Εμφανίζονται 100 (επί συνόλου 2438) τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Μυθολογία στην ευρύτερη περιοχή: "ΕΛΛΑΔΑ Χώρα ΕΥΡΩΠΗ" .
ΑΡΚΑΔΙΑ (Αρχαία περιοχή) ΠΕΛΟΠΟΝΝΗΣΟΣ
ΙΘΑΚΗ (Νησί) ΙΟΝΙΑ ΝΗΣΙΑ
By Padraic Colum. A classic retelling of ancient myth for younger readers by a preeminent poet and illustrator.
ΔΩΔΩΝΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΙΩΑΝΝΙΝΑ
Ιέρειες στο ιερό της Δωδώνης.
ΑΙΓΕΙΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΧΑΪΑ
In this building at Aegeira is also an old man in the attitude of a mourner, three women taking off their bracelets, and likewise three lads, with a man wearing a breastplate. They say that in a war of the Achaeans this last man fought more bravely than any other soldier of Aegeira, but was killed. His surviving brothers carried home the news of his death, and therefore in mourning for him his sisters are discarding their ornaments, and the natives call the father Sympathes, because even in the statue he is a piteous figure. (Paus. 7.26.9)
ΑΛΕΣΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΛΑΚΩΝΙΑ
Son of Lelex was the first human being to invent a mill, and that he ground corn in this Alesiae.
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Biton and Cleobis (Kleobis) were the sons of Cydippe, a priestess of Hera at Argos.
Herodotus, who has recorded their beautiful story, makes Solon relate it to Croesus,
as a proof that it is better for mortals to die than to live. On one occasion,
says Herodotus (i. 31), during the festival of Hera, when the priestess had to
ride to the temple of the goddess in a chariot, and when the oxen which were to
draw it did not arrive from the country in time, Cleobis and Biton dragged the
chariot with their mother, a distance of 45 stadia, to the temple. The priestess,
moved by the filial love of her sons, prayed to the goddess to grant them what
was best for mortals. After the solemnities of the festival were over, the two
brothers went to sleep in the temple and never rose again. The goddess thus shewed,
says Herodotus, that she could bestow upon them no greater boon than death. The
Argives made statues of the two brothers and sent them to Delphi.
Pausanias (ii. 20.2) saw a relief in stone at Argos, representing Cleobis and
Biton drawing the chariot with their mother (Comp. Cic. Tuscul. i. 47 ; Val. Max.
v. 4, extern. 4; Stobaeus, Sermones, 169; Servius and Philargyr. ad Virg. Georg.
iii. 532).
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
ΓΛΙΣΑΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΘΗΒΕΣ
Ο Γλίσαντας ήταν πεδίο κοντά στον Υπατο, όπου έγινε η μεγάλη μάχη του έπους των Επιγόνων, στην οποία νίκησαν οι Αργείοι και οι Θηβαίοι αποσύρθηκαν, εγκατέλειψαν τον τόπο τους και πήγαν πρόσφυγες στη Ιλλυρία.
ΚΟΡΙΝΘΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΕΛΟΠΟΝΝΗΣΟΣ
Hyperbius (Huperbios), of Corinth, a mythical artist, to whom, in conjunction with Agrolas or Euryalus, the invention of brick walls is ascribed. Another tradition made him the inventor of the potter's wheel. (Paus. i. 28.3, Bekker's text; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. xiii.; Plin. H. N. vii. 56.)
The brothers Euryalus and Hyperbius, were the first who constructed brick-kilns
and houses at Athens; before which, caves in the ground served for houses.
Commentary:
Pausanias, in his "Attica," calls the two brothers Agrolas and Hyperbius.
Some commentators have supposed, that these names, as well as Doxius and Caelus,
mentioned below (in Pliny's text), are merely symbolical, and that the personages
are fictitious
ΚΥΔΩΝΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΧΑΝΙΑ
In this district (of Pisa in Elis) is a hill rising to a sharp peak, on which are the ruins of the city of Phrixa, as well as a temple of Athena surnamed Cydonian. This temple is not entire, but the altar is still there. The sanctuary was founded for the goddess, they say, by Clymenus, a descendant of Idaean Heracles, and he came from Cydonia in Crete and from the river Jardanus. The Eleans say that Pelops too sacrificed to Cydonian Athena before he set about his contest with Oenomaus.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Oct 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Clymenus, a son of Cardis in Crete, who is said to have come to Elis in the fiftieth year after the flood of Deucalion, to have restored the Olympic games, and to have erected altars to Heracles, from whom he was descended. (Paus. v. 8.1, 14.6, vi. 21.5)
ΧΙΟΣ (Νησί) ΒΟΡΕΙΟ ΑΙΓΑΙΟ
Drimacus, (Drimakos), a fabulous leader of revolted slaves in Chios. The Chians
are said to have been the first who purchased slaves, for which they were punished
by the gods, for many of the slaves thus obtained escaped to the mountains of
the island, and from thence made destructive inroads into the possessions of their
former masters. After a long and useless warfare, the Chians concluded a treaty
with Drimacus, the brave and successful leader of the slaves, who put an end to
the ravages. Drimacus now received among his band only those slaves who had run
away through the bad treatment they had experienced. But afterwards the Chians
offered a prize for his head. The noble slave-leader, on hearing this, said to
one of his men, " I am old and weary of life; but you, whom I love above all men,
are young, and may yet be happy. Therefore take my head, carry it into the town
and receive the prize for it." This was done accordingly; but, after the death
of Drimacus, the disturbances among the slaves became worse than ever; and the
Chians then, seeing of what service he had been to them, built him a heroum, which
they called the heroum of the heros eumenes. The slaves sacrificed to him a portion
of their booty ; and whenever the slaves meditated any outrage, Drimacus appeared
to their masters in a dream to caution them. (Athen. vi.)
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
ΑΖΑΝΙΑ (Αρχαία περιοχή) ΑΡΚΑΔΙΑ
When his sons grew up, Arcas divided the land between them into three parts, and one district was named Azania after Azan; from Azania, it is said, settled the colonists who dwell about the cave in Phrygia called Steunos and the river Pencalas. ( Paus. 8.4.3)
The Phrygians on the river Pencelas, and those who came to this land originally from the Azanians in Arcadia, show visitors a cave called Steunos, which is round, and handsome in its loftiness. It is sacred to the Mother, and there is an image of her. (Paus. 10.32.3)
ΑΘΗΝΑΙ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΕΛΛΑΔΑ
Ion, the fabulous ancestor of the Ionians, is described as a son of Apollo by
Creusa, the daughter of Erechtheus and wife of Xuthus (Apollod. i. 7.3; Creusa).
The most celebrated story about him is that which forms the subject of the Ion
of Euripides. Apollo had visited Creusa in a cave below the Propylaea, and when
she gave birth to a son, she exposed him in the same cave. The god, however, had
the child conveyed to Delphi, and there had him educated by a priestess. When
the boy had grown, and Xuthus and Creusa came to consult the oracle about the
means of obtaining an heir, the answer was, that the first human being which Xuthus
met on leaving the temple should be his son. Xuthus met Ion, and recognised him
as his son; but Creusa, imagining him to be a son of her husband by a former beloved,
caused a cup to be presented to the youth, which was filled with the poisonous
blood of a dragon. However, her object was discovered, for as Ion, before drinking,
poured out a libation to the gods, a pigeon which drank of it died on the spot.
Creusa thereupon fled to the altar of the god. Ion dragged her away, and was on
the point of killing her, when a priestess interfered, explained the mystery,
and showed that Ion was the son of Creusa. Mother and son thus became reconciled,
but Xuthus was not let into the secret. The latter, however, was satisfied, for
he too received a promise that he should become a father, viz. of Dorus and Achaeus.
The inhabitants of Aegialus, on the northern coast of Peloponnesus, were likewise
Ionians, and among them another tradition was current. Xuthus, when expelled from
Thessaly, went to Aegialus. After his death Ion was on the point of marching against
the Aegialeans, when their king Selinus gave him his daughter Helice in marriage.
After the death of Selins, Ion succeeded to the throne, and thus the Aegialeans
received the name of Ionians, and the town of Helice was built in honour of Ion's
wife (Paus. vii. 1. 2; Apollod. i. 7. 2). Other traditions represent Ion as king
of Athens between the reigns of Erechtheus and Cecrops; for it is said that his
assistance was called in by the Athenians in their war with the Eleusinians, that
he conquered Eumolpus, and then became king of Athens. He there became the father
of four sons, Geleon, Aegicores, Argades, and lloples, according to whom he divided
the Athenians into four classes, which derived their names from his sons. After
his death he was buried at Potamus (Eurip. Ion, 578 ; Strab. viii.; Conon, Narrat.
27; comp. Herod. v. 6..)
The Ionians made twelve cities; for it would be foolishness to say that these are more truly Ionian or better born than the other Ionians; since not the least part of them are Abantes from Euboea, who are not Ionians even in name, and there are mingled with them Minyans of Orchomenus, Cadmeans, Dryopians, Phocian renegades from their nation, Molossians, Pelasgian Arcadians, Dorians of Epidaurus, and many other tribes; and as for those who came from the very town-hall of Athens and think they are the best born of the Ionians, these did not bring wives with them to their settlements, but married Carian women whose parents they had put to death.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Γιος του Κόδρου, έφυγε από την Αθήνα όταν μετά το θάνατο του Κόδρου το μαντείο των Δελφών έδωσε τη βασιλεία στον αδελφό του Μέδωνα και έγινε αρχηγός αποικίας στην Ασία, ιδρύοντας την Μίλητο.
Γιοι του Ευκτήμονα οι οποίοι έδωσαν στους Φωκείς πλοία για το ταξίδι του αποικισμού της μετέπειτα Ιωνίας και έγιναν οι ίδιοι αρχηγοί της αποικίας (Παυσ. 7,2,4).
Iolaus of Thebes, the nephew of Heracles, led the Athenians and Thespians to Sardinia. A fourth component part of the population was the army of Iolaus, consisting of Thespians and men from Attica, which put in at Sardinia and founded Olbia; by themselves the Athenians founded Ogryle, either in commemoration of one of their parishes in the home land, or else because one Ogrylus himself took part in the expedition.
Lycus. A son of Pandion, and brothe of Aegeus, Nisus, and Pallas. He was expelled y Aegeus, and took refuge in the country of the Termili, with Sarpedon. That country was afterwards called, after him, Lycia (Herod. i. 173, vii. 92).
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Dionysius (i. 18) says that the first Pelasgian colony was led by Macar to Lesbos, after the Pelasgi had been driven out of Thessaly.
Diodorus Siculus (v. 81) gives a different account of this colony. He says that Xanthus, the son of Triopus, chief of the Pelasgi from Argos, settled first in Lycia, and afterwards crossed over with his followers into Lesbos, which he found unoccupied, and divided among them. This was seven generations before the flood of Deucalion. When this occurred Lesbos was desolated, and Macareus, grandson of Zeus (according to Hesiod), occupied it a second time, and the island received its name from his son-in-law.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A colony from Argos, said to have been led by Acarnan, settled in the country.
Eratidae, (Eratidai), an ancient illustrious family in the island of Rhodes. The Eratidae of Ialysus in Rhodes are described by Pindar (Ol. vii. 20, &c.; comp. Bockh, Explicat. p. 165) as descended from Tlepolemus and the Heracieidae, of whom a colony seems to have gone from Argos to Rhodes. Damagetus and his son Diagoras belonged to the family of the Eratidae.
After the Trojan War Aethaemenes, a Heracleid from Argos, led other settlers to Rhodus. (Strab. xiv. p 653; Diod. xv. 59; Apollod. iii. 2. § 1; comp. Thuc. vii. 57 ; Aristid. Orat. xliv. p. 839.) After this time the Rhodians quietly developed the resources of their island, and rose to great prosperity and affluence.
Danae is said to have come to Italy with two sons, Argus and Argeus, whom she had by Phineus, and took up her abode on the spot where Rome was afterwards built (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 345).
The island was originally inhabited by Carians, and was afterwards colonised by Thessalian Aeolians or Dorians under Heraclid leaders. It, also received an additional colony of Argives, who are said to have been shipwrecked on, the island after the Trojan war. (Diod. v. 54; Hom. Il. ii. 675.)
ΘΗΒΑΙ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΒΟΙΩΤΙΑ
Ενα μέρος των Θηβαίων, που είχαν ηττηθεί από τους Αργείους κοντά στον Γλίσαντα, κατέφυγε στην Ιλλυρία (Παυσ. 10.8.6).
ΛΑΚΕΔΑΙΜΩΝ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΠΕΛΟΠΟΝΝΗΣΟΣ
It appears that also a colony from Lacedaemon settled in Acarnania,
I mean Icarius, father of Penelope, and his followers; for in the Odyssey the
poet represents both Icarius and the brothers of Penelope as living:
" who shrink from going to the house of her father, Icarius, that he himself
may exact the bride-gifts for his daughter", and, concerning her brothers,"for
already her father and her brothers bid her marry Eurymachus";
for, in the first place, it is improbable that they were living in Lacedaemon,
since in that case Telemachus would not have lodged at the home of Menelaus when
he went to Lacedaemon, and, secondly, we have no tradition of their having lived
elsewhere. But they say that Tyndareus and his brother Icarius, after being banished
by Hippocoon from their homeland, went to Thestius, the ruler of the Pleuronians,
and helped him to acquire possession of much of the country on the far side of
the Achelous on condition that they should receive a share of it; that Tyndareus,
however, went back home, having married Leda, the daughter of Thestius, whereas
Icarius stayed on, keeping a portion of Acarnania, and by Polycaste, the daughter
of Lygaeus, begot both Penelope and her brothers.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
ΛΥΚΩΡΕΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΑΡΝΑΣΣΙΔΑ
The people of Asine originally adjoined the Lycoritae on Parnassus.
Their name, which they maintained after their arrival in Peloponnese, was Dryopes,
from their founder. Two generations after Dryops, in the reign of Phylas, the
Dryopes were conquered in battle by Heracles and brought as an offering to Apollo
at Delphi. When brought to Peloponnese according to the god's instructions to
Heracles, they first occupied Asine by Hermion. They were driven thence by the
Argives and lived in Messenia. This was the gift of the Lacedaemonians, and when
in the course of time the Messenians were restored, they were not driven from
their city by the Messenians. But the people of Asine give this account of themselves.
They admit that they were conquered by Heracles and their city in Parnassus captured,
but they deny that they were made prisoners and brought to Apollo. But when the
walls were carried by Heracles, they deserted the town and fled to the heights
of Parnassus, and afterwards crossed the sea to Peloponnese and appealed to Eurystheus.
Being at feud with Heracles, he gave them Asine in the Argolid. The men of Asine
are the only members of the race of the Dryopes to pride themselves on the name
to this day.
ΜΑΚΙΣΤΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΗΛΕΙΑ
As for Eretria, some say that it was colonized from Triphylian Macistus by Eretrieus, but others say from the Eretria at Athens, which now is a marketplace.
ΜΙΛΑΤΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΝΕΑΠΟΛΗ
Ephorus says: Miletus was first founded and fortified above the sea by the Cretans, where the Miletus of olden times is now situated, being settled by Sarpedon, who brought colonists from the Cretan Miletus and named the city after that Miletus, the place formerly being in the possession of the Leleges; but later Neleus and his followers fortified the present city. (Strabo 14.1.6)
Not only the Carians, who in earlier times were islanders, but also the Leleges, as they say, became mainlanders with the aid of the Cretans, who founded, among other places, Miletus, having taken Sarpedon from the Cretan Miletus as founder; and they settled the Termilae in the country which is now called Lycia; and they say that these settlers were brought from Crete by Sarpedon, a brother of Minos and Rhadamanthus, and that he gave the name Termilae to the people who were formerly called Milyae, as Herodotus says, and were in still earlier times called Solymi, but that when Lycus the son of Pandion went over there he named the people Lycians after himself. Now this account represents the Solymi and the Lycians as the same people, but the poet makes a distinction between them.
The Milesians themselves give the following account of their earliest history.
For two generations, they say, their land was called Anactoria, during the reigns
of Anax, an aboriginal, and of Asterius his son; but when Miletus landed with
an army of Cretans both the land and the city changed their name to Miletus. Miletus
and his men came from Crete, fleeing from Minos, the son of Europa; the Carians,
the former inhabitants of the land, united with the Cretans. But to resume. When
the Ionians had overcome the ancient Milesians they killed every male, except
those who escaped at the capture of the city, but the wives of the Milesians and
their daughters they married. (Pausanias 7.2.5)
ΡΟΔΟΣ (Νησί) ΔΩΔΕΚΑΝΗΣΟΣ
The people of Tlepolemus touched at Crete; then they were driven out of their course by winds and settled in the Iberian islands.
ΧΙΟΣ (Νησί) ΒΟΡΕΙΟ ΑΙΓΑΙΟ
Όπως προκύπτει από αρχαία συγγράμματα και από τοπωνύμια του νησιού,
ο Παν λατρευόταν πολύ στη Χίο ως ποιμενικός θεός που ήταν και η γεμάτη πεύκα Χίος
ονομαζόταν και Πιτυούσα (Στράβ. XIV 589, Πλιν. V 136).
Τραγοπόδης, τραγογένης, με ζαρωμένη μύτη, δυο κέρατα και μια ουρά,
τέτοιος ήταν ο Παν, ο περίεργος αυτός θεός των βουνών και των ζώων. Ασχημος και
δύσμορφος, κι ας ήταν γιος του Ερμή, δεν έμοιαζε καθόλου με τους άλλους θεούς,
ίσως γι' αυτό να μην του άρεζε τόσο η συντροφιά του Ολύμπου και να προτιμούσε
να μένει στη γη. Κατοικία είχε όλη τη φύση. Προτίμηση όμως είχε για τα πιο άγρια
μέρη, τα πιο απρόσιτα, τις σπηλιές, τα βράχια ή τα πυκνά δάση που τον έκρυβαν
πίσω από την πλούσιά τους φυλλωσιά. Ευκίνητος και γρήγορος πιλαλούσε με αφάνταστη
ταχύτητα, πηδούσε από τα πιο απροσδόκητα μέρη, σκαρφάλωνε τους βράχους σαν κατσίκι
κι από ψηλά ρέκαζε θριαμβευτικά το κωμικό του γέλιο.
Αγαπούσε τα ζώα και τους απλούς ανθρώπους. Οι πιστικοί ήταν ιδιαίτεροι
φίλοι του και τα κοπάδια τους τα προστάτευε και τα βοηθούσε να προκόψουν. Τα ζώα,
άγρια ή ήμερα, τα είχε σαν αδέλφια του. Όπου ήταν ο Παν, τα ζωντανά πολλαπλασιάζονταν
και τα δέντρα θεριεύανε.
Του άρεζε να κάνει αστεία. Ιδιαίτερα τον διασκέδαζε να μένει κρυμμένος,
ακίνητος στο πηχτό δάσος, να μη μαρτυράει ούτε ανάσα την παρουσία του και να παρατηρεί
τη ζωή των ζώων. Όταν έρχονταν αμέριμνα τα βουβάλια ή τα ζαρκάδια να πιουν νερό,
πατούσε ξαφνικά ένα κλαρί για να τρίξει, φυσούσε μες τα φύλλα για να σουσουρίσουν.
Ανήσυχα σήκωναν το κεφάλι τ' αγρίμια, ν' αφουγκραστούν.
Τότες έβγαζε φωνές περίεργες, αγριωπές, πότε από δεξιά, πότε απ' αριστερά,
έκανε χωνί τα χέρια του και ούρλιαζε σα ζώο πληγωμένο ή πάλι τραβούσε τη φωνή
σε λυγμό απελπισμένο και τον τελείωνε με κραξίματα και γρυλίσματα οργισμένα. Αντηχούσαν
οι φωνές του, πολλαπλασιάζονταν από την ηχώ και τα ζώα ένιωθαν κρύο να τους παγώνει
την καρδιά. Οι φωνές και οι κρότοι, άγνωστοι, τρομαχτικοί, τα κύκλωναν, γέμιζαν
τον αέρα, πλησίαζαν όλο και πιο κοντά. Απότομα δεν ήξεραν πια τίποτε άλλο, παρά
ότι γύρω τους παραμόνευαν δυνάμεις επικίνδυνες, εχθρικές. Τυφλά από το φόβο ορμούσαν
όλα μαζί να φύγουν. Το ποδοβολητό τους το άκουγαν και άλλοι κάτοικοι του δάσους,
καταλάβαιναν πώς κάποιος κίνδυνος έδιωχνε τα τρομαγμένα ζώα, ο φόβος κολλούσε
και σ' αυτά και η φυγή, η παράλογη, η τρελή φυγή μεταδίδονταν σ' όλο το δάσος
και φεύγανε ζαρκάδια, λαγοί και βουβάλια, ποντίκια, νυφίτσες και φίδια, ό,τι ζωντανό
έφευγε τρελό, χωρίς λόγο, χωρίς σκοπό. Τότε ο Παν άλλαζε φωνή και ξεσπούσε σε
ηχηρό, μακρύ γέλιο. Πηδούσε στον αέρα από χαρά και οι οπλές του χτυπούσαν το βράχο
και το ποδοβολητό του ηχούσε σα να κατρακυλούσαν πέτρες στις σάρες.
Αυτό ήταν το μονό κακό που έκανε. Κατά τα αλλά ο Παν ήταν πάντα καλόβολος
και έτοιμος να βοηθήσει. Με τις Νύμφες ήταν ο καλύτερος σύντροφος. Μοιραζόταν
τα παιχνίδια τους, χόρευε τους χορούς τους και για κείνες έπαιζε στη σύριγγά του
τα πιο όμορφα τραγούδια. Τον αγαπούσαν οι Νύμφες μ' όλη του την ασχήμια, γιατί
είχε πάντα κέφι κι όρεξη για γλέντι και γέλιο.
Από μικρός ήταν έτσι. Μόλις γεννήθηκε (στης Αρκαδίας τα βουνά πρωτοείδε
το φως) άρχισε να πηδά δεξιά και αριστερά με τα κατσικίσια ποδαράκια του, να κουνά
το σταχτί του γενάκι, να ορθώνει την ουρά του και να βγάζει φωνές χαράς. Η νύμφη,
η μάνα του, τόσο τρόμαξε όταν είδε αυτό το τερατάκι, που κρύφτηκε στο δάσος. Ο
Ερμής όμως τον τύλιξε σε μια προβιά λαγού, και με δυο δρασκελιές βρέθηκε στον
Όλυμπο. Εκεί άνοιξε την προβιά και έξω πετάχτηκε ο μικροσκοπικός κατσικοθεός,
που πάλι άρχισε να πηδά, να χτυπά απανωτά τα χέρια του στα γόνατα, να κάνει τούμπες
και να φωνάζει. Τότε στη συντροφιά των θεών ξέσπασε γέλιο ηχηρό, ατέλειωτο, γέλιο
που σου ανοίγει την καρδιά, σου την γεμίζει ευδαιμονία που δεν έχει καμιά κακία,
αλλά μόνο κέφι και χαρά της ζωής. Γι' αυτό αγαπούσαν και οι θεοί τον Πάνα και
τον είχαν καλό φίλο. Τον ήθελαν να έμενε στον Όλυμπο, μα κείνος προτιμούσε τη
γη.
Κι εκεί είχε άπειρους φίλους, Δρυάδες και Ναϊάδες, τσοπάνους και βασιλιάδες,
ζώα ήμερα και άγρια, δέντρα, φυτά, τον αέρα, τον ήλιο, τα άστρα. Είχε όμως και
έναν εχθρό... Και αυτόν, του τον δημιούργησε η αγάπη του.
Μια νύμφη των βουνών, Πίτυ την έλεγαν, του φάνηκε πως ξεχώριζε ανάμεσα
στις άλλες με τη χάρη της και την ομορφιά της.Μια μέρα της είπε την αγάπη του.
Ήταν μόνοι, μα εκείνη κοίταξε τρομαγμένη γύρω της και τον τράβηξε να κρυφτούν
πιο βαθιά στα δέντρα.
- Κι εγώ σ' αγαπώ, του είπε κρυφά, μα φοβάμαι...
-Τι φοβάσαι; Εγώ είμαι ο θεός ο Παν! Και η φωνή του Πάνα ακούστηκε σα σάλπιγγα.
Μα η Πίτυς του έφραξε το στόμα με το χέρι.
-Φοβάμαι το Βορέα... είπε λαχταριστά. Μ' αγαπά κι αυτός, μα είναι άγριος, σκληρός,
με πονά μόλις μ' αγγίξει! Φοβάμαι την κρύα, απότομη αγκαλιά του... Δεν τον θέλω!
Εσένα αγαπώ. Μα εκείνος είπε πώς, αν αγαπήσω άλλον, θα με σκοτώσει...
-Σε φυλάγω εγώ! καυχήθηκε o Παν. Μη φοβάσαι κανέναν!
Και την πήρε στην αγκαλιά του. Μα η Πίτυς πετάχτηκε από κοντά του.
-Να τος! Να τος! φώναξε.
Από τη γη σηκώθηκαν μερικά ξερά φύλλα ένα σούσουρο ανήσυχο πέρασε στις κορφές
των δέντρων και ξαφνικά ξέσπασε άνεμος φοβερός. Τα κλαριά χτυπούσαν, τα δέντρα
έγερναν, τα φύλλα σε τρελό χορό στριφογύριζαν ανάμεσα στους κορμούς. Σαν τα φύλλα
μια δύναμη αόρατη άρπαξε και την Πίτυ και την έσυρε μακριά από τον Πάνα. Αυτή
αγωνιζόταν, έλεγες πως προσπαθούσε να ξεφύγει από χέρια βάρβαρα που την τραβούσαν.
Φώναζε από φόβο και πόνο, μα ο άνεμος την έπαιρνε, την έπαιρνε. Νεράιδα ανάλαφρη
την άρπαξε, όπως αρπάζει ο αέρας τον ανθό της μυγδαλιάς, τη στριφογύρισε και την
παρέσυρε. Τα πόδια της δεν άγγιζαν πια χάμω τα χέρια της και τα μαλλιά της ανακατεύονταν
στην απελπισμένη της πάλη.
Πίσω πιλαλούσε ο Παν φωνάζοντας τ' όνομά της, μα όσο γρήγορα και να
έτρεχε, ο Βορέας ήταν πιο γρήγορος. Στην ακάθεκτη ορμή του έπαιρνε τη νύμφη, τη
χτυπούσε στους κορμούς, την έσερνε μέσα από τους θάμνους, την τραβούσε πάνω στις
πέτρες, την έφερε ως την άκρη του γκρεμνού και μ' ένα τελευταίο δυνατό φύσημα
την πέταξε στο κενό.
Ούρλιαξε από πόνο ο Παν. Αρπάχτηκε από την πέτρα μην πηδήσει και αυτός
πίσω της. Την είδε να πέφτει λαφριά, σα φύλλο που το μάδησε ο αέρας.
Είδε από κάτω το σκληρό βράχο όπου πέφτοντας θα σπαραζόταν....
-Γη! λυπήσου την! φώναξε.
Και η Γη τον άκουσε. Ανοιξε την αγκαλιά της, δέχτηκε την Πίτυ και
τη μεταμόρφωσε σε δέντρο.
Έπλεξε ο Παν στεφάνι από τις λεπτές του βελόνες και στο χέρι κράτησε
ένα κλαρί του, για να του θυμίζει πάντα τη νύμφη του, που τόσο άδικα είχε χάσει.
Σήμερα το δέντρο αυτό το λέμε Πεύκο. Φυτρώνει σε λαγκάδια και σε βουνά,
σε βράχους και σε μοναξιές, όπου είναι τα αγαπημένα λημέρια του Πάνα. Λάμπει στον
ήλιο και φουντώνει και όταν περνά ο Παν βουίζουν λαφριά τα κλαριά του και σκύβουν
να τον αγκαλιάσουν.
Όταν όμως φυσά βοριάς, το πεύκο βογκά, θέλει να του ξεφύγει, τα κλαριά
του αγωνίζονται όπως άλλοτε τα χέρια της νύμφης, για να γλιτώσει από την αγκαλιά
του και λες και φωνάζει ακόμα τον Πάνα να την σώσει από την καταστροφική αγάπη
του Βορέα, του μεγάλου του εχθρού.
Κείμενο: Αλεξάνδρα Δέλτα-Παπαδοπούλου
Το
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
In the passage of Aeschylus before referred to (Suppl. 250) Argos is called Pelasgian; the king of Argos is also called anaz Pelasgon (v. 327), and throughout the play the words Argive and Pelasgian are used indiscriminately. So, too, in the Prometheus Vinctus (v. 860), Argolis is called the Pelasgian land. In a fragment of Sophocles (Inachus) the king is addressed as. lord of Argos and of the Tyrrheni Pelasgi.
ΘΗΒΑΙ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΒΟΙΩΤΙΑ
Hταν οι πρώτοι κάτοικοι της χώρας των Θηβαίων και βασιλιάς τους ήταν ο αυτόχθων Ωγυγος. Eξαφανίστηκαν από επιδημία (Παυσ. 9,5,1).
Εγκαταστάθηκαν στη χώρα των Θηβαίων από την ευρύτερη Βοιωτία, μετά τους Eκτηνες.Ο Παυσανίας τους θεωρεί ντόπιους και όχι επήλυδες, όπως και τους Aονες. Με την εισβολή του Κάδμου (ο Παυσ. τον παραδίδει ερχόμενο από τη Φοινίκη), οι Υάντες εγκατέλειψαν τη χώρα (Παυσ. 9,5,1).
Εγκαταστάθηκαν στη χώρα των Θηβαίων από την ευρύτερη Βοιωτία, μετά τους Eκτηνες. Με την εισβολή του Κάδμου (ο Παυσ. τον παραδίδει ερχόμενο από τη Φοινίκη) έγιναν ικέτες και έμειναν στον τόπο σαν αγρότες χωρίς πόλεις. (Παυσ. 9,5,1) (βλ. και Υαντες).
(Aones). An ancient Boeotian race, said to have been so called from Aon, son of Poseidon. Hence the poets frequently use Aonia as equivalent to Boeotia. As Mount Helicon and the fountain Aganippe were in Aonia, the Muses are called Aonides or Aoniae.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΛΕΥΚΑΔΑ (Νησί) ΙΟΝΙΑ ΝΗΣΙΑ
Aristotle seems to have regarded Leucadia, or the western parts of Acarnania, as the original seats of the Leleges; for, according to this writer, Lelex was the autochthon of Leucadia, and from him were descended the Teleboans, the ancient inhabitants of the Taphian islands.
ΟΡΧΟΜΕΝΟΣ (Αρχαιολογικός χώρος) ΒΟΙΩΤΙΑ
Παυσ., 9.34.10
ΣΑΜΟΣ (Νησί) ΒΟΡΕΙΟ ΑΙΓΑΙΟ
Φυλή των Σαμίων.
ΑΒΔΗΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΞΑΝΘΗ
After Hercules had captured the Cretan Bull, Eurystheus sent him to
get the man-eating mares of Diomedes, the king of a Thracian tribe called the
Bistones, and bring them back to him in Mycenae.
According to Apollodorus, Hercules sailed with a band of volunteers
across the Aegean to Bistonia. There he and his companions overpowered the grooms
who were tending the horses, and drove them to the sea. But by the time he got
there, the Bistones had realized what had happened, and they sent a band of soldiers
to recapture the animals.
To free himself to fight, Hercules entrusted the mares to a youth
named Abderos.Unfortunately, the mares got the better of young Abderos and dragged
him around until he was killed. Meanwhile Hercules fought the Bistones, killed
Diomedes, and made the rest flee. In honor of the slain Abderos, Hercules founded
the city of Abdera.
The hero took the mares back to Eurystheus, but Eurystheus set them
free. The mares wandered around until eventually they came to Mount Olympos, the
home of the gods, where they were eaten by wild beasts.
Euripides gives two different versions of the story, but both of them
differ from Apollodorus's in that Hercules seems to be performing the labor alone,
rather than with a band of followers. In one, Diomedes has the four horses harnessed
to a chariot, and Hercules has to bring back the chariot as well as the horses.
In the other, Hercules tames the horses from his own chariot:
"He mounted on a chariot and tamed with the bit the horses of Diomedes, that
greedily champed their bloody food at gory mangers with unbridled jaws, devouring
with hideous joy the flesh of men." (Euripides, Hercules, 380)
This text is cited July 2004 from Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The eighth labour he enjoined on him was to bring the mares of Diomedes
the Thracian to Mycenae. Now this Diomedes was a son of Ares and Cyrene, and he
was king of the Bistones, a very warlike Thracian people, and he owned man-eating
mares. So Hercules sailed with a band of volunteers, and having overpowered the
grooms who were in charge of the mangers, he drove the mares to the sea. When
the Bistones in arms came to the rescue, he committed the mares to the guardianship
of Abderus, who was a son of Hermes, a native of Opus in Locris, and a minion
of Hercules; but the mares killed him by dragging him after them. But Hercules
fought against the Bistones, slew Diomedes and compelled the rest to flee. And
he founded a city Abdera beside the grave of Abderus who had been done to death,
and bringing the mares he gave them to Eurystheus. But Eurystheus let them go,
and they came to Mount Olympus, as it is called, and there they were destroyed
by the wild beasts.
Commentary:
1. According to Diod. 4.13.4, Herakles killed the Thracian king Diomedes himself
by exposing him to his own mares, which devoured him. Further, the historian tells
us that when Herakles brought the mares to Eurystheus, the king dedicated them
to Hera, and that their descendants existed down to the time of Alexander the
Great.
2. From Philostratus we learn that athletic games were celebrated in honour of
Abderus. They comprised boxing, wrestling, the pancratium, and all the other usual
contests, with the exception of racing -no doubt because Abderus was said to have
been killed by horses. We may compare the rule which excluded horses from the
Arician grove, because horses were said to have killed Hippolytus, with whom Virbius,
the traditionary founder of the sanctuary, was identified. See Verg. A. 7.761-780;
Ovid, Fasti iii.265ff. When we remember that the Thracian king Lycurgus is said
to have been killed by horses in order to restore the fertility of the land (see
Apollod. 3.5.1), we may conjecture that the tradition of the man-eating mares
of Diomedes, another Thracian king who is said to have been killed by horses,
points to a custom of human sacrifice performed by means of horses, whether the
victim was trampled to death by their hoofs or tied to their tails and rent asunder.
If the sacrifice was offered, as the legend of Lycurgus suggests, for the sake
of fertilizing the ground, the reason for thus tearing the victim to pieces may
have been to scatter the precious life-giving fragments as widely and as quickly
as possible over the barren earth.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Heracles. 8. The mares of the Thracian Diomedes. This Diomedes, king of the Bistones in Thrace, fed his horses with human flesh, and Eurystheus now ordered Heracles to fetch those animals to Mycenae. For this purpose, the hero took with him some companions. He made an unexpected attack on those who guarded the horses in their stables, took the animals, and conducted them to the sea coast. But here he was overtaken by the Bistones, and during the ensuing fight he entrusted the mares to his friend Abderus, a son of Hermes of Opus, who was eaten up by them; but Heracles defeated the Bistones, killed Diomedes, whose body he threw before the mares, built the town of Abdera, in honour of his unfortunate friend, and then returned to Mycenae, with the horses which had become tame after eating the flesh of their master. The horses were afterwards set free, and destroyed on Mount Olympus by wild beasts. (Apollod. ii. 5.8; Diod. iv. 15; Hygin. Fab. 30; Eurip. Alcest. 483, 493, Herc. Fur. 380, &c.; Gell. iii. 9; Ptolem. Heph. 5.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΑΘΗΝΑΙ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΕΛΛΑΔΑ
Agraulos. Daughter of Cecrops and Agraulos, of whom various
stories are told. Athene is said to have given Erichthonius in a chest to Agraulos
and her sister Herse, with strict injunctions not to open it; but they disobeyed
the command. Agraulos was subsequently punished by being changed into a stone
by Hermes, because she attempted to prevent the god from entering the house of
Herse, with whom he had fallen in love. Another legend relates that Agraulos threw
herself down from the Acropolis because an oracle had declared that the Athenians
would conquer if some one would sacrifice himself for his country. The Athenians
in gratitude built her a temple on the Acropolis, in which the young Athenians,
on receiving their first suit of armour, took an oath that they would always defend
their country to the last.
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
ΑΚΡΟΚΟΡΙΝΘΟΣ (Κάστρο) ΚΟΡΙΝΘΟΣ
Οπως και οι Αθηναίοι, έτσι και οι Κορίνθιοι είχαν ένα μύθο σχετικά με τον τόπο τους που έλεγε το εξής: δύο θεοί, ο Ποσειδώνας και ο Ηλιος, μάλωσαν για τη χώρα της Κορίνθου και τη λύση έδωσε ο Βριάρεως, δίνοντας στον Ποσειδώνα τον Ισθμό και στον Ηλιο τον Ακροκόρινθο (Παυσ. 2,1,6).
ΑΛΦΕΙΟΣ (Ποταμός) ΗΛΕΙΑ
Σύμφωνα με κάποια παράδοση ο Αλφειός ήταν ένας κυνηγός που αγάπησε τη νύμφη Αρέθουσα. Εκείνη δεν ήθελε να παντρευτεί και γι' αυτό πήγε στο νησί Ορτυγία, απέναντι από τις Συρακούσες, όπου μεταμορφώθηκε σε πηγή. Κυριευμένος από έρωτα ο Αλφειός μεταμορφώθηκε σε ποταμό για να μπορέσει να ενώσει τα νερά του με τα δικά της. Οτι ο Αλφειός περνούσε μέσα από τη θάλασσα και ξαναεμφανιζόταν στην Ορτυγία το έλεγε και ο χρησμός που είχε δοθεί στον οικιστή των Συρακουσών. Ο Παυσανίας πιστεύει ότι ο μύθος του έρωτα του Αλφειού για την Αρέθουσα φτιάχτηκε για να εξηγήσει την ένωση των νερών του ποταμού Αλφειού με εκείνα της πηγής Αρέθουσας (Παυσ. 5,7,2-3).
ΑΜΥΚΛΑΙ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΣΠΑΡΤΗ
Son of King Amyclas, of Amyclae in Laconia, and of Diomedes.
He was beloved for his beauty by Apollo and Zephyrus. As Apollo was one day teaching
the boy how to play at quoits, on the banks of the river Eurotas, the wind-god
in his jealousy drove the quoit with such violence against the head of Hyacinthus
that the blow killed him. From his blood Apollo caused a flower of the same name
to spring up, with the exclamation of woe, AI, AI, marked upon its petals. (See
Aiax.) Hyacinthus, like Adonis, is a personification of vegetation, which flourishes
in the spring-time, but is scorched and killed by the glowing heat of the summer
sun, which is symbolized by the quoit or discus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hyacinthus (Hyacinthos). The youngest son of the Spartan king Amyclas and Diomede (Apollod. iii. 10.3; Paus. iii. 1.3, 19.4), but according to others a son of Pierus and Clio, or of Oebalus or Eurotas (Lucian, Dial. Deor. 14; Hygin. Fab. 271). He was a youth of extraordinary beauty, and beloved by Thamyris and Apollo, who unintentionally killed him during a game of discus (Apollod. i. 3.3). Some traditions relate that he was beloved also by Boreas or Zephrus, who, from jealousy of Apollo, drove the discus of the god against the head of the youth, and thus killed him (Lucian, l. c; Serv. ad Virg. Eelog. iii. 63; Philostr. Imag. i.24; Ov. Met. x. 184). From the blood of Hyacinthus there sprang the flower of the same name (hyacinth), on the leaves of which there appeared the exclamation of woe AI, AI, or the letter U, being the initial of Huakinthos. According to other traditions, the hyacinth (on the leaves of which, howeve those characters do not appear) sprang from the blood of Ajax (Schol. ad Theocrit. x. 28; comp. Ov. Met. xiii. 395, who combines both legends; Plin. H. N. xxi. 28). Hyacinthus was worshipped at Amyclae as a hero, and a great festival, Hyacinthia, was celebrated in his honour. (Dict. of Ant. s. r.)
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
Γιος του Αμύκλα και της Διομήδης (Παυσ. 3,1,3). Τον σκότωσε κατά λάθος ο Απόλλωνας.
Αιγληίς και Ανθηίς, κόρες του Υακίνθου.
ΑΝΘΗΔΩΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΧΑΛΚΙΔΑ
Θεός θαλάσσιος & μαντικός, παραδίδεται ως ναυπηγός και πηδαλιούχος της Αργούς, μετά δε έγινε δαίμονας της θάλασσας.
Glaucus (Glaukos). A sea deity, probably only another form of Poseidon, whose son he is, according to some accounts. Like the marine gods in general, he had the gift of prophecy; and we find him appearing to the Argonauts, and to Menelaus, and telling them what had happened, or what was to happen. In later times sailors were continually making reports of his soothsaying. Some said that he dwelt with the Nereides at Delos, where he gave responses to all who sought them. According to others, he visited each year all the isles and coasts, with a train of monsters of the deep (ketea), and, unseen, foretold in the Aeolic dialect all kinds of evil. The fishermen watched for his approach, and endeavoured by fastings, prayer, and fumigations to avert the ruin with which his prophecy menaced the fruits and cattle. At times he was seen among the waves, and his body appeared covered with mussels, seaweed, and stones. He was heard evermore to lament his fate in not being able to die. This last circumstance refers to the common legendary history of Glaucus. He was a fisherman, it is said, of Anthedon, in Boeotia. Observing one day the fish which he had caught and thrown on the grass to bite it, and then to jump into the sea, his curiosity incited him to taste it also. Immediately on his doing so he followed their example, and thus became a sea-god. Another account made him to have obtained his immortality by tasting the grass, which had revived a hare he had run down in Aetolia. He was also said to have built and steered the Argo, and to have been made a god of the sea by Zeus during the voyage. An account of the story of his love for Scylla will be found under Scylla.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Glaucus. Of Anthedon in Boeotia, a fisherman, who had the good luck to eat a part of the divine herb which Cronos had sown, and which made Glaucus immortal. (Athen. vii. c. 48; Claud. de Nupt. Mar. x. 158.) His parentage is different in the different traditions, which are enumerated by Athenaeus; some called his father Copeus, others Polybus, the husband of Euboea, and others again Anthedon or Poseidon. He was further said to have been a clever diver, to have built the ship Argo, and to have accompanied the Argonauts as their steersman. In the sea-fight of Jason against the Tyrrhenians, Glaucus alone remained unhurt; he sank to the bottom of the sea, where he was visible to none save to Jason. From this moment he became a marine deity, and was of service to the Argonauts. The story of his sinking or leaping into the sea was variously modified in the different traditions. (Bekker, Anecdot.; Schol. ad Plat. de Leg. x.) There was a belief in Greece that once in every year Glaucus visited all the coasts and islands, accompanied by marine monsters, and gave his prophecies. (Paus. ix. 22.6.) Fishermen and sailors paid particular reverence to him, and watched his oracles, which were believed to be very trustworthy. The story of his various loves seems to have been a favourite subject with the ancient poets, and many of his l06e adventures are related by various writers. The place of his abode varies in the different traditions, but Aristotle stated that he dwelt in Delos, where, in conjunction with the nymphs, he gave oracles; for his prophetic power was said by some to be even greater than that of Apollo, who is called his disciple in it. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 1310; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 753; Eustath. ad Hom.; Ov. Met. xiii. 904, &c.; Serv. ad. Virg. Georg. i. 437, Aen. iii. 420, v. 832, vi. 36; Strab.) A representation of Glaucus is described by Philostratus (Imag i. 15): he was seen as a man whose hair and beard were dripping with water, with bristly eye-brows, his breast covered with sea-weeds, and the lower part of the body ending in the tail of a fish. (For further descriptions of his appearance, see Nonn. Dionys. xiii. 73, xxxv. 73, xxxix. 99; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 318, 364 ; Stat. Silv. iii. 2, 36, Theb. vii. 335, &c.; Vell. Pat. ii. 83.) This deified Glaucus was likewise chosen by the Greek poets as the subject of dramatic compositions (Welcker, Die Aeschyl. Trilogie, Nachtrag), and we know from Velleius Paterculus that the mimus Plancus represented this marine daemon on the stage.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Glaukos : Various WebPages
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Reigning over the Egyptians Epaphus married Memphis, daughter of Nile,
founded and named the city of Memphis after her, and begat a daughter Libya, after
whom the region of Libya was called. Libya had by Poseidon twin sons, Agenor and
Belus. Agenor departed to Phoenicia and reigned there, and there he became the
ancestor of the great stock; hence we shall defer our account of him. But Belus
remained in Egypt, reigned over the country, and married Anchinoe, daughter of
Nile, by whom he had twin sons, Egyptus and Danaus, but according to Euripides,
he had also Cepheus and Phineus. Danaus was settled by Belus in Libya, and Egyptus
in Arabia; but Egyptus subjugated the country of the Melampods and named it Egypt
< after himself>. Both had children by many wives; Egyptus had fifty sons, and
Danaus fifty daughters. As they afterwards quarrelled concerning the kingdom,
Danaus feared the sons of Egyptus, and by the advice of Athena he built a ship,
being the first to do so, and having put his daughters on board he fled. And touching
at Rhodes he set up the image of Lindian Athena. Thence he came to Argos and the
reigning king Gelanor surrendered the kingdom to him;< and having made himself
master of the country he named the inhabitants Danai after himself>. But the country
being waterless, because Poseidon had dried up even the springs out of anger at
Inachus for testifying that the land belonged to Hera, Danaus sent his daughters
to draw water. One of them, Amymone, in her search for water threw a dart at a
deer and hit a sleeping satyr, and he, starting up, desired to force her; but
Poseidon appearing on the scene, the satyr fled, and Amymone lay with Poseidon,
and he revealed to her the springs at Lerna.
But the sons of Egyptus came to Argos, and exhorted Danaus to lay
aside his enmity, and begged to marry his daughters. Now Danaus distrusted their
professions and bore them a grudge on account of his exile; nevertheless he consented
to the marriage and allotted the damsels among them. First, they picked out Hypermnestra
as the eldest to be the wife of Lynceus, and Gorgophone to be the wife of Proteus;
for Lynceus and Proteus had been borne to Egyptus by a woman of royal blood, Argyphia;
but of the rest Busiris, Enceladus, Lycus, and Daiphron obtained by lot the daughters
that had been borne to Danaus by Europe, to wit, Automate, Amymone, Agave, and
Scaea. These daughters were borne to Danaus by a queen; but Gorgophone and Hypermnestra
were borne to him by Elephantis. And Istrus got Hippodamia; Chalcodon got Rhodia;
Agenor got Cleopatra; Chaetus got Asteria; Diocorystes got Hippodamia; Alces got
Glauce; Alcmenor got Hippomedusa; Hippothous got Gorge; Euchenor got Iphimedusa;
Hippolytus got Rhode. These ten sons were begotten on an Arabian woman; but the
maidens were begotten on Hamadryad nymphs, some being daughters of Atlantia, and
others of Phoebe. Agaptolemus got Pirene; Cercetes got Dorium; Eurydamas got Phartis;
Aegius got Mnestra; Argius got Evippe; Archelaus got Anaxibia; Menemachus got
Nelo. These seven sons were begotten on a Phoenician woman, and the maidens on
an Ethiopian woman. The sons of Egyptus by Tyria got as their wives, without drawing
lots, the daughters of Danaus by Memphis in virtue of the similarity of their
names; thus Clitus got Clite; Sthenelus got Sthenele; Chrysippus got Chrysippe.
The twelve sons of Egyptus by the Naiad nymph Caliadne cast lots for the daughters
of Danaus by the Naiad nymph Polyxo: the sons were Eurylochus, Phantes, Peristhenes,
Hermus, Dryas, Potamon, Cisseus, Lixus, Imbrus, Bromius, Polyctor, Chthonius;
and the damsels were Autonoe, Theano, Electra, Cleopatra, Eurydice, Glaucippe,
Anthelia, Cleodore, Evippe, Erato, Stygne, Bryce. The sons of Egyptus by Gorgo,
cast lots for the daughters of Danaus by Pieria, and Periphas got Actaea, Oeneus
got Podarce, Egyptus got Dioxippe, Menalces got Adite, Lampus got Ocypete, Idmon
got Pylarge. The youngest sons of Egyptus were these: Idas got Hippodice; Daiphron
got Adiante ( the mother who bore these damsels was Herse); Pandion got Callidice;
Arbelus got Oeme; Hyperbius got Celaeno; Hippocorystes got Hyperippe; the mother
of these men was Hephaestine, and the mother of these damsels was Crino.
When they had got their brides by lot, Danaus made a feast and
gave his daughters daggers; and they slew their bridegrooms as they slept, all
but Hypermnestra; for she saved Lynceus because he had respected her virginity:
wherefore Danaus shut her up and kept her under ward. But the rest of the daugters
of Danaus buried the heads of their bridegrooms in Lerna and paid funeral honors
to their bodies in front of the city; and Athena and Hermes purified them at
the command of Zeus. Danaus afterwards united Hypermnestra to Lynceus; and bestowed
his other daughters on the victors in an athletic contest.
Amymone had a son Nauplius by Poseidon. This Nauplius lived to a great
age, and sailing the sea he used by beacon lights to lure to death such as he
fell in with. It came to pass, therefore, that he himself died by that very death.
But before his death he married a wife; according to the tragic poets, she was
Clymene, daughter of Catreus; but according to the author of The Returns,(1)
she was Philyra; and according to Cercops she was Hesione. By her he had Palamedes,
Oeax, and Nausimedon.
Commentary:
1. Nostoi, an epic poem describing the return of the Homeric
heroes from Troy.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Danaides, the fifty daughters of Danaus, whose names are given by Apollodorus (ii. 1.5) and Hyginus (Fab. 170), though they are not the same in both lists. They were betrothed to the fifty sons of Aegyptus, but were compelled by their father to promise him to kill their husbands, in the first night, with the swords which he gave them. They fulfilled their promise, and cut off the heads of their husbands with the exception of Hypermnestra alone, who was married to Lynceus, and who spared his life (Pind. Nem. x. 7). According to some accounts, Amymone and Berbyce also did not kill their husbands (Schol. ad find. Pyth. ix. 200; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 805). Hypermnestra was punished by her father with imprisonment, but was afterwards restored to her husband Lynceus. The Danaides buried the corpses of their victims, and were purified from their crime by Hermes and Athena at the command of Zeus. Danaus afterwards found it difficult to obtain husbands for his daughters, and he invited men to public contests, in which his daughters were given as prizes to the victors (Pind. Ryth. ix. 117). Pindar mentions only forty-eight Danaides as having obtained husbands in this manner, for Hypermnestra and Amymone are not included, since the former was already married to Lynceus and the latter to Poseidon. Pausanias (vii. 1.3. Comp. iii. 12.2; Herod. ii. 98) mentions, that Automate and Scaea were married to Architeles and Archander, the sons of Achaeus. According to the Scholiast on Euripides (Hecub. 886), the Danaides were killed by Lynceus together with their father. Notwithstanding their purification mentioned in the earlier writers, later poets relate that the Danaides were punished for their crime in Hades by being compelled everlastingly to pour water into a vessel full of holes (Ov. Met. iv. 462, Heroid. xiv.; Horat. Carm. iii. 11. 25; Tibull. i. 3. 79; Hygin. Fab. 168; Serv. ad Aen. x. 497). Strabo (viii. p. 371 ) and others relate, that Danaus or the Danaides provided Argos with water, and for this reason four of the latter were worshipped at Argos as divinities; and this may possibly be the foundation of the story about the punishment of the Danaides. Ovid calls them by the name of the Belides, from their grandfather, Belus; and Herodotus (ii. 171), following the titles of the Egyptians, says, that they brought the mysteries of Demeter Thesmophoros from Egypt to Peloponnesus, and that the Pelasgian women there learned the mysteries from them.
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
Pdysadeia (Phusadeia), a daughter of Danaus, from whom the well of Physadeia near Argos, was believed to have derived its name. (Callim. Hymn. in Pall. 47)
Io. The beautiful daughter of Inachus, and the first priestess of Here at Argos. As Zeus loved her, she was changed by the jealousy of Here into a white heifer, and Argus of the hundred eyes was appointed to watch her. When Hermes, at the command of Zeus, had killed Argus, Here maddened the heifer by sending a gad-fly which perpetually pursued her. Io thus wandered through the continents of Europe and Asia, by land and by sea. Each of the different straits she swam across was named after her Bosporus, or Ox-ford. At last in Egypt she recovered her original shape, and bore Epaphus to Zeus. Libya, the daughter of Epaphus, became by Poseidon the mother of Belus, who in turn was father of Aegyptus, Danaus, Cepheus, and Phineus. The Greek legend of Io's going to Egypt is probably to be explained by her having been identified with the Egyptian goddess Isis, who is always represented with cow's horns. Io ("the wanderer") is generally explained as a moon-goddess wandering in the starry heavens, symbolized by Argus of the hundred eyes; her transformation into a horned heifer representing the crescent moon.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Io. The traditions about this heroine are so manifold, that it is impossible
to give any goneral view of them without some classification we shall therefore
give first the principal local traditions, next the wanderings of Io, as they
are described by later writers, and lastly mention the various attempts to explain
the stories about her.
Local traditions The place to which the legends of lo belong,
and where she was closely connected with the worship of Zeus and Hera, is Argos.
The chronological tables of the priestesses of Hera at Argos placed Io at the
head of the list of priestesses, under the name of Callirhoe, or Callithyia (Preller,
de Hellan. Lesb. p. 40). She is commonly described as a daughter of Inachus,
the founder of the worship of Hera at Argos, and by others as a daughter of Iasus
or Peiren. Zeus loved Io, but on account of Hera's jealousy, he metamorphosed
her into a white cow. Hera thereupon asked and obtained the cow from Zeus, and
placed her under the care of Argus Panoptes, who tied her to an olive tree in
the grove of Hera at Mycenae.
But Hermes was commissioned by Zens to deliver Io, and carry her off. Hermes being
guided by a bird (hierax, pikon), who was Zeus himself (Suid. s. v. Io), slew
Argus with a stone. Hera then sent a gad-fly which tormented Io, and persecuted
her through the whole earth, until at length she found rest on the banks of the
Nile (Apollod. ii. 1.2; Hygin.
Fab. 145; comp. Virg. Georg. iii. 148, & c.). This is the common story, which
appears to be very ancient, since Homer constantly applies the epithet of Argeiphontes
(the siaver of Argus) to Hermes. But there are some slight modifications of the
story in the different writers. Some, for example, place the scene of the murder
of Argus at Nemea (Lucian,
Dial. Deor. 3; Etymol. Mag. s. v. Aphesios). Ovid (Met. i. 722) relates that Hermes
first sent Argus to sleep by the sweetness of his music on the flute, and that
he then cut off the head of Argus, whose eyes Hera transferred to the tail of
the peacock, her favourite bird (Comp. Moschus, Idyll. ii. 59). A peculiar mournfill
festival was celebrated in honour of Io at Argos, and although we have no distinct
statement that she was worshipped in the historical ages of Greece, still it is
not improbable that she was (Suid. l. c.; Palaephat. p. 43; Strab. xiv.). There
are indeed other places, besides Argos, where we meet with the legends of Io,
but they must be regarded as importations from Argos, either through colonies
sent by the latter city, or they were transplanted with the worship of Hera, the
Argive goddess. We may mention Euboea,
which probably derived its name from the cow Io, and where the spot was shown
on which Io was believed to have been killed, as well as the cave in which she
had given birth to Epaphus (Strab vii.; Steph. Byz. l. s. Argoura; Etymol. Mag.
s. v. Euboia). Another place is Byzantium,
in the foundation of which Argive colonists had taken part, and where the Bosporus
derived its name, from the cow Io having swam across it. From the Thracian Bosporus
the story then spread to the Cimmerian
Bosporus and Panticapaeum.
Tarsus and Antioch
likewise had monuments to prove that Io had been in their neighbourhood, and that
they were colonies of Argos. Io was further said to have been at Joppa and in
Aethiopia, together with
Perseus and Medusa (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 835, &c.); but it was more especially the
Greeks residing in Egypt, who maintained that Io had been
in Egypt, where she was said to have given birth to Epaphus, and to have introduced
the worship of Isis, while Epaphus became the founder of a family from which sprang
Danaus, who subsequently returned to Argos. This part of the story seems to have
arisen from certain resemblances of religious notions, which subsequently even
gave rise to the identification of Io and Isis. Herodotus (i. l, & c., ii. 41)
tells us that Isis was represented like the Greek Io, in the form of a woman,
with cows' horns.
The wanderings of Io. The idea of Io having wandered about after
her metamorphosis appears to have been as ancient as the mythus respecting her,
but those wanderings were extended and poetically embellished in proportion as
geographical knowledge increased. The most important passage is in the Prometheus
of Aeschylus (705, & c.), although it is almost impossible to reconcile the poet's
description with ancient geography, so far as we know it. From Argos Io first
went to Molossis and the
neighbourhood of Dodona,
and from thence to the sea, which derived from her the name of the Ionian.
After many wanderings through the unknown regions of the north, she arrived in
the place where Prometheus was fastened to a rock. As the Titan prescribes to
her the course she has yet to take, it is of importance to ascertain the spot
at which he begins to describe her course; but the expressions of Aeschylus are
so vague, that it is a hopeless attempt to determine that spot. According to the
extant play, it is somewhere in European Scythia,
perhaps to the north of the river Istrus;
but in the last play of the Trilogy, as well as in other accounts, the Caucasus
is mentioned as the place where the Titan endured his tortures, and it remains
again uncertain in what part of the Caucasus we have to conceive the suffering
Titan. It seems to be the most probable supposition, that Aeschylus himself did
not form a clear and distinct notion of the wanderings he describes, for how little
he cared about geographical accuracy is evident from the fact, that in the Supplices
(548, & c.) he describes the wanderings of Io in a very diffent manner from that
adopted in the Prometheus. If, however, we place Prometheus somewhere in the north
of Europe, the course he prescribes may be conceived in the following manner.
Io has first to wander towards the east, through unknown countries, to the Scythian
nomades (north of Olbia),
whom, however, she is to avoid, by travelling through their country along the
sea-coast; she is then to have on her left the Chalybes, against whom she must
likewise be on her guard. These Chalybes are probably the Cimmerians,
who formerly inhabited the Crimea
and the adjacent part of Scythia,
and afterwards the country about Sinope. From thence she is to arrive on the river
Hybristes (the Don or Cuban), which she is to follow up to its sources, in the
highest parts of Mount Caucasus, in order there to cross it. Thence she is to
proceed southward, where she is to meet the Amazons (who at that time are conceived
to live in Colchis, afterwards
in Themiscyra, on the river
Thermodon), who are to conduct her to the place where the Salmydessian
rock endangers all navigation. This latter point is so clear an allusion to the
coast north of the mouth of the Bosporus,
that we must suppose that Aeschylus meant to describe Io as crossing the Thracian
Bosporus from Asia into Europe.
From thence he leads her to the Cimmerian
Bosporus, which is to receive its name from her, and across the palus Maeotis.
In this manner she would in part touch upon the same countries which she had traversed
before. After this she is to leave Europe and go to Asia, according to which the
poet must here make the Maeotis
the boundary between Europe and Asia, whereas elsewhere he makes the Phasis
the boundary. The description of the wanderings of Io is taken up again at verse
788. She is told that after crossing the water separating the two continents,
she is to arrive in the hot countries situated under the rising sun. At this point
in the description there is a gap, and the last passage probably described her
further progress through Asia. Io then has again to cross a sea,after which she
is to come to the Gorgonaean plains of Cisthenes (which, according to the scholiast,
is a town of Aethiopia or
Libya), and to meet the Graeae
and Gorgones. The sea here mentioned is probably the so-called Indian Bosporus
(Steph. Byz. s. v. Bosporos; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 143), where the extremities
of Asia and Libya, India and Aethiopia, were conceived to be close to each other,
and where some writers place the Gorgones (Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. x. 72). The mention,
in the verses following, of the griffins and Arimaspae, who are generally assigned
to northern regions, creates some difficulty, though the poet may have mentioned
them without meaning to place them in the south, but only for the purpose of connecting
the misfortunes of Io with the best-known monsters. From the Indian Bosporus,
Io is to arrive in the country of the black people, dwelling around the well of
the sun, on the river Aethiops, that is, the upper part of the Nile or the Niger.
She is to follow the course of that river, until she comes to the cataracts of
the Nile, which river she is again to follow down to the Delta, where delivery
awaits her (Comp. Eurip. Iphig. Taur. 382, & c.; Apollod. ii. 1.3; Hygin. Fab.
145).
The mythus of Io is one of the most ancient, and at the same time
one of the most difficult to explain. The ancients believed Io to be the moon,
and there is a distinct tradition that the Argives called the moon Io (Eustath.
ad Dionys. Perieg. 92; Suid. and IIesych. s. v. Io). This opinion has also been
adopted by some modern critics, who at the same time see in this mythus a confirmation
of the belief in an ancient connection between the religions of Greece and Egypt
(Buttmann, Mytholog. vol. ii. p. 179, & c.; Welcker, Die Aeschyl. Trilog. p. 127,
& c.; Schwenk, Etymol. Mythol. Andeutungen, p. 62, & c.; Mytholog. der Griech.
p. 52, & c. ; Klausen, in the Rhein. Museum, vol. iii. p. 293, & c.; Voelcker,
Mythol Geogr. der Griech. u. Rom. vol. i). That Io is identical with the moon
cannot be doubted (comp. Eurip. Phoen, 1123; Macrob. Sat. i. 19), and the various
things related of her refer to the phases and phenomena of the moon, and are intimately
connected with the worship of Zeus and Hera at Argos. Her connection with Egypt
seems to be an invention of later times, and was probably suggested by the resemblance
which was found to exist between the Argive Io and the Egyptian Isis.
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
The Persian learned men say that the Phoenicians ... they came to
Argos, which was at that time preeminent in every way among the people of what
is now called Hellas. The Phoenicians came to Argos, and set out their cargo.
On the fifth or sixth day after their arrival, when their wares were almost all
sold, many women came to the shore and among them especially the daughter of the
king, whose name was Io (according to Persians and Greeks alike), the daughter
of Inachus. As these stood about the stern of the ship bargaining for the wares
they liked, the Phoenicians incited one another to set upon them. Most of the
women escaped: Io and others were seized and thrown into the ship, which then
sailed away for Egypt. In this way, the Persians say (and not as the Greeks),
was how Io came to Egypt, and this, according to them, was the first wrong that
was done. Next, according to their story, some Greeks (they cannot say who) landed
at Tyre in Phoenicia and carried off the king's daughter Europa. These Greeks
must, I suppose, have been Cretans. So far, then, the account between them was
balanced Such is the Persian account...
... But the Phoenicians do not tell the same story about Io as the Persians. They
say that they did not carry her off to Egypt by force. She had intercourse in
Argos with the captain of the ship. Then, finding herself pregnant, she was ashamed
to have her parents know it, and so, lest they discover her condition, she sailed
away with the Phoenicians of her own accord.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Κόρη του Ινάχου που την αγάπησε ο Δίας και γι' αυτό η Ηρα τη μεταμόρφωσε σε αγελάδα. Υπήρχε άγαλμά της στην Ακρόπολη των Αθηνών (Παυσ. 1,25,1) (βλ. Perseus Encyclopedia).
Phoronis, a surname of Io, being according to some a descendant, and according to others a sister of Phoroneus. (Ov. Met. i. 668 ; Hygin. Fab. 145.)
Inachia (Inachis, Inacheie, Inachione), frequently occur as surnames of Io, the daughter of Inachus. (Virg. Georg. iii. 153; Ov. Fast. iii. 658, Met. ix. 686; Aeschyl. Prom. 591; Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 254.) Epaphus, a grandson of Inachus, bears the same surname (Ov. Met. i. 753); and so also Perseus, merely because he was born at Argos, the city of Inachus. (Ov. Met. iv. 719.)
From the book:
Old Greek Stories by James Baldwin
Bringing Yesterday's Classics to Today's Children
Argus, surnamed Panoptes. His parentage is stated differently, and his father is called Agenor, Arestor, Inachus, or Argus, whereas some accounts described him as an Autochthon (Apollod. ii. 1, 2; Ov. Met. i. 264). He derived his surname, Panoptes, the all-seeing, from his possessing a hundred eyes, some of which were always awake. He was of superhuman strength, and after he had slain a fierce bull which ravaged Arcadia, a Satyr who robbed and violated persons, the serpent Echidna, which rendered the roads unsafe, and the murderers of Apis, who was according to some accounts his father, Hera appointed him guardian of the cow into which Io had been metamorphosed (Comp. Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 1151, 1213). Zeus commissioned Hermes to carry off the cow, and Hermes accomplished the task, according to some accounts, by stoning Argus to death, or according to others, by sending him to sleep by the sweetness of his play on the flute and then cutting off his head. Hera transplanted his eyes to the tail of the peacock, her favourite bird (Aeschyl. Prom.; Apollod. Ov. ll. cc).
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
Ismene. A daughter of Asopus and Metope, and wife of Argus, by whom she became the mother of Iasus and Io. (Apoiiod. ii. 1 Β 3.)
Falx dim. Falcula (harpe, kopis, drepanon, poet. drepane, dim. drepanion), a sickle;
a scythe; a pruning-knife, or pruning-hook; a bill; a falchion; a halbert.
As culter
denoted a knife with one straight edge, falx signified any similar instrument,
the single edge of which was curved. (Drepanon eukampes, Hom. Od. xviii. 368;
curvae falces, Verg. Georg. i. 508; curvamine falcis aenae, Ovid, Met. vii. 227;
adunca falce, xiv. 628.) By additional epithets the various uses of the falx were
indicated, and its corresponding varieties in form and size. Thus the sickle,
because it was used by reapers, was called falx messoria; the scythe, which was
employed in mowing hay, was called falx fenaria; the pruning-knife and the bill,
on account of their use in dressing vines, as well as in hedging and in cutting
off the shoots and branches of trees, were distinguished by the appellation of
falx putatoria, vinitoria, arboraria, or silvatica (Cato, de Re Rust. 10, 11;
Pallad. i. 43; Colum. iv. 25), or by the diminutive falcula (Colum. xii. 18)....
...The edge of the falx was often toothed or serrated (harpen karcharodonta, Hesiod,
Theog. 175, 179; denticulata, Colum. de Re Rust. ii. 21). The indispensable process
of sharpening these instruments (harpen charassemenai, Hesiod, Op. 573; harpen
eukampe neothegea, Apoll. Rhod. iii. 1387) was effected by whetstones which the
Romans obtained from Crete and other distant places, with the addition of oil
or water which the mower (fenisex) carried in a horn upon his thigh (Plin. H.
N. xviii.261).
Numerous as were the uses to which the falx was applied in agriculture
and horticulture, its employment in battle was almost equally varied, though not
so frequent. The Geloni were noted for its use (Claudian, de Laud. Stil. i. 110).
It was the weapon with which Jupiter wounded Typhon (Apollod. i. 6); with which
Hercules slew the Lernaean Hydra (Eurip. Ion, 192); and with which Mercury
cut off the head of Argus (falcato ense, Ovid, Met. i. 717; harpen Cyllenida,
Lucan ix.661-667). Perseus, having received the same weapon from Mercury, or,
according to other authorities, from Vulcan, used it to decapitate Medusa and
to slay the sea-monster (Apollod. ii. 4; Eratosth. Cataster. 22; Ovid, Met. iv.
666, 720, 727, v. 69; Anth. Pal. xi. 52). From the passages now referred to, we
may conclude that the falchion was a weapon of the most remote antiquity; that
it was girt like a dagger upon the waist; that it was held in the hand by a short
hilt; and that, as it was in fact a dagger or sharp-pointed blade, with a proper
falx projecting from one side, it was thrust into the flesh up to this lateral
curvature (curvo tenus abdidit hamo). In the following woodcut, four examples
are selected from works of ancient art to illustrate its form. One of the four
cameos here copied represents Perseus with the falchion in his right hand, and
the head of Medusa in his left. The two smaller figures are heads of Saturn with
the falx in its original form; and the fourth cameo, representing the same divinity
at full length, was probably engraved in Italy at a later period than the others,
but early enough to prove that the scythe was in use among the Romans, while it
illustrates the adaptation of the symbols of Saturn (Kronos: senex falcifer, Ovid,
Fast. v. 627; Ibis, 216) for the purpose of personifying Time (Chronos).
If we imagine the weapon which has now been described to be attached
to the end of a pole, it would assume the form and be applicable to all the purposes
of the modern halbert. Such must have been the asseres falcati used by the Romans
at the siege of Ambracia (Liv. xxxviii. 5; cf. Caes. B. G. vii. 22, 86; Q. Curt.
iv. 19). Sometimes the iron head was so large as to be fastened, instead of the
ram's head, to a wooden beam, and worked by men under a testudo (Veget. iv. 14).
Lastly, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Medes, and the Syrians in Asia (Xen.
Cyrop. vi. 1, § 30, 2,7; Anab. i. 8,10;--Diod. ii. 5, xvii. 53; Polyb. v. 53;
Q. Curt. iv. 9, 12, 13; Gell. v. 5; 2 Mace. xiii. 2; Veget. iii. 24; Liv. xxxvii.
41), and the Gauls and Britons in Europe, made themselves formidable on the field
of battle by the use of chariots with scythes, fixed at right angles (eis plagion)
to the axle and turned downwards; or inserted parallel to the axle into the felly
of the wheel, so as to revolve, when the chariot was put in motion, with more
than thrice the velocity of the chariot itself; and sometimes also projecting
from the extremities of the axle.
Κόρη του βασιλιά Κρότωπα. Γέννησε από τον Απόλλωνα μωρό το οποίο άφησε έκθετο από φόβο για τον πατέρα της. Οταν το μωρό σκοτώθηκε από τα σκυλιά των κοπαδιών του Κρότωπα ο Απόλλων έστειλε στο Αργος την Ποινή να παίρνει τα παιδιά από τις γυναίκες. Ο Κόροιβος που σκότωσε την Ποινή αναγκάστηκε να αυτοεξοριστεί και να ιδρύσει τον Τριποδίσκο κοντά στα Μέγαρα.
Hymen or Hymeneus (Hgmen or Hgmenaios), the god of marriage, was conceived as
a handsome youth, and invoked in the hymeneal or bridal song. The names originally
designated the bridal song itself, which was subsequently personified. The first
trace of this personification occurs in Euripides (Troad. 31 1), or perhaps in
Sappho ( Fragm. 73, p. 80, ed. Neue). The poetical origin of the god Hymen or
Hymenaeus is also implied in the fact of his being described as the son of Apollo
and a Muse, either Calliope, Urania, or Terpsichore. (Catull. lxi. 2; Nonn. Dionys.
xxxiii. 67; Schol. Vatic. ad Eurip. Rhes. 895, ed. Dindorf; Schol. ad Pind. Pyth.
iv. 313; Alciphron, Epist. i. 13; Tzetz. Chil. xiii. 599.) Hence he is mentioned
along with the sons of the Muses, Linus and Ialemus, and with Orpheus. Others
describe him only as the favourite of Apollo or Thamyris, and call him a son of
Magnes and Calliope, or of Dionysus and Aphrodite. (Suid. s. v. Thamurris; Anton.
Lib. 23; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 127, ad Virg. Eclog. viii. 30.)
The ancient traditions, instead of regarding the god as a personification
of the hymeneal song, speak of him as originally a mortal, respecting whom various
legends were related. According to an Argive tradition, Hymenaeus was
a youth of Argos, who, while sailing along the coast of Attica, delivered
a number of Attic maidens from the violence of some Pelasgian pirates, and was
afterwards praised by them in their bridal songs, which were called, after him,
hymeneal songs (Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1157).
The Attic legends described him as a youth of such delicate beauty,
that he might be taken for a girl. He fell in love with a maiden, who refused
to listen to him; but in the disguise of a girl he followed her to Eleusis to
the festival of Demeter. He, together with the other girls, was carried off by
robbers into a distant and desolate country. On their landing, the robbers laid
down to sleep, and were killed by Hymenaeus, who now returned to Athens, requesting
the citizens to give him his beloved in marriage, if he restored to them the maidens
who had been carried off by the robbers. His request was granted, and his marriage
was extremely happy. For this reason he was invoked in the hymeneal songs (Serv.
ad Aen. i. 655, ad Virg. Eclog. viii. 30).
According to others he was a youth, and was killed by the breaking
down of his house on his wedding-day whence he was afterwards invoked in bridal
songs, in order to be propitiated (Serv. l. c.); and some related that at the
wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne he sang the bridal hymn, but lost his voice (Serv.
l. c.; comp. Scriptor Rerum Mythic. pp. 26, 148, 229; Ov. Met. ii. 683, who makes
him a son of Argus and Perimele; Terent. Adelph. v. 7, 8.)
According to the Orphic legends, the deceased Hymenaeus was called
to life again by Asclepius (Apollod. iii. 10.3). He is represented in works of
art as a youth, but taller and with a more serious expression than Eros, and carrying
in his hand a bridal torch. (Hirt, Mythol. Bilderb. ii. p. 224.)
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
Tantalus (Tantalos) . . . All traditions agree in stating that he was a wealthy king, but while some call him king of Lydia. of Sipylus in Phrygia or Paphlagonia, others describe him as king of Argos or Corinth.
Broteas, the father of Tantalus, who had been married to Clytaemnestra before Agamemnon. The common account, however, is, that Thyestes was the father of this Tantalus. (Paus. ii. 22.4)
Chloris. A daughter of the Theban Amphion and Niobe. According to an Argive tradition, her original name was Meliboea, and she and her brother Amyclas were the only children of Niobe that were not killed by Apollo and Artemis. But the terror of Chloris at the death of her brothers and sisters was so great, that she turned perfectly white, and was therefore called Chloris. She and her brother built the temple of Leto at Argos, which contained a statue of Chloris also (Paus. ii. 21.10). According to an Olympian legend, she once gained the prize in the footrace during the festival of Hera at Olympia (Paus. v. 16.3). Apollodorus (iii. 5.6) and Hyginus (Fab. 10, 69) confound her with Chloris, the wife of Neleus.
Chloris. The wife of Zephyrus, and the goddess of flowers, so that she is identical with the Roman Flora. (Ov. Fast. v. 195.) There are two more mythical personages of the name of Chloris. (Hygin. Fab. 14; Anton. Lib. 9.)
ΑΡΓΥΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΡΙΟ
Σέλεμνος. Σύμφωνα με το μύθο ο Σέλεμνος ήταν ένας όμορφος νέος που τον ερωτεύτηκε η θαλάσσια νύμφη Αργυρά. Οταν όμως ο Σέλεμνος έχασε την ομορφιά του η Αργυρά έπαψε να τον επισκέπτεται κι εκείνος πέθανε από τον καημό του. Η Αφροδίτη τότε τον έκανε ποτάμι και επειδή και με αυτή τη μορφή συνέχιζε να αγαπάει την Αργυρά του έκανε δώρο τη λησμονιά της αγάπης του. Οι ντόπιοι έλεγαν ότι τα νερά του Σελέμνου μπορούσαν να γιατρεύουν τους ανθρώπους από την αγάπη (Παυσ.7,23,1-2).
Αργυρά. Θαλάσσια νύμφη που σύμφωνα με το μύθο ερωτεύτηκε το Σέλευνο και τον έκανε να πεθάνει από τον καημό της αγάπης της εγκαταλείποντάς τον (Παυσ. 7,23,1-2).
ΑΧΕΛΩΟΣ (Ποταμός) ΑΙΤΩΛΟΑΚΑΡΝΑΝΙΑ
It was this silt (brought down by the Achelous) which in early times caused the country called Paracheloitis, which the river overflows, to be a subject of dispute, since it was always confusing the designated boundaries between the Acarnanians and the Aetolians; for they would decide the dispute by arms, since they had no arbitrators, and the more powerful of the two would win the victory; and this is the cause of the fabrication of a certain myth, telling how Heracles defeated Achelous and, as the prize of his victory, won the hand of Deianeira, the daughter of Oeneus, whom Sophocles represents as speaking as follows:
For my suitor was a river-god, I mean Achelous, who would demand me of my father in three shapes, coming now as a bull in bodily form, now as a gleaming serpent in coils, now with trunk of man and front of ox.
Some writers add to the myth, saying that this was the horn of Amaltheia, which Heracles broke off from Achelous and gave to Oeneus as a wedding gift. Others, conjecturing the truth from the myths, say that the Achelous, like the other rivers, was called "like a bull" from the roaring of its waters, and also from the the bendings of its streams, which were called Horns, and "like a serpent" because of its length and windings, and "with front of ox" for the same reason that he was called "bull-faced"; and that Heracles, who in general was inclined to deeds of kindness, but especially for Oeneus, since he was to ally himself with him by marriage, regulated the irregular flow of the river by means of embankments and channels, and thus rendered a considerable part of Paracheloitis dry, all to please Oeneus; and that this was the horn of Amaltheia.
ΑΧΙΛΛΙ (Οικισμός) ΣΚΥΡΟΣ
Η μητέρα του Αχιλλέα η Θέτιδα, έμαθε από χρησμό, ή το ήξερε σαν θεά
που ήταν, πως το παιδί της θα σκοτωθεί στον Τρωικό πόλεμο. Εκτός από τις άλλες
προφυλάξεις που πήρε, για να αντιστρέψει την μοίρα, τον έντυσε γυναίκα καιμε το
όνομα Πύρρα (ξανθιά), τον έκρυψε στο παλάτι του Λυκομήδη. Ο Αχιλλέας και η κόρη
του βασιλιά η Δηιδάμεια, δεν απέφυγαν τον έρωτα, και εξ αυτού γεννήθηκε ο Πύρρος
(ξανθός και αυτός), του οποίου η απόγονος, η Ολυμπιάδα, γέννησε τον Μέγα Αλέξανδρο.
Ο Αχιλλέας όμως δεν απέφυγε το πεπρωμένο. Ο μάντης ανακάλυψε που κρυβόταν και
οι Έλληνες έστειλαν τον Οδυσσέα να τον φέρει από την Σκύρο,
για να ηγηθεί στον πόλεμο με την Τροία
και να πάρουν πίσω την δική τους ωραία Ελένη. Ο Οδυσσέας, ο πολυμήχανος, μπήκε
στην αυλή του Λυκομήδη μεταμφιεσμένος σε έμπορο. Στο κάνιστρό του (πανέρι), είχε
κοσμήματα και όπλα. Οι γυναίκες διάλεξαν τα κοσμήματα αλλά ο Αχιλλέας, οδηγημένος
από τη φύση του, πήρε το σπαθί και έτσι αποκαλύφθηκε. Ξεκίνησε για την Τροία
και για τον ηρωικό του θάνατο, από το Αχίλλι, τον μικρό όρμο της Σκύρου
που σήμερα φέρει το όνομά του και ο Σκυριανός το δείχνει σήμερα στον ξένο με καμάρι.
Το κείμενο (απόσπασμα) παρατίθεται τον Ιούλιο 2003 από τουριστικό φυλλάδιο
του Δήμου Σκύρου.
ΒΕΡΜΙΟ (Βουνό) ΚΕΝΤΡΙΚΗ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ
Ο Ηρόδοτος παραδίδει (7,73. 8,138) ότι ξεκίνησε από το Βέρμιο και εγκαταστάθηκε στη Φρυγία.
ΒΙΣΤΩΝΙΑ (Αρχαία περιοχή) ΕΛΛΑΔΑ
Orpheus. A mythical personage, regarded by the
Greeks as the most celebrated of the early poets, who lived before the time of
Homer. His name does not occur in the Homeric or Hesiodic poems; but it had already
attained to great celebrity in the lyric period. There were numerous legends about
Orpheus, but the common story ran as follows: Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus and
Calliope, lived in Thrace at the period of the Argonauts, whom he accompanied
in their expedition. Presented with the lyre by Apollo and instructed by the Muses
in its use, he enchanted with its music not only the wild beasts, but the trees
and rocks upon Olympus, so that they moved from their places to follow the sound
of his golden harp. The power of his music caused the Argonauts to seek his aid,
which contributed materially to the success of their expedition; at the sound
of his lyre the Argo glided down into the sea; the Argonauts tore themselves away
from the pleasures of Lemnos; the Symplegades, or moving rocks, which threatened
to crush the ship between them, were fixed in their places; and the Colchian dragon,
which guarded the Golden Fleece, was lulled to sleep; other legends of the same
kind may be read in the Argonautica, which bears the name of Orpheus. After his
return from the Argonautic expedition he took up his abode in a cave in Thrace,
and employed himself in the civilization of its wild inhabitants. There is also
a legend of his having visited Egypt. The legends respecting the loss and recovery
of his wife, and his own death, are very various. His wife was a nymph named Agriope
or Eurydice. In the older accounts the cause of her death is not referred to.
The legend followed in the well-known passages of Vergil and Ovid, which ascribes
the death of Eurydice to the bite of a serpent, is no doubt of high antiquity;
but the introduction of Aristaeus into the legend cannot be traced to any writer
older than Vergil himself. He followed his lost wife into the abodes of Hades,
where the charms of his lyre suspended the torments of the damned, and won back
his wife from the most inexorable of all deities; but his prayer was only granted
upon this condition: that he should not look back upon his restored wife till
they arrived in the upper world; at the very moment when they were about to pass
the fatal bounds, the anxiety of love overcame the poet; he looked round to see
that Eurydice was following him; and he beheld her caught back into the infernal
regions. His grief for the loss of Eurydice led him to treat with contempt the
Thracian women, who, in revenge, tore him to pieces under the excitement of their
Bacchanalian orgies. After his death the Muses collected the fragments of his
body, and buried them at Libethra at the foot of Olympus, where the nightingale
sang sweetly over his grave. His head was thrown into the Hebrus, down which it
rolled to the sea, and was borne across to Lesbos, where the grave in which it
was interred was shown at Antissa. His lyre was also said to have been carried
to Lesbos; and both traditions are simply poetical expressions of the historical
fact that Lesbos was the first great seat of the music of the lyre; indeed, Antissa
itself was the birthplace of Terpander, the earliest historical musician. The
astronomers taught that the lyre of Orpheus was placed by Zeus among the stars
at the intercession of Apollo and the Muses.
Orpheus is spoken of as the first diviner, the first to employ
the rites of expiation, the inventor of letters and of the heroic metre--in fact,
as the first civilizer of early Thracia and Greece. In these legends there are
some points which are sufficiently clear. The invention of music, in connection
with the services of Apollo and the Muses, its first great application to the
worship of the gods, which Orpheus is therefore said to have introduced, its power
over the passions, and the importance which the Greeks attached to the knowledge
of it, as intimately allied with the very existence of all social order, are probably
the chief elementary ideas of the whole legend. But here comes in one of the dark
features of the Greek religion, in which the gods envy the advancement of man
in knowledge and civilization, and severely punish any one who transgresses the
bounds assigned to humanity. In a later age the conflict was no longer viewed
as between the gods and man, but between the worshippers of different divinities;
and especially between Apollo, the symbol of pure intellect, and Dionysus, the
deity of the senses; hence Orpheus, the servant of Apollo, falls a victim to the
jealousy of Dionysus and the fury of his worshippers. The story of Orpheus and
Eurydice is found in a reversed form in the ancient Keltic tale of the three daughters
of King O'Hara. may be mentioned the following poems: Wordsworth, The Power of
Music; Browning, Orpheus and Eurydice; W. Morris, Orpheus and the Sirens; R. Lowell,
Eurydice; Dowden, Eurydice; Gosse, The Waking of Eurydice; and R. Buchanan, Orpheus
the Musician.
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
Orpheus was the son of the river-god Oeagrus and the Muse Calliope.
He was born in Thracia, not
far from Mount Olympus where
the Muses too were born.
He was the most gifted of musicians, and was said to be the inventor
of the 9-string cithara (a number derived from that of the Muses). His songs were
so sweet that they would tame wild beasts and rugged men and bend branches from
trees. Orpheus took part in the expedition of the Argonauts. Being too soft to
row, he would keep the rowers in rythm with his songs and, because they were even
sweeter than those of the Sirens, he saved his companions from them. He also managed,
during an early stop in that island, to have them all initiated to the mysteries
of Samothrace, of which he
was already himself an initiate.
Orpheus' wife was Eurydice, a Dryad. One day she was wandering along
a creek in Thracia, she was
bitten by a snake hiding in the grass and died. So aggrieved was Orpheus that
he descended into Hades to try and recover his beloved wife. With his music, he
managed to subdue the monsters at the gates and the gods within. Hades and Persephone
agreed to let Eurydice go provided she walked behind Orpheus and he didn't try
to look at her till he had returned to the world above. Unfortunately, just before
reaching the light of day, Orpheus, tortured by doudt, looked behind, and instantly,
Eurydice died for the second time, this time forever and there was nothing Orpheus
could do to help it.
Back on earth, Orpheus was so sad that he didn't want to have anything
to do with women again. This is why Thracian women, angered at being so despised,
decided one day to kill him, teared his body apart and threw the pieces into a
river that brought them to the sea. And, so the story goes, his head and lyre
eventually landed into the island of Lesbos,
where the residents buried them with great honor. And it was said that, from the
tomb, the song of a lyre could sometime be heard. This explains why the island
of Lesbos was the center of
lyric poetry (Mytilene, the
main city on that island, was the birthplace of the poets Alceus and Sappho, among
others).
After Orpheus' death, his lyre became the constellation by that name
in heaven, and his soul was transported to the Elysium where he keeps singing
for the Blessed. The legend of Orpheus gave birth, in the VIth century B. C.,
to mystery cults supposed to transmit the revelations that Orpheus himself was
supposed to have brought back from his descent into Hades. Orphism later became
mingled with the Eleusinian Mysteries and with Pythagoreanism.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Eurydice. The beautiful nymph-wife of Orfeus, who was bitten by a snake while
running away from Aristaeus, a son of Apollo. The desperate husband then descended
to Hades, and begged the god of Death to release her. Hades was so touched by
Orpheus' music, that he agreed on the condition that Orpheus would not look back
at her during the ascent. Almost back in the world of the living, Orpheus could
no longer hear Eurydices footsteps behind him, and could not resist turning around,
only to see his wife screaming being pulled back into the underworld.
Orpheus, mortified by grief wandered aimlessly around the forests
where a crowd of maenads attacked him and tore him to pieces. His head fell into
a river, still singing laments after his lost wife. It finally floated to Lesbos,
where the Muses buried it.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
ΓΟΡΤΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΟ
According to Persians story, some Greeks (they cannot say who) landed at Tyre in Phoenicia and carried off the king's daughter Europa. These Greeks must, I suppose, have been Cretans.
Λάβετε το καθημερινό newsletter με τα πιο σημαντικά νέα της τουριστικής βιομηχανίας.
Εγγραφείτε τώρα!
