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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