Steven Jackson

APOLLONIUS OF RHODES: ENDYMION

O?x ap' eye!) [jio?vy)[xexaAaxfAiov ?vxpov aX?axco,

o?S' XaXw
o?Y) 7i?piSa(,o(jiat 'EvSu[jl?covc.
~H flafxa xal oslo, x?ov, 8oXc7)giv ?oiSalc
Sy)
?va ?vl vuxxl
fjLVY]CTa(ji?v?)(ptXOTYjTo?, oxotLt]
cpap[xacra7]? suxyjXo?, ? toi cptXa epya
TSTuxxac.
vuv Se xal a?TY)S?j&ev 0[xo?y]?efxfjiope? ?ctyjc,
Sc5xe S' ?vcYjp?v toi
T/jaova 7ry?fxa yev?a^ac
'AXX' ipxeo> ^"STXaB-c S' ?fjwnrj?,
8a?(ji(ov ?Xycvoec?.
xal 7TCVUT1Q7iep ?ouoa, tcoX?otovov aXyo? ?eipeiv.

(A. R. Arg. 4, 57-65)

This s edition of
is F. Vian text,1 and he retains the tradi
Apollonius'
tional of verse 59 (underlined), including the vocative form
reading
kuon: "Bitch". Vian s apparatus for this verse reads:

59 x?ov ?QSjpar: xuwv E xLov B2YP et Chrestien (cf. Val. Fl. 8, 29) x?&ov Fr?nkel | | SoX?yjcjcv
W: -?oLiGivQ u. lac. susp. Campbell.2
I Ipost

P. Green (ad loe.)2 is, I think, right to suggest that there is no need for edi
tors to challenge the MS tradition here, and he further suggests, after E.
Livrea (ad loe.),3 that Apollonius would want to echo what is a common
term of abuse in Homer. Also, no doubt, there is a nice hint of the hell
hounds which usually accompany Hecate (Arg. 3, 1216-1217; Theoc. Id. 2,
11-13;Virg. Aen. 6, 257-258).
There is still, however, a more more subtle interpretation,
significant,
which I believe should be expressed in support of the traditional reading,
and which, so far, has been overlooked by scholars.
Let us recall, first of all, the extant pre-Apollonian sources for the story
of Endymion. Hesiod M.-W. = Sch. A. R. 4, 57-58, pp. 264-265 Wen
(fr. 245
del) tells us that Endymion was the son of Aethlius, son of Zeus, and Ca

lyke. He received from his grandfather Zeus the gift of being able to die
whenever he wished. Other pre-Apollonian sources to record these ge
details were Pisander of Rhodes (FGrHist 16 F 7 = Sch. A. R. 4,
nealogical
= Sch. A. R.
57-58, pp. 264-265 Wendel), Acusilaus of Argos (FGrHist 2 F 36

1
F. Vian,
Apollonios de Rhodes. Argonautiques in, Paris 1981.
2
P. Green,The Argonautika by Apollonios Rhodios, Berkeley 1997.
3
E. Livrea, Apollonii Rhodii Argonauticon: Liber iv, Florence 1973.
 12 STEVEN JACKSON

=
4> 57-5%>pp. 264-265 Wendel) and Pherecydes of Athens (FGrHist 3 F 121
Sch. A. R. 4, 57-58, pp. 264-265 Wendel). The Apollonian scholiast goes on
to say that some authors relate that this particular was a man
Endymion
of Sparta, while others record that he came from Elis. Ibycus of Rhegium
= Sch. A. R 4,
(PMG. fr. 284 57-58, pp. 264-265 Wendel) says in his first book
that he was actually King of Elis. At any rate, he was portrayed as a man
of the P?loponn?se. We are told by a Hesiodic source (fr. 260 M.-W. = Sch.
A. R 4, 57-58, pp. 264-265 Wendel) that Zeus carried this Endymion up to
heaven, where he was deceived into love to a of Hera in
making phantom
the shape of a cloud; and then, because of his lust, he was thrown out of
into Hades. Crete = Sch. A. R.
heaven down Epimenides of (3 B 14 D.-K.
4> 57-58, pp. 264-265 Wendel) tells us that Endymion spent his time among
the gods making love to Hera, wherefore, Zeus being angry, Endymion
asked to sleep forever (ocxporco? utivo?: cp. Sch. Theoc. 3, 49-5ib, p. 133Wen
del). In another, separate episode of the tale, Lesbian Sappho speaks of
the moon Selene's love for Endymion = Sch. A. R
(test. 199 V 4, 57-58, pp.
264-265 Wendel).
In his explanation of Apollonius' reference to the Latmian cave in con
junction with Endymion, the Apollonian scholiast recalls that there is a
mountain in Caria
called Latmus, and that in this mountain there is a cave
where Endymion used to live. And there is also a
city there called Heraclea.
And it is said that Selene came down to Endymion in this cave. The source
of this latter statement is not specified by the Apollonian scholiast, but it
is, almost an Alexandrian one, i.e. an Alexandrian innovation, or
certainly,
additional element to the established Caria
already long Endymion myth.
was, after all, wholly under the sway of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Alex
andria was the natural goal for all ambitious Carians at this time.1 In the
wake of such mutual interest between the Alexandrians and the Carians,
himself a ktistic a
Apollonius composed poem concerning leading Carian
Caunou Ktisis .This ktistic well have its audience
city, piece might presented
with the Alexandrian slant on the Endymion myth. The Apollonian scholi
ast adds that some say that was a hunter who hunted at
Endymion night by
moonlight because the animals came out at this time to eat and that during
the day he rested in a cave, with the result that everyone thought that he
was
asleep all the time. At any rate, in early third century Alexandria, the
'sleep of (axpoTco? ?ttvo?) was (Theoc. Id. 3, 49-50).2
Endymion proverbial

1
As the Zenon papyri make abundantly clear, see C. Prajaux, Les Grecs en
Egypte,
Brus
sels 1947,12-14; P. M. Fraser, P. A. 167-68; A. Cameron, Callimachus and his Critics, Princeton
1995, 9
2
Others see the on terms was
myth allegorical saying that Endymion the first to
explore
the nature of the heavenly bodies, and to study the comings and goings of the moon, on
 APOLLONIUS OF RHODES! ENDYMION 13

The contention that the story of Selene's nocturnal visits to Endymion

specifically in the Latmian cave in Caria was an Alexandrian addition to

the established myth is supported by the argument of Nicander of Colo
phon who, according to Et. M. 153, 4, asserts that the 'Acr?XTjva op7? near
Trachis (cp. Ther. 215) were so called because when Selene slept there with

Endymion the rest of the world went moonless. In the second book of his
Nicander follows Hesiod M.-W = Sch. A. R.
Aetolica, (fr. 245 4, 57-58, pp.
Wendel = Nie. frr. G.-S. = Et. M. in that
264-265 6-7 153, 4) saying Endymi
on was the son of Aethlius, son of Zeus, and and that he received
Calyke,
from his grandfather Zeus the gift of being able to die whenever he wished.
Nicander further states that Endymion sleeps all day and hunts at night in
the light of the moon G.-S. = Sch. Theoc.
(fr. 147 3, 52, pp. 131-133Wendel).
Nicander recounts the story of Selene and Endymion in the second book
of his Europia (fr. 24 G.-S. = Sch. A. R 4, 57-58, pp. 264-265 Wendel). Signifi
cantly, Nicander's locating the love affair between Selene and Endymion in
the district of Trachis suggests that the romance of Selene and Endymion
was an integral part of the original Endymion myth which had its setting
in the P?loponn?se, and that, specifically, the topographical depiction of
Selene's nocturnal visits to Endymion in the Latmian cave in Caria com
an Alexandrian innovation.
prised
The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius narrates a much
bigger fabula
than the one told in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the overriding factor being
the method of creative selectivity employed by the poet compared with a
simple pleasure of narration which dominates the Homeric poems.* The
verses concerning are no different. Not surprisingly, Apollonius
Endymion
elected to disregard that part of the myth which involves an act of violence
erotique perpetrated against the goddess Hera. For Apollonius, Hera is the

goddess who loves and protects Jason throughout his voyage, and the story
of Endymion's attack on her would have been quite inappropriate to Apol
lonius' context. Nor would it have been of any great interest to Alexan
drians that Hera was once molested man of the
by a P?loponn?se, be he
a peasant of Sparta or a King of Elis. But a tale of a poor shepherd who
was
paid romantic visits by the moon, Selene, in a cave near Heraclea-by
Latmus in Caria, an area which was a possession of Ptolemy Philadelphus,

account of which he did not sleep at night but rested during the day. Sch. Theoc. 3, 49-5ia
and c, pp. 131-133Wendel. Cp. also A. S. F. Gow, Theocritus 11,Cambridge 1950, 74 n. 49; Me
= A Selection, Cambridge
leager (A. R 5,165 51, 6 Clack); and R. L. Hunter, Theocritus: 1999,
127 nn. 49-5oa, for an interesting discussion on the
sleep/death ambiguity: aTpo7ro<; uttvo?.
1
See my Creative Selectivity in Apollonius7 Argonautica, Amsterdam 1993, passim; also M.
-
Fusillo, as "Inventor" of the Interior Monologue', in T. D. Papanghelis A.
Apollonius
A Companion to Rhodius, Leiden 2001, 140 f.
Rengakos, Apollonius
 14 STEVEN JACKSON

was both more appropriate and more significant. In this part of the story,
1
was a passive lover, almost effeminate, a semivir in a romantic
Endymion
a scenario which therefore contrasted with the aggression
setting, sharply
and violence erotique of the earlier episode. And, the active lover here, Se
a female
lene, was, like Medea, taking the initiative in love.
An established part of Apollonius' method of creative was
selectivity
his habit of playing a literary game with his sophisticated audience to test
their knowledge of any sources, or any elements of sources, that he may
have rejected for his presentation. To achieve this he would set deliberate
clues for them. In the case of Arg. 4, 59, uses the abusive
literary Apollonius
kuon as a literary pointer to his rejection of an early episode in the End
ymion tale involving Hera, which he deemed inappropriate, while at the
same time his remembrance of an in Homer
indicating episode involving
Hera Parthenios, which was relevant to his context.
The abusive kuon appears a total of sixteen times in the Iliad and the Od
yssey , in various case-forms. On five of these occasions it appears in the
vocative singular.2 Although the vocative form appears in the middle of the
verse on each of these five occasions, M. has suggested that the
Campbell3
verse which echoes at Arg. 4, 59 is Od. 18, 338:
Apollonius

Y]x?yoi TY?XefJi?^o) ?p?co, x?ov, oi' ?yope?eic.

While this suggestion is perfectly

feasible in purely philological terms, and
while draws on the almost compar
Campbell's reading rightly mandatory
ison of Apollonius' Argonautica with Homeric epic, it does not preclude
Apollonius' additionally intending for his audience a second echo, or re
membrance, of a much more recent, indeed contemporary, source which
was more apposite to the context of his poem than the Homeric one.
This second source, a verse of Callimachus of Cyrene, not only contains
the vocative form of the abusive kuon in the middle of the verse but also,
quite significantly, starts with Hera. Callimachus, fr. 75, 4 Pf, reads:
-
xot? x?ov, x?ov,
"HpYjv yap <ponai ?a^eo, XoaSp?.4

1
K. J. Gutzwiller, Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic in Context, California 1998, 139 n.
Epigrams
50.
2
These are: II. 8, 423 (Iris to Athena); 11, 362 (Diomedes to Hector); 21, 481 (Hera to Ar
temis); and Od. 18, 338 (Odysseus to Melantho); 19, 91 (Penelope to Melantho). The other
eleven occasions are: II. 6, 344, 356; 8, 299, 423, 527; 13, 623; 19, 154, 372; 21, 481; and Od. 17,

248; 22, 35. Livrea, op. cit., ad loc, gives five two of which, alas, are not used in
examples,
an abusive sense: II. 17,153 and 22, 345, where the reference is to scavengers, as in and
dogs
birds of prey
3
Cp. M. Campbell, Echoes and Imitations
of Early Epic in Apollonius Rhodius, Leiden 1981,
4
66, ad 4, 59. Cp. Livrea, op. cit. p. 29.
 APOLLONIUS OF RHODES! ENDYMION 15

In this verse from his poem on the Acontius and Cydippe romance, Cal
limachus rebukes himself for almost saying the unspeakable about Hera.
For Cydippe's on Naxos practise a strange marriage custom. A girl
people
must a at her side before she
spend the night with boy marries, and the
boy must have both his parents living. This aetion is explained by the fact
that Hera once upon a time... and here Callimachus calls himself a
dog
(cur) for almost what it is not appropriate to divulge about Hera.
revealing
But by the time Callimachus breaks off we already know, of course, what
he is thinking. At Iliad 14, 295-296, there is a recollection of how Zeus and
Hera on the island of Crete, before they were married, had made love for
the first time, concealing their act from their parents:

0I0V OT? TCptOTOV 7T?p

?fJH(TY?(T&Y]V ClX?TYJTl,
el? ?UVY]V 901T(OVT?, 9?X0U? Xy)#OVT? TOXYjOCC.

The Naxians their pre-nuptial rite with the conduct on

clearly equated
Crete of the greatest of the immortals when she was still Hera Parthenios
(sch. T 7?. 14, 296). The fact that the Naxian parents not only knew what
was happening but actually made sure that it did happen was not allowed
to ruin a good aetion. Nor was the idea that the young couple were not the
future bride and bridegroom permitted to interfere with a good myth. It
could be argued, too, that they were not brother and sister like Zeus and
Hera, and that they did not have actual intercourse. All of these inconsist
encies between myth and custom Callimachus ignores under the guise of
Nem. even us all about
piety (cp. Pind. 01. 9, 35-40; 5,14-18), though he tells
it elsewhere Pf. = fr. where he
(fr. 48 36 Massimilla), emphasises just how
long Zeus and Hera pursued their passion without the knowledge of their
parents, namely three hundred years!1 Clearly, Callimachus wished, in this
instance, to register rather than recount the aetion.2
intention was similar. He wished to draw his audience's at
Apollonius' '
tention specifically to Hera Parthenios concealing her passion from her par
ents. This emphasis is all the more piquant in Apollonius, of course, since
a
it isHera herself who inspires Medea Parthenios with nightime flight and
with a for of what she was
disregard parental knowledge doing. Herein,
too, lies the irony. The moon, Selene, who, like Hera, is romantically linked
to Endymion in myth, fails to recognise what the audience sees in
Apol
lonius' verse. For, in her annoyance at Medea for past disruptions to her
own amorous visits to Endymion,3 Selene assumes only that an amorous

1
Aitia Giambi e altri n, Milano 1996, 437, fr. 48,
Cp. G. B. D'Alessio, Callimaco. frammenti
n. 41.
2
Cp. Cameron, op. cit. 18-22; F. Nisetich, The Poems of Callimachus, Oxford 2001, 278 nn.
41-47.
3
So often in the past, Selene had been 'called down by Medea and thus prevented from
 16 STEVEN JACKSON

adventure is Medea's intent, while in fact Medea's real purpose in setting

out at night is to conceal her actions from her parents and to avoid what
would be certain parental punishment if she were discovered.*
In addition to the philological and contextual affinity of the Callimachean
and Apollonian verses, there is also a strong historical link between firstly
the Cean romance of Acontius and Cydippe, Selene's romantic
secondly
visitsto Endymion in his cave at Heraclea-by-Latmus in Caria, and thirdly
the dynasty of the Ptolemies in Egypt. Carians were early immigrants to
Ceos from the coast of Asia Minor ca 900 BC. Callimachus himself refers
to this immigration at fr. 75, 60-64 Pf.2 And, both Acontius' home island
of Ceos in the Cyclades and all of Caria on the coast of Asia Minor were,
in Callimachus' and Apollonius' time, possessions and dependencies of
Ptolemy Philadelphus.3 These historical links between the two tales finely
complement the philological and contextual affinity of the Callimachean
and Apollonian verses.
Still in connection with Iliad 14, 295-296 and the union on Crete of Zeus
and Hera Parthenios, it is almost certain that Callimachus fr. 75, 4 Pf. is in
turn an echo of a verse attributed to Sotades of Maronea, who allegedly
had Ptolemy Philadelphus and Arsinoe II inmind when he penned the fol

lowing verse, the first half of which ismirrored verse

by Callimachus' (CA
Sotad, fr. inc. 16, p. 243 Powell):
ttots Ala tov
"Hp7)v 9aaiv Tepmx?pauvov.4

Sotades, it will be
remembered, had somewhat coarsely castigated Phila
delphus and Arsinoe for doing the unspeakable through their incestuous
= Plut. De
relationship (CA Sotad, fr. 1, p. 238 Powell puer. educ. 11a):

visiting her beloved device of or the moon out of the

Endymion. Magical calling drawing
to earth (for references in ancient literature, see W Roscher, Selene und Verwandtes,
sky
Leipzig 1890, passim, and A. M. Tupet, La Magie dans la po?sie latine, Paris 1976, 92-103).
Medea darkness for her own rituals, and so affected with her machinations, in
required
terms, a lunar (see Livrea, op. cit. 27-28).
mythological eclipse
1
Vian notes this in passing but does not pursue the point (op. cit. 149 n. 65).
2 = FGrHist
Callimachus (Aet. 3, fr. 75, 53 ff. Pf. 442 T 2 and F 1) openly declares that he
the story from the local historian Xenomedes of Ceos ca. 450). But there were
gleaned ifl
many other sources (Vian, op. cit. nn. ad loc. pp. 271-273) which no doubt would have been
collated and in the Callimachean
circulated circle by pupils such as Istrus and
Philostepha
nus (see my Istrus
the Callimachean, Amsterdam 2000, passim).
3
See P. M. Fraser, P. A. 1 309 and 11464 n. 20; Call. H. 4,162; Theoc. Id. 17, 89-90. For the
use of Ceos as a base for the Ptolemaic fleet in the Chremonidean war see L. Robert, Hel
lenica xi/xn, Paris i960, 146-160. See, also, R. S. Bagnall, The Administration the Ptolemaic
of
Possessions outside Egypt, Leiden 1976,141-145; and Cameron, op. cit. 257-258.
4
Cp. D'Alessio, op. cit. 480, fr. 75, n. 65. For Hera as
goddess of weddings and funerals,
see W Burkert, GR, Cambridge Ma. 1985,133.
 APOLLONIUS OF RHODES! ENDYMION V

el? oac?jv to cottel?.

o?x xpufJiaXt/yjv x?vxpov

It seems reasonable to assume now, after R. Pretagostini and A. Cameron,1

that fr. 16 and Sotades' most infamous verse fr. 1 are constituent parts of
one and the same poem, and that Sotades began this poem with fr. 16 and
it with 1which,
fr. as
finished quoted by Athenaeus (621a), ended with
the form co&el, where Zeus was the original subject. Sotades' castigation
of the incest
of Philadelphus and Arsinoe was, therefore, by implication
and Arsinoe, however, construed their marriage as a dis
only. Philadelphus
tinctly holy state through its imitation of the union of Zeus and Hera. In
other words, they extenuated their behaviour by the exemplum of Zeus
and Hera.2

Like the Naxians in Callimachus,

Philadelphus and Arsinoe clearly equat
ed their own marital custom withthe conduct of the greatest of the im
in a and in so it
mortals, albeit different aspect, doing they made respectable
and acceptable. Medea's behaviour in Apollonius, too, namely her pursuit
of love without or permission, can similarly be equat
parental knowledge
ed with the conduct of Zeus and Hera on Crete and thus also deemed re

spectable and acceptable, especially when this selfsame behaviour is being

Hera herself. The link, then, between our text,
encouraged by Apollonius
the Callimachus fragment, and the Sotades fragments, is the exemplum of
Zeus and Hera at Iliad 14, 295-296, a Homeric verse which in Apollonius'
Alexandria had not only become synonymous with clandestine affairs (cp.
Theocritus, Id. 15, 64) but was also used the as
commonly by protagonist
an extenuation of his/her circumstances. Apollonius' plan was to draw his
audience's attention firstly to how Hera Parthenios had concealed her pas
sion on Crete from her parents, to the irony of Hera herself en
secondly
couraging Medea Parthenios to do the same in Colchis, and thirdly to the
irony of Medea's nocturnal flight to achieve this end being misinterpreted
as an amorous adventure by the moon, Selene,3 who, like Hera, was ro

mantically linked to Endymion in myth.

1
R. Pretagostini, Ricerche sulla poesia alessandrina, Roma 1984, 139-147; A. Cameron, op.
cit. 18-22.
2
is endorsed in his panegyric on
This interpretation by Theocritus Philadelphus (Id. 17,
128-134; cp. Gow, ad loc, and Cameron, op. cit. 19), and Callimachus at least acknowledges
it (SH 254, 2). Apollonius also reflects it in his brother-sister analogue of King Alcinous and

Queen Arete in the fourth book (990 ff.) of the Argonautica.

3 com
D. Nelis, and the Argonautica Leeds 2001,170,
Vergil's Aeneid of Apollonius Rhodius,
ments that the shining of the full moon is significant here in that it suggests that Medea's
will result inmarriage with Jason. On these nuptial associations of the full moon
departure
see also J. M. Bremer, 'Full Moon and Marriage in Apollonius' Argonautica, Class. Quart.
37,1987, 423-426.
 18 STEVEN JACKSON

Of course, Caria, a region ruled by the incestuous Ptolemies, where Se

lene visited her beloved in his cave near
Endymion Heraclea-by-Latmus,
was in myth with another tale of incestuous In
closely connected desire.
dubitably, Apollonius recounted this particular fable, i.e. the love of Byblis
for her twin brother Caunus, in his ktistic
poem Caunou Ktisis. He could
hardly have done otherewise. I have
discussed elsewhere1 the close con
nection, and the all but certain parallels, between the suicide of Cleite as
described by Apollonius in his Argonautica (1, 1063-1069) and that of Byblis
as must have described it in his Caunou Ktisis. Both girls
Apollonius, surely,
hung themselves because they could not have in their lives the man whom
In case this was her husband
they wanted. Cleite's Cyzicus who had been
killed by the Argonauts. In the case of of the eponymous
Byblis, daughter
Miletus, itwas her twin brother Caunus who had rejected her incestuous
advances. As with Hera, Selene, and Medea, Byblis had taken the initia
tive in love.
verses of Caunou Ktisis are extant (CA A. R. 5, 3, p.
Only five Apollonius'
5 Powell), but Ovid's version of the Byblis/Caunus story (Met. 9, 454-665)
seems to have had much in common with Apollonius' ktistic poem, whose
local Milesian source was Aristocritus' Peri Miletou (FGrH 493 FF 1 and 3).
Moreover, for his depiction of Byblis herself, Ovid owes as much to Apol
lonius' portrayal in the Argonautica of both Cleite and Medea as he does, no
to that his Byblis in the Caunou Ktisis. In Ovid,
doubt, of Byblis and Cau
nus are the twin children of Miletus, as we may were
safely assume they
in Apollonius too, especially when one considers the latter's local Milesian
source. In Ovid,too, it is Byblis who falls in love with her brother and takes
the initiative. Her initial hesitations to declare her love are, without doubt,
transferred by Ovid (Met. 9,474 and 522-527) from Medea's vacillations in the
Argonautica (3, 636 and 645-655).2 We cannot tell, of course, whether or not
Apollonius' Caunou Ktisis preceded the extant version of his Argonautica, but
we can rest assured that the vacillations and concerns which Medea expe
rienced in the Argonautica must have been similarly suffered and presented
by Byblis in the Caunou Ktisis. Significantly, Ovid has Byblis using the Hera/
Zeus relationship as an extenuation of her own circumstances. Ovid does
not, however, mention Endymion.3 But this is not enough to say that
Apol
lonius did not include Endymion in his poem. For Endymion, at least for
the Alexandrians, was a Carian hunter, just like the eponymous Caunus.

1
See my Apollonius of Rhodes: The Cleite and Byblis Suicides', Studi it.filol. class. 15/1,
1997, 54.
2
Cp. R. L. Hunter, Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica m, Cambridge 1989,10.
3
Ovid goes on to say that, following her rejection by Caunus, who then fled the coun

try to escape her still persistent advances, Byblis became mad with grief and roamed the

countryside of Caria and of the in eastern Caria the

Leleges, reaching Limyra opposite
 APOLLONIUS OF RHODES.' ENDYMION 19

Interestingly, the lover's use of the exemplum of Zeus and Hera at Iliad
14, 295-296 as an extenuation of his/her circumstances does appear along
side the Selene/Endymion story in Nonnus' account of the Byblis/Caunus
tale (Dionysiaca 13, 546-561). InNonnus, it is Caunus who desires Byblis, and
not the other way round. This reversal of roles Caunus'
notwithstanding,
presentation of his suit comes in the form of a song of seduction which
recounts the story of Hera and Zeus and of the Latmian cowshed, or cave,
of Endymion and his love-smitten Selene. The seductive tones of Caunus'
serenade act as a strongly expressed extenuation of his desires. Nonnus is
an Alexandrian source here (most of
clearly following likely Apollonius
Rhodes' Caunou Ktisis) which, in its adaptation of early versions of the
Endymion myth, had specifically transferred the topographical depiction
of Selene's nocturnal visits to Endymion from the district of Trachis in the

P?loponn?se to the Latmian cave in Caria.

as an obscure
Scholars have argued over what they see in Nonnus con
nection (made all the more so because of the mutilated text) between the
story of Zeus and Hera and that of Endymion and Selene. J. L. Lightfoot
presents us with a full list of the arguments, sources, and versions of this
but too, reaches no firm conclusion. However, we should
myth;1 Lightfoot,
note that traditionally the father of Caunus and Byblis was the eponymous
hero Miletus (Aristocritus, Peri Miletou FGrHist 493 F 1 = Parthen. Narr. am.
11). This Miletus, whom Nonnus (v. 547) makes a brother of Caunus,2 was
the founding father not only of the city which bore his name but in effect
of the whole of Caria. And he originally came to Caria from the island of
Crete (Aristocritus Peri Miletou FGrHist 493 F 3 = Sch. A. R. 1, i85-i88a, pp.
23-24 Wendel), where Hera Parthenios and Zeus had made love for the first
time, concealing their love from their parents just like Caunus and Byblis,
and where, let us recall, the Endymion myth, along with its romantic links
to both Hera and Selene, was a tale familiar to the Cretan Epimenides3 who

Chelidonian Islands, before, committing suicide. The Chelidonian Islands are also
finally,
mentioned in the five extant verses of his poem (CA A. R. 5, 3, p. 5 Powell),
by Apollonius
which describe in allegorical terms the extent of the Ptolemaic sway in this area.
1
Parthenius Oxford see esp. n. 146
J. L. Lightfoot, of Nicaea, 1999, 433-436; (pp. 433-434)
for a comprehensive list of the sources.
2
to Nonnus, Miletus and Caunus were the sons of Asterius. But scholars
According
that this was an attempt at a reconciliation of traditions of the na
agree simply peaceful
tive Asterius (Pausanias 7, 2,5) and the incoming Miletus; cp. Lightfoot, ibidem. At any rate,
Nonnus' Miletus a brother of Caunus, and not his father, does not in any way viti
making
ate the current argument.
3
Seemingly in its entirety; Epimenides claimed descent from Selene herself (Aelian,HA
12, 7) and had slept (Endymion style)
in a Cretan cave for forty years (Paus. 1,14, 4) or even

fifty-seven years (Diog. Laert. 1,109). Cp. G. L. Huxley, Greek Epic Poetry, London 1969, 82
83.
 20 STEVEN JACKSON

= Sch. A. R.
duly gave his own account of it (3 B 14D.-K. 4,57-58, pp. 264-265
Wendel). Nonnus (through the words of Caunus' serenade) describes the
immortal pair's passion as being entirely mutual: ?(jlo^tqXwv
stzi Xexxpwv (v.
552). Yet, later, as we know from the earliest sources, Zeus' own grandson
Endymion, whom Zeus himself had carried up to heaven, tried to force
himself upon Zeus' consort Hera. was cast out of
Endymion subsequently
heaven by Zeus whogave him to Selene. Now (and here we see Nonnus fol
source - se. v.
lowing his Alexandrian Aoctjjuov... ?oauXov, 554) Selene visits
Endymion at Heraclea-by-Latmus in Caria where, like the Carian founder
Miletus' son (brother in Nonnus) he
Caunus, spends his days hunting.
Furthermore, in his serenade, Caunus actually describes the lovemaking
of Zeus and Hera as a mutually passionate affair like his own (v. 552):
aVTlTUTTOU ?7rl X?xTpWV.
CpiXOTYjTO? O^o?iqXwV

This of course, that the passionate feelings between

suggests, Byblis and
Caunus were mutual, rather than unrequited, and that so too were those
between Zeus and Hera and Endymion and Selene respectively. This goes
a
long way to explain the conflict in different authors' accounts as to who
was the initiator of the affair, some authors for Byb
apparently plumping
lis, others for Caunus.
his act of violence erotique against Hera, Endymion
In perpetrating emu
lated Ixion, a legendary king of Thessaly. Both of these men were primal
offenders against divine order and each tried to rape Hera soon after Zeus
had taken them up to heaven. Each man, too, it seems, was deceived by
Zeus into making love to a phantom of Hera in the shape of a cloud. Ixion,
for his punishment, was crucified on a
fiery wheel which revolves through
out eternity, the wheel no doubt *
sun. Thus Ixion, like
being the Sisyphus,
Atlas and Prometheus,2 became part of the operating mechanism of Zeus'
universe. It is tempting to believe, and certainly feasible, that Endymion's
task was something similar, except of course in his case itwas in relation
to the moon, and that thus he too became part of the operating mecha
nism of Zeus' universe.3
In presenting Selene's vitriolic and especially
soliloquy against Medea,
her use of the abusive kuon, Apollonius stirred in his audience's imagina
tion a number of mythical and literary recollections which from the
ranged

1 = FGrHist
See Pindar, and Sch. 2, 4oa-45a, 11 3 F 51a; also Sch.
Pyth. 2, 21-48 pp. 38-40 Dr.
A. R. =
3, 62, pp. 218-219 Wendel FGrHist 3 F 51b.
2
Sisyphus heaves the sun disc up to the zenith to see it roll back down (Od.
only again
11? 593-600), Atlas the weight of the sky at its western limits
supports (Hesiod, Theog. 517
520; Od. 1, 52-54; Aesch. PV348-350; Herodot. 4,184, 3; Virg. Aen. 4, 246-251), and Prometh
eus does a similar
job at its eastern (Hesiod, Theog. 506-616; Aesch. PV 442-525).
3
See above p. 11 n. 2.
 APOLLONIUS OF RHODES! ENDYMION 21

scene on Crete where Zeus and Hera made love for the first time, conceal
their act from their parents, to the earliest versions of the Endymion
ing
which were set in the P?loponn?se and romantically linked Hera
legend
to Endymion, and on through to the Alexandrians' adaptation of the End
of it to the Latmian cave in Ptolemaic
ymion story and their relocation
Caria. Selene, like Hera, was romantically linked to Endymion in myth,
and Apollonius' plan
was to draw his audience's attention firstly to how
Hera Parthenios had concealed her passion on Crete from her parents, sec
to the irony of Hera herself Medea Parthenios to do
ondly encouraging
the same in Colchis, and thirdly to the irony of Medea's nocturnal flight
to achieve this end being misinterpreted as an amorous adventure by the
moon, Selene, angry at Medea for past disruptions to her own amorous
visits to
Endymion.
Selene's reference to 'some bloody-minded deity having given Medea Ja
son to her grievous hurt' (w. 63-64) no doubt echoes her own sentiments
on Zeus None of these echoes and allusions
having given her Endymion.
would have been lost on Apollonius' audience.

Trinity College
Dublin