Chapter 16, The Trojan War
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♠ Lykophron, Alexandra 914-15
for the Trumpet herself shall with her hand guide his arrow point, releasing the twanging Maeotian bowstring. Greek Text
♠ Apollodoros, Epitome 5.8
So he went, and after being cured by Podalirius, he shot Alexander. Greek Text
♠ Konon 26F1.34 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, pp. 201-2, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Apollodoros, Epitome 5.9
After the death of Alexander, Helenus and Deiphobus quarrelled as to which of them should marry Helen; and as Deiphobus was preferred, Helenus left Troy and abode in Ida. But as Chalcas said that Helenus knew the oracles that protected the city, Ulysses waylaid and captured him and brought him to the camp. Greek Text
♠ Servius, Scholia at Vergil, Aeneid 2.166 – Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii Carmina commentarii: Aeneis, ed G. Thilo and H. Hagen, vol. 1 pt. 1, pp. 247-49. Leipzig 1878
♠ Parthenios, Love Romances 34
The Story of Corythus
From the second book of Hellanicus’ Troica, and from Cephalon of Gergitha
Of the union of Oenone and Alexander was born a boy named Corythus. He came to Troy to help the Trojans, and there fell in love with Helen. She indeed received him with the greatest warmth – he was of extreme beauty – but his father discovered his aims and killed him. Nicander however says that he was the son, not of Oenone, but of Helen and Alexander, speaking of him as follows: –
There was the tomb of fallen Corythus,
Whom Helen bare, the fruit of marriage-rape,
In bitter woe, the Herdsman’s evil brood. Greek Text
♠ Hellanikos 4F29 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 115, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Kephalon 45F2 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 271, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Parthenios, Love Romances 4
The Story of Oenone
From the Book of Poets of Nicander and the Trojan History of Cephalon of Gergitha
When Alexander, Priam’s son, was tending his flocks on Mount Ida, he fell in love with Oenone the daughter of Cebren: and the story is that she was possessed by some divinity and foretold the future, and generally obtained great renown for her understanding and wisdom. Alexander took her away from her father to Ida, where his pasturage was, and lived with her there as his wife, and he was so much in love with her that he would swear to her that he would never desert her, but would rather advance her to the greatest honour. She however said that she could tell that for the moment indeed he was wholly in love with her, but that the time would come when he would cross over to Europe, and would there, by his infatuation for a foreign woman, bring the horrors of war upon his kindred. She also foretold that he must be wounded in the war, and that there would be nobody else, except herself, who would be able to cure him: but he used always to stop her, every time that she made mention of these matters.
Time went on, and Alexander took Helen to wife: Oenone took his conduct exceedingly ill, and returned to Cebren, the author of her days: then, when the war came on, Alexander was badly wounded by an arrow from the bow of Philoctetes. He then remembered Oenone’s words, how he could be cured by her alone, and he sent a messenger to her to ask her to hasten to him and heal him, and to forget all the past, on the ground that is had all happened through the will of the gods. She returned him a haughty answer, telling him he had better go to Helen and ask her; but all the same she started off as fast as she might to the place where she had been told he was lying sick. However, the messenger reached Alexander first, and told him Oenone’s reply, and upon this he gave up all hope and breathed his last: and Oenone, when she arrived and found him lying on the ground already dead, raised a great cry and, after long and bitter mourning, put an end to herself. Greek Text
♠ Kephalon 45F2 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 270, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Konon 26F1.23 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 197, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, February 2023
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