Chapter 1: The Early Gods
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♦ Paris, Musée du Louvre F204: Attic bilingual amphora, this side by Andokides Painter, with Athena, Herakles and Kerberos
R. Norton, “Andokides,” American Journal of Archaeology and the History of the Fine Arts 11 (1896), 15 fig. 12
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
Perseus Art & Archaeology Artifact Browser
♠ Scholion at Hesiod, Theogony 313 – Scholia vetera in Hesiodi Theogoniam, pp. 60-61, ed. L. Di Gregorio. Milan 1975
♠ Alkaios 443 LP – Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta, p. 291, ed. E. Lobel and D. L. Page. Oxford 1955
Alkaios says that the Hydra had nine heads, but Simonides says that it hasdfifty. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Simonides 569 PMG – Poetae Melici Graeci, p. 294 ed. D. L. Page. Oxford 1962.
Alkaios says that the Hydra had nine heads, but Simonides says that it had fifty. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Peisandros fr 2 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 168, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987. = Pausanias 2.37.4
It had, however, in my opinion, one head, and not several. It was Peisander of Camirus who, in order that the beast might appear more frightful and his poetry might be more remarkable, represented the hydra with its many heads. Greek Text
♠ Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.69-74
how small a part of that Lernaean snake
would you—one serpent be? It grew from wounds
I gave (at first it had one hundred heads)
and every time I severed one head from
its neck two grew there in the place of one,
by which its strength increased. This creature then
outbranching with strong serpents, sprung from death
and thriving on destruction, I destroyed.— Latin Text
♠ ApB 2.5.2 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
But the hydra wound itself about one of his feet and clung to him. Nor could he [Herakles] effect anything by smashing its heads with his club, for as fast as one head was smashed there grew up two. A huge crab also came to the help of the hydra by biting his foot. So he killed it, and in his turn called for help on Iolaus who, by setting fire to a piece of the neighboring wood and burning the roots of the heads with the brands, prevented them from sprouting. Greek Text
♦ Rome, Villa Giulia: Attic black-figure neck-amphora by Michigan Painter from Cerveteri, with Iolaos with torch, Hydra and Herakles (=? Gantz, Villa Giulia 106465)
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♠ Euripides, Herakles Mainomenos (Heracles Furens) 420
He [Herakles] burned to ashes Lerna‘s murderous hound, the many-headed hydra. Greek Text
♠ Sophokles, Trachiniai 831-40
Chorus
For if the Centaur’s deceitful torture smears his sides with a murderous net, where clings the venom which Death birthed and the gleaming serpent nourished, how can he look upon tomorrow’s sun, when that appalling Hydra-shape grasps him? Those murderous goads, prepared by the deceptive words of black-haired Nessus, torment him with confused thrashing and seethe on his skin. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 6.179-82
first he bade him slay the raging Chimaera. She was of divine stock, not of men, in the fore part a lion, in the hinder a serpent, and in the midst a goat, breathing forth in terrible wise the might of blazing fire. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 16.328-29
goodly comrades of Sarpedon, spearmen sons of Araisodarus, him that reared the raging Chimaera, a bane to many men. Greek Text
♠ Homeric Hymn to Apollo 3.367-68
Against cruel death neither Typhoeus shall avail you nor ill-famed Chimera. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) fr 43a.87 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, pp. 27-31, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
with which [. . .] fire[-breathing Chimaira] (Transl. Silvio Curtis)
♦ Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 95.10: Protocorinthian black-figure aryballos with Bellerophon, Pegasos and and Chimaira
A. Fairbanks, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Catalogue of Greek and Etruscan Vases vol. 1, Early Vases, Preceding Athenian Black-Figure Ware (1928), drawing p. 151
Perseus Art & Archaeology Artifact Browser
♦ Athens, Kerameikos Museum 154: Attic black-figure skyphos with Chimaira
J.D. Beazley, Development of Attic Black-Figure, rev. ed. (1986), pl. 13.1
Fragments with Chimaira, and Pegasos and Chimaira from K. Kübler, “Die Ausgrabungen im Kerameikos,” Archäologischer Anzeiger 1943, 433-436
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 326-32
but Echidna was subject in love to Orthus and brought forth the deadly Sphinx which destroyed the Cadmeans, and the Nemean lion, which Hera, the good wife of Zeus, brought up and made to haunt the hills of Nemea, a plague to men. There he preyed upon the tribes of her own people and had power over Tretus of Nemea and Apesas: yet the strength of stout Heracles overcame him. Greek Text
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Artistic sources edited by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, December 2017
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, University of Georgia, July 2020
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