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References

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Ancient

Athenaeus

Callisthenes in his History of Greece (FGrH 124 F 13) offers a story along the following lines: When the Arcadians were besieging Cromnus²³¹—this is a small fortified site located near Megalopolis—Hippodamus of Sparta²³² ...the figure Famine [Λιμὸς], who was depicted in a woman’s form in a painting beside Apollo’s throne within his precinct.

²³¹ Called Cromne below.

²³² Poralla #389; the events in question took place in 364 bce. Although Athenaeus does not say as much, the story assumes that Hippodamus was speaking from the city’s walls, in full hearing of the Arcadians.

Callisthenes

FGrH 124 F 13

Codinus

De Signis Constantinop.

p. 60 Bekker

ἐκεῖσε δὲ ἔνζωδοι ἐστηλώϑησαν εἰς τοὺς δύο xíovag ὁ Αδὰμ καὶ Εὔα, καὶ ἡ Εὐϑηνία καὶ Λιμός.

ibidem supra duas columnas collocata erant simulacra Adami et Evae et Prosperitatis et Famis.

there, above the two pillars, were placed the figures of Adam and Eve, and of Prosperity and Famine.

Hesiod

Theogony 226–232

And loathsome Strife bore painful Toil and Forgetfulness and Hunger [Λιμόν] and tearful Pains, and Combats and Battles and Murders and Slaughters, and Strifes and Lies and Tales and Disputes, and Lawlessness and Recklessness, much like one another, and Oath, who indeed brings most woe upon human beings on the earth, whenever someone willfully swears a false oath.

Works and Days

230

nor does famine [λιμὸς] attend straight-judging men, nor calamity [ἄτη], but they share out in festivities the fruits of the labors they care for.

299–302

[of the hardworking] Famine [Λιμὸς] will hate you and well-garlanded reverend Demeter will love you and fill your granary with the means of life. For Famine [Λιμὸς] is ever the companion of a man who does not work;

Leonidas

The Greek Anthology

6.298

298.—LEONIDAS

A wallet, a hard untanned goat-skin, this walking-stick, an oil-flask never scraped clean, a dog-skin purse without a copper in it, and the hat, the covering of his impious head, these are the spoils of Sochares that Famine [Λιμὸς] hung on a tamarisk bush when he died.

Polyaenus

2.15

HIPPODAMAS ... For in there hung in the temple of Chalcioecus a picture of Famine [Λιμοῦ]; a woman pale, and emaciated, with her hands tied behind her.

[Sanctuary of Athena Chalkiokos at Sparta

Semonides

fr. 7.100

For whoever lives (?) with a woman never goes through a whole day in good spirits, nor will he quickly thrust from the house Hunger [Λιμὸν], a hostile housemate, enemy of the gods.

Zenobius

4.93

λέγουσιν ... Λιμὸν ... πεδίον.

Modern

Caldwell

p. 40

212-232 The remaining children of Night are personifications ... The children of Eris are ... Starvation [Limos] ...

Faraone

[In folder]

p. 67

Hopkinson's translation ... although the word [limos] can be either gender, it is usually feminine in Doric, masculine in Attic and variable elsewhere.

Gantz

p. 9

in art we find Eris ... Hesiod's [cont.]

p. 10

account goes on to Eris' own children, born with no father mentioned and virtually all allegorizings: Ponos (Labor), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Limos (Famine), ... and Ate (Folly) (226–32) Of this list only the last has any identity, [although as a daughter of Zeus with no mother mentioned]

Giuseppetti

[In folder]

p. 114 n. 52

Behind this one may also perceive the surfacing of the archaic conception of Hunger (Λιμός) and Poverty (Πενίη) as divine beings actually entering a man's house and dwelling there, as already implied in Hes. Op. 299-300 (see West 1978: 331 and 232): Hunger, thus, may be a 'companion' (... Op. 302) or a 'hateful house fellow' (... Sem. fr. 7.100-101 W), but for Erysichthon's identification with the female ... it may also be relevant that the gender of Λιμός was uncertain (it was portrayed by the statue of a woman in the temple of Apollo at Sparta (Athen. 10.75, 452b; Polyaen. 2.15).

Grimal

s.v. Limos

(Λίμος) The personification of hunger. She was said to have been a daughter of Eris. She was purely an abstract conception with no legend.

Hard

p. 31

The children of Eris represent the many harmful and destructive things that arise from discord and strife, namely Toil (Ponos), Oblivion (Lethe), Famine, Sorrows, Fights, Battles, Murders, Manslayings, Quarrels, Lies, Disputes, Lawlessness, Delusion (Ate) and Oath (Horkos).⁵⁹ This is allegory of the most obvious kind for the most part; the last two alone require further comment.

Richer

p. 91

1. The παθήματα honored at Sparta

p. 102

²⁶ ... A particular case of abstraction is Limos, Hunger or Famine (unknown to Wide), who, according to Callisthenes (FGrH 124 F 13) cited by Athenaeus (10.452b), is represented in painting in the temple of Apollo at Amyclae in the form of a woman (...) when the word is generally of masculine gender; according to Polyaenus (2.15), it is in the sanctuary of Athena Chalkoikos that a painting representing Limnos had been dedicated, with the features of a woman, her hands tied behind her back (...) The procedure would be truly exceptional (cf. Shapiro 1976, 24 and 25 n. 38; 1993, 27 and n. 48) if Limnos was never a feminine word, but this is in fact sometimes the case (c.f. Homeric Hymn to Demeter 311; Aristophanes, Acharnians 743). On the question of the gender of terms designating abstractions such as Limos or Ellis (Pity), see Stafford 1998.

Stafford, E.J., "Maculine values, famine forms: on the gender of personified abstractions", in L. Foxhall and J. Salmon (eds.) Thinking Men: Masculinity and its Self-representation in the Classical Tradition, London, 43–56.

Shapiro, H.A., Personifications of abstract Concepts in Greek Art and Literature to the end of the fifth century BC, Diss. Princeton. Revised 1993 as Personifications in Greek Art: The representation of Abstract concepts 600-400 BC, Zurich.

Hopkinson

135

66 ...

λιμόν ... It appears, however, that only Attic had the masc. consistently: cf. ... In Hom. the gender is indeterminate.

LSJ

s.v. λιμός

... hunger, famine,

Miles

p. 156 n. 742

... τᾶς λιμοῦ: the gender is epic (cp. H. to Dem. 312) and Doric (...); cp ... In the temple of Apollo at Sparta Λιμός was represented as a woman; see the interesting story in Athen. 452 B.

West

p. 231 Λιμόν

personified in Op. 230 οὐδέ ποτ᾽ ἰθυδίκῃσι μετ᾽ ἀνδράσι Λιμὸς ὀπηδεῖ | οὐδ᾽ Ἄτη and 299 ἐργάζεο Πέρση, δῖον γένος, ὄφρα σε Λιμὸς | ἐχθαίρῃ, φιλέῃ δέ σ᾽ ἐυστέφανος Δημήτηρ; Sem. 7.101; Leonid. A.P. 6.298; Zenob. 4.93 (Proem. i. 113) λέγουσιν ... Λιμὸν ...πεδίον. Limos was painted in the form of a woman in the temple of Apollo at Sparta (Ath. 452B, Polyaen. 2.15), and there was a statue of him (the gender of the word and the sex of the god are variable) and complimentary one of Euthenia at Byzantium (Codinus, De signis Constantinop., p. 60 Bekker).