Cresphontes. . . was assassinated: presumably Polyphontes is responsible, as in Hyg. 137; but in P. 4. 3. 7, where there is no mention of Polyphontes, he is killed by the men of property because he has been ruling in the interest of the common people, and Aipytos, the son of Cresphontes who escaped, is placed on the throne by the Arcadians and other Dorian kings when he grows up.
As we have said: see p. 60.
It is said by some: including Homer, Il. 14. 321 f. There was much disagreement on these genealogies.
whose breath smelled of roses: reading rhodou apopneon (apopleonin the manuscripts). This may seem strange, but Hes. Cat. fr. 140 refers to an odour of saffron coming from the bull’s mouth. Carriere points to. Eustathius on Il. 14. 321, where it is further stated that Europa came to love the bull because it smelt of roses.
according to Homer: see Il. 6. 198 f; but Homer’s Sarpedon lived at a much later period, for he commanded the Lycians during the Trojan War. Ap. claims below that the present Sarpedon was granted an exceptionally long life by Zeus, while according to DS (5. 78. 3), the Sarpedon at Troy was a separate figure, the grandson of the present Sarpedon (who will settle in Lycia, see below); such were the alternative ways in which the mythographers resolved chronological problems of this kind.
the city of Thasos in Thrace: the island of Thasos, which contained a city of the same name, lay off the coast of Thrace; this is poorly expressed, if not corrupt. Thasos is said to have founded the original settlement on the island with Phoenician followers (cf. Hdt. 6. 46 f. and P. 5. 25. 12, where Thasos is described as a son of Phoenix and of Agenor respectively).
they quarrelled with one another: not all three of them, for it appears from the following narrative that the conflict over Miletos involved Minos and Sarpedon alone (which is consistent with the account in AL 30, following Nicander, where there is no mention of Rhadamanthys). The present story is probably of Hellenistic origin; Herodotus (1. 173) speaks merely of a fight for the throne, in which Minos gained the upper hand and expelled Sarpedon and his followers.
Miletos landed in Caria: in the south-west corner of Asia Minor; Lycia lay south-east of it, and Cilicia to the east of that. For the foundation of Miletos, cf. P. 7. 2. 3.
for the islanders: although somewhat ambiguous, this is probably a reference to the tradition that he laid down laws for the Aegean islanders (cf. DS 5. 79). The Cretan constitution (which bore some resemblance to that of Sparta and was highly regarded) was attributed either to Rhadamanthys (DS 4. 60, Strabo 10. 4. 8) or to Minos (e.g. DS 4. 78).
married Alcmene: Heracles’ mother, see p. 72. The reason for his flight is unclear.
sits as a judge with Minos in Hades: first attested by Plato in the fourth century (Apol. 41a, probably referring to an earlier tradition, associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries); in Homer, Minos judges in Hades, continuing his earthly function amongst the shades (Od. 11. 568 ff.), while Rhadamanthys lives for ever in Elysium (Od. 4. 563 f.) on the earth’s surface. See also Pind. ol. 2. 75 ff.
exiled from Athens for murder: see p. 138.
the Minotaur: the ‘Minos-bull’. See also DS 4. 77.
with a maze. . . passage out: a verse fragment of unknown origin (Tr. Adesp. 34 Nauck).
me will speak of that later: see p. 140.
he consulted the oracle: according to the other main source, DS 5. 59. 1 ff., the oracle was revealed to Althaimenes himself when he was enquiring about other things; this would make Catreus’ subsequent search for him more intelligible.
Atabyrion: the tallest mountain in Rhodes, over 4,000 feet; the cult there was very ancient, perhaps of Phoenician origin. Cf. DS 5. 59. 2.
Nauplios: see p. 62 and note; a great traveller who is enlisted else where to perform such services, see p. 88.
Pleisthenes married. . . Aerope: following Hes. Cat. (fr. 194–5, where Pleisthenes is the son of Atreus); Agamemnon and Menelaos were more generally regarded as her children by Atreus, see also p. 146 and note.
Idomeneus: he succeeded Catreus as king of Crete, was one of Helen’s suitors, p. 121, and led the Cretans in the Trojan War. Traditions vary as to whether he recovered his throne after the war (as Od. 3. 191 seems to suggest) or was expelled by Leucos, p. 160.
Glaucos: a son of Minos and Pasiphae, see p. 97.
Polyidos: a descendant of the seer Melampous (either a great-grandson or a great-great-grandson, P. 1. 43. 5 and sc. Il. 13. 63 respectively); he is particularly associated with Corinth ( Il. 13. 663, cf. Pind. ol. 13. 75).
compared the cow’s colouring to a blackberry: according to Hyg. 136, the cow was not dappled, as one might suppose, but changed colour three times a day, and the colours were white, red, and black; a blackberry passes through that sequence of colours as it ripens.
by a certain kind of divination: Hyg., ibid., reports that while Polyidos was observing omens, he saw an owl (glaux, suggesting Glaucos) sitting over the wine-cellar and putting bees (suggesting honey) to flight.
a cow from the herds of Pelagon: according to the oracle as reported by sc. Eur. Phoen. 638, he was told to seek for this herds man. This was no ordinary cow; on each flank it had a white mark like the full moon (P. 9. 12. 1).
Spartoi: ‘Sown Men’.
deliberately: the reading in the Epitome, hekousion, is surely preferable to akousion, ‘involuntarily’, in the manuscripts. Otherwise the antithesis is lost.
for an everlasting year: to atone for the killing of Ares’ dragon (not the death of the Spartoi); the text may well be corrupt here, because Hellanicos, who is almost certainly Ap.’s source for this story, says that Cadmos served Ares for a (normal) year (sc. Il. 2. 494, where we are also told that Ares initially wanted to kill him, but Zeus prevented it). The phrase explaining what an everlasting or ‘great’ year means seems to be a gloss.
the Cadmeia: the eminence dominating Thebes and site of the citadel.