married Alcmene: Heracles’ mother, see p. 72. The reason for his flight is unclear.

sits as a judge with Minos in Hades: first attested by Plato in the fourth century (Apol. 41a, probably referring to an earlier tradition, associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries); in Homer, Minos judges in Hades, continuing his earthly function amongst the shades (Od. 11. 568 ff.), while Rhadamanthys lives for ever in Elysium (Od. 4. 563 f.) on the earth’s surface. See also Pind. ol. 2. 75 ff.

exiled from Athens for murder: see p. 138.

the Minotaur: the ‘Minos-bull’. See also DS 4. 77.

with a maze. . . passage out: a verse fragment of unknown origin (Tr. Adesp. 34 Nauck).

me will speak of that later: see p. 140.

he consulted the oracle: according to the other main source, DS 5. 59. 1 ff., the oracle was revealed to Althaimenes himself when he was enquiring about other things; this would make Catreus’ subsequent search for him more intelligible.

Atabyrion: the tallest mountain in Rhodes, over 4,000 feet; the cult there was very ancient, perhaps of Phoenician origin. Cf. DS 5. 59. 2.

Nauplios: see p. 62 and note; a great traveller who is enlisted else where to perform such services, see p. 88.

Pleisthenes married. . . Aerope: following Hes. Cat. (fr. 194–5, where Pleisthenes is the son of Atreus); Agamemnon and Menelaos were more generally regarded as her children by Atreus, see also p. 146 and note.

Idomeneus: he succeeded Catreus as king of Crete, was one of Helen’s suitors, p. 121, and led the Cretans in the Trojan War. Traditions vary as to whether he recovered his throne after the war (as Od. 3. 191 seems to suggest) or was expelled by Leucos, p. 160.

Glaucos: a son of Minos and Pasiphae, see p. 97.

Polyidos: a descendant of the seer Melampous (either a great-grandson or a great-great-grandson, P. 1. 43. 5 and sc. Il. 13. 63 respectively); he is particularly associated with Corinth ( Il. 13. 663, cf. Pind. ol. 13. 75).

compared the cow’s colouring to a blackberry: according to Hyg. 136, the cow was not dappled, as one might suppose, but changed colour three times a day, and the colours were white, red, and black; a blackberry passes through that sequence of colours as it ripens.

by a certain kind of divination: Hyg., ibid., reports that while Polyidos was observing omens, he saw an owl (glaux, suggesting Glaucos) sitting over the wine-cellar and putting bees (suggesting honey) to flight.

a cow from the herds of Pelagon: according to the oracle as reported by sc. Eur. Phoen. 638, he was told to seek for this herds man. This was no ordinary cow; on each flank it had a white mark like the full moon (P. 9. 12. 1).

Spartoi: ‘Sown Men’.

deliberately: the reading in the Epitome, hekousion, is surely preferable to akousion, ‘involuntarily’, in the manuscripts. Otherwise the antithesis is lost.

for an everlasting year: to atone for the killing of Ares’ dragon (not the death of the Spartoi); the text may well be corrupt here, because Hellanicos, who is almost certainly Ap.’s source for this story, says that Cadmos served Ares for a (normal) year (sc. Il. 2. 494, where we are also told that Ares initially wanted to kill him, but Zeus prevented it). The phrase explaining what an everlasting or ‘great’ year means seems to be a gloss.

the Cadmeia: the eminence dominating Thebes and site of the citadel.

a deception by Hera: Hera assumed the form of her nurse, Beroe, and appealed to her vanity: if Zeus really loved her, she should ask him to come to her as he would to a goddess (Hyg. 179, VM 2. 79; see also Ov. Met. 3. 259 ff., this would also serve as a test that he is not merely pretending to be a god).

daughters ofCadmos . . . because of that: see Eur. Bacchae23 ff. and 242 ff.; the slander is central to the plot of the Bacchae, because it is this that provokes Dionysos to demonstrate his powers in Thebes and drive the women mad, as described below, p. 102.

Hera . . . drove them mad: see also p. 43 and note.

Leucothea: she became the ‘White Goddess’, who had a general Mediterranean cult as a deity who protected seafarers. It was she who saved Odysseus when Poseidon sent a storm against him after he had left Calypso, Od. 5. 333 ff.

Isthmian Games. . . in honour of Melicertes: his body was cast ashore on the Isthmus of Corinth; he is often said to have been carried there by a dolphin, see P. 1. 44. 11. These games were held at Corinth. For Sisyphos, king of Ephyra/Corinth, see p. 44. His hero-cult as Palaimon was centred in this area (see e.g. P. 2. 2. 3).

the Hyades: seven stars in the constellation Taurus, outlining the face of the bull; it was commonly said that Zeus placed them there for delivering Dionysos safely to Ino (ascribed to Pherecydes in Hyg. PA21).

saw Artemis bathing: this story, which first appears in Callimachus (Hymn5. 107 ff.; cf. Hyg. 181), is generally accepted in the later tradition; hunting on a hot day on Mount Cithairon in Boeotia, he fell asleep by a spring, and awoke to see Artemis bathing. It displaces the earlier tradition, as represented in Hes. Cat. (see note on Appendix, 4) and Stesichorus (P. 9. 2. 3) that the anger of Zeus led to his death. Or according to Eur. Bacchae339 ff., she killed him because he boasted that he was a better hunter.

driven mad by Hera: because he was a son of Zeus by another woman.

learned the rites of initiation: the rites of Cybele, the great mother-goddess of Phrygia, who was worshipped with ecstatic rites and mountain wandering, came to be identified with those of Rhea in Crete. Accordingly, Dionysos is taught his ecstatic rites by Rhea at Cybele’s home in north-western Asia Minor.

Lycourgos: for his hostility and the flight of Dionysos, cf. Il. 6. 130 ff.; the land of the Edonians lay in north-eastern Macedonia, bordering Thrace.