LP0078 -IV ARGONAUTS- The Argonauts Assembled, from The Fables of Hyginus

Legendary Passages #0078 -IV ARGONAUTS-
The Argonauts Assembled, from The Fables of Hyginus.

Previously, Phrixus escaped from his mother Ino on a flying golden ram to Cholchis. This time, more details on the families of Ino, Antiopa, and Jason.

Antiopa was a daughter of Nycteus, and had by Jupiter twin sons named Amphion and Zetus. She was captured by Lycus and his wife Dirce, but when her sons grew up they avenged her. Amphion became king, married Niobe, and had many children... most of whom died.

Anyway, Jason, on his way to a sacrifice, helped an old woman cross a stream and lost one sandal. King Pelias had been warned about a one-sandaled man causing his death, so he gave his nephew Jason the quest to retrieve the golden fleece. Fortunately, dozens of heroes volunteered to join the expedition to Cholchis.

http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html#4

The Argonauts Assembled,
a Legendary Passage from,
GAIUS JULIUS HYGINUS,
FABLES IV - XIV,
trans. by MARY GRANT.

[4] - [14]

IV. INO OF EURIPIDES

When Athamas, king in Thessaly, thought that his wife Ino, by whom he begat two sons, had perished, he married Themisto, the daughter of a nymph, and had twin sons by her. Later he discovered that Ino was on Parnassus, where she had gone for the Bacchic revels. He sent someone to bring her home, and concealed her when she came. Themisto discovered she had been found, but didn’t know her identity. She conceived the desire of killing Ino’s sons, and made Ino herself, whom she believed to be a captive, a confidant in the plan, telling her to cover her children with white garments, but Ino’s with black. Ino covered her own with white, and Themisto’s with dark; then Themisto mistakenly slew her own sons. When she discovered this, she killed herself.

Moreover, Athamas, while hunting, in a fit of madness killed his older son Learchus; but Ino with the younger, Melicertes, cast herself into the sea and was made a goddess.

V. ATHAMAS

Because Semele had lain with Jove, Juno was hostile to her whole race; and so Athamas, son of Aeolus, through madness killed his son with arrows while hunting.

VI. CADMUS

Cadmus, son of Agenor and Argiope, along with Harmonia his wife, daughter of Venus and Mars, after their children had been killed, were turned into snakes in the region of Illyria by the wrath of Mars, because Cadmus had slain the dragon, guardian of the fountain of Castalia.

VII. ANTIOPA

Antiopa, daughter of Nycteus, was by a trick violated by Epaphus, and as a consequence was cast off by her husband Lycus. Thus widowed, Jupiter embraced her. But Lycus married Dirce. She, suspecting that her husband had secretly lain with Antiopa, ordered her servants to keep her bound in darkness. When her time was approaching, by the will of Jove she escaped from her chains to Mount Cithaeron, and when birth was imminent and she sought for a place to bear the child, pain compelled her to give birth at the very crossroads. Shepherds reared her sons as their own, and called one Zetos, from “seeking a place,” and the other Amphion, because “she gave birth at the crossroads, or by the road.”

When the sons found out who their mother was, they put Dirce to death by binding her to an untamed bull; by the kindness of Liber, whose votary she was, on Mount Cithaeron a spring was formed from her body, which was called Dirce.

VIII. ANTIOPA OF EURIPIDES [WHICH ENNIUS WROTE]

Antiopa was the daughter of Nycteus, king in Boeotia; entranced by her great beauty, Jupiter made her pregnant. When her father wished to punish her on account of her disgrace, and threatened harm, Antiopa fled. By chance Epaphus, a Sicyonian, was staying in the place to which she came, and he brought the woman to his house and married her. Nycteus took this hard, and as he was dying, bound by oath his brother Lycus, to whom he left his kingdom, not to leave Antiopa unpunished.

After his death, Lycus came to Sicyon, and slaying Epaphus, brought Antiopa bound to Cithaeron. She bore sons, and left them there, but a shepherd reared them, naming them Zetus and Amphion. Antiopa had been given over to Dirce, Lycus’ wife, for punishment. When opportunity presented itself, she fled, and came to her sons. But Zetus, thinking her a runaway, did not accept her. Dirce, in the revels of Liber, was brought to the same place. There she found Antiopa and was dragging her to death. But the youths, informed by the shepherd who had reared them that she was their mother, quickly pursued and rescued their mother, but slew Dirce, binding her by the hair to a bull. When they were about to kill Lycus, Mercurius forbade them, and at the same time ordered Lycus to yield the kingdom to Amphion.

IX. NIOBE

Amphion and Zetus, sons of Jove and Antiopa, daughter of Nycteus, by the command of Apollo surrounded Thebes with a wall up to [corrupt], and driving Laius, son of King Labdacus, into exile, themselves held the royal power there. Amphion took in marriage Niobe, daughter of Tantalus and Dione, by whom he had seven sons and as many daughters. These children Niobe placed above those of Latona, and spoke rather contemptuously against Apollo and Diana because Diana was girt in man’s attire, and Apollo wore long hair and a woman’s gown. She said, too, that she surpassed Latona in number of children. Because of this Apollo slew her sons with arrows as they were hunting in the woods, and Diana shot and killed the daughters in the palace, all except Chloris. But the mother, bereft of her children, is said to have been turned into stone by weeping on Mount Sipylus, and her tears today are said to trickle down. Amphion, however, tried to storm the temple of Apollo, and was slain by the arrows of Apollo.

X. CHLORIS

Chloris was the only daughter of Niobe and Amphion who survived. Neleus, Hippocoon’s son, married her, and she bore to him twelve sons. When Hercules was besieging Pylus he slew Neleus and ten of his sons, but the eleventh, Periclymenus, was changed to an eagle by the favour of Neptune, his grandfather, and escaped death.

Now the twelfth, Nestor, was the one at Ilium. He is said to have lived three generations by favour of Apollo, for the years which Apollo had taken from Chloris and her brothers he granted to Nestor.

XI. CHILDREN OF NIOBE

Tantalus, Ismenus, Eupinytus, Phaedimus, Sipylus, Damasichthon, Archenor; Neara, Phthia, Astycratia, Chloris, [corrupt], Eudoxa, Ogygia. These are the sons and daughters of Niobe, wife of Amphion.

XII. PELIAS

An oracle bade Pelias, son of Cretheus and Tyro, sacrifice to Neptune, and told him his death was drawing near if a monocrepis, that is, a man wearing only one sandal, arrived. While he was making the yearly offerings to Neptune, Jason, son of Aeson, Pelias’ brother, himself eager to make sacrifice, lost his sandal as he was crossing the river Evenus, and in order to arrive promptly at the ceremonies, failed to recover it. When Pelias noticed this, remembering the warning of the oracle, he bade him procure from King Aeetes, his enemy, the golden fleece of the ram which Phrixus had dedicated to Mars at Colchis. Jason, calling together the leaders of the Greeks, set out for Colchis.

XIII. JUNO

When Juno, near the river Evenus, had changed her form to that of an old woman, and was waiting to test men’s minds to see if they would carry her across the river Evenus, no one offered till Jason, son of Aeson and Alcimede, took her across. But, angry at Pelias for failing to sacrifice to her, she caused Jason to leave one sandal in the mud.

[14] XIV. ARGONAUTS ASSSEMBLED

Jason, son of Aeson and Alcimede, Clymene’s daughter, leader of the Thessalians.

Orpheus, son of Oeagrus and the Muse Calliope, Thracian, from the city [corrupt] which is on Mount Olympus near the river Enipeus, prophet, player on the lyre.

Asterion, son of [corrupt] by Antigona, daughter of Pheres, from the city Pellene. Others call him son of Hyperasius, from the city Piresia, which is at the foot of Mount Phylleus in Thessaly, a place where two rivers, flowing separately, the Apidanus and the Enipeus, join into one.

Polyphemus, son of Elatus by Hippea, daughter of Antippus, a Thessalian from the city Larissa, lame of foot.

Iphiclus, son of Phylacus, by Periclymene, daughter of Minyas, from Thessaly, Jason’s maternal uncle.

Admetus, son of Pheres, by Periclymene, daughter of Minyas, from Mount Chalcodonius, whence both town and river derive their names. His flocks they say Apollo pastured.

Eurytus and Echion, sons of Mercury and Antianira, daughter of Menetus, from the city Alope, which is now called Ephesus; some authors think them Thessalians.

Aethalides, son of Mercury and Eupolemia, daughter of Myrmidon; he was a Larissaean.

Coronus, son of Caeneus, from the city of Gyrton, which is in Thessaly. This Caeneus, son of Elatus, a Magnesian, proved that in no way could the Centaurs wound him with steel, but they did so with trunks of trees sharpened to a point. Some say that he was once a woman, and in answer to her petition, Neptune for her favors granted that she be turned into a man, and be invulnerable to any blow. This has never been done, nor is it possible for any mortal by invulnerability to escape death by steel, or be changed from a woman into a man.

Mopsus, son of Ampycus and Chloris; taught augury by Apollo, he came from Oechalia, or, as some think, he was a Titarensian.

Eurydamas, son of Irus and Demonassa; others call him son of Ctimenus, who dwelt in the city Dolopeis near Lake Xynius.

Theseus, son of Aegeus and Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, from Troezene; others say from Athens.

Perithous, son of Ixion, brother of the Centaurs, a Thessalian.

Menoetius, son of Actor, an Opuntian.

Eribotes, son of Teleon, ****

Eurytion, son of Irus and Demonassa.

*ixition from the town Cerinthus.

Oileus, son of Hodoedocus and Agrianome, daughter of Perseon, from the city Narycea.

Clytius and Iphitus, sons of Eurytus and Antiope, daughter of Pylo, kings of Oechalia. Others say they came from Euboea. Eurytus, taught archery by Apollo, is said to have contended with the granter of the gift. His son Clytius was killed by Aeetes.

Peleus and Telamon, sons of Aeacus and Endeis, daughter of Chiron, from the island of Aegina. These left their country because of the slaughter of Phocus their brother, and sought different homes – Peleus, Phthia, and Telamon, Salamis, which Apollonius of Rhodes calls Atthis.

Butes, son of Teleon and Zeuxippe, daughter of the river Eridanus, from Athens.

Phaleros, son of Alcon, from Athens.

Tiphys, son of Phorbas and Hyrmine, a Boeotian; he was steersman of the ship Argo.

Argus, son of Polybus and Argia; some say son of Danaus. He was an Argive, wearing a black-haired bull’s hide. He was the builder of the ship Argo.

Phliasus, son of Father Liber and Ariadne, daughter of Minos, from the city Phlius, which is in the Peloponnesus. Others call him a Theban.

Hylas, son of Theodamas and the nymph Menodice, daughter of Orion, a youth, from Oechalia; others say from Argos, a companion of Hercules.

Nauplius, son of Neptune and Amymone, daughter of Danaus, an Argive.

Idmon, son of Apollo, and the nymph Cyrene; some say of Abas, an Argive. He was skilled in augury, and though he knew of his coming death by birds that foretold it, he did not shun the fatal expedition.

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This passage continues next episode with the launch of the Argo and its first adventures.