Chapter 5: The Line of Deukalion
Previous Page Table of Contents Next Page
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) fr 30 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, pp. 19-21, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) fr 15 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 9, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
Iulianus, orat. against Heracl. Cyn. (vii) 234 D
Don’t you know that also Salmoneus suffered punishment by the gods for these matters, because, although he was a human being, he attempted to be Zeus? If you have not yet heard what is said by Hesiod’s poems about those who named themselves with the names of the gods, Hera’s and Zeus’, I have to forgive you. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Sophokles, Aias Lokros fr 10c R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta vol. 4, pp. 105-6, ed. S.L. Radt. Göttingen 1977.
♠ Euripides, fr 14 N² – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, p. 366, ed. A. Nauck, 2nd ed. Leipzig 1889.
For Ellen, as they say, was the son of Zeus, and his child was Aiolos, and the children of Aiolos were Sisyphos, Athamas, Kretheus, and Salmoneus who hurled fire having become enraged over the pomegranate trees of divine Alphaios. (Transl. E. Bianchelli) Greek Text
♠ Aen 6.585-94 – Vergil, Aeneid
I saw Salmoneus his dread stripes endure,
Who dared to counterfeit Olympian thunder
And Jove’s own fire. In chariot of four steeds,
Brandishing torches, he triumphant rode
Through throngs of Greeks, o’er Elis‘ sacred way,
Demanding worship as a god. 0 fool!
To mock the storm’s inimitable flash—
With crash of hoofs and roll of brazen wheel!
But mightiest Jove from rampart of thick cloud
Hurled his own shaft, no flickering, mortal flame,
And in vast whirl of tempest laid him low. Latin Text
♠ ApB 1.9.7 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
Salmoneus at first dwelt in Thessaly, but afterwards he came to Elis and there founded a city. And being arrogant and wishful to put himself on an equality with Zeus, he was punished for his impiety; for he said that he was himself Zeus, and he took away the sacrifices of the god and ordered them to be offered to himself; and by dragging dried hides, with bronze kettles, at his chariot, he said that he thundered, and by flinging lighted torches at the sky he said that he lightened. But Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt, and wiped out the city he had founded with all its inhabitants. Greek Text
Previous Page Table of Contents Next Page
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, February 2022
