterwards to attract to himself the immortal part of them, and to raise their souls to heaven.’” So Lucian speaks of Herakles becoming a god in the burning pile on Mount Oeta, the human element in him, which he had inherited from his mortal mother, being purged away in the flames, while the divine element ascended pure and spotless to the gods. See Lucian, Hermotimus 7. The notion that fire separates the immortal from the mortal element in man has already met us in Apollod. 1.5.4.

224. On the marriage of Herakles with Hebe, see Hom. Od. 11.602ff.; Hes. Th. 950ff.; Pind. N. 1.69(104)ff.; Pind. N. 10.17(30)ff.; Pind. I. 4.59(100); Eur. Heraclid. 915ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 1349, 1350; Ov. Met. 9.400ff. According to Eur. Heraclid. 854ff.), at the battle which the Athenians fought with the Argives in defence of the Heraclids, two stars were seen shining brightly on the car of Iolaus, and the diviner interpreted them as Herakles and Hebe.

225. A short list of the sons of Herakles is given by Hyginus, Fab. 162. As to the daughters of Thespius, see above, Apollod. 2.4.10.

226. Compare Diod. 4.37.1.

227. Compare Apollod. 2.4.11; Scholiast on Hom. Od. 11.269, who agrees with Apollodorus as to the names of the children whom Herakles had by Megara. But other writers gave different lists. Dinias the Argive, for example, gave the three names mentioned by Apollodorus, but added to them Deion. See the Scholiast on Pind. I. 5.61(104).

228. Diod. 4.31.8 and Ovid, Her. ix.53ff. give Lamus as the name of the son whom Omphale bore to Herakles.

229. According to Hdt. 1.7 the dynasty which preceded that of Croesus on the throne of Sardes traced their descent from Alcaeus, the son of Herakles by a slave girl. It is a curious coincidence that Croesus, like his predecessor or ancestor Herakles, is said to have attempted to burn himself on a pyre when the Persians captured Sardes. See Bacch. 3.24-62, ed. Jebb. The tradition is supported by the representation of the scene on a red-figured vase, which may have been painted about forty years after the capture of Sardes and the death or captivity of Croesus. See Baumeister, Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums, ii.796, fig. 860. Compare Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3rd ed. i.174ff. The Herakles whom Greek tradition associated with Omphale was probably an Oriental deity identical with the Sandan of Tarsus. See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, i.124ff.

230. See above, Apollod. 2.7.4, and below, Apollod. 3.9.1.

231. See above, Apollod. 2.7.6.

232. Ceyx, king of Trachis, who had given shelter and hospitality to Herakles. See above, Apollod. 2.7.7. Compare Diod. 4.57, who agrees with Apollodorus as to the threats of Eurystheus and the consequent flight of the children of Herakles from Trachis to Athens. According to Hecataeus, quoted by Longinus, De sublimitate 27, king Ceyx ordered them out of the country, pleading his powerlessness to protect them. Compare Paus. 1.32.6.

233. Compare Scholiast on Aristoph. Kn. 1151, who mentions that the Heraclids took refuge at the altar of Mercy. As to the altar of Mercy see below, Apollod. 3.7.1 note. Apollodorus has omitted a famous episode in the war which the Athenians waged with the Argives in defence of the children of Herakles. An oracle having declared that victory would rest with the Athenians if a highborn maiden were sacrificed to Persephone, a voluntary victim was found in the person of Macaria, daughter of Herakles, who gave herself freely to die for Athens. See Eur. Heraclid. 406ff.; Eur. Heraclid. 488ff.; Paus. 1.32.6; Zenobius, Cent. ii.61; Timaeus, Lexicon, s.v. Ball' eis makarian; Scholiast on Plat. Hipp. Maj. 293a; Scholiast on Aristoph. Kn. 1151. The protection afforded by Athens to the suppliant Heraclids was a subject of patriotic pride to the Athenians. See Lys. 2.11-16; Isoc. 4.15, 16. The story was told by Pherecydes, who represented Demophon, son of Theseus, as the protector of the Heraclids at Athens. See Ant. Lib. 33. In this he may have been followed by Euripides, who in his play on the subject introduces Demophon as king of Athens and champion of the Heraclids (Eur. Heraclid. 111ff.). But, according to Paus. 1.32.6, it was not Demophon but his father Theseus who received the refugees and declined to surrender them to Eurystheus

234. Traditions varied concerning the death and burial of Eurystheus. Diod. 4.57.6, in agreement with Apollodorus, says that all the sons of Eurystheus were slain in the battle, and that the king himself, fleeing in his chariot, was killed by Hyllus, son of Herakles. According to Paus. 1.44.9, the tomb of Eurystheus was near the Scironian Rocks, where he had been killed by Iolaus (not Hyllus) as he was fleeing home after the battle. According to Euripides, he was captured by Iolaus at the Scironian Rocks and carried a prisoner to Alcmena, who ordered him to execution, although the Athenians interceded for his life; and his body was buried before the sanctuary of Athena at Pallene, an Attic township situated between Athens and Marathon. See Eur. Heraclid. 843ff.; Eur. Heraclid. 928ff.; Eur. Heraclid. 1030ff. According to Strab. 8.6.19, Eurystheus marched against the Heraclids and Iolaus at Marathon; he fell in the battle, and his body was buried at Gargettus, but his head was cut off and buried separately in Tricorythus, under the high road, at the spring Macaria, and the place was hence called “the Head of Eurystheus.” Thus Strabo lays the scene of the battle and of the death of Eurystheus at Marathon. From Paus. 1.32.6 we know that the spring Macaria, named after the heroine who sacrificed herself to gain the victory for the Heraclids, was at Marathon. The name seems to have been applied to the powerful subterranean springs which form a great marsh at the northern end of the plain of Marathon. The ancient high road, under which the head of Eurystheus was buried, and of which traces existed down to modern times, here ran between the marsh on the one hand and the steep slope of the mountain on the other. At the northern end of the narrow defile thus formed by the marsh and the mountain stands the modern village of Kato-Souli, which is proved by inscriptions to have occupied the site of the ancient Tricorythus. See W. M. Leake, The Demi of Athens, 2nd ed. (London, 1841), pp. 95ff., and Frazer, commentary on Pausanias, vol. ii. pp. 432, 439ff. But Pallene, at or near which, according to Euripides, the body of Eurystheus was buried, lay some eighteen miles or so away at the northern foot of Mount Hymettus, in the gap which divides the high and steep mountains of Pentelicus and Hymettus from each other. That gap, forming the only gateway into the plain of Athens from the north east, was strategically very important, and hence was naturally the scene of various battles, legendary or historical. Gargettus, where, according to Strabo, confirmed by Hesychius and Stephanus Byzantius (s.v. Gargêttos), the headless trunk of Eurystheus was interred, seems to have lain on the opposite side of the gap, near the foot of Pentelicus, where a small modern village, Garito, apparently preserves the ancient name. See W. M. Leake, op. cit. pp. 26ff., 44-47; Karten von Attika, Erläuternder Text, Heft II. von A. Milchhoefer (Berlin, 1883), pp. 35 (who differs as to the site of Gargettus); Guides-Joanne, Grèce, par B. Haussoullier, i. (Paris, 1896), pp. 204ff. Thus the statements of Euripides and Strabo about the place where the body of Eurystheus was buried may be reconciled if we suppose that it was interred at Gargettus facing over against Pallene, which lay on the opposite or southern side of the gap between Pentelicus and Hymettus. For the battles said to have been fought at various times in this important pass, see Hdt. 1.62ff.; Aristot. Ath. Pol. 15, with Sir J. E. Sandys's note; Plut. Thes. 13; Scholiast on Eur. Hipp. 35. The statement of Apollodorus that Hyllus killed Eurystheus and brought his head to Alcmena, who gouged out his eyes with weaving-pins, is repeated by Zenobius, Cent. ii.61, who probably here, as so often, simply copied our author without acknowledgment. According to Pind. P. 9.79(137)ff., (with the Scholia), the slayer of Eurystheus was not Hyllus but Iolaus; and this seems to have been the common tradition. Can we explain the curious tradition that the severed head and body of the foeman Eurystheus were buried separately many miles apart, and both of them in passes strategically important? According to Eur. Heraclid. 1026ff., Eurystheus, before being killed by the order of Alcmena, announced to the Athenians that, in gratitude for their merciful, though fruitless, intercession with Alcmena, he would still, after his death, lying beneath the sod, be a friend and saviour to Athens, but a stern foe to the descendants of the Heraclids -- that is, to the Argives and Spartans, both of whom traced the blood of their kings to Herakles. Further, he bade the Athenians not to pour libations or shed blood on his grave, for even without such offerings he would in death benefit them and injure their enemies, whom he would drive home, defeated, from the borders of Attica. From this it would seem that the ghost of Eurystheus was supposed to guard Attica against invasion; hence we can understand why his body should be divided in two and the severed parts buried in different passes by which enemies might march into the country, because in this way the ghost might reasonably be expected to do double duty as a sentinel or spiritual outpost in two important places at the same time. Similarly the dead Oedipus in his grave at Athens was believed to protect the country and ensure its welfare. See Soph. OC 576ff.; Soph. OC 1518-1534; Soph. OC 1760-1765; Aristides, Or. xlvi. vol. ii. p. 230, ed. G. Dindorf. So Orestes, in gratitude for his acquittal at Athens, is represented by Aeschylus as promising that even when he is in his grave he will prevent any Argive leader from marching against Attica. See Aesch. Eum. 732(762)ff. And Euripides makes Hector declare that the foreigners who had fought in defence of Troy were “no small security to the city” even when “they had fallen and were lying in their heaped-up graves.” See Eur. Rh. 413-415. These examples show that in the opinion of the Greeks the ghosts even of foreigners could serve as guardian spirits of a country to which they were attached by ties of gratitude or affection; for in each of the cases I have cited the dead man who was thought to protect either Attica or Troy was a stranger from a strange land. Some of the Scythians in antiquity used to cut off the heads of their enemies and stick them on poles over the chimneys of their houses, where the skulls were supposed to act as watchmen or guardians, perhaps by repelling any foul fiends that might attempt to enter the dwelling by coming down the chimney. See Hdt. 4.103. So tribes in Borneo, who make a practice of cutting off the heads of their enemies and garnishing their houses with these trophies, imagine that they can propitiate the spirits of their dead foes and convert them into friends and protectors by addressing the skulls in endearing language and offering them food. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i.294ff. The references in Greek legend to men who habitually relieved strangers of their heads, which they added to their collection of skulls, may point to the former existence among the Greeks of a practice of collecting human skulls for the purpose of securing the ghostly protection of their late owners. See notes on Apollod. 2.5.11 (Antaeus), Apollod. 2.7.7 (Cycnus). Compare Apollod. E.2.5 (Oenomaus); note on Apollod. 1.7.8 (Evenus).

235. For the first attempted invasion of the Peloponnese by the Heraclids or sons of Herakles, see Diod. 4.58.1-4. The invasion is commonly spoken of as a return, because, though their father Herakles had been born at Thebes in Boeotia, he regarded Mycenae and Tiryns, the kingdom of his forefathers, as his true home. The word (kathodos) here employed by Apollodorus is regularly applied by Greek writers to the return of exiles from banishment, and in particular to the return of the Heraclids. See, for example, Strab. 8.3.30, Strab. 8.4.1, Strab. 8.5.5, Strab. 8.6.10, Strab. 8.7.1, Strab. 8.8.5, Strab. 9.1.7, Strab. 10.2.6, Strab. 13.1.3, Strab. 14.2.6; Paus. 4.3.3; Paus. 5.6.3. The corresponding verbs, katerchesthai, “to return from exile,” and katagein, “to bring back from exile,” are both used by Apollodorus in these senses. See Apollod. 2.7.2-3; Apollod. 2.8.2 and Apollod. 2.8.5; Apollod. 3.10.5. The final return of the Heraclids, in conjunction with the Dorians, to the Peloponnese is dated by Thuc. 1.12.3 in the eightieth year after the capture of Troy; according to Paus. 4.3.3, it occurred two generations after that event, which tallies fairly with the estimate of Thucydides. Velleius Paterculus i.2.1 agrees with Thucydides as to the date, and adds for our further satisfaction that the return took place one hundred and twenty years after Herakles had been promoted to the rank of deity.

236. Diodorus Siculus says nothing of this return of the Heraclids to Attica after the plague, but he records (Diod. 4.58.3ff.) that, after their defeat and the death of Hyllus at the Isthmus, they retired to Tricorythus and stayed there for fifty years. We have seen (above, p. 278, note on Apollod. 2.8.1) that Tricorythus was situated at the northern end of the plain of Marathon.

237. For the homicide and exile of Tlepolemus, see Hom. Il. 2.653-670, with the Scholiast on Hom. Il. 662; Pind. O. 7.27(50)ff.; Strab. 14.2.6; Diod. 4.58.7ff. According to Pindar, the homicide was apparently not accidental, but committed in a fit of anger with a staff of olive-wood.

238. He was met by a Peloponnesian army at the Isthmus of Corinth and there defeated and slain in single combat by Echemus, king of Tegea. Then, in virtue of a treaty which they had concluded with their adversaries, the Heraclids retreated to Attica and did not attempt the invasion of Peloponnese again for fifty years. See Diod. 4.58.1-5; Paus. 8.5.1. These events may have been recorded by Apollodorus in the lacuna which follows.

239. Pausanias at first dated the return of the Heraclids in the reign of this king (Paus. 2.18.7, Paus. 3.1.5; compare Apollod. 4.3.3), but he afterwards retracted this opinion (Apollod. 8.5.1).

240. This Aristomachus was a son of Cleodaeus (Paus. 2.7.6), who was a son of Hyllus (Paus. 3.15.10), who was a son of Herakles (Paus. 1.35.8). Aristomachus was the father of Aristodemus, Temenus, and Cresphontes (Paus. 2.18.7, Paus. 8.5.6), of whom Temenus and Cresphontes led the Heraclids and Dorians in their final invasion and conquest of Peloponnese (Paus. 2.18.7, Paus. 5.3.5ff., Paus. 5.4.1, Paus. 8.5.6, Paus. 10.38.10). Compare Hdt. 6.52, who indicates the descent of Aristodemus from Herakles concisely by speaking of “Aristodemus, the son of Aristomachus, the son of Cleodaeus, the son of Hyllus.” Thus, according to the traditional genealogy, the conquerors of the Peloponnese were great-grandsons of Herakles. With regard to Aristomachus, the father of the conquerors, Pausanias says (Paus. 2.7.6) that he missed his chance of returning to Peloponnese through mistaking the meaning of the oracle. The reference seems to be to the oracle about “the narrows,” which is reported by Apollodorus (see below, note 2.8.2.h).

241. As Heyne pointed out, the name Cleodaeus here is almost certainly wrong, whether we suppose the mistake to have been made by Apollodorus himself or by a copyist. For Cleodaeus was the father of Aristomachus, whose death in battle Apollodorus has just recorded; and, as the sequel clearly proves, the reference is here not to the brothers but to the sons of Aristomachus, namely, Temenus and Cresphontes, the conquerors of the Peloponnese. Compare the preceding note.

242. The oracle was recorded and derided by the cynical philosopher Oenomaus, who, having been deceived by what purported to be a revelation of the deity, made it his business to expose the whole oracular machinery to the ridicule and contempt of the public. This he did in a work entitled On Oracles, or the Exposure of Quacks, of which Eusebius has preserved some extracts. From one of these (Eusebius, v.20) we learn that when Aristomachus applied to the oracle, he was answered, “The gods declare victory to thee by the way of the narrows” (Nikên soi phainousi theoi di' hodoio stenugrôn). This the inquirer understood to mean “by the Isthmus of Corinth,” and on that understanding the Heraclids attempted to enter Peloponnese by the Isthmus, but were defeated. Being taxed with deception, the god explained that when he said “the narrows” he really meant “the broads,” that is, the sea at the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth. Compare K. O. Müller, Die Dorier(2), i.58ff., who would restore the “retort courteous” of the oracle in two iambic lines as follows: geneas gar, ou gês karpon exeipon triton kai tên stenugran au ton eurugastora -- echonta kata ton Isthmon dexian.

243. Naupactus means “ship-built.” Compare Strab. 9.4.7; Paus. 4.26.1; Paus. 10.38.10.

244. Aristodemus was a son of Aristomachus and brother of Temenus and Cresphontes, the conquerors of the Peloponnese (Paus. 2.18.7). Some said he was shot by Apollo at Delphi for not consulting the oracle, but others said he was murdered by the children of Pylades and Electra (Paus. 3.1.6). Apollodorus clearly adopts the former of these two accounts; the rationalistic Pausanias preferred the latter.

245. Compare Hdt. 6.52.

246. The soothsayer was Carnus, an Acarnanian; the Dorians continued to propitiate the soul of the murdered seer after his death. See Paus. 3.13.4; Conon 26; Scholiast on Theocritus v.83.

247. That is, by the angry spirit of the murdered man.

248. With this and what follows compare Paus. 5.3.5ff.; Suidas, s.v. Triophthalmos; and as to Oxylus, compare Strab. 8.3.33. Pausanias calls Oxylus the son of Haemon.

249. The homicide is said to have been accidental; according to one account, the victim was the homicide's brother. See Paus. 5.3.7. As to the banishment of a murderer for a year, see note on Apollod. 2.5.11.

250. Pausanias gives a different account of the death of Tisamenus. He says that, being expelled from Lacedaemon and Argos by the returning Heraclids, king Tisamenus led an army to Achaia and there fell in a battle with the Ionians, who then inhabited that district of Greece. See Paus. 2.18.8, Paus. 7.1.7ff.

251. As to the drawing of the lots, and the stratagem by which Cresphontes secured Messenia for himself, see Polyaenus, Strateg. i.6; Paus. 4.3.4ff. Sophocles alludes to the stratagem (Soph. Aj. 1283ff., with the Scholiast on Soph. Aj. 1285).

252. In the famous paintings by Polygnotus at Delphi, the painter depicted Menelaus, king of Sparta, with the device of a serpent on his shield. See Paus. 10.26.3. The great Messenian hero Aristomenes is said to have escaped by the help of a fox from the pit into which he had been thrown by the Lacedaemonians. See Paus. 4.18.6ff. I do not remember to have met with any evidence, other than that of Apollodorus, as to the association of the toad with Argos.

253. Compare Paus. 2.19.1; Paus. 2.28.2ff., who agrees as to the names of Hyrnetho and her husband Deiphontes, but differs as to the sons of Temenus, whom he calls Cisus, Cerynes, Phalces, and Agraeus.

254. The grave of Hyrnetho was shown at Argos, but she is said to have been accidentally killed by her brother Phalces near Epidaurus, and long afterwards she was worshipped in a sacred grove of olives and other trees on the place of her death. See Paus. 2.23.3; Paus. 2.28.3-7.

255. Compare Paus. 4.3.7.

256. Compare Hyginus, Fab. 137.

257. Compare Paus. 4.3.7ff. (who does not name Polyphontes); Hyginus, Fab. 184. According to Hyginus, the name of the son of Cresphontes who survived to avenge his father's murder was Telephon. This story of Merope, Aepytus, and Polyphontes is the theme of Matthew Arnold's tragedy Merope, an imitation of the antique.