Apollodorus
θυγατέρες, Πριάμου δὲ ἀδελφαί,1 Αἴθυλλα Ἀστυόχη Μηδεσικάστη μετὰ τῶν λοιπῶν αἰχμαλωτίδων ἐκεῖσε γεγονυῖαι τῆς Ἰταλίας, εὐλαβούμεναι τὴν ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι δουλείαν τὰ σκάφη ἐνέπρησαν, ὅθεν ὁ ποταμὸς Ναύαιθος ἐκλήθη καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες Ναυπρήστιδες· οἱ δὲ σὺν αὐταῖς Ἕλληνες ἀπολέσαντες τὰ σκάφη ἐκεῖ κατῴκησαν.>
Ε 16| Δημοφῶν δὲ2 Θρᾳξὶ Βισάλταις μετ᾿ ὀλίγων νεῶν προσίσχει, καὶ αὐτοῦ ἐρασθεῖσα Φυλλὶς ἡ θυγάτηρ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐπὶ προικὶ τῇ βασιλείᾳ συνευνάζεται ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός. ὁ δὲ βουλόμενος εἰς τὴν πατρίδα ἀπιέναι, πολλὰ δεηθεὶς ὀμόσας ἀναστρέψειν ἀπέρχεται· καὶ Φυλλὶς αὐτὸν ἄχρι τῶν Ἐννέα ὁδῶν3 λεγομένων προπέμπει καὶ δίδωσιν αὐτῷ κίστην, εἰποῦσα ἱερὸν <τῆς> μητρὸς4 Ῥέας ἐνεῖναι, καὶ ταύτην μὴ ἀνοίγειν, εἰ μὴ ὅταν
- 1Πριάμου δὲ ἀδελφαὶ. These words are omitted, doubtless by accident, in Wagner’s edition of Apollodorus.
- 2The following story of the loves of Demophon and Phyllis is repeated by Tzetzes (Schol. on Lycophron, 495) in a passage which to a great extent agrees verbally with the present passage of Apollodorus.
- 3Ἐννέα ὁδῶν Wagner (comparing Tzetzes, Schol. on Lycophron, 495): ἐννεάδων E.
- 4<τῆς> μητρὸς Wagner (comparing Tzetzes, Schol. on Lycophron, 495): μητρὸς E.
Epitome
sisters of Priam, to wit, Aethylla, Astyoche, and Medesicaste, with the other female captives, finding themselves in that part of Italy, and dreading slavery in Greece, set fire to the vessels; whence the river was called Navaethus and the women were called Nauprestides; and the Greeks who were with the women, having lost the vessels, settled there.1
Demophon with a few ships put in to the land of the Thracian Bisaltians,2 and there Phyllis, the king’s daughter, falling in love with him, was given him in marriage by her father with the kingdom for her dower. But he wished to depart to his own country, and after many entreaties and swearing to return, he did depart. And Phyllis accompanied him as far as what are called the Nine Roads, and she gave him a casket, telling him that it contained a sacrament of Mother Rhea, and that he was not to open it until he
- 1The same story is told by Strabo, who calls the river Neaethus (vi. 1. 12, p. 262). Stephanus Byzantius agrees with Apollodorus in giving Navaethus (Ναύαιθος) as the form of the name. Apollodorus derives the name from ναῦς, “a ship,” and αἴθω, “to burn.” Virgil tells a similar tale of the founding of Segesta or, as he calls it, Acesta in Sicily. See Virgil, Aen. v. 604–771.
- 2Demophon and his brother Acamas, the sons of Theseus, had gone to Troy to rescue their grandmother Aethra from captivity. See above, Epitome, v. 22. The following story of the loves and sad fate of Demophon and Phyllis is told in almost the same words by Tzetzes, Schol. on Lycophron, 495, except that for the name of Demophon he substitutes the name of his brother Acamas. Lucian also couples the names of Acamas and Phyllis (De saltatione, 40). A pretty story is told of the sad lovers by Servius. He says that Phyllis, despairing of the return of Demophon, hanged herself and was turned into a leafless almond tree; but that when Demophon came and embraced the trunk of the tree, it responded to his endearments by bursting into leaf; hence leaves, which had been called petala before, were ever after called phylla in Greek. See Servius, on Virgil, Ecl. v. 10. Compare Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. G. H. Bode, vol. i. pp. 51 and 146 sq. (First Vatican Mythographer, 159; Second Vatican Mythographer, 214). The story is told in a less romantic form by Hyginus (Fab. 59, compare 243). He says that when Phyllis died for love, trees grew on her grave and mourned her death at the season when their leaves withered and fell.