User:Paul August/Adrastus (mythology)

Adrastus (mythology)

Sources

Ancient

Apollodorus

3.12.3

And Ilus married Eurydice, daughter of Adrastus, and begat Laomedon,⁷ who married Strymo, daughter of Scamander; but according to some his wife was Placia, daughter of Otreus, and according to others she was Leucippe; and he begat five sons, Tithonus, Lampus, Clytius, Hicetaon, Podarces,8 and three daughters, Hesione, Cilla, and Astyoche; and by a nymph Calybe he had a son Bucolion.9

⁷ Compare Hom. Il. 20.236. Homer does not mention the mother of Laomedon. According to one Scholiast on the passage she was Eurydice, daughter of Adrastus, as Apollodorus has it; according to another she was Batia, daughter of Teucer. But if the family tree recorded by Apollodorus is correct, Batia could hardly have been the wife of Ilus, since she was his great-grandmother.

E.3.35

from Adrastia, Adrastus and Amphius, sons of Merops;

Euripides

Iphigenia in Aulis

265–269

[265] And from Mycenae, the Cyclopes' town, Atreus' son sent a hundred well-manned galleys, and Adrastos was with him in command, as friend with friend,

Herodotus

1.35

Now while Croesus was occupied with the marriage of his son, a Phrygian of the royal house came to Sardis, in great distress and with unclean hands. This man came to Croesus' house, and asked to be purified according to the custom of the country; so Croesus purified him ( [2] the Lydians have the same manner of purification as the Greeks), and when he had done everything customary, he asked the Phrygian where he came from and who he was: [3] “Friend,” he said, “who are you, and from what place in Phrygia do you come as my suppliant? And what man or woman have you killed?” “O King,” the man answered, “I am the son of Gordias the son of Midas, and my name is Adrastus; I killed my brother accidentally, and I come here banished by my father and deprived of all.” [4] Croesus answered, “All of your family are my friends, and you have come to friends, where you shall lack nothing, staying in my house. As for your misfortune, bear it as lightly as possible and you will gain most.”

5.67

... Ἄδρηστος ...

Homer

Iliad

2.828–834

And they that held Adrasteia and the land of Apaesus, and that held Pityeia and the steep mount of Tereia, [830] these were led by Adrastus and Araphius, sons twain of Merops of Percote, that was above all men skilled in prophesying, and would not suffer his sons to go into war, the bane of men. But the twain would in no wise hearken, for the fates of black death were leading them on.

6.37–71

But Adrastus did Menelaus, good at the warcry, take alive; for his two horses, coursing in terror over the plain, became entangled in a tamarisk bough, and breaking the curved car at the end of the pole, [40] themselves went on toward the city whither the rest were fleeing in rout; but their master rolled from out the car beside the wheel headlong in the dust upon his face. And to his side came Menelaus, son of Atreus, bearing his far-shadowing spear. [45] Then Adrastus clasped him by the knees and besought him: “Take me alive, thou son of Atreus, and accept a worthy ransom; treasures full many lie stored in the palace of my wealthy father, bronze and gold and iron wrought with toil; thereof would my father grant thee ransom past counting, [50] should he hear that I am alive at the ships of the Achaeans.” So spake he, and sought to persuade the other's heart in his breast, and lo, Menelaus was about to give him to his squire to lead to the swift ships of the Achaeans, but Agamemnon came running to meet him, and spake a word of reproof, saying: [55] “Soft-hearted Menelaus, why carest thou thus for the men? Hath then so great kindness been done thee in thy house by Trojans? Of them let not one escape sheer destruction and the might of our hands, nay, not the man-child whom his mother bears in her womb; let not even him escape, [60] but let all perish together out of Ilios, unmourned and unmarked.” So spake the warrior, and turned his brother's mind, for he counselled aright; so Menelaus with his hand thrust from him the warrior Adrastus, and lord Agamemnon smote him on the flank, and he fell backward; and the son of Atreus [65] planted his heel on his chest, and drew forth the ashen spear. Then Nestor shouted aloud, and called to the Argives: “My friends, Danaan warriors, squires of Ares, let no man now abide behind in eager desire for spoil, that he may come to the ships bearing the greatest store; [70] nay, let us slay the men; thereafter in peace shall ye strip the armour from the corpses that lie dead over the plain.”

11.328–334

Then took they a chariot and two men, the best of their people, sons twain of Merops of Percote, that was above all men [330] skilled in prophesying, and would not suffer his sons to go into war, the bane of men; but the twain would in no wise hearken to him, for the fates of black death were leading them on. These did the son of Tydeus, Diomedes, famed for his spear, rob of spirit and of life, and took from them their goodly battle-gear.

16.692–694

Then whom first, whom last didst thou slay, Patroclus, when the gods called thee deathward? Adrastus first,

Hyginus

Fabulae

33

Centaurs

Likewise at another wedding, when Pirithous was marrying Hippodamia daughter of Adrastus, ...

Pausanias

2.20.5

A little farther on is a sanctuary of the Seasons. On coming back from here you see statues of Polyneices, the son of Oedipus, and of all the chieftains who with him were killed in battle at the wall of Thebes. These men Aeschylus has reduced to the number of seven only, although there were more chiefs than this in the expedition, from Argos, from Messene, with some even from Arcadia. But the Argives have adopted the number seven from the drama of Aeschylus, and near to their statues are the statues of those who took Thebes: Aegialeus, son of Adrastus; Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus, son of Talaus; Polydorus, son of Hippomedon; Thersander; Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, the sons of Amphiaraus; Diomedes, and Sthenelus. Among their company were also Euryalus, son of Mecisteus, and Adrastus and Timeas, sons of Polyneices.

Strabo

13.1.13 [= Callisthenes FGrHist 124 F 28 = Antimachus fr. 53 Wyss]

This country was called "Adrasteia"¹ and "Plain of Adrasteia," in accordance with a custom whereby people gave two names to the same place, as "Thebe" and "Plain of Thebe," and "Mygdonia" and "Plain of Mygdonia." According to Callisthenes, among others, Adrasteia was named after King Adrastus, who was the first to found a temple of Nemesis. Now the city is situated between Priapus and Parium; and it has below it a plain that is named after it, in which there was an oracle of Apollo Actaeus and Artemis. . . .² But when the temple was torn down, the whole of its furnishings and stonework were transported to Parium, where was built an altar,³ the work of Hermocreon, very remarkable for its size and beauty; but the oracle was abolished like that at Zeleia. Here, however, there is no temple of Adrasteia, nor yet of Nemesis, to be seen, although there is a temple of Adrasteia near Cyzicus. Antimachus says as follows:

"There is a great goddess Nemesis, who has obtained as her portion all these things from the Blessed.⁴ Adrestus⁵ was the first to build an altar to her beside the stream of the Aesepus River, where she is worshipped under the name of Adresteia."

¹ On the site of Adrasteia, see Leaf, p. 77.

² Three words in the Greek text here are corrupt. Strabo may have said that this temple was "on the shore," or "in the direction of Pityeia" (the same as Pitya; see section 15 following), or "in the direction of Pactye".

³ This altar was a stadium (about 600 feet) in length (10. 5. 7).

⁴ A not uncommon appellation of the gods.

⁵ Note the variant spelling of the name.

Modern

Hasluck

p. 220

The name Adrastus was associated with the Homeric city Adrasteia on the Granicus plain; where no doubt Adrasteia and the hero Adrastus³ were worshipped together like Aeneas and Aphrodite Aeneas: ...

Adrasteia, then may be regarded as the home of this particular for of Cybele: there was, however, no shrine there in Strabo's time; one existed, he says, near Cyzicus⁵, evidently on the hill overlooking the isthmus and the peninsula which bore the name of the goddess⁶: the existence of this ancient temple was probably seized upon eagerly as a link between Cyzicus and the Homeric cycle, though it may have no connection with the city on the Granicus any more than the Adrastus the Archive. The existence of the temple would be held tangible evidence for the legend that King Cyzicus married a lady of Homeric descent instead of a mere Thessalian.

³ Hesychus (s.v. ...) mentions a place on the Granicus called "the oak of Adrastus."

...

⁵ Str. 575.

⁶ Plut. Lucull. 9.

Leaf

[In folder]

p. 78

In the Trojan Catalogue (Il. 2.828-831) we find Adresteia, Apsaios (Paisos), Pityeia (Lampaskos, see below) and "the steep hill of Tereia" given to Adrestos and Amphios, sons of Merops of Perkote. Here the name Adrestos is in all probability abstracted from that of his domain; it is of course familiar in early legend, and may have further suggested the association of Amphios, a possible reminiscence of Amphiaraos. But it is a stock name for Trojans; the Adrastos who is killed in a detailed scene in Il. vi-35-65 is evidently the son of Merops; but another falls in Il. xvi 694, an undistinguished victim.

Munn

p. 333

Several sources report that Adrasteia was the name given to a deity who was commonly identified with Nemesis, sometimes as Artimis, in a cult founded in Hellespontine Phrygia by a certain King Adrastus.⁶³ This King Adrastus was a native of Hellespontine Phrygia, and not the same as the better-known Adrastus of Sicyon, leader of the Seven against Thebes. Homer knows Adrastus as the name of three different Asiatic heroes, all of whom fought and died at Troy.⁶⁴ Like Homer Herodotus saw Asiatic Adrastus as the archetypal bearer of the doom that not even the mighty can escape. In Herodotus' story, the Phrygian Adrastus, "royal by descent, ... son of Gordias son of Midas," was himself the agent of Nemesis, in Heodotus' own phrase ( ... , "great nemesis from god seized Croesus"), when he inadvertently killed Cresus' son Atys.⁶⁴

⁶³ Antimachus of Colophon (fr. 53 Wyss, quoted at note 75 below) derives both the toponym and the divinity Adrasteia from a foundation made by King Adrastus in honor of Nemesis. Callisthenes FGrHist 124 F 28 (in Strabo 13.1.13) makes the same identifications. Demetrius of Scepsis (in Harpocration s.v. Ἀδράστειαν) says that a certain Adrastus (Ἀδράστου τινός) established Adrasteia as a name for Artemis. Harpocration s.v. Ἀδράστειαν also reports that "some say" that Nemesis got the name Adrasteia from "a certain King Adrastus [παρὰ Ἀδράστου τινός βασιλέως], or from Adrastus the son of Talaus" (i.e. the king of Sicyon).

Parada

s.v. Adrastus 2

•

••

•••Eurydice 6.

•••Apd.3.12.3

s.v. Adrastus 3

Came from Adrastia and was captured by Menelaus to whom he said his father, being a wealthy man, would pay for him a rich ransom.

•Merops 1 ∞

♇a)Agamemnon, at Troy.

♇b)Diomedes 2, at Troy.

TROJAN LEADERS.

D.Hom.Il.6.37ff., Apd.Ep.3.34ff. G.-•Apd.Ep.3.34ff., Hom.Il.2.830.

♇a)Hom.Il.6.37ff. ♇b)Hom.Il.11.328.

s.v. Adrastus 4

Leader of the Mycenaeans, against Troy.

•Polynices ∞ Argia 1.

ACHAEAN LEADERS. 2)EPIGONI.

D.-G1.Eur.IA.253ff. G2.-•Pau.2.20.5.

s.v. Adrastus 5

A Trojan warrior

♇Patroclus 1, at Troy.

TROJANS

D.-♇ Hom.Il.16.694

Smith

s.v. Adrastus 2

a son of the Phrygian king Gordius, who had unintentionally killed his brother, and was in consequence expelled by his father aud deprived of everything. He took refuge as a suppliant at the court of king Croesus, who purified him and received him kindly. After some time he was sent out as guardian of Atys, the son of Croesus, who was to deliver the country from a wild boar which had made great havoc all around. Adrastus had the misfortune to kill prince Atys, while he was aiming at the wild beast. Croesus pardoned the unfortunate man, as he saw in this accident the will of the gods and the fulfilment of a prophecy; but Adrastus could not endure to live longer and killed himself on the tomb of Atys. (Hdt. 1.35-45.)