Apollodorus, Library, ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1.9.7

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[7]
Salmoneus at first dwelt in Thessaly, but afterwards he came to Elis and there founded a city.¹ And being arrogant and wishful to put himself on an equality with Zeus, he was punished for his impiety; for he said that he was himself Zeus, and he took away the sacrifices of the god and ordered them to be offered to himself; and by dragging dried hides, with bronze kettles, at his chariot, he said that he thundered, and by flinging lighted torches at the sky he said that he lightened. But Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt, and wiped out the city he had founded with all its inhabitants.²

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

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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.) — 1.9.7 focus

[7] Σαλμωνεὺς δὲ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον περὶ Θεσσαλίαν κατῴκει, παραγενόμενος δὲ αὖθις εἰς Ἦλιν ἐκεῖ πόλιν ἔκτισεν. ὑβριστὴς δὲ ὢν καὶ τῷ Διὶ ἐξισοῦσθαι θέλων διὰ τὴν ἀσέβειαν ἐκολάσθη· ἔλεγε γὰρ ἑαυτὸν εἶναι Δία, καὶ τὰς ἐκείνου θυσίας ἀφελόμενος ἑαυτῷ προσέτασσε θύειν, καὶ βύρσας μὲν ἐξηραμμένας ἐξ ἅρματος μετὰ λεβήτων χαλκῶν σύρων ἔλεγε βροντᾶν, βάλλων δὲ εἰς οὐρανὸν αἰθομένας λαμπάδας ἔλεγεν ἀστράπτειν. Ζεὺς δὲ αὐτὸν κεραυνώσας τὴν κτισθεῖσαν ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ πόλιν καὶ τοὺς οἰκήτορας ἠφάνισε πάντας.

Notes on the current edition

Library

1. Compare Diod. 4.68.1 . His city was called Salmone. See Strab. 7.3.31-32 ; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Σαλμώνη.

2. Compare Verg. A. 6.585ff. with the commentary of Servius; Hyginus, Fab. 61 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 28, 93 (First Vatican Mythographer 82; Second Vatican Mythographer 56) . In the traditions concerning Salmoneus we may perhaps trace the reminiscence of a line of kings who personated the Skygod Zeus and attempted to make rain, thunder and lightning by means of imitative magic. See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i.310, ii.177, 180ff. Sophocles composed a Satyric play on the subject ( The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 177ff. ).

Apollodorus Library 1.9.7

ed. Sir James George Frazer

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