Νεμέας, a valley in Argolis, about three miles S.W. of Cleonae, four and a half S. E. of Phlius, and eleven N. of Argos. The lion is described by Hesiod ( Th.331) as “κοιρανέων Τρητοῖο Νεμείης ἠδ᾽ Ἀπέσαντος”, Treton and Apesas being mountains which partly enclose the valley. It was in “Τρητόν” (‘the caverned’) that the monster had his den. Pindar calls Nemea the “χόρτοι λέοντος” (Ol. 13. 44); also “Διὸς ἄλσος” (N. 2. 9), from its temple of Zeus, in a cypress-grove. ἀλάστορα ( O. C.788 n.), as Hesiod calls him “πῆμ᾽ ἀνθρώποις” ( Th.329).— ἄπλατον=“ἀπέλαστον”, unapproachable: cp. Pind. P.12. 9“ἀπλάτοις ὀφίων κεφαλαῖς.—ἀπροσήγορον”, lit., ‘not affable,’— boldly applied to the intractable beast with which men can establish no relations. The word has here much the sense of “ἀπρόσοιστον”: cp. Soph. O. C.1277“τὸ δυσπρόσοιστον κἀπροσήγορον στόμα”. Vergil's description of the Cyclops has been quoted ( Aen.3. 621), Nec visu facilis nec dictu affabilis ulli; but Polyphemus could speak.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part V: The Trachiniae. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1902.
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