Chapter 2: The Olympians
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♠ Panyasis fr 27 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 185, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
♠ Hipp 1420-22 – Euripides, Hippolytos
That mortal of hers that she loves the most I shall punish with these ineluctable arrows shot from my hand. Greek Text
♠ Theok 3.46-48 – Theokritos, Idylls
When Adonis o’er the sheep in the hills his watch did keep,
The Love-Dame proved so wild a wooers, e’en in death she clips him to her. Greek Text
♠ Sappho 140 LP – Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta, p. 95, ed. E. Lobel and D. L. Page. Oxford 1955
♦ London, British Museum E699: Attic red-figure squat lekythos, Aphrodite and Adonis
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♦ Florence, Museo Archeologico 81948: Attic red-figure hydria, Aphrodite and Adonis
G. Nicole, Meidias et le style fleuri dans la céramique attique (1908), pl. 3.2
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
Perseus Art & Archaeology Artifact Browser
♠ Euboulos, Astutoi in Athen 2.69c-d – Athenaios, The Deipnosophists
And Eubulus says in his Astuti—
Do not put lettuces before me, wife,
Upon the table; or the blame is yours.
For once upon a time, as goes the tale,
Venus conceal’d the sadly slain Adonis;
Beneath the shade of this same vegetable;
So that it is the food of dead men, or of those
Who scarcely are superior to the dead.
♠ Bion, Lament for Adonis
[8] The beauteous Adonis lieth low in the hills, his thigh pierced with the tusk, the white with the white, and Cypris is sore vexed at the gentle passing of his breath. Greek Text
♠ Met 10.503-739 – Ovid, Metamorphoses
The guilt-begotten child had growth while wood
was growing, and endeavored now to find
a way of safe birth. The tree-trunk was swelling
and tightened against Myrrha, who, unable
to express her torture, could not call upon
Lucina in the usual words of travail.
But then just like a woman in great pain,
the tree bends down and, while it groans, bedews
itself with falling tears. Lucina stood
in pity near the groaning branches, laid
her hands on them, and uttered charms to aid
the hindered birth. The tree cracked open then,
the bark was rent asunder, and it gave forth
its living weight, a wailing baby-boy.
The Naiads laid him on soft leaves, and they
anointed him with his own mother’s tears.
Even Envy would not fail to praise the child,
as beautiful as naked cupids seen
in chosen paintings. Only give to him
a polished quiver, or take theirs from them,
and no keen eye could choose him from their midst. Continue Reading. Latin Text
♠ ApB 3.14.4 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
Ten months afterwards the tree burst and Adonis, as he is called, was born, whom for the sake of his beauty, while he was still an infant, Aphrodite hid in a chest unknown to the gods and entrusted to Persephone. But when Persephone beheld him, she would not give him back. The case being tried before Zeus, the year was divided into three parts, and the god ordained that Adonis should stay by himself for one part of the year, with Persephone for one part, and with Aphrodite for the remainder. However Adonis made over to Aphrodite his own share in addition; but afterwards in hunting he was gored and killed by a boar. Greek Text
♠ Astr 2.7.3 – Hyginus, De Astronomia
Some also have said that Venus and Proserpina came to Jove for his decision, asking him to which of them he would grant Adonis. Calliope, the judge appointed by Jove, decided that each should posses him half of the year. But Venus, angry because she had not been granted what she thought was her right, stirred the women in Thrace by love, each to seek Orpheus for herself, so that they tore him limb from limb. Latin Text
♠ ΣbT Il 5.385 – Scholia bT to Homer, Iliad: Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem 3, pp. 248-49, ed. W. Dindorf and E. Maass. Oxford 1875.
♠Σ Ecl 10.1 – Scholia to Vergil: Eclogues Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii Bucolica et Georgica Commentarii, pp. 121-22, ed. G. Thilo. Leipzig 1881.
♠ Σ Aen 5.72 – Scholia to Vergil, Aeneid: Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii Carmina commentarii: Aeneis, ed. G. Thilo and H. Hagen, vol. 1, pp. 599-600. Leipzig 1898
♠ Th 987-91 – Hesiod, Theogony
And to Cephalus she bore a splendid son, strong Phaethon, a man like the gods, whom, when he was a young boy in the tender flower of glorious youth with childish thoughts, laughter-loving Aphrodite seized and caught up and made a keeper of her shrine by night, a divine spirit. Greek Text
♠ Pal 48 – Palaphaitos, Incredibilia: Mythographi Graeci 3, p. 69, ed. N. Festa. Leipzig 1902.
Phaon: Phaon’s livelihood was with his boat and the sea. The sea was a ferry crossing. No man had any complaint against Phaon: he was fair and only took pay from those who could afford it. Among the people of Lesbos there was admiration for his character. A goddess—they say it was Aphrodite—gave her approval to Phaon. She put on a human disguise as an aged woman and asked Phaon about passage. He quickly ferried her across and did not ask for any payment. What did the goddess do? They say that she transformed him—rewarded the old man with youth and beauty. This is the Phaon, the love for whom Sappho often put in song. Greek Text
♠ VH 12.18 – Aelianus, Varia Historia
Phaon, being the most beautiful of all men, was by Aphrodite hid among lettuces. Another says he was a Ferry-man, and exercised that employment. On a time Aphrodite came to him, desiring to pass over: he received her courteously, not knowing who she was, and with much care conveyed her whither she desired; for which the Goddess gave him an Alabaster Box of Ointment, which Phaon using, became the most beautiful of men, and the wives of the Mitylenaeans fell in love with him. At last being taken in adultery he was killed. Greek Text
♠ Σ Aen 3.279 – Scholia to Vergil, Aeneid: Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii Carmina commentarii: Aeneis, ed G Thilo and H Hagen, 1, pp. 390-91. Leipzig 1898.
♦ Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico 288bis: Attic red-figure calyx krater by Group of Polygnotos, Phaon and Aphrodite
G. Pellegrini, Catalogo dei vasi greci dipinti delle necropoli felsinee descritti (1912), illust. p. 134
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♦ Florence, Museo Archeologico 81947: Attic red-figure hydria with Phaon with lyre and Demonassa, Aphrodite in chariot above, and other female characters
G. Nicole, Meidias et le style fleuri dans la céramique attique (1908), pl. 3.1
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
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Artistic sources edited by R. Ross Holloway, Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor Emeritus, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown Univ., and Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, June 2019.
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, February 2021
