#eumelos

[deathlessathanasia]

"When thinking of influence, one must first ask when we can consider the Theogony as something like a “text” that others might quote or imitate in a detailed manner. Such evaluations are, to a degree, subjective. I shall argue from a smattering of evidence scattered across the Greek world that by 600–575 bce we begin to see other authors “reworking” passages from the Theogony and Works and Days in something like their present form. Prior to this point, creation stories differ significantly from Hesiod’s.

We have already seen that Homer calls not Earth but Ocean and Tethys the first of the gods and that he has his own account of the division of the world. The Titanomachia, attributed to Eumelus of Corinth (fl. ca. 730), or Arctinus of Miletus, also has its version of origins: “everything comes from αἰθήρ” (aither, the higher, purer air), which is also Akmon, Anvil (meteorite?), “tireless fire,” the father of Ouranos (Sky). Zeus is born in Lydia. The Hundred-Hander, Aigaion, is born of Earth and Sea (Pontos), not of Earth and Sky, and Helios is a Titan but he does not fight against the Olympians.

Bits of evidence from early Sparta suggest that it may have had its own theogonic tradition, although a fragment from Terpander, Sparta’s oldest, semi-legendary poet, suggests that he, like Hesiod, viewed music as an expression of and a means to social harmony: kings “set the laws (νόμοι) of the Spartans to music” (Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 1.16.78.5). … Later Spartan poets, however, seem to have deviated from Hesiod’s vision of communal harmony. The war poet Tyrtaeus, ca. 650 bce, appears to have called one of his elegiac poems Eunomia, where the term means something closer to “Discipline,” to describe the city’s political and educational system (cf. Herodotus 1.65.2), rather than Good Governance. We see in the choral poetry of Alcman, Tyrtaeus’s younger contemporary, a tendency, like Hesiod, toward abstraction and analytic description of the physical world, but the sparse details suggest little in line with a Hesiodic tradition. One verse reads: “Αἴσα (Portion or Destiny) and Πόρος (Ways and Means/Pathway or Allotment), the most ancient of all, prevailed over (all)” (fr. 1.13–14).4 Another has Eunomia, Tyche (Fortune), and Peitho (Persuasion) as daughters of Promathia (Foresight) (fr. 64). According to Diodorus Siculus, Alcman made Sky and Earth parents of the Muses (fr. 67), although in two fragments a Muse is identified as the daughter of Zeus (and Mnemosyne?) (fr. 27 and 28).

Perhaps roughly contemporary with Alcman, Epimenides of Crete is credited with composing a Theogony of 5000 hexameters (five times the length of Hesiod’s), fragments of which suggest an intermixture of Hesiodic and Orphic components. In addition to living to a great age (either 157 or 299 years) and having out-of-body experiences, this semi-legendary holy man napped for 57 years at which time he conversed with Aletheia (Truth), Truth being Epimenides’ claim to divine authority, perhaps a more reliable source than Hesiod’s Muses who can tell the truth but also lies sounding like the truth. Epimenides identifies Aêr (Air) and Night as primordial progenitors, parents of Tartarus. In Orphic fashion, two unnamed Titans, perhaps generated asexually, emerge out of Tartarus, and they co-mingle, producing the world-egg, from which Earth, Sky, and perhaps Oceanus are born (DK 3 B19). Differing from Hesiod, this Sky gives birth to Aphrodite, the Fates, and the Erinyes, all through natural means. There is one hexameter from Epimenides, however, that is intriguingly close to one in the Theogony. This is Epimenides: Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί (“Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slothful stomachs”) (fr. 1 D-K) compared to Th. 26: ποιμένες ἄγραυλοι, κάκ’ ἐλέγχεα, γαστέρες οἶον (“Shepherds roaming the fields, evil reproaches, mere stomachs”). Is Epimenides deliberately reworking Hesiod? In contrast to the Muses who in the Theogony never tell Hesiod that they are in fact telling him the truth, in this version presumably Epimenides has Truth speak the reproach quoted above as a prelude to her asserting that she is about to convey the full hidden truth. Parallels between the two poems are closer than what we find from Sparta, but it is clear from all the passages discussed above that the version of creation as told in the Theogony was only one of many competing creation stories."

- Hesiod's Theogony: from Near Eastern Creation Myths to Paradise Lost by Stephen Scully

[sepulcher-of-the-light]

© Lucas Garcete, Invasión (Invasion)

Eumelo, en sus Historias, nos dijo que Aristóteles murió tras beberse la savia de la flor del acónito, la flor que el Can Cerbero —el de las tres cabezas, el demonio del pozo, el guardián infernal– nos trajo al mundo.

Eumelo, in his Histories, told us that Aristotle died after drinking the sap of the aconite flower, the flower that Can Cerberus—the one with the three heads, the demon of the well, the infernal guardian—brought us into the world.

[theoihalioistuff]

Alas, I shall not sleep tonight, for I am seized with an awful longing for the lost Titanomachia

"And in their midst danced the father of gods and men." (Fragment 8, M.L. West, LCL 497)

"[Referring to the horses that drive the chariot of the Sun, these are named] Eous; by him the sky is turned. Aithiops, as if flaming, who parches the grain. These trace-horses are male, while the pair that bear the yoke are female: Bronte, whom we call Thunder, and Sterope, whom we call Lightning." (Fragment 11, M.L. West, LCL 497)

"And in it there float fish with golden scales, that swim and sport through the ambrosial water." (Fragment 14, M.L. West, LCL 497)

The poem was traditionally ascribed to Eumelos of Corinth (through as per usual it's unlikely it was actually his) and was divided into at least two books. The war in which the Gods defeated the Titans was preceded by a theogony that diverged from Hesiod's: notably Ouranos is made the son of Aither, Aigaion the son of Pontos and Gaia (he also curiosly sides with the Titans), and Zeus is born in Lydia.

There is little I wouldn't do to magically produce a surviving copy.

The measures I'd go to...

[false-guinevere]

Does Jason even deserve the demonization? Ever since I found Eumelos' Korinthiaka and other versions, I can't help but think this is another Ovid/Medusa...

Honestly it can be hard to say, though I will say while there was clearly changes, I think it was more about just changes to the story over the centuries as well as completing claims from different regions. Different cities/regions would often portray myths and the gods different depending because they had different goals or values.

Kind of like the situation with Theseus, where the Athenians had motive to portray him in a more positive light so accounts there usually have him being forced to leave Ariadne while other version usually just have him abandon her by choice or forget about her. Or like how the Odyssey seems to have Clytemnestra’s big crime just be adultery while Aegisthus does the killing, but by the time of Oresteia, Clytemnestra is the sole killer of Agamemnon (and Aegisthus is a impotent loser) and that’s her big crime Orestes kills her for. Athenian plays especially tended to have a lot of Athenian propaganda and ideals. The Oresteia literally ends with the creation of the Athenian legal system.

And there is the popular theory Euripides might very well have been the one to popularize the verison where it’s Medea who kills her kids. And both Eumelus and Simonides have Jason and Medea as king and queen of Corinth. When it comes to myths where they can vary so significantly, I’m personally of the opinion to just kind of pick and choose what interests you more. Medea is one of my favorite plays so I really like the version of the story, but the other versions are also interesting and should be explored more.

[armatofu]

UNA HISTORIA INCREÍBLE

Gadeiras es el nombre griego del archipiélago de islas existente en lo que actualmente es la bahía de Cádiz. Entre ellas podemos destacar las islas de Eritea y Cotinusa, de cuya unión se formó la actual isla de Cádiz y la de León, donde se ubica la ciudad de San Fernando, hoy día separada de la península ibérica por un caño mareal. El caño mareal es el de Sancti Petri, en alusión a la isla de Sancti Petri.

Según la narración de Platón en el Timeo y el Critias, Gadeira era el nombre de la región que gobernaba Gadiro, (Gadeiron o Eumelo según el relato) soberano hijo de Poseidón, hermano de Atlas, rey supremo de la Atlántida.

El texto platónico dice que Gadeiro regía el extremo oriental de la Atlántida, en la zona que se extendía desde las Columnas de Heracles hasta la región que, por derivación de su nombre, se denominaba Gadírica, Gadeirikēs o Gadeira en tiempos de Platón.

[pink-lemonade-rose]

The historians of ancient Patrae say that it was an aboriginal, Eumelus, who first settled in the land, and that he was king over but a few subjects. But when Triptolemus came from Attica, he received from him cultivated corn, and, learning how to found a city, named it Aroe from the tilling of the soil. It is said that Triptolemus once fell asleep, and that then Antheias, the son of Eumelus, yoked the dragons to the car of Triptolemus and tried to sow the seed himself. But Antheias fell off the car and was killed, and so Triptolemus and Eumelus together founded a city, and called it Antheia after the son of Eumelus.

Pausanias, Description of Greece (translation by W.H.S. Jones)

[mythodico]

Eumelos

description: succéda à son père et conduisit le contingent de Phères à la guerre de Troie

parents: Admète et Alceste

frère et soeur: Hippasos, Périmélé

[my-name-is-apollo]

I know there's only about 4 accounts of Hermes's wrath but o can't find them. Could you make a post about his wrath please?

Sure. Most of these are found on theoi.com.

Battus: on old man who had witnessed the act of theft of Apollo's cattle by Hermes. Hermes told the man not to tell anyone about this, but when Apollo himself inquired him, Battus revealed that he had seen a child take the cattle away. Irritated that Battus didn't listen to him, Hermes turned him to stone.

Aglaurus: Aglaurus was the sister of Herse, a beautiful priestess of Athena, who had caught Hermes' attention. Hermes wanted to sleep with her and tried to enter her chamber, but Agraulus stopped him, asking who he was. When Hermes introduced himself and asked her to let him go in, she said she would let him in if he gave her something in return. This annoyed Hermes, and he turned Aglaurus into a stone.

Argus: a well known story. The giant Argus was the servant of Hera who was tasked with guarding Io who was in the form of a cow. Zeus sent Hermes to free Io from Argus. Hermes took the guise of a common man and came to Argus. He chatted for a little while, and then started playing music on his flute/pipes, which made Argus fall asleep. Hermes beheaded the giant when he was still in his sleep, and freed Io.

Agrius and Orieus: The descendants of Ares who were half-bear giants. They used to eat humans, so Hermes was sent by Zeus to punish them. Hermes initially wanted to chop off their hands, but Ares intervened and with the help of Hermes, turned them into birds.

Eumelus and Agron: Eumelus was the king of Kos. Him and his children worshipped only one goddess and scorned all the other divinities. His son Agron called Hermes a common thief, and in anger Hermes transformed him into a plover. Eumelos protested against this and was turned by Hermes into a raven.

Lydian villagers: Hermes and Zeus once visited a thousand homes in the hills of Lydia, disguised as travellers, to test the hospitality of man. They were turned away from all but one, and as punishment, turned the village into a marsh.

Pelops: a king whose charioteer was a son of Hermes named Myrtilos. One day Pelops and his wife Hippodameia were travelling, and Pelops stopped by a spot to get water for his wife. That time, Myrtilos tried to rape her. When Pelops learnt of this, he threw Myrtilos into a sea. As he was dying, Myrtilos asked his father to place a curse on the house of Pelops. Hermes fulfilled his desire, first bringing about discord in the family of Pelops, leading to the exile of his sons, and later to the blood feud between the brothers Atreus and Thyestes (aka the bloody curse on the house of Atreus)

Chelone: An Arkadian mountain-nymph who didn't attend the wedding of Zeus and Hera in spite of being invited by Hermes. Hermes punished her by transforming her into a tortoise.

[deathlessathanasia]

Eumelos of Corinth presents Zeus as being born in the land that is now Lydia, and probably he says the truth, to the extent that this is possible in history; for even now there is a place on the peak of Mt Tmolos at the west part of the city of Sardis, which was called in the past ‘Birthplace of Rain-bringing Zeus’, but now after the word has changed its form in the course of time it is called ‘Deusion’. The Kouretes were his (Zeus’) guardians.

Early Greek Epic Fragments I: Antiquarian and Genealogical Epic,Christos Tsagalis

[allbeendonebefore]

Iliad 23.382-400

[the gods chillin’ and watching the funeral games]

Apollo: [yoinks away Diomedes’ whip] lol

Diomedes: [starts bawling]

Athena: there there here is your wittle whip [kicks Eumelos’ chariot to smithereens while patting Diomedes’ head]

[littlesparklight]

Deaths in Corinth

"Medea, what have you done?"

Medea looks up from Medeios greedily sucking little face as he tries to empty her out to still his hunger, and though she'd been worried by Jason's tone alone, the expression on his face leaves her breathless. The dark gazes of two of the most hostile and contrary elders that are supposed to be their ever-ready and ever-helpful advisers and instead have been like snakes in the grass since she and Jason arrived silences for yet another beat or two. A shiver, chill like the grimmest wind blown in from the mountains, steal down her spine. Clutching her youngest child closer to her breast - which he doesn't mind at all, just yet, Medea straightens up.

"What am I supposed to have done?" she asks, voice light, spine stiff, her hands wishing to curve into claws in answer to those dark, dark eyes of the old men flanking Jason.

"Th--- You, the children, Medea. How could you?" Jason is moments from crying, his voice breaking twice and threatening more, and he is utterly unknowing of the sneering little look from one elder. The other has better control, but Medea can see the aborted twitch that reveals the suppressed eyeroll. She can also see what has happened, and Medes wails a protest as she inadvertently rips him from her breast to pull him close, up against her instead of peacefully laying in her arms, little hand squeezing her full breast.

The children. The children, all thirteen of them, that she'd left at Hera's sanctuary last night as she'd done for the last several years on this very night every time it came by again, to see if this would be the night Hera would fulfil her promise. The children are dead, and those vulture-eyed, dog-mouthed men flanking her husband have killed them. Killed them because they had never been happy at foreigners ruling them, one more foreign than the other, and that a woman should be the primary of said rulers.

Or they have had a part in the killing in some way, even if they didn't do it themselves, which makes them just as guilty as she, though the people she has indeed killed were not her own children.

Medea grits her teeth, then opens her mouth, but between that and uttering her next few words in defence, she can see it doesn't matter what she says. They have poisoned Jason against her, and they have broken him.

"When I left our children at the sanctuary, they were alive, Jason. What has happened?"

The truth is sludge in her mouth, and they all know she's understood what's happened, but her quick understanding has only damned her further. She can see what little light, mad and needy, that still clung to Jason's brown eyes go out like she'd snuffed a candle with her last words. He's not going to survive this. She could drag him with her and he will still die, for it will take her too long to convince him she isn't at fault. In fact, she might have to fight for her life as he wished to kill both of them in whatever last spark of actual agency that might still exist in him.

Oh, Jason.

Too easily downtrodden, always looking for others to lead, so often laid to catastrophising. She'd never minded, not really, but now his faults have allowed others to break him, and they know it.

The only reason Medea isn't planning some way to take suitable revenge is that she knows death will be coming for them anyway, and for the whole of Corinth. They have killed in Hera's sanctuary, and more than that, they've killed children the goddess have promised a gift to. Maybe if the goddess had actually given her gift earlier, they wouldn't be here, but now it is late, all too late, and Medea's galloping heart and tight grip on her last living child can't quiet or soothe Medeois.

The room rings with his cries, and for now that is the only mourning his other siblings will receive. Jason as well, dead man walking as he is. She just hopes he kills himself in a kind way, but she has a feeling he will wish to punish himself when he has done no wrong.

"Medea... You're the one who was last seen with them, and they're dead." Jason closes his eyes, and she can breathe a little more easily for being out under that haunted, broken stare. Enough to jog her thoughts into more than a swirl.

Great Helios, beloved of Rhodes, grandfather, hear me! I am without recourse, cornered like a lioness with only one cub left, the strong father lying slain before her with his great mane covered in gore. Aid your family if you ever had any love left for your mortal children!

She can only hope he has heard her and, more than that, is willing to offer aid that might be when and where she'll need it.

"And it is me you think would kill them? I, who have fed them at my breast, each and every one of them, who have given them to Hera Akraia in the hope of immortality for them, as I was promised?"

Jason flinches at her words as if she's punched him, but, compared to what might have been the result years before, now it doesn't urge him to listen to her. Instead he merely hunches, as if his spine had just been broken, and he looks at her with wide, begging eyes and holds his hands out. They're strong, still, but trembling, revealing the sensitivities and weakness that were always there.

The poison is too deep, and she can feel the smug pleasure of the two elders lurking behind her husband.

"Please, Medea. Just confess," Jason whispers, his voice raw like the blood surely coating Hera's altar right this moment, for Medea doubts the Corinthians have washed it away just yet. No, they needed to have Jason see it, needed him to know it was still there, and it needs to stay until she's dead, until Jason is dead too. It will only condemn them further.

Oh, she has killed for this man, and he has been dear to her, but she cannot kill herself for him as well.

Medea smiles tightly, her ears ringing with Medeios' cries, and stands up. Shifts Medeios onto one arm, tipping her to lie against her chest, head cushioned against her shoulder, and at last his cries dwindle into sobbing hiccups, slowly calming just as Medea's heartbeat is. The breeze coming in from the window is warmer than it was minutes ago, and there's a golden tint to the light that wasn't there before.

"I can't confess to a crime I haven't committed, my heart. I might have killed my brother, I might have killed Pelias, bu---"

"And you killed Kreon," one of the men sneers at her, righteous when there is the blood of thirteen children on his hands. Medea laughs, mockingly. Jason only slumps further, but there's a brief frown she can just barely see on his forehead, there and then gone. He doesn't believe that, at least, well as he might when he was there right with her being summoned to Kreon and heard the man himself.

"I gave Kreon the assistance he wished for, after he'd already proclaimed my birth, as well as that of my husband’s, made us worthy to rule this fair city of yours that you have besmirched with innocent blood. I have killed, but not my children."

Jason, her poor, poisoned husband, starts crying. Medea's heart hurts, but there's nothing she can do. Not when he draws his sword - and not to turn on the men behind him, for the poison they have given him have eaten its way far too deep into his heart, via his eyes and ears. A far more powerful poison than any magical such she could devise.

She smiles as he makes ready to charge her, but he's slow, so slow she has all the time she needs to draw the fragile little glass bottle from the layered flounces of her skirts, and as she throws it he looks almost grateful for it.

Oh, Jason.

She can't kill herself for him, but she can also not kill him, for either of them.

That will be her weakness and another pain to bear into the future, for this is only a distraction, a way for her to escape.

Smoke explodes up as the glass shatters, noxious and dark like the ink of squid, and she is the squid fleeing. Medea whirls around, throwing herself at the window, then out of it, and she almost falls straight off the chariot as she hits it hard with her shoulder and hip, her weight and speed tipping it sideways. Clutching at the rim with strength only a desperate mother could know, Medea manages to pull herself up, grab the reins and urge the shining drakones to move, all without falling off or losing her baby.

Her baby, who is giggling now, despite the shock of their flight, and Medea looks down with burning eyes and tears spilling down her cheeks to the boy in her arm, chewing at one of the golden rings that binds her tresses. He looks like Jason.

"Don't worry, my eyes," she whispers, leaning down to kiss the top of his soft head, tiny wisps of dark curls caressing her chin and cheeks while tears caress Medeios' skull, "they might have gotten all the others, but they won't get you. Or me."

Exhaling sharply, Medea straightens up, tightens her grip on the reins as she turns the snakes eastwards, and lets the golden wind dry her tears.

***

So, this is inspired by, and drawing from, several old/er sources (Pausanias, Eumelos, scholia on Eumelos) for what happens in Corinth. Medea seems most often to have killed her children, either inadvertently, or, as in Euripides, intentionally. The scholia says it was the Corinthians, angry at having a foreigner ruling them, for Eumelos in his Korinthiaka had Medea (and Jason) summoned to Corinth and given rulership, explicitly on the grace of Medea’s bloodline. The children are killed in the sanctuary of Hera Akraia (by the Corinthians in this version), where Medea has been leaving them in expectation of Hera fulfilling her promise to her (here, my intention is that Hera’s promise is the reward for Medea’s help to kill Pelias). In the version where the killings happen inadvertently, Jason can’t forgive her and leaves for Iolkos. So what happens as a background to this is Medea, as an agent of Hera, kills Pelias for his insult to her, she and Jason have to leave Iolkos, they are summoned to Corinth and given rulership, Kreon dies (childless, hence why Medea and Jason have been summoned).

I would honestly not have done this at all but reading all this in Early Greek Myth by Gantz I was just slapped in the face by inspiration, and as much as I am so damn cranky over so many people crowing about Medea doing nothing wrong (her brother and her children says hello), I am pleased with this.

[psycheophiuchus]

oops, I forgot to post yesterday ...

WITCHTOBER

DAY 19 : " MEDEA"

The Greco-Latin world knows at least one other great "witch-sorceress": Medea.

Her legend is particularly dark: scorned woman and matricide. Her name (Medeia) connects her to the half-caste, cunning and intelligence. She is also credited with the art of poisons and medicines (linked to the "med" of his name).

Like her aunt Circe, she is a magician and embodies the danger. She also crystallizes all the cliches and excesses lent to the Greek feminine.

However the texts have many variations on her history and the first versions did not mention infanticides. They presented a Medea associated with positive magic rituals, which could, for example, cure sterility by her philters, or even carry out rejuvenation operations. In the Corinthiaque fragments of Eumelos of Corinth, the Corinthian episode has a fatal end to the death of the children of Medea and Jason, without Medea being a murderer.

It is with other authors that she is transformed into terrifying and black witch (Seneque, Ovid). The more disturbing she becomes, the more powerful she becomes. According to Appollonios of Rhodes, her incantations and her drugs endorse the monster who keeps the Golden Fleece and invokes Hypnos, Hecate and the Kères ...

Here Mucha captures the compelling stage presence of Sarah Bernhardt in the famous Greek tragedy Medée.

JOUR 19: "MEDEE"

Le monde gréco-latin connait au moins une autre grande "magicienne-sorcière" : Médée.

Sa légende est particulièrement sombre : femme bafouée et matricide. Son nom (Medeia) la relie à la métis, à la ruse et à l'intelligence. On lui attribue aussi l'art des poisons et des médicaments (lié à la racine "med" de son nom). Comme sa tante Circée, elle est magicienne et incarne le danger. Elle cristallise aussi tous les poncifs et les excès prêtés au féminin grec.

Pourtant les textes comportent de très nombreuses variantes sur son histoire et les premières versions ne mentionnaient pas d'infanticides. Ils présentaient une Médée associée à des rituels magiques positifs, pouvant par exemple, guérir la stérilité par ses philtres, ou encore procéder à des opérations de rajeunissement. Dans les fragments des Corinthiaques d'Eumelos de Corinthe, l'épisode corinthien connait une fin funeste avec la mort des enfants de Médée et Jason, sans que Médée soit une meurtrière.

C'est avec d'autres auteurs qu'elle est transformé en sorcière noire et terrifiante (Seneque, Ovide). Plus elle devient inquiétante, plus elle devient puissante. Selon Appollonios de Rhodes, ses incantations et ses drogues endorment le monstre qui garde la Toison d'Or et invoque Hypnos, Hécate puis les Kères...

Ici, Mucha saisit la présence sur scène fascinante de Sarah Bernhardt dans la célèbre tragédie grecque Medée.

[panecunzato]

"Io volevo convincere lui, Eumelo. Ma di che! mi ha chiesto, Enea, e restai muta allora. Del fatto, direi oggi, che non dovevamo diventare come Achille, pur di scamparla. Che non era ancora dimostrato che noi, pur di scamparla, dovessimo diventare come i greci. E quand'anche fosse! Non era più importante vivere secondo i nostri costumi, secondo le nostre leggi, anziché vivere in assoluto? Ma a chi volevo darla a intendere. Era davvero così? Non era più importante sopravvivere? La cosa più importante di tutte. L'unica che contasse. Che fosse quindi Eumelo l'uomo del destino?

E se la domanda suonasse invece da tempo in un altro modo, vale a dire: assumere il volto del nemico, e malgrado ciò perire?"

- Christa Wolf, Cassandra

[deathlessathanasia]

The Titanomachy, which covered many more events than its title suggests, began with a theogonic section. This would have included both genealogies and some narrative, at least when Eumelos had to explain the events that led from the first and second generations of the immortals to the birth of Zeus. The narrative pace in this first part of the epic must have been fast. The actual clash between the Olympians and the Titans was presented in a slower pace, with considerable attention to its different phases: the preparation for war, description of the gods committing themselves to the two sides, initial phase of the battle with no obvious victor, Zeus’ stratagem of releasing the Kyklopes from Tartaros to furnish him and his brothers with new weapons that allow the Olympians to achieve final victory. The use of the motif of the ‘Helper’ was here filtered exclusively through Zeus, who liberated the Kyklopes after killing the monster Kampe on his own. Zeus’ stratagem was, as is the case with the Hesiodic Theogony, the result of Gaia’s advice about how victory will be achieved, but whereas in Hesiod the Olympians collectively bring the Hundred-Handers to light (Th. 626), in Eumelos this is carried out by Zeus alone. Since the motif of the ‘Helper’ is usually employed to introduce a dramatic reversal of the initial course of a fight, it seems that the Titanomachy organized, as Hesiod’s Theogony, the divine clash in two phases, an initial undecided stage and a final victorious one for the Olympians. Zeus’ dance after his victory over the Titans shows that the Titanomachy may have dwelt for some time on the aftermath of the war, the more so since there would be no new adversary against Zeus. Now the new order had to be established: this involved a series of rather brief scenes in which Zeus showed himself to be a harsh but just divine king: he incarcerated the Titans in Tartaros, distributed privileges to those who helped him or remained neutral (e.g. Hyperion), and drew lots with his two brothers for the division of the world in three realms. It is difficult to imagine how the non-martial second part of the epic would have been organized. If Cheiron (frr. 13–14 EGEF) featured there, it is possible that the Titanomachy would have presented the fate of the Titans’ offspring (in the manner of Apollod. Bibl. 1.2.2–5) in catalogue form, as is the case with Cheiron’s brief mention in Hes. Th. 1001–2.71 For how long would the epic continue and whether it would have involved anything but catalogues, it is impossible to tell.

Early Greek Epic Fragments I: Antiquarian and Genealogical Epic, Christos Tsagalis

[deathlessathanasia]

The central theme of the [Titanomachia of Eumelos] was the war between the Olympian gods and the Titans. Given that the epic included at least two books (fr. 15 EGEF), the actual fight must have been placed at the second book, the first being devoted to some sort of cosmogony or an account of the first and second generations of immortals (fr. 1A+B EGEF) and what took place before the actual clash between the Olympians and the Titans. After the birth of Zeus (fr. 2 EGEF) in Mount Sipylos in Lydia, the poem must have featured the preparation for the war, which would have involved a presentation of the forces supporting the two sides (fr. 3 EGEF), with the sea monster Aigaion committing to fight against the Olympians. The preparation for the war must have included some smaller episodes or scenes: the Titan Hyperion decided not to attack the Olympians (fr. *4 GEF), while one of Iapetos’ sons, Prometheus, functioned as a herald between the two divine camps before they started fighting (fr. *5 EGEF). Prometheus may have changed sides, since his subsequent punishment is always presented as a result of helping humans and not being defeated in the clash between Olympians and Titans. The struggle between the two sides was fierce; the scales did not turn in favor of the Olympians, until Zeus killed the prison warder Kampe and released the Kyklopes from Tartaros, who furnished him with thunder, lightning, and thunderbolt, Plouton with a cap that made him invisible, and Poseidon with the trident (fr. *9 EGEF). When the Titans were defeated, they were punished by being incarcerated in Tartaros (fr. *9 EGEF), where Menoitios was also placed after being hit by Zeus with his thunderbolt (fr. *7 EGEF). Then, it was time for festivity (fr. 8 EGEF) and the distribution of privileges. The gods gathered in Mekone and drew lots: Zeus got the sky, Hades the Underworld, and Poseidon the sea (*9 EGEF). Atlas was punished by being condemned to hold the vault of the sky (fr. 10 EGEF). In acknowledgement of the help Hyperion had provided to the Olympians during the Titanomachy, he became the Sun and was awarded both with a four-horse chariot (fr. 11 EGEF) and a vessel on which he sails across the Okeanos at night (fr. 12 EGEF). From this point ahead, it is not clear how the plot would have unraveled. Fragments 13–14 (EGEF) refer to the Centaur Cheiron, who is designated as the son of Kronos and Philyra (13 EGEF), as well as the first instructor of humankind in oath-taking, offering sacrifices to the gods, and learning astronomical and meteorological lore (14 EGEF). Cheiron’s birth may have been mentioned in the context of a catalogue relating in brief the fate of the Titans’ offspring. Given that there is no evidence that the Titanomachy contained anything more about Cheiron than his birth and his status as an instructor of mankind, it seems rather unlikely that he was mentioned in the context of his self-sacrifice and surrender of his immortality to Prometheus as that would necessarily have involved some sort of reference to Herakles and his Labors (Cheiron being wounded by him in the episode with Pholos during the Labor of the Erymanthian boar). Equally puzzling is fr. 15 (EGEF) referring to ‘fish with golden scales sporting and playing in the ambrosial water’. Since ambrosial water designates only fresh water, some lake or pool or spring may have been meant. In connection to whom or what remains a matter of speculation.

Early Greek Epic Fragments I: Antiquarian and Genealogical Epic, Christos Tsagalis

[deathlessathanasia]

Do we know anything about the relationship between Hera and Medea, apart from the fact that she made her fall in love with Jason?

In Euripides' Medea (1378–1383), she says that she will bury her children in the sanctuary of Hera Akraia and that holy rites will be held in payment for their murder.

A similar idea appears in sources where Medea doesn't herself kill the children, or at least not on purpose. Apparently in the Corinthiaca of Eumelos Medea buried them in Hera's temple in an attempt to make them immortal: „Through her [Medea] Jason was king in Corinth, and Medea, as her children were born, carried each to the sanctuary of Hera and concealed them, doing so in the belief that so they would be immortal. At last she learned that her hopes were vain, and at the same time she was detected by Jason. When she begged for pardon he refused it, and sailed away to Iolcus. For these reasons Medea too departed, and handed over the kingdom to Sisyphus.” (Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.3.11)

„According to Parmeniskos, when Medeia became queen of Corinth, she was despised by the other Corinthian women for being a barbarian and an enchantress, with the result that her children, seven boys and seven girls, were all killed by them in the shrine of Hera Akraia, where they tried to find refuge. Because of this act of sacrilege a plague befell the city and many Corinthians died. The oracle prophesied that, in order to cleanse the city from this pollution, the Corinthians need to select seven boys and seven girls and have them spend a whole year inside Hera's precinct, as well as offer sacrifices to appease the goddess' anger.” (Christos K. Tsagalis, Early Greek Epic Fragments I: Antiquarian and Genealogical Epic)

Similarly, Pseudo-Apollodoros (Library 1.9.28) mentions an account in which Medea left her children in the temple of Hera Akraia where they were killed by the Corinthians: „Another tradition is that on her flight she left behind her children, who were still infants, setting them as suppliants on the altar of Hera of the Height; but the Corinthians removed them and wounded them to death.”

Finally a variant that brings Hera and Medea even closer is attested in a scholion to Pindar (Olympian 13.74g). According to this source, Zeus took an erotic interest in Medea but she refused to have anything to do with him out of respect or fear of Hera, whereupon Hera promised to make Medea's children immortal. She didn't keep her promise for whatever reason, however, and the children died anyways.