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Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica

The Returns

Fragment #1—Proclus, Chrestomathia, ii: After the Sack of Ilium follow the Returns in five books by Agias of Troezen. Their contents are as follows. Athena causes a quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus about the voyage from Troy. Agamemnon then stays on to appease the anger of Athena. Diomedes and Nestor put out to sea and get safely home. After them Menelaus sets out and reaches Egypt with five ships, the rest having been destroyed on the high seas. Those with Calchas, Leontes, and Polypoetes go by land to Colophon and bury Teiresias who died there. When Agamemnon and his followers were sailing away, the ghost of Achilles appeared and tried to prevent them by foretelling what should befall them. The storm at the rocks called Capherides is then described, with the end of Locrian Aias. Neoptolemus, warned by Thetis, journeys overland and, coming into Thrace, meets Odysseus at Maronea, and then finishes the rest of his journey after burying Phoenix who dies on the way. He himself is recognized by Peleus on reaching the Molossi.

Then comes the murder of Agamemnon by Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra, followed by the vengeance of Orestes and Pylades. Finally, Menelaus returns home.

Fragment #2—Argument to Euripides Medea: ‘Forthwith Medea made Aeson a sweet young boy and stripped his old age from him by her cunning skill, when she had made a brew of many herbs in her golden cauldrons.’

Fragment #3—Pausanias, i. 2: The story goes that Heracles was besieging Themiscyra on the Thermodon and could not take it; but Antiope, being in love with Theseus who was with Heracles on this expedition, betrayed the place. Hegias gives this account in his poem.

Fragment #4—Eustathius, 1796. 45: The Colophonian author of the Returns says that Telemachus afterwards married Circe, while Telegonus the son of Circe correspondingly married Penelope.

Fragment #5—Clement of Alex. Strom., vi. 2. 12. 8: ‘For gifts beguile men’s minds and their deeds as well.’ 1

Fragment #6—Pausanias, x. 28. 7: The poetry of Homer and the Returns—for here too there is an account of Hades and the terrors there—know of no spirit named Eurynomus.

Athenaeus, 281 B: The writer of the “Return of the Atreidae” 2 says that Tantalus came and lived with the gods, and was permitted to ask for whatever he desired. But the man was so immoderately given to pleasures that he asked for these and for a life like that of the gods. At this Zeus was annoyed, but fulfilled his prayer because of his own promise; but to prevent him from enjoying any of the pleasures provided, and to keep him continually harassed, he hung a stone over his head which prevents him from ever reaching any of the pleasant things near by.

THE TELEGONY

Fragment #1—Proclus, Chrestomathia, ii: After the Returns comes the Odyssey of Homer, and then the Telegony in two books by Eugammon of Cyrene, which contain the following matters. The suitors of Penelope are buried by their kinsmen, and Odysseus, after sacrificing to the Nymphs, sails to Elis to inspect his herds. He is entertained there by Polyxenus and receives a mixing bowl as a gift; the story of Trophonius and Agamedes and Augeas then follows. He next sails back to Ithaca and performs the sacrifices ordered by Teiresias, and then goes to Thesprotis where he marries Callidice, queen of the Thesprotians. A war then breaks out between the Thesprotians, led by Odysseus, and the Brygi. Ares routs the army of Odysseus and Athena engages with Ares, until Apollo separates them. After the death of Callidice Polypoetes, the son of Odysseus, succeeds to the kingdom, while Odysseus himself returns to Ithaca. In the meantime Telegonus, while travelling in search of his father, lands on Ithaca and ravages the island: Odysseus comes out to defend his country, but is killed by his son unwittingly. Telegonus, on learning his mistake, transports his father’s body with Penelope and Telemachus to his mother’s island, where Circe makes them immortal, and Telegonus marries Penelope, and Telemachus Circe.

Fragment #2—Eustathias, 1796. 35: The author of the Telegony, a Cyrenaean, relates that Odysseus had by Calypso a son Telegonus or Teledamus, and by Penelope Telemachus and Acusilaus.

THE EXPEDITION OF AMPHIARAUS

Fragment #1—Pseudo-Herodotus, Life of Homer: Sitting there in the tanner’s yard, Homer recited his poetry to them, the Expedition of Amphiarus to Thebes and the Hymns to the Gods composed by him.

THE TAKING OF OECHALIA

Fragment #1—Eustathius, 330. 41: An account has there been given of Eurytus and his daughter Iole, for whose sake Heracles sacked Oechalia. Homer also seems to have written on this subject, as that historian shows who relates that Creophylus of Samos once had Homer for his guest and for a reward received the attribution of the poem which they call the Taking of Oechalia. Some, however, assert the opposite; that Creophylus wrote the poem, and that Homer lent his name in return for his entertainment. And so Callimachus writes: ‘I am the work of that Samian who once received divine Homer in his house. I sing of Eurytus and all his woes and of golden-haired Ioleia, and am reputed one of Homer’s works. Dear Heaven! how great an honour this for Creophylus!’

Fragment #2—Cramer, Anec. Oxon. i. 327: ‘Ragged garments, even those which now you see.’ This verse (Odyssey xiv. 343) we shall also find in the Taking of Oechalia.

Fragment #3—Scholaist on Sophocles Trach., 266: There is a disagreement as to the number of the sons of Eurytus. For Hesiod says Eurytus and Antioche had as many as four sons; but Creophylus says two.

Fragment #4—Scholiast on Euripides Medea, 273: Didymus contrasts the following account given by Creophylus, which is as follows: while Medea was living in Corinth, she poisoned Creon, who was ruler of the city at that time, and because she feared his friends and kinsfolk, fled to Athens. However, since her sons were too young to go along with her, she left them at the altar of Hera Acraea, thinking that their father would see to their safety. But the relatives of Creon killed them and spread the story that Medea had killed her own children as well as Creon.

THE PHOCAIS

Fragment #1—Pseudo-Herodotus, Life of Homer: While living with Thestorides, Homer composed the Lesser Iliad and the Phocais; though the Phocaeans say that he composed the latter among them.

THE MARGITES

Fragment #1—Suidas, s.v.: Pigres. A Carian of Halicarnassus and brother of Artemisia, wife of Mausolus, who distinguished herself in war... 3 He also wrote the Margites attributed to Homer and the Battle of the Frogs and Mice.

Fragment #2—Atilius Fortunatianus, p. 286, Keil: ‘There came to Colophon an old man and divine singer, a servant of the Muses and of far-shooting Apollo. In his dear hands he held a sweet-toned lyre.’

Fragment #3—Plato, Alcib. ii. p. 147 A: ‘He knew many things but knew all badly...’

Aristotle, Nic. Eth. vi. 7, 1141: ‘The gods had taught him neither to dig nor to plough, nor any other skill; he failed in every craft.’

Fragment #4—Scholiast on Aeschines in Ctes., sec. 160: He refers to Margites, a man who, though well grown up, did not know whether it was his father or his mother who gave him birth, and would not lie with his wife, saying that he was afraid she might give a bad account of him to her mother.

Fragment #5—Zenobius, v. 68: ‘The fox knows many a wile; but the hedge-hog’s one trick 4 can beat them all.’ 5

THE CERCOPES

Fragment #1—Suidas, s.v.: Cercopes. These were two brothers living upon the earth who practised every kind of knavery. They were called Cercopes 6 because of their cunning doings: one of them was named Passalus and the other Acmon. Their mother, a daughter of Memnon, seeing their tricks, told them to keep clear of Black-bottom, that is, of Heracles. These Cercopes were sons of Theia and Ocean, and are said to have been turned to stone for trying to deceive Zeus.

‘Liars and cheats, skilled in deeds irremediable, accomplished knaves. Far over the world they roamed deceiving men as they wandered continually.’

Footnotes

  1. Clement attributes this line to Augias: probably Agias is intended. ↩

  2. Identical with the Returns, in which the Sons of Atreus occupy the most prominent parts. ↩

  3. This Artemisia, who distinguished herself at the battle of Salamis (Herodotus, vii. 99) is here confused with the later Artemisia, the wife of Mausolus, who died 350 B.C. ↩

  4. i.e. the fox knows many ways to baffle its foes, while the hedge-hog knows one only which is far more effectual. ↩

  5. Attributed to Homer by Zenobius, and by Bergk to the Margites. ↩

  6. i.e. ‘monkey-men’. ↩