Chapter 2: The Olympians
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♠ Euripides, Troades 253-54
Phoebus’ virgin-priestess, to whom the god with golden locks granted the gift of maidenhood? Greek Text
♠ Euripides, Troades 366
But I, for all my frenzy, will so far rise above my frantic fit, that I will prove this city happier far than those Achaeans. Greek Text
♠ Euripides, Troades 408
Had not Apollo turned your wits to maenad revelry. Greek Text
♠ Euripides, Troades 500
O my daughter, O Cassandra! whom gods have summoned to their frenzied train, how cruel the lot that ends your virgin days! Greek Text
♠ Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.129-53
The prophetess looked on him and with sighs,
“I am no goddess,” she replied, “nor is
it well to honor any mortal head
with tribute of the holy frankincense.
And, that you may not err through ignorance,
I tell you life eternal without end
was;offered to me, if I would but yield
virginity to Phoebus for his love.
And, while he hoped for this and in desire
offered to bribe me for my virtue, first
with gifts, he said, ‘Maiden of Cumae choose
whatever you may wish, and you shall gain
all that you wish.’ I pointed to a heap
of dust collected there, and foolishly
replied, ‘As many birthdays must be given
to me as there are particles of sand.’
“For I forgot to wish them days of changeless youth.
He gave long life and offered youth besides,
if I would grant his wish. This I refused,
I live unwedded still. My happier time
has fled away, now comes with tottering step
infirm old age, which I shall long endure.
You find me ending seven long centuries,
and there remain for me, before my years
equal the number of those grains of sand,
three hundred harvests, three hundred vintages!
The time will come, when long increase of days
will so contract me from my present size
and so far waste away my limbs with age
that I shall dwindle to a trifling weight,
so trifling, it will never be believed
I once was loved and even pleased a god.
Perhaps, even Phoebus will not recognize me,
or will deny he ever bore me love.
But, though I change till eye would never know me,
my voice shall live, the fates will leave my voice.” Latin Text
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (The Catalogue of Women) fr 215 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 109, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
♠ Servius, Scholia on the Georgics of Vergil 1.14
et cultor nemorum, cui pinguia Ceae: He invokes Aristaios, i.e. the son of Apollo and Kyrene, whom Hesiod calls Apollo Pastoralis. (Transl. E. Bianchelli) Latin Text
♠ Pindar, Pythian 9.5-70
the long-haired son of Leto once snatched her from the wind-echoing glens of Mt. Pelion, and carried the girl of the wilds in his golden chariot to a place where he made her mistress of a land rich in flocks and most rich in fruits, to live and flourish on the root of the third continent. Silver-footed Aphrodite welcomed the Delian guest from his chariot, touching him with a light hand, and she cast lovely modesty on their sweet union, joining together in a common bond of marriage the god and the daughter of wide-ruling Hypseus. He was at that time king of the proud Lapiths, a hero of the second generation from Oceanus; in the renowned glens of Mt. Pindus a Naiad bore him, Creusa the daughter of Gaia, delighting in the bed of the river-god Peneius. And Hypseus raised his lovely-armed daughter Cyrene. She did not care for pacing back and forth at the loom, nor for the delights of luncheons with her stay-at-home companions; instead, fighting with bronze javelins and with a sword, she killed wild beasts, providing great restful peace for her father’s cattle; but as for her sweet bed-fellow, sleep, she spent only a little of it on her eyelids as it fell on them towards dawn. Once the god of the broad quiver, Apollo who works from afar, came upon her wrestling alone and without spears with a terrible lion. Immediately he called Cheiron from out of his halls and spoke to him: “Leave your sacred cave, son of Philyra, and marvel at the spirit and great strength of this woman; look at what a struggle she is engaged in, with a fearless head, this young girl with a heart more than equal to any toil; her mind is not shaken with the cold wind of fear. From what mortal was she born? From what stock has this cutting been taken, that she should be living in the hollows of the shady mountains and putting to the test her boundless valor? Is it lawful to lay my renowned hand on her? And to cut the honey-sweet grass of her bed?” And the powerful Centaur, laughing softly with a gentle brow, right away gave his wise advice in reply: “Hidden are skilled Persuasion’s keys to holy love, Phoebus, and both gods and men blush to take the pleasure of a bed for the first time openly. For even in your case, for whom it is unlawful to touch on falsehood, a gentle impulse has swayed you to dissemble your words. You ask me from what race the girl comes, lord Apollo? You who know the appointed end of all things, and all the paths that lead to them? And how many leaves the earth puts forth in spring, and how many grains of sand in the sea and in rivers are dashed by the waves and the gusting winds; and that which will be, and from where it will come, all this you clearly see. But if I must match myself even against one who is wise, I will speak. You came to this glen to be her husband, and you will bear her over the sea to the choicest garden of Zeus, where you will make her the ruler of a city, when you have gathered the island-people to the hill encircled by plains. And now queen Libya of the broad meadows will gladly welcome your glorious bride in her golden halls. There she will right away give her a portion of land to flourish with her as her lawful possession, not without tribute of all kinds of fruit, nor unfamiliar with wild animals. There she will bear a child, whom famous Hermes will take from beneath his own dear mother and carry to the Seasons on their lovely thrones and to Gaia. They will admire the baby on their knees and drop nectar and ambrosia on his lips, and they will make him immortal, to be called Zeus and holy Apollo, a delight to men he loves, an ever-present guardian of flocks, Agreus and Nomius, and others will call him Aristaeus.” Having spoken thus, Cheiron urged the god to fulfill the delightful consummation of his marriage. Accomplishment is swift when the gods are already hurrying, and the roads are short. That very day decided the matter. They lay together in the bedchamber of Libya, rich in gold, where she possesses a most beautiful city which is renowned for victories in contests. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (The Catalogue of Women) fr 217 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, pp. 109-10, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
♦ Taranto, Museo Nazionale 4991: Lakonian black-figure cup, Kyrene wrestling a lion
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 977
Autonoe whom long haired Aristaeus wedded. Greek Text
♠ Vergil, Georgics 4.317-24
So runs the tale, by famine and disease,
Mournful the shepherd Aristaeus stood
Fast by the haunted river-head, and thus
With many a plaint to her that bare him cried:
“Mother, Cyrene, mother, who hast thy home
Beneath this whirling flood, if he thou sayest,
Apollo, lord of Thymbra, be my sire,
Sprung from the Gods’ high line, why barest thou me
With fortune’s ban for birthright? Latin Text
♠ Pindar, Paian 9.34-49 – Pindarus 2, pp. 46-47, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1975.
♠ Pindar, Paian 7.1-12 – Pindarus 2, pp. 32-33, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1975.
♠ Pindar, Olympian 6.35
where Evadne was raised, and first touched the sweets of Aphrodite beneath Apollo’s embrace. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai, (Catalogue of Women) fr 252 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 123, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
♠ Konon 26F1.19 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, pp. 195-96, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
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Artistic sources edited by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, and R. Ross Holloway, Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor Emeritus, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown Univ., June 2019.
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, February 2021
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