Notes on the current edition
Library
1.
As to Herakles and the cattle of Geryon, see
Hes. Th. 287-294ff.
;
Hes. Th. 979-983
;
Pind. Frag. 169(151) ed. Sandys
;
Hdt. 4.8
;
Plat. Gorg. 484b
;
Diod. 4.17ff.
;
Paus. 3.18.13
,
Paus. 4.36.3
;
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica vi.249ff.
;
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.322-352
(who seems to follow Apollodorus);
Scholiast on Plato, Tim. 24e
;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. iv.120
;
Solinus xxiii.12
;
Serv. Verg. A. 8.300
.
2.
Compare
Hdt. 4.8
;
Strab. 3.2.11
,
Strab. 3.5 4
;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. iv.120
;
Solinus xxiii.12
. Gadira is
Cadiz. According to
Pliny, Nat. Hist. iv.120
, the name is derived from a Punic word
gadir, meaning “hedge.” Compare
Dionysius, Perieg. 453ff.
The same word
agadir is still used in the south of
Morocco in the sense of “fortified house,” and many places in that country bear the name. Amongst them the port of
Agadir is the best known. See
E. Doutté,
En tribu (Paris, 1914), pp. 50ff.
The other name of the island is given by
Solinus xxiii.12
in the form Erythrea, and by
Mela iii.47
in the form Eythria.
3.
As to the triple form of Geryon, compare
Hes. Th. 287
;
Aesch. Ag. 870
;
Eur. Herc. 423ff.
;
Scholiast on Plat. Tim. 24e
;
Paus. 5.19.1
;
Lucian, Toxaris 62
;
Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 652
;
Lucretius v.28
;
Hor. Carm. 2.14.7ff.
;
Verg. A. 6.289
;
Ov. Met. 9.184ff.
;
Hyginus, Fab. 30, 151
.
4.
The watchdog's name is variously given as Orthus (Orthos) and Orthrus (Orthros). See
Hes. Th. 293
(where Orthos seems to be the better reading);
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica vi.253
(Orthros);
Scholiast on Pind. I. 1.13(15)
(Orthos);
Scholiast on Plat. Tim. 24e
(Orthros, so Stallbaum);
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.333
(Orthros);
Pediasmus, De Herculis laboribus 10
(Orthos);
Serv. Verg. A. 8.300
(Orthrus).
5.
Compare
Diod. 4.17.3ff.
, who says that Herakles completely cleared
Crete of wild beasts, and that he subdued many of the wild beasts in the deserts of
Libya and rendered the land fertile and prosperous.
6.
The opinions of the ancients were much divided on the subject of the Pillars of Herakles. See
Strab. 3.5.5
. The usual opinion apparently identified them with the rock of
Calpe (
Gibraltar) and the rock of Abyla, Abila, or Abylica (
Ceuta) on the northern and southern sides of the straits. See
Strab. 3.5.5
;
Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 649
;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii.4
;
Mela i.27, ii.95
;
Martianus Capella vi.624
. Further, it seems to have been commonly supposed that before the time of Herakles the two continents were here joined by an isthmus, and that the hero cut through the isthmus and so created the straits. See
Diod. 4.18.5
;
Seneca, Herakles Furens 235ff.
;
Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 1240
;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii.4
;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii.4
;
Mela i.27
;
Martianus Capella vi.625
. Some people, however, on the contrary, thought that the straits were formerly wider, and that Herakles narrowed them to prevent the monsters of the Atlantic ocean from bursting into the Mediterranean (
Diod. 4.18.5
). An entirely different opinion identified the Pillars of Herakles with two brazen pillars in the sanctuary of Herakles at Gadira (
Cadiz), on which was engraved an inscription recording the cost of building the temple. See
Strab. 3.5.5
; compare
Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii.242
, who speaks of “the columns of Herakles consecrated at Gadira.” For other references to the Pillars of Herakles, see
Pind. O. 3.43ff.
,
Pind. N. 3.21
,
Pind. I. 4.11ff.
;
Athenaeus vii.98, p. 315 CD
;
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.339
(who here calls the pillars Alybe and Abinna);
Scholiast on Plat. Tim. 24e
;
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Orbis Descriptio 64-68
, with the commentary of
Eustathius (Geographi Graeci Minores, ed. C. Müller, ii. pp. 107, 228)
. According to Eustathius,
Calpe was the name given to the rock of
Gibraltar by the barbarians, but its Greek name was Alybe; and the rock of
Ceuta was called Abenna by the barbarians but by the Greeks Cynegetica, that is, the Hunter's Rock. He tells us further that the pillars were formerly named the Pillars of Cronus, and afterwards the Pillars of Briareus.
7.
Apollodorus seems to be here following Pherecydes, as we learn from a passage which
Athenaeus xi.39, p. 470 CD
quotes from the third book of Pherecydes as follows: “And Herakles drew his bow at him as if he would shoot, and the Sun bade him give over; so Herakles feared and gave over. And in return the Sun bestowed on him the golden goblet which carried him with his horses, when he set, through the Ocean all night to the east, where the Sun rises. Then Herakles journeyed in that goblet to Erythia. And when he was on the open sea, Ocean, to make trial of him, caused the goblet to heave wildly on the waves. Herakles was about to shoot him with an arrow; and the Ocean was afraid, and bade him give over.” Stesichorus described the Sun embarking in a golden goblet that he might cross the ocean in the darkness of night and come to his mother, his wedded wife, and children dear. See
Athenaeus xi.38, p. 468 E
; compare
Athenaeus xi.16, p. 781 D
. The voyage of Herakles in the golden goblet was also related by the early poets Pisander and Panyasis in the poems, both called
Heraclia, which they devoted to the exploits of the great hero. See
Athenaeus xi.38, p. 469 D
; compare
Macrobius, Sat. v.21.16, 19
. Another poet, Mimnermus, supposed that at night the weary Sun slept in a golden bed, which floated across the sea to
Ethiopia, where a chariot with fresh horses stood ready for him to mount and resume his daily journey across the sky. See
Athenaeus xi.39, p. 470 A
.
8.
Compare
Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 652
, who probably follows Apollodorus.
9.
Abderia, the territory of
Abdera, a Phoenician city of southern
Spain, not to be confused with the better known
Abdera in
Thrace. See
Strab. 3.4.3
;
Stephanus Byzantius, s.v.
Ἄβδηρα
.
10.
Apollodorus has much abridged a famous adventure of Herakles in
Liguria. Passing through the country with the herds of Geryon, he was attacked by a great multitude of the warlike natives, who tried to rob him of the cattle. For a time he repelled them with his bow, but his supply of arrows running short he was reduced to great straits; for the ground, being soft earth, afforded no stones to be used as missiles. So he prayed to his father Zeus, and the god in pity rained down stones from the sky; and by picking them up and hurling them at his foes, the hero was able to turn the tables on them. The place where this adventure took place was said to be a plain between
Marseilles and the
Rhone, which was called the Stony Plain on account of the vast quantity of stones, about as large as a man's hand, which were scattered thickly over it. In his play
Prometheus Unbound, Aeschylus introduced this story in the form of a prediction put in the mouth of Prometheus and addressed to his deliverer Herakles. See
Strab. 4.1.7
;
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom. i.41
;
Eustathius, Commentary on Dionysius Perieg. 76 (Geographi Graeci Minores, ed. C. Müller, ii.231)
;
Hyginus, Ast. ii.6
;
TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 66ff.
The Stony Plain is now called the Plaine de la
Crau. It “attracts the attention of all travellers between
Arles and
Marseilles, since it is intersected by the railway that joins those two cities. It forms a wide level area, extending for many square miles, which is covered with round rolled stones from the size of a pebble to that of a man's head. These are supposed to have been brought down from the Alps by the
Durance at some early period, when this plain was submerged and formed the bed of what was then a bay of the Mediterranean at the mouth of that river and the
Rhone” (
H. F. Tozer, Selections from Strabo, p. 117
).
11.
Compare
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.340ff.
, who calls the victims Dercynus and Alebion.
12.
The author clearly derives the name of
Rhegium from this incident (
Ρήγιον from
ἀπορρήγνυσι). The story of the escape of the bull, or heifer, and the pursuit of it by Herakles was told by Hellanicus. See
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ant. Rom. i.35.2
. It is somewhat singular that Apollodorus passes so lightly over the exploits of Herakles in
Italy, and in particular that he says nothing about those adventures of his at
Rome, to which the Romans attached much significance. For the Italian adventures of the hero, and his sojourn in
Rome, see
Diod. 4.20-22
;
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom. i.34ff., 38-44
;
Prop. iv.9
;
Verg. A. 8.201ff.
;
Ovid, Fasti i.543ff.
On the popularity of the worship of Herakles in
Italy, see
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom. i.40.6,
who says: “And in many other parts of
Italy (besides
Rome) precincts are consecrated to the god, and altars are set up both in cities and beside roads; and hardly will you find a place in
Italy where the god is not honoured.”
13.
Some of the ancients supposed that the name of
Italy was derived from the Latin
vitulus, “a calf.” See
Varro, Re. Rust. ii.1.9
;
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom. i.35.2
; compare
Aulus Gellius xi.1.2
.
14.
As to Herculus and
Eryx, see
Diod. 4.23.2
;
Paus. 3.16.4ff.
;
Paus. 4.36.4
;
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.346ff.
;
Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 866
;
Verg. A. 5.410ff.
;
Serv. Verg. A. 1.570
.
15.
The story was apparently told to account for the origin of wild cattle in
Thrace.