Adamantine sickle 1. This sickle was made by
Gaia and given by her to
Cronos, who attacked his father
Uranus, cut off his genitals and threw them into the sea behind him; and with them he also threw away the sickle at Cape Drepanum (see also Castration of Uranus) (Apd.1.1.4; Hes.The.159ff.; Pau.7.23.4).
Adamantine sickle 2. This sickle was given to
Perseus 1 by
Hermes, when he went to kill
Medusa 1 (Apd.2.4.2).
Adamantine sickle 3. Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and when they were close, the god struck him down with an adamantine sickle. However Typhon wrested the sickle from him, severed the sinews of his hands and feet, and lifting him on his shoulders carried him through the sea to Cilicia in Asia Minor and deposited him on arrival inside the Corycian cave (the description of this fight is at Zeus) (Apd.1.6.2).
Altar. The Altar (see Constellations &
Stars) was made by the CYCLOPES. On it the gods made
offerings when they were about to fight against the
TITANS (Hyg.Ast.2.39).
Ambrosia & Nectar. The gods neither eat bread nor drink
wine, and that is why they are
bloodless. Instead they drink and eat Nectar and Ambrosia,
and their blood is called Ichor (see below). So, for example Leto did not give
Apollo her breast, but
Themis poured nectar and ambrosia with her hands. Even though some have considered nectar as a drink, others say that the gods eat nectar: "I eat nectar, chewing
it well, and I drink now and then ambrosia."
(Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 2.39a). Otherwise ambrosia is eaten. For when
Aphrodite returned with
Iris 1 to Olympus from the
battlefield at Troy it is said that:
"… Iris stayed the horses and loosed them from the
car, and cast before them ambrosia to eat." (Homer, Iliad 5.369). Likewise, when Athena and
Hera descended from Olympus to the Trojan battlefield, "… Hera stopped her horses…and Simois made ambrosia spring up for them to eat." (Homer, Iliad 5.775). And this is what was believed later on. For Damis is reported to have said to his master Apollonius: "If banquets there be
of gods, and gods take food, surely they must have
attendants whose business it is that not even the parcels of
ambrosia that fall to the ground should be lost."
(Flavius Philostratus, Life
of Apollonius of Tyana 1.19). And nectar is drunk: when
Demeter was troubled with the
disappearance of Persephone, she came to the house of Astraeus 1, being there welcomed by the WINDS, who served her refreshing cups of nectar. Later Boreas 1 brought the ambrosia and set it on the table. In similar way, Ganymedes is said to draw the delicious nectar from a mixing-bowl, and carry it round at the feasts of the gods. In any case, it is ambrosia and nectar what the gods
consume, and if they were deprived of them they would become
breathless, and lie down spiritless and voiceless. And when
Zeus took the
HECATONCHEIRES as allies
against the TITANS bringing them
up from the Underworld where they had been imprisoned, he provided them with nectar and ambrosia, thus reviving their spirit. Mortals, on the other hand, are not normally allowed to
taste them, and Tantalus 1, who
was made immortal with nectar and ambrosia by the gods, is
now being punished in the
Underworld for having stolen
the divine food and drink. Yet it is said that
Athena mixed ambrosia, and brought
it to those who were hidden in the
WOODEN HORSE to appease their hunger. Because of the properties of ambrosia, which some say it
is nine times sweeter than honey (Ath.2.39), it may also be
used for preservation; for Thetis shed ambrosia and nectar
through the dead Patroclus 1's
nostrils, so that his flesh might keep hale. She also
anointed her son Achilles with
ambrosia to help destroy the mortal element which the child
had inherited from its father
Peleus. Likewise, the fragrance of
ambrosia protects effectively against disagreeable stench,
as experienced by Menelaus when
he plotted an ambush against Proteus 2 hiding himself under the skins of seals, whose stench was destroyed by the sweet fragrance of the ambrosia that Eidothea 1 placed beneath his nose (Apd.3.13.6; Apd.Ep.2.1; Hes.The.640, 790ff.; Hom.Apo.3.123; Hom.Il.5.369, 5.777, 19.37; Hom.Od.4.445; Nonn.6.25ff., 27.245, 31.254; Pin.Oly.1.60ff.; Try.185ff.).
Apple of Eris. Zeus invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis all the gods except Eris. Nevertheless she came, and not being admitted to the banquet, she threw an apple through the door with the inscription "For the fairest". The apple became then a prize of beauty which was contended for by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, who were led by Hermes to Mount Ida, near Troy, in order to be judged by the shepherd Paris, who after this turned into both prince and seducer. It has been said that this apple is one of the Apples of the HESPERIDES (Apd.Ep.3.2; Col.59; Hyg.Fab.92).
Apples of the HESPERIDES. To fetch the Golden Apples of the HESPERIDES was one of the twelve LABOURS, which Eurystheus ordered Heracles 1 to perform. These apples were found among the Hyperboreans, say some, or in Libya, say others. They were presented by Gaia to Zeus after his marriage with Hera, and guarded by an immortal dragon with a hundred heads (Apd.2.5.11; Arg.4.1396; Dio.4.26.2; Eur.Her.394ff.; Hes.The.215ff.; Hyg.Ast.2.3; Hyg.Fab.30; Ov.Met.9.190; Pau.5.11.6, 5.18.4, 6.19.8).
Argo. The Argo was the ship of the
ARGONAUTS. This vessel
possessed speech, because at its prow
Athena fitted in a speaking
timber. It might have caused the death of
Jason, when a part of its wreck
fell upon his head, if Medea's prophecy was ever fulfilled (Apd.1.9.16; Arg.1.525, 4.592; Eur.Med.1386).
Bed of Helius. This bed,
hollow and with wings, was forged of gold by
Hephaestus. In it
Helius is carried in sleep from the west to the east (Mimn.8).
Belt of Aphrodite.
When during the Trojan War
Hera wished to delude
Zeus by seducing him, she obtained
for that purpose the belt of
Aphrodite from this goddess. In the belt are wrought allurements such as love, desire, dalliance, and beguilement (Hom.Il.14.153ff., 14.214).
Belt of Hippolyte 2. To fetch the Belt of this
Amazon, which was the Belt of Ares,
was one of the twelve
LABOURS that
Eurystheus ordered
Heracles 1 to perform. This
labour was conceived to please
Eurystheus' daughter Admete 2, who desired to get the belt (Apd.2.5.9).
Bone of Pelops 1. When
Pelops 1 had been slain, cut up
by his father, and served as a meal at a feast of the gods,
Demeter, unwittingly ate his arm.
However, when the gods discovered what had been on the menu,
they restored Pelops 1 to life
again. All his limbs were then joined together as they had
been, but the shoulder was not complete, and so
Demeter fitted an ivory one in
its place. Much later, during the
Trojan War, the Trojan seer
Helenus 1 was captured by the
Achaeans, and forced to tell how
Troy could be taken. One condition
was to bring the Bone of Pelops 1, a shoulder blade; so the Achaeans brought it from
Pisa, in Elis. When the war was over
and the Achaeans were returning home from
Troy, the ship carrying the bone was
wrecked off Euboea in a storm, but many years later,
Damarmenus, a fisherman from Eretria in Euboea, drew it up.
He first, marvelling at its size, kept it hidden in the
sand, but later the bone was given to the Eleans, following
instructions of the Oracle in
Delphi (Apd.Ep.5.10; Hyg.Fab.83; Pau.5.13.4ff.; Pin.Oly.1.24ff.).
Bow and arrows of Heracles 1. When Heracles 1 had
chopped off the immortal head of the Hydra and buried it, he
slit up the body of the beast and dipped his arrows in the
gall. One of this now poisoned arrows wounded the Centaur
Chiron when
Heracles 1, fighting with the
CENTAURS, shot him by accident.
Heracles 1 drew out the arrow
and applied a medicine that Chiron
himself prescribed, but the wound was incurable, and
Chiron retired to his cave wishing
to die without being able to. It was then that
Prometheus 1 offered himself
to Zeus to be immortal in his stead,
and so Chiron died. On a later
occasion, Heracles 1 shot Nessus 2 when this centaur tried to rape his wife Deianira 1. Now, before dying, Nessus 2 gave the woman an amulet containing his spilt blood, saying that it was a love charm which would help her to keep Heracles 1 with her. Deianira 1 kept the charm, and when later she learned about the love affair between her husband and Iole, she smeared a tunic with it and gave it to Heracles 1, but when he put it on, the poison of the Hydra began
to corrode his skin. Heracles 1
then understood that he was going to die, and having
ascended the funeral pyre, he asked each one who passed by
to put fire to the pyre, but nobody had the courage to do it
until Philoctetes' father
Poeas, passing by to look for his flocks, set a light to it.
On him Heracles 1 bestowed his
bow, although some say that
Philoctetes himself lighted
the pyre and received, in return for his compliance, the bow
and arrows of Heracles 1. Now,
on his way to the Trojan War
the army landed in Tenedos and there a snake bit
Philoctetes, who was in the
expedition. As the wound did not heal and nobody could
endure the stench, the army put him ashore on the island of
Lemnos along with the Bow &
Arrows of Heracles 1, which
were in his possession. In Lemnos,
Philoctetes survived in the
wilderness by shooting birds with the bow. But when the
prophecy was uttered, which declared that the Achaeans could
not win the war without the Bow & Arrows of Heracles 1, the army sent
Odysseus and
Diomedes 2 (some say
Neoptolemus) to
Philoctetes in
Lemnos, and having by craft got
possession of the bow and the arrows, they persuaded him to
sail to Troy. Back in the war,
Philoctetes shot
Paris dead with his bow and arrows.
After the sack of Troy,
Philoctetes returned home to
Meliboea, a city in Thessaly, only to discover that there
was a sedition there. So not being able to stay at home, he
emigrated to Campania in Italy, and after making war on the
Lucanians, he settled in Crimissa in southern Italy, near
Croton and Thurium, where he founded a sanctuary of
Apollo, to whom he dedicated the bow (Apd.2.5.2, 2.5.4, 2.7.7, 3.12.6; Apd.Ep.3.27, 5.8, 5.15b; Dio.4.38.4; Hyg.Fab.102; Ov.Met.229; Soph.Phi.604ff.).
Bow of Odysseus. The
bow with which Odysseus
massacred the SUITORS OF
PENELOPE had been originally given to Eurytus 4 by Apollo. Eurytus 4 was a Prince of Oechalia, a city of doubtful location that could be in Euboea, Thessaly, or Messenia. He was son of the archer Melaneus 5, himself son of Apollo. When Eurytus 4 died, he left the bow to his son Iphitus 1, the man whom Heracles 1 threw from the walls of Tiryns; but before this, Iphitus 1 gave Odysseus the bow. As it is said,
this bow Odysseus, when going to
war, would never take with him, letting it lie in his halls
at home. When the SUITORS
were pestering Penelope with
their demands of marriage, she delivered the bow to them,
saying that she would marry him who bent it and shot the
marks. When none of them could bend the bow,
Odysseus, who was disguised as a
beggar, took it and shot down the
SUITORS (Apd.Ep.7.33; Arg.1.87; Hom.Od.21.30ff., 21.67ff., 21.140ff., 21.409; Hyg.Fab.126).
Brazen Castanets. When
Heracles 1 could not drive the
Stymphalian Birds from the wood,
Athena, they say, gave him brazen
castanets, which she had received from
Hephaestus. By clashing these
on a certain mountain, he scared the birds that could not
abide the sound. And when they were fluttering up in a
fright, Heracles 1 shot them dead (Apd.2.5.6).
Brazen Shield. A helpful weapon use by
Perseus 1, which he used in
order to behead Medusa 1. As this monster turned into stone those who beheld them, he, in order to behead her, looked instead at her image reflected on this shield (Apd.2.4.2; Ov.Met.4.782).
Bull's Hide. King Hyrieus of Thrace received
Zeus,
Poseidon, and
Hermes as guests, and he treated
them so well that they promised him whatever he should ask
for. When the king asked for children,
Hermes brought out the hide of the
bull which Hyrieus had sacrificed to them and the gods
urinated in it, burying it afterwards in the earth. From it,
some say, Orion was born (Hyg.Fab.195).
Chair of Forgetfulness. This chair is in the
Underworld. It is known that
on the occasion when Pirithous
and Theseus descended to the
Underworld so that the former
could wed Persephone,
Hades bade both of them to be
seated on the Chair of Forgetfulness, where they were held
fast by coils of serpents. Apparently
Pirithous remained bound for
ever, but Heracles 1, they say,
brought Theseus up, and sent him
to Athens (Apd.Ep.1.24).
Dancing-floor for
Ariadne. This is one of the
architectonic marvels of
Daedalus, which he designed for
Ariadne in the town of Cnossus in
Crete (Hom.Il.18.591).
Dart-That-Flew-Straight. This is one of the bribes
that Minos 2 gave
Procris 2 so that she would
share his bed. Others have said, however, that she received
it from Artemis. In any case,
after Procris 2 gave the dart to her husband Cephalus 1, she was accidentally killed by him with the same dart (Apd.3.15.1; Lib.Met.41; Ov.Met.7.55, 7.681ff.).
Dragon's Teeth. This dragon guarded a spring near
Thebes, and destroyed most of
those that came for water. But
Cadmus killed it, and following
Athena's advice sowed its teeth.
Then there rose from the ground armed men called
SPARTI. Later King
Aeetes of Colchis, who had
received from Athena half of the
dragon's teeth, ordered Jason to
yoke two wild bulls and sow them as
Cadmus had done. And when
Jason had sown the teeth, once again armed men rose from the ground (Apd.3.4.1, 1.9.23; Hyg.Fab.178; Ov.Met.3.101).
Dragon-chariot of Medea. When
Medea had killed her children with
Jason, she left
Corinth and fled to
Athens on a chariot drawn by
winged dragons that she had got from
Helius (Apd.1.9.28; Eur.Med.1320; Hyg.Fab.26; Ov.Met.7.391).
Dragon-chariot of
Triptolemus.
Demeter gave
Triptolemus wheat, and made for him a chariot of winged dragons, with which, flying through the sky, he sowed the whole inhabited earth (Apd.1.5.2; Hyg.Ast.2.14; Ov.Fast.4.561; Hyg.Fab.147).
Ephemeral fruits. With the help of these seldom
mentioned fruits, the MOERAE beguiled Typhon, letting him taste the ephemeral fruits, and telling him that he would be strengthened thereby (Apd.1.6.3).
Gates of Sleep. Two gates of sleep are known through which dreams reach mortals: one of horn and one of ivory. The dreams that come through the ivory gate cheat mortals with empty promises, whereas those that pass through the gate of horn tell the dreamer the truth of what will happen (Hom.Od.19.560; Nonn.44.52; Vir.Aen.6.893).
Golden Apples of
Aphrodite.
Atalanta, who refused to wed, caused her wooers to race before her, and herself ran in arms; and if the wooer was caught up, he was killed on the spot, and if he was not caught up, his due was marriage. But when Melanion, or as others say Hippomenes 2, was being pursued, he threw down the golden apples that he had received from Aphrodite, and
Atalanta, picking up the dropped fruit, was beaten in the race (Apd.3.9.2).
Golden Crown 1. Procris 2, who loved bribes, received from Pteleon a golden crown, admitting him, thanks to it, to her bed (Apd.3.15.1).
Golden Crown 2. Glauce 4, princess of Corinth, received a golden crown
from Medea when she was about to
marry the latter's husband Jason. But the crown being poisoned, it caused the death of the princess (Eur.Med.1160; Hyg.Fab.25).
Golden Fleece. In order to save her children, Nephele 2, wife of Athamas 1,
gave a Ram with a Golden Fleece, which he had received from
Hermes, to Phrixus 1 and Helle, and these, borne through the sky, crossed land and sea. Helle slipped into the Hellespont, called after her, and was drowned; but her brother came to Colchis, sacrificed the ram, and gave the fleece to King Aeetes, who nailed it to an oak,
where it was guarded by a sleepless dragon.
Jason and his
ARGONAUTS were later sent by
King Pelias 1 to fetch it, and
Jason received it from
Medea, who betraying her father
Aeetes, gave it to him, having
lulled to sleep the dragon that guarded it. On his return to
Iolcus, they say, Jason surrendered
the Fleece to Pelias 1 (Apd.1.9.1, 1.9.16, 1.9.23, 1.9.27; Arg.passim; Val.passim).
Golden Goblet. When
Heracles 1 was performing one
of his LABOURS, he erected two pillars against each other to mark the boundaries of Europe and Libya (at the place today called "Strait of Gibraltar"), and as he offered to Helius, the god gave him a Golden Goblet in which he crossed the ocean (Apd.2.5.10-11).
Golden Maidens. When
Hephaestus approached Thetis, who had come to ask him a favor, Golden Maidens came to help him, who had the appearance of real girls, could speak and use their limbs, and were endowed with intelligence and trained in handwork (Hom.Il.18.410).
Helmet of Hades. This is
the gift that the CYCLOPES gave
Hades. The helmet rends the wearer
invisible. Perseus 1 wore it
when he went to kill Medusa 1,
and Hermes during the war against
the GIANTS. Also
Athena put on the helmet of
Hades at
Troy, so that
Ares should not see her (Apd.1.2.1, 2.4.2-3, 1.6.2; Hes.SH.226; Hom.Il.5.844).
Horn of Amalthea. This is the Horn of Plenty. The
naiad Amalthea of Cretan Mount Ida is said to have hidden
Zeus in the woods. She is said to
have owned a she-goat who suckled the god. But when she
broke a horn on a tree, she was shorn of half her charm. So
Amalthea picked it up, wrapped it in herbs, and carried it,
full of fruit, to the lips of Zeus.
Later when the god became the ruler of heaven, he turned
both his nurse and her horn of plenty into stars. Others
have simply said that Amalthea owned a bull's horn, which
had the power of supplying meat or drink in abundance. Yet
others say that when Heracles 1 wrestled for the hand of Deianira 1 with the river god Achelous, who assumed the likeness of a bull, he broke off one of his horns, and that Achelous recovered the horn by giving the horn of Amalthea in its stead (Apd.2.7.5; Ov.Fast.5.115).
Honey and Bees. Milk of goat and honey were the
first nourishment of Zeus when he,
as a babe, was laid to rest in a craddle of gold in
Crete (Callimachus, Hymn 1, 48). Zeus then, "wishing to preserve an immortal memorial of
his close association with the bees", changed their
colour, "making it like copper with
the gleam of gold". And considering how the winds
blew and the snow fell in those regions, "he made the bees insensible to such
things" (Dio.5.70). These bees lived in the cave
where Zeus was born (either Ida or Dicte, in Crete). As Antoninus Liberalis XIX tells, four fellows (Cerberus 3, Laius 2, Celeus 2, and Aegolius) once entered the cave with the intention of gathering the honey of the sacred bees. For this purpose, they covered themselves with bronze, but when they saw the swaddling-clothes of Zeus, the
bronze armours melted. A thunder was heard as
Zeus brandished the lightning, but
both Themis and the
MOERAE prevented the god from
retaliating since it was forbidden to anyone to die in that
sacred place. Zeus then turned them
into different kinds of birds, whose presages are happier
and more truthful than those of other birds, because they
saw the blood of Zeus. Such an attempt was probably inspired by the ancient
belief that "the bees have received a
share of the divine intelligence" (Virgil,
Georgics 4.220). Bees ar known to be close to the
deities: "At the head of the harbour (in Ithaca) is a long-leafed
olive tree, and near it a pleasant, shadowy cave sacred to
the nymphs that are called Naiads. Therein are mixing bowls
and jars of stone, and there too the bees store
honey" (Hom.Od.13.102). And when the Athenians
set out to colonize Ionia, the
MUSES guided the fleet assuming the
form of bees (Philostratus, Imagines 2.8). Bees knew, and could give signals as when they announced
the arrival of Aeneas to
Laurentum: "Atop of this tree, wondrous to tell, settled a dense swarm of bees, borne with loud humming across the liquid air, and with feet intertwined hung in sudden swarm from the leafy bough. Forthwith the prophet cries: "I see a stranger draw near …" (Vir.Aen.7.64ff.). These are the qualities that Zeus
gave the bees:
"They alone have children in common, hold the dwellings of their city jointly, and pass their lives under the majesty of law. They alone know a fatherland and fixed home, and in summer, mindful of the winter to come, spend toilsome days and garner their gains into a common store (…) To some it has fallen by lot to be sentries at the gates, and in turn they watch the rains and clouds of heaven, or take the load of incomers, or in martial array drive the drones, a lazy herd, from the folds. All aglow is the work, and the fragrant honey is sweet with thyme (…) The aged have charge of the towns, the building of the hives, the fashioning of the cunningly wrought houses. But the young betake them home in weariness, late at night, their thighs freighted with thyme (…) All have on season to rest from labour, all one season to toil (…) Often, too, as they wander among rugged rocks they bruise their wings, and freely yield their lives under their load &endash; so deep is their love of flowers and their glory in begetting honey (…) they indulge not in conjugal embraces, nor idly unnerve their bodies in love, or bring forth young with travail, but of themselves gather their children in their mouths from leaves and sweet herbs, of themselves provide a new monarch and tiny burghers, and remodel their palaces and waxen realms. Therefore, though the limit of a narrow span awaits the bees themselves &endash; yet the race abides immortal, for many a year
stands firm the fortune of the house, and grandsires'
grandsires are numbered on the roll" (Virgil,
Georgics 4.149).
Yes, mortal they remained, and when they sicken "their colour changes", and "an unsighty leanness mars their
looks" (Virgil, Georgics 4.251). It is from the nymphs that Aristaeus (the son of
Apollo and
Cyrene), learned (among other
things) to make bee-hives, instructing other men in this
matter (Dio.4.81). And Zeus' son
Dionysus 2 had his lips
moistened with honey by Macris, the daughter of Aristaeus.
Macris fed Dionysus 2 on honey
while she still lived in the island of Euboea. When
Hera learned that
Hermes had brought
Dionysus 2 to Macris, she drove
her from that island. She then changed her residence, and
went to dwell in a sacred cave in Phaeacis, and the whole
island of Phaeacis or Corcyra was called Macris Isle, to be
distinguished from Abantian Macris which was her first
residence in Euboea (Arg.4.540, 4.1131, Apd.3.4.2-4). "The dead are embalmed in honey for
burial, and their dirges are like the dirges of
Egypt," says Herodotus 1.198.1 on the Babylonians. So
honey, like ambrosia, was thought useful for preservation.
Thetis shed ambrosia and nectar through the nostrils of
Patroclus 1's corpse, as she
previously had anointed her son
Achilles with ambrosia to help
destroy the mortal (decaying) element which the child had
inherited from his father Peleus.
Ichor. The gods are bloodless, and instead of
blood they have ichor, which may flow forth just like blood,
as Aphrodite experienced when
wounded in battle by Diomedes 2
in the course of the Trojan
War. Also the wonderful Talos 1, who although invulnerable was not a god, but instead
someone made of bronze, proved to have ichor circulating
inside him. For when Medea drove him mad, promising to make him immortal, she was able to draw out a bronze nail that he had at the end of a vein, causing the ichor to gush out, thus destroying him (Apd.1.9.26; Arg.4.1679; Hom.Il.5.340).
Labyrinth. The Labyrinth which
Daedalus constructed was a
chamber with winding passageways, conceived in such a manner
that those unfamiliar with them could not find their way
out. It was in this Labyrinth that the
Minotaur was maintained,
devouring the youths who were sent to it from
Athens, in accordance with the
peace-treaty agreed between this city and
Crete (Apd.3.1.4; Dio.4.77.4; Hyg.Fab.40).
Lyre of Orpheus.
Apollo took the lyre and taught
Orpheus to play it, after he
himself had invented the cithara. The lyre was put by the
MUSES among the stars after the
death of Orpheus. Hyg.Ast.2.7, Ara.Phae.269.
Palladium. The Palladium is the wooden statue
that fell from heaven and was kept at
Troy; for so long as it was
preserved, the city was safe.
Robe and Necklace of Harmonia 1.
Shield for Achilles.
Hephaestus fashioned for Achilles a shield of five layers, which he adorned all over, depicting the earth, the heavens, the sea, the sun, the moon, and all the constellations: the PLEIADES, the HYADES 1, Orion, and the Bear, which never bathes in the stream of the Ocean. He also fashioned two large cities, and in one of them there were marriages and banquets. They were leading the brides from their homes through the city, with music and hymns, while young men danced accompanied by flutes and lyres. But there was also a dispute about the payment of compensation for a man who had been killed. Both sides were then cheered by their supporters in the crowd, and while heralds tried to silence them, the Elders sat on polished stones in a sacred circle. Two talents of gold could be seen in the centre, to be given to the Elder whose exposition of the law should prove the best. The other city was beleaguered by two armies that had not yet decided if they were to lay waste the town or to divide in portions all property between themselves and the inhabitants, who had not yet capitulated and were preparing an ambush. Finally a battle took place, and the soldiers fought and dragged away each other's dead. Hephaestus depicted as well a large field which was being ploughed. The workers were given wine when they reached the end of the field that, even though it was made of gold, looked black in the shield, just as a field does when it is being ploughed. He also wrought a king's estate, where labourers were reaping, bearing sickles, while under an oak in the background the king's attendants were preparing a feast. There a vineyard, wrought in gold and silver, could also be seen, and the fruit was carried off by young men and girls, while a boy played the lyre. The god also depicted a herd of cattle, making the cows of gold and tin, being accompanied by four golden herdsmen and nine dogs running along with them. A pair of lions had seized a bull at the head of the herd, while men and dogs ran up to the rescue; but the lions were already devouring the bull. To this Hephaestus added a grazing ground for sheep, in a valley with plenty of details, such as farm buildings and huts. Hephaestus also depicted a dancing-floor like the one that Daedalus made in Cnossus for Ariadne, and he put on it youths and maidens dancing with their hands on one another's wrists. And a crowd could be seen standing round and enjoying the dance, with a minstrel among them winging to the lyre. And finally, round the uttermost rim of the shield, he put the stream of Oceanus (Hom.Il.18.478ff.)
Staff of Tiresias.
Tiresias the seer received from
Athena a staff of cornel wood, which seems fit for a blind seer. (Apd.3.6.7).
Thunderbolt. The thunderbolt was given by the
CYCLOPES to
Zeus, and when the god flings one it is not lost; for an Eagle fetches it back (Apd.1.2.1; Hes.The.501; Man.5.486).
Trident. The trident was given by the
CYCLOPES to
Poseidon (Apd.1.2.1).
Underground house.
Ariadne's son Oenopion 1 sailed from Crete and settled in Chios,
which is an Aegean island off the coast of
Ionia in Asia Minor. There came
also Orion, wishing to marry Oenopion 1's daughter Merope 3. But Oenopion 1 made him drunk, and when Orion was asleep,
he put out his eyes and cast him on the beach. However,
Orion was healed by the sun's rays, and having recovered his sight, he purposed to attack the man who had blinded him. But Oenopion 1 had taken refuge in an underground house constructed by Hephaestus (Apd.1.4.3-4).
Wallet of Perseus 1.
In a wallet that certain nymphs gave to
Perseus 1, ended up the head of
Medusa 1 which he cut off (Apd.2.4.2-3).
Winged Sandals of Perseus 1. Perseus 1 came flying through the sky, not for having mounted a certain winged horse, but because certain nymphs provided him with winged sandals (Apd.2.4.2; Man.5.592).
Wings. Daedalus could
fly because he had made wings. Wishing to escape from
Crete, he fitted with wax the wings to himself and to his son Icarus 1, and so they could fly away. However, Icarus 1 flew too high, and when the wax was melted by the sun, he fell into the sea and perished (Apd.Ep.1.12; Hyg.Fab.40)
Wooden Cow. Another of
Daedalus' inventions. He
constructed a Wooden Cow on wheels, and having hollowed it
out, he sewed it up in the hide of a real cow. Then he set
it in the meadow in which a certain bull for which Queen
Pasiphae of Crete had conceived a
passion, used to graze. When this was done, and the queen
had introduced herself into it, the bull, believing it was
seeing a real cow, came and coupled with it. And from this
union the Minotaur was born, who had the head of a bull, and a human body (Apd.3.1.4; Dio.4.77.1; Hyg.Fab.40).
WOODEN HORSE.
Zeus' Umbilical Cord. It
has been told that when Zeus, being still a child, was being carried away by the CURETES, the umbilical cord fell from him near the river known as Triton, and after that incident this spot was made sacred and called Omphalus (Cal.Ze.42; Dio.5.70.4). |