The Classical Journal

498. These three are, Calchas the prophet, Idomeneus, and Sthenelus, who were buried in the forests of Cercaphus, a mountain of Colophon, near the river Hales. Calchas was doomed by the oracles to die whenever he found one more skilful than himself in divination: he was surpassed in a contest with Mopsus the son of Apollo, who foretold the number of young with which a sow was pregnant, which problem Calchas was unable to resolve.

504. Minos, the son of Jupiter, begot Deucalion, the father of Idomeneus, who on his return to Crete, after the destruction of Troy, was driven from the island by Leucus, to whom he had entrusted the guardianship of his family. (See verse 1422.) The Scholiast is mistaken when he supposes NO. XXVII. VOL. XIV.

CI. JI..

A

Shall sleep inurned, whom fabling Ethon feigned
His kinsman, when he wove the subtle tale.

The third, whose sire with more than mortal arm
Shook the strong walls of Thebes, but lightning flames
Rushed down, and on his head the fiery flood
Burst dreadful, launched from the red arm of Jove;
What time the Daughters of Tartarean Night
Rose sable-stoled, their eyes with Gorgon glare
Frowned on the brothers of their impious sire,
Scattering the flames of hate, the thirst of blood,
Infernal strife, and dire exchange of death.

505

510

515

Two near the streams of Pyramus shall fall
By mutual wounds; around each priestly head

The sacred fillet shall be dyed in gore:

I hear, beneath those towers where reigned the Queen,

Daughter of Pamphylus, I hear the twain

520

Raise the last shout of battailous delight:

I see Megarsus rising to the air

Between their tombs, that in the jaws of Death,

Purpled with blood, upon their hateful eyes

The hostile sepulchre may never gleam.
Five to Sphecéa, to Cerastia's heights,

525

he

Lycophron to say that Idomeneus wandered from Troy with Calchas; merely asserts them to have both been buried upon the same mountain. 505. Ulysses, on his return to Ithaca, assumed the name of Æthon, and gave himself out as the son of Deucalion and brother of Idomeneus.

Δεν καλίων δέ μ' ἔτικτε, καὶ Ιδομενῆς ἄνακτα,

̓Αλλ ̓ ὁ μὲν ἐν νήεσσι κορωνίσιν Ἴλιον εἴσω
Ὤιχετ ̓ ἅμ ̓ Ατρείδησιν, ἐμοὶ δ ̓ ὄνομα κλυτὸν Αἴθων.

Hoм. Od. T. 181.

!

507. Capaneus, the father of Sthenelus, was one of the seven chiefs who fought against Thebes; and while he boasted that he would take the city, even though the Gods should oppose him, he was blasted by the lightnings of Jupiter.

Ἤδη δ ̓ ὑπερβαίνοντα γεῖσσα τειχέων
Βάλλει κεραυνῷ Ζεύς νιν, ἐκτύπησέ δε
Χθών.

EURIP. Phoeniss.

513. Eteocles, and Polynices, the sons of Edipus by his incestuous marriage with Jocasta. In the same manner Sophocles has called Edipus ἀδελφὸς αὐτὸς καὶ πατήρ.

516. Mopsus, and Amphilochus, both priests of Apollo, died of mutual wounds on the banks of Pyramus, a river of Cilicia, according to Hesychius.

522. Megarsus is a town of Cilicia, according to Pliny, (others make it a mountain); so called from Megarsus the daughter of Pamphylus, who gave his name to Pamphylia. The sepulchres in which the prophets were buried were situated on opposite sides of the city.

526. Teucer, Agapenor, Acamas, Praxander, and Cepheus took refuge in Cyprus, which was formerly called Sphecéa, or Cerastia, which latter name is by some derived from xépara, “horns,” in allusion to the mountainous nature of the island: but according to others, Venus changed the

Libros

The Classical Journal, Volumen14