The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

by Apollodorus

  14 Minos went in pursuit of Daidalos, and to every land that he visited on his search, he brought a spiral shell and proclaimed that he would give a large reward to the man who could draw a thread through it, thinking that by this means he would be able to discover Daidalos. Arriving at Camicos in Sicily, he visited the court of Cocalos, with whom Daidalos was hiding, and displayed the shell. Cocalos took the shell, promising that he would thread it, and gave it to Daidalos. 15 Daidalos attached a thread to an ant, pierced a hole in the shell, and let the ant make its way through. When Minos received it back with the thread drawn through, he realized that Daidalos was staying with Cocalos and demanded at once that he be handed over. Cocalos promised to surrender him, and offered Minos his hospitality. But Minos was killed in his bath by the daughters of Cocalos; according to some, he died when boiling water was poured over him.

  Theseus and the Amazons; Phaedra and Hippolytos

  16 Theseus accompanied Heracles on his expedition against the Amazons,* and he abducted Antiope, or according to some, Melanippe, or according to Simonides, Hippolyte. It was for that reason that the Amazons marched against Athens* and after they had pitched camp by the Areiopagos,* they were defeated by Theseus and the Athenians. Although he had a son, Hippolytos, by the Amazon, 17 he afterwards accepted Phaedra, daughter of Minos, as a wife from Deucalion,* put ting an end to their previous hostility. During the wedding celebrations, the Amazon who had been formerly married to him arrived fully armed with her fellow Amazons, and was on the point of killing the guests; but they closed the doors with all speed, and killed her. Or, according to some, she was killed in battle by Theseus.

  18 After Phaedra had borne two children, Acamas and Demophon, to Theseus, she fell in love with Hippolytos, his son by the Amazon, and asked him to sleep with her.* But he hated all women* and shunned her embraces. So Phaedra, fearing that he might accuse her to his father, broke down the doors of her bedroom, ripped her clothing, and falsely accused him of rape. 19 Theseus believed her and prayed to Poseidon for the destruction of Hippolytos. And when Hippolytos was riding in his chariot and drove it along the sea-shore,* Poseidon caused a bull to emerge from the breakers. The horses were panic-stricken and the chariot was dashed to pieces; and becoming entangled [in the reins], Hippolytos was dragged to his death. When Phaedra’s passion came to light, she hanged herself.

  Theseus and Peirithoos

  20 Ixion* conceived a passion for Hera and tried to take her by force. Hera reported the matter to Zeus; and Zeus, wanting to know whether it was really the case, fashioned a cloud in Hera’s likeness and laid it down beside Ixion. When Ixion boasted that he had slept with Hera, Zeus fastened him to a wheel on which, as a punishment, he is whirled through the air by the force of the winds. As for the cloud, it gave birth to Centauros, a child by Ixion.

  21 [Theseus joined Peirithoos* as an ally when he went to war against the Centaurs. For when Peirithoos had married Hippodameia, he had invited the Centaurs to the wedding feast as relatives of the bride.* But they were unaccustomed to wine, and drank it down so copiously that they became drunk; and when the bride was brought in, they tried to rape her. So Peirithoos took up arms, and aided by Theseus, engaged them in battle. Theseus killed a good number of them.]

  22 Caineus was originally a woman, but after Poseidon had intercourse with her, she asked to become a man and to be invulnerable. For that reason, he had no concern for wounds during the battle with the Centaurs, and killed a large number of them. The survivors, however, surrounded him, and hammered him with fir trees until he was buried in the earth.*

  23 Theseus came to an agreement with Peirithoos that both would marry daughters of Zeus. With the aid of Peirithoos, he abducted Helen (then aged twelve) from Sparta for himself, and then, in the hope of winning Persephone as a bride for Peirithoos, made his way down to Hades. [While he was there,] the Dioscuri, with the Lacedaimonians and Arcadians, captured Athens,* and recovered Helen; and with her, they took away Aithra,* the daughter of Pittheus, as a captive. But Demophon and Acamas escaped. The Dioscuri also brought Menestheus* back from exile and entrusted the throne of Athens to him. 24 When Theseus arrived in Hades with Peirithoos, he became the victim of a trick. For on the pretence that they were about to enjoy his hospitality as guests, Hades asked them to sit down first on the Chair of Forgetfulness; and they became stuck to it,* and were held down by coils of snakes. Peirithoos remained a prisoner in Hades ever after, but Heracles brought Theseus back to earth and sent him to Athens. He was driven from there by Menestheus, and went to Lycomedes,* who threw him into an abyss and killed him.

  12. The Pelopids

  Tantalos

  1 The punishment suffered by Tantalos* in Hades is to have

  2

  a stone suspended over him, and remain perpetually in a lake, seeing at either side of his shoulders fruit-laden trees growing by its bank; the water grazes his chin, but when he wants to drink from it, the water dries up, and when he wants to feed from the fruit, the trees and their fruits are raised by winds as high as the clouds. It is said by some that he suffers this punishment because he divulged the secrets of the gods to men and tried to share ambrosia with his friends.*

  2 Broteas,* who was a hunter, failed to honour Artemis, and said that even fire could cause him no harm; so he went mad and threw himself into the fire.

  Pelops and Hippodameia

  3 Pelops, after being slaughtered and boiled at the banquet of the gods, was more beautiful than ever when he was brought back to life again, and because of his remarkable beauty, he became the beloved of Poseidon, who gave him a winged chariot* which could run even across the sea without wetting its axles. 4 Now Oinomaos, the king of Pisa,* had a daughter, Hippodameia, and whether it was because he had a passion for her, as some people say, or because he had been warned by an oracle that he would die at the hand of the man who married her, nobody was able to win her as his wife, since her father could not persuade her to have intercourse with him, and her suitors were put to death by him. 5 For he possessed arms and horses given to him by Ares, and offered his daughter’s hand to the suitors as the prize in a contest. Each suitor had to take Hippodameia on his own chariot and flee as far as the Isthmus of Corinth, and Oinomaos would immediately pursue him in full armour. If Oinomaos caught up with the suitor, he killed him, but if the suitor were not overtaken, he would win Hippodameia as his wife. In this way, he had killed numerous suitors (twelve according to some accounts). And he cut off the suitors’ heads and nailed them to his house.

  6 Pelops too arrived to seek her hand; and when Hippodameia saw how beautiful he was, she fell in love with him, and persuaded Myrtilos, son of Hermes, to come to his aid. (This Myrtilos was Oinomaos’ charioteer.) 7 So Myrtilos, who loved her and wanted to please her, failed to insert the axlepins* into the wheel hubs, causing Oinomaos to be defeated in the race and to lose his life when he became entangled in the reins and was dragged to his death (though according to some, he was killed by Pelops). As he was dying, he cursed Myrtilos, recognizing his treachery, and prayed that he would perish at the hand of Pelops.

  8 So in this way, Pelops won Hippodameia; and when he arrived at a certain place accompanied by Myrtilos, he went away some small distance to fetch water for his wife, who was thirsty; and during that time, Myrtilos tried to rape her. When she told Pelops of this, he threw Myrtilos into the Myrtoan Sea* that bears his name, at Cape Geraistos. As Myrtilos fell, he hurled curses at the house of Pelops.* 9 After he had made his way to the Ocean and been purified by Hephaistos, Pelops returned to Pisa in Elis and took over the kingdom of Oinomaos, after first subjugating the land formerly known as Apia or Pelasgiotis,* which he now named the Peloponnese after himself.

  Atreus and Thyestes

  10 The sons of Pelops were Pittheus, Atreus, and Thyestes, amongst others. Now the wife of Atreus was Aerope, daughter of Catreus, and she was in love with Thyestes. And Atreus had once made a vow that he would sacrifice to Artemis the finest lamb born in his flock, b
ut when a golden lamb appeared, they say that he failed to honour his vow, 11 and instead, he throttled it, and placed it in a chest* for safe keeping; and it was given to Thyestes by Aerope, who had been seduced by him. For the Mycenaeans had received an oracle telling them to choose a Pelopid as their king, and they had sent for Atreus and Thyestes;* and while they were discussing who should be king, Thyestes declared before the crowd that the man to gain the throne should be the one who possessed the golden lamb. And when Atreus agreed to this, Thyestes produced the lamb and so became king. 12 But Zeus sent Hermes to Atreus, telling him to reach an agreement with Thyestes that Atreus should become king if the Sun reversed his course, and when Thyestes had agreed, the Sun went down in the east. Since the deity had clearly attested that Thyestes was a usurper, Atreus took over the kingdom and banished Thyestes. 13 But later, when he learned of the adultery,* he sent a herald to Thyestes suggesting a reconciliation; and when Thyestes arrived, Atreus, pretending friendship all the while, slaughtered Aglaos, Callileon, and Orchomenos, the children whom Thyestes had fathered by a naiad nymph, although they had sat down as suppliants on the altar of Zeus. He then dismembered them, boiled them, and served them to Thyestes without the extremities. And after he had swallowed them down, Atreus showed him the extremities and expelled him from the land. 14 Seeking to gain revenge by any means, Thyestes went to consult the oracle on the matter and received this response, that he would gain his revenge if he fathered a son by intercourse with his own daughter.* So he did that very thing, and by his daughter he fathered Aigisthos, who, when he reached manhood and learned that he was the son of Thyestes, killed Atreus and restored the kingdom to Thyestes.

  Agamemnon and Menelaos

  15 [But Agamemnon and Menelaos were taken by their nurse to Polypheides, king of Sicyon, and he in turn sent them to Oineus, the Aetolian. Not long afterwards, Tyndareus brought them back again; and they expelled Thyestes, exacting an oath from him, when he sought refuge* at the altar of Hera, that he would settle in Cythera. They for their part became the sons-in-law of Tyndareus by marrying his daughters.*]

  16 Agamemnon became king of Mycenae and married Clytemnestra, after killing her former husband Tantalos, son of Thyestes, along with his child. A son, Orestes, was born to him, and three daughters, Chrysothemis, Electra, and Iphigeneia. Menelaos married Helen and became king of Sparta after Tyndareus had entrusted the kingdom to him.

  13. The Trojan War

  The judgement of Paris and abduction of Helen

  1 Afterwards Alexander abducted Helen,* in accordance, some

  3

  say, with the will of Zeus, so that his daughter would become famous for having brought Europe and Asia to war, or, as others have said, to ensure that the race of demigods* would be raised to glory. 2 For one of these reasons,* Eris threw an apple* in front of Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite as a prize for the most beautiful, and Zeus instructed Hermes to take them to Alexander on Mount Ida, to be judged by him for their beauty. They promised to give Alexander gifts; Hera promised him universal dominion if she were preferred above all other women, while Athene offered victory in war, and Aphrodite the hand of Helen. He decided in favour of Aphrodite, and sailed to Sparta with ships built by Phereclos.* 3 He was entertained for nine days by Menelaos, and on the tenth, when Menelaos departed for Crete to celebrate the funeral of his maternal grandfather Catreus,* Alexander persuaded Helen to go away with him. She abandoned Hermione, who was nine years old at the time, and loading most of the treasures* on board, she set out to sea with him by night. 4 Hera sent a violent storm against them, which forced them to put in at Sidon;* and fearing that he might be pursued, Alexander delayed a long while in Phoenicia and Cyprus. When he thought that there was no further risk of pursuit, he went on to Troy with Helen. 5 It is said by some, however, that Helen was stolen by Hermes in obedience to the will of Zeus and taken to Egypt, where she was entrusted to Proteus, king of the Egyptians, for safe keeping, and Alexander went to Troy with a phantom of Helen* fashioned from clouds.

  Agamemnon assembles the Greek army

  6 When Menelaos heard of the abduction, he went to Agamemnon in Mycenae,* and asked him to assemble a force to attack Troy and to levy troops in Greece. So Agamemnon, sending a herald to each of the kings, reminded them of the oaths* that they had sworn, and warned each of them to look to the safety of his own wife, saying that this insult to Greece affected all of them equally and in common. When most were eager to take part in the expedition, envoys also visited Odysseus in Ithaca, 7 but he was unwilling to go, and pretended to be mad.* Palamedes, son of Nauplios, however, proved his madness to be a sham; for he followed Odysseus while he was making this pretence of madness, and snatching Telemachos from Penelope’s lap, drew his sword* as if he were about to kill him. And Odysseus, fearing for his son’s safety, confessed that his madness was merely a sham, and joined the expedition.

  8 [Later, at Troy,] after capturing a Phrygian, Odysseus forced him to write a treasonable letter, supposedly addressed from Priam to Palamedes; and then, after burying some gold under Palamedes’ tent, he dropped the letter in the camp. Agamemnon read it, discovered the gold, and delivered Palamedes to the allies to be stoned as a traitor.*9 Menelaos went to Cyprus with Odysseus and Talthybios to persuade Cinyras to join the allies. He presented a breast plate* to the absent Agamemnon and swore to send fifty ships; but in fact he sent a single ship, commanded by ..., son of Mygdalion, and fashioned the rest from earthenware and sent those off to sea.

  10 Elais, Spermo, and Oino,* the daughters of Anios, son of Apollo, are called the Wine-Growers. Dionysos granted them the power to draw oil, corn, and wine from the earth.

  11 The army assembled at Aulis. Those who took part* in the expedition against Troy were the following: of the Boeotians, ten leaders, who brought forty ships; of the Orchomenians, four, who brought thirty ships; of the Phocians, four, who brought forty ships; of the Locrians, Aias, son of Oileus, who brought forty ships; of the Euboeans, Elephenor, son of Chalcodon and Alcyone, who brought forty ships; of the Athenians, Menestheus, who brought fifty ships; of the Salaminians, Aias, son of Telamon, who brought twelve ships;12 of the Argives, Diomedes, son of Tydeus, and his companions, who brought eighty ships; of the Mycenaeans, Agamemnon, son of Atreus and Aerope, a hundred ships; of the Lacedaimonians, Menelaos, son of Atreus and Aerope, sixty ships; of the Pylians, Nestor, son of Neleus and Chloris, forty ships; of the Arcadians, Agapenor, seven ships; of the Eleans, Amphimachos and his companions, forty ships; of the Doulichians, Meges, son of Phyleus, forty ships; of the Cephallenians, Odysseus, son of Laertes and Anticleia, twelve ships; of the Aetolians, Thoas, son of Andraimon and Gorge, who brought forty ships; 13 of the Cretans, Idomeneus, son of Deucalion, forty ships; of the Rhodians, Tlepolemos, son of Heracles and Astyoche, nine ships; of the Symaeans, Nireus, son of Charopos, three ships; of the Coans, Pheidippos and Antiphos, the sons of Thessalos, thirty ships; 14 of the Myrmidons, Achilles, son of Peleus and Thetis, fifty ships; from Phylace, Protesilaos, son of Iphiclos, forty ships; of the Pheraeans, Eumelos, son of Admetos, eleven ships; of the Olizonians, Philoctetes, son of Poias, seven ships; of the Ainianians, Gouneus, son of Ocytos, twenty-two ships; of the Triccaeans, Podaleirios [and Machaon, sons of Asclepios], thirty ships; of the Ormenians, Eurypylos [son of Evaimon], forty ships; of the Gyrtonians, Polypoites, son of Peirithoos, thirty ships; and of the Magnesians, Prothoos, son of Tenthredon, forty ships. So in all there were one thousand and thirteen ships, forty-three leaders, and thirty contingents.

  15 While the army was at Aulis and a sacrifice was being offered to Apollo, a snake darted from the altar to a plane tree nearby, which contained a nest; and after swallowing down the eight sparrow chicks in the nest along with their mother, the snake turned to stone. Calchas said that this sign had been sent to them by the will of Zeus, and he concluded from the incident that Troy was destined to be taken after ten years.* And they made ready to set sail against Troy. 16 Agamemnon himself was commander of the whole fo
rce, while Achilles, at fifteen years of age, took command of the fleet.

  The attack on Mysia; the Greeks assemble for a second time

  17 Lacking any knowledge of the route to Troy, they landed in Mysia* and put it to the sack, in the belief that it was Troy. Now the king of the Mysians was Telephos, son of Heracles,* and when he saw his country being pillaged, he armed the Mysians and pursued the Greeks in a body to their ships, killing a large number of them, including Thersandros, son of Polyneices, who stood his ground. But when Achilles rushed to the attack, Telephos failed to hold firm and was put to flight; and during the pursuit, he became entangled in a vine branch* and suffered a wound in the thigh from a spear.

  18 Leaving Mysia, the Greeks put out to sea, and when a violent storm set in, they became separated from one another and returned to land in their own countries. Because the Greeks turned back at this time, the war is said to have lasted twenty years;* for it was in the second year after the abducttion of Helen that the Greeks, when they had completed their preparations, launched the expedition [for the first time], and following their withdrawal from Mysia to Greece, it was eight years before they returned to Argos and went back to Aulis.

  19 When they had gathered again at Argos after this delay of eight years, they were in great perplexity about their route, for want of a guide who could show them the way to Troy. 20 But Telephos (since his wound had failed to heal and Apollo had told him that he would be cured when the man who had inflicted the wound became his healer) arrived in Argos from Mysia dressed in rags and begged Achilles to help him, promising that, in return, he would show them the route to Troy. So Achilles healed him by scraping rust from his Pelian spear.* Once he was cured, Telephos revealed the route, and Calchas, by the use of his own powers of divination, confirmed the accuracy of his directions.