Chapter 16, The Trojan War
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♦ Miami, private collection: Apulian red-figure calyx krater by the Darius Painter with Anios and Spermo (with grain) seated on altar; Elais (with olive branch) standing to left of altar; and Oino (with grapevine) standing on altar, while Menelaos with scepter approaches from right
Digital LIMC [for photograph, see printed Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, vol. 7.2 (1994), pl. 20.2 (Oinotrophoi 2)]
♠ Σ Aen 2.81 – Servius, Scholia to Vergil, Aeneid – Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii Carmina commentarii: Aeneis, ed G. Thilo and H. Hagen, pp. 230-31, vol. 1 pt. 1. Leipzig 1881
♠ Lyk 569-83 – Lykophron, Alexandra
But a cloud of others unapproachable in their might shall he rouse – whose rage not even the son of Rhoeo shall lull nor stay, though he bid them abide for the space of nine years in his island, persuaded by his oracles, and though he promised that his three daughters shall give blameless sustenance to all who stay and roam the Cynthian hill beside Inopus, drinking the Egyptian waters of Triton. These daughters lusty Problastus taught to be skilled in contriving milled food and to make wine and fatty oil – even the dove grand-daughters of Zarax, skilled to turn things into wine. These shall heal the great and wasting hunger of the host of alien hounds, coming one day to the grave of Sithon’s daughter. Greek Text
♠ Met 13.632-74 – Ovid, Metamorphoses
Good Anius, king of Delos, vigilant
for all his subjects’ welfare, and as priest
devoted to Apollo, took him there
into his temple and his home, and showed
the city, the famed shrines, and the two trees
which once Latona, while in labor, held.
They burned sweet incense, adding to it wine,
and laid the flesh of cattle in the flames,
an offering marked by custom for the god.
Then in the palace and its kingly hall,
reclining on luxurious couches, they
drank flowing wine with Ceres‘ gifts of food.
But old Anchises asked: “O chosen priest
of Phoebus, can I be deceived? When first
I saw these walls, did you not have a son,
and twice two daughters? Is it possible
I am mistaken?” Anius replied,—
shaking his temples wreathed with fillets white,—
“It can be no mistake, great hero, you
did see the father of five children then,
(so much the risk of fortune may affect
the best of men). You see me now, almost
bereft of all. For what assistance can
my absent son afford, while he is king,
the ruler over Andros—that land named
for his name—over which he rules for me?
“The Delian god gave to my son the art
of augury; and likewise, Liber gave
my daughters precious gifts exceeding all
my wishes and belief: since, every thing
my daughters touched assumed the forms of corn,
of sparkling wine, or gray-green olive oil.
Most surely, wonderful advantages.
“Soon as Atrides, he who conquered Troy
had heard of this (for you should not suppose
that we, too, did not suffer from your storms)
he dragged my daughters there with savage force,
from my loved bosom to his hostile camp,
and ordered them to feed the Argive fleet,
by their divinely given power of touch.
“Whichever way they could, they made escape
two hastened to Euboea, and two sought
their brother’s island, Andros. Quickly then
an Argive squadron, following, threatened war,
unless they were surrendered. The brother’s love
gave way to fear. And there is reason why
you should forgive a timid brother’s fear:
he had no warrior like Aeneas, none
like Hector, by whose prowess you held Troy
from its destruction through ten years of war.
“Strong chains were brought to hold my daughters’ arms.
Both lifted suppliant hands, which still were free,
to heaven and cried, ‘0, Father Bacchus! give
us needed aid!’ And he who had before
given them the power of touch, did give them aid—
if giving freedom without human shape
can be called giving aid.—I never knew
by what means they lost shape, and cannot tell;
but their calamity is surely known:
my daughters were transformed to snow-white doves,
white birds of Venus, guardian of your days.” Latin Text
♠ ApE 3.10 – Apollodoros, Epitome
The daughters of Anius, the son of Apollo, to wit, Elais, Spermo, and Oeno, are called the Wine-growers: Dionysus granted them the power of producing oil, corn, and wine from the earth. Greek Text
♠ Dik 1.23 – Diktys Cretensis, Journal of the Trojan War
Several days later, the weather being good for sailing, our leaders set the army in order; and thus we boarded the ships. We had stowed all sorts of costly supplies which the people who lived near Aulis had given us. Grain, wine, and other necessary foods were furnished by Anius and his daughters; the latter were known as Oenotropae (wine-growers) and priestesses of a holy religion. Thus we sailed from Aulis. Latin Text
♠ Is 8.49-50 Pindar, Isthmean Odes
Achilles, who [50] stained the vine-covered plain of Mysia, spattering it with the dark blood of Telephus Greek Text
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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, September 2021
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, January 2023
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