Chapter 1: The Early Gods
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♠ Titanomachia Fr 7 PEG– Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 14, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987
♠ Mimnermos 12 W – Iambi et Elegi Graeci 2, pp. 86-87, ed. M. L. West. Oxford 1972
♠ Stesichoros 185 PMG – Poetae Melici Graeci, pp. 185-86 ed. D. L. Page. Oxford 1962.
♦ Athens, National Museum 513 (CC900): Attic black-figure lekythos with Herakles and Helios
L. Savignoni, “On Representations of Helios and Selene,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 19 (1899), pl. 9 and 266 fig. 1
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♦ New York Metropolitan Museum of Art 41.162.29: Attic black-figure white-ground lekythos with Helios and Herakles sacrificing
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♦ Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 93.99: Attic black-figure white-ground lekythos with Helios
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♠ Pindar, Olympian 7.54-76
The ancient stories of men tell that when Zeus and the immortals were dividing the earth among them, Rhodes was not yet visible in the expanse of the sea, but the island was hidden in the salty depths. Helios was absent, and no one marked out a share for him; in fact they left him without any allotment of land, although he was a holy god. And when Helios mentioned it, Zeus was about to order a new casting of lots, but Helios did not allow him. For he said that he himself saw in the gray sea, growing from the bottom, a rich, productive land for men, and a kindly one for flocks. And he bid Lachesis of the golden headband raise her hands right away, and speak, correctly and earnestly, the great oath of the gods, and consent with the son of Cronus that that island, when it had risen into the shining air, should thereafter be his own prize of honor. And the essence of his words was fulfilled and turned out to be true. There grew from the waters of the sea an island, which is held by the birthgiving father of piercing rays, the ruler of fire-breathing horses. And there he once lay with Rhodes, and begat seven sons who inherited from him the wisest minds in the time of earlier men; and of these one begat Cameirus, and Ialysus the eldest, and Lindus. Each had his own separate share of cities in their threefold division of their father’s land, and their dwelling-places were named after them. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 986-91
And to Cephalus she bore a splendid son, strong Phaethon, a man like the gods, whom, when he was a young boy in the tender flower of glorious youth with childish thoughts, laughter-loving Aphrodite seized and caught up and made a keeper of her shrine by night, a divine spirit. Greek Text
♠ Hyginus, Fabulae 154 = Hesiod fr 311 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, pp. 161-62, ed. Merkelbach and M.L. West. Oxford 1967.
PHAETHON OF HESIOD: Phaethon, son of Clymenus, son of Sol, and the nymph Merope, who, as we have heard was and Oceanid, upon being told by his father that his grandfather was Sol, put to bad use the chariot he asked for. For when he was carried too near the earth, everything burned in the fire that came near, and, struck by a thunderbolt, he fell into the river Po. This river is called Eridanus by the Greeks; Pherecydes was the first to name it. The Indians became black, because their blood was turned to a dark color from the heat that came near. The sister of Phaethon, too, in grieving for their brother, were changed into poplar trees. Their tears, as Hesiod tells, hardened into amber; [in spite of the change] they are called Heliades [daughters of Helios]. They are, then, Merope, Helie, Aegle, Lampetia, Phoebe, Aetherie, Dioxippe. Moreover, Cygnus, King of Liguria, who was related to Phaethon, while mourning for his relative was changed into a swan; it, too, when it dies sings a mournful song. Latin Text
♠ Aischylos, Heliades fr 68 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta 3, p. 186, ed. S. L. Radt. Göttingen 1985.
Then the rushing sound of the father Helios (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Aischylos, Heliades fr 69 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta3, pp. 186-87, ed. S. L. Radt. Göttingen 1985.
♠ Aischylos, Heliades fr 70 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta 3, p. 187, ed. S. L. Radt. Göttingen 1985.
Zeus is the heaven, Zeus is earth, Zeus is sky,
Zeus therefore is all things, and what is above all of these things. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Aischylos, Heliades fr 71 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta 3, p. 188, ed. S. L. Radt. Göttingen 1985.
The Adriatic women will have a way of weeping (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Aischylos, Heliades fr 72 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta 3, p. 188, ed. S. L. Radt. Göttingen 1985.
♠ Aischylos, Heliades fr 73 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta 3, p. 189, ed. S. L. Radt. Göttingen 1985. = Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis (Natural History) 37.31
After Phaëthon had been struck by lightning, his sisters, they tell us, became changed into poplars, which every year shed their tears upon the banks of the Eridanus, a river known to us as the “Padus.” To these tears was given the name of “electrum,” from the circumstance that the Sun was usually called “elector.” Such is the story, at all events, that is told by many of the poets, the first of whom were, in my opinion, Æschylus, Philoxenus, Euripides, Satyrus, and Nicander. Latin Text
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Artistic sources edited by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, January 2018
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, University of Georgia, July 2020
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