Apollodorus Library 2.4.8

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.) — 2.4.8 focus

Notes on the current edition

Library

1. For the deception of Alcmena by Zeus and the birth of Herakles and Iphicles, see Hes. Sh. 27-56 ; Diod. 4.9 ; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xiv.323 , and Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.266 ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 33 ; Hyginus, Fab. 29 . The story was the subject of plays by Sophocles and Euripides which have perished ( TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 156, 386ff. The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C Pearson, i.76ff. ); and it is the theme of a well-known comedy of Plautus the Amphitryo, which is extant. In that play ( Plaut. Amph. 112ff. ), Plautus mentions the lengthening of the night in which Jupiter (Zeus) begat Herakles. The Scholiast on Hom. Il. xiv.323 says that Zeus persuaded the Sun not to rise for three days; and the threefold night is mentioned also by Diod. 4.9.2 . The whole story was told by Pherecydes, as we learn from the Scholiasts on Hom. Il. xiv.323; Od. xi.266 ; and it is likely that Apollodorus here follows him, for he refers to Pherecydes a few lines below.
2. As to the infant Herakles and the serpents, compare Pind. N. 1.33(50)ff. ; Theocritus xxiv ; Diod. 4.10.1 ; Paus. 1.24.2 ; Plaut. Amph. 1123ff. ; Verg. A. 8.288ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 30 . According to Theocritus xxiv.1 , Herakles was ten months old when he strangled the serpents.