The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 2 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
And Promathides of Heraclea, in his Half Iambics, traces the pedigree
of Glaucus as being the son of Polybus, the son of Mercury, and of
Eubœa, the daughter of Larymnus. But Mnaseas, in the third book of
his history of the Affairs of Europe, calls him the son of Anthedon
and Alcyone; and says that he was a sailor and an excellent diver,
and that he was surnamed Pontius; and that having ravished Syme, the
daughter of Ialemus and Dotis, he sailed away to Asia, and colonised a
desert island near Caria, and called that Syme, from the name of his
wife. But Euanthes, the epic poet, in his Hymn to Glaucus, says that
he was the son of Neptune and the nymph Nais; and that he was in love
with Ariadne, in the island of Dia, and was favoured by her after she
had been left there by Theseus. But Aristotle, in his Constitution of
the Delians, says that he settled in Delos with the Nereids, and gave
oracles to all who wished for them. But Possis, the Magnesian, in the
third book of his Amazonis, says that Glaucus was the builder of the
Argo, and that he was her pilot when Jason fought the Etrurians, and
was the only person unwounded in that naval battle; and that by the
will of Jupiter he appeared in the depths of the sea, and so became a
sea deity, but was seen by Jason alone. But Nicanor the Cyrenæan, in
his Changes of Names, says that Melicerta changed his name and assumed
the name of Glaucus.
48. Alexander the Ætolian also mentions him in his poem entitled the
Fisherman, saying that he
First tasted grass,
(and then was immersed in the sea and drowned,)
The herb which in the islands of the blest,
When first the spring doth beam upon the earth,
The untill'd land shows to the genial sun.
And the sun gives it to his weary steeds,
A most refreshing food, raised in the shade.
So that they come in vigour back renew'd
Unto their daily task, and no fatigue
Or pain can stop their course.
But Æschrion the Samian, in some one of his Iambic poems, says that
Glaucus the sea-deity was in love with Hydna, the daughter of Scyllus,
the diver of Scione. And he makes particular mention of this herb,
namely, that any one who eats of it becomes immortal, saying—
And you found too th' agrostis of the gods,
The sacred plant which ancient Saturn sow'd.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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