The Fragments on Italy comprises four prose passages attributed to Conon the Mythographer, preserved exclusively within the 9th-century Library of the Byzantine patriarch Photius. Photius summarizes fifty narratives from Conon’s work, likely titled Diegeseis (“Narratives”), which condenses mythological stories and offers alternative versions with etiological explanations connected to the Greek world. The fragments exemplify core themes of Hellenistic mythography, including tales of origin, such as explaining Italian place names, rites, and landmarks through myth. They also detail the heroic wanderings and foundations of Greek heroes in Italy, bridging Greek myth with Italic and Roman traditions while providing characteristic variations of standard myths found in mythographical handbooks.
Conon’s original work is lost and survives solely through Photius’s epitome, with the Italian fragments embedded within his summaries. There is no independent manuscript tradition for the text. Composed for King Archelaus of Cappadocia during the early Imperial period, the work reflects the contemporary systematization of Greek myth and illustrates the patronage of Greek letters within the eastern Roman Empire. It serves as a source for mythographic variants and for insights into the geographic dimensions of mythology and Augustan-era literary culture.
ΙΤΑΛΙΚΑ
ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΑ. ΝΗΣΙΑΣ.
Ἀπολλωνίου τοῦ Ῥοδίου Σχόλια Ὁ δὲ πρὸς τὸν Αἰγαίωνα μῦθος ὑπὸ Δημητρίου φέρεται τοῦ Κνιδίου. Κόνων δὲ ἐν τῇ Ἡρακλείᾳ φησὶν ὅτι Αἰγαίων καταγωνισθεὶς ὑπὸ Ποσειδῶνος κατεποντίσθη εἰς τὸ νυνὶ λεγόμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀπολλωνίου ἠρίον Αἰγαίωνος, — τὸν αὐτὸν καὶ Βριάρεων καλῶν. Περὶ δὲ τῆς κλήσεως τοῦ Αἰγαίου πελάγους ἐν μὲν τῷ τρίτῳ τῷ Περὶ τῆς Νησιάδος φησὶν ἐν τούτοις· «Τὸ Αἰγαῖον πέλαγος οἱ μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς Περκανίας Αἰγὸς ἐπώνυμον γεγονέναι φασίν· οἱ δὲ, ἀπὸ τῆς Καρυστίας τῆς Αἰγαίης ὀνομαζομένης. Αἱ μὲν γὰρ Αἰγαὶ, ἔνθεν τὸν Ποσειδῶνα παραγίνεσθαι φασὶ, κατὰ Πελοπόννησον εἰσὶν, ἐν τοῖς περὶ Κρίσαν τόποις — ἐν τῷ κατὰ Κρίσαν κόλπῳ.»
