Encyclopedia of Greek and roman mytholoGy

encyclopedia of

Greek and Roman Mythology

Luke Roman and Monica Roman

Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology Copyright ? 2010 by Luke Roman and Monica Roman

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Roman, Luke. Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology / Luke Roman and Monica Roman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8160-7242-2 (hc : alk. paper) 1. Mythology, Classical--Encyclopedias. I. Roman,

Monica. II. Title. III. Title: Greek and Roman mythology. BL715.R65 2009 292.1'303--dc22 2009001235

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Contents

6

Introduction v

A-to-Z Entries 1

Selected Bibliography 525

Index 531

Introduction

6

This reference work is designed to provide concise summaries of the major figures of classical mythology, and, at the same time, synopses and discussions of major works of Greek and Roman literature from the eighth century b.c.e. through the second century c.e. While there are many reference works on classical mythology, the distinctive feature of this encyclopedia is the inclusion of extensive discussion of classical authors and literary works to enable the study of ancient mythology in the light of ancient literature. In addition, we have selectively documented the representation of the classical myths in visual art, ranging from ancient statues to famous paintings of the Renaissance and later eras. Myths were not narrated solely in verbal form, and the artistic representations often surprise us by emphasizing scenes or dimensions of a story less prominent or even omitted in textual versions. The underlying aim of this book is to enable the student to appreciate ancient myth in the light of ancient literature and fine art, rather than presenting myth as a fossilized set of stories abstracted from the multiple contexts of their telling.

Mythology and Literature in the Greek and Roman World

At the most basic level, myths are simply stories. The Greek word mythos, from which our word

myth comes, had various meanings, including "speech," "story," and, later, "myth" or "fable." In modern English, the term myth often implies a belief that is demonstrably false yet has nonetheless achieved widespread credence. Magazines and newspapers contrast myths with the true facts gleaned from scientific study. In the ancient world, by contrast, there was no strict, consistently applied division between mythic knowledge and rationally discovered truth. Ancient philosophers and historians in some instances challenge the authority of myth as a fundamental source of knowledge, but they do not wholly reject it.

For the archaic Greek poets Homer and Hesiod (ca. eighth/seventh century b.c.e.), the traditional stories constitute divinely inspired knowledge. The historian Herodotus (fifth century b.c.e.) never suggests that there is anything inherently false in traditional stories or myths; nor does he imply that there is any better basis for understanding history. The Athenian historian Thucydides (fifth century b.c.e.) does claim that he has methods for bringing greater accuracy to the study of history yet refers to Homer's Iliad in measuring the scale of past wars as a basis of comparison for the Peloponnesian War. There was no clear dividing line between history and myth; indeed, it is not clear that the ancients had a clearly defined category corresponding to our "myth." Rather,

vi

Introduction

there were inherited stories, above all the stories of the poets, and these stories were sometimes questionable and sometimes contained an element of truth.

It was never the case that the ancients simply believed their myths with dogmatic insistence. The divinely inspired Hesiod knew that the Muses mixed truth with falsehood. Yet the classical writers frequently refer to myths as a source of knowledge of the past, and they almost never categorically equate myth with falsehood. Ovid's Metamorphoses (ca. 8 c.e.), arguably the most sophisticated treatment of myth surviving from the ancient world, traces a series of transformations from the dawn of creation down to the apotheosis of Julius Caesar. Mythical figures such as Heracles, Midas, and Orpheus, Roman founder-figures such as Aeneas and Romulus, and the emerging mythology of the Roman imperial family all form part of a continuous narrative fabric. In Ovid's poem, the new myths of imperial power are not obviously or fundamentally different from the age-old stories of gods and heroes.

Philosophers mounted the most radical opposition to the authority of the traditional stories. In classical Greece, the poets, and above all Homer, were still considered the prime sources of knowledge. Homer offered not only precious insight into the past but also knowledge of the gods, religion, warfare, and proper conduct in all areas of life. It is therefore not surprising that Plato, as he strove to define a new kind of knowledge called philosophy, challenged the authority of poetry and the poets' stories. Even so, Plato does not forgo mythic modes of exposition altogether. Some of the more famous passages in Plato, such as the story of Er in the Republic, assume a mythic format. Plato is not so much banishing myth from the realm of rational discourse as inventing a new style of philosophical mythmaking. The Roman poet Lucretius (first century b.c.e.), a follower of the Greek philosopher Epicurus, continues the philosophical tradition of reworking inherited myths and fashioning new

philosophically informed myths in the name of an antitraditionalist form of knowledge.

The uses of myth inevitably change across different periods and contexts, but characterizing the nature of such change is not a straightforward undertaking. It is potentially misleading, for example, to suppose that classical authors' attitude toward and use of mythology became more sophisticated over time. There never was a phase of natural, unselfconscious mythmaking, despite the romantic tendency to posit one. Homeric epic itself represents an immensely sophisticated narrative undertaking based on the skilled manipulation of mythological traditions.

Yet while mythographical self-consciousness, narrative sophistication, and awareness of multiple, diverging mythic traditions appear to have been present in the earliest extant poetry, later centuries did contribute at least one crucial factor to the dissemination and reworking of myth: the institution of the library. The most famous library of the ancient world was the great library at Alexandria, Egypt, built and developed under the Ptolemies in the third and second centuries b.c.e. The Ptolemies patronized eminent writer/scholars, some of whom served as head librarians and worked on creating canonical texts of Greek literature (see Voyage of the Argonauts and Callimachus). This immense focus on literature forms part of a complex awareness of Greek culture in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great and subsequent division of the conquered territories among Greek ruling elites. Some scholars have employed the term "diaspora" to describe this sustained engagement with Greek culture in locations geographically removed from the original Greek city-states. The project of sustaining Greekness amid non-Greek native populations thus becomes inextricably related to the poet/scholar's erudition and the production of canonical texts, which in turn furnish material for further erudite poetic creations enriched with a dense fabric of literary allusions.

Introduction

vii

Mythology in this period thus became an object of study and literary display, as well as a key repository of Greekness. Mythography emerges as an area of study in its own right: Scholars, gifted with a vast library, are able to sift and compare different versions of myths and record them in texts of their own. One key arena of mythographical knowledge is the writing of scholia, or commentaries on classic works, which require, among other forms of attention, mythological elucidation. The postclassical period also saw the rise of new rationalizing interpretations of mythology such as the work of Euhemerus (fourth century b.c.e.), who saw the stories of the gods as being originally developed out of the deeds of great men. It was not modern scholars, then, who first developed methodologies for the interpretation of myth but the ancients themselves. Rationalizing approaches, however, did not constitute a rejection of myth per se, so much as a new mode of engagement with the inherited stories.

The increasingly cosmopolitan literary exploitation and perpetuation of myths deriving from the Greek city-states continued throughout the Roman period, above all in the period of the Second Sophistic. Lucian (second century c.e.) drew on mythic figures and situations with erudite humor in his dialogues and satirical sketches. Athenaeus (second/third century c.e.), in his Deipnosophistae (Philosophers at dinner), describes a series of banquets at which learned topics were discussed, including literature and mythology. Lucian was from Samosata in Syria, while Athenaeus hailed from Naucratis in Egypt. Greek culture by this period was a thoroughly cosmopolitan and diasporic phenomenon. Throughout the Roman period, mythology formed part of the body of knowledge that conferred the status of an educated person in the broader Mediterranean world.

One of the locations where Greek mythology flourished was, of course, Rome. The emperor Tiberius, while in retreat on the island of Rhodes, enjoyed discussing abstruse mythological questions, such as the name assumed by

Achilles on the island of Scyros while disguised as a girl, or the identity of Hecuba's mother. Yet as the example of Tiberius also illustrates, too much Greekness could be seen in Rome as a bad thing, despite the fact that Romans assimilated Greek culture throughout their history in voracious and sometimes brilliant fashion. A further layer of complexity arises in the question of Roman myths and gods. The Romans had their own gods, rites, and, to a certain extent, their own traditional stories. The Roman gods are popularly viewed as simply the "equivalent" of Greek gods. Yet Roman gods such as Jupiter and Juno enjoyed their own independent existence and cult as Italic deities. Over time, they were aligned with the Greek gods and merged on the mythological plane. This book does not offer separate entries on Zeus and Jupiter, since in mythology they are best viewed together, yet it is important to remember the process of syncretization, not simply the outcome of their (apparent) common origin.

Whether or not there can be said to be a distinctly Roman mythology is a matter of contention. There is little evidence for a narrative fabric of myths comparable to and autonomous of Greek mythology. The Roman myths that do exist--or, as they are often called, legends--concern quasi-historical figures, beginning with Romulus and including the great figures that people Livy's history, such as Camillus and Coriolanus. Yet this series of legends concerning the deeds of great men is clearly not quite the same thing as Greek mythology, with its stress on the supernatural and the interactions of men, gods, heroes, and monsters. Ultimately, the Romans come to integrate their own legendary history with the myths of the Greek city-states. Bridging figures, such as Aeneas, Heracles, Diomedes, Hippolytus, Evander, and Orestes, who, in some myths, travel from the Greek or Trojan world to Italy, and in some cases found cities, are particularly salient examples of such integration. The resultant fusion is called "classical mythology" by modern textbooks.

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