The Library: Book 3.10-end. EpitomeAttributed to Apollodorus of Athens (born c. 180 BCE), but probably composed in the first or second century BCE, the Library provides a grand summary of Greek myths and heroic legends about the origin and early history of the world and of the Hellenic people. The Library provides in three books a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Written in clear and unaffected style, the compendium faithfully follows the Greek literary sources. It is thus an important record of Greek accounts of the origin and early history of the world and their race. This work has been attributed to Apollodorus of Athens (born c. 180 BCE), a student of Aristarchus. But the text as we have it was written by an author probably living in the first or second century of our era. In his highly valued notes to the Loeb Classical Library edition (which is in two volumes) J. G. Frazer cites the principal passages of other ancient writers where each particular story is told and compares the various versions to those in the Library. |
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A. C. Pearson According Achilles Ajax Apollo Apollodorus Apollonius Rhodius Athens Bekker bird brother cave Compare Homer daughter Dictys Cretensis Diodorus Siculus Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta Euripides father fire G. H. Bode giant Greek Helen Hercher Heyne Hyginus Kerameus killed king Kinkel Lycophron married Menelaus Metamorph mother Müller Neoptolemus Ogre Orestes Ovid Pausanias Peleus Pindar Plutarch Poseidon Posthomerica Proclus Quintus Smyrnaeus rerum mythicarum Latini says Schol Scholiast Scholiast on Euripides Scholiast on Homer Scriptores rerum mythicarum Second Vatican Mythographer serpent Servius sheep ships Sophocles story Theseus Thetis told Troy Tyndareus Tzetzes Ulysses Vatican Mythographer Virgil Wagner Westermann wife Zeus αὐτὸν αὐτοῦ αὐτῷ γὰρ δὲ δὲ καὶ διὰ ἐκ ἐν ἐπὶ ἦν καὶ καὶ τὴν κατὰ μὲν μετὰ μὴ ναῦς ὁ δὲ ὃς οὖν παρὰ περὶ πρὸς σὺν τὰ τὰς τῇ τῆς τὸ τοῖς τὸν τοῦ τοὺς τοῦτο τῷ τῶν ὑπὸ ὡς
Popular passages
Page 407 - Conall, it's long since my knife is rusting in my pouch waiting for thy tender flesh.' 'Och!' said I, 'it's not much thou wilt be bettered by me, though thou should'st tear me asunder; I will make but one meal for thee. But I see that thou art one-eyed. I am a good leech, and I will give thee the sight of the other eye.
Page 374 - The father's song which he sings when cleaning himself is an invitation for the salmon to come, and is sung in their praise. On hearing this song, and seeing the images and masks, the salmon are believed to come in great numbers to see the twins. Therefore the birth of twins is believed to indicate a good salmon year. If the salmon should fail to come in large numbers it is considered proof that the children •will soon die. Twins are forbidden to catch salmon, nor must they eat or handle fresh...
Page 407 - I would give its sight to the other one, till I left them as bad as each other ; and surely it was easier to spoil the one that was well than to give sight to the other. "When he 'saw' that he could not see a glimpse, and when I myself...
Page 4 - Again among the Brahuis of Baluchistan, " most good parents keep their babe for the first six days in a chaj or winnowing-basket, that God may vouchsafe them full as many children as the basket can hold grain. . . . But some folk will have nothing to do with a winnowing-basket ; it harbours epilepsy, they say, though how or why I am at a loss to think. So they lay the child in a sieve, that good luck may pour upon him as abundantly as grain pours through a sieve.
Page 23 - Some say that Helen was a daughter of Nemesis and Zeus; for that she, flying from the arms of Zeus, changed herself into a goose, but Zeus in his turn took the likeness of a swan and so enjoyed her; and as the fruit of their loves she laid an egg, and a certain shepherd found it in the groves and brought it to Leda.
Page 99 - ... married Philomela and bedded with her and cut out her tongue. But by weaving characters in a robe she revealed thereby to Procne her own sorrows. And having sought out her sister, Procne killed her son Itys, boiled him, and served him up for supper to the unwitting Tereus, and fled with her sister .... When Tereus was aware of what had happened, he snatched up an axe and pursued them. And being overtaken at Daulia in Phocis, they prayed the gods to be turned into birds, and Procne became a nightingale...
Page 382 - ... they resemble human beings, but greatly excel them in beauty. When they wish to visit the upper world, they put on the ham or garb of some fish, but woe to those who lose their ham, for then are all hopes of return annihilated, and they must stay where they are. ... It has also happened that earthly men have married mermaids, having taken possession of their ham, and thus got them into their power.
Page 83 - Adonis, in short, is the Swine-god, and in this, as in many other cases, the sacred victim has been changed by false interpretation into the enemy of the god.
Page 378 - Unyanyembe, twins are ordered to be killed and thrown into water the moment they are born, lest droughts and famines or floods should waste the land. Should any one attempt to conceal twins, the whole family would be murdered by the chief.
Page 407 - saw" that he could not see a glimpse, and when I myself said to him that I would get out in spite of him, he gave that spring out of the water, and he stood in the mouth of the cave, and he said that he would have revenge for the sight of his eye. I had but to stay there crouched the length of the night, holding in my breath in such a way that he might not feel where I was. " When he felt the birds calling in the morning, and knew that the day was, he said — ' Art thou sleeping ? Awake and let...