9.
Of the sons of Aeolus, Athamas ruled over Boeotia and begat a son Phrixus and a daughter Helle by Nephele.1 And he married a second
wife, Ino, by whom he had Learchus and Melicertes. But Ino plotted against the children of
Nephele and persuaded the women to parch the wheat; and having got the wheat they did so
without the knowledge of the men. But the earth, being sown with parched wheat, did not
yield its annual crops; so Athamas sent to Delphi to inquire how he might be delivered from the dearth. Now Ino
persuaded the messengers to say it was foretold that the infertility would cease if
Phrixus were sacrificed to Zeus. When Athamas heard that, he was forced by the inhabitants
of the land to bring Phrixus to the altar. But Nephele caught him and her daughter up and
gave them a ram with a golden fleece, which she had received from Hermes, and borne
through the sky by the ram they crossed land and sea. But when they were over
the sea which lies betwixt Sigeum and the Chersonese, Helle slipped into the deep and was drowned, and the sea was
called Hellespont after her. But Phrixus came to
the Colchians, whose king was Aeetes, son of the Sun and of Perseis, and brother of Circe
and Pasiphae, whom Minos married. He received Phrixus and gave him one of his daughters,
Chalciope. And Phrixus sacrificed the ram with the golden fleece to Zeus the god of
Escape, and the fleece he gave to Aeetes, who nailed it to an oak in a grove of Ares. And
Phrixus had children by Chalciope, to wit, Argus, Melas, Phrontis, and Cytisorus.
[2]
But afterwards Athamas was bereft also of the children of Ino through the wrath of Hera;
for he went mad and shot Learchus with an arrow, and Ino cast herself and Melicertes into
the sea.2 Being banished from Boeotia, Athamas inquired of the god where he should dwell, and on receiving
an oracle that he should dwell in whatever place he should be entertained by wild beasts,
he traversed a great extent of country till he fell in with wolves that were devouring
pieces of sheep; but when they saw him they abandoned their prey and fled. So Athamas
settled in that country and named it Athamantia after himself;3 and
he married Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, and begat Leucon, Erythrius, Schoeneus, and
Ptous.
[3]
And Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, founded Ephyra,
which is now called Corinth,4 and married Merope, daughter of
Atlas. They had a son Glaucus, who had by Eurymede a son Bellerophon, who slew the fire
breathing Chimera.5 But Sisyphus is
punished in Hades by rolling a stone with his hands and head in the effort to heave it
over the top; but push it as he will, it rebounds backward.6 This punishment he
endures for the sake of Aegina, daughter of
Asopus; for when Zeus had secretly carried her off, Sisyphus is said to have betrayed the
secret to Asopus, who was looking for her.
[4]
Deion reigned over Phocis and married Diomede,
daughter of Xuthus; and there were born to him a daughter, Asterodia, and sons, Aenetus,
Actor, Phylacus, and Cephalus, who married Procris, daughter of Erechtheus.7 But afterwards Dawn fell
in love with him and carried him off.
[5]
Perieres took possession of Messene and
married Gorgophone, daughter of Perseus, by whom he had sons, to wit, Aphareus and
Leucippus,8 and Tyndareus, and also Icarius. But many say that Perieres was not the son of Aeolus but of
Cynortas, son of Amyclas;9 so we shall narrate the history of the descendants of
Perieres in dealing with the family of Atlas.
[6]
Magnes married a Naiad nymph, and sons were born to him, Polydectes and Dictys; these
colonized Seriphus.
[7]
Salmoneus at first dwelt in Thessaly, but
afterwards he came to Elis and there founded a
city.10 And being arrogant and
wishful to put himself on an equality with Zeus, he was punished for his impiety; for he
said that he was himself Zeus, and he took away the sacrifices of the god and ordered them
to be offered to himself; and by dragging dried hides, with bronze kettles, at his
chariot, he said that he thundered, and by flinging lighted torches at the sky he said
that he lightened. But Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt, and wiped out the city he had
founded with all its inhabitants.11
[8]
Now Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus and Alcidice, was brought up by Cretheus, brother of
Salmoneus, and conceived a passion for the river Enipeus, and often would she hie to its
running waters and utter her plaint to them. But Poseidon in the likeness of
Enipeus lay with her,12 and she secretly gave birth to twin sons, whom she
exposed. As the babes lay forlorn, a mare, belonging to some passing horsekeepers, kicked
with its hoof one of the two infants and left a livid mark on its face. The horsekeeper
took up both the children and reared them; and the one with the livid （pelion） mark he called Pelias, and the other Neleus.13
When they were grown up, they discovered their mother and killed their stepmother Sidero.
For knowing that their mother was ill-used by her, they attacked her, but before they
could catch her she had taken refuge in the precinct of Hera.14 However, Pelias cut her down on the very altars,
and ever after he continued to treat Hera with contumely.
[9]
But afterwards the brothers fell out, and Neleus, being banished, came to Messene, and founded Pylus, and married Chloris,15 daughter of Amphion, by whom he had a
daughter, Pero, and sons, to wit, Taurus,
Asterius, Pylaon, Deimachus, Eurybius, Epilaus, Phrasius, Eurymenes, Evagoras, Alastor,
Nestor and Periclymenus, whom Poseidon granted the power of changing his shape. And when
Hercules was ravaging Pylus, in the fight Periclymenus turned himself into a lion, a
snake, and a bee, but was slain by Hercules with the other sons of Neleus. Nestor alone
was saved, because he was brought up among the Gerenians.16 He married Anaxibia, daughter of
Cratieus,17 and begat daughters, Pisidice and Polycaste, and sons,
Perseus, Stratichus, Aretus, Echephron, Pisistratus, Antilochus, and Thrasymedes.
[10]
But Pelias dwelt in Thessaly and married
Anaxibia, daughter of Bias, but according to some his wife was Phylomache, daughter of
Amphion; and he begat a son, Acastus, and daughters, Pisidice,
Pelopia, Hippothoe, and Alcestis.18
[11]
Cretheus founded Iolcus and married Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus, by whom he
had sons, Aeson, Amythaon, and Pheres.19 Amythaon dwelt in Pylus and married Idomene, daughter of Pheres,
and there were born to him two sons, Bias and Melampus. The latter lived in the country,
and before his house there was an oak, in which there was a lair of snakes. His servants
killed the snakes, but Melampus gathered wood and burnt the reptiles, and reared the young
ones. And when the young were full grown, they stood beside him at each of his shoulders
as he slept, and they purged his ears with their tongues. He started up in a great fright,
but understood the voices of the birds flying overhead, and from what he learned from them
he foretold to men what should come to pass.20 He acquired besides the art of
taking the auspices, and having fallen in with Apollo at the Alpheus he was ever after an
excellent soothsayer.
[12]
Bias wooed Pero, daughter of Neleus.21 But as there were many
suitors for his daughter's hand, Neleus said that he would give her to him who
should bring him the kine of Phylacus. These were in Phylace, and they were guarded by a dog which neither man nor beast could
come near. Unable to steal these kine, Bias invited his brother to help him. Melampus
promised to do so, and foretold that he should be detected in the act of stealing them,
and that he should get the kine after being kept in bondage for a year. After making this
promise he repaired to Phylace and, just as
he had foretold, he was detected in the theft and kept a prisoner in a cell. When the year
was nearly up, he heard the worms in the hidden part of the roof, one of them asking how
much of the beam had been already gnawed through, and others answering that very little of
it was left. At once he bade them transfer him to another cell, and not long after that
had been done the cell fell in. Phylacus marvelled, and perceiving that he was an
excellent soothsayer, he released him and invited him to say how his son Iphiclus might
get children. Melampus promised to tell him, provided he got the kine. And having
sacrificed two bulls and cut them in pieces he summoned the birds; and when a vulture
came, he learned from it that once, when Phylacus was gelding rams, he laid down the
knife, still bloody, beside Iphiclus, and that when the child was frightened and ran away,
he stuck the knife on the sacred oak,22 and the bark encompassed the knife and hid it. He said, therefore, that if the knife
were found, and he scraped off the rust, and gave it to Iphiclus to drink for ten days, he
would beget a son. Having learned these things from the vulture, Melampus found the knife,
scraped the rust, and gave it to Iphiclus for ten days to drink, and a son Podarces was
born to him.23 But he drove the kine to Pylus, and having
received the daughter of Neleus he gave her to his brother. For a time he continued to
dwell in Messene, but when Dionysus drove the
women of Argos mad, he healed them on condition
of receiving part of the kingdom, and settled down there with Bias.24
[13]
Bias and Pero had a son Talaus, who married
Lysimache, daughter of Abas, son of Melampus, and had by her Adrastus, Parthenopaeus,
Pronax, Mecisteus, Aristomachus, and Eriphyle, whom Amphiaraus married. Parthenopaeus had
a son Promachus, who marched with the Epigoni against Thebes;25 and Mecisteus had a son Euryalus, who
went to Troy.26 Pronax had a son Lycurgus;
and Adrastus had by Amphithea, daughter of Pronax, three daughters, Argia, Deipyle, and
Aegialia, and two sons, Aegialeus and Cyanippus.
[14]
Pheres, son of Cretheus, founded Pherae in Thessaly and begat Admetus and Lycurgus. Lycurgus took up his abode at
Nemea, and having married Eurydice, or, as
some say, Amphithea, he begat Opheltes, afterwards called Archemorus.27
[15]
When Admetus reigned over Pherae, Apollo served him as
his thrall,28 while Admetus wooed Alcestis, daughter of Pelias. Now
Pelias had promised to give his daughter to him who should yoke a lion and a boar to a
car, and Apollo yoked and gave them to Admetus, who brought them to Pelias and so obtained
Alcestis.29 But in offering a sacrifice at his marriage, he forgot to sacrifice to
Artemis; therefore when he opened the marriage chamber he found it full of coiled snakes.
Apollo bade him appease the goddess and obtained as a favour of the Fates that, when
Admetus should be about to die, he might be released from death if someone should choose
voluntarily to die for him. And when the day of his death came neither his father nor his
mother would die for him, but Alcestis died in his stead. But the Maiden30 sent her up again, or, as some say,
Hercules fought with Hades and brought her up to him.31
[16]
Aeson, son of Cretheus, had a son Jason by Polymede, daughter of Autolycus. Now Jason
dwelt in Iolcus, of which Pelias was king after Cretheus.32 But when Pelias consulted the oracle
concerning the kingdom, the god warned him to beware of the man with a single sandal. At
first the king understood not the oracle, but afterwards he apprehended it. For when he
was offering a sacrifice at the sea to Poseidon, he sent for Jason, among many others, to
participate in it. Now Jason loved husbandry and therefore abode in the country, but he
hastened to the sacrifice, and in crossing the river Anaurus he lost a sandal in the
stream and landed with only one. When Pelias saw him, he bethought him of the oracle, and
going up to Jason asked him what, supposing he had the power, he would do if he had
received an oracle that he should be murdered by one of the citizens. Jason answered,
whether at haphazard or instigated by the angry Hera in order that Medea should prove a
curse to Pelias, who did not honor Hera, “ I would command him,” said
he, “ to bring the Golden Fleece. ” No sooner did Pelias hear that
than he bade him go in quest of the fleece. Now it was at Colchis in a grove of Ares, hanging on an oak and guarded by a sleepless
dragon.33
Sent to fetch the fleece, Jason called in the help of Argus, son of Phrixus; and Argus,
by Athena's advice, built a ship of fifty oars named
Argo after its builder; and at the prow Athena fitted in a
speaking timber from the oak of Dodona.34 When the ship was
built, and he inquired of the oracle, the god gave him leave to assemble the nobles of
Greece and sail away. And those who assembled
were as follows:35 Tiphys, son of Hagnias, who
steered the ship; Orpheus, son of Oeagrus; Zetes and
Calais, sons of Boreas; Castor and Pollux, sons of Zeus; Telamon and Peleus,
sons of Aeacus; Hercules, son of Zeus; Theseus, son of Aegeus; Idas and Lynceus, sons of
Aphareus; Amphiaraus, son of Oicles; Caeneus, son of Coronus; Palaemon, son of Hephaestus
or of Aetolus; Cepheus, son of Aleus; Laertes
son of Arcisius; Autolycus, son of Hermes; Atalanta, daughter of Schoeneus; Menoetius, son
of Actor; Actor, son of Hippasus; Admetus, son of Pheres; Acastus, son of Pelias; Eurytus,
son of Hermes; Meleager, son of Oeneus; Ancaeus, son of Lycurgus; Euphemus, son of
Poseidon; Poeas, son of Thaumacus; Butes, son of Teleon; Phanus and Staphylus, sons of
Dionysus; Erginus, son of Poseidon; Periclymenus, son of Neleus; Augeas, son of the Sun;
Iphiclus, son of Thestius; Argus, son of Phrixus; Euryalus, son of Mecisteus; Peneleos,
son of Hippalmus; Leitus, son of Alector; Iphitus, son of Naubolus; Ascalaphus
and Ialmenus, sons of Ares; Asterius, son of Cometes; Polyphemus, son of Elatus.
[17]
These with Jason as admiral put to sea and touched at Lemnos.36 At that time it chanced that Lemnos was bereft of men and ruled over by a queen, Hypsipyle, daughter of
Thoas, the reason of which was as follows. The Lemnian women did not honor Aphrodite, and
she visited them with a noisome smell; therefore their spouses took captive women from the
neighboring country of Thrace and bedded with
them. Thus dishonored, the Lemnian women murdered their fathers and husbands, but
Hypsipyle alone saved her father Thoas by hiding him. So having put in to Lemnos, at that time ruled by women, the Argonauts had
intercourse with the women, and Hypsipyle bedded with Jason and bore sons, Euneus and
Nebrophonus.
[18]
And after Lemnos they landed among the Doliones,
of whom Cyzicus was king.37 He received them kindly. But having put to sea
from there by night and met with contrary winds, they lost their bearings and landed again
among the Doliones. However, the Doliones, taking them for a Pelasgian army
（ for they were constantly harassed by the Pelasgians）, joined battle
with them by night in mutual ignorance of each other. The Argonauts slew many and among
the rest Cyzicus; but by day, when they knew what they had done, they mourned and cut off
their hair and gave Cyzicus a costly burial;38 and after the burial they sailed away and
touched at Mysia.39
[19]
There they left Hercules and Polyphemus. For Hylas, son of Thiodamas, a minion of
Hercules, had been sent to draw water and was ravished away by nymphs on account of his
beauty.40 But Polyphemus heard him
cry out, and drawing his sword gave chase in the belief that he was being carried off by
robbers. Falling in with Hercules, he told him; and while the two were seeking for Hylas,
the ship put to sea. So Polyphemus founded a city Cius in Mysia and reigned as king;41 but Hercules returned to Argos. However Herodorus says that Hercules did not sail
at all at that time, but served as a slave at the court of Omphale. But Pherecydes says
that he was left behind at Aphetae in
Thessaly, the
Argo having declared with human voice that she could not bear his
weight. Nevertheless Demaratus has recorded that Hercules sailed to Colchis; for Dionysius even affirms that he was the leader
of the Argonauts.42
[20]
From Mysia they departed to the land of the
Bebryces, which was ruled by King Amycus, son of Poseidon and a Bithynian nymph.43 Being a doughty
man he compelled the strangers that landed to box and in that way made an end of them. So
going to the Argo as usual, he challenged the
best man of the crew to a boxing match. Pollux undertook to box against him and killed him
with a blow on the elbow. When the Bebryces made a rush at him, the chiefs snatched up
their arms and put them to flight with great slaughter.
[21]
Thence they put to sea and came to land at Salmydessus in Thrace, where dwelt Phineus, a seer who had lost the sight of both
eyes.44
Some say he was a son of Agenor,45 but others
that he was a son of Poseidon, and he is variously alleged to have been blinded by the
gods for foretelling men the future; or by Boreas and the Argonauts because he blinded his
own sons at the instigation of their stepmother;46 or by Poseidon,
because he revealed to the children of Phrixus how they could sail from Colchis to Greece. The gods also sent the Harpies to him. These were winged female
creatures, and when a table was laid for Phineus, they flew down from the sky and snatched
up most of the victuals, and what little they left stank so that nobody could touch it.
When the Argonauts would have consulted him about the voyage, he said that he would advise
them about it if they would rid him of the Harpies. So the Argonauts laid a table of
viands beside him, and the Harpies with a shriek suddenly pounced down and snatched away
the food. When Zetes and Calais, the sons of
Boreas, saw that, they drew their swords and, being winged, pursued them through the air.
Now it was fated that the Harpies should perish by the sons of Boreas, and that the sons
of Boreas should die when they could not catch up a fugitive. So the Harpies were pursued
and one of them fell into the river Tigres in Peloponnese, the river that is now called Harpys after her; some call her
Nicothoe, but others Aellopus. But the other, named Ocypete or, according to others,
Ocythoe （ but Hesiod calls her Ocypode）47 fled by the
Propontis till she came to the Echinadian Islands, which are now called Strophades after
her; for when she came to them she turned （estraphe） and being at the shore fell for very weariness with her pursuer.
But Apollonius in the Argonautica says that the Harpies were pursued
to the Strophades Islands and suffered no harm, having sworn an oath that they would wrong
Phineus no more.48
[22]
Being rid of the Harpies, Phineus revealed to the Argonauts the course of their voyage,
and advised them about the Clashing Rocks49 in the sea. These were huge cliffs,
which, dashed together by the force of the winds, closed the sea passage. Thick was the
mist that swept over them, and loud the crash, and it was impossible for even the birds to
pass between them. So he told them to let fly a dove between the rocks, and, if they saw
it pass safe through, to thread the narrows with an easy mind, but if they saw it perish,
then not to force a passage. When they heard that, they put to sea, and on nearing the
rocks let fly a dove from the prow, and as she flew the clash of the rocks nipped off the
tip of her tail. So, waiting till the rocks had recoiled, with hard rowing and the help of
Hera, they passed through, the extremity of the ship's ornamented poop being
shorn away right round. Henceforth the Clashing Rocks stood still; for it was fated that,
so soon as a ship had made the passage, they should come to rest completely.
[23]
The Argonauts now arrived among the Mariandynians, and there King Lycus received them
kindly.50 There died Idmon the seer of a
wound inflicted by a boar;51 and there too died Tiphys, and
Ancaeus undertook to steer the ship.52
And having sailed past the Thermodon and the Caucasus they came to the river Phasis, which is in the Colchian land.53 When the ship was brought into port, Jason repaired to
Aeetes, and setting forth the charge laid on him by Pelias invited him to give him the
fleece. The other promised to give it if single-handed he would yoke the brazen-footed
bulls. These were two wild bulls that he had, of enormous size, a gift of Hephaestus; they
had brazen feet and puffed fire from their mouths. These creatures Aeetes ordered him to
yoke and to sow dragon's teeth; for he had got from Athena half of the dragon's teeth
which Cadmus sowed in Thebes.54 While Jason puzzled how he could yoke the bulls, Medea
conceived a passion for him; now she was a witch, daughter of Aeetes and Idyia, daughter
of Ocean. And fearing lest he might be destroyed by the bulls, she, keeping the thing from
her father, promised to help him to yoke the bulls and to deliver to him the fleece, if he
would swear to have her to wife and would take her with him on the voyage to Greece. When Jason swore to do so, she gave him a drug
with which she bade him anoint his shield, spear, and body when he was about to yoke the
bulls; for she said that, anointed with it, he could for a single day be harmed neither by
fire nor by iron. And she signified to him that, when the teeth were sown, armed men would
spring up from the ground against him; and when he saw a knot of them he was to throw
stones into their midst from a distance, and when they fought each other about that, he
was taken to kill them.55 On hearing that, Jason anointed
himself with the drug,56 and being come to the grove of the temple he sought the bulls, and though they
charged him with a flame of fire, he yoked them.57 And when he had sowed the teeth, there rose armed men from the ground; and where
he saw several together, he pelted them unseen with stones, and when they fought each
other he drew near and slew them.58 But though the bulls were yoked, Aeetes did
not give the fleece; for he wished to burn down the
Argo and kill the crew. But before he could do so, Medea brought Jason by
night to the fleece, and having lulled to sleep by her drugs the dragon that guarded it,
she possessed herself of the fleece and in Jason's company came to the
Argo.59 She was attended, too, by her brother Apsyrtus.60 And with them the
Argonauts put to sea by night.
[24]
When Aeetes discovered the daring deeds done by Medea, he started off in pursuit of the
ship; but when she saw him near, Medea murdered her brother and cutting him limb from limb
threw the pieces into the deep. Gathering the child's limbs, Aeetes fell behind in the
pursuit; wherefore he turned back, and, having buried the rescued limbs of his child, he
called the place Tomi. But he sent out many of
the Colchians to search for the Argo, threatening
that, if they did not bring Medea to him, they should suffer the punishment due to her; so
they separated and pursued the search in divers places.
When the Argonauts were already sailing past the Eridanus river, Zeus sent a furious
storm upon them, and drove them out of their course, because he was angry at
the murder of Apsyrtus. And as they were sailing past the Apsyrtides Islands, the ship
spoke, saying that the wrath of Zeus would not cease unless they journeyed to Ausonia and
were purified by Circe for the murder of Apsyrtus.61 So when they had sailed past the Ligurian and Celtic nations and had
voyaged through the Sardinian Sea, they skirted Tyrrhenia and came to Aeaea, where they
supplicated Circe and were purified.62
[25]
And as they sailed past the Sirens,63 Orpheus restrained the
Argonauts by chanting a counter-melody. Butes alone swam off to the Sirens, but Aphrodite
carried him away and settled him in Lilybaeum.
After the Sirens, the ship encountered Charybdis and Scylla and the Wandering Rocks,64 above which a great flame and
smoke were seen rising. But Thetis with the Nereids steered the ship through them at the
summons of Hera.
Having passed by the Island of Thrinacia, where are the kine of the Sun,65 they came to
Corcyra, the island of the Phaeacians, of which
Alcinous was king.66 But when the Colchians could not
find the ship, some of them settled at the Ceraunian mountains, and some
journeyed to Illyria and colonized the Apsyrtides
Islands. But some came to the Phaeacians, and finding the
Argo there, they demanded of Alcinous that he should give up Medea. He
answered, that if she already knew Jason, he would give her to him, but that if she were
still a maid he would send her away to her father.67 However, Arete, wife of Alcinous, anticipated matters by marrying
Medea to Jason;68 hence the
Colchians settled down among the Phaeacians69 and the Argonauts put to sea with
Medea.
[26]
Sailing by night they encountered a violent storm, and Apollo, taking his stand on the
Melantian ridges, flashed lightning down, shooting a shaft into the sea. Then they
perceived an island close at hand, and anchoring there they named it Anaphe, because it
had loomed up （anaphanenai） unexpectedly. So they
founded an altar of Radiant Apollo, and having offered sacrifice they betook them to
feasting; and twelve handmaids, whom Arete had given to Medea, jested merrily with the
chiefs; whence it is still customary for the women to jest at the sacrifice70.
Putting to sea from there, they were hindered from touching at Crete by Talos.71 Some say
that he was a man of the Brazen Race, others that he was given to Minos by Hephaestus; he
was a brazen man, but some say that he was a bull. He had a single vein extending from his
neck to his ankles, and a bronze nail was rammed home at the end of the vein. This Talos
kept guard, running round the island thrice every day; wherefore, when he saw the
Argo standing inshore, he pelted it as usual
with stones. His death was brought about by the wiles of Medea, whether, as some say, she
drove him mad by drugs, or, as others say, she promised to make him immortal and then drew
out the nail, so that all the ichor gushed out and he died. But some say that Poeas shot
him dead in the ankle.
After tarrying a single night there they put in to Aegina to draw water, and a contest arose among them concerning the drawing
of the water.72 Thence they sailed
betwixt Euboea and Locris and came to Iolcus, having completed the whole voyage
in four months.
[27]
Now Pelias, despairing of the return of the Argonauts, would have killed Aeson; but he
requested to be allowed to take his own life, and in offering a sacrifice drank freely of
the bull's blood and died.73 And Jason's mother cursed Pelias and hanged herself,74 leaving behind an infant son Promachus; but Pelias slew
even the son whom she had left behind.75 On his return Jason surrendered the fleece, but though he longed
to avenge his wrongs he bided his time. At that time he sailed with the chiefs to the
Isthmus and dedicated the ship to Poseidon, but afterwards he exhorted Medea to devise how
he could punish Pelias. So she repaired to the palace of Pelias and persuaded his
daughters to make mince meat of their father and boil him, promising to make him young
again by her drugs; and to win their confidence she cut up a ram and made it into a lamb
by boiling it. So they believed her, made mince meat of their father and boiled him.76 But Acastus buried his father with
the help of the inhabitants of Iolcus, and he expelled Jason and Medea from
Iolcus.
[28]
They went to Corinth, and lived there
happily for ten years, till Creon, king of Corinth, betrothed his daughter Glauce to Jason, who married her and divorced
Medea. But she invoked the gods by whom Jason had sworn, and after often upbraiding him
with his ingratitude she sent the bride a robe steeped in poison, which when Glauce had
put on, she was consumed with fierce fire along with her father, who went to her
rescue.77 But Mermerus and Pheres, the children whom Medea had by Jason,
she killed, and having got from the Sun a car drawn by winged dragons she fled on it to
Athens.78 Another tradition is that on her flight she left behind her children, who
were still infants, setting them as suppliants on the altar of Hera of the
Height; but the Corinthians removed them and wounded them to death.79
Medea came to Athens, and being there married
to Aegeus bore him a son Medus. Afterwards, however, plotting against Theseus, she was
driven a fugitive from Athens with her
son.80 But he
conquered many barbarians and called the whole country under him Media,81 and marching against the Indians he
met his death. And Medea came unknown to Colchis,
and finding that Aeetes had been deposed by his brother Perses, she killed Perses and
restored the kingdom to her father.82
1 For the story of Athamas, Phrixus, and Helle, see Zenobius, Cent. iv.38; Apostolius, Cent. xi.58; Scholiast on Aristoph. Cl. 257; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 22; Eustathius on Hom. Il. vii.86, p. 667; Scholiast on Hom. Il. vii.86; Diod. 4.47; Hyginus, Fab. 1-3; Hyginus, Ast. ii.20; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Achill. i.65; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 8, 120ff. (First Vatican Mythographer 23; Second Vatican Mythographer 134). According to Herodotus （Hdt. 7.197）, it was a rule among the descendants of Phrixus that the eldest son of the family should be sacrificed （apparently to Laphystian Zeus） if ever he entered the town-hall; hence, to escape the risk of such a fate, many of the family fled to foreign lands. Sophocles wrote a tragedy called Athamas, in which he represented the king himself crowned with garlands and led to the altar of Zeus to be sacrificed, but finally rescued by the interposition of Herakles （Scholiast on Aristoph. Cl. 237; Apostolius, Cent. xi.58; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, i.1ff.）. These traditions point to the conclusion that in the royal line of Athamas the eldest son was regularly liable to be sacrificed either to prevent or to remedy a failure of the crops, and that in later times a ram was commonly accepted as a substitute for the human victim. Compare The Dying God, pp. 161ff.
2 Compare Zenobius, Cent. iv.38; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 229; Scholiast on Hom. Il. vii.86; Eust. on Hom. Il. vii.86, p. 667; Eust. on Hom. Od. v.339, p. 1543; Paus. 1.44.7ff.; Paus. 9.34.7; Ov. Met. 4.481-542; Hyginus, Fab. 4, 5. Euripides wrote a tragedy, Ino, of which a number of fragments remain. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 482ff. It is said that Hera drove Athamas mad because she was angry with him for receiving from Hermes the infant Dionysus and bringing him up as a girl. See Apollod. 3.4.3; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 22.
3 Compare Scholiast on Plat. Minos 315c; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 22; Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. Ἀθαμάντιον, p. 24.10. According to the last of these writers, Athamantia was a plain in Thessaly.
4 Compare Hom. Il. 6.152ff.; Paus. 2.1.1.
5 As to Bellerophon and the Chimera, see Apollod. 2.3.1, with the note.
6 As to Sisyphus and his stone, see Hom. Od. 11.593-600. Homer does not say why Sisyphus was thus punished, but Paus. 2.5.1 and the Scholiast on Hom. Il. i.180 agree with Apollodorus as to the crime which incurred this punishment. Hyginus assigns impiety as the cause of his sufferings （Hyginus, Fab. 60）. The picturesque story of this cunning knave, who is said to have laid Death himself by the heels, so that nobody died till Ares released Death and delivered Sisyphus himself into his clutches （Scholiast on Hom. Il. vi.153）, was the theme of plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 74ff., 251, 572; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 184ff. Critias, one of the Thirty Tyrants at Athens, is credited with a play on the same theme, of which a very striking fragment, giving a wholly sceptical view of the origin of the belief in gods, has come down to us. See Sextus Empiricus, ed. Bekker, pp. 402ff.; TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 771ff.
7 Compare Apollod. 2.4.7, Apollod. 3.15.1. As to the love of Dawn or Day for Cephalus, see Hes. Th. 986ff.; Paus. 1.3.1; Ant. Lib. 41; Ov. Met. 7.700-713; Hyginus, Fab. 189, 270.
8 Compare Paus. 4.2.2 and Paus. 4.2.4.
9 See below, Paus. 3.10.3.
10 Compare Diod. 4.68.1. His city was called Salmone. See Strab. 7.3.31-32; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Σαλμώνη.
11 Compare Verg. A. 6.585ff. with the commentary of Servius; Hyginus, Fab. 61; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 28, 93 (First Vatican Mythographer 82; Second Vatican Mythographer 56). In the traditions concerning Salmoneus we may perhaps trace the reminiscence of a line of kings who personated the Skygod Zeus and attempted to make rain, thunder and lightning by means of imitative magic. See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i.310, ii.177, 180ff. Sophocles composed a Satyric play on the subject （The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 177ff. ）.
12 As to the passion of Tyro for the river Enipeus, see Hom. Od. 11.235ff.; Lucian, Dial. Marin. 13; Diod. 4.68.3; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xi.234, p. 1681. Sophocles wrote two plays, both called Tyro, on the romantic love and sorrows of this heroine. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 272ff.; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 270ff.
13 As to the exposure and discovery of the twins Pelias and Neleus, see Menander, Epitrepontes 108-116 (Four Plays of Menander, ed. E. Capps, pp. 60ff.); Scholiast on Hom. Il. x.334; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xi.253, p. 1681. According to Eustathius and the Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.253, Pelias was suckled by a mare and Neleus by a bitch. Compare Ael., Var. Hist. xii.42. Aristotle says （Aristot. Poet. 1454b 25） that in Sophocles's play Tyro the recognition of the forsaken babes was effected by means of the ark （σκάφη） in which they were found. Menander seems to have followed a somewhat different tradition, for he says that the children were found by an old goatherd, and that the token by which they were recognized was a small scrip or wallet （πηρίδιον）. The legend of the exposed twins, the children of a divine father by a human mother, who were suckled by animals, reared by a peasant, and grew up to quarrel about a kingdom, presents points of resemblance to the legend of Romulus and Remus; and it has even been suggested that the Greek tale, as dramatized by Sophocles, was the ultimate source of the Roman story, having filtered to the early Roman historian Q. Fabius Pictor through the medium of the Greek historian Diocles of Peparethus, whom Fabius Pictor appears to have followed on this and many other points of early Roman history （Plut. Romulus 3）. The same word σκάφη which Sophocles seems to have applied to the ark in which Pelias and Neleus were exposed, is applied by Plut. Romulus 3 to the ark in which Romulus and Remus were exposed. See C. Trieber, “Die Romulussage,” Rheinisches Museum, N.F. xliii. （1888）, pp. 569-582.
14 Compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 175, who seems to have copied Apollodorus.
15 Compare Hom. Od. 11.281ff.; Paus. 4.2.5.
16 See below, Apollod. 2.7.3, and compare Hom. Il. 11.690-693, with the Scholia; Ov. Met. 12.549ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 10. As to Periclymenus, see the verses of Hesiod quoted by the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.156, according to whom Periclymenus received from Poseidon the power of turning himself into an eagle, an ant, a bee, or a snake; but Herakles, so says the scholiast, killed him with a blow of his club when he had assumed the form of a fly. According to another account, it was in the form of a bee that Periclymenus was slain by Herakles （Eustathius on Hom. Od. xi.285, pp. 1685ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. ii.336）. Ov. Met. 12.549ff. says that Herakles shot him in the shape of an eagle, and this version is followed by Hyginus, Fab. 10. Periclymenus is also reported to have been able to change himself into any animal or tree he pleased （Eustathius, on Hom. Od. xi.285, pp. 1685ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.286）.
17 According to Homer （Hom. Od. 3.452）, the wife of Nestor was Eurydice, daughter of Clymenus.
18 Compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 175.
19 Compare Hom. Od. 11.258ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 175.
20 As to the mode in which Melampus learned the language of birds, and with it the art of divination, from serpents in return for the kindness which he had shown to their species, see Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.118; compare Eustathius on Hom. Od. xi.292, p. 1685; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x.137. Helenus and Cassandra are said to have acquired their prophetic power in like manner. As children they were left overnight in a temple of Apollo, and in the morning serpents were found licking their ears. See Scholiast on Hom. Il. vii.44; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron, Introd. vol. i. pp. 266ff., ed. C. G. Müller. Polybius said that perhaps we and all men might have understood the language of all animals if a serpent had washed our ears （Porphyry, De abstinentia iii.4）. In the folk-tales of many lands, men are said to have obtained a knowledge of the language of animals from serpents, either by eating the flesh of serpents or in other ways. See Frazer, “The Language of Animals,” The Archaeological Review`, i. （1888）, pp. 166ff.
21 The following romantic tale of the wooing of Pero is told also by the Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.287. It is repeated also in substantially the same form by Eustathius on Hom. Od. 11.292, p. 1685. Compare Scholiast on Theocritus iii.43; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.118; Prop. ii.3.51ff. A summary of the story, shorn of its miraculous elements, is given by Homer （Hom. Od. 11.287-297, Hom. Od. 15.225-238） and Paus. 4.36.3）. See Frazer's Appendix to Apollodorus, “Melampus and the kine of Phylacus.”
22 According to the Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.287, 290 and Eustathius on Hom. Od. xi.292, p. 1685, the tree was not an oak but a wild pear-tree （ἄχερδος）.
23 Compare Apollod. E.3.20, with the note.
24 See below, Apollod. 2.2.2; Diod. 2.68.4; Paus. 2.18.4.
25 Compare below, Apollod. 3.7.2.
26 See Hom. Il. 2.565ff.
27 See below, Apollod. 3.6.4.
28 See below, Apollod. 3.10.4.
29 Compare Hyginus, Fab. 50, 51.
30 That is, Persephone.
31 This pathetic story is immortalized by Euripides in his noble tragedy Alcestis, happily still extant. Compare Zenobius, Cent. i.18, which to a certain extent agrees verbally with this passage of Apollodorus. The tale of Admetus and Alcestis has its parallel in history. Once when Philip II of Spain had fallen ill and seemed like to die, his fourth wife, Anne of Austria, “in her distress, implored the Almighty to spare a life so important to the welfare of the kingdom and of the church, and instead of it to accept the sacrifice of her own. Heaven, says the chronicler, as the result showed, listened to her prayer. The king recovered; and the queen fell ill of a disorder which in a few days terminated fatally.” So they laid the dead queen to her last rest, with the kings of Spain, in the gloomy pile of the Escurial among the wild and barren mountains of Castile; but there was no Herakles to complete the parallel with the Greek legend by restoring her in the bloom of life and beauty to the arms of her husband. See W. H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, bk. vi. chap. 2, at the end.
32 For the story of Pelias and Jason, see Pind. P. 4.73(129)ff., with the Scholia; Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.5ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron i.175; Hyginus, Fab. 12, 13; Serv. Verg. Ecl. 4.34; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. iii.516. The present passage of Apollodorus is copied almost literally, but as usual without acknowledgment, by Zenobius, Cent. iv.92. It was the regular custom of Aetolian warriors to go with the left foot shod and the right foot unshod. See Macrobius, Sat. v.18- 21, quoting Euripides and Aristotle; Scholiast on Pind. P. 4.133. So the two hundred men who broke through the Spartan lines at the siege of Plataea were shod on the left foot only （Thuc. 3.22）. Virgil represents some of the rustic militia of Latium marching to war with their right feet shod and their left feet bare （Verg. A. 7.689ff.）. As to the custom, see Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 311ff.
33 See Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.1268-1270, iv.123ff. 163.
34 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.524ff., iv.580ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 175. The following narrative of the voyage of the Argo is based mainly on the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius. As to the voyage of the Argonauts, see further Pind. P. 4.156(276)ff.; Diod. 4.40-49; Orphica, Argonautica; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 175; Hyginus, Fab. 12, 14-23; Ov. Met. 7.1ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon.
35 For lists of the Argonauts, see Pind. P. 4.171ff.; Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.20ff.; Orphica, Argonautica 119ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. i.352ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 14.
36 As to the visit of the Argonauts to Lemnos, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.607ff.; Orphica, Argonautica 473ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. vii.468; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. ii.77ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 15. As to the massacre of the men of Lemnos by the women, see further Hdt. 6.138; Apostolius, Cent. x.65; Zenobius, Cent. iv.91; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.609, 615. The visit of the Argonauts to Lemnos was the theme of plays by Aeschylus and Sophocles. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 79, 215ff.; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, ii.51ff. The Lemnian traditions have been interpreted as evidence of a former custom of gynocracy, or the rule of men by women, in the island. See J. J. Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht （Stuttgart, 1861）, pp. 84ff. Every year the island of Lemnos was purified from the guilt of the massacre and sacrifices were offered to the dead. The ceremonies lasted nine days, during which all fires were extinguished in the island, and a new fire was brought by ship from Delos. If the vessel arrived before the sacrifices to the dead had been offered, it might not put in to shore or anchor, but had to cruise in the offing till they were completed. See Philostratus, Her. xx.24.
37 As to the visit of the Argonauts to the Doliones and the death of King Cyzicus, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.935-1077; Orphica, Argonautica 486ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. ii.634ff., iii.1ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 16.
38 They lamented for three days and tore out their hair; they raised a mound over the grave, marched round it thrice in armour, performed funeral rites, and celebrated games in honour of the dead man. The mound was to be seen down to later days, and the people of Cyzicus continued to pour libations at it every year. See Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1057-1077. Compare Orphica, Argonautica 571ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. iii.332ff.
39 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1172ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. iii.481ff.
40 As to Hylas and Herakles, compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1207ff.; Theocritus xiii.; Ant. Lib. 26; Orphica, Argonautica 646ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. iii.521ff.; Prop. i.20.17ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 14; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 18, 140 (First Vatican Mythographer 49; Second Vatican Mythographer 199). It is said that down to comparatively late times the natives continued to sacrifice to Hylas at the spring where he had disappeared, that the priest used to call on him thrice by name, and that the echo answered thrice (Ant. Lib. 26).
41 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1321ff., 1345ff.
42 The opinions of the ancients were much divided as to the share Herakles took in the voyage of the Argo. See Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1290. In saying that Herakles was left behind in Mysia and returned to Argos, our author follows, as usual, the version of Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1273ff. According to another version, after Herakles was left behind by the Argo in Mysia, he made his way on foot to Colchis （Theocritus xiii.73ff.）. Herodotus says （Hdt. 1.193） that at Aphetae in Thessaly the hero landed from the Argo to fetch water and was left behind by Jason and his fellows. From the present passage of Apollodorus it would seem that in this account Herodotus was following Pherecydes. Compare Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Ἀφεταί.
43 As to the visit of the Argonauts to the Bebryces, and the boxing match of Pollux with Amycus, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.1ff.; Theocritus xxii.27ff.; Orphica, Argonautica 661ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. iv.99ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 17; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. iii.353; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 31, 123 (First Vatican Mythographer 93; Second Vatican Mythographer 140). The name of the Bithynian nymph, mother of Amycus, was Melie （Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.4; Hyginus, Fab. 17; Serv. Verg. A. 5.373）.
44 As to Phineus and the Harpies, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.176ff., with the Scholiast on 177, 178, 181; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xii.69; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. iv.422ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 19; Serv. Verg. A. 3.209; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 9ff., 124 (First Vatican Mythographer 27; Second Vatican Mythographer 142). Aeschylus and Sophocles composed tragedies on the subject of Phineus. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 83, 284ff.; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 311ff. The classical description of the Harpies is that of Verg. A. 3.225ff.）. Compare Hes. Th. 265-269ff. In his account of the visit of the Argonauts to Phineus, the rationalistic Diod. 4.43ff. omits all mention of the Harpies.
45 So Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.237, 240 and Hyginus, Fab. 19.
46 See below, Apollod. 3.15.3 with note.
47 Hes. Th. 267 calls her Ocypete.
48 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.284-298, who says that previously the islands were called the Floating Isles （Plotai）.
49 The Clashing Rocks are the islands which the Greeks called Symplegades. Another name for them was the Wandering Rocks （Planctae） or the Blue Rocks （Cyaneae）. See Hdt. 4.85; Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.317ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. iv.561ff.; Pliny, Nat. Hist. vi.32; Merry on Hom. Od. xii.61; Frazer's Appendix to Apollodorus, “The clashing Rocks.” As to the passage of the Argo between them, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.317ff., 549-610; Orphica, Argonautica 683-714; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. iv.561-702; Hyginus, Fab. 19. According to the author of the Orphica, the bird which the Argonauts, or rather Athena, let fly between the Clashing Rocks was not a dove but a heron （ἐρωδιός. ）The heron was specially associated with Athena. See D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds, p. 58.
50 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.720ff.; Orphica, Argonautica 715ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. iv.733ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 18.
51 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.815ff.; Orphica, Argonautica 725ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. v.1ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 14, 18. According to Apollonius, the barrow of Idmon was surmounted by a wild olive tree, which the Nisaeans were commanded by Apollo to worship as the guardian of the city.
52 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.851-898; Orphica, Argonautica 729ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 890; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. v.13ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 14, 18.
53 As to Jason in Colchis, and his winning of the Golden Fleece, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.1260ff., iii.1ff., iv.1-240; Diod. 4.48.1-5; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. v.177-viii.139; Ov. Met. 7.1-158. The adventures of Jason in Colchis were the subject of a play by Sophocles called The Colchian Women. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 15ff.; TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 204ff.
54 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.401ff., 1176ff.
55 As to the yoking of the brazen-footed bulls, compare Pind. P. 4.224ff.; Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.1026ff. As to the drug with which Jason was to anoint himself, see further Pind. P. 4.221ff.; Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.844ff. It was extracted from a plant with a saffron-coloured flower, which was said to grow on the Caucasus from the blood of Prometheus. Compare Valerius Flaccus, Argon. vii.355ff.; Pseudo-Plutarch, De Fluviis v.4.
56 Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.1246ff.
57 Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii. 1278ff.
58 Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii. 1320-1398.
59 Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.123-182.
60 Here Apollodorus departs from the version of Apollonius Rhodius, according to whom Apsyrtus, left behind by Jason and Medea, pursued them with a band of Colchians, and, overtaking them, was treacherously slain by Jason, with the connivance of Medea, in an island of the Danube. See Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.224ff., 30（ Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.223, 228）. The version of Apollonius is followed by Hyginus, Fab. 23 and the Orphic poet （Ap. Rhod., Argon., 1027ff.）. According to Sophocles, in his play The Colchian Women, Apsyrtus was murdered in the palace of Aeetes （Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.228）; and this account seems to have been accepted by Eur. Med. 1334. Apollodorus's version of the murder of Apsyrtus is repeated verbally by Zenobius, Cent. iv.92, but as usual without acknowledgment.
61 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.576-591; Orphica, Argonautica 1160ff.
62 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.659-717 who describes the purificatory rites. A sucking pig was waved over the homicides; then its throat was cut, and their hands were sprinkled with its blood. Similar rites of purification for homicide are represented on Greek vases. See Frazer on Paus. 2.31.8 （vol. iii. p. 277）.
63 About the Argonauts and the Sirens, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.891-921; Orphica, Argonautica 1270- 1297; Hyginus, Fab. 14.
64 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.922ff. These Wandering Rocks are supposed to be the Lipari islands, two of which are still active volcanoes.
65 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.964-979, according to whom the kine of the Sun were milk-white, with golden horns.
66 About the Argonauts among the Phaeacians, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.982ff.; Orphica, Argonautica 1298-1354; Hyginus, Fab. 23.
67 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1106ff.; Orphica, Argonautica 1327ff.
68 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1111-1169; Orphica, Argonautica 1342ff.
69 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1206ff.
70 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1701-1730; Orphica, Argonautica 1361-1367. From the description of Apollonius we gather that the raillery between men and women at these sacrifices was of a ribald character (αἰσχροῖς ἔπεσσιν.) Here Apollodorus again departs from Apollonius, who places the intervention of Apollo and the appearance of the island of Anaphe after the approach of the Argonauts to Crete, and their repulse by Talos. Moreover, Apollonius tells how, after leaving Phaeacia, the Argonauts were driven by a storm to Libya and the Syrtes, where they suffered much hardship （Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1228-1628）. This Libyan episode in the voyage of the Argo is noticed by Diod. 4.56.6, but entirely omitted by Apollodorus.
71 As to Talos, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1639- 1693; Orphica, Argonautica 1358-1360; Agatharchides, in Photius, Bibliotheca, p. 443b, lines 22-25, ed. Bekker; Lucian, De saltatione 49; Zenobius, Cent. v.85; Suidas, s.v. Σαρδάνιος γέλως; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xx.302, p. 1893; Scholiast on Plat. Rep. i, 337a. Talos would seem to have been a bronze image of the sun represented as a man with a bull's head. See The Dying God, pp. 74ff.; A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.718ff. In his account of the death of Talos our author again differs from Apollonius Rhodius, according to whom Talos perished through grazing his ankle against a jagged rock, so that all the ichor in his body gushed out. This incident seems to have been narrated by Sophocles in one of his plays （Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1638; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, i.110ff.）. The account, mentioned by Apollodorus, which referred the death of Talos to the spells of Medea, is illustrated by a magnificent vase-painting, in the finest style, which represents Talos swooning to death in presence of the Argonauts, while the enchantress Medea stands by, gazing grimly at her victim and holding in one hand a basket from which she seems to be drawing with the other the fatal herbs. See A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.721, with plate XL1.
72 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1765-1772, from whose account we gather that this story was told to explain the origin of a footrace in Aegina, in which young men ran with jars full of water on their shoulders.
73 Compare Diod. 4.50.1; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. i.777ff. The ancients believed that bull's blood was poisonous. Similarly Themistocles was popularly supposed to have killed himself by drinking bull's blood （Plut. Them. 31）.
74 Her name was Perimede, according to Apollod. 1.9.16. Diodorus Siculus calls her Amphinome, and says that she stabbed herself after cursing Pelias （Diod. 4.50.1）.
75 Compare Diod. 4.50.1.
76 With this account of the death of Pelias compare Diod. 4.51ff.; Paus. 8.11.2ff.; Zenobius, Cent. iv.92; Plaut. Ps. 868ff.; Cicero, De senectute xxiii.83; Ov. Met. 7.297-349; Hyginus, Fab. 24. The story of the fraud practised by Medea on Pelias is illustrated by Greek vase-paintings. For example, on a black-figured vase the ram is seen issuing from the boiling cauldron, while Medea and the two daughters of Pelias stand by watching it with gestures of glad surprise, and the aged white-haired king himself sits looking on expectant. See Miss J. E. Harrison, Greek Vase Paintings （London, 1894）, plate ii; Baumeister, Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums, ii.1201ff. with fig. 1394. According to the author of the epic Returns （Nostoi）, Medea in like manner restored to youth Jason's old father, Aeson; according to Pherecydes and Simonides, she applied the magical restorative with success to her husband, Jason. Again, Aeschylus wrote a play called The Nurses of Dionysus, in which he related how Medea similarly renovated not only the nurses but their husbands by the simple process of decoction. See the Greek Argument to the Medea of Euripides, and the Scholiast on Aristophanes, Knights, 1321. （According to Ov. Met. 7.251-294, Medea restored Aeson to youth, not by boiling him, but by draining his body of his effete old blood and replacing it by a magic brew.） Again, when Pelops had been killed and served up at a banquet of the gods by his cruel father Tantalus, the deities in pity restored him to life by boiling him in a cauldron from which he emerged well and whole except for the loss of his shoulder, of which Demeter had inadvertently partaken. See Pind. O. 1.26(40)ff with the Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 152-153. For similar stories of the magical restoration of youth and life, see Frazer's Appendix to Apollodorus, “The Renewal of Youth.”
77 See Eur. Med. 1136ff. It is said that in her agony Glauce threw herself into a fountain, which was thenceforth named after her （Paus. 2.2.6）. The fountain has been discovered and excavated in recent years. See G. W. Elderkin, “The Fountain of Glauce at Corinth,” American Journal of Archaeology, xiv. （1910）, pp. 19-50.
78 In this account of the tragic end of Medea's stay at Corinth our author has followed the Medea of Euripides. Compare Diod. 4.54; Ov. Met. 7.391ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 25. According to Apuleius, Meta. i.10, Medea contrived to burn the king's palace and the king himself in it, as well as his daughter.
79 Compare Paus. 2.3.6; Ael., Var. Hist. v.21; Scholiast on Eur. Med. 9, 264. Down to a comparatively late date the Corinthians used to offer annual sacrifices and perform other rites for the sake of expiating the murder of the children. Seven boys and seven girls, clad in black and with their hair shorn, had to spend a year in the sanctuary of Hera of the Height, where the murder had been perpetrated. These customs fell into desuetude after Corinth was captured by the Romans. See Paus. 2.3.7; Scholiast on Eur. Med. 264; compare Philostratus, Her. xx.24.
80 According to one account, Medea attempted to poison Theseus, but his father dashed the poison cup from his lips. See below, Apollod. E.1.5ff.; Plut. Thes. 12; Diod. 4.55.4-6; Paus. 2.3.8; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.741; Eustathius, Comment. on Dionysius Perieg. 1017; Ov. Met. 7.406-424. According to Ovid, the poison which Medea made use of to take off Thesus was aconite.
81 For the etymology, compare Diod. 4.55.5, 7, Diod. 4.56.1; Strab. 11.13.10; Paus. 2.3.8; Eustathius, Comment. on Dionysius Perieg. 1017; Hyginus, Fab. 27.
82 According to others, it was not Medea but her son Medus who killed Perses. See Diod. 4.56.1; Hyginus, Fab. 27. Cicero quotes from an otherwise unknown Latin tragedy some lines in which the deposed Aeetes is represented mourning his forlorn state in an unkingly and unmanly strain （Tusculan. Disput. iii.12.26）. The narrative of Hyginus has all the appearance of being derived from a tragedy, perhaps the same tragedy from which Cicero quotes. But that tragedy itself was probably based on a Greek original; for Diodorus Siculus introduces his similar account of the assassination of the usurper with the remark that the history of Medea had been embellished and distorted by the extravagant fancies of the tragedians.
Apollodorus. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes.
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