harmful beasts: snakes, scorpions, and millipedes, according to AL 41; Pasiphae was his wife.
a fast-running dog: for its subsequent fate, see p. 70, and note.
the Circaean root: this came from a plant of the milkweed family, but here it is clearly viewed as a magical charm rather than a herbal remedy. In AL 41 she finds a mechanical solution, by ensuring that the beasts are discharged into a goat’s bladder before Minos has intercourse with her.
by the River Ilissos, Boreas carried her off: not far from Athens, see Plato Phdr. 229a ff., where there is a vivid description of the locality (and Socrates makes some shrewd comments on the rationalization of such myths), and AR 1. 211 ff. There was an alternative tradition that she was abducted from the Acropolis and conveyed to Thrace to become his wife (sc. Od. 14. 533). Boreas was the North Wind.
while pursuing the Harpies: see p. 52 and note.
killed by Heracles: for persuading the Argonauts not to return for him when he was left behind in Mysia (AR 1. 1298 ff; for Heracles’ abandonment, see p. 51).
married Idaia . . . punished him for this: this version of the story, in which Idaia brings a false accusation against her adult stepsons, follows Sophocles’ lost Phineus(sc. AR 2. 178); in another version, she blinds them herself while they are still young with a weaving pin (see Soph. Antigone970 ff.). Boreas’ presence with the Argonauts is unusual, but DS (4. 44. 4, cf. Serv. on Am. 3. 209) records that according to some mythographers (presumably following the Phineus)Phineus blinded his sons and was blinded in turn by Boreas (as the father of Phineus’ first wife, Cleopatra). For another version again, see DS 4. 43. 3 ff. (cf. sc. AR 2. 207).
fled to the Eleusinians: and became closely associated with the Mysteries. He was the eponymous ancestor of the priestly family of the Eumolpidai, which provided the hierophant who presided over the rites and revealed the mysteries to the initiates.
Poseidon destroyed Erechtheus: because the Athenians under Erechtheus had killed Eumolpos, his son (cf. Eur. Ion281 f.). The story is presumably connected with the origin of the Poseidon-Erechtheus cult, p. 136, in which the god and the heroized Erechtheus shared the same shrine (P. 1. 26. 6).
transferred the kingdom to Pandion: see also P. 1. S. 3 and 1. 39. 4; Pandion’s tomb could be seen in Megara.
founded . . . Pylos: the Elian Pylos in the north-western Peloponnese. See also P. 6. 22. 5 and 4. 36. 1.
Pytho: Delphi.
mouth of the wineskin: the wineskin stands for his stomach, and its mouth or neck for his penis (cf. sc. Eur. Med. 679, which reports that the Greek word for the mouth of a wineskin, podeon, was often used in such a senst,, i” he sleeps with another woman before he returns to the height of Athens, meaning the Acropolis, he will have a male child by her rather than by his wife.
by way of Troezen: south of the Isthmus in the Argolid, and thus well out of his way; Plut. Thes. 2suggests that he went there to consult Pittheus about the oracle. For the place of Pittheus in Troezenian mythology, see P. 2. 30. 5 ff.; he later adopts Theseus’ son Hippolytos, see p. 142 and note.
Poseidon slept with her too: this paternity is associated with a specific story told in Bacch. 17. 33 ff. (cf. P. 1. 17. 3). When Minos wanted to sleep with one of the Athenian girls from the tribute (see p. 137), Theseus withstood him, claiming to be the son of Poseidon; and to prove this, he leapt into the sea and recovered a golden ring thrown there by Minos, and was also given a magnificent crown by Poseidon’s wife Amphitrite (which later became a constellation, Hyg. PA5).
the bull of Marathon: for its origins, see p. 77 and note. Theseus will kill it, p. 139. Here Androgeos is sent to almost certain death; or he was treacherously murdered (cf. Plut. Thes. 15, and DS 4. 60. 5, where Aigeus fears Androgeos’ friendship with his enemies, the sons of Pallas). The following story of the ambush, which absolves Aigeus from blame, was probably of relatively late origin. See also P. 1. 27. 10.
Megareus: he came with an army of Boeotians, was buried where he was killed, and the city, formerly called Nisa, was named Megara after him (see P. 1. 39. 5; this was a Boeotian tradition, apparently followed here); he was often said to be a son of Poseidon. Megara lay on the Isthmus of Corinth, bordering Attica.
drowned her: because he was shocked by her betrayal of her father and city (cf. P. 2. 34. 7, and the similar story on p. 70). In Aesch. Choephoroi612 ff, Minos is said to have bribed Scylla with bracelets of Cretan gold.
Their father, Hyacinthos: not the famous Hyacinthos who was loved by Apollo, p. 119.
labyrinth: see p. 98.
snake’s jawbone: cf. DS 4. 76. 5 f, this led to the invention of the iron saw.
Theseus: see Plutarch’s life of Theseus for a fuller account of all the following, with many variants. Theseus was said to have founded the Attic state by incorporating the communities outside the city of Athens (Thuc. 2. 15; Plut. Thes. 24).
the sandals and the sword: the tokens of his birth, see p. 136.
cleared the road: a series of labours, emulating those of Heracles (cf. DS 4. 59. 1), which establishes his heroic status. For the earliest account, see Bacch. 18. 16 ff.
was referred to as Corynetes: a descriptive surname or nickname (as with Pityocamptes below) rather than a proper name; it was doubtless suggested by Il. 7. 138. It seems fitting that a son of the lame god Hephaistos should have weak feet, although this is otherwise unattested.
hurled into the air: or he attached the extremities of his victims to two trees, causing them to be torn apart when the trees were released (P. 2. 1. 4, DS 4. 59. 3; in Hyg. 38 Sinis helps them to bend a tree back and they are thrown up when he lets go).
Polypemon: as in Bacch. 18. 27, but he is more familiar as Procroustes (e.g. P. 1. 38. 5; this may have been mentioned in the full text as a descriptive surname like those above, meaning ‘he who beats out’). In DS 4. 59. 5 the travellers are adjusted to fit a single bed. In Hyg. 38, he stretches the legs of the short men by hanging anvils from them.