Chapter 2: The Olympians
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♠ Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Katasterismoi 6 – Mythographi Graeci vol. 3.1, pp. 7-8, ed. A. Olivieri. Leipzig 1897.
♠ Hyginus, Fabulae 49
Aesculapius, son of Apollo, is said to have restored life either to Glaucus, son of Minos, or to Hippolytus. Latin Text
♠ ApB 3.10.3-4 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
I found some who are reported to have been raised by him, to wit, Capaneus and Lycurgus, as Stesichorus says in the Eriphyle; Hippolytus, as the author of the Naupactica reports; Tyndareus, as Panyasis says; Hymenaeus, as the Orphics report; and Glaucus, son of Minos, as Melesagoras relates. But Zeus, fearing that men might acquire the healing art from him and so come to the rescue of each other, smote him with a thunderbolt. Greek text
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) fr 54 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 36, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
♠ Homer, Iliad 5.888-98
Zeus looked angrily at him and said, “Do not come whining here, Sir Facing-bothways. I hate you worst of all the gods in Olympus, for you are ever fighting and making mischief. You have the intolerable and stubborn spirit of your mother Hera: it is all I can do to manage her, and it is her doing that you are now in this plight: still, I cannot let you remain longer in such great pain; you are my own off-spring, and it was by me that your mother conceived you; if, however, you had been the son of any other god, you are so destructive that by this time you should have been lying lower than the Titans.” Greek Text
♠ Akousilaos 2F19 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 52, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ ApB 3.10.4 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
Angry on that account, Apollo slew the Cyclopes who had fashioned the thunderbolt for Zeus. But Zeus would have hurled him to Tartarus; however, at the intercession of Latona he ordered him to serve as a thrall to a man for a year. So he went to Admetus, son of Pheres, at Pherae, and served him as a herdsman, and caused all the cows to drop twins. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 2.766
Apollo, of the silver bow, had bred them in Perea – both of them mares. Greek Text
♠ Pherekydes 3F35 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, pp. 71-72, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Pherekydes 3F131 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 94, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Euripides, Alkestis
Apollo
House of Admetus! In you I brought myself to taste the bread of menial servitude, god though I am. Zeus was the cause: he killed my son Asclepius, striking him in the chest with the lightning-bolt, and in anger at this I slew the Cyclopes who forged Zeus’s fire. As my punishment for this Zeus compelled me to be a serf in the house of a mortal. I came to this land and served as herdsman to my host, and I have kept this house safe from harm to this hour. I am myself godly, and in Admetus, son of Pheres, I found a godly man. And so I rescued him from death by tricking the Fates. These goddesses promised me that Admetus could escape an immediate death by giving in exchange another corpse to the powers below. But when he had sounded all his near and dear in turn, [his father and the aged mother who bore him,] he found no one but his wife who was willing to die for him and look no more on the sun’s light. She is now on the point of death, held up by the arms of her family within the house. For it is on this day that she is fated to die. And I, to avoid the pollution of death in the house, am departing from this palace I love so well.
Ah, I see that Death, the sacrificer of the dead, is already drawing near. He is about to take her down to the house of Hades. He has arrived punctually, watching for today when she must die. Continue Reading. Greek Text
♠ Phrinikos, Alkestis – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta 1, p. 73, ed. B. Snell. Göttingen 1971
♠ Kypria p. 39 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
And Kassandra prophesizes about the future. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Pindar, Pythian 11.33
and he caused the destruction of the prophetic girl. Greek Text
♠ Pindar, Paian 8 – Pindarus 2, pp. 39-45, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1975.
♠ Bakchylides, Dithyramboi 23, Apparatus – Bacchylidis Carmina cum fragmentis, p. 73, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1970.
Porphyrio about Horace, Odes 1.15: With this ode he (Horace) imitates Bakchylides; in fact, as he (Bakchylides) makes Cassandra prophesize the future of the Trojan War, this one (Horace) makes Proteus do the same. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Aischylos, Agamemnon 1202-12
Cassandra
The seer Apollo appointed me to this office.
Chorus
Can it be that he, a god, was smitten with desire?
Cassandra
Before now I was ashamed to speak of this.
Chorus
In prosperity all take on airs.
Cassandra
Oh, but he struggled to win me, breathing ardent love for me.
Chorus
Did you in due course come to the rite of marriage?
Cassandra
I consented to Loxias but broke my word.
Chorus
Were you already possessed by the art inspired of the god?
Cassandra
Already I prophesied to my countrymen all their disasters.
Chorus
How came it then that you were unharmed by Loxias’ wrath?
Cassandra
Ever since that fault I could persuade no one of anything. Greek Text
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, January 2021
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