Friday, June 1, 2018

TFBT:Topics for Research, Part IV


Recently, in reviewing my blogposts I noticed many posts on similar topics.  I hope my research is building on itself rather than circling endlessly around the same two posts.  So I wrote my friend Maya for help.  I believe she is brilliant and having read everything I have written she might have some insights on my work.  Maya suggested: Meleager, The Lack of Herclidae in the Trojan War and Otus &Ephialtes.  I want to thank Maya M  for a wonderful couple of weeks and several insights.

So, here is Part IV; Otus &Ephialtes

Otus and far-famed Ephialtes were the twin sons of Iphimedia. She was the daughter of Triopas of Thessaly and Hiscilla (Daughter of Myrmidon).  Her father and brother Phorbas might have had some connection to Apollo. 

Shall I sing about you as a wooer, in loving liaisons…with Phorbas, a scion of Triops’ lineage, or with Ereútheus, or else along with Leukíppos, to Daphne the wife of Leukíppos…you on foot, he in chariot, nor did he come short of Triops.” (HH to Apollo 208-213, trans. Rodney Merrill at CHS)

Iphimedia wed her father’s brother Aleous, King of Alus in Aetolia.   Hence Iphimedia’s sons have the patronym Aloeidae.  A woman marrying her paternal uncle was a real common thing in great myth.  However, Iphimedia boasted the embrace of Poseidon, father of Polyphemus and Orion.   About the twin brothers we hear; according Diodorus (v. 50, &c.),

“The Aloeidae are Thessalian heroes who were sent out by their father Aloeus to fetch back their mother Iphimedeia and her daughter Pancratis, who had been carried off by Thracians. After having overtaken and defeated the Thracians in the island of Strongyle (Naxos), they settled there as rulers over the Thracians. [i] But soon after, they killed each other in a dispute which had arisen between them, and the Naxians worshipped them as heroes.” (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.)

According to Atsma,

"They say that Ephialtes and Otus were the first men to sacrifice to the Muses on Helicon and to declare this mountain sacred to the Mousai…Hegesinous wrote about this in his Atthis: ‘Askre and Poseidon who shakes the earth lay together…and she bore his son--Oeoclus; with the sons of Aloeus he built the foundations of Askre (in Boeotia) under the streaming feet of Helicon.’” 

(This reminds me of the cyclopean walls of Mycenae.)  The connection to Mt.Helicon, the Muses and Ascra, makes them the predecessors of that other fan of the Muses and Ascra dweller; Hesiod.   The tomb of Iphimedeia and her sons, was shown at nearby Anthedon. (Paus. 9.22.6)  When Iphimedeia passed away Aleous married Eriboea, who was surpassingly lovely.  Hmm, Iphimedeia, Aleous, Poseidon and Eriboea, there’s another parents here for two sets of twins.  Of course there are other stories about them, stories so different as to be to be a different set of twins by the same names.   They were giants as Poseidon is wont to sire.  

"Iphimedeia, whose boast it was to have lain beside Poseidon. She bore him two sons, though their life was short--Otos the peer of the gods and far-famed Ephialtes; these were the tallest men, and the handsomest, that ever the fertile earth has fostered, save only incomparable Orion; at nine years of age their breadth was nine cubits, their height nine fathoms. They threatened the Deathless Ones themselves Homer, Odyssey 11. 305

Each year they grew two feet in width and six feet in length. When they decided to fight the gods they began piling mountain upon mountain in order to attain the sky and bound Ares the god of war. Of course the poets gave them ludicrous amours intentions for nine year old mortals. (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.53) Hermes with the assistance of their step-mother Eriboea, after three months and ten stole Ares away from where he lay chained in a brazen cauldron. (Iliad 5. 385 ff)  At which point the children of Leto arranged for them to die one way or another. 

So there you have it;  strong Ephialtes and Otus were either founding-fathers and heroes in the Ancient and contemporary sense

or

like the nine year olds of Hesiod Silver Age;

“A child was brought up at his good mother's side… an utter simpleton, playing childishly in his own home. But when they were full grown and were come to the full measure of their prime, they lived only a little time in sorrow because of their foolishness,”






[i] Pancratis married Agassamenus, king of the Thracians in the island of Strongyle [Dio.5.50.6; Parth.19].

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