Zeus. . . struck him down: the story was told in Hes. Cat. (fr. 51). In Pind. Pyth. 3. 54 ff, he raises a single man in return for a handsome bribe; a number of names are cited from early sources in an interpolation here, see Appendix, 6. The theme becomes exaggerated in the later tradition and we find Hades complaining to Zeus about a serious diminution of the dead (DS 4. 71. 2); but to raise a single man is to transgress mortal bounds, meriting this response from Zeus. Asclepios was worshipped initially as a hero, and then as a healing god with an important cult at Epidaurus.
who had forged the thunderbolt: see p. 28.
Apollo went to Admetos: see also p. 48.
there are those. . . Bateia: Perieres was first introduced to us as a Deucalionid king of Messenia, p. 44; but Tyndareus is a figure of such importance in the Laconian genealogies that it was natural that others preferred to regard him as being of purely Laconian descent, and this was the tradition followed by Ap. in the preceding genealogies. Here we are told that some tried to reconcile the conflicting traditions on his birth by claiming that there were two Perieres, one the Messenian son of Aiolos, who fathered Aphareus and Leucippos, two Messenian rulers, and the other the Laconian son of Cynortas, who became the father of Tyndareus.
Hippocoon expelled Icarios and Tyndareus: Hippocoon (and his sons) and Tyndareus disputed the throne after the death of the previous king, Oibalos (cf. P. 3. 1. 4). There are conflicting traditions on the position of the third brother, for Icarios is also said to have assisted Hippocoon in the expulsion of Tyndareus (P. 3. 1. 4, sc. Eur. Orest. 457; apparently the Lacedaimonian version). Some claim that Hippocoon was an illegitimate son (e.g. sc. Eur. Orest. 457, where his mother is a certain Nicostrate).
Thestios: an Aetolian, see p. 39, the king of Pleuron; see also P. 3. 13. 8.
Heracles had killed Hippocoon and his sons: see pp. 87 f.
Polydeuces. . . Helen . . . Castor: that Helen was a daughter of Zeus was agreed from Homer onwards, but with regard to the Dioscuri —Polydeuces (or under his Latin name, Pollux) and Castor— there was disagreement as to whether Castor was a mortal son of Tyndareus or a son of Zeus like Polydeuces. Although Pindar agrees with the present account in Nem. 10 (see 73 ff., though not in Pyth. 4. 171 f.) and Castor was mortal in the Cypria(Clem. Al. Protr. 2. 30), there was also an early tradition that both were sons of Zeus, as the name Dioscuri implies (Hes. Cat. fr. 24, cf. HH to the Dioscuri).
and Clytemnestra: most editors favour this addition; but since Clytemnestra has been mentioned already with Timandra and Phylonoe as one of Tyndareus’ children by Leda, it cannot be assumed that Ap. must have listed her as one of the children conceived on this occasion(and Carriere remarks that she is not always included in comparable lists, e.g. VM 2. 132).
a daughter of Zeus by Nemesis: they had intercourse at Rhamnos in Attica (Catast. 25), where there was a sanctuary of Nemesis (P. 1. 33. 2); according to the local legend, Nemesis was her mother, but Leda suckled and reared her (P. 1. 33. 7). The story goes back to early epic (the Cypria, see Athenaeus 334b ff., with a quotation). Leda too is said to have laid an egg after her intercourse in bird form (it was shown to visitors in Sparta, P. 3. 16. 1).
to Aphidnai: in Attica; see also p. 143 and note.
swear an oath: if they are to be eligible. This will be important later because when Helen is abducted by Paris, all her previous suitors will be obliged to go to war to help Menelaos recover her, p. 147.
a son, Nicostratos: in Homer, Hermione is her only child (Od. 4. 12 ff., cf. Il. 3. 175). Nicostratos would have been born after the Trojan War, as his name, ‘Victorious Army’, indicates. According to P. 2. 18. 5, he was an illegitimate son of Menelaos by a slave-woman, like Megapenthes below (who is mentioned in Od. 4. 11); in any case, Menelaos was succeeded by Orestes, son of Agamemnon, which would indicate that he had no legitimate male heirs at the time of his death.
because of their valour: the name of the Dioskouroi (kourosmeans a boy, Diosis the genitive of Zeus) suggests that they are sons of Zeus, but here Castor has been described as the son of Tyndareus, so some explanation of their name is required, and it is claimed that they owed it to their personal qualities rather than their joint birth. Their part in two great adventures has already been mentioned, pp. 40 and 49; Ap. now tells of their later life, in particular the incident that leads to their death, thus explaining why they are not present at Troy, and why Menelaos, a Pelopid, is ruling in Lacedaimon at that time. Tyndareus has no other male descendants.
the daughters of Leucippos: a Messenian king (see p. 44, cf. P. 4. 2. 4). There was a tradition that Hilaeira and Phoebe were betrothed to Idas and Lynceus, the sons of his brother Aphareus, and that this abduction (rather than the following incident) was the cause of the quarrel that led to the death of the Dioscuri (e.g. Hyg. 80).
Lynceus caught sight of Castor: on the fate of the Dioscuri Ap., and Pindar in his more detailed account in Nem. 10. 55 ff, largely follow the early epic the Cypria(judging by Proclus’ summary); there Lynceus saw both brothers hiding inside a hollow oak (sc. Pind. Nem. 10. 114).
amongst mortals: strictly, amongst the dead; on their shared immortality, cf. Od. 11. 303–4. The story rests on the assumption that Castor was a son of Tyndareus, and thus of wholly mortal birth.
he wanted to violate the goddess: she is commonly said to have actually slept with him, and willingly; according to Od. 5. 125 ff. on a thrice-ploughed field, causing Zeus to strike him dead afterwards when he came to hear of it. Demeter for her part gave birth to Ploutos (Wealth, here as related to successful harvests) in Crete (Theog. 969 ff.). See also DS 5. 77. 1 f.
went to the mainland opposite: his departure from Samothrace is often associated with a great flood sent by Zeus (sometimes identified with Deucalion’s flood, p. 37), and he is said to have used inflated skins to cross the waters (e.g. Lycophron 72 ff, with scholia, and sc. Il. 20. 215).
named the country Troy: although we commonly refer to the city as Troy (as does Homer on occasion), this was strictly the name of the Trojans’ land(Troia, or Troas, the Troad). The city was Ilios or Ilion (or in its Latin form, Ilium).
Ganymede: cf. Il. 20. 232 ff., HH to Aphrodite202 ff., without as yet the eagle (general in late accounts, e.g. Verg. Aen. 5. 253) or any suggestion that he became the beloved of Zeus (first recorded in Eur. Orestes1392, cf. Plato Phdr. 255c).