Chapter 17, The Return from Troy
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♠ Lykophron, Alexandra 450-69
One shall be he that shall be banished by his father’s taunts from the cave of Cychreus and the waters of Bocarus; even he my cousin, as a bastard breed, the ruin of his kin, the murderer of the colt begotten by the same father; of him who spent his sworded frenzy on the herds; whom the hide of the lion made invulnerable by the bronze in battle and who possessed but one path to Hades and the dead – that which the Scythian quiver covered, what time the lion, burning sacrifice to Comyrus, uttered to his sire his prayer that was heard, while he dandled in his arms his comrade’s cub. For he shall not persuade his father that the Lemnian thunderbolt of Enyo – he the sullen bull that never turned to flee – smote his own bowels with the gift of his bitterest foe, diving in sorrowful leap on the sword’s edge in self-wrought slaughter. Far from his fatherland his sire shall drive Trambelus’ brother, whom my father’s sister bare, when she has given to him who razed the towers as first-fruits of the spear. Greek Text
♠ Vergil, Aeneid 1.619-26
When Teucer came, from Salamis exil’d,
And sought my father’s aid, to be restor’d:
My father Belus then with fire and sword
Invaded Cyprus, made the region bare,
And, conqu’ring, finish’d the successful war.
From him the Trojan siege I understood,
The Grecian chiefs, and your illustrious blood.
Your foe himself the Dardan valor prais’d,
And his own ancestry from Trojans rais’d. Latin Text
♠ Servius Scholia at Vergil, Aeneid 1.619 – Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii Carmina commentarii: Aeneis, ed G. Thilo and H. Hagen, Vol. 1 pt 1, pp. 181-82. Leipzig 1881.
♠ Scholia at Lykophron, Alexandra 450 – Lykophronis Alexandra, vol. 2, p. 166, ed E. Scheer. Berlin 1908.
♠ Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus 44.3
As for the Gallaecians, they claim for themselves a Greek origin; for they say that Teucer, after the end of the Trojan war, having incurred the hatred of his father on account of the death of his brother Ajax, and not being admitted into his kingdom, retired to Cyprus, where he built a city called Salamis, from the name of his native land; that, some time after, on hearing a report of his father’s death, he returned again to his country, 3 but, being hindered from landing by Eurysaces the son of Ajax, he sailed to the coast of Spain, and took possession of those parts where New Carthage now stands, and, passing from thence to Gallaecia, and fixing his abode there, gave name to the nation. Latin Text
♠ Accius, Eurysaces – Tragicorum Romanorum Fragmenta. Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta 1, pp. 207-14, ed. O. Ribbeck. Leipzig 1897
♠ Plutarch, Solon 10.1-2
Accordingly, most writers say that the fame of Homer favoured the contention of Solon; for after himself inserting a verse into the Catalogue of Ships, he read the passage at the trial thus:—
Ajax from Salamis brought twelve ships,
And bringing, stationed them near the Athenian hosts.
[2] The Athenians themselves, however, think this an idle tale and say that Solon proved to the judges that Philaeus and Eurysaces, the sons of Ajax, became citizens of Athens, made over their island to them, and took up their residence in Attica, one at Brauron, and the other at Melite; and they have a township named after Philaeus, namely Philaidae, to which Peisistratus belonged. Greek Text
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, March 2023
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