Part 3 of 9
Daedalion
Son of Lucifer, brother of Ceyx, father of Chione.
Bk 11:266-345. Mourning his daughter Chione he leaps from the summit of Parnassus but is turned by Apollo into a hawk (probably an eagle, genus: Accipiter, since Parnassus was famous for them. Note Byron’s letters Nov-Dec 1809. Seeing a flight of eagles on Parnassus he ‘seized the omen’ and wrote some stanzas for Childe Harold hoping ‘Apollo had accepted my homage’).
Daedalus
Bk 8:152-182. The mythical Athenian architect who built the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete.
(See Michael Ayrton’s extended series of sculptures, bronzes, and artefacts celebrating Daedalus, Icarus and the Minotaur)
Bk 8:183-235. He makes wings of bee’s-wax and feathers to escape from Crete. Warning Icarus, his son, to follow him in a middle course, they fly towards Ionia. Between Samos and Lebinthos Icarus flies too high and the wax melts, and he drowns in the Icarian Sea and is buried on the island of Icaria.
Bk 8:236-259. He had previously caused the death of Talos, his nephew, the son of his sister Perdix, through jealousy throwing him from the Athenian citadel, but Pallas Athene changed the boy into the partridge, perdix perdix.
Bk 8:260-328. He finds sanctuary in Sicily (after reaching Cumae, where he built the temple of Apollo), at the court of King Cocalus who defends him from Minos. (He threaded the spiral shell for King Cocalus, a test devised by Minos, and made the golden honeycomb for the goddess at Eryx. See Vincent Cronin’s book on Sicily – The Golden Honeycomb.).
Bk 9:714-763. His name was synonymous with ingenuity, invention and technical skill.
Damasichthon
Bk 6:204-266. One of Niobe’s seven sons killed by Apollo and Diana.
Danae
The mother of Perseus by Jupiter, and daughter of Acrisius, King of Argos.
Bk 4:604-662. She was raped by Jupiter in the form of a shower of gold, while imprisoned in a brazen tower by Acrisius, who had been warned by an oracle that he would have no sons but that his grandson would kill him. (See Titian’s painting, Museo del Prado, Madrid: See the pedestal of Benvenuto Cellini’s Perseus bronze, Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, depicting Danae with the child Perseus: See Jan Gossaert called Mabuse’s panel – Danae - in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich))
Bk 6:103-128. Arachne depicts her rape by Jupiter.
Bk 11:85-145. She would have been deceived by Midas’s gold also.
Danaeius heros
Bk 5:1-29. Perseus, son of Danae.
Danai
Bk 12:1-38. Bk 12:64-145. The Greeks, the descendants of Danaus of Argos, the Pelasgians.
Danube, Hister
Bk 2:227-271. The Lower Danube running to the Black Sea.
Daphne, Peneis
Bk 1:438-472. Daughter of Peneus the river-god. Loved by Phoebus Apollo.
Bk 1:525-552. Turned into the laurel bough. (See Pollaiuolo’s painting – Apollo and Daphne – National Gallery, London)
Bk 1:553-567. She is honoured by Phoebus.
Daphnis
Bk 4:274-316. A shepherd boy of Mount Ida, the son of Mercury, and inventor of bucolic poetry. His mother was a nymph. Pan taught him to play the pipes and he was beloved by Apollo, and hunted with Artemis. A nymph named Nomia made him swear loyalty. Her rival Chimera seduced him, and Nomia (or Mercury) turned him to stone.
Dardanidae matres
Bk 13:399-428. Dardanian, that is Trojan women.
Dardanius
Bk 13:1-122. An epithet applied to the descendants of Dardanus, the son of Jupiter and Electra, who came from Italy to the Troad, and was one of the ancestors of the Trojan royal house.
Bk 15:418-452. The Romans, as descendants of Aeneas.
Bk 15:745-842. Iulus, as the son of Aeneas.
Daulis
Bk 5:250-293. A city in Phocis seized by Pyreneus.
Daunus
Bk 14:445-482. An ancient king of Apulia, Iapygia in southern Italy. Diomede founded Arpi in his kingdom.
Bk 14:483-511. Diomede’s father-in-law.
Deianira
The daughter of Oeneus, king of Calydon, hence called Calydonis, and the sister of Meleager.
Bk 8:515-546. She is spared by Diana from being turned into a bird.
Bk 9:1-88. She is wooed by Hercules and Achelous.
Bk 9:89-158. She marries Hercules, and is raped by Nessus. Trying to revive Hercules love for her she unwittingly gives him the shirt of Nessus soaked in the poison of the Hydra. (See Pollaiuolo’s painting – The Rape of Deianira – Yale University Art Gallery)
Bk 9:273-323. Hyllus is her son by Hercules.
Deionides, Miletus
Miletus, son of Deione.
Deiphobus
The son of Priam, a Trojan Hero.
Bk 12:536-579. Cited by Nestor as an enemy.
Delia
Bk 5:572-641. An epithet of Diana from her birthplace, Delos.
Delius, Apollo, Phoebus
An epithet of Apollo, from his birthplace, Delos.
Bk 5:294-331. The Emathides pretend that he fled to Egypt in the war between the giants and the gods, and there he hid in the form of a crow.
Bk 6:204-266. Apollo helps to punish Niobe.
Bk 11:172-193. He gives Midas the ears of an ass.
Bk 12:579-628. He helps Paris destroy Achilles.
Bk 13:640-674. He gave Andros the power of prophecy.
Delos
Bk 1:438-473. Bk 9:324-393. The Greek island in the Aegean, one of the Cyclades, birthplace of, and sacred to, Apollo (Phoebus) and Diana (Phoebe, Artemis), hence the adjective Delian. (Pausanias VIII xlvii, mentions the sacred palm-tree, noted there in Homer’s Odyssey 6, 162, and the ancient olive.)
Bk 5:572-641. Its ancient name was Ortygia.
Bk 6:146-203. Bk 6:313-381. A wandering island, that gave sanctuary to Latona (Leto). Having been hounded by jealous Juno (Hera), she gave birth there to the twins Apollo and Diana, between an olive tree and a date-palm on the north side of Mount Cynthus. Delos then became fixed in the sea. In a variant she gave birth to Artemis-Diana on the islet of Ortygia nearby.
Bk 8:183-235. Daedalus and Icarus fly past it after leaving Crete.
Bk 13:623-639. Aeneas arrives there. Anius is priest on Delos and they sacrifice to the Delian gods.
Bk 15:479-546. Sacred to Diana.
Delphi, Delphicus
Bk 1:504-524. Bk 9:324-393. Bk 11:266-345.
Bk 15:622-745. The site of the oracle of Apollo in Phocis.
Bk 2:531-565. Phoebus Apollo is called Delphicus.
Bk 2:676-701. Phoebus Apollo as lord of Delphi.
Bk 10:143-219. The navel stone in the precinct at Delphi was taken as the central point of the known world.
Bk 11:410-473. Delphi was sacked by the Phlegyans.
BkXV:143-175. Pythagoras is a devotee of the god.
Demoleon
Bk 12:290-326. A centaur.
Deois
Bk 6:103-128. A daughter of Deo, a name of Ceres, so Proserpina.
Deoius
Bk VIII725-777. Of Ceres-Demeter, her oak trees.
Dercetis, Derceto, Atargatis
Bk 4:31-54. A Babylonian goddess worshipped in Syrian Palestine. She was the Syrian goddess Atar-ata, or Atargatis, consort of the Babylonian great god Adad. She was worshipped at Ascalon as half-woman and half-fish, and fish and doves were sacred to her. She was identified, by the Greeks, with Aphrodite. The mother of Semiramis.
Deucalion
Bk 1:313-347. King of Phthia. He and his wife Pyrrha, his cousin, and daughter of Epimetheus, were survivors of the flood. He was he son of Prometheus. (See Michelangelo’s scenes from the Great Flood, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome)
Bk 7:350-403. Cerambus also escaped.
Dia
Bk 3:638-691. An old name for Naxos.
Bk 8:152-182. Ariadne is abandoned there by Theseus, but rescued by Bacchus to whom the island was sacred.
Diana, Phoebe, Artemis
Bk 2:401-416. Daughter of Jupiter and Latona (hence her epithet Latonia) and twin sister of Apollo. She was born on the island of Ortygia which is Delos (hence her epithet Ortygia). Goddess of the moon and the hunt. She carries a bow, quiver and arrows. She and her followers are virgins. See Phoebe. She is worshipped as the triple goddess, as Hecate in the underworld, Luna the moon, in the heavens, and Diana the huntress on earth. (Skelton’s ‘Diana in the leaves green, Luna who so bright doth sheen, Persephone in hell’) Callisto is one of her followers. (See Luca Penni’s – Diana Huntress – Louvre, Paris, and Jean Goujon’s sculpture (attributed) – Diana of Anet – Louvre, Paris.)
Bk 2:441-465. She expels Callisto from her band of virgins because Callisto is pregnant by Jupiter, having been raped by him.
Bk 3:165-205. She is seen by Actaeon while she is bathing and turns him into a stag.
Bk 3:232-252. Her anger is only sated when Actaeon is torn to pieces by his dogs.
Bk 5:294-331. The Emathides pretend that she fled to Egypt in the war between the giants and the gods, and there she hid in the form of a cat.
Bk 5:332-384. A virgin goddess.
Bk 5:572-641. She conceals her amour-bearer Arethusa in a cloud. Ortygia is an epithet for her.
Bk 7:661-758. She gives Procris a magic hound, Laelaps, and a spear, both of which Procris gives to her husband, Cephalus.
Bk 8:260-328. Slighted by King Oeneus, she sends a wild boar against Calydon.
Bk 8:329-375. She steals the point of Mopsus’s spear in flight rendering his shot ineffectual.
Bk 8:376-424. Ancaeus boasts in spite of her.
Bk 8:515-546. She turns the sisters of Meleager, the Meleagrides, into guinea-hens.
Bk 8:547-610. Achelous compares his anger to Diana’s.
Bk 9:89-158. The Naiades dress like her.
Bk 10:503-559. Venus dresses like her, and hunts with Adonis.
Bk 11:266-345. She kills Chione for slighting her beauty.
Bk 12:1-38. Bk 13:123-381. She is angered by some act of Agamemnon’s, and keeps the Greek fleet at Aulis until Iphigenia is sacrificed. She then snatches Iphigenia away in a mist, and leaves a hind for the sacrifice.
Bk 14:320-396. Orestes carried her image to Aricia in Italy where she was worshipped.
Bk 15:176-198. The moon-goddess.
Bk 15:479-546. She was worshipped at the sacred grove and lake of Nemi in Aricia, as Diana Nemorensis, and the rites practised there are the starting point for Frazer’s ‘The Golden Bough’ (see Chapter I et seq.) She hid Hippolytus, and set him down at Aricia (Nemi), as her consort Virbius.
Dictaeus
Bk 8:1-80. Bk 9:714-763. Of Mount Dicte, in Crete, hence Cretan.
Dictynna
Bk 2:441-465. An epithet of Britomartis in Crete, ‘goddess of the net’, identified with Diana.
Dictys(1)
Bk 3:597-637. A seaman, companion of Acoetes.
Dictys(2)
Bk 12:290-326. A centaur.
Dido
The Phoenician Queen of Carthage, a manifestation of Astarte, the Great Goddess.
Bk 14:75-100. A Sidonian, she founded Carthage, loved Aeneas, and committed suicide when he deserted her. (See Virgil, The Aeneid, Book IV, and Marlowe’s The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage: See also Purcell’s operatic work ‘Dido and Aeneas’.)
Didyme
Two small islands near Syros in the Aegean.
Bk 7:453-500. Not allied to Crete.
Dindyma, Dindymus
Bk 2:201-226. A mountain in Mysia in Asia Minor, sacred to Ceres.
Diomedes(1)
Bk 12:579-628. The son of Tydeus king of Argos, a Greek hero in the war against Troy. See Homer’s Iliad. He dare not compete for the arms of Achilles.
Bk 13:1-122. He reproached his friend Ulysses for abandoing Nestor in the thick of the fighting.
Bk 13:1-122. He shared in Ulysses’s deeds.
Bk 13:123-381. Ulysses claims his friendship and support.
Bk 14:445-482. He founded Arpi in southern Italy (Iapygia). Turnus sends Venulus to seek his help in the war with Aeneas, but he pleads lack of resources and unacceptable risk.
Bk 14:483-511. He tells how his friends were changed into birds.
Bk 14:512-526. He completes his story, and Venulus leaves.
Bk 15:745-842. He wounded Venus at Troy, and Venus once saved Aeneas from his attack.
Dirce
Bk 2:227-271. A famous spring near Thebes in Boeotia.
Dis
Bk 4:416-463. A name for Pluto, king of the Underworld, brother of Neptune and Jupiter. His kingdom in the Underworld described.
Bk 5:332-384. At Venus’s instigation Cupid strikes him with an arrow to make him fall in love with Prosperpine.
Bk 5:385-424. He rapes and abducts her, re-entering Hades through the pool of Cyane.
Bk 5:533-571. Jupiter decrees that she can only spend half the year with him and must spend the other half with Ceres.
Bk 10:1-85. Lord of the Underworld, visited by Orpheus to plead for the life of Eurydice.
Bk 15:479-546. He is angered when Aesculapius restores the life of Hippolytus.
Dodona
The town in Epirus in north western Greece, site of the Oracle of Jupiter-Zeus, whose responses were delivered by the rustling of the oak trees in the sacred grove. (After 1200 BC the goddess Naia, worshipped there, who continued to be honoured as Dione, was joined by Zeus Naios. The sanctuary was destroyed in 391 AD.)
Bk 7:614-660. The oak at Aegina is seeded from it, and sacred to Jupiter.
Bk 13:705-737. Aeneas passes it.
Dodonaeus
Bk 7:614-660. Dodonis, of Dodona.
Dolon
A Phrygian sent by the Trojans to spy on the Greek camp.
Bk 13:1-122. He was captured by Ulysses and Diomede and killed. Hector had promised him the horses and chariot of Achilles for his night’s spying.
Dolopes
Bk 12:290-326. A people of Thessaly. Amyntor is their king.
Don, Tanais
Bk 2:227-271. The River in Scythia.
Doris
Bk 2:1-30. The daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, wife of Nereus the old man of the sea who is a shape-changer, and mother of the fifty Nereids, the attendants on Thetis. The Nereids are mermaids.
Bk 2:227-271. Hid from the sun when Phaethon’s chariot scorched the earth.
Bk 13:738-788. The mother of Galatea.
Dorylas(1)
Bk 5:107-148. A rich man from Nasamonia. A friend of Perseus, killed by Halcyoneus.
Dorylas(2)
Bk 12:290-326. A centaur, killed by Peleus.
Draco, The Dragon ( ancient Serpens)
Bk 2:150-177. The constellation of the Dragon, once confusingly called Serpens. It is said to be the dragon Ladon killed by Hercules when stealing the golden apples of the Hesperides. It contains the north pole of the ecliptic (ninety degrees from the plane of earth’s orbit) and represents the icy north.
Dryades, Dryads
Bk 3:474-510. The wood-nymphs. They mourn for Narcissus.
Bk 8:725-776. They inhabit the oak trees in Ceres sacred grove and dance at her festivals. One of them prophesies the doom of Erysichthon who had violated the grove and destroyed her.
Bk 8:777-842. The Dryads mourn the oak and demand punishment for Erysichthon.
Bk 11:1-66. They mourn for Orpheus.
Bk 14:320-396. They are attracted to Picus.
Dryas
The son of Mars, and brother of the Thracian Tereus.
Bk 8:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk 12:290-326. He is present at the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs.
Dryope
The daughter of Eurytus, king of Oechalia, mother of Amphissus by Apollo, wife of Andraemon.
Bk 9:324-393. She unwittingly offends the nymphs and is turned into a lotus-tree.
Dulichius
Bk 13:1-122. Bk 13:399-428. Bk 13:705-737.
Bk 14:223-319An epithet of Ulysses from Dulichium, an (unidentified) island near Ithaca.
Dymantis
Bk 11:749-795. Hecuba, the daughter of Dymas and the nymph Eunoe, and wife of Priam, king of Troy.
Dymas
Bk 11:749-795. The father of Hecuba.
Echeclus
Bk 12:429-535. A centaur.
Echidna
A monster half-woman, half-snake mother of Cerberus, Chimacra, the Hydra, and the Sphinx.
Bk 4:464-511. Her venom is part of Tisiphone’s poisonous brew.
Bk 7:404-424. Mother of Cerberus.
Echinades
A group of islands off the mouth of the River Achelous, in Acarnania, opposite the island of Cephallenia.
Bk 8:547-610. They were nymphs turned into islands by the river-god.
Echion(1)
Bk 3:115-137. One of the five surviving heroes sprung from the dragon’s teeth sown by Cadmus. He married Agave, the daughter of Cadmus.
Bk 3:511-527. Bk 3:692-733. He was the father of Pentheus.
Bk 10:681-707. He built a temple to Cybele.
Echion(2)
Son of Mercury. The swiftest runner.
Bk 8:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk 8:329-375. He throws his spear ineffectually at the boar.
Echionides
Bk 3:511-527. Bk 3:692-733. An epithet of Pentheus as son of Echion.
Echo
Bk 3:339-358. A nymph whose voice gave rise to the name for a reverberating sound.
Bk 3:359-401. Juno limits her powers of speech. She falls in love with Narcissus and is rejected. She dwindles to sound alone.
Bk 3:474-510. She pities Narcissus and echoes his farewells and mourns for him and echoes his sister’s lamentations.
(See John William Waterhouse’s painting – Echo and Narcissus – Walker Art Gallery, Merseyside, England)
Edoni, Edonians, Edonides
Bk 11:67-84. The Edonians were a Thracian people, ruled at one time by Lycurgus who was destroyed by Bacchus for opposing his worship. The Edonides, the women of the Edoni, and worshippers of Bacchus, murdered Orpheus, and were turned into oak trees.
Eetion
Bk 12:64-145. The king of Thebes, in Mysia, and father of Andromache the wife of Hector.
Egeria
Bk 15:479-546. An Italian nymph, wife of Numa. Unconsoled at his death she is turned into a fountain, and its attendant streams (at Le Mole, by Nemi in Aricia). She was worshipped as a minor deity of childbirth at Aricia, and later in Rome. (outside the Porta Capena: see Frazer’s ‘The Golden Bough’ Chapter I.)
Elatus
Bk 12:146-209. Bk 12:429-535. A prince of the Lapithae, father of Caenis.
Eleleus
Bk 4:1-30. A name for Bacchus from the wild cries of the Bacchantes.
Eleusin, Eleusis
A city in Attica, famous for the worship of Ceres-Demeter.
Bk 5:642-678. Triptolemus is the son of the king there, though Eleusis is not mentioned by name at this point in the Latin text.
Bk 7:425-452. Sacred to Ceres, the Mother, and Persephone, the Maiden. The place where Theseus defeated Cercyon.
Elis
Bk 2:676-701. A city and country in the western Peloponnese.
Bk 5:487-532. The native country of Arethusa.
Bk 5:572-641. Land of the river-god Alpheus.
Bk 5:572-641. The city reached by Arethusa in her flight.
Bk 8:260-328. Sends Phyleus to the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk 9:159-210. In the Fifth Labour Hercules cleanses the stables of King Augeas of Elis.
Bk 12:536-579. Hercules destroyed the city.
Bk 14:320-396. Site of the quinquennial games.
Elpenor
Bk 14:223-319. A comrade of Ulysses. The Odyssey describes his death when he tumbles from the roof of Circe’s house, the morning after a heavy bout of drinking. His ghost begs Ulysses for proper burial, and for the oar that he pulled with his comrades to be set up over his grave. His ashes were entombed on Mount Circeo.
Elymus
Bk 12:429-535. A centaur.
Elysium
Bk 14:101-153. The Paradise of the afterlife, home of the blessed spirits in the Underworld.
Elysius
Bk 14:101-153. Of Elysium, the paradise of the Underworld.
Emathides, The Pierides
The daughters of Pierus, king of Emathia in Macedonia.
Bk 5:294-331. They challenge the Muses to a contest, and one sings of Typhoeus and the flight of the gods to Egypt.
Bk 5:642-678. They are defeated and turned into magpies for their insolence.
Emathion
Bk 5:74-106. An old man killed by Chromis in the fight between Phineus and Perseus.
Emathius
Bk 12:429-535. Bk 15:745-842. Of Emathia, a district of Macedonia.
Enaesimus
Bk 8:260-328. Bk 8:329-375. Son of Hippocoön, killed at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Enipeus
Bk 1:568-587. A river in Thessaly.
Bk 6:103-128. Disguised as the river-god, Neptune rapes Iphimedia and begets the Aloidae.
Bk 7:179-233. Medea gathers magic herbs there.
Ennomus
Bk 13:123-381. A Lycian, killed by Ulysses.
Envy, Invidia
Bk 2:752-786. She is sent by Minerva to punish Aglauros.
Eous
Bk 2:150-177. One of the four horses of the Sun.
Epaphus
Bk 1:747-764. The son of Io and Jupiter, grandson of Inachus, worshipped as a god in Egypt alongside his mother. Io is therefore synonymous with Isis (or Hathor the cow-headed goddess with whom she was often confused), and Epaphus with Horus.
Ephyre, Corinth
Bk 2:227-271. Bk 7:350-403. The city north of Mycenae, on the Isthmus between Attica and the Argolis. Ephyre is an ancient name for the city.
Epidaurus, Epidaurius, Epidauros
Bk 3:273-315. A city in Argolis, sacred to Aesculapius. (The pre-Greek god Maleas was later equated with Apollo, and he and his son Aesculapius were worshipped there. There were games in honour of the god every four years, and from 395 BC a drama festival. The impressive ancient theatre has been restored and plays are performed there. From the end of the 5th c. BC the cult of Asklepios spread widely through the ancient world reaching Athens in 420 BC and Rome (as Aesculapius) in 293 BC.
Bk 7:425-452. The scene of Theseus’s defeat of Periphetes.
Bk 15:622-745. Bk 15:622-745. The home of Aesculapius.
Epimetheus
Bk 1:381-415. A Titan, the brother of Prometheus. He was the father of Pyrrha, wife to Deucalion her cousin. He married Pandora who opened the box that Prometheus had warned them to keep closed, releasing illness, old age, work, passion, vice and madness into the world.
Epimethis
Bk 1:381-415. Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus.
Epirus
A region in northern Greece containing Dodona.
Bk 8:260-328. Described as grassy. Noted for its massive bulls.
Bk 13:705-737. Contains the city of Buthrotos.
Epopeus
Bk 3:597-637. A seaman, companion of Acoetes.
Epytus
Bk 14:609-622. One of the Alban kings.
Erasinus
Bk 15:259-306. A river in Argolis. The river Stymphelos, in Arcadia, that reappears in the Argolis, on Mount Chaon, after running underground. (See Pausanias II 24, and VIII 22)
Erebus
Bk 5:533-571. Bk 10:1-85. Bk 14:397-434. A name for the underworld.
Erectheus
King of Athens, son of Pandion, father of Orithyia and Procris.
Book VI:675-721. He inherits the kingdom from Pandion, and is noted for his sound government and military effectiveness.
Bk 7:425-452. Used to signify Athens and the Athenians.
Bk 7:661-758. He married his daughter Procris to Cephalus.
Bk 8:547-610. His kingship of Athens remembered.
Erichthonius
Bk 2:531-565. A son of Vulcan (Hephaestus), born without a mother (or born from the Earth after Hephaestus the victim of a deception had been repulsed by Athene). Legendary king of Athens and a skilled charioteer. He is represented by the constellation Auriga the charioteer, containing the star Capella. (Alternatively the constellation represents the she-goat Amaltheia that suckled the infant Jupiter, and the stars ζ (zeta) and η (eta) Aurigae are her Kids. It is a constellation visible in the winter months.)
Bk 9:418-438. His father Vulcan (Mulciber) wishes he might have a second life.
Eridanus
Bk 2:301-328. God of the River Po in northern Italy. His river receives the body of Phaethon after the destruction of the sun chariot.
He is represented by the constellation Eridanus, south of Taurus, which meanders across the sky.
Erigdupus
Bk 12:429-535. A centaur.
Erigone
Bk 6:103-128. The daughter of Icarius, loved by Bacchus, and depicted by Arachne on her web. Her country is Panchaia.
Bk 10:431-502. She was set in the sky as the constellation Virgo, after her suicide, by hanging, in despair at finding her father Icarius’s body. Icarius is identified with the constellation Boötes. Ovid is contrasting her piety and love for her father with Myrrha’s impiety and carnal desire for hers. In northern latitudes Boötes and Virgo, which are near to each other in the sky, would be declining from the zenith at midnight in late April. Virgo, the second largest constellation, is associated with the goddess of justice holding the scales, but she is also Ceres-Demeter and holds the ear of wheat, the star Spica. (See the Ceres entry). It would not make sense for Virgo to be in the sky at the time of the Greek harvest festival, the Thesmophoria, since that took place in autumn when the sun was in Virgo. However it does make sense for countries where the harvest time is different, as presumably in Panchaia. (The Egyptian harvest for example, geared to the Nile flood-cycle, was in March-April.)
Erinys, Erinnys, Eumenides
Bk 1:199-243. A Fury. The Furies, The Three Sisters, were Alecto, Tisiphone and Megaera, the daughters of Night and Uranus. They were the personified pangs of cruel conscience that pursued the guilty. (See Aeschylus – The Eumenides). Their abode is in Hades by the Styx.
Bk 4:416-463. Juno summons them at the gate of hell.
Bk 4:464-511. Tisiphone maddens Ino and Athamas.
Bk 6:401-438. They attend (invisibly) the wedding of Tereus and Procne.
Bk 6:653-674. Tereus calls on them in his grief and desire for revenge.
Bk 8:451-514. Althaea calls on them to aid her vengeance.
Bk 10:1-85. They weep for the first time at the sound of Orpheus’s song.
Bk 10:298-355. They pursued Myrrha.
Bk 11:1-66. A synonym for the madness of the Maenads.
Eriphyle
The wife of Amphiaraus whom she betrayed to Polynices.
Bk 8:260-328. Her husband is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk 9:394-417. Themis prophesies her murder by her son Alcmaeon in vengeance for his father’s death.
Erycina
An epithet of Venus from Eryx, a mountain in Sicily sacred to her.
Bk 5:332-384. She asks Cupid to make Dis fall in love with Proserpine.
Erymanthus
Bk 2:227-271. A river and mountain in Arcadia.
Bk 2:496-507. Arcas meets his mother Callisto, who is transformed into a bear, while hunting in the woods of Erymanthus.
Bk 5:572-641. Passed by Arethusa in her flight.
Bk 9:159-210. In the Fourth Labour, Hercules captured a giant wild boar that lived there.
Erysichthon
The son of the Thessalian king Triopas. His daughter is Mestra.
Bk 8:725-776. He violates the grove of Ceres.
Bk 8:777-842. In punishment Ceres torments him with Hunger.
Bk 8:843-884. After living off Mestra’s skills he ends by consuming himself.
Erytus, Eurytus(4)
Bk 5:74-106. The son of Actor, companion of Phineus. There is possibly confusion here with Eurytus(3).
Eryx(1)
Bk 2:201-226. A mountain on the north-western tip of Sicily sacred to Venus Aphrodite. Daedalus made a golden honeycomb for her shrine there, after fleeing from Crete via Cumae.
Eryx(2)
Bk 14:75-100. Acestes. A son of Venus (Eryx), half-brother of Aeneas.
Eryx(3)
Bk 5:149-199. An opponent of Perseus, petrified by the Gorgon’s head.
Eteocles
Bk 9:394-417. The son of Oedipus and Iocasta, brother of Polynices who fights against him in the war of the Seven against Thebes. The two brothers kill each other.
Ethemon
Bk 5:149-199. A Nabatean opponent of Perseus, killed by him.
Ethiopia, Aethiopia
Bk 1:765-779. The country in northeast Africa.
Bk 2:227-271. The people acquire black skins.
Bk 4:663-705. The country of Cepheus.
Etna, Aetna
Bk 2:201-226. The volcanic mountain in eastern Sicily.
Etruria, Etruscus
A country in Central Italy. Its people are the Etrurians or Etruscans. Hence Tuscany in modern Italy.
Bk 14:445-482. The Tyrrhenians. They go to war with Aeneas and his Trojans.
Bk 15:552-621. Noted for their seers’ ability to tell the future.
Euagrus
Bk 12:290-326. One of the Lapithae.
Euander
The son of Carmentis, emigrated from Pallantium in Arcadia before the Trojan War and founded the city of Pallanteum in Latium, on the future site of Rome (The Palatine Hill).
Bk 14:445-482. He gives help to Aeneas in the war.
Euboea
Bk 7:179-233. Bk 13:898-968. The large island close to eastern Greece separated from it by the Euboean Gulf. It contains Eretria and Aegae. Anthedon is on the mainland across the Gulf from Euboea.
Bk 9:89-158. Hercules conquers King Eurytus at Oechalia and sacrifices to Jupiter at Cenaeum in the north-west of the island.
Bk 9:211-272. Lichas becomes an island of that name in the Euboean Gulf.
Bk 13:123-381. Aulis faces it.
Bk 13:640-674. Two of Anius’s daughters flee there from Delos.
Bk 14:1-74. Glaucus fishes it waters.
Bk 14:154-222. Euboean colonists founded Cumae in Italy.
Euenus
Bk 8:515-546. A river of Aetolia near Calydon.
Bk 9:89-158. The scene of the rape of Deianira.
Euhan
Bk 4:1-30. An epithet for Bacchus from the cries of his followers.
Euippe
Bk 5:294-331. The wife of Pierus, and mother of the Pierides.
Eumelus
Bk 7:350-403. The father of Botres.
Eumenides, Erinyes, Furies
Bk 6:401-438. ‘The kindly Goddesses’, an ironic euphemism for the Furies or Erinyes.
Bk 8:451-514. Althaea calls on them to aid her vengeance.
Bk 9:394-417. Themis prophesies that they will pursue Alcmaeon.
Bk 10:1-85. They weep for the first time at the sound of Orpheus’s song.
Eumolpus
A mythical Thracian singer, priest of Ceres-Demeter, who brought the Eleusinian mysteries to Attica.
Bk 11:85-145. He was taught the rites along with Midas by Orpheus.
Eupalamas
Bk 8:329-375. One of the heroes in the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Knocked down by the boar’s charge.
Euphorbus
The son of Panthous, a Trojan killed by Menelaus.
BkXV:143-175. A previous incarnation of Pythagoras.
Euphrates
Bk 2:227-271. The river of ancient Babylon in modern Iraq.
Europa
Bk 2:833-875. Daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, abducted by Jupiter disguised as a white bull. ( See Paolo Veronese’s painting – The Rape of Europa – Palazzo Ducale, Venice)
Bk 6:103-128. Depicted by Arachne.
Bk 8:1-80. Minos is her son.
Eurotas
Bk 2:227-271. A river in Laconia in southern Greece.
Bk 10:143-219. Phoebus haunts it when in love with Hyacinthus.
Eurus
Bk 1:52-68. Bk 8:1-80. The East Wind. Auster is the South Wind, Zephyrus the West Wind, and Boreas is the North Wind.
Eurydice
Bk 10:1-85. The wife of Orpheus, died after being bitten by a snake. Orpheus went to the Underworld to ask for her life, but lost her when he broke the injunction not to look back at her. (See Rilke’s poem, ‘Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes’, and his ‘Sonnets to Orpheus’, and Gluck’s Opera ‘Orphée’).
Bk 11:1-66. Orpheus finds her again after his death.
Eurylochus
Bk 14:223-319. A companion of Ulysses, who escapes Circe’s transformation of Ulysses’s crew.
Eurymides
Bk 13:738-788. Telemus, son of Eurymus.
Eurynome
Bk 4:190-213. The primal Goddess, mother of the Graces (Charites). A goddess, with Thetis, of the sea. Ovid makes her the mother of Leucothoe, by Orchamus of Babylon and Persia. In all her manifestations she is the Great Goddess.
Bk 4:214-255. Sol disguises himself as her to approach Leucothoe.
Eurynomus
Bk 12:290-326. A centaur.
Eurypylus(1)
Bk 7:350-403.A king of Cos, slain by Hercules. His city was Astypalaea.
Eurypylus(2)
A Thessalian hero at Troy.
Bk 13:1-122. He does not compete for the arms of Achilles.
Eurystheus
The king of Mycenae, son of Sthenelus.
Bk 9:159-210. Jupiter boasted that he had fathered a son who would be called Heracles (Hercules) the ‘glory of Hera (Juno)’ and rule the house of Perseus. Juno made him promise that any king born before nightfall would be High King. She then hastened the birth of Eurystheus to Nicippe wife of King Sthenelus. Eurystheus ruled Hercules and set him the Twelve Labours to perform. Hercules treates him and Juno as endlessly hostile to himself.
Bk 9:273-323. He pursues his hatred of Hercules through the generations.
Eurytides
Bk 8:329-375. Hippasus, son of Eurytus, one of the heroes in the Calydonian Boar Hunt. His thigh is ripped open but the boar’s tusk.
Eurytion
Bk 8:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Eurytis
Bk 9:394-417. Iole, daughter of Eurytus.
Eurytus(1)
Bk 9:89-158. Bk 9:324-393.The father of Iole and Dryope. The king of Oechalia. He names his grandson, Dryope’s child, Amphissus.
Eurytus(2)
Bk 12:210-244. The centaur. He precipitates the battle between the Lapithae and the Centaurs by attempting to carry off Hippodamia.
Eurytus(3)
Bk 8:260-328. The son of Actor, and the father of Hippasus and brother of Cleatus. Possibly there is confusion here with Eurytus(4).
Eurytus(4), Erytus
Bk 5:74-106. The son of Actor. A companion of Phineus. He is killed by Perseus, with a heavy mixing bowl. Possibly there is confusion here with Eurytus(3).
Exadius
Bk 12:245-289. One of the Lapithae. He killed Gryneus at the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs.
Fama
Bk 9:89-158.Rumour, personified. She comes to Deianira.
Bk 12:39-63. The House of Rumour described.
Bk 15:1-59. The harbinger of glory.
Fames
Bk 8:777-842. Famine, a hag, the personification of hunger. Ceres sends her to torment Erysichthon.
Bk 8:843-884. She leaves him with an incurable and growing hunger.
Farfarus
Bk 14:320-396. A tributary of the Tiber.
Fates, The Three Goddesses, The Parcae
Bk 2:633-675. The three Fates were born of Erebus and Night. Clothed in white, they spin, measure out, and sever the thread of each human life. Clotho spins the thread. Lachesis measures it. Atropos wields the shears.
Bk 15:745-842. The gods cannot overrule them, and prevent Caesar’s assassination.
Faunigena
Bk 14:445-482. Latinus, son of Faunus.
Fauni
Bk 1:177-198. The fauns. Demi-gods. Rural deities with horns and tails.
Faunus(1)
Bk 13:738-788. Father of Acis. An ancient king of Latium.
Bk 14:445-482. Father of Latinus.
Faunus(2)
Bk 6:313-381. A god of the fields and flocks, identified with Pan. Worshipped by country people.
Faunus(3)
Bk 1:177-198. Bk 6:382-400 . Fauni, Demi-gods, ranked with Satyrs.
Favonius
Bk 9:595-665. The west wind, bringer of warmth and spring.
Fortuna
Bk 2:111-149. Bk 13:1-122. Goddess of fortune, chance, fate. Her attributes are the wheel, the globe, the ship’s rudder and prow, and the cornucopia. She is sometimes winged, and blindfolded. (See Leonardo’s drawings.)
Furies
See Erinys and Eumenides.