TFBT: Adonis Too Was Castrated

I assume my readers, if any, are bibliophiles; lovers of books.  If so, I am sure you had this experience.  You end up reading a book that is badly written and has a lame ending. In order to save someone else from getting sucked into this mess, you toss it into the garbage rather recycling or donating it to the library.  Or it ends up being a piece of propaganda full of lies and half truths.  Or it is full of illogic and bad science.  I read one of these books, recently; Walker 1983. I would have tossed it, but I was on a five hour flight. In between the waves of nausea and disgust there were a few interesting if odd insights on Greek mythology.  This is the first in a series of blogs investigating these possible gems in the rubbish.

"Adonis too was castrated: gored in the groin by Aphrodite's boar-masked priest.  His severed phallus became his son the  ithyphallic god Priapus...Priapus carried a pruning knife in token of (Adonis') necessary castration before new life could appear on earth.  Castrating the god was likened to reaping the grain which Adonis personified.  His rebirth was a sprouting from the womb of the Earth."  

So, if I can translate this a bit. The “boar-masked priest” is usually described as Aphrodite’s jealous lover, the god of War; Ares (Nonnus, Dionysiaca 42. 1)  Only one source describes Priapus the god of lust, as the son of Adonis.  Occasionally he carries a sickle, (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.)  The author goes on to suggest that other heroes are sacrificial fertility figures, like Ancaeus of Arcadia, and the Trojan Prince Anchises.

Ovid, in Metamorphosis 8.391 reports that during the Calydonian boar hunt;

“Ancaeus wielding his war-axe, and rushing madly to his fate, exclaimed, “Witness it! See the weapons of a man excel a woman's! Ho, make way for my achievement! Let Diana shield the brute! Despite her utmost effort my right hand shall slaughter him!” So mighty in his boast he puffed himself; and, lifting with both hands his double-edged axe, he stood erect, on tiptoe fiercely bold. The savage boar caught him, and ripped his tusks through his groin, a spot where death is sure.—Ancaeus fell; and his torn entrails and his crimson blood stained the fair verdure of the spot with death.”

In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite the Trojan Prince Anchises fears a fate similar to Adonis.  Awakening with the goddess in his bed, says to his lover, “ Yet by Zeus who holds the aegis I beseech you, leave me not to lead a palsied life among men, but have pity on me; for he who lies with a deathless goddess is no hale man afterwards.”

Apollonius Rhodius ARGONAUTICA 2.815 “And here his destined fate smote Idmon, son of Abas, skilled in soothsaying; but not at all did his soothsaying save him, for necessity drew him on to death. For in the mead of the reedy river there lay, cooling his flanks and huge belly in the mud, a white-tusked boar, a deadly monster, whom even the nymphs of the marsh dreaded, and no man knew it; but all alone he was feeding in the wide fell. But the son of Abas was passing along the raised banks of the muddy river, and the boar from some unseen lair leapt out of the reed-bed, and charging gashed his thigh.”

Apollodorus. The Library 1.9.12 “Phylacus marveled, and perceiving that he was an excellent soothsayer, he released him and invited him to say how his son Iphiclus might get children…And having sacrificed two bulls and cut them in pieces he summoned the birds; and when a vulture came, he learned from it that once, when Phylacus was gelding rams, he laid down the knife, still bloody, beside Iphiclus, and that when the child was frightened and ran away.”

Hesiod Theogony 176 “And Heaven (Uranus) came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her. Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members”

Aaron Atsma observes; “There is also a vase painting depicting Khrysaor's son Geryon holding a shield emblazoned with the emblem of a winged boar--a likely representation of Khrysaor considering his boar-tusked, winged mother Medusa”  Various sources explain the name Chrysaor as meaning “golden aor”, “golden sword”, “golden falchion” or “golden sickle” 

 So in summary; Adonis castrated by the tusks of an apparent boar.  A boar “ripped his tusks through (Ancaeus’) groin.”  Prince Anchises fears a similar fate.  “…the boar from some unseen lair leapt out of the reed-bed, and charging gashed (Idmon’s) thigh.”  Iphiclus was psychologically castrated by watching his father wield a knife while castrating rams.  Uranus was castrated by a sickle.  And finally Chrysaor, the Golden Sickle was born when Perseus cut off his boarish mother’s head with a sickle.  

What that all means, I don’t know.

  

TFBT: Review of the "Destruction of Troy"

Memnon at Hour 25 recently pointed out a on-line posting of Destruction of Troy by an anonymous author.  https://archive.org/details/ExcidiumTroiae [i]

This short piece is apparently a medieval romance written in Latin.  It reviews all the details relating to the epic cycle, starting with the wedding of Peleus and Thetis and ending with the founding of Rome.  Apparently the author had neither Greek or Hesiod, but relies heavily on Virgil. Polyxena betrayed the secret of Achilles heel.  There are numerous typos and confused genealogies, but on occasion the story gives a different bent on our understanding of the epic tales or the perfect phrase.  The bulk of the beautiful language flew off to the tweeter sphere under WilliamMoulton2,  leaving here some thoughts for your consideration and contemplation.
 

Ares and Paris

The first story to discuss is Paris' expertise in training bulls to fight one another.  Paris is a Trojan prince and the story takes plays when he tended livestock outside the city.

 

 "Mars (Ares), being in the form of a bull, fought Paris’ bull, and Mars stood as the victor. Then Paris, seeing Mars in the form of a bull, surmounted his bull and gave Mars the crown which he previously put on his bull. And because he served justice and he did not hinder himself, he was called a just judge. This opinion of him spread out."

 I don’t  know this story.  I recall Ares taking the form of a boar to slay Adonis (Nonnus, dionysusica 42.1). But that was a matter of love and jealousy not athletics.  Zeus and Poseidon both take on animal forms occasionally, but that too is for love.  Zeus seduces Leda as swan, Europa as a bull, Antiope as satyr.  Poseidon took on a the form of a horse to rape his sister Demeter.   If I was looking for a comparative myth to understand Ares as a bull in a competition, I needed to think less literally

I vaguely recalled the story of Androgeus. A little explanation here.  King Minos of Crete was supposed to   beautiful bull sent to him by Poseidon, god of the sea.  Instead he kept it.  It went wild and all sorts of problem occurred.  Eventually, as one of his Labors, Heracles came and took the bull way to Greece.  It was released there and became a problem again.  Several heroes tried to deal with the bull including Prince Androgeus of Crete, Minos son while he was attending a funeral there near Marathon.  Androgeus died, Minos attacked Athens in revenge which lead to the Athenian Prince Theseus going to Crete and fighting Androgeus' half-brother the Minotaur, another bull.  But that is another story.  Here is what Apollodorus has to say about Androgeus' death.

"But he himself came to Athens and celebrated the games of the Panathenian festival, in which Androgeus, son of Minos, vanquished all comers. Him Aegeus sent against the bull of Marathon, by which he was destroyed. But some say that as he journeyed to Thebes to take part in the games in honor of Laius, he was waylaid and murdered by the jealous competitors. (Apollodorus Bibliotheca 3.15.7)  

You can find further discussion and explanation at item 332 in “Notes on Book 3 of the Library of Apollodorus” by J. G. Frazer.  So, what the stories have in common is;

• a divine bull; Ares/Poseidon's Bull,  
• competition; shepherds with their bulls on Mt. Ida / the competitors at the funeral of Laius  
• finally two princes who do or do not understand proper behavior in these situations; Paris/Androgeus.  The Cretan prince might have benefitted from the advice of Odysseus as we all might;

(Bk VIII:199-255 ) Noble and long-suffering Odysseus was pleased by her words, happy to find a genuine supporter at the games. He spoke to the Phaeacians now with a lighter heart...if anyone has the courage and the spirit, let him come and prove himself, in boxing, wrestling, running, it matters not: let any of you Phaeacians try, except Laodamas. For he’s my host, and who would quarrel with the one who shows him hospitality? Only a worthless idiot would challenge the man who welcomes him to a foreign land. He would ruin his own good luck… When we Achaeans fought at Troy only Philoctetes surpassed me (at archery). But I count myself the best by far of all the other mortal men on earth, who eat their bread. Still, I would not claim to compete with Hercules, or Oechalian Eurytus, archers who vied with the gods. That’s why great Eurytus died swiftly, and never reached old age in his halls, because Apollo, challenged to an archery contest, killed him in anger.

The Judgment of Paris

                                                                                                               

Traditionally the story of the judgment of Paris is a as follows as told by Helen and Ovid at Heroides 17: [115]

 "You say Venus (Aphrodite) gave her word for this; and that in the vales of Ida three goddesses presented themselves unclad before you; and that when one of them would give you a throne, and the second glory in war, the third said: “The daughter of Tyndareus shall be your bride!” I can scarce believe "  

I have to agree with the woman who was the admitted first cause of all time and all history.   Can’t believe that the virgin-goddess Athena and the pompous Queen of the Gods would bare it all before a lowly shepherd.  Below is the description of the Judgment from "Destruction of Troy";  

 

"Venus (Aphrodite), covered with a purple cloak,  holding the cloak before herself with two fingers, went forth towards him, and when she stood before him, with the cloak released she appeared nude to him. She thus said to Paris: ‘I will give you a fairer wife, so judge me the most beautiful.’ He, seeing indeed the appearance of the goddess or virgin, that she has young age, incensed with the rage of lust he said to her: ‘I judge you the fairest of all".

Only Aphrodite got naked!  That’s a lot more believable than the usual version.

Thetis and Fairy Lore

 

"Achilles, was son of Peleus and  (Thetis) that when his mother had been struggling, holding his heel with her two fingers, with his head down she dipped him in the water of the underworld which is called Styx. And then he was made to stand, thus iron could not pierce him in any way, unless only in the heel where his mother’s fingers held him when she dipped him."  

According to Wikipedia (Iron in Folklore) "..,iron is historically believed to repel, contain, or harm ghosts, fairies, witches, and/or other...supernatural creatures. ". Thetis the primer "fairy wife" seems to be protecting her halfing son from the affects of iron specifically.  Ironically, the Destruction of Troy mentions no iron tip on the arrow that killed Achilles. " Paris the king’s son, Hector’s brother shot his arrow at Achilles in his heel, and because he had toxified the arrow with poison, the poison stung through Achilles’ limb." No mention of iron 

Not Xanthus and Balius 

"Achilles commanded two untamed horses be joined to a chariot, and Hector’s body be bound by his ankles behind the chariot and be dragged past the walls."  This is an interesting point.  Would Xanthus and Balius agreed to this!  The horses that showed so much sensitivity at the death of Patroclus (Homer, Iliad 17. 426 ) They would participate in the desecration of Hector's handsome frame?  

Raptured Ganymede  

The text makes referenced to “raptured Ganymede’s honors."  This is a nice euphemism for rape and immortality.  I mention it here, because of  my favorite painting by Rubens; Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus.  Greek mythology is full of references to “rapes”.  The word is used universally, but I’ve never thought always accurately.  In Rubens work, Castor and Polydeuces discover their cousins Hilaria and Phoebe out skinny-dipping in the middle of nowhere.  (Greek goddesses did this surprising often.)  The twins are not ripping of their own clothes and joining the ladies as one would expect in a “rape” .  Rather they are using the girls beach towels to hoist them aboard their horses.  The take the girls home, introduce them to their mother whom they already knew and wed. Oh, they all and their sons became goddess and goddesses. Besides calling this a rape, we could call it a traditional bride abduction.  Likewise the rape of young Ganymede, admittedly a rape by our standards also involved abduction and immortalization.  “Rapture” just adds another variation on rape for us to consider.

Conclusion 

In short Destruction of Troy offers us a new myth about Paris and Ares and a new way to consider the death of Androgeus, son of Minos, a more believeable version of the Judgment of Paris,  fairy tale twist on Achilles,  variation on his horses Xanthus and Balius and another perspective on the word “rape” in Greek mythology. 

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[i] Translated by Muhammad Syarif Fadhlurrahman[ http://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~0104febefc5dbc9ddb ] Sponsored by http://mitologia.blogs.sapo.pt Dedicated to João A. 

 

 

TFBT: Not Even Zeus Can Stop Me Now!

Recently, at “The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, version 4”  David H asked about some passage dealing with the will of Zeus, and the attitudes of some men toward the will of Zeus. He invited comments on what the role of the will of Zeus was to the narrator, characters, and audience of the Iliad at the time.  My comments are in Italics.  David had quite the list of things to comment on! 

First; Odysseus speaking to Diomedes, Il. Scroll XI “Diomedes answered, “Come what may, I will stand firm; but we shall have scant joy of it, for Zeus the cloud-gatherer is minded to give victory to the Trojans rather than to us.” Throughout the Iliad we see little internal dialogue or self awareness among the characters.  Since they can’t analyze their feels or motivations they just blame it on some daimon or god.  We also throughout the Iliad see some god invisible to them putting thoughts in their heads.

“And now the son of Kronos as he looked down from Ida ordained that neither side should have the advantage, and they kept on killing one another. (line 336 or so).”  According to the lost epic called the “Cypria”  this is the Will of Zeus, depopulation!

(Nestor) lashed his horses and they flew onward holding nothing back towards the ships, as though of their own free will.  You said, “This is speaking of the horses. But does the “as though of their own free will” imply divine purpose?”  Nestor’s experience reminds of of Alexander Dumas’ with post horses.   You know after he got rich with “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” he traved all over the world.   I was just reading “My Adventures in the Caucasias”  To quote Dumas, “Evidently the smell of their stable had lent wings to the horses’ legs.” Nothing divine with Nestor’s horses knowing home.

Scroll XII Speaking of the wall and trench the Achaeans built to protect their camp and ships:    David, the wall around the Achaean camp is such a political hot potato here on earth and on Olympus above, that anything said about it can be discounted as exaggeration or motivated by some hidden agenda.  It is sort of like Nestor’s advice on chariot racing that has nothing to do with chariot racing.  The issues surrounding the wall, involved the maritime imagery in the battle scenes, the fact that Poseidon and Apollo were the slaves who built the walls of Troy (along with Achilles’ grandfather) and mortals not performing the appropriate rituals before beginning a big project.    

 

Scroll XIII line 784 Alexandros to Hector: Now, therefore, lead on where you would have us go, and we will follow with right goodwill; you shall not find us fail you in so far as our strength holds out, but no man can do more than in him lies, no matter how willing he may be.”  So we are back to no self-awareness, if you can’t do something it’s because the daimon of fear entered you.  If you can do something it’s because a god or more likely a goddess is backing you up. 

Scroll XIV Agamemnon to Nestor, line 51 or so…Is Nestor saying that the situation itself will allow no other outcome, and that this is so strong even the gods would be powerless to change it?     This is the usual sort of boast that ends with a lightning bolt, for example; “There Capaneus, because he said he would capture Thebes against Jove’s will, was smitten by a thunderbolt as he was scaling the wall.”  (Hyginus, “Fabulae” 68)  

“Nestor, if the Trojans are indeed fighting at the rear of our ships, and neither the wall nor the trench has served us...”  Is this Agamemnon deciphering the will of Zeus a posteriori. The wall didn't stand the attack, therefore we can conclude that the building of the wall was not Zeus' will?  Again, no self-awareness here, no, “Hmm, maybe the whole wall thing was a bad idea on our part, not as impregnable as we thought.  Maybe we should have put more effort into it.”  Don’t blame yourself, blame the gods.

Scroll XV … I thought this was especially interesting. It covers the whole development in the plot of the Iliad and part of the Odyssey, with all its twists and turns, as the will of Zeus which he will successively carry out, despite the appearance of fickleness on his part with the abrupt changes in fortune for the human parties involved.  David, it also indicates that Zeus was not all that subject to the Fates

In summary, the heroes of the Iliad have some free will, but since they rarely search their souls, they assume any stray thought or errant emotion was the “gift” from a daemon.  “daimon ” being the word they use when they are unsure as to which of the immortals is involved.  Keep in mind that the Will of Zeus, is depopulation! Horses have some free will too unless they push it too far like Achilles’ horses did and the Erinyes shut their mouths. (Homer, Iliad 19. 392)  There’s a lot more to the wall and trench the Achaeans built to protect their camp than  meets the eye. Be careful about saying;  “Not even the gods can stop me now!”  Because the gods are not necessarily as subject to the Fates as envious mortals like to think. 

TFBT: There is No Satan in Greek Mythology

Ben recently asked me about Evil in Greek mythology.  There is no Satan in Greek mythology.  No Iblis.  No god of evil or manifestation of such.  No horde of monsters gnawing at the roots of the universe.  There is neither boogey man nor things that go bump in the night.  And ghosts are rarities in the Ancient Greek mind.   

If Death is called “evil” (Iliad 3.172, 22.296, 16.46, etc.) it’s not because Thanatos is a bad guy.  He brings an end to pain and physical suffering.  He is the twin brother of sweet Sleep.  People call Death evil because they are not sure where he will take their disembodied spirits; the Isle of the Blest or Lord Hades’ dreary realm.  If people speak of “hateful” Hades (Pausanias 8.18.3, Argonautica 3.806) and “dread” Persephone (Odyssey 10.490, Iliad 9.454) it’s because they hate and dread ending up in their realm.  Lyssa (Madness) isn’t a baddie either.  She actually objects to maddening Heracles in Euripides’ play of the same ilk.  She is ordered to do so by Hera, Queen of the gods.  

Hera!  Now if we are talking evil, this might be a personification.  She didn’t like her stepson Heracles.  She stole his birthright (Pausanias 9.11. 3) and tossed snakes in crib (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 62) She made him mad several times.  She created the scenario where he had to perform his dangers and horrifying dozen labors of which Ovid calls (Heroides 9. 35) "The acts of (King) Eurystheus, the instrument of Hera's unjust wrath, and the long-continued anger of the goddess."  Not to mention attacks by miscellaneous other monsters and violent storms.   But as usual we can’t judge divine actions by human standards.  This life of suffering and violence, particularly a couple of the Labors are the very things that insured Heracles unwilting glory (kleos) and eventually immorality.  As a matter of fact his name Heracles = Hera kleos = the Glory of Hera.  As a matter of fact "From the time he [Herakles] achieved immortality, Hera's enmity changed to friendship, he married her daughter Hebe." (Bibliotheca 2. 160) 

Yes there are still some monsters left for other heroes to slay.  There are petty tyrants and foreign invaders.  There is even a witch of two.  But there is no evil of cosmic consequence battling the inherent good of the world. There is no Satan.

TFBT: Pindar's Great Mother and Pan

Recently The Hour 25 Book Club hosted  a discussion on Pindar Pythian 3, Olympian 1, and Gregory Nagy Pindar’s Homer Chapter 4: “Pindar’s Olympian 1 and the Aetiology of the Olympic Games” I was struck by the lines;

“But I will pray to the Great Mother, to whom night after night before my doors, a stately goddess, the maidens dance and to Pan beside her.”  (Pythia 3)

I could think of no myth about the Great Mother, whether Cybele, Rhea or Demeter and the great god Pan.  I recalled a couple of myths about satyrs in Cybele or Dionysus’ train, but neither tale was about Pan.I looked at several resources and found only vague suggestions and nothing specific.  So I went to JSTOR and found a great article “Pindar and Pan: frs. 95-100 Snell” by Joan A. Haldane Phoenix Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring, 1968), pp. 18-31

Haldane’s article seems well researched.  She says the shrine in question was actually established by Pindar.  “Pindar had a vision of (the Great Mother) descending towards him from the mountains in the form a  of a wooden image.”  So in honor of the epiphany he established the shrine.  Additionally, Pan was seen outside of Thebes singing one of Pindar’s Odes.  In thanks for the rather flattery compliment, Pindar established Pan next to the goddess in the shrine. 

Mystery solved!

TFBT: You Are What you Eat

Ben and I intend to discuss the illusion  of “Death” in Greek Mythology next week.   Ben is doing the research.  My assignment requires me to “crystalize” the concept .  I wasn’t having much luck there.  Inspiration came from an unexpected “poet”; Alexander Dumas.   I love Dumas.  Of all his amazing books, his biographic, “My Adventures in the Caucasus” is my favorite.  In the introduction he explains how the Caucasus mountain range got its name.   

The Caucasus itself owes its name to one of the first assassinations committed by one of the most ancient gods, Saturn, vanquished by his son Jupiter in the war of the Giants was fleeing through the mountains when he found his way barred by a shepherd, Caucasus, who he slew with a sweep of his scythe.  Jupiter to commemorate this murder gave the victim’s name to the whole range, of which the mountains of Armenia, Asia Minor, Persia and the Crimea are off-shoots.   

As literature moved beyond Hesiod and Homer, Greek faded and was replace by Latin as the universal language.  Hence all the gods' Greek names were replaced with their Latin equavalent.  As the past began to fade mankind began to confound the War of the Giants with the War of the Titans, So, in writing “Saturn” Dumas meant Cronus and rather than the Gigantomanchy he meant the Titanomachy. If the mortal Caucasus barred the Titan's path through the mountain range, is this where Zeus finally avenged himself and his sibling upon their cannibal father?  Is this the spot where  “Saturn's tomb is pointed out in the Caucasus”? [i]

 

 Admittedly, rumor has it that there is a tomb of Zeus on Crete but as the ancients said “All Cretans are liars”[ii]  Still a tomb of Cronus?  In some ways that  seems possible.  Human’s die, but their “yuce”, their souls survive in Hades.  Likewise the giants and Typhon were “buried” under mountains[iii]  and the Titans tossed into a hole in the ground (called Tartarus)[iv].  So maybe the fallen divine foes of the Olympians only survived in shadowy forms beneath the earth.  So how do we address those gods who return to the world?  For “Even immortal Zeus released the Titans”[v] 

 

Okay that’s easy.  To return these gods to “light and life” just feed them a little nectar and ambrosia. [vi]  Hmm,  just feed them a little nectar and ambrosia.  Over the years Maya M and I explored the genealogies of the heroes and gods trying to determine the “gene for immortality”.  For example,  the descendants of Gorgophone and the descendants of Telephassa   though generally mortal have  tendency to turn into gods.  What if the secret to being immortal and unaging is in what you eat?  

If you lap black blood out of a trench[vii] or eat a pomegranate grown along the banks of the Acheron[viii]  you live in Hades.  If you eat meat; you are a man[ix] .  If you eat bread; you are a deceased hero or demi-god living on the shores of the Great River Ocean.[x]  The apples are always poisoned one way or the other.[xi] If you consume nectar and ambrosia you are a god.[xii] Hence, during the Golden Age the Titans drank & dined with men[xiii]  and consequently lost the Titanomachy to the nectar-swilling Olympians.  The Olympians once shared their divine food with men.  Then Tantalus[xiv] and Ixion[xv] got drunk on  nectar and made such a mess of things, that the gods got real picky about whom they dined with.  

It’s sort of like communion on Sunday, to attain life-immortal I kneel at the railing and eat of the divine food provided by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

 

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[i] “The Ghebers of Hebron” by Samuel Fales Dunlap 1898, pg 161;  who references  Daniel Abrahamic Chwolson, Ssabier und der Ssabismus v1, page 400, 1856 ,   see also “The Seven Beauties” by Nizami of Ganja, “In praise of King Alaud Din” circa 1200

[ii] HYMNS OF CALLIMACHUS, HYMN I. TO ZEUS

[iii] Apollodorus, The Library 1.6.2 and 1.6.3 Translated by Sir James George Frazer. Loeb Classical Library Volumes 121 & 122. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921

[iv]  Apollodorus, The Library 1.2.1

[v] Pindar,  Nemean 10.59

[vi] Hesiod, The Theogony 617, Translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914.  

[vii] Homer, The Odyssey, Book 11,   Translated by Murray, A T. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1919.

[viii] Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.

[ix] Hesiod, The Theogony 545, The Homeric Hymn to Hermes 132-137, plus Atsma’s footnote 19

[x] Hesiod, Works and Days (trans. Evelyn-White)  "Zeus the son of Kronos made yet another [race of men], the fourth, upon the fruitful earth, which was nobler and more righteous, a god-like race of hero-men who are called demi-gods…they live untouched by sorrow in the Islands of the Blessed along the shore of deep swirling Okeanos, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year”

[xi] The Fates poinsoned the monster Typhon with “that ephemeral fruit”  Apollodorus, The Library 1.6.3

[xii] Homer. The Iliad 1.595, Translated by Murray, A T. Loeb Classical Library Volumes1. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1924  and Ovid. Metamorphoses 1.595 Translated by More, Brookes. Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.

[xiii]   Robert Graves – The Greek Myths pg 26, 1955, revised 1960 “Zeus grew to manhood among the shepherds of Ida, occupying another cave; then sought out Metis the Titaness, who lived beside the Ocean stream. On her advice he visited his mother Rhea, and asked to be made Cronus's cup—bearer. Rhea readily assisted him in his task of vengeance; she provided the emetic potion, which Metis had told him to mix with Cronus's honeyed drink.”

[xiv]   Apollodorus. The Library.  E.2.1   Translated by Sir James George Frazer. Loeb Classical Library Volumes 121 & 122. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921

[xv] Pindar, Pythian Ode 2. 32 ff (trans. Conway)

TFBT; Iphidamas and Protesilaus

Over at a great MOOC called The Ancient Greek Hero in 24hours we discussed Iphidamas a young Trojan who returned to Troy to attain glory. The conversation reminded me a lot of Protesilaus a young Greek man who did the same. Did we ever talk about the comparison between the two?

Iliad 11.218 “Tell me now you Muses dwelling on Olympus, who was the firstto come up and face Agamemnon, either among the Trojans or among their famous allies? It was Iphidamas son of Antenor, a man both good and great, who was raised in fertile Thrace the mother of sheep. Kissēs in his own house raised him when he was little. Kissēs was his mother’s father, father to Theano, the one with the fair cheeks. When Iphidamas reached the stage of adolescence, which brings luminous glory, Kissēs wanted to keep him at home and to give him his own daughter in marriage, but as soon as Iphidamas had married, he left the bride chamber and went off seeking the kleos of the Achaeans”

Iliad 2. 695 “And then there were those that held Phylake and Pyrasos, with its flowery meadows, precinct of Demeter; and Iton, the mother of sheep; Antron upon the sea, and Pteleon that lies upon the grass lands. Of these men the Arēs-like Protesilaos had been leader while he was still alive, but now he was held down by the black earth that covered him. He had left a wife behind him in Phylake to tear both her cheeks in sorrow, and his house was only half completed. He was killed by a Dardanian warrior while he was leaping out from his ship [on Trojan soil], and he was the very first of the Achaeans to make the leap.

Presumably both are young men, recently married and set out to war to win glory. Both were “first” in someway and quick to die. The only other thing of note I see in their stories is some coincidence of names. We are comparing Kisses’ grandson Iphi-damas to Protesilaus son of Iphi-cles and husband of Lao-damas Coincidence?