Gaius Julius Hyginus

LP0059 - The Fables of Love - Asterie to Oedipus, from Hyginus' Fabulae

• Report rights infringement
• published: 01 Jan 2017
• views: 51

Legendary Passages #0059 - The Fables of Love - Asterie to Oedipus, from Hyginus' Fabulae. Last time we covered parallel stories from Greece and Rome. This time we cover Asterie, Thetis, and Tityus; Busiris, Stheneboea, and Smyrna; Phyllis, Sisyphus and Salmoneus; Danae, Andromeda, and Alcyone; and finally Laius and his son Oedipus. Next time, the tragic tales of The Daughters of Thebes. http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae2.html#53 The Fables of Love, a Legendary Passage, from Hyginus' Fabulae, translated by Mary Grant. [53] - [67] LIII. ASTERIE Though Jove loved Asterie, daughter of Titan, she scorned him. Therefore she was transformed into the bird ortux, which we call a quail, and he cast her into the sea. From her an island sprang up, which was named Ortygia. This was floating. Later Latona was borne there at Jove’s command by the wind Aquilo, at the time when the Python was pursuing her, and there, clinging to an olive, she gave birth to Apollo and Diana. This island later was called Delos. LIV. THETIS A prediction about Thetis, the Nereid, was that her son would be greater than his father. Since no one but Prometheus knew this, and Jove wished to lie with her, Prometheus promised Jove that he would give him timely warning if he would free him from his chains. And so when the promise was given he advised Jove not to lie with Thetis, for if one greater than he were born he might drive Jove from his kingdom, as he himself had done to Saturn. And so Thetis was given in marriage to Peleus, son of Aeacus, and Hercules was sent to kill the eagle which was eating out Prometheus’ heart. When it was killed, Prometheus after thirty thousand years was freed from Mount Caucasus. LV. TITYUS Because Latona had lain with Jove, Juno ordered Tityus, a creature of immense size, to offer violence to her. When he tried to do this he was slain by the thunderbolt of Jove. He is said to lie stretched out over nine acres in the Land of the Dead, and a serpent is put near him to eat out his liver, which grows again with the moon. LVI. BUSIRIS In Egypt in the land of Busiris, son of Neptune, when there was a famine, and Egypt had been parched for nine years, the king summoned augurs from Greece. Thrasius, his brother Pygmalion’s son, announced that rains would come if a foreigner were sacrificed, and proved his words when he himself was sacrificed. LVII. STHENEBOEA When Bellerophon had come as an exile to the court of King Proetus, Stheneboea, the King’s wife, fell in love with him. On his refusal to lie with her, she falsely told her husband she had been forced by him. But Proetus, hearing this, wrote a letter about it, and sent him to Iobates, Stheneboea’s father. After reading the letter, Iobates was reluctant to kill such a hero, but sent him to kill the Chimaera, a three-formed creature said to breathe forth fire. [Likewise: forepart lion, rearpart snake, middle she-goat.] This he slew, riding on Pegasus, and he is said to have fallen in the Aleian plains and have dislocated his hip. But the king, praising his valor, gave him his other daughter in marriage, and Stheneboea, hearing of it, killed herself. LVIII. SMYRNA Smyrna was the daughter of Cinyras, King of the Assyrians, and Cenchreis. Her mother Cenchreis boasted proudly that her daughter excelled Venus in beauty. Venus, to punish the mother, sent forbidden love to Smyrna so that she loved her own father. The nurse prevented her from hanging herself, and without knowledge of her father, helped her lie with him. She conceived, and goaded by shame, in order not to reveal her fault, hid in the woods. Venus later pitied her, and changed her into a kind of tree from which myrrh flows; Adonis, born from it, exacted punishment for his mother's sake from Venus.