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==Nurse of Opheltes== [[File:Archemoros 119.png|thumb|Opheltes ensnared by the serpent.]] Hypsipyle became involved in the story of the infant [[Opheltes]], the [[Seven against Thebes]], and the origin of the [[Nemean Games]].<ref>Bravo, pp. 101–140; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA318 p. 318]; Gantz, p. 511; [[Euripides]] ''Hypsipyle'' (Collard and Cropp, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.251.xml pp. 250–321]); [[Callimachus]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/callimachus-minor_epic_elegiac_poems/1973/pb_LCL421.237.xml?result=1&rskey=XWoeNZ fr. 384.21–26 Pfeiffer]; Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' 15, 74; [[Ovid]], ''[[Ibis (Ovid)|Ibis]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-ibis/1929/pb_LCL232.275.xml 481–483]; [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.259.xml 4.727–6.345]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.9.14 1.9.14], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.6.4 3.6.4]; [[Pindar]] scholia (Bravo, p. 115); [[Second Vatican Mythographer]] 141 Bode [= [[Euripides]], ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.259.xml test. va] = 164 Pepin, pp. 166–167].</ref> On their way to [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], the Seven, in need of water, stop at [[Nemea]], where they encounter Hypsipyle. Because of the discovery of her having saved Thoas, Hypsipyle has been sold into slavery to the parents of Opheltes, becoming his nursemaid. While helping the Seven to get water, Hypsipyle sets Opheltes down, and he is killed by a serpent. The Seven kill the serpent, and the seer [[Amphiaraus]], one of the Seven, renames the child Archemorus, meaning the "Beginning of Doom",<ref>Tripp, s.v. Opheltes.</ref> interpreting the child's death as a harbinger of the Seven's own impending doom at Thebes. The Seven save Hypsipyle from being put to death and hold funeral games in the child's honor, which become the origin of the Nemean Games. Hypsipyle's sons arrive, compete in the funeral games, and rescue Hypsipyle from her captivity. ===''Hypsipyle''=== The earliest involvement of Hypsipyle in the Opheltes/Archemorus story occurs in Euripides' ''[[Hypsipyle (play)|Hypsipyle]]'', and may well have been an Euripidean invention.<ref>Gantz, p. 511; Collard and Cropp, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.251.xml p. 251]; Bravo, pp. 106–110. For the extant fragments of the play with introduction and notes see Collard and Cropp, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.251.xml pp. 250–321].</ref> After fleeing Lemnos, Hypsipyle was captured by pirates and sold as a slave to Lycurgus, the priest of Zeus at [[Nemea]], where she has become the nurse to Lycurgus and Eurydice's son [[Opheltes]].<ref>Gantz, p. 511; Collard and Cropp, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.251.xml p. 251]; [[Euripides]], ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.311.xml fr. 759a.72–74], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.313.xml 79–87] (flight, capture by pirates, slavery), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.257.xml test. iiia (Hypothesis)] [= [[P. Oxy.]] 2455 frs. 14–15, 3652 cols. i and ii.1-15] (Lycurgus as father), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.275.xml fr. 752h.26–28] (Lycurgus as priest of Zeus), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.293.xml fr. 757] (Eurydice as mother), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.293.xml fr. 757.41–44] (Hypsipyle as nurse). Although Lycurgus is a king in later accounts, there is no indication of that here, see Bravo, p. 107.</ref> As the action of the play begins, Hypsipyle's twin sons by Jason, Euneus and Thoas, arrive seeking shelter for the night.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.263.xml fr. 752c] [= fr. 764 Nauck], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.263.xml fr. 752d].</ref> The sons have been separated from Hypsipyle since infancy, so neither recognizes the other. When Jason left Lemnos he had taken his sons to [[Colchis]]. After he died, Jason's fellow argonaut [[Orpheus]] took the boys to [[Thrace]], where he raised them. They eventually met Hypsipyles' father Thoas, who took them back to Lemnos. From there they embarked on a search for their mother.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.315.xml fr. 759a.93–105 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 314–315)].</ref> The Seven against Thebes have also just arrived and encounter Hypsipyle. Amphiaraus tells Hypsipyle that they need water for a sacrifice, and she leads the Seven to a spring.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.273.xml fr. 752h], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.283.xml fr. 753].</ref> Hypsipyle brings Opheltes with her, and somehow, in a moment of neglect, Opheltes is killed by a serpent.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.285.xml fr. 753d], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.287.xml fr. 754], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.287.xml fr. 754a].</ref> The child's mother Eurydice is about to have Hypsipyle put to death, when Amphiaraus arrives and Hypsipyle pleads with him to speak in her defense.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.295.xml fr. 757.37–68 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 294–297)].</ref> Amphiaraus tells Euridice that the child's death was destined, proposes that funeral games be held in Opheltes' honor, and is able to convince Euridice to spare Hypsipyle's life.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.297.xml fr. 757.69–144 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 297–303]. The seer Amphiaraus describing his defense of Hypsipyle as relying "on piety", ([https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.297.xml fr. 757.73]) is suggestive of the child's death having been ordained by the gods.</ref> Funeral games are held, and Hypsypyle's sons participate, as a result of which, a recognition and reunion between Hypsipyle and her sons is effected, who then manage to free Hypsipyle from her servitude.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.311.xml fr. 759a.58–110].</ref> The surviving fragments of Euripides' play do not make it clear how the recognition between Hypsipyle and her sons was brought about, but two later accounts may have been based on the play.<ref>Collard and Cropp, pp. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.253.xml 253] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.259.xml 259, tests. iv, va with notes].</ref> According to the [[Second Vatican Mythographer]], after the sons won the foot-race, at the funeral games, their names and parents were announced, and in this way their identities were revealed.<ref>[[Second Vatican Mythographer]] 141 Bode [= [[Euripides]] ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.259.xml test. va] = 164 Pepin, pp. 166–167].</ref> The [[Cyzicene epigrams]], the third book of the ''[[Palatine Anthology]]'', describes a depiction, on a temple in [[Cyzicus]], of Euneus and Thoas showing Hypsipyle a gold ornament ("the golden vine") as proof of their identities.<ref>''[[Greek Anthology]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_anthology_3/2014/pb_LCL067.159.xml 3.10] [= ''[[Palatine Anthology]]'' 3.10 = Euripides ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.259.xml test. iv]]. Compare with [[Euripides]] ''Hypsipyle'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.317.xml fr. 759a.110], where Euneus mentions a "wine-dark grape-bunch".</ref> ===Hyginus=== According to [[Fabulae|Hyginus]], when the women of Lemnos discovered Hypsipyle's deception, they tried to kill her, but, as in Euripides' play, she fled the island and was captured by pirates who sold her as a slave (although Hyginus' Latin text—probably in error—says she was sold to "King Lycus", rather than Lycurgus).<ref>Bravo, p. 118; Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' 15, with Smith and Trzaskoma's note 15. ''King Lycurgus'', p. 189: "we hesitantly have restored Lycurgus for Lycus in the belief that it is an error of transmission and not a mistake on the part of Hyginus", see also Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 74, where Smith and Trzaskoma have again restored "Lycurgus" for "Lycus".</ref> Hyginus also tells of an oracle that had warned that Opheltes should not be put on the ground until he had learned to walk, and says that, to avoid setting the child directly on the ground, she put him on a bed of wild celery where he is killed by a serpent who guarded the spring. Hyginus connects this with the tradition of the celery crowns awarded to the winners at the [[Nemean games]]. According to Hyginus, as in Euripides, the Seven intercede on Hypsipyle's behalf, but with Lycurgus, rather than Eurydice.<ref>Bravo, pp. 117–118; Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' 74. As Bravo notes, the oracle and explanation for the origin of the celery crowns, are only found in Hyginus, and are perhaps late inventions.</ref> ===The ''Thebaid''=== [[Statius]], in his epic poem, the ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]''—which tells the story of the Seven against Thebes—preserves the most complete account of the myth of Hypsipyle and Opheltes.<ref>Bravo, p. 118.</ref> As in Hyginus' account, when the Lemnian women discovered that Thoas had been saved, Hypsipyle fled the island, but was captured by pirates, and sold as a slave to Lycurgus,<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.305.xml 5.486–498].</ref> who is both the king of Nemea (as in Hyginus) and the priest of Zeus (as in Euripides).<ref>Bravo, p. 119. For Lycurgus as king of Nemea, see [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.323.xml 5.715–716] ("Lycurgus ... the king"), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.325.xml 733] ("ruler of Nemea"). For Lycurgus as a priest of Zeus, see [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.317.xml 5.638–641] ("Lycurgus ... at sacrifice ... offered portions to the unfriendly Thunderer"), and [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.317.xml 5.643–644] where it is said that priestly duties kept Lycurgus from participating in the Argive war against Thebes.</ref> As in Euripides, Hypsipyle, who has become the nurse of Lycurgus and Eurydice's son Opheltes, encounters the Seven against Thebes, who are in urgent need of water.<ref>Bravo, p. 119; [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.263.xml 4.778–779] (Hypsipyle describing herself as the "foster mother of a child entrusted to my care"), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.261.xml 4.746–752] (the Seven meeting Hypsipyle carrying Lycurgus' son Opheltes, "at her breast"), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.317.xml 5.632] (Euridice mother of Opheltes), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.259.xml 4.730–745] (need for water).</ref> However in Statius' account, Hypsipyle does not take Opheltes with her to the spring, instead, in her haste to provide water for the Seven, she leaves the child behind, lying on the ground, "lest she be too slow a guide".<ref>Bravo, p. 120; [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.263.xml 4.785–789].</ref> Hypsipyle takes the Seven to the spring, and when they have drunk their fill, they ask Hypsipyle to tell them who she is.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.271.xml 5.1–27].</ref> Then, over the course of 471 lines of the ''Thebaid'', Hypsipyle tells the Seven her story: the massacre of the men by the Lemnian women, her saving her father Thoas, the visit to Lemnos by the Argonauts, her twin sons, Euneus and Thoas, by Jason, and how she came to be the nurse of Opheltes.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.273.xml 5.28–498].</ref> Meanwhile, with Hypsipyle long delayed at the spring telling her story, and "oblivious (so the gods would have it) of her absent charge", Opheltes has fallen asleep in the grass,<ref>Bravo, p. 120; [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.307.xml 5.499–504].</ref> and though unnoticed, he is killed by an unwitting swish of the tail of the enormous serpent who guards Zeus' sacred grove.<ref>Bravo, pp. 120–121; [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.307.xml 5.505–540].</ref> Hypsipyle is again saved, by the Seven, from execution, but here, as in Hyginus, it is the king who is restrained.<ref>Bravo, p. 121; [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.319.xml 5.653–679].</ref> As in Euripides, Hypsipyles' sons Thoas and Euneus, who are searching for their mother, arrive at the palace. In Statius' poem, Hypsipyle is able to identify her sons by means of the swords they carry, which belonged to Jason, and bear the mark of Jason's ship the [[Argo]] on them, and a joyous reunion ensues.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.323.xml 5.710–730].</ref> ===Apollodorus=== [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], generally follows Euripides' account of the story, but differs at two points. According to Apollodorus, it was the Lemnian women themselves who, having discovered that Thoas had been spared, sold Hypsipyle into slavery. Also according to Apollodorus, as in Statius' account, Hypsipyle left Opheltes behind when she led the Seven to the spring.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.6.4 3.6.4].</ref>
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