A BCD EFGHI LMN OP QRSTUVXZ Translation
home Ovid
Search Ovid
Homepage
Laconia, Laconis, Lacedaemonian, Lacedaemionius
|
Bk I:689-721. A river in Arcadia. (Pausanias
says, VIII xx, that its springs derive from the Phenean Lake and that it has
the finest water of any river in Greece.) |
|
Bk VII:759-795. Oedipus, son of Laius. He
was exposed as an infant on Mount Cithaeron.
Later, he unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, to become
King of Thebes, and from that Sophocles’s
great tragedies are developed. Oedipus guessed the answer to the Sphinx’s
riddle, that it is Humankind that goes on four legs at dawn, two in the afternoon,
and three at evening (a crawling child, an adult, an aged person with a staff).
The Sphinx was the monstrous daughter of Typhon and Echidne, and came to Thebes from Ethiopia. She had a woman’s had, a lion’s
body, a serpent’s tail, and eagle’s wings. The Sphinx leapt to her death from
Mount Phicium. (See Sophocles plays, ‘The Theban cycle’, Ingres’s painting
Oedipus and the Sphinx, Louvre, Paris, Gustave Moreau’s painting in the Metropolitan
Gallery ,New York, and Charles Ricketts pen and ink drawing of the same subject,
Carlisle Art Gallery, England) |
|
Bk XIV:223-319. Mythical king of the
Laestrygonians, and founder of Formiae. (The Laestrygonian
country has been placed in Sicily, here at Formia on the coast of Campania,
or, as Ernle Bradford suggests in ‘Ulysses Found’ Ch.12, from the details
of the natural harbour described by Homer in the Odyssey, at Bonafacio in
Corsica, in the sea-gate between Corsica and Sardinia.) |
|
[Passim]. Of Latium, Latian, Latin, Roman. |
|
Bk XIV:320-396. A country in Central
Italy, containing Rome. (The modern
Lazio region. It originally designated the small area between the mouth of
the Tiber and the Alban Hills. With the Roman conquest it was extended south-east
to the Gulf of Gaeta, and west to the mountains of Abruzzo, forming the so-called
Latium novum or adiectum.) Bk XIV:445-482. At war with Etruria. Bk XIV:623-697. Pomona’s country. Bk XV:622-745. Suffers the plague. |
Lavinium
|
The daughter of Thestius and wife of the Spartan
king Tyndareus. She had twin sons Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux), the Tyndaridae, following her rape by Jupiter in the form of a swan. Castor and
Pollux are represented in the sky by the two bright stars in the constellation
of Gemini, the Twins. They were the protectors of mariners appearing in the
rigging as the electrical phenomenon now known as St Elmo’s fire. Gemini contains
the radiant of the Geminid meteor shower. (See the painting Leda, by Gustave
Moreau in the Gustave Moreau Museum Paris) Bk VI:103-128. Depicted by Arachne. Bk VIII:260-328. The mother of the Tyndaridae. |
|
Bk II:63-89. The constellation and zodiacal
sign of the Lion. It contains the star Regulus ‘the heart of the lion’, one
of the four guardians of the heavens in Babylonian astronomy, which lies nearly
on the ecliptic. (The others are Aldebaran in Taurus, Antares in Scorpius,
and Fomalhaut ‘the Fish’s Eye’ in Piscis Austrinus. All four are at roughly
ninety degrees to one another). The constellation represents the lion killed
by Hercules as the first of his twelve labours.
|
|
Bk X:1-85. The wife of Olenus. She was punished for her pride in her
beauty and he chose to share her guilt. They were turned into stones on Mount
Ida. |
|
A river of the Underworld, whose waters bring
forgetfulness. Bk VII:100-158. Used of the magic juice (juniper?)
that Jason uses to subdue the dragon
that guards the Golden Fleece. Bk XI:573-649. Its stream flows from the
depths of the House of Sleep, and
induces drowsiness with its murmuring. (Hence the stream of forgetfulness) |
|
An island off the coast of Acarnania
in western Greece, in the Ionian Sea north of Ithaca. Bk XV:259-306. Once joined to the mainland.
(The Corinthians bored a channel through the isthmus in the 7th century BC,
see Ernle Bradford’s ‘Ulysses Found’ Appendix II) |
|
The White Goddess, the sea-goddess into whom Ino
was changed, who as a sea-mew helps Ulysses
(See Homer’s Odyssey). She is a manifestation of the Great Goddess in her
archetypal form. (See Robert Graves’s ‘The White Goddess’) Bk IV:512-542. Venus intercedes for Ino, after she has
leapt into the sea with her son, and Neptune changes
them into sea-deities. |
|
Bk IX:666-713.A Cretan. His wife is Telethusa. She has a daughter who he
wishes to be exposed, but he is deceived into believing the daughter is a
male child and names it Iphis. |
|
Bk XV:622-745. A city in Campania in Italy.
Famous for its mastic bearing lentisk trees. (The gum mastic from lentisk
trees for which the island of Chios was
also famous, formed the basis of ‘Turkish Delight’, the sweet of the Sultan’s
harem.) (The modern Lago di Patria near Cumae was once the harbour of the
Roman colony.) |
|
Bk IX:666-713. ‘The light bringer’, the Roman
goddess of childbirth, a manifestation of Juno,
but also applied to Diana, as the Great
Goddess. Bk V:294-331. Appealed to, for help in childbirth,
by Euippe. Bk IX:273-323. Her Greek equivalent was Ilithyia. Bk IX:273-323. Alcmena calls out to her in childbirth. Her companion
gods, the guardians of women in labour, are the Nixi. She squats on the altar and, using sympathetic magic, clasps
her crossed knees to retard the childbirth at Juno’s orders. Bk X:503-559. She assists at the birth of
Adonis. |
|
Bk II:201-226. The moon goddess. A manifestation
of Artemis-Diana-Phoebe, sister of Apollo-Sol-Phoebus. Amazed at the sun chariot running amok
with Phaethon. Bk VII:179-233. At the eclipse, bronze weapons
etc were clashed to ease the birth-pangs of the moon as she brought forth
renewed light, in order to ensure a safe outcome to the eclipse. Bk VII:501-613. A synonym for the moon. |
|
Bk I:151-176. Son of
Pelasgus. Lycaon was a king of primitive
Arcadia who presided over barbarous cannibalistic
practises. He was transformed into a wolf by Zeus, angered by human sacrifice.
His sons offered Zeus, disguised as a traveller, a banquet containing human
remains. They were also changed into wolves and Zeus then precipitated a great
flood to cleanse the world.
Bk II:466-495. The father of Callisto. |
|
Bk II:708-736. The gymnasium at Athens
amongst fountains and groves frequented by the philosophers. |
|
Bk IV:1-30. King of the Edonians (Edoni) of Thrace who opposed Bacchus’s entry into his kingdom at the River
Strymon. Lycurgus was driven mad
and killed his own son Dryas with an axe thinking he was a vine. He pruned
the corpse, and the Edonians, horrified, instructed by Bacchus, tore Lycurgus
to pieces with wild horses on Mount Pangaeum. |
|
Bk XV:259-306. A river in Phrygia, a tributary of the Maeander. The Lycus plunges into a chasm, runs underground
for some distance, and reappears before entering the Maeander. (See Herodotus
VII 30, where it is visited by Xerxes, on the march.) |
|
The son of Aphareus. Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian
Boar Hunt. |
|
Bk II:227-271. The Maeander river in Lydia in Asia Minor famous for its wandering course, hence ‘meander’.
Also its river-god. (Pausanias mentions, VIII vii, a boiling hot spring that
comes out of the riverbed and out of a rock mid-stream. Also, V xiv, that
it is famous for its many huge tamarisk trees.) Bk VIII:152-182. Its windings are compared
to the Cretan maze. Bk IX:439-516. Cyanee is his daughter. Bk IX:517-594.
Caunus is his grandson. |
|
The female followers of Bacchus-Dionysus,
noted for their ecstatic worship of the god. Dionysus brought terror and joy.
The Maenads’ secret female mysteries may indicate older rituals of ecstatic
human sacrifice.
Bk III:692-733. Led by Agave and Autonoe
they destroy Pentheus. Bk XI:1-66. They kill Orpheus.
Bk XI:67-84. They are turned into
oak trees. |
Maeonis
|
A town and plain on the east coast of Attica. Site of the
famous Greek victory in the war against Persia. Bk VII:425-452. Theseus overcame a white bull of Poseidon there, brought by Hercules from Crete. He then sacrificed it at Athens on the Acropolis. |
|
Bk IX:764-797. Of Mareota, a lake and city
in Lower Egypt. (See Shelley ‘The Witch of Atlas) Protected by Isis. |
|
A Satyr of Phrygia
who challenged Apollo to a contest in musical
skill, and was flayed alive by the God when he was defeated. (An analogue
for the method of making primitive flutes, Minerva’s
invention, by extracting the core from the outer sheath) (See Perugino’s painting
– Apollo and Marsyas – The Louvre, Paris) Bk VI:382-400. He repents, and the tears of
all those who mourn for him become a river with his name in Phrygia. |
|
Of or descended from Mars, as applied
to the Thebans descended from the Echionides, the dragon’s teeth of Mars
sacred serpent. The proles Mavortia. Bk VI:70-103. Applied to Ares’s Hill in Athens, seat of the court of the Aeropagus. (see
Herodotus VIII 52). Here the Olympian
gods judge the rights of Poseidon-Neptune and Pallas-Athene to own and name the city of Athens.
Pallas depicts the scene on her web in the contest with Arachne. Bk VIII:425-450. Meleager
as the great-grandson of Mars. |
|
Bk VII:1-73. The daughter of Aeetes, king of Colchis and the Caucasian nymph Asterodeia.
She is called Aeetias. A famous sorceress.
She conceives a passion for Jason and
agonises over the betrayal of her country for him.( See Gustave Moreau’s painting
‘Jason and Medea’, Louvre, Paris: Frederick Sandys painting ‘Medea’, Birmingham
Museum and Art Gallery, England: and Castiglione’s painting, ‘Medea casting
a spell’, Wadsworth Athanaeum, Hartford, Connecticut) Bk VII:74-99. She determines to help Jason and makes him swear on the altar of Triple
Hecate to marry her. She gives him
magic herbs to facilitate his tasks (probably including the Colchian crocus,
meadow saffron, colchicum autumnale, that sprang from the blood of
the tortured Prometheus. The plant is highly toxic, and the seeds and corms
were collected for the extraction of the narcotic drug colchicine,
tinctura colchici, used as a specific against gout.) Bk VII:100-158. Jason carries out his tasks
using the magic herbs, including magic juice (juniper?) to subdue the dragon,
and takes Medea back with him to Iolchos. Bk VII:159-178. She offers to attempt to
renew Aeson’s life at Jason’s request. Bk VII:234-293. She makes a magic potion
and restores Aeson’s youth. Bk VII:294-349. She rejuvenates the nymphs
of Mount Nysa. She then deceives Pelias’s daughters and employs them to help destroy
him. Bk VII:350-403. She flees through the air
with her winged dragons, making a clockwise journey round the Aegean, the Cyclades,
the Peloponnese, Aetolia, and Arcadia,
to reach Corinth. There she kills Glauce
her rival, and then sacrifices her own sons, before fleeing to Athens where she marries King Aegeus. Bk VII:404-424. She attempts to poison Theseus using aconite, but Aegeus recognises
Theseus’s sword as his own, and dashes the cup away in time. Medea vanishes
in a mist conjured by her magic spells. |
|
Bk VIII:515-546. The sisters of Meleager. They are turned into guinea hens by Diana, while mourning for their brother. The
birds are the helmeted guinea fowl of Africa, numida meleagris, worshipped
as icons of Artemis on Leros, probably the East African blue-wattled variety,
not the red-wattled, tufted guinea fowl variants introduced into Italy, though
wattle colour varies in Africa. The squeaky cackling of these noisy birds
was taken to represent mourning, and the birds were prohibited from being
eaten by devotees of Artemis or Isis. |
|
Bk XIII:576-622. The birds that sprang
from Memnon’s ashes, fated to appear annually and enact
the Trojan War in a battle of the
birds as a ritual ceremony in memory of Memnon. |
Mercury, Mercurius, Hermes
|
Bk I:689-721. The messenger god, Hermes, son
of Jupiter and the Pleiad Maia, the daughter
of Atlas. He is therefore called Atlantiades.
His birthplace was Mount Cyllene, and
he is therefore called Cyllenius.
He has winged feet, and a winged cap, carries a scimitar, and has a magic
wand, the caduceus, with twin snakes twined around it, that brings sleep and
healing. The caduceus is the symbol of medicine. (See Botticelli’s painting
Primavera.) He is summoned by Jupiter to lull Argus
to sleep and kills him. Bk II:676-701. Called Atlantiades and son of
Maia (Atlantis). He steals Apollo’s cattle and turns Battus the countryman into a touchstone ( flint,
the ‘informer’). Bk I:689-721. Mercury lulls Argus to sleep and
kills him. Bk II:708-736 . Sees Herse in the sacred procession. Bk II:737-751. Called the grandson of Atlas
and Pleione. Elicits help from Aglauros to seduce Herse. BkII:812-832. Mercury turns Aglauros to stone. Bk IV:274-316. Hermaphroditus is his son by Venus-Aphrodite. Bk IV:346-388. With Venus he grants Hermaphroditus’s
prayer that the pool of Salmacis
weaken anyone bathing there. Bk IV:753-803. Perseus builds an altar to him. Bk V:149-199. Perseus employs the curved scimitar
Mercury has given him. Bk VIII:611-678. Disguised as a mortal he
visits Philemon and Baucis with
Jupiter, his father. Bk XI:266-345. He loves Chione, and she bears him Autolycus. Bk XIII:123-381. The divine father of
Ulysses through Mercury’s seduction of
Autolycus’s daughter, Anticleia, Ulysses’s
mother, and wife of Laertes. Bk XIV:223-319. He gives his son Ulysses the plant moly to protect
him from Circe’s spells. |
|
Bk XIV:512-526. Of the Messapians, a
people of lower Italy. Calabrian. |
|
Bk VIII:725-776. The
daughter of Erysichthon, grand-daughter
of Triopas, and wife of Autolycus
who possessed the power of shape-changing.
Bk VIII:843-884. Neptune
took her virginity and in turn gave her the power to deceive. It saves her
from becoming a slave, or prostituting herself. |
|
The king of Phrygia, son of Gordius and Cybele, called Berecyntius heros from Mount Berecyntus
in Phrygia, sacred to Cybele. Bk XI:85-145. In reward for returning Silenus to him, Bacchus grants Midas a gift. He chooses the
golden touch, and when it plagues him Bacchus takes it away again. He is instructed
to bathe in the waters of the Pactolus
to cleanse himself. (Lines 131-141 suggest that Ovid was aware of early confession
and baptism rites, from Christianity or some other religion, or, less likely,
that there has been rewriting by a later Christian scribe) Bk XI:146-171. Bk XI:172-193. Phoebus gives him the ears of an ass, and a
servant gives away the secret |
|
Bk VII:453-500. The King of Crete,
ruler of a hundred cities. Son of Jupiter
and Europa. he prepares for war with
Athens after his son Androgeos is killed by Aegeus. He obtains the allegiance of many of the
islands of the Aegean, but fails to win
over Aeacus at Aegina.
Bk VII:501-613. He is assumed to be seeking
control of all Greece. Bk VIII:1-80. He attacks Megara. Bk VIII:81-151. Scylla, the daughter of King Nisus betrays the city to him out of love, but he rejects her
and sails away. Scylla berates him and reminds him of his wife Pasiphae’s illicit love for the bull from the
sea, and her bearing of his son Asterion, the Minotaur.
He imposes laws on the conquered peoples. The Cretans said that Minos made
their laws, and was divinely inspired, see Pausanias III ii. Bk VIII:152-182. He sacrifices to Jove on returning to Crete, and imprisons
his shameful son, the Minotaur, in the labyrinth built by Daedalus. Bk VIII:183-235. He keeps Daedalus effectively
a prisoner, but Daedalus plans his escape. Bk VIII:260-328. He makes war on King Cocalus of Sicily where Daedalus has taken refuge
after his escape from Crete. Bk IX:418-438. Jupiter, recognising his love of justice,
wishes he could enjoy perpetual youth. Bk IX:439-516. In old age he fears Miletus who flees of his own accord to Asia Minor. |
|
Bk VIII:152-182. The son of Pasiphae, wife of Minos,
and the white bull from the sea. A man-headed bull, imprisoned in the Labyrinth
built by Daedalus at Cnossos and destroyed by Theseus. (See the sculpture and drawings
of Michael Ayrton, and Picasso’s variations on the theme in the Vollard Suite) |
|
Bk XV:622-745. A city of Latium on the border of Campania. The chief Tyrrhenian river-port of the Ausoni, becoming a Roman colony in 295 BC, crossed
by the Appian Way. (Near modern Minturno, and built amidst malarial marshes
formed by the overflowing River Garigliano, the ancient Liris. Here the proscribed
Marius, taken prisoner in 88 BC, daunted the would-be assassin sent by Sulla.
) |
|
Bk XIV:101-153. A mortal son of Aeolus, a trumpeter of Aeneas. He lost his life near Cumae and was buried there. (He gave his name
to Cape Miseno between Naples and Ischia). |
|
Bk XV:745-842. King of Pontus. Mithridates
the Great, sixth king of Pontus of that name, defeated by Lucullus and Pompey.
Caesar crushed his son Pharnaces in a
swift battle at Zela in 47BC (So swift a victory that Caesar spoke the famous
words ‘veni, vidi, vici ‘ = ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’). |
|
Bk II:201-226. The nine Muses are the virgin
daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne
(Memory). They are the patronesses of the arts. Clio(History), Melpomene(Tragedy),
Thalia(Comedy), Enterpe(Lyric Poetry), Terpsichore(Dance), Calliope(Epic Poetry), Erato(Love Poetry),Urania(Astronomy), and Polyhymnia(Sacred
Song). Mount Helicon is hence called
Virgineus. Their epithets are Aonides,
and Thespiades. Bk V:250-293. Mount Helicon is one of their
haunts. Bk V:642-678. Calliope wins the singing contest with the
Emathides (Pierides), and the Muses change
the Emathides into magpies. BkVI:1-25. Minerva approves
their song. Bk X:143-219. Calliope is the mother of Orpheus, and inspires him. Bk XV:622-745. Ovid invokes them. |
|
The city in the Argolis, near Argos and Tiryns. Excavated by Schliemann who opened
the beehive tombs of the royal tomb circle. Famous for its Lion Gate once
topped perhaps by a statue of the Cretan Great Goddess.
Bk VI:401-438. Its ruler goes to Thebes to show sympathy for the death of
Amphion and his children. Bk XV:418-452. A symbol of vanished power. |
|
The Myrmidons, a race of men created out of ants. Led by
Achilles to the war against Troy. Bk VII:614-660.Created from ants on the island
of Aegina by Jupiter, and named after the Greek word
for an ant, μύρμηξ. |
|
The daughter of Cinyras, mother of Adonis, incestuously, by her father. Bk X:298-355. She conceives an incestuous
passion for her father. Bk X:356-430. She attempts suicide, and is
rescued by her nurse who promises to help her. Bk X:431-502. She sleeps with her father,
is impregnated by him, and when discovered flees to Sabaea, and is turned into the myrrh-tree,
weeping resin. Adonis is born from the tree. |
Naiades, Naides (singular Naias,Nais)
|
Of Naryx, a city of the Locrians of Central Greece. Bk VIII:260-328. Home of Lelex,
present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Bk XIV:445-482. A city of Ajax. Bk XV:622-745. The Italian city of Narycia,
probably Locri (near modern Locri), at the toe of Italy, the famous Locri
Epizephyrii, founded by Greek colonists in 710 BC or 683 BC. It was the
first Greek city to possess a written code of laws, and was praised by Pindar
as a model of good government. It contained a sanctuary of Persephone.
Cicero mentions that Dionysius the Elder, Tyrant of Syracuse, pillaged the
temple of Proserpina at Locri. (‘On the Nature of the Gods BkIII 82’)The Locrians
conquered the Crotonians, allied themselves to Syracuse, and
finally surrendered to Rome in 205 BC. |
|
Of the Nasamones, a Libyan
people living south west of Cyrenaica. Bk V:107-148. Dorylas, is their richest man. It is
a spice country. |
Neleus
|
Of Nemea, a town in Argolis. Bk IX:159-210. In the First Labour, Hercules destroys the Nemean Lion and takes
its pelt that is proof against stone, bronze, and iron. He wrestled with it
and choked it to death. Bk IX:211-272. Hercules spreads the lion’s
pelt, and lies down on it, on the summit of his funeral pyre. |
|
Bk I:274-292. God of
the sea, brother of Pluto and Jupiter. The trident is his emblem. He helps
to initiate the Great Flood (see Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks for the influence
of Book I on his descriptions of the deluge, and his drawing Neptune with
four sea-horses, Royal Library, Windsor: See the Neptune Fountain by Bartolomeo
Ammannati, Piazza della Signoria, Florence.)
Bk II:227-271. Cannot lift his head or arms
from the sea because of the heat of the sun chariot when Phaethon falls. Bk IV:512-542. At the request of Venus, he changes Ino and her son into sea-deities. Bk IV:753-803. He raped Medusa
in the temple of Minerva, fathering Pegasus and Chrysaor,
for which Minerva filled Medusa’s hair with snakes. Bk VI:70-103. Pallas
Athene depicts the ancient dispute between herself and Neptune-Poseidon as
to their rights to Athens. Poseidon made
a ‘sea’, a well of seawater on the Acropolis, but Athene planted an olive-tree
and asked Cecrops to witness her claim
to the land. She was judged by the Gods to have the right to the city. ( See
Herodotus VIII 55, and Apollodorus III 14,1) Bk VI:103-128. Arachne depicts his rapes of Canace, Iphimedia, Theophane, Ceres,
Medusa, and Melantho. Bk VIII:547-610. He turns Perimele into an island. Bk VIII:843-884. He gives Mestra
the power to change her shape. Bk X:560-637. Bk X:638-680. Hippomenes is descended from him, through
Megareus. Bk XI:194-220. He and Apollo build the walls of Troy for Laomedon.
He floods the land when Laomedon refuses to pay, and demands the sacrifice
of Hesione to a sea-monster. Bk XII:1-38. He is thought to be protecting
Troy. Bk XII:64-145. Cycnus(3) is his son, and is turned by
him into a white swan, when Achilles
defeats him. Bk XII:536-579. He gave Periclymenus, his descendant the power
to change shape. Bk XIII:789-869. The father of Polyphemus and the Cyclopes. |
|
Bk IX:89-158. A centaur, the son of Ixion. He attempts to steal Hercules’s bride Deianira, and is killed by Hercules, who reminds
him of his father Ixion’s punishment in Hades, tied to a wheel. Dying he soaks his
shirt in blood mixed with the Hydra’s
poison, from Hercules’s arrow that has killed him, and gives it to Deianira,
telling her it will revive a dying love. Bk XII:290-326. He is present at the battle
of the Lapiths and Centaurs where Asbolus
the augur foretells his fate. Bk XII:429-535. He kills Cymelus in the battle. |
|
Bk I:416-437. The river Nile and its god. The
river was noted for its seasonal flooding in ancient times.(See the Hellenistic
sculpture, ‘ The Nile’, in the Vatican, from the Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius, Rome)
Bk I:722-746.
Provides a sanctuary for Io. Bk II:227-271. Its mouths dried up by the sun
chariot when Phaethon falls. Hides its
head. (Its source unknown in ancient times). Bk V:149-199. Seven-mouthed, the source of
Nileus’s people. Bk V:294-331. Seven-mouthed, a refuge for
the gods. Bk IX:764-797. Seven-mouthed, protected by
Isis-Io. Bk XV:745-842. Sailed by Caesar’s victorious fleet. He defeated
Ptolemy XIII and placed Cleopatra
on the throne of Egypt in 47 BC. |
Ninus
|
Bk IV:55-92. Shamshi-Adad V, King of Assyria.
The husband of Semiramis, historically
Sammuramat, Queen of Babylon. She reigned after him as regent from 810-805
BC. |
|
The daughter of the Phrygian
king Tantalus, and Dione one of the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas. The wife of Amphion, king of Thebes. Bk VI:146-203. She rejects Latona
and boasts of her children. Bk VI:204-266. Her seven sons are killed by
Apollo and Diana,
the children of Latona(Leto), and her husband commits suicide. Bk VI:267-312. Still unrepentant, her daughters
are also killed, and she is turned to stone and set on top of a mountain in
her native country of Lydia where she weeps eternally.
(A natural stone feature exists above the valley of the Hermus, on Mount Sipylus,
which weeps when the sun strikes its winter cap of snow – See Freya Stark
‘Rome on the Euphrates’ p9.) |
|
Bk VIII:1-80. The King of Megara, besieged
by Minos. He had a purple lock of hair on his head, on
which his life, and the safety of his kingdom, depended. His daughter was
Scylla. Bk VIII:81-151. Scylla cuts off the sacred
lock and betrays the city. He is turned into the white-tailed eagle or sea
eagle, haliaeetus albicilla, while she becomes the rock dove, columba
livia, which is the common prey of the sea eagle, and no doubt nested
on the rocks of the citadel of Megara or its coastline. The sea eagle does
not hover but has a flapping flight like a heron or vulture, and soars and
dives from the air. See the entry on Scylla
for further information. |
|
Bk IX:273-323. The three guardian deities
of women in labour. Their statues stood in the Capitol in Rome, representing
the gods kneeling. They are companions of Lucina, goddess
of childbirth, whom Alcmena calls out
to in childbirth. |
Noricus
|
Of Noricum, a country lying between the Danube
and the Alps. Bk XIV:698-771. Known for its well-tempered
steel. |
|
Bk II:566-595. The daughter of Epopeus king
of Lesbos who unknowingly slept with her father. She
fled to the woods and was changed by Minerva to her
sacred bird the Little Owl, often depicted on ancient Athenian
coins. |
Nyseus
|