The Greek Myths, Volume 1 (70 page)

2
. Solinus: xi. 8; Callimachus:
Hymn to Artemis
189; Euripides:
Iphigeneia Among the Taurians
126; Diodorus Siculus: v. 76; Aristohanes:
Frogs
1359.

3
. Pausanias: ii. 30.3 and iii. 14. 2; Antoninus Liberalis:
Transformations
40; Herodotus: iii. 59.

4
. Antoninus Liberalis:
Transformations
41.

5
. Hesiod:
Theogony
986; Solinus: xi. 9; Nonnus:
Dionysiaca
xi. 131 and xii. 217.

6
. Apollodorus: ii. 4. 7; Ovid:
Metamorphoses
vii. 771; Hyginus:
Fabula
189.

7
. Apollodorus:
loc. cit
. and iii. 15. 1; Antoninus Liberalis:
loc. cit
.; Hyginus:
Fabulae
125 and 189; Scholiast on Callimachus’s
Hymn to Artemis
209.

8
. Pausanias: i. 37. 6 and ix. 19. 1.

9
. Tzetzes:
On Lycophron
933.

10
. Apollodorus: ii. 4. 7; Strabo: x. 2. 9 and 14.

1
. Minos’s seduction of nymphs in the style of Zeus doubtless records the Cnossian king’s ritual marriage to Moon-priestesses of various city states in his empire.

2
. The Moon-goddess was called Britomartis in Eastern Crete. Hence the Greeks identified her with Artemis (Diodorus Siculus: v. 76; Euripides:
Hippolytus
145 and
Iphigeneia Among the Taurians
127; Hesychius
sub
Britomartis), and with Hecate (Euripides:
Hippolytus
141, with scholiast). In Western Crete she was Dictynna, as Virgil knew: ‘They called the Moon Dictynna after your name’ (Virgil:
Ciris
305). Dictynna is connected in the myth with
dictyon
, which means a net, of the sort used for hunting or fishing; and
Dicte
is apparently a worn-down form of
dictynnaeon
– ‘Dictynna’s place’. After the introduction of the patriarchal system a murderous chase of the sacred king by the goddess armed with a net was converted into a love chase of the goddess by the sacred king (see
9.
1
and
32.
b
). Both chases occur frequently in European folklore (see
62.
1
). Minos’s pursuit of Britomartis, which is paralleled in Philistia by Moxus’s, or Mopsus’s, chase of Derceto, begins when the oaks are in full leaf – probably in the Dog Days, which was when Set pursued Isis and the Child Horus in the water meadows of the Nile Delta – and ends nine months later, on May Eve. Zeus’s seduction of Europe was also a May Eve event (see
58.
3
).

3
. To judge from the ritual of the Celtic North, where the goddess is called Goda (‘the Good’) – Neanthes translates the syllable
brito
as ‘good’ (
Greek Historical Fragments
iii, ed. Müller) – she originally rode on a goat, naked except for a net, with an apple in one hand, and accompanied by a hare and a raven, to her annual love-feast. The carved
miserere
seat in Coventry Cathedral, where she was thus portrayed, recorded the pre-Christian May Eve ceremonies at Southam and Coventry, from which the legend of Lady Godiva has been piously evolved. In Celtic Germany, Scandinavia, and probably England too, Goda had ritual connexion with the goat, or with a man dressed in goat-skins – the sacred king who later became the Devil of the witch cult. Her apple is a token of the king’s approaching death; the hare symbolizes the chase, during which she turns herself into a greyhound; her net will catch him when he becomes a fish; the raven will give oracles from his tomb.

4
. It seems that, in Crete, the goat-cult preceded the bull-cult, and that Pasiphaë originally married a goat-king. Laphria (‘she who wins booty’), Dictynna’s title in Aegina, was also a title of the goat-goddess Athene, who is said to have been assaulted by the goatish Pallas, whose skin she flayed and converted into her aegis (see
9.
a
). ‘Laphria’ suggests that the goddess was the pursuer, not the pursued. Inscriptions from Aegina show that the great temple of Artemis belonged to Artemis Aphaea (‘not dark’, to distinguish her from Hecate); in the myth, Aphaea is taken to mean
aphanes
, ‘disappearing’.

5
. The story of Minos and Procris has passed from myth into anecdote, and from anecdote into street-corner romance, recalling some of the tales in the
Golden Ass
. Being linked with Minos’s war against Athens, and the eventual downfall of Cnossus, it records, perhaps, the Cretan king’s demand for a ritual marriage with the High-priestess of Athens, which the Athenians resented. Pteleon (‘elm-grove’), the name of Procris’s seducer, may refer to the vine-cult which spread from Crete in the time of Minos (see
88.
h
), since vines were trained on elms; but it may also be derived from
ptelos
, ‘wild boar’. In that case, Cephalus and Pteleon will have originally been the sacred king and his tanist, disguised
as a wild boar (see
18.
7
). Pasiphaë’s witchcrafts are characteristics of an angry Moon-goddess; and Procris counters them with the witchcrafts of Circe, another title of the same goddess.

6
. Cephalus’s leap from the white rock at Cape Leucas rightly reminds Strabo (x. 2. 9) that the Leucadians used every year to fling a man, provided with wings to break his fall, and even with live birds corded to his body, over the cliff into the sea. The victim, a
pharmacos
, or scapegoat, whose removal freed the island from guilt, seems also to have carried a white sunshade as a parachute (see
70.
7
). Boats were waiting to pick him up if he survived, and convey him to some other island (see
96.
3
).

7
. The myth of Comaetho and Pterelaus refers to the cutting of the solar king’s hair before his death (see
83.
3
;
91.
1
and
95.
5
); but the name Pterelaus suggests that the winged
pharmacos
flung to his death was originally the king. The syllable
elāos
, or
elaios
, stands for the wild olive which, like the birch in Italy and North-western Europe, was used for the expulsion of evil spirits (see
52.
3
); and in the Rhodian dialect
elaios
meant simply
pharmacos
. But the fates of Pterelaus and Cephalus are mythically linked by Procris’s adoption of the name Pterelas, and this suggests that she was really the priestess of Athene, who launched the feathered Cephalus to his death.

8
. The fox was the emblem of Messene (Apollodorus: ii. 8. 5 – see
49.
2
and 146. 6); probably because the Aeolians worshipped the Moon-goddess as a vixen; and the myth of the Teumessian vixen may record Aeolian raids on Cadmeia in search of child sacrifices, to which Zeus-worshipping Achaeans put an end.

9
. Phaëthon and Adymnus (from
a-dyomenos
, ‘he who does not set’) are both allegorical names for the planet Venus. But Phaëthon, son of Eos and Cephalus, has been confused by Nonnus with Phaëthon, son of Helius, who drove the sun-chariot and was drowned (see
42.
d
); and with Atymnius (from
atos
and
hymnos
, ‘insatiate of heroic praise’), a sun-hero worshipped by the Milesians (see
88.
b
).

10
. Epeius, who built the wooden horse (see 167.
a
), appears in early legends as an outstandingly courageous warrior; but his name was ironically applied to boasters, until it became synonymous with cowardice (Hesychius
sub
Epeius).

90

THE CHILDREN OF PASIPHAË

A
MONG
Pasiphaë’s children by Minos were Acacallis, Ariadne, Androgeus, Catreus, Glaucus, and Phaedra.
¹
She also bore Cydon to Hermes, and Libyan Ammon to Zeus.
²

b
. Ariadne, beloved first by Theseus, and then by Dionysus, bore many famous children. Catreus, who succeeded Minos on the throne, was killed in Rhodes by his own son. Phaedra married Theseus and won notoriety for her unfortunate love-affair with Hippolytus, her stepson. Acacallis was Apollo’s first love; when he and his sister Artemis came for purification to Tarrha, from Aegialae on the mainland, he found Acacallis at the house of Carmanor, a maternal relative, and seduced her. Minos was vexed, and banished Acacallis to Libya where, some say, she became the mother of Garamas, though others claim that he was the first man ever to be born.
³

c
. Glaucus, while still a child, was playing ball one day in the palace at Cnossus or, perhaps, chasing a mouse, when he suddenly disappeared. Minos and Pasiphaë searched high and low but, being unable to find him, had recourse to the Delphic Oracle. They were informed that whoever could give the best simile for a recent portentous birth in Crete would find what was lost. Minos made enquiries and learned that a heifer-calf had been born among his herds which changed its colour thrice a day – from white to red, and from red to black. He summoned his soothsayers to the palace, but none could think of a simile until Polyeidus the Argive, a descendant of Melampus, said: ‘This calf resembles nothing so much as a ripening blackberry [or mulberry].’ Minos at once commanded him to go in search of Glaucus.
⁴

d
. Polyeidus wandered through the labyrinthine palace, until he came upon an owl sitting at the entrance to a cellar, frightening away a swarm of bees, and took this for an omen. Below in the cellar he found a great jar used for the storing of honey, and Glaucus drowned in it, head downwards. Minos, when this discovery was reported to him, consulted with the Curetes, and followed their advice by telling. Polyeidus: ‘Now that you have found my son’s body, you must restore him to life!’ Polyeidus protested that, not being Asclepius, he was incapable of raising the dead. ‘Ah, I know better,’ replied Minos. ‘You will be locked in a tomb with Glaucus’s body and a sword, and there you will remain until my orders have been obeyed!’

e
. When Polyeidus grew accustomed to the darkness of the tomb he saw a serpent approaching the boy’s corpse and, seizing his sword, killed it. Presently another serpent, gliding up, and finding that its mate was dead, retired, but came back shortly with a magic herb in its mouth, which it laid on the dead body. Slowly the serpent came to life again.

f
. Polyeidus was astounded, but had the presence of mind to apply the same herb to the body of Glaucus, and with the same happy result. He and Glaucus then shouted loudly for help, until a passer-by heard them and ran to summon Minos, who was overjoyed when he opened the tomb and found his son alive. He loaded Polyeidus with gifts, but would not let him return to Argos until he had taught Glaucus the art of divination. Polyeidus unwillingly obeyed, and when he was about to sail home, told Glaucus: ‘Boy, spit into my open mouth!’ Glaucus did so, and immediately forgot all that he had learned.
⁵