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References

Paton, W. R. (ed.), Greek Anthology, Volume I: Book 1: Christian Epigrams. Book 2: Description of the Statues in the Gymnasium of Zeuxippus. Book 3: Epigrams in the Temple of Apollonis at Cyzicus. Book 4: Prefaces to the Various Anthologies. Book 5: Erotic Epigrams. Translated by W. R. Paton. Revised by Michael A. Tueller. Loeb Classical Library No. 67. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2014. Online version at Harvard University Press.

To Do

Add Palantine Anthology mention. (see Gantz, p. 618)

Sources

Ancient

Apollodorus

2.7.7

But when he was come to Ormenium, king Amyntor took arms and forbade him to march through; but when he would have hindered his passage, Hercules slew him also.⁶

⁶ It is said that the king refused to give his daughter Astydamia in marriage to Herakles. So Herakles killed him, took Astydamia by force, and had a son Ctesippus by her. See Diod. 4.37.4. Ormenium was a small town at the foot of Mount Pelion. See Strab. 9.5.18.

2.7.8

by Astydamia, daughter of Amyntor, [Heracles] had Ctesippus;

3.13.8

He was accompanied by Phoenix, son of Amyntor. This Phoenix had been blinded by his father on the strength of a false accusation of seduction preferred against him by his father's concubine Phthia. But Peleus brought him to Chiron, who restored his sight, and thereupon Peleus made him king of the Dolopians.³

³ See Hom. Il. 9.437-484, with the Scholiast on Hom. Il. 9.448. But Homer says nothing about the blinding of Phoenix by his angry father or his cure by Chiron; and according to Homer the accusation of having debauched his father's concubine was not false but true, Phoenix having been instigated to the deed by his mother, who was jealous of the concubine. But variations from the Homeric narrative were introduced into the story by the tragedians who handled the theme （Scholiast on Hom. Il. 9.437-484）. Sophocles and Euripides both wrote tragedies on the subject under the same title of Phoenix; the tragedy of Euripides seems to have been famous. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 286, 621ff.; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii.320ff. The blinding of Phoenix by his father Amyntor is alluded to by a poet of the Greek anthology （Anth. Pal. iii.3）. Both the poet and Apollodorus probably drew on Euripides, who from an allusion in Aristoph. Acharn. 421 is known to have represented Phoenix as blind. Both the blinding and the healing of Phoenix are related by Tzetzes （Scholiast on Lycophron 421）, who may have followed Apollodorus. According to the Scholiast on Hom. Il. 9.437-484, the name of the concubine was Clytia; according to Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 421, it was Clytia or Phthia. Apollodorus calls her Phthia. The Scholiast on Plato （Laws, xi. p. 931 B）, gives a version of the story which agrees entirely with that of Apollodorus, and may have been copied from it. The healing of Phoenix's eyes by Chiron is mentioned by Prop. ii.1.60.

Callimachus

Hymn VI. To Demeter

75

The sons of Ormenus^d came to bid him to the games of the Itonian Athene.^b

^a Eponymous king of Ormenion in Thessaly.

^b So called from her cult at Itone in Thessaly.

Diodorus Siculus

4.37.4

After accomplishing these deeds he entrusted to Aegimius the third part of the land, which was his share, with orders that he keep it in trust in favour of Heracles' descendants. He now returned to Trachis, and upon being challenged to combat by Cycnus, the son of Ares, he slew the man; and as he was leaving the territory of Itonus and was making his way through Pelasgiotis he fell in with Ormenius the king and asked of him the hand of his daughter Astydameia. When Ormenius refused him because he already had for lawful wife Deïaneira, the daughter of Oeneus, Heracles took the field against him, captured his city, and slew the king who would not obey him, and taking captive Astydameia he lay with her and begat a son Ctesippus.

Homer

Iliad

9.432–452

But at length there spake among them the old horseman Phoenix, bursting into tears, for that greatly did he fear for the ships of the Achaeans: “... I [Phoenix] left Hellas, the home of fair women, fleeing from strife with my father Amyntor, son of Ormenus; for he waxed grievously wroth against me by reason of his fair-haired concubine, [450] whom himself he ever cherished, and scorned his wife, my mother. So she besought me by my knees continually, to have dalliance with that other first myself, that the old man might be hateful in her eyes.”

9.453–491

"I [Phoenix] hearkened to her and did the deed, but my father was ware thereof forthwith and cursed me mightily, and invoked the dire Erinyes [455] that never should there sit upon his knees a dear child begotten of me; and the gods fulfilled his curse, even Zeus of the nether world and dread Persephone. Then I took counsel to slay him with the sharp sword, but some one of the immortals stayed mine anger, bringing to my mind [460] the voice of the people and the many revilings of men, to the end that I should not be called a father-slayer amid the Achaeans. Then might the heart in my breast in no wise be any more stayed to linger in the halls of my angered father. My fellows verily and my kinsfolk beset me about [465] with many prayers and sought to stay me there in the halls, and many goodly sheep did they slaughter, and sleek kine of shambling gait, and many swine, rich with fat, were stretched to singe over the flame of Hephaestus, and wine in plenty was drunk from the jars of that old man. [470] For nine nights' space about mine own body did they watch the night through; in turn kept they watch, neither were the fires quenched, one beneath the portico of the well-fenced court, and one in the porch before the door of my chamber. Howbeit when the tenth dark night was come upon me, [475] then verily I burst the cunningly fitted doors of my chamber and leapt the fence of the court full easily, unseen of the watchmen and the slave women. Thereafter I fled afar through spacious Hellas, and came to deep-soiled Phthia, mother of flocks, [480] unto king Peleus; and he received me with a ready heart, and cherished me as a father cherisheth his only son and well-beloved, that is heir to great possessions; and he made me rich and gave much people to me, and I dwelt on the furthermost border of Phthia, ruling over the Dolopians. I reared thee to be such as thou art, O godlike Achilles, loving thee from may heart; for with none other wouldest thou go to the feast neither take meat in the hall, till I had set thee on my knees and given thee thy fill of the savoury morsel cut first for thee, and had put the wine cup to thy lips. [490] Full often hast thou wetted the tunic upon my breast, sputtering forth the wine in thy sorry helplessness. ”

10.260–271

[260] And Meriones gave to Odysseus a bow and a quiver and a sword, and about his head he set a helm wrought of hide, and with many a tight-stretched thong was it made stiff within, while without the white teeth of a boar of gleaming tusks were set thick on this side and that, [265] well and cunningly, and within was fixed a lining of felt. This cap Autolycus on a time stole out of Eleon when he had broken into the stout-built house of Amyntor, son of Ormenus; and he gave it to Amphidamas of Cythem to take to Scandeia, and Amphidamas gave it to Molus as a guest-gift, [270] but he gave it to his own son Meriones to wear; and now, being set thereon, it covered the head of Odysseus.

Ovid

Metamorphoses

8.307

[members of the Calydonian boar hunt:] and Phoenix, not then blind,

the son of King Amyntor

12.361–368

It sheared the left shoulder and the breast

from tall Crantor. He, Achilles, was

your father's armor bearer and was given

by King Amyntor, when he sued for peace.

“When Peleus at a distance saw him torn

and mangled, he exclaimed, ‘At least receive

this sacrifice, O Crantor! most beloved!

Dearest of young men!’

Lycophron

Alexandra

417–423

For one^f Bisaltian Eion by the Strymon, close marching with the Apsynthians and Bistonians, nigh to the Edonians, shall hide, the old nurse of youth, wrinkled as a crab, ere ever he behold Tymphrestus' crag^g: even him who of all men was most hated by his father,^h who pierced the lamps of his eyes and made him blind, when he entered the dove'sⁱ bastard bed.

^f Phoenix, tutor of Achilles ... Died on his way home from Troy and was buried at Eion.

^g In Thessaly.

^h Amyntor who, from jealousy of Clytia and his son Phoenix, put out the latter's eyes

ⁱ Clytia.

Palatine Anthology

3.3 (Paton, pp. 152–153)

3 The third has Phoenix being blinded by his father Amyntor,

and Alcimede restraining her husband.

Alcimede pulls her husband Amyntor away from their son, wishing to halt the wrath of Phoenix’s father. He was angry with his father for his virtuous mother’s sake, because he was drawn to the bed of a slave concubine. His father, listening to insidious whispers, was also angry with the young man, and turned a lethal torch against his eyes.

Pindar

Olympian 7.23–24

descendants of Amyntor, through Astydameia.

Strabo

9.5.18

Now at the present time Ormenium is called Orminium; it is a village situated at the foot of Pelion near the Pagasitic Gulf, one of the cities included in the settlement of Demetrias, as I have said.² And Lake Boebeïs, also, must be near, since Boebe, as well as Ormenium itself, was one of the dependencies of Demetrias. Now Ormenium is distant by land twenty-seven stadia from Demetrias, whereas the site of Iolcus, which is situated on the road, is distant seven stadia from Demetrias and the remaining twenty stadia from Ormenium. The Scepsian³ says that Phoenix was from Ormenium, and that he fled thence from his father Amyntor the son of Ormenus into Phthia to Peleus the king; for this place, he adds, was founded by Ormenus the son of Cercaphus the son of Aeolus; and he says that both Amyntor and Euaemon were sons of Ormenus, and that Phoenix was son of the former and Eurypylus of the latter, but that the succession to the throne, to which both had equal right, was kept for Eurypylus, inasmuch as Phoenix had gone away from his homeland. Furthermore, the Scepsian writes thus, "as when first I left Ormenium rich in flocks,"⁴ instead of "I left Hellas, land of fair women."⁵ But Crates makes Phoenix a Phocian, judging this from the helmet of Meges, which Odysseus used at the time of his night spying, concerning which the poet says, "Autolycus filched it from Eleon, from Amyntor the son of Ormenus, having broken into his close-built home."⁶ For Eleon, he says, is a town of Parnassus; and Amyntor, son of Ormenus, means no other than the father of Phoenix; and Autolycus, who lived on Parnassus, must have broken into the house of a neighbor (as is the way of any housebreaker), and not into that of people far away. But the Scepsian says that there is no place called Eleon to be seen on Parnassus, though there is a place called Neon, founded in fact after the Trojan War, and also that housebreakings are not confined to neighbors only. And there are other arguments which one might give, but I hesitate to spend further time on this subject. Others write "from Heleon,"⁷ but Heleon is a place in Tanagria, and this reading would increase the absurdity of the statement, "Then I fled afar off through Hellas and came to Phthia."⁸ The fountain Hypereia is in the middle of the city of the Pheraeans, which belonged to Eumelus. It is absurd, therefore, to assign the fountain to Eurypylus. Titanus⁹ was named from the fact in the case there; for the region near Arne and Aphetae has white soil. Asterium, also, is not far from these.

² 9. 5. 15.

³ Demetrius of Scepsis.

⁴ Demetrius of Scepsis Fr.

⁵ Hom. Il. 9.447

⁶ Hom. Il. 10.266

⁷ Instead of "from Eleon."

⁸ Hom. Il. 9.478

⁹ "White earth."

Modern

Gantz

p. 609

Of Phoenix, former tutor of Achilleus, we first hear in Book 9, where he tells his story, and then briefly in Books 16, 17, 19, 23. In 16 he leads a group of the Myrmidones into battle, and he himself admits in 9 that Peleus sent him with Achilleus from Phthia, but earlier in that same Book he has been with the rest of the Achaians in their debate, rather than with his own contingent, perjhaps more sign of reworking in this part of the poem. His father is Amyntor, ...

p. 613

p. 618

p. 640

p. 658

p. 688

Smith

s.v. Amyntor

(Ἀμύντωρ), according to Homer (Hom. Il. 10.266), a son of Ormenus of Eleon in Thessaly, where Autolycus broke into his house and stole the beautiful helmet, which afterwards came into the hands of Meriones, who wore it during the war against Troy. Amyntor was the father of Crantor, Euaemon, Astydameia, and Phoenix. The last of these was cursed and expelled by Amyntor for having entertained, at the instigation of his mother Cleobule or Hippodameia, an unlawful intercourse with his father's mistress. (Hom. Il. 9.434, &c.; Lycophr. 417.) According to Apollodorus (2.7.7, 3.13.7), who states, that Amyntor blinded his son Phoenix, he was a king of Ormenium, and was slain by Heracles, to whom he refused a passage through his dominions, and the hand of his daughter Astydameia. (Comp. Diod. 4.37.) According to Ovid (Ov. Met. 8.307, 12.364, &c.), Amyntor took part in the Calydonian hunt, and was king of the Dolopes, and when conquered in a war by Peleus, he gave him his son Crantor as a hostage.

s.v. Phoenix 2

A son of Amynltor by Cleobule or Hippodameia, wias king of the Dolopes, and took part not only in the Calydonian hunt (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 421; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 762; Hyg. Fab. 173 ; Ov. Met. 8.307), but being a friend of Peleus, he accompanied Achilles on his expedition against Troy. (Hyg. Fab. 257; Ov. Ep. 3.27 ; Apollod. 3.13.8.) His father Amyntor neglected his legitimate wife, and attached himself to a mistress, but the former desired her son to dishonour her rival. Phoenix yielded to the request of his mother, and Amyntor, who discovered it, cursed him, and prayed that he might never be blessed with any offspring. Phoenix now desired to quit his father's house, but his relations compelled him to remain. At last, however, he fled to Peleuis, who received him kindly, made him the ruler of the country of the Dolopes, on the frontiers of Phthiia, and entrusted to him his son Achilles, whonm he was to educate. (Hom. Il. 9.447, &c.) According to another tradition, Phoenix did not dishonour his father's mistress (Pllthia or Clytia), but she merely accused him of having made imiproper overtures to her, in consequence of which his father put out his eyes. But Peleus took himt to Cheiron, who restored to him his sight. (Apollod. 3.13.8.) Phoenix moreover is said to have called the son of Achilles Neoptolemnus, after Lycomedes had called him Pyrrhus. (Paus. 10.26, § l.) Neoptolemus was believed to have buried Phoenix at Eion in Macedonia or at Trachis in Thessaly. (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 417; Strab. ix. p.428.) it must further be observed, that Phoenix is one of the mythical beings to whom the ancients ascribed the invention of the alphabet. (Tzetz. Chil. 12.68.)

Tripp

s.v. Amyntor, p. 48

Amyntor. A king of Eleon or Ormenium, at the foot of Mount Pelion, in Pelasgiotis. Amyntor, a son of Ormenus, went in his youth on the Calydonian boar hunt. Autolycus once brook into his house and stole a helmet, which found its way through a series of hands back to Autolucus' grandson Odysseus. According to Ovid [Metamorphoses 12.361–368], Amyntor was defeated in war by Peleus and gave up as a pledge of peace his son Crantor, who was later killed fighting beside Peleus in the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs. Amyntor was defeated in a war by Peleus and gave up as a pledge of peace his son Crantor, who was later killed fighting beside Peleus in the battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs. Amyntor's wife, becomming violently jealous when he took a concubine, persuaded her son Phoenix to dishonor the woman by seducing the woman or raping her. For this crime Amyntor asked the erinyes to deny Phoenix children. Phoenix was so enraged that he nearly killed his father, but went instead to Peleus, in Phthia, and became king there of the Dolopians. According to another version of this story, Phoenix was unjustly accused by the concubine, but Amyntor believed her story and blinded his son. Phoenix was later cured by Cheiron the Centaur. When Heracles wanted to pass through Ormenian territory, Amyntor refused him permission and was killed. Some say Heracles had asked to marry Amyntor's daughter, Deïdameia. In any case, she later bore him a son, Ctessipus.