Section 5: Phineus and the Harpuiai

Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautika 2.178

There Phineus, son of Agenor, had his home by the sea.  Greek Text

Scholion at Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautika 2.178 – Scholia in Apollonium Rhodium vetera, pp. 135-36, ed. C. Wendel. Berlin 1935.

Greek Text

ApB 1.9.21 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)

Thence they put to sea and came to land at Salmydessus in Thrace, where dwelt Phineus, a seer who had lost the sight of both eyes. Some say he was a son of Agenor, but others that he was a son of Poseidon.  Greek Text

ApB 3.8.1 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)

He had a son Lycaon by Meliboea, daughter of Ocean or, as others say, by a nymph Cyllene; and Lycaon, reigning over the Arcadians, begat by many wives fifty sons, to wit: Melaeneus, Thesprotus, Helix, Nyctimus, Peucetius, Caucon, Mecisteus, Hopleus, Macareus, Macednus, Horus, Polichus, Acontes, Evaemon, Ancyor, Archebates, Carteron, Aegaeon, Pallas, Eumon, Canethus, Prothous, Linus, Coretho, Maenalus, Teleboas, Physius, Phassus, Phthius, Lycius, Halipherus, Genetor, Bucolion, Socleus, Phineus, Eumetes, Harpaleus, Portheus, Plato, Haemo, Cynaethus, Leo, Harpalycus, Heraeeus, Titanas, Mantineus, Clitor, Stymphalus, Orchomenus, … These exceeded all men in pride and impiety; and Zeus, desirous of putting their impiety to the proof, came to them in the likeness of a day-laborer. They offered him hospitality and having slaughtered a male child of the natives, they mixed his bowels with the sacrifices, and set them before him, at the instigation of the elder brother Maenalus. But Zeus in disgust upset the table at the place which is still called Trapezus, and blasted Lycaon and his sons by thunderbolts, all but Nyctimus, the youngest.  Greek Text

Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) fr 157 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 77, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.

Hesiod, Megalai Ehoiai (Great Catalogue of Women) fr 254 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 350, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.

Scholion at Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautica 2.178: Hesiod in the Great Catalogue of Women says that Phineus was disabled because he showed the way to Phrixos, and in the third Catalogue, because he chose a long life over eyesight.  (Transl. E. Bianchelli)

Asklepiades 12F31 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 174-75, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.

Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, March 2022.

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