Chapter 5: The Line of Deukalion
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♠ Homer, Odyssey 11.85
Anticleia, the daughter of great-hearted Autolycus Greek Text
♠ Hyginus, Fabulae 201
AUTOLYCUS: Mercury gave to Autolycus, whom he begat by Chione, the gift of being such a skilful thief that he could not be caught, making him able to change whatever he stole into some other form — from white to black, or from black to white, from a hornless animal to a horned one, or from horned one to a hornless. When he kept continually stealing from the herds of Sisyphus and couldn’t be caught, Sisyphus was convinced he was stealing because Autolycus’ number was increasing while his was growing smaller. In order to catch him, he put a mark on the hooves of his cattle. When Autolycus had stolen in his usual way, Sisyphus came to him and identified the cattle he had stolen by their hooves, and took them away. While he was delaying there, he seduced Anticleia, the daughter of Autolycus. She was later given in marriage to Laertes, and bore Ulysses. Some writers accordingly call him Sisyphean; because of this parentage he was shrewd. Latin Text
♠ Σ Lyk 344 – Scholia to Lykophorn, Alexandra – Lykophronis Alexandra 2, pp. 134-35, ed E. Scheer. Berlin 1908.
♦ Munich, Antikensammlungen 3268: Apulian red-figure volute krater by the Sisyphus Painter, with Laertes and Antiklea
Flickr (this whole view and two details below)
Scene 1: Laertes introduces Antikleia to friends
Scene 2: Laertes hands token with Sisyphos’ name on it to Autolykos
♦ Berlin, Antikensammlung V.I. 3161a: Hellenistic oinochoe by Dionysios; Sisyphos and Antikleia (on left), and Sisyphos and his cattle and Autolykos and Laertes (center and right)
C. Robert, Programm zum Winckelmannsfeste der Archäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin (Band 50): Homerische Becher (1890), p. 93 fig. f
♠ Pindar, Olympian 13.52
I shall tell of Sisyphus, who, like a god, was very shrewd in his devising. Greek Text
♠ Pindar, Isthmian fr 6.5 SM – Pindarus 2, p. 3, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1975.
♠ Hyginus, Fabulae 60
SISYPHUS AND SALMONEUS: Sisyphus and Salmoneus, sons of Aeolus, hated each other. Sisyphus asked Apollo how he might kill his enemy, meaning his brother, and the answer was given that if he had children from the embrace of Tryo, daughter of his brother Salmoneus, they would avenge him. When Sisyphus followed this advice, two sons were born, but their mother slew them when she learned of the prophecy. But when Sisyphus found out . . . Because of his impiety he now, it is said, in the Land of the Dead rolls a stone, shouldering it up a mountain, but when he has pushed it to the highest point, it rolls down again after him. Latin Text
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#Antikleia, #Autolykos, #cattle, #Laertes, #Sisyphos
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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