Chapter 2: The Olympians
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♠ Homer, Odyssey 13.142
hard indeed would it be to assail with dishonor our eldest and best. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 930-33
And of Amphitrite and the loud-roaring Earth-Shaker was born great, wide-ruling Triton, and he owns the depths of the sea, living with his dear mother and the lord his father in their golden house, an awful god. Greek Text
♠ Pindar, Olympian 6.104-5
Master, ruler of the sea, husband of Amphitrite of the golden distaff, grant straight sailing free from troubles, and give new growth to the delightful flower of my songs. Greek Text
♠ Bakchylides 17.109-11
And he saw in that lovely dwelling the dear wife of his father, [110] holy, ox-eyed Amphitrite. Greek Text
♦ Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco 4209: Attic black-figure volute krater by Kleitias (painter) and Ergotimos (potter) “The Francois Vase”, with Poseidon and Amphitrite (second chariot from right in procession on the third frieze from the top: figures hidden by right handle attachment but names legible)
World of Art: The François Vase
A. Furtwaengler and K. Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei: Auswahl hervorragender Vasenbilder (Serie I, 1904), pls. 1-2 (detail)
Perseus Art and Archaeology Artifact Browser
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♦ London, British Museum 1971.11-1.1: Attic black-figure dinos by Sophilos, “The Erskine Dinos,” with Poseidon and Amphitrite aboard chariot in the center
Perseus Art and Archaeology Artifact Browser
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 278-81
With her [Medousa] lay the Dark-haired One in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs of Ocean. Greek Text
♠ Scholion Ab at Homer, Iliad 23.346 – Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem 4, pp. 316-17, ed. W. Dindorf and E. Maass. Oxford 1877.
♠ Scholion T at Homer, Iliad 23.347 – Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem 6, p. 421, ed. W. Dindorf and E. Maass. Oxford 1888.
♠ ApB 3.6.8 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
Adrastus alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse Poseidon begot on Demeter, when in the likeness of a Fury she consorted with him. Greek Text
♠ Pausanias 8.25.4-7
After Thelpusa the Ladon descends to the sanctuary of Demeter in Onceium. The Thelpusians call the goddess Fury, and with them agrees Antimachus also, who wrote a poem about the expedition of the Argives against Thebes. His verse runs thus:—“There, they say, is the seat of Demeter Fury.
”Antimachus, unknown location.
Now Oncius was, according to tradition, a son of Apollo, and held sway in Thelpusian territory around the place Oncium; the goddess has the surname Fury for the following reason.
When Demeter was wandering in search of her daughter, she was followed, it is said, by Poseidon, who lusted after her. So she turned, the story runs, into a mare, and grazed with the mares of Oncius; realizing that he was outwitted, Poseidon too changed into a stallion and enjoyed Demeter.
At first, they say, Demeter was angry at what had happened, but later on she laid aside her wrath and wished to bathe in the Ladon. So the goddess has obtained two surnames, Fury because of her avenging anger, because the Arcadians call being wrathful “being furious,” and Bather (Lusia) because she bathed in the Ladon. The images in the temple are of wood, but their faces, hands and feet are of Parian marble.
The image of Fury holds what is called the chest, and in her right hand a torch; her height I conjecture to be nine feet. Lusia seemed to be six feet high. Those who think the image to be Themis and not Demeter Lusia are, I would have them know, mistaken in their opinion. Demeter, they say, had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name they are not wont to divulge to the uninitiated, and a horse called Areion. For this reason they say that they were the first Arcadians to call Poseidon Horse. Greek Text
♠ Thebaid fr 8 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 27, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
♠ Homer, Odyssey 1.68-73
Nay, it is Poseidon, the earth-enfolder, who is ever filled with stubborn wrath because of the Cyclops, whom Odysseus blinded of his eye—even the godlike Polyphemus, whose might is greatest among all the Cyclopes; and the nymph Thoosa bore him, daughter of Phorcys who rules over the unresting sea; for in the hollow caves she lay with Poseidon. Greek Text
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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, April 2018.
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, August 2020
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