Εμφανίζονται 100 (επί συνόλου 180) τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Ομηρικός κόσμος στην ευρύτερη περιοχή: "ΑΡΓΟΣ - ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ Δήμος ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ" .
ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ (Μυκηναϊκό ανάκτορο) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Demodocus (Demodookos). The famous bard of the Odyssey, who according to the fashion
of the heroic ages delighted the guests of king Alcinous during their repast by
singing about the feats of the Greeks at Troy, of the love of Ares and Aphrodite,
and of the wooden horse (Od. viii. 62, xiii. 27). He is also mentioned as the
bard who advised Agamemnon to guard Clytaemnestra, and to expose Aegisthus in
a desert island (Od. iii. 267; Eustath. ad Hom.). Eustathius describes him as
a Laconian, and as a pupil of Automedes and Perimedes of Argos. He adds that he
won the prize at the Pythian games and then followed Agamemnon to Mycenae. One
story makes Odysseus recite Demodocus's song about the destruction of Troy during
a contest in Tyrrhenia (Ptolem. Heph. 7). On the throne of Apollo at Amyclae,
Demodocus was represented playing to the dance of the Phaeacians (Paus. iii. 18.7).
Later writers, who look upon this mythical minstrel as an historical person, describe
him as a native of Corcyra, and as an aged and blind singer (Ov. Ib. 272), who
composed a poem on the destruction of Troy (Iliou porDesis), and on the marriage
of Hephaestus and Aphrodite (Plut. de Mus. 3; Eudoc. p. 407; Phot. Bibl.). Plutarch
(de Flurm. 18) refers even to the first book of an epic poem on the exploits of
Heracles (Erakleia). But all such statements are fabulous; and if there existed
any poems under his name, they were certainly forgeries.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Γιος του Τυδέα και της Δηιπύλης, σύζυγος της Αιγιάλειας, κόρης του Αδραστου, από τον οποίο κληρονόμησε το θρόνο του Αργους. Ηταν ο αρχηγός των Αργείων με 80 πλοία στον Τρωικό πόλεμο (Ιλ. Β 567, Ε 412, Ψ 470).
Diomedes. A son of Tydeus and Deipyle, the husband of Aegialeia, and the successor
of Adrastus in the kingdom of Argos, though he was descended from an Aetolian
family (Apollod. i. 8.5). The Homeric tradition about him is as follows: His father
Tydeus fell in the expedition against Thebes,
while Diomedes was yet a boy (II. vi. 222); but he himself afterwards was one
of the Epigoni who took Thebes
(II. iv. 405; comp. Paus. ii. 20.4). Diomedes went to Troy
with Sthenelus and Euryalus, carrying with him in eighty ships warriors from Argos,
Tiryns, Hermione,
Asine, Troezene,
Eionae, Epidaurus, Aegina,
and Mases (ii. 559). In the
army of the Greeks before Troy,
Diomedes was, next to Achilles, the bravest among the heroes; and, like Achilles
and Odysseus, he enjoyed the special protection of Athena, who assisted him in
all dangerous moments (v. 826, vi. 98, x. 240, xi. 312; comp. Virg. Aen. i. 96).
He fought with the most distinguished among the Trojans, such as Hector and Aeneias
(viii. 110, v. 310), and even with the gods who espoused the cause of the Trojans.
He thus wounded Aphrodite, and drove her from the field of battle (v. 335, 440),
and Ares himself was likewise wounded by him (v. 837). Diomedes was wounded by
Pandareus, whom, however, he afterwards slew with many other Trojans (v. 97).
In the attack of the Trojans on the Greek camp. he and Odysseus offered a brave
resistance, but Diomedes was wounded and returned to tile ships (xi. 320). He
wore a cuirass made by Hephaestus, but sometimes also a lion's skin (viii. 195,
x. 177). At the funeral games of Patroclus he conquered in the chariot-race, and
received a woman and a tripod as his prize (xxiii. 373). He also conquered the
Telamonian Ajax in single combat, and won the sword which Achilles had offered
as the prize (xxiii. 811). He is described in the Iliad in general as brave in
war and wise in council (ix. 53), in battle furious like a mountain torrent, and
the terror of the Trojans, whom he chases before him, as a lion chases goats (v.
87, xi. 382). He is strong like a god (v. 884), and the Trojan women during their
sacrifice to Athena pray to her to break his spear and to make him fall (vi. 306).
He himself knows no fear, and refuses his consent when Agamemnon proposes to take
to flight, and he declares that, if all flee, he and his friend Sthenelus will
stay and fight till Troy
shall fill (ix. 32, comp. vii. 398, viii. 151: Philostr. Her. 4).
The story of Diomedes, like those of other heroes of the Trojan time,
has received various additions and embellishments from the hands of later writers,
of which we shall notice the principal ones. After the expedition of the Epigoni
he is mentioned among the suitors of Helen (Hygin. Fab. 81; Apollod. iii. 10.8),
and his love of Helen induced him to join the Greeks in their expedition against
Troy with 30 ships (Hygin.
Fab. 97). Being a relative of Thersites, who was slain by Achilles, he did not
permit the body of the Amazon Penthesileia to be honourably buried, but dragged
her by the feet into the river Scamander (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 993 ; Dict. Cret.
iv. 3). Philoctetes was persuaded by Diomedes and Odysseus to join the Greeks
against Troy (Soph. Philoct.
570; Hygin. Fab. 102). Diomedes conspired with Odysseus against Palamedes, and
under the pretence of having discovered a hidden treasure, they let him down into
a well and there stoned him to death (Dict. Cret. ii. 15; comp. Paus. x. 31.1).
After the death of Paris, Diomedes and Odysseus were sent into the city of Troy
to negotiate for peace (Dict. Cret. v. 4), but he was afterwards one of the Greeks
concealed in the wooden horse (Hygin. Fab. 108). When he and Odysseus had arrived
in the arx of Troy by a subterraneous
passage, they slew the guards and carried away the palladium (Virg. Aen. ii. 163),
as it was believed that Ilium could not be taken so long as the palladium was
within its walls. When, during the night, the two heroes were returning to the
camp with their precious booty, and Odysseus was walking behind him, Diomedes
saw by the shadow of his companion that he was drawing his sword in order to kill
him, and thus to secure to himself alone the honour of having taken the palladium.
Diomedes, however, turned round, seized the sword of Odysseus, tied his hands,
and thus drove him along before him to the camp (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 822). Diomedes,
according to some, carried the palladium with him to Argos, where it remained
until Ergiaeus, one of his descendants, took it away with the assistance of the
Laconian Leagrus, who conveyed it to Sparta
(Plut. Quaest. Graec. 48). According to others, Diomedes was robbed of the palladium
by Demophon in Attica, where
he landed one night on his return from Troy,
without knowing where he was (Paus. ii. 28.9). A third tradition stated, that
Diomedes restored the palladium and the remains of Anchises to Aeneias, because
he was informed by an oracle, that he should be exposed to unceasing sufferings
unless lie restored the sacred image to the Trojans (Serv. ad Aen. ii. 166, iii.
407, iv, 427, v. 81).
On his return from Troy,
he had like other heroes to suffer much from the enmity of Aphrodite, but Athena
still continued to protect him. He was first thrown by a storm on the coast of
Lycia, where lie was to be
sacrificed to Ares by king Lycus; but Callirrhoe, the king's daughter, took pity
upon him, and assisted him in escaping (Plut. Parall. Gr. et Rom. 23). On his
arrival in Argos lie met with an evil reception which had been prepared for him
either by Aphrodite or Nauplius, for his wife Aegialeia was living in adultery
with Hippolytus, or according to others, with Cometes or Cyllabarus (Dict. Cret.
vi. 2; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 609; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 9). He therefore quitted Argos
either of his own accord, or he was expelled by the adulterers (Tzetz. ad Lyc.
602), and went to Aetolia.
His going to Aetolia and
the subsequent recovery of Argos are placed in some traditions immediately after
the war of the Epigoni, and Diomedes is said to have gone with Alcmaeon to assist
his grandfather Oeneus in Aetolia
against his enemies. During the absence of Diomedes, Agamemnon took possession
of Argos; but when the expedition against Troy
was resolved upon, Agamemnon from fear invited Diomedes and Alcmaeon back to Argos,
and asked them to take part in the projected expedition. Diomedes alone accepted
the proposal, and thus recovered Argos (Strab. vii, x; comp. Hygin. Fab. 175;
Apollod. i. 8.6; Paus. ii. 25.2). According to another set of traditions, Diomedes
did not go to Aetolia till
after his return from Troy,
when he was expelled from Argos, and it is said that he went first to Corinth;
but being informed there of the distress of Oeneus, he hastened to Aetolia
to assist him. Diomedes conquered and slew the enemies of his grandfather, and
then took up his residence in Aetolia
(Dict. Cret. vi. 2). Other writers make him attempt to return to Argos, but on
his way home a storm threw him on the coast of Daunia in Italy. Daunus, the king
of the country, received him kindly, and solicited his assistance in a war against
the Messapians. He promised in return to give him a tract of land and the hand
of his daughter Euippe. Diomedes defeated the Messapians, and distributed their
territory among the Dorians who had accompanied him In Italy. Diomedes gave up
his hostility against the Trojans, and even assisted them against Turnus (Paus.
i. 11; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 9). He died in Daunia at an advanced age, and was buried
in one of the islands off cape Garganus, which were called after him the Diomedean
islands. Subsequently, when Daunus too had died, the Dorians were conquered by
the Illyrians, but were metamorphosed by Zeus into birds (Anton. Lib. 37; comp.
Tzetz. ad Lyc. 602, 618). According to Tzetzes, Diomedes was murdered by Daunus,
whereas according to others he returned to Argos, or disappeared in one of the
Diomedean islands, or in the country of the Heneti (Strab. vi. p. 284). A number
of towns in the eastern part of Italy, such as Beneventum, Aequumtuticum, Argos
Hippion (afterwards Argyripa or Arpi), Venusia
or Aphrodisia, Canusium,
Venafrum, Salapia, Spina,
Sipus, Garganum, and Brundusium,
were believed to have been founded by Diomedes (Serv. ad Aen viii. 9, xi. 246;
Strab. vi. pp. 283, 284; Plin-H. N. iii. 20; Justin, xii. 2). The worship and
service of gods and heroes was spread by Diomedes far and wide: in and near Argos
he caused temples of Athena to be built (Plut. de Flum. 18; Paus. ii. 24.2); his
armour was preserved in a temple of Athena at Luceria
in Apulia, and a gold chain
of his was shown in a temple of Artemis in Peucetia. At Troezene
he had founded a temple of Apollo Epibaterius, and instituted the Pythian games
there. He himself was subsequently worshipped as a divine being, especially in
Italy, where statues of him existed at Argyripa,
Metapontum, Thurii,
and other places (Schol. ad Pind. Nem. x. 12 ; Scylax, Peripl. p. 6; comp. Strab.
v. p. 214).
There are traces in Greece also of the worship of Diomedes, for it
is said that he was placed among the gods together with the Dioscuri, and that
Athena conferred upon him the immortality which had been intended for his father
Tydeus. It has been conjectured that Diomedes is an ancient Pelasgian name of
some divinity, who was afterwards confounded with the hero Diomedes, so that the
worship of the god was transferred to the hero (Bockh, Explicat. ad Pind. Nem.
x.). Diomedes was represented in a painting on the acropolis
of Athens in the act of carrying
away the Palladium from Troy (Paus. i. 22.6), and Polygnotus had painted him in
the Lesche at Delphi (x.
25.2, 10.2).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Aegiale or Aegialeia (Aigiale or Aigialeia), a daughter of Adrastus and Amphithea, or of Aegialeus the son of Adrastus, whence she bears the surname of Adrastine (Hom.Il. v. 412; Apollod. i. 8.6, 9.13). She was married to Diomedes, who, on his return from Troy, found her living in adultery with Cometes (Eustath, ad Il. v). The hero attributed this misfortune to the anger of Aphrodite, whom he had wounded in the war against Troy, but when Aegiale went so far as to threaten his life he fled to Italy (Schol. ad Lycophr. 610; Ov. Met. xiv. 476). According to Dictys Cretensis (vi. 2), Aegiale, like Clytemnestra, had been seduced to her criminal conduct by a treacherous report, that Diomedes was returning with a Trojan woman who lived with him as his wife, and on his arrival at Argos Aegiale expelled him. In Ovid (Ibis, 349) she is described as the type of a bad wife.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Διαδέχθηκε τον Ιφιο κι έγινε ο 29ος βασιλιάς του Αργους (1193 π.Χ.).
Γιος του Καπανέως και της Ευάδνης, που συμβασίλευσε με τον Αδραστο και τον Οϊκλή (Ιλ. Β 564, Δ 367, Ι 48, Ψ 511).
Sthenelus. A son of Capaneus and Evadue, belonged to the family of the Anaxagoridae in Argos. and was the father of Cylarabes (Hom Il. v. 109; Paus. ii. 18.4, 22. 8, 30); but, according to others, his son's name was Comeres (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 603, 1093 ; Serv. ad Aen. xi. 269). He was one of the Epigoni, by whom Thebes was taken (Hom. Il. iv. 405; Apollod. iii. 7.2), and commanded the Argives under Diomedes, in the Trojan war, being the faithful friend and companion of Diomedes (Hom. Il. ii. 564, iv. 367, xxiii. 511; Philostr. Her. 4 ; Hygin. Fab. 175). He was one of the Greeks concealed in the wooden horse (Hygin. Fab. 108), and at the distribution of the booty, lie was said to have received an image of a three-eyed Zeus, which was in aftertimes shown at Argos (Paus. ii. 45.5, viii. 46.2). His own statue and tomb also were believed to exist at Argos (ii. 20.4, 22. in fin.; comp. Horat. Carm. i. 15. 23, iv. 9. 20; Stat. Achill. i. 469).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Γιος του Μηκιστέως, του γιου του Ταλαού (Ιλ. Β 565, Ζ 52, Ψ 680).
Euryalus (Eurualos). A son of Mecisteus, is mentioned by Apollodorus (i. 9.16) among the Argonauts, and was one of the Epigoni who took and destroyed Thebes (Paus. ii. 20.4; Apollod. iii. 7.2). He was a brave warrior, and at the funeral games of Oedipus he conquered all his competitors (Hom. Il. xxiii. 608) with the exception of Epeius, who excelled him in wrestling. He accompanied Diomedes to Troy, where he was one of the bravest heroes, and slew several Trojans (Il. ii. 565, vi. 20; Pans. ii. 30.9). In the painting of Polygnotus at Delphi, he was represented as being wounded; and there was also a statue of him at Delphi, which stood between those of Diomedes and Aegialeus (Paus. x. 10.2, 25.2).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ (Μυκηναϊκό ανάκτορο) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Ο Αγαμέμνων ήταν ο βασιλιάς των Μυκηνών, Ατρείδης, δηλαδή γιος του Ατρέως, αρχηγός των Μυκηναίων στον πόλεμο της Τροίας και αδελφός του Μενελάου.
Σύζυγός του ήταν η Κλυταιμήστρα, η οποία ήταν κόρη του Τυνδάρεω και της Λήδας και αδελφή της Ελένης (Ιλ. Α 113, Οδ. γ 264). Στο διάστημα της απουσίας του, απίστησε και παντρεύτηκε τον Αίγισθο, ο οποίος οργάνωσε με τη σύμπραξή της τη δολοφονία του. Ο γιος του δολοφονηθέντος Αγαμέμνονα Ορέστης εκδικήθηκε το θάνατό του σκοτώνοντας τη μητέρα του και τον Αίγισθο (Οδ. α 300, λ 409 κ.ε., ω 198).
Agamemnon. A son of Pleisthenes and grandson of Atreus, king of Mycenae, in whose
house Agamemnon and Menelaus were educated after the death of their father. (Apollod.
iii. 2.2; Schol. ad Eurip. Or. 5; Schol. ad Iliad. ii. 249.) Homer and several
other writers call him a son of Atreus, grandson of Pelops, and great-grandson
of Tantalus. (Hom. Il. xi. 131; Eurip. Helen. 396; Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 147; Hygin.
Fab. 97.) His mother was, according to most accounts, Aerope; but some call Eriphyle
the wife of Pleisthenes and the mother of Agamemnon. Besides his brother Menelaus,
he had a sister, who is called Anaxibia, Cyndragora, or Astyocheia. (Schol. Eurip.
Or. 5; Hygin. Fab. 17.) Agamemnon and Memelaus were brought up together with Aegisthus,
the son of Thyestes, in the house of Atreus. When they had grown to manhood, Atreus
sent Agamemnon and Menelaus to seek Thyestes. They found him at Delphi, and carried
him to Atreus, who threw him into a dungeon. Aegisthus was afterwards commanded
to kill him but, recognising his father in him, he abstained from the cruel deed,
slew Atreus, and after having expelled Agamemnon and Menelaus, he and his father
occupied the kingdom of Mycenae. The two brothers wandered about for a time, and
at last came to Sparta, where Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, the daughter of
Tyndareus, by whom he became the father of Iphianassa (Iphigeneia), Chrysothemis,
Laodice (Electra), and Orestes. (Hom. Il. ix. 145, with th e note of Eustath.;
Lucret. i. 86.)
The manner in which Agamemnon came to the kingdom of Mycenae is differently
related. From Homer (Il. ii. 10; comp. Paus. ix. 40.6), it appears as if he had
peaceably succeeded Thyestes, while, according to others (Aeschyl. Agam. 1605),
he expelled Thyestes, and usurped his throne. After he had become king of Mycenae,
he rendered Sicyon and its king subject to himself (Paus. ii. 6.4), and became
the most powerful prince in Greece. A catalogue of his dominions is given in the
Iliad. (ii. 569; comp. Strab. viii; Thucyd. i. 9.) When Homer (Il. ii. 108) attributes
to Agamemnon the sovereignty over all Argos, the name Argos here signifies Peloponnessus,
or the greater part of it, for the city of Argos was governed by Diomedes. (Il.
ii. 559) Strabo (l. c.) has also shewn that the name Argos is sometimes used by
the tragic poets as synonymous with Mycenae.
When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was carried off by Paris, the son
of Priam, Agamemnon and Menelaus called upon all the Greek chiefs for assistance
against Troy. (Odyss. xxiv. 115.) The chiefs met at Argos in the palace of Diomedes,
where Agamemnon was chosen their chief commander, either in consequence of his
superior power (Eustath, ad Il. ii. 108; Thucyd. i. 9), or because he had gained
the favour of the assembled chiefs by giving them rich presents. (Dictys, Cret.
i. 15, 16.) After two years of preparation, the Greek army and fleet assembled
in the port of Aulis in Boeotia. Agamemnon had previously consulted the oracle
about the issue of the enterprise, and the answer given was, that Troy should
fall at the time when the most distinguished among the Greeks should quarrel.
(Od. viii. 80.) A similar prophecy was derived from a marvellous occurrence which
happened while the Greeks were assembled at Aulis. Once when a sacrifice was offered
under the boughs of a tree, a dragon crawled forth from under it, and devoured
a nest on the tree containing eight young birds and their mother. Calchas interpreted
the sign to indicate that the Greeks would have to fight against Troy for nine
years, but that in the tenth the city would fall. (Il. ii. 303) An account of
a different miracle portending the same thing is given by Aeschylus. (Ayam. 110)
Another interesting incident happened while the Greeks were assembled
at Aulis. Agamemnon, it is said, killed a stag which was sacred to Artemis, and
in addition provoked tle anger of the goddess by irreverent words. She in return
visited the Greek army with a pestilence, and produced a perfect calm, so that
the Greeks were unable to leave the port. When the seers declared that the anger
of the goddess could not be soothed unless Iphigeneia, the daughter of Agamemnon,
were offered to her as an atoning sacrifice, Diomedes and Odysseus were sent to
fetch her to the camp under the pretext that she was to be married to Achilles.
She came; but at the moment when she was to be sacrificed, she was carried off
by Artemis herself (according to others by Achilles) to Tauris, and another victim
was substituted in her place. (Hygin. Fab. 98; Eurip. Iphig. Aul. 90, Iphig. Taur.
15; Sophocl. Elect. 565; Pind. Pyth. xi. 35; Ov. Met. xii. 31; Dict. Cret. i.
19; Schol. ad Lycophr. 183; Antonin. Lib. 27.) After this the calm ceased, and
the army sailed to the coast of Troy. Agamemnon alone had one hundred ships, independent
of sixty which he had lent to the Arcadians. (Il. ii. 576, 612.)
In the tenth year of the siege of Troy -for it is in this year that
the Iliad opens- we find Agamemnon involved in a quarrel with Achilles respecting
the possession of Briseis, whom Achilles was obliged to give up to Agamemnon.
Achilles withdrew from the field of battle, and the Greeks were visited by successive
disasters. Zeus sent a dream to Agamemnon to persuade him to lead the Greeks to
battle against the Trojans. (Il. ii. 8) The king, in order to try the Greeks,
commanded them to return home, with which they readily complied, until their courage
was revived by Odysseus, who persuaded them to prepare for battle. (Il. ii. 55)
After a single combat between Paris and Menelaus, a battle followed, in which
Agamemnon killed several of the Trojans. When Hector challenged the bravest of
the Greeks, Agamemnon offered to fight with him, but in his stead Ajax was chosen
by lot. Soon after this another battle took place, in which the Greeks were worsted
(Il. viii.), and Agamemnon in despondence advised the Greeks to take to flight
and return home. (Il. ix. 10.) But he was opposed by the other heroes. An attempt
to conciliate Achilles failed, and Agamemnon assembled the chiefs in the night
to deliberate about the measures to be adopted. (Il. x. 1) Odysseus and Diomedes
were then sent out as spies, and on the day following the contest with the Trojans
was renewed. Agamemnon himself was again one of the bravest, and slew many enemies
with his own hand. At last, however, he was wounded by Coon and obliged to withdraw
to his tent. (Il. xi. 250) Hector now advanced victoriously, and Agamemnon again
advised the Greeks to save themselves by flight. (Il. xiv. 75) But Odysseus and
Diomedes again resisted him, and the latter prevailed upon him to return to the
battle which was going on near the ships. Poseidon also appeared to Agamemnon
in the figure of an aged man, and inspired him with new courage. (Il. xiv. 125)
The pressing danger of the Greeks at last induced Patroclus, the friend of Achilles,
to take an energetic part in the battle, and his fall roused Achilles to new activity,
and led to his reconciliation with Agamemnon. In the games at the funeral pyre
of Patroclus, Agamemnon gained the first prize in throwing the spear. (Il. xxiii.
890)
Agamemnon, although the chief commander of the Greeks, is not the
hero of the Iliad, and in chivalrous spirit, bravery, and character, altogether
inferior to Achilles. But he nevertheless rises above all the Greeks by his dignity,
power, and majesty (Il. iii. 166), and his eyes and head are likened to those
of Zeus, his girdle to that of Ares, and his breast to that of Poseidon. (Il.
ii. 477) Agamemnon is among the Greek heroes what Zeus is among the gods of Olympus.
This idea appears to have guided the Greek artists, for in several representations
of Agamemnon still extant there is a remarkable resemblance to the representations
of Zeus. The emblem of his power and majesty in Homer is a sceptre, the work of
iiephaestus, which Zeus had once given to Hermes, and Hermes to Pelops, from whom
it descended to Agamemnon. (Il. ii. 100; comp. Paus. ix. 40.6) His armour is described
in the Iliad. (xi. 19)
The remaining part of the story of Agamemnon is related in the Odyssey,
and by several later writers. At the taking of Troy he received Cassandra, the
daughter of Priam, as his prize (Od. xi. 421; Diet. Cret. v. 13), by whom, according
to a tradition in Pausanias (ii. 16.5), he had two sons, Teledamus and Pelops.
On his return home he was twice driven out of his course by storms, but at last
landed in Argolis, in the dominion of Aegisthus, who had seduced Clytemnestra
during the absence of her husband. He invited Agamemnon on his arrival to a repast,
and had him and his companions treacherously murdered during the feast (Od. iii.
263), and Clytemnestra on the same occasion murdered Cassandra. (Od. xi. 400-422,
xxiv. 96) Odysseus met the shade of Agamemnon in the lower world. (Od. xi. 387,
xxiv. 20.) Menelaus erected a monument in honour of his brother on tle river Aegyptus.
(Od. iv. 584.) Pausanias (ii. 16.5) states, that in his time a monument of Agamemnon
was still extant at Mycenae.
The tragic poets have variously modified the story of the murder of
Agamemnon. Aeschylus (Agam. 1492) makes Clytemnestra alone murder Agamemnon: she
threw a net over him while he was in the bath, and slew him with three strokes.
Her motive is partly her jealousy of Cassandra, and partly her adulterous life
with Aegisthus. According to Tzetzes (ad Lycophr. 1099), Aegisthus committed the
murder with the assistance of Clytemnestra. Euripides (Or. 26) mentions a garment
which Clytemnestra threw over him instead of a net, and both Sophocles (Elect.
530) and Euripides represent the sacrifice of Iphigeneia as the cause for which
she murdered him. After the death of Agamemnon and Cassandra, their two sons were
murdered upon their tomb by Aegisthus. (Paus. ii. 16.5) According to Pindar (Pyth.
xi. 48) the murder of Agamemnon took place at Amyclae, in Laconica, and Pausanias
(l. c.) states that the inhabitants of this place disputed with those of Mycenae
the possession of the tomb of Cassandra (Paus. iii. 19.5).
In later times statues of Agamemnon were erected in several parts
of Greece, and he was worshipped as a hero at Amyclae and Olympia. (Paus. iii.
19.5, v. 25 5) He was represented on the pedestal of the celebrated Rhamnusian
Nemesis (i. 33.7), and his fight with Coon on the chest of Cypselus. (v. 19.1)
He was painted in the Lesche of Delphi, by Polygnotus. (x. 25.2; compare Plin.
H. N. xxxv. 36.5; Quintil. ii. 13.13; Val. Max. viii. 11.6.) It should be remarked
that several Latin poets mention a bastard son of Agamemnon, of the name of Halesus,
to whom the foundation of the town of Falisci or Alesium is ascribed. (Ov. Fast.
iv. 73; Amor. iii. 13. 31; comp. Serv. ad Aen. vii. 695; Sil. Ital. viii. 476.)
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Agamemnon. The son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus. Driven from Mycenae after the murder of Atreus by Thyestes, the two young princes fled to Sparta, where King Tyndareos gave them his daughters in marriage-Clytaemnestra to Agamemnon, and Helen to Menelaus. While the latter inherited his father-in-law's kingdom, Agamemnon not only drove his uncle out of Mycenae, but so extended his dominions that in the war against Troy for the recovery of Helen the chief command was intrusted to him, as the mightiest prince in Greece. He contributed one hundred ships manned with warriors, besides lending sixty to the Arcadians.In Homer he is one of the bravest fighters before Troy; yet, by arrogantly refusing to let Chryses, priest of Apollo, ransom his daughter Chryseis, who had fallen to Agamemnon as the prize of war, be brought a plague on the Grecian host, which he afterwards almost ruined by ruthlessly carrying off Briseis, the prize of Achilles, who henceforth sulked in his tents and refused to fight. After the fall of Troy, Agamemnon came home with his captive, the princess Cassandra; but at supper he and his comrades were murdered by his wife's lover, Aegisthus, while the queen herself killed Cassandra. Such is Homer's account; the tragic poets make Clytaemnestra, in revenge for her daughter's immolation, throw a net over Agamemnon while bathing, and kill him with the help of Aegisthus. In Homer his children are Iphianassa, Chrysothemis, Laodice, and Orestes; the later legend puts Iphigenia and Electra in the place of Iphianassa and Laodice. Agamemnon was worshipped as a hero. His name is the title of a play by Aeschylus.
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Πληροφορίες Σύνταξης:
Tο(α) ηλεκτρονικό(ά) κείμενο(α) της τραγωδίας του Αισχύλου "Αγαμέμνων" παρατίθε(ν)ται στην Ελλάδα (αρχαία χώρα) στην κατηγορία Αρχαία Ελληνική Γραμματεία
Clytaemnestra (Klutaimnestra). A daughter of Tyndarus, king of Sparta, by Leda. She was born,
together with her brother Castor, from one of the eggs which her mother brought
forth after her amour with Zeus under the form of a swan. She married Agamemnon,
king of Mycenae, and when this monarch went to the Trojan War, he left his wife
and family, and all his affairs, to the care of his relation Aegisthus. But the
latter proved unfaithful to his trust, corrupted Clytaemnestra, and usurped the
throne. Agamemnon, on his return home, was murdered by his guilty wife, who was
herself afterwards slain, along with Aegisthus, by Orestes, son of the deceased
monarch. For a more detailed account, see the articles Agamemnon and Orestes.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical
Antiquities
Cited Sept. 2002 from Perseus Project
URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Monarchia, a general name for any form of government in which the supreme functions of political administration are in the hands of a single person. The term monarchia is applied to such governments, whether they are hereditary or elective, legal or usurped. If all the officials and ministers of the ruler are merely his deputies, appointed and removable by him, then the term monarchia strictly applies. Aristotle (Pol. iii. 15, 2,= p. 1287) calls this pambasileia. This form of monarchy did not belong to Greek states except as a consequence of revolution, when some citizen usurped this power for himself, and sometimes transmitted it. Monarchy of the more constitutional kind, as described in Homer, probably existed throughout Greece at the time of the Dorian conquest, and gradually disappeared, appeared, as in each state the weak or violent rule stirred up successful opposition of the people. In Argos, however, it lasted to the time of the invasion of Xerxes (Herod. vii. 149), but disappeared before the Peloponnesian War. In Sparta it remained in a peculiar form. In its commonest application, it is equivalent busileia, whether absolute or limited. But the rule of an aesymnetes or a tyrant would equally be called a monarchia. (Arist. Pol. iii. 16, iv. 8 = pp. 1286, 1294;--Plato, Polit. p. 291, C, E; p. 302, D, E.) Hence Plutarch uses it to express the Latin dictatura. Aristotle defines four sorts of basileia: firstly, the kingship of the heroic period, when the obedience was voluntary, but the power of the kings strictly defined, the king being general, judge, and supreme religious functionary; secondly, the non-Greek, which was a hereditary despotic rule of a constitutional character; thirdly, the Asymneteia, as it is called, an elective tyranny; and, fourthly, the Laconian, which may be broadly defined as a hereditary generalship for life. (Arist. Pol. iii. 14, Welldon's translation.) It is by a somewhat rhetorical use of the word that it is applied now and then to the demos. (Eurip. Suppl. 352; Arist. Pol. iv. 4.)
Γιος του Βήλου και της κόρης του Νείλου Αγχιρρόης, δίδυμος αδελφός του Αιγύπτου, απόγονος της Ιούς, 14ος βασιλιάς του Αργους (15ος αιώνας π.Χ.). Ο πατέρας του μοίρασε το βασίλειό του στα παιδιά του, ο Κηφεύς και ο Φινεύς πήραν τη Χώρα των Κεκαυμένων (Αιθιοπίαν), ο Φοίνιξ και ο Αγήνωρ την Φοινίκην, ο Δαναός την Λιβύην και ο Αίγυπτον την Μελαμποδίαν που πήρε το όνομά του. Φοβούμενος ο Δαναός τις επεκτατικές τάσεις του αδελφού του και των 50 παιδιών του, μετά και από συμβουλή της Αθηνάς, κατασκεύασε πεντηκόντορον , με την οποία ήρθε στο Αργος μαζί με τις 50 κόρες του. Ο μύθος του Δαναού και των Δαναϊδων είναι από τους πιο αξιόλογους του Αργειακού κύκλου, για την ερμηνεία του οποίου ασχολήθηκε και ασχολείται ο πνευματικός κόσμος (βλ. Perseus Encyclopedia).
Danaus (Danaos). A son of Belus and Anchinoe, and brother of Aegyptus.
Belus assigned the country of Libya to Danaus, while to Aegyptus he gave Arabia.
Aegyptus conquered the country of the Melampodes and named it from himself. By
many wives he became the father of fifty sons. Danaus had by several wives an
equal number of daughters. Dissension arising between him and the sons of Aegyptus,
they aimed at depriving him of his kingdom; and, fearing their violence, he built,
with the aid of Athene, a fifty-oared vessel, the first that ever was made, in
which he embarked with his daughters and fled over the sea. He first landed on
the isle of Rhodes, where he set up a statue of the Lindian Athene; but, not caring
to remain in that island, he proceeded to Argos; where Gelanor, who at that time
ruled over the country, cheerfully resigned the government to the stranger who
had brought thither civilization and the arts. The people took the name of their
new monarch, and were called Danai (Danaoi).
The country of Argos being at this time extremely deficient
in pure and wholesome water (see Inachus), Danaus sent forth his daughters in
quest of some. As Amymone, one of them, was engaged in the search, she was rescued
by Poseidon from the intended violence of a satyr, and the god revealed to her
a fountain called after her name and the most famous among the streams that contributed
to form the Lernaean lake or marsh. The sons of Aegyptus came now to Argolis and
entreated their uncle to bury past enmity in oblivion, and to give them their
cousins in marriage. Danaus, retaining a perfect recollection of the injuries
they had done him and distrustful of their promises, consented to bestow upon
them his daughters, whom he divided among them by lot; but on the wedding-day
he armed the hands of the brides with daggers, and enjoined upon them to slay
in the night their unsuspecting bridegrooms. All but Hypermnestra obeyed the cruel
orders of their father; and cutting off the heads of their husbands, they flung
them into Lerna, and buried their bodies with all due rites outside of the town.
At the command of Zeus, Hermes and Athene purified them from the guilt of their
deed. Hypermnestra had spared Lynceus for the delicate regard which he had shown
to her modesty. Her father, at first, in his anger at her disobedience, put her
into close confinement. Relenting, however, after some time, he gave his consent
to her union with Lynceus, and proclaimed gymnastic games, in which the victors
were to receive his other daughters as the prizes. It was said, however, that
the crime of the Danaides did not pass without due punshment in the lower world,
where they were condemned to pour water forever into a perforated vessel.
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Danaus (Danaos), a son of Belus and Anchinoe, and a grandson of Poseidon and Libya. He was brother of Aegyptus, and farther of fifty daughters, and the mythical ancestor of the Danai (Apollod. ii. 1,4). According to the common story he was a native of Chemnis, in the Thebais in Upper Egypt, and migrated from thence into Greece (Herod. ii. 91). Belus had given Danaus Libya, while Aegyptus had obtained Arabia. Danaiis had reason to think that the sons of his brother were plotting against him, and fear or the advice of an oracle (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 37), induced him to build a large ship and to embark with his daughters. On his flight he first landed at Rhodes, where he set up an image of Athena Lindia. According to the story in Herodotus, a temple of Athena was built at Lindus by the daughters of Danaus, and according to Strabo (xiv. p. 654) Tlepolemus built the towns of Lindus, Ialysus and Cameirus, and called them thus after the names of three Danaides. From Rhodes Danaus and his daughters sailed to Peloponnesus, and landed at a place near Lerna, which was afterwards called from this event Apobathmi (Paus. ii. 38.4). At Argos a dispute arose between Danaus and Gelanor about the government, and after many discussions the people deferred the decision of the question to the next day. At its dawn a wolf rushed among the cattle and killed one of the oxen. This occurrence was to the Argives an event which seemed to announce to them in what manner the dispute should terminate, and Danaiis was accordingly made king of Argos. Out of gratitude he now built a sanctuary of Apollo Lycius, who, as he believed, had sent the wolf (Paus. ii. 19.3. Comp. Serv. ad Aen. iv. 377, who relates a different story). Danaus also erected two wooden statues of Zeus and Artemis, and dedicated his shield in the sanctuary of Hera (Paus. ii. 19.6; Hygin. Fab. 170). He is further said to have built the acropolis of Argos and to have provided the place with water by digging wells (Strab. i. p. 23, viii. p. 371; Eustath. ad Hom) The sons of Aegyptus in the mean time had followed their uncle to Argos; they assured him of their peaceful sentiments and sued for the hands of his daughters. Danaus still mistrusted them and remembered the cause of his flight from his country; however he gave them his daughters and distributed them among his nephews by lot. But all the brides, with the exception of Hypermnestra murdered their husbands by the command of their father. In aftertimes the Argives were called Danai. Whether Danaus died a natural death, or whether he was killed by Lynceus, his son-in-law, is a point on which the various traditions are not agreed, but he is said to have been buried at Argos, and his tomb in the agora of Argos was shown there as late as the time of Pausanias (ii. 20.4; Strab. viii). Statues of Danaus, Hypermnestra and Lynceus were seen at Delphi by Pausanias (x. 10.2).
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Herse. The wife of Danaus and mother of Hippodice and Adiante. (Apollod. ii. 1.5)
Wells were invented by Danaus,who came from Egypt into that part of Greece which had been previously known as Argos Dipsion.
Commentary:
Danaus is said to have migrated from Egypt into Greece about 1485 B.C. He may
have introduced wells into Greece, but they had, long before his time, been employed
in Egypt and in other countries. The term "Dipsion," "thirsting," which it appears
had been applied to the district of Argos, may seem to render it probable, that,
before the arrival of Danaus, the inhabitants had not adopted any artificial means
of supplying themselves with water. But this country, we are told, is naturally
well supplied with water.
Γιος του Αμυθάονος και της Ειδομένης, αδελφός του Βίαντος, πατέρας του Αντιφάτη και του Μάντιου και περιβόητος μάντης από την Πύλο. Για να λάβει χάριν του αδελφού του την Πηρώ, κόρη του Νηλέως, πήγε στη Φυλάκη της Θεσσαλίας για να πάρει τα βόδια του Ιφίκλου. Εκεί, όμως, αιχμαλωτίστηκε για ένα έτος και ελευθερώθηκε, αφού είπε στον Ιφικλο όλους τους χρησμούς. Επειτα, επανήλθε στην Πύλο, όπου τιμώρησε το Νηλέα για τα αδικήματα κατά των Αμυθαονιδών, έδωσε την Πηρώ στον αδελφό του κι έφυγε στο Αργος (Οδ. λ 287 κ.ε., ο 225 κ.ε.), όπου έγινε ο 21ος βασιλιάς και συμβασίλεψε με τον Αναξαγόρα και τον Βίαντα.
Melampus (Melampous), a son of Amythaon by Eidomene, or according to others, by
Aglaia or Plhodope (Apollod. i. 9.1; Diod. iv. 68; Schol. ad Theocrit. iii. 43),
and a brother of Bias. He was looked upon by the ancients as the first mortal
that had been endowed with prophetic powers, as the person that first practised
the medical art, and established the worship of Dionysus in Greece (Apollod. ii.
2.2). He is said to have been married to Iphianassa (others call her Iphianeira
or Cyrianassa - Diod. iv. 68; Serv. ad Virg. Ecloy. vi. 48), by whom he became
the father of Mantius and Antiphates (Hom. Od. xv. 225). Apollodorus (i. 9.13)
adds a son, Abas; and Diodorus calls his children Bias, Antiphates, Manto, and
Pronoe (comp. Pans. vi. 17.4). Melampus at first dwelt with Neleus at Pylus,
afterwards he resided for a time at Phylace,
near Mount Othrys, with Phylacus
and Iphiclus and at last ruled over a third of the territory of Argos (Hom. l.
c.). At Aegosthena, in the
north-western part of Megaris,
he had a sanctuary and a statue, and an annual festival was there celebrated in
his honour. (Paus. i. 44.8.)
With regard to his having introduced the worship of Dionysus into
Greece, Herodotus (ii. 49) thinks that Melampus became acquainted with the worship
of the Egyptian Dionysus, through Cadmus and the Phoenicians, and his connection
with the Dionysiac religion is often alluded to in the ancient writers. Thus,
we are told, for example, that he taught the Greeks how to mix wine with water
(Athen. ii. p. 45; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1816). Diodorus (i. 97) further adds that
Melampus brought with him from Egypt
the myths about Crones and the fight of the Titans.
As regards his prophetic power, his residence at Phylace,
and his ultimate rule over a portion of Argos, the following traditions were current
in antiquity. When Melampus lived with Neleus, he dwelt outside the town of Pylos,
and before his house there stood an oak tree containing a serpent's nest. The
old serpents were killed by his servants, and burnt by Melampus himself, who reared
the young ones. One day, when they had grown up, and Melampus was asleep, they
approached from both sides and cleaned his ears with their tongues. Being thus
roused from his sleep, he started up, and to his surprise perceived that he now
understood the language of birds, and that with their assistance he could foretell
the future. In addition to this he acquired the power of prophesying, from the
victims that were offered to the gods, and, after having had an interview with
Apollo on the banks of the Alpheius,
he became a most renowned soothsayer (Apollod. i. 9.11; Eustath. ad Hom.).
During his stay with Neleus it happened that his brother Bias was
one of the suitors for the hand of Pero, the daughter of Neleus, and Neleus promised
his daughter to the man who should bring to him as a gift for the maiden, the
oxen of Iphiclus, which were guarded by a dog whom neither man nor animal could
approach. Melampus undertook the task of procuring the oxen for his brother, although
he knew that the thief would be caught and kept in imprisonment for one whole
year, after which he was to come into possession of the oxen. Things turned out
as he had said; Melampus was thrown into prison, and in his captivity he learned
front the wood-worms that the building in which he was would soon break down.
He accordingly demanded to be let out, and as Phylacus and Iphiclus became thus
acquainted with his prophetic powers, they asked him in what manner Iphiclus,
who had no children, was to become father. Melampus, on the suggestion of a vulture,
advised Iphiclus to take the rust from the knife with which Phylacus had once
cut his son, and drink it in water during ten days. This was done, and Iphiclus
became the father of Podarces. Melampus now received the oxen as a reward for
his good services, and drove them to Pylos;
he thus gained Pero for his brother, and henceforth remained in Messenia
(Apollod. i. 9.12; Paus. iv. 36.2; Schol. ad Theocrit. iii. 43).
His dominion over Argos is said to have been acquired in the following
manner. In the reign of Anaxagoras, king of Argos, the women of the kingdom were
seized with madness, and roamed about the country in a frantic state. Melampus
cured them of it, on condition that he and his brother Bias should receive an
equal share with Anaxagoras in the kingdom of Argos (Paus. ii. 18.4; Diod. iv.
68). Others, however, give the following account. The daughters of Proetus, Iphinoe,
Lysippe and Iphianassa, were seized with madness, either because they opposed
the worship of Dionysus (Diod. l. c.; Apollod. i. 9.12), or because they boasted
of equalling Hera in beauty, or because they had stolen the gold from the statue
of the goddess (Serv. ad Viry. Ecl. vi. 48). Melampus promised to cure the women,
if the king would give him one-third of his territory and one of his daughters
in marriage. Proetus refused the proposal: but when the madness continued, and
also seized the other Argive women, messengers came to Melampus to request his
aid; but he now demanded two-thirds of the kingdom, one for himself, and the other
for his brother. The demand was complied with, and with a band of youths, he pursued
the women as far as Sicyon,
with Bacchic shouts. Iphinoe died during the pursuit, but the surviving women
were cured by purifications in a well, Anigrus, or in a temple of Artemis near
Lusi, or in the town of Sicyon
itself; and Melampus and Bias married the two daughters of Proetus (Apollod. ii.
2. § 2; Strab. viii; Ov. Met. xv. 322; Paus. ii. 7.8, viii. 18; Herod. ix. 34;
Schol. ad Pind. Nem. ix. 30).
Another mythical personage of the same name occurs in Virgil (Aen.
x. 320).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Melampus, (Melampous). The son of Amythaon and of Idomene; brother
of Bias, the oldest Greek seer, and ancester of the family of seers called Melampodidae.
The brothers went with their uncle Neleus from Thessaly to Pylus in Messenia,
where they dwelt in the country. Melampus owed his gift of soothsaying to some
serpents, which he had saved from death and reared, and who in return cleansed
his ears with their tongues when he slept; on awaking he understood the voices
of birds, and thus learned what was secret. When Neleus would only give Bias his
beautiful daughter Pero on condition that he first brought him the oxen of Iphiclus
of Phylace in Thessaly, which were guarded by a watchful dog, Melampus offered
to bring the oxen for his brother, though he knew beforehand that he would be
imprisoned for a year. He was caught in the act of stealing them, and kept in
strict confinement. From the talk of the worms in the woodwork of the roof he
gathered that the house would soon fall to pieces. He thereupon demanded to be
taken to another prison; and this was scarcely done when the house broke down.
When, on account of this, Phylacus, father of Iphiclus, perceived his prophetic
gifts, he promised him the oxen, if, by his art, he would find out some way of
curing his son's childlessness. Melampus offered a bull to Zeus, cut it in pieces,
and invited the birds to the meal. From these he heard that a certain vulture,
that had not come, knew how it could be effected. This vulture was made to appear,
and related that the defect in Iphiclus was the result of a sudden fright at seeing
a bloody knife, with which his father had been castrating some goats; he had dug
the knife into a tree, which had grown round about it; if he took some of the
rust scraped off it, for ten days, he would be cured. Melampus found the knife,
cured Iphiclus, obtained the oxen, and Bias received Pero for his wife.
Afterwards he went to Argos, because, according to Homer, Neleus
had committed a serious offence against him in his ab sence, for which he had
taken revenge; while, according to the usual account, he had been asked by king
Proetus to heal his daughter, stricken with madness for acting impiously towards
Dionysus or Here. He had stipulated that his reward should be a third of the kingdom
for himself, another for Bias; besides which Iphianassa became his wife, and Lysippe
that of Bias, both being daughters of Proetus. A descendant of his son Antiphates
was Oicles, who was a companion of Heracles in the expedition against Troy, and
was slain in battle by Laomedon; he again was ancestor of the seer and hero Amphiaraus.
Descendants of his other son Mantius were Cleitus, whom Eos, the goddess of dawn,
carried off on account of his beauty, and Polypheides, whom, after the death of
Amphiaraus, Apollo made the best of seers. The son of Polypheides was the seer
Theoclymenus, who, flying from Argos on account of committing a murder, met Telemachus
at Pylus, was led by him to Ithaca, and announced to Penelope the presence in
Ithaca of Odysseus and to the suitors their approaching death. The seer Polyidus
was also said to be a great-grandson of Melampus. At Argos Melampus was held to
be the first priest of Dionysus, and originator of mysterious customs at festivals
and at ceremonies of expiation.
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Γιος του Μελάμποδος, πατέρας του Οϊκλή, αδελφός του Μάντιου (Οδ. ο 242). Μάλλον βασίλευσε μετά τον άτεκνο αδελφό του ως ο 28ος βασιλιάς του Αργους, όπου συμβασίλευσε με τον Ιφίο και τον Πρώνακτα.
Γιος του Μελάμποδα και της Ιφιάνασσας, αδελφός του Αντιφάτη και πατέρας του Πολυφείδη και του Κλείτου (Οδ. ο 243 κ.ε.). Ηταν ο 25ος βασιλιάς του Αργους και συμβασίλευσε με τον Αλέκτορα και τον Ταλαό.
Γιος του Βίαντα και της Πηρούς, 24ος βασιλιάς του Αργους, παντρεύτηκε τη Λυσιάνασσα ή Λισίππη ή Λυσιμάχη, κόρη του Πόλυβου και της Μερόπης, βασιλέων της Σικυώνας, συμβασίλευσε με τον Αλέκτορα και το Μάντιο.
Talaus (Talaos), a son of Bias and Pero, and king of Argos. He was married to Lysimache (Eurynome, Hygin. Fab. 70, or Lysianassa, Paus. ii. 6.3), and was father of Adrastus, Parthenopaeus, Pronax, Mecisteus, Aristomachus, and Eriphyle (Apollod. i. 9.13; Pind. Nem. ix. 14). Hyginus mentions two other daughters of his. He also occurs among the Argonauts (Apollon. Rhod. ii. 118), and his tomb was shown at Argos (Paus. ii. 21.2). Being a great grandson of Cretheus, Antimachus in a fragment preserved in Pausanias (viii. 25.5) calls him Cretheiades. His own sons, Adrastus and Mecisteus, are sometimes called Talaionides, as in Hom. Il. ii. 566; Pind. Ol. vi. 24.
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Ο Αδραστος, γιος του Ταλαού και σύζυγος της Αμφιθέας, διαδέχθηκε τον αδελφό του Πρώνακτα και έγινε ο 30ος βασιλιάς του Αργους. Συμβασίλευσε με τον Σθένελο και τον Οϊκλή. Αργότερα, κατέφυγε στη Σικυώνα, όπου έμεινε κοντά στον Πόλυβο και πήρε την εξουσία μετά το θάνατό του (Παυσ. 2,6,6). Εδωσε στον Τυδέα γυναίκα μια από τις κόρες του (Ιλ. Β 572, Ξ 121).
Ο Ομηρος αναφέρει και το όνομα του αλόγου του, Αρείων, το οποίο τον είχε σώσει κατά την πολιορκία των Θηβών (Ιλ. Ψ 346).
Adrastus (Adrastos), a son of Talaus, king of Argos, and of Lysimache (Apollod.
i. 9.13). Pausanias (ii. 6.3) calls his mother Lysianassa, and Hyginus (Fab. 69)
Eurynome (Comp. Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 423). During a feud between the most powerful
houses in Argos, Talaus was slain by Amphiaraus, and Adrastus being expelled from
his dominions fled to Polybus, then king of Sicyon.
When Polybus died without heirs, Adrastus succeeded him on the throne of Sicyon,
and during his reign he is said to have instituted the Nemean
games (Hom. Il. ii. 572; Pind. Nem. ix. 30; Herod. v. 67; Paus. ii. 6.3). Afterwards,
however, Adrastus became reconciled to Amphiaraus, gave him his sister Eriphyle
in marriage, and returned to his kingdom of Argos. During the time he reigned
there it happened that Tydeus of Calydon and Polynices of Thebes,
both fugitives from their native countries, met at Argos near the palace of Adrastus,
and came to words and from words to blows. On hearing the noise, Adrastus hastened
to them and separated the combatants, in whom he immediately recognised the two
men that had been promised to him by an oracle as the future husbands of two of
his daughters; for one bore on his shield the figure of a boar, and the other
that of a lion, and the oracle was, that one of his daughters was to marry a boar
and the other a lion. Adrastus therefore gave his daughter Deipyle to Tydeus,
and Argeia to Polynices, and at the same time promised to lead each of these princes
back to his own country. Adrastus now prepared for war against Thebes,
although Amphiaraus foretold that all who should engage in it should perish, with
the exception of Adrastus (Apollod. iii. 6.1; Hygin. Fab. 69, 70).
Thus arose the celebrated war of the " Seven against Thebes," in which
Adrastus was joined by six other heroes, viz. Polynices, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus,
Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus. Instead of Tydeus and Polynices other legends mention
Eteoclos and Mecisteus. This war ended as unfortunately as Amphiaraus had predicted,
and Adrastus alone was saved by the swiftness of his horse Areion, the gift of
Heracles (Hom. Il. xxiii. 346; Paus. viii. 25.5; Apollod. iii. 6). Creon of Thebes
refusing to allow the bodies of the six heroes to be buried, Adrastus went to
Athens and implored the assistance
of the Athenians. Theseus was persuaded to undertake an expedition against Thebes;
he took the city and delivered up the bodies of the fallen heroes to their friends
for burial (Apollod. iii. 7.1 Paus. ix. 9.1).
Ten years after this Adrastus persuaded the seven sons of the heroes,
who had fallen in the war against Thebes,
to make a new attack upon that city, and Amphiaraus now declared that the gods
approved of the undertaking, and promised success (Paus. ix. 9.2; Apollod. iii.
7.2). This war is celebrated in ancient story as the war of the Epigoni (Epigonoi).
Thebes was taken and razed
to the ground, after the greater part of its inhabitants had left the city on
the advice of Tiresias (Apollod. iii. 7.2--4; Herod. v. 61; Strab. vii.). The
only Argive hero that fell in this war, was Aegialeus, the son of Adrastus. After
having built a temple of Nemesis in the neighbourhood of Thebes,
he set out on his return home. But weighed down by old age and grief at the death
of his son he died at Megara
and was buried there (Paus. i. 43.1). After his death he was worshipped in several
parts of Greece, as at Megara
(Paus. l. c.), at Sicyon
where his memory was celebrated in tragic choruses (Herod. v. 67), and in Attica
(Paus. i. 30.4). The legends about Adrastus and the two wars against Thebes have
furnished most ample materials for the epic as well as tragic poets of Greece
(Paus. ix. 9. 3), and some works of art relating to the stories about Adrastus
are mentioned in Pausanias. (iii. 18.7, x. 10.2).
From Adrastus the female patronymic Adrastine was formed (Hom. Il.
v. 412).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Adrastus (Adrastos). Son of Talaus of Argos. Being expelled from Argos by Amphiaraus, he fled to Polybus, king of Sicyon, whom he succeeded on the throne of Sicyon, and instituted the Nemean games. Afterwards he became reconciled to Amphiaraus, and returned to his kingdom of Argos. He married his two daughters Deipyle and Argia, the former to Tydeus of Calydon, and the latter to Polynices of Thebes, both fugitives from their native countries. He then prepared to restore Polynices to Thebes, who had been expelled by his brother Eteocles, although Amphiaraus foretold that all who should engage in the war would perish, with the exception of Adrastus. Thus arose the celebrated war of the "Seven against Thebes," in which Adrastus was joined by six other heroes, viz., Polynices, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus. This war ended as unfortunately as Amphiaraus had predicted, and Adrastus alone was saved by the swiftness of his horse Arion, the gift of Heracles. Ten years afterwards, Adrastus persuaded the six sons of the heroes who had fallen in the war to make a new attack upon Thebes, and Amphiaraus now promised success. This war is known as the war of the Epigoni (epigonoi), or descendants. Thebes was taken and razed to the ground. The only Argive hero that fell in this war was Aegialeus, the son of Adrastus: the latter died of grief at Megara on his return to Argos, and was buried in the former city. The legends about Adrastus and the two wars against Thebes furnished ample materials for the epic as well as tragic poets of Greece.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Demonassa, the mother of Aegialus by Adrastus. (Hygin. Fab. 71.)
Γιος του Αντιφάτη ή του Μάντιου, πατέρας του Αμφιάρου, 31ος βασιλιάς του Αργους, συμβασίλευσε με τον Σθένελο και τον Αδραστο (Οδ. ο 244).
Oicles (Oikles) or Oicleus (Oikleus). The son of Antiphates, grandson of Melampus and father of Amphiaraus, of Argos. He is also called a son of Amphiaraus, or a son of Mantius, the brother of Antiphates. Oicles accompanied Heracles on his expedition against Laomedon of Troy, and was there slain in battle. According to other traditions, he returned home from the expedition, and dwelt in Arcadia, where he was visited by his grandson Alcmaeon , and where his tomb was shown.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hupermnestra, a daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis, and the witie of Oicles, by whom she became the mother of Amphhiaraus Her tomb was shown at Argos. (Apollod. i. 7.10; Paus. ii. 21. 2.) One of the daughters of Danaus was likewise called Hypermnestra.
Γιος του Ταλαού, αδελφός του Αδραστου και πατέρας του Ευρύαλου (Ιλ. Β 566).
Ο Παυσανίας παραδίδει ότι πήρε μέρος στους επικήδειους αγώνες του Οιδίποδα στη Θήβα (Παυσ. 1,28,7).
Mecisteus, (Mekisteus). A son of Talaus and Lysimache, brother of Adrastus, and father of Euryalus of Thebes (Hom. Il. ii. 566; Apollod. iii. 6.3).
Ο Αμφιάραος, βασιλιάς του Αργους, ήταν γιος του Οϊκλή και σύζυγος της Εριφύλης, αδελφής του Αδράστου, επίσης απόγονος του Μελάμποδος και πατέρας του Αλκμαίωνος και του Αμφιλόχου. Η Εριφύλη τον ανάγκασε να πάρει μέρος στην Εκστρατεία των Επτά εναντίον των Θηβών και εκείνος πριν φύγει έδωσε εντολή στο γιο τους Αλκμαίωνα να τη σκοτώσει, όπως και έγινε (Οδ. λ 326, ο 244 κ.ε.). Υπήρχε στον Κεραμεικό ανδριάντας του Αμφιάραου.
Amphiaraus (Amphiaraos), a son of Oicles and Hypermnestra, the daughter of Thestius (Hom. Od. xv. 244; Apollod. i. 8.2; Hygin. Fab. 73; Paus. ii. 21.2.). On his father's side he was descended from the famous seer Melampus (Paus. vi. 17.4). Some traditions represented him as ason of Apollo by Hypermnestra, which, however, is merely a poetical expression to describe him as a seer and prophet (Hygin. Fab. 70). Amphiaraus is renowned in ancient story as a brave hero: he is mentioned among the hunters of the Calydonian boar, which he is said to have deprived of one eye, and also as one of the Argonauts (Apollod. i. 8.2, 9.16). For a time he reigned at Argos in common with Adrastus; but, in a feud which broke out between them, Adrastus took to flight. Afterwards, however, he became reconciled with Amphiaraus, and gave him his sister Eriphyle in marriage, by whom Amphiaraus became the father of Alcmaeon, Amphilochus, Eurydice, and Demonassa. On marrying Eriphyle, Amphiaraus had sworn, that he would abide by the decision of Eriphyle on any point in which he should differ in opinion from Adrastus. When, therefore, the latter called upon him to join the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, Amphiaraus, although he foresaw its unfortunate issue and at first refused to take any part in it, was nevertheless persuaded by his wife to join his friends, for Eriphyle had been enticed to induce her husband by the necklace of Harmonia which Polyneices had given her. Amphiaraus on leaving Argos enjoined his sons to avenge his death on their heartless mother (Apollod. iii. 6.2; Hygin. Fab. 73; Diod. iv. 65; Hom Od. xv. 247). On their way to Thebes the heroes instituted the Nemean games, and Amphiaraus won the victory in the chariot-race and in throwing the discus (Apollod. iii. 6.4). During the war against Thebes, Amphiaraus fought bravely (Pind. Ol. vi. 26), but still he could not suppress his anger at the whole undertaking, and when Tydeus, whom he regarded as the originator of the expedition, was severely wounded by Melanippus, and Athena was hastening to render him immortal, Amphiaraus cut off the head of Melanippus, who had in the mean time been slain, and gave Tydeus his brains to drink, and Athena, struck with horror at the sight, withdrew (Apollod. iii. 6.8). When Adrastus and Amphiaraus were the only heroes who survived, the latter was pursued by Periclymenus, and fled towards the river Ismenius. Here the earth opened before he was overtaken by his enemy, and swallowed up Amphiaraus together with his chariot, but Zeus made him immortal (Pind. Nem. ix. 57, Ol. vi. 21; Plut. Parall. 6; Cic. de Divin. i. 40). Henceforth Amphiaraus was worshipped as a hero, first at Oropus and afterwards in all Greece (Paus. i. 34.2; Liv. xlv. 27). He had a sanctuary at Argos (Paus. ii. 23.2), a statue at Athens (i. 8.3), and a heroum at Sparta. The departure of Amphiaraus from his home when he went to Thebes, was represented on the chest of Cypselus (Paus. v. 17.4). Respecting some extant works of art, of which Amphiaraus is the subject, see GrΌneisen, Die alt griechische Bronze des Tux'schen Kabinets in TΌbingen, Stuttg. and TΌbing.1835. The prophetic power, which Amphiaraus was believed to possess, was accounted for by his descent from Melampus or Apollo, though there was also a local tradition at Phlius, according to which he had acquired them in a night which he spent in the prophetic house (oikos mantikos) of Phlius. (Paus. ii. 13.6; comp. i. 34.3). He was, like all seers, a favourite of Zeus and Apollo (Hom. Od. xv. 245). Respecting the oracle of Amphiaraus see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Oraculum. It should be remarked here, that Virgil (Aen. vii. 671) mentions three Greek heroes as contemporaries of Aeneas, viz. Tiburtus, Catillus, and Coras, the first of whom was believed to be the founder of Tibur, and is described by Pliny (H. N. xvi. 87) as a son of Amphiaraus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Amphiaraus (Amphiaraos). An Argive, the son of Oicles and Hypermnestra, great-grandson of the seer Melampus. In Homer he is a favourite of Zeus and Apollo, alike distinguished as a seer and a hero, who takes part in the Calydonian boar-hunt, in the voyage of the Argonauts, and in the expedition of the Seven against Thebes. Reconciled to Adrastus after a quarrel, and wedded to his sister Eriphyle, he agreed that any future differences between them should be settled by her. She, bribed by Polynices with the fatal necklace of his ancestress Harmonia, insisted on her husband joining the war against Thebes, though he foresaw that it would end fatally for him, and in departing charged his youthful sons Alcmaeon and Amphilochus to avenge his coming death.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eriphyle (Eriphule). In Greek mythology, sister of Adrastus and wife of
Amphiaraus. Bribed with a necklace by Polynices, she prevailed on her husband
to take part in the war of the Seven against Thebes, in which he met his death.
In revenge for this she was slain by her son Alcmaeon.
Γιος του Αμφιάραου και της Εριφύλης και αδελφός του Αμφίλοχου (Οδ. ο 248). Σκότωσε τη μητέρα του όταν έμαθε ότι εκείνη προέτρεψε τον Αμφιάραο να πάρει μέρος στην εκστρατεία των Επτά στη Θήβα ξέροντας ότι θα σκοτωνόταν.
Alacmaeon (Alkmaion), a son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle, and brother of Amphilochus,
Eurydice, and Demonassa (Apollod. iii. 7.2). His mother was induced by the necklace
of Harmonia, which she received from Polyneices, to persuade her husband Amphiaraus
to take part in the expedition against Thebes
(Hom. Od. xv. 247). But before Amphiaraus set out, he enjoined his sons to kill
their mother as soon as they should be grown up (Apollod. iii. 6.2; Hygin. Fab.
73). When the Epigoni prepared for a second expedition against Thebes,
to avenge the death of their fathers, the oracle promised them success and victory,
if they chose Alcmaeon their leader. He was at first disinclined to undertake
the command, as he had not yet taken vengeance on his mother, according to the
desire of his father. But she, who had now received from Thersander, the son of
Polyneices, the peplus of Harmonia also, induced him to join the expedition. Alcmaeon
distinguished himself greatly in it, and slew Laodamus, the son of Eteocles (Apollod.
iii. 7.2; comp. Diod. iv. 66). When, after the fall of Thebes,
he learnt the reason for which his mother had urged him on to take part in the
expedition, he slew her on the advice of an oracle of Apollo, and, according to
some traditions, in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus. For this deed he
became mad, and was haunted by the Erinnyes. He first came to Oecleus in Arcadia,
and thence went to Phegeus in Psophis,
and being purified by the latter, he married his daughter Arsinoe or Alphesiboea
(Paus. viii. 24.4), to whom he gave the necklace and peplus of Harmonia. But the
country in which he now resided was visited by scarcity, in consequence of his
being the murderer of his mother, and the oracle advised him to go to Achelous.
According to Pausanias, he left Psophis
because his madness did not yet cease. Pausanias and Thucydides (ii. 102; comp.
Plut. De Exil. p. 602) further state, that the oracle commanded him to go to a
country which had been formed subsequent to the murder of his mother, and was
therefore under no curse. The country thus pointed out was a tract of land which
had been recently formed at the mouth of the river Achelous.
Apollodorus agrees with this account, but gives a detailed history of Alcmaeon's
wanderings until he reached the mouth of Achelous,
who gave him his daughter Calirrhoe in marriage. Calirrhoe had a desire to possess
the necklace and peplus of Harmonia, and Alcmaeon, to gratify her wish, went to
Psophis to get them from
Phegeus, under the pretext that he intended to dedicate them at Delphi
in order to be freed from his madness. Phegeus complied with his request, but
when he heard that the treasures were fetched for Calirrhoe, he sent his sons
Pronous and Agenor (Apollod. iii. 7.6) or, according to Pausanias (viii. 24.4),
Temenus and Axion, after him, with the command to kill him. This was done, but
the sons of Alcmaeon by Calirrhoe took bloody vengoance at the instigation of
their mother (Apollod. Paus. ll. cc.; Ov. Met. ix. 407)
The story about Alcmaeon furnished rich materials for the epic and
tragic poets of Greece, and their Roman imitators. But none of these poems is
now extant, and we only know from Apollodorus (iii. 7.7), that Euripides, in his
tragedy " Alcmaeon," stated that after the fall of Thebes
he married Manto, the daughter of Teiresias, and that he had two children by her,
Amphilochus and Tisiphone, whom he gave to Creon, king of Corinth,
to educate. The wife of Creon, jealous of the extraordinary beauty of Tisiphone,
afterwards sold her as a slave, and Alcmaeon himself bought her, without knowing
that she was his daughter (Diod. iv. 66; Paus. vii. 3.1, ix. 33.1). Alcmaeon after
his death was worshipped as a hero, and at Thebes
he seems to have had an altar, near the house of Pindar (Pyth. viii. 80), who
calls him his neighbour and the guardian of his property, and also seems to suggest
that prophetic powers were ascribed to him, as to his father Amphiaraus. At Psopllis
his tomb was shown, surrounded with lofty and sacred cypresses (Paus. viii. 24.4).
At Oropus, in Attica,
where Amphiaraus and Amphilochus were worshipped, Alcmaeon enjoyed no such honours,
because he was a matricide (Paus. i. 34.2). He was represented in a statue at
Delphi, and on the chest
of Cypselus (x. 10.2, v. 17.4).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Alcmaeon, (Alkmaion). A native of Argos and son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. As his father, in departing on the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, had bound him and his brother Amphilochus, then mere boys, to avenge him on their faithless mother, Alcmaeon refused to take part in the second expedition, that of the Epigoni, till he had first fulfilled that filial duty; nevertheless his mother, bribed by Thersander with the garment of Harmonia, persuaded him to go. The real leader at the siege of Thebes, he slew the Theban king, Laodamas, and was the first to enter the conquered city. On returning home, he, at the bidding of the Delphian Apollo, avenged his father by slaying his mother, with, or according to some accounts, without, his brother's help; but immediately, like Orestes, he was set upon by the Furies, and wandered distracted, seeking purification and a new home. Phegeus, of the Arcadian Psophis, half purified him of his guilt, and gave him his daughter Arsinoe or Alphesiboea to wife, to whom he presented the jewels of Harmonia, which he had brought from Argos. But soon the crops failed in the land, and he fell into his distemper again, till, after many wanderings, he arrived at the mouth of the Achelous, and there, in an island that had floated up, he found the country promised by the god, which had not existed at the time of his dying mother's curse, and so he was completely cured. He married Achelous's daughter, Callirrhoe, by whom he had two sons, Acarnan and Amphoterus. Unable to withstand his wife's entreaties that she might have Harmonia's necklace and robe, he went to Phegeus in Arcadia, and begged those treasures of him, pretending that he would dedicate them at Delphi for the perfect healing of his madness. He obtained them; but Phegeus, on learning the truth, set his son to waylay him on the road, and rob him of his treasure and his life. Alcmaeon 's sons then avenged their father's death on his murderers. Alcmaeon received divine honours after death, and had a sanctuary at Thebes and a consecrated tomb at Psophis.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Οι γυναίκες του Αλμαίωνα:
Αρσινόη ή Αλφεσίβοια, κόρη του Φηγέα. Μαζί της απέκτησε τον Κλυτία.
Μαντώ, κόρη του Τειρεσία. Μαζί της απέκτησε τον Αμφίλοχο και τον Τησιφόνη
Καλλιρόη, κόρη του Αχελώου. Μαζί της απέκτησε τον Ακάρνανα και τον Αμφότερο
Callirrhoe, adaughter of Achelous and wife of Alcmaeon, whom she induced to procure her the peplus and necklace of Harmonia, by which she caused her husband's death. Callirrhoe then requested Zeus, with whom she lived in close intimacy, to grant that her sons by Alcmaeon might grow up to manhood at once, in order that they might be able to avenge the death of their father. Zeus granted the request, and Amphoterus and Acarnan killed the murderers of their father, the sons of Phegeus, at Delphi, and afterwards Phegeus himself also. (Apollod. iii. 7.6)
ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ (Μυκηναϊκό ανάκτορο) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Ο Ατρεύς ήταν γιος του Πέλοπα και της Ιπποδάμειας, αδελφός του Θυέστη, βασιλιάς των Μυκηνών, πατέρας του Αγαμέμνονα και του Μενελάου (Ιλ. Β 106).
Η Αερόπη ήταν η σύζυγός του.
Atreus, a son of Pelops and Hippodameia, a grandson of Tantalus, and a brother
of Thyestes and Nicippe. He was first married to Cleola, by whom he became the
father of Pleisthenes; then to Aerope, the widow of his son Pleisthenes, who was
the mother of Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia, either by Pleisthenes or by Atreus;
and lastly to Pelopia, the daughter of his brother Thyestes (Schol. ad Eurip.
Orest. 5; Soph. Aj. 1271; Hygin. Fab. 83; Serv. ad Aen. i. 462). The tragic fate
of the house of Tantalus gave ample materials to the tragic poets of Greece, but
the oftener the subjects were handled, the greater were the changes and modifications
which the legends underwent; but the main points are collected in Hyginus.
The story of Atreus begins with a crime, for he and his brother Thyestes
were induced by their mother Hippodameia to kill their step-brother Chrysippus,
the son of Pelops and the nymph Axioche or Danais (Hygin. Fab. 85; Schol. ad Hom.
Il. ii. 104). According to the Scholiast on Thucydides (i. 9), who seems himself
to justify the remark of his commentator, it was Pelops himself who killed Chrysippus.
Atreus and Thyestes hereupon took to flight, dreading the consequences of their
deed, or, according to the tradition of Thucydides, to escape the fate of Chrysippus.
Sthenelus, king of Mycenae, and husband of their sister Nicippe (the Schol. on
Thucvd. calls her Astydameia) invited them to come to Midea, which he assigned
to them as their residence (Apollod. ii. 4.6) When afterwards Eurystheus, the
son of Sthenelus, marched out against the Heracleids, he entrusted the government
of Mycenae to his uncle Atreus; and after the fall of Eurystheus in Attica, Atreus
became his successor in the kingdom of Mycenae. From this moment, crimes and calamities
followed one another in rapid succession in the house of Tantalus.
Thyestes seduced Aerope, the wife of Atreus, and robbed him also of
the lamb with the golden fleece, the gift of Hermes (Eustath. ad Hom). For this
crime, Thyestes was expelled from Mycenae by his brother; but from his place of
exile he sent Pleisthenes, the son of Atreus, whom he had brought up as his own
child, commanding him to kill Atreus. Atreus however slew the emissary, without
knowing that he was his own son. This part of the story contains a manifest contradiction;
for if Atreus killed Pleisthenes under these circumstances, his wife Aerope, whom
Thyestes had seduced, cannot have been the widow of Pleisthenes (Hygin. Fab. 86;
Schol. ad Hom. ii). In order to obtain an opportunity for taking revenge, Atreus
feigned to be reconciled to Thyestes, and invited him to Mycenae. When the request
was complied with, Atreus killed the two sons of Thyestes, Tantalus and Pleisthenes,
and had their flesh prepared and placed it before Thyestes as a meal. After Thyestes
had eaten some of it, Atreus ordered the arms and bones of the children to be
brought in, and Thyestes, struck with horror at the sight, cursed the house of
Tantalus and fled, and Helios turned away his face from the frightful scene (Aeschyl.
Agam. 1598; Soph. Aj. 1266).
The kingdom of Atreus was now visited by scarcity and famine, and
the oracle, when consulted about the means of averting the calamity, advised Atreus
to call back Thyestes. Atreus, who went out in search of him, came to king Thesprotus,
and as he did not find him there, he married his third wife, Pelopia, the daughter
of Thyestes, whom Atreus believed to be a daughter of Thesprotus. Pelopia was
at the time with child by her own father, and after having given birth to a boy
(Aegisthus), she exposed him. The child, however, was found by shepherds, and
suckled by a goat; and Atreus, on hearing of his existence, sent for him and educated
him as his own child. According to Aeschylus (Agam. 1605), Aegisthus, when yet
a child, was banished with his father Thyestes from Mycenae, and did not return
thither until he had grown up to manhood. Afterwards, when Agamemnon and Menelaus
had grown up, Atreus sent them out in search of Thyestes. They found him at Delphi,
and led him back to Mycenae. Here Atreus had him imprisoned, and sent Aegisthus
to put him to death. But Aegisthus was recognised by his father; and returning
to Atreus, he pretended to have killed Thyestes, and slew Atreus himself, who
was just offering up a sacrifice on the sea-coast (Hygin. Fab. 88). The tomb of
Atreus still existed in the time of Pausanias. (ii. 16.5).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Aerope. Daughter of king Catreus of Crete,
and granddaughter of Minos. Catreus had been told that one of his children would
kill him one day and so he made sure to get rid of them. His son Althaemenes and
daughter Apemosyne left willingly, but Aerope and her sister Clymene were given
to Nauplius to be sold abroad.
Aerope was sold to Atreus' son Pleisthenes and they had three children:
Agamemnon, Menelaos and Anaxibia. Because Pleisthenes was sickly, he died young,
and so Atreus decided to marry his daughter-in-law and adopt his grandchildren.
It was through these marriages that Aerope became the link between Crete
and Mycenae.
Atreus' brother Thyestes seduced Aerope, which was to lead to the
famous curse of Atreus' house. Aerope was drowned for her adultery.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
Ο Θυέστης ήταν γιος του Πέλοπα, πατέρας του Αιγίσθου και αδελφός του Ατρέα, τον οποίο διαδέχθηκε στο θρόνο (Ιλ. Β 106, Οδ. δ 519).
Γιος του Θυέστη, οργάνωσε τη δολοφονία του Αγαμέμνονα και ανέβηκε στο θρόνο των Μυκηνών. Υστερα από μερικά χρόνια διακυβέρνησής του, ο γιος του δολοφονηθέντος Ατρείδη, ο Ορέστης, επιστρέφοντας στις Μυκήνες σκότωσε τόσο τον Αίγισθο όσο και τη μητέρα του, την Κλυταιμήστρα, η οποία είχε συμπράξει στη δολοφονία του συζύγου της (Οδ. α 35, γ 196, δ 519, λ 409).
Aegisthus (Aigisthos), a son of Thyestes, who unwittingly begot him by his own daughter Pelopia. Immediately after his birth he was exposed by his mother, but was found and saved by shepherds and suckled by a goat, whence his name Aegisthus (from aix; Hygin. Fab. 87, 88; Aelian, V. H. xii. 42). Subsequently he was searched after and found by Atreus, the brother of Thyestes, who had him educated as his own child, so that every body believed Aegisthus to be his son. In the night in which Pelopia had shared the bed of her father, she had taken from him his sword which she afterwards gave to Aegisthus. This sword became the means by which the incestuous intercourse between her and her father was discovered, whereupon she put an end to her own life. Atreus in his enmity towards his brother sent Aegisthus to kill him; but the sword which Aegisthus carried was the cause of the recognition between Thyestes and his son, and the latter returned and slew his uncle Atreus, while he was offering a sacrifice on the sea-coast. Aegisthus and his father now took possession of their lawful inheritance from which they had been expelled by Atreus (Hygin. l. c. and 252). Homer appears to know nothing of all these tragic occurrences, and we learn from him only that, after the death of Thyestes, Aegisthus ruled as king at Mycenae and took no part in the Trojan expedition (Od. iv. 518). While Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, was absent on his expedition against Troy, Aegisthus seduced Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, and was so wicked as to offer up thanks to the gods for the success with which his criminal exertions were crowned (Hom. Od. iii. 263). In order not to be surprised by the return of Agamemnon, he sent out spies, and when Agamemnon came, Aegisthus invited him to a repast at which he had him treacherously murdered (Hom. Od. iv. 524; Paus. ii. 16.5) After this event Aegisthus reigned seven years longer over Mycenae, until in the eighth Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, returned home and avenged the death of his father by putting the adulterer to death.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Γιος του Περσέα, βασιλιάς των Μυκηνών και της Τίρυνθας, σύζυγος της Νικίππης, πατέρας το Ευρυσθέα (Ιλ. Τ 116).
Γιος του Σθένελου, τελευταίος βασιλιάς των Μυκηνών από τη γενιά του Περσέα, που ανέθεσε στον Ηρακλή να πραγματοποιήσει τους γνωστούς 12 άθλους (Ιλ. Ο 639, Τ 123 κ.ε.). Η Ηρα επιτάχυνε τη γέννησή του, δηλαδή γεννήθηκε στους επτά μήνες, προκειμένου αυτός να βασιλέψει κι όχι ο Ηρακλής (βλ. Ιλ. Τ 103 κ.ε.).
Σύμφωνα με κάποια παράδοση σκοτώθηκε από τον Ιόλαο κοντά στις Σκιρωνίδες Πέτρες, όπου ο Παυσανίας είδε τον τάφο του (Παυσ. 1,44,10). Η σύζυγός του Αντιμάχη ήταν κόρη του Αμφιδάμαντα.
Γιος του Αγαμέμνονα και της Κλυταιμνήστρας, και αδελφός της Ηλέκτρας (Ιλ. Ι 142, Οδ. λ 458-462 κ.ε.). Μετά το φόνο του πατέρα του, που τον οργάνωσε ο Αίγισθος με τη συνεργεία της Κλυταιμνήστρας, έφυγε από τις Μυκήνες και επέστρεψε από την Αθήνα στον όγδοο χρόνο της βασιλείας του Αιγίσθου, οπότε και φόνευσε τόσο τον ίδιο όσο και τη μητέρα του εκδικούμενος για τη φόνο του πατέρα του (Οδ. 3 307).
Orestes,the only son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, and brother of Chrysothemis,
Laodice (Electra), and Iphianassa (Iphigeneia; Hom. Il. ix. 142, 284; comp. Soph.
Elect. 154; Eurip. Or. 23). According to the Homneric account, Agamemnon in his
return from Troy was murdered by Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra before he had an
opportunity of seeing him (Od. xi. 542). In the eighth year after his father's
murder Orestes came from Athens to Mycenae and slew the murderer of his father,
and at the same time solemnised the burial of Aegisthus and of his mother, and
for the revenge he had taken he gained great fame among mortals (Od. i. 30, 298,
iii. 306 iv. 546).
This slender outline of the story of Orestes has been spun out and
embellished in various ways by the tragic poets. Thus it is sail that at the murder
of Agamemnon it was intended also to despatch Orestes, but that Electra secretly
entrusted him to the slave who had the management of him. This slave carried the
boy to Strophius, king in Phocis, who was married to Anaxibia, the sister of Agamemnon.
According to some, Orestes was saved by his nurse Geilissa (Aeschyl. Choeph. 732)
or by Arsinoe or Laodameia (Pilnd. Pyth. xi. 25, with the Schol.), who allowed
Aegisthus to kill her own child, thinking that it was Orestes. In the house of
Strophius, Orestes grew up together with the king's son Pylades, with whom he
formed that close and intimate friendship which has almost become proverbial (Eurip.
Orest. 804).
Being frequently reminded by messengers of Electra of the necessity
of avenging his father's death, he consulted the oracle of Delphi, which strengthened
him in his plan. He therefore repaired in secret, and without being known to any
one, to Argos (Soph. Elect. 11, 35, 296, 531, 1346; Eurip. Elect. 1245, Orest.
162). He pretended to be a messenger of Strophius, who had come to announce the
death of Orestes, and brought the ashes of the deceased (Soph. Elect. 1110). After
having visited his father's tomb, and sacrificed upon it a lock of his hair, he
made himself known to his sister Electra, who was ill used by Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra,
and discussed his plan of revenge with her, which was speedily executed, for both
Aegisthus and Cltaemnestra were slain by his hand in the palace (Soph. Elect.
1405; Aeschyl. Choeph. 931; comp. Eurip. Elect. 625, 671, 774, 969, 1165, who
differs in several points from Sophocles). Immediately after the murder of his
mother he was seized by madness; he perceived the Erinnyes of his mother and took
to flight. Sophocles does not mention this as the immediate consequence of the
deed, and the tragedy ends where Aegisthus is led to death; but, according to
Euripides, Orestes not only becomes mad; but as the Argives, in their indignation,
wanted to stone him and Electra to death, and as Menelaus refused to save them,
Pylades and Orestes murdered Helena, and her body was removed by the gods. Orestes
also threatened Menelaus to kill his daughter Hermione; but by the intervention
of Apollo, the dispute was allayed, and Orestes betrothed himself to Hermione,
and Pylades to Electra.
But, according to the common account, Orestes fled from land to land,
pursued by the Erinnyes of his mother. On the advice of Apollo, he took refuge
with Athena at Athens. The goddess afforded him protection, and appointed the
court of the Areiopagus to decide his fate. The Erinnyes brought forward their
accusation, and Orestes made the command of the Delphic oracle his excuse. When
the court voted, and was equally divided, Orestes was acquitted by the command
of Athena (Aeschyl. Eumenides). He therefore dedicated an altar to Athena Areia
(Paus. i. 28.5).
According to another modification of the legend, Orestes consulted
Apollo, how he could be delivered from his madness and incessant wandering. The
god advised him to go to Tauris in Scythia, and thence to fetch the image of Artemis,
which was (Eurip. Iph. Taur. 79, 968) believed to have there fallen from heaven,
and to carry it to Athens (Comp. Paus. iii. 16.6), Orestes and Pylades accordingly
went to Tauris, where Thoas was king, and on their arrival they were seized by
the natives, in order to be sacrificed to Artemis, according to the custom of
the country. But Iphigeneia, the priestess of Artemis, was the sister of Orestes,
and, after having recognized each other, all three escaped with the statue of
the goddess (Eurip. Iph. Taur. 800, 1327).
After his return Orestes took possession of his father's kingdom at
Mycenae, which had been usurped by Aletes or Menelaus; and when Cylarabes of Argos
died without leaving any heir, Orestes also became king of Argos. The Lacedaemonians
made him their king of their own accord, because they preferred him, the grandson
of Tyndareus, to Nicostratus and Megapenthes, the sons of Menelaus by a slave.
The Arcadians and Phocians increased his power by allying themselves with him
(Paus. ii. 18.5, iii.4; Philostr. Her. 6; Pind. Pyth. xi. 24). He married Hermione,
the daughter of Menelaus, and became by her the father of Tisamenus (Paus. ii.
18.5). He is said to have led colonists from Sparta to Aeolis, and the town of
Argos Oresticnm in Epeirus is said to have been founded by him at the time when
he wandered about in his madness (Strab. vii. p. 326, xiii. p. 582; Pind. Nem.
xi. 42, with the Schol). In his reign the Dorians under Hyllus are said to have
invaded Peloponnesus (Paus. viii. 5.1). He died of the bite of a snake in Arcadia
(Schol. ad Eur. Or. 1640), and his body, in accordance with an oracle, was afterwards
conveyed from Tegea to Sparta, and there buried (Paus. iii. 11.8). In a war between
the Lacedaemonians and Tegeatans, a truce was concluded, and during tills truce
the Lacedaemonian Lichas found the remains of Orestes at Tegea or Thyrea in the
house of a blacksmith, and thence took them to Sparta, which according to an oracle
could not gain the victory unless it possessed the remains of Orestes (Herod.
i. 67; Paus. iii. 3.6, viii. 54.3). According to an Italian legend, Orestes brought
the image of the Taurian Artemis to Aricia, whence it was carried in later times
to Sparta; and Orestes himself was buried at Aricia, whence his remains were afterwards
carried to Rome (Serv. ad Aen. ii. 116).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Orestes. The son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra. On the assassination
of Agamemnon, Orestes, then quite young, was saved from his father's fate by his
sister Electra, who had him removed to the court of their uncle Strophius, king
of Phocis. There he formed an intimate friendship with Pylades, the son of Strophius,
and with him concerted the means, which he successfully adopted, of avenging his
father's death by slaying his mother and Aegisthus. After the murder of Clytaemnestra,
the Furies drove Orestes into insanity; and when the oracle at Delphi was consulted
respecting the duration of his malady, an answer was given that Orestes would
not be restored to a sane mind until he went to the Tauric Chersonesus, and brought
away from that quarter the statue of Artemis to Argos. It was the custom in Taurica
to sacrifice all strangers to this goddess, and Orestes and Pylades, having made
the journey together, and having both been taken captive, were brought as victims
to the altar of Artemis. Iphigenia, the sister of Orestes, who had been carried
off by Artemis from Aulis when on the point of being immolated, was the priestess
of the goddess among the Tauri. Perceiving the strangers to be Greeks, she offered
to spare the life of one of them, provided he would carry a letter from her to
Greece. This occasioned a memorable contest of friendship between them, which
should sacrifice himself for the other, and it ended in Pylades' yielding to Orestes
and agreeing to be the bearer of the letter. The letter was for Orestes, and a
discovery was the consequence. Iphigenia, thereupon, on learning the object of
their visit, contrived to aid them in carrying off the statue of Artemis, and
all three arrived safe in Greece with the statue. After his return to the Peloponnesus,
Orestes took possession of his father's kingdom at Mycenae, which had been usurped
by Aletes or Menelaus. When Cylarabes of Argos died without leaving any heir,
Orestes also became king of Argos. The Lacedaemonians likewise made him their
king of their own accord, because they preferred him, the grandson of Tyndareus,
to Nicostratus and Megapenthes, the sons of Menelaus by a slave. The Arcadians
and Phocians increased his power by allying themselves with him. He married Hermione,
the daughter of Menelaus, and became by her the father of Tisamenus. The story
of his marriage with Hermione, who had previously been married to Neoptolemus,
is related elsewhere. He died of the bite of a snake in Arcadia, and his body,
in accordance with an oracle, was afterwards carried from Tega to Sparta, and
there buried. His bones are said to have been found at a later time in a war between
the Lacedaemonians and Tegaetans, and to have been conveyed to Sparta. According
to one story, Orestes spent the time of his madness in Arcadia, where, in his
frenzy, he gnawed off one of his fingers. The story of Orestes is the subject
of an existing trilogy by Aeschylus (the Agamemnon, Choephoroe, and Eumenides),
and is treated by Sophocles in his Electra and by Euripides in the remaining plays
Electra, Orestes, and Iphigenia in Tauris.
Such is the ordinary form of the legend of Orestes. The tragic
writers, of course, introduced many variations. Thus it is said that when the
Furies of his mother persecuted him, he fled to Delphi, whose god had urged him
to commit the deed, and thence went to Athens, where he was acquitted by the court
of Areopagus. Orestes had by Hermione two sons, Tisamenus and Penthilus, who were
driven from their country by the Heraclidae.
This is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Πληροφορίες Σύνταξης:
Για τον Ορέστη, ο Ευριπίδης έγραψε την ομώνυμη τραγωδία, το(α) ηλεκτρονικό(ά) κείμενο(α) της οποίας παρατίθε(ν)ται στην Ελλάδα (αρχαία χώρα) στην κατηγορία Αρχαία Ελληνική Γραμματεία.
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Αργος. Πρωτεύουσα της Αργολίδας, που περιλαμβάνεται στον Ομηρικό Κατάλογο των Νεών και έλαβε μέρος στον Τρωικό πόλεμο με αρχηγό τον Διομήδη, γιο του Τυδέως (Ιλ. Δ 52, Β 559).
ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ (Μυκηναϊκό ανάκτορο) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Ο Ομηρος την αναφέρει και με το όνομα Μυκήνη (Ιλ. Δ 52, Η 180) και την τοποθετεί "μυχώ Αργεος ιπποβότοιο" (Οδ. γ 263). Ηταν πρωτεύουσα της επικράτειας του Αγαμέμνονα. Πήρε μέρος στον πόλεμο και περιλαμβάνεται στον Ομηρικό Κατάλογο των Νεών, την καλεί δε "πολυχρύσοιο" (Ιλ. Λ 46, Η 180), "ευρυάγυιαν" (Ιλ. Δ 52), "ευκτίμενον πτολίεθρον" (Ιλ. Β 569), μία από τις τρεις - οι άλλες είναι το Αργος και η Σπάρτη - αγαπητές πόλεις της Ηρας (Ιλ. Δ 51).
Exercitus (stratos), army. The earliest notices which we possess of the military
art among the Greeks are those contained in the Homeric poems. The unsettled state
of society in the first ages of Greece led to the early and general cultivation
of the art of arms, which were habitually worn for defence, even when aggressive
warfare was not intended (Thuc. i. 6). But the Homeric poems contain an exhibition
of combined military operations in their earliest stage. Warlike undertakings
before the time described in them can have been little else than predatory inroads
(boelasiai, Il. xi. 672). A collection of warriors exhibiting less of organisation
and discipline than we see depicted in the Grecian troops before Troy, would hardly
deserve the name of an army. The organisation which we see there, such as it was,
arose, not from any studied, formative system, but naturally out of the imperfect
constitution of society in that age. Every freeman in those times was of course
a soldier; but when all the members of a family were not needed to go upon an
expedition under the command of their chieftain or king, those who were to go
seem to have been selected by lot (Il. xxiv. 400). As the confederated states,
which are represented as taking part in the Trojan war, are united by scarcely
any other bond than their participation in a common object, the different bodies
of troops, led by their respective chieftains, are far from being united by a
common discipline under the command-in-chief of Agamemnon. A common epithet for
allies is called from afar (telekleitoi, Il. v. 491, vi. 111). Each body obeys
its own leader, and follows him to the conflict, or remains inactive, according
as he chooses to mingle in the fight or not. Authority and obedience are regulated
much more by the nature of the circumstances, or by the relative personal distinction
of the chieftains, than by any law of military discipline. Gifts (dora) were given
to them at the end of service; and such may be considered as the beginning of
pay being given to soldiers (Il. xvii. 225). Agamemnon sometimes urges the chieftains
to engage, not by commands, but by taunts (Il. iv. 338 ff., 368 ff.). Accordingly,
nothing like the tactics or strategy of a regularly disciplined army is to be
traced in the Homeric descriptions of battles. Each chieftain with his body of
troops acts for himself, without reference to the movements of the rest, except
as these furnish occasion for a vigorous attack, or, when hard pressed, call for
assistance from the common feeling of brotherhood in arms. The wide interval which
in the Homeric age separated the noble or chieftain from the common freeman, appears
in as marked a manner in military as in civil affairs. The former is distinguished
by that superior skill and prowess in the use of his arms, which would naturally
result from the constant practice of warlike exercises, for which his station
gave him the leisure and the means. A single hero is able to put to flight a whole
troop of common soldiers. The account of a battle consists almost entirely of
descriptions of the single combats of the chiefs on both sides; and the fortune
of the day, when not overruled by the intervention of the gods, is decided by
the individual valour of these heroes. While the mass of the common soldiers were
on foot, the chiefs rode in chariots, which usually contained two, one to drive
(heniochos) and one to fight (paraibates). In these they advanced against the
antagonists whom they singled out for encounter, sometimes hurling their spears
from their chariots, but more commonly alighting, as they drew near, and fighting
on foot, making use of the chariot for pursuit or flight. The Greeks did not,
like the ancient Britons and several nations of the East, use the chariot itself
as an instrument of warfare. Cavalry was unknown at that time to the Greeks, and
horsemanship but very rarely practised; the hippees of Homer are the chieftains
who ride in chariots. These chiefs are drawn up in the front of the battle array
(Il. iv. 297, 505, promachoi, promachesthai); and frequently the foot-soldiers
seem to have done nothing but watch the single combats of their leaders, forming
in two opposite, parallel lines, between which the more important single combats
are fought. How they got the chariots out of the way when the foot-soldiers came
to close quarters (as in Il. iv. 427 ff.) is not described.
Though so little account is usually made of the common soldiers (prulees,
Il. xi. 49, xii. 77), Homer occasionally lays considerable stress on their orderly
and compact array; the Atreidae are honourably distinguished by the epithet kosmetore
laon (Il. i. 15). Nestor and Menestheus were also skilled in marshalling an army
(Il. ii. 553, iv. 293 ff.). The troops were naturally drawn up in separate bodies
according to their different nations. It would appear to be rather a restoration
of the old arrangement than a new classification, when Nestor (Il. ii. 362) recommends
Agamemnon to draw the troops up by tribes and phratries. Arranged in these natural
divisions, the foot-soldiers were drawn up in densely compacted bodies (pukinai
phalanges)--shield close to shield, helmet to helmet, man to man (Il. xiii. 130,
xvi. 212 ff.). In these masses, though not usually commencing the attack, they
frequently offer a powerful resistance, even to distinguished heroes (as Hector,
Il. xiii. 145 ff., comp. xvii. 267, 354 ff., xiii. 339), the dense array of their
spears forming a barrier not easily broken through. The signal for advance or
retreat was not given by instruments of any kind, but by the voice of the leader.
A loud voice was consequently an important matter, and the epithet boen agathos
is common. The soldiers advanced and engaged in battle with loud shouting (alaletos,
Il. iv. 436, xiv. 393). The trumpet, however, was not absolutely unknown (Il.
xviii. 219). Respecting the armour, offensive and defensive, (see Arma)
no engines for besieging are found. There were in the army, besides the hoplites,
light-armed troops, archers and slingers (Il. xiii. 767).
Under the king or chieftain who commands his separate contingent we
commonly find subordinate chiefs, who command smaller divisions. It is difficult
to say whether it is altogether accidental or not, that these are frequently five
in number. Thus the Myrmidons of Achilles are divided into five stiches, each
of 500 men. Five chiefs command the Boeotians; and the whole Trojan army is formed
in five divisions, each under three leaders. (Il. iv. 295 ff., xvi. 171-197, ii.
494, 495, xii. 87-104.) The term phalanx is applied either to the whole army (as
Il. vi. 6), or to these smaller divisions and subdivisions, which are also called
stiches and purgoi (Il. xi. 90, iv. 333).
When an enemy was slain, it was the universal practice to stop and
strip off his arms, which were carefully preserved by the victor as trophies.
The division of the booty generally was arranged by the leader of the troop, for
whom a portion was set aside as an honorary present (geras, Il. i. 118, 368, 392).
The recovery of the dead bodies of the slain was in the Homeric age, as in all
later times, a point of the greatest importance, and frequently either led to
a fierce contest (Il. xvi. 756 ff.), or was effected by the payment of a heavy
ransom (Il. xxiv. 502)...
GTP.gr remark: Above is a very small extract of a long and interesting text, covering
army, from the URL below.
Arma, Armatura (hopla, Hom. entea, teuchea), , armour. Homer describes in
various passages the entire suit of armour of some of his greatest warriors, viz.
of Achilles, Patroclus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Paris (11. iii. 328-339, iv.
132-138, xi. 15-45, xvi. 30-142, xix. 364-391); and we observe that it consisted
of the same portions which were used by the Greek soldiers ever after. Moreover,
the order of putting them on is always the same. The heavy-armed warrior, having
already a tunic around his body, and preparing for combat, puts on,--first, his
greaves (knemides, ocreae); secondly, his cuirass (thorax, lorica), to which belonged
the mitre underneath, and the zone (zone, zoster, (cingulum) above; thirdly, his
sword (xiphos, ensis, gladius) hung on the left side of his body by means of a
belt which passed over the right shoulder; fourthly, the large round shield (skkos,
aspis, clipeus, scutum), supported in the same manner; fifthly, his helmet (korus,
kunee, cassis, galea) ; sixthly and lastly, he took his spear (enchos, doru, hasta),
or, in many cases, two spears (doure duo). The form and use of these portions
are describ ed in separate articles under their Latin names. The foregoing woodcut
exhibits them all in the form of a Greek warrior attired for battle, as shown
in Hope's Costume of the Ancients (i. 70).
Those who were defended in the manner which has now been represented,
are called by Homer aspistai, from their great shield (aspis); also alchemachoi,
because they fought hand to hand with their adversaries; but much more commonly
promachoi, because they occupied the front of the army: and it is to be observed
that these terms, especially the last, were honourable titles, the expense of
a complete suit of armour (panoplie, Herod. i. 60) being of itself sufficient
to prove the wealth and rank of the wearer, while his place on the field was no
less indicative of strength and bravery.
In later times, the heavy-armed soldiers were called hoplitai, because
the term hopla more especially denoted the defensive armour, the shield and thorax.
By wearing these they were distinguished from the light-armed, whom Herodotus
(ix. 62, 63), for the reason just mentioned, calls anoploi, and who are also denominated
psiloi, and gumnoi, gumnetai, or gumnetes. Instead of being defended by the shield
and thorax, their bodies had a much slighter covering, sometimes consisting of
skins, and sometimes of leather or cloth; and instead of the sword and lance,
they commonly fought with darts, stones, bows and arrows, or slings.
Besides the heavy-and light-armed soldiers, the hoplitai and psiloi,
who in general bore towards one another the intimate relation now explained, another
description of men, the peltastai, sometimes formed a part of the Greek army after
the Persian wars, and regularly after the expedition of the Ten Thousand. Instead
of the large round shield, they carried a smaller one called the pelte, and in
other respects their armour was much lighter than that of the hoplites. The weapon
on which they principally depended was the spear.
The Roman soldiers had different kinds of arms and armour; but an account of the
arms of the different kinds of troops cannot be separated from a description of
the troops of a Roman army, and the reader is therefore referred to Exercitus
( =army). The following cut represents two heavy-armed Roman soldiers, and is
taken from the reliefs on Trajan's Column. On comparing it with that of the Greek
hoplite in the other cut, we perceive that the several parts of the armour correspond,
excepting only that the Roman soldier wears a dagger (machaira, pugio) on his
right side instead of a sword on his left, and, instead of greaves (which were
abandoned in imperial times) upon his legs, has femoralia and caligae. All the
essential parts of the Roman heavy armour (lorica, ensis, clipeus, galea, hasta)
are mentioned together in an epigram of Martial (ix. 57); and all except the spear
in a well-known passage (Eph. vi. 14-17) of St. Paul, whose enumeration exactly
coincides with the figures on the Arch of Severus, and who makes mention not only
of greaves, but of shoes or sandals for the feet.
The soft or flexible parts of the heavy armour were made of cloth
or leather. The metal principally used in their formation was that compound of
copper and tin which we call bronze, or more properly bell-metal (Aes
= cooper, chalkos). Hence the names for this metal (chalkos, aes) are often used
to mean armour, and the light reflected from the arms of a warrior is called auge
chalkeie by Homer, and lux aena by Virgil (Aen. ii. 470). Instead of copper, iron
afterwards came to be very extensively used in the manufacture of arms, although
articles made of it are much more rarely discovered, because iron is by exposure
to air and moisture exceedingly liable to corrosion and decay. Gold and silver,
and tin unmixed with copper, were also used, more especially to enrich and adorn
the armour.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Currus (harma), a chariot, a car. These terms are especially applied to the two-wheeled
cars used in battle and in racing. They differed from the carpentum in being open
overhead, and from the cisium in being closed in front. The plural harmata is
generally used to signify the chariot and all its appurtenances-pole, yoke, reins,
e.t.c. --excluding the horse. The words harma (Il. xxiv. 440), harmata (Od. iii.
492), and diphros (ib. 481) are also employed for the light cars used on journeys.
They frequently had, bound on to the body, a basket, peirins (Od. xv. 131), which
must have been capacious to hold the presents Telemachus got from Menelaus (Od.
xv. 102-105). Doubtless Telemachus and Pisistratus sat on this peirins, as it
was unlikely that they would stand for a whole two days' journey (Od. iii. 487,
497;). The most essential parts in the construction of the currus were:
1. The antyx (antux) or rim. Either on three sides of the chariot
or only in front there was a curved (hence ankulon, kampulon harma, Il. v. 231,
vi. 39) barrier (epidiphrias, Il. x. 475; periphragma, Poll. i. 142), sometimes
of light wood, sometimes of leather or metal (cf. for the latter Il. xxiii. 503).
It was generally a sort of trellis-work made by interlacing strips of the material
used; hence probably diphros euplekes or euplektos (Il. xxiii. 436, 335). In different
chariots this barrier was of different heights: sometimes it did not come up to
the knee, sometimes it rose to near the waist, but in the Greek war-chariot it
was seldom, if ever, higher. Warriors in a chariot are mentioned as being wounded
in the stomach (Il. xiii. 398). Round the top of this barrier was the curved rim
(antux), which was generally raised above the trellis-work barrier by bars. A
variety of technical names belonging to these bars are to be found in Poll. i.
143. The two antuges of Hera's chariot (doiai de peridromoi antuges eisi, Il.
v. 728) are to be explained either of a double rim, one rising above the other,
or of a rim at both sides of the chariot. The former perhaps suits the sense of
peri- ( all round, in opposition to amphi-, on both sides ) better than the latter.
The antux often served to fasten the reins to (Il. v. 262). As the antux was curved,
a pliant wood was required for it; and Homer (Il. xxi. 37) mentions the wild fig-tree
as so used. The term antux is sometimes applied to the whole chariot (Soph. El.
746).
2. The axle, usually made of oak (pheginos axon, Hom. Il. v.
838, imitated by Virgil, faginus axis, Georg. iii. 172), and sometimes also of
ilex, ash, or elm (Plin. H. N. xvi.229). It was of iron or brass in the chariots
of the gods (Il. v. 723; xiii. 30). The extremities were called akraxonia (Poll.
i. 145) or chnoai and sometimes ended in the head of an animal. The iron plates
on the axle round which the wheels revolved were called heurai (Poll. i. 145).
The axle was about seven feet long.
3. The wheels (kukla, trochoi, rotae) revolved upon the axle,
as in modern carriages. They consisted of
(a) spokes (knemai, radii), usually four in number, but in the chariot
of Hera there were eight (oktaknema, Il. v. 723). With tips of iron (aetoi, Poll.
i. 145) at each end on the outer side, they were fixed in
(b) a felloe (itus), consisting of four or more arcs, hapsides (Hesiod,
Op. 426; sotra, Poll. i. 144), which of course had to be of flexible wood (Il.
iv. 482-486; xxi. 37), heat being used to assist in producing the curvature (Theocr.
xxv. 247-251), bound on the outside by
(c) an iron tire (epissotron, Il. xxiii. 519; epissotra, Il. v. 725;
canthus, Pers. v. 71). In Hera's chariot the tire was of bronze and the felloe
gold (Il. v. 725). On the inner side they were fixed in
(d) the nave (plemne, II. v. 726; chnoe, Aesch. Theb. 153; modiolus,
Plin. H. N. ix. § 8).
There are several technical terms for the different parts of the nave
(Poll. i. 145). The external ring of iron into which the spokes fitted was called
thorax or plemnodeton. The internal ring round the hole through which the axle
passed was garnon or destron. What was probably a flat ring prevented the wheels
slipping off, and was called paraxonion, epibolos, embolos: it was itself kept
in its place by the linchpin (embolodetes). The wheels were not more than thirty
inches in diameter: this appears to rest on Hesiod, Op. 426, where Proclus and
Tzetzes take hamaxa as the wheel.
4. The body of the chariot, diphros, also called huperteria by
Poll. i. 144, though in Homer that word appears to mean the upper part shaped
like a cart. All efforts were made to lessen the weight of the chariot, and we
have evidence that they were very light. They drive over heaps of arms and corpses
(Il. xi. 534), and even across ditches (Il. viii. 179); and Diomede thinks of
carrying a chariot on his shoulders (Il. x. 505). It consisted of some kind of
interlaced straps of leather (himantosis, tonos, Poll. i. 142). In Hera's chariot
they were of gold and silver cords (Il. v. 727). Doubtless this was bound around
to a narrow frame of some rigid substance, wood or iron; and it is to this perhaps
that the epithets protopages, kolletos, which are applied to the diphros (Il.
v. 193; xix. 395), refer. Possibly this framework at the back of the chariot,
which was always cut straight, is what Pollux (i. 144) means by pterna (to de
pro pou tonou hou proton epibainousin hoi anabainontes, pterna); though Guhl and
Koner (p. 305) say it is the boards which were placed over the straps and on which
the charioteers stood. If we allow a foot on each side of the axle for the wheels,
the breadth of the diphros would be about five feet.
5. The pole (rhumos, temo), made of wood and polished (Il. xxiv.
271). From representations of chariots, we find the pole sometimes as it were
a continuation of the flooring of the diphros, sometimes fastened into the axle,
sometimes above it. It is found fastened by two forked stays (sterigma, hupostates,
furca, Plut. Cor. Plut. Cor. 24). These were either projecting from the axle,
or, as is more probable, at the inner end of the pole. The pole was sometimes
straight for some distance from its point of fastening, and curved rapidly upwards
at its extremity (prote peza, akrorrumion), or else was in its whole length quite
straight and inclined at an angle: in any case the top of the pole was on a level
with the necks of the horses. The extremity of the pole at times ended in the
head of a bird, a ram, or the like. Towards the extremity of the pole the yoke
was fastened about a pin (hestor) fixed in the pole. There was frequently a fastening
running from the top of the pole to the antux, in order to divide the traction-force
on two points. For details as to the yoke and its fastening, see Jugum
(=zygos); and for the reins, see Frenum
(+chalinos, bridle).
All the parts now enumerated are seen in an ancient chariot preserved
in the Vatican, a representation of which is given in the preceding woodcut. (see
image in the URL below).
Carriages with two or even three poles were used by the Lydians (Aesch.
Pers. 47). The Greeks and Romans, on the other hand, appear never to have used
more than one pole and one yoke, and the currus thus constructed was commonly
drawn by two horses, which were attached to it by their necks, and therefore called
dizuges hippoi (Hom. Il. v. 195, x. 473), sunoris (Xen. Hell. i. 2, § 1), gemini
jugales (Verg. Aen. vii. 280), equi bijuges (Georg. iii. 91). We occasionally
find in Homer that only one horse was used (Il. ii. 390; xxii. 22; xxiii. 517),
and it must have been fastened by traces; but a pair of horses is much the most
frequent. They drew the car by means of the yoke and its collars (lepadna); for
they were not fastened to the chariot by traces. Thus in the Iliad, when the pole
breaks (vi. 38 if., xvi. 360), the horses simply run on with the yoke and front
part of the broken pole, and the car is left behind; again, when the yoke breaks
and the horses run to different sides, they do not upset the chariot, as they
would do if they had been fastened by traces (Il. xxiii. 392 ff.). In this latter
passage, however, it seems most probable that the shock which could throw Eumelus
out with such violence must have upset the light chariot. Besides the yoke horses,
there was sometimes a pareoros (Il. xvi. 471), seiraios (Soph. El. 722), seiraphoros
(Aesch. Ag. 842), funalis equus (Stat. Theb. vi. 462), funarius (Isid. Orig. xviii.
33), which was fastened by a trace affixed to the antux, if we may judge from
vase-pictures and as the word seiraphoros would lead us to infer. But the main
work of traction was done by the yoke horses (cf. Aesch. Ag. 1679). Helbig (op.
cit. p. 91) thinks that they were fastened to the yoke or to one of the yoke-horses;
yet he holds (p. 106, note 6) that traces were used in the case of a team of four
horses. At any rate the fastenings of the pareoros were called pareoriai (Il.
xvi. 152). These outriggers had often riders like our postilions. A team of four
horses is mentioned three times in Homer (Il. viii. 185, xi. 699; Od. xiii. 81),
but the passages are not by any means sufficient to prove a general use of four
horses, and they seem to refer to the Olympic games. In the above cut we also
observe traces passing between the two antuges, and proceeding from the front
of the chariot on each side of the middle horse. These probably assisted in attaching
the third, or extra horse.
The Latin name for a chariot and pair was bigae (Verg. Aen. ii. 272,
v. 721; Plin. H. N. vii.202, et alibi); in later: Latin also biga (Tac. Hist.
i. 86; Plin. xxxix.89; Stat. Silv. i. 2, 45, et alibi). When a third horse was
added, it was called triga (Dig. 21, 1, 38,14) or trigae (Isidor. Orig. xviii.
36); and by the same analogy a chariot and four was called quadrigae (Verg. Georg.
i. 512, Aen. vi. 535; Cic. Div. ii. 7. 0, 144, et alibi), in later Latin quadriga
(Gell. xix. 8, 17 ; Suet. Vit. 17, et alibi); in Greek, tetraoria or gethrippos.
Four horses were the largest number usually employed, but we also read of a chariot
drawn by six horses, called sejugis (Orelli, Inscr. 2593, 6179), but more usually
in the plural sejuges (Liv. xxxviii. 35, 4; Plin. H. N. xxxiv.19; Apul. Flor.
p. 356, No. 16), also sejugae (Isid. Orig. xviii. 36), like bigae and quadrigae;
of a chariot drawn by eight horses; and of one drawn by ten horses, which was
the number driven by Nero in the Olympic games (Suet. Ner. 24). In all cases the
horses were driven abreast.
As the works of ancient art, especially fictile vases, abound in representations
of quadrigae, numerous instances may be observed, in which the two middle horses
(ho mesos dexios kai ho mesos aristeros, Schol. in Aristoph. Nub. 122) are yoked
together as in the bigae; and, as the, two lateral ones (ho dexioseiros, ho aristeros
seiraios, dexterior, sinisterior funalis equus, Suet. Tib. 6; and cf. Jebb on
Soph. El. 721) have collars (leradna) equally with the yoke-horses, we may presume
that from the top of these proceeded the ropes which were tied to the rim of the
car, and by which the trace-horses assisted to draw it. The first figure in the
following woodcut is the chariot of Aurora, as painted on a vase found at Canosa.The
reins of the two middle horses pass through rings at the extremities of the yoke.
All the particulars which have been mentioned are still more distinctly seen in
the second figure, taken from a terra-cotta at Vienna. It represents a chariot
over-thrown in passing the goal at the circus. The charioteer having fallen backwards,
the pole and yoke are thrown upwards into the air; the two trace-horses have fallen
on their knees, and the two yoke-horses are prancing on their hind legs.
If we may rely on the evidence of numerous works of art, the currus
was sometimes drawn by four horses without either yoke or pole; for we see two
of them diverging to the right hand and two to the left, as in the cameo in the
royal collection of Berlin, which exhibits Apollo surrounded by the signs of the
zodiac. If the ancients really drove the quadrigae thus harnessed, we can only
suppose the charioteer to have checked its speed by pulling up the horses, and
leaning with his whole body back-wards, so as to make the bottom of the car at
its hindermost border scrape the ground, an act and an attitude which seem not
unfrequently to be intended in antique representations.
The currus, like the cisium, was adapted to carry two persons, and
on this account was called in Greek diphros. One of the two was of course the
driver. He was called heniochos, because he held the reins, and his companion
paraibates, from going by his side or near him. Though in all respects superior,
the paraibates was often obliged to place himself behind the heniochos. He is
so represented in the bigae at p. 129, and in the Iliad (xix. 397) Achilles himself
stands behind his charioteer, Automedon. On the other hand, a personage of the
highest rank may drive his own carriage, and then an inferior may be his paraibates,
as when Nestor conveys Machaon (par de Machaon baine, Il. xi. 512, 517), and Hera,
holding the reins and whip, conveys Athena, who is in full armour (v. 720-775).
In such cases a kindness, or even a compliment, was conferred by the driver upon
him whom he conveyed, as when Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily, himself holding the
reins, made Plato his paraibates. (Aelian, V. H. iv. 18.)
Chariots were frequently employed on the field of battle not only
by the Asiatic nations, but also by the Greeks in the heroic age. The aristees,
i. e. the nobility, or men of rank, who wore complete suits of armour, all took
their chariots with them, and in an engagement placed themselves in front. In
the Homeric battles we find that the horseman, who for the purpose of using his
weapons, and in consequence of the weight of his armour, is under the necessity
of taking the place of paraibates (see above the woodcut of the triga), often
assails or challenges a distant foe from the chariot; but that, when he encounters
his adversary in close combat, they both dismount, springing from their chariots
to the ground, and leaving them to the care of the heniochoi. (Il. iii. 29, xiii.
537, xvii. 480-483, 500-502; Hes. Scut. Herc. 370-372.) As soon as the hero had
finished the trial of his strength with his opponent, he returned to his chariot,
one of the chief uses of which was to rescue him from danger.
In later times the chariots were chiefly employed in the public games.
The usual form of those used in the Grecian public games appears on the coins
of victors, as in the annexed coin of Hieron II. of Syracuse. Those used in the
Roman games of the Circus are figured under Circus
(=greek hippodromos). Their form was the same, except that they were more elegantly
decorated. They had no antuges, but were raised in front. They had low wheels,
quite at the back, and there was no space to stand in behind the wheels. Chariots
were not much used by the Romans. The ancient Italians never fought from chariots.
When such appear, they are either in representations of Greek events or are triumphal
cars. In a Roman triumph the general ascended to the Capitol in a chariot adorned
with ivory (currus eburnos, Ov. Trist. iv. 2, 63) or gold (aureos, Hor. Epod.
ix. 22), which was cylindrical, with sides very much higher than the Greek chariots.
An example may be seen in the cuts under Triumphus
(=thriamnos, triumph) which in a measure exemplify what Zonaras says (vii. 21):
to de harma es purgon peripherous tropon exeirgasto. The utmost skill of the painter
and the sculptor was employed to enhance its beauty and splendour. More particularly
the extremities of the axle, of the pole, and of the yoke, were highly wrought
in the form of animals' heads. Wreaths of laurel were sometimes hung round it
(currum laurigerum, Claudian, de Laud. Stil. iii. 20, Tert. Cons. Honor. 130),
and were also fixed to the heads of the four snow-white horses. (Mart. vii. 8,
8.) The car was elevated so that he who triumphed might be the most conspicuous
person in the procession, and for the same reason he was obliged to stand erect
(in curru stantis eburno, Ovid, Pont. iii. 4, 35). The triumphal car had in general
no pole, the horses being led by men who were stationed at their heads.
Chariots executed in terra-cotta (quadrigae fictiles, Plin. H. N.
xxviii.16), in bronze, or in marble, an example of which last is shown in the
following woodcut from an ancient chariot in the Vatican, were among the most
beautiful ornaments of temples and other public edifices. No pains were spared
in their decoration; and Pliny informs us (e.g. H. N. xxxiv.86) that some of the
most eminent artists were employed upon them. In numerous instances they were
designed to perpetuate the fame of those who had conquered in the chariot-race
(Pans. vi. 10, 6). As the emblem of victory, the quadriga was sometimes adopted
by the Romans to grace the triumphal arch by being placed on its summit; and even
in the private houses of great families, chariots were displayed as the indications
of rank, or the memorials of conquest and of triumph. (Juv. viii. 3.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Το βασίλειο του Διομήδη περιλάμβανε την Αργολική γη (εκτός των Μυκηνών) και το νησί της Αίγινας. Ο Διομήδης ως αρχηγός μαζί με τον Σθένελο και τον Ευρύλαο συμμετείχαν στον Τρωικό Πόλεμο με 60 πλοία (Β564-568). Πόλεις που περιλαμβάνονται στον Κατάλογο των Νεών: 1. Αργος, 2. Τίρυνς, 3. Ερμιόνη, 4. Ασίνη, 5. Τροιζήν, 6. Ηϊόνες, 7. Επίδαυρος, 8. Αίγινα (νησί), 9. Μάσης.
ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ (Μυκηναϊκό ανάκτορο) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Πολλοί και άριστοι λαοί ήσαν κάτω από την πλούσια και μεγάλη ηγεμονία του Αγαμέμνονα (Ιλ. Β 577, Β 588) που συμμετείχαν στον Τρωικό πόλεμο με 100 πλοία (Ιλ. Β 576). Πόλεις που περιλαμβάνονται στον Κατάλογο των Νεών: 1. Μυκήναι, 2. Κλεωναί, 3. Ορνειαί, 4. Σικυών, 5. Αραιθυρέη, 6. Κόρινθος, 7. Υπερησία, 8. Γονόεσσα, 9. Πελλήνη, 10. Αίγιον, 11. Ελίκη. Αλλες πόλεις του Αγαμέμνονα, που αναφέρονται από τον Ομηρο, ήσαν: 1. Αιγαί, 2. Καρδαμύλη, 3. Ενόπη, 4. Ιρή, 5. Φηραί, 6. Ανθεια, 7. Αίπεια, 8. Πήδασος.
Η επικράτεια του Αγαμέμνονος ονομαζόταν Αργος και είχε πρωτεύουσα τις Μυκήνες (Α 30, Β 108).
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Καπανεύς. Γιος του Ιππονόου και της Λαοδίκης, σύζυγος της Ευάδνης του Ιφία, πατέρας του Σθένελου (Ιλ. Β 564), ένας από τους Επτά επί Θήβας. Επεσε κεραυνόπληκτος από τον Δία στα τείχη της Θήβας, επειδή είχε καυχηθεί ότι θα πυρπολήσει την πόλη και παρά την θέληση των θεών.
Capaneus (Kapaneus), a son of Hipponous and Astynome or Laodice, tile daughter of Iphis (Hygin. Fab. 70; Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 181; ad Pind. Nern. ix. 30). He was married to Euadne or laneira, who is also called a daughter of Iphis, and by whom he became the father of Sthenelus (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vi. 46; Apollod. iii. 10.8). He was one of the seven heroes who marched from Argos against Thebes, where he had his station at the Ogygian or Electrian gate (Apollod. iii. 6.6; Aeschyl. Sept. c. Theb. 423; Paus. ix. 8.3). During the siege of Thebes, he was presumptuous enough to say, that even the fire of Zeus should not prevent his scaling the walls of the city; but when he was ascending the ladder, Zeus struck him with a flash of lightning (Comp. Eurip. Phoen. 1172; comp. Soph. Antig. 133; Apollod. iii. 6.7; Ov. Met. ix. 404). While his body was burning, his wife Euadne leaped into the flames and destroyed herself (Apollod. iii. 7.1; Eurip. Suppl. 983; Philostr. Icon. ii. 31; Ov. Ars Am. iii. 21; Hygin. Fab. 243). Capaneus is one of those heroes whom Asclepius was believed to have called back into life (Apollod. iii. 10.3). At Delphi there was a statue of Capaneus dedicated by the Argives (Paus. x.10.2).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Evadne. A daughter of Iphis or Iphicles of Argos, who slighted the addresses of Apollo, and married Capaneus, one of the seven chiefs who went against Thebes. When her husband had been struck with thunder by Zeus for his blasphemies and impiety, and his ashes had been separated from those of the rest of the Argives, she threw herself on his burning pile and perished in the flames.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Γιος του Μάντιου, αδελφός του μάντη Πολυφείδη κι εγγονός του Μελάμποδος (Οδ. ο 249).
A son of Mantius, carried off by Eos on account of his extraordinary beauty. (Hom. Od. xv. 250; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1780.)
Γιος του Αμφιάραου και της Εριφύλης, συμμετείχε στην εκστρατεία των Επιγόνων κατά των Θηβών και έπειτα στον πόλεμο της Τροίας (Οδ. ο 248).
Amphilochus (Amphilochos), a son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle, and brother of Alcmaeon
(Apollod. iii. 7.2; Hom. Od. xv. 248). When his father went against Thebes,
Amphilochus was, according to Pausanias (v. 17.4), yet an infant, although ten
years afterwards lie is mentioned as one of the Epigoni, and according to some
traditions assisted his brother in the murder of his mother. He is also mentioned
among the suitors of Helen, and as having taken part in the Trojan war. On the
return from this expedition he together with Mopsus, who was like himself a seer,
founded the town of Mallos
in Cilicia. Hence he proceeded
to his native place, Argos. But as he was not satisfied with the state of affairs
there, he returned to Mallos.
When Mopsus refused to allow him any share in the government of their common colony,
the two seers fought a single combat in which both were killed. This combat was
described by some as having arisen out of a dispute about their prophetic powers.
Their tombs, which were placed in such a manner that the one could not be seen
from the other, existed as late as the time of Strabo, near mount mount Margasa,
not far from Pyramus (Strab. xiv; Lycophron, 439, with the Schol). According to
other traditions (Strab. xiv), Amphilochus and Calchas, on their return from Troy,
went on foot to the celebrated grove of the Clarian Apollo near Colophon.
In some accounts he was said to have been killed by Apollo (Hes. ap. Strab. xiv).
According to Thucydides (ii. 68) Amphilochus returned from Troy
to Argos, but being dissatisfied there, he emigrated and founded Argos
Amphilochium on the Ambracian
gulf. Other accounts, however, ascribe the foundation of this town to Alcmaeon
(Strab. vii. p. 326), or to Amphilochus the son of Alcmaeon (Apollod. iii. 7.7).
Being a son of the seer Amphiaraus, Amphilochus was likewise believed to be endowed
with prophetic powers ; and at Mallos
in Cilicia there was an oracle
of Amphilochus, which in the time of Pausanias (i. 34.2) was regarded as the most
truthful of all (Dict. of Ant. p. 673). He was worshipped together with his father
at Oropus; at Athens
he had an altar, and at Sparta
a heroum (Paus. i. 34.2, iii. 15.6).
There are two other mythical personages of this name, one a grandson of our Amphilochus
(Apollod. iii. 7.7), and the other a son of Dryas (Parthen. Erot. 27).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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