The Beautiful Helen

[3.9.1] Arcas had two sons, Elatus and Aphidas, by Leanira, daughter of Amyclas, or by Meganira, daughter of Croco, or, according to Eumelus, by a nymph Chrysopelia.

These divided the land between them.

But Elatus had all the power, and he begat Stymphalus and Pereus by Laodice, daughter of Cinyras, and Aphidas had a son Aleus and a daughter Stheneboea, who was married to Proetus.

Aleus had a daughter Auge and two sons, Cepheus and Lycurgus, by Neaera, daughter of Pereus. Auge was seduced by Hercules150 and hid her babe in the precinct of Athena, whose priesthood she held.

But the land remaining barren, and the oracles declaring that there was impiety in the precinct of Athena, she was detected and delivered by her father to Nauplius to be put to death, and from him Teuthras, prince of Mysia, received and married her.

But the babe, being exposed on Mount Parthenius, was suckled by a doe and hence called Telephus. Bred by the neatheards of Corythus, he went to Delphi in quest of his parents, and on information received from the god he repaired to Mysia and became an adopted son of Teuthras, on whose death he succeeded to the princedom.

[3.9.2] Lycurgus had sons, Ancaeus, Epochus, Amphidamas, and Iasus,151 by Cleophyle or Eurynome. And Amphidamas had a son Melanion and a daughter Antimache, whom Eurystheus married. And Iasus had a daughter Atalanta by Clymene, daughter of Minyas.

This Atalanta was exposed by her father, because he desired male children; and a she bear came often and gave her suck, till hunters found her and brought her up among themselves. Grown to womanhood, Atalanta kept herself a virgin, and hunting in the wilderness she remained always under arms. The centaurs Rhoecus and Hylaeus tried to force her, but were shot down and killed by her.

She went moreover with the chiefs to hunt the Calydonian boar, and at the games held in honor of Pelias she wrestled with Peleus and won. Afterwards she discovered her parents, but when her father would have persuaded her to wed, she went away to a place that might serve as a racecourse, and, having planted a stake three cubits high in the middle of it, she caused her wooers to race before her from there, and ran herself in arms; and if the wooer was caught up, his due was death on the spot, and if he was not caught up, his due was marriage. When many had already perished, Melanion came to run for love of her, bringing golden apples from Aphrodite,153 and being pursued he threw them down, and she, picking up the dropped fruit, was beaten in the race. So Melanion married her. And once on a time it is said that out hunting they entered into the precinct of Zeus, and there taking their fill of love were changed into lions.154 But Hesiod and some others have said that Atalanta was not a daughter of Iasus, but of Schoeneus; and Euripides says that she was a daughter of Maenalus, and that her husband was not Melanion but Hippomenes.155 And by Melanion, or Ares, Atalanta had a son Parthenopaeus, who went to the war against Thebes.156

[3.10.1] Atlas and Pleione, daughter of Ocean, had seven daughters called the Pleiades, born to them at Cyllene in Arcadia, to wit: Alcyone, Merope, Celaeno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia.157 Of these, Sterope was married to Oenomaus,158 and Merope to Sisyphus. And Poseidon had intercourse with two of them, first with Celaeno, by whom he had Lycus, whom Poseidon made to dwell in the Islands of the Blest, and second with Alcyone, who bore a daughter, Aethusa, the mother of Eleuther by Apollo, and two sons Hyrieus and Hyperenor. Hyrieus had Nycteus and Lycus by a nymph Clonia; and Nycteus had Antiope by Polyxo; and Antiope had Zethus and Amphion by Zeus.159 And Zeus consorted with the other daughters of Atlas.

[3.10.2] Maia, the eldest, as the fruit of her intercourse with Zeus, gave birth to Hermes in a cave of Cyllene.160 He was laid in swaddling-bands on the winnowing fan,161 but he slipped out and made his way to Pieria and stole the kine which Apollo was herding.162 And lest he should be detected by the tracks, he put shoes on their feet and brought them to Pylus, and hid the rest in a cave; but two he sacrificed and nailed the skins to rocks, while of the flesh he boiled and ate some,163 and some he burned. And quickly he departed to Cyllene. And before the cave he found a tortoise browsing. He cleaned it out, strung the shell with chords made from the kine he had sacrificed, and having thus produced a lyre he invented also a plectrum.164 But Apollo came to Pylus165 in search of the kine, and he questioned the inhabitants.

They said that they had seen a boy driving cattle, but could not say whither they had been driven, because they could find no track. Having discovered the thief by divination,166 Apollo came to Maia at Cyllene and accused Hermes.

But she showed him the child in his swaddling-bands. So Apollo brought him to Zeus, and claimed the kine; and when Zeus bade him restore them, Hermes denied that he had them, but not being believed he led Apollo to Pylus and restored the kine. Howbeit, when Apollo heard the lyre, he gave the kine in exchange for it. And while Hermes pastured them, he again made himself a shepherd’s pipe and piped on it.167 And wishing to get the pipe also, Apollo offered to give him the golden wand which he owned while he herded cattle.168 But Hermes wished both to get the wand for the pipe and to acquire the art of divination. So he gave the pipe and learned the art of divining by pebbles.169 And Zeus appointed him herald to himself and to the infernal gods.

[3.10.3] Taygete had by Zeus a son Lacedaemon, after whom the country of Lacedaemon is called.170 Lacedaemon and Sparta, daughter of Eurotas (who was a son of Lelex,171 a son of the soil, by a Naiad nymph Cleocharia), had a son Amyclas and a daughter Eurydice, whom Acrisius married. Amyclas and Diomede, daughter of Lapithus, had sons, Cynortes and Hyacinth.172 They say that this Hyacinth was beloved of Apollo and killed by him involuntarily with the cast of a quoit.173 Cynortes had a son Perieres, who married Gorgophone, daughter of Perseus, as Stesichorus says, and she bore Tyndareus, Icarius, Aphareus, and Leucippus.

Aphareus and Arene, daughter of Oebalus, had sons Lynceus and Idas and Pisus; but according to many, Idas is said to have been gotten by Poseidon. Lynceus excelled in sharpness of sight, so that he could even see things underground.

Leucippus had daughters, Hilaira and Phoebe: these the Dioscuri carried off and married.176 Besides them Leucippus begat Arsinoe: with her Apollo had intercourse, and she bore Aesculapius. But some affirm that Aesculapius was not a son of Arsinoe, daughter of Leucippus, but that he was a son of Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas in Thessaly.177 And they say that Apollo loved her and at once consorted with her, but that she, against her father’s judgment, preferred and cohabited with Ischys, brother of Caeneus. Apollo cursed the raven that brought the tidings and made him black instead of white, as he had been before; but he killed Coronis. As she was burning, he snatched the babe from the pyre and brought it to Chiron, the centaur,178 by whom he was brought up and taught the arts of healing and hunting.

Having become a surgeon, and carried the art to a great pitch, he not only prevented some from dying, but even raised up the dead; for he had received from Athena the blood that flowed from the veins of the Gorgon, and while he used the blood that flowed from the veins on the left side for the bane of mankind, he used the blood that flowed from the right side for salvation, and by that means he raised the dead.179 I found some who are reported to have been raised by him,180 to wit, Capaneus and Lycurgus,181 as Stesichorus says in the Eriphyle; Hippolytus,182 as the author of the Naupactica reports; Tyndareus, as Panyasis says183; Hymenaeus, as the Orphics report; and Glaucus, son of Minos,184 as Melesagoras relates.

[3.10.4] But Zeus, fearing that men might acquire the healing art from him and so come to the rescue of each other, smote him with a thunderbolt.185 Angry on that account, Apollo slew the Cyclopes who had fashioned the thunderbolt for Zeus.186 But Zeus would have hurled him to Tartarus; however, at the intercession of Latona he ordered him to serve as a thrall to a man for a year. So he went to Admetus, son of Pheres, at Pherae, and served him as a herdsman, and caused all the cows to drop twins.187

But some say that Aphareus and Leucippus were sons of Perieres, the son of Aeolus, and that Cynortes begat Perieres, and that Perieres begat Oebalus, and that Oebalus begat Tyndareus, Hippocoon, and Icarius by a Naiad nymph Batia.188

[3.10.5] Now Hippocoon had sons, to wit: Dorycleus, Scaeus, Enarophorus, Eutiches, Bucolus, Lycaethus, Tebrus, Hippothous, Eurytus, Hippocorystes, Alcinus, and Alcon. With the help of these sons Hippocoon expelled Icarius and Tyndareus from Lacedaemon.189 They fled to Thestius and allied themselves with him in the war which he waged with his neighbors; and Tyndareus married Leda, daughter of Thestius. But afterwards, when Hercules slew Hippocoon and his sons,190 they returned, and Tyndareus succeeded to the kingdom.

[3.10.6] Icarius and Periboea, a Naiad nymph,191 had five sons, Thoas, Damasippus, Imeusimus, Aletes, Perileos,192 and a daughter Penelope, whom Ulysses married.193 Tyndareus and Leda had daughters, to wit, Timandra, whom Echemus married,194 and Clytaemnestra, whom Agamemnon married; also another daughter Phylonoe, whom Artemis made immortal.

[3.10.7] But Zeus in the form of a swan consorted with Leda, and on the same night Tyndareus cohabited with her.

She bore Pollux and Helen to Zeus, and Castor and Clytaemnestra to Tyndareus.

But 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.

As the fruit of their loves she laid an egg, and a certain shepherd found it in the groves and brought and gave it to Leda.

She put it in a chest and kept it; and when Helen was hatched in due time, Leda brought her up as her own daughter.

When she grew into a lovely woman, Theseus carried her off and brought her to Aphidnae.

But when Theseus was in Hades, Pollux and Castor marched against Aphidnae, took the city, got possession of Helen, and led Aethra, the mother of Theseus, away captive.

[3.10.8] The kings of Greece repaired to Sparta to win the hand of Helen. The wooers were:

• Ulysses, son of Laertes
• Diomedes, son of Tydeus
• Antilochus, son of Nestor
• Agapenor, son of Ancaeus
• Sthenelus, son of Capaneus
• Amphimachus, son of Cteatus
• Thalpius, son of Eurytus
• Meges, son of Phyleus
• Amphilochus, son of Amphiaraus
• Menestheus, son of Peteos
• Schedius and Epistrophus, sons of Iphitus
• Polyxenus, son of Agasthenes
• Peneleos, son of Hippalcimus
• Leitus, son of Alector
• Ajax, son of Oileus
• Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, sons of Ares
• Elephenor, son of Chalcodon
• Eumelus, son of Admetus
• Polypoetes, son of Perithous
• Leonteus, son of Coronus
• Podalirius and Machaon, sons of Aesculapius
• Philoctetes, son of Poeas
• Eurypylus, son of Evaemon
• Protesilaus, son of Iphiclus
• Menelaus, son of Atreus
• Ajax and Teucer, sons of Telamon
• Patroclus, son of Menoetius

[3.10.9] Seeing the multitude of them, Tyndareus feared that the preference of one might set the others quarrelling.

But Ulysses promised that, if he would help him to win the hand of Penelope, he would suggest a way by which there would be no quarrel.

When Tyndareus promised to help him, Ulysses told him to exact an oath from all the suitors that they would defend the favoured bridegroom against any wrong that might be done him in respect of his marriage.

On hearing that, Tyndareus put the suitors on their oath, and while he chose Menelaus to be the bridegroom of Helen, he solicited Icarius to bestow Penelope on Ulysses.