THE ALEXANDRA
Lycophron
3rd c. BCE
trans. A. W. Mair (1921)
LYCOPHRON (flourished c. 280 BCE) was a Hellenistic tragic poet who was responsible for arranging and cataloging the comedy holdings of the Library of Alexandra. The short epic Alexandra is traditionally attributed to him, though some references to events of around 197 BCE suggest that the poem is either incorrectly attributed or includes later interpolations, the concensus view. The poem takes the form of a prophecy uttered by the seer Cassandra, as reported by a slave to King Priam, declaiming the future of the heroes of the Trojan War. From time to time, the seer relates her prophesies to events from the mythic past, including the travels of the Argonauts. In one interesting section (lines 1309ff.), Lycophron seems to suggest that Jason underwent death and resurrection in Colchis, before seizing the Fleece. Below are the lines from Alexandra referring to elements of the Argonauts' journey. The complete text is available at the Classical E-Text site.
[877] And others the shores and reefs near Taucheira mourn, cast upon the desolate dwelling-place of Atlas, grinning on the points of their wreckage: where Mopsus of Titaeron died and was buried by the mariners, who set over his tomb’s pedestal a broken blade from the ship Argo, for a possession of the dead, – where the Cinypheian stream fattens Ausigda with its waters, and where to Triton, descendant of Nereus, the Colchian woman gave as a gift the broad mixing-bowl wrought of gold, for that he showed them the navigable path whereby Tiphys should guide through the narrow reefs his ship undamaged. And the twy-formed god, son of the sea, declares that the Greeks shall obtain the sovereignty of the land when the pastoral people of Libya shall take from their fatherland and give to a Hellene the home-returning gift. And the Asbytians, fearing his vows, shall hide the treasure from sight in low depths of the earth, whereon the blasts of Boreas shall cast with his mariners the hapless leader of the men of Cyphos and the son of Tenthedron from Palauthra, king of the Amphrysians of Euryampus, and the lord of the Wolf that devoured the atonement and was stone and of the crags of Tymphrestus. Of whom some, unhappy, yearning for their fatherland of Aegoneia, others for Echinos, others for Titaros and for Iros and for Trachis and Perhaebic Gonnos and Phalanna, and the fields of the Olossonians, and Castanaia, torn on the rocks shall bewail their fate that lacks the rites of funeral.
[...]
[1011] And him, again, who won the second prize for beauty, and the boar leader from the streams of Lycormas, the mighty son of Gorge, on the one hand the Thracian blasts, falling on taut sails, shall carry to the sands of Libya; on the other hand from Libya again the blast of the South wind shall carry them to the Argyrini and the glades of Ceraunia, shepherding the sea with grievous hurricane. And there they shall see a sorry wandering life, drinking the waters of Aias which springs from Lacmon. And neighbouring Crathis and the land of the Mylaces shall receive them in their bounds to dwell at Polae, the town of the Colchians whom the angry ruler of Aea and of Corinth, the husband of Eiduia, sent to seek his daughter, tracking the keel that carried off the bride; they settled by the deep stream of Dizerus.
[...]
[1226] And the fame of the race of my ancestors shall hereafter be exalted to the highest by their descendants, who shall with their spears win the foremost crown of glory, obtaining the sceptre and monarchy of earth and sea. Nor in the darkness of oblivion, my unhappy fatherland, shalt thou hide thy glory faded. Such a pair of lion whelps shall a certain kinsman of mine leave, a breed eminent in strength: the son of Castnia called also Cheiras, – in counsel best and not to be despised in battle. He shall first come to occupy Rhaecelus beside the steep crag of Cissus and the horned women of Laphystius. And from Almopia in his wandering Tyrsenia shall receive him and Lingeus bubbling forth its stream of hot waters, and Pisa and the glades of Agylla, rich in sheep. And with him shall an erstwhile foe join a friendly army, winning him by oaths and prayers and clasped knees: even the Dwarf who in his roaming searched out every recess of sea and earth; and therewithal the two sons of the King of the Mysians, whose spear one day shall be bent by the Housekeeping God of Wine, who shall fetter his limbs with twisted tendrils; even Tarchon and Tyrsenus, tawny wolves, sprung from the blood of Heracles. There he shall find full of eatable a table which is afterwards devoured by his attendants and shall be reminded of an ancient prophecy. And he shall found in places of the Boreigonoi a settled land beyond the Latins and Daunians – even thirty towers, when he has numbered the offspring of the dark sow, which he shall carry in his ship from the hills of Ida and places of Dardanus, which shall rear such number of young at birth. And in one city he shall set up an image of that sow and her suckling young, figuring them in bronze. And he shall build a shrine to Myndia Pallenis and establish therein the images of his fathers’ gods. He shall put aside his wife and children and all his rich possessions and honour these first, together with his aged sire, wrapping them in his robes, what time the spearmen hounds, having devoured all the goods of his country together by casting of lots, to him alone shall give the choice to take and carry away what gift from his house he will. Wherefore being adjudged even by his foes to be most pious, he shall found a fatherland of highest renown in battle, a tower blest in the children of after days, by the tall glades of Circaeon and the great Aeëtes haven, famous anchorage of the Argo, and the waters of the Marsionid lake of Phorce and the Titonian stream of the cleft that sinks to unseen depths beneath the earth and the hill of Zosterius, where is the grim dwelling of the maiden Sibylla, roofed by the cavernous pit that shelters her.
[1281] So many are the woes, hard to bear, which they shall suffer who are to lay waste my fatherland.
[1282] For what has the unhappy mother of Prometheus in common with the nurse of Sarpedon? Whom the sea of Helle and the Clashing Rocks and Salmydessus and the inhospitable wave, neighbour to the Scythians, sunder with strong cliffs and Tanais divides with his streams – Tanais who, undefiled, cleaves the middle of the lake which is most dear to Maeotian men who mourn their chilblained feet.
[1291] My curse, first upon the Carnite sailor hounds! the merchant wolves who carried off from Lerne the ox-eyed girl, the bull-maiden, to bring to the lord of Memphis a fatal bride, and raised the beacon of hatred for the two continents. For afterward the Curetes, Idaean boars, seeking to avenge the rape by their heavy deed of violence, carried off captive in a bull-formed vessel the Saraptian heifer to the Dictaean palace to be the bride of Asteros, the lord of Crete. Nor were they contended when they had taken like for like; but sent Teucer and his Draucian father Scamandrus a raping army to the dwelling-place of the Bebryces to war with mice; of the seed of those men Dardanus begat the authors of my race, when he married the noble Cretan maiden Arisba.
[1309] And second they sent the Atracian wolves to steal for their leader of the single sandal the fleece that was protected by the watching dragon’s ward. He came to Libyan Cytaea and put to sleep with simples that four-nostrilled snake, and handled the curved plough of the fire-breathing bulls, and had his own body cut to pieces in a caldron and, not joyfully, seized the hide of the ram. But the self-invited crow he carried off – her who slew her brother and destroyed her children – and set her as ballast in the chattering jay which uttered a mortal voice derived from Chaonian abode and well knew how to speed.
Source: Callimachus, Lycophron and Aratus, trans. A. W. Mair and G. R. Mair (London: William Heinemann, 1921).
[...]
[1011] And him, again, who won the second prize for beauty, and the boar leader from the streams of Lycormas, the mighty son of Gorge, on the one hand the Thracian blasts, falling on taut sails, shall carry to the sands of Libya; on the other hand from Libya again the blast of the South wind shall carry them to the Argyrini and the glades of Ceraunia, shepherding the sea with grievous hurricane. And there they shall see a sorry wandering life, drinking the waters of Aias which springs from Lacmon. And neighbouring Crathis and the land of the Mylaces shall receive them in their bounds to dwell at Polae, the town of the Colchians whom the angry ruler of Aea and of Corinth, the husband of Eiduia, sent to seek his daughter, tracking the keel that carried off the bride; they settled by the deep stream of Dizerus.
[...]
[1226] And the fame of the race of my ancestors shall hereafter be exalted to the highest by their descendants, who shall with their spears win the foremost crown of glory, obtaining the sceptre and monarchy of earth and sea. Nor in the darkness of oblivion, my unhappy fatherland, shalt thou hide thy glory faded. Such a pair of lion whelps shall a certain kinsman of mine leave, a breed eminent in strength: the son of Castnia called also Cheiras, – in counsel best and not to be despised in battle. He shall first come to occupy Rhaecelus beside the steep crag of Cissus and the horned women of Laphystius. And from Almopia in his wandering Tyrsenia shall receive him and Lingeus bubbling forth its stream of hot waters, and Pisa and the glades of Agylla, rich in sheep. And with him shall an erstwhile foe join a friendly army, winning him by oaths and prayers and clasped knees: even the Dwarf who in his roaming searched out every recess of sea and earth; and therewithal the two sons of the King of the Mysians, whose spear one day shall be bent by the Housekeeping God of Wine, who shall fetter his limbs with twisted tendrils; even Tarchon and Tyrsenus, tawny wolves, sprung from the blood of Heracles. There he shall find full of eatable a table which is afterwards devoured by his attendants and shall be reminded of an ancient prophecy. And he shall found in places of the Boreigonoi a settled land beyond the Latins and Daunians – even thirty towers, when he has numbered the offspring of the dark sow, which he shall carry in his ship from the hills of Ida and places of Dardanus, which shall rear such number of young at birth. And in one city he shall set up an image of that sow and her suckling young, figuring them in bronze. And he shall build a shrine to Myndia Pallenis and establish therein the images of his fathers’ gods. He shall put aside his wife and children and all his rich possessions and honour these first, together with his aged sire, wrapping them in his robes, what time the spearmen hounds, having devoured all the goods of his country together by casting of lots, to him alone shall give the choice to take and carry away what gift from his house he will. Wherefore being adjudged even by his foes to be most pious, he shall found a fatherland of highest renown in battle, a tower blest in the children of after days, by the tall glades of Circaeon and the great Aeëtes haven, famous anchorage of the Argo, and the waters of the Marsionid lake of Phorce and the Titonian stream of the cleft that sinks to unseen depths beneath the earth and the hill of Zosterius, where is the grim dwelling of the maiden Sibylla, roofed by the cavernous pit that shelters her.
[1281] So many are the woes, hard to bear, which they shall suffer who are to lay waste my fatherland.
[1282] For what has the unhappy mother of Prometheus in common with the nurse of Sarpedon? Whom the sea of Helle and the Clashing Rocks and Salmydessus and the inhospitable wave, neighbour to the Scythians, sunder with strong cliffs and Tanais divides with his streams – Tanais who, undefiled, cleaves the middle of the lake which is most dear to Maeotian men who mourn their chilblained feet.
[1291] My curse, first upon the Carnite sailor hounds! the merchant wolves who carried off from Lerne the ox-eyed girl, the bull-maiden, to bring to the lord of Memphis a fatal bride, and raised the beacon of hatred for the two continents. For afterward the Curetes, Idaean boars, seeking to avenge the rape by their heavy deed of violence, carried off captive in a bull-formed vessel the Saraptian heifer to the Dictaean palace to be the bride of Asteros, the lord of Crete. Nor were they contended when they had taken like for like; but sent Teucer and his Draucian father Scamandrus a raping army to the dwelling-place of the Bebryces to war with mice; of the seed of those men Dardanus begat the authors of my race, when he married the noble Cretan maiden Arisba.
[1309] And second they sent the Atracian wolves to steal for their leader of the single sandal the fleece that was protected by the watching dragon’s ward. He came to Libyan Cytaea and put to sleep with simples that four-nostrilled snake, and handled the curved plough of the fire-breathing bulls, and had his own body cut to pieces in a caldron and, not joyfully, seized the hide of the ram. But the self-invited crow he carried off – her who slew her brother and destroyed her children – and set her as ballast in the chattering jay which uttered a mortal voice derived from Chaonian abode and well knew how to speed.
Source: Callimachus, Lycophron and Aratus, trans. A. W. Mair and G. R. Mair (London: William Heinemann, 1921).