Chapter 10, Perseus and Bellerophontes: Part 1
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Pherekydes of Athens 3F114 (Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. [1957], pp. 90-91):
SCHOL. MV Hom. Od. o 225: Melampous the son of Amythaon did many other astonishing things through divination, not least that there arose the most famous contest for a prize; for when the daughters of Proitos, king of the Argives, Lysippe and Iphianassa, sinned against Hera through youthful lack of forethought – for happening upon a temple of the goddess, they scoffed at it by saying that their father’s house was more sumptuous – and when they went mad because of this, Melampous happened to turn up and promised a total cure if he were offered a reward that was great enough to be worthy of the cure. Already the illness had lasted ten years and brought distress not only on the maidens themselves but also on those around them. So when Proitos had promised Melampous a share in his kingdom and one of his daughters in marriage, whichever he preferred, Melampous healed the sickness by means of supplication and sacrifices to Hera. And he took Iphianassa in marriage, reaping the profit of the cures with herself as the bride-price. The story is in Pherekydes (translation by Mary Emerson).
[95] But when their father [Proetus] came to the beautiful stream of Lusus, he washed his skin with its water and called on Leto’s daughter with her crimson headdress, the ox-eyed goddess, [100] stretching his hands to the rays of the steed-swift sun, and asked her to deliver his children from their deranged miserable madness. “I will sacrifice to you twenty [105] unyoked red oxen.” And the huntress, whose father is the highest god, heard him praying. She persuaded Hera, and stopped the godless mania of the bud-garlanded girls (original Greek).
For himself, he went to the land of other men, to horse-pasturing Argos, for there it was appointed him [240] to dwell, bearing sway over many Argives. There he wedded a wife and built him a high-roofed house, and begot Antiphates and Mantius, two stalwart sons (original Greek).
For when the women of Argos had gone mad, and the Argives wanted him to come from Pylos and heal them of that madness, Melampus demanded half of their kingship for his wages (original Greek).
DS (Diodoros Siculus) 4.68.45:
Melampous, who was a seer, healed the women of Argos of the madness which the wrath of Dionysus had brought upon them, and in return for this benefaction he received from the king of the Argives, Anaxagoras the son of Megapenthes, two-thirds of the kingdom; and he made his home in Argos and shared the kingship with Bias his brother. And marrying Iphianeira, the daughter of Megapenthes, he begat Antiphates and Manto, and also Bias and Pronoê (original Greek).
ApB (Apollodoros, Bibliotheke [Library]) 2.2.2:
In their madness they [daughters of Proetus] roamed over the whole Argive land, and afterwards, passing through Arcadia and the Peloponnese, they ran through the desert in the most disorderly fashion. But Melampus, son of Amythaon by Idomene, daughter of Abas, being a seer and the first to devise the cure by means of drugs and purifications, promised to cure the maidens if he should receive the third part of the sovereignty. When Proetus refused to pay so high a fee for the cure, the maidens raved more than ever, and besides that, the other women raved with them; for they also abandoned their houses, destroyed their own children, and flocked to the desert. Not until the evil had reached a very high pitch did Proetus consent to pay the stipulated fee, and Melampus promised to effect a cure whenever his brother Bias should receive just so much land as himself. Fearing that, if the cure were delayed, yet more would be demanded of him, Proetus agreed to let the physician proceed on these terms. So Melampus, taking with him the most stalwart of the young men, chased the women in a bevy from the mountains to Sicyon with shouts and a sort of frenzied dance. In the pursuit Iphinoe, the eldest of the daughters, expired; but the others were lucky enough to be purified and so to recover their wits. Proetus gave them in marriage to Melampus and Bias, and afterwards begat a son, Megapenthes (original Greek).
∑ Il (Scholia for Homer, Iliad) 2.564 (Scholia in Homeri Iliadem, ed. I. Bekker, vol. 1 [1825], p. 84):
Sthenelos: Proitos had a son, Megapenthes; he had a son, Anaxagoras; his son was Hipponoos; he had Kapaneus; Kapaneus had Sthenelos. BL (translation by Mary Emerson)
∑ Pho (Scholia for Euripides, Phoinissai [Phoenician Women]) 180 (Scholia in Euripidem, ed. E. Schwartz, vol. 1 [1887], p. 274):
Kapaneus: [son] of Hipponoos, son of Anaxagoras the Argive, son of Megapenthos, son of Proitos, son of Abas, son of Lynceus the Egyptian: his mother was Laodike, daughter of Iphios, son of Alektor: – MTA
It had seven means of approach: the entrances. This refers to the city-gates: – MMTAA (translation by Mary Emerson)
Edited by Silvio Curtis, Teaching assistant, Department of Classics, Univ. of Georgia, fall 2015.
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