Chapter 2: The Olympians
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♠ Euripides, Orestes 997
From this came a woeful curse upon my house, brought to birth among the sheep by the son of Maia, when there appeared a baleful, baleful portent of a lamb with golden fleece, for Atreus, breeder of horses. Greek Text
♠ ApB 3.14.3
Herse had by Hermes a son Cephalus, whom Dawn loved and carried off. Greek Text
♠ Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.708-832
High in the dome of Heaven, behold the bright
Caduceus-Bearer soared on balanced wings;
and far below him through a fruitful grove,
devoted to Minerva’s hallowed reign,
some virgins bearing on their lovely heads,
in wicker baskets wreathed and decked with flowers,
their sacred offerings to the citadel
of that chaste goddess. And the winged God,
while circling in the clear unbounded skies,
beheld that train of virgins, beautiful,
as they were thence returning on their way.
Not forward on a level line he flew,
but wheeled in circles round. Lo, the swift kite
swoops round the smoking entrails, while the priests
enclose in guarded ranks their sacrifice:
wary with fear, that swiftest of all birds,
dares not to venture from his vantage height,
but greedily hovers on his waving wings
around his keen desire. So, the bright God
circled those towers, Actaean, round and round,
in mazey circles, greedy as the bird. Continue Reading Latin Text
♠ ApE 3.30 – Apollodoros, Epitome (summary of the last part of the Bibliotheke)
Of the Greeks the first to land from his ship was Protesilaus, and having slain not a few of the barbarians, he fell by the hand of Hector. His wife Laodamia loved him even after his death, and she made an image of him and consorted with it. The gods had pity on her, and Hermes brought up Protesilaus from Hades. On seeing him, Laodamia thought it was himself returned from Troy, and she was glad; but when he was carried back to Hades, she stabbed herself to death. Greek Text
♠ Hyginus, Fabulae 103
PROTESILAUS: An oracle warned the Achaeans that the man who first reached the shore of the Trojans would perish. When the Greek fleet had neared shore, and the others were delaying, Iolaus, son of Iphiclus and Diomedia, was first to leap from his ship, and was promptly killed by Hector. All called him Protesilaus, since he was the first of all to die. When his wife Laodamia, daughter of Acastus, heard that he had died, she wept and begged the gods that she be allowed to speak with him for three hours. It was granted, and when he was led back by Mercury, she spoke with him for three hours. But when Protesilaus died a second time, Laodamia, could not endure her grief. Latin Text
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Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, February 2021
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