founded a city: called Salmone (Strabo 7. 3. 31); Elis was in the north-west Peloponnese. On Salmoneus, see also Virgil Aen. 6. 585 ff.
Poseidon had intercourse with her: see Od. 11. 235 ff.
Pelias: so called because he had been left with a livid or black-and-blue mark (pelion ti), resembling a bruise (or a birthmark).
Sidero: see DS 4. 68. 2, she married Salmoneus after the death of Tyro’s mother, Alcidice, and treated Tyro harshly ‘as a stepmother would’; it seems that no further explanation is required. Her name suggests that she had an ironnature.
in Messene, he founded Pylos: Nestor’s ‘sandy Pylos’ ( Il. 9. 295 etc.) lay in the south-western Peloponnese, but it has been disputed since ancient times whether it should be identified with the Messenian Pylos near Sphacteria (as assumed here) or with the Pylos that lay further north in the west-central province of Triphylia. The archaeological evidence suggests that the former was the city behind the legend (although there are elements in Homer’s accounts, notably in Il. 11. 711 ff., which favour the more northerly location). Strabo argued for the Triphylian location (8. 3. 7).
he was killed by Heracles: for his attack on Pylos, see p. 87. The story of Periclymenos’ death was told in Hes. Cat. (fr. 33b): Athene told him who the bee was, and Heracles killed it with an arrow. In the later tradition Heracles is also said to have shot him as an eagle (Ov. Met. 12. 549 ff., Hyg. 10) or swatted him as a fly (sc. AR 1. 156). He was granted his powers of transformation by his grandfather Poseidon (Hes. Cat. fr. 33a. 13 ff.).
purified his ears: snakes, as chthonic creatures, are naturally associated with prophecy, and other seers (e.g. Cassandra and Helenos, according to one tradition, Tzetz. Arg. Lye.) are said to have acquired their prophetic powers in this way.
could understand. . . the birds flying overhead: the interpretation of bird-flights was an important aspect of technical divination, but this takes us into the realm of magic.
Phylacos: for his birth, see p. 44; Phylace lay in south-eastern Thessaly.
Melampous promised his assistance: the basic elements of the following story can be found in Homer, Od. 11. 287 ff., without the name of the seer, or, predictably, the talking woodworms; we are simply told that Iphicles released Melampous in return for the oracles that he had delivered for him (ibid. 297 f., cf. P. 4. 36. 3).
gelding lambs . . . took fright: in Pherecydes’ version (sc. Od. 11, 287), his father pursued him with his knife because he saw him doing something improper (masturbating presumably) and there is no mention of the gelding; but the original story may have included both elements. This caused Iphicles to become impotent.
scraped off the rust. . . in a drink: because the rust comes from the instrument that inflicted the harm, it will also cure it, following a basic principle of sympathetic magic (compare the cure of Telephos on p. 150).
the women of Argos mad: see p. 63 (where this story is combined with the story of the cure of Proitos’ daughters) and note.
Apollo mas serving him: for the circumstances, see pp. 119—20. Apollo performs the following favours in gratitude for the kind treatment that he has received from Admetos (cf. Hyg. 50).
coils of snakes: as creatures of the earth, they are portents of death; hence the favour that Apollo asks of the Fates.
Kore sent her back: out of pity and admiration for her self-sacrifice (cf. Plato Symposium179c). Kore is a name for Persephone (see p. 33 and note).
Heracles fought with Hades for her: as in Eur. Alcestis(although the theme goes back to Phrynichos, an early Athenian tragedian); after blundering into Admetos’ house at the time of Alcestis’ funeral, Heracles rescued her out of gratitude for Admetos’ hospitality and remorse for his own tactless behaviour. In the play, he wrestled not with Hades personally, but with Death (Thanatos) when he came up for his prey.
Pelias. . . succeeded Cretheus: Jason’s father, Aison, might have been expected to succeed his father Cretheus on the Iolcian throne, so the position of Pelias (the son of Tyro by Poseidon and thus Aison’s half-brother) was at least dubious. Ap. is uninformative on the background; in Hes. Cat. fr. 40, and Pind. Pyth. 4. 102 ff. (where Pelias is definitely a usurper), Jason was reared in the country by the Centaur Cheiron.
the wrath of Hera: for its cause, see p. 45; Medea will return from Colchis with Jason and cause Pelias’ death, p. 57.
the golden fleece: for its origins see p. 43.
Colchis: a land south of the Caucasus at the eastern end of the Black Sea; a remote area for the early Greeks.
the Argo after its builder: it is likely that its name was originally derived from the adjective argos, meaning swift (mentioned in DS 4. 41. 3, as an alternative etymology).
Dodona: an ancient oracle of Zeus at Epirus in north-western Greece (known to Homer, Il. 16. 233–5). The great oak, whose rustling leaves were supposed to reveal the will of Zeus, was a suitable source for the speaking (and oracular) timber.
they set out to sea: for further details on all the following, see Ap.’s main source, the Argonauticaof Apollonius of Rhodes; this is a relatively late epic dating from the third century BC, but it draws extensively on early sources. Significant divergences will be noted.
Polyphemos: a Lapith from Thessaly, who is said by Homer, Il. 1. 264 ff., to have played a heroic role in the war between the Lapiths and the Centaurs (see p. 142): he was married to Heracles’ sister Laonome (sc. AR 1. 1241a).
snatched away by nymphs: Hylas was drawn into the spring by a water-nymph (AR 1. 1228 ff.) or nymphs (three in Theocritus Idyll13. 43 ff.), and was never seen again; in AR 1, 1310 ff. the prophetic sea-god Glaucos appears to the Argonauts and tells them that a nymph has made him her husband.
There they abandoned Heracles. . . leader of the Argonauts: the initial narrative follows AR 1. 1207 ff. Views on Heracles’ involvement in the expedition vary greatly. Some deny that he ever joined the expedition (e.g. Herodoros, mentioned here, a fifth-fourth-century mythographer, and Ephoros, the fourth-century historian, and doubtless the earliest tradition). According to the sixth-century Hesiodic Marriage of Ceuxhe was left behind accidentally at Aphetai when sent for water (sc. AR 1. 1289); but the Hylas story, probably of later origin (fifth century?), is most favoured by later authors. Only in late novelistic accounts (e.g. by Dionysios ‘the leather-armed’, second/first century, cited here) does he travel all the way to Colchis and, inevitably, overshadow Jason.