with Ate: reading met’Atesfor met’autes(‘with her’, i.e. with Electra). This explains the name of the Hill of Ate mentioned above; that she fell to earth at Ilion and the hill was named after her is confirmed by sc. Il. 19. 131. Ate is the personification of delusion; when Zeus was deceived by Hera over his plans for Heracles, p. 68, Zeus threw her down to earth (see 77. 19. 91 ff), where her actions are clear to see.

Dawn so loved Tithonos: see Theog. 984 ff. and HH to Aphrodite, 218 ff. On Emathion see p. 82 and note; Memnon will be an important ally of the Trojans, p. 154.

as we mentioned: see p. 86.

Aisacos ... was turned into a bird: the only other account, Ov. Met. 11. 749 ff., is quite different. Aisacos fell in love with the nymph Hesperia, who was bitten by a viper while he was pursuing her; and when he threw himself into the sea in grief at her death, Tethys transformed him into a bird (there a mergus, or diver, but the identification depends upon a purely Latin etymology).

Hecuba had a dream: cf. Pind. Paean8 (rather different), Eur. Troades920 ff, Cicero On Divination1.21. 42; not in Homer.

protecting: alexesas: Alexander (strictly, Alexandros) was thus the man (aner, andros)who protectedor defended.

he rediscovered his parents: Hyg. 91 gives the full story. Priam’s servant came to fetch a bull for games that were to be held in honour of Priam’s lost son (i.e. Paris himself). Paris went to the city and took part in the games, defeating his brothers; and when one of them, Deiphobos, drew his sword on him, he took refuge at the altar of Zeus Herceios. When Cassandra declared prophetically that he was her brother, Priam accepted him as his son.

Apollo . . . art of prophecy: cf. Aesch. Ag. 1202 ff.; there was another story that serpents licked the ears (cf. p. 46) of Cassandra and her brother Helenos when they were left overnight as children in the sanctuary of Thymbraean Apollo (sc. Il. 7. 44).

if he mere ever mounded: we should probably assume that she knows by her prophetic powers that he will be wounded if he abducts Helen (as explicitly stated in Parthen. 4); a pathetic tale that appealed to later sentiment (Hellanicos in the fifth century is the earliest recorded source, Parthen. 4).

learned from Sisyphos: see also p. 44 and note.

turned the ants into people: suggested by the etymological fancy that the ancestors of the Myrmidons (the people commanded by Aiacos’ grandson Achilles at Troy) were created from ants, myrmekes.

into a seal: she conceived Phocos, the eponym of the Phocians, while she was in the form of a seal, phoke.

mhen Greece mas gripped . . . delivered from its barrenness: see further DS 4. 61. 1 ff, P. 2. 29. 6.

guards the keys of Hades: see also Plato Apol. 41a, where he judges the dead, and Isocrates Evagoras15, where he is said to sit beside Pluto and Kore, and enjoy the highest honours.

Telamon . . . killed his brother: there is a varied tradition. In the earliest recorded source, the Alcmaionis, an early epic, both strike him (sc. Eur. Andr. 687). Peleus is often said to deal the deathblow (e.g. P. 2. 29. 7, where they are said to have killed him to please their mother, who would have been angry that Phocos was born to another woman). In DS 4. 72. 6 the death is accidental.

because Heracles . . . Aias: for the full story see Pind. Isth. 6. 35 ff. The appearance of an eagle, the bird of Zeus, indicates that Zeus will respond positively to the prayer; the son is called Aias after the aietos(eagle). Ajax is the Latinized form of his name. For Telamon at Troy, see p. 86.

concealing his sword: a magic sword made by Hephaistos; Acastos expects that Peleus will be killed by the Centaurs who live on Mount Helicon while he is searching for it (cf. Hes. Cat. fr. 209). But he is saved by the good Centaur Cheiron.

Polydora . . . River Spercheios: she is the mother of Menesthios by this river in Il. 16. 173; but there she is the daughterof Peleus and wife of Boros, son of Perieres, as on p. 127. This report that Peleus married Polydora is unattested elsewhere, and may be an error.

was told by Prometheus: alluded to in [Aesch.] PV907 ff.; cf. Hyg. PA15.

according to others: see Pind. Isth. 8. 27 ff., AR 4. 783 ff.

an ashwood spear . . . horses: later passed on to Achilles, see Il. 16. 140 ff. and 19. 400 ff.

When Thetis gave birth . . . went back to the Nereids: following AR 4. 869 ff. Ambrosia, the food of the gods, would foster what was immortal in the child’s nature. For the use of fire to burn away what is mortal in the body, cf. p. 33. In some sources, Thetis is said to have killed several children born before Achilles while trying to immortalize them (sc. Aristoph. Clouds1068a), or test whether they were mortal (sc. AR 4. 816). The passages in the Iliadwhere Homer refers to Thetis in her home under the sea at the time of the Trojan War (e.g. Il. 1. 358) seem to assume her departure; but in other passages there is talk of her welcoming Achilles home to the house of Peleus (e.g. 18. 441, cf. 332).

not . . . lips: privative a(implied rather than directly stated) and cheile, hence Achilles! By feeding on the flesh and marrow of powerful and courageous animals, Achilles would come to share their qualities.

slaughtering Astydameia: she had falsely accused him to her husband, p. 128.

Lycomedes: he ruled the island of Scyros, off Euboea.

Pyrrhos . . . later called Neoptolemos: because he was young, neos, when he went to war, polemos, at Troy (see p. 156), or because his father was (P. 10. 26. 1, reporting the Cypria). His previous name was explained by his red, pyrrhos, hair (Serv. on Am. 2. 469). Achilles refers to his son on Scyros in Il. 19. 326 f.

causing a trumpet to be sounded: this is explained by Hyg. 96. Odysseus placed women’s finery in the courtyard of the palace with a shield and spear amongst it. He then had a trumpet sounded, accompanied by shouts and the clashing of arms. Thinking that they were under attack, Achilles took off his women’s clothing and seized the shield and spear. Or more simply, when women’s finery with arms mixed amongst it was placed before Achilles and his female companions, he instinctively seized the arms (sc. Il. 19. 326). In Homer’s account, Il. 11. 769 ff., Achilles remained with Peleus, and was eager to go when Nestor and Odysseus came to fetch him and Patroclos; and the present story was absent from the Cypriaalso (for Achilles came to Scyros and married Deidameia after the Greek attack on Mysia, Procl., cf. sc. Il. 19. 326 on the Little Iliad). Because Achilles was too young to be one of Helen’s suitors, he was not bound by oath to join the expedition (and subsequently, when Agamemnon offended him, he could threaten to go home, Il. 1. 169 ff., etc.).