by Daisy Dunn
“Always have in mind this sentiment, Expect not from your friends what you can do yourself.”
ANDROCLES AND THE LION
Attic Nights
Aulus Gellius
Translated by the Rev. W. Beloe, 1795
The ‘Appion’ described as the earlier teller of this tale was Apion, an Egypt-born Greek writer of the first century AD. The story of Androclus – or ‘Androcles’ – and the lion is also found in Aesop and has been retold many times. It inspired, among others, George Bernard Shaw’s play of 1912, in which Androcles is explicitly characterised as a Christian undergoing punishment for his faith.
Appion, who was called Plistonices, was a man of great and various learning, and had also very extensive knowledge of Greek. His books are said to have had considerable reputation, in which almost every thing is to be found that is most extraordinary in the history of Aegypt. But in those things, which he affirms that he either heard or read himself, from a reprehensible desire of ostentation, he is somewhat too talkative, being indeed, as to the propagation of his own doctrines, a boaster. But what follows, as it is written in his fifth book of Aegyptian Things, he does not affirm that he either heard or read, but saw with his own eyes in the city of Rome.
“In the largest circus,’ he relates, “a shew of a very great hunting contest was exhibited to the people. Of this, as I happened to be at Rome, I was a spectator. There were many savage animals, beasts of extraordinary size, and of unusual form and ferocity. But, beyond all the rest,” he observes, “the size of the lions was most wonderful, and one in particular was most astonishing. This one lion, by the strength and magnitude of his body, his terrific and sonorous roar, the brandishing of his mane and tail, attracted the attention and the eyes of all present. Among others who were introduced to fight with the beasts, was a Dacian slave, belonging to one of consular rank. His name was Androclus. When the lion observed him at a distance, he suddenly stopped as in surprize, and afterwards gradually and gently approached the man, as if recollecting him. Then he moved his tail with the appearance of being pleased, in the manner of fawning dogs: he next embraced, as it were, the man’s body, gently licking with his tongue the arms and the legs of the man, half dead with terror. Androclus, in the midst of these blandishments of the ferocious animal, recovered his lost spirits, and gradually turned his eyes to examine the lion. Immediately, as if from mutual recollection, the man and the lion were to be seen delighted, and congratulating each other. This matter, in the highest degree astonishing, excited,” as he relates, “the greatest acclamations from the people. Androclus was sent for by Caesar, who asked him the reason why this lion, fierce above all others, had spared him alone. Then Androclus told what is really a most surprising circumstance:—‘When my master,’ said he, ‘had obtained the province of Africa as his proconsular government, by his unjust and daily severities I was compelled to run away; and, that my place of retreat might be safer from him, the lord of the country, I went to the most unfrequented solitudes and deserts; and if food should fail me, I determined to take some method of destroying myself. When the sun was at midday most violent and scorching, having discovered a remote and secret cave, I entered and concealed myself within it. Not long afterwards this lion came to the same cave with a lame and bloody foot, uttering groans and the most piteous complaints from the pain and torture of his wound.’ He proceeded to declare, ‘that when he saw the lion first approach, his mind was overcome with terror. But when the lion was entered, and as it appeared into his own particular habitation, he saw me at a distance endeavouring to conceal myself; he then approached me in a mild and quiet manner, and with his foot lifted up appeared to point and reach it out to me, as soliciting my aid. I then,’ said he, ‘plucked from the bottom of his foot a large thorn, which there stuck; I cleared the corruption from the inner wound, and more carefully, and without any great apprehension, entirely dried and wiped away the blood. He then, being relieved by my care and aid, placing his foot betwixt my hands, laid down and slept. From this day, for the space of three years, the lion and I lived together in the same den, and on the same food. Of the beasts which he hunted, the choicest limbs he brought to me in the den, which I, not having any fire, roasted in the mid-day sun, and ate. But being tired of this savage life, one day, when the lion was gone out to hunt, I left the den, and after a journey of three days was discovered and apprehended by the soldiers, and brought by my master from Africa to Rome. He instantly condemned me to a capital punishment, and to be given to the beasts. I understand,’ he continued, ‘that this lion also, after my departure, was taken, and now he has shewn his gratitude to me for my kindness and cure.’
Appion relates, that this narrative was told by Androclus, who explained all this to the people, inscribed and handed about on a tablet. Therefore, by the universal request, Androclus was discharged and pardoned, and, by the voice of the people, the lion was given him. “We afterwards,” he relates, “saw Androclus, and the lion, confined only by a slight cord, go round the city and to the taverns. Money was given to Androclus, the lion was covered with flowers, and all who met them exclaimed, “This is the lion who was the man’s friend! This is the man who was the lion’s physician!”
PERSEUS AND MEDUSA
The Library, Book II
Apollodorus
Translated by Sir James George Frazer, 1921
The Library is a collection of Greek myths and heroic legends which bears the name of Apollodorus, a Greek scholar of the second century BC, but it is much more likely that it dates to the second or early third century AD. Authorship of the Library is therefore usually attributed to ‘Pseudo-Apollodorus’. This story begins with Acrisius, King of Argos, and his daughter Danaë, and ends with Danaë’s son Perseus and his beheading of the monster (Gorgon) known as the Medusa. These myths were famous long before they were boiled down to their bare essentials by Pseudo-Apollodorus.
When Acrisius inquired of the oracle how he should get male children, the god said that his daughter would give birth to a son who would kill him. Fearing that, Acrisius built a brazen chamber under ground and there guarded Danae. However, she was seduced, as some say, by Proetus, whence arose the quarrel between them; but some say that Zeus had intercourse with her in the shape of a stream of gold which poured through the roof into Danae’s lap. When Acrisius afterwards learned that she had got a child Perseus, he would not believe that she had been seduced by Zeus, and putting his daughter with the child in a chest, he cast it into the sea. The chest was washed ashore on Seriphus, and Dictys took up the boy and reared him. Polydectes, brother of Dictys, was then king of Seriphus and fell in love with Danae, but could not get access to her, because Perseus was grown to man’s estate. So he called together his friends, including Perseus, under the pretext of collecting contributions towards a wedding-gift for Hippodamia, daughter of Oenomaus. Now Perseus having declared that he would not stick even at the Gorgon’s head, Polydectes required the others to furnish horses, and not getting horses from Perseus ordered him to bring the Gorgon’s head. So under the guidance of Hermes and Athena he made his way to the daughters of Phorcus, to wit, Enyo, Pephredo, and Dino; for Phorcus had them by Ceto, and they were sisters of the Gorgons, and old women from their birth. The three had but one eye and one tooth, and these they passed to each other in turn. Perseus got possession of the eye and the tooth, and when they asked them back, he said he would give them up if they would show him the way to the nymphs. Now these nymphs had winged sandals and the kibisis, which they say was a wallet. But Pindar and Hesiod in The Shield say of Perseus:—
“But all his back had on the head of a dread monster, The Gorgon, and round him ran the kibisis.”
The kibisis is so called because dress and food are deposited in it. They had also the cap of Hades. When the Phorcides had shown him the way, he gave them back the tooth and the eye, and coming to the nymphs got what he wanted. So he slung the wallet (kibisis) about him, fitted the sandals to his ankles, and put the cap on
his head. Wearing it, he saw whom he pleased, but was not seen by others. And having received also from Hermes an adamantine sickle he flew to the ocean and caught the Gorgons asleep. They were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Now Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head. But the Gorgons had heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like swine’s, and brazen hands, and golden wings, by which they flew; and they turned to stone such as beheld them. So Perseus stood over them as they slept, and while Athena guided his hand and he looked with averted gaze on a brazen shield, in which he beheld the image of the Gorgon, he beheaded her. When her head was cut off, there sprang from the Gorgon the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor, the father of Geryon; these she had by Poseidon. So Perseus put the head of Medusa in the wallet (kibisis) and went back again; but the Gorgons started up from their slumber and pursued Perseus: but they could not see him on account of the cap, for he was hidden by it.
Being come to Ethiopia, of which Cepheus was king, he found the king’s daughter Andromeda set out to be the prey of a sea monster. For Cassiepea, the wife of Cepheus, vied with the Nereids in beauty and boasted to be better than them all; hence the Nereids were angry, and Poseidon, sharing their wrath, sent a flood and a monster to invade the land. But Ammon having predicted deliverance from the calamity if Cassiepea’s daughter Andromeda were exposed as a prey to the monster, Cepheus was compelled by the Ethiopians to do it, and he bound his daughter to a rock. When Perseus beheld her, he loved her and promised Cepheus that he would kill the monster, if he would give him the rescued damsel to wife. These terms having been sworn to, Perseus withstood and slew the monster and released Andromeda. However, Phineus, who was a brother of Cepheus, and to whom Andromeda had been first betrothed, plotted against him; but Perseus discovered the plot, and by showing the Gorgon turned him and his fellow conspirators at once into stone. And having come to Seriphus he found that his mother and Dictys had taken refuge at the altars on account of the violence of Polydectes; so he entered the palace, where Polydectes had gathered his friends, and with averted face he showed the Gorgon’s head; and all who beheld it were turned to stone, each in the attitude which he happened to have struck. Having appointed Dictys king of Seriphus, he gave back the sandals and the wallet (kibisis) and the cap to Hermes, but the Gorgon’s head he gave to Athena. Hermes restored the aforesaid things to the nymphs and Athena inserted the Gorgon’s head in the middle of her shield.
WAR ON THE GIANTS
The Library, Book I
Apollodorus
Translated by Sir James George Frazer, 1921
Often celebrated in art, the war between the gods and giants belongs to early mythological history. Pseudo-Apollodorus clearly relished imagining the size of the giants relative to the landmarks on earth. Throughout antiquity, the strange rumblings of the earth and mountains were often explained by the existence of giants.
But Earth, vexed on account of the Titans, brought forth the giants, whom she had by Sky. These were matchless in the bulk of their bodies and invincible in their might; terrible of aspect did they appear, with long locks drooping from their head and chin, and with the scales of dragons for feet. They were born, as some say, in Phlegrae, but according to others in Pallene. And they darted rocks and burning oaks at the sky. Surpassing all the rest were Porphyrion and Alcyoneus, who was even immortal so long as he fought in the land of his birth. He also drove away the cows of the Sun from Erythia. Now the gods had an oracle that none of the giants could perish at the hand of gods, but that with the help of a mortal they would be made an end of. Learning of this, Earth sought for a simple to prevent the giants from being destroyed even by a mortal. But Zeus forbade the Dawn and the Moon and the Sun to shine, and then, before anybody else could get it, he culled the simple himself, and by means of Athena summoned Hercules to his help. Hercules first shot Alcyoneus with an arrow, but when the giant fell on the ground he somewhat revived. However, at Athena’s advice Hercules dragged him outside Pallene, and so the giant died. But in the battle Porphyrion attacked Hercules and Hera. Nevertheless Zeus inspired him with lust for Hera, and when he tore her robes and would have forced her, she called for help, and Zeus smote him with a thunderbolt, and Hercules shot him dead with an arrow. As for the other giants, Ephialtes was shot by Apollo with an arrow in his left eye and by Hercules in his right; Eurytus was killed by Dionysus with a thyrsus, and Clytius by Hecate with torches, and Mimas by Hephaestus with missiles of red-hot metal. Enceladus fled, but Athena threw on him in his flight the island of Sicily; and she flayed Pallas and used his skin to shield her own body in the fight. Polybotes was chased through the sea by Poseidon and came to Cos; and Poseidon, breaking off that piece of the island which is called Nisyrum, threw it on him. And Hermes, wearing the helmet of Hades, slew Hippolytus in the fight, and Artemis slew Gration. And the Fates, fighting with brazen clubs, killed Agrius and Thoas. The other giants Zeus smote and destroyed with thunderbolts and all of them Hercules shot with arrows as they were dying.
When the gods had overcome the giants, Earth, still more enraged, had intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth Typhon in Cilicia, a hybrid between man and beast. In size and strength he surpassed all the offspring of Earth. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed the stars. One of his hands reached out to the west and the other to the east, and from them projected a hundred dragons’ heads. From the thighs downward he had huge coils of vipers, which when drawn out, reached to his very head and emitted a loud hissing. His body was all winged: unkempt hair streamed on the wind from his head and cheeks; and fire flashed from his eyes. Such and so great was Typhon when, hurling kindled rocks, he made for the very heaven with hissings and shouts, spouting a great jet of fire from his mouth. But when the gods saw him rushing at heaven, they made for Egypt in flight, and being pursued they changed their forms into those of animals. However Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and at close quarters struck him down with an adamantine sickle, and as he fled pursued him closely as far as Mount Casius, which overhangs Syria. There, seeing the monster sore wounded, he grappled with him. But Typhon twined about him and gripped him in his coils, and wresting the sickle from him severed the sinews of his hands and feet, and lifting him on his shoulders carried him through the sea to Cilicia and deposited him on arrival in the Corycian cave. Likewise he put away the sinews there also, hidden in a bearskin, and he set to guard them the she-dragon Delphyne, who was a half-bestial maiden. But Hermes and Aegipan stole the sinews and fitted them unobserved to Zeus. And having recovered his strength Zeus suddenly from heaven, riding in a chariot of winged horses, pelted Typlion with thunderbolts and pursued him to the mountain called Nysa, where the Fates beguiled the fugitive; for he tasted of the ephemeral fruits in the persuasion that he would be strengthened thereby. So being again pursued he came to Thrace, and in fighting at Mount Haemus he heaved whole mountains. But when these recoiled on him through the force of the thunderbolt, a stream of blood gushed out on the mountain, and they say that from that circumstance the mountain was called Haemus. And when he started to flee through the Sicilian sea, Zeus cast Mount Etna in Sicily upon him. That is a huge mountain, from which down to this day they say that blasts of fire issue from the thunderbolts that were thrown.
