Notes on the current edition
Library
1.
As to Herakles and Omphale, see
Soph. Trach. 247ff.
;
Diod. 4.31.5-8
;
Lucian, Dial. Deorum. xiii.2
;
Plut. Quaest. Graec. 45
;
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.425ff.
;
Scholiast on Hom. Od. xxi.22
;
Joannes Lydus, De magistratibus iii.64
;
Ovid, Her. ix.55ff.
;
Hyginus, Fab. 32
;
Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 371ff.
;
Statius, Theb. x.646-649
. According to Pherecydes, cited by the
Scholiast on Hom. Od. xxi.22
, Hermes sold Herakles to Omphale for three talents. The sum obtained by his sale was to be paid as compensation to the sons of the murdered Iphitus, according to
Diod. 4.31.5-8
. The period of his servitude, according to
Soph. Trach. 252ff.
, was only one year; but Herodorus, cited by the
Scholiast on Soph. Tr. 253
, says that it was three years, which agrees with the statement of Apollodorus.
2.
As to the Cercopes, see
Diod. 4.31.7
;
Nonnus, in Mythographi Graeci, ed. A. Westermann, Appendix Narrationum, 39, p. 375
;
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.431, v.73ff.
;
Zenobius, Cent. v.10
;
Apostolius, Cent. xi.19
. These malefactors were two in number. Herakles is said to have carried them hanging with their heads downward from a pole. They are so represented in Greek art. See
W. H. Roscher,
Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, ii.1166ff.
The name Cercopes seems to mean “tailed men,” (from
κέρκος, “tail”). One story concerning them was that they were deceitful men whom Zeus punished by turning them into apes, and that the islands of
Ischia and
Procida, off the Bay of
Naples, were called
Pithecusae (“Ape Islands”) after them. See
Harpocration, s.v.
Κέρκωψ
;
Eustathius on Hom. Od. xix.247, p. 1864
;
Ov. Met. 14.88ff.
According to Pherecydes, the Cercopes were turned into stone. See
Scholiast on Lucian, Alexander 4, p. 181, ed. H. Rabe
. The story of Herakles and the Cercopes has been interpreted as a reminiscence of Phoenician traders bringing apes to Greek markets. See
O. Keller,
Thiere des classischen Alterthums (Innsbruck, 1887), p. 1
. The interpretation may perhaps be supported by an Assyrian bas-relief which represents a Herculean male figure carrying an ape on his head and leading another ape by a leash, the animals being apparently brought as tribute to a king. See
O. Keller, op. cit., p. 11, fig. 2
;
Perrot et Chipiez,
Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité, ii.547, fig 254
.
3.
Compare
Diod. 4.31.7
;
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.432ff.
;
Conon 17
. Euripides wrote a satyric play on the subject. See
TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 575ff.
The legend may be based on a custom practised by vine-dressers on passing strangers. See
W. Mannhardt,
Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 12, 53ff.
, who, for the rough jests of vine dressers in antiquity, refers to
Hor. Sat. i.8.28ff.
;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii.26.66(249)
.
4.
That is, the voyage of the Argo. See above,
Apollod. 1.9.16ff.
As to the hunt of the Calydonian boar, see above,
Apollod. 1.8.2ff.
As to the clearance of the Isthmus by Theseus, see below,
Apollod. 3.16
, and the
Apollod. E.1.1ff.
