Early Modern Mythological Texts: Troia Britanica II, Notes
Thomas Heywood. Troia Britanica (1609)
Notes to CANTO II
Jasius: see stanza 5 and Heywood’s endnotes to this canto, where he provides a chronological “history” of the main figures.
Epirians: inhabitants of Epirus. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, I, 227: Lycaon slew the hostage sent from Epirus.
Pelasgians: the inhabitants of Pelasge, earlier name of Arcadia: see canto III, argumentum, and stanza 27.
Callisto: F, Calisto. Back to text
Argumentum 2: F, Arg. 6. Back to text
Th’Epirian slain: the Epirian held hostage by Lycaon, killed and served during a banquet. See stanza 22.
Beta: F, Deta. “b”, the second letter of the Greek alphabet, hence canto II. Cantos I to XI of Troia Britanica are numbered with the appropriate letter of the Greek alphabet, from alpha (Canto I) to lambda (Canto XI). See note to canto I, arg. 2, “alpha”. Back to text
2: In this stanza, Heywood follows Caxton, Recuyell, I, 5. Back to text
Corinthus: father of Dardanus and Jasius, and founder of Corinth, according to Raoul Le Fèvre and Caxton. His name, however, is Corythus for Servius and Boccaccio. On Corinthus as husband of Electra and father of Dardanus, Caxton explains: “Some say that this Dardanus was son of Jupiter, but Bochace trowed he was lawful son of Corynthus, as it appeareth in the sixt book of the Genelagye of gods”. The reference is to Boccaccio, Genealogia, VI, i, referring to Dardanus, “quem veteres Jovis testantur filium ex Electra Atlantis filia et Coriti Regis conjuge susceptum, ex quo de Fastis ait Ovid.: Dardanium Electra quis nescit Atlantide natum, scilicet Electram concubuisse Jovi, etc.” (“whom the Ancients attest to have been born of Electra, Atlas’ daughter and king Coritus’ wife, of whom Ovid says in Fasti: who does not know that Dardanus was born of Atlas’ daughter Electra and that Electra lay with Jupiter”). Boccaccio slightly misquotes Fasti, IV, 31-32. The hesitation on Dardanus’ father is accounted for by Servius’ Commentary ad. Aen., VII, 207: “Jupiter cum Electra, Atlantis filia, Corythi Regis Italiae uxore, concubuit; sed ex Jovis semine natus est Dardanus, ex Corythi Jasius” (“Jupiter lay with Electra, Atlas’ daughter, the wife of the Italian king Corythus; Dardanus was born of Jupiter’s seed and Jasius of Corythus’s”). Back to text
Corinth and Naples: according to Caxton, Recuyell, I, 5, “Corinth … stant in Naples”. Back to text
Memnon: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle (Apr. 1565), year 2346, fol. 18v: “Amenophis, king of Egypt, reigned 31 years; he was surnamed Memnon, the speaking stone, because, as it is written, his image gave a voice at the sun rising”.
Alteus: F, Atleus. Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2316, fol. 18r, “Alteus, the son of Thuscus, reigned over the Italians”. Back to text
Harbon: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2316, fol. 18r, “Harbon among the Gauls”. “apud Celtas regnavit anno ante conditam urbem 897” (“he [Harbon] reigned upon the Celts 897 years before the foundation of Rome”), Charles Estienne, Dictionarium Historicum, Geographicum, Poeticum.
Hesperus: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 3214, fol. 18r, “Hesperus, the brother of Kytim, reigned upon the Spaniards”. Back to text
Argive: Greek.
Crassus: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2325, fol. 18r, “Crassus, the fifth king of Argives, reigned 54 years”. “Argivorum rex, regnavit annis LIV”, Charles Estienne, Dictionarium…. Back to text
Lugdus: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2325, fol. 18r, “Lugdus reigned in France, of whom the province and people of Lyons were named”. “Lugdus, Celtarum rex, à quo provincia et homines cognomenta sumpserunt. Berosus, lib. 5” “Lugdus, king of the Celts, after whom the province and people were named”, Estienne, Dictionarium…. Back to text
Syrus: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2339, fol. 18v: “in this time, the royaulme of Syria was so named of one Syrus, which there inhabited”.
Mancaleus: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2325, fol. 18r: “Mancaleus, the 14th emperor of Assyria, reigned 30 years, without any glory or renown”. “XIV Babyloniorum rex, regnavit annis XXX”, Estienne, Dictionarium…. Back to text
Orthopolis: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2339, fol. 18v: “Orthopolis, the 12th king of Peloponnesus, reigned 62 years”.
Peloponnesus: F, Pelloponessus. Peloponnese. Back to text
Moses: The coincidence between Moses’ birth and Electra’s crowning, which is not mentioned either in Caxton’s Recuyell, in Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, in Boccaccio’s Genealogia or in Natale Conti’s Mythologia, may have been invented by Heywood on the model of the coincidence between the destruction of Diana’s temple at Ephesus and Alexander’s birth (see stanza 69 below). The contemporaneity of Moses and Electra was given authority, however, by Giovanni Nanni’s pseudo Berosus, which mentions Electra’s wedding and Moses’ birth within the same development, Berosi sacerdotis chaldaici Antiquitatum libri quinque (Antwerp: Joannes Steelsius, 1545), fols. 83r-84v. It was commonly admitted that Dardanus’ reign took place in Moses’ time. In Richard Linche’s The Travels of Noah into Europe (London: Islip, 1601), which is based on Giovanni Nanni’s pseudo Berosus, the account of the war between Dardanus and Jasius concludes with the remark that “In the same time also, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, following Moses and the children of Israel through the red sea, with all his army perished” (sig. M4r). In his Florentine lectures on Dante’s Comedy (1373-74), Boccaccio noted that “E regno questo Dardano, secondo chè scrive Eusebio in libro temporum, a’ tempi di Moisè” (“The reign of that Dardanus, according to Eusebius in his Chronicle, was in Moses’ time”), Il Comento sopra la Commedia di Dante Alighieri (Florence: Moutier, 1831), vol. 1, p. 271, commentary on Inferno, IV, 121. Back to text
Cecrops: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2408, fol. 20r, “Cecrops, the first king of Athens, reigned 50 years. He builded Athens, and instituted matrimony among the Greeks.”
2425/1538: misplaced opposite stanza 2, in F. This edition restores the date to its proper place, opposite stanza 5. Borrowed from Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, fol. 20r: “The first cruel wars rose between Dardanus and Jasius for the kingdom of Italy; the aborigines favoured the part of Dardanus, and the Janigenes with the Sicilians the part of Jasius”. Lanquet and Cooper owed that information to Giovanni Nanni’s pseudo Berosus: “Et lis prima intestina oritur pro regno inter Dardanum et Jasium. Aborigines sequebantur partes Dardani, Janigenae vero et Siculi cum Siceleo parties Jasii” (And the first civil war for the throne rose between Dardanus and Jasius. The Aborigines took the part of Dardanus, the Janigenes and the Sicilians with Siceleus the part of Jasius”, Berosi sacerdotis chaldaici Antiquitatum libri quinque (Antwerp: Joannes Steelsius, 1545), fol. 89r). Back to text
Animated: incited to action. Back to text
hoising: hoisting.
Samos isle in Thrace: Heywood follows Caxton, Recuyell, I, 5, “descended first at the port of the cyte of Samos being in Trache”. Back to text
lines 1-2: Heywood follows Caxton’s Recuyell, I, 5, almost word for word: “fynding this land right good and fruytfull for to inhabit”.
champion: variation of “champaign” or “champain”, level, open land, field, from the French. An example of the doubling of words of French and Germanic or Saxon origin, as favoured by Caxton (although not in Caxton). Back to text
his: F, her.
2485/1478: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, fol. 21v, “Here beginneth the kingdom of the Trojans, where Dardanus first reigned 64 years”. Back to text
groundsills: foundations.
Lacedaemon: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2477, fol. 21v, “Lacedaemon, the city, was builded by Lacedaemon, the son of Semele”.
Erichthonius: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2477, fol. 21v, “the fourth king of Athens, reigned 50 years”. “4. Athenensium rex”, Charles Estienne, Dictionarium…. As Lanquet and Cooper date the foundation of Troy in 2484, it makes it roughly contemporary with the building of Lacedaemon and the beginning of Erichthonius’ reign (2477). Back to text
Danaus: Danaus, expelled out of Egypt by his brother Egyptus, became king of the Argives. See canto IV. “Aegypti frater Argivorum rex, qui Stenelo rege expulso Argos tenuit, ibique quinquaginta annos regnavit. Abe o postea Achaia dicta est Danaa et ipsi Graeci Danai”, Charles Estienne, Dictionarium…. Back to text
Hercules Dasinas: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2454, fol. 21r, “Hercules, surnamed Desinas, flourished in Phenicia.” Back to text
Egyptus: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2481, fol. 21v, “Ramses, surnamed Egyptus, drove his brother Danaus out of his royaulme”. Back to text
Erysichthon: F, Eristhones: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2481, fol. 21r, “The temple of Apollo at Delos was builded by Erisictones, son of Cecrops”. According to Eusebius, “Templum Delii constructum ab Eristone filio Cecropis” (The temple at Delos was built by Erychsithon, Cecrops’ son), Eusebii Caesariensis Episcopi Chronicon (Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 1483), fol. 30r. Back to text
convented: come together, gathered.
entreated (see also stanza 23): treat, act towards a person. Back to text
Eruton: Erutonius in Caxton, Recuyell, I, 5, who also names Candame and Troos, and mentions Erutonius’ forty-seven years of reign. Back to text
Are Trojans called: Heywood follows Caxton, Recuyell, I, 5, “Troos was the third king of Dardan and was a strong man, fierce and hardy in arms, and increased greatly his seigneurie and his crown insomuch as the Dardanians said that there was no king but Troos and named them Trojans”. Back to text
repineth: manifests discontent or dissatisfaction.
King Tantalus: Caxton, Recuyell, I, 5, “And thus was Troy enhanced more than all the royaulmes of Greece, so highly that the king Tantalus of Phrygia had great envy”. Back to text
Cybel’: F, Sybill. Cybele, Saturn’s wife. Back to text
Melliseus: F, Milleseus. See stanza 21. The war between Pelasgians and Epirians is described in Caxton’s Recuyell, I, 6.
await: watch for a chance of doing (to the Epirians the same damage). Back to text
surcease: discontinue, give up (fighting). Back to text
commends: respects, greetings. Back to text
22: Heywood follows Caxton, Recuyell, I, 6, who expands the reference in Ovid, Metamorphoses I, 226-29.
king: F, kings.
sod: boiled, stewed (past participle of “seethe”, cook by boiling or stewing). Caxton has “sodden”. Back to text
inhuman: F, inhumane, meaning inhuman.
entreated (see also stanza 13): treat, act towards a person. Back to text
vild: vile. Back to text
lease: grant.
inly: inwardly. Back to text
dressed: prepared like a dish, to be served. Back to text
Hecateus: Hecateus of Miletus, Genealogies, II. In his chapter on Lycaon in Mythologia, IX, ix, Natale Conti quotes Hecateus at length. Heywood found his reference there. See also note to III, 24. Heywood does not follow Caxton’s rationalisation of Lycaon’s metamorphosis. Back to text
rape: rapine.
resign: relinquish, give back. See also stanza 51. Back to text
devour: The syntax is ambiguous and leaves several meanings open: death spares the king but devours his subjects; death spares the king, who devours his own subjects, through his tyranny (literalised in a sense by his transformation into a wolf).
jealous of: fearing for.
garboils: tumult. Back to text
vailing: lowering.
preaseth nigher: presseth nearer. Back to text
40-42: Heywood elaborates upon Caxton. Back to text
mated: overcome, defeated.
rebated: weakened, lessened.
instated: installed, established. Back to text
47-58: Heywood elaborates upon Caxton. Back to text
resign: relinquish, give back. See also stanza 51. Back to text
vade: variation of “fade”. Back to text
imbrue: stain (with blood). Back to text
ruth: regrettable. Back to text
Callisto: F, Celisto.
59-60: Heywood elaborates upon Caxton. Back to text
tucked aloft: Heywood’s description of Diana ultimately derives from Virgil’s Aeneid, I, 318-20, 336-37, either directly, or from Spenser’s description of Radigund, Faery Queene, V, v, 2-3:
All in a Camis light of purple silke, [camis: garment]
Woven uppon with silver, subtly wrought,
And quilted uppon sattin white as milk,
Trayled with ribbands diversely distraught [distraught: in different directions]
Like as the workeman had their courses taught;
Which was short tucked for light motion
Up to her ham, but when she list, it raught [raught: reached]
Downe to her lowest heele, and thereupon
She wore for her defence a mayled habergeon. [habergeon: sleeveless jacket of mail]
And on her legs she painted buskins wore,
Basted with bends of gold on every side, [basted: stitched]
And mailes betweene, and laced close afore.
meets: reaches. Back to text
Heywood returns to Caxton, Recuyell, I, 6, where the distinction between young Jupiter (in love with Callisto) and an ancient king Jupiter, Diana’s father, is explained at length, with a reference to Boccaccio, Genealogia, II, ii, “De Jove primo” (“On the first Jupiter”).
Attic: Attica. Back to text
Plateenses, Euclia: Heywood follows Natale Conti, Mythologia, III, xviii (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 178 (misnumbered 491), “Mos fuit apud Plateenses antequam nuptias celebrarent, Dianam cognomento Eucliam placare sacrificiis, quod cum esset virgo, putaretur habere odio matrimonia, de qua consuetudine meminit Plutarchus in Aristide.” (“Among the Plateans, it was the custom, before celebrating a wedding, to placate Diana, called Euclia, with sacrifices because, as she was a virgin, she was thought to hold marriage in hatred; this habit Plutarch recalls in his life of Aristides”). The reference is to Plutarch, “Aristides”, XVIII, vi-vii. Back to text
Chersiphrone (and stanzas 65-66): From Natale Conti, Mythologia, III, xviii (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 178 (misnumbered 491)-179, “Habuit celeberrimum omnium templorum et augustissimum Ephesium, quod totius Asiae studio ducentis et viginti annis architecto Chersiphrone fuerat aedificatum, cuius erat longitudo pedum quadringentorum et quinque ac viginti, latitudo ducentorum et viginti, in quo fuerant centum et viginti septem columnae a totidem Regibus erectae admirabilis longitudinis ac pulchritudinis: nam ad sexaginta pedum mensuram accedebant, quarum triginta sex fuerunt incredibili artificio et magnifice coelatae, cum aptis tanto artificio columnarum epistyliis.” (“[Diana] had the most famous and majestic of her temples at Ephesus, which, with the eager assistance of all Asia, was designed by the architect Chersiphrone and built in two hundred and twenty years; it was four hundred twenty five feet long and two hundred and twenty wide; inside, there were a hundred and twenty seven columns, erected by the same number of kings, admirable in height and beauty, for they reached short of sixty feet and thirty six of them were magnificently engraved with unbelievable art, with fitting epistyles, added to the columns with just as much art”). Back to text
Heywood (like Cooper in his Thesaurus, entry on Ephesus) counts Diana’s temple at Ephesus among the Seven Wonders of the World. A detailed description is to be found in Lodowick Lloyd, “Of sumptuous and wonderful buildings”, The Pilgrimage of Princes, 1573, STC 16624, fols. 20r-21r. Back to text
64-67: Heywood draws on the description of the temple in Natale Conti’s Mythologia, III, xviii: see notes above. Conti himself may have found his sources in Pliny, Natural History, XXXVI, 21. The original account of Diana’s temple and its superiority to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is to be found in Antipater of Sidon, Greek Anthology, “Descriptive Epigrams”, IX, 58. Back to text
pyramides: sic in F. The inserted “e” provides an additional syllable for the sake of rhyme. Back to text
Jovial portrait: statue of Jupiter at Olympia. Back to text
The Carian queen: Artemisia, queen of Caria, wife of Mausolus, for whom she erected a monumental tomb. Back to text
Babel’s tower: Heywood (or his source) transforms the hanging gardens of Babylon into the tower of Babel. On the confusion between Babylon and Babel, noted by Charles Estienne in his Dictionarium… (entry on Babylon), see Janice Valls-Russell, “‘As she had some good, so had she many bad parts’: Semiramis’ Transgressive Personas”, Échanges et transformations: le Moyen Âge, la Renaissance et leurs réécritures contemporaines / Exchanges and transformations: the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Contemporary Reworkings, Anglophonia 29 (Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2011), 103-17. Back to text
Pharos: lighthouse of Alexandria. Back to text
fabric: an edifice, a building.
workmanship: F, wormanship. Back to text
columns: F, collumbs. Back to text
Herostratus: Natale Conti, Mythologia, III, xviii (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 179, “quae omnia ab Herostrato viro Ephesio incensa fuerunt, ut hac ratione, cum ingenii praestantia non posset, sibi perpetuitatem nominis compararet” (“All of which was burnt by Herostratus, an Ephesian, to perpetuate his name, which he could not do by the distinction of his intellect”). Back to text
glad: bright, shining.
thew: A good quality or habit; a virtue; courteous or gracious action.
fired: destroy by fire. Back to text
The stanza follows Natale Conti, Mythologia, III, xviii (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 179, “Ne potiretur autem Herostratus re per tantum scelus optata, sanxerunt Ephesii propositis gravissimis suppliciis ne quis in posterum Herostratum nominaret” (“But so that Herostratus could not get his wish by such a crime, the Ephesians made a law specifying rigorous punishments to avoid any one mentioning Herostratus in the future”). Back to text
Heywood follows Natale Conti, Mythologia, III, xviii (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 179, “Illud autem incendium accidit circiter Idus Sextilis, quo die natus est Alexander Macedo cognomento Magnus, ut ait Plutarchus in ejus vita” (“That fire took place around the Ides of August, the same day when Alexander of Macedonia called the Great was born, as Plutarch says in his “Life”). See Plutarch, Lives, “Alexander”, III, iii. Back to text
Macedon: Macedonia.
Alexander: Alexander the Great, son of Philip of Macedonia. Back to text
where: F, wheres.
mean time: meanwhile. Back to text
inters: buries.
Epire: Epirus. In Ovid, Metamorphoses, I, 226, Lycaon slew the hostage sent from Epirus. Back to text
traces: treads. Back to text
brisked up: smartened up. Back to text
weed: garment.
chare-works: housework.
sempstry: sewing (sempstress: seamstress). Back to text
earn: tremble. This seems to be the most adequate meaning, although rare: the OED gives one instance of this, from Cotgrave’s Dictionary of the French and English Tongues (1611), “Frissonner. to tremble, quake, shrug, shiver, didder, shudder, earne, through cold, or fear”. Back to text
At’lanta: F, Atlaula, also in stanzas 81, 82. Atalanta was the first to strike the Calydonian boar; struck by her beauty, Meleager, who finally killed the boar, shared the victory with her (Ovid, Metamorphoses VIII, 298-444). This Atalanta is not be confused with the one who challenged all her suitors to a race until finally vanquished by Hippomene (Ovid, Metamorphoses X, 560-704) See also Heywood’s endnotes to this canto. Back to text
strook: struck.
Achaia: F, Achaya. The northern region of the Peloponnese, Greece, also generically used by Ovid to describe Greece, as opposed, for instance, to Troy (Metamorphoses, XIII, 325). See also canto I, endnotes. Back to text
invades: intrudes upon.
soly: solely. Back to text
The whole scene of Diana surrounded by other beauties is an elaboration by Heywood, not to be found in Caxton. See also Heywood’s endnotes to this canto.
galaxia: galaxy. This refers to the transformation of Ariadne’s crown by Bacchus into a constellation, Ovid, Metamorphoses, VIII, 177-82. Back to text
card: prepare wool for spinning. Back to text
thirsty: topos of the lover as Tantalus.
want: See Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, 465, “inopem me copia fecit”. Back to text
latched: fastened with a latch (a loop or thong). Back to text
shrink (behind): to fall back.
singled: stayed alone with him; also used in hunting: to separate from the herd, chase separately. Back to text
flags: a kind of coarse grass, type of plant mostly growing in a damp place (iris). Back to text
strook: struck. Back to text
settled: flattened.
shrewd: depraved, wicked, evil. Back to text
[Heywood’s endnotes to canto II]
2408: At this date, Lanquet and Cooper write, fol. 20r, “Jasius reigned in Italy and Siceleus in Spain. At whose marriage the Egyptian Io was present”. A few lines below, for the year 2414, Lanquet and Cooper write that “Moses in age 40 years fled for fear of Pharaoh, when he had slain an Egyptian”. Back to text
Janigenes: From Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, fol. 20r: “The first cruel wars arose between Dardanus and Jasius for the kingdom of Italy, the Aborigines favoured the part of Dardanus and the Janigenes with the Sicilians, the part of Jasius”, year 2425 of the world. Back to text
Sabatius Saga: F, Sabatus Saga. See Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, fol. 11v (year of the world 1958): “Sabatius Saga sailed out of Pontus into Italy to his father Janus, who gently receiving him, after few years made him governor over the Aborigines”. Lanquet and Cooper’s source is Giovanni Nanni’s pseudo Berosus, Berosi sacerdotis chaldaici Antiquitatum libri quinque (Antwerp: Joannes Steelsius, 1545), fol. 48r-v. Back to text
Comerus Gallus: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year of the world 1797, fol. 7v, “Comerus Gallus, in the .33. year after the first arrival of Janus in Italy and the .1414. year before the building of Rome, brought inhabitants into the royaume called after Italy and was made the first king thereof”. See Berosi sacerdotis chaldaici Antiquitatum libri quinque (Antwerp: Joannes Steelsius, 1545), fol. 34v. Back to text
Lusus: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year of the world 2454, fol. 21r, “Lusus in Spain and Allobrox in France reigned”. Back to text
Allobrox: See preceding note.
Crothopus: “the eighth king of Argives”, according to Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year of the world 2457, fol. 21r. Back to text
Cranaus: F, Craunus. Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2458, fol. 21r, “Cranaus, the second king of Athens, reigned nine years”. See also canto I, stanza 49 and Heywood’s endnotes.
Aaron: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2455, fol. 21r, “Aaron was consecrated high priest”. Back to text
Jasius was slain: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2457, fol. 21r, “Dardanus slew his brother Jasius by deceit… Coribanthus succeeded his father Jasius”.
Dardanus: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2457, fol. 21r, after killing his brother, Dardanus “fled into Samothracia, where he lurked long” and year 2484, fol. 21v, “In the .31. year of the dukedom of Moses, Atho, prince of Meonia, gave unto Dardanus part of his land, who incontinent left all his right in Italy, and went unto his new possession, where he builded a city, which after his own name he called Dardania, that after was called Troy”. Back to text
Berosus: After mentioning the foundation of Dardania “that after was named Troy”, Lanquet and Cooper noted “Unto this place Berosus continued his history, and finished it”, fol. 21v. Back to text
Arcas: F, Archas. Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2481, fol. 21v, “Arcas, the son of Jupiter and Callisto, subduing the Pelasgians, named their country Arcadia”.
Tantalus: Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, year 2602, fol. 23r, “Tantalus ruled the Phrygians, who before were called Meones”. Back to text
Maeonia: F, Moeonia. Not in Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle. Cooper’s Thesaurus defines Maeonia as “A country of the less Asia, called after Lydia”. Heywood remembered that Ovid calls Arachne “Maeonia” (Maeonian, or Lydian), Metamorphoses, VI, 5. Back to text
Atalanta: According to Boccaccio, Genealogia Deorum, II, xxxv, Atalanta is presented as “junior … filiorum Iasii” (“the youngest of Jasius’ children”, who “in venatione prima aprum sagitta percussit” (“was the first to hit the [Calydonian] boar with an arrow”). Back to text
Lycaon: Heywood’s paragraph on Lycaon is indebted to Natale Conti’s Mythologia, IX, ix (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), pp. 649-50: “Lycaon fuit eius Pelasgi filius, qui natus est a Jove ac Niobe” … “Lycaonis mater fuisse dicitur Meliboea Oceani filia, ut putavit Hesiodus, vel, ut aliis magis placuit, Cyllene nympha, ut scripsit Apollodorus libro tertio”. … “multosque filios è variis nuptiis suscepisset … inter quos fuit Maenelaus Thesprotusque, cum Nyctimo et Caucone, Lycus, Menius, Macareus; … Maenalus, qui nomen dedit civitati Arcadiae; Melenaeus, qui Melaenas oppidum condidit, non procul a Megalopoli; Acontius, qui Acontium oppidum Arcadiae de se nominavit; Charisius, qui Charisiis, Cynethus, qui Cynethae nomen dedit, et Psophis, Phthinus, Teleboas, Aemon, Mantinus, Stymphelus, Clitor, Orchomenus, et alii”. “Lycaon was the son of Pelasgus, who was born of Jupiter and Niobe” … “Lycaon’s mother was said to have been Meliboea, Oceanus’ daughter, as Hesiodus thought, or, as others preferred, the nymph Cyllene, as Apollodorus wrote in his third book [The Library, III, viii, 1]” … “he had many sons from various marriages … among whom were Maenelaus and Thesprotus, Nyctimus, Caucon, Lycus, Menius, Macareus … Maenalus, who gave his name to a city in Arcadia; Melenaeus, who founded the city of Melaenas, not far from Megalopolis; Acontius who gave his own name to Acontius, a city in Arcadia; Charisius after whom the Charisii were named; Cynethus, after whose name Cynetha was named; and Psophis, Phthinus, Teleboas, Aemon, Mantinus, Stymphelus, Clitor, Orchomenus and others.”
Conti claims he is quoting Hecateus; in fact, his text conflates information that derives from several authors. Hecateus mentions “Maenalus, Thesprotus, cum Nyctimo et Caucone, Lycus, Teleboas, Haemon, Mantinus, Stymphelus, Orchomenus”, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, vol. 1, ed. Müller (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1841), p. 21. The same names, with the addition of Melaenus, Macareus, Acontius and Cynethus, are listed by Apollodorus in The Library, III, viii, 1. Some of the same names, but in a shorter list, are mention in Isaac and Johannes Tzetzes’ Commentary on Lycophron, 481, ed. Christian Gottfried Müller (Leipzig: Vogel, 1811), pp.635-39. Charisius is mentioned by Pausanias (VIII, iii, 4), among other sons of Lycaon: they founded cities in Arcadia. Psophis is the founder of the city that bears his name according to Stephanus Bizantinus’ De Urbibus (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, 1502), sv. Psophis. Menius appears in Domizio Calderino’s Commentary on Ovid’s Ibis, frequently published as from 1474: “Menius, Lycaonis filius conflagrante domo paterna et Lycaone patre in lupum verso cum Iovem destetaret, fulmine ictus periit” (“Menius, Lycaon’s son, was killed by a flash of lightning when his father’s house was on fire and his father Lycaon was metamorphosed into a wolf, because he antagonized Jupiter”), Domizio Calderino on Ovid’s Ibis 472, Ovidius in Ibin (Venice: Giovanni Tacuino, 1505, fol. 134r. Back to text
Maenelaus: F, Moenalus. Back to text
Thesprotus: F, Thespiotus.
Nyctimus: F, Nectinnes. Back to text
Menius: F, Maenius.
Maenalus: F, Menatus. See Pausanias, “Arcadia”, VIII, iii, 4.
Melenaeus: F, Moeleneus. See Pausanias, “Arcadia”, VIII, iii, 3 and VIII, xxvi, 8. Back to text
Charisius: Pausanias, “Arcadia”, VIII, iii, 4.
Mantinus: Pausanias, “Arcadia”, VIII, iii, 4 and VIII, viii, 4.
Orchomenus: Pausanias, “Arcadia”, VIII, iii, 3. Back to text
Apollodorus: From Natale Conti’s Mythologia, IX, ix (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 649: “Nam cum Apollodorus quinquaginta fuisse inquiat, ego tamen multo plures fuisse apud varios scriptores invenio; quippe cum Callisto etiam, de qua et Jove natus est Arcas, quem tamen quidam Apollinis filium fuisse mallunt; et Dia, de qua et Apolline natus est Dryops, filiae fuisse Lycaonis memorantur”. “For though he [Lycaon] had fifty children according to Apollodorus [The Library, III, viii, 1], I find in various authors that he had many more; and indeed he also had Callisto, with whom Jupiter begot Arcas—whom some, however, prefer to think he was Apollo’s son; and also Dia, with whom Apollo begot Dryops, is remembered as Lycaon’s daughter”. Back to text
Aratus: F, Arat. In astron. Heywood’s quotation is not borrowed from Aratus’ Phaenomena directly, but from Natale Conti’s Mythologia, V, xiii, “On Bacchus” (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 392, “ita scripsit Aratus in astronomicis: Atque corona nitet, clarum inter sydera signum, / Defunctae quam Bacchus ibi dedit esse Ariadnae”. “Aratus wrote thus in his Astronomica [Phaenomena, 71]: And the crown shines, a clear sign among the stars, which Bacchus placed here in memory of dead Ariadne.” Back to text
F transcribes: Atq; corona nitet clarum inter sidera signum / Defunctae quem bachus ibi dedit esse Ariadnae”.
Minotaur: F, Mynotara. Back to text
Theopompus: Borrowed from Natale Conti’s Mythologia, VII, ix, “On Theseus” (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 485, “et ex ea Thoantem, O[e]nopionem, Staphylum, Evanthem, Latramym, Tauropolim suscepit” (“and with her, [Bacchus] engendered Thoas, Oenopion, Staphylus, Evanthes, Latramys, Tauropolis”). Conti quotes Theopompus in the following sentence, but on a different matter. Back to text
Oenopion: F, Oenopio.
Evanthes: F, Exanthes. Back to text
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How to cite
Janice Valls-Russell, ed., 2014. Troia Britanica Canto II, Notes (1609). In A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Classical Mythology: A Textual Companion, ed. Yves Peyré (2009-).
http://shakmyth.org/page/Early+Modern+Mythological+Texts%3A+Troia+Britanica+
II%2C+Notes