killed Apis, son of Phoroneus: according to P. 5. 1. 8, this Apis was an Arcadian and a son of Jason (not the famous one); and Aitolos drove over him accidentally at the funeral games for Azan, son of Areas, an Arcadian king. The son of Phoroneus, an Argive, died in another way, see p. 58.
the land of the Curetes: these Curetes, the aboriginal inhabitants of Aetolia (and Acarnania), in the south-western part of mainland Greece to the north of the Corinthian Gulf, should not be confused with the Cretan demigods on p. 28; on the Curetes in general, see Strabo 10. 3.
Evenos had a daughter. . . chasing after him: Homer mentions that Idas drew his bow against Apollo for the sake of a girl ( Il. 9. 559 f.). According to the scholion on ibid. 557, Evenos (like Oinomaos, p. 144) challenged his daughter’s suitors to a chariot race; if they won, they would gain her hand, but when they were overtaken by Evenos, he nailed their heads to the walls of his house. It is possible that the present passage refers to such a race rather than a simple pursuit after an abduction. See also Bacch. 20.
Messene: the land of Messenia, in the south-western Peloponnese, lying to the west of Laconia (rather than the city of Messene, which was of late foundation). Idas’ father Aphareus was a Messenian king, see p. 119 and note.
Sterope . . . to Acheloos: probably following Hes. Cat.;later authors tended to give the Sirens a Muse as a mother (cf. p. 167, and AR 4. 895 f.), befitting their qualities as singers.
the first to receive a vine plant from Dionysos: a story in Hyg. 129 would explain this. When Dionysos fell in love with Althaia, Oineus tactfully absented himself by pretending that he had some rites to perform; and Dionysos slept with his wife, fathering Deianeira (a tradition mentioned by Ap. below), and afterwards presented the vine to Oineus, naming its product oinos, wine, after him.
for jumping over the ditch: an allusion to a lost story. (Some point to the death of Remus in Livy 1. 7. 2, but the comparison is of doubtful relevance.)
placed it in a chest: Bacchylides in the fifth century (5. 140 ff.) is the earliest surviving source for this story.
To hunt this boar: on Meleager and the boar see also Il. 9. 529 ff. (without any mention of Atalante), Bacch. 5. 96 ff. (the earliest surviving source for the story of the log, 136 ff.), DS 4. 34, and Ov. Met. 8. 270 ff. This was the first of the great adventures which brought together major heroes from all parts of Greece; for other catalogues of the participants see Ov. Met. 8. 299 ff. and Hyg. 173.
with a woman: on Atalante see also p. 116 and note.
the sons of Thestios: see p. 39 for their names. Thestios, the brother of Meleager’s mother Aithra, was king of Pleuron in Aetolia.
said by some: this alternative account is largely based on Il. 9. 547 ff. (although Homer does not say that Meleager was killed).
transformed into birds: a later element in the story, often thought to be of Hellenistic origin (though Sophocles may have known of the transformation, see Pliny Nat. Hist. 37. 40). According to Nicander (AL 2), they were transformed by Artemis with a touch of her wand, to become guinea fowl (meleagrides), and transferred to the island of Leros; Deianeira (who had to survive to become Heracles’ wife) and her sister Gorge were saved by the intervention of Dionysos.
sent her. . . to Oineus: cf. DS 4. 35. 1 f.
the sons of Melas: Melas was another brother of Oineus, p. 39.
killed his own brother: according to Pherecydes (sc. Il. 14. 120) Tydeus attacked the sons of Agrios (another brother of Oineus) for plotting against Oineus, and accidentally killed his brother (or his uncle Melas, in sc. Il. 14. 114), who happened to be present. For his subsequent history, see pp. 109–11.
Diomedes: the son of Tydeus remained in Argos, became one of the Epigoni, p. 112, and succeeded to the throne of his father-in-law Adrastos, to become ruler of Argos and Tiryns, and leader of the Argives at Troy, p. 148.
Thersites: familiar from the Iliad, 2. 212 ff. (but in Homer he is not of noble birth); and see p. 154.
parch the wheat-grain: roast it over a fire, killing the seed.
together with . . . Helle: the eponym of the Hellespont (‘the Sea of Helle’, see below; cf. Aesch. Persians68); late sources (e.g. P. 9. 34. 4) explain that she was due to be sacrificed with Phrixos.
the wrath of Hera: because Athamas and Ino (who was also driven mad) had taken in the young Dionysos, her husband’s child by another woman, see p. 101. Pausanias (1. 44. 11) cites an alternative tradition that the deaths resulted from Athamas’ anger when he discovered how Ino had deceived him.
Athamantia: a. plain in southern Thessaly (cf. AR 2. 514).
Ephyra, now known as Corinth: the exact location of Ephyra—the home of Sisyphos that lay ‘in a corner of horse-rearing Argos’, Il. 6. 152 f.—is unknown, but its identification with Corinth (which is referred to separately in the Iliadas one of the towns ruled by Agamemnon, 2. 570) is altogether dubious. It seems that when the Corinthians (notably the early epic poet Eumelos) found themselves short of significant local myth, they annexed the material from Ephyra, which had declined into obscurity.
who killed the. . . Chimaera: see p. 64; the full story is deferred because he was exiled to Argos.
punishment in Hades: Homer describes it, Od. 11. 593 ff., but does not explain the reason. For the present explanation, cf. P. 2. 5. 1; for the abduction of Aegina, see p. 126.
Dawn . . . carried him off: for Cephalos and Procris, see p. 134; the Cephalos associated with Dawn is described below as a son of Hermes, see p. 131 and note.
but of Cynortas: to give the father of Tyndareus (an important figure in the Laconian genealogies) a purely Laconian descent, see p. 119, and p. 120 and note.
Seriphos: a rocky island in the south-eastern Aegean, later of proverbial insignificance, but important in myth for the involvement of these sons of Magnes with Perseus and Danae, see p. 65.