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[557] From here to 565 we have a digression which grievously interferes with the narrative and savours strongly of the genealogical poetry of the Hesiodean age.

Idas the son of Aphareus had carried off Marpessa from her father Euenos (“Εὐηνίνη” is a patronymic), but Apollo wished to carry her off from Idas; so the two came to fighting until Zeus separated them, and bade Marpessa choose which of them she would have. And Marpessa chose Idas, the mortal, for fear the god should prove unfaithful. A scene from the story was represented on the chest of Kypselos (Paus.v. 18. 2). The whole legend, which is nowhere completely told, is pieced together from the scholia and Apollodoros (i. 7. 8) by Erhardt (p. 148).

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.18.2
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