Hesiod: Fragments

There were a large number of now lost Epic poems attributed to Hesiod. His authorship of some of these works, however, was disputed even in ancient times. The Loeb volume, compiled and translated by Evelyn-White, contains ancient references to these works, as well a papyri fragments which preserve some of the original text.

Of these, the most important were: the Great Eoiae, a poet similar to, if not the same as the Catalogues of Women; the Melampodes, a pome containing stories of mythical seers; the Astronomy, on star myths; and various short themed poems like the Marriage of Ceyx and the Idaean Dactyls.

FRAGMENT 1: THE PLEIADES

Athenaeus xi, p. 491 d: And the author of The Astronomy, which is attributed forsooth to Hesiod, always calls them (the Pleiades) Peleiades: “but mortals call them Peleiades”; and again, “the stormy Peleiades go down”; and again, “then the Peleiades hide away . . . ”

Scholiast on Pindar, Nem. ii. 16: The Pleiades . . . whose stars are these: – “Lovely Teygata, and dark-faced Electra, and Alcyone, and bright Asterope, and Celaeno, and Maia, and Merope, whom glorious Atlas begot . . . ” ¹⁾ “In the mountains of Cyllene she (Maia) bare Hermes, the herald of the gods.”

FRAGMENT 2: THE HYADES

Scholiast on Aratus 254: But Zeus made them (the sisters of Hyas) into the stars which are called Hyades. Hesiod in his Book about Stars tells us their names as follows: “Nymphs like the Graces,1 Phaesyle and Coronis and rich-crowned Cleeia and lovely Phaco and long-robed Eudora, whom the tribes of men upon the earth call Hyades.”

FRAGMENT 3: CALLISTO AND ARCAS

Pseudo-Eratosthenes Catast.2 frag. 1: The Great Bear.] – Hesiod says she (Callisto) was the daughter of Lycaon and lived in Arcadia. She chose to occupy herself with wild-beasts in the mountains together with Artemis, and, when she was seduced by Zeus, continued some time undetected by the goddess, but afterwards, when she was already with child, was seen by her bathing and so discovered. Upon this, the goddess was enraged and changed her into a beast. Thus she became a bear and gave birth to a son called Arcas. But while she was in the mountains, she was hunted by some goat-herds and given up with her babe to Lycaon. Some while after, she thought fit to go into the forbidden precinct of Zeus, not knowing the law, and being pursued by her own son and the Arcadians, was about to be killed because of the said law; but Zeus delivered her because of her connection with him and put her among the stars, giving her the name Bear because of the misfortune which had befallen her.

Comm. Supplem. on Aratus, p. 547 M. 8: Of Bootes, also called the Bear-warden. The story goes that he is Arcas the son of Callisto and Zeus, and he lived in the country about Lycaeum. After Zeus had seduced Callisto, Lycaon, pretending not to know of the matter, entertained Zeus, as Hesiod says, and set before him on the table the babe which he had cut up.

FRAGMENT 4: ORION

Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catast. fr. xxxii: Orion.] – Hesiod says that he was the son of Euryale, the daughter of Minos, and of Poseidon, and that there was given him as a gift the power of walking upon the waves as though upon land. When he was come to Chios, be outraged Merope, the daughter of Oenopion, being drunken; but Oenopion when he learned of it was greatly vexed at the outrage and blinded him and cast him out of the country. Then he came to Lemnos as a beggar and there met Hephaestus who took pity on him and gave him Cedalion his own servant to guide him. So Orion took Cedalion upon his shoulders and used to carry him about while he pointed out the roads. Then he came to the east and appears to have met Helius (the Sun) and to have been healed, and so returned back again to Oenopion to punish him; but Oenopion was hidden away by his people underground. Being disappointed, then, in his search for the king, Orion went away to Crete and spent his time hunting in company with Artemis and Leto. It seems that he threatened to kill every beast there was on earth; whereupon, in her anger, Earth sent up against him a scorpion of very great size by which he was stung and so perished. After this Zeus, at one prayer of Artemis and Leto, put him among the stars, because of his manliness, and the scorpion also as a memorial of him and of what had occurred.

FRAGMENT 5: ORION

Diodorus iv. 85: Some say that great earthquakes occurred, which broke through the neck of land and formed the straits,3 the sea parting the mainland from the island. But Hesiod, the poet, says just the opposite: that the sea was open, but Orion piled up the promontory by Peloris, and founded the close of Poseidon which is especially esteemed by the people thereabouts. When he had finished this, he went away to Euboea and settled there, and because of his renown was taken into the number of the stars in heaven, and won undying remembrance.

FRAGMENT 1

Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth. vi. 19: “And now, pray, mark all these things well in a wise heart. First, whenever you come to your house, offer good sacrifices to the eternal gods.”

FRAGMENT 2

Plutarch Mor. 1034 E: “Decide no suit until you have heard both sides speak.”

FRAGMENT 3: NYMPHS

Plutarch de Orac. defectu ii. 415 C: “A chattering crow lives out nine generations of aged men, but a stag's life is four times a crow's, and a raven's life makes three stags old, while the phoenix outlives nine ravens, but we, the rich-haired Nymphs, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder, outlive ten phoenixes.”

FRAGMENT 4

Quintilian, i. 15: Some consider that children under the age of seven should not receive a literary education . . . That Hesiod was of this opinion very many writers affirm who were earlier than the critic Aristophanes; for he was the first to reject the Precepts, in which book this maxim occurs, as a work of that poet.

FRAGMENT 1

Comm. on Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. v. 8: The verse, however (the slaying of Rhadamanthys), is in Hesiod in the Great Works and is as follows: “If a man sow evil, he shall reap evil increase; if men do to him as he has done, it will be true justice.”

FRAGMENT 2

Proclus on Hesiod, Works and Days, 126: Some believe that the Silver Race (is to be attributed to) the earth, declaring that in the Great Works Hesiod makes silver to be of the family of Earth.

FRAGMENT 1

Pliny, Natural History vii. 56, 197: Hesiod says that those who are called the Idaean Dactyls taught the smelting and tempering of iron in Crete.

FRAGMENT 2

Clement, Stromateis i. 16. 75: Celmis, again, and Damnameneus, the first of the Idaean Dactyls, discovered iron in Cyprus; but bronze smelting was discovered by Delas, another Idaean, though Hesiod calls him Scythes.4

FRAGMENT 1: HERACLES AND ARGONAUTS

Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. i. 128: Hesiod in the Marriage of Ceyx says that he (Heracles) landed (from the Argo) to look for water and was left behind in Magnesia near the place called Aphetae because of his desertion there.

FRAGMENT 2: HERACLES AND CEYX

Zenobius,5 ii. 19: Hesiod used the proverb in the following way: Heracles is represented as having constantly visited the house of Ceyx of Trachis and spoken thus: “Of their own selves the good make for the feasts of good.”

FRAGMENT 3

Scholiast on Homer, Il. xiv. 119: “And horse-driving Ceyx beholding . . . ”

FRAGMENT 4

Athenaeus, ii. p. 49b: Hesiod in the Marriage of Ceyx – for though grammar-school boys alienate it from the poet, yet I consider the poem ancient – calls the tables tripods.

FRAGMENT 5

Gregory of Corinth, On Forms of Speech (Rhett. Gr. vii. 776): “But when they had done with desire for the equal-shared feast, even then they brought from the forest the mother of a mother (sc. wood), dry and parched, to be slain by her own children” (sc. to be burnt in the flames).

FRAGMENT 1: EPIDAURUS

Pausanius, ii. 26. 3: Epidaurus. According to the opinion of the Argives and the epic poem, the Great Eoiae, Argos the son of Zeus was father of Epidaurus.

FRAGMENT 2: HERACLES AND ALCMENE

Anonymous Comment. on Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, iii. 7: And, they say, Hesiod is sufficient to prove that the word poneros (bad) has the same sense as “laborious” or “ill-fated”; for in the Great Eoiae he represents Alcmene as saying to Heracles: “My son, truly Zeus your father begot you to be the most toilful as the most excellent . . . ”; and again: “The Fates (made) you the most toilful and the most excellent . . . ”

FRAGMENT 3: HERACLES AND TELAMON

Scholiast on Pindar, Isthm. v. 53: The story has been taken from the Great Eoiae; for there we find Heracles entertained by Telamon, standing dressed in his lion-skin and praying, and there also we find the eagle sent by Zeus, from which Aias took his name.6

FRAGMENT 4: POLYCAON

Pausanias, iv. 2. 1: But I know that the so-called Great Eoiae say that Polycaon the son of Butes married Euaechme, daughter of Hyllus, Heracles' son.

FRAGMENT 5: PHYLAS AND THERO

Pausanias, ix. 40. 6: “And Phylas wedded Leipephile the daughter of famous Iolaus: and she was like the Olympians in beauty. She bare him a son Hippotades in the palace, and comely Thero who was like the beams of the moon. And Thero lay in the embrace of Apollo and bare horse-taming Chaeron of hardy strength.”

FRAGMENT 6: EUPHEMUS

Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth. iv. 35: “Or like her in Hyria, careful-minded Mecionice, who was joined in the love of golden Aphrodite with the Earth-holder and Earth-Shaker, and bare Euphemus.”

FRAGMENT 7: HYETTUS

Pausanias, ix. 36. 7: “And Hyettus killed Molurus the dear son of Aristas in his house because he lay with his wife. Then he left his home and fled from horse-rearing Argos and came to Minyan Orchomenus. And the hero received him and gave him a portion of his goods, as was fitting.”

FRAGMENT 8: PEIRENE

Pausanias, ii. 2. 3: But in the Great Eoiae Peirene is represented to be the daughter of Oebalius.

FRAGMENT 9: MYCENE

Pausanias, ii. 16. 4: The epic poem, which the Greek call the Great Eoiae, says that she (Mycene) was the daughter of Inachus and wife of Arestor: from her, then, it is said, the city received its name.

FRAGMENT 10: OENOMAUS

Pausanias, vi. 21. 10: According to the poem the Great Eoiae, these were killed by Oenomaus7: Alcathous the son of Porthaon next after Marmax, and after Alcathous, Euryalus, Eurymachus and Crotalus. The man killed next after them, Aerias, we should judge to have been a Lacedemonian and founder of Aeria. And after Acrias, they say, Capetus was done to death by Oenomaus, and Lycurgus, Lasius, Chalcodon and Tricolonus . . . And after Tricolonus fate overtook Aristomachus and Prias on the course, as also Pelagon and Aeolius and Cronius.

FRAGMENT 11: ENDYMION

Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iv. 57: In the Great Eoiae it is said that Endymion was transported by Zeus into heaven, but when he fell in love with Hera, was befooled with a shape of cloud, and was cast out and went down into Hades.

FRAGMENT 12: MELAMPUS

Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. i. 118: In the Great Eoiae it is related that Melampus, who was very dear to Apollo, went abroad and stayed with Polyphantes. But when the king had sacrificed an ox, a serpent crept up to the sacrifice and destroyed his servants. At this the king was angry and killed the serpent, but Melampus took and buried it. And its offspring, brought up by him, used to lick his ears and inspire him with prophecy. And so, when he was caught while trying to steal the cows of Iphiclus and taken bound to the city of Aegina, and when the house, in which Iphiclus was, was about to fall, he told an old woman, one of the servants of Iphiclus, and in return was released.

FRAGMENT 13: SCYLLA

Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iv. 828: In the Great Eoiae Scylla is the daughter of Phoebus and Hecate.

FRAGMENT 14: PHINEUS

Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. ii. 181: Hesiod in the Great Eoiae says that Phineus was blinded because he told Phrixus the way.8

FRAGMENT 15: PHRIXUS

Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. ii. 1122: Argus. This is one of the children of Phrixus. These . . . Hesiod in the Great Eoiae says were born of Iophossa the daughter of Aeetes. And he says there were four of them, Argus, Phrontis, Melas, and Cytisorus.

FRAGMENT 16: HYMENAEUS, BATTUS

Antoninus Liberalis, xxiii: Battus. Hesiod tells the story in the Great Eoiae . . . Magnes was the son of Argus, the son of Phrixus and Perimele, Admetus' daughter, and lived in the region of Thessaly, in the land which men called after him Magnesia. He had a son of remarkable beauty, Hymenaeus. And when Apollo saw the boy, he was seized with love for him, and would not leave the house of Magnes. Then Hermes made designs on Apollo's herd of cattle which were grazing in the same place as the cattle of Admetus. First he cast upon the dogs which were guarding them a stupor and strangles, so that the dogs forgot the cows and lost the power of barking. Then he drove away twelve heifers and a hundred cows never yoked, and the bull who mounted the cows, fastening to the tail of each one brushwood to wipe out the footmarks of the cows. He drove them through the country of the Pelasgi, and Achaea in the land of Phthia, and through Locris, and Boeotia and Megaris, and thence into Peloponnesus by way of Corinth and Larissa, until he brought them to Tegea. From there he went on by the Lycaean mountains, and past Maenalus and what are called the watch-posts of Battus. Now this Battus used to live on the top of the rock and when he heard the voice of the heifers as they were being driven past, he came out from his own place, and knew that the cattle were stolen. So he asked for a reward to tell no one about them. Hermes promised to give it him on these terms, and Battus swore to say nothing to anyone about the cattle. But when Hermes had hidden them in the cliff by Coryphasium, and had driven them into a cave facing towards Italy and Sicily, he changed himself and came again to Battus and tried whether he would be true to him as he had vowed. So, offering him a robe as a reward, he asked of him whether he had noticed stolen cattle being driven past. And Battus took the robe and told him about the cattle. But Hermes was angry because he was double-tongued, and struck him with his staff and changed him into a rock. And either frost or heat never leaves him.9

FRAGMENT 1: MOPSUS AND CALCHAS

Strabo, xiv. p. 642: It is said that Calchis the seer returned from Troy with Amphilochus the son of Amphiaraus and came on foot to this place.10 But happening to find near Clarus a seer greater than himself, Mopsus, the son of Manto, Teiresias' daughter, he died of vexation. Hesiod, indeed, works up the story in some form as this: Calchas set Mopsus the following problem: “I am filled with wonder at the quantity of figs this wild fig- tree bears though it is so small. Can you tell their number?” And Mopsus answered: “Ten thousand is their number, and their measure is a bushel: one fig is left over, which you would not be able to put into the measure.” So said he; and they found the reckoning of the measure true. Then did the end of death shroud Calchas.

FRAGMENT 2: TEIRESIAS

Tzetzes on Lycophron, 682: But now he is speaking of Teiresias, since it is said that he lived seven generations – though others say nine. He lived from the times of Cadmus down to those of Eteocles and Polyneices, as the author of Melampodia also says: for he introduces Teiresias speaking thus: “Father Zeus, would that you had given me a shorter span of life to be mine and wisdom of heart like that of mortal men! But now you have honoured me not even a little, though you ordained me to have a long span of life, and to live through seven generations of mortal kind.”

FRAGMENT 3: TEIRESIAS

Scholiast on Homer, Odyssey, x. 494: They say that Teiresias saw two snakes mating on Cithaeron and that, when he killed the female, he was changed into a woman, and again, when he killed the male, took again his own nature. This same Teiresias was chosen by Zeus and Hera to decide the question whether the male or the female has most pleasure in intercourse. And he said: “Of ten parts a man enjoys only one; but a woman's sense enjoys all ten in full.” For this Hera was angry and blinded him, but Zeus gave him the seer's power.

FRAGMENT 4 11

Athenaeus, ii. p. 40: “For pleasant it is at a feast and rich banquet to tell delightful tales, when men have had enough of feasting . . . ”

Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis vi. 2 26: “ . . . and pleasant also it is to know a clear token of ill or good amid all the signs that the deathless ones have given to mortal men.”

FRAGMENT 5: MARES

Athenaeus, xi. 498. A: “And Mares, swift messenger, came to him through the house and brought a silver goblet which he had filled, and gave it to the lord.”

FRAGMENT 6: MELAMPUS

Athenaeus, xi. 498. B: “And then Mantes took in his hands the ox's halter and Iphiclus lashed him upon the back. And behind him, with a cup in one hand and a raised sceptre in the other, walked Phylacus and spake amongst the bondmen.”

FRAGMENT 7

Athenaeus, xiii. p. 609 e: Hesiod in the third book of the Melampodia called Chalcis in Euboea “the land of fair women.”

FRAGMENT 8: AMPHILOCHUS

Strabo, xiv. p. 676: But Hesiod says that Amphilochus was killed by Apollo at Soli.

FRAGMENT 9

Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, v. p. 259: “And now there is no seer among mortal men such as would know the mind of Zeus who holds the aegis.”

FRAGMENT 1: PHRIXUS

Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iii. 587: But the author of the Aegimius says that he (Phrixus) was received without intermediary because of the fleece.12 He says that after the sacrifice he purified the fleece and so: “Holding the fleece he walked into the halls of Aeetes.”

FRAGMENT 2: PELEUS AND THETIS

Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iv. 816: The author of the Aegimius says in the second book that Thetis used to throw the children she had by Peleus into a cauldron of water, because she wished to learn where they were mortal . . . And that after many had perished Peleus was annoyed, and prevented her from throwing Achilles into the cauldron.

FRAGMENT 3: IO

Apollodorus, ii. 1.3.1: Hesiod and Acusilaus say that she (Io) was the daughter of Peiren. While she was holding the office of priestess of Hera, Zeus seduced her, and being discovered by Hera, touched the girl and changed her into a white cow, while he swore that he had no intercourse with her. And so Hesiod says that oaths touching the matter of love do not draw down anger from the gods: “And thereafter he ordained that an oath concerning the secret deeds of the Cyprian should be without penalty for men.”

FRAGMENT 4: IO

Herodian in Stephanus of Byzantium: “(Zeus changed Io) in the fair island Abantis, which the gods, who are eternally, used to call Abantis aforetime, but Zeus then called it Euboea after the cow.” 13

FRAGMENT 5: IO

Scholiast on Euripides, Phoen. 1116: “And (Hera) set a watcher upon her (Io), great and strong Argus, who with four eyes looks every way. And the goddess stirred in him unwearying strength: sleep never fell upon his eyes; but he kept sure watch always.”

FRAGMENT 6: IO

Scholiast on Homer, Il. xxiv. 24: “Slayer of Argus.” According to Hesiod's tale he (Hermes) slew (Argus) the herdsman of Io.

FRAGMENT 7

Athenaeus, xi. p. 503: And the author of the Aegimius, whether he is Hesiod or Cercops of Miletus (says): “There, some day, shall be my place of refreshment, O leader of the people.”

FRAGMENT 8: TRIBES

Etym. Gen.: Hesiod (says there were so called) because they settled in three groups: “And they all were called the Three-fold people, because they divided in three the land far from their country.” For (he says) that three Hellenic tribes settled in Crete, the Pelasgi, Achaeans and Dorians. And these have been called Three-fold People.

FRAGMENT 1: LINUS

Diogenes Laertius, viii. 1. 26: “So Urania bare Linus, a very lovely son: and him all men who are singers and harpers do bewail at feasts and dances, and as they begin and as they end they call on Linus . . . ”

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. i. p. 121: “ . . . who was skilled in all manner of wisdom.”

FRAGMENT 2: PAEAN

Scholiast on Homer, Odyssey, iv. 232: “Unless Phoebus Apollo should save him from death, or Paean himself who knows the remedies for all things.”

FRAGMENT 3

Clement of Alexandria, Protrept, c. vii. p. 21: “For he [Zeus] alone is king and lord of all the undying gods, and no other vies with him in power.”

FRAGMENT 4

Anecd. Oxon (Cramer), i. p. 148: “(To cause?) the gifts of the blessed gods to come near to earth.”

FRAGMENT 5

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. i. p. 123: “Of the Muses who make a man very wise, marvellous in utterance.”

FRAGMENT 6: HECATERIDES

Strabo, x. p. 471: “But of them (sc. the daughters of Hecaterus) were born the divine mountain Nymphs and the tribe of worthless, helpless Satyrs, and the divine Curetes, sportive dancers.”

FRAGMENT 7: CLEODAEUS

Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. i. 824: “Beseeching the offspring of glorious Cleodaeus.”

FRAGMENT 8

Suidas, s.v.: “For the Olympian gave might to the sons of Aeacus, and wisdom to the sons of Amythaon, and wealth to the sons of Atreus.”

FRAGMENT 9

Scholiast on Homer, Iliad, xiii. 155: “For through his lack of wood the timber of the ships rotted.”

FRAGMENT 10

Etymologicum Magnum: “No longer do they walk with delicate feet.”

FRAGMENT 11

Scholiast on Homer, Iliad, xxiv. 624: “First of all they roasted (pieces of meat), and drew them carefully off the spits.”

FRAGMENT 12

Chrysippus, Fragg. ii. 254. 11: “For his spirit increased in his dear breast.”

FRAGMENT 13

Chrysippus, Fragg. ii. 254. 15: “With such heart grieving anger in her breast.”

FRAGMENT 14

Strabo, vii. p. 327: “He went to Dodona and the oak-grove, the dwelling place of the Pelasgi.”

FRAGMENT 15

Anecd. Oxon (Cramer), iii. p. 318. not.: “With the pitiless smoke of black pitch and of cedar.”

FRAGMENT 16

Schliast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. i. 757: “But he himself in the swelling tide of the rain-swollen river.”

FRAGMENT 17

Stephanus of Byzantium: (The river) Parthenius, “Flowing as softly as a dainty maiden goes.”

FRAGMENT 18

Scholiast on Theocritus, xi. 75: “Foolish the man who leaves what he has, and follows after what he has not.”

FRAGMENT 19

Harpocration: “The deeds of the young, the counsels of the middle-aged, and the prayers of the aged.”

FRAGMENT 20

Porphyr, On Abstinence, ii. 18. p. 134: “Howsoever the city does sacrifice, the ancient custom is best.”

FRAGMENT 21

Scholiast on Nicander, Theriaca, 452: “But you should be gentle towards your father.”

FRAGMENT 22

Plato, Epist. xi. 358: “And if I said this, it would seem a poor thing and hard to understand.”

FRAGMENT 23

Bacchylides, v. 191-3: Thus spake the Boeotian, even Hesiod,14 servant of the sweet Muses: “whomsoever the immortals honour, the good report of mortals also followeth him.”

FRAGMENT 1: ATHAMAS

Galen, de plac. Hipp. et Plat. i. 266: “And then it was Zeus took away sense from the heart of Athamas.”

FRAGMENT 2

Scholiast on Homer, Od. vii. 104: “They grind the yellow grain at the mill.”

FRAGMENT 3

Scholiast on Pindar, Nem. ii. 1: “Then first in Delos did I and Homer, singers both, raise our strain – stitching song in new hymns – Phoebus Apollo with the golden sword, whom Leto bare.”

FRAGMENT 4

Julian, Misopogon, p. 369: “But starvation on a handful is a cruel thing.”

FRAGMENT 5: HESPERIDES

Servius on Vergil, Aen. iv. 484: Hesiod says that these Hesperides . . . daughters of Night, guarded the golden apples beyond Ocean: “Aegle and Erythea and ox-eyed Hesperethusa.” 15

FRAGMENT 6

Plato, Republic, iii. 390 E: “Gifts move the gods, gifts move worshipful princes.”

FRAGMENT 7 16

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. v. p. 256: “On the seventh day again the bright light of the sun . . . ”

FRAGMENT 8

Apollonius, Lex. Hom.: “He brought pure water and mixed it with Ocean's streams.”

FRAGMENT 9: ORCHOMENUS

Stephanus of Byzantium: “Aspledon and Clymenus and god-like Amphidocus.” (sons of Orchomenus).

FRAGMENT 10: AMAZONS

Scholiast on Pindar, Nem. iii. 64: “Telemon never sated with battle first brought light to our comrades by slaying blameless Melanippe, destroyer of men, own sister of the golden-girdled queen.”

1. This halt verse is added by the Scholiast on Aratus, 172.
2. The Catasterismi (“Placings among the Stars”) is a collection of legends relating to the various constellations.
3. The Straits of Messina.
4. Or perhaps “a Scythian.”
5. A Greek sophist who taught rhetoric at Rome in the time of Hadrian. He is the author of a collection of proverbs in three books.
6. When Heracles prayed that a son might be born to Telamon and Eriboea, Zeus sent forth an eagle in token that the prayer would be granted. Heracles then bade the parents call their son Aias after the eagle (“aietos”).
7.Oenomaus, king of Pisa in Elis, warned by an oracle that he should be killed by his son-in-law, offered his daughter Hippodamia to the man who could defeat him in a chariot race, on condition that the defeated suitors should be slain by him. Ultimately Pelops, through the treachery of the charioteer of Oenomaus, became victorious.
8. sc. to Scythia.
9. In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes Battus almost disappears from the story, and a somewhat different account of the stealing of the cattle is given.
10. sc. Colophon. Proclus in his abstract of the Returns (sc. of the heroes from Troy) says Calchas and his party were present at the death of Teiresias at Colophon, perhaps indicating another version of this story.
11. ll. 1-2 are quoted by Athenaeus, ii. p. 40; ll. 3-4 by Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis vi. 2. 26. Buttman saw that the two fragments should be joined.
12. sc. the golden fleece of the ram which carried Phrixus and Helle away from Athamas and Ino. When he reached Colchis Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus.
13. Euboea properly means the “Island of fine Cattle (or Cows).”
14. cp. Hesiod Theogony 81 ff. But Theognis 169, “Whomso the god honour, even a man inclined to blame praiseth him,” is much nearer.
15. Cf. Scholion on Clement, Protrept. i. p. 302.
16. This line may once have been read in the text of Works and Days after l. 771.