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Apollo found Cyrene
wrestling alone with a lion and carried her off to
that part of Libya where in later times he founded
a city and named it, after her, Cyrene.
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Family
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The extraordinarily beautiful Cyrene was reared
near Mount Pelion in Thessaly. Her father
(according to some) was Hypseus 1, probably the
first king of the
LAPITHS. One of her
sisters, Astyaguia, became grandmother of
Ixion. Her other sister,
Themisto 2, married Athamas
1.
Others say that she was daughter of the river
god Peneus, who is called father of Hypseus 1.
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Occupation
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Like Atalanta,
Cyrene did not care for
"... pacing
back and forth at the loom ..." [Pindar,
Pythian
Odes
9.19]
nor for any such kind of occupation. Instead she
went around brandishing javelins and swords and
hunting wild beasts, thus protecting her father's
cattle. And during this time, she enjoyed the
company but of one single bed-fellow:
Sleep.
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Apollo and
Chiron
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But the god who works from afar, that is,
Apollo (for he is like
the sun and shoots his arrows from the distance)
once observed her wrestling alone and without
spears with a lion.
Apollo was marvelled at
the spirit and strength of the woman. So he went to
the wise centaur Chiron
to ask him who her father was, and whether it was
lawful for him to love her.
Now, some may wonder why the god of prophecy,
who knows most things, must come to the halls of a
centaur, however wise, to learn from him what he
could have known by himself. But the 'knowing' of
the immortals differs from that of mortals; for it
embraces many aspects disregarded by men, and
excludes others—such as falsehood—that
usually pollute the knowledge of men.
The matter of knowledge being then a subtler
issue among the immortals,
Chiron was not so
surprised; and he knew that the god knew and yet
had to ask.
"You ask me
from what race the girl comes, lord
Apollo? You who know the appointed end of
all things, and all the paths that lead to them?
And how many leaves the earth puts forth in spring,
and how many grains of sand in the sea and in
rivers are dashed by the waves and the gusting
winds; and that which will be, and from where it
will come, all this you clearly see."
[Chiron to
Apollo. Pindar,
Pythian
Odes
9.44]
And so, talking of what they both knew well,
Chiron recited for the
god what was about to take place:
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Apollo carries her off
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That Apollo would love
her, that he would take her to Libya where the god
would make her the ruler of a city. That she would
bear a child Aristaeus, whom the
HORAE would admire,
dropping nectar and ambrosia on his lips and making
him immortal.
Everything was done without delay, for as they
say:
"Accomplishment is swift when the
gods are already hurrying ..." [Pindar,
Pythian
Odes
9.67]
and that very day the god snatched the girl from
Mt. Pelion, and carried her in his golden chariot
to Libya, a land rich in flocks and fruits, where
he loved her. And he made her mistress of the land,
to live and flourish in it.
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Aristaeus
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In later times, some say,
Apollo founded a city in
that land and called Cyrene after the brave girl
from Mount Pelion. It is also told that their son
Aristaeus was given to
NYMPHS, who taught him
how to curdle milk, to make bee-hives, and to
cultivate olive-trees. And since Aristaeus
instructed many others, becoming a benefactor, he
received honours similar to those offered to the
gods. For as men had honoured
Dionysus 2 for the
vine, they honoured Aristaeus for the honey and
other things they received from him.
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Sheep not Lion
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Others have said that
Apollo carried Cyrene
off, not when she was wrestling with a lion but
while she was tending her sheep along the
marsh-meadow of the river Peneus (which flows from
the foot of Mt. Pindus in Thessaly). He then placed
her among the NYMPHS who
dwelt near the Myrtosian height in Libya (also
called Myrtussa = 'Myrtle-hill').
When Aristaeus was born, the god took him to
Hellas to be nurtured in the cave of the wise
centaur Chiron, and made
Cyrene a nymph and a huntress. For the
NYMPHS live a very long
life.
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The City
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It is told that when the
ARGONAUTS came to
Libya they were driven into the Syrtis, quicksands
in Libya, carrying their ship overland to Lake
Tritonis. There was no return for ships, once they
had come far within Syrtis:
"For on every
hand are shoals, on every hand masses of seaweed
from the depths; and over them the light foam of
the wave washes without noise." [Apollonius
Rhodius,
Argonautica
4.1235]
Since there is no outlet from Lake Tritonis to
the sea, they could do nothing. Then the
ARGONAUTS propitiated
the gods with a golden tripod on the shore, and
Triton appeared to them in the form of a youth.
Triton showed them the way out, and presented the
Argonaut Euphemus 1 with a clod of earth.
Later Euphemus 1 had a dream. It seemed to him
that the clod of earth was being suckled by milk,
and that from it a little woman grew. And this
woman Euphemus 1 desired and embraced in love,
although he pitied her as though she were a maiden
whom he fed with his own milk. But then she
comforted him, saying that she was daughter of
Triton and Libya, and exhorting him to restore her
to the sea near Anaphe (one of the Cyclades, north
of Crete and east of
Thera). She then promised him to return, and
prepare a home for his descendants.
So after consulting with
Jason, the admiral of the
ARGONAUTS, Euphemus 1
cast the clod into the sea. From it rose the island
Calliste (later called Thera, and today called
Santorini) where the descendants of Euphemus 1 (and
of the crew of the 'Argo', that is, the so called
Minyan clan) came after
being expelled from
Lemnos by the Tyrrhenians
or by the Pelasgians. But first they sailed away
from Lemnos to
Sparta in Lacedaemon
where they appeared as suppliants, camping at
Taygetum. The Lacedaemonians received them because
the DIOSCURI had been
in the ship's company of the 'Argo', and so the
Minyans were allowed to
mingle with the Lacedaemonians, receiving land and
being distributed among the Lacedaemonian tribes.
The Minyans married
Lacedaemonian women, and gave in marriage to others
the women they had brought from
Lemnos.
This seems nice, but as time went by the
Lacedaemonians found the
Minyans insolent, who
demanded equal right to the kingship. So they
seized them and cast them into prison, having in
mind to kill them. But the Spartan wives of the
Minyans asked permission
to enter the prison and visit their husbands; and
when permission was granted, they gave their
husbands their own garments, and themselves put on
the men's clothing. Thus the
Minyans, disguised as
women, got out of prison and camped at Taygetum
again.
It was then that Theras interceded, promising to
lead the Minyans out of
the country to the island of Calliste. Eurysthenes
1 and Procles 2 (kings and founders of the Spartan
royal houses, counted among the
HERACLIDES), in spite
of their mutual enmity, combined to help Theras,
who was their mother's brother and their guardian
as well, to found a colony in Calliste. This is how
the Minyans (or some of
them since others migrated to other territories)
left Lacedaemon with thirty-oared ships.
Now, in Calliste lived the descendants of
Membliarus since Cadmus
left Membliarus in the island. But when Theras
landed, they gave up the kingship to him of their
own accord as they considered that the family of
Theras went back to
Cadmus himself. Theras
(son of Autesion 1, son of Tisamenus 1, son of
Thersander 1, son of Polynices, son of
Oedipus, son of Laius 1,
son of Labdacus 1, son of Polydorus 2, son of
Cadmus) renamed the
island and called it Thera after himself.
The actual colonization of Cyrene proceeded from
Thera following several oracles issued at
Delphi. The last of them
was directly delivered to Battus 2, leader of the
colonization and descendant of Euphemus 1. Battus 2
came to Delphi to inquire
about his voice (he stammered); and the pythian
priestess answered:
"Battus, you
have come for a voice; but Lord Phoebus
Apollo
Sends you to found a city in Libya ..."
[Herodotus,
History
4.155.3]
It is told that Battus 2, after founding the
city was cured of his stammering when he saw a lion
and could not help crying out in a clear and loud
voice. He was son of Polymnestus and Phronime, and
had son Arcesilaus 2, who became king of Cyrene
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