Chapter 5: The Line of Deukalion
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♦ Chicago, Art Institute 1889.16: Attic red-figure column-krater, Salmoneus
Beazley Archive Pottery Database (no photos)
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) fr 31 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 21, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
♠ Homer, Odyssey 11.235-59
Then verily the first that I saw was high-born Tyro, who said that she was the daughter of noble Salmoneus, and declared herself to be the wife of Cretheus, son of Aeolus. She became enamoured of the river, divine Enipeus, who is far the fairest of rivers that send forth their streams upon the earth, and she was wont to resort to the fair waters of Enipeus. But the Enfolder and Shaker of the earth took his form, and lay with her at the mouths of the eddying river. And the dark wave stood about them like a mountain, vaulted-over, and hid the god and the mortal woman. And he loosed her maiden girdle, and shed sleep upon her. But when the god had ended his work of love, he clasped her hand, and spoke, and addressed her: “‘Be glad, woman, in our love, and as the year goes on its course thou shalt bear glorious children, for not weak are the embraces of a god. These do thou tend and rear. But now go to thy house, and hold thy peace, and tell no man; but know that I am Poseidon, the shaker of the earth.’ “So saying, he plunged beneath the surging sea. But she conceived and bore Pelias and Neleus, who both became strong servants of great Zeus; and Pelias dwelt in spacious Iolcus, and was rich in flocks, and the other dwelt in sandy Pylos. But her other children she, the queenly among women, bore to Cretheus, even Aeson, and Pheres, and Amythaon, who fought from chariots. Greek Text
♠ Sophokles, Tyro fr 657 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta vol. 4, p. 467, ed. S.L. Radt. Göttingen 1977.
♠ Sophokles, Tyro fr 658 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta vol. 4, p. 467, ed. S.L. Radt. Göttingen 1977.
♠ Menander, Epitrepontes (Men of Arbitration) 226-33
♠ AP 3.9 – Palatine Anthology (Greek Anthology), vol. 1, Cyzicene Epigrams, pp. 99-100, ed. W.R. Paton. Cambridge Mass., 1916.
Greek Text and English Translation
♠ Diodoros Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica 4.68.2
When his wife Alcidicê died Salmoneus took for a second wife Sidero, as she was called, who treated Tyro unkindly, as a step-mother would. Afterwards Salmoneus, being an overbearing man and impious, came to be hated by his subjects and because of his impiety was slain by Zeus with a bolt of lightning. Greek Text
♠ ApB 1.9.8 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
Now Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus and Alcidice, was brought up by Cretheus, brother of Salmoneus, and conceived a passion for the river Enipeus, and often would she hie to its running waters and utter her plaint to them. But Poseidon in the likeness of Enipeus lay with her, and she secretly gave birth to twin sons, whom she exposed. As the babes lay forlorn, a mare, belonging to some passing horsekeepers, kicked with its hoof one of the two infants and left a livid mark on its face. The horsekeeper took up both the children and reared them; and the one with the livid （pelion） mark he called Pelias, and the other Neleus. When they were grown up, they discovered their mother and killed their stepmother Sidero. For knowing that their mother was ill-used by her, they attacked her, but before they could catch her she had taken refuge in the precinct of Hera. However, Pelias cut her down on the very altars, and ever after he continued to treat Hera with contumely. Greek Text
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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, December 2019.
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, February 2022
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