Chapter 17, The Return from Troy
Previous Page Table of Contents Next Page
♠ Strabo, Geography 6.1.3
Petelia, then, is regarded as the metropolis of the Chones, and has been rather populous down to the present day. It was founded by Philoctetes after he, as the result of a political quarrel, had fled from Meliboea. It has so strong a position by nature that the Samnitae once fortified it against the Thurii. And the old Crimissa, which is near the same regions, was also founded by Philoctetes. Apollodorus, in his work On Ships, in mentioning Philoctetes, says that, according to some, when Philoctetes arrived at the territory of Croton, he colonized the promontory Crimissa, and, in the interior above it, the city Chone, from which the Chonians of that district took their name, and that some of his companions whom he had sent forth with Aegestes the Trojan to the region of Eryx in Sicily fortified Aegesta. Greek text
♠ Strabo, Geography 8.3.6
In this, however, Apollodorus is not in agreement with what Demetrius of Scepsis says, from whom he borrows most of his material. Greek Text
♠ Apollodoros, Epitome 6.15
Philoctetes went to the Campanians in Italy. Greek Text
♠ Scholion at Lykophron, Alexandra 911 – Lykophronis Alexandra, vol. 2, pp. 293-94, ed E. Scheer. Berlin 1908.
♠ Apollodoros, Epitome 6.15.b
And Philoctetes was driven to Campania in Italy, and after making war on the Lucanians, he settled in Crimissa, near Croton and Thurium; and, his wanderings over, he founded a sanctuary of Apollo the Wanderer （Alaios）, to whom also he dedicated his bow, as Euphorion says. Greek Text
♠ Vergil, Aeneid 3.401-2
And on the mountain’s brow Petilia stands,
Which Philoctetes with his troops commands. Latin Text
♠ Lykophron, Alexandra 1075-82
Poor Setaea! for the waits an unhappy fate upon the rocks, where, most pitifully outstretched with brazen fetters on thy limbs, thou shalt die, because thou didst burn the fleet of thy masters: bewailing near Crathis thy body cast out and hung up for gory vultures to devour. And that cliff, looking on the sea, shall be called by thy name in memory of thy fate. Greek Text
♠ Strabo, Geography 6.1.12
The first city is Croton, within one hundred and fifty stadia from the Lacinium; and then comes the River Aesarus, and a harbor, and another river, the Neaethus. The Neaethus got its name, it is said, from what occurred there: Certain of the Achaeans who had strayed from the Trojan fleet put in there and disembarked for an inspection of the region, and when the Trojan women who were sailing with them learned that the boats were empty of men, they set fire to the boats, for they were weary of the voyage, so that the men remained there of necessity, although they at the same time noticed that the soil was very fertile. And immediately several other groups, on the strength of their racial kinship, came and imitated them, and thus arose many settlements, most of which took their names from the Trojans; and also a river, the Neaethus, took its appellation from the aforementioned occurrence. Greek Text
♠ Scholion at Lykophron, Alexandra 921 – Lykophronis Alexandra, vol. 2, p. 297, ed E. Scheer. Berlin 1908.
♠ Apollodoros, Epitome 6.15.c
Navaethus is a river of Italy. It was called so, according to Apollodorus and the rest, because after the capture of Ilium the daughters of Laomedon, the sisters of Priam, to wit, Aethylla, Astyoche, and Medesicaste, with the other female captives, finding themselves in that part of Italy, and dreading slavery in Greece, set fire to the vessels; whence the river was called Navaethus and the women were called Nauprestides; and the Greeks who were with the women, having lost the vessels, settled there. Greek Text
♠ Vergil, Aeneid 5.604-718
But Fortune soon resum’d her ancient hate;
For, while they pay the dead his annual dues,
Those envied rites Saturnian Juno views;
And sends the goddess of the various bow,
To try new methods of revenge below;
Supplies the winds to wing her airy way,
Where in the port secure the navy lay.
Swiftly fair Iris down her arch descends,
And, undiscern’d, her fatal voyage ends.
She saw the gath’ring crowd; and, gliding thence,
The desart shore, and fleet without defense.
The Trojan matrons, on the sands alone,
With sighs and tears Anchises’ death bemoan;
Then, turning to the sea their weeping eyes,
Their pity to themselves renews their cries.
“Alas!” said one, “what oceans yet remain
For us to sail! what labors to sustain!”
All take the word, and, with a gen’ral groan,
Implore the gods for peace, and places of their own.
The goddess, great in mischief, views their pains,
And in a woman’s form her heav’nly limbs restrains.
In face and shape old Beroe she became,
Doryclus’ wife, a venerable dame,
Once blest with riches, and a mother’s name.
Thus chang’d, amidst the crying crowd she ran,
Mix’d with the matrons, and these words began. Continue Reading Latin Text
♠ Lykophron, Alexandra 897-98
whereon the blasts of Boreas shall cast with his mariners the hapless leader of the men of Cyphos. Greek Text
♠ Apollodoros, Epitome 6.16-17
Demophon with a few ships put in to the land of the Thracian Bisaltians,1 and there Phyllis, the king’s daughter, falling in love with him, was given him in marriage by her father with the kingdom for her dower. But he wished to depart to his own country, and after many entreaties and swearing to return, he did depart. And Phyllis accompanied him as far as what are called the Nine Roads, and she gave him a casket, telling him that it contained a sacrament of Mother Rhea, and that he was not to open it until he should have abandoned all hope of returning to her.
[17] And Demophon went to Cyprus and dwelt there. And when the appointed time was past, Phyllis called down curses on Demophon and killed herself; and Demophon opened the casket, and, being struck with fear, he mounted his horse and galloping wildly met his end; for, the horse stumbling, he was thrown and fell on his sword. But his people settled in Cyprus. Greek Text
♠ Aischines, On the Embassy 2.31
Now the facts about our original acquisition both of the district and of the place called Ennea Hodoi, and the story of the sons of Theseus, one of whom, Acamas, is said to have received this district as the dowry of his wife. Greek Text
♠ Loukianos, De Saltatione 40
Acamas, and Phyllis, and that first rape of Helen, and the expedition of Castor and Pollux against Athens, and the fate of Hippolytus, and the return of the Heraclids, — all these may fairly be included in the Athenian mythology, from the vast bulk of which I select only these few examples. Greek Text
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, March 2023
139 total views, 1 views today