by Styx, Persephone: the river encircling Hades is a suitable mother for a goddess closely associated with the Underworld; but Persephone is usually regarded as Zeus’ daughter by Demeter, as in Theog. 912 f. and HH to Demeter2–3 (and below on p. 33).

Linos: see p. 71, a musician like his brother Orpheus.

persuaded Pluto: he is said to have enchanted Persephone and/or Pluto with his singing (DS 4. 25. 4, Conon 45).

Maenads: women possessed by Bacchic frenzy (see pp. 102 f.); in most accounts they are angered by the scorn that Orpheus showed for other women after he had lost Eurydice, e.g. Ov. Met. 11. 1 ff.

Cleio . . . Adonis: when Cleio mocked Aphrodite for falling in love with a mortal, Aphrodite caused her to become subject to a similar passion. Love for a mortal was acceptable for gods, but considered demeaning for goddesses (see Calypso’s observations in Od. 5. 118 ff).

the first man to love other males: Laios, p. 104, and Minos, p. 97, are other contenders for this title.

But Hyacinthos. . . a discus: it was sometimes said that the West (or North) Wind also sought his favour, and when he favoured Apollo, blew the discus at Apollo’s head (Lucian Dialogues of the Gods14; see also P. 3. 19. 5, Ov. Met. 10. 162 ff.). Traditions vary on his birth, see also p. 119.

challenged the Muses: cf. Il. 2. 594 ff.

Rhesos. . . at Troy: see Il. 10. 435 ff. and [Eur.] Rhesos.

Corybantes: semi-divine beings who attended deities with orgiastic rites, associated primarily with the Phrygian goddess Cybele, but also with Rhea and Dionysos.

Hera . . . by Zeus: Hera calls him a son of Zeus in Il. 14. 338 f; but in Hesiod’s account, Theog. 924 ff, Hera is so angered when Zeus gives birth to Athene from his head that she decides to have a child of her own without prior intercourse with her spouse, and gives birth to Hephaistos.

Zeus threw him down . . . to his rescue: in Il. 1. 590 ff, Hephaistos is said to have been thrown from heaven by Zeus for coming to the aid of Hera (for her suspension, see Il. 5. 18 ff), but in Il. 18. 394 ff, by Hera, because she was ashamed of his lameness; in the latter account he was rescued by Thetis and Eurynome, daughter of Oceanos, and taken to the cave of the Nereids beneath the sea.

Ge: inserted by Heyne; without this addition, the text would indicate that Metis herself gave the warning (placing her own safety at grave risk). Ge is the prime oracle in early mythical history. In Theog. 886 ff, Zeus takes this action on the advice of Ge and Ouranos.

near the River Triton: see p. 123 and note.

a city. . . called Delos: i.e. the island of Delos; its previous name is also given as Ortygia, after ortyx, a quail (e.g. Hyg. 140). In Pind. Paean5. 42 (cf. Callimachus Hymn4. 36–8), the holy island on which her sister Leto will give birth to Artemis and Apollo is formed from Asteria’s metamorphosed body.

Themis: a personification of law and the right; on the presiding figures at Delphi before Apollo, see also Aesch. Eumenides1 ff. and P. 10. 5. 3.

chasm: said to be the source of exhalations which inspired the Delphic priestesses to prophecy, although there is no sign of such a chasm on the modern site.

Pytho: Delphi.

Tityos suffers punishment: cf. Od. 11. 576 ff. On his death, cf. Pind. Pyth. 4. 90 ff.

disfigured her face: according to Hyg. 165, Hera and Aphrodite made fun of her when she played her flute at a banquet of the gods because it puffed her cheeks out, which she found to be true when she viewed herself in a spring on Mount Ida.

to do the same: as a wind instrument, his flute must be blown from the right end. On Marsyas, a Phrygian, see also Hdt. 7. 26.

blinded him: according to the fuller story in Parthen. 20 and Catast. 32, Orion cleared the island of wild beasts, but when Oinopion was reluctant to accept such a being as his son-in-law, he became impatient and raped Merope while he was drunk. This would explain Oinopion’s extreme behaviour.

of Hephaistos: added by Heyne (but Ap. may have assumed that the reader would understand that without explicit statement). It lay on Lemnos; Orion could find his way there by following the sound. In Catast. 32 Hephaistos takes pity on him and offers him one of his helpers, Cedalion, as a guide.

with Ares: Aphrodite’s lover, hence her anger.

shot by Artemis: in Od. 5. 121 ff. Artemis killed him because she and the other gods were angry that Dawn had fallen in love with a mortal. The later tradition is complex, but it was commonly said that he tried to rape Artemis herself, and that Artemis either shot him (Hyg. PA34, referring to Callimachus) or sent a scorpion against him (Aratus 635 ff. with sc. to 636, thus explaining the origin of the two constellations); or Ge sent the scorpion because he boasted that he would kill all the beasts on earth (Catast. 32).

Opis: Opis (or Upis), and Arge, another representative of this legendary northern race, came to Delos after the birth of Artemis and Apollo bringing a thank-offering, which had been vowed to Eileithuia, the goddess of childbirth, in return for an easy labour for Leto, see Hdt. 4. 35.

Rhode: a personification of the island of Rhodes, where there was a notable cult of the Sun; also as Rhodos (again a feminine form). See Pind. ol. 7. 54 ff.

abducted her: see Ap.’s main source, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, for further details on all the following. There (16 ff.) she is abducted from the Nysian plain (of uncertain location; but in later writers, from Sicily, a land famed for its fertility). The abduction is in accordance with the plans of Zeus, but he plays no active part in it (ibid. 9; 30; and 77 ff.).

bearing torches: these played a significant role in the ritual associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries, and were emblematic of Demeter and her rites (ibid. 48).