Apollodorus Library 1.6

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.) — 1.6 focus

Notes on the current edition

Library

1. According to Hesiod ( Hes. Th. 183ff. ), Earth was impregnated by the blood which dropped from heaven when Cronus mutilated his father Sky (Uranus), and in due time she gave birth to the giants. As to the battle of the gods and giants, see Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 63 ; Hor. Carm. 3.4.49ff. ; Ov. Met. 1.150ff. ; Claudian, Gigant. ; Sidonius Apollinaris, Carm. xii.15ff., ed. Baret ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 4, 92 (First Vatican Mythographer 11; Second Vatican Mythographer 53) . The account which Apollodorus here gives of it is supplemented by the evidence of the monuments, especially temple-sculptures and vase-paintings. See Preller-Robert, Griechische Mythologie, i.67ff. Compare M. Mayer, Die Giganten und Titanen, (Berlin, 1887) . The battle of the gods and the giants was sculptured on the outside of the temple of Apollo at Delphi, as we learn from the description of Euripides ( Eur. Ion 208ff. ). On similar stories see Frazer's Appendix to Apollodorus, “War of Earth on Heaven.”
2. Compare Ov. Met. 1.184 , Tristia, iv.7.17; Macrobius, Sat. i.20.9 ; Serv. Verg. A. 3.578 ; Claudian, Gigant. 80ff. ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 92 (Second Vatican Mythographer 53) . Pausanias denied that the giants were serpent-footed ( Paus. 8.29.3 ), but they are often so represented on the later monuments of antiquity. See Kuhnert, in W. H. Roscher's Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, i.1664ff. ; M. Mayer, Die Giganten und Titanen, pp. 274ff.
3. Phlegra is said to have been the old name of Pallene ( Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Φλέγρα ). The scene of the battle of the gods and giants was laid in various places. See Diod. 5.71 ; Strab. 5.4.4, 6 , Strab. 6.3, 5 , Strab. 7 Fr. 25, 27 , Strab. 10.5.16 , Strab. 11.2.10 ; Paus. 8.29.1 , with my note. Volcanic phenomena and the discovery of the fossil bones of large extinct animals seem to have been the principal sources of these tales.
4. Compare Pind. N. 4.27 , Pind. I. 6.31(45) with the Scholia; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 63 . The Scholiast on Pind. I. 6.32(47) , mentions, like Apollodorus, that Alcyoneus had driven away the oxen of the Sun. The reason why Herakles dragged the wounded giant from Pallene before despatching him was that, as Apollodorus has explained above, the giant was immortal so long as he fought on the land where he had been born. That, too, is why the giant revived when in falling he touched his native earth.
5. Compare Pind. P. 8.12(15)ff. , who says that the king of the giants (Porphyrion) was shot by Apollo, not Herakles. Tzetzes agrees with Apollodorus ( Scholiast on Lycophron 63 ).
6. According to Eur. Ion 215ff. , Mimas was killed by Zeus with a thunderbolt; according to Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.122ff. and Claudian, Gigant. 87ff. , he was slain by Ares.
7. Compare Verg. A. 3.578ff. The combat of Athena with Enceladus was sculptured on the temple of Apollo at Delphi. See Eur. Ion 209ff.
8. According to one account the Pallas whom Athena flayed, and whose skin she used as a covering, was her own father, who had attempted her chastity. See Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii.28, p. 24, ed. Potter ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 355 ; Cicero, De natura deorum iii.23.59 .
9. Compare Strab. 10.5.16 .
10. The helmet of Hades was thought to render the wearer invisible. Compare Hom. Il. 5.844ff. ; Hes. Sh. 226ff.
11. As to Typhon, or Typhoeus, as he is also called, who was especially associated with the famous Corycian cave in Cilicia, see Hes. Th. 820ff. ; Pind. P. 1.15ff. ; Aesch. PB 351ff. ; Ant. Lib. 28 ; Ov. Met. 5.321ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 152 ; Mela i.76, ed. G. Parthey ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 4, 29, 92 (First Vatican Mythographer 11, 86; Second Vatican Mythographer 53) . As to the Corycian cave, see Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3rd ed. i.152ff. According to Hesiod ( Hes. Th. 821 ), Typhoeus was the youngest child of Earth.
12. Or “feathered.” But Ant. Lib. 28 speaks of Typhon's numerous wings.
13. Compare Ant. Lib. 28 ; Ov. Met. 5.319ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 152 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 29 (First Vatican Mythographer 86) . The story of the transformation of the gods into beasts in Egypt was probably invented by the Greeks to explain the Egyptian worship of animals, as Lucian shrewdly perceived ( Lucian, De sacrificiis 14 ).
14. According to Nonnus, Dionys. i.481ff. , it was Cadmus who, disguised as a shepherd, wheedled the severed sinews of Zeus out of Typhon by pretending that he wanted them for the strings of a lyre, on which he would play ravishing music to the monster. The barbarous and evidently very ancient story seems to be alluded to by no other Greek writers.
15. This story of the deception practised by the Fates on Typhon seems to be otherwise unknown.
16. Haemus, from haima (blood); hence “the Bloody Mountain.” It is said that a city of Egypt received the same name for the same reason ( Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. ἡρώ ).
17. As to Typhon under Mount Etna see Aesch. PB 363ff. ; Pind. P. 1.17(32)ff ; Ovid, Fasti iv.491ff. ; Ov. Met. 5.352ff.