Curses and Divine Anger in Early Greek Epic: The Pisander Scholion

Author(s): Hugh Lloyd-Jones

Source: The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 1 (2002), pp. 1-14
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
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Classical Quarterly 52.1 1-14 (2002) Printed in Great Britain 1

CURSES AND DIVINE ANGER IN EARLY GREEK

EPIC: THE PISANDER SCHOLION

To the volume of essays about Sophocles with which a number

were kind enough to present me on my seventy-fifth birt
contributed an interesting article called 'Ancestral Curses'. H
played by the curses of ancestors and others, and also by the di
pursue a family, and with the operations of the Erinyes, espe
tragedies relating to the House of Labdacus. The part of his ar
now concerned is the part relating to post-Homeric early epic
them by the tragedians.
West writes (p. 37) that 'it is not typical of epic to move across
less to make connections between events in different generation
of this? The trouble with any sort of generalization about early
little material. There is certainly not much of this kind of thin
here the pursuit of a family by divine anger may be found, an
considerable importance.
We are told in the last book of the Iliad that when
Achilles was maltreating the body of Hector, the gods pitied t
them wished to send Hermes to rescue the corpse, except fo
Athena (24.25-6):

&VO' JAAols /5EV o -tav E 7)v~avEv, oi&' roO' ' -Hpr7

o0S' HoU17oLwv' ovS' yAaVKW7TLrL KoVprvL,
&AA' W XOVW c'a ar/V 7pwPTOV a7T)'XOETO "IAfOST L p
Ka'/ p7'a/o4 KaL Aioc "AAE6dvspov EVEK"

O0 vELKEruE OEdaS, JrE o otz LjaUavAov LKOVrO,

T)%V 8 33LV71'5, n Ott 7TO/pE /CaXIAoaIVv-qv 'AEyEtV4'V.

This passage was athetized in antiquity, by Aristarchus among others,2 and in the
days when belief in multiple authorship was rife various parts of it were deleted by
many scholars. West in his edition accepts Bekker's athetesis of 29-30. But the greater
part of it has been accepted by several scholars since the appearance of Karl
Reinhardt's famous article, Das Parisurteil.3 Reinhardt showed how, in the words of
Colin Macleod (loc. cit.), 'Homer heightens and extends the tragedy by taking us

1 Sophocles Revisited: Essays presented to Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, ed. Jasper Griffin (Oxford,
1999).
2 See H. Erbse, Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem V (Berlin, 1977), 520-1.
3 K. Reinhardt, 'Wissenschaft und Gegenwart (Frankfurt, 1938) = Von Werken und Formen
(Godesberg, 1948), 11-36 = Tradition und Geist (G6ttingen, 1960), 16-36; English version in
G. M. Wright and P. V. Jones, Homer German Scholarship in Translation (Oxford, 1997), 170-99.
Cf. T. C. W Stinton, Euripides and the judgment of Paris', JHS Suppl. XI (1965) = Collected
Papers on Greek Tragedy (Oxford, 1990), 17-75; Jasper Griffin, Homer on Life and Death (Oxford,
1980), 195, with n. 49; Malcolm Davies, JHS 101 (1981), 56-62; C. W. Macleod, Homer, Iliad
Book 24; A Commentary (Cambridge, 1982), 8-9; N. J. Richardson, The Iliad: A Commentary VI
(ed. G. S. Kirk) (Cambridge, 1993), 276-7.

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 2 H. LLOYD-JONES

back to where it started.' The somewhat unheroic tone is in accordance with Homer's
treatment of the gods, seen in the episodes of the rescue of Paris by Aphrodite in
Book 3 and the subsequent teasing of Hera and Athena by Zeus (4.5-6), of the
wounding of Aphrodite by Diomedes in Book 5, of the seduction of Zeus by Hera in
Book 14, and most notably in the battle of the gods in Book 21. Unlike mortals the
gods could not be killed, so that their fates could not be tragic. The cyclic epic called
the Cypria told how at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, Eris, by throwing the apple
inscribed 'For the Fairest', provoked the judgement of Paris.4
In Book 24 of the Iliad there is no mention of the reason for Poseidon's enmity to
Troy;5 but in Book 21 (441-2)6 we have been told of his grudge against the city of his
enemy Laomedon. The capture of Troy by Heracles and Telamon had not sufficed to
appease Poseidon's enmity, so that here we have a case of divine anger extending over
more than one generation. In the Odyssey also divine anger was not without
importance.
Homer tells us little about the Labdacids. In the brief account of the parricide and
incest of Oedipus at Od. 11.271-2, the gods immediately make these crimes known to

men: 0qap S' av'trva'ra eoE Ot'aaav d vOplrocaLvw. Oedipus' mother Epicaste hangs
herself, but Oedipus continues to rule; at 11. 23.679-80, there is mention of the funeral
games held after his death. But the Odyssean passage ends by saying that Epicaste left

to Oedipus AyEa ... .noAAa jtdA', oaaa r E qTrpoS 'EpwLVVEs KTEAEOvUL. That
indicates that the Erinyes will act as they usually do in such cases, so that there will be
more trouble for Oedipus, and perhaps for his descendants.
What of other early epic poems? Our knowledge of them is severely limited. But
thanks to Apollodorus and the summaries of Proclus, we have a general notion of the
contents of the Cypria and the other post-Homeric epics dealing with the Trojan War.7
It might be argued that the matter-of-fact, straightforward narrative style,8 a bugbear
to Callimachus and other poets of his time and later, in which one episode follows
another with little reference forward or back, which was held to be characteristic of
cyclic epics, does not appear to lend itself to this kind of thing.9
But two early epics seem not to have been written in that style. These are the
Oedipodeia and the Thebaid. The Oedipodeia is ascribed by the Tabula Borgiana to
Cinaethon of Lacedaemon, to whom the Little Iliad and the Heracleia also are
ascribed.'0 But the author of a scholion on Euripides (Mon. 560, on pp. 414-15 of
Eduard Schwartz, Scholia in Euripidem I [Berlin, 18871; see below, p. 3) speaks of a
plurality of authors. Many writers ascribe the Thebaid to Homer, including Callinus

4 See Richardson (n. 3), 91.

5 Reinhardt (Tu. G 28) writes 'Poseidon wird schuldigerweise wie eine Parenthese mitgenannt';
but at this point Homer has no reason to go into detail. One should not worry about Zeus's
apparent ignorance of the reason for Hera's hatred of the Trojans at II. 4.31-2; to him that reason
would surely seem a trivial one.
6 See Richardson (n. 3), 91.
7 Brief sketch in M. Davies, The Epic Cycle (Bristol, 1989); texts and bibliography in
A. Bernabe, Poetarum Epicorum Graecorum Testimonia et Fragmenta I (Stuttgart, 1996) and
M. Davies, Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (G6ttingen, 1988) (on these two editions, see
S. Timpanaro, RFIL 125 [1997], 17, n. 2). For the use of the Cypria by Euripides, see E Jouan,
Euripide et les Ligendes des Chants Cypriens (Paris, 1966).
8 See Callimachus, Epigr. 2, 1041-2 in Gow-Page, Hellenistic Epigrams (1965), ad loc.
9 On the stylistic differences between Homer and the cyclic epics, see J. Griffin, JHS 97 (1977),
39-53.
"o See Bernabe (n. 7), 17 and Davies (n. 7), 20-1 and 92-3.

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 CURSES AND DIVINE ANGER IN EARLY GREEK EPIC 3

(fr. 6 West) and possibly Herodotus, whose literary judgeme

Pausanias thought it second only to the Iliad and the Odyssey." Un
easy to get a notion of the general nature of the work from the fra
Whether we have any serious knowledge of the content of th
the view one takes of a long scholion on Euripides, Phoenissae
sketch of the history of the Labdacids from the initial crime of Lai
Oedipus; it begins with the words la-ropE HEdaavSpos. Over th
many of them displaying great learning in their handling of its p
differed.
'Peisandros' is a very common name, as a glance at the Lexicon of Proper Names
and at Pape-Benseler, Griechische Eigennamen will confirm. One of its bearers was
Pisander of Camirus, the author of an early epic Heracleia, to whom other works have
been ascribed. Another was Pisander of Laranda, the author of a long poem called the

'HpwKa` Ooyatm'aL, who wrote under Alexander Severus. Some have taken the
Pisander named at the beginning of the scholion to be the first Pisander, others the
second. Others (first Welcker in 184912) think it to be the work of a a pseudo-Pisander,
a prose mythographer of the Hellenistic age.
Rudolf Keydell (1935),13 making use of his exceptional familiarity with late epics,
distinguished the fragments quoted from Pisander of Camirus from those quoted from
Pisander of Laranda, arguing that the latter, living under Alexander Severus, in his
poem called the' HpwtKat O&oyaplat produced a vast synthesis of early legends based
on the love-affairs of gods with mortals, which for the Greeks of his time and after
took the place of the early epics. The fragments of Pisander of Camirus are to be
found in Davies (n. 7, 1988), 129-35 and Bernabe (n. 7), 164-71; those of Pisander of
Laranda are printed in Heitsch.14 Keydell believed that the one fragment of 'Pisander'
quoted by Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, the seven quoted in the scholia on Apollonius and
the two quoted in the scholia on Euripides, one of which contains the Pisander
scholion, came from a third Pisander, a prose writer, a mythographer writing during
the Hellenistic period.15
It seems clear that the scholion is the product of a prose writer presenting a
narrative based on early poetry, and that because of the writer's carelessness or
accidents of transmission or both it contains many defects. Over the origins of its
content scholars have long disputed. E. W Schneidewin in 185216 found it 'aus Altem
und Dichtungen tragischer Dichter wundersam gemischt'. Erich Bethe in 189117
argued with great confidence that it summarized the Oedipodeia. N. Wecklein in 190118
thought that it derived from the Thebaid and in some parts from the Oidipodeia. Carl

" Herodotus 5.67.1, where see Bernabe's note on Thebais test. 5; Pausanias 9.9.5, where see
Bernabe, Thebais test. 2.
12 K. G. Welker, Der epische Cyclus oder die homerischen Dichter I (Bonn, 1835, 18652); II (1849).
"3 R. Keydell, 'Die Dichter mit Namen Peisandros', Hermes 10 (1935), 301-2 = Kl.Schr.
(Leipzig, 1982), 361-2 and R.E. 19.1 (1937), cols. 144-5 (nos. 11-13).
14 E. Heitsch, Die Griechischen Dichterfragmente der Riimischen Kaiserzeit, Abh. der Gittinger
Akademie, Ph.-Hist. Kl., no. 33, 11(1964), suppl. 6, 44-7.
15 For these fragments, see Jacoby, 16 FGrH I A, 1957, 181-2 and I a, 493-6 and 544-7.
16 E W. Schnedewin, 'Die Sage vom Oedipus', GGA 5 (1851-2), 159-60.
17 E. Bethe, Thebanische Heldenlieder (Leipzig, 1891), ch. 1. His view was accepted by O. Hofer
in Roscher's Lexikon 713 and by O. Gruppe, GMR 1 (1906), 524, n. 3.
18 N. Wecklein, 'Die Kyklische Thebais, die Oedipodee, die Oedipussage und der Oedipus des
Euripides', SB der Bay. Akad (1901).

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 4 H. LLOYD-JONES

Robert in 191319 in a very detai

the scholion 'ein Flickwerk a
grammarian. H. Lamer in 19242
followed the Oedipodeia, but too
Jacoby in 192322 took it to be
who had conflated a variety o
Phoenissae and the Chrysippus
Jacoby, denying the existence
that although 'Verwirrung und E
derives from an early epic of Pi
The appearance in 1935 of Ke
above) did not end the debate.
late Hellenistic epic pretending
that the first half of the scholi
half from his Oedipus. Jacoby (
and supported that of Keydell
depended both on the Oedipodei
all its sources with absolute ce
reconstruction of the Oedipode
that the story that Hera's ang
einleuchtend'. Mastronarde (19
scholion to be 'a learned conflati
the Hellenistic age'. Bemab6 (199
depended chiefly on the Oedipod
The controversy over the scho
concludes that 'that text certain
Chrysippus story in the epic Oe
take a look at the scholion. Text
Euripidem I, 414-15, but in Ro
(n. 7), 17-19. I will set it out, pau

'~ C. Robert, Oidipus: Geschichte e

1913), 149-50 (reviewed by Nilsson,
20 F Vian, Les Origines de Thebes
C. Robert, Oidipus I, 149-167, i l'enc
21 At pp. 506-7 of his article on
article on Oedipus, RE 17 (1937), 210
769-70.
22 F. Jakoby, FGrH I (1923), 493-4.
23 U. von Wilamowitz, Hermes 60 (1925), 280-1 = Ki. Schr. 4 (1962), 368-9.
24 E. Schwartz, Hermes 75 (1940), 6-7.
25 L. Deubner, Abh. Pr. Akad., Ph. hist. Kl. (1942), no. 4. With regard to the Oedipus, see n. 30
below. His view regarding the Chrysippus is accepted by A. Lesky, Die Tragische Dichtung der
Hellenen3 (G6ttingen, 1972), 328 = 240 in the English translation by Matthew Dillon (New Haven
and London, 1983), and see n. 28 below.
26 In the Nachtriige to FGrH I a, 544-5.
27 E. L. de Kock, Acta Classica (Proc. Class. Assoc. S. Afr) 4 (1961), 7-8 and 5 (1962), 1-2, 5
with useful bibliography at 28.
28 E. Fraenkel, 'Zu den Phoenissen des Euripides', SB der Bayerischen Akademie, Ph.-hist. Kl.
1(1963), 6-7.
29 D. J. Mastronarde, Euripides, Phoenissae (Cambridge, 1994), 31-8.
30 Bernab6 (n. 7), 17.

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 CURSES AND DIVINE ANGER IN EARLY GREEK EPIC 5

La-ropet H1Ec'av~po' O't Kard X6Aov r nHpag '7pT4GE/ '17"

7Tr rjov EGaXdrwv tLEpwV -r-r A ~tomrag, or ro'v A tov aUE

rap6vopov Epwora r70o XpvUatr1ov7, iv "7piraavv
rETnwpjuavrro.. 87v -q `1 Ely4, WoUwEp ypdceirat, i-)v olpdv

dvaprwdaovaa d U t/KpOVS Kd t~LEyAOUSv KaT7 OtLEV, 1V

KpEovros trabSa Kat " eTMrov 7 Tv Epvvdp ou Trov "rot- KeVc
jaav 8E EvpuvotPos Kat 'Htove;s vlot Mdyvqro~ ro 0 AIoA'SoV
EV oViv 7T7TLMo Kat %Evos cv 7r0 '17 ? 7EtyyoSg d v-tpCO, 6
O'votdiov, iv rpdTrov Kat o d AAot Tv-aT7)pEI.

Lr'aop~E el aav8pos: 'Pisander records'. That would be a surpri

speaking of a poet; it suggests rather that a prose writer is bei
sent the Sphinx is told us also by Apollodorus, Bibl. 3.5.8 and D
The initial statement is followed by an account of the Sphinx
which Robert (n. 19), 151-2. thought must come from a source dif
the main larop'a.
The Sphinx came from Ethiopia, in early times not the country
the home of a mythical folk in the east.31 Does aaerrp yp6qierat '
it mean 'as she is painted', as Robert, p. 153 thought? It would be
be told only that she had the tail of a dragon, for descriptions of
more peculiarities,32 and Robert may well be right in inserting 8
would also explain why the writer used jv with the participle inst
EtXE. Bethe's suggestion that a hexameter ended ovpdv E 8paKo
right. I do not see why the account of the Sphinx should be a
different source, as Robert thought.
At this point there is no mention of the Sphinx's riddle, and it
number of vases show Oedipus fighting with the Sphinx.33 All of
dubious instances which are numbered 73-5 by Krauskopf (n.
second half of the fifth century; but does that prove that this vers
into being only then?34 She killed many, both great and small, i
son of Creon, and Hippios the son of that Eurynomos who f
Centaurs. This Eurynomos and Eioneus were the sons of Magne
Eioneus was one of the suitors of Hippodameia killed by Oenom
that these details look as if they came from a mythographer; but
derive from an early epic, though they are not likely to come from
The view that the details given in the 'insertion' come from t
appear to be confirmed by another scholion on line 1760, which co

31 See A. Lesky, 'Aithiopika', Hermes 87 (1959), 27-8 = Ges. Schr. (Bern,

32 See J.-M. Moret, Oedipe, la Sphinx et les Thtbains (Rome, 1984); L. E
the Ancient Legend and its Later Analogues (Baltimore and London, 1
LIMC VII 1 (1994), 1-2 (with bibliography). The description of the Sphinx
Austin, Nova Fragmenta Euripidea in Papyris Reperta [Berlin, 1968] = fr
support the theory that the scholion is based partly on this play.
33 Krauskopf (n. 32), 14 on Oidipous nos. 75-7, desribed on p. 8.
34 In a learned discussion of the problem presented by this variant J.-
Sphinx et les Thtbains: Essai de Mythographique I (1984), 77-91 has show
all probability present Oedipus fighting with the Sphinx are all as late a
fifth century; but surely this does not prove that the story originated as la
was reviewed by Krauskopf, GGA 314 (1987), 228-9, who was replied to b
Brief an den Herausgeber der GGA' (Messina, 1988).

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 6 H. LLOYD-JONES

manuscript, the Monacensis 560

the death of Haemon, also ment
agreed to come from the Oedipod

eT&K
a&AA' a T ~h E KaL\
'KAALT' L1 ,EoaraTov
6 E epo
raESa L'Aov KpElov?osv djuvovos, ALP'ova 8ov
(fr. 1 Davies = fr.1 Bernab6)3s

Tpcoj oSE: 6 A'dlogToy av aOELoLTOV EpQoa TooTov EaXEV. 6 8: XpruaLrIro TO r6

auaXtvr/S avwrov 8LEXp7'aa17UaTC TM 6EL.

According to Robert, this is where the main la-ropia resumes. Some have argued that
the Chrysippus story cannot come from an early epic, because there is no mention of
homosexuality in Homer, or because homosexuality was not disapproved of in early
Greece. But even if homosexuality is not disapproved of in general,36 one may well
disapprove of homosexual rape, and the victim of such a rape might well feel extreme
shame. Even in aristocratic circles in fifth-century Athens, it was thought shameful for
a man to be penetrated by another man. Further, whatever the general attitude to
homosexuality may have been, no one was more likely to disapprove than the goddess
who was the patroness of marriage, who happened, as we shall see presently, to have a
celebrated shrine on Cithaeron dedicated to her in this capacity. Suicide on account of
shame is not unthinkable in early epic.37 There is no mention here of the story that
Pelops cursed the violator of his son;38 Hera's anger would have been enough.

TO-rE v oJiV O 6 TELPEUL'aS w' pAJV-r9 EIS 6rt OL eoa-rvy)g jv 6 AtoL a9IErpE7TEV
al3Trv - iTi 7 ov A iroAAtwva 68ot,, " ,7TL 8 "'HpdL /LAAVTov T7/L yafLoaTAwL UEil
IEE1v LeEPa. 0 OE au-roy EeaUo AL?EV.

Hera sent the Sphinx; but the Sphinx did not come to Thebes until much later than
the crime of Laius, until the time when Oedipus had grown up. So why was Laius
planning to go to Delphi? And why did Teiresias,39 knowing that Laius was hated by a
god, advise Laius not to consult the Delphic oracle, as he was thinking of doing, but to
sacrifice to Hera the patroness of marriage? Surely at this time Laius was thinking of
going to Delphi, like Aegeus in Euripides' Medea, to ask why his wife had borne no
children; that is what locaste tells us in the prologue of the Phoenissae (13-14). Surely
the writer, or more probably the copyist, of this narrative has gone straight from Laius'

35 The scholion goes on to say 'They say' that the Sphinx was not a beast but a soothsayer
whose utterances were difficult to understand and who caused the deaths of many Thebans who
misinterpreted her prophecies. It seems impossible to relate this to any other account of the
Sphinx that is known to us, and it looks like an Euhemerist version of her story.
36 On homosexuality in Greek myth, see K. J. Dover, Greek Homosexuality (London, 1977),
196-7.
37 See R. Hirzel, 'Der Selbstmord', Archivfiir Religionswissenschaft 11 (1908), 70-1 = 2 of the
reprint of 1966. Professor Kassel points to a striking parallel quoted by Aristotle, Rhet. 1.14,
1374b34 (test. 164 in Radt's edition of the fragments of Sophocles), and also cites Euripides
fr. 362.24-9 Nauck and Kannicht.
38 See nos. 4, 6, 8, 11, and 12 of the hypotheses to Euripides, Phoenissae quoted in
Mastronarde's Teubner text of 1988, 5-6, and the scholion on Euripides, Phoen. 60.
39 A scholion on E. Phoen. 834 quotes Pisander for the report that Teiresias married Xanthe
and had four children: Phamenos, Pherecydes, Chloris, and Manto. This is more likely to come
from an epic than from a tragedy, and may well come from the Oidipodeia.

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 CURSES AND DIVINE ANGER IN EARLY GREEK EPIC 7

first journey to Delphi, made in order to learn the reason for his
to the second, made many years later, in order to learn what he
Sphinx.
Clearly Laius' failure to have children was due to the anger of Hera. It would seem
that Laius behaved insultingly to the prophet, like Oedipus in the O. T. and Creon in
the Antigone, and with an equally unfortunate result. This could have come from a
tragedy, but there is no reason why it should not have come from the Oidipodeia.

ac7TEAWOJV " roVV E/ovEVo7' Ev -77rL CrXLT77 0l oL avro"S Kal t 05 7vt'oXoS airTo;, E'rEL&7'
ErWv/E 7tL lau-myt TOv O018'ToSa.

At this point the scholion should have told of the earlier journey to Delphi, after
which Apollo told Laius that the city would be safe only if he had no issue. Why did
Apollo tell him this? Clearly because of Hera's anger.40 What happened next we know
from other sources, notably Aeschylus, Sept. 742-57 and Euripides, Phoen. 12-13. If
Laius had taken the prophet's advice and tried to appease Hera, he might have
succeeded. But as it was he went to Apollo, who knowing of Hera's anger warned him
against having a son. According to the prologue of Euripides' Phoenissae, spoken by
locaste (17-20), Apollo told Oedipus what would happen if he had issue. But in a
disastrous moment, Laius disobeyed this command, and Oedipus was born.41
This reflexion causes one to look back to the words -rdo'r E v ov. The odv is surely
inferential, and the E'v should look forward to a sentence whose second word was SE.
That sentence will have belonged to the part of the narrative that has been lost.
Oedipus was born, and he was exposed on Kithairon, AELqAAiv' W' t'Hpa s KaL
KtOatpLavo rra~, according to Euripides, Phoen. 24. Euripides may well have taken
this detail from the Oedipodeia. Only when he was grown up did Hera send the Sphinx.
This is why Laius made his second journey to Delphi, on which he encountered
Oedipus and was killed by him.

40 It may well be that in the earliest version of the legend Hera was the only deity whose wrath
pursued Laius. Of course, in the versions that are familiar to us from tragedies Apollo and his
oracle seem to take over the pursuit from this time on. But how did Apollo first come to warn
Laius against having children? The only explanation of it that is recorded is that Apollo's warning
was caused by the wrath of Hera.
Wilamowitz in 'Die griechische Heldensage', SBPA (1925) 57 = Kl.Schr. V 2.78, writing about
early epic, wrote 'Wo Orakel eingreifen, da sind wir friihestens im 7.Jahrhundert, auch wenn es in
der Odyssee 8,79 vorkommt. Von da an hat der Glaube an den Pythier wie in das Leben, so in die
Saga tief eingegriffen, hat die Sagen von Oedipus und Orestes ganz umgestaltet, und nun trifft
man Orakel iiberall, aber iiberall zeugen sie fiir jiingere Bearbeitungen der Geschichte.' On the
comparatively rare mentions of Pytho in Homer, see H. W. Parke and D. E. W. Wormell, History
of the Delphic Oracle I (Oxford, 1956), 313-14 and J. Fontenrose, The Delphic Oracle (Berkeley,
1978), 89. Apollo's warning probably figured in the Oidipodeia, but in the original legend it may
have had no place.
41 At Aeschylus, Septem 750, Wecklein (1885), Wilamowitz (1914), Groeneboom (1966),
Murray (19552), Page (1972), and West (1990) read CK 0AwoV ciovAuiv. Hutchinson in his
commentary of 1985 writes that the dpovAla is 1iAos 'partly because it is associated with an
object dear to Laius' heart'. West in 1991 (see n. 54 below) rendered the phrase by 'sentimental
thoughtlessness', and in 1999 (p. 40) modified this to 'foolish fondness'. I cannot see that the
adjective can bear this sense, and in the circumstances this reading yields an almost comical
understatement. I would prefer to accept the variant df&ovAlat and to take the sense to be 'ruled
by his btAoL, rashly'. This reading was adopted by Verrall in his commentary of 1887, who took it
to mean 'by his love, i.e., his wife'. But more probably the sense is that Laius was persuaded by
those close to him, unwisely, that he ought to beget an heir. Unfortunately Verrall preferred a
variant, &3ovAlav, yielding an internal accusative which is surely inferior to the dative.

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 8 H. LLOYD-JONES

When it should have told of Laiu

and tells of the second, which
Oedipus was grown up. Oedipus m
Euripides (Phoen. 38), which wa
meets the road to Delphi and ano
Sophoclean passage quote a fragm
other of the lost plays of the Th

UXLoT? d~cd, better known, whic

KTEtLVaS 8 avT'o ov'/'Oa ITE rapau

Ka e t' OSO rOVAat(0Kaov 'at bop
Et'a Ey-17E 'T777V l7qTEpa" a 9aoaa

At this point Deubner (n. 23, 6)

Oedipus, which he thinks indicate
some word, possibly a pronoun li
sentence. But does this awkward
might easily be due to yet anothe
Oedipus kills Laius and his chario
and also his chariot, which as at E
Polybus. Then he must have made
The scholion tells us with the gr
queen after having solved the ri
passage about the Sphinx. Albin L
Oedipodeia the Sphinx was simply
Oedipus fought and killed her.43
insertion running from Jv 62 to
Oidipodeia to a version based on t
cannot rule out the possibility that
story of the riddle, familiar to all f

pLErd Taara SE IOvaaS Ttv~'s ErL-T

T77lv IOKaUTYV V TOoS dXr(/la, K
aXlUoTs g o0 VV7TO1vrlaqLV7cY
87rly
ydp vlov"'aaTo
ovra. Kat Try ,waUTpa
Kat /LETad TaTa JAWELeEV .7q 8`" "iarTOKO0'AOS
rT 7Y'pCpv SELVco- E'pOUva /WkS- E.LWTCa.
a7To 'cLKUWVOS, OS 37yVOEl

ELITEV aUTWL To 7TV OaITWS TE vTo.V E5PE Ka VElAET t a 7L MEPT l EWKE,

Kat ra Td a7rapyava alTWL EvEtKVVE Kat Ta KEVTpa ar7T7rLTEL TE aUov TaO

waypta, KaLt OUT(AS v'urO-q T' jAov. baa SE ' TL LTt d k OV Oava-rov T7gS
IoKaUrT7)s Kat T7V aroo T) TAcoaWV Ey/t/LEv ElpUyVELtav 7 TrapOAE'vov, J6g arLt
yEyOVcVaaLV OL ,TEcapES waLSEs. TavTa^ b2qa I7Elaavapos-.
42 A. Lesky, Mitt. Ver. kl. Phil (Wien), 5 (1928), 3-4 = Ges.Schr. 318-19; cf. H. Lloyd-Jones in
Dionysiaca (Cambridge, 1978), 58-9 = Academic Papers 1 (Oxford, 1990), 332-3 and J. R. March,
The Creative Poet. BICS Supplement 49 (1987), 124-5.
43 'Oidipus ist erst zum Riitsell6ser geworden, als die Bewohnerin des b6otischen
Phikiongebirges mit einem jeder Mischwesen gleichgesetzt worden war, welche die von der
orientalischen Phantasie angeregte griechische Kunst geschaffen hatte': E Wehrli, Mus. Helv. 14
(1957), 111 = Theoria und Humanitas (Ziirich, 1972), 63.

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 CURSES AND DIVINE ANGER IN EARLY GREEK EPIC 9

After this Oedipus offers 'certain sacrifices' on Kithairon. We reme

of Kithairon was the site of the great festival of the Daidala, be
celebrated Plataean cult of Hera Teleia, who is identical with Hera G
proximity to Thebes of this celebrated cult surely helps to explain th
Hera in the story. Perhaps Teiresias had advised Oedipus, as he ha
Laius, to sacrifice to this deity. At any rate, the mention of this local
Hera's part in the story is not forgotten. Can we be sure that the sc
following the Oidipodeia?
On the way back45 Oedipus shows locaste where he killed Laius; p

was on the pXtari) d68d that was near Potniai. He also shows locast
is distressed, but says nothing, not knowing that he is her son. Later
found him and brought him to the wife of Polybus46 arrives from
versions of the legend Polybus is king of Sicyon, not of Corinth4
baby-clothes in which he was exposed and the Kv7rpa responsible for
and asking for a reward for having preserved him.
All is now known, and locaste kills herself and Oedipus blinds hims
married again, to Euryganeia, and she and not Iocaste is the mot
children. The marriage with Euryganeia is also mentioned by Phere
and by Pausanias 9.5.11, who remarks that it is found in the Oidipo
also makes the interesting observation that in view of the statement
(11.274, quoted above) that after the parricide and incestuous marriag
gods made these known to men l54ap, 'at once', Epicaste could hard
mother of four children by Oedipus. It may be significant that in histor
important families, including those of the Aigeidai in Sparta an
Acragas,49 traced their descent from Oedipus, and will not have w
ancestor who was the fruit of incest; this may well have led to the inven
marriage. Euryganeia was a Phlegyan from neighbouring Phocis,
Hyperphas or Periphas or else Teuthras.so One presumes that after hi
Oedipus continued to reign in Thebes, as he did according to Od. 11
mention of the funeral games for him at Il. 23.679-80 suggests.

" See L. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States I (Oxford, 1896), 189 and 241
Griechische Feste (Leipzig, 1906), 50-1; K. Kerenyi, Zeus und Hera (Leiden, 19
the battle of Plateia in 480 the Plataeans at the bidding of the Delphic oracle
and to Hera Kithaironia (Plutarch, Life of Aristides 11.3).

45 Inmeets
Delphi Sophocles (0. T
the road 732-4)
from Laius
Daulis andisthe
killed
roadinfrom
Phocis, on the Xax'iTa d0gds, where the road from
Thebes.
46 Merope here and at Sophocles, O.T. 775; in Apollodorus, Bibl. 3.5.7 Polyboia, and in
Pherecydes 3 FGrH fr. 93 Medusa.
47 Sicyon is named also in scholia on Od 11.271 and E. Phoen. 26 and in Hyginus 66 (in the
fragmentum Niebuhrianum; see P. K. Marshall's edition of 1993, p. 66 and its preface, p. ix). In the
tragedians Polybos is king of Corinth, but he is also named as king of Sicyon; see Bernab6 (n. 7)
on his line 24, and add to his bibliography Audrey Griffin, Sikyon (Oxford, 1982), 34-5.
According to Pausanias 2.6.6, Polybus' daughter Lysianassa was the wife of Talaos and mother
of Adrastos.
48 Astymedusa is mentioned as a second wife in S D on II. 4.376 and as a third by Pherecydes,
loc. cit.
49 Theron: see Pindar, 01. 2.42-3. The Spartan clan of the Aigeidae built a temple to the
Erinyes of Laius and Oedipus (Herodotus 4.149); like Theron they traced their descent from
Thersandros; see U. von Wilamowitz, Pindaros (Berlin, 1922), 477 and H. Friinkel, Dichtung und
Philosophie des friihen Griechentums (Munich, 19622), 485-6 = Early Greek Poetry and
Philosophy, trans. M. Hadas and J. Willis (Oxford, 1975), 427.
50 See Pherecydes, cited in n. 46 above.

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 10 H. LLOYD-JONES

Even Robert allows that the marr

from the Oidipodeia, so that on hi
end of his narrative.
It is conceivable that some attrib
that in consequence of this the wr
also conceivable that Pisander of

9Eoya/p'at, in which the sexual

mythological narrations, an acco
marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia
writer of the Hellenistic period or l
are due to the corruption of the te
easy to determine. It seems to me
general the scholion sketches the
possibility that it is to some extent
of the surprisingly casual mention
If this is right, the anger of t
reminded of the anger of Hera and
one is reminded of the anger of
death of Meleager (II. 9.533-4 and
that not content with the damag
Artemis provoked the disastrou
vengeful goddess; one recalls her p
and her hostility to Pelias in the A
important cult of Hera as patrones
First Hera's wrath caused Laius to
warning by begetting Oedipus, Her
Sphinx. Oedipus dealt with her, b
Hera's punishment of the house
(19-20) says that Apollo told Laiu

El yapd TEKVWCEL0 7Tav , a

Kat vrag uom otxog 93naETa

We have seen that Euripides' pla

indirectly, from the epic, and this
Oidipodeia or the Thebaid it was
would not end with Oedipus. In an
Hera's wrath fell upon at least two

"5 The Tabula Borgiana (IG XIV 12

attributes it to Cinaethon of Lacedaemon.
52 With this possibility in mind it is interesting to consider the testimony of Johannes
Philoponus on Aristotle, Anal. Post. 77B 32 (Comm. in Arist. Graeca 13.3.156-7 Wallies) =
Pisander fr. 4 E. Heitsch, Die gr. Dichterfr d. r6m. Kaiserzeit 2.45) = Epicus Cyclus T.2 Davies:
HLoadvapou V Se-7v alr-TV
tcLV avvayayd'vro, rpay/.aTElav
vLrrLroaap.EvoU SE 7ToLtuaa/Evou,
UKa% EE7rELagAE'yWo 8 7TAELaT77v
Karabpovov7a7'va aUToptav
qacFL r& rTjvKarTa
rrpO

av rOvtrLt77TjCv avyypc/qka'ra, SLto /7rlSE EV'pLtKEuOaL r Od 7ToL77 ara dTa Ev roi KVKAoLS
avayeyparn.LEva.
53 Tragedy tended to leave out the part played by Hera; at E. Phoen. 810 the Sphinx is sent by
Hades, and in Euripides' Antigone fr. 178 Nauck and Kannicht, ap. S on Phoen. 1031 rv lyya
6 Adto'vvaoS E'TE/.LlbtE ro O1faLoLt, oa rtp Eip r&Gtt'r- v &Av7-yo'Vql AE'yEL (Unger: (0
vav-rola [EvavrLov M] A'yELV).

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 CURSES AND DIVINE ANGER IN EARLY GREEK EPIC 11

So we come to the Thebaid.54 Fragment 2 tells how Polyneices set

table of Cadmus and the golden cup of Laius, with the result tha
and cursed his sons. Curiously enough fr. 3, cited in a scholion
1375, told how the sons of Oedipus, accustomed to send their fa
shoulder of the sacrificial beast, doubtless a beast sacrificed at som
in one year sent instead the thigh, with the result that their fathe
and cursed them. Can these two fragments really have come from
first fragment suggests that Oedipus was distressed at being remi
whom he had killed. It would seem that the memory of the parric
to utter a curse that continued the working of the curse that
disobeyed the injunction not to beget a son. That is surely an instan
over several generations. It is clear that the Thebaid told the story
Adrastus and the Seven and the fatal duel between the brothers.
childless, as they did according to the choral anapaests that follow
in our version of Aeschylus' play (828), we do not know; but
Epigonoi described the successful expedition against Thebes led by
of Eteocles, and Thersandros, the son of Polyneices.
It would seem that the Oidipodeia and probably the Thebaid di
epics which could be called 'cyclical' in the pejorative sense, in many
their treatment of curses and divine anger. They are linked with H

importance of divine wrath. The word /sqvt~S, one recalls, deno

anger usually divine. 'Was /wqvtsc von den Bedeutungsverwandten
OvLo'd trennt', writes Hjalmar Frisk,55 'ist jedenfalls nicht so sehr
des Wortes, der Gedanke an den anhaltenden, im tiefsten sitzende
seine Obert6ne und sein Stilcharakter.' It is a sacral term, properly
anger of a god and very exceptionally of the wrath of an exception
Calvert Watkins (n. 53, 193) observes that Achilles does not dignify

it livt, but uses the word pCrvt0p's (II. 16.62, 202, 282). It
Oidipodeia, and probably also the Thebaid, had in common with
importance of a divine wrath. One remembers that these two epic
Homer by several writers, including Herodotus (see above, p. 3).
In The Justice of Zeus (Berkeley, 1971, 19832), 121-2, I argued th
Laius, the first play of his Theban trilogy, must have made use of th
and indeed by carelessly writing on p. 121 'What was the Laius abo
legend that involves Laius is the Chrysippus story' seemed to impl
been the main subject of the play. G. O. Hutchinson in 198556 p
occurrence of the word XvTrplELV (fr. 12 Radt = fr. D Hutchinson
exposure of the infant Oedipus must have been mentioned in the p
indicates that the Chrysippus story was not the play's main subject
exposed in consequence of Apollo's warning, and Apollo's w
consequence of Hera's wrath. The point made by Hutchinson was
in 1991.57 He also argued that the curse of Pelops and the oracle

54 See W. Burkert, 'Seven against Thebes: an oral tradition between B

Greek literature', in I Poemi Epici Rapsodici non Omerici e la Tradizion
with useful bibliography on 48.
5 H. Frisk, Eranos 44 (1946), 29 = Ki. Schr. (1966), 391. Cf. Calvert W
MHNIS', Bulletin de la Societe Linguistique de Paris 72 (1977), 187-209.
56 G. O. Hutchinson, commentary on Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes (O
57 See M. West, 'The religious interpretation of myth in Aeschylus',
Sociedade (Sio Paulo, 1991), 230.

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 12 H. LLOYD-JONES

'basically alternative motives'. But w

not been guilty of some offence?
committed was the rape of Chry
mentioned in the play.ss We do no
was the consequence of the wrath o
the Septem and the Phoenissae59 s
to a scholion on Phoen. 60 (ed. Sc
ap1TayEvoTS KaT7paaaTo LEXPL rrat
Can we know anything about the t
the fragments of early epic that we
pointed out that in the Odyssey 'Ae
he wants him out of the way so th
not prove that the author of the
Thyestes; it may very well be that he
perhaps with due caution we can inf
tragedies.
In the Agamemnon Cassandra has a vision of the ghosts of the murdered children of
Thyestes, and later when she has emerged from her mantic ecstasy and is speaking in
trimeters she speaks of the Erinyes, who have never ceased to be present in the house,
singing of the Ate that first began the trouble and spitting, in turn, on the polluted
marriage-bed of Atreus. Later, Aegisthus tells of the curse of Thyestes, which has
found its fulfilment in the death of Agamemnon. Cassandra does not specify the
7TPbrapPXOs a-r-, but at 1585-6 Aegisthus speaks of the dispute over the kingship. For
the chorus of the Electra of Euripides (699-700) the trouble started with that dispute.
The story as they tell it has much of the element of fantasy that Griffin6o has found to
be characteristic of the post-Homeric epics of the cycle; it tells of Thyestes' theft of the
golden lamb symbolic of the kingship, and it relates how Zeus marked his disapproval
of Thyestes' crime by causing the sun to reverse his usual path. Sophocles in his Electra
(502) obtains a powerful if momentary effect61 by having the chorus tell how the chain
of disasters started with the curse of the charioteer Myrtilus, who by removing
the lynch-pins of Oenomaos' chariot had given Pelops victory and the hand of
Hippodameia. We cannot show that these legends were narrated in any cyclic epic, but

58ss True, the crime of Laius is not mentioned in the O. T., and T. C. W. Stinton, 'The scope and
limits of allusion in Greek tragedy', in Greek Tragedy and its Legacy: Essays Presented to D. J
Conacher (Calgary, 1986), 67-8 = (n. 3, 1990), 454-5 argued that 'anything essential to the plot of
a Greek tragedy is always mentioned in the play'. But the only thing about the crime of Laius that
is essential in the O. T. is the fact that he had committed a crime. Many of the original audiences
knew the myths well, and even those who did not would realise, when Oedipus says (1184) that he
is sprung from those who should not have begotten him, 'who am living with those I should not
be living with, who have killed those whom I should not have killed', that this means that 'his
parents have turned out to be those who should not have been his parents-the man he killed and
the woman he married', but that his very conception has been a defiance of a divine command.
Stinton's attempt (ibid. 85-6 = 479-80) to deny the presence of another allusion to an event
outside a play, the allusion to the apotheosis of Heracles at the end of Sophocles' Trachiniae, has
been refuted by Carolin Hahnemann, ZPE 126 (1998), 67-8, by means of a convincing new
interpretation of Aeschylus, fr. 73 B Radt.
5 See n. 19 above; for the relevant hypotheseis of the Seven, see 0. L. Smith, Scholia in
Aeschylum I (Leipzig, 1976), 11.2 (1982) 3.16, 7.2.
6 See n.3 above.
61 Cf. Euripides, Orestes 990-1 and Helena 386-7, and the eastern pediment of the temple of
Zeus at Olympia (built about the middle of the fifth century); see Ismene Triantis s.v. Myrtilos,
LIMC VI. 1, 639-40.

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 CURSES AND DIVINE ANGER IN EARLY GREEK EPIC 13

I do not believe that they were invented by Aeschylus or by any trag

common a fantastic element that to me suggests an epic source.
A second factor in the death of Agamemnon in Aeschylus is the
which led to the sacrifice of Iphigeneia and the revenge of Clyt
mentioned in the Cypria,62 where as in the Electra of Sophocles (5
said to be motivated by anger at Agamemnon's boast that he was a
herself. It would seem that in the original myth the sacrifice was one
of a young person that were necessary in order that a campaign sh
But the poet of the Cypria made it a consequence of the anger of
seems to indicate that even a cyclic epic could use divine anger and
link events in different generations. Again, the almost frivolous n
attributed to the goddess reminds one of the treatment of the go
discussed above (p. 2).
Treating of the Theban trilogy of Aeschylus, West (n. 1, 40) wri
there is much emphasis in the Seven on the curse laid by Oedipus
the earlier misfortunes of Laius and Oedipus, there is no hint that th
do with a curse'. But can we be sure that this would seem to be the
the first two plays of the trilogy? He goes on to write that when
chorus look back to 'the ancient transgression, soon punished, but
generation', that began the trouble, 'they tell us that it was Laios'
repeated warnings not to father a son'. In this particular play there is
should be told that they go further back; but when one gives the q
thought, one cannot help wondering why Apollo gave Laius thos
this was the third play of the trilogy, one can hardly help guessing
third play it was not mentioned, because there was no need to me
in the two earlier plays the reason for Apollo's warning would hav
likely that in the Oidipodeia Hera sent the Sphinx, and that she
had raped Chrysippus, and it is surely likelier than not that this stor
the Laius, the first play of the trilogy. The trouble will have s
ancestral curse, but with the anger of a deity.
When treating of Sophocles, West (n. 1, 40-1) starts by quoting th
second stasimon of the Antigone (582-603):

For those whose house is shaken by the gods, no part of ruin is wanting. ..
I see the troubles of the dead of the Labdacid house falling hard upon
one generation release another, but some one of the gods shatters them, an
of deliverance. For lately the light spread out above the last root in the ho
is mown down by the bloody chopper of the infernal gods, folly in speech
mind.

Later, West reminds us, the Chorus suggests to Antigone that she
trial of her fathers' (856). 'Neither she nor they know anythi
continues, 'they only know that the family has suffered a catalog
they can only speculate that "some god" is set on its destruct
particular play, which is not one of a connected trilogy, it is not ne
to go into the whole family history; all he needs is a reminder tha
Labdacids has long suffered a series of calamities that must have be

62 See n. 28.
63 See H. Lloyd-Jones, JHS 103 (1983), 87-102 = Academic Papers (n. 42), 2.306-32.

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 14 H. LLOYD-JONES

anger of a god. The poet surely k

source.

West now goes on (n. 1, 41) to the Oedipus Tyrannus. 'The story begin

with the oracle given to Laius.... The only curse is the one laid by Oedipus on
and on anyone who shelters him; when Tiresias says to Oedipus 'You will presen
of this land by the double-edged curse of your father and your mother', this
and does not refer to a literal curse uttered by Laius or Jocasta.

But for his present purpose the poet has no need to mention anythi
Apollo's oracle. Surely the poet must have known what prompted Ap
to Laius.
'In Oedipus at Colonus', West continues (n. 1, 42),

the tribulations of the house are contemplated with baffled despair. Oedipus protests that his
actions were unintentional errors; he does not see himself as the victim of any curse, but of the
gods, who led him into trouble, perhaps (he surmises) because they had some long-standing
grudge against the family. Again, the oracle given to Laius is treated as the start of the whole
matter, and nothing prior to it is mentioned.

West is perfectly right when he writes that the trouble is due not to a curse, but to
divine anger; but in this particular play, as in the Antigone and the O. T., the poet does
not need to explain how that anger originated. 'There is no question of a family curse
going back to Laius', West writes, 'From the high incidence of calamities people infer
some divine enmity, but they have no explanation to offer for it; they are unaware of
any incident that could have provoked it.' Exactly; but should we infer from this that
the poet believed that there was no reason?
The whole body of early Greek myth was like a vast spider's web, in which countless
events and countless persons were linked together. The stories were not invented by the
authors of the post-Homeric epics which we know about; most of them must go back
a long way, to the time before the introduction of writing. Like the epic poets, the
tragedians, and also many members of the original audiences, including, one would
imagine, those whom the poet most wished to please, must have possessed a consider-
able knowledge of the web, so that they knew what place the story told in a particular
play occupied within it, and could use or allude to an episode in the past without
telling the entire story of which it formed a part.64

Wellesley, MA HUGH LLOYD-JONES

64 Professor Rudolf Kassel has generously devoted mu

this article, and Professor C. Collard, the editor of this

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