A later work of Byron which refers to Leander’s home, although unrelated to the myth, is The Bride of Abydos (1813).
ARION AND THE DOLPHIN
fn1 Only Orpheus, whose story belongs to the later Age of Heroes, exceeded Arion in skill and fame.
fn2 The word ‘guitar’ derives from the word kithara.
fn3 ‘Tyrant’ is just the Greek word for ‘autocratic ruler’, sometimes a self-appointed king. Periander was a real historical figure, cited as one of the so-called ‘Seven Sages of Greece’, who were mentioned by Socrates as exhibiting all the qualities of gnomic wisdom to which mankind should aspire.
fn4 The tarantella is still popular throughout Europe.
PHILEMON AND BAUCIS, OR HOSPITALITY REWARDED
fn1 This theoxenia, this divine testing of human hospitality, is notably similar to that told in the nineteenth chapter of Genesis. Angels visit Sodom and Gomorrah and only Lot and his wife show them decency and kindness. The debauched citizens of Sodom of course, rather than setting the dogs on the angels wanted to ‘know them’ – in as literally biblical a sense as could be, giving us the word ‘sodomy’. Lot and his wife, like Philemon and Baucis, were told to make their getaway and not look back while divine retribution was visited on the Cities of the Plain. Lot’s wife did look back and she was turned, not into a linden, but into a pillar of salt.
PHRYGIA AND THE GORDIAN KNOT
fn1 Sabazios was a horse-riding incarnation of Zeus worshipped by the Thracians and Phrygians
fn2 When I first heard this story I thought not more of Alexander but less. ‘He cheated!’ I said. Suppose I ‘solved’ a randomized Rubik’s cube by jemmying it open with a screwdriver until all the pieces fell out and then pressing them back again in the right order? Who would praise that? But Alexander is congratulated by history for ‘thinking outside the box’ and called ‘the Great’. One rule for the genius warrior kings of the world and another for the rest of us.
APPENDICES
fn1 Scientists now tell us that the moon of Saturn named after Enceladus, a mere 800 million miles from earth, appears to offer the necessary conditions for life. So perhaps all along Gaia had laid plans for the expansion of her bloodline on other worlds.
fn2 My Greek–English lexicon isn’t of much help with Polybotes’ name. It seems to mean ‘much-nourishing’ or ‘many feeding’. Fertile, perhaps.
fn3 The fig thereafter bore Syceus’ name.
fn4 Not to be confused with a minor god of bee-keeping with the same name.
AFTERWORD
fn1 Robin of Loxley/Locksley and Lord Fitzooth, the Earl of Huntingdon, are popular candidates.
fn2 Interestingly, the absolute origin of the verb legere and its supine form lectum bears the meaning of ‘gather’ – as in ‘college’ and ‘collect’. So maybe legends are as much to do with stories that are collected as with those that are written down and read.
fn3 He was accused of an irreligious refusal to recognize the Athenian state’s gods.