On the Heraclea of TrachisἈπόσπασμα
Scythinus of Teos II On the Heraclea of Trachis PDF
The work On the Heraclea of Trachis is an excerpt from a longer poem on the deeds of Heracles composed by the iambic poet Scythinus of Teos. It survives only as a single iambic trimeter line preserved in the ancient scholarly notes on Apollonius Rhodius’s Argonautica. The fragment recounts that Heracles, after breaking off a horn from the river-god Achelous during their contest for the hand of Deianeira, gave it to nymphs who transformed it into the Cornucopia, or Horn of Plenty. This provides an aetiological narrative for that symbol and represents a specific poetic variation on a widespread myth. The complete poem is lost, and this line is transmitted exclusively through the scholia to Apollonius Rhodius, indicating the work was known to and consulted by Alexandrian commentators. Its preservation demonstrates that Scythinus’s Heraclea served as a source for mythological variants in Hellenistic scholarship and confirms the poem’s engagement with the Trachinian cycle of myths surrounding Heracles.
| 1a,13,F 1 | ATHENAI. XI 461 E: ... οὐ τῶν Κυλικράνων εἷς ὑπάρχων, οὓς χλευάζων Ἕρμιππος ὁ κωμωιδοποιὸς ἐν τοῖς Ἰάμβοις (I 246, 70 K) φησίν· ‘εἰς τὸ Κυλικράνων βαδίζων σπληνόπεδον ἀφικόμην· εἶδον οὖν τὴν Ἡράκλειαν καὶ μάλ’ ὡραίαν πόλιν‘. Ἡρακλεῶται δ’ εἰσὶν οὗτοι οἱ ὑπὸ τῆι Οἴτηι κατοικοῦντες, ὥς φησι Νίκανδρος ὁ Θυατειρηνός (III), ὀνομασθῆναι φάσκων αὐτοὺς ἀπό τινος Κύλικος γένος Λυδοῦ, ἑνὸς τῶν Ἡρακλεῖ συστρατευσαμένων. μνημονεύει δ’ αὐτῶν καὶ Σκυθῖνος ὁ Τήιος ἐν τῆι ἐπιγραφομένηι Ἱστορίηι λέγων οὕτως· « Ἡρακλῆς λαβὼν Εὔρυτον καὶ τὸν υἱὸν ἔκτεινε φόρους πρήσσοντας πα ρ ’ Εὐβοέω ν . 〈καὶ〉 Κυλικρῆνας ἐξεπόρθησε ληιζομένου ς , καὶ αὐτόθι πόλιν ἐδείματο Ἡράκλειαν τὴν Τρηχινίαν καλεομένη ν». Πολέμων δ’ ἐν τῶι πρώτωι τῶν πρὸς Ἀδαῖον καὶ Ἀντίγονόν (IV) φησιν οὕτως· ‘τῆς δ’ Ἡρακλείας τῆς ὑπὸ τὴν Οἴτην καὶ Τραχῖνος τῶν οἰκητόρων μεθ’ Ἡρακλέους τινὲς ἀφικόμενοι ἐκ Λυδίας Κυλικρᾶνες, οἳ δ’ Ἀθαμᾶνες, ἀφ’ ὧν οἱ τόποι διαμένουσιν· οἷς οὐδὲ πολιτείας μετέδοσαν οἱ Ἡρακλεῶται συνοικοῦσιν, ἀλλοφύλους ὑπολαβόντες. Κυλικρᾶνες δὲ λέγονται, ὅτι τοὺς ὤμους κεχαραγμένοι κύλικας ἦσαν‘. |