Apollodorus Library 1.9.1

ed. Sir James George Frazer

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Library. Apollodorus. ed. Sir James George Frazer. Cambridge, MA. 1921.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Library (English) (Apollodorus. The Library, Vol 1-2. Frazer, James George, Sir, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.)

Editions (1)
Βιβλιοθήκη Perseus (Apollodorus. The Library, Vol 1-2. Frazer, James George, Sir, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.) — 1.9.1 focus

Notes on the current edition

Library

1. For the story of Athamas, Phrixus, and Helle, see Zenobius, Cent. iv.38 ; Apostolius, Cent. xi.58 ; Scholiast on Aristoph. Cl. 257 ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 22 ; Eustathius on Hom. Il. vii.86, p. 667 ; Scholiast on Hom. Il. vii.86 ; Diod. 4.47 ; Hyginus, Fab. 1-3 ; Hyginus, Ast. ii.20 ; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Achill. i.65 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 8, 120ff. (First Vatican Mythographer 23; Second Vatican Mythographer 134) . According to Herodotus ( Hdt. 7.197 ), it was a rule among the descendants of Phrixus that the eldest son of the family should be sacrificed (apparently to Laphystian Zeus) if ever he entered the town-hall; hence, to escape the risk of such a fate, many of the family fled to foreign lands. Sophocles wrote a tragedy called Athamas, in which he represented the king himself crowned with garlands and led to the altar of Zeus to be sacrificed, but finally rescued by the interposition of Herakles ( Scholiast on Aristoph. Cl. 237 ; Apostolius, Cent. xi.58 ; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, i.1ff. ). These traditions point to the conclusion that in the royal line of Athamas the eldest son was regularly liable to be sacrificed either to prevent or to remedy a failure of the crops, and that in later times a ram was commonly accepted as a substitute for the human victim. Compare The Dying God, pp. 161ff.