Notes on the current edition
Library
1.
Compare
Eur. Hel. 16ff.
;
Lucian, Dial. Deorum xx.14
;
Lucian, Charidemus 7
;
Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.298
;
Hyginus, Fab. 77
;
Hyginus, Ast. ii.8
;
Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 27, 64, 119ff., 163 (First Vatican Mythographer 78, 204; Second Vatican Mythographer 132; Third Vatican Mythographer 3.6)
. As the fruit of her intercourse with the swan, Leda is said to have laid an egg, which in the time of Pausanias was still to be seen hanging by ribbons from the roof of the temple of Hilaira and Phoebe at
Sparta. See
Paus. 3.16.1
. According to one account (
First Vatican Mythographer 78
), Castor, Pollux, and Helen all emerged from a single egg; according to another account (
First Vatican Mythographer 204
), Leda laid two eggs, one of which produced Castor and Pollux, and the other Clytaemnestra and Helen. In heaven the twins Castor and Pollux had each, if we may believe Lucian, half an egg on or above his head in token of the way in which he had been hatched. See
Lucian, Dial. Deorum xxvi.1
. For the distinction between Pollux and Castor, the former being regarded as the son of Zeus and the latter as the son of Tyndareus, see
Pind. N. 10.79(149)ff.
According to Hesiod, both Pollux and Castor were sons of Zeus. See
Scholiast on Pind. N. 10.80(150)
.
2.
With this variant story of the birth of Helen compare
Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 88
(who may have followed Apollodorus);
Eratosthenes, Cat. 25
;
Paus. 1.33.7ff.
;
Scholiast on Callimachus
;
Hyginus, Ast. ii.8
. According to Eratosthenes and the
Scholiast on Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis, 232
, the meeting between Zeus and Nemesis, in the shape respectively of a swan and a goose, took place at Rhamnus in
Attica, where Nemesis had a famous sanctuary, the marble ruins of which may still be seen in a beautiful situation beside the sea. The statue of the goddess at Rhamnus was wrought by the hand of Phidias, and on the base he represented Leda bringing the youthful Helen to her mother Nemesis. In modern times some of these marble reliefs have been found on the spot, but they are too fragmentary to admit of being identified. See
Paus. 1.33.2-8
, with
Frazer's, commentary, vol. ii. pp. 455ff.
3.
As to the captivity of Helen at Aphidnae, and her rescue by her brothers Castor and Pollux, see
Apollod. E.1.23
;
Hdt. 9.73
;
Strab. 9.1.17
;
Diod. 4.63.2-5
;
Plut. Thes. 31ff.
;
Paus. 1.17.5
;
Paus. 1.41.3
;
Paus. 2.22.6
;
Paus. 3.18.4ff.
; compare
Paus. 5.19.3
;
Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 503
;
Hyginus, Fab. 79
. The story was told by the historian Hellanicus (
Scholiast on Hom. Il. iii.144
), and in part by the poet Alcman (
Scholiast on Hom. Il. iii.242
).
