and instead of respect and the hegemony of Hellas, Athens had a name that stank like a nest of Myonnesian*muonnh/sos, “Mouse-island”, was a little island off the coast of Thessaly, notorious as a nest of pirates. pirates. And Philip from his base in Macedonia was no longer contending with us for Amphipolis, but already for Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros, our own possessions, while our citizens were abandoning the Chersonese, the undisputed property of Athens. And the special meetings of the assembly which you were forced to hold, in fear and tumult, were more in number than the regular meeti
But I urged that we should take warning from the Sicilian expedition, which was sent out to help the people of Leontini, at a time when the enemy were already in our own territory and Deceleia was fortified against us; and that final act of folly, when, outmatched in the war, and offered terms of peace by the Lacedaemonians, with the agreement that we should hold not only Attica, but Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros also, and retain the constitutional democracy, the people would have none of it, but chose to go on with a war that was beyond their powers. And Cleophon, the lyre-maker, whom many remembered as a slave in fetters, who had dishonourably and fraudulently got himself enrolled as a citizen, and had corrupted the people by distribution of money,Aristot. Const. Ath. 28 tells us that it was Cleophon who introduced the two obol donation from the treasury to provide a free seat in the theatre for every citizen who applied for it. This was the beginning of the Theorika, recognized in t
Aeschylus, Agamemnon (ed. Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D.), line 281 (search)
Clytaemestra
Hephaestus, from Ida speeding forth his brilliant blaze. Beacon passed beacon on to us by courier-flame: Ida, to the Hermaean crag in Lemnos; to the mighty blaze upon the island succeeded, third,the summit of Athos sacred to Zeus; and, soaring high aloft so as to leap across the sea, the flame, travelling joyously onward in its strength
the pinewood torch, its golden-beamed light, as another sun, passing the message on to the watchtowers of Macistus.He, delaying not nor carelessly overcome by sleep, did not neglect his part as messenger. Far over Euripus' stream came the beacon-light and signalled to the watchmen on Messapion. They, kindling a heap ofwithered heather, lit up their answering blaze and sped the message on. The flame, now gathering strength and in no way dimmed, like a radiant moon overleaped the plain of Asopus to Cithaeron's ridges, and roused another relay of missive fire.Nor did the warders there disdain the far-flung light, but made a blaze higher
Chorus
Indeed the LemnianThe women of Lemnos, jealous of Thracian slaves, killed their husbands, so that when the Argonauts visited the island they found no men. holds first place among evils in story: it has long been told with groans as an abominable calamity. Men compare each new horror to Lemnian troubles; and because of a woeful deed abhorred by the gods a race has disappeared, cast out in infamy from among mortals.For no man reveres what is hated by the gods. Is there one of these tales I have gathered that I do not justly cite?
Aeschylus, Persians (ed. Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D.), line 888 (search)
Chorus
And he held under his sway the sea-girt islands midway between the continents,Lemnos, and the settlement of Icarus, and Rhodes, and Cnidos, and the Cyprian cities Paphos, Soli, and Salamis,whose mother-city is now the cause of our lament.
s they stand recorded; contrast the conditions of the truce inscribed upon the stoneIt was customary to inscribe treaties, etc., upon upright slabs of stone （sth=lai）. At Athens such sth=lai would stand for the most part on the Acropolis. with the conditions on which you can make peace today. On the stone it is laid down that we shall demolish our walls: whereas under the present terms we can rebuild them. The truce allows us twelve ships: the peace as many as we like. Under the truce Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros remained in the possession of their occupants: under the peace they are to be ours. Nor is there today any obligation upon us to restore our exiles, as there was then, with the fall of the democracy as its consequence. Where is the similarity between the one and the other? Thus the general conclusion which I reach in the matter is this, gentlemen: peace means safety and power for the democracy, whereas war means its downfall. So much for that aspect of the question.
To free Athens? She is free already. To be able to build ourselves walls? The peace gives us that right also. To be allowed to build new triremes, and refit and keep our old ones? That is assured us as well, since the treaty affirms the independence of each state. To recover the islands, Lemnos, Scyros, and Imbros? It is expressly laid down that these shall belong to Athens.
Apollodorus, Library (ed. Sir James George Frazer), book 1 (search)
Westermann's Mythographi Graeci （Brunswick, 1843）,
Appendix Narrationum, xxix, 1, pp. 371ff. Hephaestus fell on Lemnos and was lamed of his legs,The significance of lameness in myth and ritual is obscure. The Yorubas of
West Africn, Märkische Sagen und Marchen （Berlin,
1843）, pp. 323ff. but Thetis saved him.As to the fall of Hephaestus on Lemnos, see Hom. Il. 1.590ff.;
Lucian, De sacrificiis 6. The association of the fire-god with Lemnos is supposed to Lemnos is supposed to have been suggested by a volcano
called Moschylus, which has disappeared—perhaps submerged in the sea. See
H. F. Tozer, The Islands of the Aegean, pp. 269ff.;
Jebb on Soph. Ph. 800, with the Appendix, pp. 243-245. According to
another account, Hephaestus fell, not on Lemnos, but into the sea, where he was saved by Thetis. See Hom. Il. 18.394ff.
Zeus had intercourse with Metis, who turned into
many shapes in order to avoid h
Apollodorus, Library (ed. Sir James George Frazer), book 1 (search)
These with Jason as admiral put to sea and touched at Lemnos.As to the visit of the Argonauts to
Lemnos, see Ap.Lemnos, see Ap. Rhod., Argon.
i.607ff.; Orphica, Argonautica 473ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il.
vii.468; Valerius Flaccus, Argoginus, Fab.
15. As to the massacre of the men of Lemnos by the women, see further Hdt. 6.138;
Apostolius, C., Argon. i.609, 615. The visit of the Argonauts to
Lemnos was the theme of plays by Aeschylus
and Sophocles. tuttgart, 1861）, pp. 84ff. Every year the island of
Lemnos was purified from the guilt of the
massacre and sacostratus, Her.
xx.24. At that time it chanced that Lemnos was bereft of men and ruled over by a queen, Hypsipyle, da saved her father Thoas by hiding him. So having put in to Lemnos, at that time ruled by women, the Argonauts had
intbore sons, Euneus and
Nebrophonus.
And after Lemnos they landed among the Doliones,
of whom Cyzicus was
Apollodorus, Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer), book E (search)
of
Crete. Theseus would pass the island in
sailing for Athens”
（Merry on Hom. Od. xi.322）. Apollodorus seems to be the
only extant ancient author who mentions that Dionysus carried off Ariadne from
Naxos to Lemnos and had intercourse with her there. and having brought her to
Lemnos he enjoyed her, and begat Thoas,
Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus.Compare Scholiast
on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.997. Others said that Ariadne bore StaphyluLemnos he enjoyed her, and begat Thoas,
Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus.Compare Scholiast
on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.997. Others said that Ariadne bore Staphylus and
Oenopion to Theseus （Plut. Thes. 20）.
In his grief on account of Ariadne, Theseus forgot to spread white sails on his ship when
he stood for port; and Aegeus, seeing from the acropolis the ship with a black sail,
supposed that Theseus had perished; so he cast himself down and died.Compare Diod. 4.61.6ff.; Plut. Thes.
22; Paus. 1.22.5; Hyginus, Fab. 43;
Serv. Verg. A. 3.74; Scriptores rerum mythicarum
Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 11
