In the Shape of a Boar

by Lawrence Norfolk

  45 Ov, Met viii.311; Paus ii.15; Apollod i.9.16; volute krater (Ferrara Mus Naz T136).

  46 Ov, Met viii.308; Hom, Il ii.621, xi.709, xiii.638; Pind, Ol x.25; Paus v.1.10, v.2.1, v.2.5, vi.20.16; Schol. ad Hom, Il xiii.638–9, xi.709; Eustathius ad Hom, Il xi.749; Ibycus fr. 34 ap. Athen ii.50; Pherecydes ap. Schol. ad Hom, Il xi.709.

  47 Hom, Il i.307; Hes, Sh 179; Paus x.29.10; Apollod i.8.2; Ov, Met viii.307.

  48 Archikles/Glaukytes cup (Munich Antikensamml 2243); Apollod i.8.2; Ov, Met viii.302; Hes, Cat fr. 13 ap. Schol. ad Hom, Od xii.69; Schol. ad Hom, Il iii.243; Hes, Theog 997-1000; Theocr xxii.137ff.

  49 Apollod i.9.17; Lyc, Alex 1310; Pind, Pyth iv.12; Schol. (Lact, Plac) ad Stat, Theb v.402, v.455.

  50 Hom, Il ix.529–99.

  51 François krater (Florence Mus Arch 4209); Archikles/Glaukytes cup (Munich Antikensamml 2243); qua ‘Pausileon’, Ov, Met viii.312; qua ‘Pauson’, Aristot, Poet 2½2; Aristoph, Ach 854; qua ‘Thorax’ Larissae, Hdt ix.1, ix.58; qua ‘Thoas’ (1) Aetolus, Hom, Il ii.638 et passim; Hom, Od xiv.499; Apollod, Ep 4.40, 3.12; qua (2) patre Hypsipylae, Apollod i.9.17, iii.6.4, Ep 1.9, 7.40; Paus v.3.6, x.38.5; Strab vi.1.5; qua (3) rege Tauricae, Ant Lib 27; Eur, Iph in Taur 1-32 et passim; Apollod, Ep 6.27; qua (4) ignoto, Hes, Cat fr. 85 ap. Choeroboscus i.123.22H; Tit Liv xxxv.37–45, xxxviii.38; Pol, Onom xxviii.4; qua (5) gigante, Apollod i.6.2; qua (6) filio Icarii, Apollod iii.10.6; qua (7) proco Penelopae, Apollod, Ep 7.27; qua (8) rege Corinthiae, Paus ii.4.3; qua (9) comite Thesei, Plut, Thes 26.3; qua (10) nomine priore Acheloi, Strab x.2.1; ‘Thornax’ (1) qua monte Corinthiano, Paus ii.36.1 et vid. Stephanus Byzantinus cit. ap. Strab viii.5 conj. Meineke; qua (2) urbe Laconide, Hdt i.69; Paus iii.10.8, iii.11.1; ‘Antandros’ (1) qua urbe Cilicia, Alcaeus fr. 65 et vid. Strab xiii.1.51; Thuc viii.108.4, iv.52.3, iv.75.1; Xen, Anab vii.8.7, Hell i.25–6; Hdt v.26, vii.42; Apollod, Ep 3.33; Diod Sic xii.72–3; qua (2) Virg, Aen vii.631; qua (3) ductore Messeniano, Paus iv.7.4, iv.10.5; qua (4) Megalopolitano, Paus iv.10.5; ‘Aristandros’ qua sculptore (1) Paus viii.30.10, iii.18.8; (2) Arrian iv.4; Pliny, Nat Hist xvii.243; ‘Simon’ qua (1) sutore, Diog Laert ii.122 et vid. ii.124; qua (2) sculptore Paus v.27.2; qua (3) scelere, Aristoph, Nub 352, 359; qua (4) socio Amadoci, Dem xxiii. 10 et passim; ‘Kimon’ qua (1) patre Militiadidis, Hdt vi.34, vi.39, Vi.136; Plut, Cimon passim, Pericles passim; Paus i.28.3–29.8, iii.3.7.

  52 Ov, Met viii.360 (MS ‘U') qua ‘Hippalamon’, aliq. ‘Hippalamus’, aliq. ‘Hippalcimus'; Hyg, Fab lxxxiv; Schol. ad Eur, Or 5; Apollod iii.11.8; Schol. ad Pind, Ol i.89; Paus vi.20.7; Schol. ad Hom, Il ii.105; qua ‘Euphemon’, Ov, Met viii.360 (vid. emend. Slater) et vid. Apollod i.9.16, Ap Rhod iv.1754ff., Hyg, Fab clvviii; Ov, Met viii.360 (Codex Planudes, Paris 2848), qua ‘Eupalamon’, aliq. ‘Eupalamus’, Apollod iii.15.5, iii.15.7; Tzet, Chil i.490; Schol. ad Plat, Ion 121a; Schol. ad Plat, Rep viii.529d; Hyg, Fab xxxix; Serv ad Virg, Aen vi.14, sed vid. Paus ix.3.2; Diod Sic iv.76.1; Pherecydes cit. ap. Schol. ad Soph, Oed Col 472; Plat, Ion 533a; Clidemus cit. ap. Plut, Thes 19.

  53 Ex Locri, Ov, Met viii.312; ex Amyclae, Apollod iii.10.1; Paus i.44.3, iii.1.1, iii.12.5, iv.1.1; ex Megara, Paus i.39.6, i.42.6; ex Caria, Aristot cit. ap. Strab vii.7.2; Hdt i.171; ex ‘Asia’, Hom Il, x.429, xx.96; ex Troezena, Ov, Met viii.566.

  54 Apollod i.8.2; Ov, Met viii.312; neque Xen, Cyn vii.5; neque qua ‘Hylaeus’, Apollod iii.9.2; Virg, Georg ii.457, Aen viii.294; Prop i.1.13.

  55 Strab x.2.20; Apollod ii.5.5, ii.7.2, iii.10.8; Diod Sic iv.13.4, iv.36.1; Paus v.1.10, v.3.1; Schol. ad Hom, Il xi. 700; Prisc, Inst vi.92; fort. Hes, Cat fr. 67 cit. ap. schol. ad Eur, Or 249.

  56 Hes, Cat fr. 98.16 P Berlin 9777; Bacch v.118.

  57 Apollod ii.7.7, i.6.16; Hyg, Fab xiv, clxxiii; Ov, Met viii.313, viii.371; Paus ii.13.2; lamb, Pyth xviii.23; Diog Laert viii.84.

  58 Ov, Met viii.313; Xen, Cyn 2.

  59 François krater (Florence Mus Arch 4209); Paus iii.13.1; Apollod i.9.5, iii.10.3.

  60 Archikles/Glaukytes cup (Munich Antikensamml 2243); fort. dinos fr. (Athens Agora P334); François krater (Florence Mus Arch 4209); neck amphora fr. (Tübingen Arch Inst S/12 2452); neck amphora fr. (Tarquinia Mus Naz RC5564); Xen, Cyn 1.2, 1.7; Paus v.19.2; Apollod iii.6.3, iii.9.2; Callim iii.215; Hellanikos fr. 99; Ov, Ars Amat ii.185–92, iii.29–30; Prop i.1.9–10; fort. Eur, Mel fr. 537

  61 François krater (Florence Mus Arch 4209); Chalkidian hydria (Munich Antikensamml 596); dinos fr. (Athens Agora P334); neck amphora fr. (Tübingen Arch Inst S/12 2452); Archikles/Glaukytes cup (Munich Antikensamml 2243); ‘Atalanta’ vase (Athens Nat Mus 432); exaleiptron (Munich Antikensamml 8600); dinos (Vatican Mus 306); hydria (Florence Mus Arch 3830); dinos (Boston Mus Fine Arts 34.212); pelike (St Petersburg Herm B4528); kantharos (Athens Nat Mus 2855); hydria (Paris Louvre E696); hydria (Copenhagen Nat Mus 13567); amphora (Trieste Mus Civ S380); volute krater (Berlin Staatl Mus 3258); clay relief plaque (Amsterdam Allard Pierson Mus 1758); clay relief plaque (Berlin Staatl Mus 5783); alabaster relief urn (Florence Mus Arch 78484); sarcophagus (Athens Nat Mus 1186); sarcophagus (Rome Mus Cap 822); cum Meleagro et apio: amphora (Bari Mus Naz 872); stamnos (Perugia Mus Civ); bronze mirror (Berlin Staatl Mus fr. 146); bronze mirror (Paris Louvre ED2837 inv.1041); bronze mirror (Indiana Art Mus 62.251); bronze mirror (ex Munich Antikensamml 3654); wall painting (Naples Mus Naz 8980); wall painting (Pompeii VI.9.2(1), Casa di Meleagro); mosaic (Cardenagimeno, Burgos, vid. B.Arraiza: nondum prolatum); wall painting (deletus: ex Pompeii VI.2.22.c, Casa delle Danzatrici); opus tessellatum (amissus: ex Lugduno); id. (locus ignotus: ex Domo rubri pavimenti, Antiochus); sic venatrice cum venatoribus, neck amphora (Toronto Royal Ontario Mus 919.5.35); hydria (Ruvo Mus Jatta J1418); hydria (Vienna Kunsthist Mus 158); hydria (Athens Nat Mus 15113); hydria (Würzburg Martin von Wagner Mus 522); wooden relief (Kypselos, vid. Paus v.19.2); wall painting (Pompeii VI.13.19.(h)); wall painting (Pompeii VI.15.6.(1)); mosaic (Paris Louvre MA3444); cum Meleagro et Oineo, sarcophagus (Rome Mus Cap 1897); post venationem, sarcophagus (Istanbul Arch Mus 2100); sarcophagus (Autun MusÅe Rolin 66); sarcophagus (Rome Mus Cap 623); Parrhasios cit. ap. Suet, Tib xxxxiv.2 ; sic athleta sola, cup (Paris Louvre CA2259); scarab (Etruscan, amissus); sic luctatorem cum Peleo, dinos frs (Athens Nat Mus 15466, Acr.590); hydria (Manchester Mus III H5); hydria (Adolphseck Philipp von Hessen 6); hydria (Bonn Univ Fontana inv 46); band cup (Munich Antikensamml 2241); band cup (Oxford Ashmolean Mus 1978.49); neck amphora (Munich Antikensamml 1541); skyphos (London Brit Mus 1925.12-17.10); lekythos (Syracuse Mus Naz 26822); neck amphora (Berlin Staatl Mus 1837); cup (Bologna Mus Civ 361); volute krater (Ferrara Mus Naz T404); hydria (Munich Antikensamml 596); scaraboid (New York Metr Mus 74.51.4152) clay relief (Berlin Staatl Mus 8308); bronze mirror (Vatican Mus 12247); in cursu, calyx krater (Bologna Mus Civ 300); clay relief roundels (New York Metr Mus 17.194.870); glass bowl (Reims MusÅe 2281); glass beaker (Coming Mus 66.1.238); sic athleta cum cetero, cup (Rome Villa Giulia 48234); cup (Ferrara Mus Naz T991); cup (Paris Cab Méd 818); bell krater (Oxford Ashmolean Mus 1954.270); imagines diversas, lekythos (Cleveland Mus Art 66.114); calyx krater (Milan Mus Civ St.6873); bronze cista (Berlin Staatl Mus 3467); wall painting (vid. Pliny, Nat Hist xxxv.17); wall painting (Naples Mus Naz 8897 ex Pompeii VI.9.2(38), Casa di Meleagro); fort. Atlanta, cup (Paris Louvre E670); clay relief (Athens Nat Mus ex Tegea vid. Jacobstahl MR pl. LXVIII); bronze statuette (Vienna Kunsthist Mus VI2757); alabastron (Ruvo Mus Jatta 1349); Apollod i.8.2, i.8.3, iii.9.2; Paus viii.45.2, viii.45.6; Eur, Mel fr. 530, Ph 1108; Callim iii.215–24; Xen, Cyn xiii.18; et vid. schol. ad Eur, Ph 150; schol. ad Theocr iii.42; schol. ad Ap Rhod i.769; ex Arcadia, cum Meleagro aut Meilanio aut Peleo, Apollod iii.9.2; fort. Plat, Rep 620a; Soph, Oed Col 1322; Aristoph, Lys 785-96; Xen, Cyn i.7; Ael, Var Hist xiii.1; Prop i.1.9-10; Ov, Ars Amat ii.185–92; Mus, Hero 153–56; Theog 1287–94; Diod Sic iv.41.2, iv.48.5; ex Boetia, cum Hippomene, Hes, Cat fr. 14 ap. P Petrie iii.3 et Schol. ad Hom, Il xxiii.683 et P Grec ii.130; Paus iii.24.2, v.19.2, viii.35.10; fort. Plat, Rep 620; Theocr ii.1.40–2; Hyg, Fab clxxxv
; Ov, Met x.560–707; Serv ad Virg, Aen iii.113; perturbationes de leonibus et filiis, Pal, De incred xiii et Heraclitus Paradoxigraphicus xii; Ov, Met x.681-704; Aesch, Sept 532-3, 547; Soph, Oed Col 1320–2; Eur, Ph 150; Thebais fr. 6 ap. Paus ix.18.6; Hecataeus fr.32; Antimachos fr. 29; Serv ad Virg, Aen iii.113; schol. ad Theocr iii.40; Nonnus, Dionys xii.87–9; Aristarchus ap. schol. ad Soph, Oed Col 1320; Philokles ap. schol. ad Soph, Oed Col 1320; Hellanikos fr. 99; Apollod i.9.13, iii.9.2; Hyg, Fab lxx, lxxxxix, cclxx.

  62 According to Apollodorus, they ‘assembled’ after ‘Oeneus called together all the noblest men of Greece’ (Apollod i.8.2). The sons of Hippocoon ‘were sent’ by their father (Ov, Met viii.314), as was Ischepolis by Alcathous (Paus i.42.6). Homer has the heroes ‘gathered’ (Il ix.544). Holzinger's commentary on Lycophron's Alexandra (ad Lyc, Alex 490) notes, ‘Two Ancaei are known to mythology - Ancaeus of Arcadia and Ancaeus of Samos. Of the latter - who is often confused with the other - it is told that when planting a vine it was prophesied that he would never taste its fruit. Just when he was about to drink the wine of its grapes, there came the news of the Calydonian Boar . . .’ (italics added). Xenophon notes the reaction to a certain Zelarchus, who ‘set up a shout; and they rushed upon him as though a wild boar . . . had been sighted.’ (Xen, Anab v.7.24).

  63 Hom, Od v.238–42. Fir was used for masts.

  64 The first ship was believed to have been built for Jason and called the Argo after its builder, Argos, son of Phrixus (Ap Rhod i.524, iv.560; Apollod i.9.16). Pagasae, where it was built, is perhaps so-called in commemoration of its ‘construction’, although ‘pagae’ also ‘means “fountains” which are numerous and abundant’ there (Strab ix.5.15). Representations on a metope of the Sicyonian Treasury and a red figure volute krater (Ruvo Mus Jatta 1501) are uninformative regarding the Argo's construction: it was presumably sturdy, despite the story that, many years later, its poop fell off and killed Jason, who was asleep beneath it (Staphilus fr. 5 ap. schol. ad Ap Rhod i.4; schol. ad Eur, Med Argumentum). The boat in which Paris abducted Helen was built by Phereclus (Apollod, Ep 3.2), whose father and grandfather, Tecton and Harmon (Hom, Il v.59ff.), are identifiable by their names as shipwrights. Homer equips it with sails, mast, forestays (Il i.432–5), backstays (Od xii.423) and an anchor-stone (Il i.435); two dinoi supply a cathead for raising and lowering the latter (Chicago 1967.115.141; Cleveland Mus Art 71.46). One krater adds landing ladders and steering oars (London Brit Mus 436). Stern cables (Hom, Il i.436) and tackle (Hom, Od ii.423), made of ox-hide (Od ii.428), were liable to stretch (Il ii.135); halyards and brailing ropes likewise (dinos, Cleveland Mus Art 71.46). Prows of warships were carved in the shape of a boar's head (amphora, Boston Mus Fine Arts 01.8100; amphora, London Brit Mus 436; dinos, Cleveland Mus Art 71.46; François krater, Florence Mus Arch 4209). Vid. also a terracotta boat unearthed at Phylokapi (Atkinson et al. Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos (1904), p. 206, fig. 180) and Cinyras's deception of Menelaus by fashioning out of clay the boats he had promised for the Trojan expedition (Apollod, Ep 3.9; Eustathius ad Hom, Il xi.20; the ‘Odysseus’ once ascribed to Alcidamas offers the more conventional ruse of bribery). The most densely figured fragment of a silver rhyton includes men usually interpreted as poling a boat ashore (Evans, The Palace of Minos, vol. III, p. 81, figs 50–6, cf. Theochares, Archaeology, 15, 1958, Kouroniotes, Ephemeris, 108, 1914, Blegen, Hesperia Supplement, viii, 1949, pl. VII, Kirk, Annual of the British School at Athens, 117, 1914, fig. 5, Schaeffer, Encomi-Alasia (1952), pl. X, fig. 38, and earlier, Kunze, Orchemenos (1934), vol. III, pl. XXIX and III). The spiral found as a characteristic Cycladic motif (Blegen, Zygouries (1928), pl. XX, 9, Tsountas, Ephemeris (1899), pl. X, Zervos, L'Art des Cyclades (1957), pl. XXIX, inter alia) alludes most plausibly to rope coiled on the deck of a ship.

  65 Hom, Od v.238–58; Apollod, Ep 7.24; Brennus's Gauls improvised rafts from their shields to cross the Spercheios at a point seventy miles north-east of here (Paus x.20.8). The raft sailed from Tyre by Heracles was drawn ashore at Cape Mesate by ropes fashioned from the hair of the Thracian women and was preserved in the sanctuary of Heracles at Erythrae (Paus vii.5.6). Thracians, apparently, could not swim (Thuc vii.30.2). Vid.n.67.

  66 So Theseus (Bacch xvii, qv.), Melicertes (Paus i.44.8, ii.1.3) and the Spartan Phalanthus (Paus x.13.10). Arion's arrival on dolphin-back at Taenarus was proverbial (Hdt i.23.1; Plat, Rep 453d); the animal is ubiquitous on that city's coinage. A youth astride a dolphin (lekythos, London Brit Mus 60.55.1) may be any of the above. Pausanias reports a tame dolphin at Poroselene which gave rides in gratitude for its rescue by a local fisherman (Paus iii.25.7; Ael, Nat Anim ii.6; Op, Hal v.448–518). Safe passage might be sought within the dolphin's form rather than on its back: so Nemesis's attempted escape from the attentions of Zeus (Cypria fr. vii ap. Athen viii.334b) and, less deserving but more successful, the Tyrrhenian pirates driven overboard by Dionysus's conjured lion and bear (Hom, Hymn vii.47–54; krater, Toledo 1982.134). Elsewhere, the dolphin is a frequent motif in scenes depicting the flight of women from various pursuers (column krater, Oxford Ashmolean Mus 1927.1; Nolan amphora fr. Boston Mus Fine Arts 03.789; hydria, Bowdoin 1908.3) or towards the safety of a protector, usually Nereus, the women being his Nereid daughters, whose primary function in Attic art is to run screaming towards him with the news of their sister Thetis's rape.

  67 Alexander the Great either could (Diod Sic xiv.17.2) or could not (Plut, Alex 58.4) swim; in this he was typical of the Greeks. Odysseus swam to the land of the Phaeacians after the wreck of his raft by Poseidon (Hom, Od v. 375ff.), but later in that poem, ‘Few have made the escape from grey sea to shore by swimming’ (xxiii.237–9). Two unnamed youths contemplate swimming the River Centrites but find it fordable (Xen, Anab iv.3.12), while brackish Lake Acragas would support even those who could not swim at all (Strab vi.2.9) and bathers in the hot springs at Methana had to be dissuaded from swimming in the sea afterwards (Paus ii.34.1). Of the Persian sailors wrecked with their fleet off Cape Athos, ‘those who could not swim were drowned’ (Hdt vi.44), implying that some of them could. Barbarians were not swimmers: at the battle of Salamis more died by drowning than by force of arms, while the Greek sailors swam to safety (Hdt viii.89). Swimming was proverbially an accomplishment as basic as spelling, according to Plato (Laws 689d), who alludes obliquely to a form of backstroke (Phaed 264a), but the ability was not universal (Hdt viii.129). Onomarchus's Phocians were proficient enough to attempt escape by that means (Diod Sic xvi.35·4–6), only to be captured by Philip of Macedon's Thessalians and put to death–by drowning. Several writers (Plut, Tim 25.4; Nepos, Tim 2.4; Diod Sic xvi.79.4–8; xiv.114.1–6) warn against the dangers of trying to swim while wearing armour.

  68 Thus Homer III ii.640) and Artemidorus and Apollodorus as cited by Strabo (x.2.4, x.2.21, cf. Thuc ii.83, Statius, Theb iv.105, Ptol iii.13–14, Schol. ad Nicander Theriaca 215). The eponymous mountain bird (Hom, Il xiv.291) has not been identified (Plat, Crat 392a).

  69 The lagoon has been claimed as a harbour (Paus vii.21.1), a port (Thuc ii.83) and a ‘great lake full of fish’ (Strab x.2.21) among which the ‘labrax’ was particularly tasty (Archestratus ap. Athen vii.311a).

  70 Aura (Pol, Onom v.45).

  71 He is depicted with it on the front gable of the temple of Athena at Tegea (Paus viii.45 .6) and in a fragment of Euripides's otherwise lost play Meleagros (vid. ap. TGF frs 525–39). This is presumably the same double-headed axe hidden in a granary by Ancaeus’s grandfather Aleus in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Ancaeus joining the Argonauts (Ap Rhod i.163ff.). Hephaistos carries a double-headed tool (calyx krater, Harvard 1960.236) which may be either a hammer or the axe with which he released Athena from the head of Zeus (Apollod i.3.6; Pind, Ol vii.35; Schol. ad Hom, Il i.195; Schol. ad Plat, Tim 23d). Achilles offers ten such instruments to the winner of the archery contest at Troy (Hom, Il xxiii.851). Clytemnestra dispatches Agamemnon with one (Eur, Elec 161–5, Tro 362–5), as does Theseus Procrustes (neck amphora, Munich Antikens
amml 2325; skyphos, Toledo 1963.27).

  72 Boar-spears ‘must have blades fifteen inches long, and stout teeth at the middle of the socket, forged in one piece but standing out; and their shafts must be of cornel wood, as thick as a military spear’ (Xen, Cyn x.3). The huntsman must ‘grasp it with the left hand in front and the right behind, since the left steadies while the right drives it . . . taking care that the boar doesn't knock it out of his hand with a jerk of his head’ (Xen, Cyn x.11–12).

  73 Homer supplies Kalydon with the epithets ‘rocky’ (Il ii.643) and ‘steep’ (Il xiv.116), probably in allusion to Mount Aracynthus, but softens the description with orchards (Il ix.543), vineland and ploughland (Il ix.581); Bacchylides mentions ‘vine-rows’ and ‘flocks’ (v.108–109). Strabo twice describes the coastal plain as ‘fertile and level’ (x.2.3, x.2.4)– in which he is supported by a fragment of Euripides quoted by Lucian – and the interior as ‘having excellent soil’ (x.2.3), although Aetolia as a whole is noted for its ‘ruggedness’ (Ephorus cit. ap. Strab x.3.2). Agesilaus captured ‘herds of cattle and droves of horses’ in neighbouring Acarnania (Xen, Hell iv.6.6), but reached the safety of the southern coast ‘by such roads as neither many nor few could traverse against the will of the Aetolians; they allowed him, however, to pass through’ (Xen, Hell iv.6.14).

  74 Molossians were first bred in Epirus (Hdt i.146, inter alia) in the shadow of the Pindus. One such animal was, or will be, indirectly responsible for Heracles killing the sons of Hippocoon, who ‘had killed the son of Licymnius. For when he was looking at the palace of Hippocoon, a hound of the Molossian breed ran out and rushed at him, and he threw a stone and hit the dog, whereupon the Hippocoontids darted out and dispatched him with blows of their cudgels. It was to avenge his death that Hercules mustered an army against the Lacedaemonians’ (Apollod ii.7. 1). Pausanias reports that the animal was a house-dog (iii. 15.4). Castorians were named after Castor, who first bred them for hunting (Xen, Cyn 3.1).