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[326] With Maera, Clymene, and Eriphyle the story returns to Boeotian legend, the continuity of which we supposed to have been broken by the interpolation of later rhapsodists or editors. Maera, says Pherecydes, ap. Schol., was “ἡ Προίτου θυγάτηρ καὶ Ἀντείας, κάλλει διαπρεπεστάτη. ταύτης” “ἐρασθεὶς Ζεὺς ἀφικνεῖται ὡς αὐτὴν καὶ λανθάνων διαφθείρει: ἡ δὲ ἔγκυος γενομένη τίκτει Λοκρὸν τὸ ὄνομα παῖδα, ὃς Θήβας μετ᾽ Ἀμφίονος καὶ Ζήθου οἰκίζει”. She is represented as having been a nymph of Artemis and having been slain by the goddess for her amour with Zeus. The name “Μαῖρα” is probably connected with the root “μαρ”, and means ‘brilliant.’

Clymene was a daughter of Minyas, wife of Phylacus, and mother of Iphiclus. Her name is common in Minyan legend; there is a Clymene, daughter of a Minyas and mother of Atalanta; an Eteoclymene, a Periclymene, in the same family; and a Clymenus, king of the Minyae.

Eriphyle was wife of Amphiaraus of Argos, but her story is closely connected with Theban legend; for Amphiaraus, though desirous of taking no part in the expedition to Thebes, which he knew would prove fatal to him, was overpersuaded by his wife Eriphyle, who had been bribed with the gift of a golden necklace by Polynices. Amphiaraus was on the point of being slain in the war, when Zeus clave the ground asunder with his thunderbolt, and engulfed Amphiaraus with his chariot and horses. There was an oracle of Amphiaraus established near Thebes, but afterwards removed to the neighbourhood of Oropus: cp. Od.15. 244.The whole story was narrated in one of the Cyclic epics called “Ἀμφιαράου ἐξέλασις”, which, according to current tradition, was composed in Boeotia by Homer himself.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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