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¹⁸He then went back to Circe, who sent him on his way again; and putting out to sea, he sailed past the island of the Sirens. The Sirens* were daughters of Acheloos by Melpomene, one of the Muses, and their names were Peisinoe, Aglaope, and Thelxiepeia. One of them played the lyre, another sang, and the third played the flute, and by these means they caused passing sailors to want to remain with them. ¹⁹From the thighs down, they were shaped like birds. Now Odysseus wanted to hear their song as he sailed by; so following Circe’s advice, he plugged the ears of his comrades with wax, and ordered that he himself should be bound to the mast. And when the Sirens prevailed on him to want to stay with them, he pleaded to be released, but his men bound him all the more firmly, and in this way he sailed by. There was a prophecy that if a ship sailed past the Sirens, they themselves would die; so they duly perished.

²⁰After this, Odysseus arrived at a point where he had a choice of two different routes. On one side were the Wandering Rocks, and on the other, two enormous cliffs. On one of these cliffs was Scylla, a daughter of Crataiis and Trienos or Phorcos, who had the face and chest of a woman, but from her flanks down, six heads and twelve dogs’ feet; ²¹and on the other was Charybdis, who sucked in the water and spewed it out again three times a day. On Circe’s instructions, he avoided the passage around the Wandering Rocks, and sailed past the cliff of Scylla, standing fully armed at the stern. Scylla appeared, snatched up six of his comrades, and devoured them.

²²From there he went to Thrinacia, an island of the Sun, where cattle* were grazing; and held back by unfavourable weather, he remained there. When his companions slaughtered some of the cattle and feasted on them for want of food, the Sun reported the matter to Zeus; and when they set sail again, Zeus struck them with a thunderbolt. ²³As the ship broke up, Odysseus clung to the mast and was carried towards Charybdis. But when Charybdis sucked down the mast, he seized hold of an overhanging fig tree and waited; and when he saw the mast rise up again, he threw himself on to it and was carried across the sea to the island of Ogygia.

²⁴He was welcomed there by Calypso, daughter of Atlas, who went to bed with him, and bore him a son, Latinos.* He remained with her for five years,* and then built a raft and sailed away. It was broken up at sea, however, through the wrath of Poseidon, and he was cast ashore naked on the land of the Phaeacians. ²⁵Nausicaa, the daughter of King Alcinoos, was washing clothes there, and when Odysseus approached her as a suppliant, she took him to Alcinoos, who welcomed him as a guest. And then, after presenting him with gifts, he sent him away to his native land accompanied by an escort. In his anger against the Phaeacians, Poseidon turned the escorting ship to stone and surrounded their city with a mountain.

²⁶When Odysseus arrived in his native land, he found that his house had been ruined; for believing that he was dead, suitors* were courting Penelope. From Doulichion came fifty-seven: ²⁷Amphinomos, Thoas, Demoptolemos, Amphimachos, Euryalos, Paralos, Evenorides, Clytios, Agenor, Eurypylos, Pylaimenes, Acamas, Thersilochos, Hagios, Clymenos, Philodemos, Meneptolemos, Damastor, Bias, Telmios, Polyidos, Astylochos, Schedios, Antigonos, Marpsios, Iphidamas, Argeios, Glaucos, Calydoneus, Echion, Lamas, Andraimon, Agerochos, Medon, Agrios, Promos, Ctesios, Acarnan, Cycnos, Pseras, Hellanicos, Periphron, Megasthenes, Thrasymedes, Ormenios, Diopithes, Mecisteus, Antimachos, Ptolemaios, Lestorides, Nicomachos, Polypoites, and Ceraos. ²⁸From Same came twenty-three: Agelaos, Peisandros, Elatos, Ctesippos, Hippodochos, Eurystratos, Archemolos, Ithacos, Peisenor, Hyperenor, Pheroites, Antisthenes, Cerberos, Perimedes, Cynnos, Thriasos, Eteoneus, Clytios, Prothoos, Lycaithos, Eumelos, Itanos, and Lyammos. ²⁹From Zacynthos came fortyfour: Eurylochos, Laomedes, Molebos, Phrenios, Indios, Minis, Leiocritos, Pronomos, Nisas, Daemon, Archestratos, Hippo[machos, Euryalos, Periallos, Evenorides, Clytios, Agenor], Polybos, Polydoros, Thadytios, Stratios, [Phrenios, Indios,] Daisenor, Laomedon, Laodicos, Halios, Magnes, Oloitrochos, Barthas, Theophron, Nissaios, Alcarops, Periclymenos, Antenor, Pellas, Celtos, Periphas, Ormenos, [Polybos,] and Andromedes. ³⁰And from Ithaca itself, there were twelve suitors: Antinoos, Pronoos, Leiodes, Eurynomos, Amphimachos, Amphialos, Promachos, Amphimedon, Aristratos, Helenos, Doulichieus, and Ctesippos.

³¹These suitors had travelled to the palace and consumed the herds of Odysseus at their feasts. Penelope had been forced to promise that she would consent to marry when the shroud of Laertes was finished, and she worked at it for three years, weaving it by day and unravelling it by night. In this way, the suitors were fooled by Penelope, until the day came when she was caught in the act. ³²When Odysseus learned of the situation in his household, he visited his servant Eumaios disguised as a beggar. And then, after making himself known to Telemachos, he went to the city with him. Melanthios the goatherd, a mere servant, met them on the way and abused them. On arriving at the palace, Odysseus begged food from the suitors, and discovering a beggar there called Iros, he wrestled with him.* He revealed his identity to Eumaios and Philoitios, and together with them and Telemachos, he devised a plot against the suitors. ³³Penelope gave the suitors the bow of Odysseus (which he had received from Iphitos in earlier days), and said that she would marry the one who could flex the bow. When none of them succeeded, Odysseus took it and shot down the suitors, helped by Eumaios, Philoitios, and Telemachos. He also killed Melanthios, and the maidservants who had been sleeping with the suitors; and he revealed his identity to his wife and father.

The later history of Odysseus

³⁴After sacrificing to Hades, Persephone, and Teiresias, he travelled on foot through Epirus, and arrived in the land of the Thesprotians,* where he propitiated Poseidon* by offering the sacrifices that Teiresias had advised in his prophecy.* Callidice, who was queen of the Thesprotians at the time, asked him to remain and offered him the throne; ³⁵and she slept with him and bore him a son, Polypoites. After he had married Callidice, he became king of the Thesprotians, and defeated in battle the neighbouring peoples who attacked them. When Callidice died, he transferred the throne to his son and returned to Ithaca, where he discovered that Penelope had borne him a son, Poliporthes.

³⁶When Telegonos learned from Circe that he was a son of Odysseus, he sailed away in search of him. Arriving at the island of Ithaca, he plundered some of the cattle,* and when Odysseus came to their rescue, Telegonos wounded him with the spear that he was carrying, which was tipped with the needle [from a stingray*]; and Odysseus died. ³⁷When Telegonos discovered his identity, he lamented bitterly, and took his corpse, and Penelope too, to the land of Circe, where he married Penelope;* and Circe sent the pair of them to the Isles of the Blessed.

³⁸It is said by some, however, that Penelope was seduced by Antinoos* and sent away by Odysseus to her father Icarios, and that when she reached Mantineia in Arcadia, she gave birth to Pan, as a son of Hermes.* ³⁹Others say that she was killed by Odysseus himself because of Amphinomos;* for they claim that she had been seduced by him. ⁴⁰And there are some who say that when the relatives of the men killed by Odysseus made accusations against him, he took as his judge Neoptolemos,* who ruled the islands off Epirus; and Neoptolemos, thinking he would gain possession of Cephallenia if Odysseus were out of the way, condemned him to exile. And Odysseus went to Thoas,* son of Andraimon, in Aetolia, where he married the daughter of Thoas, and died at a great age leaving behind a son by her, Leontophonos.

APPENDIX

SOME INTERPOLATIONS AND AN UNRELIABLE PASSAGE FROM THE EPITOME

Indicated by a dagger(†) in the text

1. 2. 4. 2 (p. 65)

Pindar and Hesiod in the Shieldsay of Perseus: ‘The whole of his back was covered by [the head of] a fearsome monster, [the Gorgon,] which was enclosed in a kibisis.’The kibisisbears that name because clothes and food are placed in it.

2. 2. 5. 12 (p. 83)

It was unlawful at that time for foreigners to be initiated, for Heracles was initiated only after he had become the adopted son of Pylios.

3. 3. 1. 4 (p. 97)

He was the first to become master of the sea, and extended his rule to almost all of the islands.

4. 3. 4. 4 (p. 102)

The names of Actaion’s dogs in the . . . were these:

Now surrounding his beautiful body, as though it were that of a beast,

His powerful dogs tore it apart. Beside it, Arcena first,

[. . .] after her, her valiant offspring,

Lynceus, and Balios the finely footed, and Amarynthos [. . .]—

And those that singled out by name are listed thus:

[. . .] and they then killed Actaios, at the instigation of Zeus,

For the first who drank the black blood of their master

Were Spartos, and Omargos, and Bores swift on the scent.

These were the first to devour Actaios and lap his blood.

And after these, the others rushed on him in a frenzy [. . .]

To be a remedy for the grievous sorrows of men.

5. 3. 6. 7 (p. 110)

What was said by Teiresias to Zeus and Hera:

Of the ten parts, a man enjoys only one,

But a woman in her heart enjoys all ten in full.

6. 3. 10. 3 (p. 119)

I have found some who are said to have been raised by him, namely, Capaneus and Lycourgos, according to Stesichoros in the Eriphyle;and Hippolytos, according to the author of the Naupactica, and Tyndareus, according to Panyasis, and Hymenaios, according to the Orphics, and finally, Glaucos, the son of Minos, according to Melesagoras.

7. 3. 15. 8 (p. 138)

And there, after Pasiphae had conceived a passion for the bull of Poseidon, he assisted her by constructing a wooden cow, and he built the Labyrinth, to which the Athenians sent seven boys and as many girls every year to serve as food for the Minotaur.

8. Epitome 5. 2 (p. 154)

Hippolyte was the mother of Hippolytos; she is also called Glauce and Melanippe. When Phaedra’s marriage was being celebrated, Hippolyte arrived under arms with her fellow Amazons and said that she would kill those who were sharing the hospitality of Theseus. So a battle took place, and she was killed, whether accidentally by her ally Penthesileia, or by Theseus, or because the companions of Theseus, seeing the onset of the Amazons, closed the door with all speed catching her inside, and killed her.

Comments

1. A further explanation of the kibisisor wallet referred to in the sentence preceding the interpolation. The verse quotation, from Hes. Shield223–4, is incomplete and has been corrected by two additions from the surviving text of the poem. There is no reference to the kibisisin the surviving works and fragments of Pindar. The Shieldgoes on to say that the kibisiswas wondrous to behold and was made of silver with golden tassels; it would need to be strong to carry the Gorgon’s head and prevent it from exercising its powers of petrifaction. The etymology for kibisis, a weak effort even by the usual standards, seems to appeal to the keiand thesounds in keisthai ekei estheta, ‘clothes placed there’.

2. It is said that Heracles and later the Dioscuri were the first non-citizens to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries (Xenophon Hellenica6. 3. 6); each had to be adopted beforehand by a local citizen, Heracles by Pylios, and the Dioscuri by Aphidnas (Plut. Thes. 33).

3. Although it is present in the Epitome also, this sentence interrupts the narrative. The thought is a commonplace; compare in particular Thucydides 1. 4.

4. This passage contains two verse citations (or possibly three, depending on whether the isolated line at the end forms part of the second), apparently of different origin, for different names are given for the first dogs to attack Actaion’s body. In saying that the attack was instigated by Zeus the second passage follows the tradition reported for Acousilaos in 3. 4. 4 that Zeus was angry with Actaion for courting Semele. It is now known that this was the account offered in the Hesiodic Catalogue(fr. 217a in Hesiod OCT, 1983 edn.), and some have argued that the second passage at least comes from the Catalogue(but it is not included by Merkelbach and West). The more familiar story that Actaion died because he saw Artemis naked was of later origin; see p. 102 and note. The remedy for human sorrows in the final line is presumably wine, as bestowed by Dionysos, Semele’s son by Zeus. The verses are cited for the information that they offer on the names of Actaion’s dogs, a matter of some interest to later authors, as witnessed by the catalogues in Collectanea Alexandrina 71–2, Ov. Met. 3. 155 ff., and Hyg. Fab. 181. (The passage is poorly preserved; Wagner’s text, which is somewhat different from that of Frazer, has been followed in the translation. In the second citation, Actaion’s name appears in an alternative and presumably early form as Actaios.)

5. A citation from the Melampodeia, an early epic devoted primarily to the seer Melampous and his family. The ancients ascribed the poem to Hesiod (other testimonies relating to the present passage can be found under Hes. fr. 275). This is Teiresias’ judgement on the relative pleasure that men and women derive from love-making (see p. 110). It should be noted that Teiresias’ verdict in these lines from the Melampodeiais not the same as that ascribed to him in Apollodorus’ text; for here he says that a man enjoys one part and a woman ten(on the same scale of ten), while in the text he is reported to have said that a man enjoys one part and a woman nine(as if there were ten available ‘points’ to be divided between them). The nine-to-one division can also be found in a collection of Wonders by Phlegon (cited under Hes. fr. 275), an author of the second century AD, whose account of the episode is certainly not derived from Apollodorus. (As it happens, the manuscripts give Apollodorus’ ratio as nine to ten rather than nine to one; but this is improbable in itself, and it is generally accepted that it can be corrected on the evidence of Tzetz. sc. Lycophr. 638 and the passage from Phlegon.)

6. The fact that this passage is introduced in the first person, which is unparalleled in the Library, confirms that it is a later gloss. It contains a standard list, recorded in four other sources (Philodemus On Piety45b, Gomperz 1865: Sextus Empiricus Adv. Math. 1. 260–2; sc. Eur. Ale. 1; sc. Pind. Pyth. 3, 96); and because it was cited by Philodemus, who wrote in the first century BC, we can be sure that the author of the Librarywas not responsible for its compilation. The first two names are of Argive leaders who fell in the First Theban War (for Capaneus, see p. 110; the present Lycourgos would be the son of Pronax, and nephew of Adrastos, mentioned on p. 47, who is said to have fought with Amphiaraos during the war, Paus. 3. 18. 12, although he is not included in any surviving list of the seven champions). For the death of Hippolytos, see p. 142; this becomes the prime example in the literature on the mythology of the constellations (to explain how Asclepios came to die and be transferred to the sky as the constellation Ophiouchos or the Serpent-Holder, Catast. 6, cf. Hyg. Astr. 2. 14). The most likely occasion for the death and revival of Tyndareus was Heracles’ campaign against Hippocoon, pp. 87 f. Hymenaios was a god of marriage, specially associated with the wedding procession and hymns. For this account of the revival of Glaucos, cf. Hyg. Astr. 2. 14; Apollodorus offers a conflicting account on pp. 99 f.

7. This merely repeats matter from 3. 1. 4 and shortly before in the same paragraph.

8. According to Epitome 5. 1, Penthesileia, the Amazon, came to Troy to be purified after accidentally killing Hippolyte. The present paragraph (5. 2, found only in the Vatican epitome) offers an explanation of who this Hippolyte was, and how Penthesileia came to kill her. This, we are told, was the Hippolyte abducted by Theseus, and Penthesileia killed her—or may have killed her—when the Amazons invaded Attica after Theseus had put Hippolyte aside in favour of Phaedra (see p. 141). But this attempt to explain an event that took place in the final year of the Trojan War by an incident at Theseus’ wedding involves a gross anachronism (for it was universally agreed from Homer onwards that Menestheus was king of the Athenians during the Trojan War and that Theseus must have died some time before it began). So can this paragraph be accepted as a reliable report on Apollodorus’ text? Even a brief comparison with 1. 17 (in the Sabbaitic epitome only), which is largely the same, will suggest that it cannot. It seems, rather, that the Vatican epitomist wrongly assumed that the present Hippolyte could be identified with the Amazon of that name associated with Theseus, and reworked material from earlier in the Libraryto put over the point; and crucially, the phrase stating that Theseus’ Hippolyte may have been killed ‘accidentally by her ally Penthesileia’ is almost certainly the epitomist’s own contribution. For this is not stated as one of the alternatives in 1. 17, and there is a marked awkwardness in the way in which the text (as summarized above) has been rearranged to allow for its insertion.

The alternative names for Hippolyte in 5. 2 do not correspond with those in the Sabbaitic epitome at 1. 16 (as translated in the main text). The corresponding passage in the Vatican epitome mentions the names Glauce and Melanippe (though not, as it happens, Hippolyte).

Although it is not explicitly attested in Proclus’ summary or elsewhere, it can be reasonably assumed that in reporting that the accidental killing accounted for Penthesileia’s presence at Troy (5. 1), Apollodorus was following the Aethiopisin the epic cycle. It is surely probable that the incident would have taken place in her native land within Asia Minor to the east of Troy, as indicated in the surviving accounts in Diodorus 2. 46. 5 and Quintus of Smyrna 1. 21 ff. Diodorus is vague, merely stating that she killed her (unnamed) sister and had to leave her native land, but according to Quintus, she killed Hippolyte when throwing her spear at a stag (which may well be the early tradition).

EXPLANATORY NOTES

References:these are included either to suggest passages for comparison and further reading in ancient works which are readily accessible in translation, or to state the source of specific information given within the note. In the latter case, the references are selective, and refer if necessary to untranslated works.

The following abbreviationsare used:

Aesch.

Aeschylus (tragic poet, 525/4–456 BC).

[Aesch.] PV

Prometheus Enchained, a play transmitted under Aeschylus’ name but of uncertain authorship.

AL

Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses(compendium of transformation myths, circasecond century AD; for translation see Select Bibliography).

Ap.

Apollodorus, the author of the Library.

AR

Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica(epic, third century BC).

Bacch.

Bacchylides (lyric poet, flourished fifth century BC; the numbering follows Snell’s Teubner edition).

Catast.

Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catasterisms(compendium of constellation myths; in Mythographi Graeci, Leipsig, vol. 3).

DS

Diodorus of Sicily, Library(a world history, first century BC, translated in the Loeb series).

Eur.

Euripides (tragic poet, fifth century BC).

fr.

fragment.

Hdt.

Herodotus, History(fifth century BC).

Hes.

Hesiod. (For translations of the Hesiodic works, and of some of the testimonies and fragments, see the Hesiod volume in the Loeb series; the references for the fragments are to the standard edition by Merkelbach and West, Oxford, 1967.)

Hes. Cat.

Catalogue of Women(a sixth-century genealogical epic, not by the author of the Theogony;see Introduction and Select Bibliography).

Hes. WD

Hesiod, Works and Days.

HH

Homeric Hymns(post-Homeric, of varying date up to sixth century BC or later, translated in Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns, Loeb series).

Hyg.

Hyginus, Fabulae(mythological compendium; for translation see Select Bibliography).

Hyg. PA

Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy(Book II of the Astronomy;see Select Bibliography).

Il.

Homer’s Iliad.

Od.

Homer’s Odyssey.

Ov. Met.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

P.

Pausanias, Description of Greece(second century AD, translated in the Loeb series and Penguin).

Parthen.

Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Stories(first century BC; in Mythographi Graeci, Leipsig, vol. 2).

Pind.

Pindar (lyric poet, 518–438 BC). Isth.: Isthmian Odes; Nem.: Nemean Odes; 01.: Olympian Odes; Pyth.: Pythian Odes.

Plut. Thes.

Plutarch (first-second century AD), Life of Theseus.

Procl.

Proclus (of uncertain date, author of summaries of the early epics in the Trojan cycle; translated in Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns, Loeb series).

QS

Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica(epic poem on the fall of Troy, fourth century AD; translated in the Loeb series).

sc.

scholion. (The scholia were marginal notes by ancient and medieval scholars, which often preserve material from lost mythographical works. French translations of some of the scholia relevant to the text of the Librarycan be found in the notes to Carriere’s edition; see Select Bibliography.)

NB. In references to scholia conventional abbreviations have been used.

Theog.

Hesiod’s Theogony.

Thuc.

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War(fifth century BC).

Tzetz.

Johannes Tzetzes (Byzantine scholar, twelfth-century AD).

VM

The Vatican Mythographers (ed. G. H. Bode, Scriptores Rerum Mythicarum Latini Tres, Celle, 1834; late Latin compendia).

Dates: all are BC unless otherwise indicated.

Cross-references: these are selective, and the Index should also be consulted.

Textual matters: notes on these, and on points of language, have been kept to a bare minimum, except with regard to dubious passages and interpolations (marked by square brackets in the text) and to etymologies, which depend on wordplay in the original Greek (indicated by italics in the text).

Homer and Hesiod: it is convenient to refer to ‘Homer’, but this implies no judgement as to whether the Iliadand the Odysseywere composed by the same author, or on the extent to which each poem can be regarded as the work of a single poet. There is disagreement on whether the Hesiodic Theogonyand Works and Dayswere written by the same author; and other works attributed to Hesiod by the ancients, notably the Catalogue of Womenand the Shield, were certainly written at a later period.

Modern authors: all references are to editors or translators of the Library(see Select Bibliography).

Pherecydes, Acousilaos, and Hellanicos: for these early mythographer-historians, who are important sources for Apollodorus, see the Introduction.