User:Paul August/Alcyoneus

Alcyoneus

New text

To Do

Next

• Incorporate Shapiro [in folder]

• Add cite for identifications on the Pergamon Altar figure.

• Pausanias 3.18.11

I cannot say why Bathycles has represented the so-called Bull of Minos bound, and being led along alive by Theseus. There is also on the throne a band of Phaeacian dancers, and Demodocus singing. Perseus, too, is represented killing Medusa. Passing over the fight of Heracles with the giant Thurius and that of Tyndareus with Eurytus, we have next the rape of the daughters of Leucippus. Here are Dionysus, too, and Heracles; Hermes is bearing the infant Dionysus to heaven, and Athena is taking Heracles to dwell henceforth with the gods.

• Incorporate: Natoli, p. 130

"It has been suggested by Gruppe [cols. 921–922; 955] that the Alcyoneus legend may have been transplanted to Pallene by Corinthian colonists in Potidaea"

Epicharmus wrote an Alcyoneus

Read/Look at

• R. Olmos and L. J. Balmaseda, "Alkyoneus" in LIMC [in folder]
• Shapiro 1993 [in folder]
• pp. 133 ff.
• Strabo 8.336 = 8.2.3:"The sea from Antirrhium as far as the Isthmus8 is called Alcyonian, it being a part of the Crisaean Gulf."
• Pausanius 2.37.5 "Alcyonian Lake"
• Nonnus (see Theoi: [1])

• Croon

[2]

[3]

Other stuff

Yasumura

pp. 49–58 (see Amazon for page numbers)

Copy text for Schol. Pind. Nem 1.101 (compare w Gantz, p. 449)

Incorporate Schol. Pind. Nem 1.101 for prophecy concerning need for Heracles and Dionysos, and location of the battle at Phlegra.

Asterius/Asterus

Meropis and the Meropes

Schol. on Apoll. Rhod. I.1289 (Grimal p. 473)

Sources

Ancient

c. 522–443 BC Pindar

Isthmian 6.30–35

He took Pergamos, and with Telamon's help he slew the tribes of Meropes, and the herdsman Alcyoneus, huge as a mountain, whom he found at Phlegrae, and he did not keep his hands off the deep-voiced bow-string, not [35] Heracles.

Nemean 1.67–69

For he [Teiresias] said that when the gods meet the giants in battle on the plain of Phlegra, the shining hair of the giants will be stained with dirt beneath the rushing arrows of that hero [Herakles].

Nemean 4.24–30

Heracles, [25] with whom once powerful Telamon destroyed Troy and the Meropes and the great and terrible warrior Alcyoneus, but not before that giant had laid low, by hurling a rock, twelve chariots and twice twelve horse-taming heroes who were riding in them. [30]

Nemean 7.90

Heracles, you who subdued the Giants,

Pythian 8.12–18

Porphyrion did not know your power, when he provoked you beyond all measure. Gain is most welcome, when one takes it from the home of a willing giver. [15] Violence trips up even a man of great pride, in time. Cilician Typhon with his hundred heads did not escape you, nor indeed did the king of the Giants.1 One was subdued by the thunderbolt, the other by the bow of Apollo,

Scholia to Pindar

Isthmean 6.47

Gatz, p. 419: "tells us that he [Alcyoneus] inhabited the isthmus of Thrace (again Pallene), and that the cows he hearded he had driven off from Helios, thus precipitating the war between the gods and Higantes"

Nemean 4.43

Gantz, p. 419: "one of the Gigantes and attacked Herakles at the Korinthian isthmus, when Herakles was driving back the cattle of Geryoneus; with his rock he destroyed many chariots, until he threw it at Herakles, who knocked it aside with his club and killed him."

Lyric fragment 985 PMG

Gantz, p. 419

Phlegraian Alkyoneus of Pallene, the eldest of the Gigantes

c. 1 - 200 Apollodorus

1.6.1

Such is the legend of Demeter. But Earth, vexed on account of the Titans, brought forth the giants, whom she had by Sky.1 These were matchless in the bulk of their bodies and invincible in their might; terrible of aspect did they appear, with long locks drooping from their head and chin, and with the scales of dragons for feet.2 They were born, as some say, in Phlegrae, but according to others in Pallene.3 And they darted rocks and burning oaks at the sky. Surpassing all the rest were Porphyrion and Alcyoneus, who was even immortal so long as he fought in the land of his birth. He also drove away the cows of the Sun from Erythia. Now the gods had an oracle that none of the giants could perish at the hand of gods, but that with the help of a mortal they would be made an end of. Learning of this, Earth sought for a simple to prevent the giants from being destroyed even by a mortal. But Zeus forbade the Dawn and the Moon and the Sun to shine, and then, before anybody else could get it, he culled the simple himself, and by means of Athena summoned Hercules to his help. Hercules first shot Alcyoneus with an arrow, but when the giant fell on the ground he somewhat revived. However, at Athena's advice Hercules dragged him outside Pallene, and so the giant died.4

c. 170 - 250 Philostratus

On Heroes 8.15–16

The Neapolitans living in Italy consider the bones of Alkyoneus a marvel. They say that many giants were thrown down there, and Mount Vesuvius smolders over them.

c. 370 - 404 Claudian

Rape of Proserpine

3.179–191 (pp. 358–359)

Ceres approached her, and when at length her grief allowed her sighs free rein: “What ruin is here?” she said. “Of what enemy am I become the victim? Does my husband yet rule or do the Titans hold heaven? What hand hath dared this, if the Thunderer be still alive? Have Typhon’s shoulders forced up Inarime or does Alcyoneus course on foot through the Etruscan Sea, having burst the bonds of imprisoning Vesuvius? Or has the neighbouring Etna oped her jaws and expelled Enceladus? Perchance Briareus with his hundred arms has attacked my house? Ah, my daughter, where art thou now? Whither are fled my thousand servants, whither Cyane? What violence ahs driven away the winged Sirens? Is this your faith? Is this the way to guard another’s treasure?”

Late 4th or early 5th cen. Nonnus

Dionysiaca

25.85–97 (II, pp. 256–259)

No, Bacchos reaped the stubble of snakehaired giants, a conquering hero with a tiny manbreaking wand, when he cast the battling ivy against Porphyrion, when he buffelted Encelados and drove Alcyoneus with a volley of leaves: then the wands flew in showers, and brought the Gegenees (Earthborn) down in defence of Olympos, when the coiling sons of Earth with two hundred hands, who pressed the starry vault with manynecked heads, bent the knee before a flimsy javelin of vineleaves or a spear of ivy. Not so great a swarm fell to the fiery thunderbolt as fell to the manbreaking thyrsus.

36.242 (III, pp. 18–19)

Nine cubits high, equal to Alcyoneus.

48.7–30 (III, pp. 424–427)

She [Hera] addressed her deceitful prayers to Allmother Earth, crying out upon the doings of Zeus and the valour of Dionysos, who had destroyed that cloud of numberless earthborn Indians; and when the lifebringing mother heard that the son of Semele had wiped out the Indian nation with speedy fate, she groaned still more thinking of her children. Then she armed all around Bacchos the mountainranging tribes of Giants, earth's own brood, and goaded her own sons to battle:

"My sons, make your attack with hightowering rocks against clustergarlanded Dionysos—catch this Indianslayer, this destroyer of my family, this son of Zeus, and let me not see him ruling with Zeus a bastard monarch of Olympos! Bind him, bind Bacchos fast, that he may attend in the chamber when I bestow Hebe on Porphyrion as a wife, and give Cythereia [Aphrodite] to Chthonios, when I sing Brighteyes [Athene] the bedfellow of Encelados, and Artemis of Alcyoneus. Bring Dionysos to me, that I may enrage Cronion [Zeus] when he sees Lyaios [Dionysos] a slave and the captive of my spear. Or wound him with cutting steel and kill him for me like Zagreus, that one may say, god or mortal, that Earth in her anger has twice armed her slayers against the breed of Cronides—the older Titans against the former Dionysos [Zagreus], the younger Giants against Dionysos later born."

48.31–55 (III, pp. 426–429)

With these words she excited all the host of the Giants, and the battalions of the Earthborn set forth to war, one bearing a bulwark of Nysa, one who had sliced off with steel the flank of a cloudhigh precipice, each with these rocks for missiles armed him against Dionysos; one hastened to the conflict bearing the rocky hill of some land with its base in the brine, another with a reef torn from a brinegirt isthmus. Peloreus took up Pelion with hightowering peak as a missile in his innumberable arms, and left the cave Philyra bare: as the rocky roof of his cave was pulled off, old Cheiron quivered and shook, that figure of half a man growing into a comrade horse. But Bacchos held a bunch of giantsbane vine, and ran at Alcyoneus with the mountain upraised in his hands: he wielded no furious lance, no deadly sword, but he struck with this bunch of tendrils and shore off the multitudinous hands of the Giants; the terrible swarms of groundbred serpents were shorn off by those tippling leaves, the Giants' heads with those viper tresses were cut off and the severed necks danced in the dust. Tribes innumerable were destroyed; from the slain Giants ran everflowing rivers of blood, crimson torrents newly poured coloured the ravines red. The swarms of earthbred snakes ran wild with fear before the tresses of Dionysos viperwreathed.

48.63–86 (III, pp. 428–431)

There was infinite tumult. Bacchos raised himself and lifted his fighting torch over the heads of his adversaries, and roasted the Giants’ bodies with a great conflagration, an image on earth of the thunderbolt cast by Zeus. The torches blazed: fire was rolling all over the head of Encelados and making the air hot, but it did not vanquish him--Encelados bent not his knee in the steam of the earthly fire, since he was reserved for the thunderbolt. Vast Alcyoneus leapt upon Lyaios armed with his Thracian crags; he lifted over Bacchos a cloudhigh peak of wintry Haimos--useless against that mark, Dionysos the invulnerable. He there the cliff, but when the rocks touched the fawnskin of Lyaios, they could not tear it, and burst into splinters themselves. Typhoeus towering high had stript the mountains of Emathia (a younger Typhoeus in all parts like the older, who once had lifted many a rugged strip of his mother earth), and cast the rocky missiles at Dionysos. Lord Bacchos pulled away the sword of one that was gasping on the ground and attacked the Giants' heads, cutting the snaky crop of poison-spitting hair; even without weapon he destroyed the selfmarshalled host, fighting furiously, and using the treeclimbing longleaf ivy to strike the Giants.

10th century Suda

s. v. Ἀλκυονίδες ἡμέραι (Alcyon days, Halcyon days, kingfisher days)

Those of fine weather.[1]

People differ on their number. For Simonides in Pentathla says they are 11, as does Aristotle in the History of Animals,[2] but Demagoras of Samos [says] 7, and Philochorus 9.[3] Hegesander[4] tells the myth about them in his Memoirs as follows. They were the daughters of the giant Alkyoneus: Phosthonia,[5] Anthe,[6] Methone,[7] Alkippa,[8] Palene,[9] Drimo,[10] Asterie.[11] After the death of their father they threw themselves into the sea from Kanastraion, which is the peak of Pellene, but Amphitrite made them birds, and they were called Alkyones from their father. Windless days with a calm sea are called Alkyonides.

Also [sc. attested is the variant form] "Alkyonian day".[12]

s. v. Παλλήνη (Pallene)

One of the Alkyonides. See under Alkyonides.[1]

Modern

Andreae

Andreae, Bernard "Herakles und Alkyoneus" (PDF) 1962 [in folder]

Bennett

Bennett, p. 124

Gantz

p. 419

Nevertheless the suspicion arises, given the sameness of locale, that Alkyoneus was in the beginning a Gigas, although Pindar never calls him that.

p. 420

In art we find quite a number of instances in which Herakles dispatches an oversized figure, beginning probably as early as a metope from Heraion I at Foce del Sele (no #)⁶⁹ and several shield-band reliefs from Olympia.

p. 445

We have seen that Pindar instead links together Troy, Kos, and Alkyoneus, whom he does not actually call a Gigas but does locate at Phlegrai.

p. 446

... the exceptional staure of Alkyoneus in art (if he really is a Gigas)"

p. 447

Again, although Phlegra is also the site of Herakles' battle with Alkyoneus in Pindar, the poet must intend two different events, since the Alkyoneus combat forms part of Herakles' expedition with Telamon and other mortal supporters.

p. 448

We have already seen that the scholia to Isthmian 6 speak of Alkyoneus as stealing the cattle of Helios and thereby initiating the battle between Olympians and Gigantes (Σ Is 6.47).

Hard

p. 89

MacLean

p. 100

Perhaps originally the legendary hero of the Argolid and the Isthmus, then one of the Giants.

Moon

p. 64

50. B. Andreae, "Herakles und Alkyoneus," Jdl 77 (1962) 174–176

p. 65

As mentioned, a type A amphora in Paris (Louvre F 208) (fig. 24) has been attributed to the Priam Painter, and its rendition of the Alkyoneous story is quite different. The giant is out of doors. The painter has put him on a mountain, as in Pindar, Isthmian VI.32, where he is asleep, with his eyes tightly closed head down-turned, and his arms hanging limp. The body is properly massive, stretching across much of the panel. Behind Alkyoneus is a small-leafed tree. Herakles approaches on the left, his body tensed, his bow aimed, soon to deliver his arrow.

Natoli

p. 130

Ridgway

p. 39

It is usually stated that the Giant [Athena's opponent on the Pergamon Altar] is Alkyoneus, a son of Ge who derived immortality from contact with Mother Earth. ...

p. 59–60 [Pages can be viewed form my laptop]

59. The quotation ...

Stafford

p. 118

A group of Attic vase-paintings ... a feature common to personifications of physical sleep.¹⁰

p. 252

10 ... Andreae 1962 discusses images of the Alkyoneus encounter in detail; Borg 2002, 153–47 considers Hypnos' role in these scenes.

Iconographic

Pots

Getty 84.AE.974: Beazley 16201

Cohen p. 66–68

500–450 BC (Beazley), c. 480 BC (Cohen)

Cattle (Cohen, Beazley)

Sleeping (Cohen)

Hypnos (Cohen)

Geneva XXX401: Beazley 401 [No image]

LIMC Alkyoneus 12 [No image]

For images and description see Christophe KUNICKI

500 BC (LIMC)

Cattle (Beazley, LIMC)

Hypnos (Beazley, LIMC)

London XXXX205808: Beazley 205808

Cattle (Beazley)

Sleeping (Image)

Louvre F208: Beazley 6561

Gantz, p. 420

Moon p. 65

LIMC Alkyoneus 3

575–525 BC (Beazley), 520 BC (LIMC)

Inscription (Gantz, Beazley)

Sleeping (Moon)

Melborne 1730.4: Beazley 201048 [No image]

Stafford, p. 118

LIMC Alkyoneus 11

Cattle (LIMC)

Sleeping (Stafford)

Hypnos (Stafford)

Munich 1784: Beazley 351331

Gantz, p. 420

525–475 BC (Beazley)

Hypnos (Gantz)

Munich 2590: Beazley 200135

Cattle (Image)

Sleeping (Image)

Inscription (Beazley)

Munich (Market): Beazley 9022273 [No image]

LIMC Alkyoneus Add 4

520–510 (LIMC)

Cattle (Beazley, LIMC)

Taranto 7030

Gantz, p. 420

Andreae, p. 188, 189 (German, images, PDF)

LIMC Alkyoneus 17

Cattle (Gantz)

Heracles dragging? Alkconeus? (Gantz)

Tarquinia RC 2070 Beazley 332028 [No image]

Gantz, p. 420

550–500 BC (Beazley)

Cattle (Gantz)

LIMC?

Toledo 52.66: Beazley 2190

Gantz, p. 420

Moon p. 65

LIMC Alkyoneus 7 [No image]

525–475 BC (Beazley) 510 BC (LIMC)

Hypnos (Gantz, Moon)

Sculpture

Temple of Hera at Foce del Sele

Bennett, p. 124

c. 560–550 BC

Another Giant Thourios? See Pausanias 3.18.11

Perseus: Foce del Sele, Temple of Hera

Pergamon Altar

Ridgway, B. S., pp. 39–40, p. 59–62 [Pages can be viewed from my laptop]

Cunningham, p. 113