Excursus: Daidalos and Icaros, and the death of Minos

¹²When Minos learned that Theseus and his companions had escaped, he enclosed Daidalos—who was to blame for it—in the Labyrinth, together with his son Icaros (who had been borne to him by Naucrate, a slave of Minos). But Daidalos constructed wings for himself and his son; and as his son took flight, he warned him not to fly too high, for fear that the glue would be melted by the sun and the wings would come loose, nor to fly too close to the sea, for fear that they would come loose because of the moisture. ¹³But Icaros disregarded his father’s instructions and in his elation soared higher and higher; and when the glue melted, he plunged into the sea which is named the Icarian Sea* because of him, and perished. [Daidalos for his part escaped safely to Camicos in Sicily.]

¹⁴Minos went in pursuit of Daidalos, and to every land that he visited on his search, he brought a spiral shell and proclaimed that he would give a large reward to the man who could draw a thread through it, thinking that by this means he would be able to discover Daidalos. Arriving at Camicos in Sicily, he visited the court of Cocalos, with whom Daidalos was hiding, and displayed the shell. Cocalos took the shell, promising that he would thread it, and gave it to Daidalos. ¹⁵Daidalos attached a thread to an ant, pierced a hole in the shell, and let the ant make its way through. When Minos received it back with the thread drawn through, he realized that Daidalos was staying with Cocalos and demanded at once that he be handed over. Cocalos promised to surrender him, and offered Minos his hospitality. But Minos was killed in his bath by the daughters of Cocalos; according to some, he died when boiling water was poured over him.

Theseus and the Amazons; Phaedra and Hippolytos

¹⁶Theseus accompanied Heracles on his expedition against the Amazons,* and he abducted Antiope, or according to some, Melanippe, or according to Simonides, Hippolyte. It was for that reason that the Amazons marched against Athens* and after they had pitched camp by the Areiopagos,* they were defeated by Theseus and the Athenians. Although he had a son, Hippolytos, by the Amazon, ¹⁷he afterwards accepted Phaedra, daughter of Minos, as a wife from Deucalion,* put ting an end to their previous hostility. During the wedding celebrations, the Amazon who had been formerly married to him arrived fully armed with her fellow Amazons, and was on the point of killing the guests; but they closed the doors with all speed, and killed her. Or, according to some, she was killed in battle by Theseus.

¹⁸After Phaedra had borne two children, Acamas and Demophon, to Theseus, she fell in love with Hippolytos, his son by the Amazon, and asked him to sleep with her.* But he hated all women* and shunned her embraces. So Phaedra, fearing that he might accuse her to his father, broke down the doors of her bedroom, ripped her clothing, and falsely accused him of rape. ¹⁹Theseus believed her and prayed to Poseidon for the destruction of Hippolytos. And when Hippolytos was riding in his chariot and drove it along the sea-shore,* Poseidon caused a bull to emerge from the breakers. The horses were panic-stricken and the chariot was dashed to pieces; and becoming entangled [in the reins], Hippolytos was dragged to his death. When Phaedra’s passion came to light, she hanged herself.

Theseus and Peirithoos

²⁰Ixion* conceived a passion for Hera and tried to take her by force. Hera reported the matter to Zeus; and Zeus, wanting to know whether it was really the case, fashioned a cloud in Hera’s likeness and laid it down beside Ixion. When Ixion boasted that he had slept with Hera, Zeus fastened him to a wheel on which, as a punishment, he is whirled through the air by the force of the winds. As for the cloud, it gave birth to Centauros, a child by Ixion.

²¹[Theseus joined Peirithoos* as an ally when he went to war against the Centaurs. For when Peirithoos had married Hippodameia, he had invited the Centaurs to the wedding feast as relatives of the bride.* But they were unaccustomed to wine, and drank it down so copiously that they became drunk; and when the bride was brought in, they tried to rape her. So Peirithoos took up arms, and aided by Theseus, engaged them in battle. Theseus killed a good number of them.]

²²Caineus was originally a woman, but after Poseidon had intercourse with her, she asked to become a man and to be invulnerable. For that reason, he had no concern for wounds during the battle with the Centaurs, and killed a large number of them. The survivors, however, surrounded him, and hammered him with fir trees until he was buried in the earth.*

²³Theseus came to an agreement with Peirithoos that both would marry daughters of Zeus. With the aid of Peirithoos, he abducted Helen (then aged twelve) from Sparta for himself, and then, in the hope of winning Persephone as a bride for Peirithoos, made his way down to Hades. [While he was there,] the Dioscuri, with the Lacedaimonians and Arcadians, captured Athens,* and recovered Helen; and with her, they took away Aithra,* the daughter of Pittheus, as a captive. But Demophon and Acamas escaped. The Dioscuri also brought Menestheus* back from exile and entrusted the throne of Athens to him. ²⁴When Theseus arrived in Hades with Peirithoos, he became the victim of a trick. For on the pretence that they were about to enjoy his hospitality as guests, Hades asked them to sit down first on the Chair of Forgetfulness; and they became stuck to it,* and were held down by coils of snakes. Peirithoos remained a prisoner in Hades ever after, but Heracles brought Theseus back to earth and sent him to Athens. He was driven from there by Menestheus, and went to Lycomedes,* who threw him into an abyss and killed him.

12. The Pelopids

Tantalos

¹The punishment suffered by Tantalos* in Hades is to have

2

a stone suspended over him, and remain perpetually in a lake, seeing at either side of his shoulders fruit-laden trees growing by its bank; the water grazes his chin, but when he wants to drink from it, the water dries up, and when he wants to feed from the fruit, the trees and their fruits are raised by winds as high as the clouds. It is said by some that he suffers this punishment because he divulged the secrets of the gods to men and tried to share ambrosia with his friends.*

²Broteas,* who was a hunter, failed to honour Artemis, and said that even fire could cause him no harm; so he went mad and threw himself into the fire.

Pelops and Hippodameia

³Pelops, after being slaughtered and boiled at the banquet of the gods, was more beautiful than ever when he was brought back to life again, and because of his remarkable beauty, he became the beloved of Poseidon, who gave him a winged chariot* which could run even across the sea without wetting its axles. ⁴Now Oinomaos, the king of Pisa,* had a daughter, Hippodameia, and whether it was because he had a passion for her, as some people say, or because he had been warned by an oracle that he would die at the hand of the man who married her, nobody was able to win her as his wife, since her father could not persuade her to have intercourse with him, and her suitors were put to death by him. ⁵For he possessed arms and horses given to him by Ares, and offered his daughter’s hand to the suitors as the prize in a contest. Each suitor had to take Hippodameia on his own chariot and flee as far as the Isthmus of Corinth, and Oinomaos would immediately pursue him in full armour. If Oinomaos caught up with the suitor, he killed him, but if the suitor were not overtaken, he would win Hippodameia as his wife. In this way, he had killed numerous suitors (twelve according to some accounts). And he cut off the suitors’ heads and nailed them to his house.