Hesiod · Fragments Ἀποσπάσματα

Hesiod, Fragments 2.1–3.16: Marriage of Ceyx and the Great Eoiae

The Marriage of Ceyx has Heracles landing from the Argo to look for water and a feast with Ceyx. The Great Eoiae gives genealogies and local legends, among them Epidaurus, Hyettus and Mycene, and Melampus and the serpents.

English only: this edition has no Greek text for this passage.Fragments 2.1–3.16 · 1159 words · click a number to copy its link

Hesiod in the Marriage of Ceyx says that he (Heracles) landed (from the Argo) to look for water and was left behind in Magnesia near the place called: Aphetae because of his desertion there.

Hesiod used the proverb in the following way: Heracles is represented as having constantly visited the house of Ceyx of Trachis and spoken thus:

“Of their own selves the good make for the feasts of the good.”

“And horse-driving Ceyx beholding ....”

Hesiod in the Marriage of Ceyx—for though grammar-school boys alienate it from the poet, yet I consider the poem ancient—calls the tables tripods.

“But when they had done with desire for the equal-shared feast, even then they brought from the forest the mother of a mother (sc. wood), dry and parched, to be slain by her own children” (sc. to be burnt in the flames).

Epidaurus. According to the opinion of the Argives and the epic poem, the Great Eoiae, Argos® the son of Zeus was father of Epidaurus.

And, they say, Hesiod is sufficient to prove that the word poneros (bad) has the same sense as “laborious” or “ ill-fated”; for in the Great Eoiae he represents Alcmene as saying to Heracles:

“My son, truly Zeus your father begot you to be the most toilful as the most excellent.

and again:

“The Fates (made) you the most toilful and the most excellent...”

The story has’ been taken from the Great Eoiae; for there we find Heracles entertained by Telamon, standing dressed in his lion-skin and praying, and there also we find the eagle sent by Zeus, from which Aias took his name.

But I know that the so-called Great Eoiae say that Polycaon the son of Butes married Euaechme, daughter of Hyllus, Heracles’ son.

“And Phylas wedded Leipephile the daughter of famous Iolaus: and she was like the Olympians in beauty. She bare him a son. Hippotades. in the palace, and comely Thero who was like the beams of the moon. And Thero lay in the embrace of Apollo and bare horse-taming Chaeron of hardy strength.”

“Or like her in, Hyria,-careful-minded Mecionice, who. was joined in the’! love of golden Aphrodite with the Earth-holder and Earth-Shaker, and bare Euphemus.”

“And Hyettus killed Molurus the dear son of Aristas in his house because he lay with his wife. Then he left, his home and fled from horse-rearing Argos and came to Minyan Orchomenus. And the hero received him and gave him a portion of his goods, as was fitting.”

But in the Great Eoiae Peirene is represented to be the daughter of Oebalus.

The epic poem, which the Greek call the Great Eoiae, says that she (Mycene) was the daughter of

Inachus and wife of Arestor: from her, then, it is said, the city received its name.

According to the poem the Great Eoiae, these were killed by Oenomius!: Alcathous the son of Porthaon next after Marmax, and after Alcathous, Euryalus, Eurymachus and Crotalus. The: +man killed next after them, Acrias, we should judge to have been a Lacedemonian and founder of <Acria. And after Acrias, they say, Capetus was done to death by Oenomius, and Lycurgus, Lasius, Chalcodon and Tricolonus:'. .. And after Tricolonus fate overtook Aristomachus and Prias on the course, as also. Pelagon and Aeolius and Cronius.

In the Great it is said that Endymion was transported by Zeus into heaven, but when he fell in love with Hera, was befooled with a shape of cloud, and was cast out and went down into Hades.

the Great Eoiae it is related that Melampus, who was very dear to Apollo, went abroad and stayed with Polyphantes. But when the king had sacrificed an ox, a serpent crept up to the sacrifice and

destroyed his servants. At this the king was angry and killed the serpent, but Melampus took and buried it. And its offspring, brought up by him, used to lick his ears and inspire him with prophecy. And so, when he was caught while trying to steal the cows of Iphiclus and taken bound to the city of Aegina, and when the house, in which Iphiclus was, was about to fall, he told an old woman, one the servants of Iphiclus, and in return was released.

en 13. In: the Great Eoiae Scylla is the daughter. of Phoebus and Hecate.:

Hesiod in the Great Eoiae says that Phineus was blinded because he told Phrixus the way.

Argus.’ This is one of the children of Phrixus. These ... . Hesiod in the Great Eoiae says were born of Iophossa the daughter of Aeétes. And he says there were four of them, Argus, Phrontis, Melas, and Cytisorus.

Battus. Hesiod tells. the story in the Great Eoiae. . . . Magnes was the son of Argus, the son of Phrixus and Perimele, Admetus’ daughter, and

lived in the region of Thessaly, in the land which men called after him Magnesia. He had a son of remarkable beauty, Hymenaeus. And: when Apollo saw the boy, he was seized with love for him, and would not leave the house of Magnes. Then Hermes made designs on Apollo's herd of cattle which were grazing in the same place as the cattle of Admetus. First he cast upon the dogs which were guarding them a stupor and strangles, so that the dogs forgot the cows and lost the power of barking. Then he drove away twelve heifers and a hundred cows never yoked, and the bull who mounted the cows, fastening to the tail of each one brushwood to wipe out the footmarks of the cows. He drove them .through the country of the Pelasgi, and Achaea in the land of Phthia, and through Locris, and Boeotia and Megaris, and thence into Peloponnesus by way of Corinth and Larissa, until he brought them to Tegea. From there he went on by the Lycaean mountains, and past Maenalus and - what are. called the watch-posts of Battus.. Now this Battus used to live on the top of the rock and when he heard the voice of the heifers as they were being driven past, he came out from his own place, and knew that the cattle were stolen. So he asked, for a reward to tell no one about, them. Hermes promised to give it him on these terms, and Battus swore to say, nothing to anyone about the cattle. But when Hermes had hidden them in the cliff by Coryphasium, and had driven them into a cave facing towards Italy and Sicily, he changed himself and came again to Battus and tried whether he would be true to him as he had vowed. So, offering

him a robe as a reward, he asked of him whether he had noticed. stolen cattle being driven past. And Battus took the robe and told him about the cattle. But Hermes was angry because he was double-tongued, and struck him with his staff and changed him into a rock. . And either frost or heat never leaves him.!

People and places in this passage

English translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914). Original text: Hugh G. Evelyn-White (transl.), Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica, Loeb Classical Library, London: William Heinemann; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1914 (English only; the facing Greek is not reproduced).

Text layer: Public domain (translator died 1924); text recovered by OCR from the Internet Archive scan. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.

Fragments 2.1–3.16: Marriage of Ceyx and the Great Eoiae