Heroes: Volume II of Mythos

ATALANTA fn1 As in the lovers HERO and LEANDER, whose tragic tale is recounted in the first volume of Mythos (page 359) – and the daughter of Leonato in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. fn2 Minyas was the founder king of Orchomenos in Boeotia, the great rival city state of Thebes. Heracles defeated Minyas’ descendant Erginos and was given the hand of Megara in marriage as a reward. fn3 Pronounced ‘Skeenius’ to rhyme with ‘genius’. fn4 The name means, so far as I can tell, ‘equal in weight’ – which is a strange thing to call someone. But perhaps she got the name because the men who found her believed her to be a man’s equal. fn5 The same that had done for King Ancaeus of Samos before he had a chance to taste his wine. fn6 His name means ‘Man of Wine’. fn7 It’s not entirely clear when in Jason’s busy life this adventure took place. It is usually assumed to be between the return of the Argo and the flight from Iolcos after the death of Pelias. fn8 It means, according to Robert Graves, ‘excessive wooing’. fn9 The Deianira who was to go on and play such a fateful role in the life and death of Heracles. fn10 But Meleager is married already, to a very beautiful girl called CLEOPATRA (no relation to the one we know) the daughter of Prince IDAS and Princess MARPESSA). fn11 Toxeus actually means ‘bowman’, as in toxophily. fn12 To this day there are species of guinea fowl and turkey that bear the scientific name meleagrididae. fn13 See under Heracles for the fate of Deianira. Her sister Gorge had a child by her own father, Oeneus, who grew up to feature in the Trojan War. fn14 And never was, until Achilles … fn15 See the story of Oedipus (here). Parthenopaeus was described by most sources as long-haired, fast-running and outstandingly beautiful, like his mother. He figures prominently as a heroic figure in Statius’s Thebiad. fn16 Cybele was a Phrygian deity associated with both Artemis and Gaia.