Report on the Investigations at Assos, 1882, 1883 (Volume 1) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898. Excerpt: ... represents Herakles in combat with the centaurs who had fallen upon him in the cave of Pholos,1 presently to be referred to. There can hence be no doubt in regard to the action in which these four centaurs take part: they are fleeing from the arrows of the hero.2 Their precipitous haste is well expressed by the arms flung into the air, and by the position of the heads; the foremost three of which are stretched forwards in headlong flight, while the last is turned 1 Some account of this myth was given in the First Report, p. 107; but the passages of the ancient authors referring to it were not there cited. Those known to the present writer are as follows. The story of Herakles and Pholos is not mentioned in the Iliad or Odyssey, though evidently referred to in the pseudo-Homeric Kdfiivos f) Ktpafiis, 18. There is, however, reason to suppose that it was included in the narratives of the epic poets and chroniclers of the seventh and sixth centuries before Christ, --notably in those of Peisandros of Kameiros, Panyasis, and Herodoros the Pontian. Quintus of Smyrna (Poslhom., VI. 273, and VII. 107), imitating the manner of Homer, towards the close of the fourth century of our era, is without doubt following an ancient epic prototype when he describes the labors of Herakles wrought in relief upon the shield of Eurypylos, and among them the combat of the hero with the centaurs of Mount Pholoe, "when wine and the spirit of strife stirred up these monsters to fight against him in the house of Pholos." A passage of Stesichoros, preserved by Athenaios, XI. 499 B, is the most ancient reference which has been handed down to us. It will be quoted in a subsequent passage of the text. Among the Attic tragedians this exploit of Herakles is referred to by Sophokles (Trachin....