7. Apollodorus, Epitome, 1.5-1.9, 1.11, 1.16-1.19 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •editorial layout Found in books: Pamias (2017), Apollodoriana: Ancient Myths, New Crossroads, 185| 1.5. Μήδεια δὲ Αἰγεῖ τότε συνοικοῦσα 5 -- ἐπεβούλευσεν αὐτῷ, καὶ πείθει τὸν Αἰγέα φυλάττεσθαι ὡς ἐπίβουλον αὐτῷ. 6 -- Αἰγεὺς δὲ τὸν ἴδιον ἀγνοῶν παῖδα, δείσας 7 -- ἔπεμψεν ἐπὶ τὸν Μαραθώνιον ταῦρον. 8 -- 1.6. ὡς δὲ ἀνεῖλεν αὐτόν, παρὰ Μηδείας λαβὼν αὐθήμερον 9 -- προσήνεγκεν αὐτῷ φάρμακον. ὁ δὲ μέλλοντος αὐτῷ τοῦ ποτοῦ προσφέρεσθαι ἐδωρήσατο τῷ πατρὶ τὸ ξίφος, ὅπερ ἐπιγνοὺς Αἰγεὺς 10 -- τὴν κύλικα ἐξέρριψε τῶν χειρῶν αὐτοῦ. Θησεὺς δὲ ἀναγνωρισθεὶς τῷ πατρὶ καὶ τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν μαθὼν ἐξέβαλε τὴν Μήδειαν. 1.7. καὶ εἰς τὸν τρίτον δασμὸν τῷ Μινωταύρῳ συγκαταλέγεται 1 -- ὡς δέ τινες λέγουσιν, ἑκὼν ἑαυτὸν ἔδωκεν. ἐχούσης δὲ τῆς νεὼς μέλαν ἱστίον Αἰγεὺς τῷ παιδὶ ἐνετείλατο, ἐὰν ὑποστρέφῃ ζῶν, λευκοῖς πετάσαι τὴν ναῦν ἱστίοις. 1.8. ὡς δὲ ἧκεν εἰς Κρήτην, 2 -- Ἀριάδνη θυγάτηρ Μίνωος ἐρωτικῶς διατεθεῖσα πρὸς αὐτὸν 3 -- συμπράσσειν 4 -- ἐπαγγέλλεται, 5 --ἐὰν ὁμολογήσῃ γυναῖκα αὐτὴν ἕξειν ἀπαγαγὼν εἰς Ἀθήνας. ὁμολογήσαντος δὲ σὺν ὅρκοις Θησέως δεῖται Δαιδάλου μηνῦσαι τοῦ λαβυρίνθου τὴν ἔξοδον. 1.9. ὑποθεμένου δὲ ἐκείνου, λίνον εἰσιόντι Θησεῖ δίδωσι· τοῦτο ἐξάψας Θησεὺς τῆς θύρας 6 -- ἐφελκόμενος εἰσῄει. καταλαβὼν δὲ Μινώταυρον ἐν ἐσχάτῳ μέρει τοῦ λαβυρίνθου παίων πυγμαῖς ἀπέκτεινεν, 1 -- ἐφελκόμενος δὲ τὸ λίνον πάλιν ἐξῄει. καὶ διὰ νυκτὸς μετὰ Ἀριάδνης καὶ τῶν παίδων εἰς Νάξον ἀφικνεῖται. ἔνθα Διόνυσος ἐρασθεὶς Ἀριάδνης ἥρπασε, καὶ κομίσας εἰς Λῆμνον ἐμίγη. καὶ γεννᾷ Θόαντα Στάφυλον Οἰνοπίωνα καὶ Πεπάρηθον. 2 -- 1.11. Θησεὺς δὲ παρέλαβε 1 -- τὴν Ἀθηναίων δυναστείαν, καὶ 2 -- τοὺς μὲν Πάλλαντος παῖδας πεντήκοντα τὸν ἀριθμὸν ἀπέκτεινεν· ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ὅσοι ἀντᾶραι ἤθελον παρʼ αὐτοῦ ἀπεκτάνθησαν, καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἅπασαν ἔσχε μόνος. 1.16. συστρατευσάμενος δὲ ἐπὶ Ἀμαζόνας Ἡρακλεῖ ἥρπασεν 3 -- Ἀντιόπην, ὡς δέ τινες Μελανίππην, Σιμωνίδης δὲ Ἱππολύτην. 4 -- διὸ ἐστράτευσαν ἐπʼ Ἀθήνας Ἀμαζόνες. καὶ στρατοπεδευσαμένας 1 -- αὐτὰς περὶ τὸν Ἄρειον πάγον Θησεὺς μετὰ Ἀθηναίων ἐνίκησεν. ἔχων δὲ 2 -- ἐκ τῆς Ἀμαζόνος παῖδα Ἱππόλυτον, 1.17. λαμβάνει μετὰ ταῦτα παρὰ Δευκαλίωνος Φαίδραν τὴν Μίνωος θυγατέρα, ἧς ἐπιτελουμένων τῶν γάμων Ἀμαζὼν ἡ προγαμηθεῖσα Θησεῖ τοὺς συγκατακειμένους σὺν ταῖς μεθʼ ἑαυτῆς Ἀμαζόσιν ἐπιστᾶσα σὺν ὅπλοις κτείνειν ἔμελλεν. οἱ δὲ κλείσαντες διὰ τάχους τὰς θύρας ἀπέκτειναν αὐτὴν. τινὲς δὲ μαχομένην αὐτὴν ὑπὸ Θησέως λέγουσιν ἀποθανεῖν. 1.18. Φαίδρα δὲ γεννήσασα Θησεῖ δύο παιδία Ἀκάμαντα καὶ Δημοφῶντα ἐρᾷ 3 -- τοῦ ἐκ τῆς Ἀμαζόνος παιδὸς ἤγουν τοῦ Ἱππολύτου 4 -- καὶ δεῖται συνελθεῖν αὐτῇ. 5 -- ὁ δὲ μισῶν πάσας γυναῖκας 6 -- τὴν συνουσίαν ἔφυγεν. ἡ δὲ Φαίδρα, δείσασα μὴ τῷ πατρὶ διαβάλῃ, κατασχίσασα 7 -- τὰς τοῦ θαλάμου θύρας καὶ τὰς ἐσθῆτας σπαράξασα κατεψεύσατο Ἱππολύτου βίαν. 1.19. Θησεὺς δὲ πιστεύσας ηὔξατο Ποσειδῶνι Ἱππόλυτον διαφθαρῆναι· ὁ δέ, θέοντος αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἅρματος 8 -- καὶ παρὰ τῇ θαλάσσῃ ὀχουμένου, ταῦρον ἀνῆκεν ἐκ τοῦ κλύδωνος. πτοηθέντων δὲ τῶν ἵππων κατηρράχθη 1 -- τὸ ἅρμα. ἐμπλακεὶς δὲ ταῖς ἡνίαις 2 -- Ἱππόλυτος συρόμενος ἀπέθανε. γενομένου δὲ τοῦ ἔρωτος περιφανοῦς ἑαυτὴν ἀνήρτησε Φαίδρα. | 1.5. But Medea, being then wedded to Aegeus, plotted against him That Theseus was sent against the Marathonian bull at the instigation of Medea is affirmed also by the First Vatican Mythographer. See Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 18, (First Vatican Mythographer, Fab. 48) . Compare Plut. Thes. 14 ; Paus. 1.27.10 ; Ov. Met. 7.433ff. As to Medes at Athens , see above, Apollod. 1.9.28 . and persuaded Aegeus to beware of him as a traitor. And Aegeus, not knowing his own son, was afraid and sent him against the Marathonian bull. 1.6. And when Theseus had killed it, Aegeus presented to him a poison which he had received the selfsame day from Medea. But just as the draught was about to be administered to him, he gave his father the sword, and on recognizing it Aegeus dashed the cup from his hands. Compare Plut. Thes. 12 ; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.741 ; Ov. Met. 7.404-424 . According to Ovid, the poison by which Medea attempted the life of Theseus was aconite, which she had brought with her from Scythia . The incident seems to have been narrated by Sophocles in his tragedy Aegeus . See The Fragments of Sophocles , ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. i. pp. 15ff. And when Theseus was thus made known to his father and informed of the plot, he expelled Medea. 1.7. And he was numbered among those who were to be sent as the third tribute to the Minotaur; or, as some affirm, he offered himself voluntarily. Compare Plut. Thes. 17 ; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xi.320, p. 1688 ; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.322, and Il. xviii.590 ; Hyginus, Fab. 41 ; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Achill. 192 . The usual tradition seems to have been that he volunteered for the dangerous service; but a Scholiast on Hom. Il. 18.590 speaks as if the lot had fallen on him with the other victims. According to Hellanicus, cited by Plut. Thes. 17 , the victims were not chosen by lot, but Minos came to Athens and picked them for himself, and on this particular occasion Theseus was the first on whom his choice fell. And as the ship had a black sail, Aegeus charged his son, if he returned alive, to spread white sails on the ship. As to the black and white sails, see Diod. 4.61.4 ; Plut. Thes. 17 and Plut. Thes. 22 ; Paus. 1.22.5 ; Catul. 64.215-245 ; Hyginus, Fab. 41, 43 ; Serv. Verg. A. 3.74 . According to Simonides, quoted by Plut. Thes. 22 , the sail that was to be the sign of safety was not white but scarlet, which, by contrast with the blue sea, would have caught the eye almost as easily as a white sail at a great distance. 1.8. And when he came to Crete , Ariadne, daughter of Minos, being amorously disposed to him, offered to help him if he would agree to carry her away to Athens and have her to wife. Theseus having agreed on oath to do so, she besought Daedalus to disclose the way out of the labyrinth. 1.9. And at his suggestion she gave Theseus a clue when he went in; Theseus fastened it to the door, and, drawing it after him, entered in. Compare Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.322 , Scholiast on Hom. Il. xviii.590 ; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xi.320, p. 1688 ; Diod. 4.61.4 ; Plut. Thes. 19 ; Hyginus, Fab. 42 ; Serv. Verg. A. 6.14 , and on Georg. i.222 ; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. xii.676 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 16, 116ff. (First Vatican Mythographer 43; Second Vatican Mythographer 124) . The clearest description of the clue, with which the amorous Ariadne furnished Theseus, is given by the Scholiasts and Eustathius on Homer l.c. . From them we learn that it was a ball of thread which Ariadne had begged of Daedalus for the use of her lover. He was to fasten one end of the thread to the lintel of the door on entering into the labyrinth, and holding the ball in his hand to unwind the skein while he penetrated deeper and deeper into the maze, till he found the Minotaur asleep in the inmost recess; then he was to catch the monster by the hair and sacrifice him to Poseidon; after which he was to retrace his steps, gathering up the thread behind him as he went. According to the Scholiast on the Odyssey (l.c.) , the story was told by Pherecydes, whom later authors may have copied. And having found the Minotaur in the last part of the labyrinth, he killed him by smiting him with his fists; and drawing the clue after him made his way out again. And by night he arrived with Ariadne and the children That is, the boys and girls whom he had rescued from the Minotaur. at Naxos . There Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off; Compare Diod. 4.61.5 ; Plut. Thes. 20 ; Paus. 1.20.3 ; Paus. 10.29.4 ; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.997 ; Scholiast on Theocritus ii.45 ; Catul. 64.116ff. ; Ovid, Her. x. ; Ovid, Ars Am. i.527ff. ; Ov. Met. 8.174ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 43 ; Serv. Verg. G. 1.222 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 116ff. (Second Vatican Mythographer 124) . Homer's account of the fate of Ariadne is different. He says ( Hom. Od. 11.321-325 ) that when Theseus was carrying off Ariadne from Crete to Athens she was slain by Artemis in the island of Dia at the instigation of Dionysus. Later writers, such as Diodorus Siculus identified Dia with Naxos , but it is rather “the little island, now Standia, just off Heraclaion, on the north coast of Crete . Theseus would pass the island in sailing for Athens ” ( Merry on Hom. Od. xi.322 ). Apollodorus seems to be the only extant ancient author who mentions that Dionysus carried off Ariadne from Naxos to Lemnos and had intercourse with her there. and having brought her to Lemnos he enjoyed her, and begat Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus. Compare Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.997 . Others said that Ariadne bore Staphylus and Oenopion to Theseus ( Plut. Thes. 20 ). 1.11. But Theseus succeeded to the sovereignty of Athens , and killed the sons of Pallas, fifty in number; Pallas was the brother of Aegeus (see above, Apollod. 3.15.5 ); hence his fifty sons were cousins to Theseus. So long as Aegeus was childless, his nephews hoped to succeed to the throne; but when Theseus appeared from Troezen , claiming to be the king's son and his heir apparent, they were disappointed and objected to his succession, on the ground that he was a stranger and a foreigner. Accordingly, when Theseus succeeded to the crown, Pallas and his fifty sons rebelled against him, but were defeated and slain. See Plut. Thes. 3 and Plut. Thes. 13 ; Paus. 1.22.2 ; Paus. 1.28.10 ; Scholiast on Eur. Hipp. 35 , who quotes from Philochorus a passage about the rebellion. In order to be purified from the guilt incurred by killing his cousins, Theseus went into banishment for a year along with his wife Phaedra. The place of their exile was Troezen , where Theseus had been born; and it was there that Phaedra saw and conceived a fatal passion for her stepson Hippolytus, and laid the plot of death. See Eur. Hipp. 34ff. ; Paus. 1.22.2 . According to a different tradition, Theseus was tried for murder before the court of the Delphinium at Athens , and was acquitted on the plea of justifiable homicide ( Paus. 1.28.10 ). likewise all who would oppose him were killed by him, and he got the whole government to himself. 1.16. Theseus joined Hercules in his expedition against the Amazons and carried off Antiope, or, as some say, Melanippe; but Simonides calls her Hippolyte. As to Theseus and the Amazons, see Diod. 4.28 ; Plut. Thes. 26-28 ; Paus. 1.2.1 ; Paus. 1.15.2 ; Paus. 1.41.7 ; Paus. 2.32.9 ; Paus. 5.11.4 and Paus. 5.11.7 ; Zenobius, Cent. v.33 . The invasion of Attica by the Amazons in the time of Theseus is repeatedly referred to by Isocrates ( Isoc. 4.68 , 70 , 4.42 , 7.75 , 12.193 ). The Amazon whom Theseus married, and by whom he had Hippolytus, is commonly called Antiope ( Plut. Thes. 26 ; Plut. Thes. 28 ; Diod. 4.28 ; Paus. 1.2.1 ; Paus. 1.41.7 ; Seneca, Hippolytus 927ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 30 ). But according to Clidemus, in agreement with Simonides, her name was Hippolyte ( Plut. Thes. 27 ), and so she is called by Isocrates ( Isoc. 12.193 ). Pausanias says that Hippolyte was a sister of Antiope ( Paus. 1.41.7 ). Tzetzes expressly affirms that Antiope, and not Hippolyte, was the wife of Theseus and mother of Hippolytus ( Scholiast on Lycophron 1329 ). The grave of Antiope was shown both at Athens and Megara ( Paus. 1.2.1 ; Paus. 1.41.7 ). Wherefore the Amazons marched against Athens , and having taken up a position about the Areopagus According to Diod. 4.28.2 , the Amazons encamped at the place which was afterwards called the Amazonium. The topography of the battle seems to have been minutely described by the antiquarian Clidemus, according to whom the array of the Amazons extended from the Amazonium to the Pnyx, while the Athenians attacked them from the Museum Hill on one side and from Ardettus and the Lyceum on the other. See Plut. Thes. 27 . they were vanquished by the Athenians under Theseus. And though he had a son Hippolytus by the Amazon, 1.17. Theseus afterwards received from Deucalion This Deucalion was a son of Minos and reigned after him; he was thus a brother of Phaedra. See above, Apollod. 3.1.2 ; Diod. 4.62.1 . He is not to be confounded with the more famous Deucalion in whose time the great flood took place. See above, Apollod. 1.7.2 . in marriage Phaedra, daughter of Minos; and when her marriage was being celebrated, the Amazon that had before been married to him appeared in arms with her Amazons, and threatened to kill the assembled guests. But they hastily closed the doors and killed her. However, some say that she was slain in battle by Theseus. 1.18. And Phaedra, after she had borne two children, Acamas and Demophon, to Theseus, fell in love with the son he had by the Amazon, to wit, Hippolytus, and besought him to lie with her. Howbeit, he fled from her embraces, because he hated all women. But Phaedra, fearing that he might accuse her to his father, cleft open the doors of her bed-chamber, rent her garments, and falsely charged Hippolytus with an assault. 1.19. Theseus believed her and prayed to Poseidon that Hippolytus might perish. So, when Hippolytus was riding in his chariot and driving beside the sea, Poseidon sent up a bull from the surf, and the horses were frightened, the chariot dashed in pieces, and Hippolytus, entangled in the reins, was dragged to death. And when her passion was made public, Phaedra hanged herself. The guilty passion of Phaedra for her stepson Hippolytus and the tragic end of the innocent youth, done to death by the curses of his father Theseus, are the subject of two extant tragedies, the Hippolytus of Euripides, and the Hippolytus or Phaedra of Seneca. Compare also Diod. 4.62 ; Paus. 1.22 , Paus. 1.22.1ff. , Paus. 2.32.1-4 ; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.321 , citing Asclepiades as his authority; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 1329 ; Tzetzes, Chiliades vi.504ff. ; Scholiast on Plat. Laws 9, 931b ; Ov. Met. 15.497ff. ; Ovid, Her. iv ; Hyginus, Fab. 47 ; Serv. Verg. A. 6.445 and vii.761 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 17, 117ff. (First Vatican Mythographer 46; Second Vatican Mythographer 128) . Sophocles composed a tragedy Phaedra , of which some fragments remain, but little or nothing is known of the plot. See The Fragments of Sophocles , ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 294ff. Euripides wrote two tragedies on the same subject, both under the title of Hippolytus : it is the second which has come down to us. In the first Hippolytus the poet, incensed at the misconduct of his wife, painted the character and behaviour of Phaedra in much darker colours than in the second, where he has softened the portrait, representing the unhappy woman as instigated by the revengeful Aphrodite, but resisting the impulse of her fatal passion to the last, refusing to tell her love to Hippolytus, and dying by her own hand rather than endure the shame of its betrayal by a blabbing nurse. This version of the story is evidently not the one here followed by Apollodorus, according to whom Phaedra made criminal advances to her stepson. On the other hand the version of Apollodorus agrees in this respect with that of the Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.321 : both writers may have followed the first Hippolytus of Euripides. As to that lost play, of which some fragments have come down to us, see the Life of Euripides in Westermann's Vitarum Scriptores Graeci Minores , p. 137 ; the Greek Argument to the extant Hippolytus of Euripides vol. i.163, ed. Paley ; TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 491ff. Apollodorus says nothing as to the scene of the tragedy. Euripides in his extant play lays it at Troezen , whither Theseus had gone with Phaedra to be purified for the slaughter of the sons of Pallas ( Eur. Hipp. 34ff. ). Pausanias agrees with this account, and tells us that the graves of the unhappy pair were to be seen beside each other at Troezen , near a myrtle-tree, of which the pierced leaves still bore the print of Phaedra's brooch. The natural beauty of the spot is in keeping with the charm which the genius of Euripides has thrown over the romantic story of unhappy love and death. of Troezen itself only a few insignificant ruins remain, overgrown with weeds and dispersed amid a wilderness of bushes. But hard by are luxuriant groves of lemon and orange with here and there tall cypresses towering like dark spires above them, while behind this belt of verdure rise wooded hills, and across the blue waters of the nearly landlocked bay lies Calauria, the sacred island of Poseidon, its peaks veiled in the sombre green of the pines. A different place and time were assigned by Seneca to the tragedy. According to him, the events took place at Athens , and Phaedra conceived her passion for Hippolytus and made advances to him during the absence of her husband, who had gone down to the nether world with Pirithous and was there detained for four years ( Eur. Hipp.835ff. ). Diodorus Siculus agrees with Euripides in laying the scene of the tragedy at Troezen , and he agrees with Apollodorus in saying that at the time when Phaedra fell in love with Hippolytus she was the mother of two sons, Acamas and Demophon, by Theseus. In his usual rationalistic vein Diodorus omits all mention of Poseidon and the sea-bull, and ascribes the accident which befell Hippolytus to the mental agitation he felt at his stepmother's calumny. |
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