a snake: placed there by Athene to guard him (cf. Eur. Ion. 21–3, where there are two snakes, and VM 2. 37); but the serpent is sometimes identified with the earthborn Erichthonios himself (Hyg. PA13; in Hyg. 166, he is half serpent like Cecrops).
her sanctuary: the Erechtheum on the Acropolis.
the wooden image of Athene: a primitive olive-wood statue (xoanon), comparable to the Palladion at Troy, p. 123 (and said by some to have fallen from the sky as the Palladion did, P. 1. 26. 7).
Panathenaia: the great summer festival celebrated in honour of Athene as patroness of the city. There was a procession to the Parthenon (as depicted in its frieze), bulls were sacrificed, and a new robe was offered to the enormous statue of Athene in the temple.
Demeter . . . at Eleusis: see p. 33. Eleusis was independent until the seventh century. Demeter introduced corn, Dionysos wine.
Labdacos: king of Thebes, see p. 103, in Boeotia, which lay on Attica’s northern border; this is the only mythical tale associated with his brief reign.
hid her away in the country: this is followed by a problematic phrase omitted in the translation, ‘and then, after marrying Philomela, he went to bed with her’. There is no suggestion in any surviving source that Tereus married Philomela, nor is it implied elsewhere in the present account. On the contrary, he sleeps with her secretly, and Procne remains his wife. It was said that Tereus had travelled to Athens to fetch Philomela because her sister wanted to see her, and he raped her on the journey back (e.g. VM 1. 8).
reached Daulis in Phocis: Phocis lay to the west of Boeotia and Attica. Tereus was commonly said to have been king of Daulis (Thuc. 2. 29, P. 1. 41. 8, etc.), but here he lives far to the north in Thrace (as in Hyg. 45) and pursues the sisters to Daulis. It was generally accepted that he was of Thracian descent.
Philomela a swallow: her lack of a tongue explains the swallow’s inarticulate cries; her identification with the nightingale in medieval and modern poetry is the result of a confusion in the Latin tradition (see Hyg. 45).
Poseidon Erechtheus: following Heyne’s emendation (from Erichthoniou);a cult of this name is well attested for Athens.
went to bed with Pteleon: in all other versions, Cephalos tests her virtue, causing her to flee when found wanting. He returns in disguise after travelling abroad for eight years, and offers her some finery to sleep with him (Pherecydes in sc. Od. 11. 321), or he tells a servant to offer her gold (AL 41), or Dawn changes his form to allow him to test her (Hyg. 189). It is possible that this Pteleon, who is otherwise unknown but is presumably the eponym of the Attic deme of Ptelea, may have been acting for Cephalos like the servant in AL. See also Ov. Met. 7. 690 ff.
harmful beasts: snakes, scorpions, and millipedes, according to AL 41; Pasiphae was his wife.
a fast-running dog: for its subsequent fate, see p. 70, and note.
the Circaean root: this came from a plant of the milkweed family, but here it is clearly viewed as a magical charm rather than a herbal remedy. In AL 41 she finds a mechanical solution, by ensuring that the beasts are discharged into a goat’s bladder before Minos has intercourse with her.
by the River Ilissos, Boreas carried her off: not far from Athens, see Plato Phdr. 229a ff., where there is a vivid description of the locality (and Socrates makes some shrewd comments on the rationalization of such myths), and AR 1. 211 ff. There was an alternative tradition that she was abducted from the Acropolis and conveyed to Thrace to become his wife (sc. Od. 14. 533). Boreas was the North Wind.
while pursuing the Harpies: see p. 52 and note.
killed by Heracles: for persuading the Argonauts not to return for him when he was left behind in Mysia (AR 1. 1298 ff; for Heracles’ abandonment, see p. 51).
married Idaia . . . punished him for this: this version of the story, in which Idaia brings a false accusation against her adult stepsons, follows Sophocles’ lost Phineus(sc. AR 2. 178); in another version, she blinds them herself while they are still young with a weaving pin (see Soph. Antigone970 ff.). Boreas’ presence with the Argonauts is unusual, but DS (4. 44. 4, cf. Serv. on Am. 3. 209) records that according to some mythographers (presumably following the Phineus)Phineus blinded his sons and was blinded in turn by Boreas (as the father of Phineus’ first wife, Cleopatra). For another version again, see DS 4. 43. 3 ff. (cf. sc. AR 2. 207).
fled to the Eleusinians: and became closely associated with the Mysteries. He was the eponymous ancestor of the priestly family of the Eumolpidai, which provided the hierophant who presided over the rites and revealed the mysteries to the initiates.
Poseidon destroyed Erechtheus: because the Athenians under Erechtheus had killed Eumolpos, his son (cf. Eur. Ion281 f.). The story is presumably connected with the origin of the Poseidon-Erechtheus cult, p. 136, in which the god and the heroized Erechtheus shared the same shrine (P. 1. 26. 6).
transferred the kingdom to Pandion: see also P. 1. S. 3 and 1. 39. 4; Pandion’s tomb could be seen in Megara.
founded . . . Pylos: the Elian Pylos in the north-western Peloponnese. See also P. 6. 22. 5 and 4. 36. 1.
Pytho: Delphi.
mouth of the wineskin: the wineskin stands for his stomach, and its mouth or neck for his penis (cf. sc. Eur. Med. 679, which reports that the Greek word for the mouth of a wineskin, podeon, was often used in such a senst,, i” he sleeps with another woman before he returns to the height of Athens, meaning the Acropolis, he will have a male child by her rather than by his wife.
by way of Troezen: south of the Isthmus in the Argolid, and thus well out of his way; Plut. Thes. 2suggests that he went there to consult Pittheus about the oracle. For the place of Pittheus in Troezenian mythology, see P. 2. 30. 5 ff.; he later adopts Theseus’ son Hippolytos, see p. 142 and note.
Poseidon slept with her too: this paternity is associated with a specific story told in Bacch. 17. 33 ff. (cf. P. 1. 17. 3). When Minos wanted to sleep with one of the Athenian girls from the tribute (see p. 137), Theseus withstood him, claiming to be the son of Poseidon; and to prove this, he leapt into the sea and recovered a golden ring thrown there by Minos, and was also given a magnificent crown by Poseidon’s wife Amphitrite (which later became a constellation, Hyg. PA5).