Alkmene and Amphitryon (page 375, with art)

Chapter 13: Herakles

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Chest of Kypselos from temple of Hera at Olympia (known through Pausanias’ description and modern reconstructions)

Pausanias 5.18.3

A man wearing a tunic is holding in his right hand a cup, and in his left a necklace; Alcmena is taking hold of them. This scene represents the Greek story how Zeus in the likeness of Amphitryon had intercourse with Alcmena. Greek Text

Zeus in form of Amphitryon and Alkmene, from reconstruction of chest of Kypselos (lost monument once in temple of Hera, Olympia) by W. von Massow, “Die Kypseloslade,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung vol. 41 (1916), pl. 1.

Athenaios 11.474f (11.49)

if at least it is true that Jupiter, when he had gained the affections of Alcmena, gave her one as a love gift, as Pherecydes relates in his second book, and Herodorus of Heraclea tells the same story.  Greek Text

Pherekydes 3F13a – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 63, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.

Greek Text

Herodoros 31F16 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 219, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.

Greek Text

Scholia to Homer, Odyssey 11.266 – Scholia Graeca in Homeris Odysseam, ed. W. Dindorf, vol. 2, p. 495. Oxford 1855. 

Greek Text

Pherekydes 3F13b – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 63, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.

Greek Text

Athenaios 11.498c (11.99)

And in the same manner Anaximander in his Heroology speaks, where he says, “But Amphitryon, when he had divided the booty among his allies, and having the cup ῾σκύπθος᾿ which he had selected for himself, . . .”And in another place he says—“But Neptune gives his σκύπθος to Teleboas his own son, and Teleboas to Pteselaus; and he when he received it sailed away.”  Greek Text

Anaximandros 9F1 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 160, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.

Greek Text

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Artistic source edited by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, February 2023

Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, December 2020

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