Chapter 18: Other Myths
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♠ Epimenides 3.B16 – Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, vol. 1, p. 35, ed. H. Diels and W. Kranz. 6th ed. Berlin 1951.
[7 M., 6 K.]. – Rhes. 36: Epimenides says that the children of Kallisto and Zeust were the twins Pan and Arkas. Schol. Theocr. Ambr. I 3 p. 28 W: Epimenides in his poems says that the twins Pan and Arkas are children of Zeus and Kallisto. (Transl. E Bianchelli)
♠ Euripides, Helen 375-80
O maiden Kallisto, blessed once in Arcadia, who climbed into the bed of Zeus on four paws, how much happier was your lot than my mother’s, you who in the form of a shaggy-limbed beast—the bearing of a lioness with your fierce eye—changed your burden of sorrow. Greek Text
♠ Amphis fr 47 – Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta, Vol. 2, p. 249, ed. T. Kock. Leipzig 1884.
♠ Kallimachos fr 632 PF – Callimachus, vol. 1, p. 426, ed. R. Pfeiffer. Oxford 1949.
♠ Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.409-530
Now after Phaethon had suffered death
for the vast ruin wrought by scorching flames,
all the great walls of Heaven’s circumference,
unmeasured, views the Father of the Gods,
with searching care, that none impaired by heat
may fall in ruins. Well assured they stand
in self-sustaining strength, his view, at last,
on all the mundane works of man is turned;—
his loving gaze long resting on his own
Arcadia. And he starts the streams and springs
that long have feared to flow; paints the wide earth
with verdant fields; covers the trees with leaves,
and clothes the injured forests in their green.
While wandering in the world, he stopped amazed,
when he beheld the lovely Nymph, Calisto,
and fires of love were kindled in his breast.
Calisto was not clothed in sumptuous robes,
nor did she deck her hair in artful coils;
but with a buckle she would gird her robe,
and bind her long hair with a fillet white.
She bore a slender javelin in her hand,
or held the curving bow; and thus in arms
as chaste Diana, none of Maenalus
was loved by that fair goddess more than she. Continue Reading Latin Text
♠ Hyginus, Fabulae 177
CALLISTO: Callisto, daughter of Lycaon, is said to have been changed into a bear by the wrath of Juno, because she had lain with Jove. Afterwards Jove put her among the number of the stars as a constellation called Septentrio, which does not move from its place, nor does it set. For Tethys, wife of Ocean, and foster mother of Juno, forbids its setting in the Ocean. This, then, is the greater Septentrio, about whom it is written in Cretan verses: Thou, too, born of the transformed Lycaonian Nympha, who, stolen from the chill Arcadian height, was forbidden by Tethys ever to dip herself in the Oceanus because once she dared to be concubine to her foster child . . . ‘ This bear, then is called Helice by the Greeks. She has seven rather dim stars on her head, two on either ear, one on her shoulder, a bright one on her breast, one on her forefoot, a bright one at the tip of her tail; at the back on her thigh, two; at the bottom of her foot, two; on her tail, three — twenty in all. Latin Text
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Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, February 2022.
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