The city of
Phrygia.
"When the affair of the Argonauts was over, the Red (Erythraean) Sibyl[1] gave an oracle to the Greeks: [...].[2] In the territory of the Phrygians Tros, the father of Ilus and Ganymede, was king after founding
Troy in his own name and Ilium in his son's name. After filling all the cities he won over the local rulers from Tantalus, the King of Thrace. And after some time he sent his son Ganymede, strongly loved by him, with 50 men, to take sacrifices and gifts to European Zeus for thanksgiving. So Tantalus, thinking that he was sent to spy on his kingdom, overpowered him before he reached the shrine. And after learning the real reason he nursed him. But he (Ganymede) after a short while was overcome by disease and died. Tantalus in grief placed him in a coffin, and sent men to tell his father of his death. The poets wrote that Ganymede was kidnapped by Zeus, turning the bitterness of his death into myth."
*)/ilion: h( th=s *frugi/as po/lis. o(/te ta\ kata\ tou\s *)argonau/tas e)pra/xqh, thnikau=ta par' *(/ellhsin e)xrhma/tize kai\ *)eruqra\ *si/bulla: kata\ de\ th\n *frugw=n xw/ran *trw/s, o( path\r *)/ilou kai\ *gannumh/dous, e)basi/leuse kti/sas th\n me\n *troi/an ei)s i)/dion o)/noma, to\ de\ *)/ilion ei)s o)/noma tou= ui(ou= au)tou=. kai\ plhrw/sas ta\s po/leis pa/ntas tou\s topa/rxas e)n toi=s e)gkaini/ois proetre/yato di/xa *tanta/lou tou= basile/ws th=s *qra/|khs. kai\ meta/ tina xro/non a)pe/steile to\n ui(o\n au)tou= *gannumh/dhn to\n a)gapw/menon u(p' au)tou= sfo/dra qusi/an a)pa/gein kai\ dw=ra tw=| *eu)rwpai/w| *dii\+ u(pe\r eu)xaristi/as, dedwkw\s au)tw=| a)/ndras penth/konta. nomi/sas ou)=n o( *ta/ntalos o(/ti kata/skopos e)pe/mfqh th=s au)tou= basilei/as, e)kra/thsen au)to\n pri\n h)\ katalabei=n to\ i(ero/n. kai\ maqw\n th\n ai)ti/an e)qera/peusen. o( de\ mikro\n diatri/yas kai\ no/sw| piesqei\s e)teleu/ta. luphqei\s de\ o( *ta/ntalos au)to\n me\n e)/qhken e)n sorw=|, tou\s de\ su\n au)tw=| a)pe/steilen a)paggelou=ntas tw=| patri\ to\n e)kei/nou qa/naton. oi( de\ poihtai\ a(rpagh=nai to\n *gannumh/dhn u(po\ tou= *dio\s e)/grayan, to\ o)cu\ tou= qana/tou muqologh/santes.
This bipartite entry confounds the city of
Ilion -- built on a spur of Mt. Ida overlooking a fertile horse-breeding plain (called the Troad), whose great walls protected the citadel Pergama and the palace of the kings -- with the name of that kingdom,
Troy (?Hittite Taruisa). The rulers of
Troy were not, to the best of our knowledge, Phrygian.
Homer portrays King Priam of
Troy as married to a Phrygian, Queen Hecuba (see
epsilon 337), apparently coming with her brother Asios from a Phrygian kingdom of Dymas (
delta 1569) in Europe. The Phrygians did, however, move into Anatolia and may have ruled
Troy VIIB before settling near present-day Ankara (see
mu 1036 'Midas' and bibliography). The ethnic character of the Trojans is, however, unknown. Ilus and Ganymede (to give him his usual spelling; cf.
theta 41,
mu 1092) do figure in the genealogy of Trojan kings. Tantalus, in mythology the "Phrygian" ancestor of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus, is more often located on Mt. Sipylus in Anatolia than in Thrace; he was punished for an attempt to reach Hera (Juno) by being condemned in Hades to thirst and hunger forever as food and water moved "tantalizingly" out of his reach (
tau 77,
tau 78).
This story of Ganymede is taken from that of Joannes Malalas (
Chron. 79ff.) or a common source. Ganymede, in this myth, was kidnapped by Zeus (in exchange for the first of the famous Trojan breed of horses) to be his wine steward or, in later sources, his 'catamite' (see OCD(4) s.v. and
theta 41,
mu 1092).
[1] For this Sibyl, apparently the original one, see
sigma 355,
sigma 361 (cf.
eta 541,
chi 484). She was located in a place in the Troad called Erythrae, which may have owed its name to its red clay (
e)ruqro/s 'red, vermilion'), hence the use here of "red" instead of "Erythraean".
[2] There is probably a missing line here, as the phrase following was probably linked as the sense "against the land of the Phrygians" and repeated later in the sense "in the territory of the Phrygians". The prophecy was that the Greeks would return to fight against
Troy and conquer it, but suffer great loss at the same time.
No. of records found: 1
Page 1
