buried in the earth: the gods are said to have incited the Centaurs against Caineus because of his violence and his presumption in wanting to be honoured as a god (e.g. sc. Il. 1. 264). On the limits of invulnerability, see p. 73 on the Nemean lion and note.
captured Athens: according to the usual account, followed on p. 121, she was hidden at Aphidnai, to the north-east of Athens, and was recovered when the Dioscuri captured that city (cf. Plut. Thes. 32–3, where it is said that they were received into Athens afterwards without a fight). It is reported, however, that in a poem in the epic cycle they plundered Athens after taking Aphidnai (sc. Il. 3. 242; cf. P. 5. 19. 3 on the Cypselos chest). The Epitome may misrepresent the original text here.
took away Aithra: she became Helen’s servant and was taken to Troy (see Plut. Thes. 34, and Il. 3. 143 f.); and when it fell, she was recovered by these two sons of Theseus, Demophon and Acamas, see p. 157.
Menestheus: a great-grandson of Erechtheus, and thus in the royal line; the leader of the Athenians in the Trojan War, p. 148, Il. 2. 552.
became stuck to it: the rock grew to their flesh (P. 10. 29. 9, referring to Panyasis and contrasting this with the tradition that they were pinioned to the chair; it seems that two versions from different sources are combined here). The name of the chair suggests that it affected the mind also (see Horace Odes4. 7. 27 f).
Lycomedes: he ruled in Scyros, off Euboea, and either feared Theseus’ influence over his subjects or wanted to gratify Menestheus (see Plut. Thes. 35, P. 1. 17. 6). See also p. 129.
Tantalos: son of Zeus and Pluto, daughter of Cronos (or according to some, the son of Tmolos). A wealthy king in Lydia, in Asia Minor, he is introduced here as the ancestor of the Pelopids, the Peloponnesian line which provided the kings of Mycenae and Sparta at the time of the Trojan War. For his punishment, cf. Od. 11. 582 ff. (without any mention of the stone, but Archilochus knew of it in the seventh century, sc. Pind. ol. 1. 97).
share ambrosia with his friends: after he had been welcomed at the table of the gods and made immortal with ambrosia, the food of the gods, he wanted to share it with other mortals, Pind. ol. 1. 59 ff. For the betrayal of divine secrets, cf. DS 4. 74. 2. The darker story that he served his son Pelops at a banquet of the gods (which Pindar refused to believe, ol. 1. 26 ff.) must have been mentioned in the full text, as it is referred to just below.
Broteas: the son of Tantalos; see also Ovid Ibis. 517 ff. and P. 3. 22.4.
a winged chariot: since Pindar talks of a golden chariot drawn by horses with unwearying wings (ol. 1. 87), and Pelops’ horses were portrayed with wings on the sixth-century chest of Cypselos (P. 5. 17. 7), the ‘winged chariot’ of the Epitome may be misleading. In Pindar’s account, this gift from Poseidon is sufficient to ensure victory for Pelops (and probably elsewhere in the earlier tradition; Pherecydes, in the fifth century, is the earliest author known to have referred to Myrtilos in this connection, sc. AR 1. 752).
Pisa: in Elis, the north-western province of the Peloponnese.
failed to insert the axle-pins: or according to Pherecydes (ibid.) he inserted axle-pins made of wax.
the Myrtoan Sea: lying to the east of the Peloponnese and south of Attica; Geraistos was the southernmost cape of Euboea. It was also said that Pelops had promised Myrtilos that he could spend a night with Hippodameia, and pitched him overboard when he reminded him of this (P. 8. 14. 11).
curses at the house of Pelops: amply fulfilled; it was said by some that this caused Hermes, the father of Myrtilos, to send the golden lamb that causes such trouble below (Eur. Orest. 989 ff. with sc. to 990; but below it is sent by Artemis as a sign to confirm Atreus’ kingship).
Apia or Pelasgiotis: for Apia as a previous name of the Peloponnese, see p. 58; Pelasgiotis must likewise be a previous name, when it was named after Pelasgos (cf. ibid., although we would expect the form Pelasgia). It now gains its definitive name (as the ‘island’ of Pelops; but it should be noted that the story of Pelops’ sons and grandsons indicates that the main centres outside Elis could not have been ruled by him at this time).
placed it in a chest: i.e. its fleece.
the Mycenaeans . . . had sent for Atreus and Thyestes: they are already outside their father’s kingdom of Pisa in Elis because they were summoned by Sthenelos, the father of Eurystheus, to Midea in Argos when he banished Amphitryon, p. 69. In the meantime, Sthenelos has died and Eurystheus has been killed by Hyllos, p. 92, but the Perseid heirs, the Heraclids, have been told by the oracle that they are not to return to the Peloponnese until later, ibid. Correspondingly, it is the divine will that the Pelopids should rule Mycenae in the intervening period; according to sc. Eur. Orest. 4, this was revealed in the oracle received by the Heraclids. It was also said that Pelops had expelled Atreus and Thyestes for murdering his illegitimate son Chrysippos (ibid.).
the adultery: between his wife Aerope and Thyestes.
intercourse with his own daughter: her name was Pelopia. In one version of this story, she submitted to the incest out of duty (e.g. Hyg. 254), in another, Thyestes raped her unknowingly at Sicyon during nocturnal rites (Hyg. 88). Here we can assume the former; Thyestes is acting in direct obedience to the oracle.
sought refuge: i.e. from Agamemnon and Menelaos, when they came of age.
But Agamemnon . . . marrying his daughters: the gap in the text is filled by an extract from Tzetzes, Chiliades1. 456–62, which is based on Ap. It explains how Agamemnon and Menelaos escaped to safety after the murder of Atreus. Although they were described above, p. 99, as sons of Pleisthenes (and thus grandsons of Atreus), they are surely sons of Atreus here. Tyndareus fled to Aetolia after he was expelled from Sparta by Hippocoon and his sons, see p. 120 and note. After Heracles had killed them, Tyndareus was able to return (see p. 88), bringing Agamemnon and Menelaos with him. Later Agamemnon expelled Thyestes and became king in Mycenae, and Menelaos became king in Sparta after the death of the Dioscuri deprived Tyndareus of his heirs, p. 122.
Alexander abducted Helen: we now pass to the events leading up to the Trojan War. Ap.’s main source henceforth will be the poems in the epic cycle that gave an account of the events not covered by Homer; but he also introduces material from later sources. For all the following, compare the summaries of these epic poems by Proclus (English translations of these can be found, with other relevant material, in Hesiod and the Homeric Hymnsin the Loeb series). Events prior to the Iliadwere covered in a single epic, the Cypria.