Palamedes, a son of Nauplius and Clymene, the daughter of Atreus (or Catreus,
Tzetz. ad Lye. 384), and brother of Oeax. He joined the Greeks in their expedition
against Troy; but Agamemnon, Diomedes, and Odysseus, envious of his fame, caused
a captive Phrygian to write to Palamedes a letter in the name of Priam, and then
induced a servant of Palamedes by bribes to conceal the letter under his master's
bed. Hereupon they accused Palamedes of treachery; they searched his tent, and
as they found the letter which they themselves had dictated, they caused him to
be stoned to death. When Palamedes was led to death, he exclaimed, "Truth, I lament
thee, for thou hast died even before me." (Schol. ad Eur. Orest. 422; Philostr.
Her. 10; Ov. Met. xiii. 56.) According to some traditions, it was Odysseus alone
who hated and persecuted Palamedes. (Hygin. Fab. 105; Xemoph. Memor. iv. 2.23,
Apolog. 26.) The cause of this hatred too is not the same in all writers; for
according to some, Odysseus hated him because he had been compelled by him to
join the Greeks against Troy (Hygin. Fab. 95; Ov. Met. xiii. 58) or because lie
had been severely censured by Palamedes for returning from a foraging excursion
into Thrace with empty hands. (Serv. ad Aen. ii. 81; comp. Philostr. Her. 10.)
The manner of Palamedes' death is likewise related differently: some
say that Odysseus and Diomedes induced him to descend into a well, where they
pretended they had discovered a treasure, and as he was below they cast stones
upon him, and killed him (Diet. Cret. ii. 15); others state that he was drowned
by them whilst fishing (Paus. x. 31.1); and according to Dares Phrygius (28) he
was killed by Pads with an arrow. The place where he was killed is either Colonae
in Troas, or in Tenedos, or at Geraestus.
The story of Palamedes, which is not mentioned by Homer, seems to
have been first related in the Cypria, and was afterwards developed by the tragic
poets, especially Euripides, and lastly by the sophists, who liked to look upon
Palamedes as their pattern. (Paus. x. 31.1; Philostr. l. c.) The tragic poets
and sophists describe him as a sage among the Greeks, and as a poet; and he is
said to have invented light-houses, measures, scales, discus, dice, the alphabet,
and the art of regulating sentinels. (Philostr. Her. 10; Paus. ii. 20.3, x. 31.1;
Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 422.) A sanctuary and a statue of Palamedes existed on
the Aeolian coast of Asia Minor, opposite to Methymna in Lesbos. (Philostr. Vit.
Apollon. iv. 13; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 384.)
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
Palamedes. The son of Nauplius and brother of Oeax, a hero of the post-Homeric cycle of Trojan legend. Odysseus envied his wisdom and ingenuity, and was bent on avenging himself on Palamedes for detecting his feigned madness. Accordingly he is said to have conspired with Diomedes and drowned him while engaged in fishing; or (according to another account) they persuaded him to enter a well, in which treasure was said to be concealed, and then overwhelmed him with stones. According to others, Agamemnon also hated him as head of the peace party among the Greeks. He accordingly got Odysseus and Diomedes to conceal in his tent a letter purporting to be written by Priam, as well as some money, and then accuse him as a traitor; whereupon he was stoned to death by the people. His brother Oeax informed his father of the sad event by writing the news on an oar and throwing it into the sea, upon which he took a terrible vengeance on the returning Greeks. Palamedes was considered by the Greeks as the inventor of the alphabet and of lighthouses; also of measures and weights, and of dice and draughts and the discus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited May 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
I have always been of opinion, that letters were of Assyrian origin, but other
writers, Gellius, for instance, suppose that they were invented in Egypt by
Mercury: others, again, will have it that they were discovered by the Syrians;
and that Cadmus brought from Phoenicia sixteen letters into Greece. To these,
Palamedes, it is said, at the time of the Trojan war, added these four, th,
x, ph, and ch. Simonides,(1) the lyric poet, afterwards added
a like number, z, e, ps, and o; the sounds denoted by all of which are now received
into our alphabet.(2)
Aristotle, on the other hand, is rather of opinion, that there were
originally eighteen letters,(3) a b g d e z i k l m n o p r
s t u ph, and that two, th namely and ch, were introduced by Epicharmus,(4)
and not by Palamedes. Aristides says, that a certain person of the name of Menos,
in Egypt, invented letters fifteen years before the reign of Phoroneus,(5)
the most ancient of all the kings of Greece, and this he attempts to prove by
the monuments there. On the other hand, Epigenes, a writer of very great authority,
informs us that the Babylonians have a series of observations on the stars,
for a period of seven hundred and twenty thousand years, inscribed on baked
bricks. Berosus and Critodemus, who make the period the shortest, give it as
four hundred and ninety thousand years.(6) From this statement,
it would appear that letters have been in use from all eternity. The Pelasgi
were the first to introduce them into Latium.
Commentary:
1. It would appear that there were two individuals of this
name, who were confounded with each other; Simonides (of Cos),
the celebrated poet, lived as late as the fifth century before Christ, so that
it has been thought improbable that the Greek language could have existed without
the four letters here mentioned, until so recent a period.
2. The account of the original introduction of the alphabet
into Greece, here given, is the one generally adopted in his time. Most readers
will be aware, that the actual invention of letters, the share which the Egyptians
and the Phoenicians had in it, the identification of Cadmus and still more of
Mercury, with any of the heroes or legislators of antiquity, of whom we have
any correct historical data, and the connection which the Greek alphabet had
with those of other nations, are among the most curious questions of literary
discussion, and are still far from being resolved with any degree of certainty.
3. It seems to have been the general opinion, that the Greek
language had, originally, sixteen or eighteen letters, the source of which was
very uncertain, and of high antiquity; and to these, additional letters were,
from time to time, appended by different individuals. Upon the whole, the claim
of the Egyptians to the invention of letters, seems to rest upon, at least,
a very plausible foundation.
4. Epicharmus was born in the fifth century B.C. , in the island
of Cos, hut removed, probably at an early age, to Sicily, where he passed a
considerable portion of his life. His original profession was that of a physician,
but he appears to have devoted his attention principally to general science
and literature, and is more especially remarkable as the inventor of regular
comedy. A few fragments only of his dramas remain, but the titles of no less
than forty are preserved. From a line in the Prologue to the Menaechmi of Plautus,
where it is said that the plot of the play, "non Atticissat verum Sicilicissat"
"is not Attic, but Sicilian;" it has been conjectured, that Plautus
took the plot of the piece from Epicharmus.
5. Phoroneus was the son of Inachus, and the second king of
Argos; he began to reign about 1807 B.C.
6. There has been much discussion respecting the interpretation
of this passage. In the first place, the numbers in the text have extended from
720 and 490 to as many thousands, by the addition of the letter M., against the
authority, however, of some MSS. In the next place, in older to curtail the enormous
periods thus formed, the years have been supposed to be only lunar, or even diurnal
periods. The opinion of Hardouin and Marcus is perhaps the better founded, who
reject the proposed alteration, and consider these numbers to indicate, according
to their natural signification, periods of years. The principal consideration
that has been urged in favour of the alteration of the text is derived from two
passages in Cicero's Treatise de Divin. B. i. c. 19, and B. ii. c. 46, where he
refers to the very long periods which the Babylonians employed in their calculations,
but which he justly regards as entirely without foundation, and even ridiculous.
Pliny, however, professes to follow the opinion of Epigenes whom he styles "gravis
auctor," and who, we may premise. would reject these improbable tales. The
reading, 720 thousands, is the one adopted by Sillig.
Nauplios. A son of Poseidon and Amymone, of Argos, a famous navigator, and father of Proetus and Damastor (Apollon. Rhod. i. 136, &c.; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1091). He is the reputed founder of the town of Nauplia, which derived its name from him (Paus. ii. 38. 2, iv. 35. 2; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 54). He is also said to have discovered the constellation of the great bear. (Theon, ad Arat. Phaen. 27; Paus. viii. 48. 5; Strab. viii. p. 368.)
A town on the sea-coast of Argolis, Nauplians of Egyptian descent, Nauplians, being expelled by Argives, receive Mothone in Messene from Lacedaemonians.
After Temenium comes Nauplia, the naval station of the Argives: and the name is
derived from the fact that the place is accessible to ships. And it is on the
basis of this name, it is said, that the myth of Nauplius and his sons has been
fabricated by the more recent writers of myth, for Homer would not have failed
to mention these, if Palamedes had displayed such wisdom and sagacity, and if
he was unjustly and treacherously murdered, and if Nauplius wrought destruction
to so many men at Cape Caphereus.
But in addition to its fabulous character the genealogy of Nauplius is also wholly
incorrect in respect to the times involved; for, granting that he was the son
of Poseidon, how could a man who was still alive at the time of the Trojan war
have been the son of Amymone? Next after Nauplia one comes to the caverns and
the labyrinths built in them, which are called Cyclopeian. (Stabo 8.6.2)
Fifty stades, I conjecture, from Temenium is Nauplia, which at the present day is uninhabited; its founder was Nauplius, reputed to be a son of Poseidon and Amymone. Of the walls, too, ruins still remain and in Nauplia are a sanctuary of Poseidon, harbors, and a spring called Canathus. Here, say the Argives, Hera bathes every year and recovers her maidenhood.
This is one of the sayings told as a holy secret at the mysteries which they celebrate in honor of Hera. The story told by the people in Nauplia about the ass, how by nibbling down the shoots of a vine he caused a more plenteous crop of grapes in the future, and how for this reason they have carved an ass on a rock, because he taught the pruning of vines--all this I pass over as trivial. (Paus. 2.38.2)
The Argives laid waste to most of the cities because of their disobedience; ..and the inhabitants of Nauplia also withdrew to Messenia. (Strab. 8.6.11)
The name derives from the legends associated with the original Nauplius
of tradition, son of Amymone and Poseidon. The two imposing rocks of the peninsula,
Its Kale and Palamedi, face one another across an inner bay of the Gulf of Argolis.
The town is on the flat N side of the harbor, with N-S streets which climb by
steps to the higher S level. Pronoia is on the E land side of the strong fortress
of Palamedi which can now be approached by a motor road, though formerly only
by steps (857).
Archaeology: The Classical acropolis was presumably on Its Kale. Blocks
from the original walls, ca. 300 B.C., the earliest now visible, some polygonal,
have been reused in later fortifications and there are traces of cuttings and
steps. The earliest excavations in the Pronoia area revealed Mycenaean chamber
tombs and recently work there has added rich examples. In the 1950's Geometric
finds outnumbered Mycenaean. In 1970-71 excavations in the area produced evidence
of Neolithic and of Early and Middle Helladic occupation. The presence of cavernous
holes seems to confirm Strabo's reference to a man-made labyrinth and caves. Continued
excavation here may well prove this region to have been an important center of
the EH period.
History and Chronology: Nauplia was a member of the Kalaurian Maritime
League, but in the 7th c. B.C. was conquered by Argos, its natural rival. Its
succeeding history, disturbed by conflicts, is meager. It includes a transference
of population during the Messenian Wars; Pausanias found the site deserted.
H. Wace, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Nauplia: Eth. Nauplieus. The port of Argos, was situated upon a
rocky peninsula, connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus. It was a very
ancient place, and is said to have derived its name from Nauplius, the son of
Poseidon and Amymone, and the father of Palamedes, though it more probably owed
its name, as Strabo has observed, to its harbour (apo tou tais nausi prospleisthai,
Strab. viii. p. 368; Paus. ii. 38. § 2.) Pausanias tells us that the Nauplians
were Egyptians belonging to the colony which Danaus brought to Argos (iv. 35.
§ 2); and from the position of their city upon a promontory running out into the
sea, which is quite different from the site of the earlier Grecian cities, it
is not improbable that it was originally a settlement made by strangers from the
East. Nauplia was at first independent of Argos, and a member of the maritime
confederacy which held its meetings in the island of Calaureia. (Strab. viii.
P. 374.) About the time of the Second Messenian War, it was conquered by the Argives;
and the Lacedaemonians gave to its expelled citizens the town of Methone in Messenia,
where they continued to reside even after the restoration of the Messenian state
by Epaminondas. (Paus. iv. 24. § 4, iv. 27. § 8, iv. 35. § 2.) Argos now took
the place of Nauplia in the Calaureian confederacy; and from this time Nauplia
appears in history only as the seaport of Argos (ho Nauplios limen, Eurip. Orest.
767; limenes Nauplioi, Electr. 451). As such it is mentioned by Strabo (l. c.),
but in the time of Pausanias the place was deserted. Pausanias noticed the ruins
of the walls of a temple of Poseidon, certain forts, and a fountain named Canathus,
by washing in which Hera was said to have renewed her virginity every year. (Paus.
ii. 38. § 2.)
In the middle ages Nauplia was called to Nauplion, to Anaplion, or
ta Anaplia, but has now resumed its ancient name. It became a place of considerable
importance in the middle ages, and has continued so down to the present day. In
the time of the Crusades it first emerges from obscurity. In 1205 it was taken
by the Franks, and became the capital of a small duchy, which commanded the plain
of Argos. Towards the end of the 14th century it came into the hands of the Venetians,
who regarded it as one of their most important places in the Levant, and who successfully
defended it both against Mahomet II. and Soliman. They ceded it to the Turks in
1540, but wrested it from them again in 1686, when they constructed the strong
fortifications on Mt. Palamidhi. This fortress, although reckoned impregnable,
was stormed by the Turks in 1715, in whose hands it remained till the outbreak
of the war of Grecian independence. It then became the seat of the Greek government,
and continued such, till the king of Greece removed his residence to Athens in
1834.
The modern town is described by a recent observer as having more the
air of a real town than any place now existing in Greece under that title; having
continuous lines of houses and streets, and offering, upon the whole, much the
appearance of a second-rate Italian seaport. It is built on the peninsula; and
some remains of the Hellenic fortifications may be seen in the site of the walls
of Fort Itslale, which is the lower citadel of the town, and occupies the site
of the ancient Acropolis. The upper citadel, called Palamidhi (Ralamedion), is
situated upon a steep and lofty mountain, and is one of the strongest fortresses
in Europe. Although its name is not mentioned by any ancient writer, there can
be little doubt, from the connection of Palamedes with the ancient town, that
this was the appellation of the hill in ancient times.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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