Chapter 5: The Line of Deukalion
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♠ Eumelos fr 6 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 111, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
♠ Homer, Iliad 11.670-761
Would that I were young and my strength were as when strife was set afoot between the Eleans and our folk about the lifting of kine, what time I slew Itymoneus, the valiant son of Hypeirochus, a man that dwelt in Elis, when I was driving off what we had seized in reprisal; and he while fighting for the kine [675] was smitten amid the foremost by a spear from my hand; and he fell, and the country folk about him fled in terror. And booty exceeding great did we drive together from out the plain, fifty herds of kine, as many flocks of sheep, as many droves of swine, as many roving herds of goats, [680] and chestnut horses an hundred and fifty, all mares, and many of them had foals at the teat. These then we drave into Neleian Pylos by night into the citadel, and Neleus was glad at heart for that much spoil had fallen to me when going as a stripling into war. [685] And heralds made loud proclamation at break of dawn that all men should come to whomsoever a debt was owing in goodly Elis; and they that were leaders of the Pylians gathered together and made division, for to many did the Epeians owe a debt, seeing that we in Pylos were few and oppressed. [690] For mighty Heracles had come and oppressed us in the years that were before, and all that were our bravest had been slain. Twelve were we that were sons of peerless Neleus, and of these I alone was left, and all the rest had perished; wherefore the brazen-coated Epeans, proud of heart thereat, [695] in wantonness devised mischief against us. ” Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 4.318-19
Son of Atreus, verily I myself could wish that I were such a one as on the day when I slew goodly Ereuthalion. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 7.132-56
I would, O father Zeus and Athene and Apollo, that I were young as when beside swift-flowing Celadon the Pylians and Arcadians that rage with spears gathered together and fought [135] beneath the walls of Pheia about the streams of Iardanus. On their side stood forth Ereuthalion as champion, a godlike man, bearing upon his shoulders the armour of king Areithous, goodly Areithous that men and fair-girdled women were wont to call the mace-man, [140] for that he fought not with bow or long spear, but with a mace of iron brake the battalions. Him Lycurgus slew by guile and nowise by might, in a narrow way, where his mace of iron saved him not from destruction. For ere that might be Lycurgus came upon him at unawares [145] and pierced him through the middle with his spear, and backward was he hurled upon the earth; and Lycurgus despoiled him of the armour that brazen Ares had given him. This armour he thereafter wore himself amid the turmoil of Ares, but when Lycurgus grew old within his halls [150] he gave it to Ereuthalion, his dear squire, to wear. And wearing this armour did Ereuthalion challenge all the bravest; but they trembled sore and were afraid, nor had any man courage to abide him. But me did my enduring heart set on to battle with him in my hardihood, though in years I was youngest of all. So fought I with him, and Athene gave me glory. [155] The tallest was he and the strongest man that ever I slew: as a huge sprawling bulk he lay stretched this way and that. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 1.260-72
Such warriors have I never since seen, nor shall I see, as Peirithous was and Dryas, shepherd of the people, and Caeneus and Exadius and godlike Polyphemus, and Theseus, son of Aegeus, a man like the immortals. [265] Mightiest were these of men reared upon the earth; mightiest were they, and with the mightiest they fought, the mountain-dwelling centaurs, and they destroyed them terribly. With these men I had fellowship, when I came from Pylos, from a distant land far away; for they themselves called me. [270] And I fought on my own; with those men could no one fight of the mortals now upon the earth. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 23.630-42
Would that I were young, and my strength were firm [630] as on the day when the Epeians were burying lord Amarynceus at Buprasium, and his sons appointed prizes in honour of the king. Then was there no man that proved himself my peer, neither of the Epeians nor of Pylians themselves nor of the great-souled Aetolians. In boxing I overcame Clytomedes, son of Enops, [635] and in wrestling Ancaeus of Pleuron, who stood up against me; Iphiclus I outran in the foot-race, good man though he was; and in casting the spear I outthrew Phyleus and Polydorus. In the chariot race alone the twain sons of Actor outstripped me by force of numbers crowding their horses to the front, being exceeding jealous for victory, [640] for that the goodliest prize abode yet there in the lists. Twin brethren were they— the one drave with sure hand, drave with sure hand, while the other plied the goad. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) fr 35 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 24, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) fr 36 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 24, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
P. Oxy. 2481 fr. 4, ed. Lobel
of…
and Perseus, Stratios, Aretos, Echephron,
and Peisidike who in looks was equal to the immortal goddesses:
….
Nestor (Transl. E Bianchelli)
♠ Homer, Iliad 17.378
Howbeit two men that were famous warriors, even Thrasymedes and Antilochus, had not yet learned that peerless Patroclus was dead. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Odyssey 3.412-15
About him his sons gathered in a throng as they came forth from their chambers, Echephron and Stratius and Perseus and Aretus and godlike Thrasymedes; [415] and to these thereafter came as the sixth the lord Peisistratus. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Odyssey 3.451-53
Then the women raised the sacred cry, the daughters and the sons’ wives and the revered wife of Nestor, Eurydice, the eldest of the daughters of Clymenus, and the men raised the heifer’s head from the broad-wayed earth and held it. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) fr 221 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, pp. 110-11, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
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Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, February 2022
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