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

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

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

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

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

EXPLANATORY NOTES

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

The following abbreviationsare used:

Aesch.

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

[Aesch.] PV

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

AL

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

Ap.

Apollodorus, the author of the Library.

AR

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

Bacch.

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

Catast.

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

DS

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

Eur.

Euripides (tragic poet, fifth century BC).

fr.

fragment.

Hdt.

Herodotus, History(fifth century BC).

Hes.

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

Hes. Cat.

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

Hes. WD

Hesiod, Works and Days.

HH

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

Hyg.

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

Hyg. PA

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

Il.

Homer’s Iliad.

Od.

Homer’s Odyssey.

Ov. Met.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

P.

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

Parthen.

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

Pind.

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

Plut. Thes.

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

Procl.

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

QS

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

sc.

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

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