previous next


The usual Greek myth (not in H.) was that Io was turned into a heifer, and wandered till she came to Egypt, where she bore Epaphus (Apis; cf. ii. 38. 1 n.).

βασιλέος. Homer calls him ‘Phoenix’ (Il. xiv. 321), but H. gives the usual form ‘Agenor’ (iv. 147. 4; in vi. 47. 1 we must translate Θάσου τοῦ Φοίνικος ‘Thasus the Phoenician’).

Κρῆτες. This is H.'s own suggestion; the usual form of the legend was that Europa bore Minos and Rhadamanthus to Zeus in Crete; he means that, if this were properly interpreted, it would agree with the Persian version here told; ‘these would then be Cretans.’ The words ταῦτα μὲν κτλ. imply that the balance of criminality now was equal; hence the Greeks were really to blame for the next act of aggression.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: