Hecuba was awarded. . . Bitch’s Tomb: this curious story is referred to in Eur. Hecuba1260 ff. and in a lyric fragment of earlier date (PMG fr. 965) and is thus no late invention. In Euripides it is prophesied that she will turn into a dog, disappear into the sea, and her grave, Cynossema (the dog’s tomb), will become a landmark for sailors. It lay at the entrance to the Hellespont on the Thracian bank (Strabo 13. 1. 28, cf. Thuc. 8. 104). Others say that she was stoned rather than drowned (e.g. Ov. Met. 13. 565 ff.). There was an alternative tradition that she was conveyed to Lycia by Apollo (P. 10. 27. 2, reporting Stesichorus).
the most beautiful of Priam’s daughters: cf. Il. 3. 122 ff., where she is the wife of Antenor’s son Helicaon. The earliest surviving source for the present story is Lycophron 316 ff, fourth century. See also QS 13. 544 ff.
took refuge by the altar: that of Athene, which he had defiled (cf. Procl.); this action, and the consequent failure of the Greeks to punish him, merely increases Athene’s anger.
the Greeks gathered. . . sacrifice to Athene: to appease her for the defilement of her statue. According to Od. 3. 136 ff., and the Returns(Procl.), the next poem in the epic cycle, this quarrel was incited by Athene; and it was conducted in an ill-tempered manner in front of the army while the troops were the worse for drink.
Diomedes. . . with only five ships: see Od. 3. 153 ff. and 276 ff; for the subsequent history of Menelaos, see p. 164.
Mopsos.. . Manto: with this daughter of the seer Teiresias (p. 112) as his mother and Apollo as his father, Mopsos might be expected to surpass even Calchas as a diviner; his kingdom of Colophon lay south of the Troad in Lydia.
When Calchas replied. . . without a doubt: following the Sabbaitic epitome. The Vatican epitome reads, ‘when he [Calchas] made no reply, he himself [Mopsos] said that she was carrying ten piglets, and that one of them was male, and that she would bring them to birth on the following day.’ On this duel between the diviners, see also Strabo 14. 1. 27, where it is indicated that the fig-tree question came from Hes. Cat. (= fr. 278), and that the pig question was reported by Pherecydes (in a different form again, that the sow would give birth to three piglets, and one would be male).
Thetis: the goddess was his grandmother. In the Returns(Procl.) it was she who advised him to travel overland (see below), and the shade of Achilles tried to restrain Agamemnon and his followers from departing (for Agamemnon’s sacrifice was insufficient to appease Athene and they would meet with storms at sea).
Athene hurled... was killed: cf. Od. 4. 499 ff., where Poseidon drives his ships on to the Gyraean Rocks, which are located by later authors either at the island of Tenos in the southern Aegean (the place of the storm in the present account), where there was a Mount Gyraios (Hesych.), or more commonly, at Cape Caphereus in southern Euboea (e.g. Serv. on Aen. 1. 45, QS 14. 568 ff); here Aias was presumably wrecked at Tenos (for he was washed ashore at Myconos nearby), but in the Returnshe was wrecked at the Capherides Rocks (Procl.). In the OdysseyPoseidon wrecked Aias, rescued him from the waves, but then killed him as here. Eur. Troades75 ff. is the first surviving source for Athene’s use of her father Zeus’ thunderbolt.
Nauplios: see p. 62 and note; the earliest surviving source for this episode is Eur. Helen766 f. and 1126 ff.
the intrigues of Odysseus: see p. 147.
Aigialeia: the wife of Diomedes, p. 43, king of Argos; her infidelity was also attributed to the anger of Aphrodite (e.g. Ov. Met. 14. 476 ff.), who was wounded by Diomedes during the fighting at Troy ( Il. 5. 330 ff.).
wife of Idomeneus: the king of Crete, see p. 99 and note.
Xylophagos: literally ‘Eater of Wood’, i.e. of ships.
the country of the Molossians: Epirus, in north-western Greece. See also P. 1. 11. 1 f, and 2. 23. 6.
his father’s kingdom: that of Peleus, at Phthia in Thessaly, which his father Achilles would have inherited if he had survived.
when Orestes went mad: after killing Clytemnestra and Aigisthos, see p. 163.
Hermione. . . at Troy: an allusion to the story that Menelaos had given Hermione to Orestes, but afterwards offered her to Neoptolemos if he captured Troy (see Eur. Andromache967 ff.; some explain this as an accident, saying that Hermione had been given to Orestes by her grandfather Tyndareus at Sparta, and that Menelaos, who was away at Troy, remained unaware of it, e.g. sc. Od. 4. 4).
for the death of his father: Apollo, together with Paris, had killed Achilles, see p. 154, cf. Il. 22. 359 f.
by Machaireus: a name surely suggested by the machaira, or short sword (cf. Pind. Nem. 7. 42) used to kill him. It was also said (ibid. 40 ff.) that he was killed in an argument over the meat from his sacrifice (he objected to the Delphians appropriating such meat, according to Pherecydes in sc. Eur. Or. 1655). He was buried at Delphi and honoured there as a presiding hero (Pind. Nem. 7. 44 ff, P. 10. 24. 5).
Gouneus. . . settled there: there is a gap in the text here. This passage, which is prefaced, ‘Apollodorus and the rest say this’, is taken from Tzetzes sc. Lycophr. 902; the next two paragraphs are taken from ibid. 911 and 921 respectively. There too Apollodorus is probably Tzetzes’ main source; he is referred to explicitly in the second passage.
Navaithos.. . Nauprestides: Navaithos is derived here from naus, ship, aitkein, burning. Similarly, the Nauprestides were burners (from pimpremi)of ships. Cf. Strabo 6. 1. 12.
Demophon: a son of Theseus; the following story, of relatively late origin, was also associated with his brother Acamas (e.g. Aeschines Defals. leg. 31, apparently the earlier tradition).
Nine Ways: the earlier name of Amphipolis (Thuc. 4. 103); said to have been given that name because she ran down to the shore nine times when Demophon failed to return on the appointed day (Hyg. 59).