Chapter 10: Perseus and Bellerophontes, Part 1
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♠ Pherekydes of Athens 3F12 FGrH – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, pp.62-63, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
Perseus leaves Diktys behind in Seriphos to be king of the Seriphians who were left, but he himself went by boat to Argos with the Kyklopes and Danae and Andromeda. (Transl. Silvio Curtis) Greek Text
♠ AR 4.1502-21 – Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautika
Thereupon on the same day a pitiless fate seized Mopsus too, son of Ampycus; and he escaped not a bitter doom by his prophesying; for there is no averting of death. Now there lay in the sand, avoiding the midday heat, a dread serpent, too sluggish of his own will to strike at an unwilling foe, nor yet would he dart full face at one that would shrink back. But into whatever of all living beings that life-giving earth sustains that serpent once injects his black venom, his path to Hades becomes not so much as a cubit’s length, not even if Paeeon, if it is right for me to say this openly, should tend him, when its teeth have only grazed the skin. For when over Libya flew godlike Perseus Eurymedon for by that name his mother called him — bearing to the king the Gorgon’s head newly severed, all the drops of dark blood that fell to the earth, produced a brood of those serpents. Now Mopsus stepped on the end of its spine, setting thereon the sole of his left foot; and it writhed round in pain and bit and tore the flesh between the shin and the muscles. Greek Text
♠ ApB 2.4.3 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
Being come to Ethiopia, of which Cepheus was king, he found the king’s daughter Andromeda set out to be the prey of a sea monster. For Cassiepea, the wife of Cepheus, vied with the Nereids in beauty and boasted to be better than them all; hence the Nereids were angry, and Poseidon, sharing their wrath, sent a flood and a monster to invade the land. But Ammon having predicted deliverance from the calamity if Cassiepea’s daughter Andromeda were exposed as a prey to the monster, Cepheus was compelled by the Ethiopians to do it, and he bound his daughter to a rock. When Perseus beheld her, he loved her and promised Cepheus that he would kill the monster, if he would give him the rescued damsel to wife. These terms having been sworn to, Perseus withstood and slew the monster and released Andromeda. Greek Text
♠ Hes fr 135 MW – Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) – Fragmenta Hesiodea, pp. 65-66, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
P. Cair. 45624, ed. Edgar
. . . Abas; and he be[got a son,] Akrisios. . . . [Pe]rseus, whom . . . [in a che]st into the sea . . . [b]rought up for Zeus . . . gold [5] . . . dear Perseus . . . [and from him and] Andromeda [daughter of] Kepheus [were born Alkaios] and [S]thenelos and the force [of Elektryon] . . . by the cattle [10] . . . for [the Te]leboai . . . [A]mphitryon (Transl. Silvio Curtis)
♠ ApB 2.1.4 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
But Belus remained in Egypt, reigned over the country, and married Anchinoe, daughter of Nile, by whom he had twin sons, Egyptus and Danaus, but according to Euripides, he had also Cepheus and Phineus. Greek Text
♠ Hdt 7.61 – Herodotos, Historiae
When Perseus son of Danae and Zeus had come to Cepheus son of Belus and married his daughter Andromeda, a son was born to him whom he called Perses... Greek Text
♠ Ast 2.9 – Hyginus, De Astronomia
CEPHEUS: Euripides and the rest have shown that he was the son of Phoenix, king of the Aethiopains, and father of Andromeda, the girl exposed to the sea-monster, according to the well-known tale. Perseus freed her from danger and made her his wife. And so, that the whole family be commemorated, the gods numbered Cepheus, too, among the constellations. Latin Text
♠ Sophokles, Andromeda p. 156 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta 4, ed. S.L. Radt. Göttingen 1977 apud Katast (Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Katasterismoi) 16 and 36, p. 156 (Mythographi Graeci vol. 3.1, ed. A. Olivieri [1897], pp. 20 and 42)
Of Kassiepeia: Sophocles the tragic poet tells in his Andromeda how this woman by quarrelling with the Nereides about her beauty, came to grief, in that Poseidon sent a monster to ravage the land. For this reason, the daughter was offered to the monster.
Monster: This is what Poseidon sent to Kepheus because of Kassiepeia being angry with the Nereides about her beauty; but Perseus killed it, and because of this was placed in the stars as a memorial of his exploit. Sophocles the tragic poet tells all this in his Andromeda. (Transl. Mary Emerson).
♠ Euripides, Andromeda fr 132 N² – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, pp. 398-99, ed. A. Nauck, 2nd ed. Leipzig 1889.
And take me, foreigner, whether you prefer as servant or bedmate or slave . . . (Transl. Silvio Curtis) Greek Text
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Edited by Silvio Curtis, Teaching assistant, Department of Classics, Univ. of Georgia, fall 2015.
