Listed 38 sub titles with search on: Mythology for wider area of: "EPIRUS Region GREECE" .
Herodotus, The Histories 2.55 - 2.57 (ed. A. D. Godley) - Perseus Project
KICHYROS (Ancient city) EPIRUS
And (Ulysses) after sacrificing to Hades, and Persephone, and Tiresias, he journeyed
on foot through Epirus, and came to the Thesprotians, and having offered sacrifice
according to the directions of the soothsayer Tiresias, he propitiated Poseidon
(1). But Callidice, who was then queen of the Thesprotians, urged him to stay
and offered him the kingdom; and she had by him a son Polypoetes. And having married
Callidice, he reigned over the Thesprotians, and defeated in battle the neighboring
peoples who attacked him. But when Callidice died he handed over the kingdom to
his son and repaired to Ithaca, and there he found Poliporthes, whom Penelope
had borne to him(2)
Commentary:
(1) Tiresias had warned Ulysses that, after slaying the suitors,
he must journey inland till he came to a country where men knew not the sea, and
where a wayfarer would mistake for a winnowing-fan the oar which Ulysses was carrying
on his shoulder. There Ulysses was to sacrifice a ram, a bull, and a boar to Poseidon,
the god whom he had offended. See Hom. Od. 11.119-131. But the journey itself
and the sacrifice are not recorded by Homer...
This and the remaining part of Apollodorus are probably drawn from the epic poem
Telegony, a work by Eugammon of Cyrene, of which a short abstract by Proclus has
been preserved. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 57ff. The
author of the abstract informs us that after the death and burial of the suitors
?Ulysses sacrificed to the nymphs and sailed to Elis to inspect the herds. And
he was entertained by Polyxenus and received a present of a bowl. And after that
followed the episodes of Trophonius, and Agamedes, and Augeas. Then he sailed
home to Ithaca and offered the sacrifices prescribed by Tiresias. And after these
things he went to the Thesprotians and married Callidice, queen of the Thesprotians.
Then the Thesprotians made war on the Brygians, under the leadership of Ulysses.
There Ares put Ulysses and his people to flight, and Athena engaged him in battle;
but Apollo reconciled them. And after Callidice's death, Polypoetes, son of Ulysses,
succeeded to the kingdom, and Ulysses himself went to Ithaca.
(2) Compare Paus. 8.12.6, from whom we learn that the birth of
this son Poliporthes or Ptoliporthes, as Pausanias calls him, was mentioned in
the epic poem Thesprotis.
Commentary on Homer, Odyssey. book 11, line 134
... And this so completely falls in with the later legends about the death of
Odysseus, that it seems impossible to reject the view that we have in this prophecy
of Teiresias a post-Homeric interpolation. So Lauer, (Hom. Quaest. p. 50) speaking
of the whole passage, says, ?tantum abest ut poetae sit eiusdem qui fabulam de
Ulixe patriam appetente composuerit, ut nonnisi ea potuerit aetate exoriri, qua,
cum fabula illa de Telegono conformata esset, hanc rhapsodi studerent cum illa
de Ulixis erroribus coniungere.? Now, the Cyclic Epic called ?Telegonia? was ascribed
by Proclus and the general tradition of the ancients to Eugammon of Cyrene (566
B.C.); but he is said to have pirated his poem from a ?Thesprotis,? written several
centuries earlier by the mythic poet Musaeus. The plot of the Telegonia, (and,
we may suppose, of the Thesprotis) makes Odysseus come into Thesprotia, and espouse
Callidice, the queen of that country. This will account for the view that the
Thesprotians are intended by the men, hoi ouk isasi thalassan--a strange description
of a people possessing a considerable coastline. On the death of Callidice (the
story proceeds) Odysseus returns to Ithaca. About the same time, Telegonus, son
of Odysseus by Circe, wandering in search of his father, lands on Ithaca and ravages
the coast, and Odysseus attacking the invaders falls by the hand of his son. Later
forms of the story, however, are careful to introduce the fact that death must
come to Odysseus ?out of the sea;? and this is interwoven with the story about
Telegonus, the son being represented as having wounded his father with a spear
tipped with the bone of a sea-fish, called trugon. This legend must have formed
the plot of a lost play of Sophocles called Odusseus akanthoplex, and Parthenius
(Erot. 3) quotes from the Eurualos of the same poet the line trotheis akanthei
trugonos thalassias. In the Psuchagogoi of Aeschylus, the story reappears in a
most absurd form, erodios (a heron) gar hupsothen potomenos.
Neoptolemus . . . on his return to Scyros, he was cast by storm on the coast of Ephyra in Epeirus, where Andromache gave birth to Molossus, to whom the Molossian kings traced their descent (Pind. Nem. iv. 82, vii. 54). Others lastly say that he went to Epeirus of his own accord, because he would or could not return to Phthia in Thessaly (Paus. i. 11.1; Virg. Aen. iii. 333; Justin. xvii. 3).
The accounts of the end of Theseus are many and inconsistent. They say he was kept a prisoner until Heracles restored him to the light of day, but the most plausible account I have heard is this. Theseus invaded Thesprotia to carry off the wife of the Thesprotian king, and in this way lost the greater part of his army, and both he and Peirithous (he too was taking part in the expedition, being eager for the marriage) were taken captive. The Thesprotian king kept them prisoners at Cichyrus. Among the sights of Thesprotia are a sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona and an oak sacred to the god. Near Cichyrus is a lake called Acherusia, and a river called Acheron. There is also Cocytus, a most unlovely stream. I believe it was because Homer had seen these places that he made bold to describe in his poems the regions of Hades, and gave to the rivers there the names of those in Thesprotia. While Theseus was thus kept in bonds, the sons of Tyndareus marched against Aphidna, captured it and restored Menestheus to the kingdom. (Paus. 1.17.4-5)
Some, however, say that descendants of Antiphus and Pheidippus, the sons of Thessalus the son of Heracles, invaded the country (Thessalia) from Thesprotian Ephyra and named it after Thessalus, their own ancestor. (Strabo 9.5.23)
TITANI (Ancient city) THESPROTIA
Alexanor, a son of Machaon, and grandson of Aesculapius, who built to his sire a temple at Titane in the territory of Sicyon. He himself too was worshipped there, and sacrifices were offered to him after sunset only. (Paus. ii. 23.4, 11.6, &c.)
EPIRUS (Ancient country) GREECE
Son of Neoptolemus and Andromache, conquers Teuthrania and calls it Pergamus (Perseus Encyclopedia).
KICHYROS (Ancient city) EPIRUS
Son of Odysseus and Callidice, queen of the Thesprotians
Tlepolemus (Tlepolemos). A son of Heracles by Astyoche, the daughter of Phylas (Hom. Il. ii. 658; Apollod. ii. 7.6, 8; Philostr. Her. ii. 14), or by Astydameia, the daughter of Amyntor, king of the Dolopians in Thessaly (Pind. Ol. vii. 41). Tlepolemus was king of Argos, but after slaying his uncle Licymnius, he was obliged to take to flight, and in conformity with the command of an oracle, settled in Rhodes, where he built the towns of Lindos, Ialysos and Cameiros, and from whence he joined the Greeks in the Trojan war with nine ships. (Hom. Il. ii. 653; Apollod. ii. 8. 2.) At Troy he was slain by Sarpedon (Il. v. 627; Diod. iv. 58, v. 59). His wife Philozoe instituted funeral games in commemoration of his death (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 911).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MOLOSSIA (Ancient area) IOANNINA
Son of Priam and Hecuba, goes with Neoptolemus to Molossia, founds a city. (Perseus Encyclopedia)
Son of Helenus and Andromache (Perseus Encyclopedia)
AMVRAKIA (Ancient city) EPIRUS
Ambracia (Ambrakia), a daughter of Augeas, from whom the town of Ambracia derived its name. (Steph. Byz. s. v.; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 492.) Other traditions represent her as a grand-daughter of Apollo, and a daughter of Melaneus, king of the Dryopes. (Anton. Lib. 4.) A third account derived the name of the town from Ambrax, a son of Thesprotus and grandson of Lycaon. (Steph. Byz. l. c.)
ATHAMANIA (Ancient area) EPIRUS
Named after the mythical hero, for whom articles can
be found at Ancient Orchomenos
DODONI (Ancient city) IOANNINA
Dodon, a son of Zeus by Europa, from whom the oracle of Dodona was believed to have derived its name. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Dodone.) Other traditions traced the name to a nymph of the name of Dodone.
MOLOSSIA (Ancient area) IOANNINA
Son of Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus) by Andromache, succeeds Helenus in kingdom of Epirus (Perseus Encyclopedia)
EPIRUS (Ancient country) GREECE
From Scyros, son of Achilles by Deidamia, formerly called Pyrrhus, is awarded Andromache, father of Molossus, Pielus, and Pergamus, settles in Epirus, marries Hermione, daughter of Menelaus. (Perseus Encyclopedia)
Son of Pyrrhus and Andromache, abides in Epirus, ancestor of kings of Epirus. (Perseus Encyclopedia)
KICHYROS (Ancient city) EPIRUS
Aidoneus. A mythical king of the Molossians, in Epeirus, who is represented as
the husband of Persephone, and father of Core. After Theseus, with the assistance
of Peirithous, had carried off Helen, and concealed her at Aphidnae, he went with
Peirithous to Epeirus to procure for him as a reward Core, the daughter of Aidoneus.
This king thinking the two strangers were well-meaning suitors, offered the hand
of his daughter to Peirithous, on condition that he should fight and conquer his
dog, which bore the name of Cerberus. But when Aidoneus discovered that they had
come with the intention of carrying off his daughter, he had Peirithous killed
by Cerberus, and kept Theseus in captivity, who was afterwards released at the
request of Heracles (Plut. Thes. 31, 35). Eusebius (Chron. p. 27) calls the wife
of Aidoneus, a daughter of queen Demeter, with whom he had eloped. It is clear
that the story about Aidoneus is nothing but the sacred legend of the rape of
Persephone, dressed up in the form of a history, and is undoubtedly the work of
a late interpreter, or rather destroyer of genuine ancient myths.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Then he himself (Theseus), to return the service of Peirithous, journeyed with him to Epirus, in quest of the daughter of Aidoneus the king of the Molossians. This man called his wife Phersephone, his daughter Cora, and his dog Cerberus, with which beast he ordered that all suitors of his daughter should fight, promising her to him that should overcome it. However, when he learned that Peirithous and his friend were come not to woo, but to steal away his daughter, he seized them both. Peirithous he put out of the way at once by means of the dog, but Theseus he kept in close confinement.
Pheres. A son of Jason and Medeia. (Apollod. i. 9. § 28; Paus. ii. 3. § 6.)
DODONI (Ancient city) IOANNINA
Hyades (Huades), that is, the rainy, the name of a class of nymphs, whose number, names,
and descent, are described in various ways by the ancients. Their parents were
Atlas and Aethra ( Ov. Fast. v. 169, &c.), Atlas and Pleione (Hygin. Fab. 192),
or Hyas and Boeotia (Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 21 ); and others call their father
Oceanus, Melisseus, Cadmilus, or Erechtheus (Hygin. Fab. 182; Theon. ad Arat.
Phaen. 171; Serv. ad Aen. i. 74). Thales mentioned two, and Euripides three Hyades
(Theon), and Eustathius (ad Hom.) gives the names of three, viz. Ambrosia, Eudora,
and Aesyle. Hyginus (Fab. 182), on the other hand, mentions Idothea, Althaea,
and Adraste; and Diodorus (v. 52) has Philia, Coronis, and Cleis. Other poets
again knew four, and Hesiod five, viz. Phaesyle, Coronis, Cleeia, Phaeote, and
Eudora (Comp. the five different names in Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 138; Hygin.
Fab. 182, 192). But the common number of the Hyades is seven, as they appear in
the constellation which bears their name, viz., Ambrosia, Eudora, Pedile, Coronis,
Polyxo, Phyto, and Thyene, or Dione (Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 21; Hesych. s. v.).
Pherecydes, the logographer, who mentioned only six, called them the Dodonaean
nymphs, and the nurses appointed by Zeus to bring up Dionysus.
In this capacity they are also called the Nysaean nymphs (Apollod. iii. 4.3; Ov.
Fast. v. 167, Met. iii 314; Serv. ad Aen. i. 748; Eustath. ad Hom.). When Lycurgus
threatened the safety of Dionysus and his companions, the Hyades, with the exception
of Ambrosia, fled with the infant god to Thetis or to Thebes, where they entrusted
him to Ino (or Juno), and Zeus showed them his gratitude for having saved his
son, by placing them among the stars (Hygin. Poet. Asir. ii. 21). Previous to
their being thus honoured, they had been old, but been made young again by Medeia,
at the request of Dionysus (Hygin. Fab. 182; Ov. Met. vii. 295). As nymphs of
Dodona, they were said, in some traditions, to have brought up Zeus (Schol. ad
Hom. Il. xviii. 486). The story which made them the daughters of Atlas relates
that their number was twelve or fifteen. and that at first five of them were placed
among the stars as Hyades, and the seven (or ten) others afterwards under the
name of Pleiades, to reward them for the sisterly love they had evinced after
the death of their brother Hyas, who had been killed in Libya by a wild beast
(Hygin. Fab. 192; Ov. Fast. v. 181; Eustath. ad Hom.). Their name, Hyades, is
derived by the ancients from their father, Hyas, or from Hyes, a mystic surname
of Dionysus; and according to others, from their position in the heavens, where
they formed a figure resembling the Greek letter U. The Romans, who derived it
from hus, a pig, translated the name by Suculae (Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 43); but
the most natural derivation is from Wein, to rain, as the constellation of the
Hyades, when rising amultaneously with the sun, announced rainy and tormy weather.
(Cic. lc.; Ov. Fast. v. 165; Horat. Carm. i. 3. 14; Virg. Aen. iii. 516; Gell.
xii?)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hyas (Huas). The name of the father and brother of the Hyades (Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 21; Ov. Fast. v. 181; Eustath. ad Hom.). The father was married to Boeotia, and was looked upon as the ancestor of the ancient Hyantes (Plin. H. N. iv. 12). His son, or the brother of the Hyades, was killed in Libya by an animal, a serpent, a boar, or a lion. (Hygin. Fab. 192)
Prophetesses at Dodona.
ACHERON (River) EPIRUS
Ascalaphus, (Askalaphos). The son of Acheron and Gorgyra or
Orphne. When Pluto gave Persephone (Proserpina) permission to return to the upper
world, provided she had eaten nothing, Ascalaphus declared that she had eaten
part of a pomegranate. Persephone, in revenge, changed him into an owl by sprinkling
him with water from the river Phlegethon.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ascalaphus (Askalophos), a son of Acheron by Gorgyra (Apollod. i. 5.3) or by Orphne (Ov. Met. v. 540). Servius (ad Aen. iv. 462) calls him a son of Styx. When Persephone was in the lower world, and Pluto gave her permission to return to the upper, provided she had not eaten anything, Ascalaphus declared that she had eaten part of a pomegranate. Demeter (according to Apollodorus, l. c., ii. 5.12) punished him by burying him under a huge stone, and when subsequently this stone was removed by Heracles, she changed Ascalaphus into an owl. According to Ovid, Persephone herself changed him into an owl by sprinkling him with water of the river Phlegethon. There is an evident resemblance between the mythus of Ascalabus and that of Ascalaphus. The latter seems to be only a modification or continuation of the former, and the confusion may have arisen from the resemblance between the words askalaxos, a lizard, and askalaphos, an owl.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
DODONI (Ancient city) IOANNINA
Litae (Litai), a personification of the prayers offered up in repentance. They are described as the daughters of Zeus, and as following closely behind crime, and endeavouring to make amends for what has been done; but whoever disdains to receive them, has himself to atone for the crime that has been committed. (Hom. Il. ix. 502, &c.; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 768; Hesych. s. v. aigai, calls them Aetae, which however is probably only a mistake in the name.)
DODONI (Ancient city) IOANNINA
Concerning the Hyperborean people, neither the Scythians nor any other inhabitants of these lands tell us anything, except perhaps the Issedones. And, I think, even they say nothing; for if they did, then the Scythians, too, would have told, just as they tell of the one-eyed men. But Hesiod speaks of Hyperboreans, and Homer too in his poem The Heroes' Sons, if that is truly the work of Homer.
But the Delians say much more about them than any others do. They say that offerings wrapped in straw are brought from the Hyperboreans to Scythia; when these have passed Scythia, each nation in turn receives them from its neighbors until they are carried to the Adriatic sea, which is the most westerly limit of their journey; from there, they are brought on to the south, the people of Dodona being the first Greeks to receive them. From Dodona they come down to the Melian gulf, and are carried across to Euboea, and one city sends them on to another until they come to Carystus; after this, Andros is left out of their journey, for Carystians carry them to Tenos, and Tenians to Delos.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Feb 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
MOLOSSIA (Ancient area) IOANNINA
Perseus Project - Herodotus, The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley)
DODONI (Ancient city) IOANNINA
A soothsayer.
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